Ailyll's Notes from March 989
March 1: Deirdriu looses her duel for 11th level
March 2: We go to visit Karmie and chat about the Kagen, in particular their queen. Kagen do not generally have a queen, but this one has recently taken leadership of the Kagen and has been stirring them into uncharacteristic action against the human settlements. We later sneak into their hive in the tomb of the Queen of Sheeba and fight the queen. She is thrown into a void behind one of three doors, nearly taking Ailyll with her. We find some golden lions labelled 'Ari' and 'Juda', a wand with 'Get thee behind me Jehennah' written on it, a jug with 'Moishe' written on the side, a silver branch and a green stone vial.
March 3: We get a divination that goes something like this:
This time not brought back by your hand, ancient evil walks the land And one half of it nowadays has caught you in its steady gaze And underground your plans are known, you should know you are not alone Some allies are seeing how low they can go you may look death right in the eyes, you will not achieve surprise Sometimes it's light, sometimes it's massy, something something dwarves from Malagasy Omar, Abuna, One we were not expecting to see so soon
We beat up Sham Bam Bar Jerjawa in Basra
March 4: Kingu mixer, known invitees are Ogrid the Alebrewer, Aleph (Clockwork Man), Gunner Hemunderson, Starkad, Throk, King of Decca (Attigat)
More divinations?
What happened to those friends of yours? It's not the worst idea you've had to ask a star named Kad Don't get Starkad mad Harald's words are capturing a distant ear, others want to stop the Kingu tournament Don't go to Kukoana King Throk on his skelethrone is hard to beat, he's not alone Our friends are in danger but too far away
March 5: Meet Arkomony, former king of Abyssinia. He was sent by Dr Lao to stop Starkad from joining the Kingu tournament.
March 6: Go to iceland, learn about Snorri
March 8: Harald and co on the boat rushing for meridian, while Ailyll waits in greenland to transport via plants. She has a sudden intuition that Fatima is about to give birth in Nemi. A commune tells us that Yarl has Gorgonophontes. Ailyll appears in Nemi a few hours before Fatima's labor, and passes the time taming the Saber Toothed tigers they caught. Artemis appears to attend to Fatima, has a chat with Ailyll. We learn that the King of the Wood was always immortal, and we should be able to figure out how to free him ourselves. She is angry at the Danger Gang because they thwarted the rise of Artemisians in Ephesus. The former king was a thief and a murderer, slain by the Green Man in the mid 8th century, who was tricked into fighting by Evelake. Orestes brought worship of Artemis to Nemi, set up the statue and was the first 'Verbius' or Green Man.
Meanwhile Harald and the boat party scry on The Brotherhood of Purity, see them trapped in a glass room surrounded by sky and all beat up. We teleport in and pull off an awesome rescue, despite dozens of cat people shooting spells at us from below. The brotherhood fills us in on their adventures - they sailed to Greenland, fought lots of cats (mages, clerics, mage-clerics), and were eventually overwhelmed. They were put into a gold palace, then after our first rescue attempt moved to the ice palace. The gold palace was called 'The Watchtower'.
They also tell us about the turtle temple in Sri Lanka, Colon theta, Sri Pata the sacred footprint of Adam. A tooth was smuggled there disguised as a comb, kept in a different temple. The sacred footprint is a good place to hide valuables, as you cannot take anything out. Crown Jewels are hidden there for fear of Raja Raja Chola's conquest, but he's too busy fighting Attigat anyway.
March 9: Our boat is attacked by Godzilla, a giant snake and a giant squid. We finally get enough rest to scry on the Muslim party, we see them rescuing wounded elves and clearing rubble. Once we cross the meridian we send the brotherhood off to follow the Phantom Blot. While we wait for Harald to come back the giant squid returns, and almost eats Harald when he mis-teleports under the boat. Ailyll breaks his succor stick, sending him off to the elven lands while we beat up the squid and follow.
