Castle Amber: A D&D Adventure

BMR · Post by **BMR** » Wed Aug 12, 2015 3:20 am

Now that they have the longhouse, Kalar has an idea. He has all of his skeletons scour the area for small 2-3 pound rocks. He has them load up the rocks onto the unfolded tent, around 200-300 pounds worth should do.

Once they're done, he goes back to reading.

Spoonweaver · Post by **Spoonweaver** » Wed Aug 12, 2015 3:25 am

The screeching goes away after what seems like a couple hours. The party settles in to read for the rest of the day. Night comes. The party settles in for a hopefully peaceful night in their deluxe camp.

XP
lvl 10's gain 6625
lvl 11's gain 5125
lvl 12's gain 4375
lvl 13's gain 3438

Gizmog · Post by **Gizmog** » Wed Aug 12, 2015 3:27 am

THE AFTERLIFE
Voulton sits speechless in the clearing, unsure what's just happened or why, but reverent of what was surely of great spiritual significance..

BMR · Post by **BMR** » Wed Aug 12, 2015 3:51 am

As soon as dawn breaks, Kalar meditates, regaining focus. He's done praying for his spells, so he heads off to the longhouse.

There, he begins chanting, calling in divine power. He brings forth a diamond from his pack, sending divine energy through it and into Voulton's body, willing new life into it.

He continues this focus, sending powerful divine energies into it to bring him back from the dead.

Gizmog · Post by **Gizmog** » Wed Aug 12, 2015 4:20 am

THE AFTERLIFE
And at once, Voulton is lifted into the air. It's not a threatening lift, he somehow feels as if all he'd have to do is ask and he'd be set back down. But it'd mean he'd never get back home, stuck forever in this place... though the appearance of Sephora, every bit as captivating as he'd heard her to be and then some has made him reluctant.

Looking up, he sees a hole in the grayness of the sky, a hole full of life and energy. And looking down he sees the hole he made in the woods.. and how tiny his house was in comparison... and that the crotch of his pants is now silver. A slimy sensation beneath the belt makes him worry the his pants might not be the only thing turned to silver... but no time to investigate that now. He's almost through the hole!

Voulton takes one last peek down at the unnaturally still woods, now high enough to see their end. Walls of gray fog just like the ones around Averoigne, and the same terrible monsters that lurk within. The walls are closing in down there, destroying the woods more thoroughly than a thousand axes ever could, already engulfing the tiny clearing where the acorns had grown and drawing ever closer to the place that Voulton had briefly considered home. As boring as it was, it's sad to see it destroyed so callously and Voulton vows not to let the same thing happen to Averoigne, even if they don't have dogs you can ride on.

He quietly thanks Sephora for the hope she gave him, and braces himself for the return to the real world and Averoigne.

Post by **Bob the Hamster** » Thu Aug 13, 2015 2:35 pm

Rob wakes feeling refreshed, and see's that Kalar is already at work reviving Voulton. He decides to give them space. He doesn't want to distract Kalar, and he can't even guess what Voulton will feel like upon "waking up" so Rob just slips out of the longhouse and goes to feed Stumpy.

After Stumpy has been tended to, Rob takes out the Lyre of Building, walks near to the river, and tries to build a river boat with it

"Spirits of song, Can you do this?
Will this succeed, or will this be a miss?
Build me a boat! A glorious boat!
Make it big, make it grand, make sure it can float!
Paddle wheels, oars, maybe some sails!,
boiler room, masts, deck and some rails!
Mermaid figurehead, portholes on the side,
Maybe a lounge, or a casino inside!,
Make me the best boat this river has seen,
If you can build it, then do as I mean!"

Rob hopes this is something the magic of the Lyre can handle...and if not, well, he will have only wasted a bunch of lumber.

Spoonweaver · Post by **Spoonweaver** » Thu Aug 13, 2015 7:32 pm

Voulton had come back to life. He was confused to see a cabin near their camp. He took a few moments to inspect the shoddy craftsmanship before taking the time to fully shake off the effects of being dead for the better part of a day.
Rob went over to the river and unsuccessfully tried to use his magic Lyre again. Nothing happened. It would be another week before the lyre could be used again, but Rob was hoping to get it working sooner somehow.
Kalar spends some time gathering all the rocks and rumble collected by his minions into the more tattered of the tents. Then he tried to engineer the best way to connect the rock dropping creation to Bill, his flying steed.
Rachelle spent the morning looking through the many new items the group had just found. She wondered if any of the items left behind by the others were worth her time.

BMR · Post by **BMR** » Fri Aug 14, 2015 1:30 am

With the others back on their feet, Kalar decides to check the ruins one more time.

"I'm heading back in, to see what else we might have missed. Also going to check for Hrulgin, he's been gone some time. If any wish to accompany me, I welcome the aid, but should you not in light of yesterday's events, I quite understand.

"Oh, and I've finished this glove. It works mostly the same as mine, and can heal you bit by bit."

Kalar hands the globe to Voulton and says "Seeing how often you are engaged in combat, I believe you will find the most use out of it.

"Now, I will be off."

Kalar heads back to the ruins along with his skeletons and and with Bill. He plans to animate the rest of the bodies they found and to perhaps turn Ardan into a ghost. Even though he was as manic as he was, he might still be of use as a sort of guardian of the keep.

