The Red-Gold Company turned over the archaeologists to the authorities of Messersachs. Baron Bart Van de Berg examined the papers found on them identifying Hersir Karl Bruni, a baronet from Drasland, as having employed them. The Baron groaned audibly, though, revealing uncertainty about the area’s boundaries, even with Krem Kleij’s apparent confidence in the shrine location belonging to Messersachs County. The Baron recovered though and was rather dismissive, stating the responsibility rested with the new bondsman and not with them. He advised the party to “let it go” for now, promising that he would consult with the baronet about the detained archaeologists. The company also debated whether or not to surrender certain confiscated items from the archaeologists, mainly a magical haversack, and whether they should reveal that they acquired a cursed necklace, taken off a Xorn. Ultimately they surrendered the magic backpack but kept the rest secret.
During the next five days, the Red-Gold Company scouted locations and occupation rights east of Messersachs for their bastions, cliffside and roadside locations which Baron Bart later approved for construction. The government provided dwarf engineers, masons, lumberjacks, carpenters, as well as building materials at no cost to the party. High-level magic users, however, for spells like Rock to Mud were not readily available. Desiring special facilities, such as Workshops and Arcane Studies capable of crafting specialty goods and magical items, the adventurers petitioned the government for hirelings with special skills and knowledge. On their own, they started advertising for and hiring a major domo, cook, guards, and maid servants locally. Lands were then cleared and reshaped for the bastions. Timador also met with the Viscount Ludwich Mefti of Messersachs and his wife, Sophia Mefti, at their request. They were aware that Timador had petitioned for the installation of a permanent Teleportation Circle. Fru Mefti was pleased with this, as her own circle in her home had been conscripted by the military for use during the war. With another nearby circle being established, Solphie hoped that hers could soon be decommissioned and sole control of it returned to her.
The Red-Gold Company next traveled 55 miles overland to Kleinhafen, a port city west of Hartewald. They arrived the night before the Cool Autumn Festival being held on Day 109. After a long rest at the Dragon-shaped castle, they met with skalds (to help document their exploits), artists (for rendering their portraits), and a herald (to review the required ceremony procedures for them to join the Svarta Peerage). Some of the party’s family members also arrived to witness the knighting of their children and siblings. Following the actual oath-taking ceremony (and the receiving of wolf-themed identification and ceremonial gear), Timador received a Sending message from Shaman Chjell.
The goblin chief related to the wizard troubling signs of activity near the pukjes’ egg caverns, where Chjell was aware that the company had previously explored and modified an underwater ziggurat. (He also knew that the Company had recently been traveling by ship near the location.) As the Shaman was only somewhat concerned and he didn’t indicate any immediate danger—and he likely expected they party would need to be slow trailing by ship to investigate, Baron Bart suggested that “The Red-Gold Knights” first participate in the autumn festival in Hartwalde, socially mingling with regional nobles.
At the festivities, Stroop performed for Princess Fahari of Tief Liegend, and his songs earned 40 gold pieces and her admiration. The Knights also participated in a seasonal magic item auction, acquiring a Potion of Supreme Healing and a Wand of the War Mage +2, while also selling off some of their own redundant or lesser powered items. They elected then to revisit the ziggurat area to see what Chjell was on about. But, the Knights decided to keep the sigil’s of the ziggurat’s teleportation circle their own secret. Timador cast the Teleportation Circle spell himself instead of accepting the Baron’s offer to supply someone to cast the spell for them. However, instead of landing within the ziggurat, the Knights found themselves teleported atop a 200-foot stone pillar in a desolate volcanic wasteland, surrounded by ash, high winds, and a murky night sky. As the pillar top was already occupied by several wooden crates and barrels, several of the party had to steady themselves to prevent from falling off.
The night air was tinged with sulfurous gases, and obscured by a dense volcanic haze. It was 25 degrees colder than from where they had just teleported. Trying to gauge their actual location, they noted that Eyeqweetas was either veiled behind the overcast sky—or it just wasn’t up there anymore. Some scattered stars were visible but nothing looked familiar. Searching through the wooden crates, they found food and homesteading supplies. Pinned to one of the smaller sacks was a note from “Vraspir the Variscite.” Vraspir’s note indicated “Hey: I’m coming back for this stuff soon, and I’d appreciate you leaving it alone. It’s just common stuff that I need and took me time to assemble. It’s worth 250 gold. If, for some reason you feel entitled to it, just take this bag of gold instead. Or, better yet, leave it all.” The party left it alone for the nonce. In fact, Timador added in 25 extra gold coins inside and signed a new note (or appended the old one) with something akin to “I contributed this for your cause, signed, The Scarlet Pumpernickel.”
