Summary 08: Within the Vault

Captain’s Log, Entry Number 92; Glaive Gangsworth.

The seas this eve are rougher than ever I have seen. Even the violent shakes of the hull though give me solace. The feeling reminds me that I am alive. And that I have a purpose, which has yet to be revealed. In the mirror is a man starring back at me who will one day be a hero. I know that I am destined for greatness alongside my brother. We have both reached a point where we have stopped counting the number of times we each have saved each other’s life. That thought takes me back to a time that seems an eternity ago.

Gustav, Crimson, Garland, and myself had saved the Sea Nixie from being sunk by a band of Dawn Council guard members. Ours had been an ingenious plan, one that had worked out beautifully. Now we were faced with the aftermath of our deeds. The Gangsworths, nor Crimson, had ever been involved in such anarchy. Gustav claimed that he too had never soiled his blade in blood, but he hadn’t fooled anyone with that outright lie. His recent quick and brutal death thrusts with his rapier were all the proof we needed. The question now was: what were we to do with the remaining unconscious prisoners? Had we been of nobler hearts, we might have sailed the ship back to the dock and brought them all in for questioning. But quite honestly, we (Crimson excluded) were all very pissed off. I, for simply being involved in something way over my head. Gustav for this, yet another, affront against his lady bitch Lavinia. And Garland for realizing he was working for the criminal Drackus, who had indirectly murdered Captain Shadwick.

And so, after finding and unlocking the safe to recover the Seeker Ring family key, we set our plan into motion. I and my brother gave the survivors to Gustav so that the assassin could eagerly end their lives. I still get nightmares over how he nonchalantly closed his eyes like an expert killer as he stabbed all the Dawn Council members through their throats. Garland was then forced at blade point my Gustav to cut out all the dead people’s tongues so as they could not be questioned magically. Only one of the victims was left alive. This had been the first Council member who had heard and believed Crimson when she had yelled out that the “Lotus Dragon’s had come to renege on the bargain.” This sailor we left in the water, strapped to a barrel, to attest to the claim of our monk partner. Our goal was to get sweet revenge by hopefully pitting our two hated enemy organizations against each other. Knowing time was a factor, we quickly erased any marks of our presence, and silently went back to shore. My brother and I woke our whaling crew to prepare for some late night hunting, while Crimson and Gustav went back to Lavinia’s. I of course handed over the contract for Lavinia to sign which would temporarily give me ownership of the Sea Nixie until the Wyvern could be recovered, as was the agreement for recovering the key.

Garland and I were just about to haul anchor on my brother’s vessel when suddenly the lovely Crimson called out to me out of the dreary night. By her side were the assassin and his wench Lavinia. They had decided to go against I and my brother’s judgment, and go immediately to the vault to see what was left. Knowing they wouldn’t leave us alone until we went with them, we agreed. This life seemed to be going as predictable as you could write a book about. I knew that we were likely walking into either am empty vault, or a trap. And here we were, a spell-depleted, battle tired, group of commoners, throwing themselves into danger. A prelude to what would one day become my daily life.

Arriving at Castle Terraknian, we used the Seeker Ring to open Lavinia’s door to her fortune. I used a common light spell to illuminate the area which contained nothing but empty barrels where once there were thousands of coins. There was no question that a Gangsworth would step forth first into the blank interior. That left only the bravery between Gustav’s legs to lead him head first to meet any lingering dangers. Poetic it was that a coiled snake suddenly sprung up to bite him, and excrete its toxins in his bloodstream.

The iron cobra had obviously been left to kill Lavinia if and when she ever entered the vault. Had there not been four others with her that eve, she most definitely would have died. As it was, Gustav was bleeding from a mortal wound that was infested with a strength leach poison. Leaping to his aid was Crimson who force-fed him a healing potion to keep him on his feet. I sent a magic missile into the melee, but it simply washed over the construct, doing nothing. Gustav retaliated as well with a sword swipe, yet his blade bounced off the adamantium plating of the thing. The only person who had any success was my brother, whose larger caliber weapon punched through scaled armor. This brought the snakes attention completely on him. The iron cobra ignored the useless strikes of Crimson and Gustav, and instead bit down time and time again on Garland. As the seconds ticked by, we were marred in a pitched battle of metal versus metal. Twice did I sacrifice my body so that Crimson could reanimate Garland, allowing for him to fight on. My last sacrifice was nearly my last as the cobra dropped me to near oblivion. Eventually we were able to down the mechanical menace, while barely maintaining slivers of our own life essences.

Reaching for our last reserves of bravery, the lot of us went deeper into the chamber. There we found a sun dial statue with pictures of monsters on the wall. I immediately recognized that this was some sort of combination code, with the number of eyes on each painting representing the actual code number. It was at this point that Gustav revealed that he had pocketed a letter he had found on the Nixie, which contained the names of differing monsters, but which obviously was the solution to this lock. Crimson ran off to the arena and soon returned with a description of all the monsters on the note. This allowed us to turn the proper sequence with the number of eyes on the note corresponding to the number of eyes in the painted murals. Once complete, we heard a grating sound that was the door to a secret chamber opening. There within were stacks of coins and many contracts for payment from other prestigious families. Lavinia was both overjoyed and saddened to see the lengths that Vanthus, Rowyn, and the rest of the Lotus Dragons had gone to. Everything that had been done was all to get at this. And with that in mind, Lavinia asked us all to take out a blood contract on her enemies. If we found and returned the money that had been stolen, she would compensate each of us 3000 gold. This was an offer that neither of us could refuse. For the next few days though, we all decided to maintain a low profile.

A few days later, rumors that were music to us reached our ears. It seemed that a blood war had started up between the Dawn Council and the Lotus Dragons. Our plan had indeed worked out better than we could have hoped, as this was the revenge we had awaited. Not wanting to break alliances completely, we sent Garland in to talk to Drackus, as my brother remained still a soldier of the Council. As instructed, Garland declared that he wanted to fight the good fight against the Dragon’s and was hoping to be provided with a lead or two to some of their more prominent members. Drackus confirmed to Garland that the Dawn Council and the Lotus Dragons had been under an alliance until the betrayal on the Sea Nixie. He gave to Garland a list of six names, one of which was a name that was already the center to our loosely laid out plan. That name of course was Max; best friend to Anzak. Over the past several days Crimson had apparently been seducing him and doing things that disgust my brain to imagine even now. Max’s name on the list was the concrete proof we needed in order to make our move to get Lavinia’s money back.

