The Daily Eviran - 1 - THE MINES ARE CLEARED

 THE MINES OF PHANDELVER ARE CLEARED

This evening, a battered group of adventurers emerged from the infamous Wave Echo Cave, one known as the Mine of Phandelver. Accompanied by a goblin and a young tiefling, they freed the young Nundro Rockseer, the younger brother of Gundren Rockseer, famous goods trader. Who these adventurers are remains unknown, yet their influence can be seen throughout the town of Phandalin. 

The Redbrands have left the streets of the small town for over a week. Missing people have returned to their homes. The whispers of necromancy have vanished. Were all these issues related to each other? Sister Garaele from the shrine of Tymora seems to believe so. 

"Our problems started vanishing one by one when a group of young adventurers appeared", she confided. "However, they seem to be quite an... eccentric group. While their dragonborn seems to be missing some social skills, I have a particular interest in the sorcerer that accompanies them. Lady Luck certainly seems to favor him, both in favor of him and not. I trust this group." 

How far does their influence reach, and what will they liberate next? With the rising tensions between the Drow and the other races throughout Evira, these may be the heroes we were waiting for to save us from the uprising the dark elves seem to be planning. 

For now, the adamantine mines seem to be useable once again. However, precaution has been advised from mayor Harbin Wester when visiting this site.

Lila - Entry 4 - Well Sh---

 So... His Majesty SunMan Helion Fancypants is mad at us. 

We got some letter this morning from him saying we were ignoring the job he gave us. To be fair we had other things on our to-do list, and it's not like his work kept us safe at all. 3 months is like 4 seconds for him, does he not realize we're all trying to better ourselves so that we can actually go through with his impossible tasks that even Mr. oh-so-special-sunshine can't seem to find the right people for? 

Anyway, we had 2 days to leave the city to go visit one of his temples. Only thing is, this temple is underwater, and the sky knows I cannot swim. 

So, with the High Lord mad at us and threatening our lives, we spent a day at the beach. 

Turns out swimming isn't so bad when you don't have to worry about drowning. I seem to be actually pretty good at it, which is a first. 

We then set out towards the underwater temple, 4 days aboard the Constellation. The captain is as dull as ever, nice to see he's doing well. The 4 days felt like an eternity, and there's only so much boat one can discover, so I continued helping out the crew. 

Once we hit the coral reef, though, things got weird. No more weird than usual, but it was a change of pace from the previous weeks for sure. 

The water itself started attacking us. 

Because of this, we figured we were near the temple.  The coral reef is beautiful, but we didn't have much time to explore it before Ash found the temple entrance, covered in so much seaweed, I'm pretty sure it was a service entrance that was abandoned since that land was dry. 

We swam around and found an air pocket with candles and a teleportation circle and some saying about faith in darkness and some boat headfigure. We turned the light of and Ash said something about Skadi and suddenly we found ourselves in a dining room. 

I hate dining rooms, we always end up almost dying in them. 

Three elves of some kind summoned a demon that looked like a giant version of the gorillas we saw at the zoo. The elves disappeared, leaving us against it. Erim took one look at the thing, snapped his fingers, and it was gone too. The whole ordeal took about 5 seconds... I'm still not quite sure what happened there. He mentioned banishment but at this point that could mean just about anything. 

When we actually had a moment to look around, we saw three more headfigures with things written on them. I forget what the others said, but one had "Remember me" written in theives cant. It would have been useful if it said who we had to remember. 

In the meantime, someone figured that if we gave one of the statues a spell, we'd be teleported to another room. Except they didn't figure out that that other room was a firey inferno of lightning and death.

One of the elves that summoned the creature was there setting fire to books. I ran to it and it turned around, sending lightning to my friends behind me. They started calling me back. Every bit of me screamed to go get back at that elf who hurt my friends, but... I didn't. I listened to them, for once, and ran back to them. We teleported back to the other room, and right away started looking at the other riddle I didn't understand. 

 After figuring out that we had to praise Vecna, of all people, we were suddenly in a living area. There were many abandoned bedrooms, and a broken teleportation circle. 

The dead elf reminded me of Ranil. Maybe it's a common trait they have, to be beautiful even in death. 

The elf was holding a note that told them to flee once 'they' arrived. I'm not sure if we are they, but they certainly believed it. 

We are back in the main room now, resting a bit before continuing. I don't like this place, and I'm starting to dislike our mission, and the [insert profanity here] royal who sent us to it. 

I'm glad I left a letter in my room that explains everything the others don't know, just in case. 

 

 

Christopher - Entry 5 - Am I still good?

 I really hope Hermes will forgive me for what I did. 

We got to a place on a hill were there were a lot of trees. But all these trees were awful, they all had kinda-dead people attached to them, with bird/bat things leeching blood from them. There was no way we could help everybody, but it hurt me to see people who probably didn't do anything wrong stuck like that. 

