Well on my first day here Two of the old guard took off and another one died by assassination. Lovely start.

We (and by that I mean ‘the summoner’) defeated a group of shape shifting Ogren. Some sort of common ancestor to Ogres and goblins I think. They’re were on a scouting mission, badly concealed as farmers.

We took the remains of one back to what passes for a temple, Isabella is the cleric’s name. Gnome, likes the long bottom leaf. She said it’d take a day.

During the day that bow stringer that was on the boat started talking crap about guns so Finnion (aforementioned summoner) set up a shooting competition. I acquitted myself decently well considering an Alphatian heavy pistol was meant for short range shooting. But it was Lars Eastman, an Axe beak rancher that won the day. He also sold about eight Axe Beaks to Zozo the gunweilding gnome who.

Speaking of which, I saw his gun in action. Thermal thaumatogical binding and extra-dimensional storage capacity with direct access to the firing chamber. The gunsmith is very good.

Oh, the common folk /really/ like watching things explode in midair. Especially with fire.

There was drinks at the inn after the contest. Though I wonder why Finnion went to all the trouble.

Today we got some answers out of the Ogren corpse. He worked for Lord Fane (Vane, Thane?), Viscount of the Blackened Grove. Which we established is in the First World where their base is. Their mission was to scout out our defenses. I need an interim solution before we can build a wall.

I spoke to Rodger Smith and Wesson Hammerstine, stien? About Zozo’s gun. Looks like Rodger – who is awfully tall for a dwarf – is using a technique called spirit blacksmithing, imbuing his creations with emotions shared with his assistant. They must have a very…passionate partnership judging from that gun. Rodger refers to it as ‘looking at the metal, and removing where the gun is not’. Interesting, even if it’s an innate born in ability there could be a lot to learn here.

Caught up with the bowman – I can’t remember his name, he spent the entire voyager here drunk – at the guard barracks. Looks like the guard are half decently equipped. I assume the same goes for these Crimson Blades. – Terrible name.

Oh yeah we undid that bear costume horsedung the last marshal was trying to put in. That was extra dumb.

This morrow we set out through the woods to try and pacify a path to this temple in the woods the others had been to before.

This was a BAD PLAN.

Turns out this section of forest gives them huge trouble every time they’ve entered it, as a gargantuan 20 foot spider just came out of the trees and poisoned two of us, Zozo and Finnion. Fortunately Finnion had the smarts to grease the damned thing and even though his edolon got poisoned too, it managed to fall on top of the spider, knocking it off it’s footing enough to drop it to the ground where it tried to eat me.

I fed it a bullet instead.

We decided to milk it for the poison. Maybe we can get an apothecary to make an anti-venom, seems there’s a bunch of smaller spiders of the same species around. We found its layer, a burrow mound really. We took stock of the contents discovering bodies are and some middling to decent equipment. We gathered up the valuables and laid the remains to rest as best we could. I hope there is a measure of peace for them now.

As the sun was setting and Zozo was getting worse – a potion of delay poison kept him going – we decided to camp out in the den, figuring most animals would stay away. All we got during the night was a bear eating berries.

We totally saved that bear by killing the spider.

First thing on the rising sun we get a visit from Tess’ fairy god mother. I didn’t seem to mention her previously. A charming fairy woman with sea green hair. Lovely, but, a fairy. She offered Zozo and Finnion healing in exchange for like favors later. I probably would have refused personally but that’s just because you can never tell what a fairy will think is a like favor. A straight up trade on the spot is a different thing.

I asked her about the blackened grove and Lord Fane, Viscount there of and all she could say is it wasn’t a part of the Summer Court. It was worth a shot.

I think we’re either heading to the Eastman’s ranch or back to town now, I could go for either right now. Sleeping in this armor isn’t really a joyous event.

Menes 5 of Spring Twilight, 1023 FA

When we last left our stalwart adventurers, they were recovering from the aftermath of their battle with the ghost of a sacrificial victim. After recovering their breath, the party made their way through the solitary unexplored door to the south, which led down a corridor to another set of double doors.

