Game-Summaries:9/21/2019 Recollections

Recollections by Jeroy

My compatriots recounted our adventure well. I have nothing to add on the adventure. I share the story of what I have learned since I returned to the keep.

The horn of valhalla was forged in ages long past, it is thought the iron that emblazons the horn is from dwarven hands, perhaps by Surtur himself, but the wood within is believed to be carved from a branch of Yggdrasil's roots that touch into the plane of the dead. It is believed that this is what gives it the power to call upon the aid of fallen heroes. Contrary to popular belief, the horn's most prized version is the original casting in iron wrapped around the branch, and in fact the more valuable metal versions are the fakes. Although definitively connected to many prophecies about the end of the world, it is unclear whether the horn has ever been blown, or what would come of it if it had, or whether the horn begets the apocalypse, of vice versa. Many fables are tied up around the horn, who actually rightfully owns it, who it was intended for, and even what powers it possesses. The only thing consistent with the lore around the Horn of Valhalla is that it will be called upon for Ragnarok.

As I study the tracings of the horn a ghostly figure appears beside me. He looks kind of familiar, but I can't quite place it. Although his lips move, he seems to speak directly into my mind. "Jeroy Lenkins. I know what it is you seek. I am Magni. When you should need aid, call upon me. We have many more battles before we fight in the Last Battle." Though he nearly transparent, I can make out some of his features. He is wearing a massive necklace of iron with intricate carvings, with markings similar to those of the Horn of Valhalla. Magni is one of Thor's two sons, but it was fabled that he would survive Ragnarok, and yet he is somehow a ghost already…Something seems awry.

Also Cordite has been busy researching the Delving Gear that we found in the Vault of the Night. In her research she has discovered something miraculous. Studying the Kundarak Warding gear and Kundarak Delving gear, we have learned about the master craftsmanship and obvious guildmanship involved in creating these pieces of adventuring gear, in many ways the skill is unmatched in anything we've ever seen. We found makers mark from dozens of crafts, enchanters, smiths, engravers, jewelers and gemcrafters. Everyone signs their own masterwork contribution, and all of the marks tie in a piece of artwork in and of itself, the sigil of House Kundarak. We learn less about the specific gear and more about House Kundarak through these symbols and old references to "Dragonmarks," House Kundarak operating under the Dragonmark of Warding, and that mark is seen everpresent on both the warding and delving gear. It appears to have many different forms and styles, but through this we have learned of the Dragonmark of Warding, but also of other Dragonmarks, and other houses too. Besides house Kundarak, none of them sound particularly familiar and information about them appears quite scarce, but we discovered a House Tharashk, blessed by the Dragonmark of Finding, and House Jorasco, blessed by the Dragonmark of Healing, House Deneith, blessed by the Dragonmark of the Sentinel, and finally House Phiarlan, blessed by the Dragonmark of Shadow. It's difficult to tell but it appears most of the other houses we have discovered are primarily human or elven in nature, only House Kundarak is primarily Dwarven, although something about the way it is described, all of these houses have some manner of interplay of races.

• Mark of Healing
  • The Mark of Healing manifests exclusively on halflings. If your character has the Mark of Healing, this is your halfling subrace.
  • Medical Intuition. When you make a Wisdom (Medicine) check, you can roll one Intuition die, a d4, and add the number rolled to the ability check.
  • Healing Touch. As an action, you can draw power from your dragonmark to spend one of your Hit Dice and revitalize yourself or a creature you touch. Roll the die, add your Wisdom modifier, and the creature regains a number of hit points equal to the total. Once you use this trait, you can’t use it again until you finish a short or long rest.
  • Jorasco’s Blessing. You know the cantrip spare the dying. Charisma is your spellcasting ability for this.
• Mark of Sentinel
  • The Mark of Sentinel only manifests on humans. These traits replace the human Ability Score Increase trait given in the Player’s Handbook.
  • Sentinel’s Intuition. When you roll for Initiative or make a Wisdom (Perception) check to notice a threat, you can roll one Intuition die, a d4, and add it to the ability check.
  • Sentinel’s Shield. You know the cantrip blade ward. You can cast shield once with this trait and regain the ability to do so after you finish a short or long rest.
  • Vigilant Guardian. As an action, you can designate an ally you can see as your ward. You have advantage on Wisdom (Insight) and Wisdom (Perception) checks made to spot threats to your ward. In addition, when you are within 5 feet of your ward, and that creature is the target of an attack that you can see, you can use your reaction to swap places with your ward. When you do, you become the target of the attack.
• Mark of Shadow
  • The Mark of Shadow only manifests on elves. If your character has the Mark of Shadow, this is their elf subrace.
  • Ability Score Increase. Your Charisma score increases by 1.
  • Natural Talent. You gain proficiency with one musical instrument or the Performance skill.
  • Gift of the Shadows. When you make a Charisma (Performance) or Dexterity (Stealth) check, you can roll one Intuition die, a d4, and add the number rolled to the ability check.
  • Shape Shadows. You know the minor illusion cantrip. Charisma is your spellcasting ability for this trait.
  • Slip Into Shadow. You can use the Hide action as a bonus action, even if you have no cover or if you’re under observation. Regardless of whether you succeed or fail, once you use this ability, you can’t use it again until you finish a short or long rest.

