Editing Game-Summaries:1/12/2018 Recollections

==Recollections by Amon==
==Recollections by Cassio==
==Recollections by Ci==

What seemed a simple investigation proved to be not so simple at all.. After attempting to enter the training dungeons, and instead finding a warped refection of that place... after facing a host of Abominations, being captured and freed, and destroying the being that seemed to mold this place to his twisted will, we still know very little. Some wisdom was gained... I will petition the Elder Masters to add these True Words to the Book of the Mountain:  "Never, Never talk to [[Mindflayer |Mindflayers]]" and "A Bear on the Stairs is worth two in the Room." However, we are still blind to much of the truth of the disturbance, and indeed its ultimate cause and eventual goals still elude us. It is perhaps this truth that gives me the most pause as I reflect on our adventure.

In fact, I am still somewhat shaken by our the encounter. Master Fēng says my mind lacks the "still calm of the lake at dawn, before the geese and fishermen have awoken." Zifu Poe, who hears not the words of Master Fēng as I do, would simply say I am disquieted. Which Master is right I know not. The dust of truth swirls, and seeks its own cracks of entry. For myself, I worry for the implications of what we experienced. The creatures we faced were certainly reason enough for worry. They were Horrors which, should they ever be loosed on the world, would doubtless cause untold chaos and death. But no, it is what these monsters represent that causes wide ripples in my calm: Beasts a mere hair's breadth from the [[Magistery]] itself... Beasts poised to strike at the Magistery's most vulnerable members with a vast intelligence seemingly directing it all. That intelligence, in the form of an aberration with the ability to turn our very own hands (or claws in the case our intrepid shape shifting Ember) against us. An intelligence with a clear purpose and a clear place in larger scheme, with both the ability and the resolve to oppose Magistery agents and turn Magistery devices to it's own will. A troubling shape emerges, like a shadow through thick fog, when one examines these discoveries along with some of the others uncovered by our brethren of the "Eternal Order": hints of a "list" of enemy possible enemy agents (some now eliminated)... a mysterious listing for The Magistery with the name Kaanyr. These hint at a dark plot to strike at or subvert the very heart of the Magistery. We know precious little of this possible threat, and cannot seem to make one of the heads of the Houses acknowledge the danger.

Before I finish, I must first say a few words of our companions. I have begun to feel a close kinship to them all, especially to brave [[Cassio]]. We have often found ourselves together in the heat of battle, his brash boasts hiding a fierce determination and almost foolhardy disregard for personal safety. [[Cassio]] truly is, as the Book of the Mountain says, "a room full of Life" with "no door for death to enter." Shape shifting [[Ember]], protector of [[Cassio]] and foe to Honey and Salmon... powerful [[Sakura]] who brings thundering Doom in the form of delicate cherry blossoms... Strange [[Rezik]] - a being of staggering strength of Mind... and [[Amon]], our timely saviour and wielder of the wild magics! Even terse Yevelda, who despite her grumblings fought valiantly and loyally. These companions become have become closer to me in our short time together than many I spent years with at the monastery. As I write these words, Master Chōuyān whispers "a swordsman prizes the blade gilded in blood above even the one forged of gold" How much stronger the blade that has shared both blood and gold? I hope only to be worthy of their company, and in their company I am sure we can root out the evil that seems to stalk us. But I only walk the Path... I know not what lies at its end.

