by Travis "Elwin" Wilcox
This is the field report of Lord Sir Elwin of Stonewood. We have just returned from our venture into Necron, and these notes should be recorded somewhere.
First, I will start off by saying upon arrival, we showed up to Evie's tavern. A wonderful spread of food stuffs and drink were provided by our host as well as adventurers coming in. Among the things provided were Almiraj Alchemy and Dryad's Delight. These two drinks were equally as good to me, but I hear rumors that one of them was making people act a bit funny. I question how they came upon these drinks, but nonetheless, they were tasty. Through the day and into the night, Voraniss held their trials for who would be Champion as well as High Mystic. After many tests, the titles were retained by Mogar as Champion and Merrix as High Mystic. The one title that did change hands was the title of Magistrate. While it was formally held by Druid Evie, it was transferred by vote to Voraniss' newest oath sworn, Zula. After the formalities of court were concluded, the bardics began with the trio of Maestro, Melethiel, and Arbide tying with Ryu for first place. It should also be noted that Arbide did win the Artistry competition as well. With all of that concluded, everyone grouped up outside, and those who wished to participate in this year's Wild Hunt stood to a side to be picked by the spirits to participate. Once the teams were chosen they were sent to the woods in a kill-the-queen-style event. I must say it did run very late, and I was not around for the conclusion of this event. I undid my bedroll and settled in for the night to get some rest before what was sure to be a long campaign into Necron.
The next morning after being
briefed that there were relics of power spread out across all of Necron, we
were looking to go in. The scouts that were helping us reported back that we
had two available options of entry. With Sir Edwyn's forces already entered we
had the option of trying to storm the main gate or go in through the sewers.
While the main gate was closer to some of our targets and would have provided
easier access to our end objective, Sir Edwyn was not aware of our location at
that time. Pushing the front gate would have caused a significant amount of
noise and alerted them of our presence making the whole campaign much more
difficult. The sewer entrance was on the opposite side of the enemy's forces
and would have provided us an easy way in undetected where we could work with
relative ease. We chose to go through the sewers for our initial entrance.
Entry was, to say the least, difficult. First, our fighting forces ran into some rats. Now normally I would think this an easy task, but it appears Calladen decided to focus half of his might and power into these three rats as they held off our line of adventurers for a good long time and help was called for after the first few minutes. I was not on that front line on the first push so I can not say why this was so difficult. From what I experienced with the rats I fought, they were resilient with their regeneration and were agile fighters. Once we made it through the first onslaught of enemies, be they rats or skeletons, we found ourselves confronted with a sewer grate. Now, I am not sure why people were surprised that there was a locked sewer grate that would allow entry into Necron, but for some reason, I was met with questions about why anyone would lock a sewer. Needless to say, we cracked the lock on the grate and made our way in.
Once we crawled our way out of
the sewers, the scouts that were made up of the Enlightened Quill Society, the
Silverwing Justicar, the Order of the Saintly Shadow, and the Circle of Crows set up a forward camp for us so that we could prepare our next move. After a
fair amount of debate, we had the basis of
a plan. We would travel north to try and recover an artifact that was pointed
out to us. We had time to kill as the inner city was closed off to us until
nightfall.
The trek
north was riddled with undead. Apparently, Calladen did well in stocking his
defenses. Our hopes were that Sir Edwyn's forces were facing the same
resistance we were. The push forward was long and difficult as we were funneled
into narrow corridors, and our fighting strength was reduced to a fraction of
its capabilities. As we fell to the
resistance forces, we found what appeared to be pieces to some form of scroll
broken into what seemed to be a hundred pieces. If it was in this place, we were
sure it must be important, so we began assembling it as we found the
pieces. In addition to those pieces, we
also found copper links that we realized formed into chains. Once we
pushed forward further on our journey, we found an opening, and I was told that
the ghosts needed to be bound to set them to rest. While I was not working on
that particular task, I can not say exactly what happened with that as I was on
the front line with the Northern Alliance shield wall and some other companions
holding off the relentless swarm of undead filtering up to us. We created a
barricade at the entrance and held strong for a good long time. With time
draining away and the looming threat that Sir Edwyn's forces were on the move, we called for the push to break through the hoard of undead and make it to our
next checkpoint. From what was reported back to me, we did, in fact, deal with
the ghost issue and were able to set them to rest.
