<Throalic date equivalent to September 17, 2020>
To Whom It May Concern at the Great Library
Re: Doppleganger and Questor of the Mad Passions Activity North of Throal
My friend Bloodbeat asked me to join her as she followed up on what happened to Viktor, her friend’s descendent in Kholder (hex 40.08, see journal entries related to Long Ago But Not Forgotten).
When last we visited Kholder, Viktor’ shop, Oakbraid’s Apothecary, had been ransacked, and the young alchemist kidnapped. We were joined in the investigation by my friends Jarock the ork weaponsmith, Mal the elven archer, and Redsun the troll archer.
Redsun had spoken with Krenyu, a male human Questor of Mynbruje, about learning to channel justice tempered with mercy for the passion, opening the door for Redsun to join the olzim as a questor. Something about Viktor being in the center of a vision Krenyu experienced. Jarrok, Mal and I were there more to support Bloodbeat as she solved the mystery of what happened to the kid.
Travel to Kholder was uneventful and road conditions clear til we arrived at the outskirts of the town.
The vibrant community we had visited before was gone, to be replaced with boarded up buildings and crowded survivor’s enclaves as the townsfolk cowered fearfully in their homes. The astral was thick with pollution and grew thicker as we moved further into town. We caught… …glimpses… …of something moving… …but could not pin down what it was or where it was. We called out to townsfolk in their boarded up houses and received descriptions of giant viscous shadow wolves in exchange for our offers of medical aid. They begged us to help them end the siege. One of the larger groups of survivors was holed up in the Wailing Banshee tavern, including our acquaintances Xhorth the troll Swordmaster and his elven friend Gwynevere the Scout. They gave us additional details on the shadow beasts plaguing the town.
The thickest astral pollution was centered on Viktor’s shop and we carefully explored it. There was nothing living inside, but we located a locked trap door into a storeroom below the shop. Jarock made short work of it and we began our descent deeper into the astral darkness.
The storeroom connected via a hidden passage into the old mines the kaer dwellers had used as the outer line of defense to survive the Scourge (see Tunnel Map in Appendix A). Using the deepening astral pollution as a guide, we began carefully moving through the tunnels.
As we approached sector 4B, we encountered deer firbruids guarding a crossroads type cavern with multiple tunnels; some sort of central junction for moving around in the mine. I had read up on the creatures after our second encounter with them, and learned that these “beastmen” have a raider style culture. They were originally from the wild lands north of Barsaive, but have spread south terrorizing small communities and isolated homesteads. They told us to “Leave Now” in broken Throalic, but attacked quickly enough when we did not immediately comply. The fight was short and brutal but we emerged victorious and continued on.
The astral corruption spiked to even higher levels as we moved into sector 5C-E1 on the map and we could hear faint screams echoing from ahead. As we approached the marked junction, a pack of Kreescra materialized all around us. The small, misshapen monkey like horrors gleefully tore into us. The clouds of corruption they released each time they used their Cursed Luck power to warp reality was almost too much to stomach and I had to keep nausea firmly in check. The fight was ugly. Each time a Kreescra inflicted pain, it would reach into the astral to suck the suffering up like spilled mother’s milk, refilling a glowing sac in its belly with karma to use on us during future attacks; our own pain harnessed as a horrible weapon against us. We killed several, but three dematerialized to escape back into the depths of astral space, watching, as we bound our wounds and prepared to proceed. (We later learned that this strategy was deliberate. The Kreescra are able to feed on nightmares they are able to induce in those they wound, a ploy they used to devastating effect that night.)
The screams from ahead guided us to the marked cavern, where we beheld a truly horror filled sight. A great astral maw had been anchored in the mine, stretching upward in an effort to devour everything it could reach. The stench was like a charnel house combined with all the sulfur of Death’s Sea. Viktor had been badly beaten and showed other signs of both physical and mental torture. He was bound to a spit that was ready to be placed over the Maw as it stretched upward, for what sort of evil ritual I hesitate to even think on.
The cavern also held a starving giant wolf and a number of shadow wolf forms whose eyes glinted with madness and a thirst for blood. Standing beside the Maw were two figures. The first, a male elven beastmaster adept had a pattern that was, for lack of a better word, cracked and near-shattered. I was shaken as I saw the trail of silent bitter, bitter tears dripping down his face and how the Maw reflected the hole in his heart. The second presented as a non-descript human in a worn gray cloak, whispering… always whispering…. Gray Cloak whispered the elf’s name over and over again, “Serethshay… Serethshay…” …The elf responded like he was in some sort of fog, “Yes, Folmar, Yes… …the murderer must pay! Passions, he must pay!... …oh Dashot, <brokenly> my beloved, my husband….”