Opening the double doors revealed a chilling sight. The floor of the fifty-foot long room was flooded, anywhere from ankle to knee deep in places. At the end of the room, a glowing crystal floated in the room, the occasional crackle of green magical energy bursting forth to the water below. And standing before the crystal was a skeletal mage, staff raised high.

Hesitantly, the party advanced, but were told in a hissing voice, “Leave….” Ignoring the skeleton’s warning, they advanced, and with a wave of his magic staff, raised the corpses of the dead from beneath the water, to check the party’s advance.

The battle raged on, blasts of magical energy from the crystal raising the defeated skeletons as they fell, but the party pressed their opponents backwards. Finally, with the aid of a push from her husband, Nuna pushed past the pitched melee and launched herself at the mage, trying to restrain him. As she struggled with the skeletal wizard, Crimson Steel also pushed forwards from the melee; noticing beneath the crystal a gleaming sword, floating in the water, and the target of most of the crystal’s bolts of energy. With a mighty roar, Crimson Steel scooped up the sword and cleft the crystal in twain with a mighty series of blows.

As the pieces of the crystal dropped into the water below, all the skeletons dropped lifeless to the water, and all the lights and magic active on the temple went dead. Casting his own light spell, Zozo led the party in searching for and identifying the treasure, and most notably, identified the gleaming sword as the legendary blade Briar.

Leaving the now pacified temple, the group decided to search the surrounding area for any more surprises, the group came upon a pack of owlbears – at least half a dozen, and almost immediately decided to flee. They quickly outran the owlbears in the forest, but got split up into groups – Orik and Nuna, Tess and Zozo, and then Crimson Steel and Ravenlock, both on their own. Wandering through the forest, Crimson Steel and Ravenlock managed to find their way back to the doors of the temple, but Tess and Zozo managed to track down the rest of their companions; coming upon Orik and Nuna having an interlude, one that was rudely interrupted by goblins. Eventually, however, the group managed to reunite that night at the doors of the Peregrinator’s Temple, and, after a bit of an argument, plans were made to return to town.

Menes 6 of Spring Twilight, 1023 FA

The group’s venture back to Winterhaven Crossing took their path past the Eastman Ranch, where they spoke with Lars Eastman, and advised him that they had investigated the Peregrinator’s temple, successfully destroying the undead within. They declined another offer of dinner, and continued onwards towards town. Passing alongside the site of their battle with the Lamia Matriarch, they went to investigate how the troll they had subdued was faring, but found the site of their battle, the troll included, completely torched.

Prids 1 of Spring Twilight, 1023 FA

Another long day of travel took the party back to Winterhaven Crossing, where treasure was distributed and a night spent in their own beds. Pausing in their explorations, the party considered their next move into the hinterlands…

Menes 3 of Spring Twilight, 1023 FA

When last we left our stalwart adventurers, they were cleaning up after the aftermath of their mighty battle with the Lamia Matriarch’s goblin strike force, and her cowardly attack on Berringer’s wagon train. Berringer had offered to purchase the goblin’s weapons and armour for the princely sum of 200gp.

When Zozo stumbled upon the site of the battle, most of the discussion seemed to revolve around the only one of their assailants that was not dead; namely, Thrask the Troll, formerly of the southern bridge. Eventually, the decision was made to bury him up to his neck, let him regenerate, and then come back later to track him back to the Lamia’s lair.

After another hour or so of travel, the wagon train forded the second fork of the river, and came upon a fence surrounding several square miles; they’d found the Eastmans’ ranch. It was rapidly ascertained that the Eastmans didn’t ranch horses, but rather axe beaks, a large flightless bird well suited to being used as a mount.

Berringer and his supplies were well received by Lars Eastman, the owner of the ranch, who invited the party to stay the night and have dinner with the family. Svetlana Eastman, Lars’ wife, made mutton stew, and introduced them to their daughters, Wendy and Elle. Topics of conversation included arrangements to purchase axe beaks for the fledgling kingdom of Kynnys, a mysterious temple in the forest to the southeast, six miles south of a large rock on the river’s edge. As well, they spoke of the Lamia Matriarch, who it seems was interested in capturing Wendy Eastman for her sorcerous powers, although the Lamia never went beyond the boundaries of the ranch herself. Plans were made to look into the temple while they were in the area, and the party took advantage of the Eastman’s offer to spend the night in the boarding house.

