Start hunting Undead. One week is spent moving between the villages to keep them safe. Another is spent hunting down stragglers across Two Lakes vale. By the end of the third week there don’t seem to be too many left.
9/10/1028
The child of Zim and Gwen is born; Gemma.
28/10/1028
Stop the hunting.
Thora goes to talk to the clan leader of the Barony of the Elms. Some of the younger elves come to help the animals and plants of the vale.
28/1/1029
Over a period of time Thora goes to investigate a number of sites near Rhoona in the Jarldoms. All of them are supposed to be the place where Freyja incarnated long ago to fight against the Drow. The correct one would make an ideal place to petition for immortality.
A local noble (near Rhoona, in the Jarldoms) is missing a daughter (Melinas). Thora and Remus travel to his (stone!) keep. The keep was built by the local dwarves and looks like it was designed by a bunch of architects on drugs having a war. Lots of weird angles everywhere, gargoyles and statues on the roof. The whole shebang.
The stuttering gate guard is called Wondo Brecken. The courtyard is cluttered and homely. Amongst the oddities are childrens games (like hop-scotch) etched directly into the stone of the courtyard and a giant statue of a cat. An ink-smeared, middle-aged man called Horon Sigmundsson, cousin to Melinas, is scribbling on some paper at a table.
The ruler here is a Lord Halfdan. He doesn’t seem entirely pleased that Thora follows Freyja.
It seems that Melina, who was about to be married, has been missing for four days. She had just accepted a proposal from a man called Thorgeir the night before she vanished. Nothing is missing apart from the girl, and no-one saw or heard anything.
The castle was apparently designed by Melina, at different stages of her life. It was built by the dwarves of Rhoona. There are secret passages, apparently fallen into disuse and dangerous, but they have been searched. Apparently there is a ghost that likes to trip people in the passages at night. It didn’t previously cause many problems.
Remus sniffs around Melina’s bedroom. The room has plenty of dolls and stuffed toys (expensive imports). The main scent is Melina, although the scents of her father and another man are also noticeable. The other man spent a fair amount of time here, including in the bed (around 4 days ago – ‘passion’ was involved). More recently many people have been here briefly. There are five other scents; all human males. The closet has little of Melina’s scent but the drawers have more.
Meanwhile Thora is taken to talk to Thorgeir. He is young but looks exhausted. He met Melina at the market of Rhoona four months ago, decided he liked her looks and followed her home. His family have no land but have money. He was originally going to study medicine in Ylaruam.
He mentions that the ghost has become more active in the last four days. Moaning, setting a fire, and other things. The moaning has been heard several times in the kitchens, but also in Thorgeir and Melina’s bedrooms; not in the main hall. The fire was in the couryard – some blank papers of Horon’s.
We go look at the place where the fire happened. It was on the cat statue. There are passages running through the walls nearby, according to the servants. The statue itself is hollow. It appears to be supported by a pedestal of some sort in the middle.
The courtyard has several metal rings sunk into the floor. There are also three trees strong enough to climb; one apple and two pear.
Servants: Ossl, Runolf (Ossl’s father), Cora. Cora doesn’t seem to like Thora for some reason.
Go to the kitchen and meet Madam Thurid. The kitchen is rather weird, much like two truncated pyramids joined together. She is initially somewhat hostile but loosens up once Thora does some cooking chat for a while. She says that Lord Halfdane hadn’t believed that his daughter would actually leave him.
Search outside of the house but find no useful tracks. This almost certainly means there aren’t any. Search inside the house but find no secret passages. There could be millions wreathed in neon lights but we wouldn’t have noticed them anyway.
During the dinner Cora seems to be looking at Halfdan quite sadly. After a quiet dinner Thora and Remus retire to their quarters.
When the house goes quiet, Thora turns into a pixie and goes to lie in wait in the kitchen. After a moment Lord Halfdane comes to prepare some food. Thora follows him back and notices Thorgeir lying in hiding near Halfdane’s bedroom door.
Near his room Halfdane opens a secret door behind a bookshelf by pulling out a couple of books. The bookshelf seems to be well padded to prevent sound from passing through. Melina is kept prisoner in the revealed space.
