Ulgrotha: The Walk

Party: Iskren / Sorval / Taurio / Viken / Zantaroth / Vultha

A slow session, but hey~

The party travels from the Toll-bridge to Strongrock, their company (Peter, Loosha and Obono) try to keep an eye out for the party, while Obono makes conversation. Loosha spends a lot of time looking into Viken and seems curious about Taurio, to some extend. Taurio verbally waterfalls all over Loosha, explaining his history, eventually turning the conversation to discover the allegiance of the minotaurs to Eron the Restless is somewhat shaky. 

Other events involve Iskren learning how much the minotaurs earn and a flight of angels fighting against an army of demons. Seeing this go down, Sorval wants to go and aid an angel that falls in the flight's retreat, but the party manages to convince him not to do so. The escorts are worried about angels fighting against demons in the lands of Lord Eron, implying an attack from Aysen. 

The group then moves on, getting rather close to the outer walls of Strongrock, before coming across a river fork near which a treasure chest stands. Vultha opens it, triggering the appearance of a bound angel and a moss troll skeleton. The fight is pitifully short as the party wipes the floor with their foes. 

Arriving at Strongrock, with the escort going to Dwezil's and leaving them behind, the party quickly splits in two groups, with one group (Iskren, Sorval, Taurio and Viken) going to a respectable inn known as 'The Traveler's Sole Retreat' and the other (Zantaroth and Vultha) going to 'Lord Eron's Parlor of Pardons' to check out the village. The Parlor serves Slivoo, a plum concoction, which the party enjoys. Those who went to the Parlor also discovers a brawling pit, which peaks their interests.

The streets are patrolled by 'the Shadeguard', a defensive force. Goblins, dwarves, humans and minotaurs seem to live together here.

Viken, as the party draws more attention from the locals than him, sees his chance to sneak out, noticing a lot of minotaurs in hostile lands taking note of him, with the party safe and sound, he finds a way out and disappears into the night, plotting to overthrow the goblin king still.

And thus ends the session, with a town to be explored in the next~

Ulgrotha: The Black Anvil

 Party: Iskren / Sorval / Taurio / Viken / Zantaroth / Vultha

Xivaskir 20

The party, finding themselves underground and moderately wounded, question their prisoner and realise only Viken knows what dwarves are. They learn about the existence of the Black Anvil as a physical object and that the warlock who they slew was aligned with Leshrac. They also get information from the dwarf about the Anvil being linked to demonic beings Balors. Beyond that, there is a pile of treasure that the defeated were hoarding. They bind up the dwarf after retrieving everything.

They then spend some time dividing the items amongst themselves.

Proceeding further they go up a staircase and arrive in a strange laboratorium. Zantaroth and Tool, Iskren's undead ally, both seem to suffer ill effects as they enter. Tufts of fur start crawling from under the scales of Zantaroth as he progresses into the room. Tool crumbles into dust. The room looks izzet-y, but little else strikes the attention of the party. Little else, except for a massive spellbound iron anvil. Investigations on the anvil show it to be a source for a spell of binding. 

Zantaroth's control starts slipping away after a while, but he manages to hold back the more feral aspect eventually, keeping the wildness in check and calming down. The anvil gets smashed to bits shortly afterwards, freeing a Balor from the control of Leshrac.

As a permitted favor, Vultha summons the Balor to the room. Iskren calls upon it to settle the owed debt for freeing it and gains the true name of one of its fellow imprisoned Balors: Trevesh of the Thousand Flaming Tongues. It also promises to look in on the party once in a while.

Sorval, meanwhile, walks down to the lower levels again, for he seeks not the deals with demons. Jared smiles upon this and grants the Aasimar a boon, the ability to call for the Shadowmage's aid.

Leaving the dungeon after releasing the dwarf and grabbing a couple of crystals, the party heads back to their chariot, where Leshrac appears in a fit of rage and destroys the mode of transport before leaving the party to the mercy of the elements.

Being of sound mind and body, the party rests up after this ordeal. Of course, the commotion that happened drew in a monster, so a little nightly combat is had still. Moving on in the morning, the party gets to a bridge guarded by a group of minotaurs. A toll is paid and an escort to Strongrock is given to the party and as they depart from the bridge, the session comes to a close.  

