The Battle of Hollow Spine - 05/05&12/05 - Derthaad
May 24, 2022 11:20:37 GMT
Andy D and Gerhard like this
Post by Derthaad on May 24, 2022 11:20:37 GMT
~excerpt from Derthaad's ledger
Week 15, 1499
18th of Mirtul
I think it's long overdue that I update this thing. A lot has happened: I became a sergeant, went to the moon and various planes with Gerhard, found Kavel's goliath friends from Iron Strong Company, participated in a "theater play" of some snobby rich people. Heck, I even attended Celina's trial held by her own unseen servants. More importantly, in this past month, various places have been attacked by gith and both Kundar and D'Avalon got hit hard. My mind has been in many places since my last entry.
This entry, though will be of my expedition to Hollow Spine to put a stop to the cult that summoned Hecate and her sisters. The end of an investigation, the one that promoted me to sergeant.
The week prior, I received a letter from Evira Tivior, the alchemist that has been researching sunset stone before. I received a recently written and sent letter from an alchemist whos last recorded entry that I found in the library was from 200 years ago. This is Kantas. The letter said that the cult's experiments have gotten bolder and are close to fruition, something she called a 'catastrophic continent-wide event' if not dealt with.
I sent my invitations and hang up a notice on the notice board. Heret, the OMTC co-representative here in Kantas, was already beside me when among those whom I personally sent a letter to arrived Kelne and Tayz, who was accompanied by Sparks. Sparks is a kenku whom I've met during our mission in the Shadowfell to stop Jack and Langston. The two avian friends have met in other adventures. My friend Kavel did not show up however. Sad, it was during one of his call for aid in another mission that I stumbled upon Hecate and this entire mess.
Before the notices were hang up, Heret helped in gathering some valuable information, one of which is what appears to be a map of how to get to Cult's location that he found in one of the OMTC warehouse. It shows us two paths of how to get there, one shorter than the other by a day. The longer one seemed to be the one the cultists for it avoided almost all the populous and guarded area. Explains why neither Heret's nor Tiny Tim's men were able to catch them, they had an entire clandestine route planned out. After a discussion between us, we came to the decision of taking the shorter route since it was the least likely we would be spotted by cultists on our way.
After three days of travel, we reached the base of Hollow Spine. Maybe it was the map that showed us exactly where to go, but this one seemed a but more isolated compared to the rest of the peaks. It also seemed as if some god straight up cleaved the top. Yes, the place is a volcano, and yes, the map showed us that the place we needed to go was on its summit. Thankfully, the map Heret found specified one crucial detail: 'bring pitons', and thus we knew what we may be up for. Knowledge can do so much, I'm afraid, we still had to climb the mountain one way or another. My friend Tayz was also forced to climb. Normally he would not have issues with situations like this, being an aarakokra allows him to simply just fly up and not have to deal with this, but the winds up here were so strong that they threaten to submit him to gravity. The winds were so harsh that, after two thirds of the mountain, our voices were swallowed by it.
You could fall and no one would realize, your voice snuffed by the wind. I climbed the mountain to stop Hell from breaking forth, but I would much rather go down into it than have to face this mountain. I can fight demons, fiends, hags, but not this. No one ever fights against nature and wins. I felt fear rising up to overcome me as I holding on for dear life, battered by an unending force that could swat you from existence without even noticing yours.I felt the fear ri-
With frustration, Derthaad crosses the beginning of that last sentence. "Why am I doing this again? -he mutters to himself- I stopped writing in this thing for a reason, no one is gonna read this, no one's gonna care... no one needs to care." He releases a frustrated sigh before continuing "May as well try to finish this..."
After about 7-8 hours of climbing, we all reached the top, exhausted. At the top we were met with two parties. First, were a pack of gnolls accompanied by a hooded figure, clearly a cultist, who had strong psychic magic. I got hit by one and my brain felt like it was going to leave my skull. After dealing with the gnolls, the figure left and we were called by a woman's voice. She led us to her hideout and upon arrival, we were properly introduced to none other than Evira Tivior, and we all witnessed why she was able to send me that letter after 200 years of inactivity. She was a lich, as she so put it. She chose this since it is what helped her to continue her research.
She explains to us the situation. The cultists have appeared on the mountain a few months ago and have started making their summoning rituals. The main issue is that sunset stone can be highly volatile, especially when refined into sunset essence, and their activity has only increased in scale. Evira fear that at this rate, they will get what they want, but it will cause a chain reaction which will result in blowing up the volcano and opening an unclosable portal to Malboge. Sadly, though they have already amassed a hefty swarm of imps that defend the summoning portal. For this, we need some help. She gave us a map of the area and pointed to various places of interest, mainly Evira's old lab that got taken by the cultists, the residence of her mentor, who is is also a lich, Ormund, a clan of sentient chinchillas and a nesting tree of sentient rocs.The last two seem odd indeed, but Evira told that it's due to them consu-
"Useless detail, move along -he mutters again"
Each of the three had a problem with the other. The chinchillas stole something valuable from Ormund (probably his phylactery, 'cuz that's the most valuable item to a lich) and want the roc birds to stop attacking, the roc birds hunt down the chinchillas for food and want Ormund's protection upon their nesting tree and thus cannot go search for food elsewhere and Ormund doesn't care about the rocs and want back his phylactery. We will go talk to one of the parties and convince them to join us in the fight against whatever the cultists had, while Evira and a group of paladins (Tiny Tim's men) would to and convince the other two party.
