Valdos

Valdos

Valdos

Player Name	Connor Schroll / doublecheese247
Languages	Abyssal, Common, Deep Speech, Infernal
Affiliations	N/A
Marital Status	Single
Species	Tiefling
Gender	Male
Height	5' 10"
Weight	167 lbs.
Eye Color	Purple

Valdos is a tiefling researcher/investigator on events pertaining to the eldritch nature. He has recently become a warlock himself after following a rumor that led him to an eldritch contract with an unknown Old One patron.

Physical Appearance

Valdos is 5'10" tall, 6' if you include his horns that curl above his head. Valdos has a smaller frame and is rather skinny and doesn't have a lot to him with his weight coming in at 167 lbs. He has an inquisitive set of purple eyes that are shielded by his black frame glasses that have been hastily repaired many times with adhesives (tape). He wears his longer length hair back in a pony tail to keep it out of his face while performing research and now performing battle. His hair is black with purple tips that all converge at the end of the pony tail. Similar to his hair, his horns are also mainly black with some purple accents. His horns go up and back after coming out of his forehead. You will find him wearing his standard set of leather adventuring gear under his lab coat. His lab coat is torn and dirty in some places while clean and fresh in others due to recently learning the mending cantrip after becoming a warlock. You will also see him carrying around a book everywhere he goes. The book has a dark red color face and back, and is bound by a black cord that wraps around the book multiple times ending in a simple clasp.

Personality

Valdos enjoys spending his time in libraries a little too much as he is always trying to find more/new information regarding eldritch powers that are entirely unnatural.

History

In the works.

Languages

Abyssal, Common, Deep Speech, Infernal, (has Comprehend Language as a spell)

Powers and Abilities

Valdos has a pretty simple combat session.

Step 1: Move outside of melee range. Step 2: Hex a target. Step 3: Eldritch Blast said target. Step 4: Repeat Steps 1 and 3 until target is taken care of. Step 5: Select new target and repeat Steps 1-4.

Disclaimer for fellow adventurers: Valdos's actions may vary depending on circumstance. Valdos is not guaranteed to hit targets and may require assistance.

Attacks and Weapons 

Preferred method of self defense includes but is not limited to eldritch blasting a hexed target while outside of melee range.

X Add worldbuilding credits now!

Hopes and Goals

Valdos is hoping that his time helping the Tempest Brothers group will allow him to eventually open avenues for him to become a legitimate researcher in all things eldritch as he has always been interested in the powers and beings that are not natural for Quelmar.

Adventures

Markster Farmstead Investigation:

Valdos was selected with five others to go and investigate the Markster Farmstead as they have reported some strange happenings in the area. Valdos along with Nokori, Coryn, Ghargux, Hummer, and Finny went and traveled to the Farmstead with the two gentlemen that run the farm. The two farmers told us that there have been cases of finding dead animals in the forest and that some of their animals have gone missing. They also reported that their barn was broken into and some goats were eaten.

We arrive at the farmstead and meet the two families. In particular, we meet a little girl who has a very active imagination according to the parents. The little girl keeps mentioning this "imaginary friend" that she calls "Hopper". In the evening, Hummer talks to the little girl and discovers that she possesses a shield guardian. The shield guardian was in the shape of a dog and would stay in the forest unless told otherwise. Hopper also apparently delivered himself to the little girl.

Hummer and I took first watch, I was posted up on top of the barn, I heard some howls from the forest, but nothing else of note happened. During second watch, Coryn and Ghargux saw some floating blue orbs in the forest. They thought it could have been the guardian. Nokori and Finny took the last watch. They found some weird indentations in the ground out in the farm field. They also noticed three figures moving through the farm field, Finny shot one of them with an eldritch blast, they then ran away into the forest.

The following morning, our group then went and followed the tracks into the forest to try and track down the three things that were going through the field. After a while, we came across a stone building with a locked door that had no visible way of opening it. We found that it had an arcane lock on it, requiring us to use the "knock" spell to open it, none of us had the spell, so we physically knocked on the door.

We were eventually greeted by a voice asking why we were there, we explained, and the person opened the door. The man turned out to be an artificer of sorts who enjoys living alone and just wants to help the local farmers. He has been making these automs (scarecrows and harvest reapers) and has been sending them over to the farmers property in secret to help them out. This could likely explain the dead creatures in the forest. It also explains the weird tracks and indents in the ground that our group followed to his house. We also found out that he could be allergic to magic as when Finny casted prestidigitation to clean the guy up, he accidentally released a blinding light in all directions. He is either allergic, or gets spooked very easily and is part wild magic sorcerer.

We talk to the artificer and explain what is going on and then convince him to begin communications with the family to explain that the automs will not harm them, but help them with security and farming and will follow their commands. He also offers the family shelter if anything goes wrong. With that, we left his place and went back to the farm with the scarecrows and harvest reapers in tow. We deliver them to the farmers and explain the situation to them before leaving back for the waystation.

Lost in Transit:

Valdos was recruited with five others to go and investigate some missing cargo that was being delivered from the town of Ymbtrymman. Valdos, Esperanza, Karma, Lysvan, Twilsby, and Slog The Bonk all set out together and took a teleportation circle to arrive at Ymbtrymman. There we talked to the town leader who explained the situation and that they stopped receiving sending's from the caravan group the other day and that they are worried about the town leaders son who was leading the caravan. We then met Gumptor Flynn who was going to guide us on the path that the caravan took.

