The Kavishport Chronicle

Session 2 (15 July ‘21 or 4 Septus, Year of the Seven Sisters Ulibale time)

After taking a night’s rest after their exploits, the adventurers go their separate ways to resume their day-to-day lives.

Sadie returns to the stables and puts in a full day’s work, and takes some time to examine and take apart the suit of black leather armor she has recovered. It is a little too small and designed for a slighter build than hers, so she decides to take it apart into its component parts and remake it into a suit that will fit her. Using an iron knife, the armor comes apart easily, but it’s late, and Sadie decides to quit there and head over to the Green Gryphon Tavern to see if anything interesting is happening.

Tanis spends the day at the forge working on crafting a new flail. He gets about half the work done to complete the weapon before the work day ends. After a long day at the hot forge, he also decides to head over to the Green Gryphon, where he knows Rodrok headed to after the smithy closed up for the day.

Calyyn decides to spend the day wandering the ward a bit, asking after rumors of some of the things related to the previous nights’ affairs, seeing if he can turn up anything about the plae elves, the Eladrin, or the Raven’s Queen, or the Crone as she is known to those who worship the Pantheon. A few of the folks remember some legends or old wives tales of the history of Kavishport, of a time in the early days of the city when the Necromancer’s Guild was infiltrated by a demonic cult and tried to usurp control of the city, and a priest named Darius, who was dedicated to TheCrone led the resistance and was instrumental in putting down the cult and the guild. The Crone supposedly blessed him and gifted him with some token of her favor. After a long day traipsing through Riverside, he returns to his quarters at Rodrok’s and utilizes on of his abilities he just figured out how to control, calling upon the Eyes of the Runekeeper to read the strange inscription in Elven on the blade he found prior to coming to Kavishport. The inscription reads-”Memories Chosen. Service to Death and Beyond” After a long day. Calyn decides to stay in and get some rest.

Wham Wham is torn. He wants to get to work tinkering, and does infuse a couple of items with a new ability he has figured out, making his shield even sturdier, and creating an alchemy jug. However, his curiosity over the previous night’s events gets the better of him, and he decides to set out for the Bone Garden, Kavishport’s Necropolis that sits outside the city to the west. He heads into the city proper and to the West Gate on a trek that takes the better part of three hours to complete, arriving at the Bone Garden late in the morning. He finds quite a ruckus going on there when he arrives, and members of both the City Watch and the Kraustov House Guard have sealed off the Bone Garden and are turning people away. He stops a fellow tradesman to ask what is going on, and the man tells him that there has been a murder. The Head of the Necropolitan Guild (the guild that handles the dead and their burial or cremation) was found dead, and The Eye of the Raven, his symbol of office, was missing and presumed stolen. In his surprise, Wham Wham asks the man if elves were involved, and tells him he had seen a carved raven brooch the night before. The man’s demeanor switches from friendly to giving the gnome the stink-eye as he quickly makes excuses and gets away from the gnome. Nonplussed, Wham Wham decides he should head back to Riverside and let the others know what he has discovered, making the three hour hike back to Riverside, arriving mid-afternoon. Only Tanis is around, and the dwarf is absorbed in his work, so Wham Wham decides to examine the scimitar he recovered the night before. He first tries to remove the moonstone from the pommel of the blade, and does so, but damages the hilt in the process. In doing so, he realizes it was made from bronze, not steel, and has no iron in it at all, and neither does the blade which is forged from some other iron-less alloy. Absorbed in his new discovery, he tinkers with it for the rest of the afternoon, before deciding to retire, but does tell Tanis the news about the mirder and missing seal of office.

Over at the Green Gryphon, Sadie arrives to see Ardavazt holding court at one of the tables, regaling his friends with a tale of the river crossing last night and how timid his guards were at the prospect of being in a small boat on the river at night, as Brodrok and the others roar with laughter. Tanis sits nearby drinking, listening with noticeably less humor to Ardavazt’s tale.

Ardavazt’s recounting of his exploits is interrupted when another of Rodrok’s group arrives, Madame Elana, the Varastani fortune teller who hangs her shingle in the shop next to the smithy. She does not appear to be in good humor though, and seems singularly focused as she approaches the table where Brodrok, Ardavazt and the others sit. Ardavazt tries to lighten the mood with a jest, but simply gets shushed by Elana, who simply utters four words-”I had a dream…”

With those words, the humor leaves the table. Rodrok sits up soberly, Ardavast grimaces and sits down and the others all turn their eyes to her. The regulars all give her their full attention, waiting expectantly as Elana takes a deep breath, looks Ardavazt straight in the eyes and says “I saw Ardavazt and a handful of companions being led off in chains…”

Ardavazt begins to stammer and sweat profusely and the others begin to grumble, but Tanis stands up front henearby table nearly knocking his seat over and begins to loudly talk about the previous night, which causes ardavast to shush him vehemently, telling him this is neither the time nor the place. Sadie keeps quiet, but is deeply disturbed by this revelation. Ardavazt suggests they go somewhere else more private to discuss things, and Elena invites them all back to her shop. Sadie notices a minstrel bearing the mark of one of Robyn’s Handymen nearby and passes a message to him in Thieves Cant asking him to get the word out that trouble is coming and she may be in the thick of it before following the others out into the night as they head towards Madame Elana’s shop.

