Aces of Anemoia

Session 1
Our story began at the Fall Equinox Festival on Mahbrwol in the city of Fornacem. Of the many, many people in attendance there was Sandro the Tortle cleric of Atawhai who has been traveling for some years and wanted to take in the sights. Arkell the Tabaxi Rogue who was certainly looking for someone at the festival and seemed to have traveled the farthest to get here… Thadyrtus the Centaur Paladin, a noble knight of Fornacem looking to help keep order and keep an eye on the goblin in the Pulchra contest. Neve the Eladrin solider who mostly keeps to himself but was looking to explore. Kel the triton druid who was looking to have some fun and use the festival as a chance to gather supplies. Lastly there was Fethr the shy wood elf Ranger.

Many took in the challenges that the festival had to offer, Sandro tried the hot bed challenge but unfortunately was not able to last the first round. Kel tried their luck at catching fish in the barrel and was successful. Though Fethr didn't seem to like the idea of catching fish in the barrel. Thadyrtus then looked to challenge the few people to the tug of war and was taken up by Sandro who encouraged Fethr to join him. Though Thadyrtus was prideful they were bested and huffed off, losing 5 gold in the process. While others were enjoying the games Arkell made his way to a rest tent in search of his quarry and was able to find them and attend to his… business and quicky slinked away. Kel, Fethr, Sandro and Thadyrtus had all made their way to the marketplace for the evening, Sandro wanting to make friend with Fethr offered them to join him in “enjoying” some ‘stomping hot peppers’ after foolishly asking for the hottest peppers the merchant had to offer. Neither were prepared for just how hot said peppers were but poor Fethr rushed to the near by well having had the worst reaction. Sandro then asked for the second hottest pepper. The merchant gave him some pointers on how to properly spice a dish without getting Fethr’s reaction and Sandro bought a collection of spices before heading to his tent for the night. Once Fethr was able to extricate himself from the well he purchased a glass bottle from the near by stall before resting as well.

The next day Fethr made his way to the fish in a barrel challenge and started trying to scoop up a fish with his jar. The game attendant confused at first instructed Fethr on how the game works. Fethr was able to win the game properly and saved the fish in his jar. Meanwhile Neve made his way over to the racetrack to bet on the upcoming race and taunted a passing by Thadyrtus to join in the betting. After the race, though Neve had lost his bet he headed to the marketplace along with the rest of these strangers. Kel unsuccessful the night before was able to find the plants they needed for their herbalism kit and two stalls over, Neve was buying a longsword to replace his old spear with. Meanwhile Thadyrtus grabbed a late lunch before spending the rest of the remaining festival starting down the goblin who dared rise to be a finalist.

That evening the six strangers gathered towards the back of the stage setting, awaiting the closing ceremonies. Shortly after the Emperor and Empress had just started looking over the finalists the stranger’s attentions were pulled to the sky above the stage. Blinking away the sight, all six found themselves alone somewhere none recognised. As each person explored their strange new surroundings Sandro briefly broke tough the hazy state of mind to understand that he was experiencing a memory, but of who he couldn’t possibly know. As the six strangers returned to themselves from the memory ducking from the threat that ended the memory, they found they had braced for the attack of a strange aurora dragon that ripped itself from the twilight sky.

The whole crowd was thrown into a panic from the sight before them; some running, some hiding, and some gathered up their wits to fight. Thadyrtus’ first concern was for the safety of the Emperor and Empress and rushed towards the stage to assist the guards there. Sandro at first thought this was apart of the show, still not fully himself after understanding he just experienced someone else’s memory. Arkell and Neve rushed to put some distance between them and this strange dragon. The royal guard were able to extricate the Empress and Emperor though one was badly hurt by the dragon. Once Sandro realised what was happening, he casted sanctuary on Fethr. The Dragon then let out a blast of colour changing energy. As the fight progressed it became clear that some people’s attacks weren’t having any effect on the dragon and soon it was just the six strangers fighting along with one Tiefling cleric providing aid to them. The six were able to best the beast but as Sandro landed the final hit with a guiding bolt the dragon exploded in a shower of light as sparks, leaving nothing behind but a strange scar that marked only the six.