At the base of the pillar, a shivering humanoid, Hereward the Rhyme-Ruffler, a bard from Belanore (an elf city on the isle of Kraldjur) was spotted by Stroop and Sagon as they descended and explored. Hereward revealed his own party of adventurers had recently discovered the underwater ziggurat and it’s teleportation circle. They intended to use the location as a base of operations, but, when they tried to teleport back to it, they accidentally teleported to this same pillar instead. Choosing to explore this new location, his group battled with a “frost-fire dragon” in a lava tube cavern a mile or two away to the west. Hereward said he had been magically frightened and forced to flee. Thereafter, having to endure hotter- and then colder-than-expected temperatures, the poorly dressed and equipped Herewald was unable to adequately rest and recover.
Yrsa cured the bard’s exhaustion, and the company, after taking a short rest themselves, rode their pair of magic horses to where Hereward had indicated—to confront the dragon and possibly recover the magical gear... I mean, the bodies of Herward’s companions. In the tunnel, Timador’s owl scouted ahead and discovered a giant fire lizard and two Salamanders, sparking combat. The owl—taking damage—was lost in the conflict. Yrsa hit back gainst the fire-based creatures with Sacred Flame, Kime struck with force arrows, and Vogelfest (again transformed into a Giant Ape) dealt massive damage. From the south then, a largish red and white colored dragon arrived. Sagon raced forward to fight it directly and Stroop and Timador landed ranged damage via Eldritch Blast and Lightning Bolt. The dragon’s attacks and breath weapon wounded everyone in the front ranks, but Timador’s final lightning struck it down. The dragon’s death scream was answered with an even louder scream heard echoing throughout the caverns, hinting at an even greater threat nearby, possibly the dragon’s mother.
The next session will be held live and take up immediately from there. It is difficult, however to determine what day and time it actually is, possibly around 18 o’clock. If they survive, the Red-Gold Knights is able to Long Rest whenever they wish.
Whatever made the roar that came from the southern area did not attack immediately. Yrsa took the opportunity to cast some healing magic and then moved farther back. She witnessed the cavern entrance to the east, the one the knights had descended into the lair, suddenly covered over with a wall of ice. As there still wasn’t a direct attack, the party did what they could to heal themselves further with potions and Keoghtom’s Ointment. Then a 20-foot radius sphere of blinding ice particles appeared, almost totally obscuring the yet-unexplored westward cavern. Arrows and missile weapons were shot and tossed into the freezing mist, perhaps hitting something within or beyond, as a nine foot tall blue-skinned woman with icy white hair—and a two-handed sword—stepped out of the mist toward the monk. She appeared hurt in the left shoulder. She slashed at Sagon, and a melee ensued, with most of the adventurers getting in at least some hits against her. The monk managed to knock the frosty woman prone, and that seemed just enough physical damage to also disrupt her Polymorphed form.
An adult white dragon appeared in her place, a bit cramped in the narrow tunnel, but she was still able to squeeze and squirm and right herself. She breathed out a cone of frost. Many in the front ranks took considerable damage and Stroop was frightened by the dragon’s Fear aura. The knights took advantage—as the dragon was constrained—to more easily strike against her. As soon as she could, though, the dragon repositioned her wall of ice and frosty sphere, and, immune to its effects, she stepped inside of the sphere and used her long reach and tail attacks to bite and slash out at her nearby opponents. The visually obscuring nature of the frosty sphere tipped the scales and now it was the party members who were attacking at a disadvantage against her.
At one point in the contest, when the party was split by a wall of ice, Timador managed to cast a Dispel Magic spell on the frosty sphere. But, just moments before, the dragon, who had found herself badly wounded, sought to retreat by employing Misty Step to teleport herself 30 feet away into the western tunnel. As all of the party members had moved back to avoid her attacks and breath weapon, they didn’t see or hear her movement. Then, on her next action, she filled the cavern in front of her again with another frosty sphere.
Believing the dragon nearly defeated at this point and not wishing her to escape, Sagon raced through the freezing damage to the other side and found her in a cavern junction. The wide shaft angled northwest toward the exit. Also, a cul-de-sac chamber stretched back toward the east where the knights were still positioned. The dragon used her breath weapon and tail attacks on Sagon, dropping his hit points to dangerous levels. But, as the party members were telepathically linked, the monk was able to relay the dragon’s position and the cul-de-sac cavern’s dimensions back to the others. Timador readied his lightning bolt using a 5th-level slot, and he held his action for Yrsa to Stone Shape an opening through the cavern walls and into the cul-de-sac. Yrsa created a hole through the stone allowing the wizard a view of the dragon. His lightning damage was enough to finish her off.
The party then headed south deeper into the caverns, making a quick search for threats before attempting to rest. They also sought to discover what were the crashing sounds heard in that direction. Kime had seen the dragon’s Wall of Ice quickly melt away and believed that other masses of ice in the otherwise volcanic lair were likewise doing so. They ventured down a wet and slippery tunnel, which joined up into a metal tube lining a vertical shaft.
