AAR [10M]: Country Roads Take Me Home (2021-06-27 2300 GMT)

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bronzemountain
Posts:606
Joined:Fri Feb 21, 2020 10:02 pm
AAR [10M]: Country Roads Take Me Home (2021-06-27 2300 GMT)

Post by bronzemountain » Wed Jun 23, 2021 12:29 pm

LFG: Country Roads Take Me Home
GM: Dvarim
ECR: 10
Difficulty: Medium

Rumor: Azurea has discovered her heritage, and found an appropriate gift for her family. Now it's time for her to finally return home. It's going to be a love fest, nothing can go wrong. Narrator: Something was going to go wrong. So she brought friends.
Requested by: Azurea

Notes:
- Adventure runs at 7:00pm EST on Sunday, June 27th
- As always, I run groups of 5 players.

Sign up format:

Code: Select all

[b]Name:[/b] Character name
[b]Date of Last Game Played:[/b]
[b]Circle:[/b] Circle of your character
[b]Discipline:[/b] Your character's Discipline(s)
[b]Unique:[/b] What your character is bringing to the table.
[b]Downtime:[/b] Talents and Skills that other characters can use over downtime: [Talent] [Step including +Karma Step if appropriate] ([Rank]) ([Further Details])
Last edited by bronzemountain on Mon Jun 28, 2021 1:19 pm, edited 2 times in total.

Sharkforce
Posts:527
Joined:Thu Feb 28, 2019 8:39 am

Re: LFG [10M]: Country Roads Take Me Home (2021-06-26 2300 GMT)

Post by Sharkforce » Wed Jun 23, 2021 7:32 pm

Name: Zivilyn
ECR: 11
Last Played: June 19
Discipline: Shaman/Wizard/Elementalist/Nethermancer 8/7/6/5
Notable Abilities: Spells, a little bit of everything at this point. Good with animals. Only *mostly* incompetent at social stuff.
Downtime: Downtime: Animal Training (Talent) - Step 20 including karma (Rank 10) (can train up to 10 commands total, or improve non-combat skills by +1 per command used on it)
Research - Step 28 including karma (Rank 8). +3 to the step is available at a cost of 20 sp for access to the Great Library of Throal.
Item History - Step 20 including karma (Rank 8)
Design Enchanting Pattern - Step 21
Create Blood Charm - Step 21 (can make Absorb Blow, Bone Charm at +5 TN to the crafting)

Xzandrate
Posts:382
Joined:Tue Apr 07, 2020 8:28 pm

Re: LFG [10M]: Country Roads Take Me Home (2021-06-26 2300 GMT)

Post by Xzandrate » Wed Jun 23, 2021 10:35 pm

Name: Lazulin
Date of Last Game Played: 2021-06-18
ECR: 9
Discipline: Raider (8)/SunHerald(9)
Unique: Combat and combat related accessories, and the guiding light of the sun.
Downtime: Research 3(9)

sigfriedmcwild
Posts:335
Joined:Wed Nov 13, 2019 6:59 am

Re: LFG [10M]: Country Roads Take Me Home (2021-06-26 2300 GMT)

Post by sigfriedmcwild » Thu Jun 24, 2021 12:37 am

Name: Norg
Last played on: 2021-06-18
ECR: 11 (971145lp)
Discipline: Gauntlet 11 / Air Sailor 6
Quote/Unique: The punch is not the goal, the punch is the way
Notable Abilities: PUNCH! JUMP! some awareness, some navigation, some wilderness survival, the worst physician this side of the mountains
Downtime: none

Lashana
Posts:167
Joined:Wed Jun 03, 2020 9:40 pm
Location:Virginia Beach, VA USA

Re: LFG [10M]: Country Roads Take Me Home (2021-06-26 2300 GMT)

Post by Lashana » Thu Jun 24, 2021 7:27 am

Name: LaShana
Last played on: 2021/5/21
ECR: 10 (830715)
Discipline: Thief 10/Scout 7
Quote/Unique: Well that was....interesting/fun/unique!! Can we do it again?
Notable Abilities: Enthusiasm and an ability to fumble/stumble into trouble. Can also open...and close....doors - possibly even if they are locked....and a wicked bow. Also can speak some languages, track things, be incredibly sneaky, survive a bit in the wild while navigating! 😁 Becoming a bit of gal Saturday.
Downtime: none