I felt Mynbruje’s presence unfolding in Redsun in a moment of balanced scales, when the universe itself seems to hold its breath. On one side, the sink of the depths of the blackest revenge embodied in the creature in the Gray Cloak. On the other, the faint shadow of an orc, trying to reach out to his beloved, using the presence of the MOMENT provided by the proto-questor, and siphoning energy from Bloodbeat’s nethermatic gifts.
I am… …unclear… …on what happened next.
My companions tell me I spoke to Serethshay and Dashot over the whispers of Folmar, and that my words had… …weight. Gravity. I remember a great opening of my eyes to astral space, seeing Folmar and the darkness he channeled, and something showing me how to pass the gift of the Sight of Truth on to Serethshay, so that his soul could make its choice unclouded… …Dashot was there…
The next thing I knew Serethshay had broken free of the grip of Folmar’s magic and stood weeping.
Folmar laughed. He laughed at us. And he said something along the lines of… …“Interesting. I’ll be back.” I was still reeling from the glimpse I had seen of something… …greater… … and Folmar leaped into the mouth of the Maw, laughing as it chewed and gulped him down… …down…
I remember telling Serethshay about the animal speaker we had met on our last visit here, Veridian, who lived outside Kholder. My thinking wasn’t very clear, but I do remember seeing a fading… …something… …that told me the quiet of her farm and the animals might be the first sheltered place toward healing that the near broken elf might find…
I felt very… …odd.
Talking with Viktor, he claimed that he had no idea who the elf was or who his ork husband had been. He said Folmar just said something along the lines of “Ah, this one will do as a target” and the next thing he knew the elf was in full vendetta mode. We bound Viktor’s wounds as best we could.
A superficial investigation made clear that closing the ‘Maw was well beyond our current capabilities. We built a boarded up structure to make the Maw hard to get to, wrote out warning and danger symbols in all the languages we knew, then returned to the surface.
The townspeople were very grateful to be able to leave their homes, but were understandably alarmed at the news that a powerful Astral Maw remained open beneath the town.
We went to bed, exhausted.
During the night watches, it became clear that something was… …wrong… …with Bloodbeat, Redsun and Jarock. They had terrible nightmares and were not recovering from the battle as normal; completely exhausted in the morning.
As we ate our breakfast and discussed the best thing to do next, the bloated Kreescra survivors from the mine materialized all around us, looking for their breakfast. One of the materializing Kreescra dove forward and struck straight to Bloodbeat’s heart, then gleefully licked it’s clawed paw as it hooted in triumph over the dying Nethermancer. Jarock, Redsun, Mal and I fought like beserkers to draw the Kreescra off of her slumped form while also keeping the other two Kreescra from tearing into the townsfolk.
The fight was… …bad, but we did win. Thank the passions for the healing aids we had tucked away and were able to use to keep Bloodbeat on this side of Death’s Veil, but it was a very near thing.
We rested up then limped back to Throal. Triumphant? Perhaps. Progress anyway. Viktor had been saved. Serethshay had been given the opportunity for redemption. Redsun had been touched by the Passion. Folmar had escaped, and left a ticking time bomb in Astral Maw form beneath a community of several thousand Name Givers, and there was a darkness behind him that I had SEEN…
Yours in Service,
Nib
AAR: [4H] The Kidnapping of Victor (2020-09-10@23:00 GMT)
Moderator:etherial
Last edited by Serespar on Tue Sep 22, 2020 5:32 am, edited 1 time in total.
Re: AAR: [4H] The Kidnapping of Victor (2020-09-10@23:00 GMT)
Bloodbeat’s Journal:
A questor of Mynbruje arrived in Throal, Named Krenyu. He brought word from the town of Kohldur. Something was very wrong in Kohldur when Krenyu recently passed through. There were no guards at the city gate, no people on the streets, many boarded up buildings, and many other abandoned buildings. Redsun spoke to him about it, and agreed to take on the mission of finding out what was going on in Kohldur and fixing it if possible.