Icy chunks were dropping down and piling up at the bottom. A glint of plate armor was seen under some of the pile. A sword also dropped down. A rope was tied to Stroop and he slid down the tunnel to get a better view of the situation and to retrieve the sword using Mage Hand. Then, as Sagon on another rope slid down to assist Stroop with heavier items, their combined weight was enough to trigger a pressure plate concealed in the cavern floor beneath the wet slush. The flooring of the metal tube flopped open and down, and the icy mass fell 160 feet down into magma, which was rather cool for magama, but still hot enough to destroy most anything dropped down into it.
Sagon climbed up to get a better look at the ceiling area, and saw bodies and adventuring gear frozen inside the ice (apparently the dragon’s larder/refrigerator). He was also able to perceive a chamber further back and up and over, and he noted in the ice where the dragon likely burrowed through the ice and then refroze the openings behind her. Stroop and Sagon did what they could climbing up to save the items before they dropped into the magma—tying ropes to what they couldn’t physically handle themselves. Kime remained behind fartherest up the shaft to anchor support ropes, but Timador also went down to help ensure the others saved the best stuff by casting Detect Magic.Two magma mephits also appeared, coming up from a side chamber in the shaft from further below. Even wounded and depleted of most of their spell slots, the Knights were able to kill these minor foes quickly using cantrip spells.
The session ended there with the party members having achieved enough experience for 11th level. It should be, by their reckoning about 19 or 20 o’clock on Day 109. They can Long Rest at any time they choose. But whether they choose afterward to explore any further is up to them.
The Red-Gold Knights worked to seal off the shaft leading to the underground volcanic areas (just in case a Red Dragon might have been down there). Then, they began working their way through the masses of ice that the white dragon had built up to seal off her inner lair. Enough slushy water was escaping from the ice and flowing down, that the party decided to go up to the surface to see if they could get inside using the other old lava tube entrances they spotted earlier. One set of openings led to a small cavern area that showed signs of someone having camped there, but not too recently. Another entrance led to the other side of the dragon’s ice, but those chambers also contained an assortment of Basilisks and angry, psychic mushroom men.
Once those creatures had been defeated, the party gathered up a clutch of Basilisk eggs and also made their way into the White Dragon’s inner chamber, where she had a magic chair and nine enchanted water opals. Using Identify spells, Timador was able to determine that the opals had been enchanted using some type of 7th level Necromancy spell called Oneiros Oubliette. The spell was intended to imprison and torture the souls of the recently dead in a dream world created from a horrible memory, and also as a way to stow away the dead body along with some of its gear and/or other small items. The body and items would be lost forever if the magic were dispelled. But, the magic chair (Marastol) provides a way for someone to enter the dream world prison, apparently intended as a way to further torture the soul. But, it can also be used to try to convince the imprisoned soul to follow the user of the chair back into the real world.
Before teleporting home, the party discovered the partial corpse of the bard Hereward; something had stripped away his flesh and some bones of the shoulder and lower jaw. As there was not enough left of him to cast Speak With Dead upon, the party was unable to learn what had happened. Timador, though, placed a few more gold coins into the money pouch left behind by Vraspir.
After returning to Messersachs via Fru Mefti’s home teleportation circle, the Red-Gold Knights sold off the Basilisk eggs to parties interested in using the newly hatched Basilisks to guard important treasures. The party then returned to their new bastions in order to supervise final construction and to give orders to the new hirelings as to their duties and which items they should begin crafting. The party also required twelve days to train up to 11th level.
Near the end of their training, they were summoned to Messersachs at the request of Baron Bart Van de Berg, who had arranged with them to meet with a trio of hags: Auntie Kinsifter, Brenda Hyrr, and Sahgae Behg, representatives of the Ninefold, the Coven of Covens Synergy Sisterhood. These nine hags have been researching and battling with King Azalin, the lich based in Avon Leigh, part of the land north of the Norr Mountains that was not naturally part of TheWorld. This new land and the mountains south of it is rich with Faerz’ress magic, which the hags claim was residue left behind after 10th-level magic were employed to move this land. The hags also revealed that during the 162-Season World War when the world’s population was busy fighting and defending itself from the other City States, other lands to the far east, southeast, and southwest were also attached to TheWorld.
These hags (and the Svarta government, which now has its eye on annexing Norr) were particularly interested in the new northern lands. They claim to have been in conflict with the lich Azalin already—even having bested him on a couple of occasions. But, due to his undead nature, he just reforms and comes again to cause trouble. Knowing this, the hags were also spying on where Azalin tends to reform. They believe they have worked out the most likely spot—where he must also be storing his phylactery. Due to how Faerz’ress screws with Divination and Conjuration spells, especially Teleportation, the hags concluded that Azalin must be reforming somewhere beneath one of the Avon Leigh buildings in the northern part of Temple Square. They intend storming the place, hoping to find and destroy his phylactery.
