date: 2026-03-28 #Session_Drafts
- Plan from last session is to go west to Wallonia
- Towards the dungeon to find second dark seal
- Battlefront is almost completely in the south, we are travelling north-west
- Don’t expect any hostility from Vermandois troops before Wallonia
- Tasked with investigating leads for a dungeon somewhere in the mountain range between Brittany and Wallonia
- Not expecting any info until reaching Wallonia
- Almost all traffic on the highway is in the opposite direction
- lots of stuff is being moved south for the war effort
- Only regular deliveries and messengers heading away
- Healing potions only made in the temple of the Great Guide (god)
- Plain, Georgian style building
- Neutral god of death
- Weird group people don’t enjoy interacting with, but necessary for health
- Almost all cemeteries are run by these priests
- Heading towards Stuttden, large city in next duchy
- Much smaller than Neustrelitz
- maybe 1/3 of the pops?
- Still a large city, and capital of the duchy
- Regular healing potion is 100gp, only from temple of GG
- Potion priest says head priest says healing potion stocks are quick low in coming weeks due to coming war effort
- New origins of ingredients are being procured
- Brother is a priest of GG in Ebenbrooke of Wallonia
- Also says there are local low stocks of healing potions
- Wallonia is also experiencing low stocks for some reason
- Doesn’t make sense as Wallonia is not a part of the war
- They aren’t moving military equipment or anything similar
- Luc has been in the fey wild a week ago?
- Dad might be dead in Aardenburg, Wallonia?
- We are a few hundred Ks from the front line
- South Wallonia is an impassable mountain to large groups/invasion forces
- All military movement from Vermandois is through Chamrousse to south Angevin Empire or north Brittany to Wallonia
- We carry Duke Richard’s crest as proof of official business, for administrative purposes and border crossings
- Told by gate guards, AE and Wallonia are at peace since age of strife
- Only need to get a stamp and pass easily from the single border official on each side
- Returning back is going to take longer due to large queue heading towards warfront
- Luc uses hat of disguise to be Oscar Von Schmied the merchant
- From grenoble, capital of Chamrousse
- Quest to let someone in the Wallonia adventurers guild or merchant guild know about the huge traffic jam heading to Neustrelitz
- Public reward is 100gp
- Private reward as well, very good increase in rep with adventurers guild and customs union
- Very good reason to be visiting intelligence houses about dungeon info
- Normally people don’t travel at night, traffic jam makes people queue
- Arrive in Antren across border just before sunset
- head to the terrific nut tavern
- Big sugn that says “Not a brothel”
- Barkeep is called Freek Bootsveld
- Says lots of merchants are staying much longer in the town due to travel queue to AE, because the merchants guild wont allow for another dominant controlling power in the city
- Overhear conversation between glass emrchant and another merchant
- GG churches have been buying up a lot more glass bottles for potions
- Increase in demand for potions, but they don’t know why, or what the outcome is
- He doesn’t mind trading with the church of GG, but doesn’t really want to be up in their business
- Indicates increase in potion fabrication but still a lowered supply?
- Is at least 1 quests available at the guild
- direction is against rumorers travel
- Guild is moderately large, like medium tavern
- likely as large as the town and merchants’ guild allow
- Tell guild administrator about travel queue and turn in quest
- They say we needd to head to ebenbrooke to pass on the message
- They will also send a letter
- Lots of people have been diverting onto country roads from Ebenbrooke and many random attacks are occuring. Not people being chopped up, but appears to be arcane killings
- halfway between Ebenbrooke and Antren
- Presumed to be a monster
- Resummoned drake familiar as a fire drake
- Safely sneak out of Antren
- Travel cross country in the night by the river until the highway
- Find a recently destroyed wagon torn to shreds, no bodies in the surrounding area so no dead likely
- Find a complete absence of animal tracks in the surrounding area, but a trail of disturbed nature in opposite direction of people
- Footprints suggest wagoners yeeted immediately east
- Successfully lead group along trail of broken nature
- Unsuccessfully stealth, Luc stands on the loudest branch in existence
- Loud wind begins, and hear a tree collapse in its path as it flies
- Invisible wind creature attacks us
- Three nat 1s by me cause the wind elemental to die of fate damage
- Receive a wind attuned immortal essence core as proof
- Arrive at Ebenbrooke, a walled city two hours before dawn
- Large city, but not capital
