2025/10/03: Investigating the Vale of Hermonides

Buzz, Kelsey, Knight, Malakai, Nimbus, Everett, Othar, Union   The party headed for the place where Captain Heroditus had been Imprisoned.   Close to midnight, they arrived in Starria - a city in the Vale of Hermonides, on the continent of Conaria. The Zerakaz Empire raids this area. They come up from tunnels or drop bombs from airships. The populace is very paranoid and very well armed and defended. The innkeeper keeps the inn door bolted shut. Axes are popular. A lot of walls and buildings were damaged and in disrepair, which bothered Buzz.   The walls of the city were extremely well lit with no visible guards. When the party did knock on the large drawbridge there was a response from the wall at the side. A concealed door with a speakeasy style slot opened and the party convinced a guard that they were not hostile and just looking for an Inn. After checking with his supervisor, an older grizzled guard, the party was allowed entrance through a narrow secret door at the side of the drawbridge, through a narrow winding hallway and out another debris covered concealed door into the city. From the inside the engineers in the party determined that the drawbridge was broken, or at least rigged to drop when activated, more a trap than an entrance.   The city had battered looking buildings and wide brick streets, there were many signs of emergency repairs and whole lanes of empty lots where destroyed buildings had been removed and presumably used for materials to repair and reinforce the city.   Despite the paranoia, the inn-folk were quite forthcoming with information once it was clear the party wasn't hostile. They relayed that one of the possible locations for the Imprisonment was the "Overlord's Graveyard".   The inn only has one meal, which is a sort of meat stew. Food was brought to the table.   While most party members prepared to rest for the night, Buzz started repairing and upgrading the city's defensive walls. With his huge amount of Wall of Stone, Wall of Iron, and Stone Shape spells available, he was able to do about a fifth of the wall around the entire city. That took him a little under two hours.   The rest of the party prepared to enter a Mordenkainen's Magnificent Mansion they'd set up in a doorway in the inn (they'd paid for its use), but first they were approached by a ranger named Vrex who'd been awkwardly trying to be dark and mysterious in the corner of the inn. He offered to serve as a guide for the search he had overheard them talking about. He also mentioned a "witch" who's around the area and is dangerous, but she's at least as much a danger to the invaders, so the locals leave her alone. Izenica the Hag, witch of the Crescent Wood. She's been around for over a thousand years.   The party slept overnight in the Magnificent Mansion. (Knight, who'd been apparently absent till then, popped out of Nimbus's shadow once they were inside.) The party rested up, rememorized, and headed out to prep and explore. Everett spent 200 gold on a large supply of new vials and potion components.   During the night, the little Void thing Knight had eaten either transformed or died, it was unclear which. It left a swirling mass of Void that was still distinct from Knight. Knight was staying in stealth mode, so they opted to leave analyzing that for later. (Otherwise they'd have to pop the mass out of the mundane shadow they were pretending to be.)   The party flew to visit the hag. She was living next to a lake. Surprisingly, her house and the big tree associated with it were well-maintained. The party landed on the path to the boat dock, which was next to healthy and pleasant (and not all dark and scary) woods. As the group headed into the woods, they could hear wind chimes that sounded sort of like wood, but that the adventurers immediately recognized as bone. When they reached the hut, they could see a practical wall of bones spread and hanging around one side of the clearing, clacking in a musical fashion.   Othar took the position of spokesperson, villain-to-villain. There was a curtain of beads (or perhaps knucklebones) instead of a door. He got close enough to speak without yelling and called out. A withered voice said "give me a minute, honey, I'm in the middle of something". Five minutes later the hag came out. Stooped posture, Pale white skin, wrinkles and Very long nails. Othar and Kelsey were invited inside. Threatening carniverous plants along the walls, some of them appearing to have faces.   Othar and Kelsey refused the hag's offer of tea. Upon request, Othar explained what he was doing in her neck of the woods and what was going on. As he did, the hag poured herself some very red liquid. Othar wasn't sure what that was.   The hag explained a bit of her own story. She's been here for a very long time. This used to be unbothered wilderness, but it's gotten more busy recently. But hey, at least the fisherman who've started showing up make free meals.   Apparently the old captain was the warlord of this area for a little while. According to the hag, he was hard to get along with.   Othar offered spellcraft and/or murder (his specialties) in return for the hag's aid. She did, as it happens, have need of some murder.   The target she chose was a magma dwarf, captain of a ship of some sort. It was one of the ships that had been terrorizing the region. The target's name was Kkagelragelbac, and the hag magically granted Othar a sense of the man's face and location. She requested that someone tell him "This is for the tree" before they kill him. An extra bit of spite from her old, cold heart.   Info:

Heroditus is sort of connected to the old kingdom of this area. "Sort of" being that he's lost most of his memories. And most of his self. The hag said it wasn't a self worth keeping much anyway.

