Aspect the Unexpected

The Jewel of Evocation
The New Year celebrations at Greenrest were in full swing, with dancers and musicians on every street corner, merchants plying their trade in the town square, and the pyrotechnicians were preparing for the fireworks display.

Also in the square, however were gathered a small group of identically-dressed men, recognisable to all and sundry as members of the True Suurvesi’i, whispering amongst themselves. Curious, Chris Tian Siddehug, a drop-out from the Twin Waters Archipelago’s School of Divination, attempted to insert himself into the gathering.

“Hey! Bros! What’s going on?”

The men, however, seemed unimpressed, opting to ignore the intruder. He became more insistent, however, and the leader of the group took a swing at him, missing by inches. Thankfully for Chris, two nearby dwarves, Roak and Morag, had also taken an interest in the troublemakers.

Morag stepped forward, imploring the men to leave him be.

“Piss off back underground.” Spat the largest of the men, knocking her prone.

After a short struggle, she managed to produce a large cloud of fog. Under cover, the leader of the men was heard.

“Leave them men. We need to get to Wanderton.”

This was followed by a cry from them all of “Hail Uanora!”, and they retreated out of the gates. Then Chris, Roak, and Morag, along with Jolas, a merchant who had witnessed the altercation, decided to follow.

Arriving in Wanderton around midday, the group made its way to a nearby inn, the Staff of Frost, and made enquiries with the barkeep about any True Suurvesi’i that may have been seen in the town recently. Namira, a teenage girl, approached them while they were talking, and discovered their purpose.

“Maybe I can spy on them,” she suggested through black-stained lips, “I’m going to be the world’s greatest spy!”

“Maybe you shouldn’t go around announcing that.” Roak replied, turning back to the landlady.

She leaned in conspiratorially, and told them about Daniel Morewood, another innkeeper, who often watched the guards’ archery practice on the other side of town, and had mentioned something to her about men dressed as True Suurvesi’i looking for a “wall within a wall”.

The team made their way to the practice grounds, following the echoing call of “Nock, draw, loose!” to a small practice ground with targets at one end, and a small, nervous looking man supervising the drills. Daniel was easily located, as the only inebriate in the area.

“Oh yeah the blue men!” He said in response to their questions, “I know them! They were heading up to the magic school. My son would’ve got ‘em by now. General Kevin fears no-one, not like this weakling they’ve got replacing him.”

“What happened to your son?” Asked Morag.

“Who knows?!” Laughed Daniel, his breath smelling of hops. “Just up and left one day. Mayor’s got a reward out for him but there hasn’t been hide nor hair seen for three days.”

They headed up to the school, past the dry-stone wall in the entrance quad, and up to the room of Namira’s sister, a final-year undergraduate, who they found enchanting some arrows as the mayor’s reward.

“Oh! Tara! Would you like me to tell mother and father that you’re alive?”

“My name’s Namira! And I don’t care what you tell Mum and Dad.” She spat back, objecting to this use of her “normie” name. Namira was very proud of the fact that she had named herself after the god of rebellion and resistance, it was much more interesting than introducing herself as Tara Yokel – goat farmer.

Roak stepped forward and politely asked the young woman if she had seen the men.

“Oh yes, they were interested in the well for some reason. I saw them dangling each other over the wall, as though they were looking for something?”

“Thank you very much miss.”

In exchange for the information, Roak agreed to carry the arrows she was enchanting to the guards.

Heading back down to the quad, Namira spotted something glinting at the bottom of the well, as well as a large octopus swimming in the water. After some debate, they decided to lower her down in the bucket to attempt to speak to octopus, that being a particular skill of hers.

“Hello there?”

“Hello. Who is that?”

One long conversation later, she managed to win the trust of Bertie the giant octopus, and convince him to hand over what turned out to be a jewelled sword hilt. They left to ask the principal of the school about the middle gem, which appeared to be magical, promising to return one day and continue their friendship with Bertie.

The principal grew grave when she realised what they had brought her, a piece of the Weapon.

“I’m sorry, what weapon?” Asked Roak.

“After the Orcish uprising, the Weapon – a silver sphere set with eight powerful gemstones, with town levelling, soil poisoning strength – was destroyed, and each gem sent to the eight magic schools for safekeeping. It appears that the True Suurvesi’i are after these gems. They must not be allowed to get them. Who knows what destruction such a group would be planning.”

She cast Zone of Truth on the group.

“What do you plan to do with this one?”

