Game-Summaries:2/16/2018 Recollections

Recollections by Ci

Yet again I find myself at odds with my Master's teachings. We set out to track down and stop a cell leader of The Black Ice Gang named Valas that we suspected would be sending a party to the ruins of Old Solace in search of an ingredient for this mysterious Chaos Curse. These dark elves certainly seem to have sinister intentions for Solace, and the Magistery certainly considers them to be an intolerable race, but I remember Zifu Poe on the day I left the Temple of Shan Sua:

"Will the earth fall away from under their feet? Will the sun, shining on all else, withhold light and warmth from them? Will water turn to mud when they stop to drink? If sun, and earth, and water refrain from judgment, who am I to withhold the same?"

Yet, as approach two Drow sentries, I hear the words of Master Fēng in my head, as I often do: "The seeds of hatred destroy themselves. The bow is but the instrument." The knowledge of their actions on this plane, make my blood boil... as I loose my arrows and watch the first fall, I feel like the hand of justice. When we capture and interrogate the second, however, I find a being who is, while cruel and self-interested certainly, not as irredeemable and war-like as we were led to believe. I remember a small boy, orphaned and scarred, witness to unspeakable tragedy, who might have turned out much the same had he not been taken in by the Monastery, and set on the path of The Study. That is ancient history, however, and our problems were more immediate.

We descended into Old Solace and found the operation to gather Rust Monster saliva well under way. We thought to destroy their cache before moving to find the leaders, but we were discovered.As our Bard companion, Callie Tealeaf dispatched the first Drow in short order, we decided to press on before we were discovered again. We quickly encountered two more Drow who proved to be little challenge. One ran away, and the other fell to our blades and our fire quickly. The third Drow however, having been altered to our presence, proved to be another matter. He leapt through Ember's magical flames as if they did not exist, and overcame my defenses quickly. Wielding two glittering swords, he nearly felled me with his first attack. With some timely healing from Callie and Ember, I managed to stand my ground, and with help from our entire party, this self-proclaimed Champion of Valas, was defeated. We had not yet faced our our most dire test however, for waiting in the next room was Valas himself.

Again we seemed to face a Drow Mage of considerable power. I begin to wonder if magic users dominate the culture of these Dark Elves, as we have found them as the leaders of each the cells we have encountered. Valas unleashed spells to poison us and slow us down, but I would not now be stopped! I rushed ahead to disrupt his casting, and we managed to bring him down. With his magic now dispelled, bringing down the rest of his companions was a trivial matter.

If I had felt some compassion for these Drow before, that ended when I saw the locals they had enslaved to do their bidding here underground. I shed no tears for enslavers of men. One who would keep another like chattel, has left the path of life behind and declared himself an ally of evil and an enemy of all good beings. We freed the townspeople, destroyed the cache of saliva, left the docile rust monsters unmolested, and collapsed the tunnels that the Drow had used to gain access to them. It might have been a futile gesture, given the many points of access to Old Solace and the numerous quantity of rust monsters throughout, but we have at least thwarted this attempt, and eliminated yet another cell of Drow here in Eomas.

The less said about our adventure AFTER returning to the Magistery, the better. It is enough to say that our curiosity far outstripped my tracking ability, and that the Magistery underground is vast and featureless.

Recollections by Jeroy

Jorg, Cassio, Ember, Ci, Callie the bard, and I (me?) prep for a battle in search for the mage Valas. Based on the research our team has done we are told that the drow are assembling below Old Solace ruins. Valas is supposedly harvesting rust monster saliva for nefarious purposes. We head to the entrance of the cave to the east of Solace and find the old ruins. In our search we discovered two people standing over a small hole approximately 1,500 feet away. Ember and Ci begin to sneak up on them. As they approach Ember becomes a mouse to move as quiet as a...umm..[Insert a quiet animal as a metaphor later]. She manages to overhear their conversation in undercommon and realizes they are Drow on watch.

