4/1/1151 - They appear back at their manor, Lughausen and most of the party in his sanctum, and Yannic, Elowynn, and Peril in his laboratory.
They go upstairs, surprising the servants briefly, then they summon their butler Arrel. He admits to being surprised at their sudden arrival from downstairs, even though he had been briefed on that possibility before they left. The captain of the guard, Jayden MacGannon is summoned as well. A houseboy, Percy, is assigned to be their runner as they settle in. He would run any commands between the party and the rest of the staff. Lughausen calls for a bath. Mistress Hedra is commanded to create a breakfast feast.
They decide that a trip to Wodemar’s house would be in order for the morrow. This first day would be a day of rest at home. Yannic and Solaria discuss exchanging spells.
Peril seems let down and lost. He really wanted to see Zell get destroyed. Then he brightened, “I know what happened! The moment we left Zell, the attack came, and they are all dying right now because we weren’t there to defend them. Okay, all is right in the world. I feel better! They deserved it!”
For the rest of the day, they cleaned up and relaxed. Yannic gave Solaria the spellbook that he found in the High Temple of Arawn, Hadrukar Vantroth’s spellbook, from which he had already transcribed all the spells. The party took turns taking baths. Khragg had servants come in and assist him with cleaning his armor, which he still wore.
Over dinner they discussed how they would approach the Confederation about receiving the embassy from Zell. They decided that they want to be in the driver’s seat. They came upon the idea of hosting a party where they would invite all the important people and tell them there. Let them come to us, they figured. They set upon the 8th as the day for the party, and in the morning the staff will send out the invitations. Lughausen wants to be sure they include all the high-ranking members of the Confederation, such as Lord Lucien, Lady Drina, Horsemaster Ezraus, and whomever is representing Wald.
4/2/1151 – They party ensures that the invitations are prepared, then after breakfast, they go to Wodemar Blum’s house to give their report. Wodemar and Marta meet them with excitement, for it has been a whole month since they left for Zell. They feared that the party had met their end. They sit down in Wodemar’s study once again, and Khragg leads with the good news first: they have battled Karzhad and killed him. Wodemar and Marta are supremely happy that their old foe is no more, and their fallen companions have been avenged.
They begin to tell Wodemar and Marta the tale of their adventures in Zell, trapped in the Dome with the ending first – about their battle with Karzhad and the companions that he brought in his attempt to reach the Vaults of Zell. They describe the githyanki, and Wodemar brings up that it was the githyanki that they fought with the Skullsmashers months ago, and it was they that had the map to the Tower of Salinga Penne. Were they working for Karzhad then and he wanted to know about the Tower?
Wodemar is most relieved that the two dwarf twins were also killed in the battle. They wonder where the goblin with such skills came from. The other caster was the genasi, Faadil al-Hassan, a warlock, which Wodemar had also not heard of before. Lughausen tells him about the strange statuette that the warlock was carrying, and what happened when he cast a legend lore upon it. It summoned the warlock’s patron, so they thought, but that patron just looked at them and left.
Wodemar is interested, so he asks if he can see the statuette himself. Jikaris removes it from the extradimensional space in the quiver of ehlonna where it had been stored. It immediately is covered in condensation and is cool to the touch. Wodemar takes it in his hand and looks at it. There is a low rumble of thunder. A few seconds later, there is another rumble, louder this time.
They ask for it back, and Wodemar hands it over to Jikaris. There is another peal of thunder directly overhead. Then there is wind in the room. Wodemar looks confused, and Yannic says, “The owner of that object, the patron, is now going to visit us.” Lughausen and Jikaris agree.
A burst of wind erupts out of the statue and swirls around the room. The wind manifests into several forms – air elementals, armored air elementals, and a blue-skinned djinni, armed and angry. The force of winds flings them aside as the creatures appear. The djinni’s torso ends in a tornado of wind that has its origin on the statuette that has been dropped on Wodemar’s desk.
They must battle for their lives, with Wodemar and Marta joining them. They are without Elowynn and Peril who had remained at their estate. The air elementals use the winds to send the heroes flying through the room, which is small enough that they crash into the walls with great force. However, one by one, first the djinn and then all the air elementals are defeated.
The room is a wreck. The winds have blown furniture over and books are scattered everywhere.
They put the statuette back into the extradimensional space within the quiver of ehlonna where Jikaris had kept it before. They do not know what they should do with it, but they know that taking it caused these elementals to find them. They discuss destroying it but have no conclusion currently.
Marta slowly puts some of the things back on the shelves and helps Wodemar get back behind the desk. They have a shocked look on their faces, trying to figure out what just happened. They ask if he would like to go to Gwynyth Raius with them. He considers a moment but declines because of his missing arm and leg. He just doesn’t believe it practical, and that is why he hired people like the party to be his mobility and bring back information. He agrees that the fate of Gwynyth Raius is a mystery that needs to be discovered, and he asks that they bring back all news that the party discovers when going there. Who knows, he points out, they might discover clues about the source of the Cataclysm there or on the way, and that is the ongoing mission.
After concluding their story with Wodemar, Yannic worries about Karzhad’s body being left behind with the Priests of Duath in Zell. He regrets not disintegrating the body, wondering if one of Karzhad’s allies would bring him back. However, it is pointed out that true resurrection does not need a body to work, and considering the power displayed thus far, that is not out of the realm of possibility. So they choose not to worry about it any longer.
Over the next several days, they prepare for the party on the 8th. Solaria wants to find a magic rapier, perhaps shop for one, when Peril says he has one. What will she give him for it? Khragg offers the periapt of wound closure that he is no longer using for the rapier, and he agrees. He likes the idea of not dying, even though he thinks the world is doomed. Solaria begins to scribe spells from the spellbook that Yannic gave her, from which he had already scribed them all.
4/4/1151 – Over dinner Elowynn tells the party that she isn’t sure that this is the right place for her or her best path. She doesn’t feel like she fits in. A month ago, when she appeared and was rescued by the party, she had nowhere else to go or nothing else to do. She helped with the estate because it made sense at the time, and she knew anyone else. After being trapped in Zell with the crowds for a month and realizing that this place is nothing like the Feywild, she wants to see if there is a way back. She had visited the elves in Lysalenor and heard stories about how they had crossed over long ago and in fact were her tribe that chose to go. She just doesn’t want to be in another crowded city. She also has Spitter, the ancient elven bow. It would be useful in the war with the Unseelie Court, and it belongs in the hands of the elven people. If she dies here with it, it will just get lost again. She needs to find a way to the Feywild and rejoin the battle.
Khragg and the others understand and wish her the best. Then, Peril suddenly perks up. New world? I’m in! I’ll go with you. This world is going to be destroyed anyway. Elowynn looks startled and looks at the rest of the party. Peril appears to believe it has been decided and settled after that. Elowynn reluctantly agrees, letting the party know that it was her plan to go to Lysalenor and see if there are any other elves willing to go with her to provide safety in numbers. She also gets thoughtful, “You know, there are some very talented healers in the Feywild. Maybe it is a good idea that you come with me.” Looking at Peril.
4/5/1151 - Elowynn and Peril leave on their new adventure. Elowynn says that she will send word if she gets there and there is a way to do so. Solaria runs out of money for her inks and other supplies and Khragg volunteers more of his old equipment that he isn’t using. He manages to find a buyer for a +2 shield and +1 greataxe that he no longer has a use for. The money, 2,000 gp of the total 3,500 gp he earned, goes to help her finish scribing the spells.
They stock up on regular healing potions found in the city. Berg makes a trip down to Wald to check on his shrine of Nuath and the people training there. They are doing well there, so he returns in time for the party.
4/8/1151 – A dry warm evening, the sun is setting, and the estate has been lit up. Arrel has managed to get the place decorated and lit up, hire musicians, food, and all that they would need for the soiree. Captain Jayden has the guards on alert in case something horrible will happen. The guests start arriving, and are greeted by Arrel, Jayden, and the party. The number of people arriving is surprising. The party’s estate was the talk of the town, taking months to build, and then there was silence for an entire month. Then, suddenly, the invitations went out and everyone was curious about the new place. They all wanted to come. The doors are open, and the nobility, elite and rich of the rich have been invited to come see.
News and rumors have preceded the event. While the party kept information mostly to themselves, their servants have at times overheard things about what the party has gone through and what they will be talking about at the event. These tidbits of information inevitably leaked to the rest of the city, driving curiosity even higher. News from Zell to be shared has made everyone eager.
Before they know it, the place is filled with guests. They have a guard at the top of the basement stairs with the door locked behind him. Another guard keeps people from going up to the private bedrooms. The party mingles carefully, seeing a lot of familiar faces and many that are not.
One of the first they meet is Graven Marker, the old dwarf who they traveled with from Wald to Wohlen. He introduces them to the guildmaster of the guild of Wheels and Paddles, a halfling named Griffin Bophubb. Yannic is a guildmember and is familiar with him. The guildmaster acknowledges that Yannic has done the guild proud and suggests that new trading opportunities abound. Yannic teases the information about Zell and the great opportunity in the world again.
In the sitting room next to the entrance hall, many women have congregated. They are accosted by Sinta Dragomir who tries to wheedle out the news beforehand with flattery. They see some new faces, including a priest of Myrcon named Wendy Wheatflow, who came from Venlo to hear about the travels to unknown lands and a safe return with news.
Khragg hears a ruckus from a contingent of dwarves out on the patio and joins them there, having drunk with this group on previous occasions. They do so again, welcoming him back eager to hear these tales. As they mingle, they see that there are people here from the three main cities, Venlo, Dyson, and Wohlen, and a few people from Wald. Including Teckum Sundane who owned the sawmill.
The guildmaster of the Seven Strings, Felver Erben Urigrim Salgim, grabs Yannic’s sleeve as he walks in and introduces himself. The largest bard guild in the Confederation, they are always looking for new members, he points out, and Yannic says that he should meet Lughausen. Felver says that he has heard of Lughausen from Gaspar and is quite welcoming of the idea of Lughausen joining.
Everyone seems to be angling to get news from the party before the others with these introductions and early parts of the party.
The leaders of the Confederation are grouped together in the main room, and Yannic walks up to them and welcomes them, offering food and drink, which the servants attend to. They see Lady Agila and Lord Nayrdon, whom them have met before, and are introduced to Lady Drina Kula who sits on the Confederation Council for Wohlen. They had also previously met Horsemaster Ezraus who represents Dyson and Lord Lucien who represents Venlo on the council. They are introduced to General Leo Halden, commander of the Confederation Army. Also here is Lady Elmerdine Hunt of Wald, whose basement they hid in during the crisis down there. She now sits upon the Confederation Council for Wald. Though she seems uncomfortable with the “Lady” title.
Yannic and Lughausen confer about how they are going to tell everyone about Zell. Yannic has some second thoughts about letting everything out in public instead of formally meeting with groups, such as the Confederation leaders, in a more private setting. However, they decide to collect in the main room, have the servants call everyone in, then give a toast and then tell their tale.
The people collect, the musicians stop, and Lughausen raises his hands in the front. “My friends, thank you so much for coming tonight. I have been away for more than a month from my home in Wohlen, and it is great to see you all. Your faces, smiling or grimacing, warm my heart. I salute you!” And he takes a sip of his wine, as does everyone else. “Outstanding members of the Confederation, which may grow, I come to tell you a tale and to have a good time. Let us start with the tale. A month ago, my companions and I journeyed to Zell.”
They crowd reacts, which the party notices, as well as the fact that the two tabaxi are new creatures to them. Lughausen continues with his tale, revealing that they discovered an entire city with its government and citizens intact since the times before the Great Cataclysm. Protected under their magic. The powerful people in the crowd have calculated looks as they step closer to hear more, which the party notes.
He tells the people that the citizens of Zell removed themselves from the world by sealing it out, but also unknowingly sealed a great evil inside with them. The party encountered and ran afoul of this evil, fighting this evil every step of the way until they uncovered it and defeated it for this past month. Many high-ranking priests in the government were killed, and new leadership took over. As with all things, change brings opportunity. Zell is no longer behind its wall. It is now open and changing its ideas about participation in broader world events, including potentially joining the Confederation.
Lughausen says, “As part of their opening, the more fervent factions in Zell have taken it upon themselves to restore not just this city but more. They are organizing what can only be called a crusade to go back to Gwynyth Raius.”
General Halden is alarmed, “A crusade? What do you mean a crusade? Do they march? With an army?”
Lughausen replies, “Yes, they do. And they are looking for others to join them. But they do not march here. We have arranged a meeting point between Zell and Wohlen, where we can join their forces as they go.”
Lughausen assures the worried general that they are not hostile to the Confederation. Sir Guyson steps forward at this news, “A crusade to Gwynyth Raius? Excellent!” He looks eager to join.
Lughausen concludes that this is the big news. They can speak more about the details of the city, the markets, guilds, and so forth. The return of Zell to the world is their big discovery and offering to the Confederation. They are on the move, and that will perhaps lead to bigger events and changes in the world and the future of the Confederation. The party’s plan is to join them as they travel to Gwynyth Raius.
A lady in priestly garb with the shield of Duath on the front steps forward, Ivy Cornwallis, and asks, “Does the High Temple stand, is it true?” She looks completely floored by Lughausen’s affirmative. “I cannot believe this; we dared not hope that it stood. Is there a High Lord Protector?” She is again floored when they answer yes and that they have in fact talked to her. They agree that they must talk further.
Jikaris had snuck through the crowd as Lughausen spoke, gauging the crowd and looking for anyone that might want to cause trouble. His sharp eyes picked out several priests including the priests of Myrcon and Duath, but also spotting a priest of Brage, noticeable because he is missing a leg, and Lugh, a tiefling with glasses. Mostly though he saw excitement and greed in the eyes of the merchants, for there are a great many here from the Order of Coins and they see only opportunity for profit with new partners and customers. Near the priest of Brage is a bard and another who seem to be paying close attention to what is being said, perhaps so it can be recorded later. Lughausen sees a fellow priest of Epolde, Peter Brunner who has a twisted back, whom he trained under back in the day, who is also watching the proceedings with an eye towards documenting it.
Solaria finds herself uncomfortable with how crowded with people it is here and was also in her very brief walk through the streets of Zell on their way out. Lughausen concludes by saying that they will be here in town for a few days and will entertain meetings if anyone desires during that time.
Sir Guyson approaches them first, merely because he was the closest already in the crowd. Yannic shakes his hand, “Sir Guyson, before you speak, I just want to say one thing. I saw the Banner of Hysor.” His eyes go wide. “In our hands. I just want to tell you that.” The words that were on his lips just disappeared. After a moment, he collects himself. “Really? But that’s from myth!”
Berg says, “We had a paladin of Hysor with us during our fights and we gave it to him. He has proven himself to be a good friend and a valiant paladin of Hysor. Sir Aiden.”
Yannic adds, “And he serves under another paladin, the Duke of Arhus, John Rowntree. He is the one preparing to lead the march to Gwynyth Raius, the paladins of Hysor. It is his expedition that is going north with his people, not the entire army of the city of Zell.”
They speak about the numbers, and while the party is speaking with Sir Guyson, but they are in a crowded room, and there are many people paying attention to this conversation. Yannic and the party are doing this on purpose, speaking with Sir Guyson but letting the others know about the expedition and who is in charge.
Sir Guyson is clearly committed to the expedition already, “Indeed. I don’t see how this opportunity can be ignored. To see at last what might be to the north is very valuable information.”
