Unsolvable problems? Help is on the way! - July 14, 2023

 - The next morning they are walking to the Beard and Barrel to figure out what kind of poison is in the beer.

- While they are walking, Tiff casts Sending to Calvin to confirm that he is not actually poisoning the beer at the B&B. Calvin is irate at the mere suggestion that he would ruin beer.

- They talk to Tallian the cook and order four meat-cakes on bread and then he goes to do that and also get Gerald.

- While they are waiting, Tiff gets a sudden bought of inspiration to ask Gerrard about dragons since he might be one and all.

- She Sends, "Hello, sir. My name is Theophania. You knew my great-aunt Thessalie in Mistverge. Possible black dragon under Mistverge. Can you share information about them? Thanks!"

- He Sends back, "Happy to do what I can to help. Unfortunately, this isn't my area of expertise. I will send someone who might be able to help."

- Gerald shows up, but they already flushed all the bad beer, so they ask to investigate the drain in the workshop instead.

- Osiris casts Detect Poison and Disease and both the sample of the new beer and the pitcher of non-beer drink Tallian brought with the meat-cakes on bread is poison, and so is the water in the mop bucket, and everything containing water in the back room, and so is the well from which all this water was pulled. (It is a natural form of poison, but she doesn't know its name.) She warns Gerald that his well is poison, and then runs from the river and recasts. The fog on the river is not poisonous and neither is the river's water.

- The well here is only used by the brewery, but the nearby Docks Market well is also poisonous.

- Osiris Sends to, "Marta, multiple wells in the city are poisoned. The river's fine. Pull all the water from the river. We're working on it."

- From Marta, "Is EVERY well in the city compromised?!"

- Osiris Sends again, "Beard and Barrel's well is poisoned, so is the Docks Market well. Checking every well in the city would take a week."

- "Okay, we'll have to get the city guard to shut everything down. This could be a catastrophe. Check as many wells as you can."

- Osiris and Tiff work out a system where Tiff will cart Osiris around on the broom checking wells while she concentrates on the detection spell. Tiff mixes up some dye for her sprayer and she'll quickly mark any contaminated wells so they can move on to the next one. The first time they have to stop to ritually cast the detection spell again, Tiff Sends to Marta, "Osiris and I checking wells around the city. I will put a reddish-brown mark on all the wells with poison. Let the city guard know."

- "Understood. Thank you for letting me know. You do the best work." 

- They spend the rest of the day checking every well in the city. The wells at the Temple are clean. The wells north of the Temple are clean. The docks area and the poor area south of the Docks district is not great. The middle-class area south of the Hall of Justice is infected. The farther east, the less poison. The neighborhood just across the river on the south part of town is also infected, but the rest of the samples were okay. 

- Raiàn, Lyrielle, and Rusty know the plan and head out to let more of the local city guard stations know about the contaminated wells and the marks on them. The plan is to meet back at the Curlywit boarding house that evening.

- Magnus has been trying to transmute water into wine, and they test his experiments and they are not poisonous. The wine tastes stale and oxidized and somehow like garlic. Tiff Purifies his waste bucket before they leave.

- Raiàn and Lyrielle stay at the boarding house to rest / sleep while Osiris, Rusty, and Tiff head back to the Temple to talk to a robot.

- The robot can be submerged in water, but it cannot swim, it just sinks. 

- The next morning, the group meets up at the well at the Docks Market and bring the Robot Friend who they tie to a Rope of Climbing and lower into the well, and then it skitters back up. The well is just a hole in the ground with a 25' (ish) bulb of space at the bottom.

- As a test, they send Osiris (Water Breathing and Protection from Poison cast on her) and she casts Locate Creature (dragon) and finds nothing. They do another test on the eastern most edge of the poisoned area and also find nothing. They also test a well on the western most edge of the poisoned area and also nothing.

- While they are standing around ruminating on what to do next, Tiff Sends to Gerrard, "Not your expertise, but could black dragon poison ground water? Also who is your expert and when will they be here? Hope to see you soon."

