Half Measures

From Dreams of Hope

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.