The Red-Gold Knights meanwhile, along with a second strike-force, are intended to cause distractions, hopefully keeping Azalin too preoccupied to thwart the hags in their primary mission. The Red-Gold Knights have been assigned the task of destroying (or capturing) the lich’s airship, “The Skywraith.” Said to be a spelljammer craft powered by a soul drive, the ship is believed to be capable of reaching nearby moons. The Svarta government is especially interested in the capture of this ship, hoping their wizards can reverse engineer it.
Escaping with the ship will prove quite difficult, though, as the party will have to not only reach the ship safely, but one of them will also have to hook themselves up into the soul drive and attempt to pilot the craft with no prior knowledge of how it operates. There is some hope, though, as the soul of the magic user Ogdium, inside of Sagon’s Ring of Mind Shielding, says that he is an off-worlder, and he has at least some basic knowledge of how a spelljammer is supposed to operate.
The party is expected to finish their training, and then the hags will teleport them to the Norr complex known as Preicis Industry. There, they will ride the Witch-Priest Colafar’s steamwagon to Fort Framlin and meet up with the Svarta forces stationed there under the command of Macgram Grimhide. They will then travel to Avon Leigh, mostly underwater, and meet up with some of the hag’s spies to learn the latest developments and to receive the newest maps of the lich’s keep and hanger area for his skyship. They are to head in when the other strike force begins attacking the Lich’s keep. That’s where the lich is believed to be stationed, along with his human son, Irik, also believed to be a formidable wizard himself.
The party spent time planning, particularly about how to survive against the Lich’s Power Word Kill spell. Their aim to keep their hit points over 100. Yrsa cast Aid, granting 15 temporary and maximum hit points to herself, Sagon, and Timador. Using their bastion facilities, Kime purchased winged boots for 4,000 gold pieces, and Timador crafted a cloak of protection +1 and three doses of dust of disappearance. They also prepared scrolls containing the “fizzy wizzy” spell that counters the Norr region’s disruption of Divination and Conjuration magic.
On Day 122, the party met Commander Lars Eriksson at the Brig in Messersachs. The three hags: Auntie Kinsifter, Brenda Hyrr, and Sahgae Behg, teleported the party to Preicis using one of Barin Dorf Trender’s socks for guidance. The party notes that the semi-secret industrial complex has finally had time enough now to craft and install the metal gates between their walls. As they had noted on their previous visit (not knowing of the pending installation of gates) the defenses of the village were sadly lacking.
After a short resupply of the steam wagon, the party traveled 16 hours by rail to Fort Framlin. There, their mission was presented to be one part of a three-pronged assault: The Red-Gold Knights were directed to steal or destroy the small, sky ship housed in a tower, The Hag Team were to seek out the Lich’s phylactery to stop the Lich from regenerating indefinitely, and The Strike Team were to bombard a Meteor Storm and Call Lightning attacks on the Keep and the wyvern pens. They planned to coordinate with the meteor strike by having Timador signal the strike team by popping his familiar into her pocket dimension just before they entered the sky ship’s hanger.
The party’s recommended path was a difficult route: 10 miles overground followed by 30 miles underwater travel in the WissenSchaft region. Upon exiting the river, the party met Rasalka, a dread doppelganger double-agent, disguised as the succubus Rose-Thorne. Rasalka, maintaining her disguise, had gotten her squad of Fomorian giants drunk on drugged wine. Just over 3 miles into their trek through the Verdurous highlands, the party spotted a small group of trolls, including a two-headed ettin troll, who were holding two winged humanoids, the aarakocras Llemu and Danci.
After a short debate about whether or not the party had time to save the captives or not, the red-gold knights attacked them and dispatched the trolls. The party harvested the remains of the trolls for potential potion components and to ensure that they would have no regeneration.
The freed aarakocras, thankful for having been saved, provided details about a large troll ambush along both trails leading down from the highlands. They then revealed an alternate third path that the bird humanoids, possessing limited short-range flight, were able to use instead. The party decided, with their own abilities, that they could also make use of their steep way in order to avoid a “metric shit ton of trolls.”
Once successfully into the farming valley area below, the party sneaked into position. Then, they cast Telepathic Bond and Aid spells to ensure communication and increase endurance for the potential battle ahead. Kime cast Pass Without a Trace and Timador utilized his Bastion’s recent creation, Dust of Disappearance, to gain seven minutes of invisibility. Thus, they were able to make their way undetected to the keep’s stone walls. Kime used her recently constructed winged boots to fly Yrsa and Timador over the 40-foot barrier while the monk and bard just casually walked up and down. Soon, the entire party reached the hanger’s spiral staircase entrance.
Once positioned near the hanger door, Timador gave the pre-arranged signal by recalling his familiar to her pocket dimension. Six seconds later, the meteor storm struck the nearby keep and wyvern pens. Sagon, still invisible, rushed inside, closely followed by the rest of the party. They faced various enemies in the hanger, initially some guards and a gnome mechanic, but then later went up against a high-level Wizard, Eldritch Knight, and Barbarian.
