From the Vault: E-Dawn 2

E-Dawn Volume 2: February 2004 Edition

Raquas-Sollus Newsletter

Spoiler Alert: The following journal contains some spoilers pertaining to the FASA adventure Blades.

Player Characters recap

Blades Interlude #4

We summoned Evok Nor and then we defeated the Blood Elves. Luke then left with Evok Nor to fulfill some of their mutual objectives. Evok Nor provided a new Evok’s Beacon Rock for Drudge. We went to the port of Daiche and met the leaders of the Scathian, and House T’kambras forces, Nemokla Vitaille, and learned of a House K’tenshin force headed to Daiche in about a week. We then spent a week in Daiche. Elarin spent most of the week helping to repair the ragtag navy. Drudge received a mysterious scroll from an unnamed source who we thought could be Warren, pointing to the location of the next Deed for the Blades, Mount Jhacsaan. Ela Pono purchased a map in Daiche at the docks to Mount Jhacsaan in the Tylon Mountains.

After one week, we headed back to the docks girded for another riverboat to riverboat conflict. Surprisingly, a House K’tenshin warship arrived with a white flag of truce wishing to parlay. On the vessel, was none other than the famed Theran k’stulaami General Nikar of House Carcini, whose string of victories in Barsaive has pressed us into such a corner. It was to him that Luke and I took the bones of Hefera for Icewing and he had us thrown in to the slave pens in the Theran Behemoth in a rage. If not for Crag Hack’s intervention, we would have never got away from the Questor of Dis and slave master of that awful place. General Nikar offered us an armistice, a truce between Thera and Throal in order to fight off a new terror, a Horrorship that had attacked the Theran Behemoth and the Floating Island of House V’strimon. This was House T’kambras and the Scathian’s chance to sign the treaty or have their vastly outgunned fleet pulverized by a force twice as large as they had anticipated. They wisely signed the treaty, as did Drudge and Thyrnn. General Nikar personally asked us to somehow make our way to Throal and negotiate with the dwarves. Difficult because Throal was sealed to stop the Ropers from infesting the underground city and ravage the populace as they did in Bartertown. Drudge replied that he must finish his current quest first. General Nikar agreed with Drudge that he should finish the Blades quest first. When Drudge asked for help, General Nikar said he could only give them this. Suddenly a second ship came up to us, releasing none other than “The Slayers” to Drudge. Apparently they had been caught trying to sneak into Daiche with the K’tenshin warship we captured during the battle to break the blockade of the southern reach of the Coil River on House V’strimon.

From the Journal of Lilandra Silvertongue Raquas 2-7 1517 TH.

Blades Adventure #5 Pure Liquids

After this, we traveled one day to Kratas. We met an old man who mistook Shaq for another obsidiman Troubadour named Senog. We saw blood everywhere; orks and blood elves screamed howling like animals and attacking each other. Fortunately, unlike in Daiche none of the blood elves spotted us. We made our way to an inn and found Farram and Shadow playing cards; orks and blood elves were busy drinking on either side of the room. Farram decided Mynbruje had willed him to come with Drudge and Elarin hired Shadow to protect me. As soon as we left the inn, a bar fight erupted. We quickly went to the West Gate of Kratas, which was locked. Shadow nimbly attached a grappling hook to the top of the gate, climbed the rope and picked the lock with his thieves’ tools while holding onto the rope with one hand. Fairly impressive I’d say, I keep teasing Ela about that one.

We made our way to a cave, which lead nowhere. Ela’s map was wrong. We found an elven Swordmaster/Archer named Githral there. He claimed to be in Kratas to learn more about the blood elves, but fled to this cave when the blood feud in Kratas occurred. We found out he was from Shosara and disagrees with the existence of the blood rituals that perpetuate the continuation of the blood elf race. I suppose he has a lot in common with me then, and may be sympathetic to me and Luke’s quest to restore the Wyrm Wood. We told him we were looking for Mount Jhacsaan, and he replied he had seen some dwarves with a raft heading northwest along the mountain trails. He asked to join us in our quest and Drudge allowed him to come with us. We next met a group of thirteen dwarves who looked nearly identical. The group of dwarves was called the Vodanicus Family and was apparently expert rafters on the underground rivers of the Tylon. They told us they were after True Water. We asked to accompany them to Mount Jhacsaan, and they immediately wanted money. Greedy, Filthy dwarves! We bartered a trade, we’d carry the raft and they’d lead us there. The next day, a group of ork bandits, and their leader named Buunpak accosted us, as well as his “pet” Thunder Chimera, Thundara, demanding their protection money from the dwarves. Shadow stole the dwarfs’ gems and paid off the bandits their 1,100 silver pieces, and pocketed the rest of the dwarfs’ money.