Soon enough we understood why they were there. 

We got attacked by those leech birds, and then by a dark knight on a flying horse. The birds went away quickly, but the knight was really strong and scary. Even though Bowie had helped me understand the scrolls we found a few days ago, there was one we didn't quite understand. So I cast the spell. 

The spell itself was really fun! I suddenly was flying up toward the bad knight with a magic sword in my hand! I hurt it and the horse real bad, before falling back down. When I looked back up after I landed, a tree grew infront of me, with my name on it. 

I was condemned to this place. 

I looked around and saw that some other friends had trees with their names on them. I can't remember the last time I was that scared. 

Eventually, the fight ended. I think Lulu was stolen then, and Dove ran after her to find her. Bowie River and Lazuli ran up to help someone on a tree, I think. I just know they disappeared for a bit, and then people on the trees disappeared. I couldn't stop staring at the tree with my name on it. 

I don't know if Hermes will ever forgive me for having my name here. But I did what I could to take my name away. I hit it with the quarterstaff I found over and over until it broke. Greggy saw I was upset, and ripped the tree from the ground. I don't know if it will help, but I hope it will.  

Dove came back and said Lulu was in a giant bee hive, so we took the Machine and went all the way to the hive. I thought it would be a difficult fight, and we had a big scare with Greg (who was really awesome), but the situation was over quickly enough. We saved Lulu and are getting ready for bed now.

Dove said we'll do an atonement ritual tomorrow. I like that idea. But I don't really like this place. 

I'll write next time, I'm really sleepy right now. 

--Level up--

Lila - Entry 3 - Welcome back, I guess

 (The layout of blogger changed, it hasn't moved since I started in 2015 so my apologies if something looks off)

I believe loosing my mind fully warrants the three-month break from adventuring I took. Can't say the king will agree with me, with his son missing, but it was for the better. 

I haven't written in three months either, but it's not like I've done much until today either. I signed up for training in the arena, under the guidance of a cleric named Chief. He's one of the few I know I can trust. Anyway, he taught me to use my weapons in my defense, and to attack more quickly. 

Maybe now I'll be less dependent on the magics of the others. 

I feel... better about myself, I guess. Reading back the last entry, I was really on a verge. I guess beating my frustration into straw dummies helps. Also Ash and I got tipsy at the king's daughter's ball, and I think I'm still feeling that buzz. Probably wouldn't have started writing otherwise. But it's not like things haven't gone wrong. 

Mogron died. 

I'm gonna miss the guy. It's not often people remind me of my family in this strange land, and its even less often that people get me to laugh. Mogron, I hope heaven is the necro rave party you dreamed of. Or maybe hell, considering the necromancy... 

Now the others brought back a new girl. She's older than most of us and seems to be a healer of some kind. Tiala seems nice, almost motherly, but she is one of the profound ones. You say a few words and she knows too much, it's impressive. Although I'm not sure I believe her when she says that I can stop breaking things 'once I find the thing that cannot be stolen'. 

Anything can be stolen from you. It's just a matter of method. 

I'm really starting to miss home, Tae. 

I feel like most of my newfound friends fix things. They heal and work to make things better. I think the only one who also breaks things is Erim. I don't think he wants to, but whoever his god is just doesn't give him that choice. He has the heart of a fixer, but can't help but break. And I think that's the scariest position to be stuck in. 

Oh and Zagar was owned for years and didn't know about it? Not a good position either. I hope he figures that out, he seemed... well upset is an understatement. 

It's just now I realize, the king kind of owns us too. But instead of being slaves in the castle, he can send us to the 4 corners of his land to do his killing. 

Funny how the world works.  

Maybe breaking it isn't so wrong after all.

 

Christopher - Entry 4 - MACHINES!

We finally left Elturel! Dove summoned a Pegasus to take us to the ground-level of Avernus, but he seems mean. When we got there, we saw a lot of armies fighting. We even had to fight a big thing that ran away when Bowie made a fake dragon to sacre it! We walked all the way to fort Knucklebone after that, but it was very windy and sandy, so I had to look through Aiko's eyes for a long time - the sand started scratching my glasses, so I had to take them off, then the world was all blurry.

We arrived at the fort and saw things that looked like me, but with red hats, and they were kinda stupid. They brought us to the coolest room ever, filled with HUUUUUGE metal things called 'machines'. They are possibly the coolest thing since... um... I'm not sure what to choose so I'll say toast. Two bird guys taught me how to drive the biggest one! I do want to know more about how they work, one day, so I'm taking notes!There was one part that was growing spikes, I'm not sure what was wrong with it but I hope it won't happen to my our machine!

