Atemcester Arc

Arc Summary
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Session 65

 * Google Document (8-19-22) (HAPPY BIRTHDAY JAMIE! :D)

Ashara looks around at her unconscious friends and uses Sending to bring Kain into the loop as she uses Kilwin’s healer’s kit to attend to their injuries. Kain is very confused and alarmed by Ashara’s message and, while he can’t teleport anyone to Raven Rock directly, says he’ll try to find a way to help. Ashara stands watch over her friends for a time.

In the morning, Briar returns to consciousness at the Nest, lying on a cot. He awakes with a start, waking up Ashara in the process. As he looks around, Briar notices that the rest of the party is still asleep and on cots around him. Briar asks if they’re okay, and Ashara confirms that they basically are, all things considered. She explains that what burned has burned and that there’s a number of casualties in the town, although she’s not sure how many there are. She says that a few surviving townsfolk witnessed us fighting Tyrian and Slumberjack and, when the dust settled but most of us didn’t seem to be getting up, they approached and helped carry the unconscious party members to the inn. There are a number of ordinary people around the inn as well, milling around and nursing mugs. Ashara hasn’t really talked to any of them, though, and has been waiting for the rest of the party to wake up. Around this time, Reides wakes up as well. He’s groggy and coughs up some smoke before he fully comes to and begins to panic. Ashara reassures him that everyone’s okay and explains what happened. Reides realizes that he was carried in a wheelbarrow while he was unconscious and is a little sad he missed it. The conscious party members joke around about pranking Kilwin and Jorah awake around the time the two of them wake up. Jorah, maintaining the tradition, is suffering. Kilwin is really distressed and asks if we know what happened to Slumberjack. We don’t yet, but there was no body or other sign of them after the fight. The demon bodies also got eaten by Slumberjack’s last attack. After some dithering, Kilwin reveals to the rest of the party that Kima contacted him via Sending to tell him that some of the people who had their souls removed during the devastation of Port Valor are now just normally dead. He’s initially not sure what that means, but thinks it can’t be a coincidence, eventually realizing that the souls may have been powering the orb that Slumberjack was using to cast spells. We hate that, especially when we think about their big last attack! Kilwin wants to immediately leave the Nest for Raven’s Beak to look for the orb. The rest of the party counsels him to slow down, since we’re not really in a state to be going anywhere. Jorah’s not sure he can even walk and he’s very hungry. He also doubts that a powerful magic item like that would get lost that easily, although Kilwin doesn’t want to ignore the possibility that Slumberjack dropped it accidentally during their fall. We also discuss how Slumberjack’s behavior seemed off and how they seemed to be in pain before attacking us. Kilwin mentions that Slumberjack has a history of losing control over themself and this seems to be the awful logical conclusion of that. Reides gives Briar a very sincere apology for dumping all of our baggage on him at once. Jorah offers to get us some food while we explain Everything to Briar, although Ashara says she’ll get it instead since Jorah looks like he might barf if he moves too much.

Briar learns that the souls of the people of Port Valor were taken in an attack by someone serving a demon lord’s high-ranking lieutenant. That demonic lieutenant is also searching for objects called the Abyssal Crests that can be used to unseal his master, a powerful demon lord who’s been locked away for millennia. Back in the Exeter, we took one of these Crests, which is actually Kilwin’s armor. Tyrian and Slumberjack are both currently serving the lieutenant, although Slumberjack didn’t really have much choice but to agree to go with him. Jorah sounds awful, so Kilwin heals him a little bit. Jorah also mentions that there’s an unknown number of enchanted weapons that can summon said demonic lieutenant, and we’ve managed to collect two of them. They’re something else we have to deal with! Briar admits he’s surprised at how much we have going on right now, but doesn’t seem particularly disturbed by it and still wants to travel with us for a time. The rest of the party is relieved.

