Campaign Story

**Feb 2022:** Entering the depths of Kraghammer, our squad is engaged in combat with psychologically-controlled Dwarves. With little sign of awareness, they seem influenced by some kind of force deeper within. The first encounter was rather painful, though Riclahne requested some aid from Terryk in sealing the wounds left by their black-powder explosive projectile weaponry (while hopefully mitigating lead poisoning!). Headstrong as ever, Terryk elected to disarm one of the Dwarven mindslaves, and roughly bound him for potential interrogation. Looking up, Torryk saw Callybon somewhat reluctantly pointing a pistol at the knocked-out dwarf thrall. In commiserating with the situation and the needs of the group, Torryk was sadly beginning to renege on his heady aspirations. Just as Callybon squared up the shot with Torryk began moving clear of him, the far door across the bridge began banging. Our loud reception is now being greeted by even more gracious hosts!

Let's share campaign notes here! I will try to keep the most recent and best organized bits to the top while still having any unsorted relevant stuff further along to the bottom, so this is in **reverse-chronological order, segmented by session**. If you want to contribute anything, pictures of handwritten notes or typed-out are both totally fine! And feel free to make corrections or changes, there's always a revision history so we won't lose anything and I appreciate the interaction to refine our collective story.

***Most Recent Sessions***

**December 3rd 2021 I think:**

Our group has reconvened again at the Castle, having made a trying escape from a Temple of Yinogu, in which Terryk channeled the divinity of the Wildmother to shatter the gnoll curse imposed upon the group by the Vestige. We will arbitrate on some decisions, engage in some communal interactions around the castle and the Entropic Knight order; beyond now, Kraghammer awaits us, and the invading forces draw ever-closer, having pushed Initiate Thia north as a refugee.

**11/13/21** (Unfortunately Randal was absent for this mini-session 😢)

We've now returned to the Castle, all in good health. Terryk briefly met with his new initiates, who have yet to formally introduce themselves to the group. Dundegar joined in attending a casually-assembled meeting, which was adjourned shortly after concluding housekeeping affairs, most notably including the **re-investment** of approximately 173gp from the security of road tariffs back into the Castle itself, so as to expand its capacity of self-sustainability.

The castle is now quite replete with workers operating through it, including a smithy forge and horse stable. Future plans might implore us to make an endorsement of one of three candidates attempting to electorally adjudicate matters of the new Town, as the castle's captain has no interest in making political appearances, for sake of avoiding conflicts of interest as the highest-ranking arm of the law seated in this area.

Callybon pooped in Moosh's former quarters, where a sprout had taken shape. Did he wipe? TBD. Hands washed? IDK.

Taking a brief walk around the castle, Agglath was later found unresponsive and foaming at the mouth beside the fountain lying out front of the door sealed with arcane runes and inscribed with what must be Elven warnings. The fountain itself emanated in a mysterious manner, but the dank water it contained held no effect when captured in any other vessel. The decrepit liquid seemed responsible for Agglath's incapacitation, and at his goading, Terryk agreed to take a drink himself. Upon doing so, he found himself somewhat shaken. Both were granted a single use of the **Augury** spell; a divine droplet of wisdom found itself implanted in their minds. Terryk, leaning against the warded door itself, considered its contents briefly, at which point a definitive mote of Melora's guidance drew him away from the strong desire to rout and purge its miscreant inhabitants. With no reason to dispute this emotion, Terryk casually remained between the group and the door itself, and shared his feelings on the matter with Riclahne. The concern expressed was that the group's aptitude is not yet quite at the level to fully expel whatever lies beneath, and whatever lies sealed in remains a mystery for now.

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Describing both 6Jun2021 and 29May2021

Our trek back to the Castle found substantial footprint & cartwheel evidence of relatively recent T'zarrim activity within our proximity. The numbers were difficult to discern, but we were very confident a *significant* hostile force could be nearby, and sent a scouting party off to investigate towards the NNW of our HQ, near the Ironseat Ridge, as we made our way back home. Later, Agglath hatched a bright idea to confer with our scouts. Scrounging around briefly in his bag, he pulled out 3 dazzling pieces of blank arcane script, with which we were able to reconnoiter with them via magical means of Sending. Our scouts returned our message with important information - the T'zarrim were present in large number, engaged in battle with <?>, who also numbered in the hundreds

We quickly made our way in that direction, although the terrain was very difficult. <Peaceful Roadside Encounter with Yinogu clan goes here?> Riclahne and his raven were expertly able to scout the treacherous mountain faces with wondrous effectiveness. After some careful footwork, we had cleared the worst of the rock face; suddenly though, a deep earthly rumbling saw us all freeze in place as a gigantic **purple worm** emerged from the dry soil and attacked us, looking for nothing but food from all I could tell. A frantic battle ensued, as none of us seemed quite certain on how best to act, but we made a concerted effort to kill the creature as fast as possible, as we were in its terrain and it had what would likely be an inescapable ability to burrow and detect our noises. After a lot of scorching and slicing, Agglath became consumed by the creature in one fell swoop, nearly killing him. Fortunately the creature was extremely injured at this point and was not too capable of putting up much more of a fight. After it finally fell for the last time, we made our way to its mouth where we found Agglath crawling out, just a little worse for wear with a menacing grin, spiteful of the ordeal.

