DavesGaming

We decided first to get back to De’Arnise to make sure all was well. That would prove to be a good decision!

As the troops were marching out double time, we learned Roenall forces had entered De’Arnise lands. The troops would head out to meet them, while we stayed behind with the Castle Guard to defend against a breakthrough. I put Nalia up on the wall to watch with the archers. Soon, a horseman came riding across the drawbridge with news our troops were winning their fight, but a small number of Roenall forces including the Baron himself had gotten around the flank and should be approaching the keep anytime.
Within minutes, Nalia reported from atop the wall that it looked like Baron Roenall and a small guard force were heading our way.

I lead my team out to meet Lord Roenall.

It is never satisfying to fight over petty politics. But Lord Roenall was ready to take pettiness to an extreme level, and left us with no choice. We killed him, and many of his soldiers. I couldn’t imagine what the fall out of this might be.

I would wager Lord Roenall must have received something similar? I guess we’re now considered stable!

We all needed some sleep and rest. The last couple weeks had been brutal.

I feel so much more at peace now having Imoen back with us. No doubt she was missed.

Wait, why did I miss Imoen?

Unfortunately our rest needed to be brief. We had business to see to back in Athkatla, so we all rode to the city the next day. So much of this was just literal businesss. We had more things to sell, and wanted to restock a few things. Keldorn mentioned he wanted to stop by his manor while we were back. How did I not even know he had a home and family? I’m afraid I’ve been too self absorbed for the last while.

But things did not go well. Maria, Keldorn’s wife, was beyond annoyed that he’d found everyone else’s lives more important than his own. This was ongoing, since before we even met him. But I felt terrible knowing I had complicated things for him these last few weeks.
It was dire enough Maria had suggested their marriage was over.

Our friend seethed at the knowledge an older man had provided companionship to his wife while he was unavailable.
… this was all way outside my expertise. Being young, and having never been far from my husband, I have no basis for judgement here. But it seemed Keldorn needed to talk to the older man in question. We all accompanied him that far, to protect Keldorn from himself as much as anything.

I think that went well? Keldorn was much calmed down. And I granted him leave to see to his family. We would check in with him in a few days to see that all was well.
We rode back to the castle that evening. In the morning we talked through several conflicting needs we had, and decided to ride out to the Umar Hills, and look into some recent killings in the area.

Now it was Imoen’s turn to get used to riding.

The Umar Hills really means Imnesville, the small village located there. And the small settlement was crowded when we arrived, many from the outlying area had moved into town for safety.

It was either the old Umar Witch, who hadn’t actually been seen in centuries (she could be a lich or other undead? But we’ll call that a longshot for now), some wolves who’d been seen in the area (but then the bodies disappeared? Why were wolves stealing the bodies?) or a group of ogres known to be just outside of town (but one source claimed the ogres were friendly, just looking for peace and quiet).
So a few things to look in to.

As we talked we were heading out of town into the wilderness. But right at the edge of civilization was a man claiming to be a Deva, and uh, “preaching” to a small crowd. Aerie said to me “He’s an Avarial!”

I’d never seen Aerie so hot! There was a child in the crowd, sick with a bad cough. She challenged the fraudster immediately to heal the child. He hemmed and hawed, made excuses. Then Aerie prayed and healed the boy, as a priestess of Baervan Wildwanderer (it always amuses me that our Avarial friend follows a gentle gnomish deity).
She accused him of stealing from these poor refugees and farmers.
He mocked Aerie cruely. He had heard parts of her story, who and what she was. And he mocked her as a maimed invalid. I had some thoughts about plucking the cretin. No, no, that’s not who I am. But he was the sort who could test my restraint.

He flew off before anything came of this encounter. I reminded Aerie she was MY friend. And we were all there for each other.

We contiued out of town. And soon came across an encampment of ogres.

They offered to help the mayor and his village, they could provide some protection. But, whatever was killing villagers, had killed one of the ogres too. This was a bigger problem.

Continuing on we came across a cabin. Inside was a Ranger.

Apparently some huge magical sphere had recently materialized in Athkatla (I’ve seen it! Its not too far from the Copper Coronet). It was apparently a planar traveling device created by an old ancester of his. And the Cowled Wizards were sure his blood was the key to entering the thing.
I mentioned I was no friend of the Cowled Wizards, would he like any sort of help?

We all talked for a while. Valygar thought his blood likely *would* allow access to the sphere, but he did not want the Cowled Wizards gaining that access. I offered he could accompany us for a while, maybe we could beat them to it and see what that thing was all about.
So that was the plan.

For now we wanted to finish our look around the immediate area of the Umar Hills. Not too far from Valygar’s cabin we walked into an ambush.

We defeated the ambush pretty easily and he flew off.

But Raptair was still foul and insulting, and flew off. As we looked through the debris of the fight, we found a faintly glowing red gem. Or egg? It was faintly magical, but not evil (*things* most often have no moral dimension, but some magical things do). Aerie was immediately drawn to it, she wanted to keep it. I looked to Imoen.
She shrugged. It wasn’t plainly evil. We should keep an eye on it (and on Aerie). It may hold a surprise, but *probably* not a terror.
So Aerie would hang on to it.

As we continued to explore the area we found another cabin. It looked abandoned. It was, but not willingly. We found evidence of a murder in the living quarters. And we found a journal and a letter. As near as we could tell, a local Ranger named Marella had been slain here. She had been investigating some new evil moving into an old abandoned temple some distance from here. And the letter indicated another troup of adventurers led by someone named Mazzy had set out to investigate the temple. There was a passable map to the site.