Our climb up the mountain has left us completely knackered, and thus we had to continue our mission after a full day's rest. This did, however allowed us some time to think about how we approach this. The squad came to a vote and we picked the chinchillas. Why the chinchillas? They were the only ones who has a physical item in their possession, one that we may have a chance to trade something in for it. The idea was simple, we get in, convince them to give us the phylactery. With it, we can convince the rocs, since by having the phylactery we have a chance to talk Ormund into offering them the protection they seek. Thus, the phylactery is a valuable bargaining chip.
"Who are you writing this for?"
I'll spare the details. We convinced the chinchillas, to gives us the phylactery and a respectable portion of their warriors. The cult's experiments were getting to the point of properly shaking the summit, so we had to rely on Evira and Tim's men to have convinced Ormund and the rocs respectively. We went after the cultists, we all unite in glorious battle of adventurers, chinchillas, rocs and liches against the countless swarm of imps and other fiends. It ended with us running away from the unstable part of the volcano that became active. We all got away, stopped the evil guys from unleashing hell and were greatly rewarded. All is great.
The End.
Frustrated again, Derthaad slams his ledger closed and rests his face in his hands. "Why now? -he continues to mutter- I took a few days off to relax after that battle and it came back, half a tenday is all it took... But it feels different now. 10 years, almost 11... but now it feels different." Lifting his head, he looks at the cloak Evira gifted him as a thank you. "As if I've done much... Yes, I've researched and gathered intel on this investigation... but my friends did most of the work. What did I do?" After taking a deep breath, Derthaad's gaze lands on his sergeant badge "Keep it together, you moron, a war is coming. At least that will help take my mind off of...."
Derthaad looks at his spellbook, now ornate with a silver dragon, its body on the book's spine and the wings unfolded on the book's sides. Near it, there is a small desk clock "11:13, I'm not gonna sleep soon in this state... need to get in some dragon flying training and help clear my mind. I need to work, to do anything to shake this off."
"Talking to myself again..."
Week 15, 1499
18th of Mirtul
I think it's long overdue that I update this thing. A lot has happened: I became a sergeant, went to the moon and various planes with Gerhard, found Kavel's goliath friends from Iron Strong Company, participated in a "theater play" of some snobby rich people. Heck, I even attended Celina's trial held by her own unseen servants. More importantly, in this past month, various places have been attacked by gith and both Kundar and D'Avalon got hit hard. My mind has been in many places since my last entry.
This entry, though will be of my expedition to Hollow Spine to put a stop to the cult that summoned Hecate and her sisters. The end of an investigation, the one that promoted me to sergeant.
The week prior, I received a letter from Evira Tivior, the alchemist that has been researching sunset stone before. I received a recently written and sent letter from an alchemist whos last recorded entry that I found in the library was from 200 years ago. This is Kantas. The letter said that the cult's experiments have gotten bolder and are close to fruition, something she called a 'catastrophic continent-wide event' if not dealt with.
I sent my invitations and hang up a notice on the notice board. Heret, the OMTC co-representative here in Kantas, was already beside me when among those whom I personally sent a letter to arrived Kelne and Tayz, who was accompanied by Sparks. Sparks is a kenku whom I've met during our mission in the Shadowfell to stop Jack and Langston. The two avian friends have met in other adventures. My friend Kavel did not show up however. Sad, it was during one of his call for aid in another mission that I stumbled upon Hecate and this entire mess.
Before the notices were hang up, Heret helped in gathering some valuable information, one of which is what appears to be a map of how to get to Cult's location that he found in one of the OMTC warehouse. It shows us two paths of how to get there, one shorter than the other by a day. The longer one seemed to be the one the cultists for it avoided almost all the populous and guarded area. Explains why neither Heret's nor Tiny Tim's men were able to catch them, they had an entire clandestine route planned out. After a discussion between us, we came to the decision of taking the shorter route since it was the least likely we would be spotted by cultists on our way.
