Sessions 3, 4, & 5 Report

General Summary

Having returned to Thornvine victorious, the heroes prepared for their dinner at the University at the invitation of Kerrick Silvermind, headmaster. No sooner had they gotten dressed in their finest outfits and walked outside the doors of the Singing Sorcerer, then danger was at their throats.   Their recently-acquired associate, Deidlehair Teine, was waiting for them in the open square of Thornvine, flashing a big smile at Earendel. His smile soon fell, however, when a crossbow bolt pierced his right side, skewering his liver. The heroes flooded forth and moved to intercept the assassin, quickly discovering that no fewer than four enemies were spread out among the rooftops of the mage-led town. Their foes were formidable, demonstrating both arcane aptitude beyond the reach of party, and deadly accuracy with poisoned missiles. Father Brennan attended to Deide, and staunched his grievous wound while the rest of the party divided in pursuit of the elevated attackers. Harrigan chased one of them to the east, and flattened himself against a nearby shop chimney. The others fanned out to the west, in search of another assailant. The enemies disappeared almost as soon as they had appeared, turning invisible, flying, and running away. The party recovered from the assault, but were shaken by the encounter. With a grateful Deide by their side, they entered the grounds of The University for their scheduled dinner celebration.   Once inside the impressive University hall, Kerrick Silvermind, headmaster and leader of the Keepers of Secrets, addressed the assembled group which consisted of several guests, including Reinheart Avatarius whom the party had encountered (and for whom the party acquired an immediate, and irrational, disdain). Kerrick heaped thanks upon the guests and made his rounds as the servants filled the tables with delectable food. The head servant responded to several requests for wine service at the heroes' table, and all ate and drank their fill. As Kerrick spoke with the party, he shared a request to take a pair of important bags to the Great Library in Lionsmane. The fee for their effort was to be one of the bags itself, a powerful magical item with an inter-dimensional space. The heroes agreed and finished their meals, but did not leave before Krindle had an opportunity to acquire both an introductory text from Kerrick, and an enchanted gyroscope.   That evening, Deide revealed that he would be happy to pay the party a great sum of gold for a pair of books in one of the bags. He revealed that his separation from the University as a student was not amicable, and while Kerrick may have tolerated him in the hall for dinner, he would never be permitted to purchase or even borrow an official textbook. The party held a brief discussion, but ultimately decided to assist their friend. Unfortunately, as they opened the bag, instead of just loosening the magical silver thread, the party inadvertently unraveled the very magic of the bag. Deide made good on his promise to pay and selected a pair of books.   The next morning was largely occupied by Harrigan's great business plan: war profiteering. The party pooled their monetary resources, some were greater contributors to the effort, and purchased a trio of wagons. One their filled with the various goods that had ushered forth in a heap when the bag of holding was destroyed, but the other two were filled with mundane supplies. Harrigan had been advised that a great profit could be made by moving such goods to Lionsmane and reselling them.   The next day-and-a-half passed uneventfully along the road as the party began the journey towards Norbel on the route to Lionsmane. As evening fell, the party noticed a large ruined tower off the north side of the trail. They moved the three carts and their horses to the side of the road and moved to engaged the various figures that moved among the trees and rocky outcroppings. In the blink of an eye, the battle was joined, with Takers firing arrows at the party from covered positions, and a wizard casting deadly spells from the top of the ruins. The party pressed the attack, despite Krindle being surprised from behind the carts by a pair of attackers who sneaked around. Landrey came to his aid to ensure his survival. Earendel plunged into the battle ahead of her companions in a twirl of blades and blood. Rupert and Ashton took turns absorbing damage, and Father Brennan made excellent tactical use of spells, repositioning the party at key moments and healing the big men as they staggered. Glim used his mechanical prowess to deliver damage at a distance, all the while his mechanical spiderling perched upon his shoulder. As the party neared the end of the combat, the Takers released a captive ogre from a hidden cage in the tower's ruins. Without hesitation Ashton charged forth, calling in a booming voice for Remantil himself to deliver swift justice to their attackers. With all his might, he leapt into the air rearing back with his halberd, and bringing it down on the ogre's exposed left thigh, nearly cleaving the massive leg in twain. The mage met a similar end, and the party took refuge in the tower for a well-deserved rest.   