Sharkforce
Posts:527
Joined:Thu Feb 28, 2019 8:39 am

Re: LFG [10M]: Country Roads Take Me Home (2021-06-27 2300 GMT)

Post by Sharkforce » Mon Jun 28, 2021 6:21 am

From the Journal of Zivilyn, Windling Magician: Country Roads, Take Me Home

It seems Azurea has decided she would like to introduce herself to her birth parents. I understand that essentially every step down this path has been an absurd hardship beyond what might be expected, and so for this part I couldn't let her go alone. I hear that on the last one she faced some horror that was feasting on the souls of the band of heroes that had escorted her as an infant to her home, I swear trouble follows this girl wherever she goes.

Joining us would be Haze and Howler (who go pretty much everywhere with me), LaShana (unsurprisingly, they are best friends after all), Lazulin, who I understand is the son of the chief of the Iceclaw Moot (I'm sure that conversation went over well), and Norg (well versed in some forms of diplomacy, I suppose). She sure has an interesting idea of how to make a first impression.

Lazulin led the way, and it fairly quickly became obvious that he has no idea that Azurea is the daughter of the chief of the Iceclaw Moot. Did I say that must have gone over well? Apparently what I meant is that it *will* go over well. I mean, I feel it is not my place to bring this sort of thing up, but why would you wait until you're in a place where you *know* you have an enemy before you start sharing your secrets with your family? Anyways, the trip there was fairly uneventful, but when we arrived it was odd. The guards were reported to be quite lax in their duty, and when I saw them I could quickly see that their life force was weakening. Their armour looked like a hand-me-down from an older cousin it was hanging so loose on their frames, and they struggled to stand for long.

They welcomed Lazulin, of course, as the returning son of the chief. Azurea stayed mostly quiet, so apparently sometimes she does have a filter. Well, sort of anyways; she still offered them skin cream. Frankly I'm half surprised they didn't just eat it right in front of her to make a point. In due course we made it to the chief's house, where Lazulin surprised his mother with his presence (apparently not sharing important information runs in the family, like "Hey, I'm your sister that everyone thought was dead" or "Hey, I'm coming home after being away for 3 years").

Fleka (Azurea and Lazulin's mother) had no clue what Azurea was talking about when she tried to subtly explain that no, she couldn't be Lazulin's girlfriend because she was his sister, which it turns out is because Gurdr (her father) had just never bothered to mention to anyone that he had tried to save Azurea after those many years. As mentioned: this family has real communication problems. Speaking of Gurdr, he was in the back room and was slowly dying of starvation as he could not keep any food in him for long enough to digest it. Azurea treated his condition, which it seemed came from worms in his stomach, and he woke up and recognized her.

There was a brief celebration, but also a discussion of the moot's problems. It seems that all the food in the entire region was infested with some unnatural worms. They would infect creatures, but not kill them, and then when they were hunted they would suddenly fill almost to bursting with the parasites. There were no obvious signs in the astral; people were getting sick, as might be expected when so many are malnourished, but no visible corruption or magical effects to dispel. Just worms. I could think of two types of horrors that were known for worms (wormskull and miseryworm) and I wasn't looking forward to facing either of them.

My mind went to the Troll we had seen in vision who had failed in his duty to protect his family and the food storage by spending his nights in another woman's bed. We also learned that the local Elementalist had died in an avalanche not long before the troubles began. Shortly afterward, Azurea and Lazulin's brother Yngvar showed up.

He was a little less accepting of Azurea (who could have imagined that just not keeping this sort of thing to yourself might make people skeptical?) and seemed to think she was a scam artist. Oh, and also apparently Azurea is actually Named Odette. And Lazulin didn't even know that he had ever *had* a sister at all. Say it with me people: C-O-M-M-U-N-I-C-A-T-E. It isn't *that* hard. Ugh. Whatever.

