Month: September 2022

==Roll Call==
Childe Raymonde, Githyanki Paladin (Doty)
Bell, Kenku Cleric (CJ)
Blynce, Human-hybrid Fighter (Eric)
Vaal, Eladrin Rogue (Tim)
Bumi, Goblin Wizard (Matt)

To the Sanctuary of Albahith, Jigow Township

Greetings to the Masters of the Pilgrims, and hail to The Luxon:

Mission Report from Childe Raymonde (Part 16)

On the road to Bazzoxan, we came across some members of the Aurora Watch fighting demons! A bunch of Wretched, a Babau, and some Draegoloth. We held our ground, but we were being wounded by our foes.

The environment itself seemed to be against us, a few of succumbing to an unaccountable sadness, but we continued the fight.

A strange mist appeared! Another two Babau appeared. Our Kenku cleric, Bell, was ensorcelled to see illusory enemies all around him. Powering through it, he took a massive hit of psychic damage to bravely stay in the combat.

Vaal dispatched the Babau in front of us, and our tactical situation seemed a bit better … so long as no more enemies showed up. The battle continued. I suddenly saw an image of a Githyanki war party, beckoning me to join them! A Draegolith fell, and several of the Aurora Watch were left without foes.

Shaking with fear, I dropped off the trail into a lowered area, and the magical fear left me. Burning with rage, I clambered back up into the fray. A new foe appeared! A demon known as "The Lonely," an incarnation of melancholy and suffering.

One the Babaus hit me with a "weakening gaze." Instead of attacking, I laid on hands on Bell, who was sorely wounded. I immediately felt strong again.

Vaal strike true on the remaining Draecoloth, and one of the Babaus cast Heat Metal on one of the Aurora Watch soldiers. Nevertheless, we began to turn the tide, and Bell finished off a Babau. I took care of another. Full of rage at the spells these things had cast, I charged the "Lonely" and slashed it twice. Vaal destroyed the remaining Babau. Only the Lonely remained. We swarmed the disgusting thing and it grasped Bell, rendering him unconscious and drawing him into itself. Bumi knocked it in the head with a large rock and destroyed it.

The fog dissipated, and we saw to our wounded.

Lieutenant Varl, leading the Aurora Watch patrol out of Bazzoxan, explained that they had bitten off more than they could chew, and thanked us for our help and promised a reward when we all got to Bazzoxan.

==Roll Call==
Childe Raymonde, Githyanki Paladin (Doty)
Bell, Kenku Cleric (CJ)
Blynce, Human-hybrid Fighter (Eric)
Vaal, Eladrin Rogue (Tim)
Bumi, Goblin Wizard (Matt)

To the Sanctuary of Albahith, Jigow Township

Greetings to the Masters of the Pilgrims, and hail to The Luxon:

Mission Report from Childe Raymonde (Part 15)

On the road to Bazzoxan, while making camp, we noticed a flare of red light on the second moon! We remembered old stories -- the second moon was associated with ill omens and bad luck. Our sleep was troubled that night.

We felt strange in the morning, as if we were cursed [some checks would be at disadvantage for the day]. Bell cast remove curse on himself, and I cast lesser restoration on Bumi. We decided to keep moving down the trail to Bazzoxan.

After a while, we saw something on the road -- bodies, six of them. They appeared to be Aurora Watch soldiers, and feasting on them were two demonic-looking things. Bell identified them as Shadow Demons. We immediately assumed combat stances and started firing missile weapons and spells at the monsters. One closed the distance with us, but the other (sorely wounded) fled to cover.

As we fought the one on the road, his cowardly companion took heart and charged Vaal, ineffectively. Suddenly, a Quasit jumped out from behind some of the terrain's strange barbs and attacked. A second Quasit joined the fray. Vaal dispatched a Shadow Demon -- it evaporated into mist. Blynce destroyed a Quasit and wounded the remaining Shadow Demon. Bell blasted the remaining Quasit into oblivion, and Bumi destroyed the Shadow Demon. I performed what rites I could for the dead soldiers given the circumstances, and we moved on.

We camped for the night, and the next day we came upon a six-man scouting party of the Aurora Watch. We hailed them as welcome comrades, and they welcomed us to share their food and their campground for the night. The next day we parted from the soldiers and contined towards the cursed city of Bazzoxan.

We passed the ruins of a substantial town -- whatever this place was, it was destroyed long ago -- and heard screams and shouts, as of a battle. Aurora Watch soldiers were fighting demons! A Hezrou and a Draegoloth. We stabilized the fallen soldiers and began attacking the demons. The battle raged back and forth, when a new demon emerged from the rubble nearby -- a fiendish Babau! Its weakening gaze would be a real danger. And yet more enemies emerged! A few "The Wretched" (looking like a bunch of fangs on legs) and one more Draegoloth.

