Kingdom on the Brink - Session 14
General Summary
The party gets up and Oneiro decides to go fishing and Ashara pours molten wax into her ears, the group sets out from the burned out cottage and spend half a day traveling towards Stathmor. Runsha and Hendred head towards the Town Hall while the rest of the party goes to the shops, Oneiro and Ashara find a potted plant that catches their attention, they buy it and Ashara gets surprised when it talks to her. Runsha and Hendred enter the Town Hall and begin to talk to the receptionist, they were looking for the mayor, the receptionist responds that there is no mayor. The response surprises them both and Runsha begins to ask several questions (Who runs the town, why have a Town Hall, why the receptionist is even there, etc), Runsha and Hendred then begin to search the building. The building is incredibly dusty, rotten food is laying about, and looks generally like nobody has been around. Runsha tells Hendred to keep an eye on the receptionist and heads to the records room and begins to search it, specifically looking for historical records and anything that might indicate strange happenings in the town. Hendred talks to the receptionist, apologizing for her companions impulsiveness, she asks if there's a address directory for the town. The receptionist has Hendred follow her and they go to the records room where they find Runsha rummaging through the documents, Hendred gives her the names, after a little bit of searching she finds the address and gives it to Hendred. Runsha asks about the expedition that left the town a few months ago but gets no useful information, frustrated, he asks who the most prominent figure in the town is and is told it's probably the constable, Runsha asks Hendred to go with him but she says she has other business to attend to and that Runsha is a big strong dragon who can take care of himself and they part ways. Artimus heads to Ashara, who had ran over to the carts after the shrub had spoken to her, Swift Paws heads over to the inn for drinks and starts to play music (She strikes a deal with the husband and wife barkeeps for free room and board), Oneiro runs into Hendred on the way to the library. He shows her the shrub who begins to launch quips at her, mainly at her beard and how she's discriminating against legless sentient beings, and Oneiro and Hendred part ways (Artimus sends Fawkes with Hendred).
Runsha arrives at the constables building and introduces himself, the deputy calls out for Constable Virlee, she greets Runsha and inquires about why he has come. He asks about the expedition, to which she responds a few individuals returned but they didn't say much, Runsha finds this extremely odd and presses for more information. Virlee gets frustrated and responds when it's the representatives of the Mage academy of Strongfare and the Bralorian royal council (The Barthmont Accords) you don't tend to pry. Runsha then informs her of Bernard Ursel's request for representatives for an emergency council meeting in Aramore, Virlee says that while she would like to honor such a request unfortunately she had problems of her own. Runsha asks if the party took care of her problem then would she come to Aramore, to which she agrees, He goes to find Hendred and Artimus. Ashara moves the wagons over to the inn and begins to move everything inside the caged wagon and releases the zombie, this spectacle draws a crowd, Ashara refers to the zombie as a guard dog and after some persuasion manages to convince the small crowd to disperse and covers the wagons. She heads inside and begins to listen to Swift Paws play, noticing that she is being exceptionally flirty with a few female patrons. Hendred Finds the house she was looking for and knocks several times, receiving no answers, she goes to the nearest window and looks inside but it appears no one is home. Fawkes flies to another window to look inside and Hendred writes something a piece of parchment and slides it under the door, she walks away letting out a sigh of relief. Oneiro walks into the library and asks if they have any books on the planes, expeditions to the Wildlands, or anything concerning fiends. The librarian asks if he is trying to summon a fiend and Oneiro says he is looking for ways to exorcise them, the librarian begins to search the catalog and finds some books that fit that description and Oneiro begins to read. Runsha finds Hendred and tells her about a small problem they need to deal with and asks if she's seen Artimus, she says she thinks she knows where he is and asks if they should get the rest of the party, Runsha doesn't want to as he doesn't trust certain individuals. Hendred goes to find Artimus, as she walks up to him Artimus sees himself from Fawkes' point of view and thinks how surreal it is, Hendred begins to explain why she was looking for him but Artimus interrupts her and says he already knows. This perplexes Hendred and Artimus explains he can listen through Fawkes, this information upsets her because Fawkes was with her when she was trying to find her friends, and she lectures him on privacy.
