Grand Duchy 96

Grand Duchy of Adventure

Session 96
August 3, 2016

Hitting the Books

Tserdain 6 Klarmont

Breakfast and Briefings

Kifein, Hutaakan pristess

The Grey Company rises from the best nights sleep they have had in quite a long time. Breakfast and coffee in abundance is served and everyone feels refreshed and ready to go. Kifein, their new Hutaakan liaison arrives and leads them back to meet with the High Priestess, Kforedz. 

In a beautiful courtyard, Kforedz continues to explain about the undead problems the valley is having, what they have done (unsuccessfully) to try to stop it and what she thinks needs to be done next. She explains that the key to victory relies upon performing a sacred ritual at the Temple of Pflarr but the holy text required to perform the ritual is locked in a place at the western end of the valley, deep inside Traldar territory. The other problem is that the key they have to open this Vault of Elders is unusable by the Hutaakan people because they no longer possess the arcane arts. She believes the someone in the Grey Company could possibly use the key to open the Vault and then they could extract the needed ritual tomes. 

The key to the Vault of Elders

The Grey Company is up for the task and dives headlong into a question and answer session with the Hutaakan High Priestess. This conversation goes on for over an hour and many things are discovered, determined and divulged, including the origins of the magical needle and tapestry that brought the Company to the valley in the first place. It is finally revealed that the Hutaakans have a small repository of lore here in the stronghold village of Byxata and the Company asks to have a look. 

As everyone else gets to work pouring through the books in hopes of finding an important clue, Draven takes to meditation and ritual in hopes of receiving a boon from his patrons for his devout service. He prays and is eventually granted, for the Gift of Letters, a divine spell that will allow him, or someone else, the ability to read any specific language, albeit for only a short time. After several hours of pious prayer, he joins the others in their tiny, cramped study nook and gives a hand. 

While going over the old documents, Griffin is able to piece together what he thinks is a decent floor-plan of the Temple of Pflarr, since it seems that most every road ahead of them eventually leads back there. 

Hutaakan book repository

Remar searches through the books for symbols that match up with the letters on the strange key cylinder Kforedz had given them. He is successful but realizes that he is just matching up common words from one source to another. 

Iris spends her time looking for why a specific Hutaakan is used on the strange key cylinder and realizes that it is just a simple security measure, requiring the user of the key to know multiple languages, be knowledgeable of Hutaakan prayers and be able to wield arcane magic. In her studies, though, she has become more comfortable with reading the Hutaakan language, something that she has always wanted to do.

The Lost Valley of Hutaaka - with some key locations marked

Cast of Characters: 

Garrett "Griffin" Constantine, a Thyatian rogue of a gambler from Penhaligon rolled by +Arne Jamtgaard 

Draven Rickart, a Thyatian Acolyte of the Church of Karameikos ministered by +Jason Packer 

Remar Umerus, an Alphatian battle mage that escaped forced service in the Thyatian army currently marshalled by +Patrick Kelly 

Iris Varda, a Thyatian explorer and historian searching for answers and adventure, now guided by +Stephanie Kelly 

and +Jason Woollard as The DM