#we have to get to an entrance to the underdark. go THROUGH the underdark. find a magic circle that will transport us

[newvegascowboy]

There are also 3 people in this game that are realllyy excited to go back to the hub city to watch red awkwardly fail through a date, but we have to go on the world's longest sidequest first and its probably not going to happen for a real time month

#not fallout #kal talks #kal plays dnd #the last time we had a sidequest of this magnitude it was like. the end og September ans allll of October before we completed it #we have to get to an entrance to the underdark. go THROUGH the underdark. find a magic circle that will transport us #across the continent up north (to a place that is befuckeningly bad) #locate a laboratory #find the guy trapped in the laboratory #rescue him #kidnap him #taake him BACK ACROSS THE CONTINENT AND OUT OF THE UNDERDARK #and deliver him to the spore queen #thats like. probably 5 sessions minimum #i just think ita so funny that the dm and one other player arw both like teehee its going to be so fun and weve been talking about it foreve #and its not going to happen for so long lmaoo

[taki-yaki]

A Dhampir's Dietary Needs

Pairing: Astarion x F!Reader/Tav/Durge

Word Count:1588

Your recent studies on vampires led you to research their offspring, dhampirs. One of these books shows how the diet of a dhampir is never as simple as it seems. (Tw: Mainly domestic fluff, Dhampirs and their diets, light mentions of flesh, blood and cerebral spinal fluid but never in graphic detail)

As Promised here is a lighter fluff fic to balance out The Chains That Bind Us

In the lone, abandoned, fortress, deep in the Underdark in a small house, Tav lay on her shared bed, deep into her research on vampire species in hopes of a better understanding or cure. The abandoned fortress grows, day by day as more and more spawn find the haven in hopes of regaining a semblance of normal life.

Her recent studies have led her to read about the various subspecies of vampires, dhampirs, half-vampire half-mortal creatures, who live life like a vampire but with none of the restrictions of one. Allowed to walk through the sun without being turned to ash. 

However, dhampirs were not free from the curse their undead parent had bestowed on them, although they could resist the hunger pains via consuming food, each dhampir seemed to have unique tastes for certain life sources.

A sudden shift of weight onto the bed interrupted her train of thought, “Hosting book club tonight without me darling, how rude” your pale lover teased, taking off his armour to lie down next to you. 

Astarion had finished his rounds on the fortress with the other vampire spawn, looking as if he was ready to collapse at any moment.

“Did Petras cause trouble for you again star?”, 

You knew that some of the new spawn would have caused one or two issues during their first few days in the colony but Petras seemed to be a beacon for it but still managed to stay in the group either through luck or pity, much to Astarion's annoyance.

“No.. not today, just that it's quiet….for once,” He says with a heavy sigh. Quickly he cuddles up next to you on the shared bed, now wearing his class white shirt.

“I see you still have your head stuck in those dusty notes, any new skills that I can show off darling?” he spoke with a grin, the thought of him discovering another vampiric ability that he never knew before fills him with glee. 

Reminding you of when awoke to him hanging upside down from the ceiling a few days after the defeat of the netherbrain, scaring the hells out of you.

Turning your attention back to the book, he wasn’t wrong about it being dusty though as you found it after the defeat of Cazador in his manor, was a collection of books about vampires written by the mysterious Lady Incognita had been a great assistance with the advancements into the colony, through the knowledge of vampiric biology to diseases. However, this book differed from the others, written by a scholar in Ravenloft centuries ago who did personal interviews with dhampirs.

Facing the elf, you spoke, “We can read it together if you’d like?”.

He lets out a soft hmph he knows how he can get lost in your voice all day, entranced by you like a siren, although with less of the murder part.

“By all means my love, go ahead, Gods knows how many I’ve read to you, it’s only fair that you spoil me this time.” He responded with a fanged grin.

Quickly trying to recompose yourself, clearing your throat, you start reading the chapter.

' Throughout my research on dhampirs, I have discovered that each of the participants has special dietary needs, while most dhampirs have the pangs of hunger to consume blood, as shown by their lineage from vampires or spawn, there are a small few who seem to break this norm, by having acquired different tastes. '

' One of the participants was shown to have the urge to consume flesh or raw meat, usually, they would consume the meat of animals over humanoid flesh. '

“Urgh, you’re reminding me of awful gnolls we had to fight” he muttered with a look of disgust on his face as he spoke. “I mean blood is much better to deal with, and besides it’s less of a mess on the clothing….and the smell isn’t as bad either…” He mutters to himself quietly.

' One interesting dhampir I studied, talked about how they were attacked by a rare vampiric illithid but were lucky enough to survive the attack. In most cases, dhampirs have a hunger towards blood, but this participant has their diet curated towards the cerebral spinal fluid in the body, preferring to drink from animals and thieves. ’

“I think we’ve had our fair share of bathing in illithid slime throughout our adventure with the mind flayers, and curating to the diet of one is just….. urk ” Holding back a lump in his throat, the thought of someone willing to consume such things is too much.

“Hmm, a vampiric illithid though,” you ponder,  “I haven’t heard of that before” With a pause, you turn to him “Do you think the tadpole would have made you one?”

“Please don’t finish that thought darling, I don’t want to recall the illithid parts of our adventures.”

With a quick sleight of hand, he takes the book from you, skipping a few pages ahead in the entry. Before swiftly handing it back to you. “There, this should be an interesting read and less of the tentacle diet”.

'While most dhampirs prefer to feast upon physical sources from living creatures, there is a small group who target that of the mental energy in creatures.'

' Some dhampirs aren't always made by a vampiric transformation being interrupted or by being an offspring of one. One was infected by a mind flayer tadpole and their body rejected the parasite, which as a result halted the ceremorphosis process, but caused a mutation in them of wanting to feast on people's psychic energy .'

“I’m sure just being around Petras does that anyway” he grumbled.

You respond to his remark with a simple “mm-hmm”, knowing how much the simple-minded questions he asks seem to have the ability to drain your mental energy for the rest of the day. Living up to Astarion’s claim when you first met him in Farygo’s flop house a few months ago on your adventures.

' Other forms of mental energy that they consume are dreams. Through other living creatures who can dream via sleep or trance. Despite the other forms of hunger seeming to be harmful to others, or hard to obtain, this form of hunger has no negative side effects for those who fall victim and is a good cure against night terrors but will leave the victim slightly forgetful the next day '

You wait for his next witty jab to come along after you finish reading out the last line, only to be greeted with a bout of nothing but his knotted brow, lost in his thoughts before his mouth began to open once again, slowly this time.

“Good against night terrors….”

It leaves his lips like a stray afterthought.

Even after creating a better life together for both of you in the Underdark, escaping from the horrors of your previous lives to create something new. The one unavoidable thing is the memories that it leaves. Especially the effect on beings who go into a trance forced to relive the situation. 

Ever so slowly you reach out to touch his hand that lay flat, resting on the soft covers. 

His skin is cold to the touch, you softly squeeze it to reassure him of your presence, his safety, 

pulling him out of his musing.

His head snapped back to glaze into your eyes, and a soft smile greets you.

“I’m sorry, my sweet, I was just lost in my thoughts then”

“I-I can stop reading for now if you want me to-” Your voice was abruptly cut off.

His cold fingers touch your lips before he opens his mouth to speak once again.

“It’s fine love, carry on, this is what I want , to hear your voice.” His hand moves to cup your cheek, kissing your forehead lightly with a soft peck.

Reminding you that creating these moments of comfort is the best counterweight to the years of misery thrust upon you both.

“So” Astarion declared “Are you going to continue spoiling me with tonight's reading session?” 

“Huh-? oh um yes” snapping your face back to the book, heat still clinging to your face.

Reaching the last section of the chapter you speak aloud clearing a lump in your throat.

'The last form of hunger I was unable to a living dhampir but ancient texts describe those who drain the life energy from living creatures, similar to the spells of necromancy magic, they sustain their hunger by sucking the life essence from others.'

Reading that last sentence sends a shiver down your spine, the thought of someone constantly feeding off a part of you that can’t be replaced naturally, slowly draining you day after day.

“Hmm, you know, we could just get Gale to sort that out when we cross that line”

“Besides, he ate most of our magic items back when we were adventuring, he’d know a thing or two about that.”

Giving him a light jab in the side, he shifts off the bed stretching his limbs to stand up. 

“This was a nice lecture love, but I must be off now, I’ll start preparing dinner for you”.

Watching him descend the stairs, silently hoping that he won’t burn your food to ash this time.

Ensuring you were out of earshot, muttering to himself, “a dhampir….Hmm, I wonder what ours would be like.” Would they still crave blood, but enjoy the appetite of the living? Or would they crave something else entirely?

A light laugh leaves him, seems that’s a story for another day.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This was a very sickly sweet piece I enjoyed writing, even if I had a bit of trouble with the fluff scenes to the point where I thought it might be too sweet for me.

I might write more domestic/dhampir stuff if you guys are interested.

#astarion x tav #astarion x durge #astarion x dark urge #astarion x reader #bg3 #baldur's gate 3 #bg3 astarion #astarion fanfic #writing #I have so much more to say as well about dhampirs #but I'll make it a separate fic in the future

[dmsden]

Exploring the Options - Making D&D’s other pillar more robust

Hullo, Gentle Readers. This week’s Question from a Denizen comes to us from ididitforthedogs, who asks, “The three pillars of DnD are combat, socializing, and exploring. Do you have any tips on how to build a good exploring section? My group does theater of the mind so it's not like we have a grid to use.”

In my experience, this can be an area where a lot of DM’s fall down a bit. Combat is pretty straightforward, and social interaction is baked into the whole “Role-Playing Game” thing. But what about Exploration? How do we make it interesting and exciting, to bring it online with the other pillars?

My first piece of advice is to avoid uninteresting terrain. If there’s a journey happening, and there’s nothing particular of interest for your PCs to encounter, simply state, “You travel for three days through the dense forest and emerge from the other side, no worse the wear for your experience.” I like to roll for random encounters before the journey even begins and to move things along to the interesting bits. If there’s nothing particularly exciting for the PCs to find in the forest, don’t belabor the point. Get to the good stuff!

The flip side to this is to make sure there’s interesting terrain for your players to encounter. Even in our own world, it’s hard to drive for more than a few miles without finding a natural feature of interest, a roadside attraction, or a store worth browsing. D&D is a fantasy world, potentially brimming with rivers made of lava, waterfalls that go up, forests of giant mushrooms, yawning caves, fairy glens, ancient ruins, and the like. But I have two rules when it comes to this kind of thing:

1. If the PCs are already on their way someplace interesting, don’t offer them too many distractions. The players may be wanting to get on to the Goblin Lair; they don’t necessarily need you to dangle an entrance into the Underdark. While that may be of potential interest, it threatens to derail the narrative, especially if it divides the players in their desire to continue towards their original goal. Instead, save the Underdark lair for when they’re returning to town to pick up their reward. Then they’ll have a potential new goal.

2. If you add something interesting to a journey for the PCs to explore, make their be some reward for taking the time to explore. I’m not saying put treasure into every curious corner of your world; a reward doesn’t have to be treasure. Perhaps eating the giant mushrooms gives the PCs a vision of an enemy they wish to confront. Maybe they can harvest glowing moss from near the lava river that they can use as a light source temporarily. Maybe they meet a merchant who’s also fascinated by the ancient ruin, giving them a chance to pick up some healing potions at a decent rate. In my campaign, information is often a reward. Stopping to examine some curious aspect of the landscape might yield a historical tale from a local, or advice on where to look for healing herbs, or the like.

When the PCs get where they’re going, Exploration should be just as important. One strong caveat I give in building dungeons is to make Exploration have significant choices. Let’s say they arrive at the Goblin Lair. Upon entering, they find three tunnels. If that’s all the information the PCs get, they don’t really have any significant decision to make, as all three tunnels are the same to them. Instead, you might tell them that one tunnel seems clean and well-used, with the stone looking well-worn by many years of foot traffic. The second tunnel might be eerily clean, with all dust and debris curiously absent. A third tunnel could be slowly descending, dusty and seemingly not used in many years, with a smell of decay wafting up from it. Now the PCs have choices to make that offer significant differences. The first tunnel sounds like it’s used by the goblins regularly. The second tunnel might be clean because of oozes that the goblins feed regularly to keep in check. The third tunnel might be a lair for undead that the goblins have learned to shun. Whatever the answers to the riddles posed by the information you’ve given them, the PCs can develop their own thoughts, and the choice they make will have some meaning.

Not every room needs to be significant, but there should be something of interest in any given area the PCs explore. Even a disused and empty room might have some kind of debris that helps tell a story. Is the dungeon the site of an ancient massacre? The PCs might find rusted and broken armor and weapons in otherwise empty rooms. Is it a cult’s temple? Empty rooms might be storehouses for robes, hanging on pegs, or storage chambers with food for the cultists. You can add broken potion bottles, alchemical burns on stone, walls, ceiling, or floors covered in ancient murals, rooms made of odd materials, rooms with odd magical properties, and the like, before you even think of adding traps, puzzles, tricks, and oddities.

Even if your party doesn’t have a rogue, you should occasionally add locks, secret doors, and traps into your games where they make sense. One thing I always say is not to put anything of crucial value behind a lock, trap, or secret door (or riddle or puzzle for that matter). If your dungeon can’t be finished without overcoming one of these, then there’s a chance your players won’t be able to finish it, and they’ll be disappointed. Instead, use these things to hide side bits, extra treasures, and maybe an encounter or two. Never allow your adventure to dead end.

I can strongly recommend adding oddities in to spice up the Exploration portion of your adventure. Once upon a time, they were super commonplace in the so-called “funhouse dungeons” of yesteryear. Rooms full of large vats of different colored liquids, old wizard labs with strange reagents, fountains with random magical effects, and enchanted stones that slowly scintillate different colors are all possible in dungeons. Dungeons can have, to use our beloved phrase from Starlord, “some weird shit!” And examining these, experimenting with them, and learning about them, all fall squarely under the Exploration heading.

I hope this article helped inspire you, friends. Until next week, may all your 20s be natural.

[littleblackgoldfish]

Sunfall Ch. 3

Previous Part

Chapter 3

Soli stared at the point of metal pointed at him. Over and over he drew a line between the vicious tip and his heart as it beat, thundering in his ears, against his ribs so violently he was surprised he couldn't see them bending.

Around him he heard voices mixing with the shing! of drawing blades and the whistle of spears swinging through the air.

There was an eternity that stretched itself through him between heartbeats. His feet were frozen to the broken paving stones and his thoughts wrapped around the point of an arrow like the flickering light of fire and lamp glinting off its blade. If he'd had anything to drink in the last… however many hours, he might have wet himself.

After a moment Soli slowly came back to himself.

In the seconds — had it been seconds, and not minutes or hours? — between all the initial shouting and now, not a single one of the people in the group had taken more than a step back in movement. Shock and fear washed in equal measures across their faces as they stared back at the line of rangers drawn tight as their bowstrings behind the wall of overturned tables and doors. All of them stood still and silent, waiting.

Until finally the shorter of the two boys of the group gathered his courage and called out to the rangers, "We're just- " he stopped, uncertain. What were they just; kids? Scared? Looking for answers?

"We're unarmed..."

He held out his hands, palms, palms up, nodding for the others to do the same. Put a spear or bow in Soli's hands and he would have been more of a threat to himself than any one of those rangers. And he didn't think any of the others would have been much more of a danger to the soldiers before them.

But, the rangers disagreed obviously. They wouldn't be pointing arrows at them otherwise. He still couldn't quite manage to tear his eyes from the closest arrow, not even to see who was holding it. When he tried the glinting point dragged them back.

He couldn't help wondering what it would feel like. To be shot with an arrow. Would it hurt? Would he feel it at all? Or would it be like in the stories where the Captain's friends didn't even notice they'd been hit until it seemed like they were safe again.

Kids never died inthe Captain Thellere stories. Not kids like Soli. Frontier villages kids, without names or personalities beyond hero worship, sure. And it was always tragedy.

But this wasn't a story and Soli knew he could die. Just like his mom. And dad. Probably his sisters and- no, he swallowed that though and tried to force his gaze up the shaft of the arrow.

Slowly, agonizingly, his eyes followed the arrowhead back thin shaft up past the fletching — black feathers, shining in the flickering light — to the hand holding the string of the bow — sun kissed, a shade or two darker than the girl in the sundress — and then up to the face behind the hand. He was surprised at how young the ranger looked, they probably weren't even as old as Ostra, and how naked the fear he saw in their eyes was. A twitch of the fingers and it would go flying. Soli watched the ranger's hand, white at the knuckle, grib the bow

And… a second later he watched it drop away, tracing an arc away from his heart and towards the ground. Soli watched as the ranger's face slackened, tiny crinkles around their eyes moothing out, and the lump of their throat bob slightly. Distantly he heard a voice grow clear.

" —about that. It- we're all a little on edge," a new ranger was saying, a fringe of auburn hair just peeking out from beneath the bottom of her helmet,"Especially with them out there still- doing, Lythra knows what."

Them? Did she- was she talking about the people in the black armor, Soli wondered.

While the other rangers had relaxed and started drifting back to whatever posts they had occupied before, they're eyes kept drifting in her direction before flickering away. She didn't seem to notice. Or at least was deliberately making an effort not to 'notice' if she had.

The taller boy in the group, the one with the glasses, frowned. His own thoughts running along the same lines

"Are you talking about those people in the black ships?"

For a second her expression and gaze sharpened, falling heavily on him before sweeping across the rest of the group. But only for a second, then she forcibly relaxed herself again and simply nodded.

After that Soli wouldn't have had the courage to ask anymore questions, or even open his mouth again. Of course he hadn't been to muster more than a hum or grunt in response to anything said to him in hours anyways, so maybe his own instincts weren't exactly a good measure. Whatever the truth, the other boy had seemingly no compunction.

"Do you know who they are?"

With a brittle grin that did not reach her eyes at all the ranger said, "Bad guys. But, don't worry about them, you'll be safe inside with the Company of Seven Claws standing guards," then, her gaze turning to the men and women beside her and her voice rising to reach out to all of those not, "Isn't that right!?"

As one, the rangers' voices rose to match hers. Soli noticed a flash of metal at her collar, a little silver leaf on its side.

"Catch 'em seven times! Bleed 'em seven times! We know what we're for!"

"Go on," she said to them as she smiled again and made the sign of Cieliel (Eldest Daughter, Patron of Glory), fist over her heart with the thumb out, and thrust her head to the side in the direction of the camp.

With that they were allowed in behind the barricade, a couple of rangers had been busy clearing a way in while they talked, and through the ranger's section into the camp beyond. Some of the group relaxed immediately on getting behind the wooden palisade, others took until they reached the rest of the camp. All except Soli. Being around so many people didn't make him feel safe, it did the opposite. His skin itched, like something crawled beneath its surface.

What could those rangers do if those big black ships came? Throw spears and shoot arrows at it? He doubted they would even scratch it. Maybe some of the Rangers knew a spell or two. But was it something powerful enough to break through the black metal of their shells and burn out whatever was inside?

He didn't think so. But… they would be so confident without reason, right? Two thousand years of keeping the Homelands safe from monsters and division and schismatics, helping to end the strife with the Temples, pacifying the Underdark, they knew what they were doing. Rangers had seen worse than this. Whatever or whoever those people were couldn't possibly win against the Rangers. Not once they got their feet under them and could fight back.

They just couldn't.

Leaving behind the rangers the group finally saw the camp proper; set in what had been an open air market place, what would have been full of crowds and stalls and the shouts of people buying and elling was still full of crowds, but of a different sort. Ragged, exhausted people in torn, bloodstained, and dirt caked clothes. They sat by flickering campfires overwhich nondescript stews bubbled. They walked, listlessly and without direction, between tents for all shapes and sizes and colors. Children, old men, young women, families, lonely beggars, the injured and the healthy, the camp was full of people of all sorts. It was impossible to glimpse the edges of the camp from within, all there was was the endless sea of faces and tents.

Moving single file the group crawled slowly deeper and deeper into the press of bodies. No one met their eyes or so much as acknowledged them. Though there was a constant noise it was not from interaction, it was just the sounds of people breathing all together (and talking in low, slow voices) to those they already knew. Sometimes through the ebb and flow of the crowd and the uneven terrain of the tents a gap would open up for a second through which Soli could see a glimpse of the market's edge and when it did he saw open doors leading into the adjoining buildings and within more people pressed, if anything, closer together.

Soli followed the group because what else was he going to do. Go off on his own and get lost? Whoever these people were, they were safe.

