The Lands of Parvalis

A lil DnD group sharing their story.

[thelandsofparvalis]

Session 39

Elara lets Rhaenys know that her father has gone missing. She realized a couple weeks ago that she hadn't seen him. She checked to see if she could find him, and eventually brought it to High Mage Kenneth’s attention. He let her know that she had seen someone being taken away, a tactic that the King does every now and then with his enemies. He doesn’t know where they are taken to, but it usually isn’t good. High Mage Kenneth and Elara give all of this information to Rhaenys. Along with something Elara found. She says she snuck into her father’s office, and found a parchment among his things. It seemed important. It’s a map of what appears to be a desert in Morgaran. She gives it to Rhaenys as well. Lastly, Elara asks High Mage Kenneth to give Rhaenys what they brought. Her armor. Rhaenys takes it happily.

The group heads back to the tavern to call it a night. The next day, they decide they should check and see when this St Anne ship will arrive. They check with the dock master, and are told as long as things go to plan for the St Anne, it should arrive in 4 days. The group then decide in the meantime, they should try to earn some money. Artiev mentions as they seem to be approaching more and more dangerous situations, it might be good to buy the component needed for a spell he can do now to bring anyone back to life, a 300 gold diamond. They all agree. 

Next they check on the local job board to see if there is anything they could pick up. When they get to the board, a Tabaxi woman is there. She eagerly asks if they are looking for work, and if so, she has a job for all of them. She introduces herself as Loreena, and she has a cat cafe that she really is trying to gain popularity with. She is willing to pay them to go out on the streets to advertise for her cat cafe, Catventure Time, and help with service inside the cafe. They all agree.

Loreena explains the 4 parts she needs help with. First, someone needs to go out and take the flyers to advertise for the cafe. Second, she needs help training the feral cats she has captured and put into her cafe. Third, customer service with the customers as they come in. Fourth, convince people to leave a good review. 

The team split up, Rhaenys and Rythus go out and try to talk to people to come in. Willow and Artiev stay at the cafe to do customer service. They all go through their respective responsibilities and do pretty well for the day! Rythus and Rhaenys work together to come up with ways to convince people to go to the cafe such as using pastries from the cafe as samples. Willow and Artiev work with the cats, and serve the customers as they come in. 

One by one, group by group, the customers overall have been happy and enjoyed their time at the cafe. Except the last group. Rythus tries to talk to this group to go to the cafe, but comes off very awkward, and doesn’t really hit the mark with them. But, still they decide to go. Once they get there, they pay the bare minimum, and seem completely unimpressed by the cafe. At the end, they get to the end of their time there, and sarcastically agree to leave reviews for the cafe. Unfortunately, they are awful reviews. Willow follows them immediately, and takes them down. 

All of their hard work does pay off though. They earn over 600 gold with the promised deal with Loreena. They all get a meal from Loreena, and having some discussion till finally they leave the cafe and Loreena.

[thelandsofparvalis]

Session 39

[thelandsofparvalis]

Session 38

Waking in the morning, both Artiev and Willow are feeling better from the draining of their strength. They pack up their things, and continue to make their way to Swobia. During the next day, Rhaenys starts to feel the unusual rising body heat signaling her transformation is upon her. The group settles another night preparing to deal with the transformation. Rhaenys prepares to try and take control for the first time by using her ring to create a blue rose. 

The sun falls, the moon rises. Rhaenys feels the overwhelming sense of losing control. As she is forced to dive into this state, with the help of Rythus using Enhance Ability, Rhaenys tries to focus on herself. She succeeds enough to have some control over herself in this transformation. Not enough to have full control, but for the first time, she is aware of being turned into a bear. Willow tries to talk to her while she’s changed, but Rhaenys is not able to respond very well, only leaning down to focus on the smell of the rose to keep that mild control she does have.

The next morning, Rheanys turns back. This morning, the difference being she has somewhat of a memory of what happened. They gather up, and again head out.

The night comes upon them, and Rythus knows if they keep pushing into the AM, they will be able to make it to Swobia without having to camp again. They all agree and push forward indeed arriving at Swobia in the late hours of the night. They get a room at the Sunken Barrel tavern, and sleep the rest of the night.

Next morning, they gather and make a plan for how they want to take on the day. Artiev offers to look for the information he is seeking on his own for the day, and agrees to meet them again at the tavern by dinner time. He tells them to enjoy the day, take a look around the town.

The rest of the group do just that. They find a bakery, Rhaenys grabs a dozen pastries for them to enjoy. After, they discover the local popular restaurant, the Salty Herbs. A great seafood restaurant where they find delicious meals. After, they walk through the docks to try and find some information about the Whitby Enterprise and its captain, Yosston. They ask around, and find there isn’t anyone that’s heard of that particular ship and captain. They do find out there is a cruise ship that travels between Swobia and Morgaran called the St Anne captained by Captain Malemon, and about pirates potentially mostly making their way to the Carth Islands where it’s more secluded. They search around for a bit more, but eventually head back to the Sunken Barrel.

When they arrive back at the Sunken Barrel, there is some commotion happening inside. They enter to a scene of a young pregnant Orc woman laying in the middle of the tavern floor, tables pushed over, her water has broken and no one knows what to do. The group is in shock. Willow tries to help by getting to the Orc woman and assisting with the delivery with the medical knowledge she learned from her mother so long ago.

While Willow is trying to assist, someone walks through the tavern door. Rhaenys and Ry follow Willow’s directions to get warm water, and towels to help with the delivery.

An old man (Sunarcus) sees the situation and tries to help as well. He introduces himself to Willow and lets her know he has experience with delivering babies. With both of them assisting one another, they are able to help deliver twin Orc babies, a boy and a girl, into the world. A disgusting mess of afterbirth around, but the Orc woman, who tells them her name is Kaylein, is incredibly grateful to the both of them. She asks for Willow’s and the old name’s name, Ferro, to name her children after. Willow and Ferro heartwarmed, help Kaylein to a room thanks to the tavern keeper for her to rest and nurse her children.