At this point we took a full?rest to help get Agglath back on his feet and rejuvenate my arcane abilities. Before settling down for the night, Lidia had been eyeing up the freshly lifeless body of the gigantic creature, and seemed to light up with an idea. I saw her reach for her dagger, and at first I felt confused - I doubt Lidia would want to eat anything like this, she doesn't strike me as a wild game eater and we still seemed to have plenty of rations. Just as I was about to ask her what she was thinking of making with it, she soundlessly withdrew a short dagger. Flourishing it around in her hand, she eagerly climbed over to its tail and dove in with the blade. Making swift, concerted, flicking cuts, I watched as Lidia was easily able to slice along thinner skin, saw into some larger banded muscles, cut at the remaining tendons and sinew, and crack along the crusty exoskeletal chitin holding the rest of the stinger in place. Hardly slowing down for a second, she hopped off the beast while sliding a dagger out, went to the far side of its rear end, dug her heels in... grabbed firmly, made a few deft cuts, squared up, and...*tore* *off* the tail. Entirely. With her hands...by herself...

Before I could even think what to say, she was practically performing an illusion by pulling her small satchel from unseen inner pockets, and began expressionlessly drawing its opening over the *entirety* of the stinger - something directly comparable in size and weight to *me*. I'm not sure when we'll need an entire stinger, but surely it could serve our means if we require what must surely be a dreadful natural poison, or it might sell nicely at worst. It could also make a good trophy piece...honestly though I should probably applaud the next time I get a show like that.

---Long Rest?---

Recovered and refreshed, we eagerly pushed on **towards Ironseat Ridge** and kept an eye out for skirmish. It didn't take long to find multiple creatures surrounding a cave entrance who were working in its immediate vicinity, leading us to believe there were certainly more taking respite inside. After a few worried whispers, we realized that we may fall out of our depths without slightly more information. Lidia volunteered to infiltrate, and seemingly vanished in the night. After just a few short (slightly worrisome, but quiet) minutes, she returned unscathed with a surplus of information:

* There were **14 gnolls** actively patrolling, moving, and working in just the immediate area, with evidence of many more within.
* Deposits of silver & iron dope are present. Terryk is eager to collect some on the way out.
* The cave system had 2 entrances, one of which was receiving much more activity further East, and a quieter entrance with less hostile presence and some iron and silver ore being mined availably outside.
* The East entrance is having corpses dragged into it...why?
* They had a bell inside to alarm of intruders, from which Lidia was able to retrieve the brass knocker.

* A decision was quickly made to enter through the side door.

We performed rather adeptly in our approach, quickly disposed of some of the immediate threats upon entering. Making our way deeper **into the cave**, we could see the creatures were seemingly using the area as a forge and armory of some sort, with crude polearm-type weapons strewn about. At this point? we became aware of other fighting in the cave system, telling us we might share an enemy with someone strong.

Plunging further into the cave system, the noises of fighting, yelling, and menace continued to climb to panicking levels. We realized quickly that still holding the element of surprise was key to our life at that moment, but that we needed to act fast on it to avoid a complete ambush. Just ahead, some more creatures were concertedly ambulating near the foundry; clanking away, they were completely unaware of our approach. Planning quickly, we squared up our targets, had **Riclahne cast an orb of Silence** blocking the noisy doorway, and fought like hell for a good victory. At this point, Agglath was looking rather worse for wear, but was still in great spirits. I offered to take a look at his wounds, and to my surprise, he actually let me. I think he's starting to trust me a little more. [+20HP back to Agglath] I can't have someone like him going down especially, and based on how well he holds his drinks I'm not sure I should rely solely on the two small vials of health I still have to tide us over...I'll have to keep a diligent eye on the team, too. It's been a while and somehow I still feel new, but I hope to convey that our team's cohesion is paramount and our continued success is largely in part to our shared openness. I do also see some shared interests with Callybon which show good promise to me.