Hendred, Artimus, and Runsha meet up with Virlee and she takes them to an area of town that's essentially abandoned, explaining that the group of criminals have taken up residence there but she hasn't been able to do anything about it because it's just her and one deputy. Artimus sends Fawkes to investigate and finds they're the same cultists they fought earlier and one looks exceptionally regal, he asks Runsha if he's sure it's a good idea to do this with so few people and Hendred mentions that Oneiro is at the library, Runsha says for them to stay there and he goes to get Oneiro. Hendred and Artimus move up to a fountain, noticing that the general area seems to be fairly overgrown and not taken care of, Virlee follows close behind. Some time passes when a warlock teleports beside Artimus and Hendred and deals Psychic damage, Artimus attempts to slow the Warlock but he counterspells the slow and Hendred attempts to swing at him, the Warlock deals more psychic damage and teleports further away from the group and his minions start to exit the buildings. Artimus gets hit by a guiding bolt and yells at Hendred to punch him which confuses her but she does, Virlee moves up and begins to attack. The Warlock teleports out of the area, leaving his minions to deal with the three party members, Runsha finds Oneiro tells him he's needed to help with a fight and runs rides back in the direction of the cultists, Oneiro leaves his books with the librarian and runs in the opposite direction to find the rest of the party. Artimus recovers from the guiding bolt and punch and casts a fireball, wiping out half the cultists and turning the fight. Hendred and Virlee begin to push forward and take down another cultist, Runsha arrives and charges forward towards the last cultist. Oneiro finds Swift Paws and Ashara and whistles to get their attention, Ashara doesn't hear the whistle but notices arriving turning in Oneiro's direction and spots him, Swift Paws says she'll return and she and Ashara take off at an unnatural speed with Oneiro being left behind in the dust.
By the time Ashara, Swift Paws, and Oneiro arrive the fight had finished. Ashara finds out what happened from Artimus and she and Fawkes move out to quickly search the area and attempt to find the Warlock, but are unsuccessful. The party begins to search the area, they find such phrases carved into the wood and arm of a cultist, such as: "it's voice is enchanting" and "The siren, it sounds so beautiful." after short resting and returning to the town center the party splits: Ashara to the wagons, Oneiro to the library, Runsha to the Town Hall, and everyone else to the Inn. Oneiro goes to get the books he left on the table when he starts to think about everything that's happened thus far and searches the library again, he finds a dragon chess set, the arrangement seems suspiciously familiar when he realizes it and carefully grabs the chess set and quickly heads to the Inn. Ashara arrives at the wagons and notices a building that she hasn't visited before and goes up to it, there's two guards standing outside and she inquires about it they say they're there to guard it so nobody gets hurt due to the terrible state of disrepair. She bribes them to let her in and as one guard starts to open the door the other leans in and whispers "Don't stay." She whispers back, asking if they need help, the guard looks at her confused. Ashara says she needs to get the rest of her group to properly inspect the Inn and leaves to find him. Runsha heads back to the records room and begins to look for the latests dates on the documents. Hendred keeps an eye on Artimus as he focuses on Fawkes and sends him to scout the burned out cottage in an attempt to see if the warlock went back there. Swift Paws goes up to the bar owners (A boy and his Sister) and gets a drink and continues to play, As she's playing she continues to flirt with some of the female patrons and and invites one up to join her on stage. some time passes when Oneiro enters the bar, he asks Artimus if he's seen Ashara, but gets no response as Artimus is focusing on Fawkes So he turns to Hendred and asks her the same thing, Hendred thinks she is out by the wagons. Ashara enters about a minute later, Oneiro shows her the chess set and asks if she recognizes the set, she looks at it and realizes it's an exact setup to her and Gus' last game together and begins to examine the set. After messing with the board two documents fall out, the first one read:
