Lamware Warf

An empty town, a scraggly old orc priest, a plot to sink the glacier, and a quick story of a rampaging giant destroying ships.

Structure

Exposition

A large warship floats into one of the harbors of Navara, severly damaged, the wood frozen and broken in many spots, the sails torn and the masts splintered.
Once the ship gentle bumps into the stone harbor a series of explosions ring out as the ships cannons began to unload into the harbor, decimating smaller ships and razing buildings in an instant as frozen undead began to swarm the surprised city guards.
The undead are culled and thanks to the Triboar Travelers a giant amalgamation of flesh, bone, and ice is defeated aboard the ship - yet in its finaly moments it exploded, destroying the vessel and nearly killing several of the Triboar Travelers.

Tasked by the Jarl of Navara, Amriel Navara himself sent his most trusted advisor and friend Ramiel along side the Triboar Travelers to investigate the northern empire of Oswary not only to figure out where this assault came from but to also see if trade with the isles is still an option.

Conflict

The first island of Oswary was found to be a ghost town, the small fishing village of Lamware Warf - better known as the eye in the north given its massive lighthouse, was frozen over and the many people gone without a trace.
A blizzard began to pick up, and visibility began to worsen - the party seeking shelter began moving farther into the abandoned city when just on the edge of vision a woman was seen running towards the party if only for a moment before a winged beast swooped in and ripped her from the ground disappearing into the white sky.

Rising Action

A brief stop...

After a brief detour on Torringval Island stalled the party for nearly a month as they delved deep into a Kraken Cult and disperesed them all the same, thought at heavy cost to the party, losing Orto and Leif in one fatal engagement.

Arrival at the Eye of the North

The Party arrives on the snow covered island that carries a unlit lighthouse. The small port lays barren, buckling, and untended, as the party docked along the wooden slates, a small town of thirty or so buildings streches out before them. The only movement and light comes from the flickering of blue-flamed torches licking away at the consistent snow fall.
After some sluething through a pair of warehouses on the edge of the port the party deduced that the town must have been empty for several weeks at least. Yet they spot some faint moving in a church up the hill.
The windows and doors where boarded up and the door swung loose on its hinges. Inside the church was dark, a small brazier on the far side of the pews smoked with a small flame that just recently had been snuffed out.
A frail elderly orc greeted the party from the top of the left staircase, a man by the name of Father Osmium - a pastor of Pelor he declared- he offered the party the key to a nearby manor as the denizens of the city have either abandoned their homes or became fooder for the monster of the night, either that or the rampaging Giant on the northern most part of the island.

Father Osmium

Offering the party some respite he unlocks the large manor that was abandoned by the town aristocrates when the giant and the monster showed up, Father Osmium shambled his way back to the Church to continue his praises and prayers to the gods. Father Osmium shared with the party that they should seek him out in the morning and discuss their options further.

Night of the Dead

After arriving at the Manor, the party attempted to locate some firewood to start a fire, and through some diligence, or maybe some dumb luck they came across a series of barrels, stained red with at first what was presumably a fine wine but after further investiagion of a full barrel it turned out to be filled with blood, and intestines of a humanoid creature. The party dumped the barrel into a near by drainage gate that led beneath the manor and then sought out Father Osmium to see if had any answers to their boiling questions.
Upon entering the church the party found no signs of Father Osmium, and they began to scoure the church for answers - leading their investigation to the basement in which they found a most gruesome sight: the bodies of dozens of humanoids piled into a far corner, their bodies mangled and tortured piled upon one another like a heap of dirty clothes.
The center of the room was caked in dry blood, the body of a woman tied roughly to a table her body mutilated and her organs removed, blood let into a grate in the floor.
A small side room was discovered, a well filled with blood, crimson red, and a work table covered in cruel instruments of torture and bottles of blood stored neatly and unalabeled sat in the corner. As Flerg attempted to take a closer look at the bodies of the dead, a ghostly hand strewn out towards him, flailing and screaming like the wind striking out at the party. The party quelled the mass's spirits, driving them back into their dead bodies.
After their engagement they headed back to the manor, while a foul mist began to roll in beneath the heavy snowfall.
Upon hardly a moment of rest, the sound of doors being blown in and the rattling of metal and bone began to fill the air, the party found themselves at the center of an undead seige - the fight lasting only minutes, the skeletoned bodies rose time and time again their forms reforming with the powerful necrotic force that now permiated the entire manor. Ramiel in his astute thinking attempted to scoure outside the manor for the spellcaster responsible, coming face to face with a snarling female vampire who with out hesitation was cut down by Ramiels halberd. With the mist quelled, and the skeleton forces being defeated, a wave of humanoids and cross bows began to fire into the building, wounding several members of the party - yet from the opposite side of the manor a wall came crashing down as an amalgamation torn through the side of the building flanking the party trapping them in the burning building. As the battled ensued, the Algamation defeated and the manor all but destroyed by the flames the party began to rush the human crossbowmen, felling several of them the party decided that one must have answers - Ramiel again leading the front knocked one unconcious before several of them began to sprint off into the forest, quickly being trailed by young Steve who alone ran into the woods after them.
Upon waking up the young man, he seemed unable to recall anything nor offer any information - quickly identifying that this young man was charmed, his frail form was riddled with signs of neglect and lacking of food, he was released by Ramiel back into the town to seek shelter and food.
Chasing down the survining humans, Steve himself became situated in a position between a rock and a hard place, a pack of trained dogs began to give chase as the surviving archers turned their fleeing into a hunt for the quick ranger. Thanks to Steves deft footwork, he managed to make it to a hidden cave just beyond the rangers camp - escaping the hounds and their handlers. The cave, had a flickering light just beyond a bend that enticed him to progress further, being sneakily as possible he passed a pack of direwolves, a long dark passage, and came across a small work space cut into the cavern, he found notes on some sort of creature a black ichor like wyrm, but the information was slim beyond that - before he heard the slap of steel on stone.
Falling quiet, Steve hid in the darkness, laying flat on his stomach - he watched with his adjusting eyes to the dark a tall creature, about seven feet tall with massive wings that slowly tucked away and dissappeared into the frame of an orcish man.
Narrowly escaping both the hunters and this haunting creature, Steve was able to recouperate with his allies - expressing what he had found. They returned to the small town to gather a plan and to investigate further once the storm had settled - yet their evening was not over yet. A flash of lightning beguiled the party as a massive man, a giant appeared before them.