Part of him wanted his sisters (and, he added, his brother. Though the latter was so young he hardly counted) but even thinking about them brought him close to thinking about what had happened to him. That he was not ready to do.

When they finally stop, some minutes later, Soli finds they've reached a clearing of sorts in the crowd of tents and people. It wasn't the edge of the camp itself, that was still off a distance guarded by yet more rangers in another isolated camp like the one they'd come through. At least ahead and to the right. To the left and ahead were mostly buildings, low single story ones that would have been either warehouses or rented shops. There were figures walking along their roots carrying bows and spears. Off to the right hand of this section a series of taller warehouses took up much of the space and behind that was the park which had been entirely taken over by tents (and presumably more rangers guarding the flank). Another smaller camp of strangely dressed rangers had formed around the entrance of the warehouses.

Some scattered tents had built up along the edges of the clearing and there were people wandering around, some of them carrying baskets full of...stuff. Food and wood and cloth and all sorts of other things Soli couldn;'t make out. The group was brought up short by the sight. For several long seconds they just stood there dumbly staring out at the space in front of them, not saying anything.

"I guess we can set up here," said the girl who'd first helped Soli.

No one argued. But no one made any move to do anything either. None of them knew what to do. They looked around, searching for some sign or clue.

There'd been no instruction of guidance from anyone the entire time they'd walked through the camp. None of the wandering rangers or residents had so much as looked at them, much less taken the time to greet them and walk them through what they were supposed to do now.

That didn't look to be changing either.

Finally after another long few moments the boy with the piercings and the long black hair sighed and said, "Miriel, Kieran, you should go see if you can find a tent or something for us."

He pointed to Soli's rescuer and the other boy, who both nodded and after a moment of uncertain and helpless glancing around picked directions and started walking. She headed for the edge of the camp, where the entrances to the buildings were and he went back into the mess of tents behind them.

"Uh, I- I'll look for some food or something," said the other blond with all the piercings. Pierced boy or, as Soil had started thinking of him, 'leader,' nodded.

Which only left Soli himself, leader, and two of the other girls.

"We'll look for the best place to set up."

Leader said it like it made sense, like it was the logical thing to do.

One spot seemed as good as any other in the market to Soli. They'd get wet all the same if it rained and when Kiestre rose in a few hours (or maybe it would be Caithr, though he shudder to imagine the darkness lasting so long) there was little hope of staying out fo the sun. Only one spot would provide shade for more than a few minutes and that was already occupied by that small camp of strangely dressed rangers.

But the other girls were already nodding along with him and Soli didn't actually have a better idea of what to do and so he simply followed along as they wandered around.

All the markets Soli had been to were those covered ones, the ones that sometimes had two or three stories, with lots of water features and spaced out courtyards where you could sit down. This was nothing like those. Away from the crowd and up close he could see more clearly that it had been built like a big, long plaza butting up against warehouses and storefronts on three sides (except for connections to the street) and a strip of park on the last. Soli saw what might have been fountains, though small ones, scattered about. Empty. Dry.

There were also occasional stone posts sticking up, forming rough rectangles. About half his height, they had small holes in their center. The few overhangs that stuck out from the empty storefronts had already been snatched up by other groups. Not that they would give much cover anyways, even standing directly under them Soli didn't think they would stop anyone from getting wet in the rain.

He even caught a few glimpses inside the buildings bordering the market-plaza as they made their circuit around it and it didn't seem any better inside to Soli. Except that they would be dry if it rained. But then they'd also be crammed in with all the sad, lifeless people sitting inside. Also it stunk.

Just passing by Soli could smell it.

They passed close to the rangers for a little while and Soli eagerly took that opportunity to spy on them. He was less circumspect than he imagined. Though, it was not as if anyone else in the refugee camp had disguised their curiosity any better over the hours it had come to exist, so the rangers guarding it did not react or even particularly note Soli's examinations. Unlike the other rangers scattered around the rest of the camp, most of those within this one went about without any armor. Dressed in robes of bright turquoise or soft navy-blue or vibrant purple run through with long swooping, whirling, twisting, designs in glittering thread woven along the arms and backs there seemed to only be a few of them. Or maybe, many of them only occasionally coming out in small groups.

He only caught glimpses of them with their heads bent together whispering over little chalkboards or muttering to themselves as they paced, with their hoods up obscuring their heads and faces. Mostly they remained inside their tents or hidden within the warehouse. Appearing briefly before disappearing again.

At first he'd just assumed they were rangers because… well what else would they be? Now that he was looking at them more closely though he did see the same bits of leather armor peeking out from beneath their robes and one or two even had the same little metal leaves at their collars that the ranger lady out front had had. Soli assumed that had something to do with being in charge.

Clearly they were mages. Pretty important too from the way they were being guarded, and maybe even secret; like the Children of the Thorns that Captain Thellere worked with sometimes.They must be working on some sort of spell or ritual to bring down the black shell ships, or maybe enchanting weapons and armor for the other rangers.

While Soli contemplated the secrets of magic going on behind cloth and walls, Kieran and Miriel came back, having met up again after splitting up at first, with their arms full of bundles of fabric and rope. They'd just found the 'best' spot, as decided by Leader, a little ways down from the magic ranger camp along the southern facing wall of the warehouse structure. While the guards had given them some looks as they'd wandered by, they didn't stirr from their posts even after the other two returned and they started setting up. Or at least as much setting up as they could do.

Mostly it was clearing away what dirt and trash had accumulated in the area.

"It was just sitting in a big pile," frowned Miriel as she dropped her load on the ground in front of them. Kieran nodded and set down his own burden on top of hers.

"Some guards standin' over it all, glaring at everyone who came near. Don't think they were rangers."

Soli stared at the collection of fabric, some sort of thick stiff looking stuff the same dark green as the leaves and needles of the trees in the forest around grandfather's estate. He'd hated the place for the first few days.

Grandfather didn't have any good books, just ones about history and war; but not the fun sort where heroes stabbed monsters. And they'd been all alone except for his family (minus his younger brother at the time, who was still a couple years away) and the staff who were just as old as his grandfather and twice as boring because they didn't even have his grandfather's hunting stories to tell him. Not that those were much better, he always focused on the most boring parts of everything. Soli and his sisters had to invent all sorts of games to keep from dying of boredom.

One of them had involve- Soli cut that thought off behind a steel vault door and then threw it into the dark Beyond.

Everyone stared at the collection of fabric and rope laying on the ground.

"So," the other girl, who'd stayed with Soli and Leader, started, "How do we, uh, put it together?"

A beat.

"I- I don't know," admitted the dark haired boy.

He glanced back at the mass of tents back the way they'd come, looking maybe for some hint. After a moment he shrugged to himself and turned back.

"Let's uh, spread it out first."

So they did that.

Which left them with a large square of thick, scratchy dark green fabric and three coils of rope to stare at.

Thankfully in the midst of their staring at the collection of materials the last girl returned with three canteens slung over one shoulder and a cauldron stuffed with a small basket half-full of potatoes and wilting vegetables. She ignored the spread out cloth and set her spoils down by the wall.

Shaking out her arms she looked at the rest of the group, "This is all I could carry by myself but there's more; sausages and flour and wood for fires, so if we go..."

That was when she noticed them staring at the disassembled tent laid out on the ground and her voice trailed off for a moment. She looked between the other five of her friends and asked, "Is that supposed to be a tent?"

"Parts of it, yeah. We're trying to figure out how to set it up," said Leader.

"Oh."

He sighed and frowned at the uncooperative pile fo stuff for a few seconds longer before turning back to the others.

"Look why don't you — " he looked to the blond girl with the shaved sides of her head " — take Miriel and Duna and Ava go back and grab more stuff while we," he gestured between himself and the other boy, Kieran, and Soli, "Figure out… this."

All four girls exchanged a look that Soli had no idea how to interpret for a second and a hot little flush rose in Leader's cheeks for a moment, but they didn't object. Seconds later they were heading back in the direct the shaved-head girl had gone.

Truthfully Soli would have liked to go to get the food, but… even thinking about opening his mouth made his throat tighten down to a thin straw that made it painful to breathe for a second.So he let them go without comment.

What followed was several minutes of fruitless attempts to tie the ropes to some small wooden beams jutting out of the warehouse wall involving Soli climbing up on Kieran's shoulders and looping it through the convenient slats in said beams. Fruitless not because they didn't produce something that might, generously, have been called a tent, but because it would never fit all of them. Also because it would definitely collapse at the slightest breeze.

As they stepped back to admire the frustrating results of their work, Soli once again down solidly on his own two feet, a voice interrupted any coming disappointment.

"You need poles."

They turned and saw an older woman in a plain white robe that seemed at least a size or two too large for her with a frizzy mane of soot stained pale-blond hair pulled back into a long tail behind her thin swoopingly pointed ears by five battered bronze rings. Something about her didn't fit with the rest of the camp. Not her dress which felt about right for the rest of the camp, though the robe was recognizably white it was far from clean; patches of dirt and grass stains littered the hem while streaks of dried blood trailed up the arms. And though she had fewer bruises than many of the people, she had still clearly been through something in the previous hours and had the bumps to prove it. No, there was a sort of weight to her.

Everything seemed quieter around her. Like the air was weighted. She felt old. Not old like his grandfather, always complaining about how people were doing things 'these days' or wishing for how things had been when he was young. But more like… like the forest around his grandfather's estate, as if she had seen things.

"What?" asked Kieran dumbly.

"Poles. Wooden ones, to go into the sides of the canvas," she pointed at the sagging vee of fabric hanging desultory from the sloppily hung rope, "See where it loops at the edges? In those. Didn't you wonder why they were made like that?"

Soli hadn't. He'd been distracted by trying to slap together rope and fabric to make a tent. But now he did.

And so did the other two.

"Oh," breathed the dark haired boy with the piercings.

He stood stockstill for a moment staring at the 'tent' in front of them and then started laughing. Crouching low he buried his head in his hands.

"Daughters char my— we're such idiots."

"Nnn," the woman shook her head, "You're city boys."

To that the boy snorted and countered, "Everyone else figured it out," He flung his hand out towards the rest of the camp. Kieran frowned and shook his head as he came to stand beside his friend.

"Everyone else got here when there was light."

"Maybe," he said, then to the woman, "Where do we get these poles?"

She raised one of her finely sculpted eyebrows at him, "Same place you claimed the canvas and the rope."

"Right, figures. We'll wait for the others to get back and you and me— " he nodded to Kieran " —can go and get them," then he looked at the woman again, "Thanks for your help. Some of our friends are getting food, if you want to join us for a meal?"

Glancing over her shoulder at the camp the woman hesitated for a moment. She probably had things she needed to get back to doing. Or maybe just a family somewhere back in there, people she needed to get back to.

Soli swallowed against the lump in his throat and blinked back the sting in his eyes. Something itched against his chest. Again the vault and the tumble into the dark Beyond.

"Not that- you don't have to. We totally understand— "

She turned quickly back around, her hair swinging at the sudden movement.

"No, no. I- everything that- I was just," she cut herself off and mustered a weak smile, "I would love to join you all. My name is Au'Liestra, but you can call me Lise."

"Right, I'm Dax- I mean, Anad'du'raxiel, that— " he pointed to the other boy, who gave a shy wave " —is Kieran and the kid is, um… actually we don't know his name."

The dark haired boy, Dax, frowned at Soli. Not angrily, or like he was upset, but as if he was seeing something familiar for the first time in a long while and not quite recognizing it. Soli opened his mouth.

Maybe to give his name or just to say hi. Nothing came out. Still the words died in his throat as if bore down on them like a hungry dog after a meal. He sighed and smiled tightly at the woman.

Dax opened his own mouth, his brow scrunching hard over his frown, but he could not find the right words and so he sighed and shrugged, looking at Soli contemplatively.

"We have to call you something, can't just go running around saying 'boy' over and over, now that it's safe to talk," he paused, "Safer. How about Delyn?"

It wasn't his name. But it wasn't a bad one either, so he shrugged.

What did it matter what they called him anyways. They might as well call him 'Boy' or 'Kid.' But apparently it mattered to Dax, because he was shaking his head even before Soli had responded.

"Nah. Haldin? Ferion?"

He discarded each name as quickly as he chose them.

"Adun?" offered Kieran, then, "Etholas? Logir?"

None seemed to satisfy, as Dax and Kieran both shook their heads in unison. They began to go back and forth in turn, paying more attention to each other's reactions than to Soli's, with the taller boy going first.

"How about Lindon… or, Estir? You know, from tun-Bar Thalaharn's play; the one about the orphans?"

Lise watched their exchange with her brow raised in amusement as she moved to stand beside Soli himself, though not so close that he got nervous. Just close enough that it felt like they were almost standing together watching the two play off one another.

"Bit morose don't you think?"

Kieran shrugged, "Morose feels a bit right, with… you know things," he flung his hand into the air and swung it wide

"Legomir, maybe," but then Dax looked at Soli and shook his head yet again, "No. Feels like it should be shorter. Quicker. Snappy."

"What has to be snappy?" Miriel asked as she and the other three girls strode over.

Arms laden with even more baskets full of food and wood for the fire. Two of them, the blond that wasn't Miriel and the dark haired girl with the jacket, looked at the slowly collapsing disaster of a 'tent' with concern but kept quiet for the moment. Soli saw mushrooms and onions and jerky and sausage in the baskets. His mouth immediately started watering.

"Name for the kid... and don't worry about that," he gestured to the 'tent,' "We need poles apparently."

"Oh. Meni."

Dax blinked and Miriel thrust her chin at Soli.

"For his name."

There was a beat and then all five of them looked to Soli, eyebrows raised. He shrugged. Again, it wasn't his name, but it would work as well as anything else.

With that the other blond girl stepped forward and fixed Lise with a steely gaze, "And, you are?"

Kieran jumped in, "Right, everyone this is Lise. She's joining us for dinner."

Bouncing up from where she'd been settling down her pair of baskets, the red haired girl in the sundressed bounded over to Lise and thrust out her hand, "Hi, Lise! I'm Duna." While behind her the other three looked between Lise and Kieran and Dax, raising their eyebrows in unison.

The taller boy simply shrugged and answered their questioning looks with one of his own. Dax colored faintly. After a long moment the two girls finally relented, sighing and turning to Lise, who had been ignoring the exchange and greeting Duna, with strained expressions.

"Avu'llya."

That was the girl with the jacket, her arms crossed self-consciously for a moment before she forcibly relaxed them to her side.

Miriel stuck out her hand, "Miriel. A pleasure."

"Caria," said the last girl, the blond with the shaved head and the impressive number of earrings, and following her friend's lead held out her own hand. Stiffly though.

After that Kieran and Avu'llya went off together to get the aforementioned poles for the tent while the rest of them went about setting up the fire. Or at least tried to.

None of them knew how to start a fire.

It took only a few minutes of Dunal and Miriel fumbling around blindly with the wood for Liseto to snort loudly and step in, "Here," she held out a hand for the firestarter in the former's own.

Kneeling down beside the red haired girl, the older woman simply waited out Duna's subsequent pout. Relenting after only a few moments. Lise took the loop of metal at the same time as she reached over her lap and into the small metal box beside her to pull out a piece of sooty, black something. It was almost cloth-like.

"Unless you know a spell, start with some kindling. Kits like this come with char cloth, but dry grasses and twigs and all that will work if you out in the wilds," again reaching over her audience Lise dug around in the basket and pulled out some straw and sticks from the bottom.

Arranging it into a small mound, she continued, "It'll just take longer— "

Soli had just thought that was like padding. A thought shared by the others given their startled looks.

" —then you take a bit of char cloth," she tore off a piece, laying it next to the mound, before reaching back into the small tin and pulling out a little black rock, "And use your flint and steel to light it."

With the metal loop held close to the mound she raised the rock over and brought it down quickly, striking them together. A tiny shower of sparks showered down over the grass and cloth. Most of the group, Soli included, squawked in surprise.

"Sometimes," Lise said, striking the metal again, "It can take," again, more sparks, "A few tries-"

Finally a few landed directly on the char cloth and caught, burning slowly out in a glowing irregular ring, turning the black of the cloth gray-white slowly. It went out after a moment. Duna's shoulder sagged.

But Lise leant down and blew gently on the patches of ashy gray and they flared momentarily into orange-white brightness. Carefully pushing the char cloth into the grass and sticks, Lise kept on blowing and soon enough there were tiny little curls of white-gray smoke curling out from the mound. After a few seconds actual wisps of flame poked through the debris. Lise prodded at the blackening bits of kindling, revealing unburnt portions underneath to the growing flames, before she started laying some of the larger sticks from the bottom of the basket overtop. All the while continuing to blow occasionally, causing the flames to flicker and jump, until it had grown into an actual (small) fire.

"There you go. Fire."

Everyone stared at it for several long seconds, taking in the licking flames and the warm glow.

"And when do we- when should we add the logs?" asked Dax.

Lise added a few more sticks on top and shrugged, "Once you're sure the smaller stuff is burning good and well. Just be sure not to smother the fire."

Lise and Duna continued to build up the fire. Meanwhile the rest of them started preparing food under Miriel's watchful eyes, tearing up vegetables and throwing it into the pot with some of the water from the canteens. A little bit later Kieran and Avu'llya came back with the poles and Lise started helping them figure out how to set up the tent. Soli helped.

They worked slowly; watching the pot boil and joining in the brief, occasional spot of conversations that sprang up. Mostly involving asking Lise questions about innocuous subjects; What the tent fabric was called (canvas), if the fire was burning alright, did she think the soup/stew needed more salt or maybe more meat or potatoes?

Nothing that invited deeper conversation. Or that ranged too close to acknowledging that Lystra had set hours ago and Kiestre still had not risen or that the rangers looked scared and that no one was sure they would live to see tomorrow. It was stilted, but it filled the silence.

Soli found the soup bland when it was done. He ate it ravenously of course. But as he scooped out the chunks of meat and potatoes, and slurped down the broth he found himself longing for home all the harder. The warmth of his fathers arms and his mothers smile. Ostra's quiet musings on whatever she was learning and Euma's grumbling about not being allowed to go to whatever party was going on next weekend or Idith's exciting chattering about her friends. Even Timik's nonsense babbling. He missed it all.

He swallowed down those thoughts and shoved them behind another vault in his head. But he didn't send it tumbling over in the metaphorical dark Beyond. He didn't know what happened next. If the black shell people—

Suddenly the air was split by a wailing roar that shook their half assembled tents and wrenched everyone's attention into the sky. Which remained black and silent as it had been for hours.

A second went by. Two. Then a third.

There was a funny whistle in the air.

From across the camp Soli heard shouts and cries go up, and felt more than heard a huge surge of people moving all at once through the dense press of tents. Lise was on her feet, staring back into the crowd of tents intently. So were the others.

Something bright shot out of the darkness, a tiny little ember, and fell to land in the midst of the camp. Half a second later there was a loud whump and the spot where the ember had landed exploded into a roiling ball of fire and scattered burning scraps of canvas and wood and… other things in all directions. Dirt and smoke filled the air. And a rush of hot stinking wind rolled over them. Soli blinked up at the group from where he'd fallen.

More people were screaming and running. Pushing their way past and through and over tents and people as the crowd pushed in every direction simultaneously. Many of them heading straight for the back of the camp (and thus them).

But a second later, after another loud whump had lit up the rear of the camp in a burning cloud of dirt and debris, the part of the crowd heading their way broke up into a dozen smaller waves. Figures danced in the cloud; rangers cried out in agony as flames licked at them. But Soli hardly had time to take in the horror as another explosion lit up the camp behind him and sent the crowd into even further panic as they tried desperately to get into the surrounding buildings.

"Run!" yelled Lise and Miriel and Duna all at once, though none of them said where to run too.

Not that it mattered, in an instant their group was caught up in the pell mell of the crowd, their fire trampled underfoot, pot overturned, and the remnants of their meal dashed to the ground with a clang. Soli managed to stay close to someone familiar for a few seconds. But the crowd was too dense and chaotic, the press of people too panicked, and he was carried quickly away.

He thought he glimpsed either Miriel or Caria through a break in the crowd but it closed almost as soon as it appeared. It was as he was casting around desperately for any sign of a familiar face that Soli saw them, the people in the black shells, dropping down from the rooftops (hadn't there been rangers up there? Where were they?) all around the camp, wielding spears with gleaming points or swords with sweeping serrated edges. People screamed, angry, pained cries and he smelled a hot tangy something in the wind.

Then Lise was beside him, pulling on his arm, shouting, "This way!"

Towards the warehouse, towards the camp of strange magicky Rangers. Through the crowd he saw some of them shove their way out from behind their guards and the tents of their camp, hands full of fire and lightning and the cold light of death.

