A Job and A Favor

GREETINGS, EVERYONE!

Welcome back to the Lore Master’s blog for The Tales of Umbra Victus! Your Neurodivergent-friendly recap to get caught up on the exploits of your favorite adventuring party! Let’s jump back in, shall we?

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WHAT’S IN A NAME?

When we last left our adventurers, they were back in Marketplace looking for jobs to make a little coin. After briefly discussing their individually dark pasts, and how they were all working toward moving past them, they settled on a name for their group - Umbra Victus, which means “Victory over Shadows.” With this new identification in-hand, they moved through Marketplace to obtain more information on some jobs they had obtained from the Silly Snake Tavern’s job postings board, the first of which was for their favorite local potion-making halfling, Boro.

MOVING ABOUT MARKETPLACE

Waking in the morning, Umbra Victus made plans before heading out to complete the basilisk hunting job for Boro. Kor & Talia went to the alchemy district, where they met Iga, a human woman in her mid-40’s who runs Iga’s Crafts - a potion & brew ingredient shop. From her, Talia got a book on Alchemy and some information on basilisks, forging a new relationship to be nurtured later as she learned more in-depth information on alchemy. In the meantime, Sir Valerian & Orianna headed to the guard station so that Valerian could return the money he found on the Bandit Leader, because as Orianna called him, he is a ‘Goody Two-Boots’. While Valerian was doing his due diligence to return the coin, Orianna flirted with the new guard recruit, wrapping her tail around him and in general making him very uncomfortable. You know, Tiefling Stuff. Meanwhile, Captain Fodrir of the Town Guard, informed Valerian that one of their ranks, a young man named Breon, had gone missing. He had been hearing voices in his head calling him down to the sewer, which everyone dismissed, and then one morning he didn’t show up for work. Sir Valerian asked if he and his companions could be of assistance, asking to search around Breon’s personal effects, obtained a small green stone shard in his footlocker, which no one could explain.

INTO THE IMISTIL...

Meeting back up, Umbra Victus headed over to Boro’s shop for more details on the job posting, learning it was in the Imistil Forrest a few miles East of Marketplace, and that Boro is specifically looking for its venom for a new potion he is working on. Heading out on horses on loan from the Guard, they arrived at the edge of the forest, hearing a rustling off to the West, but sounded far away. Eventually, coming upon a cave with basilisk tracks leading into it, the rustling got louder, causing all to retreat to the mouth of the cave. Kor, anxious for a fight, threw a rock out, and whatever had been making the rustling sound picked up on that. Attempting (and failing!) to be stealthy, the Monk walked directly into the path of a hunting party comprised of a hobgoblin, some goblins, and a direwolf. Thinking fast, Sir Valerian decided to wake the Basilisk from its slumber, and Talia cast Rope Trick, which essentially created an extradimensional “treehouse” about 20 feet up that the Party could scramble into and watch the Basilisk take care of the goblin hunting party. Once they were all either frightened off or petrified, Valerian dropped out of the treehouse, directly on top of the Basilisk, dealing an almost fatal amount of damage! One well-placed hex from Orianna, and the Basilisk was burned to death! After procuring fangs, teeth, one of the eyes, and 5 total vials of the poison Boro needed, the party headed back into town and completed the job - for which they were paid handsomely for three vials of poison. In addition, Boro gave Talia the Alchemist’s Medicine Maker, a powerful magical item that enchants any non-poisonous liquid poured into it to be one of six useful potions over the course of 24 hours.

After Boro’s, they headed back to Iga’s and Talia started a “trade credit” using the Basilisk components to be turned in later once she had learned more from her new book. Then, they headed to Kallen’s Magical Mysteries where Orianna obtained a 4th level Fireball Scroll, and Kor received the Periapt of Wound Closure at a reduced cost by trading the proprietor, Kallen, the Basilisk eye, which he said he could make into a magical pendant that would either petrify or un-petrify someone, taking about a week to do so. Umbra Victus made the deal that if anyone other than them came to inquire after it, to let them know, and secured ‘first dibs’ on the item that Kallen would craft.

A CALL TO THE MISSING...

Heading back to rest for the evening, Talia & Orianna heard a dark & menacing voice beckoning them down to the sewers. Both being shaken to their core, they woke each other - and Kor - up, and while uneasy for the remainder of the night, all bunked up together and got their much needed rest. This ended up being a great thing, because the next morning, the party woke up to find the whole town of Marketplace in an uproar, as a bunch of other townsfolk had disappeared overnight. The whole of the Town Guard was ready to storm the sewers to locate the Missing, and Umbra Victus decided to join them, considering the experiences of Orianna and Talia the previous evening.

Down in the sewers, the Guard went left, Umbra Victus right, and after approximately 200 feet, the party came upon an Illithid - a Mind Flayer - with two Dolgrum - stitched-together Orc-ish creatures with 4 hands, 4 legs, and 2 mouths - as servants. He had set up Clairvoyance, which the party triggered, alerting him to their presence. Making relatively quick work of the Dolgrums - separating them back into two Orcs each - the Illithid realized that he was outnumbered and, having gone into self-preservation mode, noticed Talia, and in her head whispered the word “Genasi” in common, then Plane Shifted out.

