AAR: (mostly) Aimless wandering... What could go wrong?

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Jason
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AAR: (mostly) Aimless wandering... What could go wrong?

Post by Jason » Sat Dec 23, 2017 3:42 am

AAR: (mostly) Aimless wandering... What could go wrong?
GM: Jason
Circle: 2
Difficulty: M

Rewards/spent:
Maxim: 800 LP, 230 Silver
Ursula von Knuckelbreaker: 800 Legend, 230 Silver, Ape , -1 Booster
Rilya: 800 LP, 230 silver, Obsidiman Mark
Romari: 800 LP, 230 Silver, -2 Booster, -50 silver, 1 Obisidimen mark
Rir'Sha: 800 LP, 230 Silver Obisidimen Mark

Downtime skills available:
Animal Bond 7 (Rank 1)
Animal Training 8 (Rank 2)
Alchemy 7 (Booster Potion)
Map Making 8
Research 20 (9 +4 with Speed Reading spell, +3 from Throal library 20sp, +4 Karma)
Forge Weapon: 14 (Rank 3)
Item History: 14 (Rank 3)
Craftsman: 18 (For mundane items)
Mapmaking: 12 (Rank 1 + Karma)
Play my game jam games - made by one person in a limited time frame (usually 48 hours)

Arikail
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Re: AAR: (mostly) Aimless wandering... What could go wrong?

Post by Arikail » Tue Dec 26, 2017 9:48 pm

Aimless wandering... What could go wrong?, A journal entry by Rilya, Windling Weaponsmith

I have just returned from a wandering trip outside of Throal, a true bit of adventure. The companions that I went with were Romari (Elf Wizard, and leader of the jaunt), Maxim the Windling Thief that I've gone on a number of adventures with, Ursula von Knucklebreaker (Dwarven Beastmaster with his companion Zimbu), and Rir'sha, a T'skrang Scout and extraordinary woodsperson. We first stopped by the Baurschwine Farm so that Romari could examine the stone there, the one tied to the racial circles. He was able to detect threads coming to the stone from various directions, each of them linked to a type of magic, and each coming from the direction of one of the circles. To the NNW and ESE he read Wizardry magic. Combined with what we already know from other people doing the same, we now have a pretty good guess with what magic is linked with each circle. After that, we headed out.

The first couple days passed uneventfully. I hear that we were attacked one night by bandits, but I'd found a really comfortable tree and must have slept through the entire thing (very lucky for the bandits!!). They did escape with some silver of Romari's, but not all of it. I think I'll start keeping most of mine here at the Forge. They are getting bolder, we'll have to do something about that soon.

A few more days of travel along the hills SE of Throal brought us across two groups who were involved in a land dispute: T'Skrang and Elves, of all people. Not wanting things to come to blows and bows, we did give them a few alternate solutions. Maxim is apparently a very bad negotiator, but we did get things patched up a little bit. They seemed quite wary of us, and we hurried on.

Following the river south, we spotted some ruins in the distance. They looked quite massive. We sent Maxim and Rir'sha ahead to scout, while the rest of us waited further back, not wanting to attract attention. After a period, both of them returned, telling of beasts composed of hundreds of teeth, and flying eagles that looked like they were undead. As we discussed these things, we saw two of the creatures that were spoken of sniffing the air and wandering in our direction. They were large, almost as big as a horse. And unnatural looking. Something I've not seen before. We decided staying here would not be an option, and made our way back the way we came. Sadly, the creatures followed, so we had to speed things along. Fortunately, Rir'sha is an excellent woodsman, and was able to find a great path for us to follow, and after we were far enough ahead of them, we laid out a large amount of food to distract them. It seemed to work, as they stopped to eat, and while so distracted we moved on. They had many more teeth than the crocodiles I've faced. I think they are some sort of horror construct left over from the Scourge. That set of ruins seemed to be infested with them. Best if we warn people away for now.

After the encounter with those beasts, Romari was satisfied with the trip, and we began the return journey to Throal. Looking at some of the maps I had drawn in the library, we realized we were potentially passing close to one of the circles, and decided to investigate and see if my theory proved accurate. And I'm happy to say it did. It took some looking around, but we did find it in roughly the area where I thought it would be. And this one matched up with Wizardry, Romari's specialty. Investigating, it was written in the tongue of the Obsidimen. I immediately set about translating it. It contained the usual bit about Harmony of Races, and another 10 recipes to try. I'm getting quite the cookbook. Maybe I'll have to sit down and learn some of these. I think most of the ingredients look like they are available in Throal.

