The Auric Lodge

The Auric Lodge is an adventurer's guild established by the Avum Empire as a deniable asset.

It's theatre of operations so far has been the Kealian continent.

Current Members
Aelia Olympia Aurelia

Arannis Faustus Venandi

Cerebus Promaterius

Diana Quaesitor Votis

Maximilian Valerius Cato

Sophie d'Arafina

Vexus Orthos

Tantina Fontaine

Past Members
Giovanni Luca Savelli (Deceased)

Magnus Antonius (Deceased) (Evil Clone)

Olo Undergrass (Deceased)

Ruuk (Deceased)

Ruuki (Deceased) (Ring of Mind Shielding)

Talathil Dubois (Deceased)

Meeting the Team
"The team assembles. A meeting at the docks. The pursuit begins."

Talathil Dubois, an elven ranger and Sophie d'Arafina, a local half-elven adventurer, after a couple of days of preliminary investigation and the purchase of some basic supplies, met the rest of the party at the Knightby docks.

After an exchange of information at the Hallowed Hall inn that the Kealian natives had been staying at, the party decided to case the warehouse of Alphonse Caron, who had been seen to meet with a woman matching Tsuri Horida's description.

Assault the Charon Boys Warehouse
"Sophie can't sneak. Shades are summoned. A cultist fireballs herself."

In an effort to gain more intellegence about the warehouse, Magnus posed as a potential smuggling client to gain an audience with Alphonse Caron, a local crime lord with ties to Tsuri Horida. Sophie, posing as his bodyguard, went with him. Unfortunatly due to their reluctance to reveal too much of their purposes the investigation was mostly fruitless.

Returning to the party with an incomplete floor layout of the warehouse the Auric Lodge planned their infiltration. Magnus, Sophie Ruuk and Arannis were to find their way in through the front door while Talathil and Olo made their way sneakily through the back door.

No plan survives contact with the enemy and even fewer with Sophie's clanking armour.

After failing to talk their way past the guards at the door, Ruuk and Sophie dispatched them and attempted to move quietly in on the next set of guards. Sophie alerted them to her presence, and by extension the presence of all her friends, by walking too heavily towards their shared objective. With the warehouse now on high alert (as high as can be expected of drunk guards), the Lodge members began to fight their way towards their goal. Just as Ruuk and Magnus made their way to the second floor a robed figure, seemingly an acolyte of Val Garena, cast a spell that appeared to summon some shadows of the cycle.

The party members made quick work of these apparitions however and subdued or killed the remaining guards. The acolyte knowing that her gambit had failed, cast a fireball centered on herself, injuring Ruuk in the process. This gave Alphonse Caron time enough to attempt an escape before being chased down by an angry Olo Undergrass.

While Caron was being subdued, Sophie and Arannis checked through the warehouse office before the contents were burned by the encroaching flames of the newly detonated zealot. They were able to obtain a journal in thieves cant, which seemed to be Caron's ledger and diary, and a letter from Korna Vurrupta attempting to establish a contract for goods retreival and a bounty on a beast.

More information would be found after a few words with their newly aquired prisoner.

A Lead Beneath the Pikes
"Arranis isn't intimidating. Charon receives a message. The Auric Lodge leaves Knightby."

Escaping the now growing fires of the ruined warehouse the party relocated themselves, along with their new hostage, to an abandoned warehouse a few streets over to have a chat.

Attempting to intimidate the hardened crime-boss, was not very fruitful. Arannis used a minor illusion spell to try and convince Caron that he could cast a soul trapping spell, whereas Magnus threatened to use his vast medical knowledge and surgical experience to bring a more physical torture to bear. Through all these threats however the party failed to notice that the gangster was recieving magical messages from the rest of his cronies.

Now with reinforcements on the way Caron offered the Auric Lodge a deal. They leave him with his life and in return he'd give them the last known location of one of the items he had been hired to aquire for Tsuri Horida.