So Yngvar was happy to see Lazulin (apparently the parents had said they wanted to preserve at least one uncursed child and didn't want to send for Lazulin's help. Yngvar was justifiably upset about being told he was cursed). There was also some drama about the prophecy about Azurea, though thankfully that was short-lived. Prophecy really is not a common gift, and prophecy that conveniently happens to allow the prophet to get what they want is doubly suspect. He had some concerns about some hunters who had gone out looking for food and hadn't returned.

We spent the rest of the day learning about the pestilence; it was not possible to make good food using Plant Feast without first purifying the ground, using Thrive to grow new plants, and then using those plants for a Plant Feast. We at least were able to get a scant few Trolls on their feet to deal with the simple problems that had been building up in the face of starvation; nobody had energy to perform basic maintenance tasks or tend to other necessary duties.

The next day we decided to investigate the Elementalist's death, figuring that was a clue we actually knew where to find. It took a while to get there, and it seems his corpse was still buried in the snow. The Elemental Spirits were unresponsive when I called, but Azurea was able to speak with the land more directly. We were able to determine that his death had not been accidental, but little more about what had caused it. Our next task was to search for the missing hunters. LaShana picked up their trail fairly easily and we followed them for some time until Azurea heard the crunching of bones and then footsteps in the snow approaching us. Lots of footsteps, some large. We readied ourselves for battle and in short order were facing off against Gnashers. Crackjaws and Gravetails. I can't say I was looking forward to fighting them again, and the last time had the advantage that it was in a vision where I was hopeful that death wouldn't kill me.

They were quite awful to fight, just as I remembered them. They were fast and deadly, and liked to pin you in place and then try to eat you. We took quite a beating, but thankfully I had my healing magic to help us recover. We were still quite sore though; I had taken a rather painful spike right through my leg, and I was grateful to be able to rest it by flying and riding on Howler. One of the things had seemed as if it had been called away, and after doing what we could for what was left of the hunters we followed it to a small keep a little over a day away.

The keep was infested with Ehrlgren and some huge fetid mass of rotting flesh (on further reflection, I believe it may have been some variety of grotesque). Passions, it's like someone found my least favourite enemies I've ever fought and put all of them right into Azurea's path. The ehrlgren did what ehrlgren do (nearly knocking LaShana out, and actually knocking Azurea out), the grotesque was disgustingly distracting, and then a wormskull popped out. Now, I've never fought a wormskull before. I would like to never fight one again, though if past experience has taught me anything it's that I rarely get *those* wishes fulfilled.

So it pretty much instantly turned Lazulin's bones to pudding, and things were looking pretty grim. Thankfully, with a little boost from me Norg was able to nearly smash right through the vile thing in a single punch (as he does). Regrettably, it was able to retreat and will likely cause problems in the future. Oh, the worms were removed (especially after we destroyed all manner of contraptions in the keep, finished off the ehrlgren, and hunted down the last of the gnashers), but it was most insistent that everyone there should starve in despair. I can only assume it will be back, just as terrible if not worse. I am not looking forward to that at all.

I stayed for a while after to help with what I could in the moot. They were in desperate need of healers, and it was going to take them some time to get their food situation sorted, and I was well-suited to help with both of those needs. It will be a hard road for them (not only did their Elementalist die, but it seems his apprentice was with him). The supposed prophetess harumphed her way out of time, and I say good riddance to bad rubbish. Still, I expect she'll be causing trouble for the moot as well, although I suspect the moot will have an easier time dealing with her than with another horror incursion. Hopefully next time the Iceclaw Moot has this kind of problem they don't just sit on the information and wither away to nothing next time.

....