Ulgrotha: A Cavern

Party: Taurio / Sorval / Iskren / Vultha / Zantaroth / Viken

 Xivaskir 20

The party, their road blocked by an enchanted tree, scouts around and discovers a link between the tree and the blood of the shadowy attackers. This leads them to a distant tower, which stands atop a small cavern complex. 

Said complex turns out to be inhabited by strange dwarven creatures, elementals, a worm-flinging zombie and a warlock of some power.

Needless to say, slaughter (wholesale), drama (Taurio getting shot, Sorval nearly drowning) and murder most foul (rest in two pieces, warlock) ensue.

Ulgrotha: The Crossroads

Party: Sorval / Vultha / Taurio / Zantaroth / Iskren / Viken

Xivaskir 20

We rejoin the party in the middle of the night, where Vultha wakes up to meet the local rogues. After some thought, he realises they were going to meet up near the stables, so he heads there.

The pair of Joven and Chandler are indeed ready to engage with Vultha, explaining some of the local habits and customs to him. Telling him various options to explain his appearance, such as a curse or ancestral weirdness. Joven sells Vultha a treasure map after he asks for items that would make their life more comfortable. A minotaur walks in, thunder rolling at its back, pale white and full of tattoos. As the newcomer seeks accommodation, it is put up in the room the party is using. Joven has a request, explaining that if Vultha manages to find the sword related to the treasure map he bought, he will pinpoint the location of one of the Outsiders that Serra and Sengir would call foes.

Come morning, the new party member sleeps while Zantaroth and Vultha go outside for communing with Autumn Willow, hoping to convince her not to be angry when they go to Sengir. The spirit creature called is a ferret. A quick chat and some whistling happens, but apart from a warning, the pair does not gain any new intel. They then spend the next hour hunting down, murdering and boning a mammoth.

Iskren wakes up, pale and colder than normal. The remainder of the group sees the newcomer, they speak with the new cow in town and go to get breakfast. They see a pair of bloody lizards with a pile of meat on them. A conversation later, the party now knows Viken and has passed the meat to Joskun. Viken mentions a mission that requires the group. A Lord of the Goblins known as Eron is currently hunting down the minotaur tribe and Viken seeks to save his people... but Rollo announces to have found a calling here and chooses to remain at the Inn. Viken gets a small pouch of money for Amoola Thunderhoof, the mother of one of the Inn's guards.

A black carriage drawn by flame-maned steeds arrives and a servant exits from it before expiring in a dramatic way. Zantaroth explains Autumn Willow is unhappy about the group going to the Baron, but they settle on 'get the corpse of Ishan out' as an explication. Sorval explains some of the local intrigue (Leshrac is a source of trouble, there is a Wizarding School but a sea creature causes them trouble).

A rather uneventful trek comes to a halt as the road taken by the carriage is blocked by a strange (and magicked) tree. A group of humans have taken up residence in a nearby tower, but they turn out to be bandits who enjoy the support of flanking werewolves, so combat ensues. As the party handily dispatches their foes (apart from Zantaroth who is bitten by one of the werewolves) , a quartet of dangerous fey creatures appear from the fallen tree and attack the group. Some heroics by all involved later, Taurio slays the last of the creatures. 

The party stands near a ruined tower, a magicked tree, surrounded by corpses. The hour of noon is upon them and the future looks ... good?

Ulgrotha: The Darkening

Party: Sorval / Vultha / Taurio / Iskren / Rollo / Zantaroth

 Xivaskir 19

The party gains their bearing in the Great Wood, a slow urgency creeps on them and they move on, still unsure of how to orientate themselves in this strange place.

Vultha checks for tracks, spotting those of an oversized furry Loxodon and the tracks of the skeletal humanoid that lead (probably) out of the woods. They mark trees as they go in order to be able to backtrack if needed. With the skills of Vultha and Zantaroth combined, the party manages to make good headway, occasionally being tripped up by tree roots and distant laughter distracting them a little, eventually arriving at a clearing where another group of travelers has made camp, chatting merrily amongst themselves and, after a wonderful serenade by Rollo, invite them to partake from their pheasant roasts. As the party sits down, the travelers introduce themselves as Vera (a half-goblin from Koshun Keep), Tsudrek (an armoured bodyguard) and Sagurad (a elvish chronicler of the adventures). A conversation follows where Iskren takes the lead, trying to gauge the knowledge of the land from these folk, learning of the location of the An-Havva Inn and of guards on the Great Bridge. Sorval inquires after Serra, who apparently enjoys dwelling in Onella in a place known as the Falconry, and Sengir, who is made out to be a dastardly yet practical vampire.