A battle ensues but all ends well. Thorgeir tries to attack Lord Halfdane with minimal success. Melina and Lord Halfdane both seem to have some sort of strange powers, but it’s not a magic Thora is familiar with. Thora takes the form of a giant constrictor and subdues Lord Halfdane.
As partially suspected, Lord Halfdane was keeping Melina prisoner to prevent her marrying Thorgeir and moving to Ylaruam. He loves her just a little too much. Those 'ghost' sounds were indeed Melina trying to attract attention. Thora persuades Lord Halfdane to let Melina go and invites the youths to stay with her. Thorgeir would prefer to go to the university in Ylaruam to get some ‘proper’ teaching but he ends up being pleasantly surprised by Thora’s skill in medicine. Lord Halfdane agrees to provide information about the area.
1/2/1029
Breakfast is much more cheerful. The official story is that Melina was lost in the wilds.
Thora and Remus head for the hill that has been described to them.
3/2/1029
The hill is in the wilderness. At the top is an overgrown shrine that is open to the air. The floor bears a circular pattern of runes that read “The goddess stepped down to earth and gave her words so that we might defeat the dark ones. Consider weary traveler, and become wise.”
Thora spends some time cleaning the shrine, which is in fairly bad repair. Remus hunts and plays.
5/2/1029
Thora finishes the cleaning. As she does so a gap opens in the clouds, forming a portal. A glowing figure (Freyja) rides down on a pegasus, followed by a host of valkiries (who are also riding pegasi). Thora falls to her knees as she is struck by Freyja’s presence.
There is some discussion and explanation while time appears to halt. The petition is accepted despite Thora never actually formally petitioning for anything. Apparently the finding of Melina was an initial trial and the intention to start the process was enough. There are others that need to be completed. Freyja refuses the donation of the prayer beads.
With regards to the circle table, “Destroying the darkness would not be impossible, but would be difficult.”
Pop back to the mansion and arrange to pick up Melina and Thorgeir.
Invite Melina, Thorgeir and Lord Halfdane to visit. They like the place.
6/2/1029
Chat with Roland and Safranna about possible choices of sphere and patron.
Talk about Sarfranna becoming alive again.
Take them to court.
Buy a tome of leadership and influence+1 from T’saz.
A bard from Darokin who is visiting Serraine will cast Legend Lore to seek information about the tome.
Spends some time in the library of Serraine looking up the tome.
After two weeks Veronica has a result. Not much of one though. “Secrets the tome contains, but beware of writer’s stoop.”
26/2/1029
Melina and Thorgeir get married.
Melina uses psionics. She can do various things including clairvoyance/clairaudience and scrying. She can scry on areas as well as people.
6/3/1029
Finish looking for artifacts in the library.
Spend another couple of weeks checking up on the scarf. Do more research in the Serraine library as well as going to see the Enduks and visiting Ee’aar.
Rohir, Lani’s henchman (cleric windsinger) is quite interested in this topic. He is well versed in planar beings, magic, history and religion.
7/3/1029
Head to Renardy, home of the Lupines, to find out about Saimpt Clebard. Bring Remus, Melina and Thorgeir.
We arrive in Othmar, the capital of Eusdria. Thora doesn’t speak any of the major languages here but muddles through with her elven, although the local accent is extremely different.
We end up in a shop selling red steel weapons and purified vermeil. The dwarven shop keeper speaks a totally different dialect of elven but he does know some Hulean.
There are three greatswords, one for 550, one for 2550 and one for 8550. We order a red steel greatsword +3 for 14,375 and Remus’ currently +2 great sword. It will take around 20 days.
According to various people we ask Renardy is about 500 miles away.
We try a Transport via Plants. We end up in a vineyard. The lupin closest to us, Pierre, speaks Rakastan Common. The vineyard is near a fortified monastery. The monks here mostly revere Saimpt Ralon, who is the wife of Saimpt Clebard. The monastery is about a day’s walk south-east of the capital, Louvines.
The monastery has some records of Saimpt Clebard. Pierre offers to translate them for us. Remus wanders off to hunt rabbits.
There is another visitor at the monastery. He is a hunter of sorts. At dinner, the hunter (Claude) turns out to be a warrior/cleric of Saimpt Malinois, a hunter of were-wolves. There is a bit of a scene when he detects Thora and Remus to be were-wolves. It seems that lycanthropes are especially hunted by the lupines. Things are tense for a while but Thora persuades him to check for evil. Finding none the poor guy is very confused. He ‘offers’ to accompany Thora and Remus while in Renardy, officially to help them avoid more such problems and unofficially to keep an eye on them.
