Sequence of Events

This report details a mission posted by a citizen of Mosulk regarding a missing hellhound within the city. Officially undergoing this mission was Dacquoise Tart, but accompanying her for the trip was Wren and myself (more on that later). We dispatched the day following our acceptance of the mission. Travel was interrupted and delayed by a single day due to a phantasmal effect that affected Dacquoise and myself as we passed a forest, but at the time was determined to be an environmental disturbance that did not exceed thresholds for further investigation.

Upon arrival at the gates of Mosulk, we encountered a second delay in our mission. The city was evacuated and closed off — not unlike Queen’s Crossing as filed in my earlier report — due to a dangerous artefact being sighted in the premises, and we entered under authority of the guild to resolve the situation to mixed success. To avoid clogging this report in the details, this will be filed separately as Supplemental Report A. If you cannot find it, it’s likely to be held as confidential due to the involvement of the Judicators.

After the city was cleared for civilian access and we rested from the ordeal at the Argensolde manor, Wren and I went about our business while Dacquoise went to visit the person that posted the mission request. As it turns out, the information on the mission was misleading—the hellhound was in fact multiple regular pet dogs. However, investigation of the premises led to a discovery pointing towards fey influence. Considering me the closest source on matters of the area around Mosulk, we discussed possible leads to take this, ultimately coming to the conclusion that the forest we passed on the way may be the source.

Further research by Dacquoise led to the conclusion that she alone was woefully underequipped for the mission and, in accordance with chapter 4, section 15 of the Kovan Guild Charter, requested that Wren and I join the mission group. We were at a nadir in our personal affairs at the time so we accepted and, after a brief preparation, requisitioned a carriage to bring us back to the aforementioned forest. It was there that we encountered a small group of fey at work, a will’o’wisp in particular having entranced the corgis in question.

As it turns out, corgis have a tenuous, but apparent connection to the First World, not unlike the gnomish population in Kova. The fey did not want to negotiate with civilised people as such and took arms almost immediately. While Dacquoise and I lent our spells from the rear, Wren entered the front line, blending her own ice magic with martial force expertly, but it also left her as a primary target. The fey were more prepared than we expected in addition; they were armed with viciously serrated weapons styled after the mantis’s claws and, even with Dacquoise’s magical defenses, Wren sustained rather profusely bleeding wounds from these blows. Fortunately, Dacquoise is also skilled in healing magic and was able to tend to her without hesitation.

Eventually, between Wren’s assault and my continued work disabling their forces individually, we were able to rout the fey and retrieve the corgis. We returned them to their master that evening and retired to House Argensolde to rest before our return tomorrow.

However, that night I started showing symptoms of the Mosulk Plague after fifteen years of dormancy.

I had lost consciousness through much of the night, but based on the information I received afterwards, the man who posted the mission was en route to the manor at the time to deliver us a gift as personal thanks. Hearing a panic in the manor, he hurried and forced the doors down, thinking we were in danger. Wren was able to calm both him and our maidstaff down before anything truly dire could happen, after what already happened last night. A doctor was summoned in a hurry, and he determined that while I did not appear to be contagious even now, my time was still short, and advised I carry handkerchiefs and burn them nightly from now on.

For now, Dacquoise is helping prevent the plague from doing too much damage to my body. However, I don’t have much time left regardless, and

[The ink on the crossed-out sentence is splotched and diluted in spots from when it was still fresh.]

Findings

With the discovery of the deception outlined in Supplemental Report A, there is a newly highlighted danger of dissent or even treachery among the guild’s numbers. To find that the Judicators of one guild are hiding behind another’s crest begets a likelihood of unscrupulous acts being performed, which puts the guilds themselves in ill repute and at risk of infighting or rebellion. It is based on my personal experience that an audit of the guilds is in order, and a letter has been sent to the relevant parties.

Of the mission itself, nothing especially interesting was noted. While the involvement of the fey complicated what was an otherwise simple job, their presence in Kova’s forests has always been fairly well-known. At worst, this could be seen as them becoming especially unruly and agitated, but that is for someone more qualified to decide; Dacquoise’s report should have more information on the specifics in such a case since she was doing the investigative work.

Owing to the complications Dacquoise’s mission faced and the resultant hiring of Wren and myself, as per chapter 4, section 16 of the Kovan Guild Charter, we have filed for compensation of assets used in the course of the mission.

Likewise, I will not be able to use my pension properly, so in accordance with chapter 3, section 22 of the Kovan Guild Charter, I have also filed to receive what I have accrued immediately; a copy of the doctor’s report was attached as proof.

