Some time ago, I obtained a shield that happens to be a Thread Item. The Shield of Aras Nehem is a potent instrument, if somewhat disturbing. In the course of my research I discovered that to unlock it's greatest powers I would have to bring it back from whence it came, namely, Aras Nehem.
I finally discovered a likely location, and recruited Jael, Zil, William and Xevious to assist me. Naturally, when we entered the place, we ended up in some kind of netherworld. I'm beginning to think that every time I go adventuring, I'm going to end up sucked into some kind of netherworld.
I'm rather glad we had Zil with us. After facing one wave of horrorspawn, we regrouped quickly and continued onwards. At this point, I was basically just wanting a way out, the Shield be damned. As we progressed, we started to hear a rhythmic pounding. I've spent enough time with Dvarim to recognize that sound anywhere: a hammer on an anvil. We ran into a second wave of horrorspawn.
This was quite the fight, because towards the end, I had to face a Bloodshaper in single combat. It stayed in the Astral, and only my magic could reach it. I was ultimately victorious, but it was some fight. I was grateful to Zil yet again; he had cast Grove Renewal on me, keeping me strong. (He also removed a wound the Shaper's skinshifting had inflicted.)
We approached the Smith, who seemed to gain some clarity. He quickly threw the Shield on the anvil and pounded at it a few times. He then provided us a way out. When asked his name, he seemed unclear... but thought it was once "Aras."
We returned to Throal. Sure enough, the Shield seems stronger. However, I haven't dreamed since that day...
Statistics:Posted by ottdmk — Mon Oct 26, 2020 4:17 am
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Dubhan needed some help to unlock the potential of his armor. We had Jael, Xeviouz, Zil, myself and Dubhan along for the trip.
We traveled to lake Ban from Throal via an airship, from the lake we traveled out to the ocean by river boat. This was my first true experience out on the Ocean. I talked with the crews aboard the river boat, and those aboard the air ship. I have been trying to understand things about the river and air travel. It is all about the water, or all about the air. I find myself frustrated at times while traveling by the air, you move so fast that you miss land before you, and with river travel you are so limited in where you can travel along the river. When it comes to travel sadly I would rather walk than take an Airship, there is just so much that you miss. I thought for a time that I would become an air sailor, but the focus is just to.. to focused I suppose. You are above everything and you can see so much, but you miss the details of the world... even with my eyes it can feel that way. It is the same on the river, you do great thing on the river but you are walking a world of water, it drives and guides all that you do. The ocean was interesting though, it was so vast that I couldn't see the ends of it, the horizon just seemed to extend in endless water. They moved with the water and the air being a part of both worlds, they had a vast territory to explore, but they were still connected to the land. They were not as confined as you are on the river, nor as separate as you are while flying through the air. The sea, hides little islands and places to explore. I spent a lot of time talking with the Sailors, they are good people and they understand that desire to see what is beyond the horizon. To belong to the earth, the wind and the waves. It gives me much to think about while I entertained the crew with a few songs on our travels, I'm no Troubadour but I do well enough. I look forward to my next trip out on the open ocean, perhaps I'll hire a crew to take us to some forgotten island and see what we find.
Our travels brought us to the some ruins in the mountains with three temples. We found a doorway and entered it... then I lost all sense of direction. I was lost in the blackness that surrounded us. We could see things once before, but now we couldn't. Then the things in the shadows attacked us. Wisps of night and things of nightmares. We fought them, we destroyed them and we pressed on into the black. We could hear the sounds of a hammer in the distance ping, ping, pinging away. We pressed on and were attacked by more creatures of shadows and nightmares, that I had never seen before but I knew from the thief in me that these things were melding with the shadows around them to appear flat and two dimensional.
There was one creature that attacked us from the astral though, Dubhan fought it as best as he could, the rest of us helpless to help him. I wanted some way to help him, a desperate need arose within me and I could feel gloves moving my fingers of their own accord responding to that need, I could feel them drawing and pulling power as the strain burned my hands in the effort. When the gloves were done.. in my hand I held a rock as black as night, and I knew right then that I could hurt the creature in the astral with that rock. I just needed to see it and the stranger boots responded. It was like I could see everything around me without looking, and that was when I pierced into the very astral that hid the horror and it shown as bright as day to my sight. The gloves were worn, I was nearly spent on my karma, a few shots are all that I knew I would have and I would have to make every stone count. The world melted away and I knew the truth for a moment as Karl does, that singular path and you just know when your shot must strike true. The magic burned and I launched the stone hitting the creature. I knew where it was and knew what I must do. Charlie and I moved as one, he knew what I wanted him to do and we moved to flank the creature looking for some weakness in it armor as another rock appeared in my hand which burned ever colder with the effort. And another and my last rock struck true.. I had more rocks but the passions must have decided that this was to be Dubhan's fight, for I could not hit that thing to save our lives after that. There were no more rocks and I knew the magic within the gloves was spent, and the creature faded from my sight as my time viewing the astral ended. Dubhan was strong and well protected by the magics around him, the horror could not stand against him for much longer.
