CLUMP talk:Current events

Lore Tour Summaries

2024

The group tries to decide if they should plant a seedling. (20240518)

• 20240518: Warning: Today's lore tour recap is pretty heavy on the Proper Nouns. If you want more background on who and what these places are, please say so. Lore tour today went to the Shadowplane today at Brisk's behest. As you may remember, on two previous trips there a mystic was gifted a "Crooked Seed" from a crooked tree. The mystics claimed the tree spoke to them, asking them to find a place to plant the seed. Sativa planted his seed in Peng Peng's garden in the Haunted Fane, and as it grew it opened a portal to a garden that appears to be part of the shadowplane. Today Brisk proposed to go to the Dreamless Protectorate in the Shadowplane to ask for guidance about what he should do with the seed he was carrying.
  • After a short walk through the shadow islands, and a not-so-short row across the shadow ocean trying to first find and then catch the moving exit, we finally made it to the Protectorate. But no sooner did we finally get there, then Brisk seemed to be overcome by an irresistible desire to plant the seed. While the gathered exiles debated whether this was a good idea or not, Brisk snuck past us and planted the seed right at the spot where Shaer's Gate stood — the portal to and from the shadowplane in ancient times. And almost immediately, a small shadow tree grew in that spot.
  • I and several others were aghast, but the residents of the Protectorate stoically accepted this shadowy addition to their sanctuary without protest. Pelaegia mentioned that the tree was unlikely to grow without nutrients, which was reassuring. However, some exiles were intrigued to see what the tree would develop into: perhaps it would open a gateway to somewhere, much like the first tree? Kalian, reasoning that the tree might subsist on memories like many other shadow beings, tried to feed it a dream fragment he'd been carrying. The tree indeed absorbed the dream fragment, and it instantly started to grow more. (edited)

  • At that point we had to leave, so we left the tree under the observation of Chroma of the Protectorate. The tree might develop more on its own, but I highly recommend not bringing it any more dream fragments as that might cause it to mature faster. Unless that's what you want.
  • The trip out was mostly uneventful, but if you're a healer — remember that you should only heal the Lost Dreamer if you feel comfortable escorting it the whole way out. Experience managing a pet is good practice for that.
  • Oh, speaking of pets, I have a personal request. I brought my pet foxweir Chaconne for moral support, but we were separated while on the shadow ocean and I wasn't able to find her. She hadn't returned to the stable by the time I had to go to the library, so if anyone's heading back to the shadowplane anytime soon, please keep an eye out for an out of place frost foxweir. Thanks.
  • Soul Hunter TLDR: Another shadow tree planted. What could go wrong?
— Coriakin

Pavela plots with exiles to disrupt Darshak supply lines. (20240511)

• 20240511: For today's Lore Tour we escorted the disguised Pavela Winemoon (aka Ramandoon) to Ash Island to rendezvous with her contact "Five" and associates to lay groundwork for disrupting Darshak supply lines. Under cover of raiding the darshak outpost to steal loot from the ships, we secretly hid Five's verminate compatriots aboard all the ships present. I can neither confirm nor deny rumors that Five was revealed to be five verminate in a cloak while finding a hiding spot aboard one of the ships.
  • I’m not sure what the next step is. Perhaps the verminate spies will sabotage the ships themselves at a later date. Perhaps they're gathering info to let us know when a vulnerable convoy will be arriving for us to sink/raid. Or something else entirely? I guess we'll find out!
  • But not next week. Apparently the plan is to go to the shadowplane next week. I'm sure everything will be fine…

A pirate secretly dressed as Ramandu (20240504)

• 20240504: For Lore Tour today we went to TI to check on Pavela Winemoon, a formerly (and possibly still) Darshak-associated person who helped us take over the darshak outpost on TI. She mentioned three possible targets on Ash Island that for follow-up actions against the Darshak, and we decided to pursue two of them. First, we'd go deface Kestrel's Tower to, uh, demoralize our foes with psychological warfare, and then meet with one of Pavela's contacts who could help us disrupt supply lines from the main Darshak settlement of Gathner. Pavela offered to escort us to our targets but was worried about being recognized, so Pe Ell donated an orange cloak to disguise her as a Ramandu.
  • After a pitched battle we made it to the tower, where Kestrel's halfling servant was taunted in the traditional manner and then numerous signs were posted.
  • Signs included:
    • "Welcome to the tower of failure! Please leave soiled clothing with Dotterel,"
    • "Your tower is bad and you should feel bad,"
    • "Take pride in our town. Keep yon tower Darsak free,"
    • "Ramandu is better and richer than every Darshak ever. Combined even. Ramandu is the bestest in the world and carries all his riches on his person always."
    • "Only thing in Dotterels mind is "peepee poopoo peepee poopoo""
  • Next we went to the temple where we encountered Pavela's contact Five, who was definitely not a pile of rodents in a cloak. After a hefty bribe from Kalian, Five agreed to help us locate some darshak shipping next week. On the way out the necromancer Amdiroth was briefly mocked, and we escorted "Ramandu" to safety.

Soul Hunter recap: Darshak mocked and stolen from. More next week.

• 20240420: The last Lore Tour was less of a tour and more of a tour de force. After Stinkfist's nefarious brother Reekfoot showed up to mock Puddleby's dancing skills last week, we stepped up to the challenge to Serve or Be Served. There were a variety of impressive performances including Inu and the Shadow Friends, Punisher representing Bear Force One, Bessie's Interpretive Dance, Fungal Fey and the Mush Rooms, Red Quill's Dance Squad, Garr's taunting and pie-ing of Reekfoot, and Reekfoots "dance" presentation that was mostly violence.
  • After the performances, the scores provided by the distinguished judges were unceremoniously thrown out due to possible judge bribery and/or tampering, and instead the attendees were invited to vote. Apparently Puddleby feels that summoning horrifying shadow monstrosities isn't a desired part of a dance presentation, so Inu's shadow fiends came last and were subjected to brutal mockery, cheerfully provided by Pun'isher. In the end the voting was very close, but my own clan's entry was victorious! To paraphrase Stinkfist: "Red Quill winning a RP-related event, what a surprise."
  • Thanks to everyone who participated! — Coriakin
• 20240406: First we went and joined Ramandu on his search of the Great Toad Spirit — and fought The Ramandu in the Bookfort.
  • Then we all went into the purple crayon adventure notebook and defeated Clthoomu.
  • From there, a detour to visit the difference dance crews — puffins, pets, bears and badgers who were practicing for "Regionals."
  • Then finally and at great length, a foray into Gorvin's danger rooms. They were very perilous and at times it looked like we wouldn't make it, but the dire seasteed (or whatever it's called) was smashed, we won, and cake was eaten in celebration that we finally weren't stuck and because it was Jamboree's birthday.
  • Soul Hunter Recap: Big mob, SH wanted sharecads.

headless exile bears invade Town Center 20240316

• Tour Visionstone: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lG_xYjB1AA8

• 20240316: Arrr! Hear this declaration from the Pirate King:
  • BRNJBJRN: "FIGHT TO THE DEATH, THE CHALLENGE APPROACHETH"
  • A Shadow Brinclone (You may remember the Adventure to recover Mehan's Armor....) has uhhh roared a challenge through the planes to Puddleby. Come fight him in his shadowy cave.
  • So, for Puddleby and those inclined to THE GREAT BEAR SPIRIT, we shall answer this call to combat.
  • Now from previous encounters and expeditions into the Shadowplane we know that these Shadow Bears are rather mighty. Bring yer best. Iz gonna be dangerous. We got this.....
  • Yarr it should be noted that this... seems to be the result of a chain of events started accidentally by Mehan when she lost her armor riding an agronox (it could happen to anyone) and then continued by one Inu Teisei (with some help from Sativa) when they checks notes temporarily bound the shadow bears to the ice altar, which presumably gave the Shadowplane lots and lots of time to learn all about bears....
  • If this goes poorly, this is their fault. If this goes well and works out for us somehow, they get medals.
  • Fight with RAWR ROAR RAWR and Honor in Glorious Bear Combat!
  • Soul Hunter TLDR: Shadow ROAR RAWR RAWR ROAAAAAAR adventure time.
• 20240309: Lore Tour Recap, as best I can understand it: With Venables' dead and his crew scattered, a treaty was to be signed to reward those who helped us with responsibility for the outpost. Unfortunately, Brisk managed to lose his reading glasses, so the signing was derailed as we traipsed across the archepelago looking for them. Along the way we discovered and possibly-foiled-or-maybe-not some sort of Shadowguild plot involving Rafinus and the blacksmith shop, as well as some of Brisk's... family? Associates? Unclear.
  • Anyway, once we'd successfully located Stinkfist who'd be abducted by a drake (did I mention that happened? It did, from Devil's Island), we found out that the drake had also gathered Brisk's glasses. With them finally reacquired, we returned to Tenebrion's conference room for the signing. You'll have to ask someone else for the exact details of the treaty, but from what I understood the idea is to try to deal with the damage to the ethereal plane that Venables' experiments caused and finally try to run the darshak off the island once and for all. — Coriakin
  • Addendum: After a great deal of shenanigans, the Loyal Supporter wandering around 'Noth summoning Ramandon'ts has fallen. But by the Cone it took forever to fell. — Shadowfire
• 20240302: Holy moley, what a chaotic day assaulting Venable's Camp. Here's the recap, as much as I can put together from the variety of simultaneous plans: Ritual/song magic, beehive projectiles, sea magic candles, and more.
  • Under the assumption that there wouldn't be time for a whole ritual during an assault on a darshak compound, under Valadorei's direction a ritual was performed before leaving town while a song played. I'm not sure how they did it, but the ritual's power to calm the ethereal damage taking place in Venable's camp would remain dormant until the song was played again.
  • Preparations complete, we ventured to Tenebrion's Island to collect former darshak (I think?) Glorak who would be manning a catapult, and sea-witch Pelaegia. We ventured to the north gate to Venables' camp and faced strong opposition, although Glorak had snuck in earlier and left the pirates some "presents," and now many of their forces were too drunk (or poisoned) to fight effectively. The catapult was loaded with beehives brought by Biro and the other bears, and the stinging of angry bees also helped distract our foes.

