Events of 3/15 - 4/3

Work on the offering to the Sphinx proceeds. A jeweler is at work to create a small statuette depicting a sphinx with a bow and arrows. It is made of gold and silver, with small gems for eyes, and the tip of the arrows. It should be ready in a few days.

A letter is received from De Shamod. They have made it safely and are living in a suite of rooms at the Inn of the Arsenal (they thought the name appropriate) located just off the civil district. They've already made some contacts with interested merchants, interested in selling their wares. They've begun plastering the squares with posters recruiting settlers.
They wish some more detailed instructions whether there are particular trades sought.

The town guard has been assigned some regular duties. They number 12 people now. They maintain guards at the Konner Mine, and the main door to the keep. Crossbows were repaired and the guards now sport these as well. Hossein, a warrior of some ability was made captain of the guard.

Woodcutting has begun across the river, and lumber has been brought across for rebuilding the village. People are feeling more comfortable in the village now and have begun to move out of the keep in greater numbers. They report signs of very large boar in the area. After one persons was seriously gored (but healed up), wood cutting stopped.

As the weather begins to warm. The main door to the keep was removed, and work has begun hammering it back into shape.
It should be able to be remounted shortly. Vor has taken to standing guard at night with some of his new recruits just in case.

A package for Ferrethryn arrives. It is a sort of scrimshaw, carved into the fang of a sabre toothed cat. She seems a little alarmed by it, and disappears with some of the maps brought along on the journey.

Ferrethryn studying some of the miscellaneous items in the laboratory finds that they are Enemy Bane charms. They will grant the Enemy Bane Template to any spell in which they are used as a component. (Fey, Monstrous Humanoid (2), Magical Beast, Outsider (3), Sibbecai)

Two prospectors engaged in a fight over a claim. Vor Tarn hears their case. He requires one month of forced labor in the mines for their fighting, and then divides the claim based on the senority of the claim.

Elidia finds a text among those in the alchemical library titled "Rites of Inquiry" the books details rituals that can provide auguries and divinations of a variety of sorts. She has begun to decipher it, and learning more of its secrets.

Preparations for the Feast of the Dragon's Breath (4/4) have begun. Early flowers have been gathered, beer and mead is being prepared. Game birds have been caught. Graal and Linneaus investigating the goring of a woodsman, have found the tracks of a dire boar (centerpiece of the feast?).

Birdland

The party makes for Lowenvale with the town's children, some bearers and their newly appointed trade envoys.

Kparis - as the contact in Lowenvale
Dondo - as lead envoy to De Shamod
Aslowen - as exchequer of accounts in De Shamod
Dondo and Aslowen were given a letter worth 1000gp to bring with them to De Shamod.


The grateful Lownevalians pledged to build a hold for Ar-Ensul in their town, to house Kparis and act as a storeroom for trade good in both directions.

While there Linneaus and Elidia sequestered themselves and performed the ceremony to grant Linneaus the feat of Intuitive Sense, allowing him to never be caught flat footed.

Ferrethryn used the time to decipher the uses of the Rune Plates, which she discovered can hold lesser runes without using up Rune Slots.

The party then headed upriver to the ancient runes.

They came upon the large temple and found it the home to thousands of birds of all kinds. They approached cautiously. As they climbed the stairs covered in the droppings of the birds, they were attacked from the wood. A Totem Warrior with magic arrows rained down a volley of arrows seriously hurting Ferrethryn. Graal and Linneaus launched their own attacks against him, and the feather garbed warrior fled shorlty thereafter. Linneaus got close enough to see his bizare contorted face, he seemed quite mad.
The party explored the main part of the ruined temple spying a large statue of a sphynx, and of a large winged humanoid. As they got close, Graal, in the lead activated a rune covered by droppings and was compelled to leave the temple. The party seemed unsure how to procede. Vor Tarn followeed his liege to ensure his safety, at Graal's behest the rest of the party advanced to peer into the temple proper. They activated another rune, which confused Linneaus temporarily, then Elidia used her knowledge to guide them safely inside, mystically erasing another rune. Their they spied a colossal stature of a four armed, winged humanoid made of stone, holding a duplicate made of platinum. Linneaus quickly invoked his totem and climbed the statue to get at the statuette. This seemed to attract the attention of the Sphynx which had transformed some how from statue to real sphynx. She demanded they stop, called them infidels and defilers, and moved to attack. She activated some kind of rune which caused her to radiate intense heat and light. As she neared Linneaus he was scorched by the effect. He landed a blow on her then moved to escape. Ferrethryn and Elidia who had already moved from the area, dashed past her.
There was a brief discussion as Ferrethryn tried to negotiate, and the party was granted leave, ostensibly to return with some sacrifice. By this time Graal had recovered and he met with her as well, and confirmed that plan. The Sphynx was not particularly friendly, but she was keen eared, and when Graal made a disparaging comment under her breath, she roared, summoning a swarm of birds which harried Graal as he tried to leave the temple. The party was able to heal up, and return to Ar-Ensul.
There was some discussion of the need for more party unity and cohesion. Plans were made to construct some kind of offering to the temple.

