Session 95: Wealsun Day 21 through Day 4 of Reaping

As recorded by Gnorcia: 

Lhoss was determined to complete some thief training before traveling to Hochoch. While she was busy preparing for another day of practice and study, the rest of us decided to give up a little sleep and head back to the edge of the Dim Forest at night to see if we could attract and destroy the remaining ghouls that had been harassing farmers in the area.

I tried to convince the others to distract the druid, Niki, so I could kill a small animal and use the blood to attract the ghouls, but she quickly figured out my plan (Jack the cat was probably listening) and put a stop to it. With a big sigh, Feno pulled out a dagger and pricked his finger, dripping and flinging his own blood on everything as we entered the forest. The night was descending quickly and it was mere minutes before we sensed something evil coming toward us from the northwest. It was indeed a pack of ghouls with something even more sinister leading it.

Fear spread across our small group of heroes. I scrambled up a tree and Kyro followed suit. Armatzi and Niki stationed themselves behind the gnarled tree trunks and prepared to attack, but Feno and Chalkboi set themselves in the middle of the path, weapons ready. The ghouls ran straight for the bleeding Feno and only one noticed Armatzi, swiping at him as it passed. Before he was hit, the cleric managed to cast his turn undead spell on the pack's dark leader and called out, aghast at the creature's evil, fishy stench, "It's a ghast!" Jack took one sniff and dove into Niki's backpack.

The rest of us used arrows and darts to attack from a distance, doing some small damage to the horrid creatures. Armatzi cast turn undead again and one ghoul was feared back down the path into the forest, but it wasn't enough to stop Chalkboi from being hit by another. He was immediately frozen by the ghoul's paralytic poison. Feno swiped through one as the rest of us continued our barrage of darts and arrows. Fortunately no one was hit by friendly fire and the injured ghouls screamed horribly as thick blood poured from their wounds.

Once more, Armatzi cast turn undead and the remaining ghouls turned to run. Kyro and I jumped down to help with the chase as Niki cast an entanglement spell, trapping the remaining ghouls in vines. The ghast, however, was merely slowed by the vines and Armatzi determined to destroy it himself. Running around the edge of the entanglement, he scrambled against the forest's thick brush and branches. He even attempted to throw rocks at the ghast, as if somehow he could slow it further.

Feno thought to skip over the entanglement as he attacked a trapped ghast, but got his feet caught in the spell's twining vines. Niki casually strolled right through the vines and smacked down that ghoul, then headed for the last one that was screaming angrily and pawing at the darts sticking out of its rubbery head. Those were my darts and I wanted them back so I leaped over the vines and onto the ghoul's back, but slipped and fell into the mass of greenery. Niki then finished off the final ghoul just as Armatzi and the ghast reached the same point at the vines' perimeter.

Realizing there wasn't time to swing his hammer, Armatzi reached out with the power of the Gauntlet of St. Cuthbert and blasted the ghast with holy light. It crumbled at his feet and even Chalkboi managed to let out a cheer as the paralysis wore off and the vines soon retreated.

Exhausted and covered in the stench of ghouls, we retrieved what darts and arrows we could and headed back to Orlane, stopping only to leave a note on the door at Hans' farmhouse, telling him the ghouls were defeated.

We spent the rest of the week and the next happily enjoying our time with no undead creatures to battle and a joyful summer festival to celebrate. We were a bit too free with our coin and just as freely listened to the tales of too many drunken townsfolk.

Her training complete, Lhoss joined in the celebration and was warned by the townspeople to take great care to avoid altars because they were very dangerous. Armatzi was told to seek the pools in the barrowmaze for safety, and warned that the mutated creatures there would enslave humans. Feno heard that the entrances to the barrowmaze were trapped, while another dismissed the entirety of it, claiming the barrows were just mounded graves and the rest was all folk tales.

I plied stories from a few more folks, learning that they had heard of piles of magical items in the southern crypts, that a powerful evil warrior and his band used the barrowmaze as their hideout, and the oft-repeated story of an elven maiden recently freed from the barrowmaze. I also heard of runic tablets that would curse all who read them, but Niki was told that some runic tablets contain information and not just curses. We nodded and considered our own experiences with runic tablets both helpful and dangerous.

