Watch us play! (Link to the playlist since it covers 4 sessions)
The party, battled tired and weary, get invited to a feast by officials from Yartar as thanks for defending the city. The current Waterbaron, Nestra Ruthiol, introduces herself and leads the party to where they will be honored guests. She introduces the party to Dart, the head archer on patrol during the fight, who lead the soldiers of Yartar to aid in the defense of the city. They also get introduced to several people, including a Lord Khaspere Drylund, who owns the Grand Dame, which is the casino cruise the Frost Giant’s were coming to plunder. Lord Drylund offers the group work as guards on the ship, but they turn him down. The group spends some time in the city, and one thing of note that happens is Arianna meeting a Tempest Cleric of Thor, and half-orc named Urodak.
After the feast, the party enjoys an inn, free of charge. After breakfast the next morning, the party gets back on their boat and continues on to Shadowtop Cathedral. After a day or two, they have to get off the boat and continue on foot. About 30 minutes after entering the High Forest, several awakened plants notice the symbol of the Emerald Enclave that Theiafi wears openly, and move to reveal a hidden path, that leads to Shadowtop Cathedral. By the end of the day, they reach their destination, and the only creature they are greeted by is a rather morose Satyr, who eventually introduces himself as Greenwhistle. He’s sad and spends his days playing sad tunes on his panpipes, all because a dryad spurned his advances. He gets lots of advice from Pyro and Landis on how to handle the ladies, with some good and some terrible advice given. As the party makes their quest clear, Greenwhistle mentions that Turlang will ‘be along any day now’. The party (mostly) patiently waits the 3 days, passing the time by hunting, talking, giving advice to Greenwhistle, and by making cinnamon rolls. On the third day, Turlang shows up, accompanied by a half-elf druid named Tharra Shyndle. The treant is rather turse with the group, but Tharra urges him to not lose his temper. Once the group mentions that they’re searching for Aerglas, he perks up a bit, having fond memories of the druid. Turlang mentions to the group that he hasn’t seen Aerglas in 30 years or so. Once the treant learns that the group is helping fight against the giants, he has two awakened trees, Holly and (Chris) Pine, and one awakened shrub, Stubby, accompany them on their journey.
Turlang takes his leaf of the party, and Tharra apologizes for his gruff manner. Having taken a liking to the party, she asks if they’d like to accompany her to the city of Jalanthar, along the Evermore Way. She’s visiting an old ranger friend of hers, and it would be nice to have company. She also hands the group a pouch of silver berries that turn the eater invisible. They make their way through the forest, and eventually find their way to Olostin’s Hold. The group spends the night at the Headless Troll, and spend an uneventful evening there.
As the party leaves the next morning, they notice a floating castle, and an ancient gold dragon approaching. As they watch, the dragon begins a landing descent as the castle floats into a cloud, and out of sight. Not too long afterwards, they notice a band of about 16 orcs approaching, with 6 halfing prisoners in tow. For once, working as a team, Landis and Pyro convince the orcs they work for the same ‘boss’, and Pyro obtains custody of the prisoners, as Landis tosses the lead orc a purse full of chess pieces, heavy enough to feel like a bag of coin to the dim-witted orc. Arianna begins moving through the group, hiding her holy symbol, the Cornucopia of Yondalla, but manages to share some hand signals and earn a brief moment of trust from the confused halfings. She manages to grab a few as Landis loads a few up on Clarence, and then gets off a surprise attack, beginning a deadly combat. The awakened plants stay with the scared halfings, while a new visitor appears, an awakened chipmunk who tranforms in a big, scary rage monster of a chipmunk, and fights along side the party. Pryo, not being so used to melee combat, takes a beating, as does Landis, but thankfully Tharra is around and able to keep the two up through healing. Eventually, the party overcomes the orcs, and manage to explain the truth to the Halflings.
Ollie Woodhew, the eldest of the halfings, introduces himself, and explains that the orcs burned down their homestead, about a days journey from here. He asks the party if they’d be willing to escort them back, so they can look for other survivors and had some protection along they way. They party agrees, and they head that way. The journey itself is pleasant and uneventful. Ollie explains along the way that the mean old orcs broke his favorite walking stick, which is odd that is what makes him the most upset, considering the death of his family members.
