First, I'll go over what all the previous posts have said in a more abbreviated fashion, then I'll go over some facts that might be interesting.

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The player characters arrived in Flenala, having answered a cry for help. A variety of monsters had showed up in eastern Aykaiton, in the area known as the "neck of Aykaiton". The area was rich with local volunteers, had some foreign volunteers, and also had a few foreign troops. The party's duties involved delivering goods and patrolling, which was in some ways riskier (there was no army protecting them and there are plenty of wandering monsters), but definitely didn't involve serving as frontline forces versus whatever masses of monsters would be found.


Their journey took them to the farming village of Taro Rows, where they met Tivuren, who knew a lot about Cyndra's condition, and her identity as a Wildfire Druid. He gave instructions to a place north of the border that had a long abandoned temple, along with a magical item that was causing these problems. The party headed in that direction, accepting a Kenda Gem under dubious conditions from some guards- important only because the party was asked about it via the Veragram, a magical device that only transmits true things, and broadcasts them into the skies above several cities.

North of the border the party met some hengeyokai and helped them, and then invaded an abandoned temple (originally a temple to Rynathemat, the archdemon who created the Primal Fire and Earth and also the orcs), and found it full of dead druids and animals with a golden aura. They also found messages from the Ember Remnant, a group of wildfire druids attempting to seize the Branch of Palendis from the Nightfriend Loyalists. The Nightfriend Loyalists were using this item to summon animals, wrap them in a golden aura, and deploy them against the invading monsters- but there were plenty of reports of these grand beasts attacking certain humans south of the border and also, these were the beasts that destroyed Skattebo's tribe. The mechanism for their deployment was a bizarre tunnel that began relatively normally and ramped upwards. The Branch of Palendis was missing- a few Nightfriend Loyalists had escaped- and there was a red sphere that had been created by it that, a note assured, would be able to lead a wildfire druid to it. The notes were written for Tivuren, and spoke down to him- the leader of the Ember Remnant, Quintar, definitely did not like him or seek him out. The party then returned to the border crossing, but not before they were attacked by ninjas from the Wyvern ninja clan, one of whom they killed and one of whom escaped. Using acceptably vague directions from the crimson sphere, they made their way southeast to Albensire.

Before they got there they were set upon by Robeen Fire and his minions, all of whom were killed except for Robeen Fire, who threw a ring into a stream. Nyxara found this ring, and of course without it, Robeen was a rather scared and embarrassed non-murderer, none of which had been true moments before. Then, just before they found a battlefield, mostly full of dead demons, and including a dead Oni who had been the leader of the demon forces. There were also no small number of human corpses (and some dragonborn) and abandoned weapons and machines of war- a skirmish that the demons had lost. There were still enough around for a lively fight, however. Albensire had a few leads about the Nightfriend Loyalists, and it also featured an interrogation of Salenis Raven, employed by the Northwest Assembled Councils of Ghelmidias armies.

After this, the party finds the Nightfriend Loyalists and quickly engages in a fast battle that took almost no time at all, after which Cyndra uses the Branch of Palendis to free primal efreeti Azarellen, who then thanked the party by calling in a favor owed to her by Dysilret, which allowed the party to engage in fun minigames and win nifty prizes.

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Ok that summarizes everything, but lets go over some things that could be important.

1- These monsters all originated north of the border. Some were the golden beasts, intended to fight the OTHER invaders, but who attacked Skattebo's tribe and were also reported to have attacked a few travellers south of the border, and also killed a man identified as Li Tili by his documents, whose body was wearing a ring that caused a strange effect when worn- while wearing the ring, all your new experiences are stored in the ring, not in your brain!
Other monster attacks include elementals, shades, some undead, goblins, and some agitated monstrosities that aren't native to this place- and then there's minor demons under an Oni, a pattern that has been reported to the party three times (one of which they saw). Unlike demons who are called from the Blades of Hell, Oni are denizens of the physical realm, and are never up to any good. Oni are always evil and the result of an evil giant (usually an ogre) deliberately calling a demon into itself. They are an uncommon but persistent threat north of the three large nations of Aykaiton.
So this is at least four categories of assailants- Oni leading lesser demons, monsters not native to Aykaiton, humanoids from north of the border going on raids, and golden beasts. One of which, the golden beasts, has been resolved- but as they were mostly attacking the other three groups, this is definitely going to make the invasion worse.

