Owen "Kalashai" Lacey
Part 1 - A Trip to the Briar
A friend of mine, Odd, came to us asking for help. His home, a place in Fae called the Briar, was overrun with something called the Rot. We were told it had been draining the magic from the place, and that we needed to destroy it. Odd warned us that it may drain our magic if we touched it, and I certainly felt those effects during our time there. In order to reach the Briar, which is on the west coast of the continent (somewhat close to where I come from, I believe), we entered Fae, and jumped over rather quickly.
Once we arrived, I could immediately see evidence of the rot. Black goo had spread across large areas of the Briar, and magic felt… funny around them. Our initial landing point was somewhat unremarkable, and covered in mushrooms. In typical fashion, it took our militia captain, Bogen, only a few moments before he took a bite out of one of them, before promptly dying before our eyes. He is a fae, so I imagine he got the good end of the deal there. None of the rest of us took any bites, but we also didn’t know what to do for a few minutes.
After exploring the whole room and finding nothing else to do, I started arranging the mushrooms into a circle. I was certainly curious what would happen, but it was also mostly just a joke. Haha, mushroom circle in fae, what could go wrong? Once again, it was Bogen who immediately jumped into the middle of the circle and vanished before our eyes. The rest of us followed shortly after, and found ourselves in a forest confronted by living Rot creatures. A small runestone sat in a protective circle, and a locked chest hid among the trees. I spent most of my time there fighting off the Rot creatures, but some of the party found small runes that fit together, unlocking the chest and finding another runestone inside. After driving off the creatures, we recovered a third runestone from them.
Once we had proven ourselves by retrieving the runestone lost to the Rot, Odd and another native of the Briar opened the protective circle, giving us the last piece we needed to set up a ritual to destroy the rot entirely.
Deeper into the Briar, we found what appeared to be the core of the Rot, guarded by more of the creatures from earlier, and their leader. I didn’t get a chance to catch its name, as I spent most of my time in that room putting armor-piercing shots into it. It took a few minutes to get the ritual set up due to all the fighting going on around the woods, but we eventually kept it calm enough for three people to set up a ritual that stripped the power away from the Rot leader. Once that happened, one last piercing shot ended it. Once the Rot had been defeated, the magic that had been fading came back to us fully restored.
Part 2 - Tír na nÓg
Our next quest was… unusual. I spend most of the time fighting, so I don’t have the clearest idea of exactly what was happening outside of that. Some of us had felt a call from someone called The Shining One to travel to Tír na nÓg and do something? I’m still not sure. We arrived in Fae after quite a trip, and found some people there in need of food. Their hunting grounds were running out, and we were sent into a nearby castle to retrieve an Ewer to help restore them.
When we reached the castle however, we were stopped by a bunch of Fae ghosts who wanted nothing more than to fight for all eternity. And unfortunately, that’s just what they did. They fought. They fought so hard, in fact, that they had to decide to play it honorably and let us recover a few times because otherwise they would have wiped us out. After a long, hard fight (where I ended up on the front lines a few times), we made it into a throne room. It turned out that whoever owned the castle wasn’t too thrilled with our presence, and took control of the ghosts, forcing them to completely destroy us instead of playing fair.
I died shortly into this fight, and when I woke up, Fern was completely destroyed, and the ghosts and king(?) were gone. I’m told that they were able to use Fae stones and some other trickery to keep the ghosts back, and then somehow sacrificed themselves to save us.
After that, we found a magical gate guarded by runes. While some people started throwing the unbreakable dragon egg at it, the rest of us sparred with the ghosts, who had returned to a friendly state. Once through the gate, we found the Ewer and returned it to the hungry hunters outside.
Ethan “Alias”
What you missed at Avalon Questing
Avalon Questing was great fun. This was a pretty standard questing event. At this event we were questing in Fae. Some of the biggest highlights were three people owe the king and queen of Fae each a favor, with some overlap. Ed/Tulli donated to the Wavern College snack plan so everyone could participate, which was very generous. Finally I liked how they broke down NPCing for the event.
As for the plot, I am not a person very involved in the plot, but I found it very interesting, and I did not need a lot of background to be able to follow. There were three quests. The first was about saving Odd’s home and maybe navigating through Fae to set us up for the second quest, where I was a NPC, but the goal of that second quest was to find a vase that held power to heal a part of Fae that was hurting. In the final quest, there was a lot of dynamite and it involved helping some spirits. I apologize, but I am not the best with the plot.