- Turn in quest about highway traffic
- Pay 100gp per quest guide
- We are now owed a favour from the adventurers guild in Wallonia, and to a lesser degree other locations
- Also turn in quest for highway monster
- Showed proof of wind elemental, paid 75gp
- Find brother of priest man in temple of GG
- Essentially all stocks of potions from the king of Rotterdam himself placed an order to stockpile all potions, expecting to join the war imminently
- Encounter a man called Twan Stirt in the queue to enter Ebenbrooke
- A trader and archivist specialising in ancient architecture
- Rolled a clean 40 asking for hidden ruins or loot
- After name checking the Ziggurat of Shaidarahn he says he has been searching for decades
- We tell him its location and in return he tells us the exact location of the hidden ruin with the dark seal
- Ziggurat located at North-East Leyfield, Strelitz
- Dungeon with dark seal in east Brittany
- Called the “Ziggurat of Gurpo”
- Path goes through Rotterden, Argennin, small town (Besanlon), border town (Fort Dranin), the mountain pass
- We must travel through the mountain pass in south-west Wallonia
- A tense flash-point between somewhat opposed countries
- Made official allies with Twan Stirt
- He is affiliated with the University of Karlsruhe, AE
- There is evidence from statues and inscriptions that wizards wore large hats before the age of strife
- Sitting at Luc’s animated table, can move and has personality
- Chosen
- 6, 2 per dark god
- Seems to be an unusually low amount of blight creatures and rat-men
- The odd absence of raids makes him think that something odd is happening in the blight due to the chosen
- Blight
- Rumour from University of Wallonia Capital, Rotterden, colleague is specialist in the blight
- “The small blight” region is the mountain range separating wallonia and chamrousse/ Vermandois
- Blight follows the mountain ranges, obscure fact from age of strife
- Mountain range is newish, a leftover from magical war
- the magic was so powerful it scarred the continent, the range is the path it took
- The latent magical energy and massive death and damage to the fabric of reality is what supports the blight in the region
- There is a god of magic, linked to Luc’s dank amulet
- Silver amulet with a large sapphire in the centre
- Twan doesn’t know its purpose but the runes say it is a religious item of Cydar
- Something to do with divination magic
- Says Luc should probably show it to a church of Cydar - Side quest?
- Luc asks amulet why it has appeared to him during night in Besanlon
- Just repeats riddle previously said?
- Last word comes through seperately - “Conditions”
- Wallonia is leaning towards joining AE
- Halfway through journey to dungeon we crest a hill and can see Rotterden
- Halfway in size between Stuttden and Neutrelitz, 500,000-800,000
- Appears to be no traffic jams
- Arrive in Argennin
- Small, trading hub
- Very fortified
- Once we crossed south of the kings road, all towns and cities are walled
- I have read about, the southern half of the country is very fortified due to the blight encroaching
- Not uncommon for warbands of ratmen to invade and attack the bottom half of wallonia
- Areas in south Draymora and Guilanyth are even more extreme versions of this fortification
- Nullimell was capital of Draymora before age of strife
- was consumed into the blight during conflict
- Move on to Besanlon just before nightfall
- Walled
- Stay in average inn (the singing geese)
- No temple to Cydar
- Adventurers guild does have a customs union
- Most quests on board are standard shit
- A few quests related to monitoring ratmen activity in the area
- There hasnt been as many people bringing in ratmen corpses due to lowered amounts of ratmen
- Most adventurers in the town are from Genova and Brittany, not very interested in the great hunt
- King in Rotterden has dispatched more forces to the fortress of Dranin (the mountain pass city)
- Lately havent gotten any traders through the pass from Brittany in the past two weeks
- Partly due to the war, mostly because traders dont want to be caught between war belligerents
- Local Wallonians expect to be joining the war
- Resummon drake as a poison drake to potentially fight blight better
- Have a long rest in Besanlon
- During late night/early morning hear clanging of bells and shouting in the streets
- We are sleeping right next to the western wall
- Hear someone shouting “RATS”
- Over the wall, we can see a lot of torches approaching
- A virtual horde of ratmen, will be a big fight or even a siege
- Within 200ft of the walls
- Triple digits of ratmen attacking
- Highly unusual amonts of ratmen, never seen since the age of strife
- Normally less than a dozen, raiding parties
- This is definitely an army
- Makes sense why the Wallonian kingdom is stockpiling potions
- likely the king predicted these attacks
- Weird bauble of bad luck showed up