Chalkboi used his story of being paralyzed by ghasts to start conversations with several people who then warned him that tribes of humans live in the barrowmaze along with mutated people who were guarding powerful treasures, and the same story of a powerful evil warrior hiding there with his band. He also had his story dismissed by someone who, again, claimed it was all hogwash and the barrows were nothing but a valley full of old graves.

As the celebrations were winding down on the last day, we gathered together for a meal in the tavern when a short, hooded figure with a long nose poking out from its hood entered the room. It sniffed, then headed straight for our table. We immediately noticed that it smelled more-than-faintly of fish, but this time fish-loving Jack was not afraid and came out to sniff at the hem of its heavy cloak. The creature squawked quietly at the cat and pushed back its hood, revealing a beaked figure in black and white.

"Zraith at your service!" it said. "I have been sent from my brethren in the south to find a cleric known as Armatzi."

All heads turned to Armatzi, who was earnestly breaking up chunks of meat and vegetables in his stew. Sensing the group's silence, he lifted his eyes and recognized the figure before him as a penguin holding a staff in one flipper. Unruffled by the strange welcome, the waddling bird had nothing but attention for Armatzi, and quickly explained that his clan from the south had been experiencing strange visions and sent him as a missionary.

"I am here to accompany you on your journeys for one month," it finished with a snap of its beak, holding its head up at attention. Armatzi paused, then nodded and went back to his stew. We all laughed and welcomed the odd little bird to our party.

The following day, Niki bought a bedroll and Feno borrowed one from Hilja as we packed up our belongings and set out for Hochoch. We stopped to spend the first night with Hans and his family, celebrating the defeat of the ghouls. Days later, on the evening of day four of Reaping (or day four of the elven month of Goldfields, for those who don't know better) at the beginning of high summer, we arrived at Hochoch, exhausted and tired of eating dry rations. We followed the scent of roasting beef and soon found ourselves at the Swift Coin Inn, where we dined on braised beef, soup, and bread, before securing rooms and turning in for a more-comfortable sleep in real beds.

 Session 94: Evening of Wealsun 20 to Morning of Wealsun 21

Clear Skies and Fireflies

Following the ghoul encounter in the dim forest, the group headed back towards the town of Orlane to both mourn the recent death of Tatania and formulate a plan on potentially returning her back to the living. While along the path, the group noticed that evening was unusually clear: the stars were beginning to show in abundance and there was not a cloud in the sky. It was quite peaceful. Additionally, the group was charmed by the fireflies that had shown up that night, with their almost hypnotic flight dance. At Lhoss' suggestion, the group made their way to the cottage home of Hans, one of the farmers that had requested the party to deal with the ghoul problem affecting many of the farmers. Lhoss instructed him that most of the ghouls were killed, with only a couple escaping. He thanked us and promised a meal when those were dealt with as well. After leaving his homestead the group arrives late in the evening into the town, well past mealtime of the Foaming Mug, the local inn which the group usually stays in. Following Armatzi using his cleric skills to heal the party members in need of medical attention and those that needed their fear quelled, the party rested for the night. 

The next morning, (Wealsun 21) the party ate breakfast then decided on the best course of action on attempting to bring Tatania back to life; or at least get the people who know how to do that. So, they decided to head to the much bigger town of Hochoch, after talking to both the temple matron Misha, and the mage Ramne, on how they could go about doing such a thing. Misha stated that the Temple of Cuthbert in Hochoch had a high priest that could help us, whereas Ramne was asked about the dark magician that killed Tatania, who directed us towards Hochoch. The group then did some buying and selling and inventory maintenance prior to leaving on this next great adventure.   

Session 93: Afternoon/early evening Day 20 Wealsun - the Death of Tatania

The group (Feno, Armatzi, Lhoss, Gnorcia, Tatania, and Niki) all regrouped and moved back to the room of the cursed mold. After carefully opening the door, they observed that the pit had closed back up and there was only a yeasty/mold smell lingering in the room. Lhoss tied a rope to the door handle, and then Gnorcia crossed to the north end of the room, evading the now marked area (from disturbed dust), and brining the rest of the party over safely. 

The walls were plain granite, but there was a pedestal with a runic tablet and an alabaster amphorae. Feno read the tablet, which was cursed, and will cause him bad luck in the next critical situation. The amphorae was wrapped in a cloak, and stored in the bag of holding. 

