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AAR: Runic Circles: Orc and Human

Posted: Sun Jan 07, 2018 2:55 am
by Jason
AAR: Runic Circles: Orc and Human
GM: Jason
Circle: 4
Difficulty: M

Rewards/spent:
Grom: 2200 LP, 550 silver, Ork mark, Human mark, 3 TI
Thane: 2200 LP, 550 silver, orc mark, human mark, 3 TI
Romari: 2200 LP, 550 silver, orc mark, human mark, 3TI
Aegharan: 2200 LP, 550 silver, orc mark, human mark, 3TI

Downtime skills available:
Alchemy: 10 (rank 3, Booster Potion, Kelia's Antidote, Kelix's Poultice)
Map Making 8
Item History 12 (8 base +4 karma)
Research 22 (11 base, +4 Speed Reading spell, +3 Throal library 20sp, +4 Karma)

Re: AAR: Runic Circles: Orc and Human

Posted: Sun Jan 07, 2018 2:56 am
by Aegharan
Journal of Aegharan, Illusionist of Fourth Circle

The Skyraiders Grom Skycleaver and Thane Cawdor, Romari Savre the Wizard, and I set out to take a look at two Runic Circles, the Ork Illusionist-Circle and for Romari to try again for the Human-Wizard Circle.

We travelled south-west and got there after some days, without much problems. Our combined studies have yielded some pretty good results, along with our combined prowess in Navigation, we found the Orc-Circle rather quickly.

Our scribe started off translating the recipes for us, until I asked him to start with the outer rings. This ring's riddle read:
We live in harmony of all the races, all together as one. Follow one’s gahad. After passing the test of the races, proceed to the heart and unlock the key to our home.
I had heard about the Gahad being something with Orks and emotions, and Grom as an Orc filled the gaps for us a little, but articulating it didn't quite come naturally to him. It is quite an interesting topic though. I also found out rather easily that it is indeed an illusionary spell.

We then tried to figure out the different symbols we found on the stones. Our scribe told us that each symbol stands for a different emotion, being:
Northern Pillar: Happiness and Love
Eastern Pillar: Anger and Content
Southern Pillar: Fear and Passion
Western Pillar: Brotherhood and Sadness

Grom was really sure, that "Follow one's Gahad" means to stand close to the Passion-Symbol. After the scribe was done translating the recipes into Throalic, we asked him to stand aside a little and I attuned to the spell, which was much harder than attuning to the spell within the Windling-Circle. I then wove the Threads and cast successfully. A burst of sparkles exploded and we got the Orc-Mark. The lower left quarter of the mark on my Biceps is now filled, which means 6 to go.
As expected we immediately got attacked by Hawkish Creatures that Grom later identified as Crakbills. Although we expected them, they got a really good start on us, throwing Romari, Thane and Grom to the ground with their poisoned breath. Romari and Grom were quickly able to stand up, taking part in the fight and we managed to chase them off. 2 of them burned heavily and screached loudly, but we didn't find a corpse, so it must have managed to either shake it off or see through the illusion. A few minutes after the fight Thane was also able to stand up.

We then travelled north towards the human wizardry-circle. I navigated us safely through the mountains and we managed to reach the wizardry-circle in 8 days.

The scribe translated the riddle-ring:
We live in harmony of all the races, all together as one. Praise the morning sun. After passing the test of the races, proceed to the heart and unlock the key to our home.
After a short debate over where the sun rises and if there is a double-meaning, so that we would have to stand in the west to see the sun rise over the circle. The debate even went to making camp and see where the sun first hits the circle, but thank the Passions that Grom knew that in different times of the year the sun rises in slightly different spots. We then settled for the easier and more straightfoward approach and just huddled together between the eastern Pillars. Romari managed to attune to the spell really well and successfully cast it upon us, marking us in the upper slightly left eighth. With his cast going off we heard some loud howling in the distance, upon which I immediately began to weave threads. I barely managed to cast a Monstrous Mantle on us to aide with our defense when three wolves approached us. These wolves matched the appearance of what Romari told us about his last visit to this place.

Grom and Thane got hit really hard. Although the wolf managed to make Thane limp really hard he seemed to only have taken a strong hit on his thigh, as he was not affected too long by this first strong attack. Thane got hit badly but managed to somehow dance around the wolves' bites, struck one wolve and jumped up ontop of the pillars, while Romari set 2 wolves ablaze. It appears that my display of firey magic has impressed, as he chose to use Flame Flash, the non-illusionary version of my Phantom Flame. We finished off the wolve that decided not to flee.

As we were finishing off the wolve, a storm came up and it began to rain. As these wolves allegedly were Storm Wolves, the rain made us a little uneasy, so we got our scribe and moved back towards Throal.

While travelling through the mountains Grom maneuvered us around an ambush of some desperate creatures and we made it back to town safely.

