by Emily "Kara" Murphy
Me and Tao arrived by boat Friday night to wherever we went (I’m not entirely sure if the peninsula we went to had a name). I took interest in the reading presented, after catching up with my fellow adventurers first. Eventually, We fount the ruins of a tavern and a lay line A.I type thingy (I forgot what it was called). We named it Leyla. Leyla gave us some information, but was in a pretty rough shape, seemingly abandoned to the elements. This is where we met the former residents of this place. The other natives called them hollows. In short, there used to be three kingdoms trapped on the peninsula, one to the north, one to the south, and one on the coast where we landed. These kingdoms had something called an Archon, which is similar to a god-king, but they’re still mortal apparently, since the one from the kingdom we were in had “died”. He was really just undead and sick, but has far at the land was concerned, he had died. We learned most of what happened here from some people we met from the north kingdom.
But back to our adventures Friday night, we figured out we could build a tavern with some resources we gathered off the land, and that we had to power three oscillators to fully power Leyla. So we went to go do both, splitting into two teams, team get-resources and team figure-out-the-oscillators. Team Resource, later renamed to Team Muffin, were able to secure enough resources for a cabin, while Team Oscillators (Or team thinky) were working through how to operate the oscillators. Turns out that technology that is completely foreign to us in a language we have yet to understand is hard to work. So I switched from team thinky to team muffin real fast and helped somewhat in the gathering of resources, though me and some others feigned at one point to avoid having to fight. Or move. Or do anything at all, really, now that I think about it.
However, I woke up the next morning to expedition pancakes, and the final oscillator’s controls still on the table. Thanking Tyche I didn’t have to deal with that, I briefly went on a small expedition of my own for non-instant coffee. When I returned, we practically got going for the day, splitting into two groups like the night before, team thinky and team muffin. I bounced between the two throughout the day, but I know we got a bunch of resources to be able to build some more cabins, a forge, and a whole bunch of other stuff. Which was useful, because we had like, zero ability to heal people at one point. But the highlight of the day (at least the high light for me) was running into a Southern Kingdom trader, who offered many goods in exchange for coins and whatever goods we had on hand. If Tao has taught me anything, other than how to adventure, he’s taught me to hunt for a good deal, so it was, weird refreshing to be able to trade on an equal level. I traded in a few coins I had (A Zimmain coin and A Blackwood 1 coin) and my jingle belt for a lovely fur coat. Similar trades were happening all at once aw well. I know someone walked away with a potion of cry of life. The Trader was rather fair and somewhat favourable to us throughout the entire process. It was during my meanderings throughout the day that I got some info on this place and its past, which I covered during the friday night quest part to give some context into who the hollows were. But I also learned that we had to get into the tower of Archon to help the other two Archons. Without going into to much detail, since I’m not sure how much to the two kingdom’s dirty laundry I should air out, we had to choose one Archon over the other, but that decision was for the night quest.
So basically we went into the tower of the archon with the three relics (Axe, Obelisk, and Feather Pen). The first relic we used was the Axe, which we had to dispel the corruption from. And let me tell you, that corruption fought back. It didn’t help that people’s hope was getting drained from their bodies and put into physical form. However it was with this distilled hope that we were able to purify the axe, so yay? We pressed on, our hope mostly restored and got to the obelisk room. There were hollows everywhere, carrying these ley line connector-thingys (I don’t remember the actual name). We were able to arrange them in various patterns, looking like the runes on the obelisk itself. It was a tough, cramped fight in that room, but we got through. To the final room before the heart chamber, the room for the feather, it was a wide room with even more hollows. They over ran us, but a few of us remained alive to get people back up. We were able to fight them afterwards and get to the pedestal, where we, as a group, decided to back the Southern Kingdom as they had been the most helpful to us. Laika, who had held onto the quill, placed it on the pedestal in that room. The Heart’s chamber’s doors swung open, revealing the corrupted Archon and a bunch more Hollows. The fight was rough, especially with the Archon commanding a decent chunk of the party to feel fear. Turns out, doing this for damn near half a decade means my fear response is to throw a lightning bolt and run (which is my response to most situations, to be completely honest). But we were able to get into the heart chamber, where discoperial voices told us to murder, which was, happening I guess. The good news is that being loud was enough to hold them off. Can’t hear the dark whispers telling you to kill your friends if you’re yelling, apparently. We were able to get the heart and run to the tavern, however, for better lighting to preform open heart surgery on the Archon’s heart, killing him in the process, but removing the corruption to be able to gift it to one of the Kingdoms we found, originally to the Southern Kingdom. It was a pretty eventful night, to be honest, so I’m probably missing something from this synopsis.
