Journal Entry 29.00 The Satchel is Repaired
The Party Visits Grinjul Again, They Return to the Water World, Fix Thistlezorn and Fix Graykar's Satchel
“You’re late,” Morvion said.
Aja apologized before taking the fourth chair at the table. “Sorry. I was at the Dusk Street library. They have the largest collection of studies on dwarves, I was hoping to find something there.”
“Still trying to figure out how to get rid of dwarven ghosts?” Graykar asked with a smile. He still found the situation amusing.
“Yes. And you’d be surprised how little study there’s been done on dwarves. I have found countless books on orcs, on elves, especially humans. But on dwarves – no one seems to care.”
“Have you asked the dwarves?” Morvion suggested.
“Yeah. And they don’t care, they like the lack of interest. And supposedly, they don’t have much literature themselves. Their entire history is oral, and when I ask any of their skalds about dwarven ghosts, all I get are dwarves don’t like ghosts.”
“Just kill them,” Urik muttered not really paying attention. He had arrived first, ordered a drink and some type of fish salad, and then had been engrossed in the dark steel ring he was handling.
“Still nothing?” Graykar asked Urik, referring to the ring.
“It’s there, I can feel it. It’s just stubborn,” Urik answered Graykar under his breath.
“I can’t kill these ghosts. They just reincorporate the next day.” Aja explained, aware yet not caring that Urik was ignoring her. She had already explained this to Morvion and Graykar.
“I tried to kill several of them,” Morvion said, backing up Aja’s claim. “I entered and the ghosts attacked me. They hesitated maybe a minute, then as soon as one noticed me, they all started in like a pack of wild dogs. I killed probably fifty before backing out. And the next day, I saw those which I had slain were back.” Seeing the question in Graykar’s eyes, he answered, “Yeah, same ones, they are a motley lot of dwarves with wild clothing selections. I recognized more than a few when I went back the next day. And they recognized me. I didn’t know that there were levels as to how pissed off a dwarf ghost could be.”
“You think they are tied to the urn? Maybe if you collected all of it,” Graykar said after a little thought.
“Already done, already tried. Nothing is tied to the urn, its magic is gone. I assembled all the pieces, even had it mended. Nothing. Returned it to the dwarves for proper observances and even then the dwarves didn’t surrender any more information. I got a small token of their appreciation,” she said as she pulled out a gold cloak clasp of a lion with ruby eyes.
“May I?” Graykar asked, holding out his hand to get a closer look at the clasp. Aja handed it over. After some scrutiny, he said, “This isn’t just a novelty, it’s worth something. I would guess at least a thousand gold. It’s of a quality to possibly be enchanted.”
Aja shrugged as if to say ‘at least that’s something.’ Then she started to look around for whoever serving their table. Once she got some service and ordered the roasted ‘bird of the day’ and a glass of the house wine, she asked, “So why did you call all of us here, Morvion?”
It had been four days since they last gathered. Morvion had called the meeting, asking everyone to attend. “We each have our own tasks we need working on, but I believe we need to preserve the strength of our group. As such, we need to be about helping each other accomplish our various goals. I believe we need to work on fixing Graykar’s pouch first and foremost. We aren’t at full strength if he isn’t at full strength, and as much as I hate to say it, we are defined by our items. The way I see it, my quest can wait a few more months, in fact, I would kind of like to see Majalacturis dead before I bring my family back. Dame Imokan’s winery isn’t going anywhere and Urik’s school is growing at a steady rate.”
Aja nodded in agreement. “Yeah, the sell value of her winery estate has been plummeting. Who knew being haunted would do that? I can buy it now, haunts and all, for just 150,000 gold.”
“Told you,” Graykar said to Aja. “Let it sit there a little longer before making an offer. You might even get it cheaper.”
“I know. I shouldn’t have doubted the Coterie’s boon. It’s just I missed the part where they told me about needing to be an exterminator.”
“No real hurry, for me that is, but I think we need to return to Thistlezorn sooner rather than later,” Graykar said. “Releasing Garkon helped some, however, the bag is still having problems. And the problems are getting worse again.”
“Why didn’t you say something?” Aja spoke accusingly, somewhat worried now. “I thought things were much better. We have friends there.”
“I know, I told this to Morvion last night. I didn’t want to intrude. But you know Morvion. Once he decided it needed to be done, he went with it, that’s why he summoned you all here.”
Morvion looked over at Urik, “What do you think?”
“What?” Urik looked up, somewhat surprised. He was still focused on his ring. “Oh, yeah. Let’s go. Get his bag fixed. I could use a break from the school anyway. I liked teaching until I realized that the teaching was such a small part of the job.”
“Not easy getting a bunch of orcs to behave, is it?” Graykar teased.
“I would rather herd cats. No one objects when you eat the cat which won’t follow direction,” Urik smiled. “Hell, sometimes everyone wants to join in on eating the cat.”
“Well, I’d object,” Aja muttered. “At least a little.” Gigi squeaked, staring hard at Urik, and to her bat Aja said, “You are not a cat today. Nor yesterday, nor ever. And I wouldn’t let Urik eat you.” Gigi puffed up and squeaked again. “And no, I won’t let you eat Urik either.”
Urik growled at Gigi, who immediately crawled behind Aja’s neck to hide in her hair. His quiet tittering told that he wasn’t all that scared.
Looking at the ring and somewhat exasperated, possibly from her lack of success studying how to eliminate a ghost infestation, she said, “I really don’t think that ring will ever do what you want it to.” She immediately regretted her blunt statement.
“Didn’t you see my arms grow long? It was the ring that did it.”
Not sure how to respond, Aja could only agree. She had a suspicion on how Urik was able to achieve his recent feat, but whether he would believe it was another matter. Perhaps it was better if he felt the power came from his ring. It would eliminate problems caused by doubt later on. Every good sorcerer needed a crutch at times. “There is that. Maybe I can help release its power.”