Attached to this Journal are the following recipes:
  • Poached Honey-Coated Rabbit
  • Poached Apricot & Basil Beef
  • Smoked Mustard & Thyme Crab
  • Deep-Fried Nuts & Crab
  • Poached Cranberry Potatoes
  • Roasted Orange & Olive Potato Wedges
  • Blueberry and Raspberry Custard
  • Lemon and Passion Fruit Bonbons
  • Chocolate Pud
  • Guava Soufflé

Re: AAR: Runic Circles: Orc and Human

Posted: Sun Jan 07, 2018 3:56 am
by Jexel
Journal of Grom Skycleaver

Companions:

Thane Cawdor: Troll Skyraider
Romari: Elf Wizard
Aegharan: Elf Wizard

Going to explore the Orc Illusionist circle southwest of Throal. We needed to hire Nurfec Greathood to translate the Orc translations. I was never burdened by an over-abundance of skooling. Also, I was raised by Trolls.

We get to the Ork Illusionist ring uneventfully. I was warned that after we start activating the ring you get attacked by random creatures. The riddle was:

The pillars had riddles linked to Orks. Some of the group misunderstood the Ork’s Gahad and thought of it as a negative.

“We live in harmony of all the races, all together as one. Follow one’s gahad. After passing the test of the races, proceed to the heart and unlock the key to our home.”

Recipes

Poached Honey-Coated Rabbit
Poached Apricot & Basil Beef
Smoked Mustard & Thyme Crab
Deep-Fried Nuts & Crab
Poached Cranberry Potatoes
Roasted Orange & Olive Potato Wedges
Blueberry and Raspberry Custard
Lemon and Passion Fruit Bonbons
Chocolate Pud
Guava Soufflé

I got a mark on my left forearm.

A gaggle of crack bills attacked. Strafed by me and spit a paralyzing poison into my face. That sucked. I dropped like a sack of potatoes. I was able to shake off the poison and slice a crackbill down. Shortly after one of our spellslingers knocked down two with dancing fire. I jumped over the prone and paralyzed Thane and a small pond and dropped another Crackbill. The birds ran off.

We travelled far North to the Human Wizard circle over the mountains. We took a tougher route through the mountains to avoid any of the problems involving Sosonopa and the Horror Den associated with it.

During the ritual we heard howling in the distance and as soon as the spellcasting was completed three giant hounds attacked us. They appeared to be Storm Wolves. They hit very hard and fiercely inflicting two large gashes on my body. They did seem to be intimidated by Thane and my Battleshouts which helped to swing the tide. I was suprised to see Thane jump to the top of the pillars to avoid some attacks. We quickly drove off the wolves and I was able to get the Human Wizard mark on my arm.

Human Riddle

“We live in harmony of all the races, all together as one. Praise the morning sun. After passing the test of the races, proceed to the heart and unlock the key to our home.”

On the way back I was able to avoid some creatures that were setting up an attack.

Re: AAR: Runic Circles: Orc and Human

Posted: Sun Jan 07, 2018 5:07 am
by ChrisDDickey
From the journal of Thane Cawdor

I decided to do one of those wandering around "missions".
Some of the guys and I were hanging around the gates, and feeling really bored. Somebody suggested we go hike over to one of those recipe circles everybody has been talking about. We went in and hired a scribe by the name of Nerfic Greathood who claimed to be a wiz with languages. It took us almost 5 days to get to and locate the one a little south of west of the center stone. As predicted it was written in Orcish and had an illusionism spell. Nerfic copied everything down while Aegharan studied the spell. He said that he understood the spell easily enough, but when the time came to cast it, had great trouble. It took him around an hour. The puzzle was about which emotion was associated with an Ork Gahad, and we eventually all agreed upon passion, but I was unsure if it might not be anger (I have seen Orks with their gahad up, and they sure looked angry to me).

Anyway, the spell was cast and I got a nifty mark upon my shield forearm. Whereupon 4 Crakebill showed up and breathed upon us, sending almost all of us down to the ground with a paralytic poison. It took me well over a minute to get back upon my feet again, and by that time all 4 had been sent packing.

We decided to head up north to make an attempt at the west of north site. Some guys had already made one attempt at that, and knew it was a human/wizard site. The clue was where to stand to great the sunrise, and we stood inside the eastern arch. With the spell successfully cast and a 2nd mark upon my forearm, 3 storm wolves appeared. We were in an excellent tactical position as we each had our backs to the rock arch. Then the wizard moved and suddenly I had storm wolves on ether side of me. We did much better this fight and nobody went down. We killed one of the wolves but the others fled.

Re: AAR: Runic Circles: Orc and Human

Posted: Mon Jan 08, 2018 7:25 pm
by BattleChad
The Great Library of Throal thanks Aegharan, Grom, and Thane for their contributions.

Journal Rewards: 110 Legend Points and 137 Silver