Valiance, 2nd Journal

These entries track the events after the party have returned to Faerun after exiting the portal, from the lens of Valiance Greystone.

Entry 1
Lost my old journal somewhere, probably back on the other side of the portal.

In the night, Rhoken went a bit crazy and tried to kill Graathos. We buried him down there and marked the place with a shovel. Once done with that, we climbed out of the digged out area. There was still some signs of life off to the west, but more importantly, a castle to the north a few miles. Heading there, they were of the Bojrn line. Once inside, their priest of a god, Telos, cast a zone of truth around and we told our unbelievable tale. It had been 134 years since we’d been in. Not much had changed since.

Speaking with the priest afterwards, we informed him of the divine crystal we were carrying, and the crystals within us. He found we were not a danger to others.

The next day, the lady of the castle, Norn Bojrn took us out hunting. We felled a moose, then tracked a dire bear to its lair and killed it. Not right for a creature like that to feast on intelligent beings.

We carried the body to a nearby village, where they fashioned me a helmet from the bear skull, a mantle from its body, and gloves from its paws. Two weeks hence, we’ll be taking a caravan to Phlan, hoping to offload this crystal to the Royal Academy of Cormyr. Will have to watch Graathos though, seems peculiar and doesn’t understand how people don’t trust things without skin.

Entry 2
We finished hunting, then waited at the castle for a few days. Learned that way in the past, the great glacier was caused by an ice queen, upon her death, the glacier grew until her amulet was destroyed. Also learned that recently, minotaurs had enslaved people, but Telos gave power to the warlock knights, who overthrew the minotaurs and killed many people, then enslaved the minotaurs. Also overheard that Graathos had some long standing loans, wonder if they can still be collected.

Once the caravan arrives, the elderly caravan leader, Bathazar Alario, gives us the rundown.

We start heading south, with Graathos raising some skeletons to water the crystal. We notice the storm becoming larger, so Zev sent out his owl to scout. The creatures had hatched and were creating a portal. We had word was sent to the Warlock Knights and we headed towards it. The storm got much too violent, so we headed back to the town. We left with the caravan the next day. The following night at a fort, Graathos tried to “attune” to the crystal, and just burned his hands a bunch. The next day, I spotted a gnoll scout. We headed out with some caravan guards to send them off, and partially got caught in an ambush. They didn’t wanna die too well, but they stayed down after a while. Have one captive too.

Entry 3
Got back with the captive gnoll, but we couldn’t talk to it. When I went to challenge it to combat, it attacked me as I cut it loose, so I knocked it out. Ended up just killing it and burying him. We reached a village of earth works, learned they were being over taxed. Few days later, made it to a city. Found a gnome to make make the pot a bit more mechanical, so it has a release valve for steam, and a way of inserting water without taking off the lid. Also found someone who could enchant my bear skin, but they were closed for the day.

Once back at the caravan, we were told of work to collect taxes to the north, and that the taxes were being collected to pay for mercenaries to kill gnolls. Instead, we asked to talk to Lord Thyroc, and convinced him to pay us to kill the gnolls instead, for 25gp a scalp. Back at the camp, we easily convinced Bathazar to stay for a 10 day while we hunt gnolls. As I started heading to sleep, Graathos stepped on my hand, heading off to town for some reason. Following him, he was with a drunk Charm, trying to convince her to sleep at a brothel? Guess he didn’t know charm was a woman. He headed back to the caravan with Charm, realizing he had a bad idea. The next morning, we headed out to the gnoll encampment, called the Hack Ear Tribe, off to the east.

Getting there after a few days, we formulated a plan to limit their movement with a growth of plants, then have me charging around, drinking the exploding potions, with Charm doing the same from a distance. It was hit and miss, but once they ran out of javelins, we had them.

Entry 4
The trip back to the caravan and city was easy. We headed up to the lord's manor, where Zev and I turned over the scalps and earned a pretty penny. We also dubbed our group the Crimson Flame, on account of all the fire. After shopping for replacement goods, we had a decent party before the caravan left the next day.

On the road, we came across a carriage on the side, where a man and woman, Afan and Girtrude Thorgidorts, told a story of tattooed dwarves with red beards attacking the caravan. We headed out in the night to scout for the cause and came across a goblin sleeping in the road. After capturing him, he told us his name was Grabba, and he served a hill giant named Aara, Protector of the Mountain. Charm was lead to see Aara, to find out about a hammer, and if she knew about the dwarves. Once she returned, Charm told us of a quest to retrieve a hammer from Aara’s brother, Norrin, off to the east near a waterfall, and that the red beards were lead by Khorneh.

We left early in the morning, Grabba, and a new goblin, Jabba, in tow. Soon after, we saw signs of the struggle the Thorgidorts told us of. Zev scouted around and saw that the red beards were holed up in a valley to the north, about 30 of them. We continued up the mountain and soon encountered Norrin, we told him of his sisters need for the hammer, and gave it to us, asking we return it within a time limit, or we’d be hunted. We hurried back to Aara, handed over the hammer, and are now on our way back to the caravan with all haste.

Entry 5
We reached the caravan just as they were preparing to camp for the night. We let Bathazar know more about the events unfolding between the giants and the dwarves before resting. The following morning, we made a plan to follow behind the caravan and off the road to the north, to be a potential ambush to the ambushers.

We did not get ambushed, instead, a spirit bear appeared to me and bade us to follow. Doing so, it lead us to a cave carved with runes protecting it from forms of detection.

Following a carved stairway down, we reached an underground river filled with glowing fish and sharks. Following the river, we came across a chest with a solid gold statuette of a monkey in a sitting position, some type of communication circles, a crystal syphoning water from the end of the river, and some egg sacks to purple worms surrounding a warm stone.

Charm stepped onto one of the circles and began communicating with someone on the other side, wanting information about our location and the year. Walking around the outer edge of the cavern, I made my way to the other circle and stepped in as well. I witnessed many ratmen, collared and working in farms. When questioned about clockwork elves, one of them sent away for an elf. I gathered very little information about the going ons, but learned that the clockwork elves were known as the Voy'Nix, and they were following someone named Aresh. Realizing I wasn’t apart of the effort taking place, they sent away for one of the voy'nix, however, when I mentioned we had the “god crystal” and it was cracked, and how the voy'nix had turned against them, he hurriedly said I should head to General Oumu in chult, 6 years from now.

Once I exited, I met up with the others and exchanged information. Everyone had a moment with the circle, speaking with various people throughout the time. Graathos saw the end before we left, Zev saw the migration of people to the area and learned of the sun being destroyed, and Charm learned of an Aarda stationed in Hulburg, but dealing with work in Glister and the Wailing Tower.

Some other bits of information: Mulhorand is local group 39; Vaasa is local group 23; Aarda has a very old wizard, likely still around, and would have some sending stones; Charm has started a war in the recent past.

As we left, we took the golden statue with us. I wonder what the bear has to say about all this.

Entry 6
Whelp, stepped onto a portal I shouldn't have. Got teleported back to when the evacuation was happening. Tried to convince a dwarf to be cautious, but didn't work out. When talking with a gnome, they lead me into a Rose Granite Pyramid. Saw a stone creature with adamantium claws called a guardian, the gnome said it can produce food and water, as well as teleport people. He then left me to wander.

Looking around, I stumbled across a library. The librarian spoke the names of books to this mirror and produced books for me related to the voy'nix. In the short time I had to read them, I found out how the unity wars, what happened to the gods, and how the voy'nix were formed.

Entry 7
Got back to my party, found out they had some fun with the red beard dwarves and started a few fires at Ilinver before rescuing some elderly. Turns out the dwarves have been taking slaves, as most of the working age people were gone. We spent the night before touring the city, then quickly sent a message to Bathazar before heading east along the road with a plan to head off the ones leading the slaves. We planned to be ambush giving noble disguises to Graathos and Charm, and we sure were. On the dwarven bodies, we found a map with a location to the dwarven encampment, and a note describing the ambush was looking for a different couple and their son.

Entry 8
Had a discussion with Graathos about fresh bodies being used. It's just creepy! Then we followed the map to its destination. Once disguised, we lead in some skeletons and I used some magic potion to convince a dwarf to be in love with me. I'm on a tour of the excavation the dwarves are performing right now, and hope the rest of the party is doing okay. I know they got one of the cages of slaves free. Oh right, they're using slaves to excavate their city. Also saw a giant hammer of gold, I'm guessing that the giants stole one of them.

Entry 9
It's been some time. We've freed most of the slaves, but couldn't free them all. The city was more populated than we could have imagined. The forges were being used to craft adamantine objects, and the voy'nix even showed up. The dwarves seem to have made a deal with the voy'nix. We made our escape thanks to some badgers and fording a river. Zev has sent out his owl to contact Aara, hopefully, with for-warning, they'll be able to do something.

Entry 10
We split up, Zev and I leading the refugees to a town south of Ilinver named Rivers End, Charm and Graathos heading back to Ilinver to warn them the dwarves were on the move. We encountered a few griffons and took care of them. When we met up again Charm wasn't in good spirits and there was few that had followed them. We warned the fort of the dwarves actions and learned of some things we could help with in the area.