They vowed to, if possible, find all the gems, and destroy them.

Our heroes awoke the next day after a good night’s sleep in an inn, and decide to deliver the arrows to the guards. They make enquiries and discovered that the general had been hanging around the local alchemist’s shop, Homeforgers.

While Namira purchased some black hair dye, the others questioned the gnomish alchemist and discovered that the general had been “sniffing around” his daughter, Rav, who was last seen heading out to gather herbs on the same day that Kevin disappeared. They found out where she was heading and followed, with Roak following the cart tracks.

After an hour of tracking they arrived at a clearing in the Wanderer’s Wood, where half of the cart is next to a fairy ring, the other half being seemingly invisible. While the others were still cautiously testing the effect, Namira stepped confidently into the ring, and was magically transported into an almost identical clearing, but darker, more enclosed - the Feywild.

She spotted the unconscious Kevin and Rav, who appeared to have fought something large and clawed, and waited for the others to follow, which they did after Roak tied a rope to a nearby tree to give them a way back.

As they are trying to bring the unconscious couple back, however, an owlbear came charging out of the woods and attacked the party, blood still on its beak from eating Kevin and Rev’s horse.

They hit it a couple of times with thunder and fire attacks, but it charged straight at Roak, who deftly stepped aside and fired off two well-aimed crossbow bolts, striking it through the eye and heart (creating enough blood spray to make Namira barf on everyone’s shoes) and they brought the unconscious bodies out of the fairy ring, to a slightly spider-webby cart and rope.

Panicking, they quickly travelled back to Wanderton, to discover that they had been gone almost two days.

They returned Kevin and Rav, receiving some enchanted arrows and two potions of waterbreathing, and headed back to the inn to get thoroughly pissed (apart from Namira, who just nibbled carefully on some cheese, still feeling ill).

The Jewel of Abjuration
The next day, the party awoke early. It would be a long trek to their next destination, at the School of Abjuration in Polmore, which they had overheard from the True Suurvesi’i was the likely hiding place of another jewel, which was supposedly secreted “under the king’s gaze”.

While the others were obtaining supplies for their trip, Namira snuck off from the group. She had died her hair (badly) the night before, but decided to disguise herself as her sister for a prank. Entering the School of Evocation under this guise, she proceeded to yell about what a terrible school it was, and how she would rather go out and get drunk “again” and planned to leave. She then fled the school, confident that she had made life more difficult for the supposedly perfect Angelina, and rejoined the others as they were loading their travel supplies and themselves onto Jolas’s cart.

They were soon off, pulled along my Presbyterian and Human-Son (Chris’s mule and Jolas’s donkey, respectively). Their first day of travel was uneventful, sharing doughnuts and laughing, and making camp by the River Prud, on the road to Shadeside.

During the second watch, however, Morag spotted something green and humanoid swimming past in the river. Spooked, she hid in the bushes near the camp until the threat had passed, and they thought no more about it until the next afternoon, when a farmer, having been greeted by Chris, told them that his new lambs had been slaughtered, their innards carefully removed by what seemed more like a claw than a knife.

When pressed, he revealed to them that there once lived nearby a coven of green hags, but that they had been killed. The party concluded that one must have survived, and promised to help in exchange for beds for the night.

Roak managed to track the creature down to its cave in the woodlands next to the farm, and went in alone to bring it out into the open. Having succeeded, he used up his entire quiver of crossbow bolts attempting to take it down, but the final blow was struck by Jolas, who turned her into a screaming ball of flame, that rapidly dissolved into a pile of bone and ash.

Removing the hag eye from her cave, they headed back to Rivercross farm for their reward, and a well-earned rest.

*

Rising with the sun, the party left the farm early and travelled to Jolas’ home town of Shadeside, at the edge of what was once the Sanctuary. They took rooms in the nicer of the town’s two inns, the King’s Left Kneecap, and decided to catch up with Jolas’ adopted human son Anthony Warde, who he hadn’t seen since shifting to a travelling business model about a year ago, leaving his in charge of the shop.

The shop, however, was boarded up, and a look inside revealed the back wall to be lined with complex distillation equipment. Deducing trouble, Jolas lead the group to the dodgier inn, the Staggering Goat, correctly concluding that they would find Anthony there.

Entering the inn, they quickly spotted Anthony in a corner booth, though had to delay greeting him as Namira strode boldly up to the bar, passing multiple apparently high individuals, and engaged in a long argument with the barman in an attempt to rent a room, deciding that this was a much edgier place to stay the night.