- She receives, "Black dragon could absolutely poison water. The expert is a dragon historian of sorts. Should be there in the morning. I'll try to visit soon."

- The next morning Tiff has a visitor who is a young-looking woman who blonde hair cut short on the sides, but longer bit on the top has a blue-streak. She introduces herself as Jinora. 

- 3,000 XP ea for 82,000 XP total ea.

How the ass did you detect me through all that stone? #Confusion - July 7, 2023

 LAST TIME IN MISTVERGE:

- En route to the entrance to the catacombs, Rusty asks why they don't Send to Thessalie to see if she is still alive, and Theophania immediately pulls out her stick, "Auntie! I invented a Sending Device, and we stopped a necromancer causing a zombie invasion, but now people are poisoned and there's magic river fog!"

 BACK TO THE PRESENT

- Tiff's eyes light up a little bit (unusual) and she feels a calming energy that comes over her and there's a warm tingly sensation, but no words.

- Tiff is a bit infuriated once the calming effect wears off.

- Osiris says she'll give it a go later. (She and Theophania discuss the possibility that Thessalie has ascended to a higher level of being)

- Osiris continues leading the way down to the catacombs, and then she takes what she believes is the tunnel that goes the deepest into the earth, though she's never been to the end, so it must be pretty deep

- Tiff is still very distracted percolating on what the Sending response could mean, but Rusty and Lyrielle hear a scratching noise. Rats?

- They pinpoint the noise coming from a particular niche, and then investigate further and get taps in response to taps and there's a warm spot one side of the back wall.

- Tiff casts (R) Detect Magic, but she can't see anything. It's probably because there's more than 12" of stone between her and the magic

- Tiff then uses the Alter Self spell to give herself some kind of fantasy badger hands that can dig through stone and she starts going at the warm spot.

- She digs and digs and digs until she has a hole just wide enough for her little self through about 36" of stone and through a hole just big enough for her face she's sees a mechanical spider-like creature that jumps back and regards her suspiciously 

- She wiggles backwards enough to turn her head to talk to her friends and report that there's a metal digging critter that can't understand her.

- Raiàn casts Tongues on Tiff's foot, and she talks to it again, and it's just continuing to repeat "Danger, danger, must report."

- Tiff makes her little hole large enough to pop her head through to see how many of these there are, but there's only the one.

- Tiff backs out of the hole, and then the creature follows her, scans the group, then approaches Rusty and beep chirps at him and he instinctively turns his ankle and a port opens up on his ankle that the critter integrates with and begins the upload of information. During this process Rusty is sort of catatonic

- Tiff goes back to widening her part of the hole for her friends to maybe squeeze through before Alter Self wears off because the critter's tunnel leads south towards the river.

- The critter communicates to Rusty through images:

    - There's a store room that the surveillance drone was watching

    - The wall in the store room collapse and a foul ooze and black tendrils start creeping into the room they're not quite vines, but more like a slime mold sort of netting in appearance. There's something growing out of the nodes of the "net" or "webbing" that looks shiny. They resemble the tendrils that were on the alter that the group destroyed that created the portal to the nether-realm.

    - The final image that it communicates to Rusty looks like the head of a large black dragon.

- Tiff has the hole she made more or less matched up to the tunnel the surveillance drone made, and Osiris shoots a flaming arrow down the tunnel and it goes about 500' then curves to the left away from the river. She calculates that the end of the tunnels would be around the edge of the temple grounds.

- Rusty gives a recap of what he just learned, and the drone powers down folding its little legs underneath it.

- After much freaking out about the tendrils (familiar) and the dragon (also familiar, but bigger), Tiff examines the dormant drone, and finds the activation switch, which she pushes with Rusty's permission

- It beeps at Rusty in a "Input Command" sort of way, so he asks it if it can lead them over a different, larger route where they'll fit, but it just cocks his head curiously having not enough intelligence to answer the hypothetical question, so Rusty just commands it to follow

- Tiff pats it and tells it's much less scary than a dog, and it seems to like the attention.

