AAR: The Replacement Crew 2

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etherial
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AAR: The Replacement Crew 2

Post by etherial » Tue Mar 27, 2018 4:05 am

Mission: The Replacement Crew 2
GM: etherial
Date: 2018-03-26
Difficulty and circle rating: Circle 6 Medium

Player Rewards:
Pethrytholilanista: 3 TIPs, 6800 Legend, 1200 Silver
Romari: 3 TIPs, 6800 Legend, 1200 Silver
Thane: 3 TIPs, 6800 Legend, 700 Silver, half priced Sky Raider training
Varis: 3 TIPs, 6800 Legend, 1200 Silver

Downtime Actions Available:
Romari: Alchemy 7 (Rank 3, Booster Potion, Kelia’s Antidote, Kelix Poultice)
Romari: Item History 15 (Rank 4)
Romari: Research 25 (Rank 6) (Throal library 20sp)
Varis: Item History Step 16 (Rank 4)
Varis: Research Step 21 (Rank 3)
Researchers may spend 20/2 Silver for +3 Steps

Further Information:
A map of Kaers on the Aras Sea Coast has been found. Many opportunities abound for Kaer Delving there.

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

Re: AAR: The Replacement Crew 2

Post by ChrisDDickey » Tue Mar 27, 2018 10:34 pm

From the Journal of Thane Cawdor.

We spent several days in V'Strimon getting them caught up on 500 years of news, and learning from them as well. It was with difficulty that we tore ourselves away and sailed across Lake Ban to the Coil Rivers exit. Since due to the citadel gates design we could not leave until noon, we had only a short days traveling before nightfall. Because we were still charting the river, we traveled slowly compared to what the Courageous was capable of, but despite this traveled a distance that would have taken many days walking.

The day was cloudy and soon a storm was brewing. As the night fell, Veris announced that the weather was both unnatural and tainted by corruption. Many lightning bolts rent the air and Veris added protection from Air to the many spells protecting us. We knew that something unnatural was riding the storm but felt fortunate to be able to identify 6 Stormwaith's before they attacked. They are fearsome corrupted elementals, and when one came within reach of the ship I activated my horror fend charm and aggressively attacked. They attacked us furiously, but due to the very many protective spells that our three magicians had cast upon us, they often missed, and when they did hit, did almost no damage. We, on the other hand, were doing small but steady amounts of damage to them. After only about half a minute they became discouraged and raced away looking for easier prey. We had not killed any of them, but had wounded several. They had not laid a single finger upon us.

At daybreak we beheld the towers rising from the river waters a short way downstream, and realized we had found another T'Skrang Nial. It was resolved to hover the ship above them and send a party down. I volunteered to dangle from a rope, but in the end the spellcasters went down with spells that let them fly. They messed around for a while, Veris tries a knocking ritual, but gets no response, but they eventaully came back with a riddle.
With Dragon's Eyes We saw our doom And slept away the Scourge
With Jimicia Fruit Our eyes awake and race into a new Dawn
So we discussed this for quite a long time, and pooled our various knowledge of, the Scourge, T'Skrang, and in particular Jimicia fruit, which was described as elongated yellow berries that were not considered poisonous, but were also not considered totally safe to eat. They are most common in jungles, but we felt it was worth checking the forest nearby. After several hours search we found two things. a vine heavy with many Jimicia fruit, and 4 Saurai (the acid spitting lizards we fought earlier on the voyage). We did not like the Saurai, and briefly discussed trying to go around them. But the Saurai took the matters into their own hands and, deciding we looked tasty, attacked us. Pethrytholilanista, having upgraded her matrixes during the time we spent in V'Strimon could now blind two targets in the time I could hit one lizard. It was almost no time at all before all 4 were blind. It hampered them a great deal, but they did not quit until they had all been blinded, mind daggered, and knocked down a time or two. They all ran off and we harvested a few pouches full of Jimicai fruit. I ate one out of curiosity, but I started to feel strange and activated my Iron Constitution talent, and my symptoms cleared up instantly.

