Waking in Emerald, comfortable, warm, and safe, the party enjoyed nice baths and an enjoyable breakfast. With temporary goodbyes, they set out, each with a goal in mind. The party had an absolute dump truck full of goodies in their Bag of Holding, which they sold quickly, and then set about finding upgraded equipment. Some took a few days to procure. A bit of discussion over the meal had determined who would wear what from their fallen enemies- notably, Alenka donned the magical fire pendant- a minor artifact from the Fire Source, a small shard of Virin's essence that allows for limited dominion over fire elementals. Every night, Alenka dreams of fire, as her vibrations merge to a degree with that of the artifact- soon she will have the powers granted to Relthraroof before his demise.

Ash recieves a letter from Srelindel, wherein she relates seeing more of the ghost plants, and that outside the elven wards there are several in the forests of Zeugeria. She asks if Ash knows anything about them, and warns him of them, as they appear to be spreading.

Rigby inquires into the state of Lady Sarah Ann, and finds her still absent- her multi-week trip having not expired in the span of a couple days. But it's ok to be forgetful when you are a pixie. How else could a tiny brain hold so many experiences?

Alenka hears some rumors- first, that Narso, the rogue who they had had the misfortune to fight from the future, and the fortune to capture for Emerald (before his escape), was sighted (he tried
to establish contant with the local thieves, but was discouraged from doing so- though he did manage to escape from the discouragment). Since his known jobs so far have been "kill someone" and "kill everyone", the party decides to file this under Lesser Importance.

Most of the party (I don't remember which weren't there) ask around for a druid- someone who would likely know more about the plants. Arriving at an herbalist's shop, the shop keeper gestures over to a class being given, discussing the identification and use of many local plants- Falwellan Lolisonna, an experienced druid (but still quite young by elven standards) is giving the lessons.

Waiting until the lesson is over (and paying the couple silver fee for being there), the group asks him about the plants- and he is rather knowledgable. The plants have begun showing up in different spots of Arcata and Pallia- in Pallia in the north, and in the southwest of Arcata, but some have been spotted even in the farms of Miara. The focus seems to be in the Teryeal Expanse on Arcata, and, as a best guess, the shadowlands in Pallia. He hands the party a note of passage that should help with any who recognize the authority of the druids (which is all nations in those two continents, and most of their provinces).



With this valuable note of passage in hand, the party decides to file this under Least Importance.


Heading to Zem tower, they ask for Octessa, only to find that she is busy training. Instead, Divination Master Zeth Saluo greets them- he first learned of them during the recent battle over Balthras, where their mere presence on the continent distracted Vix-Thur. Who were they, that the Voriphan High General would stop in the middle of an important battle to attempt to slay them?

Even if they only distracted him for half a minute, it was an important half a minute. Zeth informs them that they are unable to be divined- when he tried, he simply saw an arrow aimed directly at his "eye", and all he got out of his efforts was a splitting headache. He asks them what they go by, what they call their band of adventurers, but the party waffles and has nothing to say. I envisioned them all sort of looking at their shuffling feet and saying "gollee... gee... i dunno...", but that's not canon.

The party discusses the dragon boxes, and Zeth has some information- there was a magical trail, now several months cold, that lead to the Attomorai mountains. With the danger of Rim-Thul's agents still perhaps endagering copper dragons, the party heads to Rotan, a city whose prime is over a thousand years over, but is still a vital part of what once was known Perral, long before Zem's arrival. The city is a port town of sorts- whenever it is not winter, the natural spring under Lake Rota flows down to the sea in two distinct directions, both rivers able to be navigated- and it is on the docks that the party materializes.

"WIZARDS!!!" a boy screams, diving into an alley. The more seasoned hands look over, and while the arrival of a Pallian, a Kelestran, a dwarf and and elf seems extremely odd, especially given that they arrived out of thin air, no one seems to be overly concerned, and the few locals tend to break line of sight as soon as possible- for after all, they are either heroes or villains, and villains are less likely to kill you if you don't witness them do something bad...