Gumptor Flynn then lead us on an extended forced march through the jungle until we happened across a broken caravan wagon. We found some trails left by what we could only assume were some large jungle cats. We followed the tracks until we got ambushed by 10 jaguars. Karma tried speaking with the jaguars and was hit with a hivemind answer of "food...". Combat then ensued, however, these jaguars were not normal as when some of them died, they dissipated and their essence was fed into the remaining jaguars making them stronger. The fight ended after our group killed the remaining two jaguars in rapid succession. Immediately after killing the last of the jaguars, Valdos went over to where they died and casted Detect Magic to try and figure out what was going on. Valdos could not accurately pick up what the magic was, but it had traces of transmutation magic.

After that, we continued following the tracks after a short rest. We eventually came across a tunnel going into the bottom of a cliff face. Twilsby's grandfather spirit scouted the tunnels for us and relayed the layout. (tunnel went forward and split into a left and right tunnel. Right tunnel lead to a storage room of sorts with what appeared to be the caravan supplies and then a metal door at the back of the room. In that room, there were a bunch of prison cells. Down the left tunnel, was what appeared to be a lab of some kind with a couple tables surrounding a teleportation circle in the middle of the room, at the far end of the room, there was a curtain that was blocking a small tunnel that lead to a door. Behind the door, there was the residents abode.

Slog and Karma went ahead and scouted the room more thoroughly than Twilsby's grandfather. The rest of the group then followed. After entering the room, Valdos went and casted detect magic again to see if he found any of the same magic that was found earlier. Instead of that happening though, a Mindflayer was discovered to be hiding at the ceiling invisibly. After being discovered, the Mindflayer blasted all of us with a stunning psychic/psionic blast. It then floated down and grabbed a metal clock in the shape of a heart and then vanished. We were unsure of how it got away, but we swiftly destroyed the teleportation circle so that it couldn't teleport back in and surprise us again. We then went and looted the place. Valdos grabbed hold of a magic compass of some kind (tbd). After clearing the lab and the living space, we went to the storage area and then into the cell chamber. In the last cell, we found the son of the town leader and one other. We freed them and then left the tunnel system and began the march back to Ymbtrymman.

Search for the Well of Souls:

Darian Tempest gathers myself, Ghargux, Zarrial, Karma, and Bardek together in the morning and takes us to the office where we find an elven lady sitting there waiting for us. Darian introduces her as Elowen Thistledown, a researcher from the Grand Library of Warukami who has come to the Tempest Brothers Expeditionary Company (TBEC) to borrow the use of an airship to try and find a rumored Well of Souls. Elowen has long braided silver hair, piercing green eyes that strike us as wise, she is an elf of years, hard to say how old. She possesses an aura of knowledge and wisdom that surrounds her from her many years spent as a researcher. After introducing Elowen and explaining what the mission is and what to expect, he leads us out the back door to where the airship we will be taking is docked.

Darian then introduces us to the airship that we will be using for the mission, the Windrunner. The airship looks shiny and new, it has its wings folded back and appears to be sitting roughly 15ft off the ground on a makeshift docking structure. He explains that this airship was dragged here when they moved into the Waystation and that this will be her maiden voyage. He also informs us that the ship has no mounted weapons and that we will be in charge of ensuring that little to no damage happens to the new ship. Darian also warns us that due to it being her maiden voyage, he wants us to keep the stresses applied to the airship to a minimal and wants it back by nightfall. Our group then gets introduced to Skippy, the Halfling captain of the airship and his two crewmates, Charlie and Reggie.

Elowen and our group then climb abord the airship while Darian wishes us luck and then leaves back towards the office. Once we are all on the airship, Skippy starts the airship up, and begins to take us into the air. Elowen asks Skippy to take us in a Southwestern direction from the Waystation. Elowen then gathers our group together and explains in more detail what she is looking to find on this adventure. She also goes into more detail about what a Well of Souls is, explaining that they are areas where the veil between the living and the dead is extremely thin due to its location near or on Ley Lines. She also explains that there are usually strange phenomenon in the areas surrounding a Well of Souls due to powerful arcane sources allowing for the Wells to occur. Elowen also presents us her evidence that points to there being a Well of Souls in the area as around 60 years ago, a group of druid messengars came out and relayed that they destroyed a cult that was trying to occupy a Well of Souls. The druid group then warned that those without cause should not venture in search of any Well of Souls. Elowen then brings up her cause for searching for the Well of Souls to ease our hearts due to the warning left by the druid messengars. She explains that she hopes for knowlegable alchemists to use any resources that are born in the area of a Well of Souls to try and create new life saving/extending potions.

Our group then continues flying in a Southwestern direction while looking for any signs that could lead us to a Well of Souls for around 2 hours. We cannot see much in terms of details on the ground due to the thick forest canopy. Eventually, our group sees three different points of interest. We see two clearings in the jungle, and then we see a large area of fog that is higher than the tree tops themselves. Our group decides to continue travelling towards the foggy area. As we get closer to the foggy area, we eventually see six black birds flying from around the fog and heading towards us. As they are flying towards us, Karma enacts a physchic connection with three of the birds to communicate with them. Doing so results in her hearing them chanting things along the lines of doom and death. Valdos blasts two warning shots at the birds but they kept approaching the airship. The birds eventually reach the ship and land on the railing of the ship. There, we recognize the birds as Doom Sayer Crows. They are birds that enjoy staying in areas where death and disease are present, such as blood battlefields. Karma keeps communicating with three of the crows and they keep saying that death is awaiting us and that they will feast on our corpses. The crows seem to get more and more excited as we get closer to the fog. Due to this we decide to try and stop the airship and put it in reverse so that we don't enter the fog. However, the airship had too much speed previously and we enter the fog while Skippy is throwing the ship into reverse. As soon as we enter the fog, we are hit with a wave of dread and misery so powerful that it corrupts our minds and gets Valdos to the point where he is trying to throw himself overboard, however the rest of the group is there to grab him and drag him back onto the deck of the ship. Twelve more Doom Sayer Crows approach the ship while we are inside the fog. Another wave of dread hits our ship shortly after the first wave and again, Valdos finds himself halfway over the railing of the ship with Karma and Zarrial coming to the rescue. Skippy is able to get the ship to then back out of the fog and we are free from the dread fog for now.

