Session #53: The Victors and the Spoils

The party stood outside the burning tent, waiting to see if their foes might just burn up and be done with it. Alas, all three made their way out of the inferno, badly scorched but still fighting. The flaming tent collapsed and the party resumed the battle. Each mummy was returned to the dust, but each managed to strike at the party with their drying breath.

The battle was over, but the party realized they could hear still screams and confusion throughout the camp. They left the embers of their tent behind to see the shapes of three other mummies fleeing into the night. Several other tents had been torn apart, and seven halflings lay dead. Shaena confronted them, furious, and demanded they leave. Tselem tried to offer some money by way of compensation, but Shaena rejected it. The party left, dejected.

The party then traveled a short distance away and camped for the rest of the night. When they awoke on the morning of 22 Barrakas, they were feeling the effects of the battle. The mummies had poisoned them! Fortunately, Azeri was able to cast Cure Disease on everyone (she herself was less affected). Now back to full health, they resumed their journey to the northern end of the Endworld Mountains, reaching the foothills that evening. They spent the next day searching for signs of dragons, and found some promising leads.

They camped that night in a bowl-shaped depression high on one of the mountains. When they awoke on the morning of 24 Barrakas, they heard something moving on the ridge above them. It was a pack of Grimlocks! The party was on guard, but remembered that these creatures were blind and didn't seem to sense them at this distance.

There was a slope leading up to the ridge, so Taumir went up and spied on the creatures. They were marching back and forth they were guarding something, and Taumir could see something around the bend that looked like they were still on the trail of the dragon. He snuck back down to the party and they decided to take out these guards. They dropped four with long-range strikes before the other two even realized what was happening. The remaining two ran down the slope to attack, but were also dropped easily.

Rewards

• 15,928 XP each! This means everyone but Maak Tol will level up to level 22!
• 2,370 PP total! (That's platinum pieces - a platinum piece is worth 100 GP)

Session #52: The Wanderers in the Wilderness

In the aftermath of the battle, the party returned to Lathleer. They had decided to head to the Talenta Plains, partly to check up on the haflings, but also to make their way to the Endworld Mountains to find a red dragon to slay. They were thinking of using a House Orien teleportation station to take them Gatherhold, one of the few cities in the Talenta Plains, but the attendant at the station was snotty and the price was somewhat high (there wasn't much demand for travel to Gatherhold.) The party decided to go directly across the street and have Tselem cast Linked Portal to take them to Gatherhold instead. Tselem then sent a fig through the portal as a way of snubbing their noses as the attendant.

The party spent a quiet evening in Gatherhold (which is something of a ghost town during the late summer), and then next morning set on foot across the Plains towards the Blade Desert. They entered the desert on the 18th of Barrakas. They were hoping to make contact with Clan Ulantra, whose chief was Ostran, and whose daughter was Shaena, whom they had first encountered in the Desert months before. They did not happen upon Clan Ulantra that day, but they did meet another halfling clan, who told them they thought Clan Ulantra was traveling to the southeast. This other clan did say they thought there were some dragons to the northeast. In order to hide their purpose, the party headed southeast.

The next day they encountered another halfling clan, but again it was not Clan Ulantra. These halflings though said they had seen Clan Ulantra just a few days ago, heading north, so the party turned and headed that direction instead. The same scene repeated itself the next day as well with yet another halfling clan.

On 21 Barrakas, the party found Clan Ulantra! Ostran had fallen ill, and Shaena was more or less ruling in his stead. She welcomed the party, and they had a nice reunion with her and her father. She told the party that New Galifar had started building forts along the edge of the desert and was generally being a nuisance, but as of yet no real hostilities had broken out.

The party decided to stay the night with Clan Ulantra while planning their next move. That night, it was very dark - all twelve moons were hidden, and the stars, while beautiful, cast little illumination. The party was sound asleep, and then was rudely awakened as something began attacking them in the dark! Tselem created a torch, and the party was stunned to see huge mummies had invaded their tent! As befitting epic heroes of their caliber, they did not shrink from the fight, battling the mummies in these close quarters. The spells thrown around caught the tent on fire. The party members untangled themselves from the inferno, with the mummies still inside...