Redsun contacted some of his friends to help. Most of us had journeyed to Kohldur a few weeks before to help the local alchemist, Victor Oakbraid. The ones who accompanied Redsun this time were myself, Nib the wizard and Mal the archer. We also convinced Jarock the weaponsmith to join us. So, we set off for Kohldur.
The journey there was easy and quiet. No problems. When we reached the town itself, everything was as reported by the questor. The astral was badly tainted, while last time it had been open. Nib’s reading of the astral indicated the presence of a Horror, but it was difficult to determine anything more because of the high level of taint.
First, we stopped at the tavern, the Wailing Banshee. It was boarded up, but we could hear people inside talking. So we called out loudly who we were, why we were here, and offered to demonstrate our lack of horror marks. We heard a querulous voice ask “Get rid of them?” From insideWe asked if Xhorf or Gwen were there — the archer and scout we’d met last time. Xhorf was indeed there and replied to our calls. He explained that the troubles started with some big wolves attacking the apothecary shop. The creatures took Victor. And there was a cloaked beastmaster controlling the animals.
After that most people either left town or boarded up their homes and hid in place. Xhorf thought that only the town was affected, not the outlying farms. As we were talking, Mal caught a glimpse of something flashing by the tavern. It was hiding in the shadows, but his guess was that it was a kreescra, a horror construct of some kind.
We proceeded to the apothecary shop. It wasn’t locked, but looked in even worse shape than the last time we saw it, when it had been ransacked. The trap door to the cellar was locked, but not trapped. Jarock broke open the door with his axe, and then repaired the door, without a lock, as a courteous gesture.
We went down a ladder, about 15 feet, and ended up in a cavern. We could hear flowing water. The area seemed to be an old mine, passages leading off in four directions, with rails for ore cars, lots of dust, and a nasty smell. As were we discussing how to continue, three humanoid figures appeared from one of the tunnels. I recognized them as deer-form fibroids. They were the size of orks, but with a thick furry hid, a rack of antlers on their heads, a variety of tattoos of terrifying images. The post-Scourge stories told of groups of 20 to 30 raiding villages. They’re not usually horror tainted. Yet, this was a very tainted area.
Nib tried talking to them, but was told that we didn’t belong there and to get out. So Nib cast Iron Hand on Jarock and melee followed.
Once the firbruids were dead, we headed in the direction of the running water. We crossed a river, using an old bridge, not very sturdy, but good enough. The astral was getting worse and worse as we continued. Then we heard muffled screams that sounded like Victor. We hurried onward.
As we turned a corner, I felt something attack my mind, but the attack slid off. Immediately we were attacked by five kreescra. About 3-feet tall, the kreescra were parodies of a humanoid form, with twisted limbs and faces, almost like some kind of warped flying monkey. We fought them off, but their attacks were insidious, targeting not just our bodies, but our minds. We killed two, but the other three fled.
We heard Victor’s screams again, much closer this time. A couple more twists in the tunnel, and we saw him. A most frightful scene! A gaping, fiery maw was in the middle of the room, and victor was tied to a spit above it. Were they going to sacrifice him or roast him for dinner?! The cloaked elven beastmaster was there, as well as a human male that we hadn’t met before. There were three dire wolves on the side, snarling, and obviously under the beast master’s control. There was a fourth wolf, too, but he was something else: a wolf skeleton, something unnatural.
The human was whispering to Victor and the elf. Then the elf told us to back off, to leave and let them get on with their business. Loudly the human asked Victor, “Why’d you kill him, Victor?” Victor just continued screaming. After some questioning it came out that the human, Named Folmar, had convinced the elf — Serethshay— that Victor had killed Folmar’s husband, Dashot. Folmar kept saying the elf’s Name, and Serethshay acted like in a trance, shuffling and mumbling his words. We could make out fragments of what he said, “Murderer! The murderer must pay! … Oh, my beloved, Dashot, ... By the Passions, the murderer will pay, …”
Our group realized that something was very wrong here. That Folmar was controlling Serethshay that Victor was a murderer, and someone needed to intervene. One after the other, we tried. Some of us used words to convince Serethshay that the law should handle this, not him. Other tried our magical talents to break the spell. The most effective was Nib, who spoke quietly but convincingly of the need for compassion, but moving past one’s grief, and that Dashot would not want Serethshay to damage his own soul with revenge.
Nib’s words broke through the elf’s grief, and Serethshay finally looked up at us, clear-eyes, wanting to know what was going on. And somewhere in this exchange of words, ideas and emotions, Redsun was touched by the Passion Mynbruje. Later, he vowed to become a quester and devote himself to Mynbruje’s teachings.
