RECORD OF EKSTASIA ADVENTURES
CHAPTER 1: THE NORTHEAST KINGDOM
Part 1: SHIPWRECKED!
The Year is 169 Chalkanium Era (CE)
Ship name: the Waveform Runner, Captain Kalindyr, Port Magdalia, Niminya.
Guy (Aarakocra Bard) stowed away on board the ship following his nose to an amazing rare spice.
Dyana (Kalashtar Cleric) is roaming Ekstasia from another dimension looking for a place to bury her memory of her brother.
Aelun (Tiefling Druid) is searching for their mother and so boards the ship.
Daeryn (Half-elf Ranger) is one of the hired crewmates (security guard) for Captain Kalindyr.
Trolley (Halfling Bard) is travelling to Guk to help organize resistance and aid for the oppressed peoples there.
Randir (Half-elf Ranger) is roaming throughout the continent of Gyrusia.
Third Planet (Elf Bard) was kidnapped by humanoid traffickers while on a hike and joins the party after being saved by them in Koldensnoh Village.
The Waveform Runner redirects north directly into an unnatural storm to avoid Chalkanium weapons tests near the main Chalkanium coast; it is marooned in an unknown snowy coastal region.
Aelun wakes up on a floating rear section of the destroyed ship that has begun to float back out to see; the captain is impaled with a wooden mast at the wheel of the ship; she motions to Aelun to retrieve the captain's log and whatever she can from her quarters below deck; the captain then dies; Aelun retrieves the book and a small chest from below deck, which is half underwater; the segment of the ship they are on drifts back out to sea.
Daeryn, who wakes up on the shore, notices Aelun drifting away and tosses her rope to Aelun and pulls them inland.
Trolley wakes up among the wreckage and sees Daeryn trying to rescue Dyana, who is meditating on death while the segment of the ship she’s on starts to also drift out to sea.
Daeryn tries to wake up Dyana, who has resigned herself to death’s embrace while the wreckage drifts farther into the frigid ocean waters. After a second attempt, Daeryn wakes up Dyana and they both latch on to the rope.
Guy wakes up and flies over to help Trolley and Aelun pull the rope with Dyana and Daeryn in tow.
They successfully rescue them; Dyana resumes her meditative posture after thanking Anubis the God of Death for saving her, ignoring the team’s efforts.
Guy smells the spice again, and flies away into the snowy forest wilderness.
The team starts a fire to keep warm, as the sun is setting beautifully melancholy among the carnage of the corpses of the dead crew members and wreckage of the Waveform Runner.
Dyana, who remains in meditation on the lapping frigid shoreline, does not break concentration as the team picks her up and brings her close to the fire so that she doesn’t freeze. (She’s not wearing very much) As they sit around and introduce themselves to each other, three blood hawks swoop in from the forest and attack Dyana.
Aelun dispatches two of the blood hawks with the ice knife attack, freezing the corpses of the birds in blocks of ice. The third blood hawk is scared off and flees.
They cook the hawks and take turns keeping watch, as there’s howling and screeching coming from the woods.
Trolley plays mellow tunes on their lute in the night camp.
***
In the morning they wake up to four bandits decked with blue bandanas / rags sneaking up on camp, weapons drawn.
One of them sees Trolley, a halfling, and moves up to attack at melee range; he lands a small amount of damage. Dyana completely obliterates the human bandit with a magic spell; this causes fear in the other bandit.
(two humans, one half-orc and one half-elf)
The party engages the bandits and one by one finishes them off. During the battle, Dyana reveals a raging hate specifically against the human bandits. The last remaining bandit pleads for his life but is ruthlessly cut down by Dyana, who explains that if it was the half-elf bandit that remains she would have held back. She won’t explain why she hates humans, just that she does.
The party spots a pillar of smoke in the horizon to the southeast and set off on a day’s journey.
They travel 20 miles and take a long rest with no incident.
***
The next morning, they come to an encampment of four bandits; two regular bandits and two bandit captains. One pair bandit / bandit captain is donning red and the other pair is wearing blue. They are arguing.
The party decides to engage in full stealth with a major stealth buff from Aelun’s spell, and watch the camp through the trees. Dyana notices that they are humans except for one orc, and starts to get enraged. (The orc is wearing red)
Daeryn successfully sneaks closer to the campfire and hears them arguing over what sounds like a weapons deal.
Dyana waltzes right in and confuses the bandits by exclaiming their leader sent her, who are uneasy but believe her because of their low intelligence. The captain in blue starts to pull out his dagger but is at ease when Dyana convinces them she really was sent by their leader, who the human in blue stupidly reveals is a woman named Juulestra.
As the conversation continues, the blue bandit blurts out that they “weren’t going to go behind juulestra’s and grum’s backs and split the earning of the fresh meat” which pisses off the red captain who insults the blue bandits. A fight between them ensues, and both the blue bandits are killed in the fight, especially when the blue captain is so angry he walks right into the fire. The red orc leaps over to the money chest and shouts that no one will take the money; the red captain attacks Dyana. Trolley yells for the orc bandit to flee, but the orc ignores them.
A fight has now broken out; Daeryn tries to back Trolley up and tell the orc to flee; the orc starts to realize this is a losing fight and flees to the other side of the camp with the treasure chest in tow.
