Game-Summaries:4/27/2019 Recollections

Recollections by Iago

Before I begin my tale of our (mis)adventure, let me introduce you to some of my new friends and retainers. Meet the latest addition to our family, the Troupe of Bearded Devils. It is a full unit that came here to become thespians and I welcome their addition. They will thrive under my tutelage. Additionally they have also offered to join us in battle and they will be formidable indeed.

Word of Vanavichi has spread!

And now, sit down and listen carefully, for a story like this has never been told.

Our friend, Dereth, deems it useful to ask his god as to the possibilities of our mission, to bring Chandra back and I do not have to tell you how this goes.

A female voice echoes through Shanjiu Castle...

To be heard is the task of power divine,

Supremest wisdom, and primeval love,

Abandon all hope, ye who enter here

You may divine what you wish from that, what I hear is that Hell is where we shall go. It is a good thing that I know something of being in Hell! Ah, home, here we come.

We all travel to the Temple of Viviene and Wisakedjak tells us that he can aid is by in this venture. If we decide to go the route of entering the Labyrinth with our Souls, instead of our bodies, he will Raise us 2-weeks hence. And thus begins the ritual of entering the realm of the dead - I kill everyone and perform what may be my final song, a Song of Death. I weave the words of Kaylorr's prophecy and the words of Vivian into the song in hopes that eases our memory and passing into this realm.

All that is left is me and I commit, without hesitation, my final act and stab myself. Many times. I too succumb and enter the Labyrinth.

We "awake" to find each other, though our memories seems to fade. Quickly we all fade into the black shades and it is difficult to recognize each other. There is another being here!

The other being is Chandra! Time to leave, yes? No. That would've been far too easy. Chandra will not leave until she has proven herself and this is something that we collectively do not fully comprehend. She also seems completely dejected by this place, however after much discussion, I manage to convince her to join the adventure and attempt to prove herself. Chandra mentions that the only way out is to prove your mettle and we proceed to navigate the tunnels. There were a few lost souls, Shades, that we dispatched quickly and sent to their final rest.

Finally we discover something interesting! A secret area and we unearth a skull with eyes of emerald and teeth of emerald. I named him Emeralds and we move on with it in hand. It talks to us and might be useful. It can also see through the illusions that we cannot and is able to see our true selves, rather than the Shade appearance.

Avant and Dereth decide that they want to use Emeralds to eat a wall and then he attempts to do so, but it creates an effect that drains life from the two of them and yours truly! Oh the pain! Emeralds at this point is able to hover and move itself. Quite talkative too.

Navigating a few more tunnels we find someone who I address as Keeper of the Dead. We tell him that we're here to prove ourselves and he willingly accepts the challenge! Looks like we're going to find our way out finally, yes?

The fight proceeds and is largely boring, though the Keeper does manage to control our minds a bit. The interesting piece is where Emeralds kicks up a storm of dust, blinding half of us and then just "breathing" in the dust for quite a period of time. After what seemed like our down, Emerald Howls an ear-piercing howl and our foes are completely vanquished. Utterly gone. I felt the howl, deep into my bones and I fear that this could've been the True Death for us all, but we manage to survive. We also discover that this was by no means our trial as nothing happens, so we continue to explore and we find an opaque shimmering Veil. Beyond it we find the Grand Arena of the Labyrinth!

Within we witness an old human (yes, we can now see our true selves again, as the day we were born) fighting and single-handedly killing a Balrog! Incredible. He even survived the massive explosion that followed after the Balrog's death.

Leaving us no option, we decided to test our mettle and enter the arena after an hour's time. Of course, I decide to chat him up first, which turns out to be the right thing to have done. It was Danavus that we were addressing. After a quick round of introductions, we join forces to face a horde of red skeletons, who are utterly immune to fire, negating many of our abilities and sans weapons, this is a difficult fight. Danavus proves why he is who he is and destroys most of them quickly.

Now the real battle stars and we face a group of The Eternals. They are formidable and immune to most effects, thankfully fire affects them. I attempt to rally our side and sing a Song of Eternity

We are of the order eternal

We are of the Magistry

We are the defenders of the realm

From the ashes of lies the truth shall rise

The fire in Danavus' eyes goes out after hearing my song, and seeing the battle for a few moments decides that it is time. He gives the Spark of the Phoenix from himself and into Chandra. Danavus is no more.