<We met some pro-Yinogu, non-Bane-worshipping T'zarrim, and made effective communications - I can't remember what immediately preceded that interaction>

In a tense negotiation, we were lead to a **small room**, but without immediate hostility. Keeping our guns and weapons, we weren't really sure of the point of the relocation, but all of us showed remarkably solemn patience. The key, as we've found together, is that our adversaries primarily worship Bane, the God of War, (Is it weird that I wanna kill him? Does that count as irony, to kill a god of killing?) and none of these beings had any such ✋markings✋.Callybon seized the opportunity and wordlessly unfurled his toolbelt. I took this chance to get a better look at some of his cherished weaponry, watching from behind with permission in exchange for offering him some illumination. With complete focus and an impressive fluidity, I watched him swap between small tools, brushes, cloths, rods, and oils as he quickly cleared an earlier jam in his sidearm. The mechanism of these devices, I'd been aware of - simple alchemical ingredients can be combined at fairly low cost for a decently effective flash powder, but what most struck me about his technique was the precision with which his weapons are crafted, each latch having seemingly perfect tolerance and every axle without sway; it left me at no surprise as to how Callybon is able to perform with such consistent accuracy and efficiency.

After a few minutes had passed, we seemingly collectively figured another attempt at communication might be privy. One of the creatures hastily took a piece of jerky Lidia offered, and more still accepted Riclahne's offer of **Goodberries**. It would make sense that creatures like this were somewhat despondent and in need for food resources but...I don't want to think too much about what else they'd need to be eating to survive out here. I'm really not too familiar with these creatures, so I can't always tell if their gnatted fur and colorations are necessarily wounds or war paint. A brief offer to close up some of their wounds went averted; I doubted any of them would let me lay a hand on them, but it was worth asking - and it didn't agitate them further, which was reassuring, but I'm also not sure what amount (if any) actually got across. I don't think there would be any purpose to all of this if they were simply setting up some kind of trap - it wouldn't make sense and I don't get the impression that our 'hosts' would hesitate for any reason if they actually wanted us dead, and everyone else agreed. So we waited...

...and, shortly thereafter, the door reopened with some new company. A few of the new beings before us were clearly higher-ranking authorities, as they were adorned in significantly more commanding armor and enrobed with cloaks adorned in ornate symbolism. One of the creatures identified herself as **Gurtesh, Chieftess of the Stormpaw**, and spoke to us in Common on behalf of her comrades, who she named to be **Xhaku,** very large **chief of the Wrathbite Clan,** and **Tila Goloch**, a shaman with a bird skull sceptre. We negotiated to the extent of recognizing a shared strategic interest and acting accordingly.

*"Riclahne asked the Common-speaking among them if there were any effective blurbs or phrases we could keep in mind to avoid unnecessary conflict with their kin. The answer he got, and so blithely retorted back out loud, sent chills down my spine. Struggling to bite my tongue, I clammed up as I recognized some of the verbiage and proper nouns they were using...this splinter faction is associated with the Goddess of Rage and Consumption; **Yinogu**. "Means to an end" is what I've been telling myself...hopefully I can accept that answer eventually...or just stop thinking about it so much." -Terryk*

Time was moving quickly and our safety was not to be long-lived, as the shrieking twang of blades and smashing metal began reverberating more and more intensely towards us. The left us, and we spent a bit more time in hiding, so as to coordinate our strikes. Drawing away from the conflict, we still have no sign of our scouting party, but we haven't positively identified any bodies, either...

Pushing further, we start to get a sense of the cave system. Its passages are rather roughly established, with some areas being jaggedly cut-out and others offering rudimentary enclosed spaces for storage and rest. Closing in on a stairwell, we heard a light amount of scuffling and franticly-hushed gripes from what would undoubtedly to be another squadron of T'zarrim. Moving quickly with no hesitation, Agglath ambled on down with all the grace I've come to expect from the 9-foot steel-clad bastard. He lost a step in the dark, and slid just far enough down before practically tackling someone. In a panic, Agglath punched whoever it was hard enough to send it flying down the stairwell, and with the sounds of metal grinding down stone stairs, the fight was now on.

(Our group performed quite impressively. I saw an inspiring synergy of coordination and individual decision-making. I think part of why we function so well as a team is that there is no leader - we each know our strengths, and how we can best help each other, but we also don't hesitate to act on a whim when it's important or worth a try.)

*"I stowed my sword, donned my shield and acted on my first instinct to slowly channel the area in front of us with a beaming **Moonlight** as I ran up beside Agglath; the radiant light seared through the enemies who were now closing in. They were no small fish to fry, but I found myself in a great position to protect everyone, who seemed to take the cue and planted their feet firmly." -Terryk*

As we progress further, we were able to spot a troupe of creatures guarding a shoddy rope bridge...which itself spanned over a large chasm. Having no immediate sign of what lay past or below, we quickly adjudicated to remove the workers from their shifts. Each picking a target, we performed one of the most flawless ambushes I've ever seen - I may have kicked one directly in the sternum, off screaming into the chasm below...which I probably should have thought about beforehand - but a complete success nonetheless. What lay beyond the bridge, however, was possibly the least advantageous juxtaposition we could find ourselves in: There, across the way and now very aware of our presence, there are a large number more T'zarrim and, with them - 3 hostages, who may or may not fit the description of our scouting party.