We arrived
at our new forward camp to find that our last location was filled with
corruption. That could only mean Sir Edwyn knew where we were already. From
that point, it couldn't be helped, but we did do some investigation to see what
the cause was. We did find that it was in part caused by someone in our ranks.
With only a little time to investigate, we were unable to pinpoint who the exact
person or persons were. At this time, we also were made aware that a Dracolich
had entered the field under Calladen's control. That was a problem for another
time, though. We had to keep moving.
With that,
we planned our next move. We were going after a relic that we knew the location
of. With a little time to gather our gear, we set off to our next task. When we
arrived at the location, there were blood rituals all around the area and what
seemed to be blood wraiths and more undead. Without hesitation James Swift made
quick work of the blood ritual circles to break whatever foul spell was being woven
at the time. In the center of the area was an undead creature with some
intellect. In front of it was a skull caged in bone and three vials around it.
One of the vials was filled with blood, and we needed to figure out how to fill
the others. After a bit of research, it became apparent that the solution to
this was to kill the blood wraith on the ritual spots that had been burned
away. As I can not and will not abide by blood magic, I set out to simply try
and destroy as many of the creatures as possible. After a bit of time, I found
that the skull was freed from the cage, and Mathias had it. When he held it, all
healing magic moved from its normal purpose to its undead equivalent. With
heavy suspicions in hand, I told Mathias to go and destroy the relic. We watched
as his weapon struck the skull, and it then was no more. The effect had ended.
It was time for us to make a quick retreat back to our forward camp.
Upon
arrival, we saw the movements of the enemy and began to check on suspicions.
Unfortunately, what we feared was true, and the relic was not in fact destroyed,
but instead sent off to Sir Edwyn. With that knowledge in hand, we began to make
our preparations for the move forward. The understanding that all of our hard
work was simply handed over to the enemy was disheartening and was a blow to
the group's morale. Nonetheless, we had to push on while we processed this
information. Beaten, battered, tired, and disheartened, we moved forward. We
needed to start making our way to the docks to make sure that we could get into
the inner city by nightfall. They were going to be a bit away, and we had
another challenge that we had to face. We had reports back that to pass through
the area to get to the docks, we needed to pass through in both silence and in
the dark.
After a little travel, we arrived at a building that we needed to pass through. It was extremely dark in the building, and only the illumination of corruption provided any form of light. Fortunately for us, the creatures in the building only reacted to sound. Unfortunately for some, they scare easily. Shortly after we started sending in people to scout the room, we heard an ear-piercing scream of terror followed by what can only be described as a cacophony of carnage as the creatures within swiftly descended upon the person and savagely tore them apart. Shortly after, I entered the main area. There was corruption almost everywhere. Only near the exit was free from it. After silently making my way deep into the room, I saw a circle of corrupt power that was filled with plague rats. They seemed to be nesting on something. After trying to pass my hand over the circle, it melted the flesh off from my bones, and with a muffled grunt of pain, the creatures in the area didn't hear me. At that time, the corruption from the room also tried to overtake me, but I was narrowly able to push it off and retreat to tend my wounded hand. In moments I returned to attempt to get the item again. This time I bolstered my protections and knocked away some of the rats before recovering my hand unharmed. I did this a few times and realized that this would be futile. Digging into my resources, I was able to disrupt the circle surrounding the object, and that only left the rats to attend to. I was able to burn a few of them away, exposing what seemed to be a tablet, and with only a swift motion, I grabbed it and, as quietly as possible, ran from the biting little bastards. All the time I was doing this, others were working on the locking mechanism that blocked our way through. From my understanding, every failed attempt left two people rendered. It took a bit of time, but eventually, the lock was foiled, and we were permitted to pass.
Reaching our forward base
before the dock was only a little relief as our time was running extremely
short to be able to make it through the gates before our momentum broke. The
forces of Necron were absolutely against us at this point, as when we opened the
door to head to the docks, we were met by a torrential downpour. For those who
are unaware, this makes for terrible sailing conditions, and when in enemy lands, it is even worse. We made a quick hustle to the docks and were relieved to find
three vessels to carry us across the plagued waters. I boarded the largest of
the three vessels, and we spread out among the rest. James Swift took flight on
his flying carpet and deftly navigated the waters. After only a bit of sailing, we were set upon by a group of undead in boats. Our vessel faired well with the
skill of Nos, Fern, and I defending our ship as we sailed. I am not sure who was
captaining our ship, but they had us running fast in the waters so the enemy
never made it past our stern. Just before we beached our sizable vessel, a
Kraken emerged from the depths and made chase. This was a truly large Kraken at
that. Only after getting out of our ship did I see that the other ship did not
fair as well, as it looked akin to a death barge upon its landing. We quickly
pulled the ships further inland so as to not be completely destroyed by the
vicious tentacles of the Kraken as we might have needed them for our escape.
