In Master's Absence

We gathered what we could, hid the attackers' boat, and set sail heading south. Ahmok was being stoic and handled the boat as best he could, but the fresh scars and occasional grimace painted a truer picture of his current condition.

It was risky staying on the main riverway, so we veered through denser swamps. However it was not long before we heard the dreaded sound of drums beating. We threw a rope around a tree and snug up to it, and went completely silent. Through the mist the faint silhouette of a big ship became visible. It was bigger than Maildance's ship. We exchanged glances - it must be Rasmussen. Ahmok later told us that it was definitely strange that such a large ship could be capable of managing the shallow waters of this part of the swamp. Employing the use of shadows and subtle darkness I made the general area we were in harder to see through. It must have saved our lives this time as well, as the ship sailed on. We waited a while longer then continued south.

We finally hit the coast. Mooring the boat and hiding it as best we could, we set off in search of a suitable place to camp. It was no easy feat, as the whole area was covered in mud and hidden puddles of it. Many times we trod on what seemed to be hard land only to sink chest deep (in Jarl's case chin deep) in the mire. Wading through such a pool we heard a cry and turned to see both Ivor and Ahmok going under at the same time. Whatever they were stepping on must have given way beneath their weight. Cyrellion was fast to act - he secured a rope to a nearby rock, tied it to himself and went under looking for them, using his spear as a probe. Meanwhile I tied another rope to the rock for when they resurface. Jarl could only watch helpless. Agonizingly long seconds passed by before first Ahmok, then Cyrellion and Ivor came up again. We threw the rope at them and pulled them in. After a short rest we carry on, and are eventually rewarded with a flat rocky outcropping above the mist level, where we set up camp.

The following morning we headed out on foot and eventually came upon what we were looking for: the pillar marked on the map. The ruins of it, more appropriately. A large circular base was set firmly in the ground, with pieces of ever decreasing width lying scattered around it. We examined the scribblings on the base and stones, but could not decipher a meaning, if there ever was one. Then we made two interesting discoveries. Thanks to his elementalism Jarl divined an orichalcum-core/vulgar-metal-plated rod (much like we found at the temple of Mynbruje earlier), bent and twisted out of it's original shape. Ivor later pointed out that it was in fact made up of various slightly-movable parts, as if to change it's shape / orientation in a minimal way. Later we noticed that Ivor was not among us any more. Before we could understand what was happening he walked calmly out of the treeline, holding a four-foot wide ruby coloured disc, in the shape of a lens. He was grinning serenely and said, "It called out to me". We decided not to push the issue further, and instead wondered at his find.

We tried to figure out how the pieces of the puzzle fit together. Was the pillar an ancient lighthouse, with the orichalcum rod holding up the lens? We realised that from up here there could very possibly be direct line of sight to where the Mynbruje temple lay. Could there be a connection? There was a hole in the altar there, which held the rod upright. What did that rod used to hold? Why could they have been pointing towards each other? It was then that we noticed that Ferros' map had three very faint lines forming a triangle connecting the locations of the pillar, the temple of Mynbruje, and another location further east. Wolf had told us that Ferros used geometry and such to encrypt messages and meanings. As we were pondering all this, we noticed something very strange - and useful. Looking through the lens allowed the viewer direct line of sight ignoring both mist and mud. This was a great boon, because low visibility played a part in those ships always sneaking up on us, and the mud could hide something important. Or dangerous. We trained the lens towards the expanse of the swamp below us, and we could see all the details previously hidden by the mist, even at such a distance. A number of ships and boats were prowling around, ostensibly looking for us. We spotted without difficulty Rasmussen's ship. To our amazement and a dawning lack of surprise, the ship just floated straight up out of the water to reveal itself as an airship. No wonder nobody in Lantern Wharf knew where the ship used to be. Rasmussen must have been keeping this card very close to his chest.

We camped at the site of the pillar and the next morning we set off, east again, heading towards the last marking on our map, the last point of the triangle. It took us a full day of sailing to get there, thankfully uneventful. When we hit land again, we explored the coast for a while and came upon a passageway leading from the water straight up the mountains. We tied up the boat and got ready for the trek. Half a day later we finally came upon it.

A large site, in various stages of ruin now, with what was once a high perimeter wall, a large internal yard and buildings running the length of the sides and directly opposite the entrance. Going through the ancient gates we were greeted by what we first thought was the site of an old battle - name giver remains littered the yard. But then we realised that the remains were of different races, no common uniform or livery, weapons of different styles and origin. They must have come here separately or in small parties, and they all died. Interesting. I extended my senses to the spiritual, and was rewarded with quite some activity. They were all armed and their eyes were following us. The picture started to make some more sense now.