In addition to the orb, we realize we need to find Cricket and Gin and the Heartkins. The drow barkeep cuts in to tell us that the Heartkins had checked in us while most of us were unconscious and might come back again once word gets around that we’re awake. Ashara bemoans the lack of privacy, but we decide to wait for a little bit. Reides brings Pepega back from the pocket dimension directly into a hug. Pepega is clearly worried about Reides upon seeing his current state, and she accepts the hug. The doors of the Nest are thrown open, and the Heartkins enter. From the brief glimpse outside, we see some lingering smoke, but the barricade has clearly been moved and our carriage is no longer out front. Akaia speaks first and says she’s glad we’re awake and that we actually saved everyone. Jedson adds that the remaining demons fled Raven Rock after the fight at Raven’s Beak. The Heartkins saw them leaving, so they figured it was safe to come back. They also brought Gin back with them, and he’s safe and sound. Kilwin tells them that Mick didn’t survive the attack and apologizes. Reides assures them that we were with him, so he didn’t die alone, and Kilwin says he told us where to go and was very brave. The Heartkins are clearly saddened by the news. Still, they tell us that the innkeeper has offered to let us stay at the Nest as long as we’d like without charge. Unfortunately, we’re pretty sure we need to go and soon! Ashara asks if we can have some rations instead. Akaia thinks this is a really bad idea, especially considering that we’re still really beat up. We assure her that it’ll be better for everyone if we leave fairly soon, although we probably do need to at least rest for most of the day. We make plans to leave Raven Rock around dusk. First, though, the party heads back to Raven’s Beak to look for the orb or any possible hints to Slumberjack’s fate. Jorah is prepared to use Quickbrand as a cane, although Briar lends him a quarterstaff instead. Some of the villagers offer to prepare our carriage for us while we’re gone. As we leave the Nest, we look at the stables, which have been returned to their regular state. Cricket is alive and well! Apparently, the stabled horses were taken inside the inn during the attack to keep them safe. Cricket enjoys the many pats he is given.

At Raven’s Beak, the whole party looks around. Kilwin is able to get a pretty good look at the shore from the edge of the cliff and sees no signs of orbs. Briar looks for some animals he can talk to and finds some seagulls. He casts Speak With Animals and yells to them. Eventually, they take notice and some land on the cliff’s edge near him, tilting their heads. Jorah comments that seabirds are usually Interesting to talk to. Briar asks the seagulls if they saw any of what happened last night, and one says it was The Darndest Thing. He saw a blinding light on the cliff and flew over to look, where he saw a person falling from the cliff. They were on a splat course and he was a little excited, because it would’ve been a free meal, except the person just disappeared. Briar thanks him for his help and feeds him part of a ration as thanks. The seagull is very happy about this and tells his companion that they’ve gotta tell everyone about this guy. Briar realizes he must be going. Briar tosses some more ration food away from him as a distraction, and the party flees as a huge flock of seagulls descend on Raven’s Beak. Kilwin thanks his friends for looking for the orb with him, even if it was a long shot. Briar speculates that Slumberjack transported themself to another plane, especially since demons and revenants are involved in this whole mess. We’re also confident that we’ll encounter Slumberjack and the orb again at some point. Kilwin uses Sending to update Kima on the situation. She lets him know that quite a few of the preserved devastation victims passed and urges him to save the remaining ones if he can.

We return to the Nest for a much-needed long rest. Briar contemplates taking some time to make sure that the people of Raven Rock have some farmable land but, considering that the town is already built out of volcanic rock and that the demons seemed focus on what easy targets they could find, infrastructure damage is relatively limited and the majority of the people survived the attack. Still, approximately a tenth of the houses seem to have been destroyed. While it isn’t good, it’s not as bad as we feared, and Briar decides to stick with the party. As we rest, several villagers stop by and thank whoever is awake at the time for our efforts in saving the town. The villagers also provide us each with ten days worth of rations to take with us.

As we wake up and get ready to go, the Heartkins come to check on us. They’re still a little skeptical of the wisdom of our plan to leave so quickly, but we hold firm. Jorah says he wishes we could stay and help Raven Rock deal with the aftermath, but we have time-sensitive business up north. They understand though and give us some winter cloaks to keep us warm for the journey, since the nights will start getting cold as we head north. The cloaks are trimmed with brown fur around the neck and bottom, with a brown interior and black exterior. Kilwin and Jorah start putting them on immediately, baffling Akaia. Kilwin says he’s just very touched by the gesture! We say our goodbyes to the Heartkins. As we head out, Kilwin thanks Reides for saving him with potions multiple times and gives him the potions of healing from the Robe of Useful Items. Reides says it’s no problem and he’s got Kilwin’s back!

The road out of Raven Rock is just as rough as the one in, with volcanic rock lining both sides of the path. After two days of travel, there’s signs of that rock giving way to more plant life, but it’s not until after another two days of travel that we start seeing rolling hills and the air starts getting chillier. Reides is doing fine though! Kilwin sends a message to Slumberjack telling them that he hasn’t given up on saving them and that the party could tell that something was wrong. They do not respond, although Kilwin doesn’t know if his message didn’t reach them or if they simply didn’t want to say anything. After another four days of travel, the hills give way to plains and in the distance, we can see large fields of winter wheat and crops. We realize we’re probably nearing Terrath. Jorah is familiar with the village from his time in Atemcester, while Kilwin has actually heard the farmers of Cowersby gossip about it. Terrath is a farming village that provides most of the crops to feed Atemcester. The city provides the village’s farmers with magically enhanced tools that help them increase their yield to the level they would need to sustain themselves along with the city. The farmers in Cowersby sometimes express jealousy of these magic tools.

