Echoes of Time Sessions 1-10

General Summary

Session 1 The party unites by fleeing from the undead horde through the crypts of the temple. Except for Ximon! He was killed by the dracolich! Dawnbringer and Ozwin got off on the wrong foot when Ozwin failed to realize that Dawnbringer had transformed himself into a giant snake and attacked him.
Laucian leads the surviving townsfolk along with the party out of the crypts. Despite fighting the dracolich with Ximon, Dawnbringer was pulled into the temple by the few remaining acolytes. They healed him and brought him into the crypts. The party fends off a group of rust monsters at the expense of the silver coating Eladan's Trident. They are able to find their way out of the sewers, into a cave, and out onto a ridge overlooking the mountain pass, just in time to see the first wave of the undead horde passing through the gate of the Watchful Towers.
Farther back over the mountains however, the party spotted a misty cloud rolling over the path, heralding the approach of more undead. Laucian asks the party to activate the magical barrier that is said to exist within the Watchful Towers.
XP earned: 450
Session 2 The party enters the Watchful Towers by scaling down the cliffsides until they are parallel with the second level. Upon entrance, they notice the will 'o' wisps and follow them into the lower levels of the tower and into the cave entrance.
There, with Dawncaller having split off from the group but also wandering into the cave, the party is attacked by two abominable yetis. After an intense battle, the party is able to kill one of them and force the other to flee. Having realized they were led astray, the party heads back up into the tower and finds their way to the upper level.
There they are confronted by a Sword Wraith hellbent on fighting a glorious battle. It seems initially that the party will attempt to fight it, but Echoless is able to persuade the Wraith that there is a stronger foe to fight in the undead horde approaching. The Wraith agrees and helps them activate the barrier.
Sarword, who was sent with the party on behest of High Priest Laucian is able to discern the runes of the barrier and activate it, but not before a squad of deathlocks attacks the party along with a horde of zombies rushing from the other side.
In the end, the barrier is activated, and the party rests under the protective dome of the barrier, but not at the expense of enduring the cold mountain snow. In the morning, the party wakes to find that the undead horde has vanished. The party then heads north with the intention of meeting back up with the townsfolk of Waypointe. Sarword bids farewell to the party, intending to return to Waypointe and assist Laucian however he can.
As the party travels down out of the mountains, they are approached by a shadowy figure who reveals himself to be Ximon, who has come back as a revenant. More on that to come.
The weather in the region looks to be clear and temperate for the next few days at least.
XP earned: 3,600 each
Session 3 The party begins still in the mountain pass. Ximon has found them and explains that he seeks to liberate Waypointe and slay the dragon that killed him and that he seeks worthy allies to do so. The party agrees, and also agrees that they need to gather forces in order to do so. Eladan stays behind to examine the town's temple/library.
They head into the valley and into the town of Stone's Landing, which has been desolated by an unknown force. It quickly becomes clear that this is not the doing of the skeletal army, which is nowhere to be found, but some kind of beasts or monstrosities. This is confirmed when a pack of Quasits assaults the party. They are easily dispatched, but Dawncaller captures one and dubs it Todd.
The party then runs into Jakob Woods, an old scout who lives on the outskirts of town. He informs them that these creatures swooped in about 5 days ago and ransacked the village. He also saw the Waypointe refugees pass through and take the eastern road towards Fendelen. He asks the party that if they happen to find a creature with his family amulet to kindly return it. He will give them one of his birds in return. He also informs the party that the demons likely came from the old ruin in the woods. The party reluctantly investigates.
The party finds the old Antecean outpost, but is attacked by Vrocks before they can enter. After dispatching the beasts, the party finds the Foci inside, along with the demoness Raven, who asks for there assistance in returning to the Abyssal plane. Oswin cleverly offers to "banish" her. Raven accepts, but warns that the other demons will not be returned with her. Before she goes, she gives him a small black crystal that will summon her, if she is available to be summoned.
