Errakias Owlgrove

So, like most of these adventures, this one seemed to start up right when we arrived from our last adventure. Little rest was awarded, but I do hope we're in time to see through the mysterious task that Portentia has for us.   Anyways,   We found most of the crew and halflings iin high spirits when we docked. Jeeves happened to have a long list of items to go through with us and a long list of expenses we needed to pay out. After all the boring paperwork, we went for a long awaited Gerald over at the Inn. I got absolutely smashed, but not before finding out about a few of our crew from the farm going missing. After a groggy morning, we found ourselves checking in with Nelethorpe.   Nel was excited to see us(at least I think so), but was definitely very interested in the Aqua Regia that we obtained in Ironfall. This viscous yellow liquid, also known as Kings Water, was a small beginning to a catalyst that will repair the golden scroll we found. I'm THAT much closer to being able to understand the Name of Fire that I spoke all those years ago. So, thats exciting; We just need to find a GIANT CRYSTAL about as far south from us as we just traveled north to face that giant.   OH! Almost forgot, we found a new ship! A couple of shaken crew members were also aboard it, but we took them aboard and asked them to be a part of our crew. Does that make me an Admiral now? Or just a pirate? I'll have to study up on all that as we head south to retrieve that giant crystal. Anyways, I made Andredalis temporary captain of that ship with Peter Tucker as his First Mate. Andredalis seemed VERY excited to jump at the opportunity; We're gonna send them west to sell some supplies and some ale that our Alemaster has been brewing. Maybe we can have some kind of partnership form in Watersdeep! Passive income is always a fun way to make money.   SO   ONTO THE JOURNEY   We followed up with the halfling that appeared most shaken by the disappearance of a couple of the other ones. This guy was REALLY rattled, he kept saying the same phrase over and over again...I wish I could remember it, now. It made no sense if taken at face value, so we thought there MUST be some hidden meaning or metaphor behind it all. After some digging through his belongings(we asked and he motioned something like it was okay...i think), we found some old books and a journal. The books indicated some children's stories of not wandering too far into the woods, etc. etc. His journal, however, indicated that he is a songwriter! We did our best to figure out what the words meant, but just decided to venture to where he was last working to figure out the rest of this puzzle.   In the lighthouse, we followed a clue from one of the lines of his song to check under the rug in the center of the room. Under this rug, we found a black ichor with some kind of an earthy grimy smell to it. Flux was disgusted and prestidigitated it right away(I gotta have Them teach me that). Feeling around on the stones, we could kind of see a design in the ground, I used what I knew of magical items to try and see if I noticed anything out of the ordinary. The stones had some strange magic on them and what I could hear in the back of my head, oddly enough, was a single note. I'm no musician, but I tried my best to combine the note I could hear and the lyrics of the halflings song.   THE GROUND SHIFTED BENEATH US. As we backed up, we saw the stones slowly shift and move. Levels were starting to be formed by the stones as they shifted further and further down into the tower. We found a staircase!   Trying to prepare for a HOPEFULLY quick journey into the depths, Flux and I thought it best to call for backup. We grabbed Baldric, Peter, and Andredalis and headed down the stairs into the great unknown. Seemingly magically, before we went too far, we found a map of the underground; the first task we needed to figure out was which direction we were entering into the map from haha   We looked in most of the major rooms, generally staying left as we wanted to try and head towards the back of the cavern? The dank musty smell grew as we walked deeper and deeper into the darkness; luckily for all of us, we had Flux and myself, lighting the way(mostly Flux). As we crept cautiously through these caves, we grew uneasy about our surroundings. The walls seemed to shift just out of the corners of our eyes. Then, just ahead of us, humanoid creatures COVERED in moss and mushrooms lurched towards us. We fought them off fairly well, but most of us had breathed in spores or had been touched by the creatures. The poison(im assuming) melted at our skin and pierced our lungs as we kept pushing further.   