“Sorry, she’s with us.” Morag cringed, steering the somewhat petulant teen back towards the group, who had discovered in the meantime that Anthony was now creating and selling his own drug, known as “Ichor”. Chris, naturally, immediately purchased a vial, and tucked it into his pocket.

They left him to it, but a debate soon ensued about the ethics of Jolas allowing his son to continue selling this unfamiliar substance, so Morag decided to try speaking to one of the people who had used it.

“Hi. I was just wondering…is ichor dangerous at all?”

“What? Nah! Well, there was Tony, he died. He got shaky, then he got reeeeeeally quiet.”

Unable to get further information on Tony, a plan was hatched to break into the shop and confront Anthony and his number two, a rather nervous halfling named Wilhelm. They snuck into shop without a sound, and then proceeded to implement multiple plans at once.

Chris approached Anthony and began asking him about the drug – what it did, how he made it – while Namira decided that the best plan was to turn herself invisible and pretend to be Tony’s ghost, accusing the pair of killing him.

Wilhelm was spooked and fled. However Anthony was less convinced, telling this apparent spectre that it was Tony’s own fault, that he had binged on ichor like he did on whisky, that it was perfectly safe in a reasonable dose.

This wasn’t enough to convince Roak, who launched a newly-purchased crossbow bolt at the equipment, shattering the largest of the flasks.

“Now people can take a break and decide whether they really want to keep taking it.” He said, leaving the rest of the group to it as he did so.

Jolas gave Anthony some money to buy a new flask and the remainder of the group left Anthony contemplating the direction that his life had gone in, and whether or not he really wanted to continue with what turned out to be a much more risky business venture than he had originally believed.

That evening, Chris and Jolas took some time away from the rest of the group, getting their own table in the King’s Left Kneecap, chatting in low voices over candlelight, though Chris’s rather rambunctious personality did somewhat interfere with the mood Jolas was attempting to set. They would have to wait until a less hectic day to see if there truly was a spark between them.

The next day, the group made their way to Polmore, crossing the lake surrounding the city in two small rowboats owned by the local crannog-dwellers. After taking rooms in the Queen’s Bedchamber, opposite the School of Abjuration, they eventually found an entrance to the maze under the school.

Entering the maze, they came across the bodies of 6 wolves, newly killed by members of the True Suurvesi’i. The ignored these people, and continued through the maze, narrowly avoiding being eaten by a shoal of quippers.

Eventually they drew near to their goal, but found the way blocked by a vicious halfling skeleton, which almost killed Roak but was ultimately defeated. They took a rest before continuing – during which Jolas and Namira entertained the troops by using their magic to make the skeleton (named Mr Bonejangles) change colour and dance – and found the jewel of abjuration embedded in the wall of the following room, extracting it without issue.

On the way out, however, they were confronted by a hippogriff, which was quickly dispatched by Roak and Chris. Checking its nest, Morag discovered that it had been taking care of an egg. The teens decided to adopt this egg, and removed it from the maze, taking it back to their rooms at the inn, debating names on the way.

The Phylactery
On their way to the next school, the party arrived at Cragburn, Namira’s hometown. They quickly ran into her parents, Brad and Janet Yokel, who were distraught due to the disappearance of their youngest children, Jeremy and Francine.

“When did you last see them?” Asked Roak.

“They were going to pick flowers out past the abandoned Civil place.” Replied Janet, referring to the large house that was, until recently, occupied by the local landowner, Lord Civil, and his children, who had disappeared a couple of months previously.

They headed to the Civil house and found it boarded shut. However when they tried the door they discovered it to be unlocked, and went into a surprisingly un-dusty entrance hall, immediately stealing the magical longsword over the fireplace.

They searched the first two floors, finding no sign of the children but definite indications of inhabitation. One of the sets of silver cutlery was untarnished, and the pantry full of food – largely goat meat. In the library, they found a note in a locked draw of the desk, which read:

Dearest Nigel,

No more goats. I'm starting to look hungrily at my own garbage. People only please dear. Human people. I do not intent to end up like my foolish husband

U

They eventually realised that the “U” must stand for Uanora, and grew immediately concerned. What if this Nigel was going to give the children to the leader of the True Suurvesi’i?

On the second floor, they were forced to fight an animated suit of armour, which appeared to be standing guard over these upper rooms, but Jolas made short work of it. Going through one of the doors at random, they encountered the ghost of a middle-aged woman.

