The Phoenix Tome

Friday, February 13, 2026

Dark Age of Eracost Session 29

From my perspective, playing Fingol.

Party

Baron Fingol Innes, Navgarine Keeper of the Stars 5

Kilosz the Cataphract, Fighter 4
Tavenna, Navgarine Keeper of the Stars 3
Ranenno, Navgarine Forester-Bard 2

Karmrakir, Tratkean Thief 4

Nalin, Assassin 3
Gregosz, Fighter 2
Uomir, Fighter 2
Szaldar, Keudan Priest 2
Runor, Venturer 2

Frannoc Dreiwan, Navgarine Agent 3

Llewyn, Lynx 1

Summary

Nearly two weeks of downtime passed, with Fingol and Frannoc travelling to Rantal, and Karmrakir taking ship to various Navgarine towns.

The party delved deeper into the Talbruin tin mine, battled more Attercops and recovered a couple of magic items.

Recap

Nov 6, 427

After leaving the mines with a decent prize of coin, Fingol was eager to travel to Rantal. Ravenna would soon be finishing her task of gathering rare books, and it was about time to expand the mercenary force in a bigger market.

Ranenno had business of his own there, so the two set out with Llewyn, and Fingol’s expeditionary force. Karm had (probably very illegal) business of his own in Talbruin, but graciously (shockingly?) lent us his venturer henchman Runor.

Nov 8

Fingol put out postings for henchmen and mercenaries, and Runor sold off the two potions from the tin mine. While Frannoc went about his own business, Fingol studied Spellward, finally finishing it on the 11th.

Frannoc asked Fingol pointedly about natural power, and took a great interest in the technique for dispelling natural power. So much so, he purchased the formula for a potion of dispel natural power from the School of the Ebony Sun. He gave it to Fingol along with a 400gp contribution toward the improvement of the alchemy lab.

To that end, since buying of alchemy tools was going very slowly, Frannoc and Fingol decided to import some additional tools.

Nov 14

Hirelings reported to Fingol, and negotiations went disastrously. Although all the potential recruits had heard of Fingol’s exploits, the impression upon meeting him in person was apparently underwhelming. Nine heavy spearmen were recruited, but crossbowmen and a priest refused offers.

The final applicant was a familiar face… Sapporobir Caan! Although he had cut ties with the party, he drunkenly stumbled into Fingol’s recruitment and applied. This negotiation also went south when Sapporo remembered that he’d have to work with Karmrakir again if he joined.

Nov 15

With city business complete, the party set off, leaving Iahzir in charge of finishing the tool acquisitions. They returned to Vigilant Keep and left the wagon and goods, then set off back to Talbruin.

Nov 18

Re-entered the tin mines.

Down on the second level, two groups of attercops were slain, and some treasure recovered, including a sword +1, watchful.

Strategic Overview

Fingol’s Goals

Immediate

Grow the domain of Vigilant Keep
Find the properties of the Staff of Ninavar
Brew healing potions, potions of dispel magic for Frannoc
Uncover the truth of what has happened at Blessed River

Moderate term

Find the Amalgam
Find Ierocain
Settle the score with the Nimonuin Trade Guild
Overthrow Lord Priest Ilmevon of Talbruin
Learn more of the monster-siphoning magic used by Ierocain

Longer term

Strengthen civilization against Gadaszin
Defeat the evil of Gadaszin and drive the forest of corrupted flesh back

Experience

Reserve xp: 346

Fingol Keeper 5 19630 / 29120

Kilosz Fighter 4 8684 / 16000

Tavenna Keeper 3 7131 / 7280

Iazhir Dragonman 3 5921 / 10240

Ranenno Forester-Bard 2 2912 / 3960

Domain

Vigilant Keep

Barony of 1 6-mile hex (Z12)

Land value 5

Population: 142 families

Stronghold value: 60,000gp

Required garrison: 284gp

Mercenary garrison (318gp / month):

10 light infantry A (javelineers) 6gp each, 60 total
17 heavy infantry C (spearmen in banded plate) 12gp each, 204 total
6 bowmen 9gp each, 54 total

Workshop value 4100gp

Library value 1000gp

Expeditionary Force

Fingol, Tavenna, 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 10 draft donkeys

Mercenary squad of 5 spearmen in banded plate, 3 crossbowmen (114gp)

Thursday, January 29, 2026

The Hypogean Oracle

I've been in the midst of a couple large ACKS projects - on one hand rebooting the sandbox for my home game, and on the other working on a large adventure site. That site is a multi-level manor house with a big dungeon beneath and lots of custom stuff. But I wanted to slip in a small project too, so I'm not going forever without finishing something.

