Session Recap - 3 August 2007

From Loranon

Session Recap
3 August 2007
Start Date	16 March 1332
End Date	17 March 1332
Adventure Locations	Melanora, Mysterious Shadow Plane
Previous Session	20 July 2007
Next Session	11 August 2007
Image:Session Recap - 3 August 2007.png

Participating Characters

Bisquick, Daeron Elensar, Fagan von Feld, Alan Bree, Malic Citrate

In Search of Mekda

Daeron, Alan, and Malic spent their first day in Melanora searching for information on Malic's Great Uncle Mekda Flamebullion. They were unable to find any information on him, but Alan kept insisting that they keep trying.

After failing to find information on Mekda, the entire party met up at The Disorderly Dwarf, a good inn in the dwarven ward. There they ate a fine dinner with Malic downing ten roasted chickens and a number of the party daring to consume Ironstout, a particularly strong dwarven ale.

In Search of Knowledge

The player characters spent the next morning continuing to search for information concerning Mekda Flamebullion. They didn't find any, but that may have been because the talk of the town was the recent news from Kandor. The word was that there was some great battle in Calerise, the Golden City. The news was that much of the city was destroyed, the entire Paladin Council slain, and House Tyrell in control of the capital city and much of the country. Apparently, the attack by House Tyrell was conducted using some strange, savage creatures, but everyone in the streets had a different account of what the creatures actually were, ranging from were-baboons to ancient red dragons.

Having failed to find information about Mekda Flamebullion, the party was successful in finding information about learned folk in the city. There was not too much in the way of large public libraries in Melanora, but there was a small arcane district where much of the that type of folk congregated. There were a number of proprietorships where wizards offered their spells for hire, but the arcane district also housed the estate of one Elanora Silverleaf, a beautiful elven loremaster.

Elanora's home was defended by a pair of flesh golems, but the loremaster appeared quickly and stated her terms: 50GP for an answer to a question she could do on the spot, 1000GP per day of research for those she could not, or 1000GP per day of open discussion. The party chose the final option, emptying the party coffers.

Cargs

The first questions the party had concerned Cargs. First, the loremaster reproduced one of the oldest known documents that mentioned the Cargs:

In more readable language:

Darkness rising
The blood is found
Matched and mixed
The cargs are born

No question of loyalty
They do the bidding
Desire the power
The cargs are hungry

Magic of soul
Thirst be quenched
The power to find
The cargs are sated

Elanora provided some commentary on the piece. She believed that the first stanza hinted at how the Cargs are created: that it has something to do with a certain kind of blood that is matched with another kind and mixed. She believes that Marco must have deciphered the secret and found the blood needed. She mentioned that the second stanza talked about the Cargs' undying devotion to their master and spoke of the small number of Cargs that are still alive today and how they still attempt to do Marco's bidding. She believes that the third stanza hints at the Cargs weakness, which somehow involves sating the Cargs' desires. She did not have the exact knowledge of how Mygrandin Antaloose and companions discovered the weakness or exploited it.

Spellweavers

Elanora spoke briefly about the spellweavers, who appear to have no lasting loyalty to Marco and are much more interested in pursing magic and magic items than dealing with world conquest. With them being so alien, no direct communication has lead to any appreciable information on why they worked with Marco, but many speculate that they were getting something in return, based on the amount of autonomy they had in the world during the Tyranny of Marco. They were set aside places in the world where Marco's armies would not go. In fact, she mentioned that the area around the Cauldron Mountains was long ago home to a number of spellweavers and their ogre slaves.

She also mentioned some of the deadly capabilities of the spellweavers, including the ability to cast many spells at once.

Marco the Enslaver

The party and Elanora spoke at length about Marco the Enslaver. Initially, she spoke of his origins:

Little is known of Marco's actual origins. There has never been any evidence, documentation or otherwise, detailing where he was born or where he grew up. Even after the war, interrogations with those very few that were close to him did not know anything of his past.

