Mini 5: The Winter Solstice Report
General Summary
32st of Emmanir 1524 - The day of the Winter Solstice Continued
At 3:30am the group finishes having a short rests. Once this is done various people flitter between resting, researching and talking to one another.
- Balthazar and Isabelle look into portals and so does Killi by herself.
- Galanith sits with Brienda as she rests but realises that Brienda is unwell. She obviously has not coping well with what she saw. She goes to Balthazar and Isabelle to get help.
- Isabelle goes and talks with Brienda. Then brings her over to talk with Balthazar and Galanith. The group decides they want to stay an extra day to keep an eye on the portal before heading off.
- Balthazar approaches Killi and Leolen to negotiate the extra day at the manor which they agree to. They do agree but are slightly reluctant. It is only because the town is shut down today that they agree.
- Galanith talks to the toys about setting up a watch. Sir Frithkin will be out the front while the other toys will take turns with the portal.
- Balthazar looks into Brienda's family tree with Isabelle's help while Galanith watches the portal. Killi and Leolen chill. Balthazar finds the family tree. Most members of the family have abnormally long lives. There are annotations about their deaths and goes back since before the battle of Diesmir. Brienda had mentioned most of her family had the long life ability. The original family member is missing a death. Killi gives Balthazar some paper so he can copy down the tree.
- At 6am Balthazar once again approaches Killi and Leolen to discuss leave time but instead of waiting he is talking about leaving, which they are eager to do.
- The Balathazar does an hour look at the book case. This time Isabelle helps him to look for the House Ghieste which were responsible for the murder of Brienda's parents. Balthazar only finds mentions them in the deaths of the members of Brienda's family.
At 7am the group proceeds to rest for the day doing their own relaxing activity. At 7pm after dinner the group goes upstairs to a room to get some sleep. They make sure Brienda has her paperwork and mother's ring to prove her heritage. Galanith takes the first watch.
At 11pm just near the end of Galanith's watch, as she is patrolling the bottom of the stairs she notices Brienda come down. She stops her but realises she is sleep walking. She gently leads her back up to bed but realises Brienda will not stay there, so she ties her down. Galanith goes to get Snoogie to watch over Brienda. She does not seem to have a history of sleep walking. Then when they arrive back at the room Galanith wakes Leolen for his shift and starts her own trance.
1st of Keltier 1524
Leolen goes outside for his watch and keeps an eye on the portal with puff. At 1am the portal starts to pulse. The only logical reason for this to happen as far as Leolen can tell is the portal is mad they cut the vines last night and the world is ending. Just as it takes a cut flower time to wilt, it obviously took time for the portal to realise what happened. Leolen screams and runs back to his group. He bursts into the room and wakes everyone up, including Brienda who freaks out because she is tied down to her cot. Isabelle gets up to untie Brienda while everyone else goes down with Leolen to see what he is talking about.
By the time the group comes down a warrior has stepped through the portals and into the backyard of the manor. The warrior speaks to the group and they do not understand what he says but his tone is demanding. Balthazar casts comprehend languages and he is able to understand him. He wants the "Portal Bringer". The group does a few things to try and communicate with him but fails. Leolen shows him a illusion of the demon cat but he does not seem interested in that. He starts looking around and exploring the garden and house. The group escorts him round. The warrior has a stone he looks at as he checks each room. Balthazar sees the stone and can tell the sigil relates to portals that will likely light up when it comes across a certain type of energy.
Eventually he finds himself up to the room where Brienda and Isabelle are and the stone lights up. He declares Brienda to be the "Portal Bringer" and that she must come with him. Brienda doesn't understand him and is clearly just upset at having been tied up still. She apologises to Killi, thinking she tied her up. Leolen quickly gets in the way as the warrior tries to approach the room Brienda is in and throws up an illusion of a red circle with a slash through it. He does stop but looks annoyed.
