AAR: Something, Something, Crystal Plate

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abishaij1
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Joined:Tue Jan 30, 2018 2:07 am
AAR: Something, Something, Crystal Plate

Post by abishaij1 » Sun Sep 30, 2018 4:19 am

Something, Something, Crystal Plate
Time: 2018-09-29@23:30 GMT
GM: haksanlulz (Fenrir)
Circle: 8
Difficulty: Medium

Player Rewards:
Quis'Tan: 19,000 Legend, 1600 sp, 3 TIPs, Firebird pet, 1000sp of true fire
Thane: 19,000 Legend, 2,100 sp, 3 TIPs,
Avalandohamagannahnieventhallailmar: 19,000 Legend, 1,100 sp, 3 TIPs, renewed enchantment on Crystal Plate

Downtime Actions Available:

Further Information:
Randroch and the Crystal Raiders of Clan Stormspire are on friendly terms with Avalan and Company.

ChrisDDickey
Posts:1011
Joined:Sun Nov 27, 2016 10:02 pm

Re: AAR: Something, Something, Crystal Plate

Post by ChrisDDickey » Mon Oct 01, 2018 2:23 am

From the journal of Thane Cawdor

Avalon's Crystal Plate armor had a deed that needed to be accomplished. It needed to be accomplished in a specific trollmoot deep within the Twighlight peaks (map reference 1626 - Later we learned it was home of Clan Stormspire - Randroch leader). He recruited the Spirit Rider Quis'Tan and myself to accompany him. The Twighlight peaks are quite a hike, so I decided to see if we could find an airship going that way. There are still very, very few airships in the sky's so it was a simple to check on where each of them was going. As a bonus, knowing flight paths is half magic for Sky Raiders, so it took me almost no time for my inquires to reveal that a new True Fire mining ship was being launched, which was going to be traveling down to the Deaths Sea for a several weeks. We got them to agree to take us to the Deaths Sea, then they would slowly mine their way West. They would drop us off at the foot of the mountain range, then pick us up some days later if we managed to get back to the rendezvous in time.

The trip South was uneventful, and went very quickly when I called Floranuus's blessing down upon the ship. The first day in the deaths sea the ship was attacked by a small flock of 5 firebirds. We were quite worried, but later we found that all 5 were juveniles, and quite under-powered compared to the adult members of their race. Still in the quarter minute it took to chase off the survivors, they set fire to much of the ship's canvas and cordage. Floranuus's domain includes sailing vessels, so I was able to empower much of the crew to help them fight the fires and regain control of the vessel. I helped some members of the crew replace the burnt rigging and sails while Avalon and the remainder of the crew continued their mining. Quis'Tan meanwhile went flying off in search of one of the firebirds that got away. He managed to bond with it somewhat, and the next day when we encountered it again, managed to further bond with it. He has got it to follow him, though it proved unwilling to go very high up into the mountains.

A few days later the ship dropped us off on the narrow strip of planes between the deaths sea and the twilight peaks, and we started our hike into the trackless mountains. it took us only a bit over one days march to go from "way too hot" (near the shore of the deaths sea) to "way to cold" (high in the twilight peaks). When a snowstorm swiftly turned into a blizzard, one of us spotted what turned out to be a Snowbird. We huddled together while Avalon cast "mantel of the fire marauder" upon us. When we lit up light houses afire, the huge bird attacked, swooping down and totally shredding Quis'Tan's spirit mount (which of course did the creature no good, since the spirit has no flesh for it to eat). I then jumped up and in turn shredded it with a single sequence of strokes from my flame imbued weapon. We took the snowbird with us, as Avalon wanted to show the corpse off.

We encountered a town of clan Stormspire. They named the snowbird corpse "Brightwing" and said it was a great and dangerous pest. We spoke to their leader Randroch, and he said that their Smithy was in crisis and was inaccessible. Their Smith had recently turned into a monstrosity with great moth wings. The clan had sent some of their best fighters in to handle the situation, but two were killed and only one (Cheric by name) escaped. He described feeling great despair which he freely admitted caused him to run away.

We agreed to enter the great and crystal Smithy, and confront the horror. We rested, prepared and buffed. As the great crystal doors swung open I gave a great "Heartening Laugh" to defend us against despair. However it echoed hollowly in my ears and I could feel it had no effect. Avalon, whom had opened the doors suddenly looked visibly depressed. As I entered the cavernous smithy (made entirely of living crystal - a structure that deserves to be celebrated as a wonder of the world), I attempted another Heartening Laugh, but this also felt hollow. I saw the great moth shape hanging onto the ceiling, to high for me to both run beneath and also to jump up, so I threw my spear and moved beneath it. it was a solid hit, but failed to knock it down. Fortunately Avalons Earth Spear eventually knocked it down and we beat it to death. However from the moment that I entered the Smithy, to the moment it finally lay dead, I felt a great crushing weight of despair that turned each of my attempted actions hesitant and weak.

(supplemental entry a few weeks later)
Of course we only slew the thing the smith had turned into, and the two cadaver men. We still don't know what caused the Smith to turn into a Gloomwing, nor if that same thing could happen to other members of the clan. The prevailing opinion (which I pray to Floranuus is true) is that a Gloomwing is so powerful, that nothing greater made it. It was a gloomwing horror itself that caused the Smith to become it's physical form, and that killing the new physical form must have slain the Astral Form itself. After we had returned to Throal I had 2nd thoughts about both of these assumptions, but at the time I was happy enough to celebrate the Gloomwings destruction and not question where it came from. This is perhaps worth following up on.

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BattleChad
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Re: AAR: Something, Something, Crystal Plate

Post by BattleChad » Mon Oct 01, 2018 4:57 am

The Great Library of Throal thanks Thane for his contribution.

Journal Rewards: 950 Legend Points and 525 Silver

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