CMB Chapter 1 - Honeyed Heroes
3E230/02/04 - Silversap the Sevjene ran away from their handler, Rava, gliding off into the woods away from the tree. After hearing about this, Declann Askrson, a Branchkeeper druid, decided to take on the task of bringing back this rogue sap for his own reasons. As he waited to meet his superior, a cold wind blew an advertisement for the DoD into his lap. After reading it, he crumpled it up. Archdruid Hakon was suspicious of Declann’s motivations but let him go on this task knowing it might keep him away for some time, though he did warn him not to show his ‘absurdities’ out there. Before he left the Grønhalla, he met his friend Vekea who kept the angry Rava at bay as he left. Vekea did put the crumpled ad back into his bag before he left. Declann tracked down Silversap rather quickly around sundown, catching up to them wild-shaped as a Dire-Wolf. Silversap approached the Dire-Wolf curiously but was startled when Declann spoke to them and told them to be calm. Noticing that Silversap had morphed them into a human-like shape, Declann turned back into a human and convinced Silversap to accompany him to Appal and the DoD with some ground rules. To protect Silversap, they kept off of the main road taking a longer route to the city. Because he had not packed any supplies, Silversap created goodberries for Declann.
3E230/02/06 - Ten days into her journey from Anheim towards Appal, Ingfrid reached the town of Kjempensgrav just as Karyn wrapped up his courier quest there over the past few days. As Karyn walked, a cold breeze blew an advertisement of the DoD right into his face, though he was sceptical of the DoD as foreign politics and ineffective. They both left the city gates around the same time and were coincidentally called over by a group of five dwarven and human merchants also traveling to Appal. The merchants were carrying precious metals and wanted to hire the both of them as guards for their wagon for the 12 day journey ahead. The two agreed and set out with the wagon, introducing themselves to each other and discussing both the Greinherjar, Moðr, and their journeys.
3E230/02/08 - Emil Reinn, a magic-shop owner who lived in the upper branches of Jordtræd, remembered that he had a meeting with Påls Löwdin, a professor at the Häxört Akademi. They both traveled to the Snowhedge Tavern, a small minority tavern where Emil’s mother Unna worked as a cook. The two discussed their woes as well as the academy, as a cold-wind blew an advertisement for the DoD into Emil’s lap. Though at first Emil thought that it was a bad deal, Påls knew of the DoD through his father and told Emil about the dungeon-diving and artifact-seeking they do. Unna then told Emil that he should go adventure for a little while since he never leaves the tree, as she had once done as a younger elf. She told him that she and his siblings could keep the shop clean while Emil was gone. The two then decided to travel the 10 days to Appal together, heading off to pack their belongings. Påls wrote a letter requesting absence to his superior, Headmaster Arodir, though it quickly devolved into an argument between the two. Wanting him gone for years, Arodir approved Påls’ absence and sent him on his way telling him to keep an eye on the DoD. The two met up in the Trunk District, and descended the tree together.
3E230/02/09 - Ingfrid, Karyn, and the merchants camped around a fire one night on their journey and discussed various topics, including a dwarf miner telling them that someone she knew heard a Stone Giant in the mountains. Karyn and Ingfrid made a bet of 200 gold on whether or not they would see a Cloud Giant on this journey. The topic shifted to the DoD, as Ingfrid explained that she was sent by her order to assist the new guild. Karyn explained his suspicions, as some of the merchants talked about the DoD’s adventurers saving the world and being led by a dragon.
3E230/02/11 - One night as they camped, Declann and Silversap discussed Declann’s brother Ronan and his disability as well as Silversap’s goal to become human. Silversap still felt the presence of her mama, the world-tree, within the roots below the ground. Meditating upon it, Declann could also feel the world-tree’s safety as another child of the tree albeit less literally. However, later that night, they stumbled into a calm clearing with a small pond lit by moonlight and fireflies. Declann however noticed the shadow of a Giant Peryton flying towards him, as he told Silversap to fight. They kept the Peryton grounded as Declann wild-shaped into a gorilla. However, when Declann got gored badly, Silversap raged and attacked the Peryton as well. As it tried to fly away from them, Declann threw a rock and brought it to the ground where they finally killed it. Taking its horns as proof of having killed a dangerous monster, the two rationed the flesh of the Peryton for food.
3E230/02/12 - As Ingfrid and Karyn’s wagon passed through a crossroad near Trevik, they both sensed an eerie silence and calmness in the farmlands with no one in sight. Ingfrid then spotted goblin ears rising from the wheat stalks around them, and the two called out to the goblins and hobgoblins that had surrounded them that they could see them. The hobgoblin bandit leader demanded that they stand down, but Karyn and Ingfrid managed to unnerve and intimidate him. However, the goblin leader pointed out that the two were outnumbered, and combat broke out. Ingfrid blessed the two as well as one of the draft horses, who kicked and killed a goblin and injured another hobgoblin after taking an arrow hit. Ingfrid was ganged up upon by the hobgoblin leader who was commanding his men, just as Karyn knocked out the goblin leader before taking a bad hit himself. He then spit dragonfire at a lot of them, giving an opening for Ingfrid to knock out the hobgoblin leader. The other goblins surrendered and ran away, as Ingfrid left a note on the leader telling him to rethink his life and visit a temple. The two then resumed their journey.
3E230/02/14 - Halfway through their journey, Emil and Påls heard a thud up ahead on the road. Hiding in the bushes, they noticed two ogres having thrown a tree down onto the road, planning to raid the next caravan for food and resources. After some time, a small merchant wagon did show up and had to stop. The merchants only had one guard, a human mercenary named Tyra. Påls shouted the danger out to her, as the Ogres attacked the small-folk. Emil and Påls helped the merchants out the best they could from the side-lines. One of the ogres picked up a dwarven woman and threw her at Emil, who did dodge her. She promised a reward to them for saving them. As they took down the first ogre, the other one screamed out for his brother and attacked them directly. He picked up Emil and threw him at Påls, dealing considerable injuries to both of them and nearly killing Emil. Tyra then defended Emil, as all three of them together took down the last Ogre. Emil then pretended to be in a lot more pain than he really was as a doctor bandaged him up, making a distraction for Påls to find and steal two gold ingots from the merchants on top of the reward given to them. They all decided to travel together to Appal, and Emil even sold a spell scroll to one of the dwarves on the way.