On Leaffall 21, we arrive in Terrath. We don’t plan to stay overnight, since we don’t know how far Tyrian is behind us, but Jorah wants to stop in the inn for a meal and the local gossip. Reides is also curious if word of what happened in Raven Rock has spread, although we left quickly enough that he thinks we might be the first people here who could bring that news. We head to the inn and Jorah approaches the innkeeper, a portly human man with thinning gray hair and mutton chops, wearing a stained apron and going ham on a dirty glass with a cleaning rag. Jorah asks for food and any information the innkeeper might have heard about Atemcester lately. The innkeeper (who pauses to yell at a dog howling outside) offers the day’s special, Eadrenan bass. The innkeeper shares that the ships in port at Atemcester are still waylaid there, since a big storm has been over the Eadrenan Sea for quite some time. The farthest they can safely travel is Davenport, and there’s not much point in that. The innkeeper says they wouldn’t even be able to sail to Port Valor, if anyone would even want to. Farther ports are even more out of the question. Jorah mentions that we need to catch a ship somewhere, and the innkeeper says we’ll either need to wait it out or try to find someone crazy enough to sail into the storm. In exchange for the info, Jorah lets the innkeeper know that demons attacked Raven Rock and that it’s not the safest times right now. This is the first the innkeeper has heard of the attack. Jorah returns to the rest of the party and relays this, and we all order food, which comes with a soup and bread appetizer. Briar secretly seasons his soup. Despite his general wariness of people tampering with food, Jorah sees no sign of it, and Briar enjoys his more flavorful soup in secrecy. Kilwin observes that the storm has been going for quite some time. Jorah says he has a bad feeling about it! Reides would prefer not to discuss this in detail in a random inn, but we’ll talk it out later. Briar gets the feeling he’s missing something! Kilwin assures him that we can all share our backstories with him when we’re on the road, although he admits he shouldn’t speak for the rest of the party.

After we’ve eaten and left Terrath, we discuss the storm in a bit more detail. Briar learns that the Empire of Laverathia exists under the northern Eadrenan Sea and that Reides from its capital, Aquos. Reides acknowledges that it might not be a regular storm, but he’s not too worried because Laverathia knows how to handle storms. He mentions that his dad doesn’t slack off when it comes to nature. He also shares that he was born during a storm. Reides also realizes that he really needs to tell Briar what his deal is, so he asks Briar if he remembers what Jorah said to the Heartkins that made everyone else really mad. Briar does but he winks at Reides and tells him that he wasn’t really that interested in it. Reides says that Briar is too good for his own good before revealing that he is, in fact, second in line to the throne of Laverathia. Briar is surprised! He says that he’s met people of many different standings though, some of whom were very colorful (blue is new though). His opinion of Reides appears to remain unchanged! Kilwin points out that the storm is going to help Reides meet his friend if nothing else, which Reides concedes. Ashara is also looking forward to seeing Kain again. Jorah figures he and Briar can just kind of hang out while this is happening. Jorah is pressured into telling the party a story of his bounty hunting days. Once, he was searching for a thief named Gale who was in Quadroad. Jorah had asked around, interrogated some people, and eventually learned the location of someone named Gale. Jorah went searching and made a plan to ambush Gale in his rooms and bring him back to the bounty office. The Gale he found though, was six feet tall and wearing full plate armor, which Jorah thought was strange. It turned out that this Gale wasn’t the thief, but was a member of the Drake Guard and Jorah was sneaking into his rooms. Jorah asks us to consider the effect of getting hit by a cart and says this was more like getting hit by a dragon. Still, Gale was unarmed, so Jorah survived the encounter long enough to straighten things out. He never did find the correct Gale, though. Briar tells Jorah that Erak has mentioned that he’s shockingly inaccurate with his crossbow. Reides tells him about the time he beat Jorah in an archery contest. Kilwin mentions that Jorah put a crossbow bolt through a tossed coin when we first met him and it was very impressive! Kilwin then concedes that Jorah has not consistently been able to replicate that in battle.