Urik started to respond, then thought better not wanting to rely on another for help. “Perhaps. Maybe once we fix Graykar’s satchel.”
“And to that end, Graykar has an idea,” Morvion stated, directing the focus back to his main reason for getting them all gathered.
With Morvion looking at him, Graykar leaned in to speak quietly, inwardly smiling as this focused everyone’s attention as they also leaned in to hear. “Remember Black Tide and the Witch of the Dark Glens. It wasn’t a remnant from Perlachio’s tower dream mirrors, she is real, and I think I have located her. I believe she can get us back to the water world. And after some asking around, I know where Black Tide is at. ”
Urik looked a little confused. “Yeah, so? I already knew that.” The others looked at him, their eyes big with surprise. “Well, I do. I’ve been to the real Black Tide several times. The witch is the common talk of the town.”
The next day they followed Urik’s lead and the party arrived in Black Tide. It didn’t take long for them to track down several legends of where the witch might be found. While the stories varied, most pointed in the direction of heading south into the Black Marshes veering slightly east. The party wasn’t the first to seek out the witch. They found out that many searchers came through Black Tide seeking the witch. Most were never heard from again, presumably lost to the marshes. Aja and Morvin debated several ways to travel in that direction, trying to find the most efficient means. Wanting to get the move on and for some unknown reason upset at the others for wasting time, he went and bought a boat similar to what they had used before when they last traveled south and set out on his own. “Catch up once you figure out your mode of transport.” Graykar shrugged, “I don’t know. I think he’s still miffed that his ring isn’t working anymore. I’ll go with him. See you guys in a few.” Aja and Morvion decided on their modes of transportation and caught up within the day. Overall, the trip south was uneventful. As they continued on, moving out of the lands controlled by Si’Nassapherion, they began to encounter more and more lizardfolk tribes. These tribes further south were not afraid of the party but also were less hostile. Able to converse with the lizards, they were able to make small trades and gain information that Grinjul could be found further to the south. The further south they went, the more they were being directed in an easterly direction. After six days, they encountered a tribe that not only knew of Grinjul, they told the party they could help them find the witch. After a little more conversation, they also discovered that not only did they know of Grinjul, Grinjul had foretold to the tribe shaman that the party would come and relieve them of their demons. A deal was struck, if the party would go and eliminate the demons harassing the lizard tribe, the lizards would make the meet with Grinjul possible. The party followed their lizard guides to the area the demons hunted and came to a hill deep in the marsh about half a day from the lizard's tribe. At the hill, they discovered a black dragon resting. Attacking the dragon, they killed it. In the process, they were attacked by the dragon's siblings and the mother dragon. Having killed four dragons total, they collected the treasure, which was mostly useless as the dragons had only collected those things the primitive lizard tribes deemed valuable. The dragons hadn’t had access to better treasure. Once they returned to the tribe, they turned over much of the horde to the lizards. Though the party didn’t have much use for the minorly magical trinkets of bones and feathers, the tribe considered them valuable heirlooms. Morvion suggested they keep a few back for future trades, which Graykar stashed in his backpack. The party felt they had probably made out well just on the black dragon parts they had harvested, though it would be dangerous to bring them back to Chrailis. For now, those were also safely stored in Graykar’s satchel. Having met there end of the agreement, the lizards fulfilled theirs. They told the party that to reach Grinjul, one must do so in the land of dreams. The tribal shaman gave them a sour-tasting concoction of black goo in four wooden cups, telling them that drinking it would take them to Grinjul. The party briefly debates whether or not one of them should stay awake, not traveling to the dreamlands of Grinjul. Aja suggested leaving Gigi to stand guard, giving him a small dispel magic trinket that he was to break near Aja should they need to awaken quickly. She spent a few hours studying the dreaming concoction and determined that its effect should be easily dispellable. She also determined that it wasn’t poisonous to any of them, or at least that was her best guess. Still uncertain, they all took the concoction and entered into a deep slumber. When they awoke, they saw the familiar terrain of marshes with a long wooden walkway traversing from small island to small island disappearing into the distance. Following the walkway, they once again came to the hut of Grinjul where she was outside waiting for them. The ten-foot-tall hag made a slight bow with her head, more of nod, and said, “Welcome back, children. I am pleased you have saved your world. Many of my children still live in your world, and for saving them from the dragons, I am at your service. How can Grinjul help you.” Graykar stepped forward. “We are here seeking help. We need to return to the world within my satchel. We reached it last time through the Water Temple in the city of the Sarloks. That temple is no more, so to our knowledge, the way is closed.” She told Graykar to come forward, then bends over to peer at him closely. She then stretched her hand forth and pointed at his chest. “The world is still connected to you, as long as you are connected to the item. The connection remains within your world through you. As such the way is not closed, but be warned, the path is dangerous. You must traverse the Hall of the Undying Warrior and beyond that lies a well of worlds. From there, you can find your way back.” “And how do we find the Hall of the Undying Warrior?” Graykar asked. “I have placed an instinct in you, rogue. The way you will know. And be warned, when in the hall, your arrogance may destroy you.” The other three party members remained silent, considering what to say. Later they would not be able to account for their lack of speaking, just that they did not talk. And to Gryakar, Grinjul stretched forth her other hand, opening it to reveal a smooth black stone surrounded by her clawed digits sitting in her