Vacancies

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Summary

Adventure: Vacancies On Plane
GM: Bernard
Session: Summer 817
Night: Tuesdays
Location: Birdlands, Massey.
Level: Medium/Independent

Party:
Expressions of interest only at this point. Will not be at guild meeting, will organise via E-mail
Nothing too weird & no extreme abilities even if the rest of the character isn't powerful

• Aurora - Keith
• Thorn -Helen
• Ben - Ian A
• Grizelda - Jacqui
• Shizane - Jacinta

Employer:
Initially Guild Security

Mission:
Guild security have received a number of disturbing reports all arriving in the last day via magical means from people in Thonia & Azuria who have interacted with the guild in recent years. While none of them are directly requesting a guild party because of the reports from multiple sources Guild Security would like a party capable of operating on their own for considerable time to investigate this, and will provide an initial payment promise if the party is not able to secure more formal employment from any of the sources of information.
Thonia is located about 2000 miles SSW of Seagate, on the NW Corner of the Southern Continent. Very little is known about it.
Azuria is located just to it's east and is a fairly closed empire, known to be a strange mix of fantastical magic & a destitute lower class.

Pay:
Promise of 10,000sp each from Guild Security if no formal employment is achieved. 30 Arcane Points

Diary

Scribe will receive an EP bonus if the notes are up to date more than 24h before the next session, and the in game dates are correct.

Initial Brief

From Malphazar:, an Azurian Trader:

To the esteemed folk of the Seagate Guild, whom one of my trading partners Thorn has waxed poetically about their great deeds in these lands before. Troubling news has come to me from my western factors telling me of a new plague, one of which magic seems at it's heart. They report of several villages found in the last few days where many of the villagers have been found sitting as if dead, but their heart still beats. As such a well known place of magical learning, I feel you should be informed of this so you may begin to formulate a counter agent to this terrible plague.

From Shahed, a Thonian Trader:

To my friends at the guild. My tribal friends have been having losses in the east lately where they have sent the weaker families to be safe far away from the predations of the drakes of the mastiff. I would ask that from the kindness of your hearts you see fit to come speak to them and aid them in these troubles.

From Shoja, a Thonian Shaman:

To the carriers of change on the winds, I send word of a fresh wind of change blowing, It comes from the hills, blowing along the river valleys and soon shall reach the sea. I see your carriers in visions here, to shape that change, to give it form and decision, for without that shape it is but a dread chaos that will consume all it comes across.

Should your carriers feel insufficient to this shaping, they may seek me out at the great lake for wisdom and blessings.

Chapter One

In which we fly to Thonia with Stops on the way

I have to admit, I was rather curious when this adventure was announced. Guild Security had been receiving dire portents from Azuria and Thonia – two places next to each other to the south that no one knew much about. Only one Guild party had been there as far as I knew.

One message mentioned plague, another mentioned losses of villages and the third, from the Shaman of Change, near the Great Lake, spoke about Great Portents. Whether or not they were speaking about the same thing, Guild Security had no idea, but they wanted us to go and check it out – just in case. So that was why I found myself in a meeting room with Thorn, a rather shorter looking Grizelda, Ben Gaul, and a firemage called Shizane I had not met before. I think I know who I am going to be interviewing for the next edition of the Times.

Guild Security guaranteed a payment of 10,000sp each and were hoping we would find employment down there to fix up any problems. Azuria was said to have efreets and slums while Thonia had red dragons, deserts, and a large number of tribesmen. There were also places where the land had been ‘compressed’ and bent into other dimensions so taking items containing extra-dimensional spaces was not a good idea. Fortunately that didn’t involve Thorn’s tower.

No one else wanted the scribe job, so I took it, and Thorn became both the party leader and military scientist. She them added a clause to the contract about ‘no poisoning the water’ while Sau Rus added one about the needless harming of trolls i.e. - don’t unless you have to. Since I feel the same way about seelie fae, I quite agreed.

