Session 0 - 19th of Lowsun, 987 AGW

General Summary

Verian Laerwyn

Verian has made his way to the Kingdom of Latheron searching for the final resting place of one of the legendary Chosen that helped win the Great War many years ago. He is hoping to find something that can help him with his life quest of ending the Blight for good. Previous archaeological research has led him to a small Halfling village a few miles away from Taleah. He is directed to the home of their eldest, known simply as "Ol' Pappy."

Well now, dear boy, I'm only a simple Halfling. You speak of great things... Big Folk things. But perhaps... yes...

Old Pappy eagerly tells Verian of the famous line of Halflings he supposedly comes from while showing him a wall of portraits. His exaggerated and suspect tales include one that invented the wheel (Finora the Wise), another that slayed a dragon with his barehands (Osric the Large), one that sailed and mapped out all the seas (Galferd the Brave)... But one portrait catches Verian's eyes: Lalia Greenhand. In the portrait she is holding a staff engraved with the symbol of Arasil.
From here, Verian is directed to a graveyard, which is draped in a light fog. Several graves have been disturbed, including a fancier tomb with the same symbol from the staff on the lid, which has been shifted aside. The fog thickens as Verian determines there is no body in Lalia Greenhand's grave, which has clearly been disturbed recently. While investigating he is attacked by a Halfling-sized animated skeleton. Barely making it out alive, Verian follows the tracks by the grave to an old tower in the center of the forest. Here the fog is thickest.

Tybalt Strasz & Ayantu Mihret

Tybalt was selected to escort Ayantu to Taleah. He is carrying a sealed scroll with orders to deliver it, and Ayantu, safely to the Mayor at all costs. Aya is to be Taleah's stationed Mage of Xithar. Along the road near some forest by Taleah, they are attacked by two hunters, Lonnie and Merle, who are brothers from town.

Look, Scaleback... ways I sees it, we doin' the world a favor...

After defeating them, Tybalt learns that the brothers are so desperate for coin as to resort to banditry because their family leatherworking business is threatened by a "wrongness" in the animals. Additionally, their mother suffers from some strange illness which as rendered her blind, so she can no longer sew as a tailor. Aya uses a Detect Magic spell to track the "wrongness" in the area, as it seems to be magical in nature and concentrated from a specific location. This leads them to the same old tower in the center of the forest, draped by a magical fog.

Violla Lilligrim & Fitz

Violla and Fitz are traveling to Taleah because of Violla's dream/vision of the town in flames, certain that her angelic guide Seraphina means for her to stop this calamity. Along their travels they come upon two deer. A doe is lying on the ground next to the road, clearly dead. Standing over her is a baby. While calming the baby and examining the doe, who is thin, sickly, discolored with a greenish tint and foam around the mouth, they are ambushed by wolves. After defeating them, it's obvious that they are suffering from the same sickness that the doe died from. Violla decides they should follow the deer's tracks to the source of the sickness, to see if it's possible to cleanse it. As they do so, they are lead deep into the forest where an eerie silence begins to descend, followed by an unnatural fog and strong magical presence. Once again, an old tower in a clearing comes into view.

All Together!

Catching sight of each other, everyone's presence is questioned. Initially, they all suspect each other as being the source of the "wrongness," but eventually come to the realization that they were all lead here similarly. They decide to work together for the time being to find the source of it all and put an end to it.
Ascending the ruined tower they come upon a room, which is strangely not in ruins but in fact well decorated and stocked with tattered books, rusted weapons, and alchemical tools in the midst of a sickly green, bubbling experiment. A young wizard is seated at a table with three... zombies. He appears to be playing a game of dice with them, and speaks as if unhinged. Open on the floor is a Black Tome - this is the source of the evil magic some of them felt. After Tybalt plays several rounds of Three's (they were offered a "treat" for winning), the wizard sics his zombies on them.

Haha! You lose! You will make fine gifts... yes... surely he will forgive... But try not to damage our new friends or they'll come out just as ugly as you three!

As a group they easily dispatched the zombies and wizard. Aya recognizes the wizard as none other than Taleah's previous Mage of Xithar, who supposedly had disappeared. On his body is a sealed scroll, bearing the symbol of Arasil. It has a clue written in Celestial, which only Violla can read (though she didn't know until she tried). Verian pockets the clue and puts the Black Tome in his pack, then helps Violla destroy the experiment: they determine it to be a never-before-seen "biological warfare" version of the Blight, and likely the cause of the sickened animals. While still suspicious of each other, the party makes camp for the night near the tower, where the unnatural fog has now lifted.

Report Date

27 Jan 2019

Primary Location

Taleah

Experience

The party is leveled to 2.

Items Gained

• Black Tome (Verian)

• Pink opaque gem worth 10gp (Fitz)

• Small gold bracelet worth 25gp (Fitz)

• Celestial scroll

Coin Earned

• 145 gold

• 20 silver