Yannic reminds Sir Guyson to not forget his home. Wohlen will need him more now that Zell is open again. As he is saying this, General Halden and Lord Nayrdon are stepping closer. Yannic says that he is worried that the town will be left unprotected. General Halden steps in, “The town will never be left unprotected. The Army of the Confederation has sworn their vows. They will protect the three, no four cities. My apologies my lady.” The last directed at Elmerdine.
Yannic points out that the expedition will be dangerous, and many will not return. Many nod at this in the crowd. He says also that there will be a lot of diplomacy to conduct. This is Lady Drina’s opening, and she asks if the city of Zell intends to send diplomatic emissaries and delegations to the Confederation.”
Yannic answers in the affirmative but lets them know that they themselves are the initial delegation in some sense. Lughausen agrees that they were asked to be intermediaries since they are familiar with both. He also reminds them that Zell just went through a horrible situation. The evil he described was quite real. Probably thousands of people died in the attacks. But to a city of hundred thousand, it is not a great percentage, but still, it is a lot.
When they mention the size of the population there is skepticism, but there is a lot of surprise that there would exist such a place that large. Lughausen and Yannic describe the city and make sketches about the districts, ancient temples, and so on.
Meanwhile Khragg is taken away by the dwarves and do some drinking and get plied for more questions. They also admire his armor. Yannic comes and speaks to them about the dwarves from Zell, the Order of the Mountain and the Gold Prestige. The Wohlen dwarves are very interested.
Over the course of the evening as they break up into smaller groups and mingle. They meet a few more interesting people.
The conversations with the Council members take more finesse. There is a lot of misapprehensions at first, as they are very concerned about an army marching on Wohlen, or that the entire city is marching up to Gwynyth Raius. The party has to clarify and explain a lot at first to defuse the alarm that the council feels at first. They must clarify a number of times about the difference between the Duke of Arhus and the High Lord Protector of Duath. The party must go back to the General several times to reassure him about threats coming from the east from Zell.
Sir Guyson appears to be their chief supporter on the idea of going to Gwynyth Raius. By the end of the evening, he has made promises that he will get the word out to see who might be interested in going with them. At one point, they overhear Sir Guyson and Lord Nayrdon speaking with each other. Lord Nayrdon again is reminding him of the need to stay and protect the Confederation, while Sir Guyson is speaking of the opportunity to find more allies and to finally know what is out there to the north.
Idrik Wemeson of the Order of the Coins eventually speaks with each in turn during the evening about trade opportunities. He also suggested that the Order might send some people.
The Guild of Wheels and Paddles guildmaster also speaks with the party about making the road between the two cities safer and passable. Much like how the road from Wohlen to Wald has now become safe. Guildmaster Griffin was also seen speaking to the general about getting men to help with the task of making the road east safe. He also promises some men to go with them to Gwynyth Raius since they are interested in new roads to new places.
They are introduced later to more priests. Sahala is the tiefling who is a priest of Lugh. She asks them a lot about the shield or dome, particularly cornering Yannic and Lughausen about it. They tell her what they can and bring up the wizard school there.
The priestess of Myrcon, Wendy Wheatflow, tells them that she has already decided to go with them. She also says that she will mention this at the temple and at least 10 might come just from there.
Lord Lucien speaks with them, asking about the government of Zell and who will be sending delegations. Lughausen suggests that the Confederation send a full-on embassy to Zell. They also want to make it clear that they are not giving up the Confederation should Zell want to assert leadership again as in the days pre-Cataclysm. Zell is welcome to join the Confederation, but they will not be subjects to a new Ap Wys. The General says this out loud, but the council members silently agree. Lord Lucien finds in the end that it is the Confederations task to send emissaries soon.
The priest of Duath, Ivy, approaches when Berg is away and asks more about the state of the priesthood of Duath, the High Temple and the High Lord Protector Aram Fathi. Yannic fills her in about the cult, the uprising, the assassination of the High Lord Protector and the elevation of the new one. She tells them that they had hoped but never felt it was their duty to try and elevate a High Lord Protector in the Confederation. They prayed and only heard silence from Duath. Yannic also warns her of the Aegis, and she tells them that is something new.
Lughausen is formally invited to the Seven Strings by the guildmaster who admires Lughausen’s bandore and asks to hold it, which Lughausen allows. The priest of Epolde congratulates Lughausen on his accomplishments and says he is doing a good job. Lughausen points out that he has learned how to read and speak Gwynyth Raius High and how to draw maps with some cartography skill. Peter is approving of it all.
4/9/1151 – In the days that follow, the town is all talking about what happened. As the party goes about the town, they can hear the people talking about the event and the new estate, which the party finally names Redstone Manor. Yannic as a hobby uses stone shape to fix up the tower and a portion of the wall of the Great Wall of Ap Wys in his backyard. Jikaris and Solaria have been a here a week and are in awe at this giant construction that everyone else just ignores. This gets the attention of several groups. Some are outraged that he is messing with history, and others are glad that he is fixing the eyesore. This includes the dwarves, but it does not include anyone official from the Confederation or Wohlen. It looks much better when he stops because the days have run out.
From time-to-time various factions come and request audiences with the party to ask more questions. The Order of the Coins, Guild of Wheels and Paddles, and so on.
Khragg spends the days with the dwarves at their breweries drinking. Khragg asks about investing but is turned down since these are family businesses and he doesn’t know Khragg well enough. Khragg gets on the delivery list at the least.
Lughausen casts sending to do some coordination with Duke Rowntree via Sir Aiden. They set the meeting site and let them know they are leaving the 15th to arrive the 17th.
They hear regularly from Sir Guyson. At first, he is optimistic that he will get the army to go along, but later has to change that idea. They learn that Sir Guyson has quit the Army of the Confederation. He tells them, “It was necessary. My duties were with Lord Nayrdon, though he returned to Wald, and through the hierarchy from the General. But they were just finding busy-work for me. In my heart I knew that I must go to Gwynyth Raius. And if I must quit, I must. The Confederation Army is committed to remaining here. However, I believe that I have gotten word throughout the Confederation. He has contacted several paladins who think like me and veterans who have retired or are close to retiring from the Army who are interested in going. I will have more numbers later.”
Yannic asks him if he is the ranking paladin of Hysor in Wohlen, and Sir Guyson answers that there is no organization in the Confederation for the paladins of Hysor. It is a personal calling. There is not even, in fact, a temple to Hysor here. Yannic points out that maybe that is something he can do when he gets back, and Sir Guyson agrees that he will indeed bring back whatever word there is about what can be found in the north. Hopefully something magnificent. There are others who are similarly dedicated should he fall along the way. Sir Guyson agrees to take charge of creating, organizing, and coordinating the contingent from the Confederation.
The party also gathers supplies, though the groups that come will take care of their own.
They analyze their route. Historically, from here the distance from here to Arhus in Gwynyth Raius. If they could fly directly as a crow, it is 120 miles, but it will be much different and longer since the army cannot travel like that. The traditional route would be to go along the Eder River until it hits the Ryne River to the Atlan Ocean at the city of Ham. There one would take a boat to go around the peninsula to the harbor of Arhus. Or, from Ham take the overland roads through to Arhus. With hundreds of people, traveling between 120 and 200 miles at a rate of 10 miles a day, it should take 20 days. They prepare supplies for that long and back again for themselves since the groups should supply themselves.
They realize that they left their wagon and horses back in Zell. They arrange for the duke to pick them up while they buy replacements here in Wohlen.
4/14/1151 – Sir Guyson reports that he has put together a contingent that includes 60 paladins of Hysor, plus regular Confederation veterans that brings the number closer to 100. He estimates that families, tradesmen, and traders who would go amount to another 70 noncombatants who would follow as camp followers. The Seven Strings sends 3 bards. The Order of Coins has hired 50 men, mercenaries, to go along. The Guild of Wheels and Paddles has also hired 20 men. The Temple of Myrcon in Venlo has found 10 priests to go along Wendy Wheatflow. The Temple of Epolde is sending two, while the Temple of Brage is sending a priest. This amounts to 260 people or so.
This contingent does not include any regular Confederation Army. They are not coming. The party did notice during this time, several groups of people heading east along with Confederation Army escort. The road to the east is slowly becoming that again and not an overgrown under-used relic of history. Delegations have indeed been sent to Zell. This includes the Guild of Wheels and Paddles and priests of Myrcon who each have an interest in restoring the route. Shortly after the official Confederation delegations, the Order of Coins and other guilds have sent their own representatives east.
They get word through the duke that the delegations arrived and were taken into the city for meetings. With the High Lord Protector and the other interested parties.
Khragg buys a warhorse with a military saddle and chainmail barding whom he names Wine. Originally, he was going to name it Ale, but then it was pointed out that when he calls for ale to drink, someone might bring the horse instead. So the name is Wine because everyone knows he would never drink wine.
4/15/1151 – The groups are finally assembled and ready to depart. An additional 40 or so people who had been hesitating before seeing that things are really happening and join the 160 people that were getting ready. These are more noncombatants and discontents, tradesmen and so on. This brings the number to 300.
They depart east. Marching is slow, much slower than the pace they are used to alone. They go forward as scouts, and this is the role that the duke had intended for them.
4/17/1151 – They arrive at the rendezvous, and there is a big encampment there already as the duke has set up first. It is a bustle of activity, raising dust as hundreds of people settle in. In the center is a large tent flying the flag of Gwynyth Raius, below that is a banner of Hysor (a regular one). The Confederation contingent likewise begins to set up and coordination begins with the noncommissioned officers meeting up and figuring out logistics. The party, along with Sir Guyson, are escorted warmly by several paladins in towards that large tent once things are underway. They spot the Emerald Exiles by a green sash worn from shoulder to waist as they get deeper in. There are also camp followers here as well as expected.
Sir Aiden meets them warmly outside the tent and brings the party inside. The duke is there at a camp table with maps sprawled across it. Runners are going back and forth with reports. The young duke stands up and welcomes them warmly. Yannic introduces Sir Guyson who immediately drops to one knee before the duke, “My duke, it is a pleasure to meet you.” The duke says, “Please rise, you are not a part of my entourage.”
Sir Guyson replies, “Well, perhaps one day I will be. We shall see where Hysor will take us.” The party notes that Sir Guyson is older than the duke, who is maybe just 30 years old at the most. He still has that boyish cast to his features in many ways.
They take a seat at his invitation so they may discuss their plans. He introduces another officer in the Emerald Exiles uniform to them, Captain Wilhye Cotton, a halfling who was standing at the side. He is tall for a halfling at 4 feet, graceful with two weapons at his belt, a scimitar and rapier. Next to him is a tiefling named Arkmos, He is a male tiefling warlock. He has long black hair with two small braides at his temples. Horns curve out of his forehead and curve back horizontally around the crown of his head. The horns are carved with runes. One of his eyes is a black orb, while the other has a yellow iris. His skin is bright red, and he sports a chin beard that he deliberately keeps jagged in cut. He wears black robes with a hood that is quite often pulled up over his head to hide his features from those who would judge him. He too has the emerald sash marking him as one of the guild mercenaries. He looks over to Lughausen and points to a wand at his belt and says, “I believe I have you to thank for this.”
Arkmos is one of Captain Cotton’s lieutenants. The captain goes on to explain their manpower at the duke’s request so that everyone is familiar with what forces are available. The Exiles are three companies each of 28 men led by a lieutenant, peridot, malachite, and turquoise. The fourth company, jade, are the scouts, sappers, and whatnot, along with servants and tradesmen numbering about 15.
The duke’s group consists of two hundred fifty men plus servants, tradesmen, and other non-combatants that number almost close to one hundred. He also introduces another paladin they have not met before. He is much older than the duke, short with long wavy silver hair named Captain Clifton Cartwright. He has special orders but is close to the duke along with Sir Aiden. The duke also has a second in command. His forces are not as formally ranked as the Exiles.
As they left Zell they had more join them, noncombatants as well who apparently just wanted to leave the city for various reasons, numbering close to 150. Their numbers are getting close to a thousand which pleases the duke. He asks if they have anything else to report. Lughausen tells the duke about the Confederation’s trepidation about Zell’s power. He asks the duke to give some sort of reassurances to them that they are not hostile to the Confederation.
The duke nods and informs them that his scouts had indeed spied Confederation scouts watching them closely as they marched to this rendezvous. He realized that they were worried that he was marching on Wohlen, and he did his best to make it overtly clear that they had no intention of doing that and were just setting up this big camp. However, as far as the intentions of Zell and the priesthood of Duath, he cannot speak for them any longer. He has left Zell officially and now it is Gwynyth Raius that he is focused upon.
His intention is to leave at dawn for that destination. They talk about their route and decide that they will return northeasterly towards Zell but bypassing it far enough to the north to avoid the temptation of those in the march to change their minds and return to the city. They hope to merge with the old road that heads north to Rafz and hope to get through the wall to Iborg. They do not know the state of these cities, but they are on the map and present the best path for the army they have. They will then go along the river, perhaps on the Ap Wys side, or perhaps on the Hemelsyn side to get to Osser and the Ryne River where they will turn north and follow it. Berg and Khragg remember that their home of Nenn is on the Ryne River, as are a few of the Free Cities of Hemelsyn.
It will be important for the lead scouts to ease the way since it may come to these cities having people in them who would be terrified of a what they might perceive to be hostile army marching upon them. The duke had asked if the party would fill that role before, and again they discuss it and agree that this is what they will do – travel ahead of the main force and blaze the way. The regular army scouts will watch to the sides and rear and run messages between the party and the duke and the army.
After it is settled, the duke asks the party for a private word. Captain Cotton, Arkmos, Sir Guyson and even Sir Aiden leave, but Captain Cartwright remains. The duke says, “I think it is necessary that you know something. Come with me.”
He leads the party out of the tent with Captain Cartwright at his side. They go off to one side of the camp. Along the way they see the usual military set up and activity. Ahead of them is an array of wagons and tents that they realize has been set up in a particular way to obscure an area. He leads them through, and they find guards standing at attention very alertly. They enter a circle of wagons that surround a single solid covered wagon in the center. This wagon has about ten guards around it watching them approach. He goes up to the wagon as the guards salute him and Captain Cartwright.
The duke gets to the doors on the wagon and turns to them. “These are Sir Cartwrights men. They are a special guard. They have an unusual responsibility. As I said, I think it is important that you know what that is. The captain stays outside as the duke takes out a key and unlocks it and enters with the party following behind, squeezing in. The wagon has three large chests in it.
He opens the first and reveals the Banner of Hysor. “We must take this to the High Temple. It is of the utmost importance that it be returned to them and to the king so that it may be used as needed to rebuild the country, if that is what the king decides to do.” Lughausen asks if there is a king, and the duke replies that he hopes so. It is his fervent wish that there would be so that he may lay down his sword at his feet and swear fealty to him and regain his ancestral title of the Duke of Arhus.
Yannic advises that the duke should show this to Sir Guyson, and the duke agrees if they say that they trust him.
He closes that chest and goes to the second chest. As he pulls out the keys he looks at the party and says, “I must swear you to utmost secrecy. What I am about to show you, the knowledge of what I have here would be very dangerous. It must be protected and delivered safely to the king.” The party swears as they have been asked.
