(G541 11/11/2023 via Roll20 - JF(GM), KT, AP) YI12

 (G541 11/11/2023 via Roll20 - JF(GM), KT, AP) YI12

[Yag Island was now where many people were starting to congregate. New faces such as Sparkledingle, Griffolk and Fangornio, my friends and family, Lavinia, Sylvia, Jiggles and Irritator, and new arrivals of old faces like Fenrir, Reinward and Giselle. Recently, Fenrir, Corhim and Fang had retrieved the Violet Gem in Harmony for Mr Honeycutt.]

DAY 597 (21st Marpenoth) (October) cont ...

On their return to Yag Island (teleported back via the magic of Corhim's handy ring) Corhim went to study and Fenrir took Giselle to the pub. They weren't bothering with disguises in such an out of the way place.

DAY 598 (22nd Marpenoth) (October)

Today Corhim continued to study today.

Fenrir and Giselle relaxed on the beach up the coast from the Barrow. There are nice coves down there and hidden little caves. Nothing dangerous lives there that I know of anyway. It's not easy to get to on foot due to the steepness of the hills on the island, but easy for someone who can fly.

DAY 599 (23rd Marpenoth) (October)

Corhim studied, while Fenrir and Giselle enjoyed the sun and sea of the island. I should note that Fang was spending a lot of time these days in the village of Tumunzah, drinking in the tavern mostly. Griff was happy to help guard the Barrow and be involved with helping Lavinia organise the colony supplies.

Sylvia liked to go out into the jungle to commune with nature, while Irritator mainly sat and drank tea and played cards with Felia and the group of other lazy short-arses that hung around there. This included Jiggles some of the time, but her job was to snoop around in the village to get advanced warnings of any threats coming from outside the island. Molly either played cards, helped Lavinia or hung around with some of the kids from the village.

You never knew with Reinward, but he sometimes joined in the card games or went to his room and hatched plots involving gold moving from other peoples pockets into his.

Veddic was keeping to himself. I think something political was going on about his position in the Church of Kossuth.

Of the last of the Dementor, Cookie Cook was now living with Felia and helping with the shop and Captain Pickles was living full time at the tavern. Supposedly waiting for a berth off the island but in reality spending his day drinking and telling his stories to anyone that would listen.

Jonathan the Seagull was meant to be watching over the island from above, but who knows how much of that he actually did while I was not around?

DAY 600 (24th Marpenoth) (October)

Lesa Ujum turned 21 today and inherited her fortune.

This was not enough to lure Reinward back to Westgate though.

DAY 601 (25th Marpenoth) (October)

The keep I had commissioned to be built by the Dwarf Mason company was now complete.

The main building had been for a while, but they had now finished the outer wall and were ready to sail off back home. They were happy to wait for a lift though and take some time off to enjoy some of the local beer.

Fenrir and Giselle took one of the big bedrooms, which made Reinward grumble, but he still had a room to himself. Corhim took the room in the cap tower at the top of the stairs.

Lavinia moved all our stuff into the master bedroom.

DAY 602 (26th Marpenoth) (October)

Corhim went to Harmony to buy more magical ink. He said hello to all the nerts at his house, but there was no sign of Mr Honeycutt.

DAY 603 (26th Marpenoth) (October)

Seven dwarves arrived today by ship. They came straight to the Barrow. This had all been arranged between Lavinia and the masons.

These sevens wanted to found a Dwarf Fortress nearby and see what minerals were to be had on the island. Part of the agreement was that from the rock that they mined they would build stone houses for the settlers that Lavinia was planning to bring in later. Apparently the dwarves did this sort of thing for fun anyway so it would be no hardship at all for them.

Corhim took his nose out of his books for a while today and walked around the Barrow. He saw that the stones on top were for channeling power and he really wanted to go inside to take a look. But Lavinia had the entrance guarded at all times and they had been warned particularly about keeping out interfering little gnomes!

DAY 604 (27th Marpenoth) (October)

Today the Black Cat and Sister ships arrived in convoy. These were the two ships that had come from Midpoint Island. Sleek, magical xebecs that could turn invisible if required. They were still not fully crewed.

Lavinia welcomed them and started taking stock of their inventories, supply shortages and crew requirements.

Giselle had Fenrir take her back to OSM for the day to pick up "baby stuff" for when Lavinia gave birth.

Fenrir asked if he could bring back a nanny from Waterdeep but Lavinia reckoned she would not want for babysitters. There was already Giselle, Sylvia and a bunch of gnomes about the place all willing to help out.

DAY 605 (28th Marpenoth) (October)

Today the dwarves masons left, taken home on the Black Cat.

DAY 606 (29th Marpenoth) (October)

Today Cavu turned up on the island. He made his way up to the Barrow and said hello to everyone. I guess our doings are no secret to him, but I didn't consider it ideal that he was around. The Barrow was ours to take care of now that we had found it and I didn't like the idea of others snooping around. 

That many portals in one place must be incredibly rare and dangerous in the wrong hands. Cavu's intentions were always good, but he wasn't one of us and I think if Gertrude thought that the Barrow was safer in her hands rather than ours then she might well think that taking it away from us was justified.