After that, Zarrial reveals that the fog is a physical manifestation of necrotic energy and that something very wrong is happening here. We also come to the conclusion that this very well might be the Well of Souls that Elowen is looking for. However, with the necrotic fog covering the area, there is no way to venture forth and find the central point of the Well of Souls. With that information, we decide to try and investigate the area on the ground. We tie a bunch of rope together and tie it to Zarrials living sword Mal. Zarrial then throws Mal overboard and has it get to the forest floor and relay back what it sees. Shortly after Mal gets to the floor, it is attacked by two creatures that it cannot really describe other than large and green. The rope that Mal is tied to is crushed to the point of it breaking. Mal then tries to fight the large green creature that is attacking it, with little to show. Zarrial then calls his sword back to him and decides to climb down the rope and fight whatever is down there with Karma following. Valdos and Ghargux follow them down with Bardek coming down last. What happens next on the forest floor is an absolute shitshow of a fight. Zarrial gets down there first and finds that we are fighting a corrupted Treant and a Bark Warden.

Zarrial gets down to the forest floor first and gets absolutley hammered by the two creatures to the point where he goes down. Karma follows him down and starts hitting the two creatures with some fire magic. Valdos tires to jump onto a branch thats about 20ft into the air, but misses horribly and hits the ground which has spike growth coming out of it due to the Bark Warden. Ghargux gets down to the floor and starts smiting the Bark Warden. At this point, Zarrial was able to get himself back up from being down and dimension doors back to the ship while Bardek is climbing down the rope. Karma then starts flying in the air using an arifact that she has and is throwing some alchemists fire at the Treant. Valdos goes down shortly after as the Treant crushes him in his grasp. Ghargux is then able to finish off the Bark Warden. Bardek tries to jump off the rope and land on the Treant, but fails to hit the mark and then goes down after being attacked by the Treant. Zarrial sends down the manifestation of Mal to distract and attack the Treant. A Haregon comes out of hiding and drags my crushed body under a camoflauge blanket to hid me and then stabilizes my body. A whistle was then heard from the forest and a bunch of flaming arrows were shot from the surrounding forest at the corrupted Treant. Immediately after, a group of Haregons also run out of the forest to try and attack the corrupted Treant. Zarrial then has Mal lead the Treant away from the area as the Treant seemed intent on trying to harm Mal.

The haregons then get us all together and start ushering us to leave while getting excited about the dead Bark Warden. Elowen also comes down once combat ended. Bardek and myself get brought back up by Ghargux and then we each take some health potions. The haregons call themselves the Guardians of the Well of Souls. They let us know that something happened to the Well of Souls a couple of moons ago and that they are now unable to approach the Well of Souls since then. Elowyn and the Haregons take some pieces of the dead Bark Warden for research purposes. The Haregons also want us to return and talk with the druid elders and help figure out what is happening with the Well of Souls. Afterwards, we then pack our stuff up and head back to the Waystation.

Why are there so many Baby Silver Dragons here?

It has been getting colder in Eastern Amusa, colder than it should be. That is when two letters arrive in the middle of the waystation at around similar times. The first of the letters has some crudely written handwriting addressing the Tempest Brothers Expeditionary Company for some aid and is asking for "those who do not die easily". This letter also arrived with a bundle of meat that has been seasoned. The other letter appears to be a more formal invitation of sorts and asks for the TBEC to send some members to "enjoy the spoils of a recent hunt" and is signed by the Venator Syndicate.

Following the arrival of the two letters, a scrawny halfling named Tulie Maplelip walks out of the main office with a list of names, the two letters, and a map. She then proceeds to call over the group that was picked to investigate the two letters. Mark, Wiggler, Coryn, Eavan, and myself all get called over to where Tulie is standing. Tulie then proceeds to read the first letter regarding "those who do not die easily" and then produces the meat package that came with the letter. Eavan and I investigate the meat and find that it comes from a type of bear that we are unsure about and that it is seasoned with frostbell which is a very rare flower found in and around the Iceback Mountains in Breme. This immediatley alerts Eavan as she is from Breme being that she is a witchwolf. We also investigate the letter and find that the writing is very crude in that it appears to be somebodys first attempt at writing bermish common. Tulie then goes to read the second letter that was sent by the Venator Syndicate regarding a party of some kind to celebrate a recent hunt. After we go through the letter, I remember that the Venator Syndicate is a group of poachers that tend to hunt, capture, and then experiment on wild magical creatures. There is also a seal at the bottom of the letter depicting a flame that is encased in ice, Eavan recognizes it as the symbol for House Coldflame, a noble house located in Breme. Our group then looks at the two maps that came with the two letters. The map that came with the crudley written letter shows us going to the Northeast of the Waystation while the map attached to the Syndicate invitation leads us to the Northwest of the Waystation. After talking amongst ourselves, our group decides to investigate the crudely written letter first as they are asking for help and should be responded to immediatlely. As such, we gather our things and start the 2 day travel to the marked location on the map.

As our group is travelling, we begin to notice that the weather is getting more frigid and "heavier" in a sense. The cold seems to want to penetrate us and weigh us down, but we are able to shake it off and keep travelling. While we travel, I try to use Detect Magic to try and see if the weather is natural or is carrying traces of magic. I come to find that the cold is not natural and that it carries a feeling of magic that I am not entirely familiar with, but it resembles a mixture of abjuration and evocation schools of magic. The cold also does not appear to carry any traces of malevolence, but it is all surrounding and ever present. It also appears to get stronger as we continue travelling. We eventually make it to a clearing to rest for the night.

