10th Rova 18 (part 2) - Dragons, Hags and Clumps of Worms....What a Day!

Standing before them on top of a small mound was a 300ft high tower of white stone, whilst the clearing around the mound had scatterings of probably around a thousand statues in the shapes of crumbled egg shells, almost like that the creatures that had been inside them had hatched and destroyed their eggs as they scurried out.

As the group tried to decide on how to approach or even investigate the latest critter was already lying in wait for them. It’s almost if the hairs on the back of his neck standing on end had been a pre-warning but somehow Miro managed to dive for cover in time.

Before the rest could even spot the huge black dragon appearing out of thin air above them it had already unleashed it’s acidic breath weapon which soaks everyone with the exception of Miro. Otto whilst standing in a pool of acid then thought it be an opportune moment to inform everyone that the dragon appeared to look similar to the legendary dragon of old folk tales that was prophesied to return to Brelev one day.

Not wanting to waste his moment Miro dives out from his cover to shoot at the dragon flapping above them with Hugo closely following from behind.

Otto casts Maze at the huge creature causing it to vanish but he knows it won’t be gone for long so the group quickly prepare themselves for the oncoming fight whilst Otto casts spells to help the group resist acid and Vaneer heals the wounds already dealt from the breath attack.

Miro & Hugo drink their potions of fly and float upwards,

Boss prepares an special arrow and watches the sky,

The Dragon reappears,

Otto cast’s his final quickened Resist Energy and then casts prismatic spray at the ancient dragon as a violet spray springs forth and sends the creature to another plane of existence!

Vaneer continues to heal as the rest of the group stand in awe at how easy that fight turned out to be thanks to their King.

With the group fully healed they skip merrily through the clearing and on towards the white tower where Natalia via a find the path spell promises the dragons horde could be found unguarded.

As they got closer the towering tower stood before them taller than they had originally thought, eager to get to the dragons horde Otto decides to teleport the group to the top of the tower instead of walking up all those stairs.

Once they arrive on the observation platform they find a small horde of coins and items which to Miro’s glee proves to be most profitable, once every copper coin had been pocketed the group casually make their way down the tower via the stairs to find no other creature residing within its stone walls.

Only one path left the area other than the way they came in and so the group begin to travel north.

After several hours of travelling the group find themselves standing at the edge of the thousand breaths where a colossal lake laid before them and in the middle appeared to be an island with a fortress standing upon it along with a bridge linking the island to the mainland.

Vaneer smirked and decided to cast the earthquake spell twice over the area of the fort and whilst they stood at the far shore of the lake laughing a couple of them soon spotted 4 shapes in the sky heading towards them.

Instantly without asking questions Natalia casts a Storm of vengeance over the area that the figures are travelling through.

Miro uses his spyglass and believes that the creatures coming towards them are Wyverns but passes the spyglass to Otto for a second opinion which he confirms that they appear to be a twisted breed of Wyvern.

Otto cast Fireball at the creatures,

Natalia’s storm continues to blow and cause havoc over the lake as it rains acid and thunders,

Vaneer casts Firestorm over the lake,

Miro shoots and manages to get one arrow across the distance and hit,

Hugo uses his rod of razors and manages to hit one wyvern twice causing it to fall into the lakes waters,

Boss uses Sky bolt and lands two blows with the legendary bow causing yet another Wyvern to fall into the lakes waters,

Otto casts cone of cold at the remaining two approaching Wyverns and kills another,

Boss attempts to shoot again and lands a blow but fails to kill the remaining Wyvern,

Vaneer smirks and casts Destruction on the remaining creature and hits but yet it somehow manages to survive the effects of the spell,

Miro shoots three times and all 3 hit though it was clear that the creature died on the impact of the first arrow.

With the latest threat dealt with the group make their way round to the bridge and begin to cross over to the fortress on the island, towards the end of the bridge they soon find that there was a pretty big section of bridge missing.

It soon came apparent that the bridge recently collapsed possibly under the effects of a strong earthquake….or two! Otto looked disappointedly at Vaneer who looked pretty sheepish at that moment.

