It has been a long time since the last time that I wrote a journal about a gathering, but this past gathering in Dar Khabad prompted me to re-start the tradition, at least for a while. I will decide whether to continue it based on the kind of response it gets.
My intention in traveling to Dar Khabad this gathering was to be able to capture a Sessuar and interrogate them about ongoing problems we have been having in Therendry. I have a working theory that Sessuar are after Sir Tivorak of Evendarr, because everytime he goes to a gathering they seem to show up. As such, when I heard that Sir Tivorak was coming for this gathering, I thought that it might be a good chance to capture a Sessuar. As it turned out, though, I got much more than I bargained for when I actually showed up for the gathering.
In fairness, the gathering actually started out pretty quietly. I got to see friends I hadn’t seen in a while, and even meet some new people. There were a couple adventurers who used to travel in Ravenholt ten years ago, whose names I unfortunately do not recall, who apparently had gotten lost and somehow wound up in Dar Khabad. They told me they used to be part of a team called the Black Rose, which created much confusion for me, because as far as I knew, the Black Rose was a group of undead in Ravenholt that has been around forever and attacks the town every once in a while. I believe that they were also involved in killing Princess Andrea Huntington, but my memory is uncertain. At any rate, the travelers assured me that they were part of a different Black Rose, which was a group of adventurers who had also been in Ravenholt. I was relieved to hear that they had not been part of a group of undead, and I wished them well on their adventures.
The feature monster of Friday night was shadow elementals. They frequently attacked the town, but caused very little real damage. They were looking for an artifact called the “Heart of Light,” but I know very little about it. I do recall that they used to be looking for an artifact called the “Heart of Shadows,” and so I would assume that they are somehow related. Perhaps the “Heart of Shadows” gave them extra power, and if they steal the “Heart of Light,” they will deprive their enemies, the light elementals, of power. Then, they could overrun the light elementals and plunge the world into darkness. At any rate, that is my current working theory as to why the shadow elementals are around.
There was also a vampire running around on Friday night. Every time I saw it, it was in gaseous form with about twenty adventurers following it around, waiting for it to become solid. Someone suggested using a stake of woe, but I pointed out that such a stake would require components, and very few people ever cough up components for the defense of the town anymore. And so, the best option was just to wait for it to get bored and become solid, which it eventually did, and I was told that after it dropped Squire Glenn Stormwolf with four death spells, it was eventually dispatched by High Lord Tao. My congratulations to the High Lord for a job well done.
After the shadow elementals and vampire were dealt with, there were strange frog creatures that came into town. We did not begin hostilities with them, despite Squire Stormwolf warning that they had been hostile in the past. We thought it best to wait until they had done something illegal before attacking them, as they were sentient beings and deserving of rights. However, it did not take them long to prove Squire Stormwolf right. They began hurling large amounts of spells at us, but we eventually managed to take them down. Afterwards, a couple more waves came in and attacked us. They claimed that they were looking for a Dar Khabad noble, or Baroness Fiona in particular. I don’t know much about the entire matter, but from what I understand they want land or some such. If that is the case, they are going about the entirely wrong way of getting it, and I am sure further hostilities will not be tolerated.
I should also note that the frog creatures had gemstones embedded in their heads, and the color of the gemstone seemed to determine what powers they had. For example, a certain color gemstone would mean celestial damage spells, and another color would mean binding, and I even heard that black gemstones meant death magicks, though I did not see any black gemstones.
Finally, with nothing going on, I decided it would be a good time to go to bed. It was probably around 4 AM when I decided to go to bed, and not fifteen minutes later my old friend Fenrir came running up to the cabin, yelling my name and telling me that they needed people for a dangerous mission to retrieve some type of artifact. I don’t know much about what it was we were retrieving, but it sounded important, so I agreed to go. I also grabbed Caliphar Belmont and Nicola Serife, and they came with me as well.
As it turns out, it was a good thing I agreed to go and that I brought Nicola (commonly known as Nikki) with me, because the adventure was the most heinous I have been on in quite some time, and we needed all the healing we could get. Pai Zhi, the legal scribe of Therendry, led the mission, and it involved four floors of fighting through very tough monsters, many of whom were very dangerous casters. The first level was mostly skeletons and things like that that we could handle. As we got deeper, though, there were usually at least one or more greater undead standing in our way, and by the final level everything we were facing was a greater undead.
