Beyond the Crystal Caverns 19 Apr 21

Prior stuff

Ahbing waits in a boat for our intrepid heroes, or at least kidnappees.

Ahbing - soldier, former cook for Scholar’s Prize. Not a fan of violence

Mila - ranger

Rio - one of the GOTHMORIE? Siblings. Human-looking male bard, uses origami to cast his spells instead of singing.

Arcturus Blanc - student of death, grew up as a pirate, had a pretty good life before coming to the Savage Isles and dying, which messed things up a bit. Has a bit of an Irish accent.

Kafla- 3 yr old Dragonborn, follower of Agatha. Paladin of the ancients, guiding these heros

River - wizard bladesinger, sister of Rio. Short dark hair, snooty looking, gymnast build.

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They find themselves away from this burning flagship in the middle of the sea. They haven’t noticed where the Pride of Nagaranda??? Is.

Rio thinks the mission went great! River and Arcturus think it was a good mission as well. Kafla asks if anyone needs healing. River has some cuts and bruises, Arcturus has acid on his face from a rigged chest. Kafla takes intan and casts level 2 Heal Wounds. Rio takes paper and smacks it across their faces and also casts LV 2 Cure Wounds while smacking the paper all over them. River gains 17HP, Arcturus 9 HP.

Perception roll 11 - it’s dark and it’s hard to tell the movement of the boats in the darkness. There was a loud explosion and they jumped into the water and a tidal wave pushed them 300 feet away from the other ships.

Mila asks if they should go towards the docks, Arcturus agrees, saying they need to get into Citadel. The heroes see one very light bright boat, 3 pockets of bright light of boats at anchor, and 3 moving boats with running lights. They see in the distance what they think is Citadel, the tendrils of Kehesemet the World Tree glow over them to the left. They navigate by guess.

Perception Arcturus 23 - He can’t SEE the Pride of Nagaranda clearly, but he feels that there is a boat that’s not in a position that isn’t in any way lit. It’s not towards the south, and the Pride would have followed the same plan.

Ahbing and Kafla row the boat in a direction that is at an angle towards the Citadel and away from the blaze. Athletics 18 Ahbing, Athletics 21 Kafla - they row along at a great clip. Arcturus navigates, and rolls for Washington Crossing The Delaware 21 - they take a correct bearing, heading towards the land, skirting the flickering firelight and heading towards Citadel.

The flagship burns less brightly, either from being put out, or from burning all consumables. Constitution save Ahbing 25, Kafla 20 - they could row all night long. They find themselves moving towards the isthmus, the cliffs of Citadel looming over them, the sound of the waves slapping the cliffs a deep boom. They have charts of the area from the flagship cabin, but they havn’t yet had a chance to review them. They see a wide, long cove on their right side, within which is nestled a small town and a HUGE set of steps and a ramp that lead up to that jagged fortress above. The town has some rocks as a sea wall. At anchor, are two ships with lights, one of which appears to be the Pride of Nagaranda.

They’ve made it to level 7

Arcturus isn’t pleased about that, e doesn’t want to have to lift all these heavy crates. Ahbing pulls them alongside the Pride so they can get help with all the items in the rowboat.

The captain of the Pride smiles and says “Well done! It’s perhaps more of a distraction than planned, but it worked very spectacularly”. They are pulled on board by deckhands, start drying off, and about 40 minutes passes. They dock at the small town of Citadel.

River examines the wand with three modes that Rio had grabbed for her. Arcana 22 - she gets the impression that the primary purpose of the wand is to work some kind of siege weaponry, like arcane cannons or other large mystical armaments. It appears to control the movement and firing of the mechanism.

Kafla shares the pile of documents with his party and the Pride captain, in and effort to see what they can all discover. Arcturus rolls 13 - some of the maps are of the straits around Citadel, as well as the middle Darian sea to the Northeast, and the XXXXXX Islands. There are more general maps, but the ones they have are of the immediate area. They appear to have maps of other cities or towns, the scales of the maps make it hard to determine. Some are small scale, of a particular place, some are of a large region, featuring many towns. One is of Damask, and one is of Port Somersby. There do not appear to be any of Citadel.

Kafla rolls luck 9 - doesn’t appear to have any documents about local military activities or status, there are only maps.

