Game-Summaries:8/26/2017 Recollections

Recollections by Ci

The Study teaches us that there is no honor in the taking of a life, and that all living things are part of the same oneness, and yet...these Shòurén - these Orcs. They do not respect life of any kind, not even their own. Is not the world more whole with their absence? Are they not more like a blight on the living, than truly living themselves? A mockery of life, rather than one of it's myriad expressions? So many of the monks of my order believe, though Grandmaster Kain disagrees. I cannot find in these creatures any spark of the divine that Yanji teaches us is in all living things. I think of the horrors visited upon my parents by creatures much the same.... but no. That path is the path of despair... the path of anger. It is not the path of the Study, and down that dark road, I must not go.

During our encounter at the orc camp. I dispatched a great many orcs... a few from quite a distance. I felt nothing... no pang of regret as I do when I apply my skills against even the worst beings of the sentient races. However necessary, violence against another is always to be regretted. Yet as my arrows sped from my bow and the orcs fell, I felt no more than I did while tending the garden at the monastery. My bow was like my scythe... removing the weeds, so that the crops may flourish. Two of these creatures even stumbled naked from a dirty hovel, clearly disturbed from rutting in the muck with each other. As they died, the thought that we had prevented another orc from plaguing this world pleased me.

What then did we learn from these orcs? That their encampment sought to forge a nest for a Dragon egg. The implications of orcs in possession of a Dragon egg are dire indeed. Such a thing could not be, but for some desperate purpose... but for whose purpose remains a mystery. Surely not the purpose of the orcs. They nurture no living thing, I was told. Even their own offspring are left to fight amongst the scraps left by their elders so that only the strongest among them survive. Some other agent is using these creatures as a tool, and any being that would make use of these things has not peace and prosperity as his goal.

After reporting this, and our observations of the cave system previously visited by others in our group, we were enjoined by Headmaster Danavus to continue to Kill them all. As I find no discord between this entreaty and my own path, I will endeavor to do just that.

Recollections by Kaylorr

9.14.345 CE

It’s been several weeks since I last updated this journal. I decided to join another investigation and met up with Ci, Cassio, Ember, and Amon. This time we were tasked to investigate an Orc encampment that may be related to the Kobold lair. I didn’t get a whole lot of new information with this new party as we traveled though. It seems like they have partied with each other previously since there was a lack of small talk among us but that’s OK.

It was a short trip via horseback thanks to Cassio and we made it to the encampment in no time. We found it was situated on a large hill with a lone watchtower keeping guard. We tasked Ci and Amon to dispatch the orc atop of the tower while the rest of us debated how we were to sneak into the camp. Ci easily took out the orc and we decided to create a diversion by having Ember light a tree on fire to allow Ci to sneak onto the tower. The plan worked for the most part however we were still spotted and all hell broke loose. I don’t remember too much of the fight as I came very close to meeting death and made a hasty retreat. Ember and Cassio both brute forced their way through the swarm of orcs bearing down on us and Ci had the high ground and covered us from above. We managed to take out a self-proclaimed Eye of Gruumsh, who we think was the de facto leader of this small band of orcs. With his last breath he warned Cassio that “It doesn’t matter if you kill me, there will be more.”

Battered and bruised, we all hunkered down to rest and pick our way through the camp. We didn’t find too many things of importance other than a bird’s nest made from charcoal left in a campfire/kiln and a large bag of owlbear feathers. Thinking back from the last adventure and all of my studying, I was able to deduce that this “bird’s nest” was more of a crudely designed dragon’s egg incubator. Horrified that there is something or someone out there trying to raise a dragon, we decided to visit the first kobold lair where Amon and I found the Red Dragon statue with the others. Upon our arrival, we found that the entire cave and sewer system was collapsed from somewhere within. Even more terrifying is that the depressions that we marked from our previous visit have continued and have moved even closer to Solace by another 100 feet or so. We brought all of this news back to the Magistery and were invited to a private conference with Headmaster Danavus. He is an intimidating man in his full plate mail and fiery Phoenix wings but the power emanating from him is everything that I am looking to gain. He informed us that the Eye of Gruumsh priests are nothing to fear and to be more diligent in magic detection in further investigations. Afterword, we tried to research some more on Red Dragons and owlbears in the library. We didn’t find anything else that we didn’t already know about Red Dragons, however, Ember found some speculation about using owlbear feathers in curses involving dreamcatching.

With that we went to collect our reward of 50 gold pieces each and one last bit of advice from Headmaster Danavus, “Continue to kill them all.” I couldn’t agree more…

