(G286 16/08/2016 via Roll20 - AP, JF(GM), MJ, HK) SS1

(G286 16/08/2016 via Roll20 - AP, JF(GM), MJ, HK) SS1

And so, dear reader, I will leave my own adventures there for now! It wasn't long before I was back in Waterdeep though and via various sources, mainly my brother Corum, I heard of more thickening of the Vanguard of Sertrous plot.

It was only a few days after my return to Weyloon that it all kicked off again when Cavu the Cursed  started getting together a group of people to sent back to Kingsholm (via the yuan-ti portal near  Hommlet).

You may remember he had used Oz and Fenrir in the past to gather together clues as to where the Sword Merthuvial and the Ephod of Authority were buried. He already had the clues from Jade, Freddorick, Marten and Bardel. Now he could send agents to the graveyard of Kingsholm, dig up the last three bodies (Bokk, Banjax and Wulfgar) and learn the grave that the sword and Ephod were buried in.

He had also recently sent Mathmoss and Cale Cresthill to Hommlet to locate the last remaining yuan-ti portal to Kingsholm.

Remember also, dear reader, that this quest had connections to the Blood War in Waterdeep and it would be difficult enough to take on the Vanguard of Sertrous by themselves alone as it was, but add to that the  following complications and you can see that Cavu and his agents would really have their work cut out for them.

I will now list the 'complications':

The Devils : The 'clever' ones in the Blood War. At this time Gillaird DeRosan had been dealt with but the Devils had brought in another even more powerful player; a mysterious woman that as yet remained unnamed. However, Hallistar Blatt (a seemingly innocent wizard at the Watchful Order of Magisters and Protectors) was still around doing her dirty work.

The Demons : The 'chaotic' ones. Having dealt with DeRosan and the splinter group the 'Blood Drinkers', Fenrir was, as much as possible, trying to break his links with the Glabrezu demon Bnurgstickslackskin.
The wily old demon still had other agents in the city though and was finding other ways to weedle his way into the Thunderstaff family. The Demons were 'winning' the Blood War at the moment though.

The Grey Hands : Both Oz and Fenrir had come to the attention of Malliantor of the Grey Hands (the  group of high level adventurers that guarded Waterdeep) and she now knew of Cavu. She was keeping an eye on things, but the Grey Hands had problems enough as it was without looking for more.

The Harpers : The Harpers had expressed an interest in 'Helping' against the Vanguard but for reasons of his own Cavu had refused them.

The City Watch : Corum had help Cavu in the past and was willing to help, in his capacity as a Civilar in the Dock Ward watch.

Maaril the Dragon Mage : This powerful wizard was back in the city again. He was generally seen as a friend to Waterdeep (as it was he that held the Dragonstaff which protected the city from dragons) but he had a connection to the Demons that he kept quiet.

Royus Aderbrent : As it was his son Ellis that was used to tattoo the Logos onto Anya he has had a keen interest in everything connected to Fenrir and now knew about Cavu and the Vanguard.

The Temple of Kossuth : Not allied to either the Demons or the Devils but generally mistrusted by the people of Waterdeep due to their fire loving nature they knew a lot about Cavu via their connection to Veddic Carver, one of the senior Kossuth clerics in the city.

As you can see, dear reader, these were complicated times! Poor Cavu would have to navigate through this briar web of powerful players in order to reach his goal.


DAY 260 (26 Uktar)(November)

Let us start with Veddic Carver then. He, you may remember, was a Cleric of Kossuth (the fire god) and I had known him as a crew member and later part owner of the Sea Wyvern.

He had also been up to his neck in the whole DeRosan affair. Had been present that fateful night that Anya had been turned into a Vengeance Demon and had been locked up at the Artemel Villa with Raya when Fenrir and Corum had gone to Darkness Deep.

After DeRosan was transported to his own private hell in the Abyss the Artemel Villa had no more reason for holding onto their 'guests' and Veddic and Raya were bundled into a cart and dumped in Dock Ward.

And of course, after all that, Veddic joined the party of adventurers that entered the Undermountain in search of Barndel.

