There is only one thing worse than a ghoul

General Summary

The caravan finally leaves Schwarzstein behind, off into the sheer endless desert of the Anderfels region of the Tevinter Imperium.

The first day of travel

Harold travels in one cart with Vania’s family, Junius and Jeska found seats together with Claudia in a cart with the three elder ladies Brigid, Korinne, and Thea. Maxfield and Mira are nearby on the mercenaries’ cart keeping watch (although Maxfield mostly has eyes for Mira). Auron isn’t to be seen at all initially, but then pops up in a cart nearby (and the two other people in the same cart as him seem to be mildly weirded out by his general presence).
The desert is hot, dry, and bleak, with weird rock formations always present left and right of the road, as well as abandoned and destroyed villages – signs of strong darkspawn activity in the area.
This first day on the road the party actually uses to get to know each other a little bit better – Harold gets introduced to Hulda, Vania’s mother-in-law and grandmother of the three children the group had kept meeting over and over again on the previous day. In the meantime Junius, Jeska, and Claudia also get to know each other a bit better – figuring out that they all seem to have come to this place for business in one way or another. Junius is fairly open about working for the magister Otho Hydrian, who is active in the property business. Junius is not much more than his “glorified errand boy”, who was sent here to see if the area would be suitable for building a mansion or something comparable. He actually doesn’t mind this little “vacation”, as Hydrian phrased it, and being away from his employer for a bit. Thea and Korinne share a meaningful glance at the mentioning of “business”, but don’t enter the conversation.
Donnic at this point seems the most upset about leaving among the three children, missing his grandfather, but Harold finds just the right words to encourage the boy and make him smile a bit again – telling him that even if the journey is feeling weird and hard now, it will be worth it once they arrive at their destination. Hulda explains that she was born in Minrathous, but spent most of her life in Schwarzstein. The family actually is headed for the capital – and it turns out, so is Harold. He tells Hulda that he is off-duty and wants to visit his daughter Sophia, who had sent him a letter from Minrathous. Hulda wishes him all the best and hopes he can see his daughter again soon. She also mentions briefly that she once worked in the services of the Imperium as well, although not with the military directly.
At some point Korinne notices Hulda in the other cart and immediately recognizes her – it turns out Hulda, Korinne, and Thea are old friends that haven’t seen each other in about 10-15 years. They are looking forward to catching up with each other again. While Yana and Vania are relatively quiet, Lukas looks extremely tired during this part of the journey. Mira and Claudia struggle a bit with the dry heat of the desert.