On the way there, Tanis stops at the smithy to gather up Wham Wham and Calyn, who rush to join them, as Wham Wham shares the news he discovered at the Bone Gardens. The party has gathered in Madame Elana’s along with Ardavazt, Rodrok and Elena. The others in Rodrok’s group remained behind at the Green Gryphon to make sure no one was taking too close of a notice of their departure or nosing around too much into their affairs.

Inside Elana's, a heated discussion is taking place. Several of the party members are grilling Ardavazt about last night’s activities, and Ardavazt professes his ignorance and innocence. He was simply a middleman doing a job passing on merchandise from a seller to a buyer for a cut of the proceeds. He got the raven brooch from a man professing to be a low-level agent of House Zervas who used an obvious pseudonym (the Elvish word for “mask”) who told him it was a trinket left over from a bitter end of an illicit romantic tryst that needed to be removed from the city to remove any evidence of one of the participant’s infidelity, and all he had to do was deliver it to someone in the hills outside the city to make sure the lovers identities remained unknown. He met the agent at a tavern called the Loaf and Ladle in the Raven’s Nest Ward, but did not know him previously, introductions had been set up by the associate of an associate of an associate as things are normally done with these kinds of things.

While Ardavazt is spinning this tale, Sadie and the others hear the sound of something metal crashing to the floor in the smithy next door. Some are focused on grilling Ardavazt and unwilling to leave to check it out, but Sadie stealthily slips outside to investigate while the others debate the best course of action without any of them noticing. She hears another noise coming from the upper level above the smithy and notices a cloaked and veiled figure looking out the window holding one of the moonstone adorned scimitars they recovered from the pale elves the night before. She takes aim with her bow and shoots at the figure, but the window provides too much cover and the arrow misses, but the figure is now aware of Sadie and ducks back inside.

Calyn and Wham Wham had grown exasperated with the debate as well and went to investigate the sound. They are startled as Sadie shouts-the veiled figure has jumped out the window on the opposite side and hit the ground running. Sadie is yelling at the figure to stop, and starts to chase after her as she takes aim and plunks the cloaked figure with an arrow, but the figure continues to sprint away trying to effect its escape. Wham Wham and Calyn soon join the chase, and the noise of the commotion alerts the others inside Elena's that something is happening.

Sadie is losing ground on the quarry, but peppering her with arrows, when a thug hidden in an alley steps out as Sadie approaches and douses her with a powder blown through a bamboo tube. The powder hits Sadie square inthe face, and begins burning at her eyes effectively blinding her. Calyn and Wham Wham had fallen but were falling further behind, unable to slow the quarry’s progress, and the cloaked figure escapes, but the party turns their attention on the remaining thug. Sadie blindly drops her bow and draws her sword as the thug smacks her twice with a mace, and manages to slash him with a wild blind trike before backing away and putting her back to the wall. Wham Wham and Calyn hit him with magic as they approach before Calyncharges him, smacking the thug square in the belly with the flat of his blade and sharply bringing the hilt up crashing into the thug’s jaw, sending teeth flying and knocking him out.

Calyn drags the body into an alley and then back to Elena’s while Wham Wham tends to the blinded Sadie and leads her back as well. The powdery substance is identified as yellow lotus powder, an extract from a plant native to the lands far to the east, and its effects usually wear off after about an hour. Rodrok angrily confronts Ardavazt about his role in all of this and his immediate plans, and Ardavazt storms out heading back to his shop.
The party searches the thug before reviving him and interrogating him. They only found a few coins and a tattoo of a drowning rat on his elbow. Sadie recognizes the tattoo but says nothing. They begin to ask him questions, and the thug resists, but is terrified as Wham Wham pours acid from his alchemy jug on the thug’s wounds. Thrashing about, the thug slips the bonds Calyn had tied, trying to kick the jug out of Wham Wham’s hands, but is quickly tackled by Tanis and immobilized. They don’t get much out of the thug, he was simply hired muscle ordered to run interference if his partner ran into trouble, and they are part of the River Rats thieves guild operating out of the Undercity. Finished asking him questions, they knock him out again and debate what to do with him. Sadie tells the others she will take care of it, and they agree as long as she doesn’t kill him.

