Looking for Seals (Session 14) - Emmanir 29, 888 F.S.

Schnorking
Estenel meets with Ybilaron to see if he knows of a place called Careethay and Zoohoodu Island. He knows that Careethay is the volcano on the north end of the island. Zoohoodu Island is to the west of Hronn. Not much trade with that island comes through Schnorking; the island trades more with Arnur Soghal.

We rent the mage’s guild in Schnorking for 1 gold piece a day, which gives us all-access to their archives. However, Estenel is not able to find any information of any detail concerning the seals.

During the weekly ping from Futanmoth's advisor that says their researchers know of a man named Eng in Ergant who is a Sidhe expert; he may know more of these seals. He also says that the armies on Hronn have pulled back from their confrontation due to winter setting in.

While in Schnorking, we run into the ship captain that had brought us to Hronn initially. We secure passage on his ship to Ergant.

[Five days later, we arrive in Ergant.]


Ergant
Jollen schleps about the port and finds where Eng might be. He finds out that Eng lives in his magic shop near the colliseum. We meet with Eng and explain why we are interested in finding more about the seals. He agrees to research them in depth, for a fee of 500 cp. Jollen and Sophia haggle with Eng over the prices for his enchanting. Given that it will take Eng a few days to perform the research, we decide to travel about the city of Ergant.


Eng's Shop, one month later
We head back to Eng's shop, where he tells us of his finding on the 13 seals. Costuhshee is the Prince of Frost Giants, who would try to turn the world into an arctic wasteland. The Sidhe, 2800 years ago, created the seals to banish Costuhshee from this world. The seals were hidden to ensure that Costuhshee is never released. Other than that, he doesn't learn anything additionally regarding the seals. We ask him to continue researching the seal locations. We come back to his shop in two days; he believes that he may have found some information as to where one of the seals may be located: near the southern tip of the mainland, in the Wildlands, within an area where there has been found evidence of ancient rituals being performed by the Sidhe.

In order to save travel time, Eng suggests an alternate method that we might want to consider using: the Sidhe Towers. He knows that they all don't work. After researching them some more, Eng determines that the tower that is close to Ergant is not connected to the tower that is on the far south end of the mainland.

Eng gives us a description of the location where the Sidhe rituals had been performed. Eng gives Sophia a ring that is attuned to the material from which the seals are made (we gave Eng some of the pieces of the broken seal that we found in Ididerac's citadel, which enabled him to make a special Seeker ring).

Sophia stocks up on picks and shovels and such, for digging in order to find the seal, which we believe is buried. We hire a ship for passage to the southern town of Throggi, which is near the ritual site. Thirty days from when we arrived in Ergant, we show up in Throggi.


Throggi and Allindel Forest
We head into the Allindel Forest. It's about a five-day journey through the forest to where the ritual site is located. Traveling through the forest, we happen upon a party of orcs. They don't look very happy to see us. Combat ensues. In the end, the party prevails and the remaining orcs flee. Henri, Tiamut, and Jollen are seriously injured. A plan is made whereby Estenel and Yukon will stay with the injured to continue healing them while the rest of the party pursues the orcs.

Ididerac's Citadel Cont'd. (Session 13) - Emmanir 24, 888 F.S.

Ididerac’s citadel
Sophia and Tiamut show up out of nowhere, fresh as a daisy. While we discuss our options at this point, four goblins come running down the stairs toward us. Sophia skewers one of them. Ididerac and the ogre are behind them, also coming down the stairs. One of the goblins opens a door in the bailey; two seconds later, a large white snake slithers into the bailey with us (nice). More combat ensues. Estenel hangs onto consciousness by a thread, due in no small part to Sophia’s valiant efforts of throwing herself in harm’s way. A series of critical successes by the party and critical failures by the bad guys swings the combat in our favor. Ididerac is killed; the goblins are slain. The man who, earlier in the combat, ran off to inform Ididerac and his thugs of our presence, is now also dead.

Now that all foes (except for the mage, which is still missing) are dead or unconscious, the party begins to search the citadel for the mage. Yukon draws some pretty pictures in the dirt and Sophia is now able to see invisible objects. Estenel, being completely spent, retires to the kitchen and starts rummaging for ale.

We ransack the citadel. Noteworthy items that were found:

• Written military orders that command Lord Higgins to head south.


• Paperwork that describes how to activate the ice/snow stones. (One of these stones was used by Degarn to create the blizzard in the area around his keep. It was the stone that was in the statue next to the shocky sword.)


• A message from Lady Deepweather Cardia: the final shipment of stones from the ice palace are en route to Ididerac’s citadel. “The forge” is now up and running and pumping out more of them. Meet with Frosttouch Jorval if they need more stones. (There are also 12 of these ice stones in the package.)


• 4000 silver pieces


• Several Odoru (reindeer). We now have transportation.

After a bit, the ogre wakes up and wants to know if he is free to go. He’s basically a hired thug, commanding a detachment of wolfen, and is/was in the employ of Ididerac. He informs us that the mage that took flight is Frosttouch Jorval. We now have an idea that Lady Deepweather is most likely a cardinal within the Ice Queen’s clerical hierarchy.