“The children. I had to keep the children safe. I tucked them in, I had to keep them safe.”

Eventually Roak managed to get her to calm down, and they discovered that the only person the armour let pass was a white dragonborn - Nigel, who often took goats into the master bedroom. They entered the bedroom, and upon close investigation Chris discovered that there was a secret door leading to a narrow spiral staircase.

At the bottom of the staircase lay the Civil family crypts, in which the party could hear chanting coming from nearby, but couldn’t see the source. Going through a door to the right, they discovered a small prison, with a little boy locked up in one of the cells.

“Jeremy!”

“Namira!”

“Where’s Francine?” She asked in a panic, holding her little brother close.

The pointed to a black patch of wall. “The dragonborn took her. He took her through the wall!”

Investigating the wall, they found a small switch, which opened onto a large chamber, mostly filled with water but containing a small island, on which were a stone coffin, being circled by Nigel with a glowing knife, chanting under his breath.

He was too absorbed in his task to notice them make their way to the island, but when Namira snatched up little Francine from the coffin – alive but unconscious – he turned to them and smirked.

“You can’t stop her! Just ask my cousin!” He placed two fingers in his mouth and whistled loudly.

There was a brief silence, and then out from the water emerged a white dragon wyrmling.

They fought hard. At one point Jolas managed to wrestle the knife from the dragonborn and stab him with it. The light left his eyes, and his skin took on a greyish hue. The knife had taken his soul.

Jolas and Roak were seriously wounded, but they eventually managed to defeat the wyrmling and Nigel, and return the young children to their parents, hungry but unharmed.

The Jewel of Enchantment
The next morning, Namira and Morag were woken early by a loud cracking sound.

Investigating, they discovered that the hippogriff egg was hatching, and yelled with delight. Morag quickly got together some nesting material for the new baby, and soon out of the egg came a small, grey hippogriff, no larger than a housecat. The group named him Crag, after the town where he was born.

While they were preparing and eating breakfast, Crag followed Morag around the whole time, as though she were his mother. Uncertain how easily he was able to hunt, they decided to visit a pet shop before leaving Cragburn, and bought him some toys and dried mice (originally meant to feed snakes).

Chris felt that he too should have a pet, and, ignoring the kittens on display, was drawn towards a lone ferret at the other end of the store.

“You don’t want him,” said the elven shopkeeper, “he has an overactive musk gland. We call him Stinky.”

Chris bought him anyway, renaming him Calvin.

Having purchased everything they needed, they set off on the two day journey to the School of Enchantment, on the Amarok Peninsula.

That evening, they set up camp on the road between a cliff and a large poultry farm, with Chris and Jolas taking the first watch.

Finding themselves alone for the first time in several days, they spoke in low voices, growing closer and closer to each other by the campfire until finally, just before midnight, they kissed for the first time.

Jolas quickly broke the kiss, however, having heard something moving on the cliff.

He went over and looked down, to see a sea hag making her way up towards them. Hearing a sound to his right, he looked over and saw a green hag walking the road.

They quickly woke the others, and a desperate battle followed, with the hags screeching at the adventurers for killing their sister and stealing their eye. Jolas and Roak came close to death, but eventually the group prevailed, slaying the hags by the light of the half-moon.

Wounded but alive, they lay back down to rest and recover.

*

Arriving at the gates of the Amarok Peninsula, they immediately noticed that something was wrong. The streets were virtually deserted, apart from a few guards and one or two members of the public going silently about their business.

They made their way to the School of Enchantment, assuming that – like the others – the enchantment gem would be near to its school. However, they found their way barred by a large fence running along the townward side of the cliffside school, which was guarded by a confusion enchantment.

Trying to get through it, they quickly discovered that the use of magic was strictly controlled in this town, and fled after a confrontation with a trio of oddly committed guards.

Making their escape, the team found their way to a small fishing village, whose beach continued all the way around the Amarok Peninsula and under the School of Enchantment, and decided to stay the night at the one inn in town.

They awoke refreshed, just as the fisherman were returning with a fresh catch of night herring, a fish sacred to the goddess Morab (and which they ate for breakfast), and were soon on their way down the beach.

Arriving at the section of beach under the school, they were awed by the enormous darkmantle carved into the dark rock face about their heads, with a staircase embedded in one of the tentacles, which they ascended until they came across a cavern filled with a darkness that couldn’t be penetrated by light spells or darkvision.

