Editing Game-Summaries:11/17/2018 Recollections (section)

==Recollections by Ember==
Jeroy, Cassio, Pearl, Amon, and I train with Ci on the Sanjiu keep grounds all morning. During our training I notice someone approaching. As this person comes closer I can tell it is an old man dressed in wizards robes, a fine long sword at his side, plus a walking stick. I immediately let my party know of his approach. Ci and Cassio decide to go meet the man and they are close enough that I am able to hear the conversation. Cassio first boasts of his greatness to the man. I feel my morning breakfast come up my throat a little. The man pays no mind and I can't help but giggle. Somehow though I don't think this will even register with Cassio's large ego. The man says the Seer told him where to find the group responsible for cleaning up Fort Malto and facing Imprazel. Cassio confirms this information. The wizard then asks a curious question, why did we do it. Cassio then explains to him about the chaos curse and then says "You may know who we are, but who are you?". He introduces himself as Steel. Ci then asks what his interest is in Fort Malto and Imprazel is. He tells us Imprazel is causing havoc in the Frost Guard Sound and he needs our help to stop this. I am suspicious so I cast a spell to see if he is telling the truth. Once the spell is complete I do believe him and let the discussion continue. Ci then invites him into the keep to continue the discussion in private. We all head to the war room. Once we are settled Ci asks what information he has for us. Steel says he knows very little but that we definitely need to search for Imprazel.  He also explains to us that there will be a Giant summit between the Stone and Frost Kings. He says we need to stop this at all costs. Cassio asks him if he will be traveling with us and he says yes. I am very excited at the prospect of having a very high level wizard with us, it will be very beneficial. He says he is happy to teleport us there and back, but we probably won't want him to teleport us back. Jeroy is curious about this and asks why. He explains that our paths will probably diverge and we will be close to catching Imprazel and we will want to pursue him.

Steel reaches out his hand to us to make the teleportation circle. We accept and teleport to the Sound. It's a shock of biting bitter cold as we emerge in the Sound. I've never felt anything like it. It's so incredibly beautiful yet dark and ominous. There is ice and snow as far as the eye can see and no sun to be found. Steel tells us the summit will be held a quarter mile South East at dawn. He also explains to us that each King will have five companions. We begin to head to the meeting spot and discuss a course of action. Us against 12 Frost and Stone Giants, including two Kings will not go well if we don't have a plan.  

We discuss the makeup and weaknesses of Frost and Stone Giants as we travel.  We remember Frost Giants are made of snow and frost and are vulnerable to fire. We also remember that their beards are coveted and were used for the Chaos curse. As for Stone Giants they are more reclusive and are crafters with no known weaknesses. We discuss all our options and the best course of actions seem to be suggestions from Jeroy and Cassio, I'm just as surprised as you are! It took us an exceedingly long time to come up with a plan, but it seems like our best option. The plan is to keep them divided and dig holes big enough for the Giants to fall in, taking them out of the battle. The holes will be covered by hallucinatory terrain so they can't avoid them. Steel tells us his sword is called Steel Wind and we will see what it can do tomorrow. Personally I hope it kills Giants with one poke! However I doubt it. 

We decide we should scout both groups. So Ci goes to scout the Frost Giants and I change into an eagle and scout the Stones. While we are gone the rest of the party digs the pits. Once I reach the Stone Giants I can tell which is the King immediately. He appears to have a bunch of mechanical items attached to him. I can tell another Giant has a large wound and I believe I would easily be able to take him out instantaneously if I hit him in it. I fly back and relay this information to the party. Ci returns and tells us that the Frost Giant King looks like an abomination with many heads attached to his body and one of the companions is wounded. He feels the same as I do, that he can take down the companion if he hits him in the right spot. 

With preparations made we lay in wait for the Giants to arrive. We are all gathered in the middle of the ice shelf when they arrive and they are more then surprised to see us. We begin the battle immediately. Steal starts us off with his magical blade wounding 5 Giants at once! Then Jeroy, Cassio, Pearl and Amon are all able to knock a Giant each into a pit. I am so thankful 4 of them are out of this fight. Ci then skillfully kills the Frost Giant with the wound as I do the same to the wounded Stone Giant with my black flames. Steel then tries to disengage with the Stone King, but I see a strange look in his eyes and believe he is charmed. So he sends a disintagrate beam to the Frost King and the King's skin begins to peel off. Jeroy then goes into a barbarian rage and goes after the Stone King but misses. I then hear him calling for his ancestral guardians and he barley damages the king with his axe. 

