Category: Conjunction of Planes

Emma, Session 16

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2nd day of the 1st  ride of Summer-Flame , 1262

We departed from Bournemouth after settling our accounts at the River Stone. We were accompanied by Falca who wanted to wish us a safe journey. We thanked her and boarded a fine Caravel named The Old Queen. We were welcomed on board by a boatman who explained the basic rules.
We picked a spot at near the prow of The Queen where a hooded and blindfolded Emrys perched himself over our chest of riches, playing doleful tunes on his lute. It is unclear what afflicts him, nor when and how it may come to an end. Luca, our resident arcanist appears at a loss.

When it became apparent that I am in fact a follower of Sedna, the boatman Nyman was eager to introduce me to Captain Lorne and to for me to bless the journey. Awkwardly I consented and hopefully satisfied Nyman’s spiritual needs.
During the journey I first admired the skill of the crew before settling myself for meditation and, hopefully, communications with Muirgheal. This proved rather difficult since a little lordling was misbehaving incessantly and being called after by his entitled, and very irritating, mother.
I begged Sedna for patience and called the lordly brat to a halt, perhaps a little too harshly, and then implored him with a calm voice to heed his mother as he would his father.
The knight that was guarding the lordling and his mother menaced over me but realized that I meant no real harm. For at least an hour or so the knight, myself, and the rest of the passengers of the ship enjoyed a blissful brat-free repose.
During this time I managed to engage as best as possible with Muirgheal, hoping to find out more about the person that imbued himself into this trident. Unfortunately our communications were unsuccessful. A veil of misunderstanding keeps us from properly communicating. Do I need to commit more to the weapon in order for that communication to be possible? Can I commit to that without harming my bond with the Mistress? I will probably need to talk to Luca about this.

A little later James, who had been clambering around in the Queen’s rigging, became intensely focused. An unnatural fog was forming ahead of the Queen. Most of the passengers were corralled below deck, while the able bodied prepared for the worst. The little lordling had resumed his misbehaivour and was being chased by the knight, but evading her deftly.

Several marsh-dwelling monsters boarded the Queen: Grypts by the look of it. I heard a loud splash near the aft, and heard gurgling cries of help from the little lordling. I reckoned that my companions, the crew, and the knight would be more than sufficient to handle the grypts, so I decided that I was probably the only one to be able to save the lordling.
I entrusted my safety to Muirgheal and jumped overboard. I quickly made my way to the struggling lordling, who was being pulled under by three grypts. Although they tried to prevent me, I focused on releasing the lordling from their grasp. I killed one in the struggle, and gravely injured the other two. I finally forced the last one to ignore the lordling, but in doing so I made myself vulnerable to attack and their fangs and claws overcame me.

…

I later learned that Astrid recovered the lordling and me from the water and killed the remaining grypts.
I also learned that another, much more dangerous creature nearly escaped with Muirgheal . Luckily, James finally managed to defeat that beast and recover Muirgheal. Even more disturbingly, a young woman cloaked in blue appears to have directed the attack on the Queen.

Who is this mysterious assailant?

Rhosyn? Surely not!?

…

The lordlings mother, a Lady of House Tolliver was very grateful for the … safe … recovery of Lord Simon and pledged that we would ever be welcome at House Tolliver.

Egremont is coming in sight.

Emma, Session 15

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 1th day of the 1st  ride of Summer-Flame , 1262

While breaking fast at the River Stone we divided the remaining tasks. Emrys was still fast asleep from a late night at the Golden Cockatrice. Luca and I would return to the Bournemouth Academy library for further inquiries. Astrid would arrange for a river-barge to take us upstream and sell the horses and the cart. We will have to acquire a beast of burden at Blackbridge. James pledged himself to a day of debauchery.