==Recollections by Ember==
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==I have signed up for my fist training dungeon. I met with Cassio Lista, Ci, Sakukua no Kaze, and Amon Theral. Sakura is a half elf like myself, but half human, not a long tooth shifter. He is from the House Handa, and is part of the flower trade of Solace he is a Wild Mage. Ci is a Human monk and he is very quiet and wears red and black close fitted robes. Amon talks to himself, it is very strange, but I hear he is a bit of a recluse and has lived alone in a cave for ten years. Then there is Cassio, he is a paladin and a very interesting character. His armor gleams and he has an air about him that I can't put my finger on yet. Sakura and Amon have been initiates for some time, but Ci, Cassio, and I are new to the order. Sakura asks the clerk at the desk for his name, he is rather rude and tells us his name is Melvin. I find this to be a very negative start to our training dungeon and I'm worried about what's to come. Melvin walks off in a huff and when he returns he is followed by a huge hulking man with an eye patch, his name is Odinson. Odinson is the headmaster of the brown and assigns us to a special training dungeon, still we have no clue what that is. My stomach tightens at the possibility of what's to come. He leads us down a long winding staircase then down four more stories,then into several stone hallways. We finally are led into a room and there is a glowing blue orb in the center of the room on a pedestal. There is a bucket full of ceramic sigel amulets and Odinson hands one to each of us. He tells us if we all break them all we will immediately be able to leave the training dungeon. Odinson then left us to our own devices. Since Sakura has been to the training dungeons before he takes the lead and informs us how to activate the orb. We all place our hands on it and everything fades to the blackest of black. We are transported to a room with an odd faint light and my stomach is in knots once again. I feel a sense of doom as a booming voice in my head says "Destroy the eyes destroy the beast". Cassio pushes his way forward and takes the lead, I somehow knew he would, he seems to annoy me already. We slowly walk down the hallway and we hear a whooshing noise that sounds ominous so we make our way back to the main room. We try the two doors in the room and my companions start to bicker about what to do next. I find this all very dull and start to get bored. We finally make our way back to the hallway where we initially hear the noise and find a floating sword slashing around like it has an invisible master and a floating eyeball. What in the world?!?! Time to pull it together Ember and fight for your new companions. Cassio of course charges into battle, without thinking, from what I can tell, he seems to be less intelligent than most. I cast my black flames and thankfully cause the sword damage. Cassio attacks and misses. Amon attacks the eye and destroys it and it turns into goop and guts. Sakura casts a spell and we all see cherry blossoms hit the sword. It is beautiful spell. It breaks the sword in half and fades into a million pieces and vanishes.==
We continue to walk down the hallway and encounter another locked door. As a group we decide Cassio should break down the door. He fails his first try, I roll my eyes and sigh at this lame attempt. Overwhelmed by the smell that hits my nostrils, we are met with zombies.The floor is littered with decomposing corpses. Amon attacks the first zombie and takes it out. Sakuras cherry blossoms come blasting out and the next goes flying. Ci in excellent form moves closer to attack and dodges the zombies shambling attack at him. Cassio seem to be becoming more arrogant as the battle goes on, it's actually difficult to fight next to him as he screams "Cassio!" for each attack. He cleaves a zombie in half. I guess he is not totally useless. I char the body of a zombie with my  black fire and Amon blows a zombie into mist. Ci attacked a zombie with his sword wounding its putrid flesh. Cassio was attacked by a zombie with its club like fists, good thing he has that armor, but retaliates and cleaves it in two. Ci dodges 2 zombie attacks. I find him to be very nimble. I set another ablaze. Sakura attacks with frozen flowers and Ci slashes with his sword, both zombies were obliterated. At this point all the undead were dead dead, I was pleased by the way the party was melding, but I could do better I feared. 

As we looked closer at the decaying corpses on the floor it appeared all their brains had been removed. What devil of a creature had done this? We came to another door and decided Cassio should break this one down as well. Yet we were smarter and had Sakura check for traps, none were detected. Cassio was successful this time. This seemed to give him an ego boost, however it did not need any boosting in my opinion. We came to a hallway which ended in a T. to the right was a chest and an eyeball, same as before. Amon and Sakura blasted the eye and broke the chest. I checked the broken chest and discovered one hundred gold, it seems some fortune has smiled upon me, which is rare in the gloom of this world. We carried on, yet again we found another eye, Sakura blasts it, more goo and guts and it's gone. We follow a long windy hallway which turns left to yet another door. Same story as before, Sakura listens this time, I check for traps, Cassio breaks it down into a thousand pieces. We run into another eyeball and I make a knowledge check and find out the eyeball is not from the natural world or a naturally occurring being. Interesting, I make a note. Down the hallway, another eye once agaon, at least they are easy to kill.