Getting their wits back about them, Umbra Victus located the Missing - among whom were Zela, Boro, Iga, a couple of townspeople who had started their transformation already, and Breon, the missing Town Guard. When questioned, Breon said that any others that were taken had been transported to somewhere 'not of this realm' by the Illithid, and that he’d deduced the plot was to infect the whole town, bolstering the ranks of the Mind Flayers by transforming the citizens of Marketplace using parasites, corroborated by a large pot of said parasites in the center of the chamber. After destroying said pot, the party & those rescued started making their way back to the surface, Boro told them he would gladly call in a favor for saving his life. On the way back, Talia passed out face down in the sewer, a vision having been triggered of 12 orc druids standing in a circle around her, holding out small green shard which begin to glow near her chanting in Primordial “You are the seal”, then watching her skin turn to rock. Once she comes to, the small shard that Valerian found in Breon’s footlocker starts to glow, only subsiding when more than 45 feet away.

...TO THE BAR

Upon return to town with their new friends, everyone decided to get day-drunk, be thankful for the safe return of the Missing they were able to save, and try to forget all of the events of the past day. Well, all except for Kor & Orianna, who decided to head over to Mallen’s bookstore to inquire further about books that may be helpful on the next leg of their journey to the Shadow Marches, he proceeded to inform them that his cousin Kallen was a con artist, and that the items they had received were in fact not what they were lead to believe. The scroll was a 4th level Fire BROOM scroll, and Kor’s Periapt of Wound Closure would only work three times, and then break, instead of continuing to protect her during combat. He then agreed to fix the items for them, at a small additional cost, and informed them that if they ever came across his cousin, that Orianna had permission to beat him within an inch of his life, with his own arm, but not to kill him. Family is family, after all. Orianna decided to pay Kallen a visit, and upon arrival, realized that he had packed up his full store & “fucked off with a quickness”, eliciting immediate rage from the Tiefling.

A NEW PLAYER ENTERS THE CHAT

While that was happening, Sir Valerian accompanied Boro back to his shop so that he could call in that favor to his friend Damian, pulling out multiple sending stones before coming upon the one he needed: one labeled “Blood Regent” written in Celestial, and one marked in elvish for someone named Issac. On their way back to the bar, Valerian & Boro ran into Kor & Orianna, and - at Valerian’s unintentional behest - Orianna headed back to Boro’s shop under the guise of locking up and while in the shop, stole both of the sending stones from the counter.

Meanwhile, Talia talked to Zela to see how she was doing with everything. Zela then informed her that she had lied to Kor, and that a very old human gentleman named Jorlin with silver hair & a silver cane had come across Marketplace a little while ago, given her a Sending Stone, telling her that if she had ever saw or heard anything about Kor or her friend Vishara, to contact him immediately. She told Talia she hadn’t, but wanted to let her know that someone was looking for Kor, and gave Talia that sending stone. And as everyone was winding down their night of drinking, Kor and Orianna returned from their revelations from Mallen, and someone matching that description attempted to walk into the Silly Snake, saying “Yes, I know you’re closed. I need to talk to these four if you don’t mind. You’ve been busy” Talia, recognizing him from Zela’s description, says, “Jorlin, I presume”. Tari proceeds to freak out on Kor, but doesn’t give a reason as to why. “Yes my name is Jorlin. I think it’s time we all had a talk. You’ve met my rival, Malrig.”

MEMORIES

Jorlin sat down and began talking to Kor, who was very confused as to why he knew who she was; she had never seen him before in her life. At that point, he mentioned that he’d hired her and Vishara to do a job for him while they were all in the Overlook District of Upper Dura in Sharn. He mentioned he had information of Halkhad, a name that caused Kor and Tari great anger. With Kor still not remembering or knowing what he was talking about, Jorlin realized something was wrong, pulled out a Siberys dragonshard and, placing it on her forehead, gave her missing memories back via a casting of Greater Restoration. The rush that came back allowed her to remember her time in Sharn with Vishara, that Jorlin had info of Halkhad - who was the fallen Kalashtar that had killed both her parents and Vishara’s parents & why they became friends, began training, & traveled outside of Sarlona toward Sharn together. Vishara was needed to stay behind to get the rest of the group Jorlin hired together, and in the month & a half of travel alone, Kor found Halkhad, along with the same three Dreaming Dark members Umbra Victus ended up defeating on the lightning rail. They defeated her & modified her memory, but instead of changing information, they took all and gave nothing.

Jorlin also elaborated more on Malrig, and after pressuring for more information on how to defeat him once and for all, the party was given some details that included the Church of the Silver Flame, and the Couatl - which doesn’t exist on this plane any longer. He also gave some additional information about Talia, in regards to the Genasi & regarding the Clans & Tribes of the Druids in the Shadow Marches and their fight against the Agents of the Daelkyr.

EMBARKING ON THE NEXT ENDEAVOR

Once he had shared all he had to share and had left the party to their own devices, they finished up some logistical conversations, and headed to bed. In the morning, Valerian shuffled a very hungover Boro back to his shop, Kor & Orianna picked up the upgraded items from Mallen, and Talia learned how to create a Revivify coin, which will likely prove to be very useful later in their travels. Once all final preparations were made, Umbra Victus is greeted by Captain Damian Ir D’Lyrandar and ushered onto the Eternal Dawn to begin their journey to the Shadow Marches.

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And here is where we leave our adventurers for the moment; join us for the next installment of the Lore Master blogs so you can come along with Umbra Victus on this adventure that we are weaving together.

Be respectful to each other, we love you, and see you next time. Byeeeeee <3