Otto decided to use his wand of dimensional door and the group used the portal to cross the missing section of bridge.

As they walked through the gatehouse they noticed that there were 4 guards standing and watching them as they walked through, expecting trouble the group drew weapons but the guards just stood there..No sorry floated. It took a moment for them to notice but the guards appeared almost transparent green and hovered close to the floor but their feet never touched the stone.

The group cautiously continued to move through the gatehouse and into the courtyard and at all times the ghostly guards just watched, never flinched nor reacted they just stared.

Once they were in the courtyard they noticed that there were 4 more ghostly guards above the gatehouse and 2 in each of the towers, all of them were just looking at them as to see what the group would do.

A little weirded out by the constant audience the group made headway to the nearest building in the courtyard which after forcing the post-earthquake inflicted door open they discover the fortresses stables.

The stable gave no odour and there was no feed to give away it was a stable other than the fact that its sole resident was a living but yet half decayed horse, Vaneer wanted to abolish the creature but the rest of the guard thought it might be best left alone for now until they had figured out the guards.

They then head across the courtyard and open another door to find themselves standing in some sort of greenhouse littered with statues of sobbing demons and double set of doors was the only other way out which appeared to lead into the main fortress building.

The guard towers where the next to be investigated but they only found stone and staring spectral guards so soon left.

With nothing else left standing thanks to two earthquakes to investigate the group turns their attentions to the fortress itself and head back through the greenhouse to the double doors they’d found earlier.

In no time at all they soon find a large room that had a large cage with an undead dancing bear contained within it and dotted on the floor around the cage were lots of undead monkey’s all holding a pair of symbols.

The group approach the cage carefully as not to set off any monkeys but as they do the bear begins to dance which in turn starts the monkeys with their clashing of symbols, the noise is horrendous so 

Vaneer attempted to destroy them with his positive energy.

As the dust settles its clear from the quietness that Vaneer has had some obvious affect as all the monkeys appeared to be destroyed but the bear still stood in its cage, seconds later however the dancing bear decided to explode injuring some of the group.

Continuing to explore the fortress they eventually find themselves within what they believed to be the Throne room.

Once they had all entered the room and approached the throne a halo of light suddenly appeared from nowhere along with a chorus of angelic music as a celestial being appeared before them.

The angel asked the group to leave the fortress and not return as higher beings were now dealing with the issue of the fell night queen and they don’t need mortals to be in the way.

Begrudgingly the group agree and leave the throne room.

Otto waits for the group to be a couple of rooms away before informing them that they’d been tricked. He believed that the angel was a summoned creature by an invisible caster somewhere else in the room as something in the room felt odd after they entered.

Vaneer also confirmed that the divine being didn’t seem to be quite all there and that its motives and expressions just seemed odd as well.

As they stood in the entrance hall to the fortress discussing what they should do about the situation with the exception of Natalia, they failed to notice the approaching shadows from the wall behind them.

Shadow(1) attacks Vaneer and hits,

Shadow(2) attacks Miro and misses,

Shadow(3) attacks Otto and Hits,

Shadow(4) attacks Natalia and misses,

Otto casts finger of death on Shadow(3) but it resists,

Boss attacks shadow(3) but misses,

Natalia casts Baleful polymorph on shadow(4) and turns it into a Guinea pig,

Bob attacks the Guinea pig and hits,

Guinea pig casts prismatic spray on the defensive which

            Hits Natalia with Acid damage

            Hits Bob with Acid damage

            Poisons Boss but he manages to hang on through it

Shadow(2) attempts to cast a spell at Miro but fails to cast it,

Shadow(1) attacks Vaneer five times but luckily only lands two blows,

Shadow(3) attacks Otto five times but again luckily only two blows hit,

Otto casts finger of death again at Shadow(3) which resists so he follows up with a quickened stinking cloud,

Boss attacks Shadow(3) and manages to land two blows,

Natalia cast call lighting into the cloud but misses any target still within the cloud,