- Tiff casts (R) Alarm on the opening to the tunnel.

- They take it back up to the temple and report in to Rowan and Birel about the robot dog (Rusty took it to Osiris's room to scare as few people as possible) 

- Tiff also very excitedly reports to them about her Sending to Thessalie as well.

- The unnamed (at this time) mechanical critter and Rusty have an Q&A

    - Can you count? Can you give numerical answers? (Affirmative)

    - How long did it take you to make the tunnel? (Another connection through the ankle, and it probably took like months (at least two months) to dig it's little tunnel after it had been trapped for probably a few weeks.)

    - Can you take us to the main entrance to that place? (Another picture of an underground place with an overlaying sort of feeling of being lost.)

    - Were you specifically searching for me? (Negative)

    - Were you looking for a Steel Guard? (Affirmative)

    - How the ass did you detect me through all the stone? (Confusion)

    - Are there other Steel Guard within your detection range? (Negative)

    - Are you capable of following your tunnel, but on the surface? (Confusion)

    - No more digging unless I specifically tell you. (Affirmative)

    - Are you able to power down but still respond to my voice. (Affirmative)

    - Power down mode.

LONG REST

- 3,000 XP ea. for 79,000 XP total ea.

Are you there, Thessalie?! - June 30, 2023

 - Much discussion about how the team can help Theophania with her presentation, and she's polished up her armor to a good shine

- The meeting goes well, and Theophania leaves her drawings and prettified notes for his perusal before he just gives her 1500 GP to build the first three prototypes to refine her triangulation method

- Osiris is a bit suspicious, but Lord McNabb doesn't give any hints that he is on the side of the The Voice, his neutrality is based more on a "devil you know" and cost compared to reward (If each device costs 500GP, then 36 for the whole city-wide network is about 18,000GP)

- They then spend the rest of the evening measuring the fog over the river so that Theophania can figure out a good entry point to the swiss cheese of sewers, caves, and catacombs and the shortest path to get there

- The next morning at the boarding house, Andak Fastcaller (chef's knife in his belt like a short sword) who shows up asking where he can find his cousin Theophania.

- Raiàn uses her earring to message Theophania to ask her to come to the boarding house, so she does

- Osiris and Tiff fly across the river on her Broom of Flying

- The Beard and Barrel has closed down because some people have died and their beer may be poisonous and those people think Calvin might have sabotaged them

-The story about Wally Walltrop is told, but it isn't Calvin's beer causing problems.

- Osiris tried to Send to Jimmy, but the Sending doesn't go through. Jimmy is either on another plane which can give the spell a chance to fail, or he's dead.

- Tiff Sends to Marta in the Hospital Wing, "Tiff here. Has there been a spate of patient with severe food poisoning due to Beard and Barrel beer? Do you know the toxin? Thanks!"

- Marta responds, "Oh yes! There's a whole troop of sick sailors. Don't know what they got into other than drink, but that's enough sometimes." 

- Tiff Sends to her again, "Has anyone Detected Poison on the beer to identify toxin? If patients are all sailors, new fog on the river may be the cause."

- Marta returns, "The fog probably isn't helping, but something from the pub got them sick. It's not just sailors. There are other rough characters keeling over too." 

- Osiris tried to Send to Lady Blackmore, but that spell also fails.

-  From this disturbing brunch, the group heads into the sewers and after about 1.5 hours of searching Tiff finds a section of illusory wall and Tiff walks through it.

- The room is full of things that might have been stolen from the Temple, but it looks like no one has been here in quite awhile due to the level of dust. (Several months at least)

- The source of the magic is not in the hidden room.

- Another few hours of searching are also fruitless.

- Back at the Temple, they stop in to talk to Marta and ask about missing supplies, but she directs them to Norman, the quartermaster.

- Norman knew about the missing things from the latest inventory, and they give him the map to the cache.

