Quest for The Ember Heart

  Return the Talisman to Aether’s Shrine Day One  On the way back to Copry, the party walks a path that meets with a confluence of streams. Ickie recognizes a symbol for one of the Old Gods, Aether. It’s a stone marker, covered in lichen and hard to make out the finer features, but it clearly displays the Watchful Eye of Aether.    Lothriel and Diggles recognize the symbol as one of the relics from Charlatan’s chamber. Lothriel has it and holds it up for comparison. In preparation for some possibility, she uses her forging kit to take a rubbing of the marker.  The party follows a faint path which carries them over a stream and up into the hills.  As the terrain gets steeper, they find themselves walking through the Dark Wood with increasing patches of rock outcroppings. They take a quick pause and Diggles and Lothriel climb to the top and look around. A Giant Spider wanders nearby. If the spider notices the party, it doesn’t care. The gnome and elf rejoin ...

The Return to Copry and Testing the Heroes’ Mettle Day one Upon being refreshed, the group meets and realizing the close calls they had, and knowing that they must rely on each other’s strengths, the party must get stronger. Posted on a community board:      WE NEED HELP! There is a gang of thieves attacking the city. We need someone who can drive them away.  Or kill them.      Have you seen our dad? Please help us      A wild beast terrorizing a local farming community.        “Come See The Wonderous Targo and His Wild and Exotic Creatures” The party is excited to visit the circus.  The circus grounds is of many parts: rides, foods, characters from far off lands, clowns, a talented magician, puppeteers and the hallmark: many fantastic and wonderous creatures.  The Wonderous Targo himself is wandering the grounds.  He is lavishly dressed trying to appear as regal as possible. He is arrogant and travels ...

The Undead in their (un)Natural Habitat Day One The party returns to Eeore and make final arrangements to enter the cemetery. They hire a wagon and driver (an associate of Eeore’s who sometimes collects corpses), load their gear, weapons and armor into the caskets and proceed to the center of the cemetery, virtually unnoticed.  Above ground, it is built in a ring like an expanding city, the grave markers and mausoleums are arranged in their own neighborhoods: rich/poor, races and subraces, religious factions.  As in life, so in death.  It is an active cemetery, with the living participating in their relationship with their deceased as appropriate to their culture. Ivy and flowers grow freely along the trails.  The concentric growth means that the newest and therefore most visited graves are on the outer rings, and the traffic and frequency of visits decrease as one gets closer to the center of the cemetery.  In the center lies a very old and almost for...

Meeting the Gnomes (and raising an army) Day one The road south out of Copry is less traveled and rather serene. The open grasslands start flow into low hills then to open woods. A camp site beside the road appears to be a good site to rest, and    it looks to have been used within the week. It seems safe.   T he party camps for the night, taking shifts for their watch. As it turns out, gnome rangers scouted the party and deemed safe. Each player wakes up with flowers in their hair, on in the case of a balding gnome monk, pasted to his forehead. As the party presses deeper into the woods, the trees grow thicker but the air seems lighter and cheerful. The party experiences: Illusions: Overhead, baubles of light float overhead like balloons, in bright luminescent colors. As the players walk beneath, the balloons explode into fireworks. The effect, while delightful, is also overwhelmingly captivating. Traps: trails and roads off of the main path seem to dead end in a ri...

Part 2. The Thieves Guild Day One A bookcase hides a secret passage. On the back of that book case, a large map illustrates the entire region with a few markings of special note. Beneath the map, a slot in the book shelf contains a journal from Charlatan himself.  As the journal is falling apart the Druid casts a mending spell and the pages repair enough to see some old and curious symbols. The rogue believes this to be an archaic form of Thieves Cant. The party take both the map and the journal with them. A short passage leads to a nondescript wooden door (the same as every door that exists in these tunnels).  This magic door leads to a cellar of an inn back in the town.    The owner of the shop knows nothing of the portal and thinks he’s speaking with a bunch of lunatics. They are forcefully ejected from the tavern with all of the patrons there witnessing the spectacle. The group makes the decision to r eturn to address Lady Stoatris Wyvernjack the Great, but again...

Heeding the Call Day One A call to all adventurers has been broadcast throughout the land. A powerful and eccentric wizard, Lady Stoatris Wyvernjack the Great , seeks an exceedingly rare ingredient for an experimental spell, a spell which will change the nature of our understanding of magic itself.    But this ingredient proves especially challenging to acquire and our wizard cannot afford to spend time away from her studies.    Her representative has screened through the rabble and has come down to 12.    The rewards are enormous.    The legends will be told for centuries.    Fame will be instant and lasting.    Each of you want this and some of you need it. After selecting you four, you are given your destination and vague instructions.  The ruined villa of  Lord Noraver Pegason the Traveler , also known as  The Charlatan There should be a gate or a passage or doorway to a larger vault There will be traps, mons...