August 19th, 2023

Vita, Draconnes 13th, 1194

While selling stuff in Rivershade we try to check on the prisoners that we released, Geradil and Courana, but have no luck. There are quite a few traders in town and Graynor asks around about information on the two set items that we found. The Blade of Harmony, part of the shield set, is part of someone’s collection in Ironwald Downs. Ralzer makes some bullets and Sigmund starts teaching Luna a new trick. We will leave for Ironwald Downs in the morning.

Mare, Draconnes 21st, 1194

We get a sending from Nadal first thing in the morning — “We found more information on the calendar that could be related to our situation. Are you available to investigate?”

We arrive in Ironwald Downs around noon and visit the Temple of The Inevitable Order. Nadal looks overworked and we fill him in on what we have learned since our last meeting. He is not aware of any Bethany Swan. While the Calendar will take much time to fully investigate, it is suggesting that there is, or will be, activity in the city of Crestfall, which is about 11 days away. According to the Calendar, there is a cult to a Great Old One there, which are similar to, if not related to, the Outer Gods. Crestfall has a history with these cults. Nadal tells us that Laern Zolerii has the Blade of Harmony; he’s an abjurist that Graynor has worked with before and is part of the Magic Circle, a collection of spellcasters. Nadal also mentions that sendings have not always been working properly as of late.

After our visit with Nadal we pay a visit to Laern Zolerii. He and Graynor catch up and Laern will sell him the sword at a discount if we perform a job for him. He has a business installing security and would like our help in testing some defenses, which should only take a few hours tomorrow morning.

Terra, Draconnes 22nd, 1194

We meet with Laern in the morning and test his security system in an illusion simulation and earn a discount purchase for the sword.

Ralzer will be crafting for the rest of the day, Graynor and Sigmund are finishing shopping, and Ty will be reading in the library. After their shopping spree, Graynor and Sigmund separately look into Bethany Swan and if “The Oracle” is a person. They find out that Bethany Swan is an advisor to the royal family of Jasper and is a human divine caster. We can’t, however, determine how she knows Ty or how she knows that Ty has that book. Here  are the people that know that Ty has her dangerous book: Nadal, Tharivol, Mikail, and Expounder Victoria.

Forte, Draconnes 23rd, 1194

Before we leave for Crestfall, we talk to Nadal and Laern. Nadal will send word ahead of us to the Inevitable Order in Crestfall and we ask him to look into Bethany; which god does she worship? Laern is nor familiar with the other set items belonging to the Helm of the Warlord. He does point out that the helm has the maker mark of Godo and that other Godo pieces are located at the Salamanca, a sorcery school run by devils. He’s not sure where the school is located and Ralzer thinks that the bit about the devils may be just a rumor.

We leave for Cresftfall, which will take about 11 days, including a stop at Sigmund’s hometown of Delanshire.

Bellum, Ignis 1st, 1194

We arrive in Delanshire and Sigmund and Ralzer visit the Well of Knowledge. In addition to the normal Sustainers (Avarra’s forbidden knowledge sect) that look after the well, there are also Destroyers (Avarra’s death sect) guarding it. Sigmund uses the well to talk to his grandmother. Ralzer wants to get a sample of the water, but is denied.

August 12th, 2023

Forte, Draconnes 9th, 1194 (Continued)

While resting up in the posh room, we overhear some duergar moving in the halls discussing a problem that needs to be taken care of. When we ask them about it they accuse us of releasing something. Apparently their camp has been recently assaulted. We follow them to their camp. They ask us if we found a portal in the sinkhole, saying that a “demon” attacked them and they tracked it back to that portal. The demon is a female humanoid, about seven feet tall with purple-blue skin. She was repelled, but not killed. They want us to close the portal and Sigmund asks for payment for this service. They refuse and tell us to leave. During the argument between the duergar and Sigmund a door opens and a heavily armed duergar emerges. He tells the others to stop and, “tell the dragon our contract is over, we’re leaving”.

