==== Items Acquired in this session ====
- Small fragment of an Earth Elemental
- Shield of Telemvor reborn as the Shield of the Breaking Dawn
- Karandar and Oromis relieve Blood Oath from [[Dramatis Personae#Rarugoth|Rarugoth]]
- Karandar secures the services of two Azer for the Reforging of the Vordblade
- All three Player Characters receive a permanent +2 to their Religion Skill for aiding Terranc
- Sorrow’s Discarded Cloak (Wwsnt sure who ended up with this?)
- Oromis completed his attunement to the Shield of the Broken Dawn
====== Recap ======
[[file:Warren_of_Terranc.png|thumb]]
====Isle of Charred Tears====
As Oromis steps through the portal onto the plane of fire, he is met with an abusive heat that is the temperature at which stone melts, making him thankful for his god’s protection. Before Bello and himself was a path that leads off to the left around the mountains in the distance, snaking through the ash fields that cover every other ground surface on the isle.
Behind them is what might be called a ‘coast’, a sheer drop off showing the multiple stacked layers of dark clouds of ash below, that were occasionally broken with a glimpse of magma far, far beneath the top of the ash layer. Even more rarely see was the natural wildlife breaching through the surface of the clouds, great winged beasts that hunted smaller ones in the lower clouds.
They quickly set off down the path, hoping to get their quest complete as soon as possible and avoid any unwanted attention. Despite their best intentions, within minutes Bello was looking around, before stating “I feel Kellok’s presence concentrated here. He attempts interference in our plans. We should move quicker.”
Before they had a chance to move, Oromis and Bellow got to meet Karandar Ellenvord, Baron of Nestor, as Kellok sent him into the plane of fire, directly in their path. A very tense and awkward introduction occurred before the two parties finally began to trust each other, before Bello comments that “it is dangerous for that blade to be here, we must beware of… unforeseen consequences”. He didn’t know what would happen, but he was sure that the [[Items#Vordblade|Vordblade]] could not be a good influence on this plane and that while the Ellenvord had a reputation that had allowed him to bring the blade into their presence, his ancestors that followed were less trusted with the sword, to which Karandar snapped a quick reply about ‘New Bloodlines’. Bello then explains quickly the basic history of the sword for Oromis, to keep him enlightened, before they continued on their way.
Shortly after encountering Karandar, the party encounters a large ash storm, rolling across the Plains. Hot ash scratches their faces as it sails past at high velocities, the wind screaming in protest, drowning out all noises. All characters suffer disadvantages on perception for the duration of the storm. The characters lost next to all visibility, even dark vision. The party choose to keep moving through the storm, and were soon rewarded for their recklessness. Before his eyes, Karandar watched something invisible fly off with with one of his Hand axes and two of his Javelins, attempting to both grab and spear the the thief before it escaped. Oromis had some more success, feeling the pesky fingers on his best and slapping them away, before alerting the rest of the party to the thieves. They wisely chose not to pursue the thieving Imps into the storm, instead continuing on their journey.
Around an hour more in, a flock of fire demons pass overhead, before circling back to check out the players, watching them from high above until they enter the portal. The portal is a oval disc of purple, hanging in the air between two simple stone pillars. It feels eerie and unnatural, even on a plane foreign to them. “They are things of chaos, portals. Twisting across the dark nether, these things are invariably tainted eventually, however these have been present for centuries.” From Bello.
====Khe’Allor’ia====
As they arrive on the second isle, a human figure stands fifty paces in front of them. He is cowed on a black robe, no features visible at all, their face shrouded. He watches them for a while, and speaks after a few long minutes. Bello can identify it as a specter of death. The aura of the creature can be felt, sapping the life from all around it.
====Spectre:==== “Don’t disturb him dragon-born, he cannot aid your mission”
====Bello:==== “That is for him, and him alone to decide.” *pause * “what purpose have you here, this realm yields not to you yet.”
====Spectre:==== “I guard the realms of the living, This you must know. Beware, this fight is far beyond your Ken. Stand down, go home, and you might not see me again for a long while”
====Spectre:==== *turns to Karandar * “Baron. You have come far, knowing little. This is not even your conflict in which to intervene. Have the Darkness stand down, i will not permit him to find me, and the need for concealment grows tedious. I have little time for these distractions. “
====Spectre:==== *he nods to Oromis * “Prophet, fire guide thee. Hopefully somewhere else.”