They assess what is missing from their rooms, the only things taken were two of the moonstone scimitars recovered from the pale elves (Tanis had kept his on his person, and Wham Wham had removed the moonstone from his, so he still has the gem even though the blade was taken) and a handful of coins. Calyn then asks Tanis if he can see the lone remaining moonstone blade they recovered, and uses his Eyes of the Runekeeper to translate the inscription. It reads “Memories lost, freedom to be won” as best as he can read it.

They then begin to debate what they should do next. Rodrok offers them a chance to get out of the city for a while, travelling to the mines in the hills north of the city to procure an ore shipment for him, and they consider it, but still aren’t certain. Madame Elana offers to do a card reading for them, and they accept, though Calyn is skeptical, believing her to be a charlatan.

Madame Elena pulls out her deck of fortune cards and does a simple spread-the Oracle of the Four Seasons-which she says will offer insight into past present and future.

The First card, representing winter, was the Black Cat revealing misfortune in their past, but luck could change.

The Second card, representing autumn, was the Golem, showing someone acted on their behalf in the immediate future.

The Third card, representing summer, was the Gryphon, showing they must act with honor if good luck is to be in their immediate future.

The Fourth card, representing spring, was Love, representing fidelity and loyalty in the distant future.

Madame Elana was silent and then takes them all in with a look and tells them that their situation is precarious. They have been the victims of misfortune, but they can change the path of their fortune if they act decisively and accept the aid and guidance of those who would be their benefactors, but they must act with honor and integrity to win the loyalty of each other and those who could aid them if they are to prosper and not remain the victims of misfortune.

Calyn scoffs and remains skeptical until Madame Elena tells him the vision of the raven he had when he found his blade prior to coming to Kavishport, and Calyn can feel her in his mind watching his memories of that event. The party has questions, and Elana offers what answers she can. Some of the party members know bits and pieces of lore that when woven together with each other and with what Elena can tell them start to produce a piece of the larger picture.

Here’s what they think they know…

-Memory probably refers to the Fortress of Memories, the citadel of the Raven Queen on the Shadowfell

-The pale elves they encountered the previous evening as called Shadar-Kai, a sub-race of elves that serve the Winter Queen

-The Raven’s Eye was a gift given by the Raven Queen to the head of the Necropolitan guild when the Necromancer’s Uprising was put down. It is purported to have the power to keep the restless dead at rest, preventing them from rising up in the city again.

-the current head of the Necropolitan Guild was murdered and the Raven’s Eye taken from him

-The Raven’s Eye has been removed from Kavishport, delivered into the hands of an Eladrin believed to be in service to the Winter Court in the Feywild

-The Winter Court is also known as the Unseelie Court, and is the purview of those thought to be the “dark fey”

-Elana is a member of the race known as The Varastani, legend has it the Varastani were the people of prophecy and favored among the peoples of the world in the days prior to the Cataclysm, but their failure to foresee the coming of the Cataclysm made them outcasts and pariah

-The Varastani maintain a long oral tradition, lore not recorded anywhere else, including some details about the Cataclysm not known anywhere else

-among those details are that the elven god Corellon was among those slain in the war of the gods leading to the cataclysm, and battle which led to his and his wife’s death is what ripped apart the second moon of Ulibale and forced many of the other elven gods to flee to the Feywild seeking refuge with the archfey who ruled there, including the Queen of the Winter Court

-at this point the connection between the Winter Court and the Raven Queen is a matter of speculation, and no one is sure how removing the Raven’s Eye formKavishport ties into it all though

-also uncertain is how the River Rats or any of the other thieves guilds of Kavishport ties into it all, but the Rats are definitely involved. And how House Kraustov or House Zervas play into it is still unknown.

While they discuss all this, Sadie leaves to dispose of the unconscious thug. She has him trussed up on the back of her horse and heads to the large sewer intake grate where the part of the Valnar River is diverted to flow into the sewer system. The sewer tunnel lies just outside of Riverside slightly upriver and open under the walls of Kavishport, where a large metal grate bars access into the tunnel itself. Sadie hangs the thug from the grate, unconscious but alive, and pins a not to his sleeve using a knife that reads “Stay the f**k out of Riverside” signed with the symbol of Robyn’s Handymen.

As Sadie makes her way back to Elana’s she sees a commotion on the Piers. Men from the House Guard of House Kraustov have arrived and are taking Ardavazt away in chains. Sadie quickly makes her way to Elena’s and tells them what is happening.

The news sets them all into motion, ends their debating and inspires some quick decisions. They decide they will take Rodrok up on his offer to get out of town, but Rodrok needs time to set things up and will not be ready for them to leave until morning. Not wanting to stay at Rodrok’s for the night, Elena suggests Sadie take them to one of Robyn’s nests, safehouses where folks can stay out of sight until the heat has passed. Sadie agrees and everyone quickly gathers what belongings they can so they can leave at dawn, before Sadie leads them to the outskirts of Riverside, in the direction she had gone to dispose of the thug. There, she gives a bird call to the residents of one of the stilt houses on the fringe of town and they answer back in kind. They scramble down with rakes and quickly remove a patch of the mud under the house revealing a trap door, which opens to reveal an underground bunker of sorts where they can spend the night. All climb down inside and the Handymen close the trap door and rake the mud back on top of it before scrambling back up into their home for the evening. With dawn will come the next session...

