Summary of the Shapershifter Campaign interlude
The tale begins the day when the Kondagion was halted by the magic of Fasroth. It was in the winter 2984 at the same time as the civil wars of Kar started and the trolls begun their raidings.
{2984 of the new era (NE) is the correct name of the year but most people skip the later part since nobody uses any other form anyway. The origin of this counting traces back to the gods Syruths profecy about 3000 years of peace before the time when the dead will rise.}
{This is not a exact description what has happend in campaign and may on some places differ from what really took place. The reasons could be that I skipped unrelated details, or clues that the group misunderstood. On many cases this could also be from that even while this a summary of what the party has seen I know the truth and this may affect the description. Any comments about the text are welcome}
The current group
The (bard) priest Alexander. Still without proper status in the churce of Petelia but with a cleared named. With the set of curses that tormented him lifted and many projects on the move he only rarely can help the group. Mainly busy in his homeland Ardezia.
The thief Skello (formally known as Gregg). A kleptomanic thief who have made himself a fortune without that party ever noticed it. Is by now known to come from Kzardon but with a history that is still hidden in mystery.
The cruasader Indariox. One of the famous knights of Zenatharion. By some believed to be the leader of the party but in practice he has been gone most of the time and thus only rarely directly assists the group.
The mythic Gedeon. Busy finding every secret on Finatchia and with more than few good guesses about the nature of things behind the scene. What he got intellectually is surely needed since he aslo got a abillity to mess up simple tasks.
The priest Justarius. A priest to Alroth, the god of the cleaning fire. A valuable member of the team that in unknown ways is connected to the central plot. His family have been hunted by Isbinladin since his ancestor helped putting the warlock Zaban in Nur in a block of crystal. He is also rumored to have very special profecy on himself but the words of the profecy or the intentions behind it are not known.
The magehunter Cvalndlir. Member of the famous the Weissmens and just recently back from a time away from the party. Together with another group of heroes he did manage to track the demon Moglesh, the begger demon, and banish this dangerous creature. After that the other team decided to try bringing order to Kar Cvalndlir decided that it was again time to follow his orginal team.
The figther Maritox. With his old enemy Kylad Marox as a prisoner of the trolls and his friends set free Maritox have done much of what he wanted to do orgianlly. Now he have turned his attention to the main quest of the party. If possibly this have made him even harder to handle and he rarely waits to ask the others before he tryes to solve problems.
The taoist monk Pi. A ugly, cursed and moody gnoll who is one the quest on getting gold and fame. He can't speak but since he is semi telepatic and have to hide his face anyway (very unpleasant when people calls for guards when they see your face) most people misses his lack of voice. Is rumored to be the one that makes Eltai declare Sa'ting'il'athor and known as the one without follower in the propecy of Nag.
The enchancer Ayillon Dartis. A mysterious person that suddenly joined the group. He often manages to recall important arcane knowledge just at the needed time. On Elroch he also in some undetectable way managed to find a human mentalist when the group needed the help of such professional.
Aftermatch at the Kondagion
The group collected their belongins and managed to get hold on a spare fishing boat. The rest of the boats was needed to transport the prisioners of the knights of Zenatharion. The group was generally cheerful as they had heard that the official explansions about the events would be an politically correct one and they thought that this was good news. When the group exited the Kondagion they found that the trolls fleet was splitting up. A small group of boats seemed sailing directly towards Elroch while the others took random directions to do some raiding on the way home.
Selling the fishing boat
The group sailed to Kar to sell the fishingboat. When they arrived they soon made the discocery that nobody got experience with trading. Pheron, that left the group ages back in campaign, had been expert on this and nobody had thought about that this skill was vital. Lucky for the group the demands for fishingsboats was huge and with some duping they managed to sell the boat for five gold, just below the actual value. The reason was that troll ships had landed and raided many villages and destroyed lot's of the fishers boats. After that the group got the money they set sail for Zyr to deliever a report for the guild of magic.
Meeting a man called Lewy
When the group passed through Ardezia they meet a man called Lewy. He asked the group to find his fathers magic ring. The ring was made in gold with a huge blue opal and the inscription L. Lewy's father had lost the ring to a higwayman 70 years ago in the northen Ardezia. The reward was 10 gold and this, combined with the fact that the ring got magical powers, made the group interested. The powers turned out to be only useful to Lewy but the group promised to keep their eyes open.