Runsha arrives at the constables building and introduces himself, the deputy calls out for Constable Virlee, she greets Runsha and inquires about why he has come. He asks about the expedition, to which she responds a few individuals returned but they didn't say much, Runsha finds this extremely odd and presses for more information. Virlee gets frustrated and responds when it's the representatives of the Mage academy of Strongfare and the Bralorian royal council (The Barthmont Accords) you don't tend to pry. Runsha then informs her of Bernard Ursel's request for representatives for an emergency council meeting in Aramore, Virlee says that while she would like to honor such a request unfortunately she had problems of her own. Runsha asks if the party took care of her problem then would she come to Aramore, to which she agrees, He goes to find Hendred and Artimus. Ashara moves the wagons over to the inn and begins to move everything inside the caged wagon and releases the zombie, this spectacle draws a crowd, Ashara refers to the zombie as a guard dog and after some persuasion manages to convince the small crowd to disperse and covers the wagons. She heads inside and begins to listen to Swift Paws play, noticing that she is being exceptionally flirty with a few female patrons. Hendred Finds the house she was looking for and knocks several times, receiving no answers, she goes to the nearest window and looks inside but it appears no one is home. Fawkes flies to another window to look inside and Hendred writes something a piece of parchment and slides it under the door, she walks away letting out a sigh of relief. Oneiro walks into the library and asks if they have any books on the planes, expeditions to the Wildlands, or anything concerning fiends. The librarian asks if he is trying to summon a fiend and Oneiro says he is looking for ways to exorcise them, the librarian begins to search the catalog and finds some books that fit that description and Oneiro begins to read. Runsha finds Hendred and tells her about a small problem they need to deal with and asks if she's seen Artimus, she says she thinks she knows where he is and asks if they should get the rest of the party, Runsha doesn't want to as he doesn't trust certain individuals. Hendred goes to find Artimus, as she walks up to him Artimus sees himself from Fawkes' point of view and thinks how surreal it is, Hendred begins to explain why she was looking for him but Artimus interrupts her and says he already knows. This perplexes Hendred and Artimus explains he can listen through Fawkes, this information upsets her because Fawkes was with her when she was trying to find her friends, and she lectures him on privacy.
Hendred, Artimus, and Runsha meet up with Virlee and she takes them to an area of town that's essentially abandoned, explaining that the group of criminals have taken up residence there but she hasn't been able to do anything about it because it's just her and one deputy. Artimus sends Fawkes to investigate and finds they're the same cultists they fought earlier and one looks exceptionally regal, he asks Runsha if he's sure it's a good idea to do this with so few people and Hendred mentions that Oneiro is at the library, Runsha says for them to stay there and he goes to get Oneiro. Hendred and Artimus move up to a fountain, noticing that the general area seems to be fairly overgrown and not taken care of, Virlee follows close behind. Some time passes when a warlock teleports beside Artimus and Hendred and deals Psychic damage, Artimus attempts to slow the Warlock but he counterspells the slow and Hendred attempts to swing at him, the Warlock deals more psychic damage and teleports further away from the group and his minions start to exit the buildings. Artimus gets hit by a guiding bolt and yells at Hendred to punch him which confuses her but she does, Virlee moves up and begins to attack. The Warlock teleports out of the area, leaving his minions to deal with the three party members, Runsha finds Oneiro tells him he's needed to help with a fight and runs rides back in the direction of the cultists, Oneiro leaves his books with the librarian and runs in the opposite direction to find the rest of the party. Artimus recovers from the guiding bolt and punch and casts a fireball, wiping out half the cultists and turning the fight. Hendred and Virlee begin to push forward and take down another cultist, Runsha arrives and charges forward towards the last cultist. Oneiro finds Swift Paws and Ashara and whistles to get their attention, Ashara doesn't hear the whistle but notices arriving turning in Oneiro's direction and spots him, Swift Paws says she'll return and she and Ashara take off at an unnatural speed with Oneiro being left behind in the dust.