At the library I took a few directions from Falka and in so doing was quite successful in my inquiries. I found a fair few things about Admiral Karadim and his legend. I had brought Muirgheal along to see how it … he … she … would respond, but nothing too exciting happened. He murmured the same melody from before. Well, at least I appear to have recovered the right legend, but some things don’t sit straight. How come an artifact so ancient is knowledgeable of a legend that is considerably more recent?
I had hoped to come to know Muirgheal better through my researches but I come away with more questions instead. Most of these seem to lead away from the common goal I share with my travelling companions: follow in the step of Lord Destan and find the now somewhat less mythical Crimson Tower.
I will have to try and learn more about Muirgheal in another way. I have difficulty understanding the nature of him … her … it. There is power there, but to what end, and at what cost?  Luca’s researches have shed only a little light on the matter, but what it revealed was troublesome enough.  It seems that Muirgheal was a person at some point whose essence was imbued into the weapon by some bizarre arcane ritual.

While I was wrapping up Luca entered my study-room. He wanted me to join him and talk to the Margravin. She appeared to be studying things of interest to us. It seemed Luca was a little worried that he might reveal too much. Or perhaps he preferred me to make the mistakes for him.
We ended up with a fairly interesting discussion. The Margravin was investigating the ‘Skaven’ but two other types of creatures as well: dog-headed ones and bull-headed ones. These were all sighted throughout the Dærlan Empire.
We revealed that we were in fact eye-witnesses of the gnomish rats and provided her with some imagery. We explained that there is a connection to the Time of Fear and that if she were to focus her inquiries into that direction that she was likely to be more successful. We also explained that there is a suit of armor at the Lansdowne auction-house that she might find interesting to examine.
The Margravin was grateful and wondered how she could repay us. Luca suggested that she might relay anything important she might discover to the librarian Falka, who could act as a mutual contact between our group and the Margravin while we are away. I urged her to use whatever influence she might have to have the Dærlan Empire and the Kingdom of Lyria mend fences, since they might well need each other in the time to come, a time in which the Elder Races are likely to abandon us humans for the second time.

Luca and I retired from the library to meet up with the rest. Despite having been less successful in his inquiries into Lyrium crystals, he was pleased enough to have built some rapport with the Margravin.

James was drunk, Astrid was drunk and battered, Emrys was nursing a headache. By their own metrics they appear to be having a great day.
After lunch we decided that we would need to make some purchases for the road ahead. A few tents and some basic supplies for camping. We also went by a shop owned by a certain Barnaby, where we might get healing potions. We had found them rather steeply priced, so were reluctant to purchase them so far, but we are still lugging around ungodly amount of gold and we need to spend some of it surely!
Master Barnaby initially declined to open the shop, but eventually appeared in the window, looking rather distressed.
When we entered it was quickly revealed that Barnaby was suffering from an unwanted ‘visitor’ in his laboratory in the cellar. A supernatural creature of sorts. We agreed to purge the creature from the laboratory in exchange for the potions. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but a ruse or deception of some kind seemed to be the most likely.

How wrong I was. The truth was much more grim and horrific.

An ethereal looking lady was examining books in the laboratory and paid us no heed. When James approached it seemed unconcerned until he came too close and it started to look at him menacingly with dead eyes.
Meanwhile I noticed the muffled sound of dripping water behind a newly, shoddily built wall. I asked Emrys to point Toruviel at the wall and to blast it away. Behind it lay the decaying body of a woman, crawling with rats and other vermin. I asked Luca to cleanse the corruption with flame, something that unfortunately was necessary.

The spirit did not take kindly to that and attacked. I’m not sure how it worked and what happened, but appeared that she was draining the life from us and was spreading a noxious corruption all around it. It managed to corrupt my body rather effectively. In a desperate move to allow James to move away I stepped into the fray and lunged at it with Muirgheal and ripped through it with great effect. In another desperate move Luca conjured fickle flames to disastrous effect. After a bright burst of flame, darkness descended upon me.

…

I came to a little later. Feeling badly corrupted. I begged Sedna to heal our group. Slightly dazed I got faint glimpses of what transpired next. James haggled angrily with Barnaby and seems to have pocketed a good supply of potions as well as two interesting items: a dagger and a pair of boots.
Emrys in the meantime had become … I don’t know really. There is light emanating from his orifices.  His hair has turned bright silver.