The monks sell their (emporer’s court quality wine) for slightly more than normal wine. There is profit to be made here for a person with enough gold.
Head home for the night.
8/3/1029
TvP back to the monastary in the morning. Walk to Louvines with the hunter in tow.
Go to see some records. Saimpt Clebard comes in for a chat and asks Thora to help with a problem between the kings of Renadry and Esudria over the Plain of Dreams. A faction is trying to discourage the King of Eusdria from continuing negotiations, which would be bad for both countries. Saimpt Clebard wants Thora to look into this and try to smooth things over.
9/3/1029
Introduced to Baronet Francois of Renardy. He takes Thora to court.
There is a great wall between Renardy and Eusdria, designed to help against goblins who come down through that region. That area is goblin patrolled. North of there is a great field of flowers that make anyone other than goblins fall asleep. This is the Field of Dreams. Both countries want the field of dreams for their expansion. Renardy (to the west of Eusdria) can expand to the NW around the edge of the plain while Esudria has no such recourse. The lupins have some way to avoid the effects of the plain, but it is a national secret.
The baronet doesn’t seem interested at all in the problems over the plain. The negotiations have been going on for years.
Need to learn Eusdrian (similar to Heldannic) and Renardois. Slag would be useful.
Thora starts learning Eusdrian. (Only 1 week and 1CP since it’s very similar to Heldannic) She learns it from Al’Alin who is still in Eusdria. Married with four children yet. Thora also drops in to the temple of Fredara again to find out about the success of the education reforms (they have been implemented).
(The Eusdrian pantheon: Viuden, Eirys, Cernuinn, Fredar, Fredara, Nyt, Tiuz, Kagyar*, Lokar, Donar and Al-Kalim* - starred are non-traditional for a Norse region)
The king (Sigismund III the Great, a half-elf) is currently in a position of great political strength over the nobles. He has successfully created a national army of professional warriors loyal to him.
There are four major nobles; Count Arthaulf, Duchess Beovilda and two barons. The count fought against the king in the last war but came out of it very well politically. He follows Donar (Thor) in action, if not words. Duchess Beovilda fought for him (with us) but didn’t do so well politically. She is an elf who opposes the temples and is known for being impolite. The barons are young and have little real power.
16/3/1029
After a short trip to Darokin to get some stylish clothing (!) Thora moves in to the best inn in Othmar. She is quickly chatting with courtiers and Knights of Eusdria at the Branching Stag, a popular hangout of the rich and idle. She uses Thousand Faces to appear different. It is very elegant, in a hunting-style.
The Knights are the most important company in the military, with a well-respected leader. The other companies are the Company of the Wolf, Order of the Immortals, Order of the Unicorn and the Warriors of the Sea.
One of the knights, Solmund (a half-elf), seems to catch on that Thora actually has some decision-making power and talks quite seriously. He seems to think relatively well of the folk of Renardy. He also thinks well of Fredara and makes offerings on holy days.
Solmund opines that the count should step down in favor of his son.
17/3/1029
Picked up by Solmund and get a tour of the palace. He seems loyal to the king and is obviously liked by the soldiers and knights. Thora breaks down and tells him the truth.
Solmund mentions that the Duke’s son, Vermund, is keen on military expansion and even keener on personal glory. A long discussion and planning session follow. Solmund believes Thora and agrees to help her. He hadn’t realized that Thora was married and this causes some tension.
They head off to see Vermund. Stop for the night at an inn. Since they are pretending to be a couple they share a room. Thora apologizes for the mess and sleep comes eventually.
18/3/1029
Head off again. This time Solmund travels in the coach instead of on horseback. Thora finally realizes that the sash Solmund. It marks him as honorbound. The honorbound follow the concept of warrior’s honor (see the log for details).
Thora and Solmund swap tales. Thora tells him a fairly full background of herself and Remus. Solmund seems to be one of the more experienced of the knights.
Thora realizes that she has entered the Time of Grace. Solmund gives her some cinnabryl in case she enters the Time of Loss. Her legacy is Find, which allows her to know the direction to an object. (1/day, lasts 10min/character level, no range limit, can only find particular object if you have previously touched it).
