The party met up with Astrid who bequeathed Yul and Bloo with some items. Then they travelled to Everholden, met up with Cedrick, and are about to explore the ruins at Everholden.
Everholden Hugo reason: investigating, asks the party to investigate that for him and report findings
Everholden → through mountain pass to junction to Vasara to Half Moon bay to Celestial Peak
Ransacking the order base, paper under trapped letter was the 2nd teleportation circle
Important Things
Learn locations of more sanctuaries
Frostwind Sanctum should have 1 shard, I have the key, only one key in existence, Astrid gives us the key
Another shard, Calvinach Sanctum, deep underground ruin, don’t have the key, someone in Vasara or Calvinach has it, but the key gets passed around, it’s a military fortress, the gov. didn’t want me to hold onto it
The last one is in Geimshall Woods, lots of drow have been protective of the woods
Find a scroll about Abyss, one of N’s general/apostle, from two travelling merchants
We meet a spectator who fell out of a portal
We meet a travelling apothecary
We make it to Everholden, find Cedrick to take us out to the Everholden ruins
We’re not the first people to come looking for these ruins
She’s still recovering and resting, she’s laying in a bed, looks pale and exhausted from the battle
Astrid helped pull some strings to start Strawgurt
Astrid: Seliph was here not too long ago, explained how we will reconvene at Vasara
A couple of things I wanted to give you
First, Yul, you might’ve had some interesting experiences as Sarah mentioned about touching the shards, please do not lick the shards, however there’s a decent chance you’ll encounter more, so be careful about making direct contact
Astrid snaps her fingers and orb like things immerged (not like the ones from the Order, more like clear spherical containers, like a gachapon), glass, float
“Should any of you encounter another shard, please make sure and keep track of them and seal them in this before Yul tries to lick it. Idk how much of her word she will keep, to my knowledge there are at least 4 more shards in existence, idk where all of them are, but I can tell you where a few of them are, I know locations of 3 more because I hid them, but there might be at least 6 more, so that totals at around 8 shards”
“Yul was specifically designed to contain the shards and extract their powers, so as long as they don’t combine”
I think they’re safer in Yul as long as nobody kills her, I believe she’s designed that she gets more powerful with more shards
Yul’s body was specifically designed to hold multiple, the original Yul wanted to hold more, the rest of The Council of Archmages protested that since they didn’t want too many at once
Given Yul’s strength I think it’s safer to travel with them
For the shards, please seal them and give them to me
Astrid: “I request what you want to do with Theodore’s head, but I was able to pull some strings and get it”
While Yul is thinking for excuses as to why she wants Theodore’s head
Frostwind Sanctum should have 1 shard, I have the key, only one key in existence, Astrid gives us the key
Another shard, Calvinach Sanctum, deep underground ruin, don’t have the key, someone in Vasara or Calvinach has it, but the key gets passed around, it’s a military fortress, the gov. didn’t want me to hold onto it
The last one is in Geimshall Woods, lots of drow have been protective of the woods
Yul: “I’ll study it”
Astrid: “Promise me you will actually study it, this is for research properties”
Either Hugo or Horace will be here at Parli and you can send for me since you’re not going in the direction of Frostwind, so if you ever go back to Lake Novis, I can hold onto the key
She takes the head and seals it in the bubble, and floats over to Yul, please don’t drop it, it’s a delicate casing
He is very certifiably dead but be warned there are remnants of the Order, there is a nonzero chance they may try to locate his head
Taps gently on the top sphere and the film unseals it, tap it again and it reseals
Just a light tap with some magic, don’t need to attune to it, I had it specially made, it’s similar to the orb that encases the shard
Fun Yul anatomy, she lacks a brain, and while that’s not false, she lacks some other organs, she is artificially constructed so inside of her is a cavity but she does have a heart, she has a cavity in her chest which stores the original shard and when you put another shard in it creates another little glass orb thing, idk how it works, it’s kind of liminal
Yul left many years ago and I don’t know where her corpse is so we can’t consult an expert
I wish you safe travels
I do advise caution, I know Grimnir is still around and that head might make you a target
Please if you learn anything about the construction of Theodore and report it to me
If you squish them between your hands they just disappear, and to make them reappear you unsquish your hands and they pop in and out of existence, as long as you’re consciously aware of it, you can do it
I have 40 years of memory