3E230/02/18 - Declann and Silversap reached Appal in the morning of the 18th, and the ocean wowed Silversap who called it a big pond. They ran into a Branchkeeper leaving the city who did not suspect them at all, telling them of the DoD’s opening as well as a Knattleikr game happening soon. They then headed into town towards the DoD, Silversap ‘hailing’ every person they saw along the way. As Emil and Påls reached Appal as well, they bid farewell to Tyra for now and headed towards the DoD. After Ingfrid and Karyn reached Appal, they were paid by the merchants. Karyn wished Ingfrid good luck with the DoD, saying that if he heard good reviews he might reconsider joining. They then went their separate ways, with Ingfrid walking towards the new DoD Guildhall. The characters all conveniently bumped into each other outside the front door of the DoD. Though Emil was at first suspicious of Declann, Påls convinced him to at least see this though. As they all introduced themselves to each other and stepped inside, they saw that the new guildhouse was sparse and empty with only three individuals inside. They saw the alchemist dwarf Sundri, the smith cervan Ansa, and the librarian-receptionist Roshan. The three were surprised at people wanting to join in as adventurers, and after clearing up some rules and regulations Roshan almost signed them up on the spot as the first adventurers. Guildmaster Hylla stopped him as she slowly descended the stairs, explaining that as per the rules they must still prove their mettle by completing a starter job. The new party recognised her as a famous hero of these lands and the person who convinced both the Branchkeepers and the DoD to open a guildhall in Teer. Roshan also explained that as per DoD tradition, a junior librarian from a previous guildhouse always became the senior librarian of a newly opened one, so he sadly had to move from Kasaaq to Appal. Roshan handed them three starter jobs, and they decided to do two of them in one round-trip involving a missing lighthouse keeper and a nest of giant wasps at a nearby mill. The party headed out through the southern gate of the city, and discussed with some guards about the lighthouse keeper's disappearance. Apparently he was an older man with no family, and that his only son died in battle decades ago. They had peered in through the locked doors and windows of the lighthouse to find everything in order. When the party reached the lighthouse, Silversap busted open the locked door though Ingfrid did notice it wobble weirdly. Everything inside was orderly, though Ingfrid noticed that the rug Silversap was playing with seemed to have been goopy before they had gotten to it. Emil put their ears to the ground to hear something, but then got stuck in the position as everyone else's feet were stuck to the floorboards. The lighthouse revealed itself to be a giant mimic, who tried to digest everyone. Silversap pulled Emil off of the floor and onto their back as Declann wildshaped into a Dire Wolf and bit off a tentacle. The party quickly vanquished it, as the entire lighthouse turned into gray goop and melted upon them. They all washed up in the nearby ocean water, with this being Emil and Silversap's first time in the ocean though Silversap did not enjoy the salt water. Ingfrid and Emil investigated the Lighthouse Keeper's belongings, found some money as well as a picture of his son. They took his skull and the picture to give him a proper burial in the city later. Upon reaching the farm mill by sunset, they met the hill-dwarf farmer who complained that the DoD hadn't done anything in a week. He led them to the mill, but warned them not to use any fire since it was full of flour and his livelihood. Silversap triggered the hive as six giant wasps and their queen attacked them. Ingfrid terrified them with her roar, giving the opportunity for the others to quickly start taking down the wasps. Between her guiding bolts and a final freezing attack by Emil, they quickly dispatched the hive. Emil tried to sell the dwarf some magic, but he only wanted a tankard of endless mead. The party headed back to the DoD, got paid, and were then given their badges as the first certified adventurers of Teer. The guildmembers all celebrated with some roasted lamb and discussed various topics including the fog and the giants. At night, as everyone settled into their new quarters, Declann went outside and talked to a squirrel. He fed it some of Silversap's sap from days ago, and although nothing happened at first, the squirrel then mutated into a monstrosity and ran off into the night.
3E230/02/19 - In the early morning, Karyn woke up where he lived in the second floor attic of the Bee’s Nest Tavern. He cleaned up some spilt mead as the shop’s owner, Mr. Nedvarr, ranted about this and that including the upcoming Knattleikr game and how Appal hadn’t won in years. He then told Karyn about the DoD’s recent victories including the lighthouse, which led Karyn to reassess the DoD. Karyn headed to the guildhall, and met Roshan, Ingfrid, and the rest of the party. He instantly got along with Silversap but Emil was very distrustful of another human. They then took two additional jobs on top of the beetle knight from yesterday: A mission to eliminate goblinoid bandits who had taken over a nearby mine, and to gather munberries to cure a child trapped in endless sleep. These jobs would serve as Karyn’s test of initiation as well. Declann told Silversap about the squirrel, which confused them. They headed to the Apothecary who listed the second job, meeting retired Branchkeeper Aella who served as a doctor for the city. In one of her clinic’s beds was a small boy named Eirik trapped in an endless nightmare. He fell into this coma-like state 18 days ago, and was the fourth son of a poor farmer. She suggested that the party gather about twenty munberries known to sharpen the mind and clear brainfog, which were rarely found in the woods during springtime. She gathered up a small amount of money to give them for this job. Heading into the forest, the party found a dead deer carcass that seemingly had been cut apart by serrated blades. Declann tracked the blood deeper into the woods to find a mutated “Beetle Knight”. He used speak-with-animals to speak with it, and the beetle revealed that humans had forced it and its regular-beetle friends to transform into this monster. It then attacked them, leading to a quick fight in which the mutated squirrel from yesterday jumped in as well. After taking both of them down, Declann folded and revealed to the party that he was the cause of the squirrel to mixed reception and forgiveness. They speculated that maybe Silversap’s sap removed from them for an extended period of time might revert back to unprocessed sap that mutated creatures, and that someone was out there mutating beasts for foul purposes. Some hours later, Aella contacted Declann via sending that she was too worried about the boy and to return with whatever berries they had found so far, but they had found none. They spent the entire rest of the day looking for munberries to no avail, and had to cancel going to the goblin mine that day.
3E230/02/20 - After midnight, as they planned to camp for the night, Emil stumbled into a faded stone statue. They realized it to be a featureless and ancient statue devoted to Dremya, the minor goddess of dreams. There were munberry shrubs growing around the statue, but they weren’t blooming with any berries despite the springtime. Deciding to camp around the statue at night and hope for a sign in their dreams Declann, Silversap, Karyn, and Påls went to sleep as Emil and Ingfrid stayed on watch. The four then had a shared vision and dream with all of their experiences mixing together: They saw Påls’ father leaving for the Feywild, passing through the cosmic world tree that then spoke to all four with no words implying that they were all its eyes. They then saw a skeletal dragon gnawing on its roots and staring into their soul as Archdruid Hakon’s words to Declann echoed about hiding his abnormalities. They then awoke to a dream-like version of the glade, in which the four of them were awake while Ingfrid and Emil slept. They saw that the shrubs beneath Dremya’s statue had blossomed with countless munberries. They talked about their shared vision and collected exactly twenty, before waking up for real with munberries magically in their hands. They quickly headed back to Appal and the Apothecary where Aella mashed up the berries to make a potion. She speculated that maybe Dremya was telling them that their fates may be linked together in some way. After feeding the potion to the boy, Eirik woke up from his endless slumber and immediately threw up. She thanked the party and told them that she would take care of him and tell them of anything he may tell her about what he remembered. As they headed back to the DoD, Karyn became an official member of the party. As they ate lunch and talked, they saw someone important in full honeybee-like armor show up to the guildhall. Shieldfather Dagvin Leifson of the House of Honningar walked in looking for adventurers. He was the younger brother of Jarl Yrsa and in his late 20s. He explained that the bees had been declining over the past decade, and his sister was supposed to bless them again in the annual Honningfest festival coming up. He wanted to hire the party for an expensive job in which they would delve into the depths of Honeyroot Barrow to recover the legendary “Golden Honeybee” artifact of King Halli Honningar from a thousand years ago. The golden honeybee was said to be able to magically blossom flowers and bless bees but was sealed away to protect it from Omniborn. He claimed that he would accompany them on this job, and headed out with them towards the Barrow. They reached the Barrow almost eight hours later and rested near the entrance to its sealed ruins below its floors that were still in use.