We arrive at Vermund’s hunting lodge, which is basically a small mansion. Vermund and the Count have just returned from hunting. Vermund is in his 30s but the Count looks far too old for hunting.
Sit and chat for a while. Vermund seems to be trying to impress. The Count seems to be covertly watching Thora, although that might just be the shape she’s wearing. After listening to the men chatter for a while Thora heads to the kitchen to gossip with the servants. There are no obvious signs of dark dealings.
19/3/1029
Solmund and Vermund go out hunting. The Count stays with Thora and tells stories. He thinks that she is her own daughter, seeing some similarities since their last meeting.
After finding out that the Count won’t drink his tea like a good boy, Thora goes off to find some herbs for a salve. There are no suspicious tracks around the area.
It turns out the Count has other sons, but he has no additional lands to give them so they don’t stand to inherit anything.
Two more days pass, so that Solmund can have a good relax.
22/3/1029
Head off in the morning to return to the capitol. Thora determines to find a suitable partner for Solmund.
24/3/1029
Find out who is running the talks. Somund doesn’t know them at all.
26/3/1029
Thora attend court in Eusdria. She finds that the talks stalled because Eusdria and Renardie seem to have little to offer each other. Count Arthaulf is pushing for going it alone although the difficulty of this is making his job hard.
Solmund finds out that there is some talk of allying with Renardy against the goblinoids, mainly based on getting the antidote to the Field of Dreams flowers off them.
28/3/1029
More time at court accomplished little. Decide to look at the flowers directly.
Teleport via Plants with Solmund to near the Fields. Shapechange into a Pegasus to fly to the edge. Some experimentation reveals that Thora is indeed immune. The flowers are non-magical and have a pollen that causes sleep in some types of creatures. The effect counts as a poison.
Thora digs some flowers out and tries to replant them in her area. They look like the change isn’t good for them. Elvarandir says that the flowers aren’t really suited to the soil they grew in originally either and that they must be force-grown in some way. Solmund stays in a guest room overnight.
1/4/1029
Thora brings Solmund back to Eusdria and picks up Remus’ new red steel greatsword. She drops in to the monastary to sign a contract for the delivery of at least 3,000gp worth of wine.
Thora then returns to the dream flowers and begins to search for signs of who might be force-growing them.
2/4/1029
Thora spots a figure in the distance and Shapechanges into a bird. She watches the goblin shaman wander along what appears to be a regular path, performing a spell at certain points. When each spell is cast the flowers in the area perk up visibly.
Thora follows the shaman back to his base, an encampment of some 500 goblins. She turns back into her normal form out of sight, and then approaches openly with an escort of Shamblers.
The goblins line up against the wall but don’t fire immediately. A brief discussion with the goblin chief shows that the goblins are not willing to make any sort of treaty to stop future raids. They like raiding the humans and are willing to risk raids in return. Thora threatens that the destruction of the flowers would leave the goblins at a disadvantage but the chief seems to be willing to risk it.
Thora dismisses her Shamblers and turns to walk away. One goblin fires at her back, precipitating a general attack. Their archers are terrible, although not for long. Thora drops a firestorm along the crowded wall and the goblins burn and die. Thora Shapechanges into a (rather small) gold dragon and flies away in order to give the survivors something else to think about.
3/4/1029
Thora visits the temple of Saimpt Clebard in Renardy to discuss the situation with the priests there. She mentions that Eusdria is approaching a solution to the flower problem and suggests that it would be good for Renardy to ally with Esudria before the antidote becomes less useful. The priests agree to pen a letter, warning the king of this eventuality. Thora doesn’t give details but does mention that the flowers are force grown.
Saimpt Clebard is satisfied with Thora’s actions. He informs her that the scarf she seeks in on another plane (possibly a demi-plane). The portal to this place can only be opened when both (!) moons are full. A certain ritual needs to be performed in a smokehouse (or a boat covered in smoke). The next time this ritual can be performed is 15th of Newmont (month 1) in the year 1032.
4/4/1029
Thora spends some time moving around, recruiting new followers.