The elven kingdoms are completely blighted. Ailyll and druidlings run around casting plant growth, healing and de-blighting while we track down Raheesh
March 10: We reach the kingdom of the Green Orb, meet up with Raheesh, Aaqib, Bakir, Rashman and three red shirts. We speak with some survivors who tell us the elven priests cast a forbidden spell to summon a 'spectral death' in the hopes that it would fight the Black Cloud of Vengence that Throk sent. Their plan worked about as well as one would expect, and now the spectral death is also running around killing elves. We track it down and kill it. We learn that the 'Rats of Nimrod' have come to spain and are busy building stuff - we ask them to try fixing our robot. The rat vizier is revealed to be Norwit, who is 'returned' to his 'true' human form. We get some got riders to come with us as we go look for the Black Cloud. We take it down in one round, before it manages to blight us all to death, and head off to bother Ogrid the Alebrewer.
We land at the beach in Avalon and gain entrance to Nimue's garden. We meet a giant named Rainouart, a rainbow dog named Petrigrew and a cat-eyed man named Chapeleu. At first a floaty skull comes out to talk to us but Harald convinces Nimue herself to come out. We ask about the Berkerai, Nimue confirms that she was their first choice, Baba Yaga the second after Igwilf declined. Despuare is tricksy. Earthly Beauty and D off to Tinglymaimon. Isle of Ys a distraction to draw Arthur away and steal his wife. Mission to America ended in tradgedy, only Arthur and a couple of knights made it back. There are Dwarves and Elves in the north, the Maelstrom is bad news, and Nimue thinks humanity is doomed. The counterattack against the Octopuses went poorly, the Holy Grail (indeed a stone cup) was lost.
March 11: Harald proposes a tournament to determine whether Ogrid will participate in the tournament. We face off against Ogrid, a few others, and Arthur, King of the Britons as a scary undead of some sort. Everyone but Harald is taken out on our side pretty fast, but he manages to finish barely ahead. Nimue tells us that the Octopuses can consume magic items and gain their power. Excalibur was eaten by Nimue, who learned this from them.
Arkominy, King of Maroway. Traditionally the king is slain by priests after a certain period of time (3rd century bc). He dissolved and persecuted the priesthood, then fled when they returned. Only priests can kill him, so he is semi-immortal. We hop over to meet N'tongo and Daniel. They are going to fight Kodmelos, and are interested in the Lao Tournament. Mustali tells us that Throk is starting a horrible ritual that we must interrupt.
March 12: Alternate party off to Trondheim. Snorri actually priest/chieftan from iceland. Hakon really wanted Snorri to compete in the Kingu tournament, Snorri would rather not. Imprisoned near lake Storcion in Yompland. We rescue him from the Valkrie and Dragon that were guarding him and head back to Chrisopolis.
March 13: Get Jedderlace to help Hamish, druidlings and rogues to help us beat up Bevis.
More Throk Divination:
O Throk! O Thar! What is the worse? It's not the teeth, but the reverse. My, what a clever trick was played When we were into rabbis made And what we filled it with, now still, Resolveth into what you will. So this make note above all things: Harald, beware the seven rings. To go against them must be folly Something rhymes here--holly? jolly?
If spells cast on the astral plane May go awry, do not complain (Although, if this assuage your ire, Upon that plane they won't expire) If from that plane you cannot see A living room, don't cry to me. A simple spell like Find the Path Deducts four hours from your math And brings you where you wish you'd been In less than one day (on the mean). Appear too close and goodness sakes, You will be swimming with the snakes; Appear too far and you will see How hard a gauntlet-run can be. The sweet spot -- you are going to hate How hard it is to estimate.
For those who wish to gain admission There are three tests -- it is tradition. Of tests of smarts and ethics you May find you've not a lot to do, But ware the beasts of seal of ring Irregular of quartering! This is the test you're looking for, This is the test, the test of war! And war (of which we know you're fond) Is what you're going to find beyond.
March 14: Throckathon 989, A pile of giant animals and their followers break into Throk's stronghold and stomp on everyone. Party takes a few different routes home, all but the plane shift party (Snorri, Jelly Starkad, Akim, Yazid, Sit, Pierre, Sulfahat, Gayick, corpses) make it home with little trouble.
Meanwhile, in Messopotamia at the source of the Orantes we meet Nisi, attach Bevis and party. We take out Asophis, using the Chessboard to make Bevis attack him. Bevis and his dragon escape, we kidnap his son and giant and ransom them for his not participating in the tournament.
