Reviving Haltessa & The Dragon Wars

The latest in the Jaystorm saga

This week in Jaystorm News:

OOOOOOOkay! Quick recap: We found Randi, the presumed Hollow Warrior and made her fall in love with Raquel. Justin and Ophelia from the Drow campaign found their dragon forms and accepted Tohorne as their personal savior (or something like that). Forlumb was crowned king of Moray and forced Lilliana and a few other rulers to become allied with him so that they'd have to fight his fights with them. Demons came and attacked the Jade Brotherhood. Malcom, Ras Mar and Tarren Base were all there at the battle. Malcom was in trouble, but was helped back to safety by the PCs. Ras Mar was kicking ass, but Tarren fought Calios - the Demon lord from the 4th plane of hell - and was completely killed and is now a ghost. The PC group packed up and headed north to Cakass, where giants live and where the Goddess Haltessa sleeps. Forgan is the last Paladin of Haltessa and has studied how to wake her up. The first day we were there (whis is the same day as that battle with Demons and Forlumb's Coronation), we met Francesca, the last Priestess of Haltessa and her companion Jennifer, daughter of a great Beastmaster. Gunnar, the Keeper of the North Shrine, which is also Haltessa's resting place, was very hospitable and knowledgable on many topics. Both Gunnar and MacCarr, the storyteller of the East Shrine (who had been travelling with us for a time now) told Gray that Venna's palace was nearby. Gray, MacCarr, Forgan, Sashraddon and Jennifer all packed their things and headed out to the mountain where that palace is - it would appear as the sun rose. They had to go by normal means - that means not using any supernatural items or powers, so they had to climb the mountain with normal mountain climbing tools. They all made it fine and watched the northern lights as they talked eachother to sleep for the night.
In the morning, the party on the mountaintop met up with a giant snow dragon before the sun came up. Jennifer could speak to it so it was tolerant of the rest of the group. When the sun finally rose, the palace slowly appeared and was very shiny. Almost blinding! Gray and Sashraddon were the first to enter, and everyone else soon followed (except the dragon). Each person had a test they must pass that regarded something extremely personal. Gray met up with his mother and many other deceased relatives. Forgan met up with Elsa, the guise that Haltessa took up to meet Forgan when he was younger. When they were inside, they met Venna's avatar - she was too beautiful to describe. They asked her questions, though she could not answer any that had to do with the celestials. After a few moments, Vorex, God of war arrived at the Palace to speak with his sister Venna. Not long after that, Tohorne himself arrived! There was no fighting allowed in Venna's palace, so nothing happened right then and there, but she hid the PCs behind her throne just in case. Tohorne threatened Haltessa's life before he left and that enraged Forgan until he couldn't control himself. Forgan pleaded with Vorex to have power against Tohorne and even fought the God Vorex to a duel to prove his worth. He was proven worthy and given a sword that would damage any creature of Tohorne.
Meanwhile, Elonora and Francesca were still in the North Shrine with Gunnar. They spoke about Haltessa's urn and the basin by her throne. As they poured water into the basin, they saw a hazy image of where they can find the Healer - the last element to waking and healing Haltessa. A few hours later, the shrine was attacked by a man covered in vines and roots who was accompanied by Sorrel (longest running villain in the New Jaystorm campaign). The root guy went right for Gunnar and Sorrel demanded that Francesca hand over the urn. After some struggling and trying to get away, Francesca dropped it and Sorrel picked it up. Elonora shot him with an anti-evil arrow and he dropped it and a guy fell out of Sorrel. He then told Elonora to take the urn and run, as he attacked the root-man himself. The others arrived from their adventures atop the mountain in time to see Gunnar healing Francesca and trying to fix up the shrine. Both Sorrel and the root-man had left by then. Sashraddon spoke to the man that fell out of Sorrel but nothing had been resolved or clarified and then he just teleported himself away. Forgan was shown the trick to find the healer (by pouring more water into the basin) and we teleported ourselves right to his door. Man! It was COLD! We knocked and nobody answered, so we let ourselves in. The Healer (Nathar, one of Venna's sons) was indeed there, but he ignored us for most of the time we were there. Francesca lost her patience (and lost her tolerance for his awful stench) and knocked him unconscious with Haltessa's urn and we brought him back to the shrine.