-M

The Kavishport Chronicle

Session 3 (22 July ‘21 or 5-8 Septus, Year of the Seven Sisters Ulibale time)

Before dawn, the party rises to find Rodrok and Elana gone. The party gather their things and leave the safehouse to find both waiting for them as a light rain falls. They lead them down to piers on the river. Rodrok has prepared a cart with two mules for them, the cart loaded with supplies for the mines. All have been loaded on a barge for crossing the river. Rodrok goes over the inventory with his three smith employees, and provides them a crude map to lead them to the mine. A cloaked woman also greets them on the dock, and has a private conversation with Sadie, and hands her a wrapped bundle and the reins to her horse. Rodrok and Elana have provided the party with some other gifts to help them on their journey as well, a pair of healing potions, 2 doses of Keoghtam’s ointment, 10 +1 arrows, a driftglobe, a healer’s kit, rations and some coin to use if necessary. Saying farewells, the party climbs aboard the barge and they cross the Valnar to the hills.

Arriving on the far shore as the sun lifts above the horizon, they unload the barge, hitch up the mules, and head off into the hills. They spend a long day trudging through the rain and mud before finding a place to camp for the night. As Tanis stands watch, he hears a howl in the distance that chills him to the bone. He wakes the others and they spot what appears to be the silhouette of a large hound of some sort against the moon on a nearby rooftop. Sadie says it looks like the hound is consuming the moonlight. Calyn grumbles about being woken up for a dog, as the watch changes and the others go back to sleep. In the morning as they prepare to break camp. Sadie finds a large paw print in the mud just outside camp. She surmises the dog that made it would stand as tall as her shoulder. She points it out to the others and suggests they do what they can to cover their tracks through the day just in case, but the continuing steady rain makes it a difficult task.

They spend a second day trudging through the rain and mud, with branches rigged to the back of the cart by Sadie to drag the mud doing the best she can to obscure the cart tracks they leave behind. They make camp for a second night, and the night passes mostly uneventfully. Just before dawn though, they hear a loud howl of frustration in the distance, but not close enough to menace the camp. Rising with the dawn, they break camp and head out for a third day.

The rain breaks that afternoon, but it is still a long day of trudging through the mud, following the slight track through the hills that the infrequent supply runs to the mines use. They set up camp and set up watches. Calyn takes the first watch. While the others sleep, he pulls out his sword and begins to meditate over it. As his eyes flutter, he begins to have a vision-he sees a land shrouded in shadow, he sees a city in the distance and his view flashes across a river to the city, into the city to a palace, into the palace to a throne room with a woman sitting upon it. He hears a whisper-”Memories mine, serve me to death and beyond!” As the whisper fades, the woman explodes into a flock of ravens, all but one flies away, but remains to look Calyn in the eye about to speak when Calyn is awakened by a sharp pain. He startles awake to find himself flanked by a pair of small dark cloaked humanoids, the same kind they fended off in Ardavast’s home a few nights before. He is not awake long as they both plunge daggers into him, his scream of pain waking the others as he collapses and loses consciousness.

The party scrambles awake to see the humanoids taking out Calyn and hear a low growl as a large shadow mastiff strides into the camp in the wake of the dark humanoids attack and howls, frightening some of the party. Sadie grabs the driftglobe and commands it to cast its daylight spell. The two darklings shriek in distress at the bright light, throwing up their cloaks to shield their eyes, and even the massive shadow mastiff shrinks back from the light. A short decisive combat follows as the slay both dark creepers and drive off the mastiff who flees the bright light and seeks the darkness. They revive Calyn, reestablish their watch, and spend a vigilant night

As the next day dawns, they break camp and head off for another day’s trek. They see a small band of what they assume are bandits on a earby hill, but the bandits give them a wide berth, not wanting to tangle with the heavily armed group. The day passes and they make camp for the night. During Sadie’s watch she spots a light on a nearby hilltop, and wakes the rest of the party. She goes and gets cover and readies herself and her bow in case something comes into the camp. As she settles in, she feels a tug on her waist and looks down to see a small fey creature, who hands her a scroll and speeds away, moving so quickly his form becomes a blur.

The party gathers around and carefully handles the scroll before reading it. It is an invitation to parlay, signed by Lady Vashnari Icedell, the Eladrin woman who Ardavazt delivered the Raven’s Eye too. Uncertain of their best course of action, they’ve heard the fey and Eladrin are sticklers for protocol and should honor the parlay, they decide to head over to the other hilltop.