There, we met a really creepy lady and her pet... monster? I guess? But she was nice, she gave us tea and helped us go through Lulu's lost memories to unblock them. That was a lot of fun! The lady, Maggie, let us take the machine in exchange for finding relics of Zariel, the angel we heard about before. So soon, we'll travel, with little me making a giant machine work, to find the sword of Zariel to... do stuff...

Almost as soon as we left, we were followed by another machine just like ours! They started attacking us but were not strong enough. Eventually, we got to the scariest place yet...

I'm... not really ready to write about that. I'm still pretty upset. I have a lot to think about and a lot of forgiveness to ask.

I'm sorry, Hermes. 

Christoper - Entry 3 - All the Way!

We met a fancy lady on a horse, today. I don't know who she is, but she looks really cool. I think the hedgehog on her breastplate means something important, maybe she's a nobel? Her name is Lady Miranda. She seems fine, but angry and very important. And River loooooves her! :D

I made friends with one of her guards, Timothy! He told me all the street names so I could add them to my map, which was very nice.

When we got back to the citadel, Uldur was awake! He said the Helm showed him something called hellriders, and a woman carrying an angelic blade. Lulu (a little elephante that's a friend of ours!) was with her, and says the lady was a lieutenant! He talked about a walking hill, which could be a demon, maybe a Leviathan! Or maybe even a demon general like Baphomet's pet. (Hehe Bowie prank called Baphomet yesterday while trying to find Uldur, that was funny!). Anyway, this lady made a citadel around the fancy sword, that I think is being kept safe. The land did not like the citadel.

Now, we kinda need to figure out how to go down into Avernus more. (Elturel is a floating city which is the COOLEST!). Lulu helped me see the next place we have to go - somewhere called Fort Knucklebone. It looks so scary down there... and it's a very long way down. We were talking about ways of getting there,w hen Lady Miranda told us about a place where we could get a thing to help us go where we needed to go safely(ish). She told us we had to fight something really strong, but even though he was literally made of fire, he was very easy to fight. Bowie, Laluzi Lalizu Lazuli and I found a really cool glaive for Greggy! I also found a whole bunch of scrolls Bowie helped me figure out!

- Recall
- Find Greater Steed
- Steelwind Strike
- Investiture of Air
- Tenser's Transformation
- Trebuchet

Anyway, we are going to sleep now, but tomorrow we are leaving Elturel! Hermes bless us please!

Christopher - Entry 2 - Hell is Weird

OK Ok so I haven't had a lot of time to write since I left my village but so much happened! When we got to Baldur's Gate some rich person kidnapped Gregory and I and threw us in cages for no good reason! Soon enough, we were saved by Zuzu (oh... Lazuli) and River! They are both super sneaky - people didn't even notice they were inside the fancy house we were locked in! We were attacked by guards but were able to run away quickly, thank goodness. You should have SEEN Greggy fight though, he was so cool!

After that everything was kinda blurry - we met a bunch of important people, one after another after another after... no I think it was just 3. We met all these people who told us we had to go to Avernus which was weird because I didn't think we could just go there like you go to the Midsummer festivals. But then it gets even weirder...

We met an Otter who was a wizard. He lived in a house just big enough for me and liked tea and was really cute... but he was an Otter. He let me help him make a portal for us to go to Avernus and suddenly we were just THERE! We were in the middle of Elturel, a city from the material plane that, one day, was just gone! At least we were in the right place, and not in the middle of the Styx!

As soon as we got there, we were attacked by all kinds of zombies and monsters that are actually pretty scary. At first I was scared of hurting them, but then Rivers said that it would be ok to hurt them, as they were already dead. So I tried, but I still don't like hurting them.

We quickly ran to a big citadel that was broken in half! There were a lot of refugees inside... they didn't have the time to leave their city before it was taken to Avernus. They said they needed help finding a man named Uldur, because he was important for them. They said he might be in the cemetery. To get there, I went up a tall tower and looked through Aiko's eyes to see the whole city and make a map of it, to get there quickly.

The cemetery had a bunch of weird things happening, but the weirdest thing was that Dove, our dragonborn friend, got scared. I let her keep Aiko while we all went down some stairs to find Uldur. Eventually, Bowie found a whip (which I think is a bad idea...) and we found Uldur!

He was inside a mausoleum thing, with Helm's Helm (original naming, artifact-makers...), on his head. He was screaming and there was a minotaur that was suddenly fighting us. Greg took the helm from Uldur and because a voice in his head told him to, he almost put it on! But Bowie made him freeze and we took the helmet away. I took my divination leafs and asked Hermes if we could throw the helmet into the portal (oh yeah there was a portal that monsters were coming from!). Hermes wasn't very clear with his answer, so River helped me take the helmet up to Dove's magical ring pantry.

We had to take the unconscious Uldur aaaall the way back to the temple! They healed him, thank goodness, but yeah, it was a weird few days.