Shizu is a relatively short but rather muscular woman. She has dark red hair and often hides the lower half of her face behind her mask. She keeps her hood up to stop her long hair from getting in the way when fighting. She’s often seen wearing hardened leather armour covered by a thin cloak. Her eyes of seem to be looking at something in the distance.
First name: Shizukana, means ‘quiet’.
Surname: Arashi, means ‘storm’.
Her names means something along the lines of quiet or silent storm.
This meaning reflects her personality almost like a mirror does ones face. She is often calm and quiet around ordinary folks, however when facing any being aligned with the entity that has wronged her she becomes a storm in search of revenge.
She isn’t interested much in anything that doesn’t help her get closer to her goal, although she will take the oddjob here and there to make sure she doesn’t have to live in total poverty.
Other party members
Isaac
Seems to wear fake spectacles. Maybe he thinks it makes him look smarter? It probably does to townsfolk.
Timothy
Good kid. Smart, likes reading. Seems innocent and ignorant of the world. For some reason I have the urge to protect that innocence.
Frank
Can take physical damage like a beast. Leaped over me and an enemy when I was in a tight spot to help me out. He has earned my utmost respect.
Notes
Breechill
Lots of adventurers in this town. Getting only some odd looks while wearing my mask and hood, which is odd. Hm, ironic.
Seems my dreams are my biggest lead currently. After eavesdropping the townsfolk they seem to be either apathetic or ignorant to Dahak and his followers.
Big group of 40-45 people gathered in front of the town hall waiting to get in. More than I expected. I wonder if they are capable enough. Most seem like ordinary townsfolk and children. Some actual adventurers. Hmmm. This does not bode well.
No lizardfolk seen for a couple decades. Odd. My dreams show Dahak, aren’t his followers lizardfolk?
CALL FOR HEROES
Council: Yorshk Hinterclaw, Melma ann Seldery, Greta Gardenia, Treeny Sprizlegig, Quantino Porsandi.
Greta talks too much.
Young panicked man barged in through side door. Warned of fire. Weaklings panicked and stumbled. I think the door leads further into the town hall. A kitchen maybe? Seems odd. Maybe a secret passage?
Fire creature barged through the door. Definitely not a kitchen fire. Must investigate futher. Might contain a lead to Dahak.
Town hall has burnt down. Need to look through the rubble. Might find clues.
Clerk saw everything. Assistant of booksellers started fire. Hellnight Hill — place of goblin citadel. Calmont is his name. Reliant Book Company. I left for the store. Greta wanted our help. I don’t care. Must investigate book store.
The smoke was thick, the embers hot. Just like my dreams. Just like my dreams. Breechill will burn. I must know more. My eyes ache. Just like my dreams.
Turnt Calmont into Greta. Received 20 gold pieces total for both turning him in and helping the Bumblebrashers.
Knight Rumours
Knight clad in dark armour going to Hellnight Hill.
Apparently is part of Hellknights, talking about symbols of Asmodeus. Symbol on shoulder of Asmodeus, carries greatsword. “Quite handsome man”. Dark armour with red accents.
Hellknights
Order of the Nail is part of this order.
Lawful bunch of knights, deity is considered evil, knights are not. In service of the country. Mostly demon hunters and evil and no do-gooders. Usually clad in dark or black armour, wear symbol of Asmodeus on shoulder or tabard. Weapon of choice is a halberd.
Not connected to Dahak. Dissappointing.
Hellknights teach Infernal as one of their languages. Most, if not all, Hellknights know Infernal.
Reliant Book Company
Tried getting in. Seems reinforced. Door doesn’t budge and windows have metal blinders. Companions arrived. Beat down the door. Took a good two minutes. Someone doesn’t want people in here. Went through owner’s stuff. Only mention of Calmont is that he’s hired and that he’s reliable. How gullible. Owner of book store is called Voz Lirayne.
Found papers in drawer, research into something called Alsetta’s Ring. Seemed to have some correspondance with Scarlet Triad.
