Session 58

Date: 11/22/2015

Attending: Jake, Joey, Justin, Dave

Absent: Aaron – out of town Africa

Start Time: 7:30 pm

End Time: 10:40 pm

XP awarded: 8,000

Game time elapsed: 1 day

Enemies Defeated:  the Knights of Culminos (but only the violinist confirmed slain)

Notes:

The knights ride west into the hills, trying to make a bee line for Halvenspring. The going is rough, and the rocky hills and scattered foliage make for slow going. Shortly after lunch they notice that there is a distinct lack of wildlife in the area, and the vegetation seems unhealthy.  They press onward but keep an eye on the plant life, and slowly watch it progress into complete blight as they ride. That evening after the sun sets they spy a building on top of a hill about 2 miles distant, by seeing the light in the windows.

They press on to find a low one story inn named the Hill Pillow. Bajol detects evil and notices that the air seems filled with an evil miasma. They enter the inn and are greeted by the proprietor, a withered crone who introduces herself as Noella. The party is struck by the noticeable lack of conversation in the tap room and scans the patrons.

Against the wall next to the giant fireplace is a youth playing a melancholy tune on a violin. Across font him flanking the fireplace is a woodsman with a bow leaning against the wall. At a table a fat Halfling chortles to himself as he plays with a set of cups and dice, and at another table is a man with a long thin waxed mustache idly toying with a dagger. Three young women stare off into space at a third table, and finally at a fourth table four stout peasants hunch over tankards.

The knights swagger in, and begin talking to everyone. The mustachioed man is openly hostile, the violinist seems absent, and the woodsman is rudely reserved. The women seem in shock. Fyn steps out onto the porch and has a pleasant conversation with the fat halfing (who goes out as well) while Bajol has an aggressive exchange with the mustache wearer and the woodsman. Fyn and the Halfling realize that they are on opposing sides and both reenter the inn, right as things build to ahead with Bajol and the others. Frumious meanwhile has been trying to speak with the women, who ask for help.  He sends them (and the peasants, their servants) to their rooms. They exit. When Frumious confronts the violinist, who he has identified as magically communicating with another far distant – the violinist’s voice changes and says, “I have landed at the shore. You killed my servant, now try my knights.” Realizing that this group of adventurers serve Culminos the banished Solarian, the room immediately erupts into violence.

Bajol rather quickly slays the violinist. The Woodsman is an archer, the mustachioed man deftly fights with a rapier, the fat halfling throws knives and sneak attacks, and Noella is an arcane caster. A rather bloody battle ensues, and the Knight of Culminos fall back into the hallway that leads to the rooms. The Knights of Mist Valley follow but find Noella’s spells and the woodsman’s arrows make for hard going. Realizing that the women and peasants from before have been slain at this point, the party sets fire to the inn. They back out as the inn burns, trying to barricade the hall to trap the Knights of Culminos within. Bajol discovers a secret door in the fire place which leads down to a hidden room. The room is covered in bodies in various states of decomposition, and has a blood stained altar in the center. The party rides out into the night as the Hill Pillow burns behind them. End Session

Session 57

Date: 11/15/2015

Attending: Jake, Joey, Justin, Dave

Absent: Aaron – out of town for work

Start Time: 7:36 pm

End Time: 10:25 pm

XP awarded: 5,050

Game time elapsed: 3 days

Enemies Defeated:  4 fire giants, 2 stone giants

Notes:

The party divvies up Fingali’s things and then gives Fyn a whole day to search the crypts in an attempt to find what Fingali was looking for. In one of the sarcophaguses Fyn finds an inscription behind an old skeleton. The inscription is translated by Frumious to read, “Separated in death from his brother who rests in the Lady’s burial place under the spring of Halven.”  Summarizing that this is what Fingali was looking for, the party decided to attempt to speak with dead with the coffin’s resident. The spell is successful (failed Will save) and Frumious has 6 questions. The questions and their answers are as follows:

1) What is your name?

 A: Arameth

2) What is your brother’s name?

A: Nurvic

3) Why is your brother in the Lady’s tomb?

A: We devoted our lives to protecting the location of and access to the tomb of the Lady. When Nurvic died he was placed beside her so that he could protect her even in death.

4) How does one access the tomb of the Lady?

A: to access the tomb one must know the location, bypass the traps, slay or pacify the Guardians, and open the door.

5) Who are the Guardians, and how may they be pacified?

A: The mechanical men can be by passed by saying this decade’s password. The wyrm may be bribed. The Revered Dead will stand aside for those reciting the correct sequence of prayers.

6) What organization were you and your brother a part of in life?

A: None.

