DM SummerBreeze Events (Please read my event rules.)

[DM SummerBreeze]

The ending of one Holton Marsden

Characters involved so far:
Oth Neren
Nathan Goldenmane
Carah Evenwood
Emrys Kerr
Teris Ynarno
House Darius
Derik Ranloss
Szarilana Hezret
Triana Nottian

Short Write up of Events so far:

Many months and many searches, battles, and many lost, sleepless nights were had ever since the slow and creeping dread made it's way to the sword coast. In secret the man, the Lich, called Holton Marsden moved his base of operations into the Sword Coast along with his foul allies and accomplices, including a Shadow Dragon, and ancient wizard, and a Thayan Red Wizard.

Together they seeked out a new kind of immortality without the rot, the disfigurement and the exile that comes with Lichdom. A fools course? Perhaps, or perhaps not? We will never know for certain. It all started when Holton encountered an ancient Aboleth and stole away with vials of the creatures immortal blood in order to begin the profane experiments in search of this new unlife. This ploy of course did not go unnoticed, bringing the wrath of the ancient immortal down upon the small town of Ulgoth's Beard in search of its own allies...eyes and ears to hunt and search for Holton, perhaps out of pride that it allowed this thievery to slip by its grasp the first time.

Holton cared not for the fate of Ulgoth's or the Sword Coast, only his single minded task, as well as one other: To recruit his former pupil, Othonis Neren. Perhaps even he would be tempted by this new immortality without true undeath? How could he not be, how could anyone not be?

For months the game of cat and mouse took place as Oth and his companions hunted and travelled across the coast from north to south, searching for Holton's vile laboratories and hold outs. One by one, Holton's companions or allies were either killed or scattered to the wind as the Lich began to lose his grip both in his mission and on his sanity. As the undead wizard began to lose more and more resources over time, he drew upon his close favour with the god Myrkul and received the response of a blessing, increasing Holton's power over death even further. This only made the idea of his immortal goal more and more ridiculous and insane, much to the amusement of his patron.

It all ended in a series of hard fought encounters though, as the group discovered Holton's laboratory and destroyed it and all the undead experiments within, recovering the last vial of the Immortal Aboleth's blood. This of course left Holton with nothing left, no more experiments, no more resources. His time on the coast was borrowed now as Oth and his companions neared his hiding place, a strange and horrible pocket-plane full of undead.

Through a difficult battle that the group nearly died in the attempt, Holton was eventually slain, and his phylactery destroyed forever. Finally he was put to his final death and his scourge was wiped from the land forever.


Current Rumours:

Rumour has it that Oth has been seen carrying a strange item, a staff of unknown origin these days. Perhaps a token, a treasure, or a momento. Nobody but the elf himself knows for sure.

Teris, the eccentric fire-blood has been seen about the town recovering from what seems like a series of increasingly painful injuries. Although the recovery seems to be going well, it would be difficult to say what the long lasting effects of what happened would be on the man.

Word around is that Derik Ranloss, the Burning Bulwark appears to have renewed confidence in his ability to deal with the issues that plague Ulgoth's Beard. Perhaps a plan is in motion to deal with the next threat.

[DM SummerBreeze]

((Currently I will not be taking on any personal plot requests going forward until further notice. I will continue with current requests I have started, or ongoing plots I myself have started up while DMing in game, but will not be taking on NEW personal plot requests unrelated to my current ongoing plots at this time. Thank you all for your understanding of my very full plate as I attempt to focus on and wrap up the current handful I have going.))

[DM SummerBreeze]

I realize everyone probably has been made aware already. But to make a more official forum post here in my space.

My final day as a DM/HDM will be on or around the weekend of the 15th of April coming up. I may have to take an extra day here or there to wrap a few things up with players, but almost everything has already been wrapped up.

If there was anything I am missing that I may have forgotten about with you, or anything you want to reach out about, please ping me over on my DM Discord and I will do my best to answer anything over the next week. I will try to also be more present and around in game this coming week as I know i've been rather absent other than a drop in here and there.

