Session Notes in Those of Times Long Forgotten

See also: Kyrevan's Dream Wiki and Those of Times Long Forgotten Campaign

# Chapter 1: The Brewery of Trouble

## Session 1 - The Princeslayer and the Ship

### 35th of Winter 1344

The bustling marketplace of Kliphaven is disrupted as rowdy and untidy newcomers flood the scene, sparking tensions with the traders. Shantak, the Triton Warlock, sensing an opportunity, approaches Sonsuza, the Soulrazed Bard, for some gold and proposes a strategy. The plan involves inviting these newcomers to dinner to understand their plight.

This party gathers at the nearest canteen and engages the rowdy group, learning about mysterious disappearances in Vestvann. The questioning continues, revealing that something dangerous lurks in the city. The rowdy dwarvs produce a severed appendage with a spider-like appearance.

Outside, Shantak senses he's being watched and meets Kit, the Tabaxi Gunslinger, who lures him away on a false errand. Meanwhile, Ritta and Jürgen, intrigued by the situation, decide to assemble a mission to Vestvann.

Ritta identifies Earthsnout, a Badgervolk Ranger sitting in the canteen as well, as a valuable asset. They hire him for the mission. Shantak returns, and Ritta extends an invitation to join the mission to both him and Sonsuza. Matias, a repentant rowdy dwarf, also expresses his desire to join.

The group agrees to meet at the local steed later. On the way, Kit introduces himself to Ritta and Jürgen, offering assistance. Kit fulfils his earlier promise to Shantak by flinging a silver coin at him, but Shantak misses to catch it and further can't find it anywhere in the grass.

As the party approaches Vestvann, the town appears abandoned and ransacked. Ritta and Jürgen split to investigate while the others examine a crashed ship, believed to be connected to the disappearances. Matias searches for a weapon and then vanishes.

Kit spots an Ettercap, a spidery humanoid, and warns Shantak. A fierce battle ensues, with Sonsuza captured, but foe subsequently defeated by the party. The group then explores the ship, finding a captain's log detailing the monstrous menace that infested the vessel.

Ambushed by Ettercaps again, the party decides to burn the ship down and flees. Returning to town, they brief Ritta and Jürgen about their findings, and Matias re-joins them. Ritta uses her oracle powers to scry through the captain's log, revealing the faces of those responsible, including the infamous Princeslayer.

With this revelation, Ritta and Jürgen decide to report to their cities. The party is invited to accompany them to Magdeburg for assistance. On the way, they reach the stronghold complex just before the mist descends on the continent.

## Session 2 - Descent to Nevamörk

### 10th of Spring 1345

After two weeks of magic-enhanced language studies, the party has successfully joined the Magdeburger Academy as contracted adventurers. Jünn, the head of agricultural studies at the academy, came to inform them about this revelation, and the party visited the academy once more - this day, for the first time since entering Magdeburg - not to learn Underdark but to sign a contract with Gathien Rosdale and to learn about the recent developments in the academy's agricultural wing. Jünn introduced them to their Feylight Tree, fey flowers grown as crustacean feed, both acquired ten years ago in a catastrophic mission to Vocatan, and finally to the specimens of Nevamörk. The orange bio-luminescent mushrooms, as tall as the same Vocatan tree in the room, were specimens acquired recently by miners trying to expand the Capitol's stronghold halls and striking a cavern with weird mushrooms instead. This is the current goal of the agricultural wing: to acquire more suitable edible specimens, study, selectively breed, and adjust for farming.

They agree to meet back at the academy at noon, head to Birbo's Residency, and acquire Mimic Jerky and Roguine Sticks snacks with unique properties. Kit takes a detour to go to the imperial brewery to buy a potion of healing. After that, they meet up with Jünn back at the academy and travel together to the outer ring of the Capitol, to the place where the underground passage was found. This cave is constantly guarded by a couple of Burkhard's Monastic Knights, and with some of Jünn's documentation, they pass through without any problems.