They soon realised what was happening, and fought their way through the darkmantles which inhabited the cave, eventually banishing the magical darkness that filled the cave, and discovering a trapdoor leading up into the kitchens of the school.

They encountered a rather surprised scullery maid, who would tell them remarkably little, only that the new principal – Hieronyma - was Hesporan, and to watch out for cats. Completely ignoring this warning [meta: or forgetting, this was the next session], Namira attempted to pet the first cat they encountered, and the group told another exactly why they were at the school – to take the jewel of enchantment.

Eventually they found their way to the principal’s quarters, and discovered that she was indeed a middle aged orc, who immediately attempted to charm them, succeeding against all but Jolas. She explained to them her plan to promote peace and safety through mind control, amplified by the jewel, and they agreed that this was perfectly reasonable and, well, she wasn’t harming anybody.

“Can we discuss this alone for a moment?”

“Of course.”

Jolas lead the group back out of the room, and – with some significant effort – managed to override Hieronyma’s charm with his own magic, and convinced the others that she had to be stopped.

A battle ensued, but eventually Hieronyma, bound and defeated, was handed over to the mercy of her students, and the party made their exit back through the caverns, carrying the gem locked in a book-shaped box.

The Jewel of Divination
The next day, Morag was awoken early in the morning by a messenger knocking on her room in The Black Prince, the only inn in the village of Fishport.

“I’m sorry miss, but our druid’s gone and we need someone to bless the night herring and do the ritual to renew the stocks and…”

“Okay. I’m sure I can stay an extra day.”

As she went off down to the smokehouses, the others spent the morning looking for a ship to take them to the Twin Waters Archipelago, home of the School of Divination, eventually managing to purchase passage on the cog The Quaggoth’s Revenge, under terrible negotiator but excellent sailor Short Jack DaSilva – a man of uncertain heritage who stood four foot tall with long tusks and grey-green skin.

On board the ship, they were questioned about their intentions at the school at crewmember Tortoiseshell Stackem, an old half-orc woman. Chris claimed that they were drug dealers but, despite the fact that he carries marijuana sandwiches, she wasn’t convinced by this.

The next couple of days passed without incident. The party woke up to the sounds of movement. They checked their belongings only to find the gems were gone. Tortoiseshell Stackem and the kenku Ted Teak (the only non-human crew members) were heavily sedated. They left the crew quarters and were faced with the body of Short Jack, his throat cut quickly found Andi, Jimmy and Maria – three conspirators who had stolen the gems and sedated most of the crew. Upon confronting them, Andi was very annoyed to find that Maria hadn’t sedated all the people on board.

A fight ensued. Jimmy was quickly dispatched by Roak. Namira turned invisible and pretended, successfully, to be Jimmy’s ghost, causing Andi to flee. Jolas tried to cast a spell but caused a wild magic surge that turned everyone invisible. Maria could see that all was lost. She surrendered and the gems were returned to the party.

A further surprise came when Tortoiseshell awoke and was informed of the party’s real mission and Chris’s name. She was revealed to be Chris’s mother, and Hercules Fernando of the school of divination his father. Chris is therefore quarter orc and quarter elf. An emotional reunion took place, with Tortoiseshell offering free passage and assistance to the party.

*

Arriving at the School of Divination, the party reunited with Morag (who had been given passage there by a grateful fisherman). The immediately noticed that many of the inhabitants of the island were naked, but Chris assured them that this was perfectly normal – as it allowed the mages to be closer to the magical forces around them. He stripped off and led the way to the centre of the School, the Great Hall, where progression exams were taking place. After the students had dressed and left, they went to speak to the principle, Hercules Fernando.

An emotional confrontation took place, where Hercules refused to acknowledge any responsibility for Chris, but did tell them exactly where the gem of divination could be found (after being assured that Roak was the group’s leader) – on the smallest of the three islands, where the final exam took place.

The group took a boat towards this island, but on the way where accosted by a giant black-tip shark, which badly damaged Roak’s armour but was eventually defeated, in part due to Morag’s ability to transform herself into a hammerhead shark to fight it in the water.

Reaching the small island, they were confronted with a magical barrier, and a pedestal, upon which were written the words: “I am tall when I am young, and short when I am old”.

After some debate about the existence of shrinking crabs, Roak and Namira placed a candle on the pedestal, and the barrier dissolved, allowing entrance into a deep cavern.

Within the cavern, however, they found nothing but a broken table, bearing a mocking note and the seal of Uanora.