Deceit and Truth

The giant Othmoore extended a hand of peace, while carring a massive sword in the other hand. Expressing he meant the party no ill intent as they shared a common enemy. Othmoore expressed to the party how the violent vampire Osmium had destroyed his once beloved home and damaged the anchor that is holding the island in place - ensuring that his sins would sink beneath the sea and cause the island to no longer offer a point of reference when traversing the Oswary Sea.
Not taking lightly to this digression the party rested for the evening, licking their wounds from the fight before and devised a plan to raid the cavern that Steve had witnessed the vampire horror. Setting out at first light the party began to see the island had begun to shift, the dock they had arrived at was now sinking beneath the waves, and the shore had encroached upon the city - time was of the essence here.

Climax

Enter Stage Right - Father Osmium of the Osmium Throne

The cavern winded and sank deep into the heart of Lamware, the darkness of the cavern only illuminated by the cold sun through the thick ice - realizing that this was no island but instead a massive glacier that had been carefully secured by a magical anchient anchor.
The caverns and passage ways led the party to a massive room, filled with all manner of sea life, a small pool of sea water filled the center of the cavern, where a metal pole held two individuals flayed and drained of their blood much like within the church.
A massive creature, a bat like man with wings that stretched nearly a full man to either side of the monster stood just beyond the water. A snarling vampire with striking dark features, called out to the party accusing them of intervening with things they cannot comprehend, as many tropes go.
Declaring himself Father Osmium, the party did not hesitate to engage with him almost immediately, nearling costing Steve and Ramiel thier lives the party was able to cut the vampire down yet his form turn to mist as he escaped in a form just beyond the parties reach - disappearing into the rolling blizzard.

Falling Action

The party attempted to persue but where greeted by Othmoore just beyond Osmiums cave - explaining that Osmium has progressed his plans, and that a fiend was attempting to shatter the anchor and that the party must flee or risk sinking with the berg. Not taking kindly to any form of failure the party rushed to find the anchor, following quick directions by Othmoore the party found a vampire and several runes draining the anchor of its magic, and the stone work began to crack. Yet in their fashion the party quickly turned this vampire to dust and where able to destroy the runes that where placed around the anchor but the damage to the anchor was already done. Flerg, the Oathbreaker, reached out to his scorned god Lathander and managed to repair the damage to the anchor through divine intervention.

Resolution

With the Vampire defeated, for now, and the islands survival secured they bid farewell to their newfound friend Othmoore, a prince from a long destroyed giant kingdom. He offered only words of advice, do not trust anyone you meet and be wary from the threat to Oswary stretches far beyond its borders as an evil has awoken in the world.
Othmoore bid the party fairwell and expressed that he would be there when they needed him most.

Plot type

Chapter 1: Methods of the Damned

Parent Plot

The Frozen North

Related Locations

• Eye of the North

Related Session Reports

• 07/08/22
• Lamware Wharf Recap