Luca covered up most of Emrys’ head and urged him to keep his eyes and mouth shut while they made their way back to the River Stone. Astrid and James accompanied me outside the city to a sheltered bend in the river where I performed a cleansing ritual to purge the corruption from my body.

Alfred Barnaby’s Pest Problem

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Previously, the adventurers split their time rather evenly between the library of the Bournemouth academy and the Landsdowne auction house. The library allowed them to find out more information regarding the Age of Fear, certain legends and about the probably destination of Lord Destan’s trip. The auction house was the scene for an auction where a Lyrium crystal pendant was being competed over by two groups of elder races, both intent on buying the rare crystal. In the end the dwarves walked away with the crystal, appearing to have the deeper pockets.

First Day, First Ride, Summer Flame, 1262

(Silvermoon is waning. Bloodmoon is waxing. Darkmoon is waxing.)

While Emrys was sleeping off his hangover from his visit to the Golden Cockatrice from the night before, and Astrid took the horses and carts to be sold before their voyage the next day, and James spent the morning in training to the point of gaining some level of clarity on what happened to him inside the Sheridan mansion that night where he was separated from the group, Luca and Emma returned to the library of Bournemouth academy to finish up some loose ends to their research.

Emma researched the story of admiral Karadin, gaining some insight in the history behind the song that Muirgheal had sang to her right after she had bonded herself to it. While an interesting story, Emma had hoped for a better understanding of what the trident was trying to convey to her, or even if it was trying to convey anything to her at all.

During this time Luca was frustrated in his efforts to find out more information about lyrium crystals. After hours of research yielded nothing of value, Luca concluded that the library may have been sanitised of information regarding the rare crystals and that a different source would like be required to learn how to make use of the crystals. He decided to take a walk around the library to clear his head.

When Luca came upon the luxurious reading room in which Lady Ulrikke was performing her own studies. Luca had noticed that she, too, had been frustrated in her attempts and he found her staring blankly out of the window while her guards had made themselves scarce. After a brief conversation, she revealed that she had been researching the sightings of skaven, khazra and minotaurs in the south, west and north of the Daerlan empire, respectively.

Emma was asked to join the conversation with Lady Ulrikke and introductions were made. Lady Ulrikke shared sketches of the beastmen she was researching. The skaven were identical to the ones the adventurers had encountered at Lynnecombe. The khazra were half goat half man and similarly savage and tribal, like the skaven. The minotaurs, however, seemed disciplined, martial, well armed and armoured.

Lady Ulrikke shared that some within the empire thought the beastmen to be set loose upon the empire by their rivals, Lyria and Hellmark. She was also keen to hear details about our adventurers’ encounter with the skaven in Lynnecombe and she was surprised to hear that the beastmen had been found in the heartland of the Lyrian kingdom. She gladly accepted Emma’s advice to seek out the curious leather armour at the Landsdowne auction house which was made of the same strange leather that the skaven wore.

The last thing that Luca and Emma agreed upon with Lady Ulrikke was that they could use Falka as a go-between, should either one of them manage to uncover more valuable information regarding the beastmen, while Emma implored the young noble woman to use her influence and standing to find a way to get the empire to work together with the Lyrian kingdom in the defence of what she believed was imminent; a new Age of Fear.

Falka delivered her treatise on the Age of Fear to Luca and she was paid her fee. Two items of curiosity were described therein that went beyond what was commonly known; namely the name and description of Aureus the Golden One, a very long lived saint of Paladine who was one of the founding members of the Senhadrim, as well as the dichotomy between rural and urban populations in Lyria and their different views on the un- and supernatural. This was caused by the devastating decline in the human population in Lyria. Humanity only saved themselves from extinction by banding together and hiding behind the thick walls of ancient fortresses.

