Famous Five go to Delphi

GM: Mike
Party: Ty Trident (Leader); Callas; Turf (scribe); Blitzkrieg (Military scientist); Belladona

Diary

Summary

Contact is lost with the island of Delph and trading has ceased, a guild party are hired to investigate. The Drow aided Kronos to escape from his prison in Hades, where he was trapped for millennium by Zeus, but double crossed him. Kronos is imprisoned by the Drow who are using his considerable power to create an ever expanding circle of elemental dread destroying all within its area. The guild party uncover the intrigue and drive away the Drow so Hades can drag Kronos back to his prison. With Kronos gone the elemental circle disappears and the island restored to normal.

7th August

Guild Liaison Officer Abraham assembles us all for investigation mission 08809-3A. The Island of Delph is experiencing problems with demons.

A survivor of a shipwreck, Mathew, washed up in Adjepbar. Mathew, a Bard/Namer and is the member of the Messenger Guild, was sent to obtain help. Every dusk demons appear and rampage around, disappearing at dusk. Ships travelling to Delphi have disappeared over the last few months. Astrology readings provide no information as something is blocking the information.

The following people have agreed to fund an exploration to obtain information about the demonic incursion:

Seagate Merchants guild – 25,000sp
Adjepbar Merchants Guild – 125,000sp
Duke Leto – 25,000sp

If the problem is resolved there will be a bonus.

Morgan offers to fly us to Adjepbar and the Lord of Shadowvale provides magical assistance.

8th August

Met Duke Leto whom emphasizes the urgency of the mission and promise's a favour if successful. A Writ from the Duke is provided for Ty.

That evening we depart on Morgan's boat to Adjepbar.

9th August

Dock at Adjepbar that morning and, after much waiting, meet Villa in the local pub. Villa has lived in Adjepbar for a few years and has many contacts within the city. He takes us to his local residence, which is rather palatial, when we meet Mathew. After much discussion we discover the following

A similar problem occurred 3,000 years ago but the humans have no records of the events.
The island inhabitants live in city-states or principalities. There is no one ruler.
There is a large mix of races on the island, including drow.
Magic was created following the incursion 3,000 years ago and learnt by the Messengers Guild. Most has been forgotten.
Tainted Elementals (not demons) appear at dusk and disappear at dawn within the tainted circle. They rise up from the ground at seemingly random places.
The circle is expanding.
The Island of Delphi is 1,000 miles east to west and 700 north to south, the circle will soon reach the northern shore and may have already reached the southern shore.
It is thought the problem started a year ago.
It appears the same elementals are returning
The Mountain is at the centre of the circle and the approximate centre of Delphi .
Elementals can detect people not warded.
Elementals can communicate in some fashion. Combat with elementals always attracts others.

Mathew can teach us the Ward that protects against the elementals. Everyone who can learn on the island is learning.

He was sick when the ship attacked, and has no knowledge of what happened. Washed up on an island and eventually rescued by fishermen.

Villa knows of a slaver's ship that is returning from Delphi and we make arrangements to over the next few days to ambush the slavers.

12th August

We spend many hours flying out to an island ambush the ship that evening. Many slaves are recovered taken from the island of Delphi but they cannot provide significant information. We arrange for Morgan to take the vessel and ransom back the crew and mercenaries. Some slaves wish to return to the island and they wait for us to pick them up on our voyage to Delphi.

The Ship 'Adventurer' was heaving damaged when encountered and the crew explains they were attacked by Quillion at night, a squid creature that can also walk on land. They live around Delphi and rarely attack ships.

Obtain the captains map that has markings for

3 major ports – 2 North and 1 South.
Island to the SE that they avoid.
6 smaller towns

13th August

Return to Adjepbar and discuss next move. Mathew asks us to locate an amulet he was wearing when shipwrecked.

We ask that Villa to engage Lunar Empire and ask for payment to fund investigation into missing ships. They have just lost a slave ship.

14-16th August

The fishermen sold the amulet and we spend a few days tracking this down. Callas and Belladonna locate the pawnbroker and purchase the amulet for 5,000sp.

The amulet is over 3,000 years old and was manufactured by the Elf 'Stonefriend' using earth and blood magic. It provides wearer with a Trollskin.