Folmar laughed at Serethshay and at us. He was amused by the entire situation. One last chuckle, and he said, “I’ll be back,” then he jumped — yes, jumped — into the Astral Maw where he was chewed up and swallowed.
We removed Victor from the spit, bandaged his wounds and gave him what comfort we could. He was just relieved to be released, rescued. Victor claimed that he had no idea who the elf was, or who his husband had been. Folmar had just said something like “Ah, this one will do.” And the next thing he knew, the elf was coming after him.
The Astral Maw was well beyond our capabilities to deal with. So we boarded it up as best we could and put up signs, in multiple languages, warning people to stay away. Then we returned to the surface.
The townspeople were grateful that the danger was gone, and we spent the night in the tavern. But we were careful enough to set watches. At least three of us — myself, Jarock and Redsun — had horrible nightmares that shook us to our core. The next day we were worn out.
As we started packing up, the remaining kreescra arrived. We had a few moments to prepare, but then they were on us. The first one attacked me. With the first bone-jarring hit, I felt my Absorb Blow Charm shatter and save me from unconsciousness. He followed up with another equally earthshaking hit, and this time I fell unconscious, dying. I woke up two days later.
The fight with the kreescra was bad. But my companions prevailed. Then they used our groups healing aids to keep me alive. I owe them all — Jarock, Mal, Nib and Redsun — for saving me. In the future, when they call for my aide, I will give it unconditionally.
We returned to Throal, happy to have survived, but not pleased that we left an Astral Maw in the mines beneath Kohldur. Perhaps after we report this to the Great Library a solution can be found.
A questor of Mynbruje arrived in Throal, Named Krenyu. He brought word from the town of Kohldur. Something was very wrong in Kohldur when Krenyu recently passed through. There were no guards at the city gate, no people on the streets, many boarded up buildings, and many other abandoned buildings. Redsun spoke to him about it, and agreed to take on the mission of finding out what was going on in Kohldur and fixing it if possible.
Redsun contacted some of his friends to help. Most of us had journeyed to Kohldur a few weeks before to help the local alchemist, Victor Oakbraid. The ones who accompanied Redsun this time were myself, Nib the wizard and Mal the archer. We also convinced Jarock the weaponsmith to join us. So, we set off for Kohldur.
The journey there was easy and quiet. No problems. When we reached the town itself, everything was as reported by the questor. The astral was badly tainted, while last time it had been open. Nib’s reading of the astral indicated the presence of a Horror, but it was difficult to determine anything more because of the high level of taint.
First, we stopped at the tavern, the Wailing Banshee. It was boarded up, but we could hear people inside talking. So we called out loudly who we were, why we were here, and offered to demonstrate our lack of horror marks. We heard a querulous voice ask “Get rid of them?” From insideWe asked if Xhorf or Gwen were there — the archer and scout we’d met last time. Xhorf was indeed there and replied to our calls. He explained that the troubles started with some big wolves attacking the apothecary shop. The creatures took Victor. And there was a cloaked beastmaster controlling the animals.
After that most people either left town or boarded up their homes and hid in place. Xhorf thought that only the town was affected, not the outlying farms. As we were talking, Mal caught a glimpse of something flashing by the tavern. It was hiding in the shadows, but his guess was that it was a kreescra, a horror construct of some kind.
We proceeded to the apothecary shop. It wasn’t locked, but looked in even worse shape than the last time we saw it, when it had been ransacked. The trap door to the cellar was locked, but not trapped. Jarock broke open the door with his axe, and then repaired the door, without a lock, as a courteous gesture.
We went down a ladder, about 15 feet, and ended up in a cavern. We could hear flowing water. The area seemed to be an old mine, passages leading off in four directions, with rails for ore cars, lots of dust, and a nasty smell. As were we discussing how to continue, three humanoid figures appeared from one of the tunnels. I recognized them as deer-form fibroids. They were the size of orks, but with a thick furry hid, a rack of antlers on their heads, a variety of tattoos of terrifying images. The post-Scourge stories told of groups of 20 to 30 raiding villages. They’re not usually horror tainted. Yet, this was a very tainted area.
Nib tried talking to them, but was told that we didn’t belong there and to get out. So Nib cast Iron Hand on Jarock and melee followed.
