Diplomatic Dispatch #3 - Snowy Shenanigans
Mar 6, 2019 16:18:04 GMT
andycd, Grimes, and 4 more like this
Post by Leif Tingle on Mar 6, 2019 16:18:04 GMT
cc: Aurelia and the council of Daring; delivered by fa-mail-iar.
Greetings, Mageister Yndoumil Atalantier.
I acknowledge the receipt of last month's expenses; and only have a single budget line-item query with which to respond. See attached.
Since my last dispatch, a great deal has moved forward - including the discovery of a number of the stones of Ioun in the possession of Daring Heights! Forgive my unseemly punctuation, but this is a development I had not expected. I will expound further on this, but first and foremost, I am happy to relay that a cure for the Lassitude has been devised and Daring is well on the way to recovery. The number of new cases has stopped rising; those affected have started to regain their health (though only time will tell if there are any lingering aftereffects); and the quarantine on the town has been lifted.
Before I lay out any further details, I move that one Doctor Greenclaw (of Kundar) is to be commended for brewing the cure - especially after having been koboldnapped and spirited away to another plane by those allegedly behind the infection of the population. It is my formal recommendation (as proxy for the High Council of The Watchful Order of Magists and Protectors in Waterdeep) that the council of Daring consider Dr. Greenclaw for a public service reward of the highest order.
Mageister Atalantier, you may have noticed I used the word "allegedly" in my citation above. This is partly to satisfy interplanar legal conventions, of course; but also because it is not entirely clear who first planted the seeds of disease or why. All we were able to determine with any real degree of certainty is that a faction from the Fey plane was attempting to keep the plague viable in Daring in order to score points all in the name of some Feywild game (we were able to uncover the name of the game, but it momentarily escapes me as my notes are all in disarray due to our forced evacuation from an upside-down fort falling from the side of a Feywild mountain. More on remarkable development that to come). This faction - or court, to use the Feywildian parlance - is possibly controlled by the Snow Queen. I will make it a priority to investigate this personage further.
As I was tailing the group of doctors and assorted medicaes collecting plague information for the authorities, I arrived at the Temple of Waukeen at the same time as a number of Daring's citizens and inhabitants who had rushed to see what had occurred following the explosion I mentioned at the end of my last letter: Quick White Paw; an itinerant Tabaxi of remarkable speed and agility; Sergeant Grimes, of course; Varis Nailo, Grandmaster of the Order of the Crimson Fist; Zig, a spellcaster of no little promise; and Pieni, an Aarakocra with an innate affinity for all things natural.
It transpired that the traitor Changeling (see previous dispatch) that had been unmasked had allies in the city - and they had abducted Dr. Greenclaw in order to prevent her from completing her work on the cure. Quick investigative work by the group soon lead to an alley outside the temple proper where Mistress Aurelia was valiantly holding open a portal through which the abductors had apparently fled. Mistress Aurelia and the others were insistent that we departed immediately; I would like to say it was my concern at leaping into the unknown and the total lack of planning that caused my momentary hesitancy, but I must confess that I was most eager to examine a nascent portal being forced to remain open. This is no flattery to say that I have not witnessed such a prodigious use of planar power in action before; I must make it a priority to work alongside Mistress Aurelia as soon as possible and learn whatever I can.
The portal led into the Feywild and immediately collapsed behind us. Because I have not yet completed my studies of the Teleport scroll you sent with the last courier, Mistress Aurelia and I had devised a way to establish contact and a route home before entering the portal. As we moved through the astral gate, we found ourselves far up a mountainside somewhere in the Feywild. It was at this point that the keen eyes of Pieni and Paw prevented us from stumbling into disaster. We had spotted a curious-looking fortress that was apparently hanging upside from a mountain spur, but the Aarakocra and the Tabaxi noticed that the heavy snowfall in between us and it had hidden the fact we were standing on a precipitous edge far, far up the mountain; not only, it was ascertained that there was also strange magic at play as the gravitational field in the immediate locale had been reversed. I count myself a fellow well-versed in the arcane, but - and forgive my presumption - I sometimes think our institution could look to expand its methodology and curriculum: some of these adventurers I have worked alongside have unusual but undeniably effective ways of sensing and dealing with magic.