Menes 4 of Spring Twilight, 1023 FA

Bright and early the next morning, as the Eastmans were getting ready for their tasks about the ranch, the party headed out after the temple immediately, moving south into the forest and then moving to the southeast to find the temple. However, they seemed to lose their bearings, and headed back to the river to try and find their landmark. By the time they located the rock that indicated the point where they should turn south, they’d been walking all day, and decided to make camp right there.

Menes 5 of Spring Twilight, 1023 FA

Dawn saw the adventurers heading south into the forest, and after only a few hours of searching, located the Temple of the Peregrinators, a small, ancient structure that pre-dated even the Alphatian Empire. The building was awash with magic, and the ancient stone doors stood unlocked.

The interior of the building was lit dimly with magical witch flames, and a dank mustiness pervaded the air. Their explorations brought them face to face with a multitude of skeletons and ghouls, which were handily dispatched. Deeper explorations into the temple, hidden behind a secret door, led to the high priest’s chamber, the corpse of a previous hapless adventurer, and an ancient altar, its last victim still lashed to the stone.

As the party approached the altar, the ghost of its last victim raised up out of the stone, and attacked. Its supernatural mien terrified half of the party, but after a terrifying and difficult battle, the ghost was finally dispatched. Pausing for a brief rest, the party considered the last unopened door that led into the heart of the temple…

Ides 3 of Winter Twilight, 1022 FA

Imperial Tradition holds that every Crown Princess, on her twentieth nameday, is given an incredibly lavish celebration, to mark the true passage from adolescence to adulthood. In keeping with this transition, they are also to be given a task.

The region which would come to be known as the Rhodene Marches is a small continent, approximately a thousand miles off of the coast of Carnival, an untapped and unexplored wilderness full of promise.

Today is Imperial Princess Rhodene Lapin Serenity‘s twentieth birthday, and her own lavish celebration is a tight knit gathering of only a thousand of her nearest and dearest. Her task is to administrate the colonization of the Marches, and their addition to the Empire. To that end, in addition to the usual courtiers and attendants, an open call for adventurers and mercenaries to attend was put out to attend, and possibly become Princess Rhodene’s representatives in the Marches.

Included in those adventurers were; Tessara Variel, third child of House Variel in the kingdom of Ulturia; the unlikely couple of Nuna and Orik Vancaskerkin, a Shoanti barbarian princess and a mercenary from Carnival, respectively; a mercenary known only as Crimson Steel, famous for both his skill with the blade as well as his tactical knowledge; Zozo Umi, a gnome from the eastern parts of Furoshii, but who had spent much of his life in the Silver Millenium Empire; and Jhediah “Ravenlock” Mallor, a former member of the Pathfinder Society.

These six adventurers in particular are notable mainly for a random quirk of happenstance, for an attempt on Princess Rhodene’s life was made that night. As the evenings festivities progressed, a woman, appearing from amongst the guests, muttered a dark prayer that seemed to transport the adventurers, the Princess, and her immediate guardsmen into a shadowy reflection of the great hall they were in moments earlier.

After a battle of blade and spell with the Dark Priestess of Demon Queen Lamashtu and her shadowy servants, the battle moved into the Palace courtyard, where two ogres were waiting to ambush the party. Although the ogres were defeated as well, they hampered the party enough to allow the priestess to make her escape.

It was discovered that they could return to the palace proper by simply stepping through a reflective surface; namely, the fountain in the courtyard. The remains of the assailants were identified as, not normal ogres but rather twisted faerie ogres, from the First World.

As things settled back down Nuna realized she recognized the voice of the Dark Priestess as the same one that had plagued her dreams since her first encounter with the followers of the Demon Queen. However, with the Princess safe, and gratefully so, she wasted no time in naming the six stalwart adventurers her stewards in the Marches, and knighted them to the Order of the Silver Moon. Pausing now in Imperial Capital Ragnarok for a month, the party considered what they would need to arrange to bring with them to the Marches…