The log of the lost tbd

Our story begins on the world Dolrahtah in the small settlement of Odotus, located on the meadows continent. Odotus is holding a festival to celebrate the 5th anniversary of the settlement’s founding and a new connection point a half-hours travel linking them to Mahbrwol. Our players have come to check out the festivities and take part in the local culture or to explore the region. One thing that has caught the attention of the locals in a construct from Hyrhafell who has been seen testing the new connection point.

## **Session 1**

The party explored the festival in Odotus, some looking around the shops and others “earning” coin while preforming. Amber the Dwarven cleric, not so interested in the stalls noticed a limping mastiff and healed it, befriending the dog for the day. Valzu put on quite the show of juggling flaming daggers and drew a small crowd, including the leader of Odotus Merimas Fleetfoot and not knowing who was in the crowed; help himself to a large tip of 5 gold.  As Merimas went to look around for her missing coin purse, Octave noticed her and offered to help look for the purse if she would teach him a new spell. Octave used Prestidigitation to make a shiny locket and totally didn’t make a big show of “losing” said locket to see if maybe there’s a pickpocket and Evelynn somehow managed to notice the subtle display. When Evelynn called out to Octave that he dropped the locket and tried to pick it up to return she recognized it as an illusion and was quick to draw her sword and questioned Octave; after an explanation Evelynn joined in looking for the possible pick-pocket along with Amber and Galadyn.

As Valzu tried to act as inconspicuous as possible and was about to try slip away two guards came from the path out of town leading north towards the new portal to find Merimas. Calum listened in and overheard the guards warning Merimas that a huge pack of gryph-hounds have gone wild; not wanting to cause a panic Merimas looks to the group that was helping her and some of the other more capable looking visitors. As a means to throw the heat off Valzu joins and a Tiefling monk called Raven along with Calum join the group to deal with the gryph-hounds.  The party find the pack just as the path to town ends at the forest, 10 gryph-hounds were roaming in frenzy and moved in to take down 3 of the gryph-hounds Amber’s pupper friend ripping the leg off of the last hound, scaring 3 away with a fake fire that Valzu conjures and the last four, seemingly not in full control of themselves took off all in the same direction…

The group returned to the settlement with Merimas’s thanks, able to take in the fireworks and end of the festival and put up for the night in the tavern/inn and rewarded with 2 cantrip spell scrolls (mending and vicious mockery) 4 pots of healing and 2 pots of climbing. The next day Merimas asked the party if they would be willing to look into what caused the gryph-hounds to go wild and told to seek out Fly, the wandering construct who was last seen testing the new connection point. The party took the afternoon to stalk up on supplies; Evelynn not having the chance to before, tracked down one of the vendors from last night looking to buy any sort of magical weaponry. All the vendor had left was a sword that dealt slightly more damage and hit better but warned her it was cursed. She bought it still. With that the party took off to find Fly, only getting mildly lost along the way and found Fly as they were making camp for the night. Fly told them that they have been testing the new connection point; the first is years and that the shift in the weave that created it may have caused any number of ancient artifacts to come back to life. The more religious of the group thought on what nearby could be the source and Fly sparked the memory of an old and nearly forgotten god; Rhyme the god of reckless impulse and that there are the ruins of a temple a few days journey east.

With that the group has settled to make camp for the night, setting out in the morning to find the ruins of the temple of Rhyme.

## **Session 2**

The party awoke the next day at the portal camp; Fly told them that Raven had decided to look into some personal matter and took but told the party that they felt the weave would bring them someone to help in their cause. As the party was getting ready to move, a person came though the portal, Naithair the Yuan-Ti Pureblood Artificer with his mechanical raptor Penelope and from Odotus came Andrei the Tiefling paladin. Eager to see more of the realm and heeding Fly’s request Naithair joined the party as they set out into the forest to find the temple of Rhyme. The first day of travel went smoothly, making good progress the party stopped in a clearing for the night to make camp, though that took some time as many of their camping skills weren’t fully up to par. Eventually after getting a rather smoky fire going, Calum using an eldritch blast to catch and cook a rabbit the party settled in for the night, setting up a 4 person rotation for guard duty. During first watch a few glowing orbs were seen drifting about, but as they were moving away from the camp no mind was paid to them. The next watch was quiet and the third and fourth watch never happened as someone fell asleep.

