The Imminent Doom
The Imminent Doom is a period in Arath starting in 1521. It is mainly marked by the war between the biggest realms the Democracy of Cahemelle, the Dwarven Republic, the Thanate Empire, the Orcish Diarchy and the Draconian League.
In the centre of this period of war an unlikely group finds its way together. These are the stories of this groups adventures. Though if you want to read what else unfolded during the time and what they might have kick started in other places of Arath then you might want to read the Backstory of The Imminent Doom.
Prologue
The players are drafted into the armies of the Dwarven Republic and the Democracy of Cahemelle.
On the Sea
The Approach
The Landing
Recap
After a tough and indecisive skirmish between the Democracy of Cahemelle and Dwarven Republic, the party emerges still living.
Porof expertly avoided the elves to hide in the crows nest, as he did not want to join the battle. This plan did not work so well as the ship landed he got flung into a bunch of elves, which break his fall. He still tries to stay out of combat, desperate to play injured he thinks he uses his glaive as a crutch, but everyone else would think he walks like a wizard with a staff. During the skirmish, he keeps on praising his weapon and cuts down a few of the dwarves.
The platoon Captain Alloro takes care of his weapons and ready his platoon to disembark. But a neighbouring ship loses some of its oars and rams his transport. He loses most of his heavy gear and must make sure he makes it to the land. Swimming with all his might and dexterity he makes it to the shore soaking wet, seaweed hanging on him and quite pissed of. He calls back his weapons with his magic. This sight scares some of the younger dwarves and they run away. He tries to organise the troops as good as he can, and even inspires the commanding brigadier to charge into the last dwarves that stand.
Aluwyn is an enlisted gnome from the academy, meant to bolster the ranks of the dwarven engineering corps. She had a crash course in dwarven siege machinery and is now in charge of a little group of gnomes to man a 10m wide ballista. One of her crew is a little gnome, that is a little craven. Her position got shot at and she tumbles onto the battlefield, where she tries her best to help out the faltering dwarven phalanx. This does not end well for her, as she gets knocked out by a dwarven shield-bearer, who first shoots then asks questions. The only reason she is still alive is that the little gnome pulled her to the side of the battlefield.
After the skirmish, the elven captain and the human sailor captured the gnome engineer and make their way inland away from the red coloured beach.
New Lands
First Home
Proving their Steel
Recap
The rest gave the three survivors some time to calm down. Still, Alloro does not trust the little Gnome Aluwyn and casts a mysterious ritual on them. She does not allow that without a fight and draws the attention of a little disoriented Kylin, she had a tough time during the battle of yesterday and has been washed up on the shore. But she was not the only one listening to a ranger noticed them and investigated the scene. Yet only Kylin decided to show herself.
She quickly recognised Porof, as her old mate she used to sail with. So she joins the group. They soon take off west to find a village Kylin knows about. During the first few minutes of their travel, they hear a dwarvish war horn. Only Aluwyn knows that it means that everyone has to get ready to march. Scared of it they up their pace to be ahead of them, though later they figure out that the horn was not triggered by them.
As they rested from the morning of their fast walk they hear fighting close by. They find a tall strong and fierce looking man is standing alone against four opponents. He wields his battleaxe in his full plate armour and knows how to defend himself. Still, the group and Ruven decide to help him. The fighting is fierce and Kylin impresses the defender quite a bit. Now that the group meets Ruven and get to know Reimar, the son of the local governor. He leads them to Marymar the capital of Dostrait. Marymar is nothing more than a big poor village on the coast and it is apparent that they have little what could interest any of the big countries. The village itself is getting a palisade build and all the buildings except one are build of wood.
At the gates, Porof meets an old guard that might know his father from old fights down in the Darkwoods. He tells him to wait for him in the Tavern of the Old Lass Inn, but he never shows up. The governor's mansion is the only stone building in the village and contains quite a collection of old weapons. Unlike like the village or the countryside the governor has everything a heart desires. They meet this governor and his two advisers a slim man holding a big book and a fat one, which takes little care of his hygiene. The governor seems to have some use for this odd group, so he invites them to a feast and offers them a contract for a little problem of his. He also gives them living quarters in his mansion for them to rest. During the wait time, the group sets out to visit the Old Lass Inn, where Aluwyn gives her best to have the worst performance of her life. All while Alloro learns that there are no boats he can rent, buy or steal for a journey home.
Alloro is the first of the group to join the feast and tries to get some information out of the governor. Later all but Porof joins the feast as well. They learn little, except for a Dire Wolf, that troubles the Direward Village. After the governor leaves the feast Alloro organises a drinking competition between the fat adviser Ralf and Aluwyn, which she wins because of her hesitation to drink fast.
The next morning Alloro tries to gather more information and hears about a missing boy, the help needed on the fields, the troubles of the Sea Hag they are hired to take care off and that a smart man wants to make salt out of water. He is disappointed not to hear more and returns to their room.
During that time Kylin starts looking for Porof, as he did not return to their quarters. She looks for him in the Old Lass Inn where she finds out that he drunk three guards and two dwarves under the table. After that, he left the inn with a girl called Berta to swim in the sea. She meets him perfectly fine on his way back to the village.
The Sea Hags Lair
The Cave
The Ship Wreck
Recap
After a healthy breakfast the group set out to find the Sea Hag, they are tasked to kill. Aluwyn stays behind to cure her hangover, as she had way too much to drink.
Though first Lin had to stop by the Old Lass Inn to refill her flask, there she learns about a few things that are going on through out the province. A child is missing, a Dire Wolf is plaguing the Village of Direward and a mad man is trying to make salt out of water.
