Hunting Moon PC1 

 

The group consisted of:

Khandis, Grey Sorcerer and Party leader

Myself, Ksndra, Red Sorcerer and Priest of the Dark Seers

Kurt Polarise, Paladin and Priest of Humact

Kyle Ompak, Eminent Sentinel

Renown, Ranger

Maggot, Brethren Priest

Nathan, Patriarch of House Nathan, Warden and confused

Xernes, Priest of the Reapers

Malice/Malon, Druid and evil person/archer

Driedyn, Healer of awesomeness.

And we were guided by Lyrah from the temple.

As we entered into the festival lands we felt waves of tingliness and unwell being.

We were met by a number of the Keisora Dynasty informing us that we were on their lands and to bugger off. The festival lands aren’t owned by one nation and the KD already hold their own land so we weren’t having that.

After showing them what we thought of that we carried on into the festival lands and were met by more of the same.

After a short while, we came upon a small group of goblins wearing the KD hats but still in valley tabards of the wardens, reapers, brethren and pathfinders.

We agreed that they could join the KD as long as they handed over their tabards to us. After some negotiations we procured a deal that involved Kurt giving them 20 gests, Renown giving them his socks that they them promptly put down their trousers, Nathan giving them his shield and Xernes giving them his hood.

We carried on to the Festival Waystation where we settled down.

We were met by members of the Azadan, including Sebastian, Son of Azdan, wearing cream coloured tops with swirls on along with brown and orange edged tabards. (In the dark they looked uncannily like Halmadonians until they stepped into the light) These are their nation’s colours, or will be when they are recognised as an official nation. (I don’t think they were around at the time of reckoning but I may be wrong.)

They informed us that they had been looking after the Waystation and the surrounding areas.

We were told how at a festival a year ago they paid the Master of Coin a substantial sum of money for the Festival lands but that now he was demanding more and more money from them and had removed the boon of the land. 

Apparently the Master of Coin out bid the other mystics for the land and then tried to sell it on to the Azadan for more and more gests. 

The Waystation was the last vestige of the boon which left everyone on a level pegging, so if you get hit on a limb you loose said limb, there is no curing below cure mortals, if you take a hit to the chest, i.e. from a bolt or power hammer, you are dead.

The bane however, is that you can martial as many forces within the lands as you could possibly manage.

We wondered how they had met the Master of Coin as he was a lesser mystic and as far as we were aware you didn’t really “see” them. We were told that at the time of the Festivals the mystics and nodes could be engendered and could walk amongst the people in the festival. 

We asked if they knew much about the presence of the KD to which they told us that the KD were marshalling the influx of the diseased peasants from the lands of Sholun, and that the Azadan had no issue with this.

They asked us for help to restore the boon to the land.

We could do this in one of two ways.

1) We could pay the Master of Coin more money

2) We could bring the chattels of Azad to the ritual circle and use them to strengthen the area and temporarily return the boon

Turns out chattels are personal possessions. I didn’t have a clue what they were but was like “yeah yeah we’ll go and get them” 

It was decided that I would cast a vision overnight to find out the nature and location of these items.

Apparently in the surrounding area were the remnants of the Azadan tower and it was likely these items were around that area.

His chattels were simple items; they were his Blood, Sweat, Tears and Toil.

We had to incorporate these items and other piffinalia (apparently it’s actually paraphernalia but piffinalia sounds better)

 We were also informed that we had to drink to Azad’s memory within the ritual.

We enquired as to who else was in the area and were informed that there was:

The Horde: a group of half-orcs and others that are followers of Bethelam;

The Grey Horn Carnival;

The Legion;

The Dymwan;

The Shadowsfall Keepers.

These all seem to be nations/towers from the mirror plane that conjoined with us after the cataclysm.

The Forgotten also tend to attend the Festival but rarely seen at other times in between (YAY! They’re really starting to get on my wick). Also the Kalid aren’t seen in these areas often.

The Azadan wandered off and we were beset by a number of undead including a mummy, ghoul, wraith and skeletal warriors. I had a rather unfortunate collision with a tree stump and did a rather impressive tumble. Knowing that there are Dymwan in the area this was of no great shock. At least it wasn’t bloody forgotten for once!

We were then visited by Phileas, the son of Xenos.