Once the coast was clear a crowd gathered, and our six strangers were hailed as heroes. The night came to a quick end so an investigation could properly take place and the six were given lodgings at the Duke of Fornacem’s manor. The next day after the Centaurs had finished gathering their statements, the six were then met with Fly the constrict of Hyrhafell. Fly wanted to understand this anomaly and how the six seemed ready for the attack. Though Sandro offered to help keep things truthful, Fly told them this wasn’t part of the official investigation but for his understanding. The party started explaining as best they could what they experienced beforehand, and they all realised each other had seen the same thing with Sandro giving the insight of it feeling like a memory. Fly took this information in and after a moment explained that what they saw was a memory of The Dreamer.

Session 2
Once Fly realised the what the party had told him, he dismissed the house staff after they gave the party their reward on behalf of the city for defeating the dragon; 2 platinum each and an onyx dog figurine, to properly explain to the party what they had experienced and just what ‘the Dreamer’ is.

“I apologise, this is going to take some time to explain so I’ll try and keep this as simple as I can. I know there have been many tales and rumors about me, you can’t live for as long as I have without gathering a few, so you can imagen how hard it is to find truths about someone even older than I. Anemoia, as we know it is already thousands of years old, but it wasn’t born of nothing… but what it was born of I can’t be a hundred precent sure of. The Gods you all know of, they do hold power and influence, some are recorded as even creating some of the races of this realm but none of them hold enough power to have created this realm or any of the world in it. There was a force that birthed this realm but all history of it has been lost, there isn’t even any strong researched into the beginning of Anemoia as no one has ever been compelled to look into it. I can see that some of you have stronger connections to the Gods then other so to make sure everyone has the same level of understanding; when a God dies, it’s influence dies with it; were the God Fīrlīt to die, sunlight itself would die with them. So, were Anemoia to be created by a single God, their absence would result in our very realm no longer existing.”

“This means the force that created Anemoia is still out there, but their influence is… cut off in such a way that allows for other Gods to rule aspects of the realm. Cut off but not truly disconnected, as you six have come to discover; their memories are scattered throughout the realm. I’ve come to refer to them as ‘the Dreamer’ seeing as they seem to be dormant. As you may know, every once in a while, there’s a strange anomaly that happens, a few months before as a new connection point formed, two anomalies happened, one on each side.”

“I think these happen when the Dreamer falls further into their dormancy. I’ve been trying to understand the nature of the Dreamer and these anomalies for hundreds of years now… This is all I’ve been able to understand so far. These memories, I’m trying to find as many as I can and experience them myself. I’m hoping that if I do manage to experience enough of them, I’ll be able to commune with the Dreamer and fully return them to this realm.”

“I know the six of you didn’t really have anything to do with each other before yesterday, you all have your own lives and goals but that mark on your arms show you’ve been connected. I can’t force you, but I will ask; would the six of you be willing to work together and help save Anemoia?”

“You may ask what’s the reason for wanting to wake the Dreamer, Anemoia has been around for this long while they slept after all? The nature of these anomalies, they’ve been changing. These last two have brough outside forces to the realm and this last one, as you saw was not benign. Everyone around you wasn’t able to harm the dragon but it was able to harm them. If the Dreamer falls into a deep enough slumber that they are fully disconnected, then that will truly be the end of this realm.”

“There are others already helping me, as there have been in the past and will be until my task is done but the nature of how you all connected with a memory… it’s unique. Memories are normally tied to locations; anyone can experience them if they find it, but you all were the only ones and… this isn’t the location for that memory. Something caused you to experience a memory, right before an anomaly too. Perhaps, somehow the Dreamer was reaching out to you… I can’t be sure of this; this is the first time a memory has been experienced in such a way.”