The next day, a group of Manticores attacked us, we were surprised to see a lightning bolt strike one and veer off. In distance, Buunpak nodded and turned to battle the creature, as we fought off the six attacking us. One dwarf died in the battle, otherwise we did quite well. Whoever heard of honorable ork bandits though? After that we proceeded with the tough climb up the steep slopes of Mount Jhacsaan to the underground River Uvar’s entrance. Several us were injured by falls during the tough trek. We stopped on a stable cliff face and asked the dwarves to come with them. They immediately demanded an outrageous fee of 1,500 silver pieces per person. Ela and I haggled the price down to 200 silver pieces per person and we agreed on that price. The dwarves then talked about space. With their being 12 dwarves, only 18 of us could go. Which meant some of us would have to stay. Corak had already wandered off saying something about “Where is my apprentice at?” earlier that day. Shadow decided to refund some of his fee, but Elarin told him to keep it and take care of the animals. Meanwhile those left 19 of us, so we bribed one dwarf 1,600 silver pieces for his spot. He left a happy dwarf. Thus it was that we entered the cavern to the waterway, finally heaving the heavy thing into the River Uvar. We got onto the raft and traveled along the fast river current towards a place called Raggok’s Gullet?! The rushing water made it difficult to hang on and many of us plunged into the water to be saved by our t’skrang friends. But no time for a breather, as we had to leap onto a net to not plunge into Raggok’s Gullet. Many of us made it, but some like Rahl, V’Dor, a Dwarf, and Zim did not. Perhaps it was a result of Rahl and V’Dor’s plate mail weighing them down. Rahl somehow held onto a rope that Githral had placed on the other side with a grappling hook, but V’Dor and Zim plunged into the gullet. Zim was unconscious, and V’Dor slung him over his shoulder, but then strange sheet-like water creatures appeared. Drudge and Elarin leapt into the water to rescue V’Dor and Zim, and Thrynn pulled up Rahl with him. The sheet-like creatures almost ate Elarin, if not for Githral shooting it with some kind of lightning arrow. All us now except one dwarf, who had been killed instantly when his head struck a stalactite and was instantly engulfed by one of the sheet-like creatures, made our way to the slower River Tronos. We were then attacked by strange brain-like colonies that killed three dwarves and ate their brains… Yuck! They seemed to attack with a mental strike of some sort. We defeated them with bow attacks. That night grandmother Vodanicus attacked Cracar on the third watch. Anyone could see the drooling lunatic was out of her mind, and Cracar came very close to killing her.

The next day we arrived at the Great Dome of House Ch’elann and met the Shivalahala Ch’elasmo. She sentenced the dwarves to death then told us that prophecies sent down by Shivalahala R’ashani had already announced our coming. She told us many things about the Blades of Cara Fahd and the prophesies of R’ashani. We were to perform a blood magic ritual that R’ashani had created to bring Betrayer’s physical form into the world so that we could kill the damn horror and rid the Blades of their curse. It took us one week to learn the ritual, wherein we made our final preparations, learning that the horror would be made of true water and our blood at the end of the ritual. A young t’skrang named T’chava, an adolescent who had not yet reached Kaissa yet and was somehow a Third Circle Boatman, would guide us to the point where the fisherman had seen the pattern that announced the Time of Betrayal to the Pale Ones. The Pale Ones fought each other and even within families, leading to a huge battle at the end of the week. The Vodanicus family was back and tried to get their revenge on us. They had even allied with Ch’elasmo’s own guards to kill the Shivalahala and us. We knocked out most of the Shivalahala’s guards and killed the Vodanicus family members. We left Pavellis, Vusal, and Stahd behind to protect the Shivalahala and left.

Thus we were lead by T’chava to the lair of Betrayer. Before we could even get to him, the ghosts of the Seven Spokes appeared and fought us. They held back as much of their power as they could, but it was still a tough fight. After defeating them, we crawled forward across treacherous rocks trying to keep our balance. Many of us feel into the water though, and had to be rescued by our t’skrang companions. After reaching the back of the cave we noticed the pattern in the small pond. Here we performed the blood magic ritual to give Betrayer a physical form to finally end the torment and a quest that had seemed to last ages. Betrayer came out and gave us a speech about how happy he was to be physical again and how he’d used the “gift” we’d given him to make our ends relatively quick and painless. He attacked us with a spin attack striking out at all of us. Many of us, including me were knocked down. I saw Ela’s and Zim’s faces contort with pain and grab for a Booster Potion. The Passion’s seemed to intervene, stopping some Horror spells from occurring. Perhaps Mynbruje trying to save his Questor, Farram. But then the unthinkable occurred, Mark attacked Farram, nearly killing him as he made Drudge grow to an incredible size. Meanwhile Thrynn attacked the horror going into the water with him and was surprised by a vicious bite attack. The next few seconds were critical, the horror grabbed Thyrnn and Drudge, killed Farram and drug them beneath the depths, Somehow, the repeated blows of the Blades wore him down and he eventually succumbed. Drudge pulled Thrynn and Farram out of the water. Thrynn had been viciously attacked by a Skin Shift spell again, and looked beat up. Mark had attacked Farram because he was jealous of Mynbruje and his deep role in the life of Drudge and perhaps wished the same thing from his passion, Floranuus. I know I seen Gertrude’s and Ela’s faces contort in that battle, I wonder what Betrayer tried to do to them. Farram was revived by Drudge’s Last Chance Salve Potion and forgave Mark for his moment of weakness as did Drudge. The Seven Spokes reappeared and thanked us for freeing them to finally move onto the next world, and then they faded away. We returned to the Great Dome of House Ch’elann for one week of training. Where to now? Apparently to Earthroot’s place to learn how to get to Throal using the underground rivers.