Ci tries to flank them as Ember sneaks up to cast entanglement. I go with her if the fight is brought upon on. As we approach (epproach?) Ember steps on a branch which snaps in a loud crack, we freeze. The Drow turn to us, we have been discovered. I step in front of Ember and take out Soulmate as Ci lets two arrows fly over our heads. Ember casts entangle which ensnares (ansnares?) on the Drow. Ci's arrows plunge into the eyes of the other Drow killing it swiftly. The second Drow tries to break free but falls over. As it lies on the ground I dash forward at full speed and Ci charges to join the battle. Cassio and Jorg do not run well, more like a light jog but they assure (essure?) us that they are on their way. Ci draws his spear and with the blunt butt end he throws it to hit the Drow in the head. He tried to stand again but falls as I continue to charge with all my effort (affort?) Ember now turns into a bear (druids are entirely tooooooo magical), and tries to sit on the Drow's chest to pin him, but misses. But in his effort to avoid being pinned Ci is able to knock him out. I take a crossbow and 20 bolts from the dead Drow, he certainly won't need it anymore, and inspect the hold. There is a hatch and a small cave opening. The hatch looks solid but the cave looks as if it will cave in at any time. We interrogate the Drow and quickly gives up the game that he is with Valas. I gasp. According (Eccording?) to the Drow they have been in the cave for 12 hours harvesting the saliva of rust monsters. Jorg asks what is left on the list of ingredients but he doesn't know. He tells us that there is a portal a few hundred miles southwest of Solace, and that is the only way from this plane back to their plane but there are hundreds that bring them to this plane from their homeworld. He also tells us that they are not the only Drow in this plane in search of these ingredients. We tie him to a tree.

Our group enters the cavern, it is a long earthen (aarthen?) corridor with homes that were once standing free but are now buried. Only the fronts are visible from these tunnels. I enter the first house and find a dead rust monster. The house is filled with barrels of rust monster saliva. The group decides to break the barrels to prevent them from being used for nefarious purposeses. We agree that we need to get the other barrels out of the cave and form an assembly line moving the barrels out of the cave. Suddenly a commoner comes around the corner and sees us. Callie convinces him to help us move the barrels then quickly and quietly kills him. As she slowly plunges her knife into him I see a small smile, as if she enjoys seeing the life drain from the poor soul. I continue to check each home but have nothing to show for my search except for a small miniature of ship. I take it with me as I feel a strong connection to it, as I say to it "i'll never let go."

The tunnels are becoming narrower such that we must pass in single file. I stand at the front of the line, reach to charge and defend my friends. No sooner do I turn a corner are we spotted by a Drow and the battle is on. I charge to the Drow and launch a Javelin into his side. Ember spots a second drow and casts a fireball that burns him badly but he escapes deeper into the tunnels. As he runs he announces our presence. The Drow I hit with a javelin slams his hammer into the ground and our group beings to glow purple. Ci quickly slices him twice with his sword and dispatches him. We re-form and move deeper into the tunnel, suddenly a booming voice is heard and a fearsome warrior charges from the darkness, this is Valas' (Valas's?) Champion. The champion burst through the fire, seemingly unaffected (uneffected?) buy the fire's fury and brandishing two short swords. My first thought was, "I want those short swords, I will take them when he is dead." I charge in a barbarian rage and with a powerful stroke from my soulmate I cut into his flesh. Cassio draws his sword, utters something about him "being great at this", slashes into the champion and then shoves him into the fire. The champion is knocked to the ground and drops his short swords but quickly draws two crossbows. His bolts fall true and into Cassio's face who utters something about "being too good for this to happen to me" and falls unconscious. It seems like he is narrating his actions out to someone, but I have no idea who is or would be listening to him. Ci quickly draws his sword and slashes the champions throat to dispatch him. Cassio is revived and announces we have nothing to fear now that he has returned" but I feel he is best as a pin cushion for arrows.

I enter the next room and immediately see another Drow, I launch a javelin in my rage which knocks him back. A mage suddenly casts a cloud that envelops us in acrid and poison. It is noxious and other vocab words I find related to "poinson." Jorg, noble and brave, walks through the cloud tries to speak with Valas, but black tendrils come from the floor and ensnarl (ansnarl?) him. "It appears he doesn't want to talk" I think to myself, "Perhaps a merging of the minds with my Soulmate could help." This is a clever way of me saying that I will bash in his skull with my ax. Nimble Ci dashes through the poison cloud and slashes into Valas, crippling him. Cassio kills the last Drow and then poses. I charge through the cloud, draw my crossbow and launch a bolt into Valas' shoulder. Jorg slips by the crippled Valas and from behind draws a powerful swing that cuts off one of his legs. The mage is looking to be on his last breath and we feel the battle is nearly won. Valas in his last desperate act casts out tendrils of lightning that fills the hallway killing Jorg. Poor Jorg. Ci finishes the battle killing Valas and the poison cloud is lifted. I begin to ransack anything I can find. Trinkets, two potions, a scroll, old clay pots, I could go on forever but I hear from the farther into the tunnel a tense discussion.