When he opens it, there is one object in it, cushioned on fine velvet. A beautiful sword is revealed, glowing. “Behold the Sword of Nulfid. Wielded by the kings of Gwynyth Raius, thought lost at the battle of Brynn’s Field. My great-grandfather recovered this and…” He walks over to the third chest and opens it revealing a pure-white beautiful suit of full plate armor like the purest snow, as white as the Banner of Hysor. “The Armor of Nulfid worn by King Beldyn IV when he fell at Brynn’s Field. My great-grandfather at great risk to himself was able to recover these from the king’s body as he fell at the onset of the Great Cataclysm and made it back to Zell with them just before the Dome went up. And it has been a sacred trust of my family since. In the hope that one day the shield would fall, and we would have the opportunity to return them to Arhus and to the King. It is Sir Cartwright’s solemn vow to protect these treasures at my behest. And I entrust you with this knowledge because you have proven yourselves to be good friends and well capable of defending yourselves. Keep in mind that we have these things with us. It is important that they make it to the city, and they are not stolen or lost.”
Yannic and Lughausen recall from their history that these are powerful and magic items of historical importance to Gwynyth Raius. They were forged by the dwarves of Dun and given to the king Nulfid I who was a powerful and well-renowned king. They were gifted as a sign of trust and unity between the two kingdoms. The dwarves and the kings of Gwynyth Raius answered each other’s call to arms as needed throughout the centuries. When the Croyan’s invaded Dun, the Gwynyth Raiuns answered, and when the barbarians invaded or when the Yrvillians rebelled, the dwarves of Dun answered. Until the rift that occurred when the Yrvillians assassinated the king and broke the line of Nulfid. A distant ancestor instead of a direct descendant was placed on the throne who cared nothing for the dwarves. He was rejected by the Armor of Nulfid which has the power to recognize the true king of Gwynyth Raius and bestow upon him power of the paladin. The sword, which is a holy sword, was retrieved by the dwarves and kept in their kingdom as a sign of the broken trust, and the armor was lost by the kings of Gwynyth Raius.
They were lost for centuries until these items were recovered by great heroes at great risk. King Calvin I was the first to wear them both in generations after their recovery since Beldyn II was slain and the line broken. One of these heroes was Duke Ulrich of Arhus and his companions. King Calvin put them to good use during the rise of the Coalition and Alliance of Peace, and then with his descendants into the war with New Draconia and New Yrvil. These items were thought lost in the Great Cataclysm.
Yannic asks the duke about Sir Cartwright and the duke tells them that Sir Cartwright is most trusted and has had a special responsibility in his household to protect the vaults and keep the palace safe from attack. Therefore, they have not met him before now. He wanted the party to know about these important artifacts so they could factor into their plans. He does not expect them to guard the items but to be mindful of them.
He reaffirms to the party that it is his dream to lay these items at the feet of the King of Gwynyth Raius and bring honor to the Rowntree name.
They leave the wagon, and the duke locks up. As they are walking back through the camp, another paladin they have not yet met comes up to the duke. This is a human wearing the typical softly glowing plate armor that indicates a paladin of Hysor. He is clearly in his sixties with some longish white hair, a beard, and a ruddy face. He has a serious limp that looks like it pains him to move, yet his face is relaxed and happy looking.
Duke Rowntree introduced him to the party. This is Sir Janek Sibul, his second-in-command. Sir Janek is also in charge of the logistics of the camp. He tells the party that he’s the one to come to for planning the camp setup and breakdown. Where to put the horses, mess halls, mobile smiths, and so on. He smiles jovially at them, “You need to know where to dig the latrines, or you get the whole army bogged down with illness.”
He asks to be introduced to Sir Guyson so they can coordinate, and the party is shown where they can set up their camp. They want to choose a place within sight of the wagons that house the artifacts so they can respond if needed, however, the guards won’t let them be to close and draw attention to it.
As they are setting up camp, Jikaris speaks with them. He has remembered that he has visited this area before. It was ten years ago, and he wasn’t sure, but the more he thinks about it and the maps that he saw, the more certain he became. When he appeared in this area from his homeland, he appeared just outside of Zell. He was very curious about it, but could not get in. So, he chose one of the old roads at random and that turned out to be the northeast road from Zell to Rafz. This was in 1136.
When he arrived at Rafz, he found a ruined city with a population of a few thousand. Many of the buildings were crumbling, but the population had rebuilt what they needed where they needed. They were nowhere near the population size that the town could support. It was situated just south of the Great Wall with a gateway in it that goes through. On either side are two towers, much like in Wohlen. However, these two towers were fully intact, as was the gate. On the other side of the gate, Jikaris later learned, was an intact bridge that led over the Eder River to the town of Iborg. That town was in similar shape to Rafz in terms of damage and population – just a few thousand.
Jikaris stayed here a whole year, learning the language and meeting people. He never forgot about the strange dome and his curiosity about it. He eventually found like-minded individuals, including a priest of Duath who had a pre-Cataclysm holy symbol passed down through her family. They learned that the holy symbol would let them through, but they needed to find three others. They ventured eastward and explored until they procured them by various means. Sometimes buying them from a family that had a ancestral priest, other times exploring ruins. They succeeded and in the year 1140 they entered Zell and got trapped, as the party did. The rest they know.
They question him about the towns and cities on the map. They learn that 11 years ago, Iborg and Rafz had the people that Jikaris came to know. The town of Mels had inhabitants as did Osser. However, Buchs was destroyed, and when they reached the town of Engi, it was walled, and the inhabitants refused to let Jikaris and his party inside. So, they went elsewhere.
This helps the party a lot. However, they now realize that they are going to have to tread carefully with Rafz. No one is going to appreciate an armed force of a thousand people marching to their town. They will have to negotiate and smooth the way.
4/18/1151 – The next morning arrives. The day is overcast but it looks to be hot. There is a lot of confusion this first day as the camps break and people figure out how to get everyone moving. In truth, they don’t get moving until nearly midday, so it will be a long and difficult road until everyone gets in a rhythm. They coordinate with Sir Janek as best as they can. The party decides to ride a half hour ahead, with scouts and runners catching up to them regularly.
They ride along the grassy land with the Drakewind Forest to their left to the northwest. They march for the rest of the day. Towards the late afternoon as they start thinking about wrapping up, even though want to they push on to make up for the lost time in the morning, they see a storm forming ahead. It is a big storm, several miles across, and it is moving swiftly. The winds pick up and clouds roll in from the northeast, possibly around the swamp area just coming up ahead. The land here is grassy with groves of trees and small hills. The ground is still firm.
They think about riding back to hunker down, but it is coming in fast. They get suspicious with how fast it is rolling in, though this has happened before. Then the winds whip up and the rain falls in a downpour obscuring vision and hearing, catching them in it. There are lightning strikes, and they look around. Solaria and Yannic cast mage armor. Lughausen and Yannic look around and spot something flying in the sky, large and strange looking. It seems to be a part of the wind, and rain shifts as it moves, flying. It is gargantuan, about 20 feet flying fast in swirling circles and loops about 60 or 70 feet above them, hovering. Suddenly, as it nears, there are sudden blasts of lightning upon each of the party, and they find themselves in the center of the storm. The creature appears fully looking like a series of fast-moving windy serpents wreathed in lightning, flying above them. The lightning strikes each and stuns everyone except Jikaris and Berg.
Moving as swift as the wind, the creature strikes again. A thunderous slam emanates from it, hitting Berg with a clap of thunder, after which it flies back up out of range. Jikaris moves away from the group and gets ready to fight. It strikes again before the rest of the party’s senses clear, and they can finally bring ranged magic to bear. Yannic hits it with a powerful fireball, but it retaliates, flying over to him and pummeling him with thunder until he falls unconscious. But this brings it close enough for it to be reached with weapons, for a very brief time, while on horseback. Khragg takes advantage of this for a few swings. Lightning bolts still hurl from the sky at the best of the elemental tempest creature, damaging the heroes and their horses. Some of the horses are sent away but many are still caught in a screaming gale of wind and lightning sent by the creature that hurls those caught in the blast almost sixty feet away. Berg and his horse are flung into a tree, and his horse nearly dies. The rest are severely wounded, but Lughausen uses his healing magic to keep everyone from dying. The creature again came too close to the ground to unleash that strike, so Khragg and Berg, who was able to fly after Lughausen used his magical bandore to cast that spell upon him, were able to hit it with their weapons from horseback.
At last, with a blow empowered by his faith in Nuath, Berg strikes it down. Immediately, the raging storm calms to a normal rain and the lightning stops, and the wind quiets. They take a short rest to recover from the battle and tend to the wounded horses.
They take some time to consider the creature that attacked them as they rest. Yannic believes that the creature was an extremely powerful and rare elemental. It was carved from clouds, wind, rain, and lightning. They drown the land beneath them with rain and stab the earth with lances of lightning. Punishing winds scream around them as they fly, feeding he chaos they create. He had not heard in his studies of a creature like this occurring naturally in this world. In some rare books about the planes there are mentions of this creature. So, it must be from an elemental plane. For whatever reason, this one was here.
They find it very suspicious even more so now after the attack. They wonder who might have the power to send such a creature to attack them, or the army. Was it after what is in the caravan? They again return to the powerful elemental Djinn they saw before. Vengeance for killing the genasi with Karzhad.
The army arrives and they set up camp. They tend to the wounded horses, with help from those that arrive who are skilled at such things after paying them a few silver. They set up watches as before. As they are sitting around the fire eating, now that the rain has stopped, they look at their maps and talk about the Tower of Salinga Penne which is relatively close nearby. Solaria is very curious about it since it is a wizard’s tower that was built pre-Cataclysm. After a long talk, they decide that they will visit it on the way back after they are done with the army. Solaria will then be able to her time studying it. Doing so now on the way north would be a bad idea and take too much time and be a distraction.
4/19/1151 – A bit more rain this morning, normal thankfully. The party takes the lead position. Breaking camp goes a bit faster and more smoothly today. It takes a lot of time, certainly more than if they were on their own. The ground gets softer as they are near the swamp, and they head east some until it firms up again. By the late afternoon, as the sun is setting, they see the northeast road ahead. The road is not well-traveled. In fact, it is difficult to see that anyone has ridden on it recently. It was at a point in time long ago a major thoroughfare and well-maintained. Now, it is overgrown but discernable. They know that the trample of the army marching through here will go a long way to making this a road again.
They set up find a spot within sight of the road, and the army eventually arrives to set up once again. The duke reports that the march is going as well as expected. There have been the usual few cases of dysentery, illness, a few lame horses, damaged wagons needing repair and all that is as expected. Watches occur as before. Those on watch in the party circle around the encampment, check in on the guards around the special wagon and then return to their own camp to do it all again.
4/20/1151 – This day is dry and clear and looks to be a hot one as they start down the road ahead of the army once again. They are in the forest again with trees all around. The previous rain is long gone, and the ground and trees are very dry. The only evidence of travel on this road is from regular animals. The old wagon ruts on the road have long filled in, and shrubs and small trees are in places that would never survive if the road were travelled. The passage of the army, however, will nicely clear the way at least.
In the early afternoon, there is a sudden great booming laugh followed by a flash of red and orange light followed by a wave of heat. A moment later through the trees they can see the flicker of fire and in moments, smoke rises through the air above the tree line. They ride forward quickly to where the fire is. Their first thoughts are that this is the arrival of devils and demons, but as they approach, they see a fiery salamander frolicking amongst the trees lighting fires. Deeper in, they see other fiery creatures and more flames.
This could be a serious problem, they realize. If the forest catches on fire, this could trap the army and kill everyone. At the very least, it would ruin their planned path. Jikaris casts a hypnotic pattern that hypnotizes it for the duration of the ensuing battle.
Spread out through the area are more salamanders, and fiery elementals clad in blacked armor wielding swords. They are led by a pair of efreeti, dressed in silk pants with a scimitar at the ready. Using their horses, the party swiftly closes the distance with the fiery creatures. In seconds, Khragg and Solaria are deep amid the creatures and the fires. Berg fights a few of the creatures to the east, while Yannic and Jikaris snipe from afar. When the efreeti are revealed, they hurl bolts of fire, causing more fires to spread. Every few seconds more trees and shrubs catch, so it becomes a race against time to dispatch the foes before they lose all chance at putting out the fires. It did not help when one of the efreeti created a magic wall of fire so they worked to dispatch that efreeti and disrupt its concentration.
One by one the foes are dispatched. The efreeti disappear into ash and smoke when they die, leaving behind a blacked scimitar. One of these as the last of the creatures to fall, except for the one enthralled salamander, whom they kill easily.
They could at last turn their attention to the spreading fires. Yannic had some success during the battle putting out some of the fires with a cone of cold spell cast from his staff of power. He used that a second time during the battle. Still, the fires continued to spread despite that.
Working together as a group, they get to work containing the fires. Lughausen takes station on a high spot and surveys the area to direct their efforts where they are needed most. Khragg chops down a few trees strategically to fall and smother the fires. Berg quickly digs fire breaks and berms and deprive the fire of fuel. Yannic uses a telekinesis spell with careful arcane concentration to move more earth to smother flames in another area. Jikaris darts through the trees, using his sharp senses to identify any fires that they missed.
After long hard work, dirty and sweaty, the last of the fires are put out. The area is smoke-filled, lingering for a time, but the area is no longer on fire and the road through is safe for the army.
Jikaris remembers and recounts to the party that he had traveled this road ten years ago when he appeared and traveled to Rafz and made the acquaintance of a gnome diviner named Grapip. They put together an expedition to find the means to enter the Dome around Zell. They had met a dwarf priest Aznar Hammermail, whose holy symbol was a key to entering it. Three years of adventuring with this group led to the acquiring of more of these symbols – enough for each of them and the warrior they hired, Bryce Laughingsteel. Then, they entered the Dome of Zell and were trapped there, until ten years later he just escaped with the help of the party. He tells them again the fates of his former companions, that Grapip was killed, Aznar stayed and married, and Bryce also died. Now, they are approaching his old home base in Rafz. Jikaris realizes now that he never checked on her during the recent uprising of Gomory and the cult.
They sit tight and rest until the army arrives. They elect to make camp here, which isn’t a terrible idea in case some of the fires flare up again. There would be plenty of eyes and hands to deal with it easily. They find the duke’s tent, and are waved in. They worry that something happened to the army, or its cargo, while they were fighting the fire. However, the duke is relaxed when they meet him. They give him a report about the fire. They discuss about whether the fire was directed at them, the army, the duke, the party, or what. However, they have no conclusions.
Jikaris gives a brief summary of the two cities of Rafz and Iborg, however, it is a long time since he has been there. They figure a day or two to arrive in Rafz from this position. Jikaris remembers that there is a small village by the name of Stanmore on the way on this road. Just a small hamlet of a few dozen buildings.
The duke asks questions and a few more details emerge. Each town has a population of a few thousand each, one within the old walls of Ap Wys, and one without (Iborg), which has its own city walls. The one inside (Rafz) did not need them. The gate across the river and towers are all intact but it was never closed in Jikaris’ time there. The two towns since the Cataclysm have cooperated and kept their relations warm. The duke is pleased and considers this a good candidate for the river crossing. If this one is intact still, it should be taken and used, because the next one might be ruined. Much like the one in Wohlen was.
4/21/1151 – As the army breaks camp, perhaps faster now that they are getting the hang of it. There is plenty of time for the party to get their breakfast, prepare, and head off ahead. There are clouds to the north, but clear to the south. They wonder about a storm coming in later.
The former caravan road makes for easy travel. After a few hours, the clouds to the north have not moved. They arrive at the outskirts of the village of Stanmore. Jikaris dismounts and scouts ahead with stealth since it has been ten years since he was last here. It is summer and the foliage is thick, so they cannot see very far ahead otherwise. But the forest here has been harvested of timber by the residents of the village. Some small natural clearings for gardens and very small farms, and so on.