The group arrives at the homestead, a tiny farming ‘village’, if you could call it that, in the shadow of the forest, and sees that its almost completely gone. As it is dark, Ollie suggests camping outside the village and beginning their search in earnest at first light. They find several corpses, but they manage to find 2 young children and 1 teenager stuck in various buildings. Ollie finds a family heirloom, a Pearl of Power, and presents it to Arianna as thanks for saving them. Ollie suggests they’ll be safe enough from here on out, but the group decides to ask the awakened plants to stay and help, and they agree. Munk decides to stick around as well.
The group eventually finds itself in Everlund, and spends the evening without exploring too much. Landis and Arianna do find temples to visit, but not much else happens. Pyro decided to have a laugh and gets the inn keeper to send a male prostitute to Landis. Later that evening, a knock on Landis’s door causes Landis to realize what Pyro was doing while talking with the inn keeper alone earlier that night. Being sly, he convinces the prostitute that he has the wrong room, and attempts to send him to Pyro’s room, but remembered incorrectly, and a few moments later, there’s a knock on Arianna’s door. Being shy and sheltered, once Arianna realizes what’s happening, gives the man a few silver pieces and bids him a good evening, and the man goes away confused but a few gold richer for it.
The group heads towards Jalanthar, and the journey is also uneventful. Eventually the get to the city, and the group meets up with Quinn, Tharra’s old retired ranger buddy, who’s head of the council of elders for this city. After some discussion, Quinn determines that he likes the party, and gives them a few gifts. A magical longsword, a potion of growth, and dust of disappearance. After spending the evening, the group bids farewell to Tharra and Quinn, and begin the journey back east. When they reach Everlund, they consult their knowledge of the landscape, and determine it might be fun to take the north route along the Evermoors and see some new cities, ending back up in Yartar to continue on to Mt. Hotenow. They stop by Silverymoon, a city of enlightenment. Pyro speaks with a scholar and learns that most of the common knowledge of the Phoenix is the complete opposite of what Pyro knows and believes. He has his first real, intelluctual conversation about the topic. Despite their disagreement, the two leave on good terms, with the scholar even giving Pyro a copy of the current set of knowledge on the Phoenix, and an invitation to return to continue this discussion if Pyro were to ever learn the truth himself, one way or the other. Landis heads to try and find any more information about the giant’s, and specifically the floating castle they saw over the Evermoors. What he winds up learning is the castle is a common enough sight. It doesn’t appear enough to be like clockwork, but is common enough to not be disconcerting to the city’s safety. It’s simply the place those giants call home.
The group begins its journey north to Zymorven Hall, when after a bit of time, they all walk through what feels like a sheet of ice-cold water, and come upon a troubling sight. 30-35 prisoners, men women and children of several races, bound and arranged as a sacrifice. The party finds themselves somewhat separated, Pyro and Landis on the right, with Dot, Arianna, Theiafi and Daeva on the left. In front of the left group stands a bearded devil and two hell hounds, and on the right hand side stands a man that is the spitting image of Pyro, but older. The man, who they later learn is named Thynecius, begins to speak:
“Pyrophilus, my son, how very thoughtful of you to join me this night, as I prepare a lovely sacrifice to Asmo…the Phoenix.”
“I have heard of your exploits, converting goblins and orphans to our cause, commanding them to cleanse the world through fire. Well done, my son! I was afraid my absence after that little…incident…with the house and your Mother and Grandmother would cause you to go soft. I’ve always known you would wield this power, just as I do. As with lots of things, this power comes from pain, from hatred. The abilities I unlocked in you through beatings are gifts! Gifts that we must use to help cleanse this world, and gifts that we must use to harvest souls. The Blood War rages ever on, and we are servants of the lord of Nessus, my son. What you serve is no Phoenix, it is Asmodeus! Come, join me, my son, and help me cleanse these children from the pain of this life, just as you did for your Mother and Grandmother, and grant them the pleasure of finally being useful in helping sway the eternal struggle against the demons!”