Mark and Coryn take first watch and find that nothing of note happens. However, during the second watch, Wiggler and I notice that there are some dragonoid looking eyes peering into our camp. We wake up Mark and Coryn incase we are attacked, but the two creatures run away. While they run away, we catch faint glimpses of silver scales. After that, Coryn and Mark go to lay back down to finish resting. A little after Coryn and Mark lay back down, our camp is rushed on by 3 direwolves who appear to see us as their food. Our group then proceeds to kill two of the direwolves while knocking out the third one after Mark talks to it and finds that it is not acting naturally. After we knock it out, we investigate the direwolf and find that it had traces of a red powder that was later identified as Frenzy Powder. Upon Mark remembering that an "overdose" of Frenzy Powder can lead to death. Our group then proceeds to stabilize the dying direwolf. After the direwolf was stabilized, two baby silver dragons come running out of the woods, one more shy than the other. We proceed to talk to the baby dragons (Kalda and Oinoq) about why they are here and we find out that their older sister was the one that sent the letter to the camp with the meat. We also find out that their mom (Isrun) is missing. Eavan is extremely worried about that as Isrun is/was the guardian dragon of the Iceback Mountains and is an Ancient Silver Dragon. While we are talking to the two baby dragons, a third dragon that is a little larger comes out and scolds the two younger dragons for exploring in the night and engaging the Venator Syndicate. The third dragon introduces themself as Isfrid, the third oldest dragon in their group of silver dragons born from Isrun. Isfrid and the two younger dragons then lead us to their camp. We also take the unconcious direwolf with us to their camp. Our group arrives at the dragons camp and we meet Kelrynne a dragonborn and the eldest of Isrun's children. After she approaches our group, I find that the cold that I detected earlier appears to be originating from her and that she seems to be unaware of it. The cold appears to be surrounding her and then spreading out, almost acting as a barrier of sorts. That night Kelrynne explains to us the situration that they require help with as the Venator Syndicate has taken one of the younger baby dragons captive and Kelrynne requires our help to rescue their sibling due to wards and barriers set up against dragons invading their base. We then reveal that we were invited to the Venator Syndicate base that Kelrynne identifies. Kelrynne also explains that this branch of the Syndicate is being led by Alos Coldflame from House Coldflame. Upon hearing his name I remember seeing somewhere that Alos is the current heir to the family after he "bested" his sister (Risna Coldflame) in a duel. Kelrynne also explains that their friend witchwolf friend Brynhild was also captured. Kelrynne informs us that there are also multiple witchwolfs that are acting as members in the Syndicate base under Alos Coldflame. After discussing our plans, we all decide to finish our rest before setting off tomorrow to rescue the youngest dragon.

In the morning, we are greeted by the small of meat being cooked. We walk over and find that Kelrynne is preparring breakfast which is some cubed meat seasoned similarly to what was sent to camp. Kelyrnne explains that she has taught herself how to cook the meat as it can be comforting to eat a prepared meal instead of eating the meat raw. We each take a portion and go about eating our meals, we find that the meat is hot, but at the same time, it carries a chill to it that balances on the meat very nicely. The meat itself is gamey and chewy, but is very good. Kelrynne then explains that she is going to be going and taking care of another Syndicate base while we go and rescue their sibling. Before we separate, I have her write her name in my Book of Shadows so that we can communicate when we find their sibling and what the situation is. Our group then leaves for the Syndicate base.

After travelling for a while, we come across the Syndicate base. It appears to be an old bandit hideout and there is no one outside the building besides a slush elemental patrolling the grounds. We proceed to walk up to the front door and knock, but we get no response. With that, we just decide to enter with Eavan leading us in as she is more familiar with the Coldflame family and the witchwolfs that are working under the Syndicate. After entering, we introduce ourselves as the group from the Tempest Brothers. Alos welcomes us in as he is sitting at the head of the table with some witchwolfs and a ice genasi sitting on the sides. They are all drinking some Bremish Coffee. While we are talking to Alos, Risna walks in with another bowl of coffee for the group. She then proceeds to "trip" and hand Wiggler a note stating that theres some bad stuff going on here and that she is only here to "watch over" Alos. Risna then goes back into the kitchen area with Wiggler then following her in to "talk about coffee". They actually talk about whats going on and Risna explains that there is a baby silver dragon upstairs in a room guarded by her direwolf, but the direwolf should let us pass. Wiggler then telepathically relays that to our group and we ask for a distraction to be made so that Eavan and I can sneak upstairs. For the distraction, Mark decides to chug some of the Bremish Coffee and starts singing some songs with the witchwolfs as they are drunk on the coffee after having a bunch already. Risna also then "accidentally" spills some coffee on Alos and takes him into the kitchen to clean off the coffee spill. Eavan and I are able to sneak upstairs, but the door to the room that we need to get into is locked. We end up ramming the door open quietly so as to not disturb the people downstairs. In the room, we find the youngest baby dragon, a small Cosmic Bear, and a female witchwolf that is laying on a bed passed out and appears to be suffering from a poison. We quickly ask why they havent left through the window in the room to find that it is trapped by a spell casted by Alos. I also contact Kelrynne through my book of shadows letting her know that we found their sibbling and are working to get them out of here. She responds that she has already taken care of the other Syndicate base and is now on her way over. Wiggler then proceeds to cast Dispel Magic on Alos to disrupt the alarm spell on the window, but doing this starts a fight with the members of the Syndicate. We eventually beat the Syndicate members except for Alos who was able to escape with a Dimension Door. Eavan and I go over to the Genasis body and look for any potions that might help with the poisoned witchwolf upstairs. We are able to successfully get the witchwolf (Brynhild) back up and let her know that Kelrynne is on her way over. She thanks us and we go back down into the main room where everybody is. We all then loot the building before leaving. Kelrynne comes and picks up the youngest dragon, the small Cosmic Bear travels with us back to the Waystation, and we invite both Risna and Brynhild to come and join us at the Waystation.