After that quick pit stop she joins the group and they start walking north. On the northern gate a guard is very impressed and shows great respect to Porof, because of his feat last night. Still they carry on further north. While walking up they find a isolated hut, from which a loud explosion comes from. While they try to check it out they only find a frighted alchemist, which tries everything to get rid of them.
Finally reaching the Sea Hag's lair they try to sneak closer, but on the wide open beach they are easily spotted by the Sea Spawn in front of the cave. The fighting is fiece but quick. Shortly after they enter the cave and find it too dark for the two humans. So they light a torch. Entering the cave they find a old modding boat, which Lin tries to ignite but fails, Alloro freezes it, to show how casting is done. Frustrated Lin casts lighting Bolt on it to prove that she can cast good spells too, this has great effect as they hear a painful bubbly scream from behind the scream, the fighting begins. The Sea Hag poses a little challenge to the group but still they surpass the worst and win the fight.
While searching for loot they find an unconscious child in the wrack, which they used as target practice before. They revive it and carry it out, while Alloro continuous to search the cave. He finds a Bag of Holding and some gold coins.
Tax Evasion?
Meeting Rigalis
The Council Meeting
Recap
After the group meets up again Reimar introduces them to Rigalis. As they approach he is again experimenting with explosives and gases, that was a smelly welcome, which puts off Alloro and Porof turn back to rest in the village. As they see the inventor and alchemist they discover that he has a whole room full with black powder. After some time he Rigalis warms up to Aluwyn and he gifts her his old tinkering kit. As a little reward she shows him how to make fireworks with salt and black powder.
After some time they created five rockets. Very excited they must try them out, so the take a short walk towards the sea shore. After launching the first rocket it becomes clear that the black powder is not ordinary, as it explodes with a might and a deafening sound the group. But Rigalis is so excited that he had to fire the other ones as well, this caused tumult in the village, as they think they are under attack. The last rocket did launch and explodes right at the beach, leaving a little pond where it once stood.
The next day, they meet the governor and his new metal machines guards. He pays them for their complete task and asks them to go out and collect the taxes from the other two villages. The group agrees and sets off south to Direward. On their way they discuss how they want to ditch the task and leaving Dostrait behind. Soon they see the Direwoods, which frightens some of the group and to keep them self save they almost start a forest fire (as some are rather trigger happy with their spells).
A Fightfull Day
The village of Direward is rather small. With many residential huts and a central marketplace. Soon the group finds their way to this place and see a temple, a grain storage and two other buildings stand out. The tavern and the mayors hut.
After entering the tavern they find some humans and dwarves in a pup brawl. This annoys Porof as the inn keep refuses to give out food and drink until the brawl has finished. So he takes part in it breaking it up and then challenges the oldest of the dwarves. After a hard and honourable fight Porof wins the encounter and earns the respect of the other dwaves.
After entering the tavern Aluwyn recognises the dwarves as part of the Engineering Corp and tells the elves to hide in the forest.
The next day the non elves meet with the mayor they learn about the the Direwolf and the situation in Dostrait, the ongoing rebellion and his dislike to the situation. At least one of the two must be finished off.
After the meeting the group went shopping and met up at the edge of the woods. From where they went to the pasture, where the last life stock has been slaughtered by a Direwolf. Ruven finds out that this was not done by a Direwolf but by a Worg and follows the tracks to their camp.
Hoping not to fight to many goblins at once they sneaked around the camp taking out the goblins one by one. This works fine the first time. But fails miserably as they trigger a trap and alarm all of the surrounding goblins. The fight goes well in the beginning until two massive Hobgobilns join the frey. But seeing their friends being slaughtered they retreat to fight another day.
At Deaths Door
With the party just calming down after the encounter with the goblins, they found them self enchanted by wonderful music. All of them except of their hearty sorceress fall victim to the enchanting music. But there was no time, the world turned and the colours of the forest mixed and blurred, ore bright colours are added to the mix. As the world stopped spinning they find them self in the Realm of Milil.
Only now they realise the death of their companion Varis Alloro. In front of them stands a ghostly elvish woman, she looks sad and in grief, Varis recognises his sister Aurae Alloro. She takes a step and a deep breath and in elvish she resides a poem, that moves almost every heart. And there the elven lord now stands realising his own death.
Not giving the group time to adjust to the new situation Milil steps forward and offers them the task to save the World from evil from the west. After some hesitation they agree and are gifted with some magical items and a Direwolf Pup for Ruven. After getting these parting gifts they find them self on their last battlefield.
Advancing to the goblin camp they hear fighting. As they sneak closer, they find the dwarves taking care of the last of the goblins. They find out that they are planning to go west, to fight the goblin hoards that live in the mountains there. So the two groups agreed to join forces for the march west.
Going back to Direward they seek out the Major to tell him about their Goblin hunt and to receive their pay. But he was busy at that late hour and the Guard did not allow them to pass. Until they persuaded him that the matter was urgent. So the group, with the exception of Porof, march in on Putin having fun with two rather young girls. Unimpressed the group tells him about the goblins and asks for pay. Also they told him about their plan not to collect taxes for the Governor and head south. On these news Putin changed his mind and told them what trouble this would put him in. If they left here without finishing their task he will suffer from it. So he asked the group to come back the next day, that is when Aluwyn decided to play her charm and join the next rumble with Putin and the girls.
The next morning Varis left early to burn his wagon full of charcoal to summon his familiar. While the others enjoy a hearty breakfast at the tavern. All but Porof, he seeks out the smith to fix his newly found Hobgoblin Armour to his size. On his way back he finds the Tavern surrounded by a number of armed men and soon finds himself arrested and shoved into the tavern, where he finds most of his friends arguing with Putin. As the argument gets more heated he shoves back one man and closes the door behind himself.