The gnome mechanic (Mezzron) activated some lightning bolt glyphs before surrendering. The Wizard “Snoden” cast a Chain Lightning spell against the party to great effect, while some of their damage directed against him seemed to be taken instead of the much sturdier knight, who was acting as the wizard’s shield. The party, however, were eventually victorious. Mezzron and Flad, the axe-wielding woman who had agreed to surrender, were spared and taken aboard the sky ship, where it was hoped that they would prove useful.
Once aboard the craft and with the roof opened, Sagon donned the soul drive helmet and, assisted nominally by Auggie Daddy—who provided basic knowledge of the controls—slowly worked out how to operate the ship. Due to an early mishap learning the controls, Yrsa and Kime needed to manually winch the deployed chain ladder back up. With the ladder retracted, Sagon activated the levitation field, causing the ship to float straight up at 30 feet per round.
Timador employed more Dust of Disappearance to make everyone invisible again. A couple of the remaining wyvern in the air noticed the ship rising, but saw no crew aboard. They were uncertain if they should be attacking or not. Instead, one chased the owl familiar, but Timador snapped her away into her pocket dimension once the distraction had succeeded. Meanwhile, Sagon experimented further with the sky ship’s controls, deployed the wings, and turned them into a sail. Timador, then, standing at the stern, cast Gust of Wind, utilizing the spell’s strong winds to increase the craft’s forward speed by another 15 feet.
Thus, the party lumbered out of the Avon Leigh tower in the dark but were soon well on their way to successfully bring the captured vessel to Fort Framlin. Apart from the magic air ship, a wand, face scarf, black set of plate armor, and a jagged two-handed sword were also determined to be magical. The next session will start in the night sky as the party hopes to make good their escape.
It’s pitch dark during second night of Day 122. The party flees Avon Leigh in the stolen sky ship. They’ve successfully infiltrated the lich’s keep and destroyed a high-level wizard (Snoden). Lacking a true navigator, the party does the best they can: they hope to steer the bat-like sky ship roughly 38 miles—to Fort Framlin—and then 8 miles beyond to Fort Foryn. They decide their best hope is to head west and down low following the river using a dangling bullseye lantern to keep an eye on the surface ahead.
During the long flight, the party organizes shifts, allowing some of the elf members to achieve a Long Rest, with Kime first being trained to pilot the craft after the initial getaway phase. Approximately three hours into the flight (around 59 o’clock), Sagan notices a shimmering silver cord stretching back toward the direction they’ve come. This is eventually identified by Auggie Daddy (the entity residing in the monk’s Mind Shielding ring) as some type of an “Astral Anchor.” Sagan suffers significant psychic damage as he climbs back to investigate. He becomes convinced the ship is moving backward at terrific speed. He fails to cut the cord with his lightning sword, and the monk’s Ring of Mind Shielding throbs madly.
After questioning the gnome, Timador moves back (takes some psychic damage as well) and casts Dispel Magic. The sudden severing of the astral connection (with some living host?) causes the ship to immediately drop its levitation magic—roughly two miles above ground. During the frantic multi-round fall, Kime swaps seats and the mind control helmet with Sagan, and, through the monk’s reestablished connection with the soul drive, Auggie Daddy is able to transfer his consciousness into the ship, becoming the “ghost in the machine” and bringing systems back online.
Once the party regains control, they turn south (believing it’s likely that someone back at the keep, due to the astral anchor, knows their flight path. After successfully delivering the sky ship and prisoners (the gnome mechanic and the axe-wielding woman) to Fort Foryn on Day 123, the Red-Gold Knights receive a Sending Stone message from Baron Bart Vanderberg, directing Yrsa to meet again with Macgram Grimhide for a new mission instructions.
During the debriefing, they learned the nine-fold coven of hags managed to locate the Lich’s phylactery and are keeping it submerged in acid to prevent the Lich from reforming. Destroying the phylactery itself they’ve found requires additional research and likely some special quest.
Given time to Long Rest at the fort and aboard the steam wagon ride back, they party takes the opportunity to sell non-magic gear they captured to the Svarta forces stationed there. They also confirm the new “soul” in the airship is Auggie Daddy. Their new mission, assigned by Grimhide, is to travel to the Glauben region and investigate a sudden attack by frost giants on the recently-allied-with-Svarta village of Touraine. Frost giants there destroyed a few main buildings, including the granary, and have captured or killed the local commander, Reyak. The party is tasked with scouting the frost giant forces, rescuing Reyak, and dealing out appropriate retaliation. The journey warrants equipping themselves with the riding horses provided by the military outpost.
First making a stop at Faith-Hold to swap horses, the party arrives at Touraine on Day 124 at 21 o’clock. The village is in disarray, and locals report additional, recent giant sightings. Sagan notes the giant footprints shrink as they “walked” away from the village, indicating some size-changing ability. Yrsa takes military command, organizing relief efforts and deputizing a rich farmer named Wilford to form a new militia. Following a secluded and likely unexpected route, the party travels the last 10 miles to the giants’ coastal shrine along the icy shoreline south of the Risafætur (the Giant’s Foot).