Curious rumors in Zyr
The group trevelled to Zyr and found that the news of the events at Kondagion allready had arrived. The strange thing was that nobody had heard about the groups presence. The rumor told that the knights of Zenatharion had done the deed with the help of the trolls and some elves from Fazik. The group finaly understood the meaning of a politically correct solution and was not that happy.
The empty labratory
There were also a lot of fuss about a mysterious disappearance. Encralion, the third highest member of the guild and head of magical research had left Zyr without explanasion. The mysterium was that somebody, perhaps Encralion, at the same time had stolen all equipment from the labratorys. Nobody could reliealy tell when the equipment last had been there but it was clear that it would have taken a army to move all the items during a single night.
For once not complety cheated
The group delievered their report to Zonar that seemed very grateful and offered 12 gold as payment. At the first the group thought that the payment was a bit small and they were speaking about wanting at least 15. Luckly they started thinking and compared the payment to Lewy's promised reward for the ring. Over two years of work would surely be more than a single mission and the group managed to raise the reward to 120 gold. When the group got the money they noticed that Zonar seemed to look on himself as he had made a real bargin and thus there probably had been place for more negotations.
A pointless stop in the northen Ardezia
Justarious had in Zyr been able to identify the place were the strange events for his family started. The group left Zyr to travel to this place in Iklytz but decided to visit the place were Lewy's father lost the ring. Not surprising there were not many evidences left 70 years after the robbery. The team asked around some after legendary caves our hideouts in the neigbourhood but found that the robber must have been visitor too since none of this was present. In a diffrent country the trip would have been motivated but in Ardezia that got close to no criminals due to the violent soldiers belonging to the blades of the north the master criminal hideout option is simply not an option.
Ley-lines
In Ilkytz the group found the place were the event that started the weird part of the history about Justarious family. Unfortunely they didn't become much wiser due to this. Twelve ley-lines did converge at seven holes in ground below a large cliff. The six smallers seemed to send their power to the largest hole that also directly got six lines. After some discussing the group concluded that the ley-lines came from the twelve entry stones to the artificial dreamworld. After speaking with a gnome the group learnt that the ley-lines contained very bad magic and some interesting rumors about the nature of Pi's curse. It was said that Pi didn't got any follower since the follower didn't need to follow him at all. A very funny discussion now started about what a follower was exactly and Pi gave the explansion that a follower is obviously the one that follow you but the group didn't make much more sense out of this either.
Armorpieces and digging
On top of the cliff they found a pile of bones and metal pieces from old armors. Justarious sugested that they may perhaps come from a battlefield called Marchamor. One of his ancestor had on this battlefield become friend with a ghost, with the help of ghost he become a hero called the glowing knight of Iklytz. The assistance from the ghost had ended when Justarious ancestor fought a spelluser with the name Zaban on a cliff at the edge of a lake. The ghost had previously had no memories except that he had been the prisoner of Hachiman in the orient. He now recognized Zaban and attacked. Zaban fell down into the lake trapped in a crystal rock. The group concluded that this most likely was the place of the lake since the ground below the cliff looked like it could have been a lake once. By now it was obvious that Zaban was beeing resurrected and the group decided to dig in the large hole in hope of distrupt the process.
A suspicious ranger
The group was busy working when a ranger suddenly appeared. He and his friends was camping in the neigbourhood and wondered what was happening. The group gave some cover explanasions and some followed the ranger back to check his story and see if they could enlist the help of the group. Of course these characters didn't return and just when the group found the crystal it disappeared. The group looked around and discovered a beam of light from the sky some distance away.
The beam of light
The group realized that something important was happening and went to the place where the beam from the sky went down. When they arrived they found the group members and the group of rangers was standing looking at the beam. Pi didn't hesitate and stepped inside the circle and soon found that he was trapped there. When the rest of the group saw this and discovered that the friends that had followed the ranger was lost to the environment they attacked the rangers. When the man was hit the controlled group members was released and some fighting started but the way to the other false rangers was blocked by an ugly demon. A flame came falling down from the sky and Pi that was standing at point blank took some serious damage.
The horn
The ground started shaking and Ztown once again appeared to help the group but one of the false rangers, presumly Zaban, picked up a horn. When he did blow in the horn Ztown turned into water and was gone. A few seconds later the demon was sended away and the shapeshifters turned into flying monsters and took off. The group was left standing the now silent night.