While Luca and Emma were at the academy and Emrys was recovering from his  hangover, James and Astrid had found a seedy, waterfront bar where they – well, mostly Astrid – found some entertainment by getting into a fist fight with five lewd men. The fight was eventually broken up by the Bournemouth city guard, who promptly arrested the men. Astrid lost a tooth and had gotten some scratches, but she seemed to have enjoyed herself tremendously. James was intent on finding a high quality house of delight, but was disappointed to hear that there were no such places around. They decided to head back to the River Stone.

The adventurers came together at the River Stone and discussed what to do with the remainder of their time. Astrid had booked passage to Blackbridge by way of Egremont for the following morning and everyone had felt that their time in Bournemouth had come to an end. A decision was made to shop for some supplies that would be useful on the road to Pinefall, and one last stop would be made at Alfred Barnaby’s Concoctions & Decoctions to see about the healing potions.

Arriving at the curious alchemy shop they found that the door was locked. Right as they were about to depart, Alfred appeared to peer at them through the window and opened the door. He seemed scatterbrained, even for him, but let them into the shop. He was sorry to inform him that he didn’t have access to his potions. He seemed troubled and with some prodding the adventurers managed to get him to explain what was bothering him.

It seemed that his basement laboratory, where he kept his stock of potions, was curiously haunted by a strange spirit of an older lady. A deal was made that he would part with five healing potions, one for each of the adventurers, if they could take care of the spirit, that would be one thousand gold crowns worth of materials. The adventurers agreed and descended through a trapdoor into the basement below.

The basement was made up of two adjacent rooms. The first was mostly used for storage while the second seemed like a well-stocked laboratory. Shelves lined with books, tables filled with beakers, cups and tubes, and many curious items and cauldrons. Along one of the bookshelves the glowing apparition of an elderly lady could be seen hovering. She seemed not to take notice of the adventurers.

Emma could hear the muffled sounds of water running somewhere in the distance, and noticed that one of the walls of the second room seemed to have been recently bricked up. The brickwork was rather shoddily done and it gave Emma an idea. She asked Emrys to take out Toruviel and use it to cast a blast of wind against the wall. Emrys reluctantly shuffled forward until he was within range of the wall, all the while keeping his eye on apparition who still seemed to ignore the adventurers.

Emrys used Toruviel and the shoddy brickwork caved in to reveal that the room originally was much larger and that behind the wall lay the corpse of the old woman, surrounded by flies and rats which scurried away. Also, there was a grate which lead to the Bournemouth sewers.

The moment the corpse of the lady came into view, she screamed “Nooooooooooo!” and flew at Emrys, passing right through him, taking his breath away and casting icy frost all over his body, causing him a great deal of pain. At that point everyone went into action. Emrys retreated as Astrid and James engaged the apparition while Luca went for the body, believing that he should burn the body in order for the apparition to disappear.

Casting flames onto the body while James and Astrid fought the apparition, Luca ignited the body and Emrys fanned the flames, but it didn’t seem to make a difference. In the meantime the apparition was proving very difficult to defeat and it vomited a noxious stream of vapour towards Luca in retaliation for setting fire to her corpse.

Emma took Muirgheal and used it to the stab the apparition with great success. The apparition then revealed itself to be more than just a normal ghost as it turned from the old woman into a hideous pesta, a foul undead creature who brought with it plagues, blights and diseases.

Noxious fumes, disease and an unnatural hardiness, it took every once that the adventurers had to offer to defeat the pesta. A bizarre turn of events turned Emrys’ hair silvery white and his eyes radiating with an almost celestial light. This seemed to startle him as much as everyone around him.

Near the end, Luca unleashed scorching jets of fire in an attempt to best the undead creature, but instead igniting the built up noxious fumes, which horribly burnt both himself as well as James and Emma. Luckily, Emrys and Astrid managed to defeat the creature and use the ample stores of healing potions to revive the others.

