Ghost Town

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Scribe Notes

Summary

GM: Bernard
Session:Summer 810
Night: Mondays
Location: West Harbour.
Level: Low-Medium

Party
  • Kerry, Female human, dark celestial, played by Helen. (Scribe).
  • Imri, Female Elf, water mage, played by Rosemary.
  • Melldhore, Male Elf, earth mage played by Margret. (Party leader)
  • Tallama, Female greater goblin, a Namer, played by Alan.
  • Pierre a male halfling, Illusionist, played by Ian A.
  • Kakuro, Male human, the binder, played by Dylan. (Mil Sci) (Previously adventured as Luigi or Mario)
  • Brunhilda Female Giant, Solar celestial, played by Michael Scott.
Mission
Find out what happened to the people of a now empty town.


Long Version.
During the Winter storms of 807, the small coastal town of Horwell was evacuated in one brief night by a Guild party, investigating the cause of such… consistently stormy weather. Following the resolution of this problem, a new group of settlers made their way to Horwell by wagon over the summer of 808.

Now however, contact has yet again been lost with the settlers from the town, and scrying has shown a deserted town, no signs of battle, simply houses unattended and shutters unlatched.

With the guilds reputation as experts in the bizarre, Duke Argent has sent an envoy to hire a party to head on out there, discover what has caused this disappearance, and if possible, resolve the matter so it can be resettled.

Pay
.

Rk 20 Resist pain potion. Rk 20 Resist temperature potion. 5000sp.

Scribe Notes

The Guild meeting

As I am a novice at both adventuring and at keeping records of them please forgive any errors or omissions I might make.
I have had only one previous mission with the Guild and although I was Scribe to that party too, it was not a difficult mission to record, involving as it did, mostly keeping track of the dates we passed though each port, city, town or hamlet on our journey.
An investigation could prove more of a challenge to record.

The party

Kakuro is a male human male he is an Adept of the rare Binding and Animating College, he has studied some Military scientist and will command the party in military matters along with Pierre.
Imri Athaliah is an elvish woman from the Elvish Isles, she is a Water Mage.
Tallama; an 8 foot tall creature with green skin and unfortunate looks, she says she is a Greater Goblin although I’m not sure what that is. Tallama is a Namer and has some training in healing.
Melldhore; a 6ft 8 inches tall male Elf, he is an Earth Mage and will be our party leader.
Pierre is an under 3 ft tall male Halfling and Illusionist, he will be the cook.
Brunhilda is a female giant she too is 8ft tall; Brunhilda is a Solar Celestial Mage with good ranks in Coruscade.
I am Kerry Murdock a Human gentle woman; I’m a Dark Celestial Mage. I will be the Scribe and as beginner Dark Mages don’t do much casting during the day I shall probably end up hitting things with my Rapier.

The mission

Horwell an isolated coastal village in the Duchy of Pretrenco on the plane of Farwey, Scrying the village, it appears to be undamaged but empty, investigate and find out what happened to the people.

Information given by our Employer.
Horwell was evacuated during the Big Storm in 807wk.
400 or so volunteers and 40 men at arms were sent to reoccupy the village.
The Duchy boarder is approximately 25 miles to the north of Horwell. Lesser undead are crossing in small numbers all along the boarder.
Oldridge is the nearest Town, it has a military base, this is the place that did the scrying it has healers capable of preserving dead but not of performing miracles.
Over the boarder is the misty marsh out to sea is the misty banks any area of uncharted reefs covered in mists.
The people of this plane are used to magic, Bards, Illusionist, and Solar Celestials are very common.
All 70 plus daemons both light and dark are known here and worship of many is tolerated, we should not engage in the desecration of temples or shrines unless they are to Murmur.
Courtyard fires to Aim, and Shrines to Sammael are currently very popular.
The Empire is currently having a Civil war between the King and his son.

The party is being paid for information gathering, a bonus is possible if we recover the missing people. Payment will be 5000 sp and a potion of the Mind mage talents Resist pain & Resist temperature each.
With regard to any Salvage we might find, the military want their stuff back, and so will any living civilians. If the former owners are dead however we get to keep anything we may salvage.

After the guild meeting the party split up to shop, do research in the guild library and prepare to leave in the morning.
The results of many hours sorting though old scribe notes can be found here.

Seagate to Oldridge

Next morning the party met up and prepared to get wet; the portal to Farwey is in the middle of the Sweetwater River out from the Seagate docks. It is an area under the water which is quite simple to simply sink into.
There is a barge that takes guild members out to the portal and drops them off, literally. Imri went in first and lead the way.

