Day 1 – Evening

Orin Rakatha

We needed to travel to the Plain of Sleepless Dead and secure the two realms each side of the realm of Battle, those of Disease & Decay, and of Pain, all of which are under attack by Agoth.

We then needed to secure the Path of Heroes in the Realm of Battle, which leads to the Hall of Heroes.  There we need to find the Library which would give us information that we need to progress.

Then we had to travel to the Void to destroy Otion Wraithchild’s soul garden, in order to weaken Wraithchild so he can be destroyed.

We then had to return to the void to destroy the Agoth Experiment and end the threat to all the planes.

We were also seeking Suliman, Gravesong’s brother, who had been guarding the Path of Heroes but was now missing, as well as other Valley adventurers.  It was possible their spirits were trapped in the Hall of Heroes, prevented by Agoth from resurrection.

We were warned that once we were on the plane of Sleepless Dead we would be able to get no rest nor meditate.  And therefore no-one would regain any power or mana.  This was a daunting prospect as the mission was expected to last three days and more, if all went well..

At that point Lord Cardinaris appeared and offered us the use of his travelling lodge, where we would be able to rest and be safe overnight, in return for a book from the Library. 

The Necronomicon came into our possession, a book desired by Otion Wraithchild.

We were attacked by some Agothians, whom we slew. 

Day 2 – The Plane of the Sleepless Dead

We were warned that a Vere was on the way, and that we had to get to the portal to the plain of Sleepless Dead.  Unfortunately the Vere and minions appeared at the portal and gave us a good punting.  Jack, Kaliste and Tersius fell wounded and were dragged through the portal thus losing spirit strength. 

On the far side we met Lord Mian, and the realm lords of Disease and Decay and of Pain.  We needed boons from them in order to travel to the Hall of Heroes without losing spirit strength.  Boons were asked and granted and the payments required in return were various.  Lord Mian asked only one gest.  The Realmlord of pain inflicted upon those he granted his boon great agonies, and the boon of the Lord of Disease and Decay was later paid for in withered limbs, blindness and more.  We were also loaned a great item, a cloak of resurrection.  Sadly this was used frequently.

We travelled to the plain of Disease and Decay where we suffered greatly from increasing diseases.  Those who had access to the dark path were given body parts as tokens to allow them in – those who didn’t had to offer their own.  Kalliste gave a toe, Teppic an ear, among others.

We had been told we needed to rescue the Unclean One, who was the realm lord’s second in command, who was under assault by the Leprous One, a Vere.  We rescued him at the cost of some injury and discovered he needed body parts to repair him.  We gave him what we had but were short an eye and a tongue.  Teppic donated an eye, Kalliste her tongue, but these were not able to regenerate while we remained in this realm.

We then attacked the Leprous One and slew him but Teppic died of a fatal disease, partly due to neglect by the party, to our regret and shame, and Teppic became bitter for a while.  Aruna attempted to call the Chorian to remove us to the next realm but he did not come for some time – we discovered that her voice was muffled by Agoth. 

Chorian finally appeared and sent us to the Realm of Pain where we suffered great agonies which eventually ceased only for us to be attacked by psionic creatures of Agoth.  The battle was interrupted by a horde of Pain’s lesser minions, stinging wasps, attempting to help us but in their enthusiasm attacking everyone and drove us and our attackers into intemperate flight.

There were three anchors of the realm of Pain tormented and prevented from fulfilling their function by Agoth, these we had to release.  We had to remove the objects Agoth had buried at the anchor points and marked with tombstones, so that the anchors could return.  This we did while fighting off many creatures, some of whom dominated the minds of the party and forced them to turn upon each other, which was most distressing and injurious.  One of the anchors was discovered in her bound state by a lowly realm denizen, who fled, discomfited.  

In the third fight, Gravesong fell at the feet of the enemy and could not be reached to be tended, and so died.