Once the firbruids were dead, we headed in the direction of the running water. We crossed a river, using an old bridge, not very sturdy, but good enough. The astral was getting worse and worse as we continued. Then we heard muffled screams that sounded like Victor. We hurried onward.
As we turned a corner, I felt something attack my mind, but the attack slid off. Immediately we were attacked by five kreescra. About 3-feet tall, the kreescra were parodies of a humanoid form, with twisted limbs and faces, almost like some kind of warped flying monkey. We fought them off, but their attacks were insidious, targeting not just our bodies, but our minds. We killed two, but the other three fled.
We heard Victor’s screams again, much closer this time. A couple more twists in the tunnel, and we saw him. A most frightful scene! A gaping, fiery maw was in the middle of the room, and victor was tied to a spit above it. Were they going to sacrifice him or roast him for dinner?! The cloaked elven beastmaster was there, as well as a human male that we hadn’t met before. There were three dire wolves on the side, snarling, and obviously under the beast master’s control. There was a fourth wolf, too, but he was something else: a wolf skeleton, something unnatural.
The human was whispering to Victor and the elf. Then the elf told us to back off, to leave and let them get on with their business. Loudly the human asked Victor, “Why’d you kill him, Victor?” Victor just continued screaming. After some questioning it came out that the human, Named Folmar, had convinced the elf — Serethshay— that Victor had killed Folmar’s husband, Dashot. Folmar kept saying the elf’s Name, and Serethshay acted like in a trance, shuffling and mumbling his words. We could make out fragments of what he said, “Murderer! The murderer must pay! … Oh, my beloved, Dashot, ... By the Passions, the murderer will pay, …”
Our group realized that something was very wrong here. That Folmar was controlling Serethshay that Victor was a murderer, and someone needed to intervene. One after the other, we tried. Some of us used words to convince Serethshay that the law should handle this, not him. Other tried our magical talents to break the spell. The most effective was Nib, who spoke quietly but convincingly of the need for compassion, but moving past one’s grief, and that Dashot would not want Serethshay to damage his own soul with revenge.
Nib’s words broke through the elf’s grief, and Serethshay finally looked up at us, clear-eyes, wanting to know what was going on. And somewhere in this exchange of words, ideas and emotions, Redsun was touched by the Passion Mynbruje. Later, he vowed to become a quester and devote himself to Mynbruje’s teachings.
Folmar laughed at Serethshay and at us. He was amused by the entire situation. One last chuckle, and he said, “I’ll be back,” then he jumped — yes, jumped — into the Astral Maw where he was chewed up and swallowed.
We removed Victor from the spit, bandaged his wounds and gave him what comfort we could. He was just relieved to be released, rescued. Victor claimed that he had no idea who the elf was, or who his husband had been. Folmar had just said something like “Ah, this one will do.” And the next thing he knew, the elf was coming after him.
The Astral Maw was well beyond our capabilities to deal with. So we boarded it up as best we could and put up signs, in multiple languages, warning people to stay away. Then we returned to the surface.
The townspeople were grateful that the danger was gone, and we spent the night in the tavern. But we were careful enough to set watches. At least three of us — myself, Jarock and Redsun — had horrible nightmares that shook us to our core. The next day we were worn out.
As we started packing up, the remaining kreescra arrived. We had a few moments to prepare, but then they were on us. The first one attacked me. With the first bone-jarring hit, I felt my Absorb Blow Charm shatter and save me from unconsciousness. He followed up with another equally earthshaking hit, and this time I fell unconscious, dying. I woke up two days later.
The fight with the kreescra was bad. But my companions prevailed. Then they used our groups healing aids to keep me alive. I owe them all — Jarock, Mal, Nib and Redsun — for saving me. In the future, when they call for my aide, I will give it unconditionally.
We returned to Throal, happy to have survived, but not pleased that we left an Astral Maw in the mines beneath Kohldur. Perhaps after we report this to the Great Library a solution can be found.
Re: AAR: [4H] The Kidnapping of Victor (2020-09-10@23:00 GMT)
I was approached by a man named Krenyu who identified himself as a questor of Mynbruje. He informed me of some serious problems in the town of Kohldur. He spoke of empty streets a lack of guards and an overwhelming sense of dreed in the town. I and my fellow adepts had visited the town recently as Bloodbeet wanted to meet with any ancestries of a dwarven family she used to know. We ended up helping a dwarf named Victor and ran into an Elven Beastmaster who attacked us while we were there.