Dyana and Daeryn fight the red bandit captain while Trolley tries to persuade the orc to surrender and join the team. The orc is almost convinced but still refuses. Trolley explains that Dyana is so prejudiced against humans that anyone allied with humans is a target of her wrath. The orc exclaims that he, Zarlog Bonesmasher, is not a Chalkie, and that he can tell they party are not Chalkies; but that the blue bandits have been seen working with the Chalkies. Zarlog also tells Trolley that he works for the Staggs, and that the other guys (in blue) were Morgans.
Aelun transforms into a direwolf and severely wounds and knocks down the orc. Trolley pulls Zarlog into the woods to get away from the fray.
Dyana establishes a psychic connection with Trolley to learn about the conversation they’re having with Zarlog, and gleans the same info Trolley does.
Dyana and Daeryn continue to battle the human red bandit captain; they eventually subdue him when Aelun helps them out. He pleads for his life, and says he can help them cover up; that killing the Morgans and Staggs will have to be explained in order to prevent all out bloodshed between the two families. He also spills the beans about trafficking humanoids behind the backs of his superiors, and that all he knows is that the trafficked beings are sold to people “in the south”. Then he tells them about how the Morgans have been spotted colluding with Chalkanian soldiers at the coast, and that they are potentially being harbored by Morgans in their town.
Meanwhile Trolley gets Zarlog to agree to share the gold with them in exchange for convincing the rest of the party to spare his life. He also must bring them to the Koldensnoh Trading Post and introduce them to Grum Brewgunner, his superior, and that he will explain everything and try to clear their names, and tell him that the Morgans were eaten by a saber tooth or something like that.
Koldensnoh Trading Post is a two days' journey away.
Should they trust Zarlog, who is on death’s doorstep (1HP)?
Find out next time!
***
Part 2: KOLDENSNOH TRADING POST
The party continues south toward Koldensnoh Trading Village, thanks to the map they have and Zarlog's familiarity with the road toward it.
Along the way, the party encounters a group cleaning up a mess; their caravan was attacked by raiders; they declare that they are transporting aid to refugees in Guk, and that they were attacked coincidentally on the same day as the shipwreck of the Waveform Runner:
They are transporting foods as well as rare spices (the only thing they could get their hands on) and this was what Guy smelled when the Waveform Runner wrecked on the northernmost shores of the Northeast Kingdom and sent him flying away (being fixated on finding the ultimate rare cookbook he’s been sent to find). The crates carrying the spice were split open in the attack; Guy appeared and helped repel the attack. Guy had inquired about the spice and was told to find a certain ship (that was dropping off cargo on the coast near Harrington) that could be helpful in his quest.
By the time the party encountered the group smuggling aid for Guk refugees, Guy had already flown. Trolley, who’s quest to assist the oppressed peoples of Guk was interrupted by the shipwreck, takes interest in this group and declares that they shall travel with them, as well as seek out this flying bird character Guy who also seems interesting to them.
***
Aelun, Daeryn and Dyana take a rest that night, pitch the tent they stole from the deceased Morgans and Staggs who were trading goods with each other, and the next morning are refreshed from a long rest. According to their map, they have about 20 miles or so to go til they arrive at Koldensnoh village. Around mid-day (or slightly thereafter) the party encounters three docile bandits standing around looking clueless. Zarlog starts to tremble at the sight, and off handedly mentions “snow sickness”, something the other Northmen have heard from legends but in the last week or so, there have been reports of strange behavior that is similar to descriptions of “snow sickness”, where weary men attack other men.
Thinking that they are about to do battle with bandits like the previous battles, Aelun buffs the party’s stealth and Dyana makes a sneak attack. In doing so, they discover that the bandits are animated corpses: zombies. They battle the zombies, frustrated by the zombies’ inability to completely perish. Daeryn lands a killing blow with downward jam with her shortsword; this obliterates one of the zombies (who at this point is just a torso, head and arm crawling and refuses to de-animate no matter how many physical and magic attacks the party commits). This sends a splattering of gore and blood all over Daeryn and an extremely pissed off Dyana, who previously tried to punt kick the previously animated half-corpse. Aelun transforms into a direwolf and finishes off another one of the zombies with their party mates. Confused and frustrated by the zombies’ low intelligence, immobility and yet refusal to perish, the party continues on to Koldensnoh, arriving at the south gate after nightfall.
As the party enters the town of Koldensnoh Trading Post, they see a man in a dark cloak standing in the gazebo (built around a tree in the center of town) smoking a pipe and seethingly glaring at them as they approach. He sees Zarlog, and yells out to him. He jumps down into the town square on the ground with the rest of the party. Dyana sits in meditation and checks out; Aelun is still in the form of a direwolf, Daeryn appears as a travel-worn adventurer and Zarlog stands next to her, slightly frightened of the man. The man then reveals himself as Grum Brewgunner, wearing the color blue, and questions the party as to the whereabouts of his men that were with Zarlog. Zarlog explains that they perished after snow sickness took them. Grum pauses to think, exclaims that he can’t think without his Bloodgin, grabs Zarlog by the arm and takes him to house in town. At that same moment, a woman in a cloak with red edges shouts to Grum about him having to answer for his bullshit, and that he had betrayed his fellow thiefkin of the Northeast Kingdom, that he’s gone against his Thief King Tostig. She seems to be incredibly intoxicated, looks at the party, sighs them off and goes back into her cabin.
