4th Arodus 18 - The Age of Exposition

 At the designated time Emissary the fey nobleman apparates into the main hall at Wyvernshore palace, where the group are awaiting his arrival along with the council, key citizens and armed guards, all of whom are keen to hear what the fey has to say.

Emissary has arrived to tell them a true tale, make his confessions, bid his final farewells and face them in combat.
He serves Nyrissa, a Fey Queen from the First World who fell in 'love' with Count Renalc, an Eldest (god-like fey who can affect the environment and magic around them), who used her as an experiment, granting her a significant growth in power born from shadow magic. But as a result Nyrissa grew arrogant and incurred the wrath of others as she attempted to carve out her own section of the First World and turn herself into an Eldest. Offended by this, the eight Eldest Fey punished the ninth who had granted the upstart an increase in stature and then tore from Nyrissa her Love (which they formed into a sword), her Greed (which they infused into a mortal land) and her Vengeance (which was moulded into a lesser version of her and imprisoned in a demi-dimension). They then reduced and isolated Nyrissa’s domain from their own and cast the queen out into it, to wallow in her misery and loss.

It took many centuries before Nyrissa was able to pull herself up and start to look to the future. Because of her power she is able to manipulate her realm of Thousandbreaths to suit her moods and has gathered more power and allies as she attempts to reclaim her full power and status before she was cast down.

Nyrissa wishes to free her Vengeance and merge with it. This will increase her magic abilities and mental manipulations, become more commanding and able to form armies instantly at her behest. However, the group of heroes have defeated the personification of this Vengeance when they destroyed the Shadow Queen many years before and so this step has been delayed for the time being.
Nyrissa wishes to obtain the sword, Briar, which was born from her Love and subsequently could be used against her to hurt her. Wielding it she would become more physically powerful and able to withstand more effects and damage. To complicate things for the queen, the Eldest hid the sword from her sight and it was foretold that this blade would one day fall into the possession of heroes who would end her life! This sword is currently in Miros hands...
Nyrissa wishes to gather up her Greed and present it as a gift to the eight Eldest Fey in the hopes of getting back some of her standing and gain face.
Nyrissa voluntarily parted from her Empathy, giving it the form of a purple fey male known as Emissary, sworn to do her bidding. Whilst Emissary might grow to like those he works with and colludes against, his first duty is always to Nyrissa and no magic on Golarion can alter that.
To achieve her goals, Nyrissa kept the land which harbours her Greed a wild and untamed place (the humans have named this region the ‘Stolen Lands’ due to the lack of ownership over it) so that she could wear down the boundaries between her domain, Thousandbreaths, and the mortal Stolen Lands until such a time where the border is thin enough that she can send energy and life from her domain into the mortal lands in the form of ‘Blooms’. This energy will suffuse with the mortal land and will allow Nyrissa to ‘bottle’ the land up and present it as a gift to her peers. This starts tomorrow!

Over the next 28 days blooms of natural, nature and magical energy will spill out into the nearby kingdoms as the queen conducts a ritual. Magical oddities and powerful minions will spill out of breaches during this time, marking the location of the blooms which weaken the boundaries between worlds. On the 29th day, Nyrissa will then be able to gave all the energy up from everyone and everything in groups piecemeal kingdom leaving only a barren husk behind. The more blooms and minions that remain in the kingdom, the greater her chance for success. The leaders of Dragonmere have two options:

• quickly gather several bloom remnants and take the fight to the fey queen early before she can complete the ritual and risk almost certain death due to the number of allies that would populate her domain, or
• face down the blooms and fey intruders as they appear in the material plane and then take the fight to the queen after that; this does pose a timy amount of risk from the queen possibly succeeding in her ritual (and any blooms missed would only increase that liklihood) but the upside is that the PCs would be able to deal with her strong allies at a more sedate rate and as a consequence will find it easier to reach and defeat her in her own realm.

Briar will start to grow in power for each bloom and strong ally of the queen that is defeated in its vicinity. It may even regain all its powers and would be the greatest tool to fight Nyrissa and her allies.

Emissary informs the group that in the north of Pitax's largest forest are ruins that mark the thinnest boundary to Nyrissa's relam of Thousandbreaths. With remnants from destroyed blooms and a powerful artefact such a Briar they will be able to breach realms and enter the fey demi-plane.

