Post by Bandgoat on Dec 16, 2015 23:30:51 GMT -6
Rova 19, 4708 – Late Morning
Illya,
This land we have entered is so strange. The landscape looks normal enough, full of snow-covered rock, but my other senses tell me it is all wrong. There is no flora, no fauna…only the ever-present thinness of the air and an eerie sense of foreboding and rejection.
After spending a painfully starving night in the presence of Svevinka the ice nymph, we continued our trek through the Fen of Icemists. After another day of plodding, labored travel through the marsh, we finally finished following the faintly formed phantom footpath from the fragile frozen fen of frost and found firmer footholds leading into a valley between mountain peaks. Once we wended our way into the winding wedge between white-tipped tors, we were able to see the remnants of an ancient, dilapidated thoroughfare overlying the ghostly path we had been following. Being able to follow this avenue easily, we surmised that we no longer needed to starve ourselves, so we made camp and cautiously, but delightedly, broke our fast with rations we had brought with us.
The next day, we continued along the wide, rocky road through the mountain pass, some of us still suffering quite a bit from the effects of the thin atmosphere. As we passed through the narrow gorge between tall mountain slopes, we came to an area where the road narrowed into a shallow canyon, steeply sloped cliffs flanking either side. As we guardedly continued, the sharp-eyed Lai’Ki called us to a halt, having spotted something moving just ahead. We had just enough time to ready ourselves before we were approached by a frost giant and several of his larger cloud giant friends. They were not friendly. I immediately drew my bow and shot at the lead frost giant with a specially-made arrow, striking the foe’s left shoulder just above his shield. Before anyone else could prepare our defenses, Gorm ran forward and engaged the giant straightaway. Lai’Ki attempted to shoot the heavily-armored giant, but her arrows either glanced off its shield or missed completely. Nala used his fire bombs to great effect, while Ryll closed in to attack with her polearm. The giant, obviously in a state of rage, desperately attacked Gorm but missed wildly as Soril frosted over the giant’s limbs with a magical ray from his outstretched finger. Our wizard then became the target of several huge boulders hurled by the cloud giants and was unable to move out of the way before taking considerable injuries. I let loose a series of fire-based rays from my hand while Gorm inflicted several deep cuts with his axe. The rest of our group damaged the frost giant as best they could while Soril turned his attention to defense, conjuring a translucent, horizontal wall over our heads to protect us from further bombardment. As the cloud giants moved in to fight us at close range, I created a poisonous cloud of gas in their midst and Soril rained down a fiery windstorm among them. These two effects killed the frost giant and noticeably damaged some of the others.
Our fight continued with the cloud giants fighting up close and personal with Gorm, Ryll, and Tolgun. One of the lumbering mammoths jumped on top of our ceiling of force energy and started pounding on it. The others apparently liked that idea, for they joined in as well. Pretty soon, our force field was starting to show signs of collapse. We prepared ourselves for the ensuing brawl. We had time for several defensive spells before the wall of force shattered into myriad harmless shards under the constant bludgeoning of the giants’ hammers. During the resultant melee Nala and Tolgun were severely wounded, but lasted the fight, inflicting damage of their own on our attackers. Lai’Ki’s arrows flew from the arrow slits of a protective stone wall conjured into existence by Soril, whose own spells issued forth to strike at the giants. Ryll, Gorm, and I quickly took down the enormous targets with many well-placed sword and axe strokes and spell strikes.
The road now quiet again, we took some time to heal our collective wounds and relieve the giants of their magical equipment. Since either side of the road abutted high, steep, rock-strewn cliffs that were nonetheless climbable, we took the opportunity to test some of our magical equipment, lest their enchantments had been affected by the strange magic-repressing effect permeating this place. We found that our ability to slowly fall from a great height was not impeded, only our ability to use magical means of movement.
Gorm climbed up the side of the left-hand ravine. What he found made us all follow after him. Apparently the giants were using a cave overlooking the road as a shelter. It was partially concealed by boulders, so it appeared to be a good source of shelter. In the cave, we found bags of coins, a chest of copper bars, and a fine cave bear cloak. Since the day had worn on and we were tired from our recent fight, we decided to camp for the evening. We saw nothing on the road for a few miles, so we figured we would have an uninterrupted night. We lit a wispy fire and rested as best we could despite the difficulty in breathing the mountainous air.
After our rest, we were all feeling the effects of the harsh altitude, some of us having severe problems. We have decided to stay in this cave for another day to see if the altitude sickness eased due to limiting our exertion. It is our hope that we will become acclimated to our surroundings before needing to rely on magical means to continue our travels. I hope all goes better tomorrow and that our road to Xin-Shalast has few battles left to be won.