palm. “I, Grinjul, Witch of the Dark Glens, still owe you four. Know this, Perlachio came to me once. He deceived me into helping him find the paths to destroy your world. That you rectified this insult is the favor for which I owe you. When you have a great need, use this stone and my advice can be summoned. Use it sparingly, Graykar, for I will determine when I have fulfilled my debt and at that time, you will ask questions at peril and be in danger of owing Grinjul a debt.” They then all awoke at the same time. Aja sat up, her fingers and nose hurting. Looking at Gigi she saw that the trinket he had been given to was shattered. She also saw some blood on his white fur. “You wouldn’t wake,” Gigi explained. Morvion also noticed the blood and the trinket. “I guess you were wrong, Aja. That admixture was more potent than you perceived.” “I don’t think so, I think it meshed with Grinjul’s magic. That I didn’t account for,” Aja defended herself, not willing to admit an error. “So, what was the danger the bat felt we needed to be warned of?” Urik demanded. Aja spoke quietly to Gigi and then to the group, “He says it was just nervous about how long we were out.” “How long were we out,” Graykar asked. They got up, collected their items and exited the small mud hut. Upon asking the lizards, they found they had been in the hut for almost two days. Taking their leave, they headed due west, that being the direction Graykar felt led. “I can’t explain it, but it is that way. I just feel it, like a pleasant sensation when I am looking that way and thinking about going in that direction,” he said pointing. “A pleasant sensation?” Urik prodded. “Like thinking about a good warm mug of mead. When you want mead, you want mead,” Graykar offered in explanation. Urik’s brow furrowed for a second. “Oh, like when you want to behead an annoying enemy. You just feel a need to do it.” “Yes, Urik,” Graykar said, rolling his eyes. “Exactly that, that irresistible urge to behead someone.” They traveled on for the next two days. Though Graykar could point to a direction, he couldn’t say a distance. It was Aja who pointed out, “I think we are heading toward the Sarlok city.” “Makes sense. If Perlachio tricked Grinjul for some benefit related to this well we are going, it would stand to reason he would establish his tower near whatever it was he got from her,” Morvion said. Graykar added, “I have been thinking about the mirrors. I think that the dreams were possibly hijacked by Grinjul. Something else was supposed to happen. Remember how confused yet intrigued Dunger was? I don’t think he was expecting that to happen.” No one else had noticed Dunger acting surprised about the mirrors. “Well, I did, and he was,” Graykar stated. Two days later, they saw what they figured was their destination. As they began entering a valley, the trees started thinning enough where they could see an outcropping of red rocks near hundreds of feet high near the center of the valley. It took them another half day to make the final approach. Graykar’s instinct even led them to the entrance cave. “We need to go in here.” They entered and soon it opened into a large rectangular chamber, nearly four hundred feet long and eighty feet wide. The walls were lined with torches burning with magical fires. In the center of the chamber they saw a single slab of raised stone, artfully decorated. On it rested a single figure in black plate mail. As the party entered, the figure sat up and slid off the table, drawing a sword before slowly advancing on the party. Urik readied to engage, his ax held in both hands. The figure seeing this started to approach Urik. Aja didn’t wait, she cast a force cage around the figure, barely visible golden bars of force surrounding it and pinning it inside. The figure immediately began swinging its ax at the bars. Though the blows were muted, it was obvious that each blow was landing with great force. “It won’t hold it for long,” Aja explained. “It doesn’t have to,” Graykar said, pointing to the far side. “There’s an exit. The instinct is pulling me toward it. This is but a diversion.” “But he challenged me,” Urik complained. Morvion agreed with Urik, he did feel challenged, however, wisdom prevailed in his next words. “This is a fight we don’t have to have. And we were warned, Arrogance would defeat us. Remember, this is the hall of the undying warrior. We might not be able to kill him.” Urik grumbled as they quickly made there way across the chamber. “I would still like to chop him into tiny pieces of undying warrior.” Exiting the chamber, they entered a hollow cavity in the center of the large red rock formation. A rock chimney surrounding them ascended nearly two hundred feet before coming out at the top. The whole cavity was about 100’ across, with an idyllic grove of jungle plants filling the entire base of the cavity. Following the path to the center, they come to a small circular pool lined with rose-white stone bricks. The pool’s edge was about knee-high, with its size about a man’s height from one side to the other. “This is it, this is where I was led,” Graykar said. With no hesitation, he jumped into the pool, expecting to come up again in his water world. The others followed. Where they appeared wasn’t the water world, but a place they had been before. It was the Sun Temple of the snake people. But this place was different, it was damp, the air had a chill feel to it. And the halls were not brightly lit like before, but dimly with flickering shadows. A deep fog permeated the halls of the entire temple. Not having long to discuss matters, the fog started solidifying around them, becoming thicker. Then a blast of force hit Urik, throwing him up against the wall. Morvion lashed out at the fog, thinking he might have hit something. He felt some resistance to his spear thrust. And then he was also slammed by a force of wall. Urik screams out, “The fog, it's attacking us.” He then started swinging wildly with his ax. After being slammed around a few more times, the party decided maybe they just needed to exit rather than fight a fog that surrounded them. Remembering how they had exited last time, they run south to the large pool room. As they entered, they see the large pool is empty, it has no water. “There needs to be water here, I think,” Morvion said. Talking through several solutions, Aja and Urik expend some of their divine energies to quickly summon enough water to fill the pool. As it fills, they saw something surfacing from within a depth of the pool that previously had no depth. It was the water naga they had seen earlier. She rose several feet over them, most of her body still in