By the time Ashara, Swift Paws, and Oneiro arrive the fight had finished. Ashara finds out what happened from Artimus and she and Fawkes move out to quickly search the area and attempt to find the Warlock, but are unsuccessful. The party begins to search the area, they find such phrases carved into the wood and arm of a cultist, such as: "it's voice is enchanting" and "The siren, it sounds so beautiful." after short resting and returning to the town center the party splits: Ashara to the wagons, Oneiro to the library, Runsha to the Town Hall, and everyone else to the Inn. Oneiro goes to get the books he left on the table when he starts to think about everything that's happened thus far and searches the library again, he finds a dragon chess set, the arrangement seems suspiciously familiar when he realizes it and carefully grabs the chess set and quickly heads to the Inn. Ashara arrives at the wagons and notices a building that she hasn't visited before and goes up to it, there's two guards standing outside and she inquires about it they say they're there to guard it so nobody gets hurt due to the terrible state of disrepair. She bribes them to let her in and as one guard starts to open the door the other leans in and whispers "Don't stay." She whispers back, asking if they need help, the guard looks at her confused. Ashara says she needs to get the rest of her group to properly inspect the Inn and leaves to find him. Runsha heads back to the records room and begins to look for the latests dates on the documents. Hendred keeps an eye on Artimus as he focuses on Fawkes and sends him to scout the burned out cottage in an attempt to see if the warlock went back there. Swift Paws goes up to the bar owners (A boy and his Sister) and gets a drink and continues to play, As she's playing she continues to flirt with some of the female patrons and and invites one up to join her on stage. some time passes when Oneiro enters the bar, he asks Artimus if he's seen Ashara, but gets no response as Artimus is focusing on Fawkes So he turns to Hendred and asks her the same thing, Hendred thinks she is out by the wagons. Ashara enters about a minute later, Oneiro shows her the chess set and asks if she recognizes the set, she looks at it and realizes it's an exact setup to her and Gus' last game together and begins to examine the set. After messing with the board two documents fall out, the first one read:
If this letter is found then I’m afraid I have died trying to complete my quest,
I have left behind recovered documents that contain information on the…..
Thing that plagues this town. Please, it can’t be allowed to live.
I beg you to destroy it, otherwise my long line of failures will continue from my grave.
The second one was a hand written description of what is known as a False Hydra. Ashara screams how how stupid men are and proceeds to smash a table and it's stools, the party takes a seat and is able to settle her down, Artimus ends his scouting with Fawkes and notices a destroyed table next to him. Ashara suggests that the group should leave for the night and return in the morning to deal with this thing, Artimus and Oneiro go to find Runsha as the group gets ready to depart. Ashara mentions she has also secured entrance to an abandoned inn in case the group wants to check it out for possible business purposes, they decide to look it over before they leave. When they enter Oneiro starts to light torches so they can see, one of the guards enter and starts to confront Oneiro about drawing too much attention to this place, Oneiro tells the guard to leave and stares into the guards eyes and shows him horrors that leave the guard in shock. The guard begins to slowly moves further into the inn and down a set of stairs in a basement area, the group spreads out when they find the warlock that disappeared, the warlock begins to speak but is attacked. Before the group can react, three heads lash out and attack Thorne, Hendred, and Ashara, a huge gelatinous creature with four heads makes itself known. The group focuses on the warlock, landing several blows, the warlock smiles and wishes them luck with their current predicament and grabs the guard and teleports, Artimus tries to counterspell but he fails. The False Hydra focuses its efforts on Thorne and Runsha, succeeding in biting and grappling both, Ashara attacks and uses her spirit guardians interfere with its attacks. Hendred charges into the fray, dark energy radiating from her arm, energy running through her veins of which she hadn't felt before, she unleashes a force of necrotic damage that instantly rots two of the heads off the Hydra's body. Feeling that the tied of battle had turned the group redoubles its efforts and hack off the other two heads, but then eight heads take the place of the four that died and they focus on Ashara. But fate was not on the Hydra's side, by some cosmic chance it failed to land several attacks, allowing the party more time to end the menace. The party continues the fight, destroying the eight heads, when six more shoot out of the body, the party rallies one last time and with Thorne's strike a look of fear could be seen from the False Hydra, Runsha follows it up with a smite. The creature lets out a scream and curses the group, shouting hey they have doomed the town and how there are greater threats out there and how it could of protected the people from something far worse, then it collapsed taking its final breathe.
