... And salutations

Aranea is taking the bull by the horns and directly talking to Mongo.....So assuming you are now present.

Basically I was aiming for a way to shift focus away from the gods by having the appearance of Mongo be like a refresh of the daily spells. The gods are able to use magic coveted by the populace but are ever on the move. It's like the sorting hat from Harry Potter, but in this case, the hallucinations of Jack and Aranea came onto the gods' map and he was incarnated from beyond the veil in the material world. Inordinate amounts of magic come from such an appearance and Mongo's beefy self was marked by Ares who Mongo can recall had a special mark, the mark of the Shackleborn. This is like a ranger's spells pertaining to his animal companion, the mark can be detected by animals since they are ever on the sniff-hunt for magic. Ares in this instance is a giant red god whose mental connection to you, Mongo, encouraged you to pursue the mark, which looks like a natural sign in musical notation. If you see it, you will be atuned with Ares especially as larger groups clash, with the precipitated war being the defining feature of the overseas passage to Erethor.

So perhaps let me know what your characters' relationship is to the gods, who seek spiritual vassals throughout the world but still cannot locate Izrador. This is mutually exclusive as Izrador cannot locate the gods either. Ares encouraged you to sacrifice libations salubrious upon the merchant shores of Highwall. The river El continues to wend its way around its many waterfalls, and rumor has it there is an underdark (legendary) that is made of some kind of magic glass, peopled with drow.

A natural sign? Sheeesh its been about 45 years since I last read sheet music so you'll forgive me if I've forgotten what it looks like. So Mongo has a tattoo of sorts that is called the Mark of the Shackleborn? It is given to him by Ares and provides a magical connection of some sort?



Erathor is a continent? But what is an Izrador?

This is another thing to research and ask locals about.  I have many many questions, and hoping to answer them in the context of my journal, which can be open source for everyone, since lots of assumptions are out the window, in this strange land....

Stranger in a strange land!  Great book!

Jack's Journal
I found myself in a very strange land, appearing in the midst of a battle, afterwards I found the place I was was known as Cauldron, a city set in the bowl of a volcano, others were part of the team in fighting, and people appeared to help and also disappeared,

In the aftermath of the battle, I had a few companions and we went to Skies Treasury a lady with fine taste in some rare and curious items.


Party instructions, were also not super clear for the main mission:

"the power nexus in the south needs to be activated, and to achieve this, the party must load up on goods from Highwall. From Highwall to the power nexus which sits outside the outpost of Caulderin. The current combat sits astride the unnamed outpost where bandits thrive. Astiraxes and blink dogs roam at night here, when the undead rise from their graves and plague the earth as though the Argonauts have swept through leaving skeletons in their wake. The blighted earth of the Fell slows your mind slightly as you traverse with faerie fire dotting all that you can see, barrenness and desolation of great import.

Progress saw the goods sloughed off on Highwall and the magic items here were a lucky find, the current encounter the result; Highwall had flown under the radar but is now leveraged at night with a swarm of bodiless feeding astirax, which toy with the mind like Trapped between their own state and that of mortal ken. Bottling an astirax form is an option. The obsidian glass from the fire giant jettisoned you (in a manner of speaking) from Skie's Treasury toward the power nexus. Be warned that you may have to run away at breakneck speeds and might want to use conducive spells or items, assuming you have any. Astirax generally means legates will be using powerful magic that is rare to most adventurers.

The blighted southern Eredane awaits and you hear rumors of the elves in-fighting but to travserse the paths toward the elven forests is dangerous, most keenly aware not to leave fires going or use light-based magic unless hidden. Several groups of similar ken you will find meandering the shoddy roads, but if you go to the elves, several of their craft (of gnomish make) will sluice towards the raiding parties, riddling them with arrows, as per the legend."

We were attacked by Fell bipedal creatures and a pack of four legged monsters, again during this battle others came into and out of the reality, perhaps it is a dream like place, and a coma locks me here as they are only here for the brief moment of deepest slumber; or this is some afterlife or limbo.  After this battle I obtained a lich phylactery, somehow I knew or sensed it needs to be taken to a pround in High wall, to be destroyed otherwise at some point the lich reforms....
(Is this the realm of dream and can it be nightmares that have a way to be destroyed as well?)