Khandis (who had met him before), Xernes and I went and had a chat with him, I say chat, I spent most of my time translating Xernes words into words that Phileas would understand.

He informed us that the Hive mind is becoming confused and the Enchanters want to use him to fix it. He doesn’t want this as his father, Xenos, is awakening and he wants to see his dad again. This I can totally relate to. I’d give anything for one more spells duration with my own father.

The High Enchanters also want to use Phileas to prevent Xenos from awakening. Phineas only wants to see the world and see his father. He’s been away from the LoX for 2 years, 5 moons and 26 days. However, due to his creation and his link to Xenos himself, and the fact that as a construct he doesn’t actually hold status we believe this doesn’t make him nationless/a nomad (even though he is wandering the realm)

He doesn’t quite know what it is that is awakening Xenos but he knows he is in the heart of the labyrinth. We couldn’t quite figure the labyrinth out so I referred to one of Khandis’ previous mission reports from when he met Phineas before as I knew Phineas had explained it all in detail to Khandis.

The information I was looking for is as follows:

*From Khandis’ Report on the mission The Coming of Ison*

There was a voice which told us of the death of Xenos's wife and the great effect this had on Xenos. Then followed another scene of Xenos’s son (Phineas, the person presenting the visions), trying to perform a ritual. Eucildeas was present and advised against it,  Phineas ignored him and was killed in some sort of backlash. The voice again told us of the effect this had on Xenos, this second loss drove Xenos mad and he worked for a time to try and rebuild his son. We saw a vision of his eventual success, managing to resurrect his son as some sort of drone like being. They were able to link thoughts as the Drones of the Labyrinth do now. Xenos's fear that people might harm his son drove him to create a labyrinth to hide his son away from the rest of the world. Over time the labyrinth grew and eventually Xenos disappeared within it. We then had a final scene where we saw Euclideas talking to the construct Phineus describing how he would dismantle the construct to gain knowledge of the mind link Xenos created. Then a final voice describing how Euclideas used that knowledge to construct the hive mind and apparently he is still alive and running the Labyrinth, Xenos's fate has never been confirmed but it is assumed he died, lost deep in his labyrinth .

At least we are aware now that Xenos was never dead himself, he was just asleep.

Apparently there are plenty of drones in the area looking for Phileas.

He also informed us that the Ikarthian Triangle is acting rather strangely.

We were beset upon by assassins while we were talking to Phileas, He remained with us while we dealt with them and I left Khandis to talk to him while I joined the rest of the party attacking these assassins. Xernes spoke with one of them after we had killed him and it informed him that we were all going to die.

Phileas then gave Khandis a “gift”. He connected him briefly to the hive mind that left Khandis incapacitated and me telling Phineas off and that he needed to learn the meaning of gift.

He informed us that Waylon was up to no good and that he was acting selfishly and is only out for himself and that what ever he is doing may effect the Ikarthian Triangle in ways that would be exceptionally disastrous. I think this may be something for a future party to go and investigate.

After our chat Phileas made his way off to see more of the world and we were beset by even more undead.

The Azadan returned and informed us that they would ensure that the area was safe for us to rest and sleep for the evening. I decided that that was the opportune time to retire and cast a vision for these chattels.

I arose in the morning having had my vision.

It revealed to me that the items were;

Hammer – Toil

Armour – Sweat

Sword – Tears

Potion – Blood

I was also informed that I would know when I was nearing the items.

I went about my morning casting and went to go and get a drink.

As more of us arose I left the waystation and joined the rest just as Nathan was telling people about what Sebastian had told them after I had gone to sleep.

This happened to be the same thing that my vision had given me and I hadn’t yet told anyone about what I had seen. This stopped Renown telling me that Seers couldn’t be trusted and that we made things up.

After we had all broken our fast we met the Master of Coin.

He started demanding payment for our bed and board and when Khandis stood up to him, he broke his arms and legs.

Nathan gave him 50 gests which the Master of Coin took straight from his bank within our nation. (that poor goblin that’s watching over Nathans money)

After Khandis gave him 100 gests he gave us a few more warnings and then left us alone, saying he’d be back later. Probably to extort more money out of us.

I got a feeling of where one of the chattels was and informed the party to move out. 

As we made our way to the location I was being drawn to we met a group of Shadowsfall, one of which had a contract mark on his face.