I decided to knock on the main door, metaphorically speaking. I addressed one of the spirits and asked to see the Master. Not surprisingly I was told that he was not in. We were instead shown into the guest quarters, where we could wait for his arrival. Said quarters being without a roof and with a vine-based decor. Before leaving our escort gave me a stern warning that visitors were not allowed outside the public areas, which reinforced the fact that the remains in the yard had been of unwelcome visitors.

We explored the yard, and unearthed a veritable treasure in coins and gems off the bodies. As we neared the door to the main building we noticed two things - a small square shaped recess in the door, and two spirits guarding it. Ivor brought out the true earth shards we had found previously, and true enough they could be put together to form a square. Could it be...

I stepped up to the guards, introduced myself again, and stated, "the Master has granted us access to his chambers, and has given us the key thereto." I held my breath in anticipation. The guards bowed, "if the Master so desires, then we shall obey." And they stepped aside. As Ivor was placing the shards in the recess, they were gently pulled from him as if with a magnetic force. Once all the shards were in place the mechanism was activated, the recess sunk in further and the doors creaked open.

The Hand gets Bitten

by Jarl Skalder

The water elemental guided the boat to rest on what we thought to be a triangular mark on the edge of our ancient map. Donning on our armor we head in towards some ruins visible through the mangroves. The island is small but thickly wooded - and no sooner had we started a exploring that two Lightning Lizards attacked.

They took us by surprise, hidden as they where in their territory - and within seconds Ivor, Ahmok and myself were eating the dust as electrical damage ran through us. The combat was short but ferocious - we had faced these creatures before and we tried to exploit their weakpoints. After our initial setback we gained ground again - soon their dead carcasses were being cut up for teeth and eyeballs - they will fetch some gold if we can make it out of this swamp. Ahmok had a few nasty wounds from this combat as well - his experience with death just a few hours previous aggravating his state. Myself, I ended up unconscious.

We decided to settle in for the remaining of the day - setting up the bedrolls and exploring the island and the ruins. Ivor found strange true earth shards, oddly shaped and seemingly magnetic and definitely part of a larger item that had shattered into pieces. Using my elementalist half magic to sense for more of the shards I was rewarded with quite a find - a true fire ring buried in the forest floor. As we looked around for firewood we realized the forest is made from ironwood trees - very rare and valuable.

The night passes uneventfully - we spend the morning healing our wounds and making sure there is nothing else of note in the small island. Nothing found, we are just about ready to leave when drums in the mists freeze us in our tracks - one of the pirate ships has found us. In a frantic scramble we hide the boat, cover the signs of our camps and hide ourselves in the ruins. I stay some distance away earth-melded. The drumming had stopped - to be replaced by footsteps. A group approaches led by Maildance the pirate dwarf. He is talking to a female nethermancer who looks in charge - he is very eager to leave and after confirming again to her that we are definitely on the island - he heads off. The female and 5 warriors move forward towards us - fanning out through the thick woods.The female calls out for us leave our hiding places. She is still flanked by three warriors. Tense seconds pass by, I try to call out to Ahmok - big mistake - as we are immediately pounced upon by the remaining archers hiding in the woods. A huge combat breaks out.

We are outnumbered, but our opponents are spread out and the ruins offer cover. Cerellion sprints across the combat ground and engages the female nethermancer, Ahmok attacks two warriors in the middle of the ruins, I am locked in combat with a heavily armored double axe wielding human who pounced on me from behind. Ivor takes one of the archers with his fiery hammer and Elessar uses his nethermancer skills to spread fear in the hearts of our opponents. After our initial setback we soon gain the upper ground. Cerellion inflicts brutal damage against the female - who fails to use her own skills as well as our own Elessar. Later Elessar tells us she was a definite member of the Hand - from the time he was an undercover agent with the sect. Pretty soon she is gurgling in her blood as Cerellion embeds his spear in her throat. Over in the middle of the ruins Ahmok has sent one of the warriors to the ground but his guard is down and he has taken a lot of injury already. The second opponent lands a lucky blow to his head - sending him out - dead. Luckily the rest of the combat slowly but surely goes our way. The death of their leader and our Elessar's nethermancy sends the remaining warriors in disarray. One of them manages to open a Rift and escape, but the rest are not so lucky and we hunt them down.

Combat over, we turn our attention to Ahmok - once again we open a last chance salve and for the second time in three days, our T'Skrang breathes in heavily as he comes back to our world. Slowly, he comes back to his feet. We take care of our wounds and proceed to loot our opponents. We strip their valuables off, and its quite a haul of good armor, weapons, potions, gold and gems. Also a pair of true air coins. Most importantly the female had the remaining piece of map we did not have. Pleased we head off towards the coast where we find the attacking party's small boat with more supplies.