While the dwarves are prepping to leave and we are discussing our next steps, a door opens and three gray, six-legged canine creatures emerge from seemingly out of nowhere and attack us. They are accompanied by a slender gray skinned humanoid. These could be a void walker and void hounds. The void walker is knocked unconscious by Ralzer and we kill the hounds, then begin securing the area with a temporary truce with the duergar. Ralzer wants to let the void walker go so he can magically spy on it later. Before we let our prisoner awaken we decide to visit the portal again.

We settle on rebuilding the wall to block the portal and collapse part of the room and the entrance; spending most of the day plugging the portal. Afterwards, we attempt to interrogate the void walker prisoner. He blocks our perception of him and then teleports away.

Bellum, Draconnes 10th, 1194

We continue exploring the duergar area and find a library. Sigmund finds two Investigator Vale novels and keeps them to himself. On the floor is a summoning circle carved into the ground. It was once filled with mithril, but has been stripped; we take the flecks of mithril that are left behind. In the kitchen we find an animated table and learn that if we tell the animated guards to stand down in dwarven, they will obey.

Sigmund wants to speak to Kaarghaz of the stink lizards to warn them of this demon lady. Kaarghaz is aware of her and invites us to visit if we are in the area again.

Before we leave the dwarven hold we check on our sinkhole barricade and it looks as if something has tried digging through it and Sigmund spots some bipedal hoofprints in the area. We camp in the area hoping to catch whatever is doing this and we find our seven foot tall purple-ish lady in the area with the stars on the ceiling. Ralzer believes she is a rare kind of demon, a Debauched One (the planes check: 30) and we engage in conversation.

She describes herself as a tourist and asks if we know anything about the stars in this room. She informs us that they are the constellations of Kaajh’Kaalbh (hearing this name out loud causes us great pain; she is unaffected); he is also known as The Void. The constellations are a copy of the sky where he is from, or once was as he moves around. She tells us that saying his name can alter reality. She was most recently visiting a rather large void world, the one we found down here, but that she was not the one digging into that wall.

She explains that if The Void was called here, there would be signs as he approached. Plants would grow wild, natural growth will look like the entangle spell, and normal animals would have trouble sleeping due to too much energy. Magic would also be altered, it would be more difficult to concentrate on spells, caster levels would be reduced, and wild magic would start to happen. The tentacles are his creation, their presence indicates that he was, indeed, called. When asked how we stop him coming here, she suggests that we interrupt the call.

Regarding the Rite of Six Shadows, she says that if someone completed that ritual it is not a good sign. It can contact a greater demon, turn a mortal into a demon, or turn a demon into a greater demon. We bid our farewells and Graynor is concerned of what she will do once she starts “touring”.

We will now begin our journey back to Ironwald Downs. Three days travel back to Rivershade and a day there selling our loot.

July 29th, 2023

Terra, Dracones 8th, 1194

There’s a room that’s filled three feet deep with brackish water. In the back corner is the skeleton of an orc and some magic potions. Submerged in the water is an orrery, astrolabe, telescope, lots of miscellaneous astronomy tools, and some nice buoys. There’s something hidden behind the wall that starts emitting a pale purple light when Ralzer tries to manipulate the orifice. With Ralzer’s direction we are able to safely excavate around the light, which looks to be a portal.

After some testing, we enter to the portal and find it very similar to the void realm that Graynor visited. The landscape is mostly just sand dunes, but the area is all in grayscale with a purple hue. We see a colossal manta ray-ish creature flying around and come across a field of jellyfish.

Sigmund attempts cast detect magic. The spell doesn’t work, but he gets temporary some HP. Ralzer tries to cast a spell and it works normally. Sigmund tries to cast detect magic again, this time he creates a lot of grease. Through experimentation we determine that spell, spell-like, and spell completion do not always function normally; supernatural abilities do not seem to be altered.

We leave the void realm and discuss our options, settling on talking with the duergar. The duergar will let us explore their area,  with an escort through some of it, for a fee of 400gp. Ghared mentions an area that is infested with undead and another area with a dragon in an underground lake. The undead area has an orc wight and an allip.