Once in the portal we seemed to be on some sort of pathway, walking seems to be involuntary. The path was very rough and had many obstacles there also seemed to be many branches and side paths.
Kakuro’s wooden golem that looked like a canoe with legs stopped walking part way along the path and did not emerge at the other end of the portal, the Stone golem however came though fine.

It seems Imri’s skill at navigation works in portals as she had guided us to the right place.
We were all totally worn out; all magic with less than 24 hours duration had gone, and although it was about the same hour of the morning as that which we had departed Seagate, it certainly seems as if we had traveled around the clock.
The Guards at this end of the portal took us for a meal a bath and a rest, then we each got a lesser enchantment, and those that where interested where given a brief whose who on the local political seen in case it will be of use later.
Imri tried to put some water proofings on some people gear but ended up mute.

The following morning (possibly the 4th) having obtained the requested letters of introduction, the local military mages put Strength of Stones, Coruscades & Starwings on the party and with Imri again Navigating we flew first west and then south to Oldridge, the direct route being over areas the locals consider unsafe.

We arrived at the Oldridge landing field around noon, over two hundred miles in about 4 hours. A sergeant on duty directed us to the military camp for lunch and from there we went to see the people who had previously tried to Scry Horwell.

Horwell

The military here have racks of crystal balls and these specialist scout types use them and record what they see in a book.
We got to read the book and talk to the person who had scried Horwell last, but not the person who had first noted that Horwell was empty, as he was out scouting.
From the log book we learned that all winter the village was hidden by bad weather and mists, a quick check of the entries proved this was the case over all of the coastal and other near by locations being scried at that time.
About two months ago there was a break in the weather and the regular fortnightly scrying was able to clearly see the village and that it was empty.
Additional scrying detected no battle damage, no livestock, no bodies there had even been some spring planting done; everything seemed in order except almost every living thing was gone.
A check every few days since has shown the same thing, an empty village.
After questioning the current observer, we settled on some locations we would like scried that afternoon, we noted that all digging tools seemed to be missing from the quarry, that in a barn there was no sign of a cart where we expected one, nor was there as much stored animal fodder as we’d expect. And although all the houses are shuttered and shut up the gates in the town wall are wide open.
Oddly for such an otherwise well organized military it seems that although the garrison at Horwell was expected to make regular patrols of the nearby area for undead etc. it was not required to report its activities and observations to anyone until it was relieved, so there is no other resent information on the area.
Horwells garrison had been issued with a magical Horn infused with charges of the Bardic Spell whispering world, incase an urgent message needed to be sent. We are shown how to operate such horns in the hope that we might be able to recover and make use of Horwells.
We also arrange a number of signals which should be visible to the scouts scrying the village/town, simple stuff like; we’re here, all ok and send help.
Then we got a sack each with a day’s food for ten men from the quarter master, and arranged for wings and corusades for the morning.

5th day of Meadow.
Flew slightly north of west to Horwell, today’s starwings are not as fast as yesterdays.
Before approaching the town we made a quick scout of the surrounding area, the land looks quite water logged and there are no large trees, no woods or woodlots. There are no roads only a muddy track leading out of the east gate.
The Mesa north of village/town is unusual, there is a blurring effect when one looks directly at it. You know its there you can avoid flying into it, but one can not see details. While we can not see it clearly we can tell it is about 3 square miles with a stream coming down the west side and flowing to the sea. The blurring effect starts at the base.
We will have to come back later for a better look.
On the Cliffs either side of the inlet that form Horwells harbour are old navigation beacons of stone and bronze with oil lamps, these show no sign of restoration or recent use.
Landed on beach and after checking the condition of the gate, which was sound and undamaged, entered the town. Beginning a quick house by house search, at the fifth house we disturbed a looting Gnome. The gnome whose name roughly translates as Shorty, was terrified of our greater goblin. Although he refused to talk about where he came from directly he was willing to answer questions about the town and the humans, and seemed to be quite familiar with the common tongue spoken by humans here.
By a bit of clever indirect questioning we learned there is a cave full of Gnomes nearby, it has to be nearby as not only was he scared of goblins but also of being out after dark.
The Gnomes it seems having observed that the humans had gone, have been collecting up things left behind that are of use to them. Shorty had mostly knives and rope in his loot bag, which we kept. The activities of these gnomes may make it harder for the humans to resettle, as well as obscure just what went missing along with the humans.
Shorty didn’t know when exactly the humans had gone or why and once we let him loose left town quickly.
Checking the rest of village, it seems that the west of town farthest from the gates has not yet been touched by the Gnomes.
We located the Garrison HQ in a large converted residence, and although there was a horn stand there was no Signal Horn, nor were there any weapons armour or supplies left. Pierre says the store room lock was picked, since the Humans should have had the key…. The garrison too may have been looted.
Fairly certain we were not going to be locking ourselves in with a hoard of undead we shut both gates and return to town hall, to start a close examination of the town and Garrison records.
As the people here use a different calendar we are going to have to work out some sort of conversion before we can even get a date for when the records stop.