After three days of travel, we reached the base of Hollow Spine. Maybe it was the map that showed us exactly where to go, but this one seemed a but more isolated compared to the rest of the peaks. It also seemed as if some god straight up cleaved the top. Yes, the place is a volcano, and yes, the map showed us that the place we needed to go was on its summit. Thankfully, the map Heret found specified one crucial detail: 'bring pitons', and thus we knew what we may be up for. Knowledge can do so much, I'm afraid, we still had to climb the mountain one way or another. My friend Tayz was also forced to climb. Normally he would not have issues with situations like this, being an aarakokra allows him to simply just fly up and not have to deal with this, but the winds up here were so strong that they threaten to submit him to gravity. The winds were so harsh that, after two thirds of the mountain, our voices were swallowed by it.
You could fall and no one would realize, your voice snuffed by the wind. I climbed the mountain to stop Hell from breaking forth, but I would much rather go down into it than have to face this mountain. I can fight demons, fiends, hags, but not this. No one ever fights against nature and wins. I felt fear rising up to overcome me as I holding on for dear life, battered by an unending force that could swat you from existence without even noticing yours.
With frustration, Derthaad crosses the beginning of that last sentence. "Why am I doing this again? -he mutters to himself- I stopped writing in this thing for a reason, no one is gonna read this, no one's gonna care... no one needs to care." He releases a frustrated sigh before continuing "May as well try to finish this..."
After about 7-8 hours of climbing, we all reached the top, exhausted. At the top we were met with two parties. First, were a pack of gnolls accompanied by a hooded figure, clearly a cultist, who had strong psychic magic. I got hit by one and my brain felt like it was going to leave my skull. After dealing with the gnolls, the figure left and we were called by a woman's voice. She led us to her hideout and upon arrival, we were properly introduced to none other than Evira Tivior, and we all witnessed why she was able to send me that letter after 200 years of inactivity. She was a lich, as she so put it. She chose this since it is what helped her to continue her research.
She explains to us the situation. The cultists have appeared on the mountain a few months ago and have started making their summoning rituals. The main issue is that sunset stone can be highly volatile, especially when refined into sunset essence, and their activity has only increased in scale. Evira fear that at this rate, they will get what they want, but it will cause a chain reaction which will result in blowing up the volcano and opening an unclosable portal to Malboge. Sadly, though they have already amassed a hefty swarm of imps that defend the summoning portal. For this, we need some help. She gave us a map of the area and pointed to various places of interest, mainly Evira's old lab that got taken by the cultists, the residence of her mentor, who is is also a lich, Ormund, a clan of sentient chinchillas and a nesting tree of sentient rocs.
"Useless detail, move along -he mutters again"
Each of the three had a problem with the other. The chinchillas stole something valuable from Ormund (probably his phylactery, 'cuz that's the most valuable item to a lich) and want the roc birds to stop attacking, the roc birds hunt down the chinchillas for food and want Ormund's protection upon their nesting tree and thus cannot go search for food elsewhere and Ormund doesn't care about the rocs and want back his phylactery. We will go talk to one of the parties and convince them to join us in the fight against whatever the cultists had, while Evira and a group of paladins (Tiny Tim's men) would to and convince the other two party.
Our climb up the mountain has left us completely knackered, and thus we had to continue our mission after a full day's rest. This did, however allowed us some time to think about how we approach this. The squad came to a vote and we picked the chinchillas. Why the chinchillas? They were the only ones who has a physical item in their possession, one that we may have a chance to trade something in for it. The idea was simple, we get in, convince them to give us the phylactery. With it, we can convince the rocs, since by having the phylactery we have a chance to talk Ormund into offering them the protection they seek. Thus, the phylactery is a valuable bargaining chip.
"Who are you writing this for?"
I'll spare the details. We convinced the chinchillas, to gives us the phylactery and a respectable portion of their warriors. The cult's experiments were getting to the point of properly shaking the summit, so we had to rely on Evira and Tim's men to have convinced Ormund and the rocs respectively. We went after the cultists, we all unite in glorious battle of adventurers, chinchillas, rocs and liches against the countless swarm of imps and other fiends. It ended with us running away from the unstable part of the volcano that became active. We all got away, stopped the evil guys from unleashing hell and were greatly rewarded. All is great.
The End.
Frustrated again, Derthaad slams his ledger closed and rests his face in his hands. "Why now? -he continues to mutter- I took a few days off to relax after that battle and it came back, half a tenday is all it took... But it feels different now. 10 years, almost 11... but now it feels different." Lifting his head, he looks at the cloak Evira gifted him as a thank you. "As if I've done much... Yes, I've researched and gathered intel on this investigation... but my friends did most of the work. What did I do?" After taking a deep breath, Derthaad's gaze lands on his sergeant badge "Keep it together, you moron, a war is coming. At least that will help take my mind off of...."
Derthaad looks at his spellbook, now ornate with a silver dragon, its body on the book's spine and the wings unfolded on the book's sides. Near it, there is a small desk clock "11:13, I'm not gonna sleep soon in this state... need to get in some dragon flying training and help clear my mind. I need to work, to do anything to shake this off."
"Talking to myself again..."