Jikaris comes back quickly saying that he sees no movement and damage in the buildings with plants growing through it indicating some time has passed since whatever happened there. They ride up together into the village proper. Now they all see signs of fire, collapsed walls, and plants growing in places that normally wouldn’t have them, like a walkway. As they enter the village square, they spot bodies lying in the weeds. Then, those bodies start to stir – the undead have risen. As they rise, the sharp-eyed see that plants and vines have been growing around the bodies, but they aren’t without flesh. Some are even juicy still.
Jikaris is curious as to what happened here in the ten years since he was last here. Yannic points out that undead don’t make themselves, so something came here.
They are surrounded by a great many of the undead, who start to swarm in. Most are zombies, but some are more sinister. These undead cast spells – warlock spells – summoning darkness, cold, and haunting whispers in an area around some of the party and are identified as deathlocks. This is easily dispelled by Lughausen. The zombies, as they swarm in were clearly villagers – adults of both genders and some children, unfortunately. The zombies attack indiscriminately, including the poor horses. Fortunately, Lughausen calls upon the power of Epolde and Yannic uses his magic to dispatch most of the regular zombies, leaving only the deathlocks casters to be dealt with at the end.
The zombies are led by a deathlock mastermind who has more magic at his disposal. He flies for a while during the battle, staying out of reach of the melee users in the party, but not away from the casters. However, Berg hits him with a spiritual weapon, breaking his concentration on his fly spell and falling to the ground. This allows Khragg to run up and hit him with his sword while it was prone upon the ground. The rest of the party surrounds him and destroys the undead leader.
They search around the remains of the village to see what happened here. One of the deathlocks fled in the forest, afraid of the power of Epolde. It was lost, and the party worries about that. Lughausen and the others have never seen this type of undead before, casting spells and looking the way they do. They study them and from their religious teaching, they remember that these creatures were once warlocks of an evil patron that have betrayed that patron or run afoul of it somehow. They were punished and were raised as these deathlocks still chained to their patron. Why there would be such a concentration of them here in the village of Stanmore is not immediately clear.
Searching the village, they see signs of an attack of some kind. Weapon marks on walls, broken weapons scattered about, a lot of blood-covered lumberjack tools. The bodies of the villagefolk that became zombies also show signs of bitemarks and scratches indicating that they themselves were also attacked by undead. The search also results in Jikaris finding an old strongbox hidden under the floorboards of one building that contains someone’s life savings in coin, gems, and a ring. The plant growth looks to be since just this last spring, so only a couple of months had passed since the attack – not years.
Lughausen considers casting a speak with dead spell on one of the deathlock bodies, however, his training indicates that the spell will not work on a corpse that was once an undead – its memories have been ruined by the transformation into an undead.
Jikaris knows that they are about a day away from Rafz from this village, and this encounter occurred in the afternoon. They also find a great many dragged shuffling tracks heading out of the village to the north towards Rafz. Seems like quite a bit of traffic, and the party is now quite worried about Rafz.
Lughausen casts a sending spell to the Sir Janek (who is in charge of the army’s logistics), “Sir Janek, we have entered the village near Rafz and found all turned to undead. They are at rest now but warn the troops. Moving forward.” He replies, “I will inform the duke. Should we halt the march? Oh, I’ll send scouts.” Lughausen cannot answer, so they leave it at that. Sir Janek is new to the sending spell.
They take a short rest and move on. The forest is relatively muted as they go on, but not completely silent and devoid of wildlife. The clouds to the north remain, and the south is clear, but there is no sign of rain though it is a very hot day, approaching 90 degrees. There is no sign of that undead or anything else dangerous, but there is nothing. They find a place to make camp.
4/22/1151 – They continue along the north road. They notice that the dark clouds to the north are still there. This seems very unusual; those clouds should have moved on by now. Furthermore, the two tabaxi judge that those clouds are right over Rafz. The more they study them, they see that the clouds are spinning in a vortex of some kind. After a couple of hours of travel, they should arrive at Rafz.
They get closer, reaching the outskirts of the town’s demesne, and notice that those clouds are really dark, casting a significant shadow over the area. They stop at the edge of the trees, still out of sight and pause. From here they can see that the town is quite sizable, probably holding a couple thousand people. There are many buildings. They road they are on goes right up through the middle. On the far side, they can see that Great Wall rising, still very intact and in good shape. They see no one stirring amidst the buildings. There is no sound of the hustle and bustle of a populated urban center. No smoke rises from any chimney. The roads are choked with weeds still, as if there was very little traffic here. They worry that they might be facing a couple thousand zombies.
They look again for tracks that might indicate the presence of zombies. The footprints they find are shuffling dragging feet. They also can see the sky more clearly now that they are at the edge of the forest. The dark clouds are indeed swirling around a center point, but that point looks to be on the far side of the Great Wall, in Iborg not Rafz. They discuss some plans about luring and trapping the zombies in fire pits, but first they need more information. Is the town crawling with undead or not? Will the army need to be rerouted away from here?
They cast some defensive magics, then Jikaris once again volunteers to scout ahead stealthily. He moves along the road, first checking some farms finding them abandoned. Furniture is overturned, cabinets are left open and half empty. Signs show that people were hastily grabbing and leaving. When he gets to the more densely populated edge of the town, the weeds have been growing on the road and between the houses are about the same age as what they saw in Stanmore. The houses he checks also show signs of people fleeing and are empty.
He stays on the main road for now, moving towards the town square. He will decide about going to a side road, if necessary, based on what he finds. The town is eerily quiet, and with the very dark clouds above him, it feels almost like twilight and that he is being watched. There is a particular chill in the air, which seems counter to the 90 degree heat that they were feeling as they approached the town through the forest. He is downright cold.
Just as he is reaching a section of rowhomes just before the market square, he spots a group of four or five skeletons just standing in the road. He backs off, and takes a side road now with a destination of Bryce Laughingsteel’s family home. The streets continue to be quiet and empty. He occasionally hears the clicking clattering of bones on stone, indicating other groups of skeletons scattered about. He reaches the Laughingsteel house, finding the door ajar. He studies it for movement from a hidden position. After being certain it is empty, he sneaks in. It is indeed empty. On the first floor, he finds more signs of a hasty departure – spilled boxes of brain, overturned chairs. The front door was open, but there was no sign that it was damaged from any attack.
He checks the bedrooms upstairs, finding it empty also. Three empty rooms – one a girl’s, with clothes scattered on the floor. The second room was probably a young man’s, Bryce’s son has grown. A shield is askew on the wall. The parents room is last, with windows looking over the street that Jikaris entered from. As he is there, he looks out that window and sees more undead. This time with elevation he can see further. A large spherical creature with eyestalks, rotted and undead, floating down the street, turning a corner. An undead beholder.
Jikaris is unnerved and decides that it is time to return to the party. It has been almost an hour that he had been away. Lughausen studies the wildlife. It is not like the area is completely devoid of it. More like they are keeping their distance.
After his report, that there are some powerful undead here, but not hordes of zombies, at least not yet, they feel like they have to investigate further and hopefully even clear the town and make it safe. Lughausen casts an arcane eye spell and sends it into the town towards the gate, right up the middle.
The eye continues past the group of skeletons that Jikaris had seen, and enters the market square. He also catches a glimpse of an undead beholder floating through the market square and down a side street. In the square he finds a number of buildings, a fountain in the middle, and piles and piles of barrels, crates, barricades of some kind blocking off some of the side streets and square. He continues with the eye towards the gates. As he approaches, he sees the two towers are still intact as Jikaris had described. He spots doors that would allow one to enter and presumably get to the top if they wished.
The gates are ajar. They are not closed now, but at some point, there were definitely closed. One gate is still in the closed the position, and the other is open. He floats the eye through to see the other side. Here he has a clear view of the bridge across the river. He realizes he would see better if he brought the eye to the top of one of the towers and flies it there.
From here, he can see the town of Iborg. The dark cloud is directly over the town. There is a great amount of destruction. Many buildings lie in ruins. One building catches his eye immediately, as it was position directly in the middle of the town and directly underneath the swirling dark clouds. It is stone with a spire. He can see lots of movement through the city. Shambling undead walk the streets, except for one large neighborhood where barricades have been erected between the buildings making a safe zone. In that area he sees living people, numbering in the hundreds. They huddle together as small groups of armed men rush from barricade to barricade, fending off the undead on the outside. In the center of that neighborhood is another significant looking building that has the look of a temple. At the top of the spire on that building is a brass or gold sun – this is a temple of Hymdel, the Aspect of the Sun and the enemy of undead.
Lughausen also sees that leading the armed men is a paladin with a glittering yellow cloak and an embossed sun on the armor of his breastplate. He wields a battleaxe. The huddled masses are surrounded by barrels and crates of grains, and several cookfires burn and he sees that they are cooking entire sides of beef to feed the refugees. The entire safe neighborhood is surrounded by undead, leaving them no escape to the outside.
His eye is drawn back to the central temple-looking building under the eye of the storm. Then he sees a dark tall figure out of a nightmare walk out from behind that building and march around it in a circuit. He identifies it as a nightwalker – an extremely powerful undead formed when a living creature passes through into the Negative Energy plane.
Lughausen dismisses the arcane eye and they discuss the situation. Jikaris has no recollection of the strange building at the center. He remembers that the Chilly Dagger Inn is just west of the Temple of Hymdel. But this building is across the street from that, and as far as Jikaris remembers, that was just part of the market square.
They consider different plans. Lughausen believes that the situation in Iborg is dire, but not so dire that they have to go right this second. Yannic suggests that they can teleport or fly into the safe zone. They also talk about clearing Rafz first and use the gate to their advantage against Iborg. There is some worry that the paladins with the duke’s army will rush in to fight the undead, however, they also trust the duke and he trusts them.
Lughausen sends another sending to Sir Janek, “Arrived Rafz outskirts. Scouting shows survivors in Iborg and great evil undead. Clearing Rafz - army to hold bridge against minions, we will assault tomorrow. Pray.” He replies, “Oh my! Will confer with the duke. Hang tough. We will decide how we can assist. Hysor’s blessing upon you!”
They consider further about the strange building and the dark clouds. Is there a gate or rift there? Lughausen thinks about the undead creature and recalls that scholars have identified an “annihilating aura” about the Nightwalker that makes it very dangerous to be even close to it. If you are killed by one of these, you cannot be revived except by a wish spell. The nightwalker by itself, while an extremely powerful undead, is not likely to be the cause of all this, but more like a symptom of it. Yannic with his arcane lore believes that these clouds are evidence of an extraplanar rift, perhaps to the Shadowfell, or even the Negative Energy Plane, would definitely be a strong possibility for what has happened here. Hard to say if closing the rift would weaken the Nightwalker. The storm is not natural by any means and is casting a whole lot of shadow – therefore no sunlight that would weaken the undead vulnerable to it. The cloud is protecting the undead from the sun.
Lughausen has a theory: They have seen planar rifts before as a natural occurrence since the Great Cataclysm. To the Feywild, other planes of existence to bring in goblins, gnolls, even the Plane of Fire as Skilgannon experienced. What if Iborg got so unlucky that a rift appeared in the middle of the town to the Negative Energy Plane?
They now consider attacking the temple building to close whatever rift that might be there, and maybe remove the clouds so the sun can help them against the undead. Keeping the clouds in place like that in one spot would probably indicate an ongoing ritual conducted by someone. Someone that they could hopefully surprise and take out.
They agree to proceed with the plan of securing Rafz to give them a defensible position to consider how to address the problem of Iborg, with the wall and gate protecting them. They want to find a place where they can set up an ambush to trap and attack the undead beholder and whatever else they find in Rafz. They need to find a good spot. They are uncertain if there is more than one beholder, and other types of undead than the skeletons.
They also need a fallback position that they can defend in case things go bad. Jikaris remembers that Grapip’s workshop is in Rafz, and it was magically warded. He has the passphrase to get them in. They will go there first and set up. They leave the horses in a safe spot off the road where the army could see them in the forest and enter. They go stealthily, not having the means to make everyone invisible easily.
They creep down the main road for a bit then take a side street to get to Grapip’s place, which is not too far from the Crowded Glass Inn. They all, except for Khragg, see an undead beholder in the distance. They wait, hidden, and it does not spot them. When it is gone, they continue on to their destination.
They manage to arrive at Grapip’s laboratory residence without being discovered. It is set aways from the rest of the rowhomes, tucked back and surrounded by some trees. It is a cottage, and they feel that it is protected by magic. They all feel the chill as they get nearer to the Great Wall, caused by being under those unnatural clouds. It is very dark and shadowy – a perfect environment for undead.
With the cottage in sight, they stop as they notice another undead beholder nearby who has stopped and is conferring with another undead. This time humanoid of a type they have not seen before. Lughausen identifies it as a bodak. Unnoticed, they sneak down the alley and arrive at Grapip’s. Jikaris takes a moment to see if the cottage is being watched, sneaking around the perimeter. He sees nothing out of hand, and returns to perform the passphrase ritual to unlock the wards and lets them in.
They enter a library, filled with books, mainly on magical theory and history. Solaria immediately helps herself to a few of these and puts them in her pack. Two more doors lead out of this room, the ones straight ahead are a double door into the workshop proper. There they discover a teleportation circle upon the floor. Jikaris points out that they had used that one many times in their adventures with Grapip. Yannic studies it so that he can also use it as a destination for the teleport spell.
On the desk, Jikaris finds that there is a letter addressed to him from Grapip, which he reads aloud:
Dear Jikaris,
I’m writing this before we go on our grand adventure to Zell. I am certain that the holy symbols will work, and we will see what’s inside! I have cast a number of divinations with many interesting results. Some of those results worry me. Therefore, I am taking a few precautions including this letter. It is in my mind to give you the passphrase for my lab sometime soon.
As I gathered my equipment for our trip, I cast divinations about each, because I have too much to use at once. Interestingly, the divinations suggested that I would not need my scarab of protection. That would imply that we will not find the undead in the Dome. My magic does suggest, however, that the scarab would be useful back here in Rafz.
I agonized about my crystal ball. My magic suggested that it would be useless on our trip. I can only hope that it will be safe in my lab. Fingers crossed that Tepnick does not find his way inside.
Hopefully, I am standing next to you as you read this letter. If not, then I wish you the best of luck. Pursue those mysteries and solve them. I will be with you in spirit.
Your friend,
Grapip
At the mention of the crystal ball, the party looks for it in the chest that is in the room. There they find the crystal ball, which after some discussion is given to Jikaris for attunement so that he can use it to scry on this Tepnick person. The scarab of protection is taken by Khragg, and the ioun stone of absorption that he was using is given to Lughausen.
Jikaris finds some pages in the desk that apparently fell out of one of Grapip’s journals and were stuffed inside along with blank pages. He reads these out:
First page:
I met a strange creature in the Crowded Glass of all places. A walking and talking cat by the name of Jikaris. He had a very interesting story. Apparently, he was teleported magically from some far-off land to just outside of the old Ap Wys capital city of Zell. Then he wandered into my town and decided to stay.
We talked all evening and agreed to meet again for more drinks and conversation. He has been here a few months already, trying to learn our language. I volunteered to help him with that. My magic should help him along, I think.
Second page:
It’s been a few weeks since I met my new friend Jikaris. I have learned a lot from him and he from me. He can now speak fairly well of Gwynyth Raius Low, or the common speech as most people call it I suppose.