The following day, Crimson brought us together to explain her plan. Why we were even listening to the advice of a stripper at the time is a mystery that even the gods will never be able to answer. She said that there would be two stages. The first was for Lavinia and Gustav to accompany her and Max on a double date to Parrot Island. While Max was distracted, Garland and myself would break into Max’s apartment and see what we could find. Crimson stated however that she could not reveal the second part of her plan until she deemed it the right time. Again I ask myself why we did not INSIST she tell us then and there. Instead, we placed our trust in her motives as we all parted ways. What followed after was___

Session 07: Player Thoughts

There are times when a campaign calls for a moment or two of action to start things rolling along, and this was the case this last session. Our characters were all made before the revelation that this would likely be a rollplaying campaign. It was simply a coincidence that we all came with different character ideas whose feats and prestige classes had little in the way of supreme combat. No fighters, no knights of the Chalice, no Evangelist Champions. Just a couple of rogue-type characters with a few little boosts around them to get the job done should it be needed. Though the Shackled City was an admittedly easy campaign, the Age of Worms was as difficult a test as we have ever seen. With this being sort of a premonition for the third chapter, the Savage Tide, I think we all figured that our characters would be dead by the end anyway so why envision a power crazy character ? All of us players still believe we really don’t stand a chance at making it even to the halfway, mark by the way. After this last session though, I do now believe that we might actually stand a slight chance at making it to at least chapter 7 or so.

The only real memorable highlight was the single battle we had that probably lasted us about 2 hours. Garland is about the only character who is actually capable of charging into battle, and that’s a pretty borderline call. As you will see in the writeup when it’s posted, our party used a tactic that we’ve never before used and one which went to the edge and over of the sort of tactics we always stay away from. This has to do with our general sense of humor that finds such game play to be less humorous, and also because we had a former member of our group who turned all his characters (male and female) into characters that you would see in a porno flik. Logically our plan was quite sound, and thankfully worked quite well. Knowing our extreme limitations in close combat, we used what our characters were capable of to almost perfection. If it had not been for a lucky hit on Garland, none of us would have even dropped. Our DM told us ahead of time that we’d be facing a battle that TPKed a great number of parties at the start of Savage Tide and that this battle was it. Yet we passed the test easily, gaining some valuable info in the process as well thanks to some good Bluff checks to make the crew think we were Lotus Dragons. All this to say that we’ve had a couple of sessions that were all talk, talk, talk, and it really felt right for a battle that meant something. In the end, I think all of us players had a sense great accomplishment. Gustav did an honorable thing for Lavinia, Glaive negotiated beforehand to gain ownership up the Sea Nixie if Lavinia’s ring was recovered, Garland would be the captain of the Sea Nixie as his brother promised, and Crimson got to punch through a wooden grate in the deck in order to reach the boss below. Even before the battle, some thinking and unthinking rollplaying by everyone brokered some info and concrete proof of the alliances of several NPC’s we’ve had recent dealings with. And as I write this, I’m already thinking of interesting ways of how we can gain further info from these same people. Me thinks the sharks will be mighty full after the next session. Can’t wait for the fun.

Summary 07: Bloodshed on the Nixie

**Placing a few logs upon the open fire pit, Garland turned around and sat back at his small desk. Opening a small vial of ink and dipping his quill within, he began writing in his journal once more**

Heading to Shadowshore was not something I enjoyed doing. Besides all the shady people within the streets and that pompous Emil Dracktus whom I still believe to be the head master of all corruption in Sasserrine… it was a filthy run down area. We entered the Fish Lips bar that both Anzak and Max visited often and we began asking around for either of the two. It was obvious that Anzak had not been seen in some time, though Max continued to visit on a nightly basis so we waited the few hours until he showed up. Walking up to the man I requested a gaming session with him, stakes besides the money upon the table was the answering of a question given. He selected something called Poker which he briefly explained to me. Though I lost more money than I gained, I was able to find out that Max had seen Anzak a few days ago and that they frequently went into the forest to hunt game for the Area in town. Reporting back to the others Crimson then made her way to Max I assumed to flirt with, but to my surprise ended up swindling the poor man of both his money and what he knew. She also arranged a hunting date for the lot of us, in hopes to acquire further game for the area and to perhaps locate Anzak within the forest. After much thought we all turned down the offer of Max and instead paid visit to the Area itself.

Questioning the head man there on the whereabouts of Anzak, he informed us that his bi-weekly visit with game was already past due, making us believe that perhaps Anzak left town for good. After running around like a bunch of headless fish upon land without further clues, the Sea Gods themselves showed us the path in the form of a messenger to Lavinia. The Council had decided it time to formally announce the deaths of the Vanderboren's and papers awaited signage from Lavinia to take possession of their whole estate. As we all march forth towards the Council, my brother Glaive pulled me aside and thought of something that only someone with a twisted mind could. Perhaps everything that had happened in recent days was all Lavinia's doing in order to gain possession of the wealth of her parents. Though absurd as it sounded, Glaive pushed me to travel ahead to inform the council of this possible scenario and to make a minor clause in the official documents stating that if Lavinia were to ever be found guilty of murdering, or having her parents murdered, then the fortune would fall to next of kin. My brother and I of course kept this between ourselves, not giving any word to either Gustave or Crimson in fear of disapproval or perhaps worse.

Once all documents were signed, and a few tears from Lavinia were shed, she informed us about the Seeker's Ring that we gave her a few days back was in fact a key to open the treasures that were rightfully hers, locked away in a vault beneath Castle Teraknian. Though going our separate ways, all our destinations would eventually lead us to the same place. Glaive convinced our mother Seoni to join us as we feared that perhaps someone would attempt to rob Lavinia of her wealth. Though this did not in fact happen, what did occur frustrated me greatly. The Seeker ring upon the charred remains of the Vanderborne and now in the possession of Lavinia was nothing more than a fake. The fake ring could not grant us access to the vaults, and the fool who was in charge would not bend the rules by allowing us access. In fact we were told that formal papers had to be processed to acquire access to the master signet key, and that the time period would be approximately two full weeks. Try as we might to gain access there on the spot, that sea dog wouldn't roll over. Returning to Lavina's manor we began searching for the possibility of another Seeker's Ring, when the butler himself informed us of another said ring located within the Blue Nixie. A hidden compartment within the fine vessel held what we sought.