As they climb to the hilltop, they see Landy Vashnari standing upon an embankment waiting for them. A horse waits behind her, and they can see the small fey (a quickling) and the Shadow Mastiff on the hilltop as well. The party reaches the top and stands in the small clearing. Lady Vashnari addresses them and waves her hand, and the illusion fades. The sky changes from night to perpetual twilight and a large gateway appears behind them, that they unwittingly crossed though a sit was hidden behind the illusion. They now stand in the Feywild. They look behind them to see the portal they came though starting to shrink.

Lady Vashnari tells them she was disappointed her minions could not eliminate them in their two previous attempts, and she cannot have them revealing her schemes. Now that she has them in the Feywild, her secrets are safe; she will not harm them, but she cannot let them ever leave. The party is having none of this, and tries to make a break for the portal before it closes.

The lights they saw upon the hilltop turn out to be a will-o-wisp that moves to block the portal from the other side. The Shadow Mastiff and Quickling also move to block the portal. Sadie tries to use the driftglobe’s daylight spell, but the Feywild’s perpetual twilight dilutes the spell and renders it useless. A fast and furious fight ensues as the party tries to escape back through the portal. The Quickling’s lightning-fast attacks drops Sadie unconscious and Lady Vashnari unleashes her fey magic and temporarily blinds Calyn and Tanis. The party manages to revive Sadie, they kill the Quickling and manage to drop the Shadow Mastiff just before they escape through the portal to face the Will-o-wisp by the skin of their teeth. They quickly drive off the Will-o-wisp as Lady Vashnari screams in frustration and closes the portal behind the party, their escape from the Feywild complete. They catch their breath and start to head back to their camp to make sure everything is intact…

With that, the party has reached the next milestone and advances to third level...

-M

I should have done this in the first post, but better late then never

Falegar Chronicles Dramatis Personae

Wrex- kobold wizard (played by my wife), former apprentice of a halfling wizard who was a bit of a hermit in the Felagar valley. Struck out on his own when the wizard died of old age. Has scars on his back from when his wings were cut off, but has no memory of that time before he came to serve the halfling wizard. Wrex is a bit obsessed with dragons and dragonkind.

Kruk-Aarakocra ranger (bird-folk for those unfamiliar with D&D lore. Born on the Elemental plane of air, he came to Ulibale with a group of researchers, who were ambushed and killed. He is now trapped here, but was taken in an cared for by a kindly elf, and trained to be a hunter. His group was betrayed by a black feathered Aarakocra who wore a black cloak with a red eye

Chore-a human divine soul sorcerer (i.e. a sorcerer able to draw on both arcane magic and the divine magic of the gods), who had a traumatic experience with an eldritch tome as a youth and now questions the power of the gods and their right to lord over humanity.

Zano-half-elf fighter, his grandparents ruled a local region, but were usurped and conquered by Acregor the Witch-King, and Zano was born in exile. His parents provided him with a bodyguard, a bugbear barbarian named Naggoth, who has been with him since Zano was young

Naggoth-bugbear barbarian (see Zano)

-M

From the KAVISHPORT CHRONICLES

Session 4 (12 August ‘21 or 9-14 Septus, Year of the Seven Sisters Ulibale time)

Resting for the evening after escaping nearly being trapped in the Feywild, Wham Wham rises early and scavenging parts from the supply wagon constructs a new watchdog of sorts, Black Phillip, a steel defender in the shape of a goat as the rest of the party breaks camp and gets ready to hit the road. The biggest challenge of the next few days is the changeable weather and heavy rains of the late autumn making the track they follow to the mines a muddy mess, but they make their way towards the mines. On the fourth day after their escape, the party makes camp for the night at the base of a hill. At the top of the hill they can see the ruins of some sort of ancient hill fort, but none are inclined to check it out, until they hear a cry of pain in Dwarven emanating from the hilltop. Sadie suspects it might be an ambush or an attempt to lure them from their camp again, so stays to watch the camp while the others go investigate.

Meanwhile… Aleksandar Yardley is an investigator from the Raven’s Nest ward of Kavishport, who had received a message from Dzaghig, his former mentor in the village of Nelonstz, a little over a week ago. The burial ground outside that town had been defiled and she wanted to know if Aleksandar could offer assistance in finding out what happened and who was responsible. Aleksandar had travelled to the village and upon examining the burial ground, he found faint tracks of something humanoid leading eastward back towards Kavishport, and into the hills north of the city. He followed the tracks into the hills, and as he nears a hilltop with the ruins of an ancient hill fort, he hears cries of pain and anguish in Dwarven. He follows them to the top of the hill, and inside the ruins finds a lone Dwarf lying injured and in pain, and two Dwarven corpses nearby. The stink of infection permeates the night air within the ruins.