We find ourselves back in the main room. Sakura listens to the north door and tells the group he hears something that sounds ominous. Sakura checks the east door, it's silent, so we proceed there first. Same as before, Cassio breaks it down and we proceed down a long winding hallway and come to a chest. Ci goes to open it and it savagely grabs his hand, it is a mimic! After this we see a gelatinous cube slowly shlorping down the hallway! My stomach sinks in despair, but it's time to fight. Even though Ci's arm is trapped in the mimic he is able to damage it, while Cassio and Amon barely make a dent in the cube. Cassio, assuming he is going to save the day, charges down the hallway at the cube. With his sword in the air screaming "Cassio!" once again, Is this guy serious?!?! I attack the mimic with my poison spray trying to get Ci out of its grasp, but it takes a bite out of him, which angers me to no end! I hold my ground and Ci escapes its grasp and runs to safety. Amon attacks but unfortunately he barely does any damage. Cassio Charges at the cube Slashing wildly. Sakura then attacks the mimic and takes off its tooth. I throw my back fire at it and it is ablaze and that knocks off another tooth. The cube then sucks Cassio into its gelatinous form and slowly goos him out the other side. Great, he is now unconscious because of his stupidity. Ci attacks the mimic with his sword, Amon misses, Sakura knocks the lid off and there is an eye inside! I hit with my flame and Ci attacks destroying the mimic and taking the eye with it. We all turn our attention to the cube which is slowly gooing it's way down the hallway past Cassio's unconscious body. So far I like him like this, hes quiet. I blow my black leaves of healing Cassios way and he awakens, he seems to think he has awakened on his own, I somehow am not surprised by this. Amon then shouts "Witness the power of the darkside" and casts his spell damaging the cube.  Cassio gets back into the fray and once again yells "Cassio knows only pain!" Seriously, does this guy ever stop? I throw my flame at the cube as it moves closer and Ci slashes at it and Amon does it damage. It shrinks in size at this. Cassio then Asks "What took you so long my friends?" as he delivers the killing blow. The balls on this guy! Am I right?! I roll my eyes so hard I'm afraid they might roll out of my head.

We make our way back into the big room after a long rest. It is time to make our way to the North door, where Cassio checks for traps and breaks it down once again. This room is a massive chamber, eyeballs are cracked in half scatter all over the ground. There are dark glyphs in the center, and a creature is held captive in the middle. We go down the west hallway and see a creature with the head of the Octopus that appears to be a mage. He had wounds pinned by eyeballs. Ci tries to talk to him and the creature says he doesn't want help from the likes of us. Amon immediately tries to attack and his lightning fizzles. Cassio of course does not use common sense and charges in. I question the creature, he is evasive and tells me the eye will cause our death and I stand my ground. Sakura targets the eye and destroys it, the creature says we are not in for anything good. Sakura tries to persuade him to help us, he says the watcher lies beyond, do not bring him forth. The creature says he is the one who caused the zombies and ate all the brains. Cassio and Amon insist on attacking the creature again. I shout at them to stop and they do not know what they are doing! I feel that we are in for a world of trouble if we attack this creature. The creature shoots an electric bolt of psychic damage at us as it disappears. Amon and Sakura are hurt by the blast, but the rest of us are holding strong. We go down the next hallway, find a chest and the hopefully last eyeball, Sakura destroys it. We head back to the main chamber and the beast in the middle has broken the chains and is free. Amon attacks the beast with a spell and it reflects an attack to Ci but he dodges it. Cassio slashes at the beast and cuts it. It seems to be reflecting spell damage, so I take out my scimitar and slash, but do not do any damage. Ci slashes at it and it is greatly wounded. Sakura tries to send its cherry blossoms at the creature but it sends the attack back to all of us. The beast bathes the room in a blue light, this is not good. The beast then shoots Amon and I with an energy field from his eye and I black out. I come to and the beast is dead and my companions are happy. We split ninety five gold and the one hundred gold I found. The dungeon then faded around us and we were back in the room we first entered the dungeon in, with our hands on the blue orb. Odinson was there and asked us what we have learned. Each of us had a different answer. He then said as he suspected and we are allowed to continue our initiation training. I was pleased with our party. I think we worked well together. However Cassio is beyond annoying, although he had his uses. I feel like I will be stuck with him more than I would wish. For the love of the gods his head is the size of the entire Magistry! I am excited to keep learning and growing in the magistrey, I know I can do better and Thasitalia, who I apprenticed under to become a druid, would want me to work harder, but she would be proud.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               

 


Recollections by Sakura
===Prelude===
Recently we've been hearing that something strange has happened within the Training Dungeon ([[Amber]], [[Baern]], [[Bimpnottin]] and [[Bree]] reported this). Upon further investigation, we found out some of the details:

*No mission when the training dungeon starts
*Very odd and misshapen creatures, rather than the expected humanoids
**Frogs with eye stalks and other odd things like this
**Resembled pieces of different creatures and created a single grotesque creature

We needed to talk to a higher authority and sought out an audience, but the Red was the only one available, she's not particularly helpful and hates the concept of the training dungeon, however she did tell us something very useful - something from the real world or another plane could possibly affect what is shown within the training dungeon!