Recollections by Ember

It is Octavia de Octerna of the 45th year of the common era in Solace this morning in the magistrey library. I meet with Ci, Amon, and Cassio again, oh great, Cassio. There also appears to be a new initiate joining our questing party, his name is Kaylorr Hawkins, a rough around the edges half elf favored soul. The quest we will be taking on is exploring an Orc encampment. It was possibly related to a kobold lair that was previously investigated. Cassio inquires about encampment to our oh so lovely clerk Melvin who once again manning the desk, as always he in uninterested annoyed by our presence.  Melvin reluctantly leaves and is followed by headmaster Danavus who debriefs us about the encampment and hopes for a successful return. He gives a rough location of the encampment which is two and a half miles away and the Kobold lair a half mile away. We then take our leave and begin our quest. Cassio as always takes the lead and boasts how he can persuade the guards to lend us horses for the journey, he says its a special talent. I however am doubtful and roll my eyes at his boasts. However he does, to my surprise, it is certainly not with charm or charisma, i suspect magic. We now have 5 horses for the day, which will make our journey much easier. We travel the two and a half miles and had to listen to Cassio regail us with stories of his glories of the battle field. I ripped two pieces of fabric off my cloak and stuffed them in my ears, it made the rest of the ride peaceful. We see the Orc encampment in the distance and get close enough as to not be seen and where our horses will be safe to leave while we clear it. We leave the horses and stealthily continue on foot, Cassio causes a bit of an issue in his armor, I want to slap him. When we are close enough I sneak up and see an unusual bond fire in the day and about ten Orc. One is lazily watching in the tower with a bow, I report this back to the compatriots and we form a plan.

We begin our attack. Ci begins and shoots the Orc in the tower in the eye and falls off, and no other Orcs seem to notice what happens. Hmmm, this is a good turn of events for us. Next Ci scales the wall and takes up post in the tower to to pick off Orcs with his crossbow. The others run to the entrance to begin battle. I then set a close by tree on fire with my black flames for a distraction and join the others. Kaylorr tries to set a tent on fire, but it burns a hole in the tent and plunks out. The Orcs still haven't noticed our presence, but they have noticed the Orc in the tower is no longer there. They don't seem to be the brightest creatures. My stomach gets the familiar knots as I fear the impending doom and the screams of "Cassio" as we battle. All the Orcs come at us at once, we fight them off one by one. Cassio cleaves 3 Orcs in half, and once again his ego is ablaze. Two Orcs run out of the tent naked, it is a male and a female, I can only imagine what extra curricular activities we interrupted, but they begin to fight as well. Then the Orc wizard joined the fray and we were in trouble. The wizard focused alot of his attention on me and wounded me terribly, but I stood my ground, I wasnt going down without a fight. Ci finished of the wizard with a swift arrow from the tower and we destroyed the rest of the Orcs in the encampment. We almost lost Kaylorr in this battle, but he was able to heal himself and all was well with the world.  

We then begin to explore the camp, starting with the bond fire. It is very bright, brighter then a normal fire, it seems to be magical. At closer inspection it goes underground to a chamber underneath. Amon then finds a ruck sack with owl bear feather. There are 15 to 20 bears worth of feathers in the sack. We then find something very curious that the wizard is holding. It is called an eye of Grumsh. of the worst quality and made of mud. We decided to burn down the camp so it was not able to be salvaged and restarted again. We stay in the camp for a long rest and every two hours someone takes watch, nothing of interest happens. My nightmares of the past were wild while I rested, and I felt a sense of dread when I awoke, so I was thankful for nothing worse happening. The fire had subsided, but not burnt out completely and was still incredibly hot when we were finished with our rest. We were finally able to examine the chamber. The inside was deprived of oxygen and it looked like something was being cured. I create ten gallons of water to douse the fire enough for Cassio to pull our a charcoal birds nest which was not hot to the touch. We think it has something to do with the feathers. They put the feathers in the nest, nothing happens it just chars them to dust. I help Kaylorr with my Arcana and he and I realize this is a way to birth a red dragon. This cannot be good, I have a sense of impending doom and know the Magestry needs to know of this at once.

We make our way back to the horses and head a half mile back to the Kobold lair. When we arrive, we keep our distance, but we see no Kobolds on guard, so we head for the secret entrance. We see divets and in ground and think they are possibly Kobold tunnels. They have moved and are still moving, we think they are creating more. As we approach the secret entrance we discover it is caved in. It appears the Magistry has taken care of this. We then make our way to the main entrance and find the same, all hallways are caved in. However, it looks like this has happened from the inside.

We head back to the Magestry to give our report and return our horses. Once again Cassio regales us with tales of his triumphs. I'm so glad I have those pieces of cloth for my ears, once again the ride is peaceful, I take a huge sigh of relief. Lucky us Melvin is still at the desk. With an air of superiority and annoyance he brings us to headmaster Danivus, who is house of the red. We enter his his chambers and his is at his desk, it is wreathed in flames . He turns to face us wearing gleaming plate mail like I've never seen and has phoenix fire wings extending from his back. I am beyond intimidated and bow my head in respect and fear. Cassio surprisingly the pillar of respect, steps forth and begins to tell him with the tail of our adventure, he seems to enjoy this headmaster thoroughly, he is practically glowing. Headmaster Danivus then yells at us for not thinking to try and detect magic on the nest. He then sees we feel defeated, Cassio looks like he is about to cry, I want to giggle at this, but I know laughing right now is the worst idea ever, so I hold it in. Headmaster Danivus sees slight worth in us in the fact that we did defeat twelve Orcs, one being a wizard and we are dismissed.

We then return to the library and research dragon incubation and owl bear feathers. I find a reference of animal parts that are used in curses. Headmaster Danivus did end up leaving us two hundred and fifty gold to split among ourselves and a note that said continue to kill all of them. We were pleased with our quest, and I am pleased with my progression in the Magestry. Onto the next.