In the night, Rupert was set upon by a terrible dream and could not be roused in the morning, despite the sudden arrival of a pack of hungry wolves, who sought to make a meal of the draft horses. The party dispatched the beasts soon enough, but not before they had partially eaten on horse and nearly killed another. A large spellstruck dire wolf joined the fight as well, exploding in magical fire at regular intervals. As the ensorceled wolf fell, the party attempted to capture its essence in the captara that they had received from Deide. The initial effort failed, and the magical essence floated underneath a giant boulder near the tower.   After some discussion, the party descended through a hidden door and ladder into the Den of the Expelled. Undead creatures attacked almost instantly, and the party dispatched skeletons and shadows as they investigated a series of rooms that seemed to reveal an internal struggle that became deadly. A third room revealed a series of coffins, adorned with symbols and gems, and a broken mirror, with walls coated in ice. The party spent some hours here attempting to discern a way forward. Off this room to the south, they discovered an old magical study, in which an old diary chronicled the happenings within the hidden confines within the space. According to the diary, a group of students, expelled from the University in Thornvine began a small magical community where they could continue their studies together. However, at some point, one of their members, Gryzinn Darkbrew, became interested in pursuing the worship of the goddess Mythantis in an effort to increase the power of his magical efforts. Some of the students joined Gryzinn, but others resisted. Eventually, it appeared that Gryzinn and his followers killed the others as the conflict increased. When they returned to the coffin room, the party eventually reassembled the mirror which revealed a riddle. Father Brennan used his never-before-used blade to cut himself and cover the ruby on one of the coffins in his blood. This shattered the spell and released a woman who was trapped within the gem. A lovely elf woman fell to the floor, breathing but unmoving. At the same time, the ice melted from the walls and a keyhole became visible on the southern wall. Placing the key within and turning it revealed a door to an even larger laboratory. The space was occupied, however, by a wraith and a pair of shadows. The party moved into the room to confront the undead beasts. Attack after attack from the wraith targeted Ashton, but just as the incorporeal claw passed through the paladin, Krindle would twitch his eye or flick his wrist in an odd and inexplicable motion. The seemingly ridiculous movements somehow tapped into the very fabric of reality and in some inter-dimensional way, as if the gnome could see what was going to happen seconds before it did. The party prevailed largely due to the magical machinations of Glim in the end, as his spells on the weapons of Ashton and Landrey pierced the defenses of the undead. Prior to leaving the Den, Landrey managed to locate what he believed to be a cask of rare and valuable wine, untouched by decades of rot.   The next morning, with one horse down, having been killed by the wolves, Glim enchanted a bag to imitate the object originally given to the party by Kerrick Silvermind: a bag of holding. As Glim mecha-magicked the bag, Krindle and Fallyn Petalsworth, the elf wizardess freed in the Den the previous evening, took a long walk away from camp to have a private conversation. Harrigan and Father Brennan prepared the two remaining horses and their carts, and before long, the party was pressing again eastward.   At mid-day, as the sun reached directly overhead, the party noticed a small lone figure, on foot, walking toward them along the road. In typical fashion, Father Brennan hailed the figure who returned his warm greeting with a smile as she withdrew her hood. An old human women, with happy eyes and an expressive face, called to them. "Well met, travellers. My name is Maddelynn. Would you share news from Thornvine and a meal with me?" The party accepted and slowed the carts to a stop. As the party sat down to a meal of dried fruit, oat biscuits, and some salted pork, Maddelynn shared that she was travelling to Thornvine for personal arcane supplies, but was taking extra precautions to avoid roving bands of bandits. The party shared brief and vague news, leaving out any particular details, but the time spent was pleasant. As the meal