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Crown of Souls: Part 9 - Cursed Travels
We left off with the group in Cer, about three days travel from the middle Vandros Watch Tower.
They bought some horses and headed out of town, heading south. On the way out of town they were
stopped by a merchant and his lone bodyguard who hired them as an escort to the next town to the
south, Roky. On the way south they were just talking about some bandits when some bandits appeared,
desirous of robbing the group.
After some fighting we moved on to go but had not gotten more than 20
yards away from the fight when all the dead bodies of the bandits rose up as ghouls and attacked a
second time. After this harder fight the group was leaving again when they heard groans behind them,
only to see that the ghouls they had slain were rising to life once again. So they left on horseback
without looking back.
They headed south again. After getting a reasonable distance from the twice
already killed bandits the merchant who had hired them stopped and started giving them necklaces and
gifts for their brave defending of him. One of the gifts was a funny looking amulet which they had been
given several times previously.
They entered into Roky and sought for a wizard to identify the amulet. While
doing this task a beautiful woman arrived in front of them in the street, beautiful, and announced,
"I am a mage."
She invited the party to follow her, and so they did. She lead them to this
large four story tall stone building, wherein she took them to the third floor via stairs on the outside
of the building. Through an iron door they entered, while she held open the way. Then, when all had
entered, she went without and the door was closed, locking them inside with about 30 mean bandits,
swords poisoned.
Theo panicked and tried to cast a modified web spell, which failed, causing
a wild surge which destroys all non-living matter within 10 feet of Theo. Magic items, the walls, the
floor, the ceiling, clothes, and more were all destroyed, causing the adventurers to fall down to the
next floor. They had a moment, but then people began climbing down through the hole in the floor that
Theo had made. Then, Theo cast wild surge and nothing appeared to happen.
They were about to begin fighting when Theo says but a word of warning to
Bolas and, quite unexplained, Bolas was suddenly slowed. Then, to make matters worse, Theo felt
greater path magic being cast with his Weave Sensitivity spell. There was a large explosion, many
were harmed, and then three grolems appear. Theo panicked more and then jumped out the hole in the wall
and toppled to the ground below where he fell unconscious.
The grolems vanished with Theo's body and leave the rest of the group alone.
The rest of the group finished their fight and dropped out the window. Then, the guards of Roky arrived
and put them all under arrest for wielding combative magic within city limits and for public nudity (recall
Theo's miscast spell destroyed their clothing).
In the company of guardsmen, they were walking along when midnight passed.
They guards vanished, since they had not been there yesterday, and the parties material goods reappeared
since tomorrow had not yet come.
So they went looking for Theo the next morning. They suspected he was taken to
the temple to Zhakrin and they found him in an alleyway near to there, half naked, without shoes or much
anything else of value. They lay low for the rest of the day and got some healing at the temple to Evren
The next day they left for the center Vandros Watch Tower. Having arrived,
they stayed the night and learnt about some of the hazards of the valley or being near it. The next day
they headed up to the northern Vandros Watch Tower. Shortly after they left the area patrolled by the
towers, the day following, there was a terrible encounter where invisible creatures of air attacked and
nearly overcame the party.
Due to the nature of the curse they suffered, physical injury persisted from
one day to its yesterday, while material possessions always returned to their previous state. Coins
reappearing in their pockets, armor returning to as it was before, and even provisions reappearing uneaten.
There were other encounters which, after the air creatures, they had to flee
from. A terrible demon creature, like a great and quick spider was one of these beasts. Whilst fleeing
from this beast, Theo decided to take a risk and opened a portal to the palace of the demon lord Balinor,
to which they traveled, and everyone ran through before the demon could follow.
Entering Balinor's lair they shortly found themselves sitting in prison cells
for a couple days. Afterward, when Balinor decided to see them, they explained their plight to it. The
demon lord seemed well informed of the curse and their troubles. In return for three tasks he would
send them back to their present time. The first task: to bring Daglan back to the world of the living,
Daglan, the creator of the evil Crown of Souls. Balinor tells them that with the death of Daglan's last
descendent that Daglan will be freed from the Crown wherein he is imprisoned.
Given what they knew, it was not long before they determined that Radaga was
his last descendent. Accepting Balinor's offer, they found themselves falling out of the sky. A black
whirlwind swirled about them. They quickly realized it was the funnel which they last saw coming down
behind Radaga's church.
Fearing their demise at the hands of Radaga, should they be discovered, they
fled with magic to a days journey away from her lair to heal and plan. During the night, while Marcus was
keeping watch, a golden light shone behind him. He turned, and caught not a glimpse of what it had been
before he fell into a deep slumber. The party awakened the next morning with all their wounds healed,
their curses taken away (including Theo's long endured footprint curse).
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