Luckily for the party, no one and nothing was too amiss, a few things had been knocked over or shifted but there were no tracks and nothing was taken so the party gathered their belongings and set out from the next part of their journey.  Around mid-day on the second day the party caught the attention of a small pack of wolves; as the party was dealing with said wolves; those in the back noticed a small floating light drifting by. As the fighting came to a close, some of the party investigated the light, putting together that was what they saw while on guard. Evelynn recognised it as a will-o’-wisp and reached out to it, the wisp floated on, giving Evelynn the feeling to follow it and the party continued with the guide of the wisp.  With what little remaining of the path that the party had followed ending they set up camp for a second night, this time changing up the watch rotation is hopes of keep awake for the full watch.  With a successful watch the party awoke and prepared to explore the cave that lead down to the temple, having been shown the correct cave from the wisp before it ascended last night.

The party delved into the old temple, making their way down the crumbling stairs and past a short hallway to a wide open chamber.  There they set out to investigate and the first thing they found was that the temple was well on its way to being reclaimed by nature; the tile work under their feet braking and crumbling so they needed to watch their step to not get cut. The party investigated the old bookshelves and a stature of the god Rhyme, finding 4 books that still had any legible writing in them.  the first one in Dwarven read “Rhyme called out to leap, a dance can be made from any movement”  the next one in gnomish read “Don’t dwell on the loss, for in the moment you felt the thrill of the risk” the forth one was in a language that none of the party knew. The last one in Draconic read “you did not get here with careful planning; you followed a call and now is the time to listen.”

Evelynn held back as the party was moving on, focusing on trying to hear any call that might come from the temple and after spending on moment on focusing she can hear a faint dripping coming to the left of the room there in. the party moves further into the temple, being careful of their step, moving more carefully in an almost dance… but most have two left feet and they still brake tiles as the move towards the first fork in the road. Evelynn takes the lead down the left path where they find a small pond has formed from the creek above ground slowing dripping down and from the water; ghostly figures rose and began to attack the party. As the fight went on, Calum slipped while shooting off an eldritch blast, hitting the ceiling and causing the earth the shift and more water came rushing into the tunnel; with only one of the apparitions left, most of the party turned to escape the collapsing tunnel but Evelynn was overtaken by her sword to keep fishing. Amber held her position to try and help Evelynn as with the collapse the last apparition was gone, Evelynn turning to run with Amber’s but she got pinned by the falling rubble. Naithair was able to use one of his gadgets to clear the rubble and as the party pulled Evelynn free they saw that she looked quite different. Valzu questioned her once she had come too and Evelynn managed to convince him that the water was just acidic… Octave, knowing that Evelynn was also from Hyrhafell thought long and hard, recalling stories of races long gone from their world’s past and suspects that Evelynn might be something from the lost era before the time of the Kult des Tieres.

The party sat in an awkward rest for a while before moving on to return to the main hallway, to their left the path continued for a short moment before splitting at a fork and there was a path across from where they just were. The party moved to the left and then took the path to the right, finding at the end of the hall to be what was once the chapel and on the alter was a large crystal that was glowing. As the party moved in they saw that the 4 gryph-hounds that had run off before were there in the pews of the room. The party fought tirelessly against the gryph-hounds who in the presence of the artifact were more ravenous. Evelynn while protecting the spell casters of the group was overtaken by the gryph-hound she was fighting, reverting back to her true form again. The last gryph-hound was taken out by Amber and Andrei while Galadyn and Naithair attended to Evelynn. With the gryph-hounds gone, the party attempted to retrieve the artifact; with eventual success the party now quite warn made their way down to the main hall and while it would have been a good idea to set up camp, the party was possessed to press on and keep exploring the temple.

Going down the path they passed over, the found a room with a small pile of coin, some fresh rations, a few bits of jewelry and some pottery and paintings… along with a suite of armor. Looking better then what Calum had, he approached the armor that turned out to be possessed in its own right. The party gathered up what they could from the room, Valzu taking the necklace “to find someone to appraise it” and the rest being divvied up. The party decided to explore the last hall on their way out, taking the right path first they found what looked to be a concert hall; dilapidated once plush looking chairs turned to face a splintering wooden platform that had an ancient but still working piano. Evelynn made her way up to the piano and proved to be quite talented; the music echoed out into the temple and lingered a bit longer than it should have. After stumbling off the stage, the party made their way down the last hallway finding the head priest’s room.  All the furniture was as dilapidated as the rest with the exception of a rug that simply looked still good, along with some tattered robes that the party was able to salvage for the symbol of Rhyme.