• Mark of Warding
  • The Mark of Warding manifests exclusively on dwarves. If your character has the Mark of Warding, this is their dwarf subrace.
  • Master of Locks. When you make an Intelligence (History), Intelligence (Investigation), or Thieves’ Tools check involving lock and trap mechanisms, you can roll one Intuition die, a d4, and add the number rolled to the ability check.
  • Wards and Seals. You can use your mark to cast the alarm spell as a ritual. Starting at 3rd level you can cast arcane lock once with this trait and you regain the ability to do so when you finish a long rest. Intelligence is your spellcasting ability for these spells.

I will be looking for more of these marks.

Recollections by Kaylorr

We decide to travel to the conventicle in hopes to help Jeroy find something to help him recover the Horn of Valhalla. Jeroy leads us to the Legacy Chamber however the room feels different than when I last visited. As if some force is trying to repel our presence from the room. As we exit, we go search for Steele to see if he can educate us a little more about the Horn of Valhalla. We instead run into Arch, who greets us and takes us back to the Legacy Chamber and gives us a small part of the prophecy regarding Ragnarok. We learn that Horn of Valhalla has been missing for at least 800 years and will make it's reappearance at the last battle and when Ragnarok is near. Arch also tells us that Surtr is another possibility that will bring upon Ragnarok other than the Horn. Surtr is an older God whose domain is fire. One of the few gods that lives in this realm on the Isle of Surtr which is west of Eomas. The followers of Surtr are well known to be forgers of metal and the Isle of Surtur itself is a great source of obsidian.

The followers of Surtr "conceal their devotion to the giant destined to burn down the world. Surtur’s temples in Mannheim are hidden affairs, much like Loki’s. In Muspelheim,they are enormous fortresses that ring with the sound of the forges day and night. Surtur’s Muspelheim temples are centers for preparation for Ragnarok. Temples in Mannheim secretly store weapons in preparation for the cult to fight alongside the giants. Visitors to Surtur’s temples have only a few seconds to prove their devotion to Surtur before the members of the cult attack. The clergy and the members of the cult in Mannheim do not leave witnesses alive to report their activities."

We head to Solace to charter an airship to get us to Isle of Surtur. The Island is full of magma and volcanos and fire. Jeroy jumps out of the airship because Jeroy.

All of the temples are floating and we head to closest one to us. We take to the air and are suddenly bombarded with cannonballs. wWe dodge to the best of our abilities and I fall from Gramph's back. Luckily, Ember had a gryffin at the ready and catches me mid flight. Quickly we fly under the floating temple and find a way into their foundry . Here wer un into many of the giant dwarves who work in the forges.

One of the Giant dwarves offers Jeroy a sword as a test of strength and Jeroy fails spectacularly. He tells us someone crafted the horn many eons ago and Thor was the last to be seen with the Horn. We get bored of the history lessons regarding Thor and Ragnarok and decide to go investigate the throne room. As we turn to leave, however, a giant shadow appears from behind Cassio which turns out to be Surtur. He immediately demands what we have to offer for being in his presence and for why we have come to his domain. We offer many trinkets which do nothing to sate his demands and instead we offer service for knowledge of the Horn. Surtr claims that none of us are worthy to blow the horn though Jeroy is a descendant of Thor. The horn was lost to time and Surtur offers for us to see the blank that made the Horn. Before we go he asks which one of us will choose to pledge our service to him and Cassio takes it upon himself to bend the knee. Ico, another dwarf, shows us the original die that forged the Horn. As we are all gathered, Garnet starts to get a weird feeling being in the presence of the die. Ico informs us the last visitor here was a beautiful being of a female nature covered in scales and paid a genrous tribute. Gramph says it smells like another dragon and we can only deduce that this visitor could have been Velah. Jeroy copies the maker's marks off the die and we decide to head back to Shanjiu Keep.

Recollections by Rezik

We were all sitting around the table listening to Ci regal us with a story when Jeroy interrupts and starts ranting about his family. He wants us to help him find a horn that would help him summon his ancestors to fight with him.

Note to self: I think something is wrong with Jeroy

We decide that we should start at the Conventicle since they have the Legacy Chamber and might be able to help Jeroy find this magical horn he’s looking for.

After taking in the sights, we realize that it’s actually pretty cold here since we’re so close to the South Pole.

We make our way to the School of War to try to enter the Legacy Chamber and see what we can learn.

When we arrived to the Legacy Chamber, we felt like the Chamber was pushing us away, as if it had nothing for us to learn or to receive.

While we’re waiting we see Archmage walk down a set stairs and then stop to tell us that we’ve arrived earlier than expected. Apparently the Seer didn’t think we would come for a few more weeks.