The conversation is then cut short by spidery intruders. The party fends them off, but the combat disturbs a larger entity from the wasteland on the other side of the river, which crosses the stream and begins to lay into the party, managing (in spite of a clutch slow spell by Iskren) to do a lot of damage to the party, even swallowing Taurio before being dispatched by Zantaroth. The traveling group decides to move on, as do the party, leaving their name as "the Irone Brotherhood", to be asked for if the party would reach Aysen or the Koshun Keep.

About half an hour walk later, the party finds a semblance of civilisation. Wooden fences and stone huts, rudimentary elemental protection. For the folk from Ravnica, it is lackluster and barely worth mentioning as a gathering of hovels, but on Ulgrotha, An-Havva is a township that provides secour from the wild and a chance at a better life for those that belong to its community. The largest and prettiest building, plastered in white with wooden slat-decoration and a golden glow leaking from the windows, has a sign stating it to be an inn. Upon entering, the party meets two large Anaba Minotaurs, one of them (Uffu) offers to protect Taurio if someone bullies him. They then meet Joskun, the keeper of the bar. They are quickly scouted by Chandler and Joven, local rogues, after trading some Kefir for wine. They sit together and some intel is exchanged, including the presence of strangers (a beautiful lady with blackened skin -Dihada- and a man with fiery eyes who laughed like a maniac -Leshrac-). 

Veldraine, an emissary of Sengir, sits down at the table and stares at Iskren. Sorval notes the newcomer is undead. The group chats a little about law, order and ego. After a while, Veldraine tells Chandler to fuck off and states he has ordered a chariot to come and pick up the party in the morning. When Sorval asks about the dubious circumstances between Ishan and Sengir, Veldraine gives a clear-cut explication, explaining the nature of Ishan, providing context for the old quarrels between Serra and Sengir and mentioning the existence of a 'triad' which seems to be the reason for old foes to put aside their quarrels. Sorval feels Veldraine to be untrustworthy, but the others seem to warm to the undead lawkeeper. Eventually, Veldraine tells the party he has to leave and they all retire to a room bought for the night.

Moderately noteworthy, Zantaroth was keen all evening to keep his gold flowing in exchange for food, which led to customers voluntarily taking up the role of serving staff. Not that any but Iskren would notice.  

Zantaroth breaks off from the group to commune with nature again, bringing forth a fox spirit. The spirit tells him to seek out a willow priestess or a daughter of the forest. It also warns against taking a carriage to the Dark Barony.

Sorval has a late-night communication with Serra, who explains she's fighting the troops of Leshrac -the Walker of Night- and describes one of the troubles: a sea creature attacking the wizard's school. She mentions her own realm being assailed, yet defended by the Shadow Mage and the Wandering Scholar. She also asks that Sorval attempts to convince Autumn Willow to join her side. Telling her of his doubts, Serra allows Sorval to create a golden feather from his wings in order to transcend his being and regain a spellcasting focus.

Iskren also is met by a handsome man, dressed in brocades. He states being trapped here in the backwater that is Ulgrotha, speaks of a quest to find a successor. He speaks of gaining power, gaining access and the potential to exalt beyond his current form, awakening as a planeswalker. Expressing doubts about the power of Sengir, Iskren compels the vampire to show a vision of Ysa pulling strings to get Iskren into Shademurk and to state an unfortunate exploding head happened to Eda...but five seconds ago.

The party then beds down for the night.

Ulgrotha: the Spiriting

Party: Rollo, Taurio, Sorval, Zantaroth, Vultha, Iskren

 Xivaskir 19

After rendez-vousing with Rollo and retiring for the night, the party bunkers down in their airship for some peaceful sleep. 

They awake the sound of masonry crashing down, rush out and see the Blessed Shade, a massive island that floats over Shademurk, listing to the side, with old ruins falling down onto the town, in the vicinity of the Boros Barracks and the nearest city wall. The ruckus and fallout are loud enough to be heard quite some distance away, so it is probably not looking good for those who dwell in that area.

