Expedition 40: Not So Far Hills

### Summary

We travel to the Far Hills to rescue a gnome named Grigorios Stoneculled from the Sparksouled, and run into terrifying Noonwraiths. We do a prisoner exchange and give them 676 (Scorch), who has been working at our library.

### Detailed Writeup

**Expedition Giver:** A Gnomish Evoker named Grigorios Stoneculled has been missing for several days.

**Expedition Objectives:** To find the missing gnome and hopefully bring him home safely: Success!!

**Expedition Log:** On morning of the 23rd (of the month previously known as Titanus), our band of adventurers walks towards the Far Hills, moving through Arha’s Pass and walking alongside the edge of the Inkwell Mountains, looking down at the Bluewood below them. The Far Hills are beautiful, rolling hills in the shadows of the Inkwell Mountains, dotted with patchy grass, straggly trees and several small waterways that wind through the shrubbery and dirt.

Here, we notice several scorch marks across the landscape streaking across the Earth. In the distance, we spot some four-legged beings. Marzipan looks out at the horizon, and sees the ruins, looking out at a small tower across the hills. Sorin, Clarity’s familiar, flies out to learn about the four-legged beings. We continue on, finding and following Grigorios Stoneculled’s footprints.

(We roll a 10 on the encounter roll). Eight gleaming, golden shapes approach from the sky, about 1000 feet in the air. Clarity looks for a place to hide, and finds only one small, bent tree. She yells, “Silvert! Hide behind that tree!” while the party prepares for combat. These creatures, upon closer inspection, look like skeletal humanoids surrounded by wisps of light gold, gaseous energy. We later learn that these are “noonwraiths.”

Non-magical damage is halved. The noonwraiths swoop down on us, using a heat attack that requires a dexterity save from 60 ft in the air, which begins to start burning the grasses below us. Yugmela gets knocked unconscious in this fight. Marzipan uses a turn undead spell to great effect, sending several of them fleeing. Tolyr also turned both Uzmir and Clarity into Brontosauruses. During the fight, Clarity killed two noonwraiths and Nexrin killed one noonwraith. The brontosauruses happily stomp out the fire, and look for some tasty leaves.

We continue onwards, and eventually come across two furrows in the ground where Gregorios’ footprints end. We see that one is slightly deeper, as though a wheeled creature had picked up Greogrious and taken him in another direction.

We follow the furrows, and notice after some time that there are new furrows coming towards us. Silvert attacks where he believes an invisible creature to be, hitting something solid, and oil spurts out where his sword hit. We enter combat, but manage to take care of them fairly quickly with few injuries. Mid-combat, Marzipan casts tongues and attempts to convince these creatures to speak with us.

We converse with the two mechanical creatures, who claim to report to “Highhall,” one day’s journey past the burning hills, around 20 miles away. We learn a fair amount of information about these constructs, called “glass knights” in a long conversation with them. They say they have taken the gnomish evoker prisoner.

The mechanical constructs say they are at war with three groups: the “unweft” to the south, the “outsiders” and the “fallen” to the north. The fallen use zombies. The Gith are the outsiders. The unweft are the time-delayed. They have peace with the dragons, and offer tribute to stay safe.

They call the far hills the noonwraith hills, and they tell us about two other areas. One is red on our world map in the #maps channel, called the burning hills, and the other, yellow on the world map, is the gate of flames (where the dragon is).

They would like to arrest us and take us to highhall, but understand they are not capable of this. These constructs are from the same community as Scorch, who was an elder that attacked Port Vrall and “died” if he fell into the water. Marizpan notes that Scorch isn’t dead, he is walking and talking in Port Vrall. The mechanical creatures insist that if Scorch was reprogrammed or lost his memory, he is dead, but they would like to recover his body. We offer to exchange Scorch’s bodies in exchange for Gregorios Stoneculled, the evoker gnome, who they say is under the jurisdiction of the community’s elders. We agree to exchange the gnome for Scorch’s form in a few days time.

On the way home, we encounter a mimic and kill it. After this expedition, Clarity gets two renown rolls, and Nexrin gets one.

### Prisoner Exchange

Before heading to the exchange, Uzmir and Calliope prepare 676 for leaving. They make sure he understands what’s happening, that his new home will be in Highhall, and that he’s welcome to return if he chooses. 676 agrees to go, but does request to take a book on evocation recovered from the bunker. Uzmir is not happy to lose a resource but 676 was a fantastic assistant and it’s a very reasonable request.

Upon reaching the meeting location Calliope casts a minor illusion in the area depicting an organic and mechanical hand shaking, to indicate our location and intentions. Soon after the other party reveals themselves. There is a sparksoul with a build very similar to 676, and wearing a blue cloak. The other is a larger figure, seemingly cobbled together from scrap iron. The bulk of their frame consists of a cage in their torso, which holds Greggorio.

As the cloaked individual begins speaking Uzmir casts Tongues on himself. The figure is put off at first, but then casts the same spell on themself. They introduce themself as Ambassador, and inquire into the condition of Scorch’s corpse. Calliope explains how 676 came to be in our care, and apologizes for not being able to recover Scorch’s memories. Ambassador is not concerned, he was not a friend of Scorch, and for his hatred of organics a liability. Uzmir inquires as to Gregorio’s condition, the gnome responds that he is unharmed but thirsty. Uzmir asks to provide water, and Ambassador accepts provided the waterskin passes through them. After that the Gregorio and 676 switch sides.

Calliope and Uzmir continue to talk with Ambassador, inquiring into the political relations between the spark-souled and the other factions. They gain some insight into the history of the conflict that seems to be ongoing for centuries, as well as the borders of the territory the spark-souled lay claim to. Unfortunately, attempting to establish more regular diplomatic relations is met with resistance by Ambassador initially. Calliope is able to get them to agree to possible magical communication, but Ambassador warns that communication with the other factions would be seen as an act of war, and that the other factions likely feel the same should we continue to contact Highhall.

Making little progress, but having accomplished or goal Uzmir, Calliope, and Gregorio return to Vrall without issue.