Aelun and Daeryn question what just happened and then hear a man coughing from the other side of the gazebo in the center of town. The man, who realizes his cover’s just been blown, runs away to the northwest part of town.
They catch up with him and startle him; he exclaims that he’s harmless and just out to pay respects to his late partner Clemb, and pours out some of the brandy he’s carrying to the grave where the tombstone reads “Clemb”. Next to that is a tombstone that says “Mick” and is a little newer looking. The man takes a giant slug of the swill, introduces hismelf as Lium Cloudgurney, and invites the party to his house so as to escape the dark cold. They oblige.
In Lium’s house, they learn from him that his partner Clemb had died while out on an expedition / mission with Grum. Clemb never came home. His body was found a few days later by Father Milton, and appeared to be slightly shriveled, which was odd to them. Lium, getting more upset, begins to drink faster and heavier; he starts blathering about how “Mick coulda gone the same”. They also learn that Lium is the town facilitator, that he had moved there about 16 years ago after retiring from the service of a previous Thief King, and that he had grown up a refugee whose family escaped Guk when he was young. He coordinates between the Morgans and Staggs, who previously used to fight each other over possession of the town. Lium has got them both to agree to collaborate and keep the town running by equally contributing; this allows either gang to access a settlement while they run smuggling and transporting operations in the north. (The northernmost coasts of the NEK is where pirates and smugglers make landfall, offload their shipments, go hunting, rest, receive payment, and set sail again. Other than Koldnesnoh, there are no permanent settlements. The wilderness is home to travelling hunting nomads, beasts of the wild, and occasionally fiends of evil origin. And now, as recently as a few days ago, the undead, which are extremely uncommon to the area.)
Earlier in the night, Lium had offered to show the party to Mick’s former house and invited them to stay there, but he passed out before he could tell them where the house was. Fortunately he had it written down on a scrap of parchment clasped by his hand as he slipped into drunken unconsciousness. The party finds Mick’s house, breaks in, and lights a fire with magic.
They discover a history book on Gyrusia with a page missing. The book was open to a page about the history of Guk; Ilium Guk was a vampire who conquered the Gyrus Dynasty by summoning Anurathion. He was then overthrown by Shavinatus Hama, who was a good vampire, (Guk being an evil one), and thus established the 500 Years’ Peace, during which the realm was renamed Gy-Guk. The following page in the book had clearly been torn out.
Other than that, Mick’s house doesn’t hold any clues or indication of anything of interest, mayhap except for the fact that all money, or things of value (if it had anything of value to begin with) are absent from this place.
***
They take another full rest, and the following morning wake up to Dyana attempting to exhume Mick, digging at his grave with her shield. Aelun helps with their “mold earth” spell, and they both are successful in digging down to the coffin lid. When opening the lid, the party are shocked to find no body or remains there, except a strange artifact made of a human femur and flesh gluing a glowing Giant’s eye at the top. A tag inside the coffin next to it says “Bone Rod of Shavinati”. The glowing eye pulsates slowly.
At this moment, from behind them they hear a voice scolding them for desecrating the grave of Mick Yaegerbom. A priest, much much older in age and a half elf, frantically asks what they are doing. Dyana swings the rod at him, threatening him to mind his own business; the rod’s eye stops glowing. It stops glowing when it is directed at any of them; otherwise it idles at a faint pulsating glowing. The party asks the priest where the body is, and why there is such a strange artifact in place of a fresh corpse. The priest recommends that they speak with Grum and Juulestra, that they were probably using the grave to smuggle a rare magic item. They can tell he’s lying. The priest then turns tail and runs back to the chapel. As the party pursues him, a half-orc bandit captain interrupts them and warns them not to enter the chapel, as the last several travellers to step foot into the chapel have never been seen again. She then tells them her name: Juulestra, and invites them to join her at her house where she can explain more plainly.
They all go to Juulestra’s house. Daeryn is on edge, because Juulestra was revealed to be a Morgan captain who collaborates with Chalkanian soldiers. (The Chalkanium took Daeryn’s home and killed her entire family). Juulestra explains that Father Milton, the man who confronted them at Mick’s grave, has been under her watchful eye and seems to be involved in some nefarious deeds, though she has no evidence of anything specific as of yet. He’s been seen working with Grum, and that the last time Mick was seen alive was entering the chapel on a day when several travellers entered town and stayed the night before. Two days later Father Milton found him, slightly shriveled, just like Clemb. “And poor Clemb,” Juulestra belched as she continued to daydrink her preferred booze: wheat ale from Rustwind.
Daeryn confronts Juulestra about working with the Chalkanium; Juulestra explains that she and the Morgans have been working with Chalkanium troops that have abandoned their posts, deserted their ranks and defected from the empire, most with hopes of being warlords or accumulating riches of some kind. The leader of the Morgans see it beneficial to try and hire some of these deserters as sellswords. She also explains that the Chalkanium is under major internal chaos; the leaders of the empire are weak, and there is much turmoil as the empire seems to be consuming itself. The majority opinion is that the empire soon will collapse; but there is no clear picture of what’s actually happening, other than platoons and squads of Chalkanians posted in far away places have begun to jump ship.