The item in question had gone missing in the Vickswood. Korna Vurrupta, it seemed, had been the self-destructing mage from the warehouse. She had been sent by Tsuri Horida to negotiate for retrival of this item after the cave that the smuggling operation had been using as a hideout had been raided by some kind of beast.

With this new lead, and the not so subtle threat from Caron to leave his city by the morning, the Auric Lodge departed Knightby in the direction of the Vickswood.

Lost Things in the Dark
"Krithik come out of the walls. An eye tries to eat Arannis. Sophie stares down an umberhulk."

After finding their way to Vickshide the party, after some investigation into the rumours surrounding the local area, climbed up into the Vickswood toward the foothills of The Pikes mountain range. Making their way into the smuggler's cave they made their way through a number of Kuo-Toa that were guarding the place, before coming upon an underwater passage that seemed to lead deeper underground.

Navigating this maze of underwater tunnels was not easy, especially for the armour clad party members, despite this difficulty however the Auric Lodge was able to succesfully find a way back onto dry land.

Dry land it turned out, was just as dangerous as the water. Insectoid monsters called Krithik occupied the tunnels underneath the pikes, and they had been agitated by Kuo-Toa incursions into their warrens.

After fighting their way through dark tunnels, with insectoid monstrosities burrowing through the walls and floor and Olo scouting ahead with his cloak of the bat, the Auric Lodge came across and seeminly empty side passafge clearing filled with the corpses of Kuo-Toa. Moveing past the clearing to a white orb that Olo had spotted the party encountered a lost horror that proceeded to try and eat Arannis and Ruuk. The party narrowly managed to reclaim their grappled party members before the horror returned to the deep.

Returning back the way they came, Sophie tentatively investigated the side passage clearing and, out of the shadows, an umber hulk lurched forward staring her down. Realising the danger and unwilling to engage in an unessesary fight, Sophie attempted to block the passage while the rest of the Auric Lodge made a hasty retreat. Unfortunatly due to a misunderstanding of the umber hulk's territorial display, Sophie managed to antagonise the creature, leading to it returning the favour by dealing her a grievous wound to her face, only due to Talathil's quick thinking did Sophie escape.

Kuo-Toa Ritual
"Arannis casts fireball. Shaman raises the water. There's an interesting statue."

After escaping the krithik warrens the party managed to find a place to rest, under the cover of Arannis' tiny hut. Fresher than before and ready to face the dangers ahead the party follow the ever-growing sounds of kou-toa deeper into the underdark.

Emerging from the tight tunnels onto a small overlook, the Auric Lodge looks out over a wide-open area, a small horde of kou-toa, surrounding a krithik queen that they had clearly been able to capture. A kuo-toa shaman performing some kind of ritual on the barely subdued beast.

The Auric Lodge launches into action. Arannis launching fireballs into the horde, while Talathil focuses on putting arrow after arrow into the shaman. Sophie, Ruuk and Olo cross the cavern in seconds to deal with the kuo-toa holding the unfortunate krithik queen who would eventually need to be put down herself. Over the course of the fight the shaman attempted to raise the water level of the cave in an effort to drown the Auric Lodge, this would ultimately prove fatal to it however as Talathil puts and arrow straight through the enemy mage’s skull.

Combat ends, and the party are able to investigate the ritual ground in relative peace. The focal point of the makeshift temple is a heavily modified statue of a male elf, with an elongated head, a tentacle-like beard made of seaweed and large alien eyes. It would be a month and a half before the Lodge would come to realise the true implications of this statue.

In the kuo-toa treasure horde, the party finds a number of choice artefacts, many of which seem to have been recent acquisitions from the Caron boys’ smuggling operation. Among these items; a magical dagger, Sliver which Olo takes a shine to, an elemental gem which Magnus quickly pockets, a green skull relic which Arannis stows away for secure keeping before it can be properly disposed of, and the object of their search a large tube like device containing an anti-magic field and an extra-dimensional pocket. Vigilant about placing this thing inside of the bag of holding Sophie elects to carry this thing by hand through the rest of the underdark.

Aimless in the Underdark
"Magnus throws a coin. Too many skeletons. A cold reception at the well."

