AAR: [10M] (E) An Invitation 2020-11-20 2359 GMT

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bronzemountain
Posts:606
Joined:Fri Feb 21, 2020 10:02 pm
AAR: [10M] (E) An Invitation 2020-11-20 2359 GMT

Post by bronzemountain » Wed Nov 18, 2020 3:28 pm

LFG: An Invitation
GM: Dvarim
ECR: 10
Difficulty: Medium

Rumor: Dear <Insert Adept name here>, you are cordially invited to meet with my patron regarding a matter of paramount importance. It is his understanding that Barsaive is threatened by an organization called The Scourge. He believes he can direct you to one of their projects. If you are so inclined, please arrange to be at the Idrovi Mesa in the Scythan mountains one week hence.
Sincerely,
Tiabdjin, Scribe Second Class of the Library of Throal.
Requested by: Event

Notes:
- Adventure runs at 7:00pm EST on Friday, November 20th
- As always, I run groups of 5 players.

Sign up format:

Code: Select all

[b]Name:[/b] Character name
[b]Date of Last Game Played:[/b]
[b]Circle:[/b] Circle of your character
[b]Discipline:[/b] Your character's Discipline(s)
[b]Unique:[/b] What your character is bringing to the table.
[b]Downtime:[/b] Talents and Skills that other characters can use over downtime: [Talent] [Step including +Karma Step if appropriate] ([Rank]) ([Further Details])
Last edited by bronzemountain on Sat Nov 21, 2020 3:48 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Sharkforce
Posts:527
Joined:Thu Feb 28, 2019 8:39 am

Re: LFG: [10M] (E) An Invitation 2020-11-20 2359 GMT

Post by Sharkforce » Wed Nov 18, 2020 8:59 pm

Name: Zivilyn
ECR: 9
Last Played: Nov 14 also signed up for another adventure on the 21st, don't know if I'll get in
Discipline: Shaman/Wizard/Elementalist 7/6/5
Notable Abilities: Spells, a little bit of everything at this point. Good with animals. Only *mostly* incompetent at social stuff.
Downtime: Downtime: Animal Training (Talent) - Step 19 including karma (Rank 9) (can train up to 9 commands total, or improve non-combat skills by +1 per command used on it)
Research - Step 24 including karma (Rank 5). +3 to the step is available at a cost of 20 sp for access to the Great Library of Throal.
Item History - Step 17 including karma (Rank 6)

sigfriedmcwild
Posts:335
Joined:Wed Nov 13, 2019 6:59 am

Re: LFG: [10M] (E) An Invitation 2020-11-20 2359 GMT

Post by sigfriedmcwild » Wed Nov 18, 2020 9:07 pm

Name: Norg
ECR: 9 (372645lp)
Last played on: 2020-11-13
Discipline: Gauntlet 9 / Air Sailor 5
Quote/Unique: The punch is not the goal, the punch is the way
Notable Abilities: PUNCH! JUMP! some awareness, some navigation, some wilderness survival, the worst physician this side of the mountains
Downtime: none

also signed up for a game on 2020-11-22
Last edited by sigfriedmcwild on Fri Nov 20, 2020 3:05 am, edited 2 times in total.

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

Re: LFG: [10M] (E) An Invitation 2020-11-20 2359 GMT

Post by ChrisDDickey » Thu Nov 19, 2020 2:58 am

Name: Zil
Date Player last played: Nov 14th
ECR: 10
Discipline: Elementalist 10th circle on the path of the purifier / Exemplar of Garlen - Windling
Quote/Unique:May the blessings of Garlen be upon you! Travel in style with a party Elementalist! Heat Food! Plant Feast! Purify Water! Shelter! Air Mattress! All the comforts of home upon the road.
Notable Abilities: Questor of Garlen, Physician.
Downtime: Research rank 4, step 12 (step 15 if pay 20 sp for library access).
    Item History Rank 4 (step 16).