Now that the commotion with the baby deliveries are finished, the other bar keeps help clean up the mess. Willow and Ferro help get Kaylein settled, and eventually come back down for all of them to sit and chat. Eventually Artiev shows up after the incident to join them as well. Ferro asks them what they are doing in town, where they’re from. Rhaenys reveals that she is from Ironis. This piques Ferro’s interest, and asks her what her last name is to see if he’s heard of her from some of the other knights he’s chatted with before. She tells him her name is Vitus, and it triggers this memory of old journals he has passed down from ancestors nearly 1000 years ago that tells about a young girl that has the same name. He offers to share more about this with Rhaenys if they would like to go back to his orphanage that he runs and lives at. They all agree to go.

Upon reaching the orphanage, they hear cries for help. Ferro recognizes the sounds of his house maid, Wenda, crying for help and the sounds of the children crying. He rushes forward to them to see what is happening, the rest of the group following. Once they get there, Wenda tells Ferro some creature broke into the orphanage and she tried to get out as many of the children as she could, but she couldn’t help the babies in the nursery. Ferro, after hearing this, rushes into the home. The group follows to help. 

When they get inside, Ferro points out where the nursery is for everyone. They all hear the distant cries of babies coming from the direction. They enter the nursery one by one and as soon as they do, the baby cries stop abruptly. The eerie silence is accompanied by the bloody scene of what could only be the remains of the babies that once occupied the room. When they enter, Rhaenys uses her nose to smell for any creatures. She is able to smell somethings that are not meant to be there just as two cribs she stands next to suddenly form teeth around the rim of the crib bed, and a sticky tongue launches at her. At the same time, a loud crow caw sounds through the room, and a huge bird-like creature lands from the ceiling, and they begin combat. 

The two mimic cribs grappling Rhaenys and Rythus, and the crow creature causing a wind wall to make Willow lose her arrows makes for a tough combat, but the team gets through with success. A close call for a couple of them, but success. 

After the combat, they all settle in the kitchen to talk again. Wenda helps the children back to their rooms and settles them down. Ferro gets the journals that he mentioned before and brings them to Rhaenys for them to discuss what he knows about a person from the past that has the same last name as Rhaenys. 

Ferro describes to Rhaenys (a one shot that we played) that a long time ago, a group of renowned warriors were hired by a man named Charles Rockforth to help him gain control of the land from a tyrannical family, their family name being Vophion. Charles led this charge to kill anyone of this family as he claims they hoard all the resources for themselves and let the people starve and die. Charles believed this to be true. And they indeed did destroy the Vophion family. Except one child. A young girl named Anya. 

After the battle, Ferro’s ancestor William, found the little girl hiding. He managed to convince her to go with him feeling sorrowful for what he had a part in, and promised to take care of her in retribution for what he’s helped do. Once he took her back to the same orphanage that would years later be the exact one they are all talking in in present time. William changed her last name to Vitus from Vophion to help protect her as the others of that group accidentally revealed the little girl lived. 

Rhaenys asks Ferro what land was it that Charles fought for. He tells her it is now known as Ironis. Charles’s family through the ages changed their name from Rockforth to Stonewill and built the kingdom they all know now as Ironis. Rhaenys is overwhelmed with the knowledge. She looks through the journals Ferro brought, and sees a portrait of the girl named Anya. The portrait shows a girl in her teens holding back her hair in the wind, smiling. On her hand, Rhaenys sees a ring and realizes it’s the same ring she got from her father, the ring of roses. Rhaenys asks if she can keep the journals, and Ferro tells her he is happy to give them to her as it feels it is only right to give it to possibly the only descendant of the one it is about.

They sit and chat for a while till it’s time for the midnight meeting with Elara. The group thanks Ferro for his help today, and wishes him well, and leaves. They go to the entrance of town and wait to see Elara appear. A few minutes later, and they do see Elara with the High Mage Kenneth walking down the road, High Mage Kenneth dragging a large canvas sack along as well.

Once they meet, Elara clearly has a hard time meeting eyes with Rhaenys. High Mage Kenneth pushes her along to speak. First, Elara tells Rhaenys that they had Shaddax’s execution. Rhaenys is perturbed asking why, but mentions it’s what was promised months ago when she accused him of attempted murder. 

After explaining the execution, Elara hesitates again. After a huff of encouragement, she reveals to Rhaenys that her father has gone missing.

[thelandsofparvalis]

Session 38

[thelandsofparvalis]

Session 37

The group faces Nox wanting answers. He is just as lost as they are, but for him wondering about Rhaenys and her bear situation. They are confused why he’s a wolf, and what was going on with that group of people. Nox stammers through trying to figure out what is going on, and eventually, the woman comes back out.

The woman demands everyone to go inside, and goes to speak to Nox. They all listen, and head into the cabin. Willow tries to overhear what they are discussing. She’s only able to overhear parts of the conversation. After several minutes, they come inside. 

Nox introduces the woman as Blue, his ex wife, and excuses himself still wrapped in just chains. Blue gets drinks for them, and starts questioning Rhaenys, then all of them. She asks what happened last time they were there with Nox. They describe helping him with a spider infestation, and him getting blackout drunk, an earthquake, and Nox injuring himself. Artiev recalls that Nox removed the sword that he injured himself with, and Rhaenys got hit with his blood. Blue looks like she can barely believe the story, but clarifies what happened with his blood in the situation. 

After going over that, Nox comes back down, now dressed. Blue tells him it does look like it was his doing. Nox exasperated, drops down onto the couch and acknowledges. They discuss a bit more, asking questions of Blue and Nox, getting a bit into their history. At the end, they are able to gather that they split because Blue wanted kids, and Nox didn’t. Blue heads to bed at that point.

Nox tells them tomorrow they are going to help Rhaenys learn how to start controlling the beast when she transforms. They all get to sleep.

