Beybulat Tasho – Human Galmarian Swashbuckler and only member of the Notorious Nine on this expedition. Still a little confused about the details of what is going on but happy to be traveling with new folks for a bit.
Kelathadan (aka Kelli) – Elf Rogue. Continuing to follow along and hang back until it’s time for action, at which point she proves deadly when her rapiers and daggers find the backs of her enemies.
Fernith (aka Fern) – Half-elf ranger. Twin sister of Fynn and deadly archer. Although not necessarily thrilled to dealing with fiery threats she’d never allow Fynn to go into danger on his own.
Fynnhannar (aka Fynn) – Half-elf sorcerer with an affinity for fire. Twin brother of Fern and absolutely thrilled to be traveling into a fiery realm on the Astral plane. Accompanied by his rat familiar, Mr. Cheese.
Jasper Conroy – Human cleric and something of an unofficial father figure for Fynn and Fern. Finds traveling to new lands and having new experiences to be something of a religious requirement.
Astral Plane, Date unknown
Tasked with tracking down and getting the Fire Planar Key, Jasper, Fern, Fynn, Bey and Kelli were told by Dillman and Aquibius that the first step would be finding the Ith’thannok Expanse, where the Planar Key of Fire was. To that end, Aquibius advised that they would need to visit a wizard named Wyrlish, who was said to know how to get there. Everyone except Beybulat was acquainted with Wyrlish from their last trip to the Astral Plane though they did not recall him being especially receptive to visitors and last time they had needed Xarth to smooth things over.
As expected, the Wyrlish was displeased at having this studies interrupted, but they were able to convince him to help, though he’d only agree to do so if they bested him in a game of chess. Fynn agreed to play him, though things got off to a rough start, and Fynn’s inexperience in the game showed. However soon Wrylish’s over-confidence worked against him as Fynn began taking several of the wizard’s pawns. Unfortunately it was not enough to defeat the far more skilled Wyrilsh, who laughed gloatingly upon his victory.
“Ok, you lost,” Wyrlish announced. “Now get out.”
Jasper offered instead to make him a magical feast for information and Wrylish agreed, as he hadn’t eaten in years (food not being neccessary for survival in the Astral Plane). Jasper called upon his god Namas to conjure a vast feast and Wrylish agreed to tell them what he knew in exchange for the sumptuous meal.
Wyrlish stated that he sensed a great magical disturbance from the Ith’thannok Expanse and that a Spelljammer ship could likely take them there. He directed them to the Swallowed City to find a Spelljammer captain and crew. He offered to show them there, and when Jasper agreed Wrylish yelled “Skolax” causing one of the statues in his home to come to life, revealing that it was a gargoyle.
He ordered it to take them to the Swallowed City, help if he wanted, and to not bring them back to his home. Skolax led them away, and Jasper asked the gargoyle about his history. Skolox revealed he was a magical creature who guarded his master, a wizard, on his home world.
“There are rivalries between wizards there,” Skolox explained, his voice sounding something like two rocks crushing gravel. “When my master was attacked by a rival I was caught up in the battle and teleported to the Astral Plane, where I eventually came into the service of Wrylish.”
Before they could talk much more the group encountered a tiger humanoid who identified himself as Chargain and demanded they help him return to the Prime Material Plane.
“We can’t do that. We don’t have the ability.” Fynn deadpanned.
The creature swore and demanded they give him a boon or tithe.
“What will you give us?” Fynn asked, and Chargain agreed to barter with them. After talking back and forth, where the creature provided no concrete evidence of his magical ability or possession of magical items worth bartering, Fynn declared “You don’t have any power at all do you.”
“Of course I do!” he spat back angrily and waved his staff, causing a quartet of winged snakes to appear. Jasper quickly drew an amulet and offered it in trade, but Chargain ordered his creatures to attack.
Bey floated himself towards the nearest winged snake to try to attack it, but maneuvering through the Astral was difficult and he blew past it. Unable to reach his target he drew his gnomish weapon, the Punchstabbing Dartflinger, and fired a poisoned dart at it instead, striking the creature.