After describing his home and how the sun rose, and using some of my divinations, I believe that he came from somewhere far to the south. How that can be I do not know. I do know for sure that the devastation of the Great Cataclysm gets worse the farther south you go. However, from his point of view, the devastation got worse the farther north he went. This would lead one to believe that there is a definite point of origin that can be located if one were to travel in the direction of worsening destruction. He and I have agreed to pursue this one day.
In the meantime, his talk about a magical dome of energy about the city of Zell is most intriguing. He is burning with curiosity over it and frankly now I share that curiosity. My divinations have not been clear on what might be under it or how to get there. I think we shall pursue this mystery first.
Since the city of Zell was the site of the High Temple of Duath, it would be logical to assume that the magic originated from those priests somehow. This fits in with all the stories. Jikaris has met a dwarf priestess by the name of Aznar. I shall meet them tonight and talk the mystery over with her. Maybe she has some insights.
Third page:
That damn Tepnick visited again. He knocks on the door and pleads gnomish unity and then tries to look past me into my laboratory. I can tell that he just wants to get in and steal something. All my auguries are clear – that gnome has a dark future ahead and I want no part of it. I’m going to beef up my wards. We’ll be gone for a few weeks this time, I predict, and I don’t want him getting his grubby hands on my work.
They consider the strange building, and Lughausen is suddenly reminded of how Yannic used stone shape and wall of stone in the hovel in Zell to shore it up. He realizes that the building in Iborg under the storm looks like a wizard had used those to make an entire building. A wizard like Tepnick, perhaps?
Jikaris uses the crystal ball to scry on Tepnick now that they have several reasons to believe he is involved and not for any good. He finds the gnome immediately, in a room made of stone that fits the description of what the interior of the strange building in Iborg under the center of the storm might look like. He is wild-eyed, with a thin spiky beard and a shock of black hair sticking up on his head. He wears green robes but has a Warhammer and shield on him. They watch as Tepnick goes to a cage holding about a half-dozen starved and frightened commoners. He selects one and tries to drag him out. Then an undead creature steps into view to help him. It is female, or was once, with very pale skin, dark ruby red lips, and fangs. With easy strength, they drag out the wretch and take him to a pillar set above a trough of blood. There is a dead body shackled to it, that they unshackle and let drop. They put the living commoner in its place, shackling him to the pillar. Then the undead slashes his belly so that it bleeds down into the trough in the ground. Then Tepnick walks across the room to his backpack, where he takes out a book and sits down to read. Along the way, they see a wall with a mural in the back of a shrouded grey figure with no face, this above a stone altar of some kind. Then the vision in the crystal ball ends.
The party concludes that Tepnick is indeed in the building with the weather, and they are using commoners to power the ritual that makes the storm and dark clouds. They think about the robed figure in the mural and Lughausen believes that it might be Tuoo, one of the five false gods that appeared roughly a century ago long before even the Great Cataclysm. This god was a god of undead, and cults appeared that worshipped him in place of Arawn. In fact, an army of these cultists laid siege to the High Temple of Arawn until they were defeated and driven out by the hero Yaltan, though at great cost.
Also, within the chest the party found one of Grapip’s backup spellbooks. Yannic and Solaria appreciate this but there is little time to scribe new spells right at this moment. There is also a spell scroll of meteor swarm also is taken by Yannic.
For the rest of the evening, they plan how to deal with the undead problem. They draw out a map of Iborg and Jikaris labels all the buildings. Discussing their options, their earlier thoughts on securing Rafz first are discarded in favor of a more immediate strike at the strange building that is creating the clouds. Hopefully, they can disrupt that and bring back the sun to weaken and scatter the undead. Perhaps even close the rift. From what they saw with Tepnick, the ritual looks easy to disrupt – they need to feed it fresh bodies. However, they still feel like they need more information. They consider for a magical means of communicating with the people in the refuge in Iborg, particularly the paladin of Hymdel. However, the only spell they have is sending, and its content is too short to be good for a long conversation.
It is decided that they will go to the refuge in Iborg as secretly and stealthily as possible in order to keep the element of surprise against the undead and the strange temple to Tuoo that has been built there. But they do not want to surprise the people there, so they will send a message to the paladin that Lughausen has seen and warn him that they will arrive tomorrow and appear in the temple of Hymdel. Lughausen uses sending to send a message tonight before they settle down to rest.
“Adventurers coming to help. At dawn we arrive invisible to the temple in your camp. Leave door open if safe and we will appear inside.”
The reply comes, “Thank Hymdel you have come! We will leave the door open. I hope it is in time.”
They feel safe here because of the wards, and it has been safe for the past 10 years, but they have watches just in case.
4/23/1151 – Yannic notices that Khragg looks like a wreck in the morning. Lughausen also notices. They ask him if had slept in his armor and wonder if he had normally taken off his armor before. Khragg admitted that he did sleep in it because he likes it. Yannic seems to indicate that this subject is not closed and will be discussed later.
They fly invisibly and roped together to the refuge, very high up in the air outside of the range of magical sight spells. As they fly out over Rafz, Lughausen catches sight of a new type of undead in the Rafz town square, but it does not see them as it enters one of the least damaged buildings. From this vantage point they also see several of the undead beholders floating around the town – almost a half dozen. They fly over the Great Wall and then over Iborg. More undead in great numbers patrol counterclockwise around the area of refuge where the Iborg survivors are.
The armed guards of the refugees look tired, and the party can surmise that the people there have gotten little sleep for some time. The large nightwalker patrolling around the strange building is there like he was before, but now the entire party can see him directly. It lingers for a time at the doorway before circling again.
The destruction of the city seems to indicate many fires, probably set during the clashes with the undead. But they are out now. They successfully arrive in the refuge without attracting the attention of the undead, including the specters, wraiths, and shadows that can fly. They arrive at the temple of Hymdel and find the doors open, so they enter.
Inside the temple, they spot three priests and the paladin talking softly on the front pews. The interior looks as expected, with a giant tapestry over the altar showing a bright shining sun. One of the priests is a half-elf woman dressed in the vestments and colors of Hymdel. She is introduced as Carlynna Olana. The second priest is a priest of Duath, and she is another half-elf dressed in armor as you’d expect, and her name is Gowanna Endove. The third priest is a dwarf woman, dressed matronly in brown robes befitting a priestess of Dianc, and her name is Grudehilde Forgebraids. The paladin of Hymdel speaks with the party first and introduces himself as Sir Patrick Engelberg.
These introductions are made after the party abruptly appears, startling them as they come to their feet. Sir Patrick was ready to fight until the party introduced themselves with placating gestures. Lughausen speaks first since he was the one who sent the message. The people clearly have not seen tabaxi before.
They offer seats and assume that the party would like to hear of their plight first. Sir Patrick defers to Carlynna as she tells the tale of Rafz and Iborg.
“Times are grave. We are surrounded by the undead. The whole town of Iborg and Rafz are completely occupied, and they keep coming. We believe that the ultimate cause was a rift of some kind, an opening from here to the Shadowfell. We believe it was around the beginning of the year when the rift appeared, about 10 feet off the ground at the edge of the market square. We are not sure exactly because it is a bit hard to see. When we did understand that there was something there, we couldn't be sure of exactly the day it arrived. The arrival of the undead though was noticeable. In smaller numbers at first, then over the course of the weeks increasing until we were unable to stop them. Some people fled the city, though we think a lot of them were chased down in the woods. The others hid here as we threw up the barricades and armed who we could. Sir Patrick has been leading the defense ever since. His tireless efforts have kept them at bay.
Then he arrived. He named himself Demnan Vance and we had never seen him before. He was new to the town, and he arrived about a month after all the undead appeared. Clad in dark armor, his skin was pale and had rotten open sores on his skin. He took command of the undead, organized them. Set them to assaulting the gates to Rafz, which had been closed for the first time in anyone's memory. The people of Rafz had barricaded the gates and stayed on the other side to keep the undead here in Iborg.
The first time we saw him he had that gnome wizard Tepnick with him. Tepnick scurried about him calling him master, and then used his magic to cause large stone walls to form and shape and in a single day build that temple around the rift. For a week they were in there, and the undead were all around, and then the clouds came to block the sun. Then he came out and talked to us. I remember the words clearly, Grudehilde says. By this time, most of the people alive in the city of Iborg were now in the refuge. Most of those that hid in their homes probably had been found and taken, though there might be a few others here and there. Those in Rafz continue to hold the wall at this time. It will still be a few weeks before that falls.
He stood out in front of the Chilly Dagger at noon in defiance of the bright sun that was now obscured by his power that summoned the dark clouds and said:
“Citizens of Iborg! You have been blessed! You will be witness and participant in the return of the Great Lord Tuoo, the True God of Death and Endless Life! Tuoo has chosen this place for His first step back onto this world, where he will bring glory to all who dwell here, taking back that which was denied him by the foolish Three and their Aspects!"
"Bask in his Glory while the great work commences! You shall all be valuable contributions in the endeavor. While you wait your turn, live your life as you will. We will take those whose time has come when we are ready for them."
“Then he strode off back into the building and has been rarely seen since. People started disappearing from the refuge, mostly at night. At times they come straight over the barricades and take them. It’s a nightmare. We could feel the ritual changing and then that thing appeared and stepped out of the temple. It now guards it day and night.”
“The gates to Rafz fell about a few weeks ago, and the people there were captured, killed, or fled. A big group heroically managed to get to The Refuge at great cost.“
“Ever since we have been holding on as best as we can. The food is scarce and rationed. We have slaughtered most of the cattle that some with foresight brought in before it became impossible to do so.”
“Here we remain, hoping, praying for salvation and rescue. And you are the first people who have come. Can you help us?”
The party says that they are going to try. Lughausen considers the name of Tuoo, and he remembers what he read in old books including an association with the Bible of the Blessed Ones. About a century ago, before the Great Cataclysm, there was a religious conflict between the Aspects and these five new gods that apparently appeared with followers. It was said that during this time that the Temple of Nuath was attacked and destroyed, and one of these gods Gaal, killed Nuath, though he returned since. One was named Maal or Mefis, then there was one called Tuoo and sometimes Taal. This Tuoo raised an army of undead and laid siege to the High Temple of Arawn, but the army was defeated by Yaltan Lunchwicz. Lughausen remembers the names of the five gods: Mefis, Gaal, Hiisi, Baaldazeron, and Tuoo, and that a being called The Daemoi was the parent of them in some way.
They speculate now about the appearance of the rift. Is it a beachhead for an invasion of a big and powerful god? But why here in this small out of the way town near a temple of Hymdel? Was it chance? Is this an invasion?
Lughausen begins casting a spell with a long casting time: planar ally. The priests and the paladin take this opportunity to ask about the party and what forces they can bring to bear. How did they happen to come here. Yannic speaks with them and tells them about the duke, but he also makes it clear that they found this situation in Iborg completely by accident. He warns them that the army of the duke is not here to rescue them. They have their own mission. However, the party is willing to step aside and offer what aid they can. They are committed.
Sir Patrick is understanding. He is not surprised about anything that Yannic told them. He has faith that Hymdel provided in his divine influence in ways that may not be obvious. Yannic asks again about any other information they can provide to help them plan. Something about patterns, guards, and so on. Sir Patrick answers that there really isn’t a pattern to their patrols. They swarm a different barricade every day, sometimes the same two days in a row. Is there a pattern? Perhaps. They have tried to find a way to get all the people out of the city. But they had so many people that it wasn’t practical. He mentions that the creature outside the temple is very vigilant. He would like nothing better than to destroy the nightwalker, but he has been unable to put his full attention on destroying it because he had the people to preserve.
As to the people disappearing, it does happen at night most often. During the day, people are taken during the barricade swarming. Khragg asks about unusual undead with unusual powers. Sir Patrick talks about some of the intelligent undead, and they might be the ones responsible for the disappearances. He mentions that they have seen some undead, a handful, that resemble Demnan. They might be vampires, but usually they do not like sunlight – however with the clouds blocking the sun.
When Lughausen completes his spell, the light inside of the temple suddenly dims. Instead of the feeling of bright sunlight that they have felt since they entered, it now feels like moonlight. A figure appears, fading in slowly, as if it was walking from a distance and getting closer, but stationary. This figure is about 7 feet tall, has pale moon-colored skin, black hair, and a pair of feathered raven wings upon his back. He holds a pale longsword, the color of the moon, at his side. It is held loosely, ready to strike, but it does not threaten with it. His chest is bare, rippling with muscles. He is wearing a black cloth as a kilt, and he wears sandals on his feet. He takes a step forward and addresses Lughausen. “My patron has heard your entreaty. What is it that you wish?”
Lughausen answers, “Help us close the rift to the Shadowfell.”
He turns his head and looks in the direction of the rift. He seems to be seeing through the wall as it contemplates. He responds, “That would please my mistress greatly.”
Khragg asks what this creature is outright. They identify the creature as a deva and a servant of Arawn. Berg and Solaria calm’s Khragg and tell the party that this is not a foe.
The deva repeats, “This task would please my mistress. However, closing rifts is not in her bailiwick. I could assist you in your task for appropriate sacrifice and payment.”
Lughausen says, “Then let us negotiate. Rather than closing the rift, can you help us get to the rift safely so that we may close it.”
The other priests are taking this in and have bowed their heads a little bit to the celestial being. The priestess of Duath is regarding Lughausen calculatingly. Sir Patrick has taken a knee and holds his head down.
The deva says, “My strengths are not stealth, nor teleportation.”
Lughausen says, “How about some good old undead bashing?” The deva says, “That I can do.”
The party asks about it fighting the nightwalker, and the deva says that type of undead is quite the foe, and possibly beyond his means to defeat alone. The party is certain to take it out together.
They negotiate and the deva agrees to help the party in exchange for the amulet of the devout to Vidyar, and the ioun stone of absorption that Lughausen carries. The items are handed over.
Now they must decide on a plan to get to the building and the rift. Yannic admits he knows nothing about closing rifts. He wants to remove the clouds so the sun will weaken the undead. Khragg decides to study the nightwalker to understand its martial prowess. He has a caster put invisibility on him again and Sir Patrick leads him to the upper floor of the Chilly Dagger so he can observe it for a few minutes. He learns that the creature is easy to hit and does not appear to have any martial training. It also appears to fly for some of its movements, letting them know that could be a problem. Khragg saw that the Chilly Dagger has been set up as a defensive bastion for a retreating action should that need arise. He also sees the state of the refugees here in the refuge, and it is not good.
The rest of the day is spent coming up with a plan. The plan is this:
They will go the next day, and Berg and Khragg will go out invisibly, cast by Solaria, into the street to intercept the nightwalker. Jikaris will take position in one of the ruins stealthily so he can fire at it and join in after the attack begins. Yannic will cast an illusory dragon spell, and together they will unleash all they can on the nightwalker to kill it quickly, and then either attack whoever comes out of the building to help or go in and attack them there. Then disrupt the ritual.
Sir Patrick and the three priests will run interference with their militia to distract and deal with the regular lesser undead in the area. Additionally, the priests volunteer to place the blessings of their Aspects upon the party and free the party’s concentration.
The goal is to take the nightwalker out as quickly as possible so they will not fight on two fronts.
They had considered all manner of strange plans before they got to this final one. They even joked about impersonating Tuoo somehow to cause confusion. As the name is mentioned, the deva speaks for the first time since the bargain was struck with Lughausen.
“I have been instructed to inform you that Tuoo cannot come to this place.”