The party was apprehensive at first to accept Fly’s request, some questioned how he could know this was the right course of action, some more concerned with trusting anyone, and some just wanting to know what they could expect in return. Eventually they all agreed to take on this monumental task, Fly assuring them that they will still be able to pressure their own personal goals while being called on from time to time. Their first mission from Fly was to travel to the location that memory is tied to; the inner garden of the royal palace of Coruscent. Fly had provided the party with two bags of holding along with 72 gold each and the party spent the afternoon gathering supplies. Some upgrading weaponry, some getting basic supplies and some getting fish food. As the party was about to set out on the northern path that would take them twelve days, they stopped to make sure they had enough people food before setting out.

Most of the journey was uneventful; the first night Neve on last watch didn’t see the giant deer wander into camp. Late on the second night an Ankheg had wandered close to their camp while Sandro and Kel were on watch. Trying to scare it off, Sandro beat his quarter staff on his shell but drew the attention of the Ankheg and it attacked. Neve and Arkell were the first to eventually wake up due to the commotion, joining in the fight. Eventually the four were able to take down the monster all the while Thadyrtus and Fethr managed to sleep, though Thadyrtus poked his head out after the fight to let the others know what the creature was and what parts of it could be useful before going back to sleep. Sandro with help from the rest of the party was able to cleanly carve the pincers with the acid sacks and those who needed it went back to sleep.

On day three, while on the road Sandro had managed to spot some hunting traps well off the road and wared the rest of the party to not wander off. Fethr was having none of that and set off the smaller traps that they were used to, not knowing how to safely set off the bear traps left them while the party watched. During that night’s camp, those on the first watch as what seemed to be a hunting party made of Tabaxi and hobgoblins passed them and those on the third watch saw them returning, overhearing them questioning what happened to their traps. The next day as they come to different marked paths, noting one has been kicked at pointing to the Goblin village of Kalo.

Eventually the party makes it to the river, finding a long boat crewed by a Water Genasi, two Tabaxi and Goblin willing to take them across for free upon seeing Fly’s sigil. Once across the river, Sandro getting seasick for the first time in his life, not used to river currents they make it down the path and end up sharing a camp on this more traveled road. They meet members of the Fire Scale guild; Elmar a Gnome, Atfaal a Tiefling, Teshi a Yuan-ti and Nwta a Fire Genasi. They continue on and at least make their way to the gates of Coruscent.

Session 3
The party had made it to the gates of Coruscent, after being thoroughly checked by the guards they are eventually allowed into the city. the party messages Fly on their way to the castle letting him know they had made it and got a response from Fly thinking of them and wishing them well and to keep safe with everything going on in the city. Not sure what to make of that response the party takes a moment to take in the sounds of the city to see what might be going on. They ask a near by shot keeper what’s been going on and notice a higher then normal guard presence before making their way to the castle. When they get to the guard station to request entry, they are told that there was an incident where the crow prince killed a goblin servant last week and Actaeon & Accalia only got back five days ago so their still dealing with quelling the growing dissent and it will be at least two days before they can enter the castle.

With time to kill, the party takes in the sights and sounds of the city. While walking down one of the shopping districts they come across The Blank Apple Armory & The Dazzling Defence where the owners seem to be trying to spread malicious rumours about one another, some wandered over to more shops while others took in some traveling street performers. During the performance Sandro noticed a Gnome attempting to pickpocket him; before Sandro could even say anything, the Gnome shouted out to accuse Sandro of being the thief before running off. The party started trying to catch the Gnome, but the crowd had called for guards and soon Sandro and Kel were arrested on suspicion. Thadyrtus tried to use his influence to get them out and even the performers vouched for the party, but the guards were insistent that they be held until the paperwork from their entry could be looked over. Eventually they were let go with a warning the guards would be keeping an eye on them. That having taken all afternoon and into the early evening all head over to Thadyrtus’ home to bed for the night.

At Thadyrtus’ home they meet his younger sister Hypsasia where the party prods her for dish on Thadyrtus. Not needing much prodding, she spills all the tea after Thadyrtus heads to bed including that Thadyrtus “still thinks he’s going to be made the head of the household.”