Arcturus wants to examine some wands and bags of gold he grabbed from the flagship cabin. Ahbing hopes the gold is a bag of rocks as punishment for the chaos they caused. Arcturus has about 400 gp from the 2 bags he grabbed, nicely minted gold pieces. One side has a picture of a female-presenting person holding a shield and spear with a creature as a pet; the other side has three or four different profiles. Arcturus gives River a wand that is the identical but opposite counterpart to the wand she grabbed, as though for right hand or left hand use. He gives her a simple, obsidian black and smooth, highly polished wand with a point. She knows it’s magical, but she needs to either attune to it or identify it some other way.

Mila goes to Akafla and asks what is next to get to the World Tree. Akafla suggest they rest while they can before they make haste for the tree. Mila disagrees, saying that they will notice their boat, and that the Navy will be searching for them. Akafla agrees, and says they should gather their things and go on foot. Mila wants to know what they’re supposed to gather from the tree.

Arcturus thinks his face will tingle when they get to the Tree, and he’ll know what to grab. He proposes finding a place to rest here. Rio whines that he’s almost as bitchy as his sister if he is tired and sleepy, and he really wants a place to sleep. Mila and Akafla also agree. The party gathers their belongings and head to a tavern in the small town of Citadel. Arcturus distributes the gold evenly, Ahbing feels bad about it being blood money. Akafla packs his secret journal he’s hid under his bed. Ahbing worries about the bodes floating on the water - their deaths plague his soul. It’s very dark, not even predawn. It’s around 4am.

They can’t see if the ship is still burning due to the headland blocking their view. They can see other ships moored, a few lights of the nearby town, a few guard towers in the sea wall to protect the docks. They approach a small contingent of guards by the gate, but they don’t feel any tingle on their marks from the Lady. the guard politely asks them to halt and identify themselves. They don’t know much about Citadel except they keep to themselves and they are super weird about this tree. History Akafla 3 - he’s not familiar with a polite greeting of the local area. Perception 21 Arcturus - the guards are wearing deep amber-orange cloaks with armor breastplate and leather with plated areas. The armor style is distinct to anything he’s seen before. It has a feeling of not fitting in somehow. The style and the cut and the weapons feel wrong somehow, as though they don’t match the world they’ve seen so far. Like a McDonalds plopped into the middle of some fabulous part of the world.

Akafla greets the guards, saying they were camped down the shore, but they saw an attack and fire and decided to come to the city for safety. The guard cautions that because of the blockade, they aren’t letting them them into the city without some token of fealty. Ahbing hands the guard his share of the gold, while the other 4 guards around him watch. Insight 10 Ahbing - the guard says “um ah I see, very well” and claps his hand twice.

They’re on a small pier, with huts along it. As the guard claps, about 15 people with spears come out and threaten them. The guard says he doesn’t want to start a fight, but they just offered a guard of the Citadel a bribe with DARINESE? Money, which is suspicious indeed. Akafla hastily protests that Ahbing is slow minded and just a cook. The guard says they should go to see a priest for a zone of truth to determine if they are inept DARINESE spies. River says that they’re not, they’re the ones who set the boat on fire. Arcturus agrees and says they’re just really inept adventurers. Mila asks if they don’t want to go into the city, does the encounter end? The guard agrees that they will not be attacked, but they will have to go away. Akafla apologizes for their behavior, and uses his tail to shove Ahbing behind them.

Mila clarifies with the guard, that the DARINESE boats in the water are trying to stop aid from reaching this city. River asks if they could prove they disrupted the blockade to allow a boat through, would that be good enough to prove they are not spies? The guard agrees, and they gesture to the Pride of Nagaranda. The guard does allow that the Pride has been here before and seems to have add it through the blockade, but they still did try to bribe him. Arcturus sighs and says “Just take us to the zone of truth then”.

The guard looks at them as though the might believe him, but he’s more than happy to push this issue up the chain of command. After about 5 mins of walking through the city they appear to a wooden building raised about 5 feet off the ground. The guard goes ahead of them and then beckons them in. The room is pleasant. Some pools of light, a nice table with an elderly gentleman in an orange cloak with glasses, some decorations on the walls. The older man asks them to explain who they are and why they are here. He promises to restrict his zone of truth questions to those pertaining to the security of Citadel.