Instead of going back the way they came the Auric Lodge elects to find a new way out of the ritual chamber. Scrambling up a waterfall they find themselves navigating the twists and turns of an underground stream.

Moving upwards, the party comes across a floating eyeball wreathed in lightning with too many tentacles, a couple of angry stalactites and a grabby stalagmite all of which were dispatched with the expenditure of ever decreasing party resources.

After one such encounter, a fight against a roper over a pit, a curious Magnus tosses a light imbued coin down into the abyss below, a few seconds later a thunderous roar emanates back out of the pit. The party, survival instincts still mercifully intact promptly flee from this unknown and probably quite large monstrosity.

Moving in what they hoped was the right direction, the Auric Lodge found themselves in a large cavern with a cracked and crumbling floor, upon attempting to cross, skeletons began emerging from below and attacking the party seemingly without end. It soon became clear that the only option open to the party at the time was to flee across the crumbling floor. In order to distract the ever-growing tide of the undead Magnus unleashes an air elemental from the gem he’d collected only hours before. This desperate action provides the opening the straggling members of the Lodge need to escape.

Tired, winded, and suffering, the party with Talathil leading squeezes through a tight space into an ice-cold room with a well at the centre. The occupants of the room, an icy amalgamation of bones, magic and malice. The Lodge fights, tired as they are, against these cold abominations. Upon their destruction these freezing constructs burst into splinters of bone and shards of ice, causing massive damage and lasting injuries to a number of party members, fresh abominations rising to take their place.

It is Arannis who realises the source of these deathless constructs, the frozen statue-like corpse of a long dead mage holding a magical staff dipped into the well. The problem once spotted is quickly delt with and the remaining monster.

Once the well is cleansed, the party finds the time to rest, drawing healing water from the well, and filling their waterskins.

A Way Out
"The party doesn't kill a child. Zombies in a mine. Simon watches some random adventurers kill his family again."

The Desolation of Wenap Village
"Orcs did this. Ruuk and Sophie investigate. Arannis and Simon have a drink"

Of Glory
"Simon is sent home with a couple of random guards. Ruuk meets a fellow half-orc. Talathil goes for a run."

Vickshide
"Sophie is the only party member who can't help. The Party enters the fighting pits. Magnus interrogates Arannis, everyone else joins in."

A Blessed Child
"Simon's probably in trouble. Talathil gets a child killed. The party decide not to visit the Pikes."

Finding the Light Renewed
"What even is a Fragment? Simon will be a knight. Arannis is fired as party face."

To Baldant
"The party move on to Baldant. A choice they will regret for the rest of their lives"

Big Trouble in Little Baldant
see Baldant

Rumours
"The Party is robbed, shot at and blown up all on day one."

Hargafang
"A silent infiltration. A loud battle. A deafening exit."

The Dielmel Embassy
"Arannis makes a mistake. Talathil wants to see the manager. Magnus thinks this is a bad idea."

Intrigue, Reconnaissance and Splendid Lunch
"Team one: Meet a rich man, talk politics, drink wine. Team two: Meet with the past, talk backstories, eat kebabs"

The Daring Escape of Lady Charise D'Leon
"The party meticulously plans a cunning night-time raid. Arannis walks in, in broad daylight and succeeds."

Thunderstruck at Hoxwain's Auction
"Sophie and Arannis talk to a shifty Pontian. Luca makes an entrance. Lightning is Sophie's thing."

A Series of Raids
"The Party becomes proficient in breaking and entering. Evidence is collected. A terrible truth is realised."

The Grand Reopening
"Four hours. Four bombs. Three successful missions."

Raid on the d'Leon Mance
"Flavia gives a pep talk. Olo and Ruuk get stuck in their own heads. Sophie casts shield."

The Baldant Butcher
"Magnus is reminded of a Kua-Toa Statue, puts two and two together and gets Ilithid. The party panics."