We had a chat with them, and they informed us they were on business from the Master of Justice and finding somewhere suitable to camp during the Festival. They informed us that the Shadowsfall Keepers wanted to merge nations with them as they wanted their own nation, which they didn’t have yet but more and more of them were coming due to the conjoining of the planes.

Apparently they were planning a trip to the Plane of Myth and Legends to visit the Hall of Heroes to bring back a suitable leader for both factions of the Shadowsfall.

We chatted for a bit and gave them our suggestions and they went to leave.

The next thing we knew they had jumped Khandis, declaring they were after a sorcerer.

I’m really starting to think either someone is taking out new contracts on us all or our existing contracts are still in play. Oh. Dear. Me.

We picked Khandis up and dusted him off and carried on in the direction I was being drawn to.

Over the hill we met some nomads who Renown told I was in charge and had the rest of the party under my spell. The rest of the party, especially Nathan, played along with it. Damn them.

Turns out they were protecting a hedge sorcerer and we sent them off to see if we could speak with him.

They returned and said he was very happy to converse with us and we approached a rambled hut that was warded. Khandis and I gained entry and were joined by Kyle. 

At the bottom of the hut was a man with long thick black hair. I saw in his hand that he had the hammer that was in my vision.

We spoke for a while and I asked his name. He invited me to read his name off a mirror. Khandis encouraged me to do so (ALL YOUR FAULT KHANDIS!) and in doing so, I got possessed.

Xernes then followed suit and there was, as is inevitable, a fight. Nathan tried to take me down and when the possession broke there was a whole lot of apologising from me!

Kass’ new rules: DON’T PICK UP BOOKS! DON’T LOOK IN MIRRORS! DON’T GET BITTEN BY VAMPIRES!

Sigh.

We made our way back to the waystation and got attacked by debtors sent by the master of coin.

That guy was really starting to get on my…. Casting kit

My vision was pulling me towards another of the chattels and we moved off to go and find it. On our way we met a group calling themselves the Shadowsfall Keepers. I’d heard about these before from the group that went out to the cataclysm and the actual Shadowsfall. 

They showed us their boat, the Reliquary, which was made of Ent wood and was able to planar travel.

They were setting up their camp for the Festival Gathering.

They told us that they wanted to use the boat to travel to the Plane of Sleepless Dead and go to the Hall of Heroes and bring back Captain Admiral Sarin (not to be confused with the Dymwan Sorene) to lead the uniting of the Keepers and our Shadowsfall.

They informed us that they left the actual Shadowsfall years ago due to their dislike of them using items that came their way due to being the “voices of the mystics” and abusing the skills given to them by the mystics.

They left to make more preparations and we carried on the way I was being pulled.

We approached a large tree by which was a number of undead. As we approached we discovered that only the neutral sphere worked near it. Nathan then communed with it in some way after we had gotten rid of the rotting corpses and Malice stuck his head in it trying to find out what it was. Turned out it was part of the tree of life. Nice to know.

As we approached where I was being pulled to we found a number of KD duelling themselves for the right to win a sword. This sword looked very much like the one in my vision.

We asked them if we could duel them for it and Kurt and Kyle volunteered. However a decision was made to start the duel and then job them all when they weren’t expecting it.

It sort of worked and a few ran off but we got the sword. However Jux and Malice got bones broken and malice asked the tree to fix it. Which it did for Malice but Jux got told no.

We made our way back to the waystation and we saw a KD approaching us with a white flag. 

It was Ambassador Luchi who had fled the failed duel and informed us we’d annoyed General Khang and that basically either we gave the sword back and he may allow us to get it back from him in honourable combat or they were going send waves and waves of KD at us and kick our heads in. It was something along the lines of “there’s 11 of you and hundreds of us… bad odds guys”

We decided we had to show we weren’t going to kowtow to threats and told him to tell General Khang to effectively “bring it on”

We then decided we were in a rubbish defendable place to defend and that there was a nice fort that was defendable around the corner and we’d go there and ward it as much as possible.

While at the fort we were assailed by more debtors and two waves of KD whose heads we kicked in.

Then a member of the LoX appeared and despite our shouts of don’t let it in, was let in and nicked off with Khandis.

So we sent out scouts to find him and pegged it after them and got Khandis back.

While killing them we opened up a Minotaur that had the armour in that we were looking for! What a stroke of luck!