Through a very effective system of trial and error, it was determined that we could approach the fort from a particular angle whereby the inverted physics would aid us. We moved cautiously, noticing that the structure was partially destroyed - the military know-how of Grandmaster Varis and Sergeant Grimes determined that this damage was a) caused by a substantial blast of ice-based magic, and b) that this had not occurred recently. Their conjecture was that this structure had fallen foul of the internecine politics of the Feywild, and that one faction had claimed this forward staging post from another. Paw and Grimes combined to provide us with information about the erstwhile ownership of the fort: it belonged at one time to the Snow Queen, though we are unsure whether it is still in her hands.
We were deliberating our next course of action when we were ambushed by five Trolls, who had concealed themselves behind the natural flora of the locale. They approached in what I identified from the textbooks I have perused as a classic pincer manoeuvre: two flanking from the right towards myself, Zig, and Paw; and the other three making for the clearly armoured threat of Grandmaster Varis and Sergeant Grimes. In the moments before combat was joined, I was able to recall some of the reports of the Troll sieges of Waterdeep and how to deal with the creatures, and relayed the information therein to my colleagues. The Sergeant and the Grandmaster wasted no time, metaphorically putting spurs to their mounts and heading towards the incoming threat; they seem schooled in similar fighting styles and were soon causing noticeable amounts of damage. Paw and Zig moved in front of me as I stepped back a way to assess the situation; the two of them clearly more accustomed to combat than I. Once again, Paw displayed remarkable speed, seemingly moving about the battlefield at will. In the confusion, I had lost track of Pieni, but they soon reappeared in the shape of giant white wolf to harry the flanks of one of the Trolls. In a frustrating mirror of my failure in the previous battle against the illusory Gnolls, I resorted to employing the same spell as then - luckily, these were real foes and four of the five Trolls took heed of my manipulative suggestion to quit the field and return home. Unluckily, I had not considered that the home to which I had suggested they return was the very fort we were trying to enter....still, a temporary reprieve as they turned away from the fight and headed back to the buildings to which we were attempting to gain ingress. My fellows quickly dispatched the remaining Troll and we regrouped to plan our next step.
As we were discussing our plans, we became aware of a very curious observer: a clock-work creature with some little sentience designating itself TenTwoFour. Grandmaster Varis had apparently encountered entities such as this before, and surmised it may have come from the Plane of Mechanus. He quickly ascertained it was here to "monitor events and keep score". Although wary, it seemed no threat so we dismissed it from our immediate thoughts as our plan was to recover Dr. Greenclaw so we could hasten the end of the plague's grip on Daring. I used a basic combination of a simple scrying spell and a mundane message cantrip to locate Dr. Greenclaw and relay to the party any information she could provide about the unfriendly welcome we could expect in the fort. Using this knowledge, the others were able to plot a route into the fort and up to her likely location.
Using a curious, earthy magic I have not encountered before, Pieni cloaked our approach towards the fort. At least, for all of us except myself and Grandmaster Varis. He, by nature of his warcraft, is encumbered by heavy mail, and I am just not yet adapt at moving through enemy territory with requisite stealth. Ultimately, this caused no issue to the mission but I fear that I may one day endanger the lives of my companions if I do not address this failing. We had made good progress through the enemy encampment, when Varis and I alerted some guards to our presence. We were attacked by what turned out to be just three Quicklings, but in the daze and whirl of combat it seemed we were confronted by at least 10. Varis took the brunt of the damage, but we eventually wore down our assailants and continued.
We entered the tower where Dr. Greenclaw was most likely to be held and cautiously made our way up the structure. Security was lax and we managed to ambush the sole guard interrogating the good doctor. I was mightily impressed by everyone's ability to combine effectively, and together we subdued the guard and freed Dr. Greenclaw. Again, I must register my appreciation to you for my posting out here "in the field", but feel bound to raise once more my potential unsuitability for this active position. I have recently unlocked a powerful ability to contained an enemy in a cage of pure force and was eager to deploy it here - my first opportunity to do so. Sergeant Grimes had suggested we paralysed or held the individual and graciously but ill-advisedly left the choice on the ultimate course of action to me. While I was able to restrain the sole guard with this new spell, it precipitated a calamitous series of events which culminated in the individual restoring the localised gravitational polarity of the fort - which then began to plummet thousands of feet towards the mountain's base below.