With a crackle and a flash something hot and wet peppered his back. He almost turned back but Lise kept pulling and Soli's legs pumped, keeping pace with her.

Something whipped past his head with a whistle and Lise grunted, her steps faltering for a second, but she pushed him on.

Now the strange Ranger's guards were pulling down their tents and the other doors of the warehouse opening, letting out more rangers with spells on their hands and lips to toss at the black shell people, who were still dropping over the lips of the buildings. And beyond the rangers, inside the warehouse, Soli saw… he didn't really know what; a dark empty space littered with empty arches of metal. Like doorways. Except they weren't empty but filled with glass- no water.

Not, not water.

A field. A forest. A river.

Clear blue skies, wispy clouds drifting along lazily and songbirds flitting through the air. Rangers in heavy armor — like out of the stories of the Integration, when elf fought elf to bring the light of the Daughters to all the Summerlands — yelled at them from the warehouse entrances, waving their hands even as they hefted fearsome spears and nocked arrows to enormous bows.

"Go! Go! For the gates!"

Lise shoved him ahead of her, past the line of mages. Soli stumbled but caught himself and got his feet under him. He picked one of the doorways, one that looked calm and friendly and safe (sunlight peeked through the trees of a forest of pale trees, their bark; black dappled on white) and pumped his legs as hard as he could for it. Soli glanced to his left, out of one door of the warehouse, he saw a trio of rangers locked in combat with twice that of the people in black shells. Blood running down their sides.

The ground shook and a whole wall of the warehouse ripped open in a shower of shattered stone and splintered wood. He looked over his shoulder and saw Lise standing beside the mages at the front, surrounded by the glow of a clear, dry spring day.

" —andra! Set your eyes to me! Heed my prayers! Make of me— "

And then she was swallowed up by a void of pure black, darker even than the sky outside, that grew and grew and grew until it had eaten the whole front of the warehouse and left nothing but itself.

Soli was just opening his mouth to shout… something, when he felt a cool pressure engulf his arm and a tugging drag him backwards. Then he was falling back, back, back, but instead of meeting hard dirt he just kept falling into nothingness and the world shrank down into first a pinprick of light and sound and then into nothingness.

Next Part (Coming Soon)

#fic #story #mine #Sunfall #Chapter 3 #apocalypse #fantasy #original fiction #original story #original characters #Soli #comments and critique are greatly appreciated #long post #6.6k #running becomes something of a 'running' theme #heh

[orderofthedyingstar]

RECAP: SESSIONS 12-13

SESSION 12

After an hour of pacing and avoiding the subject, Jun finally starts talking about his past in So’Joh: how he was raised in an orphanage before being taken in by a wizard (Toji), then came to work at the Cobalt Keep when he was twelve years old. He notes that he caught the attention of the Royal court by predicting an assassination attempt (doesn’t specify on who) and ‘blowing the assassin up’. Jun also supplies the name of the Emperor (Qu’ni-lihil) and his advisor, Nirah, a warlock. He clarifies that he traded his heart when he was fourteen years old to Nirah’s patron, the Faceless One, in exchange for access to powerful divination magic. When he was sixteen, he spared Inigo and Umbra from a death sentence at one of the entrances to the Underdark (Death’s Road), something he’d done with a few other prisoners. He then says that he the left the keep a while after the Emperor’s youngest child died at ten years old after following him to the entrance to the Underdark, something he failed to prevent. When Rhododendron asks Jun more about his heart, he says that the Faceless One having a piece of him means that they can scry on him at any time, and says that even though they’d always kept up their end of the bargain he isn’t a very good diviner any more - because he ‘tried to erase his own memories’ and destroy his old spell book.

Jun: “It didn’t work, so I put myself to sleep for five years.” 

Rhododendron: “Five years?!” 

Verrix: “How are you still so tired if you slept for five years?”

Jun hedges around a definitive answer when Rhododendron asks how he got in touch with the Faceless One, and continues to insist on accompanying the party to So’Joh. Rhododendron runs through the list of everyone in the party who is wanted in So’Joh - which is everyone but her and Marlee.

Rhododendron: “Nice. I’m also not wanted in So’Joh��that I know of?”

Verrix: “Yet.” 

Marlee: “The fact that you had to specify So’Joh is a little worrying, but I don’t care enough to ask any questions.” 

Verrix: “We’ve all been wanted in multiple countries, it happens.” 

Marlee: “EVERY SINGLE COUNTRY on the continent, Verrix. EVERY. SINGLE. COUNTRY.”

Rhododendron continues to ask Jun about the danger of him coming along with them, but he insists that he’s fine, and points out that he doesn’t look the same as he used to. (Rhododendron and Jun spend like five minutes sort-of-not-really-flirting until she realizes that they’re wasting time. I really don’t know how else to word it they’re really that ridiculous.) The party leaves the cave and heads down the mountain, Rhododendron and Verrix unsuccessfully trying to get more information out of Jun, with Rhododendron trying to get him to understand why he’s so insistent on staying with them. The party rests about two hours away from Brackenwood, with Inigo taking the first watch. Unfortunately, he isn’t paying very much attention and the party gets attacked by several large lizard-like creatures (they can’t identify them but I’m pretty sure they’re drakons?). They manage to finish them off but Marlee and Rhododendron sustain quite a few injuries, and the party returns to their rest.

The next day, the party heads to Brackenwood, but are unsure where to begin looking for traces of Umbra and Raz. They also decide to try and buy/steal some horses and a cart, pooling all of their gold together and attempting to come up with a plan. While discussing Umbra, Marlee asks Verrix if they’d seemed like they were using ‘wizard magic’, to which he says that the blood magic looked learned but the rest of it didn’t. The party walks through the town, with Verrix ripping down some posters of himself in various disguises; he keeps an eye out for posters of tieflings, but there aren’t any with the name ‘Jun’ on them (Jun catches him looking). There aren’t any wanted posters of Inigo. The party checks a few of the shadier areas/taverns in town for signs of Umbra, going into a tavern Verrix recognizes as the ‘Blue Goat’. Verrix and Rhododendron try to ply some information out of the bartender, who plays coy until they bribe him after which he tells them that Umbra and a dwarf passed through a few days ago but didn’t stay, and that they have ‘special spell components’ for sale if the party’s interested. Rhododendron notices that Jun is distracted by some painted depictions of a figure holding worn and broken weaponry on the back wall of the bar, a set of scales in the background (Zelia). Marlee is also looking at the pictures with some interest, although not with the same apprehension that Jun seems to be; Inigo is squinting at it with some confusion/recognition.

Marlee asks about seeing the temple in town, which is an old one dedicated to Laoteng. Both Rhododendron and Jun are less than excited about this, considering how the last temple went. Nonetheless, Rhododendron wipes the visible blood off of herself and the party enters the temple, which is much nicer than both of the previous ones since it is neither abandoned nor previously buried. The temple is fairly large, lined with statues where people used to pray including a massive statue of Laoteng herself before a big pool of water at the back of the temple. Marlee splits off from the party to sit in a pew by herself for a while. When Rhododendron asks, Marlee says that the temple does kick people out during the time when it used to be night, as a way to honor the old traditions. 

Rhododendron, looking at the pool of water: “I’m morbidly curious. It probably wouldn’t work, right?” 

Jun: “It definitely wouldn’t, and I’m not just saying that because I don’t want you to do it. It’s cause…I don’t want you to do it.”

Despite what happened in the other temple, Rhododendron still wants to try to explore this one because she knows that there’s something about her bow that still isn’t working right. Rhododendron fills Marlee in on how her bow has affected temples of Laoteng in the past, and says that she wants to try and use it on the pool in the Brackenwood temple. Marlee isn’t opposed to the idea, but doesn’t see any real benefit to it, although she is impressed that the bow was stolen from the Queen. Marlee insists on taking Rhododendron shopping before they do anything else, and they get her three fancy outfits - including one really pink, frilly dress. While the party is in the rich district, Verrix swaps his old cloak for a brand new fancy black cloak (“pristine”, 23 sleight of hand) and absolutely nobody notices. The party gets some horse feed and Verrix wheedles a deal out of the cart salesman - although Verrix almost forgets about the feed until Rhododendron reminds him (this leads to several horrible feet jokes and Verrix being a little concerned that that horses are going to try to eat his feet). The party gets ready to go to the temple, but elect to leave Marlee and Inigo behind - Marlee because she’s too loud, and Inigo to keep her company.

Marlee: “Ugh, FINE! But we’re not bonding!”

Rhododendron, Verrix, and Jun sneak around the back and Rhododendron picks the lock, berating Verrix and Jun for not being able to do it despite being arguably shadier. This time when Rhododendron aims an arrow at the pool, it takes all of the light in the entire building with it, blinding everyone. As the three of them descend the staircase, they see that the walls are lined with eerie, faceless humanoid statues.

Danny: “These vibes are rancorous, bro. Like, rancid. Straight up.”

SESSION THIRTEEN

Upon further examination of the humanoid statues, the group sees that they have strange straight lines sticking out of the tops of their heads, and that they’re in a crouched position…

Rhododendron: “What do you think is sticking out of the backs of their necks?” 

Verrix: “I dunno, I’ve never made a statue. I don’t know if that’s required or not.” 

Rhododendron: “Jun, I don’t like these.” 

Jun: “O-oh, yeah, I don’t either, they’re very creepy. Let’s just leave.” 

Rhododendron: “N-no. No! We are here for a reason.” 

Jun: “The lights flickered out, all these weird body-shaped things, we’re still in the first hall continuing on…Nyvarstra, if you can hear me, I know I don’t really pray, but uh…” 

Rhododendron: “Isn’t that sacrilegious in a Laoteng temple?” 

Jun: “……What’s she gonna do, be mad?” 

Rhododendron: ”I…I feel like there’s a point there, but it seems kind of rude.” 

Jun: “I mean, she’s never offered me her protection.” 

Rhododendron: “Well, you took a deal with a devil.” 

Jun, obviously annoyed: “A lot of us have made deals with a lot of different things, haven’t we?”

Verrix takes a good look at the statues, finding them long undisturbed and…softer, than normal statues, along with a faint magical aura to them. Rhododendron tries to look around for traps, but only senses something horribly off with the creepy not-statues.

Rhododendron: “We should be careful around the statues, obviously.” 

Jun: “Uh…are they statues?” 

Rhododendron: “Please don’t say things like that. Like, clearly, yes they’re not statues, but keep that to yourself.” 

Jun: “They almost look like, um…(failed INT check) well, I don’t know what they look like, actually. Magic?” 

Rhododendron: “I think even Verrix parsed that one out for himself.” 

Verrix: “…Thanks. How many spell slots do you have again?” 

Jun: “Not enough.” 

Rhododendron: “He was talking to me.” 

Jun: “I know.” 

Rhododendron: “Hey!”

The group takes a moment to desperately wish they’d brought Inigo and/or Marlee for a meat buffer/extra healing, especially considering how this temple already seems worse that the previous temples. They also get concerned about how dangerous all of these temples have been, seeing as they were supposedly made in Laoteng’s honor. The group tries to sneak down the hall, but Verrix (CRIT MISS) tries and spills everything out of his bag, also ripping his BRAND NEW cloak.

Verrix, tearfully: “My expensive new cape…I worked so hard for it…” 

Val: *cackling*

At the noise, four of the statues stand up, and the things on the back of their necks light, making them look like big human-shaped candles. Verrix shoves everything back into his bag and puts out the Light he’d cast for Rhododendron. Watching the candles, he army-crawls over to the other members of the party and away from the lit statues - Rhododendron refuses to turn around and look at the statues Verrix has disturbed. They manage to sneak down the rest of the hall without disturbing the other statues, and enter a new room with a pool of water in the center and a statues of Laoteng looming over it. There are three exits from the room, two doors to the right and left and a doorway in the back with a staircase leading downwards, the faint sound of rushing water in the distance.

Rhododendron wants to shoot the pool last after investigating the other rooms, finding the one to the left full of bookshelves and tapestries. The books aren’t written in a language Rhododendron recognizes, and most of them are in poor condition. Rhododendron manages to sneak around the animated suit of armor patrolling the room, and finds that the tapestries depict a Holy Knight wielding a silver bow - and that an empty silver quiver is stored in the room. The knight in the image is a mid-height drow wearing some sort of leather armor…they’re depicted slaying drakes, owlbears, and a cluster of sick-looking people. They have red streaks coming out of their eyes and mouths, but Rhododendron cannot remember what the name of their illness is, although it’s a common horror story told to children across the continent. 

In the next room, the group finds crafting supplies that seems as though the people who once frequented the temple were trying to make another silver bow unsuccessfully. Verrix is able to recognize the illness despite depicted on the mosaics in this room as the Crimson Death: during the first week you get feverish and sick, then you start bleeding out of your mouth/nose/eyes for two days, and then you die. It was a horrible plague that occurred a while ago, said to be a curse from Nyvarstra.  The group decides to go through the middle doorway and down the stairs, which are once again flanked by the creepy humanoid candle-statues on one side all the way down. A large waterfall rushes not too far from the staircase down to a pool far below.

Jun: “Don’t trip.”

Rhododendron and Jun spend a few minutes arguing about whether or not you should die trying to help someone else in the party, and then the party tries to sneak down the staircase. Rhododendron fails to sneak, alerting five candles to her presence - Jun tries to put them out but this just aggravates the candles further, and the trio scrambles down the rest of the staircase as the candles’ heads turn towards them. The candles explode just as the party gets to the bottom of the staircase, obliterating their only means of escape. The party stands near a small cave entrance at the base of the waterfall, at the edge of a small pond there doesn’t seem to be any outlet for all of the water.

Jun: “We’re done going downstairs. No more downstairs. No more downstairs.” 

Rhododendron: “The downstairs could lead upstairs though?” 

Jun: “Downstairs could also just keep leading downstairs until it leads to the Underdark.” 

Rhododendron: “What is it with you and thinking that things lead to the Underdark? That’s so far down, you know that, right?” 

Jun: “…Right.”

The party finds a Ring of Water Walking around the cave entrance, and then proceed onwards to a larger room in the back. It has a large pool of water with statues of Nyvarstra and Laoteng on the far side, and between them is a figure kneeling their head bowed, arms chained to both of the statues. They have a large pair of skeletal wings.

Rhododendron: “Maybe he’s nice…”

Jun is very against waking the chained angel, and Rhododendron sneaks around the angel to take a look at another mosaic behind them, but is unable to decipher anything. Verrix suggests swimming in the pool to figure out its properties - and then the trio realizes that the water in the pool is completely black. Rhododendron throws a piton with Light cast on it into the pool, which gets completely submerged in the darkness, the light snuffed out. Rhododendron lies to the group that they’re just going to turn around and leave the pool and the angel alone, and turns to shoot the pool right as they’re leaving - causing the room to plunge into pitch black darkness. Before Verrix can cast Light, the angel breaks free of their chains and summons a magical sword of fire, spitting out something vulgar in Celestial.

Verrix: “Uh, he sounds mad…” 

Jun: “Oh, he doesn’t sound mad at all Verrix, he sounds very friendly.”

The angel beheads both statues of Nyvarstra and Laoteng, crumbling the heads to dust.

Verrix: “They’re just statues, they’re not gonna hurt you. Do you just really not like statues, is that it? I swear we didn’t put those there.”

In broken Celestial the angel cusses out the goddess and any who would help them. Rhododendron and Verrix try to put on brave faces and snark back at the angel as they back away from the angel - who is much taller than even Marlee. The angel accuses Rhododendron of pretending to be a Champion of Dilong, saying she lacks purity. Rhododendron suggests that they try to swim across the pond, but Jun says that he can’t.

Rhododendron: “Why are all of the angels we’ve met just huge fucking assholes?” 

Verrix: “Hey.” 

Rhododendron: “Like you’re not a huge fucking asshole.” 

Verrix: “What about Inigo?” 

Jun: “So no exceptions.”

Without any other choice, the party engages the angel in combat. Rhododendron sends up a prayer to Dilong for guidance in combat, and the arrow strikes true causing the angel to howl in pain. Verrix makes the mistake of getting within melee range of the angel, who practically gores him with its greatsword (instantly halving his health), baring its fangs at him. Jun turns Verrix invisible, and the angel chases the group to the edge of the pond before releasing a wave of necrotic energy at them. Jun is knocked prone but Rhododendron and Verrix manage to stay standing. Rhododendron tries to talk the angel down, but they’re too far gone. Verrix senses that the fallen angel might be weak to radiant damage (too bad they didn’t bring someone with Divine Smite, huh), and he pulls out his wings to deal out some extra radiant damage to the enemy. After a few more attacks from the party as they whittle down its health, the angel gets annoyed with Verrix’s radiant damage and tries to attack him, but cannot reach him - so they grapple Rhododendron instead out of sheer desperation.

Rhododendron, choked: “If you wanted a hug you could have just asked.”

Verrix and Jun try to hit the angel, but Jun’s spells keep fizzling out. They spend a few rounds unable to do any real damage to the angel without risking injuring Rhododendron, who keeps making jokes at the angel about taking her out to dinner first as she’s slowly choked out. Verrix casts Burning Hands directly in the angel’s face, melting and crumbling their face. The angel shatters in a hail of light, covering the party in goop. After cleaning off the angel goop, Rhododendron gives both Verrix and Jun a chocolate - Verrix ends up not having any immediate effects, while Jun screams and coughs up blood.

Rhododendron: “Are you okay??” 

Jun: “No. I think that chocolate tried to cast a love spell on me. Tastes like coconuts, though.” 

Verrix: “Is that gonna happen to me??”

Rhododendron is able to get a better look at the mosaic, which depicts the sun and the moon in balance with one another, equal in their power. Nyvarstra is shown empowering other deities while Laoteng is show in temperance to that, cleansing those that grew clouded by the power. The pool seems like it was restorative at one point. Rhododendron takes the Water Walking ring to scope out the area, but is unable to find anything. Verrix tries to use the ring to walk up the waterfall, but fails miserably. Rhododendron also attempts it but fails in the same way. After several more minutes of unsuccessful investigation of the waterfall, Rhododendron tries to use her bow to shoot at the waterfall. She debates praying to Laoteng or Dilong, since the angel mentioned something about him. She decides to pray to Dilong for help and guidance…(CRIT MISS)

The arrow snaps in half and falls into the water. Rhododendron, out of desperation, decides to try again - Jun suggests making a deal with the god, since powerful entities usually want something in return. Verrix suggests throwing a coin into the water, like making a wish. 

Rhododendron, embarrassed: “I fell asleep most of the time when I went to church with Raz. I tried to stay awake, but he has a very soothing…voice…And there’d be hymns. Really, really long hymns. Everybody’s lulling you to sleep.”

Rhododendron tries another prayer, admitting that she doesn’t know what to offer Dilong. After five long minutes with no response, the group sees a shooting star streak across the dark (underground) chamber, hitting the waterfall and submerging the entire chamber in water - Rhododendron opens her eyes in a bright white room, dry and glowing with a faint silver light. Rhododendron asks aloud if she’s dead, to which an unfamiliar voice tells her she isn’t. Dilong says that aren’t really interested in making a deal with her since they aren’t some hag or fey. Dilong advises Rhododendron to be careful about offering to make deals with strangers.

Dilong: “Not everyone’s that nice.” 

Rhododendron: “Are you..nice…?” 

Dilong: “Depends who you ask.” 

Rhododendron: “What if I’m asking you?” 

Dilong: “I dunno. Some people say neutrality isn’t really nice, but I say walking in the middle isn’t so bad.”

Rhododendron wakes to find herself standing in the middle of the pool in the room with three doorways above the broken staircase, Verrix and Jun passed out on either side of the pool. They’re all dry. Rhododendron sends up a quick prayer of thanks to Dilong, and looks through the bookshelves for information on Dilong. The only book she manages to find is written in Primordial, which Jun says that he can read but that it will take a while since it’s a difficult language to translate. The party finally leaves the temple, going to reunite with Inigo and Marlee. Rhododendron puts on her bright pink dress and Verrix uses his disguise kit to make her look like Donny.

They head back over to the cart, and Inigo has trouble remembering Donny’s name. Marlee tells Rhododendron that she looks ‘pretty bad’ before asking how the temple went. Rhododendron tells Marlee to get in disguise as well, and Inigo tries to come up with a fake name for Rhododendron.

Inigo: “Uh, Romeo?” 

Rhododendron: “Romeo is just me. Romeo is just Rhododendron.” 