Once Emma was conscious again she used the healing powers of Sedna to heal most of the wounds suffered at the hands of the pesta. James searched the room and found a cache of healing potions of different kinds, a potion of fire breathing, and a set of beautiful boots, which Emrys, with a little help from Toruviel, instantly recognised as Boots of Elvenkind.

Emma still felt incredibly ill and so it was decided to leave the basement and confront Alfred. He seemed relieved that the adventurers managed to defeat the pesta but was tight lipped about the body behind the false wall or about how it got there. Fearful that the adventurers would turn him into the Bournemouth guard, he offered a magical dagger as payment for their services after the adventurers said that the cache of potions had been lost in the fight. He was encouraged to tread very carefully, knowing that the adventurers would be keeping an eye on him.

Emrys and Luca decided to return to the river stone. Emrys donned a hood and blindfold in order to conceal the strange change he had undergone while fighting the pesta. At the same time, Emma wanted to visit the river Bourne outside of the city in order to perform a cleansing ritual in order to heal herself from the disease that the pesta had inflicted upon her. She was accompanied by Astrid and James. The returned to the River Stone in the early evening.

The adventurers decided to eat their dinner in their room together. Mostly so that they could have some privacy and keep the strange appearance of Emrys a secret. Luca decided to run one last errand and purchase two pearls that would allow him to identify any magical items that they might find while on their path, while also looking into the properties behind the dagger that James had found in the laboratory.

The dagger turned out to be a Dagger of Venom, which spawned a conversation about the morality of using such an item. It was decided that nobody had any deep moral objections against the use of the dagger. At least none that they openly shared.

Blackbridge Notice Board

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A Cart for Sale

I’m selling a cart. Got four wheels, a tongue and a seat. Made of wood. Pull it, it moves. Push it, it moves, too, just worse. It’s a cart. What else am I supposed to write? Price to be agreed on over a touch of spirit and sausage.

– Dommegy

Watch Out for Ergot!

Brethren, yesterday I was walking the fields and noticed sure signs of ergot in my crop. I set it afire at once and made sure it burnt to ash, but take a look at your own grain, and see if the pestilence has taken it, too.

– Trabo

Galfrid’s Vow

To Folk Far and Wide,
I’ve told you all plenty of times but never put it in writing, as I’m doing now, so that none may hide behind a defence of ignorance. My boy Galfrid’s sworn to the Earthmother that he’ll never touch beer nor spirit again for as long as he lives. And it’s a good thing he has, for when he lost our goat, hens, butter churn and the very breeches he was wearing in a game of cards two weeks back, I was mighty tempted to toss him out on his arse, or at least give it a thorough hiding. So if anyone spies Galfrid walking towards a tavern, come see me at once, and you’ll get a silver stag for your trouble. Likewise, if I see any man encouraging him to drink, offering him a pint or a snifter of anything, then that scoundrel will learn that a hoe is fit for more than just ploughing.

– Lillimira

Rats!

Avoid the old elven ruins near Allenham! I stepped off the path to take a shit and just when I had found a comfortable spot and had my breeches around my ankles, I saw five strange ratlike men carrying daggers and swords. If it wasn’t for the fact that they seemed not to notice me and I had already assumed the position, I would’ve shit my breeches.

– Prescott

A Daughter’s Been Born to Me!

Fellow Folk! I’m the proud da of a little girl! She’s lovely as a nymph, strong as a fiend and bellows like a furious harpy, except maybe a bit louder. Come to my cottage and drink to her health and the health of her darling mother – and perhaps lend a hand choosing a name, for I’m having a tough time choosing between Nesla, after my brother’s wife, or Lesla, after no one, but whose sound I’m partial to. They’re both pretty and proper, but I cannot give her two names, for we’re just simple peasants, not high and mighty lords who can drape themselves with names so long no man’s capable of remembering.

– Roark

Emma, Session 14

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10th day of the 3rd ride, month 6 , 1262

When the arrogant Dærlan noble-lady commanded us to vacate the reading-room, the men looked to me to take the lead. I saw no reason to start any trouble. We gathered our materials and headed elsewhere. There was some uncomfortable banter, and James sought to provoke the guards through blatant intimidation and insolence. They were either utterly unimpressed or too disciplined to take the bait. Either way, we departed without incident.

