Session 22

General Summary

Moonday, Richfest 3, 591 CY

Afternoon

We give Orsun Lenore’s amulet. We also discuss our options for the inhabitants of Ringland. Their magical defenses are tenuous, with Orsun being the last of the family to maintain the effect. Moving all 800 residents will prove challenging. But if we could reach Critwall, we may be able to convince the Knights of the Holy Shielding to occupy Ringland for its strategic value.
Dominique scouts Ringland with Snowfall and finds there are pockets of violence between the townsfolk and the undead. We clear the manor one room at a time.
In a room, we find a disemboweled washerwoman, her corpse showing signs of necrophagy. We deposit her remains in the hall and continue exploring.
We find another corpse in a different room that has wood splinters under its nails. In another room, we find a ghoul. We recognize it as one of the woodsmen of the town. His corpse is in good condition, with no signs of death. Tronus and Thormyr dispatch it with some small effort. In this room is a door, behind which can be heard sobbing. Norric tries to reason with her through the door, but she doesn’t respond. He picks the lock and Tronus forces the door.
Inside is a middle-aged woman, who scuttles back into the corner as Tronus enters. He eases her fears with gentle words and learns that she is named Maria. She screams when they take her into the other room, at the sight of the dead ghoul. She cradles its head in her lap. He was her husband Olaf. Dominique and Tronus attempt to console her. Maria says “That little monster killed him!”
“That little bandit bastard brat came in here with two of those things with him,” Maria says. “His eyes glowed and Olaf turned into one of those things. He turned on me and I hid in the room.”
Dominique asks when this happened, and Maria says this morning.
We escort Maria to the room where Lenore lies in state, save Dominique who remains upstairs in a meditative trance.
Orsun is there speaking with Astar, and speaks to Maria as we approach. He comforts her as she relates her tale. Suddenly she begins to scream and tries to run out of the room. She had caught sight of Thomas. She rants at him in anger as Maar tries to calm her down.
I tell Thomas it wasn’t his fault. He says he remembers draining the life from all of them, even his friends. He says, “It’s so full of hate and lust. It wanted to devour Lenore. He hated and loved her.”
I ask how the demon knew her. Thomas says, “When it was whispering to me, it said that this family hurt it and now it wanted to destroy them. But it was torn between devouring her and violating her. It whispered to me its darkest thoughts, its hatreds, its carnal lusts. It wanted to bring ruin to this place. We killed so many…so many…”
“It told me its what my father would have wanted. It had been waiting for a chance to come here, to make its way in. Now that we were together it was part of my family, that we belonged here. He let you go because you gave him the chance. That’s why he killed those things that were stalking you. He has no love for the Old One. He hates the others of his kind.”
Travius asks “Did it have a name?”
“It said its name was Thomas. It said that names are power – never give your name. That’s how the Abyssal Lords bind their servants to them. Where he comes from he is shunned and hated. He comes here to feast, but then when he came to Ringland, the pain he felt when the strobe first hit him, scarred him, and he desperately wanted to destroy it. For a generation, he waited for his chance. And then, we gave it to him. I remember we were in that room, in that city, after we had been taken by the Iron Ring. He came through that window and ripped apart Krista’s mother. Then he looked at me and said: ‘I’ve been waiting for you’ and we’d be the best of friends. And then he climbed inside of me and said we’d be stronger together. He’d keep me safe and bring my father and mother together, and we’d be a happy family – all four of us.”
“When we went to that world he was overwhelmed by the horror. He said a darker evil than even the Abyssal Lords was here, and we could not let it return. He worried that the Abyss could not contain such horrors. It looked at us and we looked at it – the Elder Eye, looked into us. The horror…”
“I could feel its power wash over us. We left that awful place and the whole time he grew more and more gleeful as we approached Ringland. The joy he felt when we entered! The strobe didn’t affect him because he was inside me. I was so joyous to be reunited with my family, but I knew it couldn’t last as he wanted to destroy this place. But he said he would keep my family together since we were his family too. Then he said we need to create allies. We murdered so many people. There’s so many we killed. And they rose. Sometimes he could not control them in time before they devoured others. Those horrible monsters. I turned Olaf into one of them. I’m so sorry, I couldn’t stop it.”
I put my arm around the boy in an attempt to comfort him. He breaks down in sobs. Krista comes over and embraces him.
Maar points out that the demon may have a grudge against Lenore’s whole house: House Rax.
Dominique finds us and informs us that she’s found three more ghouls on the main level. Looking out the window, we see them head into the house. Norric takes a pot-shot with his bow and hits one.
We head downstairs to meet the ghouls as they enter. I hit one with a Firebolt from the stairs as they lurk in the hallway.
Five ghouls enter, though we thought there were only three. We dispatch this horde in short order.
We split into two teams to search the rest of the manor. I accompany Thormyr and Travius, and in the servant’s quarters on the second floor, we find Hetman Trant hiding under a bed. He hugs Thormyr and thanks us, asking if we’ve won. Travius replies, “There’s no winning here.”
When Trant sees Lenore lying in state he exclaims “Oh no! What about our defenses?”
We head out into the town and meet up with Kael’s bandits. They ask after their leader. I reply that he fell in battle with a creature not of this world, the creature responsible for the undead. Kael’s man is suspicious of us but we reassure him. He informs us there is fighting at the smithy, and we head over there and quickly dispatch the ghouls.
We work to make the town secure and lend aid where we can. The night is a somber one, the town having lost nearly a third of its people, plus much of its leadership. Harmon returns and tells of ghouls in the countryside.
We spend the rest of the day digging graves. As the townsfolk are laid to rest, I sing a song of mourning.

Report Date

26 Feb 2022