We found who.. what.. where we were looking for and Dubhan's armor was awoken. I dreamed of the ocean on our way back to Throal. I dreamed of the waves crawling on the land, I dreamed of the air blowing the sails, and I dreamed of all the island over that vast horizon. The wind, the waves, and the land all as one.. all waiting to be explored.
William Carver
Statistics:Posted by Montaugh — Sun Oct 11, 2020 5:00 pm
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[10M] Journey to Aras Nehem (2020-10-10 @ 23:00 GMT)
Rumor: Dubhan needs to travel to Aras Nehem. Where's Aras Nehem? What's Aras Nehem? maybe who is Aras Nehem?
I received a mini hologram of Dubanh requesting my assistance on unlocking his armor potential. We need to Travel to the Areas Sea, then travel into the mountains. Along for the mission are William Carver, Jael, myself and Zil. We take an air ship to Lake Ban, then catch a river boat. Once we reach 48.28 we see the ruins of an old city. There are 3 large statues and lots of broken buildings. We come across 3 stone temples as well. In Between the 3 temples there is a large raised dias. There are ruins engraved on the dias. We investigate them. Zil and Dubahn are able to determine they are some sort of protection runes. They think it is a trap to go off if somebody tries to force open the concealed door on the dias. William Carver tried to disarm the trap, he is able to jump to the side real quick so the lightning bolt misses him. We buff ourselves with woodskin and then proceed down into the secret door after I determined there were no horrors nearby.
There is a spiral staircase going down. It takes about 5 minutes to get to the bottom. There is another door with runes at the bottom. As Dubahn moves up to investigate the ruins, William Carver does a fancy speech and give Duban some incredible bonuses. Dubahn says it is a kaer ward. After a brief discussion Dubahn knocks on the door. THere is a soft sound, a light comes on and is on us. After a moment the light turns off and the door opens.
It is a plain tunnel that goes into the rock. Once we all pass through the door, it closes. There is a light that seems to seal the door, it is very bright. We walk down the hallway to a dead end. The light from the door goes out, we are all disoriented. After a moment we get used to the darkness, pull out light quarts and look around. William seems to be lost, he has a look of confusion on his face I have never seen before. Dubahn seems to get looking over his shoulder, alot. He says astral space is different all the sudden. Like this isnt Barsaive after walking through the door. Dubahn says there is something/somethings at the edge of his astral perception. So he increases his range on Astral Perception, only to have the something/somethings immediately move to the edge of his new range.
William Carver launches his orbital spy to see if he can see what's out there.
Wherever we are it feels, thick. There air, the space around us, it is like moving through thick air. It has a resistance to it. It is also harder to use my adept abilities. I am taking more strain than usual. THis is when the horrors move in towards us. We form into a square so they cant get behind us. Battle is joined. The horrors are Gravetail Gnashers, Night Wists, Greater Gnashers. We make short work of them, but they tried to corrupt us in multiple ways. We rest a couple of minutes and recover, then we keep looking around.
As we are finishing up our rest, we begin hearing some hammering in the distance. Dubahn seems to feel a pull in the direction from his shield. We head in that direction. Zil and Dubahn refresh air armor and mage armor on us. We come to another black room, hard to see, hammering noise is closer. We move in and see some shadow creatures. They are 2 dimensional black ness. We kill these quickly. Dubahn says the is another horror in the astral plane that starts stripping our spells away. Dubahn attacks it. William Carver is able to use his very useful gloves to do something to let him attack the creature also. Dubahn is able to destroy the creature from astral.
As soon as the creature died, the rining of the hammer stopped. We all hear a voice saying hurry, I can get you free but I can only resist for a short time. We run over to him, he asks for Dubahns shield. Dubahn hands it over, the creature setts it in the forge for a moment, then places it on an anvil and smacks it with his hammer. He hits it 7 times, each time it seems to get hotter and hotter. THe guy/spirit/creature says follow the shield it will take you out. As we move away from the guy the ringing of the shield seems to set a ring in the atmosphere around us, the farther we walk the bigger the ring gets. Then we are able to step through the ring back to the stairway we originally went down. Once we get outside Zil wants to look at the 3 statues, they are statues of the mad passions. We head back to Throal.
