Adventure Log #21

Adventure Log #21 (Red Jack)

Aki-Professional killer
Finn-Bard
Ember-Martial Artist
Lillie-Dwarf
Magnus-Mage
Marcus-Paladin of Chaldisaya
Morgan-High Priestess
Serrif-Fighter with an “evil” twin
Scalla-Mage
Ulysses-Rogue

Realizing that to stay where they are is to invite disaster the party decides to leave. Aki has another of her visions of the past The party is heading to the west on their way to help in lifting the siege of fortress Lament. Before the party can leave the area of the last battle town gates open and Estryellia and a dwarf from another world named Lillie exit. Estryellia is dismayed in that she was on her way to Sylvia’s Rest rather than the “middle of nowhere”. Lillie a strange looking dwarf is dismayed in that there is no beer nearby.

Aki tends to the others wounds but is unable to heal Serif of all of the damage done by the Death Master until the following day. With the sounds of the Death masters behind them the party heads to the west. After a few days the path is blocked by a mountain range. They try to go south in order to get around it but run into a series of swamps instead as they find themselves going more and more in an easterly course in order to stay out of the bog. The party begins its way west ward, until they come to the cliffs of a steep mountain range. Heading south the landscape becomes boggier and boggier. After a few days of this the party heads back east then north to escape the swamp.

During the traveling time Ulysses has another conversation with Skinner (a tool taken from an evil dungeon) as well as a dream of a person in a butcher shop who says that if he ever wants to see more of him and learn his secrets all he has to do is cut the tip of his finger off. Ulysses stores the information for future reference.

They encounter a group of mercenary horseman who are wandering thought the woods. They don’s seem to be looking for the party rather just patrolling the forest looking for brigands (or so they say). The party meets the leader of the mercenary band a man named Gelatin. The mercenary group is named Deborah Horse and they may or may not be the brigands that they party has heard about. When questioned they say that the local government (The Deseratans) misunderstand them and in fact they are a loyal band of mercenaries. They offer to escort the party to a path through the mountains if they’re willing to tag along for a couple of days. Gealin says that they are waiting for some of their horsemen to return from Red Jack where they have been on a rescue mission. Scala and Aki tell the horseman that they had heard that he had been captured and they had considered trying to rescue him but problems of their own intruded.

That night Ulysses with Skinners urgings removes the last joint of his little finger. Later on in the night he has a dream of a woman dressed in white, she has white hair with a black stripe in it she, asks him why he does these things to “us”. The woman reaches into the ground and pulls up a black vein like thing out of the ground. The wrongness pulses through its skin.

They head out of Deborias Hold towards Gol after an hour of so the travels are lead up into a narrow path that goes up into the higher parts of the mountains. In a high valley they come to a series of buildings built into the side of the cliff faces. Alyseen leads them into a dark room. As the lights come up they see that in the center of the room is a dais made up of seven steps, atop which is a crystal throne with a headless body atop it. Scala says that the room is a copy of the throne room in Deserata.

They are wondering about the headless body on the throne (most agree it’s probably Deborias) when the former Jkennis Deboria steps out from an alcove and greets them. She seems to know most of them and she is furious about Distaria (current Jkennis of Deserata) and her treatment of the holy city. She says that she knows a way to cleanse the city of the “Dark Thing” currently on the throne. She comes over and stands next to Aki as she begins to talk about an ancient weapon capable of doing the job. She tells Aki that she knows that somewhere in her memory is the location of Tropador’s Weapon (the device that almost destroyed the world once and killed most of the forest). Aki says that she can only remember fleeting glimpses of her former lives and her memory is clouded about the weapon. Deboria has a solution for that, she has a healer ready with a brain stick in order to help her remember. Aki allows him to place the brain stick in her nose, the rest of the party winces as he moves it around. Finally here is a sharp “crack”. Unlike the last time when she remembered something of a past life this time all Aki got out of it was s bloody nose.

Cleaning up as best they could the party was taken to a room to get some rest (especially Aki) before the Jkennises brain stick man tries again. The party is pretty sure that something really bad is going on here (worse than usual) Scala tries to contact her goddess for guidance but doesn’t receive a reply. Later in the night they are visited by Alyene. The Alt Leader is acting a bit strange. He invites the party to ride back with him to Deboriahs hold for drinks (a 2 hour rid at midnight?) Everyone except Lillie declines despite his insistence. He goes over to Scala and says in a voice of power, “When you call and I answer you do not listen, Go!” Scala decides that she will accept the invitation, the rest of the party (despite not hearing the message) decide to follow. An hour later they are wending their way down the mountain path Ulysses looks at the lead horse (that Alyene was on) and see’s instead of the Alt Leader a woman dressed all in blue riding the horse side saddle. He sees her for a fleeting instant when he is jarred by an explosion behind him. The sky over where the Jkennis was opens up and a blue light blasts the area. The mountains shake and rumble and the figure on the horse is missing. The party continues the ride back to Deborias Hold on their own.