Of particular note in this battle were the efforts of Pai’s friend Malcolm, who proved to be a most exceptional fighter, the efforts of Adrian Serife, who did a tremendous job of efficiently using his celestial magicks to take down undead and rescue people, and the efforts of Caliphar, who used his bow to fire arrows at a banshee from across the room. However, despite the fact that all these people did such a tremendous job, not everyone on the adventure did as well. Many people did not listen to orders, and pushed in when they should have been hanging back. Because of this, people had to go in to rescue them, and all sense of order was lost. We managed to grab the artifact, and we raced out with the undead hot in pursuit. At this point, our group got completely split, and it was fortunate that everyone made it out alive. Eventually, though, we managed to defeat the few undead that were still following us, but I doubt we have heard the last of them as of yet.
By the time I finally made it to bed, it was somewhere around 7 AM and the sun was shining bright. I think I may have gotten two hours of sleep, and then I was out adventuring again. Fortunately, my spells had reset themselves overnight, or I would have had no spells left. I had a nice breakfast with Sir Tivorak, his friend Ashen, and my good friend Michiko, who had traveled down with Sir Tivorak. The breakfast was eventually joined by Sir Alexander Norfolk, who was a welcome addition, and a merchant whose name I do not recall, who was not a welcome addition. This merchant was offensive, rude, and insulting, and wanted to be a noble for all the status she thought it would bring her. To make matters worse, we found a necromantic potion on her, which I promptly destroyed. It is a testament to the mercy of Sir Tivorak and Sir Norfolk that they did not execute her.
After breakfast, our assembled group joined Caliphar, Nikki, Beryl Qain, Fenrir, and Squire Verbal to explore out in the woods. In doing so, we were set upon by some manticores, who also happened to be slavers, and Squire Verbal quickly dispatched them. I do not know if I have ever seen a quicker volley of celestial magicks than the one that he dispatched them with. The mystic wood elf hatred of slavery was evident in every spell he threw, and the manticores never stood a chance.
After that, everyone else headed back to town, and Squire Verbal and I kept exploring the woods. We came upon a man who was lying on the ground, with a stack of gold upon his chest. We checked to see if he was alive or dead, but we could not tell, as his metabolism was one we were not familiar with. I attempted to heal him with a piece of a healing pool, and he began to get up. He thanked us for our efforts, and explained that what we did was part of a test. He was a representative of the plane of life, and he was testing to see if people were still really dedicated to health and healing. He said too many people had failed the test by taking the gold and walking off with it. He thanked us for our help, and he was nice enough to reset my spell tree, which was appreciated even though it was already full.
With that, I was pretty much done exploring the woods, and so we headed back to town. I was sitting outside the tavern, talking to Lady Pyroxia, when some people came up and said that they were looking for some young adventurers to help them with a task. We sent some young adventurers with them, and also sent Squire Verbal to keep an eye out for the young adventurers. A few minutes later, though, Squire Verbal came running back into town and telling us that they had been attacked. The original group of people who had asked for the young adventurers chased him, and they were quickly dispatched. Squire Verbal then led the town back to where the attack had taken place, and we discovered that it was a tower.
The gates of the tower had bars on them, and so only the skinniest adventurers could fit through and get into the tower. There were images on the walls, moving images, and they depicted scenes of great violence, mostly people beating each other mercilessly. Sometimes animals were involved in the mauling in the pictures, too. We weren’t sure exactly what they meant, and soon we were chased out by guards that randomly appeared and attacked us. We thought we were safe when we got outside, but then they began coming out and attacking us, usually in a desecrated form so we could not swing our swords at them.
We tried for a long time to figure out how to stop the flood, and nothing seemed to work. Lord Slateron even tried warding the building, to no avail. We were worried that eventually these guardsmen might overrun the entire town of Garrison’s Bridge. After about two hours of constant fighting, I decided to try something crazy. I had reason to suspect that the tower was somehow alive, and so I plunged my sword into the tower in a killing blow. To my surprise, it worked. Unfortunately, the tower imploded, dealing fatal damage to any adventurer standing near it. On the plus side, Sir Norfolk was standing a fair distance away, and he hit me with a cure light wounds spell before I even hit the ground. I ran around using my healing pool to get as many people up as I could, and most of the other healers did the same thing. In the end, though, all that mattered was that the tower was destroyed and the flow of guardsmen was finally stopped.
Around the same time, two other developments occurred. First, His Royal Highness Prince Gabriel arrived in town, which was nice to see. Second, the Sessuar arrived in town, which was not so nice to see. They attacked Lady Pyroxia, but fortunately she was rescued. Throughout the rest of the afternoon, they continued to attack the town. I tried to capture one to interrogate, but it used its suicide ability. It looked as though my mission had failed, as they all had suicide abilities.