We returned to the Lodge of Lord Cardinaris, which was decorated most morbidly with many skulls and body parts.  We did not inquire too closely into the source of the meat but the stew was very good.  We had successfully secured from Agoth’s attacks the two realms either side of the Realm of Battle, through which one must go to reach the Hall of Heroes.

Day 3 - The Realm of Battle, and Beyond

We were there to locate the Realm Lord and ask his permission to enter the Hall of Heroes.  We were also after finding out what happened to Suliman who was last heard of on the Path of Heroes but had since disappeared..
We fought our way to the realm lord’s retinue and were required to enter three single combats before he would grant us an audience.  Toshiro entered and drew, Puke entered and alas lost, and Cortez won after bravely electing mortal combat. 

This was sufficient to grant us audience with the Realm Lord who was familiar to some and proved to be Suliman, occupied by a hostile spirit due to actions in the past by Puke which need no mention here.

We fought Suliman and he and Gravesong were both injured.  Suliman was dying.  The hostile spirit was gone and Suliman and Gravesong swore their loyalty to each other as brothers, to become one again as they once were in the womb.  Before our eyes both disappeared.

A few of us tried on the apparel of the Realm Lord thinking it might be required of one of us to take his place, but this had no effect.

Gravesong/Suliman reappeared as the Child of Light and told us that he was the Aspirant to be realm lord but that others would challenge for the position..

The challengers soon revealed themselves as the Barbarians from the Realm of Battle, the Lawful Knights from the Realm of Battle, and the Servants of Agoth.  And us.

Back at the Lodge Kal asked of each aspirant their motivations and desires for the realm of Battle, in hopes some decision could be made, but though we hoped that the Realm of Battle would be able to promote its own lord we realised the only way to discover this was to fight. 

The Realm lords came to claim payment for their boons, and those of disease and decay proved most unpleasant. 

The Realm Lord was there and those who had the misfortune to brush against him were warned that having children might be unwise.  The Agothian Aspirant also attempted to touch many of the party and succeeded in some cases. 

We then defeated both of the realm of Battle parties, therefore we had to defeat the Agothians also, which we succeeded in doing, and Puke agreed to resume the title of realmlord of Battle, thus securing the realm from Agoth.  Suliman/Gravesong, as the Child of Light, secured the Path of Heroes from Agoth. 

As night fell Tersius and Jack were drawn across the Realm of Battle.  We all followed and encountered some corrupt nature spirits which we slew.  Then we found Erf’s Tree, blighted by Agothian spirits.  These we drove out, and the Tree Spirit was freed.  The seed of Erf’s Tree was released from Tersius’ body, and planted.  It was to become Jack’s final resting place when he had passed beyond the lands of the living.

We then chanted the chant to bring to us those who would give us heroic deaths in battle, thus allowing us to walk the Path of Heroes.  There was a glorious if brief battle with Aruna bravely chanting to the end even as she was cut down. 

We found ourselves in the outlands of the Hall of Heroes, where we were awoken by three strange monk-like beings called the brothers.  One was most kindly, one was neutral and one very dark.

These later proved to be the Spirit of Nathan, who had elected to remain in the hall of Heroes and thus weaken Set, even though it would mean his own ending.  The longer he remained, the weaker Set would become.

We called the lodge to us, ate and rested and then, although many of the party were most weary, went out to discover the Library, where there was a Librarian of ancient aspect, some books, and many many scrolls, some in languages none in the party knew.  The Librarian knew all of us and was writing down our lives even as we spoke to him, which was disconcerting.  Much time was spent in translating scrolls, and in seeking out a sneaking, probably Agothian, assassin.

Day 4 – Ancient Memories

We completed our work on the scrolls from Library, and discovered the Book of Keys which would allow us to trap the Psionic Vere, and the knowledge of where to find the Soul Garden of Otian Wraithchild.  Various members of the party discovered their personal scrolls but not all wished them translated. 