We begin to explore the undead area first. One of the doors that lead there has a warning written in Orc, “Beyond this door the Maker of Death is chained. May he gnaw on his own hate until the sun dies and all things end.” We ignore the warning and enter. Inside we find the orc wight and two ogre skeletons, which we destroy. Down the hall we encounter a room full of dwarven skeletons, easily dispatched by Graynor. The hall opens to a larger room and we find, and destroy, the allip. The allip looked as if it might have been a priest in its prior life.

Most of the rooms here look to have already been looted. One room, which has not been looted, has an animated rug protecting it. Based on the personal effects we find inside, the room belonged to Arundel, a priest that traveled with Durgeddin. After Durgeddin died, Arundel started to create undead from the bodies to defend the fortress. His journal details his descent into madness. We rest in this room.

Forte, Dracones 9th, 1194

We delay our exploration to wait for Graynor to recover from the negative level he received from the wight. While waiting, Ralzer finds out that he is diseased with the Shakes. We spend the day recovering.

July 22nd, 2023

Vita, Dracones 6th, 1194 (Continued)

We make camp in the grick’s den.

Mare, Dracones 7th, 1194

We find a white scaled lizard the size of a horse chained to the wall in a hard to access part of the cavern. Sigmund calms it down long enough for Ty to unlock its shackles. It then tries to run away with Sigmund. Sigmund delivers the killing blow, while grappled, with his revenge knife.

We encounter another group of smelly lizard people. Their area has enough food to sustain a tribe for a significant amount of time. Nearby we find their warren and attempt to communicate and ask about the dwarves. They claim that duergar are not in their warren and ask us to leave. Sigmund wants to negotiate safe travel through their territory and is directed to ask their leader, Kaarghaz. Kaarghaz agrees to not attack us, if we leave his people alone.

We take the stairs down, which are behind a very difficult to unlock door. They lead to a very polished stone worked area. We can hear some faint hammering in the distance. Someone is warning us to leave, but we can’t see them. For 400gp they will grant us safe passage–we pay. Three duergar appear as if they were invisible. Ghared is the duergar that is talking with us. We ask her about star maps and prophecies and she directs us to a place they call the Sinkhole. Ghared and the other two are using this area because of the good forge that Durgeddin left behind. No one else has been here asking questions, so no Tolm. We sell her some of our loot and Ralzer buys some black powder. We bid our goodbyes and head to the Sinkhole.

In a disgusting store room is a gray ooze. In The Lord of the God Kings, the sequel to The Wickedly Weaved Webs, the duergar used a gray ooze in a stone bird bath as an enhanced interrogation technique. The cabal leader, Brezel Largith, wants the summoning incantation for the demon Legiticus the Unceasing and has captured Leera Turnsin, an elven maiden and expert in demonology. Investigator Vale needs to rescue her before Brezel succeeds.

In another area Ty and Graynor feel a similar sensation wot when Ty when ethereal near the calendar and when Graynor visited the Void Realm. The ceiling in the area has some star mapping on it and Sigmund copies it. Sigmund believes these stars are not from this planet’s sky, nor are they the same from Tolm’s ceiling. Ty goes ethereal and sees the same shimmering effect as he did near the calendar. It’s confined to a smaller area; she can see the borders. Her book glows brighter. While we are leaving, what looks like three small arcane tentacles and another pale yellow tentacle with white suction cups filled with tiny tentacles attack us. When we kill them they disappear slowly.

Afterwards, we camp and identify magic items.

July 15th, 2023

Mors, Dracones 5th, 1194 (Continued)

We find a secret door that looks as if the orcs didn’t know about it; it leads to a barracks. Down the hall there is a double door with a bloody human skull staked to it. Inside is Zeltron, an ogre divine caster who bears the holy symbol of Thrax–Thrax is the god of hate, malice, and madness. We kill Zeltron and camp in the barracks.

Vita, Dracones 6th, 1194

We find a pair of prisoners from Rivershade, Geradil and Courana; whom we release after making sure the area is secured. Beyond a barricaded hallway we encounter four stirges and a large set of stairs going down. In what looks like a shabby office we find a secret door that leads back to the main area. Sigmund tracks three individuals using this secret passage to escape within the last day or so.

