PBEM Orlantia

Campaign 2002

TIME LINE

16/02/728. Homeward bound, at night, the Exador strikes two icebergs in rapid succession. Only manning the pumps 24 hours/day is keeping them afloat upon the cold, iceberg-laden waters, as they limp toward home, desperately seeking safe harbor.

16/05/728. An icy fog rolls in, obscuring the Exador's course amid the icebergs. Panic grips the crew when all realize they are doomed if they should strike another iceberg. At a dead slow, they can barely make out the icebergs in the cold gray fog, and the decks and riggings become thick with ice. Come nightfall, sails are struck down and the Exador is allowed to drift with the current.

Far to the northeast, in the small village of Liothele, Afyanna d'Enthril has a vision during the night.

Meanwhile, the crew of the Exador prays and makes sacrifices to the gods of the sea. Toward dawn, they see a vision - a silvery, crescent shaped light that guides them to the safe harbor of Liothele.

16/06/728. The Exador arrives at Liothele.

16/08/728. Afyanna agrees to go along with the Exador to Tarren, as a favor for the mayor, and as a possible means to understand her vision.

16/18/728. After 10 more days, the repairs are finished and the ship is fully loaded. Afyanna and the crew are ready, so the Exador sets sail for Tarren.

17/14/728. The weather breaks and the long cold snap finally relents. Things begin to warm up early, also slightly ahead of schedule.

17/15/728. Tyrulf sets off on his 5-day journey to Tarren, traveling as a guard for the shipment of iron ore.

17/19/728. Sefarlain emerges from the cave where he had wintered and begins to head east toward what he surmises is a large city. Along the way, he finds a dead human who had been trampled to death under mysterious circumstances.

17/20/728. The Exador sails into the recently opened Zephyr Bay after its 22-day journey. Tyrulf enters Tarren and finishes his business. Valin goes into town. Sefarlain enters Tarren. Cosher and Afyanna come ashore and meet Sef, and the trio travels to the Copper Keg by coach. There, they meet Tyrulf, Valin, and Mystir - all of whom had arrived there for their own reasons. Since all of them could do with sagely advice, they travel to Nick Shereef's place for a visit. Afterwards, they do some shopping to prepare for a hard journey, and Afyanna learns a cold snap is still in the wind and winter is not yet done.

18/01/728. The group spends the day equipping themselves and resting for the journey ahead.

18/02/728. Leaving Tarren, they head along the King's Highway for most of the day, then divert to follow the lake shore for the remainder of the day, traveling perhaps 24 miles due to good roads. They end up in Goldenbow and meet Sir Eric Ornatep, where they spend the night as his guests.

18/03/728. Setting out with gifts, one of them a magical weapon's oil treatment, they arrive at Nidville and bed down in shanty-like shacks, spending a miserable night.

The 'Dirty Pair' hire on to do a job for a nobleman.

18/04/728. The day is uneventful for the main group until they get to Fecklar and enter the Blue Raccoon.

Jahar and Bebe arrive in Fecklar and bed down at Barney's after completing the job in Idun's name.

Alana goes into Fecklar for sugar that morning, but returns to find her friends dead as evening falls. She spends a miserable and sorrow filled night in the chicken coop after burying her friends, the Lovejoys.

18/05/728. Alana arrives in town with the news of the Lovejoy's demise, and quickly sets off on her quest for justice. The local buzz gets around and the rest hear of this news. Making their way to the scene, an investigation reveals the grave site and Alana's tracks leading southwest. Giving chase, they catch up by noon and Alana joins them. Continuing southwest, before nightfall, a wicked blizzard hits and begins to take its awful toll. They almost die, but Lucian the cat finds a sinkhole they manage to use as shelter, and they ride out the storm there.

18/06/728. After the vicious ice storm, the party walks the whole day through Nature's frozen wonders before making camp just short of Hooktar.

Febriwyn finds the traders' camp and 'cleans' up the mess before heading east and then west.

18/07/728. By noon, they arrive in Hooktar. Speaking to the sheriff, they learn about the widespread carnage the 'thing' is causing across the countryside. They plan to leave for Wrath and Joad in the morning, but while taking in the night air that evening, Sefarlain and Jahar are attacked by a nightmare. Sef escapes death by diving into the river, but Jahar is stomped to death. The others arrive too late to do anything.

Febriwyn D'leorn arrives in town late and offers his help.

18/08/728. In the morning they bury Jahar Flinn in the orchard outside Hooktar. Febriwyn trades his recently acquired wagon and old horse for the promise of a quality stone marker for Jahar's grave. 'Jahar Flinn. May His Adventures Continue.'

The remainder of the day is spent traveling to Joad, and when just outside its range, they send in two scouts, Sef and Wyn, to see what can be seen, but they return to report only that Joad seemed deserted. The night passed.

18/09/728. After a hearty breakfast made by Alana, they hurry into Joad and are surprised to find its inhabitants had been hiding out in caves, and that they had been under siege by the nightmare since the previous summer. Inquiries prove informative, if not particularly helpful, and that night they battle the nightmare, fighting to a draw before it retreats by flying away into the night. Wounds are magically healed, and the villagers set off and desperately try to make it to Hooktar since they feel the nightmare will be otherwise engaged with the party for at least two nights.

