SauRus's Curse Removal Quest

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Summary

Adventure: SauRus's Curse Removal Quest
GM: Helen
Session: Summer 811
Night: Mondays
Location 20 Pahi Place West Harbour
Level: Medium ?
Party:

• Sau Rus (Party Leader and Employer)
• Wordsmith (Mil Sci)
• Sooty (Scribe)
• Eltan aka Stupid Stupid Rat Creature
• Imri Athaliah
• Arwen

Watch Order.

• 1st ; Altan, Imri
• 2nd ; Sooty, Saurus
• 3rd ; Arwen, Wordsmith.

Employer:
The last party to the plane of Farwey returned cursed by a Demon.
Sau Rus has some ideas about where he can find a being powerful enough to remove the curse - the easy option of a temporary self-culling being considered too risky for him. However due to the curses effects, he feels he will need bodyguards, assistants to help him get there and make good on any payment required. WordSmith has got bored enough training to get good enough to remove the curse himself that he is helping out.

Scribe Notes

Quick Version

1st Meadow. Briefing & Shopping occurs, Greaters are acquired.
2nd Meadow. Party departs via flying boats, travel via boats & portals all the way to the portal to the Plane of Frigidea.
3rd Meadow. Head into Frigidea, mess with warded cow bells on the rope bridge there, get to Paradise on the plane of Sol.
Phaeton delivered safely to Paradise. Stay the night. Local Elders have no knowledge relevant.
4th Meadow. Travel to Iska & the Halfling Village, Emma & 'Friend' aren't due back for a while. They have no knowledge of invocations either.
5th Meadow. Travel to Northport timing it so we arrive mid afternoon looking dirty from some foot travel. Change money to local currency, sign on with the Guild of Guards (again).
6th Meadow. Negotiate working passage on a ship to the Capital.
10th Meadow. Arrive at the Capital, meet with a few contacts, negotiate rent of a house for a month.
11th Meadow. Library Research begins.
14th Meadow. References to a Mountain of Shadows found relating to the original exodus to this place, but only a partial text. We decide to travel to seek further references in the ruins or knowledge from the 'Wild' Elves.
15th Meadow. Begin journey to Elven ruins.
17th Meadow. Are near Ruins, encounter several Giant Otters that we simply leave behind, Locate City.
18th Meadow. Enter 'Ruins', which are a Tree based city, make camp in the Tree. Investigate. 20th Meadow. Discover Temple to Mithros & Library, begin reading.
24th Meadow. Have discovered Shadowwalker follows the Dream King, so head up the tree to his Temple.
25th Meadow. Make contact with Shadowwalker and negotiate, agree to do him a favour recovering some texts from Frigidea.
26th Meadow. Travel to Portal.
27th Meadow. Travel to Frigidea, investigate ruined city there from a few miles out, return to Sol.
28th Meadow. Travel to Thar, make 'safe' location.
29th Meadow. Storm the Ruined Temple on Frigidea, recover the books + artifacts, escape the guardians.
1st Heat. Return to the Temple of the Dream King on Iska, return the books.
2nd Heat. Begin further study on Iska in the library.
25th Breeze. Begin return to the guild for guild meeting.

Long Version

The Trip There

1st Meadow: Guild Meeting, Briefed by Sooty & Sau'Rus as to some of the planes customs, and dangers on the route, organise what sort of buff spells we can put on people, how we are getting there, then wander off to get last minute equipment. Discuss customs. Visit Ibin's family. Sign on as Guild Members. Light shopping ensues.

2nd Meadow. Boat fly to sea of grass, to Sea of Grass Portal. Bunch of stones near a lake. Portal to Pasifika. "Don't cross the masts" Haul boats through to Pasifika. Head through to portal to Paleolithica. About 9am. Go through portal. Fallen ring of stones, with obvious doorway in the middle. Ring of stones around intact, keeps grass short + other things. Fly another 80ish miles, and land about 30 miles short of Portal to Paleolithica. Then ferry the rest of the way to the portal on a longer lasting boat. End of Day 2. We are all by the portal to Frigidea.

We hop through the portal and do some clearing of the Ice to get through the tunnel, also do a divination but there is no magic in the area at all. Watches are set.

3rd Meadow.