They decide to confront Father Milton at the chapel after preparing themselves. Juulestra tags along as the party comes to a locked front door to the chapel; after searching for ways to break in, Juulestra knocks on the door and Father Milton answers. “Come in, my children…”
On their way in, Daeryn’s foot hits an empty bottle of Bloodgin with a paper crinkled up inside of it. She breaks the bottle and unfolds the paper: it’s the missing page from the book, a page about the variety of Vampire factions of olde.
Inside, they see the back of a man in a white-grey robe with the hood up prostrating fervently, muttering prayers in old Gyrusian with sibilant Sss sounds sprinkled throughout; a bad vibe is growing from the altar at which he prays. It is incredibly dark inside the chapel, and once everyones’ eyes adjust, they see Grum sitting in the pews on the side of the chapel. Father Milton leads them into the chapel; the door behind them shuts, and the man praying at the altar’s hood falls off, revealing an incredibly pale and veiny bald head. Father Milton begins to exclaim chants and prayers along with the man; a dark light starts to slowly expand from the altar. Father Milton calls out to the man: his name is Brother Zed, and Father Milton urges him to go harder with the intense and creepy praying. A deep, loud ringing sound starts to emanate from the altar.
Dyana and Daeryn approach Grum, to question him. Dyana, in disgust of a religion that offers no veneration to her patron god Anubis, god of Death, and so spits at one of the glass window depictions of the frog god, hoping to offend Grum and watching for his reaction. Grum, profanely picking his teeth in irreverence, takes a huge gulp of his Bloodgin and spits it onto the floor as well. He and Dyana get into a spitting contest.
Behind the pew that Grum is sitting in (in the very back corner), is a crate. The crate starts to shake, and Daeryn and Aelun hear a muffled gagged voice inside the box. In the chaos erupting from the altar of the chapel, Grum rushes over the box and starts banging on it with the blunt end of his rapier, yelling “shut the fuck up!!”
Aelun, Daeryn and Dyana close in on Grum and the crate, right as all the sound in the room is whisked right out, a deadly silence and evil presence dominate the space. Brother Zed is motionless and the room dead silent when Father Milton shouts, “It is done!”
What will happen next?
Find out in part 3!!!
***
Interlude:
Escaping his tortured past and searching for a purpose and brighter future, Randir has been travelling north to the Northeast Kingdom from the place where he’s from: south Zither.
Guy, searching for a ship he was told could potentially provide info on his quarry, the ultima cook tome (not its real name), is pursued by hunters who think that he’s a really big chicken.
Trolley spends time travelling with the aid convoy en route to the Guk border and learns some shit about Guk and its history, including that of the vampires Guk and Hama and the various factions. (All caught up) Receives Cloak of Protection and Doss Lute (previous common lute was damaged in the fight with the Mangled Fist).
***
Part 3: ATTEMPTED KIDNAPPING
Brother Zed falls silent after fervently praying at the altar of the Church of the Anurathion in Koldensnoh. A blast of magic energy blinds and stuns the party; everyone except Daeryn is knocked unconscious. Daeryn pretends to be unconscious as she and her comrades are placed into wooden crates. With a slight of hand, Daeryn is able to slip a long, thin piece of marble that’s chipped from the church floor into the box, preventing it from being sealed all the way. Grum and two of his henchmen curse and swear as they move the crates out and behind the chapel to a small area called the prayerwood, a small open outdoor space meant for contemplation surrounded by trees.
Daeryn listens as Grum and his men discuss what to do with their “inventory”. She also hears what sounds like crying or whimpering. Grum then shouts at the whimpering being and unleashes several blows, which causes the being to go silent. He then approaches the crates, at which point Daeryn casts off the lid of the crate and slashes him with her sword, knocking him to the ground. Grum yells at his men, belittling them for not disarming their prisoners. Aelun awakens to the sounds of the fray outside of their crate and is successful in casting off the lid. Dyana slowly stirs inside her crate but does not awaken. Aelun transforms into a direwolf and attacks Grum. Daeryn casts hunter’s mark on one of the henchmen and then makes an attack on him. This bloodies the henchman severely. As Aelun and Daeryn fight Grum and his men, Dyana awakens from the spell and tries to slam open the crate but fails. Still groggy and frustrated by the fact that Aelun and Daeryn get to kill the human henchmen outside and not her, Dyana fails again to break out of her crate. Through a crack in the crate, she sees to her left a fourth crate, eyes from within it looking back at her and the battle going on mere feet away.
The battle rages on. Daeryn notices that the whimpering voice belonged to Zarlog, who was being punished for assisting the party and leading them to Koldensnoh. Still alive but badly injured, Zarlog crawls into the trees that surround the area behind the church. Dyana breaks free and inflicts wounds using magic on Grum, causing parts of his exposed flesh to peel and split. Eventually both henchmen are dispatched by melee and spell attacks, and Grum is subdued and restrained by ensnaring vines summoned by Daeryn. He calls out to some unknown person, and is eventually killed by a short bow strike.