The figure then disappear. Bello explains that the figure was a specter of Death, but actually spoke with the mouth of Sorrow, the God of death himself. Bello explains that they have worked together before in times of need, Sorrow being one of the few gods left that directly interacts with mortals.
They head to the village, Bello having confirmed for Karandar that some Azer were present there. On their way they found some signs of a fight in the ash settled on the ground, but no sign of the combatants.
====The Village====
The Village is small, with only a few scattered buildings, formed of stone that was melted, formed into place and cooled and hardened. As they approach a group are talking in the town centre, A fire Giant ([[Dramatis Personae#Rarugoth|Rarugoth]]), and winged Demon (Sssslassseran) and a young Azer (Solem). The party learnt from these three of an Earth elemental just out of town (the signs found on the side of the road) that Rarugoth was willing to pay for the removal of, along with the knowledge that the plane was decaying, and finally that the village’s Azer smith [[Dramatis Personae#Tekku|Tekku]] considered himself a ‘big deal’ in smiting.
The players chose to assist with the earth elemental problem, but first headed to the smithy, in which they were subject to Tekku’s own highly over inflated opinion of himself, while Karandar danced around getting to the point for a bit. Eventually Tekku demanded to know what the job was if he wanted his help, and upon hearing that it was the Vordblade, he finally accepted the commission, stating to let him know where and when, and he would meet them there.
Oromis, using his Dwarven ancestral talents managed to communicate with the earth Elemental ([[Dramatis Personae#Gnngdr|Gnngdr]]), eventually sending it home via the portals they took to get here. Thanking the cleric, the Elemental snapped a small part of the itself off and handed it to Oromis, without an explanation before heading ‘north’. Tragically, the Elemental found that, upon leaving the plane of Fire, the directions he was given ended and he found himself lost in the nether of the Astral Plane, searching for his home, he was thankful at least for the small steps he had made back to the Plane of Earth.
====Isle of the Dance====
As they arrive, Bello explains that this is the main population centre of the ruined Warren, with most of the natural beings to this plane gathering to live here. Each of the marked ‘Demons’ is actually a village of 1-500 occupants who have settled on the isle. At Dusk and Dawn each day, the entire population of each village treks to the centre of the isle, a great plain made of a black, smooth rock that is unblemished, spanning 200 feet wide and continuing into the distance, replacing the trail or road where it lay.
The populations each gather, each in clumps of corresponding demons, but as the dawn/dusk breaks the demons break into a dance, flowing through, against and with each other, creating a vast and breathtaking pattern among them. As they dance a pillar of twirling flame and shadow slowly starts to twist it’s way up into the air, before finally falling to the ground once more as the dance finishes.
The energy offered by the dance is the worship of Terranc by the Demons. They pray in a physical form, and if Terranc was unchained he would join with the prayer in the air about, gathering the offered prayers about himself as his daily shroud.
The party observed one such occurrence as they passed through, the Demons dejected and depressed that their prayer had failed, slowly trekked home, clearing the way for the party. A good Religion check ”may” have shown Sorrow feeding off their sadness if they could roll better 😛
====The Shatter====
As they exit the next portal, they are greeted by a broken set of isles and rubble, with the three largest being held together by some form of wooden suspension bridges that remain despite the oppressive heat. The island chain looks like it may have once been part of one single isle broken into many, perhaps by an invading god or a being of similar size and power? The ground around them is broken, ridges rising up at random interfaces and sheering straight back down, a rough path leads up, twisting through the ridges of hard sharp store into the mountains beyond. They head through to the mountains, seemingly along on the planes.
”As they cross the mountains”, they are set upon by surprise by a soldier demon (Hezrou – MM p60) that initiated the combat by latching it’s jaw onto Oromis and having a good old chew. The smell was actually the first assault, but all of our plucky heroes had the constitution of dwarves, shrugging off the effects almost immediately. They quickly found the thing to have strong resistance to all of their attacks, leading to the party to fall back in disarray, before regrouping Karandar and driving the rapid beast back, leading to it fleeing and hiding somewhere back in the rocks. The players keep a close eye out for more demons, but noticed no sign of any others for the rest of their journey. Perhaps the first one let the others know, this prey was tough!