Events of week 3/8 - 3/14

Note on Dates: The Diamond Throne uses a thirteen month calendar of 28 day months, 1/1 is the first day after the winter solstice. So these dates would be roughly equivalent to February 25-March 2nd. Future Events will probably for a whole month.

1. The party returns to Ar-Ensul to recuperate from the battle with the shadows.
Everyone is back to full strength.
2.Elidia reads the runes in the ice and cannot identify them. They are unfamiliar to her, though she can't tell whether they are just more advanced, or of some different kind.
3. Linneaus begins to scout the lands around the keep.
- Finds considerable game, boars, deer, and bear.
- Discovers three small communities a couple days from the keep.
- Hillindale, ten families in a small valley in the Rough
- Diamond City, twenty prospectors on the edge of the Sea of Sparks
- Woodsedge, mixed human/faen community on the edge of the Harrowdeep
- Hears tales of a tribe of strange trolls with crystal shards embedded in their hides in the lands around the sea of shards.
- Sees tracks of some large humanoids in the Splinters (giants? ogres?)
- Finds evidence of a clear road, wheel tracks and hoof prints, heading east through the Rough.
4. The Keep is cleaned up, furniture is evaluated, most deemed not worth keeping (but a few pieces still in decent shape). Needs list formed for the keep.
- Furniture, linens, curtains, tapestries
- Various house hold goods (pots and pans, dishes, silver, candle operas, etc..)
- Livery for staff,

5. Some people are beginning to move into the village, and trying to restore the homes and shops. They've taken to thatching roofs, cleaning out the huts, and breaking down the walls of some smaller buildings. One larger building, an old inn or tavern has been remade into a drinking establishment after several kegs were recovered from Konner's mine.

6. All the warriors have been equiped with Breast Plates and weapons they are familiar with. Some well trained commoners and experts are being given additional training in armor proficiency. This will take some time to develop though. [Should they be in armor anyway, or wait for them to go up levels?]

7. Three people have expressed interest in the Lowenvale position:
- Kparis a Cloth Merchant, Exp 3rd, Human Age 40. Ambitious, Bargainer, Salesman.
- Dondo, minor noblemen, Ari 2nd Hum, Age 25 Optimistic , Foppish, has contacts.
- Solatius, Trader, Exp 2nd, Human 31. Cautious, Thoughtful. Conservative.

8. Two people have expressed interest in traveling to Del Shamod as envoys, traders, and recruiters.
- Aslowen, a caravan leader, with contacts to the trade industry. Exp 3rd, Human Age 36, diplomatic, eager, outgoing
- Darune, advocate and mediator, Ari 3rd, age 50. Gentille, cosmopolitian, well read.

9. Spirits are rising among the new citizens of Ar-Ensul, and there seems to be a general sense of optimism.

Erase Rune Ruling

I am going to rule that erasing runes is basically the same as disabling a trap.

If you exceed DC of the rune with a caster power check (level + int bonus), then you erase the rune.
If you fail by 4 or less, then you know that you failed and can try again.
If you fail by 5 or more, then you think that you succeeded and can't try again unless you discover the rune is still active, with a detect magic or new sense rune (at a penalty of -2 per failed attempt).


Also, I am going to rule that you need line of sight to erase another person's runes, though you can erase your own so long as you know where they are (so you can't erase an applied rune on a person, unless you know where they are or can see them).

Mirrors and Shadows

The party recuperates from the events in the cave. Meanwhile we learn of Elidia's little adventure. She had decided to explore the tower and the mirror. She crept up there, and engaged the mirror in discussion. It offered her knowledge of powerful and dangerous runes. She giddily accepted and copied a rune drawn by the image in the mirror. When she completed the task and concentrated for some time, a shadowy figure rose from the rune. It followed her out of the tower, and left her breifly to 'feed' on a sleeping villager. Doing so apparantly unlocked some intellect. It sopke alramingly to her, and frightened her. She ordered it to stop feeding on people, and instead to gain nutrition from animals. It took her command and left her.
Shortly thereafter the party heard tell of a shadowy beast attacking villagers. On a moonless evening they ran out to stop this beast. Elidia playing ignorance for now. After a brutal battle in which only Ferrethryn was able to harm the beast they finally slew it. They interrogated Elidia and discovered her actions, and bade her erase the rune. She tried to no avail.
Thinking the main danger was over they went to bed to recover from the attacks that sapped their strength.
The original shadow returned and admitted to creating several spawn. She bade it leave and returnin one night, and went to to the rest of the party. They hatched a plan to trap the foul creature. Prepping mighty magics and runes they waited for the beast to return. Sadly it sensed something was a foot and demanded a command from Elidia. Thinking quickly she bade it seek out the mirror. It did and the party was able to chase it down in the tower. After a very short fight, it was slain. Again efforts were made to erase the rune to no avail.
They went back to recuperate some more. A few day slater they heard of some missing livestock out in the boneyards. They traveled to the Slaughterhouse and discovered that half a dozen Giant Yaks simply vanished, and the rest of the herd was prone to skittish behavior (unusual in Yaks the size of elephants). They caught up with the herd, took up a perch on a nearby hillock, and waiting for night. At night the herd stampeded and the party descended into the dusty remains of the herd. There they found six shodowy yaks feasting on dying Yak. They finished it in a moment and turned on the party. A pitched battle ensued. But the well prepared party faught hard, and mostly by the magicked Athame of Ferrethyrn slew the six, and seventh shadow spawn. Graal was seriously weakened by the encounter, and needed nearly a week's rest to recover from their assaults.
The party rested and prepared to head for Lowenvale in a week's time.