The Combat at the event was terrific. All shots that I took were well placed, and they were the perfect blow strength. I think often time, both NPCs and PCs need a little reminder about blow strength, but I found no problem with that at this event. On top of that, the Combat was balanced, and I feel that Marshalls did a good job of keeping that balance. I like how you limited us to a 5-foot max reach as we were in a small space.
Magic and special calls. I think that the magic in this event was well thought out, and every question was answered by putting thought into the answer. Some events go a little overkill on special calls, but this event made it very manageable to remember all the calls.
I want to give a shout-out to Fern and Sir Saka for leading the way for the quest. These two really seemed to take charge and lead the group. Omri and Lady Tranisha both made hard sacrifices that I respect and admire. And everyone contributed something to the quest. My final thought was that I rarely broke character in this event, which was great because I felt like Alias most of the day. I love that because it takes you out of the real world's troubles for a little while. That is what you missed at Avalon Questing.
Kelly “Fern” Perfetto
Recently small groups of adventurers traveled to the lands of Fae in response to calls for aid. Though I was unable to help with Odd’s mission in his home directly, I went on the two other missions that I was aware of. I feel it is important to list everyone who went. Even if I do not call people out by name, they fought, healed, fixed, and solved alongside all of us.
To the best of my knowledge the group that went to the Briar consisted of Saka, Alias, Isaac, Laika, Kalashai, Voutiá, N, Johan, Bogen, Azimuth, Mistral
Tír na nÓg
The group: Fern, Tarnisha, Pawldo, Styx, Omri, Zephyr. Isaac, N, Laika, Kalashai, Voutiá, Johan
Our group was met by a Fae dressed in green and shimmering fabric, sent by “The Shining One” to help restore the lands of Tír na nÓg. As preemptive thanks, the woman gave us a bit of magic which could give us one trip out of where we were in Fae, to where we had entered. She then bid us to take each others’ hands, and to close our eyes and trust her as she led us to Tír na nÓg.
Once there an elven man named Cliff greeted us and explained that they were running out of food. Cliff said that a legendary “Ewer of Healing” kept in a nearby castle may be the key to restoring food and prosperity. At the castle we observed the impossibly high walls and moat full of piranhas. The drawbridge was lowered, but guarded by about a half dozen semi-spectral Fae warriors. They greeted us in friendly tones, saying they had not had visitors in some time, and then proceeded to try to kill us. Despite their ferocity each seemed to have their own personal sense of honor and their own tricks.
We eventually pushed through to the portcullis, or rather I believe Styx teleported behind their lines to gain the upper hand. We soon met the ghosts again in the winding corridors of the castle. Omri led an initial charge into the room, but was taken captive by the ghosts for a time. The fight in that corridor was brutal, but we finally reached a wider room. While Zephyr replenished their healing magic, some of the party fought in honorable combat against the lead ghost. Voutiá ultimately prevailed.
The next step in our journey was the throne room. The ornate chair was draped in lush red fabric, which probably helped to hide the stains as this room quickly became a bloodbath. We had only a moment before a spirit dressed in purple sauntered in, followed by the ghosts who had been haunting us. This lord spirit seemed to be magically controlling and compelling them. They attacked without honor or mercy.
With a Fae stone in hand, I moved to the majority of the adventuring group, but everyone was dead by the time I got there. After a few minutes of attempted negotiation and information gathering I looked around and Tarnisha, Pawldo, Zephyr, and Laika were standing behind me. Laika also brandished a Fae stone. Isaac was alive and separated from the group, but working with fragments of a story which seemed to be a key to getting everyone out. Laika and I rushed to defend Isaac, but in doing so the group had lost their protections and were killed. After that I am not entirely sure what happened, but Laika must have looked away or lowered his arm. He was killed, dropped the stone, Isaac scrambled away and was killed. Once again I was the last one standing against six endlessly regenerating warriors with only my sword and a rock. There was still some sort of ambient power around me though, and I pushed on it just a little to put my life force somewhere else…
I woke up to a relieved Tarnisha, all of my companions standing, and a distinct absence of ghosts. Apparently Isaac and Omri had assembled a story relevant to the master of the castle, and speaking it aloud banished him. The final room was guarded with magical rune wards, fireballs, and… those damn ghosts again. They were at least back to their old selves and even graciously left Kalashai alone while they used a circle of healing. Omri invoked Mantarok, Pawldo caught at least one fireball to the all of him, and eventually Laika and Styx decided to just throw the giant dragon egg at the wall until it broke. The Ewer of Healing was in fact inside the vault. We returned it to the people in the grove, and it seemed like the land was already beginning to recover by the time we left.