After collecting any stragglers and grabbing our dead, we made a speedy
retreat to our new forward camp.
Soaked,
tired, drained of many resources, and struggling to stay on our feet, we knew we
still had to get through the gates before rest could come. When I say we were
pushed hard for a time and everything was given, I do not stretch the truth on
that. Collectively we gathered our gear and our resolve and made our way to the
gate. In a small building before it, we came face to face with Calladen. He was
furious and believed we were attacking him. He thought we were in league with
Sir Edwyn and had come to destroy him. If only we would have taken the chance
to do so. Sir Edwyn was in pursuit of us, and within minutes of our arrival, he
was there. The two of them began wrestling for control of the undead in the
area, taking command back and forth. In an attempt to slow the process and
possibly give my allies a reprieve, I released a blast of energy, laying low all
lesser undead in the area and taking my stand fully in this fight. It was a
short-lived reprieve, and with that act, I may have made myself a person of
interest to Sir Edwyn more so than I had already. As I navigated from my
location, I froze in my tracks as a clear voice rang out over the cacophony of
battle, “Sacrifice!” Never in my adventuring career has one word ever sealed
the fate of a campaign. I spun around to see Rev over the slain body of
Calladen. The battle of tug-of-war was over; our chances of regaining control
of Necron were lost. This was no longer a battle but a retreat. Sir Edwyn had
become victorious in taking Necron in one strike, and we were then set to steal
what powers we could gain from the areas as we could on our way out. It is
important to point out we had a few minutes to speak with Rev once Sir Edwyn
had moved on. Rev had said that after his victory, he gained the clearest
understanding of the mistake he had made. He realized that he was blinded by
vengeance and, because of that, had doomed the Realms.
The rest of
the night was spent tending the dead and licking our wounds. We had made it in,
but the cost was far beyond anything we ever expected to pay. With Calladen
dead, his power distributed, the weapon handed off to Sir Edwyn, and relics
being collected constantly, as well as Sir Edwyn gaining the control of a
Dracolich, it was not a price we thought we would have to pay. Rest was
difficult, and as if to spite us, the chill fell in the air cutting us to the
bone as we slept.
The next
morning we awoke and made our way to the map. The scouts reported in that we
were locked into our location, there were forces coming in behind us, the enemy
had also made it into the inner wall, and we had three major targets to
consider. We had a mausoleum, a tower, and a library. Given our position and the
position of the enemy, we only had one real choice to take by foot, the library.
We did have another issue on our hands. We had an enemy at both gates, and we
didn't have an escape route, so we needed to find one. After deliberation, we
found out that our best course of action was to teleport out. Unfortunately, the
lands were not kind to our magics, so it was going to take more than we had to
do that. We cast some spells to find out that the Tower had a portal in it that
we could use to escape. Now we had a plan. Rush to the library, teleport to the
tower, and then use the portal to escape. We also found out what items of power
were in each location. In the library were remains of Lucius the Red, the tower
contained parts of Zermarx, and the mausoleum held a metal lord of adamantium.
In our
travels to head towards the library, we came across another location of
importance. This held undead that were plagued and would endlessly regenerate.
Fortunately for us, they were very slow. Also, fortunately for us, we were
provided with a convenient pit to dispose of them so that we didn't have
to worry about them regenerating behind us. When we opened the back door to the
building, we could see down quite a ways and saw that there was another relic
that we could get to deny Sir Edwyn a source of power. Unfortunately, we also
found out that the pit we had been dumping the bodies of the undead down also
deposited down to where that relic was that we now needed to get. Some of the
adventurers tied off a rope and began repelling down into the area below to try
and obtain the item, unfortunately, that took a while to do, and it left the one
who just got down alone to defend themselves against much higher numbers of
plagued undead. This is twice as bad because when they died, they would be
corrupted to kill all those around them until they were cured. This plague was
a massive issue to deal with. After I realized that the pit we dropped the
bodies into dumped out down below, I threw myself into the pit to get down
quickly. Immediately after landing, I was put to the test of trying to survive
until help could join me. At the time, I was faced off against eight undead as
well as Bones and a couple others. With nearly everything regenerating in the
pit, it was a battle of attrition against my resources until help arrived. It
felt like an eternity, but eventually, help arrived and then began to come in faster
and faster until I had room to breathe and think. The relic at this location was a long weapon
coated heavy in plague and held fast by the putrid stuff. Styx and I worked
quickly at curing the plague away until it was loose enough to pull out. I am
thankful for my resistances; the mere act of touching that cursed item could
cause the plague to spread immediately. Once we escaped and retrieved our
friends, James Swift and I got to work on purifying the weapon so that it could
not fall into the hands of our enemy. It was quite a task and, in the end, caused
a few people to go crazy and start killing, but we were successful.