The party then discussed next steps, considering a trip to Illmar, discarding a direct assault on the giants, listing the facts as they know them, etc… Frumious used the message spell to deliver the following message to Osgood in Halvenspring (remember message and answer 25 words or less each):

What is latest? We in Mooncrest, headed to Halvenspring. Army of Giants invaded Caer Wynnic. We have slain Marquis Daedalus. Name major players in Halvenspring?

Answer:

Firnockt is a battlefield. Dwarves hold the run. Shadows, men, and Tainted fight in trees. Dragons in hills. Ground blood soaked. Sky smoke and flame.

Then Frumious had a similar exchange with Ellicor, where Frumious checks in via a message spell and receives this answer:

Puppet King was in Avonhollow, suddenly disappeared. Things building to a head. If I reveal myself will instigate. God King marches to Halvenspring. Arrive first.

The knights decide to ride straight to Halvenspring after receiving these messages. They take the road west out of Mooncrest and ride for a day. That night a fleeing soldier shares their campfire and tells them that he was part of the army Albus Wynnic mustered to confront Mario in Goldmeadow, and the King’s army was routed.  He said that Mario’s army did have undead but what cinched the deal was the Mossreachean force was attacked by a horde of shadows. The soldier, whose name was Joe because I’ve come up with enough unique names for this campaign thank you very much, said he headed north and passed through Carradeen which was in chaos – the King had not returned (no one knows if he survived the battle with Mario’s) and most of the government was missing. He continued on north, hoping to seek refuge in Phaerus Keep only to find the keep burning (he saw from a distance and doesn’t know the details). Bajol suggested to him that he continue on east to Shadowmount where he could find safety.

They ride west for another day, camping where the road turns north to Phaerus keep. Early in the morning (last watch) they are spotted by a patrol of giants, and the knights are forced to defend themselves. They then begin riding due west into the hills, making a bee line to Halvenspring. End Session

Session 56

Date: 11/8/2015

Attending: Jake, Aaron, Joey, Justin, Max observing

Absent: Dave – Wendy recovering from eye surgery

Start Time: 7:20 pm

End Time: 10:20 pm

XP awarded: 6,250

Game time elapsed: 2 days

Enemies Defeated:  Fingali

Notes:

The session begins with the party riding towards Mooncrest which they reach that evening. The gate guards wave them through and they enter the town about an hour after nightfall. The streets are filled with people huddled under makeshift tents and lean-tos. The party summarizes that these are refugees from the surrounding area which seems to be overrun with giants. Trios of guards patrol the streets, keeping a watchful but friendly eye on all. Figuring the church would be a cool place to look for catacombs, they went to the center of town only to find the church had been burned and the remaining stone structure boarded up. Asking a passing patrol of guards, they found out that there had been a Chovalian uprising that burned the church and slew the local priests, only to be violently put down by the town guard. He suggests they look for catacombs in the cemetery behind the church.

The knights circle the church and find a large densely packed cemetery. In the center is a big mausoleum structure. Entering the mausoleum they find a hatch covering a staircase leading underground, but in opening the hatch they set off an alarm.

Going down they find a second world underground network of burial crypts. There are many traps which are all disarmed when they arrive. Fingali taunts them, his voice echoing down the corridors, and as the make their way they find that he has left a trail of burning scrolls – pages of the scrolls of epic legend, all of which are destroyed. The knights finally reach a room that is filed with a network of stone columns of irregular shape, holding upright coffins. Many of the coffins are open and the whole area is lit with many torches providing a skeletal audience for the fight.

Fingali is able to move with unnatural speed, and suddenly rushes out to strike at the knights, only to rush away again and disappear in the columns (spring attack feat). A long frustrating fight begins as Fingali continues to spring out and then away while the knights stalk him through the twisted columns and leering coffins. Bajol is slain only to be revived by Frumious’ magic, and Feydor falls only to be healed onto his feet. Fingali take steady wounds, and then after a long fight of hit and fade bolts for the back door. The knights, almost exhausted of healing and all low on hit points give chase, Frumious using a wand of haste so that they can keep up.  It is apparent that Fingali can run faster even than the hasted Bajol and Feydor, but they pursue anyway, chasing him out of the catacombs and into the streets. Bajol stops occasionally to pepper him with arrows, and Feydor summons his mount Brutus, but Fingali still gets further and further ahead. Eventually he climbs the outer wall, but when he does so Frumious –flying via potion – hits him with a flame strike. Fingali, now smoking jumps off the wall outside the town and continues running. Frumious flys over the wall and flame strikes him again. This time Fingali does not get up.