The gem had been stolen.

*

The party made their way to Bronzewater, the location of a known True Suurvesi’i base, to try to find the stolen gem. While looking for a blacksmith, they noticed a burned out Mugorist temple which townspeople would not tell them about.

They forced their way in, over a pile of charred corpses, to find that the statues had been – literally – defaced. They went down a hall in the back of the temple. Someone was talking in Draconic. Chris translated – it sounded like someone talking to their pet.

The pet was a blue dragon surrounded by its treasures. They fought, with fireballs and swords and bardic inspiration. The beast was slain. They rested and counted their winnings, before proceeding onwards. They confronted the dragon’s owner who was distraught. While the rest of the party took the gem at the back of the room, Namira and Chris combined their powers of performance and persuasion – the grieving man would leave the True Suurvesi.

The townsfolk rejoiced at the routing of the True Suurvesi, thankful that their non-human friends and neighbours could safely return.

Swiftmere
The nearest school being the School of Transmutation in Kalahi, they decided that this should be their next destination. Their route would take them through Summer Bay on the day of the Unification celebrations, a welcome break from the constant danger of the last 30-odd days.

However, on their way south the group interrupted an ambush on another, lone, traveller by two gnolls. They rescued the man – a young-ish human named Brann dressed in a leopard skin and loincloth – and offered to escort him to Summer Bay, where they arrived the evening before Unification.

*

The 5 were awoken early by a brass band leading the Unification Day parade, and after breakfast headed straight for the town square for fairground games (Brann having decided to spend the day at the beach). Between them they won a cake, two teddy bears and a giant rubber duck, then reunited to hear Lady Heather’s speech.

Part way through the speech, however, she began to act fearful, speaking quickly as if she wished to leave. Glancing over to where she was looking, Morag noticed two members of the True Suurvesi’i on top of the Mugorist temple, with a crossbow.

Acting quickly, Namira disguised herself as one of the separatists, convinced them to come down, telling them that the local movement leader, Dave Spinoza, had changed his mind about the assassination of Lady Heather.

This confrontation may have ended peacefully, if not for Morag deciding at that point to try to snatch the crossbow, missing and hitting one of the men hard in the face.

A battle ensued.

The bow-wielding man was quickly felled, but his companion revealed himself to be a sorcerer and used Crown of Madness to turn Roak against the rest of the group, causing him to wound Chris.

Incensed, Jolas transformed himself into a cloud of gas, which was inhaled by the attacker. He then reformed within his lungs, slowly bursting out of his chest, killing the man in a cloud of blood and fractured ribs.

The crowd quickly dispersed, with Lady Heather herself stepping forward with her two bodyguards for an explanation. When she heard what had happened, and who the dead men had been, she invited the group to spend the night at Beeston Hall. Over dinner, she also revealed that Dave Spinoza was her fiancé, the Lord of Swiftmere, and so could not be arrested without solid proof of his involvement, which Roak resolved to gain by speaking with the less damaged corpse in the morning.

Before bed, the seal was broken on the case containing the gem of enchantment, to which Jolas attuned himself, with Chris doing the same with the gems of divination and evocation.

The gang decided to talk to the intact corpse, who confirmed Dave Spinoza was definitely involved in all this. To get more evidence they snuck into Spinoza’s house under the guise of being messengers or invisible or a tiny animal hiding in a pocket. Chris and Roak gave a letter from Lady Heather. He read it and got furious with the two of them after they haggled over pay. The party found a letter from the True Suurvesi’i discussing details for the assassination.

The gang returned to Lady Heather, who was fighting Dave Spinoza. Dai Hard was seemingly dead, which Chris was concerned about. Everyone gave Dave a thorough beatdown upon which he surrendered. It transpired he was being blackmailed into working with the True Suurvesi’i as his village was under threat. If he did not kill Lady Heather the village would be killed, probably involving poison gas. Naturally, the gang decided to track down the gas.

*

Arriving in Swiftmere, the party decided to search the mines of Downtown (the underground settlement of Swiftmere). This proved fruitless, but the next area they searched, the mere itself, was more promising, and they soon found a teleportation circle beneath the fast-moving water. Unable to establish where it connected by other means, Roak decided to travel through it, hoping to find the source of the gas on the other side.

He did.

On the other side was a dark cavern, from the rock type a long way from Swiftmere, within which slept a large green dragon. He escaped back through the circle, and they – after some initial magical discharge – destroyed the bedrock into which the circle was carved.

