Desire’s of the heart are the graves calling card.
DM-Justinrules
Players: IronAbu, Chemist 5, Cynder, Dust, Lyric, Tar.
Well hearing of a group that was heading south to check on something about Elves attacking Shadar-kai’s, I decided to go along. I had not been around that part of the southern swamp lands and had hoped to see some interesting creatures. It also turned out that Dust was one of the bodies I helped recover from the Vault, I was glad she was doing better.
The trip was very eventful, as not very far from town we came upon a strange alter that had a snake head with glowing red eyes and strange symbols, then future down the road we found the grizzly remains of a humanoid which seem to have tried to protect a small child, which was found dead underneath it. We did our best to bury them and then continued south down the road. During our travels some of the member that had been to our destination before talked about Ghost, Imps, and creature bleeding from all of their orifices. “why were we going again?” Later we found a strange well as we were camping it radiated transmutation magic, and a sword nearby radiated illusionary magic, however we could not determine what it did. Lyric and Cynder drank from the well and seemed fine, but I was not going to take any chances.
The next day we found a bunch of dog sized holes dug along the road side that appeared to have been made by some kind of animal. Then about four hours later we came across a strange pillar which was black and white, someone said it looked like a zebra, which we determined had been for at least 2000 years. The pillar has the same marking as the alter we had seen before and was encircled with foot prints which created a strange pattern.
Later that day the hunting party reported seeing a strange black deer with red eyes.. “At this point I am starting to think red eyes are just the norm for this island”
Well it looks like you cannot escape bureaucracy no matter how remote you are on this island, as we were disturbed in the middle of the night by a strange blue wolf-inod with a yellow hat and a clip board. Who told us he was fining Chemist for not having the proper permit for his tiny hut. “I think chemist said there would be late fees”
The following day we then came upon a site which had bluish shards of some crystalline material and a bunch of cat toys, there was a trail there we followed until we came upon a strange fruit tree. Abu and Lyric said the fruit was the size of a small child but I was unable to see or taste it.
We then arrived at the shadow portal site and decided to wait in the wood line in Chemist little hut. We had taken the precaution to try and camouflage it but it the middle of the night something struck it and we found that it was now covered in some strange black goo. “not abu’s goo, even stranger” That when we noticed that an invisible dragon? was perched on top, and we realized that it was more powerful then the group we had assembled. Cynder was able to talk to it but I don’t know what they were saying at that point. Then after the hut became dispelled the invisible dragon? dropped the corpse of another smaller dragon at our feet. There seem to be some recondition of the corpse from the members that had been here before. What Cynder did tell me afterwards was that the Dragon? was collecting samples and had collected them from us, and then something about wishing us luck on our ambush”
After all that madness we then decided to enter the shadow portal and found ourselves at a Banquet Hall that was floating in a starry void. There was all manner of stuff here but no people, we found food, drinks, clothing, books, herbs, jewelry, weapons, and other stuff that seem to be in perfect condition with the emphasis on perfect. We then started talking about something, maybe about the room, but then we all seemed to forget about the topic at the same time. “must not have been important, I guess”
The place radiated all schools of magic in a seemingly perfect balance.
After we had thoroughly searched the area, A Theifling named Lucilia appeared and said she was looking after the Shadar-kai’s place until they returned. She told us about the bloody elves and how they have been plaguing the Shadar-kai, and how the bloody elves have a Queen if killed could plunge them into chaos. She warned us that we could not take anything from this place unless we received the mark of Aelcess, “Some deity of pleasure and perfection”. Once receiving the mark we would be able to take one item from the place, so Lyric, Abu, and Cynder took the marks. “I did not like the idea of commitment for material possessions and refrain from the offer.” However I did drink four or five bottles of perfect booze, so I think I came out ahead, five is better than one right! After the folk that took the mark got their items we headed out.
On the way back I helped Lyric gather some glowly moss that night and Cynder complained about have muscle pain or cramps the next morning. We then stopped at the pillar again and I thought Cynder was going to marry it, but we started going again and found a large area about 100 sq ft covered in blood, I checked and yup it was real blood. We decided not to stick around to find out what caused it and then encountered some evil looking animated armor folks. “They reminded me of the ones that were in the vault when we went to recover Dust and the other two bodies” We decided to hide and leave them alone and when it was safe we traveled onward. The last event of our journey was observing a brush fire off in the distance.