nathaniel
Posts:347
Joined:Wed Dec 13, 2017 1:48 am
Location:Dallas Texas

Re: LFG: [10M] (E) An Invitation 2020-11-20 2359 GMT

Post by nathaniel » Thu Nov 19, 2020 4:23 am

Name: Jael
ECR: 11
Last Game: 11/14, also signed up for another adventure on the 21st
Discipline: Beastmaster/Scholar/Woodsman
Notable Abilities: Elven Lore, Pets, Frenzy's and Grappling. Woodskin for all!
Downtime: Animal Training (Rank 10) 20, Item History (Rank 7) 16, Research (Rank 4) 13 (16 with library access)

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etherial
Posts:964
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Location:Berlin, Massachusetts
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Re: LFG: [10M] (E) An Invitation 2020-11-20 2359 GMT

Post by etherial » Thu Nov 19, 2020 2:28 pm

Name: Daldorer
Last Game Played:2020-11-14
Effective Circle: 11
Discipline: Nethermancer
Quote/Unique: Daddy can make you feel better
Notable Abilities: Critical Thinking, Friendly Darkness, Last Chance
Downtime:
Alchemy Step 8 (Rank 3) Recipes: Booster Potion and Small Light Quartz
Item History Step 20 (Rank 8) (Historian: Extra Successes reduce Research Times)
Research Step 44 (Rank 12) (Librarian: Extra Successes reduce Research Times)

Sharkforce
Posts:527
Joined:Thu Feb 28, 2019 8:39 am

Re: LFG: [10M] (E) An Invitation 2020-11-20 2359 GMT

Post by Sharkforce » Sat Nov 21, 2020 8:41 am

From the Journal of Zivilyn, Windling Magician: An Invitation

I received a letter recently inviting me to meet with others interested in dealing with the scourge cult that has been spreading across barsaive. I've recently become quite concerned about leaving this sort of thing to fester, although I worry that others may not share my concerns to quite the same extent. The letter was from one Tiabdjin, a scribe whose name sounded vaguely familiar to me, but really you meet so many people in the Library it's hard to keep track of them all. And the invitation was to go to the middle of nowhere in the Scythan Mountains. Well, not like I haven't been there before, so I started off at the appointed time.

Along the way, I came across Zil, a fellow Windling Elementalist who is also a Purifier and Questor of Garlen, riding on a goat who said her name was Nanny, who was heading the same way. Shortly after, we caught up with Daldorer, who now that I see I believe I have in fact met them once before, a couple years back, who has since I last met become a Scholar. When we arrived at what was, as best we could tell, our destination, we came across Jael, who still travels with Selina, and the Dwarf scholar Tiabdjin, who still looks more or less vaguely familiar but not much more than that (although I am sure I will recognize him if I ever encounter him in the future). Tiabdjin was sharing around some pickle sandwiches, which are a little strong for my tastes. He also had something he called lemonade, which was much more enjoyable. I shall have to make a point of having some at least once a year. I was a little bit worried that only 4 Adepts showed up, as the letters (and the scholar) indicated that many more had been sent out, when to my surprise Norg dropped down from a drakkar that was passing through. No doubt Norg caught a ride on the way to collect some more supplies for their "experiments" (ie fooling about with their new cannons), and also caught a great deal of their ale along the way.

Still, 5 were not as many as I might have hoped. At this point, Norg mentioned that a piece of a distant mountain peak had split off and was coming towards us, which is a new experience for me. Tiabdjin seemed unworried, so I wasn't excessively worried myself, until I noticed a Dragon flying our way and recalled that they do not appreciate people wearing wyvernskin armour. I quickly ducked behind a rock and got changed into my nicest robe, as Tiabdjin eventually indicated that the Dragon was his patron. On landing, the Dragon introduced himself as Vasdenjas (which I recognize as one of Barsaive's Great Dragons, particularly known for accumulating knowledge), plus a dozen titles which he is known by. Personally, I mostly kept my mouth shut. He was obviously pretending to have not noticed I had been wearing anything he found distasteful, and so was I.

It seems there was a ruined city on the eastern edge of the Scythan Mountains where the scourge were doing some unspecified thing that he found extremely distasteful. I gather he didn't want to discuss the matter exactly, but he wanted us to destroy any records of their experiments, and seemed offended that they had additionally in some way stolen some forbidden draconic knowledge or something like that. Again, pretty vague. Thankfully, he was at least quite specific in providing us a map so that we didn't have to check every ruin we came across in a ruined kingdom.