We settled for a much smaller reading-room. We ran into Falka on our way over and she had some news for us.  For one, she found a map of the village and the surroundings where Lord Destan had been rumored to have been seen last. The other news was that she had received a letter from the older Lord John that she was to not help the people claiming to help Lord Destan.
in other words: Don’t help our merry band of adventurers.
The letter seemed perfectly legitimate, which made everything rather uncomfortable. We decided upon a compromise, where she would no longer be actively involved in our researches but would still be available for some queries.
In that light I asked Falka to have a look at the queer golden coins we had recovered from the tunnels at the Sheridan Estate. She did not recognize them to be coins that might have been in circulation in any epoch of human history. They were not from the Verdant Kingdoms.

To inquire further about the coins I suggested that we visit the auction-house once more. James, Emrys, and I set out. We were welcomed in friendship and there was no hint that Willem had been contacted by Lord John in the same manner as Falka had been. Such had been James’ assumption.
We inquired about the leathers that had been sold and were allowed to examine them. We found them intriguing, especially since they seem to have been crafted from the same source-animal as the peculiar ones the gnomish rats had been wearing. The main difference was that these were crafted far more delicately and carefully. Willem was unable to tell us what the source-animal might have been.
We also showed him the coins, but was unable to tell us where they hail from either. He did say that he had met a sorcerous character not too long ago who had accidently tried to settle his accounts with some coins of similar ilk. The sorcerous character had ominously suggested that these coins were ‘not of this world.’

Finally we inquired what was up for the block today. Willem told us about a collection of fine paintings but that the star lot of the night was expected to be a bejeweled pendant. We asked him if we would be allowed to see the pendant and he happily obliged. The pendant held a Lyrium Crystal. Upon learning this we decided that we would join the auction that evening. Willem was delighted to have us.

We spent the rest of the afternoon preparing for that evening, while we let Luca continue undisturbed. After dinner James and I headed back to the auction-house. Emrys decided to visit the Golden Cockatrice. We asked Astrid to keep an eye on Luca, and to make sure he would eat a little something.

I wasn’t fully comfortable at the auction. Far too wealthy and presumptuous a crowd for my taste, but I lingered around the lots keeping an eye and ear open for whatever would come up. The people were clearly engaged in some sort of social game of cat and mouse to gauge each other intentions. Almost a ritual one might argue. I wasn’t too well at home in this particular ritual, but at least my demeanor wasn’t too conspicuous either.
James was much more at home in this environment, and this was all for the better, since he was able to procure good information. He talked to a group of dwarves and a group of elves in turn. Each of the groups  hailed from native lands, and each was there for one lot in particular: the pendant with the Lyrium Crystal. James discovered that the Elder Races realize that a new Age of Fear will be upon us soon, and that they intend to hide from its onslaught as they did the previous time.

This will not improve their standing in the eyes of humans. Emrys and James will likely suffer even more from the callousness of the Elder Races.

We partook in the auction and made a bid for the pendant. The excitement of an auction is quite something to behold and contagious, so I begged Sedna to calm the spirits in the room during our lot, but to no avail. Admittedly, I had been infected as much as anyone there. We failed to procure the pedant, but left with our gold supply intact. The dwarves picked up the pendant for one-thousand-and-six-hundred crowns.

We returned to the inn to rest. There we caught up with Astrid and Luca. Luca was in a foul mood when he heard about our endeavors. It was a bit unfair if you ask me. We left him to his own devices at his express wishes, and then he faults us for not including him in the proceedings of the evening. His also made his attack against me rather personal, after I had opened up to him. That was unnecessarily hurtful.
There is a light inside that boy that is kind and helpful. But there is a darkness in there to, that is bitter and hard and unforgiving. I pray we can keep him in the light.