Welcome to The Chosen's journals. Each character is invited to keep a journal and write down the thoughts of their characters as they wander through Nyternia. In addition, the DM has a journal which highlights each session. The players are:

Blink - monk Errol - bard
Kestrel - fighter Malif - wizard
Vaugner - rogue Vernon - cleric/sorcerer


Choose a journal:   Select a session:


DM's Journal, session #1
Go to Session #: 1 | 2 | 2.5 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 10.5 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 35.5 | 36 | 37 | 38 | 39 | 40 | 41 | 42 |
February 20

All the students at the university were busy studying when 6 students, Blink, Errol, Kestral, Malit, Vaugner, and Vernon, each received a note:

Please report to the Dean of Arts' office at 9:00 AM.

The students pondered the meaning behind the note while they studied for their final exams.

February 21

At 9:00, the students arrived at the office. In the office were 3 belar. Tera, the dean, ushered them in. The students recognized Mortenser, their class liason, but the other belar was one they had never met.

"Please come in," Tera said, "Welcome all! This is Abbey, and is a researcher who creates new magic items. She has some information for you in a little bit.

"A delicate situation has come up. Someone has stolen one of my sculptures!" She pointed to a sculpture; it was a beautiful rendition of her interpretation of the goddess Keele. Not just a normal sculpture, this one had been painted with 50 layers of paint -- a special semi-transparent paint which interacted with the layers above and below it to create a sculpture with amazing colors and textures. Each of the 50 layers lent a hue or shade to each spot.

"This is the forgery they left behind. I'm not sure why it was stolen, as it is not very valuable nor does it have any magical properties; nonetheless, it is very sentimental to me." Of course, value was relative, the students quickly realized, as Tera estimated the value to be around 10,000 gold -- much more than any of the students had ever seen.

Tera went on to explain that she thought the switch may have taken place two days ago when Jacob the Trader was in the inner city. Jacob had been a trader for over 25 years, and she doubted that Jacob would risk his career by personally stealing it. It would be more likely someone employed by him did it.

She offered a deal. In exchange for not having to take the grueling finals, they would ride after Jacob to try and uncover what really happened and whether anyone in Jacob's caravan was involved.

The students quickly realized they were being asked to go because Tera was probably too embarrassed and reluctant to get involved in affairs that dealt with humans. To admit a human was able to take something out of the inner city would be something the belar would not want.

Tera said, "Jacob was heading towards Asterin, and you should be able to catch up to him in under a week. To help you along, I have 100 gold for expenses as well as horses for those who need them. Abbey has graciously agreed to provide you with a few experimental magic items."

Abbey explained what the items were and what they did, and then wished the students good luck, saying she had to get back to work.

Tera again thanked them, and then rose. Mortenser nodded and left her office. As the students were filing out, Tera pulled them aside. "Be careful, the outside world is not like here. People don't always have your best intentions at heart." She pulled out a small opal. "If you find yourselves in a dire emergency, use this gem and I will try to help as best I can. I'm sorry to have to ask you for this. I wouldn't have even considered it had it not been... such a delicate situation."

The party got their horses from the inner city stables and went to the outer city to do some research. They visited the store where Jacob bought his feed and food supplies. Rina, a mid-aged woman, affirmed that Jacob had been planning on traveling to Asterin, while a young lad, Pippy, advised them to beware of dragons!

The party ventured forth. For many of them it was the first time out of the city.

By nightfall they reached Mero, a small village. They decided to spend the night in the local inn. Janson, the barkeep and inn owner greeted them as they entered. The inn was small but well-kept. He said, "Take any open table. If you need your horses stabled for the night, Zaii, our stablehand can help you out. Lydia will be out in a moment to take your order."

They party bought rooms for the night. Vernon went out to take care of the horses, and the rest of them started drinking. Sensing Errol had never drunk alcohol, Vaugner went up to Janson and asked for something "special" for his naive friend.

As they were drinking, Vaugner noticed the waitress seemed despondent, and eventually coaxed out her story.

"I married my husband Douglas about 4 months ago. But then he got laid off when he was injured, and we couldn't afford to pay the tax. They made him go to this mining town to work off the debt. It'll be six more months before he'll have paid it off. That's why I took this job. Every week I work here is two weeks earlier I will see my husband," she said.

Vernon chatted with Zaii the stablehand and confirmed that Jacob had been this way.

"He seemed to be in a hurry though... he usually spends the night at the inn but didn't this time. He said he wanted to push on a couple more hours before the sun set. Oh, the other thing is his wagons were really heavily laden. I remember his horses didn't look too happy," Zaii remembered.

Vernon attempted to find caravan tracks and was able to discern what he thought were wagon wheel marks. It was possible he was wrong, but the tracks indicated heavy wagons, and there hadn't been many other caravan wagons in the last couple days.

As they went up to their rooms for the night, Kestrel strayed a moment and counted out 15 gold from his own pocket and left it on the table. From Lydia's story, that was exactly the amount they still owed. The next day Lydia found Kestrel, and thanked him deeply; but she also insisted she could not take the money unless he considered it a loan, and demanded to know a way to contact him when she could repay him.

February 22 & 23

The day passed uneventfully and they camped for the night in a clearing. This would be the first night they spent outdoors!

As Vaugner laid down his bedroll, he told the rest of the party, "Don't get too close me when I'm sleeping, I'm not kidding, you won't like it," as he sprinkled caltrops around him.

On Kestral's watch, he spotted a trio of glowing lights. They were similar to will o wisps, but from his studies he knew they were not. He seemed to remember them from class... He found a nice long stick and woke Vaugner with it.

Vaugner couldn't quite recall what the lights were either. They decided to wake the rest of the party. While various people in the party thought that they might be Firefly Wisps, which were good for... something... no one remembered for sure. The wisps didn't seen to notice the party, amd floated away as the party decided not to pursue them.

The next day was also uneventful. At night they found another clearing to camp at. But where was the caravan?

"I think we should have overtaken them already," worried Kestrel. But there was not much else they could do in the darkness.

On the first watch, Blink spotted the same wisps, again seemingly innocuous. Later in the night, again on Kestral's watch, suddenly Blink's horse awoke with a dreadful cry. Three monstrous black horselike creatures were attacking their horses! By the time the party was able to react, Blink's horse was almost dead. Courageously, the party sprang to battle. Errol sang a hymn that lifted the spirits of his comrades. Vaugner and Malif fired at the horses, and Blink and Kestrel each finished off a carnivorous horse while Vernon rushed to save their own horses from death. Seeing two of his pack fall, the final attacker had had enough and fled!

Februrary 24

The party left early in the morning, and by noon caught up to the caravan -- 5 wagons, 18 men and women, and 18 horses. Two were in full plate, and it looked like there was at least one spellcaster in the party.