3E230/02/21 - Silversap cooked breakfast for everyone as Dagvin discussed if anyone had dungeon delved before. Karyn revealed that he had traveled to the mythical ‘Hewer’s Barrow’ said to be the home of ‘Nidhogg’, but everyone else assumed he was telling a tall tale. He claimed that he did visit it but there was nothing there, something Ingfrid found suspicious. They then entered the dungeon properly, and Silversap noticed the branches of the world-tree everywhere. They solved an entrance statue puzzle by correctly answering that Áklyr was ‘Dýrs Valkyrja’, but not before Silversap triggered a rune gem trap. They fought through giant ice spiders, hordes of draugr, and ice-mephits through a long dungeon crawl. They did pick up a lot of loot including gold, gems, ancient teerish daggers that Påls claimed, an embalber’s spellbook that Emil found, a starmetal shield that Ingfrid took, a bee-like rapier named Sting that Dagvin took for himself, honningar armor that allowed Declann to fly with bee wings, a hiveblood amulet that Karyn attuned to, a cloak of elvenkind, rune gems, and a bottle of boundless honey. Ingfrid got chomped upon by a mimic chest but was rescued by the others. After a long exploration, they reached the deepest room that contained some sort of puzzle. The door leading further in was blocked with no keyhole, with “Draxal Raaelim” written in Omnikarn as a warning for Omniborn invaders. They saw murals of Dýr across Elves, Vitri across Half-Elves, Sjafnr across Humans, and Bragran across Halflings. They figured out that they were all sons of the previous mural, but nothing further. They held hands and said the words written on the door together, causing it to glow a green light. They realized that they must do the one thing Omniborn wouldn’t—pray. They convinced Sjafnr of love through a prayer. Emil prayed to Vitri, and asked what was within the fog of the Tåkevidda. He saw a vision of giants within the fog, and learned the spell Fog Cloud. Silversap prayed to Dýr and talked about mama, convincing the god easily. Finally, Karyn used his flute and sang a song to Bragran, opening the door. They stepped into a natural cavern, where the undead draugr corpse of King Halli Honningar awoke wielding an ironleaf maul. He put up a fair challenge, but eventually Dagvin created an opening for Silversap to deal massive damage to Halli as Declann in gorilla-wildshape dropped down upon him. Having defeated him, Silversap took the ironleaf maul for themselves and Dagvin picked up the golden honeybee. They found a back exit leading to the upper levels (where Ingfrid found some diamonds) and headed back to the city. They reached Appal late at night, splitting with Dagvin and heading back to the DoD where they informed Roshan of their victory.
3E230/02/22 - The next morning, they were invited to the Honningfort where they entered the throne-room-aviary and met Jarl Yrsa alongside Dagvin. She thanked them for bringing back the Golden Honeybee and for keeping Dagvin safe, and was happy that her decision to let Hylla construct a guildhall paid off so quickly. She told them that they all would be honored guests at the upcoming Honningfest, the local name for the festival of Seedfey, in a few weeks. In Appal, the Jarl ritually seeds the land with flower seeds (or would use the Golden Honeybee to make them bloom now) while there are trade booths, apple pie contests, and festivities of all kinds. The festival is devoted to Dýr, spring, and fey; and marks the end of winter by burning a straw effigy of the Lord of Winter, Járni. Emil and Silversap requested to set up a merchant stall as well and were allowed. Afterward, they returned to the DoD and met Guildmaster Hylla. She told them that other than the goblin mine, they had solved most problems of the town and that there would essentially be downtime for the next 3 weeks until Honningfest. That being said, she told them not to sit idle, and to help the townspeople set up the festival by helping anyone with anything for free. Declann sensed that she was testing whether or not the party would be willing to do community service with no money on the line, something Silversap was very excited to do.
3E230/02/23 - Declann and Silversap helped some carpenters hammer tables in the town square, while Emil noticed a tent being set up by some eqosi-dibayadi looking folk. He saw a wizard leading the process, and went to meet him. The wizard introduced himself as Ghorban, a traveling merchant selling spell scrolls. They would be here for the fest and then move on to the next city. Emil and Ghorban talked about magic and the diminished status of wizards in Teer as compared to Eqos, and Ghorban gave Emil a spell scroll at a discount as he seemed to look up to the elder mage. Påls came to his senses out of a drunken stupor, and had to be caught up with all that was going on. Meanwhile, Ingfrid was invited by Dagvin to the barracks and he asked her to help train some of the Greinherjar rookies. She took quite a beating but effectively taught them with one-on-one feedback, and had a conversation with Dagvin about how he shouldn’t beat himself up about his lack of expertise right now.