the water. She then said the same greeting she spoke to them last time, “Greetings travelers. The ways are open, to where shall I send you?” She then looked around and hissed, “I hate this nexus. Decide quickly, we must be gone.” Graykar yelled, “I need to go to the world connected to this satchel.” As he said this, another blast of air knocked him back several feet, his sense of the impending attack allowed him to somewhat sidestep it where he only took minimal damage. The naga stared at Graykar for only a few seconds before saying, “Granted, enter the pool, and be quick.” The party jumped into the water simultaneously, none of them waiting for the others to be first. Swimming down, they felt the temperature of the water warm slightly. Then they swam back up to surface in the familiar pond south of Thistlezorn of the water world. Quickly making their way to the village, they found that it has once again begun its cycle of rebirth every three days. But after talking to the villagers, they soon determined that with each rebirth, existing problems weren’t being cured but just prolonged as the problem would be regenerated with each rebirth. Additionally, too many people had passed away before Garkon was reinstated into his duties. The village was barely hanging on. This time, rather than leave, the party took their time. They stayed for a month. Urik and Morvion headed back to previous villages to find the remains of those who had died. Graykar and Aja stayed in the village teaching them what they could. Graykar focused on engineering, teaching the villagers how to make their lives easier while Aja focused on teaching them magic. In particular, she focused on teaching Temi and Sarkin witchcraft as both girls had a high aptitude for what Aja taught. Once the body parts of the dead villagers were brought back, Aja resurrected them. Most of the dead returned. A few chose to remain dead. Once all the villagers were brought back, the party finished their month by making sure Thistlezorn was fully on track and functioning as it had previously functioned. Still not comfortable with the whole rebirth process, the entire party except Aja removed themselves from the village as Garkon appeared every three days to incinerate it. Aja explained, “It’s a natural order. I don’t fear death and rebirth.” “It’s not natural,” Urik would say, almost every time. As far as Graykar, he started journeying out to look for the castle where all the items appeared. By the time they determined they were ready to return home, he had found it, far to the north by several days run. Morvion and Urik took that time to visit Garkon and find out if the giants were still in the world. As far as Garkon knew, they weren’t. Both Morvion and Urik continued searching but never found any further sign of them. One morning early on in their stay, the party is jarred from their sleep by Urik's excited shouting. He was running around the village screaming, "The Ring of Awesome has AWAKENED!!" It takes quite some time to get him calmed down enough to talk in full sentences, but everyone can tell that he is very excited. He rapidly explained that all of the magical stuff like the planar travel, teleportation, and his new divine abilities have been slowly energizing the ring and that during the battle with the dragons that the dragon's acid or maybe its blood provided the catalyst to fully awaken the ring. "The ring has given me access to non-divine spells!" he shouted before muttering an incantation and having his arms grow to a great length. Graykar, still groggy, muttered, “Haven’t you already done that?” “Yeah, but this time it happened when I wanted it to, not in the heat of a battle. And this time, I know it was the ring. Then, I wasn’t sure if maybe one of you hadn't just cast some strange spell on me.” Unable to repeat it again, he spent the next week and a half in seclusion focusing on the ring and attempting to pour more of his energy into it. During that time, a frustrated Urik approached Aja one morning where she was sitting within a summoning circle meditating, and he chucked the ring of awesome at the ground near her. “It won’t obey me. You thought you could convince it to work for me? Please do so.” Aja looked up and smiled, “Sure thing, friend Urik. The ring and I will have a little talk today. Come back to me by dinner.” That afternoon, Aja cast a limited wish on the ring, thinking it might work. She was disappointed and had to tell Urik that once he returned. “I also lack the skill to unlock the ring.” Urik was slightly mollified by the thought that the powerful Aja couldn’t unlock the ring either. “However, do not despair, I know some great ring masters in Chrailis. Once we return, if we can track one down, I believe that we can do it. Mind you, they don’t work cheap, but we will get this ring in line,” she said with a smile. In her mind, she was thinking they would have to replace the ring with an identical copy, but in doing so, someone with the ability to forge the band as needed along with her casting limited wish again should do the trick. Who knows, she might learn a little about item creation in the process. Urik was happy, took the ring back, and walked off holding it up to his eye, talking to it, “You hear that you wretched chunk of metal, I’ll teach you who is awesome.” When it came time to return, they talked about how the well would likely lead to one of the Sun Temples. Urik and Morvion weren’t worried, “We fought through before without much hassle. We can do it again.” Aja disagreed. “I think when they called us thieves, they thought we were in league with Perlachio. This traveling magic he used between worlds, I think it was theirs. I think Perlachio stole it from them. They aren’t an enemy. They are just defending their home from intruders, those being us.” “What do you suggest then,” Graykar asked. “I’ve been studying what I know of how they transport between worlds, what I learned from Perlachio, and using my sense of being able to shift phases,” she said. “And?” Morvion prompted. “I can plane shift, using the magic of the well, and follow it’s link back to the well of the worlds to our world. From there, we teleport home.” Agreeing to this, Aja used Limited Wish to cast Plane Shift as she focused on the magic of well. Combining the Plane Shift into the magic of the well, she commanded everyone to enter, jumping in herself once they were all in. True enough, they came up at the well of the worlds and from there, she was able to teleport them back to Chrailis. Despite having been a month in the water world, they were gone only an additional two days by Chrailis’s time.