The group did a bit more searching, and then left the tomb, claiming the jeweled ring before the left. They existed the tomb, and moved to another tomb, that had a broken sarcophagus, with dancing skeletons in bas relief. The group refused to examine the skeletons further, having enough of these annoying undead. 

The group then moved to another mound, discovering a stone door covering the entrance. After determining that it could not be easily opened, they used the sledge hammers on it for several minutes, breaking through to a dark and ominous tomb. 

The group entered an unsetting hexagonal chamber, with paintings, murals, and runes all over the walls. There was also a pedestal with some object laying on it. Some of the group examined the walls, and deciphered them as foul actions, sacrifices, and dark necromancy of the infamous wizard Azcuursh the Arcane. On the pedestal was found a black book of some kind of leather with yellowed pages. Tatania was drawn towards the book, and Gnorica initially attempted to stop her. However, Gnorcia gave in, and Tatania was overcome by curiosity. 

She touched the book, which flipped open with an unholy violet light, and then Tatania disappeared! The group was mystified of what had happened, and waited for several minutes. Gnorcia went to the walls of the tomb, and was horrified to see a gaunt, horrible figure appear, casting a spell at ... Tatania, who was screaming in fear and terror. Then, in runes, was written the horrid history of Tatania being claimed by the apparition of Azcuursh. The group was horrified and very sad. Lhoss and Gnorcia wanted nothing to do with the room. Kyro, Tatania's loyal henchman appeared, and wanted to burn the book, but the group stopped him. They all fled the tomb. 

The group marked the tomb with the remembrance of Tatania, and then went back to the dead elves chamber, ate dinner, and then decided to go back to the Dim Forest and investigate the complaint that the farmers had made. They were on there way to the entrance, and a horrid sound of many creatures coming towards them was heard - scuffing, coughing, moaning, hissing. The group planned for action, and a group of 11 ghouls charged the party. Lhoss deduced that this was probably the sound that the farmers had been hearing. The group faced the ghouls, and took some nasty hits. However, Armatzi was able to turn most of the ghouls before being paralyzed, as was Kyro. The group hunted down all but two of the ghouls, which escaped. 

Session 92: Day 20 of Wealsun - entering the Elven tomb

Feno, Armatzi, Lhoss, Tatania, and Niki woke in Orlane to a beautiful summer morning. After a hearty breakfast, they decided to return to the barrow marsh to finish their task of digging out and draining the water from the mound they had been exploring. About two hours outside of town, the group was hailed by a cluster of farmers. Hans and his sons (Fredrick and Daniel), Peter, and Jonas relayed their experiences with a terrifying presence near their farms. For the past 4-5 nights in a row, they have heard moans, tearing sounds, and screaming coming from the Dim Forest. The unsettling noises come late at night, often waking the men, although their livestock has not been affected -- yet. The heroes told the men that they would look into the source of the disturbances. Grateful, the farmers sent the group on their way, secure in the notion that they have these brave adventurers as defenders.

The party wended its usual path through the Dim Forest, keeping a keen eye and ear for unusual motion of sound. But the adventurers found the forest to be its silent, gloomy norm. They planned to return in the night to find the source of the farmers' terrors.

Slightly unsure of where they had been working, the group made their way over to where they remembered and indeed found the spot. With Feno and Niki on guard, the others began to dig. Not much progress had been made before Feno spotted a troupe of skeletons. Feno was the first to strike and with one mighty blow, dealt mortal damage to the creature for a second time in its cursed existence. Tatania was injured while she prepared her magic missile, which spoiled the spell. Fortunately, Armatzi was able to turn the skeletons (a skill he is quite good at) and the monsters that did not flee in time were slaughtered. The adventurers returned to digging when shortly the noisy endeavor called forth more skeletons. Armatzi again used his turn undead ability and again the bony devils either ran and escaped or were smashed to shrapnel. Again, half of the party turned to finish the task of digging when a horrifying screech pierced the air. Although all were filled with fear, they pressed on determined to complete the digging. Once again, a screech twisted their innards into knots. Swallowing their fear, they pressed on and finally drained the water around the barrow. 