We take the stairs down, which lead to a large, natural cavern system. There are a lot of stirges down here. In a room with yellow mold are two dwarf skeletons, one has a glowing bastard sword with a maker’s mark on it. We burn down the mold and take the sword.

Luna smells something she doesn’t like and soon after we all discover the awful smell. It turns out to belongs to some hiding lizard people. They have a pet bear and Ralzer obliterates its with a scorching ray and the lizard people go down shortly after.

While exploring Ty spots a grick ambush. Gricks are ambush predator aberrations. In The Sundered Carapace some gricks are living in a decayed corpse of an enormous creature that Investigator Vale is exploring. He encounters a pair of them slowly consuming an enlarged parasite.

July 8th, 2023

Terra, Tempus 24th, 1194 (Continued)

We buy and sell stuff, then we will meet with Nadal. Outside of the Inevitable Order there are Madri guards turning people away. Robert, another Madri knight, recognizes us and lets us in. It turns out that there has been a portal that opened in the basement that has water coming out of it.

We meet with Nadal, who says that the portal is theorized to be a gate to the plane of water. The gate, which is currently believed to be a random, natural occurrence, showed up about a day and a half ago. We catch him up on what we’ve been doing–he takes notes this time.

We ask about the sending that never got delievered and he informs us that, in it, he asked how we were and asked about the Nissan Calendar. This doesn’t seem to be unusual and we still can’t determine why it didn’t work.

We discuss the “intro prophecy”, which is hard to understand completely as some of it is vague.

Strange light dances across the landscape. (Spell gorging, our purple haze.)
Animals behaving preternaturally.
A bear-leader inexplicably vanishes.
A moonstruck brigand tells unimaginable tales. (Dodd.)
An astrologer found abhorrently mutilated. (Valeria, 7 months ago.)
A mountain collapses. (The Red Mountains, 5 months ago.)

We ask about the babau and determine that it could be some sort of ritual. No one at this temple is very well versed in demonology and Nadal suggests we ask at the Parish of Everlasting Knowledge before delving into the Order’s vast library.

We visit the flooded basement and Sigmund and Ralzer both take samples of the water. Ralzer goes through the portal and finds it to be dark and wet. The portal on the material plane is horizontal and on the other side it’s at a 45 degree angle.

Ty and Ralzer get a reference letter from Nadal and head to the Parish of Everlasting Knowledge to ask about the babau ritual. Mikail hears that there is a request from a halfling and a tiefling, who have a letter from Nadal, and decides to meet with us. Since this is Mikail, we go over more information than just the ritual. Arcane tentacles are rare enough that not much is known; however, Mikail is also an avid reader of Investigator Vale and much of this is discussed.

Regarding the babau, there is a ritual called The Rite of the Six Shadows, in which each babau represents an aspect of darkness: obscurity, desolation, corruption, terror, betrayal, and demise. The ritual requires babau that are more powerful than normal. The ritual’s purpose is to communicate with powerful entities and open a gate to the Shadow Realm. Mikail believes that the ritual could have been used to communicate with a specific, powerful entity and then convince it to come to this plane.

Ty asks Mikail why he thinks Angelique is still silent. Mikail does, indeed, believe Angelique is still silent, but only Angelique. He goes on to explain about the Days of Reckoning.

Well over a millenia ago there was an event called the Days of Reckoning in which several deities broke sacred laws and died at each others hands. As history tells it, T’llax, the god of blades and the hunt, selected Axmir, the god of pillaging and war, as his prey. Eliaz, the god of laws and retribution, caught wind of this and decided to interpose himself in the matter. As it is one of the most sacred of laws to not directly harm another deity, he also requested assistance from Angelique and Xas’yg, the goddess of creation and energy.

T’llax was swift in his murder of Axmir and sought refuge with Veranna, the goddess of imprisonment, torture and tyranny. Veranna refused to give up the Hunter to Angelique and his companions, stating that he was now her prisoner and would deal with him herself. This did not please the trio and infuriated Eliaz that anyone would so boldly oppose Angelique that he struck out at Veranna. T’llax knew that any judgement cast upon him from either side now would not be in his favor and attempted to flee, maiming Angelique in the process.

