Story Arc 2 Session 1

Like story arc 1, the events written in these journals will be written in first person.
 
I summoned my friends to Praevigil, telling them to meet myself and Miracle in our new “spy tower” as Miracle called it. I had requested one from Babylon, saying it would be an excellent mobile fortress to use while fighting the enemies of Grandseal and Babylon. The request was granted, resulting in the delivery of an instant fortress that rivaled the size of Rast’s. Miracle immediately claimed it as her own and called it her spy tower, but I didn’t mind any of this. I did owe her one of these after selling Rast’s back then.
 
Anyways, the group met at Miracle’s spy tower. Andaar arriving first, followed by Ray and Aoife (who was outside of the gun, go Ray!), with Wren’arren being the final member to arrive, explaining that Cithrel was on a mission and would not be joining us at the time. While this was unfortunate, the matters I had to discuss were too important to wait. We spent a bit of time catching up, a much-needed break from the difficult events we experience in Praevigil not even 2 weeks ago. Ray decided to show off the new gun he crafted, a rifle that he named Sunfang. The whole exchange was actually pretty comical. While I wasn’t too interested in the gun, it made clear by Aoife that we were to act interested in the machine. Therefore, we decided to test it out. Moving up to the balcony on the second floor, we let Ray show off his new toy. If I’m being honest, it was quite impressive. He toted the range of this rifle reaching nearly five times what a fireball could, so we pointed out a boulder maybe 800 feet out. We tasked him with hitting it, but instead he nailed a pigeon behind it. To have such range, accuracy, and enough power to literally make the bird explode in flames, I was quite impressed. However, I knew my wife, and she wasn’t going to be shown up by Ray’s new toy. While the distance wasn’t nearly as far, I pointed out a flock of water fowl to Miracle and she proceeded to blow them up in an absolutely spectacular display of fireball mastery. It still pains me that I introduced her to the spell, yet her mastery of it is far above my own. No matter, as I think we won the competition, in that regard anyway. Andaar told Miracle she would have to eat the pigeons. I was surprised when she didn’t try to get me to eat them as well, but somewhat relieved.
 
At this point we finally moved on to the reason I called everyone together: to discuss the elder gods and what we would do about this recent attack from Shub Niggurath. It was at this point that I revealed to the group that Wren, who accepted the outcome of what I was about to reveal after some not-so-mild hinting from myself, was a dragon. Not just any dragon however, a platinum dragon and assigned guardian of Iri. Oddly enough, the group didn’t seem too taken aback by this. I had obviously told Miracle this before, so she was in the know, but no one else seemed to question it. We just moved right along and discussed what we knew. The attack sent by Shub Niggurath was discussed, but also the disappearance of Gremory and Praetor. As this was a lot of information to take in, we decided to break for the evening. Wren was to go retrieve Cithrel and bring her back as the events we were trying to tackle were a bit more important than her mission. Andaar returned to town to make preparations to leave while Ray and Aoife settled into the tower.
 
Shortly after, Wren and Cithrel returned to the tower. Wren had flown her over, something I was incredibly jealous of. To be able to fly on a dragon… that was something I only dreamed of as my dragon-like features have yet to progress past scales. It seemed as if Wren was at a loss for words after whatever he discussed with Cithrel and need time to himself. While he retired for the evening, Miracle and I got Cithrel up to speed while Miracle prepared Cith probably the best thing she will ever eat in her life: The Chris. This sandwich was one that Miracle started making for me, toasted sourdough with cheese, turkey, ham, and other delicious ingredients. After getting Cith up to speed, the conversation shifted to discussing Ray and Aoife, who had been upstairs for quite some time. We were able to convince Cith to turn into a hawk and fly up to spy on them. When she returned, she was frazzled, saying she saw Aoife feeding on Ray. While she seemed visibly upset, Miracle and I merely laughed it off, knowing that their relationship would eventually progress to this point. After this everyone went to sleep for the evening, finding their own rooms somewhere in the tower.
 
