AAR: [1st Circle] Tale of Three Brothers: The Hidden (2020-02-07@23:59 GMT)

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ChrisDDickey
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Re: LFG: [1st Circle] Tale of Three Brothers: The Hidden (2020-02-07@23:59 GMT)

Post by ChrisDDickey » Sun Feb 09, 2020 1:39 am

From the journal of Zil.

A few weeks ago, a group of adventurers came back to Throal with some moldy papers they had recovered from a trading post. Some pages proved to be from a journal being kept by an Obsidiman. A group of them had been traveling to Throal at the start of the Scourge, only to learn that the kingdom had, at last, closed its doors. The group was undecided about where to go next, and decided to split up. One, an illusionist, decided to go to the Caves of Koilos. The person doing the research on the papers decided to organize an expedition to the mines. 

I did some research on the mines, and found that they were a pre-scourge living crystal mine, abandoned due to the scourge. I tracked down the descendants of the old owners, and found that it had still been producing well when abandoned, and that they were interested in reopening it. It had usually been accessed only by airship as the ground approach was difficult. They would pay good money for a scouting report. They mentioned that the mine had a bound Earth Elemental in it. Before setting out, most of us bought cold weather gear and extra rations. 

The travel through the mountains was arduous, but we quickly fell into a routine. We all helped with all tasks, but William Carver, the scout, was in charge of finding the path. Xeviouz (warrior) organized our security and defenses, and Vlolkir (Skyraider) and myself organized the camps and supplies. We did very good at that, living off the land even in the cold mountains. Despite our precautions, we at times nearly fell victim to frostbite. 

Just short of the cave, we spotted some Khe'vak birds at the top of a cliff we needed to climb.We felt it likely that they would attack us as we climbed. Carver found some carrion that he carried downwind of them, and we climbed while they feasted upon that. 

In the cave, we found a bear hibernating. It seems that living in these crystal mines had changed it bizarrely, for it had growths of crystal infusing its skin (much like a naturally occuring form of living crystal armor). It was actually quite striking to look at. We discussed it and decided to attack  it in its sleep, which we accomplished. We found a  magic silver amulet, in the form of a flower, that held an element of true earth, stabilized magic. We stayed the night in the relative warmth of the cave, and in the morning our incipit frostbite had cleared up. In the depths of the night watch I heard some faint, far off sounds of mining. In the morning, when we ventured into the deeper parts of the mine we found a small cavern, light by glowing crystal, in which what appeared to be 3 Orks, appeared to go through a pantomime of mining. 

At first the figures did not react to our presence. Knowing a very powerful illusionist had passed this way, attempts were made to see through illusions, and it was revealed that the three figures were walking cadavers. The figures continued to ignore us until one of us approached the far exit to the cavern, and then one of the figures told us that we were not allowed to go that way. Vlolkir, not being the sort to take orders from a dead man, immediately attacked the walking dead person. The dead Ork attacked him back, and soon a general melee ensued. The final score was three Orks that were even more deader than before, and three very seriously wounded adventurers. We returned to the bear den where I got out my physicians kit and did some sewing. We then spent two more nights resting. 

Upon reaching the next section of the mine, we found a truly beautiful crystal room. Within we saw a large form made of stone, which when it saw us, reformed itself into a statue of a beautiful Orkish woman. We talked to the Elemental, which I had learned in my research, was named Sif. I attempted to Assess its power, but could only determine that it was of higher than Novice level. When I inquired about the Obsidiman Illusionist, she pointed him out, merged into the crystal floor. She said it was his new "Permanent home", but I was unable to judge whether it was because it desired it that way, or if it thought the Obsidiman was no longer physically or mentally able to emerge. I do not have the first idea of how he might possibly be extracted. Some of my companions told me that they once woke up some Obsidimen that were merged by poking them with sharp sticks, but apparently those had been merly buried and merged with each other, not merged deeply into solid crystal. In the future, I will have to talk to an Obsidiman Questor of Garlan to find out if they think that the Illusionist is safely extractable,

The Elemental asked us to destroy the amulet we had found. It offered us a large and valuable lump of living crystal if we would do it. I equivocate by saying I did not know how to destroy True Earth, but it quickly, as easily as I would strip a willow switch, made a rock and a hard place that would smash the amulet (it would do nothing to the True Earth, but would destroy the magical pattern binding a spell). I quickly looked into astral space, and was unsurprised to learn that there was a binding between the amulet and the elemental. I suspected the amulet held the enchantment that holds the spirit bound. We declined to set the spirit free, and returned to Throal with the trinkets we had gathered. The crystal bear skin, the amulet, etc. A furrier gave us top coin for the skin, and the mining heirs were glad to have the control amulet and the maps and charts we had made. 
Last edited by ChrisDDickey on Sat Jul 18, 2020 12:07 am, edited 1 time in total.