We head through to Frigidia. Other than a few warded cow bells on the bridge warded with Windstorm nothing of particular interest happens with the Frigidia crossing. After jumping the portal to Paradise (Sol), we fly up to Paradise, to drop Phaeton off in case we need him, and set up to rest the night and talk to people. Accommodation for Phaeton will be in one of the 'Spare' houses, for new settlers till they get themselves set up. Set up a tab at the Inn for his food. And find him a 14 year old boy called James as a Guide. The Local Elders have no formal knowledge of the Guardians, though believe one may have visited incognito, but as we are looking for formal introductions, this isn't very much help for our aims.

Researching

4th Meadow. We set off early in the morning to the Portal to Iska (Portal Symbol 10, double wavey lines). With a minor backfire powering up, we head through, and have an uneventful flight North West to the Halfling Village on Iska to ask after Emma & her Halfling friend. We are told they aren't expected back for some months. We spend the afternoon relaxing and curing the minor backfires, and stay the night.

5th Meadow. We leave on wild fires in the mid morning heading straight to Northport as the Crow flies, and plan to stop about 10 miles short of Northport and do the rest of the way by foot. We arrive at Northport mid afternoon.

Northport is a mud house town (Adobe). Mainly white washed, though a few places are washed in different colours. Surrounded in a 20' Wood & Mud wall entirely. Guards on the gates.

We get inside the gates and head through to visit Ibin's family, 5 minutes walk from the town gates. We meet with the guard on the gate and are escorted into the courtyard to meet with the Family Elder. He tells us Ibin is away at the moment, and isn't due back for a month. We also consult with him about money changing and he recommends us to see the Gold Smiths. The Gold Smiths are based in a guild house on the main guild square, not quite in the centre of town. We do our changing of Gems (2,500sp value) for Currency (2,600sp value) after some haggling (Haggling seems traditional and is recommended on principle). We then head off, sign up as Guards again and catch up with our payments, to a Pub recommended by the Guard Registrar. And stay the night.

6th Meadow. In the morning we breakfast and then head towards the docks to arrange passage to the Capital. We negotiate with a trading Captain for a work for passage arrangement, which will take us 5 days to reach the Capital city. 6 stops along the way.

10th Meadow. We arrive in the Capital city mid afternoon having had an uneventful journey trading ores from the north for food stuffs along the way, to sell in the Capital. We check in with the main branch of the Guards guild, enquiring after Urgent contracts they are attempting to fulfil.

We discover information about Elves living up the river, after it forks, on the fork towards the mountains.

The Guards Guild have a couple of contracts which may be of use, but we get no recommendations to a boarding house, so head off to the library to talk to Saurus's friends at the library. We negotiate with him regarding accommodation in return for translating some books for him if possible. We head off to the Street of Snakes, to meet Armhed. After some bartering we get a house on the Street of Snakes, and set about making it livable. Food, water, & other items are returned to the house throughout the afternoon while it gets warded,

Wards; Quickness on the courtyard, if I take damage while in the ward radius. Myself + up to nearest 3 of non native dwarven namer, human earth mage, human necromancer, rat creature Earth Mage, Elvish Celestial. Malignent Inferno on the 'Safe Room' we are using as a storeroom/strong-room. 1 or 2 who are not me or a non native dwarven namer, human earth mage, human necromancer, rat creature Earth Mage, Elvish Celestial. Ashen Barrier; On myself from a backfire if I take Elemental based damage. Ashen Barrier; On the area inside the front door, to block the front door. If an Elemental spell is cast from outside into inside.

11th Meadow. We hire our guard and begin research....

12th Meadow. More research.

13th Meadow. More research.

14th Meadow. End of research, we discover a partial text of an Expedition to the Mountain of Shadows. This could be a link to Shadow Walker, possibly the appropriate place to actually seek him out. We also consult with the Temples of Shakith, the Unseen one, God of Death, who know nothing of these references. And Mithros, God of Knowledge (& other things), who also know nothing of these references, but do seem to have namers and curse removal (for normal curses). We decide we will have to head elsewhere for knowledge at this point, either to the Ruins the partial texts were found in, or to the 'Wild' Elves. As at this point both are in the same general direction so we will see when we get there which seems to make more sense to investigate first.

Traveling to the Elven City

15th Meadow. We set off early in the morning to fly up the river. Some issues with Flying magic occur so I wildfires up the east side of the river avoiding the villages. We all meet up again safely by mid afternoon and we camp for the night in a quiet spot, bothered only by local wildlife making noise.