Scary and not so scary stories – and then there’s Harold

In the evening hours the group eventually settles down at a campfire – apart from Claudia, who is very tired from the journey and being around people all day. She used up her ration of water and asks Konstantin if she could have more – but since everything is strictly rationed he can’t give her a whole new bottle. Instead she receives the rest of his water of the day and thankfully drinks it. Then she decides to go and lay down to get some rest… but the ruckus at the campfire prevents her from falling asleep and so she decides to get up and see what’s going on, disappointed to find out that there’s not even alcohol to drink.
At the campfire Mira and Junius have a more or less quiet conversation at first about Magisters. Mira had overheard that Junius works for Magister Hydrian, and now she wanted to know if Junius knows another magister by the name of Hirundo. But Junius can’t recall ever doing business with him – after all he’s only the unimportant assistant, but the name never appeared on any official papers in his employer’s office. Mira seems pleased with this answer and sits back to enjoy the evening at the campfire.
Teresa, one of the leaders of the caravan, and Junius also lead a short conversation – after all Junius was given a little discount when joining the caravan due to being a mage, and he wondered how he could repay the favour. Teresa says that she doesn’t expect him to do guard duty or anything like it, because he wouldn’t be paid for that – but it would be good if he could help out in case something went seriously sideways. She also hinted that the caravan’s own mages not being as brave as Junius by offering help like he did (herself excluded of course).
Donnic seems to finally have found back to his bubbly self, telling one campfire story after another. Harold as well seems to be willing to tell a tale, and he offers Donnic to have a little competition. Donnic eagerly agrees and tells a story about a girl that lived close to the Donarks in the north, an area of wild and dangerous jungles. She got lost in the jungle during a darkspawn attack and encountered a tribe of cannibals, but miraculously she was allowed leave – but the memories of what she had witnessed there she couldn’t let go of again. Teresa added in the end that she had been told a similar story as a kid and offered some additional information on the people of the Donarks. The stories about them being cannibals were probably true, and it is also rumored that they believe consuming one’s enemies’ flesh grants oneself new powers. Since the little girl from the story was no enemy and innocent, they brought her back to her village – they had nothing to gain from her.
Next up is Harold with his story that also revolves around a little girl that is visited by ghouls at night. She is not scared of the ghouls, dances and plays with them – and at the end of the night the ghouls kill her in a brutal way and then continue to haunt her mother. A lot of the people sitting at the campfire are either disgusted or at the very least extremely weirded out by the sudden brutal turn in Harold’s story. Donnic seems to love it though. Last but not least it’s Auron’s turn to tell a story. It’s not very scary, but unusual, a tale about a being called Wisdom that turned into Pride, and then led a reign of terror. Pride was eventually challenged and defeated by an adventurer who was friends with a being called Justice. Yet another being with the name of Curiosity was intrigued by the adventurer and decided to watch him more closely, eventually following him back to his own land. Some people struggled with following the unusual story, but most people clapped in appreciation.
They remain sitting at the campfire a bit longer, Jeska writing in her notebook, Harold holding a small, unshaped block of wood in his hands, the others having idle conversation. Claudia finally gets some alcohol to drink when Teresa shares her tankard with her. As the night continues eventually everyone settles down in their respective tents, Claudia together with Brigid, Thea, and Korinne, Mira and Max with the mercenaries, and Junius, Jeska, Harold and Auron sharing a smaller tent together. Both Jeska and Harold snore, so Junius has some trouble sleeping.

Inspection

The day starts early for Mira and Max, who take the last watch of the night – and discover something weird. Not far away from the camp are footsteps in the sand that seem to lead into the desert. Not sure what to make of it they inform Valentin, who promises to keep an eye out for anything weird. A few hours later the rest of the camp is woken up by a shrill bell. Harold jumps to his feet screaming, waking up Jeska and Junius at once – Auron apparently has been awake for hours already and seems a little shocked by the display. While everyone is still trying to fully come to consciousness, a voice outside announces that an inspection is being held and everyone is supposed to stand in line in front of their tents. The group follows suit, and not long afterwards Konstantin appears with a rugged looking mage that examines all of the newcomers among the civilians for signs of an infection with the taint. Junius is not very pleased with the overall procedure and the embarrassment associated with it. Harold simply does as he’s told, like a good soldier would. Auron tries to make conversation with the seemingly rather bored mercenary mage, but he receives no answer. The group sees him continue a bit further and eventually he arrives at the tent of Vania’s family. Both Hulda and Lukas are ordered to come to his tent in the evening for further examination. Hulda explained that she had a cold recently and also was in contact with a tainted person – her son, whom she prepared for burial 3 weeks ago. Lukas seemed sickly as well, and just like Hulda he was ordered to not touch any other civilians for the rest of the day and wear a white piece of cloth to cover his mouth.

The Dwarven Chosen One

The second day of travel is very similar. A lot of desert to the left and right, not many interesting sights to see. The children play travel games like “I spy with my little eye…” to fight the boredom. Jeska seems to not be coping very well with the heat, not quite used to the constant sunlight on the surface, the dry air and dust. After a couple of hours of traveling she starts to act weird, talking a lot of nonsense initially, but soon displaying a behavior as if she was thinking she was some type of superior being. Junius, sitting right next to her, gets to experience the full extent of it all. After being called her servant and ordered to bring grapes and wine, as well as his manbun being fondled and squished, he determines that Jeska is probably having heat-induced hallucinations, maybe a heat-stroke even. His attempts of treating her aren’t very successful though, and to Jeska it all seems more like a spa treatment rather than helping her cool down. Eventually the mercenary’s healer who held the inspection in the morning seems to witness the strange display of the dwarf and rushes over to properly help her. Until the evening arrives Jeska is starting to become clear again – profusely apologizing to Junius who tells her about everything she did and said.