3E230/02/24 - The next day, Silversap was invited to the family farm of Eirik (who had been discharged by Aella) and his older brothers and father. Eirik’s dad told Silversap to help sow carrot seeds, which they did for most of the day with Eirik’s help. Silversap wanted to carve and sell wooden sculptures at the fest, and Eirik requested one of Silversap themselves. Meanwhile, Påls went to sell the gold bars he had stolen at a blacksmith, and ended up selling the gold bars to the husband of the dwarf he stole them from in the first place. While this was happening, Emil was requested at a bakery owned by a snow-elf named Anika. She went on a racist rant about how “they look down on us and they are foreigners on our land”, but turned out to be talking about wood-elves not humans. A wood-elf named Doriel had started up a bakery last year across the city and was outselling her, and she wanted to know his secret ingredient or for Emil to sabotage him. Emil agreed, and ran into Påls and Silversap in the evening near Doriel’s bakery. While Emil distracted the baker and asked to be his apprentice, Silversap squeezed through the back-door keyhole and took the only herbs she didn’t recognise from the kitchen. Emil corrected the baker’s rumors that they didn’t actually kill the lighthouse keeper and that the lighthouse keeper wasn’t the mimic, and left. Outside, Emil noticed that the herbs Doriel was putting into his apple pies was actually hemp and cannabis. Taking the herbs to Anika, she at first wanted to use the herbs as well but was convinced by Emil not to do so. While this was happening, Declann went to visit Aella who told him all she had learned from Eirik, who had been playing a ball-game with his brothers when their ball went into the woods. When Eirik picked it up, he fell into his slumber but was rescued by his brother who was right there. If he hadn’t, she feared Eirik might’ve been kidnapped or sacrificed even. While he was in his slumber, Eirik also dreamed of cold winter winds and dark black sands, which is why she suspected the Shadowfell or dark fey magic at work. Declann confessed to Aella that he had come into contact with pure sap at some point in the past which had given him mutation powers. While she was wary, she asked him to be careful with the powers and not to lose himself. Declann went to Eirik’s farmstead and asked his older brother questions and to show him where everything happened, finding nothing in the woods but noticing magical residue of some sort of spell trap on the ball itself. That night at dinner, everyone caught up and even discussed their backstories a little. Roshan opened up about his time at Kasaaq and lack of family and friends, while Silversap talked about their old abusive handler Rava and how Declann was a better handler. Upon discussing Eirik’s situation, Roshan suspected that the dark sands could be of the Undead Sands of northern Eqos just across the sea. Thinking on it, the party came to the conclusion that perhaps a cultist or follower of Járni (called Loharid in Eqos representing the cold desert night) might be involved, wanting to sacrifice a child to the archdevil to try and stop the ritual burning of his effigy.
3E230/02/25 - Silversap and Påls went to a local meadery to help them out with carrying barrels and manual labor, and Silversap got to turn some of the boundless honey into mead as well. Meanwhile, Emil and Declann went to Ghorban’s ship to ask him anything he might know of Járni and the situation. Ghorban explained that he was familiar with dark cultists, as he learned much of his magic in the dark institutions of al-Fahim. It was more likely to be the work of a local cultist than cultists from across the sea, but it was definitely possible that someone would try to stop the festival from happening. He told Emil to be careful and not to trust anyone, as these people tend to be two-faced. The two then went to Guildmaster Hylla to ask her opinion as she was a goliath and Járni was said to be a giant-archdevil. She did talk about her experiences with warlocks devoted to him, but nothing recent. She told them not to bother the Jarl with this, and that she would take care of it. Hylla explained that instead of cancelling the burning of the effigy and letting the cultist win, they should do it anyway but be vigilant in keeping the townspeople safe. As Silversap and the others returned to the DoD, Ansa explained to Silversap that the Ironleaf Maul that she acquired could be a druidic or divine artifact not made by mortal smiths like her. During dinner, a local man rushed in and called Karyn to the Bee’s Nest tavern where some drunks were causing havoc. When the party reached the tavern, they saw some people leaving as three dragonborn were being loud inside. Karyn recognised them as a local mercenary party known as the “Kromakyn”, consisting of Krein the Golden Lord, Sahko the Blue Storm, and Ykrah the White Death. Krein was on top of a table singing a cloud giant ballad as they walked in, and he regarded Karyn as “Askaryn”. The dragonborn joked about the DoD and having to do community service, before Krein bet a thousand gold to see if they could beat the Kromakyn. A bar brawl broke out in which the dragonborn all used their breath weapons and multiple people went down including Sahko, Ingfrid, Declann, and even Karyn himself at one point. During the fight, Ykrah noticed that Karyn could actually die and deliberately didn’t cast a stronger spell, while Emil casted sleep to calm Krein down and end the fight. After the fight, Ykrah casted cure wounds on Ingfrid to bring her back up. Nedvarr raged and kicked everyone out of the bar, though Krein did throw him a large bag of gold to repair the bar and then some, paying out Emil as well for the bet. The three made up with the party before leaving, Silversap almost pissing off Krein again after noticing his deep-seated anger. They did make friends with Ykrah who waved at Silversap as the Kromakyn left. The party headed back to the DoD where Karyn explained that he, much like Krein, belonged to a noble family that he did not want to be a part of and didn’t explain much further than that.
3E230/02/26 - The next morning, the party awoke to see the Kromakyn in the DoD fighting with Roshan about the DoD’s 10% cut and free community service. Karyn cut through the noise and got everyone’s attention, convincing Krein that helping people would be good PR. Meanwhile, Ingfrid caught up with Ykrah who apologised for knocking Ingfrid out yesterday and talked about the Greinherjar and their former teacher Brynhild. The Kromakyn took a bandit-hunting job from Roshan and left to complete their recruitment job, aiming to join the DoD as the second adventuring team. The party then split their tasks for the day, with Emil and Karyn heading off to meet Ghorban again who explained more lore about Járni and how they could summon him to this plane with a sacrifice. He explained that if they could bring him some ‘never-melting ice’ he could turn it into some sort of magical artifact, and send them on their way. Meanwhile, Silversap, Declann, and Påls helped some farmers gather straw for the 100-foot Járni effigy. Near the end of the work day, Declann noticed that while the others were taking a break and Silversap was playing with some children, one of the tanned or brown-skinned farmers lit a match near the gathered straw. Declann immediately attacked him with a thorn whip, but the man disappeared leaving behind his clothes. Påls tracked down dog tracks with Declann’s help and they saw a small Jackal jump into the forest, with Declann immediately concluding that the cultists were Jackalweres from Eqos. Meeting back up in the DoD, Roshan informed Karyn and Emil that they could potentially find the never melting ice in the defunct goblin mine they were going to anyway. The party reached the northern mine late at night, splitting and sneaking into the goblins’ towers and initiating a siege on their hideout. They fought through waves of goblins, hobgoblins, bugbears, and ogres including a chitterlord and a goblin hucker. Ingfrid, Karyn, and Silversap left most of the enemies unconscious while Emil, Påls, and Declann were killing the ones they fought or melting them with acid. Near the end of the fight, Silversap successfully convinced one of the bugbears who was putting up a good fight, Zurk, to join the DoD as an adventurer instead. He felt dissatisfied and undervalued here, and threw his axe at his boss, killing him while yelling that he quit. They found a boulder of never melting ice in the mine and reached the DoD around midnight alongside Zurk. Zurk expressed frustration that their language was tough, as he and Silversap then had an eloquent conversation in Sylvan before going to bed.