To that end, last month I put together an entry in the Adventure Site Contest III, run by Ben Gibson at Coldlight Press.

It's a small, high-level wilderness lair based around a mash-up of ideas my wife and I had. I wanted to do an earth elemental-themed location, and Brooke suggested an observatory. So, I combined these ideas into a magic item that acts as an underground observatory, allowing a user to find nearby dungeons. The rest of the location grew organically from thinking about where such an item could be found.

Ben's review of the site is already up, and others should be coming soon from the other reviewers.

For anyone following along the contest who wants to see the full details, you can download it from google drive.

If you like it and want to support my goal of making tens of dollars publishing RPG content, it will soon be available on my DriveThru RPG store for PWYW.

Monday, January 26, 2026

Dark Age of Eracost Session 28

From my perspective playing Fingol.

Party

Baron Fingol Innes, Navgarine Keeper of the Stars 5

Ranenno, Navgarine Forester-Bard 2

Karmrakir, Tratkean Thief 4

Nalin, Assassin 3
Gregosz, Fighter 2
Uomir, Fighter 2
Szaldar, Keudan Priest 2
Runor, Venturer 2

Frannoc Dreiwan, Navgarine Agent 3

Llewyn, Lynx 1

Summary

The party collected their pay and gained some measure of favor from the Lord Priest Ilmevon of Talbruin by delivering proof of the beastmen and attercop found in the tin mines. After two days' rest we delved again and encountered some men from the rifts.

Recap

Nov 3

“Beastmen and worse, my Lord Priest.”

Ranenno displayed the string of hobgoblin heads, and Karmrakir the head of the hideous attercop.

This time, Lord Priest Ilmevon (formerly transcribed as Ilmanar) was more subdued. Faced with proof of his mistake, he asked for time to consider his next move, and paid us a month’s wages. Asked about the attercop’s claim to be there for “vengeance”, he had no idea. Asked about the possibility of Gadaszin being beneath our feet, he gave a non-answer.

Although he was no longer hostile, his lazy answers and request for a month to think about what to do about the mine continued to convince us of Ilmevon’s incompetence. We also needed funds beyond just a month’s merc wages, so we decided to return to the mine again and get to the bottom of it. The foreman had promised us whatever loot we could find beyond their tin ingots.

The next two days were spent resting and engaging in some rumormongering, buying and selling. Fingol continued to study his book of Spellward (5/7).

Rumors:

An assigner cult has arisen in Zel Charakt.
An old man arrived in Talbruin, stared into the sea, and then set off in a boat and never returned.
The corruption of Gadaszin appears to be pulling back from the Final Wall!
A keeper from Navgarine was seen in Talbruin.
The Duke’s expedition to Zel Charakt failed. Now there will be a war!

Nov 6

Explored the mines without splitting the party this time.

Slew a group of gnolls and proceeded to the lower level. Frannoc, scouting alone, spotted some men with the glass-like appearance of men from the Rifts. He snuck away without being seen.

We arrived in force and engaged them with lightning, slaying all but one. Frannoc chased the man and convinced him to parley. He spoke in Ancient Aramat, which the priest Szaldar and Fingol were both well familiar with. The man’s name was Saulos. We questioned him, but he remained very tight-lipped. He revealed that his group had been searching for two others of their kind, but would not reveal his greater mission or the name of his master. He offered two small onyx gems in exchange for his life, but Fingol demanded information, or his life. He refused, so Fingol followed through on the threat and blasted him with lightning.

Fingol attempted to harvest ectoplasm from the men, but they were not truly ghosts. They carried a decent sum of coin and gems, as well as two potions and a mysterious dust.