Return to the Whispering Cairn Report

General Summary

Patchwall 16, 595 CY

Session: 2024-05-01

The next morning, they awoke at the Abandoned Mine Office. Deciding this would be a home-away-from-home for the near future, they took stock of what they had done to make the building more livable. They had cleared out the debris from the interior, repaired the outer doors, and started rebuilding the outhouse. They spent the morning completing the repairs to the outhouse and starting on the roof before heading into town. Tolman elected to stay at the mine office, but asked the others to pick up some door locks from Taggin's or Osgood's. Heading into town, the others spent a few hours visiting the various shops in town and picking up supplies for themselves and their new base. Kaszu went to the town hall to determine if they could buy the lease on the abandoned office, but was unable to speak with anyone without an appointment. Back at their base, Kaszu unveiled the project he had been working on, and showed off a spider-like construct that followed him around and obeyed his commands. Argan, too, had a new companion. He had summoned a small ice drake which followed him around. Delilah was smitten with the small drake, petting it and asking Argan if she could make a flower crown for the adorable, little drake. Argan sighed.

Patchwall 17, 595 CY

The next morning, they headed back to the Whispering Cairn. They knew they still had to make it past the brown mold, but didn't know where the passage above the blue lantern led. Argan led the way, shimmying up the chain which held the lantern and dropping a rope for the others to climb. Tolman slipped part of the way up, getting bruised up with the fall, but managed the climb on his second try. They found that there was a long passage ending in what looked like an enormous stone face, similar to the other reliefs and carvings they had seen. The mouth, open in an angry scream, was an entry into another chamber. The chamber beyond the mouth was another long room, at the level of the opening, a slim stone bridge about three-feet-wide with no railings, spanned the chasm leading to another door made of metal. About ten feet below the opening the chamber "floor" looked to be covered with small spheres, about the size of an orange. The walls on left and right sides of the chamber were covered in carvings, a honeycomb of geometric designs. Kaszu had his spider move forward on the bridge. Not more than ten-feet in, a small sphere shot from the left (northeast) wall, hitting the spider, which fell onto the spheres below. The spider did not sink into the spheres on the floor, letting the companions know that it was somewhat solid ground. Dropping to the spheres, they noticed a few dead bodies, the smell of death long since faded. Suddenly a creature with six tentacles surrounding a beaked mouth erupted from the spheres. At that point, Deliliah heard an ethereal giggling in her ear. Tolman's fire bolt missed, but Malakai's moonbeam and Deliliah's eldritch blast wounded the creature, pushing it away from the companions. Deliliah heard that same voice, "wow, that really hurt it.". While the creature, a grick, failed to penetrate the spider's armor with its attacks, Argan moved up and sliced it in two with his battleaxe. The voice in Deliliah's head told her that was great, so many others got killed. At first she thought it was the drake, and Argan let her know the drake couldn't speak, yet. A ghostly figure of a boy, his neck snapped, likely from the fall appeared to them all. He introduced himself as Alastor Land, and called Delilah "pretty lady", then told them that there was a great chamber beyond the door.

"Beyond is a glorious chamber of strange carvings and pillar of air. And there's a catch on the other side of the door that opens it without a problem. I'll trigger it for you if you take my bones from here and bury them with my family on a farmstead just beyond Diamond Lake. Do this for me, and I will be free, I assure you there is no other way through that door." He asked to possess Deliliah until the task was complete and he was returned here. At first Deliliah resisted, "I serve someone else, I can't let you in." Then Alastor made a solemn vow on Wee Jas, god of death and magic, that he would not make any attempts to control or hurt her. After some more negotiation, and some thinking on her patron, Deliliah bent and said, "Okay, I'll let you in." She felt his presence within her, but the ghost did not attempt to take control of the body, and even more, she sensed another presence within her, pleased with her decision and knew that any control attempts would be punished. She smiled. While Deliliah was engaged in her own personal plight, the others began bantering, Malakai expressed a concern about Tolman, which upset the young tiefling greatly, making Malakai feel sorry for his outburst, when Kaszu tried to explain what one of Tolman's insults meant, Malakai was shocked and asked what was wrong with him. They went back to the mine office to rest. Deliliah somewhat surprised that Alastor stayed quiet within her.

Patchwall 18, 595 CY

The next morning, they awoke feeling somewhat uplifted, today would be a good day. Find the Land farmstead, bury Alastor, and return to the Cairn so he could open the grand chamber. Things didn't end up so easy. They made their way to Diamond Lake. Malaki and Deliliah stocked up on oil flasks at Taggin's. It was only a ten to fifteen minute walk to the Land farmstead, Deliliah, with Alastor's help, knew the way. Approaching the farmstead, they noted that the building was mostly destroyed, the second floor gone and several walls were missing. To the south of the farm, they saw the graveyard. Avoiding the house altogether, they approached the graveyard to see that all of the graves but Alastor's had been dug up. The grave markers read as follows: Anders Land: 531-564 cy: Bemissa 534-576 cy: Coldaran Land: 550-576 CY, Gertia Land: 563-576 CY; Alastor Land: 552-. Alastor ran away to explore the cairn in 565. Alastor was outraged, "WHERE ARE MY FAMILY?" Deliliah assured the spirit that they would find them. Alastor said he trusted her. Argan spotted tracks. It looked like five booted humanoids walked around the graves, probably digging them up. Then the tracks led to the farmstead. Four sets of tracks returned quickly, possibly running. Then they headed back I the direction of Diamond Lake with a one-wheeled vehicle, likely a wheelbarrow. Approaching the farmhouse, Tolman spotted an owlbear inside, and a dead body. The companions attacked. Malaki drew first blood with his shillelagh, but the owlbear attacked the larger target, Crichton. Luckily the owlbear couldn't get through Crichton's armor. Tolman then fire bolted it while Argan used his longbow. Deliliah attempted a new spell, mind spiking the creatures. Crichton finally wounded the creature badly with his glaive, but the owlbear returned the favor by taking a bite out of the dragonborn. Argan dropped his bow and moved in with his battleaxe. With one final eldritch blast from Deliliah, the owlbear fell. As Argan began skinning the beast, the rest investigated the farmhouse. There was enough of the body inside to recognize him as Skutch, one of Kullen's Bulldogs, the bullies of Diamond Lake who work for Smenk. Alastor became morose, while Deliliah wondered why someone would want the Land's dead bodies. The answers lay with the surviving Bulldogs, after all, four of them returned to Diamond Lake with a wheelbarrow.