- I was not here last time?
- Kaelen is dreaming
- Was running through the forest and then they reawoke in the forest of incredible tall trees
- He blinks, and he’s back in the abbey, back in the hall where the intiiatns receive their blessing
- He feels the heavy hand of the abbot on his shoulder, “you returned to us, my son”
- he blinks again, he’s sitting in a room, a vast hall cavernous hall, stained glass window reflects down at me, the image of a yellowish moonlight
- An immense but stooped figure sits at the head of the table
- The table is covered in various dishes, filled with strange things
- A plate of greasy bones? A bowl of pure lard?
- Before him, a plate covered in slightly steaming straw
- He blinks again but does not leave, the immense figure who is hard to see, gestures its great hand
- He blinks and he’s back in the crimson forest, he sees before him the grove, the man with the silver armor atop the throne of roses
- He blinks, and he’s back in the abbey, the heavy hand on his shoulder repeating “return”
- he blinks and hes back to the dinign hall with the disgusting plate, the thrumming of a harp or lute, there’s a group of strange tall knights
- The same one he stole the scythe from who walk in with spindly knees
- “Eat”, he commands
- He gets told to “choose one”
- Before the silver throne again, he gets told to choose as he drinks
- There’s a vessel of stone filled with blood
- He blinks again, there’s a great stone statue of Beltramus, he glares at Kaelen
- The cup of the initiate, some blood, wine and spices sits before Kaelen
- He gets told to “drink and choose”
- He feels a pull, almost divided between 3 places
- One in the strange hall, the plates of bones and fat
- He will give gold, and power that he desires. He raises a hand of bold and offers his scythe. It clatters onto the table
- The abbey, the hard faces of the saints and the cup of initiation
- The abbot on both shoulders, he is told to drink and be pure in front of the saints
- The strange grove, the vessel of stone and pure blood that sits in front with a throne bearing a silver knight
- Embrace it, embrace strength immeasurable and descend
- He flips the bird to all 3 entities
- He wakes back up, and is no longer cursed but Kaelen’s Scythe is gone
- He feels a shift, that he’s on a different path
- The fundamental promise beltramus made was to pwrotect people
- Those misguided monks at Litensreich, they have strayed
- Maybe Kaelen can walk it?? He might become a paladin??
- Kaelen awakes in the middle of the woods, no idea where his friends are
- The sun is normal!!
- he follows a “hurricane” and slimy marks through trees, this dark oily substance (Altaeum’s sword stuff)
- Back to the main party??
- They’re near Kerlan’s Last Stand
- Altaeum tries asking Bertrada about this place
- Someone is carrying Soren
- They meet up with Kaelen on the way back??
- The place where Altaeum fought the champion is Kerlam’s Last Stand
- According to Bertrada, recently in the Ost, these strange tribes have been wandering about
- They challenge wise people to “druid duels”
- They heavily maim the challenge, then they kidnap men for war
- Most of those men die, they then capture the women and children and absorb the tribe into the greater mass
- They do strange stuff; they take captives on campaign, they do human sacrifice
- They did a lot of divide & conquor, the tribes are seperated.
- Kaelen might be racist, human sacrifies are rare??
- We arrive back at Kerlan’s Last Stand
- We decide to head back to Kerlan’s Crossing (get some supplies from Litensreich)
- At night we hear a voice from the road side
- He carries a walking stick and asks to camp with us (in common)
- He wanders from far to the west? From a little east of Golgrotto, southeast of Sinslok
- This is “Hoodles”
- Evelyne asks about a “Simon”
- He’s not a cleric but its related
- On Kaelen’s watch, Hoodles is gone; he’s vanished
- He’s left behind an entire plate of berries and a pot squirrel stew
- There’s a slip of paper with a signature at the bottom “Anno”
- After a few days, we finally approach Kerlan’s Crossing
- Kaelen has a dream of following something in a forest
- They clambor through the woods, through branches, etc
- They reach the top of a bare hill, they see a him standing there
- ragged clothes, maybe crimson a long time ago
- he has a familiar sword (maybe its the Blade of Roses)
- The dream fades very quickly
- We arrive back at Kerlan’s Crossing
- There’s a headmistress of some kind
- An old guy passed through and all the grain was gathered (Anno)
- Kaelen arrives at the Abbey of St. Beltramus
- There’s the sound of fighting and chanting of hymns
- We enter the main hall, Kaelen tells about the events at Kerlan’s Last Stand and the slain champion
- He’s heard of Garag from a missionary in Ost, a druid who leads a wargang
- Evelyne introduces themselves
- The abbots are suddenly very interested in why Evelyne is here
- very interested in why she’s here
- They’re curious why she’s really here
- She refuses to answer questions (who she is and why she is really here)
- She’s here to find someone and cure a condition(?)
- They ask Kaelen if its related to their curse (the bloodmagic of the Abbey of St. Beltramus)
- They mention that The Red Swordsman is St. Beltramus
- Most of the Ostmen aren’t that bad, they haven’t had the ability to harness the power of the abbey
- There are bookshelves set into stone walls
- There are some tales/legends of the Ostmen doing this blood magic
- The abbey has missionaries in the Ost tribes
- We send the abbey out to destroy the ritual site at Kerlan’s Last Stand
- Altaeum meditates?
- they think of the land of the Land of Sin and Cobble
- They look inside and see the room they always enter in
- There are things they don’t recognize now
- There are deep cuts in the wall (evidence of a battle)
- There is a statue of the headless man (he is holding his head)
- Somebody in the darkness asks “Where are you?”
- Altaeum drew The Black Door in Catacombs
- There’s no sliver of moonlight within the door so its probably safe
- Altaeum opens the door and there is a flash of moonlight,
- The catacombs suddenly start bleeding in silver threads, they also start leaking through the trapdoor
- Magic is getting stronger much quicker, its weaving a lattice inside the room
- This is a sign of the agents of the moon
- Kaelen feels less uncomfortable around the door now, they feel like they’re being watched though
- The silver threads panic Altaeum - he ushers us into the Land of Sin and Cobble
- Trying to prevent the agents of the moon from breaking into the Land of Sin and Cobble from the material plane (our normal world)
- We’re in the Land of Sin and Cobble now
- Kaelen turns their weapon into a light
- We hear a voice from the right of the entrance room, Altaeum heads out by themselves to investigate
- They see a hunched figure, it turns to Altaeum and they see it is humanoid but it has no feet?
- It instead has two large worn-down stumps with hands replaced by spikes; it weeks black fluid
- It launches an arm at Altaeum that stretches unnaturally (and then deals a bunch of damage)
- Its uhh, so much damage bro so much wtf
- Kaelen fails their critical roll so hard that they get maddness
- They get stabbed so so many times and get knocked unconcious
- Altaeum goes down trying to save Kaelen
- They start having visions of shit (its healthy trust trust)