Town Criers Records

Summary of references referring to disappearances

  • 30th Snow; Fisherman & his son lost at sea, presumed drowned. Unusually early sea mists rolled in mid afternoon.
  • 7th Ice; Patrol of three soldiers lost. Patrol area to the NE. Sortie in strength discovered zombies accompanied by skeletal horses & warriors numbering perhaps 50. Undead dispatched.
  • 14th Ice; Mother of three lost from outlying farms, vanished on way back from tending to cow in distress. Others made it back safely. Search found nothing.
  • 20th Ice; Both Scouts lost, along with young boy, farmer and patrol of 3. 1st Scout lost along with boy in current at sea, dragged under by the waves. Other Scout vanished with farmer & patrol looking into cows vanishing on furthest farm. Remainder of family moves into town.
  • 27th Ice; Last remaining people from outlying farms arrive, approximately 30 seem to have vanished in total. Town goes under a curfew & disappearances stop. Fields tended daytime only, from town.
  • 4th Thaw; Both remaining fisherman lost on reef. Presumed drowned. Shore search parties found only wreckage.
  • 7th Thaw; Last log entry. All was reported still as normal as it had been. Approximate head count was 260 or so at this point.

Investigation of those houses that the gnomes have not yet looted has found that the missing people had left things tidy and have taken only the clothes that they were wearing; human food, cooking pots, bedding, all the stuff one would expect to be taken in an evacuation was still in place. On the other hand the carts, tack and the food that would have gone to the missing stock and draft animals is all missing, as is every tool that could be used for digging right down to the shovels one would normally expect to find for mucking out the stables and stalls.
There is lots of old worn out magic around the town mostly protections against vermin and insects. Pierre noticed faint traces of old illusions on one of the main streets. Since the first disappearances occurred on the sea, a raft is constructed to take us all to sea on the morning tide.
We have set up our base in the town hall, and brought in the remaining foodstuffs to supplement that which we have brought with us.

Investigating outside the walls.

6th day of Meadow; on the mornings out going high tide Imri took the party to sea on our small raft. Once clear of the bar and in the main current (cold and fast going north) Imri talked to a few fish about what lives in the area and found out that most fish avoid the reef, even normal reef fish. When we got a close look at the reef ourselves its not hard to see why, there is some form of deceptive magic at work in the area, and what would be a dangerous reef with a strong current driving you towards the rocks becomes impossible to navigate as you cannot be sure that any rock is where it seems to be due to the magic.
Unable to take our raft into the area Imri was able to call some (5) Fossegrim out of the reef to talk, but they were most unfriendly and the party withdrew before things became openly hostile.
In the afternoon we flew out to look at the site of the first land disappearance; the rest of the people here had obviously moved into town leaving only the tools required to keep the farm running. Here too were signs of looters and again all digging tools were missing. Also present was that faint trace of old illusion Pierre noticed in town, while in a land of entertainer Illusionists and Bards I can think of several reasons for there to be illusion magics in the town such a trace seems out of place on a poor farmstead. It must have seemed odd to the others too, as the traces where instantly subjected to close scrutiny via DA. From this magical trace and others we found in the quarry and later those in town, we learned how 260 people with wagons and live stock disappeared with out leaving a clearly visible trail across this landscape.
An illusionary concealment magic of high rank suppressed, hid, covered, the traces we would expect to see. Now after a full three months of spring weather all that remains is a faint trace in places where the rangers would expect the deepest ruts or clearest signs of passage to have been. The magic does not seem to have been a spell, but is more a racial talent or ability, something done by a creature that is a natural Thaumaturgy.
There where no tools at all left at the quarry, however we did meet a cat, a fluffy white Persian with blue eyes and sparkly fur which spoke to the light aspected members of the party and offered to make Brunhilda its Familiar.
It also asked us where we wished to go, and told us it would take us to the mesa at the crack of dawn before it vanished. No one had DAed the cat so I cannot be sure who or what it was; perhaps the cat is the same one recorded by Aqualina in her scribe notes. I suspect that Brunhilda has failed to guard her tongue as advised and inadvertently called some aspect or minion of the Demon known as the Willing Prince, it’s a good job I didn’t use one of the titles of the triumvirate of powers responsible for the Great storm when explaining that powers seem inclined to listen for and answer summonses on this plane or she might have called someone with less benevolence towards Guild members.
Imri seems to be missing some of the fish she had caught earlier in the day for our dinner so the cat can’t have gone far and we had better be ready at dawn.