OK, actually, thinking about this family, that sounds like a foolish thing to hope for. Ugh. Well, maybe I can hire a messenger to check in every now and then. At least Yngvar doesn't seem to be violently opposed to communication, maybe he could use a pen pal.

bronzemountain
Posts:606
Joined:Fri Feb 21, 2020 10:02 pm

AAR [10M]: Country Roads Take Me Home (2021-06-27 2300 GMT)

Post by bronzemountain » Mon Jun 28, 2021 1:25 pm

AAR: Country Roads Take Me Home
GM: Dvarim
ECR: 10
Difficulty: Medium

Player Rewards:
Azurea: 69,000 LP, 1,400 SP, 3 TIPs
Lazulin: 69,000 LP, 1,400 SP, 3 TIPs
Norg: 69,000 LP, 1,400 SP, 3 TIPs
Zivilyn: 69,000 LP, 1,400 SP, 3 TIPs
Lashana: 69,000 LP, 1,400 SP, 3 TIPs

GM Reward: Juniper - 19,000 LP, 900 SP, 3 TIPs

Downtime:
Lazulin: Research 3/9
Zivilyn: Animal Training 10/20; Research 8/28 (+3 for 20sp); Design Enchanting Pattern 21; Create Blood Charm 21 (Absorb Blow)

Summary:
Iceclaw Moot has been rescued from the brink of starvation. Chief Gurdr, his wife Fleka, and eldest son Yngwar, are all safe, though Yngwar is still not 100% sure about this long-lost sister business. Azurea chose to keep her identity somewhat private, restricting it to her immediate family. The party identified a Greater Wormskull (aka The Starver) who seemed to have a long term plan of breaking the spirits and bodies of the Iceclaw trolls, and drove it off for now. Srigva, the moot's nethermancer, cursed Azurea (non-magically), and left the moot - she's figured out at least some of what happened. Iceclaw Moot might face more challenges in the future.

LadyDragoon
Posts:143
Joined:Wed May 27, 2020 2:11 am

Re: AAR [10M]: Country Roads Take Me Home (2021-06-27 2300 GMT)

Post by LadyDragoon » Mon Jun 28, 2021 2:20 pm

Dear newly reacquainted family,

I wanted to write to let you know that I have returned safely back home. I am so happy that I finally had a chance to meet you. I know that the circumstances were not ideal. I am sorry to have snuck in under disguise but I worried that if I announced myself that there would be more commotion and cause more stress on your home. This is why I had to keep even my brother Lazulin in the dark. I was lucky to have many adventures with him and got to know him in secret. You should be very proud of him.

I am also very happy that you got to meet the people who have kept me safe on my many travels and have the privilege to call friends: LaShana ( who is my besty), she has been with me from the very beginning of my exploration, Norg, who is the adopted brother who you love to hate and Zivilyn who has protected me countless times.

Since we didn’t have much time to catch up on how our adventure went, let me start from the beginning. Lazulin was our guide to get to our home so there was not much that happened until we reached our destination. There we found that the two guards who were posted looked very run down and ill. By the look on Lazulins face, this was not normal. This is when we went straight to your (our) home. We found out that the food supplies were tainted and going rotten. There was not enough food to feed everyone. As calm as Lazulin was on the outside I could tell he was very unhappy. Do you know he has a vein just below the left horn that pulses when he’s upset?

Even with the atmosphere being toxic when I first laid my eyes on you mother I was overjoyed but was very worried that you would not accept me. I now know why you didn’t recognize me right away. You did not know that I survived. After taking me into the backroom to see my father I was weighted with sadness to see him in such a state of illness. All I could think was that I will not lose a father before I could have a father. I guess with your fever father you were still able to recognize me. I am sorry that this was a shock to you mother. I didn’t want it to come up this way. I did my best to heal you father but I knew that we had to find the root cause of why the moot was so ill so we left right away. As we were leaving I got “acquainted” with my other brother. Well, what can I say about him….

First, we needed to find out what happened with the Elementalist that went missing and supposedly was killed by an avalanche. When we came to the site I was able to speak to the earth and ask what had happened as one of my friends brought up an elemental to also investigate. I am sorry but it was not an accident but there was no clue as to why the area was diseased.

Our next spot to investigate was to find out what happened to the two hunters that disappeared on a hunt. Again I am sorry but they did perish by Gnashers and Gravetails. If you don’t know what they are then count yourself lucky. I can’t unsee them if I try.