Frumious stays with the body while Feydor and Bajol work around to the town gate and outside to join him. They strip the dead dwarf of all his possessions and haul his corpse back into the city and then into the catacombs. They rest in the crypts until Frumious is able to cast speak with dead, but Fingali resists the spell. End Session

Session 55

Date: 11/1/2015

Attending: Jake, Aaron, Joey, Justin, Dave

Absent: None

Start Time: 7:15 pm

End Time: 10:00 pm

XP awarded: 3,000

Game time elapsed: 5 days

Enemies Defeated:  none

Notes:

After looting the giants, the party heads into the cloud giant’s tent to address the efreet. They agree to release the efreet if he will answer 3 questions, and he offers to give them each an item as well. The questions they ask and the answers they receive are nothing of substance save to confirm that the efreet is not in any way a plot point. He does confirm than Fingali is in catacombs underneath Mooncrest. The items given are necklaces that prevent scrying, which the party gratefully dons.

The party decides to bypass Caer Wynnic and not try to confront the giants; their main reasoning was to find and kill Fingali anyway and since he is elsewhere they decide to just bee-line towards him. They ride for Mooncrest. In the evening of the second day on the trail, Fyn (on watch) sees a lone figure destroy a patrol of giants. The party rouses and chases after the figure. He proves to be completely obscured by a cloak and hat but is quickly identified as the Puppet King (or one of his manikins, unknown for sure). The party disperses but Bajol stays to confront him. They have a terse conversation inside a dome of wicker, where Bajol learns that the Puppet King is not interested in the party anymore because they no longer have Alerhaus’ Book Box, and that the Puppet King cannot enter the Library on Isles of Mist. In the meantime he is killing giants out of boredom and sense of antagonism towards the God King. The party continues towards Mooncrest and the Puppet King wanders off east in Avonhollow.

They ride for a third day, continuing to dodge giant patrols, and arrive at the road to the south around lunch time. They then turn west towards Mooncrest and continue. That night they meet a group of merchants traveling east; a Halfling named Trevor and two human companions Enrique and Hefe.  The merchants let them know that the road is still open but dangerous, and that travelers are disappearing regularly.

They travel the next day and hit the crossroads at midday, and continue, rest for the night, ride again, camp once more and wake, a day’s ride from Mooncrest. End Session

Session 54

Date: 10/24/2015

Attending: Jake, Aaron, Joey, Justin, Dave

Absent: None

Start Time: 7:43 pm

End Time: 10:30 pm

XP awarded: 6,700

Game time elapsed: 1 day

Enemies Defeated:  2 hill giants, 1 cloud giant (eldritch knight)

Notes:  Fyn moves in anyway, and realized the Caster can hear him but not see him. The rest of the party moves in to confront the giants. Bajol makes a diplomacy check, “We don’t mean you any harm, we just want our friend back.” Meanwhile Fyn releases Percival and tells him to fly away. The caster responds to Bajol with, “I have a duty.” He is not aggressive toward the knights, only guarded, but when he sees Percival flying away he calls lightning from the sky with his staff, instantly killing the diminutive celestial.

The party retreats and discusses how they are going to respond. Fyn is for leaving but the others wish to avenge Percival. The party rests for the night. Having decided to return, they wait until noon and move back up to the giant’s camp. They notice a vulture circling and suspect it is the cloud giant’s familiar. The party rushes in and attacks while Fyn circles around again. Fyn has a conversation with the efreet, and is surprised that the efreet now knows his name. Fyn refuses to release him and joins the fight against the giants. After a relatively short brutal fight the knights prevail and both hill giants and the cloud giant caster are slain. End Session

Session 53

Date: 10/18/2015

Attending: Jake, Aaron, Joey, Justin, Dave

Absent: None

Start Time: 7:30 pm

End Time: 10:10 pm

XP awarded: 4,000

Game time elapsed: 3 days

Enemies Defeated:  3 fire giants, 2 stone giants

Notes:

The next morning the Knights begin the journey to Caer Wynnic, heading northwest into the hills following their plan to travel cross country rather than via road. That night they see what appears to be a campfire in a cave off in the distance to the north where the mountains are, but are too far away to investigate.

The next day they continue, but after lunch run into a group of giants. There are three fire giants and two stone giants who are clearing a patrol of somesort. The giants ask some terse questions and demand that the knights go back the way they came. When the knights do not immediately comply the giants attack. It is a hard fight but the party is victorious.

The knights decide that they need some advance notice of future patrols, and send Percival flying ahead to scout. That evening when Percival has not returned, they make camp (having traveled the rest of the day) and Fyn scouts ahead trying to locate Percival. He comes upon a hasty and crude camp on top of a hill with a rudimentary earth and wood wall. Sneaking in he finds two large stupid looking hill giants and one tall cloud giant with a staff dressed in robes. Behind the cloud giant in a wooden cage is Percival. Fyn continues exploring the small camp and sneaks into the large tent. Inside he finds a red skinned creature made of fire from the waist down (Fyn assumes it is a devil but it is actually an efreet) trapped in a cage. The creature asks Fyn to let him out but Fyn declines and instead returns to the party. In the morning Fyn leads the party to the giant camp. The party hides for the rest of the day and approaches the camp at night. Frumious summons earth elements and commands them to attack the crude wall, while Fyn sneaks in and around to Percival’s cage. The caster, waiting in the center of camp, hears Fyn. End Session