7th day of Meadow:

Imri handed around a few waters of strength before dawn; Brunhilda put wings on the party just incase we wanted to flee in a hurry, but as it was still dark and she is a solar mage that was the extent of our preparation. At Dawn there was a load crack and the party was standing in a 20 ft square vaulted chamber with 4 doors, it is a high mana Zone.

Behind the west door was a shimmery magical portal with an Aura strength of Cowards way out, DAing the destination was point you left, and the consequences of using it would be Poverty and Ill luck.

Through the North and South doors are Tombs; mausoleums 50ft long with 2 alcoves containing warriors mounted on armoured gryphons and a stone sarcophagus at the end. The warriors and their mounts have been instantly petrified. The sarcophaguses have magic on them to preserve the objects inside; selfish theft within the chambers will trigger a ward, and with the door to the chamber shut the sarcophaguses glow and become clear crystal.
Within the northern(?) one is the body of a male High Orc, he has blonde hair, and is wearing what looks like heavy plate made of true silver. We can also see that he has multiple massive chest wounds and the shield over his legs has a complicated heraldic design.
The clear crystal sarcophagus this body is entombed in has a slightly pink glow.
One of the petrified riders in this tomb is and Orc the other is an elf.
Within the other is the body of a female Elf, she is wearing what may be mithril armour. She too has a massive chest wound and her arm has been severed. The lady has a amulet with a complicated heraldic design as well as a curved sword a smaller curved offhand weapon and a bow. The clear crystal sarcophagus this body is entombed in has a slightly blue glow and the gryphon riders in this chamber too are one of each race.,br. One of the Gryphon mounts DAed as having Ariel Affinity, questions about languages got of those of the Ancient Orcish Empire for the gryphon and Orc for one of the Orc warriors. They also seem to have been willingly petrified, and belong to this plane.,br> As far as we could tell their was no magical aura on any of the weapons or armour.
It also seems to be the High Orc in sarcophagus’s destiny “to fight at the end of each age”
Copies of the heraldry on the amulet and center part of the shield where made and rubbings of writings in the tombs taken.

Beyond the east door winding stairs go up, there is plenty of room for our small giants.

Pierre's bit
Up the stairs there is a 250 foot long 50 foot wide hall with Griffins and riders every 30 feet.In the middle is an alter guarded by 4 riders and Griffins.On the Altar there are four stands. One has a stone lance another has a True silver sword, the third has a gold and silver banner and the forth has a golden flask. Nothing bad happens when i climb up on the altar to pick up the flask. The object seem to have leadership power magics on them.we leave them behind and go up the next level(that cat will wounder if we really are from the guild).Up 40 feet there as a catacomb that is the same size as the hall. It is full of battle weary bones.
Up another level there are more riders. They have triggering condition of Violation of the tomb.Our binder offer to wake them up.Them our foot steps become less certain and north wavers about. We find the back entrance into a human style mausoleum There is a bar across the inside of the two large iron doors and there is a lock, there are no spiders.

On the Mesa

It is foggy outside and the graveyard which is about 500 years old is all over the place. We have our minions lock the tomb from the inside
After about 15 minute the fog starts to lift.We can hear tools being used on stone. It proves difficult to navigate out here. When I sneak around a grave stone about 50 feet from the working I nearly stumble right into a skeleton. With a rapid departure danger is averted.There are also underfed humans here,we may have found the villagers.The humans are under a complusion from a racial thalmaturgy as well as darkvision and massfear.It is fae in origin, not stored magic and Thalmaturgi counterspell will help. The skeltons are motovated by necromancy. We send in an invisible rag golem to chack the tomb that the skeletons and underfed humans have bashed their way into. The skeletons are looking for something but not finding it. Alot of the graves around here have been dug up.
The skeletons and human leave and walk for 20 minutes to a large fort under contruction. There are about 60 underfed humans here as well as 40 skelentons. This is a terrible crime and will have to be stopped under fed people what a terrible thing to do.
We get lost on the way back to the tomb and it is nearly lunchtime by the time we get there. The skeletons we saw don't seem to have had as much difficulty navigating as we do.
Down in the tomb we send a small possessed golem through the cowards way out. Failure and bad ensues for Kakuro/Mario/Luigi/Mushroom/Deamon_bait, Something like evil eye perhaps?
We spend the next 24 hours building a wall inside the mausoleum that looks just like the other wall of the mausoleum. This will hide the secret entrance from the skeletons and prevent them from getting into the tomb and bringing about the end of the age. Either that or we have just walled in the army that will fight at the end of the age.