What they saw was a large, sealed tomb. An 8 foot tall, 5 foot wide granite slab stared at them with no discernable door. Luckily, the druid knew a spell to shape stone. With the incantation "be gone!" a hole appeared large enough for all to climb through one at at time. 

Just inside, stairs descended to a hallway with doors to the left and right. Lhoss placed marbles on the stairs to thwart anything that might follow in to surprise the group. The left door opened easily and held a wonderous statue. It was an elf warrior, holding aloft a sword that shone in the darkness. He was depicted holding off three lizard men. The two elves were in awe beholding this mighty warrior. This seemed a safe spot to eat lunch and recover spells. After the break, they pressed on to the passageway to the north. It led to a room with an Elven tomb topped with a green burial shroud in tatters and boots that appeared in perfect shape. The tomb was also surrounded by frescoes depicting the elf as a defender of the Dim Forest. Lhoss found herself drawn to the boots. They were well-made Elven boots. She and Feno knew that Elven boots form to the foot of the wearer. Trusting in the Elven maker of these boots, Lhoss slipped them on. She found that they made her movements silent. In fact, it was nearly impossible to create noise while wearing them. Lhoss did not entertain any discussion about who should wear them. Clearly they were meant for an Elven thief! Feno was filled with reverence for the scene and left a copper piece on the tomb. Immediately it melded and became part of the tomb. Lhoss followed suit.

The group backed out of the room to the statue of the elf holding the sword aloft. Lhoss found herself feeling much at home and of a kinship with this hero. She bowed her head in a moment of quiet contemplation and reverence and was filled with warmth and camaraderie. Lhoss felt strongly that the sword should be left where it was and Feno agreed. Showing deference to the Elves, the others acquiesced.

The adventurers passed back into the hallway where Feno spotted a hidden door. Inside was a funerary box. The skeleton inside had a fine silver ring set with diamonds and engraved with the Elven runes LRL. The mood of reverence took hold of Lhoss again and she expressed hesitation at taking the ring. The party decided to leave it alone for now.

The last door beckoned and Feno charged in... and promptly fell into a spiked pit. They had been lured into a false sense of safety and had stopped any of their normal cautious behavior. Immediately Feno began to choke on the yellow mold that covered him. Lhoss threw down her rope and pulled him out, but Feno continued to suffer harm from the mold. Lhoss poured water over him to wash off the spores, but the poisonous particles had already infiltrated Feno's lungs. Niki attempted to memorize a cure poison spell, but found she was too upset and exhausted to do so. Armatzi cast a slow poison and cured his injures, which was helpful, but the poison would continue to slowly affect Feno. Digging through his pack, Feno withdrew a vial of cure poison. He downed it in one gulp which brought up a regurgitated mass of mucus and mold. Cured and shaken Feno cast his eyes around the tomb with a new feeling of suspicion and no desire to go back into that room. An attempt at praying for spells proved to be impossible for Armatzi as well. The morning had been short yet stressful.

Session 91: Ending Day 19 of Wealson

As recorded by Gnorcia:

Lhoss and Feno agreed to keep watch as Niki, Armatzi, Hilja, and I continued digging the channel to move the water away from the entrance to the barrow we were hoping to get into. Niki took Jack away so Armatzi would be out of reach of petting her cat, and she and Hilja began digging on the other side of the mound from where Armatzi and I were working. We made progress for about 15 minutes before some more unnatural creatures were disturbed by the sound of digging and began to come into hearing from the northeast.

It sounded like zombies. Lhoss raised the cry and we all dropped our shovels to prepare for battle. Armatzi moved to where Lhoss was, just north of us on the other side of the barrow, and attempted to turn undead, but failed. Lhoss then cast Continual Light, blinding all but one of the foul creatures.

The one remaining zombie began moving forward and was almost instantly destroyed by a swift slice from Feno’s longsword, Icing Death. The others remained in place, blinded and turning in circles. Hilja then cast entangled, but unfortunately didn’t pay attention to how close we all were to the zombies. All of us except Armatzi and I were also entangled, so the two of us moved forward and slaughtered the remaining zombies. As the tangling vines retreated, we returned to our digging and patrolling.