2- Isai Memory troops are the main resistence to this, along with a substantial volunteer force. Bairnenmel has contributed some specialized teams of artificers and their machinery but very few regular troops (their regular troops are occupied in Temlancia, cleaning up after a bunch of dead vampires). The Assembled Councils of Ghelmidais have contributed a few troops as well, but the bulk of their forces are also in Temlancia. The most common foreign volunteer is from the Valleys of Bravery, lands not directly threatened by the invasion but pretty close. Suspiciously rare are troops from Suri Memory, the second most powerful nation in Aykaiton and a rival to Isai Memory.

3- You've seen two of these memory rings, one on a man killed by golden beasts and one on Robeen Fire.

4- Azarellen was caged by an etheric prison created by, and linked to, the Branch of Palendis, which Cyndra destroyed. This imprisonment happened three to four years ago. Also Cyndra saw several human and dragonborn practicing divine and arcane magic on the Branch of Palendis, in what was a visual reconstruction of the past granted by Azarellen. There could have been more information, but PAR had to roll a d20 and we all know how that goes.

5- The Wyvern Clan is a ninja clan of mostly humans and hengeyokai that is based somewhere in the very northern mountains of Aykaiton, and they are noted for their ability to grow crops in harsh weather. For some reason, they have safehouses very far south, and have been engaged in some activity around the border of Isai Memory.

5- Master Iliphar is an instructor at The Nocturnal Sgail. Prior to that he was a member of the Unbreakable Promise, a group dedicated to maintaining the existing borders of Aykaiton. Salenis Raven claimed that Master Iliphar was raiding the safehouses of the Wyvern Clan, destroying them when they were not occupied. Saintillane Maiges mentioned that Master Iliphar had been asked to investigate something to the north of both Memories by the Unbreakable Promise.

6- Before humans found Nylsanna's Stone, some humans had psychic potential and were trained in psionics, but when the event recorded as the "first collapse" occurred, all human psychics died, and all humans were knocked out- in some cases, for days. A few gem dragons died, some slightly larger number were rendered insane, many were unconscious for some number of minutes and all at least experienced discomfort. So gem dragons, which Nylsanna created, are "psychic entities", as are some of the singularly powerful creatures created by the archdemons- certainly including Azarellen. This is the line of inquiry that your current heist is planned to add some information too, and of course, Imali Tanut seems to be studied on this topic.

7- Xivatox is an orc with blue skin who was doing some kind of spiritual shenanigans designed to get peaceful orcs into his... activities. You don't know anything about this but what Skattebo saw (worse, what he was able to... verbally express...), but this is definitely something that is happening somewhere!


This is an incomplete summary of everything that is going on, in part because there's things that have happened that you haven't seen any effects of, in part because there's things where you've seen one thing and that's not a pattern yet, and in part because I probably forgot to add some stuff.

Finally as a very-slightly-metagamey thing, the mechanics on my end involve actors who do things, and usually these will have effects that are visible to the PCs, so if you think something is suspicious and you've seen something like it twice, that's a good tell that there's some person or faction up to something.

Up until recently your only sources for information were really the Races, Classes, and Spells documents. The Races document is a Point-of-view document written by Silmarenesten Evanestinnod, an emerald dragon, so he could have things wrong, or details might be missing- the implication is that he was doing the best he could and attempts to be neutral while staying within the bounds of what he's allowed to say, and what he could research. The Classes and Spells documents have very little information, but what they do have is at least from-the-DM statements that can be fully relied on. Classes or Spells that involve world-specific details- such as the Artificer, the Cleric, and the wacky demon summoning spell- have facts about the world in general. So those are still fine reading- but now that you're in a small city, with an artificer as an ally, you can ask more direct questions and get some answers if you need.

Also feel free to ask any questions here!

What's this now?


Ok, so this is new to me.



Ok, so the golden beasts were primarily attacking the other invaders, but also attacking other people such that we can conclude the NFL are not good. But what of the other invaders? Are they moving in a direction? From a direction? Towards a capital? Just trying to murder as many people as possible? Appearing from nowhere, arriving by ship, or appearing from fixed locations where someone might imagine a portal? Is there anything to indicate a purpose or why this particular nation?