I gathered some of my friends explaining that there seemed to be further problems in Kohldur, Bloodbeet, Nib, Mal and Jarock all agreed to journey to Kohldur to assist the town. Our journey was swift and without incident but once we reached Kohldur it was easy to see something was very wrong. The streets were empty and had little to no traffic for several days and Nib reported that the astral was tainted which wasn't the case the last time we visited. After knocking on some doors and stopping at the Wailing Banshee and the locals said the town was being stalked by some large beasts and everyone was staying locked in doors.
We continued on to the apothecary shop and saw it was trashed and the taint was stronger here than anywhere else in town. Jarock broken open the trapdoor we had noticed on our previous visit and then decided to fix the door after breaking it. A nice gesture. Under the town was an old small mine which had some unused carts and rails. We started to search the mines and ran into a trio of furry Fibroids with antlers on their head. Nib tried to converse with them but they just told us to leave and didn't seem interested in stepping aside so we quickly dispatched them and continued further into the mine.
We entered an intersection in the mine when Bloodbeet stopped and grasped her head. As I turned to look at her we were attacked by five Kreescra, horror constructs, who provide to be elusive creatures who quickly struck me a vicious wound. We were able to beat off their ambush by killing two of the horrors while the other 3 fled into the astral.
Once combat was resolved we heard a scream else where in the mine, we believed it to be Victor. We rush into a larger room and were presented with a frightening sight. The elven Beastmaster along with three dire wolves, a human male who we hadn't previously seen, an undead dire wolf and most disturbing a horror maw in the floor of the mine. Poor Victor was strung up above the horror maw and it seemed like the Elf and human were going to sacrifice poor Victor to it.
We weren't in much shape for jumping into another fight right away so we tried to converse with the pair. The human who we learned was named Folmar was talking with the Elf, Serethshay, indicating that Victor had somehow killed Serethshay's husband. How Victor could of managed such a feat is a mystery but Folmar had convinced Serethsay of this fact.
It quickly became apparent that Serethshay was talking to us but the human was whispering in his ear. They were planning on sacrificing Victor as punishment for killing Dashot, Serethshay's husband. Even in the remote chance that Victor has killed Dashot this wasn't justice and they had to be stopped.
We tried to deduce who or what Folmar was as it seemed like he was controlling Serethshay but we could only gather a little bit of evidence that he wasn't human but not much more than he might be hiding a tail of some kind. We tried to dispell or suppress a magic effect on Serethshay which didn't break the hold Folmar had. We also tried to reason with Serethshay that what he was doing wasn't justice and that Folmar wasn't what he appeared to be. After some back and forth Nib finally came up with the idea to let Serethshay see through his astral sight to see that Folmar wasn't human.
Once Folmar realized that he no longer had control over Folmar he taunted us before he and his undead wolf jumped into the horror maw. Once we recovered from the shock of Folmar's leap, we released Victor and tended to him. While Bloodbeet was tending to Victor, Nib was going around the room writing warnings to anyone else to stop them coming into this section of the mine while Jarock constructed a cover for the horror maw as we lacked the skills to close this hole properly.
I took this time to ask Serethshay about what was going on and who was that Folmar. He told me that he had meet Folmar several weeks ago and he wanted to help Serethshay. They also started to "help" Victor with his store and supplies. Folmar apparently wanted Victor removed so he could step in and start to take over the town.
We gathered our party together and left the mine to seek rest in the Wailing Banshee. During the night I had the most horrible of nightmares which kept me from having any kind of restful sleep. Bloodbeet and Jarock were also having similar nightmares. It appears the wounds from the Kreescra had lingering effects.
As morning approached the three remaining Kreescra attacked us from the astral once again. This time it was Bloodbeet who was grievously wounded by their attack. Luckily she had an absorb blow charm otherwise who knows how bad her injuries would of been. Even with the magic protection she was knocked unconscious and took several days to recover from the assault.
We were able to defeat the three remaining Kreescra and the town of Kohldur could relax as the immediate dangers were removed. During this investigation into what was happening to Victor and the town of Kohldur I felt a presence beside me, guiding me. When I saw how Folmar was perverting justice and using it to hide his schemes behind I felt an anger rise up. This powerful emotion was more than just my own.