Later on, we then receive another letter from Kelrynne with the following written on it:

“White Dragon. Ysildra.

Among first white dragons in legend.

Mother of hundreds of white dragons.

Mother in Ivory.

Long ago, Isrun and other good dragons banished her to the Ice Plane. Her eggs were destroyed. Maybe not all of them. Ysildra is back.

Run.”

Thats no ordinary worm...

The TBEC received a call for help from the Kobolds as their work crew has started to be attacked by nighttime assaults that they believe originate from the Wyvern's Nest Crater. The TBEC rapidly gets group together consisting of myself, 22, Thordun, and new recruits to the TBEC Caelum, Loc, and Khimnis. We all group up and gather any equipment we deem necessary before quickly leaving Waystation and travelling towards the air ship village of the Kobolds using a map that was created on a previous excursion.

We travel through the jungle rapidly so that we can help as quickly as possible. It is dark out as we begin to get closer to where the Kobolds are working on the road that is being built between their village and the waystation, we encounter the sounds of conflict up ahead. Using Caelum's owl familiar, we scout the conflict up ahead and his familiar finds that there is a group of Kuo-toa fighting the Kobold workers. Before the familiar returns, Loc slips away from the group without the majority of us noticing and sneaks up to join the conflict and help the Kobolds. Shortly after Loc leaves the group, the rest of us go up the road and join the combat as well, fighting off the Kuo-toa. We quickly tell the Kobold work crew to leave the area and leave the fighting to us. The Kuo-toa seemed to be following the orders of a priest and appear to be trying to capture some of the Kobolds alive. The priest ends up teleporting away with another Kuo-toa and a captured Kobold after we defeat the majority of the Kuo-toa.

After fighting the Kuo-toa and forcing them to flee, we all reconvene and interogate the one Kuo-toa that we left alive. Interrogating the Kuo-toa with the aid of some Thamaturgy, Mind Sliver, and Detect Thoughts action, we are able to get vague hints of the being that the Kuo-toa are worshipping. We get vibes of tentacles, acid, and the underdark. We do not receive any concrete information from the Kuo-toa as it is more affraid of its being of worship compared to our group of adventurers. Using the clues given to us, we believe that the Kuo-toa are working for a Black Dragon or a Purple Worm. After interrogating the Kuo-toa and not getting any more information, we kill the creature to put it out of its misery. We then investigate the area to try and figure out where the Kuo-toa group came from and how they got there. We end up finding that the Kuo-toa left no tracks in the ground as they normally would with us being in a forest. This along with a casting of Detect Magic, we deduce that the Kuo-toa group got to the area using Pass Without Trace. We then follow the trail of magic left by Pass Without Trace that leads us towards the Wyvern's Nest Crater. After reaching the crater, we are stuck with the dilema that we have no easy way to get down to the bottom of the crater. Loc desides to take this matter into his own hands and just jumps down into the crater, planning to cast Feather Fall when required. The rest of the group then follows with 22 casting Feather Fall for the rest of us. Once we are down at the bottom of the crater, we sneak around so as to not draw any unwanted Wyvern attention and we look for any crevices that would possibly lead us underground. We eventually find a cave entrance in one of the crater walls. We sneak through the cave until we come across a room with large hole in the middle that appears to have been burrowed. We then repeat our jumping down with Feather Fall to get to the bottom of the hole.

Once down at the bottom of the hole. Thordun and Loc sneak ahead of the group to scout the tunnels ahead. They eventually report back that they hear voices up ahead and then we regroup before we continue sneaking towards the voices. We then come across a more open cavern with the Kuo-toa and the priest communicating, something about readying defenses. We did not hear much before Khimnis desides to enter her Form of Dread and sneak attack the Kuo-toa group with a Hunger of Hadar. The rest of us then move forward out of the cave and into the cavern and prepare to attack the Kuo-toas' after they leave the sphere of darkness and dread. Right after the Kuo-toa exit the Hunger of Hadar area, a giant Neothelid falls from the ceiling where it was hovering and joins the fight. Putting two and two together, we come to the conclusion that this thing is what they were worshiping and capturing Kobolds for. The battle continues with us eventually killing the Neothelid and majority of the Kuo-toa. The Priest was able to escape again after entering an offshoot cave at the back of the cavern.

After combat ended, our party explored the rest of the cavern area. We found several captives that were taken by the Kuo-toa, including Gumptor Flynn and several Kobolds from the road crew. We also find a bunch of simple rooms in the branch caves from the shrine area in the cavern that the Kuo-toa used as living quarters. We found a couple items of value including a Dagger of Venom, a Watchful Helm, a couple different healing potions, some gold, and a scroll of Word of Recall. We then pack up the things and begin the trek out of the Wyvern's Nest Crater with the former captives and lead them back to their work camp before heading back to the Waystation.

Meet the Xandrians

The TBEC recently received a letter from a group of Xandrians that have set up camp in Amusa. The letter is from the Commander of the expedition and the contents of said letter explain that their group has recently lost a package after a group of theirs was attacked by the Venator Syndicate. With their current forces, they are unable to form the necessary search party to find the lost package. Due to this, they are reaching out to the TBEC asking for help in finding the lost package. They are proposing a mutual cooperation agreement between the Xandrians and the TBEC in return for helping recover the lost package.

