Session 367 - Poisonous Metal
General Summary
The Story So Far
Ash - An expert in the occult and a skilled monster hunter. Ash uses his talents and budding alchemical expertise to battle what people fear most for a price.
Ryobi - A monk of the embattled Order of the Warriors of Mameka. Ryobi is given an important mission; retrieve the holy blades containing the souls of his brother knights, which were lost in the recent Rethemi civil war.
They are joined by Vinzent, a bard with a morbid demeanor and a haunted past.
This is the continuation of Session 365 - Tiger Hunting.
Location - City of Golotha and Laxley Forest in the Kingdom of Rethem.
15th Azura (Autumn) 727TR
Part 1 – A Falling Star
The heroes make their way to the nearby Laxley Forest after confirming that Charin's woodcutters have a license from the crown to harvest the trees.
Part 2 – Morgath's Goat
Following the woodcutting and hunting trails, the party smells something revolting, like rotting flesh. Something disgusting is nearby; a hideous monstrosity, shaped like a cross between a deformed hairless goat and a rodent, stands in the pathway so still that it magically escapes notice until it savagely attacks Ryobi. The foul creature is a Sigbin, also known as Morgath's Goat, a magically deformed horror often associated with the god of the undead. The beast is eventually eliminated, and Ash has no desire to harvest anything from the creature's disgusting corpse.
The Sigbin is not the only minion of Morgath they spot. At dusk, they see a pair of low-flying giant Albino Bats. Ryobi is sure they are hunting, but the ground moves before the party can act, and giant balls of earth and rocks attack. The elementals, shaped like living boulders, knock Vinzent to the ground but are otherwise little threat. When destroyed, they collapse into piles of rocky dirt.
Ash and Ryobi shift through the dirt, finding small chunks of an unusual metal. Ash thinks this is valuable and collects them.
Part 3 – The Treeman
The party rests up for the night. Ash and Ryobi start to feel nauseous; it must be Vinzent's cooking.
Then, a giant creature sneaks forward, a vaguely humanoid tree man. Its bark is made of hard stone and covered in leafy branches. However, when examined closely, the leaves are dying, and the branches are embedded into the monster as a crude camouflage. This is not a plant but another earth elemental. The false tree man nearly kills Ryobi with its stony spiked arms, but the rude interruption to the characters' rest is soon over as the tree is smashed and shattered to rubble. The remains also contain chunks of this strange, valuable metal.
Examining this metal for the first time, Vinzent is reminded of a story of a knight poisoned by his sword. The legend he recalls is from an old book of nefarious deeds and tells how assassins give a strange poisonous metal to a weaponsmith who created a strong alloy and made a magnificent sword. This sword was sold to a powerful lord, who, within weeks, fell sick and died horribly of an unknown illness. The unwell and concerned Ash quickly removes and hides the metal chunks he found from his pack.
Part 4 - A Dig Site
Later that night, the vast Albino Bats the heroes spotted silently fly in and rip into them. The vicious beasts' bites are deep, and they slap the heroes with their bony wings, but they are cut down.
The following day, the charterers spot smoke from a campfire. Sneaking up, they spot a Morgathic Priest in dirty brown robes supervising a dig site. Three shambling corpses are extracting chunks of metallic ore from a large hole. A living assistant, possibly an acolyte of Morgath, a pale and highly sick-looking young man is nearly barely able to stand. The priest loudly abuses the man, accusing him of being lazy. The heroes silently close and prepare to attack with surprise until Vinzent slips and falls down an embankment, alerting the enemy. The undead shamble toward Vinzent but are intercepted by Ash, whose muscles are boosted by his mutagenic elixirs, who makes quick work of them. With his distraction, Ryobi catches the priest off guard and injures him badly. The priest responds and mutters an indication, causing Ryobi's bones to wrench painfully, throwing him to the side. Ash throws his custom star knife at the priest's assistant, decapitating him, and approaches as another undead emerges from a nearby stagnant pool of water. Ryobi leaps forward, eviscerates the priest, and the last undead is soon permanently put to rest.
Ash tentatively gathers all the strange metal and brews a powerful acid that dissolves it. The heroes return to their employer, reporting that the threat to his grove of Dark Ash is now safe to harvest. Fortunately, the heroes recover from the strange illness after a few days.
To be continued.
NPC Interactions
Master Charin of Aerth, the Timberwright
Created Content
Related Reports
Bats, Morgath's Spawn - Updated.
Player Characters
Ryobi - Human - L4 Monk
Background - Temple Guard.
Archetypes - Barbarian.
Ash - Human - L4 Thaumaturge
Background - Weaponcrafter.
Archetypes - Alchemist.
NPC Companion
Vinzent - Human - L4 Bard
Background - Cursed.
Archetypes - Blessed.
Next Session
NPC Companion
Vinzent
He is a skilled minstrel who is infamous for his depressing performances.
Sigbin, Morgath's Goat
A magically modified murderous goat.
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