Our little group of [[Cassio]], [[Ci]], [[Ember]], [[Rezik]] and myself quickly noted that Cassio is likely to die if we don't find a more capable healer to join our investigation and the unknown of this investigation is quite dangerous. We found and enrolled Yevelda to join us.

===Training Dungeon===
We were told that there are no instructions when the dungeon starts, but that seemed to have been an overstatement. There were, just not in any language that anyone present had ever heard. Something is definitely wrong.

The initial hallway is rather short and ends at a wall, which of course is illusory. Lacking a better option, we simply barge through. I'm sure readers of this recount are ''shocked'' that some of our group would opt for this /eyeroll. If you really were shocked, please go back and read Cassio's other adventures. We immediately enter into combat as we encounter many of the grotesque frog like creatures that Battlehammer had mentioned to us. I immediately need to resort to harnessing the powers of the Wild and invoke the Tides of Chaos. Magic is truly wild and wonderful. Once we've dispatched these aberrations, our investigation leads us to believe that they are somehow related to beholders and each of them posses two eye stalks.

We decide to alter our approach from here on in and I invisibly proceed ahead to scout, while mentally linked with Rezik. I'll keep this brief. We encountered and killed a cackling ghost and exploring the castle we find a massive, pieced together grotesque creature sitting on the throne.

===The Walker===
Immediately after encountering this "King" I find a Mindwitness who calls himself The Walker. I immediately tell the party to kill it, having encountered a similar creature before, however before we're able to vanquish it, it manages to shoot odd beams all over the castle, which wakes up the sentries, including this "king." This aberration manages to stun the entire party in quick order, though I feel as if I was within moments of killing it (hard to tell honestly), and we wake up without our equipment within the cells that we had passed earlier.

===The Escape===
[[Amon]] finds us and releases us from the cells. We didn't have time for chit-chat to find out how he got here and how he managed to survive alone. We find a small chest that contains an odd glass plate (we take this of course).

===The King===
I continue to scout for the group while the rest of the group is locating our equipment. I quickly return as this "King" seems to still be awake, despite The Walker being dead. We equip ourselves and go up a different path, however the aberration is ready and attempts to surprise us as we attempted to sneak up on it. We were much better prepared and quickly dispatched of this grotesque creature.

===The Far/Outside===
Upon investigating, Rezik discovers that this creature is from the "Far," or the "Outside," which is something that he read about in a book recently. It is known as the space between planes. Rezik says, and I quote as this seems quite relevant:

:''It's the here there be dragons territory where the dragons are made of fish sticks made of crystallized screams of the sound of purple and the flavor of jealousy, or at least that's the closest your mind that is bound up in multiversal thinking and perception can come to comprehending it.''

===Completion===
We attempted to rest several times, but kept on being interrupted by aberrations of one sort or another. Finally after 3-4 tries we're able to rest and shortly thereafter we encounter a fucking mind flayer. These creatures are extremely dangerous. Thankfully they were not accompanied by beholders. I thought we would die here, and Cassio nearly did a couple of times, but I saved his skin by slaying the mind flayer with my clever and wild magic. The mind flayer was accompanied by a pesky golem, who we dispatched second. As soon as it died, the dungeon faded and we returned to our bodies.

The only additional note that I can provide is that the items in this dungeon were not normal. Carpets made of water, tables made of lead or paper. Just odd, all of it.

==Recollections by Rezik==
It sounded simple - "go check the training dungeon, something is wrong with it" - that's what they told us (kind of). I joined up with [[Cassio]], [[Ci]], [[Ember]] and [[Sakura]] ([[Amon]] was supposed to be with us but I'm certain he got drunk and overslept again) and we started to discuss how we would tackle this problem.