- From there Osiris talks to Rowan to get permission to search the catacombs, so they head down there.

- En route to the entrance to the catacombs, Rusty asks why they don't Send to Thessalie to see if she is still alive, and Theophania immediately pulls out her stick, "Auntie! I invented a Sending Device, and we stopped a necromancer causing a zombie invasion, but now people are poisoned and there's magic river fog!"

- 3,000 XP ea for 76,000 total XP each.

Open Mouth, Insert Friends - May 12, 2023

- Tina has gone home. [Tiff: :-(  Osiris:  :-)] 

- It has been raining more than the usual amount for this time of year. Everything is always a little bit damp and very muddy and soggy.

- Theophania uses her new Sending device to Send to Lord McNabb, "Made device to communicate telepathically. Next step device to detect TeleComs. Might be able to track The Voice. Can we meet to discuss? Thank you!"

- He responds, "How intriguing. You may come over tomorrow evening an tell me about your idea. Looking forward to seeing you."

- While Osiris is working one day, Birel comes to her and says there's one of the city guard there to talk to her, so she goes to talk to him

- The Captain sent him and there are report of some kind of creature near the river near the south of the city that they are hoping her troupe will investigate, it ate someone, they think. Maybe.

- Osiris has lots of questions, but the nameless guard does not have all the answers

- He gives Osiris an "address" for the witness who saw the creature south of the city outside the River Gate

- Osiris sends a Message to Lyrielle about the new "job"

- Lyrielle gets the Boarding House part of the crew together and brings them to the Temple to convene

- The "address" is near the Proudmead Apiary which is owned by one of Theophania's many cousins, so she insists that they go check it out so that the Proudmeads will be safe

- Osiris knocks on the door and a halfing woman answers the door, but it was her brother Caleb Fishertail was the witness

- Caleb says that he and his nephew (Timothy) were by the river fishing and skipping rocks when a "crazy" beast big, long, scaly, long mouth, lots of teeth (Crocodile, but 45' long!?)

- Theophania thinks about if all the rain could be caused by weather magic?

- They walk to the river and Tiff takes Osiris on her broom and they look for tracks on the river banks and Osiris finds some, so they fly the broom over to about the center of the river (nearly 1/2 mile wide) and Osiris casts Locate Creature, which she finds (maybe multiples?)

- They send a Message to the rest of the gang to direct them where to come (give a landmark and a direction) and then when they see their friends Osiris drops a pebble into the water from a pretty good height, but there's no movement, so she looks around and sees some lumps on the river bank and she casts Sacred Flame at that for 16 radiant dmg and it roars in pain, which causes another Giant Crocodile to move and reveal itself

CROCODILE CLASH

- Raiàn casts Fireball on GC1 for 34 fire dmg then she moves back away from the river 30'

- GC1 charges after Raiàn (Dash)

- Tiff flies her broom (and Osiris) and casts Haste on Rusty

- Rusty steps up to GC2 to prevent it from also going after Raiàn, Rages, and smacks it for 22 slashing, again for 25 slashing dmg, and again for 25 slashing dmg

- GC2 is very upset and misses Rusty but then bites him for 19 piercing dmg and Rusty is grappled and pulled backwards into the river 

- Osiris casts Moonbeam on GC2's butt 

- Lyrielle moves to flank GC1 with Raiàn and misses then really WHACKS (crit) it for 33 bludgeoning dmg and then kicks it for 7 bludgeoning dmg

- Raiàn casts Fireball into GC1's mouth (Careful Spell so as not to hurt herself) 

- GC1 bites Raiàn for 17 piercing dmg and they are Grappled and Restrained, but it takes 5 force dmg from her Telekinetic Reaction and then it tailwhips Lyrielle for 17 bludgeoning dmg and she is knocked prone

- Tiff flies over to Lyrielle and drops her an Elixir of Boldness and then casts Catapult on GC1 for 25 bludgeoning dmg

- Rusty breaks out of GC2's mouth and then smacks his axe into it for 18 slashing dmg