We have found a commoner who is scarred stiff. We approach and speak with him. He says that he cannot leave as they are harvesting the saliva of three rust monsters by feeding them powered metal. We tell the towns people to dump the rest of the metal as feed for the monsters and escort the towns people out. I collapse the tunnel in two places as we leave. The Drow we tied to the tree was still there as we exited and we camp for the night taking watches over the cave. I do more pushups. We speak with the towns folk and ask how they managed to find themselves in a cave collecting rust monster saliva. They said that the Black Ice Gang approach them in Solace looking for workers. They offer money and simple jobs with no questions asked.

We escort the Drow and the towns people back to solace. As we enter the Magistry a cleric, Tame, approaches and says that the Drow can come no further. We plead on his behalf that he is a decent fellow that has helped us on our quest and is just a pawn in a game of monopoly. Tame looks at me confused and I fear my metaphor has missed its mark. The Drow is taken to lightless, which sounds rather unpleasent, and we are taken to speak with Liandrin. Cassio can hardly contain himself and I hear a "knock" from within his armor. She tells us that the last ingredient they need for the chaos curse are beholder eyes which should mean something to me but I am fairly lost. We recount our tale and she is mildly pleased with how we dispatched Valas. As we leave we hear a bell from her desk ring and she leaves in a hurry. We look at each other and take off after her. She begins to move farther and farther down into the depths of Solace. So far that we are fully lost, down dozens of flights of stairs. She ducks into a hallway and into a door. It is a line of prison cells.

I try to pick the lock but it is magical, even after I kiss my lucky coin, but I am defeated. Cassio insists we leave but I knock on the door. We are surprisingly met by Tame, the cleric that took the Drow. I honestly don't know who was more surprised when he opened the door. I smile and ask if he needs any help but he only responds "No and leave" as he slams the door. We find ourselves lost in a labyrinth below Solace and are faced with the daunting task of attempting to find our way out. After 10 grueling days we manage to find our way back to the light. Liandrin is waiting at the top of the stairs, rolls her eyes at us and calls us idiots. Cassio's armor knocks again. She tells us that have sent an envoy to the nightshdke kingdom, a quest that is expected to take several days.

Recollections by Jorg

After the Assault in the Vault, Jeroy and Cassio dusted themselves off and followed Ci, Ember, and I to the discovered ruins of Old Solace. There, we ambushed 2 look-outs and one of them immediately began confessing everything he could to be released from our custody. Elyn the drow informed us that there are many different factions and operate without total compliance. Apparently, "the eyes" are next on the list for the Chaos Curse.

We descended the ladder and discover barrels of acidic saliva. We begin to remove the barrels for disposal, when a human commoner catches us. Callie persuades him to approach before dispatching him. We continue in and begin a fight through drow warriors.

Drow Tricks:

- marking opponents with Faerie Fire for future pain.

- hiring Solace's own impoverished citizens for labor

- knowing Common (why did I bother to Comprehend Languages?!)

- being decentralized and forcing other drow to work or die

- just wanting to return to Menzoberranzan (home?) and being very cooperative

- Lolth is a matriarch and a god?

Valas' Champoin hit hard, but Valas' wizardry was nearly too much. Valas calls to "get the commoners to the other portal", but we are too fast to allow any advantage. After defeating Valas, we discovered the drow were feeding the rust monsters metal dust and carefully harvesting their saliva. We evacuated everyone and collapsed this section of the Old Solace ruins in two places. Too bad we didn't find that other portal.

Elyn the drow was physically hurt by the sun and drew plenty of attention as we approached the Magistery. Cece, the guard had Jeroy fetch a Blue Justice, and Tane took custody over Elyn. Elynwas destined for the "lightless", whatever that is.

After reporting to Highest Liandrin of our findings, a bell sounds in her desk and we follow her to the depths of the Magistery. Over 60 levels of descent later, we are truly lost, but see Highest enter a door. Unable to pick the lock, Tane answers our knocking and bids us wait because they "have it handled". We leave immediately and rely on the survival skills of Ember and Ci to get us back.

10 days later...

At the top of the stairs, Highest Liandrin informed us that Ellen was of some use and an Envoy was sent to the Nightshade Kingdom that day. We should be hearing back soon.

Wait, what do you mean I can't enter the Wrestling bouts?! Do you have any idea who I am!!??!