Having been gone a total of seventeen days, they each had duties to attend to, so quickly said their goodbyes. Before separating, Morvion said, “Our next task needs to be Majalacturis, I feel. We’ve waited long enough. I will confer tomorrow with the Coteries that will talk to me and see what they suggest.” They each agreed on this plan and also agreed to meet in up in two days. Meanwhile, Aja enlisted Graykar to help her find a ringsmith in Chrailis who might be skilled enough to reproduce and forge an exact copy of Urik’s ring, but a copy capable of taking the proper enchantments. Once they found him, he listened to their plan and told them that for it to work, Aja would need to be present most of the time required, it would cost nearly 10,000 gold, and would take about 10 days to complete. Aja was not happy with this, but she had told Urik she would try, so try she would. Aja then went through the farce of telling Urik that her and Graykar would help him find a ring forger capable of making the ring work. They led Urik to the ring smith they had talked to earlier and who also was in on the ruse. The ring smith patiently told Urik it would cost 10,000 gold and take roughly 10 days to complete. Urik stewed and grumbled, trying to haggle down the price. It was Graykar, coyly making comments to help the negotiation, who actually handled the transaction between Urik and the smith. Not realizing it that he was being manipulated by Graykar, Urik left feeling he had gotten the best of the ring forger, but 10,000 gold lighter than he was before he arrived. Aja set up her schedule so she could spend a few hours each day with the smith preparing the ring for enchantment. Morvion had returned to his tower to find a notice attached to it. Per law, all towers must be made with mainly white marble with minimal veining to conform to the rest of the city. The notice spiked into the wall of his tower said to expect it to be demolished within three days. Beneath the first notice was a small leather pouch held by a second spike. In it were two scrolls, a small scroll with a message and a second scroll with a new spell. The note in the second scroll read as follows: “Greetings, For service to Chrailis, the destruction of your tower will be delayed by two weeks, allowing you time to conform to building standards. In the meantime, this spell is being granted to you. It is a restricted spell taught to few. DO NOT let others learn this spell – Sister Moleoska” It was signed with a Coterie house symbol of Coterie Gorahz. The spell was Wall of Marble. Cheerful about the fact that his ring was going to finally learn who its master was, Urik returned to the school. He was somewhat disappointed to find everything running smoothly. He had felt with certainty that his absence would encourage all sorts of chaos. Regardless, he settled in for a few days of teaching. After four days, they met up again. Morvion relayed to the party that the wisdom of the Coterie was that they are still not ready to face Majalacturis. “They tell me we lack the means to kill him, only his followers. I suggested some day time raids and they have concurred, they will get back with me tomorrow. You all ready for a quick mission, say tomorrow?” Aja declines. “I have a commitment for a few more days, say maybe six days.” She looked over at Urik and winked. He smiled back. “Yeah, I too will be ready in six days. I have a little surprise for Maja I am working on.” Not understanding, but not willing to argue, he replied, “Ok, in say seven days, let’s meet and go and kill some of Majalacturis’s followers. I want to take some of those insects out.” He then walked out without even saying goodbye. “Did he just storm off?” Graykar asked, reaching over to grab Morvion’s untouched drink. The others look at him, “I’m not going to let his drink go to waste,” he explained. Six days later, the ring was finished and Aja makes the final casting. They wait a few minutes then Aja casts detect magic on the ring. “It worked,” she shrilled. “Let’s get Urik here.” When Urik arrived, the ring smith handed the ring over. “It works as promised. I’ve never encountered such a stubborn piece of metal, but we came to an understanding, orc.” Urik grinned a hideously big smile, fangs showing in full. “Of course the Ring of Awesome was stubborn. It’s an orc ring after all.” With that, he put the ring on and looked to Aja, “Thank you, friend. This means a lot.” That night as Aja returned to her quarters, she found a gift waiting from the Winter Queen. It was a small blue box of lacquered wood sitting in the middle of Aja's room on a table made of clear carved ice with delicate filigreed legs also made of ice. The table wasn't there last time Aja was in her room. The blue paint on the box exhibited an almost sapphire quality shining through the lacquer. The box didn't have a latch, instead, its lid was tied down with a tiny lace ribbon knotted with a single knot. Cutting the lace, Aja opened the box. The inside of the box was lined with blood-red velvet. On the velvet was a single snowflake about 2 inches wide. Aja picked it up and it shattered into tiny ice pieces, but as it did, a crystalline tone was emitted from the tone created as the ice motes fell slowly through the air and Aja heard the voice of her Matron:
Black Dragon Hill
The next day they followed Urik’s lead and the party arrived in Black Tide. It didn’t take long for them to track down several legends of where the witch might be found. While the stories varied, most pointed in the direction of heading south into the Black Marshes veering slightly east. The party wasn’t the first to seek out the witch. They found out that many searchers came through Black Tide seeking the witch. Most were never heard from again, presumably lost to the marshes. Aja and Morvin debated several ways to travel in that direction, trying to find the most efficient means. Wanting to get the move on and for some unknown reason upset at the others for wasting time, he went and bought a boat similar to what they had used before when they last traveled south and set out on his own. “Catch up once you figure out your mode of transport.” Graykar shrugged, “I don’t know. I think he’s still miffed that his ring isn’t working anymore. I’ll go with him. See you guys in a few.” Aja and Morvion decided on their modes of transportation and caught up within the day. Overall, the trip south was uneventful. As they continued on, moving out of the lands controlled by Si’Nassapherion, they began to encounter more and more lizardfolk tribes. These tribes further south were not afraid of the party but also were less hostile. Able to converse with the lizards, they were able to make small trades and gain information that Grinjul could be found further to the south. The further south they went, the more they were being directed in an easterly direction. After six days, they encountered a tribe that not only knew of Grinjul, they told the party they could help them find the witch. After a little more conversation, they also discovered that not only did they know of Grinjul, Grinjul had foretold to the tribe shaman that the party would come and relieve them of their demons. A deal was struck, if the party would go and eliminate the demons harassing the lizard tribe, the lizards would make the meet with Grinjul possible. The party followed their lizard guides to the area the demons hunted and came to a hill deep in the marsh about half a day from the lizard's tribe. At the hill, they discovered a black dragon resting. Attacking the dragon, they killed it. In the process, they were attacked by the dragon's siblings and the mother dragon. Having killed four dragons total, they collected the treasure, which was mostly useless as the dragons had only collected those things the primitive lizard tribes deemed valuable. The dragons hadn’t had access to better treasure. Once they returned to the tribe, they turned over much of the horde to the lizards. Though the party didn’t have much use for the minorly magical trinkets of bones and feathers, the tribe considered them valuable