At least the party made their way out of the temple, finally resting for the night and taking a bit longer to get back to Odotus then it took to get there. They met with Merimas and Fly who each asked them for help with a task; go with Fly to Mahbrwol to find the anomaly on the other side or escort the artifact to pölyvalot. The party decided to take Merimas’s mission and are getting ready to sail to pölyvalot.

## **Session 3**

With the acceptance of Merimas’s quest, the party readied to travel from Odotus to Värit, where they would meet up with the historian wizard Melna Nolkes. A carriage was arranged for the first part of the journey; roomy enough that they weren’t elbow to elbow but no enough to sleep in so they had to camp 2 nights on the road. During the first leg of their journey, Naithair tested out his new abilities by making a dagger of returning for Valzu, asking for a cut of any performance he made with it. With the party getting more used to Naithair and Penelope they decided that Penelope could take the watch for their nights on the road, as the mechanical friend didn’t need sleep. Instructed to wake them if she saw anything dangerous the party slept both nights without being attacked… though some felt less then well rested come morning; the carriage driver telling the party of rumors of undead and other dark creatures that roam the unexplored lands.

The party made it to Värit and found Melna Nolkes who let them know it would be 3 days till their ship came in so they were free to prepare, explore the town and such. Octave went to the shrine of terävyys to show them the symbol of Rhyme he took from the temple as well as one of the paintings they found. The Shinshoku offered Octave 40 gold for the symbol and didn’t seem too interested in the painting. Evelyn took the first day to stock up on supplies, finding herself short on gold for a spell scroll she entered a fight pit. Managing one win she was still sort on the gold so to make up the difference she now owes the components shop keep a favour. During the second day in Värit, Valzu went to the docks to try out his new dagger of returning with one of his acts. Still getting the hang of the new dagger he managed a few coins tossing one to his Artificer as per their agreement. While getting ready to call it a night, Calum overheard a few fishermen talking about some missing people, Valzu, Calum and Naithair inquired. Apparently some of the locals wanted to scout out a spot on the islands on the north east of the forest continent for fishing docks and possibly a small settlement but the fishers who set out have yet to return and they should have been back days ago. Valzu said they were sailing past that point and would keep an eye out for the lost boat.

With the party stocked up they boarded the ship Wave Cutter and were greeted by Captain Vola Dofi and her crew, told to head her word as captain while on her ship and that they were expected to help with light duties while onboard. Naithair, who was quite excited to be on his first ship and see an ocean, was eager to examine how the ship worked and what sailing would be like. However as the 3rd and 4th days were stormy he soon came to dislike the experience when a giant octopuses washed up onto the ship and grappled him after he shot at it. After frying up the calamari Naithair decided to stay put below with Melna Nolkes to try and understand more of the crystal artifact. Borrowing Melna’s pearl Naithair was able to identify the crystal was a chalcedony and gave off faint evocation magic, though Melna was supressing the stones magic for the safety of the trip. On the 6th day the storm had worsened enough to lurch the ship drastically enough that Melna’s binding on the stone failed and two water elementals formed and attacked the ship.

Most of the party and ship crew focused on the water elementals while Naithair stayed below to help Melna rebind the crystal; once the crystal’s energy was supressed, Naithair went up to see water attacking people and began to regret ever leaving Vallorrorr. The last day of the first leg of their journey, the storm had cleared and they made it to the narrow passage between the mainland and islands where the missing fishers were said to be. Because of the rough seas the ship would need to anchor for 3 days for repairs before continuing onwards so the party took the opportunity to see if they could find the missing people. Calum and Octave swam out to the first island and found nothing out of the ordinary; this island was fairly small and probably wouldn’t be useful for a fishing community so the party, less Naithair went out to the further island to explore. This one seemed to the party like it would make for a good spot to set up a dock and was big enough for a small settlement but the found no traces of sentient activity…

The party returned to mainland and set up a camp on land for their lay over, Naithair was happy to spend time on land again; Valzu however decided he’d stay the nights in the ship.  The first night the party went with the Penelope guard watch and once again some of the party woke up feeling drained. The party searched the coastline and eventually found what they believed to be the ruined ship of the, the boat looked like it was beached properly and was destroyed while on land. They also found a ton of rations that lead the party to believe they made it here but something happened to them almost as soon as they landed. During the second night the party decided to have a proper watch and notice that the mist they have been seeing in the mornings while on the road have rolled over them and seems to be what has been draining them. The party did their best to attack this mist, raising a commotion to let Valzu and the crew on the ship know they were in danger; Valzu turned out to be a heavy sleeper, only waking to think they were throwing a party without him and went back to sleep. As the party managed to dispel the mist, Calum saw something darting in the treeline and soon the party was attacked by strange creature, some that were just shadows and some that they thought might have once been the missing sailors.