We woke him up and he was very reluctant to help since he lost faith. Whe Haltessa first fell ill, he tried to heal her, but was turned away by his mother. He went into hiding after that and became the recluse that he is now. However, there was a battle of the Celestials that was beginning all around us and he HAD to do it NOW! Forgan basically carried him down to Haltessa's tomb with Francesca and Jennifer following along. Gray, Elonora and Sashraddon stayed by the door to guard against anything that was about to happen. The villagers - all seven of them - came into the shrine for safety and defense as well. Then the snowball hit the fan. Hundreds of lesser versions of that root creature arrived to overtake the shrine - all of them creatures of Tohorne and very powerful. Fortunately for our side, the Tarrenson family arrived. They were given a second chance - those who survived the battle were allowed to stay alive. That gave Gray the boost he needed. Unfortunately, he also needed the boost from his helmet which he left with the Healer so that he could understand our language. Without his helmet, Gray could not fly, so Elonora became his steed for a time. In the air, they ran into the original root-man. He changed himself according to his surroundings and was now airborne. Gray managed to take him down after a couple of hits and Elonora took that time to contact the Raven spirit. She asked him for assistance but his apathy wore on her patience in the midst of battle and she demanded that he help her. He finally settled and told her to open her mouth. Out came a continuous burst of shadow flame that not only demolished the root creatures on the ground, but the entire staircase to the temple. The root creatures were left on the ground and we all took safety in the temple. There were 17 Tarrensons left after the battle and three of the villagers had died, including Gunnar, the Shrine Keeper
While all of that transpired, Forgan had his own struggles to deal with. The Healer was still reluctant to do anything and the Advisor was down there, ready to greet them and assist them. The Healer who is his brother, wasn't too happy to see him, but there was little time for friendly chit-chat or personal differences. Haltessa was still in desperate need of healing and now there was something busting through the basement wall! That something was a Giant Undead Dragolich! (and evil undead dragon skeleton with massively huge magic powers and massively huge teeth to bite you in the head!) EEEK! MacCarr began to sing a song of encouragement through his fear. The Advisor summoned three of his lovers to come aide him to fight off that while Forgan flew the advisor to the top of the casket. They looked through the clear cover that held her in and saw a giant mass of dark, shadowy, misty evil in there with her and haltessa was on her stomach trying to crawl away. forgan smashed it open and the two of them fell into the casket with this evil. Forgan commanded the Healer to go save her and handed him the urn. Since the Healer wasn't as reluctant, he wanted to, but wasn't sure how. Forgan assured him that he could do it with faith and then took his stance between Haltessa and this mass of evil. The sword Forgan was granted by Vorex cut through the dark shadows surrounding the winged figure. It was the same messenger of Tohorne that fought Gray a while back and the same one that took Lissa away while she was carrying Carey's baby. He and Forgan fought to the death - they both struck their death blows at the same time. Tohorne's messenger's leg was severed just above the knee and Forgan was gutted through. That was fortunate for the quest though, because that gave the Healer just enough time to successfully heal Haltessa! She took her urn back and went to take her seat among the Celestial counsel. Once that was completed, all was well again. The Dragolich had left, though it took the life of the Advisor's current lover. The root creatures outside were also gone and the Healer had faith building again inside himself.
Gray and Elonora met back up down in Haltessa's tomb to see how things had went. As they reached the top of the casket, they saw Forgan's body covered in blood. Luckily, by being inducted in a paladinic order of Vennan Knights, Gray had been granted the ability to raise one person back from the dead if they had been killed withing 24 hours. Forgan came back and saw that Haltessa was no longer there and the Healer told him that she was where she belonged. The Healer was then taken upstairs to attend to the wounded. A rope was tied to the shrine in place of the stairs that were now gone and supplies from the village were being taken back and forth to feed and heal the sick, wounded and dying. Sashraddon even met Gray's mother, Jessica, who survived the whole ordeal. Gray did what he could to keep them from talking too much about him or anything that could be potentially embarrassing or destructive. He had to get some sleep though - Tarren's funeral was in the morning.