3E230/02/27 - The next day, Roshan called Karyn over and gave him the next job before the Kromakyn as a favor but insisted that he wouldn’t play favorites again. A mysterious mist not unlike that of the Tåkevidda had taken over the nearby town of Ysaakstead, and the party decided to head over there and walk back in time for Honningfest. Roshan explained that the DoD Badge’s teleportation is inaccurate and only to be used for emergencies, and that the Kromakyn and Zurk can hold down the fort and keep an eye out for cultists while they’re gone. Declann and Silversap went to a post-service where Declann wrote a letter to his brother Ronin updating him on what he’s been up-to but not giving any details. Declann then helped Silversap learn how to write a little common so they could also write to Ronin. Meanwhile, Emil and Karyn delivered the steelfrost geode to Ghorban’s ship, which he took half of. He offered to turn the other half into a steelfrost tattoo for Emil, but warned that the process would be incredibly painful and that he as a snow-elf would be the only one who could tolerate it. Emil agreed, and took his shirt off while being restrained by Karyn as Ghorban magically inserted hundreds of tiny steelfrost crystals into Emil’s skin. After the tattoo was done, Karyn helped Emil get back to the DoD. They then decided to head out the next morning for the six day journey to Ysaakstead.
3E230/03/02 - Three days into their journey, then ran into a halfling merchant riding a donkey-cart on his way back from Ysaakstead. The merchant, Osser, explained that he couldn’t pass through the mist and asked the party to sell the 100 gold worth of fish to the town in his stead if they were brave enough to delve into the mist. Karyn agreed and bought it from him.
3E230/03/05 - A few days later, nearing the mist of Ysaakstead, Emil tied awakened-rope to everyone. The party was then suddenly attacked by Mist Horrors who manifested as things the party was individually scared of. This rattled Silversap (who saw branches of the world-tree attack her) and Karyn (who saw a draconic figure) the most. They managed to destroy the horrors and reach Ysaakstead, where they met the chieftain of the village. He explained that the mist had been there for about two weeks now, and was starting to drive his men mad. He then managed to direct them to a downhill ruin to the north of the village. The party took a tumble down the hill but ended up in ruins thousands of years old. In the deep mist, Declann saw a beautiful woman made out of ice, who asked him if he would be the one to melt her heart. She genuinely asked for help, and kissed a willing Declann, freezing his heart over and charming him. The party attacked the Ice Maiden, as Ingfrid identified the Ice Maiden as a potential child of icy beings and a lonely but dangerous creature. Silversap kissed Declann on the forehead with true love as directed by Ingfrid, freeing him of the charm. Emil and Karyn then melted the ice maiden and killed her, who spoke out “May the Cloud Maiden take me…” as she died. The mist cleared away and disappeared upon her death, and they found out that she was slowly repairing an ancient shrine to Jörd, the dead god of the giants. Back at Ysaakstead, the population and the chieftain treated them as heroes. The party dubbed themselves “The Mistdelvers”, and were given free lodging at a hunting lodge for the night. Emil wanted to sell the fish at a steep markup, but Karyn wanted to give it to the population for free. In the end, the chieftain bought it for 120 gold. Silversap asked Declann if it was possible that “mother” disliked Silversap, and Declann told them not to think too much about it and that it was unlikely. Meanwhile, Emil and Karyn shared a room and had a nice conversation in which Karyn revealed more about his origin to him. Karyn’s jokes and compliments made Emil blush. However, at night, Karyn dreamt of falling down into the Deeproot Depths into the mouth of a shadowy dead dragon. “Nidhogg” told Karyn that he can not escape his blood, and not to trust his allies.
3E230/03/06 - Waking up screaming, Karyn confided a little with Emil. The party had breakfast, and headed back out towards Appal.
3E230/03/07 - Three new individuals showed up to the DoD in the meantime- Vrka Tolfdatter, Annalise, and Olaf Kolbeinsson. Teaming up with Zurk to create "Team Zova", Roshan sent them out on their first mission to "clean up" an old and seemingly abandoned wizard tower a couple days north of Appal. Vrka showed apprehension working with the dangerous-looking trio, but conceded as they headed out. Their journey was delayed by rain, mud, and other such issues.
3E230/03/09 - Four days into their journey back, the Mistdelvers ran into Osser again, who camped with them that night on his way to Ysaakstead again. They discussed their adventure with him, and then he talked about tales he heard of iron-golem-men called Warforged from across the world, and how one of them, “Ulltr”, had become a god. Meanwhile, Team Zova reached the wizard tower and invited themselves as the door was open. They started cleaning up the place, but Zurk was attacked by a gray ooze hiding within a barrel as animated books attacked them upon being picked up. Sealing the ooze back within, the party’s exploration found a magically locked door on a higher floor. Zurk solved the magic wordle lock, but the party was attacked by animated objects such as a rug and armors. Zurk expressed a crush on Ansa and wanted to impress her. The party solved puzzles to discover a demiplane full of treasure and a dragon plush. Realizing that the wizard had been missing for many years now, they decided to pack up everything and take it back to the DoD to add to the guild’s treasury and library.
3E230/03/13 - Four days later, early in the morning, the Mistdelvers reached Appal again with a few days to go until Honningfest. They caught up with the others, and met the new members of Team Zova. Vrka recognised Karyn as “Askaryn”, leading him to reveal the truth to her and the rest of the party about how he was a noble who went missing after a failed expedition into the Hewer’s Barrow within the Deeproot Depths conducted by Professor Agatha of the Häxört Akademi that both he and Vrka were a part of. Everyone else assumed him dead as he ran away from everything. He apologised to Vrka, who said that she wouldn’t reveal his secret to the others even though he didn’t say everything. With the entirety of the DoD present, Guildmaster Hylla addressed them all and recognised the Mistdelvers as special guests tomorrow. She told everyone to enjoy, but also be on the lookout for the cultists and any trouble, instructing them all to act as a unified team of 16.
3E230/03/14 - After some last minute preparations, the party attended Honningfest, starting with the sunset flower ceremony in the field surrounding Honningfortet. Jarl Yrsa used the golden honeybee to create a large field of flowers swarming with bees. The population then walked to the town square which was set up with stalls and festivities. The party even had their fortunes read by a mysterious hooded fortuneteller wearing the symbol of Dradus, though everyone except Påls received some sort of negative omen. As Jarl Yrsa was about to announce the burning of the Járni effigy, Karyn spotted Ghorban walk out of his tent with his eyes glowing blue. He used the leftover steelfrost to channel cold magic into the effigy, bringing it to life and attacking the townsfolk as he revealed himself to be a cultist. His crewmembers dispersed through the festival transformed into jackalweres alongside Ghorban. Emil felt incredibly betrayed, but jumped into action. An intense fight broke out with all 17 members of the DoD as well as Dagvin fighting against the cultists, Ghorban, and the giant effigy. In the end, everyone managed to barely pull through as Emil knocked Ghorban out, and Karyn burnt down the effigy. As the effigy burnt, everyone heard a roar of anger from Járni. With the combat finished, the population slowly returned to the town square, Ghorban and his surviving crewmembers were arrested, and the Jarl announced the Mistdelvers as the saviors of Honningfest. Customarily, the six would've been dunked into honey, but to preserve their hair and fur only the party's right arms were dunked in honey as they were celebrated. The festival continued late into the night, as Silversap and Emil sold out all of their wares and Påls drunk free mead all night. Roshan said to him that the Mistdelvers might be going a long ways away soon, but that could be a conversation for tomorrow.