We had harvested enough fruit to allow plenty of experimentation. Romari used his field alchemy kit to distill some of the essence of the berries, but then did not know what to do with it. We placed some berries upon the seal upon the hatch. Nothing happened. I mashed some berries into the engraving of the riddle. Nothing happened. Veris ate a Jimicia Fruit, and fell down twitching for about a half hour. So at least something happened. When he woke up and became coherent he told his story of that made it sound as if he had left his body and journeyed upon the astral plane. He said that he had risen up in the air and attempted to reach the sun in the East.

I promptly sat down and ate a fruit. I resolved to attempt to sink down into the tower. I later regretted that I had not asked Romari to watch me in Astral Space, as I wondered if my spirit really did leave my body. I sank down and saw weird things. Sometimes in weapons practice I will get hit on the head and have double vision for a while. Never before had I had quintuple vision before. As I sank into the tower, I floated into a large room that had many T'Skrang. Their spirits were all the colors of the rainbow. I approached a matriarch with a brilliant golden aura, and, feeling the juice of the Jimicia fruit still upon my spirits lips, gently kissed each eye of the matriarch. In my vision I see her eyes open and I hear here say "It is time". Then I awaken in my own body with an upset stomach. I announce to all and sundry that they will be opening the door soon. After about a half hour Veris gets impatient and uses his knocking ritual, and this time gets a short response to wait a while. Shortly thereafter the door opens and there is much rejoicing in Axalalail.

We spend less time exchanging news with Axalalail as we were anxious to be on our way. We flew downriver until we reached the delta where the river splits up into multiple winding watercourses. We spotted a number of large clearings with everything inside of them mulched. We landed to investigate one. It looked as if everything from the largest trees to the smallest blades of grass had been picked apart. We could not figure out what could cause this, until somebody speculated that this is what might result if the Wingflayers we had fought earlier on our journey had time to really go to work on an area. We decided to not linger in this area. We decided to head South to that edge of the delta, then slowly work our way North.

We passed what looked like a long abandoned town. It was near sunset, so we decided to land the ship in the river and do a quick reconnaissance to see if the town would warrant further exploration on the morrow. We decided the town had been majority dwarvish, and Therian. It seemed to have once been a regional base for Therian experts in the construction of kears. It seems to have been orderly evacuated and the occupants moved elsewhere, whether back to Thera or to some local Kaer we have not yet determined. We found what we think might be a main administration building of some sort. It had a map, which the others tell me is magical, that listed a large number of kears in the area. We copied the map and made particular note of two kaers. One that seems to have been constructed for dwarves just 2 miles from the town, and another that looks to have been a Nail, which, due to shifting waterways, seems to have completely silted in and is now square in the middle of a flood plain.

Next to the administration building, I discovered an oubliette. When I investigated it I found an ancient trollish corpse. It was extraordinarily well dressed, with full crystal plate armor, rich robes (or at least the remains of such) and very rich jewelry in the forms of rings, torcs, etc. It had a small golden circlet upon it's head. It also had a dagger still sticking into the back of it's neck. He looks as if he might have been a high Therin official, murdered in the last days as the town was abandoned and his body hidden in this hole. I used my thread sight to recognize the armor as being magical. I collected it, and all the other valuables. The armor looks as if it might fit me. I imagine we will sell the jewelry for cash.

The night watch passed uneventfully, and in the morning we hiked the two miles to the nearest kear. Or at least the general area the map showed the kaer to be. When we arrived we did not see anything kear-like. Of course they are usually hidden. As we were looking around we heard the baying of hounds and saw loping towards us 4 hell-hounds. We dispatched or drove them off in short order. Looking at their backtrail, we saw only one area unburned. examining it more closely, we saw that it was just an illusion of wilderness. The illusion did not burn when the hell hounds scorched the real wilderness. I am just bringing this journal up to date as the spellcasters try to puzzle out the writing upon the stone that they uncovered.
Last edited by ChrisDDickey on Thu Apr 05, 2018 6:05 am, edited 1 time in total.

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BattleChad
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Re: AAR: The Replacement Crew 2

Post by BattleChad » Sun Apr 01, 2018 2:37 am

The Great Library of Throal thanks Thane for his contribution.