Trying to explore all of the rooms we could, we came across a door ajar. As we got closer, we noticed movement behind it. Expecting these creatures to have one of our halflings, we pushed open the door and lit up the room(sorry Andredalis). To put an end to the fight, I tried using a spell I haven't used before called Fireball. It seemed right and well used, but I singed Andredalis pretty bad(man, if I had a health potion I would've given it to him). Another reason why I would like to know the name of fire. We learned we needed to find an Altar.   We salvaged a few pieces of important paperwork, a nice dagger, some mail armor, and I believe a sword or two.   We needed rest.   We sat there for a moment to collect ourselves and headed out and around to the next room. Here, we were greeted by stairs that led up to a hallway just filled to the brim with mushrooms and moss. We could try an squeeze through, but after encountering those mushroom people, we decided firepower was necessary. Firebolt after firebolt was blasted into these mushrooms as creatures started emerging from the walls. We burned through all the mushrooms we could and found that the narrow hallway was a recipe for disaster if you were in the front. After changing our order a couple times, we finally made it to the top of the stairs and into a large room glowing green.   All of us were badly beaten up and decided on another rest with Baldric watching. Before that we found a small humanoid looking creature at the back of the room... on an Altar; Mushrooms covering her and creating a cocoon-like throne. After our rest, there was a bit of mental excavation I wanted to take. I really tried to figure out if the person in the cocoon was still mentally present. Flux, similarly, was trying to have a conversation with her. Struggling for a moment, we both managed to break through to her. DAHLIA. It was like she was under water, muffled, and crying out for help.   I decided to bless Dahlia to potentially give her a little extra help to free herself. It proved a little more trouble than previously thought. Thinking fast, Flux grabbed Dahlia and, luckily, was able to help free Dahlia from the control of the mushroom throne. The throne started glowing a red color as soon as we released Dahlia from her prison. More mushroom creatures came at us, and Dahlia, in a state of panic, ran off down the hallway. Once I was able to free myself from the control of the mushroom throne, I cast the highest level of fire I could at it and destroyed the rest of it.   Dahlia slipped past Peter and continued down the hall. Worried, I ran after her at full speed with Peter in tail(haha). She neared close to the edge and I saw pain in her as she leapt off the cliff into the darkness.   Time slowed. My heartbeat quickened. I focused on Dahlia and the pain that I felt and cast the only spell I knew could help on her.   We listened.   No thud.   The sympathetic bond with her pain and (mainly) her name, allowed me to cast featherfall on her and to drift gently to the ground. Peter and I jumped after her, knowing that we needed to make sure she was alright. She reached the ground just before us and darted off, but Peter leapt and was able to hold her, just long enough for us to tie her up( for her own safety of course[ive seen this done to many at the college who were higher level studiers and decided to try something outside of their level of magic]).   Dahlia was safe.   Flux tried to find more loot, but ended up coming out empty handed after facing some undead that decided to pop out and attack them.   Some of the halflings, actually A LOT of them though it a good idea to go in after us, so after getting to a safe area, we went back in looking for those poor lost little ones. Traversing through, we seemed to find a couple of them, but moreso found trouble in the form of a disembodied floating skull on fire. Being as beaten up and tired as we were, we needed to come back to deal with that. Then, rounding out the area, we came upon some gelatenous cubes and I did my best to singe them out of existence.   We didnt really find the other halflings, but we have yet to meet back up with baldric and his search party.   To Be Continued...  