CMB Chapter 2 - Rumblings
3E230/03/15 - The next day, Roshan revealed to the party an enchanted letter that they had received specifically for them. The letter revealed a cloudy apparition that looked like a wizard with a recorded message for the Mistdelvers. The figure introduced themselves as the “Great Wizard Zephyros”, a name that the party recognised as a mysterious but famous wizard going back at least three centuries, though the apparition did not look like an elf or dwarf and more like a human. Zephyros had heard of their defeat of an ice maiden, and wanted them to travel to Svedäng and the ruins of Jöturia within the cursed remnants of the previous world tree. He explained that there could be some cursed magic there that could reveal information about the Tåkevidda and prevent an incursion by the giants. He gave them three months to get this job done, and promised them rare magic items enchanted specifically for them as payment. Zephyros explained to activate this letter within Jöturia to reach out to him. The party immediately agreed to take on this job, and decided on the southern route that would take forty-odd days minimum going through many towns and Goldörr. They discussed if the Queendom would give any issues to Ingfrid and Declann, but decided to tell the truth at the border with a letter from the DoD explaining their task. Karyn went out to buy a covered wagon for the party, and dragged it back to the DoD by himself. Meanwhile, Declann and Silversap wrote letters to Vekea and Ronan before buying two dole draft horses that they then named Ganon and Shadowmere. Emil bought supplies and food for the journey, and while he was buying bread from Anika she warned him about the snow-elf country not feeling like home for snow-elves who grew him in this kingdom. The party all met back up, said their goodbyes to the rest of the DoD, and headed out. As they were leaving Appal over the gate-bridge, they were stopped in their tracks by Rava Tincdatter, another Branchkeeper rival of Declann and Silversap’s previous abusive handler, alongside Rubinsap, another very aggressive Sevjene that only Archdruid Hakon had been able to tame. She chastised Declann for running away with Silversap instead of bringing them back to the tree. Silversap immediately hid away into the carriage and didn’t want either of them to be killed. Rava and Rubinsap attacked the party, and Declann used a new spell to turn Silversap feral. Rubinsap was the stronger threat, but Emil quickly put them to sleep, giving Silversap an opportunity to take Rava down. Rava used necromantic magic to steal the lifeforce of everyone around her, before transforming into a giant eagle and carrying Rubinsap away vowing that this wasn’t over. Silversap was surprised that they were able to stand up to Rava.
3E230/03/19 - Four days into their journey towards their first stop of Falktawar, Declann spotted a large shadow lurking while they camped and got Silversap to wake everyone up. He saw an Alpha Snowy Owlbear, and spoke to him asking what he wanted, which was obviously to eat all of them including their horses. The owlbear had just climbed out of winter hibernation now that spring was truly here, and was starving yet tired. Declann convinced him not to eat them if they could bring them food, and the Owlbear demanded four deer. Declann and Silversap hunted two down, while Emil and Declann took down a large hog instead of a deer. The Owlbear was happy with this food especially because of the honey that Silversap poured onto the meat, and went away without a fight.
3E230/03/23 - Eight days into their journey, on a foggy morning they ran into a pilgrim praying at a roadside shrine to Verindr. They stopped to talk to him, and he introduced himself as Ullkr, a bronze dragonborn cleric from Tórviland on a journey that involved walking from the west end of Teer all the way to the easternmost point he can go, that being Anheim. As they had breakfast together, Ullkr informed them that he was hunting down caves and drow as travelers had been reported missing in the town of Falktawar and that sunless-drow were spotted in the night. Realizing that he was essentially a good adventurer, Karyn told him of the DoD and how he could possibly join the Kromakyn. They decided to help him out, and Declann ended up locating a cave entrance with trampled leaves outside it that looked like footprints. Inside the cave, it quickly turned into a ravine as they spotted a lot of crates and loot that these drow bandits plundered from travelers. Declann sent a familiar cat ahead, who saw two drow, as well as Drider within a devilish summoning circle who killed the cat. The party created a fog cloud and engaged the three enemies, leading to a quick and deadly combat. The leader of the drow, a mage, summoned a bearded devil to fight for him but lost his concentration to one of Karyn’s attacks. Eventually, Ingfrid managed to kill both the Drider as well as the swordsman, leading to the mage trying to escape deeper into the Underdark. Declann followed suit, and it was an incredibly close chase that led to a precipice looking over the Deeproot Depths. Karyn stopped Declann from following the mage any further, as he knew of the dangers below. He informed them that the family he was trying to evade was from there and that he grew up in the Depths. Declann and Emil immediately made the connection that Karyn must be the son of Jarl Ottar of Helgard, and thus his full name must be Askaryn Ottarson of House Nidhoggungar. His noble family controlled the underground city of Helgard, and presided over funerary rites and death. Neither of them said it out loud, and just supported Karyn for now. The party looted whatever gold and magic items from the drow stash, and Ullkr convinced them to take most of the other crates and stuff to Falktawar. After having dinner, they parted ways with Ullkr after a discussion about Anheim.
3E230/04/02 - One morning nearing Falktawar as they were packing up their camp, a human man approached the party alongside a half-elf girl. He introduced himself as a hunter named Brath, as well as his child Thuja. He explained that he and his daughter lived in a small lodge a day or so away from the town, and the party discussed the DoD and their travels with him. Upon learning of these adventurers, Brath offered to sell an enchanted bow to them that his late wife used to wield. It was just collecting dust and they could use the money to improve their cottage. Thuja looked visibly upset, but he shot her a look to not say anything. Since he lived only ten minutes away, he left Thuja with them to hear stories about their adventures to go grab the bow. The party kept Thuja entertained, but asked her why she was upset. Thuja explained that she wanted to use her mother’s bow one day, even though the longbow was taller than she was right now. She was also taught some basic ranger magic by her parents. When nearly 30 minutes passed and Brath hadn’t returned, the party got Thuja to take them to her home. As Ingfrid gently opened the door, she found Brath murdered on the floor of his lodge. Silversap and Karyn kept Thuja distracted outside as the others investigated the house and the body. Ingfrid found the ‘Death Bow’ and figured out that he was killed recently by thorn-whip-like necrotic wounds on his neck, and that there were at least 2 other people in here from boot prints. Emil casted speak-with-dead, and the corpse of Brath explained that he was hunted down by “shadow-druids” of the “Rataverðir of Jordtræd”. Declann explained conspiracies of evil druids deep within the government, but never saw any proof even as a Branchkeeper. They learned that he and his wife used to work for these shadow-druids, but escaped for a more peaceful life. She died of some sort of necrotic curse, and now he was hunted down for it today. When Thuja finally saw her father, she broke down crying and the party did their best to console her. They buried Brath outside the lodge, and spent the night there with Thuja deciding their next steps. They decided to take Thuja with them for the time being, and maybe take her to the Greinherjar hall in Goldörr.
