Old Adossag, New Adossag: A Haunting Hunt for a Crown.

Discovery, Exploration

The servants of the Shade Crystal take a 24 hour air ship ride down to the Pyrewood Mounds, explore for three days, before returning to Bactran. Their quest for the crown of lost kingdom of Adossag was successful and moreso. The party discovered a completely unknown Second Society of Adossag, Orchard Elves that had attempted to recultivate and heal the place before they too fell to it. The party discover the ghostly prince, fend off and eventually defeat the dullahan of haunting the realm, and find not one but two interlinked crowns: the adamantine crown of the kingdom they sought for Altomari and the second crown of the New Society made of Temperence Shards formed into a wondrous item. Through the course of the adventurer, multiple party members found themselves slowly corrupted by the Pyrewood Mounds, afflicting them in strange ways.

After spending the day flying to the desolate lands to the south, the adventurers seek a historical artifact to trade for the Altomari's Temperance Shard. The Pyrewood Mounds hide within them the lost ruins of Adossag. Your goal is find a relic of sovereignty. Whether Scepter, Crown, Orb, or Mantle, Altomari wishes to add the physical symbol to his collection.   Hiking out the first two hours into the Pyrewood before Crush's divination led Fozz to want to set up camp early, your cutshort day was for the best as the rain came intense and lasting. The night was quite long, interrupted by a spectral maiden screaming through their psyches to be gone from this place and to save themselves from their own corruption, this day seems to never truly get started.   When that first full day did get started in these desecrated lands, it didn't get any easier. The traveling was rough, wet, and intermittently peaked by interest. The travels the party into and out of the dry fog that sapped strength. The care of travel allowed the party to avoid certain dangers and obstacles including an undead presence within the hills. The next point of interest was a section of heavily webbed territory wherein they found the husked, wrapped remains of prior adventurers seeking their fortune within the Pyrewood. Dissections of the bound, decayed victims provided gear and treasure to be harvested while the return of the Aranae Rex (giant spiders) provided the opportunity to cast Fireball.   Finishing the gruesome harvest, the party continued onward until they eventually made their planned destination for the day as the rain completely stopped: An overall rise in the landscape to plan the next trajectory. Rather than a tree upon a hill, though, they found a decrepit and overgrown ruin of a watchtower, and from within the quite sobs of a child. Fozz's insight and Astrid confirmation showed that this child was anything but living. Crush's serpentine companion showed the youth to be emaciated, filthy, and nude, huddled atop a corner of rubble. The elvish party members approached the ruin to be met with the child's refusal to leave. Their mother had told them to stay and stay they must. Astrid managed to begin a solid connection with the spirit but it was still growing. The child complained of the cold and asked if anyone knew how to make a fire since they were never allowed to.   Fozz built a fire, offered the child a cloak, and provided Xing Kun fingertrap toys. Doing so, he found that the different objects that the child interacted with would spawn illusory duplicates. During their conversation, Astrid learned that the child and their mother had fled their home and the child had been left in the tower while the mother looked for help. Prompting descriptions of the mother's garb, Astrid learned of a daisy ring the mother wore.   The Party left the tower and continued down the southern road. Through timing and luck, Astrid managed to divine the burial ground of the elven mother. Carefully excavating the soil, the party found the withering, crumbly bones of the mother with jewelry throughout. Notably though, there was no head. As Astrid polished up the jewelry, the weather quickly turned with a gale and a nicker. Dead trees pushed up, bushes overturned, and ground cracked as blacken smoke revealed allowed ghastly undead to plod forth. Oversized hands and feet, rubbery skin, and skulless head that left large black pits for eyes and an elongated hanging pit of a mouth. These creatures slowly surrounded the group before they attempted to suck the sentience from the living bodies and wither vitality with their gaze. They were felled without much threat to the heroes but the nocturnal flight back to the watchtower was far more life threatening.   As the party fled down the road, phantom hoofbeats could be heard behind and appearing out of cinder and smoke was a headless rider upon an ashy steed. Fozz delayed to take up the rear but that delay proved useless as the dullahan quickly overtook the party with heavy swings of it's deadly battleaxe. Chuptah managed to banish the steed but that only drew the riders ire on foot. Shattering through the warlocks crystalline magic, the horse reappeared for Fozz to manage to jump on top. The horse jumped forward through dimensions to the Shadowfell. The elf seeing the danger in being separated from his party, used his innate capabilities to step back through the shadows into the prime material. The battle pressed heavy and hard on both sides. Dropping heavy blows into the dullahan, large gouts of ash spilled from his body and his neck belched three monstrous heads from previously slain creatures. A charging swipe managed to drop Fozz to the ground but almost immediately Astrid picked him back up. The Dullahan fled once more upon his mount, the steed absorbing a devastating blow meant for the rider before stepping through the Shadowfell once more. Returning heavily beaten and tired from the entire day, our heroes found acceptance in the child's tower. The child had remained inside the fire while alone and by morning, had shrunk down to be not much more than a flame himself.   The night brought rest, but also dreams. Crush in particular heard the calls of his brother once more. Claims not only of being lost and wanting to come back but also finding someone else that felt like Crush. When prompted for a name, the essence of Chris couldn't be sure. Something like "Size?" "Siz?" Crush promised to bring him back, away from that Nothing-place.   