Session 53 Report

General Summary

Ladigo Farthon’s magic made travel much faster for Haymin’s Heroes as his Wind at Back spell doubled their pace. The journey along the road was uneventful and the party reached the mining town of Flint as the sun was setting on October 7, 498 AV. A pair of expressionless guards stood sentry at the entrance to town. Titta Morco greeted them and their responses were concise and dispassionate. Haymin’s Heroes immediately sensed that something was wrong. They continued into town and headed for the inn, the Flint and Steel. There were few people on the streets but those they passed watched them nervously. Only a handful of patrons were at the inn, and the atmosphere changed to a purposeful hush when Haymin’s Heroes entered. The bartender, a man named Krilos, was curt with them, but unlike the guards, he did not seem emotionless and dispassionate, but instead, edgy and tense. The party rented room for the night and ordered meals. The waitress was polite, but also as apprehensive as the bartender. Mogi Delvin went upstairs to his room and opened the window to let Fluffy climb outside to watch the town. Then he returned downstairs, maintaining his empathic link to his familiar. Titta attempted to make conversation with the locals with only moderate success. They were not hostile or dismissive, just reserved and reticent. Mogi noticed guards across the street from the inn, mechanically watching the establishment. Fluffy reported than the town was just not very lively, but otherwise, did not notice anything untoward. The party called it an early night and resolved to look for the girl, Delyra, in the morning. The stable boy had provided them with directions to where the girl lived. They took watches and saw that the guard kept their vigil across the street the whole night without relief. In the morning on October 8. 498 AV, the tired looking guards walked away. After breakfast, Haymin’s Heroes followed the directions to Delyra’s house. They found the girl playing outside and Titta approached her, telling her they were friends with Amanaxis. They instantly noticed the recognition in the girl’s eyes at the sound of his name. Titta commented on a drawing in the dirt Delyra was making of a dragon. Delyra rubbed it out quickly before continuing the conversation. Selia Roselyn Maxwell cast Detect Thoughts and Titta and her asked Delyra questions. Delyra told them she played with Amanaxis out by the lake. But she was not allowed to go back to the lake. Her mother would not allow it anymore. They learned about Balekai, the God Under the Mountain. The town seemed afraid of him and no one was allowed to leave anymore. Titta assured Delyra they were here to help, on behalf of Amanaxis. Then, as their conversation was coming to an end, the girl’s mother came out, a frustrated expression on her face at seeing her daughter speaking with strangers. She said, “Delyra Delvin, come inside right now!” Mogi reacted to hearing her last name and discussed it briefly with the group. But they decided it would be better to approach the family about it after they dealt with whatever evil was affecting Flint. Hopefully then, Haymin’s Heroes would be better received. Selia then informed the party of what she had read in Delyra’s thoughts. The Amanaxis the girl knew was an enormous gold dragon. Selia saw memories of her playing with the creature, hide and seek as the dragon polymorphed into a fox or some other woodland creature and she ran around trying to find him. They went back to the Flint and Steel and spoke with Krilos. They confronted him about Balekai, assuring him they were there to help deal with whatever menace it was. Krilos told them that they learned about Balekai months ago after some dwarven ruins were discovered in the mines. The God Under the Mountain demands obedience and has considerable power. He can make the dead walk again. No one has ever seen Balekai, however. The God Under the Mountain only speaks to the Wizard of Flint and Mayor Whitlight. The Wizard of Flint was named Galen Palos. After a moment, they remembered where they had heard that name. He was the illusionist that was robbing graves in Karavale when they had first arrived there. They discussed all they had learned and began to theorize. Something was amiss, but was Galen the cause, or a puppet? They learned from Krilos that Galen has a room there at the inn, though the wizard was never in it anymore. Haymin’s Heroes went upstairs and Auren Sylynn picked the lock of every door until they found the right room. Some of Galen’s personal possessions were still in the room. Plus, there was a journal with three entries. It mentioned how he had made a deal with someone named Meritas, of which he spoke very highly. Meritas had drawn up a contract for Galen to sign in blood in return for something called The Grimoire of Lost Souls. Galen recounted in his journal how in a few days the grimoire had taught him necromancy and he was able to