- GC2 takes 7 radiant dmg from Moonbeam and then misses biting Rusty twice then also misses with its tail

- Osiris casts Toll the Dead on GC2, but it misses so she jumps off the Broom (taking 6 bludgeoning from falling) and casts Spiritual Weapon (comical child's hammer) for 11 force dmg

- Lyrielle stands up and steps up to GC1 then she misses with her staff by slipping in the mud and then smacks it for 13 bludgeoning dmg and then she kicks it for 6 bludgeoning dmg and then finish the circle kick for 11 bludgeoning dmg and the CROC IS DEAD

- Raiàn tumbles out of GC1's mouth as it flops down dead and then she casts Fireball (level 5) for 45 fire dmg and GC2 practically explodes and Rusty is coated in croc bits

- Theophania flies over to the Proudmead Apiary to see if Cormo has a cart of wagon that could move the croc's but he does not. She tells Cormo to gather the local village for a crocodile-BBQ

- Osiris sends a small halfling kiddo for Caleb who is grateful.

- It is discussed that goats could be used to check for crocodiles before people approach the river just in case.

- 3,000 XP ea. for 73,000 XP total ea

A Grand Return - March 17, 2023

 - Rusty and Renalla go to investigate the office of the person who would have run the teleportation machine looking for maps and / or operation manuals, but they find nothing survived the ravages of time

- The new friends (Striker and Breaker) say they are members of the Steel Guard, which no one else besides Rusty has never heard of

- Striker and Breaker are considering allying themselves with the dragonkin since Sunny can vouch for them to her dad.

- Osiris Sends to Rusty, "Hey, Rusty, haven't heard from you in a while. You still doing okay? Tiff's working in her lab a lot. Do you have a way to get back yet?"

- He returns, "Defeated Hell-Bugs. They were using old Dwarven teleporter. Need help configuring. Can't understand it. Found more robots. They are friendly. Machine uses Dwarven code names."

- Rusty waits one minute and then almost dies of shock when he doesn't get an immediate Sending from Theophania

- Osiris cannot find anything in the library of the Temple of Mishakal.

- Lephith goes to see if they can clear the tunnel collapse at the main entry to this waystation

- Rusty spends time reading the control panels and is pretty sure he knows how to operate the teleporter, but he doesn't know how to point it to anywhere in particular.

- Renalla summons her dragon spirit and they start sending it through the pre-set locations, and they only find two that function

- The first one the draconic spirit says there are stone ruins and a pretty sunset, and since its after sunset here that means that gate must be several hundred miles west of here

- There were no panels and buttons and stuff on that side in the ruins

- They send the draconic spirit through to the second pre-set

- The second is another room like this one, but less wrecked. 

- Sine several hours have passed and Osiris Sends again, "Went to the library and I didn't see anything on any Dwarven technology. I don't know how to help you and Tiff's a bit preoccupied. Everytime I go in there I get a tool chucked at my head. Call you tomorrow."

- He responds, "Machine works. Have found other dwarven transport stations. One ruined, one pristine. Ask Birel - need runic address for Temple's Teleportation Circle. Works like wizard spell?"

- Osiris spends some time studying the Teleporation Circle in the Temple to try to figure out how to communicate that information to Rusty.

- Next she Sends the name of the six runes in the correct sequence for Mistverge and then asks that he bring the runes for where he is for future reference when he comes home.

- Kip knows all the symbols.

- Renalla writes down the runes for the pristine location for Rusty as well.

- Osiris hears Rusty talking to the others and it cuts off about when he says something to Kip about knowing the runes.

- Renalla gives Rusty her Luck Stone and a revivify diamond to remember her by

- Striker and Breaker decide to stay here, but they all make note of the three good Teleportation Circles.

- Rusty steps through the portal and Osiris is there.

- Once everyone is together again and Theophania has given everyone their Earrings of Message so they can all talk together no matter where they are in the city and then Rusty tells in great detail the story of where he's been.