The next morning, Rhaenys wakes Rythus for a morning workout. Willow sleeps off the drunkenness a bit more. Artiev goes out and watches them. Rythus is able to keep up again with Rhaenys and they have a great workout together. After they get the workout nearly done, Nox comes out and sees Rythus doing a great job, and cheers Rythus on. Inside, Willow wakes up and joins the group. 

After, Nox calls Rhaenys over. He has a glass bottle with a black liquid inside. He starts to explain to her how the transformations work, how the beast starts to take over when it’s a full moon, and in order for Rhaenys to gain any control, she needs to prepare her mind. Her mind needs to overpower the primal instincts of the beast. He tells her to drink the liquid after throwing some dirt into it. She smells it, it’s absolutely awful. She drinks it. 

At first, nothing. It even has a sweet and tart berry taste. But after a few moments, as Nox keeps going with his explanations, Rhaenys starts to spiral into a drugged state. Pain, fear, rage. She tries to center herself, and through the pain, she is able to. She pulls through focusing her mind, and is able to pull herself through the bear trying to take over. With a roar, she triumphs. Nox claps for her happy she was able to pass through it. 

They go inside for breakfast. Blue is with them now. Rythus speaks to Blue for a bit, and Blue explains a bit more about the relationship she has with Nox now. She tells Ry that her frustration with him isn’t about their past, why they split. She does still care about him, but she has other responsibilities back in Shamsbur Village. While that being the case, she will always be there for him, and she does continue to worry about him. Ry lets her know Nox is lucky to have her. 

They get breakfast done, Rhaenys helping Nox. Rhaenys also asks about how he is with Blue now, and he relays the same sentiment. He lets Rhaenys know Blue and him aren’t completely estranged. She brings her family over once in a while, and they do spend time together. The whole group enjoys the meal together. Once done, Blue lets them know she has to head back home. She says her goodbyes to the party, and she and Nox head out of the cabin to privately say goodbye. The party peers through the windows to watch them. They see the two of them share an intimate moment, till they're spotted. It ends with Blue giving him a kiss on the cheek, and leaving. They watch Nox and he watches Blue leave, a look of yearning on his face. He shakes himself of it, and heads back inside to the party clearly watching them. To which Nox responds by telling Rhaenys they are going to practice again for her transformation.

Outside, everyone sits and waits and Rhaenys stands out in front of the cabin again. As Nox passes Rythus, he asks them if they can do magic, if there isn’t something they could do to help. Rythus casts Enhance Ability on Rhaenys and uses Prestidigitation to give Rheanys the smells of things familiar to her, to help her. Rheanys takes another drink, and her mind dives into another drugged state. With the help of Rythus, Rhaenys is able to cleanly pull through the drugs and harness the bear. Nox claps for Rhaenys, the others do as well. A job well done.

They next try to figure out what they are going to do next. Nox leads them all to the kitchen, pulls out all kinds of food and snacks and drinks. He tells them why not just take the day. They can practice more for Rheanys, but otherwise they can just hang out and have a chill day before they go back on the path to Swobia. Nox goes to his garden, and brings back a couple of large baskets of vegetables. Willow also cooks some of the vegetables and meats that Nox has.

During this time, Rhaenys gets a message from the Archmage of Ironis. He asks Rhaenys where their next destination is going to be. Rheanys responds letting him know they are headed to Swobia Town. He sends another message to her telling her the night of the first morning they spend there, they are going to arrive at the town entrance. They need to speak in person. Rhaenys lets him know she acknowledges. 

The rest of the day and night, they enjoy the time to relax. Rhaenys lets the group know about the message she received from the Archmage, and now they know they have to take care of that as well. The next day, they get their things, say their goodbyes to Nox, and head out back on the path to Swobia. 

The first night on the trip, they do their watches. During the night, the first portions of the night go without any incident. On Willow’s watch, the shadows start to move. She is able to see a decaying horse with a deathly rider on its back approach them. She screams for her friends to wake up. They fight. While they fight, two shadow-like creatures appear to aid the rider. Willow takes a huge hit getting her strength drained a shadow almost completely taking her life from that. They get through the other side triumphant. Willow and Artiev both suffer their strength being drained. They have Willow get to sleep instead of finishing her watch, Artiev taking over it for her. The rest get to sleep.

[thelandsofparvalis]

Session 37

[thelandsofparvalis]

Session 36

The group now ready for the day are ready to start their investigation. They start with Willow using Speak with Animals spell, and talk to the horses. She speaks to Argo, and asks what happened that he witnesses. Argo lets Willow know Yew told them to stay there, and that Rhaenys and the others would be back soon. He continues to tell her that they talked, he couldn't hear what they were saying, but then it turned into fighting, and then real fighting. After that, Yew and Elio came back to the wagon, took everything, and left for town. Also while talking, Argo mentions that Chicoree needs better food for the baby. To which, Willow exclaims in shock. She relays the information of it all to Rhaenys who also is shocked. After they settle things with the horses, they decide to check with Alotel in the Misery’s End Tavern. 

When they get to the Misery’s End, they check with Alotel and ask about Yew and Elio, and if she recognizes anyone with Finley’s description. Alotel tells them about seeing Yew and Elio come in for food a couple weeks ago, but no Finley. They weren’t super friendly, but they got on fine. They said they were just getting some food before heading to the piers to ask some questions of the people around there. 

Rhaenys also asks a law enforcement person about if they’ve seen the 3 people. The woman they stop tells Rhaenys that she hasn’t but will help keep an eye out.

When they get there, they come across an older couple that are taking a break from their fishing time. The group asks this older couple about the 3 people theyre searching for, and they say they have seen Yew and Elio a couple weeks ago. They came by asking for passage to Morgaran, a continent to the west. Only boat that was good enough to sail that was the Whitby Enterprise captained by Yosston. The older couple let the group know he’s a stalky Gnome man with a jellyfish tattoo on his back. 