It is well known that a wound caused by the blades of T’llax is nearly impossible to heal, even if inflicted upon such that of a god. Eliaz, whose judgment was clouded by his outrage, was dispatched by Veranna who then fled into her realm to recover while Xas’yg tended to the mortally wounded Angelique. The goddess was able to take the wound into herself, thus saving Angelique at the cost of her own life.

Angelique was eventually able to apprehend T’llax and judged him worthy of death, which he immediately carried out himself. The god of truth, however, could see some threads cast into this scenario by another source. Angelique stormed into the domain of Barnabas, convinced that he had more than a small hand in the start of this.

Bewildered that such an accusation would be made at him, Barnabas pleaded his innocence to the god of justice and suggested that blame lay with Leto. With Leto being most fickle, the two decided to invite him to a conference with Avarra. The conference is said to have lasted about a hundred years and the details of what happened in it are unknown, other than that the gods involved spoke to no one else and granted no spells during that time.

As the gods came back, it never felt as though Angelique returned. Mikail believes Angelique’s righteousness could have imposed a self exile on himself, and someone wanted to step in as a placeholder until he returns.

Graynor visits the Temple of Salvation to talk to his CO Guardian Dora and Sigmund joins him. Dora believes it is time for Graynor to be promoted to Defender. Graynor gets some new regalia and goes shopping for matching accouterments.

After meeting back up, Graynor decides to let Dora know about the site of the babau ritual and its possible dangers.

Tomorrow Ralzer will be enhancing his gun and making cold iron bullets. Then, we will begin our trip to the Gannet Mountains, following Tolm’s directions.

Bellum, Tempus 26th, 1194

It will take about 6.25 days of travel.

Mare, Tempus 30th, 1194

Ty gets a sending: “Beware the encroaching shadows. Consult the Oracle. Unlock the secrets within the tome. Act now, for time grows short.” – Bethany Swan. She responds with, “Speak clearly. I do not suffer for riddles from strangers”.

Ty takes another look at her book, and it is now nearly all of the Architects language. Sigmund takes a crack at translating it; he feels a little ill, but is able to learn a few things. There’s a ritual about calling an outer god, and creating a beacon that could attract it. The Mindstone Dagger can be used as a short-cut for completing this ritual. He also finds a name in the book that he instinctively feels should not be said aloud, Kaajh’Kaalbh.

Terra, Dracones 1st, 1194

This is the Spring Equinox.

Bellum, Dracones 3rd, 1194

We are approaching the small town of Rivershade and Ralzer says we are another 2 days or so from our destination.

Mors, Dracones 5th, 1194

We find one of the geological markers that is mentioned in our directions, so the entrance should be nearby. We see some smoke and investigate. We follow the path and it leads to what looks like an orc camp. Sigmund overhears them talking about Zeltron and we try to establish communication. They attack and we end up killing almost 20 of them as we battle our way into the fortress.

June 10th, 2023

Bellum, Comitatus 28th, 1194 (Continued)

We continue our discussion with Tharivol about the recent events. Tharivol believes that the living topiary in the area outside could be evidence of a druid grove or an entrance to the Fey realm. He is also concerned that the spellgorging area is so large.

Ty uses her ability, Empty Body, to see what this room looks like on the Ethereal plane. Normally things would look shadowy; however, in this room things have a color shimmer, like the aurora borealis, and time seems to move slower. While there, Ty feels as if something is alerted to her presence and attempts some kind of mind effect, but is resisted. She feels something similar later, like an attempted to hasten her. The calendar is much brighter here and looks as if it was stored under the floor at some point. A large translucent blue tentacle with pink suckers emerges from the ceiling and moves towards Ty, then her Empty Body ends. It could have been an arcane tentacle, which never have been proven to exist. They are resistant to arcane magic and can remove magical effects on creatures they hit. Investigator Vale theorized their existence in The Stranded Prisoner, during a conversation with his adversary, Artorious Balen. Graynor says that the time feeling was similar to what he felt when he was in a void realm.