To their credit, none of the others panicked; although, I was mortified that I had not foreseen this sequence of possibilities. I contacted Mistress Aurelia as previously arranged and supplied those who needed it with the ability to fly. We made our way out of the fort complex in time to watch it hurtle towards the ground below and be decimated on impact. Fortunately, the spell I had employed to capture the guard ensured it remained unharmed and available for questioning. We took it and Dr. Greenclaw back through the portal that Mistress Aurelia had opened and ascertained some information our prisoner; much of it garbled and incomplete. It appears certain courts of the Feywild are engaged in a political game in which pain and death are the means of scoring points, and they have employed creatures potentially from Mechanus to be arbiters and keep score. It seems the plague was an element of the game (the only one we currently know of) spilling over into our plane. We do not know yet who ultimately planted the plague, but it is clear that their ambitions were to keep us occupied. I believe the captive is under the jurisdiction of the Watch; no doubt they will....extract...more information in time.
On behalf of Daring, those involved in this mission were given rewards. I was mindful of our policy of not excepting cash gifts over the notional value of 50gp, and was most astonished when instead presented with a rare Reserve Stone of Ioun. I gladly accepted on behalf of the Watchful Order and will make the study of this artefact one of my primary activities. There were two others: a Stone of Protection and a Stone of Awareness; if their new owners permit, I will also examine these items, too.
My apologies for the inexcusable length of this message, but this is the single-biggest development I have witnessed in Daring since the trial of Nowhere and wished to commit as much of it to your and the council's knowledge. I hope this may prove useful in what I foresee to be a coming struggle; but between Daring and whom, I am not yet certain.
May your knowledge ever grow towards the light.
Oriloki Manyvoices
Arcane Auditor - 3rd Rank
High Council of The Watchful Order of Magists and Protectors in Waterdeep
Greetings, Mageister Yndoumil Atalantier.
I acknowledge the receipt of last month's expenses; and only have a single budget line-item query with which to respond. See attached.
Since my last dispatch, a great deal has moved forward - including the discovery of a number of the stones of Ioun in the possession of Daring Heights! Forgive my unseemly punctuation, but this is a development I had not expected. I will expound further on this, but first and foremost, I am happy to relay that a cure for the Lassitude has been devised and Daring is well on the way to recovery. The number of new cases has stopped rising; those affected have started to regain their health (though only time will tell if there are any lingering aftereffects); and the quarantine on the town has been lifted.
Before I lay out any further details, I move that one Doctor Greenclaw (of Kundar) is to be commended for brewing the cure - especially after having been koboldnapped and spirited away to another plane by those allegedly behind the infection of the population. It is my formal recommendation (as proxy for the High Council of The Watchful Order of Magists and Protectors in Waterdeep) that the council of Daring consider Dr. Greenclaw for a public service reward of the highest order.
Mageister Atalantier, you may have noticed I used the word "allegedly" in my citation above. This is partly to satisfy interplanar legal conventions, of course; but also because it is not entirely clear who first planted the seeds of disease or why. All we were able to determine with any real degree of certainty is that a faction from the Fey plane was attempting to keep the plague viable in Daring in order to score points all in the name of some Feywild game (we were able to uncover the name of the game, but it momentarily escapes me as my notes are all in disarray due to our forced evacuation from an upside-down fort falling from the side of a Feywild mountain. More on remarkable development that to come). This faction - or court, to use the Feywildian parlance - is possibly controlled by the Snow Queen. I will make it a priority to investigate this personage further.