Aleksandar approaches the Dwarf. The Dwarf is wearing work clothes and is covered in dust, likely a miner. His right hand is missing and his arm has been cauterized, but infection has set in. He has several other wounds and bruises as well, and clutches the broken handle of some sort of tool, likely a pick in his left hand. The Dwarf is babbling, nearly incoherently in Dwarven, a language which he understands, but Aleksandar manages to pick out a few words. The dwarf talks of the arrival of someone to the mine who betrayed them, who was Jujaro the Puppet Master. Aleksandar has heard the name Jujaro before, some kind of bogeyman in Dwarven folklore, but does not know the stories or details. He moves closer to try to get more information from the barely conscious dwarf, but a voice calls out for him to stop and stay where he is, Tanis’ voice.

The party has arrived atop the hilltop and entered the ruins to see a lone human dressed in a long coat, his features hidden by a wide-brimmed hat, looming over the injured Dwarf with two other dead Dwarves lying nearby. Tanis, Wham Wham with Black Phillip, and Calyn loosen their weapons and call to the man to stop, wanting to know who he is and what he has done to the Dwarves. Tensions rise between the party and Aleksandar, but before things can boil over, Black Phillip’s head snaps to attention and looks to the far side of the ruins, and the party hears the sound of something rending and chewing flesh. They look over and see a grayish humanoid has hunched over one of the Dwarven corpses and taken a large bite out of it. A ghoul. Beyond the ruined walls they see the rest of the band of ghouls led by a larger similar humanoid with a more purplish cast to its flesh (a ghast) approaching.

Faced with a common threat, the party sides with Aleksandar against the ghouls, and a harrowing combat ensues. At various points, Tanis was paralyzed by the ghouls, and Calyn was knocked unconscious surrounded by ghouls, but the party persevered and overcame the ghouls and ghast. Sadie heard the sounds of combat and raced up the hill on horseback and arrived as the last ghoul was vanquished.

They catch their breath and move to look in on the injured Dwarf, and it looks like he has died, but Calyn tries healing magic to see if he can be saved. The healing magic snaps the Dwarf’s eyes open as it screams in pain and the healing magic seems to burn his flesh. Aleksandar also tries to heal him to a similar effect, and Wham Wham remembers that some types of necromantic magic can foil magical healing and that healing magic can harm some undead. Believing the Dwarf to now be undead, they put it out of its misery, but not before it babbles about Jujaro again.

Tanis is familiar with the story of Jujaro, it is a spooky story his grandmother used to tell him. Jujaro was a Dwarven wizard who tried to aid the Dwarves’ cause in one of the ancient goblin wars. However, he resorted to necromantic magic to animate the fallen goblins to defeat the goblin armies, taking the goblin name Jujaro for himself. His animations were known as Jujaro’s puppets. The Dwarves reject Jujaro and his methods and he becomes an outcast and turns against them, hunting them and turning them into his undead minions.

After examining the other fallen Dwarves, who are also missing their right hands, and taking time to burn all the bodies and the ghouls, the party returns to their camp with Aleksandar. Aleksandar realizes these ghouls are what he tracked across the countryside, but wants to investigate the mines and these stories of Jujaro. The party is headed to the mines anyways, and they agree to travel to the mines together. After resting for the night, they plan to head out in the morning. As they break camp, Sadie finds tracks in the freshly fallen snow heading from the hills towards the mines. There may be more ghouls out there. They set out, keeping watch as they go.

It takes them nearly a day and a half to reach the mines. It is before noon on the tenth day since leaving Kavishport, and as they approach the mine, they sense something is wrong. The outbuildings outside the mine proper seem abandoned. They examine the buildings, seeing signs of struggle. The buildings have been ransacked, and there are bloodstains in several places.

As they examine the building, Sadie catches sight of something scuttling into the mine. It was tiny and she couldn’t see what it was clearly before it got into the darkness of the mine.

The party cautiously approaches the mine, and those with darkvision can see a ways into the mine’s darkness. They see a large statue of a Dwarf with its head severed and lying on the ground and a battered table knocked over and a chair lying on the floor. Tanis can make out some movement under the table and behind the statue, and as his vision focuses, he sees several severed hands scuttling in the darkness towards the entrance as a faint glow approaches the entrance from further inside the mine and a maniacal laughter echoes from inside the mine…

And that’s where we will pick up next time...

-M

The Kavishport Chronicles

Session 5 (19 August ‘21 or 14 Septus, Year of the Seven Sisters Ulibale time)

Entering the mine, the party wades through the wave of Crawling Claws as a Flaming Skull emerges from the darkness and begins to pepper the party with its magic and flaming rays. They quickly dispatch all the guardians, but they recognize what the Flaming Skull is and the nature of the enchantment that animates it, knowing it will pull itself together and that they do not currently have what is needed to permanently destroy it, so they move further into the mines.