Hoping that the Boros guild will keep matters in hand, the party sets off to the portal and heads to Ulgrotha by inserting and removing the silver coin Iskren carries. A gateway opens and leads into a void.

The place the party arrives at has a raised platform which is surrounded by strange petrified trees, on which small glowing red orbs sit. A group of pillars keeps the ceiling up, a massive carving of a face sits on the wall opposite the only door the chamber has. A bunch of smaller pillars, apparently sliced in half, stand before the carved face. The floor has some stale puddles of water through which the roots of the trees snake.

As the party approaches the door, elaborately carved figures on it come alive! A skeletal ball rolls into the fray, distracting the group as two strange creatures sneak up from behind. The frackas that ensues is quite spectacular, leaving but the group standing in the room. As they take in their surroundings, Taurio discovers his greataxe (it was on his back the whole time), the others find a longsword with an emerald set in the hilt and a leather armour. 

Emerging from the underground portal-hall, the party finds themselves popping into a forest. A massive, misty forest. All that stands out to the party is a sole tower from which they emerge, they find themselves further from civilisation as they know it, but they are undaunted by this development. Sorval extends his divine sense and spies a cluster of undead beings nearby. Iskren attempts to parlay with the undead. Ihsan, the leader of the undead, wastes little time to sow discord between those that arrived and his master, implying Sengir to be a corrupting influence and Serra's mercy to be denied to him. Zantaroth feels like he heard enough and steps in to violently end the conversation. The second brawl of the day goes well for our heroes, ending with them eventually slaying the evil spirits.

Afterwards, the clerics of the group exchange information on their respective callers from this realm, Zantaroth calls upon the Spirit of the Bear (accidentally summoning a Spectral Bear) in order to get information. The bear informs Big Z that they have vanquished forces of Sengir and Serra, that an alliance is made between those two to fight Autumn Willow. It also informs Zantaroth that an alliance with Autumn Willow is possible if the party earns the right to do so. When Zantaroth requests more information, it explains retrieving the corpse of Ihsan from Sengir's domain would be a good start. Before disappearing, it tells Big Z that going to the Dark Barony can be done by crossing "The Great Bridge" and passing through the Koshun Mountains, or by going to An-Havva and taking "The Carriage Road".

A discussion ensues where the party tries to figure out who their actual allies are. Sorval, meanwhile, finds some scraps on a nearby skeleton (probably belonging to an adventurer who died less than a month ago), including a Pointless Dagger, a map, a receipt from the An-Havva Inn and a note stating the bearer to be diplomatic envoy for the township of Aysen.

Considering their injuries, the party then decides to take a quick rest, bandage some wounds and eat a bite, before deciding on their next course of action

Shademurk: Arc's Close

Session: Vultha / Sorval / Iskren / Zantaroth / Taurio

Xivaskir 13 - 16

Zantaroth returns to the Clan Slitz' homebase, meets up with Eyjafjallajökull and passes on some moderately expired murkfish. The shaman takes a good look at the purple meat.

For a couple of days, he investigates it until he becomes bothered enough to call for aid.

A mighty acquaintance arrives, going by "Shariff". The probably magician brings a mighty vision onto Eyjafjallajökull through thoughtful application of stone.

Three from five one false, three from five one falls.

One to the realm of Angels,

One to the realm of Dark,

One to the realm of Fae Spark,

One to an Ancient Land,

One to Spirit's Stand.

From five to three, her hand you see.

From five to two, unleashed anew.

Zantaroth remembers a couple of words from that, which Eyjaf tells him to tell to Vultha. As Zantaroth queries how to get there, Eyjaf calls on the aid of Shariff again in order to transport Vultha to Shademurk.

Xivaskir 17

Arriving at Shademurk, at the Old Temple, Zantaroth takes out his medal of Vultha-tracking and locates his friends with ease. They look worse for wear after the vicious encounter that has Sorval riled up.

He informs them that the mystery meat was bad news and communicates to the party what he remembers.

Three from five, one falls 

angels dark ancient land 

one is spirit, and one is fey 

five to two, unleashed

Iskren, Sorval and Vultha put forth theories what this might have to do with them. The consensus leads to the Nephilim trapped under the city and the seals involved with it, with each seal being linked to a source of mana. The party then briefs Zantaroth on the happenings here.