Bob attacks and tears into the Guinea pig,

Vaneer casts a healing burst followed by a quickened Bark skin,

Miro attacks Shadow(2) and hits it twice,

Hugo attacks Shadow(2) and hits once,

Shadow(1) attempts to move out of the stinking cloud,

Guinea pig casts a circle of death spell and almost kills Bob,

Shadow(2) casts a Ray of Exhaustion at Miro but misses,

Shadow(3) casts a Prismatic spray and affects the following

            Otto succeeds at not being sent to another plane,

            Boss is coated in Acid and resists a poisoning,

            Miro succeeds at not being sent to another place

Otto casts another finger of death at Shadow(2) which hits and kills the creature,

Boss attacks shadow(3) but misses,

Natalia uses a lightning bolt on the Guinea pig and then casts finger of death on it which kills the little spell casting fuzz ball,

Bob attacks shadow(3) but misses,

Vaneer casts holy smite and hits both Shadows (1) and (3) followed by a quickened shield of faith,

Suddenly a black skin hag, the worm man and the celestial being appear just outside the main entrance to the fortress and the hag casts Insanity at Miro who manages to resist the spells effects,

The angel casts blade barrier and injures Otto, Boss and Bob whilst kills shadow(3),

Miro necks a potion of fly and then turns himself invisibility,

Hugo quickly necks his potion of fly,

Otto casts Maze at the worm man but doesn’t seem to affect him,

Boss charges at shadow(1) and hits,

Bob also charges at shadow(1) and hits,

Natalia casts fire storm at the three new interferences and then uses a lightning bolt on shadow(1),

Vaneer casts a quickened prayer and then casts Shambler to gain some combat aides for the group,

Angel attacks Shambler(1) and hits three times fairly hard,

The blade barrier and stinking cloud spells vanish,

Worm man casts mass hold person over the group but no one is affected by the spell so he casts fireball at them instead,

The hag attacks Shambler(3) and hits,

Miro shoots at shadow(1) and hits,

Hugo shoots at shadow(1) and hits twice,

Shadow(1) fails to cast a prismatic spray,

Otto casts cone of cold on the worm man and hits,

Boss attacks Shadow(1) hits twice and finally kills it,

Natalia casts lightning on the hag which misses and then another firestorm over the three combatants,

Bob makes his way towards the hag,

Vaneer casts a healing burst,

Shambler(2) grapples the Angel,

Shambler(3) misses the Hag,

Hag cast a word of recall spell and suddenly disappears from the fight,

The grappled Angel appears to return to his home plane,

The worm man cast Disintegrate at Otto which Otto barley survives thanks to Natalia pulling him out of harm’s way at the last second,

Worm man then turns invisible and attempts to flee from the courtyard,

Miro uses the horn of blasting in attempt to hit the fleeing foe and clearly hits as a pile of worms fall to the ground and reappears,

Natalia, Otto and Vaneer then combine an assault of Flame strikes, Fireballs and Alchemists fire at the vicinity of the dead worm’s appearance which seems to work as a mass pile of worms slop to the floor killing the worm man.

Vaneer sets to healing the group,

Otto then teleports the group back the white tower so they could rest before they finish exploring the fortress tomorrow.

Dream Interludes

Dream Interludes experienced by each character of the course of multiple nights:

      **********

A land of eternal twilight; you walk along a wide stone path that is surrounded on both sides by a dark dense forest, with trees that rise up so much higher than any normal tree should.  From one side you can hear the singing of children’s rhymes, feral cries and howls are uttered from the other side.  Occasionally eyes are visible, staring out at you from the dark treeline.  Different sizes, different colours and different in number, they watch you forge on ahead.

 *********

Leaving the cries and singing that are still ringing out from the forest behind you, the path you followed winds steeply up a rock mesa and at the top of it is a large lake with a castle of jagged spires at its centre.  The castle can be reached by a long stone causeway that connects its island to the mesa’s edge.  On the other side of the lake is an engulf of stars and blackness.  A large black rook of incredible size is perched on the castle you are approaching and watches you intently.