At the edge of some water, we met The ferryman Greenham, and sailed onto the waters, while lights played in the sky....
Obtained a sextant, need to learn profession navigation in order to use it, and understand what it does.
-uncertain if the sextant had anything to do with Mongo showing up?
Asked How to summon the ferryman in the future, and the payment required a shard of posiden

Okay. Terms are unfamiliar. Pround? Legates? Astirax? And Elves riding on landships (sluicing indicates water travel) that they pepper folks with arrows from?

Exactly!  Jack finds the world perplexing as well, often leading to more questions....Hopefully how to summon/pay the ferryman is one I feel like he should answer....
From my understanding a Pround uses acid and brute force to destroy the phylactory,
...like a horcrux in Harry Potter, needs something specific to destroy it.

A pround is a person?

I could probably destroy one. I have a method of bypassing all Hardness and DR and delivering a heavy bludgeoning blow.

I feel like the more people asking questions the better....
Yes my understanding is a pround is a person (though it could be a machine of some sort)....

I am willing to let you try to destroy the thing.....

I am using the scratch pad for my journal information and editing it as time goes on...I would designate days, but not really sure I feel like I have been in this place for about a week....
This message was last edited by the player at 18:57, Fri 26 Apr.

Will post something of weight tomorrow, been a long couple of days.

Jack, the thread for your journaling sounds like a choice idea, I'll implement it.

Jacks Journal is going to go live!  Exciting!

For fans of the American version of The Office....
Creed thoughts!

The distant view that you had of Cauldron set off the volcano such that several key channels were overcome with magma. The gods, having sensed this, felt their bellies quake. Their forms would come to dominate the landscape, not just in creation myths, but in living and breathing reality. The magic of Zeus cascaded around the continent, striking up flares in several cities, but this escaped the attentions of you petty mortals. And yet you remain tethered to the gods and Izrador, maintaining a sacred balance. Your arrival in Highwall, with several thousand residents, divides the black realm from the colorful realm, and the city seems to sparkle with the beasts of burden having their backs broken in shipments across the continent. It is clear whether a creature is good or evil, in other words, light or shadow. Light creatures seem to glow with an iridescence with Detect Evil spells, whereas the darkness thrives with a solid attachment to chaos.

I think I get it. This place is extra planar with a reactive environment. It's why we would see the influences of Earthquake or Melf's Acid Arrow even though we have no training in SpellCraft .

I have posted, trying to move the game forward....

Hoping to level someday kill some monsters, (destroy the lich thing and get some XP!!!)
Complete mission, and get some more!

The lich isn't dead? But you have its phylactery.

My understanding is we have to destroy it before the lich reforms.....

mongo's hypothesis is now in my journal



I wonder how I will show up in this city of good and evil?
Jack is TN....
This message was last edited by the player at 22:36, Tue 30 Apr.

Ferryman mentioned wogren and astirax. What are they? The symbol on my arm matches that on some of the rangers. What does it signify? The glass is special to this plane. Can it be used as a planar touchstone? And Greek and Egyptian Gods are tied to this Plane. What does this signify? What are the Shackleborn?

 Any other questions we need answered?
This message was last edited by the player at 05:53, Yesterday.

I feel like an appendix of definitions might be a part of my journal eventually......

I think one of the posts stated that the symbol on Mongo marks him as one of the Shackleborn. Which raises the question Shackled , why? And for what purpose? I think we need to know this. Is it part of a prophecy?

Pretty sure a lot of the background is
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/..._City_Adventure_Path

With a whole lot of other stuff and world flavor thrown in....

So it's World of Greyhawk, not an extra dimensional place? With astral wogren and astarix flitting about? And odd glass, which might just be obsidian, given the volcano

If I am not mistaken the world the AP is set in is not the place we are currently.....

I have directly inquired of the DM to help sort some of this out between what we know/do not know.
To start establishing this world's frame of reference.


see my journal for specifics...
This message was last edited by the player at 15:46, Today.