They returned, having successfully completed the mission, some days later and the party members all went their separate ways.
Over the following weeks Veddic worked with Jamella and Jhassin II (of the Hiilgauntlet Villa) setting up a shrine and improving relations with Waterdeep.

Deverrick Hiilgauntlet, who had died the night of the Vengeance Demon when the Villa was attacked by the Grey Hands, was offered a resurrection but (probably wisely) decided to stay dead.

And so, his replacement, Jamella Dotrok (Parry's older sister), teleported in from Thay as his replacement.
She was an 'Inferno Dwelling Mongoose' and the new Eternal Flame in Waterdeep. She was pleasant natured but strong willed and once she found out about Cavu and the Vanguard she, basically, said to Veddic;
'You are the resident Blood War expert! Go down to the Singing Sword and see what you can find out. Stick to Cavu like glue and report back to me anything interesting.'

This he did.

That night he met Cavu, who was in the process of hiring some agents to send to Kingsholm. So far he had recruited:

Billitoppe - a rock gnome scout born and raised in the city of Waterdeep. His parents were minor merchants in the city and I am lead to understand that Billi had recently been with a band of mercenaries outside the city harrying the remains of the Orc Horde of Obould Many-arrows. They had also spotted and encouraged his new found mental abilities.

Arahel - a mysterious being from the jungles of Chult. Initially she appeared as a elf male but as was found later she was a young (very young) killoren. Despite her youth, the wander lust of the killoren had struck her and here she was in Waterdeep. She was a druid and shapeshifter.

Veddic joined them. They were also briefly joined by some other hooded figures who Cavu talked to and arranged to meet the next day. They were introduced as Corum and Fenrir and they would be escorting them part of the way to Hommlet where the yuan-ti portal was.

After this, Hallistar Blatt arrived and he and Cavu had a very cryptic conversation.
'Shame, I really liked that painting' sighed Cavu, 'And you can't be more original? I mean, again?'
'What can I say, she's stepped up production at the bottling plant,' replied Blatt almost apologetically.

Blatt then left and Cavu asked Veddic,
'Do you still have that gnomish chromotographer?'
Veddic checked the time and Cavu then asked them all,
'Soon then. How may weapons did you bring?'
Billi popped upstairs to get his bow and returned just in the nick of time.

Cavu sent the bar maids up to clean his room, then the innkeeper to the cellar to get some wine and just as the doors were closing suddenly three man-sized jars appeared in the room from nowhere.

The jars then burst open and three mummies clawed their way out. Veddic turned two of them and then lumbered off into the night, out the back door of the inn.
Meanwhile Arahel turned into a tiger and attacked the other one while Billi fired off arrows that were rendered much more lethal by his mental abilities.

Three more jars appeared and three more mummys burst from them. Veddic used his Turn Undead powers again and the mummys headed for the street and the fighting went outside. Arahel turned into a Hill Giant and followed.
Veddic battles one of the mummys at the bar and the back swing of his spiked chain ruined the painting that Cavu was fond of (a group of dogs playing cards).

Cavu followed the mummys that had gone through the back door and shouted on his body guards (who were in the stables) to help him finish them off.

Meanwhile out in the street Veddic, Billi and Arahel fought the other three. One by one the mummies were killed off but it was a tough struggle and Billi had to use some fancy foot work to stay out of trouble. Arahel, sadly, although powerful, was not so used to the tactics of combat and allowed herself to be trapped and beaten to death by one of the mummys just as it too was finished off by the others. As she died she turned into her true form, a short green skinned girl.

If only I had been their to advice her I would have told her 'Turn into an eagle! Take to the air where they cannot harm you and summon crocodiles! Lots of crocodiles!'

Well, it was a shame, but it was to be far from the last we would hear about this strange and innocent creature.

(G285 09/08/2016 via Roll20 - AP(GM), JF, Mira)

(G285 09/08/2016 via Roll20 - AP(GM), JF, Mira)

DAY 250  (16 Uktar)(November) cont...

