Heroes Assemble

[Asinjin]

Haas will contact the church of Celetal leaders he met with in Hertopowlis, though doubtful he’ll receive a beneficial response. Haas does not know anyone in Iott.

Your doubts are confirmed, although they do agree to think about the matter.

[Asinjin]

Ah, that’s right. You are from the orphanage he founded. DM, does Haas know anything about Roland beyond what’s in the story?

You do not, although you feel a little odd that you don't.

[Asinjin]

You all have some time in Jaswap as you look for transport to Iott.  Vechi offers, as travel is his thing, to plan out a path.

Magical transport is a big challenge for a group as large as you.

[Asinjin]

Reading recaps of how we got here at this time would be good.

[Zunder]

Bloodied Fist: The bloodied fist is given to those that have sacrificed for the other faithful.  The tattoo involves making one hand look as if it is bleeding and cut.  The wearer can touch a target with the tattooed hand and heal the target.  The wearer can sacrifice his own hit points to heal the target.  For each hit point he sacrifices, he heals two hit points in the target.  He may heal a number of hit points each day equal to twice his normal hit point maximum.  The wearer can create a similar effect to restore ability points.  The wearer can only restore Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution in this manner.  For each ability point of damage the wearer takes, he restores two points of the same ability in the target.  He may restore up to twice his character level number of ability points each day.  The wearer of the tattoo may not use this ability on himself.
            Faint Necromantic; CL: 9^th; Prerequisites: Craft Blessed Tattoo, Cure Moderate Wounds, Restoration; Market Price: 12,000 gc.
I think this is a good one for Akrah.  It`s very Paladin.  How many can I do?  Still thinking!!

[Asinjin]

A week away, so take a look at your characters and read some recaps.

[whitesword]

Are we each taking two characters to Iott?

[Zunder]

List of those who are going to Jaswap:

Ersa, Breach, Iwakasi, Jessie, Gareth, Cyrus, Barak, Akrah, Oz, Rano, Horatio, Osric, Figment

Vechi, Terlus

This is the list, for Whitesword

[Asinjin]

You spend a to be determined amount of time in Jaswap.  You have a plan for once you reach Iott, but getting from Jaswap to Iott has yet to be determined.

[Hero]

Bloodied Fist: The bloodied fist is given to those that have sacrificed for the other faithful.  The tattoo involves making one hand look as if it is bleeding and cut.  The wearer can touch a target with the tattooed hand and heal the target.  The wearer can sacrifice his own hit points to heal the target.  For each hit point he sacrifices, he heals two hit points in the target.  He may heal a number of hit points each day equal to twice his normal hit point maximum.  The wearer can create a similar effect to restore ability points.  The wearer can only restore Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution in this manner.  For each ability point of damage the wearer takes, he restores two points of the same ability in the target.  He may restore up to twice his character level number of ability points each day.  The wearer of the tattoo may not use this ability on himself.
            Faint Necromantic; CL: 9^th; Prerequisites: Craft Blessed Tattoo, Cure Moderate Wounds, Restoration; Market Price: 12,000 gc.
I think this is a good one for Akrah.  It`s very Paladin.  How many can I do?  Still thinking!!

Technically you can have up to 1+Cha mod tattoos, but Haas only offers to do 1. The Bloodied Fist is a fitting choice for Akrah.

In addition to the blessed tattoo, Haas also offers the following:

• +2 Ring of Enchanted Strikes (from Martial Beauty)
• Belt of Growth (from MIC)
• Transport for the group from Jaswap to Hertoplowis via Miracle/Greater Teleport

In lieu of the tattoo or the ring, Haas could also make a spell of your choice permanent (via Miracle/Permanancy). Note that I am unsure how permanent spells works with 4th era spell stacking rules.

[Asinjin]

Technically you can have up to 1+Cha mod tattoos, but Haas only offers to do 1. The Bloodied Fist is a fitting choice for Akrah.