Aelun senses multiple beings moving around in the woods where Daeryn saw Zarlog enter as Dyana hears some polite knocking and requests for help coming from the fourth crate. She calls to the other two and asks them to deal with it as she approaches the mystery sounds in the woods. Aelun circles back and tells whoever is in the crate to be still as they bash the crate and break it open. Third Planet, an Elf, gratefully emerges and introduces himself. Not long thereafter, Father Milton and Brother Zed emerge from the trees with Zarlog as a hostage. They threaten to kill him if the party doesn’t cooperate. Daeryn casts an ensnaring strike on Father Milton, subduing him in vines as Zed, clearly a vampire spawn, turns into a bat and flees the scene. This frees Zarlog who then runs over behind Planet. Father Milton asks for mercy and in exchange will explain things.
He tells the party that he found Brother Zed wandering and lost in the south of the Northeast Kingdom. He was afflicted with what seemed like vampirism, which hadn’t been publicly seen in almost 300 years and was frankly unheard of. He took in Zed and retreated to the northmost settlement, Koldensnoh, where he could find lonely beings for Zed to feed. At first it was only wayward beings with no families, derelicts, but soon he ran out of options. Eventually, Milton discovered other groups who were similarly trafficking beings, presumably for similar purposes. After further insight, the group gleans that Milton is hiding something more. He further reveals that Brother Zed doesn’t know where he came from, or if there are other vampires out there, but Milton suspects that there are and that he must protect Zed from them.
Third Planet and Zarlog go to Mick’s cabin to rest and heal. Meanwhile, the party takes Milton to Juulestra’s house, where she’s recovering from battling more of Grum’s men during the ambush on the party. She further interrogates Father Milton, revealing the fact that the Bone Rod the party dug up from the grave is in fact the thigh bone of Shavinatus Hama, the benevolent vampire that overthrew Ilium Guk in the Vampire wars 8 and half centuries ago. It is a cursed item but if attuned to could be useful in fighting a vampire. Father Milton found this when he was ambushed by a horde of undead beings mere days ago. Mick Jaegerbom was betrayed by Grum on an expedition, and when Grum returned to town bragging about how his share would be larger due to one less man (poor Mick), Father Milton went out to find Mick. Not yet fully dead, Brother Zed finished him off, feeding himself in a vampiric frenzy. At that moment, Milton and Zed were attacked by reanimated skeletons and corpses- much like the zombies that attacked the party north of Koldensnoh. When the fight was over, they burned Mick’s corpse to prevent it from reanimating.
Father Milton tells the party that there are ancient stories about a necromancer who rose an undead army against the Gyrus Dynasty millenia ago, but that something “big” would have to have happened in order to see the necromancer rise once more. “The dead don’t stay dead these days anymore, it seems…”
Suddenly, everyone hears a rasp at the door, and in the window, the mutilated corpse of Grum Brewgunner!
***
Part 4: THE UNDEAD OF KOLDENSNOH
Daeryn, Aelun, Dyana and Juulstra ready their weapons. Daeryn tries to see if she can tell how many of the zombies are outside the window. Aelun casts moonbeam over the Grum zombie, damaging him and the two other zombies. Daeryn comes up with a plan to set the zombies on fire, which Father Milton previously said that he’d done to recently-deceased bodies. Juulstra rejects the plan for want of preserving her home from a structure fire. They decide to jump out of the house through the front door, draw the zombies away from the house and then light em up. First, they tie up Father Milton so that he can’t escape; he accepts his capture and waits for their return. Dyana, annoyed at the presence of what to her is an abomination to her god of death Anubis, sits down for meditation instead of joining the fight.
The party exits the house. Juulestra douses her scimitar in lamp oil as Daeryn ignites the blade with her tinderbox. Daeryn also douses one of her arrows with oil and lights it off of Juulstra’s blade. She fires the arrow into one of the zombies, who then catches the other zombie on fire. Aelun attacks with magic firebolts. Juulestra attacks with her flaming sword. The house then begins to catch fire. Shortly, two of the zombies (one of which was formerly Grum) are dispatched and are no longer reanimated. However, the last zombie snarls with undead fortitude bringing it back to undead animation over and over, despite the party landing killing blows. Eventually, Dyana leaves the house, which is now a quarter of the way engulfed in flames, and strikes down the remaining snarling zombie with Guiding Bolt, de-animating it with radiant damage.
Aelun uses thaumaturgy to quell the flames; Juulestra runs in to see what’s become of Father Milton. Suddenly, a mysterious figure cloaked in a green hood enters the town of Koldensnoh, seemingly drawn to the fire. Randir, who has been travelling for a long time, is relieved to see someone that isn’t trying to swindle, rob or kill him. He approaches the group, and they are on edge after such a battle. He asks the party what’s happened; they explain that the undead are on the rise and that they were just attacked. Juulestra leaves the house and tells everyone that Father Milton is alive but badly burned. She will make sure he’d held accountable for his actions but offered him healing and respite. She declares that she will take Father Milton back to the chapel once the sun rises (in an hour or so), so that she can not be attacked by Brother Zed.
Randir and the party acquaint themselves with each other and take a long rest in Grum’s house. They wake up around noon the next day. Avoiding the cannibal jerky, they eat some travel rations and make a plan for their next step. Juulestra comes over to the house and explains that Father Milton is in the chapel. She also explains that she spoke with Third Planet and Zarlog. They were able to find healing rest in Mick’s cabin, and have decided to stay and help Juulestra and Lium fix up the town and help defend it should the humanoid trafficking marauders come back, especially with the reinforcement of the Chalkanian deserters.