They act dismissive to this news, thinking that Arawn is telling them that they must stop the ritual to prevent it from happening, and the deva continues.
“You misapprehend what I say. It is an impossibility. That creature who spoke lies.”
They understand now. The undead here are using an ancient, destroyed cult to gain more power. They are determined to destroy the nightwalker first, resolving to stay on target and not get distracted by anything else that appears because the nightwalker is the most dangerous foe. The deva is instructed to fight alongside the tanks and use his utmost to take it down and protect the party and innocents.
They rest for the remainder of the day.
4/24/1151 – In the morning they prepare. Berg casts protection from evil on himself and death ward on himself and Khragg. Lughausen casts protection from evil on Berg. The priests cast their bless spells, splitting it up on the party. Jikaris casts the invisibility, and they sneak out. Sir Patrick has his men ready, and everyone is waiting, hidden, in the Chilly Dagger Inn to rush out when the fight starts.
They succeed in getting into position without attracting attention. Khragg and Berg each hold one end of a rope to help guide them, and it will also be a signal – they will drop it the moment the attack should start, and it should appear as it falls.
The nightwalker circles around to their position, and they attack, dropping the rope as the signal. They surprise it and unleash all their power. They do so much damage so quickly that it dies in two furious rounds of combat (one surprise) before it can even act. Yannic’s illusory dragon that he summoned appearing as a red dragon only needs to breathe once, and that was the final blow to kill the creature. It dissipated with an inhuman screech that could be heard across the town as it fades into tatters into nothingness. Solaria, the deva, and Jikaris also surround it in the second round, having to run up. As they do, all the militia and the priests swarm out to attack, turn, and corral the undead away so the way to the temple is clear.
During those rounds, nothing exits the temple. Now that the nightwalker has fallen, they make their way to the strange building’s doors worried that the nightwalker’s scream has alerted those inside. The deva has flown over to the opposite side of the entrance, so they have it well covered. Khragg gets to the door first and kicks it open.
Khragg sees the interior first and stands heroically in the doorway. The building has no windows keeping undead sensitive to sunlight safe inside. It is not a normal construction but is instead fabricated by some combination by wall of stone and stone shape, into an oval shape with a double door entry. On the far end is an altar opposite the doors. The top of the building had been shaped into a spire of blackened stone with a metal rod pointing up toward the storm’s center, which they saw as they had run up.
Khragg’s eye is drawn to the rift itself. It is about fifteen feet off the floor. There is a stairway and a wooden platform leading up to it. The figure, Demnan Vance is standing on that. The rift is somewhat insubstantial, identified by a wavy shimmering in the air. Smoky blackness wisps pour out of it and dissipate into the air. Situated on the ground are five pillars with crossbeams. Tied to those pillars are five bodies, living prisoners bound to each pillar by their wrists. They struggle weakly. There is a slit in each of their bellies, and blood seeps out to a pool in the floor. These pools are connected by troughs where the blood runs to a central pool directly under the rift. The central pool bubbles with necrotic energy. Drips of blood infused with the necrotic energy drip up, defying gravity, towards and into the rift 15 feet above.
Next to each of the bound prisoners is a vampire spawn, with a clawed hand ready above their throats, hissing. At the same time, each of these vampire spawns is chanting in unison in an unknown language, powering a necrotic ritual.
Standing on the top of the platform is Demnan Vance, in his black ridged armor that looks weathered and used, with a greatsword on his back. He is holding a hostage, a girl, that he holds with one arm around her neck, and the other keeping her from moving with supernatural strength. She struggles and screams. In the back of the temple is a cage with about a half-dozen weak and starving prisoners, probably taken from the refugee camp. Tepnick is also in the back, dressed just as they saw him before, but he has his warhammer and shield ready.
The moment Khragg has kicked in the door, Demnan Vance yells, “Now!” triggering all their readied actions. Each of the vampire spawns simultaneously rips out the throat of the prisoners on the pillars. Blood gushes out into the pools, down the troughs and into the central pool. A blast of necrotic energy flares up from that pool and encompasses the rift. In that moment, Demnan Vance tosses his hostage into the rift, and she disappears with a scream. Tepnick casts a spell on himself in the back.
Khragg lunges towards the nearest vampire spawn and swings his sword. Tepnick tries to cast a spell on Khragg, but he resists it, then Tepnick vanishes, blinking out of existence. The others arrive and join in the fray, first Jikaris, then Berg, Solaria, the deva, Lughausen, and Yannic (who casts greater invisibility on himself). The vampire spawn swarm around Khragg, but the protection from evil spell makes it difficult for them to hit him. Lughausen strikes them with a flame strike, and the radiant damage makes them hiss with fury. Tepnick appears long enough to cast an arcane burst, and then blinks away again.
The vampire spawn are taken down in short order as the rest of the party arrives and starts swinging.
From the rift, the black smoke-like energy roils around pouring out, sucking more of the blood from the pool below it until it has been emptied. There is an icy cold emanating from the rift now, and the party feels a pulling sensation on their souls. Then a long leg steps out of the rift, followed by a second, and another nightwalker steps into this world. As soon as it does, all the commoners in the cage scream in horror and die. Streams of darkness are pulled out of each helpless person and go to the nightwalker.
Demnan Vance laughs maniacally, “You have met your doom now!”
While the nightwalker’s attacks are dangerous, it is the annihilating aura about the creature that is the most devastating to the party. Each round they feel their lifeforce pulled into the creature, getting weaker. The damage is so horrible that many of the party flee outside of the building to get out of the aura towards the end of the fight.
Yannic casts the dawn spell that does terrible damage to the vampires, but not so much against the nightwalker. He maintains it throughout the rest of the battle. Several vampire spawn die in this light.
Demnan Vance skitters along the walls like a spider, approaching and then charming Jikaris with his vampiric gaze, commanding him to come closer and surrender himself. Jikaris’ jaw goes slack, and he says, “Yes, master…” and starts moving to him. When he reaches him, Jikaris leans his neck out to be bitten and Demnan Vance drinks heavily, regaining vitality. But Berg has also arrived at this time and battles him to save Jikaris. Also, Yannic’s dawn is shifted to include Demnan, and he screams in anger as the sunlight harms him. Jikaris shakes off the charm in time to escape before he dies. Nearly dead, it is only by Lughausen’s healing that he makes his escape in time.
Fortunately for the party, Tepnick is afforded no special exception to the nightwalker’s aura, so every time he blinks into existence, he suffers the damage from the nightwalker. However, he blinks away before he can be damaged by the dawn spell. The blinking prevents Yannic from counterattacking him.
Demnan Vance is taking damage from all the weapon attacks and the sunlight, so he starts shifting out of the dawn spell towards the door. However, Yannic counters by moving the dawn spell. Demnan resorts to swinging with his greatsword at Berg as he also retreats towards the door.
Berg’s spiritual weapon takes down the nightwalker at least and it shrieks with unearthly power as it dissipates into smoke and vanishes.
After Demnan has moved to the door, and again out of the dawn’s sunlight, Yannic fires a magic missile at him, and Demnan Vance shrieks and becomes a cloud of mist. Yannic moves the dawn over the mist, but it has no effect on the mist. Further attacks on this mist have no effect as it starts to rise up into the air. As it does, the party quickly talks to each other, wondering what they can do to prevent the misty vampire from escaping. Lughausen thinks to ask the deva, and it replies, “The wizard made a critical error, he should have moved the sunlight first. Now the vampire will escape. Sunlight would have prevented the misty form.”
Demnan Vance escapes into the sky.
Tepnick is the last foe standing, and he blinks into existence, long enough for Lughausen to cast dispel magic that he had readied. That handily removes the blink spell and allows the party to deal with him. They try to convince him to surrender, but Tepnick is insane and just tries to escape with misty step. Jikaris snarls as Tepnick runs and takes out his crossbow and the bolt of slaying that he had from some time ago. He hits Tepnick and the gnome falls dead. Jikaris says, “That was for Grapip and this town. You were the cause of all this, you son of bitch! This town deserved better.”
Once the ritual was disrupted during the course of their battle, the clouds almost immediately stopped their swirling and fairly swiftly were being blown away. Those outside noticed this as they chased Tepnick. It would only be a matter of minutes until the sun broke through for the first time in months. The undead reacted almost immediately from this change and started shrieking and fleeing the scene. The tide of battle with the human refugees led by Sir Patrick is starting to turn, though there are still a great number of undead to whom sunlight has no impact still battling on, though more disorganized than the start of the battle.
The party has a moment to breath, as they take this one, allowing a few moments of healing. However, they all feel that something has changed in the temple. With the evil ritual feeding the rift disrupted, the behavior of the rift has become unpredictable. Will it close on its own or open wider – becoming worse of a problem. They judge that now is the time to deal with it and return inside. Lughausen quickly takes a moment to cast some healing spells as they enter. The deva also uses some healing powers.
They take some time discussing their options and their course of action in dealing with the rift. Lughausen speaks with the deva first. Lughausen attempts to persuade the deva to extend the terms of their agreement to do everything in his power to help them close the portal by giving them as much information as possible about it. The deva offers to commune with Arawn to answer three yes or no questions. Lughausen agrees. After some discussion he tells the deva to proceed. The deva raises its arms and closes its eyes. The light of the room seems to change as if the moon has come out, and the party feels the presence of the mistress of death. When the deva speaks its three answers to the questions, they hear a double voice: the voice of the deva and behind it the voice of a woman in the distance.
Can we create a ritual to close the rift with what we possess? “Yes”
Does removing the blood help slow the rift's growth? “Yes”
Do we have to look outside this room for answers? “No”
Lughausen slumps. The deva bows to him and says, “Our bargain is complete.” He then fades away, departing.
Jikaris approaches the altar and searches it thoroughly and slowly, taking his time making sure that it is free of traps, glyphs, wards, and other magic defenses. He finds it safe to proceed. He points out the book on top is safe and points out that there is perhaps a hidden false drawer on the underside of the stone slab that acts as an altar.
Solaria investigates the book on the altar and finds that it is an excerpt from the “Bible of the Blessed Ones: The Book of Taal”. Solaria also found the means to open the drawer. In that is another sheaf of papers that is more disorganized. She looks these papers first and finds that they contain notes and drawings showing how the rift was studied and how the ritual to keep it open was designed. She surmises that they could be used to create a ritual to close it. She reads the Book of Taal excerpt aloud to the others.
Yannic takes the papers from Solaria and investigates them to decipher them to come up with the beginnings of a ritual to close the rift. He feels confident that he can find a path through the notes, perhaps also using an identify spell ritual as a monitor of some kind to create a new ritual that will close the rift.
Khragg carefully and respectfully cuts down the bodies of the villagers from the posts and carries them out, removing the source of blood that was powering the evil ritual that they disrupted. He successfully prevents any further spillage of blood as he does so. They are lined out carefully outside. The rift indeed seems weaker after he does this.
Berg takes a maul that he borrowed from Khragg and smashes the troughs, draining the remaining blood away from the bowl where the blood had pooled. The blood is diverted through the front door outside and down the steps.
Lughausen casts legend lore on the rift and uses his religious knowledge to feed some suggestions to supplement the ritual that they are creating. It comes to Lughausen that Elysenika, the Aspect of existence has charge of planar connections, such as planar rifts like this one. These rifts have become commonplace since the Great Cataclysm. This implies that her domain has been affected more than any other Aspect’s domain. For example, during the Cataclysm, Hymdel’s domain of the sun was affected as the sun went out for 3 days. But since then, there has been no further effect on it. The seas, the mountains, and so on all were disrupted during the Cataclysm only briefly. Yet for these planar rifts, it is an ongoing thing. He also remembered the goblin fortress that appeared from another plane of existence in Wald.
Jikaris helps them come up with more practiced and precise hand gestures along with exercises that will help them do the important arcane and religious gestures necessary to complete the ritual. Stretches for the fingers and the like.
Solaria uses her knowledge of history, with the help of Lughausen’s bardic inspiration, to recall that according to historical records, the ancient Reyman Empire spanned across planar boundaries, reaching far across multiple worlds and planes of existence. It was said that they had cities or places that were junctions between many worlds. If this is true, then it would imply that they had knowledge on how to open, close, or maybe even move portals and rifts. It would then follow that fashioning such a ritual to do what they intend is not only possible but has been done before. They could be recreating lost knowledge. Accounts of rifts such as this one have become frequent since the Great Cataclysm, and Solaria herself had seen such rifts as had Yannic and Lughausen when they faced the hobgoblin fortress. Their old companion Sven told them about the time a rift opened to the Plane of Fire and killed his tribesman friend. That occurred in the Confederation of Cities. Solaria adds these historical insights gleaned from ancient histories that might be applied to the ritual.
Yannic uses his arcane knowledge and performs the identify ritual to help him assess the state of the rift and study it directly. He burns incense to help him see the shape of it with the smoke. This rift has the feeling of connecting this place to the outer reaches of the Shadowfell where it meets the Plane of Negative Energy. This place has long been associated with the creation of the undead. Closing the rift would have a negative impact on the undead here in the town. The rift is fluctuating, however, their efforts to build this ritual to close it seem more and more sure of success. Yannic’s confidence grows after studying it. He noticed some rippling in the gate earlier that might have gone either way – either opening it wider or diminishing it, but their efforts so far in this process have had a positive effect on it. He also notes that it might, at this point, close on its own. However, the process could take days or weeks. What they are doing here now is valuable. He adds in what he just learned into the formulation of the ritual. However, just at the end of his study, for just a moment, as he is turning away from the rift, he glimpses movement on the other side out of the corner of his eye. When he turns back to the rift, it disappears, but again when he turns to look at it peripherally, he sees the movement again. It might be an entity or entities.
Khragg, noting that the symbol of Elysenika is a starry night sky, takes out stone carving tools, that the party has not seen him use before, and sets to carving that symbol into the floor below the rift. He takes care to use some of the existing rubble that Berg created with the sledgehammer that does not have blood on it – he wants it clean and pure. It will be a mural to Elysenika with maybe some crossed spears (for Nuath) thrown in there for good measure. After a time, as he is working, Khragg takes a pause to wipe the sweat from his brow and happens to glance at the rift just in time to see something come through. There is a ripple and wave of negative energy at this moment that erupts through the rift and the creatures appear.
The negative energy that accompanies the arrival of enemy undead fresh from the other side of the rift huts the party directly. Then they see that bodaks, banshees and allips are now in the room, hostile, moaning and screaming, and battle begins. Jikaris, Lughausen, and Solaria are nearly killed outright when the banshees wail. Lughausen is saved by a death ward spell and Jikaris and Solaria are later healed after lying unconscious for several moments. In retaliation, the party focuses on taking out the banshees first. Though the Bodak’s gazes are also very dangerous. Yannic slings the fireballs, and the weapons flash as the undead are finally cut down, though it was tough going for a while as many of the members of the party were knocked unconscious several times during the course of the battle.
It takes a few moments to revive the unconscious and then the healing magic is dispensed to help everyone recover from the deadly encounter with the undead that came through the Rift. The wave of negative energy that had emanated from the Rift also bolstered, for a time, the undead fighting outside with the defenders of Iborg. After the party dealt with the undead that appeared in the building with them, this bolstering effect faded and the defenders once more slowly recovered the upper hand in the ongoing battle.
They turn their attention back to the ritual they were building. Khragg’s attempt at sculpture was damaged during the course of the battle that started when the negative energy wave came. Khragg looks over the damage and says, “You know, Berg, maybe this is a sign. I’m thinking that this is a sign that maybe we don’t close this thing. Think what we can do with it?”
