SotF Session 004: Sigfrido de'Zolezzi

Threesday, 4th Hand of Reaping

Something astonishing happened, originally i left the inn to go back to the lair to collect the ears of the goblins we slew, along with the gnoll’s head to claim the reward for their defeat, and on my way back to where I was planning to set up camp, I heard loud neighing of a horse nearby, only to find a Pegasus caught in a hunter’s trap! It was reacting in fear of me when it saw me, but I did manage to calm it down, calling out to it that I mean no harm to it. The Pegasus then calmed down and spoke, introducing herself as Adria. I managed to free her from the trap, one that must have been old or something, because the spring broke when i pried it open to set her free. She offered some wisdom, something I really should consider since it came from such a divine creature…

Foursday, 4th Hand of Reaping

I awoke to return to the group, seeing that we now had two more members joining us, with Vissia already departed to the next village on our route. No surprise there, she showed little patience in being in the presence of a priest of Syjan… While the group was eating, I went to the village elder’s place to inform him that the deed was done for the goblin’s removal, and in turn he rewarded me for the task. I split the funds evenly, withholding Vissia’s share when we meet up with her. It was a half-day’s journey to Porti Golari, with a supernatural, yet natural phenomenon that created a strong shockwave when it detonated. The brothers fell off of their horses, and a stampede was on its way towards us. With quick wit, and reactions, we were able to avoid the center of the stampede, and even though I attempted to calm any tamed animals, all of them reacted as they would as wild animals. With the stampede behind us, we continued to Porti Golari, with our first visit to the inn, where we encountered Vissia again, who was looking to form a group to investigate a mission involving spider elimination. While i could see her disdain with me still accompanying the brothers, it was made clear why she hated me, but showed ‘some’ understanding when I explained to her why I act in such a manner though what happened to my original Faith Mate… We all agreed to join her, for just this last time, as i’m sure Vissia will part from us after it. For now though, we will rest today, and start early tomorrow.

Fivesday, 4th Hand of Reaping

We departed for the cave, and feeling like I should let a fellow member of the cloth of the Gods, I told Vissia about the Pegasus, which really took to a conversation with her, in fact the longest talk we’ve had i’m sure, though our conversation is halted when we arrive at the cave, which only shows it to be a purposefully crafted hovel of a home, built into the ground with two massive doors, slightly ajar. Calisto and Giovanni had the idea of using the grease spell to allow the doors to open easier, and by Tomes, the sister of our new party members knew spells of her own. I’ll have to ask her about her teachings sometime. We entered the hovel, and after a bit of exploring, we saw no spiders… But a slight skitter above me revealed the creatures, and after a quick, and painful encounter, the spiders were dispatched. We then decided to investigate the hovel, finding many books, and ingredients for spellwork, indicating that this hovel belonged to a magi, but what kind…? It was soon after I started questioning this, that i heard a explosion in the next room. I rushed into the room, only to have my heart and soul racked with grief. Vissia is dead, her body burned severely, with Calisto badly injured. I carried Vissia’s corpse out of the hovel, and the brother, Onofrio offered his tent to act as a cover for her corpse so we can find a proper place to bury her. I wanted to find a place to put her to rest, but Onofrio convinced me to finish this investigation, which revealed that this hovel was a home of a worshipper, or follower of The Tyrant, and the room the corpse, whom I assume is the corpse of the heathen, was trying to get to was a den of bones of various humanoids and monsters, but with the sets of bone missing pieces of them. An ABOMINATION was made here, and it too must be dealt with, but priorities come first, we will head to Kingsbridge to lay Vissia to rest, with what little time of rest we have….

SotF Session 004: Giovanni se'Accardi

Fivesday 4th Hand of Reaping, AN 263 (continued)

Afterwards, Vissia passed out, and we laid her down. The gnoll continued to stare at the roof of the cave, completely devoid of any signs of life save for his rhythmic breathing. Alwin, the Earl's fighter who accompanied us and Siegfried left to pursue the “king of the goblins”. Siegfried made me promise not to open the mysterious door in the ruins without him present, but my brother persuaded me to let him attempt to open it. Together we deciphered some ancient Trantoran script which was the key to open the door. After it was unlocked, I opened it, which revealed what appeared to be the tomb of a mage. We found out later it was the tomb of one of the founder's of the Arcanyx. Grave robbing his tomb didn't sit right with me, but Callisto and I agreed to come back to it some day. Thankfully the magic seal upon the door remained intact after we used it. We decided to tell Siegfried that there was no need to continue investigating the ruins, which there wasn't, and to simply not mention the door. As long as we told the truth and avoiding telling any lies without revealing what we had done, we didn't have to worry about any lashback from Siegfried.

Before we opened the door however, Siegfried and Alwin came back and told us they were going to the village to try and procure some hunting dogs to find the goblin, And after we were done with the door, Vissia awakened. She killed the gnoll and told us she would be heading north, and that she was done with our party. It was fair, seeing as how Siegfried's methods were, dubious. I never really understood the stigma against Adjudicators until now. I did agree that Siegfried made it hard to have an opinion of my own, I seemed to be just along for the ride with him. I needed to stand up for myself more!