Astrid: I came across this, she pulls out an ornate lamp, I was analyizng some of the magic residuals, I found it interesting because I hadn’t seen anything like it before, it seems to match that of yours, idk if it’s your possession, maybe you came across it at some point, it may have implications of jogging your memory
Hands tin looking container / lamp and hands it to Bloo
Bloo squishes the lamp and smush it and mold its appearance, and now it’s a jar of strawberry yogurt, you can see some specks in there, swirls of air or dust, glowing faintly and shimmering
Astrid looks at Bloo like “it’s the right choice” and gives a little :> and looks hopefully at Bloo
I am still very tired but if you need anything from me hopefully you know how to find me
Before I forget and before I send you out, I ought to get some rest, I’m meeting w/one of the apothecaries, I have some important circles for you to have
She goes into her pocket and hands us two parchment, they contain teleportation circles on them
The first one that’s all blue is the official teleport circle of Vasara headquarters and you can tp to the adventuring guild
Need to get chalk for the circle
The other tp circle, if for whatever reason, you would like to tp straight to the castle, I’ll probably be there, it’ll take you to Novis castle
Asks about nim’s tp circle (found in windrest order base), no rhyme or reason behind the glyphs, these one seem to not even emulate a language or look like iconography I know of, looks similar to the one that took you to Windrest, I can only surmise what it might be
It might be ties with somebody to the order, don’t tp to it unless you can get it back
Astrid transcribes the tp circle, “I’ll let Hugo and Horace know, we’ll look into that”
Well, I’ll be taking my rest now, I appear to be a lil deficient in quite a lot of things rn, I will be seeing you next time
Please take care, I hope to see you all alive
When that day comes, I look forward to it
I’ll throw a celebration, and hopefully it won’t be an awful reunion, I hope you have, I’m bad at this, I’ll see you off, safe travels
She falls asleep and starts snoring
Bloo sneaks over to the quill and draws a mustache on Astrid
Depending on how long I stay, it might be 7-9 days until I make it to Vasara
We wont’ depart until you make it there, safe travels
And Sarah, when we get to Vasara, I’ll teach you how to use the blade and you can attune to it, but for now I hope you don’t mind me holding onto it
I trust that you’ll make it safely
I’ll see you in 7+ days, if you take more than 2 weeks, I will send for you
There are plenty of mages that can do that
GL on your expeditions, Hugo told you about where you’re going, I hope you find what you’re looking for
Our carriage has been prepaid, we are the only occupants
We leave the stables, run really fast, there’s a new guy in charge of the milk, decently short human, but not quite short as in dwarf short, but he’s made fun of by dwarves, see this human, he has very bright green eyes and very dark skin, very dapper hair
Gives me 5 yogurt jars
Reinvests today’s gold and the next 7 day’s worth of gold
The business is doing well
Sarah is riding on her horse on the side of the carriage
Her horse never gets tired
We sit in the carriage and travel to Everholden, it is now afternoon
See a two people, quite short, they are waving to us and running towards us
“Do you mind stopping for us”
They are not highway robbers, they’re travelling merchants, their backpacks are quite full
We stop for them
The carriage halts, the two of them look over, have thick red beards and viking helmets and big backpacks that are twice their height
“We have lots of wares we hope you have something, you name it we have it”
We look for tp circle chalk, have various diff. colors, have standard fare
Pulls out a lil tarp, throws it down, see 7 diff. colors of chalk, white, black, all infused with diff. gemstones, blue, red, green, yellow, purple
The other dwarf pulls out some parchments, some are just texts, others are spells, not well organized, “well we travelled thru lots of places, but don’t have one for teleportation circle, but do have one for speaking with animals”
2 scrolls in diff. script you’ve never seen before
Script is Infernal
Yul can read it, she reads it out loud for Nim
Both scrolls are journals, excerpts of sort, the dwarf just kind of unfurls it, looks confused about Yul reading it
It’s talking about something called Abyss, and how it’s more than just an all consuming abyss, and as soon as the name abyss is mentioned, Nim has a bit of a mild war flashback almost
Nim is piecing together some things, Abyss is something similar to what Hades is in terms of role and relationship to Nyarlathotep and recounts another name that is not familiar to any of us, and it’s a partially cut off word
She said part of an incantation and took psychic dmg, not a summoning ritual
Yul reels back and stops reading, ears ringing eyes spiraling
The incantation was there to prevent ppl from reading it out loud
The scroll talks about, very briefly, excerpts of characteristics of Abyss being, and Abyss is the general/apostle of Nyarlethotep, role/function similar to Hades, but not the same way like a Plane, but more so as a concept being
The dwarves are like “ah r u ok”
Nim: Where did you find them?