We returned to the fort, thinking that more KD would appear and were visited by members of the Shadowsfall, offering us aid in the form of contracts.

We asked how much it would be to kill Calix Wraithspawn, for which the price was killing a bloke from the Keepers, which we declined and for information on how to distract the Master of Coin.

They said they would return when they had something to tell us.

Over dinner, we were visited by Abadon Dreamweaver of House Dranath who told us he had heard of a ritual that was to take place to summon something or someone using the keeper’s boat. However the people involved in it were not going to be wearing colours and making every effort to conceal their identities. We decided that this was a case of law breaking and it needed to be investigated to report back.

We were told we would be informed when these people were in the area and to be aware that we wouldn’t have much time to move when we were informed.

I was then pulled towards the last chattle, the vial of blood and we set off to find it, encountering undead on the way which we made sure we returned them to the dead.

We came upon a hut that was being inhabited by a number of Dymwan and tried to negotiate with them to get the vial off them.

They wanted our souls for it and souls to replace those of the undead we had killed on our way. 

Obviously that wasn’t going to happen so we got in a fight with them and killed them, but not before both Kurt and Kyle were incapacitated and chomped on by the vampire. (remember Kass’ rule: DON’T GET BITTEN BY A VAMPIRE!)

We discovered upon identifying the blood that it was a rather nice potion that made you immune to battle magic, but you couldn’t cast while under its effects. Renown later used it to its full advantage.

We retired back to the waystation where the Shadowsfall from earlier on were waiting for us.

They informed us that to distract the Master of Coin we would need to summon another Master of Law.

To do this we would need to cast a ritual that included the P’s;

Payment

Piffinalia

Performance

The more payment you gave the more powerful the ritual would be. Payment could be anything, such as casting spells or invocations into the circle.

They did lend us a rather powerful item of piffinalia, Bookie, which they had used themselves.

We decided amongst us that we would summon the Master of Balance to distract him and that over night I would cast a vision to ask where we could find substantial items of powerful piffinalia.

I awoke to being pulled off to a gorse filled area and once we were all up we prepared to set out.

Before we could however we were unsurprisingly beset by a bunch of KD, followed by another wave of them including a sorcerer that had what appeared to be a frying pan in his hand. I half hoped he had come to cook us more bacon.

Turns out it was a mirror that could reflect anything cast upon him.

I communed with the item and determined it was part of a set of piffinalia and I assumed it was part of the set I had seen in my vision.

We then were attacked by elementals, which we exploded quickly.

Nathan then saved the world because he is awesome and amazing and totally tall dark and handsome.

I wasn’t told to write that by Nathan at all. Nope. All my own words. Totally. Honest. *cough*

We were then ready to move out and went off in search of these items.

On the way we met some nomads that thought they were comedians, asking about a bacon tree but performed a “hambush” needless to say, they died. And weren’t laughing when they did.

We then came upon a group of more KD, unsurprisingly.

Once they were dealt with we came upon a KD sorcerer who had in his possession a cup, a dagger and anvil and what I called a dobby stick. I think it was some kid of sceptre.

He used these items to summon elementals and messed with their nature.

It was a really tough fight, with Kurt, Xernes and Renown all doing some floor inspecting at one point. To be honest I thought I was going to join them at one point but I escaped that pain by the skin of my teeth!

I communed the items that we gained from the sorcerer and discovered that these were indeed the items that were in my vision and along with the mirror/frying pan and Bookie they were extremely powerful enough for what we needed.

We settled back for lunch and while a number of us were busy recasting we had another group of diseased nomads come up to us. We warned them to stay back and one almost threw up on Jux so I may have slightly, accidentally, on purpose, killed him and used him as a warning to keep them at bay, ignoring the calls of “murderer” from the others. Eh theyre going to die anyway, I just put him out of his misery.

Maggot showed some unusual compassion and gave them some apples and told them to bugger off. Which they did. Eventually.

We went over to the ritual circle and Nathan and Driedyn performed the ritual to summon the Master of Balance and we dealt with the debtors that tried to interrupt.

Their payment consisted of 10 lay invocations and 2 higher invocations.

They discussed the matter with the Master of Balance and agreed to only cast the neutral sphere to appease him and he agreed to distract the Master of Coin in return.