I wish that was the worst of the events. One of the Gravetails got away. We followed it to these run-down ruins. There we found the cause of the illness. I wish I could explain what I saw but I don’t even understand it. There were a few minions but the most disgusting then I have ever seen to this date is the monster that was in the ruins. So many eyes, so many mouths, so many butt holes??

Anyways… We did kill the monsters that were in the ruins. I don’t remember how due to being “super focused” (not knocked out at all). After we returned home. Things started to get back to normal after a while. We stayed long enough to help you guys get back onto your feet. I know we didn’t have much time to catch up but I will come to visit and I will send letters.

Thank you for accepting me. Now if only I could get my brothers to do the same.

With loving care,

Odette (Azurea)

Xzandrate
Posts:382
Joined:Tue Apr 07, 2020 8:28 pm

Re: AAR [10M]: Country Roads Take Me Home (2021-06-27 2300 GMT)

Post by Xzandrate » Mon Jun 28, 2021 3:45 pm

***The intricately covered ice blue journal contains a single blue crystal on the centre, with the simple gold lettering below it 'Lazulin' ***

Page 22

The greatest of generals and philosophers have waned poetically of how the student will surpass the master, and how those closest to you will betray you the deepest. No master is closer than your own family, and the day you realize you have surpassed them can be difficult, even more so when you find on that same day that they betray you.

Azurea had approached me to assist in the return of the artifact of a fallen warrior to the Ice Claw moot. An honorable task, or devious ploy. We arrived home to find the guards malnourished and tarnishing the honor of the moot. A visit to my mother revealed how poorly the moot was surviving, how had I not been summoned? Mother was happy to see me, and tending to my father who was bedridden with disease. This was incomprehensible that they were willing to waste to death without my knowledge, there was no honor or leadership in such a decision. My brother and I do not see eye to eye, but if had been responsible for my shunning things would have come to a head.

Of course, life has a way of reminding you that it is a battlefield. Strike when your opponent least expects it to gain the most leverage. Azurea revealed herself to my parents as a long lost daughter. I knew nothing of a second older sibling, and my mother claimed her dead. Father knew in his delirium that this was Odette. This was not the time for that battle however. I sought my brother to ensure this was a singular understanding. As luck (finally) had it, he returned as I was sending someone for him.

At this point, I cornered Odette and sat her with our brother and asked for the whole story, a story that my brother refused to accept as he had seen her die. More knowledge I was unaware of, incredulous. With the entirety of our family drama revealed, there was little more time to tend to my siblings, the moot was in danger and we needed to act.

Zivilyn and Odette spent some time using their combined magics to grow some food to help the moot regain some strength. We learned of the timeline of events and began by investigating the fall of the moot's elementalist and her apprentice. We ventured to the location of the rockfall, my companions determined that the disaster was not natural, and likely set as a trap. Odette managed to determine the location of the bodies. We recovered them and some supplies and returned them to the moot.

This lead us along the path of a pair of missing hunters. LaShana tracked them quite easily, and we found what beset them, horror-constructs. The battle was difficult but we prevailed, though one of their ilk seemed to be summoned away towards the old watch tower. We healed up and continued towards the watch tower.

Upon arrival we could see more constructs on the walls and in the ruined keep. We pushed in to gather more information and end this abomination. As we pushed in we suffered some set backs, Odette was felled, and the mastermind revealed himself. A worm ridden individual appearing upon the walls. He poisoned my bones as he poisoned my lands. It was all I could to do stand. I tried to draw the attention of the horrorspawn allowing my companions to demonstrate the lethality they had honed their skills to. Norg leapt over the walls to land in front of the cloaked wormskull, and left a fist side hole in the middle of his face. This caused the creature to retreat, and the remaining spawn were slain.

With the retreat of the horror, the lands and people gradually recovered. I spent a couple weeks relaxing at home recovering and learning more about the actions of my father and the heroes he forsake. I have yet to assess the true intentions of my 'big sissy', but I will be more aware of Odette in our future adventures.


***A great Iced Claw adorns the bottom of the page ***
Image

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