During her captivity, Lanae Tence attempted to speak with Marco at length about his past and his motivations. While he would always answer her questions of motivation with desire for power, he would not speak of his past. From their conversations, Lanae believed that Marco did not gain his sorcerous powers while on Mezra.

Patrick Stempilos

The party asked after Patrick Stempilos and learned that he had served the Tyranny of Marco before becoming a member of the Companions of Mygrandin; he had been responsible for many evils. Throughout his time with Mygrandin, Patrick proved himself of great good and ultimately redeemed himself during the Battle of Marco where he gave his life to so that that Mygrandin would live to face Marco.

Seven Pendants of Dira

Elanora revealed details about the Seven Pendants of Dira.

Life Pendant of Dira - abilities concerning life and death; capable of restoring life before the soul passed beyond the barriers raised by the Dei Exsilium
Healing Pendant of Dira - abilities concerning health and curative magic
Knowledge Pendant of Dira - sentient item, providing much knowledge
Arms Pendant of Dira - capable of providing great proficiency with arms as well as being able to produce numerous weapons at will
Flight Pendant of Dira - grants the power of undispelable flight
Strength Pendant of Dira - grants great strength
Travel Pendant of Dira - abilities related teleportation, even when access to the planes is denied

She stated that after the end of the Marco Wars, Mygrandin went to great effort to hide the pendants away from the world, so that they could never be used to unlock the Great Seal of Dira. She says that he was very successful in this, because to this date, none of the Seven Pendants of Dira had been found. The party decided to conceal the existence of the Life Pendant of Dira.

Island of Dira

The loremaster touched on the geography of the Island of Dira and how the northern mountains were impassable except through the Great Seal of Dira. She also spoke of ways people arrived in Dira: many arrived by boat, but others simply appeared there, but everyone who ever reaches the island had a great desire in their heart to get there.

The Diran Prophecy touches on the rise and fall of Marco the Enslaver, and mentions that the man responsible for his fall would come from Dira. Attempting to avoid the latter part of the piece, Marco spent much effort in locating the island and was successful in snuffing out the life that existed there. He magically veiled the island to make it even more difficult to find and set many traps and other defenses there to prevent any future settlement.

Corrupted Dirate and the Forshantir

Following up on their discussion of the Seven Pendants of Dira, the discussion moved into the use of corrupted dirate by Marco in the Marco Wars. She stated that it was possible to corrupt dirate by "force-feeding" it souls to consume. The corrupted dirate could then use this soul power to fuel its evil powers or expand its capabilities. She stated that every piece of dirate has two special features:

Immunity to all divination and scrying spells
The ability to consume the souls of the recently deceased

The Forshantir is an artifact that was created towards the end of the Marco Wars. Its most common usage was as a fear-causing device, but as it was made of dirate its capabilities were subject to change over time. The item came into the hands of agents of Erythnul shortly after the end of the Dei Exsilium. They were able to manipulate the corrupted dirate's powers and turn it more towards their dark god's desires. It has been used over the past 1000 years as an object of fear and destruction.

Its current capabilities include probability manipulation, fear/hate/envy instillment, demon summoning, direct offensive magic, and unshieldable divine connectivity with Erythnul's agents.

The corrupted dirate needs to be fueled in order to use its powers. When directed to do so, the item will consume the soul of any creature who dies within one mile. In addition to using these souls to fuel its fel magic, the device can also use them to expand its capabilities.

Meelkor the Humble

The loremaster was able to identify the parchment and sword the players had recovered from The Mysterious Tower as paraphernalia related to Meelkor, a god of a humility. She stated that his worship had been waning before the the Tyranny of Marco and that he did not survive the starvation brought on by the Dei Exsilium.

She identified the wooden longsword as a weapon wielded by Glorian, one of Meelkor's greatest knights. After the Dei Exsilium, Glorian felt betrayed and angry. His worship waned, even though he was given a burial tomb by the remaining clerics of his church.