Upon return to the town, the party finds a disgruntled dwarven merchant leading a trade caravan. The merchant agrees to do business with Ximon, but ultimately refuses to allow the group to travel with them, also throwing a slur at Echoless in the process.
In an attempt to intimidate the merchant and his guards, Dawncaller transforms into a giant snake, prompting the guards to attack.
It is a slaughter. One guard is able to escape along with two merchants and there carts. Their fate is unknown.
Echoless takes Todd and leaves, refusing to engage in such a ridiculous battle. Eladan returns having found a common to celestial translator.
XP earned: 3,330 each
Session 4 Echoless bonds with Todd/Balor whilst the party deals with their mess. Eladan returns from his raid of the temple library with a common-to-celestial translator. The twin paladins Freeth and Dominic arrive in town having heard that there was some kind of trouble. After some suspicion, they decide to join the group. The party returns to Jakob Woods' cottage and returns his heirloom. Venatrix chooses the raven named Poe as her prize; they seem to like each other.
After some deliberation as to where to go next, north to Crucible to search for allies or East into Luma Forest to search for the Waypointe refugees, they ultimately decide to search for the townsfolk, as Ximon feels compelled to save the town (and by extension its people) and FreeDom also wished to help innocent lives. Venatrix opted to use her newly acquired bird to send a message to the Night's Song HQ letting them know she succeeded in her mission and was heading towards Fendelen.
And so after a long rest in Jakob's cottage, the party set out to track down the missing refugees. They followed signs of the refugees passage almost half a day down the wooded eastern trail, until suddenly the trail abruptly stops. The party is able to find traces of a large group of people veering off into the deeper forest, and thus they follow.
Tracking them proves to be difficult, and they loose the trail on a few occasions, stumbling across a mysterious statue in a shrouded grove, and also crossing paths with a rampaging gorgon that almost turned Ximon to stone.
Finally, they reached the grove of the Elder Yew, also shrouded in fog and guarded by corrupted Treants. The party was able to convince one of them that they would offer their services to the archdruid Pertabus and they were allowed to pass.
Atop the ridge that was home to the Yew, the party discovered that Pertabus had been sacrificing souls to the corrupted Elder Yew by turning them into trees and linking their spirits to the Yew. It appeared to be slowly working, but at the cost of many human lives. The party decided this could not continue and "killed" Pertabus.
More dryads come to claim his body, and this is where we leave off…
XP earned: 2,750 each
Session 5 The party allows the dryads to take Pertabus' body, but they stick around to see if they can un-treeify any of the trapped souls. The dryads insist it is permanent and demand that the party leave the grove by midnight. They acquiesce and make camp in the clearing between the grove and the rest of the woods.
They are able to find their way west and avoid the marshier areas of the wood. However, towards mid-afternoon, they stumble across a trail leading to the Commune; a small community of robe-clad men and woman living under the benevolent rule of the "Matrons". The Matrons greet the party and offer them rest and food for them and the refugees. Specifically, they offer a decoction and a special "berry". Curious, Ximon eats one and willingly allows its effects to take hold. He becomes charmed by the Matrons and is compelled to stay in the Commune for the night.
The party disagrees and drags him out, along with the rest of the refugees. They follow the road north as the Matrons recommended only to find it veering off to the east. They instead elect to blaze their own trail to the east, where they come across more bog lands. They opt to go around the swamps rather than through, but they still attract the attention of a group of ghouls, led by a pair of ghasts, who attack the group in the night.
The ghouls get their hands on some of the refugees before being repelled. 4 are injured and 1 is killed (David). Throughout the night, Ximon continues to try to return to the Commune.
After another half day of travel, the party runs across the gnome Roman, who offers to take them to Gnomenclature for rest and shelter. They agree and reach the town without trouble.
