Dragons CampaignHeart of the Matter
What has happened to the Underdark?! There was violent quake that was even able to shake the Ancestral Grove at Dark Haven. Reports of geysers of water at Duanrahel, violent earthquakes in Sorcere and Faerothrond. What condition is Rivenrock in? Has there been any casualties? This quake was NOT felt on the surface. Have our scouts check our adjoining regions, immediately.
The reason I was leaving the grove was to visit the Dragons at Kappa Forest. This was no minor expedition; we were informed the Dragons were going to face an incredibly powerful lich, identified by the mightily intimidating name, Simon. Our interest was piqued when we found out that this Simon had invited them to ancient Elven ruin, further of interest since this ruin is in the correct areas for the Aquilari clans.
To this end, we took a large number of ours with us. Including Solitaire, Kalina and Thariel of House Aryvandaar, Malakai and General Culfich of House Mlezzir and Four of House Rea’morda. We subsequently met with Alanna from the Dragons Court of Miracles and headed towards Kappa forest. Whilst this was our primary contingent, we did ally ourselves with a number of the Black hand of the Vipers, as well as Brother Ross of the Harts.
Upon arriving we were harried by a number of Simons underlings. I say harried, because attacked is quite a strong term to describe what they did. They were irritating and slowed as down, and despite a number knowing the arts of High Corruption the fell quickly enough to us.
As the night wore on a number of his minions discovered our location, most were human and living, a number were unliving, and a few were a weird mix of bizarre abominations fuelled by corruption and necromancy. Again very little to worry about individually, although the consistent assault proved to be a drain on our limited resources, as the dragons themselves had very little themselves of power. It turned out many of the human assailants were upset at the Dragons for butchering peasants and families and children… Have to say the Dragons went up a step in my estimation.
Come Saturday the Dragons led a unit to face off against… something. Honestly I wasn’t listening. Simon had some form of lieutenants or generals or something vaguely threatening sounding. Whilst they were being incompetent at stuff, I took Thariel for an amble through the woods to find the elven ruins whilst Kalina and Solitaire worked on a broken elven tablet. Naturally it didn’t take me long to barrel through an appropriate number of bushes and trees to discover the remains of a ruined building, with a tunnel leading into a collapsed passage. The ruins bore banners with the symbol of a yellow sun and a red phoenix. Not being stupid enough to go in alone, we barrelled back through the trees to find out more about this symbol and the ruins, and to send in slightly more agile people.
On revisiting the ruins the Dragons were afraid of the tunnel, so surprisingly, we were the first ones in. I accidentally woke, and angered a den of Wraiths. I quickly delegated that to being a Dragon problem. Inside the tunnels we found a flower and a box containing an amulet. The Wraiths weren’t overly impressed and kept irritating us for some time, whilst none alone were particularly threatening, the large number of pattern effects proved to be a significant drain on our healing resources.
Shortly after the main Dragon contingent returned from murdering ritualists or making children cry... honestly it was a busy weekend, and the Dragons kept on impressing me.
The afternoon led to negotiations with corrupted elves, with an odd name. I really wasn’t paying attention, however they were also known as Dracos Alfar. I’m led to believe they were Dracos worshippers, however since they were led by a creature that is even more powerful than I am, I was forced to stay away from that incident, and I mostly obeyed. This was another big drain on our very limited resources. However, we found he was carrying a second amulet, although this one was an inverted version of the original.
Caspar of the Watchers had found another part of the Elven ruin, remarkably close to our camp. As it didn’t require barrelling through any trees, I couldn’t find it obviously. This set of ruins features a large vault, sealed from time and an obelisk with a panel for two amulets. From the tablet we had found and the legends about the area, our initial estimates suggested that the Vault was from the Second Age and contained a young priestess heir to the local Elven Clan, prior to the cities destruction. Our attempts to open it however failed, as it turned out the inverted amulet was a fake.
Later in the evening we found the correct amulet inside a corpse, inside a den of banshee’s. Naturally not an issue, Malakai retrieved the amulet from the corpse. Apparently that’s his thing.