We look at each other and towards the mists - we are looking weary, the swamp is taking its toll, and Maildance can seemingly find us at will. We have no exact plan except to explore the remaining points of interest on the map - a task which might take us weeks. First - we bury the dead and hide our tracks again.

Spirits & Elementals.

When on shore the day was coming to an end, as the little bit of light that went through the fog was dimming. We opted to wait for the following morning and inspect the surroundings thoroughly. We quickly agreed to take it in shifts and guard the encampment. Whilst inspecting the altar closely, Jarl finds out that the place was once very beautiful. The pavement together with the altar itself were covered with mosaics all with different shapes forming a pattern. Whilst Elessar was taking his shift of duty, guarding the encampment, he felt a slithery feeling turning around him. Looking down he saw that a large snake was around him, frightening him and causing the creature to further alarm itself, and thus start to lock Elessar in its powerful muscles. All of a sudden, out of nowhere, a spear flew right into the snake pinning it to the ground dead. Astonished Elessar looked up, there he sees a spirit with the shape of a man. Regaining his posture Elessar stands up and starts to talk to the spirit. He does not manage to gather much other than few important details that sent us all thinking. Elessar told us that the spirit called him master and that he had the feeling that many people had died in many different fights here.

Dawn comes, quickly we all prepare to see what was there in the water, so as to maybe find the disc that fits the oricalcum rod we had found earlier. We tie a rope to Amok's waist just in case he should need us to thug him up. He positioned himself ready and than jumped. The splash was barely two feet high as Ahmok immediately hit the ground with a thud that was almost audible from where we stood.

We opt to continue checking, this time on the other part of this small island. Ahmok, now regretting the scene he had done only minutes before, opts to go down slowly and test the area first. He finds out that the water gets deep almost immediately, and so starts swimming in search for anything that could help us. Shortly after we see commotion in the water, as bubbles and splashing start rising to the surface. We immediately start pulling Ahmok back to shore. Whilst doing so Ahmok rises to the surface shouting and screaming for help. We pulled on the rope with all our strength as screams of pain pierced our ears. As soon as he reached the shoreline, we saw that his left leg was almost bone, as the carnivorous fish had eaten through it and nibbled through other parts of his now massacred body. Immediately Cyrellion took out a last chance salve and placed it carefully on the wounds. After some seconds it took effect as Ahmok coughed out the water he had drank and was now breathing again although still faintly.

Later that same day Elessar opted to talk to the spirit once again. This time managing to get more information. He comes to know that the master's' name is Ferros. Hearing that name Elessar's eyes widen, as he immediately remembers that Ferros was the guy that had translated The Books of Harrow in the version we now have and has also drawn the map we are traveling with. Pondering on the issue at hand Jarl comes up with the idea to summon an elemental that would guide us to the place were Ferros stayed.

The few light the sun provided during the day was now diminishing clearly the night was near and we were tired hungry and very uneasy as the pirates going after us could have found us anytime. During the night drums were heard in the nearby distance. Immediately we covered the light crystal. After a couple of minutes splashing of oars broke through the silence of the swamp. Shouts coming clearly from the master of the ship echoed widely. Surely this wasn't a Theran ship as the Master of the ship used Dwarven.

Day comes as the first light is visible where the sky should have been. We still stuck to Jarl's plan and so an elemental was summoned. Moments after Jarl explained what we needed to the elemental, he turned back to us saying that the elemental would do us this favour in return for the 2 sacrifices otherwise he will have to take one of us in return.

We agree to do this and made this pact with the elemental. We start traveling towards the mountains, there high up on the ledge a man is on guard. He stands up and whistles so as to catch our attention. Pulling out a story we told him that our ship had hit a rock and needs some repairs. He asks us on who's ship we were and adding onto the story we tell him that Maledance was our employer. He tells us to sail further up and enter a cavern, there we were to find all the help needed. So we do, we continue on and enter the cavern the guard had pointed us to. We tie the boat close to shore and ask for help. However Ahmok all of a sudden got edgy. He stepped onto shore grabbed two soldiers from the wrist and pulled them to the boat. One of the soldiers when crashing head first on the boat, whilst the other managed to balance exactly on the edge. All of a sudden we all find ourselves in the middle of a useless fight. Grabbing the other soldier from the wrist Cyrellion managed to throw the other soldier onto the boat as well. Right after both Ahmok and Cyrellion jumped onto the boat, simultaneously shouting for the elemental to leg it out. We managed to leg it safely through a flurry a arrows. When safe we turned on to the hostage soldiers and threw them into the water as a sacrifice to the elemental. The scene to follow wasn't pleasant at all as both soldiers were sucked down and never seen again. After paying our debt to the elemental, we opened the map once again an opted to continue towards the part of the map which we have missing.