The TBEC gathers myself, Wiggler, Ghargux, Tryska, Dr. Richard Weedus, and Ren Atherton together as the search party. We get collected in front of the main office and get debriefed on the mission received and the information that has been provided. We are then led behind the main building to the air ship doc. As we get back there, we see an airship coming down, the airship has markings that are unfamiliar to our group. Once the ship docs, a guard from the ship comes down and logs our group down on a notepad that he then hands to the ship captain. We then all load onto the airship and take off for the Xandrian camp.

We set down at the edge of the camp outside of the main gate to said camp. After getting off the airship, the group is then lead to the center of the camp where the Commanders tent is located. As we are being lead there, our group notices a confrontation is occuring outside the Commanders quarters. The confrontation appears to be between a dwarven man and a more regal looking figure, they appear to be arguing about the missing package and some lost/captured researchers. The confrontation ends with the dwarven man walking away mad. The regal looking figure then greets us, he turns out to be Artorious Ranglan, the younger brother to the Commander, Lancellas Ranglan. Artorious then leads us into Lancellas's tent to discuss the mission in more private quarters.

Lancellas then proceeds to explain the mission. Our objective is to retreive the package(s) at any cost and return to the camp immediately. One of the scholars that was in the group transporting the package(s) will travel with us to the location where the package was lost. We then confirm that there are two packages that are lost. We then strike a deal with Commander Ranglan that we will retrieve the packages in exchange for some gold along with helping the TBEC with smaller issues in the immediate area. With that situated, we are then lead to the scholars area where we are introduced to a couple of the scholars, mainly, Dr. Morgan Frostbeard, Kyle Lane, and Ariel. There, we here the story of the ambush from the Venator Syndicate and the losing of the packages from their perspective. We then crash for the night so that we are ready to travel in the moring to search for the packages. Dr. Frostbeard will be the one guiding us on our travels.

The group then leaves the Xandrian camp in the morning, following Dr. Frostbeard to roughly where the packages were lost. As we approach the area where the packages should be, we notice some people up ahead of us. Wiggler and I notice that they are wearing gear that has the Venator Syndicate symbol. We inform the group of this information and that we should be ready for a fight; and without warning, Dr. Weedus immediately charges the Venator Syndicate group swinging at the guy who looked to be in charge. The rest of the group then follows Dr. Weedus into battle while Dr. Frostbeard stays back to not interfere.

Our group quickly handles the members of the Venator Syndicate while leaving one person alive to interogate. We eventually find out that there is a Venator Sydicate camp a small hike away and that there are captured Xandrian scholars being held at the camp. Learning that information, we kill the Syndicate member. After that, Dr. Frostbeard comes into the area and proceeds to dig up two boxes. We take the boxes from him as they will be safer with us compared to with him. Our group then inspects the boxes and find that there are small air holes on the boxes and that we can feel something moving around inside. I then send a Sending to Commander Ranglan letting him know that we have the packages in our possession. He tells us to return immediately, but instead of doing that, our group decides to go and rescue the hostages without informing the Commander.

We eventually make it to the Venator Syndicate camp. We sneak inside the camp posing as new recruits and are brought to the camp boss. The camp boss eventually recognizes Wiggler. Our group then enters a fight with the camp boss who takes a potion, which causes his muscles to bulge and for his general size to increase, allowing him to weild a larger than normal morningstar. We eventually take down the camp boss and tie him up. Ren and myself then find the captured scholars. As we are leaving the Syndicate base, Dr. Weedus sets it ablaze.

Our group then escorts them and the two packages back to the Xandrian camp along with the knocked out Syndicate leader. We hand over the two packages and the knocked out Syndicate leader to Commander Ranglan. Lancellas asks us what took so long in returning, and we explain that we felt like doing a little extra work to rescue the captured scholars. We then convince Lancellas to let us know what we were retreiving, and he opens the boxes revealling some pitch black snakes. He introduces them as Black Marilas snakes and that they are some of the most venomous snakes in Amusa. He also informs us that he plans on weaponizing their venom for Xandrian use. He then also informs us to take some scholars with us back to our camp as a method to keep in touch.

We then leave their camp with Kyle Lane in tow. Kyle seemed excited to come with us as he is very familiar with our one companion Eavan.

Journey to the Center of the Dragons Lair?

With Prince Ulftiir and the Ancient Dragon Ysildra dead, their treasures are ripe to be picked. However, said treasures are located in Ysildra's lair which is located on the Plane of Ice which is situated between the Plane of Water and the Plane of Wind. The TBEC has come up with a way to use the recovered Ring of Winter's Wrath (RoWW) to open a portal to the Plane of Ice and allow a group of plunderers to make their way to the lair and obtain the treasures. But the group will not be going alone, the TBEC called in a favor that they have with (In)famous adventurer and explorer Oliver Vincent Bartholemew who was recently freed from being chased by an Lupine Aspect of Death.