We then had the KD rock up again, this time with the fluffiest Oni I ever did see. I wanted to stroke him and pet him and love him and feed him but I wasn’t allowed. They also had a Celestial Bureaucracy healer with them. That was slightly concerning. And some kind of monkey man with them that ripped peoples limbs off. That was more concerning.

We fought them and dispatched of them and I still wasn’t allowed the fluffy Oni head. Sad Kass. That would have looked lovely in my new apartment.

All of a sudden there was a bit of a ruckus and it turned out a couple of half orcs called Graven and Urgok from the Horde had rocked up. Seemed like nice guys. There was some friendly pushing competition going off with them and Xernes and Maggot which Nathan decided to get involved in. Was rather entertaining.

More nomad assassins appeared and were dealt with. They seemed to have the same message as before. We enjoyed taunting them before killing them.

A cry of “Nathan! Nathan! Look its Nathan!” was heard and a number of Goblins that had joined the KD appeared. We managed to talk to them and Nathan signed their clothes and they had a chat with the lads from the Horde and were convinced to leave the KD and join the Horde. We even told them that when they had decided on their nation colours to send someone to see me in the market place and we’d get them some tabards made up. See, I’m not all evil!

Phileas reappeared and again, did something to Khandis, which left him on the floor again. When he got up he had reverted to a child, again, and I ensured he was safe and ended up scolding everyone that scared him. And scolding Phileas. That may have not been a good move. He really needs to learn about what gifts are.

Over dinner we had some interesting conversations with Phileas and a number of our group.

I think Phileas left with a much broader knowledge of the realm and its peoples than he wanted. And so not in a good way. I really hope he never actually figures out what “go get f****d” means. The hive mind may not be able to comprehend that.

Anyways, we got word a short while later about the ritual that was being illegally performed. 

We rushed over to the area of the ship and discovered a drow that when asked declared himself to be from a known drow house and from the House of the Weaver.

Knowing they were trying to conceal their true identities we decided this was complete bullshit and jobbed him anyway and got ambushed by a large number of other drow.

We rushed towards the ritual where there were another large number of drow and a creature with horns being summoned. It was shouting about being summoned from a broken bridge and really didn’t seem happy about it. Something like “Who dares summon me from my broken bridge?! Do you not know who I am?” or something along those lines. He was really pissed.

The party took on the main group of drow involved in the summoning while Nathan took care of the one doing the summoning in the warded area. Nathan seemed rather not any of himselves and we decided Kurt should try and unshackle his spirit. Unfortunately, Kurt seemed to fall unconscious in the process and apparently got “a right good telling off from the good sphere” while in said state.

Once the guy in the ritual died I assumed the creature disappeared but I’m not sure as I had my back to the main fight watching Kurt and Nathan.

We searched the area and discovered a number of piffinalia which we consequently, nicked. 

Kurt is also brilliant and is starting to loose his reputation as a yoyo. He is also tall dark and handsome. – wait a minute, that wasn’t in my hand writing! I’m gonna kill Kurt when I find which tavern he’s hiding in! grrr men!

We decided that now the was the opportune time to conduct the ritual to return the boon to the area and myself, Xernes and Kyle performed the ritual and while doing so got our heads utterly kicked in. I was rather amused while lying on the floor suffering the effects of a disease hearing the cries of “oh no, Xernes is down, and Kyle, SHIT KURT KASS HAS BEEN FATALLED! QUICK SHIT!” No, offence but like he could do shit, he couldn’t get in!

Anyway after our guardian spirits had tended us, we completed the ritual and the boon was replaced.

We discovered it was working effectively when a group of debtors attacked us and we killed them, with me being amazed at the fact that I bolted three of them and each died from a single bolt!

So, in summery, the KD now hate us, they are trying to take over land that isn’t theirs and amass an army by grabbing whoever they find and convincing them to join them.

The Master of Coin seems a bit broken, and is extorting money out of people.

The Azadan are now the guardians of the Festival Lands and hopefully the boon will be fully restored at the next Festival Gathering but is restored temporarily for now.

We disrupted some law breaking and I know my visions work well.

And a number of us seem to be having contracts taken out on us again. Or the old ones are still withstanding.

If you need anymore information, come visit me at Kudos’ Clothing Shop in the Market Place.

By my Hand,

Ksndra, 

Sorceress of the Red School, 

Priest of the Dark Seers