Beyond Vanyiir Report
General Summary
Hudsi 19 (evening)
At Castle Vanyiir, Cyren is still drinking and has one of the Ladies paying extreme attention to him in ways that he is failing to understand. It seems that she doesn't care that he's married. Adaon is busy quizzing guards, hoping that he can find rumours about ice creatures. They have found one salamander in the region, but it was not killed.
Ivan is enjoying that the dinner is informal and likes the dried and candied fruits that are part of the dinner. Cyren has failed badly in his drinking and seems to be unaware of his actions, including challenging people to arm wrestling matches, often losing due to his drunkenness. Ivan speaks to Baron Vanyiir about the reason the group is here, and is offered any help needed to deal with the invasive creatures.
Ivan finds out that Dreyin is in exile for having pre-marital sex - with multiple women. They bond over some ale.
In the meantime, Lady Vanyiir has heard that Adaon is a powerful wizard and healer, so asks him about a problem her husband is having; Adaon manages to diagnose it as a side effect of the medicine that Lord Vanyiir is given by the local apothecary for his back issues. He makes a herbal concoction to counter the side effects of the medicine using local herbs that are actually available in the kitchen.
Adaon offers to heal anyone who is injured, and one of the guards, who is quite drunk, waves him towards the infirmary stating captain Haaken is hurt. Haaken's left forearm is completely frozen solid. It started out in his hand and is slowly growing up his arm. Adaon examines this closer and realises that it is from him having touches one of the ice spider's webs. He uses a series of spells and medicine to counter this. Afterwards the man will be okay, and with a couple of weeks of physical therapy, which Adaon has shown him, will be back to 100%.
As everyone goes to bed, Adaon checks on Cyren and finds that he is sound asleep in his room with three young women (also asleep). He sees that they snuck into his room via a secret passage. Adaon gives the women a recurring nightmare (he is sorcerer, after all) that will last the next couple of weeks.
Hudsi 20
Cyren wakes up without a hangover!
During breakfast Cyren notices that he's wearing a silver ring on a silver chain around his neck that has some runic script written on it. It's written in an ancient version of Valkran that is only used for ritual and some rare magics. Yes, the ring is magic! Adaon takes the ring and chain to examine it, but cannot read the script, although he knows what it is. He keeps the item.
Baron Vanyiir introduces a young scout named Hjalti to Ivan who will help to guide them to wherever it is they want to go. As they get ready to leave, Hjalti first talks to Ivan, then Adaon, then Dreyin. The weather is clear, but very cold.
After travelling for a few hours, Cyren smells something strange. He realises he's getting the sensation through his link with the horses. They are all nervous. He tells everyone, and Adaon tries to see what it is magically, but at first doesn't get anything. Then he amplifies his sense of smell and this works.
After a bit, Adaon ups his sense of hearing, but still doesn't get what it is. After some investigation and not finding anything, Adaon decides that he will cast a quake, but gets nothing but a mess of snow and ice. He then throws an exploding firebomb 40 metres ahead.
Out of the snow pops a large snow salamander! Cyren immediately prepares for battle and tells the horses to get back. They run away. Adaon casts flamehose, burning the front of the salamander, but this only angers it more. It charges directly at him. Cyren goes left, Ivan goes right. They each strike it as it goes past. It is severely hurt, but continues past into Adaon. Adaon manages to dodge, but barely, rolling in snow. It continues on, running after the horses. Adaon gives chase. Futilely.
He then uses a foldair spell to port in front of the salamander. Cyren begins shooting at its legs to disable it. Adaon is charging at it to punch it in the face. He succeeds, but is squished by the salamander as it dies. Thankfully, Adaon has a trigger spell that saves his life by automatically healing him of 14 damage. He is still unconscious and severely injured. Adaon's stabilize spell is triggered, which prevents him from suffering from internal bleeding or other such further damage from his present injuries.
Thanks to the wizard being so injured, Ivan has to force a healing potion down Adaon's throat. He will then wake up in seven hours instead of seven days.