"Up in the mountains, you'll find an ancient statue, a memorial, to a demon king who was felled by once-great heroes. This was over a thousand years ago. He was defeated, and the place that was once his cathedral became his crypt." The Sacred Hollow was another name for the hallowed area that was placed on top.

Something about using the hallowed statues as an advantage against the monsters and evil of the place?

Heroditus is apparently Imprisoned up there somewhere. In the hallowed area, not in the crypt?   The party headed up to the Sacred Hollow. On the way, they noticed that the Ragnarok and Totenkreuz were gone. They'd left, apparently.   Winding stairways carved paths up the mountain. The whole thing was buried in snow, so the stairs didn't look traversable by foot. The party flew up, avoiding the whole problem. At the top was a very large statue. There were four caves, each about a half-mile away from the statue, one in each cardinal direction. The big statue was a man with a sword and (presumably, under the snow) a shield.   The party descended to investigate the statue. They found that the snow was some eight feet deep, so they used Air Walk to avoid having to worry about it. Closer up, they discovered that the statue actually appeared to be multiple figures, though the others were hidden by the snow.   Tornril Brightblade is the big paladin guy. Lower on the statue were a pair of halflings, Xec and Wevi Tinderhollow, with three swords between the two of them. A dwarf with a massive hammer was behind the hero on the left, proudly proclaimed as Fordrek Banderheim the Third. On the other side was a priestess, named as Leanne Brightblade. Last but not least was an elf in a robe, looking shy but part of the party and holding up a staff. Her identifying label was The Last Elf Sage, Seneca Whitestag.   The Northern cave immediately behind the statue had a smaller statue of the two Brightblades. They looked cozy together, holding an arm around each other in a way that suggested they were married.   Everett suddenly came to the thought that the heroes may have "defeated" this great evil by... Imprisoning it. Which may mean releasing the captain would also release the big bad.   The sunburst symbol on the equipment of the Brightblades was that of Lune (sp?), goddess of light, according to the local guide. Her worship has fallen off since their time, but it's not gone.   Everett made a prayer to the old heroes in hopes that their souls might return to aid against the great evil if the party incidentally freed it. Kelsey and Nimbus prayed at the altar in the northern cave and felt the world become brighter and more hopeful. (It gave the effect of a Hope spell.)   Buzz was looking for spirits. He didn't see any, but out of the corner of his eye he could swear that the statues were moving. He got the distinct sense that they were aware, somehow.   The eastern cave held a statue of the dwarf. It was less bright in here, but felt solid, dependable. Dwarven runes in the room told the story of the dwarf's bravery and blunt honesty. He wasn't always the smartest, but you could always trust him.   Nimbus explained the situation. She felt a comradely punch in the shoulder.   The party then investigated the western cave, the halfling brothers had a pair of statues with one looking like it was sneaking up on the others. There were very few clues, praying and speaking were not effective. Eventually several small notch marks were noticed, not so much language as how thieves cant marks to leave info for other rogues. The marks seemed to indicate a person who was a potential target was not a mark. Literally mark not mark. This was eventually interpreted as 'don't be a mark' or don't be a straight. Eventually the party started joking, rattling off a devastating string of bad dad jokes that seemed to entertain the ghosts of the two halfling rogues. The ghosts who then manifested and sat on their statue. They explained that they didn't have long, but while they could they shared the info that there is more to the current quest then meets the eye and all the persons involved were not what they appeared. They then fled ahead of some presence stopping them from saying more.

The last cave to the south was empty. The pedestal was there, but no statue, invisible or otherwise. After further investigation with Wizard sight the party detected magical energy forming colored shapes hanging over the pedestal. When viewed from each corner of the room, basic magical runes for fire/earth/air/water coalesced from the magical shapes. Ko, Ro, Do, Ku

The party was left confused by this, awaiting help and pondering what it could mean.