With its death the mental block disappears from the group and they remember everything: Their half-elf companion Gustaf Longstrider, his chess games with Ashara, him dancing the night before the siege, the raising of the dead at the siege, the Librarian, the husband and wife barkeep. They find Gustaf's body and begin to search it, Oneiro finds a two books and a crystal, one book contains a list of spells and the other was a journal that read:
The second one was a hand written description of what is known as a False Hydra. Ashara screams how how stupid men are and proceeds to smash a table and it's stools, the party takes a seat and is able to settle her down, Artimus ends his scouting with Fawkes and notices a destroyed table next to him. Ashara suggests that the group should leave for the night and return in the morning to deal with this thing, Artimus and Oneiro go to find Runsha as the group gets ready to depart. Ashara mentions she has also secured entrance to an abandoned inn in case the group wants to check it out for possible business purposes, they decide to look it over before they leave. When they enter Oneiro starts to light torches so they can see, one of the guards enter and starts to confront Oneiro about drawing too much attention to this place, Oneiro tells the guard to leave and stares into the guards eyes and shows him horrors that leave the guard in shock. The guard begins to slowly moves further into the inn and down a set of stairs in a basement area, the group spreads out when they find the warlock that disappeared, the warlock begins to speak but is attacked. Before the group can react, three heads lash out and attack Thorne, Hendred, and Ashara, a huge gelatinous creature with four heads makes itself known. The group focuses on the warlock, landing several blows, the warlock smiles and wishes them luck with their current predicament and grabs the guard and teleports, Artimus tries to counterspell but he fails. The False Hydra focuses its efforts on Thorne and Runsha, succeeding in biting and grappling both, Ashara attacks and uses her spirit guardians interfere with its attacks. Hendred charges into the fray, dark energy radiating from her arm, energy running through her veins of which she hadn't felt before, she unleashes a force of necrotic damage that instantly rots two of the heads off the Hydra's body. Feeling that the tied of battle had turned the group redoubles its efforts and hack off the other two heads, but then eight heads take the place of the four that died and they focus on Ashara. But fate was not on the Hydra's side, by some cosmic chance it failed to land several attacks, allowing the party more time to end the menace. The party continues the fight, destroying the eight heads, when six more shoot out of the body, the party rallies one last time and with Thorne's strike a look of fear could be seen from the False Hydra, Runsha follows it up with a smite. The creature lets out a scream and curses the group, shouting hey they have doomed the town and how there are greater threats out there and how it could of protected the people from something far worse, then it collapsed taking its final breathe.
With its death the mental block disappears from the group and they remember everything: Their half-elf companion Gustaf Longstrider, his chess games with Ashara, him dancing the night before the siege, the raising of the dead at the siege, the Librarian, the husband and wife barkeep. They find Gustaf's body and begin to search it, Oneiro finds a two books and a crystal, one book contains a list of spells and the other was a journal that read:
Day 1 - The expedition is nearly ready to set out to the wildlands, it’s going to be long trip but thankfully they hired my entire crew, so I’ll be among friends.
Day 7 – We haven’t even crossed the Caswood and I can already feel the tension in the expedition. heard there was an argument between Allisa Ulanan and Gregory Bridgeford, fortunately one of the hired hands, a teifling I think smoothed the situation over. That doesn’t bode well, they represent the two biggest sponsors.
Day 18 – We’re getting close to the ruins, we’re making good time. Ryul has been in this area before so we’re ahead of schedule, he’s been like a brother to me. I need to introduce him to the family after this expedition is over.
Day 26 – We’re at the entrance, Osfer and Neratin went down to make sure there wasn’t any surprises. There was another argument between Gregory and Allisia last night, guess they don’t see eye to eye on how to use the research. I caught that tiefling looking through some wagons, said he needed to find something to chuck his wagon, I don’t buy it. There were closer supply wagons.
Day 30 – This place is huge. After clearing out some rubble we were able to open up vast sections of an underground structure. The mages are slowly breaking the enchantments and magical seals, but it’s slow going because there is a lot of them and they’re fairly complex. One of the rooms looks like a laboratory that contained some sort of Larva, they seem fairly well secured.
Day 31 – One of the expeditions members were killed today, found the body close to one of the sealed doors the mages weren’t able to open, it looked like he tried to smear his blood on the door. No idea what possessed him to do that.
Day 31 Night – There’s strange sounds coming down the hall where we found the body, I checked but couldn’t find anything. This place may just be getting to me.
Day ??? - everyone is dead, and I fear I will join them soon. One person cannot survive the Wildlands, let alone one injured person. I’m going to go deeper into the ruins and see what I can find.
Those Idiots!!!! The larva aren’t in their cage! I found some of the notes from the researchers and we’ve unleashed demons that weren’t meant to ever see the light of day.
I went to the room where we found the body by, I believe it was meant to keep somebody contained…. Forever. The room also feels…. Different. Like there’s power weaved into the air itself. I found a book that contained some strange inscriptions, maybe I can find something useful in there.