Thora heads to the Jarldoms to check on the kobolds with the silver armor. While there she hears that the Northern Reaches now have a king (Ragnar the Stout), and that he has fought three great battles against the ‘dog men’. They ambushed and defeated him in the first two but he routed them in the third. Apparently he is gathering his forces for a final battle, intending to follow them back to the Caves of Falun and annihilate them once and for all.
Thora visits the army and offers her assistance. It is gladly accepted. She also offers to join Remus and some of her soldiers to the Jarl of Whiteheart’s armies. The battle is due to happen in around three months.
Thora talks with various other Godi and trades some runes.
16/4/1029
Thirteenth anniversary of Thora and Remus’ marriage.
20/4/1029
Thora transports herself to Karameikos to look for the hunch-backed mage. It turns out that he has a stone tower in the wilderness near Threshold.
Thora finds the tower. The door is ajar and no one responds to her hails. The inside looks like a battle has taken place. Thora makes her way up the tower, finding a huge man lounging on a couch on the top floor. He is gnawing on a bone when Thora arrives and is obviously happy that she is there. He views her as his next meal.
He rather arrogantly asks her to approach. Thora (rather arrogantly) offers to talk before she kills him. He tries to use magic to make Thora approach (which she easily resists) so she casts a Finger of Death on him, which he doesn’t resist.
Thora removes the body and spends some time assembling the bones. It seems there are two skeletons; a young human male and a middle-aged human female. Thora assumes that the female is probably the ‘hunch-backed male mage’ and has been using some disguise. However she is not sure.
There is little magic in the tower, certainly not the book Thora is looking for. A lab holds a couple of potions and looks set up for making more. The library holds a scroll and many non-magical books that Thora can’t read. An amulet made from a piece of scale was amongst the bones.
Thora thinks long and hard about whether to resurrect them, and eventually decides against it. She lays the bones out on two beds, seals the tower and heads for Threshold.
After a brief discussion with the Threshold guards they agree to check the tower out the next morning.
Thora spends some time at the Black Jug tavern in Threshold, which seems to be an adventurer hangout. There are a few trouble spots in town but Thora decides to leave them to local adventurers.
21/4/1029
The guards accompany Thora back to the tower and confirm her tale. They say they will wait to see if the ‘male wizard’ returns. The bodies are buried. The magic items are given to the guards to look after until either the wizard returns or two weeks have passed, in which case they go to Thora.
After some more thought Thora recants and digs up the woman’s body. She uses the Staff to resurrect her. Thora’s guess was correct; this woman is the mage she’d heard about. Apparently the huge man was a were-swine. He seems to have influenced the apprentice to let him in and then killed the two and ate them.
Thora just manages to cast Transport via Plants to return home.
28/4/1029
Thora returns to the tower to resurrect the apprentice. This time the magical weakness is so bad that she can’t manage the Transport spell. The mage summons a Mount for her and Thora spends a week resting in Threshold.
Threshold turns out to have a flying carpet service. They take passengers to other towns for 100gp. They will give a scenic tour of the local area for 20gp.
7/5/1029
Thora returns to the tower and asks about Artifacts. She learns about various Karameikan items (Sword and Armor of Halev, Longbow and Holy Symbol of Petra) and about a Red and Yellow silken robe. None of them sound particularly appropriate for Thora’s quest.
The mage (name??) advises Thora to go to the magic academy at Krakatos. They are likely to have more information there.
Thora heads home to spend some time handling any issues (and just plain resting).
14/5/1029
Thora heads back to Karameikos to find the academy. It is built in an area of ruins. The academy itself has several twisted red towers. Mages obviously don’t bother with sane architects.
Thora gains an audience with the Dean of Divination at the academy. He has heard several items and agrees to have some students do some further research.
21/5/1029
Thora finds out the results of the research.
A magical chess board apparently made by Chardastes, the Traladaran God of Healing. It allows the game to be played from a distance and also has some powers of healing.
A set of magical armor that makes the wearer immune to magical detection and hard to detect normally as well. For obvious reasons this is hard to track down.
A helm (armet) that is supposed to make the wearer invulnerable. It is currently held by humanoids, apparently.
The Claw of Mighty Simurd. This is a claw given by a gigantic bird to an ancient priest to further the cause of Good. It is useful against Undead and may also have powers against sickness, poison and energy drain. It was last reported in the hands of an evil cleric in Ylaruam around 90 years ago.