As I was tailing the group of doctors and assorted medicaes collecting plague information for the authorities, I arrived at the Temple of Waukeen at the same time as a number of Daring's citizens and inhabitants who had rushed to see what had occurred following the explosion I mentioned at the end of my last letter: Quick White Paw; an itinerant Tabaxi of remarkable speed and agility; Sergeant Grimes, of course; Varis Nailo, Grandmaster of the Order of the Crimson Fist; Zig, a spellcaster of no little promise; and Pieni, an Aarakocra with an innate affinity for all things natural.
It transpired that the traitor Changeling (see previous dispatch) that had been unmasked had allies in the city - and they had abducted Dr. Greenclaw in order to prevent her from completing her work on the cure. Quick investigative work by the group soon lead to an alley outside the temple proper where Mistress Aurelia was valiantly holding open a portal through which the abductors had apparently fled. Mistress Aurelia and the others were insistent that we departed immediately; I would like to say it was my concern at leaping into the unknown and the total lack of planning that caused my momentary hesitancy, but I must confess that I was most eager to examine a nascent portal being forced to remain open. This is no flattery to say that I have not witnessed such a prodigious use of planar power in action before; I must make it a priority to work alongside Mistress Aurelia as soon as possible and learn whatever I can.
The portal led into the Feywild and immediately collapsed behind us. Because I have not yet completed my studies of the Teleport scroll you sent with the last courier, Mistress Aurelia and I had devised a way to establish contact and a route home before entering the portal. As we moved through the astral gate, we found ourselves far up a mountainside somewhere in the Feywild. It was at this point that the keen eyes of Pieni and Paw prevented us from stumbling into disaster. We had spotted a curious-looking fortress that was apparently hanging upside from a mountain spur, but the Aarakocra and the Tabaxi noticed that the heavy snowfall in between us and it had hidden the fact we were standing on a precipitous edge far, far up the mountain; not only, it was ascertained that there was also strange magic at play as the gravitational field in the immediate locale had been reversed. I count myself a fellow well-versed in the arcane, but - and forgive my presumption - I sometimes think our institution could look to expand its methodology and curriculum: some of these adventurers I have worked alongside have unusual but undeniably effective ways of sensing and dealing with magic.
Through a very effective system of trial and error, it was determined that we could approach the fort from a particular angle whereby the inverted physics would aid us. We moved cautiously, noticing that the structure was partially destroyed - the military know-how of Grandmaster Varis and Sergeant Grimes determined that this damage was a) caused by a substantial blast of ice-based magic, and b) that this had not occurred recently. Their conjecture was that this structure had fallen foul of the internecine politics of the Feywild, and that one faction had claimed this forward staging post from another. Paw and Grimes combined to provide us with information about the erstwhile ownership of the fort: it belonged at one time to the Snow Queen, though we are unsure whether it is still in her hands.
We were deliberating our next course of action when we were ambushed by five Trolls, who had concealed themselves behind the natural flora of the locale. They approached in what I identified from the textbooks I have perused as a classic pincer manoeuvre: two flanking from the right towards myself, Zig, and Paw; and the other three making for the clearly armoured threat of Grandmaster Varis and Sergeant Grimes. In the moments before combat was joined, I was able to recall some of the reports of the Troll sieges of Waterdeep and how to deal with the creatures, and relayed the information therein to my colleagues. The Sergeant and the Grandmaster wasted no time, metaphorically putting spurs to their mounts and heading towards the incoming threat; they seem schooled in similar fighting styles and were soon causing noticeable amounts of damage. Paw and Zig moved in front of me as I stepped back a way to assess the situation; the two of them clearly more accustomed to combat than I. Once again, Paw displayed remarkable speed, seemingly moving about the battlefield at will. In the confusion, I had lost track of Pieni, but they soon reappeared in the shape of giant white wolf to harry the flanks of one of the Trolls. In a frustrating mirror of my failure in the previous battle against the illusory Gnolls, I resorted to employing the same spell as then - luckily, these were real foes and four of the five Trolls took heed of my manipulative suggestion to quit the field and return home. Unluckily, I had not considered that the home to which I had suggested they return was the very fort we were trying to enter....still, a temporary reprieve as they turned away from the fight and headed back to the buildings to which we were attempting to gain ingress. My fellows quickly dispatched the remaining Troll and we regrouped to plan our next step.