The party is concerned at this revelation that Pyro’s dad is preparing a sacrifice, and soon Thynecius calls out all the members of the party and their desires, and say its such a shame they will never see them come to fruition. He genuinely means it with Arianna, who’s constant battle against the racism and prejudice of the world please him, but that is not enough to save her.
At the threat, Landis throws his Javelin of Lightning, and thus a battle ensues. Pyro comes to grips with the situation, and mentions to Landis to ‘save me the last blow’, and begins his attack in earnest against his hated father. Thynecius holds nothing back, casting incredibly deadly spells, but is thwarted every time by well executed counterspelling from his son, saving himself and Landis from almost certain death, and later the party as a whole. Meanwhile, Landis practically one vs one’s Thynecius, because Pyro is so concentrated on preventing his father from casting that he’s not able to land much against his father.
Meanwhile the hounds and devil bear in on the other group. Arianna, Daeva and Theaifi find themselves in melee against the formidable combatants, while Dot flys up to rain down destruction. The hounds release their fiery breath, dealing some damage, but, true to her clerical domain, Arianna is protecting the group from the devil, causing all his attacks to be ineffective. Being in melee range, Theiafi soon has to drop her bow, but she is no less deadly with her dagger, and begins aiding Daeva against the hounds. Daeva takes quite the beating, but manages to kill the hound between them.
Eventually, the group is victorious. Landis honored Pyro’s wish, and knocked Thynecius out, and then bound him until Pyro could get close enough. He warns Pyro against killing an unarmed and detained prisoner, but Pyro’s hatred would not see dishonor in such a kill. He pulls out a dagger and attempts to slit the throat of the man who caused him so much suffering. As his dagger reaches his father’s skin, however, he finds that Thynecius has vanished, presumably dead.
Pyro sits dased and confused, his whole worldview collapsing around him. Landis leaves him and goes to the aid of the prisoners, while Dot tries to figure out where they are. Between Dot’s good geographical knowledge and the eye witness accounts, they are near Greenest, far to the south. Landis, after reaching the prisoners and helping a few, calls to Pyro, telling him that if he wishes to renounce the ways of his father, that he needs to come help the prisoners. He does so, feeling the warmth of the Phoenix as he hasn’t in so long a time. Arianna finds that the weird sheet of ice-cold water is still there, and after careful consideration lets the rest of the party know that they can return to where they were through it. After seeing to the safety of the civilians, who thank the party and assure them they can get home safely, they party joins hands and walks through the portal. However, they are not exactly where they started off at, but seemingly skipped a few days of traveling, as the Frost Hills are now directly to the north of them. They continue on the journey towards Yartar.
About a mile out from Nesme, they group learns that there are several people there, and with her 6th sense about these things, Theiafi warns them that there are 21 humanoids in the ruins of Nesme, 8 further to the south, heading away from the city, and to the far northwest of her sense’s range, a group of 1 giant and 20 humanoids, heading towards the city. She decides to sneak along, alone, to the city, and discovers there’s a priest and 20 Zhentarim agents there. She manages to overhear that the giant’s group is an emissary for some type of meeting, and gets back without being noticed, and lets the group know. Meanwhile, the giant’s group approaches.
The party decides to sneak closer to spy on the meeting, to learn what they can. They have a brief scare that they will be discovered, but are not. Arianna casts clairvoyance to listen in, and learns that the Zhentarim agree to keep the Lord’s Alliance off the giant’s tracks while the giant’s search for pieces of their ancient construct, the Vonindod. The giant, a fire giant named Gundahella, mentions that in return, they will release a Zhentarim agent they have captive, and will keep the Vonindod away from Zhentarim bases when its complete. The Zhentarim mention that Moongleam Tower sounds like a fantastic first target once the Vonindod is complete.
The party, concerned at this news, alerts Saerise and the priest at the temple Arianna visited in Everlund to the risk and the meeting between the fire giant and the Zhentarim.