Who is around
- Khohros
- Yalana
- Áinfean
- Isaac
- Elissa
- Maddox
- Sigfried
Where are we
Lake Aurora, and then in the Underdark on the way to Vaprak.
Loads of in party RP in the carts on the way to Aurora.
Status update; we are 11 people, with Fang, Sai, Peyton and Eithne on the way. Isaac remembers that in the. Lake there is a mechanism to descend into the lair below, We decide to instead of last nights plan to leave the disaster trio behind and then walk to the lake.
Moving on
As we walk the morning fog gets even heavier. It gets hard to see too far ahead. Khohros notices that the nature is very dull seeming here. Khohros spots some orange lights further into the forest with some sounds like wood being hit. Isaac and Elissa stalk ahead to check whats up, and Maddox casts a telepathic bond on the party.
There is a human woman in her 30s or 40s. Shes got commoners clothes,a lot of bandages, a cane and a limp. She’s chopping some wood.
Elissa asks over the bond if anyone would like to help her chop some wood. Khohros agrees and Elissa reveals herself to the woman and scares this shit out of her.Khohros and Elissa reveal too much info to the woman, but help her and then leave.
The Lake Aurora
The forest opens up and we see the lake with a jetty, a ramshackle log cabin in front of it. Theres a mostly broken sign reading ‘Lake Aurora’.To our left there are four holes in the ground, 8ft x 2.5ft, 6ft deep.Looking out over the water the fog is still thick but there are rocky shapes out there.
In the background there is the Celestial Peak, which is absolutely massive.
Elissa plays in one of the open graves, and Isaac points out that in order to be initated into the Order of the Reaper they have to be buried alive for 24 hours. Might explain the graves. Khohros casts water breathing on everyone and we get ready to swim/walk along the bottom of the lake.
“Khohros is just leaking caviar right now”
-Tony
Isaac,Yalana and Khohros head into the water.
Diving into the water we see dozens of discarded shovels.It is very cold, with large ice chunks. We have to get to 3 of them to activate the opening to Vaprak.Isaac knows that they have to get some blood on it.Khohros and Yalana head for the other ones. The slabs vibrate slightly and do nothing else, and Isaac tries putting their whole hand on the slab. It gets stuck and blood is absorbed in from the palm of their hand. Khohros and Yalana do the same,and we all take 5 dmg.
The ice chunks shake, and we are pushed to the surface of the water. It gets colder, and forms a perfect ice bridge from the jetty up to the gate. Eventually it forms an entire staircase and walls. With that we are able to head underground.
Down below
Northas, Maddox and Isaac go ahead to make sure there are no cultists in the tunnels, and the other wait a sec to turn invisible/wild shape after. They discuss Order etiquette, and Isaac lets them know that standard is to greet with “Reaper be with you”. Other than that they just shut up and brood a lot, and if they don’t know who they are speaaking with they just call them ‘sicklesibling’. Isaac reassures Maddox that even back when he was in the cult he thought sicklesibling was really dumb.
The tunnel is very dark, and Maddox sees some writing in a foreign language on the wall, and uses comprehend language to read it.Khohros hands Isaac a torch since he is struggling with no darkvision, and Isaac determines the writing to be abyssal.
“We are all but wheat in a greater cause”
Isaac mentions how they never learned abyssal per se, it just came to them once they made a pact with their sword.
As we walk everything gets smaller and more cramped. We lose track of time, but once the telepathic bond disappears we stop counting.
Isaac finds another one and this one reads;
“Five hours and he welcomes you into his court”
Isaac realises this is a reference to being buried alive, since after 5 hours you run out of air. We keep walking for a long time.
Maddox sees another one, and Isaac reads it out loud.
“He walks with weapon in hand”
We find a small camping ground, and decide to rest and take shifts. The plan is to have at least one person on each shift dressed like a member of the Order, and the other fake-tied up.
Yalana takes a shift with Isaac, and she has a talk with him in the dark.
She tells him Kord and his following could take Isaac in after all this, and has an emotional speech about how
“He shaped the world to his fitting, from others”
The next one Isaac and Maddox miss, but Khohros spots it.
“From his castle he saw it all”
Khohros hears someone snoring, and they find 4 order members sleeping with noone on watch. We decide to use a combination of invisbility, pass without trace and subtle wild shape to pass unnoticed.
Long Rest
The Gates of Vaprak
A few days later we eventually have the tunnels go way more downwards, and find the stone slab door leading into Vaprak.Above the doorway is more abyssal writing.
“Welcome home friend, and welcome to the altar, foe.”
Isaac opens the door, and it opens up into a gigantic chamber (about a mile across), the opposing walls peppered with windows lit up with flames, and on the ground below there are roads lit by lantern, and below and ahead is a single cart.