The Diamond Orb of Tyche. This gives the holder luck; mostly good but occasionally bad. It is supposed to “Grant good fortune – for a time.” It is believed to be in Davania.
A cauldron made by the giant Hymir.
The Ivory Plume of Maat. It’s a feather shaped brooch, likely linked with Matter.
Ortnit’s Lance of Doom.
A mirror that leads to a demi-plane. Recently owned by both the Queen of Karameikos and a mercenary captain called Garan.
The Censor of the Mists. This might be air-related, but is a tourist attraction. Stealing it is likely to be a bad idea.
The Emerald Shard of Sakkrad. Stolen by a genie. Likely matter.
Interested in the Claw, Thora heads to the university of Ylaruam for some research. At the gate, the guards insist that she should be wearing a red robe. She pops off to Darokin to buy one, not liking the threadbare one offered by the guards. Apparently fire magic is illegal here, perhaps because the heat is already bad enough. Thora states that she isn’t a fire mage, which is true enough as far as it goes.
She meets a helpful student, Gabal ibn-Raad, who offers to translate for her (for a small amount of money). He takes her to the Vouchery of the Provinces, which has records relating to adventuring. In the end we track down a number of people involved in the expedition against the priest.
It seems that a group of adventurers tried to stop the priest and failed – badly. The few survivors reported their problem and a veritable army was formed. However when they got to the priest he was already dead. There is no word of the claw being found. We track down the location of a holy man who accompanied the mission and might still be alive.
Gabal agrees to accompany Thora into the desert the next day.
22/5/1029
Thora Shapechanges into a pegasus and carries Gabal into the desert.
24/5/1029
We find the valley where the dervish is supposed to live. Thora uses Commune with Nature to locate a person, who turns out to be the ‘spritirual ancestor’ of the one we were seeking. His former teacher is now dead, but he did tell him about what happened.
Apparently the cleric was found dead, killed by fire. Various dead orcs and gnolls were also found, not killed by fire. Thora’s assumption is that some fire worshippers (who are known to sometimes ally with these humanoids) killed him, possibly for the claw.
We head back.
26/5/1029
Arrive back. Get the student to ask help from some friends to do research.
5/6/1029
Get some information about the local fire worshippers.
Apparently the number of encounters with orcs and gnolls were increasing for a long time, until around 20 years ago they suddenly attacked in large numbers. Bands of them, sometimes headed by human fire mages, attacked in various parts of Ylaruam from tunnels but were routed. Various groups were also discovered moving in various directions, apparently fleeing. It is possible that they fled from some underground threat.
Some exploration found miles of tunnels, with much danger to be had. Further exploration would be difficult because of the extreme amount of distance that the tunnels cover. Various groups of adventurers go down there but many don’t come back.
Thora heads back home to do more recruiting, assist the new arrivals settle in. She also spends some time with the ship builders at Green Orb. She is better than the pegataur shamans there so her presence is helpful.
16/6/1029
Thora delivers the daughter of Turia and Grey. The child is named ‘Ksatriyani’. The labour was difficult but at least both mother and daughter are healthy.
Period Starting 4/7/1029
Thora joins the army of the Northern Reaches as it makes its way into the mountains south of Whiteheart. Only four Jarls have sent troops; the rest are waiting to see the result before deciding whether to support Ragnar or not. He really needs to win this fight.
After some skirmishes the kobolds stand and fight – more or less – and are routed. Our army pursues them back to the Falun Caverns where they lair.
A frontal assault on the caverns is out of the question. The kobolds seem to have trapped most of the winding tunnels, and even changed the layout by adding dead ends and secret passages. We effectively lay siege and do gain ground, but every tunnel is hard-won. Again and again berserkers are lured into traps and those checking for traps are attacked by kobolds leaping out of secret passages.
Eventually Thora offers to go for help. She offers to ask Zim and suggests that he be granted any and all gnomish devices found. This works well since Zim is quite skilled at removing traps. The kobolds launch several attacks in an effort to kill him, but they are easily repulsed.
Just when things were looking rosy (for us), the situation turns horrific. Screams are heard all over the complex and men abandon their posts, fleeing for their lives. More curious that worries, Thora waits to see a number of demons charging at her. Only a quick Wall of Thorns slows them down enough to allow her to flee. Even then many brave warriors give their lives, turning and holding the demons at bay for precious seconds so their comrades can escape.