From here, they try to make a decision on where to go next. Willow mentions going to Andurn to see if she can get Kaori. Rhaenys worries about being away from Ironis too long, starts to feel like she should be heading home. Artiev chimes in and tells them about his dreams, his premonitions about them and needing to get to Swobia. Rhaenys realizes that one, they might not even find Kaori, and two, it would take a lot of time to get to Andurn to see if she’s even there and she might not be. Artiev says he can prepare the sending spell tomorrow, and send her messages and updates as they go along. He needs to get to Swobia, and needs their help. They all agree with this plan. Get to Swobia, send messages to Kaori to keep her updated, and go to Morgaran from Swobia. 

They spend one more night in Shamsbur, and decide to take off in the morning. Right before it starts to get too dark, Rhaenys goes out for another walk to see if she can catch that scent of the person that seems familiar one more time. She does, but it still feels like she’s chasing her tail. Eventually, Rhaenys does spot someone tailing her. She sees for just a second as a person seems to drop out of sight from the rooftops. Rhaenys jumps and climbs up, and from the top, there is no one to be seen. Rheanys cries out in frustration, but soon after returns to the tavern to her friends.

While Rhaents was out doing this, Willow and Artiev spend time talking to Alotel. Rythus at this point has gone to their room, and turned in for the night. They get to know Alotel, even get the story as to why she named the tavern Misery’s End. She explains the Rotten Timberlands are misery, and when you reach here, it’s misery’s end. After chatting with Alotel for a bit, Artiev and Willow start to talk. They eventually, Artiev asks what was her nightmare like. At this point, Rhaenys returns. Rhaenys tells them it feels like someone has been following them. Doesn’t feel like a threat, but definitely someone is following them. The others make a mental note. 

From there, they get back on the topic of the dreams they had. Willow explains hers, and the dread of failure that she felt from it. Rhaenys also explains hers and watching Elara die, and the rest of the kingdom being massacred. Artiev explains his about dream that he watched them all die, and spent what felt like eternity alone. He searched for anyone, but no, he was alone for hundreds of years. All feeling a bit uneasy again, eventually they all head to bed through the night. 

The next morning, Rheanys wakes, and takes care of the horses. She goes and grabs the “not a coffin” box from the carpenter, and gets things ready for their travels. Willow and Artiev have a morning coffee. Willow goes to try to wake Rythus, but is met with no response. Willows goes back downstairs and tells Rhaenys Rythus is still asleep. Rheanys goes up and tries to wake Rythus, and after a bit of grumbling, Rythus gets up to meet them downstairs. 

They all gather, and get ready to leave. The first day of travel was brutally hot. The heat baring down on them causes them to lose a day of travel. The next few days of travel go smoothly for the most part, but another day of extreme heat gets in the way of their travel. Some days into their travels, they are met with what sounds like a crowd of people. Rhaenys sneaks up closer to take a closer look at what’s going on. When she gets closer, she hears talking from the people, but also a familiar male’s voice. Nox. she can’t really tell what’s going said from the distance she’s at, but sees the familiar farm house that belongs to said friend, and sees Nox bound in chains kneeled in the middle of this group of people. Seems one is leading this excursion. 

Rheanys goes back to her friends, and tells them what she saw. They all agree to sneak in and try to blend in with the group. They snake around to try and get to the back of most of these people and sneak their way into the group to be among them. They succeed. Once they joined the group, the man who seems to be leading this tells the people around that he has proof Nox is an abomination, and he will expose him to them. Nox kind of brushes the name off, revealing his name is Terryn. The man, Terryn pulls out a scroll, and begins to read from it. Once he finishes, in the air above Nox, a full moon forms. Once that full moon completes, both Nox and Rheanys transform to a wolf and bear. Everyone reacts to this, and begins the chaos.

After a round, from behind Willow, a woman leaps into combat to defend Nox who is still bound in chains. Everyone starts to run including Terryn. Once they're gone, the woman wolf quickly turns her attention to Rhaenys, and tries to bite at her till she’s able to grapple the bear. Willow casts speak with animals, and tries to speak to the wolves. Willow asks the woman wolf to let her friend go, but she responds asking if that’s really what she wants calling Rhaenys the wild one. After, she tells Willow they just have to wait it out, and from there just ignores Willow and focuses on making sure to keep a grapple on Rhaenys. Nox also relays to Willow to listen to the woman. 

After a few minutes, the woman wolf suddenly lets go on Rhaenys, and darts into the woods. Nox and Rhaenys also stop struggling, and start to change back to themselves. Once back in human form, Nox gets up with the chains around him, and goes to grab the woman’s coat, and take it to her in the woods she went off to. He mentions as he’s leaving that he’ll deal with Rhaenys in a minute. Rhaenys starts to ease up coming from a daze of the transformation completely unaware of what just happened. Willow tries to explain. After a few minutes of talking, the woman and Nox come back from the forest area, and she heads straight into the cabin. Nox comes over, still covering himself with the chains, tells them he wasn’t expecting to see them again. Rhaenys exclaims what the hell just happened?

[thelandsofparvalis]

Session 36

[thelandsofparvalis]

Session 35

When they walk through Shamsbur, they think the best way to find where Yew may have gone is to get to the tavern. They get directions to the tavern, Misery’s End, and head over to see if anyone has seen Yew. They meet the bartender, Alotel, and ask her if she’s seen Yew and Elio. Alotel tells them she does recognize his description, thought wasn’t really a friendly guy. She also mentions he must still be around town, his horses are still at this little abandoned house on the edge of town. She points them in the direction they need to go, and they go. 

They reach this house, and see it indeed has to be abandoned years ago. They see the horses, and Rhaenys immediately runs to check on Argo. Rythus goes and checks on Chicoree. While Rythus is at the wagon, they notice the things in the wagon that they left are gone. 

Meanwhile, Kaori and Willow go to the house. Kaori goes straight in and looks around, Willow and Artiev lingering behind. After their eyes adjust to the shadowed room, they see piles of garbage, broken old furniture, and debris. They look around, and then realize, one of these piles is not garbage. It is a large lump of dark feathers. Immediately, Kaori runs to it and scoops it up off the ground into her arms and lap. She turns it over and finds Yew’s head. She starts crying, and yells “WHO DID THIS!?” Willow walks in and looks around, and finds something shiny. It looks like what Willow recognizes as Tippy, the silver teapot that accompanied Finley, with a bullet hole through it no longer animated. 