====His Watch==== – The watch of the Avatar
As they approach the Watch, there stood a solo figure clad in a simple white shirt and light grey pants standing with his back to the players, standing at the edge of the cliff looking out and studying the distant isle.
He speaks with Bello, asking why they seek him while he watches his brother in his prison, claiming that the fortress on yonder isle is not to defend Terranc, it’s to keep him in. He mentions that he sees he sees both Terranc and Kellok’s hands in play here, along with a taint of death that follows them.
When asked about the shield, the Shade of Telem reveals that he cannot grant Oromis that boon without his brother’s freedom on the next isle. Once they are at the Fortress, they should call upon him and he will aid their efforts as best he can, but declares that if the guardian is who he thinks it may be, there is little he can do to help them. In the meantime he summoned a Paladin to aid them (Vee – Kaitlin) in their journey. They had a very odd introduction, but got amicable.
They agree and He turns back to watch the isle, ignoring further conversation.
===Guardians Isle===
They head to the next isle, and as they walk along it, all them have the feeling of being watched. Oromis uses his stone sense, determining the mountain at the center of the island to be a giant living creature, however after a rolling a Nat 1, he was unable to persuade the rest of the party of his findings. As they moved past about three quarters of the way across the isle, the Mountain did indeed wake up, and as is typical with these things, started trying to kill them.
Unlike most Giantkin, s/he does what no other giant seems to think of at these times, and sweeps their arm down horizontally across group, giving each player the choice between ducking or jumping (Athletics vs Acrobatics). Karandar, currently carrying Oromis as he hauled arse, tosses the kill-happy Hill Dwarf up & over the oncoming arm before (unsuccessfully) attempting to slide under it himself in an ‘inspirational’ moment. The players continue to flee to the bridge, as the mountain starts to fall forward onto them.
====End of the Shatter====
The last isle was just a tiny broken isle floating in the nether of fire. This isle is heavily shrouded in shadow. They could see things moving in the shadow, and occasionally could feel their passing, but couldn’t find the source of it.
As they approach the final portal, a large shadow demon coalesces in front of them, stares down at them for a moment before dispersing into a cloud of wisps as it hisses the words “Freeee our Masterrr”
====Terranc’s Muted Glory====
This island is just a single fortress built for one purpose: ====Imprisoning Terranc’s Grace====. Terranc, the Lord of the Dawn, was stripped from his Grace not long after the conclusion of the 2nd War of Existence, supposedly ambushed by once-allies who had turned on him after Ellenvord’s fall.
As they emerge onto the last isle, they’re standing around 200 meters for the walls of the fortress, a huge structure of obsidian walls, that seems to not be manned except for the 3 people standing, facing them in front of the gate, about halfway between the party and the gates. One is the figure who warned them from the other isle, standing in the centre. To his right is Azzanan, and on his left is an unknown Mage (Uzziel (OOh-Zi-El) the Twisted, Aspected to Chaos).
Bello: I think we’ve found our jailers. *touches Oromis’ shield * “Shade of Telem, we call thee to our side”
A bar of light slams down into the ground before them, and the man from the ledge earlier is now standing before the players. Sorrow has reacted with some disdain and mocking laughter as he starts walking towards them, causing Telem to stagger, who turns to quietly share a plan with them.
T: “He’s here in full! I can feel the entirety of his spirit and warren concentrated behind him, and that is something that I, in my current state, cannot withstand for more than a few moments. I will distract him as best as I can, you must get past his minions and open the cage within. “
Telem starts walking to towards Sorrow, bits of armour slowing fading in, onto his body, armouring him in resplendent full plate of a paladin, with a glowing white sword in his left hand.
For the first few rounds of battle, Sorrow and Telem duked it out, sending out massive blows that cause the earth to shake, great beams of light and spells of great darkness and death, but with Shade of Telem clearly loosing almost from the outself.