We’re still about two days away from Atemcester. Reides is having some anticipation about how it’s a city full of wizards, although Jorah says plenty of people there aren’t wizards. He didn’t even know many wizards back in the day, since he stayed away from the downtown area, spending most of his time in Westside and Southside, where the orphanage was. The big mages were generally in Downtown or Portside. The main wizards Jorah interacted with were those working with the Mana Wardens, since he would get into trouble a lot. Kilwin points out that he still hasn’t told us what he did, but Jorah would rather not talk about it. Kilwin thinks there’s a good chance we’ll find out anyway and Reides points out that Jorah will lose control of the narrative, but Jorah’s mind is unchanged. Briar asks if there’s druids in Atemcester, but all the ones Jorah has met have been on the other side of the Spine. There are lots of temples dedicated to the good and neutral gods, though, especially Ioun. Jorah also tells us that we’ll be able to drop the winter cloaks soon, since we’re coming up on the Everspring Forest. It surrounds Atemcester and the mages use enchantments to keep it springtime there year-round. We kind of don’t like that! Jorah knows but it is but what it is. Reides wonders how many spells he’d know if he formally studied magic like the Atemcester wizards, but the rest of the party assures him that he is a very cool and powerful wizard without that. Briar says if he studied in Atemcester, he’d probably know useless spells instead of the ones he does know.

As we travel, the path begins to slope down as we move along the Atemcestari Peninsula. Sure enough, the cold weather quickly recedes when we enter the forest. Briar observes the forest to see if any of the wildlife is distressed by the unnatural climate, but everything seems to be doing well enough. Eventually, we see a lake on the northern end of the peninsula, with a river going northeast into the sea. There’s a circular platform in the center of the lake, with bridges extending out to settlements on the lakeshore. The bridges aren’t actually suspending by anything and are, in fact, floating, as are the towers in the sky around the city. The towers have large green crystals at their bases, just like the one Kilwin found on the way to Kahzdurga. We discuss the cool rock, and Kilwin shows it to Briar, who recognizes it as an aerocrystal. They’re also used in the construction of airships. Briar is a fan of airships and was once yelled on one for trying to steal some of the aerocrystal, which is more of a concern for the people who can’t turn into birds. Kilwin asks if he’d like to have the aerocrystal, but Briar says it’s okay and it was more about the experience of being part of an airship ride.

In the late morning of Leaffall 25, we officially arrive in Atemcester. Jorah admits that he’s not sure where we should stay and doesn’t want to impose on Julia. Reides tries not to look excited as he casts Sending to his friend to ask if he knows a place to stay. His friend responds that the Fish and Spell in Portside is a good place and they can meet up there too. Jorah agrees that we should go there. Reides realizes he still needs to get some saltwater taffy! Kilwin asks if Jorah wants to visit Julia even though we won’t stay with her, but he says he’ll do that later. Jorah says there’s a ton of magic shops Downtown, where we can get some major shopping down. Reides starts feeling insecure about the Atemcester wizards and wonders if he should use the Hat of Disguise to give himself a long beard. We think he’s fine as he is, although Briar would like to see Reides with a long white beard anyway. We talk about needing items to move underwater, although Reides can handle our breathing. Since Briar can shapeshift, he says he’ll be fine without one. Jorah is also pretty confident that his crossbow will work underwater, but might want an upgrade anyway. Reides is pretty sure he’ll finally be able to find an Enduring Spellbook. Ashara wants a new dress. Kilwin has saved up a lot of gold for what we’ll need in Aquos, so he tells the party that he can help out with any purchases after they’ve figured out exactly how much that’ll be.

To make it to Downtown, we need to move through the Southside district. It’s one of the poorer districts of Atemcester, but the main street appears to be fairly well-off. There are many magical shops, but Jorah is aware that it’s mostly a tourist trap and most of these shops are running scams. Someone is hawking magic wands that don’t do anything, and someone offers Reides a sheet of thin blue plastic that they claim is a cloak of invisibility. Reides and Briar are very tempted, but Jorah manages to stop them from making any dubious purchases. Jorah warns them that while these are scams and probably do nothing, it’s an even worse idea to buy magical items to Portside, since there’s a much larger chance that they actually do something dangerous. We make it to the Creidon Bridge and feel the faint vibration of the aerocrystals beneath us. Reides stomps on the bridge, but nothing happens. Jorah says it’s very sturdy, since carts cross it every day. As we cross, we see many of those carts, as well as wizards conversing as they walk, carrying stacks of tomes and parchments. Fairly soon, we reach Downtown. As we approach two guards, wearing large purple chestpieces with eye emblems and blue robes underneath, Kilwin asks if Jorah did anything that the guards would remember him years later for. Jorah swears he didn’t and it was more of a personal thing. It’s also been eight years since he left, so he’s sure it’s fine.