A new Friend
Dimly is the room lit and the air is filled with tension, all one can hear is the heavy pant of Porof holding the door shut best he can. The rest of the party, except Alloro, stand there ready to fight the mayor of Direward. He stands just centimetres away from Lin his weapons ready, just like her. Ale flowing down a beard and dripping on the table and the table manners of hungry dwarves interrupt the silence. Annoyed of the shouting and threats of death the oldest of the dwarves, Havarast Stoneaxes stands up and tries to calm the emotions. But Putin and Lin are determined to fight and only escalate the situation more, by casting spells and throwing insults. Never the less, Havarast manages to calm the situation and negotiates a deal, where the group is bound to his and his men by the Brother Oath and they will take care of the task, the group does not want to honour to finish.
Unaware of the trouble inside the village, Alloro is casting a ritual to find his familiar again. But he is interrupted by some guards, that ask him to follow them to the village centre. Though on their way they find his companions escorted by a much larger force. As they are escorted out of the village they are then told never to return or face certain death. The group cares little about this threat and wants to continue their travels, but the group will not let them, as they are still to swear the oath. Most of the group do not hesitate, Ruven is hesitant to do so as he fears the pain of the burning coal and Alloro outright refuses to swear it as he had no say in the matter and he has other oaths to up hold. In the end he is almost forced to take it under protest.
Trusting their new brothers little the dwarves decided that Havarast will join the group and scout ahead west. While the other dwarves finish the business. They are to meet in two weeks time at the eastern goblin mountains.
Without any more delay the party is eager to get some distance between them and Direward, so they set out west. After a days travel they find the ferry dock and book passage over to the other side of the river Bland. The young fery man called Lubin tells them about the dwarven city in the south. Having some free time and little interest of inland cities Lin insects her new horn. As she blows the horn the ferry picks up speed and the clouds start to take a shape.
The clouds form an elven head with a smug smile on his lips. No one but Alloro recognises him as Varos Valorien, as the clouds completely form his head his voice sunders over the river and he proclaims in elvish: "Condo Varis Alloro, Orriansonye Aravaeson, Hestonil e Orthalos Cinta Othao Dostrait, here by you are banished of the lands of Cahemelle and your live is forfeit, every elve is ordered to kill you on sight! You are stripped of your ranks and titles and are dismissed of the Protectors of the Sea." As the last word is spoken the head vanishes and the clouds turn back to normal. Soon after they reach the other side of the river.
They travel fast west as they could and only started to rest once the first sun has set. As they build their camp Alloro claims that the head must be connected to the horn and to prove he blows the horn as hard as he can, the up coming fog disorients Ruven as he was chasing after his Dire Wolf pup Ryo I of Direwoods. But the horn blow was answered by another horn far in the distance. Uneasy about the horn blow they settle for the night with guards for every hour.
In that night Alloro stands watch alone, he takes care of his bow and thinks of the things that happened that day. But movement catches his eye. He investigates and soon two arrows fly past him, he runs to the first tent and wakes everyone in it. Not knowing who their enemy is they grab their weapons to fight. Porof thinks he grabs his javelins, only to find his trusty glaive in his hands. While the others fight Aluwyn tries to wake up the other two Havarast and Lin but she miserably fails as the two of them are currently in a snoring contest. As she leaves frustrated she sees that the first enemy, a Hobgoblin, already lies slain on the floor. Getting ready to strike down the second one a flash of lightning and a loud thunder breaks through the night and the second enemy is incinerated. Surprised of what just happened they now see Havarast in full birthday suite, double axe swinging and mighty beard waving like a banner running towards the now dead enemies. And behind them they only see a foot slipping into the tent and soon after they hear a very proud snore.
Nightmares and Fiends
After the nightly ambush, the group wakes up and as Ruven goes to check on his trap, he finds a freshwater stream nearby. Everybody fills up their waterskins, the camp is broken down and the group is on their merry way. The slain Hobgoblins are left for the animals, after being searched thoroughly and relieved of some silver coins.
After the group has been walking for a while, Havarast notices a suspicious raven seemingly following them. Kylin decides to shoot a fire bolt at it. This causes the bird to dive into the high grass and transform into a rat. This rat proceeds to bite Porof in the foot. Kylin enlarges Porof roughly to the size of a troll while he tries to shake off the now tiny rat. The creature transforms again, this time into a spider that climbs on Porof shoulder, only to get taken out by a magic missile shot by Kylin. As the creature lays on the ground, dying, it transforms once more to an ugly, red being, before vanishing into thin air.
The group walks on, pretty shook from this experience and sets up camp in the evening.
At dawn after an event less night, a pitch black mare with burning mane emerges from a suddenly appearing portal in the middle of a camp and attacks Alloro. It is slain with combined effort from the group, but only after injuring Alloro and reacting to a hurled insult from Aluwyn, in abysmal. This fact shows that this mare is a fiend, originating from the depths of hell.
Havarast now remembers a childhood-story about how this woods are cursed and lone travellers often disappeared without a trace. Indeed, both elves feel that the forest all around them are corrupted and deeply disturbed. This becomes clear again when Ryo suddenly dashes off into the woods, so Ruven has to chase after him.
Following Ruven, Aluwyn and Havarast make the acquaintance with yet another shapeshifter-creature. While catching his dire wolf, Ruven discovers the entrance of a cave, from which shines a light.
After conferring, it is decided to explore this cave. Once inside, the group is attacked by a creature with a seemingly alive beard that can also attack its opponents. Shortly after engaging this creature, it is joined by a second of his kind. Both were split in half by Porof and his almighty glaive, over which he seems to lose control more and more.