I then hear blood curdling screams which I realize is coming from all of the Frost King's heads and I feel a looming sense of doom as his wounds begin to close! What in the world!?!?! He then appears to be raging and slams his great axe on Cassio. Cassio is wounded but retaliates Screaming "Cassio" striking his flaming sword into the King. A divine light comes blasting out from the Kings spine and he falls dead. I am thankful for Cassio in battle, but those words will never pass my lips! Pearl then drops the closest Frost Giant into a hole and he is out for the count. Another down, thank the Gods! Amon then sends his blessings on most of us. We definitely need all the blessings we can get, thanks Amon! The Stone Giant then flashes the group a vicious smile and touches Steel on the forehead turning him to stone! He then grabs Steels stone body and presses him into his flesh and he is absorbed. Just like that, in a single instance our strongest party member is out for the count and I feel the world crashing around me but resolve to fight harder. He then picks up Jeroy and slams him into the ground, but Jeroy manages to stand up only suffering a small amount of damage. That is one tough little dwarf. One of the Frost Giants plucks a boulder from his belt throwing it at Cassio. It hits him, but he keeps going. Ci then sends flaming arrows, which I made for him, at one of the Frost Giants and one arrow hits. The Giant retaliates by throwing a rock at Ci which misses. Another Giant goes after Cassio and slams him with it's axe. The Giant misses at first, then lands a blow. Garnet, now a wrymling sends his fire breath at two of the Giants scorching their skin. Jeroy goes after the Stone King again missing at first then lands his axe in it's flesh. Then to the surprise of all of us, the Frost King's bones begin to knit together, he stands, and slams his axe on Cassio. Cassio is ready for this and has casted a shield over him and heals his wounds. Pearl then casts her flame waver hitting the King and the Giant in front of Cassio. Her flame wave kills the King and throws the other Giant backwards. The Stone King is growing more angry by the second and he bludgeons Jeroy. Good thing Amon had just healed him. The Stone King then moves to Garnet because one thing Giants hate the most is dragons. Especially a dragon that is killing them. Ci shoots his flaming arrows at one of the Frost Giants almost killing him. Another tries to slam his axe on Garnet but misses. I decide we need the Stone King out for the count for a time so I poly-morph him into a rat. Garnets flames then burn two of them. The Frost Kings bones knit back together once again, he stands, and throws a huge rock at Cassio. Whats with this guy?!?! Cassio then attacks the Giant next to him sending him to his grave. He then attacks the Frost King almost killing him once more. That honor goes to Pearl this time as she casts her wall of thorns through several of the Giants and the King, killing him once more. She then tries to run out of the way and the Frost Giant that is closest to her grapples her and she is unable to move. Amon then uses his staff to age the Giant holding Pearl. This seems to backfire as the Giants muscles become larger. One of the Giant's pushes out of the wall and throws a boulder at me. It hurts a great deal, but I press on. Ci then shoots his flaming arrows but misses. He closes the gap and sends a fist and flurry of blows at it. The Giant holding Pearl does the unexpected and hurls her at me. We collide which hurts both of us but Ci is able to sneak attack him for us. Unfortunately my concentration is disrupted and the poly-morph spell fails on the Stone King as he turns back into himself. However I recast it and he once again turns into a rat. I vow to keep him like this until we are able to fight him all together. Garnet once again blows his fire breath burning two of the Giants. Jeroy's attacks one of them and misses, but hits on his second attack so he summons an ancestor. The Frost King's bones once again knit back together. He lurches himself out of the wall of thorns, but dies instantly. Thank the Gods! Cassio then moves in between two of the Giants, slashing them down to their deaths. Pearl and Ci then notice the sky is growing darker by the minute. They inform us all. The Giants in the holes start to unnervingly moan, this cannot be a good sign. The Frost King once again reanimates, but Ci shoots him down dead. I really wish this guy would quit the crap! Jeroy runs to the Frost King to carve out his heart so he can make a belt. He realizes four of the heads on it are still alive. The King would keep coming back to life if Jeroy hadn't taken his heart. Thank you Jeroy for wanting to craft a belt of Giants strength. All the Giants that are not in holes have been struck down so we circle around the Stone King getting ready to attack. Cassio is first and he charges the rat King with his flaming sword. The rat immediately turns back into the Stone Giant once Cassio has attacked. Luckily he takes a nice chunk out of him. Jeroy is the second to attack and almost takes him out. Ci is third and misses his first two attacks. He then runs up the King's body and punches him in the throat twice killing him. 