- E
Rova 29, 4708 – Late Afternoon
Illya,
By the gods! I am having difficulty describing it. They should have sent a bard.
We had hoped that one day of rest in the giant cave would lessen the effects of our high elevation, but that attempt failed. The weakness it caused Soril was telling, and even Lai’Ki and I started to feel it worsen. We knew then that we would not acclimate in time before our bodies failed us. Rather than protecting us against the rare atmosphere and completely negating our chances to adjust to our surroundings, we opted to heal ourselves daily through magical means. We are still not certain, but there is a chance this regimen will still allow our physiques to adapt to the mountainous environs. However, Nala, Tolgun, and Ryll have had to use much of our supply of diamond dust in the casting of their restorative spells.
Over the last ten days, we traveled the age-old road through the mountains, seeing little change in scenery and our senses continuously beset by phantom imagery. The farther we traveled, we noticed subtle changes in the great road that lay before us. What was at first a path in an advanced state of disrepair, later became occasional small sections still paved with large, flat stones with an impossibly thin veneer of gold on them. In some places, the coating had worn completely off, in others, there was enough to tell the material, though we do not know if it was actual gilding or some other magical or decorative effect. The further we traveled along the wide boulevard, the more it appeared to be paved in gold. It snowed continuously, but even the pristine white flakes refused to linger long in this place, leaving the golden brick road clear of any blanketing. Thin sheets of ice appeared in sporadic patches on the roadway, though not enough to hinder our movement. Every day or two Lai’Ki came across signs of recent giant movement, but none of the brutes were spotted and we have had no further clashes with anything. We spent the day of the Swallowtail Festival in quiet contemplation, a grim contrast to the celebrations and feasting you described in Sandpoint only one year ago. At least the day did not end with a marauding band of goblins this time around.
After several days of steady progress, we reached a spot where the valley narrowed and the mountains on either side grew quite a bit higher. Cresting a small hill, a valley opened up before us. The tableau that met our eyes defies belief: a narrow mountain pass opens into a glacial valley extending north and then turning to the west at the base of a vast mountain at the far end. Filling this valley is an ice-capped city of enormous proportions. The near end is mostly blocked by a huge fortress of smooth black stone, with multiple towers rising from its high walls. Exiting the bailey of this fortress is a massive causeway of gold that dominates the city as it travels down the center of the vale. Enormous towers and spires of many-colored stone pack both sides of the central thoroughfare, rising to prodigious heights and giving the illusion that the road itself is a valley. The eastern slope of the valley has been partially subsumed by an ancient volcanic flow and nearly a quarter of the city appears to have been buried. That section is now little more than a great mass of ice with jagged angles and peaks of ruined structures poking through its topmost layer here and there. Where the valley curves slightly to the west, the structures, if anything, grow even larger, becoming truly gigantic as they climb up and over the rocky spur. At the far end of the valley, the city abuts the lower slope of a truly massive peak. Yet, the city builders appear to have taken no heed to this change in the slope, for the great causeway merely elevates at a steep angle and continues to climb the incline at a nearly straight line, transforming into an immense stairway. Additional buildings cling precariously to the mountain face along the causeway, growing even larger and more impressive as they ascend. The gigantic buildings finally give way a few thousand feet above, but the mighty road continues to wend through the treacherous way to just below the mountain’s peak. There, a spired citadel looms, its size and proportion truly magnificent. It, too, fails to summit the mountain; instead, the topmost spires end just below the dominant face of a stern man carved into the peak of the mountain and surveying the city below. The otherworldly quality of this strange panorama is further reinforced by the sound of cold wind slicing through the high peaks making strange cries and shrieks in the thin mountain air. By the gods, Illya! We have arrived at Xin-Shalast. The sight of this millennia-old city is truly awe-inspiring.
While we saw some faint signs of movement beyond the fortress gate, the city itself looks like an abandoned ghost town. We are not far from the closed fortress gate, no more than a league away, but we now rest behind the crest of a hill that should provide us cover. We still have the dread, unsettled feeling, still seeing shadows at the periphery of our vision, and Lai’Ki is bothered by the lack of wildlife. However, our duty commands we take the fight into the heart of Karzoug’s demesne. We are preparing to discuss our plan for infiltrating the city and finding Karzoug. It will not be easy without the use of flight or teleportation magic. We may have a hard fight before us. I only hope we may find allies living within the city: The Spared.
