Sunday, January 17, 2016

4760 in Nyrissa's realm of Thousandbreaths in the Firstworld (feyrealm) date unknown

After defeating the ghosts, the pcs entered the main area of the castle. There the pcs were attacked by five shadows. Glade turned most of them and then pcs decimated the rest. Then the pcs went through a series of small rooms most of them had a ghost in them. One of the rooms contained Father Grimburrow from Ravengro. Later the pcs came upon a stuffed bear dancing in a cage. Then the pcs backtracked and took the spiral staircase up to the 2nd floor. There they were attacked by 4 snakemen.
The creatures used magic to make Eric retreat up the stairs. Despite this the pcs cut the snakemen down before they could become any sort of a real threat. Next the pcs enter the area of the guest rooms. In two rooms Rigby and Gregor see ghosts at the edge of their vision but the shapes always flit away. At the far end of this section of the castle the pcs find a staircase going down and a spiral staircase going up. The pcs then decided to cross the bridge over the main hall/throne room. On the other side of the bridge the pcs found Nyrissa's private rooms including her private bath and wardrobe room. Eventually Rigby found Nyrissa's six blinded nymph handmaidens. The blood crying nymphs went on the attack and charmed Erik so that he tried to go downstairs.
Gregor then beat Erik with his fists until the charm was broken. Then there was a brief stand off as the nymphs prepared a charm firing squad and the pcs were unwilling to risk attacking them. Erick attempted to end the standoff mounted on his firesteed but was charmed again and sent downstairs to bring the thornmen up to the fight. Then Linkles broke the stand off with a series of three fireballs that decimated the blind nymphs leaving only one barely clinging to life. Then Linles sent a single firebolt cantrip that fried her to a crisp. The pcs then decided to take the spiral staircase up to the 3rd floor. On the 3rd floor the found a single tower chamber that was empty except for the carapace skeletons of chasme locust demons. Then the pcs decided to take the final ladder to the 4th floor tower room. Gregor went up first and used Briar to clear the roots and branches. When Gregor looked up into the room what appeared to be a beautiful elf woman attempted to charm him. When that failed the creature used its petrification gaze to turn Gregor to stone.
Erik and the rest of the party charged up the stairs and Erik chopped the hapless medusa to bloody chunks. No one is able to turn Gregor back to flesh and the pcs took a brief respite while they planned their next move. After a rest and discussion the pcs decided to take Gregor-statue to Nyrissa's bathtub to see if that could cure petrification. After this failed Glade asked Wretch to take Briar out of Gregor-statue's hand. With his characteristically sloppy over-use of force, Wretch grabbed the blade and twisted. Gregor's stone hand snapped off. The pcs only traveled a short distance with Wretch carrying Gregor-statue before they heard a Nyrissa's voice announced that she was recalling the Jabberwocky from the Stolen Lands. Soon the pcs heard a large creature smashing its way through the castle. The pcs decided to take their stand against the Jabberwocky on the far side of the balcony-bridge. A hard fought battle then ensued with the Jabberwocky perched precariously on the groaning balcony-bridge while the pcs defended the doorway to the 2nd floor. The Jabberwocky's poison alcohol breath seriously wounded the pcs and nearly killed Glade. The pcs counterattacked protected from the fey-dragon's claws by the thick wooden walls. Eric blocked the Jabberwocky and struck at its head while risking the fangs alone. The other pcs spread out and attacked at range. Glade was overwhelmed by the fey-dragon's fear power and tried to flee but was stopped by Rigby. Despite its size and power the Jabberwocky was slowly bled and weakened. Before the creature could die, Nyrissa teleported into the room and turned Gregor back to flesh. Blood pumped from Gregor's wrist and he passed out. With a mighty blow Eric slew the Jabberwocky and the pcs all turned on Nyrissa. Outnumbered but determined, Nyrissa levitated to ceiling and then cast a wall of thorns spell which caused her to fall. Apparently Nyrissa forgot she had lost the divine ability to concentrate on two spells at time. Between the Jabbarwocky's breath and Nyrissa's wall of thorns Glade was in grave danger so he used his fey powers to retreat to the Crystal Cave. A number of pcs were torn up by the thorns but they surrounded Nyrissa and tore her apart without hesitation or mercy. After Nyrissa's death the ground began to shake and the castle The House at the End of Time began to shudder as if it would collapse. The pcs decided to send half-fey Linkles to the Crystal Cave to tell Glade they had killed Nyrissa and that there was no need for him to use the sphinx's time travel ability.