At this time, after hearing Kaori yell, Rhaenys and Rythus join the group at the house. Everyone looks on as Kaori is kneeled holding the body of Yew, trying to fix him back to the way he was, smoothing the feathers over his head, and at Willow holding the remains of Tippy. Kaori demands to know who Tippy is, and to give her the teapot. Willow gives Kaori the teapot, and explains what she recalls of Tippy being Finley’s companion. Kaori pockets the teapot, and goes back to focusing on Yew, tears continuing to run down her face.

Everyone else tries to console her, and look around for any indication of what happened here. They do find that it looks like someone was staying there for some time, maybe a few weeks. They do see some tea bags. 

Artiev offers a solution to try and find out what happened. He looks at Kaori holding Yew, and says he can cast a spell that will allow him to ask Yew questions, if she’ll allow. She gives him permission, and he starts the spell, speak with dead. Yew gasps back to life. Kaori is surprised at first. He asks Yew who killed him, and Yew answers Finley. Hearing the deathly voice of Yew, Kaori winces. Artiev then asks what happened. Yew answers saying he was betrayed by Finley, they fought, but he wasn’t good enough. At this, Kaori cannot withstand seeing and hearing Yew like this, and asks Artiev to stop. Then, she asks Artiev if he can ask Yew if he’ll wait for her wherever he is. Artiev nods, and does so. Yew gasps out in this ghastly voice, “I’ll always be with her.” Kaori weeps hearing this, and asks Artiev to ask again for her, and he does so. He uses up the last of the questions to repeat the question for Kaori. Once done, the last bit of air escapes his beak. 

The group decided to talk outside and give Kaori some space. They realize they need to figure out what actually happened, and assess what information they have. After a discussion, Rhaenys tries to see if she can get a scent of the people that were there. She does catch a whiff of Yew, Finley, and Elio. She decides to follow the scent into town. She loses the scent of them, but tries to see if there are any wanted posters, anything that shows they were there. Nothing. At the same time, she tries to pick on the scent of the familiar smelling woman. Rhaenys feels like she’s following her own tail in circles, and eventually gives up once it starts to get dark.

The group that remained at the house continued to give Kaori her space. They set up camp and try to come up with a plan to execute the next day. Rhaenys returns and they set up watches. Willow decides to take Rythus with them to see if they can hunt for dinner since Rythus can see in the dark. They head out into the woods, and come across a doe and her fawn. Willow refuses to kill them, but Rythus believes if they want to eat, this is a great find. Willow leaves to wander to not see Rythus kill these creatures, and Rythus swiftly kills them with a couple of magic missiles each. A quick and painless death. Willow comments that she is their best friend, but it is pretty fucked up they did that. Rythus is taken aback by the comment. They return back to the camp with their kills. 

While they are out hunting, Rhaenys tries to talk to Kaori. She tells Kaori they want to respect her wishes on what she wants to do after this, but they need to know what she decides. Kaori asks to have the night to think about it, and Rhaenys agrees.

Willow gets to work with the help of Rhaenys at skinning and cooking the deer meats. With assistance, Willow is able to do so perfectly. Rythus goes off on their own in the meantime to be alone. After cooking, Willow makes sure everyone, especially Kenma, gets a healthy share for dinner. Willow takes some to Kaori inside the house, and urges her to eat. She acknowledges, and tries to eat some, but not much. After Kaori seems finished, Willow goes back to the group at the little camp and they assign watches. 

Rythus takes first watch. On their watch, they try to distract themselves by practicing their magic. They don’t even try to reach out to Osiral, they just sit with their own thoughts and try to focus on themselves for the rest of the watch. Nothing disturbs their watch. They wake up Rhaenys for her to take watch next. Rheanys bolts awake, and proceeds to take the next watch.

On Rhaenys’s watch, she first goes to check on Kaori. When she enters the house, she immediately sees Kaori is no longer there. A note is left behind, and it reads “I’ve decided. I’m taking him home.” Rhaenys immediately runs out to Argo, and jumps on yelling at the others that Kaori is gone. Everyone else wakes up, and Rhaenys on Argo is gone through the woods. She tries to follow Kaori’s scent, and desperately tries to see if she could at all find her, but unfortunately, the scent is hours old. Apparently Kaori was able to slip by during Rythus’s watch, and run away from them. Willow tells Rythus to get on and runs to catch up. Artiev lets them know he will stay behind with their things and Chicoree. 

Rhaenys keeps running even though she knows Kaori has to be long gone. She just wants to help her friend in need. But eventually, she coasts to a stop. Sadly, she realizes Koari is gone, and she won’t find her now. Soon after, Rythus on Willow catches up. Rhaenys relays the message that Kaori left behind about taking him home. They realize they will not be able to get to Kaori now, and she clearly wants to deal with this part alone. After the discussion, they head back to the camp. 

They have a plan to try and find out what happened, and also find Finley in the morning. They finish their watches, and the next morning will start their investigation.

[thelandsofparvalis]

Session 35

[thelandsofparvalis]

Session 34

Cassandra lays Rheanys’s body on the muddy ground. She tries CPR for a few minutes trying to get life back into Rhaenys, but unfortunately, nothing works. They tried healing her, removing the water from her lungs, and now CPR. Rheanys is dead. Cassandra tells the rest of them they need to get her back to Ironis, they will have a healer that can help. They agree, and begin traveling back to Ironis. Cassandra picks up Rheany’s body, but Willow offers to carry the body.

They reach the point where the sun starts to go down. It's time to make camp. They divide up watches and try to relax. They discuss together about what happened, Cassandra disagreeing with them doing their best in the encounter. They sadly agree in the end. Everyone’s hearts are hung low. 

Rythus talks to Osiral for some counsel. Osiral tries to comfort them, reassuring them they were scared. They promise each other to help one another do good, they will improve and not have to see their friends hurt again. Rythus ends up sleeping on their watch.