Estenel mind-searches the unconscious female mage. He finds out that:

• Her name is Romfinia; she is from Zoohoodu Island. The port on Hronn that she uses to get to and from Zoohoodu is Fopasado.


• She is in the employ of the Ice Queen; her superior is Frosttouch Garrin (formerly Stormbrother Garrin).


• She has come here to deliver a seal to Ididerac. The seal holds a demon which was destroyed (the seal, that is; not the demon) in the basement of this citadel. Sophia and Flick head into the basement and confirm this, observing broken pottery that contains runes. Several of the pieces of this seal are gathered up and taken with us.


• The demon that will be released by the breaking of these seals is named Costuhshee (this jives with the name that we gleaned from the blue bald guy back when we were trying to find the temple that ended up having demon dogs in it).


• The demon is not here yet, but will be after all seals are broken. There are 13 seals in total; four of them have been broken so far; the other nine have not been located yet.


• Two minions of the Ice Queen (Frosttouch Jorval and Frosttouch Garrin) are researching the location of the remaining seals.


• Jorval is the mage that we encountered in Ididerac’s citadel, fried Sir Dapifir, then tucked tail and skeedaddled before we finished the fight with Ididerac.


• Garrin is on Zoohoodu Island. That is the home of Jorval as well.


• The more seals that are broken, the stronger the demon gets.


• There is no time limit from when the first seal is broken to when the last seal is broken with regards to allowing or denying the demon access to this plane.


• If and when the demon is released, he will appear on this world at a location named Careethay.


• Romfinia does not know where the other seals are, and does not know if anyone else knows for sure yet where they are.


• The Ice Queen is locating and delivering the seals to the Ice Coven (read: “snowflakes”) in exchange for “pleasantries”.


• Breaking of the seals requires a ritual. The snowflakes know this ritual; it does not require anything special... just do the ritual. Anybody who knows this ritual can properly break the seals.


• The seals are 1-foot diameter disks with runes inscribed on them. All seals are made of the same material.


• The seals are believed to be Sidhe artifacts.


• Ididerac sent his troops south to engage Lord Futanmoth’s garrison.

Lake of Orb
We allow the ogre to go free. We then leave Ididerac’s citadel, taking the Odoru with us as well as a small non-descript item from the unconscious female mage so that we can track her later. The party heads to the Lake of Orb to discuss recent events with the water sprite, Gidnia. The information we give her confirms her suspicions. She gives Estenel a grand gift: Elidil. This is a sword which, when drawn, continually drips holy water along its blade.

Gidnia introduces us to a friend of hers, Jolin, who accompanies the party as we head back to Schnorking.

Blue Man Group (Session 10) - Emmanir 19, 888 F.S.

Heading to Schnorking
We leave the beach and start heading east toward Schnorking. Along the road to Schnorking, we meet a lizardman dressed up as Santa Claus. He hails us, and hands each of us an item:

Sophia receives a sword

Yukon receives staff

Flick receives a spoon

Estenel receives a vial

The Santa-lizard then says that he must hurry off because he has many gifts to distribute.

Odd little lizard.


Ambush at the Barn
We continue our travel toward Schnorking. After a while, we come upon a man standing by the road. He is waving to us and is dressed in commoner’s clothing. As we approach him, he asks us for help to heal his family, who had been attacked by wolfen. We accompany him to his farm. The farm house is burned to the ground; the barn is still standing. We get close to the barn, when the human yells, “NOW!” The human takes off flying for the barn. The barn doors burst open, and a 20-foot long monitor lizard runs toward us. There are several small blue naked humanoid creatures near the barn, holding ropes that opened the barn door. Combat ensues. A few seconds into combat, another human appears who is standing on the barn; he is casting a spell. Then, several of the small naked humanoid critters grab random items (barn boards, sticks, rocks) and begin to run into battle.

During the fight, Ecran and Tavarius go unconscious. The two mages (the one on the barn and the one who lured us into this trap) fly away. One of the blue naked goblin-ish creatures begins drink Tavarius’ blood.

The remaining blue guy pleads for his life. He offers to go after the mages, being how he sees them as cowards for flying off. He says that he will show us where they live.

The little blue guy says that Costuhshee is his master and that he will be coming soon. He also said that he and his troupe were sent here to trap to people. He says that the mages work for some ice queen. Costuhshee can’t get here until the gate is finished, which is located to the north near the active volcano. Apparently, the ice queen has agreed to finish some road for Costuhshee. The blue guy says that once Costuhshee gets here, they’ll be able to kill the ice queen, too.


At the Temple of the Mages
The blue guy agrees to lead us to the temple where the mages live. We make camp for the night on the way to find the temple where the mages reside. During the night, the blue guy wriggles free of his bonds and leaps away. The next morning, Flick seekers one of the mages that had fled from the fight and we make chase after him. The seeker leads us to a house built into a hill. Inside the house, behind the closed front door, there is the sound of growling. We decide to send Sophia ahead and try to calm the dogs. Flick picks the lock on the front door. Sophia goes inside the front door and successfully calms the dogs inside the front room. Sophia, after seeing the dogs, has no desire to be in this house.