With the repairs to the ship finished and a bit of information on what at least became of the missing sailors, the party set out for the next leg of their journey. The rest of the sailing went fairly smooth, Valzu upset with the rest of the party having a party without him, the rest of the party telling him they were in fact in a fight, Naithair still questioning why he wanted to see worlds with water and Evelyn trying to see if she could pull a trick on Penelope. Arriving at the docks on the Grassland continent closest to pölyvalot and then and traveling the better part of the day to the city they finally arrived. Melna lead the party to the temple of terävyys where the crystal was taken for study and protection and the party was given their reward by Voitto Ikonen, mayor of pölyvalot and offered to spend the night in his manor and would then be set up for a few nights at a local inn.

## **Session 4**

The party made their way to Mayor Ikonen’s manor for dinner with the mayor and to spend their first night in pölyvalot there. During dinner Ikonen made small talk with the party; asking them about where they’ve been and such but didn’t actually seem too interested in the party. After dinner the party were shown to their rooms where they enjoyed the first real beds in weeks and good a good night sleep. In the morning, the party first made their way to the temple of Ranhilda to get their coin purses enchanted so that the party could officially form; with their sigil picked out the party named themselves t̴͟͡҉b̶̡̀͘d͢.

With that done, Amber and Galadyn went ahead to the Green Lamb Inn to get them set up for the next 3 nights. While the rest of the party was deciding what to do first, a group of children ran by, one knocking into Octave who felt the child searching for his coin purse. Octave grabbed said child as the others took off, and they debated what to do with the pick pocket they caught; Naithair telling the party how thieves in his world who were caught tended to lose hands at best, Evelynn used her changling abilities to try and scare the child from stealing again. Calum, who has a fondness for children, offered the kid a silver coin and wanted to let them go. Eventually the kid escaped and Octave tried to stop them but the kid was able to get away with the silver piece Calum offered. Valzu filled the party in on what he knew about the Clovers; an urchin gang of pick pockets made up solely of orphaned and abandoned children.  Though Valzu was never a member of the Clovers, as he was an adult by the time his mother passed they have existed in some fashion for over 50 years as Dolrahtah culture is a meritocracy so the more you can do, the better your station in life so kids without parents are left to fend for themselves and the Clovers formed from those kids banding together. Valzu also noticed that one of his normal daggers was gone.

After that introduction to a bit of the goings on of pölyvalot, the rest of the party decided to split up to explore; Valzu went to visit his mother’s grave, Evelynn and Naithair joined along. Evelynn and Naithair, having not visited many worlds before questioned Valzu about their customs of visiting graves when in Naithair’s tribe there are no graves and on Hyrhafell you only visit graves during Lebe Wohl and don’t bring offerings like flowers unless the dead had departed over 100 years ago.

Meanwhile Calum and Octave ask around about where to get a drink, they were told of a few pubs and taverns but the one that caught their interest was the one recommended the least; the Beard and Comb. The two made their way to the pub that was almost out of city limits and found that the owner was a Dwarf, the two sat down at the bar and chatted up a with him a bit, learning about a caravan that’s heading out in 3 days to kiihottaa. When they asked the dwarf about the Clovers, a Halfling slid up next to them interested in why they wanted to know about the Clovers. Calum said he genuinely wanted to help them and the Halfling introduced themselves as Maple Life and told Calum and Octave that if they truly were interested in helping out to meet them at the Prancing Pegasus at 3pm tomorrow and as Maple slips away, he sees a four leaf clover tattoo behind Maple’s right ear.

The party rejoins up in the late afternoon to explore more of the town, keeping an eye out now for any urchin looking kids they stop by a few shops; Naithair buying a few supplies and rents a forge to work on his firearm. Evelynn makes her way back to the temple of terävyys to see if anyone there could perform the banishment spell on her sword to remove the vengeful spirit in it. She’s told that it would be a 222 gold fee and goes to the washroom to change into an old lady and try to get a better deal. At first the same cleric is befuddled by two different people asking for the same thing in 5 minutes and said that with the demand for the complex spell that the best he can do is offer the same 222 gold. Though sheer force of will (and rolling a nat 20 after being told that would be the only way to get any sort of discount) Evelynn manages to seem so pitiful that she’s offered a 22 gold discount.

