Tales from Etheraz: Res Camp 2025 Recap pt. 3
Greetings, heathens, heroes, and heretics!
Guess where I am! If you guessed back home, safe in my bedroll under the stars playing my lute, you’d be WRONG. I am still trapped in a heinous, evil Vault full of monsters with a bunch of children. Don’t worry though: I’ve almost caught up to how we got to this wretched place. Hopefully these reports reach someone so they know how we disappeared… I wouldn’t want someone to attribute this to House Blakka (they don’t deserve the credit!)
My last report left off with all of us getting sucked into this place, the Vault of Karna, which is kind of a magical tomb for a dead God. This place used to be a whole city once, until Karna was tricked into sacrificing himself to seal the walls. Now, the Vault crawls with warped elves and twisted magic, a remnant of the great city it once was. As the party got sucked into the Vault, they seemed to land in a place of relative stability on the other side of the portal, though the stability would not last for long. In order to anchor themselves into the Vault, the players had to find mysterious crystals around the swirling depths of the Vault. Sounds pretty easy, right? Wander through the decaying magical elven city of a God and find mysterious glowing artifacts… nothing they haven’t done before! But, because the Gods are cruel and nothing can ever be normal, screaming twisted elven creatures were hunting down the party. Amazing.
Yeah, that was a tough night. Kids were running around, screaming, getting chased by horrible monsters from hundreds of years ago who probably wanted to eat them. Nobody died, though, so I guess it wasn’t that bad. The Vault is a strange amorphous place, and though the party now had some semblance of stability due to the crystals they found, that didn’t stop the Vault from throwing them another strange challenge. The next day, as they ventured into the Vault, the walls grew narrow and darkened. They seemed to be in some sort of blind maze where they had to find their ways to the exit while relying on their other senses. In the distance howled animal sounds, beckoning the party in different directions. But were they helpful guides towards the exit, or mere distractions? Only time and wandering around in the dark would tell. The party stumbled through the maze with all their usual grace, which is to say, not very much. (How could I see all this if everyone was blinded in the maze? Well, you see, I’m simply built different).
Throughout all this, it almost seemed like the Vault was leading the party somewhere. Sure, it was chaotic and probably evil, but they weren’t just wandering through an endless void. They were going somewhere, to some sort of heart or center. But where? Well, remember when I said that the Vault was created when some tricky tricksters convinced a God to sacrifice himself? Well, one of those tricky tricksters, named Vamir, got a taste of karmic retribution and got stuck in the Vault with all the magic madness and chaos. Mess around and find out, I guess! The party seemed to be closing in on Vamir’s chambers where his shadow/ghost/specter/SOMETHING stayed.
At long last, after fighting even more monsters, the party finally arrived at Vamir’s chambers. It was clear that the Vamir standing in the desiccated throne room of Gazan was not the same elf that tricked a God so many years ago. No, it was some reflection of the past, a corrupted distortion of someone gone mad with grief. Vamir held much power there in the Vault, but not so much that the party could not defeat him. It was a tragic fight; brutal and bloody, as these battles so often are, but both sides were fighting for what they thought was home. The party, for the chance to go back, and for Vamir, to avenge what once stood in this place. Vamir’s elven allies wailed while fighting, desperately mourning the city of Gazan. Though Vamir was ancient and powerful, a magic-wielder of the likes the party had never before seen, he was not endless. His power waxed and waned, and as the battle went on, he bled too.
Finally, Vamir fell. The seemingly last remnant of the city of Gazan was gone, put to rest. Quiet reigned in the Vault, and a sense of peace settled over everyone. With Vamir defeated, everyone drifted off into a gentle sleep.
Except we’re STILL. HERE. Vamir is gone, but the party hasn’t yet found the exit to the Vault. Nothing has jumped out to eat me, but I haven’t found a convenient place to leave, either. INCREDIBLE. HUZZAH. So, I guess we’re still here. At least this will make for an excellent ballad (or lament, depending on the outcome). How will the party emerge from the Vault, and what’s been happening in Arancis while they’ve been away? Only time will tell. In the meantime, stay safe, stay away from mysterious portals, and remember: fight together, or die alone.
Signed,
Atlas the Bard