~Runica T. Argensolde of Mogaru

Sequence of Events

This report details a mission posted by Guild Ercinee regarding finding missing persons in Queen’s Crossing. Taking this mission were Wren, Tanya Luden and I, with Tanya as leader by hierarchy. We dispatched the day we accepted the mission. Travel was uneventful—following our previous mission, we had been given statuettes by Algister of the Archaeological Society as part of our reward, to which Tanya and I brought ours with to study in transit, albeit with no clear conclusion to their purpose.

Upon arrival at Guildhall Ercinee, we were brought abreast of the situation. The missing persons count had only risen further during our travel, and the crossing was evacuated into the guildhall forthwith, resulting in a shortage of food and housing. One of those missing was the Ercinee guild leader, leaving an interim to handle the emergency in his wake. We convened with him to get further details, but found that there was little to no connection between the people that went missing beyond a potential location: the nearby lake.

We prepared to venture out in the morning and retired to the night watch’s quarters, but our sleep was interrupted by a ghostly apparition attacking the guildhall. We intervened and de-escalated the conflict with magic—Wren rescued the people it had seized with Feather Fall, while I had taken control of it with Command Undead at the same time as it unleashed a hackle-raising wail that briefly incapacitated me.

Interestingly, this interaction of supernatural powers resulted in me coming into mental contact with what was controlling the apparition. It sounded and behaved abnormally, artificial and inflexible in tone. After recovering and attempting to communicate with the apparition’s original controller, my control was overridden and we resorted to firing upon the apparition with magic missiles, forcing it to flee.

The following morning we left as scheduled, passing through the deserted village with the orders to seize any supplies left behind. However the forefront of our focus was on our primary mission, and we proceeded to investigate the lake, in which we discovered a strange orb in the shallows. Tapping it triggered the surfacing of a small structure from the water, inside of which was a grated floor that carried us straight down into a buried ruin previously unknown to us.

We discovered then that the ruin was alive, as the same voice that contacted me through the apparition warned us not to proceed. It identified us and a number of others as trespassers and thieves, but after some negotiation and promises not to take anything, it allowed us to continue under escort to the mentioned others once we disarmed ourselves.

Along the way, I was ordered by the ruin to split up from the others and proceed elsewhere in private. Wren and Tanya insisted I did not, but to refuse jeopardised the mission and the potential of new and valuable research could not be discounted, so I accepted despite their wishes. The ruin escorted me to a chamber containing an artifact jar of some manner, along with a person not listed among the missing mesmerised by it. The ruin then admitted that it separated me in the hopes that I was something akin to it and expressed dissatisfaction that it wasn’t the case, as it had planned to find some way to place itself in an earthly body. It proceeded to explain that it was guarding the artifact from thieves like the one who was enraptured, as it was a danger to everyone else’s safety and had the ability to drain a magic user’s potential.

Wren and Tanya meanwhile were purportedly brought to the missing persons, who had been kept under tight guard by a number of mechanical spiders like the ones filed in my last report. After ascertaining the situation, their release was negotiated, and they were later guided to the exit; prior to that however, my teammates were brought to the artifact chamber after me and brought up on the situation. We were told the only way to release the transfixed thief was to press his head into the rim of the artifact, which would also kill him. Tanya accepted the task as one who lacked squeamishness or frailty, but released her grasp on him when it was clear the thief both survived the ordeal and was sound of mind again, albeit bereft of magic.

Ultimately, we negotiated an agreement to leave the ruin alone, and the thief was escorted back to the entrance by us while the ruin itself brought the captives. Interestingly, following a side discussion about our statuettes, we had the chance to request some assistance in deciphering the text on them, which is apparently of the Galactic Standard alphabet, the text transcribed here as such:

[A number of Galactic Standard glyphs, carefully lined up with the translated text]
Divine Memories, Trademark 3812 by Hallmark, Made in China.

The ruin explained that Galactic Standard was spoken on over ‘fifteen million different worlds’, deriding our culture as savage for not innately understanding it, though it reacted positively to a willingness to learn. It also provided me a monolithic device of unknown functionality, telling me that if I can get it working, I would be able communicate with it further. I have not yet determined its purpose, but I have concluded that it lacks the capacity to endanger anyone with its use.

Following that, we returned to the guildhall with all accounted for. The thief was detained and coerced into revealing his cache of stolen goods, and the other captives were ordered that the ruin’s existence was now a guild secret, as per its wishes to be left alone. Owing to lack of supplies, the interim guildmaster could only pay us in a handful of reappropriated goods of the thief’s, which we ultimately sold and split the funds for.