Sammy Fights darshak with Lore Tour Group

• • Eventually we established a foothold, and Biro was able to entreat The Great Bear Spirit to send some bears to aid out defense. With the catapult prepared to lob more bees into the heart of the camp, we gathered to help Pelaegia begin a ritual of her own, which would involve using a creating a triangle of sea candles to aid in some magic to repair the damage to the ethereal plane caused by Venables' experiments. We successfully prepared the first candle at the north gate, and left the bears to defend the candle and catapult as Lore Tour moved to the other candle locations.
  • South of the compound we found the location for the second candle, and left it to be defended by an apparently friendly (or at least neutral) undead spirit known as Tatterflesh, or Mr T to his friends. The final candle location was at the compound gate located near the west landing of Tenebrion's Island, but once it was in place we needed to get inside so, another ritual was used to summon Sammy the Mantaun Rider from the bookfort, who tore open a hole in the stone wall for us. All seemed to be going according to plan(s) at this point…
  • This is when Venables started taunting us over the sunstone channel, claiming to not hear anything happening, and letting us know he was going to do things like go for a walk around his outpost. You know, the sorts of things that are definitely not traps.

• • Well, it was a trap. We spotted him running past us as we were making our way to the compound's east gate, and upon trying to follow him we realized that he was leaving a trail of ethereal portals on the other side of snell borders and, well, everywhere. We were eventually able to re-collect the exiles who accidentally fell for the trap (and into the portals), and realized that our primary goal needed to change to fixing the immediate ethereal damage. The mystics, aided by Pelaegia, were able to close most of the unstable portals around Venables' compound, but one seemed so tainted by darshak magic that it resisted their efforts. We entered the portal and found a seemingly calm area, but soon realized that Venables was lurking in the snell to the southwest.
  • Another desperate battle ensued, but in the end we were victorious and Venables was vanquished. Or was he? I thought Venables was a flesh-and-blood being, but the "Venables" that we saw there died in a poof of smoke, much like a spirit. Hmm….

Rainbow Harp.

• • Time was pressing and that area of the ethereal plane seemed particularly unstable (unless it's normally filled with cracks), so we had to leave that mystery for now and return to the material plane to finish what we'd started. We returned to the one remaining portal, and the combined powers of Pelaegia, the team of mystics, and the "Doomsong" were finally able to seal that remaining ethereal rift.
  • We were not able to stop Venables' experiments, nor the man himself, but we inflicted a great deal of damage to his camp and were able to repair at least some of the damage to the ethereal plane. Hopefully a future trip will be able to put an end to his threat for good.
  • Soul Hunter TLDR: Musical kaboom. Bee catapult. Sea candles. Confused Darshak! — Coriakin

• I attempted a TLDR:
  • TL;DR: The group conducted a pre-assault ritual and song magic to calm ethereal damage at Venable's Camp. They then launched an assault with unique strategies like beehive projectiles and sea magic candles. Despite facing strong opposition and traps by Venables, they managed to establish a foothold and repair some ethereal damage with rituals and the aid of allies, including bears, a sea-witch, and an undead spirit. Venables was confronted but his defeat raised questions about his true nature. The mission caused significant damage to the camp and partially mended the ethereal plane, leaving Venables' threat unresolved for a future confrontation. — Ayelwen

• 20240224: Next week's bard concert will also feature Supplanter's audition for bard quester! Please come to the guild hall on Saturday, February 24, 2024 11:00 AM [PDT] to cheer him on! — Coriakin

• 20240217: Stinkfist says, “So to summarize: we have a small base camp set up on TI now to combat Venables and Kestrel's forces in two zodiacs.…we picked up a kyeum power stone also.”
  • Inu Teisei says, “summary snipe hunt with prizes is my summary.”
  • Stinkfist says, “So, Two zodiacs from now how do we wanna do this? Ideas? Additional allies to call upon?”
  • Phroon says, “Sneak in and steal more stuff?”
  • Dandelion says, “Collect wood fer me, please. Fer more signs.”
  • Stinkfist says, “Additional allies to call upon?”
  • Soul Hunter version: more dead darshak, sativa banished in two towns.
• 20240113: Lore tour recap: We took the portal to the village to invite Forsythia to come see the Org Sanctuary with us. She was interested, but while we were chatting her hut was set on fire by some invading orga! Despite numerous setbacks we were eventually able to fight them off, and tracked their attack to the nearby org cave. It seemed like the orga were unwilling to actually enter the org cave itself, but they did their best to block it off.

After defeating the orga and unblocking the cave we went inside to find a panther cap mushroom which we took to the org sanctuary along with Forsythia, who may or may not return to the village depending on how damaged the roof of her hut is. We gave one of the blue flowers to Khami, the centaur seemingly in charge of the org sanctuary warens, as a thank you for all the work they've done to help the org. And then Phroon was so overcome with thankfulness that his Orb Of Unstable Something-Or-Other burst showering everyone around with good karma. Did you know that it's possible to get a cartload, a boatload, or even a shipload of good karma? Now you do. Oh, one other lore tidbit. Apparently the Windspinner monk in charge of training the agronox so we can ride them is called Andrachnea. If we want more agronox flight destinations, that's the person we should talk to. Uh... anyone know who that is? — Coriakin

• 20240106: Lore tour recap: we helped Gorvin find the famed warrior Darktur, but in the process encountered Sharktur, a sharkitty who’d taken Darktur’s Makobite Bracer in a poker game. After Darktur agreed to train Gorvin, we went to Ash Island to track down Sharktur and retrieve the bracer. After many pitched battles we were able to do, although Gorvin was unable to determine what the bracer does.

Soul Hunter recap: Too many darshak, but blinged Gorvin out anyway.

2023

• 20231111: Hello! It is I, Brisk!

The Lore Tour on November 11th, 2023 bravely fights

To recap this week, we made it through everywhere we wanted to during the lore tour today and even some places we did not plan on.

The group did a very good job of staying alive and making other things less alive. The machines were charged in advance by Kalian the Tawny and Falinea's Blade, thank you for your efforts. The portal was moved in place to the Fountfell for easy access by an anonymous exile. We made good progress through the citadel to the ancient machinery with minimal horus checks. Once the water was reached we realized we were not as prepared with potions and amulets of breath but we made do with a little bit of downtime and a lot of uncomfortably close movement (seriously people, I need my personal space!). Under the water we found rubble had fallen from the ceiling and littered the area around the thrones. Many trips were spent checking for holes in the crumbled walkways and cleaning up the debris. We must get Pelaegia to return and check the upkeep of the citadel, lest we lose it completely to a cave-in not unlike the one that happened long ago to cut off the gates of the twin moons! After we reached the basement to check on the seal placed atop the shadow rend we heard a skittering noise like a sound of nails on a chalkboard. These weird insectoid like creatures came down from the walls and tried to separate our insides from our outsides. Luckily we had Gorvbot there to murder and a few blood mages that were more than comfortable bleeding a little bit to crack those carapaces. We could hear them on the other side of the rubble from the stairwell that crumbled. I suspect there may be many, many more in our future.

Phroon was carrying a page from the book of rend that started to chant and sing and was largely pleased to be in the area. When he was fumbling with the page it happened to open a rift into the shadowplane itself. We lost a few folks to his portal of doom and decided as a group to definitely go rescue them to leave no one behind and not because we wanted to know where the portal led to. We made a mad dash through the shadowplane, found a Lost Dreamer and guided it to its memory of puddleby and escaped in its wake. It might've been record time, it depends who you ask.

Either way, it answered some lingering questions but also opened a whole new line of questions for us to visit in the future.

soulhunter summary: citadel construction bad, new insects, great group today