2nd Arodus 18 - It's all about the Fish

Over the course of the month there have been reports of occasional 'wierdness' and unexplainable oddities befalling the kingdom and other nearby lands; rainfalls consisting of frogs and crickets, meat starting to talk with steaks mooing at their would-be diners, singing fish and jumping sausages.  There has even been several immaculate pregnancies with no divine cause.

A noble that the group scathingly name "Lady Poncy-Ponce" contacts the rulers and offers to sell them a text book that she was once told would be of great value to them.  Her terms are that three statues and a theatre are to be built and dedicated to her, however the group negotiated this down to a single statue (with an elongated nose) and a small play-hall (and possibly a brothel) to which she agrees, on the added condition that if her book is vital to their cause in the near future they must public acknowledge her greatness to their citizens without sarcasm or insecerity (something they agree to, doubting that they will ever need to take such an action).

Six weeks after King Irovetti's defeat and the stabilisation of Pitax, the rulers receive a missive from Emissary; he sought an audience with them!  After a long conversation and much debate the group decide that they should allow the fey man a chance to explain his involvement in the various actions that both helped and harmed them and their kingdom.  They send back a time and a date to Emissary and await his arrival...

19th Desnus 18 - Winged Bears!! What ever next!

The group head towards a place known as little town in the north west.

They soon realise that it is actually a little town surrounded by farms some of which are locked up from the inside.

In the town square the group find quite a mess, their best guess would possibly point at a gathering of people into the square where they were then slaughtered possibly by Wyverns given by the claw marks in the stone. Plus, the fact that Natalia spotted the body of a dead wyvern spotted in nearby field.

Vaneer checks the wounds of the creature and giant claw marks seem to explain why it was missing most of its chest, but she isn’t sure as to what creature had done this to the Wyvern.

Natalia uses her druidic ability of commune to sense what creatures are in the area. 

After some time, Natalia discovers that there is the odd dotting of people here and there whilst in the woods to the South West there is a single powerful unnatural creature. In the woods the west she also sensed a pair of unnatural creatures.

The group head west into the nearby woodland and make their way towards the pair of creatures.

As the group approaches the area they slow and prepare for whatever they are to find ahead.

The sounds of a waterfall could be heard as the group find themselves emerging into a large open glade. Around the outskirts of the glade they noticed many damaged trees and tree stumps that scatter the area.

The damaged bark shows signs of claw marks from either a large creature or creatures.

Before they can speculate to what they were tracking they hear excited hooting quickly followed by a second and closer hoot as a gigantuous owl bear with wings (winged owl bear) rushes into the clearing towards the group.

Winged Owl Bear (WOB) 1 – attacks Otto and hits one of his mirror self’s,

Vaneer casts destruction on WOB 1 but it resists,

Hugo moves into attack WOB 1 and hits,

Miro tumbles round WOB 1 attacks but misses,

Natalia casts finger of death but fails,

Bob attacks WOB 1 and hits,

WOB 2 reaches Miro where it attacks and hits,

Otto steps back, casts hold monster which holds followed by a quickened haste,

Boss shoots at WOB 2 and hits,

Vaneer casts mass inflict critical wounds on the WOB1, WOB 1 breaks the hold,

Hugo attacks WOB 1 hits with 2 critical blows,

Miro attacks WOB 1 hits 4x killing it with 3 critical strikes,

WOB 1 collapses,

Bob attacks WOB 2 and hits,

Natalia casts a spell,

WOB 2 attacks Miro and hits once,

Otto casts hold monster on WOB 2 which takes hold,

Hugo attacks WOB 2 and hits twice,

Vaneer attacks WOB 2 and hits twice,

Hugo attacks WOB 2 hits x4 (1 critical),

Miro attacks WOB 2 hits and kills it with a critical.

Otto and Miro teleport back to Pitax with one winged owl bear corpse to sell to the merchant who offers the group a further 4k of gold for the second corpse that the party has.

When the pair return Vaneer heals up the party of all their wounds.

Natalia scouts the area to the south west to see whilst in bird form of any indication of what the ‘other’ presence is in the woodland. Though after not finding anything she returns to the group to relay the disappointing information.