Luckily the demons do not pursue. Zim scouts (at Thora’s suggestions) and discovers many dead kobolds. It looks like the demons are no allies to the kobolds. Turia supplies some information (via the communicators) and we find out that the frog-like beings are hezrou. Zim’s scouting finds the leader of the demons – a marilith!
Because our weapons can’t hurt the demons Thora volunteers to get holy oils from temples around the known world for their weapons. The king opens his coffers and Thora visits Karameikos and Darokin to buy 200 oils.
The next day 200 of the best and bravest warriors re-enter the caverns, their weapons anointed with the holy oil. The twenty godi accompanying the army also head in, hoping that their holy power will be effective against the demons.
The battle is long and bloody. The demons tear through the lesser warriors who throw themselves at the beasts to allow their friends to strike a telling blow. The marilith itself chops through brave men and women in seconds, its many blades blurring.
Remus and two berserkers attack it and fight it to a standstill. While it sheds Thora’s spells like water it can’t ignore the effect of her healing spells on Remus, after it turns its full attention to him. It tries to kill Thora but she heals herself faster than it can cut. Finally deciding to retreat it raises a blade barrier. Enraged the three norsemen leap through the blades, one being critically wounded in the process, and cut it down before it can teleport away.
With their summoner dead the other hezrou are hunted and slain. No kobolds remain in the tunnels. It appears a group of kobold spell-casters summoned the marilith, which broke free and killed them. It appears to have summoned the hezrou. We find no sign of the silver armor, although many kobolds seem to have fled to deeper tunnels. Thora, Remus, and the two berserkers are awarded the treasure from the marilith. Thora ends up with a longsword +3 that she gives to the most skilled of her warrior followers while Remus ends up with a greatsword with many powers, including being the bane of goodly outsiders. A cleric is found to redeem the weapon.
Two of Thora’s followers were slain in the final battle. She retrieves the remains in order to resurrect them.
25/7/1029
Thora is presented with mucho gold as a reward for her services at a special ceremony held at the King’s court in the Jarldoms. Remus gets a lesser reward, as do the surviving warriors.
Thora spends some time at the court but is disgusted by the amount of self-serving politics happening.
She heads back to Ylaruam to hire a group of students to do further researches into artefacts for her.
Back at her domain, she picks ten volunteers from amongst the new recruits and begins to teach them to be ‘her sort’ of druid. These ten - five males and five females - are chosen for the wisdom and way with people. Eventually they will form the core of a new order.
28/8/1029
The researchers have found more information:
Several princes of Glantri have withered limbs. Since they could get normal afflictions cured this probably indicates the presence of powerful magic.
The Comb of the Korrigans. This is an elvish artefact and doesn’t sound useful for other races.
Oak Leaf of Thendara. Likely associated with Matter.
Freyja’s cloak of falcon feathers. Allows transformation into a falcon.
Shield of the Winds, last seen in the hinterlands of Davinia. Used by a hero who slew medusae and other beasts.
The carnelian idol, a red gemstone with the carving of a griffon. Since anyone who holds this immediately starts wandering off into the Ylari desert Thora isn’t too interested.
Bed of Lizard Skin. This strange item made of lizard skins apparently heals anyone placed on it, no matter their ailment or even if they are alive or not. Since lizards are rare a place to check out would be the village of Kirrik (in Ylaruam) since they apparently had a plague of lizard men some time back.
The Sparkling Spear. This has great powers against fire creatures, to such an extent that even powerful creatures like efreet fear it. It was stolen from Ylaruam some time ago. It has been seen on some occasions in distant parts of Ylaruam and on the elemental plane of fire.
The golden bridle. This apparently grants intelligence to any mount it is placed on. Currently held by a swordsman called Kiber.
A magic tunic that reveals the silhouette of one’s prefect mate.
The gold seal of Al Kalim that gives power over efreet. Currently held by the Council of Preceptors in Ylaruam.
The Celestial Planosphere. It has powers of transport, communications and viewing across planes. It is held by a mage called Ist Akhr who lives in a tower in the wilderness. He is a fierce recluse who talks with no one. What is it with these mages and their wilderness towers?
Based on this Thora found a cleric of Freyja willing to cast a Commune in exchange for a rune. The questions were: