(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 14 1/10/2023 Episode 16 and 17
Episode 16
The Hidden Fortress
Upon entering, we feel a tingly sensation over our bodies. We also realize that it is much warmer here than on the other side of the barrier. There is also a rapid turning in our stomachs and all of us but Sterling vomit on the bright green grass in front us, that is odd in this region. When we recover, we look around and see a bright and shining sun, and the area is eerily quiet, though everything seems very much alive, with leafy trees and the bright green grass. In front of us is an ancient castle that appears to be mostly standing. It is a ways away though. As we stand there, looking around us, we all experience the feeling of hope here. Upon glancing behind us we see an obvious shimmer that does look like where we left, and on the other side is snow on the ground, dead branches, and pine needles.
As the rest of us look around, Caleigh starts to get some strange feelings, these three things in particular, which is the touch of three different deities, one quite faint and surrounding the entire land, and she recognizes the touch of Vulkus. The second is a deity that she hasn’t made a full connection with in a while, Maris. The next one is from a specific item or being, is Atae. Caleigh starts walking towards the castle, almost in a trance. We trail after her, trying to call to her, but she doesn’t notice us. Artimious jogs up to her and puts a hand on her shoulder, snapping her out of it. She looks at him and he walks to the other side and does it on her other shoulder too. Caleigh explains to us that she feels like she has to go inside. She asks Rayvvin if they feel it too, and they do feel a stronger connection with Vulkus here, more than they have in quite a while, in fact, since leaving Gainsworn, their homeland. Caleigh heads forward again and Rayvvin follows her.
Artimious extends his senses and finds that there isn’t much magic here. Rayvvin checks as well and only feels the magical wall behind us. But also, there is also a very powerful magical presence as a barrier coming from the castle. The feeling of Vulkus is much closer as we get to the castle, but not an active touch. The feeling of the magic from the castle grows as we get closer to it. We walk for about ten minutes, seeing the castle more clearly the closer we get. What we come to realize is it’s quite a large castle, almost a fortress, with a stone wall surrounding it. It’s in relatively good shape, though patches of the wall are quite damaged. We are seeing noticeably more wear and tear on the castle itself as we approach. We get an ever growing sense that this castle and the area around it are truly ancient, maybe even older than the fall of Taba, easily thousands of years old. We also have seen no more signs of animal life, sentient or not, only thriving plant life. We arrive at what appears to be the main outer gate in the wall. Caleigh stops. She senses no malice, just hope, but she gets the inkling of slight foreboding from this beacon of energy to Atae. Maris and Atae are married and the only two deities that are married to a deity. Abcde asks Caleigh to tell us about what she’s feeling so we know what’s going on. She tells us.
The gate is worn and weathered and slightly cracked open so we could likely get through. Caleigh steps forward and opens the door, and we all proceed into the courtyard. Upon entering, we find that the courtyard is beautiful and still thriving though it does look in disrepair as things are broken, with boulders lying about. Caleigh steps forward first. Our horses seem to be in a pretty happy state and not agitated which we take as a good sign. We head over to the stable, leading the horses through the gate. When we open the door we see five ghosts inside. They appear to be just milling around, doing menial tasks that they can’t actually accomplish. The floor is quite crumbled and damaged underneath us. Rayvvin knows that ghosts are the spirits of departed beings. For a ghost to exist like this, there must be a strong connection to something from the material realm. Caleigh takes a step into the stable with her horse. The ghosts ignore her. Rayvvin follows suit, and they do the same. Caleigh puts her hand on one of their shoulders, and they continue to ignore her.