In addition to the blessed tattoo, Haas also offers the following:

• +2 Ring of Enchanted Strikes (from Martial Beauty)
• Belt of Growth (from MIC)
• Transport for the group from Jaswap to Hertoplowis via Miracle/Greater Teleport

I think Permanency is a universal school spell, so it can stack.

In lieu of the tattoo or the ring, Haas could also make a spell of your choice permanent (via Miracle/Permanancy). Note that I am unsure how permanent spells works with 4th era spell stacking rules.

[Hero]

I think Permanency is a universal school spell, so it can stack.

So it would be independent of the school of the spell being made permanent. That would be the cleanest way to handle, I think.

For Akrah’s consideration, downside of permanent spells is that they could be dispelled. But to do so they would need to beat Haas’ CL of 25, which is unlikely but not impossible.

[Valdis]

A week away, so take a look at your characters and read some recaps.

Here are the recaps from this season.  (Part 1)

RECAP
The group received tokens of appreciation from the Emperor and discussed next steps in locating the descendants of the one presumed dead in the battle of Sutyr. Yoshi peered into the past with his heirloom chronomancy device and divined that he was alive and present at the battle right before the primary fight took place. Since he can only use it once a week, we agreed to try to use it again during the journey to Lynkeed. Not sure if we actually discussed that additional scrying in-game since we're already in Lynkeed.

We arrived safely outside Lynkeed thanks to the help of our Orcish guide. The journey took roughly 12 days. Our first order of business was to meet with one of two prominent families in Lynkeed. One oversees horse farming and the other is a brewmaster. On the way to the farmhouse, we noticed the flashes and sounds of magic being cast in the distance. We approached and came face to face with a stone giant and several human casters. The giant turned out to be an illusion, but after stating our business plainly and honestly, the lead caster introduced himself as the Iotian in charge of Lynkeed; Burke. He insisted we take a guide to show us around the city, so he assigned one of his apprentices, Jesse, to join our group. At first we politely declined, but Yoshi had a sudden and 180 degree change of heart, so we agreed to have Jesse join us since Yoshi was so thoroughly convinced it was a good idea.

Jesse led us to the farmhouse then we met with the administrator of the horse farm and set an appointment for the following day at 2pm. We also linked the horse lord to one of Yoshi's prophecies since his banner is purple and Yoshi saw a "purple horse" as one of his visions. With the appointment in place, we set off to travel to the orphanage, but decided to travel the long way around the broken wall that used to surround the outskirts of the city limits. This too was in one of Yoshi's prophecies (the broken wall). Along the wall, we found what appears to be a divinely enchanted basket imbued with the symbol of The Oldest Orc. It was filled with chalk and rocks. We also discovered that it only seems to be able to be handled by those faithful to the Oldest Orc as a trap went off in Garek's face when he picked it up, covering his face with white chalk. Yoshi dispelled the curse and we are now on our way to the orphanage. At some point, we'll meet up with the Brewer family too since they were mentioned as being trustworthy. That's where we left off.

RECAP

The group, exhausted and beaten down, managed to rest through the night and late into the following morning at the farmhouse.  We were given breakfast, prayed for a strategic spell list among Clerics, reached out to Vechi telepathically to set a rendezvous point, then made our way toward a logging town about 6 hours away that was only a few hours out from the Great Wall of Melg.  In order to speed up our trip, we bought a horse from Lohren and Oz cast Make Whole on Jessie's wagon to repair it.  In preparation, Taye also sent a mental message to one of the Emperor's aides letting him know where we were heading and he said he'd send Orcs to meet us and guide us into the Empire safely.

