Session 15: If The Stones Could Speak Report

General Summary

The situation dire, the party prepared for their possible end. Jeeves was a statue, as was Boris , Roy had disappeared, Trysor and Roisin Marshfield were struggling, with Quirico , to somehow survive in the face of three, or more, terrifying creatures. These bull-like creatures made of black iron plates and magic, were the reason so many statues now stood along the road. Most terrifying, these strange horrors seemed to actually consume the stone of creatures transformed to statues by their terrible arcane breath. The creature before Trysor , realizing a threat, turned and gored the Tabaxi, wounding him severely. As the creature then moved away, to get at more of its disturbing "food", Trysor was able to slash at it's iron form, damaging the mystical binding holding it together. Quirico , belatedly remembering a salve given him by the Duke's master herbalist before they left, rubbed the salve on Boris . The guards who had avoided the petrifying breath fired their heavy crossbows, and a few of them managed to pierce the iron armor. Trysor mystically transformed into a clockwork soldier, followed the creature, and lashed out with a halberd, striking through the plates. Boris suddenly found himself restored, though still stiff, and summoned a mystical weapon, but was unable to penetrate the iron plates. The stalwart priest then summoned holy fire that did burn the beast. Roy launched a magical orb of acid that further damaged the iron bull creature. Then, thanks to magical power to rewind time slightly, Roy was able to resist the terrible fumes and recover without becoming a statue. Unfortunately yet another of these iron bull-like creatures came up from further back and exhaled its petrifying vapors, Quirico again resisted the effect, but Boris was unable to resist once again; Roisin Marshfield cried out to bolster her ally, but even with her help Boris was unable to resist, and once again became restrained. Quirico then fired his longbow twice and managed to hit once. The guards fired their crossbows with some effect, though one accidentally harmed its fellows. Boris attempted to strike again with his mystical weapon, but missed, then launched a powerful guiding radiant bolt that burned the creature very powerfully. Boris then fought to throw off the petrifying effect and succeeded this time. Roisin Marshfield directed Roy to launch a magically enhanced bolt, but Roy missed, then launched another orb of acid, but this also missed. The creature charged forward and ran into Trysor 's set halberd as it connected with Quirico 's echo, destroying the echo. Quirico summoned his echo near a different creature, then fired his longbow at the newest beast, connecting once, and unleashed his echo to slam the other creature with a morningstar. The guards then connected with a couple of heavy crossbow bolts. Trysor 's halberd missed, but Boris holy weapon did connect, as well as another guiding bolt. Roisin Marshfield directed Trysor to attack again, but he missed. Roy moved to line up the other two creatures, and launched a powerful magic imbued with force and temporal power, phasing through inanimate cover it blasted both creatures powerfully, and apparently another hidden foe in the distance. The iron bull-like beast gored Trysor powerfully, powerfully enough to instantly destroy the clockwork form and deal some harm even to Trysor 's original form. Quirico fired his longbow twice, but missed both, then unleashed his echo again, striking successfully. The Guards' crossbows dealt some damage, but also destroyed Quirico 's echo again. Trysor struck with his hand, using a powerful magical boon, and managed to touch the creature; heating its metal form so hot it melted instantly. Trysor then transformed again into a clockwork soldier. Boris struck one of the creatures with his holy weapon, but missed with a guiding holy bolt. Roisin Marshfield directed him to attack again, but the creature managed to avoid his holy flame. The creature managed to realize there was a threat, and instead of trying to consume another statue, it turned and breathed it's noxious fumes on Roy again. Roy failed to resist, but Boris offered a powerful boon that enabled Roy to avoid the petrifying effects. Quirico attacked again with his bow and one arrow struck true. The guards fired their crossbows, and managed to strike a few times, but also accidentally killed another of their own number. One guard gave up on the crossbow, and rushed in to strike repeatedly with a longsword. Trysor 's metal form rushed in, and in a flurry of activity managed to melt another creature to liquid. Silence reigned as the last creature fell, two others having fallen to the many blows, arrows, and spells. In the distance the guards finished off one more creature. Out of over an hundred guards, less than thirty remained, and the party took the opportunity recover as best they could. As they bound their wounds quickly, Trysor noticed a familiar form in the distance, the same wizard they faced once before, who escaped them via teleportation. This evil being launched a powerful spell that dissolved Roisin Marshfield's arm, the one she was using to hold herself in the tree, and she fell. Roy used magic to cushion her fall, and Quirico quickly bound the profusely bleeding hole where the arm had been. The form then disappeared. Roisin Marshfield received a difficult message, then, from her father the Duke.