After going in and then down the cavern for a good fifteen minutes, the party finally sees an orange glow in the distance, and the tunnel leads to an impressive open space cavern with dry moss covering the ground and groups of tree-sized mushrooms growing around it. As they traverse this place, they initially mistake a group of Wisps for Fire Elementals. One of them tries to mischievously get behind Kit and batter him with its fiery form, but Kit dodges this attempt. Afterwards, Jünn gets hypnotized by the Wisps' dance and approaches them, after which they lift up and disappear, revealing a patch of smaller mushroom species marked later as Specimens A, B, and C, and taken by Jünn. Now another group of Wisps, or maybe the same one as before, shows the party to the end of this cavern, disappearing right after a curved cavern.

If they had thought the open space cave they had just been in was impressive in size, they were in for an even greater surprise. As far as the eye could see, a colossal underworld of Nevamörk stretched out before them. Here, mushrooms as tall as trees were dwarfed by ones the size of mountains, and vast forests spread across hectares made up of mushrooms twice, thrice, five times the size of those before. Among one of those forests, they spotted tiny manlike figures going in and out of some of those great shrooms. To top it all off, a grand dragon silhouette roared in the distance, shrouded by fog at the fictional horizon of this new world. Impressed and wanting to learn more and collect more knowledge, Jünn makes a decision to get to the town built into the mushroom forest to learn more. On the way down, they stumble upon a simple procession resembling a caravan of three distinct types of mushroom creatures. A mischievous Wisp tries to pull a prank on the party by ramming into the rearmost caravanner, attempting to frame the party for this assault. The party hides, but Jünn doesn't react fast enough, and in a staring contest that ensues between him and the creature, Jünn seems to cast a spell without a word spoken or a gesture made, causing the creature to turn back around, ignoring him and continuing its march.

## Session 3 - Young Dragon's Demise

### 10th of Spring 1345

On their way towards the village built into a mushroom forest, the party first spies a little bit more on the mushroom people, and Sonsuza turns invisible again to steal 4 bulbs from the Firebulb Bull, a creature the caravan feeds off as well. She remains unseen and pockets those bulbs for later agricultural research at the Academy.

On their way to the village, three hours into their journey and already feeling quite tired, they stumble upon a clearing in the vast mushroom forest they are crossing. In the centre of this clearing lies a small lake with pristine white water. As they approach, Earthsnout, disguised as a mushroom and leading the way, they notice a figure floating gracefully above the water. This figure, an oasis dryad, is an unusual example of her species. Instead of being intertwined with vines and trees, she appears to be overgrown and entwined with the same orange mushrooms found in the Fire Pits and its mycelium.

The dryad attempts to convince them to rest at this oasis, but they refuse. Shantak is allured by the dryad but repulsed by the water's holiness, while Kit decides to submerge himself in the lake. He feels immediate pain relief and realizes that his muscles are relaxing, and he senses that the effects will last for a long time to come.

After leaving the oasis they travel for couple hours more before setting up camp in a big burrow found by Earthsnout nearby, and the night mostly uneventful if not for Shantak's haunting dreams about a grey muscular figure returning, this time teamed up with a blue aarakocra.

### 11th of Spring 1345

Today, the party arrives at Druhes Ethelvr, the goblin village built onto fat-stemmed grand mushrooms. At first, they attempt to sneak up, but Jünn and Sonsuza boldly approach the village's open entrance without anyone batting an eye. The village's clan appears to be embroiled in a verbal feud. Hork, the goblin with giantism and chief warrior, explains the situation to Sonsuza and Jünn. Later approaches the rest of the party, comming out of hiding.

The village has been feuding over the proper way to drink their traditional drink 'thumb' for years, ommiting the fact that the village's children are being kidnapped and eaten by a dragon hatchling, which has been happening for the last three years. All the village's warriors are too preoccupied with infighting.

The party agrees to go with Hork to hunt the dragon down in its lair. After half an hour of travel, slaying of two insane mushroom people in which Hork falls, scarred by the fiery mushrooms, they face the young dragon. In the ensuing battle Sonsuza falls, her spirit torn by the dragon's claws and teeth. Eventually, they succeed in slaying the creature, heal up, and set off to collect the dragon's treasure, which consists mostly of copper coins from an unknown mint. Under this treasure, the party unearths stairs leading down to doors chiselled in jet-black rock, adorned with the décor of tentacles, calling to Shantak to come and explore.

