Dark Age of Eracost Session 15

 Party

• Baron Fingol Innes, Navgarine Keeper of the Stars 4

• Kilosz the Cataphract, Fighter 3

• Iazhir, Dragonman 2

• Ranenno, Forester-Bard 1

• Karmrakir, Tratkean Thief 3

• Koreltos, Thief 2

• The Chosen One, 0-level man teenager

Recap

Sept 9, 427

The next order of business in Siaro was to meet the three Navgarines the party had encountered in what we now presume to be Ierocain’s Academy. This meeting took place in a Songhouse - the traditional public house of the Navgarines.

After thanking us for the rescue, the men informed us that their secret patron had an interest in Ierocain, who had “created many evils in his quest for immortality.” Of his location they had no certain information, though they thought he was probably not still in his academy, and had heard rumors from the province of Silicesuil. Fingol theorized that their patron was Namo, but was unable to confirm.

The mysterious navgarines were looking for a creation of Ierocain - a creature called The Amalgam with the horrible ability to draw a soul from the Void and resurrect itself upon being slain. They claimed to be able to pay handsomely for the creature if it were captured. To contact them in the future, we were given a small messenger magpie, which Fingol gave into the care of Ranenno.

In the afternoon Fingol and Karm decided to look into the Nimonuin Trade Guild and the magic items they had allegedly stolen.

Koreltos introduced us to a fence working out of a fancy antique shop. Karm introduced himself as looking to buy black market magic items. When they were hesitant to talk, Fingol and Karm threatened to make them talk, breaking a few valuable antiques to drive the point home. Backed up by the hulking cataphract and dragonman, this threat was effective, and we were reluctantly given a hearing. The guild’s rep more or less confirmed that they have the items from the Heaven’s Lance Academy, and they are available for sale. We agreed to buy one of the items and set a meeting time in one week.

Karm took rooms in an inn near the guild front, and for the next week kept a watch on the building.

Sept 13

Night

In the dead of night a man opened the door and crept into Karmrakir’s room. He silently slipped in, and was immediately caught in a giant spider web??

Yes, unbeknownst to anyone, including the rest of the party, Karm had obtained a trained giant spider. The hunter was now the hunted. Karm send his bird to alert Fingol, and began to interrogate the assassin. With a hideous spider hovering over him, the man broke and admitted to being sent by the guild to eliminate Karm. Karm began to tell him about his follower - how the boy was really the chosen one of the Grand Marshall. When Fingol arrived this preaching took on a new dimension. Navgarines possess a very effective illusion technique, though it requires physical touch. With this, Fingol gave the man visions of the Chosen One, with the boy surrounded in heavenly radiance.

In the end, Karmrakir convinced Nalin the Assassin to become his henchman and turn on the guild. We staged the room as best we could without any convenient bodies, and left. We put Karm and his teenage “chosen one” into hiding.

Despite those efforts, the guild’s payment was not made to Nalin’s dead drop, so we must assume they know the assassination failed.

Sept 16

We end the session on the morning of the meeting so that more PCs could be present at the looming confrontation with the guild.

Strategic Overview

Experience

Reserve xp: 346

Fingol Keeper 4         11408 / 14560

Kilosz Fighter 3         5292 / 8000

Tavenna         Keeper 3         4140 / 7280

Iazhir Dragonman 2 2560 / 5120

Ranenno         Forester-Bard 1 0 / ??

Domain

Vigilant Keep

Barony of 1 6-mile hex

Population: 56 families

Stronghold value: 60,000gp

Mercenary garrison (282gp / month):

• 10 light infantry

• 14 heavy infantry

• 6 bowmen

Notes:

• Keep contains an alchemy lab worth 4100gp

Expeditionary Force

Fingol, Iazhir and Ranenno on riding mules

Renenno’s Wolf

Armored War Bear

Kilosz on Medium Warhorse with backup War Mule

Animal handler with 2 hunting dogs, 5 war dogs

Baggage train of 7 draft donkeys

Mercenary squad of 3 crossbowmen

Dark Age of Eracost Session 14

 

Session 14

Party

• Baron Fingol Innes, Navgarine Keeper of the Stars 4

• Kilosz the Cataphract, Fighter 3

• Saporobir Caan, Explorer 3

• Bartosz, Fighter 2

• Karmrakir, Tratkean Thief 3

Recap

August 31, 427

Morning

After pulling Karm from the spiked pit and healing him up, the party decided to back out of the basement. This was agreeable enough to the three navgarine agents we had found, and we made it out without trouble.