Statistics:Posted by Waijhou — Sun Oct 11, 2020 2:26 pm
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Dubhan needed to travel to Aras Nehem. To complete the deed for one of his thread items. It took him a lot of research to find out what, where, or maybe who Aras Nehem was, but eventually his research led him to a conviction that he needed to visit a liferock underneath the kear, underneath the city of Otosk. He had learned that the city in question had not bought the Therian rites of protection, but instead had developed a unique rite relying upon divine protection, specifically the power of the cities three patron passions. He did not succeed in learning which passions it was.
We traveled there with no problems, and in the city central square we found what we took to be the entrance to a kear. The square was surrounded by the ruins of three temples, and the entrance was flanked by the broken remains of three large statues. We examined the statues but not enough remained to allow us to identify the passions. Some quick magic, and some deactivating of magical traps, and a door opened. We entered and the door closed behind us. We all felt queasy, as if something profoundly magical was happening, and when it cleared up, we were elsewhere. We were on a dark featureless plane, with no walls in sight. The place was dim, and every source of light we had sputtered weakly and was swallowed by the darkness within a scant few yards. We felt that there hundreds of even thousands of malevolent presences just beyond our sight, with some 6 or 8 approaching menacingly. We slew 3 or 4 Gravetail gnashers, 2 nightwists, and 1 or 2 Greater Slipshade.
When the nearby horrorspawn were dealt with, we spent two scant minutes in hurried healing before heading deeper into the darkness. We could hear a clanging, as if somebody was beating a hammer on a forge. Eventually we could make out the hammering figure dimly in the distance, but as we approached we detected more horrorspawn. We attacked the 3 shadows, and slew them, but the two bloodshapers kept to the astral, where they were somehow able to use foul horror magics against us. After we slew two of the shadows, one of the bloodshapers hurried off. We felt certain that it would return with reinforcements. . Dubhan was the only one who could strike the bloodshaper in astral, and it became a duel between the two. I cast Grove Renewal upon Dubham, and also used blood share and Garlens touch to keep him healthy. William Carver somehow found some magic that let him and a few blows upon the Astral. With Dubham healing almost faster than the blood shaper could shift his skin, eventually he managed to slay it.
We ran to the figure at the forge, and he did something to Dubham's shield. When asked his name he said "I think I was once Eris", then bid us follow the shield as it moved and grew. We somehow fell into the shield and found ourselves back in the temple square. We searched the temples and found that they were all three to the passions which had gone mad.
Statistics:Posted by ChrisDDickey — Sun Oct 11, 2020 9:48 am
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GM: Xzandrate
ECR: 11
Difficulty: Medium
Player Rewards:
Dubhan: 124000 LP 2000 SP 3 TIP - Deed complete for Shared Aspirations
Jael: 124000 LP 2000 SP 3 TIP
William: 124000 LP 2000 SP 3 TIP
Xeviouz: 124000 LP 2000 SP 3 TIP
Zil: 124000 LP 2000 SP 3 TIP
Alternate Rewards:
Journal Reward: +6200 LP, + 500 SP
GM Reward: Moe'uhane (39000 LP, 1000 SP, 3 TIPs)
Downtime:
Zil:
Research rank 4, step 12 (step 15 if pay 20 sp for library access).
Item History Rank 4 (step 16).
Dubhan:
Research Rank 5/Step 29 (Library access worth it for Warden items)
Alchemy Rank 5/Step 13 (Booster Potions, Small Light Crystals, Kelix' Poultice) (1 Day Downtime), Kelia's Antidote (2 days Downtime)
Creation of Spell Matrix Objects: 1,000 sp, 3 days for Standard. 2,000 sp, 4 days for Enhanced. 4,000 sp, 5 days for Armored, And yes, that's the 1/2 off price.
Design Enchanting Pattern: Minimum 4 TIPs, 2 weeks Downtime, contact for details
Craft True Pattern (i.e. create Thread Item): Requires a Pattern. 3 TIPs minimum, 2 weeks Downtime, Silver cost varies, contact for details.
William:
Versatile Forge Weapon Rank: (7) Step 20
Versatile Research Rank: (7) Step 20, Step 23 with library Access
Versatile Item History Rank: (5) Step 18.
(Karma spent with Applied versatility)
Summary: The players ventured to the old Kaer of Otosk in the Thunder Mountains to try and find the Nehem Liferock, the location where the Shield of Aras Nehem was created. The three temple ruins at the center of the old town protected a large dais that hid the entrace to the kaer. Once inside the kaer they were transported to an abyss of pure darkness.
