Session 26

Kara
There is nothing good about this place. The air is Cursed, the water is cursed, even the stars feels sinister and without pity. The spirits here don't want to rest. We have come to what I can only believe to be an old home, a large manor. We are still hunted by the ghostly woman from earlier and cannot rest her voice rings off my bones still. I can tell we are all on the brink of collapse and weary of this place. All of me wishes that we could flee to a warm hearth. Arya was taken to the snake almost immediately through its cursed lightning. The fire in the middle of this place burns with a spirit of evil itself. We tried to go, to follow Arya’s gut I think towards the place the woman resides but down the path a bridge crosses a river from up the mountain. This River surged as I tried to cross the ridge and attacked me, dark creatures foaming underneath the water but unable to breach it and come onto land. Deciding we needed to stop this River somehow and or purify it we headed to its source in this valley. Following the path we came to what I think was a graveyard, fenced in and locked. The gate itself told me it would kill me if I broke it, so I decided that we needed a key. Cormag told me I couldn't climb the fence (or I would explode) so we headed back to the fire once again. This whole place feels like it watches you, It's almost hungry to see me consumed I cannot escape it. We headed towards a smaller hall, some kind of servants quarters. The main door barred, we moved around the side and found a door busted inwards. A storehouse by the looks of smelling of decay. We soon found out why the final door revealed a gruesome scene. A mass of bones in a barricaded room, women and children. Claw marks of wolves on the doors leading in… I find myself reflecting on what almost took my own spirit. It seems like they may have starved themselves waiting or killed one another as wolves, may the ice help them find peace. I left their silver and remaining belongings with them. We made our way further into the building through a garden to find a darkened feast hall. The hall was filled with some burning slimes or some kind of other evil slime. They attacked us as we entered but we discovered a brazier in the hall which we fought the slime to light. The blade that halda had carried here was the only thing that could light it, and the slimes were repulsed by the bright flames and fled. Cormag was almost killed in the scuffle but I managed to wake him later although recovering seems unlikely for now. I wish I had brought my hammer from that damned city.
We found no key so we headed for the stables next.(I found out they were stables later.) On our way past the bonfire we saw that as we lit the bonfire at the feast hall, a matching brazier in the center of the manor was lit as well. Our search carried us to a stable of sorts. There we discovered the bones of long dead giants. A frost giants and stone giant according to cormag. One bore the mark of a great warrior, a mercenary for good. Among the ancient kin this was rare, most killing for sport or personal gain with little thought for honor. The old stories tell of this rare mercenaries might, so to see them dead in chains shook me to my core… after investigating the nearby cave, finding a journal and some potions of giant and wolfblood (I could feel myself both drool at the thought of such power passing to me and repulsed at the means it was obtained through) Me and cormag (also of the kin) went and paid rights to our slain brothers, laying their spirits to rest I hope. We both left our mark and pushed on. In the cave we found a hidden passage with a staircase leading to a tower. Gwenda said it was for bird messengers or some such but it contained another brazier which we lit. I can only hope by lighting these that we are one step closer to ending this curse.