Uzziel’s first round tactic is whip a Pickled Octopus tentacle out of his robes and throw it at Oromis, casting Hunger of Hadar, Bringing the sickness of the nether forth. Azzanan on the other hand, vanishes and reappears seconds later behind Karandar, driving two knives into his shoulder blades, one missing due to hitting the Ellenvord pauldrons. The attack will threw him to ground unless after a failed STR Save. Azzanan spins and start walking straight at Bello, who drops down a little into a crouch, dropping his scepter and holding both hands out to his side, both afire with holy flame. He strains his arms and forces his two palms together, creating a massive bar of white hot fire that streaks out at the Assassin, who manages to blend into shadow and disappear right as the bar of flame would have touched him.
Azzanan shadow melded back into combat at the start of his next turn, hitting Oromis in the back this time, then melding back out again (Oromis can make a reaction attack to this). Azzanan will continued to do this until the combat ended, but repeatedly hit Bello down from 180hp to nearly 0.
After his Hunger of Hadar, Uzziel switches to desperately defending himself from Oromis and Karandar’s attentions. Using Scorching Ray and Magic Missile (Chaos) @ Level 5 against the players, he managed to get off a greater invisibility spell right at the last minute. Thinking he had teleportaled out, the players turned back to Azzanan, only to have Uzziel reappear 2 turns later and Dominate Oromis, commanding him first to heal all the enemies, before them setting him to attack the Shade of Telem. Vee, busily defending Bello, slapped out a couple of quick Sacred Flames, eventually slapping Oromis out of his trance, barely in time before he could hit the Shade of Telem.
Bellow, seeing Telem down on one knee, desperately shielding himself from waves of death of darkness. He long since stopped blocking the waves of force and is now just parrying them with what remains of his Light. Seeing the desperation of their fight, and seeing Karandar returning from trying the Vordblade on the gate to the fortress, he desperately calls out to Karandar “Your signet! Call the Darkness for aid!” before taking yet another blow from Azzanan.
Karandar got a message out, concentrating as hard as he could. From the other end his untrined mind managed to send “Sorrow… Here…” which was more than enough for the Darkness to act. As the message was accepted by Morrowdown, the signet ring flashed dark for a second, before returning to it’s normal red. Almost immediately, anyone in Morrowdorn’s circle of trusted friends of can feel a pulling sensation in their minds from him, intensely so. Intrinsically it feels like he is calling in every favor he has, all at once. Karandar was one of these.
Sorrow pauses for a moment, before worriedly declaring “No!” before the cavalry arrives. Every big Named NPC Magic User / Ally makes a showing, each arriving in a teleport stream of their element,
Characters that arrive in a semi circle behind the party.
- Morrowdorn of the Dark, first to arrive in a torment of swirling darkness that releases to show him in full battle dress, helmet on, a sword that seems to suck the light from everything around him clutched in his left hand, his right hand free.
- Xenth arrives in a pillar of water that smashed down from above, the liquid dissipating (not boiling) as it splashes against the ground. As the pillar disappears it reveals Xenth within, standing ready.
- A human warlock is next to arrive, from a tear in reality form a rift. Behind him in rift can be seen in the city of Nestor, on the western banks. A Sword of Ice at his side, hissing angrily at the heat around it, with a large leather bound book chained onto his waist, as though to prevent it from escaping him.
- Danath arrives in a bar of light similar to Telem’s, though much weaker, 4 smaller beams drop in behind him, all priests of Telemvor who are looking at Telem in shock.
- A rift tears open in the sky above, and a Bronze dragon emerges from within, roaring in challenge. The Guardian of the Isle roars back, shocking everyone and causing them to look towards it, in a tiny bit of fear.
- A massive lighting strike hits the ground, leaving any who looked blind for a few seconds, as there vision clears, Striker stands where it hit, sword and staff drawn, chest heaving, blood on his armour and weapons, looking as though he has arrived from another battle.
- Graffhand appears, rising up through the earth flanked by 4 Gold Helms of the Legion, each with dual swords that glow blue in the ashy clouds around them (The Home Guard). The ground melds and morphs out of the way as they was rise up, on a flat floor (think fallout 4 vaults entrance), to finally stand on the earth itself.
- A Forest Warden (unnamed) arrives in a cluster of vines that seems to bloom from nowhere, and then retreat, leaving the warden standing there. The retreating vines dig into the ground and start building a form that is putting itself together from the rocks behind the warden, slowly forming up into a grove guardian.
- Seviok, in a Pillar of Flame
- A Female Dragon-born arrives, Wielding [[Items#Mac_Futinaire|Mac Futinaire]], sailing down on a cloud of Air as she arrives.
