Session 4: Ghostie Report

After a filling dinner of crab, and a much needed rest, the Party decided to look at the projectile stone in closer detail. The stone appears to be a dark granite like material, extremely smooth, with runes carved into it. The runes seem to be a series of the same two runes - "kin" and "fire" - which Vadania can read because she has Eyes of the Rune Keeper. She cannot, however, tell what language the runes are in.   After inspecting the stone, the Party decides to continue to explore the beach since the second ship Elcas told them about is still missing. They established before they set off that Rothgar can't carry both the stone and Andry (what bullshit!), so Rothgar will carry the stone. As they wander the beach, the Party doesn't find anything except more of the sheer cliff face. Vadania decides to take to the sky to see if there are people further down the beach, but she doesn't see anything.    The Party begins to head back towards Kilead, discussing the skeleton and spear in earnest. Things such as, "can you actually kill a skeleton?" and "how hard can it be to kill a skeleton?" can be heard being bantered about. Vadania interrupts this banter with a total change of subject - she relays that she saw a raven on the cliffs, and that same raven watched them as they headed back towards the forest. Andry immediately says that ravens are harbingers of death, but Rothgar doesn't see an issue - vikings see ravens as good things as they always appear during raids. The Party turns back toward the beach, spotting the raven, who ruffles its feathers and takes off, flying towards the woods.    The Party follows the same path they took before to get back into the forest, with the day getting darker and darker the deeper they go. Andry, still thinking of the raven, makes a comment about it and the connection that may exist with the Eye of Corvus. It seems to go unanswered for now, but the rest of the Party takes heed of her words. Vadania leads the way through the forest, with Rothgar and Andry carrying torches since they lack darkvision. All three of them are keeping an eye out for the skeleton on their way.    Not long after that, Vadania sees the skeleton on the ground, but Rothgar and Andry can't see anything. As they get closer, they question who would have taken the spear, and realize that the skeleton is face down on the ground. The spear is laying nearby, but still off the trail. Rothgar decides that they should check the area before getting closer to the skeleton. Vadania is the only one to see anything - noticing three lumps on the ground that look suspiciously like dead bodies as she walks closer to the skeleton.    Rothgar, without hesitation, walks up to the three bodies, about to stab them with his seax, when he hears Andry, in the background say, "I am not feeling comfortable with this, but okay..." Shrugging, Rothgar grabs his axe instead and successfully chops off the head of one of the bodies. All the while Vadania has her bow ready, but the other lumps don't move, even though they have no visible wounds. Rothgar then rifles through the dead guys' pockets, finding 4GP, 3SP, and 15BP. He also finds 3 standard broadswords and a wand that looks really similar to Vadania's. Because the Party can't tell what the wand is from the start, they decide to pocket it (Andry keeps it) and take it back to the city for further inspection.    While Vadania is keeping watch on the bodies, and Rothgar is pickpocketing, Andry is also keeping watch, and while no one seems to notice, a hooded ghost-like figure attacks Andry, who only sees it a second before it attacks. Thankfully, due to her halfling abilities, Andry is able to move out of the way just in time, and the ghost-like figure misses by a hair. Immediately, Andry cusses, thankful she wasn't hit, and Rothgar turns in a rage to attack the thing that attacked Andry. He misses Ghostie, and Andry decides to cast Bless: "Hemena Hemena ZOINK!"  Ghostie, pissed that Rothgar attempted to attack it, goes after him and makes contact. Ghostie reaches out with both hands and Rothgar can feel the icy cold of undeath hitting his chest. His strength score is reduced by 4, and he takes 4 points necrotic damage, which looks similar to the skeleton's glow.   Vadania engages Armor of Shadows, and has a new AC of 17. She then casts Eldritch's Blast ("swish") with her bow, doing 6 damage to Ghostie. Rothgar goes after Ghostie again with his great axe, still full of rage, and does 5 damage, but it only feels like he sliced through a piece of cloth. Unfortunately, Ghostie has resistance, so he only takes 2 of the 5 points of damage. Andry decides to be sneaky and get the spear, but Ghostie sees her. He makes an attack of opportunity, but misses. As soon as she picks up the spear, Andry feels her magical abilities swell, feels energies coursing through her. She then turns and attacks Ghostie with the spear, doing 15 damage, plus smite, with 14 damage. The Party hears her: "Hemena Hemena ZOINK" and watches Andry slash the FUCK out of Ghostie, doing 29 damage (at least). The silver filigree on the spear glows with intensely bright white light (p.s., it's her ZOINKness), and the material of the ghost melts away. Feeling no resistance, Andry watches as the ghost goes poof.   Rothgar immediately looks around to see if anything else is attacking, but nothing is. The skeleton is still and appears to have lost its blue-ish tint. Andry has killed both versions of the shadow.   DUN DUN DUN....