Merchants: We were in Everholden, trekking through the mountains, came from Ridgepeak, and got them somewhere in the mountains
Nim: In the mountains maybe like a set of ruins a little east of Everholden
Merchants: I mean ruins is a stretch technically, it was just an exposed tower, it had some locked boxes that we, well, kinda squashed it open, but didn’t go underground no ruins
Nim: we’d like to buy them
Merchants: wh-really I’ll give em to you for free then
Can we also offer you some potions? We’ll sell them to you at a discount tho, we kinda feel bad
The health potions are on us
3 scrolls: see invisibility, vortex warp, and speak with animals
Yul takes the health potions, Nim takes the scroll, Bloo buys the sapphire chalk for 40 GP and 1 strawgurt yogurt
The two dwarves wander off
We keep travelling
Night, Path to Everholden
We set up camp
Yul sits and studies the head, she just stares at it, pokes at it a bit
Night falls, peaceful sleep
But suddenly, Nim jolts awake, looks around, and seems to be alone
Walks towards the others around the encampment and as you approach anyone, they seem to get further and further away
Look down at feet, see your own shadow, but where is it coming from there’s no light it’s pitch black, the shadow zhwoops up, and starts to engulf you and it’s just darkness
See two glowing red eyes as you feel warm, something feels weird, you’re bleeding, but where’s the wound
And suddenly see nothing, see two shadow claws go at you, and as soon as they reach your eyes, it’s morning
04.15.0347 Morning | Path to Everholden
Yul and Lyra are poking you, Nim seem to have overslept
Nim only remember is a weird whisper “You shall come no closer to finding our secret”
Continue moving out, rather normal day, nothing interesting happens, some weird behaviors in the distance, see weird flashes of light, see something fall, it’s a portal, rather large since we saw if from so far away
We go towards it, see a weird green thing, it looks kind of scaly, but not in a way that you recognize
It’s a green scaly blob
Nim goes up to investigate, see appendages move off outside of it, an eye on the end of each appendage, it stares at us
Nim says hi
It speaks to Nim in deepspeech, hear “Where am I what are you”
Sarah: “Who tf are you”
It starts floating up, see a long slimy tongue retract into its mouth, gaping fangs and one big eye in the center
Nim offers it her last jar of milk, it looks at Nim, it gazes at you straight into your face
Nim feels scathing weird curse-like pain, Nim braced herself for it, it’s not as bad as it could’ve been
It circles around Nim hovering around
“Where are we why are you here”
Nim: “Sarah it’s giving me a headache I don’t like it”
“I’m Sarah who are you”
The main eye focuses on Nim
It’s a spectator
Sarah: “Who summoned you”
Sarah: “let’s figure it out together”
A weird rustling on other side of carriage
See small brown creature, with fin jaw, opens green eye at Bloo
Feel weird sensation
It scurries back a bit, it’s trying to press up against the carriage
Sarah: “Spectator would you be willing to team up to figure out who summoned you”
You can be alive and work together or dead
You’re working with us
It’s not binding
The spectator seems very distrustful
He just floats, menacincly
He just says, “Idk what to say”
Sarah: “What’s the last thing you remember”
Spectator: “What plane is this? Material plane, haven’t been here in a while, not from here, I get it, am I just some toy that some mage is playing with”
Nim: “No that’s not true, portals showing up cause some ancient god is being a bitch so you probably just fell through one of them”
Spectator: “What god”
Nim: “Nyarlathotep”
All of spectator’s eyes look at Nim with fear
Suddenly, he just starts grinning, “he’s back?” and laughs maniacally
The spectator looks at the nothic and just floats over to it, ignoring all of us, inspecting the nothic
Nim walks over closer to the group
They just stare at each other, the nothic looks scared
It looks kind of sheepishly but it bares its fangs and claws
There’s some telepathic connection going on, the nothic scratches the top of the carriage, he’s clawing at the top of the carriage
The nothic gazes, lays out a screech, punches into the top of the carriage, hear the wood cracking
The spectator: “I do enjoy this partnership, I’ll be taking some of this”
He floats into the carriage and takes some of the supplies
The milk looks rancid why would you have that
Nim: “it’s the only thing I had edible on me”
My new friend over here seems to think you have better stuff in here
Spectator: “Fine then I will go on my way” looks at the Nothic who stops, “I’ll be taking this guy I hope we don’t meet again your sight is quite disgusting”
We get back in the carriage and continue moving
Night falls
Afternoon, Path to Everholden
Close to the base of the mountains
Just mountains, no ruins no towers
Lyra makes more smores
Yul casts locate creature, can’t detect a spectator within 1000 ft.