It turned out that he was more interested in solving his ongoing problems with the Yaun-ti. They had located the 'Fortress of the Yaun-ti' and wanted to call on Fenrir to go once more to tangle with the Vanguard of Sertrous. They would have to go back to Pedestal once more and seek entry to the Spire. There was a portal in there that could be used to get close to the Fortress and hopefully deal with the Vanguard once and for all.

He also said:

''

If you do go, please don't teleport directly in to Pedestal. It will alert them and we will  have to start again. Go incognito through Kingsholm.

''

Fenrir was up for it, bit Giselle wasn't keen on him leaving her alone and she wanted to stay on the island until the baby was born. He gave her 10,000 gold and told her to use it to make their room in the keep look nice. He likes to flash his gold about does young Fenrir!

DAY 607 (30th Marpenoth) (October)

Blue Nixie arrived today with ten colonists although they brought some spouses and children with them so their was 22 people in total.

There were:

Retetteae Panstash - a human cartwright, with his wife and child

Sawolat Hapint - a human sailor, just by himself

Infureet Hagglegreen - a Yuan-ti Trueblood gooseherd with his wife and child

Olchei Japepart - a human seamstress with her husband and child

Crimaie Dramint - a gnome cooper with her husband and baby

Joumbob Yardmaker - a Yuan-ti Trueblood dressmaker with his wife and baby

Elaswei Takedark - a Troglodyte Cattle-driver, just by herself

Aualit Stramgrey - a Kobolt waiter with her husband and child

Sakoret Eastsilver - a Troglodyte Peddler. who had a chicken with her

Tuorowa Redday - a Dragonborn baker, who was by herself

Quite a few yuan-ti and lizard races I thought! But Lavinia had vetted them all, and as she told me later, as these were settlers from Chult, this was representative of the folks of the region.

Vetted or not, they all set up camps away from each other.

Takedark and Eastsilver set up in "Camp Trog".

The seven humans and three gnomes set up in "Camp Paradise".

The Dragonborn couldn't shake of her kobolt admirers and they set up in "Camp Brave".

The six Yuan-ti set up in "Camp Viper".

To get away from all the activity Fenrir and Corhim decided to go for a swim. Both of them have magical powers that enable them to breath underwater. The only  question was how much of their gear they minded getting wet.

They stripped down to more or less their underwear then teleported down to the docks of Tumunzah and jumped off the pier. Corhim used Alter Self to turn into a merman. This was all very surprising to two old retired sailors who were fishing off the end of it.

They were looking for sunken treasure or something, but it was likely this area had already been picked clean. They found a grand total of 8 silver pieces and a Potion of Endure Elements.

When back on the pier Fenrir played a trick on Corhim and left him there while teleporting back himself! But Corhim was able to turn into an Aarakocra and then flew back. He was little bit annoyed at Fenrir, but he could hardly complain considering how cheeky he was himself.

DAY 608 (1st Uktar) (November)

While that was going on back on the island me and Dak were on board the "Ember" sailing south, so back to my regular journal entries:

Made good progress today. The crew like the ship and handle her well. I've been getting daily updates from Sylvia on the 'Sending Round Robin' and it sounds like there is a lot going on that I am missing! We are not quiet in range of my boots of Teleportation but I think I will port back as soon as we are.

DAY 609 (2nd Uktar) (November)

I like to help out with the ship, but despite there only being nine members of the crew they do fine without me. Jhaartael makes a good enough captain - he should do, he's been sailing ships for over 200 years!

They are quite an interesting bunch, the crew we picked up in Waterdeep and Daggerford.

Just to note here, that the Black Cat and Sister were now at Yag Island and Lavinia was now in the process of hiring on crew (from Sasserine, not Tumunzah as she didn't know anyone there) to complete their compliment.

The ship formally known as the Reaper (which needed a better name than 'the other one') was on its way south and quite near the island with a crew that Lavinia had hired in Westgate.

A xebec can easily have a crew of 90 and carry up to 400! But that's if you are using the oars and plan on using it as a weapons platform. For getting about in, a crew of 20 was fine. After all they are magically assisted and all that.

So nine is very low, but Jhaartael assures they will get to the island just fine. I hope so, because we will be in range of Teleportation tomorrow.

DAY 610 (3rd Uktar) (November)

I made sure that Jhaartael could contact me if need be, then me and Dak teleported back to the island. It has been great to see everyone today.

I got everyone together and we all went to the tavern to have a bit of a reunion party.

I'd been hearing about this Sparkledingle fellow and was rather concerned that the wee fellow might be a liability. He did seem like an odd sort of fellow, even for a gnome.

Strangely, he and Dak seemed to hit it off. I think they have the same sort of quirky personality. Either that or Corhim has learned about Dak's fortune and was trying to con him out of it. Dak found the wee chap very funny anyway.

I've a feeling Dak may have told Corhim everything about the portals in the Barrow tonight too, while drunk. No good will come of that I expect.