First, we headed off to take care of some griffons, 6 in total, we killed a pair of them once again. On the way, we came across a sheep farmer who was being harassed by geese. Looking into why they were so aggressive, I guess the geese were intelligent. Had runes carved around their nesting area, casting spells and such.

Next stop, the town to the west of the fort. A pair of old soldiers were killed with tiny cuts. Have an idea it might be the voy'nix, and am worried there might be more.

Entry 11
As we were carving up the two griffons, another flock could be heard. the party hid and I called them down. Charm seemed to have recovered and was able to join in. We took down another 4 in total, one of them quite large. Checking out the nest, we came across some eggs about to hatch. I'll be tending over a black one, about a ten day to hatch, and a green one, about a month to hatch.

Making our way back to Rivers End, Bathazar had hired some refugees for guard work, and we sold the griffon heads for a decent sum. We were even offered a job by the lord of the manor to stay for the season, but we've got other things to do. Graathos says he'll need a week to make something with one of the dead griffon eggs, so we're gonna spend some time looking into murders at the town for longer than we had planned. It'll be good to spend this time, I think.

Entry 12
After spending a night at Rivers End, a storm quite like the one up in Vaasa. Zev found out some witches were killed at a monastery, so we're investigating. On the way, the storm started washing out the bridge. Some travelers, an old lady and a younger one, were scared to cross it by Graathos, don't know if they made it. Decided to cross some hills to get to the monastery, and once we got to see the eye, some magic happened. I was turned into a giant ape, then enlarged so I could lift the cart and then be turned to mist, so the cart could easily get across.

Once back to normal, the surrounding land looked fine, but the people in the town were behaving weird, likely under a spell. We found someone from the tower too, drunk Jim, and the artificer. Jim had the crystal cut out, but let us know they were scattered around by the voy'nix. We're having him look over the cart. When we met with the artificer, we sold off the golden monkey statue we found and basically bought out their shop.

Heading north to the monastery, we were stopped by a guard, something about a curfew. He called some friends, but nobody liked him. The penalty for breaking curfew was death, so we had to fight our way out, left three alive.

Entry 13
We reached the top of the hill and the monastery. There, it seemed voy'nix were working on the building. Sneaking inside, I saw a rather large one and some prisoners splayed out on tables. The large one saw me as I was sneaking out and shot some type of green stuff at me. I got out of the building and we killed any voy'nix that were around before reviving the prisoners.

They changed to different people, so we explained the crystals to them, then found a map and a secret tunnel beneath an altar. Following the map, we decided to head to a temple, but got a bit side-tracked, at some other humans and dwarves and voy'nix pretending to be saviors. The humans surrendered and escaped through a secret passage way, while we killed any voy'nix. The dwarves were too stubborn and were dragged into a pit. Found out the earth around the place is regenerating the voy'nix as well, like they're mining it.

Ran from a larger group of voy'nix, found a side passage, got a behir angry, and some spiders, but found a nice sword before coming across a orb portal thing. Going through it, it seemed we were in some type of way-station with portals around Faerun. Smashed some traps and got something for Graathos, he's looking unusual, think its the crystals he keeps licking. Found some research notes as well, and a time slowing thingy. Still need to get to the temple and get back to the town before heading south again. Going to rest here for a bit though, Charm has an idea she wants to try out. Something about setting a teleportation to this room for later use.

Entry 14
The behir came through the orb portal. It was rather angry, but we took care of it. We then hid in an alcove behind a statue to rest. The voy'nix we saw before chased after us to this way station, but we evaded them and went back through the orb. I smashed some crystals around it, and I think that destroyed the orb.

We then headed back to the chasm bridge and found the humans that had ran from us, they told us where the catacombs were. Exploring them, we came across some humanoid skeletons with decaying crystals in them, and a few voy'nix. One was guarding a forge for some reason. We gathered some slag, Graathos did some bone things, and we rested. Afterwards, I smashed the pipe for the forge and the basin, quickly, lava emerged and spread. We ran and found some stairs up with a wide hallway covered with sleeping mushrooms and some coffins in the side alcoves. One of them had a ghost! Graathos took care of the ghost and I picked up a pretty nice robe. We hurried through the mushrooms, as the lava seemed to still be coming, and saw a portal setup with controls.

Going through, we saw it was back on the time tomb, the room with the potions and the book. They had setup a large crystal to power it. I got myself some ham sandwiches and found a book that was protected by a stand. Getting to read it hurt quite a bit, but the book turned out to be a history of the voy'nix and their actions, might prove useful. I left a note for who I presume was Doctor Emile, then we went back through the portal. Zev modified it, and we appeared in the shop that was going to fix up the crystal device. It was before morning and no one was around, left a note for them thanking them for the work, then woke Jim, and headed back to the small town with the horses. The storm had grown to encompass it.