Wanted to get every last bit of info, Dyana decides to mindlink with Father Milton and learn everything he knows, especially since he’d been discovered as having concealed the truth about Brother Zed for so long. The party enters the chapel and Dyana confronts Father Milton, whose face has been burnt so badly that he has no nose and no lips; a series of dusty rags envelop his face. Unable to speak, Father Milton sits in a chair facing the altar as he prays using prayer beads. Establishing the mindlink, Dyana zooms into the dark clouds of his mind; she sees Father Milton helping a scarred and burnt looking Zed get inside the chapel, escaping the piercing sunlight outside. She sees him feeding Zed, and then all the crates of bodies they shipped. Brother Zed draining the bodies’ of their blood; the meat of the corpses carved up and preserved in the form of jerky being given to Grum and his cronies. Now that she’s in his mind, Father Milton explains what he’s explained before: that the fervor of Brother Zed’s faith in the undead aspect of the Anuration was inspiring, and for religious zeal that he took in poor Zed and fed the living to him, all in the name of their god. He also explains that he strongly surmises that whatever has awakened the Anurathion must be related to the awakening of potentially the necromancer who has been reanimating the dead. He explains that he’s knowledgeable about such things because the sect of Anurathion-worshippers that he’s a follower of is a less-commonly known sect, one that is heavier on undead lore than other sects. The last thing Dyana asks him while inside his mind is if the chapel has any concealed gold and if so where it is. Father Milton obliges, says that he has nothing left to live for except that Brother Zed will return and feast on his flesh at last. Dyana removes his ability to feel any pain, which he thanks her for, and when she returns to the physical realm she does not reveal that part, wishing to conceal her compassion for whatever reason.
Dyana finds 297 gold that Father Milton had stashed away in the dirty rafters. Content with their big haul, the party begins to prepare for their journey.
Back outside, they confer with Juulestra who presents them with two choices. Option one: take the faster 2 day route to Morgan forest via the Koldensnoh river. Option two: take 3 days to get to Morgan forest but make a pit stop at Moonfall Cavern, a hideout for scoundrels of the NEK most recently occupied by her and her men (as far as she knows). She cannot offer them any reward for helping save the village but offers them insight as to more treasure. The party does not reveal to her about the gold they found in the chapel, but Daeryn offers 2 gold pieces to Juulestra for rebuilding. Juulestra, Zarlog, Third Planet and Lium all wave goodbye as the party goes for option two: Moonfall Cavern and its potential riches.
The party travels for a few hours free of incident, with Dyana occasionally using magic to detect if any undead are near, which there are none.
As they make their way south, Daeryn spots an anomaly on their long and snowy road. From a quarter mile away, she can see what looks like a charred corpse’s arm. Aelun, who has assumed their direwolf form (and Dyana now rides on while meditating), picks up the scent of charcoal. Using a mindlink, Dyana connects to Daeryn’s mind as Daeryn and Randir approach the anomaly. Daeryn discovers that it is in fact a charred corpse arm, clutching the hilt of a sword whose blade is missing. Inspecting the armor and hilt, they can tell that this is the burnt corpse of a Chalkanian. Also using ranger skills, they can tell he was headed south bearing a scroll found in his ruined hand cart. Also in the cart they find camping equipment.
Daeryn picks up the scroll and reads:
Operation Mutiny is in full effect; kill the traitors who deserted their empire, and bring down the house of Morgan. Once each of the major houses of the Northeast Kingdom are slain, we will launch our invasion. Then we shall revitalize the Chalkanium and finish what was started over a century ago. -Gen. VvU
They piece together that this man was either a deserter or a mutineer hunting the deserters, but cannot tell which. All they know is that they must warn the Morgans as soon a they can. Unsure if there will be a Morgan town still in existence when they reach it, they press on until night falls and the time to make camp arrives.
They make camp with Aelun taking the first watch. Randir is asleep in the tent, Daeryn is fast asleep huddled by the fire and Dyana is meditating next to the campsite.
Dyana then begins to experience a vision; she feels the Bone Rod of Shavinati call out to her, and a sound begins to emanate from it becoming louder and louder. Suddenly, while her eyes are still closed, a giant raven, symbol of her god Anubis, appears with a freshly severed humanoid arm in its beak. The arm’s hand is clutching a giant eyeball with the image of the sun within. The raven drops the arm off in front of Dyana and then flies away. Dyana’s vision follows the raven who soars over the NEK, revealing creatures and peoples both alive and undead. At first she sees some living deer, and then undead deer. Some of the more foul creatures of the frigid forest exist both as living and undead as well. As the vision soars further south the raven sails across what Dyana remembers from the map as Lake Willowbea. The raven soars up the distant mountain on the other side of the lake, the sun setting on the peak of the mountain as it turns blood-red. The raven flies into the blood-red sun and disappears, as a one-eyed skull-faced creature turns and faces Dyana and exclaims,
“So it is you, then. Very well.”
