A Shift in Manpower

So. We wake up, and realize that Illythan is missing. He's left us all notes and bags with stuff in it. The note he left Eorin reads: "Desperate times require desperate measures, and my decision is pure as well as mildly selfish. Only the wind can show you where I've gone." Kyle and Zelara go to ask around and see if anyone saw Illythan. While they do that, Eorin inspects the letter Illythan left him. Its a magic device of some kind, and Kyle is able to figure out how to use it. It reads: "I've gone to where men are forged into gods." This fits with what Kyle found, which was that people saw Illythan enter the Starstone. The party decides to ask the Firebirds for help, because we're two people down. The package from Tar Baphon arrived, and it had two things in it: an ancient Azlanti art object, and a piece of amber with a bee in it (which is one of the other objects we need). We sit down in the Firebirds dining hall where there are lots of people eating waffles. Eorin creates a survey with a variety of questions pertaining to adventuring and ethics and hands it out to everyone in the dining hall.

Hello fellow Firebirds! We have some vacancies in our party! We are on a holy quest to save the world! Please complete this survey and return it and return it to Eorin upon completion. 

1) What do you do in a fight? 

• Magic 
• Range combat 
• Melee combat  
• Other (Please explain) 

2) What god/goddess do you worship? 

3) If you encountered a person in distress on the road, what would you do? (answer with at least two complete sentences) 

4) How important is it to follow the law? Please explain. 

5) What do you use your money for? (other than basic necessities like food, clothing, and shelter) 

6) If someone in a position of authority (guard, general, mayor, priest, deity, etc) asked you to do something, how would you react/what would you do? Please explain. 

7) Do you have any prejudices, blood feuds, grudges, or other hatreds/emnities we should be aware of? Please explain how they affect your life. 

8) Do you have any phobias? Please list all that apply. 

9) Do you have any allergies? 

10) What languages do you speak? Please note if you can read and write them also.

Among the people present, there are two that stand out. There's a woman with jet black hair, violet eyes, and pallid skin, a long sword, and nice clothing. She's wearing a signet ring belonging to a very obscure noble house in Cheliax. Her name is Pontia Renaut. She burns the survey when Eorin hands it to her. There's a small built elf with blueish green eyes, blonde hair, tan skin, a curved sword, and travelers cloths over chain mail. His name is Vananedlon Smith. He fills it out happily. Zelara and Kyle take go and speak with those two. Eorin goes to retrieve their records from the Firebirds.

Van's records say that he's very skilled, but a bit green. They're worried about how he'd do in an actual dungeon scenario. Pontia's say that she's a former professional soldier and the sole survivor of her previous adventuring party. The incident they perished in has been stricken from the record. Two others filled out the survey as well, but one's records says that he's a dick, and Kyle didn't like the survey answers of the half-orc. Eorin refuses to allow Pontia in the party until she fills out the survey, however, so Kyle asks her to do so with a long suffering expression. Eorin still likes the Kupala of Valcano (the half orc) better than Pontia, especially after interviewing him to get more information on his survey answers. Kyle relents and extends an invitation to Kupala as well.

Kyle explains to the three new members that we've been given a mission from the gods to save the world from Rovagug. She explains about the Army of Exploration's work to release Rovagug and the gods quest to recover five items and a vessel to stop it. She explains how we're now going to Isgur to exchange this art object for the statue we need. We have this conversation inside the caravan, and Pontia says she's come along as long as she can hire an interior decorator for the caravan. Kupala says "Volcano says go left." Pontia looks to her left and sees a stall that says "Decorators" out the window. She goes there and is apparently the 100th customer, and gets the caravan re-decorated for free.

We contact Kavka, the crow dude. He's better dressed than anyone else in the party. He transports us to Isgur, and volunteers to make the Lenorm scales into armor for us. We find the halfling cook that works for the River King, and Kyle returns his kitchen knife. He tells us that the accountant couldn't meet us because his brother was murdered by a cross-bow bolt in the night (same as our friend Orias). Kupala hands Pontia three grenades of grease, and goes back into the caravan to work. We decide to visit the accountant after we make the exchange for the statue.