## Session 4 - The Dreadful Shrine

### 11th of Spring 1345

Having become the dragonslayers honoured by the goblin village of Druhes Ethelvr, the party decided to investigate the intricate blackmetal door found under the dragon's hoard. This door happened to react to Shantak's touch by glowing in a teal tint where touched and then opened.

Further into the shrine, they discovered a room with an endless dark pit. Following that, they entered a smaller room with creatures resembling zombies. These beings seemed plagued by a curse or disease, twisting their statures into wild and vile forms and transforming their bodily fluids into a viscous, tar-like substance.

As proven by the plaques in the next room, these creatures were once priests of an ancient faith, likely devoted to long-dead gods. They transformed into the creatures either by the direct intervention of those gods or due to the same circumstances that led to the extinction of their pantheon.

Yet, one of those divine beings seems to have survived and possibly even thrived. Under the shrine dedicated to the six gods of the pantheon, another one was hidden. This shrine was dedicated to Z'axah, now reincarnated into a monstrous being. In the pantheon, Z'axah presents as a humanoid cyclops, but in this dark shrine, a statue with one crystalline eye and black swirling tendrils was raised.

In this temple hidden underneath another temple the party found a ritual Chisel of Dark Knowledge and the Z'axahian Codex - seemingly a living book that interacts with Shantak in ways foreign an uncomprehensible and containing ancient knowledge possibly dating hundred thausands if not milions years into the past. The only catch being that this codex is written in a miriad of foreign and exotic languages and translating knowledge inside would require time and resources.

As the party returned to Druhes Ethelvr, they once again encountered Hork at the entrance gate of the palisade, watching over his feuding tribe, just as before. This time, they weren't fighting verbally and hadn't yet resorted to spears. Instead, they were playing dice to determine who was right. Upon seeing this, Sonsuza decided to pull out her card deck. She proceeded to persuade the goblins to play cards against her, completely destroying them and earning a good pile of gems.

Then, she deliberately let the goblins win the very last game, with a decent pile of gems on the scales. This gesture caused the goblins to cut their furs and leathers into small rectangles, creating their own cards. They completely forsook their feud in the name of their newfound fixation.

## Session 5 - The Creeping Mist

After slaying the dragon hatchling and resolving the tribe's feud through a game of cards, the party decided to rest for the day in the vacant shroomhouse that Hork had generously allowed them to use temporarily.

### 12th of Spring 1345

The next day, they commenced their journey back to Magdeburg, deciding to deliver the specimens to the academy and collect their payment for the quest. Along the way, they encountered a Schwaling druid or shaman named Tumut, who sought their help. The druidic grove he was entrusted to defend had been raided by a group of fire elementals. It was part of an endless tug of war, a manifestation of Fire Pits' nature—an ancient conflict between fiery mushroom fey and fire elementals. The latter had ruled this biome millions or even hundreds of millions of years ago before the mushroom fauna spread there from the Lush Depths and adapted to the immense heat.

After a battle against animalistic fire elementals, they resumed their journey back. Before leaving, they received a pouch of mind-reading spores and some domesticable roots. As the party entered the halls of Magdeburg once more, they were greeted by a grim sight. The once lively stronghold was now shrouded in dense fog, its halls quiet, and its residents, if still alive, were undoubtedly hiding in the confines of their homes. As they ventured further, the tolling of a distant bell tower reached their ears. Proceeding cautiously in the direction of the Magdeburger Academy, they beheld a colossal figure spanning five floors, dominating the main street leading to the academy.

The party, upon seeing this colossal figure, immediately felt charmed and compelled to walk towards it with each toll of the bell. The bell tower they heard seemed to be the creature's head. Succumbing to the enchantment of the ringing bell, they became careless and were spotted by a group of stalking Hunters, triggering a fierce battle. While the party fought against the wolf-like hunters, the bell-headed figure was ambushed by a group of black-clothed warriors and eventually fell to a spellcaster known as Augod—a legendary goblin free mistwalker, also known as Black Blood.

With all foes defeated and fallen mistwalkers honoured, the party discussed their options with their new acquaintance and decided to continue their journey to the academy.

See also: Kyrevan's Dream Wiki and Those of Times Long Forgotten Campaign