Isabelle uses her magic to close the door and the warrior becomes aggressive and combative at the "thwarters". Leolen reacts quickly, his little friend helping distract the warrior as he gets in a good stabbing. Glanith sends forth a sacred flame from Avani's fire which hits.
Meanwhile inside the room with Brienda and Isabelle, the can hear the fighting outside. Isabelle reassures Brienda that they will not let this stranger get to her. Isabelle readies her bow, aimed at the door, so if the warrior enters she will fire on it. Brienda curls up on the cot, with her knees pulled up to her chest as a light shimmer appears around her before fading.
Outside the room the warrior is displeased at being stabbed and attacks back. Leolen casts Silvery barbs to try and protect himself, which causes him to miss once with his right jab but follows up with a left jab which does hit him. Leolen gives Killi a bit of luck as he steals it from the warrior with his barbs. Killi tries to levitate him but he resists the spell. Balthazar summons 3 magical darts that slam into the warrior.
Leolen once again attacks the creature with the help of his familiar. He gets in another good hit. Galanith shoots out three scorching rays but one misses. The other two hit and burn the creature. The warrior hits Leolen hard despite another casting of silvery barbs and Leolen goes down. The warrior cares not as he approaches and opens the door. Which ends in an arrow hitting him in the eye and he collapses to the ground dead as the arrow crackles with lightning. Isabelle was waiting ready with her notched arrow.
Killi runs over and rolls the warrior off her friend and manages to stabilise Leolen. Isabelle puts a berry in his mouth and gently forces him to eat and chew as Galanith gives him Avani's healing light to bring him round. Balthazar and Killi search the body as a teach while Isabelle searches it herself.
Killi finds the stone that Balthazar was after and Isabelle finds:
- Very special cool robes
- 5 cp, 6 sp, 131 gp
- 10 gems
- 1 potion
- 4 dried wafer ration(s)
Isabelle pours the coins out on the floor. Killi counts it for the group while Isabelle puts on the cool robes. Galanith gets Leolen back up. Balthazar takes the time to do a ritual to detect magic after looking at the rock which is faintly glowing. The robes, potion and rock are magical. Then Leolen, Killi and Galanith take the dead body back to the portal with the help of Killi's levitate. Galanith stays with Brienda explains why she was tied up. They resolve to try something else if Brienda sleep walks again. Isabelle makes some good suggestions for this.
Isabelle takes the time to split up the coins while Balthazar identifies the items using the charges from the crystal he was given. Each person gets 21 gp, 1 sp. While Brienda is given that and an additional 5 gp, 5cp since the creature targeted her. Meanwhile Leolen takes a short rest to try and recover. Everyone is waiting patiently for the identification process to be done.
At 2am Balthazar has determined the following things from the items:
- Potion of healing (2d4+2) which is given to Killi for Leolen.
- Planar Stone. This detects magic needed for moving across planes or making portals/rifts. Or there is a high amount of shadow world magic around.
- 1 Set of Githzerai Robes. Requires attunement. Cannot be worn with armor, and does not count as armor. While attuned, a creature may cast Feather Fall as a Reaction. Once this ability has been used 3 times, it cannot be used again until the next dawn. They will sell these when they can but for now Balthazar will wear them.
At 2:30am Leolen finishes his long rest. The group decides to split up. Brienda will get another hour sleep as Balthazar, Galanith and Isabelle with her. Leolen and Killi will head into town to try and get an idea what the vibe of the area is with information maybe going around about Brienda. They will meet at the edge of town after an hour.
On the way to the village of Aubreycott, Leolen and Killi have a mini snowball fight. Once they arrive in town Leolen spots some guards. Leolen acts drunk as he approaches them which has them offside with him as they consider locking him up for his own safety. Killi comes to his rescue and promises to get him back to the inn and they are allowed to leave without a trip to the jail. Apparently there have been attacks from the rifts overnight as the veil is thin.
At 3:30am the group meets up at the edge of town and is ready to go.
Rewards Granted
Not in jail yet.
Missions/Quests Completed
Quest began - Getting Brienda to the Capital.
