The Bird and the Boreworm - Session 3

Session 3 - 4/28/2024
***the story so far***
Sensing a potential Ezlekhian invasion if we stay the night, we hike alongside the wagon with the rest of the band members, and we head north, hoping that nothing else comes to attack us. Lieutenant Sune, a large burly lion, is heading north with us through the passage, giving us guidance. He definitely skipped leg day with those twigs of his, but at least his red mane is fabulous.
Strangely, I don't really hear any bombing sounds any more. This seems to have calmed down the bardic musicians.
As I look closer, Sune's leg's are definitely not flesh - they appear more robotic, possibly made of arcstethics?
As we travel through the mountain pass, Lieutenant Sune informs us we're still in Ezlekhian territory.
I look at the statue in front of me - there's a spike on the top and seems incredibly old. There's a slot in the front of it, circumscribed by runes, and the slot has some charring, as if something has burned. I look at the statue further - there doesn't seem to be anything else I can glean from, other than the runes look to be some kind of magical focus. The edges of the runes have some symbols that stick out to me - it looks like Channeling ᛞ Runes (which strengthen a spell) and some Thunder ᛏ Runes (which harness thunder energy.... for what purpose?). Lieutenant Sune reckons this is probably an Ezlekhian trap.
Willow seems to be on a bit of a rock grind, and accidentally dislodges a rock that falls down the mountainside, just barely grazing her cheek. I hear a large *thud* as the rock crashes to the ground and shatters apart (a 30 feet fall).
A black raven-like aarakocra pops out from the top of the mountain, wearing some mage robes and holding a double-edge scythe - he caws at us and flaps his wings.
<-Begin Battle 3 - An Attack from an Aarakocra->
....The aarakocra appears to be an Ezlekhian general of some kind.
....Roger attempts to sling Eldritch Blast, but it narrowly shoots by Chuluun's neck.
....Willow viciously mocks Chuluun's entire being - he's pissed.
....Diaga sneaks underneath and shoots a burst of poison spray at Chuluun - he narrowly misses a laser streak of the spray that whizzes by his eye. Diaga shouts "shazam!". Chuluun is clamoring that we take turns in this battle (HA!)
....Lieutenant Sune flings a giant arrow into the scalp of Commander Chuluun, who's downright frustrated at this point.
....Lukas Johannsen casts Fire Bolt at Chuluun, but careens past as the Commander dodges the attack. His eyes narrow, focusing on Lukas, and mocks the fireball throwing. At this point, Chuluun notices me off to the side (!!)
....Commander Chuluun throws down an industrial device that appears to be blowing wind - I'm pushed 10 feet back into the stone wall behind me. Chuluun hucks a grenade in the direction of Willow, Roger, and Lukas.
....Commander Chuluun is having a grand ol time, mocking us in the process as I cast Earthbind to render Chuluun stuck to the ground.
....Roger attempts to cast Eldritch Blast again, and points a strong finger.... right as his face, unleashing a massive blast, knocking himself unconscious - almost instantly, Willow saves Roger before he falls unconscious, barely. Feeling sorry for Roger, Willow uses Bardic Inspiration on Roger (hope it helps!)
....Lieutenant Sune fires another giant arrow right into the chest of Commander Chuluun, dealing further damage. Chuluun is pissed.
....I cast Ice Knife at the wind device, utterly shattering it in one hit, as the wooden structure explodes apart.
....Chuluun actives the runic structure next to me, as it glows yellow and activates. It narrowly misses me, but blasts out a giant soundwave. It feels *very* strong*. This turret should have a range of about 60 feet.
....Chuluun slides down the cliff and attacks Diaga, tearing a giant cross through Diaga's chest with the double-sycthe - it's a vicious attack, but Diaga is prepared! He casts Protective Field (psyonic powers baby!!) reducing the overall impact, but it still deals an overwhelming amount of damage.
....Willow charges forward in an attempt to ram Chuluun, and... Willow's head just smacks into the rockface beyond Chuluun. (kind of embarassing)
....As Willow steps back, it leaves me with an opening to cast Ice Knife - I fire it at Chuluun and it hits his right shoulder, exploding for a measly 2 damage.
....Lieutenant Sune steps forward and plunges a large greatsword into Commander Chuluun.
....Chuluun plunges his scythe into the ground near Sune, Diaga, and Willow as a large tremor forms underneath - Sune is caught in the tremor and falls prone, while Willow and Diaga survive the attack. This sycthe is enchanted with 'Seismic Plunge' (orangeish)
....With my knowledge of Rune Master, if I change the channeling rune, the device will explode and potentially hurt me, so I decide to change the Thunder ᛏ Rune instead into a Lightning ᛚ Rune - the turret still seems to move but is unable to channel its attacks into anything meaningful.