There is no negativity here, no drama. The summer is coming up and the nice weather is here and I want to be more present in my real life going forward after being so isolated over the last couple years, it's really that simple. Maybe build a some more real life friendships/relationships. In real life I live in one of the most beautiful places in the world right now and I plan to fully take advantage of that.

Once I am finished in my tenure as DM I will continue on here and there player side. Most of you already know who I am there too as i've been around for ages, and I hope to have a few adventures with you there. Looking forward to being a player again for a while, its been a few years.


(( EDIT: My stay is extended until the 22nd in order to tie up one final event due to times not working out this previous week.))

[DM SummerBreeze]

The Lost Knight (End)

Characters involved so far:
Blake Hightower
Radiant Heart
Silver Rose
Valduil


Short Write up of Events:

Following investigations alongside the local chapter of the Everwatch in Baldur's Gate, Overblade Valdore was able to gleen some information on to who the lost knight, Liandra Twoflowers was in life, and what mission it was she was headed on at the time of her disappearance. From what they found out, she had been hired to protect a caravan of magical item traders heading north along the roads. Blake Hightower gathered his compatriots from the Radiant Heart and Silver Rose and headed out toward Boarskyr.

Once arriving, Liandra appeared again as the apparition from the sword and as they got closer and closer to her original journey she was able to lead them in what appeared the general direction. In this way the group moved through the roads and into the Misty Forest. According to the knight herself, from what she remembered they had turned into the woods to attempt to hide from the "Horsemen with gleaming swords" that pursued their caravan endlessly. Once deep into the Misty Forest, they took their caravans into a forest clearing deep within, and used some of the crates and supplies to make a barricade. They had hoped, it seems that their hunters would not find them, or would not bother going so deep into such a place.

As Blake and his companions found out, they indeed were hunted to the bitter end. The group came across the clearing, littered with debris, and the remains of about half a dozen long dead bodies and skeletal remains. Along side them, angry spirits of the defeated. Specters of long dead mages and knights. "They were Red Wizards, they deserve to die" Vanira said as they approached. This, seeming to trigger some sort of memory of the forgotten battle in the specters, attacked the group. Although Veslana, their companion of the Rose was badly injured in the battle, they managed to disperse the lost souls.

As the group approached the old encampment and rotting, makeshift barricades, they could see the makeshift sign in the center, the discarded bodies of Red Wizards and several knights skeletal remains scattered around it. "Death to all Red Wizards!" like a warning, a sign of triumph to the attackers eyes. It was here, a sword sticking out of the neck of a particular knight, that Blake found the remains of Liandra Twoflowers. She had been killed in duty, defending her charges, the Thayan traders. Killed, it seems by Triadic knights, who had decided to hunt down and kill the Thayan traders for no other reason than being Red Wizard, and the Helmite guard simply got in the way of their mission. The blade in Liandra's throat, that was lodged in its killing strike, from a noble house of Athkatla, Crimmor, a merchant house. Valduil's knowledge of the area apparently coming to fruition on this discovery.

Despite being what they were, the group buried the bodies and cleaned up the area. They then brought back the remains of Liandra to Baldur's Gate so that the Overblade could lay her to rest.

Some weeks went by and a ceremony was held, Blake Hightower made a point to attend as her last rites were given, and her remains buried. It was somewhat surreal for the man though, as at his side the soul in the sword remained, his ever-chatty companion. Deciding that rather than rest, she would use the curse now to the benefit of the realm and her wielder, to aid in performing their duty for as long as she could.

Current Rumours:

Rumour spreads about the ultimate fate of Liandra Twoflowers, and how she was killed many years ago by Triadic Knights.

Rumour spreads about the heroics of Blake Hightower in his endless persuit of his duty to this unknown woman who was lost to time, and of the treatment the Radiant Heart gave to the bodies of even their deceased enemies, a cut above the ones who performed the act themselves for certain.

Rumour Spreads of Blake Hightower and the oddness of him seeming to occasionally be speaking to himself, many sighs are heard and strange responses to unheard commentary about his "grip strength" and something about not needing the comments when he decides to train without armour, or shirtless, and that he is married and other odd sorts of things.