The next morning, after breakfast the party debates if they really want wander around town after yesterday’s events, Kel and Sandro suggest they head out of the city for the day to go swimming. The party heads on the read, Fethr noticing a line of goblins along a path that branches off but doesn’t say anything. After getting to the river, Fethr, Kel and Sandro dive in and some start trying to fish. Fethr manages to catch a black crappie and Kel comes across a monstrous creature. Neve, Arkell and Thadyrtus help from the riverbank but eventually Neve and Thadyrtus were dragged into the water by the Lonely. After defeating it, Kel helps get Thadyrtus back onto the shoreline and the party decides they should just head back and spend the rest of the day at Thadyrtus’ place. On their way back, more of the party take notice of the Goblins and approach to see what their doing.

They speak with Jank, who tells them that their on a labour strike against the farm they work at. Fethr, Neve, Kell and Arkell start talking with Jank and the other Goblins while Thadyrtus huffs waiting. Jank tells the party about how some Goblins are leaving and those who are staying have come together to strike wherever they work. Neve takes grate empathy with the plight of the goblins and Fethr starts shotting that they should be taking up arm. Jank tells Fethr that the goblin’s aren’t going to fight because that’s what the Centaurs are expecting and that it’s not the goblins way to take to violence. The two start getting heated in the merits of a violent revolution vs taking back the value of their labour though strike. The party eventually is told of Iolk, a goblin who is looking to arm the others and is more in the mind set of violent uprising and of Freya, the hobgoblin leader of the goblins of Coruscent.

Eventually the party takes their leave after Jank “all this talk of violence, why would I not be surprised from someone descended from oppressors who think’s that the only way to get what you want.” Neve offers his comraderies to Jank as they take off to seek out Iolk, on their way back into the city they do take notice of guards heading out. After resting up at Thadyrtus’ home, Neve, Fethr, Sandro, Kell and Arkell head out to The Stomping grounds in search of Iolk. Eventually they do find him in the evening and ask about joining the fight (rather loudly) and Iolk shushes them asking “do you want to get me killed?!”

Session 4
After his initial shock, Iolk eyed the party, telling them to meet him back here tomorrow night after sundown to think about talking with them. The party reconvenes with Thadyrtus who has found some old guard friend and goes to catch up with them at a pub while the rest of the party calls it a night. At the pub, the bards playing seem to really impress Thadyrtus, even with one of them being a hobgoblin. They rest for the night and after getting used to how the Galeb Duhr move about everyone manages to avoid getting bowled down.

At breakfast there is a noticeable lack of fresh produce and Hypsasia mentions they never got their morning delivery and will look into that before she heads off to her job. The summoning stone begins to glow, letting the party know they are allowed to enter the castle. As the party bakes there way along the city, Arkell notices that their being tailed by some goblins, calling them out the goblin tails scatter. Turning to the party, Arkell tells the rest it’s likely Iolk is keeping tabs on them today to see if he can trust the party.

With that in mind the party decides to split up, not wanting to all be seen going to the castle the next morning after trying to get in with a goblin revolutionary. Still not telling Thadyrtus about the upcoming meeting they split up Thadyrtus, Sandro and Fethr head to the castle while Neve, Kel and Arkell lay low at a café. While at the castle, the three are lead to the inner gardens by a guard, Fethr trying to look down hallways and being scolded. To the party there, it seemed as if the garden is even older then the castle, older then civilization perhaps. At the center is a glowing flower and when the party members get within the glow of the flower, their vision goes black for a moment and then the memory replays as it had before. The centaur guard calls into the room asking if their done yet and Sandro calls back for just a moment longer, to which the guard mutters that at least this time the party is responding to his calls unlike the last hour. The party realises that the only difference seems that the memory played out in real time. Sandro takes not that the wall to the north of this room seems to be of the same brown bricks from the memory. Fethr being curious reaches out to the flower again, Sandro and Thadyrtus see Fethr’s outstretched hand go slack at it enters the aura as Fethr entered a trance of the memory again.

Meanwhile the party members not going to the castle make their way though the market to the opening of a new coffee shop. As they pass an alleyway, Kel notices a hooded person down the alley sat behind a wooden table with a purple cloth covering it. Kel and Arkell venture closer to the person as Neve remains at the entry way. The mysterious person calls out asking if they want their fortune read, initially Arkell laughs them off but they respond by saying “for someone who’s come from such a far ways away, you never know what you could learn about yourself.” Arkell stunned shocked quickly reaches for his coin purse for a card reading. Kel joins next getting a reading and when the person looks to Neve, he declines. They make their way to the coffee shop and wait for the rest of the party to re-join them.

Back at the castle, after the hour has passed Fethr wakes from the memory, the guard outside has grown impatient. The guard tells them it’s time for them to go, entering the garden with caution to usher them out and Sandro and Thadyrtus notice that the guard entered the aura of the flower but wasn’t pulled into the memory as he carefully moves past it. Sandro asks the guard if he noticed the glow of the flower and was told in a rude, round about way that the guard does not see it. Fethr not wanting to cooperate tries to run about the room and scoop up the flower in a jar. The guard grabs Fethr, shackling them together as when Fethr got close to the flower he restarted the memory. Going limp the guard drags Fethr along as leads Thadyrtus and Sandro back out of the castle, Sandro hearing what seems to be other guards bearding cleaning staff. They are lead out of the castle, unshackling Fethr who’s still unconscious so Sandro carries Fethr as they go to find the rest of the party.

Reconvening at the café, Fethr eventually wakes up, only the first few moments of the memory played but then his mind went black as he was dragged away from the memory location. The castle team tells the rest of the party what they’ve learnt. They message Fly, letting him know the only difference seemed to be how long it took the memory to be experienced. Fly responded that it’s normal to experience memories in real time and thanked the party, letting them know he’ll reach out when he has a lead on a new memory but for now the party is free to do as they wish and dropped some coin in their shared funds.

Looking around for what to do with the rest of the day before their meeting with Iolk the party hears of owlbear sightings to the east of the city and go to investigate. As they leave the café, Neve notices one of those fortune teller’s cards face down under his hand on the table. Trying to hide it he places a napkin over it and leaves, Kel notices Neve’s odd behaviour and sees the card, flipping it over she see’s ‘the devil’. They made their way to the east gate, being warned of the owlbear sighting but push through. The pass the goblin picket line, this time closer to the farmlands to keep away should the owlbears get to their area.

The party tracks the owlbears down, Kel wildshapes into a wolf to assist tracking them down and they find the owlbear family 3 adults and one juvenal, Fethr tries to speak with them but they don’t seem to be able to understand him and the mama attacks. Arkell draws the anger of the papa owlbear is and is chased around. Neve frightens the owlbear and gets in between the papa and Arkell, Sandro works with Kel to take out the older snowy one, Thadyrtus charges between each of the monsters and Fethr summons the mastiff. After finishing off the most of the owlbears, less the one chasing Kel Fethr takes a nap. After finishing off all but the baby owlbear who ran off, the party collect 12 owlbear claws. Looking over at Fethr who slept the last owlbear the party left him behind in their frustration. They made their way back to the city, letting the goblins know the owlbears were taken care of and continued to Thadyrtus place to clean up and recover before heading out to meet with Iolk, less Fethr and Thadyrtus.

Session 5
Out in the forest to the east of Coruscent where the party had fought the owlbears, Fethr is left sleeping; dreaming for the first time of a strange two tailed fox with an ebony mask who warns them that their reckless actions could drive away their newfound friends and put their shared fate in jeopardy. Fethr is shaken awake by a goblin, one of the strikers the party passed; the party had told the goblins that they took care of the owlbears and that one of their members had stayed behind. Fethr feeling disheartened that the rest of the party had left him told the goblins that he’s an adventurer for hire and that he had taken a contract with the centaur guards and heard that the guards planned to attack them for striking. As Fethr took of to head back to the city to rejoin the party, they confided in the goblin their mixed feelings for being left behind and the goblin told him that “a party is people until they’re a team. Try talking with them to make sure they understand you and you understand them.”