Arcturus looks petulant that he hasn’t even been roughed up and he’s expected to tell the truth. He crosses his arms and curls his lips. Ahbing and Akafla agree to the examination. The older man accepts the two interviewees as sufficient for the security of the town. Ahbing explains they are here to visit the Tree at the bidding of their patron, they set the flagship on fire and grabbed a bunch of coins, and made it to the docks. Akafla says they’ve been employed to investigate around the World Tree for a rumor of a holy relic for his patron. He heard they hadn’t gotten aid due to the blockade, so they broke the blockade to bring aid to the town. The older man asks who the patron is, Akafla says his patron is The Lady, which the old fellow says he should have known. Persuasion w advantage 20 Akafla - the guard leans back and smiles. “Thank you, I’m convinced that you’ve come here in a most odd and yet reasonable manner. You are here on a mission from your patron which is partially aligned with this city, and you have brought us aid and caused trouble for that rabble out there”. He gives the gold pieces back, and tells them that the gold cloaks are known for their adherence to the truth, and if they see one in the city, they should leave them be, as they will be less gentle than the dock guard.

Akafla notes that they are looking for a place to rest, and they are directed to the Bloody Boarhound, or the lower part of the city with the Aging Goose. Surprisingly, the older guard even offers a guide to the tavern of their choice. As he holds out the gold, Ahbing doesn’t even reach for it, and Arcturus snatches it up, exclaiming it’s spoils of war!, which the older guard agrees with. Their junior guard guide leads them to the Aging Goose, he’s a very young half-elf man, about 19. He’s nervous and wary of them, but also curious about their obvious scars and battle wounds. Akafla tells the young lad “I’m surprised that they let such a great warrior as you guide us tonight”, which the youngster seems to believe. Mila touches his face and asks what he does at the Tree. The guard says “it’s a metaphor, protecting the tree is our service and honor”. Mila is confused, because why would someone guard a tree. “Each of the World Trees when they arrive in Urdu, they need to join with this plane, someimes it goes wrong, creating an age of strife. The order was formed to ensure that another blighting doesn’t happen again and that the Trees are nurtured and are able to come to safe contact with the Primal Plane”. Arcturus asks if there’s money in it, and the kid tells him that he gets a salary, and the safety of the people in a few hundred miles is ensured. Mila inquires about the blighting. An explanation about the Tree being Kisama, but is also birthing Kisama ensues. The kid gestures to the slightly glowing roots dangling from the sky but not yet connected to the earth. The party presses him for more information about the blight and Kisama, and the kid gets flustered. “If you’re really curious, you can ask a justiciar or even a priest of the Tree”, but he really doesn’t know a great deal more than he’s said. Akafla asks his name again, he is Hariaka, but everyone calls him Hari. Akafla asks if they could impose on him after a rest to guide them to one of these justiciars or priests of the Tree. Hari thinks he could probably do that tomorrow.

The party heads through giant stone tunnels that make up the wall of the Citadel itself. They emerge into a large cavern, the south entry of the Lower City. There are houses, and some lights. Hari says they should meet in this spot in about 9 hours so he can guide them to a priest. Goldretta is the innkeeper at the Aging Goose, and is awoken by Hariaka to lodge these “impressive people who have done impressive stuff!”. Goldretta tosses a small coin to the boy. Hari takes his leave, after staring somewhat adoringly at Mila and Akafla, who he seems incredibly dazzled by. Akafla bows deeply and wishes him a good evening. Hariaka rushes off, tripping over his sword, stumbling a bit, trying to look overly professional, and then double-times it out of the inn. Arcturus looks incredulous and asks Akafla (after Hari is gone) “some guide, do you think he can find his shoes?”.