Found trapped door which leads into research room. Room looks like its owner left in a hurry. Found notes that talk about the ring. Long Dash and Guardian’s Way. Guardian’s way is a long abandoned military outpost used during the goblin blood wars. Seems to be linked to be linked to the ring.
That was all the information I could find. No clues about Dahak or the firestarter. Disappointing. Must go to the citadel on the hill then.
Found book with pieces of paper. Has Voz’ research about the true history of the town. Gave book to Timothy. He seems to like reading. He might find some information actually worth something.
Found small stash of scrolls. Gave to Timothy.
Cayden’s Keg
Good meals and pints. Well kept tavern, seems like a place to get some interesting rumours. Some clerics moving around in here, followers to Cayden Calien. Might need to figure out more about this deity.
Bryne Taithe, waitress in the tavern.
Frank paid for my meal and stay at the inn. Thankful.
Vusker’s Carts & Wheels
Looks like the only place in town that might have horses. Will check while Timothy is preparing spells. Should make the journey to Hellnight Hill shorter. Cannot afford to waste more time.
Owner is a human male. Pointed me to a place on north-eastern exit that rents and sells horses.
Stables
Trying to bargain for riding horses. Got horses for a bit for 5 silver pieces. Borrows 2 silver pieces from Timothy, must pay him back.
Returned the horses after completing our objective.
Returned the 2 silver pieces to Timothy.
Monument Circle
Middle statue of town’s most important figure. Fresh water source for most people.
Bumblebrasher
Tribe of goblins. Doesn’t seem too interesting, no connection to Dahak. Warbal Bumblebrasher, ambassador of the tribe. Goblins out of citadel have gone quiet. Citadel is located on Hellnight Hill. Meets every two weeks with Helba, haven’t seen her in a while. Seen smoke, chalky red colour — colour of distress. Signal fire.
Warbal doesn’t know what happened in the citadel. No enemies that might’ve attacked them, been peaceful with nearby towns. Might be the work of Dahak? Should investigate.
Wargs are prowling around in the nearby forrest.
Citadel Altaerein
The citadel at Hellnight Hill. Looming structure made out of crumbling stone but is still imposing, nature around it has started reclaiming it. Four towers. Somewhere between 20-30 feet tall. No people when we arrived, smoke stacks still burning.
Human corpse in pool of water at the north.
Found door covered by plants, on southwest corner.
Goblin dogs in the front hall. Small rodents goblins keep around as dogs.
Picked the hidden door. Leads into closet. Long hallway, leads into a secret door. Wall opened up like a door. Intricate citadel.
Large draconic creature in the courtyard. According to Timothy it’s weird to see one here. Tried speaking to it, it did seem to understand me, but gave me no mind. It approached us as prey all the same.
Found Order of the Nail insignia in hallway before the draconic creature. A part of the Hellknight order. Hellknight order is an order of knights which follow the teaching of Asmodeus and are considered a lawful (neutral) group of knights.
Rubble on courtyard is blocking entrance to basement. Lost elf gate down there. Assetta’s ring interacts with elf doors. Ancient means of transportation?
Calmont wants to stop being Voz’ apprentice.
Armed the goblins and took Calmont prisoner.
Dragonkin and people in robes (cultists?) chased them out of their home. Cinderclaws, small cult following other cults of Dahak. FINALLY, a lead. They seem have taken over the goblin’s home. Maybe going to try and summon Dahak or some of his minions. Must investigate this clue ASAP.
No ring? Not a physical ring, seems to be a structure forming a ring according to Calmont.
Helba, goblin we rescued, Bumblebrashers chieftain.
Way down on a hill to the west, small bit of growth behind shrubbery, door goes down.
Some of the cultists may be magic users. Also monsters and undead down there.
Big Bumble, mascot, grizzly bear. Went on a rampage, locked in a pen and kept feeding it. Ate a couple of them, nice if you feed him.
Found starving Warg pups, parent clearly neglected them. Came out to eat us, will not feel bad about killing it. Pups might have a brighter future under our care. We killed the parent, took the puppies with us.