9th day of Meadow
Kakuro took a little Rag Doll Golem for a scout of the fort; Its about 200ft square, the walls are currently about 10 ft high, there are Round towers on each corner and a lot of barracks and stables but no well, kitchen, larder nor any kind of food storage. There is also a blacksmiths forge making iron work for the keep it is manned by Skeletons.<br.>

Kakuro returned from scouting an undead fort describes a forge with a skeletal blacksmith.
Telamar: What was it making?
Burnhilda: Not much it’s only got a skeleton Staff.

Below ground are huge stalls for some kind of giant creatures and three water filled pits. The Pit are actually a water filled tunnels at the far end of the tunnels is a large room (not water filled) with more of the older bleached bones type skeletons, and a shadowy something. Kakuro didn’t take the little Golem close enough to learn what kind of shadowy something, as he felt it would surely see the golem and so have be alerted to his and then our presents on the mesa.
We also checked out the camp of the poor starving villagers, there is absolutely no food there and they have been reduced to eating their dead.
This explains the two types of skeletons; the bleached ones, (probably have been raised from graves) which are controlled, bound and have witchsight and the other which are animate and compelled just like the people.
The compulsion on the people makes them obey anyone, so we figure we could just hijack the workers if we pick the right time.
We locate a safe route off the mesa at the west end, it’s an old road, we also found a ravine and three narrow goat paths but they where unsuitable for moving a lot of sick people, fast and possibly under attack.
We also hide where we can watch what happens during the night so we can fix the best time to rescue the humans.
At night the humans return to their camp, the skeletons arm themselves from the graves and patrol; shortly before dawn the skeletons take the collected weapons to the forge in the fort before returning to collect up people to start working.
We form the start of a plan, and after retuning to Horwell to fetch some food for the humans to find when they return to camp, fly off to the army base at Oldridge to see if they can help us with the rescue.
They give us a restorative and a healing potion each, plus some traps to start fires and a hammer with invested earthquake.
They also dispatch a lot of cavalry to guard and heal any humans we rescue but they won’t get to Horwell for four or five days.
They are also able to tell us the language used in the tomb we walled up is, it’s an old and unusually complex form of Orcish, the runes used in it are human but the people here can’t read what it says.
After a rest we flew back to the mesa so as to arrive with time to prepare before dawn.

10th of Meadow

Dawn

Imri and Pierre got to set fire to the hall of bones so that those skeletons couldn’t be turned into an undead army, if/when the tomb is found, they also use the earthquake hammer to collapse parts of the tomb hiding the lower levels and totally burying the entrance.
Now the warriors that will fight at the end of the age are really well entombed, hope no one needs them in a hurry.
The rest of us hijack the surviving humans; used stone golems to attack the skeletons who where weaponless at that time, while we took the people down the road. The old bleached skeletons retreated to the fort while sending the others to try and mob the golems; those bound skeletons are smart and can use tactics.
It took us three hours to get the 90 odd survivors the 5 miles back to the walled town, where we feed them and let them rest.
A the slow pace of the villagers we couldn’t out run any surviving skeletons that gave pursuit so it seemed best to find a defensive spot and wait for the army.

Noon

We flew back down our trail looking for pursuit but didn’t see any skeletons until we got back to the fort just before noon.
Kakuro’s Stone Golems had laid waste to most of the skeletons before reverting to rocks and rubble, only about a dozen or so of the bleached bone type where left in the fort but these where well armed with curved swords, spears or bows.
Now its just my second mission and I haven’t had time yet to study strategy or tactics in any way so I’m not sure just what our goal was in attacking the fort, but directly at noon as the summer sun shone down on the mesa we used the last of the charges in the earthquake hammer to collapse the roof of the underground chamber where Kakuro’s scout had seen the unknown shadowy figure.
Then Imri caused water to flow into the hole and flood what was left, and another stone golem was sent into the pit.
A screaming, angry insubstantial shadowy figure drifted up out of the pit, half the party fled in terror the other half started to withdraw. Kakuro threw first iron then silvered darts at the thing but they just passed right though it, then it downed him with a single burst of black fire.
His unconscious body was recovered in an aerial snatch and grab by Brunhilda, and the next burst of black fire sent Pierre fleeing.
We fled back to Horwell with the sound of the creature’s threats and curses dieing away behind us.

Out of the Frying pan and into the fire.