Romari was able to attune to the spell that was locked inside the circle, and cast it appropriately. I now bear the Mark of the Obsidimen along with my Windling mark. It appeared in the same area, though this time filled in a different section of the octagon, corresponding with this direction. A worthwhile endeavor. Romari was ready sooner than I anticipated, so I went back to translating the recipes. I didn't know anything was amiss until someone (or something) threw something over my head. Looking up, we were once again surrounded by apes (more apes!!). They went down quickly, and Ursula was even able to tame one of them to a degree, and bring it back to Throal with us. I offered it some attention on the way back, and it did seem to take a liking to me. Ixran also likes him.

This journal entry is accompanied by 10 recipes from the Circle of the Obsidimen:

Steamed Cucumber & Lime Ostrich
Tea-Smoked Olives & Mustard Chicken
Blanched Cinnamon Fish
Gentle-Fried Egg & Beans Prawns
Marinated Cucumber & Bread
Fire-Grilled Mushroom & Rosemary Stuffed Bread
Elderberry and Blueberry Pavlova
Milk Chocolate and Passion Fruit Delight
Date Whip
Plum Fudge

nathaniel
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Re: AAR: (mostly) Aimless wandering... What could go wrong?

Post by nathaniel » Wed Dec 27, 2017 1:06 am

From the jounral of Romari Savre
Aimless wandering... What could go wrong? More like what couldn't go wrong...

A number of us adventuring adepts decided to go exploring, mayhaps look for one of the runic circles, but mostly to expand upon our knowledge of the current state of Barsave. I traveled with Maxim the Windling Thief, Ursula von Knucklebreaker a Dwarven Beastmaster and her companion Zimbu, Rir'sha a T'skrang Scout, and Rilya a Windling Weaponsmith.

Our first day out we stopped at Baurschwine Farm outside of Throal and I examined the Octagonal stone they had unearthed. I am apparently the first wizard to come across this stone and with a little bit of applied magic I was able to determine that two of the points were wizardry aspected and pointed in two different directions.
(See #current-game-notes for the image if it doesn't show up)
Image
Key
dark blue – wizardry
yellow – illusion
grey – elementalist
light blue – nethermancy

A few quiet days of traveling later and we were ambushed by bandits as we slept. Our watch didn't catch these outlaws until they made themselves known. A bit of failed subterfuge later and we engaged them in combat. Before I was able to do more than stand an arrow took me in the back and I was knocked unconscious. I was shaken awake by Ursula as she moved to engage another bandit. I took cover and attempted to assist in the battle but I saw Rir'sha fall to the ground impaled with arrows. The bandits didn't seem to want our deaths and demanded our surrender. After examining the tactical situation and I took them up on their offer. We were out maneuvered and I didn't want my companions deaths (or my own) on my head.
I tossed them my traveling money, 50 silver, and they took this and left without molesting us any further. We attempted to track and ambush them but our recovery had given them enough time to make their escape. If only some more powerful adventurers would deal with this pesky bandit problem Throal would be much safer.

Despite our setback, we continued on with our travels. All was peaceful until we found ourselves in a lovely spot to grow alchemical herbs, lots of symbiotic plants of a multitude of varieties. A pair of scouts from competing groups, T'skrangs and Elves, had both found this place and had were “negotiating” with each other. Before the negotiations became aggressive our group decided to interfere. A few ideas were bandied about and in the end the two groups decided to make tending to this plot of land a joint venture. I won't say where it lovely spot was located as they did request that of us, but hopefully soon the market will have more alchemical reagents for sale.

As part of my duty to exploring the land I occasionally check astral space to see what level of corruption has permeated the area. Most of the land I've traveled since leaving the Kaer has been Open in the Astral. What come next is the first exception I've found.
We continued on our travels, down river to a destination we had picked out as a good place for a possible new settlement the merging point of two rivers which Rir'sha thought might be fertile farmland. Sadly someone else had thought of this long before we sealed ourselves in the kaers. A city, now ruined sat at the point we were heading towards. As we approached the outskirts I noticed that astral space was becoming corrupted and the source of the corruption was coming from the ruins. Maxim and Rir'sha scouted ahead after hearing my warning. What they found I can only describe as a Horror.
A creature the size of a horse that was mostly mouth, constantly consuming anything living it came across. Our scouts returned to report sighting those Horrors and some cadaver creatures(?) as well. As we talked we heard a pair of these large mouthed Horrors sniffing in our direction as they moved towards us. We saw them at that point and decided surviving to tell the tale was a better idea than being eating. Thankfully Rir'sha is an excellent scout and guided us away from these creatures leaving false trails and food for them.

