A Darkness Rising Report

General Summary

After making preparations, Kaizzt, Clarimund, Sylvan and Martin began travelling north making their way along the River Road to the Chapel of Saint Aur, the place where Sevar told Sylvan he would be. After two days of trekking up into the Cairn hills, they reached a small vale, that once might have housed a quaint farming community. Those days were gone however, as what remained was burned houses, razed fields, and a single chapel standing defiantly in the middle of the wreckage, surrounded by refugee tents. As they approached, they were stopped by 3 well armed soldiers, who had been guarding the chapel grounds. The adventurers told them that they were looking for a man named Sevar. Though suspicious, one of the soldiers begrudgingly made their way into the chapel and returned with the man, looking rugged and stern, dressed in his plate mail and a tattered golden cape, his beard and hair in a mess. Sevar began with the fact that was a bit surprised that Sylvan had showed up and believed that his intentions were likely selfish.  That being said, he was glad that the rest of them were there, willing to help. Sevar told them that there had been heavy demonic activity in the area, and that it had been impossible to send word to Greyhawk via messenger since many who travelled south never reached their destination. What's more, the mayor of Elmshire, the biggest Greyhawker port town on the Nyr Dyv, had been saying that he has the situation perfectly under control, when it could not be more obvious that he did not. Very few heroes were present to assist in thwarting this threat as well, Tenser had not been seen at his castle for many months, and Sevar had to leave the chapel for (somehow) more pressing matters. After finishing their briefing on the situation, he prayed that they might be successful and cast the find the path spell, making his way south along the River Road. Seeing no reason to continue travelling that day, the four of them set up camp and slept at the chapel. The next morning, the four of them set off once more, but before they could reach Elmshire, they came across a group of robed people, which they were able to deduce were cultists, as they were conversing with several quasits. Sylvan was able to stealthily approach within inches of the group and listen in on this conversation, though the only thing of import was that the two groups were talking about someone called "Noroan".  At this moment, Sylvan decided that it would be a bit amusing to interrupt this conversation, and announced himself as the descendent of Asmodeus. The cultists were either not amused, or simply thought him insane and rushed at him. Thankfully, he was able to act first and dodge out of the way of danger as his allies swooped in and made short work of the bunch. Questioning one of the survivors, the four learned that the group of them reported to a dark wizard who had set up camp north of a gnomish town called Grossetgrottel. After sending him on his way with a pouch of coins, hoping that he'd turn his life around, they continued and made it to Elmshire, a wall-less town built on the foothills of the Cairn Hills. Along the outskirts, Kaizzt noticed many refugees, some wounded, some sick. He gave what help he could to these people and gave out all of the silver he had to them. Sylvan thought this was ridiculous, but gave his silver to replace what Kaizzt gave away. The four of them wandered around town for awhile, taking in the locale.  After the sun had set, the four made their way to the mayor's villa. They were stopped at the gates by two guards who stated that the mayor was not available for a meeting as he was sleeping. Not having any of that, they insisted that it was of the highest importance. The two conceded and went to go fetch him. The two returned with a robed mayor who looked rather flustered. The mayor assured them that he had fortified the town to the best of his abilities, had doubled guard patrols and done everything he could to send a message to Greyhawk, but he hadn't gotten one back. Though the party was frustrated with his lacking effort, they left and decided to spend some downtime further familiarizing themselves with the town. In the meantime, Naelen had been travelling up to Elmshire after blowing off steam because of Sylvan's info dump. After a few days of downtime, Naelen arrived in Elmshire and met up with his four partners at the Sailor's Sleepery, a bunkhouse for sailors that offered a hammock for the night. With the five of them there, they split up and started searching hard for more information. Naelen made his way to the two temples of sea gods in the town, Osprem and Procan, and questioned the priests there about the traffic they had gotten. Both weren't able to give much specific information about Grossetgrottel, but he did learn from them that undead were active in the area, as a few refugees had reported so and had had humanoid bite marks on them. Martin travelled to the local temple of Pelor and learned that those that had bite marks and stories of undead had come from the east, and those that had stories of demons and cult activity had come from the south and southwest. With this information, they deduced that this "Ulrich" was responsible for demon attacks and cult activity along the roads, but were still unsure about this "Noroan" or the undead attacks. The group of them also visited Terrywick's supplies as they had received a tip that he occasionally got merchants who travelled through Grossetgrottel. They found Terrywick in his shop, sweat on his brow, trying to move some heavy boxes. When questioned about merchants from Grossetgrottel, he said that normally, he did get one or two a week, but it had been two weeks since he saw one and was afraid that something was amiss. The five of them decided to investigate the town in hopes of finding more leads or this "Ulrich". Before they did though, they decided to visit the Mayor one last time, this time, in the middle of the day. Once again, he left his villa flustered and angry at being bothered, though there was a notable weariness in his eyes this time. Probing him further, they learned that he had lost a decent amount of guards in the countryside and was worrying more about fortifying the town, than he was calling for help. Sylvan tried to get in his face about this but was pushed back by his