Callisto and I decided to head into town since we had not heard anything from Siegfriend and Alwin and found them drinking it up in town. Joining them we let them know our next destination. Settling on heading north, we enjoyed our meal until some soldiers from the nearby fort came into the inn and started making a ruckus, which ended with one of them killing a slave girl because he was unhappy with the quality of his food. It was ridiculous, a waste of good coin. It was like watching someone use a perfectly good horse for target practice. Plus, even if she was a slave, it was unsettling. Reminded me why I never went to the slave auctions in the city or the slave tents. Callisto decided to recruit some more people for our merry band and found a fighter named Onofrio and his sister Salinia.

Onofrio and Callisto decided to duel to test each others mettle, but Callisto accidentally stabbed him in the gut right as the duel started, leaving a very bad, lasting wound. This ruined his chances with Onofrio's sister. The idiot must have been thinking of how to bed her instead of paying attention to the fight. Sometimes he thinks with his codpiece instead of his head, its disappointing, really. So we decided to keep Onofrio and Salinia on until Onofrio could heal. Our meal ruined with the dead slave, and the duel incident, we turned in for the night. The next day we planned to bid Alwin goodbye, but he decided to stay with us for a bit longer, as the capital was in the same direction we were going.

Onesday, 5th Hand of Reaping, AN263

That morning we headed out, and it was a mostly pleasant ride to the next town, except that we witnessed something both horrifying and fascinating on the way there. It was a real bone-fide wild magic surge! It sundered the forest for miles behind us as we pushed our horses as much as possible to get away from it. It was truly a sight to behold, as well as the stampede of animals trying to get away as badly as we were. I hope the fires go out in the thick forest and we don't have a large forest fire on our hands. That could be bad for everyone. Callisto had picked up a couple of leads on possible things to do in Portigliari once we reached the town. The most interesting was an ad to deal with some spiders, but once we reached the town, we found none other then Vissia looking to recruit some people to do the same job. It seems we would be staying together, for one last adventure.

I tried to get some information such as the terrain of where we were heading and the kind of spiders we would be fighting so I knew what kind of spells to prepare, but Vissia wouldn't talk of the details, not wanting to have the job taken out from under her. Understanding, I decided to just head to our room for the night, which Alwin had graciously paid for on the Earl's dime. At this point I learned that Onofrio's sister, Salinia was also a mage! She was also Arcanyx trained even! It was fascinating! 

I couldn't decipher the way she was casting spells however. She told me she was a Conjuration caster though, So I figured it must simply be that Conjuration users performed their spells differently. Something at the back of my mind was nagging me, it still is even, but still, another caster in the party is wonderful! Maybe at some point we can share philosophies! Perhaps she'll even have some opinions on Zysohr's doctrine. Not many in the Arcanyx liked to talk philosophy with me for some reason, but maybe she would! I didn't want to come on too strong however, I'm sure since Callisto injured her brother her attitude to me will be very cold anyway. I'll have to be careful about it. I set some spells for the morning and turned in early. But before I turned in I learned from Callisto that the wardkeeper had summoned us to show up to the sky tower to the west of Vellara in the Sassenenvento Mountains in two hands.

Twosday, 5th Hand of Reaping, AN263

In the morning we had a good meal on the Earl's dime and Alwin left us. Then, Vissia led us into the woods. We rode for quite awhile before we came upon a strange metal door in the side of a hill. It didn't seem like there was space for spiders to be inside, but we decided to check it out anyway. Callisto opened the door after Salinia greased them up with the grease spell and snuck inside. He told us he found a room which just seemed like a normal room, so we all entered it and started to explore. Moving into the next room, we found a body, it looked like it had been there awhile. Then, before we knew it, spiders descended from the ceiling onto us! We forgot to look up like idiots! A rough battle ensured where we took out five of these spiders. Afterwards, I took the bodies outside to take back for payment, when I heard a large “boom” noise inside. Running back inside, I found my brother near death looking like a charred mess and Visia, who was well and truly a fried corpse. It was agonizing. Siegfried managed to save Callisto, and he explained he had found a book and set off a warding spell.

The discussion started to devolve as Siegfriend vehemently wanted to get Visia to a priest of Axsyn to have a proper burial and the like. Callisto even went so far as to tell Onofrio and Salinia they were free to go and giving them a silver as compensation for his wound. He was extremely distraught over the situation. Onofrio then offered his services to Siegfried who agreed, so they stayed with the party. We decided in the end to finish what we started for Visia. In the back room we found many corpses, it was a sickening sight really. We also found missing parts. It seems that perhaps the person we found dead was a necromancer, and that his creation was still loose. We decided to stay the night and hope we would run into the monster, and allow me the time to prepare the proper spells to hopefully deal with magical book that killed Visia and almost killed Callisto.