Half Measures

A party exploring the Nocthian Caldera in 251 AC. In person, Willamette Valley, est late 2022.

Personnel

• Fiona ka'Anu. Silver dragonborn druid. Noble born, but distanced from her family. Native to the Caldera.
• Simalanthe Genlamin. Half-elf (sharp-ear) ranger. Born out of wedlock to a member of a noble House of the gwerin, fostered on a distantly-related merchanter family in Asai'ka.
• Telarendril Hawal. Gwerin noble, ranger. Looking for his lost company of scouts who fought in the last Winter War against the Hungering Frost.
• Kvychya. Halfling cleric of Kela Loran. Runaway from an arranged marriage. Looking for freedom at the bottom of a coinpurse.

Associated Personnel

• Zip of the Shrikenest. Goblin (barbegazi) wizard. Taken prisoner by the group, but has proven his worth.
• Daen Kydell. Human (wall-builder) warrior, rune-scarred. Currently on detached duty conducting negotiations with the Shrikenest.
• <monk>. Human (nights-child) monk and elementalist. Currently on detached duty conducting negotiations with the Shrikenest.

Adventures

• Into the Goblin Tunnels:
  • Gathered at the Frostbound Wall late summer 251 AC
  • Arrived at Medvyed after defeating some tunnel-worms for a bounty
  • Took up residence in a haunted house (haunted by the very tidy spirit of the former owner).
  • Ambushed the Shrikenest goblins coming up from a hidden tunnel and pretending to be Hornet Tribe.
  • Later, with Zip in tow as a hostage, delved into the tunnels. Fought Red Ice intruders as well as giant spiders.
  • Discovered evidence of the Deep Mind, as well as a vault with 3 keys. As part of this, they dispelled a portal to the Plane of Ice.
  • Found two of the keys secreted on dead bodies in the underground tunnel network.
  • Talked to a ghost who pointed them toward Old Wyrmhold and the crypts there.
• Wyrm King's Rest
  • Arrived in Old Wyrmhold, found they needed the sponsorship of a Registered Company to enter.
  • After talking with Imperial Legacy, a representative from Selan's Seekers (creepy), and a sage of Guardians of the Forgotten, they signed on with the latter. Promised to seal off the Nechrarchs' Quarters.
  • Heard rumors of an elven woman with the same scout insignia as Telarendril.
  • Delving into the catacombs, they bypassed the Demon Door with a map provided by GotF, entered the Nechrarchs' Quarters, defeating the undead there and sealing the place after retrieving some genealogies.
  • Further in, they encountered a fragment of Broken Order which was causing the undead to regenerate, along with a dragon-mashup hybrid entity. Laying both of those to rest, they uncovered a stash of documents and artifacts in the ancient king's tomb.
  • Those documents included
    • The original Wyrmhold Agreement giving the Dragonborn a place in the Nocthian Caldera. This was signed by the "Underking", the ruler of a yet unknown civilization.
    • One of the pieces of the wyrmhold royal regalia, the Ring of Night
    • A secondary treaty where a former ruler got help in exchange for promising to tell the ancient Nocthians it was safe to return.
    • Correspondence showing that the Wyrmholders had violated both treaties multiple ways.
    • Evidence that the current noble families (except the queen herself) are not actually descended from the original noble families.
  • They also discovered the third key, along with a stone that supposedly should have been used to signal the Nocthian return.
  • Simgen and Fiona were both touched by things found there--Simgen by what appears to be residual frost-aspected energies on a note left by Isskap, Fiona by the True Word at the heart of the fragment. The effects of these are as of yet unknown.
  • Returning to the surface, they found out that more time had passed than expected and the battle against the fragment of order was very flashy.
  • They officially joined Guardians of the Forgotten and are currently deciding what to do with the (explosive) documents discovered.
  • They returned the regalia (mostly) to the Queen of Wyrmhold and were rewarded. Telarendril left the party here.
• To New Nocthia
  • They traveled to New Nocthia via the Caldera route, stopping to clear a vault full of were/demon creatures.
  • They got involved in some shenanigans in the city, including hiring help and scaring the crap out of a fey.
  • They acquired a magic map that showed the locations of all the vaults and earpieces/cores.
• To Mt Nyx
  • They headed up NW, rounding up earpieces (acquiring a Knowledge one from a friendly mercenary group of giantkin).
  • They cleared out a vault, freeing a succubus prisoner and destroying the vampire resident. They've taken over this place, naming it the Halfway House.
  • They stopped by an ancient prison on the south flank, where the War core was hidden. They defeated the fey named Pain who ruled it, giving power to the local goblins in exchange for prisoners to torment.
  • Freed some people, including Nocthis's former husband and Ascendant. He's in hiding from her currently.
  • Headed up north to Nighthold.