We eventually met up with Vechi on the way and managed to make it to the town, but not before noticing a wolf-dog following us and unnatural clouds rolling in from behind us that eventually overtook us as we reached the front entrance.  We were met with mild hesitation due to our strange appearances, but ultimately let in and allowed to stay at a lodge in town along with our animal companions who rested outside the lodge.  We thanked our hosts and proceeded to set up watch for the night.  Oz and Akrah took first watch.  It wasn't long into our watch before the entire lodge was suddenly filled with cold and a sense of dread.  Akrah, in her usual "subtle" manner, began screaming and making lots of noise to wake the group.  Once awoken, we were faced with a group of shadows that attacked us on sight.  Immediately, Oz was struck with negative energy and nearly paralyzed by strength loss.  Akrah went on the offensive, but was met with difficulty trying to connect with the shadows.  Another wave of dread struck us all and Oz was laid out due to strength loss.  At that point, the rest of the group joined the fight.  Gareth tumbled into battle with short sword and flaming log from the fireplace in hand, Taye hid and prepared what mental defenses he could, and the rest readied spells and weapons.  Vechi made his way over to Oz and restored just enough strength for Oz to stand back up.  This gave Oz the opportunity to turn undead, successfully causing four of six shadows to flee.  Yoshi then cast daylight allowing the group to clearly see the shadows and eliminating their cover of night.  With visibility restored, the group started landing blows and Taye released a psychic blast that mentally notified the entire town of the assault.  We eventually defeated the final two shadows and later met with the town Cleric, a worshipper of Arsur'Anyodel, who confirmed no others were injured in the attack.  Oz prayed for Lesser Restoration spells and proceeded to restore strength to all who lost it.  We finished resting and set out the next morning for Melg after eating breakfast.  We again met with the Cleric before leaving and said our goodbyes. 

On our journey to Melg, we noticed more unnatural clouds forming so we travelled with haste to our destination.  We came across a temple town just outside the wall, but decided to keep travelling after we were told the inhabitants might not be too welcoming of our menagerie.  We walked a little further and eventually reached the wall.  We decided to travel along it until we reached a proper entrance and finally met an open door leading to a waypoint where we could go to several destinations within the Empire.  We headed toward Melg and pressed on.  Of particular note, it was around this time that we all noticed our waterskins containing the Cleric's blood were popped and all the blood was lost.  Only Akrah retained a complete blood sample, so she tucked it away safely and continued travelling.  Since there's still dried blood on the busted pouches, we all kept them on the off chance the Orcs can still use that in their research.

After getting within two or three hours from our destination, we stopped because the wolf-dog and Flow both sensed something out of place and reacted defensively.  After a moment, a stone giant emerged from the ground in a hidden position.  We tried negotiating with it and apologized for disrupting its sleep.  It demanded 500 gold, so we tried to go the diplomatic route and show it our pass from the Emperor.  As we approached within 40 ft., it unleashed an assault by throwing a spear.  As we all scurried to defend ourselves, several more giants burst out of their hiding places.  We retreated back to the wagon and tried to make an escape, but the horse was hit by a boulder and exploded in a gory mess.  Using the wagon for cover allowed us to block a couple more boulder shots, but it was eventually destroyed in the battle.  Oz healed those who were injured and Yoshi cast an Obscuring Mist to cover our escape.  Vechi found an escape route that would get us moving faster toward Melg, so we followed it.  We put a little distance between us and the giants and eventually reached a narrow passageway that we could get through, but the giants wouldn't be able to fit.  We made our way into this area, but as we escaped into the distance, darkness spread across the passageway.  Taye was trailing behind and saw us disappear.  As we entered darkness, we stopped for the night.   

RECAP:
The group left the Kobald encampment and decided to travel northeast toward where they believed Melg should be. While walking, Yoshi cast a Divination spell to ask The Oldest Orc how to escape this place and received the answer "We must sacrifice one of our group to get out." Needless to say, this didn't sit well with everyone, but we carried on. Along the way, we were approached by a group of Samurai horse lords. Osrick said these riders have been chasing him for the last two months and he attacked them on sight as they rode closer to our position. He launched two devastating fireballs at a group of about 15 dealing massive damage, but only four perished in the blast zone. The other 11 and another group of about 15 survived unscathed and circled the group with sword and spear pointed in our direction.

Akrah pinged the group as they got closer and noticed roughly half of them were evil. They greeted us in pseudo-Horarian, but the language was lost on most of the group. Fortunately, many of us speak Horarian and were able to issue a greeting. Unfortunately, one of the samurai dismounted when he saw Oz and attacked him believing him to be an Oni. Oz was on the brink of death after a series of successful strikes after the assailant got the jump on us. The rest of the group sprung into action at this time and defended our position. Jessie activated his shield, Taye hid and used his mind powers, Terlus and Gareth tackled Osrick to prevent him from killing the samurai, Akrah was grappled by several samurai, and the rest prepared spells or hid behind the shield. 