The trip was relatively uneventful for Adepts of our stature. Zil provided metal wings when we encountered obstacles, and otherwise we simply rode or walked along through the mountains. We got there and spent some time talking to various spirits about what might be in the city, and didn't get a lot of information. At least it gave me a chance to practice speaking Air Elemental though. What little we learned was that an airship had passed through a couple of times recently, bringing "more than 5" people, and that the unusual phenomena in the city (stone buildings that were on fire and an immobile cloud of smoke) had been there for a very long time. Given one of our employer's titles, I'm guessing it was Dragon magic, and that he caused the ruin.

On our way through, we encountered some mercenaries who were fool enough to work for the scourge (seriously, what kind of loon works for someone who warps others into monsters and want to bring back the scourge) and some monsters that had previously been the leaders of the mercenaries. Each of the resulting creations were intriguing in a way I suppose, but were definitely no longer Namegivers, and were probably insane. We told the mercenaries to get out of town, did our best to ignore the warped former-mercenaries who seemed content to leave us alone so that they could concentrate on killing each other, and headed for the centre of town. Personally, I think we should probably have done something about the experiments ourselves, but was outvoted on that. I suppose in fairness the mercenaries had managed to get a signal off that required us to move quickly to catch our quarry. Still, as I mentioned, I'm getting tired of leaving problems to later, since they always seem to get bigger by the time I get a chance to do something about them.

We arrived at a tower we had noted as being less on fire than the rest of the buildings that might be suitable as an airship dock, just as an airship did in fact arrive and was being loaded by workers at the top of the tower through a makeshift door enchanted with illusion magic. There were a pair of magicians on top of the tower, a few groups of mercenaries who foolishly did not run when they were told to, and a lot of fire (which I protected us from, leaving Zil to continue providing his more powerful Shield Willow and Air Armour).

The mercenaries proved to be a nuisance until they eventually broke and ran. The magicians were more dangerous, but we were fortunately well shielded from magic. And then a hydra popped its heads out of a hole in the middle of the plaza we were in. I had just enough advance warning to prepare Wyvern Oil, but it didn't help much as the beast still got me in its jaws, as well as taking a chunk out of Daldorer and Selina while Jael, Norg, and Zil went up the tower to stop the cultists from getting away with their cargo. Or so I am told; mostly I saw a lot of teeth and a tongue. Thankfully, the hydra had a difficult time getting through all my armour, because as I later found out it was extremely venomous. Daldorer and Selina were less fortunate. I had enough time to take Kelia's Antidote, but I gather Daldorer had not previously encountered much poison and didn't have anything on hand.

I am told Jael killed the two magicians (although the the Illusionist got away anyways. The Nethermancer who had been mutating people was less fortunate). Zil knocked the crew of the airship out of commission. And both of them were quite thoroughly surprised that Norg rammed the airship into the hydra, which I mostly experienced as a lot of shaking around and myself being flung out of the hydra's mouth (which was unpleasant, but still a superior experience to being *in* the mouth and chewed on). Zil dropped down and did something to cleanse the poison out of Daldorer, Jael used Kelia's Antidote on Selina, and the idiots who were crewing an airship for the cultists died in the crash.

Most of the idiot mercenaries got away, though I shall be keeping an eye out for their insignia in the future to give them a piece of my mind (and make their lives just that extra bit more miserable), and the workers that were loading what turned out to be hydra eggs onto the airship just *might* be smelling like skunk spray for the next few weeks once they get home. Or possibly months. Not. Sorry. At. All. The favours I owe that Skunk Spirit are well worth it. I think the mercenaries are going to get a good helping of that when I figure out where they are, plus a nice massage from a Poison Ivy Spirit, and maybe I can find a Spirit willing to serenade them all night, every night, for a while, because apparently the drawbacks of working for an insane cult that wants to plunge the world back into the middle of the scourge again are an insufficient deterrent.