Contracts and forms were signed then Guild Security ‘left’ us to get on with it. I had several things to do, i.e. get a Greater. Lucius was not available this session so I decided to see if I could get one from Herkum, the Head of the Guild and the top E&E. To my surprise and delight, he was free and I got one. Maybe I should try interviewing him for the Times.

After the Greater (rank 15 all areas), followed by a quick stop at the Earth College to get a Lesser, I headed for the Library to find out what they had on our destination (sweet bugger all) and background checks on the rest of the party. This mostly concerned off perusing scribe notes and discovering that much information on Shizane had been lost in the fire, several years ago. Must fix that. Following that, I checked in with the Sorceress in Silver (the Head of the Air College) to let her know where I was going and whether she had any special instructions for me. Her response was for me to be careful, not do anything silly and to bring her back a collection of feathers.

Finally, I went to visit my best friend Aaron, who had a gift for me – a new masterwork longbow (+2TH, +1D) and ended up spending the night.

2nd Meadow 817
Met up with the others in the field near the Air College and summoned a cloud to take us south. It was clear skies all the way and we could see the lights of cities on the northern coast of Palestrinia sometime after midnight. Touchdown was a few hours before dawn and our landing spot was slightly inland.

3rd Meadow
By dawn, we had a space cleared for Thorn’s Tower to be enlarged and we settled down to rest and have a decent meal. A bit later on, the border patrol arrived and we ended up paying 100sp entry tax. If we wanted to trade, we needed to talk to the market master. I asked about trade with Azura and Thonia and they suggested we talk to the harbour masters at the cities of Taranto and Salerno.

5th Meadow
The next hop took us two days and I was trying to navigate by following the coast The plan was to follow the coast then fly down over the Fagomu Gap between two of the large islands, then make a stop at the southern point before the cloud ran out. I thought I had landed in the right place but it was soon discovered that we had gone off course a bit and had touched down in a rocky area that had an acid and brimstone scent. I think I’d better get hold of a sextant and a good time piece set to Seagate Standard Time.

Grizelda, in bear form, summoned a bear spirit in order to find out where we were and what we hand landed on but what she got was “All who live here are bloody – let some blood out and see”. Had we parked on a Hellmouth i.e. near a portal to the Hells? I then had to put Grizelda to sleep with Knockout Gas as she got possessed by the spirit and started to wander off into a deep ravine.

Shizane then summoned a fire elemental who said there were lots of cousins living around here., some of them that looked like smokey worms. We decided to leave before something around here decided we were edible – certainly there didn’t seem to be much to eat around here. So, flying spells were used to do due south towards Thonia, finally landing on a sandy beach.

Chapter Two

C-c-c-c-c-changes

It was dusk by the time we landed on the coast of Thonia and night passed uneventfully. All we heard was the sounds of the surf lulling us to sleep.

6th Meadow
To get to the Shaman at the Lake, all we need to do was to follow the river but that was when the argument started, running with fire or flying with wings. Wings won, especially when it was pointed out we had to cross the lake. So .... off we went Two thirds across the lake we detected the edge of a high mana zone which we we were flying into. Grizelda didn’t like the idea of that, especially since it wasn’t there last time she was here, so she turned around in an attempt to go around it while the rest of the party kept going. While grumbling, I changed course to round up my errant flier while the rest of the party continued on. Once Grizelda had been convinced that it was too big to go around, and that we were going to have to enter it to get to where we needed to go. Nothing bad happened and we finally found the shaman camp on the southern shore, located at the centre of the HMZ

The enclosure contained roughly 1000 people, and ‘far too many birds’ according to some. At least half the people were shamans or their apprentices and all those birds were required for reading entrails. By the time Grizelda and I touched down, the others were talking to an old shaman with twiny carved patterns on his staff. This was Shoja – the Shaman of Change.

We spoke about spell differences between our style of magics and theirs. Our’s was more personal wheras their spells affected many at once. He then told us he wanted us to investigate the Winds of Change to the east and ensure that the change goes in the favour of the tribe. I told him about the other messages we had received and we were coming to the conclusion that they may be referring to the same event.