Berg is incredulous, “What? Watch everyone die as the undead come through the portal?”
Then Khragg says, “Hell no, we can control them and send them only after our enemies!”
Solaria asks, “What makes you think we can control them?”
Khragg answers, “The other guy could. So why can’t we?”
Berg says, “Because we are not evil and in league with Tuoo… that’s a horrible idea!”
Solaria says, “Thank you Berg!”
Khragg continues, “You don’t have to be evil. A tool isn’t evil, it’s just how you use it. Just think about it guys! This is ultimate control that we can use to dispatch all the evil creatures that reside in the world now.”
Berg is very suspicious now that something is wrong with Khragg and debates what power he might use to help him, “Don’t worry, I’m thinking about it…”
Khragg goes on, “You’re not seeing the big picture!”
Berg pretends to start seeing the picture that Khragg is painting while preparing one of his holy powers. Berg plays along saying that perhaps this could be used in Nuath’s name, and Khragg cries out “Exactly!”
Solaria is incredulous still at what she is hearing Khragg say.
Khragg asks Yannic if the ritual can be modified to give them control of the undead to send an army of them out to destroy the monsters of the world. Now both Yannic and Lughausen’s attention is on what Khragg is saying and they too are incredulous.
Berg touches Khragg with a cleansing touch and the madness in his eyes clears a bit, though he still looks confused. He says, “I just… think we can do more with this than let it be gone… I saw them in this fight and just imagine turning them against our enemies! If we could control them the way the guy did.”
Berg continues to play along, “I agree, I understand. I feel like Lughausen is the only one that would have the magic to help us.”
Jikaris leans over and whispers something in Lughausen’s ear. Lughausen plays along with Berg and Khragg, “I think I do. Let me demonstrate…” He casts protection from evil on Khragg.
Khragg doesn’t seem too affected by it, and says, “I’m not sure what you just did, Lughausen. It’s just a thought in the back of my head. Just why not put the tools of evil to work for us? They’re just tools. They are not inherently evil.”
Lughausen responds, “Undead are not tools, they are things, they have will. They have actions of their own.”
Khragg says, “But if we can control them, then they do what we want and their will doesn’t matter.”
Lughausen says, “So you want to be a slaver?”
Khragg says, “For undead, sure! It’s no different than using a sword to chop something down!”
Berg says, “Except a sword doesn’t try to break free and kill you in your sleep.”
Lughausen says, “But there are some differences. Khragg, this is very unlike you. In the past you were very emphatic about not being controlled and dominated by others.”
Khragg says, “But for me? Yeah? I have no desire to be controlled or dominated. I’m a person. These things aren’t people anymore. They are just evil undead. Why not use that to our advantage?”
Lughausen says, “Well, historically that always go wrong.”
Berg looks at Yannic, continuing to play along with Khragg and asks, “Do you have anything that can help Khragg in his idea?”
Yannic looks helpless, knowing also that something is wrong, but he doesn’t have the spells today. Berg then suggests that maybe tomorrow they can research Khragg’s idea but for now they should continue with what they were doing.
Khragg walks up to the edge of the rift, “I don’t know… Look at it! It’s full of power!”
Berg follows Khragg up, staying close to him.
Khragg looks at it again, “But just look at it! We can’t close it. How can we get another one? We have to find a way to harness this. We have been working on a ritual to close it. Can’t we just adjust it a little bit to give us control?”
Berg continues to try to convince Khragg that the Rift must be closed right now, and then tomorrow they can research controlling it when the spellcasters have spells, but Khragg refuses to let the idea go that they must seize the moment right now to control it.
Back and forth they go, then Lughausen says the obvious, “Khragg, you’re losing it. We’re trying to be kind here, but you’re obviously under some kind of evil control.”
Khragg says, “I have no idea what you’re talking about. From my standpoint, this makes perfect sense.”
Lughausen says, “No, someone under evil control would say exactly that.”
Khragg says, “I have no idea what you’re talking about. I am not controlled by anyone.”
Lughausen says, “You’re talking about trying to harness an unharnessable force that has brought only woe upon the world when we’re close to finally getting rid of it. I suggest we lock him in a closet until we’re done.”
Khragg says, “You’re not locking me up!
Solaria asks, “Have we considered why Khragg is suddenly acting like this?”
Yannic suggests, “Maybe the vampire is back, and he is here invisible, and he is using his mind control. I can’t see invisible though, so who knows?” Yannic quickly casts detect magic to look around.
However, at that moment, Khragg suddenly lunges towards the portal. Fortunately, Berg stayed close by, ready, and grabs him and prevents him from getting through. Berg rolls them off the platform as Khragg struggles to get through the rift, landing on the floor.
The rest of the party is alert now to something terrible happening to Khragg and jumps in to help. Lughausen attempts to calm everyone’s emotions and suppress a charm effect that might be affecting Khragg. However, he is not affected. Jikaris runs over with rope and ties Khragg up. Solaria casts polymorph and turns Khragg into a slug in Berg’s hands. The rope drops to the ground.
Yannic’s detect magic reveals a lot of magic in the room, most of it residual from the Rift, but he doesn’t learn anything about what is going on with Khragg.
Solaria’s polymorph will last an hour. However, she can also recast it a few more times if necessary.
They work to complete the ritual while Khragg is sidelined.
Berg considers everything that has happened so far, and what just happened with Khragg, and uses his insight to see if anything was missed, or something is going wrong with the ritual to close the Rift. His insight tells him that the pulse of negative energy that made the undead appear was sort of the Rift’s last gasp. They are close to having this figured out. He also had a feeling that what happened with Khragg is complete unrelated to what they are working on with the Rift. It doesn’t feel to him that Khragg’s sudden change of heart was not caused by the Rift and the ritual. Something else is going on with Khragg. Berg also has some insight and suggestions about how to improve the ritual, that maybe they should include some elements of Nuath and Epolde and not just Elysenika in the closing ritual.
Lughausen suggests that maybe Jikaris can help make this ritual stealthy, so they won’t be noticed doing it. Jikaris likes this idea and suggests that there might be eyes on this Rift, looking at Khragg, and he can help them do it quietly and unobtrusively. Jikaris takes charge of this endeavor to make the ritual secret so hopefully they won’t have someone appear to interrupt it.
That is the final missing piece of the puzzle. They know now how to conduct the ritual to close the Rift. Yannic realizes, however, that it will take 2 hours. So, they must deal with Khragg the slug first. Berg thinks they should turn him back to normal and remove Karzhad’s armor, having an epiphany about it. Jikaris remembers and tells everyone that he hasn’t seen Khragg take that armor off once since he got it. As they discuss options, they become more convinced that it needs to be removed and that Khragg is cursed.
They take some time trying to decide how to keep Khragg under control and still be able to complete the ritual that was designed to be run by six people but now must be completed with 5 or maybe even 4 depending on how they deal with Khragg. They debate ideas with dispel magic from the Talisman of Foersyn that Jikaris has, to Solaria staying out to recast polymorph again, to maybe using illusion magic to trick Khragg into thinking he’s jumping in the Rift when he really isn’t. They even consider killing him and bringing him back to life without the armor. A lot of their options are off the table until tomorrow when they have rested and regained spells.
Finally, they just throw their hands up and put the slug in a bag in the cage in the room and lock him up. They will just deal with him as a problem as it comes up during the ritual. They just must get started.
They take their places, consult their notes, and having practiced the hand movements, words, and sealed off the room to make it secret and quiet, begin. Yannic takes the lead. The power swells as the complicated runes are drawn on the ground, the rubble cleared, the bodies gone. The rubble from Khragg’s sculpture is a reminder of what could go wrong again. Their fingers are limbered for the complicated hand gestures, their boots and armor silenced for stealth. The energies are gathered so that they can impose their will upon the Rift and close it, so that the world here and the world on the other side in the Shadowfell near the Negative Plane of Energy or sealed as they were before.
Sweat drips, their hair matted messes as the first hour passes. There is a sudden burst of ripping fabric as in the cage as the slug becomes Khragg again. They could not be ready to cast a spell on him as they were in the middle of the ritual. Yannic notices Khragg first and tries to levitate Khragg off his feet with the staff of power, but it doesn’t work. Solaria casts polymorph again and turns him into a deer.
They continue with the ritual, despite the minimal interruption. A small gong is quietly tapped. Holy water is poured, incantations are chanted. Then the Rift vanishes. There is a change in the room and the mood lightens. The polymorph drops and Khragg reappears, disappointed that they have missed an opportunity to control it.
The party talks with Khragg while he is in the cage. He discounts the idea that the armor is a problem. They try to convince him to take the armor off, and he disagrees that it is safe to take it off. He refuses to take it off, even for a few minutes. They let him out of the cage, still talking with him, trying to convince him that he must take it off in a safe place, to at least get clean and stop stinking. He refuses saying that nowhere is safe. He must keep the armor on. They have been attacked everywhere at any time before, there is no time or place that is safe.
Mystified at all the talk of him needing to prove something by taking the armor off, Khragg walks away and opens the door to go outside. The first thing they see is sunlight, though it is low on the horizon by now. The day is almost over, with all the time they took fighting the undead and dealing with the Rift. But the sky is clear, and the clouds are now gone. The undead are mostly only the brainless type of undead remaining (skeletons, zombies, maybe a few ghouls) and the town forces are in mop-up mode.
Seeing the party coming out, the leaders, Sir Patrick Engelberg, Carlynna Olana, Gowanna Endove, and Grudehilde Forgebraids rush up jubilant. “You have done us a great service! Look, the undead are fleeing. We are eternally in your debt. Whatever we can do to aid you is yours!” They ask about the welfare of the party, and the party assures them that they are all right. Khragg runs off to kill some of the minor undead, even though they seem well in hand. Khragg wants to work out his anger. The leaders look anxious about their people and after the party says they don’t need them for anything, they go off to help the wounded. They say that the party is welcome to make camp wherever they like, which the party agrees they need. However, before the priests can leave, and after Khragg has run off, they consult with them about a few things.
The rest of the party had taken the time to inspect the building to make sure it is safe for the rest of the people in the city. One of the items they found was the Book of Taal, which they are worried about, so they show it to them. Carlynna Olana, the priest of Hymdel, recognizes it. She tells them this was a holy book from a cult in pre-Cataclysm days, in fact several decades before the Cataclysm, that worshipped the dark god Taal who was also known as Tuoo. This is just a few scribbled pages and nothing of any magical power and furthermore looks like it was just torn out. There is nothing inherently dangerous about a few pieces of paper. The cult grew large enough to raise an army and lay siege to the High Temple of Arawn. Once that siege was broken, they did not amount to much beyond that.
They ask for their thinking about Khragg’s possible curse and how he has been acting in the last few hours. They admit that they are at their wit’s end and ask for their thoughts. They fill them in about the armor and where it came from and what they have realized about Khragg’s behavior upon reflection.
The priests agree that it sounds like a curse, and they suggest that if the party can cast remove curse to have it prepared tomorrow. They also suggest the party prepare divination magics to help them learn about the armor and Khragg.
They now take their leave of the party and say they can talk further in the morning. Meanwhile, Khragg has been mowing down the undead with the remaining defenders until shortly after the sun has set, there are no more in the immediate area. The defenders shuffle off to collapse back in the barricaded area (they are not ready to leave that area just yet, especially at night), weapons dragging on the ground and Khragg joins the rest of the party. They collapse.
4/24/1151 - When they get up, they find that Jikaris and Solaria are a little way away talking with a group of refugees that clearly look like a family. A grandmother, mother, and daughter. Jikaris sees the party and comes over. He points to the family and tells them that they are family to one of his old adventuring party members. One that did not survive Zell. Jikaris and Solaria have been talking to them and some of the other people who were up early and learned that the people are going to start clearing the rest of the city. Jikaris and Solaria have volunteered to join them and help while the others deal with Khragg’s “unique idea.”
Jikaris reaches into his satchel and pulls out the Talisman of Foersyn that they got from the vaults of Zell and gives it to Lughausen. Jikaris gives the crystal ball to Yannic as well. They walk over to Sir Patrick where he is organizing the war parties.
Lughausen casts legend lore on Khragg’s armor. He feels a force attempting to prevent him from learning about it, but he pushes through by sheer force of will and personality. This is what he learns:
The Loretaker of Oryndoll, Drugchassk, created this armor, the Fortress of Karzhad in the Loretaker's Keep in the year 1141. This Fortress enclosed and imprisoned the aasimar, celestial-born Karzhad, son of Galladia, for whom it was made and named, forever chaining him to his new lord, severing his ties to Ahn, and thus the aasimar fell from the hope of light to the darkness.
Lughausen tells Khragg that he learned something about the armor. He tells Khragg that it is a prison. A binding. It was used to bind Karzhad and take him away from his original good deity and enslave him to this evil Loretaker. Lughausen tells him whether he knows it or not, he is probably also bound to this Loretaker. Khragg of course scoffs at the idea. Lughausen tells him that he is going to try casting remove curse on him and Khragg asks him why they should since he is fine. They point out that if he isn’t cursed then nothing will happen. Khragg acts quite paranoid and does not want any magic cast upon him.
Instead, Lughausen pulls out the Talisman of Foersyn and activates the antimagic field power, engulfing Khragg. The luster and otherworldly shine of all his magic items fades in the field, as does everything on Khragg. Yannic jumped out of the way, not wanting to be in the field. Berg also pulls back but stays reasonably close in case he must grab Khragg again. Lughausen asks Khragg to take off the armor now and take a bath.
Khragg says he hasn’t taken a bath in a month and agrees to take the armor off to do so. He finds that there is a layer of filth and almost slime. His pants are stuck to the greaves as he removes them. When he attempts to take the breastplate off, he finds that it is stuck. Lughausen tries to assist him in taking it off, but together they cannot remove it. Berg enters the antimagic field and rips it from Khragg, ripping off all his chest hair and the shirt he was wearing underneath in a perfect circle matching the emblem on the breastplate of the armor.
Khragg finally realizes that something is wrong.
Lughausen volunteers to stay with the armor in the antimagic field while Khragg and Berg go away to find a bath. But the moment Khragg leaves the antimagic field, he screams in agony and falls to his knees taking psychic damage. He rushes forward towards the armor with a mad look in his eye, but when he gets back into the field he returns to normal. He tells them that he felt an absolute compulsion to put the armor back on and something was stabbing him in the brain.
Lughausen contemplates how Khragg can be freed by this magic compulsion and binding to the Loretaker that resulted from his donning the cursed armor. He remembers that generally a curse from an item once encountered by a person is now on the person, even though it originated from the item. Curses are generally removed via the remove curse spell. Berg and Lughausen both have this spell prepared. However, Berg defers to Lughausen as he is the cleric. Unfortunately, Lughausen would have to drop the antimagic field to do that, and they worry about how Khragg will react.
They come up with this plan. They will all go together into the temple of Hymdel, tie Khragg up, drop the field, cast the remove curse and be prepared to heal him as he takes damage from the curse. Yannic goes out to find skilled fishermen and laborers who know how to tie good knots to assist with this. He tells them that Khragg is cursed, and they are working to remove it. They also discuss whether they will need to attempt to destroy the armor as well if they cannot fix it.
Once they enter the temple of Hymdel they prepare an area to work, while some of the commoners and wounded watch from the edges. The volunteers tie them up, looking at them strangely, and then hustling out because they want no part of this. Khragg lays on the floor. They also bring the armor with them and keep it in the antimagic field. Lughausen deactivates the Talisman, and Khragg screams, taking psychic damage, struggling in the ropes to break free. Lughausen casts remove curse.