Friday, January 1, 2016

4760 in Nyrissa's realm of Thousandbreaths in the Firstworld (feyrealm) date unknown

After the pcs successfully complete the ritual they are transported to the Firstworld, specifically Nyrissa's realm of Thousandbreaths. The pcs immediately meet a sphinx by the name of Lorsani. Apparently she is the same fey sphinx that serves in the Crystal Cave. She tells the pcs that they can only enter Thousandbreaths if they answer at least one of three riddles and that furthermore if they answer all three she will use her time powers to send them back at the exact moment that they left. The pcs manage to answer two of the three and Lorsani tells them if they can come up with the answer to the third she will use her time powers when they need to leave. The pcs passed between the two iron golems and enter Thousandbreaths forest. After a short walk the pcs were attacked by animated trees damaged by lightning. The despite their size and strength the living trees are quickly torn apart by the deadly pcs. Another short walk later, the pcs entered a bizarre walled orchard. The orchard trees are growing an impressive crop of huge spikey fruit. As the pcs exited the other side of the orchard they began to realize that the spikey fruit is actually Nyrissa's army of thousands of spikey plantmen. After another short walk the pcs entered a clearing dominated by a great waterfall. There the pcs were attacked by a pair of great winged owlbears. The poor fey carnivores chose the wrong prey and are cut down before they can do any damage. Then the pcs attempted to cross the river on their portable boat in order to take advantage of the short cut to Nyriss's castle, the House at the Edge of time. Unfortunately Nyrissa's magical control of the rivers make this impossible as the harder they paddled the faster the water flowed and the pcs are swept downstream to the frostgiant's longhouse. After disembarking from the boat a talled impressive bleeding grey-ginger haired warrior in red cassock ran to them and collapsed. The warrior had only enough time to greet Eric and give his sword over before he was set upon by a fey creature of nightmare, a huge wendigo. The wendigo disemboweled the warrior and then attacked Eric. The creature was huge and powerful but the pcs ganged up on it and quickly cut it down. After accepting the office of one of Baba Yaga's Riders Eric gained the powers of the Red Rider, called My Red Sun by the planes hopping witch. The pcs decided to attempt to sleep in the giant's longhouse and discovered an act of what appeared to be cannibalism. The pcs attempted to sleep and Linkles was injured by a magical nightmare and Eric was nearly killed. After a long walk the pcs reached the mesa of the evil Nightmare Rook. The gigantic bird dive-bombed the party but the pcs gave such a punishing counter attack that the fey bird fled to Nyrissa's castle. After another long walk the pcs circled around the kraken lake of deadly death, wisely choosing not to awake the sleeping cephalopod titan. Then the pcs climbed a cliff path to the mansion of the Knurly Witch. The witch was in disguise but the pcs were not fooled and soon the witch was begging for mercy but she receive none except a quick death. Then after a short walk the pcs came to a great beehive like hut. After sneaking in the pcs found a giant fey troll eating gnomes. The creature attacked and gave the pcs a beating but it could not stand up to the pcs combined power. The pcs were forced to back track and eventually ended up at a great tower. Inside the tower was a milk maid and her dairy cow. The pcs were not fooled by this illusion and attacked the disguised medusa and gorgon. Dangerous as they are, the two petrifying creatures could be, they were still slain before anyone could be turned into a statue. After a long hike the pcs at last reached Nyrissa's House at the Edge of Time. The curtain wall was patrolled by eladrin ghost archers and the pcs engaged in a ranged duel to defeat them. Two ghosts dropped off the wall attempting to possess the pcs but were repulsed and cut down. Eventually all the elf ghosts were slain. Then a rope was dropped from the curtain wall which only Glade and Gregor could see. In fact it was intangible to the other pcs as well. When Glade and Gregor climbed to the top there they found the flesh golem Wretch. The golem was invisible and intangible to the other pcs but Glade and Gregor had a conversation with it which reportedly concerned how the golem was ignored and mistreated by the two pcs.