We waited around for 6 days, for Graathos to have his weird griffon statue made, and a mechanism hooked up to the cart to have it move by itself. We also picked up a carriage. As we prepared to head out, Zev spotted a flying ship! Alerting the wizard, he called the guard, seems they were likely slavers or pirates. We left in a hurry, as we needed to get to Cormyr as quickly as possible. It seems they were likely under siege, and the book had outlined key locations across Faerun that they needed to control. We reached Phlan in a day, and Zev found a chartered ship for us that promised to take us nearly to the capital of Cormyr. Only hope nothing bad happens on the way.

Entry 15
The ship we chartered was owned by a rather self-important older gentleman by the name of Fancis Frank Fransiuox. The crew was his family and a loincloth wearing individual by the name of Karth. We avoided some setbacks on the way including; ignoring whales by Charms suggestion, which I had never seen before; pirates that Graathos sunk the ship of; being kicked off before our destination that Zev negotiated us out of; and a rather large storm that Karth and I steered the boat through once the captain and his brother were knocked unconscious. The mast had broke, but we had recovered it.

Once we exited the storm, we found that we had passed some form of mindflayer spire. One of the griffon eggs had also hatched, and has attached itself to Charm. While waiting for the locks to be prepared, we stopped in Elmwood and got a few goods and a training manual. We are now in Westgate, and will try to find some vessel to take us to Suzail or near about.

Entry 16
Upon arriving in Westgate, the ship was impounded for smuggling and the crew arrested. Looking around town, no ship was available for transport and we couldn't convince the Purple Dragon Knights to lend us a ship, so we headed to Accardi. Once there, Graathos got some scrying earrings from an old lady for some amount of gold, whom I followed. Luck would have it, she was attacked by some thug children. Helping her, I carried her back home. Her dead husband had a ship that was no longer in use that she sold me. We now have a ship that can take us to the keep. Zev also found a run down row boat we could use for ballast.

On our way out, we were stopped on ship by Cormyrian navy, told them we're mercenary going to the keep and Suzail to help. Gave us a coin denoting us as working with Corymerian military.

Got to the shore, told Jim to wait 4 days for a message before doing as he wishes. We snuck up to the keep the mages were being kept at. Voy'nix were patrolling the outdoors, my spirit bear told me of the humans unconscious inside.

Entry 17
After resting, we prepared to travel magically up the side of the tower. Waiting for a patrol to go by, we flew quickly towards the lawn where we hastily fell. Graathos dug a tunnel to the wall, which wasn't well supported. But we got to the wall, then into the sewers. There, we found some voy'nix we surprised, and some purple dragon knights who assisted us in defeating a few. Some of them were casters and half voy'nix. Seems they wanted to drain the sewers to recover something below.

Heading upstairs, they took care of some voy'nix along the way. At the top, we opened some chamber doors to some voy'nix and unconscious council members. Defeating the voy'nix, we resuscitated the war mages.

Entry 18
New recruit, seems they were looking for a book when the voy'nix appeared. We headed up to the top of the tower, they had an unstable portal thing coming into place. We defeated them, but it was quite the fight. The portal thing grew out of control, but luckily it didn't explode. Hopefully, the warmages can do something about it.

Now to get them the god crystal and let them know about what we know.

Entry 19

So, it wasn't actually the goddess of magic that was trapped in the crystal, but an avatar that was a worshipper of the goddess that had trapped the gods power within them. I don't get it, but it's magic.

Headed to Sand Keep, brought some airships down into the excavation. Seems there's quite a few more voy'nix there. Now heading to Ormpur to speak with the half elves about destroying the Sand Keep.

Entry 19
Been a while since the last entry, near a month. We attacked the voy'nix sieging Suzail, and with the aid of the evocationist and the necromancer, we captured an air ship, saved books from a library, leveled the city, and destroyed mass amounts of the voy'nix. We got a few followers as well, to do what we can to save the realms. Also got another new recruit, Boxcar Joe, they seem a bit loose minded, but he did develop a poisoning crystal that can do something to the voy'nix.

Had a dream about the spirit totems being sucked into the crystal, wasn't good at all.

Afterwards, Graathos attempted to repair the crystal, but it grew too hot. We had to carefully take it to a temple of Mystra, where the Avatar, or Jennifer? Basically, not Mystra herself, was sucked into it, repairing it. Mystra in human form offered to keep the crystal, but they've been dealing with the voy'nix, so we're going to keep it on us.