Corpse in north puddled is middle aged, not too insteresting, mostly decomposed. Spikes popping out of its back.
Helba gave us a map of their home.
Came back after 3 days downtime in Breechill.
Training room dummies have been used to create a fire. Must’ve been that dark knight. Found tracks from steel boots, day old. I am rather sure it was indeed that knight.
Bumblebrashers’ Home & Elven Gate (Citadel Altaerein Vaults)
Met by two great birds in the first room. Gave us a good scare, but we took them down easily enough. I’ve never seen anyone take physical damage as Frank has. He has earned my respect. Will probably investigate the mapped out parts first and then head for the unexplored parts. Might find the grizzly bear to the north of the labyrinth.
Entered the secret passage behind the citadel.
The mapped rooms are swarming with frog- and monkey-men. They put up a good fight. Must be careful. They were waiting on their commander?
Left after a rough fight, spend one day in town to recover. When we got back the corpses were still there. Either the current inhabitants don’t care or they are using them as bait.
Met Big Bumble in northern room. Accidentally aggrevated it and decided to let it loose to our advantage. Big Bumble killed most present in the mapped rooms.
Found Draconic letters scribbled on the walls, it said ‘BEWARE: MITEY DRAGONS!’. Whoever wrote this obviously isn’t fluent in Draconic. This does not bode well.
Heard Infernal speaking through the eastern doors. Sounds like a ritual.
Hellknights teach Infernal as one of their languages. Most, if not all, Hellknights know Infernal.
Sounds small-ish? Noises are high-pitched.
According to a book Timothy read: There were ceremonial burials in the southern wing of this place. There are valuables. Buried with things that are significant to the Hellknights.
Found an Eerie Tiny Doll behind the eastern doors, asking who we are. It seems neutral. Called itself the Archivist. Asked if we are Hellknights. I thought it might be an ally to them, I lied to it and said we were, showing the Order of the Nail Insignia. It aksed us to take it with them, then went berserk, constantly asking. Frank and Timothy made quick work of destroying it.
Found beautiful obsidian Hellknight figurines. This place if full of Hellknight history. Paintings painted by: R. Stagram.
Heard Kobolds, tried persuading them to join us in beating the cultists. They seemed unwilling and attacked us on sight. They look hungry. Sif and I made quick work of the green one, the red one panicked and got persuaded to help us by Timothy, We healed the green one in exchange for them helping us with the cultists.
Red one: Zarf.
Green one: Pib.
Apperantly the monkey and frog-like creatures were the cultists. Part of Cinderclaws and they see Dahak as a god of destruction instead of a god of evil dragons. Cinderclaws are a splinter group of the followers of Dahak. They might have something to do with my dreams. I’m sure there will be more.
Frank wandered off and found a gelatenous cube. We killed it with some trouble.
Entered the south side. Some old corpes lay between the coffins. Dark spirits inhabiting armour attacked us in the southern most room. We took care of them but they gave Timothy a good fright. If that happens again he might become a liability.
We met the man clad in dark armour. Part of Hellknights — Alak Stragram. Hellknight in training, on private mission. Looking for an item connected to his heritage, a ring. We helped him search and I found it in a secret compartment. It was his father’s ring–signet ring. His father is one of the higher ups of the Order of the Nail. Had heard talk about Alsetta’s Ring in the Pickled Ear pub. Told him about the Cinderclaws, he might get the support of the Hellknights when he returns to the capital. Told us about secret door, third passageway from the main hallways. Hall of Lictors–holds the necromantic wards.
Necromantic wards are upright coffins with Hellknights in them, two them are open. When I checked if they were empty, two rotting corpses jumped out at us. Feint blue runes line the walls. Timothy inspected them–they raise the dead. We currently cannot dispell them, we need a fourth level Dispel Magic.
We decided to head back to town and take a weeks rest.
Grey Wolf Sif
More dreams, the night sky is lit by fire. Flames engulf the town.