We spent the afternoon being entertained by the junior shamen finding out about their culture and learning how they do things. That night, we were all invited to sleep in one tent that was surrounded by runes. We were supposed to sleep while rituals were done to alter our spells to be more co-operative with each other.

7th Meadow
The next day, other possible changes were discussed. I think Shizane got one, and when I started talking about my .... lack of self esteem problem ... the shaman got all enthusiastic. I think I got hexed before I had a chance to say I wanted to sort it out on my own efforts. Still ... nothing seemed to happen – hopefully.

He also knew that the merchant to the west Shahed, was close by with a herd of caliphants , a cross between a camel and an oliphant – an enormous elephant. So, after a five mile fire run we found his camp and looming over that, nearly half a dozen caliphants. So I fluttered up to get a closer look at one and promptly got splattered by a giant ‘spitball’. Once we found Shahed, he told us that the local tribesfolk, the Hawk Tribe, had gone east and were scattered by a flight of red dragons from the south-west. The people had been scattered and some of them had been lost – even groups of twenty. He wanted us to investigate and had a rather heavy sack containing various valuable metals as payment. So we agreed to investigate.

Chapter Three

Revelations, Robbers and Revolting Worms

When we got back, Shoja took me aside and said he had tried something on me but nothing seemed to happen. He asked me some questions, then, based on my answers , he came to the conclusion that there was a conflict between my body and my spirit. It seems my spirit is more halfling than elf. So, was I meant to be a halfling? Certainly something to think about I suppose.

After some discussion it decided we were going to Azuria to find the villages of paralysed people. More 'discussion' later and we came to the conclusion that cloud flying was the safest way to travel for not running into dimensional folds. Basically the faster one is going when encountering the fold, the bigger the resulting mess. Also, to get to Azuria, we had to pass over a mountain range. It took us all the rest of the day to get to the base of the mountains.

There were three primary routes through the mountains. Near one, we found a cave to rest for the night.

8th Meadow
The night passed without incident but, while preparing to leave, we discovered that we were short the gems that we got off Shoja. None of us on watch had seen anything and a search of the cave revealed no secret entrances. We did, however, detect three areas of magic on the walls. Nature of Magic: Shaping. College: No answer. The conclusion we came to was gnome earth mages with earth elementals.

There wasn't much we could do about it so we made our preparations to depart. It was midday by the time we were organised and it took the rest of the day to fly over the mountains. By nightfall, we had reached a flat scrubby area that was ten miles from the coast. The tower was set up and we settled down for the night.

I was on watch, in my usual spot on top of the tower that night when suddenly, the whole thing shook. After rolling across the deck I tried to take off and managed to get airborne after clipping the palasade. From there, I could see a large disturbance in the ground that was heading for the tower so I tried attacking it with thunderclaps in the hope of driving whatever it was away. Turned out to be one of those giant worms that we were told about. Meanwhile Thorn was detecting gnomish minds in a cavern underground that were controlling the worm - and we had no way of fighting back. So, it was decided to get everyone else out of the tower, collapse it, then get off this plain and onto something a bit more solid.

I was trying to distract it away from the others with Ball Lightning while they did that and got shot at by a salamander. Turned out to be one of Shizane's but was being rather indiscriminate. Fortunately no one else was hurt badly as Thorn finally collapsed the tower and they legged it for a nearby rocky outcrop.

People

• Shoja: Shoja is an older shaman of the Thonian desert tribesman. He is not affiliated with any specific tribe and appears to act as an Agent of the Great Spirit of Change. He has bestowed 'gifts' upon Guild Members before, though gifts from the spirit of change seem to come with a cost in a different area as well.
• Shahed: Shahed is a Trader who operates the inland routes of Thonia. He owns a small number of Calephants, a fantastical combination of a large elephant and a camel that is an ideal massive beast of burden for deserts. It is likely he is a Hedge mage with a little skill in illusions.
• Malphazar the Flowing: Malphazar is a Trader/Mage from Azuria who has had interactions with Seagate traders while working out of Dimazcus. It is rumoured when trading inside Azuria he uses a cloud ship to move his cargo, and he is highly suspected to be an Air Mage.