As dusk approached it was clear that the party were in big, big trouble.
We couldn’t out run the undead with the villagers in tow; even if we left them and flew away it was possible for a faster flyer to catch us before we reached Oldridge.
Walls that would keep skeletons out were we could crush them with golems or use other magics and weapons to slowly defeat them would not stop an insubstantial creature.
As the binders darts had demonstrated we had no physical weapons that could hurt the shadowy thing, and none of us being what you would call blast mages, all we had in offensive magics were three charges of invested fire magics belonging to Imri, and the celestial wall and web spells, which are normally useless against greater undead.
Where as it in the full light of a noon time summer sun, against active and deliberate resistance it had successfully cast black fire (one of the harder dark celestial specials to cast); in the dark when dark mages like it and myself are strongest ….....
Burnhilda’s fear that the creature could regain control of the villagers who out numbered by us more than 12 to 1 and have them mob us just seemed redundant. We where sitting ducks, there were no two ways about it.

There is no Church or Cathedral in Horwell no single space large enough to hold all the remaining villagers so we split them between the town hall, the barracks and another large house.
The 40ft square cobbled courtyard with a bound fire consecrated to the Fire duke also known here as the three headed duke (Aim), was rejected as being to open.
The chapel to Sammael was too small to hold many villagers but as a stone built consecrated space that conferred extra magic resistance it was considered a possible place for the party to make a stand.

I’m not sure how it happened, one minute we were all trying to figure where to hide from a powerful undead entity that would give us the best chance of survival, and the next we were talking about calling on powers to help us.
What happened next is possibly the result of the party’s general inexperience.

Imri was in the chapel praying to Sammael.
Burnhilda and Kakuro went off and found/summoned the Cat Agent/Avatar of the Willing Prince (Seir).
And Pierre took a large bun/small round load of bread off to the flames (Aim).
Sammael sent Imri a Raven that said It /He couldn’t aid us against the Duke of Thrones (Murmur) without the consent/cooperation of the other powers involved.
Burnhilda ended up agreeing to be the familiar of the cat for up to a year in return for it agreeing the other powers could help us and that it would stay out of things and do nothing. (I think that tricky cat got the best of that deal some how).
And Pierre ended up with a flaming bonfire 15ft across (approximately 7 time the size of the orginal) and a requirement to Sacrifice a Fossegrim to the flames to stay on the Three Headed Dukes good side and no agreement to anything.

Once Pierre gave the Fire its water sentient Burnhilda took over trying to get some help against the agent of the Duke of Thrones we were sure would come once the sun set.
Unfortunately due to Pierre having already Sacrificed so much to the Flames for so little, the Demon was in the better bargaining position. It wanted two more Fossegrim in return for its aid, against the agent of the Duke of Thrones.
Imri mean while was having second and third thoughts about her part in the capture of the first offering, and wasn’t prepared to help capture any more of the nasty little monsters. I’m sure if it was the other way around the Fossegrim would have offered her up in a second with their only regret being that they would have to catch something else for their supper. But then perhaps that’s part of why their race is considered Evil and Sea Elves are not.
Pierre had an illusionary hellhound following him about.

In the end after much debate, Imri traded her water magic to the Fire duke for his aid; once she had stepped into the Flame and given it her water college he sent a large fiery creature off into the night to deal with the undead agent. It looked to be something like a cross between an angle and a balrog given the descriptions I’ve read. A great sparkly dome also covered and protected the whole of the town for the entire night; I think that may have been Sammael’s doing.

11th Meadow

The party all survived the night; the scribe did not survive the day, here is what happened.

After breakfast the next day the party flew back to the mesa to see what was left of the fort.

Partway up the road to the top a mix of Orc and Elf skeletons were waiting. 13 in all, they were of the old bones type and wore leather armour 6 were armed with shields and odd curved swords, 3 had spears with a long reach, 3 had bows and the last one had a Staff.
The bowman Skeletons shot arrows at the party, the one with the staff cast magics; the Swordsmen formed a shield wall in front of the bow and spear men and kept the Stone golems from getting to the mage or the bowmen, until Kakuro created some behind their lines.
Imri cast some fire bolts at the Skeletons (the demon was trying to convince her to learn the fire college) but there was a magical effect protecting them that reduced what should have been a nice boom to just a puff.
As rapiers and daggers are useless against skeletons Pierre was using a flaming rock and Kerry a quarter staff.
The undeads’ tactics and coordination were good and due to the reach of the spears those engaging the shield wall were facing two or more opponents whose attacks seemed unaffected by the Corusades used to boost defense.
Without the benefit of a shield and with the magical defense ineffective Kerry attacking on the right flank was ruthlessly cut down by four of the undead within reach of whose weapons she came.

Imri tried to rescue Kerry’s body before fear of the undead mage drove her from the battlefield but she wasn’t strong enough to lift the dead weight of a tall armoured human.
In time the Skeletons were crushed by the remaining members of the party and stone golems. The skeletons weapons and armour was gathered as loot and a search begun for Imri.