The fog that was surrounding us, a moorish mist, suddenly spouted little demonic hands that clawed at us. Whether illusion or not, they hurt.

Vaal used his enchanted sword to slow a bunch of our opponents.

The battle continued to go back and forth. Bumi fired his fireballs, and the Babau attacked me, clawing at me while I fought the Hezrou. We were holding our ground, though.

(We ended for the night on a mid-battle cliffhanger!)

==Roll Call==
Childe Raymonde, Githyanki Paladin (Doty)
Bell, Kenku Cleric (CJ)
Blynce, Human-hybrid Fighter (Eric)
Vaal, Eladrin Rogue (Tim)
Bumi, Goblin Wizard (Matt)

To the Sanctuary of Albahith, Jigow Township

Greetings to the Masters of the Pilgrims, and hail to The Luxon:

Mission Report from Childe Raymonde (Part 14)

On the road to Bazzoxan, we had reached the caravan stop, a friendly location where different travellers congregated, and decided to camp down there for the night.

The campground was quite the cozy place, with laughter and hot food, and places to keep our warhorses (that we had "acquired" from the bandits we fought on the road). A large family/small tribe of Goblins was there, camped on the back of a Leatherback Turtle (Yuyo by name). We saw the scout (Justus) that we had rescued on the road a few days ago, and we told him of our adventures. Some of the people were survivors of the battle whose aftermath we came across earlier.

Justus gave us 50gp and a pair of Goggles of Night as reward for rescuing him earlier. Bell and I engaged in a game of chance to determine who would get the Goggles -- Bell won.

We spoke with the survivors -- Teevack and Margra -- they said the dagger belonged to their father, Kierchaly Waste-walker. We said we knew an Irvan Waste-walker, who turned out to be their cousin. In return for the dagger, they gave us a finely made battle-ax. (A +1 battle-ax, as it turned out)

Blynce walked up to a lady serving mastodon stew, because he saw that Justus was served. We all were given very tasty stew, most welcome after the dried rations we had been eating on the road.

We were told to beware of the Ruins of Sorrow in the Barbed Fields as we approached Bazzoxan.

A restful night, and then we left. The trail began to wind northeast now. The surroundings began to change. Barbs, or spines, stone-like (or perhaps plant-like), stuck out of the ground, some just a foot or two, some much larger. This was the beginning of the Barbed Fields.

We saw dust rising from the ground ahead. Three mammoths were being harrassed by some flying creature. A gloomstalker! Noticing us, it left off the mammoths and approached us. Bell hit it with a mighty attack, and angered it immensely. I was paralyzed by the Gloomstalker's cry! Bell cast a spell to release me. The Gloomstalker downed our rogue, Vaal, but I dispatched it immediately afterwards.

To our horror, we saw that the Gloomstalker's cry had summoned four undead skeletons, which shuffled towards us menacingly. We destroyed them fairly easily, and Vaal was healed back to consciousness.

While making camp, we notice a flare of red light on the second moon! We remembered old stories -- the second moon was associated with ill omens and bad luck. Our sleep was troubled that night.

(We are now 5th level!)

==Roll Call==
Childe Raymonde, Githyanki Paladin (Doty)
Bell, Kenku Cleric (CJ)
Blynce, Human-hybrid Fighter (Eric)
Vaal, Eladrin Rogue (Tim)
Bumi, Goblin Wizard (Matt)

To the Sanctuary of Albahith, Jigow Township

Greetings to the Masters of the Pilgrims, and hail to The Luxon:

Mission Report from Childe Raymonde (Part 13)

On the road to Bazzoxan, we came across an overturned wagon. We saw no sign of an ox or any other creatures, at least at first. Apparently the wagon was carrying barrels of grain, which were smashed on the ground. Corpses were under the wagon -- two Drow and one Orc. Apparently the three had been killed in the overturning, not any kind of hostile violence.

Will-o'-the-wisps boiled out of the wreckage! We didn't know if these were the revenants of the three corpses, but they were perfectly willing to attack us. We dispatched them fairly easily, but we felt another presence -- voices in our minds, the spirits of the three travelers. They told us that the will-o'-the-wisps had caused the oxen to startle, causing the fatal wreck. They gave Bell a Charm of Heroism. A locked iron box contained some small treasure, including a Potion of Giant Strength (Hill). We burned the corpses with suitable ceremony.