drew to a close, Maddelynn offered to perform readings for the heroes, drawing a large deck of cards from within her robes. Several of the group were skeptical, and Father Brennan was downright dismissive, but Glim and Landrey both accepted the offer of a Seer's Reading. Maddelynn identified several details from within Glim's past, and offered a strange look into his possible future, with the group learning more about him in a few minutes than they knew in all their travels together. Landrey's telling was far more intense. Down to very close detail, Maddelynn properly identified a range of events from Landrey's past: his fall from nobility, his self-loathing, and his need to seek affirmation of his reputation. She pointed him at a necessary reflection of his deepest emotions, his own loves. At first, as the details were spoken, Landrey was impressed and even excited about the accuracy of Maddelynn's reading. As her telling wore on, he became concerned and, eventually, shaken, from the experience. She completed the interaction with a giving of gifts to the pair of heroes: a small fetish for Glim and for Landrey, a small spell cast upon his drinking horn.   The heroes bid farewell to the old seer as they took back to their path. Before long, they heard the sound of combat ahead. Large shapes could be seen through the trees to the south of the road and the clang of weapons and large roars were clearly audible. As the party closed the distance, a group of Takers was fighting a trio of large brown bears. A number of human bodies already lay near a pair of still-pitched tents and a smoldering fire. Initially, Earendel fired a shot at one of the men from a covered position, but soon the party selected the bears as the more appropriate targets. The bears grabbed the Shon-turians in their monstrous claws and then stomped them to the earth or raked across their bodies with their free paws. By the time the party and the Takers felled the last of the beasts, the numbers of the Takers had been reduced by half and a tall, muscular leader had emerged from one of the tents, with a satchel slung over his shoulder, a number of scrolls and pieces of parchment clearly visible. He commanded the party to stand back and leave and issued orders for his men to withdraw. Harrigan and Father Brennan attempted to convince the men to stay, but within moments, the battle was rejoined. Again drawing on his positioning magics, Father Brennan fortified the parties position and shoved the leader away. Rupert, Ashton, and Landrey each landed solid hits on their respective foes, as Harrigan harried the men with his quick wit and quicker blades. Krindle made good use of his newly-acquired spell and plunged a psychic splinter into the mind of the leader, which put him off balance enough for Earendel to chase him down and slice open his windpipe, even as the party asked her to stay her bloodlust. Only one of the Takers remained alive, and the party questioned him subsequently, learning that Norbel had been overtaken by the Takers and several high-ranking officers who had survived the calamitous Crepitus Magnum had regrouped there. The party also discovered that the papers appeared to be manifests or lists of goods and were marked with an unusual elf-horn symbol, as well as marked by the name "Grace."   The party again pressed onward, now concerned as they grew closer to Norbel that the likelihood of encountering more Takers was likely. Before long their concerns were realized as the inability of some to remain quiet, especially Glim, betrayed their location to a pair of mounted Takers who were out on patrol. As the pair approached, Father Brennan smiled broadly, as Harrigan held a blade to the throat of their prisoner under a canvas tarp. The exchange seemed a mundane one, the soliders asking about the nature of their business and their destination. When Father Brennan offered a review of their goods, however, he had forgotten about the stockpile of collected Shon-Turian weapons. As the cavalryman spied these, he quickly withdrew, and charged back toward Norbel. The party argue for an hour about what to do. Harrigan became so furious, Ashton and Rupert had to tie him up and gag him, throwing him in the cart next to their captive until the rest of the group could make a decision. It was about this time that they also discovered the Fallyn Petalsworth was also gone. She had remained disengaged in the fight with the Takers, and now, was just completely gone.   