For a while I was rather stunned and did not take in that we had just slain such a powerful dragon and that we had done everything that we had set out to do.

As we got our breath back the people in the cages called to us weakly and gathering my senses once more we then set to releasing them.

There were twenty in all, all very weak but alive. We ushered them out of the chamber as  quickly as we could. Someone had noticed that the sphere of darkness in the middle of the room had started pulsing and it was defiantly time to leave.

Still, I wasn't going to pass over such a taxidermist's dream and together with Sylvia, Shump and Drashnag I dragged Despayr's corpse out after the released prisoners.

The sphere sort of imploded behind us with a strange series of noises and disappeared. The interference the dragon had been carrying out on the shadow weave stopped in that moment as well.
While not being an expert on these things I did go back and take a look at the chamber and I had
a feeling that the weave was now repairing itself.

We made our way back to the 'dragon proof cave' and got food and water organised for everyone and a nice lie down in a magic bedroll for the worst cases.

I spent the rest of the day, easily twelve hours, skinning and preparing Despayr's remains. I will not go into technical detail in my personal log (see my Taxidermist's log!) but there is a technique that can be used to preserve the hide using the creature's brain oils that I put to good effect now. I managed to get the skin all off perfectly and bundled up all the bones into bags for
transportation.

Interesting organs and other dragon bits I wished to study further at home I put into specimen jars.


DAY 251  (17 Uktar)(November)

After a good nights rest all of us were fully healed and ready to return to the Material Plane. Everyone wanted to leave as soon as they could. Everyone but me, that is!

I knew I was annoying them all, but I really wanted to get some books out of the library. I went and read the spines of all of them and made a note of all the ones I wanted to take.

With some of the others reluctantly waiting at the west entrance incase it all went wrong I then  cast Stone shape around all the skulls, bunged the twenty odd books I wanted into a sack and then cheesed it out of the library!

The plan went well and we left the black rift without further molestation. At the monastery we took stock of the food and water situation. We had a few rations left and enough mushrooms for a few days. Plus everything that myself, Basil and Sylvia could summon we would have enough to keep all thirty-one of us going, if not fully satisfied.

At the riverside we made a raft big enough to hold everyone from the boat we already had and all the furniture from the monastery. It was an ugly thing, but secure enough and with poles and oars we set off after lunch.

We travelled by water all night, while half of us rested, the other half pulled oars and kept watch.

DAY 252

Today was an uneventful day of travel. I spent part of my shift flying around above the river in eagle form but the Plane of Shadow was quiet. It was no pleasanter to look at then it had been though, this realm has little to recommend it.

When it was my rest time I sat and chatted to the wife, Sylvia and Shump for a while. We all wanted  to get home as soon as we could now. The released prisoners from Weyloon were subdued and did not say much. Irritator sang a kobold rowing song that grated on everyone's nerves.

DAY 253

Another day of travel. In the afternoon we arrived at the Shadow Citadel and tentatively entered the shadow gate thing back to the Material Realm.

I was happy to see the Sharptooth Clan were fully settled in to 'Wisphaven' now.

They threw us a big celebration to show their gratitude for saving the Vast Swamp.

DAY 254

With rather fuzzy heads we set off for Weyloon. Even Basil and Irritator came with us. Everyone that went to the Plane of Shadow is quite rightly due a fairly large sum of gold from the sale of the treasure we collected there.

DAY 255

Another day of travel through the Swamp. For a druid it is a very pleasant nature ramble. Some of the others do nothing but complain about the heat, the damp and the mosquitos.

We were attacked by two nagas, but they didn't last long against such veterans as ourselves!

DAY 256

We arrived at Weyloon.

Lord Readbeard and the other big wigs greeted us and he took us back to his manor. Even Turnister Dranik turned up, the cleric that had contacted father and set this whole escapade in motion.


And thus - dear reader! - we come to the end of the interesting bits of my trip to Cormyr. After we had gone, after about a week, I am lead to believe a company of war wizards arrived to finish mopping up the followers of Shar and Cyric.