Statistics:Posted by Xzandrate — Sun Oct 11, 2020 4:46 am
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Date Last Played October 2nd, 2020
ECR: 10 ( 719,125 LP)
Race: Human
Discipline: Scout 9 Thief 6, Journeyman 4, Cavalryman 6
Quote/Unique: I'll get you there and back again.
Notable Abilities:
Talented: Locks/Traps, Stealth/Scouting, Ranged/Melee, map making. Animal bond/borrow. Safe Path! Sleeps with One Eye Open, Orbital Spy in the sky!
Items:
Potions: Kelia's Antidote (1), Booster Potion (5), Kelix's Poultice (1), Halt Illness Potion (1), Healing Potion (3), Last Chance Salve (3)
Mounted: Huttawa named Charlie and he's sworn, He might also swear.. I don't have animal talk yet.
Downtime:
Perception step (9)
Versatile Forge Weapon Rank: (7) Step 20
Versatile Research Rank: (7) Step 20, Step 23 with library Access
Versatile Item History Rank: (5) Step 18.
(Karma spent with Applied versatility)
Statistics:Posted by Montaugh — Wed Oct 07, 2020 11:57 pm
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Date of Last Game Played (by player): My quest.
Circle: 11 (ECR 11, 1,119,470 legend)
Discipline: Wizard
Unique: Spells (Buffs, Astral Sensing, Debuffs, etc.), Physician
Downtime: Research Rank 5/Step 29 (Library access worth it for Warden items)
Alchemy Rank 5/Step 13 (Booster Potions, Small Light Crystals, Kelix' Poultice) (1 Day Downtime), Kelia's Antidote (2 days Downtime)
Creation of Spell Matrix Objects: 1,000 sp, 3 days for Standard. 2,000 sp, 4 days for Enhanced. 4,000 sp, 5 days for Armored, And yes, that's the 1/2 off price.
Design Enchanting Pattern: Minimum 4 TIPs, 2 weeks Downtime, contact for details
Craft True Pattern (i.e. create Thread Item): Requires a Pattern. 3 TIPs minimum, 2 weeks Downtime, Silver cost varies, contact for details.
Statistics:Posted by ottdmk — Wed Oct 07, 2020 3:53 pm
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ECL: 11
Discipline: Weaponsmith / Elementalist
Quote/Unique: "Well, that ain't right."
Notable Abilities: Physician, Lock Pick, Chiseled Dwarven Good Looks, The Best Meals Ever
Downtime:
- Forge Weapon 11/24
- Forge Armor 11/24
- Craftsman (anything) 11/28
- Design Enchanting Pattern 11/24
- Enchant True Pattern 11/28
- Item History 4/17
- Enchant Storm Steppers (10 TIPs, 1,500sp, 2 weeks)
Spoiler:
Statistics:Posted by bronzemountain — Fri Oct 02, 2020 3:15 pm
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Last time you (player, not character) played: Sept 23, 2020
Circle: 10/5 (ECR10)
Discipline: Warrior/Horror Stalker
Quote/Unique: Lets do this!
Notable Abilities: Sword & Board
Downtime: ---
Statistics:Posted by Waijhou — Fri Oct 02, 2020 2:01 pm
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Date Player last played: Sep 23rd
ECR: 10
Discipline: Elementalist 9th circle on the path of the purifier / Exemplar of Garlen - Windling
Quote/Unique:May the blessings of Garlen be upon you! Travel in style with a party Elementalist! Heat Food! Plant Feast! Purify Water! Shelter! Air Mattress! All the comforts of home upon the road.
Notable Abilities: Questor of Garlen, Physician.
Downtime: Research rank 4, step 12 (step 15 if pay 20 sp for library access).
Item History Rank 4 (step 16).
Statistics:Posted by ChrisDDickey — Fri Oct 02, 2020 4:23 am
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ECR: 10
Last Game: 10/8
Discipline: Beastmaster/Scholar/Woodsman
Notable Abilities: Elven Lore, Pets, Frenzy's and Grappling. Woodskin for all!
Downtime: Animal Training (Rank 10) 20, Item History (Rank 7) 16, Research (Rank 4) 13 (16 with library access)
Statistics:Posted by nathaniel — Fri Oct 02, 2020 3:49 am
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GM: Xzandrate
Difficulty: 11 Medium
Rumor: Dubhan needs to travel to Aras Nehem. Where's Aras Nehem? What's Aras Nehem? maybe who is Aras Nehem?
Requesting Player: Dubhan
Note: Up to 5 players (7:00 PM Eastern)
Statistics:Posted by Xzandrate — Fri Oct 02, 2020 3:18 am
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