3E230/04/04 - A day of travel later, the party arrived in Falktawar at noon. They bought rooms at the local inn of the small village, Silversap got leather armor from the blacksmith for Thuja (who did it for free since most of the townspeople knew her and Brath), and the others delivered the drow’s stash to the guards and informed them of everything that went down with the drow as well as Brath. One of the guards told them of another hermit living even further north known as the “Wolfess”, who used to be a Greinherjar but then “ate her own son”. She was banished decades ago, and looks middle-aged despite being more than a century old. Brath was her only connection to civilization for the past decade or so, and she might have more answers. Leaving Karyn with Thuja at the inn, the party decided to follow this thread and try to find the Wolfess. Eventually after sundown, after wandering the foggy night under a full-moon, they heard howls and found a well built house within the woods slightly taken over by nature. Ingfrid knocked but the door was already open, and that’s when Declann spotted a large elder werewolf stalking the party from afar. They realized at that moment that the rumors, even if exaggerated, were likely true and the Wolfess likely did kill her own son. She attacked the party as they barricaded themselves inside her home, trying to keep the werewolf at bay while desperately repairing the door. She seemed immune to almost all physical attacks, and resisted most attempts to calm her down magically due to the full moon. She ate bites out of Silversap and nearly killed Declann, ripping the guts out of his ape form. That’s when Emil finally had a successful cast of the sleep spell, which still failed to put her to sleep but brought her to her senses enough for her to transform back into a human. She apologized to the party, explaining that she lives far enough from the town to prevent things like this from happening and that they should’ve known not to come for her. Upon learning of Brath’s death, she expressed her condolences coldly and told them what she knew of shadow-druids and magic. Emil wanted her to teach him her witchcraft in the future, to which she agreed. She gave them some superior healing potions she was brewing for their troubles as the party headed back to the town and finally slept in beds after weeks of travel.
3E230/04/05 - The next morning, the party discussed the events of yesterday as well as had a chat about Thuja’s ability to use weapons with the innkeeper over breakfast. As they were leaving Falktawar, a guard asked the party to deliver a letter to Shieldmother Gardis at Lunderyn. Emil asked for 10 gold from the guard, and he agreed.
3E230/04/07 - One evening halfway to Lunderyn in the rain, the party noticed an upturned and abandoned cart on the road near their camp. Declann sent a raven familiar to check it out, and found it to be safe. The party found two small crates containing about a litres worth of purple metallic dust. When Karyn touched some, he pretended to be hurt but actually did lose some of his magic to the dust. Emil identified it as a processed form of Kalaan or Kyanium, an alloy that can hold magical energy within it and is incredibly rare, as well as being potentially dangerous. While Mithral is found on Teer, there are no known sources of Giranium on the continent so the source of the dust is unknown. The party took it with them for the time being, pouring the dust into a sealed glass bottle that Silversap absorbed into themselves.
3E230/04/10 - The Mistdelvers reached the crossroads town of Lunderyn, a bustling farming settlement. As they stabled their horses and cart, they ran into two branchkeepers one of whom introduced himself as Trilin. A friendly man who didn’t seem too interested in the DoD, he took Declann to the side and explained that he can sometimes tell the future based on the signs of nature, and his gut feeling expected something bad tomorrow. Though his Branchkeeper partner seemed exasperated as these two had been posted here together for months, Declann agreed to stay an additional day for Trilin. Meanwhile, Emil and the others headed to the barracks where they delivered the letter to Shieldmother Gardis. She found out that Brath had died, and seemed cold about it (though Declann suspected that she did care and was simply putting up a cold exterior). She explained that Brath was a known associate of the Grienherjar in these parts, and that his presence in the area brought a sense of safety to Falktawar. Between Brath’s death and the drow bandits the party fought earlier, Falktawar was requesting Lunderyn and Goldörr for extra manpower. As they left, the party speculated on a possible relationship between Brath and Gardis, something Thuja shot down as a possibility though it wasn’t out of the question. Though Gardis knew Brath, she did not recognise or know Thuja. While Silversap and the others bought inn rooms, Emil and Karyn spotted an elderly drunk snow-elf priest leave the inn and give Emil a judgemental look. Karyn bothered the priest, Hofgoði Angon, and asked him what was wrong. He did not want to have a conversation with them at all, but said that Emil was too disconnected from snow-elf religion and had no aura of divinity about him. He neither believed in something nor did something believe in him, which wasn’t true for Karyn. The two stopped bothering the priest, who entered the temple to Jákdóma.