Making our way towards the dock area, we took notice that the Blue Nixie began to set sail with several unknown individuals on board. Rushing to the dock master, an individual whom Glaive and I bumped into the other day, we demanded to know why that ship was sailing away without the permission of the owner whom happened to be by our side. His response was that the Dawn Council had a warrant to search the vessel for evidence relating to the mysterious deaths of the Vanderbornes. I was taken slightly back by his response and called out to the ship waving my own Council badge asking to board. The ship halted and two individuals rowed back to dock to speak to us and gave the same speech that the dock master had given. To clarify matters I took it upon myself to run back to Shadowshore and speak to Emil directly, who surprisingly was fully aware of the search and made it quite clear that he did not want me to help in any way, shape or form. Returning to the others and informing them all that was said, we pondered the situation. Crimson took the opportunity to make a side trip on her own to speak to Max both about their date that evening and about perhaps helping Lavinia secure her wealth. During the conversation she apparently felt uneasy about a few of his responses making it seem as though he knew more than he was letting on. Returning she informed us all as we stood there staring at the ship that set anchor not too far away. Feeling uneasy about the whole investigation upon the Blue Nixie, and Emil's sudden distrust in my abilities we all agreed to sneak aboard the ship and make our way into the holding area to obtain Verik's hidden Seeker's Ring. We all knew the danger in such an attempt and Lavinia thought it wise to remain behind. The foolish girl believed us to all take the blame for such a crime if we were all discovered and caught, though any questions directed at me would result in the brutal honest answer of Lavinia asking us to board the ship for her. Not only was I risking my life for this noble, but my own reputation and new job within the Dawn Council itself. Though recent events makes me question its honest work with Dracktus as head leader, I still can't help but hope for something grand to come from working within the political structure.

Knowing that our target laid roughly 200 yards from dock, we knew that taking a dip within the cold waters was our only means. At the time I believed we had several advantages over our foes. Knowing ships quite well I believed that dousing one of the three light lanterns would allow us a tactical advantage against the investigating Dawn Council members on board. My brother Glaive has been studying magic for some time now and though I've never seen any promise from him in that department, I knew that if his life was in peril whatever powers he learnt would be fully used. Gustave apparently isn't as pathetic as he lets on, as he is more skilled in a rapier than I am with my own whaling spear. With all these contributions I had no doubt that the pencil pushing investigating Council members would easily be subdued. The only matter at hand left to resolve was boarding the ship unseen in order to gain the surprise attack. Looking over the body of that pole dancer Crimson once more, I believed that her talents could be used even in this situation. With our plan set, we made our way towards the Blue Nixie.

As the men waited near the ropes by the starboard, Crimson began a topless backstroke by the larboard in hopes to grab the attention of the men on watch. Sure enough the pole dancer's skills lured the three men that we on watch allowing for the rest of us to make our surprise attack. Glaive was able to reach the center mast, blowing out the light allowing the concealment of darkness to aid in our approach. Gustave positioned himself in the darkness by the stairs to the bow of the ship so that he could rush one of the distracted men. I took it upon myself to head into the middle of danger using the darkness as cover and my reach weapon to keep some distance between me and my attacker, however as I lunged with my Bisento my assailant leaned forwards more to get a closer look at Crimson resulting in my utter miss. Fully aware of our presence and Crimson' distraction, my assailant turned towards me taking a sweep at the darkness, while his two friends took aim for anything that caught there eyes. Gustave took this moment to rush towards the man closest to him dodging the shot fired and plunged his rapier through his throat. I was utterly shocked to see this young teacher of the erotic arts so skillful in the blade and killing the man before him. Caught off guard by his attack I again missed striking my own and took a few steps back to reorganize my thoughts. My cowardly brother remained close by the center mast which continued to shroud him in darkness. Moving however might not have been the smartest thing I did, as the moonlight might have caught a piece of metallic from my chainshirt allowing the remaining crossbow to strike me in the side. Though the pain was tolerable we needed to take control of the situation fast as a call for aid was yelled for those down below to hear.

Gustave remained by the bow to surprise any newcomers that would emerge from the hold below, while Glaive pulled out a sack of Caltrops and began spreading them on deck in hopes to slow down the arriving help of the council men. Once more I lunged forwards striking the man in front of me with as little force as possible dropping him with the certainty that he was still alive but simply unconscious. Crimson used our distraction to allow her to safely climb to the stern of the ship where she caught the remaining man off guard as she began punching him in the ribs. She then yelled out something along the lines of their inability to do a good job and how the Lotus Dragons were on board to clean things up. The response given almost didn't surprise me as the Dragons and the Council had an apparent arrangement which was now broken, due to 'our' interference. There apparently is much more than meets the eyes with that dancer as her sharp mind matches her looks. As things looked more towards our favor, two other investigators emerged each skillfully wielding rapiers. I found it odd that these pencil pushers held their weapons with such skill and confidence, but that didn't stop Gustave from running down the stairs midway thrusting his rapier through the armor of one said investigator. Injured but still alive both men turned to attack Gustave thrusting their own blades into his shoulder causing blood to drip down his arm. Luckily for us that was not Gustave's weapon arm, or the entire battle might have ended differently. Keeping my head low and in the darkness as much as possible, I attacked the uninjured man from behind successfully knocking him out. Worried about revealing himself in the darkness with his spells, Glaive thought it over a few seconds before turning towards the man Crimson was fighting and took aim with his finger. It was the first time I ever saw such a powerful offencive spell cast by my brother, as his orb struck his target nearly knocking him out. Though I'm somewhat jealous that he is able to do something that i cannot... at least he finally has the means to protect himself and can for once stand up to those who push him around. Crimson stood still almost giving her attacker the chance to surrender, but as he raised his crossbow to fire point blank at her, she jabbed her elbow into his gut knocking him unconscious making him no longer a threat.

Gustave must have had some sort of grunge on the man who struck him, because just as before his fury was that of something I've never seen before. Striking his target in the heart killing him instantly, makes me wonder whether or not Gustave was thinking properly. If we failed in our mission and were questioned, the fool would be hung for murder where as the rest of us would be prisoned for trespassing. Before this eve was done Gustave killed two other individuals whilst the rest of us took care and knocked out our third assailant. Relieved that we were all alive and were doing quite well, we were caught off guard as the light grate on deck was suddenly ripped off from below by a pair of tentacles. As we all took several steps back and prepared to defend ourselves, some sort of monstrous creature lifted itself onto the main deck and stepped towards me. Taking a jab and injuring it, it quickly retaliated by grabbing my waist bringing my closer and biting down upon my chest. After that I don't know what had happened except for what my brother told me. Crimson picked up one of the crossbows and fired from a distance injuring the creature which Glaive later researched and found out to be a Rhagodessa. Gustave pierced the massive beast with his rapier, and my brother launched another orb of ice terminating its life. As my own life was waning from existence they began conversing with someone in the cargo hold from on deck who was ready to terminate his own life by burning down the ship as to not allow the 'Lotus Dragons' to get one up on the Council. Disturbed by his threat both Crimson and Gustave jumped down the light grate in hopes to quickly dispose of the last remaining Council member, but not before handing Glaive two potion of curing to bring me back to consciousness.