A Game of Chess
"Magnus loses chess to a computer with skin and a very powerful cleric laughs at Arannis"

Lunch with Laburena
"Magnus loves his friends, table bear takes a seat and Ruuk bribes his way into a pub"

Magnus's True Colours
"The party rushes in where perfect beings fear to tread. Several traps seem to be hard counters to the party. Sophie tells Luca to run."

The End of the d'Leons
"Val makes Daron and Charise see the light and Olo watches shit go boom"

A Halfling in the Feywild
"Olo gets lost, makes a tree friend and goes vegan"

One Final Auction with Hoxwain
"Hoxwain honors fallen friends. Everyone feels uncomfortable. The party spends all it's gold."

Leaving Baldant
"The party hit the road. Only look back for a moment. The Middenmons await."

The Collection of Lady Guanel
"Sophie makes a deal with Avum to get a piece of Stormcaller."

Testudo at the Watchtower
"Max and Vex show some orcs the true power of friendship and interlocking shields"

Up the Gray Cascade
"Vex flies. Arannis loses concentration. Ruuk drops his sword."

Blood Hunter Revealed
"Despite obvious signs, the party are shocked to meet a vampire"

The Shifting Tower
"Sophie gets laid. Arannis meets a family member. Olo doesn't trust it."

Blood Spilled at the Bloodhunter Shrine
"The party splits up. Maxs spends a diamond on Arannis. Sophie bites her tongue."

Capturing the Star of Amon Kar
"The party turn down the lights to let vampires massacre a village. Ruuk gets flashbacks and new axe"

Middenmons: Shadow of Ilykos
See Middenmons, Orc Tribes of the Middenmons, Observers of the Circumpunct.

Orc-ward Negotiations
"Ruuk tries negotiation. The orcs start the fight. The orcs fucking die."

Saving Private Rorkran: Leave Gnoll Survivors
"Tantina snipes some sentries. The party gets trolled. Sophie aids a mercy killing."

A Long Talk and a Sudden Stop
"Arannis flies, visits the monastery giftshop and has an argument with gravity."

A bruised body, a metal body, an old body.
"Arannis rising, Dungeon Delving, Time flies when you are a half-orc."

The Auric Lodge
"Tantina explains sample sizes to Ruuk. The Auric Lodge comes together. Max performs a miracle."

An Absolute Shitshow
"Olo lights a fart. The Kong-fessor fights a rock. Ruuk talks it out."

Yutyrannus
"Olo runs ahead. Sophie tries her boots. Mama gets angry"

Ain't No Grave
"Arranis' best fireball yet. The Confessor doesn't have the components. Vex breaks an axe."

On Aquila's Wings
"Aelia flies in. The Auric Lodge plans. Icebane from underground."

Bluebones
"Ruuk trades with some orcs, Arannis gets shook, hags like big sacks"

Olo, Undergrass.
"Spiders, oozes and fiends. Aelia's first dungeon crawl. The Auric lodge says goodbye."

Questions
"Deep lore discussions. Wyverns run away. Roc falls, nobody dies."

Answer
"Lore discussions in the Deep. Abberations. Arranis asks a question."

The Guide
"Ruuk makes a sacrifice, Ruuk makes a sacrifice and Ruuk makes a sacrifice"

Ruuk's Twilight Path
"Arranis becomes surrounded. Diana disarms a trap. Ruuk goes alone, and with dignity."

The Honour of the Duel
"Ruuk fights a duel. The Confessor explains the nature of love."

The Battle of the High Pass
See Battle of the High Pass "The Auric Lodge plans an ambush. Ruuk says no. The bodies pile up."

Cold Consequences
"The Line is held. Ruuk tries to cross the rubicon"

The Sins of the Warborn
"The Party moves on. The path of Storm and Sword awaits."

Morkvon the Shadow
"The Party sets a trap. Vexus single handedly faces an army. Sophie wakes up surrounded by beautiful women."

Backtracking
"Arannis gets a call from home. Mistakes were made. Igaxs gives Max the finger"

The Only Good Orc
"The Party kills not just the men, but the women and the children too. Aelia gets put in the IdiotBox(TM)"

Avalanches, Idols, Rettergeist and Time Wizards
"Despite saying 'never again', the Party investigates a Marker. Things go as expected."

