Session Date: 12/3/2023
We make it to a Halfling city on the train and we make a stop. This is a pretty new settlement that already has roads, and is pretty established. They are quite fast at setting these up and typically will stay one week to six months. We realize that this is Temma. Dia goes to look for a bag of holding but nobody is willing to part of it, and then we hear a commotion from a group of guards with spears that are tipped with crystals.
There’s a prisoner passing to the train so they just have to put him in the wagon, then affix the wagon to the train so its not longer their problem. Dia asks what the prison has done as she approaches to injured guard to check on him. A frost troll got down here from the north and it’s been a whole thing. Inky knows that frost trolls have humanoid level intelligence and their outlook on life is just incredibly alien to the way that we understand civilization and they stay isolated up in the north for a reason. Something that would have pushed this troll down south must be pretty important because they don’t want to leave.
I can ask stats for frost trolls: immune cold, weak fire, regenerate that’s stopped by acid or fire, weakest saving throw is will.
This specific troll is more competent than they usually are it seems. Dia heals the broken leg on the wounded guard and he thanks her. The guards here captured the troll after the seemed to rampage through the city and they just want to ship the troll back up north. Dia approaches the troll and asks why he’s here, and that she wants to help, to which he laughs and says that if there were no bars between them he would eat her head like an apple. He came down to ask questions that his people up north didn’t know the answers to.
He knows of Cruelwind Prison — the warden sometimes hunts the troll’s people for sport, or throws prisoners are them. To get in there’s a secret gate in the caves that they think others don’t know about, and the main gate that people enter and exit from. Both are guarded.
He asks if we have heard of his brothers and members of his tribe. They disappeared almost 19 winters ago (during the war). Nobody in the frigid north could answer. It occurs to Arythas that it could be possible that they were abducted to be experimented on, but there’s no way to know for sure and it would require someone being rather intentional. It’s possible that they had roamed near Amoth Bridge, but he doesn’t know for sure. This does confirm that Amon Bridge was actually a city.
Rohan explains there was a war around the time his brothers disappeared and a massacre happened at Amoth Bridge. Rohan says that the trolls killed hundreds of men before being slayed, and the troll responds explaining that the city actually disappeared after the massacre. He seems to think this might actually be reasonable and he continues to think about it a little. He explains that this would make him a target down here, but the timing of his brothers disappearing seems to match up with that battle. He says that he won’t be caught next time, and he’ll bring a larger sword next time.
We get back to the train and Iskra realizes that something is circling us in our dreams. It is from the astral plane and it is trying to invade our dreams now that it has taken notice that our dreams have been tampered with. On realizing this, Iskra turns to Inky and explains that Inky should research the astral plane to try to figure out what it is that is circling our dreams like a shark. (Information found at listing Dream Being.)
We all decide to go to The Library Between and on entering, Arythas can tell this place feels bad. It’s not a matter of nerd stuff, but there is something distinctly wrong with this place, and it is incorrect here in a way that makes his soul feel gross. He looks around and keeps wary while in the library, being especially wary around Mattai and watching her.
Iskra explains the dreamscape issue and Mattai says that it is interesting, and asks if we need to research. She points out a couple of areas with information on the astral plane and recommends we do not stay very long because it requires people with a certain brain to be here extended periods.
Arythas wanders off to try to find books about th library itself, eventually ending up in the religion section. There’s not much in the way of Bahamut in the draconic deities here, but almost every other draconic deity is represented in length. A creeping suspicion that maybe Tiamat is disproportionately represented here, but he can’t tell while just looking.
Dia and Rohan find a professor wandering through the halls and Dia asks what the astral sea is and what’s going on. He explains that it’s another plane that is harmful to us: you need protection, or to change yourself to live in the sea, but if you do the latter you can’t necessarily come back. There is plenty of life in the astral sea including Githyanki, fiends, and others, and there are other creatures as well such as minotaurs, etc. Dia asks if some creatures monitor those here on the material plane and he says that it definitely depends on the creature. Dia asks if there was a creature that was theoretically fascinated and choose to watch something on the material plane and he explains that there are plenty of things that may: axiomites or proteans, and there’s also some creatures that interact with dreams.
Rohan asks what could draw their attention and it could be interacting with the astral sea, as it touches every other plane, so if you contact something from another plane it could draw attention if the connection wasn’t protected. Dia asks if there’s a class of creatures that interact with dreams, and he provides some types of creatures. There’s a minotaur that does like dreams and can cause nightmares. The creature feeds on our misery and misfortune but can’t kill us from the astral sea, though if it came to the material plane that’s another matter.
Dr. Brightmine is the name of the kobold professor that was helping Dia and Rohan with these questions.
We need protection against this type of thing, which will require more research. Dia lets Inky know we need to figure out how to do that.
Things to research:
- Amon Bridge and what happened to it
- How Dia’s father got to power actually
- Protection against the sharky shark in the astral sea