With the exception of what is described here, who the fuck is Master Iliphar? And who is Saintillane? Was that the woman who wanted to question our ninja?

More questions...
Are these three remaining groups of invaders working together? Working against each other?

Is it reasonable to say that our primary goal is to stop these invaders, but since we don't know what is happening, our current quest is to figure who/what is behind this and why?

Cyndra's journey was purposeful and driven by an excruciating non-physical pain. This pain provided her with guidance towards the physical source of the etheric cage for a primal entity of fire- a cage which was drawing immense amounts of power from that entity, twisting and damaging the ancient flows of fire. Her condition was the recurring waves of this pain, plus some vague directionality. All wildfire druids felt this pain in varying amounts, and it is why they were uniquely both aware of and able to reach the nightfriend loyalists. It's why Tivuren was near the area, and it's why the Ember Remnant was mostly destroyed attempting to destroy whatever or whomever was drawing so much energy from Azarellen- that it was the Branch of Palendis, a notable magical item that was never thought capable of such a feat in the past, was discovered relatively recently.


The Arau held reverence for the bear totem, and their spirituality was based on nature, which is the case for many orcs, but by no means a majority. They were destroyed by rampaging beasts- the signs of that were plentiful, and of course this is not a typical or natural occurrence.



Master Iliphar Elkrana is a high ranking instructor at the Nocturnal Sgail, a ninja school whose esoteric teachings are open, not just to potential students of ninja traditions who wish to learn of these alleged oppositional metaphysical forces, but to foreign students of high birth. He taught both Nyxara and Saintillane (and many others), and disappeared directly after an attack on the school. Saintillane and Nyxara both went to different places to follow alleged leads, and both have found some information that they want to share with each other.
The woman who wanted to question your ninja (but was herself questioned!) is Salenis Raven.

All three of these points are carried forward from the backstories of these three PCs, pieces of which are on the forum under Post 0, and pieces of which have been shared in character. However, I don't think all of this has been said at the table in character overtly yet.


I'm not totally sure this came up, but the golden beasts were definitely intended to attack only the invaders- the nightfriend loyalists didn't intend the other victims. The fact that other victims existed was a great reason to stop them, of course. The gild beast ability, inherited by the crimson focus, contains the following wording: "...the beast works with you and other gilded beasts to rampage and destroy any targets you describe. The beasts ability to discern such targets is heightened substantially beyond its normal capability in any wilderness."



They all come from north of the border. While the unclaimed lands have a bunch of monsters, you've only met like a couple- it's not normally a land of rampaging elementals, or shadow creatures (shadow creatures are native to Temlancia, and very rare outside of these), or undead, or necromancers, or demons. The Oni, goblins, ogres, orcs, do live there, and do attack people- usually outside of Isai Memory, not inside it- and Oni are always up to evil in all circumstances. They don't normally have a bunch of little demons to run around with though.
No one has seen them appear, and that is in fact a question that almost everyone badly wants to know about- a VERY solid question.


This is also a very solid question, and thus far nothing overt or obvious answers this.


You haven't seen any signs of these groups clashing with each other, and you've received reports third hand of goblins who talk to demons, and were paid to spread lies about the Ember Remnant. So while they may not represent any united force, they seem to be, in some cases quite literally, travelling the same path.


Yea, I think that's perfectly reasonable.

Ok, here is what I am thinking might help, and I don't think this should be a big deal. It could be handwritten if you really take your time and write clearly. I am not being a dick with that - I can't read my own handwriting.

Sort of like a map, but almost a schematic. I'm not worried about distances between land masses or whatever. You can just write "far" or "983 miles away" with an arrow. The layout doesn't matter too much because I know you have maps that show the geography. But I am hoping to have a sense of...

Land mass 1 = Bob's Very Large Turtle
Nation1 = The Head
Residents of The Head = Humans primarily, a few elves. Many ninjas, but they are never seen
Cities of The Head = Left Eye and Right Eye. Right Eye is dominant.
Government of The Head = Council of Nostril
Nation2 = The Shell
Residents of The Shell = Wild beasts, demons, and humans who got kicked out of civilization. See: Idaho.
Government of The Shell = None (do not be a smartass and name a government None)
Relationship between The Head and The Shell = Invaders from the Shell into The Head seem to be a problem

Land mass 2 = The Essence of Leaf....