The journey continues

The days with the caravan all follow the same pattern: leave the camp in the early morning with rations, travel most of the day until the next shelter is reached, set up camp and rest. Rinse and repeat. During the second and third evening the group again sits by the campfire, but Mira and Max have a long watch ahead of them during the night – and again it is Maxfield who spots footsteps in the sand after a while. This time it is harder to follow the footsteps though, the sand being deeper and the wind blowing stronger. They can’t quite determine where they’re leading to. Mira and Max notice though that nearby there always seems to be a lot rock formations in the distance, similar to the one they’re camping under for shelter. Hearing of yet another sighting of footsteps that seem to be either leading into the camp or out of it, Valentin orders another inspection for the following morning. Every civilian’s tents are searched for suspicious items – and Mira and Max have the task to search through the belongings of Vania and her children. At first there is nothing out of the ordinary to be found – apart from a sword and shield that maybe belonged to the kids’ father. Mira also finds Yana’s bow and a quiver of arrows, similar to the ones most of the people in Schwarzstein owned – and that they found stuck in the corpses of the two adventurer’s at the mines. Then Maxfield finds a pack of daily rations hidden away under a bedroll. Upon confronting the family about why they hide food, Vania explains that the children are very homesick and haven’t been feeling like eating much – but Mira doesn’t believe her. They have the theory that the family is hiding and feeding a ghoul – potentially the father that is believed to be dead. But they are not certain enough yet to inform Valentin about their suspicions. Instead they take the family to the side, Vania being very upset that they accuse her children of any wrongdoings. Mira politely tries to calm Vania down and asks her, just for the sake of everyone’s safety, if there is anything dangerous out in the desert following them. Mira and Max are convinced the family is followed by something or someone that could mean trouble and harm not only to them, whether it is Johann or not. Vania calms down, but she insists: there is nothing dangerous out there that could cause someone harm. Frustrated Mira and Max let Vania go, but they manage to tell the rest of the group about their suspicions and ask for help.

Footprints in the Sand

The following night Max and Mira aren’t on guard duty, but Claudia and Harold decide to make some investigations as night falls. First of all they try to find Vania and her family, to keep an eye on them. Vania and Hulda are in their tent, Donnic is playing with some other kids in the camp, but there is no sign immediately of Yana and Lukas. In a similar area as Max and Mira previously saw footprints, Claudia and Harold now discover some leading into the desert, in the direction of some rock formations about a mile away. Harold goes to inform the rest of the party, and Claudia notices someone disappearing into Vania’s tent. Harold has another look and Lukas and Yana are now with their mother and grandmother, wishing him a good night. Claudia decides to sneak around the tent to eavesdrop on them, and after waiting a bit she can make out the words “need to be more careful” being whispered inside.
The group decides that they now have good conditions to continue their investigation: well-preserved footsteps, it’s still relatively early at night, and the potential hideout of whatever is following them is not far away from the camp. Together they march out into the desert, following the tracks in the sand to the rock formation in the distance.

A secret well-kept

The gigantic rock in front of them almost seems like a pillar in the sand, and similar rocks are nearby, almost like cliffs at a shore spread out in a sandy ocean. The group discovers more footprints leading around the pillar in front of them – first arriving, disappearing behind the stone, and then coming back around the rock on the other side to return to the camp. Jeska also finds a piece of cloth half buried nearby that looks similar to the pieces of cloth everyone’s rations are wrapped in each day. The group decides to split up, one half of them walking around the rock on one side, the other on the other side – and as they arrive on the backside of it, a figure darts away into the night. Without even thinking about it, Junius immediately casts his mind blast spell, sending the figure flying and landing face-down in the sand. They scramble to get up and away, but then just raise their hands above their head, begging for mercy as the group approaches quickly with weapons drawn. Slowly the figure turns around, a man in his 30s or 40s, with dark hair, pale eyes, and his face severely disfigured by blackened patches of skin. He is visibly shaken and scared of the group and struggles with answering their questions. Harold asks him where his unit is, but the man says that he’s alone. Before they can act though, a familiar voice approaches them from behind: “Don’t you dare and move, or I’ll shoot!”
Visibly distressed and shaking, but her bow out and drawn, Yana faces the group with determination, and she is accompanied by Lukas carrying his father’s sword and shield.