It quickly became apparent that the vast majority of samurai held their position while only one lone warrior attempted to murder Oz and two or three restrained Akrah. Yoshi bravely placed himself in harm's way to heal Oz and eventually the rest of the group stepped in to kill the attacking samurai. Gareth landed a grievous blow that skewered our assailant through the neck to finish him off. Osrick teleported away from being held and hid.

At that time, another warrior in a purple helmet dismounted and commanded the rest of the samurai not to attack further. He approached Oz and asked to speak. Oz had Tongues active, so he was able to communicate clearly with the leader. He mentioned that he was the protector of a nearby village and that they would not harm us if we came with them. He mentioned that spellcasters were useful and in high demand and assured us that Osrick would not be harmed if he agreed to come with us to his village. Ultimately, we all agreed and rode off with them. As a token of martial tradition, the belongings of the dead samurai were given to Gareth for being the one to slay him. It was the purple warrior, Ada, who offered this since he represented the clan.

On our way to the town, the evil samurai rode off and away from the group while the non-evil ones stayed and spoke to us. Gareth asked them about their history, their deities, traditions, etc. He was told they know of dead gods like Forsha and some of the Celestial Bureaucracy, but not any from our pantheon except Dedestoyt. Gareth was also told that everything belonging to the one he killed was now his as tradition dictated, including the samurai's widow and the house they live in.

The most important thing we were told is that, within the confines of the town's prison basement, resides a "witch" that the samurai keep locked up. This witch is apparently very powerful, knows of the Oni, is knowledgeable about other worlds and different planes, and would be interested to speak with us. Ada identified her as Ver'on I'ka. Once we arrived at the village, adorned in traditional Horarian design and architecture but with a unique style different from Habololy, we were escorted to the prison. Ada said we would be safest there and offered to stay in the prison with us overnight as a gesture of good faith. We agreed and decided to call it a night when Ada discovered a lone prisoner in one of the cells. It was some sort of Goblin-esque creature, but unknown to us. Ada killed it to prevent it from hearing what we had to say and to free up an additional cell for our party.

In the morning, Ada met with his village elders and they all agreed we should meet Ver'on I'ka. Upon entering her chambers, we were struck by how incredibly beautiful she was. She was more than pleased to meet us and seductively approached the group to get a closer look at us. The conversation immediately began with her essentially stating that she was aware we weren't native to this plane and that she could help us get out but an "offering to her" would need to be made. We all looked at each other with the grim realization that this must be the "sacrifice" The Oldest Orc was referring to. We left off with the group pondering their options while Ver'on I'ka smiled at all of us.   
   

RECAP
The group met with the Daimyo after a night of restoration and recovery in their cells. He basically told us the offer to collect the lost "spectacles" was off and that he had a new deal for us. He would summon the warlord of the lands and we would do as he pleased. The warlord, Etch, was familiar with people who were from another world similar to the one we were on, but different in it's history and details. It was told to us that Etch was looking for people like us.

While walking back to our cells, Ada whispered to us that we should make a run for it and that he would aid us since we were honorable and saved his life several times. We agreed to discuss the matter and considered our options which were steal horses and run, sneak out on foot and run, haggle with the witch for a deal, or stand our ground and meet with Etch. These discussions lasted a couple nights, and in that time, we found ourselves trapped in the town by a magic circle of some sort. Feeling trapped and held hostage by magic, Taye contacted the hag telepathically against our wishes to forge a deal. She gave us a profane way of breaking the circle that involved ritual magic and blood sacrifice. Several of us refused to be a part of the process, so we decided to wait for Etch. While waiting, we fully healed and recovered all lost ability scores.