We go into the sewer, which is still as prison and clean as always. We go to the River King's lair, and he's looking as dapper as ever, still sitting on his throne in the water. The River King gives us the statue in exchange for the art object, and he gives us a folder pertaining to Orias' mother. He also makes it clear that the person who killed the accountant's brother, was Orias (it was a sewer worker back from when we first infiltrated the River King's base). Zelara and Kyle heft the large statue, and lug it out of the sewer.

We sit in the caravan and pow wow about the best way to get to Numeria to get the next item on the list. Kupala knows how to use a scroll of teleport, but he's never been to Carrion Hill, which is the closest town the party has visited to Numeria. He is, however, from Belkzen, and can get us there. He gets us to Wyvernsting, and there are wyverns there that can fly us to Numeria. We pay them with the Lenorm head. They take us to the border of Numeria near Karcau. We look for a small town to buy some new horses to pull the caravan. After procuring horses we make our way to Starfall.

Kyle and Van gather information in Starfall to find the object, which is an odd shape that we can't really identify. Kyle finds an expert to pay to better identify what the object is. It'll take him a month at the rate of 3 gold a day. We decide to go to the Worldwound while he researches. We buy a clockwork horse to help us get to the Worldwound faster. It folds up a little bit and will fit under a bed. We get to the border between Numeria and the Worldwound. There's a sign that says "Abandon all hope ye who enter." We stop in Gundrun to try and find some information on the book we're looking for in the wound. It's a hive of villainy, scum, refugees, and demons. There's local legend that 20 years ago some dwarf warrior came into town. They haven't seen him since, but you can follow the trail of bodies (they don't bury demons here). There are several trails, but we're told to follow the ones that are most in tact. 

Zelara follows the trail out west towards the Shutterwood. At some point some demons pop out and look like they're going to attack the caravan, and then explode. Lightning everywhere. Pontia figures out its a delayed blast fireball, but with lightning. Van saw a cloaked figure that was there briefly in dark purple hues and then disappeared. It seemed somewhat short - dwarf short but not dwarf broad. Close to 5ft tall.

We reach the edge of the Shutterwood. There are posts with demon skulls everywhere, and there are carvings of eyes on the foreheads of the skulls. Eorin recognizes the eye from a haunted house a year ago. It was a wizards rune of some kind and pertained to the Peacock King somehow. Pontia recalls a story about a party of adventurers about forty years ago (one of whom started the Library of Ustalaav) and there was a sorcerer who one day just appeared in the Worldwound and has been there blowing up demons ever since. Eorin, after hearing this, recalls that he's been seen in too many places at once, so he probably has apprentices to help him. We go further into the woods and come across a small gnome village. 

They greet us in common. "Hey! Just trying to stave off the bleaching! Every day here is interesting!" Van asks them about the eyes on the skulls, and they explain that the fae do them. There's apparently a high fae population in the woods. Van asks about the sorcerer in purple, and the gnomes tell us that somewhere deep in the forest is a spot that neither demons nor fae go to. It's the only location they can think of where the sorcerer might live. Kyle asks about the dwarf, and the gnomes tell us he came through two decades ago and went to the spot they just mentioned. We continue on! Kyle detects a great amount of evil. We come across a clearing, that isn't so much a clearing as a crater. There are a few great muscular blue creatures with hors everywhere blocking the route. They look like they may have caused the crater. They don't appear to have noticed us yet. Van scouts ahead, but gets noticed. Pontia knows what kind of demons they are and informs the party of their weaknesses and their ability to enslave souls. Combat ensues. We defeat the demons and rifle through their pockets for loot.

We come across a cottage in the woods. There's a fence around it with a rope gate. The door has the eye sign on it. Kyle knocks, there's no answer. Kyle tries the door and finds it open. It's a one room cottage. There's a large stone pedestal in the room with a book chained to it, and a dwarf skeleton. The book is chained to the dwarf, and the dwarf is clinging to the pedestal like he was holding onto it for dear life. The dwarf itself forms a complex lock. Pontia and Van try to extract the book and both find themselves cursed to protect the book. Eorin removes the curse. They now have three of the five items required. We exit and there are tiny (only a few inches tall) little people in the yard looking up at us. They all have conical hats and the theme is purple.