Notes

In-Game Date: 14th – 19th of Cassus; early morning – late night
Highlights:

• Talk tainty to me
• Donnic is sad because Mira harassed his family.
• Maxfield about the journey: It’ll get more exciting once we get attacked – Mira: *smacks him*
• Maxfield forgets to watch out for enemies because he’s totally captured by Mira’s beauty
• Jeska to Junius: I’ll bunk with you, you seem tidy.
• Donnic adopted Harold
• Harold makes Dad noises
• To Harold: Stop defending your ghoul family!
• Everyone ships Claudia and Konstantin after they share a water bottle
• When Donnic talks about the ancient evil living in the jungle, Claudia whispers: tax collectors!
• Maxfield on Donnic’s story: I had a dream like that after I ate this one mushroom I found in the forest when I was younger!
• Harold forgets the name of the town he comes from; he was so wrapped up in Teresa’s story that he forgot who he was
• Claudia starts to think that Harold isn’t hiding something, he’s just clueless
• Claudia then forgets the name of the town she was doing business at (probably desert amnesia)
• Claudia’s version of a scary story: waking up to three old ladies in their nightgowns
• Maxfield’s version of a creepy story: On a dark and stormy night… we only got paid 15 or 20 silver each D:
• Maxfield on Harold’s story: Harold please! There are children and Auron present! D:
• Claudia on Harold after his story: This man is not even clueless, he’s just creepy as fuck!
• One guy during Auron’s story keeps whispering “I still don’t get it” to his neighbor
• Auron: What’s a Magister? – Everyone: How does he not know that???
• Teresa lends her tankard to Claudia, who takes a huge gulp, and Teresa very protectively takes it back
• Jeska and Harold have a snoring competition, much to Junius’ dismay
• Harold waking up screeching when the bell is rung, still in his underwear, making Auron go 0_0
• Auron: Make sure you put pants on, Harold! (Max: Harold notices that his pants are missing buttons!)
• Claudia: “They rang the bell!” – Brigid: “Smell? What smell?” – Claudia: “No, they rang the bell!” – Brigid: “Who’s going to hell?” – Claudia: “You, with the smell of a burning pyre.” – Brigid: “What?” – Claudia: “Nothing!”
• Mira is just too tired to succeed any perception tests, and Maxfield sees all with his Avvar eyes
• For some reason Maxfield struggles the least in the heat, despite being from a cold climate
• Jeska has desert madness!
• Jeska during her hallucinations: “Bring me grapes and wine!! You’re such a good servant Junius. And your bun is so soft! Noot noot! *squishes bun*
• Junius fails his healing roll at treating her, wastes his entire bottle of water and wraps her in wet bandages from head to toe – Jeska sees this as a nice spa treatment
• Maxfield: What do you want? I’m not feeding you yet! (actually sakura to her dog, but maybe it was also Max talking to Auron)
• Auron is a vampire (How long have you been 17??) – the fade was tingling because it was Auron sparkling
• Maxfield refuses to take the kids to his tent, he doesn’t want people to get the wrong impression of him
• Harold: I wonder what’s going on here… - Junius: Your entire adopted family are ghouls, that’s what.
• Jeska, what is your stone sense seeing?
• Maxfield when Jeska rolls badly on a perception check: I expected better from a god D:
• Claudia: turns out that being closer to things makes us see them better

Report Date

20 Jul 2018

Primary Location

Anderfels