March 17: Interrogate prisoners at length. In Balk a man on fire attacks the party, they make it back to the boat.
The teeth from ere time's red dawn should not be lightly put upon One by one they might be great, but they are trouble in aggregate One once not a killer found his hate a fiery pillar At the airport your plane is delayed, you wait in vain for your friends to return A being of chaos hates the requirement of dates India is hard to reach How will you not go gaga in the city of the naga? How will you cross the barrier that blocked Semiramus? Swamps, wights, the chains, the locks, human pieces in a box Plan vs Attigat with wings Against the ones who will return What will you learn, what have you learned?
March 18: Astral Plane rescue mission
The Fatimid Caliph casts Find The Path on Pierre and sends us to the astral plane. We find the right pool, Lila looks in and sees a sinister tower full of books. Luckily Ellylw looks in too and we are sent to the happy realm of happy happiness. We walk through a beautiful lush forest, enchanted by the wonderful peace and serenity of the place. We eventually follow a troop of happy hunters home to a charming village where we make many new friends and have a great time not feasting on their delicious other-plane food.
The next day we journey to Brigantia's stream and speak with her avatar. She tells Ailyll to speak to Bellen if she wants to reform her sect, for hasn't she noticed that the supposedly neutral druids have been acting a little too lawful lately? She also teaches Ailyll how to make a tuning fork that will lead her back to this wonderful place (aka Plain of Concordant Opposition). This is Tir'nan'og, other sectors include the realms of Thoth, Bet, Untamo, Norns, Yen Wang Yeh, Semuwania and Pimes of Tebastry (?)
We next visit Diankekt's pool of awesome healing. He directs us to Semuwania's swamp, and anoints Ailyll his special messenger, in the hope that this will protect her from Semuwania's mischief. Semuwania's avatar tells us that our friends were here, but were sent away. He tells us that if we kill the demon Ceccenak he will tell us where they went. We walk for days towards the pure neutral center of the plane, marked by a lovely enormous tree. We fight Sessinak and his consort, who are super tough, but the sight of the awesome tree and the happy neutrality of the place give us strength and we carry on towards our friends. We find most of them crucified and barely (or not at all) alive along with a much less floppy Starkad, who is using Sit as a shield and looking super mad. He attacks us, yelling all sorts of nonsense, killing Yodat and (?). We finally take him out by luring him past the no-magic boundary and shooting him with spells while we run away.
On our way back we encounter some Ibis men who take us to Thoth. He wants to talk to Harald, so we promise to forward his message on. He sends us back to Cairo but keeps Pierre around to visit. That guy sure is popular... We are all very sad to leave this wonderful land of nice fluffy neutrality, but we promise to come back again soon.
We divide the treasure at prisoners in Cairo, and the Caliph, Saiiq and Snorri raise our dead.
Meanwhile Harald has put a bunch of dubious yellow canines in place of his molars, and is no longer able to chew his food. He goes back to Basra with two druidlings to spruce up his palace and terrorize some Mandians. He impersonated John the Baptist and turns unbelievers bones to jelly, commanding the others to build him a golden throne and shower him with gifts and offerings. Not being very familiar with the customs of civilized humans Ellylw and Deirdriu are not at all concerned by his behavior, especially when he asks them to cast plant growth non stop in the palace garden and play with the fun willow monster.
March 19: Harald, druidlings and Harald's new followers Alfodd and Izar teleport towards India. India is terrible, and full of death (25% chance for normal actions like walking around, or sitting down). Ladderlad was kissed by the waves that kiss the feet of the lighthouse of Shiva. We learn a bit about the 9 Unknown Men. Their leader is Hannusa (wrath). Kashi? Attigat and Raja Raja Chola have been fighting, Attigat took over the former underground city of the Naga. City of the Snakes is Decca/Bodawaji. The king of Qilocaine is (was?) very wise.
March 20: India is still horrible and full of death, but at least there are tigers. We meet Naranavahanadata, Emperor of the Sourcerors. He is looking for Manikavakacar (snake handler). We go off to his castle Belana Kavi is very sneaky. They ask Harald some weird question that doesn't make any sense at all, and Harald doesn't seem to get it either. They get mad for no reason so we leave.