Once I was back home and had reported all to my father I thought about perhaps going back and setting up a colony at Wisphaven. Myself and Lavinia already had experience of this sort of thing, but it would take a bit of planning.

Word trickled back to us, via magical means, that the Sharptooth's had started trading with the people of Cormyr and it looked like the Swamp may become a little less of a wilderness, which is a shame I think, as a druid. Good for the lizardfolk though I suppose.

Also, it was good to hear that we had become favoured with the War Wizards of Cormyr and the Clerics of Mystra! All jolly good of course, but I have no intention of going back to the Plane of Shadow any time soon!

(G284 02/08/2016 via Roll20 - JF(GM), AP) 55

(G284 02/08/2016 via Roll20 - JF(GM), AP) 55

DAY 131 (fri) cont ...

And so they finally came to the room that they had been told contained at least one Katric Arc. The chamber was large, with six pillars and at the back were four large jars. Also, to Kirk's surprise there as Yuyu, the vulcan woman that had taken them part of the way to this underground area.

She explained to them that each of them would be tested if they sought to take an Arc from the chamber and all that they needed to do, was for one of them to touch one of the jars.

Kirk went up and touched one and suddenly he found himself in a little village in some mountains. He had the feeling that he had just been teleported there. He also saw that he was now wearing simple trousers, work boots and a thick shirt. He wondered if he was in some kind of hologram reality.

It seemed to be a small vulcan village with a wall all the way around it. There were only three people in evidence, going about their business, chopping wood and hanging out washing. One of the vulcans seemed to be a priest of some kind and Kirk went over to chat to him.
'Hello Paul,' said the priest.
Kirk greeted the fellow and they talked for a bit. The priest then said,
'Could you perhaps go and check on Julia? You know her well and no one has heard from her all day.'
Kirk said that he would, then went and talked to the man chopping wood.

This fellow was happy to talk and they discussed the fact that the mine had been closed for a while now since the murder of Gahral, Julia's husband. The wood chopper was of the opinion that the mine was now haunted.

Kirk took this all in, then went to Julia's house. There was no answer when he knocked so he opened the door and went inside. It was just one large room divided up into a sleeping, eating and living area. The bed was unmade and their were dirty dishes on the table.

He looked at the window facing the mountains. He noticed that the frame had been picked at, as if by agitated fingers.

Kirk returned to the priest and reported her absence.
'Most disturbing,' said the priest. 'I wonder if she could have gone up to the mines. Could you take a look? Since her son died she has been very ... emotional. Perhaps she has gone there.'
When Kirk said he would go, the priest thanked him and handed him a lantern.

It was no more than an hours walk from the village to the mine. There was a vulcan man stood outside the mine who ask were he was going. When Kirk replied that he was going into the mine the man said,
'Then take this knife. The mine is a dangerous place these days.'

Kirk headed into the mine, his lantern in one hand and the knife in the other. After ten minutes or so of exploring deeper into the mines he came across a miner, holding a lantern and a dagger, whose clothes were covered in blood. The man seemed highly agitated.
'What have you done?' asked Kirk.
'I haven't done anything!' said the man as he tried to get past.
'You seem bloody...'
'Julia spat at me!'

Kirk let the man pass, but then had second thoughts and chased after him. He tried to get the man to drop the knife but he fought back. In the struggle that followed the man was stabbed and killed although Kirk had done all he could not to draw blood.

Kirk then went down the tunnel that the man had come from and discovered Julia slumped in the corner of a small cave.

He went over to check her out and found she was still alive and conscious.
'I came here to die!' she exclaimed. 'I wanted to kill myself here to be close to my husband, but the man that was just here took the knife I tried to stab myself with. I can't stand the misery any more! Please finish me off!'
Kirk thought for a second, but decided he could not.
'Coward!' she cried, then coughed up a mouthful of blood that she spat at him.

Kirk checked her over. She had a big knife wound in her chest and he realised he would not be able to move her without killing her. He rushed back off the way he had gone to get some help.

