Session #9: The Cleric's Fall

The party talked for a minute to determine their next move, and decided to get in the coach and carry on their way. After only traveling for a few minutes they came upon the rest of the caravan, who were surprised and a little wary to see them. So wary in fact that they sent them on their way, letting them take the couch without any further questions.

The party rode on until late the next afternoon (17 Eyre), when they reached the city of Askelios, at the foot of the Star Peaks. Taumir had been acting aggressive and suspicious all day and now argued that the party should go into town without him so he wouldn't be recognized by anybody. Edge and Akta went into town and asked around about the Whisper Woods. They met a farmer who mentioned that his brother had spent some time in the woods, but was currently doing some woodcutting a long way away.

Returning to the camp outside of town they found that Taumir had fortified the spot by building a moat. The rest of the party was beginning to feel a bit jumpy themselves, but the night passed without incident. The next day (18 Eyre), the party hiked into the Whisper Woods. Before long, they came upon Taumir's old camp, which lay in ruins. It didn't look like anyone had been to this spot in a long time. Edge found a few gold pieces on the ground, and Taumir found a scroll he thought was long lost, but they didn't find much else of value.

While the party was puzzling over what to do next, a fox wandered into the clearing where they stood. They could tell at once that it was not just a fox, but a fox spirit, a fact that intrigued and excited Azeri. To their shock, however, the fox only spoke one word: "Run." And then it ran for its life. The party followed, only to find themselves pursued by an Owl-Bear! They turned, they fought, they defeated, and then they feasted!

After lunch, they heard someone moving in the woods near by them, just down a hill. Azeri and Taumir decided to try to sneak up on them. Taumir failed miserably, falling down the hill to land at their feet. The surprised peasants answered the questions he asked them, and were genuinely startled when Azeri snuck up on them. They didn't have much useful to say, though.

The party was frustrated with their lack of progress in finding out anything about the Thirteenth Moon, so they decided to wait for evening to see if some star-gazing would help. In the meantime, Edge rested, Tselem studied magic, while Taumir took Azeri to see the Whisper Rock, an interesting formation nearby.

That evening, the fox spirit returned, much to Azeri's delight. As it approached, and she prepared to commune with it, a hunter's arrow struck the animal vessel dead! Azeri's shock and rage was palpable - in fact the entire forest suddenly went dark and the party realized that something terrible had just happened. Azeri stood, and turned around, and the party saw literal darkness overtaking her - her eyes had gone black, and they could sense dark magic gathering around her. She rushed the shooter, a poor farmer they could see at the edge of the clearing. She struck him dead with a single blow, and then tore off in the direction of Askelios!

Rewards

• 700 XP each.
• In the forest you found a Watcher's Horn. It's in the Player's Handbook 2, which I have a PDF of. The description: "This small black horn produces no noise when sounded, but it awakens your slumbering friends and makes them ready to fight (as a minor action)."

Session #8: The Escape To Hell

The party headed up the stairs with Akta in tow. At the next floor, they found another long corridor with lots of cells. Azeri briefly checked one or two, but found nothing of interest. They did however run into two more guards, having failed to be particularly stealthy. The guards proved little challenge, though, and the party quickly made their way up to the next floor. From here they could see the exit to the prison, guarded by another human male. They failed to sneak up on this one as well, but he proved no more difficult than the rest of them. (In a particularly epic moment during the fight, the guard shot at Azeri with his crossbow, and both Edge and Taumir used shield effects to turn the attack back on him, killing him with his own attack!)

Exiting the prison, Tselem disguised himself as Regdar, and bluffed the gatekeeper that they were transferring the prisoner to a different location. They made their exit and snuck into the city of Korth. Akta expressed the desire to contact her family, whom she hadn't seen in 15 years. Wary of the House Deneith mercenaries who were surely about to be pursuing them, Taumir suggested they find someplace to hide, then worry about stuff like that. Someone he once knew from his time as a spy lived here in town, a half-elf named Elfrich, so they set out to find him.

Finding Elfrich took some time, but they eventually found his clock shop. He was very surprised to see Taumir, but agreed to help him. He closed the shop, and they all went up into his apartment above it. After some discussion, they asked Elfrich to go and buy them passage on a caravan while they laid low. He agreed, collected 5 GP from each of them, and left. While he was gone, the party and Akta caught up on what she had been doing the last 15 years (not much besides languishing in a dungeon) and how they had come to know she was there. Akta said she didn't really know what Zelian wanted, but had a good idea of what this was about. She pulls up the long sleeve of her dress to reveal that she has a dragonmark! No tiefling has ever, in the entire history of the world, developed a dragonmark, least of all the Mark of Sentinel!