Findings

This mission has led to the discovery of a new ruin that is both well-preserved and houses an active intelligence from the days before Kova. Though we made a promise to leave it undisturbed and trusted it to guard its own artifact rather than hand it over to Drakhan, if further negotiations can be opened again in the future, we could advance our research on Kova’s early history by leaps and bounds. The fact that it speaks of other worlds with such familiarity lends credence to the natives’ claims of not being from this one.

In conclusion, the mission was successful and has additionally unveiled a potential breakthrough in historical and archaeological research. However, we must treat this new source of valuable data delicately, for with its sentience comes the risk of it turning against us if we treat it disrespectfully. As such, I plan to transfer to Drakhan and make use of their cumulative research to investigate and attempt to repair the monolithic device the ruin has provided me, as well as further decipher the Galactic Standard language, as I feel Mogaru’s library is no longer sufficient.

~Runica T. Argensolde of Mogaru

[Scribbled on the margin is a note of the draft’s status, with a reminder to get further details and a quick proofreading from Wren and Tanya. “If they complain about the length, though, TS.”]

[Day 3] Dacquoise
[Day 6] Carys, Raiden {Away, 3 Days to Return When Done}
[Day 7] Sam, Tanya, Runica, Wren {Away, 4 Days to Return When Done}
[Day 10] Ceres {Away, 7 Days to Return When Done}

[Mogaru: Caravan Duty]
- A caravan is going to be heading back east to leave the country and are looking for people to do a number of jobs, anything from just helping to load, to looking to hire guards for the journey through the open lands. Payment depends on work taken.

[The Crossings: Mysterious Disappearances]
- A couple of villagers have gone missing at night from Queen’s Crossing. Local Guildmembers are asking for assistance in searching, have been unable to find bodies as of yet.
[Embarked: Runica, Wren, Tanya, Sam] (4/4 Days Travel time To/From The Crossings)

[Cityport Mosulk: Help, I lost my pet Hellhound!]
- Someone… Someone apparently lost their Hellhound. They have already payed the up front guild fees for mission posting, so it’s going up on the list. Take if you think it’s serious.

[Mogaru → Fort Gilidan: Transport Duty]
- Fort Gilidan has requisitioned some supplies from Mogaru. This is a job strictly looking for guards to help make sure the goods reach there safely. There will also be some civilians along for the ride, moving to Gilidan.
[Embarked: Ceres] (7/7 Days T/From Gilidan)

[#14 On the Map, Eastern of the Two: Water Woes]
- The current well has dried up, looking for guild help to defend and possibly help survey team dig to locate a new source of water.
[Embarked: Carys] (3/3 Days To/From the Village)

[#9 On the Map, Capitol City: I’m lonely!]
- This mission was apparently defaulted on, the last taker quit and refused to complete. The mission requester has already paid, much like the Hellhound Mission. They are looking for someone to go on picnic with them.
[Embarked: Dacquoise]

[There is also a number of missions all across the land, small hunting, gathering, searching missions. If you wish to take one of these, merely mention a point on the map when going to claim a mission. These are random, but make sure I know if you’re more interested in ‘Hunting’, ‘Gathering’, ‘Searching’ or ‘Researching’]

[Also there are a couple quests from the ‘Archeological Society’. These all say ‘Ask the Front Desk to help you Locate Algister’ on them.]

Wondering how to get started? Here are a few tips:

1. Invite your players

Invite them with either their email address or their Obsidian Portal username.

2. Edit your home page

Make a few changes to the home page and give people an idea of what your campaign is about. That will let people know you’re serious and not just playing with the system.

3. Choose a theme

If you want to set a specific mood for your campaign, we have several backgrounds to choose from. Accentuate it by creating a top banner image.

4. Create some NPCs

Characters form the core of every campaign, so take a few minutes to list out the major NPCs in your campaign.

A quick tip: The “+” icon in the top right of every section is how to add a new item, whether it’s a new character or adventure log post, or anything else.

5. Write your first Adventure Log post

The adventure log is where you list the sessions and adventures your party has been on, but for now, we suggest doing a very light “story so far” post. Just give a brief overview of what the party has done up to this point. After each future session, create a new post detailing that night’s adventures.

One final tip: Don’t stress about making your Obsidian Portal campaign look perfect. Instead, just make it work for you and your group. If everyone is having fun, then you’re using Obsidian Portal exactly as it was designed, even if your adventure log isn’t always up to date or your characters don’t all have portrait pictures.

That’s it! The rest is up to your and your players.