heirlooms. Morvion suggested they keep a few back for future trades, which Graykar stashed in his backpack. The party felt they had probably made out well just on the black dragon parts they had harvested, though it would be dangerous to bring them back to Chrailis. For now, those were also safely stored in Graykar’s satchel. Having met there end of the agreement, the lizards fulfilled theirs. They told the party that to reach Grinjul, one must do so in the land of dreams. The tribal shaman gave them a sour-tasting concoction of black goo in four wooden cups, telling them that drinking it would take them to Grinjul. The party briefly debates whether or not one of them should stay awake, not traveling to the dreamlands of Grinjul. Aja suggested leaving Gigi to stand guard, giving him a small dispel magic trinket that he was to break near Aja should they need to awaken quickly. She spent a few hours studying the dreaming concoction and determined that its effect should be easily dispellable. She also determined that it wasn’t poisonous to any of them, or at least that was her best guess. Still uncertain, they all took the concoction and entered into a deep slumber. When they awoke, they saw the familiar terrain of marshes with a long wooden walkway traversing from small island to small island disappearing into the distance. Following the walkway, they once again came to the hut of Grinjul where she was outside waiting for them. The ten-foot-tall hag made a slight bow with her head, more of nod, and said, “Welcome back, children. I am pleased you have saved your world. Many of my children still live in your world, and for saving them from the dragons, I am at your service. How can Grinjul help you.” Graykar stepped forward. “We are here seeking help. We need to return to the world within my satchel. We reached it last time through the Water Temple in the city of the Sarloks. That temple is no more, so to our knowledge, the way is closed.” She told Graykar to come forward, then bends over to peer at him closely. She then stretched her hand forth and pointed at his chest. “The world is still connected to you, as long as you are connected to the item. The connection remains within your world through you. As such the way is not closed, but be warned, the path is dangerous. You must traverse the Hall of the Undying Warrior and beyond that lies a well of worlds. From there, you can find your way back.” “And how do we find the Hall of the Undying Warrior?” Graykar asked. “I have placed an instinct in you, rogue. The way you will know. And be warned, when in the hall, your arrogance may destroy you.” The other three party members remained silent, considering what to say. Later they would not be able to account for their lack of speaking, just that they did not talk. And to Gryakar, Grinjul stretched forth her other hand, opening it to reveal a smooth black stone surrounded by her clawed digits sitting in her palm. “I, Grinjul, Witch of the Dark Glens, still owe you four. Know this, Perlachio came to me once. He deceived me into helping him find the paths to destroy your world. That you rectified this insult is the favor for which I owe you. When you have a great need, use this stone and my advice can be summoned. Use it sparingly, Graykar, for I will determine when I have fulfilled my debt and at that time, you will ask questions at peril and be in danger of owing Grinjul a debt.” They then all awoke at the same time. Aja sat up, her fingers and nose hurting. Looking at Gigi she saw that the trinket he had been given to was shattered. She also saw some blood on his white fur. “You wouldn’t wake,” Gigi explained. Morvion also noticed the blood and the trinket. “I guess you were wrong, Aja. That admixture was more potent than you perceived.” “I don’t think so, I think it meshed with Grinjul’s magic. That I didn’t account for,” Aja defended herself, not willing to admit an error. “So, what was the danger the bat felt we needed to be warned of?” Urik demanded. Aja spoke quietly to Gigi and then to the group, “He says it was just nervous about how long we were out.” “How long were we out,” Graykar asked. They got up, collected their items and exited the small mud hut. Upon asking the lizards, they found they had been in the hut for almost two days. Taking their leave, they headed due west, that being the direction Graykar felt led. “I can’t explain it, but it is that way. I just feel it, like a pleasant sensation when I am looking that way and thinking about going in that direction,” he said pointing. “A pleasant sensation?” Urik prodded. “Like thinking about a good warm mug of mead. When you want mead, you want mead,” Graykar offered in explanation. Urik’s brow furrowed for a second. “Oh, like when you want to behead an annoying enemy. You just feel a need to do it.” “Yes, Urik,” Graykar said, rolling his eyes. “Exactly that, that irresistible urge to behead someone.” They traveled on for the next two days. Though Graykar could point to a direction, he couldn’t say a distance. It was Aja who pointed out, “I think we are heading toward the Sarlok city.” “Makes sense. If Perlachio tricked Grinjul for some benefit related to this well we are going, it would stand to reason he would establish his tower near whatever it was he got from her,” Morvion said. Graykar added, “I have been thinking about the mirrors. I think that the dreams were possibly hijacked by Grinjul. Something else was supposed to happen. Remember how confused yet intrigued Dunger was? I don’t think he was expecting that to happen.” No one else had noticed Dunger acting surprised about the mirrors. “Well, I did, and he was,” Graykar stated. Two days later, they saw what they figured was their destination. As they began entering a valley, the trees started thinning enough where they could see an outcropping of red rocks near hundreds of feet high near the center of the valley. It took them another half day to make the final approach. Graykar’s instinct even led them to the entrance cave. “We need to go in here.” They entered and soon it opened into a large rectangular chamber, nearly four hundred feet long and eighty feet wide. The walls were lined with torches burning with magical fires. In the center of the chamber they saw a single slab of raised stone, artfully decorated. On it rested a single figure in black plate mail. As the party entered, the figure sat up and slid off the table, drawing a sword before slowly advancing on the party. Urik readied to engage, his ax held in both hands. The figure seeing this started to approach Urik. Aja didn’t wait, she cast a force cage around the figure, barely visible golden bars of force surrounding it and pinning it inside. The figure immediately began swinging its ax at the bars. Though the blows were muted, it was obvious that each blow was landing with great force. “It won’t hold it for long,” Aja explained. “It doesn’t have to,” Graykar said, pointing to the far side. “There’s an exit. The instinct is pulling me toward it. This is but a diversion.” “But he challenged me,” Urik complained. Morvion agreed with Urik, he did feel challenged, however, wisdom prevailed in his next words. “This is a fight we don’t have to have. And we were warned, Arrogance would defeat us. Remember, this is the hall of the undying warrior. We might not be able to kill him.” Urik grumbled as they quickly made there way across the chamber. “I would still like to chop him into tiny pieces of undying warrior.” Exiting the chamber, they entered a hollow cavity in the center of the large red rock formation. A rock chimney surrounding them ascended nearly two hundred feet before coming out at the top. The whole cavity was about 100’ across, with an idyllic grove of jungle plants filling the entire base of the cavity. Following the path to the center, they come to a small circular pool lined with rose-white stone bricks. The pool’s edge was about knee-high, with its size about a man’s height from one side to the other. “This is it, this is where I was led,” Graykar said. With no hesitation, he jumped into the pool, expecting to come up again