Chandra, in fury, seemingly explodes and kills everything, including most of us (again). As the final Eternal falls, we hear the voice of the Raven Queen:

These are the Eternal armies, they herald the Apocalypse. Leave now and defeat them.

Instantly and jarringly we awaken to find ourselves returned to the world of the living, having proven ourselves in the eyes of the Raven Queen. Emeralds also came with us, though it (I'm not really sure he, she, it. All we know is that Emeralds is a Demilich) still looks like a skull with emerald eyes. He does tell us that he's going to go seek out his body, which lies some 3,000 miles to the East on an island where we can find him. Though we will need to introduce ourselves and remind him of this adventure so that he recalls who we are, as he is prone to killing all intruders.

And thus ends the tale that took us to the Raven Queen's Labyrinth and back.

Recollections by Kaylorr

Chandra is dead...or was...so was I...

As I sat preparing myself to go and search for Chandra myself, Avant finds me to tell me he put together a team to assist me. Dereth, Iago, and Loco are also there. We start out with Dereth speaking to his deity for guidance. We learn Chandra was indeed dead and her soul could be found in the Labyrinth where all souls go to await judgement. I then ask Wisakedjak for any advice he can give in hopes of bringing Chandra back to the land of the living. Though he has not heard of anyone coming back from the Labyrinth he says we do have two options to start our journey. The first, travel to The Nightshade Kingdom and bargain with The Raven Queen to gain access to find Chandra's soul and bring her back to the mortal realm. The second, under the supervision/protection of the First Weaver, we kill ourselves to quickly get to the Labyrinth and find Chandra.

We opted to go with plan 2. I guess you can say we decided to become some sort of [suicide squad]...

Our collective deaths were not easy or clean, for lack of a better word. We decided to use Dereth's temple as our point of recall and where the First Weaver can prep our bodies. Dereth tried to give me a clean soldier's death but all I remember was agonizing pain and then blackness. We then all awoke in a square room and everything looked covered in a weird black and grey haziness. We had none of our equipment or gear but still had access to our magical abilities. Iago still had his songs and sang to keep our spirits up. After getting our bearings we realize that Loco was missing and we all bore the same resemblance of a black shadowy shade looking thing. Fortunately, we also happen to enter the same room where Chandra's soul was waiting. She seemed to be a little more on edge than usual and was none too pleased that we came to help. Her goal in traversing the Labyrinth was to prove her worthiness and we've made a huge mistake in trying to follow her. I tell her even in death, I will follow her and pledge my service in hopes to atone for what I attempted when we were younger. After the brief reunion and introductions to the others, we find Loco right outside and we all begin the long and tedious trek through the Labyrinth. Our mission, find the Well of Souls and hope we can make it back

Time moves differently when you're dead. There was a lot of walking and backtracking but I guess that's what gives the Labyrinth its name. We had a couple of encounters with shades, allips I later learn, who seemed to pop out of the walls. Dereth and I shared the job of using Guiding Hand to navigate us towards the Well of Souls and we eventually find a hidden chamber containing a chest. Since none of us had any of our physical belongings, we were very curious as to who or what placed it there. Iago's curiosity got the best of him and immediately opened it where we find a very animated skull containing emeralds for eyes and teeth. The skull, who we all dubbed Emerald, says he doesn't remember how long he's been locked in there and doesn't even know that he's in the Labyrinth or even the Raven Queen. We start to hear voices emanating from somewhere within and as we get closer we stumble across another shade but this one seemed different than the others. This shade was a bit more powerful than the others and I don't remember most of the battle. All I remember is Iago or Avant sending Emerald to "eat him" and next thing I know there was a bloodcurdling scream and the shade was no more. After a brief rest, we finally make it to our goal behind some sort of bluish veil. with no hesitation, we all make our way through it and enter a massive arena. Below we see a man going toe to toe with a draegloth, and above us, the Raven Queen watching over the entire arena.

We took a quick rest as we watched the lone figure below defeat not only the draegloth but a massive Balrog single-handedly, who exploded destroying everything around it after it died!. We learn from one of the undead souls next to us that this man has been fighting for 6 weeks by himself. Chandra immediately decides to enter the arena to assist and we all follow suit. We make our way down to the arena below and after joining the man we find that it is Danavus, The Red and Headmaster of the House of Fire, himself. We try to give him as much info as we can since his disappearance but almost immediately the next fight begins and a fight it was.

