Water Palava

24th July 2023

## Adventurers Attending

* Hilda
* Io Aerkeryrm
* Seymour Shanchi
* Tas
* Xerxes Kaalahdiil

## Mission Notes

The party was met at the guildhouse by a clerk who has limited details on a weather related abnormality near Ambercrop Farms. Hamer dropped them off close enough to there and they found that although it was raining and snowing no precipitation was hitting the ground. The clouds were also moving against the wind. Farmer Joe told them this had been happening for a month.

Finding a cave with some elementals outside it the party walked in to find water filled tunnels. These led to various store rooms and also Io found the pixies from "Beyond the Jail" who gave her some Pixie Dust. Stairs led upwards and this led to a room with a puzzle in it. The puzzle caused the room to be flooded and pushed the adventurers upwards. Three Giffs were in conversation in another room and the guild attacked first and killed two of these and took the other captive. This room had similar paperwork to what was found around Silver Peak in common, Giff and Dwarvish.

The party were warned of a sorcerer in the next room and found this. Io tried to get a salamander on the side of the guild and persuaded it not to attack. It was still slaughtered by the guild despite this. Evidence that something else watched this fight from above was found.

The sorcerer disappeared underwater into a network of tunnels and out of the reach of any guild weapons or spells.

Escaping through the sorcerer's living area the guild found books about weather and tracks leading away that appeared to be caused by something bird-like. The weather was back to normal and the guild got paid by Farmer Joe.

## Loot

* Standard Level Xp & Gold
* Pixie Dust - Io

## Rumours

* Where did the sorcerer go?
* What caused the bird-like tracks away from the battle?
* What is the organisation behind the disruption of industry?

## Player Diaries

### **Io Aerkeryrm's Diary**

> I don’t know why I bother trying to make friends. Brain Jar, dead. Gooze, dead. Salamander, dead. I’ve managed to save a few in my time, the Spectators, those trolls, that one fire giant. Oh! Mr Crab! Just gets harder to watch these beautiful creatures die.
> I had to sleep Seymour again. He was going to kill an other prisoner. It’s always fun to watch him drop though.
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### **Hilda's Diary**

> Hilda started the day doing some brief training with Xerxes, and before long the two of them were ushered by one of the clerks into a quest with some new but seemingly very powerful allies. The group was informed that there was an issue with the weather at Ambercrop farms and they set out to investigate. Once they arrived at the farms, it quickly became apparent there was some sort of magic stopping the water, snow or any other kind of precipitation to touch the floor of this town. Noticing there was something odd about the way the winds and clouds blew, the party walked towards the mountains where they saw an entrance to the cave. The group had to traverse through some tunnels of water to progress through, but after a short while they found themselves at a puzzle with various tokens, however they quickly recalled the elementals outside the cave entrance and used this information to crack the code. After this they found themselves overhearing a conversation between some giff (if that’s how you spell it). Hilda and Xerxes’s suspicions of this areas issue being connected to the documents they found in the silver peaks which detailed plans to disrupt the east ridings increased, as some of those documents were written in giff. The group bust through the door and quickly took down two out of the three giff, the third the group tried to interrogate and, after a successful charm spell from Hilda and a successful subduing of the groups loose cannon Seymour, their suspicions proved correct as the captive admitted to working with the same group, however they didn’t have anything to do with the weather distribution it seemed. Upon being told the culprit was in the room next to them, Hilda subdued the giff again and the group headed to confront the issue.
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> Upon entering the room they saw a sorcerer concentrating on a spell, as well as two salamanders protecting them. The party engaged in combat but Hilda felt pretty pathetic as she couldn’t land a single blow against the salamander she was fighting, along with getting grappled in the process. In the end it was the bow of Seymour and the powerful spells of Tas and Io that felled the two salamanders, however the sorcerer got away.
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> Frustrated by these events, being her first (in her mind) failed mission as well as making a fool of herself in combat. Hilda would head back to Otha’s rest, offering a round of drinks from the tavern she works at to the group.
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### **Xerxes' Entry**

*Strangely, Xerxes has shown a quick and marked improvement with his handwriting skills. This entry, and any following, are written by him.*

> It is maddening. These evil men keep slipping through my fingers, and I cannot send their souls on to find their ultimate judgement.
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> Today's mission saw myself, Hilda (who I trained with in the yard earlier), Io, Tas, and Seymour (a Tabaxi I had not yet seen at the Guild). We were tasked with investigating odd weather disturbances at a local farm, to which we discovered quickly that rainfall and snow could not affect the soil, ruining the crops. Hilda and I realised quickly, since we had been following this investigation – it is the doing of those… disruptors, the people that wanted to shut down the Ridings' industries in order to take over.
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> We followed the strange wind to a cave, where elementals stood frozen, and beyond that, a water filled cavern. We swam through, I picked up a trident, and Io got some dust from Pixies they said they met before, then took us forward. We solved a puzzle that allowed us to move ahead, killed several Giff that were a part of the disruptors, and captured one alive, despite Seymour wishing to kill them. We took a breather, then did battle with the Sorcerer that was manipulating the weather and the nearby soil. The two Salamanders guarding him were easy enough, but the Sorcerer slipped away, invisible. Some other clawed creatures watched us fight, but fled too. We found precious little else, so we hauled back the prisoner for interrogation and collected our gold.
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> The prisoner claimed to just be "following orders". Pah! A cowardly excuse! He claims his organisation has no name, but they want to run the Ridings into the ground, and then sweep in, destroy the Guild, and control what remains. I will give these disruptors this – they are smart. They calculate their moves, and never give more than they need. The more I find, the more I discover that our foe has us backed into a corner. We can only react and scavenge for what they leave behind. We must act soon, take the fight to them, before we find ourselves starving and cold inside our own walls. Yet nobody has yet heeded my warning.
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> Utterly infuriating! Hilda and I asked the more experienced Guild Members how to deal with this empty feeling, and said we would get used to it. But will I? I only feel more inadequate with each mission, that my limits have been reached, and that they are not enough. I did promise to train Hilda more – she feels the same way I do, and I am glad to have a fellow member take this as seriously as I.
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> But it is time I changed that feeling. Tonight, I go to the Hall of the Dead. I will speak with Marrukh. If I am to work his will, and serve this role, the people of the Ridings, and this Guild, the role must give me something more in return. If all goes well, I shall return from that Hall with the means to confront these interlopers – and destroy them.
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