17-18th August

Ty and Belladonna visit the merchant's guild to discuss the missing ships. They obtain a list of the ships that have disappeared over the last few months, and the promise of reward if any are located.

Our boat, a cutter, is rigged to protect us against Quillion. The additional rigging will slow, but not stop them.

19-26th August

We sail to Delphi. One the way we pick up the slaves and find the island Mathew washed up on. A Fire vision shows the ship floundering in a storm (even thought they had a water and air mage!) and an attack by Quillion.

Our arrival at the port of Athens by the Sea is meet with much surprise and triumphant. We have a brief meeting with the Messenger Guild and arrange for a council meeting the next day. As it is near dusk we investigate the elementals from the walls of the city.

27th August

Council explain

Circle is expanding and many farm/smaller towns evacuated.
Local town flooded and invaded. A planned coordinated approach – not seen before.
Aware of circle for 6 months. First encountered Air (fastest)
Circle will reach walls in 6 weeks
Taint area not present during day
Some elementals can't enter consecrated ground.
It's rumored that a Portal is at the top of the mountain
Same problem occurred 3,000 years ago, but no records remaining.
Quillion attacks have significantly increased, particularly at night.

We decided to send a messenger to the Elves, using fire running, to arrange a meeting.

We use a water mage to summon quillions into a killing zone. 22 appear and following a brief fight we petrify and divinate a couple – they are summoned by a lesser summoner and controlled via mind magic.

We release the two quillion and priests of the local Goddess (Athena) are locating them.

28th August

We visit the high priestess Mizrea and following a ceremony and formal ceremony that involves sacrificing many goat we discuss our impending endeavors. They provide some blessed items to assist us and recommend we ask the elves for cold stones. If we are to visit Alexandria we should visit the temple there, as they may also provide some assistance. We discover they cannot contact their Goddess, which is of great concern, we are uncertain of the cause of this but suspect it is a symptom of the main problem. It is recommended we

Pick a golden apple from the garden in the swamp. It is guarded by a 100 headed snake named Hesperides, a servant of goddess Hera. We should avoid hurting the snake.
Talk to Hades in the temple of Death and request Moria make us a cap. The cap will help avoid a fate. The temple is at the centre of a volcano in the southern desert.
We are provided a mechanical owl, a guild, that can guide us to two the above two locations and one other.

We decide to head off to the swamp and following many hours of fire running reach the edge of an enormous swamp. We spend some time wind walking through the swamp and decide to fly, which is successful until Hera's curse strikes us from the sky. We continue on wind walk and are attacked by Swamp spirits (very dangerous) and giant crocodiles, finally arriving at the centre of the swamp. A large hedge surrounds a garden. Following some investigation and discussion Turf sneaks in to recover the apples, but having not returned after 10 minutes the party enter and follow his trail. The find Turf battling Hesperides at the centre of a hedge maze and throw themselves into the fray. The party retreat with 6 golden apples and managed to evade Hesperides as they escape the maze then garden.

We windwalk from the swamp and run back to Athens.

29th August

We train after breakfast then Fire-run to the destroyed village following lunch. Only a few building still stand, that we re-ward, but nothing else of interest. The Elemental have raised the majority of the village.

30th August

We train after breakfast then spend many hours fire-running to Alexandria, delivering missives on behalf of the Messengers guild. The city architecture has a strong Drow influence, were not sure why this is.

We meet the priests from the Temple of Hermes that evening and the priests invoke the name of Hermes. An elegant man wearing a felt hat, lyre, staff with snake motif, leather braces and winged sandals appears, an avatar of Hermes. We learn

Kronos, an ancient titan that rivaled Zeus, has escaped his imprisonment. Its believed this is in some way liked to the events here. Gryphons and 3 giants with 100 arms (Hekatouchereirus) are searching for him (Biraries, Krotos and Gynes) – keep clear of them.
The taint is not from their hell - Tartarus.

Hermes offers to talk to Athena regarding the communication problem her priests have and grants us a boon each, items he wields.