Once we arrived back in Thoral I spoke with Krenyu and he said that Mynbruje had been with me on my quest and that my actions and my passion for the truth had drawn his interest. I feel like Mynbruje that the truth is important and justice can only be served by having access to all of the facts. I've deciede to join with mynbruje and become of questor.
I gathered some of my friends explaining that there seemed to be further problems in Kohldur, Bloodbeet, Nib, Mal and Jarock all agreed to journey to Kohldur to assist the town. Our journey was swift and without incident but once we reached Kohldur it was easy to see something was very wrong. The streets were empty and had little to no traffic for several days and Nib reported that the astral was tainted which wasn't the case the last time we visited. After knocking on some doors and stopping at the Wailing Banshee and the locals said the town was being stalked by some large beasts and everyone was staying locked in doors.
We continued on to the apothecary shop and saw it was trashed and the taint was stronger here than anywhere else in town. Jarock broken open the trapdoor we had noticed on our previous visit and then decided to fix the door after breaking it. A nice gesture. Under the town was an old small mine which had some unused carts and rails. We started to search the mines and ran into a trio of furry Fibroids with antlers on their head. Nib tried to converse with them but they just told us to leave and didn't seem interested in stepping aside so we quickly dispatched them and continued further into the mine.
We entered an intersection in the mine when Bloodbeet stopped and grasped her head. As I turned to look at her we were attacked by five Kreescra, horror constructs, who provide to be elusive creatures who quickly struck me a vicious wound. We were able to beat off their ambush by killing two of the horrors while the other 3 fled into the astral.
Once combat was resolved we heard a scream else where in the mine, we believed it to be Victor. We rush into a larger room and were presented with a frightening sight. The elven Beastmaster along with three dire wolves, a human male who we hadn't previously seen, an undead dire wolf and most disturbing a horror maw in the floor of the mine. Poor Victor was strung up above the horror maw and it seemed like the Elf and human were going to sacrifice poor Victor to it.
We weren't in much shape for jumping into another fight right away so we tried to converse with the pair. The human who we learned was named Folmar was talking with the Elf, Serethshay, indicating that Victor had somehow killed Serethshay's husband. How Victor could of managed such a feat is a mystery but Folmar had convinced Serethsay of this fact.
It quickly became apparent that Serethshay was talking to us but the human was whispering in his ear. They were planning on sacrificing Victor as punishment for killing Dashot, Serethshay's husband. Even in the remote chance that Victor has killed Dashot this wasn't justice and they had to be stopped.
We tried to deduce who or what Folmar was as it seemed like he was controlling Serethshay but we could only gather a little bit of evidence that he wasn't human but not much more than he might be hiding a tail of some kind. We tried to dispell or suppress a magic effect on Serethshay which didn't break the hold Folmar had. We also tried to reason with Serethshay that what he was doing wasn't justice and that Folmar wasn't what he appeared to be. After some back and forth Nib finally came up with the idea to let Serethshay see through his astral sight to see that Folmar wasn't human.
Once Folmar realized that he no longer had control over Folmar he taunted us before he and his undead wolf jumped into the horror maw. Once we recovered from the shock of Folmar's leap, we released Victor and tended to him. While Bloodbeet was tending to Victor, Nib was going around the room writing warnings to anyone else to stop them coming into this section of the mine while Jarock constructed a cover for the horror maw as we lacked the skills to close this hole properly.
I took this time to ask Serethshay about what was going on and who was that Folmar. He told me that he had meet Folmar several weeks ago and he wanted to help Serethshay. They also started to "help" Victor with his store and supplies. Folmar apparently wanted Victor removed so he could step in and start to take over the town.
We gathered our party together and left the mine to seek rest in the Wailing Banshee. During the night I had the most horrible of nightmares which kept me from having any kind of restful sleep. Bloodbeet and Jarock were also having similar nightmares. It appears the wounds from the Kreescra had lingering effects.
As morning approached the three remaining Kreescra attacked us from the astral once again. This time it was Bloodbeet who was grievously wounded by their attack. Luckily she had an absorb blow charm otherwise who knows how bad her injuries would of been. Even with the magic protection she was knocked unconscious and took several days to recover from the assault.
We were able to defeat the three remaining Kreescra and the town of Kohldur could relax as the immediate dangers were removed. During this investigation into what was happening to Victor and the town of Kohldur I felt a presence beside me, guiding me. When I saw how Folmar was perverting justice and using it to hide his schemes behind I felt an anger rise up. This powerful emotion was more than just my own.