Almost in Everholden, see another merchant, she’s somewhat tall, a dragonborn, looks a little meek and timid, has a bit of a backpack, she flies down, “Carriage carriage!!!”
I’m a travelling apothecary
I have a lot of herbs on me, some homemade medicines, can I interest you in anything? Any herbal remedies, pastes, potions I’ve brewed myself
She talks very quietly and very meek, she’s not super confident
She ends us giving us ointment for free
Sarah punches Bloo, and then Bloo cuts their own hand with a dagger and rub the ointment on, the pain is going away
Bloo feels like they hear something but can’t tell what it is
Some herbs my grandma gave me, I also added some additional flavor, it smells like a spiced tea
She hands Bloo a daisy and starts skipping away happily
We dock at the stable outside of the city because horses aren’t allowed in
There’s a bulletin board in the center of town
Lots of street vendors along the streets, merchants, some inns, a tavern
See mountains on either side of the city
Yul scoops up dirt for some reason
Go to the military barracks, first thing you see is someone at the front at the door, “Hello, are you part of the military forces or adventurers?”
“You’re affiliated with the VAC right? Please come on in”
See a mess hall, ppl waiting in line for food at the cafeteria, staircase downstairs, a tavern underground, some bedrooms, and a bulletin board
Nim looks over and sees a halfling just standing in his chair spinning
Excited, “how’s it going?”
“By chance?, what’s your rank”
I would imagine a recruit or a novice, but what’s your business here
Unfortunately, per the laws of Everholden, you’ll need a shepherd to accompany you, you need a certain license, since it’s so dangerous, you need to show proof, they won’t let you out of the back gate without it, there is one shepherd currently in town
Ppl have reported the tower, it’s somewhere along the path, I’ve heard of various ruins, always accompanied by shepherds
There’s at least one shepherd, he’s in the bar, well-travelled, will keep you safe
We go check the bulletin board, some things posted
See a couple of ppl posted some stuff
Earnas is requesting a few extra bits of iron ore for smithing, a local blacksmith
A challenge that is posted on by some ppl from a diff. guild, they’re mercenaries offering their services, claiming that the Thalan mercenary guild is better than VAC
Also one that says help wanted at a restaurant
Bottomless Mugs, the tavern
Live music, see some ppl spinning around, sloshes of beer
Dagger stabbed in table the other one is twirling the dagger, looking bored
Has scornful looking face
Another tall rugged man, scars across his face, wearing a cloak covering his body, slamming down beer, big sigh, then swigs
The barkeep tells us shephard is the guy with the big machete and cloak
I think he’s on his 3rd glass, never seems to get drunk
Cedrick is his name
Cedrick Feldspar
Sarah and Cedrick get in a drinking competition
Buy 4 pints, 2 each, and we’ll start with that, loser pays
He gets challenged to a drinking competition a lot (the barkeeper said “again”, Cedrick gets into lots of drinking competitions)
Can’t say I’ve seen any towers, but if it’s the ruins you’re after I’m the man
I’ve no interest in going down there myself but we can make an arrangement
I know how to get there, the two merchants found it
The walk is a couple hours, usually it takes a few days to get through the mountains, but with me we’ll get there real fast
You’re only the second group of ppl to ask
The cape covers most of the right half of his body
Sarah comes back with 4 pints of very strong beer
The crowds are chanting
Sarah downs them with ease, and so does Cedrick
Several drinks later, we’re just tired, drank too much liquid
Sarah had 10 beers
It’s a tie, Sarah gets him to lead us towards the ruins
I’ll get reimbursed for this gov. for this shephard job
Barkeep “you’re always welcome here”
As he walks out, alright, what are you doing anyway, what are you researching anyways
Sarah: “I’ll let the prof handle that”
Prof wow
Nim shows tat map to him, “that’s the second time I’ve seen that map, replica of the original map”
First, working for a big wig over at Parli, forgot his name tho (probably Hugo tho)
Me daughter wanted to go to Parli magic academy but y’know
Alright we’re at the gate
Night, Path to Everholden Ruins
Cedric leads the way
Cedrick doesn’t have another arm hidden by the cloak
30 feet in front of us, there’s a couple goblins
He dashes straightforward and in one strike strikes them all down
Cedrick: I’m from a neighboring village called Berger? It used to be great
Least I can do is keep wandering around these parts
We follow him
Ruin entrance is just right behind here, help push
We roll a rock out
Alright this is as far as I take you, it’s somewhere in this cave