The structure is a stone framework encased in a rough timbered roof and layers of ice, with large decorative obelisks, ice-winged statues wielding clubs, and high-roofed chambers. Timador’s owl spots Yeti to the north, the shaggy creatures apparently fishing close by. The party uses a huge side door, which Yrsa forces open using her new Gauntlet’s of Ogre Strength. This reveaction als giant bones on the floor inside. Initiative triggers immediately as other massive doors are soon heard opening deeper within the complex.
One frost giant guard, equipped with some sort of infinite bag of boulders, appears and throws massive rocks at Yrsa, hitting her with incredible force and accuracy. Sagan and Kim returned powerful arrow shots, but it is Vogelfest, transformed into “Great Ape,” who finishes him off by tossing back rock shards from the crumbling walls. A small, “Dwarf”-like giant appears out of a missed secret door and dispels Stroop’s Phantom Horse, causing the bard to fall. Sagan and Timador quickly eliminate this mage with thrown shurikens and a lightning bolt. An undead giant also joins the combat later, and Yrsa employs her new Slay Undead ability to deal radiant damage, enough to cause the giant wraith to evaporate.
Two giantesses appeared from the opposite direction, and are defeated, primarily by Stroop’s Eldritch Blasts and Kime’s arrows. Sagan is bludgeoned unconscious after taking a crippling 56 points of damage from thrown rocks. He stabilizes automatically, thanks to his Periapt of Wound Closure. Timador gets the monk back into the battle by using the necrotic healing property of the Namor Candle at a distance. Then a leader-type giant arrives and pushed his way through Yrsa’s recently cast Wall of Fire. Timador unleashes an 81-point Disintegrate beam at him, but the giant manages to survived it, then is beaten down further by the others.
The session ended there, just before sunset on Day 124. The party can Long Rest at any time they please, but at least one giant and a couple of yeti are known to be active nearby. And there’s been no sign yet of the commander. The inner shrine is yet to be explored, and who knows what’s left inside?
The Red Gold Knights, continue the new mission under Commander Grimhide to recover Commander Rayik. After slaying the first wave of guards, the party make their way further inside, fighting more giants, who tried to get at them by climbing across the roof of the shrine. During the fight, the monk, Sagan, delved into an inner chamber and beheld a disturbing sight: Commander Reyak was pinned by a spear to a massive, icy, crystalline tree and hung upside down by a rope around his leg. Rayik’s blood was being collected in a ceramic cup below to soak a flat, winged Samara seed.
As the party assessed the grim situation, a colossal Ice Lady rose from an adjacent pool of water, accompanied by winter wolves. The formidable giantess immediately targeted Kime’s animal companion Polymorphed into “Grape Ape,” repeatedly striking him with freezing rays that inflicted cold damage and significantly reduced Vogel’s speed with each hit. The wolves engaged the monk, who bravely stood in the water defending against them. The party retaliated, using spells and martial attacks. Stroop cast Heat Metal on the giantess’s chain mail, causing her severe damage and giving her disadvantage on attacks. The monk’s flurry of blows and the ape’s fierce attacks, including one that shattered the giantess’s reactionary ice armor, further overwhelmed her. Eventually, the Ice Lady was defeated.
The moment the giantess fell, the crystalline tree began to vibrate and shake. Yrsa, using her medical skills, precisely removed the spear from Rayik and healed him. With the threat neutralized, Timidor, used a work-around to cast the Comprehend Languages spell, and he began translating loose pages found scattered on the floor nearby. The pages, written in Voima, detailed an origin myth involving a World Tree analog that drew power from three wells: Hvergelmir, Mimisbrunnr, Urðarbrunnr. The writings also claimed this shrine was perhaps a portion of a giant hag’s toe, once tossed into the heavens by an ancient god. Crucially, the pages explained that the blood-soaked Samara seed, derived from a World Tree seed, could be used to neutralize “fizzy magic” (a residual effect of 10th-level dimensional shifting) or to facilitate travel through the world tree’s dimensional roots.
After Yrsa dislodged one of the structural chains nearby a pillar of ice—which appeared to be a surrogate for one of the powerful wells mentioned in the texts—she felt a subtle lurch, suggesting the shrine had shifted. At Timador’s urgings, Yrsa Stone Shaped the chain back into place into the wall. With this accomplished, the two of them felt the shrine shift, perhaps back again to its previous setting. With Reyak rescued, the party also collected valuable treasures from three chests, including 11,000 gold pieces in coinage and Mithril chunks. Near a fallen giant’s corpse on the roof, they found an Ion Stone of Agility valued at 20,000 gold pieces. They also identified several magical items captured earlier, including Bone Carver, a great sword; a magic wand, Lock Mocker; a Veil of the Forgotten disguise scarf, and the Magic Spear Resizer that had pinned the Commmander to the tree.