One the way he met a man coming the other direction who stopped him and said,
'I heard moans! What have you done?'
'She's gravely injured, she stabbed herself, we need help,' Kirk replied.
'Why do you have a knife?'
'Ah ... a guy at the entrance, it was offered to me.'
'Why do you have blood on your overalls?'
'Julia stabbed herself, she spat blood over me ...'

The man nodded and let Kirk pass.

And with that it all faded out and Kirk found himself back in the Arc Chamber.

Kirk and his crew discussed the test. It seemed that each of them had done the same thing, but that when Kirk had come back out of the mine the 'man' he had met had been Paterson.
Paterson had let Kirk go, but had then been slain by Ceres who had then in turn been slain by Murphy.

As the test was a test of mercy, Paterson was give permission to take the Arc and given a spiritual gift of the preservers as her reward. As Kirk and Celes had shown mercy on Julia they got a partial reward. As Murphy had shown the least mercy and had killed both Julia and the 'man' (Celes) he received nothing.

They took the Arc, returned to the surface and wasted no time in leaving Huroc.  Paterson got them safely into orbit and took them out of the system.


DAY 133 (Sat)

The Caco spent the day going as fast as the could (Warp 7) towards the rendezvous point with Voyager. They were followed at a polite distance by the Gallactico.

DAY 134 (Sun)

The Caco spent another day at Warp 7, heading towards Voyager.

Gallactico requested an interview and since no one else wanted to do it, Kirk himself did it. He played it as straight as he could and tried not to look a fool even though the interviewer, Set Artlee, was sarcastic in nature.

Later Kirk received a private message from the producer, Avril Yelmo, asking if he could help arrange access to the Arc. Ideally Yelmo wanted to film the entire process of Mieon being taken from Kevek and put in the Arc.
Kirk said he would see what he could do.

Also Dell reported that had been working on Adam and that the AI seemed to be in some sort of deep long term diagnostic process. The Avatar had totally shut down and was about as alive as a block of stone. The AI core had a new personality, a secondary process that called itself Gueeq and seemed to be pretty angry about everything. Dell thought the best thing to do was leave the AI to it.

DAY 135 (Mon)

The Caco spent another day at Warp 7, heading towards Voyager.

Captain Janeway asked for a report from Kirk and he returned it later that day.
He also mentioned that the Gallactico had helped him on the mission a lot.


DAY 136 (Tues)

The Caco arrived at the Drydax, where Voyager was present.

The crew of the Caco reported to med bay and were checked over by the Doctor. They were riddled with viruses picked up in Huroc but he tutted and fussed and sorted them all out.

As part of a deal cut with the Gallactico, Lumnar (the big blue Gornand), Marion and Guyus were shipped back to where they belonged. Webble decided to stay and was sent to Neelix to train as a cook.

At Kirk's debriefing Janeway admitted that Kirk completed the mission ... eventually.
She also chastised him for the episode involving the death of several Huroc vulcans when the Caco fired on the castle tower during the rescue of James Adam.

'Just as you made an error in judgement ordering Dell to fire on the tower I suppose
I made an error in judgement in sending you on a mission that you were not fully suitable for. It was already obvious to me that you are not a diplomatic man and I was foolish to send you on a mission without anyone with those skills onboard. Lessons learned for everyone then. We'll leave it at that for now.'

Kirk felt he had got off lightly.

Later that day he talked over with Tal Celes their relationship and what to do about it.
Their relationship was against regulations if they were in a chain of command, which they were. Officially they should report it to the captain and have one of them reassigned.

Kirk didn't want to do that, as Celes was the most capable of his crew! He decided to leave it for now. Celes agreed but warned that Murphy could well inform on them.


DAY 137 (wed)

Today Tuvok performed the complex ritualistic process of taking the spirit of Mieon from Kevek's mind and putting it into the Katric Arc.

Janeway had relented and let the Banean's televise it, despite Tuvok's objections.
The Gallactico had been so helpful that she had found that she could not refuse them.

Kirk was present, but after about an hour he grew bored. Once Tuvok had put on his ceremonial robes and walked up and down a bit chanting it was all just the two vulcans sat on either side of a jar staring at each other for hours.