Come home, or next time he'll take your head and I'll just have the priests make a new body.

The party helped the remaining guards as best they could, then discussed with the Caravan Master, Slakrad, what should be done next. They argued quite a bit over the course of action to take, whether to use magic to powerfully assist the caravan to reach their destination, or to turn back and leave Slakrad to figure out how to recover. Roy felt there was no value in proceeding, and no reward for helping Slakrad, but Roisin Marshfield's gentle heart wanted to help this person, so the party agreed to assist, and Roy used magic to make 60 of the mules who survived tireless. This allowed the caravan to travel unceasingly, though it would harm the mules if continued too long. Roy spent ten hours making the mules tireless, then rested. After resting Roy renewed the magic, and spent some time studying while the others rested. Another day passed on the road, the tireless mules moving at a phenomenal rate. The next day, Jeeves noticed something on the mountainside above the trail, and called Trysor over to point it out. They were near the end of the caravan, and Trysor decided to investigate, transforming into a giant spider to climb the mountainside. Trysor reached the point where they had seen a glint in the setting sun, and found the end of a metal-tipped rolled document case. Opening the case, Trysor attempted to read the contents, but failed and became overloaded mentally by the strange words and symbols within. Recovering slightly, Trysor found himself terribly hungry, and promptly tried to consume ten days rations in one go, regurgitating most of this sudden feast in the process. Transforming into a Dogmole, Trysor dug out the rubble of what turned out to be a fatal mine entrance collapse, and found the bodies of some miners and a gnomish inventor. Jeeves went looking for Trysor and found him about the same time he finished digging out the rubble. They investigated the bodies and found a journal and a strange crystal decanter, among more mundane equipment. In the journal they learned this was a gem mine, and the collapse left the gnome alone to starve to death unable to dig free. Trysor went deeper into the mine, but quickly realized it was too deep to explore quickly. The pair returned to the trail, and spent about three hours catching up to the caravan. Once there Trysor took pains to try to note the location of the mine on his map, and may have gotten somewhat close. Jeeves asked Roy to identify the decanter, and look at the documents that Trysor had so much trouble with. The documents turned out to be valuable arcane scrolls, the decanter a powerful wonderous item that could provide unlimited water on command. They tested a bit, and created quite a mess with a sudden, and unexpected, geyser of fresh water that took some doing to capture and set right. Roy suggested they set the item aside until he could magically discern additional details the next day.

The next day dawned bright, and Roy immediately analyzed their decanter and discovered the details of commands and effects. The group offered the decanter to Roisin Marshfield for her use, as it made good sense. A bit later in the day, without warning as they traveled through the higher foothills, they were acosted by a large group of bandits. When they ordered everyone to strip and stand aside, as the bandits merely wanted the goods, Roy responded with angry words and the bandits opened fire. A few crossbow bolts flew quicly, and Roisin Marshfield distracted the bandit leader as he tried to practice dagger throwing with Roy as a target. Roy responded quickly, however, using his innate magical skill to appear behind the bandit leader, and used a powerful magical spell to blast through a line of bandits, greviously wounding their leader and blasting half their number to dust. More crossbow bolts flew, and a few struck Roy . The guards showed their true value and quickly dispatched a few more bandits. Everyone struck effectively and well, quickly reducing the number of bandits and sending some running in fear. The leader, however, used a trick to effectively disarm Roy by teleporting Roy 's arcane focus crystal away and tossing it far off into the brush. One of the bandits, perhaps braver than others, tried to seize Roisin Marshfield as a hostage, but the princess easily avoided his clumsy grasp and a guard cleaved that fool nearly in two. The remaining bandits were quickly dispatched, and it became clear why these bandits took on such a desperate assault when they examined the remains and found precious little of value besides weapons and armor.

The party finally arrived at Schädelgräberhafen near midnight on the fourth day, and quickly setup camp outside town to wait for dawn, as the superstitious townsfolk would not consider opening doors until then.

Rewards Granted

• Scroll of seven arcane spells
• Decanter of Endless Water
• Location of Gem Mine (partial)
• Liquified iron remains, in a large cube, of 2 Gorgon
• Cold Iron Remains of 2 Gorgon

Missions/Quests Completed

Traveled to Schädelgräberhafen
Learned more about Alathius Marshfield.

Character(s) interacted with

Saved the caravan, job, and probably life, of Caravan Master Slakrad.
Found the source of caravan losses leaving Levron's Citadel.