The next morning, the group reconvened to discuss our plan of attack. It was decided that we would start our new adventure on a search to find more information about the disappearance of Gremory and Praetor. There was an underwater temple south of Mooncrest that both Luminous and Iri confirmed was the place they disappeared from. This temple was now in ruins, but we didn’t have any other leads and decided to head there. Unfortunately, in order to look the part of your average adventuring group, we decided to travel in Ray’s old beat up wagon, the same one we used to get to Bridgewater. You’d think he’d have splurged a bit and upgraded it by now if he planned on traveling like that. But no, it was the same dusty, cramped wagon. The plan was to leave in a day, giving us time to prepare for our journey.
 
While the others set out on their own tasks, I wandered the town on my own looking for something I really didn’t like admitting we needed. Eventually I found what I was looking for, a jewelers shop. I was looking for a diamond, one worth at least 1000 gold pieces, exactly what was required for the resurrection spell. No one ever wants to admit that they think they might die in a coming battle, but it never hurts to be prepared. The shop keep had what I was looking for, but upon realizing I wanted it as a spell component he tried to upcharge me. I was able to bring the price down a bit, settling for 1300 gold pieces as I told him exactly what I wanted it for. While I got what I was looking for, I couldn’t agree with what he told me. It seemed he had lost his wife, and while he understood exactly why I wanted a diamond, he explained that he valued the natural order of life. The natural order… fuck that. I don’t mean to question the love he had for his wife, but how could he be satisfied with her death? If I lost Miracle, what I wouldn’t give to see her again… Just a smile, or a conversation I would sell my soul for. If I had the power to change the natural order I would do so in a heartbeat. While I would have expressed this to him, in the end I was trying to buy his wares so pissing him off wouldn’t do me any good. After completing my purchase and draining my coin purse, I was met by Cith, Wren, Ray, and Aoife. They had been wandering the streets looking for me apparently. Wren wanted to buy Cith some equipment that would help with the adventure, but he was lost when it came to what a spellcaster might need. He offered me gold in return for finding her some equipment suitable for a mage, but what I wanted couldn’t be bought with gold. Surprisingly, he agreed to let me ride him in dragon form for 5 minutes if I get her some good equipment. By the end of that day, Cithrel was decked out in top of the line equipment and magic items, and I got my much-deserved dragon ride. He obviously didn’t enjoy it, but it really made me wish I could channel my dragon bloodline a bit more. After he dropped me out of the sky signaling the end of my time, everyone settled in for the night.
 
Days of traveling in Ray’s wagon ensued. Andaar, with one of his new abilities, summoned a spirit Pegasus to help pull that wagon. A bit flashy if we’re trying to look like adventurers, but seeing a marvel such as a Pegasus isn’t something to complain about. We found ourselves traveling through the Azeroth forests, or are they the Praevigil forests now that the town had been renamed? I wasn’t sure, but we decided to stick close to New Peacebrook and avoid Castle Luina at all costs now that we were in Mooncrest territory. After some time, the group pointed out that it seemed we were entering vampire territory. There was mist in the trees, an eerie cold to the place, all the telltale signs of a vampire lair. We decided to turn around as we wanted to avoid trouble, but we soon heard a scream. Well, the others heard a scream. I really need to get in touch with my surroundings to notice these things. How I could fail to hear a scream of all things… Due to this however we decided to investigate. Wanting to remain stealthy, the sneakier bunch of our group decided to take lead. Miracle, Ray, Cith, and Andaar (who isn’t sneaky in the slightest but still went anyways) would go investigate the scream with Aoife, Wren, and I would stay in the wagon. Miracle, wanting to display some of her new abilities, cast a spell that would allow us all to speak telepathically for an hour. While I’m sure this was useful for them, it was somewhat torturous in the wagon hearing them discuss as we just sat there. They eventually found a cabin, and from the sound of Miracle’s voice what they found inside had to be extremely unsettling. I teleported the three of us over, my wedding band coming in handy yet again.
 