Upon Etch's arrival, he met with us in our cells and engaged in conversation. Gareth recognized him as the true Etch from Habololy, but his mind is clearly enscorceled or drained of knowledge in some capacity, although he's clearly fighting it every step of the way. The group realizes the GoLK is involved since we're able to retain our memories here, but that doesn't bring us any closer to getting home.

Etch and Gareth would proceed to discuss for several hours who they do and don't remember. Gareth mentions all our deities, heroes, and people/events of note throughout several hundred years of Habololian history. Etch rattles off who he knows and remembers and his list is essentially everyone who vanished or was vanquished from Habololy. Only Dedestroyt seems to make both lists as death seems to be one of the only conduits the GoLK can't fully control.

The conversation continues for hours and Etch reveals he wants to go to Habololy as he feels compelled to get off this current world. His memories go back roughly two and a half decades when he arrived here. Upon arrival, he fought and killed a Gnome named Gneon who piloted a sophisticated flying machine. He stole a map of the current world from him and took over as warlord since Gneon held that title before Etch.   

Etch asked Os if he could cast Gate since that seems the only method of escape. He revealed that the hag is only capable of transporting people within the realms of this world, but not the powerful magic of true escape. Since Os can't Gate, we're not sure what to do. It was then that Etch mentioned he's unable to get to certain places in this world; the most notable a major city at the northern most part of the world. He had no explanation as to why he couldn't get there other than he simply couldn't. He also mentioned that the "Sun Elves" who live west of where we are beyond the Great Forest have access to powerful magic. He tried threatening them in the past to get what he needs, but they resisted him and now won't work with him.

It seems our goal is now to make our way to the land of the Sun Elves and eventually to this mystery city in order to escape this pocket realm. This, of course, is assuming we make it out of our conversation with Etch alive.   

[Valdis]

Recaps from this season (part 2)

After being sent home by the GoLK, the group found themselves in various positions, from comfortable to imprisoned. Most of us made an attempt to communicate to each other, but none more pressing than Taye who psionically screamed for help as he found himself imprisoned in Iott. Many of the group decided they would attempt to save Taye, but not before returning to the Orcish Empire to return the blood vials and complete the original mission.

After psionically coordinating with almost everyone he knows, Taye begged for help and filled in everyone contacted with all essential details of where he was. His contacts included all his most recent travelling companions as well as everyone he ever adventured with in the past. Most of his friends agreed to save him, but they were spread across the world making it difficult to get to him. Gareth nobly traded in his ancient shortsword to the Iron Tower for transportation to Iott and several new magic items. He even managed to make it to the island. More on that later.

In the meantime, Pastor Oz decided to take a chance on his newly acquired ring to see if it actually was a Ring of Three Wishes. Indeed it was, but with a catch. The ring summoned an imprisoned Desert Elf (name?) who is an ancient Wizard of great power. This Elf is trapped in the ring as a prison and can only be released upon completing three wishes for the ring bearer. Oz wished for something elaborate but was told it wouldn't be able to be granted, so he reduced it to gathering all of Taye's allies in Melg so we could complete the DNA tracing ceremony. The Wizard brought some of the allies but not all since he couldn't retrieve Osrick. This included Gareth who was already in Iott at the time, but had not located Taye. The Wizard stated he couldn't fulfill the wish and that Oz needed to pick another. Oz asked to have Taye rescued and brought to Melg. The Wizard agreed and set off for several days. While the group of gathered friends got to know each other or caught up with old friends, several of the group went to meet the Emperor while Oz and a few others stayed behind to wait for Taye. We waited in a Magnificent Mansion conjured by the Elf.

Word reached us after about two days that the ceremony was complete and the Orcs were pleased with our help. There was a minor insurrection among the Orcs at the ceremony, but that ceased as the ceremony completed and the previous Emperor was declared dead. Those gathered were called into the central part of the city for a celebration. It was about the third day when, while waiting for Taye, another visitor arrived. She introduced herself as Laila, the once and future ruler of Iott. She subtly threatened the group then Power Word Stunned Oz and stole his ring. Someone encroached her (Ezra maybe?) and tried to steal something off her belt, but got Baleful Polymorphed into a Human woman for his trouble. With the ring out of the picture and no sign of the Wizard or Taye, we decided to meet the others in the city for the celebration.