Inigo: [CRIT MISS INT CHECK]

Rhododendron tries to check in on Inigo and the status of his memories, but he keeps dodging around her with cryptic and confused-sounding responses. He does manage to remember Donny’s name, and Rhododendron realizes that Verrix made her look like Donny - he ducks behind Marlee. After Verrix finishes Marlee’s disguise, she and Rhododendron come up with fake names and a backstory, with Marlee less than pleased to be on a date with fake-Donny (‘Barbra’).

Marlee: “Ugh, you couldn’t have been, like, hot?” 

Rhododendron: “Hey, I’m not like, ugly.” 

Marlee: “Okay. Couldn’t we be, like, siblings instead?” 

Rhododendron: ”No, we look nothing alike.” 

Marlee: “I know, I actually look nice.”

Marlee pouts as they start their fake-date, heading towards the stables. The stable master seems unswayed by their act, until Marlee (like every time she lies) starts strong and then takes it a little overboard with her threats by the end of her semi-lovelorn speech. She definitely implies they’ll be doing, uh, things on the horses. Marlee ends up taking two of the horses from a completely speechless and embarrassed stable master, and Rhododendron is torn between being impressed and mortified by Marlee’s insinuations. The two of them decide that their meet-cute is that Donny/Barbra/Rhododendron is a clumsy waitress who spilled some sort of non-hot beverage on Julia/Marlee and that they’re engaged with a very specific proposal scene courtesy of Marlee; they spend the rest of the horse ride figuring out the details of their fake couple as Rhododendron tries to bond with Marlee, and the end up circling back to where the rest of their party is waiting with the cart.

The party debates leaving - there is one major city left, and then just the Long Road between them and the capital of So’Joh. Rhododendron asks Marlee for information about Dilong, and she says that he’s the god of the Underdark, the stars, and guidance. She also lists of his holy days, like the Night of Wishes (in the middle of winter). She also supplies that his symbol is a falling star. Rhododendron fills her in on what happened in the temple, and Marlee sounds mildly impressed with most of it - but points out that she should have checked the quiver for a curse before picking it up and using it. When Rhododendron recounts the fight with angel Marlee tries to write an impromptu enemies-to-lovers story about it while she talks. (Verrix pretends like he isn’t eavesdropping the entire time while he guides the horses.) Rhododendron says the Knight/Champion of Dilong had the same bow as her in the temple’s depictions, and that every time she’d tried to pray to Laoteng she never really seemed to get a response.

Marlee: “What made you think it was Laoteng’s bow, anyway?”

Rhododendron: “It’s silver. And I found it in the palace of the Queen.”

Marlee: “Oh, you’re so lucky to have me.”

Marlee also supplies that gods are ‘not a one way street’, and that their relationships with mortals tend to be give-and-take. Rhododendron finishes detailing her strange encounter with Dilong to Marlee, who claims that there’s some ‘romantic tension’ in that. Rhododendron wonders if there’s a possibility that it wasn’t Dilong, to which Marlee says that a Trickster might have tried to interfere but gods like Zelia and Sabio wouldn’t resort to that. She does warn Rhododendron that Nyvarstra wouldn’t be pleased about her meeting with Dilong, and repeats the well-worn mantra that she’s ‘always watching’.

Rhododendron: “There was this shooting star that hit the waterfall, and then we were all drowning.”

Marlee: “Oh, are you dead? Wait, you’re not dead - if you were dead I would sense it, and then I would have to kill you, ‘cause, you know, undead - can’t roll with that. You’re an abomination against nature and Nyvarstra doesn’t like that, so I’d have to Smite you.”

Rhododendron has Jun cast Identify on her bow again, to which he finds that her bow feels much stronger, not quite awakened but definitely not as dormant as it was before.

#s12 has been written up since June....but i stopped playing ac so I haven’t been listening to sessions since then lol #also i love that every time the chocolates are used i forget that they’re scaled and i go ‘OH THATS SO NICE’ #dndas #dnd another sunrise #dndas recap #they play I spy w Inigo at the very end of the session and he keeps picking trees

[tonystarkbingo]

TSB August Flash Week 4 Roundup!  

Check out the awesome fills for this week!

Title: I Am Iron Donut Collaborator: rebelmeg Link: Tumblr Square Filled: 019 - I Am Iron Man Ship: N/A Rating: Gen Major Tags: Cross stitch, Fandom Craft Summary: cross stitch of Iron Man donut with a bite taken out

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Title: Faraday Cage and the Stark Raving Burners Collaborator: DeeHellCat Link: AO3 Square Filled: 020 - Blueberries Ship: Gen Rating: Gen Major Tags: Burning Man, Tony Stark Needs a Hug, Young Tony Stark, Pre-Iron Man 1  Summary: In 1996, Tony Stark hears about a wild party in the high desert and decides to drop in. Two years later, he finally does and learns a little something about himself. Word Count: 4044

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Title: Peter, Peter, Purple Pumpkin Eater Collaborator: betheflame Link: Tumblr Square Filled: 018 - Juice Pops Ship: Stuckony Rating: Gen

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Title: N/A Collaborator: betheflame Link: Tumblr Square Filled: 018 - Mutual Pining Ship: WinterIron Rating: Gen

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Title: Iron-Dad Collaborator: hddnone Link: AO3 Square Filled: 017 - Iron-Dad Ship: WinterIron Rating: Gen Major Tags: Humor, fluff, interrupting kids  Summary: Bucky just wants to sex up his boyfriend after a long day, but Tony being the Team Dad to the next generation makes that difficult.  Word Count: 887

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Title: Lunch Date Collaborator: darthbloodorange Link: Tumblr Square Filled: 017 - Cheeseburger Ship: Stony Rating: PG Major Tags: Art Summary: Cap-Tsum and Tony-Tsum go on a lunch date.

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Title: TonyTsum to the Rescue Collaborator: darthbloodorange Link: Tumblr  Square Filled: 017 - Ultron Ship: Stony Rating: PG Major Tags: Art Summary: Ultron-Tsum has captured Cap-Tsum. Tony-Tsum is going to get him back.

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Title: A Proud Father Collaborator: darthbloodorange Link: Tumblr Square Filled: 017 - Iron-Dad Ship: Stony Rating: PG Major Tags: Art, A/B/O, Implied mpreg Summary: Tony-Tsum watches over his family proudly.

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Title: Keep You Warm Collaborator: darthbloodorange Link: Tumblr Square Filled: 017 - Bedsharing Ship: Stony Rating: PG Major Tags: Art Summary: The power went out in the Tower and the back-up generators have failed. Tony-Tsum cuddles Cap-Tsum and keeps him warm knowing how much he doesn’t like the cold.

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Title: Longing to Linger Till Dawn Collaborator: poliz Link: AO3 Square Filled: 020 - Blueberries Ship: WinterIron Rating: Teen Major Tags: dream sharing, CA:WS canon-divergence Summary: Tony finds himself in a dream, and apparently he’s not alone. Word Count: 1750

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Title: How We Came To Be Friends First Collaborator: Fighting_for_Creativity Link: AO3 Square Filled: 019 - Accidentally Saving the Day Ship: gen, Friendship between Rocket, Groot and Tony Rating: Teen Major Tags: Kid Tony Stark, Kid Groot, Rocket ,Space Stone, AU: different backstory, firefight, shooting, marvel typical violence Summary: Despite fully knowing he wasn’t allowed to be in his dad’s lab, Tony couldn’t keep out of there. When he stumbled over a glowing blue cube, he got way more than he bargained for.Meeting a tree and freeing a raccoon is a hell of an adventure after all. Word Count: 2846

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Title: Love Will Rule Collaborator: MagicaDraconia  Link: AO3 Square Filled: 018 - Mutual Pining Ship: IronHusbands Rating: Gen Major Tags: AU - Royalty, mutual pining, unrequited love (that's not so unrequited), fluff, weddings, love confessions Summary: Prince James of Rhodes and Prince Tony of Stark have known each other since they were six years old. Sure, they're now getting married, but that's just to bring the kingdoms together. It's not because they actually love each other. Is it...? Word Count: 2406

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Title: The Under Grounds Collaborator: hddnone Link: AO3 Square Filled: 017 - Coffee Shop AU Ship: WinterIron Rating: Teen Major Tags: None Summary: Bucky was still figuring out how things worked at The Under Grounds coffee shop. It was a strange magic that ran the place, though at least it washed the dishes. Bucky liked working there, though, and he liked the strange magical owner, Tony. Though that didn't mean when Steve stepped through the door, Bucky wasn't going to try to shove him right back out. “Bucky, what - I saw you - you were dead!” “I am.” Bucky’s voice was tight, but there wasn’t time to explain. “I am, Steve, I promise you, and you need to go back -”But the entrance was closed. Word Count: 2488

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Title: My Two Dads Collaborator: ceealaina Link: AO3 Square Filled: 017 - Cheeseburger Ship: IronHusbands Rating: Teen Major Tags: Alternate Universe - No Powers, Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops and Cafes, Fluff Summary: Tony doesn't know how many times he can explain to the idiots in his life that no, he Rhodey are not actually a couple. But then there's a snowstorm, and only one bed, and suddenly Tony's wondering if maybe HE was the idiot in his life all along.  Word Count: 1162

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Title: Hello, Nice to Meet you Again Collaborator: darthbloodorange Link: Tumblr  Square Filled: 017 - Coffee Shop AU Ship: Stony Rating: PG Major Tags: Art Summary: Cap-Tsum and Tony-Tsum keep meeting at a coffee shop.

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Title: Of Mushrooms and Magma Collaborator: 27 dragons, tisfan Link: AO3 Square Filled: Chapter 1 - 020: Dark Secret Chapter 2 - Adopted: Ivan Vanko/Whiplash Ship: WinterIron Rating: Teen Major Tags: Alternate Universe - Magic Summary: Tony's been in the Underdark for a while -- and is trying to find an excuse to stay longer. Word Count: 7662

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Title: a pavilion of nervous butterflies (only seen in lucid dreams) Collaborator: deehellcat Link: AO3 Square Filled: 020 - Dark Secret Ship: Pepperony Rating: Teen Major Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence Summary: Ginny Potts, Obadiah Stane’s personal assistant, keeps clashing with the villainous Iron Man, intent on destroying his company; but are things as they seem? Word Count: 7410

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Title: Guarding You Collaborator: Fighting_for_Creativity, Purple_ducky00 Link: AO3 Square Filled:  Chapter 1: 019 - Howard Stark                   016 - Bodyguard AU Chapter 2:  019 - Neighbour/Roommate Chapter 3: 016 - Locked in A Room Ship: WinterIronHusbands Rating: E Major Tags: AU Bodyguard, AU College/University, College Student Tony Stark, College Student Rhodey, Bodyguard Bucky Barnes, Fluff, Angst, Happy Ending, Dorks in love, Falling In Love, Fade to black sex, slices of life, Mention of alcohol, creep tries to creep on Tony, James "Rhodey" Rhodes is a Good Bro, Pining, Minor Carol Danvers/Maria Rambeau/Nick Fury, mentioned dog, betrayal, Violence, Natasha Romanov Is a Good Bro, Steve Rogers Is a Good Bro, Injury Recovery, Clint Barton Trolls People Summary: As Tony Stark always managed to get rid of the bodyguards Howard sends, the older Stark decided to try a different agency, one he knew had specialized bodyguards.The man he ends up hiring seems competent enough.James "Bucky" Barnes gets a job which leads him back to college. He might or might not gets into trouble with his neighbors Tony Stark and Rhodey Rhodes. And those troubles might lead to something neither of the three could have anticipated. Word Count: 8604

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Title: Penny for a Thought Collaborator: hddnone Link: Tumblr Square Filled: 017 - Ultron Ship: Stony (pre-relationship) Rating: Teen Major Tags: can be read as not Wanda friendly, post A:AOU Summary: Steve has to figure out how to handle Wanda telling him that Tony has been thinking about rebuilding Ultron.  Word Count: 817

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Title: Of Life and Death and Doors Collaborator: hddnone Link: Tumblr Square Filled: 017 - Bed-sharing Ship: WinterIron (pre-relationship) Rating: Teen Major Tags: character death but not really, Under Grounds verse, Steve & Bucky friendship but Tony doesn’t know that~ Summary: Tony can hold off Life for one day.  Word Count: 723

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Title: Through Rainbow Lights Collaborator: hddnone Link: Tumblr Square Filled: 017 - Cheeseburger Ship: None Rating: Teen Major Tags: character death but not really, Under Grounds verse Summary: Running into Thaddeus Ross is never a fun time.  Word Count: 1211

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Title: Meet Your Soulmate Collaborator: EachPeachPearPlum Link: AO3 Square Filled: 020 - dark secret Ship: Peggy/Daniel, Peggy & Steve, emphatically not Steve/Peggy Rating: Teen Major Tags: Good Place AU so all on-screen characters are dead, mourning for a partner who is still alive? Summary: Following her death and subsequent arrival in the Good Place, Peggy is still grieving the husband she left behind, and has no interest whatsoever in meeting someone new. Even if he is her soulmate. Word Count: 625

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Title: Emphatically Not a Nun Collaborator: EachPeachPearPlum Link: AO3 Square Filled: 020 - Thanos - replaced with adoptable psychological torture Ship: none Rating: Teen Major Tags: Good Place AU so all dead, Good Place spoilers Summary: Wanda is not and has never been a nun. Word Count: 288

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Title: Shellhead Collaborator: EachPeachPearPlum Link: AO3 Square Filled: 020 - shellhead Ship: none Rating: Teen Major Tags: Good Place AU Summary: Tony doesn’t understand how humans manage it, being so soft and squishy, nothing but a few easily breakable bones to protect their vital organs. And the men, with all their dangly vulnerability… Tony has no idea how the fork evolution could have resulted in something so utterly impractical, but apparently it has, and all he can really say about it is yikes. Word Count: 201

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Title: King of Antioxidants Collaborator: EachPeachPearPlum Link: AO3 Square Filled: 020 - blueberries Ship: pre Steve/Tony Rating: Teen Major Tags: Good Place AU, dumbassery, crack Summary: What,, Steve wonders, is with the number of places selling only blueberries products here? Word Count: 282

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Title: Defection Collaborator: JacarandaBanyan Link: AO3 Square Filled: 021 - Science Fiction AU Ship: Nebula & Tony Rating: Gen Major Tags: scifi AU, implied/referenced torture Summary: Nebula has been sent by Thanos to kill genius inventor and only permanent resident of Novathela’s outer moon Tony Stark before he can oppose the Mad Titan. Word Count: 1728

#tonystarkbingo #tsbflash #tsbmiv #weekly flash roundup #august flash #week 4 roundup

[longstrydercourierservice]

Tonight on Copper's Angels:

The setting:

We are headed to up a mountain to enter the dwarven city of Kergerum. Kergerum was abandoned at least a thousand years ago for reasons we don't know. More recently, Kergerum was the home of an ancient black dragon, Uraxyl. Uraxyl was was said to be killed by legendary fighter, Hammond Valore. (There is no proof. No one has ever seen the body. One person was with Hammond on his way out, but he was technically dead while the dragon-slaying allegedly happened.) We are on our way to the Drow captial city in the underdark. One known entrance lies under Kergerum.

For two days, we have seen a medium sized feline mammal (a caracal) has been following us.

It has been closely persued by a nine foot lumbering creature. We learn it is a grey render.

We stopped to rest on our way up the mountain to Kergerum. Before we even got settled in, the caracal races into our camp, the render following. Our beloved mastiff/hellhound, Copper shifted into his hellish form in an effort to intimidate the render. He failed. (Is this fight, the part of the grey render will be played by an Earth elemental.)

We are in combat. Our ranger shoots two arrows. My fighter/barbarian rages, jumps over the fire, and uses the remainder of her her 50 ft. speed to make it all the way to the render. I hit with the first attack. My greatsword deals maximum damage (18 slashing, 8 radiant). My second attack is a natural 20. My sword deals 30 slashing and 6 radiant. Our paladin divine smites the render, but she isn't close enough to get into melee. The render hits me for 18 (halved to 9) slashing. Having just hit him for 52 points, my barbarian laughs in his face. The render takes a second attack at the paladin. He hits for 13 slashing. I take a sentinel attack, but miss. He then tries to go after the caracal. The paladin takes an opportunity attack. I had already burned my reaction. (I made several errors this first round. I forgot my ancestral protectors, which would have given the render disadvantage, and I burned my reaction on a sentinel attack when I have several defensive actions.) Our warlock sends his hellhound over to do some fire breath damage, and also casts fireball for 30 fire damage. Our ranger's sister, a shadow Monk, uses shadow step to escape the render. Our tempest cleric sent his spiritual weapon to do some force damage.

Top of round 2. Our ranger casts Zephyr Strike to dash in, make his attacks and leave. My barbarian closes with the render and misses on both attacks. The paladin hits on one of her attacks. The render takes his attacks at disadvantage. The first would hit the barbarian, but she uses parry to deflect. The render strikes at the paladin with disadvantage from my ancestral protectors and misses. The hellhound takes another bite of render. The warlock throws some Eldritch Blasts. The monk casts Faerie Fire, but the render makes his save. The cleric does a Sacred Flame which misses and another spiritual weapon attack.

Round 3. The ranger hits again with Zephyr Strike. The barbarian hits again for 26 points. The paladin makes her attacks, but only hits with her longsword. The render goes to move, but the paladin's prowess with her flail is too much. He falls.

The caracal hangs out near the camp for a few minutes. The paladin tries to speak to the caracal, but only hears a reply in celestial. She summons her celestial Pegasus steed, Palomira. Palomira and the caracal have a conversation. The caracal leaves. The barbarian chases after the cat, begging her to stay. The caracal again says something telepathically in celestial. Though the barbarian doesn't understand, she is appeased and allows the caracal to leave. The rest of the night is quiet.

The next day, we make it to the dwarven city. We walk for hours deeper and deeper. At the end of our first day in the city, we find the skeleton of a long/dead dragonborn. The body has small horns. Our cleric, a bronze dragonborn, knows this is typical among black dragonborn. 150 years ago, a black dragonborn archaeologist (a la Indiana Jones) headed north to find the home of the ancient black dragon, Uraxyl. This is the archaeologist. His possessions were taken long ago, but he holds a map. The front of the map has two landmarks noted. On the back, written in blood and in draconic, it says "traps."

Our group decides to rest for the night. The next day we determine to follow the obvious dwarven paths as far as we can. We cross through two been rock chambers to a circular room lined with stairs. High above, we hear the flapping of large wings. A giant bat swoops down to land on the other side of the chamber next to an emaciated hill giant gnawing on another large bat. The giant has puss oozing from it's eyes. The bat seems to give it direction. The giant takes a bite of bat and stared at us.

My brother-in-law is our dm. This is his homebrewed world. He and my sister, his wife, have been painting minis since February. She finds it very therapeutic. They are about to start with the of minis! We are profoundly blessed to have all of this amazing stiff to bring our games to life.

#copper's angels #heroes of braystead #dungeons and dragons #d&d #d&d 5e #d&d story

[punkrockgenasiashton]

Critical Role Campaign 1 Ep1-27 Recap

So, a friend of mine recently got into Critical Role and after talking to her about the absolute dumpster fire that is Orion Acaba she found herself unable/uncomfortable watching/listening to episodes with him in it and asked me what happened through the Underdark arc because I told her Orion aside I liked it a lot. So I started writing. And kept writing. And kept writing. And basically below the cut is a pretty in depth recap of everything that happens before Orion leaves the show for anyone who is curious/or have friends who you want to have a more complete Critical Role experience when getting them into Campaign 1

For easy future reference:

Vox Machina=VM=The Party

Vax= Half Elf Rogue

Vex= Half Elf Ranger

Percy= Human Gunslinger

Grog= Goliath Barbarian

Scanlan= Gnome Bard

Keyleth= Half Elf Druid

Pike= Gnome Cleric

Tiberius= Dragonborn Sorcerer There might be some color/opinions, but here we go:

Okay, so. The adventures of Vox Machina as we know them start in the city of Kraghammer, a city of dwarves in the northwest area of the country of Taldorie beneath the Cliffkeep Mountains. Kraghammer is a pretty reclusive city, wary of non-dwarves, who are disallowed from entering the city except for official business with the Greyspine Quarry, one of the most prolific mines in Exandria (the world), so as they arrive Vox Machina stick out like sore thumbs. Their mission is to find Lady Kima of Vord, a well known paladin and close friend of Allura Visoren, an  arcanist the party is close to. Kima had gone missing in the Greyspine Mine beneath Kraghammer. After some investigations, the party learned that a whole mess of 'stitch monsters' have been attacking the mines from deeper beneath, and after killing one (a Naga with 2 extra Naga heads stapled on that Scanlan blows up with cock lightening) with the owner of the Greyspine Mines watching  they were granted access to investigate the mines and beneath proper.