Upon arriving at the cabin, I understood what made Miracle so shaky. A body had been hung in the main room, cut open and innards displayed all around the cabin. Carrion crawlers infested the thing too. After some searching, we also found a hole… an aboleth hole. Seeing this brought me down a very unnecessary trip through memory lane, remembering the tragic events of Bridgewater and what happened to us. Cith was able to identify a chimney from above, however there was no fireplace in the cabin. After scrying and finding some chamber underneath the cabin with a vampire and multiple bodies, we decided to jump down the hole and investigate, finding ourselves wandering through an aboleth hole as if we were repeating the events of 5 years ago. We eventually found a fork in the road and decided to follow the path which I believed would lead to the underground chamber. We found our way to a closed door, light shining from beneath it and what sounded like deep speech coming from within. I cast a comprehend languages spell which blew our cover, a stupid decision as I was immediately chastised by my wife who was fluent in the language. We readied ourselves, Wren, Andaar, and Ray preparing to strike as soon as the door opened, and strike they did.
 
As soon as the door opened the trio let loose a flurry of attacks upon their target. Their target, however, was but a child. At first, fear immediately gripped me as we had just murdered a child, but despite the attacks the child simply looked up at us and smiled. With but a snap of the vampire’s fingers, the child exploded, wounding all of us. The rest of the bodies slowly began to form a wall between us and their master. Combat ensued as these people continued to explode. Aoife, realizing these enemies were dealing thunder elemental damage with their explosions, created a zone of silence around us. While this zone interrupted my spellcasting, it made us immune to these explosions. Shortly after, we broke through the line of people and cut down the vampire. I dealt the finishing blow, allowing me to use an ability Arlian and I had developed for interrogations. As I slashed Arlian through the vampire, I called out to its soul, commanding it to return to me. The specter rose up, loyal to myself. Due to the death of their master, the remaining people (4 of them) stopped moving, becoming completely catatonic apart from the occasional whimper or grunt.
 
We interrogated the specter, learning that it served The Great Aboleth and had been turning the stomachs of these poor people into bombs. These “sappers” as it called them would serve as The Great Aboleth’s army. The scream that we heard belonged to Iri, who had escaped capture and was identified as a prisoner of The Great Aboleth according to the specter. We continued to question the vampire, finding more information about the aboleth and these people. Due to our newfound abilities, we decided to save them. I began to suggest a train of thought that Miracle picked up on and ran with. While we could only save one per day, she concluded that we could attempt to remove their bomb-stomachs and use her regenerate spell to “grow” another stomach. We successfully did this for one of them, but after a very depressing conversation decided that it was unrealistic to stay here another 3 days and save the rest. We knew Iri was in danger and that The Great Aboleth might be in Port Luna, and we had a score to settle with the beast. I was about to offer to put the people out of their misery when Wren did just that, saying he didn’t want Iri’s opinion of us to be stained with this act. The rest of us returned topside, where yet another emotionally draining event occurred. Aoife had been exhausted all of this time but had pushed herself to continue traveling outside of the gun. At this point she was both physically and mentally drained, yet it being nighttime there was only one way for her to return. Ray… shot her. Apparently, this was a practice that they have had to do numerous times. I could only imagine the pain of not only having to watch a loved one die but having to commit this act yourself. Poor Ray. Now I truly understand why he was so stubborn about finding a cure for Aoife.
 
The group returned to our wagon, decided we’d best head towards Port Luna. After some traveling, we spoke the command word and out came the spy tower. Before sleeping for the night, I needed to get something off my chest and sought out the comfort of my most trusted companion. Miracle was the one who advocated against staying to help the people, as much as she wanted to. That whole conversation made me worried, worried about what would happen when we found my friends and classmates. I had already lost them once, and I wasn’t sure if I could bear to lose them again. The pain I felt, the abandonment when they all left. It was so much. I now understood why they vanished and that our paths would cross one day, but I didn’t trust myself to be their savior, or in that case murderer. But Miracle really has a way with words. While it wasn’t the answer I wanted, it was better than what I expected. She told me that it would depend on the situation as all things do. She told me that one of the things she loved about me was how stupid some of my ideas could be. How I always want to help people and I’ll come up with the most absurd plans, yet they work. She occasionally has to act as the limiter in that regard, grounding me and helping me realize that not all of my ideas are realistic. But she was confident, confident that when our paths crossed with my classmates I would think of something. I would be the dreamer, the person who had the best chances of saving them. The conversation really helped, and while I didn’t have the answers I was looking for, I knew that no matter what happens she will always be by my side. Hopefully we can save them, Rami, Eladri, and Joseph. But if we can’t, I can rest easy knowing that I’ll have Mirila with me.