A little later on, I realized it was getting close to time to reset spells, and so I worked on helping out Nikki in some errands that she needed done, and Beryl in some errands that she needed done. While I was helping Nikki, I was in the tavern when a younger adventurer rushed in and declared that her friend was being attacked by a spider. I rushed out into the woods, sprinting to get there in time, and was glad to see that I had arrived while he was still up. I rapidly attacked the spider, and even though it could swing through my shield, I was finally able to take it down with my onslaught of blows. I made sure everything was all right, and then I went back to the tavern to help Nikki. I think it is very important that older adventurers be there to help new adventurers when they need it.
A few minutes afterwards, as I was helping Beryl with what she needed done, Squire Kyth Wild of Richland arrived in town. I have come to consider Kyth one of my closest friends in recent days, and in the recent Therendry/Blackstone awards, he was selected as the best adventuring fighter. It is an award he richly deserved (no pun intended).
Unfortunately, after that not much went on. There were hours of noble meetings about the future of Blackstone, and so all the nobles were tied up. We held a little fighting tournament, in which Lord Slateron proved victorious, besting Squire Kyth in the finals. There was a feast, which was amongst the best feasts I have ever had at a gathering. Actually, scratch that last sentence, it was the best feast I have ever had at a gathering. It was organized and efficient and the food was good and there was plenty of it. My commendations to the tavern.
During the time after the feast, the gypsy Nadia got into a dispute with the Quentari elf TK Verisdat. Nadia believed that TK had insulted her race, and TK claimed that Nadia had insulted him. I don’t know much about what started it, but I know that it ended up with her gypsy cursing him, and a charge of assault being brought against her. I believe that she was found not guilty, and she was apologized to, and the curse was removed. It was handled quickly and efficiently by Baron Ramos, the local Dar Khabad noble, and I hope everyone was satisfied with the outcome.
After that, there was a long, long down time, which I used to sit in the tavern and talk to Squire Finna, Squire Kyth, Squire Verbal, Squire Stormwolf, and Fenrir. We called it Squires’ Corner, and many important issues of the day were debated. I then got a chance to talk to Gehenna Evermore, who was at the gathering, and she explained to me that she was going on a rescue mission later in the gathering for which she needed help. I agreed to help her out, and I very much enjoyed my conversation with her and her friends.
Next, Oberon and Puck appeared in the tavern. I had heard of them before, and they are supposedly good fey, but I have not had good experiences with fey in the past, and so I merely stayed silent and observed them. When it seemed like nothing was happening, I went with Squire Kyth, Caliphar, Nikki, and Beryl to explore the woods and see if anything dangerous had occurred. I later learned that Oberon and the Lord of Illusions had a big shootout and Puck apparently went crazy, but I don’t know much about the entire matter.
When my explorations with Squire Kyth and the gang turned up nothing, I went back to the tavern. There, I was recruited into an adventure to help find information about the Heart of Light. The adventurers who were going were divided into two groups, and sent down two different tunnels. In the group I was in, I was joined by Lady Pyroxia, High Lord Gareth, Lee from Ae’ranor, Dalen from Ae’ranor, Fenrir, Squire Kyth, and another adventurer I did not know. We were assaulted by very enthusiastic goblins and orcs in the first few rooms, and there were greater threats deeper in. We eventually ran into spiders and undead and other monstrosities. Thanks to the heroism of High Lord Gareth and Dalen, we made it quite far in, and were apparently able to gain much information.
By this time, it was quite late, and many adventurers had gone to bed. Several of us, though, stayed up to help Gehenna with the task we had promised to help with. Dalen, Lee, High Lord Gareth, Squire Verbal, Fenrir, and I accompanied Gehenna to the infernal plane to help her with a rescue, and it was very tough going. The plane itself attacked us with constant fire attacks, and the inhabitants hit us with constant arcane dispel magic spells, as well as swinging at us for seven dagger blows of damage. They also had an amazing ability to resist magicks thrown at them, and so we basically had to hit them a lot. Fortunately, we were able to successfully accomplish what needed to be done, and safely make it back to Tyrra, largely through the help of a fire elemental named Imp.
At that point, the sun was about to rise, and so we got a little bit of sleep before traveling back to Therendry. Hopefully, our efforts made a positive difference for the now Kingdom of Dar Khabad.
Scribed by Seronia on the 1st day of March in the year 604.