Rather than return to the border town of Leverenso, we decided to head deeper into Navgarin and go to the major city of Siaro. There we hoped to find a better market for the expensive jewelry we carried.

Backtracking through the forest, we ran into a massive wolf-like creature (Lesser Barghest) which attacked on sight. Despite taking a big hit from Fingol’s lightning, it tore apart one war dog and wounded another. Kilosz finished the beast off before any more damage could be done. Karm took the head of the beast as a prize and loaded it on his cart.

Evening

We arrived in Siaro and spent some time exploring, appreciating the unique architecture combining the navgarine structures grown from massive trees, and nimonuin stone construction.

A young man appeared, running through the streets screaming that the Keepers are trying to kill him. As a keeper this interested Fingol quite a bit, and he questioned the man closely. He claimed that a keeper had shot lightning at him unprovoked in the street. He stuck to his story under questioning. Bystanders also seemed to be familiar with something going on with the Keepers, saying they were “out of control”.

Sept 1

The next day, Saporobir and Fingol visited the local keeper academy “Heaven’s Lance.” On the way, they spotted guards escorting a prisoner, and Fingol asked them some questions. The man was accused of thievery related to a group called the Nimonuin Trade Guild - an organized crime group. The guards shared the rumor that even the keepers had been robbed, and had lost magic items!

At the academy, we had a long conversation with a high-ranking keeper named Onesvwir. We learned that the keepers were familiar with the ruined academy we found in the woods - it was related to Ierocain, a former leader of Heaven’s Lance who had gone rogue, researching forbidden magic. He was considered a heretic for believing in something called the Apprentice’s Gambit. We learned that Ierocain had several apprentices, and that another high-ranking keeper named Namo had disappeared around the same time. Oneswvir also confirmed that Ierocain had been researching an idea called siphoning, where natural power is drained from living creatures. This technique is not strictly considered evil, but was banned due to political pressure from a sect called the Vizirites.

Asked about the out of control keeper controversy, Oneswvir called it slander based on fears that Ierocain was behind a recent increase in monster activity. The vizirites have been agitating, trying to force the local Commander-Priest to call in the Grand Vizier (ruler of Navgarin) to rule against the keepers.

Asked about the stolen magic items, he enumerated them: a mace +1, a ring of protection +3 and a prized staff of the mage! He blamed the Nimonuin Trade Guild for the thefts.

Sept 2-8

The party put out a call for henchmen, and made some very interesting hires.

Saporobir hired 3 new henchmen, bringing him to his cap:

• Two 1st-level Navgarine Battlemages who happen to be brothers: Arananno and Ransolnan

• ¾ spellcaster class similar to ACKS Elven Spellsword but toned down a bit

• 2nd level Navgarine Warrior Ileisan

• ¼ spellcaster + Fighter

Karmrakir hired a 2nd level thief, Koreltos.

Fingol hired 2 new henchmen, also bringing him to his hiring cap:

• 1st level Forester Bard Ranenno

• This is a unique navgarine class that mixes the concept of explorer and bard. It is also a ¼ navgarine caster

• 2nd level Dragonman Iazhir

• Dragonmen are a crazy class similar to 1e Thrassians. They are fighters with flight and a breath weapon. A very rare find since most dragonmen are chaotic, and even this one has pagan beliefs that clash with the party in various ways.

Back in Rantalin

Tavenna finished studying her new techniques and returned to Vigilant Keep.

With the investments in agriculture made, and the tales of the adventures of Fingol, Gregoire and Ambrogino spreading, 56 families settled on the newly cleared farmland.

Strategic Overview

Experience

Reserve xp: 346

Fingol Keeper 4         11408 / 14560

Kilosz Fighter 3         5292 / 8000

Tavenna         Keeper 3         4140 / 7280

Iazhir Dragonman 2 2560 / 5120

Ranenno         Forester-Bard 1 0 / ??

Domain

Vigilant Keep

Barony of 1 6-mile hex

Population: 56 families

Stronghold value: 60,000gp

Mercenary garrison (282gp / month):

• 10 light infantry

• 14 heavy infantry

• 6 bowmen

Notes:

• Keep contains an alchemy lab worth 4100gp

Expeditionary Force

Fingol, Iazhir and Ranenno on riding mules

Renenno’s Wolf

Armored War Bear

Kilosz on Medium Warhorse with backup War Mule

Animal handler with 2 hunting dogs, 5 war dogs

Baggage train of 7 draft donkeys

Mercenary squad of 3 crossbowmen

Dark Age of Eracost Session 13

 

Party

• Baron Fingol Innes, Navgarine Keeper of the Stars 4

• Tavenna, Navgarine Keeper of the Stars 3

• Kilosz the Cataphract, Fighter 3

• Baron Gregoire, Paladin 3

• Saporobir Caan, Explorer 3

• Bartosz, Fighter 2

• Karmrakir, Tratkean Thief 3

Recap

August 29, 427

Late evening

This session began in the Navgarin border town of Leverenso (meaning “Of the Enemy”).