We discuss our next moves and settle on investigating the spellgorging area while traveling back to Ironwald Downs. Tharivol advises us to not dilly-dally and don’t listen to Fey invitations or enter any portals.

Iustitia, Comitatus 29th, 1194

We exit the Cave of Unreasonable Ice and our horses are nowhere to be seen. We begin the long trip to Ironwald Downs.

Mors, Comitatus 30th, 1194

We find our horses grazing and reclaim them to bear the burden of our travels.

Mors, Tempus 14th, 1194

We encounter the spellgorging plants about a day earlier than expected. If this is the same instance as before, which was about two miles long, then it has grown to be about 20 miles. We attempt to find the center of the spellgorging and notice that it’s an irregular shape–locating the point of origin will be difficult. Within the infected area, we find patches of normal plant life; the pattern of it could be root-like or tendrils.

Vita, Tempus 15th, 1194

We continue our survey, recollecting that we have seen no kind of fauna at all in this area, and the growth is getting thicker.

At night our camp is attacked by a plague boar, a magical pig that carries the Black Plague–is this the result of the spellgorging?

Mare, Tempus 16th, 1194

We find a copse of large, humanoid-shaped trees, which begin to move as we approach. Sigmund recognizes them as grove guardians, but beneath their bark is a pale violet light that is not typical of them. They can’t communicate verbally with us and aren’t aggressive, so we try alternative methods. Ty shows them Tolm’s mask and they become aggressive, so she makes an impressive display of dropping and heel stomping it. They are upset at the mask and also stomp on it. Sigmund pantomimes until he establishes a general understanding with the guardians, and Graynor attempts to lay on hands one of them with the violet light, but there is feedback that hurts them both. We eventually get a direction as to where Tolm’s grove may have been, which is not in the same direction we are going, but it’s something.

We leave in the direction the grove guardians gave us. About an hour later we find a run down shack. Inside are some gardening notes that appear to be in Tolm’s handwriting.

We continue looking for the source of the spellgorging until it’s time to make camp.

Terra, Tempus 17th, 1194

We come across an area where the plants are exceptionally large and four mandragora attack us. Mandragora are created with demon blood and are very annoying. Just a little farther we find a big tree that has an emaciated form of a babau nailed to its trunk. Babau are demons that are used as assassins. Ralzer mentions that demons like this should have disappeared back to the Abyss after dying, which means this one must have come here by other means. There are some other nearby large trees, six in total, that also have babau nailed to them; this could be part of some macabre ritual. We collect the bodies and burn them. Nearby, Ralzer finds a summoning circle that seems to be very old and he guesses it’s been broken for several months. This could have been used to get the babau here.

We start making our way back to Ironwald Downs.

Bellum, Tempus 19th, 1194

Ralzer has the Black Plague.

Mors, Tempus, 21st, 1194

Ralzer shakes off his disease, but now Luna is showing signs of it.

Mare, Tempus 23rd, 1194

We arrive at Ironwald Downs with Luna still suffering from the plague, so we can’t bring her in.

Terra, Tempus 24th, 1194

Sigmund callously suggests reaching out to the Church of the Land (Eda) for help with cure Luna of her disease instead of the Temple of Salvation (Madri), because it will be a little cheaper. Graynor finds this rationale insulting and Sigmund is oblivious to his faux pas. Ty is sent on an errand to fetch a healer from the church and Graynor accompanies her, just so he can roll his eyes at another faith and irritate Sigmund. It takes several attempts from two priests, but the disease is expelled.

June 4th, 2023

Vita, Comitatus 24th, 1194 (Continued)

Farther in we encounter more ettercaps, one of which is a nightmare ettercap. Nightmare ettercaps have regeneration and DR (need good or silver), and they have a fear aura and some spell-like abilities. In their den we find a couple of crystals that Ralzer recognizes as a naturally occurring magic item that can be created in areas of strong magic. The battle was rough, so we rest afterwards.

Mare, Comitatus 25th, 1194

We find one tunnel that leads to the Underdark and we turn back. We come to an ominous hole, about 20 ft. in diameter, and we can hear some skittering coming from it. A giant whip-tail centipede emerges from the hole and it’s venom renders Graynor paralyzed. Sigmund attempts to use our scroll of restoration to heal Graynor, but fails spectacularly, destroying the scroll in the process. We’ll have to rest for a few days while Graynor recovers.