As my eyes fluttered open for a brief moment I thought I had died and gone to hell as the first thing I saw was my brother grinning down at me. He saved my life obviously to up show me in being the better man or to perhaps expect a debt to be returned. Before I could even say a word he thrusted into my arms another potion of healing and told me to jump down the light grate in order to help both Gustave and Crimson. Somewhat confused and disoriented from the lapse of time due to my being unconscious, I stood up and quaffed the potion. Meanwhile both Gustave and Crimson jumped from the main deck to the second floor, and then again smashing the light grate there into the hold. Unfortunately Gustave landed upon Crimson causing serious injury to her making both of them wearing to enter battle. There within the hold and amongst all the barrels and supplies was a man preparing to light his torch to set the ship ablaze. Crimson took out her last potion of healing and began to drink its contents while Gustave charged forth striking the man with the torch. This man shrugged off the injury as he whipped out his own rapier striking Gustave in the gut. With the new injury sustained and the increasing lack of blood, Gustave fell unconscious leaving Crimson alone with the suicidal man. Back on deck I jumped through the light grate landing upon the second deck quickly looking for the other two. Obviously they must have gone further below as I saw no signs of them. using the stairs himself my brother joined me with that grin of his and opened the door leading towards the hold. As much as I wanted to smack him across the head, there was no time as we both rushed down just in time to catch the remaining Council member begin torching the boat. Without any word my brother took the initiative and began cast cold based spells towards the fire in prevent it from spreading further, and I rushed the man stabbing him in the chest narly killing him. It felt so wrong and for a brief moment I had even forgot that i was standing just a few feet from a blazing fire until Crimson ran up to me shaking me free of my temporary laspe of thought. Searching the barrels for a water type susbstance I managed to find one which I was able to pour onto the fire putting it out. Meanwhile Crimson managed to bandage Gustave's wounds, and per my request bandaged the insane mans wounds as well. The more alive who could attest to the Council that the Lotus Dragon's made the attack, the better... that and murdering was just not my style.

As I stood there looking around at the ship and at my brother, Crimson and the resting Gustave... I began thinking of the late Captain Shadwik and got to thinking how he musta felt when his men did a fine job at sea... I believe he felt proud of them all.

*Putting down the quill, Garland then began ripping out from his journal the pages he just finished writing. Walking over to a small fire pit and tossing the papers inside, he stood there watching the notes disappear as the flames consumed his written work.*

Summary 06: Dragons Unleashed

Captain’s Log. Entry number 86: Glaive Gangsworth

I wonder each day now whether my writings will ever be reflected through another’s eyes. Whether I write for nothing. Which pages might survive all that has already happened to my crew and I. Or for that matter, what has already happened to so many others. Perhaps things would have turned out differently had we all known the truth back then. And if you are a survivor reading this, then you already know of what I speak of. Yet your brain is likely filled with holes regarding unanswered questions. It is for this reason that you sought this manuscript you now hold. It is for this reason that I hope to help you, so that you might be prepared for when it all happens again.

I will start not from the beginnings that were personal to me. Instead I will begin with something that should have been brought to the attention of everyone, but which was kept secret. For every God there is a case of this, but for conservation of ink and parchment, I will write now of only one that I know of. The details of what I write now came quite unexpected to my ears. And sadly, far too late. I refer to a meeting between the God of Secrets, and an archmage named Verodemocrium. Their meeting brought forth a revelation of catastrophic ramifications; Alpha and Omega. According to Vecna, the universe was to come to an end. In fact, this was a reality that was prevented many years ago thanks to a unification of gods and mortals heroes. By their destruction of the Omega entity, they thought that the wheel of Creation and Destruction had come to an end. Now, many years later, we see that the inevitable was simply delayed. The End was coming again, and would be arriving soon. The only way to save everyone was to become the Alpha, the Creator, the Shaper of All. A position that everything ever created would want to be. Imagine a dryad turning the world into a giant forest, or a demon summoning up the fiercest of fires to create an endless scorched earth.

With this ultimate secret brought to light, Verodemocrium and all the other Chosen denizens of each God, sought a way to exploit this, rather than amalgamate in order to prevent this apocalypse from ever happening. Perhaps by pooling all their resources, they might have saved so much death from happening. As I write this, they still seem to have yet done so. But perhaps it’s not too late. I’ll write on that in future scriptures. For the moment, I at least want to spend some time describing where my personal roots in this epic part of our history.

There was a time when I was a bad man. Not a murder, steal, espionage man. I was a person whose moral was corrupted by his surroundings. I take you now to an altercation between myself and my brother Garland. A messenger unkindly delivered a bill to me in the amount of 1000 gold. This was to be paid to my arch enemy Mr. Dractus. The reason behind this was that my brother made this donation to the church of Amalgamation, using my name, through Dractus’s financing agency. Basically, at that moment, I had a dept of 1000 gold that I was being forced to pay out.

Given this betrayal, I first went to see mother Seoni. After her smiling greeting (the first I ever recall seeing) I explained to her the farce that Garland had committed. Her anger at me was like an erupting volcano, yet through her eyes, I clearly saw the intended lava path was through Garland’s heart. After agreeing to become a self-pointed Witchwarden floor scrubber, and ambassador messenger to Ms. Seoni, I ran off to retrieve my swindler sibling. I was treated much like a tax collector by Garland’s fellow crew members, but did indeed get brother’s word to accompany me to Draktus’s manor. Once the fish food, that was the cartographers ashes, were thrown into the waters, it was to the manor we did indeed go.

As predicted, Emil was as black-hearted as I knew him to be. In no uncertain terms would he let fall the dept. He also took the time to remind us of the 10000 gold bargain our father had made, that still was pending after all these years. After some intimidating from me, Garland agreed to speak with mother with me present.

The confrontation with Seoni was delightfully filled with anger towards Garland, and sadly unbelievably towards me. I was suddenly the bad guy. I, who had the courage to ask for, and was granted, a larger part of the bounty for Anzak’s incarceration. Because of Garland’s jealousy over this, mother was again being billed, thanks to the contract annulment only just conducted by brothers and Emil. But I was no pansy to be crushed on. I was a blomming war mage, someone to think twice upon when trifling with. And so a bargain was established. Garland would contribute 90% of the loan, while I generously offered the remaining 10%. From there, Garland and I established an unspoken truce. I decided to aid his captain’s whaling vessel the odd time, while continuing my labours on the floors of the Witchwarden tower. Not to much later, we found out that a notable confrontation had transpired in the walls of the Elmherst academy of dance.