Mil Sci

Mil Sci will receive an EP bonus for ensuring Combats run smoothly and quickly

Daily Pattern

• Sleep/Camp 12 Hours (6/6 & 6/3/3hrs)
• Travel 9 Hours
• Meals 2 Hours
• Rituals 1 Hours

Travel Magics

Caster & Spell

• Total speed:
• Duration:
• Ft cost per duration:
• Effective travel distance:

Aurora - Flying

• Total speed: 50mph
• Duration: 630mins or 10.5 hrs
• Special knowledge spell (2FT)
• Effective travel distance: 525 miles

Thorn - Wings of the phoenix.

• Total speed:40 mph
• Duration:330 mins or 5.5 hrs
• specialknowlege spell
• Effective travel distance: 220 miles

Ben - Wildfires.

• Total speed:50 mph
• Duration:320 mins or 5.33 hrs
• specialknowlege spell
• Effective travel distance: 260 miles

Ben - Wings.

• Total speed:39 mph
• Duration:300 mins or 5 hrs
• specialknowlege spell
• Effective travel distance: 195 miles

Watch Order

1st Ben 1st Grizelda.
2nd Thorn 2nd Shizane
2nd cont. 3rd Aurora

Marching Order

Main body front: Ben & Grizelda
Main body rear: Aurora & Shizane
Tail Guard: Thorn

Formations
Single file: Ben, Grizelda, Aurora, Shizane, Thorn.
Line Abreast: Ben, Aurora, Thorn, Shizane, Grizelda.
Two lines abreast: line 1- Ben, Thorn, Grizelda. Line 2- Aurora, Shizane

Buffs

Buffs listed in the table don't need to be detailed, other buffs not on the table must be mentioned at the time they are cast.
Y means always on, N/- means never on, 'Sit.' means when the party has time for buffs before a fight.
Weapon Spells which weapon/s it is going on normally should be noted also.

General notes.

Long Duration Buffs

Magic	Rk	Effects	Dur	Thorn	Ben	Grizelda	Shizane	Aurora	F
Mind shield (Th)	12	+34 MR vs mental attack, no mind reading	25 hrs	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	-
Primordial Armour	15	80 Point Spell Protection	16 hrs	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	-
Shadow Form	19	40 defense	10 hours	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	-
Resist Cold (Au)	6	2 less gold damage, 2 gauge up	7 hours	-	-	Y	Y	Y	-
Witchsight	9	-	5 hours	Night		Night	Night	Night	-
Rune Shield (Gz)	12	+17 DEF, 3 EN, 3 FT armour, and absorbs 1 spec grev	13 hrs	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	-
Willow Healing (Gz)	8	Heals 3 EN/pulse for 10 pulses	16 hrs	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y
Smite (Gz)	12	8 charges of maximum damage	13 hrs	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y
Immolation (Grace of Fire?) (BG)	14	24 Defense IV 7	7.5hrs	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	-

Short Duration Buffs

Magic	Rk	Effects	Dur	Thorn	Ben	Grizelda	Shizane	Aurora	F
Mind speech (Sz)	9	300ft mind to mind talking	100 mins	Sit	-	-	-	Sit	-
Force Shield (Th)	16	21 to defence	170 mins	Sit	-	-	-	-	-
Weapon of Flames (Sz)	20	+21 SC +10 Dam / +20 Damage Undead/Cold/Water	25 minutes	-	-	-	Y	SS/Mg	-
Strength of Darkness	9	6 strength	100 minutes	-	-	-	-	Sit	-
Feather Falling (Au)	10	Fall slowly	330min	-	-	-	-	Y	-
Arrow Flight (Au)	8	+9 SC +3 D	180 min-	-	-	-	-	Y	-
	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-