Ivan says that they should cook the ice salamander for dinner. It is edible to them, of course. Both Ivan and Cyren try to cook it and fail miserably. Finally, Dreyin cooks dinner, stating, "At least somebody can cook."
Ivan says, "I was born a rich kid, what do want from me?" "Do you have any sisters that are single and not betrothed?" He is not kidding, so Ivan says that he may be able to arrange for Dreyin to contact another of Ivan's relatives and obtain an introduction, but Ivan is NOT going north to his old home! Dreyin shrugs and smiles.
The morning continues with Cyren skinning the salamander for its hide. At least someone will get a decent salamander coat from this. And maybe a pair of gloves, too! The group continues on after the couple of hours that this takes.
The snow begins to drift gently from the sky while Cyren is still skinning the slamander, barely a breeze. Ivan realises that this is often a precursor to heavy snowfall, but rarely a blizzard. Ivan warns everyone.
Dreyin is kind of lost, because the snow and weather and time has changed the landscape. so Adaon asks if he can peak into his mind regarding this. Dreyin agrees. Adaon creates an illusion of the incident (fight) that Dreyin was in some weeks ago, so that everyone can see it. They then head off in the correct direction, being more south-west than directly south.
They come to a village about an hour after sundown. The streets are completely silent and there are no tracks in the snow, which has been falling since sunrise. They carefully look around, then head to the main hall. They dismount and enter the hall. It is filled with people, most of whom are looking directly at the entrance, where our heroes came in. It is silent. Everyone is frozen - literally; icicles hang from people's arms and fingers, hair is frozen in place, eyes are still open, each person is caught in the middle of whatever she or he was doing at the moment of freezing.
Cyren notices something moving in the rafters. It goes still. Cyren tells everyone. Adaon tries to see it, but cannot, so asks Cyren to send a light up there. He sends his paladin light up and someone small jumps down and tries to run away. Cyren quickly grabs the child, who screams in fright and wets its pants. Adaon puts the child to sleep with a simple spell. He then notices that Cyren is wearing the necklace with the silver ring on it. Adaon is certain that he took it away from Cyren.
Adaon revives a young man who was frozen. He comes to life, but promptly collapses from shock. Adaon then uses further magic to revive him and save his life. The young man remains unconscious, but alive.
Adaon looks into the mind of the child, finding that the boy was hiding in the rafters when some kind of person came into the hall, a white man with a billowing cloak and several flying, flitting things around him. He laughed, everyone froze, then he laughed again and put out the fire with some kind of cold blast, and left, closing the door behind him.
Adaon looks into the unconscious man's memory and sees pretty much the same vision, only getting an accurate height of the "person", being at least Cyren's height. They see that the billowing cloak could be a cloak, but could also be wings. It is unclear. They, of course, do not see past the moment of the young man being frozen, so do not see the departure. The figure is vague enough looking in the memories they see that it could be an Ælf or a human or something else with similar stature and shape. They also realise that the flitting shapes could be bats, some kind of bird, or even flying imps.
They leave the hall in search of a smaller hut to centre themselves in. This is, of course, simple. They set up base there, even moving the horses inside for protection from the cold. Naturally, they have brought the child and the young man with them. It's very crowded in here, but warm and safe once the fire is going.
[session ends here: Hudsi 21, night]
Rewards Granted
A silver, magical ring on a silver necklace is given to Cyren.
Notes
The three ladies that were in Cyren's bed tried very hard to get Cyren to "perform" (i.e. have sex, but he was too drunk). However, one of them managed to cast a spell that alleviated this issue and they had their way with him. One of the young women, Dael Runemaster, then gave him a necklace with a ring on it that binds them together. The ring was given to Cyren with his agreement, but not his understanding. He is essentially now engaged to this woman, and she understands that she must be accepted by his other wives. While he is off adventuring, she will travel to Bear Keep to seek their acceptance and permission to join the clan. She, however, does not understand that she will have to undergo some trials and get permission from Talia and Dathania's Grandmother, as well. We have yet to see Cyren's reaction, as she does not realize that he doesn't remember any of it at all! Even if she does complete the task (or tasks) and get the permissions that she needs, it will still take until summer to get everything she requires.
Comments