....Roger attemps yet another Eldritch Blast and manages to successfully knock rocks, falling down onto Diaga, Sune, Willow, and Chuluun. The rocks fall onto Willow and Commander Chuluun, dealing bludgeoning damage in the process.
....Diaga pulls out a flail and attacks Chuluun head-on.
....Lieutenant Sune wields his greatsword, smacking a swift blow on the Commander's back, rendering his wings useless, and finishing him for good.
<- End Battle 4 - An Attack from an Aarakocra->
I take the crystal ball, glowing blue, off the body of Commander Chuluun, and my arcana knowledge notes that

1. the crystal was attuned (a spellcasting focus?) to Chuluun, almost resonating with him (soul-bonded?) **you can only attune yourself with 3 items**

2. this is a Fantasma crystal, a very valuable crystal from these mountains. This is also the material that this war is being fought over.

We loot Commander Chuluun's body: <I GAIN>
....+2 firebombs (ADDED IN WORLDANVIL)
....+1 Fantasma crystal
I investigate the northern turret using my arcana knowledge - this turret was carved with a Channeling ᛞ Rune and Force ᛉ Rune.
As we finish our journey through the mountainpass, Lieutenant Sune bids us farewell. Roger asks Sune about his armor and equipment - he has a greatsword (+0), +2 crossbows (with a lot of arrows).
As the sun rises up, we realize.... we're desperate for sleep. The bardic musicians instantly start setting up camp, and we take a long rest.
< SLEEP TIME BEFORE MY NIGHT SHIFT WATCHING OVER THE CAMP>
I wake up to take my night shift, watching the party sleep through the night, half-awake.
It's high noon after the rest, and we're ready to hit the road.
The band seems a little more downtrodden - maybe they want to get to town? There's an awkward silence amongst them. The vibes are off....
Willow asks Brynhil if anything's going on, and Brynhil pulls Willow aside. Brynhil tells Willow about an upcoming music festival in Tralljór, just south of Urdanning. Brynhil gets really giddy as Willow mentions she might be interested in playing with them. We start heading northward to Tralljór.
As we travel the 20 miles or so to the town, we admire the rolling plateaus around us. It's... very barren. I've only seen hills for miles. I miss the forests. As we travel, the terrain gets a little rough. We're able to Gather, and I gain:
....+1 stone (-2)
As we look around, we notice an opening in the rolling hills, on a rockface. There's an abandoned, rusted minecart at the end of some tracks, leading downward. We pile our way, one by one, into the mineshaft. There's a dirt path to the right, and a trail of rails that almost immediately degrades. There's a bit of moisture in this cave, giving off a wet iron smell. The band sets up camp outside of the cave. There's a slim passage to the left, about 2 feet across, pretty narrow, with whoosing wind sounds, and a cave-in directly in front of us.
As I investigate the cave-in, it looks like a giant rock has fallen and smashed down below. The tracks of the minecart indicate that the cave-in happened a long time ago, and that the cave is much older. There's some cracks in the cave-in, and it probably goes down a couple hundred feet, but the cave-in looks to be about 30 feet thick. Seeing no other option, we shimmy through the crack on the left to explore the cave. We notice on the cave walls there's clear patches of a quartz-like material. The sound of whoosing winds get louder, almost like a howling wind, coming from the giant chasm below. As we get to the end of the passageway, there's the giant chasm - 30 feet in diameter, reaching down maybe 50 feet, and there's a rope ladder on the side of the chasm, leading to the bottom of it.
I inspect the rope ladder, and one of the boards on it is very loose - it'll probably break when I step on it. I repair the board with some hardwood we have, and it looks safe to travel! The whooshing sound seems to come from a tunnel, scarily straight, with some etched lines across the tunnel. From a cursory standpoint, somebody has used a piece of equipment to make this hole (maybe it's a natural formation?)
As a safeguard, I use Detect Magic, casting a green aura around me - I notice my allies' spellcasting feats are the only thing that pops up in my immediate vicinity. I peer into the tunnel, and I hear the whooshing sound even more (im literally at the mouth of the tunnel) and there feels to be some faint magic emanating from the tunnel - there's a glowing outline from something deep in the tunnel, about a couple hundred feet.