We then cut the stone Steel out of the Giant and I cast greater restoration on him and he returns to his flesh. Steel then looks up at the dark sky and says this is what he's been waiting for. We are all perplexed. I look up and see a huge shadow growing larger and larger until a massive red dragon emerges from the clouds. Steel immediately shields our party as the gigantic dragon blows fire over the entire battlefield killing the remaining Giants in the holes. She then turns to us and says "Thank you for that". She takes off and lands one hundred feet away firing the ground once again. We are again perplexed by this. Thanks to Steel we didn't turn into a pile of ash! He says that the dragons name is Vala and she has been seen around these parts. He then tells us this is where we part ways because he needs to see the Seer. He says he will return in two days and then teleports away. We had luck on our side today and remain whole to battle once more.


'''DAY 2'''

We rested and recuperated after our daring fight with the Giants and encounter with the dragon. Ci, Cassio and Jeroy kept watch throughout but it was uneventful, thank the Gods! Ci went and scouted the other area where the Great Dragon blew flame on the ground. Through my knowledge of Dragons I know that red dragons are generally evil, often times the most evil of dragons, and they are the most intelligent. This is why I am nurturing Garnet as much as possible. Jeroy also told us that dragon fire is used in Dwarven tradition to light their ademantiam forges.

We head over to the area and I see a crevasse one hundred feet down. Cassio also tells us he senses magic down there. We have Ci venture down first for stealthy reconnaissance. I'm honestly surprised he doesn't turn invisible with how stealthy he is. After he is done scouting he tugs on the rope three times signaling it is safe to go down.  It is surprisingly warm and exceedingly calm down in the crevasse, I find this unnerving. Nothing good has ever come from calm. It is very surprising to find foliage growing down here in the tundra. We see several trees and plants, 2 doors, and a break in-between the walls large enough for us to fit through. Ci tells us in his scouting he has put and ear to both doors. Through the right door he hears nothing and through the left door, nothing. However he points out the three sets of dwarven footprints going in-between the two doors and through the break in the walls. He asks Jeroy if this is common Dwarven construction. Jeroy says it is but that is seems confused. This worries me a great deal.

As we discuss what to do next, Amon takes it upon himself, before consulting with any us and opens the door on the right!! What the.... ! We see a room with a dining table, hear a cranking noise, and 2 bolts come flying out straight into his armor! Amon, Amon, Amon I thought as I shook my head and prepare for battle. We hear more cranking and shuffling within. Jeroy runs over and yanks Amon out of the doorway before another bolt comes flying in his direction, and narrowly misses. 

Ci immediately runs to the doorway with hands held high and says "friends, there is no need to fight". From inside we hear "state your business".  Ci tells them we hunt a great enemy of all the lands and two more bolts fly in his direction, but none take purchase. It's only at this point I see Amon pull the bolts from his armor and move away from the door way completely. I shake my head in disbelief and am amazed that it took this long. Jeroy says in dwarven "we mean you no harm". I believe I am the only one who understands this. They yell back "state your buisiness". Jeroy responds and tells them that we have killed the Giant Kings and that we have their hearts. He says we would like to make a belt of Giant strength. We hear shuffling and the tell us to stay where we are and lay down the heart and our arms. He removes a heart from his pack and shows them. Ever the most difficult, Cassio refused to lay down his arms. The Dwarves are none to pleased by this and as if it was magic, two Dwarves flank Cassio. I tell him to lay down his arms and and I am  ignored, big surprise. Somehow he always seems to get us in trouble. However, now that they are out in the open we can tell they are Gray Dwarves. We says we mean you no harm and they boisterously laugh. Cassio in his most annoying voice says he will not lay down his arms because he doesn't want to be robbed blind. Ci responds to him by asking him to lay down his arms because this is not a fight we can win. Then Cassio says "We won with the Giants" and I shake my head again at his sheer arrogance. However, I'm not surprised. What was with these men today? Jeroy then tells them we worked with the dragon Vela to help relight their forge. This seems to have some effect because the two Dwarves flanking Cassio lower their weapons. Jeroy then introduces himself. They tell us they don't trust us enough to give us their names but they do want to trade. They ask us how much we want for the Giant King heart and tell us we are welcome to come in and drink. Jeroy has to relay this to the rest of the party, besides myself. Then confers with us and we decide the heart is best traded for information. Jeroy and I then thank them in Dwarvish and have a seat at the table and have some ale. He then asks if he can use the forge to make his belt of Giant strength. They say we can use a smaller forge because the big one is being occupied. He inquires as to what it's being used for and they tell him it's none of his business. Ci then puts his hands on Jeroys shoulder and tells him to remember why we are here. We can see in this room and down hall it is filled with murder holes, just like the one that shot the bolts in Amon. We must be cautious at how we play this. Jeroy tells them we will trade the heart for information on Imprazel or how we can meet him. They seem to perk up at this. This can't be good. I am becoming more and more nervous the longer we are here. They ask if we know him and Jeroy says yes. He tells them we know the business with the Chaos Curse and seek an audience. They tell us to wait here and one of the Dwarves disappears down the hallway. After a few minutes the Dwarf returns and tells us Imprazel will see us now. Oh boy, here we go!