In the meanwhile, I have come across another piece of what I am Naming the Regalia of Hadritha Haytrish gifted to me by Vasdenjas, this time a gem-encrusted golden knuckle duster. My research suggests that it encourages one to get dangerously close to things. Would've been useful when I was stuck in that Hydra's mouth. I am somewhat less excited that it seems to encourage me to get into situations where I am more likely to find myself in that situation in the future, though.

On a side note, the rewards for working for a Great Dragon are proving to be quite persuasive that I should not get on their bad side. It pains me that we were obligated to destroy the Nethermancer's notes, as some of them may have been of interest, but I can't imagine a Great Dragon would fail to notice that.

bronzemountain
Posts:606
Joined:Fri Feb 21, 2020 10:02 pm

AAR: [10M] (E) An Invitation 2020-11-20 2359 GMT

Post by bronzemountain » Sat Nov 21, 2020 3:47 pm

AAR: An Invitation
GM: Dvarim
ECR: 10
Difficulty: Medium

Player Rewards:
Zil: 69,000 LP, 30 SP, 3 TIPs, 50% off Armor Forging rank 10 (250 sp), Dex Training (245 sp), Knack training (250 sp)
Learn Spells: Waterproof, Mantel of the woodland hunter, Thrive, Nutritious Earth, Cloud Summon, Death Rain (25, 50, 75, 125, 175, 175 sp)
Zivilyn: 69,000 LP, 0 sp, 3 TIPs, Circle 8 Shaman Training, 2 Kelia's Antidote, 11 circles of Shaman Spells (War Party, Otter Swim, Mountain Goat Leap)
Norg: 69000LP 970SP 3TIP - Rank 6 dex training (180), Rank 10 armor forging (250)
Jael: 69,000 LP, 1,175 SP, 3 TIPs, Knack training, 2 Absorb Blow charms, and 2 Booster pots at 50% off.
Daldorer: 69,000 LP, 1,400 SP, 3 TIPs,

GM Reward: Dvarim: 184,000 LP, 2,500 SP, 3 TIPs

Downtime:
Daldorer: Alchemy Step 8 (Rank 3) Recipes: Booster Potion and Small Light Quartz
Item History Step 20 (Rank 8) (Historian: Extra Successes reduce Research Times)
Research Step 44 (Rank 12) (Librarian: Extra Successes reduce Research Times)
Jael: Animal Training (Rank 10) 20, Item History (Rank 7) 16, Research (Rank 4) 13 (16 with library access)
Zil: Research rank 4, step 12 (step 15 if pay 20 sp for library access). Item History Rank 4 (step 16).
Zivilyn: Downtime: Animal Training (Talent) - Step 19 including karma (Rank 9) (can train up to 9 commands total, or improve non-combat skills by +1 per command used on it)
Research - Step 24 including karma (Rank 5). +3 to the step is available at a cost of 20 sp for access to the Great Library of Throal.
Item History - Step 17 including karma (Rank 6)

Summary:
The Master of Secrets is pleased. The Scourge has been driven out of the city that has no name, and the Hydra eggs have been destroyed. Soben Tarl lives to deceive and plot another day but she will get what she deserves soon enough, surely. Also, awesome things happened.
Jael Greenguard spider-man'd his way up a tower and clawed casters and hydra to death!
Zivilyn Many-Magics played cat-got-your-tongue from inside a hydra's mouth!
Daldorer Nightbringer made himself entirely too spicy to eat!
Zil Hearthfire placed his friends under Garlen's protection and guarded them from fear!
Norg Thunderfist rammed an airship into a hydra!