16th Meadow. We take off predawn with our boats, heading up to the forking in the river, then taking the NW fork. Looking for the 3rd tributary to the west side of the fork. We don't expect it to make today, planning to reach a campsite midday. At around 180 miles we encounter the 2nd tributary, and decide to come down on the river and land on an island (30' by 70'). Set up camp including Walls of Thorns.

17th Meadow. Three 10' Otters visit us in the morning, so we take off from inside our Wall of Thorns and leave them behind, heading North looking for the 3rd Tributary. We head about 40 Miles up the Tributary after locating it. We locate a large tree and put a Wall of Thorns around the base of it. A summoned Earth Elemental reports ruins about 2 miles NNWish. A Tree reports there were people about 4-5 years ago within its root structure. We head off together and take a fly over of the ruins. A large clump of giant trees marks the ruins, though other giant trees are scattered through the forest regularly. We find no decent landing spot that everyone could use, so we return and fortify our camp location.

18th Meadow. We set off early in the morning for a pleasant stroll through the heavily overgrown forest. After a hack & slash, we reach the grove around midday again, and after some quick talking to trees by Eltan, we establish the trees are the city, and begin climbing a shaped tree stair. At the top of this 1000' staircase we find our Elven City. We spend a number of hours investigating this specific tree's 'city' part, and set up a base camp in it. Nothing of significance is found in this area, and we can't locate any easy landing spots for flying in either.

Explorations of the City

19th Meadow. Starting from our base camp we expand our perimeter a bit, practice walking across vines, and finish some healing which needed doing. This city will take quite a while to search properly with just the six of us.

20th Meadow. Early in the morning we power up and head into the centre of the grove to search for a library. Heading through we pass through a few trees to where we think the middle is we encounter a couple of wild cats that we have to kill, and a giant tree snake that we control and use as a scout. Exploring further we encounter what appears to be the central tree, and find signs of the humans' explorations. We also discover an overgrown staircase that they appear to have not used, and exploring find the remains of a Shrine to Mithros, still consecrated. Stairs up from inside head up to what appears to be a residential area, which is rather bare. After checking it briefly we put witch-sight on and then head down the stairs. Down the stairs we discover the library, in a consecrated zone. They remain in good condition due to a preservation effect from the consecration, and are written in Eldaran. We settle down in the temple. Divinations on the area show it's Consecrated to Mithros, with various protections and prohibitions included in the consecration, including a prohibition against removal of scrolls from the Library.

23rd Meadow. We have spent some time researching the library, and have located the Mountain of Shadows as being a volcano at the end of the nearby mountain chain. We have also found the names of the four Guardians and the Gods they follow, Shadow Walker being a servant of the Dream King. The Temple to Skakith is located on the base of the tree, the Temple to the Dream King appears to be in the top branches. Another temple appears to be located on the North of the tree, and the final temple is again down near the ground level. The two bottom temples descend underground.

24th Meadow. We start out early morning looking for a route up, however no staircase can be easily found, so we take the easy option and wildfire straight up the tree. 1000' later we pass the top platform and reach the crown of the tree, with a platform positioned tucked in it, looking under a bit of pressure. DA's prove this is consecrated to the Dream King. The Consecration covers 'Ritual Sleep', which would appear to be the way to commune. We clean the tree and platform of vines and moss a bit, then begin investigation on a side trunk which has a magical aura on it. There is also a chamber covered by an illusion that seems to be a temple, with an altar in it. We spend a few hours laying some protective wards and Arwen & I head to sleep in the temple. Arwen has visions of the place when people were there, while I get a possible vision of Shadow Walker, and communicate where we are and our request for a formal audience. He answers he'll come and see what we want. We also work out Imri appears to have backfired amnesia, and has forgotten everything. Once she's gone to sleep, I risk the wrath of Ganiel to wake Wordsmith, and we establish the Total Amnesia will last for the next three days.

Negotiations with Shadow Walker

25th Meadow. I appear to have gained nightmares from waking Wordsmith however we successfully have removed Imri's curse, so she's back to herself. I spend the day cleaning the temple; Imri & Eltan do some work on the Platform, while Sau'Rus, Wordsmith, and Arwen spend the day work in the Library. After dinner the stars are occluded and the tree shakes, then shortly afterwards an Elf steps out of a nearby shadow and we greet them. We discuss the curses, and Shadow-walker seems reluctant to assist us, so I advance the idea of assisting them on investigating Frigidea, as he knows of a place of knowledge which may lead us to the hiding place of a Guardian. We would be seeking several books written in Dragon, located in a temple in the ruined city on Frigidea, with the Portal to Thar. After some negotiations we agree to do the task as long as the curses are lifted before we go. Shadow Walker takes the two off to be decursed.