in his water world. The others followed. Where they appeared wasn’t the water world, but a place they had been before. It was the Sun Temple of the snake people. But this place was different, it was damp, the air had a chill feel to it. And the halls were not brightly lit like before, but dimly with flickering shadows. A deep fog permeated the halls of the entire temple. Not having long to discuss matters, the fog started solidifying around them, becoming thicker. Then a blast of force hit Urik, throwing him up against the wall. Morvion lashed out at the fog, thinking he might have hit something. He felt some resistance to his spear thrust. And then he was also slammed by a force of wall. Urik screams out, “The fog, it's attacking us.” He then started swinging wildly with his ax. After being slammed around a few more times, the party decided maybe they just needed to exit rather than fight a fog that surrounded them. Remembering how they had exited last time, they run south to the large pool room. As they entered, they see the large pool is empty, it has no water. “There needs to be water here, I think,” Morvion said. Talking through several solutions, Aja and Urik expend some of their divine energies to quickly summon enough water to fill the pool. As it fills, they saw something surfacing from within a depth of the pool that previously had no depth. It was the water naga they had seen earlier. She rose several feet over them, most of her body still in the water. She then said the same greeting she spoke to them last time, “Greetings travelers. The ways are open, to where shall I send you?” She then looked around and hissed, “I hate this nexus. Decide quickly, we must be gone.” Graykar yelled, “I need to go to the world connected to this satchel.” As he said this, another blast of air knocked him back several feet, his sense of the impending attack allowed him to somewhat sidestep it where he only took minimal damage. The naga stared at Graykar for only a few seconds before saying, “Granted, enter the pool, and be quick.” The party jumped into the water simultaneously, none of them waiting for the others to be first. Swimming down, they felt the temperature of the water warm slightly. Then they swam back up to surface in the familiar pond south of Thistlezorn of the water world. Quickly making their way to the village, they found that it has once again begun its cycle of rebirth every three days. But after talking to the villagers, they soon determined that with each rebirth, existing problems weren’t being cured but just prolonged as the problem would be regenerated with each rebirth. Additionally, too many people had passed away before Garkon was reinstated into his duties. The village was barely hanging on. This time, rather than leave, the party took their time. They stayed for a month. Urik and Morvion headed back to previous villages to find the remains of those who had died. Graykar and Aja stayed in the village teaching them what they could. Graykar focused on engineering, teaching the villagers how to make their lives easier while Aja focused on teaching them magic. In particular, she focused on teaching Temi and Sarkin witchcraft as both girls had a high aptitude for what Aja taught. Once the body parts of the dead villagers were brought back, Aja resurrected them. Most of the dead returned. A few chose to remain dead. Once all the villagers were brought back, the party finished their month by making sure Thistlezorn was fully on track and functioning as it had previously functioned. Still not comfortable with the whole rebirth process, the entire party except Aja removed themselves from the village as Garkon appeared every three days to incinerate it. Aja explained, “It’s a natural order. I don’t fear death and rebirth.” “It’s not natural,” Urik would say, almost every time. As far as Graykar, he started journeying out to look for the castle where all the items appeared. By the time they determined they were ready to return home, he had found it, far to the north by several days run. Morvion and Urik took that time to visit Garkon and find out if the giants were still in the world. As far as Garkon knew, they weren’t. Both Morvion and Urik continued searching but never found any further sign of them. One morning early on in their stay, the party is jarred from their sleep by Urik's excited shouting. He was running around the village screaming, "The Ring of Awesome has AWAKENED!!" It takes quite some time to get him calmed down enough to talk in full sentences, but everyone can tell that he is very excited. He rapidly explained that all of the magical stuff like the planar travel, teleportation, and his new divine abilities have been slowly energizing the ring and that during the battle with the dragons that the dragon's acid or maybe its blood provided the catalyst to fully awaken the ring. "The ring has given me access to non-divine spells!" he shouted before muttering an incantation and having his arms grow to a great length. Graykar, still groggy, muttered, “Haven’t you already done that?” “Yeah, but this time it happened when I wanted it to, not in the heat of a battle. And this time, I know it was the ring. Then, I wasn’t sure if maybe one of you hadn't just cast some strange spell on me.” Unable to repeat it again, he spent the next week and a half in seclusion focusing on the ring and attempting to pour more of his energy into it. During that time, a frustrated Urik approached Aja one morning where she was sitting within a summoning circle meditating, and he chucked the ring of awesome at the ground near her. “It won’t obey me. You thought you could convince it to work for me? Please do so.” Aja looked up and smiled, “Sure thing, friend Urik. The ring and I will have a little talk today. Come back to me by dinner.” That afternoon, Aja cast a limited wish on the ring, thinking it might work. She was disappointed and had to tell Urik that once he returned. “I also lack the skill to unlock the ring.” Urik was slightly mollified by the thought that the powerful Aja couldn’t unlock the ring either. “However, do not despair, I know some great ring masters in Chrailis. Once we return, if we can track one down, I believe that we can do it. Mind you, they don’t work cheap, but we will get this ring in line,” she said with a smile. In her mind, she was thinking they would have to replace the ring with an identical copy, but in doing so, someone with the ability to forge the band as needed along with her casting limited wish again should do the trick. Who knows, she might learn a little about item creation in the process. Urik was happy, took the ring back, and walked off holding it up to his eye, talking to it, “You hear that you wretched chunk of metal, I’ll teach you who is awesome.” When it came time to return, they talked about how the well would likely lead to one of the Sun Temples. Urik and Morvion weren’t worried, “We fought through before without much hassle. We can do it again.” Aja disagreed. “I think when they called us thieves, they thought we were in league with Perlachio. This traveling magic he used between worlds, I think it was theirs. I think Perlachio stole it from them. They aren’t an enemy. They are just defending their home from intruders, those being us.” “What do you suggest then,” Graykar asked. “I’ve been studying what I know of how they transport between worlds, what I learned from Perlachio, and using my sense of being able to shift phases,” she said. “And?” Morvion prompted. “I can plane shift, using the magic of the well, and follow it’s link back to the well of the worlds to our world. From there, we teleport home.” Agreeing to this, Aja used Limited Wish to cast Plane Shift as she focused on the magic of well. Combining the Plane Shift into the magic of the well, she commanded everyone to enter, jumping in herself once they were all in. True enough, they came up at the well of the worlds and from there, she was able to teleport them back to Chrailis. Despite having been a month in the water world, they were gone only an additional two days by Chrailis’s time.
