Campaign 4, Session 32

The group departed Duskwharf, and arrived in Ombra, hoping to find their old friend Christie.

Having cured the island of the evil inhabiting it and curing themselves in the process, the group took their boat and traveled back to the mainland, with the surviving villagers traveling with them in the sea (as they were still Gillmen, though now without the terrible changes of the transformation to being skum.) They arrived back at the lighthouse, and everyone was happy to see them. They explained what they found on the island to the other villagers, who were relieved to be reunited with their lost family members. Hans taught the villagers how to make the special elixir that would cure their people still going through the change, and the group was rewarded with a large chest of gold, old coins from when Jegor, the god of Humanity, ruled the land, over a thousand years ago. Meanwhile, the group met with another of Mongoose's people, an inquistor named Rasputin, who had been sent from their homeland to assist her in her journey. Many of the villagers praised Zoleah and were determined to follow Mongoose as well.   Having planned to travel to the city of Ombra next, for Alana had seen in a vision that her sister Christie was being held there by an evil cult leader known as The Father, she arranged for them to be teleported there from the same halflings who teleported her to Duskwharf orginially. Mongoose's group of new worshippers elected to head south, promising to meet up with them once they returned to the Spire.   The group teleported and arrived at what should have been an inn on the outskirts of Ombra, an inn owned by Alana and Christie's parents. Unfortunately, the inn was destroyed, it appeared to have been burnt down sometime ago. Alana was able to confirm they were in the right place and this was where her parents inn stood, but found no bodies or other evidence. The group began to ask around, and Alana interrogated another halfling, who confirmed it was The Father who burned down the inn. Unfortuantely, he had little other information, other than that people shouldn't cross The Father, as he seemed to be on some type of drug. Hans examined the drug, and although he didn't know what it was called, he could tell ingestion would cause feelings of euphoria, and it would be highly addictive. They tried to convince him that he should go to a temple, but he said he didn't have anything to give in exchange to the temple, as he was spending all his money trying to get more drugs. The halfling asked who they were, and when Alana gave him her name, he suddenly ran off into the city. Alana elected to let him go, explaining that she wanted The Father to know she was coming.   They made their way into the city proper, and figured it must have seen better days. There were windows boarded up, more homeless on the streets than you would expect, drug addicts down the alleyways, people begging for food, and the people who had food for sale were selling it at extremely high prices. Alana was able to confirm that, though Ombra had always been a bit of a rougher, mercantile city, it was not this bad when she left years ago. Unsure of where to go, they elected to travel to Brightman's Books, the shop mentioned in the note in the book that Roren had dug up from his own gravemarker outside of Duskwharf.   While traveling there and crossing a small bridge, they were attacked by a group of halflings, who claimed they would make good sacrafices for "The Father". The battle was intense, as one of them wielded divine magic, first throwing up a spell of silence, and then creating a cloud of mist, this combination caused the group difficulties in casting spells and seeing people. The magic wielder seemed unaffected by the silencing, and tried to curse Hans, but he shook it off, and after the magic user drank a potion of invisibility, Hans threw a special alchemical substance on them, causing them to glow and rending the invisiblity useless. The other halflings tried to wield their shortswords, clearly thieving types. Eventually, the group dispatched all of them, stopping the magic user from dying and manacling them. They searched their things, finding them to be well armed with magic weapons and armor, and the magic user had a strange holy symbol, one of an old man breaking a loaf of bread in half, which Alana thought might represent "The Father". This was particuarlly concerning as she always figured he was just a cult leader, not someone who could get real divine power, or give it out.