The party then stumbles through and finds a small goblin camp/city that had been razed and they find goblins that have had their brains sucked out through a round hole in their head. They then meet my personal favorite NPC maybe ever, Clarota, a feral illithid who had been cut off from his hive because of his ability to use magic (huge taboo in Mindflayer society, apparently). They agree to help Clarota and Clarota agrees to help them to defeat the bbeg who has taken up residence in Clarota's city (Yog Voriel), an entity named K'Varn.

The party then go through a Duargar (Dark Dwarf) War Camp where Vax one shots an illithid using a combination of expert sneaking and goblin shit and they interrogate a duargar general. The  General tells them Kima is being held in the City of Emberhold, the duargar stronghold deeper within the Underdark. At the center of the city is Fortress Emberhold, defended by a magma drip that pours magma over the top of it in such a way that the only way in is through the front door or a secret exit on the left side of the fortress. VM finds a way to open said secret exit, and find Kima being tortured in the dungeons. Kima is grateful for the rescue but is immediately wary that they're working with an Illithid. The party then debates whether they should trust the lawful good paladin and best friend of their ally or the chaotic evil feral illithid, but eventually talk Kima into just letting Clarota hang around until they deal with K’varn.

The party then decide to take out the nobles of Emberhold because it’s become clear that the Illithid and Duargar (who historically hate each other) are working together under this K’Varn and anyone who works with them is a threat. During the battle they kill the Durgar King but the Queen charms Grog and escapes, blowing the ceiling, attempting to burn VM alive in magma. The party just escape, Vax losing most of his foot to the lava.

Keyleth and Kima have a very serious argument about whether it’s the party’s place at all to be involved down here. Keyleth pointing out that A. they’ve murdered a lot of potentially mind controlled people and lost Grog in their attempts to rescue Kima and B. before they’d entered the underdark they’d never heard of K’Varn so who are they to be inserting themselves in the conflict? Kima arguing that K’Varn has a power that will allow them to take the surface over and it’s their responsibility to stop them and take that power away from an obviously evil creature. The party eventually agrees with Kima’s argument that even if it wasn’t their place before it is their responsibility to stop K’Varn.

The party track down the Durgar queen, regain Grog, and while Vex is interrogating the queen the queen’s mind is taken over by K’Varn who taunts the party, inviting them to the temple he has taken residence in,  before killing her. The party then moves further into the underdark, through a sea of bone that tries to eat anyone who touches it, where they do battle with another stitch monster, this time an impossibly fast elf with tentacles for arms and legs. They then finally reach the Illithid city of Yog Voriel, an ancient ruin they’d taken over within a fungal forest surrounded by a giant lake. Investigating the lake the party finds a shipwreck Percy and Tiberius repair and go sailing around the island looking for a potential back entrance to K’Varn’s temple. They find some caves, investigate, get chased by a cloaker (giant bat) on the water.

They decide to take a rest on the shores to the north of Yog Voriel where Keyleth decides to attempt to scry on K’Varn, to find out where in the tempe they are and to finally find out what they are. The scrying reveals that K’Varn is a beholder with a strange horn attached to their head. After some discussion it’s worked out that the horn is one of two “Horns of Orcus” Orcus, an evil god of undeath, his horns make the holder/wearer a somewhat avatar of Orcus himself, crazy but also incredibly strong with necrotic power.

The following morning the party sail to the island Yog Voriel is on and find a formorian (an evil giant) and mind control him. Then, after a lot of planning, and a lot of bullshit by Tiberius because Orion metagamed a ton (the party in character had never heard of a beholder but Tiberius openly refused to set foot in the temple because Orion knows that Beholders lairs are dangerous as fuck), the party decides to drop the mind controlled giant from the top of the cavern through the glass ceiling of the temple, destroying a device that kept the Illithid under K’Varn’s power by trapping the Illithid hive’s Elder Brain.

Fight ensues, Tiberius true to his word doesn’t enter the temple and doesn’t help with the fight at all, Vex gets the final kill on Living K’Varn. During the fight K’Varn used a petrify ray to turn Kima into stone.Then, using the Horn, K’Varn rises as a zombie beholder. Tiberius gets the final kill on Zombie K’Varn. Claorota double crosses the party, and the Illithid attack Vox Machina as they escape using a teleportation circle that takes them back to their home city of Emon.

VM returns to Emon late at night and decides to go on a bar crawl with their stone Kima. (It should be noted here, in case you’re concerned, over the past couple days, using some really high rolls and homebrewing, Pike has been slowly healing/regrowing Vax’s foot and finally finishes doing it after about 5 days in game when they get back to Emon). After some debating the party decides while it’s not necessarily prudent, it’s necessary to inform the rest of the council of Emon as well as Emperor Uriel Taldorei himself about the Horn of Orcus they plucked from the dead K’Varn. After that discussion they unstone Kima.

Before the meeting starts Emperor Uriel asks a messanger to make sure a Lord and Lady Briarwood are made to know about something trivial. The mention of the Briarwoods sends Percy into what looks like a silent panic attack that everyone else misses.  During the meeting, it’s decided that the Horn is unsafe in Emon and Emon is unsafe as long as it’s there and that it should be brought across the sea to the West to the city of Vasselheim. Vasselheim is basically the Vatican, Mecca, Jerusalem, and Mahabodhi all rolled into one. It is the high religious city of every major good and lawful god in the civilized world, and there, the Horn would be locked away under the eye of the Platinum Sanctuary, the largest and oldest temple to Bahamut in the world and kept safe by Highbearer Vord (Kima’s...master? The head of her order of Paladin). Following the meeting Percy asks the Emperor about his correspondence with Lord and Lady Briarwood, Percy explaining that the Briarwoods are old friends of his family and asks to be kept updated on the Emperor’s correspondence with them, and that if they’re in the city to please let him know. As Vox Machina are members of the council, this is totally acceptable to the Emperor

Before the trip, during a few days of downtime, Vax goes on a date with the party’s favorite shop keeper, Shaun Gilmore. This isn’t really important but you should know the name Gilmore because he’s an essential NPC who crops up a lot, and Vax’s relationship with him becomes important later, so it should be known that they have a quasi-dating relationship. (It should also be noted that they’re not really dating and there’s a whole lot of subtext and lowkey stuff that points to the idea that Vax is also interested in Keyleth)

On the way to Vasselheim on a skyship the party is harried by wyvern riding pirates. Keyelth turns a Wyvern into a Chicken using polymorph at 500 feet up, one of the best kills in the show imo. While in Vasselheim, following the sealing of the Horn, Grog has a fight in a fighting pit known as the Crucible, losing just barely to the standing champion, an half orc named Kern. Also while in Vasselhiem, because she’s played by Ashley Johnson and Ashley lives on the east coast most of the year, Pike is called to rebuild a temple to her god, Sarenrae and leaves the party. The city wall closest to them is then attacked by a hydra. Vox Machina goes, hunts down the hydra, and kills it. While fighting it another party comes and claims VM are “scags” taking their contracted kill.

Once the Hydra is dead it is discovered that within Vasselheim there is a hunters guild known as the Slayers Take and the hydra was a quarry of theirs and by killing it without a license VM had broken the laws of Vasselheim and they’re given the choice between either joining the guild and retroactively killing the hydra for the Take or face trial. They choose to join the Take. I highly recommend trudging through Orion during the Trials of the Take episodes because it’s basically a 4 parter where the party is split (so Orion’s only in 2!) and they have a couple of really good guests in. (Including Wil Wheaton, Will Friedel (Eric from Boy Meets World), and Felcia Day.) Following the trial they are introduced to the true leader of the Slayers Take by Huntmaster Vanessa Syndriol of the take (basically the second in command), a sphynx named Osisa. It’s also revealed that the Take is a  quasi-religious order dedicated to Ioun, the Goddess of Knowledge and Osisa watches the world through a type of Scrying Eye. 

After the Trial of the Take Mini Arc the party takes a trip to the village of Pyrah, a few days travel from Vasselheim and located in a semi-active volcano. To condense a lot of information into a very short bit: Keyleth is a member of a tribe known as “The Ashari,” The Ashari are broken into 4 clans (Earth, Wind, Water, and Fire) and spread throughout the world to defend parts of it where the elemental planes bleed over into the prime material, every generation a member of each clan goes on a pilgramage known as the Aramente to be tested by the other clans to become the headmaster of their clan. Keyleth is Air Ashari and is on her Aramente to become the leader of the Air Ashari because the last person to attempt it, Keyleth’s mother, had never returned, leaving her father as acting headmaster. Pyrah is home to the Fire Ashari, and the party accompanies Keyleth on her trial. They go to the Fire Elemental Plane where they evade an ancient red dragon (foreshadowing for much later, remember this dragon) that would have decimated the party, and then fight the headmaster of the Fire Ashari, Cerkonos, and 3 other fire ashari while the ashari and Cerkonos are beast shaped into fire elementals.

Following that Grog has a rematch with Kern, beats him, and the party returns to Emon where they are informed the Briarwoods will becoming to Emon for a feast with the Emperor and because of Percy’s request and the party’s standing as council members they are given an invite. Once the party returns to their own keep, known as Greyskull Keep, Percy reveals that the Briarwoods murdered his entire family and took over his ancestral home of Whitestone, and the reason he is Lord Percival Fredrickstein Von Musel Kollowski De Rolo III is because he is the rightful Lord of Whitestone.

Again, even though Orion is in them I really recommend watching Episodes 24-26 because 24 and 25 are very plot important and 26 is just hysterical, skip episode 27 (Orion’s last episode and generally considered by many a very uncomfortable watch due to Orion making a very off color comment about Laura (Vex) giving him (Tiberius) a boner and Travis (Laura’s IRL husband) being livid about it) and then watch from episode 28 onward and you’re right near the start of what’s lauded as the best arc of the series.

#critical role #cr campaign 1

[internationalhouseofblupjeans]

Join Together Chapter 4 - You Think We Look Pretty Good Together

In this chapter of the Lup Lives AU: Lup starts to have second thoughts. Barry comes up with another plan. Taako and Lup visit the Underdark.

Thank you to Tansy from TFW for Beta’ing!

Chapter 1  Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 below

AO3 link in the source

Barry knew it had been six years. Six years of searching, dying, waiting, forgetting, and searching again. A constant, tormenting cycle.

If he didn’t hold onto the hope, the belief that he would find Lup again, then he would completely lose his composure. He would lose everything that made him Barry.

He had already felt some of the signs. He had become more volatile each time that he left a body. It was becoming harder and harder to hold onto his form and it was becoming harder getting his voice together enough to record a message onto his coin.

He hadn't killed anyone after killing the Gerblins when he first found this crypt, but he wasn't sure how long that would last. He was growing desperate with each month, each year that he couldn't find her. He had even left the continent and explored areas that others dared not to venture. If she wasn't in Faerun, then she had to be somewhere else on Aber-Toril. She had to be.

He couldn't let himself fall into despair. He couldn't allow himself to believe that she was just gone.

That thought, those words … they triggered the memory of forgetting. Of feeling the memory of her smile, her laugh, her face just slipping away into nothingness. It was always there when he re-entered his body, but it went quicker. He had learned to relax into it when he was returning to a physical form.

When he was outside of a body, however, the pain of remembering those moments where he realized he was forgetting her became too much to bear. He knew that without any sign of her, his hold on his sanity was liable to snap.

He couldn't afford that. he couldn't afford to lose himself.

If they reset, would there be anything left to reunite with Lup?

He had to hold on. He had to keep on this lonely quest.

His latest body was almost ready. He had to record his message and prepare for forgetting all over again. It was worse than remembering. With remembering, the painful weight he felt would go away. Sure the grief was heavy and incomprehensible, but the emptiness of forgetting was much, much worse.

“She hid a very powerful weapon, but I don’t know where it is. I don’t know where she is but she may know … Barry, I’m sorry … I … I wish I had more for you to go on. I really do. She’s been gone for six years and … I just don’t know where she would have gone. Where she would have hidden …”

He sighed and continued.

“The Sun Elves of Faerun don’t look like you remember Sun Elves looking like, Barry, so if you ask about Sun Elves, you won't find her. They’re different. Fareun’s Sun elves’ ears are short and they're these thin, willowy beings who aren't huge fans of humans … If you find her, she may still have a body. You’ll know her the moment you see her, I just know it … She’s beautiful, Barry. She’ll take your breath away when you see her and …”

The ring.

“She might be wearing a ring. It’s a golden band with a purple gem … You probably won’t see that gem anywhere else. It’s not a very common one here. And her smile will warm your heart when you see her. She …”

Barry stared at the coin. He hadn’t talked about Lup this much in his message before and there was a chance …

He grabbed a chain that he had kept since their eighty-second cycle. He'd made a ring to match Lup's and had hidden it on a chain as soon as they had landed on this world. For when they had a home. For when they …

He was no longer in the crypt. He was in a boat on a still lake in a world long gone. Across from him sat Taako, bored out of his mind and staring at a fishing pole.

“You know there aren't any fish right?” Taako complained.

“Yeah,” Barry chuckled. “But it's nice, you know? I mean, I get to hang out for a day with my … my brother.”

“Hey now. While you're dating my sister and all you don't get to call me that until you two actually tie the knot,” Taako joked.

Barry’s smile wavered. If this didn't work …

“That's uh … that's part of why we're out here, actually.” Barry started, rubbing the back of his neck. “I uh … I wanted to get your opinion on something.”

Taako froze, ears pricked up.

“Oh shit! Are … I mean, we don't even know what kind of future we'll have -”

“I know,” Barry started. “But I was kind of playing around with some jewel smithing. I found some books on it and some materials and … kinda got some crystals from where the planes intersected and … well,” Barry produced two rings that were stacked upon each other. “I'm going to wear mine around my neck. I kinda felt a little silly doing this but … but I wanted the symbol as well. I … I want to propose to her, Taako. Even if we don't get married for another century I just … I want to spend forever with her.”

Barry hoped that Taako hadn't noticed the tears that were pricking his eyes or the wavering of his voice. If he had, the elf never said anything about it.

“Well, I know she'll love it, Barry and … I guess you're allowed to call me your brother,” Taako snickered. “Now, come on. Enough mushy stuff. Let's go back to not catching any fish.”

Barry shook himself out of his memories.

“There’s a necklace with a ring on it, Barry added. “Wear it so you have something to go by if you see an elf with that same ring … If you’ve been able to hear this at all, then … Then you’ll be able to find her. If not …”

If not, then he was almost out of options.

Six years. It had been six years of searching and waiting. Six years of wondering if he would ever see her again.

If he would ever see any of them again.

~

Taako had noticed a change in Lup over the past three years.

He didn’t want to say anything at first, not wanting to cause any issues with his relationship with his business partner, but he noticed that she was slowly losing the spark of excitement that had reminded him of home.

She was cautious now and often didn't try to flick her ears in conversation with him unless they were onstage and even then it was only to coordinate the next bit of their show. She wasn't the fiery elf he knew. She was changing.

He didn't want to believe it was because of Sazed.

He had also noticed that some nights, Lup would whimper softly in the partitioned spot in the cart that she had begun to share with Sazed. Usually it was after Sazed had left their makeshift room, an air of frustration surrounding him. When he would return the next morning, he would reek of alcohol or on the mornings after Lup's lonely whimpers were particularly distressing, perfume that definitely did not belong to either elf.

Taako wanted to say something but he was too wracked with guilt. He had insisted that Sazed travel with them. He encouraged Lup to pursue her feelings.

He was the one who gave his blessing.

And who was he anyway to Lup? He was a business partner. Nothing more.

~

Ren had gone to the first show with her big brother. She was not yet an adult in Drow terms, but she often dreamed of leaving the Underdark. She knew, of course, that there was a life outside of here, but it was hard when you spent so much of your life away from the sun. It was even harder when even other elves looked down on you. When rumors of a curse being the reason for your people living underground circulated through the whole of Aber-Toril.

Sometimes, it was easy to believe they weren't rumors.

Hearing that a pair of Sun Elves were doing a show in the Underdark left her skeptical.  She had assumed it would be something that was meant to belittle the Drow - something to shove in their faces why elven society in general had abandoned them.

Then Brian told her it was a cooking show.

The first show, she and Brian were in the back. They were barely able to see the action from their seats,  but she caught a glimpse of Taako on the stage and gasped.

He wasn't like any sun elf she had ever imagined. Not once did he belittle the Drow or make fun of their cuisine. Not once did he say anything disparaging about his hosts.

And then the other elf joined him and she couldn't help but notice how much they looked like each other.

Perhaps it was wishful thinking. Perhaps it was projection.

She really wanted to believe that these elves were brother and sister, just like herself and Brian.

The second show, she was able to sit much closer.  She held onto her ticket for Row D, Seat seventeen. She was entranced as she watched the two Sun Elves create a delicious basket of croissants, a pan au lait, and of course, a show-stopping Quiche Lorraine. She had to meet these elves after the show. She had to learn more about them. These weren't Sun Elves as she knew them.

They were now her inspiration.

Lup had been whisked away at the end of the show, their bodyguard wanting to talk to her for some reason, so only Taako remained to talk with his fans. He was glowing from the praise, absolutely radiant as he signed posters and handed out shirts to the excited Drow that gathered around him.

Ren was, understandably, very nervous. She had never spoken to a Sun Elf before. She didn’t want to say the wrong thing or come across as too eager, but she also wanted him to know that she looked up to him.

That she wanted to be just like him one day.

“Come on, darling,” Brian started, trying to drag Ren away. “He’s obviously very busy and our mother is going to be quite worried -”

“Hey there! You forgot to come get an autograph!” Taako called out. “There’s plenty of Taako to go around!”

Ren snapped around. He was looking at her.

He was talking to her!

“Come on over!” Taako beckoned.

Ren broke away from Brian, running towards Taako as the crowd started to mosey away from the impromptu stage.

“You were here last night, too, huh?” Taako grinned, leaning over the table. “How was our rothe steak last night? I mean, people were saying it was good but how did it compare to everything else? I’ve only cooked rothe once before and I totally mucked it up the first time, but Lulu was insistent we try it because … Oh here I go just babbling on,” Taako laughed. “Did we do a good job with it?”

“I … You want to know what I thought?” Ren asked.

“Of course! You’re obviously an elf with good taste, so I want to know if I did the local cuisine any justice.”

Ren beamed.

“It was awesome, Mr. Taako!” She grinned.

“Please, just Taako. Mr. Taako is my father’s name,” Taako grinned.

“Sorry! Just … your show was so good and it really means a lot to us that you came down here! We uh … we don't get a lot of visitors so …”

“Well, I've been loving the Underdark,” Taako smiled. And he truly did mean it. Sure it wasn't like his other tour stops but he felt like folks actually enjoyed themselves at their shows. He didn't understand Sazed's trepidation when Taako had booked the show, but Lup's excitement let him know that there wasn't any reason to actually worry.

And meeting Ren, a fan who was so truly excited, had been the icing on the cake. Taako loved the spectacle and he loved when others appreciated it.

He was about to speak again when a voice lifted over like a song.

“Ren! Ren, we've got to head back!”

Brian made his way over to the table and froze.

Sure, seeing Taako onstage had been one thing but seeing him in front of him, talking so sweetly to his sister and just being a nice guy was a whole different thing altogether. Here was this elven celebrity just chatting up a fan.

And he was very, very attractive.

Taako looked up and grinned at the tall, thin Drow that stood before him. He could tell the Drow was enraptured with him - who wouldn’t be - and if he was honest with himself, he was quite taken by the elf’s looks himself. He didn’t quite remember Drow being as tall as the ones he had seen in the Underdark, but hey, it had been a long time since he had seen any Drow!

“H-hey,” Brian started.

“Hey yourself,” Taako purred. “Saw you yesterday too.”

Brian had never heard an elf purr before, but it sent shivers down his spine.

“Yeah, I was just here with my sister …” Brian smiled. “She uh … we both really liked your show.”

Ren looked back and forth between Taako and Brian and sighed.

“Come on, bro. At least get his stone of farspeech frequency.”

Brian's dark skin flushed as Taako grinned.

~

Lup had tried to not upset Sazed. She knew this wasn't fair. Three years together and she still couldn't let him get past kissing her. Each time she tried, her soul felt as if it was being ripped in half. Each time she tried, her heart would hammer in her chest and she would have to back away and apologize tearfully.