The party journeys this third day within the Pyrewood Mounds were accompanied by the aflame elvish ghost shrunk down and in Fozz's lantern. Following the Southern road from the watchtower, the journey through the desecrated lands revealed more clues as the destination neared. The trees showed continued attempts at heightened order. There stood ruins of the ancient human kingdom as well as evidence of elvish reconstruction. The Party came in search of a symbol of sovereignty of a human civilization that was here before the Pyrewood's corruption but have now found that an entire second civilization of Orchard Elves had come here and died with no historian being the wiser. Even more austere, they found evidence that the isolation made new residents miss the turning of an Age.   Passage into the city was shrouded in Shadowfell. More of the Soulless plod through the streets. Fozz' use of Shadowfell enhanced magics have allowed the travel onward to be unmolested. Within the town square, the party found a guillotine standing where a platform should be. The final execution notice still remained on the placard: New Society of Adossag Execution Notice   Getting to the royal mansion, the adventurers found it as only the ground floor remaining. Creeping on in, they attempted to take out a Souless within but others heard before the job was finished. As they slowly descended in on the heroes, something else heard the conflict as well. The Dullahan. Shadow stepping within the hall and charging in, the second fight against him was even more grueling than the first.   Despite having more power to bring against him, the overbearing presence of the mounted rider stepping through the Shadowfell within the the confined space was impossible. Once more, the party managed to devastate his ashing corpse enough to fully drive him off, but that only means he remains to haunt and hunt yet again.   The combat proved devastating from more than just the dullahan. Growing overly confident in being able to resist the draining suction from the soulless, a falter in willpower brought ruin. Given the opening, but a moment was enough for a souless to snap Crush's sentience from his body, dropping him unconscious despite his hardiness and symbiotic empowerment. The creatures are slow and plodding, but when not dealt with, they are just as deadly as anything else within this corrupted landscape. As the party gathered themselves once more, they retreated outside of the manor to gain a breather within the light of the lantern holding Au'Nosta (the ghost child).   During their rest, the party found the time to break into the silversilk bag taken from the spider dissections to find a Bag of Holding within it. Within the Bag of Holding was a myriad of lost items from fallen adventurers. Notable items included spellbook inks, burglary supplies, and additional elements of plate armor that Astrid used to supplement her dwarven breastplate.   Seeking to retrieve the mark of royalty within this twice lost kingdom, our heroes delved deeper into the ruined mansion of Adossag. They discovered the royal guard still at their post within the throne room and crumbled gallery. Utilizing their skill and knowledge fully, the skeletal guard quickly fell under the blows of the party. Upon the monarch's throne laid delicately across the seat was an ancient parchment, a letter entreating the king to abandon the city and signed by a celestial legend: Treatise to Cand Wenyakanu from Fenibis    Continuing down into the crypt, Fozz identified the marks of prior attempts to rob the place. Upon opening up the crypt, the gallop of the dullahan was heard once more and everyone turned to ready themselves. The final combat with the headless rider was intense. The room surged with energy as telepathic bonds warbled in an out of existence among all those present. More of the Soulless rose from their crypts to join the fray and attempt to retrieve the head of the king. Attempts to keep the dullahan's attention on Astrid only lasted as long as everyone else stayed outside of his reach. His ire drawn elsewhere due to assaults upon his stead and the necrotic leaching of life, his focus on the others only became apparent after Astrid fell. In his attempt to execute her, even a perfect blow upon the unconscious woman did not lead to a beheading due to her newly acquired gorget.   Chuptah moved in to remove Astrid from his reach as Fozz ensured there were no actively bleeding wounds. As Crush's healing spores rose Astrid, Chuptah too was felled, the axe shattering through his crystalline defense. Fozz then took center stage, attempting to drop the haunting hunter with rapid fire blows. Before the final blow could be raked across the body to spill out all of the ash, the dullahan caught elf's hand, held him still, and used the other to sever head from shoulders. In fury, Crush rushed outwards to blast the haunter into dust with a microboom. As the spirit deteriorated and an angelic essence separated from the dust, Astrid moved forward to heal Chuptah while Crush slowly encased the elf in a preserving fungus.   The gentle repose that Crush could gift the corpse was the only easy resting to happen that night as Crush, Chupta, and Astrid would tentatively wait until morning, when the strength to call upon further mighty blessing would come.   During Fozz's rest came revelations. Truths. Both of Self and of the Shade Crystal itself. By morning's light Fozz had been exposed to a lingering darkness far beyond the shadows that clung to him now. Fleeing from Adossag, fleeing through the town and down the road in the storming whether, the party returned to the watch tower to await Temren Kut's extraction called in through Chuptah's tome. Crush blasted away the Pyrewood's gnarled canopy while Astrid placed what blessings she could upon the mother's grave. By the time all companions where on the ship once more flying back to Bactran, they brought with them a little bit of darkness from this corrupted land. The Crown of Adossag was in their possession, and a second crown, a Temperance Shard crown, within your possession as well. It had separate from the first like a paired set of engagement and wedding rings. An unknown artifact to match the unknown second Society.   So many unknowns. The purposes. This histories. The Corruptions that now linger on the party slowly accumulated over their time hovering between life and death as well as accrued due to direct meddling with the environment. Fozz's shadow now moved of it's own volition. Crush's fungal infestations not parasatised things he did not command. The flight back to Bactran was one of introspection and future planning.