As they walk back to the temple, they decide to track the Spider-creature that assaulted Wellgar, following the tracks outside of the walls where it eventually dives off into the Murk proper. 

 

They then split up in order to prepare themselves for their journey, with an agreement to go to the Fogger at earliest convenience around noon and to the Izzet Mines afterwards. 

Sorval and Taurio head to the Boros Barracks

Vultha heads to the Nightstreet where Har-to Pro'nounce resides.

Iskren and Zantaroth stroll to the Temple again.

 

Sorval and Taurio meet Tri-Toe, Wojek Corporal, worried about the ashen lizard Sorval keeps company with. After a brief interaction, Tri decides Sorval is Vultha's Guard-mother and lets the pair in.

Walking to the reception, the two hear a commotion at the door, coming face to face with a Deathpact Angel named Athra, a high ranking Orzhovian. Coming in Feather's stead, she explains in curt terms that attempts have been made on the lives of the party and it has fallen to her to stop these. 

After Sorval talks through the things that happened, she says that the Lady of Radiance is known to her, cautioning Sorval to keep an eye on Iskren and their coin before leaving. The Boros pair decides to go to bed after this, recovering their strength for ordeals to come.

Iskren and Zantaroth meet Wellgar, with Iskren asking to hold a service. Wellgar endears himself with Zantaroth by showing genuine interest in him and explains the manyfold charities they do.

The trio goes down to the catacombs, has a fruitful discussion with Wellgar there, learning the name of the Nephilim (the Gnashing Agony) and that Iskren carries the final seal with him.

Afterwards, the pair goes to the Green Apricot, where Zantaroth gets a well-deserved rest in a chair.

Thaya explains that a group of thugs asked about Iskren and left a calling card. That ends their evening on a bright note with Iskren giving Thaya the rest of the evening off.

Vultha arrives at Nightstreet and investigates the summoning circle there. Finding a ring of small toadstools set around the circle, some ivy creeping through the floor and symbols that were at least less visible last time the party came here. 

A voice whispers at Vultha, asking him to break the chains by bringing and shattering the crystal. Vultha assumes the voice he has been hearing a while is the Nephilim, asking him to return things to their original state. Har-to Pro'nouns warns Vultha that the voice he hears means ill.

Har-to also mentions that the circle leads to his homeworld but refuses to say more on the matter.

With much to ponder Vultha then heads to the Empty Net, where he feasts on a 'kebob in broth' before going to sleep.

Xivaskir 18

The next day, at the Fogger, Sorval tells Iskren he has been assigned the mission to protect Iskren better by an angel. Iskren shows their coin to Sorval, who sees some similarities with the stolen emblem he carried, but fails to see a fundamental similarity. The group feels it best to assume it also would be a seal, explaining why it was taken. Furthermore, Vultha explains he found a differences at the portal in the Nightstreet hideout, changing into a more natural shape. 

Sorval suggests leaving the plane and going to Ulgrotha, which Iskren concurs as a good idea.

Sadly enough, Krovek happens. And there was much wailing and gnashing of teeth.

Eventually, Krovek leaves to report to captain Eliander in Sorval's stead with vital ideas of how things should be, including Sorval fighting the End Troopers, an invisible Rakdos cultist group.

Taurio considers it a good idea to send out his own report through the official channels, eventually winding up with Iskren's offered aid in a secret script. Iskren adds a little bit about donations as they write the letter. 

Having finished this, the party checks on the Ebon Fang and fly it to the Izzet Mines. Upon arriving at the industrial complex, they are hailed by a small flying ship, which requests them to set down outside the Mines proper in order to identify themselves.

The guard-goblin is a little distrustful initially, but mentions some problems in the 'martial field', which the party jumps on as a way to get easy access. She sends the party off with Foreman Jeff to shaft 337a.

Jeff mentions various outside forces that intervened and how they barricaded off a bit of the tunnel to keep them away. When queried on the nature of the troubles, Jeff mentions they are fighting mainly undead. 

The party, moderately excited to get their weapons out again, decides to solve the problems right here and now, busting down a barricade and causing great havoc on all the beings in the mine.

The invaders, mainly rakdos barbarians, a blood witch and massive undead ogres, are defeated after a long hard battle with the party gaining access to the Ulgrotha portal.