Gustave, our previous partner in justice, was disrobing the dance students with his eyes, when suddenly he had heard a crash. After spending two full minutes pondering whether he should pretend he heard nothing or go investigate, he resigned himself to the former coarse of reaction. Gustav ordered all the ladies to stay put while he inched his way to Lord Vanderboren’s office. The ever brash Crimson, decided to follow, rather than cower. Opening the door, Gustav saw his employer slumped over his desk, bleeding from his head. An open window showed the entry and exit of the assailants. Taking out his rapier, Gustav quickly poked his head outside to see if the attackers still loomed in the shadows. Crimson shrieked as he suddenly reeled back, having been struck in the face by an unseen club. The wielder of that stated weapon climbed through the open pane, saying that this was all a message to stay away from the Lotus Dragons. Gustav, knowing there was a lady present did not dare show any colors of a coward. Nor it seemed would Crimson. Thinking a ballet pirouette might down the attacker, she sadly realized her meagre fight skills as she did not but sprain her own ankle. Fearing only for Crimson’s life and not his own, Gustav lunged forward to slash a warning slice across the enemy’s check. Cursing, the Lotus Dragon quickly back-tailed out the way he came in. After ensuring that Lord Vanderboren would be okay, he helped Crimson reset her ankle, before checking on his other livestock to ensure that none of the dancers were hurt.

It was about that time that I recall knocking on the front door as I had a request for Gustav. I was hoping he would lend me some money so that I might buy a superior wand to protect myself. He refused my demand, but did offer some great advise. The first was to invest in two lesser wands, while the second was fashion advice for the wedding. Given Gustav’s encounter, I took him up on both his suggestions. With his help, we picked out a wonderful vestment that was sure to impress Crimson, who was my date for the wedding.

As it turned out, it would be a waste of money for the rental but more on that later. The attack on the dance school was a concern in most part due to a “message” being delivered possibly to myself in the future. Since I would likely be billed the 900 gold owed to Dractus should my brother die, I decided to fill him in on what happened. Together, we decided to scope out the dance hall for a few days, in case the Lotus’s came back to finish the job. To his day, I still don’t know what possessed me to that act of bravery.

And so as you the reader presume; the obvious happened.

I and Garland were spotted by the dancers, who thought we were voyeurs. This led to a confrontation with a patrol of guardsmen. My brother had however recently joined the Dawn Council, in an obvious attempt to show-boat me. Thus we were allowed to continue. After only three days we became insanely bored, and decided to resume our daily chores.

Soon came the wedding of Lavinia and Anzak. It would be a night that would be a low-light in my life. It wasn’t the fact that Lavinia was marrying a known murderer. Nor was it the fact that, after my advice to her, she still refused to marry her true love Gustav. No, the cancer spot on the night was that my beautiful date Crimson, ignored me the entire eve. She spent more time dancing with Anzak for Hades sake! Anyway, there was plenty of drink to make the depressed feel and remember little if they were not having a good time. I do have a slight recollection of yelling at Gustav to take me to the temple of Palor for a detox (remove poison) spell. There I unthinkingly threw all my gold at the priestess’s feet. I think I ended up sleeping on the deck of Captain Shadwick’s whaling vessel, but I honestly can’t recall.

The following day was when I found out the true stupidity of my brother Garland. It seemed he had developed a superiority-self-righteous complex with his entry level status as a member of the Dawn Council guard, and this only to one-up me of course. He had come up with this brilliant idea of having the criminals Rowyn and Vanthus transferred to an unsecured restaurant overlooking Lavinia’s excuse of an honest wedding. Garland thought that by giving into this plan of his own devising, that the Lotus Dragon’s would quiet their activities for the months leading to the wedding, and then the prisoners would agree to go back nicely to prison afterwards. Personally I knew the wedding would be the perfect distraction for the town, so that a prison break could take place. My brother simply made it so much easier for them.

Garland had twelve whalers and twelve soldiers guarding Rowyn and Vanthus, with he and his captain Shadwick also on hand. Garland greased the stairs of the restaurant, impeding any of his entourage from fleeing, but also should the enemy take such an obvious path to reach the prisoners. Even I never would have suspected a beholder and his goth minions to disintegrate their way through the restaurants wall. Garland told me later that he personally negotiated the prisoners release in exchange for he and his mates lives. Captain Shadwick took that one step further and offered only one of the prisoners, resulting in a retaliation death ray. I’m convinced though that the ray was meant for Garland, but that my brother pulled Shadwick in front of the spell. This of course made first mate Garland the new captain of the whaling vessel. What is fact is that Rowyn and Vanthus walked away freely to the beholders side, while the goths sent a barrage of sleep rays around the room to render every surviving soul unconscious. Thinking back on that event, only now do I wonder whether Garland was in fact working with the Lotus Dragons. It seemed such an easy breakout resulting in Garland gaining his life long dream of captaincy. All the witnesses, including Garland’s crew were spared. Had I been the beholder, I would have slain everyone. Wouldn’t you? Curious.

With that event came a slight bond between myself, Gustav, and Garland. We three came to the realization of the demi-lich skulls that we had ultimately kicked when we helped incarcerate the two Lotus Dragon masters. Thus, for the next two months, we tried to maintain a low profile. Gustav surrounded himself with more female dancers to use as body shields against hidden arrows. While myself and Garland started a loosely named, “ Gangsworth and Gangsworth Whalers.”

It was on such a hunt that we came upon a vessel aflame at sea. All of us were a little unsure if we should aid or not. Already a caravel had been sent from the Sasserine docks to put out the blaze. Reasoning that it might be good for business, I obeyed the call of Captain Garland to steer along side the pyre of fire on water. Had we not arrived, the ship would have sunk, taking all evidence with it. Thanks to our bucket brigade and harpoon launcher, we easily towed back the wreckage to port so that the authorities (Garland included), could peruse the crime scene.

And what a crime scene it was.

The crew had all been slaughtered by a great axe, with the most notable dead being Verik and Larissa Vanderboren. The only person unaccounted for from the crew manifest was that of the axe-wielding Anzak. After rummaging through the decks, I found an accelerant to the fire, which I effortlessly identified as alchemist fire.