{end of session 20}
Heavy resoning
The group started discussing what had happened and after a while they concluded the following. That it was simple to deduct why Ztown use to help the group even while the question about why this was the case was harder to solve. That Ztown probably had been trapped somewhere, probably the dream world, since his death should had been much more violent than what happend. That the horn must be another horn than the horn of Mogrim. When the group had sorted this out they started the journey back to Zyr since they understood that they were very seriously missing some needed information.
Rumors in Mydak
While passing through Mydak they heard rumors that Sarli, the commander of the golden hawkes, was missing. The soldiergroup had returned back from Al'krytza but the commander and her closet men was away on a special mission. There was also more rumors about the dangerous waterdevils that was rumored to be building a citraldel at the top of the Mylnian river.
Checking the library in Zyr
The group hired some librarians and managed to find the follwing. Zaban in Nur is most likely the same person as Zabanoc in Nubayoc, one of the founders of the guild of magic. Zabanoc was the one that made the first report about the mysterious beeing called Hachiman. He did perish in a failed experiment to do a gateworld between the capitals of the western world. The experiment was done with the aid of Fylitzia and knowledges about dreamtravel and dreamshaping. It have been sugested that Zabanoc used extra info from Haciman that was flawed and thus so made the experiment result in the crash. The experiment was done at the old center of the guild of magic in Arcadia and at the diffrent capitals. Zaban appeared a couple of hundred years later and with the aid of his three followers been present in rumors but never active enough to gather the attention from any serious powers.
Mogrim's horn
The team did also find that the horn stolen by the Isbinladen was believed to be Mogrim's since it was found in Mogrim's lair. Mogrim made his horn of horror and used it in a fairly successful reign of terror until he was stopped by Hariblam the cruel. The legends tell that Hariblam came to Mogrim and demanded that he should take service for him and killed Mogrim without difficulty when he got a no as the answer. After this Hariblam searched Mogrims lair and picked some of equpiment but left many items and parts of the cave unexplored. When people from Arcadia arrived they found the horn and thought that it must be Mogrim's and after facing many traps they left the lair alone. The group also checked for what kind of horn that it could be since it obviously must be another horn. The most likely sugestion from the librarians was that it was the horn of sea used by water elementals during the battle of the Impedion. The properties and powers of this horn was unfortunely hidden in mystery except a possible connection to Ztown. If the horn has been missing since the war of Impedia or just not been used in recent wars was clouded in mystery.
The waterdevils
Nothing sure could be found about the waterdevils in the Mydak citradel. There were some notes that the people of Maxadi had similar beeings outside their coasts but the truth behind Maxadi legends is allways an open question. Anyway these beeings was known to be incredibly powerful and strong enought to eat stone or metal without difficulty.
The ring
Just before the group was supposed to leave Gedeon got the idea that they should check Zyr's vault for the magic ring that Lewy wanted. The ring was there like it had been the last thirty years and the group payed twenty gold to get it. Since the ring was of minor powers and the group could describe it there was no need for verifiction from the guild. The group located Lewy and sold him the ring. While they were doing this they learnt that there was a new religious movement growing that claimed that the churces was corrupt. It was revealed that Lewy had borrowed the money he payed the group. The group also made a deal with Levy that he would help the group locate items when needed.
Buying ground in Arcadia
The group came to Arcadia and did find the center node of the artifical dreamworld. After some detecting magic they concluded that the enemys was busy making the world work again. Unfortunely they did obvious do the work on the other side and the group couldn't come up with any way to counter it than entering the dreamworld. After some discussion they decided to visit Mogrim's lair first to see if they could learn anything useful about the magic horn before they tried this. Before they left the group bought all ground in the old capital and reported this ownersship to the government.
{end of session 21}
Out in the djungle
The group encountered Elsire that traveled with the group a few months far back into the campaign. Since the avaible group was small Elsire temporary joined the group. To visit the Mogrim's cave the group rented horses. After a few days travel they encountered Marido that had been recruited by the guild to locate minor magic items left by Ibloch Tibe. With him was Troy and new recruit named Idil Man. After speaking with Egron and some Syruth priests that the group met on the road they learnt that Syruth was trying to locate an old man. The man was described as having a long beard and equiped with a huge twohanded sword. The man had sold an artifact to Syruth and promised two more of the same type but had refused to deliever them. The group got no clue to why Syruth have failed to take form again.