We all decided to let Mazzy and her crew look into things for now. We would head back to Athkatla and check out Valygar’s great sphere.

We checked in with Mayor Lloyd on the way out. We let him know the ogres seemed most likely friendly, he needed to talk to them. The local ranger Marella was dead, but an adventurer named Mazzy was leading a team to investigate an old temple some distance from here. We would check back with him in a couple weeks and see how it was going.

We set out for Athkatla, and came across slavers. Of course we brought the fight. We will not allow slavers on our watch. And guess who the slavers had recently acquired?

Really, she gave Raptair an awesome silent treatment. The rest of us backed away and let Aerie handle it.
After glaring at him for some minutes, she untied him. And calmly, politely asked for any information on her family’s wearabouts and well being.
He replied, apparently sincerely (he is a con man), that he would let her know if he found anything out.
And he flew off.

When we got back to the city I first went to check in on Keldorn. He was in far better spirits! He and his wife had talked. He would retire, no more adventures for him! I was honestly happy for the veteran paladin, that is likely the best possible outcome for him and his family. I hope to see him when we’re in town.
Keldorn said he was still sworn to help me recover my soul, or whatever Irenicus had stolen from me. His retirement would come after! I felt a little weepy. That was wonderful!
He was excited now. He was looking forward to more time with his family, and with his girls. I told him to take a day now. We were looking into something in town, and would be back with him tomorrow evening.
We had a plan.

We set off for the slums of Athkatla.

We found a wooden boarding pathway up to the Sphere was down onto the upper floor of a ruined tenement. We walked up to it, looking carefully for any tricks or traps. But everything seemed clear and clean. And the sphere was just a solid wall of some metal.

As we entered it was quickly apparent the inside was far larger than the outside. We found a large store room just inside the door, then nearby a “map room” that had a large scale model of Athkatla with the Sphere sitting right near the Copper Coronet. Exactly where it was!

At this point something changed. The door behind us slid shut, and we felt the whole building move. Briefly. A look in the map room was far darker now. It looked like the Sphere was now sitting on some hellscape. Swell.

We entered another room and met people.

I’m not familiar with that order. The woman and two knights with her, were from somewhere else. Some other world. She called it Krynn. I’m completely unfamiliar with those names. As near as I could tell her knights were a sort of Paladin order.
She wanted to go home. No doubt! We all compared notes. She reported several different sorts of creatures lived in this place. The next room over contained savage halflings. Savage halflings? That’s new.
This place does occasionally move, but she has seen nothing like home. Yeah, I think we’re currently in the Abyss.

Well, let’s check in with those savages!

This was a large, hot space. It was dark like a cavern, but it somehow seemed open. Was there a breeze? Like we were in a great desert?
And the first couple conflicts we had with the halflings may have lulled us off our guard.

There were actually a couple of tougher fights. Against halflings. We’ve also faced a number of lesser foes.

We reignated some furnaces, that apparently just powered a magic lab. There was a guardian golem almost assembled that seemed to have all his parts strewn about.

What this all really led to was finding Lavok, Valygar’s ancester. Valygar knew him as a monster. A family boogeyman. He had built this great machine and disappeared. Reappearing only to slay family members over the years. Sounds like we could understand each other’s families!

But it soon became clear he was possessed by something demonic. As we reduced his defenses he became frantic, before finally collapsing in a heap. The spirit had left him. It had extended his life for hundreds of years. A life where he was a prisoner watching it commit evil acts to his own family. Actually all over, but he was terrorized by his actions against his family, and his descendants.
This was all hard for Valygar to come to terms with. For him, a lifetime of horror at his ancestors actions. Now reduced to an old man dying at his feet.

Lavok talked us through getting the machine back to Athkatla. It was involved, and he expended most of remaining strength getting us all home.

Valygar sat with him until he passed. He will need time to process all of this, he wanted to return to his cabin in the woods near Imnesville.
Of course he would. We said our goodbyes. We told him we would be back in the area in a few weeks to check up on Mazzy and her friends, and that old temple. He could get word to De’Arnise if he heard anything we needed to know before then.

We headed back into the sphere to talk to the Knights. We let them know WE were home. We would check with some people we knew about getting them home.
Then a mage teleported in among us. He rather rudely introduced himself as Teos, Cowled Wizard. They would “let us” keep the Planar Sphere as our own, if we helped them out on occasion. First that would involve working with some young apprentice magic users. Funny. I’m no mage. But I have *just the person*! “Teos, you’ll be working with my sister Imoen on this. And she is a mighty mage!”

We ran some more errands around town that afternoon, and then went to find Keldorn.

We rode back out to the castle. We seem to have decided to check out the Windspeare Hills in the morning, see what Lord Firkraag needs help with.

Back at the castle, Aerie noticed some movement in her pack.

I love this team, my friends.

*****

Of course everything with Raptair and Aerie’s mini-Phoenix familiar are from the Wings mod. Very fun with a lot of content spread throught the whole game.

Funny thing, I’ve now built up Brademante as an 18th level Paladin to be able to dual wield. We could buy that lovely flail “Defender of Easthaven” and Brademante would gain high damage resistance thanks to that powerful magic weapon. But I think I’m not going to do that. For one, she’d give up five places of armor class to part with the shield. But more important, that shield is Brad’s look. And dual wielding flails, no matter how effective they are, would just look really stupid. So Brad will keep her shield, at least for now.