- Tolarian in a pillar of Ice that creaks and cracks as it forms, before shattering outwards, the ice chunks vanishing harmlessly before harming anyone
- Several more mages that the party has never seen before, (including one that is clearly the Arch Wizard of Cantos, resplendent in his Purple robes adorned with gems and spell focuses) appearing in a mix of fire water and air, 2 druids, one veering into a Giant Black cave bear and roaring.
- The High Priestess of Ioasha appears out of nowhere, her eyes widening in fear as she lays eyes on Sorrow. She exclaims “How did I get here?!”
- Priests and significant members from other orders
As the group arrives Sorrow is mightily displeased, and can be felt gathering energy as they approach. A LOT of energy. Everyone on the other side is doing the same, but there’s combined is barely enough to match him alone.
====Morrowdorn:====
Finally, it comes to this. Sorrow, I am sent here for you, and you alone. The Balance requires you to relinquish your chair, do so, and your allies need not die on this day.
MD (via Message to party): “You do not want to be here for what comes next, I will have Tolarian get you through the gates. ” – Bello edges to the left, around Uzziel. Seeing that no one is paying him any attention now that bigger fish have arrived, he beckons the party to join him.
====Sorrow====
(Flees) “Now is not the time”, he seems to spin, his robes falling to the floor empty, as though he had never been inside them anyway. Azzanan drops into shadow, appearing briefly again behind Uzziel before grabbing his shoulder, for both of them to disappear laughing. Morrowdorn cursing before setting off in pursuit with everyone in tow.
====The Fortress====
As they approach the gate (200-250m), Tolarian pops in next to them, running along side. Gives Karandar a huge grin, before giving him shit about always getting in between ascendants and causing trouble. Tells them he’s going try to do this the easy way, and disappears again (pop!), appear at the gate ahead of them, both hands reaching out to it. In response to him, the wards on the gate start to glow, and flex, getting brighter and brighter before they finally shattering with sound of a thousand windows breaking. The Gate jumps once, slamming back into the ground, with one of the two sides slowly falling in, into the courtyard beyond. Tolarian falls to his knees exhausted, as they players pass him on the run(?), he is chanting something, nods to Karandar with a smile, and a spear of ice slams down onto him, and rears back into the sky, taking the exhausted mage with him.
The large courtyard opens into a square, about 50m x 50m, well constructed of blocks made out of the same material as the walls. In front of them stands a Sphinx, made of stone and fire, who watches them gleefully.
“Welcome Travellers, to my lair, answer my questions, if you so dare”
“The world is in a strange state, The Grave has swallowed the Dawn, muting its fire. The Sun, chained in place, watches these events angrily ploting its eventual revenge, The Grave now hides from the Night, who was now unleased by the chaining of Dawn.”
“Who is the Grave?” (Sorrow), lets them try twice. Bello helps on second guess. “
“Good, you seem to know more about the world than you look. What knows all languages that have been spoken?” (An echo)
“Last question, and with this you may pass, little morals: What is locked away behind me?” (Terranc’s Power, or Grace)
“Thank you mortals, please, go forth and release my lord.”
The Sphinx shirks back, letting you pass.
In the next room is simply just a giant barred cage, covered in runes. Within floats a cloud like shape, bouncing from side to side of the cage, looking for a way out. The shape is a mix of shadows and flames, dancing around each other, and occasionally revealing a golden ball at the center.
Bello: I cannot dispel this, it is beyond me, can you?
Oromis remmbers his Scroll of Dispell Lvl 9 and casts it.
As the dispel goes off the cage vanishes, and the ball expands a bit, seems to test that the cage is actually gone, before sounding a single gold tone that echos across the entire warren, before fading away.
Bello: “I think our mission here is complete” as Telem approaches through the gate to thank them for saving Terranc. He explains it may still take some time for the effects to work, but the Warren should now return to its natural state, and hopefully Terranc will return to the plane of fire soon to reclaim his seat in the pantheon. Telem grants Oromis use of the shield, channeling the now released Grace of Dawn to change the shield to instead be the Shield of Dawn’s Light.
Bello then portals them home, Karandar getting whisked away mid stream by Kellok, to arrive in his tent once more, mere moments having passed on their plane.