Abcde and Chodrak stand in the courtyard, Abcde having just let their horse go to run around. The well does still have water, and it looks to be safe. They feel very much taken in by the realism in the statue that Everlee is next to. It is a statue of a tiefling woman. The emotion on her face, the surprise, looks very realistic. Everything about her looks realistic. There is another statue as well, they find, which also appears to be the same quality. After Rayvvin and Caleigh come back out of the stable, we all start checking out these statues, and Rayvvin doesn’t know of any other statues of this quality of work. There are also no kinds of signatures, and Caleigh doesn’t recognize the tiefling as anyone she knows, and Abcde doesn’t feel any magic on it. Caleigh touches the statue, and it feels uncharacteristically warm. We head over to the carriage house to check it out.
The carriage house is in the most disrepair. Pieces of the roof and floor have given way. There isn’t a carriage, but there is another statue. It’s of a gnome, kind of hunched with hands over their head. Caleigh and Rayvvin come to the conclusion that we don’t know of any spell or anything that would cause someone to turn into a statue. Maybe a petrification, but not a mass area spell. Maybe a basilisk? Caleigh and Rayvvin look into the holes in the floor. Rayvvin sees what looks to be a crawl space. Caleigh sees a tunnel in a different hole, and it is leading toward the castle. Maybe an escape tunnel. Caleigh drops in. Artimious stands above that hole, keeping an eye on Caleigh. She sees lights running along the top of the tunnel that are lit. They aren’t flickering light torch lights, and it has these ropes going from one to the other. She goes down the path slightly and finds it goes a ways, and looks intentional but has no tool marks so likely done with magic. Someone probably wasn’t breaking in, but it’s hard to tell if it’s an escape tunnel. Caleigh tells us it’s just a tunnel. Rayvvin stands in front of a trap door and they try to pull but the handle comes off and the door crumbles. It’s a storage area. It’s too old to be useful.
Episode 17
The Hidden Castle
We head over to the other row of buildings. Rayvvin peaks in a window, looking into the living room of a house. It is also quite worn down. There are two more statues inside. Rayvvin goes to open the door in an attempt to check the space out. Caleigh checks the second building, likely a chapel, and Abcde does the last. Everlee and Rayvvin are checking the house. Artimious and Caleigh look at the chapel. Abcde, Chodrak, and Sterling check what seems to be a smithery. There is a trap on the smithery door, but Abcde is able to disarm the trap and Chodrak steps in. Inside is indeed a smithery with one of the same automata that we saw in the magical smithery. At the door opening, it turns around and steps to talk to them. He wants repair and authentication. Abcde and Sterling enter the room. They search around and find it to be derelict. Anything that was of use is no longer there. The robot is stutteringly following behind them. He says it’s been more than 3,000 years since he has been serviced and wants us to find his brethren.
Rayvvin and Everlee walk in to see the tables are set, but there is no food in them. One statue is cowering in the corner and the other looks like it was running toward the door. Rayvvin hears some rustling from behind a door and a soft thump. Rayvvin calls out the door of the house to their companions as a thumping gets louder. Caleigh opens the door to the chapel, and inside she sees a large spider. The spider shoots out two strands of webs from its mouth. Caleigh knocks it away, but Artimious gets hit square in the chest with it and is pulled into the room. They fight the spider, with Artimious able to get out of the room. Abcde, Sterling, and Chodrak run down to assist Caleigh. Rayvvin and Everlee leave the room and Rayvvin freezes the door shut. Then they run to assist in the fight. We fight the spider and kill it. As we win, we hear a crash down below us and Rayvvin leaves the room and all but Caleigh run to see what it is. Caleigh checks the room and sees it is indeed a chapel and then leaves. Looking through the window, Rayvvin sees a basilisk. Seeing this, Rayvvin quickly averts their eyes and warns their allies. We plan as it moves closer to the window. We are able to gather as we talk about it that it’s not moving right as they tend to move faster than this. It doesn’t look to be in good shape and is likely very very very old. We believe that basilisks can’t die of age, but we don’t know if that theory has been tested. We also know that basilisks are immune to lightning and cold, and resistant to fire, and if they have thick hide, resistant to physical, though this one does not have thick hide. We decide to fight it and we attack. We win and it dies. The statues melt away, turning into living beings.
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