Willow wakes and sees Rythus has fallen asleep on their watch, but lets them continue to sleep. The rest of the night passes, everyone gets rest. They make it through the night with no events.

The next morning, Willow asks Cassandra to join her for her morning hunt. The time that was usually spent with Rhaenys. Cassandra is convinced to join, and they go searching for anything to bring back. It seems the animals are not around, perhaps have not come back from taking shelter from the downpour. They return to camp empty handed.

Everyone wakes, and gets ready to head out. It takes another day, and they eventually make it back to Ironis. Upon reaching Ironis, they see the kingdom is mostly destroyed. It has taken great damage from the flooding. There’s a triage set up in front of the castle entrance. Among the triage are the hurt people of Ironis, knights, healers of both magic and traditional, volunteers, and Elara. She is dressed in plain clothing and helps whoever comes for assistance. She looks up as the group approaches. At first, a smile. Then quickly, shock and grief seeing Rhaenys. She rushes over and starts asking questions, but Cassandra urges her to take it inside the castle as other citizens look on. Elara nods, and leads them to the chambers of their Cleric.

They reach a set of wooden doors, knights helping carry Rhaenys’s body in. Cassandra does not follow, she heads off on her own accord. They are met with a woman, she looks to be an Earth Genasi, long white hair. They learn her name to be High Cleric Runa. She protests to Elara to reviving Rhaenys, but Elara insists. Runa gives in and sends her servant, Joseph, to procure the component she needs. They set Rhaenys’s body down, and she prepares the spell. Joseph returns with an incredibly large diamond. She begins her incantation. It takes an hour. Elara has been tensely watching. Rythus and Willow staying in a corner staying quiet. Rhaenys hears the whisper from Elara. Moments later, she wakes. She looks alive, but absolutely ghastly. 

After welcoming Rhaenys back to the living world, Elara asks what happened up the mountain, what was attacking their kingdom? They describe to her what they saw, what had happened, but no real answers. No one knows what it actually was, or what may have been controlling it perhaps. While talking, Rythus realizes she has something new in her bag. A card with a depiction of a manta ray on it. She questions what it is, confident she did not have this before. High Cleric Runa takes a look at it for them, and after detecting magic, tells Rythus perhaps sit with it for a bit, it seems to be something magical.

Afterwards, Elara insists on announcing them as the heroes of Ironis. She leads them to the castle entrance, Rhaenys still feeling the effects of death lingering unable to move herself, so Willow carries her. Once there, Elara announces them as the heroes who defeated the monster that was causing the flooding. Some clap and applaud, some whisper seeing Rheanys now alive when she was dead not long ago. They also seem skeptical of seeing Rythus, clearly much more different than they are used to seeing someone.

Among the crowd they see is the King and Prince Eldrin, along with Cassandra with them. The King does not look happy to see them. But, they are at a distance, and cannot hear what they are discussing. Another person they recognize among the crowd is someone they haven’t seen for a while, Kaori. She is staring at them, not a face of happiness.

After they get the little praise they do, they approach to speak to Kaori. Kaori lets them know she hasn’t heard from Yew in days. She wants their help to get to where they took him. They immediately agree. At first, they are concerned about the well-being of Rhaenys going on an adventure so soon and in the condition she is in. They contemplate Rheanys staying behind, but Kaori asks for her help. She just needs rest on the way, and Willow offers to carry Rhaenys as long as she needs. They all agree to not leave Rhaenys behind, and start on their journey out of Ironis. 

The first day they are on their travels, they have some hope and drive to be better fighters. The first night, they camp. They plan to do the usual, but Kaori insists on them all resting, especially Rhaenys, and she will keep watch for the night. She isn’t able to sleep anyway. They all agree seeing as they all have levels of exhaustion. The next morning, they go about their usual business, Rythus even training a bit with Rhaenys. They pick up camp, get on their way, and chat about whether they would prefer to be smart or kind when suddenly…things seem wrong. 

Rhaenys hears Artiev give out a gasp, and when she turns to look, she’s suddenly alone in the forest. She hears the scream of Elara through the forest, and tries to search for her. Seeing Elara running through the forest, she tries to reach her, but when she does, right before Elara is able to reach her, there is suddenly the loud sound of metal cutting flesh. Elara is essentially sliced by multiple weapons piercing her body. Her body drops to Rhaenys’s feet. Blood immediately drained from Elara’s body. Rhaenys drops to her body and attempts to try and gather her up. Behind her, she hears more of the sound of metal piercing flesh, but now by the thousands. She looks and sees she is no longer in the forest, but now in Ironis, and the people of the kingdom all suffering the same fate as Elara. A wave of blood washes over Rhaenys’s feet. 

At the same time, Willow hears the sound of a dog crying. She turns to look for it, and is now in Elderwood Grove. But the people, they aren’t Thorne’s people. They are the people she remembers when she lived there, people she grew up with. She continues to hear the sound of the crying dog, and searches for it. Soon, she realizes as she follows it one way, it sounds like another way, till it is now all around her. Suddenly, she stands before Oakheart. Willow tries to talk to him, but he doesn’t answer at first. He finally responds to her, increasingly getting louder saying things about failing, and that Willow is going to fail. At the same time, the people around them are all staring at her and begin to foam at the mouth till they start to drop to the ground one by one.

For Rythus at this time, they hear a familiar voice behind them from the forest. It’s familiar, but odd. That isn’t where they’ve been hearing his voice. They realize it’s Osiral. They look to the trees, and see Osiral walking out from among the trees. They’re in the flesh. Rythus is confused, how is he here now? Osiral tells Rythus they did it, they kept their promise and got Osiral back to his body. Rythus is still confused, and senses this isn’t right, something is very much wrong. Osiral continues telling Rythus they did everything they needed to, including killing whoever they needed to to get Osiral back to his body. As Osiral is talking, Rythus realizes they are shrinking down. The world gets larger and larger, and starts to fade to black. Osiral says he is going to be able to fulfill their destiny, his destiny. Now, Rythus is in a void of black, till they see just an image of Osiral’s face. He’s smiling.