During her examination of the longsword, the loremaster cast a magic detection spell and made a visible start at the level of magical power the party had. Later on in their discussion, she revealed that she had put two and two together to realize that the party had a piece of corrupted dirate.

The Mysterious Tower

The loremaster identified The Mysterious Tower north of Dormantown as a post-Marco Wars construction built within a pre-Marco Wars ruined keep. She stated that it was built by a wizard seeking privacy, who built it in what was a far off frontier at the time. The wizard was known to be an expert in force magics, and he created a force field that covered the whole tower. She mentioned that it is believed that he died in the tower and that the ghost that flits around inside the force field is the long dead wizard.

The Truescale Tribe

Alan asked Elanora if she knew anything about the items obtained from Droskar's Crucible. She did have knowledge of the Crown of the Kobold King, which she described as being passed from generation after generation of dragon kings of the Truescale Tribe. She tells the party that the Truescale Tribe was one of the most powerful kobold tribes in the world and that their kingdom resided deep below the Spikeshroud Mountains. The party confirmed that that was no longer the case, and that they had wiped out what remained of the once powerful tribe.

The Undelivered Letter

The party asked the loremaster about the contents of the letter that was intended for Madame Losa. She was unable to reveal any information about the names mentioned in the letter, but she was able to reveal that the Ruins of Kara Desolah are located in the Kertuin Wastes, and those ruins were likely one of the greatest settlements of the pre-Tyranny of Marco Kertuin Wastes civilization.

History of the Spikeshroud Orc Clans

The Heart of Gruumsh was the arrival location of agents of Gruumsh after the end of the Dei Exsilium. From there, they were able to unite the disparate orc clans of the Spikeshroud Mountains and consolidate their power in the fortress of Scaun in 345. They waged much war against the civilizations of the area until they were finally pushed back and Scaun was destroyed by an alliance of elves and dwarves.

Mekda Flamebullion

As an aside, the party asked if Elanora knew anything about Mekda Flamebullion. Surprisingly, she had. She stated that he had been through Melanora a little of a year ago to speak with her. He had been going on about some strange new source of magic that he was trying to discover. He stated that it had something to do with the soul connection that all creatures have to Mezra. Elanora stated that she thought he was nutty in the head, but she allowed him to travel north to the Spikeshroud Mountains where he believed some secret could be found. She warned him against traveling too near Flamebullion Clan territory, and she hasnot heard from him since he left.

Examining the Forshantir

As the party prepared to go, Elanora Silverleaf suddenly asked if she could examine the Forshantir. The party agreed, and Malic handed over the piece of corrupted dirate.

With a "What's this?", Elanora tapped the side of the Forshantir and an explosion of colorless filled the room. As the explosion progressed outwards, all the color in the room was stripped away but for the glowing red of the Forshantir. As the loremaster looked around, she muttered, "What in the nine hells?" The party members were swept up into the air and rushed infinitely away from Elanora and the Forshantir without hitting the ceiling. After some time, their vision disappeared and it wasn't until several hours later that they regained their vision.

In Search of the Way In

You find yourself standing on a short strip of road, which ends abruptly at either end. Before you stands a large gate, attached to a 10 foot high wall, and adorned with a fiendishly looking human face. Beyond the gate, you can make out a huge mansion and several outbuildings. Everything is cast in flowing shadow and you know for certain that you have arrived back at the Mysterious Shadow Plane.

Attempting to pass the gate caused the face to animate and demand the password. The party began guessing numerous things that could be the password, but the construct caught on that the party didn't really have permission to enter the master's mansion, so even if they did guess correctly, he wasn't going to let them in. Instead, he tried to strike up conversations covering the weather, riddles, how life is going, and other meaningless things. Trying to pass over the wall was met with the shooting of many spears and was discarded as a way to get in. After some time arguing with the face, Bisquick went to work beating the the gate down with his acid-drenched wooden longsword.

The party began to explore the grounds and moved towards the several outbuildings.