After assessing their options and debating what direction to go they choose a tunnel and begin exploring. They find a few mine shafts and an abandoned dormitory. In one of the mine shafts they see an overturned mine cart with a bit of cloth sticking out. Wham Wham and his defender see that the cloth is a piece of a cloak and someone is under the cart. Lifting the cart up, they find an unconscious and wounded dwarven woman. Sadie feeds her a healing potion reviving her, and she introduces herself as Kara Thrum, a paladin of the Forger, and captain of the mine’s guard. She was wounded fighting off the hordes of undead created by Jujaro. She mentioned it all started shortly after the last supply shipment was brought to the mines by Ardavst the Halfling, whom the party knows well. Healing Kara a little more and giving her weapons, they discuss options. They tell Kara of the Skull and she tells them there is holy water in the temple in the mine. Tanis had spotted the temple while they were assessing their options earlier, and they decided to head to the mine.

As they approach the temple, Kara warns them she feels the presence of undead within. Inside they find an undead warrior (a wight) and four zombies under his control. The temple altar has been desecrated but the holy water font still stands. They make fairly quick work of the wight and the zombies, though Kara gets frustrated when some of the party attack the undead she had turned, ending the effect before the others were destroyed. They may not be a well-oiled fighting machine, but they usually get results. Salvaging a couple of vials of holy water from the font, they decide to head back and destroy the Flaming Skull that guards the entrance after taking a short rest.

As they approach, the reconstituted Skull laughs and spits a seed of fire that sails towards them and explodes as a fireball, knocking Sadie out and injuring most of the party. With some healing and some luck, they get everybody up and into the fight, defeating the Skull before anyone else can be hurt. Using the holy water, they immerse the pieces of the skull and destroy. Catching their breath, they discuss what to do next…

And that’s where we’ll pick up next time.

-M

From the Falegar Chronicles

Session 6 (29 August 2021; or 20 Primus Year of the Seven Sisters Ulibale time)

As they approach the village, they can see several of the buildings are on fire, and the ground is littered with dead bodies. They ask Kruk to scout the village before they enter and as he flies into the village, he is struck by something (darts) that sends him crashing into the ground unconscious.

The party rushes closer to aid him, but are still cautious as they could not see the source of the attack on Kruk. Chore heals Kruk from a distance, and Zano peers into one of the outer cottages through the window, but is attacked by an orc wearing a dark cloak and a brooch in the shape of a red fang lurking within. It turns out the village was slaughtered by a pair of Red Fangs, a xenophobic sect of orcs independent of any particular tribe that act as assassins and shock troops against all non-orc races. Combat ensues, one of the orcs is killed, and the other tries to flee on the giant bat mounts they had, but is shot down before he can get away. The bats fly off, but the orcs are dead.

The party examines the bodies and recognizes the sign of the red fang and the orc god it represents. They surmise if the Red Fangs are involved, this is more serious than simple raids against the valley’s residents. But they don’t have time to tarry, they need to get to the Springstone to see what has happened to Sarkis and their allies.
After another hour’s march south, they reach the Springstone. They see the shattered remains of the Galeb Duhr they had seen through the portal and a handful of dead bodies, a dwarf, a human, and a halfling. They also see Sorcha, the half-orc ranger who they met before who serves as a liaison to Sarkis. She is alive, but pinned between a boulder and one of the fallen lintel stones. Naggoth braces himself and lifts the lintel stone enough for Sorcha to slide out. She tells them what happened.

The warlord Acregor has conquered the Yerevan Highlands and has turned his eyes eastward to the Falegar Valley, and has been stirring up and recruiting the orc tribes there. Sarkis has gotten word from some former allies that the Danobian League stands against Acregor and are looking for information about the valley and its strengths. Sarkis was trying to gather allies to meet here and see what could be done about the orcs. Representatives of the dwarves, halfling, and the residents of Hart’s Ford had gathered, and they were waiting for the party and word from the elves. Sarkis had sent an elf named Nirthala. Who was a recent recruit to Sarkis’ cause as an envoy to the elves. But they had not heard anything since. However, someone must have alerted the orcs as the orcs lead by the aarakocra Harvester Delek had attacked them and taken Sarkis prisoner after killing the rest (or in Sorcha’s case leaving her for dead).

Kruk recognizes the name Nirthala. It is the same elf he knew as Nir who had betrayed him and the elf who had taken Kruk in, killing Kruk’s benefactor and friends. Kruk is enraged and wants to go after Nir, but agrees to try to rescue Sarkis first. Sorcha and Kruk spot tracks heading west, and their best guess is the orcs are heading towards an ancient hill fort ruin, which is really the only thing in that direction. They follow the tracks west and see the ruins of the hill fort on the horizon just before sunset. They find a secluded spot to rest and plan their next move.