The lair of Mogrim
The group arrieved to cave that used to be Mogrim's lair. The lair was guarded by a dangerous monster that gained speed and strengh when it was hit. Lucky the group managed to figure out that it could not leave the cave and took it out by sending chickens inside to lure the monster in range of their missile weapons. Inside the cave the group encountereda very deep hole, after the classical dropping of a stone something awakend down there. It took a long while until the anything was heard but suddenly weak noices of crushed stone was heard. No monster appeared but the group concluded that the hole must be incredibly deep. In the lair the group also found notes from Mogrim that revealed that he besides his own horn had got the horn of water in his possession.
A scary encounter
Once during the exploring the cave the group had been outside the cave and seen a huge monster with three eyes looking at them in the darkness. The monster must obviouslty had left to get his master for when the group exited the cave they found a man waited for them. He had white hair and a huge twohanded sword on his back. The group spoke with the man that was very hostile. They learnt very little but the man said that he would kill the shapeshifters for theit messing with his affairs. The man also told them in case of a battle against the shapeshifters they should focus on destoying the staff that the shapeshifters got. The encounter ended when the priests of Syruth appeared. They recognized the old man as the one they were searching for but he chased after them and killed them so they couldn't report. The group followed and saw that it looked like the trees themself had killed the men but the old man was missing.
The map of death
The group finaly took the time to travel to Toladia to get the crystal bowl. The map they had bought from the gnomes ages back had the property that it showed where people had died on earlier tries. The cause of the deaths proved to be animated stone statues. The group also found that a large army of orcs was there. After a huge number of movement from the group and orcs almost all statues was awake and crushing orcs. The group escaped with the bowl and a major mayhem behind them.
{end of session 22}
The guild takes action
Earlier questioning from the groups about what decission that the shapeshifters had made the guild start to look in the matter. It soon turned up that shapeshifters had assumed many identitys and affected a lot of harm. The council of the guild could not stand such a shame a ordered a strike force to be assembled. The group was instructed to join Marido in Arcadia to put an end to the problem. In Arcadia the group found that they would be two parts in strike force. Marido would lead a group that engaged the shapeshifters while the group and a master thief would try locate the horn of water, free Ztown and do all kinds of usefull things to help Marido.
Into the dreanworld
The group was equpied with magic items that would prevent the shapeshifters to lock out the groups magic. The devices would also let the group communicate with the guild members that would lock all gates to the dreamworld. Finaly it was time to begin and the strike force entered the portal and split up.
Allies to the shapeshifters
The group searched around the citys in the dreamworld. After a while they got the idea to test the black mirror that the group got. It did not appear to work to well but revealed something important. Agrolnoc was present in the dreamworld. Soon it was also revealed that Hachiman was also present and got a magic staff of incredible powers.
Finding the treasure
After a lot of trouble the group located the horn and managed to steal it. The group started to search for the shapeshifters to see if they could use the horn againt them. They found the shapeshifters but Ztown was to weak to do anything good. Still things started to happen. Maridos new recruit, Idil Man, who until now had been very defensive suddenly showed new powers. Alone he faced the shapeshifters and started to battle about the control of the dreamworld from them. Soon he also summoned allies. The dragonbeast with three eyes was created from thin air and through a gate a huge armored berserk appeared.
Minor mayhem
Idil Man and his monsters was strong enough to hold the shapeshifters from them but the shapeshifters could resurrect each other and the battle just continued. The group faced Hachiman and after some events he lost hold of his staff. Agrolnoc left the battle and chased after the staff on his lizard. A large explosion was heard and Agrolnoc came tumbling outside without the lizard who screemed in deadly agony. The shapeshifters had at the same time lost their ability to shift shape but their formidable powers remained.
Things get hectic
The group rushed to the building to locate the staff but could not find it. Inside there was a wounded man that was strangly hot but no traces of the staff. The group spended some moments trying to figure out what to do until they realized that they must use water. Water did miracles and the man in blue clothes regenerated and got up. Hachiman and Agrolnoc was busy trying to form a gate to get away. The former shapeshifters didn't want to leave but Agrolnoc and Hachiman escaped.
Mayor mayhem
The man in blue clothes joined the battle in the middle. He and Idil Man started to throw magic on each other. Around Idil the magic was shown as a black cloud, around the man in blue clothes the magic showed it self as white cloud. The magic went between them and every pass made it stronger. Finaly it assembled in the sky and came surging towards the former shapeshifters. The shapeshifters had no defence against it and was riped apart by the strong power.
{end of session 23}
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