**********

Crossing over the bridge you notice a pair of burning eyes glaring up at you from deep within the bottomless lake.  Walking under the gatehouse, you pass beneath the colossal black rook that sits atop one of the towers that flanks the entranceway.  It screeches at you, its red eyes burning into your soul as it starts to morph into a reptilian form and then suddenly lunges forward with a single beat of its black dragon wings, attempting to tear out your innards, causing you to flee into the castle courtyard.  All around hundreds of windows stare out of the castle and stone angels hang from every gable, watching your passing as the rook-dragon manoeuvres around the knife-like crenulations and spear-topped towers trying to get at you, before you finally stumble through a pair of ethereal elven servants as they open up the doors of an entry hall.

**********

A long hallways stretches ahead for many miles and as you navigate it, time seems to bend and shift, aging the walls, reducing portraits to dust and causing plants to grow and wilt.  You encounter a young troll called Hargulka with a toy crown upon its head who informs you that he is looking for the queen and suggests that you should come along too.  Behind you red worms start falling from the ceiling and crawling out of nearby tapestries, coalescing into a humanoid form that threatens to engulf you.  The troll child distracts the worm-man so that you can run ahead until you see a large door-less archway.

**********

With trepidation you approach the archway, suddenly gravity and directions switch around and you find yourself falling downwards into the archway below you which has now taken on the form of a giant set of jaws.  Falling into the stone maw you land in a sturdy chair within a chamber that reminds you of a waiting room whilst a ticket with a number is pressed into your hand.  Looking around you find yourself sitting next to a stag drinking liquor from a bottle and sporting a hat that looks like a man’s face, a rather large owlbear with half-moon glasses that is reading a fairy-tale book called ‘Zuddiger’s Picnic’, a small troll child with a toy iron crown on his head and a large skeleton draped in finery that only has one eye socket which is currently empty.

**********

A number is called out, but it is not the one printed on the ticket you hold.  The eyeless skeleton next to you asks if you can check his ticket and you find that it matches the number just called out, so you swap his ticket with yours and move towards a swirling portal that opens up on the other side of the room.  A handsome man that you know to be a younger version of King Irovetti of Pitax stumbles out of the portal in front of you, clutching a sheathed sword hidden beneath his cloak as the portal opens up and engulfs you.

**********

You find yourself in a large circular chamber filled with portals, but your gaze is immediately drawn to the small green fey girl in front of you.  Her arms are crossed in front of her and she gives you a petulant look whilst stamping her foot in both anger and impatience.  “It’s mine!” she sulks “And I can take it whenever I want”  She gives a cruel smile “I don’t need you.  I don’t need anyone.” and then with a wave of her arm you are flung across the room into an awaiting portal.

 **********

Falling through a portal you land on the steps of Wyvernshore castle.  There is a sound like rushing water, followed by a painful increase in pressure from all around you.  The world you know blurs into indistinct colours and images that swirl upwards into the sky like a reversal of water being sucked down a drain, disappearing upward into the night sky.  All that is left in the surrounding landscape is scorching sunlight bearing down on barren sand and ruined remains of the streets and roads of Wyvernshore, cracked apart and half covered in sand, aged beyond years.  You realise that the surround sands are actually tiny fragments of bone, all that remain of the kingdom’s citizens and all those that you know and loved.

10th Rova 18 - Almost Plagued to Death

Again as the group awakes, Vaneer casts Heroes feast for them to devour.  Once ready they continued along the path and after an hour it leasd into a clearing surrounded with bent trees tangled together with a dozen houses combined together into one whole odd-looking structure that had smoke rising from a number of its chimney's.  One end of the clearing was filled with sharp poisonous brambles that seemed intent on engulfing everything around, whilst the other side contained neat herb gardens with meticulously planted rows of varying mundane and exotic flora.