We were almost done with the digging when Lhoss heard the unwelcome sound of more zombies coming from the same direction. This time they seemed to be spreading out and moving a bit more quickly toward us. Armatzi failed his turn undead again so I stepped forward and cast Color Spray toward four zombies, hitting three of them and blinding them with color. Lhoss, Hilja, and Feno both moved forward to attack the other zombies that were not blinded and Feno obliterated his target then went on smashing zombies as I took a hit from a blinded zombie. Fortunately, Armatzi healed me so I could dance away before it hit me again, and I finally got a good backstab to take it down. Despite everyone converging on the final two zombies, one of them hit Lhoss and she fell unconscious as the rest of the zombies quickly fell to our angry weapons.

Armatzi healed Lhoss and she woke up but was quite weary and requested that we take some time to rest a bit and heal and memorize spells. Between Niki and Armatzi we were mostly healed up, but determined we were too weary to recover our spells where we were, so we headed back to Orlane and arrived just as the sun was setting.

We returned to the tavern and sat down for a dinner of Blanuache Porre, and the serving wench who is clearly sweet on Armatzi brought him a fine pastry as well. Feno engaged with the bar patrons and learned about some small conflicts with people building new buildings as well as the accompanying rise in prices due to growth in the area. He also heard a comment about the barrowmaze that caught his attention, a rumor that there were some tomb robbers who recently returned to Hochoch with a silver chalice worth 666 gold pieces.

As we retired to our rooms for the night, Armatzi Niki, and Hilja completed healing for us all and Armatzi also used his gauntlet to reduce our fear from the horrid Barrowmaze creatures. Thus ended day 19 of Wealson.

Sesson 90: Afternoon of day 19 Wealsun

 Armatzi, Feno, Lhoss, Gnorcia, Niki, and Tatania all gathered together after the fight with the centipedes. There was a discussion of recovering the poison sacks from the centipedes. Gnorcia and Tatania attempted with the first two corpses. Gnorica was successful in finding and removing the poison sack, but Tatania failed and ruined the corpse. Feno attempted with the third corpse and also ruined it. Gnorcia then taught Tatania how to find the poison sack, and she was then able to remove it, and Gnorcia removed the last. These were placed in four glass vials that Tatania was carrying. 

The group then turned their attention to the sarcophagi. There were four, with heavy lids. Some were not able to lift them off successfully. Feno, being very strong, singlehandedly removed two. Inside were what appeared to be two adult humans and two young human children. (one in each sarcophagi). The group looted each burial area without much caution (some chose to wear gloves). The booty was piled in the center: 2 gold rings, a silver ring, a necklace, an ivory comb, a sliver bracelet, a gold circlet, and a bone handled dagger. Tatania cast detect magic on the pile, but it was all ordinary wealth. 

The group spent a fair amount of time searching the tomb to no avail. The group exited the tomb, and proceeded west to another mound. They found that this one had been disturbed. Some began to have deja-vu, and then footprints were observed that matched members of the party - they had been at this location sometime in the past, but had not updated their map! The group carefully searched the empty tomb again, to no avail. 

The group then moved north to a monolith of evil. There was a skull of Nerul on the top, with writing in unknown runes. Tatania used her magical glasses to decipher that it was the black tongue - the language of necromancers and the Underworld. The words exalted Nerul and acknowledged his chosen. Also "Life in Death". The group was disturbed and felt an unnatural chill in their bodies. They were then attacked by 11 skeletons from the north. However, the group easily defeated this horde with the tactics they have been developing. 

The group then moved south and east, approaching a mound with a stone door sealing it. It had been flooded, with some water pooled up near the bottom of the door. The group decided to dig a channel to drain the water. Lhoss, Gnorcia, and Tatania began work on this but were interrupted by another group of skeletons. These skeletons were defeated in a similar manner as the first. They then worked some more, but were ambushed by 4 giant toads, as they had not setup a good watch. Fortunately, the toads centered their ire on Feno, who was well equipped to deal with them. He finished two off in one blow each with the dreadful frost blade that he recently acquired. The other two were defeated and the group sighed in releif. 