One way or another, our battle is nearly at an end.
- E
Illya,
This land we have entered is so strange. The landscape looks normal enough, full of snow-covered rock, but my other senses tell me it is all wrong. There is no flora, no fauna…only the ever-present thinness of the air and an eerie sense of foreboding and rejection.
After spending a painfully starving night in the presence of Svevinka the ice nymph, we continued our trek through the Fen of Icemists. After another day of plodding, labored travel through the marsh, we finally finished following the faintly formed phantom footpath from the fragile frozen fen of frost and found firmer footholds leading into a valley between mountain peaks. Once we wended our way into the winding wedge between white-tipped tors, we were able to see the remnants of an ancient, dilapidated thoroughfare overlying the ghostly path we had been following. Being able to follow this avenue easily, we surmised that we no longer needed to starve ourselves, so we made camp and cautiously, but delightedly, broke our fast with rations we had brought with us.
The next day, we continued along the wide, rocky road through the mountain pass, some of us still suffering quite a bit from the effects of the thin atmosphere. As we passed through the narrow gorge between tall mountain slopes, we came to an area where the road narrowed into a shallow canyon, steeply sloped cliffs flanking either side. As we guardedly continued, the sharp-eyed Lai’Ki called us to a halt, having spotted something moving just ahead. We had just enough time to ready ourselves before we were approached by a frost giant and several of his larger cloud giant friends. They were not friendly. I immediately drew my bow and shot at the lead frost giant with a specially-made arrow, striking the foe’s left shoulder just above his shield. Before anyone else could prepare our defenses, Gorm ran forward and engaged the giant straightaway. Lai’Ki attempted to shoot the heavily-armored giant, but her arrows either glanced off its shield or missed completely. Nala used his fire bombs to great effect, while Ryll closed in to attack with her polearm. The giant, obviously in a state of rage, desperately attacked Gorm but missed wildly as Soril frosted over the giant’s limbs with a magical ray from his outstretched finger. Our wizard then became the target of several huge boulders hurled by the cloud giants and was unable to move out of the way before taking considerable injuries. I let loose a series of fire-based rays from my hand while Gorm inflicted several deep cuts with his axe. The rest of our group damaged the frost giant as best they could while Soril turned his attention to defense, conjuring a translucent, horizontal wall over our heads to protect us from further bombardment. As the cloud giants moved in to fight us at close range, I created a poisonous cloud of gas in their midst and Soril rained down a fiery windstorm among them. These two effects killed the frost giant and noticeably damaged some of the others.
Our fight continued with the cloud giants fighting up close and personal with Gorm, Ryll, and Tolgun. One of the lumbering mammoths jumped on top of our ceiling of force energy and started pounding on it. The others apparently liked that idea, for they joined in as well. Pretty soon, our force field was starting to show signs of collapse. We prepared ourselves for the ensuing brawl. We had time for several defensive spells before the wall of force shattered into myriad harmless shards under the constant bludgeoning of the giants’ hammers. During the resultant melee Nala and Tolgun were severely wounded, but lasted the fight, inflicting damage of their own on our attackers. Lai’Ki’s arrows flew from the arrow slits of a protective stone wall conjured into existence by Soril, whose own spells issued forth to strike at the giants. Ryll, Gorm, and I quickly took down the enormous targets with many well-placed sword and axe strokes and spell strikes.
The road now quiet again, we took some time to heal our collective wounds and relieve the giants of their magical equipment. Since either side of the road abutted high, steep, rock-strewn cliffs that were nonetheless climbable, we took the opportunity to test some of our magical equipment, lest their enchantments had been affected by the strange magic-repressing effect permeating this place. We found that our ability to slowly fall from a great height was not impeded, only our ability to use magical means of movement.
Gorm climbed up the side of the left-hand ravine. What he found made us all follow after him. Apparently the giants were using a cave overlooking the road as a shelter. It was partially concealed by boulders, so it appeared to be a good source of shelter. In the cave, we found bags of coins, a chest of copper bars, and a fine cave bear cloak. Since the day had worn on and we were tired from our recent fight, we decided to camp for the evening. We saw nothing on the road for a few miles, so we figured we would have an uninterrupted night. We lit a wispy fire and rested as best we could despite the difficulty in breathing the mountainous air.
After our rest, we were all feeling the effects of the harsh altitude, some of us having severe problems. We have decided to stay in this cave for another day to see if the altitude sickness eased due to limiting our exertion. It is our hope that we will become acclimated to our surroundings before needing to rely on magical means to continue our travels. I hope all goes better tomorrow and that our road to Xin-Shalast has few battles left to be won.