She hadn’t even wanted to go with him tonight. She had been excited to get to know the Drow in the Underdark. It had been so long since she had been able to hang out with any Drow and now that she had the opportunity, she was being whisked away to spend time with her boyfriend.

She couldn’t say anything, of course. She already had prepared herself for the discomfort when he tried to hold her or kiss her. She was ready for the discomfort of sitting near him as they ate their dinner. And she knew that she couldn’t give him what he wanted. She didn’t want to start another argument.

She didn't know why she couldn't do this. Why she couldn't break down this mental block. Nothing made sense. He said he loved her no matter what but doubts were creeping in. She had felt the frustration and more nights than not, he had left their cart trying to hold back anger - anger that she knew was meant for her.  She had noticed that some mornings, he came back with scents that made her stomach turn.

But he was human and he had needs. Needs that she wasn't fulfilling so she had to be ok with this, right?

She couldn’t even voice her real reasons to him. She didn’t even know what they were. She was finding herself struggling to even open up to him more in conversation. She was beginning to dread times spent alone with him, but she couldn’t tell him that. She felt guilty, holding onto him this long

He was a human and she was not letting their relationship progress in a way he would like. She wouldn’t talk with him about a future away from life on the road. She couldn’t do it. To do so felt as if she was betraying someone. Possibly him - after all, she couldn’t imagine a stationary, sedentary life. She couldn’t imagine living in a house with him, sharing their home, building a future.

And would he let Taako come with her? Probably not. She could tell that tension had started to build between the two of them as well. It hurt her to see it. She loved Sazed, as far as she thought, but she couldn’t imagine life without her business partner.

This wasn’t the life for a human, however. It was unfair to him. He would only have a few more decades at the most, and here she was taking her time to truly commit to him. There were things that she couldn’t let herself do that she knew was a sign to others that elves loved them. She couldn’t press her head to his or rub her cheek along his face to let him know she thought of him as hers. She couldn’t slowly close her eyes to tell him and barely could make herself purr at him.

Not that he seemed to understand elvish anyway. It was just another thing that she couldn’t share with him. Another thing he wouldn’t understand

So she prepared herself for him to leave the cart once again after an awkward dinner. After she cleaned up her plate and went to their partitioned area to try and meditate.

After he tried to plant kisses along the base of her neck.

She knew where this would lead and so she braced herself, wondering why she didn’t just tell him to leave.

At least he had never physically hurt her. At least he still returned. He still would hold her if he was in the cart and she was having a nightmare.

The nightmares had grown more and more frequent as well as more impossible to explain. Nightmares of losing Taako, of losing Sazed. Nightmares of her life on the road.

Nightmares of static.

Tonight was another night where she couldn't let him get too close. She had tried, Oghma knows she tried, but she broke down into tears as soon as he started to pull down her skirt.

She tried to rationalize it. She hadn't had the bottom runes done and didn't know how he would truly react, even though he had told her many times that he didn't care. She had so much missing memory and didn't know if she even knew what to do. She was scared. She felt wrong.

And tonight, she expected him to leave, again.

But instead, he held her close and rocked her softly.  She couldn't think when he was with her. She couldn't let her mind wander to the real reason she shut down.

The reason that she was too afraid to face.

He was not the one, even though she had at first thought he was.

He reminded her of someone who she had never met.

But that wasn't who he was.

~

Ren wished that Taako could stay, if only for the smile he put on her brother’s face when they sat together for breakfast. She wished he could stay so he could continue to brighten the Underdark.

But he had a tour to complete and fans to see. He promised he would write. He promised he would come back to visit some day.

Ren wanted to stay and wait for him, but something about Taako’s willingness to come back to the Underdark stirred something within her.

After she and Brian waved goodbye to Taako and Lup, Ren returned to their home and ran to her room. She grabbed a bag and began to pack as many of her belongings as she could fit. She found a pair of dark colored glasses, a hat, a scarf, and her father’s wand. She didn’t tell Brian or her mother where she was going. They would be too worried. She didn’t even want to leave a note, but she figured it would only be polite. She hastily wrote a note on a scrap of paper and left it on the kitchen counter before taking her bag and running down the road that Taako and Lup had left on.

For if a Sun Elf could come to the Underdark, then she could spend the rest of her days in the sun.

~

Barry sat in a tavern in Neverwinter. His head ached from listening to the message he had recorded for himself so he turned to an old comfort to quiet his staticky mind. He had always been able to calm himself down with some liquor, a common defense mechanism in his youth, so he assumed that this would be the remedy where nothing else was.

Why would he leave himself such a poorly recorded message? There had been so much static and it had been physically painful to listen to the message. He wasn’t even sure what he was looking for. All he knew was that he was missing something important. It left a crushing weight on his chest, but his message to himself had been so garbled that he couldn’t even begin to decipher it.

He sighed and swirled around his brandy, absentmindedly. There was a brand he liked, the name long forgotten, but this certainly wasn’t it.

He looked over down the bar to see a man flipping through a book, his brow furrowed as he grew increasingly frustrated.

“Hey bud,” Barry started. “Need something to calm you down? I’ve got … some gold and can buy you a drink.”

“Huh?” the man asked as he looked up. “Oh, no. I need to cut back. I uh … Hey, you look like an intelligent man. Maybe you can help.”

Barry chuckled.

“Just ‘cause I wear glasses, that doesn’t mean I’m a nerd.”

The man smirked before producing a piece of paper.

“So, I’ve been with this elf and I’ve noticed she wears this ring and well, I want to add to it to maybe, I dunno … Get our relationship to the next level. But the thing is, I have no clue what that stone is. Like, I would ask her but I don’t want to spoil it if I can get her a ring and -”

Barry took the piece of paper from the man and stared at it. It wasn’t that the drawing was poorly done or that the ring looked overly complicated. It was that his mind was trying to remember something about that ring but it kept hitting a wall. He shook his head for a moment and then blinked, focusing on the drawing of the purple stone in the center.

“Huh …” Barry started. “That’s … That’s Tanzanite.”

“Tanzanite?”

“Yeah,” Barry started. “I’ve seen it once, I think … Maybe in a museum? God … I know it’s that though … I think I’ve seen it on …”

Barry blinked rapidly, trying to stop the static and pain that was filling his mind. Something about this stone. Something about this ring … was it … he was wearing a ring on a chain around his neck and that word had come up so many times in the message-

“Thanks,” the man smiled at Barry, placing a hand on his shoulder. “She seems to really care about that ring so this will be a nice addition.”

“Y-yeah,” Barry stammered out. “Um … I’m sure she’ll the happiest elf in Faerun.”

He watched as the man left the tavern and returned to his drink. The static in his brain was overwhelming, as usual, but the weight in his chest was heavier than it had ever been.

He found himself ordering a few more drinks, progressively losing the weight in his chest and the static in his brain. It was temporary, of course, but at least he would be able to drag himself out of the Tavern and back to the inn. He paid his tab and started out.

He hadn’t realized how much he had drank until he got outside. His vision was blurred and he found it difficult to keep his steps steady.

He didn’t hear the three half-orcs until it was too late.

Barry was mercifully knocked unconscious. He didn’t remember what had happened until he found himself hovering over his body, watching the trio of half-orcs ransack his corpse. He started to raise his arms, preparing to cast a low level spell to scare them off, when he saw the trio freeze in terror.

“Oh shit!” One of the half-orcs shouted. “Quick! Hide him and we’ll come back for him later!”

The three half-orcs carried Barry’s body over toward a pile of crates, stashing him away before they scurried down the alley..

Barry waited before sinking down to his body to search for his necklace. He needed to make sure he could get the ring back. He would need it for the next time.

When his skeletal fingers brushed against his body’s chest, his heart sank.

The chain and the ring was gone.

He was about to tear down the alley, hoping he could catch up to the half-orcs when he heard footsteps. He sank back behind the crates and waited.

~

Sazed had scoured the city for Tanzanite.  He couldn't believe that it was this rare of a gem, but apparently it was.

Apparently,  Lup had the only one in existence.

He was about to give up hope until a sparkling object caught his eye at the back of an alley.  It wasn't too far from the tavern where he had met the denim clad man who had given him the helpful advice. Sazed ran down the alley and bent down to look at the object and gasped.

Dangling from a simple, golden chain was a ring with a small, sparkling Tanzanite in the center.

He compared it to the drawing of Lup's ring and smiled, pocketing the ring.

It was a perfect match and would interlock wonderfully.

He left the alley, unaware that he was being watched.

Barry hovered over the pile of crates. On the one hand, the man from the tavern walking past across the street had been enough to scare the ruffians away.

Unfortunately, that same man had come back and taken the chain with the ring.

Taken it for the elf who had a matching ring.

Red lightning crackled around Barry's fingers as he fought to stay stable.

Lup.

The man had been talking about Lup.

That was the only logical explanation. The only one that involved Lup still being alive. That didn't involve her meeting a similar fate. Being trapped in her staff.

Being hunted by the Raven Queen.

He wanted to tear the world apart. He had been searching and hunting and if she was alive, then she had forgotten and …

And she would never remember if he didn't try to find a way to fix it.

He calmed himself, not wanting to draw attention before he lowered to the ground. He needed to get back to his crypt. He needed to check on om his next body and record a new message.

He needed to be calm. The man had never said that Lup was the elf he was seeing. And even if she was the elf he was talking about, it wasn't her fault. She didn't have a coin that told her what she needed to know.

He hated to think what had happened six years ago. Had she hidden the gauntlet and then forgotten? Had she even found it?

Had she been wandering alone?

He couldn't think about that. He needed to focus on his next move.

There was only one other person who would remember. Who would be able to help.

But he had no idea where she was.

~

When Lup awoke on their last day of restocking in Neverwinter, she was greeted with the smell of bacon sizzling outside of the cart. Her ears twitched nervously as she slid out of the cot and made her way out. Something about the smell set off alarms in her brain. It was so familiar but also so wrong. It was as if a distant memory was being overwritten.  Something positive being melted away.

Perhaps it was because she knew what Taako's breakfasts smelled like and this wasn't it.

She stepped out of the partitioned room and exited the cart with caution, looking around for any signs of danger.

Instead, she saw Sazed at their small camp stove, looking through a recipe book while cooking. Something about the scene tore at her heart. It was perfect and wrong all at once.

She stood, frozen in her tracks as she watched him dish up the plates of bacon and eggs. He turned to look at her and smiled.

“Sorry I woke you,” he started. “I wanted it to be a surprise.  I uh … I followed your ‘Best Breakfast Ever’ recipe as much as I could though I couldn't find the buttermilk for pancakes. But I could probably do that in our next town … I… I know things have been rough and we've had … issues but I don't want you to think I don't love you. That I don't see us as something more.”

Lup's heart pounded in her chest. She had been doubting their relationship, doubting if he was the one for her, but now …

Sazed handed Lup her plate and Lup felt her heart nearly shatter.

She wasn't sure why it was so painful to see a gold band with the same stone that she had on her own ring on it, but she couldn't keep the tears that pricked her eyes from spilling out.

This was everything a woman should want - for the most important person in her life to want to make this commitment for the rest of their short life. She knew she was lucky. She had found someone who loved her as herself, no matter what. That was what he always told her.

But she felt so very wrong as she slipped the ring onto her finger, the stones on the rings interlocking perfectly.

She looked up at Sazed. She couldn't tell him that she would be his forever, that she could see them having a future together. She couldn't accept this ring from him.

But if not him, then who else would have her?

#blupjeans #Barry Bluejeans #Lup #taako #taz sazed #lup/sazed #only one more chapter of the cursed ship I promise

[koboldburrow]

Aurix update

There won’t be one of these for a while, since our schedules ain’t workin’ out until next month, buuuut:

Last time: Ronin wanted to get some Thieves’ Tools, and Aurix brought him to some shady-ass Drow gang to hook him up. He didn’t really wanna pay 50g for a set of tools, so instead offered to do A Favour. They asked him to get rid of an elf who was a High Priest of Savras; he agreed. Aurix asked him if 50g was a price he was okay with paying for blood on his hands, and promised to back him up in however he approached this job.

THIS TIME: Aurix made some very excellent use of her new spell, Flock of Familiars, in scouting out the Temple of Savras. We not only found out the high priests would be meeting tonight (one of which was our assassination target) so everyone could see them vote on a change in tenets, but we spotted a young girl that may be the child who was taken away by the temple. (I’m a little fuzzy on what THAT’S about, since it’s a plotline that was going on before I joined the campaign.) 

Von (the bard) polymorphed Ronin (the samurai) into a spider, Aurix tucked him into her hood, and one Mask of Many Faces disguise later, we sneak into the temple for that big meeting. We see the girl is being kept behind a High Priest by the name of Shadowstone, who’s got a fancy tattoo on his arm marking him as a member of the dwarven shady-ass mafia. Ronin also picks up that our assassination target glances at Shadowstone with utter fear before voting the same way that he does. It’s pretty clear that Shadowstone is the dude behind the sketchy business, and it’s equally clear that the drow gang who Ronin promised to Do An Assassinate for probably picked this dude because he’s obviously in Shadowstone’s pocket. 

The Polymorph is getting close to running out, so disguised-as-a-random-Savras-cleric Aurix tries to scootch out of the meeting all “bathroom break s’cuse me.” She manages to deceive all the high priests except one, ducks out, and hides away in an empty room so Ronin can be a half-orc again and not a spider. Knowing their cover may be blown, Ronin tries to suggest pulling out and coming back with the rest of the party. Aurix is wary, knowing that much of the party won’t be super on board with “murder a church guy” or really cut out for Stealth, and fearing that the suspicions they raised may lead to tighter security. She suggests instead that they do a “to hide a tree, use a forest” approach and try to slip in with all the leaving clerics when the meeting ends, and maybe try to follow their mark that way. 

No luck seeing him among the people who go by, though, so Ronin figures that we should just cut our losses and leave. He gets caught on the way out, though, and we get taken to talk to the High Priestess who wasn’t fooled by Aurix’s “lol brb bathroom” bit. She talks about Shadowstone’s shadiness, a bit about our mark’s past, and how he’s one of Shadowstone’s many puppets. Aurix suggests that they, as ardent adherents to the tenets of Savras and not this skewed version Shadowstone is trying to push, try talking to the mark in private. Somehow, this works, and the priestess arranges for them to talk. 

At this point, Aurix is READY THE FUCK TO HIT. Hexblade’s Curse, poised to strike, waiting for Ronin to give the signal. He talks to this drow High Priest a bit. The guy doesn’t really know anything useful at all about Shadowstone, but he quickly realizes that we were sent by the drow gang to kill him, and starts sobbing and weeping. At this point, Ronin does a 180, and completely changes his mind about killing the dude. He kinda does a “well now you know that this gang wants to kill you, so we’ll just see what fate decides” kind of thing and asks how he can help and stuff. Aurix is like shooting him Looks and trying to mouth stuff like “DUDE WE NEED TO GET INTO THE UNDERDARK ARE YOU SURE YOU WANT TO DOUBLE CROSS THE DROW MAFIA,” but she takes her oaths pretty seriously, so she doesn’t really want to run this clown through in front of Ronin after she promised “I’ll have your back, however you wanna get the job done.” 

She knows that the High Priestess of Savras has seen his face and heard his voice, and she also knows that he openly admitted where he’s from, so she’s just thinking, like, “well shit, I gotta protect this poor naive idiot or he’ll absolutely get arrested and/or silenced.” She tells him “okay, go leave back to the inn, don’t hide it, just let people witness you exiting the temple.” Once Ronin clears off, she talks with the mark, convinces him “look, these people will just send someone who’s actually willing to assassinate you once they realize this failed, you have to flee, I can help you disappear so well neither Shadowstone nor drow can find you.” With some very lucky smooth-talking, she convinces him to tell some of the Savras clerics he’s heading out for a walk to clear his head (thereby proving he was still alive after Ronin left), and she takes him out to one of the city gates. 

Now, at this point, her full intention was “get somewhere with no witnesses, run him through, dump him in a ditch.” She did NOT want to backstab the drow criminal syndicate for a lot of reasons. 

They also knew Ronin’s face and voice, meaning they could easily come for him and/or the party he was with.

Aurix had been prepared all along for “I can do an assassination for you” to result in actually doing the assassination, so she was pretty braced for “this is a priest, he probably won’t go HELL YEAH KILL ME I’M EVIL AS SHIT,” so she wasn’t all that moved by tears at all

also Aurix is a True Neutral lizardfolk only really concerned with keeping her oaths and surviving, so risking the necks of herself and her friends for no better reason than “this total stranger did a real sad cry” is just not really something she’s wired to understand 

Aurix is a fuckign criminal with an evil sword that thirsts for blood. She’s been in shadyville so long that she’s probably pretty numb to shedding the blood of sapient beings, especially ones that are cronies in some Real Fucky Business

they definitely did still need to get to the Underdark, and the only really accessible entrance is in this exact city, so thumbing your nose at the drow seems REALLY unwise

It didn’t actually work out that way though. The mark passed out a little outside the gates, an elf standing guard there was all “HEY WHAT ARE YOU DOING.” Aurix tries the “hhha ha ha he’s just drunk I’m taking him home,” but the dude just automatically knows that’s horseshit. I’m thinking “jesus christ this unexpected morality moment is going to get my character arrested and/or killed,” so I try to cast Hold Person. Automatic fail (I guess elves resist paralysis or WIS saving throws?). I’m like. [SCREAMS INTERNALLY] and just..... try to bribe the guy to forget he saw anything 

I think the DM feels sorry for me and my utterly screwed character lmao, because the elf kinda just goes “actually for this much gold I’ll just handle making sure this guy gets to the next town over lol” at which point I go “COOL THANKS IF ANYONE ASKS YOU SAW NOTHING” and just fuckign. peace out. So I ended up losing a chunk of change on this, but like.... at least Aurix didn’t Perish

So the whole party reconvenes at the inn, and Ronin has already spilled most of what they were up to. The group moves up to one of their rooms for Privacy and Aurix is... not entirely happy.... about the way things went. She’s pissed that he sprung a last-second backdown on her with no warning and put her into a situation where she had to break an oath to these dudes, that they’ve made enemies of both sides of a gang war, that she had to go through a bunch of money and trouble to clean this up, and that there’s now a loose end running wild on his way to the next town over. The vanishing of a high priest is very quickly noticed, despite the “just going for a walk” thing, and the alarm is raised across the city. We decide “hey this would be a REALLY GOOD TIME to skip town.” We wait until the next day, when Corrin (half-dragon ranger/sorc) can pick up her new +2 spell focus, Aurix picks up the Entire Live Cow she ordered, and we skip town to go back to the ancient dragon’s lair and see how much of the hoard the kobolds have dug up. 

Aurix comes barreling in all “MY SWEET LITTLE LIZARDY BABIES I BROUGHT YOU A BEEF.” Kobolds are very pleased to get an entire delicious cow, and present us with A SHITLOAD OF STUFF. 11K gold tossed into our portable hole, along with 36 more magic items (most of them are scrolls). We explain that we’re gonna be away for a while and that the kobolds really should stay away from hassling the nearby city because AURIX NEEDS HER BABIES TO BE OKAY LMAO. 

With our ducks all in a row, Von (bardy boi) does a Teleportation Circle, and we all blip back to Breedonne to hand in our dragonscales to (and get our magic items Identified by) the wizardy dude who we’re doing this Main Quest stuff for. We retire to an inn to discuss our next move. We’ll still need more dragonscales probably, but it took us a lot to find this white dragon, so we’re not all that sure how easily we’ll even be able to locate another dragon to hunt. Sticking to getting mindflayer helmets from the Underdark seems like the better move, but considering the only really accessible entrance is the one in the city we just messed with the drow in, we’re kinda unsure how well that will go. We figure that we’ll maybe just, like... spend a bit here in Breedonne preparing and researching and getting materials for our Underdark adventure, and hopefully by the time we’re ready to come back, the heat will have died down a little bit. On that decision, we end for the night, and we’ll pick back up sometime in March!

#aurix #troubled times campaign

[gleefully-macabre]

I’m not actually sure where I’m going with this, if anywhere.

A Scanlan/Pike story where Vox Machina never met Pike, taking place after the Underdark.

1/?

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Pike burst out when her great-great-grandfather announced he had contacted a distant relative to arrange a marriage for her.

“You’re of marrying age, young Pike,” Wilhand stated, his stout arms crossed.  “It’s your duty to carry on the Trickfoot line, for Her sake.” He gestured to the small prayer corner, and the statue of Sarenrae, their patron deity.

Pike wilted under his gentle chiding.  “I know, Pawpaw,” she conceded, then immediately brightened. “But all the gnome villages are so far away.  Wouldn’t it make more sense for us to travel there instead of him coming here?”