Garland and I went to Lavinia’s house where there I gently broke the bad news; that all the people she loved were now dead or murder’s. Strangely she feinted at the news and it took the care of Gustav and Crimson to bring her around to reality. Still of course, she denied the sudden “revelation” that Anzak was indeed the criminal we had proved him to be time and time again. The only thing that finally did convince her was when we asked a priest to perform a speak with dead spell on Larissa. That ghostly voice said true that she had been murdered by Anzak. Lavinia then balled up in tears, saying that it was all her fault. But as I was about to voice a confirmation of that truth, Gustav cut off my phrase with his own lying words, saying that she had no control over any of these past events.

From there, ideas of potential profit began invading my head. Since all of Sasserine’s authorities were corrupt, I figured perhaps Garland and me might be just what Lavinia needed to bring all the traitors to justice. At that moment I decided I would join Garland in an investigation into this matter. And all that I would ask for in return would simply be the Sea Nixie; Lavinia’s wedding gift from the Vanderborens.

DM Thoughts - Session 06

This session was the second part of chapter one, my introduction to the campaign which had as its centerpiece the Lavinia-Anzak wedding.

In the previous session, my end goal was to have the party maneuver things so that Anzak would be forced to turn informant against the Lotus Dragons, revealing Vanthus and Rowyn as its leaders and exchanging his freedom for theirs.

In this second session, while those two are behind bars, my end goal was to orchestrate their escape, to occur while the wedding served as a distraction.

All in all, I must confess that my planning for this session was minimal, by intention. Rather than charting out the session encounter by encounter, I simply had a list of things to accomplish, in point form, and trusted my ability to improvise and work my way around to getting those points accomplished.

Those exact points were these, only numbering five:

1 - Glaive learns that his brother has had the 1000 gp loan transfered to him.

This was set up by Eric after session 4, in which we ended the Olman pre-campaign and began (for one hour) the pirate campaign. There hadn't been a way to work it into the previous session, so I wanted to make sure it fit in somewhere in this one.

2 - Party gains information that Void Crystals were stolen.

The Void Crystals, the theft of which was the motivation for murdering Lux Seoni, were not really supposed to have been stolen in the first place - they originally were going to be part of the halted Anzak mission, in which the party would presumably stop him from killing Lux Seoni. But since that was changed completely (see my previous DM Thoughts for details), there was nothing to stop them from being taken (which would make a later development a lot easier for the bad guys). Therefore, I at least wanted the party to discover (through Lux doing an inventory, which they had asked her to do) that they were what was taken.

3 - Attack on Gustave and the dance school

This was something I had set up the previous session, with Dracktus making the mistake of naming Gustave as part of the investigation, thus making him a potential target for the Lotus Dragons. I wanted a small group of them to make a weak attack on the school as a way of trying to "send a message". The attack would not be all that powerful or well-organized, as it was self-motivated by the three attackers, and not organized by any of the groups real leaders. Thus, it was expected to be a fair fight for Gustave and Crimson alone to handle.

4 - The Wedding and Meerthan's disappearance

The wedding itself, funnily enough, was the least-prepared portion of the session - with the exception of its guest-list, which I wrote a long time ago. But the actual wedding, I wanted to be very free-flowing and open to improvisation, depending on what characters the players wanted to have fun with, and how they wanted to make use of them. This was because the wedding itself, was not supposed to be anything more than a distraction, while the more serious elements of the story were happening: the escape of the prisoners. Therefore, I simply wanted to have fun with it, giving each character a few chances to shine (particularly Gustave and Crimson with their dance), and having it simply be a role-playing event. In fact, the only thing that truly mattered about the actual wedding was a throw-away line on my part - a quick mention that Meerthan Eliothlorn had not shown up as expected. This was not to be a big deal, since Soulerio and Verodemocrium had not attended either... So it was my hope that none of the players would really latch onto the fact. Yet, Meerthan being missing was indeed a big plot development, so I wanted to make sure it was at least noticed by them (as something to be elaborated on more via e-mail, as it was of more concern to everyone's former characters, than the pirate group).

5 - The prisoner escape (Vanthus and Rowyn)

Of all the events of this second introductory session, this was the only one that TRULY mattered. Any of the other points I mentioned could have been reworked or changed, and it would be possible to adapt. Yet Vanthus and Rowyn could not remain prisoners past the wedding, as their involvement in upcoming storylines meant that they needed to be out there, free to do stuff.

The means of their escape was to be via the arrival of the beholder, Orbius Vhalantru, at the prison that night, in the company of his new Gauth minions. The number of guards would be rather minimal, as many of them would be out patrolling the streets on this important night with so many big names in town. Thus, when the beholder and his gang arrived at the prison, using a disintegration ray to make a hole into the prisoners' cells, they would meet only light resistance. My plan was to have about 7 or so guards be killed in the attack, leaving no living witnesses. Therefore, arriving at the crime scene, what would be discovered is the two prisoners being missing, two large holes in the walls of their cells, and seven bodies each appearing to have suffering quite different sets of magical wounds (Finger of Death, Disintegrate, Scorching Ray, Telekinesis...). The conclusion would be that they were broken free by a very powerful wizard of some sort.

Yet, if the party was to ask the right questions via Speak with Dead, they would instead discover that each dead guard claimed to have seen a large number of floating eyeball creatures within the cells. They were struck too quickly to realize the size difference, leading to investigators concluding that they were attacked by possibly up to 8 or so beholders.

HOWEVER, as with the previous session, things did not go at all as planned with that, as Garland unexpectedly decided that this session was the right time to offer his services to the Dawn Council as an investigator, asking to go speak with Vanthus himself - to ask that no attacks be made by the Lotus Dragons over the course of the week leading up to the wedding. I jumped on this opportunity to lure Garland into a trap, having Vanthus ask to be granted permission to be able to watch his sister's wedding from a secure location. Garland got clearance from Dracktus to allow this, and was advised to speak to Dracktus' assistant, Lothar, from this point on, to allow Dracktus to deny involvement with anything. Going back to Vanthus, he asked for an extra favor, that Rowyn be there with him. Sensing trouble, Garland was nonetheless stuck, and unable to get Dracktus' approval. So the agreement was reached, with Vanthus and Rowyn to be watching the wedding from the safety of a second-floor restaurant overlooking the wedding plaza. Their protection would be ensured by 12 guards and 12 sailors (Garland's crew from the whaler's guild) - in addition to Garland himself and Captain Shadwick.

Thus, the stakes were definitely raised, as now instead of having seven unknown guards die in the background, possibly without the party even discovering for a while that the rescuers were beholders... suddenly, one of the PCs would be directly in harm's way (though hopefully wouldn't do anything stupid).