Back at Thadyrtus’ place, Neve, Kel and Arkell head out to meet with Iolk; Sandro staying behind with Thadyrtus as he had gone to the castle earlier and to keep Thadyrtus less suspicious. As the rest had make their way through town, Arkell spotted Fethr and called out to them. With Fethr back in the group they made their way to the Stomping Grounds to meet Iolk. Once there, Iolk lead them to his home in the run down Goblin district. Jank soon joined them and Iolk and Jank explained to the party the history of Mahbrwol, how the goblins came to be a lower class on their world and how now, with the progression of labour being done primarily by the goblins they feel confident in trying to get better standing. A violent uprising would more then most likely end unfavourably for them, but they don’t want to just leave en mass due to the dangers of doing so.

As they discuss with the party members there, there’s a knock at the door and Iolk welcomes in Freya, the Hobgoblin spokes person to the council. Freya informs Iolk and Jank they their cause has found a bleeding heart sympathiser of high standing and convinced Santiago into bringing the motion for an investigation. They take this as good news, but Freya was given a condition “He said he’ll bring up the motion to the council but only if the strikes end. Even then unless our ‘bleeding heart’ had talked to other council members the motion has a slim chance of ascension…” The three mull over the condition but come to the decision that they will pause the strikes to see how things pan out. Iolk and Jank then ask the party if they’d be willing out help out by escorting a group of Goblins who do want to move to the new settlement of Sillari that’s located four days north of Coruscent. The party accepts and is told to meet them at the western gate of the city tomorrow afternoon. With that, the party heads back to Thadyrtus’ place and try to figure out how to convince him to help a group of Goblins.

Back with Sandro and Thadyrtus, they make sparce small talk. Eventually Hypsasia comes home and joins the two in the dining room. Hypsasia talks about her day at the castle, mentioning that she came across Freya and Santiago. Hypsasia pestered Santiago to just bring up the motion of investigating the death to get everything back to normal, believing it was just an accident so why not just show it as such. Some time later the rest of the party returns and tells Sandro and Thadyrtus they’ve agreed to help guard a group as they make their way to a near by settlement, not mentioning the settlers are Goblins. Hypsasia questions the settlement and then realises Neve is talking about Sillari and blurts that out, causing Thadyrtus rage face. Sandro points out that they were all bound together by fate and should work together, not leaving Thadyrtus behind. Hypsasia tells Thadyrtus that if it’s to help Goblins leave the city that should be no problem for him and tells him if he wants to keep the use of one of her Galeb Duhrs he should go on this mission for the good on the city and Sandro reminds Thadyrtus of his oath and begrudgingly agrees. As he agrees, Hypsasia asks if theirs anything he wants her to look into while their gone and mentions looking into the inner garden any and legends of Mahbrwol’s origins.

With that the party rests for the night, taking the next morning to prepare for their mission and then heading out to meet with the Goblins just outside the gate. The first day goes smoothy, at night the goblins are nervous around Thadyrtus, but they make a stew and offer some up to the party members as thanks. The next day, while on the path, Fethr notices a strange stone and looking closer the party realises it’s a stone statue of a rabbit. Talking with the goblins and amongst themselves they know of two creatures that can turn living beings to stone: a Cockatrice and a Basilisk. Taking more caution as they move forward, a Goblin named Rill offers to join in first watch that night.

During the watch, Rill hears something coming from the north-west and Fethr, Thadyrtus and Rill wake up the rest of the camp and two Basilisks charge into the camp. Thadyrtus keeps his shield up to protect him from their gaze, the Goblins, aside from Rill all run to the east of the camp. Sandro blinds one of the Basilisks as the party as Rill and Sandro both catch the gaze of the other one. Sandro manages to brake free from the effect, but Rill is turned to stone as the party finishes the Basilisks off. The Goblins slowly approach Rill in disbelief a young girl running up to him crying. The elderly couple take her, explaining that Rill is Vessa’s brother and looked after her once their parents died and now, they’ll look after her.

Only having their packs, the party (less Thadyrtus) trying to think of ways of taking the statue of Rill with them to Sillari, but the Goblins tell them it’s custom to leave the body of one who died protecting others where they had fallen. The party observes the Goblins mourning customs, the next day the Goblins don’t have breakfast as they’re fasting. With the loss of one of the Goblins they were charged with protecting the party prepares for the third day of their journey.