Undermountain, Underwater, Underdark
"The Party go diving, Meet some big fish, Call Max Ishmael"

Climbing in the dark
"The Party runs low on rope. Diana runs low on ammo. Aelia runs low on hit points."

Parasite for Sore Eyes
"Arranis find's himself blind... again. Impregnate is the word of the day. Sophie experiences heartburn"

Cold-Blooded Tyrant
"The frozen remains of lost adventurers, sharing a light. A bridge over troubled void. The Party faces Makagal"

On the Slopes of Mount Korun
"Finally daylight, a moment's respite. Avalanche."

The Importance of Stories
"Sophie learns the price of knowledge. The Party arrives at Sellevite. Arranis has a taste of home."

To The Alturn Flats
"Standing Stones, Black Blades, Wistwalkers."

The Fires of Unity
"The Party shares a campfire. Max sits down to dinner. An old friend receives resolution."

Ruuki
"New Friend. New Year. New Resolve."

Separated
"The Party fights some interdimentional beasties. Arranis makes a mistake. Max meets some lumberjacks"

The Main Body: Ranging for our Ranger
"Suddenly without their survival skills and communications, the remainder of the Auric Lodge looks for Tantina Fontaine"

Arannis: Behind Enemy Lines
"Arannis find's himself in the heart of enemy territory. Recieves a cold reception at the Eturn monastery and a warm reception from Angaragon"

Max: Helpless in a Haven
"Max has a hard time adjusting to civilisation given his friends are trapped far away"

The Main Body: Blackblades
"The Party does aggressive research. Sophie overexetends. Max negotiates a hostage situation"

Krag Wraithblade
"Krag interviews the Auric Lodge. Sophie makes a social faux pas. Krag fights the Stormcaller."

The Desecrators
"A glowing bident falls from the sky. A flawless plan fails immediatly. The Wistwalkers are the worst actually."

Blood for Blood
"The Auric Lodge repays a debt. Arranis suffers his greatest loss yet. Vexus spends a full minute on fire."

The Belly of the Beast
"Twisted Orcs, Dark Tunnels, Dusty ground."

Calling the Storm
"The Auric Lodge makes deals, Krag does deplomacy, Max asks for a favour."

Prison Break
"The Auric Lodge heads towards the Heartpass, Arannis touches something hot, The Scion of Thorns escapes."

The Mortal Spirit
"Aelia drops her Lance, Sophie and Vex jump in a hole, Igax Oromo lends a hand."

Ambushed
"The Auric Lodge has a meal. Diana investigates a ball. No slots left for revivify."

Falls, Fish and Fae
"The Auric Lodge: Practice base jumping, meet an old lady and anger a tree."

Family
"Sophie negotiates. Vex keeps the flame lit. Max asks for help."

Farewell Ruuki
"Sometimes you can't save everyone, Vex and Sophie build a boat, Ruuki departs."

Bearsharks and Other Distractions
"Arannis and Aelia fetch a new friend, everyone else fumble around the fey forest."

Horogonir
"The Party fight the exiled hunter, Diana argues about fairness, Arannis has a problem."

On Edge
"Diana wants to leave, Arannis wants to stay, A snail sits on Max's head."

An Interlude with Vila Ven
"Arannis makes a promise, Vex establishes a deadline, A child provides perspective."

Daughters of the Mountain
"A stone turns out to be a trap, The Party shows their worth, A bittersweet reunion."

Blue Skies at Dawn
"A campfire talk reveals a truth, The Auric Lodge lends a hand, A foe is underestimated."

Blue Skies at Dusk
"A campfire talk reveals a truth, The Auric Lodge makes a choice, A threshold is irreversibly crossed."

The End Run
"Imperial assets met, The Auric Lodge Prepares to Summit Eturn, Sophie skips the hard part."

K-18: The Eve of the Counterattack
"Krag arrives in 18 days, The monastary only has 12, The Auric Lodge proves a point."