Their, they find that the two largest families have been involved in a centuries long feud over a lost heirloom (or something). Ximon finds that this heirloom is a Former artifact that was lost/stolen by a lake in the southern area of the forest. Fonkin agrees to draw him a map
Meanwhile, in the Gnomes' great hall, the party gets an evening to relax for once. Oswin attempts to seduce some gnome women to no avail. Ximon and FreeDom catch Roman sneaking over to the Talltree side of town to hook up with Julia Talltree. And Eladan has horrible nightmares and awakes the next morning feeling absolutely horrible.
XP earned: 750 each
Session 6 The party spends a full day in Gnomenclature. Ximon and Echoless spend the day in Sigri's library studying up on the area, Eladan studies the common tongue, and Venatrix, Oswin, and FreeDom roam about seeing if anyone needs help. They learn of the dragon that has been spotted in the area. In the evening, Oswin tries to get Eladan laid. This sort of works, but Echoless gets laid in the process as well.
At night, Eladan is once again haunted by the Night Hag. Sigri restores his HP with a greater restoration spell scroll, but warns that he will continue to be haunted unless something is done about it. Eladan tries not sleeping for a night and FreeDom ends up having horrible nightmares instead, with Eladan being haunted once again the following night. However, this time, the group is able to wake him before the nightmare haunt is complete.
Fully rested, the party walks headlong into an ambush for the green dragon set by centaurs. The party mucks it up, and the dragon robs them instead. But the refugees are safe. Later on, the party stumbles across a bandit trap. Blows are exchanged, but one of the brigands recognizes Oswin from his days in the Sickle and informs him that the group has been disbanded and his uncle and father are missing. The lead bandit escapes, but the party is able to make it to the shores of Lake Aberren.
XP earned: 1000 each
Session 7 The party reaches Fendelen and ferries the entire group of refugees across Lake Aberren, taking note of the off-coloring of the lake water as they progress farther onto the lake. They reach the city with little issue and find the Cardinal Cathedral. There, High Priest Warwick offers his assistance and thanks the players for escorting the refugees. Warwick also warns FreeDom that whatever is haunting them is likely doing so from the ethereal plane. Then the party dispersed to do some shopping.
Eladan and Echoless commission new arcane foci while Freeth and Dom order a shit-ton of stuff from the blacksmith, including over a dozen manacles and two interlocking ladders. Venatrix searches for Rolf while Oswin orders a devilishly fancy hat. Finally, Ximon orders a new mask and makes inquiries at the Lunar Forum.
They all finally reconvene at the Fisheye Inn where they notice a few cloaked onlookers lurking in the shadows. After most of the party has gone to bed, Oswin follows one of the cloaked men nearly to the northern gate of the city only to witness him vanish without a trace. Meanwhile, another one offers a job with a potential heist to Ven, also informing her that he saw Rolf leave through the west gate two days ago. And some time in the night, Freeth and Dom are plagued by horrible nightmares.
In the morning, the group runs a few more errands and once again visits the Lunar Forum where they offer a reward for retrieving an artifact from an Antecean ruin not too far away. The group agrees, as Rolf had disappeared in the same direction anyway. They travel in their newly acquired wagon pulled by a spectral horse until they come across the old ruin.
Inside, they are attacked by a band of nothics. One of them wields a wand of magic missiles. They defeat them with some difficulty and Echoless acquires the wand. They then enter the ruined keep and descend into what appears to be a large sinkhole that leads deep into the earth. While traveling, they get the sense that something is watching them…
XP earned: 1000 each
Session 8 The party entered the lair of the beholder and found themselves befallen by traps and nothics, some with magical items. The party was able to retrieve most of these items, including a ring of poison resistance, an orb of darkness, and the leechblade.
They then faced the beholder itself and shit went awry. Freeth and Dom were turned to stone and Ximon "died". However, with some well-timed distractions, a griffon, and magical attacks, the party was ultimately successful and find themselves alone in the beholder's now vacant "gallery".