A bit of orientation follows, as the group hits low society starting in the afternoon and carrying on into the night. Alenka and Keichi find that there was some odd folks from out of town a few months prior, and that they had some dealings with the local thieves guild. A different line of questioning in a pub, and Alenka has found out how to "register" with the local thieves guild- so she, and the remainder of the group, head to the alley. She approaches, spots three other rogues hiding deeper down the alley, asks some questions, and the relatively unimportant thief decides to not tell anyone anything. Rigby charms him, which puts him in the silly situation of being friends with an invisible man in the sky. However, since this is a fantasy game, he's clever enough to run away, instead of founding a religion and killing everyone who disagrees with him, which is normally how that works out IRL. The theives run through a hidden door, and of course the PCs give chase quite successfully, their big concern being trying to not simply obliterate everyone. After applying some dire threats (and a dash of gold), the party finds that, in fact, there was a group

that is likely operating in the foothills of the mountains to the south east (including some vague directions about which valley is most likely, as there is an abandoned keep there)- and that this group has made several expensive and odd orders through the local guild.

Three days of survailance finds the abandoned keep- though it is not so abandoned. A bit of scouting, some from the hills, and some from inside the keep walls (but not the central fort) shows that there are several guards (the party hypothesizes that they may be there under duress), and a few who seem in some leadership position- a warrior, a rogue, and a half elf in a purple robe.

There is also a sorceress, but she never appeared outside. Using this information, they wait until around 4 AM, and then climb out of a rope trick, one cast at the top of one of the towers used to defend from roaming Hawkmen back when this keep was operational. Sneaking down, they ambush a guard, but do end up waking Perytheon, an amethyst dragon, and clearly sort of important in this particular abandoned keep. Over the next few rounds, with the alarm sounding, the rogue (Robert Fletcher), sorceress (Maytessa Fletcher), fighter (Therson Fletcher), and all the hired help arrive in the large central room. Maytessa runs in, having just woken up and cast a few (entirely useless, as it turns out) defensive spells- she immediately lands a Feeblemind on Morgrim, which makes

the fight actually dangerous for the single round it takes Ash to call him over (c'mere boy! Cmon! Here boy, here!) and cast Heal. The masses of guards is defeated quite severely by area effects cast by Rigby, and Keichi and Alenka attack, first the dragon, and then the warrior and fighter. Rigby ends up connecting with a sleep arrow, and Maytessa falls asleep, soon to be briefly awakened by her own death, and Perytheon, seeing that the night-murderers apparently have gained the upper hand, runs over to a table, seizing two items, and then, subject to a dimensional anchor spell, knocks out the wall with his force-lozenge, and flees into the night, making full use of the fact that, even glowing with fairy fire and dimensional anchor, he is still a fucking huge dragon. Before his departure, he did imply that he was working for someone, leaving the party to suspect the Night Cloak.

Robert and Therson flee, and are cut down- Robert is interrogated. He recognized Alenka as "an XXXXX"- her family name. I said "Thatcher" at the time, but I had forgetten that this was her ADOPTED name- her birth family of travelling traders (who was slain by raiders, one of whome was the father of the three killed this night) is whose facial features they recognized in Alenka, not those of her adoptive family. Yeti, do you have a preferred birth last name? Your birth family travelled the southern roads of Zemnia, Kelestris, and Dulal, so any Arcatan name would work. Sorry about that- I thought your name was original with you, and your adoptive family had a different one, because apparently I fucking fail at reading.

The center of the room has a work table- the edges have various reagents, some slightly magical, some mundane. One side of the table has the almost-complete copper dragon box- but it is clearly not in use, except as a template. Remaining are white, green, and black boxes, the blue and red having been flown off with by Perytheon. The other boxes are not done, but certainly are coming along. The copper box seems secured by something very powerful indeed, and eventually Alenka pokes and carves with her unstoppable rapier, a circle. Upon extracting the box, she is overcome with a compulsion to the destroy the copper box, which she promptly does. With the other boxes as loot, the group transports back to Emerald...