As they are resting, they see a large flying reptilian creature soaring down to the ruined fort with some kind of draconic-humanoid riding it. It lands inte compound without seeming to have spotted the party.
Sorcha has an invisibility potion, which she gives to Kruk, who takes it and does aerial surveillance while invisible, getting a sense of the layout of the fort and the composition of the forces within. He sees the half-dragon rider meeting with the orc spellcaster they saw through the portal that morning near a large pavilion tent towards the back of the ruins. A pair of orcs guard the tent. Delek the aarakocra does an aerial patrol around the fort every 10-15 minutes, and sits upon the ruins of the gatehouse at the front of the fort when not patrolling. Sarkis and his two former companions from the Danobian League, Koi the monk and Jamallah the sorceress are all manacled to a large chunk of rubble not far from the tent, and a pair of orcs guard the prisoners. There is an orc archer on the east and west walls of the ruins, and a trio of orcs rest around a campfire near the front of the ruins. The walls of the fort are in ruins.

They make a plan to approach the fort from two sides, the rear (south) and east. Wrex will get close and cast a message spell to alert Sarkis they are there and attempting to get them free. Kruk will fly down invisible and try to get the prisoners free of their manacles, and the rest will run interference if everything hits the fan. Chore, Zano, and Sorcha will approach from the east while Wrex, Naggoth and Kheon the winter wolf will approach from the south. The eastern approach requires stealth and acrobatics as there is a lot of loose shale on that hillside, while the southern approach requires stealth and climbing (athletics) to get up the steeper slope with loose earth in parts. Naggoth gives Wrex the potion of climbing the party recovered from Quintus’ lair to aid his accent up the hill.

Both groups manage to stealth up the hill without alerting any of the sentries. As they approach, Wrex can see the half-dragon and his coat of arms. The half-dragon bears both the crest of Acregor that Wrex recognized from the coins from Acregor they had discovered, but also the holy symbol of one of the dark gods-Orcus, the Demon Prince of Undeath. Wrex casts his message spell with Kruk nearby, and Sarkis tells him to focus on freeing Koi, as both he and Jamallah have the means of getting free. Wrex informs Kruk of this and he takes off for his attempt to free the prisoners. As Kruk lands, invisible, he tries to pick the lock on the monk. It’s not an easy task (DC 20) but Kruk gets a lucky roll and picks the lock on his first try. The party now has a surprise round as none of the fort’s inhabitants have detected their presence yet.
Koi steps free, Jamallah misty shapes free from her manacle and casts lightning bolt at the half-dragon, orc spellcaster and guards at the tent. Koi follows up leaping at the half-dragon, pummelling him with a flurry of blows and activating a radiant cone of burning radiant energy with his last blow, slaying the half-dragon and sending his body into the now on fire tent. One of the guards is killed by the lightning bolt and the other badly injured. Sarkis beast shapes into a mouse to free himself of the chains and scurries behind cover.

Wrex takes out one of the archers with a sleep spell, as the archer falls off the wall and tumbles down the cliffside, dying Zano leads the eaastern strike team, taking out the other archer quickly. Naggoth and Kheon rush in to attack the pair of orcs that were guarding the prisoners. At the end of the surprise round, the orc forces are in disarray and have been severely reduced, and battle ensues.

The orc sorcerer casts dominate person and gains control of Koi the monk. The pterodactyl grabs the body of its dead master and takes off back towards the west. Of the three orcs near the campfire, two are scouts who move to aid the sorcerer, the other is a berserker who rushes towards Zano’s group. Kruk begins to feather Delek with arrows while Wrex takes out more orcs with magic missiles. Jamallah strikes the orc sorcerer with a spell, breaking his concentration and freeing Koi, as the tide of battle quickly moves against the orc force. Wrex tries to magic missile the orc sorcerer, but discovers he wears a brooch of shielding that absorbs the missiles, but Koi moves in with Jamallah and finish off the sorcerer, while Naggoth and Kheon finish off the orc guards and scouts. Zano, Chore and Sorcha take care of the berserker, and Kruk finishes off Deleth who had tried to flee when the battle turned against the orcs. And so, the battle is done quickly. The party’s strategy and a little luck taking the orcs by surprise carried the day for them.

In the aftermath of the battle, they rest, and heal and catch up with Sarkis. Jamallah seems to be having an argument with her dagger, who seems upset he didn’t see any use in battle, and she storms towards Wrex and throws the dagger at his feet, grunting, “It seems he wants to travel with you for a while…” and storms off. Wrex looks down at the blade, who telepathically introduces itself in draconic- “Greetings little dragon, I am Talon, spirit of the copper dragons who scales and claws form my body, it is my pleasure to meet you…” meanwhile the party can hear the dagger muttering in draconic as Wrex holds it. Sarkis interrupts, telling them, we have much to discuss and plan...

And that’s where we will pick up next time...

-M