[DM SummerBreeze]

(( I have returned ! If there are any questions or inquiries about any of the past events, please feel free to direct message me. I will once again be using this space for event write ups publicly as I did in the past. ))


Also I will be away from the 14th to 17th of October as I will be out of town and away from my main PC. [/c]

[DM SummerBreeze]

The Faceless Killer

Characters involved so far:
Meredith the magical Gnome

Short Write up of Events:

No scream, no noise, only blood, only death
The faceless shadow struck and claimed his victim, leaving only a calling card and death behind, but why? What for? Who did this?

Travelling through the city of Baldurs Gate, Meredith stepped through the arch and entered the docks. The rain fell heavily that night but even then it did not take long for her to spot the red mixed with the rain. Blood. She followed the trail and stuffed there, hidden behind some boxes lay the corpse of a man. Leaning over Meredith searched the immediate area and discovered that the man was of Rashemi descent and curiously, he was also missing his right pointer finger, and in its place a trinket...some sort of ring with a red X hand-painted onto it.

Meredith trailed back from the corpse, following the blood stains, through more deduction she surmised this must have somehow been targetted, there was evidence the killer watched the man suffer before dying.

The gnome mage then moved to nearby folks, asking questions, probing, and learning new information. A witness who saw the killer but hid from the crime. A nobleman who had seen the drunk, a tavern rash tavern keeper looking for his next sale. A trail followed and rewards gleaned from careful planning and careful words.

While successful in getting an early leg up on this investigation, Meredith has not solved this particular murder. For it is a strange occurrence, which only got stranger with the more she discovered.


Current Rumours:

In the early mornings of yesterday, a flaming fist patrol spotted something strange behind some boxes in the Docks, only to discover a corpse. While they asked around the area fruitlessly, they wrote it off as likely some sort of robbery, as the man had nothing of value on his person other than the clothes on his back. They were unable to get much information toward solving it, and since the victim was clearly nobody of note, it is unlikely they will expend much resources on this one.

[DM SummerBreeze]

The Faceless Killer (Part 2)

Characters involved so far:
Meredith chosen by all the lord's of the golden hills
Bethrynna Sylvaranth
Szarilana Hezret
Netanya

Short Write up of Events:

After the first incident, Meredith chose to cast out her net and gather aid from a number of companions and renew their investigation into the murder.

Szarilana conduced her own investigation into the corners unseen, and the shadowy districts about the gate, but was unable to come up with any important information this time around.

The group met under the roof of House Divine to hatch their plan and where they would go first from there. During this meeting they passed the trinket or calling card left by the killer around themselves, discovering some new clues between their shared differences in skills and linguistics. An interesting development.

Netanya of course, being the master clothier herself knew that from what Meredith had said, that the man was dressed in only the finest of leathers, fit for a noble. This would be a good place to start she thought. So the group headed from House Divine toward the Seven Suns Merchants. It was here that Netanya was able to convince the merchant to go through their client list of folks who had bought fine leather coats. Unfortunately a lot of people buy leather coats with all this rain on the coast, and the other weather oddities lately. Besides learning about a large man who would not stop eating, even while being fit for a particularly large pair of pans, they did not learn much from this particular endeavor.

Meredith bided her investigation time exploring the shop establishment itself, searching in unseen corners and coming up with her own very special "treasure" in the process, for better or worse.

It was from here they decided to re-investigate the Blade & Stars, though Meredith had already been there. The group did not find much here overall that Meredith had not already discovered, though between them it did spur some ideas as to the trail they might be on, or at least of the background of the deceased Rashemi man and the calling card left behind.

Rewards given out:
Mystery Meat x2
Rotten Fish.


Current Rumours:

Some of the cleaning staff of House Divine could be heard discussing how difficult it is to clean profuse amounts of vomit from expensive tile flooring while sharing a drink at the Elfsong.

The group of four were spotted at the Seven Suns Merchant by a number of customers, some gossip is heard around the gate about House Divine trying to learn about leathers and purchase lists and something about a gnome rummaging through the trash bins.