Afterwards the party head to the inn to meet up with Amber and Galadyn and check out the quest board. The party looks over the 4 posted quests, finding a lost kitten, helping some farmers deal with bandits, helping the guard deal with the pickpockets and gathering ingredients for one of the potion sellers. The party takes on the quest for the potion items and enlists with the guards, Octave and Calum first telling them about the meeting with Maple and the party deciding to play both sides for now and see what will benefit them the most. Before turning in for the night the party met with Anwyn Darne the potion seller, telling them to bring her as much of the ingredients as they can and when, where and how they can gather said ingredients. Fire Tail flowers, those are common enough when you get out of town, Juniper berries 2 days north of the city, Dropseed sap 1day West of the city on the coast and Moon Drop branch 5 hours east of the city but they must be harvested when two of the 3 moons were full in 3 nights

The next day they stopped by a guards post to enlist their help, each party member was handed a gnome/Halfling child sized pair of manacles and told that each person who either captured a Clover or took part in the raid when it happened would get 20 gold; for the raid they would receive a message to meet up once it was ready. The party did a bit more shopping before waiting for the randevu with Maple to get the tools they would need to harvest the potion ingredients. The party made their way to the Prancing Pegasus a bit before 3pm and they all looked about for Maple; however Valzu saw someone he knew and slipped away from the party to see his old mentor Bellos. Bellos told Valzu that his heist went tits up and when he got back to town two years ago without the item and having spent the advance from Zaragamba he’s now indebted to her; Valzu asks how much he owes and his initial debt was 600 but he’s barely been paying back the interest. Bellos asks Valzu if he could help him out and Valzu says he’ll see. The party spreads themselves out at the tables and bar, Calum, Octave and Naithair sit at the bar and Maple soon joins them. Octave introduces Maple to Naithair and Maple once again makes sure their actually out to help the Clovers before discussing further with the party, Naithair straight up tells them they took the quest from the guard to help deal with the Clovers and wants to know what would be in it for the party if they helped the clovers.

Maple tell the party that over the last few years, Ikonen has been ramping up efforts to consign power; buying out shop ownerships, contracting druids to help increase his farm’s production and stockpiling raw materials. Maple goes on to tell the party that lately however, Ikonen is about to make some big moves; there is a rumor that he’s about to raise taxes, he’s trying to find out what building the Clovers are operating out of so he can eminent domain the building before the raid so he can sentence the Clovers to death rather than just running them out of town; and that Maple got word that he’s hired bandit to ether run some farmers off their land or take care of them. If the party can find proof of the last two, Maple and other former Clovers would be able to bring Ikonen down and would get his assets and are willing to over a cut to the party.

Looking around, the party does notice a few others in the tavern with a four leaf clover; all adults that seem to be doing well enough. They agree to help Maple and the clovers by shaking on it. As Maple shakes each party members hand, he draws a sigil on each members arm or hand giving them the clover mark and allowing them to flash the signal to Clovers that their one of them.  The party makes their way back to the inn for the night, getting ready to head out early in the morning to find their way to where the Moon Drop trees are; as they traverse the town, they spot a few ragged kids and notice that they have 3 leaf clover tattoos and flash the signal not to steal from them.

The party, less Amber and Galadyn made their way east in the morning, first picking lots of Fire Tail flowers and then getting hopelessly lost, arriving at the grove as it was turning to evening. The party set up camp for the night and waited for midnight. Once the light of the two full moons hit the grove, the trees began to glow; droplets of moon light beading the branches like dew. As the party was harvesting the trees, they could head an early laughter as from the dark came a pack of giant hyenas and as the hyenas moved in, a pack of giant vultures circled above. The party dealt with the wild attack, Calum going down after a gash from one of the vultures and Naithair pulled out a knife to heal him??? When Naithair carved the healing blade into Calum, green flames erupted from the wounds and Calum got back up. Shortly after Naithair found himself spread out from the main hold of the group and fell too. Evelynn was able to bring him back up and they finished off the assault. Naithair, not one to let attempted murder go managed to cleanly skin the hyenas and remove 6 talons and 2 beaks from the vultures.

The party slept the rest of the night and returned to pölyvalot, stopping by Darne’s shop to see if she wanted the items they harvested now or to wait till they had all items and were told to turn them in all at once. Naithair asked if she was interested in any of the items he harvested and took the beaks for 10 gold each, telling Naithair the weapon smith might be interested in the talons and some shops would be interested in the pelts; afterword the returned to the Green Lamb inn to meet with Amber and Galadyn and check out while they decided what to do with the rest of the day.