I feel different, I can see the ebbs and flows if color going through the air. I’ve been able to perform simple feats of magic. I didn’t know I was capable of that.
I’m afraid…..
I have mastered the a strange form of magic, I can breathe some sort of imitation of life into the dead and they’ll do what I say, it feels cold and unnatural. I’m sorry my old friends, but I’ll need you’re help just one last time.
Day 7 – We haven’t even crossed the Caswood and I can already feel the tension in the expedition. heard there was an argument between Allisa Ulanan and Gregory Bridgeford, fortunately one of the hired hands, a teifling I think smoothed the situation over. That doesn’t bode well, they represent the two biggest sponsors.
Day 18 – We’re getting close to the ruins, we’re making good time. Ryul has been in this area before so we’re ahead of schedule, he’s been like a brother to me. I need to introduce him to the family after this expedition is over.
Day 26 – We’re at the entrance, Osfer and Neratin went down to make sure there wasn’t any surprises. There was another argument between Gregory and Allisia last night, guess they don’t see eye to eye on how to use the research. I caught that tiefling looking through some wagons, said he needed to find something to chuck his wagon, I don’t buy it. There were closer supply wagons.
Day 30 – This place is huge. After clearing out some rubble we were able to open up vast sections of an underground structure. The mages are slowly breaking the enchantments and magical seals, but it’s slow going because there is a lot of them and they’re fairly complex. One of the rooms looks like a laboratory that contained some sort of Larva, they seem fairly well secured.
Day 31 – One of the expeditions members were killed today, found the body close to one of the sealed doors the mages weren’t able to open, it looked like he tried to smear his blood on the door. No idea what possessed him to do that.
Day 31 Night – There’s strange sounds coming down the hall where we found the body, I checked but couldn’t find anything. This place may just be getting to me.
Day ??? - everyone is dead, and I fear I will join them soon. One person cannot survive the Wildlands, let alone one injured person. I’m going to go deeper into the ruins and see what I can find.
Those Idiots!!!! The larva aren’t in their cage! I found some of the notes from the researchers and we’ve unleashed demons that weren’t meant to ever see the light of day.
I went to the room where we found the body by, I believe it was meant to keep somebody contained…. Forever. The room also feels…. Different. Like there’s power weaved into the air itself. I found a book that contained some strange inscriptions, maybe I can find something useful in there.
I feel different, I can see the ebbs and flows if color going through the air. I’ve been able to perform simple feats of magic. I didn’t know I was capable of that.
I’m afraid…..
I have mastered the a strange form of magic, I can breathe some sort of imitation of life into the dead and they’ll do what I say, it feels cold and unnatural. I’m sorry my old friends, but I’ll need you’re help just one last time.
Oneiro goes to a corner of the room and messes with the crystal, it begins to show a recording. Gustaf looking over a river, seeing the outskirts of civilization, beside him are 4 fairly deep holes. He turns back and there are four animated corpses, he goes up to one and looks it in the eye and turns his head, he leads the corpse to one of the holes and drains the false life out of it. The corpse falls into the hole, lifeless, he does the same to the other three and begins to fill the holes, he places hand made religious markers over each filled in hole. The recording skips forward to a somewhat familiar sight, a house that was under attack by orcs, with orc assassins casting darkness inside. Gustaf can be seen lying next two three graves trying to sleep, he's holding a locket that had a picture of himself with a woman close to his age and two children. The recording ends. Ashara grabs Gustaf's body and leaves the basement to crawl into the shell, Hendred grabs the bodies of a halfling and a half-elf and leaves, Oneiro collects the other bodies and sets them on fire and the rest of the party leaves. Artimus is nowhere to be found.
The group heads back to the inn to drink and to processes what happened when Oneiro, out of nowhere, burns with a literal fire not seen before which catches half the inn on fire. When Oneiro exits the inn he collapses. Runsha talks to constable Virlee and gets an assurance that she will be there to represent the town at Aramore. The party long rests
It is the beginning of the 39th day of TersegRewards Granted
Gustaf Longstrider's Journal and spellbook
300 GP
300 GP
Missions/Quests Completed
Get Stathmor to send a delegation to Aramore
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