[DM SummerBreeze]

(( I know some have not been hearing from me lately and I wanted to update here. I have been suffering some sudden health issues the last while that I will not go into too much here. It is causing a lot of pain in my dominant hand and is going to require an invasive surgery to correct it. This surgery apparently cannot happen until January or Feb at the earliest. The surgery was supposed to happen here in November this week but it has come to light the issue I have is more serious than we thought.

I am going to try and respond to PM's and get things rolling but I wont be able to spend great deals of time in front of my PC until I have that surgery unfortunately. I will still be able to do some little things here and there when I am feeling OK but on days I have to work I am suffering quite a lot right now.

I know this is going to be disappointing for some here and I apologize for that. I will do my best to do what I can until the surgery but the fact is I just wont be able to do long DM stretches in game until after this issue is resolved due to how much pain it causes me. ))

[DM SummerBreeze]

(( HEALTH UPDATE: My surgery is now officially set for Feb 23rd ! The recovery time after surgery is roughly 2 weeks, but after that everything will be 100% back to normal for me. I just wanted to pass on this update for things to come. I hope in the mean time, the handful of you I run into at night have been getting a kick out of the random one-off mini events I throw around ))

[DM SummerBreeze]

(( HEALTH UPDATE: Well, I caught COVID really bad. I lost all sense of taste and have persisting breathing issues over the past 2 weeks that I have had it. I am beginning to recover now though. Unfortunately this has caused my surgery to be pushed back to April 5th. I'll still be hopping in and out of the game though as I go. So it isn't a total wash. ))

[DM SummerBreeze]

The Faceless Killer (REFRESH)

Characters involved so far:
Szarilana Hezret
Jak Dimburrow
Davka Onyxvein

Short Write up of Events:

It has been some time since the murders of the married folk, John, and Lea Brickthorn and the discoveries of not just one, but two bodies. Though the city watch had pushed for some investigations, little has been learned beyond the calling cards that had been held by the investigating parties. Despite this, some folks have pushed forward with investigating and looking into what little they could.

Jak had learned that only one person had seen the killer and lived to tell the tale, a young, so far nameless street boy who seems to live in the area of the docks. Likely homeless, the boy is being looked for for further questioning and mayhaps even protection from reprisal. Witnesses are bad for the business of killing, after all.

It was also Davka and Jak who discovered the body of poor Lea Brickthorn, just a few short weeks after the death of her husband. Who really knows what it is these two had gotten caught up in? Who would want to kill such average, everyday commonsfolk? What was there to gain? Only the killer truly knows at this time. "The Unworthy pay the ultimate price" is the only words that could be found.

While visiting a wounded companion within Baldurs Gate with the illmatari folk, Szarilana saw a delivery from the farmlands of some fresh water and meat clippings from a local farmer. Though they looked it over the meat seemed to be nothing more than just pork and beef trim. As the illmatari who accepted it had said "Fit only to be ground up for sausage". While she was there though, she asked around about any more strange goings on and had picked up a few pieces of information, such as the potential burial or disposal sight of the two murder victims and if there had been any more that they knew of brought in injured or that had perhaps died. She learned that much of the investigations had gone cold.


Rewards given out:
XP/Gold

Current Rumours:

Szarilana got a few odd looks from the folk working with the sick and injured at the Illmatari shrine for a series of strange questions about meat quality and dead bodies.

Jak Dimburrow annoyed a few lowly dock workers with his questions about homeless boys. Apparently there are a fair amount of young orphans around.

[DM SummerBreeze]

(( Just as a heads up, my surgery happens on the 5th of this month, and I will be completely unable to type for about 1.5 - 2 weeks solid so I will be completely unavailable until then after the 5th. The good news is once the surgery is done it should make me more available down the road after ! finally ))

[selhan]

Woohoo!