From the Journal of Lilandra Silvertongue Raquas 8-Sollus 1TH 1517.

War recap

                Like a navy of darkness, the rakkeni soared in and attacked us using the Horrorship, the one we call “The Decimator”, as we Therans use the k’stulaami griffin riders as support fighters for our kilas and behemoths. They attacked the Theran Behemoth and the Theran Navy without mercy; the flames were everywhere. Vedettes dropped out of the skies, our kilas made a hasty retreat to Sky Point, leaving the Theran Behemoth to take the rest of the attack. Thankfully this place was fortified by Elemental Earth and thus did not burn as easily as our ships. Azim Keel, our support Elementalist, doused as much of the fires as he could, using the now popular Snuff spell. The Marac Theater has come to Barsaive. May the Passions save this backward province from destruction.

-From the journal of General Nikar 42/1 TE 1074.

The daylight was no more. A black shield covered the sun, and from it came fifty smaller ones. They swept down, burning through the House V’strimon Navy and then attacking the remnants of the Bartertown Navy. Then it came to us, burning away at the Floating Island’s elemental Towers and the Syrtisian Navy. Shivalahala V’strimon tried to stop the flames from destroying her capital, while we fought against impossible odds to save the Syrtisian Behemoth. The black shapes were a specific type of Horror, called rakken. The aerial monstrosities are well armored and immune to fire attacks. Of all the rakken that attacked us that day, only two died, one from an arrow from the elven hero Han Olveran, and another from an ice spell from the Shivalahala herself. One more attack like that and we are finished.

-From the Journal of Belit Shustal Syrtis, Captain of the Mistral. Raquas 2 TH 1517.

An alliance with the Therans? Unthinkable, and yet a reality. The Therans seem to know a lot about this Horrorship, if I didn’t know better I’d say they’ve fought it before. Still, we can’t continue our fight against each other given the circumstances. Despite everything we’ve gone through in this war, I have no choice but to ally with our enemies against the horrors, else Barsaive become a horror’s paradise. The Therans seem to think if we fail, we will become like a place called Vasgothia, where the Horrors reign over Name-Givers. No matter how evil the Therans may be, their greed and usage of slavery are nothing compared to the Horrors who know nothing but manipulation and slaughter. The Therans have always fought the Horrors wherever they find them; this hasn’t changed since their Founding. Will the truce hold after we defeat the Horrorship? Does it matter? If we do not defeat this mutual threat, there will be no tomorrow to worry about.

-Shivalahala V’Strimon, speech to the House before signing the Theran Armistice. Raquas 3TH 1517.

It would seem that my efforts to save the people of Travar were at least partially successful. One of them has to know the location of the Tome of Banishment. Without it we won’t be able to defeat the rakken or the Horrorship completely. Onward to Urupa.

-Moltaa, obsidiman Nethermancer/Horror Stalker of the Grim Legionnaires. Legion Journal. 42/5 TE 1074.

So its come to this. Urupa wanted no part of this war and yet accepted the refugees from Travar. Perhaps that was our gravest mistake. Messages have come in stating that the Horrorship is coming here. Its gotta be that damn obsidiman and her band bringing Travar’s troubles and enemies here. Urupa has almost no defenses except that few remnants of Travar’s Navy. Do we even have a chance?

-From the Journal of Fellindra Jer, Chief Councilor of Urupa. Raquas 15 TH 1517.

Interrogation was a long process; of course the promise of quarantine certainly loosened some tongues that would not usually speak. We know that the ships the Cloud Runner and Shadow Skulker once fought an aerial battle near Travar. We have to assume that they attempted to banish the Rakken and failed. The Tome of Banishment must be where they wrecked. Too bad it requires us to search the outskirts of a gigantic Horror-controlled city and the Horror-controlled environs. Oh well, I’m game. Let the hunt begin!

-Moltaa, Obsidiman Nethermancer/Horror Stalker of the Grim Legionnaires. Legion Journal. 44/5 TE 1074.

 Here it comes, the eminent destruction of Urupa. A black shape spewing out more black shapes. First, they will attack our ships then the city. We are not as well defended as the Theran Behemoth or the Floating Island. I don’t think they’ll be many survivors. What in the world? It’s a Theran Behemoth and an entire Theran Navy group! It’s the entire Seventh and Eighth Legion Navy. Maybe we’ll live through this after all. Maybe.

-From the Journal of Fellindra Jer, Chief Councilor of Urupa. Raquas 30 TH 1517.

Rumors

         I swear I seen something floating in the water with a vaguely dwarf shape near the Coil River. I think there are sea dwarves out there. What do you mean too much ale for me?

Elementalist Weather Notes Raquas 16 TH 1517

         A strange storm is sweeping over the Throal Mountains, thunder and fog are everywhere, the amount of rain may cause some severe flooding underground and on the Coil River. The amount of undead in the area has also increased; I saw a wolf cadaver and it attacked me the other day. I’m getting out of here!