3E230/04/11 - The next day, Silversap took Thuja to the bower and bought her a shortbow and some arrows. They spent most of the day training her at a nearby farm in between the temple and the inn. It was a chilly day with a cold breeze that caused grumblings and shivers among the residents. Around evening, while Declann was visiting Trilin and the other branchkeeper at the tall guardtower in the middle of the town, the mood of the town changed abruptly. Guards moved towards the four edges of the town as civilians fled into their homes or away from the town, and more than half of the guards abandoned their posts. Everyone yelled together, “Giants!”. A few houses exploded into a blast of ice and were encased in giant frost formations in the north of the town. Declann from his high vantage point saw three frost-giants and two winter-wolves come into the town from the north, while four hill-giants surrounded the town on all other exits. Giants had not attacked any town like this in many, many centuries. Declann quickly came up with a strategy to minimize the risk to civilians, something the other Branchkeepers agreed and followed through on. A huge combat broke out across the large town, with the Mistdelvers and the guards scattered across the wide area fighting different opponents. The leader of the giants, a frost-giant named Bautr, said in the giant language to seek out the purple dust. He sent his two winter-wolves to sniff it out, who immediately split and went after Karyn and Silversap. Bautr shot the guardtower with his greatbow, exploding and encasing the tower in ice. He then simply followed his wolves, ignoring Gardis and Declann and leaving the two for his underlings. Trilin turned into a giant-eagle and went to help out the guards struggling against a hill giant, dropping onto the hill-giant from a tall height by turning into an owlbear and killing it. Declann was almost killed by a Hill-Giant who threw a dead guard at him. Meanwhile, the other branchkeeper fought and defeated two hill-giants by himself in an owlbear form keeping them at bay. Silversap and Angon fought off and felled a hill-giant as well, before dealing with one of the winter-wolves. Meanwhile, Karyn, Ingfrid, and Emil kept the other wolf at bay as well as dealt with the two frost-giants coming after them. As Emil tried to run into the inn, Bautr shot the inn, encasing it in ice and killing everyone inside. Silversap had sent Thuja to the inn, but before she could reach it, the inn froze in front of her. Between fireballs, draconic spells, and spirit guardians, the three managed to hurt the ones coming after them a fair bit. Karyn knocked out the winter-wolf, enraging Bautr who charged for him and almost killed him. Karyn managed to fell the other frost-giant, as the third frost-giant was brought down by Gardis, Declann (who turned into a spider to survive), and the other guards. Thuja also managed to shoot Bautr in the neck, creating an opening for Emil who took down Bautr before he could kill Karyn. Instead of dying like the others, Bautr turned into ice much like the ice-maiden from before, saying “May the Cloud-Maiden take me!” before shattering. The town was saved even though there were many casualties, and all the giants were down. Trilin thanked the party for listening to his intuition. As the party helped clean up and help the civilians, Angon approached Karyn and offered to give him guidance in regards to the draconic entity he’s connected to. Karyn agreed, and was told by Angon to stay up all night and show up before sunrise. Later that night in the barracks, the party discussed what to do next with Gardis. Trusting them, she told them that there is a safe refuge they can take Thuja to in Goldörr at the Palestorm Archive, giving them a secret code phrase to tell the librarian and that they’d find like-minded people there. Trilin and the other branchkeeper requested Declann and Silversap join them for a root-circle, a ceremony in which druids tapped into the world-tree for clairvoyance. As they meditated in the graveyard next to one of the roots, Silversap got lost during the circle and saw visions of far-away lands. Trilin and the others managed to focus on the concept of giants and where they were coming from and what they were looking for, and the tree guided them to the “Ring of Winter”. The ring is an artifact of pure evil sought by the Cloud-Maiden, that cannot be located by magical means. The tree still showed them a location to search known as Jötafn Barrow within the mountains where giants used to be buried. Once the root circle was over, Trilin requested them to search it out.
3E230/04/12 - Early in the morning, the party accompanied a tired Karyn to the stave church. Angon explained to them that Nidhogg was the first dracolich, and that she was the daughter of Theratis. Angon then put Karyn to sleep so that he may reject Nidhogg, but Nidhogg threatened Karyn that they would take his sister as a conduit instead. Karyn relented, and agreed to work Nidhogg’s magic for good. Nidhogg talked of THEIR shadow-druids working against the giants, but Karyn was woken up by Angon’s radiant light as his body started burning with ghostly flames. Though he was disappointed in Karyn for not rejecting Nidhogg, he recognised that he may use evil for good. Angon then revealed that he was originally a priest in Svedäng, and had an aasimar-elf son that got corrupted by Khór’s shadow. He failed to kill him, but his son spread the rumors that his father tried to kill him and thus he was exiled. He then requested the party to kill his son who was now the head priest there, and be rewarded with his infernal flames. Askaryn agreed, but vowed that he’d try to resolve things peacefully first. The party revived one of the dead frost giants using speak-with-dead and learned that they came from the mountains and had a goliath cultist buy the dust from Ghorban. They then tried to locate the remaining kjan-dust and the courier, Declann turning into a dire wolf to locate it. An hour outside Lunderyn to the west, they found the courier and a giant fused together into one gargantuan horror, likely caused by some sort of polymorphic magic reacting badly with the dust. They killed the giant after a tough fight, and continued on towards Goldörr.3E230/04/13 - The next day, they ran into a group of soldiers heading the opposite direction to reinforce Lunderyn’s strength, and they asked them about the giants.
3E230/04/15 - Two days after that, the party actually reached the fort of Várkiborg, where a guard rode out to meet them and get their stories of the giant attack. He told them that they could meet the commander, but suggested that they didn't to do so. Karyn agreed as he’d heard from his uncle about the intimidating Shieldfather of Goldörr, Asgrim.
3E230/04/19 - Four days later, the party finally reached the large city of Goldörr. They stabled their horses and wagon, before wandering around. Emil sent out the inky familiar smudge to scout for potential entrances to any black-market areas, as he knew that his smuggler contact, a dwarf named Snorri of the Sea, occasionally is in this city. The party struggled to locate the area, but between Emil contacting Snorri using sending and Declann sending an owl into the sewers underneath the Wharf district, they managed to find the underground smuggler tavern ‘Sigmar’s Flagon’. There, they met Snorri who took them to a side room to meet the crew of the “Sjøormen” or the “Sea Serpent”, as well as the captain, Shipmother Eldþóra Sigmardóttir. They had a discussion with her about the magic items that they wanted to buy, and she was already aware of the party’s exploits and the fact that they took down Ghorban. She revealed that he was an associate of hers, and that she’d battled many adventurers of the DoD elsewhere in Abmarah. She then revealed that she knew that they had the jar of Kjan Powder, and that the “Iron Lunarians” in Skion were willing to pay a hefty sum for it as it could be used to develop anti-magic devices. She also revealed a “pistol”, a new blackpowder weapon from across the sea. Emil had a disagreement about this anti-mage philosophy, and the two parties then had a standoff ready to devolve into combat. The party proposed a trade, but the pirate vikings tried to scam the party by showing them Zaubarovian trinkets. Thuja could also have been potentially taken as a hostage, so the tense situation was calmed down by Karyn who suggested that they play cards for it. Eldþóra challenged Silversap to a round of Lunarian’s Gambit, since they had the jar. Silversap would’ve lost, but Thuja managed to cheat and replace a card for them since no one was looking at her. Winning, the party got free magic items from Snorri who revealed that the goliath who ordered the dust from Ghorban was named Vodhan. Later, the party traveled to the Palestorm Archive, where they met Lorekeeper Vaavi. Upon giving her the code phrase, she cast some magic to seal the windows and doors with misty clouds, transporting the archive into a demiplane. As the party caught her up on the events of the past few weeks, she revealed to them that she, Gardis, Brath, as well as Declann’s brother Ronan were part of a secret society called Jaktfalken or the Falcons. They all worked for the Great Wizard Zephyros, and maybe he hired the party as an initiation test. She suggested that the Falcons and the DoD may be allies and merge in the future, as they worked against the Giants and the Rataverðir. Thuja agreed to stay here at the Archive for the next few months, and Vaavi gave the party falcon rings to identify other members while also modifying Karyn’s DoD badge to be able to teleport to the archive instead of Appal. They didn’t learn anything more about the secretive Zephyros other than the fact that he could help them do something with the jar. Vaavi speculated that the giants would’ve used unknown runic magic and the dust to suppress the ring of winter’s cloaking ability to try and find it. She turned the remaining dust within the gargantuan flesh into a ring of spell storing that she then gave to Emil.