Campaign Journal #10: Proceedings of The Longdays Society

Our heroes confront Bartholomew about his lack of honesty with them. He admits to it, and explains that the party appeared to him in a dream the previous Midwinter, nearly three months before he had hired them. They told him about work involving a well and a spy for the Ironwitch—their first task from the dwarf—something he (at that time) knew nothing about. It was a bewildering portent. Bartholomew admits that he had little reason to trust our heroes but that his mind has (mostly) changed about them.

The party travels south again, to Thyrre, to read more of the journal labeled Proceedings of The Longdays Society. This time, they are accompanied by Malia Ailor, an ancestor of the Longdays Society's secretary, Millius Ailor. Though it takes some time, she is able to decipher more of her relative's handwriting:

Proceedings of The Longdays Society

The journal begins with "These records may not leave the Rose House. All members here are secret sworn."

A summary of legible subjects of the first page:

• Myrinul is now stable, but outer Myrun is crumbling, must be watched
• The Fall of Forric
• Clovenhorn and Dreya are besieged
• Earthquakes are increasing and researching them is a high priority

Signatures on the first page:

• B [Bartholomew, see below]
• KF
• MA [Millius Ailor]
• RP

A summary of legible subjects from the middle pages:

• Many sections are on Casseval and Feore, destiny works, discrepancies within their editions of the Fea Corus, Silver Sword Guard or Silverswords (pre-Whitemantle) murders, the Shepherds of Corus or Diamond Shepherds (pre-Garnet Banner) murders, and recruiting street preachers in propaganda campaigns to drive the two lands apart
• Kaadar is suspicious and growing powerful
• Myrinul's doorway is sealed, shield up
• Backtooth Mountain is no longer used and the dwarven residents have migrated elsewhere; rune sequences for the teleportation circles will be stored in their "knowing chest" (followed by a string of runes in Forefast)

Signatures on later pages:

• B is now written as BE [Bartholomew the Elder]
• BY [Bartholomew the Younger]
• CU
• DF
• KF is now written as KF,EF
• MA [Millius Ailor]
• PA
• RP is now written as RPST
• SG [on one page only]
• SU
• YMS

A summary of legible subjects of the last page:

• Garathiin contacts have been made, they are seeking permanent shelter
• Diplomatic envoys have been sent to Cosworn and Kozlodus
• Thyrre operations have ceased

Signatures on the last page:

• BE [Bartholomew the Elder]
• BY [Bartholomew the Younger]
• CU
• KF,EF
• MA [Millius Ailor]
• MF
• RPST
• SU
• YMS

Bartholomew (the Fourth) suggests that "BE" and "BY" stand for "Bartholomew the Elder" and "Bartholomew the Younger", respectively; they are his great-grandfather and grandfather. He suspected that his ancestors were involved but knew little, perhaps because of the early death of his father, Bartholomew the Third.

Our heroes head north again, to Lyrum, to board a ship. On the road, they find Heyzzzel, covered in mud and dying from some kind of wound. Renn heals her as the party is attacked by a salmyr, a dire centipede.

Kodrak bravely stands toe-to-toe with the beast and its young, and is bitten (and grappled) multiple times. The salmyr burrows and attacks Barclay, biting/grappling him as well, before swallowing him whole. While Renn heals the party, Sentie finally dispatches the creature and Kodrak chops Barclay from its belly.

We will return to our heroes as they continue their journey north, and then east into the land of Falxmed!

Soundtrack:

• Critical Role, Welcome to Tal'Dorei (2022)
• Critical Role, Welcome to Wildemount (2022)

The Main Cast, our player characters:

• Barclay Stone (he/him), human bard (college of eloquence)
• Aevyr, his imp familiar
• Kodrak Kukkerlun (he/him), dwarven fighter (battle master)
• Raehendra Tiddlybumpkin (she/her), gnomish ranger (hunter)
• Renn Summerstar (he/him), elven cleric of Lioris (twilight domain)
• Sentie Rancis (they/them), human wizard (school of transmutation)

The Supporting Cast, non-player characters:

• Bartholomew the Fourth, owner and proprietor of Bartholomew & Company, dwarf
• Heyzzzel, gnome, artist
• Malia Ailor, human, researcher/scholar of architecture, descendant of Millius Ailor (secretary of the Longdays Society)

See the full cast list at Campaigns in Elsemorn—now with photos of the miniatures used in the game!