Roger summons a pack of weasels - one jumps onto Roger's shoulder, and one dutifully traverses the tunnel. The weasel moves past our field of darkvision, and all we hear is the pitter-patter fading out, giving way to the wind. The weasel does not return. Roger peers through the eyes of the weasel, and tells us what the weasel sensed - it came upon a skeleton that's reaching its arm out (on the ground) towards the weasel, wearing a miner's helmet, holding a glowing rock Roger's never seen. The skeleton doesn't have a lower half to it (o_O). The weasel turns back and returns to us. The tunnel continues after the skeleton.
On a return trip, the three weasels make their way down the tunnel. Through the weasels, Roger hears the same stuff, as the weasels make it to the skeleton - the whipping winds completely cut out, eerily. We can even hear the echo of the little weasel noises. The weasels carry the stone back, and they drop the stone. An almost bell-like noise echos through the tunnel, and its the only sound we hear. From *deep* within the tunnel, we hear a loud, deafening roar - its giving Bestial, with a bit of flem. It lasts for almost 10 seconds. The weasels skitter away from the object, and sprint back to Roger.
Willow lets out a giant Weasel roar. The roar echos through the entire tunnel, eclipsing Roger's pathetic Weasel roar. We hear the sound of the wind pick back up through the deep parts of the tunnel, but only louder.
Diaga takes the lead in front of us, telling us he's a little freaked out. Can't blame him, I'm a little spooked as well.
Diaga slithers ahead, about 150 feet - the winds are incredibly loud, but we can still hear eachother. Ahead of us, we can see a prism of green glowing in front of the skeleton - the stone is from the School of Enchantment Magic. I use my Arcana knowledge to discern the stone - I've *never* seen a stone like this before. Despite all my knowledge, I've heard of stones like this before, but I know it's NOT Fantasma, its NOT quartze, but it IS RELATED to Fantasma crystals. It's almost like a cluster. There's a magnifying magical power to it - this is MUCH more powerful than any Fantasma crystal I've ever seen. The powers are latent to the stone, way more subdued, but a larger cap of energy as a whole.
Diaga goes to pick up the stone - as Diaga reaches out, hesitantly, to pick up the stone, he gets a hands away from the stone he stutters back. Diaga tells us about the vision he saw:
....The vision Diaga sees is the stone being crafted into a bow and arrow, containing many stone. The wielder of the bow and arrow aims at wyverns in the the sky. 3 of them drop out of the sky, and the 4th wyvern gets hit by the arrow, the vision ends.
The tunnel gets quieter, not completely silent, as we keep a whisper among us. **Diaga recalls a story from childhood about a bow and arrow that could charm its enemies to sleep.** He thinks this stone could be part of this story. Diaga grabs the stone - the tunnel goes completely silent. The eerie silence hangs in the air. We hear a large roar eminating from that end of the tunnel - there's seismic activity shaking the ground beneath our feet. IF this is a creature large enough to make the ground shake, and given this location (about 70 feet underground), this could be a Hollow creature (the Hollow is located underneath the normal earth). Hollow creatures are **EXTREMELY DANGEROUS**. I discern that the tunnel we're in is *not* the original tunnel - whatever creature came through here, carved this tunnel.... with its body.
Willow attempts to Intimidate the Beast, and it gets dead silent - there's a BURST of wind shooting through the tunnel, and we RUN FOR IT. Diaga trips... and takes 24 slashing damage from the wind, whipping us back. It boosts Diaga in front of the entire party. As we run back to the end of the tunnel, the wind dies down, as we hear a slithering sound, scraping against the stone.
We narrowly escape the mineshaft, and Brynhil tells us about the Bestial roar she heard.
Brynhil tells us the story of the Harp Bow, the Urtamrakh, crafted by a Master Bard. It was said that it could put even its largest enemies to sleep. The bardic musicians are in awe of this bowling ball stone. Kono mentions that someone might know about this stone in the magical university in Urdanning - the Kappi Research Institute.
We continue on to Tralljór, and GATHER:
....+1 tin (-1)
We crest over a hill, and the small town Tralljór is lit up by the sunset - the band starts clapping and cheering (finally, an actual town). As we trudge on forward, we hear the sound of a rumbling engine - there's a small wooden barricade around the town, but nothing like a wall. The rumbling gets lounder - there's 3 black dots quickly approaching is. Tseren says out like "...time to reacquaint myself with some old friends". There seems to be some leather-wearing bikers approaching us - they start circling our band of heroes in a 30 ft radius. They stop, and a lizardman lifts up his helmet -