The party was stunned by this development, and realized the danger that this posed. Tselem hit on the idea of hiding the mark using the Conceal Dragonmark ritual. They needed some spell components for it though, so Tselem transformed himself into a nondescript human, went out, bought them, and sent a message that Akta had written down for him. Returning, they performed the ritual, effectively wiping away the dragonmark from her arm. Akta was so relived that she wept.

A few minutes later, Elfrich returned with the tickets, and said they should probably be going now. They snuck out the back of the shop, and found a human guard waiting for them. He was way out of his depth though, and the party eliminated him with a single strike. They quietly but quickly made their way to the caravan office, and within a few minutes boarded the coach that would take them to Varna.

They were able to leave town without further incident, and traveled to a fort across the river (a few hours away). There the caravan camped for the night, and the party was finally able to rest after this exhausting day!

The next morning, the 16th day of Eyre, dawned, and the party roused themselves for breakfast, finally refreshed. As they were about to depart, however, a horrible sound rent the morning air, and a portal opened up in the field nearby them. Out of it spilled three demons and two gnolls. These infernal creatures rushed the party immediately, bent on the their destruction. The party fought responded forcefully, and stood their ground against the beasts. Tselem was particularly effective with a zone of poisonous gas. Before long the abominations had been destroyed. As the dust settled, they realized the other coaches and their passengers had fled, including their own driver, leaving them with a coach but otherwise alone.

Rewards

• 1,750 XP each! Time to level up!
• Edge got 3 GP off that guard.

Session #7: The Dungeon & The Dragon

The party breathed a sigh of relief that they were no longer under attack, but were a little concerned that they were trapped. They tied up the unconscious Regdar, and took a short rest. They then revived the back-stabber and demanded he tell them where Akta was and how to get out of here. He responded by activating another trap. The floor underneath them disintegrated, tossing them into an icy subterranean lake below. As the party surfaced, they realized they were in a huge underground cavern that the prison had been built on top of.

The party was relatively unharmed from the fall, having landed in the water, but Regdar had the wind knocked out of him by landing on the beach. And yet he still tried to wriggle out of his ropes to attack the party as they tried to question him! They were able to intimidate him into not trying to run away, but by this point they realized he was never going to stop resisting them. So they cut him down one last time and left his corpse on the cavern floor.

The party rested for a minute, then began to explore the cavern. They made their way down a long, dark tunnel. At the end of it there was a large room, and although a torch lit their way they were unable to make out much. They loitered cautiously at the entrance, try to determine if there was anything lurking. They realized that there was, but they couldn't figure out what it was. They managed to distract it momentarily, but before they could slip on by, a large skeletal dragon emerged from the shadows and attacked them! The party knew they were up against a dracolich. The beast fought viciously, but the party's weapons, especially Tselem's and Azeri's radiant damage, brought it down. As the final blow shattered its phylactery and blew its bones to ash, they heard it whisper a thanks for ending it's horrible, abominable existence.

During this dungeon crawl, the party found a scroll for the Brew Potion ritual. They weren't so inclined to use that at this time, but they did decide to use Tselem's ability to cast Hand of Fate to let them know where to go next. Leading out of the room they were in was a smaller tunnel, but in front of them was a stone wall, clearly man-made, with a small locked door. Tselem cast Hand of Fate and they inquired of it where they should go to find Akta and get out. The Hand unambiguously pointed to the door every time. Edge, tired of the long fights and mazes, bashed in the door, revealing a very narrow staircase, only wide enough for them to go single file. The party steeled themselves and headed up.

At the top of the staircase, the party found themselves looking down an equally narrow corridor. They were able to sneak down it without being detected, and peered around the corner to find that it opened in a long hallway with only two human guards standing in front of a large door. Azeri tried to sneak out and bluff them into letting her pass, but was unable to extract herself from the narrow passage, and the whole party tumbled out. The guards rushed at them. A short but intense battle followed in which the guards were dispatched.

The party picked the lock on the door and went in. To their surprise, them found themselves in a large and luxurious room. Sitting in a chair in this room was a tiefling female. She arose as they entered, stared, and then said, "Tselem?" It was Akta, at last!

Everyone was bursting with questions. Tselem asked Akta what happened all those years, the night she disappeared. Akta says a wizard came and killed everyone, and since that time he's kept her prisoner here. She reveals that this person was none other than Zelian d'Deneith, the current head of House Deneith! This of course just raised more questions, but Taumir pointed out that they're still in the process of breaking out of this prison, and maybe the reunion should wait till they're someplace safe! The party agreed. Akta dashed into another room and grabbed a bag with some belongings, and then they all left the room. Out in the hall, they stepped over the bodies of the guards and made their way up the stairs at the other end.

Rewards

• 1,100 XP each.