In the end, despite the curses and threats from Harrigan, the party offloaded on the most valuable of the goods directly onto the horses and Father Brennan's mule, and burned the carts the rest of the goods. The left the piisoner near the road where he could be easily discovered. The group took to game trails and rarely used paths, with Krindle demonstrating a bizarre knack for ferreting out hidden routes through the unkempt wilderness. Later that evening, the ground thundered withe the approach of heavy horse. From well-hidden positions, the party stopped and peered out at who approached. The eight barded steeds bore the crest of the Marches' Marchers. Ashton took one loud step out of hiding, but Landrey and Glim grabbed him by the legs and tackled him to the ground. "That's them!" he whisper-yelled. "I will have my vengeance!" Earendel placed her small hand over Ashton's mouth as the others held him down. "Now is not the time, paladin. Soon enough, their blood shall flow, but now is not that moment." Ashton tensed and squirmed in one last attempt to break free, but the weight of his companions was too much, and soon the mounted warriors were gone, out of sight towards Thornvine. Ashton said nothing for the rest of the evening.   The group ate a cheerless and meal in the underbrush, though Krindle and Glim playfully used a few magical tongues of flame to warm their food. Harrigan sulked as if being upset were a competitive sport and everyone gave him a wide berth. In the dead of night, as Earendel took her watch, a group of arrows rained down into the camp, one striking near the center of the campfire with a small explosion, announced the arrival of a visitor. She moved like a shadow, and was upon them in an eyeblink. Grace, the one responsible for the lists found near the tents, had found them. She knew that they demonstrated no threat to her, but she clearly wanted a dramatic entrance. She told them that she and her father led a group known as the Gathermen who sought to support the lives of simple folk across Shadowspeak. She had been seeking supplies from Norbel and had given the lists to a pair of her men, but the Takers had no love for the Gathermen. She was sure the Takers had slain them. She was not happy that her bears had been slain, but she understood and believed the group when they shared their tale of what happened. At the close of their conversation, the group (despite the howling resistance of Harrigan) offered for Grace to take the remaining supplies that were borne by their horses. Grace was grateful beyond words, bestowing a boon upon each of them and offering them work if they were ever in Forestedge (she said to come find her at the Speckled Hen Inn). She summoned some wild elk to assist her and carry the goods and soon she was gone into the forest, but not before casting a spell upon the party to provide them with guidance in their travels on the morrow.   The next day, Grace's spell provided for perfect travelling conditions and excellent time made as the party passed by Norbel about twenty miles to the north through broken hills. As the group came over a rise, they spied a grisly scene: several score bodies, killed in combat were being arranged and rearranged by a large metal and mechanical construct. Glim's curiosity was instantly piqued and he and Ashton moved forward. As they approached, however, the machine became hostile and slammed Ashton with its massive spiked forearm and grabbed him in its powerful hinged appendages. Landrey loosed an arrow, and then another, but the metal heads, despite finding purchase, failed to affect it. Glim and Krindle searched for a weakness on the armored target as Rupert ran up to the golem and slashed at it with his enchanged greatsword, but that, too, had little effect. With another large target in range, the Corpse Gathered moved its arms to an odd angle and quickly spun its torso in a rapid attack, sending both Rupert and Ashton flying. As it spun, Glim noticed a group of crystals on the back of the creatures head. The spellcasters begane focusing on this believed weak point. Soon, Ashton was struck again, and was knocked unconscious, bleeding. Landrey continued to pepper the foe with arrows ineffectively. Krindle repeatedly cast Magic Missile and Rupert took a number of precisely aimed slashes at the head of the golem. Finally, just as it seemed the party would fail and fall, a powerful barrage of magic from the gnomes forced, the machine to whir its last. As they searched the remains of the battle scene, the heroes found the body of a female dwarf artifice among the fallen with a set of magical tools and a weird sketchbook of plans for the machine. The party buried the machine and the body of the dwarf nearby the site, with plans of returning at a later date to conduct more research with the use of magic.   The party now looks to Lionsmane, a mere sixty miles away as their destination. With any luck, they could be there by the week's end.

Character(s) interacted with

Deidelhair Teine who has a shoppe in Lionsmane (the Westerlies district) Kerrick Silvermind, headmaster of the University and leader of the Keepers of Secrets Fallyn Petalsworth of the Silverminders Maddelynn the Seer Grace Dreamshadow of the Gathermen