The group approach the building and as they get close one of the doors opens causing them to pause and wait to see what happens next.  A large purple head with tangled long black hair suddenly pokes its head (a Hag of some sort) and appears to wave at the group and then disappears back inside the building.  A little bewildered at the pleasantry shown to them the group decide to leave the Hag alone and continue along the path.

After an hour of walking, the path curves sharply and the group stumbled across a number of bloated animal carcasses which appeared to have died of some sort of sickness.  Natalia moves in to have a closer examination as one of the carcasses explodes over the group causing Otto, Bob and Miro to become infected with the Bubonic plague!

Vaneer ushers the group out of the infected area before he sets to removing the disease from the three members after which he then tends to the affects they suffered from the plague (severe stat loss).

Once all the group were healthy again they continued on the path for another hour or two where the path ends at a grassy vale littered with crumbled and damaged statues, whilst a 300ft white stone tower sits atop a perfect circular hill in the distance.

The group decide to slowly approach the tower.

To be continued …...........

9th Rova 18 - Familiar Enemies

Once the group were awake Vaneer cast a heroes feast spell to bolster group spirits for the day.

An hour later they gathered their items and marched through the gates.  As they pass underneath the archway they notice that it was made of two female statues reaching to each other.

The path of pressed stone is banked either side by deep dark woods which appeared to contain glowing eyes, blinking and staring at the group as they travel along the path for a couple of hours.

Worried that they were walking a continuous magical path Natalia decides to cast the Find the Path spell only to be told to continue following the path.

After another hour of walking a river could be seen coming out of the woods and running alongside the path, 30 minutes on the woods gives way to a large lake where the river appears to be run of two that feeds the large body of water.

Across the lake Otto swore he could see rainbows glistening with crystals of moisture, and unicorns with no eyes slinking off into the depths of the dense woodlands.  Miro and Vaneer just rolled their eyes at each other whilst saying “Sure!”.

The group decide to follow the second river and head west when they're attacked by a water elemental, lightning elemental and 3 lightning treants which are dispatched as quickly as they sprung up.

Half hour later further down the path on the fringes of the woodland the group notice various statues of creatures that appeared to be part human and part animal, to make matters weirder the bark of the trees appeared to be made of flesh as though parts of different beings have been stitched into the trees which have then managed to incorporate them in an unsettling fashion.

Two hours even later the path finally ends at a foul smelling marsh where lots of little red dots could be seen squirming around in the water.

Otto thought it would be clever to cast Chain lightning over the marsh which caused three enormous red worms, each nearly thirty feet in length, to erupt from the marshy waters and charge towards the group.

Otto throws up a prismatic wall at the charging worms causing one to be turned to stone and the other two to be spirited off to different planes of existence.

Otto then teleport's the group to the other side of the marsh where they continue to travel for a further 2 hours before setting up camp for some well needed rest.

8th Rova 18 - Realm of a Thousand Breaths

Otto teleports the group to the forest of thousand voices where the legend states that the veil between their realm and Narrisa's would be at it's thinnest.

In a short amount of time the group soon relocate the ruined castle of knives they once discovered but now to their surprise it is no longer ruined. Instead they found a strange structure of sharp towers and confusing architecture of dozens of colors that seem strangely too vibrant for the

surroundings. The entire castle is surrounded by a wrought iron fence that contains a single gate flanked by statues of beautiful women.

Vaneer and Miro start prodding around the statues to * Cough * make sure that they were not living statues or creatures of stone...or so they proclaimed.

Whilst “Investigating” the statues the pair of adventurers are suddenly lightening bolted from somewhere within the trees with Miro managing to avoid the bolt's affects.

As Vaneer picked himself up off the ground the group notice a number of the trees were starting to move and shift as they combined together to form into one enormous tree creature with spidery branch like legs.