XP earned: milestone, level 11
Session 9 The party successfully escaped the Beholder's lair and bumped into Sarword, who had escorted his own group of refugees out of Waypointe and heard the party was in the area. After tagging along for a bit, he decided he would do better elsewhere. Also, on their return journey, the party met the enigmatic Mul Curunir, an elven mage claiming to be investigating the disappearances back in the city. The group did not entirely trust him, but did agree to help him investigate.
Back in town, the party collected on their various requisitions, Freeth and Dom getting their ladders and manacles, while Echoless and Eladan got their staff and trident, respectively. Back at the Fisheye Inn, the party finally found Rolf, the Night's Song operative. They found that he was holding three captives in his room. They, along with an elven mage and a chuul, had attempted to ambush him while he was scouting the woods.
The party was able to gleam that something in the lake may be behind the city's misgivings, but it was not clear what. They did realize that Mul was the one who attacked Rolf, so the party decided to lay a trap for him.
Using FreeDom as bait, the party would lie in wait for Mul to approach them. This did not go as planned however, when Mul approached Echoless instead, who had not hidden herself particularly well. He asked her to collect her friends and join him in the sewers, where they would seek out leads in the Cistern.
Once there, the group took in the splendors of the underground market, bumping into it's overseer Tarak and purchasing poisons and a mutt, whom they dubbed Little Ass-Kicker. After some various shenanigans, the group was able to capture a deathlock and convince it to lead them back to its hideout. They went, along with Mul, who had rejoined them, Rolf currently nowhere to be found.
The deathlock led the group to an abandoned warehouse connected with the sewers via trapdoor. Once inside the warehouse, the party found themselves surrounded by six more deathlocks ready to do battle…
XP earned: 300 each
Session 10 The party made short work of the deathlocks in the abandoned warehouse. The battle did however spill into the streets, which did quite frighten the local populace and alert the guards. During the commotion, the party ended back up in the sewers with Mul, who thanked them for their help and promptly attacking them. This did not work out so well for him, as he and his entourage of beguiled townsfolk and chuuls were quickly dispatched. During the battle, Rolf appeared and lent his support in the fight, making a pretty sweet entrance with the mini meteor spell.
Mul proved to be a tough egg to crack, resisting the party's attempts to magically compel him to talk. They brought him to High Priest Warwick at Cardinal Cathedral where he cast zone of truth. The party received minimal results, with Mul revealing that he was a warlock in service to some kind of entity that resides in Lake Aberren. FreeDom, perhaps out of exhaustion from their nightly hauntings, wanted to execute Mul. This caused a heated argument between party members. During the confusion, Mul was able to teleport to safety, leaving the party empty-handed.
Later, after some back and forth with the Lunar Forum, Eladan returned the griffon figurine in exchange for a scroll of true seeing so they could interpret the Deathlock Mastermind's grimoire, which they recovered after the battle. With the scroll, Eladan learned that the deathlocks were indeed plotting some sort of invasion of the city under the command of "the Shepherd". Eladan also discovered while under the effects of true seeing, that Priscilla the Night Hag was lurking near the party in the ethereal plane, which he shared with the party. There was naught to be done about it that night, and she once again haunted FreeDom.
In the morning, the party split to run various errands, with Echoless and Venatrix going to the Lunar Forum to ask about ways to fight something on the ethereal plane. They suggested using "see invisibility" to locate the hag and using force magic to hurt her or using a spell like "blink" to briefly bounce back and forth between the ethereal plane and the material plane.
Meanwhile, FreeDom, Oswin, and Ximon went to the docks, where Ximon donned heavy chain and dove into the lake to see what he could see. With the light of the driftglobe in hand, Ximon descended deep into the murky depths. He got about a quarter-mile out when suddenly he was approached by another Chuul, drawn to the blinding light of the driftglobe…
XP earned: 3,400 each

Report Date

13 Dec 2022