Post by Andy D on Apr 18, 2024 13:47:11 GMT
Correspondence and Acquaintances
The highly sought after fashion designer, Lady Verity Higherpromfreura responded to my letter thanking her for the one of a kind hat that I received from her. The hat was part of a payment for assisting her with an adventuring matter which involved a visit to Lady Verity’s manor.
In my letter I also mentioned I would be happy to be considered for any further adventuring matters, and I also expressed concern for Lucy, Lady Verity’s maid’s troubling lack of mental clarity. Lady Verity expressed her displeasure at my interest in her staffing matters, yet nevertheless took me up on my offer to provide adventuring assistance on the very matter itself.
I found Yinmaris, my eladrin bard friend who joined me on the first visit to Lady Verity’s house, in the Feylight Theatre, where he has taken on the role of conductor. Pleased that he accepted my offer to join me on a second visit to LVH’s manor, we stopped for lunch in the Gilded Mirror to discuss who we could ask to join us on our adventuring mission - Lady VH had placed a strict limitation of three adventurers.
At the Gilded Mirror, we ran into a friend of Kavel and Mendal, Mr. Sparks-and-Shade, a kenku eldritch sorcerer, who I soon learnt was also a friend of Yinmaris. It also became rapidly apparent that what Kavel and Mendal had said about Sparks’ enthusiasm for gambling was true; my new kenku friend had run up a considerable tab with the Gilded Mirror, and from the look of him that lunch time; a considerable amount of the tab had accrued overnight.
The Maintenance of Proper Teleportation Circle Infrastructure
It is concerning that the portal attendant, Aleesha Nickibotti was an attendant at all. It is possible that further training could help the young wizard in her duties and I would hope that the Daring Council sees to it that Aleesha does undertake the necessary training. The fact that Aleesha can cast what appears to be a combination of the Teleportation Circle spell and the Teleport spell does lend itself as proof that with training; she could be better.
Whilst Aleesha Nickibotti is herself to blame for the poor, and unsafe teleportation she provided, it is fair to cast additional blame and responsibility in the direction of whomever assigned her duty; said individual bears responsibility for said decision making. If I were to search for a reasonable explanation why the young wizard was attending the portal, I would have to guess that the council was short on staff that day.
Yinmaris’s rapid reaction on the exit-front of Aleesha’s teleportation spell with his speedy casting of Feather Fall’ saved us all some considerable pain.
Shepherd of the Unwanted in the Angelbark Forest
We met Lucy, Lady Verity’s maid in the manor’s kitchen attending to the dishes. As we entered the kitchen to greet Lucy, something magical had taken effect around her. Lucy was still and several objects; crockery, cutlery, jars were magically hovering about her. Until Lucy’s attention was refocused by a biscuit jar smashing into a wall, the hovering objects persisted as did Lucy’s daydream. A humming melody from the Angelbark forest drew Lucy’s attention, as well as arcane occurrences such as the kitchen’s rear door springing open.
We joined Lucy on an excursion to the Angelbark to discover the origin of the humming melody. Lucy, it should be noted, has the appearance of a very tall humanoid woman. However, we discovered later that her astounding 7’ height, black eyes and glove-covered arms hid her true origin, which at the time; Lucy herself was having much trouble remembering.
Lady Verity had mentioned many examples of Lucy’s forgetfulness that appeared to be worsening as time went on, and how it appeared to have an arcane diagnosis - this was, of course, was the conundrum for which us adventures were brought in to solve.
After an hour of walking in the dim light of the forest, we came across a glade lit by a surrounding of floral lights, where at the centre of the glade was an immense tree that had a cavernous, hollowed knot at base level, from which appeared a lady called Kro. It was not apparent at the time, but she later revealed to us she was a blood hag.
Kro, and her children, as she affectionately refers to them, had all experienced a tragedy that had seen them having to abandon their old lives and seek seclusion in the forest. Kro kindly looks after these lost and unwanted people. Kro herself, is an unusual blood hag, one whose generosity (based on reports) would put her at odds with fellow blood hags. Kro’s inability to fully control her blood sustenance, and the application of her unseelie magic has led to a symbiotic relationship of sorts between her and her children, where for the care she provides; they allow her to sustain herself on minor feedings of their blood from time to time. Kro herself is the victim of her own worm-haired maws. Lucy too. Lucy in addition had fallen into an unintended fey bargain with Kro. Kro in her defence, did not intend to enter a bargain with Lucy, but when Lucy - a rejected draegloth on account of a missing set of secondary arms - was discovered by Kro, Lucy asked for her pain (rejection and abandonment) to be taken away. Kro wished to oblige, and by accident extracted much of Lucy’s memories in a fey bargain.
With the gathering of Kro, Lucy and the magical forces of the forest; Lucy has now regained her memories. Lucy, memories intact, has chosen to return to Lady Verity, who has taken care of her for some time now. Lucy has also chosen to return to her Angelbark family from time to time for visits, which I see no problem with. In fact, I would suggest that rather than providing a problem to the Dawnlands, Kro instead provides an important service to the wider Dawnland community in accepting the unwanted. It is unfortunate that such a service is necessary, but as it is, it is admirable that Kro chooses to provide a family for those who find themselves estranged and without a home.
A Cautionary Tale in Humanoid Longevity For Short-Lived Humanoids
One of Kro’s so-called children was a man called Ash. Ash is a cautionary tale in arcane derived humanoid longevity extension. Ash in particular is a tale of caution for where humanoid lifespan extension is attained unpaired with healthspan extension.
Ash was covered head to toe in bandages, eyes and mouth uncovered enough to see and speak… it is unknown whether Ash breathes. There was a powerful stench of decay about Ash’s breath, which perhaps due to Sparks previous night of drinking, resulted in the poor man’s digestive content coming back up. Ash, though demonstrating high cognition with his speech, unfortunately demonstrated physical movement that is not in harmony with living muscular-skeletal function. It seems Ash achieved a form of immortality akin to a lych. Ash’s neck cracked several times during our encounter in a way that at minimum would leave a regular humanoid paralysed if not dead.
Ash was not particularly forthcoming in revealing whether Ash is his real name or not. I suspect Ash may be a former longevity researcher like myself, someone whose research I may have read and benefitted from, but someone who vanished with an unfortunate conclusion to their research.
I feel more strongly about pursuing the ingredients for the Potion of Longevity. It is the best current method to achieve what I desire, since the age reversing Potion of Longevity produces both lifespan and healthspan extension.