Archmage tells us that the Horn of Valhalla was once in the Chamber of Legacy, but it hasn’t been here in a millennia. He tells us that we should enter the Chamber and see what we can learn.

Jeroy leads the way and we all enter the Chamber of Legacy, including the Archmage. We look around the Chamber attempting to look for where the Horn of Valhalla used to be held.

Archmage looks at a log book and sees an entry for the Horn of Valhalla, and he translates the entry - it says “the horn will be blown on the last battle and when it resurfaces Ragnarok may be nigh”. The true entry says "In the last, lorn fight 'gainst the fall of long night, the mountains stand guard, and the dead shall be ward, for the grave is no bar to my call.”

We learn that Surtur is also known herald the Ragnorak (apocalypse). He is one of the few gods that actually lived on this realm, on the Isle of Surtur. His domain covers fire and war.

Note to self: Apparently the Isle of Surtur is a good source of Obsidian

We look through the library for notes about Surtur. It turns out most of the temples of Surtur are hidden affairs and we’re able to find a note about a fortress in Muspelheim, where Surtur is and where Ragnorak is expected to take place.

We learn: Surtur rarely grants divine power except to giants. However, a rare few individuals in Mannheim have earned his approval. They conceal their devotion to the giant destined to burn down the world. Surtur’s temples in Mannheim are hidden affairs, much like Loki’s. In Muspelheim, they are enormous fortresses that ring with the sound of the forges day and night. Surtur’s Muspelheim temples are centers for preparation for Ragnarok. Temples in Mannheim secretly store weapons in preparation for the cult to fight alongside the giants. Visitors to Surtur’s temples have only a few seconds to prove their devotion to Surtur before the members of the cult attack. The clergy and the members of the cult in Mannheim do not leave witnesses alive to report their activities.

Knowing what we know, we realize it’s time to head back to Shanjiu Keep and find our way to the Isle of Surtur.

While we awaited the party and prepared for our trip to the Isle of Surtur, I cast Contingency creating a Stick of Resilient Sphere.

We make our way to Solace and find a Captain that agrees to take us to the Isle of Surtur. We negotiate him to a price of 1,690 gold. The trip takes about 13 hours and it’s a fairly grueling trip.

We come upon the Island and see that there’s no vegetation and just ash everywhere. There’s a number of floating fortresses with flowing lava. We see forges running in preparation for Ragnarok.

As we reached the island, suddenly Jeroy just looks at us and jumps off the airship. There’s definitely something wrong with him. The airship descends (past Jeroy) and we reach the ground.

We decide to fly ourselves to the closest floating fortress. As we fly towards the fortress, we suddenly see a panel open and a glowing ball starts flying towards us - it turns out we’re being shot at by a cannon.

We skim the lava and fly low trying to get under the cannons. We reach the underside of the pyramid and Cassio turns straight up and bursts through the floor. We enter this giant smithy and all of a sudden the work stops.

Cassio yells “We are here to meet your high priest, take us to him now”. One of the dwarves comes up to us and tells us that the priest is not in this pyramid and must be in another. He points us to a throne in the middle of the pyramid that is currently empty.

Jeroy begins speaking to the dwarf and asks him if he knows about the “Horn of Valhalla”. The dwarf gets mad and tells him that she shouldn’t speak of such things.

We ask more about the horn and he tells us that it was forged eons ago, before our time. It turns out that the last person to have used the horn was Thor.

While Jeroy is talking to the dwarves, I begin to study the room and find an object to keep. If we need to return to this room, I can attempt to teleport to it.

Cassio looks at the throne before we start gathering to leave. As Cassio turns back, suddenly Surtur appears in the throne and beckons us to approach him. We convinced him that our goals aligned and he agreed. He told us about the Horn, telling just that it was lost to time and that he does not have it. He agrees to show us the blank that made the Horn.

Surtur says: "The gods in Asgard think that Ragnorak will come. When it does, we will burn down the world. In the meantime, you can take my blessing."

At the end, Surtur tells us that one of us must pledge our service. Cassio kneels to Surtur and is suddenly covered in flames. He looks a little dead on the inside.

Surtur disappears in a flash of flames, after telling one of the dwarves to take us to the mold. We follow the dwarf to another pyramid.

The dwarf takes us to the die. When Garnet sees the die, he tells us that this is something he has “smelled” before. It turns out that Garnet was smelling the last visitor, which happened to be another dragon that had visited an epoch ago (before the Kraken had awoken). Echo tells us that the last visitor was a beautiful red dragon with gorgeous scales. We think it might be Velah.

We believe Velah has the horn, which would make sense since Arch had told us that the Seer expected us to visit the Conventicle again after the Vault of Night.

With that, we teleported back to Shanjiu Keep. It looks like we’ll have to visit the Vault of Night next.

Sent to Arch: "I don’t think the Seer was wrong. We’ll hopefully be returning after the Vault of Night. Think Velah has the Horn of Valhalla."