After bringing Reyak back to his village, the adventurers rebuilt the locals a granary out of stone, accepting 300 gold pieces for the effort. They then teleported home with the Samara seed, and presented it and their findings to the Baron in Messer Sachs. Back home safely, they will now pursue the necessary training to advance another class level.
After completing their level advancement, the Red-Gold Knights meet with Baron Bart. He informs them that due to recent events—their seizure of the Sky Ship and delivery of the World Tree Seed—the knights have caught the notice of the Royal Court. Baron Bart informs them that they all have been newly assigned to the Kammer (The Queen’s Chamber), which is the name for Ingagerd Hardrada’s royal treasury and financial administration. At least temporarily, all of them, including the lizard man, Kruesh, have been promoted to the ranks of the Várkkar, literally “The Queen’s Champions of Treasture.”
They are to wait at Timador’s Bastion near the Teleportation Circle for the arrival of Kammer Herr Magnusson, the Lord of the Chamber, essentially the Exchequer (“Asschecker”) or main accountant for Queen Ingagerd. Magnusson is bringing along an elf Wizard with him, a woman named Leeja, who will cast the Teleportation Circle spell for the party. They soon learn that their primary assignment is to serve as guards (and muscle) on a diplomatic and financial mission: travel to the farthest west reaches of Svartaland, to Zandhaven, to conduct an audit of Baron Nacht-Nebel. The journey to the Baron’s estate was marked by significant danger, beginning with an ambush at a teleportation circle in F¨der Coiriel, where the party was attacked by guards and mechanical creatures called Modrons.
After this conflict, they discovered an inert semi mechanical and fleshy duplicate of Magnusson, which the Exchequer stored in his portable hole he withdrew from his briefcase for later study.
The lead guard, who surrendered after one of the modrons was destroyed, claims that he had been mind controlled into arrange for this abuse. Herr Magnusson, using his high position in government, demanded that the guards surrender their healing potions so that his team of adventurers would not have to diminish their resources in order to heal from this attack.
Then, after sailing west on a knarr that had been provided, the Company arrived at the goblin community of Windscheer to wait of the passing of the daily Eclipse. While there, Timador shaped some stone wall magic for some of the local amber. Then, after setting sail northwest, the party arrived at Zandhaven. While the Herr freshened up after the journey at a local harbor inn, the rest of the Company were sent into town to scout out rumors and to spend 50 gold pieces locally in the process. They learn the Baron and Baroness (the Lady Shannon) are now possibly estranged, and also, perhaps, the Baron’s cook, Susan, is possibly a spy working for a Baron to the south; apparently the two barons have some sort of ongoing bet or competition. Stroop and the others pick up commemorative glass mugs that celebrate some anniversary at the local pub, Pavel’s Bar. Liking the idea of keepsake ale mugs, the bard commissions the craftsmen of Zandhaven to make some for his new Bastion Bar, Stroop’s Piggyback Bistro.
They eventually arrived at Nebel manor escorting Herr Magnusson, but first establish their telepathic bound before knocking. Upon being admitted, the party explored the grounds, interacting with the staff, neighbors, and the Baron’s children, Wendy and Theo. Timador excuses himself briefly to go to the bathroom, and the Wizard returns with a Detect Magic spell going.
Sagon has entered using a side entrance after introducing himself, and dancing with the baron’s wealthy friends, Curtis and Von Finkl, who seem overly fascinated with this fae-like creature. Additional fascination is showered on Kime by a importer/exporter, Hutch, who shows the ranger the manor’s green house and talks about how his meeting with the Baron today has been cut short because of their arrival with Herr Magnusson. Yrsa eventually meets up with the two to save Kime from this apparent “letch” of a smuggler. Meanwhile, Stroop plays the piano and the company gather in the dining area and await freshly baked pre-bedtime snacks.
The situation at the manor escalated rapidly during the audit taking place in the Baron’s study. Baron Neville took a mysterious book from his shelf, wrote in it, and vanished through a shimmering floor portal that appeared beneath him. The party, alerted of this telepathically by Magnusson and Kruesh then pursued him through the portal, dropping 15 feet into a metallic, cage-like Nirvana substation. Onroute to the fight, Magnusson transformed into a giant eagle to provide aerial transport. They had noticed (and greatly benefitted from) the “ass-checker” casting healing spells earlier during the arena fight with the guards. Now, with this perhaps “wild shape” transformation, they think Herr Magnusson might be a druid.
A chaotic battle erupted in this extra-dimensional space against Terrence (the Baron’s companion), a modron duplicate of Magnusson named Roger, and a variety of specialized Modrons, including a monk named “Mono” and a razor-footed “Forkr.”
Another modron, a four-armed leader type, generated a hemispherical Wall of Force cutting the party’s forces in two until Timador burned through it with a Disintegration Ray. The battle then continued with the Red-Gold Knight’s normal force arrows, monk flurries, and spiritual Euphoniums getting in their licks. As the caracal Vogelfest was still prowling the grassy estate, Timador summoned an Earth Elemental to combat the Modron reinforcements instead of polymorphing Kime’s kitty companion.
