12th Arodus 18 - That's one horny hunk

The group are on an intercept path to ambush their current bloom quarries.

As they travel Otto decides to shield the group with an invisibility sphere before casting mirror image upon himself.

The group soon stumbles into the path of 12 Ettin's, a skinny female elf like creature with small Ram like horns protruding from her head along with a Satyr like creature with muscles that would make any strong man feel like a scrawny imp which is only then topped by his massive horns extending from his temple.

The horned hulk looks in the direction of the “invisible” group and demands that they hand over the sword 'Briar'.

Obviously the group (aka Miro) told the horned hulk where to shove his request.

The horned hulk then drew his bow and let loose a Seeking, Halfling Bane arrow straight at Miro which hit and sent the halfling flying and yelping in extreme pain as he started to crawl to Vaneer asking for aid,

Otto casts a quickened haste on the group followed by a prismatic wall that separated the group from five of the Ettin's and the Horny hulk to which Miro breathed a sigh of relief,

Boss shoots at the female fey creature with a cold iron arrow which hit it's target followed by a holy arrow which also hit but did not seem to trigger the arrows properties,

Miro chugs down a potion of cure to start his healing process,

Hugo points his Rod of Razors towards the group of 7 Ettin's which shoots a wave of blades with only a couple managing to hit one of the targets,

The female fey manifests a green crystal scimitar in one of her hands whilst in the other an orb of green light which then shoots a ray of light at Boss, the ray strikes and causes the fighter to go blind,

The 7 Ettin's move to attack each of the group members with the exception of Bob.

• Vs Natalia – Misses
• Vs Bokken – Hits
• Vs Vaneer – Misses
• Vs Miro – Hits
• Vs Hugo – Hits
• Vs Otto – Misses
• Vs Boss – Hits

The other 5 Ettins attempt to run through the prismatic wall;

• 1 is Hit by the Red wall – Setting the Ettin on fire
• 1 is Hit by 2 walls (Blue/Indigo) – Ettin is turned into Stone
• 1 is Hit by the Violet wall – Ettin is sent to another plane of existence
• 1 is Hit by the Indigo wall – Ettin is electrocuted
• 1 is Hit by the Orange wall – Ettin is covered in Acid

Vaneer casts a quickened Remove Blindness on Boss followed by a Cure Moderate spell on Miro,

Bokken throws three of his bombs at the Ettin attacking him,

Natalia casts Reverse gravity on the Ettin's and the female Elf, causing all of the targets to float in mid air,

The Horned hulk teleports himself 80ft behind the group,

Otto casts another prismatic wall which again blocks the group from the sights and attacks of the Horned Hulk followed by a quickened fireball at four Ettin's, killing one.

Boss shoots at the female elf and hits twice,

Miro shoots at an Ettin in the anti gravity field and hits one,

Hugo shoots his Rod of Razors into the anti gravity field which hits an Ettin three times, killing it,

The female elf shoots her green ray at Otto which hits and turns him blind,

The remaining Ettin's attempt to throw their javelins at the group but they all miss,

Vaneer uses a cure serious spell on Miro followed by a quickened Remove Blindness on Otto,

Bokken throws an explosive bomb at an Ettin which hits and then throws another explosive bomb at the female elf which misses,

Natalia unleashes another spell at the female elf but she manages to dodge most of the effects in mid air,

The Horned Hulk decides to teleport away from the group and the fight,

Otto casts chain lightening at the floaters followed by a quickened Fireball which combined deals so serious wounds,

Boss shoots at the female elf and kills her with a direct hit,

Natalia dismisses her anti gravity spell and allows the remaining 4 Ettins to fall into the prismatic wall below,

• Two are turned into Stone
• One is turned into Stone and shatters as it hits the floor
• One is Poisoned and dies from the affects

Vaneer uses his Discern location spell on the used Halfling Bane arrow to find out where the Horned Hulk teleported to. The spell finds him in a place called “Thousand Breaths” which was on another plane which the group wouldn't be able to travel to.

Otto teleports the group home back to Wyvernshore.

12th Arodus 18 - Ssshh!! We’re hunting Wabbit!

Vaneer again casts Commune and ascertains that the creatures that they would be facing would be Fey or Fey like creatures, in the numbers of between 10 and 20.