Later that day all the villagers and living party members held a 3 hour service of singing to the glory of Aim in return for his Preservation of Kerry’s body, she was placed in his flames pending resurrection.

12th Meadow

First thing in the morning the party (less Kerry) flew to Oldridge.
Arranged for someone to resurrect Kerry; collected her body from the Fire Dukes Flames in Oldridge and had her back on her feet in time for a late breakfast.

After we ate we flew back to Horwell with some supplies to aid the survivors until the new garrison unit arrived.
Then went up to the fort on the mesa to see what was left.
Someone had been calling down Meteorite Showers and there was some fire damage but mostly the place was intact.

Pierre the Halfling ”You can tell evil, they don’t have a kitchen”

In the underground lair of the Specter we found that for the most part all our midday attack had done was ruin his Library, the caved in roof hadn’t done too much damage but the water Imri had flooded the hole with had soaked all the books.
We gathered up the books and a chest of gold and jewelry we also found there and after Imri had created a bound fire to Aim in the courtyard of the fort; into which we tossed a flew pieces of skeleton, we returned to the village.

There we found that the candle to Sammael had gone out. The three powers had agreed to stop competing for followers and cooperate in battling the Duke of Thrones.
As part if this deal each power now had sole claim of certain areas; this is supposed to make them stronger. The Fire Duke got Horwell, Sammael got the fortress of Olawch and so on.

We tried drying the old books out but due to the water damage and the age, about the only thing keeping them from totally falling apart was our binder’s magic.
The Books where all in the same Ancient Orcish as the tomb, and in the end Burnhilda gave them to the Flames and he told her what each one was about.
For the most part they were personal journals from a past age, accounts of great battles and descriptions of ancient relics. Tales of the last years of a once great and now all but forgotten civilization.

Once it had read the books The Fire said that it now knew that the agents of the Duke of Thrones where up to. They had found clues to the location of many ancient Relics that could turn the tide of the War.
The reason the Specter here was so strong in the daytime was due to some of these relics, and it had been looking for more.
He was concerned that although this agent had been stopped there was a very strong possibility that other agents were searching for more, particularly a relic that had been taken deep into the desert to the far north.
The demon was most adamant that we warn the humans the danger.
He also said that it would need a serious and very experienced expedition to get up north and that he was currently blind in that area as there were no fires there.
He was also willing to reward people for any enlightenment anyone was prepared to give him on the matter, but due to “The Rules” was unable to hire the guild to look for the relic.

15th Meadow

The cavalry arrived on the afternoon of the 14th, the next morning we flew back to the capital of the duchy with our loot to report to our employer and collect our payment.
Then after Burnhilda had written a letter explaining about her arrangement with the cat which we then had witnessed just to be extra cautious, we set of back though the portal to the Alusia.
When we emerged in the Sweetwater Brunhilda was no longer with us, I guess we’ll see her in a year.

Reference Information

Previous Adventures of relevance.
Delving Too Deep A Reference to why they are a bit busy to look into it themselves.
Storm To Port The Winter storms.

This Adventure for Future parties

  • Worship of Murmur is Bad.
  • Worship of Aim is okay he protects against undead.
  • Worship of Sammael is up he too wards against undead.

People

  • The Mayor of Oldridge: Imric Cooper
  • Shorty the Gnome: can speak common, runs fast and doesn't leave tracks.

Places

Standard Buffs

Loot

From skeletons 3 Bows 1 Staff silvered 3 Spears silvered 6 Swords silvered 6 Shields silvered Rank 4 Leather Armour

Research

A summery of information from old scribe notes that may impact the current mission.

The Duchy of Pretrenco and the Empire.

First contact between the Guild and the plane of Farwey was in the winter of 803, when Councilor Marvin of Partridge (at that time the Baron Argents Jester) came to hire a bodyguard for the then Baron Argent of Partridge so he could travel safely to the capitol to see the “King” of the Empire. Assassins where trying to stop him reaching King Lendard of Biltadon thus preventing him becoming the Duke of Pretrenco.
The party captured an assassin, Alexandre an earth mage, later they let him go in return for ‘owing them a favor’.
Escorting A Lord

The following season a party was hired to investigate the abduction of a noble lady; Baron Bertran of Zegora’s 2nd daughter. This party tracked her North beyond the Duchy and Empires boarders to the Orcs in the Grey Mounds. The Orcs had taken her because they needed her blood for a magical cure to heal their Chief. It seems they didn’t need her dead just some blood, so the party helped them get the rest of the components.
Hunt For The Maiden

This party never got as far west as the Misty Marsh which is north of Horwell, but they do talk of the Crystal Mountain, with Air mage Gryphon’s; a Dark Forest which is marshy, made of undead trees, and inhabited by Pygmies in plate (Halflings?).
And the Swamps of Despair where they had the Guilds first encounter with creatures call Blight. Tiny winged magic casting undead, that come in swarms and seem able to infect areas of land with an undead infection, turning it into a blighted undead swamp land, or Blight Swamp. This effect seems to require a magical battle. Blight are light sensitive.
This party also mentions of Wuffa a necromancer and agent of Murmur who was defeated 500 years ago, when the empire was founded.