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

Re: AAR: [10M] (E) An Invitation 2020-11-20 2359 GMT

Post by ChrisDDickey » Tue Nov 24, 2020 11:43 pm

From the journal of Zil

I got an invitation from Tiabdjin, Scribe Second Class of the Library of Throal to meet him at Idrovi Mesa in the Scythan mountains. Tiabdjin was not known to me personally, but is known at the library to be compiling a bestiary of barsaive. I traveled there with two others who had received similar invitations and on the appointed day found him with still other Adepts, He offered us pickle sandwiches while we waited, and once the appointed hour arrived, a nearby mountain peak (Wormspyer, named after dragon who commited suicide by impaling herself on it) seemed to unfold and fly towards us before spiraling down and landing next to us. The dragon introduced himself as Vasdenjas, master of secrets, eater of cities. The loremaster of Barsaive, keeper of History. He addressed each of us by name, giving us a new nickname, he called me Zil Hearthfire. He said that there was a problem that offended and distressed him, and that threatens our people. 

He told us that there were the ruins of a city on the eastern side of the Scithian mountains, the ruins were so old that the city no longer has a name. In the last month the Scourge has infected the city and desecrated it. He said the Scourge are fools with unearned knowledge who plot (insanely) the return of horrors. In this case they are also experimenting with draconic magic. We are to deal with the situation. If we find any of their research we are to burn it. Tiabdjin provided a map. 

We traveled to the location and observed the ruins from a distance. The city had been very large, covering several square miles. At a minimum it would have held one hundred thousand people.  Deep in the heart of the city is a district that seems to be continually on fire, and a separate district some distance away constantly shrouded by a fog of smoke. We talked to various spirits, and learned a bit of ancient history ("we were punished"), and that the fire and smoke were both ancient phenomena, centuries if not millennia old (and probably the work of Vasdenjas, one of whose names is Eater of Cities). We did learn that an airship had come to the city twice in the last month. 

We cautiously moved into the city, and detected signs of patrols. Continuing on, we actually encountered a patrol of mercenaries, which we quickly overwhelmed into surrendering, but not before they sent up a flare alerting their bosses and the other patrols. They were not able to tell us much of what the people who hired them were doing, but they did tell us that they were doing it in the district of unending flame, near the highest tower. They also told us that 3 of their number had volunteered to be "given power", but that when they saw the monstrosities that they had become, nobody else volunteered. 

When the thing that had used to be their captain showed up, the patrol ran off. The ex-captain had renamed himself "Disappointment". He was still more or less humanoid shaped, except huge, and had draconic features such as one giant clawed arm, and at least three vestigial wings on one shoulder. We talked to Disappointment, and he let us continue on when we said that we meant to slay the people who had done this to him, and then leave. We also saw in the distance the other two abominations "Uncomfortable Silence" and "Unsettling Epiphany" but we did not speak to them. 

As we were approaching the fire district we saw a Drakkar maneuvering towards the tallest tower. When we reached there, there were 4 additional patrols of mercenaries, and up on the tower two high circle Adepts of the Scourge (an Illusionist and a Nethermancer) were hurrying some flunkies to load some crates into the airship through an  "Other Place" spell. Jael, Norg, and I all hurried up the tower to engage the adepts, which unfortunately left Daldorer, Zivilyn and Jael's griffin  deal with the two Hydra that came out of a hole in the ground all by themselves. Daldorer managed to frighten one of the off, but the other one managed to really mess them all up. Then Norg crashed the Drakkar into the Hydra, killing it. 

It took us a long time until we understood what had really been happening. I had thought that the Hydra might have been being summoned from some far realm, but they were just in an ordinary dirt hole. I had thought that maybe the Hydra had been imprisoned underground in ancient times by Vasdenjas at the same time he did the smoke and fire magic, but this also was not the case. Apparently The Hydra had apparently been living near this city, and the scourge managed to trap them both underground recently. The scourge had been harvesting hydra eggs (which were in the crates they were trying to load into the airship - we destroyed the eggs). When they saw that we were coming they released the Hydra in the hopes that the Hydra's would kill us, or at least slow us down. 

sigfriedmcwild
Posts:335
Joined:Wed Nov 13, 2019 6:59 am

Re: AAR: [10M] (E) An Invitation 2020-11-20 2359 GMT

Post by sigfriedmcwild » Thu Dec 03, 2020 12:11 am

From "The Skies of Barsaive", as penned by Norg, Brother of Earth and Sky, Corsair of Throal

I received an invitation from one Tiabdjin, self described scribe of the Great Library, to meet with his unnamed patron about a new plot by the Scourge. The meet location was near the Wyrmspire in the Scythan mountains, so I hitched a ride on the first airship going in the right direction and jumped off when we were passing over.