We were attacked first by creatures of Set which appeared in the Lodge in our midst, drawn by the Brothers who were the spirit of Nathan.  After a brief but nasty fight the nice brother offered healing which was immediately withdrawn by his dark counterpart.  We had also discovered from the Library that we were required to put spirit strength from all of the party who were willing into a Soul Vessel so that any who lost all their spirit strength in the Void would be able to return but only at the cost of another party member sacrificing spirit strength.  All the party who had it to spare, nobly agreed to donate spirit strength to this cause.

We realised we were being attacked by Memories in the Hall of Heroes.  The first were the Minions of Set and the greatest threat was the memory of Jurgen Zan.  Erelan Black also turned up and while we were fighting him sent a minion to steal the Necronomicon from the Lodge, where we had thought it safe.  We pursued him but to no avail. 

We then entered the void and found Otian Wraithchild’s soul garden.  There we fought many and opened many bottles; all of which had startling effects, some pleasant and many less so, including releasing a minotaur, a member of Halmadon’s Heights, and random effects of magic and power.  Also, it was raining a lot and we hadn’t had our supper.

We returned to the Lodge and encountered the Psionic Vere against whom we found ourselves overmatched.   We needed the soul candles and the ritual to trap her but had no time to prepare.  We dressed our wounds and returned to the Lodge, where more scrolls were translated and many of the party were overcome with weariness.  The Librarian turned up and drank with us.

Lord Cardonaris manifested while his lodge was in the Hall of Heroes, intent on claiming a book from the library, but was thwarted by our ward of soul candles.  Lady Kevralyn refused to break the ward and in his frustration and ire Cardonaris dissolved the Dymwan pact with Wolfhold, to everyone’s great delight bar Cardonaris himself.

At some point we also met bookworms who had come to reclaim any items from the library that had not been returned.  These were quite annoying. 

Day 5

We were weary at this point and memory may not place everything in the correct order.  However, these events did take place. 

We returned to the Void and found the Agoth Experiment, a most disturbing construction of Necromantic pain and hate formed of Gil, one of the creators of Agoth, blood and metal.  We slew it and were sucked into Agoth’s mind.  This was most distressing, but by courage and faith we found each other in darkness and madness and held together as the Valley.  We heard among other things the voices of The Chorian and of Anubis directing us to find the device of the Agoth Experiment and put it back together in order to release ourselves from this terrible place, and though we suffered great distress we held together and those among us with the skill succeeded in putting the device back together and thus we were returned to Orin Rakatha. 

Having weakened Otion Wraithchild by destroying his soul garden we returned to Orin Rakatha where we encountered him and in a hard fight slew him to the joy of all, especially Randolphin and Lady Kevralyn who found many things upon his body that were shiny and adorned themselves therewith. 

Here we met some of the forces of Agoth who were now powerless and easily overthrown, but to our disconcertion experienced great waves of darkness and realised that there was one left undefeated.  We encountered one known as Tiresias, the last of those involved in the Agoth Experiment, the Tower Leader of the Catacombs of Agoth.  He we found ourselves unable to defeat in straight battle, but he knowing the experiment to have failed, offered us the third key of Agoth.  Our leader Kal wisely decided to take this offer, knowing we could not otherwise obtain the third key. 

Agoth is destroyed.  Four of the five creators of Agoth, including Gil and Wraitchild, are dead.  We have the three keys that helped to create the Agoth Experiment.  Everyone on the mission lost spirit strength (excepting only Lady Kevralyn Soulfire).  Ezekiel Bramble died three times, while keeping many other party members alive with the judicious use of his powers.

The avatars of Death, Anubus and the Chorien and their ilk have returned to their rightful places and duties.

Many died.  Many were promoted to the ranks they had earned.  All were heroes.

The deeds in this tale were performed by all.  Sir Kal led us with courage and wisdom.  The errors and omissions in this re-telling are ours alone.

Three Towers, One King!

By our hands,

Kalliste, Ranger.  Jack, Heirophant.