1st Sept

We depart at daybreak and reach the ancient ruins after lunch, the location where we are to meet the Elves. The ruins are of a destroyed castle. We spend time warding and preparing defenses while awaiting the elves. A little over an hour later the elves arrive in force and we introduce ourselves, a few minutes later a darkness blankets the area and we can see nothing, and battle breaks out – we are ambushed. It not for the Blood

Less that a minute later the bodies of our attackers lay around us amongst many elven corpses. We were attacked by Arachnid centaur like creatures, but with spider like features – six legs and four arms. Some were spell casters (all celestial) and most carried glant glaives. They were lead by a human sized ant creature.

As we tended to the wounded a horde of giant ants arrive and talk to the elves. They were tracking the ambushers and the leader ant was one of them but had gone insane, they take his body and depart, but promise the elves some assistance.

We camp in for the night, resurrecting 15 dead elves, and discuss the situation. None of the elves present were around for the previous incursion, but promise to try and contact some ancient elves. One old elf, Stonehand, is believed to be at the Death temple. The elves will be sending troops in force up the mountain in three weeks, and we will join them.

2nd Sept

Bid goodbye and agree upon a location to meet in three weeks time. We spend the day running to the desert, avoiding the river as it will be frequented by the drow.

3rd Sept

Another day of running...

4th Sept

We run to the desert and the Owl leads us to the volcano and temple of death. The volcano is guarded by Drow and we are attacked soon after we arrive. We decide upon a risky gambit and windwalk into the volcano, passing many fire and celestial walls and a fiendish water trap, to arrive at the centre of the volcano. We are standing upon a barren rock outcrop that contains nothing but a horn, across a lake were cannot see the far side due to a bank of mist. The drow were cunning, and following a triggered ward and attack by legendary sized water elemental we blow the horn to summon the boatman to take us across the river. We all pay 2 silver for the journey and prepare for the journey to the realms of Hades. The boatman offers the pole to Ty and he foolishly accepts this, the last we see of the boatman is his laughing as he fades away. Ty is now bound as the boatman of the Styx.

Ty poles us across the river and spirits on the far bank lead us to the throne of Hades. Matthew warms us not to accept any food or sit down. Hades greets as and readily discusses the matters at hand, we learn

He is aware of the escape of Kronos
There are multiple portal on the mountaintop in Delphi
Several temples reside on the mountain top; the two prominent temples are that of Heroes and Elements.
He does not make the caps we seek, the Fates do and he will direct us to them. We must pass 6 trials to reach them.
Stoneshand departed his realm six months ago to investigate the mountain.

Hades dislikes the powers of my most powerful sword and claims this for himself.

We follow the path indicated by Hades and encounter individuals that challenge us to trials

Korynetes, wearing plate and wielding a club challenges us to combat. To our surprise Callas quickly defeats him.
Pito Kemptus, the pine bender, races chariots against Matthew. Pito enchants the trees to attack Matthew, but in turn sleeps him. Matthew races past the sleeping Pito and wins.
We find Pitio Kemptus, an undead pig owned by a Hag. With his abilities to defeat undead Blitzkrieg decimates the pig.
A stone giant named Skeryon sitting atop a throne asks his feet to be washed, and we should collect the water from the nearby sea. Instead Ty challenges to combat and, following a short skirmish, Skeryon surrenders. A gigantic turtle was hiding in the water to attack anyone retrieving water, it was fortunate we didn't fall for that ruse.
We encounter Kerkyon, the man of the tower, a titan whom challenges us to greek wrestling – this involves wearing no armour. Turf, with some trepidation accepts. The titan stamps his foot as the fight progresses and grows in size, enhancing his titan abilities. With significant luck, and cunning use of magic, Kerkyon is defeated.
Belladonna engages Prokrustes in a running across three hills. His legs grow and speed increases as he races, and he manages to make compelling suggestions to Belladonna. Fortunately firerunning wins the day.
He can take the responsibility the of the Boatman from Ty, if he pacts.

Having passed the trails we encounter the Fates, that are waiting for us.

Clotho – the Spinner.
Lachesis – the weaver
Atropos – the cutter

We are presented with fetching green caps that will allow us to avoid a fate/encounter. There will not provide us information to the questions we ask, but as astrology is blocked they believe Kronos is involved. Namer or mind counterspells are the best protection against the powers of Kronos. Theyre are unwilling to undo Tys fate as he can escape this himself.