So as the event progressed (full details in the upcoming summary), the rescue did occur - and actually with far less bloodshed than originally planned, as Garland succeeded in negociating with Vhalantru and guaranteeing the safety of the guards and sailors. The only casualty was Captain Shadwick, who tried to negociate an even better deal for themselves, earning himself a Finger of Death blast from Vhalantru (a heroic death, of sorts, which seemed appropriate under the circumstances - to underline how dangerous things could have potentially been). It would also give Garland an extra motive for revenge against the creature who killed his beloved captain and surrogate father figure.

And so, once again, the end results of the session were reached, though not in the way I expected. Still, I think a good time was had by all involved, and I consider it (and the entire introductory chapter) a success.

Afterward, we moved on to my final alteration of the pre-campaign: to have the murders of Verik and Larissa Vanderboren not be as vague as described in the original magazine version of the starting chapter of the campaign, but rather have all clues point to a single unexpected suspect: Anzak Guildenstern.

As to why I made this change, and whether Anzak truly is guilty - those mysteries will likely persist throughout a great portion of the Savage Tide campaign, so I can't speak more about it for fear of giving my players too much information. However, its short-term purpose was achieved: setting up the starting situation of the campaign, in which Lavinia is now alone without parents, brother or husband, in desperate need of help, seeking answers and eventually revenge - and calling upon trusted friends and adventurers to help her out.

All in all, I believe that the two introductory sessions pulled off what I intended, by making that starting point a lot more meaningful and emotional for those involved, as Lavinia would not be some unknown person, but a closer friend that the party might feel sorry for, giving her sad turn of events. Also, the victims now had more detail, as Verik and Larissa were real people the party had met, instead of just being victims. Similarly, the bad guys were known a bit better too, as the party had already met (and pissed off) Vanthus and Rowyn, instead of having them be unknowns at this point, too. Lastly, my plan to introduce Orbius Vhalantru into the mix went far better than expected, too - with him not just being a background figure involved in rescuing the prisoners, but actually coming face to face with a PC already, and being able to negociate a peaceful solution.

So now, with the set-up complete, everything is in place to begin - in session 07 - what the magazine version of the campaign would have begun in session 01. And all things considered, I'm pretty proud of what I have done with the Olman pre-campaign and the Wedding chapter - in taking an already awesome campaign, and putting my own spin on it, making it my own and hopefully even better for my players.

Can't wait for next week, when the real adventure begins!

DM Thoughts - Session 05

This session marked the start of the present-day Savage Tide campaign, after having completed the Olman "pre-campaign".

Yet, it still didn't bring us to the starting point of the magazine adventures, because I wanted to build things up to that point - as well as introduce certain elements from my heavily-modified plans for the campaign to come.

Major change number one was the introduction of a love interest for Lavinia. In the magazine version of the story, Lavinia is single. It is explained that a romance may develop between her and one of the PCs, at the DM's discretion... But at the start of the campaign, she is alone.

Now, I decided nearly a year ago, when I first heard of the Savage Tide campaign, that I wanted to put a twist on that idea. That rather than being alone, she would be married, but suddenly separated from her husband for reasons that will become clear in the next session (which the players have already gone through by the time I am writing this, so that spoils nothing).

As for who this husband would be, the answer was simple at the time: Anzak Guildenstern. We were early on in the Age of Worms campaign, where my main character was one that I introduced as an NPC in Shackled City, in order to help link the events of the campaigns a bit better. Elena's backstory, however, I always kept a bit hazy, unsure as to what I wanted to do with it. Then when my secondary character for the campaign, a monk named Raikun, died rather suddenly... I decided to make another secondary character, none other than a previously-unmentioned twin brother for Elena. As I developed this idea in my head, I came up with their story, of siblings both dead at birth, but raised by a local priest who had been told by Wee Jas that they were important and should be given a chance to live. In time, the two separated, but at this stage in the Age of Worms campaign, they would at last be reunited.

Yet, the most key plot point for me was actually not the part that Anzak might play in Age of Worms - all that I care about was that he somehow live or be brought back, to survive the campaign. Because just as Elena was a bridge between Shackled City and Age of Worms, I wanted Anzak to help bridge Age of Worms and Savage Tide, though in the opposite way - moving from PC to NPC. The seed for this was planted early on in Anzak's diaries on the website, when he repeatedly spoke of a love interest that motivated him to eventually return to his hometown of Sasserine... Lavinia Vanderboren. In my mind, and as I explained early on to Chris (the DM of Age of Worms) - I expected Lavinia to not become involved in the campaign in any way, but rather be the "happy ending" for Anzak, where he would one day end his adventuring career (maybe at the end of the campaign, maybe not if things didn't go so well for him) by getting himself level drained so as to no longer be a threat, then return to Sasserine to marry Lavinia.

So in this introduction to the Savage Tide campaign, their wedding was to be the centerpiece, pulling back some of our PCs from the earlier campaigns, while also introducing certain characters that would play major roles in events to come. Notably, these included Verik and Larissa Vanderboren - who in the "real" Savage Tide campaign, start of immediately as dead victims of an apparent murder. By starting events a few months earlier here, I could give them more personality by actually being involved in the story in some way, before getting killed off. I did this by having them be disapproving of the wedding, trying to dig up some dirt on Anzak to get the wedding stopped.

And that, the "dirt-digging", was the story of this session. Though in the end, as I had very much left things up in the air... many events did not go exactly as planned. Yet, I trusted to my instincts and improvisation skills, and in the end things became quite likely even better than planned.

The first surprise came at a point where Anzak was being used as an accomplice by the Lotus Dragons, unknowingly being the cause of a distraction that would allow a murder to occur. What I expected from this was for it to be the first instance of Anzak being spied on by the party. They would know that he willingly was providing a distraction, but could not intervene without putting him and themselves at risk.

After that first instance, Anzak was to be given another task, far more dangerous - and THAT is where I figured the PCs would try to stop him, perhaps even helping him to get out of the mess he was in.

Yet that didn't happen at all. And rather than allow Anzak to move on to his second task, the party grabbed every possible bit of evidence and in Glaive's case, even provided complete testimony and named names, regarding his involvement as an accomplice to murder.

Suddenly, then, Anzak unexpectedly became the center of attention, as the defendent in a trial for his actions... which was one possible outcome, though not supposed to happen so soon!

What was actually going to happen, completely different, was this (which is now a revelation to my players, since I haven't told them of it yet):

The second task Anzak was going on was going to be the assassination of Lux Seoni (!), and the theft of items called Void Crystals from her storage room. As she is the mother of two of the party members, it was expected that they would jump in to stop the murder, and likely turn him over to the authorities at that point. So the trial might still happen, though likely for attempted murder and robbery instead of being an accomplice.

