(A quick note here, I've added these synopsis for people to go back and remind themselves about what happened or if people come in later and don't want to start at the beginning, they can read these really fast, but they are not a replacement for watching our videos as they are not full descriptions. If you don't want to video, you will miss most of the comedy and all of the fighting as I am not going to do a play by play of each attack. So, please check out our videos)
Day 8 8/3/2022 Episode 15 and 16
The Island
We woke up the next morning. Felix turns into his regular humanoid form. Xander carves Vulkus’ symbol into a rock, and when he finishes, he feels a slight tingle in the back of his head, something he hasn’t felt for a while. It then fades. It feels like contact was attempted but failed. Felix reads his book. Idham is praying and eating. Hawthorn is gathering wood.
We decide to continue exploring the island, heading into the interior. It’s far more forested, with a heavy and dense jungle. As we walk along, it’s just about lunch time when Idham, Felix, and Hawthorn notice some stones, more along the lines of pillars than just random boulders. There are three that they can see. Felix tells us what he sees, and we follow. As we arrive at the first stone, we see it’s ten feet tall, 3 ft diameter, and is definitely a placed stone. Ten feet on either side there are more, and they appear to be making a circle. They are marked with Abyssal. Xander walks up and pushes arcana into a stone, with Hawthorn’s assistance. It gives a little push back, and it doesn’t seem to work. While Gwyn looks at it, they don’t seem to be words. She believes most of them are in the abyssal script but are not words specifically. They are potentially parts of a spell or an enchantment. She does notice one word that says, “Vulkaria.” Azazel, flying above us, does a scan. He sees about 20 or so of these pillars. It looks empty in the middle of the pillars and there only seems to be one circle. The pillars are all identical. Hawthorn decides to cut out a section of rock from the pillar to see if the others get cut as well, but it only works on one. As we reach the middle, we find a small plaque on a raised platform in Abyssal. It says: Pathway to the city of Vulkaria. Mind your head, look out below.
Idham starts to clear the ground a bit and sees polished stone about an inch under the dirt. Hawthorn drops to his knees and starts clearing away the dirt. Felix uses acid on the dirt, and about a 6inch patch appears and the stone is not affected by the acid. We work together to clear the stone, about an hour of time. We clear off a dais about 40ft in diameter. There are no markings on the dais. The stone is 100 percent preserved. There used to be a magic spell on it, but it seems to be gone now. Gwyneira speaks in Abyssal, sparking the magic, which flares and then fades. Hawthorn tries to fix the pillar. Idham is inspecting the pillars and Gwyn feels like the spell is missing something. Xander tries to attack the plaque, to see if he can slide the stand that it’s on. Nothing happens. Idham speaks into Xander’s head, asking about Vulkus. As Xander tells Idham about Vulkus, he feels the tingle again and then it vanishes. Idham tells Xander to sit in the middle of the dais and pray. He feels an incessant and urgent tingle, before it vanishes again. Azazel lands on the dais and looks at the plaque and suddenly is very confused now, and starts to struggle to read Abyssal suddenly. We decided that it may not be a bad idea to finish exploring. Gwyn checks to see if she can tell what is missing, and it seems two things are missing that aren’t in the area. We finish exploring, taking the rest of the day. We came across our first fresh water streams. Otherwise, we don’t come across anything else.
We get back to the camp around 5 pm. Idham works on mortar, Gwyn looks for fruit, Felix is making a song, Xander is watching Idham, and Hawthorn helps Gwyn and they are able to collect some. The song is coming along pretty well. Idham seems to be able to do some stuff with the mortar. Xander’s hand starts to tingle painfully. He pulls it back but then grabs forward as he reaches in and grabs a handful of the mortar, and he starts rubbing it over his hands. His hands start to burn. And then his head starts to tingle. It is stronger and his head hurts from this. Xander yells out to Vulkus, and the presence pushes. Xander yells louder and it pushes again. Idham yells out to Felix and Felix comes over. Xander is clutching his hands and the mortar is all over his arms and his face now. Felix sounds faint to Xander. Felix smacks Xander on the back of the head with his quarterstaff, but Xander only just barely notices it. Xander yells out, “Vulkus stop!” and tries to mentally bridge the gap. The presence pushes harder and hurts him more. Idham pushes Xander toward the ocean. Felix knocks Xander over while Xander is trying to head toward the stone he carved with Vulkus’ name. Felix grabs a bucket of water and dumps it on Xander, and now he’s wet but still covered in mortar. Xander decides to try to let the being, likely Vulkus, try to possess him. Azazel is just watching and smirking. Xander decides to surrender. Felix kicks him in the groin. The presence is not coming through. Idham guides Xander to the rock with the name of Vulkus on it that Xander carved before. This time, Vulkus’ voice booms into his head. She says, “Deep deep through the mountain you go, then you swim down with the flow. Then to the sky, away you go. Last to the city, forgotten below.”