One of the more entertaining parts of the evening was when a number of Simon’s human allies attacked us, complaining that we murdered their families. Are arguments that we didn’t kill anyone; we’re just on holiday fell on deaf ears… so we butchered the remainder of their families for being rude. That and I just didn’t like having the moral high ground, it felt uncomfortable.
The part of the weekend that made me really proud of the Dragons, was finding out that they brutally murdered a young girl’s father, in front of her. Then kept her. Then when the unliving remains of the father came to pester them, the dragons killed her father. Again. In front of her. I have never been so proud of the Dragons.
With both amulets now in hand, and other pests dealt with, we returned to open the totally not a prison vault containing a long lost princess.
Malakai, being a royal descendant of Clan Kerithrion along with Devlin of the Dragons, made a blood oath to unseal the prison (Ahem, vault). Out steps their young, fair princess. Who looked an awful lot like a confused male dragon born elf. Despite my protests, that this was blatantly a prison vault, House Aryvanndaar explained the changes in the world, and took up back to Duanrahel to add to their collection of Dragonborn elves. He was also carrying a sapling that was rapidly dying. Much akin to the tree of incantation, however it appeared only elves were able to touch it. His latest memories appear to be pre-sundering, making me even more concerned. Why would an Aquilari Elf have been sealed away pre-sundering, and pre-cataclysm? I truly fear it was a prison vault.
The next day, we faced off against the mighty Simon. The dragons really deserve a better quality of enemy.
Simon was intending to use the ritual circle present to replace the heart of kappa with his own unliving heart, essentially making the entire forest his phylactery. Which is actually pretty clever, points to him there. Instead we planted the tree I believe. Im not sure. Ritual magic was happening and I was pre-emptively healing things, in the face.
I believe Simon eventually died, turned out he had many, many, many phylacteries, but the Dragons won. With a fair amount of help. The dragons lost some people if its of any relevance.
If needed, I’ll be in the grove with the Arc of Lothiriel, Can't leave Lorr unsupervised with it for too long. He'll only try and dedicate it back to Lolth.
The Balance of Ineluki Mistrivven
Spring MootTroy(Jackals)
For the first moot of 1118, we travelled to Troy and were hosted by the Jackals. Honestly, I couldn’t tell you a single thing about why the Jackals had chosen that location. There was something about a large dog that disliked unliving, but that is about all that I know of the Jackals situation there.
Hopefully I can tell you more of how our own situation changed.
My plea for information regarding the quakes throughout the underdark appeared effective. A number of our forces and allies reported back with information. It does appear to have affected the entire underdark, yet not one single step into the lands above, this tells us it was targeted directly at us. Several reports were brought to the faction of significant changes to the landscape of the Underdark, and I assume someone more versed with maps is attempting to collate that into a form that we can understand. Some of our allies are also under the assumption that this was caused by the Betrayer. Others of a more responsible nature now have this situation in hand.
We were able to make some headway in our dealings with the Demonfey. We were met by an emissary of the Demonfey who had been able to arrange for Xenophis to cause a suitable distraction at Dobluthe, allowing us an opportunity to recover the body of Sarya Kenafin, the Ilharess of House Kenafin and their self-styled empress. This snatch and grab went off without a hitch, and she is, theoretically, going to convince her people of the Betrayers actions and is now on side with us. Theoretically.
The Betrayers attacks against us have certainly escalated, with him sending a true avatar and several assassins against the faction. He is now actively hunting the parts of Maediir we have recovered. His actions have even managed to undo the pact he had with the Vipers, and whilst it is unclear if they will side with us, they are not siding with the Betrayer.
Further changes have occurred within the faction. Notably that Tathal has been named Regent, and speaks with the Valsharesses voice in her absence. Replacing him as Chancellor of external affairs is Barran. In an effort to ease this transition, Lady Cypher’s position has been elevated and now answers directly to the Chancellors, and acts with the same authority as Lord Arcane and Lord Seneschal. Lastly my former deputy, Tockoles has stepped down from her position of High Healer, and elevated Elspeth to the position.
The Balance of Ineluki Mistrivven
GEFArgonaught(Martial Guilds)
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The history and depth of the Lorien Trust is one of our best selling points, and we would love to be able to keep a little history alive here
Summer MootDownfall(Tarantulas)
Led by the Val’sharess the Faction and supporting nations deployed to the newly risen island of Downfall located in the west of the great lava lake.