So, sorry Journal, I know it's been a while, but Boy, do I have a LOT to share with you.   Basically, it all starts back when we went on our quest to Ironguard for something called Kings Water for Nelethorp and hopefully something that will help heal those golden strips back together.   On our way up, we agreed to take a few Bedín Merchants North with us for a small fee and a potential partnership(we'll see how much that turns out to be true). We got ransacked by a troop of goblins looking to try and take some of our crew. The bedín were trying to save their own skins and sell out our crew instead of theirs. Luckily, Flux and I arrived in just enough time to stop this from happening and start to chase down the goblins as they fled. One was able to escape my magic missiles as they scampered up to the top of the ship, wriggling up the rigging, and eventually making it to the top of the balloon. Unlucky for them, though, we have an agile and deft quartermaster in Andredalis: He quickly was able to loose his arrows while perfectly dismantling their escape. It was glorious! Especially when he jumped over the basket they were planning to escape in and laid the final blow with his dagger into the last goblin. Flux and I were left almost speechless as he moved so swiftly and dealt with them all before we even had a chance to get up there.   OH! Flux also has been getting weirder with her powers. She was able to make one of the goblins think that the rigging was attacking them and just... let go.. I definitely don't wanna get on Their bad side.   From there, we were able to make it to Ironguard seemingly easily (after all that nonsense). As soon as we landed, we wanted to gather information on where we can find this Kings Water, so we decided to go to the place that had the most noise and people. Once we got there, we kinda started to relax... maybe a little too much...   We were fine, in all honesty, but I feel maybe I enjoyed the music a little too much. Really, though, the performance was SPECTACULAR. They must've had some mage/sorcerer/wizard/artificer handling the fire, because there was so much amazing lighting going on. The bagpipe solo had all of the dwarves on the dance floor. I haven't seen so many dwarves moving so wildly IN MY LIFE. Afterwards, we just HAD to meet the performer, so we walked up to their table and met them: Peter Tucker, he/she/they call themselves, a hairless Tabaxi AND happened to be someone that had the information we needed AND a way in.   We needed to crash a wedding: a phrase stolen from my roommate at the college who was a little more adventurous than I(at the time).   We knew the date of the wedding, had a new accomplice, had a map of where this Aqua Regia was held; we just needed to come up with a solid plan and gather information to get in and out as easy as possible.   We ALSO had a couple of days to the wedding, so we did some shopping. I ended up putting on hold a Thunder Enhancing Telescope. I thought it was the coolest thing! It uses these lenses to focus the energy of a specific spell to make it more powerful and increase its range! The only problem was that it costs SO much(of course). We needed to make a trip to the bank, fortunately for us, that's also where we need to scope out to find the aqua regia(kings water).   Basically, all that happened on that trip was us figuring out how exactly we were going to execute our plan, Peter making a deposit of the jewelry Nelethorp gave us, me getting a loan from the bank for my new toy/weapon, and finding out that they hold you overnight after a certain time. I was able to purchase said fun telescope and even talked to them about potentially creating some fire empowering lenses for it as well(I really hope those get made quickly!). We got followed by a group of goblins in a coat, but they didn't pose too much of a threat to us at the time, so we let them go.   Peter and I were going to go to this wedding as performers and I was carrying her instrument(secretly my thunder focusing device), SO he had to dress me up! They did my makeup and everything! I never felt so out of my element, but I was assured, and felt, like I looked good. We had a few goals with our plan going into the bank for this wedding: pick up the deposit we made and grab the aqua regia. If we had to blast our way out, we were really prepared for the worst. Flux had infiltrated the dwarven servers, so they would be there to help as well.   Somehow, we executed this plan almost perfectly: We got in easily enough, Peter caused a diversion to steal the Wizards key(Ironbeard, I think his name was), Flux and I snuck off to the Aqua regia location, had to talk our way past some very confusing stone guardians, and I was able to grab the aqua regia and take my gaseous form potion and float out of the bank. I'm not quite sure how they got out, but it seems that they might have kept the doors open because they were able to join me at the ship that very afternoon. I THINK flux got out looking like me; I'll take it as a compliment for sure. Also, Flux totally stole something from the wedding gifts.   The next day, when went back to the shop, we tried to barter off the thing that Flux stole. Because I was new to the bartering area and assumed that flux wasn't, I let flux take the lead. The shopkeeper seemed VERY interested in the stolen gift. I made sure that flux got at least more than what we wanted, but I thought she would try and get more than that for something that looks almost priceless. I was shocked at how little we got from that transaction, but relieved to have the money I needed to end my debt to the bank. Flux looked pleased at their accomplishment, so I decided not to engage it more than a gentle ribbing.   