As we were discussing our plans, we became aware of a very curious observer: a clock-work creature with some little sentience designating itself TenTwoFour. Grandmaster Varis had apparently encountered entities such as this before, and surmised it may have come from the Plane of Mechanus. He quickly ascertained it was here to "monitor events and keep score". Although wary, it seemed no threat so we dismissed it from our immediate thoughts as our plan was to recover Dr. Greenclaw so we could hasten the end of the plague's grip on Daring. I used a basic combination of a simple scrying spell and a mundane message cantrip to locate Dr. Greenclaw and relay to the party any information she could provide about the unfriendly welcome we could expect in the fort. Using this knowledge, the others were able to plot a route into the fort and up to her likely location.
Using a curious, earthy magic I have not encountered before, Pieni cloaked our approach towards the fort. At least, for all of us except myself and Grandmaster Varis. He, by nature of his warcraft, is encumbered by heavy mail, and I am just not yet adapt at moving through enemy territory with requisite stealth. Ultimately, this caused no issue to the mission but I fear that I may one day endanger the lives of my companions if I do not address this failing. We had made good progress through the enemy encampment, when Varis and I alerted some guards to our presence. We were attacked by what turned out to be just three Quicklings, but in the daze and whirl of combat it seemed we were confronted by at least 10. Varis took the brunt of the damage, but we eventually wore down our assailants and continued.
We entered the tower where Dr. Greenclaw was most likely to be held and cautiously made our way up the structure. Security was lax and we managed to ambush the sole guard interrogating the good doctor. I was mightily impressed by everyone's ability to combine effectively, and together we subdued the guard and freed Dr. Greenclaw. Again, I must register my appreciation to you for my posting out here "in the field", but feel bound to raise once more my potential unsuitability for this active position. I have recently unlocked a powerful ability to contained an enemy in a cage of pure force and was eager to deploy it here - my first opportunity to do so. Sergeant Grimes had suggested we paralysed or held the individual and graciously but ill-advisedly left the choice on the ultimate course of action to me. While I was able to restrain the sole guard with this new spell, it precipitated a calamitous series of events which culminated in the individual restoring the localised gravitational polarity of the fort - which then began to plummet thousands of feet towards the mountain's base below.
To their credit, none of the others panicked; although, I was mortified that I had not foreseen this sequence of possibilities. I contacted Mistress Aurelia as previously arranged and supplied those who needed it with the ability to fly. We made our way out of the fort complex in time to watch it hurtle towards the ground below and be decimated on impact. Fortunately, the spell I had employed to capture the guard ensured it remained unharmed and available for questioning. We took it and Dr. Greenclaw back through the portal that Mistress Aurelia had opened and ascertained some information our prisoner; much of it garbled and incomplete. It appears certain courts of the Feywild are engaged in a political game in which pain and death are the means of scoring points, and they have employed creatures potentially from Mechanus to be arbiters and keep score. It seems the plague was an element of the game (the only one we currently know of) spilling over into our plane. We do not know yet who ultimately planted the plague, but it is clear that their ambitions were to keep us occupied. I believe the captive is under the jurisdiction of the Watch; no doubt they will....extract...more information in time.
On behalf of Daring, those involved in this mission were given rewards. I was mindful of our policy of not excepting cash gifts over the notional value of 50gp, and was most astonished when instead presented with a rare Reserve Stone of Ioun. I gladly accepted on behalf of the Watchful Order and will make the study of this artefact one of my primary activities. There were two others: a Stone of Protection and a Stone of Awareness; if their new owners permit, I will also examine these items, too.
My apologies for the inexcusable length of this message, but this is the single-biggest development I have witnessed in Daring since the trial of Nowhere and wished to commit as much of it to your and the council's knowledge. I hope this may prove useful in what I foresee to be a coming struggle; but between Daring and whom, I am not yet certain.
May your knowledge ever grow towards the light.
Oriloki Manyvoices
Arcane Auditor - 3rd Rank
High Council of The Watchful Order of Magists and Protectors in Waterdeep