It was another dreamless night of sleep for Gray, but Greta woke him up so he could go - he left a note for Sashra, in case anyone asks for him. Sashradon was furious when she woke up and found that he had left without inviting her. Also, some of the Tarrensons wanted to go to Tarren's funeral, so Elonora asked Sashradon (since she's the only one who's even been to Kollakra) if she'd teleport the family members. For convenience and because she was just too angry, she simply described the place so well that they could teleport themselves with the use of the teleportation gloves.
Gray earth-teleported to Kollakra, right to the temple and met up with Raquel. The sun hadn't even come up yet, so everyone was still asleep. Raquel was awake because Tarren's ghost has been hanging round her ever since he died this last time. His soul is cut off from heaven, so he's stuck in limbo. As an angel, his soul connected with Raquel in the Dream world, so that connection stayed now that he has died again. Gray fell asleep while waiting for Lilliana to arrive and waiting for the ceremony to begin. Raquel then met up with the Tarrensons who finally arrived. They took her off to go drinking before the funeral. Randi was there and she encouraged Randi to come join the gang and drink a little to loosen up and maybe meet some of the younger Tarrenson men. Well, she loosened up and they loosened up more and passed out. She admitted her love for Raquel in a drunken stooper. When they headed back, the funeral was about to begin. Lilliana perfomed the ceremony (which Tarren complained the whole time about) and then others came up to say something about him. Even Forlumb showed up and SAID that he was FORLUMB! He NEVER admits that - especially in front of the Tarrensons! However, he did have nice things to say...and Tarren said some stuff back through Raquel so everyone knew that he was right there and he knew what was going on. Then, Forlumb got all the Tarrensons there rallied to help him in the Satilian war. Raquel spoke for some time with Forlumb about the Hollow Warrior and what should be done about Randi (who was passed out by the garden). There weren't many options and not much new information. There was the legend of the Silver conjoined and the Dark conjoined. The Dark Conjoined was the joining of two individuals based out of lust and greed. The silver conjoined was just the opposite, but one can not exist while the other is around. Since the dark conjoined are already here , the silver conjoined can not be until they are gone. Gray told Raquel that he would send back some folks who could possibly help her - if Randi meets up with Haltessa, if she should take dragon form again, she would be able to call upon Haltessa instead of on Tohorne...that is, if she finds true love. He also wanted to see if the Healer could help him remove a mark from Tarren's body (Calios's mark). Gray's mother and the other Tarrensons there commissioned his horses at the castle he is having built so they can ride to Satile.
When Gray came back, Sashraddon was off helping one of the villagers with her chores by beating on a giant fur to get out all the dirt and dust. Gray approached her regardless of the warnings from Forgan and Elonora that she was in an even worse mood.(Here's an example of how bad it can get between Sashraddon and Gray) He tried to explain that things were so traumatic and hectic over the past few days he forgot that he could take her with him to Kollakra to Tarren's funeral. The discussion got really heated and branched off in all directions. Sashraddon began to show her insecurities and Gray supported her with his love. He admitted again that he was in love with her and she admitted that she gave her scarf to another guy at the same time she gave it to Gray. She admitted that she was more attracted to Wolfgang at first and that's why she started all this in the first place. She never said that she loved Gray and his heart broke. After Tarren died a couple of days ago, Sashraddon was the main thing keeping Gray even slightly positive. His mother coming back from the dead helped as well, though she was riding straight to war. Now his mother was out of reach, Tarren was a ghost apart from the rest of the world and his love did not love him back. When he returned to the Northern shrine, the Healer approached him, poked at his ribs a bit and told him that he can heal Gray of Vendrill. That got a moderately positive shrug from Gray and he lightened a little more from hearing that the Healer could most likely remove the mark from Tarren's body. We just have to send him home so he can get the supplies and herbs he needs to do this. So that's where we left off. See you NEXT time on Jaystorm!!!!