The party spoke with the Lord Priest of Leverenso, who had quite a low regard for them, and was especially disrespectful of Fingol. He implied that a keeper ought not to be a member of the nobility of a foreign country. Although Fingol tried to explain his purpose of defending the human lands from the threat of Gadaszin (including Navgarin), this made little impact.

Karmrakir tried to buy land for another statue project, but was rebuffed. Fingol asked about the unpledged and was told that the unpledged had never bothered Navgarin.

Later Karmrakir managed to buy a plot of land from a local farmer.

That night, Fingol retired early while Saporo and Karm tried to gather rumors at the tavern but came up with nothing but a hangover.

Aug 30

Fingol and Saporo visited the keeper academy and found that it was quite small. Apparently out here on the border, battlemages are more common than keepers. Asking about the plant monsters of Gadaszin, we heard that these hadn’t been seen in Navgarin and were mostly (historically) a problem in Rantalin. The apprentice did mention some unnatural flying beasts, and tales of madmen screaming in different languages, but had little info.

Finally the party set out and found their way back to the spot where the skeletons had crossed the river (but this time on the north bank), without notable encounters. They followed the trail north into the forest for the rest of the day.

Aug 31

The trail ended at a terrifying Navgarine structure. The large tower had an intact first floor, but above that was a swirling mass of broken pieces, caught in a magical whirlwind.

Leaving the mercenaries and baggage train behind, the party entered. Above the door was an inscription claiming that this was the greatest academy. It ended, “from here will come salvation.”

Moving from the foyer to the central chamber, the party encountered a throng of skeletons. Thinking that these may be sentient like the Navgarine skeletons which led the party here, Fingol attempted to speak to them, but they proved mindless. The party cut them down effortlessly.

The central chamber featured a chasm in the floor through which a magical vortex came swirling up to the storm above. They searched the rooms, finding a staircase, and a study. Here Fingol was able to study the notes of the assumed keeper master of this place. It seemed he had found a way to siphon magical energy from monsters (hello vanilla ACKS mages). He referenced a group of Nimonuin who broke off from the Navgarines, calling them the secret to salvation.

The party also looted a rudimentary alchemy lab, coming away with a potion and a very valuable black pearl.

Karmrakir bravely climbed down the central chasm, avoiding the magic vortex (no really, he actually did that, it’s not just some BS from one of his songs). Below he peered through a crack in a doorway and spotted some ghostly figures, and at another door heard voices.

The main party, warned of ghosts by Karmrakir, readied magic weapons and spells, and descended the staircase. This spiral stair circled the entire circumference of the main hall and had many rooms. In one, we found three navgarine warriors barricaded. These had been part of a larger force that was defeated by the wraiths below. They declined to say who their employer was, but warned us that there were at least 4 wraiths. We enlisted their aid against the monsters.

Two more rooms, labelled “source”, contained troglodytes and hobgoblins. Both were devastated by Fingol’s lightning bolts and were overcome without losses.

Finally we heard a cry of pain and found that Karmrakir, ahead of us, had fallen in a spiked pit. We pulled him out and Fingol healed his terribly bleeding head wound, but his ear was permanently damaged.

Strategic Overview

Experience

Reserve xp: 346

Fingol Keeper 4 10557 / 14560

Tavenna Keeper 3 4140 / 7280

Kilosz Fighter 3 4866 / 8000

Domain

Vigilant Keep

“Barony” of 1 6-mile hex

Population: 0

Stronghold value: 60,000gp

Mercenary garrison (282gp / month):

• 10 light infantry

• 14 heavy infantry

• 6 bowmen

Notes:

• 1000gp has been invested in clearing farmland. Population should begin to grow at the end of August.

• Keep contains an alchemy lab worth 4100gp

Expeditionary Force

Fingol and Tavenna on Riding Mules

Kilosz on Medium Warhorse with backup War Mule

Animal handler with 2 hunting dogs, 5 war dogs

Baggage train of 7 draft donkeys

Mercenary squad of 3 crossbowmen

Finance

Pre-session: 1996.43

Gained 52 gp

New: 2048.43