He chuckled and patted her head.  “Young Grog doesn’t bring you enough tales of his adventures, eh? Want to run off and have your own?”

Pike tried not to grimace at the condescending tone.  Wilhand was several hundred years old, and still saw Pike as a child.  “We could travel with Grog,” she offered. “No one would bother us with a goliath around.”

Wilhand’s smile grew sad, and then vanished entirely. “I know Westruun can be dull, but most of the family has already turned from Sarenrae’s path for us.  And you, Pike. You’re special.  For you to lose Her blessing would be…” His voice cracked and he pressed quavering lips together.

Guilt struck her like a blow.  The story of how Sarenrae changed the course of the Trickfoot family had been told and retold throughout her life.  Yet one by one, each of Wilhand’s children and grandchildren had gone back to the old ways of trickery and thieving.  Pike’s parents had turned to piracy shortly after her birth.  She still dreamed, sometimes, of joining a crew herself and perhaps finding them, even though she had no memory of their faces.  They were most likely dead anyhow. Gnomes did not last long on adventures.

She squeezed his hand. “Grog should be passing by soon,” she said. “Maybe… maybe he can deliver the letters for you?”

Wilhand smiled and pressed a kiss to her forehead. “You’re a good girl, Pike.”

She smiled weakly. If only that were true.

*   *   *

“I’m running out of rhymes,” Scanlan complained.  “Like, bike, tyke, that one Vax won’t let me say anymore.”

Vax grunted from the back of his sister’s pet bear.  He had emerged from the Underdark somewhat worse for wear, with half his foot destroyed. The healers in Emon were occupied in undoing Lady Kima’s paralysis. The state of a thief’s foot meant little compared to the life of a paladin.

It was Grog, of all people, who had the solution.  “Me buddy, Pike,” he’d shouted.  “She been healing things since we was li’l.  Probably grow the whole fuckin’ foot back.”

“Probably charge a fortune for it as well,” Vex muttered, thinking of the heavy purse of gold waiting for them in Kraghammer.

“Grog wouldn’t lie to us, would he?” Keyleth asked, not as quietly as she had intended.

“Not intentionally,” Percy answered.  “But I wouldn’t be surprised if this friend peddles false potions.”

“Then why did we come all this way?”

“No one had a better idea.”

Scanlan plucked absently at his lute while the kids bickered, but inspiration remained out of reach.  He had some idea of what this Pike chick looked like based on Grog’s infrequent stories of his childhood friend.  “She’s a monstah,” he would growl with pride.  Probably another goliath, Scanlan thought, fingers dancing across the strings.  Or an orc. Huge, scarred up from fighting. The only way to earn Grog’s respect was to kick his ass, and Pike was clearly Grog’s favorite person.  Scanlan sighed with much drama, his ennui ignored by the rest of the crew.  He had been bereft of female companionship since Kraghammer. That elf had been a monster in her own right; he was in the mood for something softer.

Maybe Westruun had a brothel.

As thought deliberately adding to the tragedy of Scanlan’s life, Grog led them passed the entrance to Westruun to the outskirts of town, near something called a Bramblewood.  Long practice of keeping up with taller people did not prevent him from falling somewhat behind, and he brought up the rear of the party when Grog motioned for them to stop.  Peering between legs, he caught a glimpse of a house far in the distance, mentally groaning at the thought of so many times more.  Instead of striding ahead, however, Grog leaned his head back and let out a battle roar.   Everyone grabbed for their weapons, Vax slipped from the bear’s back to snatch daggers from his belt, all looking around for whatever Grog spotted that they had missed.

The door to the distant house flew open, and a pale creature darted out, headed straight for them. Grog, his weapons untouched, ran forward with a cruel cackle.

Percy blinked, dumbfounded. “Do my glasses need adjustment or…?”

“No,” Vax replied, stunned.  “We see it, too.”

The house was not so far away as it seemed. Rather, it was small. And the small creature that ran from the building met Grog in the center of the field, leaping into the air and punching his fist in a display so pathetic, her fingers should have squeaked.

Keyleth gestured towards the duo.  “I was not expecting… anything like that.”

Scanlan, for once, had nothing to say.  Not a goliath or an orc or a particularly fearsome dwarf.  Grog’s friend Pike was a gnome.  A lovely, hopefully single female gnome.

He cast Prestidigitation on himself to banish the dust from the road and cursed his sturdy armor.  The burgundy leather was a flashier color than most people preferred, but he had nicer clothes tucked away in his pack. No time to get to them, or get changed. He’d go for Rakish Swashbuckler and hope for the best.

“You can call him ‘Percy”,” Grog said following Percy’s inevitably long introduction.  And, uh… who’d I miss?”

“You saved the best for last, of course,” Scanlan declared, parting the twins’ cloaks like a curtain and stepping into the center of the group before Pike’s startled blue eyes.  She was even prettier up close, he

decided with a thrill.  “Scanlan Shorthalt, the leader of this motley group.”  He bowed with a flourish, stepping closer as he straightened, and slipped his hand under hers. “We’ve heard much of your might,” he said, leaning close and allowing his voice to drop to a honeyed murmur. “But not nearly enough of your beauty.”

“Oh,” she breathed, her eyes wide.  Scanlan was just about to discard subtlety altogether and steal a kiss from those perfect pink lips, but a hand pulled him off his feet by the back of his shirt.

“This ain’t no Lady Favors House,” Grog hissed.  Not in anger, but in explanation, as though trying to stop Scanlan from embarrassing himself. Hah, fat chance.

“I was just being polite,” Scanlan lied.

“You really travel with them?” Pike asked, fascination written clearly across her face.

Scanlan struck a pose, ignoring the fact that Grog still held him aloft. “Why, dear, in my time, I’ve traveled all across Tal’dorei and beyond. I’d be happy to tell you of my travels, perhaps over dinner?”

“As fun as it is watching Scanlan get shot down, I think gangrene has set in.”  Vax held onto his sister while he pulled off his boot, much to her disgust.

“Ugh, brother! Your feet smell terrible.”

“If someone would heal me, it might not smell so bad.”

“Oh, dear!” Pike rushed over to examine the remains of his foot.  Scanlan shot Vax a glare for stealing her attention away. “You’d better come inside.  I might need to pray over this for a while.”

To everyone’s surprise, they all fit in the tiny house.  Grog, ducked in and settled near the fireplace as though he had done so every day of his life. Which, Scanlan realized belatedly, he likely had.

Pike settled Vax on a chair near a small alter in the corner. “Pawpaw’s at the market right now, but does anybody want some tea?  I mean, I can’t actually make tea very well…”

“Foot please,” Vax demanded, sounding very similar to Trinket when he was begging at the table.

Abandoning her uncertain hostess duties, Pike knelt over Vax’s partial foot, took the pendant hanging around her neck into her hands and closed her eyes in prayer.  Scanlan took the opportunity to admire her profile.

To everyone’s shock, after only a few minutes had passed, a bright glow sifted through her fingers.  Pike pressed the symbol to his stump with one hand and held his heel with the other hand when he tried to pull away. A few more minutes passed in silence aside from Vax’s panicked yelps, then the glow faded. Pike sighed in satisfaction and opened her eyes to examine the newly grown foot.

Vex blinked at her twin’s limb. “Wow.”

"Indeed," Percy echoed in an awed tone.  "Well done."

Scanlan said nothing, a thousand verses suddenly running through his mind.  In Pike, he had found something far better than a fling.  

He found a muse.

#critical role #pike trickfoot #scanlan shorthalt #pikelan #critical role fanfic #i'm not sure what's going on

[kingdomofzythania]

Session 1

DND Kingdom of Zythania Campaign Notes: June 9, 2018: 1. Kingdom of Zythania: ● Kingdom is ruled by mages. Half the kingdom is in darkness, other half of the kingdom is in light ○ Zythanlit: light half of kingdom. Inhabited by humans and is where all of the shops are located ○ Zythanrit: inhabited by dark creatures and kenkus ● Inhabitants of Zythanlit feel very threatened by the dark creatures from Zythanrit. They are always on edge when inhuman creatures end up in Zythanlit. 2. Start of campaign: Summoned by a Letter ● Each player’s character receives a letter in the mail from something called the “Midnight Bane”. ○ Letter tells the characters to meet on a certain day at a maze. ● Each character has their own entrance to the maze. Characters enter through their own individual door. ● Roll order for entering the maze: Sirena (Wood Elf sorcerer), Elaria (Air Genasi sorcerer with elf roots), Doryu (Dragonborn monk), Twang (Kenku), Koe (Tiefling) 3. The Mysterious Maze ● Sirena enters the maze: ○ Fights and defeats a kenku. ○ Must pick between left and right doors. Goes through right door. ■ Meets Twang the kenku, learns that he is friendly and group up. ● Elaria enters the maze: ○ Fights a deep gnome. ■ Elaria tries to use her quarterstaff, gets stuck in the casing, does not work in her favor. ■ Deep gnome tries to use it's axe on Elaria. Does not work, axe goes backwards instead. ■ Elaria uses lightning chromatic orb (can use 1x). Lightning orb kills the deep gnome and he shits himself as he dies. ○ Left or right door? Chooses the left door. ■ Meets the “nasty ass douchebag” Koe. Asks if he is a friend or foe. He is a dick and asks the same question. Elaria tells him about fighting the deep gnome. Rolls perception check to see if Elaria telling the truth. She is telling the truth. He reveals himself to be friendly and they group up. ● Doryu enters the maze: ○ Doryu fights a skeleton He keeps making bad rolls and loses a lot of health. Eventually kills the creature. ○ Left or right door? Can't remember which he picked. Goes through the door, meets Elaria and Koe. Elaria asks if he is friend or foe after he asks her. Asks him where he came from. He explains to her about the letter and the fight. Elaria rolls to see if he's lying: comes to conclusion that since he's a monk and all bloody, he is being honest and can be trusted. He joins the crew.

● Twang and Sirena enter through Twang’s door:

○ Must fight a goblin.

■ To be honest, I didn't take notes on this fight because I was coloring.

■ Twang takes one of the skeleton’s femurs as a trophy and puts it in his

bag.

○ “How to Train Your Kenku”: Sirena is teaching Twang more words to expand his

vocabulary.

● Koe, Elaria, and Doryu enter through Koe’s door:

○ Before entering: Elaria rolls perception to investigate the room. Sees a creature crouching behind a wall on far side of room.

○ Enter with Doryu behind Elaria because he is injured. Koe shoots the creature behind wall, hits creature in the chest. Creature comes out from behind wall and comes closer. Creature is a Kuo Toa. Elaria uses Shocking Grasp, it hits and lightning startles KT. Creature knicks Elaria’s ribcage with sword (take 2 damage). Koe stabs KT. Doryu uses Dragonbreath and kills KT. Doryu fillets the KT, eats some (gains back health points), and puts the remaining fish fillets in his bag.

○ Left or right door? Left. Elaria and Doryu roll perception to investigate room. Elaria gets a bad feeling from room. Doryu can see trip wires in the room. Elaria and Koe investigate right door. See two people in room. Go through right door.

■ Meet up with Sirena and Twang. Twang tries to speak and says “KANSAS!” No time to figure out if everyone is friendly. Sirena and Elaria decide they friends though.

● Battle with the Lich:

○ Lich appears in the room. Elaria and Sirena try to convince others not to fight the Lich. They argue with Doryu and Koe over it. Twang shouting “fight” and “KANSAS” in the background. Elaria snaps at Koe calling him an idiot who wants to die. Everyone rolls to see who decides whether or not group fights it: Koe and Twang. Decide to fight. Koe charges at Lich and it disappears.

● Enter Panrose!:

○ Old man in robes and sporting a beard enters the room and calls Koe a “crazy fuck”. Very hyper and flamboyant man. Elaria asks who he is.

■ Panrose the Great Sorcerer

○ Elaria asks why they were summoned here. Panrose reveals backstory:

■ He was the leader of the Midnight Bane, a group of 6 members that ruled Zythania. Each member has intense powers and they use their powers for their own benefit, not for the benefit of Zythania. They take taxes from the kingdom to add to their riches. Panrose had a change of heart and left the Midnight Bane and is now trying to bring about their downfall. Panrose reveals that he has the power to create. He created the underdark creatures that were in the maze. He explains that they were not real creatures.

● Twang looks in his bag and the skeleton femur is gone, confirming Panrose’s abilities to be true.

● Elaria gets angry for being tricked in the maze. Yells at Panrose, the controls her temper and apologizes.

■ Panrose states that he summoned everyone here because he left the brethren of the Midnight Bane a while back and he needs a group of individuals to take down the Midnight Bane.

○ Elaria asks Panrose why he picked them specifically.

■ “Oh that’s simple...you’re the first ones to answer the ad.”

■ Panrose has been sending out the letters for 20 years and only Sirena,

Elaria, Doryu, Koe, and Twang were crazy enough to show up at the maze.

● Koe: “And you didn’t think to change your method?”

● Panrose (confidently): “NOPE”

○ Panrose asks the group if they will take him up on his offer and defeat the Midnight Bane.

■ Elaria asks why they should care about what the Midnight Bane are

doing.

● Panrose: “You saw what I created in the maze. Well, they can create...bigger and badder things. Oh also they are the ones creating the everlasting darkness in Zythanrit.”

○ Sirena asks Panrose what is in it for them.

■ Panrose: “Bettering Zythania”

■ Sirena: “No what’s in it for us? What are you going to give us to do this?

Resources? Money?”

● Panrose snaps his fingers and worms rain down on Twang.

Twang says he’s in. For some reason Panrose gives Twang his left shoe and Twang puts the shoe on his beak? Twang puts the shoe back in his bag.

■ Panrose says he’ll let everyone stay in his lodge (his home) on the outskirts of Zythanlit.

○ Everyone decides to take on Panrose’s mission and defeat the Midnight Bane. Panrose transports the group from inside the maze to in front of the lodge.

■ Exploring the lodge: Lodge is a two story loft. First floor has a living area and a fireplace. Upstairs, there are beds for sleeping in. The lodge is dusty and dirty, looks like it hasn’t been lived in for a while.

● Still angry at Koe for trying to fight the Lich, Elaria proclaims that she wants the bed farthest away from Koe. Koe is being a dick and Elaria tells him that she doesn’t like him at all because he’s an idiot.

■ Sirena states that there are two options at this point: stay at the lodge and clean, or go explore the town. Guys proclaim they could use a drink. Group decides to go into Zythanlit and try to find a tavern.

3. Exploring the Town: Frenchie’s French Fresh Pub

● The group enters Frenchie’s French Fresh Pub and all of the people in the pub turn to look at them. Probably because most of the group is inhuman and there is a kenku within the group.

○ Twang rolls a perception check to observe if the situation in the bar is merely uncomfortable or threatening.

■ He observes that the townspeople seem very uncomfortable due to his presence as a kenku. He is not new to the prejudice that accompanies his race within Zythanlit. Townspeople seem anxious, but not threatening, so the group walks over to the bar and the odd bartender.

● Enter Frenchie!

○ Group begins interacting with the bartender, a man with a sick French mustache and a silly French accent. He’s very hyper and excitable just as Panrose is.

■ Frenchie introduces himself and asks a simple question to the Sirena, the most normal looking in the group: “What’s with the bird”

● Group assures Frenchie that the bird is friendly and nonthreatening.

○ Group decides to ask Frenchie for information on the town and the Midnight Bane.

■ Frenchie states that he’s new to the town and has only been there for three years when he opened this bar and that he has heard of the Midnight Bane by name, but doesn’t know anything about them.

● Doryu tries to bribe Frenchie with money. Frenchie does not understand it is a bribe “What is this for? You want this?” (he says as he rubs his nipple)

● Koe, impatient as usual, sits down at the bar and takes his knife to intimidate the barkeep.

■ Sirena takes a shot in the dark and asks Frenchie if he has heard of Panrose.

● Frenchie’s response: “ Do you know Panrose?”

● Twang takes Panrose’s left shoe out of his bag and puts it on the bar counter.

○ “Oh you know Pansy?! I know Pansy for long time, he

cheated with the wife of my second cousin twice removed!

We go way back!”

○ Elaria notices the inconsistency in his story and calls him out on it: “Wait, how do you know Panrose for a long time if 4. Bar Brawl! You only have been in the town for three years and Panrose has been in a maze for twenty years, not in the town?” ○ Sirena calls him out too: “And if you know Panrose for so long, how do you not know a lot about the Midnight Bane since he was their leader?” ○ Koe stands up and points his dagger at Frenchie. ● Frenchie, caught in his lie, starts to talk more. He knows that Panrose was in the Midnight Bane, but left for some reason. The Midnight Bane live in a castle and each member rules one floor of the castle. The Midnight Bane send creatures into Zythanlit to take taxes from the shopkeepers. Frenchie is afraid to say more because what he knows could put him in danger. ○ Noise comes from outside the bar. The bar quiets and all of the townspeople leave. Frenchie tells the group they need to leave. ■ Group asks what’s going on and Frenchie says that creatures are coming. Sirena puts two and two together and realizes it’s the Midnight Bane’s henchmen coming for the tax money. ● Group tells Frenchie they’ll take care of the creatures in exchange for information. Frenchie tells the group no, but that he will give them money in exchange for their help. Group decides to put a pin in the information issue until after the fight. ● Four skeletons walk into the bar. Group stands in front of the bar. Frenchie hides behind the bar. ○ Round 1:

■ Serina turn: Sirena tries to use Acid Splash, but fails. ● One of the skeletons becomes angered and lounges at Sirena. It closes the gap, but does not land a blow on Sirena. ■ Doryu turn: Doryu tries to attack using his sword. Instead, he falls off the bar stool when trying to take the sword out of the sheath. ● Closest skeleton slashes Doryu’s back.

■ Elaria turn: Elaria tries to use Shocking Grasp, rolls a 2 so it obviously doesn’t work well. Lightning rattles the skeletons bones.

● This angers the skeleton, who stabs its sword through Elaria’s hip. Elaria takes 5 damage (now down to 5 health points, very low on health).

■ Twang turn: Twang destroys one of the four skeletons with his swords. He takes one of the skeleton’s femurs as a prize and stuffs it in his bag. ****The group has now been playing for over 3 hours and it’s 11pm, so they call it a night. Bar brawl to be continued next session*****

[dmsden]

Location, Location, Location - Lair of the Devourers

Hello, Gentle Readers. Time for another “five-room dungeon” style adventure. We can’t always have every plot tying to the Angel of Chaos, after all, so I thought I’d put in this little side-trek featuring a classic D&D baddie - the Grell. This adventure was meant for 5 level 3 adventurers.

This piece is written to be slotted into an setting of your choosing as a classic bait and switch type scenario. The PCs are sent by someone to get rid of a seemingly easy menace, but it turns out that something much worse is going on. In this case, the Lord of Muskmelton sends them to wipe out the goblin war party that has taken up residence in some old caves a day or so out of town. A handful of caravans turned up missing, and some goblins were sighted, so it’s assumed they’re to blame.

In reality, however, the goblins are almost as much victims of the situation as the caravans. The goblin war party did come to these caves to try and establish a foothold from which to strike at caravans, but they unleashed something much worse. As they began to excavate some blocked caverns, tentacles reached out of the dark and started dragging them in. They had inadvertently let a pair of grells out of the Underdark. The war party were slowly wiped out, one by one, and only one survivor, Kultrok, has escaped being devoured. He has crawled into a dead end cave and is slowly starving. He is desperate for some kind of rescue himself.

Room 1 - The Massacre This is the first realization that the PCs might have that something is very wrong. They arrive to find very little sign of goblins, but definite signs of a fight. Investigation or Perception checks should reveal things like broken goblin weapons, dried goblin blood, and some kind of weird patches of dried ichor. Nature will reveal that the ichor is from nothing natural, while Arcana might suggest that it is similar to the slime that passes for blood in various aberrations. There are two exits going deeper underground. One smells curious, like nothing the PCs have encountered, and similar to the ichor. The other is dark and mostly quiet, although a Perception check will notice the sound of occassional wings rustling, as if there is a swarm of bats somewhere in the distance.

Room 2 - The Wrong Way: Going towards the fluttering sound reveals a rather gruesome sight. A human merchant’s corpse is here, looking completely dried out and desiccated. A Medicine check will advise that the body seems to be completely devoid of blood. At the same time, a Perception check will advise that the fluttering is getting more active. The PCs have one round before a swarm of ten stirges explodes out of the darkness, hungry for fresh blood. The goblins intended to get rid of them, but, for now, they placated them with the human they’d taken prisoner. Exploring down that way will reveal only the stirge’s cave. There is a natural chimney to the outside world leading up and out, and there’s a lot of stirge guano, but that’s about it.