Found out I could settle my wages with the bank through mail, so I decided that would be best, as we had a mission on hold to head farther north for Andredalis: something about challenging a Giant in Ascore.   So we were off! We had no idea what to expect, except(those have the same letters in them i just noticed) that Dré had to face them and win, whatever that means. When we arrived, it was a cold and sandy wasteland of a place; there were some buildings, but they had been worn down from the wind and sand and just looked pretty rough. In the center though, was a very interesting group of buildings; red stone pyramid shapes. We landed just outside of the city in a crowded area where there were lots of merchants and people looking for treasure, glory, some kindof deity, etc. It took little time to be able to find the giant we were looking for. They basically said, "follow the booming laughter and voice"... so we did.   He was massive: a booming mass of personality, voice, and physicality. I tried my best to make him laugh and appease him( as I've read you should do when in the presence of a Giant). He challenged Andredalis to a competition to get a scale from one of the dragons residing on the outskirts of the (once)city. The rules were: Scale in hand, 48 hours, meet at the center of the city, and last one there loses. We left there determined, but also a little tired from a short battle on the way in. We decided to take a nights rest to be able to approach this task clearheadedly.   The next day, we headed toward the northeastern side of the city, choosing to go around because we were wary of having to gain elevation(Ruby said because it's so cold, the air in our balloon can't hold much pressure right now). We were headed to the dragon named Shezaron! What a NAME! SO powerful sounding! We decided to take the balloon close, but not too close, so we didn't damage our only way back home too much. We got closer and noticed there were TONS of people lined up to this ship where Shezaron was, supposedly. Getting a bit closer, we figured out that these were followers/worshippers of Shezaron the dragon. Flux tricked some of them so we could move up in the line AND it worked brilliantly, UNTIL we came to the guards at the end of the ramp. They saw right through us, but led us to the front of the line anyways. Once in the presence of this brilliant dragon, we found out that because flux could speak through minds is why they wanted us. Shezaron wanted us to serve them.   The only way we were going to be able to get a scale from Shezaron, was to be able to prove ourselves to them through combat: we had to take on several of their disciples. I only feel bad about what we did to those disciples of Shezaron, because of how swiftly we dealt with them, but in actuality, they were attacking us just as hard, going for the kill.   One got away.   We chased this disciple through a sinking sand pit and ran across an old man, meditating or praying. We stopped for a second, asking for directions, but he only offered nonsense and just eventually pointed us toward the way we were going anyways. Moving on, we encountered a room with a weird worm creature and a lot of crystals all over on the ceiling and such. Battling this creature proved tough: myself, Flux, Peter, Andredalis, and Baldric were put to the test. Baldric almost lost his life being knocked out by this creature and maybe a little bit because of a crystal i might've knocked down on him accidentally when I was aiming for the creature.   After taking a nap, we moved forward to a promising end. We found our Disciple; we also found another one and an altar. Fighting though one disciple, we saw the other one touch the altar and become completely overtaken somehow; we swiftly killed them too. I saw some writing on the altar so I decided to try and read it...when I failed, I decided to use a little magic to see what it says. As i touched it, I could feel that something wanted to overtake my mind, but I was able to fight it. I found out that the altar has the essence of a deity in it and needs to be touched to transfer the deity into it and make a sacrifice, of some sort. We try to throw a body on the altar to see if the sacrifice is good from a dead body. I end up falling into it and touching the altar: I black out, but remember feeling very small and cold; I woke up with one of my daggers inside of Flux. The altar starts to open up slowly. My friends, rightly, tie me up before I can do more harm and I slowly shrug off the effects of the altar. Then runs in the old man we ran into earlier! He seems to be a disciple of whatever that deity is that is inscribed on the altar, because he keeps asking us if we have/will touch the altar. EVENTUALLY, he asks if he can touch the altar: thats when Baldric ties him up as well and eventually ends up untying me. We take the old man, tied up, and toss him on the altar. The doors open and no one else ends up touching that cursed altar.   Moving forward, we find a path that leads to another line. These other worshippers are holding jewels, gold, incense, etc. to offer to what we've looked down towards the bottom center as Shezaron themselves. Some of us tried to get a little of the gold and jewels they were throwing down towards the center before I cast Featherfall on everyone to be able to make it down safely. We finally talked to Shez, face to face, and came to an agreement for their scale; Andredalis still needed to give something else to them though... his loyalty: meaning, giant's loyalty with Dré's wins in competitions. As we leave, Peter nicks a jewel off of a worshipper and causes chase; thankfully Peter is VERY fast and has powerful friends.   