I unfortunately slept in Sunday, and was apparently a grouch to Tao when he tried to wake me up (Sorry Tao!). But he still filled me in on what happened. Basically, they had quested for the hearts of the four elements (four corner elements? He went to sleep before I got the chance to ask) and from what I hear, the party that remained out voted the party that had quested friday night and gifted the heart to the Northern Kingdom instead. For those of you who actively went against the party’s wishes, I am withholding my opinion on the final part of that sentence to keep the credibility of the View.
-Squire Kara Nithisdottir Blackheart Ya Kang
However, I woke up the next morning to expedition pancakes, and the final oscillator’s controls still on the table. Thanking Tyche I didn’t have to deal with that, I briefly went on a small expedition of my own for non-instant coffee. When I returned, we practically got going for the day, splitting into two groups like the night before, team thinky and team muffin. I bounced between the two throughout the day, but I know we got a bunch of resources to be able to build some more cabins, a forge, and a whole bunch of other stuff. Which was useful, because we had like, zero ability to heal people at one point. But the highlight of the day (at least the high light for me) was running into a Southern Kingdom trader, who offered many goods in exchange for coins and whatever goods we had on hand. If Tao has taught me anything, other than how to adventure, he’s taught me to hunt for a good deal, so it was, weird refreshing to be able to trade on an equal level. I traded in a few coins I had (A Zimmain coin and A Blackwood 1 coin) and my jingle belt for a lovely fur coat. Similar trades were happening all at once aw well. I know someone walked away with a potion of cry of life. The Trader was rather fair and somewhat favourable to us throughout the entire process. It was during my meanderings throughout the day that I got some info on this place and its past, which I covered during the friday night quest part to give some context into who the hollows were. But I also learned that we had to get into the tower of Archon to help the other two Archons. Without going into to much detail, since I’m not sure how much to the two kingdom’s dirty laundry I should air out, we had to choose one Archon over the other, but that decision was for the night quest.
So basically we went into the tower of the archon with the three relics (Axe, Obelisk, and Feather Pen). The first relic we used was the Axe, which we had to dispel the corruption from. And let me tell you, that corruption fought back. It didn’t help that people’s hope was getting drained from their bodies and put into physical form. However it was with this distilled hope that we were able to purify the axe, so yay? We pressed on, our hope mostly restored and got to the obelisk room. There were hollows everywhere, carrying these ley line connector-thingys (I don’t remember the actual name). We were able to arrange them in various patterns, looking like the runes on the obelisk itself. It was a tough, cramped fight in that room, but we got through. To the final room before the heart chamber, the room for the feather, it was a wide room with even more hollows. They over ran us, but a few of us remained alive to get people back up. We were able to fight them afterwards and get to the pedestal, where we, as a group, decided to back the Southern Kingdom as they had been the most helpful to us. Laika, who had held onto the quill, placed it on the pedestal in that room. The Heart’s chamber’s doors swung open, revealing the corrupted Archon and a bunch more Hollows. The fight was rough, especially with the Archon commanding a decent chunk of the party to feel fear. Turns out, doing this for damn near half a decade means my fear response is to throw a lightning bolt and run (which is my response to most situations, to be completely honest). But we were able to get into the heart chamber, where discoperial voices told us to murder, which was, happening I guess. The good news is that being loud was enough to hold them off. Can’t hear the dark whispers telling you to kill your friends if you’re yelling, apparently. We were able to get the heart and run to the tavern, however, for better lighting to preform open heart surgery on the Archon’s heart, killing him in the process, but removing the corruption to be able to gift it to one of the Kingdoms we found, originally to the Southern Kingdom. It was a pretty eventful night, to be honest, so I’m probably missing something from this synopsis.
I unfortunately slept in Sunday, and was apparently a grouch to Tao when he tried to wake me up (Sorry Tao!). But he still filled me in on what happened. Basically, they had quested for the hearts of the four elements (four corner elements? He went to sleep before I got the chance to ask) and from what I hear, the party that remained out voted the party that had quested friday night and gifted the heart to the Northern Kingdom instead. For those of you who actively went against the party’s wishes, I am withholding my opinion on the final part of that sentence to keep the credibility of the View.
-Squire Kara Nithisdottir Blackheart Ya Kang