Om our way back Rilya noticed that we were near where one of the runic circle was suppose to be. So a brief detour was agreed upon and after a bit of purposeful wandering we found the runic circle of the Obsidimen Wizard. While my companions examined the circle for clues and recipes I began the process of attuning to the circle. This took a bit of time and after I was attuned I cast the marking spell the runic circle contained. It added a section of the mark I had already acquired from the Windling circle we had found earlier.
Apparently I was quicker at my task than our translators were at deciphering and copying the recipes. As I waited occasionally making helpful comments I was totally engrossed until an ape threw a rock at me. As we had dealt with apes before It was an enemy we were familiar with. A few spells later Most of the apes were dead or fled, save the one Ursula decided to keep as a pet.

Our travels back to Throal were uneventful as we were a bit more paranoid about our watches and we made it back home safely.

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BattleChad
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Re: AAR: (mostly) Aimless wandering... What could go wrong?

Post by BattleChad » Wed Dec 27, 2017 4:29 am

The Great Library of Throal thanks Rilya and Romari for their contributions.

Journal Rewards: 40 Legend Points and 57 Silver

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etherial
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Re: AAR: (mostly) Aimless wandering... What could go wrong?

Post by etherial » Thu Dec 28, 2017 2:46 am

From the collected letters of Ursula von Knucklebreaker:

30 Sollus, 1421 T.H.

Dearest Mother and Father:

I put together a party to explore the spit of land between the Coil River and its tributary, in the hopes of expanding our sphere of influence to some prime real estate on the surface. My companion Romari wanted to start off by examining some sort of magic rock just a little South of Throal, and indeed it is a magic rock (and also tourist trap). Apparently there's a magical runic circle that we're close to the epicenter of and everyone wants to poke at it. I hope there is a way for us to profit from this situation, but it is also possible that this is some sort of trap. Either way, I will investigate it to the best of my ability.

Traveling along the Throalic foothills the next day, I regret to say that I understimated the forces of the Bandit Raiders and they managed to sneak up on us in the middle of the night. I tried to get everyone awake before combat ensued but Rir'Sha is quite the heavy sleeper. They got their ambush up good and despite our heroic efforts, Romari decided to surrender a pouch with 50 Silver in it.

On the fourth day, we came across a group of T'Skrang and Elves arguing with each other over who would get the rights to a patch of Alchemically fertile land. Maxim, through use of his Thief abilities, managed to convince them that they should share the land with each other now before another group managed to also stake a claim before they reaped any profit from it.

On the tenth day, we witnessed a ruin ahead and some suspicious flying creatures circling above it. Maxim and Rir'Sha scouted ahead and the things were some sort of mindless mouthing horrors that ate all they came across. Unfortunately, they tried to come across us. As we fled from their endless hunger and their carrion-eating undead eagle allies, and Rir'Sha was able to lead us through some woods that the horrors found somewhat delicious, and they proceeded to eat the trees instead of us.

Our return trip took us closer to the mountains and we decided to investigate one of the runic circles. Romari identified it as being related to the Obsidimen people and containing a degree of Wizardry to it, and he, Rilya, and Rir'Sha all now bear magical marks linking them to this place.

A troupe of apes had taken up residence in the runic circle and took us for interlopers. We managed to quickly kill or incapacitate enough of them that the rest ran off and I managed to befriend one of the ones we'd incapacitated. We returned to Throal to warn others about the corrupted ruins.

Yours,

Ursula von Knuckebreaker, née Nusserman

Other PCs:
Maxim, male Windling Thief
Rilya, female Windling Weaponsmith
Rir'Sha, male T'Skrang Scout
Romari, male Elf Wizard

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BattleChad
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Re: AAR: (mostly) Aimless wandering... What could go wrong?

Post by BattleChad » Thu Dec 28, 2017 4:47 pm

The Great Library of Throal thanks Ursula for her contribution.

Journal Rewards: 40 Legend Points and 57 Silver

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