Chapter Two: Roekosan

4/7/18
The party meets up around noon and heads to the tunnel work at the embassy. Kyvan leads the group downstairs and then heads to check in with the commander.  We see workers moving rubble around and the embassy employees doing their best to accommodate the work. Through the cracks in the tunnel a strange blue glow is now visible; the rest of the rubble will not take much work to clear. Oor and Broxx help remove the remainder of the rubble, but Oor is struck by some sort of small dinner plate (seemingly thrown by a small creature). Suddenly, several more emerge from the walls and start attacking Oor and Broxx.
Combat with the Thri Kreen  
Oor investigates the orbs and finds 3 more Thri Kreen splayed open nearby (seemingly from combat – 1 assailant, 2 swords [piercing and slashing]).   This tunnel is dead straight, going on as far as we can see, and there are orbs illuminating the tunnel periodically.  Further down the tunnel there appears to be another path intersecting ours.  Poking at the orb with a javelin, Oor discovers it is purely arcane.
The intersecting tunnel appears natural and much older, as opposed to the new, obviously built tunnel we are in.  There are no lights in this intersecting path but the path to the right appears to have been widened recently.  Rangrim investigates this path and finds an 8 legged creature has been to the right while more Thri Kreen have probably gone to the left. The party agrees to check out the next intersection of the tunnel.  We continue to find old tunnels crisscrossing the main tunnel but eventually travel far enough down that we aggravate and reveal additional Thri Kreen.
Combat once again ensues.  Combat With the Thri Kreen 2
After combat ends, Oor manages to gather a bit of poison from a dead Thri Kreen’s venom sac, while Markku decides for some reason to eat some of the cooked meat from one creature.  Apparently it numbs the throat but has no negative affect.
4/21/18
The party walks down the straight tunnel for about an hour, maybe more. We hear the sounds of humanoid insects skittering in the crisscrossing tunnels all around us. We eventually reach a large open cavern; there are white pieces of shell in dimples lying along the path.  There is evidence that something large came through this room and smashed the eggs. The room smells of ammonia, possibly coming from the broken eggs. Marrku starts to seize up, and shortly becomes paralyzed.  Oor seems to remember that ammonia is extremely flammable and explosive and urges the party to quickly leave the room. They leave, taking Markku with them, and look around for ignition sources. Rangrim and Broxx see crushed Thri Kreen bodies on the other side of the cavern; Rangrim decides to go investigate. The dead insects in the path between the two tunnels look like they’ve been crushed by some sort of triangular shaped object.  It’s hard to decipher anything more.  Rangrim passes fully through the cavern (60-70 ft) and finds 9-10 corpses, some crushed, but others have suffered piercing and slashing wounds (killed by 1, maybe 2 assailants). In the hands of one of the creatures is a scrap of torn green cloth. There is also the remains of an amulet – a pink stone in the shape of a 6, where the middle of the 6 is a spiral. Markku starts to come to and, knowing that ammonia is NOT highly flammable under these conditions, begins telling this to Broxx and Oor in slurred speech.  Rangrim comes back and the group, covering their mouths this time, crosses through the cavern.
Once safely through the cavern and away from the ammonia, Rangrim shares the evidence he gathered indicating Quibek passed through this way.  Broxx understands the amulet is a magical item, and Markku learns that it pertains to the arcane skill.  Rangrim hands the amulet to Markku, who promises to investigate it further, and asks Markku where he learned his magic.  Markku tells him he began learning when he lived in Tortal.
While Markku and Rangrim are conversing, Oor gets wily eyed and crazy, recklessly swinging his axe in Markku’s direction, missing wide, and then exclaims that he saw a bug (the ghost of a bug they killed earlier?)  Markku sees no sign that there were any stealthy bugs at all and gets the impression Oor was actually swinging at him.  Oor calms down and hands over his weapons to Markku, apologizing profusely and saying he doesn’t want to be a danger to the group.  Markku hands the weapons to Broxx and tells him to hand them back to Oor if the group encounters any more trouble.  While discussing whether to continue on or take a rest, Broxx starts to question whether Oor is mind controlled, but after evaluation decides he is not.  The group decides to move on.
A little way down the tunnel, the party sees a sharp left turn, with what looks like natural light shining through.  Rangrim peeks around the corner and sees 10 ft of tunnel followed by stairs.  At the top of the stairs he sees the setting sun.  
The rest of the group follows Rangrim around the corner and up the stairs.  Markku meets a Tortalen noblewoman and is shocked (rest of fanburst story)…
Broxx asks the woman “what is this place and who are these men?” 
“Just their sigil – nothing to worry about”.  The sigil is unrecognizable but Oor understands the practice.  Oor asks, “Who is your Lord?” She responds “Lord Devon, outside”.  This home of hers isn’t really her homeland, it's really less permanent.  From time to time she is a nomad.  She is here because of a need.  This young gentleman we are chasing was quite desperate for what she had to offer.  She got a nice deal from him.  Oor eats a cookie, which looks like a fine cake to Markku.  
Quibek has some magical talent but not much but is a fine two-swords fighter.  He can move his blades as fast as the wind and turn his opponent’s blows against them.
We got to the end of the tunnel and met the demi-goddess? whose name I don’t remember/know.  Sariel?  She marked a few people and Broxx passed out from fear.  We made a deal to finish this “cleansing” of the altar so we could fast travel to catch Quibeck.  We got there and tried to stop him but he got inside the building.  Then we went through the maze to find our way in and juuust barely stopped the dark ritual before he summoned the big dragon Roekosan.  Then Broxx and Oor had to sacrifice the girl and were bonded in a blood ritual.  We tried to save her by gentle reposing and taking her to a healer but that didn’t work.  We got a bunch of (dark?) weapons as a result though including the Staff of Roekosan which Markku has.  It deals extra cold damage but also can release a fog of black smoke that does damage to anyone inside of it.  At this point Kyvan has definitely left the party and remains with the city guard.
Category:Out of this World