A Darkness Rising, Cont'd Report

General Summary

After a hard-earned rest and week of Gnomish hospitality, the five adventurers returned to the town of Elmshire to report their success to the Mayor, and they'd be lying if they didn't intend to annoy him a bit as well. Before they could reach the town however, they were beset by two hill giants, looking for a meal. Though Naelen got beamed by a boulder, knocking him out, the group was able to deal with the Giants with few losses. Once they were in town, they met the mayor at the gate, and he thanked them for the work they had done in Grossettgrottel but admitted that things had gone from bad to worse, as the undead had gotten brave enough to attack the town. He lamented that several guards had died defending a group of refugees, a decent chunk out of their defenses. The party, wanting to know more about the nature of this attack both visited the coroner to see those killed in the attack, and the undead, which were dumped outside of town. Visiting the coroner, they discovered that most of the corpses were killed by scratch or bite marks. One of the guards however had received a well placed sword strike to the neck, leading them to believe that at least some of their foes were among the smarter undead variants. Visiting the dump, they did not discover much, unfortunately. They were only able to glean that the majority of the undead that attacked the town were zombies and ghouls, though none carried weapons. With this knowledge, they set off south-east, straight into the Cairn Hills with Clarimund in the lead, following the clear trail that the undead left, blood and footprints in their wake. Climbing higher and higher up into the hills, the wind picked up, and a light rain began to fall. As they happened upon a ruined farmstead in a small valley, they spotted a troop of zombies and three wights across from them on the other side of the slope. Using surprise to their advantage, Naelen whipped the rain and gloomy clouds into a storm and called lightning down to smite one of the wights, which appeared to be a spellcaster, killing it instantly. The two groups charged at each other, exchanging blows, but the undead posed little threat, and proved to be little more than a nuisance. Cleaning their weapons of gore, they decided to settle down in the nearby ruined farmhouse, which thankfully, still had a working fireplace, and gave decent shelter from the rain. The party awoke the next morning to thunder, and water pooling around their bedrolls. Naelen leapt out of the house with glee, letting the heavy raindrops fall on his tongue. The rest of the party, a bit more annoyed than he, packed up their belongings and continued hunting. It did not take them long to find another party of undead, but before they could act, a large form swooped over their heads and landed in front of the undead, unleashing a scalding mist attack from its maw. As it turned around, the party saw that it was a dragon with dull grey scales, milky white eyes, and an almost snakelike head and body. Though it was intimidating, the dragon was congenial enough, though overly formal and concrete in its speech. He introduced himself as Olcholoros, (ol-kol-o-roce) a mercenary of Tenser and defender of the Fortress of Unknown Depths. He let the five of them know that many of the undead had been originating from a fort south of their current location, but that he wasn't willing to fly that far to deal with the issue, since it was outside of his jurisdiction, and Tenser had not given him instructions to do so since he had not been at his castle for many months. With that, he wished the five good luck and flew off north. Making their way to the highest point in the area, they saw the palisade fort at the top of a muddy slope. Not more that 100 feet from the walls, a heavily armed blackguard called out to them, asking their business. When they responded that they were there to deal with them, he laughed and retorted that he had been expecting them. Not wanting to give him any time to prepare, Naelen began whipping the storm above them into a fury and in response, the gates of the palisade burst open and a group of ghouls charged down the slope, followed by four wights atop skeletal horses. As they charged down the hill, two breaking to the right and two charging to the center, Naelen met the centermost two with a mighty lightning bolt, though their lances struck true, battering him in the side and in the shoulder. Kaizzt managed to get behind those two and Sylvan managed to get a good shot at one before he dodged behind Martin for cover. As more ghouls and wights barreled down the hillside, the blackguard of the fort, now mounted on a Peryton, sailed down the hill and rended Kaizzt's backside with claw and lance before sailing back into the air. Refocusing their efforts, four of them did battle with enemies on the ground, while Kaizzt took to the skies on Raijo to do battle with the flying warrior. Lightning bolts fell and arrows flew as the paladin and the blackguard did battle in the air. Landing a lucky shot with an explosive arrow, Sylvan managed to land a solid blow on the blackguard, to which he responded with "You're next little man". Knowing what he had to do, Kaizzt leapt off of Raijo, emptying a potion of giant's strength into his mouth, which was held in his teeth. Spitting it out, he shouted "Who's little now?!" as he grew many times in size. He snatched the warrior off of his mount, slamming him into the ground below them, and imbuing his lance, now spear sized to him, with a righteous smite, ran him through, radiant energy arcing like electricity through his body. Heaving the now impaled body up above his shoulder, he pointed menacingly at the peryton, and tossed the lance like a javelin, blackguard still attached, and it struck the palisade, causing it to shudder from the impact. This caused the peryton and a few of the undead to flee. The rest were cleaned up by heavy blows and Rock Lobster, which Martin had imbued with a flame throwing mechanism. Checking the fort, the five only found an unsent letter, but on the body of the blackguard, they found a ring of radiance resistance and a potion of superior healing. Seeing nothing else to gain from staying, Kaizzt used the remaining time he had in his gigantic form to wreck the palisade and gather up some of the wood to make a great bonfire to keep the party warm throughout the stormy night. Pitching tents, they set up watch, but thankfully, the night passed peacefully. The next morning, the downpour had ceased, though it was a hot muggy day, with which Naelen joined everyone's disappointment with the poor weather. They travelled for a day and a half without any interruptions to Elmshire to report their successes. The five of them arrived during the start of the Mayor's visiting hours, but, just to spite him, they decided to wait around town until his bedtime to seek an audience. During their wait however, Naelen was given a few drinks on the house by the tavernkeeper of the Midbay Tavern as a thanks for the work he and his associates had done to help the locals. As dusk began to set in, the five adventurers made their way to the mayor's villa. The same guards that had to deal with their shenanigans last time simply huffed at their approach and went to fetch the mayor. With an unusual speed, they returned to the party with the mayor leading the way, who thanked them for a job well done, but that the threat to Elmshire was still looming. He told the party that he had hidden a great danger in the basement of his villa and had convinced nearly every priest on the coast to come help contain the threat. Following behind, curious as to what this thing was, he led them into the basement and through a secret door, where many priests were wearing white garb and holding Pelor amulets. As they rounded a corner though, they met a grim sight: a bloodstained altar that the mayor rested his hands on, coating them in the sticky substance. As he turned around, he dropped an arcane disguise, revealing himself to be a woman in a dreadful black robe and an etched golden mask. She stated that the threat that she spoke of was the party, who had hampered her plans throughout the past two weeks and had slain both of her henchmen. She was however thankful that they had spent so many resources doing so, as that had made them a much easier kill in such a cramped space...

Rewards Granted

• 39,900 XP divided 5 ways
• ring of radiance resistance
• potion of superior healing

Notes

• Started the 26th of Planting
• Ended the 5th of Flocktime
• This report combines the events of the last two sessions