When we reached the library, we quickly made our way to the
laboratory of an alchemist of questionable sanity. We found through magic that
it was in our best interest to help him with his experiment and then found out
why. He cared only for the results of his work and not the fruits of it. Caged
within hands of bone was a box that exuded immense evil. We knew that had to be
the remains of Lucius the Red. While he shouted out components that he needed, we worked as quickly as possible to retrieve his demands and ensure he
continued working towards our end goal. We gathered many liquids in vials as
well as random body parts from things we killed and seeds of pure corruption.
There were many other components, and apparently, some people were tested upon
part of the way through the process and grew grotesque appendages that would
have to be removed and regenerated. Upon completion, we received the box, and
Vesper brought it outside so that it could be destroyed in a great purification
ritual. With that done, we then made a quick execution of our plan to teleport
to the tower. Aelias and Liselle worked their magics together, gathering us in
a circle and teleported us to our destination.
After
landing at our destination, we quickly moved into the tower and came face to face
with Dame Carrion as well as Sir Roman. Dame Carrion was trying to play a game
with the adventurers where five of them would sacrifice blood up to her for a
chance to pull a vial of blood from a circle. One of the vials contained the
blood of Zermarx. While that was a tempting prospect, the risk was far too
high. Warlord Saka and Odd were collaborating on a workaround to try and gain
the blood, but unfortunately, time ran short when Sir Roman made the call for his
minions to attack. Just before this happened, we found out that to be able to
open the portal, three people would have to fuel the portal with their souls.
With almost no deliberation, Sir Vesper, Magus Prime James Swift, and myself took
our positions as everyone else rushed for the portal. When the group was in
place, the three of us activated the portal opening it and allowing the rest of
the party to escape. In that act, our souls were obliterated. As I say, never
go into a situation without an escape plan; I regenerated my soul and then came
back to life only to find Sir Vesper gone and just a husk and dust of Magus
Prime James Swift. After a time, I was able to find my way back to the group.
With the combined efforts of Aelias, Liselle, and the rest of the adventurers,
as well as the good fortune of having an extra piece of James Swift's soul
floating about, we were able to bring him back as well. Sir Vesper was also
alive, if not fully well. Given the severity of the circumstances, this could
have ended far worse than it did.
This concludes my report. There are some instances missed by omission or by oversight. I would strongly suggest talking to those who were there to find out more as there was a lot that was happening and only so much that can be put to pages. Heed my warning, though; we did not win the day on this; we merely denied the enemy some resources. We did retrieve a couple things that may help in the fight, but far less than the enemy gained.
-Lord Sir Elwin of Stonewood
OOC: There is so much I could say here about this event. I will try and keep it short, given the length of the IC report though. First, I would like to say thank you to all of the Event Holders and staff for this event. Thank you to the NPCs, both combat and non-combat. Thank you to the prop masters and storywriters for the event series. This staff has shown that even after throwing a ton of events for the year, they do not falter on quality, even under the massive stress of the changes that needed to be made for the weather. I can not express my gratitude enough for the staff. I know I missed covering some of the mods that we went through and some of the key interactions that happened, but there were just so many of them. I look forward to the next event in this series as well as all of the pieces that fall into place between events. Unfortunately, I can not name all of the staff individually in this post as they had a ton, so please, take my thanks; you know who you are. Every one of you did a great job. To the NPC crew, great job at knowing your opponents and making sure they had fun no matter who they were and no matter their skill level. Absolutely blown away. Prop masters, you guys did an unbelievable job, from the living book to the flesh wall, to the Kraken to everything else, and I know there was a bunch more we never saw. Thank you all. I wish you all the best and can't wait until next year for the next event.
