Session 0006 - Black Lightning

General Summary

Roll 20, Discord, Syrinscape

The Heretic race as quickly as they can and still maintain party formation as they head east. Because of Verbena's War Mastiff, Tigeth, their travel speed is reduced to the 4-5 mph. as such, they make it approximately 25 miles to the East. They decide to camp within the tree line to the North of the road.

The weather is horrible. The rains are steady but unrelenting, soaking everyone and everything around them. The temperatures have dropped to 33 degrees Fahrenheit whereas the afternoon before had been 72 degrees Fahrenheit. The supernatural storm continues in the distance, sending its occasional black lightning bolts down to the surface. There is still no thunder associated with the lightning.

As the party settles down to build camp, they realize that no one has brought any tents. The decide to line up the two horses side by side, and sleep directly beneath them huddling closely together along with Tiggleth for body heat.

Cathlynn and Verbena awaken the next morning and suffer one exhaustion level. Matteu weathered the night well without side effect. The party eats and Verbena hunts, catching a few rabbits for Tiggleth to eat. She realizes that her Mastiff requires a daily meat diet unlike the horse mounts that Matteu and Cathlynn have.

The party realizes after scanning the horizon before setting out for their next day's journey that there is a dilapidated moat house in the distance. They weren't able to see the moat house the night before due to the reduction in visibility caused both by weather and sunlight. The weather thus far this morning is cold but no longer raining. There are heavy clouds in the sky which threaten to storm again but is thus far quiet.

The Heretic remount and head towards the moat house. As they approach, they hear eerie sounds that they are unable to ascertain. Also, they see four horses and a two horse metal carriage tethered just outside the moat house's entrance. No signs of people are around as far as they can see. Before getting any closer, Cathlynn Wildshapes into a Bloodhawk and circles the moat house to see what she can scout. She sees that the moat house's second story has collapsed but its ground floor is still intact. She tries to determine the source of the eerie sounds once again and can not see where the sound is coming from. She decides to ask one of the horses that draw the carriage by landing on its back and casting [Speak with Animals] spell. The horse tells her that the sound is coming from the frogs in a small pond to their immediate right (west). Cathlynn massages the horse's back with her talons as a thanks.

Cathlynn continues to survey the moat house by landing on the north-eastern tower. The tower's ceiling has partially collapsed and allows a glimpse of what lies within. She sees thick webs that have trapped a variety of small animals (rabbits, ferrets, weasels, chipmunks, etc) who all appear to have been cocooned and drained of life from a spider. She does not see signs of a spider so it is uncertain whether it still lives within or not. Also, Cathlynn sees a single shoe left astray in the moathouse's courtyard.

Before heading back to rejoin the party, Cathlynn flies over the pond where the horse indicated the frogs were. She was still unable to spot them.

Flying back to the Heretic, Cathlynn shares her findings. As they are discussing their next move, everyone spots movement at the moat house and see the people mounting the horses' carriage and riding Eastward.

Cathlynn casts [Commune with Nature] to see what she can ascertain about the terrain and the nature of the area. She cast this before the people at the moat house mounted the horses and took off. In her vision, she could see a natural cave opening to the southeast of the moat house. She also detected at least ten undead that reside underneath the moat house. Also of note, she saw a very dark cloud surrounding the carriage drawn by the horses.

The Heretic wait until the carriage disappeared on the Eastern horizon before setting off to the natural cave opening. They circle the moat house in a clockwise manner to arrive at the opening. The settle for the evening just inside the entrance of the cave. Before retiring, Cathlynn wild shapes into a bat and explores the caves depths, which lead to a man-made passage way about 700 feet feet in. She and the others decide to wait until the morning to explore it further. They each take watch for the evening, which proves uneventful apart from some horrible sounds of weeping, muttering, arguing, etc coming from the passageways. Matteu was on first watch, Cathlynn second, Verbena third.

In the morning, they discovered that Tigleth who was last seen lying at the cave entrance to be gone. In a panic the party begins to assemble to go and find him but just as they began to mount their horses, Tigleth came back with a pheasant in his maw. He apparantly had gone hunting.

Cathlynn and Verbena decide to explore the passageway by themselves while Matteu and Tigleth remain behind to guard the entrance.

Cathlynn and Verbena encounter a doorway at the end of a passageway, but before opening the door, return to get Matteu to check it for traps and such before attempting to do so.

A bolt of silent, black lightning by Chad Watson via Midjourney

A forboding storm builds by Chad Watson via Midjourney

Report Date

23 Dec 2022

Primary Location

The Republic of Karja Tal

Secondary Location

The Moathouse

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