Shortly after making camp at 18:00 the first attack came. One of the armoured body parts belonging to Maediir, the Head & Chest, which the nation has been hunting down in recent years during campaign appeared suspended in a large archway located next the ritual circle. This appeared to be a signal for the forces of the Betrayer to attack. We later found that while the Betrayer’s forces were engaging the factions in the main market place, a rite was taking place elsewhere at one of the transport circles, attuning the Head & Chest to the Betrayer and so empowering his forces and corrupting the very ground.
Any who died on Downfall would not go to the side of their ancestor but to the Betrayer. Dedicated followers and laying to rest was believed to have no effect on the outcome but I did not witness any such acts to be certain.
During the battle, three servants of Lloth appeared to us and provided warning of our situation. Le’ath, Calin and Wa’qurth who had previously sunk the place into the lake to thwart the Betrayer’s plans in a previous age.Every 6 hours a part of Maediir would be drawn to the arch, at which time the Betrayer’s forces would attempt to attune it to further empowering their forces and Maediir. To prevent this a counter rite could take place at the allotted time to attune the body part to Lloth. To complicate issues these rites could not be conducted by a member of our nation or a follower of the dark elven pantheon but those followers of other faiths and nations, with an Oath sworn Tarantula required to be present to witness the rite. The rites were required to be at least 64 thaums of power, all rites I witnessed exceeded this value and by Lloth’s blessing no rite master was abberated or such because of the excess power.
To my knowledge the Betrayer failed to take any further parts of the body, with the combined forces of the heartland nations lead by our people disrupting their rites or performing such acts of faith as to empower them beyond his grasp. The nations who succeeded in their acts of faith were given a measure of protection for the curse of the Betrayer and could also nominate another faction. The Tarantulas were covered by the Jackals rite. The other factions to contribute their power and their faith to our cause were the Unicorns, Gryphons, and Bears.
The Final Battle It was inevitable that Maediir would come forth though with our success much weakened. Again the servants of Lloth that defend body parts came to offer their advice on defeating and finally destroying Maediir. When summoned he must be brought low and then a rite performed on each limb at 64 thaums of power, this would then allow a surgeon to remove the armour from the limb. Finally the armour would then need to be taken to the air forge and destroyed permanently.
Should a single piece have fallen into the Betrayer’s hands it would be enough for the entire form of Maediir to be resummoned again.
In total Maediir was felled 5 times and on each occasion a piece of the armour removed and destroyed until finally Maediir was defeated.
Lloth Dumo D’jal
Zan'sas V'rinn
High CorruptorHouse Rea'Morda
GatheringEye of Power(Unicorns)
This Gathering of Nations was held at the Eye of Power wellspring of Earth, and hosted by the Unicorns.
Two matters were to be resolved here. The fight for the throne of Chaos, as well as the healing of a Unicorns ancestor known as Bedlam.
The Chaos war was between Golgamoth, Mordred, The Great Horned Rat and Sister Bethany. The faction had unanimously decided early on that Sister Bethany was not receiving our support, naturally neither was Mordred.
The majority of the faction was split during the "war", with some supporting Golgamoth and some supporting the Great Horned Rat. In the end, Golgamoth retained the throne. However Golgamoth is the spirit of War, and coming predictions suggest this will be very bad for the Underdark. Infighting is expected to peak to levels not seen since the fall of Telantiwar.
On the Bedlam matter, the ancestor is directly tied to a city, a city that has suffered a great deal of corruption. A tarantula rite team travelled to the city, and began a purification rite. The city/bedlam attempted to control our unliving and ancestrals present but that proved to be unconcerning.
Whilst the Tarantula team did this, the heartlands distracted the corrupted form of the ancestor. Once the heart of the city had been cleansed, it became possible to perform another purification rite upon Bedlam's avatar
The Balance of Ineluki Mistrivven
Wolves CampaignReka Retta
I have returned from campaigning with the Wolves and thought to provide a report of the activities that occurred for those interested and for prosperity.