As he casts the spell, Lughausen again feels resistance like he did with the legend lore. But this time, it pushes back, trying to get into his own mind as he is trying to remove it from Khragg’s mind. Lughausen wins the battle, and feels his magic unleashed on Khragg. He immediately feels that he is not powerful enough. His power reaches out and the legendary cursed item that has attached itself to Khragg and he knows that he is not up to the task.
“I cannot do it! It’s too strong!” He turns away, casting his arm across his face. His funny hat falls off his head, revealing two tiny horns. He sinks to his knees as his companions note his now revealed physical attributes of a tiefling. He is unable to reactivate the Talisman until tomorrow. On his knees, thwarted, he racks his brain about what he learned from the legend lore spell, trying to see if there is something to be learned that will help. He focuses on the name and realizes, after spotting the emblem on the armor of a fortress with a face with tentacles superimposed on it. He connects the dots and realizes that this has something to do with mind flayers.
Khragg is screaming and thrashing on the floor, taking more psychic damage. Berg heals him. Yannic realizes with his arcane lore that remove curse should have worked on a mundane item. But this is a legendary item made by a powerful magic user. The caster of the remove curse would need to be more powerful than the one who created the curse. However, he realizes it might be possible for two or more people to combine their power by simultaneously casting remove curse. Berg immediately volunteers and asks if Lughausen can cast it again. He says he can, but he worries about Khragg’s life in the meantime while they get that together. He tries a protection from evil spell and discovers that Khragg immediately calms down while under the effects. It will last just long enough for them to fashion the remove curse ritual, also with Yannic joining in since he too can cast that spell.
Yannic applies his gigantic brain to figure out how to set up a ritual so that all three of them can cast remove curse. He gets to work and the three of them draw a circle and a triangle, Khragg in the middle and the three of them at the points. At the completion of the ritual, they all touch Khragg at the same time.
Immediately, all four of them feel a jolt in their minds as purple fog wafts across their vision. They feel themselves falling out of their bodies and they are greeted with a new sight: a giant levitating illithid head with giant tentacles in a chamber of nightmare. They feel themselves dropping down in this place, wondering if they are truly here or not, and lean towards not being here physically, yet they are clearly in this place in some manner. The edges of the chamber fade into this purplish fog. Khragg is in the middle of the giant tentacles, five in total, each wrapped around him, and entering his body, keeping him bound. Here, he is wearing the cursed armor but he is frightened, grappled, restrained
The others appear a distance away. Fading into corporeality between them and Khragg, there are three other illithids. They hear a voice come from the giant head in their heads, “You dare! This one is MINE! To replace that which you took!”
Combat begins.
Berg rushes towards the nearest illithid, casting crusader’s mantle, getting closer. Yannic dodges a spectral tentacle that rises from the floor. The larger of the three ilithids, blasts them with its mind, but they avoid it. Yannic goes straight to the elder brain, Drugchassk, and attacks it with a disintegrate spell. It uses legendary resistance to avoid it. The brain responds by draining vitality from Khragg. Khragg feels free in this place of the compulsions, but he is bound tightly by the tentacles, which he tries to break free of and fails.
Another of the dream mind flayer uses its mind blast as well, and both Yannic and Lughausen resist it. Followed by the third one, which attacks Berg and Yannic with its power and Berg feels its blast and he is stunned. The elder brain Drugchassk attacks Khragg with another tentacle wrapping around him and squeezing him.
Lughausen targets the tentacles that are wrapped around Khragg with a flame strike and discovers that they are vulnerable to radiant damage, something that Yannic notes carefully. He targets Khragg after Khragg tells him to so that he can get all the tentacles, blasting all of them. Lughausen gives bardic inspiration to Yannic. At the end of Lughausen’s turn, Drugchassk drains more vitality from Khragg.
Berg cannot shake off the stun. Another ghostly tentacle rises from the floor attempting to grapple Lughausen, who dodges aside. The Ulitharid casts feeblemind on Yannic, who frantically identifies it and tries to counterspell hoping for a bit of luck and fails. The spell hits his brain, and he fights it off its effects. In retaliation, Yannic casts dawn on all the tenacles, the mind flayers, and Drugchassk. He sculpts it to avoid his allies. Four of the tentacles are destroyed by the power of the dawn in this dark place. As the tentacles are destroyed, Khragg is no longer frightened or at a disadvantage on mental attacks. Drugchassk drains more vitality from Khragg in retaliation.
Khragg, now mostly free uses his sword to attack the remaining tentacle that is holding him and destroys it. Khragg now feels the psychic link that was connecting him to Drugchassk break with that final anchor tentacle going away. There is a recoil and Khragg is disoriented for a turn, yet he still attacks the last tentacle which hurts Drugchassk directly.
One of the remaining flayers blasts Berg and Yannic who resists, then the other mind flayer blasts Yannic and Lughausen who resist again. Then Drugchassk mind blasts Khragg who shrugs it off, as he gets freer.
Lughausen gives bardic inspiration to Berg and summons a guardian of faith. The tentacles lash at Khragg, and he ripostes. Berg shakes off the stun with some inspirational words from Lughausen. Another mind flayer tries to charm Yannic with a dominate monster that he counterspells to prevent him from turning on his comrades. Yannic then moves the dawn spell so the enemy are back in the area, then casts a chain lightning killing one of the lesser mind flayers who fades from the nightmare.
Khragg swings repeatedly at the Drugchassk’s tentacle holding him, surging into action, finding that the large brain is easy to hit. The last swing severs the tentacle, the giant brain starts to shriek and fades away. The last vestiges that remain in Khragg’s mind are the two smaller mind flayers and the larger ulitharid, who still must be dealt with. Lughausen’s guardian of faith kills one of the small ones. The last one stuns Lughausen and Khragg with a mind blast. But then Berg can finally join the fight, having thrown off the stunning effects of a previous blast, smiting the ulitharid and defeating it. Finally, Yannic blasts the final one with a magic missile and the last mind flayer fades away.
The entire area fades away and they return to the Temple of Hymdel, standing at the points with Khragg tied up in the middle. As Khragg stirs and their vision returns, they glance at the suit of armor, Karzhad’s Fortress. The color has changed. It is no longer blackened evil, but the dark polished sheen of adamantine, and the symbol on the chest is no longer a fortress with the face of an illithid, but it now bears a mountain – meaningful for dwarves and Ulfgar, the dwarven master who took Khragg in and whom Karzhad slew which started this whole quest for Khragg. Khragg knows innately since he is still attuned to it, that he has full access to its powers. Though it still reeks and has bits of dirt and hair stuck to it, and Khragg himself still stinks. They both need good washing. In honor of his former master, Khragg renames the armor to the Fortress of Ulfgar.
Khragg spends the rest of the day cleaning up himself and meticulously scrubbing the armor so that he can proudly wear it.
Throughout the day they hear reports of small skirmishes between the townsfolk and their protectors and small pockets of remaining undead.
They use the sending spell to send a message to the logistics officer of the expedition Sir Janek Sibul letting them know that the towns are clear and they can come in. They warn them that there might still be some undead in the southside city of Rafz, but the party feels confident that the military of the bulk of the expedition should have little difficulty with those. The duke moves the expedition out, and they will arrive tomorrow into the town of Rafz.
The rest of the day is spent recovering. Yannic takes the time to examine Tepnick’s spellbook which he keeps, and his interesting shield and Warhammer are identified by ritual. They decide to give the shield and warhammer to Sir Patrick. “I am honored that you thought of me. This will be very useful to us.”
4/25/1151 – When the duke and the expedition arrive, they immediately dispatch forces and squads to get through the town of Rafz and make it safe by eliminating any undead they find, while the people in Iborg continue likewise on the other side of the river.
The rest of the expedition arrives in Rafz. The Emerald Exiles, the Duke's men, and the military from the Confederation joins in the cleanup and clearing of the undead in Rafz and Iborg.
For the next couple of days, the expedition does what it can to make the towns safe again for the remaining people to rebuild. Some of the peoples of Rafz and Iborg will join the expedition and leave. Some of the expedition, though not many, will remain behind to help those locals who refuse to leave when the expedition moves on.
There are many meetings between the duke and the leaders of the two towns, which the party sits in on from time to time. The discussions are based mainly on logistics of it all – how to get everyone fed, what kind of defenses can be built quickly, what can be done to ease the pain and suffering of the people who have gone through this ordeal. The party observes that the duke is very concerned and caring about the people here in these towns.
The duke congratulates the party on a job well done. This is exactly what he had in mind for them as a point guard for the expedition. Deal with these major threats and neutralize them and allow the duke and the large force to arrive to settle the details and offer opportunities to the people for perhaps something better. The expedition will not stay long because of the consumption of local resources that the people of the hurting towns will need to survive. The duke is generous with the stores they have with them to help feed the people and give them a leg up. A sizable amount of the food stores in the wagons will be left behind because the people here are in sore need of it and many are on the verge of starvation. He lets the party know that they will have to barter and forage what they can to replenish their supplies and keep the expedition fed as they move along. A new wrinkle to their mission.
4/26-27/1151 – The discussions with the leadership and the party moves on to the route for the expedition from this place. How is the expedition going to go. There is a road leading out of Iborg to the northeast, but it goes into the wilderness. The duke is uncertain about taking this route. The River Eder flows from the east to the west, so traveling along it in the direction they want to go will be upstream. However, there are no boats remaining in the two cities. The residents took them when they fled the undead several months ago. These people went east because they knew that there was another town upstream called Mels. Sir Patrick and the priests suggest that if they go that way, and it appears that the duke is inclined to take that route, that if they encounter people from Iborg and Rafz, that they inform them that the towns are safe, and they can return.
There is a road that parallels the river to the north that they can use, and this is the route that they had discussed when planning at the very start of the expedition. This road to the east from Iborg looks like the terrain will get hillier as they go in that direction. They will be entering into a river valley. The road is not very wide so the expedition will stretch out quite a distance because of all the people. They will leave the next day because they do not wish to be a burden for the people here in the towns.
As they are preparing for tomorrow’s departure, Solaria and Jikaris approach the rest of the party. Jikaris says, “I don’t think I am going to go with you. I have been talking with the family of my old comrade here. These people really need help. To be honest I have been feeling like I don’t like this obligation protecting all these people. I just want to explore! I was curious about that Dome and then I got trapped. I’m grateful you got me out, don’t get me wrong!”
Solaria says, “Oh, I’m grateful too!”
Jikaris repeats, “I just want to go explore. I will stay for a while and help here, but then I just want to pick a direction and go see.” Solaria will join him.
Lughausen simply says, “Jikaris. Goodbye.” The rest say their goodbyes as well.
4/28/1151 – A clear sunny day. The people of Iborg are basking in all this sunlight. The priests and Sir Patrick see them off, though they suggest that if there is an emergency they could send a message.
The party leads the way on the narrow road. They are mounted again, and their wagon is with them to carry whatever cargo they have. They are surrounded again by the hills and the wilderness not long after leaving the ruined town behind. A full day’s travel passes without incident as they go upstream.
4/30/1151 - Then another two day’s travel follows nights of watches and care, but nothing molested them while they slept. The Great Wall of Ap Wys has remained a constant landmark across the river as they have traveled, but now they see up ahead two towers and a break in the wall. The gateway through the wall has been blasted out, likely destroyed during the Great Cataclysm. It was never repaired. There are docks on the river on both banks that indicate that the town, Mels, which is on the south bank behind the wall, was a reasonably large trading port at one time. A large portion of the docks have been destroyed as well and fallen into disrepair, including a huge iron crane unlike any other they have seen before, but is now bent and rusty. There is no bridge over the river. But the remaining docks have a fairly large number of boats tied up including those that might be ferries.
There are people on the south bank going about their daily business. On the north bank there is only one boat pulled up on the shore, and next to it is a small shack built from mismatched broken debris and wood. Khragg dismounts, walks up to the shack and knocks on the door. The door opens revealing a half-orc with a weary but keen gaze, looks them over, waves at his boat, and says, “You want to go across?” They say that they do, and he notes that they are strangers, as he twirls a piece of rope in his fingers. He limps out to the boat, sizing up the party, “Will take a couple of trips.” His limp is pronounced but he is graceful as he prepares the ferry.
They ask how much for the trip, and he gets cagey. Their insight tells them that he is not trying to deceive them or lead them into a trap, but rather that he wants something from them, and he is trying to decide about it. Yannic persuades the half-orc to trust them. He is Gromak, and he asks if they have seen “IT”. The relic, the Crown of the Eternal Warlord. He pays particular attention to Khragg. He believes it is in the area.
Lughausen read about this in a scroll once: crafted in ancient times by a forgotten warlord who unified the fractious orc tribes through sheer might and dominion, legends say that this crown grants its wielder unparalleled power, allowing them to become the undisputed ruler of the orcish realms. Gromak believes it is in the area, maybe in the water. He wants it, so he can become the warlord of the orcs! They question this simple ferryman and learn that he really doesn’t have much of a plan except to find the crown, become warlord, though that might require finding orcs somewhere, and rule them, leaving the city in the process. He dreams of bigger things, being a simple ferryman. A couple of trips are necessary to get the wagon and Gromak chatters the whole time, particularly with Khragg and his shiny armor.
On the south side, the party finds themselves on the docks. The people here are doing typical work, repairing nets, boats, moving goods and so on. There are stalls where one can buy fish and supplies. There are also barricades in the entrance to the city through the wall, but the people appear to be ignoring them. Berg’s first concern is tackling the problem of provisions for the expedition which is probably a day behind them.
The town of Mels is a medium to small-sized town, with only a couple thousand people at most. There are guards who man the barricades half-heartedly. After several hours of exploring and shmoozing the locals with inquiries. They find the town is run by a mercantile council that before the Cataclysm was subordinate to the priests of Ap Wys but is now completely in charge. The prime councilor Aldric Silvertrade is in charge of the town, a middle aged human man with a portly build that reflects his comfortable lifestyle. They get a meeting with him and learn that he is a shrewd negotiator with a vast network of contacts throughout the town. The Councilor is enthused at the news that the undead have been dealt with and will not be coming. He will ensure that the news that Iborg and Rafz are safe again will be spread throughout the town so those refugees who choose to return will know they can.
Unfortunately, as far as resupply is concerned, he doesn’t think he can completely fulfill their needs. It is just too many people. He can negotiate with the other merchants to provide what food they can to get the expedition for another couple of days. They also learn the next town upriver, Osser, is larger. The two towns have open trade. The boats move freely between the two. Being larger, there is a better chance that Osser will be able to provide more supplies the expedition will need.
At the mention of procuring boats, this does not look like the place to do it. The boats here are privately owned and small. Again, Osser might be a better place for that procurement as well. They would need too many for the whole expedition than are available here. Aldric also gets a greedy look in his eye when the talk touches upon aid back to Iborg to help rebuild. Contracts, business, trade, and so on. Iborg and Mels traded a little in the past, but now that they are in need, Aldric sees the opportunity to increase that trade.
They go to an interesting tavern called the Gloomy Lantern Inn, where they stay while they wait for the expedition to arrive. However, there is an air of fear here as the nervous bartender warns them not to stir up restless spirits. The owner is worried about the undead in Iborg coming here. He is skeptical about the undead really being destroyed and gone. He has talismans throughout the building to ward off the undead.