guards. Suspicious about the mayor, Kaizzt honed his paladin senses on the surrounding area and discovered that they were surrounded by several fiends. Notifying Sylvan, he shot an arrow through a rat that Kaizzt had pointed to, piercing it, and as he did it grew into a bulbous bug like humanoid only about a foot tall and died, then turning into a black sludge; a quasit, just like those they had seen before. Both the mayor and his guards were in utter surprise by this and promised to work harder to contact help. Figuring there was little to do about the mayor, they made their way south to Stone Bridge, the crossing over the Selintan that would get them to Grossetgrottel. It took them about a day to reach the bridge, but rather than travelling for the extra hour it would take them to get there, they decided to set up camp. As they were setting up, a family of refugees came upon their camp asking for help. The party was suspicious and questioned them thoroughly. They learned that the group of them were chased from their home by a group of cultists, and through some of the other things that the refugees had seen, they deduced that these cultists had been performing rituals in the area. Figuring that they weren't a threat, they let the refugees stay at their camp during the night. In the morning, the five packed up and bade the refugees farewell as they made their way to Stone Bridge. At the edge of the bridge, they saw two toads standing watch, which they assumed to be more of the demons that they killed in Elmshire. Not missing a beat, Naelen summoned a storm cloud and drove a lightning bolt between the two, throwing them off the bridge, and as they fell, they were broken upon the cliffside. At that, a swarm of bats appeared from under the bridge and landed on the ground, shifting into bug-eyed humanoids, with long claws, hunched backs and gnarled skin; more quasits. Thought they put up a fight, our five adventurers were more than a match for them and ended them right quick. As the summoned storm faded, they moved on for a few more hours and by noon, they reached the gnomish town of Grossetgrottel. It was obvious that something was amiss as they strode along the town's main road. Many of the gnomes, upon seeing the party would keep their heads down or make their way into a building or behind one. In many of the alleyways, they also spotted cloaked figures, much bigger than the gnomes. Knowing that trying to talk to the gnomes outside would prove fruitless, they made their way to the local inn, Rikwadden-Zed. Those few gnomes inside spoke in hushed voices when they entered, the two tending the bar all but ignored them, and the two cultists in the corner froze with fear. Naelen began the conversation by sitting down with the cultists and asking them what they were doing there. Seeing that they were vastly outmatched, they immediately began stammering out apologies and swearing to do anything they wanted. Kaizzt made his way outside to secure the building as Naelen questioned them. He learned that there were only about twenty in town, including their leader, Ulrich. At that point, everyone in the inn heard a scream from outside, and before they could move, Naelen grabbed the cultists by the necks and pinned them to the wall. As the two cultists were begging for their lives, Sylvan checked around the building and found Kaizzt holding a bloodied halberd with a decapitated corpse of a cultist, and sheepishly asked, "What?" After returning to the inn the five of them agreed that they should sweep the town of cultists, though the two that Naelen questioned were allowed to escape. Clarimund jumped from rooftop to rooftop sniping cultists while Luka tore what remained of them to bits. Sylvan openly confronted cultists in back alleys, slicing and dicing as he went, and Naelen wove destructive spells in the closed spaces they fought in. When the dust had settled, most of the cultists were dead, or had fled north. It was at this point when a group of gnomes leading along a middle aged gnomish woman with greying hair tied in a bun. She introduced herself as the mayor of the village and told the party that the leader of the cultists came to town three weeks ago and had enslaved the town to do his bidding. She led them towards the mines where Ulrich was holed up and begged them to be careful as he was a powerful mage. They moved forward through the mine tunnels and found an opening into a large room and as soon as they could, they rushed forward. Unfortunately, Ulrich and his followers had seen this coming and he tossed a fireball down the tunnel, rocking it with a mighty explosion. The party survived, but not by much and trudged forward, weaving spells and assaulting with weapons. However, to add insult to injury, three demons, seemingly made of shadow, sprung from the darkened side tunnels and leapt at the party.  As they moved forward, things only worsened, as their enemies began to surround them.  Working hard to ensure that he could not cast again, Sylvan and Martin rushed Ulrich and with a devastating blow, Martin blew a hole in his chest with an incredibly powerful firebolt.  Things were not any less tense, however, Sylvan was now surrounded and dying and things were looking grim.  Thankfully, Kaizzt remembered that the powers of the Wodenhelm had refreshed and with a mighty shout, warriors from Valhalla came to their aid, surrounding the group around Sylvan, hacking them to bits.  They were not fast enough however, as soon as their foes were dead, they saw Sylvan's corpse lying among them.  Naelen immediately rushed to action and sprinkled diamond dust over his corpse, casting revivify.  As the magic faded, Sylvan did not move.  Out of desperation, Naelen pounded his chest with both fists, causing Sylvan to awake, albeit with the wind knocked out of him.  Naelen, grabbing Sylvan by the collar of his shirt pulled him up and shouted "you're not getting out of this that easily!"  With Ulrich and his underlings dead, the Gnomish town of Grossetgrottel was freed, and to thank them, gave them a week of grand gnomish hospitality.

Rewards Granted

• Enough XP to hit level 7 (can't remember the exact amount)
• Ulrich's spellbook
• Uncut transparent red garnet (72 gp)
• Speckled Jet (56 gp)

Notes

• Began the 7th of Planting
• Ended the 26th of Planting (at the end of a short rest)
• This report combines the events of the last two sessions