Well, with him stopped before then, I had to engineer for another person to attempt this instead, since the Lotus Dragons would still want the Void Crystals stolen. And without the party there to watch and stop it, instead of it being an attempted murder on Lux Seoni, it instead went off perfectly... meaning that their mother was now unexpectedly dead, when I had meant for her to live, saved by her sons.

This I was able to revert by the end of the session, as I had Garland's attempts to raise money for her ressurection be successful, in addition to Emil Dracktus using her for his own aims, to bring the Amalgamation to the city as a way of boosting the economy and tourism.

So that part was saved from its unexpected twist (while also making Anzak out to be a lot more innocent-looking than I had planned, as well - I expected the PCs to have a hatred for him at this point, for almost killing their mother)...

The other twist came with the timing of Anzak's capture. My plan was to have had him being watched during the assassination attempt on Lux Seoni, by members of the Lotus Dragons trying to ensure that he was successful. They were to have noticed the other party members watching him as well. If and when they (the party) stopped Anzak and started talking with him, they were going to shoot and kill Anzak before he could tell the party anything.

Elena was then going to come to town to ressurect her brother, and protect him while he started naming names and testifying, eventually bringing down Rowyn and Vanthus.

Yet, in this new version, killing Anzak was no longer an option... so I decided on the spur of the moment that it could possibly still work, just to have him ask for Elena to come help him out of trouble. Which made him seem perhaps weaker (having his sister come "bail him out", essentially - instead of it being HER who came to bring him back to life), but in the end the same goal could be achieved: Anzak turning informant on the Lotus Dragons, and getting Vanthus and Rowyn sent to prison.

There were other changes as well... a large chase scene I had planned for after the murder of the blacksmith, if one of the PCs started following one of the three Lotus Dragons who were running out of the smith's shop... It was to include a big chase at the docks, with the Lotus Dragon eventually getting caught, but not before secretly dropping the stolen Skeleton Key into a boat where another member would come and recover it later. Then the Lotus Dragon could potentially be interrogated by the party, with him confessing to the fact that the blacksmith was but the first in a string of murders to take place (foreshadowing the fact that Lux Seoni was next, and then the cartographer). But again, this did not take place, as the party actually allowed the murderous Lotus Dragons to run off freely, instead putting all their efforts on Anzak, who didn't even know a thing about the murder!

All in all, though, an excellent session. It was fun for me as a DM to have to improvise in this way, coming up with alternatives that might lead to the same end, or a similar one. Thankfully, in the end, while things certainly were different (Anzak never dying, though he was supposed to - Lux Seoni dying, though she wasn't supposed to), the end result still accomplished the same aim: to land Vanthus and Rowyn behind bars just before the wedding, setting up the following week's drama...

Ahead of the Storm - Day 48

Acheron, Two Months Ago

Elena marched purposefully across the frozen wasteland that was Ocanthus, the fourth layer of Acheron. She had earned visions of this place many times, yet this was only her third true visit to this plane, an infernal battlefield populated by demons, devils, dragons and armies of planar mercenaries. Most importantly, though, it was home to the Goddess of Death, Wee Jas. And today, it was for an audience with Wee Jas that Elena had come.

As she approached her destination, Elena's mind rushed with all the questions she needed answers for...

How exactly were she and Pellegri destined to bring an end to the universe?

Who else would aid them in this mission?

How soon did this need to be done?

And perhaps most importantly, why did this need to happen?

Because it was still the "why" that troubled Elena the most... it was the "why" that had pushed her nearly to the brink of suicide, depressed at the thought of the destruction and suffering that might come at her own hands.

She had always fought against any evil tendencies within her - a struggle that was important to her, to maintain that sense of self in the face of all the darkness around her. Yet, this final act, this last need to... destroy... everything... It flew in the face of all that, forcing her into a position she did not want to be in. She wanted to protect, to bring peace to the world. With the defeat of Kyuss, it was all supposed to be over, to be safe now. Yet Wee Jas was telling her that she was destined to bring an end to everything. Even knowing now that she was not alone in this anymore, that she had Pellegri by her side, it was still enough to bring her to tears, fearful of that line she was about to cross. And whether, somehow, it was all a mistake...

Her thoughts were brought back to reality as she saw the structure that now loomed in the distance across the field of ice shards she was now crossing: a massive dark castle of black ice, the infamous Cabal Macabre that was the home of the Goddess of Death. As it drew near, however, the constrast around her seemed to shift... and the ice around her grew dark, while the castle begin to shine with a bright white light. Elena closed her eyes, allowing the light to shine upon her, shine into her... and then she felt her body grow cold and die. But her soul rose up above it, and continued to travel forward toward the castle.

Elena was used to this now, though it had troubled her the first time. But such was the case with Cabal Macabre - only the dead may enter. And as a living visitor, she had to allow her body to die... had to abandon her body behind her... in order to move forward beyond the castle's gates.

This time, now used to the feeling, her soul drifted toward the castle with a purposeful and powerful momentum. And soon enough, granted permission to enter by the guardians of the castle - mighty infernals created of icefire and stone - Elena arrived in the audience chamber of the Goddess...

"Greetings, Elena, my most loyal disciple... We have much to speak of..."

For three hours the two held a discussion of all that Wee Jas knew and was willing to share. As the discussion reached an end, Elena felt at last that she had earned the answers she sought. Yet, frustratingly, she had also been forced to promise not to discuss any of this with anyone - not even Pellegri - until the time for action had come... the sign of which would be the death of a Demon Lord at that hands of some new heroes. Apparently, their actions would set everything into motion, leading up to the grand destruction. But none could intervene, as the strength they would gain on their mission would be crucial to their ability to aid in the final chapters of this story.

So, Elena was now trapped within a dire secret - forced to live on in a life that was all but pointless, as everything was meant to be destroyed in the end. She would celebrate her brother's wedding - but on the inside, she would look at everyone as though they had a death sentence hanging above their heads - perhaps only with two or three years left before it all came crashing down.

Returning to her abandoned body, soul now united with it, but feeling more disjoined and lost than ever, Elena wondered, still... if even the answers she had obtained truly explained "why".

Yet she now knew the truth...

That there were some things even Gods couldn't explain...

Ahead of the Storm - Day 47

Magepoint, Two Months Ago

The biography of Obox-Ob, according to the Demonomicon of Iggwilv:

http://www.knights-of-valencia.com/savage/12-oboxob.htm