The IRS Session 22: Crown and Throne Report

General Summary

After departing from the city of Ustgelt in the previous session, the Item Retrieval Service set off with one major goal in their mind: Reaching Promaticous's Fontuva. Though, these intrepid heroes had a long trip ahead of them, spanning nearly half the width of the continent.
Coasting through the Gaineamór Desert and stopping a few times to collect resources, the party come across a large stream at the edge of a swamp that they need to either ford of go around.
As the party consider the options ahead of them, Riz 'O senses a presence calling to him from the swamp as he sees a set of lilypads with various items on them and a figure underneath the water in the middle of them.
Consulting his patron, Lady Kolgera lets him know that it seems to be a Fey's trading circle, wherein he can trade an item for an equal-quality item, or a larger amount of items for a better quality item. He trades in a few items, obtaining a +1 blue scales and a +1 claw.
After an otherwise unremarkable day shifting through the dunes of the Gaineamór Desert, the party stopped to take a rest in their Autocarriage. On this first night of watch shifts, after shooing away some pesky blood-sucking insects, Cal and Kharaal heard some strange shuffling noises coming from deep within a thicket of wild grasses.
As they investigated further, however, the two only found fresh hoove-prints leading away from their encampment. With that, the two woke Dain up for his shift, who began his shift with little-to-no action to speak of until hearing this shuffling he was warned about.
Dain, seeing the vague outline of a creature fires off a fireball at the creature and kills it on contact. After approaching its scorched remains in-front of the really dazed party, Dain finds a emblazened sheep sporting a second head lying in the burnt patch of grass. Proud of his kill, he hangs it on a nearby tree for breakfast the following morning.
The next morning, the crew set off after a nice hearty lamb chop breakfast and continue up into the South Khaiguul Plains. They then happen upon a farm nestled between a set of hills, this farm seemingly being the home of a bunch of strangely-modified farm animals.
At the front-end of the property, the IRS encounter a buffed-up bull who begins to charge blindly at their vehicle, to which they are able to safely manuever around.
After their successful dodge of the oddly-aggressive bull, they continue onwards and encounter a large cockatrice who seems to be herding a large number of sheep off in the distance, though it quickly aggros towards the intruders on its land.
As Dain avoids the cockatrice's stoney-sting, he takes the wheel and easily flattens the abomination into the grass beneath them, instantly killing it.
Spotting a barn and farm off in the distance which may be responsible for all these strange farm animals, they avoid the place like the plague and settle instead for driving past it and taking the rest of the night to rest.
Before heading to bed, Nessa cloaks their autocarriage in a visage for their protection as she casts Tiny Hut. In the dead of the night, the men of the party notice a strange amount of torch lights and strange green lights heading through the rolling plains towards the Northeast, the same direction the party is headed.
Curious about what these lights could all be about, Cal and Kharaal wake up Riz 'O and Dain to investigate the lights which are nearly leaving their sight by this point.
Detaching the carriage's trailer from the main vehicle as to protect the women, the boys with Dain at the wheel begin driving towards the lights off in the distance.
Nearly slamming into a tree and a rock, Dain expertly swerves out of the way and makes his way up to the group of lights which seem to be a group of pilgrims heading Northeast.
As soon as this group see the headlights of the vehicle coming from a few hundred feet away, they immediately darken their lanterns and only a faint green light eminates from a few figures in the shadowed crowd.
Observing the whole crowd, Dain addresses them to "Show (them)selves!" to which a few of the group of nearly 50 travellers approach, these few sporting regal religious clothing.
These travellers address themselves as members of the former-Ezlekhian territory of the Amidrakh, much to Cal's confusion, as these Noirdremj followers were thought to have been eliminated or integrated in other territories a few years after the end of the Second Ezlekhian Civil War.
The group's elders concur that that was believed to have been the case, however the most loyal of them were given special relics which allow them to make the pilgrimmage that they are currently conducting.
At this point, Riz 'O gets called out by a couple of children whom seem to recognize him as a newly-crowned Lord from the city of Öchigdör-Margaash.  Riz 'O proudly proclaims that he is this Lord to which he claims the throne of, easing the tension greatly haning over the valley of these plains.
Now looking through the whole crowd, Dain sees that the rest of these folk are dressed in nothing more than rags and are carrying very few supplies with them. They are also harboring a GOBLIN, and a smart-aleck one too!
After Cal asks about the group's history, revealing that they still stayed loyal to the dead territory despite being displaced into the Southmost reaches of Ezlekh by the Bambaian Regime, the Goblin steps up to reveal that the war with Vomethnda began but nearly a few days ago due to some struggle that occurred along the border of the Feramonto Mountains.
The elders of the group then reveal a set of glowing green relics (which Dain discovered were emitting Divination magicks) which only they hold, seemingly guiding them towards some "prophecy" which promises the revitalization of the Amidrakh.
His curiosity getting the best of him, Cal pushes them on the subject, and they reveal that their dead Khan Amidrakh had taled a prophecy which would see that on the onset of war and their toughest times yet would lead to the revival of their people at a location which only the most loyal of their followers would be able to uncover.
Showing off their green items gifted to them by the officials of the Amidrakh, they appeared to show these people the way by glowing green when facing certain directions underneath the moonlight, almost as if guided by the Moon Goddess's light herself.
Supposedly, their destination lies underneath the Feramonto Mountains, somewhere just North of the Khuurmag-Tagnuul border within Promaticous, to which they "shall find (their) salvation"
Riz 'O tried his best to get these Amidrakh followers to give Cal one of their glowing relics, but was unable to do so due to their significance to these people.  Instead, Riz 'O was told that only the most loyal of those to Noirdremj would be granted these relics, but that Cal could be granted one if he proves himself to be just that (possibly in Fontuva, since some of these followers were camped there as well).
As the party and the travellers are about to part ways, they answer a question Cal posed earlier on whether they "needed help", to which they respond that they desparately needed food, as they only had enough for a few more days.
Not only did the party agree to hunt for these folk and leave them the spoils in a few-day's journey's time, but they also agreed to take one of the Scribes as their guide.
Their new Yuan-ti guide clad in ceremonial robes is named Sister Cizslyn, and though she seemed very formal to the group, Dain discovered that she had an extremely strong magical presence to her.
On the extremely-smooth car ride back to the still-resting women of the group, Sister Cizslyn and Cal talk about the color-changing "wedding band" that he is wearing, revealing that apparently the band is just a sign of a strong bond, and not the admittance to a marriage.
Cal is absolutely relieved about this fact, and upon returning to Nessa, she is shockingly revlieved also!  After introducing Sister Cizslyn to the rest of the girls, they all get some rest before setting off the next day.
Trying their best to complete the task they set for themselves to help the Amidrakh pilgrams, the party spend the day hunting some big game, and manage to bag 14 animals before the divinely-guided path leads them to the entrance to a bitter underground cave.
Cizslyn advises that they stay on this path as to not stray from the pilgrim's path, leading them to enter into an area of The Hollow sporting tentacles lining both the ground and the cieling.  As the cold sticky air of the cave envelopes them, Dain hears a strange wriggling sound coming from the distance and fires off another fireball, ending the session...