Exploring the cave a bit more, they find two furious caged water hags. Their prison ward is a more powerful, evil hag that engages the group in a drawn out battle and also seems to be behind the shapeshifters that plagued the group before. She calls more of her shapeshifting servants, ultimately causing Ryo to go down. Havarast, after exchanging hits with the hag, is being cut down as well, but Aluwyn heals him quickly afterwards. Ruven in turn manages to stabilise the condition of his dire wolf.
Meanwhile, Porofs mighty weapon developed a mind of its own and tries its best to corrupt Porof to go into a blood rage. Porof only narrowly keeps control over his body as his friends fight for their lives against both the hag and her shapeshifting servants.
The Cursed Treasure
The fight continues and the party is badly injured. But in the end, they managed to defeat the nighthag which is now unconscious. Aluwyn puts the hag in manacles and Kylin is already picturing herself how she is going to wring everything out of the hag. Aluwyn is extinguishing the five candles on top of the skulls one by one, each flame shortly growing before finally dying. Only two candles are left, but the moment Aluwyn tries to extinguish the second last one, it disappears; the same happens with the last one. Havarast who is currently sitting on top of the hag, suddenly falls to the ground.
Just after everyone’s heart skipped a beat, the hag reappears with her bloodcurdling laugh, unscathed and with two goblins. The goblins both equipped with gruesome blades and hiding their faces behind long hoods start attacking Porof and Aluwyn. Both are not able to withstand the assault and go down. Alloro and Kylin are dealing heavy blows but the goblins don’t seem to care, as they feel fear nor pain. Ruven strikes with both his blades and pierces one of the goblins skull, dealing a devastating blow. Aluwyn who is bleeding out musters her last strength and manages to stand up, save Porof from certain death, and throw an insult at the last goblin, so devastating that the worm in its eye turns back in shame and eats the brain.
The party can finally rest.
Alloro and Kylin are now trying to get the other two Hags inside the cages to talk. One is unable to speak because of her missing tongue, the other one despite being tortured by Kylin, is only willing to cooperate if she is guaranteed her freedom. Kylin promises to release her, but only when the party is going to leave themselves. Further inspecting the cave, Kylin finds a button in a small hole inside the wall which opens to another room, filled with mountains of gold and gems.
Meanwhile Ruven and Alloro are outside hunting for food. Ruven is playing a game of “can Alloro spot me”. After shooting a buck Ruven asks Alloro about the head in the sky. Alloro explains that he has been framed by a rival family, banished from his homeland and is kill on sight for all elves.
Back in the cave Kylin and Aluwyn have learnt that the treasure is probably cursed, as Aluwyn had a bad feeling while touching it. Kylin finds a weird bottle with storm clouds and a ship inside. She recognizes the ship as the legendary “Devil’s Fall” a ship that is knows by every sailor, even though most don’t believe in those fairy tales. Aluwyn goes to wake up Porof but tries to touch his glaive. Porof suddenly sitting up, having blue instead of his normal brown eyes, seems different. Aluwyn is scared by Porof's weird behaviour and casts charm on him. The person controlling Porof's body introduces itself as Suffering. After regaining control, Porof explains how Suffering is talking to him and wants him to go east to the lake.
Ruven and Alloro finally return from their successful hunt with enough meat for days. The group has set up watch shifts and tries to catch some rest. In the middle of the night a man with his head in his lap, riding a dark horse arrives at the cave. The mysterious man does not show any signs of hostility and says that he is looking for something for his captain. The man is oblivious of the fact that his head is not on top of his neck.
< a lot of head puns later >
Kylin returns into the cave to wake up Porof, who is the only one that is still asleep. Kylin quickly closes the secret door and hides the button. The party finds out that the man is called Jack and served on the Devil’s fall. Jack enters the cave and quickly finds the secret button but is confused why he could not find his ship among the treasures.
Kylin and Aluwyn argue about what to do with the ship that Kylin pocketed. Kylin wants to keep the legendary ship but Aluwyn wants to return it. Porof butts in and proposes to return the ship so Jack owes the party a favour. After Kylin hands the ship to Porof he goes to Jack and shows it to him. Jack announces that the one who finds the Devil’s fall, shall be its captain, making Porof the new captain of the Devil’s fall. The group decides to use the ship to intercept their dwarven brothers in Marymar.
The following roles have been assigned to/picked by the party members:
- First Mate: Kylin
- Navigator: Marco
- Gunner: Havarast
- Crow’s nest: Ruven
- Captain: Porof
- Quartermaster: Jack
Running in Circles
After an uneventful night the group, except Alloro who is still sleeping, starts to discuss about their plan again, and conclude that they will the lake first. Kylin wants to test the reaction of one of the hags to the cursed treasure, so she throws a gem at the cage which somehow gives the hag the power to rip the cage open. She laughs and flees from the cave.
Kylin concludes that the treasure’s curse cannot be that bad, puts on a shiny ring and fills her pockets with gold. Ruven starts cooking the remaining bunny and gives its skin to Havarast while waiting for Alloro to stop his meditation. Aluwyn still wants to experiment with the treasure and puts on a glove to touch the treasure. A warm feeling crawls into her arm, and she wants someone else to give the treasure to the remaining hag. Jack starts filling up a bag with gold and throws a coin to Aluwyn who then directly throws it to the hag. The hag seems to not be affected at all and inspects the coin. She starts to turn from blue to pale and back. She also mentions that she does not need money while scarying Aluwyn.
Alloro wakes up and first asks why they changed the plan again. Porof explains it and then lets Alloro inspect his glaive. It seems to be some sort of host for a soul of a female.