Forte, Comitatus 27th, 1194

After several days of Ty playing nurse, Graynor is better. We continue to explore the Cave of Unreasonable Ice and run into a trio of drow. Their wizard manages to escape via invisibility, but we dispatch the others handily. The drow had a cart, but it was empty so we can’t tell what they were doing here. In that same room Ralzer finds a fossilized white dragon egg.

Later, we find a room that has a bit of that same feeling as the purple haze. There are three piles of bones and one pile of bone and armor in the room, each with a faint evil aura. Each of the armor-less piles radiate a faint magical aura as well. When we approach, the four piles animate into skeletons that have a strange blue light and employ abilities atypical of skeletons. Once they’re defeated, we feel a strange energy enter us.

We find a long, winding passage that slightly slopes down and ends in a very large room. We feel a slight tingle of energy around us and Luna does not like this area. There are multiple statues of a slender hooded figure, with sapphires adorning the hood, which is likely Uunas. The highest priests of the Order of Agony wear gem-studded hoods. There are also gargoyle statues, which are Uunas’s favorite creature. Near the back of this very large, statued room, we find what we believe to be the calendar. The calendar has a large symbol of Nissa in the center and we use the sending stone to tell Nadal about it. He replies to stand by and later Victoria responds with more questions about it. She expresses concern that we didn’t respond to Nadal’s sending, but Ty received no such message. Nadal then sends to us that the calendar is an ancient relic of Nissa’s that was thought to have been lost. They are sending assistance that will arrive in two days.

Sigmund tries to read the calendar using Tolm’s notes and finds the parts about the Slence in Heaven. Sigmund thinks it also mentions that Angelique still has no contact, which is strange since Angelique followers can still cast spells; could Zandru be impersonating Angelique for all this time? The part about massive vegetation growth and diminished (arcane) magic is found, but he also finds reference to the calling of an outer god, which is not in Tolm’s notes. Future eras are much harder to figure out, since we have no frame of reference. While trying to find information on the ancient heroes, Sigmund believes he found references of us instead, specifically Graynor is easy to pick out.

Bellum, Comitatus 28th, 1194

Tharivol and his group will arrive today, he is accompanied by four Guardians of Destiny, a rank just below him. Ty and Ralzer will meet them at the entrance.

The lingering aura in the statued room should have dissipated after about a week. Tharivol tells us that the area was once protected by a mythic version of the guards and wards spell and unhallow, which were both made permanent. Tolm’s journal only mentions that he found the calendar while exploring, why was he all the way out here at all? Could Tolm be from this area?

In regards to Angelique still being silent, Tharivol says there are some people that already believe this; Mikail is one such person. Most do not actively talk about their beliefs, so little is known as to why they think Angelique is still silent. Nearly all of the gods have at least some people who believe that they, too, are silent, but Angelique is the most popular choice. Interestingly, only Avarra and El are never mentioned as being “silent”. Tharivol has some concerns about Zandru being involved–the amount of time is too long to be a joke or trick. However, it could be a very large payoff that keeps him doing this.

Tharivol inspects Graynor and believes he, and the rest of us, have this mythic spark. The event with Graynor and the Mindstone dagger is found on the calendar.

Tharivol is concerned that Nadal’s sending did not arrive and Ralzer mentions the spellgorging areas we encountered on the way here as well.

May 27th, 2023

Mors, Comitatus 23rd, 1194 (Continued)

We camp in the ogre’s den.

Vita, Comitatus 24th, 1194

We find a room with four ice pillars and Ralzer notices evidence of something really big rubbing against them while moving. We continue to hear that scratching noise. We come across a pool of water and Ralzer is convinced that he saw something at the bottom. He’s insistent on getting in it, only to discover that it was nothing.