Dyana wakes up from her vision, very shaken up. Aelun notices and asks what’s wrong. Dyana explains her vision to them. Suddenly, the noise and sensation coming from the Bone Rod in Dyana’s backpack increases to an unbearable amount, and so she removes the bone rod from her bag, curses, and then tosses it into the darkness of the forest only to realize then that the eye at the end of the rod is glowing brightly and that it is caught immediately by none other than Brother Zed. Daeryn and Randir are startled out of their sleep.
Brother Zed exclaims that he’s been looking for the Bone Rod, and that he will check on Father Milton after killing everyone in the party. The fight breaks out: Randir is able to subdue Zed with an entangling cantrip. Daeryn and Aelun land a few melee blows on Brother Zed, leading Zed to only boast about his power.
In a fit of rage, Dyana casts lvl 2 Inflict Wounds, rolls a critical hit with a natural 20, and deals 62 damage on Brother Zed, totally obliterating him as he crumbles into dust. Pleased with the outcome, the party finally is able to take a full rest for the duration of the night.
The next morning the party wakes up to a sunny snowy day in the Koldensnoh forest. Things feel a little lighter. It takes them four hours without incident to hike to the entrance of Moonfall Caverns, marked on their map of the NEK by Juulestra. Curious as to what treasures - and horrors - could potentially await them inside, the party prepares to scour the caverns for treasures promised to them by Juulestra.
Stay tuned for “MOONFALL CAVERNS” in part 5!
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Interlude:
Trolley and the mutual aid convoy reach a small settlement of travelling outcasts who have fled the Chalkanian either as prisoners or as deserters. They have banded together and fend off undead animals who keep cropping up when the hunters try to hunt for food. Their rations are getting low, and they are starving. The convoy and Trolley struggle to decide to use their supplies, which are meant for refugees in Guk, on these souls in need. After being ambushed by undead thieves, Trolley and the gang defeat the ghouls and decide to help the outcasts. They then enlist the help of several outcasts on their journey south.
Guy, annoyed that hunters continually mistake him for a big chicken, discovers the phenomenon of the undead when his pursuers are attacked by a giant undead bear. Fenris Telaea, a knight from Phillycheeseburg in Zither, appears and aids Guy in fending off the bear. The hunters are scared off, and Guy thanks Fenris. He asks her if she knows about the spice he’s been sensing, and she explains the native spices of the NEK. She then tells him that her home, Phillycheeseburg, is a culinary epicenter in the Gyrusian Continent, and offers to lead him there. They make way for Zither.
Third Planet, having been rescued from his kidnappers in Koldensnoh, offers to help Juulestra, Lium and Zarlog rebuild the town. Father Milton passes away mysteriously while in prayer. They decide to deconsecrate the Chapel of the Anurathion and establish a tavern and inn for wayfarers. While dismantling the interior of the building, Planet finds 332 Gold and a few other treasures which helps him and the people of Koldensnoh to reinvigorate the town.
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Part 5: MOONFALL CAVERNS
After choosing to take the longer but potentially lucrative route to Morgan town, the party continues on the road to a cavern system in the eastern hills that Juulestra, a Morgan contact in the trading post village of Koldensnoh, marked on their map for them. Ironically, after the party left Koldensnoh, Third Planet, who was rescued by the party during a fight with the trafficker Grum Brewgunner, discovered a huge cache of gold whilst beginning renovations on the Chapel of the Anurathion in order to convert it into a tavern for travellers.
Now, after having encountered and defeated the vampire spawn Brother Zed while on the road to the caverns, the party has engaged in a full rest and continues onward for about a half a day with no incident. They finally arrive at the landmarks described by Juulestra and are able to locate the mouth to Moonfall caverns. At that same moment, the sound of a horse’s gallop approaches from behind. Third Planet, having purchased a horse from travellers who were looking to help revive the village of Koldensnoh, has caught up with the party, explaining that he wants to join their group as gratitude for saving his life. They agree to add him to the party.
As soon as they enter, they witness a grisly scene: a Morgan man impaled on his own spear. Seeing that he’s a human, Dyana creeps closely, ready to “end his suffering”, but Aelun keeps in step with Dyana all the while calming her prejudice against humans. Daeryn is confused by Dyana’s prejudice because Dyana appears to be a human to everyone else. The impaled man explains that he was attacked by his own men, and that they appeared to suffer from the mythological “snow sickness”. They all got very drunk the night before and perhaps some of them passed away while sleeping, not realizing the fire had gone out. Then, the dead rose, consuming each other. The man then passes away before Dyana finishes a prayer to Anubis god of death.
Randir and Aelun try to peer deeper into the cave, using their darkvision and hearing to detect any monsters. Randir magically detects the presence of fiends within the cave, but not how many or their exact locations.
Daeryn finds a second passageway and calls the group over. They enter another chamber where a locked chest sits against a rocky wall. Unable to open it, as none of them are equipped to pick locks, Aelun uses a druid spell to transform into a tiny glow bug and enters the chest to look around. Randir, meanwhile, sets up a magical alarm trap behind the party in the first chamber. Inside the chest, Aelun can only see a small pile of copper coins, a big stash of silver coins, and two unopened bottles of Elvish Bastard Rye Whiskey. Aelun then attempts to use acrobatics inside the lock mechanism to open the lock but fails, and so exits the chest. Flying over to Dyana’s shoulder, the party then returns to the first chamber at the cavern entrance.