Journal Rewards: 340 Legend Points and 300 Silver
Last edited by BattleChad on Mon Jun 04, 2018 6:46 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Dougansf
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Re: AAR: The Replacement Crew 2

Post by Dougansf » Tue May 29, 2018 4:44 pm

From the Travel Journal of Varis

We start at the Ayhodah liferock citadel, which only opens at noon. Thane and Romari work together to update their charts. As the day goes on, it begins to rain as night falls.

We put down on the lower Coil river, somewhere close to where a Nial was supposed to be. The storm gets worse as the night goes on. I get a bad feeling, and start protecting everyone from Air. 6 Stormwraiths come out of the rain, and start attacking. Their initial attacks bounce off of Pethry’s Circle of Astral Protection, and my Resist Air. They close and start striking at us. One grapples Romari. Shortly afterwards, they decide to leave and find better victims. The storm dies down shortly afterwards.

We disembark and find some stone towers which we think mark the Nial (57:22). I approach one tower and casts Kaer Knocking, this reveals some writing on the rock. One of the sailors can read T’skrang language for us.

“With Dragon's Eyes
We saw our doom
And slept away the Scourge
With Jimicia Fruit
Our eyes awake
and race into a new Dawn”

Romari recognizes the name of the fruit, grows in the jungle off of vines, and rumors that they cause visions. We head inland and start searching for the fruit. We come across 4 froggy creatures (Saural) that Romari recognizes from before and warns us of their acid. One of the trees they knocked over has the fruit on it. Thane runs past the first one to approach, and gets swamped by 3 of them, that do little damage to him, but the acid burns his armor. Nista blinds them, they flee and jump into the water.

Thane runs up and eats a fruit, and resists an effect. We then gather a large amount and head back to the ship. We head up to the writing, and try a few things with the fruit. Eventually I try some, and hallucinate for about half an hour. There are visions of dragons eyes and bright light to the east, which he tries to move towards. Thane tries some, and to him time slows, things get heavy, and things multiply, start walking back and forth, looking down he sees a sea of colorful lizards. Thane spots a gold one, and tries to move towards it and kiss her eyes with the fruit on his lips. She wakes up, and says, “it’s time!” This causes others to wake up and Thane comes out of his hallucination. I attempt the knocking spell again, and get a response.

About an hour later the center seam of the elevator starts to shake and reveals a complex trap under the slab, t’skrang guards. They try speaking Theran and T’skrang at us. Nista learns T’skrang from the conversation.

We head south into a delta filled with water. There are a few bare patches (about 100 yards or more) with the plant life has been wiped out, leaving shredded remains behind, so not likely Gnashers. We head down to investigate. Thane recognizes the leavings as Wingflayers they encountered recently. We head back to the ship and start moving out before we get attacked.

As we scour the coast, following the map of suspected kaers, we spot a ruined village of sorts just before dark. We head down to take a look before our night watch schedule. Used to be a dwarven village, they took things of value, no signs of looting or sudden evacuation. Astral space is Open, nothing major happened here. Some lingering magical aura on items. Seems to be designed by Theran traders or miners, so one major building in front with garbage slides off the cliff face. Building has an old map engraved in the wall, including a number of nearby kaers, some of which we don’t have on our map. One of which is now under the new mudline, and a dwarven one inland more.

There’s a magical remnant in the map wall. Feels like wizardry. Map was crafted by magic, projecting knowledge onto wall using the stones and jewels as their medium. We could possibly learn to update the map. We head back and do our night watch.

We head for this new Dwarven Kaer 2 miles away. Astral Space is Open. We hear some hounds baying in the distance, and Romari flies up to spot 4 Hell Hounds coming our way. As they enter our clearing, Thane runs up to intercept. Nista Blinds them all. I cast Mind Daggers at two of their backs. After two of them have died, the last two run away.

We follow the scorched path of the hounds back, and find a spot that is untouched by their flame. We investigate it and find an illusion that looks just like the forest. There’s a stone disk with writing upon it.

Successfully mapped the Aras Sea Coast.

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BattleChad
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Re: AAR: The Replacement Crew 2

Post by BattleChad » Mon Jun 04, 2018 3:09 pm

The Great Library of Throal thanks Varis for his contribution.

Journal Rewards: 340 Legend Points and 300 Silver

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