Rewards
(nothing yet, encounter is still ongoing)

Session #51: The Road Towards Blasphemy

The next morning, 9 Barrakas, was a bright, clear day. Maak Tol awoke early and went out for a morning constitutional. As he was exploring one of the palace's courtyards, however, he was attacked by several dragonborn fanatics seeking revenge for the death of Rthumar! A intense but quiet battle followed. Maak Tol displayed a legendary ability to take damage - he outlasted his enemies, and then struck them down.  When the rest of the party awoke they were quite enthralled with the tale.

Sirnas wished to get going as soon as possible, but the party had a few things to take care of first. They replenished their supplies and bargained for some better weapons. The members of the court and the palace staff continued to fawn over and kowtow to them, to the point that Azeri was even able to persuade someone to give her a pet fox!

They still set out relatively early. The higher-level clerics that Sirnas wanted to meet with was his old order, who lived in a monastery outside Lathleer, in central Aundair. The party chose to take the lightning rail to Fairhaven - they slept on the train on the night of the 9th, and arrived in Fairhaven on the evening of the 10th. The next morning (the 11th), they sent out for the monastery, arriving late that afternoon.

When they arrived, they received a kind if subdued reaction from the clerics of Sirnas' order, who called themselves the Children of the Unequal Family. They were taken to see the abbot, an Eladrin named Boreshk. Boreshk turned out to be an insanely old Eladrin - most Eladrin pass on at around 300 years old without having visibly aged, but Boreshk was pushing 500 and was gnarled and milky-eyed. His mind appeared strong, even if he was a bit easily distracted.

Boreshk told them more about what was going to be required for this epic quest. While the party could slay the dragons, only one being could forge the weapon from the bones that they needed - a being named Orisis. The party naturally asked who Orisis was and where to find him or her, and Boreshk took some dark delight in announcing that Orisis lived somewhere in the depths of Khyber, and that no one knew quite what he or she was or where to find him/her/it. He also made it clear that Orisis was a evil being, but would forge the weapon if the party could defeat him/her/it in battle.

The party was naturally a little daunted by this prospect. They asked about where to find portals to Khyber, but decided they would focus on slaying the dragons first. Sirnas and Boreshk reminded them that generally speaking, blue dragons are the least powerful dragons, followed by red, then white, then black, then green. Rthumar had been a blue dragon, so seeking out a red dragon seemed like the best thing to do next. Red dragons are known to populate the Ironroot and Endworld Mountains, both of which bordered the Talenta Plains, and the party had long wanted to check and see what had become of the people they'd spent time with there, so they decided to turn their attentions that way.

One other important piece of information the party learned was that one of the dragons slain to forge the weapon had to have been or be a consort of Tiamat. They were relieved to learn that Rthumar already satisfied that element.

The party and Boreshk talked for some time, and then they had a meal and turned in for the night. Before they finished however, Boreshk emphatically emphasized how crucial secrecy would be! There are many who would feel that slaying a god, even an evil one, constitutes blasphemy. And of course if Tiamat herself learned what they were doing, their quest would become exponentially more difficult. (The gods are not omniscient - with the exception of psionic ones, they cannot hear unspoken thoughts. So a secret can be kept from the gods if you are careful and do not encounter a psionic minion.)

The party awoke the next morning (12 Barrakas) and set out to leave. They had barely stepped out the door though when they were attacked by an Eladrin flanked by four monstrous hounds. The Eladrin appeared to be one of these whom Boreshk had warned them about, those would interpret their quest as blasphemous, as their attacker said little besides calling them heretics and such. The party was able to defeat these enemies before the rest of the Order could come to their aid. When the dust settled, the clerics were surprised and dismayed to see it had been one of their own, Kerugerd.

Rewards

• 16,000 XP each
• 25,000 GP total