We started by trying to learn more from someone at the Magistery, but Highest Liandrin was the only person available. She wasn't too helpful and really didn't find the concept of the training dungeon as a useful tool. ''(Important note: she has red silk sheets on the walls...)'' We did learn that the dungeon is run by a magical artifact and that it's possible that something is corrupting the magic.

I recommended we talk to the first group that actually experienced the issues with the training dungeon. We knew [[Baern]] would be at the pub, so that's where we began. He let us know that when they entered the dungeon, they were attacked my multiple monsters and had to leave right away.

We finally decided it was time to enter the dungeon. Realizing that it would be better to be safe than sorry, we enlisted [[Yevelda]] to join us ''(Important note: Not all clerics are healers)''.

As soon as we entered the training dungeon, we knew something was wrong. The instructions that the dungeon projected were in another language, almost garbled.

We kept moving forward, through the initial illusory wall, where we encountered our first set of monsters. We saw the misshapen creatures that Baern had told us about. Thankfully, our group was able to quickly dispatch them. We recognized them as related to beholders and definitely deadly.

Not wanting to be ambushed by monsters again, we decided it would be best if we instead had someone begin to scout the dungeon. Sakura used invisibility and a telepathic mind link with me to begin exploring the dungeon. 

As he explored, he came across a room with caged animals (one of which was a werewolf) and then encountered a ghost like monster. The ghost seemed to be able to see Sakura, so he quickly came back to the party. 

Once Sakura arrived, we began to discuss our best next steps on how we might be able to handle the ghost. It wasn't long before the ghost descended through the ceiling and attempted to attack us. Thankfully, Cassio, was able to dispatch him ''(Important note: Cassio is an interesting person)''. 

We then began our journey upstairs to where Sakura encountered the ghost. It was here that we ran into a grotesque monster sitting on a throne. It almost seemed like this monster was put together with random body parts. It wasn't moving or breathing so we continued on, exploring the rest of the floor. 

As we opened a door, we were beset by a Mindwitness. Knowing how dangerous these can be, we quickly began to attack it. Before we could dispatch the Mindwitness, it shot beams throughout the castle. We believe these beams woke sentries throughout the castle, including the grotesque monsters on the castle. 

We were able to kill the Mindwitness (thank you Yevelda), but the entire party was then stunned by the grotesque monster. As the last party member was stunned, monsters rushed out of every door on the floor, scooping up each of us and transporting us to a dungeon on the first floor. 

It was here that Amon finally decided to join us. As I'm making my way out of my cell, Amon appears with keys. It appears that Amon entered the dungeon late and was forced to kill our jailers to reach us. Better late than never, I guess. 

We searched the area and found our gear, along with an odd glass plate in a chest of glitter. We take this just in case. 

Sakura begins to explore the dungeon again, to help us figure out if anything has changed. We realize that the grotesque monster from before is still very much alive and moving. We hoped to be able to bypass it, but as we explored the other paths, we realized a fight was definitely coming. 

We stealthily made our way up to the monster. This time, since we were prepared and focused on the monster, we were able to quickly kill it. As I investigated the body, I realized that this wasn't a normal monster it - it seemed to be something that could come from "The Far" or the "Outside". There was a quote I read in a book recently that stands out: 

<blockquote>It's the here there be dragons territory where the dragons are made of fish sticks made of crystallized screams of the sound of purple and the flavor of jealousy, or at least that's the closest your mind that is bound up in multiverse thinking and perception can come to comprehending it.</blockquote>

Feeling exhausted after the fight, we attempted to rest, but each time were beset by monsters. After making camp about 4 times, we were finally able to actually rest. 

That's when we began our final ascent to the top of the castle. It's here that Cassio and Ci (the head of the party) first saw the Mind Flayer, Zahn. We knew this fight would be difficult. We fought valiantly, almost losing Cassio twice, but thankfully we were able to kill Zahn and his golem. 

As we did, the dungeon began to fade. We quickly attempted to grab what we could - I found an amulet - it had Zahn's name on it in Deep Speech, but as the dungeon faded so too did the amulet. 

When we spoke to Melvin about the dungeon he seemed annoyed as always. Even when we told him the Mind Flayers name, he seemed to know who he was, but told us nothing. I'm going to have to go back to the library and learn more about Zahn and the "Outside". 

Important Note: Can we bill the Magistery for fixing their training dungeon? Will there be a reward?