bluegargantua

Hey,

I've been rather remiss in my journal-entries lately. Sadly, I've been spending most of my time exploring the parts of Anvil the guidebooks (and common sense) tell you to stay away from. It has, however, been an extremely profitable and productive time for me so this tiresome NGO work for the Anvil Alliance has at least turned out better than that Army job.

However, I’m definitely agitating for long vacation. Well, I suppose the rest of the crew will go off drinking, but I’ve got a mountain of work to do with the results of my field research.

Let’s see. After we took care of the Artificer, the Cult of the Tolling Bell decided the time was ripe to overthrow the government and so there was a small civil war breaking out in town. The Duchess’s spy network, determined that the cult was meeting up with some Orcus worshipers in a place called the Puddles. We were supposed to go in and break it up.

So, the Puddles. Basically, it’s a part of Anvil that half sank into the water and is now a festering slum. Crumbling buildings and ruins rise up out of the water and there are islands of cityscape that were just elevated enough to remain damp. The cult meeting was supposed to go down in one of these elevated plazas flanked by two larger buildings.

Dauntless stealthily put us down on one of the buildings and we waited. At the appointed time, some Bells and Orcites showed up. I dropped a fireball on them to get the festivities started. The head Orcite was pretty quick to evacuate the scene, content to snipe us from a distance and leave his hulking undead brutes to menace us. The Bells, by contrast got stuck in right away as befits their fanatical natures.

Oh, I suppose I should mention that Kaylee (the happy-go-lucky elf chick) took off and we’ve been “graced” with a halfing Sorcerer named Deena(?). As if we need some untrained hedge witch spouting off with random gouts of uncontrolled arcane energies. Case in point, we were, as I mentioned, high up on a building overlooking the meeting. Several of Deena’s spells fizzled and pushed us about – dangerously close to the edge and a nasty fall.

Anyway, despite Deena’s “help”. We managed to crush the undead horrors and most of the Bells. The cult had some wizardly type who managed to make good his escape and the leader of the Orcites, a ghostly type fled the scene. Sadly, although we’d gotten several high-ranking members of Bells, we’d failed to nab their leader.

Back to the Duchess who informs us that there’s a Plan B. The city harbor is protected by a “Flotsam Grave”, an magical zone of wrecked ships. Within this zone is Pilot Island, an outpost where incoming ships can be guided safely into port. It appears as though this island was the center of the Tolling Bell’s cult. Furthermore, another meeting between the Bells and the Orcites was scheduled to happen out in the Flotsam Grave the next night. Joining them would be pirates from the Kraken cult. You might remember the Kraken cult as the people who dug up Dauntless, but then we liberated it from them before they got a chance to get their hands on it. In fact, that Kraken expedition was headed up by the Captain of a ship called the Darmok. Guess which Kraken ship was showing up for this meeting? It was shaping up to be a regular family reunion.

So the Duchess tells us to hustle down to the docks to meet up with a dwarven Pilot named Thorgar and he’ll take us to the meeting site and we can clobber these guys. Dauntless can’t drop us off because the Grave puts out a serious zone of magical confusion and it’s sensors can’t penetrate them (and apparently it doesn’t trust any of us to just guide it in or…you know, fly it). So it’s down to the docs.

The Flotsam Grave is a wet, swampy, stinking, junkyard. We nose around several likely spots before finding the one with an advance guard of pirates. We take out the advance guard quickly and Hendrel disguises us as the advance guard.

Eventually, the whole gang shows up. The Orcite ghost cultist from before, the Kraken pirates (including the return of Weasel, last seen being blown out via Dauntless’s ejection system) and the Bells including the wizard from the last meeting and the head honcho (Hezekiah?).

Although I could have put down a wide area spell effect to catch them all, Kestrel decided to curse Weasel and the fight broke out.

I found a great many of my potent effects were being dispelled by the Bell’s wizard and leader. On the one hand, I suppose it was time spent dealing with my arcane power rather than taking direct action against us, but it’s irritating to have your work undone like that.

In the process of dueling with the enemy wizard, however, he suddenly realized that he was up against a Master of the Ahura School and he began to make a number of unwise comments. Those comments being that he was a member of the Secret Six who had destroyed my alma mater. I don’t know why you would admit such a thing to a powerful wizard such as myself, but clearly this Secret Six has shown no particular strategic aptitude.

So I burnt him to a crisp. Turns out he had a book just chock full of Ahura School Property on his person. I still need to check out the local magical university for any other leads, but this has been a significant step forward in avenging the school and restoring its prestige.

Oh, meanwhile, the ghost guy got away. The pirate captain got away. Pop went Weasel. Taras got killed. The Tolling Bell leader got killed. Capricious made a surprise appearance and took the Tolling Bell’s evil, Orcite-tained book off our hands.

So that was that. We stuffed Taras into a bag of holding and commenced walking. Yes, walking because our pilot had sent our boat away in the fight to prevent it’s capture but somehow there’s not recall spell for it. Seven miles of hiking through waterlogged rubbish to get to firm land.

So off we go. After a few miles we see some dog-man doing the most pathetic job of hiding it has ever been my misfortune to witness. I’m pretty sure everyone in the party was openly staring at him. Eventually he copped to being spotted and approached cautiously. Alanna and Kestrel, as is their wont, immediately tried feeding him doggie treats – rather shameful treatment of a fellow sentient, especially considering the people we’d just been killing.

At any rate, the dog man shifted into a more human form and informed us his name was Snow and he was a ranger whose party had been hunting undead in the ruins before they all got wiped out. Now that I think on it, we’ve met a number of rangers who have been the sole survivors of their parties. Doesn’t speak well for the profession. Anyway, we determined he wasn’t much of a threat and offered to let him tag along.

A little further along, we’re nearly tumbled into the water by one of the Graveyard’s frequent shifts. All the wreckage reconfigures and aligns itself as part of its defensive measures. Actually I guess the sorceress was tossed into the drink we didn’t find her again. Oh well, nothing to worry about.

After this “quake”, Thorgar re-evaluated our situation. Up ahead, the shifting had re-uncovered the Stone Grotto, an area of the Grave that had once been infested by medusas, until a party of adventurers came along and cleared it out. There were rumors that one of them was a ghost and the place was generally avoided when it appeared. In this case, any detour would be far longer and likely more treacherous than our current path forward. So we resolved to stride boldly into danger.

So those rumors about a ghost medusa? They were true. They’re not anymore. The rumors didn’t mention zombie Halflings, zombie dire seagulls, nor swarms of zombie crabs. Luckily we don’t have to warn anyone about these dangers because we killed all of them. Oh, and Snow, the new guy, has the most charming tendency to charge pell-mell towards danger. He also likes to cut himself. I think he should be sent to obedience school but Thrace has taken a shine to him. I’ve warned her that caring for a Shifter is a big responsibility and she’s promised to paper train him, but I’m not sure she’s really comprehended the full scope of the job.

Anyway, we pushed on a few more miles and just as we neared the end of the Graveyard, we were jumped by ghost guy and the most pathetic lot of wraiths I think we’ve ever encountered. We blew most of them down and did a pretty serious number on the ghost until he remembered that he was a ghost and just phased out through the floor and escaped. Although he worships Orcus, I am somewhat impressed with this guy – he knows when it’s time to run.

So that was pretty much it – oh, I got shot with a ballistae by one of the patrol boats who came to “rescue” us. Stings a bit. But the Secret Six is short a member and I’ve got a thick tome of school rituals to return so I don’t mind it so much…or maybe it’s because I’m going into shock from blood loss. Well, I’m sure someone will get around to healing me.

later
Tom