The party took turns standing watch over the mere, on the second day catching a young woman checking on the circle. Upon discovering its destruction, she fled, and they followed her back to her hovel at the far end of Uptown.

She revealed that she was tasked by prefects from the School of Necromancy with maintaining the “drainage spell”, and was eventually convinced to summon these prefects to her home, ostensibly to explain that the drain was damaged and she was worried about Downtown.

These prefects were killed, and the town declared safe from being poisoned.

The Jewel of Transmutation
The gang’s next stop was Kalahi, home of the School of Transmutation. Since they arrived the day before Chris’s 36th birthday, they decided to take an evening off and head to the Amphitheatre, the biggest stage in Ospus, to take in some entertainment.

The next day, however, they went straight to work, going to the School of Transmutation in the hopes of speaking to the principal about tracking down their gem. The gate was guarded – due to the immense value of materials kept in the school – but Namira had a plan. Disguised as a contractor, with Morag as a mouse in her pocket, she talked her way inside, planning to claim the others were her assistants. Unfortunately the plan backfired somewhat when Jolas’s charm attempt led to a wild magic surge of an enormous fireball. So they hopped the fence.

The principal was, thankfully, understanding, having received a message from Principal LeTrek at the School of Abjuration explaining their mission. They learned that the gem had been stolen from the school’s vaults by the twins Pol and Phyllis Langley, who had expressed interest in leaving the school to enter the underground prize-fighting circuit.

Heading back to the inn where they were staying, Roak managed to surreptitiously learn the location of the fighting ring, a former Kings temple known as The Pulpit, from their landlord, and they went over, under the guise of a group interested in joining the circuit. There they met the woman who ran the Pulpit (Katherine “Kay” Faber) and learned that Phyllis had killed her brother in a fight – earning her the nickname “The Fratricide”.

The party put their names down to fight her, and defeated the two shield guardians she summoned (with the help of some magic wolves). The Fratricide, however, had disappeared, leaving behind a magical amulet of unknown purpose. Bribing Kay with some of their earnings, they learned that losers often skipped town with the help of the Black Market, a group of travelling kenku salespeople of ill repute, who were gathered this weekend at the Swan with Two Necks inn.

After purchasing some accessories and, in Namira’s case, slightly unsavoury reading material, they discovered that Phyllis had been at the market, but had left. They tracked her down, but learned that she had already sold the gem, not knowing its true value, to a kenku by the name of Graham. Thankfully, the Market had not yet left town and they managed to strong-arm it from him. They reported their success to the grateful Principal, who offered them horses and a carriage from the School’s stable to take them to their next destination.

However, they were forced to stop in Rimefalls due to Roak recognising the unusual local stone as something he had seen before, in the cave of the green dragon.

Dungeons and Dragons
In Rimefalls, Greenfest celebrations were in full swing when the Hippogriff Five awoke, but they couldn’t stay long. It was ascertained from the innkeeper that the water supply was poisoned, so the group realised that the green dragon they were looking for – a dragon with poisonous breath – must be near the waterfall, which ran down the large cliff topped by the ruins of Rimefalls Keep.

The way was guarded, but quick-thinking Namira disguised herself as the town leader, Lord Vitalis, and convinced the guards to let them past.

They made their way through the keep, past it’s various denizens, and into the cavern containing the beast, which they slew thanks to the powers of the gems, and returned to the village, bringing with them two jars of mysterious goo, and a ring suspended in red liquid.

The Jewel of Illusion
On arriving in Castleton, the gang found that everyone was scared and cowed by some unknown threat, the School of Illusion locked up tight and magic. They went to see Roak’s friend and mentor, Anders, at the local Mugorist temple. The priest of Jiion tells them what is afoot: someone has been killing magic users. They have been instructed not to travel alone and cloister themselves in their school to protect themselves.

The Hippogriff Five were short on ideas; Chris used his divination skills to ask about the killer. The answer came in the form of few cryptic verse:

“Travel ye to the stagnant creek

A wizard killer there to seek

A fight is won, your task not done

A sword has vengeance there to wreak”

Though they pondered over the last two lines, they quickly surmised the creek in question was a nearby river. On arriving, they found a giant serpent and two chuul scrapping over a near-dead wizard from the school of Illusion. They dispatched them swiftly, but were too late to save the wizard. He floated away into the river.