All of them experiencing their own individual event, but altogether at the end hear a male guttural voice, “mmm, good.” A sudden flash of light, taking psychic damage, and wake. They wake completely confused as to what happened. Kaori looks on to them confused as to what just happened. She tells them she was going to wake them in a bit. They all don’t know what time it is, or what they all just experienced. They question Kaori trying to figure out what happened, and then to see if she is who she says she is. Kaori explains they all went to sleep, she was going to wake them in the morning, and that’s all that happened. After a time of clearing what happened, they calm and take a few minutes before heading out on travels again.

While on travels, Willow tries to cheer Kaori up, and give her reassurance. Kaori has been keeping up with trying to send a message to Yew each morning. She explains someone is on the other end of the sending stone, she can tell, but they aren’t answering. They keep faith, maybe Yew just lost the stone, or maybe something else, but he will be there somewhere. 

They keep traveling, and after some days, they finally reach Shamsbur Village.

[thelandsofparvalis]

Session 34

[thelandsofparvalis]

Session 33

The battle commenced. The giant manta ray-like beast hovering in the air, and the rain falling again. The water starts to rise in the crater, and eventually turns into a whirl pool. The group tries to back up and stay out of the water. Rhaenys tries to get her things again, manages to get a hold of her gauntlets, and a bit of her armor. The others try their best, but feel defeat rising in their throats as multiple things they try seem to be unhelpful. 

Suddenly, Artiev notices a woman, light blonde hair, tanned skin, and light gold armor. She's approaching them. It turns out to be the warrior that Rhaenys fought in the Iron Gauntlet, Cassandra. She joins the fight, enlarges, and tries to help hold off this monster while swimming into this whirl pool. 

Fear drives most of the party to want to run, and stay as far away from the monster as they can be. The monster closes the gap easily. Rhaenys tries to jump on the beast and mount it. Immediately the monster dives into the water. While underwater, the monster still tries to freeze her on its back. Eventually, it leaves Rhaenys unconscious, left to float away in the whirlpool that formed in the rising waters.

After dispatching Rhaenys, the monster returns to the group above water. In the meantime, this stranger gets closer to the group, yells at them “WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!” and after seeing they are unsure of how to handle the situation, she dives into the water. They continue to fight, Cassandra helping to keep it busy and fight it, the others doing what they can.

Artiev and Rythus decide to see if they can help get Rhaenys back. They search for her under the current, and once Rythus gets a bead on where she might be under the water, they send their mage hand down the water to try and guide her body back to the surface. They manage to successfully get ahold of Rhaenys’s body. 

Meanwhile, Willow and Cassandra do what they can to defeat the beast. Willow makes the final killing blow to the monster. Once defeated, the beast ascends to the sky and reaching the peak above, disappears in a shimmery wave. A flash of light blinds them all. Once the blinding light subsides, they are left with sunshine, water, and the body of their friend. When the monster does disappear, Rythus suddenly feels intense pain throughout their body. Tons of pins and pricks through their body, intense itching sensation. They are suddenly overtaken by pain as scales grow spontaneously all over. Moments that feel like forever pass, and now Rythus has trickles of blood all over and has a lot more scales all over them than they have ever had.

Cassandra swims over to help them carry Rhaenys while they all do what they can to resuscitate her. With no luck, Cassandra carries her to dry land. Willow follows, but Rythus and Artiev stay and exchange words as they walk on the water. Rythus shares their distress over the events of what just happened. Artiev tries to comfort them.

[thelandsofparvalis]

Session 33

There was some issue with my OBS (needing updating or whatever) so the recordings during the session got broken up really bad. So, if it seems like there's a tiny bit of skipping every now and then, that's why. It's not your computer! Just unfortunately worked out this way for this session. Sorry!

[thelandsofparvalis]

Session 32

The group heads out of the dungeon to get some rest in fresh air. They take a short rest and conversate a bit. Once they are ready to go, they head off and travel as much as they can before it gets too dark, and also want to prepare for Rhaenys potential bear situation for the night. 

The group tie up Rhaenys and keep a short distance away from her for the night. They all look on at her as they wait for the moment it happens. And it does indeed happen. Rhaenys transforms into a bear that immediately tries to tear away from its restraints. The group do their best to restrain her and knock her unconscious. The bear was able to get free of the ropes at first, but thanks to Rythus’s grasping hand spell, they were able to keep the bear restrained. It only takes some hits but luckily she was already worn down from the earlier excursion through the dungeon, it didn’t require much to keep her down. The rest of the night the bear stays asleep.

After the bear problem, they all assign watch shifts, and try to get some rest. On Ry’s watch, they have a chat with Osiral. He mentions he thinks they should do more to help people like they are with Yew. Ry agrees, but they really just want to help him get out of the ring first. The night goes smoothly, no other interruptions. 

In the morning, they gather up Rhaenys and all their things and head back out onto their travels. The rain has not let up this entire time. It has been consistently raining for days now. Some days it's heavier, some days lighter, but it has not stopped raining. 

The travel is long, but finally, they reach their destination. Upon arriving at Shamsbur, entering the town, Rhaenys catches a scent of something. She looks ahead, and sees a woman with choppy short black hair and blue eyes staring at her down the road. Their eyes meet, something of recognition, but immediately Rhaenys blinks and is distracted by receiving a message. 

The person identifies himself as a High Archmage of Ironis, and he is reaching out on behalf of the Princess. They need to know where Rhaenys and her party are. Rhaenys relays the information, and is then asked to wait for their arrival. Rhaenys gives the information to her companions about a situation happening in Ironis, and they are going to arrive for them. They discuss for a moment, and suddenly the crowd of what little people there were out and about move out of the way as Elara and her entourage are teleported into town. Elara spots Rhaenys, and they head over to her. 