- E
Rova 29, 4708 – Late Afternoon
Illya,
By the gods! I am having difficulty describing it. They should have sent a bard.
We had hoped that one day of rest in the giant cave would lessen the effects of our high elevation, but that attempt failed. The weakness it caused Soril was telling, and even Lai’Ki and I started to feel it worsen. We knew then that we would not acclimate in time before our bodies failed us. Rather than protecting us against the rare atmosphere and completely negating our chances to adjust to our surroundings, we opted to heal ourselves daily through magical means. We are still not certain, but there is a chance this regimen will still allow our physiques to adapt to the mountainous environs. However, Nala, Tolgun, and Ryll have had to use much of our supply of diamond dust in the casting of their restorative spells.
Over the last ten days, we traveled the age-old road through the mountains, seeing little change in scenery and our senses continuously beset by phantom imagery. The farther we traveled, we noticed subtle changes in the great road that lay before us. What was at first a path in an advanced state of disrepair, later became occasional small sections still paved with large, flat stones with an impossibly thin veneer of gold on them. In some places, the coating had worn completely off, in others, there was enough to tell the material, though we do not know if it was actual gilding or some other magical or decorative effect. The further we traveled along the wide boulevard, the more it appeared to be paved in gold. It snowed continuously, but even the pristine white flakes refused to linger long in this place, leaving the golden brick road clear of any blanketing. Thin sheets of ice appeared in sporadic patches on the roadway, though not enough to hinder our movement. Every day or two Lai’Ki came across signs of recent giant movement, but none of the brutes were spotted and we have had no further clashes with anything. We spent the day of the Swallowtail Festival in quiet contemplation, a grim contrast to the celebrations and feasting you described in Sandpoint only one year ago. At least the day did not end with a marauding band of goblins this time around.
After several days of steady progress, we reached a spot where the valley narrowed and the mountains on either side grew quite a bit higher. Cresting a small hill, a valley opened up before us. The tableau that met our eyes defies belief: a narrow mountain pass opens into a glacial valley extending north and then turning to the west at the base of a vast mountain at the far end. Filling this valley is an ice-capped city of enormous proportions. The near end is mostly blocked by a huge fortress of smooth black stone, with multiple towers rising from its high walls. Exiting the bailey of this fortress is a massive causeway of gold that dominates the city as it travels down the center of the vale. Enormous towers and spires of many-colored stone pack both sides of the central thoroughfare, rising to prodigious heights and giving the illusion that the road itself is a valley. The eastern slope of the valley has been partially subsumed by an ancient volcanic flow and nearly a quarter of the city appears to have been buried. That section is now little more than a great mass of ice with jagged angles and peaks of ruined structures poking through its topmost layer here and there. Where the valley curves slightly to the west, the structures, if anything, grow even larger, becoming truly gigantic as they climb up and over the rocky spur. At the far end of the valley, the city abuts the lower slope of a truly massive peak. Yet, the city builders appear to have taken no heed to this change in the slope, for the great causeway merely elevates at a steep angle and continues to climb the incline at a nearly straight line, transforming into an immense stairway. Additional buildings cling precariously to the mountain face along the causeway, growing even larger and more impressive as they ascend. The gigantic buildings finally give way a few thousand feet above, but the mighty road continues to wend through the treacherous way to just below the mountain’s peak. There, a spired citadel looms, its size and proportion truly magnificent. It, too, fails to summit the mountain; instead, the topmost spires end just below the dominant face of a stern man carved into the peak of the mountain and surveying the city below. The otherworldly quality of this strange panorama is further reinforced by the sound of cold wind slicing through the high peaks making strange cries and shrieks in the thin mountain air. By the gods, Illya! We have arrived at Xin-Shalast. The sight of this millennia-old city is truly awe-inspiring.
While we saw some faint signs of movement beyond the fortress gate, the city itself looks like an abandoned ghost town. We are not far from the closed fortress gate, no more than a league away, but we now rest behind the crest of a hill that should provide us cover. We still have the dread, unsettled feeling, still seeing shadows at the periphery of our vision, and Lai’Ki is bothered by the lack of wildlife. However, our duty commands we take the fight into the heart of Karzoug’s demesne. We are preparing to discuss our plan for infiltrating the city and finding Karzoug. It will not be easy without the use of flight or teleportation magic. We may have a hard fight before us. I only hope we may find allies living within the city: The Spared.
One way or another, our battle is nearly at an end.
- E