The Banean's lapped it up though, the reporters speculating on every twitch of Tuvok's eyebrow.

Eventually it was done and Kirk retired to his room. Not long after that Avril Yelmo came to visit him with a briefcase stuffed full of half a million credits in the form of Vidiian Crowns. Kirk thanked him very much and bunged it under his bed before someone saw it.

All in all, reflected Kirk, it had all worked out in the end. Mieon was decanted into a jar, Kevek was on the road to recovery and he, Kirk, was a good deal richer. He  pondered what he would spend the money one, more weapons for the Caco, or Power Armour?
Or perhaps a nice holiday for him and Celes!

(G283 26/07/2016 via Roll20 - Mira(GM), JF, AP)(MV1)

(G283 26/07/2016 via Roll20 - Mira(GM), JF, AP)(MV1)

[Here I will recount another of the camp fire stories that got told while we all sat around in the 'dragon proof' cave.]

This tale is of four brave adventures. They were a young cleric called Vansee Muffiecats, a halfling rogue named Fanny Bagg, a dragonborn paladin with a name unpronounceable to a human tongue who went by 'Brian' and a wizard called Steven or sometimes 'Inkstains'.

Now, there adventure begins in a place called Merriam Vale. There was a town in the vale, I gather, called Parabor that nestled in a range of mountains beside a lake. In a mansion beside the town lived a venerable elven lady called Elaria Feywing. As well as being a powerful wizard she also took in young people and trained them in ways that unlocked their potential.

Over the years she had taken in many people, but at this time it was just the four mentioned above. Sometimes her methods would appear a little crude, but apparently this was all part of a much larger plan, probably known only to such ancient and wise wizards such as Elaria. She was, after all, eight hundred years old.

So, at breakfast, seemingly apropos of nothing, she requested her four pupils to pop down into the food cellars and deal with a rat problem. This was obviously a test, so they finished their meal and went on down.
She had also apparently 'misplaced' the key to the cellar so Fanny, who was handy at this sort of thing, picked the lock. However the door was trapped and Fanny was poisoned.
(One wonders at what sort of batty old woman traps the larder door when investing in some rat traps would have been more sensible!)

The larder was huge and full of food. The rats were living like kings down here and had truly grown to be of unusual size. There was rat dung everywhere and a barricade erected to hold them off a little by the door.

Fanny, the cynical one of the group muttered, 'What sort of person lets their food stores be ruined to teach us how to fight rats?'
The others didn't listen though, they thought Elaria was wonderful in every way and if they didn't understand her methods then that was simply because they were not yet clever enough.

And so began their first real test and first real fight as a group. Steven started with a bow and killed one with a well placed arrow. Fanny and Vansee were set upon by the critters and knocked to their feet as rats nibbled at them. Brian and Steven defended the women, killing off the rats as they breached the barricade.

Once the last rat was dead, Elaria appeared at the door and congratulated them. The others were happy to have succeeded but Fanny went to her room grumbling and muttering to wash the blood and rat poop off herself.

Later that day Elaria died!

Three days later she was buried, the only people attending the funeral being her four students. A gnome maiden approached them later and asked them to come to her office in town. She was the executor of Elaria's will.

The will left her estate to all four of them as long as they carried out some tasks for her which were given in the form of a riddle written in prose.

They did not find the riddle too demanding and realised that they must collect some items from around the vale in order to open Elaria's treasure chamber.

And so they set off for the first location, the cliffs in the mountains on the edge of the Vale to the west. Here they hoped to find an old friend of Elaria's called Alkieus Skevala.

He lived, against all reason, on a ledge halfway up the cliff in a yurt. On the way up they were beset by flying snakes and once more it was Vansee and Fanny that were the first to be mauled into unconsciousness by the critters.

Luckily though Steven got off a well placed Sleep spell and most of the snakes then plunged to their deaths. He got the last one with a Ray of Frost and saved the day.

Once they arrived at the yurt of Skevala, out on his windy ledge they delivered the sad news of his friends death and exchanged stories of her.

They rested and collected the items they needed and returned to the mansion.