Campaign Journal #9: The Lighthouse, Part 2

We rejoin our heroes immediately after they have defeated the cultists. All but one of the purple-and-green-robed figures are lifeless; the sole living cultist is breathing shallowly and still unconscious. The party ties him to a pillar while they search the bodies and cavern.

The cultist who led the ritual holds a horn of some sort—later revealed to be from another plane and intrinsically harmful. In his pocket is a page with instructions for the ritual. The cultists were attempting to reform a being known as "The Stranger", "The Nameless One", "The Shadow Without Body", and "The Mind Beyond". (The party believes these refer to a dead god, Eltheodir.) The note also mentions multiple rituals at "places near extinguished light", presumably each to contribute a different part; this ritual was meant to add the horn.

The party also finds a bag of holding, a dagger +1, a vial of perfume, a bag of gems and jewelry, and assorted coins. Along one wall are the corpses of a lighthouse keeper and several guards. There is a standing portal/ritual stone with many carvings, dated approximately by Kodrak: some were carved only days before (by the cultists), some hundreds of years old, some a thousand or more years old. One set of carvings is a prank: "Thorvald was here". Others reference the cavern as a place of shelter—the term "Scymrelde" is used. The party notices that some of the runes resemble those on pages they've found recently.

Barclay slaps the bound cultist awake for telepathic interrogation. The man, Hune, confirms many details from the found note. When asked about Eltheodir, however, the man's head caves in. Barclay suffers a spike of psychic feedback.

The live lighthouse keeper and bodies—cultists, dead lighthouse keeper, and guards—are returned to Lyrum. Our heroes explain what happened to the alder and his council of sheriffs.

Sentie visits Whirsyllir and helps prepare a variety of potions and other remedies.

Bartholomew's ship can finally dock and diverse groups of people disembark: elves, soldiers, and several scholars.

Renn meets with Nimbri, an ancient elf, priestess of Currend and Lioris, and scholar of ancient languages. She spoke with Decius and his assistant (and Renn's sister) Liliani three years ago. They were inquiring about some runes and were advised to seek out Khainandr Wildwander, a scholar of magical history. Khainandr was last seen in the Leyan River valley in southern Loril.

Raehendra meets with Saba'idum, a Stoneling/goblin, and scholar of literature and specialist in folklore. He gives Raehendra a duplicate of a volume on obscure pets hand-written by Valyric Paega. Chapter 17 of the book is on Greebles, a mysterious creature that Raehendra is searching for.

Barclay overhears a third passenger mentioning that she is descended from a member of the Longdays Society.

Our heroes intend to speak sternly with Bartholomew—next week!

Soundtrack:

Might and Delight, Book of Travels Soundtrack (2021)

The Main Cast, our player characters:

• Barclay Stone (he/him), human bard (college of eloquence)
• Aevyr, his imp familiar
• Kodrak Kukkerlun (he/him), dwarven fighter (battle master)
• Raehendra Tiddlybumpkin (she/her), gnomish ranger (hunter)
• Renn Summerstar (he/him), elven cleric of Lioris (twilight domain)
• Sentie Rancis (they/them), human wizard (school of transmutation)

The Supporting Cast, non-player characters:

• Hane Selley, alder of Lyrum
• Nimbri, elf, priestess of Currend and Lioris, researcher/scholar of ancient languages, specialist in Eastern languages
• Saba'idum, Stoneling/goblin, researcher/scholar of literature, specialist in folklore
• Sivela "Siv", regional manager of Bartholomew & Company in the Reeves
• Whirsyllir, owner of Whir's Worts in Lyrum
• [name not revealed], human, descendant of a member of the Longdays Society

See the full cast list at Campaigns in Elsemorn—now with photos of the miniatures used in the game!