DAY 611 (4th Uktar) (November)

You may remember that Cavu is still on the scene. I had a chat with him today. He likes the island, the warm sun (even in Uktar) and the cool sea breezes, but he is anxious to pull Fenrir away and put him to use in Pedestal.

I would have loved to go with him, but Lavinia says no more adventures for me as I am soon to be a father. 

So, after much discussion and planning it was decided that Fenrir would go, he would also take Dak and Sparkledingle with him. I wasn't all that sure about that combination of travel companions but Fenrir didn't seem to mind. Veddic usually went where Fenrir went, but he opted to stay on the island for now and maybe join them if need be. It may be that he had bad memories of his time out on the Thar around Kingsholm.

Then out of nowhere Giselle decided she wanted to go with them! She is new to the adventuring life, but has been training as a bard. I hope she gets on ok, she may not know what she's getting into. The Underdark is not to taken lightly.

Cavu repeated his warnings and added:

''

Please don't teleport directly in to Pedestal. It will alert them and we will have to start again. Go incognito through Kingsholm. Oh, and the Spire has a magic shield around it so you'll need to find someone to help get through. Either Es Sarch, Merlock Tomes or Dorette should be fine.

''

Cavu was anxious for them to make a move now, but Fenrir said taking Giselle was now part of the deal and he needed to make sure she was protected. So he teleported to Sasserine went to Glittermain's to order a very expensive (64,000 gold!) Mithril shirt for her. Sparkledingle came too and ordered from Orimander:

- a Ring of Sustenance for 2500gp 

- and a ring of Research for 2500gp

The shirt would be ready for Giselle in five days.

DAY 612 (5th Uktar) (November)

Lavinia kept me busy helping with the colony. She seems to have it all worked out anyway, with her papers laid out on the table in the main hall of the keep.

It looks like its all coming together anyway with the colonists and the dwarven immigrants all largely getting along.

DAY 613 (6th Uktar) (November)

Spend the day carving out a proper path down the cliff to the sea east of the Barrow area. Used Stone Shape and Wood Shape to make a small jetty. This will make loading and unloading the ships easier.

It will need to be strengthened though over the next few days or it will be washed away.

DAY 614 (7th Uktar) (November)

The Reaper arrived today, and joined the other two xebecs anchored off the eastern coast. I'm sure the locals must wonder what is going on.

Lavinia has taken charge of refitting and resupplying all three ships.

Its my job to help the colonists plant fields and orchards.

DAY 615 (8th Uktar) (November)

Right, she had me digging latrines today! This really is the limit.

I summoned some Earth Elementals to do it, but even so.

After that I worked on the path down to the shore and the jetty. I like that the Barrowfolk are now calling it "The Druid's Path".

DAY 616 (9th Uktar) (November)

Fenrir's Mithril was ready today and he went off to collect it. I must say it looked a fine piece of armour with some tasteful filigree on the collar and cuffs.

I'd consider one for Lavinia if she ever takes me off latrine digging duty.

DAY 617 (10th Uktar) (November)

And so - dear reader! From now on I will interject into my own journal the story of Fenrir (and friends) adventures in Kingsholm, Pedestal and beyond.

You can be sure his adventures will be more thrilling than my tales of digging toilets and laying paths.

As best I can I will make sure I line up the days correctly, but as you know, it can be difficult to tell the time in the Underdark and what news I will get back from Giselle may be intermittent.

With that said, today is easy. We said our farewells and the four of them Teleported off to Starmantle and then Kingsholm.

And as arranged, at the end of the day Giselle replied to a series of Sendings from Sylvia - which now allows me to record what happened after they left the island.

Fenrir and the others walked up to the gates of Kingsholm. They were well guarded and the militia looked on edge. Mia Desarna, the captain of the guard came to meet them. She remembered Fenrir and was happy to see him.

'Oh, we've had lots of trouble just lately, and we keep the gates locked all the time. Not that it does much good. Come to the Cabbage, I'll buy you a drink and tell you all about it.'

The last time Fenrir had been at Kingsholm he had been arrested along with Arahel and the others then busted out by Cavu. Mia didn't seem to bear a grudge though and said, 'all sins forgiven and a key to the city if you can sort out the problem we have here!'

She went on to tell them that there was a band of orcs and half-orcs out on the Thar that were terrorising the local area, stirring up the tribal camps and sometimes even attacking Kingsholm. In the last attack they had burnt and looted several buildings and killed any watchman that dared try and stop them.

'The orcish riff-raff we can handle, but they are led by two tough barbarian fighters, a powerful warlock and a nasty cleric. They are far too strong for a local militia. We asked Melvaunt to send help, but they have their own problems. We've put a bounty on each of their heads, 2000 gold each, but so far you are the first people to come this way that would stand any chance of claiming it. They are a right shower of bastards.

In fact that's what people call then "The Bastards of Thar" and everyone would be glad to see the back of them, even the other orcs.'

After that she gave them the keys to a nice house in town and said, 'You can live there for as long as you like. Quite a few people have left and we have plenty of empty places unfortunately.'