Room 3 - The “Right” Way?: Going towards the strange smell will lead to another fork of sorts. There’s a mostly collapsed series of caves ahead. To the left, there’s a good-sized passageway. To the right, a very narrow hole in the rocks leads into darkness. A halfling, gnome, anyone of the Small size or smaller could slip through, but no Medium or larger creatures could without extensive digging. Kultrok has hidden himself back in the darkness of the small hole. He is desperately hungry and only at 1 hit point. If he observes adventurers going through towards the grells (the good-sized passage to the left), he will try to sneak out, hoping for a chance to escape while they fight the monsters. He will try to hide in his hidey-hole and be overlooked. If the PCs get to talk to him, Decaption, Intimidation, and Persuasion will all work well on him. He is terrified and wants to escape. (See Kultrok below for what he knows and how he could be helpful.)

Room 4 - The Grell Lair: The two grell have taken over the area of the goblin living quarters cave. They are smart enough to recognize the traps the goblins laid and to float over them but leave them in place. While they like having the treasures that the goblins had amassed, they find that the cave’s proximity to the caravan route promises the possibilities of more food. Already, they’ve devoured the merchants and guards that the goblins had taken prisoner (except for the unfortunate that the goblins had fed to the stirges) as well as the goblins themselves (except for Kultrok). The entrance to this room is guarded by a rockfall trap. If anyone trips this trap, which is set-off by a tripline DC 16 Perception/Investigation to notice, it brings down the false ceiling on a 10′ square inside the door and 5′ back along the corridor, which causes 2d10 damage to anyone that’s hit and knocks them Prone. A DC 15 Dexterity saving throw will avoid the worse of it (half damage, no Prone). This will attract the grells, of course, who will come out of the darkness like a nightmare and use their reach to the best of their ability (even if this sacrifices the Advantage for a prone target). You can decide what the goblins had gathered in treasure; I would recommend a level 1-4 hoard, as rolled in the Dungeon Master’s Guide.

Room 5- The Way, Way Down: If the PCs want to explore their way through the collapsed caverns. They eventually find the signs of where the goblins first fought the grell. Beyond this, the DM can add adventures in the Underdark, if they so choose. Otherwise, perhaps the fighting collapsed the caverns, trapping the grell here.

Kultrok: Kultrok uses the normal stats for a goblin, but he has only 1 Hit Point remaining. If questioned, he can tell the PCs about the things that came out of the dark. He is clearly terrified of them and won’t go any closer to them (like, he won’t show the party the way, no matter what.) If the party threaten to kill him, he’ll be torn, but he’ll eventually stand firm. After all, if they kill him, it’s quick and clean. He won’t be torn apart or eaten alive like he watched happen to some of his comrades. He won’t say grells. He’s a bit adled by terror, so he talks about “The horrible beaks...snapping...snapping...they floated up from the deep caves...no eyes...no eyes at all...and the long tentacles...they reached out of the dark...grabbed my friends...and they...they couldn’t move...but I could see on their faces that they knew...they knew what was happening...as they were dragged to the beaks...and they couldn’t even scream as they were eaten...”

He doesn’t care about treasure or bribes. He can tell the PCs that the things from the dark floated towards where their leader lived...where they stored the treasures they’d taken...and where the prisoners were kept. “I heard the screaming...I don’t think anyone’s still alive in there.” If they’re kind to him, he’ll warn them about the stirges, too. Ultimately, he just wants to be let go, to try and find his way back to his people.

[theunderdark]

Chapter 5, part 2: Down Laduguer’s Furrow

Back altogether once more, our crew of heroes set out to explore Gracklstugh’s molten pot of merchants, priests, guards, workers... and dragons. What will they find, and will it help them return to the surface world? 

(Narrator’s note: Ahem.. not sure this is remembered perfectly.. but here’s the main points!)

The Blade Bazaar

The team split up, with Akta, Adrik and Sariel heading to the market. They bartered with some strange merchants who seemed to be losing their marbles, purchasing and selling a few things along the way. 

And thanks to Bree’s advice, they also met Ylsa Henstak, a member of Gracklstugh’s merchant council. A canny caravan master, she invited the group into her well guarded office, although Akta chose to stay outside and flirt with the guards. 

Ylsa revealed that she would be travelling to Neverlight Grove in 10 rotations, and from there to Blingdenstone, which she advised as the best place to get to “the light lands.”  The group was welcome to join their caravan, as long as they could look after themselves.   

But when pushed on transport a little further, confessed a further secret. Deep below Gracklstugh, she explained, there is a labyrinth known as The Whorlstone Tunnels. 

Somewhere inside, there is an obelisk, “about the height of a dwarf, which has some magical powers of transportation that I have been researching for many years.” 

Intriguingly, she declared that if the group could secure the obelisk for her, then “surely, you shall have safe passage through the Underdark to wherever you wish to go.” 

Like her fellow duergar and grey dwarf the group met previously, Hemeth Ironkeel, the caravan master Ylsa can certainly hold her own...  

A Task from The Keepers

Meanwhile, the rest of the group met up the Keepers of the Flame, who were ready to escort Torinn to his work in Themberchaud’s cavern. Their leader, Gartokkar, introduced himself and his companions, who eyed the group suspiciously. One of the priests' hands was on fire, curled into a fist. 

They agreed to use powerful magic to revive Bree, noting gravely that “raising a creature from the dead is no small thing.” The priests explained that they believe when souls leave this “material plane”, they travel to other planes. 

After the group faintly remembered some details about where Bree had said she was (hiding in a wilderness? monsters? a fortress with skulls?) the priests realised that Bree was in The Abyssal Plane, the land of demons. “This is an altogether different proposition. We will need blood.” Eventually, after some ugly work, but to everyone’s delight, Bree opened her eyes and breathed once more. 

Acknowledging that they had undertaken a great service and favour, the Keepers entrusted the group with a perilous task. 

Turning to Torinn, they granted that although he had grown close to Themberchaud, their responsibilities as the Keepers were serious. "He is growing stronger and more resistant to our manipulations. He will need to be replaced by a younger dragon - it is too dangerous from Gracklstugh otherwise.”

The priests had been nurturing a successor – but the egg has been stolen. “We have traced it to a maze under the city, The Whorlstone Tunnels. You must go there and retrieve it.”  And if it could be returned?  “Then Torinn,” promised Gartokkar, “we will happily release you from our service.”

“With your brave friends, it should be easy no?”

The wrymsmith of Gracklstugh...

Themberchaud’s demand

A voice called out, and a reptilian behemoth came into view, its scales the color of lava, its bright yellow eyes glowing in the shadows of the cave, before coming into the light.

“Gartokkar, you didn’t say I was having surfaces for dinner today...”

Chuckling at his own wit, the dragon’s massive body gave the group the distinct impression that he is overweight, indicating eating habits that concerned the group.

“Foreigners,” said Gartokkar, with great reverence, “meet the Father of the flame, the Everburning, and The Foundry’s Heart - Themberchaud - the wrymsmuth of Gracklstugh.“

The dragon dismisses Gartokkar, and took Torinn into his confidence. 

“The Keepers are too arrogant to think that I am not aware of what’s going on. I know they are planning to replace me.”

“This is what you will do. You will find me this egg, wherever it is, and I shall hatch it, and dragons will rule the city. Leave now. And come back to me with the egg.” 

A Rampaging Giant

At some point the group met up in the market, and JimJar tried to pocket a penny whistle. Well, as the famous Darklake saying goes, nothing’s too small for a too small thief. 

The stone guard arrived, arresting her. Meanwhile Bree, zealously enjoying her newly found life, attempted to save her, but only ended up getting arrested too. The group met Commander Errde Blackskull, leader of the Stone Guard. 

After interrogating them and learning of their intriguing connection to the dragon Themberchaud, Commander Blackskull decided to release them. 

“There is a power growing in the Underdark,” he warned darkly. “The Stone Guard must protect Gracklstugh from whatever demonic forces may come. Find me the new dragon’s egg, and I will give you supplies and gear for leaving Gracklstugh, from our very own armoury.”

Before anything could be agreed, the rhythmic hammering of the city's forges was drowned for a second by a thundering roar and the sound of crumbling rock. Everyone turned to see a two-headed, gray-skinned giant burst through toward the market, howling madly and lashing out left and right, littering the plaza with rock and stone debris. 

As he bellowed, one of his swings connected with a duergar soldier, whose broken body flew through the air, crashing nearby with a sickening crunch. The group fled before either of the giants two heads had turned to see them. 

Down Laduguer’s Furrow 

Somehow... the group got back together and figured out that there was an entrance to The Whorlstone Tunnels at the bottom of Laduguer’s Furrow, a huge rift that splits the city in two. 

On their way, Akta clumsily knocked her shoulder against a tall hooded figure in a green cloak. A leathery arm grabbed her arm, and a caution: “Watch your step, Tiefling.” 

She eyed the group. “Have you ever had the pleasure of visiting Velkynvelve?”  Wisely, the group remained quiet, but someone noticed a spider broach on her arm - might she be connected to the Drow group tracking their escaped prisoners? Would she report back to the spider priestess, the commander of Velkynvelve, Ilvara Mizzrym? 

Ignoring protests from Adrik and the others, Akta followed the figure into a side street and murdered her. 

With that small problem seemingly resolved, the group headed into the tunnels. It grew suddenly cold, as they stepped into a cavern with three paths leading off. The crew looked at one another, and bravely stepped forward...

[thefourporpsmen-blog]

An ugly and Familiar Sight

An Ugly and Familiar Sight     Vines began to emerge from the stone walls, breaking through the rock and weaving themselves together over and over. The stream of thorny tendrils from the wall seemed endless as a structure slowly began to take shape. It was roughly the size of a large house by the time it had finished. The old wizard slowly approached to inspect his work. He walked along the perimeter to be sure there were no holes or gaps in the thick vines. Then he touched one of the thorns and was happy to find that they were as sharp as an assassin’s dagger as a small trickle of blood left his fingertip. He pulled back his hood and smiled at his achievement.      His name was Ikor Zemov and he had been a prisoner of the Underdark for a few decades now. There was a time when Ikor battled alongside other adventurers, but the strain of it all was too much for his gentle heart to bear. Years ago, he had met a group of traveling musicians known as the Rock Boys. These Duergar were experts in traveling the Underdark so Ikor left the group of warriors he had been traveling with and joined the Rock Boys for hope of a safer passage through the treacherous environment he found himself in. His beard had grown long and gray over the years and his naturally tan skin had lost much of its luster from lack of sunlight. “Finally,” He said aloud “some peace and quiet.” He approached his new ‘home’ and waved his wooden staff in front of him. The vines unfurled and created a door. This spell was something Ikor had been concocting for months, ever since he left the Rock Boys. His human eyes couldn’t see very much in the lightless world of the Underdark and he never focused his spells on offensive tactics. Ikor was a diviner. He studied magic that helped his see the outcome of certain events and sometimes even change them. A powerful skill indeed, but not for someone alone in the Underdark. He entered his temporary home and began to pour over the scrolls and books he had discovered in the Underdark over the years, desperately searching for a spell that he could use to escape to the surface world once more.

     “We don’t need him.” Omri complained. “He’s probably off fiddling around with some sissy music with his new friends.” Omri was a dwarf, through and through. He was stubborn, grouchy and impatient, but he was also fiercely loyal to his friends. Long ago when they first met, Omri traveled with Ikor alongside Magnus and a few others. He felt terribly wronged when Ikor left the group and refused to see Ikor’s side of the story, he had held a grudge for all these years.

     Magnus rolled his eyes and said “You really need to get over that. He felt safer with people who weren’t hunting demon demi gods. How can you blame him?” It was a rhetorical question of course and Omri knew it so he didn’t respond.      Magnus, Omri, Ikor and several others met in a Drow prison a few decades ago. They came together and through all their varied talents, they were able to escape. Magnus and Omri had formed a strong bond almost immediately. Magnus always put survival above all else. He had no interest in heroism, fame, wealth or conquest which Omri greatly appreciated. More than that though Omri respected Magnus because of his unquestioning willingness to jump into battle to save those he considered friends. Omri didn’t respect cowards or fools. He was a brave warrior and he didn’t offer his talents to those he didn’t respect. Magnus was neither a coward nor a fool and Omri held him in very high regards. Magnus cared very little for personal relationships. He had lost many loved ones to the perils of the Underdark and long ago he promised himself that he would free himself of heartache by not growing close to others. Omri, however, proved to be such a valuable ally that he couldn’t help but form a friendship. The clerics healing powers were the heart of their group as he healed countless wounds during their time together.      Several others that they traveled with were more trouble than they were worth and eventually those people were… weeded out. But Ikor was always valuable. He used his divination magic to avoid dangerous paths and outcomes. Omri grew attached to the wizard and was very offended when a person that he trusted and almost admired had abandoned them.      “Plus, you know what he can do” Magnus added “I can punch things and move very fast and you can heal us under any circumstance, but he might be able to find us a way out.”      The dwarf was silent for a moment as he fought the urge to make some sort of smart remark, but finally he agreed “Aye, he just might. Could’ve used his fancy magic when we had to put down the witch.”      The dwarf and the elf had a wealth of stories together from the friendly ooze to the knight who turned into a sword. They once came face to face with the demon lord Demogorgon. The instance to which Omri had just referenced was a very dark time for the two of them, but everything they had done they had done out of necessity.      The two of them continued to navigate the tough terrain in front of them. A small chamber that they needed to pass through was severely flooded. They approached from a high ledge that overlooked the flooded chamber and on the other side of the small body of water was a large cave opening that slowly ascended and a path could be seen rising from the water. Omri let out an exasperated sigh as they approached. There wasn’t a day that went by in the Underdark that the two of them didn’t have to overcome obstacles. Magnus wasn’t nearly as perturbed as the dwarf though.      “Wait here. I’ll go look for a way across.” The monk said to his friend. He approached the edge of the path where the water started to pour over. He took a deep breath to center himself and then entered a dead run straight across the water. His feet moved so quickly that instead of sinking or tumbling into the pond they propelled him further. He sprinted across the pond, running on the top of the water and made it to the cave entrance and to the ascending path just beyond that.      “Showoff.” Omri said out loud.       Once on the other side Magnus began to look around to see if there was anything that could help the stocky dwarf cross the flooded chamber. He followed the path for a moment. The cave like tunnel rose for a few hundred feet until Magnus saw a sight that he had hoped he wouldn’t have to see ever again. Omri waited patiently for Magnus to return. He began to pray to his goddess for strength and power, a procedure he had done ever since becoming a cleric. He specialized in spells that could mend broken bones or seal open gashes, but there were times when a more offensive approach was necessary. His most reliable spell was his spiritual guardians that could protect him and his allies while also dealing massive amounts of damage to those who would do them harm. He also employed a radiant bolt of energy that would seer the flesh of his target and outline them in a light that made them an easy target for another attack. Omri had a very good instinct. He would prepare certain spells each day for whatever needs he thought he might need them for and it was not often that he went into a situation unprepared.      “The Darklake…” Magnus said quietly to himself. This massive subterranean lake spread out for nearly one hundred miles and was filled with monsters just waiting for an easy meal. They had been forced to travel across the Darklake before by boat and it was no easy feat. Magnus wanted to scream out of frustration for the sight of the Darklake alone brought back memories that he wished to never revisit. He held is anger in check though, just as he always did and began searching the shore of the lake for any possible debris or even an abandoned rowboat he could use to get Omri across. A soft disturbance in the water sent a ripple across the top of the lake about fifty feet from Magnus’ position. His keen senses alerted him to the disturbance and he took a defensive stance, crouching low to the ground and bringing his kama in front of him. The scene was quiet for minutes, but Magnus didn’t move and inch. Over the years, he learned the value of patience. He surveyed the lake over and over, but it remained silent. Suddenly a large splash erupted from the surface far from where the original disturbance was. A short black spear made its way out of the water and directly towards Magnus. The dark elf smiled and said out loud “Perfect.” The missile streaked towards the monk and he didn’t move an inch. A moment before it sunk its way into his chest and with blinding speed, Magnus flicked his wrist and deflected the spear with his kama. He used the momentum of his whirling kama to quickly tie the missile and rope up around his wrist and then he planted his feet and began to pull.      He had found himself in this position many times before so a harpoon attack from a Merrow was no real threat to him. Their tactics were simple, but effective. They would impale a person or boat with their harpoons and drag victims beneath the surface to devour them. Their barbed spears could pierce stone and the rope which they used was so strong it was said to be able to pull a dragon from the sky. Normally the spear moved so quietly and quickly towards its target that there wasn’t much a creature could do once the harpoon left the water. Magnus was a master of his own body though and catching incoming arrows, spears or other projectiles was an easy feat for him.      After a short struggle between the two Magnus pulled the creature to the surface. Merrow were grotesque aquatic creatures not dissimilar to Merfolk. They wore monstrous faces instead of the fair features of the Merfolk and they were much larger. Magnus pulled the creature to the shore and it let out a loud screech. The Drow swarmed on it. Hacking and slashing with his Kama, the Merfolk didn’t stand much of a chance without its advantageous position in the lake.      Omri was finishing his prayers when Magnus returned on the other side of the flooded chamber. The dwarven cleric stood with a grunt, using his Warhammer to help him get to his feet. “Well?” He said in a very impatient tone. “You won’t be seein me dance my way across the water and this armor’s too heavy for me to swim so how do you suppose I’ll get across?” he shouted. “Aren’t you supposed to be less grouchy after a rest?” Magnus replied as he hurled the harpoon directly at the dwarf. Omri brought his shield up and caught it as it sunk into the reinforced wood. Magnus smiled.      “Tryin to kill me elf? Who’d save you if I died ya careless fairy?” Omri jested. He yanked the spear from his shield and walked over to a nearby wall. He held the spear to the stone wall and smashed it in with his hammer over and over until it was completely embedded. Magnus took his end to of the rope and leaped high into the air as he plunged his kama into a low hanging stalactite. He tied his end around the stone and secured it tightly. He pulled on the rope a few times, testing how secure it was. When he was satisfied, he dropped to the ground and nodded to Omri for him to cross. The rope hung roughly ten feet above the water and was very taught. “Yea” the dwarf said to himself “I think you are tryin to kill me.” He strapped his shield to his back and placed his hammer at his side as he pulled himself up on the rope with his powerful arms and swung his legs around it as well. He shimmied his way down the rope and began to pass over the pond. Most races would struggle greatly to swing themselves across a rope with a full suit of armor, a shield and Warhammer at their side, but the weight of his equipment was inconsequential to the powerful Dwarf. Slowly, but surly he made his way across the rope and arrived at the other side. He dropped to the ground and let out a few gruff sighs. He looked up at the rope and then averted his gaze back to Magnus.      “Where’d ye find the rope?” He asked with a suspicious tone. He also knew a Merrow harpoon when he saw one.      “You aren’t going to like it.” Magnus replied dryly.      “No. I won’t. I never do.”      Magnus let out a rare sigh of frustration and answered “The Darklake. It seems we’ve found our way back to one its shores.”      “Aye.” Omri replied with a defeated sigh. “I don’t like that at all.”

     The wizard enjoyed life in his secluded hut sculpted from magical vines for a few days in complete silence and solitude. Ikor had been exposed to the dangerous environment of the Underdark for a very long time now so the safety that his new home brought was a welcome treat for the old wizard. After a few days, though, he decided to get to work on divining his way out of the Underdark. He removed a few sticks from his bag. These sticks were peculiar in that they were each carved and whittled to be very flat and smooth with triangular ends. They also had ancient runes inscribed on all sides. Some diviners use a deck of cards to determine a person’s traits or a crystal ball to get a glimpse of a future event. Ikor used what he called “Geomancy Sticks”. He would roll these sticks on the ground like a set of dice and interpret different markings on the sticks and the pattern in which they fell to determine certain outcomes. He did this daily partly because it helped him on his day to day adventures and partly out of curiosity and amusement. This morning would be unlike many other mornings in his divination. He rolled the Geomancy Sticks on the ground and began to interpret. What he saw confused and shocked him.      “No…” he said to himself. “Must have read them wrong. Eyes don’t work as well as they used to.” He pulled a small circular glass monocle from his bag and peered through it again.      “But…” he said in a confused tone. “How are they alive? And how did they find me?”       So many questions came to him that morning. The sticks told him of a reunion with old friends. A healer and a sage. A foreigner to these lands like himself and a native. Two warriors. Two allies.

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