We find our way back to Hades and back across the river, Hades grants Ty temporary dispensation from his boating responsibilities for resolve the issues with Delphi. Callas earth doors us miles form the volcano and we discover almost a week has passed.

11th Sept

We have a number of weeks until we meet the elves and decide against returning to the city as there are spies about. We decide to head to the some ancient ruins and train.

14th Sept

We arrive at the ancient ruins, fortify and begin training.

22nd Sept

We head to the ancient ruins a day early and fortify to prepare against an ambush.

23rd Sept

A small army of elves and mermidon arrives and Blitzkrieg discuss we discuss tactics with their military scientists. There are two area, the Portal and Elements temple. We will attack the temple with with some of the army and the remainder attack the Portal area.

We use magic to move rapidly up the mountain and prepare a staging area. We attempt to contact Stonehand with windwhistle and surprisingly receive a reply, we are told 'Angels of Death guard the temple, keep eyes open all around, don't take your eyes off them. Assault the west flank.'.

We sneak toward the temple. The elements are mixed and our journey slow – the ground is air, the air ground and the air fire. We are attacked by Death Angels, the appear where you are not looking and slaughter people they appear behind. When viewed they take the form of a statues that is impervious to all magic or physical damage. They 'follow' us to the temple, attacking us as we move through the perilous terrain. The use of Disjunction stops them changing form, and they stay stone.

We enter the temple and find portals to all the elemental planes, and take a hidden door to a room beneath the temple. A dozen Drow surround the form of Kronos bound and held within a magical field a combat ensues.

As the dust settles we bind the bodies of the captured Drow, those that fled will be captured by others. We break the bone and breaks the bone to summon Hades. A few days later Hades appears with his minions and takes away Kronos. We learn Kronos planned and escape with the Drow but they betrayed him. They tortured him and extracted his magic, using it to create the insidious circle, all blood spilt by the elementals increased the size of the circle.

Ty makes a deal with one of the Drow captives to take his place as boatman for Hades.

30th Sept

Having celebrated and received our boons we arrive back in Seagate.

People

Matthew: A member of the Messengers guild whom is guiding us.

Mizrea: High Priestess at the temple of Athena

Hesperides: The 100 headed snake guarding the Heras garden. Its presence causes terrifying fear and bites with a dangerous venom.

Owl: Guild provided by the priests of Athena.

Stonehand: Ancient elf residing at the Temple of death. Created Mathews amulet.

Kronos: an ancient titan that rivaled Zeus, has escaped his imprisonment. Its believed this is in some way liked to the events here.

Mermadon: A race of giant ant like creatures.

Messengers Guild

Primary function is delivery of information between cities. Bard/Ranger/Namer types. Was taught magic to protect against elementals/demons 3,000 years ago but most of the information is lost in time.

Places

Athens by the Sea: Human city in the NW of the island.; Worship the god Athena

Alexandra: Human city in the NE of the island.; Worship the god Hermes

Misra: Drow city on the south coast of the island.

Desert: South part of the island

Creatures

Quillions

Mindless sea creatures that can walk on land.
When killed they decompose quickly and smell, so it is essential we quickly dispose of the bodies.
Deadly in combat. Wrap tentacles around victim and shoot out spikes, plate armour will slow but not stop them. To be caught in the tentacles is death.
Controlled by external source

Elementals

All elementals have demonic taint or varying levels. We believe the longer the elementals have travelled to the plane the more tainted they are. Have traveled from elemental plane to this island and are tainted in some way. True Form reverts to true state and removes taint.

Fire

Can be dispelled by 'extinguish fire', Slow fire halves the size

Granite

GTN – Demonic Granite, Plane – Earth, College – Earth TMR – 5ish, Banish with earth counterspell

Sandstone

Requires C class weapons - Others useless, Most magic is ineffectual, Can hide is earth, Controlled by earth magics

Wood;

B class weapons are the best, GTN – Demonic Wood, Plane – Wood. TMR – 6ish, Banish with wood counterspell

Dark/Elemental

Very fast, can attack multiple targets on all sides, Multi target (7) bolt

Water

unknown

Ice

unknown

Air

'Calming' makes them less hostile, Very difficult to see.