 Session 89: We Brought Out the Dead

The following is from a journal entry from one Feno Adris, a member of the “The Saviors of Orlane”

Day 19 of Wealsun

I had that dream again. We were being chased through the forest by a band of orcs hired by the king. Fires burned around us. They caught up to and killed most of my family and friends, but I was able to escape. My father sacrificed himself in order for me to make that escape. When the flames began to touch the sides of my face I awoke. My heart was beating hard, as it usually does with this dream. Touching my scars along the sides of my face and neck, while cleaning the beads of sweat that had formed from the dream, it is no wonder people give me looks of disdain. People often look at me, and conclude I’m not handsome enough for them, not understanding how these scars came to be. Ever since that night, I have vowed never to be so helpless, and I have fortunately been able to train into a half decent fighter. But that is a story for another day.

After getting ready for the day, the group and I discussed over breakfast what we should do in way of adventuring today (after some spent a week or so training in Orlane). After much discussion, I put forth that we should go to the barrow marsh and explore more of the tombs that outline the barrow maze, as perhaps there are more treasures to be found therein. Lhoss, who is often the leader of our little group, agreed. So, following some last-minute shopping in town, we headed out towards our goal of the untold riches in the barrow marsh.

Maybe it was the vividness of the dream the previous night, but passing through the fields, like they had so many times before, reminded me of home. A home that doesn't exist anymore I had to remind myself. The smells of the freshly planted and harvested crops, as well as the unusual amount of sunlight, were very familiar sights and smells. As we make our way through the not so dim forest (it is lighter than normal today), Lhoss notices something and signals the party to stop. I signal to stop as well. Lhoss, Gnorcia, and I then quietly go to investigate this mysterious thing that was seen about 80 or so yards off. As we quietly travel through the brush and vines, I can’t help but have flashbacks to when I was a young wood elf and explored similar woods with my friends. We would climb trees and practice hunting with poorly constructed bow and arrows. It was at that time I discovered I had the ability that I could communicate with the woodland creatures of the forest. I push those thoughts aside and focus on the task at hand. As we make our way to where the creature should be, we discover no marks of any kind; it appears the creature disappeared into thin air. It must’ve been a ghost or dryad or another creature of the forest, I think. We make our way back to the rest of the group and inform them of our finding nothing. We resume our quest back towards the barrow marsh.

The barrow marsh is dimmer than normal with steam coming from the pockets of mud and water throughout the area. We decide to dig on an area of the map labeled #9 (we haven't figured out who labeled them or what the numbers mean yet). It is an ancient burial mound, undisturbed for quite some time. Lhoss and I begin digging while the rest of the group eats their rations. Once finished, we switch, and Tatania and Gnorcia trade places with us so we can attempt to eat our rations. I say attempt, because they are apparently noisy diggers, because no sooner did we sit down to eat than an army of skeletons appear out of the mists of the marsh. They rushed into attack, targeting Gnorcia and Tatania first, followed by the rest of the party. Armatzi did his cleric thing and made several of them turn around and run away in fear. Being forced to use my morningstar, I struggled with these skeletons, destroying only one, and missing several others. Fortunately, the group destroyed the remainder of this batch of skeletons, and we attempted to dig and eat again. Once again, the noisy diggers Tatania and Gnorcia attract the attention of another group of skeletons. This group again attacks Tatania and Gnorcia first, followed by the rest of the party. Armatzi does his thing and makes many of them run away, and I do a little better with this batch: I destroyed three of them and only missed one. Armatzi heals the cuts and bruises of the party before we settle down to eat and dig once more. Lhoss and I are able to finish our rations this time before, yet ANOTHER set of skeletons attacks us. Armatzi works his cleric magic and makes several of the walking dead run away. I destroy one, and the party destroys the rest. Having grown frustrated by this constant onslaught of skeleton mayhem, I take a defensive posture and the party is able to finally dig out the entrance to the burial mound. We discover that it is a dark cavern that leads to downward to a chamber that contains four sarcophagi. Struggling with patience today, I move towards one of the corners of the chamber with a sarcophagus, and apparently trip a floor trap: poisonous centipedes drop from the ceiling. They attack the party. One hits me, but miraculously I am unaffected by poison or injury from the attack. I kill 3 of them in a sweeping motion, using my more familiar and more balanced long sword to attack. Finally, Lhoss kills the final centipede.

I am Feno Adris. I am weary of writing. Let this entry be sufficient for the day's accounting.