In the winter of 804, the Empire had declared war on the Duchy of Pretrenco for some act of treason; a party went to the capitol to find out just what it was and why the king thought that his grace was a traitor.
The party enlisted the help of the Assassins Guild of which Alexandre is member, to get into the mid winter royal ball.
They stopped Matthias a New Adviser to the King, who it turn out was a big ‘Elder’ Blight in disguise, and his treasonous plans, by destroying the kings ball room and killing the creature.
The King called a cease fire to the war on the Duchy.
The assassin’s guild had a contract on Matthias.
Rings of Deception

In the summer of 805 Marvin needed rescuing (incomplete scribe notes, Menolly was scribe)
The Ghoul Preservation Society

In Summer 806 the Duke went missing a party Found and rescued him.
(These scribe notes are badly written and hard to follow possibly they are compiled from the parties debriefing after they returned to the guild. Again Menolly was scribe.) Oh Not another Bard
They mention the town of Fulford and the river Ful which runs though the heart of the Empire. A Ship with a winged demon on the prow called Vengeance. And that Harpies live in on island out to sea and once a week some get eaten by a dragon.
They also say that Father Rowan smote some temples/shrines to some demons, Seir and Forneus are two that are named. A Storm started up then and it seems from the notes of a later adventure it never stopped just got bigger and bigger.
There is an additional note by a senior guild member, attached to these notes that states that on Farwey Avatars of Demons turn up if you say the Demons name.

Winter 807; the whole coast of the empire and possibly beyond, is covered by a huge storm that covers all land up to 100 miles in land from the coast.
Contact with their Duchy capital Lemaine had been lost by Oldrigde and they had turned to the Duchy of Pretrenco for help. The town of Horwell was cut off and the people couldn’t get out. An experienced party of Seagate Guild members was called in to fix things.
They found that a triumvirate of powers: the Lord of the Bath (Crocell), the Lord of Pain (Astaroth) and the Lord of the Sea Serpent (Forneus), was creating the storm and that Father Rowan’s temples/shrine smiting may have been the start of it all.
The coastal city Iynae (capital of the Duchy?) was found to be totally in ruins.
An Avatar of both the Willing Prince (Seir) and the Sea Serpent turned up on this adventure.
Horwells defenders include the Crew of a ship that had a figurehead of a succubus dressed for war, The Hlothere . The Captain was Linson Waverider and he had a Namer and three Water Mages among his crew.
Storm To Port

Autumn 808 (again only partial scribe note exist this time the scribe is Tanis)
Someone again tried to assassinate Duke Argent, a party was sent to play politics and see if they could find out who has sending assassins.
A two things that where clear from the information that is recorded, are the known assassins guild wasn’t involved, and are still friendly to our Guild. And Lord Derek from Colbrook was interested in becoming Duke Derek. Petrenco has 'claimed' a large stretch of the old Coastal Duchy from the old border across to the sea giving Duke Argent a piece of coastline.
Lord Derek said that he would not contest this, but in return he wanted Duke Argent's support, and trade.
Chasing White Elephants

Summer 809, undead are crossing the boarder all along the north of the Duchy a major undead invasion of the mountains to the east threatens to cut the duchy off from the Dwarves and their source of silver and weapons grade metals.
A high party including Princess Isil Eth breaks the siege on the Dwarves, so trade can resume.
Delving Too Deep

Summer

  Moonday Duesday W'ansday Th'rsday Frysday Reapsday Sunday
Beltane
Meadow (1)
  1 Guild Meeting Breifing by Marvin, Reseach. 2 Travel by portal to Farwey. 3 Rest and get lessers. 4 Fly to Oldridge. 5 White Lotus Fly to Horwell. 6  
7 The cat transports party to tomb. 8   9   10 The Dawn raid & then we really screwed up. 11 Battled skeletons 12 Arrange Resurection 13 Waiting in town
14 The calary arrive 15 Flew home 16   17   18   19 The Castellan Borderers Ball 20  
21   22   23   24   25   26 Seagate Crafters Ball 27  
28   29   30