Gwyn and Hawthorn return with food for a few days, and Xander is lying on the ground gasping for breath. Gwyn cleans him off. Xander yells at Felix. Xander tells Idham what he was told. He then crawls into his tent to go to sleep. Idham and Felix chat. We all turn in for the night.
It’s been 3 days since the ship left. Gwyn makes a hoe for Ringo, and Hawthorn and Gwyneira try to bring the stream closer to camp. We get it about a quarter of a mile, with it starting a mile away. Idham meditates and prays on the harmonica. Xander just sleeps and Felix keeps watch over his brother. Azazel meditates as well, trying to contact his people. Idham and Felix chat. Felix meditates on the staff.
We woke up the next day. Xander doesn’t feel like he got steamrolled anymore. Gwyneira, Felix, and Azazel all pretend to be old to mess with Xander. Xander and Felix bicker. We do our morning routine. We decided to head to the mountains. It takes most of the morning, til 10 am, to get to the cave in the mountain.
The Cave
Strong magic emanates from the cave, a spell of warding as we come to find. Idham tries to walk through, and feels resistance, but is able to push through as the spell has faded a lot. He sees a rock with a rune on it and tries to scratch a line in it. Felix stays outside as the rest of us push through to be with Idham. He slashes a line with his carving knife and the wall falls and Felix walks through. Xander casts daylight down the hall. We begin a trek down and come to a threeway fork. Felix throws a rock. Gwyn looks to see if any of the paths are more worn down, but not really. Xander feels more arcane on the left than the other two. Idham only feels wind from behind and Hawthorn sees wear on the path to the right.
We head to the left first, heading toward the magic. We begin walking and very quickly it becomes dark. We can see with the daylight spell, but there is no light source. We don’t see any of the water that we heard with Felix’s rock throw, and we don’t see the rock. Gwyn and Felix look for the shimmer, and see that different sections of the walls do, but it’s intermittent. Azazel reaches toward one of the shimmers, and his hand just goes through. He steps halfway through. He plunges his face through, and he sees something pretty. It’s blue and sparkly. Idham passes through and after his eyes adjust he sees pinpricks of blue light. They look to be 30 or 40 ft. He thinks he’s in a cavern with a rock tunnel. Idham has Azazel fly him to the lights. Xander turns off the daylight and heads through. Felix stumbles and gets through the illusion, but Gwyn just heads forward, lost in the dark. Hawthorn is on the other side as well. Idham sees that the wall is like a geode and something inside the stone is giving off the light. He tries to pick one. He pulls the rock down and the light starts to fade so he tries to pull it open. It cracks in half and the glow lights up and bursts out for a moment before it recedes. Gwyn calls for help and Xander steps back through and sees Gwyn stumbling around. He grabs her shoulder and she throws a punch at him. He says it’s Xander and so he helps her and Ringo through.
We find ourselves in a large cavern with a large tunnel the length of the room. Idham takes some of the rocks. Xander goes to see if the tunnel continues past the cavern, and he thinks he has continued past. He comes back and tells us it keeps going. We head back into the tunnel. Idham lights a torch. Xander casts daylight. We continue down the hall for five minutes. We come across another shimmering patch, all around. Azazel flies straight up. He says it looks the same as the other room, but we can’t hear him, so Gwyn tells him to come back. It doesn’t feel like there is more magic ahead of us. It was probably just the shimmer. As we talk, from ahead of us, we hear the sound of something in front of us. Idham pulls Hawthorn through the wall, and the rest of us follow. The sounds continue and finally, a blue spider sticks its head through the wall.
Day 9 8/10/2022 Episode 17
The Cave
We fight as spiders come to attack us from all angles. We fight and win, and spend a minute healing wounds. Gwyneira feels shadow energy and knows that there is a portal to the shade somewhere close by. We take a short rest and head back down the tunnel.
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