Having been gone a total of seventeen days, they each had duties to attend to, so quickly said their goodbyes. Before separating, Morvion said, “Our next task needs to be Majalacturis, I feel. We’ve waited long enough. I will confer tomorrow with the Coteries that will talk to me and see what they suggest.” They each agreed on this plan and also agreed to meet in up in two days. Meanwhile, Aja enlisted Graykar to help her find a ringsmith in Chrailis who might be skilled enough to reproduce and forge an exact copy of Urik’s ring, but a copy capable of taking the proper enchantments. Once they found him, he listened to their plan and told them that for it to work, Aja would need to be present most of the time required, it would cost nearly 10,000 gold, and would take about 10 days to complete. Aja was not happy with this, but she had told Urik she would try, so try she would. Aja then went through the farce of telling Urik that her and Graykar would help him find a ring forger capable of making the ring work. They led Urik to the ring smith they had talked to earlier and who also was in on the ruse. The ring smith patiently told Urik it would cost 10,000 gold and take roughly 10 days to complete. Urik stewed and grumbled, trying to haggle down the price. It was Graykar, coyly making comments to help the negotiation, who actually handled the transaction between Urik and the smith. Not realizing it that he was being manipulated by Graykar, Urik left feeling he had gotten the best of the ring forger, but 10,000 gold lighter than he was before he arrived. Aja set up her schedule so she could spend a few hours each day with the smith preparing the ring for enchantment. Morvion had returned to his tower to find a notice attached to it. Per law, all towers must be made with mainly white marble with minimal veining to conform to the rest of the city. The notice spiked into the wall of his tower said to expect it to be demolished within three days. Beneath the first notice was a small leather pouch held by a second spike. In it were two scrolls, a small scroll with a message and a second scroll with a new spell. The note in the second scroll read as follows: “Greetings, For service to Chrailis, the destruction of your tower will be delayed by two weeks, allowing you time to conform to building standards. In the meantime, this spell is being granted to you. It is a restricted spell taught to few. DO NOT let others learn this spell – Sister Moleoska” It was signed with a Coterie house symbol of Coterie Gorahz. The spell was Wall of Marble. Cheerful about the fact that his ring was going to finally learn who its master was, Urik returned to the school. He was somewhat disappointed to find everything running smoothly. He had felt with certainty that his absence would encourage all sorts of chaos. Regardless, he settled in for a few days of teaching. After four days, they met up again. Morvion relayed to the party that the wisdom of the Coterie was that they are still not ready to face Majalacturis. “They tell me we lack the means to kill him, only his followers. I suggested some day time raids and they have concurred, they will get back with me tomorrow. You all ready for a quick mission, say tomorrow?” Aja declines. “I have a commitment for a few more days, say maybe six days.” She looked over at Urik and winked. He smiled back. “Yeah, I too will be ready in six days. I have a little surprise for Maja I am working on.” Not understanding, but not willing to argue, he replied, “Ok, in say seven days, let’s meet and go and kill some of Majalacturis’s followers. I want to take some of those insects out.” He then walked out without even saying goodbye. “Did he just storm off?” Graykar asked, reaching over to grab Morvion’s untouched drink. The others look at him, “I’m not going to let his drink go to waste,” he explained. Six days later, the ring was finished and Aja makes the final casting. They wait a few minutes then Aja casts detect magic on the ring. “It worked,” she shrilled. “Let’s get Urik here.” When Urik arrived, the ring smith handed the ring over. “It works as promised. I’ve never encountered such a stubborn piece of metal, but we came to an understanding, orc.” Urik grinned a hideously big smile, fangs showing in full. “Of course the Ring of Awesome was stubborn. It’s an orc ring after all.” With that, he put the ring on and looked to Aja, “Thank you, friend. This means a lot.” That night as Aja returned to her quarters, she found a gift waiting from the Winter Queen. It was a small blue box of lacquered wood sitting in the middle of Aja's room on a table made of clear carved ice with delicate filigreed legs also made of ice. The table wasn't there last time Aja was in her room. The blue paint on the box exhibited an almost sapphire quality shining through the lacquer. The box didn't have a latch, instead, its lid was tied down with a tiny lace ribbon knotted with a single knot. Cutting the lace, Aja opened the box. The inside of the box was lined with blood-red velvet. On the velvet was a single snowflake about 2 inches wide. Aja picked it up and it shattered into tiny ice pieces, but as it did, a crystalline tone was emitted from the tone created as the ice motes fell slowly through the air and Aja heard the voice of her Matron:
Dearest Aja Blood Chill, I summon you to an urgent task. A task with a great reward. My general Autaunia Sightbinder has failed in her duties and rather than return home, she has fled into your world. With her is a most valuable weapon - the Staff of Visionary Delights. Retrieve the Sightbinder, preferably alive, to my lands and the staff shall be your reward as you assume some of her responsibilities as well as a much deserved reward for your efforts in your land in ridding the world of the vicious parasitic city.
Reading the note, Aja realized that Morvion would not be happy on the morrow, but this task trumped his excursion to attack Majalacturis’s forces. She needed to take care of it soon. She would go by herself if she needed to, but she knew she would need her friends if she was to succeed.
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Author's Notes
Events occur in the month of Ja Drosha te Lan and Deelo, 920th Year of Her Prominence. (1228 AC) Ja Drosha te Lan 28th to Deelo 15th.