The group spread out in a dispersed line method to start exploring the area whilst Natalia and Otto take to the skies to do some scouting from above in attempts to finding any strange occurrences.

Natalia manages to spot some slight movement below in the dense forest but fails to notice what is causing the movement but she figures out that no matter its identity it was heading in an easterly direction.

Once updated the group instantly begin to move swiftly to intercept the unknown opponent(s) whilst under one of Otto’s invisibility spheres.

What will they encounter? Only fate knows………..(and the GM)

11th Arodus 18 - Wait! We're making a plan?

Vaneer decided to use his Commune spell to see if the group could get the drop on the next “incident”

Through the spell they discover that the next “bloom” is due to happen tomorrow, which would be west of the Wyverns Lair near Pitax.

Otto teleports the group to an area near the “intended” bloom where the group settle down for a nights rest before tracking down the event in the morning.

10th Arodus 18 - Bitten to Heck

Reports are returned that there are creatures to the forest in the North West that are “Nipping” at everyone and everything whilst Moss and Fungi seems to be growing rampart in the area.

Otto shortly teleports the group to the area near the statue to Erastil and the group prepares for any trouble where they meet up with Auch’s who sent the report to the capital.

As they arrive the instantly notice an odd noise almost that of a shrill in the air towards the west.

Wasting no time they move into the forest and not too long afterwards with the exception of the flying Otto the group begin to feel something is nibbling at their feet as they soon realise that they’ve wandered into multiple swarms of Mandragar totalling into the Thousands of Thousands.

Otto casts a quicken haste over the group and uses a sealed Force cube spell to contain half of the insect swarm,

Boss uses his special splinter arrows on the other swarm and manages to hit a number of critters,

Vaneer casts Flamestrike on the swarm,

Hugo throws a flask of alchemist’s fire at the swarm,

Miro also drops a flask of alchemist’s fire on the swarm,

The Caged critters emit an ear wrenching shriek which proves of no effect to the group,

Vaneer, Natalia, Hugo and Boss are swamped by the swarm and feel nauseous as the critters attempt to drain some of their blood,

Auchs picks up a large boulder and throws it at the swarm,

Natalia casts Fire storm,

Otto casts two fireballs,

Vaneer panics in the confusion and attacks Boss but misses his comrade,

Miro drinks a potion of fly and ascends into the air above the swarms,

Vaneer, Boss and Hugo are still swamped by the swarm and continue the blood loss,

Auch’s throws another boulder,

Natalia casts flamestrike,

Otto carefully descends so he is just above the swarms where he uses dimension door to transport Hugo and Boss away from the swarm,

Otto casts a quickened fireball at the swarm,

Vaneer vomits as he manages to crawl out of the swarms affect,

Hugo drinks a potion of cure serious wounds,

Miro throws down two flasks of alchemist’s fire,

The swarm moves to re-engulf Vaneer causing him to become nauseated again,

Auch’s running out of ideas decides to throw another large boulder into the swarm,

Natalia casts another flamestrike and kills off the remaining swarm,

Vaneer in the confusion attempts to attack Miro but fails to land a successful blow.

Whilst Otto and Natalia dispose of the caged swarms by use of multiple acid fog and flame spheres, Vaneer again sets about healing up the wounds sustained from the conflict.

As the last swarm stops twitching all of the carcasses suddenly explode into the air to form in to a single 35ft Mandagara which screeches at the group before moving to attack them.

Natalia casts command plants,

Bob rushes into attack the creature and hits,

Vaneer annoyed at the previous bout steps forward and casts harm on the creature which deals a chunk of damage,

The creature assaults Vaneer three times but misses the cleric each time,

Otto casts a finger of death but the spell misses,

Boss shoots and hits the creature four times dealing it enough injuries to kill it.

As the Mandagara thrashes about in its death thoes it suddenly emits a massive screech and then there is a sudden flash of green light as it explodes returning the area and atmosphere to normal.

The group head back to Wyvershore after saying farewell to Auch’s.

5th Arodus 18 - Splish, Splash, Splosh, Elemental's Galore!

Even before lunch reports has already started to come in of “weird” events and going-on’s in the south just beyond the kingdom’s largest lake (TuskWater).

The group instantly gather their equipment and head out to meet their local contact of the area, a blue Nixie by the name of Melianse whom Otto had been avoiding since their rather intimate encounter any moons previously.