The next enemy came in two waves and again my recollection of the fight is a bit hazy. I guess death and getting resurrected does that to you. The first, a squad of red skeletons with skin stretched tight armed with clubs and were immune to fire. Emerald lets out his magic scream and quickly takes out half of their number. Chandra and Danavus do their thing and we do ours and quickly take out them out. Wave 2 comprised of another squad of evil looking skeletons. Immune to radiant, force, sonic, and necrotic damage we seemed to have met our match. Danavus was their primary target and was immediately paralyzed. Chandra and Emerald were barely holding their own and the rest of us quickly lost all hope. All of a sudden, I felt embraced by warmth and safety and a presence surrounded me offering me a way out. I quickly look towards Chandra and I know from deep within she would not come, and so I deny this offering and choose to stay to fight and perhaps die alongside her. In a flash, that warmth left and I see my compatriots also chose to stay. As we made our final stand and readied ourselves for the inevitable, Danavus looks towards Chandra and I hear him tell her, "Find your mother, tell Pia they're coming." With that I see flame erupt from him and into Chandra and all that is left of The Red is a pile of ashes. Chandra, with renewed energy, explodes with fire and takes out the rest of our foes. As I tend to Avant and Iago we hear a booming disembodied voice say, "These are the Eternal Armies, they herald the apocalypse. You know now how to defeat them. Leave now and do so." and in a blink we are abruptly returned to our physical bodies back in the temple. Chandra is with us and her eyes alight with fire like Danavus' were, she quickly takes her leave. Iago goes searching for The Seal to tell her about our new enemy but she offers no other information. She also says if we even come across Chandra again to tell her that The Seal wants her library back as she now carries a massive wealth of knowledge within her.

Emerald surprisingly also makes the trip back. He claims he has an island some 3000 miles to the east of Solace and he thinks that's where the rest of his body is. He invites us that we can come looking for him if we wish to but to make sure we properly remind him of who we are or else he will try to immediately kill us. We also find that a full week has passed in the living world and I seemed to have gained some weight after coming back from death. I have heard tales of penalties from coming back from being dead and I guess I got lucky if my penalty was massive weight gain. Totally unsure about the others but I'm just glad we were able to make it back.

Since Chandra's death and I guess resurrection, I also find my powers have returned and I've once again become a Scion of Pelor. With my prophecy seemingly complete all I can do now is to help prep the Eternal Order for the impending doom. At the edge of hope and time, and as long as we choose to believe in ourselves and each other, we will face our enemies at our door and bring the fight to them. When that day comes, I believe we can [cancel the apocalypse...]

PS: I have an apprentice for my potion making. A new gnome buddy and his name is Zeph Three-Dice Roomples Poomples

A letter from Chandra

Dear Kaylorr and his friends,

I had been trapped in the labyrinth for what felt like centuries. All I knew were endless hallways and winding corridoors that went nowhere, in an unfathomable darkness broken up only by dispatching souls. Though I was dead, I still held the magistery library in my hands, and in between dispatching....no, killing--I guess I should come to terms with that now--I read, and I learned from your collected histories.

I have learned of the one you call Seal, and I learned of her honesty too. Vengochea grew up in an age of chaos...an age of legends. She has seen and lived more than I can fathom, and I would not so easily discount her opinion. she has seen the world untamed and chooses this instead. I have been in contact with Seer since the Collapse of Solace, and she tells me that you have come to favor the Conventicle with your presence. You should know both sides of the scale before you decide where your allegiances lie. I believe in the precepts of freedom and chaos, even if it means a certain level of danger. The Seal wishes safety and security for all good creatures. I respect that, I admire it even...and I disagree with it.

Good luck to you Kaylorr, and to your friends as well. Pelor was never my path, I will never again steal your spark. The Eternals come... I'll be there to fight with you when they do. Until then, I will find my mother, and perhaps others like me. The spirit of Imix, the primordial fire that lived within Danavus now shares a body with me. I feel his pain, his anger, his unfettered rage. I contend with it constantly, eventually it will take me, I have no doubt. Imix might burn inside me, but in the darkest of all places, you reignited my hope. I hope to see you again, someday soon.

Thank you,

Chandra

P.S. Enclosed you will find the Magistery Library. Simply read the scroll and it will reappear in a place near you. You should consult with those you trust before deciding where to place the entirety of the worlds' written histories.