After another discussion about the second sea hag they decide to keep their word and let her free. Porof tries to break the cage but fails. Havarast wants to have a go at the cage as well and gets pushed back by some force when he tries to break it. Alloro inspects the cage and realizes that there are runes all over it. He destroys one of them with his sword, which starts to glow magically while cutting. This allows Havarast to finally SMASH the cage.
The sea hag holds her word as well and tells the group about the treasure. It does not seem to be cursed, but marked with a location spell. If the group steals the treasure the hag will probably follow them and try to get it back. After harassing some members of the group, the sea hag finally leaves.
After a long discussion guided by greed they split up the treasure between the members who have touched it. Havarast is asked to inspect the gems to be able to take the most valuable with them. He instinctively grabs the gem presented to him, making him affected as well. Aluwyn empties out her bag of gold, which Alloro tries to avoid by jumping around. They replace all the gold with the most valuable gems.
Finally, they start their journey to the lake, passing by a burnt down tree. They walk a day’s worth of distance and then set up their camp. After a failed attempt to train Ryo and Havarast laughing about it they go to sleep. During the second watch something big seems to build up on the horizon. It collapses immediately after the sound of a big explosion.
The next morning there still is a visible dust cloud in the east. They continue their travels to the west. Alloro and Ruven were teaching Porof how to navigate on land which after a while turned into Alloro and Havarast arguing about mountains vs hills.
In the evening Aluwyn tries to find out more about the treasure’s curse by identifying Kylin's ring, and is somehow able to cure her by using a stone she found in the night hag’s lair. She decides to check out everyone in one of the tents in a pretty rapey manner. She does not find anything on Alloro, Havarast and Ruven.
She then moves on to check out Porof and his glaive, which turns out to be harder than expected. She tries to touch his glaive which starts to glow, lighting up the whole tent. Porof puts his glaive outside of the tent, but somehow is not able to. He thinks he did but he did not and gets pretty pissed about everything. Aluwyn decides to inspect Porof first, but he struggles to get his shirt off with his glaive in his hand. He gets more and more pissed and accidentally cuts a hole in the tent. Aluwyn finally gets to inspect him, but his glaive starts glowing again slowly taking over his whole arm. Aluwyn charms Porof as she thinks it’s the only way to get him to put his glaive outside. The whole process repeats and he still has his glaive in his hand. The people around the tent are visibly confused. Aluwyn tries to inspect him again, ignoring the glow and the force which pushes her back. An ethereal halfling woman start to grow out of Porof. Aluwyn tries to touch the ethereal woman but gets pushed back hard. At this point the whole group interferes and Havarast tries to hold down the ethereal woman. Aluwyn shifts into the ethereal plane and asks the woman what’s wrong, to which she replied “get off of me”. Aluwyn then shifts back and gets hit by the woman’s ethereal glaive. The woman then pushes back Havarast and gets back into Porof, who is still pissed. The woman’s last words mentioned that the group was going for the wrong lake, and that the correct one is further to the west. “On the other side of the lake, across the tundra, across two rivers and the last hill”.
The group expect for Porof discussed the situation and decided to change the plan again and go north to the mountain chain, waiting for their brothers.
A leap into the ocean
Waking up the next day the party realize that Aluwyn has gone missing. Deciding to go looking for her and go hunting at the same time the two humans and the two elves split up in different directions. They agreed on meeting up again within an hour. Kylin tries to make the hunting a competition starts a bet, that the elves do not seem to take to seriously. Porof and Kylin find in the north a lot of rabbit holes. The two humans split up and cover as many holes as possible. Kylin fires a series of magic missile to kill 3 rabbits while Porof almost scores a home run by kicking a rabbit over a large distance.
Meanwhile Alloro and Ruvencome across some tracks that later get identified as warg tracks. Upon this discovery the returned back to camp which has been guarded so far by Havarast. After relaying the threat and agreeing to immediately head to the beach the party gets ready to leave. Lin is still quick to point out that the humans won this round of hunting making the score 1:0 to the humans. Regarding Aluwyn disappearance the party agrees that she either will meet up at the beach or she will find her own way.
At the beach the party meet up again with the dwarves. Swiftly the three sailors Alloro,Porof and Lin jump into the ocean and swim out for about 500 ft. The dwarves just watch on in amusement of how crazy they are. Once far enough out Porof opens up the bottle. After a brief second the ship slowly pushes itself magically through the opening of the bottle with numerous thunderclouds. Once the boat is fully afloat the sailors board the ship where Linand Alloro immediately get assaulted by a monkey. After inspecting the ship and anchoring the rest of the party get picked up from the beach. On the ship the group decide on spending a day anchored to teach the inexperienced in the hopes of having an easier journey to the land of the goblins.
The Dust Cloud
After Alloro goes for a swim in the morning (and makes a habit of it as the group stays anchored), the sailors try to teach the dwarves the basics of sailing. While Torball, Numbnumb and Hardel learn rather quickly, Havarast and Marduk have a hard time because they are too busy puking over the reeling. Ruven has a few herbs that would remedy the puking, but he is reluctant to hand them over, which leads to Havarast puking in his hammock at night. Due to Aluwyn missing, Havarast gets ‚promoted‘ to engineer.
In the evening, everybody goes swimming and it ends in a water fight between the dwarves and the rest of the crew. After Kylin casts enlarge on Porof, this fight ends rather quickly though.