With this, Darian Tempest himself gathered the group that would be raiding the Ancient Dragons treasure hoard. The group he gathered together consisted of myself, Ren Atherton, Wiggler, Selene, Eavan, and Iris. After gathering our group together, he then explained what the mission would be and that we would be receiving help from Oliver in that he would be leading us to the lair once we are in the Plane of Ice. Before we met Oliver, Darian dismissed the group so that we could gather whatever we believed we would need to undertake this mission. Knowing that the Plane of Ice is constantly freezinig cold and presents many dangers, both natural and un-natural, I went ahead and purchased the Angel Bone Circlet and Dragon Pin from Bulio to help improve my own survivability. I also went and borrowed a Rope of Climbing and a Leather Armor of Cold Resistance along with some scrolls of Feather Fall from the Waystations Weapons Rack. Our group then gathers back up with Darian while we wait for Oliver to arrive. While waiting, Darian pulls out both a bag of holding, that we will use to package up all of the treasures we find, as well as the RoWW. Oliver then arrives shortly after, cutting his way through the dense jungle that is surrounding the Waystation. He appears to be wearing a tan safari shirt with more pockets than reasonably necessary on a shirt, some very VERY short tan shorts (some would probably arrest him for public indecency), a pair of brown hiking boots, and a hard bucket safari hat. He is also rocking a perfectly groomed and curled mustache. Our group looks at him and wonders if he is even prepared to venture into the Plane of Ice where the temperatures will be freezing at all times. Regardless, he confirms that he is ready for an exciting adventure to the dragons lair.

Seeing that everybody is ready, Darian proceeds to activate the RoWW. This causes the surrounding area to drop in temperature very rapidly. After a little bit, a crack in the area in front of the group opens up and then widens to reveal the Plane of Ice on the other side. With the portal open, Darian hands Iris the RoWW, to which, she stores in her body. Doing this, we are able to see that her body starts to crystilize, but not to the point where she is uncomfortable and unable to move thankfully. With that, our group goes through the Portal, which we then close after entering to save the Waystation from the freezing temperatures in the Plane of Ice. We take a second to get ourselves oriented, noticing that no matter where we look, everything is covered in snow and ice and that there are everpresent storm clouds everywhere in the sky, permanently casting a gray light over the Plane. While standing there, Iris pulls out a matchstick, that we quickly light for a little bit a repreive from the biting cold. Oliver then gathers everyones attention and states that we should be around 10 days of travel away from where the lair should be and that we should start moving immediately unless we want to die. And as if waiting for him to say that, we hear an ever-echoing roar from what must be the all the Yetis in the surrounding area as they instantly took notice that there are now humanoids present in the Plane of Ice.

The group instantly starts following Olivers lead in running towards where the lair should be. We travel uninterupted for two days before we encounter our first and definitley not last setback of the journey. On the third day, we find an Obelisk made entirely out of ice. The obelisk stands around 20 ft tall and is balancing at a point. The obelisk is covered in the language of the Giants. If we had more time to spare, we could have investigated it more, but unfortunatley, we were still being chased by the pack of Yetis. We continue traveling, and on day four, we encounter a ravine that we cross with the help of Wiggler wild-shaping into a Giant Eagle and carrying us over. We continue traveling while the Yetis continue getting closer to our group. On the fifth day of travel towards the lair, we encounter a hand that is sticking out of the ever present ice on the ground. The hand is attached to a frozen humanonid who died being frozen whlie screaming. That night, we receive our first attack from the Yetis that are chasing us. With that, we were unable to rest as we fought them off and were forced to continue the trek to the lair unless we wanted to die. We encounter no setbacks on day six, but we are attacked yet again by the Yetis that night. On day seven, a blizzard hits the group after an earth(ice)quake rocks the Plane of Ice. We again fight the Yetis that night and are forced to continue moving instead of being able to rest. Continuing to travel on day eight, we are hit with another avalanche that we survive. However, as if they were aware that the avalanche would have killed some creatures, a small patrol of Ice Giants walks right past our group as we hide in a Major Image that was cast by Wiggler. We once again are forced to fight the Yetis and keep moving on night eight. Travel on day nine was especially long as we had multiple setbacks that were encountered. We encountered a mountain face that we had to climb, an earthquake, and then while looking for a place of possible rest, we found a cave that ended up having an Ice Spider nest inside of it. At the end of that long day, our group determines that we are unable to go another night of fighting Yetis and continuing the forced march. With that, we try to brainstorm how we can avoid being attacked. In the end, Selene proposses that we all try and enter her Genie space that she has from her warlock pact. Being that normally, only she is able to go inside of it, since she is not powerful enough to take us all inside, our group spends a bunch of our resources to help boost her power so that we are all able to enter. However, we are only able to enter after I sacrafice my Book of Shadows and transfer that energy to Selene that she gets enough arcane energy to boost herself temporarily so that we all can enter her Genie space. That is the first night we were able to get a good nights rest since the day we entered the Plane of Ice. On the following day ten, we all exit the Genie space and continue our travels towards the dragons lair. We eventually get to where Oliver tells us that the dragons lair is, and we are faced with a massive cliff face that we will have to climb. We rapidly get ourselves tied together and with the help of Oliver and the Rope of Climbing, we begin our ascent to the top. Not long after we start climbing, we hear the Yetis arrive at the base of the cliff face and just stop, as they know that we will come to them if we fall off the cliff.

As we are climbing, it took a little bit to notice, but I eventually notice that some of the areas on the cliff face that we passed were unnatural, and not a second after, that is proven true as they begin to extrude from the cliff face revealing that they are heads to a cryo-hydra that is hidden within the cliff face. With this, our group begins flying/climbing up rapidly while fighting off the Cryo-Hydra. Iris proved to be invaluable during this fight as she kept summoning firey meteors to keep the Cryo-Hydra away. However, as we were climbing/flying up the cliff face while fighting the Cryo-Hydra, we found that we were also being attacked from the top of the cliff by a Cyclopes that was throwing boulders at our group. The climb up the cliff face was very tough and strenuous, with myself and Eavan being knocked out at one point from either getting hit by the Cryo-Hydra, the boulders being thrown by the Cyclopes, or just slipping on the icy cliff face and falling a little. Wiggler helped in getting our group up the cliff face by healing the group as we went up, I helped Iris in dealing with the Cryo-Hydra heads when I could, and Selene took care of the Cyclopes by charming it and pushing it off the edge of the cliff with the help of Iris, sending it all the way down to the pack of Yetis that were still waiting at the bottom of the cliff face. With all of that, we eventaully get to the top of the cliff and regroup ourselves before spotting a massive cavern entrance.