And so on. Your references have already spanned a world, and we have no sense of it. When you name a place... are we in that place? Is it next door? Are we at war with that place? Do they have kangaroos? I would greatly appreciate a quick reference sheet for what these places are.

I'm not sure exactly what that would look like, but I weirdly did throw this part out because the OP seemed wordy:
"Aykaiton is a landmass in the "mirrored peaks" of Nylsanna's Stone, and it is divined into three large countries with some relatively disjointed borders- plus a section that is not officially claimed by any country. There is also a city state ("Precious Metal") to the north. Suri memory is in the southwest and has a semi-exclave on the far east, Isaï Memory is in the north and whose northeast extents is where all party activity took place until they walked through a portal, and Valleys of Bravery run along the southeast coastline. There is a map with all these borders that was made available as a printout and I hope a PNG. These borders were the subject to relatively brutal wars in the past. The entire northeast section of Aykaiton is by treaty not to be part of any country external to it- it is the domain of ogres, fey, orc tribes, hengeyokai, dragons, and others. While this has been unchanged for some time, it is not fully stable, with land that is to be shared among a set of non-human tribes and humans who would prefer their company to being under the jurisdiction of a government being contested and uncertain."
To which I'll expand:

Five hundred years ago saw the Border Wars, which involved essentially the entire landmass, with a variety of factions. The four dominant factions were a loose alliance of northern humans, demihumans, giants, and dragons, mostly western humans who held to the Isaï philosophy, mostly southern humans who held to the Suri philosophy, and of the very many who didn't care about any of this but didn't want to lose their land, enough banded together to form the Valleys of Bravery- their attitudes and traditions are the oldest on Aykaiton, as they generally don't like any of the knowledge channelled and written in "Ziu/Kuo"- also known as "Z/K Xeno Script", blaming it for all the disunity in the past and present. This knowledge contains a lot of cultural traditions in addition to the philosophical and mystical writings, many of which have permeated all across Aykaiton.
Two hundred years ago saw the Lesser Border Wars, and these were long enough and frustrating enough to turn most away from conquest- it was these that prompted the creation of the semi-secret group Unbreakable Promise.

Here's the map for Aykaiton, with a simple scale (you all have this electronically and as a printout)
https://drive.proton.me/urls/7Y7F840ZMC#jX7cVWvoMmgp

So Isaï Memory, which you'll see has a substantial east/west presence, is mostly humans, but also has independent lands granted to high elves, who are compatible with the idealistic Isaï philosophy, which focuses heavily on ideals. It's the land under rather direct attack right now. Suri Memory, which holds to a complementary and somewhat opposite philosophy is not as wealthy as its northern neighbor, and you haven't seen many troops from them, despite their semi-exclave being very close to the east. Valleys of Bravery have committed a goodly amount of troops and volunteers.

But at this moment, you guys are pretty far to the east of where you started. Here's a copy of the world map you guys have:
https://drive.proton.me/urls/BZAQ0B59N0#zZWfYAkHCR5g
The landmass of Lamenciron is about 3000 miles east of Aykaiton, which is pretty good for a portal! That's where you guys are right now. A thousand more miles east would see you in Temlancia- that's where all the vampires ruled before they all suddenly died. That land is currently really busy with troops from Bairnenmel (that's where you are now), the Allied Kingdoms, and the Assembled Councils of Ghelmidais. Those two entities share Ghelmidais, the large landmass to the east of Temlancia. All three of these nations possess airships and troops and for years had a common enemy in each of the nine bloodpacts that composed Temlancia, all of whom were run by vampires, rather powerful, pure evil, and utterly dead now. The Allied Kingdoms are mostly human with a decent number of elves, and dragonborn exist in small numbers. Bairnenmel is more human than anything else, but anyone is welcome there and pretty much are present there. The Assembled Councils of Ghelmidais are mostly dragonborn and humans. Up until 50 years ago Palendis was an Allied Kingdom- now it's part of the Assembled Councils, which is why you hear the Ember Remnant bitching about them so much.

Your characters all know pretty much all of this, and if you wouldn't know it in character (Skattebo wouldn't know anything outside of Aykaiton and may not even be familiar with the Valleys of Bravery- he certainly knew human lands were to the south though) you could always ask an NPC or even a PC in character. Though I will definitely admit I don't want to have to give geography lessons in character to the Int 7 orc.