Loose Threads: There are other floors on the Dread Citadel to explore, the scope of the Blight Rock hasn’t been reconnoitered thoroughly yet, the Zinlynndise Imare, Sirxus, Bethany Claie, The Ashen Hawk
Locations: Newly Named Blight Rock, Newly Named Dread Citadel, Sunset Sea, The Shorepines
Short Summary:
Lynn gathered an expedition to cross the Sunset sea in an expedition to discover what awaits on the blighted island just off the horizon. Using Phantom Steed, they crossed the sea with no issue, they arrived on a pure white sand beach. To the distance a grand manor, which Lynn and Ashen Hawk scouted out to find lights on the top floor - but every field and graveyard and farm has been abandoned with no sign of life. During the night, they were ambushed by Megalanias, venomous over sized monitor lizards that swallows their quarry whole. Lynn tried to befriend them but the party had to slay them to drive them off.
Next day, the party decided to investigate that castle. They call out towards the gates and - with no answer, Lynn decides to wildshape to investigate. The castle continues to look ‘lived in’ but no signs of anything living inside. The party enters, only to find a hollowed labyrinth inside of nonsensical rooms put together. A few monsters challenge the party, such as a fireplace, a golem of coins, water sprites, and two demons, as well as a silence trap. Interesting rooms include: a kitchen, scribbles in abyssal promising a terrible death, a bath, a mirror that taunts you in elvish, a torture room, a shrine of Shax, dancing statues, lots of closets, a looted treasure room, a library with many books of different genres, a throne room, and Spark the exploding slime in an alchemical workshop.
The Island has been named the Blight Rockfor its white sands, and the sprawling manor has been named the Dread Citadel.
Full Report:
Druidic runes are written down at the top of the page.
Hey! Lynn here! Back with more exploration, and less tragic stuff like people sacrificing an arm and leg to a necrotic vortex or knights getting kidnapped by evil lying soldiers working for an evil lying noble.
So you know that island that we could barely see across the horizon when you're swimming or sailing past the Sunset Sea in The Shorepines? Well, ever since i’ve noticed it i’ve been wanting to know what's out there, so I gathered some friends to cross the sea. Beth and Ash, oh and Sirxus as well, he’s a new face but a friend of Syltorin so I like him already. I summoned some phantom steeds and performed a series of water breathing rituals and off we went across the channel.
The sea was actually quite lovely, though a bit cold and definitely salty, yuck. Riding horses over an entire sea kinda means you’re gonna get splashed on, and salt and sand kinda sticks to you. There weren't really any serpents in the water at that time, lucky us. Though for some reason people keep warning ‘Lynn! One day you’re gonna find a big snake that's gonna eat you whole out there’. I keep looking for this snake but so far haven’t found anything. Are you guys scaring me or do you really know something I do not?!
We arrived about midday or so, sun kinda going down on the other side of the island. And we found quite a strange land, beaches of pure white sand. Above the sands was grassy plains, but the grass looked kinda sickly and grey - really unhealthy looking. Same with the forest at the center of it, hardly much green on them. Poor plants - now that I think about it a druid should tend to them later on, bring life back to the island. But that’s why we called the place the “Blight Rock" for now.
But above all this blighted terrain was this weird building seemingly on the top of a hill overlooking everything. It was weird, so me and Ash decided to venture out all sneaky like while Beth and Sirxus set up camp. It looked like a castle on the outside, but there wasn’t anything around that suggested there were people there. I mean, sure the place was cared for and there was a lamp light on the top floors, but there was no people or active farmland or sound or anything on the outside. It was like, stagnant and still, displaced out of time from the rest of the world? Kinda reminded me of the Embeth Forest, but less fey and more scary.
We returned and set up watches as we all went to rest. And here I’ll once again repeat a hard learned lesson: without armor you’re very chewy. And you can’t sleep in armor. Good thing Ashen Hawk was on watch, cause two Megalanias - which are like monitor lizards but huuuuugeeee - attacked us in our sleep. They were big enough to swallow us whole even! And they tried to! I tried my best to calm them down and send them away, but they just wouldn’t listen. We were forced to kill them. Which makes me sad and utterly frustrated and…well, that’s the way of things I guess.
We just went back to sleep after patching up after that.
Come morning though, we were more refreshed and ready to see what this castle, manor, citadel thing had in store for us. You know what, I'm just gonna write “Dread Citadel” because that’s what we named this place in the end. Dread Citadel Dread Citadel, Dread Citadel. You following? Great!