Expedition to Frigidea

26th Meadow. After the de-cursing, we set off in the morning flying to the portal. We arrive late that evening at the Mithrian Portal off the Plane.

27th Meadow. We pass through to Frigidea dragging boats behind us and head off down the other tunnel to the ring portal towards the ruined city. After passage through the tunnels we fly to some hills near the ruined city, landing a couple of miles east of it. From there we begin investigation with crystals of vision and other scrying magics of the city. The Temples appear to be in reasonable repair still, though the ceilings are sagging a bit. Some rubble is in the streets but outside the temple area the buildings are in worse shape. No trails of anything moving are visible either. A check for nearby fires reveals one three miles north of us, of which looking out reveals four Ogrin. They appear to be armed with cold iron weapons such as claymores. We return to the Paradise Sol portal to rest the night.

28th Meadow. We portal to the Nomads Sol portal, and then fly though to Thar and onwards to the Thar Portal to Frigidea where we create some layers of wards, as well as a temporary Ash portal at each Oasis.

29th Meadow. We power up first thing in the morning, with our entire list of buffs and head through into Frigidea. We head into the Temple street and identify the Temple to Mithros from the Sun's on the Temple, and head in. There is accommodation off both sides of the temple heading further in and a courtyard which opens to both parts of accommodation and a library. We quickly check the library and after some searching we discover a hidden door down to some Catacombs. Here we notice the Consecration effect draining off in a specific direction. Following the trail leads to a dead end, so it appears to be a magical flow somewhere. Talking to the dead we get some directions to a room with chests & sarcophagi. The chests are all warded by Hellfire so we move them into a clump and suppress them with a single counter spell. After some quick looking we find the books we are looking for, and then collect all the magical stuff from the catacombs. We then open the chests and run for it as the Guardians wake from the tombs. The Guardians appear to be greater undead, with an odd GTN of 'Mummy'. Some are spell-casters, and all of them are tough. We fight our way through and break clear without major mishap, running for the portal to Thar.

30th Meadow. We head off in the morning through the portal systems to Sol, and onto the Paradise. We rest up again here before continuing on.

1st Heat. We portal to Iska and fly into the Elven Tree city, and land on the Temple of the Dream King. Sau'Rus gets to do the honours and dream sends to Shadow walker to inform him we have returned with the books. He answers with a message instructing us to place them in a secure storage place in the Library of Mithros. We settle down to study in the Library until near the guild meeting.

Buffs

Standard Stuff

Armour / Defence / Protection

• Arwen: Rk 16 Strength of Stone
• Eltan: Rk 15 Armour of Earth 32/1
• Imri: Rk 6 Witchsight
• Sooty: Elemental Armour (50 points protection)
• Sooty: Ash Shroud (2 Decoy images)

Travel

• Arwen; Magical Boat.
• Imri; Celestial Boat.
• Sooty; Wild Fires.

Combat

• Sooty: Quickness (Rk 9)
• SauRus: Spectral Weapon (BF on 80+)
• WordSmith: Weapon of Flames rk11 (BF on 80+)

Calendar

Summer 811wk: Meadow
	Moonday		Duesday		W'ansday		Th'rsday		Frysday		Reapsday		Sunday
	Beltane Full Moon		1	Guild Meeting	2		3		4		5		6
	7		8		9		10		11		12		13
	14		15		16		17		18		19		20
	21		22		23		24		25		26		27
	28	Full Moon	29		30		1		2		3		4
Summer 811wk: Heat
	Moonday		Duesday		W'ansday		Th'rsday		Frysday		Reapsday		Sunday
	5		6		7		8		9		10		11
	12		13		14	Midsummer Eve (Faerie Day)	15	Solstice	16		17		18
	19		20		21		22		23		24		25
	26	Full Moon	27		28		29		30		1		2
Summer 811wk: Breeze
	Moonday		Duesday		W'ansday		Th'rsday		Frysday		Reapsday		Sunday
	3	Day of Death	4		5		6		7		8		9
	10		11		12		13		14		15		16
	17		18		19		20		21		22		23
	24		25		26		27		28		29		30