Campaign

Lines Drawn in the Sand

Protagonists

Gehenna Malabolge

Chaotic Neutral Kalashtar (Enchanter's Apprentice )
Paladin 4
War Cleric 1

31 / 31 HP

STR
8

DEX
14

CON
12

INT
10

WIS
19

CHA
17

Dain

Chaotic Neutral Dwarf ()
Artificer 6

49 / 49 HP

STR
18

DEX
10

CON
15

INT
16

WIS
13

CHA
13

Rizzard of Oz II

Politicaly Incorrect Custom Lineage (Fey Lost)
Rouge 3
Warlock 1

39 / 39 HP

STR
11

DEX
12

CON
17

INT
10

WIS
10

CHA
18

Nessa Sarkas

Satyr (Noble)
Bard 2

19 / 19 HP

STR
11

DEX
17

CON
14

INT
16

WIS
14

CHA
18

Kharaal

Chaotic Neutral Tiefling (Haunted One)
Warlock 7

59 / 59 HP

STR
11

DEX
14

CON
16

INT
8

WIS
12

CHA
18

Cael Malos

Chaotic Neutral Air Genasi (Apothecary)
Monk 4

43 / 43 HP

STR
13

DEX
18

CON
17

INT
10

WIS
18

CHA
15

Report Date

02 Jan 2025

Primary Location

Khudaldaa

Secondary Location

Tagnuul

Related Characters

• Sister Cizslyn