Skolax moved to attack Chargain, but overshot him and flew past, fruitlessly swiping at him. Fynn, for his part, conjured a pair of small fire elementals to appear in front of two of the winged snakes, and they immediately engaged the creatures. He then drew a magical compass that helped him navigate the astral and handed it off to Kelli, figuring it was more important that she be able to maneuver in battle than him.
Chargain moved and began to cast a spell on Skolax, who then concentrated incredibly hard and his head tilted as though he was considering something deeply or perhaps hearing a voice no one else could hear. Chargain then followed up by casting a magical acid spell at Fynn, but missing.
Jasper tried to talk Chargain down, but he refused to listen. Mumbling a complaint about not knowing when he will be able to rest again, Jasper cast a spell that caused a spear of pure light at one of the nearby winged snakes, destroying it instantly. He followed by casting a spell that caused a floating hooked chain to appear near Chargain and engage him, though he was able to block its attack.
Armed with Fynn’s magical compass, Kelli pirouetted and maneuvered insanely around the field, coming to rest behind one of the snakes fighting one of Fynn’s fire elementals and skewered it with her rapier.
One of the the snakes attacked an elemental, taking far more damage for biting fire than it inflicted, while the other charged Fynn, barely missing the sorcerer. One of his summoned elementals, however, clumsily moved to interpose itself between him and the snake, striking the creature in the process and setting it on fire. Jasper joined in by beating the winged snake several times, inflicting minimal damage. Fern followed up immediately with her bow, however, shooting the creature 3 times and killing it and carrying it off away from the battle.
Bey, trying to get his bearings, was unable to stop his momentum and drifted further and further from the battle.
Fynn then conjured a flaming sphere, placing it straight on the tiger creature. Not quite realizing that Fynn was responsible for most of the spells, Chargain fired a lightning bolt from his staff at Kelli, who was fortunately able to avoid the blast. He followed up with a Magic Missile spell instead, and 5 yellowish orange blasts of magical energy slammed into Kelli. In retaliation the elf maneuvered herself over to Chargain, stabbing him with her rapier and wounding him quite badly.
Only one of the winged snakes remained alive, and it flew towards Kelli, as she was attacking the tiger creature, but it missed and flew by.
Bey finally managed to control his movement and flew towards the tiger creature, giving him a grievous wound to his hip.
The fire elementals went in after the tiger creature as well, however the first one could not control itself and tumbled away spinning, and the other passed under him and kept going as well. Fynn waved his hand and the burning sphere moved onto the creature, burning him.
Chargain suddenly surrendered, offering to give them boons if they spared his life. He banished his last surviving snake creature upon Kelli’s demand and Jasper accepted the creature’s surrender, approaching him.
The creature promised not to harm them and had to cast a spell to grant the promised boons. He spoke a word of magic and a small box with intricate carvings on all sides appeared.
Fynn cast a divination spell upon it and determined that it radiated necromancy, abjuration and evocation magics and that it required one spell of each type cast upon it to activate it. He could not make out the runes, but Kelli recognized them as belonging to an insectoid race native to the Astral Plane called the D’ziriak. This allowed Fynn to cast a spell that allowed him to translate the runes. He used that to determine that the spells needed to open it were Quell Energy, Animate Dead and Wind Wall.
Chargain also also warned them that a powerful force has disturbed the fabric in the It’honnak Expanse and that something created gravity there. He also warned that he met an ice devil traveling towards the expanse and that it dismissed him stating he had more important business. True to their word, the party allowed Chargain to depart.
The group, now joined by Fynn’s summoned Fire Elementals, continued their trek to the Swallowed City.
“DM’s” Notes: I put DM in quotes here because I was not the DM for this one, my co-DM Tim was. Still, IMHO this was a good start of the “Fire Team” on their quest. We hadn’t intended for this one to be half of the Fate Fighters+Bey but overall it seemed to be working out alright, the oddities of fighting while floating in the Astral Plane notwithstanding.
The real question now was what they would find once they reached the Swallowed City.
Hoyce's Gaming 