Miro attacks the creature with Briar which had by now lost it's shiny green glow, but the sword seemed to blight the tree with some effect,

Natalia attempts to attack the creature but misses a landing blow,

Bob charges at the tree and also misses on his aim,

The creature (Sard) attempts to slam into Miro and Natalia but misses both,

The Sard then casts another quickened lightening bolt at Vaneer and hits,

Vaneer attempts to hit the creature back but deals zip all damage,

Otto casts Haste,

Boss shoots and manages to hit twice,

Hugo attacks and hits hard,

Miro attacks and hits again with Briar's blight ability,

Bob attacks and lands a blow,

Natalia manages to land a blow the second time,

Sard casts chain lightening on the group targeting Vaneer first,

A very chard Vaneer pulls back from the fight,

Otto cast finger of death at the Sard but it remained unaffected,

Boss shots and lands one blow,

Hugo attacks and hits twice,

Miro attacks and hits twice and with the blight affect destroys the tree,

Sard suddenly explodes knocking out both Vaneer and Bob,

Natalia rushes in to heal the fallen cleric whilst Otto and Miro pour potions into Bob,

Bob and Vaneer come round and Vaneer slowly sets out to healing the entire group.

The group decide to rest before entering through the gates and to what ever laid in waiting for them beyond.

1st Rova 18 - Briar vs Jabberwocky (Miro helped a little)

In the distance a huge dragon like creature (Jabberwocky) could be seen heading towards the city.

Almost instantly it seemed in response to the approaching danger the sword Briar began to glow green so brightly that stories are still told that the glow could be seen for miles upon miles which would explain why the Jabberwocky seemed to home in on Miro as it approached.

The group steady themselves to unleash their defence against the creature.

Vaneer begins with casting Destruction which appears to deal some damage,

Otto casts Disintegrate which deals some damage followed by a quickened Ray of Enfeeblement,

Boss shoots multiple times but misses completely,

Natalia casts Finger of Death at the Jabberwocky but it resists,

Hugo uses his Rod of Razors and hits the target,

Miro shoots and misses,

Jabberwocky uses both of it's laser eyes on Miro which almost Kills the halfling,

Vaneer casts a quicken Create water to douse the flames on Miro which fails to affect followed by a Heal spell on the Halfling,

The City militia and mages guild appear on the city's roof tops to attack the Jabberwocky,

Otto prepares to cast a spell should the creature launch a physical attack,

Boss shoots and hits,

Natalia begins to summon an Elemental to aid the group,

Hugo flies towards the Jabberwocky and attacks but misses,

Miro flanks with Hugo and attacks with the now Vorpal effected Briar,

Otto casts a Prismatic Wall between Miro and the Jabberwocky,

Jabberwocky lets out some sort of Burble/Scream but it has no affect on the group,

Vaneer flies up to Miro and casts a quickened Bears Endurance followed by a Cure Critical on the halfling,

Otto prepares another spell,

Boss Shoots and hits once

Natalia summons an Air Elemental which instantly attempts to push the Jabberwocky into the Prismatic wall but fails,

Miro drinks a potion of Cure then attempts to pull of a feint against the Jabberwocky,

Hugo attacks the Jabberwocky and misses,

Jabberwocky falls for the feint and flies upwards and uses it's laser vision again hitting Miro twice,

Otto casts hold monster but the creature is immune followed with a quickened Fireball to which also had no affect on the creature,

Vaneer casts a quickened Prayer and another Cure Critical on Miro,

Otto uses his rod of Dimension Door and appears behind Miro to cast Fire Resistance on him before dropping to the rooftops,

Boss shoots again and hits once,

Natalia casts Call lightining but the Jabberwocky appears resistant,

Air Elemental attacks but misses,

Hugo attacks the Jabberwocky and misses,

Miro attacks and severs the creatures head clean from its neck.

The Jabberwocky's body falls downward and is taken out by Otto's prismatic wall whilst the head was clearly heading to crash into the city's pet shop until Otto cast another prismatic wall to intercept it.

The area falls quiet for a moment then all of the city erupts into cheers and celebrations as they chant “Otto the Hero”.

Miro grumbles at the lack of praise as Vaneer tends to his wound before the group realise that the rift the Jabberwocky came through seems to have repaired itself during the combat.

The city celebrates for the rest of the day whilst the group gather themselves and prepare to take the fight to Queen Narrisa.