As I dropped I noticed two things: firstly some other people were already there, secondly the nearby peak unfolded itself into a dragon. I recognized the others as Jael and Selene, Daldorer, Zivilyn, and Zil together with a dwarf I had not met before who I assumed to be Tiabdjin. The dragon slowly descended probably trying to impress us with their power and size, including a final approach with the sun at their back just for the free "avert your eyes from my majesty".

Zivilyn tried very hard to not stand out in his wyvern skin armour, but I am pretty sure everyone knew and just decided to not press the matter right now. The dragon introduced themselves as Vasdenjas, Master of Secrets, and proceeded to greet us all by name and a not too inappropriate soubriquet. After some more long winded ramblings, which I tried to speed up, we finally got to the point: the Scourge are doing something (Vasdenjas would not say what), in the ruins of a city (Vasdenjas would not say the name), which Vasdenjas claimed dominion over (of course they would not elaborate on their claim). The was "generously offering us the opportunity" to take care of this problem, definitely not helping them, they got rather agitated when Jael suggested that.

So in the end we had a very long talk to get minimal amounts of information while making sure not to offend the tender feelings of a giant lizard older than memory. Still better than being led on a wild goose chase by a passion I guess.

In the end Tiabjin furnished us with a map to the ruins and we set off for a nice stroll through the mountains. The advantage of travelling with elementalists, in addition to a comfy bed every night and delicious hot food, is that little orographic details such as cliffs, rivers, and one particularly ornery flock of crackbills can easily be circumvented.

As we travelled we did some thinking back to the location of our meeting and what was known of Vasdenjas' history and realized Wyrmspire was so named after a dragon impaling themselves on the mountain in grief and that noone knew what the city we were going to was.

Eventually we reached the ruins, part of which were covered in smoke and part ablaze, but not the same parts. We gathered information as we could including Jael asking Selene what she saw and the magicians calling up various spirits. Eventually we pieced together than the city had been destroyed long before the scourge by a dragon (probably Vesdenjas) as punishment for something and the fire and smoke were part of that. We also learnt that people had recently arrived by airship and were in the "fire" zone.

We spent a long time debating what to do but finally decided to just go for the "fire" zone and see who was there. On the way we encountered a group of mercenaries who had the good sense to surrender and bail out, and the product of one of the experiments the Scourge was carrying out: an abomination calling itself "Unending Disappointment" who did not care about our presence, its focus was on taking down its "siblings", "Uncomfortable Silence" and "Unsettling Epiphany".

As we approached the "fire" zone, Zivilyn had to use magic to protect us from the immense heat and we spotted a drakkar flying towards the one tower left standing. We kept making our way in scaring mercenaries and being ignored by the abominations until we reached the tower which was attached to the ruins of the town hall. The drakkar was keeping position a few yards above it, several mercenaries milled around in the square, and the square itself had a large fiery hole in the middle. On top of the tower we spotted some workers moving crates into a door in the air.

Jael and I started charging for the tower to stop them from doing whatever they were doing, while the others dealt with the mercenaries. One of the people at the top, a t'skrang shouted to "release them" just before Jeal made his way up there. I was slightly slower so I saw several draconic heads emerge from the ground just before I jumped up.

At the top I found that the door looked like it opened in the hold of the drakkar, and the t'skrang and a vaguely familiar elf woman had retreated inside. Jael and I charged through, with Jael butchering the two hapless magicians. Meanwhile below the other were having trouble dealing with the hydra that had come out of the hole so I dropped the airship on it which stunned it long enough for the other to take it out. Zil greatly helped this by stunning all the sailors on the ship (he's hitched a ride on Jael's shoulder I was informed later).

At this point we took stock of what was going on, the mercenaries had fled the hydra, the crates were full of hydra eggs, the t'skrang was definitely dead, and we could not find the elf's corpse. Damned illusionists. The airship could be repaired with time, but we did not have the tools and had a report to make.

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