We later find, what Ralzer believes, is a white dragon nest. White dragons are immune to paralysis, sleep, and cold. They have DR, are able to move through ice and snow without issue, and are able to cast gust of wind and fog cloud. Inside the nest we find a snallygaster, which is a kind of bloodsucking beast with tentacles and a nasty beak, as featured in Investigator Vale and the Deadwood Altar. This one, however, looks to be undead; specifically, according to Sigmund, frostfallen–which are created by icy deaths.

There’s a mined tunnel that goes very deep and leads to a natural looking cavern. Tolm’s journal mentioned something something like this. In the cavern we encounter a pair of fungal crawlers. Ty recognizes them from another Investigator Vale novel, Shadows of the Subterrane,they’re like a fungus that has infested a small creature and takes it over.

While searching a room full of mining supplies we are ambushed by a choker, nasty grapplers that like to strangle people, and two balabra (tanglers), floating jellyfish-like creatures that should only be struck with bludgeoning weapons. In another section of the cavern we find a shriezyx, an aberration used by drow and derro as mounts and guardians. Ty recounts how, in The Road of Belladonna, Investigator Vale has to track a drow fugitive that rode one of these; they have a fear of fire and are venomous.

We next stumble into an ettercap den, which Investigator Vale dealt with in The Wickedly Weaved Web, one of Ty’s favorites in the series. In said novel, an evil cabal of duergar were using mutated ettercaps to milk their venom and poison the food delivers for local schools.

May 13th, 2023

Forte, Frigus 22nd, 1193 (Continued)

We rupture the remaining 13 akata pods without incident. While camping, Sigmund magically reads the rest of Tolm’s journal while the rest of us work on the tunnel.

Tolm seems to have had an apprentice for his gardening exploits. Past the gardening entries, his writing gets more and more disjointed. While he was exploring some caves north of Ironwald Downs he found, what he called, a predictive calendar; this sounds like it might be the same place that the ancient heroes fought the Heralds. Tolm deciphered enough of it to conclude that it predicted the Silence in Heaven, an era in which the gods warred and ceased contact with the mortal realms. One prediction is that our current era would have massive vegetation growth and stunted magic.

Tolm writes about about the “True Gods” and how our gods may not be gods at all. He found the akata pods in a far off land and had them transported to the fortress via the underdark. He met people from the western marshes of Halbrook, whom gave him that staff. They worshiped the “Star God” and were working to gain it’s blessing. They claimed that the marsh came alive due to this Star God.

Tolm also investigated the dwarves that were here and followed them to the Gannet Mountains. There should be enough details of the location to find it as well.

Bellum, Frigus 23rd, 1193

We continue to work on the tunnel while Graynor and Sigmund attempt to convince Queen Mozdrog to let use seal up their tunnel to the underdark. They speak with Thauglorauthamiir and fail to negotiate it’s sealing. After sealing the basement tunnel, we leave for Ironwald Downs.

Terra, Frigus 28th, 1193

We arrive at Ironwald Downs and inform Nadal of our trip (GM: I don’t think you talked to Nadal about the calendar) to the predictive calendar and buy provisions.

Iustitia, Frigus 29th, 1193

We begin the long trip to the northern caves, which will take about 25 days by horse.

Bellum, Comitatus 7th, 1194

The flora around us becomes suddenly very vivid in color with an unusually deep hue. Sigmund recognizes it as spellgorging, where the plants will absorb magical effects as they are being cast. The affected area is about 2 miles, which is far larger than normal for spellgorging.

Mors, Comitatus 9th, 1194

We see a small leafy creature cross our path that looks like it’s running away from a larger version of itself. Later, we are charged by what looks like a lion made out of leaves and thorns. Sigmund thinks it’s a kind of living topiary, which are usually created like a construct, but can emerge naturally in areas of the fae.

Iustitia, Comitatus, 22nd, 1194

We come  upon the ruins of a village, about a day away from the cave. Graynor says that the area kind of reminds him of the village in which his former group found the portal to a void realm. While searching the area, a band of Taers assault us– they’re pretty nasty, but we prevail. We find a nice-ish building to camp the night in.

Mors, Comitatus 23rd, 1194

We find a cave with an unreasonable amount of ice. While exploring we encounter 2 ogres.