With the rather awkward greetings exchanged Melianse brings the group up to speed of the recent events and directs them towards the commotion. They soon find themselves within the lakes edge where a single deaden tree was the only blip in the otherwise smooth landscape.

The area was darken as night even though the surrounding areas clearly showed that it was still at least mid-afternoon and the sound of some sort of roaring was permeating the air from an unknown source, on the water a collection of black swans could be seen struggling to swim in the water.

Natalia took to the air to aid the creatures to only discover that the low roaring was coming from a churning whirlpool about half a mile wide in the lake of which the swans had found themselves caught in.

What disturbed the druid more was that just under the surface of the whirlpool she could make out several black shapes swimming around under the water surface with ease.

Melianse attempts to aid the party by casting Prying eyes at the whirlpool as numerous orbs of light fly out over the water and hover,

Otto casts Overland flight upon himself in readiness of any unpleasant surprises,

The Orbs return and divulge to the Nixie that a number of large elementals are hiding beneath the water’s surface,

Otto instantly casts a chain lightening spell into the lake which forces four large water elementals of black/brackish water to emerge from the whirlpool as Otto follows up with a quickened Mirror Image at the sight of the groups opponents,

Vaneer attempts to use his wand of Dismissal but the spell fails to take effect,

Hugo wades into the water and attacks the nearest elemental managing to land a single blow that clearly dealt little damage to his opponent,

Miro follows Hugo’s lead and also manages to hit for a small pinch of damage,

The elementals turn their attentions to the group;

• Vaneer is hit critically sending the Cleric flying backwards
• Miro is effortlessly pummelled twice
• Hugo is slammed in chest the twice
• Boss is also slammed in the chest twice

Natalia summons her an Air Elemental

Meanwhile unbeknownst to the group storm clouds above them had formed into a being (Lightning Elemental) which sends bolts of electricity racing towards Otto only to hit one of his images.

Melianse casts a freezing sphere at the lake water which notably damages 3 of the water elementals,

Otto casts quickened haste over the group before using a cone of cold to further injure two of the already injured elementals,

Boss shoots at one of the elemental 5 times with 4 arrows striking true though again having little to no effect,

Natalia’s Air elemental attacks the lightening elemental,

Vaneer attempts to cast Dismissal on the lightening elemental but fails to banish the creature,

Miro continues his stabbing onslaught against his water elemental but again feels inadequate as each blow landed just seems to be absorbed into the elemental,

Hugo attacks with multiple success’ against the same elemental but again does little damage overall,

The Elementals resume their attacks;

• Miro is slammed again with the Halfling looking worried about his state of health
• Hugo by some miracle manages to avoid any blows landing against him
• Vaneer is again hit bring the Cleric to one knee
• Boss is slammed against again causing him to swagger

The lightning elemental sends his lightning bolt downward but strikes the deaden tree causing to it suddenly roar into life as it animates,

The Tree (Lightning Treant) casts chain lightning on all of the group only to miss striking Otto, Natalia, Boss and Bob.

Melianse casts another freezing sphere over the lake which destroys two of the four water elementals,

Otto casts a quickened Fireball on the Lightning Treant which deals it no visible damage, the King then fingers the lightning elemental with a finger of death causing the creature to instantly explode with shock!

Boss continues to shoot at one of the remaining water elementals but deals little damage,

The water elemental retaliates at Boss and lands a blow,

Natalia’s Air elemental attacks one of the water elementals,

Natalia summons an Earth Elemental which attacks the lightning treant,

A bloodied Vaneer casts a well anticipated healing burst to help start rejuvenating the group,

Hugo attacks his water elemental and with multiple hits manages to deal enough damage to take the creature down,

Miro attempts to hit the remaining water elemental but he barely lands a poke,

The water elemental attacks Boss and lands two hits almost dropping the fighter,

The lightning Treant attacks the earth elemental and hits it twice,

Melianse casts Disintegrate on the Lightning Treant which hits hard but the creature survives,

Otto also casts Disintegrate at the Lightning Treant which fails to effect followed by a quickened Fireball on the water elemental which seems to finish it off,

Boss shoots at the Lightning Treant, hits and returns it to an deanimated state.