We are lead down several hallways by one Dwarf and have another at our rear. There are alot of statues decorating the hallways, but something seems off with them. We reach a door on the right and the Dwarf leading us tells us to wait again and he disappears into it. During this time, Amon had cast his see invisibility spell and tells us we have several invisible Dwarves around us as well. As we are waiting we quietly confer about what to do next. We decide it is in our best interest to kill the Dwarves guarding us before Imprazel comes out. Quietly and in a flash I cast faire fire so we can see the invisible. Amon then casts silence so we can kill them quietly and quickly. 

I see a Dwarf appear to the North of us and send Garnet after it. He blows his fire breath down the hallway and apparently killed three of them even through I only saw one. Three piles of ash littered the hallway. Ci moves to attack the Dwarf behind us. At first he misses but then sinks a killing blow crushing it's chest cavity with his sword. Cassio then swings at thin air with his rod of lordly might and crushes the skull of an invisible Dwarf. Who's corpse appeared after the killing blow. Then we were alone in the hallway, ready for Imprazel.

Once the Dwarves were all dead Ci scouted ahead and I conjured my polar bear. After some time Ci made his way back to us and told us there is another door around the corner that most likely leads to the chamber Imprazel is in. He also tells us that there are twelve monstrous machines down the hallway the other way. He says they do not appear to be active so we are safe for now. Cassio heads around the corner to the door Ci found.

The door closest to us opens and we see a golden staff thrown out into the middle of us. I recognize this is the staff of the Magi Ci had found on one of our expeditions. I know we are all doomed and headed for death if Imprazel has his way and destroys the staff. He then shoots a fireball at it and I close my eyes waiting for the angel of death to take me, but it misses! How in the gods did we just survive that?! Luck must be on our side this night. 

We hear a rattle and scream from around the corner and see one of the machines Ci had told us about come to life. I tell Jeroy about the staff and tell him to get it out of Imprazel's sight or we are all doomed. He then grabs the staff and charges into the room Imprazel came from. Pearl follows and we lose sight of both of them. 

I know we are in for a hell of a fight with this wizard Imprazel and bring out my best spells. I cast Blight on him and my necrotic energy washes over him doing some damage. My polar bear goes after him next, trying to bite but missing. However he slashes claws deep into the Wizard. Garnet moves up and tries to bite, but the wizard doges. Ci then flanks Imprazel with Garnet and tries to slash him with his sword and stun him several times. Several of his swords cuts hit, but he is unable to stun the Wizard. Out of nowhere we hear the famous "Cassio" shouted from around the corner. So I can only imagine he went head first into our enemies. At least he's good for something

We suddenly hear a giant explosion and the walls shake around us as stone dust falls from above. A second later Jeroy comes running from the door he went in carrying Pearl on his shoulder. I then see several of the monstrous machines pile around Ci, but I'm not worried about the Monk. One sends a drill into Ci, but he is unconcerned. I then hear shuffling coming from the South and can only assume more Dwarves are rallying. Imprazel is getting weaker by the moments with our attacks on him when he screams "The Chaos Curse has already been let out! You're too late you fools!". We are then enveloped in blackness and once the lights come back on he is gone. Coward. 