Gizmog · Post by **Gizmog** » Fri Aug 14, 2015 1:42 am

Voulton looks around at the make-shift wooden house he's awoken in. "Oh nooooo..." he moans, because it hurts to live. "It was a test... and I failed. I'm in the hell of poor woodworking.. I thought that just a story to scare us into cleaning our tools.."

His mind is full of questions and he starts looking for answers. Where are my axes? Still here, good. Where am I? Probably hell for not cleaning my axes before... whatever it was that happened in the dark. And for blowing it with Lady Sephora.. lumberjacks don't really practice kissing out there... that's just a rumor! I'm sorry I wasn't any good at it..

No, no. Mortal concerns first. Axes.. armor.. my stuff.. getting out of this deathtrap before it collapses.. ..the vial!

He frantically checks the hiding place in his pants where he'd stashed the vial, the place he knew no one would ever look for it. As he rummages through his pocket, he grumbles aloud "This silver stuff better not have ruined it.."

BMR · Post by **BMR** » Fri Aug 14, 2015 2:00 am

Just as he's about to leave, Kalar notices Voulton's distress. That won't do. He'll be of little utility should he be broken by the experience.

Kalar turns back and speaks to the lumberjack:

"Relax, friend Voulton. You were struck down by the mummy yesterday, but all is well now. I managed to bring you back from death, and you have my word that I performed no necromancy or any other, what most would consider, "foul magic" other than bringing you back.

"Your gear is safe, and we have taken none of it. Friend Rob constructed this longhouse using one of the magic items we found. It might no be up to your standards, I presume, but we thought it better than leaving you on the ground or dumped in the wagon as little more than cargo.

"Rest assured, that you are safe. Well, safe for the time being and as safe as we've ever been. The mummy has been vanquished, and you are not in any immediate danger. I'm off to the keep once again, but I would suggest you take the time to rest and get used to being back with the living."

Kalar thinks a while and says, "Out of curiosity, and you need not answer this, but did you have some sort of contact with your deity when you died? I know that I did, but that might just be because I am a clergyman."

Spoonweaver · Post by **Spoonweaver** » Fri Aug 14, 2015 2:32 am

Rachelle, having begun to read, finds the words on the pages beginning to vanish. As she looks around, a bit worried, knowledge magically fills her head. She had not retained most of what she was reading, and even after reading the specifics of how to go about wearing heavy armor and using complex weapons, she wasn't sure she really understood any of it. That was all changing. As the book emptied the last of it's pages, Rachelle became an expert in the use of all types of armors. She also knew the secrets of many new and exotic weapons. These included, the Khopesh, the bastard sword, The repeating heavy crossbow, the repeating light crossbow, the spiked chain, and the Katana.

Meanwhile, worlds away and yet very close by, Dan and Lynda had been training for days.
"Your ability to send parts of people and things to another place is closely related to your ability to travel between worlds. There are many ways to harness it, you have indirectly chosen a very interesting one. However, it does not reflect the rest of your training very well. You have the ability to cast spells, but have a mental block between you and your power. Soon, our training will get you through that blockage, and your abilities will be fully revealed." Dan said, as Lynda sat in deep meditation. She seemed much wiser now then she did before she left the physical realm. How much she had truly changed remained to be seen.

Gizmog · Post by **Gizmog** » Fri Aug 14, 2015 2:55 am

As always, if I went too far, none of this happened:
Voulton is distracted from Kalar's question by the broken glass in his pants. As he throws it out, realizing now where the silver came from, he comes upon the other thing he kept in that pocket.. the platinum piece from home, bearing the picture of the horrible evil woman who got him here in the first place. "I can't even remember why I thought she was hot to begin with, what am I keeping this thing for.." but it's not the coin it was when he saw it last. The platinum has been replaced with silver, and the kind of pretty, in an evil sort of way queen from another world has been replaced by a beneficient tower-building beauty from the past. Voulton switches it to his non-silvered pocket for safe keeping.

His attention goes back to Kalar, he doesn't want to be rude to his friend. "Yes, thank you. It's good. It's all good."

He's not sure what to say about the deity.. SOMETHING certainly happened, but was it religious? "Maybe I did? It's the strangest thing.. I met Lady Sephora. She was.. just like they said she'd be. Maybe moreso. We didn't really get a chance to talk.. I think she made my manhood silver."

Post by **Bob the Hamster** » Fri Aug 14, 2015 3:02 am

Rob returns to the long-house,
"Voulton! Welcome back to the world of the living! How do you feel? Wait... Come again?"

BMR · Post by **BMR** » Fri Aug 14, 2015 3:03 am

"Your... manhood..."

Kalar considers this a moment and says:

"To be perfectly honest, I am unsure what that would entail. Tomorrow though, I can perform a ritual to contact my deity. I'll try asking him what might happen with that."

Kalar notices Rob enter and says to him, "Ah, friend Rob, good to see you up. I would appreciate it if you kept an eye on our Voulton here, he may be suffering some disorientation from the process.

"For now though, I will head back to the keep to see if we missed anything. I will be back shortly. If I'm not back by night, assume I've either been destroyed or controlled."

With that, Kalar heads for the fortress. He tries to think of the possible implications of what's happened to Voulton. His knowledge of these things is not exactly "vast", but he's no amateur either.

Knowledge (Religion): +18

Post by **Bob the Hamster** » Fri Aug 14, 2015 3:08 am

Rob waits to hear if Voulton will say any more, but he plans to follow Kalar to finish exploring the Ruin.