A figure descended into the murk of the sewers and the erratic quintet pursued. While waist deep in effluent they found the cause of the deaths – their old friend Dai Hard. He had become a revenant. His goal? Killing necromancers. This included anyone who used necromancy spells, even the most benign ones. They tried to reason with him, but to no avail. Dai Hard, contorted in spirit by his thirst for revenge, could only be staid in battle.

The gang prevailed, but Anders was concerned – they had merely delayed him, not dispatched him from the mortal plane for good. Anders joined with the Principal to banish his soul to Etherium, where he could do no more harm. Despite their flawed approach, the Hippogriff Five were rewarded with the gem of illusion.

Horse-Sized Ducks
The Hippogriff Five’s next stop was to be Rainhill, and the School of Conjuration. However, while sleeping in the town of West Strand they found that they had been robbed during the night – their money was there, but the gems were gone. As was Morag. Appealing to Jiion for help, Roak received a hint that they were pursuing…ducks. To somewhere with gorse and water. With only this to go one, Namira deduced that they must have been robbed by the mallard-aaracokra couple that they spotted in the inn the night before.

Asking around, they learned that the birds had been spotted heading north, so they left town and the main roads to follow the dirt path leading to the town of Gorsenwell, on the edge of Wanderer’s Wood, where they learned that the gems had been taken in exchange for the couple’s son, being held by a servant of someone called “The Slaughter Sage”. Unfortunately, they learned this while killing the aaracokra.

It was at this point that Morag returned, black and blue, and was forced by Namira to reveal that she had been working for the Suurvesi True Citizens, a second independence movement, who had wanted to capture the gems for themselves not to use them, but to keep them in a safer place. Just in case. They had objected to her part in destroying a gem and she had left, with a beating as a parting gift.

Waiting in the birds’ hiding place, near morning they heard the servant – a warlock – enter. They killed him, freed the child (Malcolm) and promised to take him to his aunt’s house in Mudhill. Roak accidentally revealed that he had killed Malcolm’s parents, but he was convinced to trust the group through hard work and the application of a cuddly toy.

When they arrived at his aunt Julia’s, however, they learned that they had not in fact delivered the child to safety. The lord of Mudhill had become a vampire.

The Jewel of Conjuration
The gang asked around and found out the Lord became a vampire after the arrival of Christina Sariel, Principal of  Rainhill’s School of Conjuration showed up. They went to the school, through the basement and encountered corpses. They were being eaten by nupperibo, who they slew. They worked out they were demonic, and became worried that perhaps the school was using the gem to conjure demons. They came across a locked door, through which Jolas passed in gaseous form. There was no gem, it was missing.

Namira hatched a honey-pot plan to capture a vampire, a teenager named Kay, by posing as a vulnerable student. They learned that the Slaughter Sage was a powerful demon summoned by the principal, shortly after the vampires showed up. The nature of the Sage remained a mystery, but it was clear he was bad news.

Namira fell for a vampire, so the gang decided to kill then resurrect her at great expense, to give her a chance at a normal human life. This was followed by some dates, which went well.

They returned to Mudhill, finding the Lord dead – killed by Sariel. The gang fought her, nearly dying in the process. But in the end, they found and destroyed the Conjuration Gem.

Thwarted
After victory in Mudhill, the Hippogriff Five went to Kanda city. Namira and Morag posed as students to glean information and broke into the library, learning about Uanora’s husband, Craig Chaucer, who vanished alongside her, and information on killing liches, which showed how tough a task it would be. They discovered by way of rumour that there was something strange in some nearby caves, something magical. They surmised it was the lich, and this lich would have the last gem – that of necromancy. They destroyed the gems they had on them, after finally figuring out how to do it, then ventured to the caves. Some were empty, but one contained a skeleton in a binding circle, with something shining in its eye socket. Roak took the object, but in doing so broke the binding circle and unleashed the demi-lich of Craig.

A fierce battle ensued and they defeated the demi-lich, coming as close to death as they had ever done. In the aftermath, they found a broken dagger in the same style as the one taken from Nigel the dragonborn. Roak realised this was the demi-lich’s phylactery, and told the others. They were relieved – they would not have to face a full lich that day.

They gathered themselves and prepared to explore the caves further, finding a secret tunnel behind a waterfall, but not all was well in the party. Morag was restless; she wanted to go protect her family from all the unrest in the mountains and departed with Crag after many tearful goodbyes. Having lost their hippogriff and a founding member, the Hippogriff Five prepared to see what this new path had to offer.