As soon as the Treant returns to a deaden tree the water in the lake suddenly explodes into the air and then the area and air begin to settle into a sense of calm and peace.

Vaneer spends the next hour tending to all the wounds of the group before they begin their return to Wyvernshore where Otto instantly orders searches to be performed all over the kingdom for any further “weird” happenings.

4th Arodus 18 - The Fate of the kingdom lies in Miros hands! Help us all!!

As he is a part of Nyrissa, born from her empathy, Emissary is compelled to follow her instructions and cannot refuse her bidding and so must act against the kindom of Dragonmere and its rulers.  Her latest demands are that Emissary confronts the PCs and retrieves Briar, preferably out of their cold dead hands.  Luckily, like a lot of fey-based bargains, demands and orders, there are loopholes and it is via these that Emissary has decided to choose his time and location to confront the group, knowing that it will be his demise rather than theirs, but he has grown fond of the material plane and its inhabitants.  Though he is unable to divulge further particulars about Nyrissa and the upcoming blooms, the fey nobleman again reaffirms that their best chance in stopping her lies in the weapon she so sorely seeks and they must not give it up for any reason.  Miro agrees to hang on to the artefact, willing to bare such a heavy burden such as wielding a powerful blade - tis a truly heroic sacrifice he will gladly make...

The rulers offer Emissary sanctuary and try and find alternatives to the fey's fate, but in the end he and they must cross swords, death is the only way out for him as any fey that perishes when not in the First World proper can never be brought back - Emissary suggests that the guards and other assembled mortals should keep to the chamber's perimeter to avoid becoming collateral.  Vaneer nods in understanding and thanks Emissary for his honesty before ordering all the guards in the hall not to attack Emissary no mater what happens as they prepare for the fight.  The rulers cast several buff and protective spells before they begin the fight

Vaneer starts off first and swings his morningstar at Emissary but misses, as the fey displays the characteristic levels of dexterity and nimbleness that his kind are known for.

Miro attacks and hits,

Hugo attacks and hits,

Emissary attacks Miro with a slender sword and scores a hit, the fey then vanishes and reappears behind Miro, slashing at the Halfling again but fails to penetrate his defences.  Four more Emissaries appear next to the original, each armed with a foil-like sword.  Curiously, yhe original does not disguise himself amongst his copies.

One attacks Vaneer but misses,

One attacks Hugo and hits twice,

One attacks Miro and hits him 3 times causing the halfling to become blinded,

One attacks Natalia and hits once,

Otto casts greater dispel magic to weaken Emissary's talents and then a quicken magic missile,

Boss shoots multiple times but only hits once,

Bob bears his teeth and attacks one of the Emissarys but misses,

Natalia changes into the form of an earth elemental and strikes a copy of the fey,

Vaneer drops his morningstar and grabs hold of the staff of healing and uses it to smack Miro over the head to remove his blindness,

Miro attacks what he thinks is the real emissary and hits all three times with the sword Briar which seem to guide his blows and greatly weakens the fey in very quick succession

Hugo attacks the emissary and hits,

The original Emissary attacks Miro and hits twice,

Another one attacks Miro again and hits twice,

One attacks Hugo and hits,

One attacks Natalia and hits,

One attacks Otto and hits twice,

Knowing what is about to come, Emissary gives a final word of advice.  Should Nyrissa's ritual fail on the 29th day she will unleash her fey army onto the mortal plane to march against the cities and will send her greatest champion to directly attack the rulers, wherever they are.  A month later the queen will be able to retry her ritual.
 

Otto casts finger of death which strikes the real Emissary and brings his life to an end.

Cheers erupt around the hall as Vaneer sets to healing the group.  The group then orders the council to send out messages throughout the kingdom to look out for and report any blooms to Wyvernshore ASAP along with any other signs of oddness.  They also make plans for burying the fallen fey man.

**********

As the crystal clear waters fade to blackness, Nyrissa gasps in anger having seen her one-time ally fall so easily to the mortals - though she could not hear what was said through the scrying, that Emissary had folded without dispatching at least one of her enemies was worrisome indeed.  Grabbing hold of a nearby fey maiden the mad fey queen spent the next hour slowly plucking out the eyes of her beautiful nymph victim, allowing the cries of agony to wash over her like beautiful music and slowly soothe away her anxieties.

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.