Session 52

Date: 10/11/2015

Attending: Jake, Aaron, Joey, Justin

Absent: Dave – Father’s death

Start Time: 7:30 pm

End Time: 9:55 pm

XP awarded: 6,500

Game time elapsed: 2 days

Enemies Defeated:  Marquis Daedalus, Orlanivich, Banshee

Notes:

The party (which includes Marcus) mounts up and rides to Dalus Keep. They pass the old table/altar on the road and find it still destroyed (as they left it). Shortly after dusk they arrived at the keep. The suits of armor were waiting for them and took the reins of the mounts (except Frumious’ writing dog).  The knights then entered the keep to find the Doorwarden waiting for them, who indicated that dinner was about to be served. They went through the keep and arrived at the same banquet hall they had dined in previously. Appetizers were served by a figure that was possibly undead and then the Marquis joined them for dinner.

The party cuts right to the chase, and engaged in a direct conversation with the Marquis. He was evasive about when he had had Thomas killed, the knights suspecting that Thomas had been dead all along, and remained arrogantly aloof. The knights threaten him, reminding that they almost slew him before, and he responds with a warning that there are dire consequences for slaying him in his home. The Marquis proposed an alliance between him and the knights to address the happenings in Halvenspring and especially Caer Wynnic. Conversation leads the Knights to believe that the Marquis does not know the specifics surrounding current events, and in particular knows nothing of Allanora or her body. Frumious tires of the whole verbal dance, and calls the Marquis out on his attitude – noting that he needs them and should be a little less condescending. The Marquis responds by telling them he intends to have their help, willingly or unwillingly. Frumious asks how he plans to manage the unwillingly option, and the Marquis invites their other dinner guest, Orlanivich, to join them. Olanivich enters and takes a seat and is clearly a vampire. Frumious, understanding that the Marquis intends to use the vampire to dominate the party leaps to his feet and begins casting, plunging the room into combat. Before the Marquis can react Feydor (sitting next to Daedalus) deals a series of massive blows with the legendary Storm’s Fury (including one critical hit) that slays him where he stands. Upon his death contingency spells go off in the banquet room, some sort of summoning and gate spells. Since the contingencies will take a minute to resolve the party hurriedly dispatches the vampire, forcing him to revert to gaseous form to escape. The entire back of the banquet hall shimmers and becomes a summoning portal to a place of black rock, fire, and red skies. A mighty winged reptilian creature begins to enter the room, which Frumious identifies as a hellfire wyrm. Also present in the room are two gate spells, which open to a similar landscape. Creatures Frumious identifies as bearded devils, vrocks, and chain devils begin massing to enter the keep. The knights turn and run out of the keep, one step ahead of the awesome breath weapon of the wyrm. As they flee they pass the Doorwarden who is shrieking that she is free before she explodes in a wave of writhing black tentacles. Leaving the keep they see that the suits of armor are falling apart revealing black mold and fungus within. They gather their horses and ride out of the keep. A few hundred yards out they wheel around and watch the building, but nothing appears to be exiting either via door or window. As far as they can tell everything is contained within the keep.

They ride through the night, and as they approach Shadowmount’s walls they hear a horrific wailing.  The banshee descends on the knights, immediately slaying Frumious and Bajol with her deathly wail. Marcus passes Feydor a potion of fly and quaffs one himself, and the two of them ascend to do battle with the nightmarish spirit. Meanwhile Percival, in the now dead Frumious’ backpack, wrestles out the Rod of Ressurection and uses it on Frumious. Frumious joins the battle, at one point making his way to Bajol to use the rod on him as well. The knights are victorious but not before the banshee drains Marcus of all Charisma, slaying him utterly and reducing him to stone as is the way of the dwarves (a note is made that he has died within one week of being told about Halfling Tainted Ones). The party sheds a tear, says a quick word, and then loots their fallen comrade.

Entering the town they ask the redsashes that were on guard (and witnessed the banshee fight) to take them to the redsash commander. The commander (named Stephan) and Marwyn met with the party where they were filled in on the death of the Marquis, the unsafe nature (to say the least) of Dalus Keep, and the destruction of the banshee. Stephan lets them know that at least 3 banshees have been seen at one time, so the nightly threat is not ended, merely reduced (the party declines to try and deal with the remaining evil spirits, pleading – justifiably – more pressing matters). The group agrees that Stephan will rule in the Marquis’ name, and Daedalus’ death will not be publicized at this time. The party then retreats to the Gutted Candle, identifies Marcus’ things, and rests for the day and the following night, resolving to cut across country due west through the hills towards Caer Wynnic. End Session