During the combat, as the portal began to blink—likely indicating it was about to close—the party hurriedly ended the fight and gathered what they could of the bodies of the fallen duplicates and a few crates from curious stash of supplies containing 300 pounds of “pork gravy” into their portable hole before escaping back up through the portal in the manor floor. The earth elemental threw up what he could before becoming trapped in this subdomain. His final order was to seek out and attack everything there.
Back in the safety of the manor, the party analyzed their findings. They identified the book Neville used as something entitled The Inevitable Ledger of Balance, a powerful magical item that functioned for Roger as some type of wish book. Based on the entries inside, the ledger allowed Roger Quill to trade his “physical and spiritual collateral”—essentially his entire existence—for reality-warping transactions, and some very meager one, like steak dinners.
Through the ledger’s transaction history, the party discovered the estranged Baroness (and possibly the real Baron Nebel) had been banished or imprisoned by Roger after he had tried seducing her. Then, royal transactional ledgers were magically altered and the real Baron was also banished. Roger then apparently took on an illusion to resemble the Baron, had a modron Herr Magnusson host body created (for a more permanent disguise?), and arranged for the guard ambush at the Complex.
The mission reached a complex hurdle when the party read more of the ledger and subsequently searched the nursery. They discovered a magical dollhouse there that serves as a portal or lock to an extra-dimensional space known as the Nebel vault—likely where the Baroness Shannon is imprisoned (and perhaps also Baron Nebel). The dollhouse is protected by a mathematical coin puzzle involving numbers one through nine, then a zero, with coin slots after each number (except the last zero) for copper, silver, gold, and smaller platinum coins to be inserted.
The party spent the final moments of the session debating the logic of this puzzle, realizing they must use the coins and the “+”, “-”, “||”, and “=” markings on them to rescue the Baroness and, perhaps, fully uncover Roger Quill’s conspiracy. While the party was dividing up the treasure among themselves and Kruesh, Magnusson took possession of the Ledger stating that the Queen would need to determine the fate of magic powerful enough to alter official royal documents at a great distance.
The session begins with the party at Baron Nacht Nebel’s mansion in Zandhaven. The primary focus is resolving the persistent Doll House puzzle that had previously stumped the group. After determining that the solution requires concatenating the digits, the party inserts coins in the correct sequence and successfully opens the house. The Doll House turns out to be a magical vault that combines features of an immovable rod and a portable hole. It serves as the family’s safe room and is equipped with ventilation linked to the Plane of Elemental Air.
Opening the house frees the real Baron Nebel and Lady Shannon, who had been trapped inside. The Baron explains that his accountant, Roger Quill, orchestrated the betrayal by stealing his liquid assets and employing a cursed ledger that had been in Nebel’s family for three generations. The ledger, he explained, functions as a “baited trap” crafted by modrons to transform personal free will into an instrument of law serving their cause. His family kept the ledger in case the sacrifice of body and soul might be needed to provide for their family.
Herr Magnusson (the ass-checker) puts the screws to Nebel about how Quill used the ledger to commit Forgery and High Treason against the Queen, and speaks of restitution that Nebel’s household caused, crimes “tantamount to declaring war upon her, Nebel.” Nebel is appropriately rattled. Magnusson later confesses to the party that the Queen will likely be much more understanding and lenient than Magnusson was making it sound (possibly eventually returning the ledger aka the "egendom överlämnad till Hennes Majestät"). However, Magnus Magnusson also instructs the party to prepare an invoice for restitution (to be made by Nebel) to cover their costs for any material components or magic items consumed during this rescue mission/audit.
The party teleports back to the TK Bastion. Upon their return, Magnusson informs the party that their temporary status as members of the Treasury has now been concluded, though he offers the possibility of future permanent employment and promises to deliver a favorable report to the Queen about their actions. The group finishes dividing the mission loot, which includes modron salvage and various magic items. Timador claims a +1 staff for 800 gp, Sagon (the monk) purchases the Wraps of Unarmed Power for 1,000 gold pieces, and Kime acquires a quiver of endless arrows for 1,200 gold pieces. After accounting for all sales and expenses, each party member receives a cash share of 1,008 gold pieces.
As the government has no immediate mission for them, the Red-Gold Company enters a period of downtime of at least ten days. Timador crafts two sets of sending stones, selling one set to Kime and another to Stroop for his new business. Yrsa uses her relic facility to craft a periapt of wound closure and Stroop another set of Sending Stones for use with his “Not Ready for Prime Rib Players” traveling troupe (and also collectors or remote rumors). Yrsa also purchases a set of Winged Boots from Timidor. Because the boots were crafted using dragon materials owned by the party, every member receives a 738 gold piece kickback from the sale.
Session 71 continues into Season 5.