The Mists Envelop Them All

[Posted on behalf of Cyrellion]

The lapping sound of water against the River Queen mingled with the cacophony of the Mist Swamps. Clothes still wet from our adventure we left the town and a lot of angry pirates behind us – or so we hoped.

Navigation through the Mist Swamps at night is perilous and can lead many a traveller astray – not to mention the creatures that inhabit these swamps. Darkness can have its advantages. Through my previous experiences and Ahmok's navigation we managed not to veer off course.

Through the night we sailed until the first rays of sun penetrated the thick mists . It wasn't until we found a small sheltered bay that we confirmed we were on the right track. This was to be our first stop to get a chance to stretch our legs and get some shut-eye. Being on a small boat with hardly any room to move around can stretch your nerves – especially when you never know what's going to lunge out of the dark at you.

We made camp. Ellessar confirmed that he cast a spell to ward off creatures from the boat, keeping us save from the alligators and other strange twisted things that lurk under the murky waters.

Sleep did not come easy though, not for the elves at least. Mosquitoes – they are the Sleeper's worst enemy, and in the Mist Swamps these blood sucking monster can grow as large as your fist. You can hear these bastards buzzing from ten paces away and their bites itches like hell, not to mention the diseases they carry.

Finally we were ready to set 'sail' again. We quickly found our bearings , loaded the boat and pushed it downstream.

By this point the swamps were taking its toll on the party. Ellessar quickly started showing symptoms of what's called Quaking Fever. Little we could do for him without proper medical attention. When Ivor fell ill as well we were hard pressed with rowing the boat. I've travelled with many boats-men, and this group wasn't an exception where it comes to being irritated with each other. Luckily this wasn't a pleasure cruise, so at least we could focus on the imminent dangers around us.

That's when we heard voices mixed with lots of oars cutting through the mists. One thing you learn quickly enough in the swamps infested with pirates and slave-traders – get out of their way and well out of sight. Ahmok immediately veered the boat off the main river into the marshes for cover while Ellessar started to chant softly. We were holding our breathes to keep quiet when out of the mists emerged the prow of a large beautifully carved vessel. Giant braziers hung from the sides creating an eerie glow. Shadows shifted and contorted strangely, a chill ran up and down my spine. Prowling on deck there was none other than Rasmusin himself, fully kitted out for combat. We were definitely going to be spotted being so close to a ship with so many men on the lookout! Strangely though they looked right by us. At one point I could have sworn Rasmusin was looking directly at us, but then he turned and ordered something to his men. My hand gripped tighter on my bow and I looked at Ellessar who only nodded sagely with a thin smile. Magic does come in handy!

We waited for some time until the ship was out of site, but decided to stay off the river and navigate through the marshes. Hours passed, tempers continued to rise and Ellessar and Ivor were not getting any better. Ahmok jumped in the water to cool off before he struck someone's head off (which would have made more space on the boat!). As he was paddling through the leach-infested waters he spotted the mast of a sunken boat. Using his innate swimming abilities he dove down to search the ship for any spoils. And a treasure he did find, along with a swamp serpent which took him for a tasty morsel. The two reptiles fought, steel versus fangs until the serpent drifted away in two.

Back on the boat we rummaged through the treasures Ahmok found. A pouch of money and a beautifully carved wooden box which compared to the rot that set into the wood of the boat was untarnished. Within it gleamed four amulets.

By this point the party was not fit to travel anymore. Sickness and wariness forced us to make a camp of hammocks within a canopy of trees.

Windlings. Within these few days we've been harassed enough by them that I can safely say that they irritate the hell out of me. Mutated Windlings – now there's something I wasn't expecting. These little devils had claws that could rend through armour and use some form of dark magic that twists your bone. Several of these vile creatures came flew out of nowhere, faces a mask of horror with their only intent to rend and tear. Hah! Little did they know that they were the excuse we were waiting for to un-cork our pent-up frustrations. We fought back with a fury that sent the little buggers back to the dark plains they were spawned!

With renewed energy – and a few new scratches and bent bones, we rowed through the marshes once again. Our maps – if we were correct in reading them – indicated that we had arrived near the Eye. We confirmed this when we found the ruins of a temple nested on solid ground, on the doorway an eye carved into the rock. A quick search revealed a metallic staff which looked like it once held a large disc. To our surprise, under the thick coating of muck that was stuck to it, the metal gleamed richly. It turns out that we found one of the most precious metals known to man (or so I was told). The Oricalcum as it's called was worth a fortune.

The solid rock that the temple is built on seems to once have been the peak of a large mound, as we discovered from the stairs on both ends which lead down into the water. I believe some more underwater adventures are to come.