The party then moves through the first passage deeper into the cavern. Aelun returns to their tiefling form. Randir finds an open chest with two unopened bottles of Elvish Bastard Whiskey. Dyana finds a pool in the center of the room of what appears to be fresh blood, and a trail of it moving away deeper into the cave. At this point, 2 ghouls attack the party. They hack and slash the monsters, who are the undead Morgans the impaled man mentioned previously. As parts of the ghouls fall away, two more ghouls are drawn to the fray from elsewhere in the dark cave. Daeryn steps back to use her longbow to pin part of one of the ghouls’ chests to another ghoul. Third Planet, equipped with only a handful of musical instruments, sings a song that grants Dyana a boost to any low outcome of an action, potentially changing the course of said action. Randir slashes with two armed short sword attacks, making mincemeat of the ghouls and becoming covered in gore in the process. Aelun launches a magic ice knife attack, only slightly injuring their teammates but completely decimating another one of the ghouls. As the final ghoul crawls around the corner of yet another rocky corridor, Planet trips the ghoul who falls to the ground as Daeryn thrusts down her short sword, ending the ghoul’s undead animation.
Surprised that the ghouls haven’t revived themselves the same way previously encountered zombies did, the party realizes that they aren’t dealing with the same type of undead. Pressing on, they return to the previous chamber and continue to follow the trail of blood to a dead end. Returning the the junction where the battle took place, they follow the rocky corridor and find another trail of blood which terminates in another small chamber at a dismembered arm clutching a large leather sack. Inside the sack, the party finds a smaller satchel with 5 gold inside, a dagger and scale mail armor. They decide to give the dagger and armor to Planet. Following the corridor deeper, they come to a room where a pile of limbs, flesh and body parts formerly belonging to various orcs, humans, elves, et cetera, sits in the middle of a silty, murky pool of water that runs up against the back wall.
While inspecting the flesh, Daeryn tries to detect magic, which she is able to sense the presence of enchantment. At this point, the pile of flesh begins to wiggle and move; the various appendages and chunks mold into a vaguely humanoid form of a Ghast. Then, from the ceiling of the cave, a Shadow Demon appears, speaking in infernal. Only Dyana and Aelun can understand the creature. Daeryn asks Aelun to tell her what the Shadow Demon is saying.
The Shadow Demon explains that due to the cave’s mystical properties, and recent unleashing of powerful necromantic magic, that the pain and suffering of those who’ve perished within the cave fighting each other, constantly at war with one another, lying, cheating, stealing, all of it has manifested into its existence as a dark entity. Dyana offers to sooth its soul with a prayer to Anubis and put the demon to rest, but the vengeful spirit of the Shadow Demon refuses. Randir, Planet and Daeryn are successful in hacking away at the Ghast, which has now withered in form to that of a giant tendril. The Ghast then retaliates with a deadly strike, almost killing Daeryn, who then tells Aelun to ask the Shadow Demon what they must do to stop it. Ignoring the request, the Shadow Demon turns invisible, but the dreadful sensation of its presence does not dissipate. Aelun tries to use their druidcraft to create sparkles of light that would help track the demon, but the demon succeeds in evading their tactic.
Suddenly, a blinding bright light emanates from the walls of the cave and materializes into the form of a ghost. The ghost has the appearance of a nomadic mage with unrecognizable clothing. This Ghost Mage shouts in infernal, “I Banish thee to the Abyss!” at which point Dyana assists with concluding her prayer to Anubis. The Shadow Demon is thus vanquished and collapses into itself like a black hole. The Ghast then collapses back into a pile of un-animated flesh.
The ghost mage then speaks a completely unknowable language to the party, so Dyana and Aelun request to communicate in infernal. The mage obliges, and in infernal explains that he was a nomadic hermit who would frequent this cave for its mystical properties that enhance meditations and visions. He also explains that he lived in the time of the Gyrus Dynasty millenia ago. He was killed in this cave by renegade vampires during the uprising of Ilium Guk, the vampire who overthrew the Gyrus dynasty by resurrecting the great frog deity of the north, the Anurathion. He also tells the party that he should not be a ghost, and that some powerful ancient magic must have been activated by someone. He can sense the presence of the resurrected demi-gods of Ekstasia, and that someone with great arcane knowledge and powerful magical abilities must be the cause. The world of Ekstasia is in danger. More immediately, he can see that the cause of the undead was indicated by Dyana’s vision, a presence from atop Mount Willowbea. They must stop the necromancer, source of the unsanctity of the undead!
Meanwhile, during this whole conversation, Randir is drinking the elvish whiskey and becoming drunk.
Dyana asks the ghost mage if he’d like her to pray for his soul to finally depart to the afterlife, to which he pleads yes. She prays once more to Anubis and the ghost mage is finally at peace. A glittering gleam catches Randir’s half-elf eyes, and he follows it to find a key. Daeryn snatches the key from his hands and returns to the cave room with the locked chest, where she unlocks the chest and the party divvies up the treasure: 44 copper, 206 silver, and 2 more unopened bottles of Elvish Bastard Rye Whiskey. Then they exit the cavern.
Outside, they read from the map that it’s slightly more than half a day’s journey to the town of Morgan.
Next: Chapter 2, Part 1: MORGAN & STAGG!!!
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