On the way to the village north of Marymar, the group encounters a big dust-cloud, probably coming from what used to be Marymar. They sail around it and arrive at the village some three days later. As they are sailing under no flag, the group is met with distrust and the major of the village, Eastwatch, refuses to trade with them. However, he agrees to trade if they escort a messenger, the 15 year old Eggbert, to Direward. Leopold, the major, tells the group that Marymar one day rose into the sky before plummeting down on the ground again. A few days later, a black ship with undead creatures landed on the beach and raided the village. All messengers sent to Direward never returned, therefore we should escort Eggbert.
While the group waits on the beach for the travel-preparations to Direward to finish, Eggbert invites Alloro to show him part of the path they would be travelling. Havarast decides to join them. The boy suddenly attacks Alloro with a dagger. Havarast swings his battle axe, but the ‚boy‘ seems to be resistant to all his efforts and transforms into a cat-like creature. On the other hand, Alloro with his magic sword does not seem to have this problem. The creature charms Alloro into attacking Havarast, but the spell vanishes after Havarast hits Alloro once. Due to Havarast axe not making any damage, he decides to incapacitate and gag the creature while Alloro fights him with his magic sword. The claws of the creature almost kill both of them, making Havarast unconscious. Alloro just barely manages to kill it with a spell after it turned invisible and tried to run away.
After the rest of the group finds their badly wounded companions and they are returning to the village, Leopold denies knowing anything about these creatures, but he is clearly horrified. Also, Eggbert was with him at all times, so the attacking creature could not have been Eggbert. After taking everything from the creature, including two vials, two daggers and a handwritten note, it is buried. The group returns to the ship for the night, where Havarast regains his consciousness again. Jack can shed light on the ominous note the creature had on him and informs the group that it was most likey a Rakshasa and the note is a death-note. This note usually has a name on it and the Rakshasa will not rest until either itself or the creature whos' name is written on the note is dead.
During the night, neither Alloro nor Havarast can get any rest, because they have horrible nightmares. This will continue in the following nights as well, leaving them exhausted and not rested in the morning.
The next morning, the group and Eggbert start their journey towards Direward. While they are talking to Eggbert, he mentions that Rigalis, whom the group met before in Marymar, is now a refugee from there, but Eggbert hasn't seen him for several days now. The closer the group gets to the dust cloud surrounding what used to be Marymar, the deader the nature gets. During the night watches, the group spots humanoid figures walking around in the dust, but they‘re never getting any closer to their camp.
Once the group is nearing the dust cloud, Havarast notices that the cloud seems to expand, and not for natural reasons.
The group gets swallowed by the cloud soon after and all the light sources they have prepared (a fire, several torches and several magic light orbs) die and the visibility is very poor. The only light source seemingly unimpressed by the dust is an elvish light Porof has on him.
The humanoid figures spotted earlier, now approach them. Their movement is stiff and slow. The group assumes they are zombies and attack them. The battle is won quickly and with little damage taken. Though they are still lost in the dust cloud with no sense of direction and wander around in it, seemingly aimlessly searching for Direward. The only reason they don‘t lose themselves is because they have tied themselves together with a long rope.
The Source of the Cloud
The party was still trapped inside the dustcloud, their vision limited to only a few meters, no way to tell north from south and limited food and water. Any fire they try to make gets slowly extinguished by the dust, the only thing keeping the darkness away are Kylin's dancing lights. After drifting around for countless hours, the party decides to rest. While everyone is sleeping, Porof hears how more of the previous encountered creatures walk into the camp. The creatures seem to ignore Porof whose loudest noise is his heartbeat. Havarast is less subtle in his approach and uses his greataxe to make quick work of the first creature he sees. As the combat sounds seem to leave the camp, Porof checks the rope that was supposed to connect the party members, just to realize that Havarast's end has been cut. Now everyone is awake but there is nothing the party can do. They only find a few dismembered creatures with blue skin, long nails and teeth.
The rest of the night passes eventless.
On the next day, the party finds that the dust is less dense in one direction. Following this direction, the party arrives at a steep cliff. Hesitating but after seeing that the dust is less dense downwards the party descends into the unknown. The theory emerges that this crater, which was not on any map, might be where Marymar used to be. Arriving at the bottom the party sees a familiar crooked man, Wormtongue. He seems to be chanting something, only Ruven [or Alloro, not sure anymore] recognized the language as black speech. Wormtongue does not make a welcoming impression and talks about his master Blaidd Drwg (bad wolf). Kylin and Porof try to play it cool and walk away from this but Wormtongue has other plans. A large spherical creature with a large eye in the middle and four tentacles growing out of it rises from the dust and attacks the party. Wormtongue turns away from the party and walks through a portal that opens in front of him. Ruven proclaims that the portal must lead to a place in the far west by how the other side looks. Alloro and Kylin unleash a barrage of brutal attacks on the creature but it does not seem to feel pain. Hit by a beam from one of the tentacles Porof runs from the creature, towards Eggbert and throws him on the ground. Alloro is chopping off one tentacle after another but before the last tentacle has been cut a bright beam hits him and reduces him to a pile of ash. After finishing off the creatures the party gathers around the pile of ash that used to be Alloro. Porof collects Alloro's ashes inside the bottle of the devils fall. Next to where the portal was the party finds six bodies, 3 elves with green, blue and yellow robes, a human in purple, a dragonborn in gray garment and a gnome wearing something that looks similar to what Alluwyn wore. The dragonborn is the only alive, even though barely. In his dying breaths he wispers: “I’m sorry for it”. The bodies show signs of torture, but the cause of death seems to be exhaustion. With Wormtongue’s disappearing the dustcloud also started to settle. Now finally being able to see, the party can make out that they are indeed inside a crater. After burning the Beholder’s body, the party leaves the crater westwards where they find the sea where they put up camp. Ruven playing with Ryo manages to teach him how to [disengage] from combat.