Pearl heads North to help Ci with the machines and brings out her flaming sphere on them. We hear a crying scream from inside the machine as it sputters and burns. Unbeknownst to us they are powered by the Dwarves inside. I then send a black flame to another and it agonizingly dies a firey death. My polar bear heads North and bites another to it's death. It tries to claw the next closest and barely misses. Garnet moves to them next and bites it to death. Ci's arrows take purchase in four destroying them. 

I have moved up the corridor and can see Cassio down the other hallway. He throws his dagger hitting a Dwarf straight between the eyes killing him. Two of the other Dwarves attack. One hitting and one missing, but Cassio doesn't seem to be phased. All of a sudden the last two Dwarves by him grow very large. Cassio kills the first large Dwarf and a second smaller one with his flaming sword. Then all of a sudden another large Dwarf comes behind Cassio flanking him, he is still unconcerned.

Jeroy goes back into the room he just emerged from with Pear and is out of sight one more. We hear the scuffling down the hall growing closer. Pearl takes the opportunity to conjure a wall of thorns just past the door Jeroy went in. All of a sudden we see a Dwarf run through the wall of thorns, turning into a bloody mist that sprays the hallway. We then hear the scuffling make it's way back into the distance.

I then get a scent of smoke and relay the information to Ci, Amon, and Pearl. My polar bear and I then head to the room Jeroy is in. Through the entrance I can see Jeroy jump on the Dwarf closest to him and slam it with a killing blow from his axe. The room is absolutely destroyed. I can only surmise Jeroy threw the staff in the forge and it decimated almost everything in the room. This is just as Imprazel intended, but too bad for him it wasn't us. We are still too far away to help Jeroy, but he seems to be managing just fine. The remaining Dwarves in the room send fire javelins at Jeroy, the polar bear, and  myself but they all miss. They are very weak little creatures thank the Gods. One of them begins to enlarge. Pearl enters at this point and burns the remaining Dwarves to a crisp. 

The three of us then begin to explore the empty room. We find shards of metal infused with crystals littered around. Then we find discs with the shards inside. Jeroy and I split the sixteen discs we can find to take back to the Magestry. As we make our way further in the room we come to an area with beds. Many are destroyed, but many are not. The beds contain metal golems that are quite ominous. There is a strange sigil on the chest and what looks like a space for the discs we found. I am more then thankful that Jeroy blew up this room and these were not able to be activated. He decides to drag one back to the Magestry. 

It appears the remaining Dwarves have fled since we have not found one during our exploration. I find what I believe is a prayer chamber which is filled with many strange stone idols.  I have never seen anything like them and make a sketch of one to take back with us. Jeroy, Cassio, Pearl, and I head down to one of the lower levels and find what looks like a vault with a golden door. There is no handle or key hole or any way for us to get inside. Pearl decides to use her magic to see if there are any traps on the door. Good thing she did because she told us there are glyphs warding the door. See saved Cassio from another certain death because he was ready to ram the door with his rod of lordly might. 

The rest of the party meets up with us and we head down to the lowest level. It opens up into an underground cavern with a shallow stream. In the middle of the stream is a mechanical tank contraption that looks like a crab. I don't trust this at all and keep my distance. Ci and Pearl are brave and decide to get inside. All of a sudden we see the crabs legs go inside the body and extend. Next the front window opens and closed and we see the two of them inside. The two claws extend and retract. Then all of a sudden it violently grabs and snaps the tiny dock in two in front of it. It then swims forward, backwards, right, and left. It's two eye beams shine and extinguish next. It starts to sink then pops up and we hear the rear hatch open and close. We decide it poses no threat at this point and it will be a great asset to us, so we take it back to the Magestry.  

We all pile into this contraption, Garnet cozied at my feet and we head for the sea with Pearl at the controls. We follow the stream for sometime making our way out to the Sea and heading back to Solace. It takes us fifty one days to get back to Solace. This is the most trying and excruciating excursion I've ever been on. Fifty one days in a metal box with Cassio!! It is New Years day when we arrive and I survived the journey by the skin of my teeth. I am so thankful we are home. I jump out of the machine away from my companions, I need some solitude after this. However I realize this is a fever dream as our rings begin to glow gold signaling us to meet in the main chamber. As we enter the main chamber we see all, and I mean all the Magestry leaders along with a woman in a ornate dress I have never seen before. I am very worried about what this signifies.