The Aging Goose has granite walls, a nice wooden floor, a bar that is not currently open. An older man, about 45 is behind the bar, yawning and stretching. The party asks for 6 separate rooms for the night. Goldretta explains that there are no private toilet facilities and they can settle their bill in the morning. He clutches his head in pain, and smells strongly of liquor. Akafla tosses him a gold coin, and Goldretta says he’ll get them their change in the morning, and staggers off. Mila pulls Akafla and Arcturus aside as they head upstairs. She has concerns that they came to find a piece of The Lady in the Tree, but the entire community guards the Tree. Akafla knows there’s a fragment of The Lady here in this area, either the city or the Tree, and he is trying to locate it before the mysterious Them who are after the fragment can get it. Mila is worried that they don’t know where to go or what to do, and Arcturus points out that they have compasses burned into them with The Lady’s mark. Akafla promises to meditate on it and try to get further clarity, and informs them that the last great awful event of their world happened around a World Tree, and he wouldn’t like to have that happen again.

World Trees are one of the sources of stability - when a World Tree lands in an area, an age of stability emerges as long as the World Tree blooms. It takes a long time to calm the preceding chaos, during which time the World Trees are weak. Religion 20 Akafla - he also knows stories about how gods themselves consider World Tress to be pathways used to project and shape their divine magic. The Trees have a group pantheon, and possession of a Tree by a group of gods allows the gods to project their power based on the percentage of Tree owned. In history a dark pantheon gained control of a tree and caused a blight upon their world, and the Orange Cloaks were formed in response. It’s not only a pathway for the gods, but it may also be a pathway home for our hero’s. Akafla knows that it takes Time for a Tree to land safely, and Kisama has been in the process of being born for 45 years, but he doesn’t share this with the Mila and Arcturus. Arcturus asks to sleep on the floor in Mila’s room, and she agrees.

Mila takes some time before sleep to clean off the red on Arcturus’s face. Rio spends some time repairing his marionette of River. River spends time with her spell book and investigating the obsidian wand Arcana 19 - she attunes to the wand and realizes that the glass comes from a volcano formation and this turns into an effective device to capture lightning, and River has a wand of Lightning Bolts. At some point in the night, Rio wakes up in fear, runs to River’s room and knocks on her door twice and then barges in.

“River this can’t happen again. If there’s another idiotic plan, we have to leave, you have a life to life. I can’t lose you. If i say it’s time to go, we go and leave these idiots. We can find another group and do this again, but I can’t lose you.”  River puts her arms around him and comforts him as he breathes raggedly, trying not to show his fear. “River, I mean it, if it gets bad, we leave. Say it.” River says it, and Rio leaves, but not before lightly smacking her. River tosses a pillow at him in response.

Akafla sits cross legged on the bed, with his armor and undershirt removed so his mark of The Lady is exposed on his right rib cage. He places one hand on it, and with his index and middle finger resting on his forehead he says “I have followed you since the moment I woke up. When I clawed from my egg, you spoke to me, I sought you out. From you I learned much, but this isn’t how it’s supposed to happen. I’m grateful for the opportunity for adventure and for everything I’m given. I’m graftul for this body. I am lost, and afraid, and I don’t think anyone likes me. I don’t know what to do”. D100 - 97. The act of meditation itself calms some of his frustrations and he is in a clearer mind and calmer heart. The thoughts racing in his head become slower and more crisp. He hears the sound of tea being made and the rattle of cups, and hears the gentle Voice. “Part of the problem is that what we have is a shitshow. You’re right, this isn’t what was meant to happen, it’s not we prepared for, but it’s what we have. I appreciate you and I appreciate what you’re doing. The people you’re with, they’re not necessarily good people and they’re not necessarily wrong to be angry. But in this world we have a series of problems, and as you know I’m trying to get over a lot of them. I’m going to ask you to manage as best you can, and I’m going to send you as many signs as I can. Don’t be afraid to check in with Auntie Agatha again. I’ve been able to determine a little more about the face of our enemy”. The image of a red-faced, single eyed flayed skull with sharpened teeth appears in his mind. “This creature belongs to a sect that one of my other teams has determined is called The Deathless. They’re some kind of believers of escape from the wheel of life. They think that by staying here, they can evade their dharma. They stay far from mine and my brother’s gaze. I have one word, Zargon. Perhaps this is the one you seek, the one who is trying to harm the World Tree, and has the shard of my life. As for people not liking you, you’re young kid, after a while you stop giving a fuck”.

Akafla brags about them taking down a ship, and Agatha cheers him on “yeah I saw you, good job! You’re a badass”. Akafla smiles, exposing his Dragonborn teeth, and curls up and goes to sleep, content in his patron’s favor.