There’s a huge circular building in the center of downtown with the largest of the floating towers positioned directly above it. The building on the ground is the Teleportation Nexus, which contains teleportation circles that lead to every major city in Lyvernus, as well as Arc-Delia. The tower is the Circle Tower. It’s the home of the Circle of Eight, a council of eight wizards who rule Atemcester. Jorah doesn’t remember the names of all of them from when he lived here and has no idea how it might have changed since then. Still, there’s a wizard representing each of the major schools of magic and are considered masters of their crafts. Although there’s a diversity of spells within the school, the mage representing the School of Necromancy tends to be the most controversial of the seats in the Circle. As we walk, Briar keeps an eye out for other druids. While we try to find the right kinds of stores, Jorah escorts us to a place called Valmorra’s Magical Gewgaws, which he thinks is the most likely to serve our needs from the few times he’s had to come downtown. The building he brings us to is very small, about the size of an outhouse, but he maintains that it’s the right place and goes inside, disappearing. Each party member walks through and finds themself in a much larger building, which they can tell from the view out the window is actually one of the towers floating above the city. Kilwin is a little freaked! Jorah is very blase about the teleportation, though. It’s pretty normal for Atemcester!

Inside Valmorra’s Magical Gewgaws, we see a ton of magical items, including large alembics, alchemy supplies, and arcanomechanical contraptions of unknown (but probably not practical) purpose. Behind the counter is a high elf with short hair and piercing, arcane blue eyes. She welcomes us to the shop and, noting that most of us seem new to the city judging by our reactions to the teleport, tells us to take our time. Reides asks if she’s Valmorra, and she says she is! He tells her that he’s looking for an Enduring Spellbook. She seems confused and asks if classes start soon. When Reides clarifies that he’s not a student here, she asks if he’s from Arc-Delia, since there’s also a big magical academy there. Reides is stunned by the existence of more magical academies, but Valmorra just says that the high elves love magic. She figures that Reides is just transferring into school now and offers him an Enduring Spellbook for 100 gp, which he is more than happy to pay. He is slightly bewildered by her offer of multiple spellbooks and mention of a color selection, but is fine with just the one and requests a purple one. Valmorra gets out a forked twig and her eyes begin to glow with arcane power as she casts Locate Object to find an Enduring Spellbook in purple. She knocks over some contraptions in the process, but doesn’t seem too concerned and checks to make sure nothing’s written in it yet. She also casts a spell to set it on fire, just to demonstrate that it’s the genuine object. Reides pays for it and clutches it to his chest. It’s still warm! Kilwin brings up our quest for objects that will let us move underwater, and Valmorra is able to produce one Cloak of the Manta Ray for 500 gp and three Helms of Underwater Action for 300 gp each. We hold an extended conversation about item attunement slots, and Jorah realizes he will probably have to drop one of his attuned items to move normally around Aquos. Ashara insists on not getting either item for herself or having someone else get one for her, so Kilwin buys the cloak and Jorah buys one of the helms and then they trade objects. Reides offers to chip in, but Kilwin says it’s okay, since Reides will need a lot of gold to fill in his new spellbook. Kilwin asks if Valmorra has any divinations, but she advises him to try at a temple. Jorah asks if Valmorra knows anywhere to get a magic crossbow, since his heavy crossbow is older than him and he’s been thinking about an upgrade. Valmorra has an enchanted heavy crossbow for 900 gp and an enchanted hand crossbow for 800 gp. While Briar, Kilwin, and Reides are initially open to contributing to the purchase, the enchantments turn out to be pretty underwhelming, so Jorah just passes on it. Valmorra also advises Briar to try some of the city’s culinary institutions when he asks about astrally aspected foods. He also asks if she knows any druids in the city, but she says there’s not many around that she knows of. Reides asks about spell scrolls too, but Valmorra only has one in stock. They tend to get snatched up pretty quickly! It’s for Glyph of Warding and costs 300 gp. Reides thinks the spell sounds neat, but then he learns about the cost of the material components and passes on it. We joke around with Valmorra about breaking into the store, but Jorah says he knows better and enjoys keeping his limbs. In the end, we leave Valmorra’s Magical Gewgaws behind and split up to continue our shopping adventure.