18/10/728. Morning comes and rain threatens the scene on a much much warmer, overcast day. Following a scent on the wind detected by Brambles, they find the lost Moonstone Temple, do a cursory search, but discover no nightmare. A magical, blue-white field of energy gives Afyanna a vision from the past regarding Joree Sheen's battle and sacrifice. They find the journal of Anlashok, which explains much, and hurry back to Joad to prepare for battle. The impending thunderstorm breaks, and the nightmare appears and attacks, nearly killing Afyanna, but retreats before it is too badly wounded, and flies back to Moonstone Temple. Following, the party discover it is using the soul field there to heal itself, and feeling depleted and outmatched from their earlier battle, they retreat to the caves.

Horton finally reveals the town's secret to Afyanna when she vows to keep it as best she can.

18/11/728. In the morning, the party returns to the temple, sees the nightmare isn't present, and checks the vault of iniquities, discovering it is intact and sealed. They venture down the east hall along an old underground river tunnel and eventually discover an entrance to the catacombs, wherein they discover - as confessed by Horton - millions of racked bottles of wine, the near sum of Joad's wealth. They also find Lucian, who had apparently discovered the catacombs on his own.

Then they all return to the temple and decide to drop the soul field. They do so, release Joree's soul, and fight the Timber within, eventually killing it. Unfortunately, the nightmare shows up just as that battle ends and so another battle begins.

After a brief exchange, the wounded party retreats to the secret stairwell, gaining a brief rest and stabilizing the two fallen dwarves. When it seems the nightmare will soon breach the secret door, it stops. Investigating this occurrence, they discover the nightmare took time to chase Lucian - who had taken Joree's Continual Light rock and run into the pantry. There, they fight the nightmare with a successful surprise attack and, after a battle worthy of bardic lore, vanquish the nightmare. Surprisingly, upon its defeat or demise, it seems to transform into a small, roughly quadrupedally shaped figurine.

They limp back to Joad and discover Joree's soul within the statue is waiting for them, and they ask many questions and obtain a few badly wanted answers.

18/12/728. Once Joree departs, they rest, heal, and return to the temple. Placing Joree's remains in the catacombs, they search the temple and rest and heal some more.

18/13/728. Spending the night, after they get back their full compliment of spells, they depart in the morning with all they have found and head out to Hooktar.

18/15/728. They arrive in Hooktar and find the refugees had safely made it, and after telling the sheriff the beast was dead - much to the relief of the entire community - they spend the night in camp outside of town, preserving the venison of a buck Sef has downed earlier that day.

18/17/728. Toward nightfall, they arrive at Fecklar, Alana visits the Lovejoy's graves, and the others spend time at the Blue Raccoon. Soon all return to camp and spend the night speaking of cantrips and orisons, listening to Mystir lecture them on the subject.

18/19/728. After two days' travel, they reach Goldenbow and spend the night with Sir Eric Ornatep.

18/20/728. They depart Goldenbow and arrive at Tarren by nightfall, spending the evening at the Copper Keg.

19/01/728. At Shereef's, they learn from the sage something of the item of wondrous power, and the first edition of The Emerald Soul. They book passage on the A.I.V Raven, scheduled to depart for Alodar on the 7th. Returning to the inn, they discuss long into the night how best to divide up their wealth.

19/02/728. Valin returns that evening and all learn the king has generously purchased The Emerald Soul for an unexpected 14,000 GP. They surmise the king's generosity was based partly upon learning the group had taken care of a problem he was about to look into, and so had effectively saved the king quite a bit of money. Regardless of why, they happily split the platinum coins up, each receiving 155 of them, the 5 remaining coins going into the party fund. The king's wizard also promised to identify their two magic items, as a favor for the king. They spend the next few days apart, each doing various things in the city of Tarren, waiting for Valin to return with news.

19/06/728. Valin returns once more and tells all he has learned of the magic items. They split up money based on the items' values, and issues IOU's for departing members. Then they say their goodbyes, and Valin departs the party.

19/07/728. The remaining 8 members board the A.I.V. Raven and head for Alodar, after having finished all immediate business in Tarren. They spend the next few weeks teaching and learning skills.

20/20/728. There is a general ship wide party to celebrate the High Holy Day, and normal ship activities, while continuing, are slack as the crew makes merry for 2 days.

01/07/729. Scheduled to make port on the morrow, Afy calls a meeting to decide who will be each magic item's steward.

01/08/729. Making the port in Alodar, the group finally splits up and goes their separate ways - each to gain training in their own fields of specialty. The promise of each member's return still binds them together, however, and they plan to meet back in Alodar at the appointed time. They do not know why, exactly, or what they might do then, but all there agree, come what may, they would rather be together than apart, or work as a team than as individuals, in a hard world of uncertain dangers.

The End (of scenario #1).

Scenario #2 to soon follow.