learn all the basic necromancy spells. He also noted how Meritas had gifted him with a brain stored in preservative fluid to begin his necromantic experiments. After the third entry in the journal, Galen never wrote in it again. Those entries were all in March of that year. From there, the party went to the mayor’s office. They gained an audience with him and the conversation was very similar to the one they had had with the guards the day before. They were convinced that the mayor was mind controlled like the guards. After that, they found the mines. Two guards were stationed at the entrance to the main shaft. The party turned around, not wanting to start any trouble with the guards. Back at the Flint and Steel, they were approached by a group of six guards. The guard said they were no longer welcome in Flint and that they had to leave town by nightfall. Haymin’s Heroes did so, turning in their keys, though telling the innkeeper to keep the money they had paid. Then they left town. After they were well out of sight of the guards, they veered off the road and hid deep within the wilderness. They waited until nightfall and had Selia go to sleep as early as possible. With her Ring of Sustenance, she only required a couple hours of sleep. When she awoke, just after midnight, she prepared spells and the party headed back towards Flint. After two hours they reached town and snuck in. They walked along the edge of Flint, against the mountain cliff towards the mines. There they found two guards stationed like earlier in the day. Selia put them to sleep with a spell and the party hurried past them. They worked their way deep into the mines following the cart path until they found a recently dug out tunnel. No cart tracks led into this path and a sign at the entrance warned, “Do Not Enter.” They entered. The tunnel winded to the west before turning south. It appeared as if this area had been caved in some time ago and not recently dug out. Eventually, it opened into a large cavern. At the end of the cavern was a worked stone wall with massive stone doors leading deep beyond the cavern wall. But guarding this area was a hulking beast whose eyes appeared as lifeless as his rotting flesh. Surrounding this creature were four horrific amalgams of bent and twisted limbs and other body parts stitched and banded together with metal strips. They looked like some terrible quadruped of arms and legs that did not necessarily look like they were part of matching sets. Mogi and Selia led the attack with Fireballs. The twisted limb undead creatures exploded in a burst of necromantic energy after the second one. This dark energy harmed Titta, Selia, Pyzar Zim, and Mogi, who were all close enough to be in a couple of the blasts. The large hulking brute however was in all four blasts. The negative energy healed the undead creature of much of the damage it had suffered from the Fireball spells. They surrounded this beast and cut it down as quickly as they could. It was strong and resilient, though. It had grabbed Mogi in one hand and squeezed, rending him with the nasty claws at the end of his massive hands. Before the hulk could finish Mogi off, the party thankfully defeated it. The creature let go of Mogi as it fell with a resounding thud. Haymin’s Heroes healed as best they could and proceeded to the door. Titta and Pyzar opened it and found that for such a large and heavy thing, it moved much easier than they expected. Beyond the door, a long flight of stairs led downward. At the bottom of the stairs they found a large chamber. The walls were ancient dwarven craftsmanship, all worked stone that had lasted despite centuries of wear. In the center of the chamber was a large fountain full of fetid water. A pair of human guards were in this room, their expressions similar to all the guards they had encountered in Flint. But the guards were not alone. Six rune-covered skeletons and four rune-covered zombies occupied this room as well. Finally, there was a large skeleton, as tall as an ogre, with absurdly long arms and capped in extremely long claws. The rune-covered skeletons all cast Magic Missile, splitting them between Titta and Pyzar. Their runes glowed as they cast. The chaos of the battle saw Titta and Pyzar rush the boneclaw while Mogi tried to Fireball a group of rune-covered skeletons and zombies. However, his spell did not seem to affect them. In the end, Haymin’s Heroes were victorious, but not before suffering several injuries. The undead were all destroyed, while one of the guards was put to sleep with a spell, and the other one knocked out by the butt of Mogi’s heavy flail. They tied up the guards and put them off to one side. Then they spent a couple minutes healing with spells and potions before deciding which of the three other exits to take from this chamber. They settled on the open hallway, ignoring the two closed doors for now. In all directions, all they heard was dead silence.

Campaign

The Heart of Embril

Protagonists