Montaugh
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Re: LFG: [1st Circle] Tale of Three Brothers: The Hidden (2020-02-07@23:59 GMT)

Post by Montaugh » Sun Feb 09, 2020 4:54 pm

My name is William Carver, I am a second circle Scout. I am writing this for the Throal archives after some downtime and training. It was a hard adventure and I wanted to get my thoughts in order.

Adventuring group: Zil winding Elementalist. Xeviouz Human Warrior. Vlolkir Troll Skyraider and myself.

The adventure began with a reply to a job regarding a tale of three brothers. The three brothers were trapped outside at the start of the long night. Each went to find a place to wait out the long night and were to meet back. We were tasked with finding out what happened to The Hidden brother and his travel to the Caves of Koilos. He sought to seek shelter in the living crystal and though trickery would they survive as he was a master of illusions. We were given navigation maps leading to the crystal caves.

Before we set out for our destination we spent some time learning about the area. I decided to study the local Fauna, which proved to be very helpful with what we found. The others did their jobs well, Zil learned about the mines themselves and found out that they were a living crystal mine before the scourge. Money could be made with maps of the mines and a path to the mines. We were also told of an earth elemental in the mine as well. We finally found out that the trip there would be cold and hard.

I took the roll of pathfinder to get out group to the caves of Koilos. Using the charts I was able to easily find out way there, and to find a better route that would not be as hard to traverse. I could do nothing to help with the cold, and the cold weather gear I had purchased was not enough. I will definitely invest in some warmer clothing and gear as soon as I can.

We arrived at the bottom of a cliff. Zil was going to fly up a rope for the rest of us to climb down, I had no argument as climbing that cliff would have been hard given how cold I was. That was when we encountered the Khe'vak also known as carrion birds. They are territorial but otherwise sort of harmless. I spent some time and was able to find a dead wolf a much better option than feeding them Zil's riding goat. I do not think he would have appreciated that. We drew the birds away from the cliff with the wolf's body and were able to easily climb up afterwards while they were distracted.

At the top of the cliff we found the entrance to the cavern. Everything was going great, except for the cold and the bear that was sleeping there. This wasn't just a normal bear though, it was merged with the living crystal and had crystal formations on its body. Bludgeoning weapons were our only real options of dealing with the creature. I was glad to have my sling. We made quick work of the bear and skinned its hide to bring back with us to Throal. Not wanting the meat to go to waste we used the rest to supplement our rations. I don't recommend eating crystal bear, it was crunchy and while you might win the battle eating it, you lose the war in its passing a few days later.

The room of the dead orc miners. This was all an illusion, I am finding I have a real knack with illusions and their detection. Originally we saw the room full of crystals and three orcs mining it, placing the crystals in the center of the room and resume mining. The problem was the orcs were all long dead and were merely scratching at the walls with their hands. In the center of the pile was a small glowing crystal. We tried to leave the room when suddenly Vlolkir attacked one of the bodies. The fight against the dead orc was not going well, so I got the bright idea of using my sling to break the small glowing crystal. It worked and didn't work. While the illusion was destroyed and the others saw things for the way they truly were, it did not bode well for us as the two other dead orc miners attacked after a moment or two. We had a hard battle and I was wounded badly. We survived and defeated the dead orcs miners. We retreated back to where the bear was and spent two days recovering from our wounds. We would have only spent a day but my wound did not want to heal on the first day.

The room of the Earth Elemental. We found the earth elemental. It was in the most lovely room, truly a beauty to behold, the room that is. The elemental was terrifying, something just set me on edge about our encounter with it. We also found the obsidiman he was in the vein of living crystal. I don't know if he was dead or alive though. The elemental wanted us to destroy an amulet we had previously found in one of the other rooms. Zil was the one to find it, I'm not exactly sure where he came across it. We tactically retreated from the room and luckily the elemental which was mimicking Zil's movements could not follow us from the room, I think it would have killed us if it could have done so.

From there we returned to Throal with our maps and information regarding the hidden brother. We collected our rewards and I spent some time with my mentor Rorick Shalemace and advanced to the second circle as a Scout.

ottdmk
Posts:462
Joined:Mon Dec 12, 2016 10:25 pm

Re: LFG: [1st Circle] Tale of Three Brothers: The Hidden (2020-02-07@23:59 GMT)

Post by ottdmk » Sat Feb 15, 2020 2:50 am

The Great Library of Throal thanks Z'il, William Carver, Xevious and Volkir for their contributions. +15 Legend Points, +56.3 Silver Pieces.

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