The next day, we heard a rumbling sound, apparently coming from off in the distance. We saw movement, and dust. Riders! As we watched them approach, we saw they were between eight and twelve humanoids, riding horses. They were rough-looking, unpleasant. One, the apparent leader, wore a belt of many daggers. They attempted to extort 25gp each from us as "tax." One of them approached Blynce to appraise his bow, and he decided to demonstrate its function. We started combat, much to my satisfaction. Our fierceness took them aback, and their captain attempted to stop the fight.

A bit more combat, but the bandits gave up … mainly because Bumi had levitated the leader over 40 feet into the air! We took their ill-gotten loot and four (now riderless) horses, and they all left.

We reached the caravan stop, a friendly location where different travellers congregated, and decided to camp down there for the night.

==Roll Call==
Childe Raymonde, Githyanki Paladin (Doty)
Bell, Kenku Cleric (CJ)
Blynce, Human-hybrid Fighter (Eric)
Vaal, Eladrin Rogue (Tim)
Bumi, Goblin Sorcerer (Matt)

To the Sanctuary of Albahith, Jigow Township

Greetings to the Masters of the Pilgrims, and hail to The Luxon:

Mission Report from Childe Raymonde (Part 12)

I repeat some material from my last report: The thing that Bumi took from the glowing chamber … according you, my Masters, it appeared to be the Jewel of Three Prayers, one of the Vestiges of Divergence, a dormant relic of some sort, and of no small historical importance! In ancient times, Alixion wore this as a symbol of his consecration to three deities. You told me that it was up to me (and, by extension, my comrades) to determine how to "awaken" it.

This went along with a vision shared by our group and our rivals in the challenge of the Festival of Merit. We all saw a vision of a Human man in tattered armor and a shield. With a melancholic expression, he pleaded "I am imprisoned. Help me! I am Alixion, and I beg you to free me. … Thank the gods, bless the Moon Weaver. Go to the other shrines where I prayed, to the Change-Bringer in the heart of the Evil One's temple, Bazzoxan, to the Archheart in the ruins of the jungle city." We suddenly realized we had all lapsed into unconsciousness, Bumi included.

Bumi remembered the name Alixion -- a figure of legend from the Calamity and the Last Battle. Bazzoxan, about a fortnight's journey away, is a place watched by the Kryn Dynasty, because fiendish beings tend to come from there. Elsewhere, on the continent of Marquette, the desert now was once a jungle, and in the heart of that was a city. Maybe that was the city mentioned in the reference to an "Archheart."

You, O Masters, also told me that one of you had been to Bazzoxan and saw a strange network of tunnels or dungeons, a dangerous place. But some of the entrances have symbols, long studied by scholars. The symbol on the jewel was present at Bazzoxan.

Dermot from the other party mentioned that the Luxon sanctuary had some information about Alixion, basically the same that you, O Masters, had for me. We questioned as to how a centuries-old Human could still live, even in captivity.

The other party mentioned that they had a small job to do, but then intended to go to Bazzoxan. They kept questioning us as to our knowledge and our intentions, and we did the same. Both of us were reluctant to be completely forthcoming.

As they left, Ayo told us a rumor -- the word of what we did against the Dwendalian Empire has spread, and perhaps we should be watching our backs.

We decided to leave for Bazzoxan right away. It would take at least twelve days on foot.

Along the road, we saw a Tiefling on the back of a Moorbunder, surrounded by two other wild bristly Moorbunders. We dashed towards the unfortunately Tiefling to offer assistance. One of the wild ones ran away, but the other stayed and continued its menacing behavior. The thing grappled me! My comrades rescued me, and Justus the Tiefling, whose mount was named "Rice Pudding," thanked us profusely.

As we prepared for camp, we spotted something by the side of the road. It was composed of twisting shadows, not completely solid, but looked like a large winged creature. It was a dead Gloomstalker, riddled with arrows and partially burned. We found a ring with a sapphire in it. Puzzled, we set up camp a respectable distance away -- Bumi established that the ring was not magical.

Bumi told us of a dream he had in the night -- a strange woman telling us to "help him" and to "hurry up."

Upon the morrow, we continued down the road and came across what seemed to be several bodies. Circling above was a large carrion bird. An Udaak, an apelike demon, was the largest corpse. Approximately two dozen Humans and horses were also strewn about.

Three things popped out of the fur of the ape-demon! Quasits! And apparently the thing circling in the air was a Vrock-demon! The Quasits were easily dispatched, and we began shooting long-range at the diving Vrock. Bell's spells against the Vrock were amazing! We managed to destroy the thing before it finished its dive to attack us.

Upon investigating, we found one set of horse-tracks leading away from the carnage. We also found a nice dagger inscribed with the name "Kierchaly Waste-walker." Irvan Waste-walker was one of the other party. We created a funeral pyre and I performed a brief ceremony for the dead.