[DM SummerBreeze]

(( I have slowly been rolling back into the server again as some of you have probably noticed. Dropping a few one-offs here and there. Expect more and more attention from me in the PST evening time zones as the coming weeks go on, and overall as my surgery has removed a major barrier to my life and DMing, this should theoretically continue going forward. My main availability will be weekdays evening PST time zones, so generally 4PM PST and onward most week days. Recovery took a little longer than I expected, but here we are. I am still not 100% recovered, but I am good enough to start returning. ))

[DM SummerBreeze]

The Brotherhood of the Casted Stone (Faceless Killer plot)

Characters involved so far:

Rathmaz Kzanett
Szarilana Hezret
Oth Neren
Angel Amadeus

Short Write up of Events:

The clang and jingle of bells was heard as a man in tattered robes, laden with tools and food walked about the outer city, they seemed to be giving out these tools and foodstuffs, with the only cost being a conversation about bettering themselves and their families and friends. A good natured seeming man whose goal seemed to only be to better and help out his fellow man.

The man was however, approached by Oth and Szarilana, with Rathmaz listening in at a distance. It was hard not to notice a man whos robes were laden with attention grabbing bells after all, and a staff decorated with a large cowbell.

They questioned the man on his intentions and the whys of what he was doing. He seemed genuine in his want to help others, though through the "Brotherhood of the Casted Stone" apparently. This brotherhood he said, was there to bring up the poor, homeless, and disenfranchised. He showed them his bag laden with tools and other things to help those in need and appeared to be entirely unarmed. Who is this Brotherhood of The Casted Stone? According to this man, "Brother Halvor" it exists to help folk be "their best and strongest selves". He even handed Oth a pamphlet on their group, as Oth had thought to perhaps donate to this new homeless commune of sorts.

It was from there that they went to explore the location that the pamphlet described "The door with the red stone". It took some time, but they managed to find it. It was here that Rathmaz, Szarilana, and Angel teamed up together, joined briefly by Oth, to enter the establishment and meet the rest of these folk. Inside the building, they found many seemingly poor of the city working together, repairing and cleaning clothes, cooking food, baking and generally helping each other live better lives. It was rather odd though, as they saw the strange statue in the corner, one of the homeless seemingly lost in thought, staring into its gemstone eyes.

Angel decided to donate 30 bags of gold to their cause, which was placed by one of their flock, a gnome who had greeted them earlier, onto an alter in the back of the decrepit building. Though the alter seemed undescriptive, the gnome and others explained that this is how they get the blessing of their leader, "The Lord of the Red Stones", a man who apparently, wears red stones about his neck, and has red gemstones for eyes. According to those present, he arrived shortly after the Time of Troubles, though they could not give any other information beyond this, and that this Lord, helped them "be their best selves", and that they too could be their best selves if they only work hard with the others, and make donations of either labour, gold, tools, or food.

It was here, while they were distracted in conversation, that Rathmaz attempted to steal the statue in the other room, roughly Torso sized and quite hefty. Rathmaz failed in this heist catastrophically, tossing it into the air to smash into the wooden floor. This not only did permanent damage to the floor, but Rathmaz also managed to fall flat on his ass!

"Thief, hes a thief!" Yelled one of the women who lived there "Who steals from the homeless!? What a fiend!" shouted another, as the woman ran off to contact the city watch, who arrived in short order and threw them all out of the homeless shelter. Rathmaz was nearly arrested on the spot, if it were not for his ability to pay the fines and avoid persecution, a "one time offer" from the city watch captain, along with a banishment from the shelter establishment and the area around it under penalty of immediate imprisonment.





Rewards given out:
XP/Gold/Long Pig

Current Rumours:

Some rumours spread of a man in robes, some say their name was Kanett....Kiznett...something? Attempted to steal from a group of homeless people down by the docks and was confronted by the city watch due to how spectacularly poorly this attempted heist went, it was the talk of the local dockyard for some time.

The men with bells have been visiting the poorest parts of the city and its denizens. They seem nothing but helpful to those who have encountered them, and a number of the most vulnerable and down on their luck, seem to have joined their cause, followed by a marked improvement in their wellbeing and health. Their reputation among the homeless population especially seems to be quite positive and growing.