by Daniel "N" Hudon
Greetings, mortals (and otherwise)! I am the one called N, and I have been asked to write a summary for those who were unable to join us in our quest to gain knowledge from the Circle of Crows!
This was my first time venturing out on a quest with such a large group. The weather was poor all day, with a cold drizzle soaking us and turning the ground into mud and marshland. Thanks to some clever rituals, Aelias was our walking circle of healing and Swift gave some of us the power to resist death once! Swift also kept our armor in top shape with his magic hammer throughout the day!
We were met by a druid of the Circle of Crows, for whom that land was a sacred burial ground that they were being forced to abandon. The dark forces of the lich Sir Edwyn Rainecourt of the Aberrant Gate were approaching, causing undead to rise and grow in strength, and a prophecy among the Crows said that by nightfall, the area would be overrun by a nigh-unstoppable horde.
So why were the lich’s forces invading? Apparently the Crows’ ancestors guarded some sort of secret that we needed to get to before Rainecourt could. To do that, we needed to pass a set of trials to assemble elemental pillars and remove the ward protecting the secrets - pillars of Earth, Water, Fire, and Wind and the associated trials would allow access to the final Spirit trial and the secrets of the ancestors. All the while we were attacked by undead hordes of increasing strength, the worst of which we worked to keep stuck in Swift’s bear traps.
First up was Earth. The first trial was pulling rods from the ground by tying a rope to an invincible stone guardian and luring it away. It swung with the force of a boulder, but with enough backing up and banging on Tony’s new massive door shield, it was controlled and the trial was passed. It almost snuck up on us from behind later on when we were fighting undead in a forest corridor, but was thankfully drawn away. I know the second trial was in a mine, but it was only able to support a certain number of people so I didn’t get to witness, and I missed the third trial altogether. Regardless, with all three pieces collected the pillar was formed and a ritual was done, summoning the guardian of Earth for the final trial. It was a powerful crystal golem flanked by two of stone, all swinging powerful blows and throwing boulders. I forget how the minions were defeated, but the leader was only defeated by a blunt weapon while surrounded by screaming… my maul was invaluable for that, though I didn’t actually get to wield it! I was lending it to Styx, and they along with Omri and Drike used it to land a few blows each.
Next was Water. One part involved raising a dead person tied to a tree a hundred times while we guarded from undead, who Orion used his knightly power to take the wounds from, supplying a *draggable* corpse for Aelias to raise a hundred times away from the undead! The second I believe I missed, but I did see the third, which was a set of challenges to “adapt and overcome”, the most difficult of which was “two-shield survival”. After a while I went back to camp and got Orion, who made short work of it! The Water guardian was a tentacled mass that pierced through armor and had to be separated into several chunks, each defeated by a certain type of attack (I spent most of my time on the one weak to silver, raining blows from Slashy as Grarr did the same with his silver 6’6).
Third was Fire, which was a bit different. The only one of the trials I saw involved three flame elementals that when together attacked with powerful fire, and eventually we discovered that *hugging them* somehow smothered the flames. Power of love or something I guess? The guardian was a fiery wolf, which I thought meant it was time for the silver sword to shine, but it turned out to be immune to all damage and viciously attacked anyone who held a weapon up at it. This clued us in that a peaceful solution was necessary, but it took us a bit to figure it out. We tried feeding it pumpkins and petting it like a dog, but it just kept saying “rage”. Or, so we thought. At some point someone said it was actually saying *rain*, which gave me the idea for the solution - we needed to shield it from the rain. I was thinking of bringing it back to the mine or something, but several shieldbearers thought to literally shield it by raising shields above its head. With that and a big group hug it was gone. Weird… (Note: some claim that it was indeed saying rage and that the hug from the shieldbearers was the solution rather than the protection of the shields themselves. It’s possible, but I’m not convinced…)
Fourth was Wind, which I again only saw one trial for. There was a ghost guy haunting a treehouse (sorry - “squatting in Vesper’s studio apartment”) giving riddles, and several of us worked on those for a while. Turned out to be a lesson: wind is about using your knowledge and applying it to know what to do. The Wind guardian was a spinning tornado of wind elementals, who were continually revived by the eye of the storm. Not sure exactly how we beat this one, but I hear it involved Swift sticking a sword down its throat and smiting it when it tried to swallow!
Finally, Spirit. No pillar to form, but rather we had to reach out to the ancestors of the Crows and ask for passage to the spirit world to access their secrets. Aelias led a ritual and cut the barrier with a copper sword, starting the final trial: defeat the crow familiars of an ancestor spirit. Took a while to beat them - the trick was keeping them close to each other and alternating attacks between them, up to sixty total. Eventually we succeeded, but before we did so, someone else made an appearance.
Specifically, it was Sir Roman - vampire knight and J’ortsa’s… object of affection? Well, he seemed to come in peace, claiming that the Knights of the Aberrant Gate actually protected us from some “incomprehensible threat”. He said that they had just defeated said threat and were now sort of inactive until the next one, though it was a little unclear whether he meant “dissolved” or “taking a break” (seemed to lean towards the latter). Then, the ancestor spirit came and murdered J’ortsa with a fireball for listening to a “corrupting influence”. He got another chance to talk to Roman later, but that time Swift found and stabbed him to get him away.
Blackwood performed some sort of ritual to… talk to Rainecourt having found knowledge about his past? Talk to his past self? Find out about his past then talk to him? Something like that, didn’t get all the details. Sir Pilpus (who helped me with longsword technique earlier on!) led the discussion, finding out about Rainecourt’s past and seeing a spark of good in him. Something about him being a former Crow who was betrayed I think, and eventually corrupted by the Aberrant Gate? Don’t have the exact details, but regardless it was enough to make the lich show up in person and talk with Pilpus. …and then rend his soul. (he got better later!)
With dusk upon us, we all decided it was time to leave - Rainecourt would only grow more powerful in the dark according to the prophecy, and we were still unprepared to face him and his vanguard. Roman gave J’ortsa one last chance to join him, but someone dragged him away. I, for one, very much wanted to beat up the lich, but alas, it was time to retreat. I hear we’ve gained some sort of knowledge that will be looked over somewhere the pages won’t dissolve, and I await the results of our labors!
Most Epic Quote: “Destroying the world is a silly thing to do, and I don’t think you’re a silly man.” - Sir Pilpus to Sir Edmund Rainecourt
N ((OOC: Daniel Hudon))
((PS: Thanks to everyone on event staff and everyone who NPC’d for making an amazing (and for several of us, first) questing experience, even in spite of the rain and mud!))