As we were gathering our possessions and making our way to leave, we noticed a flaming portal open up and another Elven Wizard step out. To our surprise it wasn't the one from the Wish ring, but instead someone named Tchau. He introduced himself as someone wanting to track Laila's whereabouts and also as the one who originally set Taye free. He agreed to help us with Taye but asked to speak somewhere private and away from the Emperor. That's where we left off.       

RECAP
The festivities in the Orcish Empire continued on for several days with the celebration lasting all 24 hours each day. The newly arrived companions of Taye gathered outside the city proper in a travelers tavern and discussed a rescue plan with T'Chau. We tried explaining how we came about our powerful items such as the Graplore Belt and ring/genie bottle, but T'Chau and most of the other newly arrived companions cold not retain the information regarding the GoLK. Nonetheless, we pressed on with a plan to get across the continent, get to Iott, then break Taye out of prison.

At one point during the celebration, the Emperor put us up in the royal suite at the palace to thank us for our service to the Empire. It was there that we finalized plans and all companions made their introductions, but not before the newly promoted Terlus made his grand entrance in a new set of armor and rank insignias. He thanked us for helping him reach this new high point in his career and informed us that his new mission was to rescue Taye. After speaking with him about some of the fine points and details of his promotion, he told us he would lead 500 Orcish soldiers to escort us to Lynkeed so we could meet with the keeper of the reliquary, Burke. After receiving our various boons from the Emperor, we set out on our journey.

We encountered no issues while travelling with the Orcs and made our way safely to Lynkeed. Once we arrived, Terlus and a handful of 10 soldiers approached the main gates and announced our arrival. Since several of us were considered enemies of the state, we were nervous to set foot on these lands again. Terlus returned to assure us we were in no danger. We then made our way to the reliquary. After meeting with Burke, explaining what we were up to, and presenting Akrah's Grapplore Belt, he informed us of the difficulties we'd encounter in Iott without a special ring and so took Osrick's rod of quickening as collateral in exchange for the ring. He then immediately summoned Father Haas to report the return of this mighty relic. Haas arrived shortly after and met us all in the reliquary chambers.

After telling him the story several times of the GoLK and how we came about acquiring the belt, Haas finally had a glint of recognition in his eyes. We then told him of our plans to quietly arrive in Iott under the radar on a boat, get Taye, then travel back to the mainland as soon as possible. Between the people that T'Chau knows on the island and some of the contacts Haas has, we arranged to rendezvous with several people who could help us infiltrate Iott, navigate us through the most populated portions of the island, then lead us to the outlands where Taye's prison is located. But before any of this takes place, we agreed to travel with Haas back to the High Temple of Jaswap where we could return the belt to its proper location. Haas whisked us away magically to Jaswap and that's where we left off. Next season begins with the rescue of Taye.

[Hero]

Technically you can have up to 1+Cha mod tattoos, but Haas only offers to do 1. The Bloodied Fist is a fitting choice for Akrah.

In addition to the blessed tattoo, Haas also offers the following:

• +2 Ring of Enchanted Strikes (from Martial Beauty)
• Belt of Growth (from MIC)
• Transport for the group from Jaswap to Hertoplowis via Miracle/Greater Teleport

In lieu of the tattoo or the ring, Haas could also make a spell of your choice permanent (via Miracle/Permanancy). Note that I am unsure how permanent spells works with 4th era spell stacking rules.

Haas will also provide Akrah with a token bearing his personal mark as High Cleric of Tyrogatore and inscribed with your status as an ally to the faith. Should help you in any future interactions with Tyrogatore clergy.

A non-negotiable condition of these rewards is that Haas will also cast a Mark of Justice spell on Akrah that will trigger a curse on you should you knowingly or willfully act to harm the faith of Tyrogatore while the token is intact. Though you seem honorable, Quan Yin and Tyrogatore have long been in opposition and  this mark is intended to deter you from using these gifts against us.