Session 1: Sickness, Space Rocks, and Something Shambling

General Summary

The day after the Builder’s Brawl festival, the city Karst struggles with a brutal forest-fire affecting several citizens, currently treated behind closed doors at the St. Florence monastery.   The party visits the Pitter Patter Pub, where they meet Haldor Gneiss-Amseent, an halfling local politician. He proposes they do some work for him, to investigate the happenings around the recent fire, and what the effects are. He tells them of his ideas, like fiendish involvement, the monastery’s suspicious behaviour, and the ground zeroes he knows. Arkimedes is interested in studying the locations and people affected, while Jared needs Haldor to get back into the infirmary to treat his post-fire symptoms. Nancy wants to spread the word of ‘’God’’, without further explanation of which god that is.   The party goes into the forests, where they find the burnt down areas, spreading from an epicentre and in a vast cone northbound. There are several such ground zeroes, apparently starting at several locations. At one such epicentre they find animals scavenging in the still warm ash, including three badgers searching, and a burnt stag carcass. Suddenly the remains appear missing, and they follow a trail that seems to skip large distances, sometimes dragging the carcass along the forest floor. Arkimedes theorizes something is doing planar shifts, and uses his automaton to follow it safely. The small wooden boy is lost in a new grove of burnt stumps, and as Arki hides and Jared climbs a tree, Nancy strolls out to spread her God’s influence.   As both Nancy and Jared feels eerily drawn to the site, they enter, and something shambling in the mounds grabs Nancy’s legs. Engaging what seems to be several bodyparts of animals that died in the fire stitched together, the group fights back. As they pummel the thing with necrotic attacks, three pyres of carcasses light up with unnatural fire, flickering with hues of blue and green. Attacking in the name of God and Fungi, and with highly optimized class strategies, a final hidden crossbow-bolt from the bushes lands the killing blow. One final pyre stands unlit, as the fires dies out with a sense of sorrow and unrealized potential.   Arkimedes finds four pieces of porous rock in the pyres, as the two others give the remaining ashes a proper burial. They then head back to the city, where they visit the Mage’s Tower and Associated Academy. There Arkimedes demands to see the manager, First Dean Yarron. The young high-elf academic is allowed to study the rocks, and notes much the same as the party had found: They are special, got hints of metal, and might be magical. He assumes they might be space-rock, and reasons they could be from a meteorite. When pressed by Arki, he seems to have no proper idea for how these rocks were planted in the mounds, but doubts is could be from infernal or fiendish involvement. He blurts out he could ask his mentor, the deacon at the monastery, to help them. He contacts the deacon, and sets up a meeting so the monk can help the group with the case (and Jared’s symptoms).   They then head off to the monastery.

Rewards Granted

4 Small Porous Rocks   A vague sense of sorrow