We gathered in New Odinsheim and feasted together, representatives of the Harts, Lions and Guilds were also present. We were advised that the purpose of this campaign was to remove an ancient elf known as Mysing who has been trying to claim Norsca as his own. History tells that he has been put down twice before, but not permanently it would seem. Between myself and the Wolves our combined warchests were able to ensure that everyone had about as much as they each could carry.
We transported from New Odinsheim to the Waterfell circle I believe, in an area known as the The Scar. Some time ago the land in this region 'fell' several hundred feet into the earth and so is surrounded by sheer black cliffs, it has also been ravaged by the Wellspring of Evil when that passed through Wolf lands, whether these things are linked I do not know. Apart from the open sky, it felt kind of like home.
Upon arrival we were beset upon by some lesser unliving and made a fighting advance to secure the nearby ruined village/settlement of Dam Buskutter. As we advanced from the circle a chunk of the cliff side collapsed and buried the transport circle, preventing us from leaving the area for now. The settlement itself was in poor repair and had a strange air about it, one of the buildings contained a cell, which gave hideous and terrible visions unique to anyone who stepped inside. Through the evening we met some locals of the area and Mysing came to gloat at the camp bringing with him a selection of Unliving minions. Mysing left the camp following a short clash of arms, in which he seemed to take a disliking to me for being an annoying thorn in his side, praise was given to Llolth and Ineluki for the gift of the cloak from the warchest that allowed me to do so. Upon his departure, I took a moment to feign congratulations to the elf, causing much confusion among the onlookers, but in doing so was able to discern the status of his health providing the Wolves with useful and as yet unknown information about their foe.
The next day saw us confronted by a new foe, some form of sentient plant life that had taken umbrage at us being here, this place felt more and more like home the longer I remained, dark, foreboding and everything trying to kill you. We also encountered a new band of locals who were able to provide a map of the area, marked upon which were locations of 'stones' that Mysing was drawing power from, our new aim was to gather these stones and through a small rite, requiring 8 thaums of power I believe, unbind them from Mysing.
The first stone was a stone of Fate and was guarded by a group of humans and elementals going by the name of the Cult of Evil, they seemed open to conversation at first but grew increasingly difficult to deal with and in the end hostilities broke out. The campaign force was forced back to regroup before advancing on the Cult of Evil once more to remove them and take the stone.
The second stone was the stone of Magic, I was not part of the force to collect this stone, but it appeared that it was retrieved from whatever opposition without incident.
Shortly after the rite was done to purge the first two stones of Mysing's influence he appeared once more in the camp along with a force of unliving. Mysing appeared to be drawing heavily upon the other two remaining stones as his magics were supplemented to not require vocals and destroy all locations on a target instead of just the one as I had witnessed previously. In this exchange the Wolves also lost one of their party, a Gnome, who's name I did not know but they laid him to rest and gave reverence for the deeds that he had done.
The third stone was a stone of time, a party of 6 went to scout the opposition that we would be facing, when we arrived on site, the stone was guarded by a single guardian, an elemental of time calling itself Haste. Access to the glade in which the creature stood and to the stone itself was warded by a magical barrier which would only allow one individual through at a time. One of our party, Mort, stepped through first to duel the creature, when he was felled he disappeared from the glade and reappeared on our side of the barrier. Two others tried their luck before myself, the creature was quick and struck chilling blows that held me in place for several seconds or were able to bypass my armour, falling I found myself back outside again. After another contender went through and was felled I had recovered from my injuries, in an effort to save the expenditure of power I stepped up to go through to face the creature again, finally felling the guardian and lowering the barrier and allowing access to the stone for the rest of the party.
That night also saw the woods surrounding the encampment filled with the sounds of howling beasts and strange visions and effects upon those who ventured from the camp border. Later that night saw another attack by unliving forces, including skeletal knights, Banshees and lesser unliving. We believed this to be the remaining half of Mysing's forces, as earlier in the day an we encountered an individual known as 'The Destroyer' who claimed he knew where the force was and would go and destroy half. The Destroyer is another opponent of the Wolves, but seemed to be willing to work together toward the downfall of Mysing.
