Session 4 - New Gods and Old Friends
General Summary
Fresh off the kill of the The Hooded One, something troubles Ghostclaw.
"Wait here, there is something that needs to be done in town. If you hear Malifax howling, come save me."
He enters the now almost deserted tavern and sees the only person inside is Browntooth. Ghostclaw takes the seat across from him and places his coin sack on the table. Browntooth makes a move for the money, and Ghostclaw quickly pins his hand to the table with a blade. Browntooth lets out a short scream of pain before the elf smashes his face into the table, leaving his namesake behind in the wood. The stunned pirate's face contorts into utter shock as Ghostclaw pours dirt and rocks out of the coin purse he coveted.
"I promised you I was coming back for you, didn't I?" the hunter quips while dropping a handful of coins into his pocket. "Wheres all your hubris now?"
Clapping him in irons, Ghostclaw drags Browntooth to the center of town and instructs him to call out his men. Surprised that the elf has guessed his plans for an ambush, Browntooth calls off his men. To rub salt in the wound, Ghostclaw cuts open the pirates pockets and gold spills out.
"You go to war for a holdout?" asks Ghostclaw, watching the little loyalty the crew hold for their captain disappear as they walk back to the bar to continue their party.
Dragging Browntooth to the ship, Ghostclaw sees a strange man with an eye patch standing on deck. It is Ronove,and the glamor that Skara bought seems to work perfectly.
As the rest of the group emerges from the Nirene crypts, an old blind woman grabs Skara and Fenrir.
"Take these," she whispers, giving the two charms. "Hang them on your doors at night to protect you from the evil that follows you. The world is like a quilt, and your threads glow brightly. So bright the blind can see it. All are pulled to you, both good and evil."
As they approach their ship, they see Ghostclaw on the docks with a holy man. His name is Aris Omenseeker, and he was once a bounty hunter who was mentored by the elf. He seeks passage to a town called New Haverbrooke, a place no one in the group has heard of. Aris assures them it is less than a days sailing north, so they add him to the crew.
Iva sails through the day, and as night closes in, she appears worried. The winds whip up and a typhoon descends on The Seawolf. Lightning strikes, and in that instant, she sees jagged rocks up ahead. Thinking quickly, she jumps and cuts the mainsail loose, saving the ship at the expense of the rigging.
"This will take me about a day to fix," she says. "That blasted lighthouse is out. On the bright side, there is a town up ahead that isnt on my charts. Could that be New Haverbrooke?"
Weary from a day of sailing, the group decides to spend the night on the ship and start fresh in the morning. Fenrir places his charm on the door and Skara gives his extra one to Roger to put on the elves door. Ghostclaw goes up on deck, into the storm, to keep watch.
The next morning Skara awakes to find weird gashes on his door; as he goes to check in with his friends, he learns that Bram, Alice, and Amon have all disappeared in the night.
The group disembarks the ship and decide to look for their friends in the nearby town. As they enter New Haverbrooke, they find the town abandoned. The overcast sky and the pouring rain only add to the ominous feeling they get as they search the abandoned buildings. Suddenly, Arimanthos noticed that Ronove has disappeared. A scream rings out, as they rush around the house, all they find left of Yorber Boneforge is his hat.
Sticking close together, they continue their investigation of the town. It is a simple and pious place. The men and women are separated into different houses. Letters and journals indicate that the merciful mother has been cast aside, and that their leader, Draven Wyrm, now serves a hungry god. Draven's house seems to have been torn apart by the madman that inhabited it. The one thing not ripped apart is a pair of gauntlets, that Arimanthos equips.
A window breaks; a strange rope wraps around Roger's neck and something tries to drag him out the window. Fenrir grabs his javelin and throws it, severing the rope and saving the elf.
"I knew it," shouts Arimanthos, "bugs."
"Spiders," corrects Ghostclaw.
The only place left to investigate is the chapel. Vigilantly, they enter the once holy place and hear a scream coming from beneath the altar. When searched, they find a void leading to a cavern below.
In one of the caves they find three incubation sacks. Inside the first two, they discover Yorber and Alice, heavily sedated, with young spiders feeding on the back of their necks.
"It seems to be some kind of hallucination caused by venom," suggests Roger, "keep them calm while the young feed."
In the third sack they find Bram and the young spider. The king is completely unharmed and the spider with him is dead.
"He has no blood," says Ghostclaw, pointing to the wounds on the back of his neck. "What are you really? A vampire maybe?"
"We don't have time to argue about that now," yells Arimanthos, cutting him free of the webs.
"Then he is your responsibility, paladin."
Bram is sent back to the ship with Alice and Yorber, while the rest of the group heads into the final chamber, the nest. A man stands in the center surrounded by eggs, webs, and spiders. He speaks to a woman, shrouded in darkness, suspended in the air. He proclaims that he has led the group into the trap and asks to become one with god, to be a Dreamweaver.
Malifax is the first to run in, and takes down a Dreamweaver Spider with his powerful bite. Arimanthos charges next, unaware of the threats lurking above. A Dreamweaver Eggtender drops down, many times larger than the other spiders, and strikes the paladin multiple times in the back. Draven's body starts to shake. His skin peels away, and in a small flash of clarity, he screams in terror. Draven is no more, transformed into a spider he attacks Fenrir. Ghostclaw looses an arrow, but in the darkness of the cave it finds Bruno.
The woman suspended in the air begins to descend, and in the low light, the group sees her for what she truly is, a Dryder. Half dark elf, half spider, she commands her children to attack the group.
"They invaded my home," she hisses, but with their friends in danger, the group isn't in the mood to negotiate.
Arimanthos takes out a potion given to him by Roger and whips it at the Dreamweaver Eggtender. It explodes into a ball of flame and burns the beast. Drawn by the commotion, another Dreamweaver Eggtender drops. Malifax dispatches another spider with ease, as Fenrir slices one to his left. Furious that a man would sell out his own people, Fenrir lunges at Draven. The young man slides under the former priest and slices his abdomen, killing what was left of him. Aris raises his sword and heals the battered and bruised Arimanthos, while Skara casts a spell to increase the warrior's size. The now enraged paladin pulls out his holy book and utters a spell that brings the Dreamweaver Eggtender down.
Aris grows worried at the sheer number of enemies that inhabit this nest. He decides that, like Ghostclaw many years ago, he must save his new friends at all costs. He finds what is left of the flamethrower vial and make a prayer to the Merciful Mother. His body begins to glow, and he runs into the Dreamweaver Eggtender as his body spontaneously explodes taking Skara and the Dreamweaver Eggtender with him. Arimanthos' gauntlets glow and Skara is protected from the blast. Fenrir rushes the Dryder, and three strikes take it down.
The eggsacks are cut open releasing the remaining friends, as they all mourn the loss of Aris Omenseeker.
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