We get back to the opening, but realize we can't take the ship to where we're going: we have to run in to the finish line. Off in the distance we can see a cloud and a show of clouds and power behind it, realizing that it is the Giant, we quicken our pace. We encounter some birds, a dead mammoth, and another giant but, none of them keep us too long. We eventually get to a long street in the city that we can tell is our final pathway to the finish line. We try our best to get to the finish line on our own, but the giant showed up out of nowhere AND in the middle of the long street. SO, I had to play a little dirty and so did the rest of our team, but to our benefit, it wasn't laid out in the rules. We started really hard into running towards the center of the city, but when they showed up, and I realized how fast the giant was , I stopped and laid back to hold off the giant to help Dré in winning. The sister dragon showed up( the one the giant was getting the scale of), and started shooting lightning down the streets. Basically hitting the giant and stopping the giant from progressing while keeping Dré moving forward was our only goal.   We were successful!   The dragon dispersed, but the giant was SO far behind that Andredalis won easily, dancing around this really weird looking "water" fountain. The giant came up laughing and grabbed his scale and threw it into the center of the fountain and creates a portal... I decide I need some of this " water". I grab a little of this "water", but ask Andredalis to stay with us so we can potentially use this water to create a portal eventually.   We head back to Endsfield: It's pretty uneventful at first, but we come into a storm as we get closer to home. We encounter lots of debris of abandoned or emptied ships as well as rocks flying through the air with us . A few of the ships happened to be goblin ships, so we had to fight a bit. We fought well and strong, but all of us grew stronger throughout the trip, so we taught those goblins a bit of a lesson. We navigated a lot of debris, but mainly we fought off a goblin horde and saved a couple of passengers of a ship that, might, happen to join the Aether Gayle fleet.   Cheers,   Lord Captain Errakaias Owlgrove

After losing Arley to the depths and the Balahroth, we knew we needed to leave the tower as soon as possible.   Venturing further away from the tower only brought us back to it;   unfortunately.   Apparently we had actually been gone for weeks in normal time while we were down in the darkness.   A war had broken out and the goblins are trying to retake the Monastery. Flux and I decided that it was best to seek refuge in the halfling camp before making the trek back home. We also had to leave our cart, tents, and a few belongings as they were left in the care of the monastery.   In the halfling camp we met a new person: Andreis. He seems friendly enough. Odd character, though; He fights giants in contests. I'd like to see one of these contests someday.   Meeting Andreis, we convinced him to join us south-east to Endsfield to turn in the scrolls.   Unfortunately, the scrolls I grabbed weren't the right scrolls.   Fortunately, Flux grabbed those gold strips. It turns out that the strips were actually part of these "Nether Scrolls" that Nelethorp was talking about and those other scrolls are still useful magics that I can use.   So there is some good to this.   We had to break the news of Arley's death to Jeeves. He almost broke down in tears, but mainly because he had no one to take ownership of the land and the business operations.   Begrudgingly, since I knew Flux wasn't too keen on taking it, I signed myself to the land and took over as the head of operations for the farm.   Lord K.   We were excitedly escorted to the barn where we were shown in great exuberance the repaired and fully operational airship! Rose, the dwarven woman that led the reparations, showed me around the ship and was pointing out places that needed ideas for designing and adding accessories. She kept calling me... Captain.   Captain K.   This is all new, but I know how Arley would have run this. She loved her cheese and mushrooms. I also know that Dwarves love their brews. My only concern is a home base to come back to at the end of a long journey.   Now we have that.   A home.   A new friend.   Another piece to this complicated puzzle.   For now, I have two new names. This might be useful so I don't depend too much on one.   Lord Captain K.  

We finally got out of the tower tonight, but not after a rough run-in with a Balhannoth. We lost Arley. We lost time.   What we gained, though, could potentially help us in the future. We found the scrolls. We found magic items. and I gained the name of the creature that attacked us in the abyss.   Balthazorog   I was almost lost to the abyss as well, as Balthazorog had their grip on me. I think the creature was messing with my mind.   I saw something that looked like my father. He called out to me begging me to stop asking me why I did it accusing me in agony as he burned slowly and crumbled before my feet.   Im tired, distraught, angry, saddened, and ready to return these scrolls.   Leaving the tower, though, it seems that things were slightly different. The goblins have laid siege on the monastery, so we cant go there to rest.   We need to return to the tower, unfortunately, in order to find the halfling hideout again. I hope, this time, they wont be so hostile towards us.  

This adventure for Nelethorp better come off well for us. We've had a few close scrapes in and around this tower and im just ready to get the scrolls and be out of here. Feeling quite dirty too. Haven't had a bath in a few days. Ugh. We just came upon what we think could be the end of this adventure, but Arley just yelled something worrying after finding out we were surrounded by Illusion Magic. Im glad we took a rest: we're gonna need it.