So, we walked up to the Dread Citadel and approached the gate. Like the last night, there was still no sound or noise of any sort of people actually living there. I wildshaped into a bird, a lil sparrow, to scout out what's around - and its more or less the same thing. The place looks tended, the beds made, the candles fresh, but no people! After 10 minutes of trying to puzzle this out, i flew back to the group as they opened the gate and inside we went!
(P.S.: No this wasn’t a castle with like a courtyard or walls to explore - more like a mansion where the gate is the front door. Either way, we were indoors from here on out. Which suuuuuuuckkkeed cus I prepared spells for exploring the wilds. Ah well, silly me.)
The Dread Citadel was surprisingly empty to be honest, trying to remember every single room we went and passed through is pretty hard. I’ll try to summarize some sights real quick here:
So we entered the front door and found ourselves in a ball room. Entrance on the western wing i think? Ash talked about splitting up for some reason but I was totally against that. Thankfully Sirxus and Beth agreed it’d be safer together.
We entered two ball rooms, then a dining hall with some weirdly out of place artwork of cultures from the Old World.
A fireplace attacked us after that. Yes, a fire place. Weird, I know. Some writing in Escapee’s Tongue saying ‘get out’ - which is a common sight in the Dread Citadel.
Some kitchen and dining halls and closets
We found a stretch of hallway covered in yellow mold - which reacts to electricity it seems. I tried throwing a buncha spells at it to remove it but it just shrugged everything off! We ended up literally just scraping it off inch by inch. Kinda surprising the solution was so mundane, but I guess when you rely and use magic so much you miss those little things. Also, ugh, yes, literally had to scrape a hallway clear, it was tedious.
Another room. I think this was the one where we say more writing saying ‘get out’ or the like…Ah I just asked Sirxus, this was the one written in Abyssal talking about being ‘flayed alive’. Ugh, that just makes me shiver.
Then we found a bath. Would have been nice to dip my toes in there were it not for the fact the water turned into demons and tried to freeze us to death. It was kinda pretty for a bath house though!
Now that I think about it - why wasn’t that water some sort of elemental? It spoke abyssal, I think.
We patched up and then moved onto a room with a mirror that spoke elvish. At first I was curious and excited to talk to it - but it just turned out to be a big bully! It only spoke when asked a question and it just insults you no matter what it was you asked. Called me a cross between a ‘ginger’ and a ‘rock’ - like what?! ?! Gah, I'm still mad at how mean it was to me. That mirror was the worst, I hope it watches paint dry or something.
Then we saw a torture room. Then another…nope, don’t even care to recognize that place has any reason to exist.
I then kinda carelessly fell into a pitfall trap after that - kinda bruised my hiney in the fall but no problem right? I can fly! Uh, nope. Can’t hear myself talk, breath, or even my own heart beat. It was…scarily quiet - can’t cast spells and I desperately cried for help. Ash was there in no time to rescue me. So i’ll write in the biggest words I can here:
THANK YOU ASH!
He’s the best - I didn’t see his face when he pulled me up but I know he cares the whole world for me! Thanks again Ash! I owe you! I even am writing it in ink that I owe you!
After that it was getting late so we just started moving through the rooms really quick. Found a neat tapestry, some spirals and bottles, oh!
We found a shrine to Shax, apparently a big demon lord.
We found some statues that dance when you don’t look at them
A mural of monsters
Then we found the treasure room. I decided to scout it out before we gathered our loot and good thing too cus some of the coins formed together to make a golem before attacking us. And golems are nasty - can’t hurt them with magic and this one’s fists cursed you against being able to be healed naturally. After the fight we rested up for several hours with me just trying to heal Sirxus and Ash and Beth.
Then a library. And some more closets. Lots of closets to be honest. I sat on a throne like a conqueror, muahaha!
And then we met Spark, the exploding slime! Aw, he’s such a chum, spoke perfect elvish too! He looks and sounds grumpy but he’s a sweetie deep inside his exploding jelly. Oh, he seemed to be cursed to explode every few heartbeats or so, and was working really hard to not explode. He let us pass after I named him Spark.
In the basement where his ‘masters’ wait, we found two demons. Yup, just straight up creepy looking violent demons that want nothing more than to violently hurt you. It was a tough fight but we won out in the end.
After that we figured the whole first floor was explored. And boy we were tired, so we decided to take our prizes and head home. I was pretty excited too, I had some things I wanted to craft out at First Landing and even a scroll of Tree Stride! And that about sums up our adventure. I hope I didn’t forget anything too important.
Wait…
SPARK! NOOOOO, I FORGOT ABOUT SPARK MY GOOD BOI.