During the first guard shift Eggbert wakes up the group claiming to have spotted a wolf. Porof takes out a javelin and throws his glaive, missing the wolf by a few meters. After further inspection the wolf looks more like a sheep. As the sheep approaches the party it starts turning into a human. The human introduces himself as Astreus, a traveller and spellcaster. Astreus carries a rusty greatclub and a sling with stones. Astreus explains to Porof that the stones are magical and after a disbelieving look promptly demonstrates them and convinces him that they really contain magic. Astreus also displays his magic skills showing the party that he can handle himself in combat. Together with Astreus the party follows the path to Direward. Except for the ferry station missing, Porof being visible unsettled by Direwoods and Ruven spending the evening teaching Ryo, nothing noteworty happens before the party arrives at Direward.
With their banishment in mind the party wants to send Astreus with Eggbert so they don’t have to enter Direward, but seeing it completely deserted they enter anyway to further investigate what is going on. As the party visits the tavern, they get confronted by a small group of warriors whose leader calls himself Rasputin. Rasputin tells the party that warforged attacked the village and Putin died an honourable death protecting the villagers who fled into the forest. Rasputin wants to talk to Eggbert alone and tells the party to wait in the tavern in the meantime. Astreus turns into a rat after he enters the tavern and tries to eavesdrop on Rasputin, but a guard throws his javelin at him as he leaves the tavern and turns him right back into his human form. Astreus explains that he only wanted to find a barn to make himself comfortable.
The party forks up
Druid (Astreus) wants to stay in Direward to fill up potions. Porof argues that they should leave now to return to the village with Eggbert for the message. They agree to help the Druid find his ingredients When they leave the tavern, Havarast bolts into the tavern, apparently being chased by a bug bear (Fork). The bear is accompanied by a mechanical panda with spoons for ears. Asteus casts growing spiky plants out of the floor around Havarast and the Bugbear. Havarast tries to tackle Asteus but hilariously fails. Havarast and Fork are being chased by weird tentacle beard creatures. As the group is reunited, a third creature bursts into the tavern through the backdoor. It is all chained up and is weilding two chains. Meanwhile, two of the bearded devils are breakting through the door despite the effort of Porof. Ruven kills the chain devil with two arrows (they break). After the group finally killed the two devils and the chained devil, yet another big ass, 18ft creature appears and attacks Kylin, almost killing her, while she‘s floating outside the tavern. She teleports back to the tavern and they unanimously decide to get the fuck out of there. Fork teleports the whole group (and Eggbert) to the shadowfell. Thanks to a magic coin Fork got from his mentor, the group manages to return to the material plane again, inside a halfling‘s hut. The halfling woman apparently remembers fork (both think Balthasar, forks mentor, is either a wanker or a piss-wizard). After a bit, Fork remembers that the woman was an old friend of his mentor, Bree. Apparently, the coin that brought the group there is linked to a coin Bree has in her possession. By chance, Bree lives in Eastwatch, the village where they set off with Eggbert. Eggbert is pretty shaken from this ordeal. Bree asks the group to hitch a hike from the group. Ruven (quite unsucessfully) tries to convince the major of Eastwatch that they fulfilled their side of the contract and they should trade with them. Bree interrupts the argument and asks the group to wait inside the hut while she discusses someting with the major. The group notices some magic happening happening and when Havarast tries to retrieve his Great Axe he left outside, they notice Bree trashing the village guard. Afterwards, she vanishes. The major agreed to restock the groups supplies and while the group waits for the supplies on the beach, a dwarven soldier approaches Havarast and respectfully addresses him as a captain. Havarast, taking aback from this unexpected sign of respect considering his rather unhonorable ‚discharge‘ from the army, fucks up this encounter in every way humanly (or, dwarvenly) possible. The soldier tells Havarast to just get outta here and take Bree with them.
Heading for new shores
Note by the transcriber: Those pages have been exposed to fluids and cannot be recovered. Sorry ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
After leaving Bree’s house the group heads towards the ship. On their way the group splits up, Kylin, Ruven and Astreus head straight to the ship, while Porof and Havarast want to check out Eastwatch. Havarast and Porof get stopped by a small group of battle-hardened looking dwarves. The one leading the group acts condescending towards Havarast and Porof, Havarast sends Porof away and tells him that he will handle this himself. The dwarf who is Havarast’s Nephiew is asking him to rescue his sister who got abducted by goblins and Havarast replies that he was going to kill all those goblins either way and he will keep an eye open for her. Meanwhile Kylin, Astreus and Ruven board the Devil’s fall, finding hungry and displeased dwarves that have been waiting for a good meal for quite some time now, expecting a much sooner return of the group. Kylin decides to serve some of the expensive alcohol they still have in the barrel and hand out good gold to appease the crew.
After Havarast and Porof have caught up with the group, the Major arrives with a pie his wife baked to thank the adventurers. The adventurers tell the Major everything that happened, what happened to Marymar, how they lost Aloro, what caused the dustcloud, how Direwards got raided and about the encounter with the demonic gigantic creature. Ruven and Kylin make a quick shopping trip and return with some herbs and a flute.
After some more drinking and feasting, Porof asks for a moment of silence, to commemorate their fallen comrade Alloro. After holding a short speech Porof puts Alloros ashes on a plank together with an elven charm that shines a light to guide Alloro in the dark. Before leaving their view, a small cloud in the shape of Alloro rises from the sea and bids the group a last farewell. The new crewmember Astreus is given the role of the ship’s medic.