Grey warg pup we rescued from its uncaring parents was there with me. Over three days is has grown not only in size, but also in intelligence. It seems to have bonded with me. It seems to understand me. I have named it Sif, it shall be my stallward companion. It will stand by my side as we battle against the flames. Together we shall find salvation, not only for ourselves but also for those of the town. Dahak will fall, by my hand or Sif’s fangs, he will fall.
Pickled Ear
Seems to be a tavern for ragtag adventurers. Dive bar–people seem to go here to get drunk and brawl.
Roxie Denn, short redhaired woman, owner. — Knows nothing new about Alsetta’s ring. Knows Guardian’s Way is an area where goblins waged war about 20 years ago, it’s 6 miles north west out of town, near the mountains. Got it located on our map. Voz might be near Guardian’s Way (owner of the book store).
Info about Stragram, not too interesting.
Blonde half-elf around, going in to back for some hours sometimes.
Guardian’s Way
Mountain cave. Probably where Alsetta’s Ring is located.
Wooden platforms in between trees, reachable by rope ladders. Orcs greeted us, asked our business. Said we were looking for Voz, a fugitive. One of the orc’s eyes twitched when he said he knew nothing of this person. They do not seem trustworthy.
We attempted to go around by climbing the mountain but got spotted and instantly attacked. I am convinced they are working for Voz.
Found Voz and restrained her. Killed the half-orc mercnaries guarding her. Some little shitter attacked us from the shadows. Killed it. Voz confirmed it might be here.
Cave goes very deep.
Maybe team up with Voz. Talk in town has it Voz might be involved with necromancy. Illegal–there’s a bountry on her head for it. Took her as prisoner of a citizens’ arrest. Will take her into the cave with us and make her tell us what she knows about Alsetta’s Ring–if we find it.
Found her journals and letters. Every letter is signed by: “By Norgorber’s hand,”. According to Voz it’s an Alias. A phrase commonly used by the followers of the Reaper of Reputation; he is a neutral evil god, THE reaper of reputation. God of thievery and secrets.
Scarlet Triad–an assassins guild. She has probably been in contact with these assassins. Also a merchants guild from the South.
Las Lun, contact for the Scarlet Triad.
Found and killed spiders deeper into the cave. Found a tent with a woman inside, Renali. Has been living here for a while. Told us some weird Frog and Ape creatures have come through earlier. There is also a weird goblin in the next room. Goblin said his minions were all useless. Other creatures are probably Cinderclaws. She’s an Anadi–humanoid spider. Asked her to tell the spiders to stay away from us and she complied and convinced the spiders. She’s a nice woman.
We met an old goblin that called himself a god. Upon being provoked he transformed into a large ugly monster. We killed it.
Found mushrooms covering the path. Renali called them ‘glow mushrooms’–they make you sick if you touch them. If you freeze them they won’t release their spores when touched. Timothy used his Ray of Frost to freeze a pathway for us.
Large hole after mushrooms. Frank climbed down easily with a piton and rope, I tried as well with Sif on my back. I fell and took minor damage.
Met a half-orc down here, Necalli. Same purpose as us, killing cultists. Joined forces with him. He is covered in tribal tattoos. Weird fellow.
Heard shouting in Draconic. Cultists obviously follow Dahak, his name was mentioned.
Fought what seemed to be the leader of the cult. We killed him.
There is a mostly dissolved rope here, Voz seemed to have escaped with a vial of acid. We did not give chase.
A structure fills the middle of the room. The walls and domed ceiling are elegantly carved. Elven statues stand around a middle dry fountain. Each archway in the walls has different decor, they lead nowhere, except for the bottom one which is blocked by rubble. There is a door North. I think it is safe to assume this is Alsetta’s Ring. The gateways can be activated by using a key on the archway.
Door guarded by stone golem. Timothy crafted Alsetta’s symbol to gain entry. Pieces of paper speak about Order of the Nail. Valuables also belong to the Order of the Nail. Found a scroll, not a magical scroll. “Whoever owns this piece of paper is the owner of Citadel Altaerein”. I am now the legal owner of this citadel.