Session 04
General Summary
Once Earl and Macready had left, the others set about finding somewhere to camp for the night.
The rough terrain of The Barren Scrub was not the most comfortable place to rest. Wary of further
dangers, a watch was kept throughout the night. There were a couple of false alarms, firstly when
a strange lizard was spotted. Ermenred excitedly described it as a "shocker lizard", which uses
lightning to defend itself. He said the legendary Calandrill had created the race in a magical
experiment. Later on some giant ants were seen, thankfully of the worker rather than soldier
variety. Thankfully both the lizard and ants left the group alone.
Despite their broken sleep, the Albioners arose bright and early. Aiden Pim predicted the
hermitage was only a half day's travel away. However, the Barren Scrubs proved to be as
dangerous as the rumours had suggested. A giant centipede leapt out of the ground and, barely
before anyone had reacted, took a vicious bite out of Aiden Pim and then dragged him into a hole
in the ground. Now Aiden was the only one who knew the route to the hermitage, plus there was
no way his heroic companions would abandon him, so they boldly plunged into the centipede lair.
Ethulwulf and Heremod rushed ahead and soon confronted the centipede. Their distraction
appeared to work as Aiden was left unconscious on the floor while the giant vermin attacked the
intruders. Their bravery was not matched by their combat prowess and soon two more bodies
littered the floor of the centipede's cavern. Hoping they weren't too late to save the day, Ermenred
and Zandrill finally reached the cave. Brabus was told to guard outside. Once again, the centipede
was victorious, though Ermenred and Zandrill managed to at least damage it before they fell. That
left the day to be saved by the most unlikely of heroes - Brabus. Seeing his master fall overrode
his training and he leapt in and savagely attacked the centipede which finally succumbed to its
wounds.
Despite their grievous wounds and centipede poison coursing through their veins, miraculously
nobody died. After some time, Zandrill woke up, wondering how he had survived. The wolf-shaped tooth marks on the centipede husk explained all. He was able to use his healing Magic to
cure his companions enough that nobody was weak enough to be in danger any longer. Ermenred
then sent Wini on a long and potentially dangerous journey to send word to Earl and Macready.
Ermenred was very worried for Wini's safety so he was overjoyed to see her return, accompanied
by Earl and Macready. They were told all that had transpired. Earl called upon the power of Pelor
and healed everyone's wounds. However he could do little about the vestiges of centipede poison
and said only time would help. Hence it was agreed to spend the next day resting and recovering
from their ordeal. Despite the smell, the centipede lair was probably one of the safest places in the
area, as other inhabitants of the Barren Scrubs no doubt knew to avoid the centipede.
Today, hopefully the party would at long last reach the hermitage. Though once more their
journey was soon interrupted. Ahead of them stood two figures - a man holding a falcon and an
armoured figure. Without warning they screamed battle cries and charged to attack. The falcon
sped through the air directly towards Wini and attcked, though it was soon dropped out of the sky
with a weapon blow. The Albioners assumed a defensive formation, moving to protect Ermenred
and Zandrill. The first of their foes had gone into a berserk rage, presumably upset by the loss of
his falcon. As Heremod engaged him in sword play, Aiden Pim pointed to the armoured man with
a scared look on his face and told everyone to direct their attacks at him. He was dressed in black
half-plate and carried a shield, all decorated with skulls. He called upon The Demon Prince to curse
his foes. Soon the armoured man was alone and surrounded as Heremod swifly despatched the
other foe. Ethulwulf swung his huge axe in a mighty blow and beheaded the armoured man before
he could call further upon his unholy master.
Aiden Pim was very pale. He said that there had been no sign of followers of The Demon Prince
since the Chaos Wars. It was also worrying that one should be found so close to where Sir Calmet
had been. The two bodies were searched and a further puzzlement was that all their coinage was
from Hishan. To ensure they couldn't be raised as undead, Ethulwulf thoroughly dismembered and
burned the corpses complete with their unholy equipment.
A couple of hours later, the travellers crested a rise and looked upon a loch containing a number of
islands. The nearest island had a small cottage on it. A dock and some rowboats could be seen at
the water's edge. Having completed his mission of leading the way to the hermitage, Aiden Pim
turned and headed back to Littlebrook. The worrying news regarding the worshippers of the
Demon Prince gave him added urgency. Ethulwulf had been looking for tracks and announced that
the two men they had fought earlier had come direcly from the loch. The area was very quiet - no
movement, no smoke from the chimney, no lights inside the hermitage. Taking patience as a
virtue, the group settled down and watched for the rest of the day and took turns to watch through
the night. In all that time there was no sign of life whatsoever.
The first signs of dawn saw four figures sneaking down to the water's edge. Although one boat
was big enough to accomodate them all, they took all three across to the island, to prevent anyone
else from easily following them. Once more Ethulwulf found tracks on the island made by the two
men they'd killed the day before. As they cautiously approached the hermitage, the group noticed
how deserted and decrepit it looked. Getting close enough to peer through windows revealed piles
of leaves had blown in through open windows. Had Sir Calmet ever made it this far? Perhaps he'd
been ambushed elsewhere in the Barren Scrubs? Regardless, the group entered and began to
explore the hermitage, looking for clues. Disturbingly, faint screams could be heard from
somewhere below. They carefully moved through the empty rooms in search of a way down,
eventually finding a trap door in a pantry which led to a cellar containing rotten food.
A passageway led out of the cellar into a natural cavern. As the group entered, despite their torch,
suddenly everything went black and tentacles attacked from above. Flailing wildly above them,
the group beat a hasty retreat and discovered their assailants were strange creatures which
Ermenred identified as "darkmantles". Like the shocker lizards, these were the result of magical
experiments by Callindrill. After catching their breath after the scary fight with the darkmantles,
the group returned to the tunnel leading out of the cellar. Further on, the passage split into a fork
and a strange blue glow emanated from the floor. As Ethulwulf approached, a blue ray shot out
and severely weakened him. Fortunately the effect wore off after a few minutes. Ermenred
believed it to have been a magical trap of some kind, now nullified.
One branch of the fork led to a room used as some kind of alchemical laboratory. Its owner had
crafted a small construct to defend it and it leapt upon Ethulwulf as he scouted, its poisonous bite
making him fall asleep. Nobody else was affected before the guardian was destroyed. Beyond the
laboratory was a potter's wheel with another guardian, this one half-finished, next to it. Ermenred
recalled that Calendrill had invented the construction technique for these guardians. He also knew
that a fair amount of arcane knowledge was required to actually make one and also that the
constructs would become inert if their master died. This suggested that somewhere, perhaps close
by, was a powerful magic user of some kind. Would they be friend or foe?
Report Date
10 Apr 2024
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