Elara explains there’s an emergency in Ironis that’s causing all this rain. Ironis has now become flooded, homes destroyed, people killed or missing. Elara is there to ask for Rhaenys’s help. She believes Rhaenys and her companions can help save Ironis. Rhaenys immediately agrees to help, and the others also agree. 

Yew and Elio let them know they can wait there for them. Yew is eager to get on with this mission to get this ring made for his proposal to Kaori. They say their goodbyes, and Yew excitedly hops on his way with Elio in tow. 

The group is now teleported back to Ironis. They are now in a large stone room, some chamber in the Ironis castle. Through the windows, they can see the devastation that Ironis is undergoing. Buildings are swept away, people struggling, it’s practically underwater. Elara explains this has been the case for days now. Their mages have detected magic causing this at the peak of the mountain. They have sent men up there to investigate, but none of them have returned. Elara is now asking Rhaenys and her friends to go and take care of this problem, she believes in them. They accept without hesitation.

As they leave, the Prince they’ve seen Elara with previously walks into the room and makes his way straight to Elara. He asks her to let him take her to safety, but Elara protests and will not leave her kingdom. Elara turns to Rhaenys, and says she has faith in her knight. The Prince gives her a kiss on the forehead and gives in to her wishes. With that, the group leaves. 

Once they make it out of the chamber and start heading to their destination, Willow gets a message in her mind from a familiar voice. A missing friend asking for their whereabouts and to know of their wellbeing, Artiev, their Cleric friend. He lets them know he is waiting in Ironis to see if he can help with the rain problem. Willow excitedly replies as much as she can, unfortunately not giving Artiev all the answers he was looking for. He decides to wait at the castle entrance to see if he can cross paths with them. 

Willow and Ry head off on their own to get out of the castle, but seem to get a bit lost. They banter about the right paths, but eventually return to bonded friendship at the mention of the Prince and hating him. Eventually they do make it out of the castle. Once outside, they are greeted with the flooding, and damage face to face. At the castle gates though, they do see Artiev. They all greet each other, and catch up a bit, but want to focus on the matters at hand. Meanwhile, Rhaenys stops at the armory to pick up a few things.

Once they all meet up together through the flooded streets, they finally head up the mountain. It's a struggle, it's hard, and treacherous. The rain causes erosion right in front of them, landslide after landslide. And then there's the problem of shelter at night. The first night they find a small alcove that is a tight squeeze, but they manage to at least stay out of the rain directly. On the first watch, Ry is faced with a wave rushing toward them of black vile liquid. It hurls them at the stone the rest of the party is sheltered in. The others hear Ry struggle and wake from their sleep to go help them. Ry suffers acid damage as the wave continues forward, and the group sees and smells the vile liquid. Ry makes it back to their little nesting spot, and Rhaenys takes over the watch for the rest of the group. 

The next morning, Rheanys suffers exhaustion from staying up all night, and Willow just couldn't shake the cold and tiredness from the harsh travel. They continue forward. The next night, Artiev creates his tiny hut to give them a safe place to sleep for the night. Ry takes the first watch and on their watch, that black wave appears again. This time, Ry is safe from it, but they see how disgusting it really is now. They are able to spot something in the liquid, some parts are more thick, and there are bones. Bones of sea creatures. They relay that information to Rhaenys and Artiev. 

It takes a lot more time than it should normally take with the rain and flooding, but eventually they do get to the top of the mountain. The peak is oddly clear of clouds or rain. The sun is shining through what looks like the eye of the storm. What's presented in front of them is a huge crater-like hole with a pond at the bottom of the hole. 

The group takes in the situation and Willow is greatly concerned about her climbing capabilities. Everyone after seeing the mass of the hole starts to wonder how big of a threat this is going to be? Realizing they know nothing about what this could potentially be. 

They all try to traverse the tiered ledges along the side of the hole to see if they can find anything. They try to think of different plans to see what they can find out, most of which would require them waiting out the day to try and see what was causing the black wave of disgusting acid and sea decay. They think about trying a couple plans when finally Rhaenys says fuck it, strips away her armor, and gets to the bottom of the hole into the pond.

Once she is there in the water, the clouds roll in and the rain returns. The sunlight starts to get covered with the shade of the clouds, and they see a huge shadow form within them. It starts to descend. The closer it gets, they see it is some sort of beast, a monster. The most similar creature they can put it to is some sort of manta ray. It screeches, sending tremors through their chests preparing to strike.

[thelandsofparvalis]

Session 32

Apologies! But I got a power outage during the session. It unfortunately corrupted a portion of the session recordings. I do post the summary next day, though it of course it isn't the most descriptive, I tried my best to fill in the gap.

[thelandsofparvalis]

Session 31

The group wake in the morning, and get out there to get to this dungeon. The rain starts up again, and continues to fall. As the day starts, Rhaenys starts to feel that familiar rising body heat.

Later that day, they reach the dungeon. The sun is going down, and they prep for the chance that Rhaenys is going to turn into a bear again. They enter the dungeon to see what they are had to work with. The entrance chamber was big enough for them to settle for the night. Rhaenys and Willow get Rhaenys tied up to a tree and shackled. Willow heads back into the dungeon with the others to try and rest for the night.

Before watches, Willow asks Yew if there’s any other information on the gem that he may have. He shows her the journal that belonged to an adventurer named Will Chamberlin, and he stumbled upon this place that supposedly belonged to a great mage named Schneider Relt. This mage apparently had this magical gem that he treasured, a gem that looked like a black diamond.

On Willow’s watch, she hears noises through the walls. Scratching, thumping, stone scratching against stone. Leaves their nerves on end. Eventually, she steps outside to check on Rhaenys. 

Rhaenys spends her time awake, fear and anxiety keeping her from resting. Eventually she sees Willow come over to check on her. They discuss how Rhaenys is doing, and some theories as to what’s happening. They think maybe because the moon is not visible that’s what’s preventing Rhaenys from changing. They save these theories to see about in the future. Willow leaves to go back inside after their talk.

The next morning, they get Rhaenys, who had not changed that night, and start their trek through this mage’s place. It’s a challenge, but one they were able to successfully get through.