However, before we are able to enter the cavern, Iris reveals with the help of a Lantern of Revealing that was borrowed from the Weapons Rack, the ghost of a massive Frost Giant. The spirit then speaks to us stating that he is Lord Hulfgar the spirit of the mountain and that he was captured and forced into an alliance with the White Dragon and is the father of Prince Ulftiir before Ysildra murdered him and froze his body in ice. He says that he will grant us access to the the dragons treasures if we free his spirit. We eventually agree before entering the cavern. Upon entering, we see an alluring pile of treasures in the center of the lair that is covered and surrounded in ice. We also spot several silhouettes in the ice on the walls of the lair. Ren and I go around inspecting the figures in the ice while the rest of the group inspects the ice surrounding the treasures. There end up being nine figures frozen in the icy walls of the lair. They end up being a young blue dragon, a blue skinned humanoid with white feathery wings and a halo (Planetar), a large beholder, a large blue salamander that is identified as a Behir (a creature created by giants to hunt dragons), a dwarf with a bushy red beard and bushy red eyebrows that also has a lions tail, a large skeletal bird, a humanoid with deep red skin and a lower body that is made of smoke that is leading into a lantern (efritti), a mass of green tentacles, and a large Frost Giant.

The group then decides to free the body of the Frost Giant to hopefully fulfill the promise to the Spirit of the Mountain (Lord Hulfgar). His body falls limp to the grond after we melt the ice and his spirit reappears to the group. He thanks us for freeing his body and spirit as his body is engulfed in flames and dissipates into nothingness. With the corpse of the Frost Giant gone, the magical seals that were found on the ice surrounding the hoard, break. We then proceed to discuss if we should free any of the other creatures that are frozen in the ice.

We end up deciding to free the angel looking being first. He greets us and introduces himself as Samiael, he has sky blue skin with white feathery wings and if inspeced closely, one can see that his halo has a small crack in it. He mentions that he used to server Temorah before being sent away after the death of Temorahs sister. We then ask him if he recognizes any of the other beings that are trapped in the ice. He mentions that the mass of tendrils is something very old and not of the realm. He also mentions that the dwarf was "always thinking".

Following that, we decide to visit the mass of tendrils next as I received a feeling of familiarity with the tendrils similar to how my pact with my unknown patron feels. I go over with Iris and we melt the ice holding the mass of tendrils. They slop onto the floor infront of us, before they start squirming around. I then begin to hear it speak to me, saying that I too serve the Weeping One, and that I am "one of them" and should join "them" and "sing her song". The tendrils beckon me to be baptized ny "her tears" and that i will be shown my history and my future. I try my best to politley decline the invitation, but the mass of tendrils does not like that and aggresifly states that "they: will be back for me, whether I am ready or not, before it dissapears.

Our group then discusses what to do next, and we decide to melt the ice surrounding the loot first before going and freeing any other beings. In the pile of shiny and magical loot, Iris spots an annomoly in a chess board that is missing a piece, specifically a white pawn. Iris reveals that she was once sparred from dying by a member of The Seven that told her that she was just a pawn, and Iris then reveals that she has a white pawn. However, after we study the chess board, we see where the white pawn piece was and that the white pawn piece is the only piece that can be moved. And unfortunately, anywhere the white pawn can be moved, puts it in immediate danger. Iris, not one to always play by the rules, decides to take "fate" into her own hand and "cheat" the game by knocking over the black queen piece and placing her white pawn where the black queen was, effectively taking the black queen as a white pawn. This causes a change to occur to the pawn. The white pawn piece that Iris had is then transformed into a mixed black/white queen piece. Iris goes and picks up the new chess piece that was her former white pawn piece, unsure of what to make of it.

Our group then decieds to free the Efritti next with Selene taking the lead on this one as she has a Warlock pact with a Genie. After being freed, the Efritti grants Selene a wish and gives her two minutes to think it over and declare the wish before the opportunity vanishes. Selene eventually wishes for material that will alow her to make a weapon. The Efritti grants this wish by causing the beholder to break out of the ice that was trapping it, and killing it. After the beholder dies, all of its eyes get plucked out and then float over to Selene. After fulfilling the wish, the Efritti then makes a copy of its lamp and then hands it to Selene saying that if she ever grows tired of her current patron, that she can find help with him.

The last being we free has turned out to be one of the more immediately troublesome creatures as the Dwarven figure has started telepathically speaking to us before we even approached him. The Dwarven figure introduced himself as Humphery, and states that he is a "normal dwarf". Eventually we free him, probably against our better judgement as he dissapears into a poof of abyssal magic after being freed.

We decide to then leave the blue dragon, the skeletal bird, and the Behir frozen in the ice as they would probably be bad news for our group.

Our group then goes and separates the rest of the magic items and whatnot in the treasure hoard. From it, I pick up a set of Elven Chainmail, a pair of Boots of Levitation, a couple different potions, and whatever spell scrolls the rest of the group did not want, along with a good amount of gold.

And with that, our group decides its probably for the best that we leave the Plane of Ice and return to the Waystation. Iris then brings out the RoWW and opens up a portal back to the Waystation. We then go and deliver some of the gold we received from the dragons hoard to the members of the groups that took down the Frost Giants and Ysildra. Oliver also takes this chance to thank our group for being wonderful travelling companions and leaves the Waystation with his frostbitten body and cuts his way back into the jungle that surrounds the Waystation.