The final day saw waves of lesser unliving assaulting the camp, these were repelled with minimal trouble. We then received word from one of Mysing's Banshees who his control over had slipped that she could leave us a trail to where the last of his forces were located along with the final stone, the Stone of Earth. It would seem that the estimate of The Destroyer was off as what we had faced so far was far more than what we had expected and at the site of the final stone were even more powerful unliving and allies of Mysing. We faced a force of Zombie Lords able to inflict decaying wounds, a corruptor of great power and unliving healing able to strike fatal blows with each swing, clawed skeletal knights and armoured skeletal knights who struck crushing blows or who's strikes seemed excruciatingly painful for those of a living pattern along with Banshees and other unliving minions. This was a hard fought battle and saw the loss of three more from the Wolves faction, two seemingly trying to recover the stone and enable the rite to begin and another who I saw foolishly charge from the lines only to fail in her footing and get beaten by a Zombie Lord. The rite was completed though and Mysing was defeated and slain. With that we were able to regroup and mop up the remaining forces. An Elemental Lord of Earth who was bound to the stone agreed to shift the rubble that had buried the transport circle when we first arrived and would enable us to return home.
Before departing, mention was made of our campaign in the spring, which individuals have stepped forward and expressed a desire to come and assist us with our Lich problem. So it seems we may expect a contingent from the Wolves and the Lions.
Forr'O'Fyve
House Rea'Morda
Unicorns SocialWill of the Land
This weekend past I travelled to the Everwood to join the Unicorns in a "socialising", apparently this is something the surface types enjoy.
I spoke at length with Verdant regarding the situation at Bedlam. They were of course appreciative of our help at Bedlam, and whilst there is still much to be done to heal that aspect of Mauritanja the process has begun. Reports suggest that the toxic environment surrounding Bedlam is starting to recede, meaning that the work performed by the rite team at the last Gathering of Nations was successful.
Whilst speaking with Fateweaver, he brought to my attention another being that seems to believe it can attain a place on the Ancestral plane by stealing power from other Ancestors, in much the same way the Paragon attempted to do so. This creature was named to me as Amalgam. It is as of yet unclear what it is doing to other Ancestors, however we do know the relics of existing Ancestors are being used to do so. Fateweaver reported that a rite can be performed on a relic to determine if Amalgam has corrupted it. His most recent information suggested it had affected five ancestors so far, none of our own. As a nation of faith this is probably something we should keep an eye open for.
A messenger arrived with a letter from the Fae of Arcadia, with a letter declaring war on the Heartlands.
Briseis had feelings and the messenger soon regretted his choice of delivery...
This letter was somewhat lengthy, and makes even Tathal's missive's look concise. The abbreviated version: Lord Stone, Oberon's son, was apparently killed by members of the Heartlands. The Fae of Arcadia are holding the Heartlands responsible. Their message appears to demand that any Fae previously aligned with a court must swear servitude to the Silver Throne of Arcadia, or face execution. It is not yet clear if this extends to all Fae, or if other Fae will just be considered enemies as per the Heartlands.
Whilst the Unicorn's do not believe in shooting the messenger, luckily not everyone agrees. Alanna of the Dragons was naturally quick to point out that someone should intervene, and so promptly began looting him. She now has the copy of that letter, I will endeavour to get a copy from her, if Solitaire hasn't already acquired it.
The Unicorns promoted somebody to something, I don't really know, I wasn't listening. It sounded like a meeting. Tabitha say's Hi.
The Unicorns are facing a problem with their own Lich. They have requested assistance in dealing with this Lich in the spring. Specifically the spring, we attempted to help during the meeting but it turns out all they know of the Lich is that it is Skaven and was living in an area previously under the toxicity from Bedlam. The outskirts of that area are already clear and expected to soon be safe to travel. We encouraged an exchange, they aid with our Lich, we will aid with their Lich. Several, including Tabitha, seemed most interested in assisting us.
Oh, and Briseis arranged for K'ylth to be sent a Cockatrice as a gift from Malakai
And that was the Unicorns. We didnt cause an incident, I wasn't a liability (there was a mask of two of their twinned ancestors that possesses the wearer, and I DIDNT put it on. I think I'm growing as a person).
We socialised and diplomed without incident.
The Balance of Ineluki Mistrivven