How to Paint Stone and Lichen Effects

Here's how to paint a stone or a lichen-covered stone effect.

Get Your Materials Ready

Start by priming your pieces in grey, or prime and apply a grey base layer. You don't need to "Zenithal prime" or do anything fancy because the painting process adds highlights.

I'll be painting some 3D-printed stairs and a wall with a stone effect, and a Reaper bridge with a lichen-covered stone effect. I primed them in grey and also added a grey base layer.

These stairs, a wall, and a bridge were primed in grey and then given a grey base layer.

Painting

The trick to this technique is using a scrumbler brush or rounded makeup brush. Get some paint on it, then push the brush into the palette and move it around. This splays out the bristles while loading them with paint. You're going for a random, speckled look, so the more splayed out your brush's bristles are, the better.

Left: a scrumbler brush. Right: push the brush into the paint, splaying out the bristles.

You'll need 3 or more grey colors for the stone effect. I used Reaper's Stone Colors triad: Shadowed Stone, Stone Grey, and Weathered Stone. If you're applying a lichen effect as well, you'll want 3 or more subdued green colors. I used Reaper's Moss Colors triad: Jungle Moss, Highlands Moss, and Pale Lichen.

Start with your darkest grey paint. Apply paint to your brush, rub the brush on your palette, then dab the brush on your piece. Be random and aim for 25% coverage at most, although try to get more dark grey paint on the lower/bottom parts of the piece. (You may want to apply a dark wash next, but keep reading.)

Move on to a shade lighter paint and repeat, hitting both unpainted and painted parts at random, although try to get more paint on the middle-ish parts of the piece.

Move to the lightest paint, painting as before, but also hitting the higher parts and edges.

That's right, you're painting a stone effect while also adding highlights.

At some point, you'll want to apply a black or dark wash. If your piece is meant to be indoors or underground, I recommend applying the wash before the two lightest grey colors. Those last two colors will be all the highlights you need. If your piece is meant to be outdoors, I recommend applying the wash after the grey (stone) layers are done, before starting the green (lichen) layers.

Top left: after applying the darkest grey paint. Top right: after applying a dark wash on the stairs and wall (only).
Bottom left: after applying the medium grey paint. Bottom right: after applying the lightest grey paint.

When it comes to the lichen-covered stone effect, you'll paint exactly like you did before, proceeding from the darkest green through the lightest green.

Top left: after applying a dark wash on the bridge. Top right: after applying the darkest green paint.
Bottom left: after applying the medium green paint. Bottom right: after applying the lightest green paint.

That means:

Indoor/underground piece: neutral grey base layer > darkest grey > dark wash > medium grey > lightest grey

Outdoor piece: neutral grey base layer > darkest grey > medium grey > lightest grey > dark wash > darkest green > medium green > lightest green

The end result: a stone effect on the stairs and wall and a lichen effect on the bridge.

When you're done, clean up any parts you need to and apply some varnish. Add to a base if necessary.

Closeups on the stairs and bridge.

I'll go through the lichen-covered stone steps a second time with a custom foam monolith. I cut the basic shape out of pink XPS foam (Foamular). I also added some lines and random marks for a runestone-ish look. For added stability, I slide some skewers inside the foam. (Unfortunately, they weren't angled well and ripped some of the foam. It adds some interesting texture so we'll call it a "happy little accident". Thanks, Bob Ross!) Then I applied a layer of Mod Podge and, finally, a layer of grey craft paint. I cut some 1/4-inch MDF into an oval shape and hot-glued the "stone" onto the base—at an angle, because this is an "ancient" runestone that's shifting over time.

Two skewers, carved pink foam, and a carved MDF base.

From left to right: base coat in grey, darkest grey paint, medium grey paint, lightest grey paint.

From left to right: dark wash, darkest green paint, medium green paint, lightest green paint.

The end result, with some flocking, bushes, and flowers on the base.

That's it. Have a great weekend!