- Osiris tells the story of how she's been trying to get rid of the fog that's still lingering over the river over the week and how the fog is a magical effect with no school and she couldn't find anything in the library

TWO MONTHS DOWN TIME

- Osiris builds a butterfly garden near the river on the Temple grounds, spends some time out in the forest practicing her survival and archery skills since she is now on the Temple / city Problem Solvers Squad

- She also tries a Divine Intervention on the fog, and that doesn't work either

- She also collects information from Rusty about the dwarves and the other automatons and starts putting notes together in a neat and orderly way

- Theophania builds things with Tina

- Raiàn spends some time cultivating her relationship with the aristocratic ladies of the Winfair Hillock and she also invents a spell to summon a dragonic spirits like the one Rusty told her the dead lady in the desert could summon

- Lyrielle leave the city and explores around the region the city is in

- Rusty practices his Spiritual Communion and asks about the river fog, but he has to travel out into the woods to do it (with Lyrielle and Osiris)

- He learns that the fog is an unnatural taint that comes from beneath the ground and it can be dealt with by removing or destroy the cause 

- Rusty also manages to get Tiff's attention and they start carefully documenting and gently disassembling his parts to check for the damage that Striker and Breaker mentioned.

- MAGIC ITEMS!!

Dragonscale Belt (Lyrielle)
(Wondrous Item, Uncommon, requires Attunement by a Monk)

Matte black dragon scales carved into circles and connected by thin, dark metal links and a simple chain on the end for sizing with the simple clasp on the other end.

While wearing it, you gain a +1 bonus to the saving throw DCs of your ki features. In addition, you can use an action to regain ki points equal to a roll of your Martial Arts die. You can’t use this action again until the next dawn.

Scaled Necklace (Raiàn)
(Wondrous Item, Uncommon)

Five dragon scales carved into circles, polished bright and set with flecks of obsidian that form arcane runes. Three large scales form a chain with two smaller ones suspended from the center, largest scale.

You have advantage on saving throws you make to avoid being charmed or frightened or to end those conditions on you.

Dragon’s Wrath Axe (Rusty)
(Weapon, Uncommon)

The axe is made from a Damascus steel made of a very silvery alloy and a very dark alloy (ground black dragon scales IN the steel). The wooden haft is also covered with softened and re-hardened black dragon scales.  Where the head and the haft join is also covered with black dragon scales that are inset flush with the metal and part of the pattern of scales covering the haft on the other side.

Whenever you roll a 20 on your attack roll with this weapon, each creature of your choice within 5 feet of the target takes 5 damage of the type dealt by the dragon’s breath weapon. (Black Dragon = Acid)

Dragonscale Holy Symbol (Osiris)

(Wondrous Item, Uncommon, requires attunement by a cleric)

Layers of black dragon scales laminated together with the symbol of Mishakal (infinity symbol) inlaid in lapis lazuli and hung from a silver chain.

You have advantage on initiative rolls. While you are holding the focus, it can function as a spellcasting focus for all your spells.

Broom of Flying (Theophania)

(Wondrous Item, Uncommon)

This wooden broom, which weighs 3 pounds, functions like a mundane broom until you stand astride it and speak its command word. It then hovers beneath you and can be ridden in the air. 

The broom has a flying speed of 50 feet. It can carry up to 400 pounds, but its flying speed becomes 30 feet while carrying over 200 pounds. The broom stops hovering when you land.

You can send the broom to travel alone to a destination within 1 mile of you if you speak the command word, name the location, and are familiar with that place. The broom comes back to you when you speak another command word, provided that the broom is still within 1 mile of you.

Earring of Message (1 each)

(Wondrous Item, Common, CotN)

The blue crystal of this earring is wrapped with delicate copper wire.

The earring has 5 charges. While wearing it, you can use an action to expend 1 charge and cast the Message spell with a 1 mile distance only to other earrings attuned to this one. The earring regains 1d4 + 1 expended charges daily at dawn.