The group decide to investigate the area further just incase the quarry was hiding amongst some thick tree or bush growth.

Though they soon find that the deeper they travel into the woodland the thicker it got so it takes just over a day to get to the area by next morning.

Natalia checks with her commune again and discovers that the creature had moved ½ mile away from them, so they continue making their way towards the new area.

Before they can take in their surroundings a creature attacks Vaneer and hits,

Miro misses,

Otto and hits,

Natalia misses,

Hugo misses,

Boss misses,

Something beneath the ground drags those that were hit across the floor by what appear to be roots,

Vaneer casts command plants telling the creature to release the party and show its self which works,

A Tree to the right opens its awe of a mouth in a show to reveal itself as commanded,

Natalia recognises it as a “Quick wood” a carnivorous and intelligent tree,

Quickwood uses its fear aura affects all except Vaneer and Miro causing everyone else to flee in terror,

Quickwood then attacks Miro 6 times but luckily all attacks miss,

Miro chickens out of the fight and waits for Vaneer to do something,

Vaneer tells the tree to frick off elsewhere and it obeys the command as it shambles deeper into the woods,

Rest of party soon return as Miro and Vaneer try to bluff that they destroyed the tree, but tree was too slow to vacate the area.

Otto teleports the group to the white rose hill abbey and they make their back way to the tunnel entrance and through to the pool where Evindra has been awaiting their return.

The group spend some time giving Evindra an update of current events and the fight with the king of Pitax.

Miro soon races into the water with the shawl and briar bearing a smile almost as big as the pool.

Evindra thanks the group for returning Briar and her shawl as she informs them of its history.

Briar belonged to the fey and it influences the surrounding area which is why the wine that use to be produced here tasted great. Evindra was given the duty to look after the sword and to keep it out of the hands of a fey queen. 

Briar can be a vorpal weapon to the right wielder and change its appearance, but its power has faded over time.

Evindra is happy to stay put for now whilst the pool under the hill remains hidden and a secret from the world.

The group agree to keep the pool quiet and decide that they would reinstate the monastery above to help keep it a secret once they return to Wyvernshore.

On the way out of the tunnel most of the group minus Otto hear a strange noise from behind them and so they rush back to the pool only to hear a scuffle as they get closer.

As they emerge into the pool cavern they see 3 fey-like creatures attacking Evindra and attempting to steal the sword Briar from her.

Otto Shouts “See You!” As he casts finger of death at fey1 who is trying to steal briar but now drops to the floor dead,

Otto casts a Quickened haste,

Boss shoots at fey2 and hits multiple times,

Miro sneaks up to fey3 and stabs him in the back,

Hugo attacks fey3 and hits,

Vaneer casts dimensional lock to prevent anyone escaping with Briar,

Natalia casts baleful polymorph on fey 4 turning it into a rabbit,

Bob rushes for the rabbit and critically strikes it,

Rabbit attacks Bob but misses,

Fey3 tries to cast a spell but nothing happens,

Fey2 attacks Bob and hits,

Fey5 attacks Hugo but misses,

A large creature with wings of darkness reveals itself,

Creature casts prismatic spray at Vaneer, Otto, Boss and Natalia,

Vaneer saves vs poison,

Otto saves vs insanity,

Boss saves vs Death,

Natalia fails vs fire and takes little fire damage,

Otto casts another finger of death but this time at the winged creature and kills it,

Otto then casts a Quicken scorching ray fey2 and hits for small damage,

Boss shoots fey2 and hits twice killing it and hits Fey5 thrice,

Miro attacks fey3 and kills it,

Hugo attacks fey5 and hits 4 times which kills it,

Vaneer attacks fey4 and hits,

Bob attacks fey4 and hits,

Natalia attacks fey4 and killing it.

The nature “friendly” members are watched in horror by their cohorts as they stomp, skewer and rip apart a harmless rabbit.

“Think its best guessed that they know where the sword is now” sighed Vaneer.

It’s quickly agreed amongst the group and Evindra that the sword ‘briar’ would be best protected by the group to which Miro eagerly accepts responsibility of looking after it.

Group also offers Evindra sanctuary within the kingdom where ever she chooses, and she accepts under the fear of further assassination attempts should she stay in the pool.

The group then finally return to Wyvernshore.