Once we arrived back in Thoral I spoke with Krenyu and he said that Mynbruje had been with me on my quest and that my actions and my passion for the truth had drawn his interest. I feel like Mynbruje that the truth is important and justice can only be served by having access to all of the facts. I've deciede to join with mynbruje and become of questor.
Re: AAR: [4H] The Kidnapping of Victor (2020-09-10@23:00 GMT)
*Written in precise and un-flourished penmanship on clean, fresh paper with bright blue ink*
A job came up based on our previous trip to Kouhlder, where somebody had kidnapped Victor. We were to look into this and try to find and rescue Victor. The group consisted of: me, Nib, Bloodbeat, Jarock, and Redsun.
We headed to Kouhlder and when we arrived the town was quiet with no one around. Nib found that the astral space was tainted by a horror. We searched the town and found that some people had barricaded themselves into some of the stronger buildings. Talking through some boarded windows, we found out that some dire wolves were running loose terrorizing the area. We went to the Apothecary and the place was trashed. No sign of Victor in the shop so we decided to check out the trapdoor leading to a basement. Jarock easily smashed through and we climbed down into what we found to be abandoned mine.
Three deerform Firbruids immediately confronted us. We took them down quickly and headed deeper into the mine. At a rail crossroads, we were ambushed by five Kreescra. It was a challenging combat and after we took out two of them, the other three escaped into astral space.
We traveled deeper into the mine and finally found Victor. He was tied up, hanging over a giant astral maw bottomless pit. The cloaked Beastmaster, an unknown human, three dire wolves, and one skeletal Alpha wolf were surrounding him. The “human” was mentally manipulating the Beastmaster, who’s name is Serethshay, convincing him that Victor had killed his husband. The team had to overwhelm him with logic and appeal to his conscience. We found out the “doppler”s name was Folmar, and we were able to break his hold. After he lost, he dove into the maw to escape. Jarock crafted an improvised cover for the maw, then we sent Serethshay to a local named Veridian, who was also good with animals, to help him with his emotional healing.
We spent the night in the town and were attacked in the morning by the three Kreescra that had escaped earlier. This fight was tough with Bloodbeat going down to a two-strike combo. After several frantic tense minutes, we were able to finally take out the Kreescra. With the help of some healing aids we were able to stabilize Bloodbeat and transport her home.
The astral maw was too far beyond our power to disrupt, so someone will need to go back to the Kouhlder mine and dispel it to stop it from corrupting the area.
A job came up based on our previous trip to Kouhlder, where somebody had kidnapped Victor. We were to look into this and try to find and rescue Victor. The group consisted of: me, Nib, Bloodbeat, Jarock, and Redsun.
We headed to Kouhlder and when we arrived the town was quiet with no one around. Nib found that the astral space was tainted by a horror. We searched the town and found that some people had barricaded themselves into some of the stronger buildings. Talking through some boarded windows, we found out that some dire wolves were running loose terrorizing the area. We went to the Apothecary and the place was trashed. No sign of Victor in the shop so we decided to check out the trapdoor leading to a basement. Jarock easily smashed through and we climbed down into what we found to be abandoned mine.
Three deerform Firbruids immediately confronted us. We took them down quickly and headed deeper into the mine. At a rail crossroads, we were ambushed by five Kreescra. It was a challenging combat and after we took out two of them, the other three escaped into astral space.
We traveled deeper into the mine and finally found Victor. He was tied up, hanging over a giant astral maw bottomless pit. The cloaked Beastmaster, an unknown human, three dire wolves, and one skeletal Alpha wolf were surrounding him. The “human” was mentally manipulating the Beastmaster, who’s name is Serethshay, convincing him that Victor had killed his husband. The team had to overwhelm him with logic and appeal to his conscience. We found out the “doppler”s name was Folmar, and we were able to break his hold. After he lost, he dove into the maw to escape. Jarock crafted an improvised cover for the maw, then we sent Serethshay to a local named Veridian, who was also good with animals, to help him with his emotional healing.
We spent the night in the town and were attacked in the morning by the three Kreescra that had escaped earlier. This fight was tough with Bloodbeat going down to a two-strike combo. After several frantic tense minutes, we were able to finally take out the Kreescra. With the help of some healing aids we were able to stabilize Bloodbeat and transport her home.
The astral maw was too far beyond our power to disrupt, so someone will need to go back to the Kouhlder mine and dispel it to stop it from corrupting the area.