The next day, Kylin now also in charge of navigation besides training the dwarves and her regular duties as first mate is staring to take longer and longer shifts, and the steadily decreasing reserve of alcohol does not make the situation any better. A weird devil in a suit appears on the ship and introduces himself as Salarus, a businessman who could not care less about the devilsfall and is only in for the money. Not many trusting him, the crew declines his offers but keeps his “businesscard” just in case. Salarus says that whenever they need him they can call him with it, but he’s not a mercenary. He also informs the crew that there is a bounty on their heads, which leads to some banter.
Havarast 2500 gold
Porof 1000 gold
Ruven 800 gold
Kylin 600 gold
After seeing Porof going away from the group and starting to talk to himself, Astreus tries eavesdrop on him. He hears how Porof is talking to someone while holding his glaive, making a deal that for one hour she can do what she wants but won’t require any more praising. After this strange encounter, Porof starts exercising and jumping around, climbing the mast and other weird stuff. Astreus going back to his hobby continues brewing potions under deck.
After a few days of traveling westwards Ruven calls “Land ahead”, in front of a huge cliff the ship stops, and the adventurers leave to climb the big wall. Havarast is all to eager to finally set foot on land again and leads the climb. Arriving at the top Ruven finds some goblin tracks and off goes Porof in the direction Ruven was pointing. The charge is stopped by an arrow flying towards the group from the brushes and six goblins standing in front of Porof requesting them to pay toll. Porof avoids paying any toll by cutting them down in one single swoop of his glaive. Kylin shoots a firebolt in the brush from where the arrow came flying, and Havarast quickly charges into the brush. Further following the tracks and leaving a bloody trail behind the adventurers arrive at a cave with even more goblins.
Gobblin' up them Enemies
Note by the transcriber: I vaguely remember them entering some cave?
As they spot the first hobgoblins, they start to attack them like animals while being escorted by a group of crocodiles. The hobgoblins form a strong shield wall with tower shields that can't be broken. Porof, the hero he is, jumps right over it, ignoring the danger of being enclosed by a shield wall with the enemy. Shortly after Porof drops to 0hp the crocodiles are able to bash through the wall, leaving a small opening in the middle. The party kills two of the goblins, forcing the rest to flee. Havarast charges after them, running straight onto the bridge the goblins just lit on fire. He crashes through it into the stream below that leads out of the cave. He run then runs back to the group, straight through the magical spikes laid down just moments before by Ruven.
After a discussion as usual they decide to follow through with their genial plan to observe the cave for the following hours. They leave the cave in the direction they came from, making a huge circle around the entrance to the other side, all while hiding their tracks. But the plan did not yield the results they expected. After a whole day and night of observing they conclude that the entrance will probably not be used anymore in the near future. As their goal seems to be on the top of the mountain anyways, they decide to walk back in direction of their brothers, the rest of the dwarves, and look for another way up the hill.
On the way back Porof tells Kylin to tell Porof that they were ambushed by the goblins. Finally reunited with the dwarves they decide to race to the top of the next hill where the smoke seems to come from. Astreus transforms into a warhorse and offers to Kylin to take her with him on his back. She thankfully accepts but struggles a little bit without a saddle. Porof gives Suffering 20 more minutes of taking over time, to beat the rest in the race, in exchange for 20 less minutes the next day. (which was kinda dumb from the start if you ask me, you can’t beat a warhorse).
On top of the hill Astreus, the winner of the race, is the first one to catch sight of an unknown village. A village inhabited by goblins and dwarves, seemingly built in the last few years out of wood and strongly defended. The rest of the group arrives out of breath on the top as well, and after a short rest they decide to talk with one of the guards first, before killing everyone.
Refugee’s village
The Group I joined is more aggressive then I expected. They seem to hate goblins especially. Know we stand in front of a simple tow with many goblin villagers. Wat could go wrong?!!
The village is protected whit a simple Wood wall and the entrance is missing a Door. It seems the villager don’t like new commers but let us in after we offer our help. After we enter the village our alcoholic relies there is no bar. But at least they have a barrack wit alcohol.
Our first goal is to talk to the leader of this ladle refugee’s village. Hi reign from an old impressive Temple. Whit a short discussion whit the guards in front of the temple we were granted entrance. The leader is called captain whit the name Stort. Clearly, he has rage issue. I tried to come him down whit a spell, but Kaylin stopped mi but still I am nut Shure way. After an un pleasant discussion Stort agreed to give us an Opportunity to earn his trust.
The first quest we earned was to kill a goblin king scout camp. We sneak up to the camp and trayed to kill them whit my wolf. The goal was to make it look like a normal wolf attack and let’s hope it worked. On the way to the scout camp we meet some other scouts. It’s looks like they are on our sit so we let them go.
Information’s we acquired from our new hopefully allays. The goblin King has 5 armies 1. The Kings guard. Very powerful warriors and their leader is called Wahrchisch 2. Blaugt 3. Pareed the sneaky. The scout camp we wiped out is a part of his army. 4. Kuart the fearless 5. Glien the tactican
Forging Aliances
The attack on the goblins was a complete success all thanks to little Riou covering up for either Porofs of Havarst oversight. After having to urge the group on to keep up the disguise of a wolf attack. Without any issues we made it back to the rebell camp. There we offered to help on an urgent issue of getting supplies. So as quickly as possible we pack up and head north with a freindly warning that the canyon is ideal for ambushes. Within the same day we arrive at said canyon the stupidest asset of the group ie porofs weapon decides to pick a fight with a griffin and some harpies fainting in the process and keeping here track record of victories near zero. I swear once I get the cahnce I will through her into a damn volcano someday. Eitherway after saving the two brutes arses we decide to climb the small canyon to sleep for the night. Funny how they alls truggled to get up that small cliff. Even took the good boi up the mointain with me without a sweat.