The Mines
The group: Fern, Tarnisha, Pawldo, Styx, Omri, Zephyr, Isaac, Azimuth, Saka, Alias, Mistral
Our contact for this journey was a little more mundane than the last. I did not get all the details, but miners had been killed, and the survivors wanted answers. We traveled down into the mine tunnels. As we approached a more open area we saw dozens of dead miners scattered about the area, bearing terrible wounds. The bodies in front of us began rising. We managed to fight the undead off long enough for Saka to activate mining portal runes to bring us further in.
In the next area there were more undead, a pile of rocks that we thought we had to move, and dynamite. At some point Omri set off the dynamite and the boulders crushed some of the enemies. Malicious ghosts added to the ranks by their own numbers and by possessing us. Eventually I spied a way out through a boarded up tunnel. The primary feature of this new area was a quite probably bottomless pit. Once we finished off the undead there Saka leaped across the pit. Isaac followed soon after. It was honestly quite impressive. Using the ropes they had jumped with we all made our way across.
In the next section of the mine we found a ghost of a man sitting on the floor, holding a bundle of dynamite. The ghost could not speak words we could hear, but we learned that he had been killed along with the other miners we had encountered. He indicated that we should destroy a pile of boulders with yet more dynamite to move further in and stop the undead. As rocks and fire filled the air, spirits flew into the room and began attacking us more skillfully than anything else we had fought in the mines. When I was revived I was relieved to see that the only ghost remaining was the friendly one. But we had not defeated the beings. They had escaped.
As we regained our bearings a living Fae approached. She seemed displeased to put it mildly. Apparently we had released ancient malicious spirits. As the miners had dug deeper and closer to this prison they became more and more enraged until they turned on each other. The woman told us they had been sealed away in Queen Titania’s time by the queen herself, and that this woman was their warden. These beings were faster than us, could float over the bottomless pit, and it was only by skill, the magic of the lands, and some amount of luck that we were able to survive their whirlwind onslaught. Rather than pursue we began working on a way to funnel our energies and magic into summoning the spirits back and re-sealing the prison.
Isaac led the ritual outside of the prison. Saka, Styx, the Fae warden, and I went into the spirits’ cage. Outside, the group created a seal, and called upon the power of King Cuculhain and Queen Nimbus. I do not know the exact details, but it sounds like for their assistance, the king and queen both asked for favors, though that phrasing on my part is not quite accurate.
In the prison Styx and Saka powered a reversed Ritual of Banishment and brought the spirits back to us. I stood between the spirits and the casters as long as I could, and then we teleported out using the favors for helping in Tír na nÓg.
As far as I have been told, everyone else made it out safely as well. The remaining miners have been warned, and the ghost we met is content to stay where we found him.
OOC
I have added a few embellishments to some of the descriptors here, but boy we really did have to fight for it in these. Our victories were not assured, and we had to find creative solutions. I wanted to take a paragraph out of character to also thank the people who NPCd more than one quest, or were EHs. Kathy, Zack K, Kai, Nate, Maria, Jay, Bri, Eric, and Hillary made sure to keep us on our toes. Also I wanted to say Jay did a great job with their first quest!
I ended up writing a longer version with more details about the quest for those who are curious. This version can be found here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1_ryMfXPgr7PTjTcabKCZlfP8_5P8jbgX/view?usp=sharing
Kieran/Kyra “Omri” Barry
Brief shout out to Isaac for commanding the room with a powerful verbal against the big bad of quest 2 that ended with “why isn’t anyone taking advantage of this obvious distraction” which let the rest of us know it was distraction. Unfortunately the enemy too. Too good a moment to go unrecognized.
Shout out to Fern for carrying against the big bad of the second quest as well, and doing a sacrifice they didn’t think they’d come back from. It’s what inspired me to attempt an invocation to understand some runes, to hasten the opening of the vault and hopefully the end of battle. Alas it did not succeed, although attempts to use the dragon egg did to break down the vault’s defenses.
Odd’s home is safe.
Shuben was the ghost guard, their boss claimed to be the/a Representative of Seelie who was in charge of Shuben and the imprisonment of the Fuath.
And for the re-sealing of the Fuath, the King and Queen of Fae asked for three people to complete a task for them each. Aka three people do a task for the king, three people do a task for the queen, with some overlap. Let us hope there is no need to find out if the Fuath, spirits of rage incarnate, will be released if these tasks are not done within a year and a day of the ask.