Where Rigby is kidnapped, by kids! A kidkidnapping. If Rigby had fallen asleep in the bag, it could have been a kidkidnappingnapping. If the children were somnambulists, it could have been a nappingkidkidnappingnapping. In any event, the rigbysac is hauled to a nearby kitchen, where, in the basement, the children open the bag to see what great wealth their nimble fingers and dashing bravery had earned. It was, in fact, a furious tiny winged man, with arrows. Rigby threatened their lives, and forced them to leave and wet themselves. These are certainly the tales that will be told when heroism is discussed- perhaps it is a good thing that this party has no name.

Rigby furiously flaps back to Zem tower, where he informs the guards (and eventually bribes them) that when a bag appears on the ground, specifically HIS BAG, that they are not to let just anyone walk up and open the bag, and that he is inside the bag, and it is his bag. This seems to work.

The party heads to the High Temple of Zem for morning pancakes, bypassing the freebies and getting the deluxe ones available to donors. After pancake time, the party is able to catch Octessa before her morning training.

Keichi decides that, if possible, it would be good to find out what exactly the story is with "The Night Cloak". Octessa invites them into her quarters, lavishly appointed and filled with her interests- ways of magically defending Arcata, a lovely touch responsive three dimensional map of Caligo, a rigid chair with a purest white continual flame, and several other chairs that were gloriously (and magically) comfortable, as well as a well apportioned private library. On the table between the bed and desk, the latest reading and writing material (a compendium of known monsters- she was adding more details about the mind flayers that the party had recently encountered). Octessa does not know who the Night Cloak is, but does say that he has never actually shown his face, or officially been spotted in Emerald- technically, he (or she) could just be a rumor. Octessa has a lot more to say about the dragon boxes, and the party decides that their prompt destruction is best, now that all but two have been accounted for, and those two are for the control of evil dragons. A few disintegrates later, and the boxes are all a fine dust.
While not mentioned at the time, Octessa is visibly less agile than before- while her disintegrates were still expertly aimed, her hands shake a bit, and while her movements were graceful before, now they are average.

The party Sends to two dragons- the blue dragon, and the green dragon that the party have met- and warns them of the existence of the boxes. The green dragon promises a small reward for service, the blue responds merely with a brief thanks.

A bit more discussion brings up the next things that could be pressing:

-Narso is in town, and he's never there on good business.
-Ghost plants are taking over- they grow like real plants, but provide no nourishment, and seem to outcompete real plants in some situations.
-There are orcs trying to push northward from the Teryeal Expanse- currently into Dulal
-There is someone or something(s) who goes by "The Night Cloak"- presumed to be involved in the creation of the chromatic dragon boxes.

Taking a bit of initiative, Keichi crafts a message (that the others chime in all over the place on), which Alenka sends to one of her presumed underword contacts- the response comes back within the hour:



A bit of deliberation, and a peacemaking response was sent back, gaining the following response:


With the promise of no iminent death from THAT direction secured, the party teleports to Fort Dellior, where they meet their old ally Caleb, who is prepared and ready to rumble with orcs. In fact, he's BEEN rumbling with orcs, as the outside walls are littered with decaying orcs. His mixed contingent of Knights of the Copper is being reinforced by Dulian regulars, but the orcs are lead by a chieftan who seems invincible, and is allied with a red dragon. Caleb is certainly glad to see his old friends- not just because they are awesome, but also because they clearly bring quite a bit of power to a cause that was running into problems, and definitely needs help. The problem of the ghost plants is also pressing, and this is one of the possible origination points for such a curse.

Worth the wait

Excellent recap indeed. Reading it in this form, I wonder if going to slaughter orcs is in our best interest, at least in terms of what seems to be most pressing. But we're there, and we have our Orc Killing Pants on.


Had this been mentioned, I would've inquired right away what was wrong. Let's keep this in mind for after we make Minceorc Pie.

We can RP that later, but you DO know what is wrong, out of character and in character- out of character you were informed by the recap (the ability drain ability on Vix-Thur's spells), and in character you were informed by one of the, uh, exposition wizards, who spoke to your party about the battle.