Breaking the day to day

We can discuss this Friday, but I would like to throw out this idea. Normally we play the campaign sort of day by day. I was thinking that for this campaign, it might be better to allow a fairly long span of time go between adventures. We can use this website and email to handle some of the running of the keep, and people can have longer term projects that carry over weeks and months. So for example, we might finish an adventure Friday and then assume a month passes before the next adventure. People can email me if they want their characters to do something.
One advantage of this system is that we could have changes occur at the keep and village in reasonable time frames. Otherwise, it would be fairly unreasonable to expect much to happen over the course of only a few days or weeks.
Another advantage, is that the encounters would be spaced out over time. A couple assaults on the keep each week would be pretty scary, but one a month is not so ridiculous.
Also some personal stuff, research skill acquisition, etc.. Would be easier to explain as well.

I would still want to Role Play any ceremonies or rituals. But we could do that in the past tense if needed.

Let me know what you think.

Keep Plans online

I've made a basic page for the keep, including plans. You should be able to print this out so you get four pages, with one floor on its own page. However, you may need to tweak the font size of your browser to get it to work. If you want a clean image of the maps only, you can click on the pdfs.

Keep Plans

Steve

Mirrors and Ice

The party recovers from the last day's excitement. They head down to the miner's camp to bring the former slaves back for their own safety and for some discussion. Most of the people brought to Ar-Ensul were from the village of Havel located somewhere in the central plains. Others were from smaller farming communities along the way from here to there. The journey was pretty amazing, they crossed many dangerous and inhospitable areas to get here, led by the Rhodin.
Graal used his great diplomatic ability to entice these people to stay in the city of their servitude, now as citizens. Most were resigned to do so, since they could not return to where they were from. Some were no very interested, but with promises of good work, and positions in the court once it is established, they agreed to stay.
Elidia disappeared, though some of the villagers claim to have seen her here and there.
After talking to the people, the party decided to interrogate the Winter Witch. They discovered he spoke some Common, but he demanded his freedom in exchange for information. Reluctantly they agreed to release him once he revealed his informaiton. He claimed that Ruqun was counseled by the Mirror throughout their stay here, and before. The mirror apparantly was smaller and able to be transported and grew in place when it was brought here. The witch gave the impression that Ruqun was advised and aided by the mirror. Why they came here was unclear, but it was clear the mirror was the brains behind the move. The witch also gave the party the passwords for the secured door to the empty tower, and the dragon, though the party is still unsure of what the dragon does.
The party then went to talk to the mirror. Again, the impression was one that they could not trust the mirror. They did learn that the mirror/keep does not need human sacrifice, it needs some kind of sacrifice, of something valuable to the party. The mirror/keep called the sacrifice an investment. It also claimed that the sacrifice made by the Dramojh, they had to 'bow' to the golden dragon to gain access to the mirror, and insult to their chromatic heritage. The mirror offered one bit or wisdom without cost. It warned them of a danger about to be unearthed by a prospector up the road from the keep.
They decided to go check, just in case. They encountered the eccentric prospector, Konner, in his mine. He immediately bade them leave. the party refuse. He attacked, they returned fire, doing their best to avoid bloodshed. A brief fight ensued, Konner demonstrated that he was not a simple prospector, but a spellcaster as well. The party demanded he show them his latest digs, he grudingly agreed, fearing another attack. He led them back to a cold chamber with an ice falls in the center. It seemed to glow in the light from Konner's staff. He showed them the unusual ice, it would generate cold, but it wouldn't melt. The potential uses were obvious. The party saw a lucrative chance to sell the ice downriver, and Konner seemed eager to participate in the sales as well. They made plans to meet again in a few days.
Linneaus checked up on Konner the next day, and discovered that there were signs of a fight, blood and such. He ran to get the party and returned with them to assist.
They quickly encountered a strange beast. It was some hellish two headed owl bear. It was ferocious, but against the combined might of the party, it was no match. They killed and looked for Konner's body. They found a boot, his magic staff, but no sign of him. They can only assume he was eaten by the dread creature, or some how escaped.

They returned to the keep to plan their next action.