Session 16: The Road of Kings Report

General Summary

October 30th, 1916 P.M.E., The Hissing Wood, Runeweald

Having vanquished their wormy opponent, the party seeks to explore the rest of the peculiar tower that looks upon the hissing wood. Ezekiel attempts to climb the structure, but to no avail. Instead, they search the basement. Sir Oran smashes the stuck wooden door that leads to the chamber below. Llobh lights his lantern and summons his Wastrilith as the party begins to travel down the narrow staircase. At the bottom of this cylindrical room there is a large writhing mass of worms. It takes no distinct shape. Worms drip from the crack of the floor above and contribute to the pile. Llobh produces his helm of brilliance and produces a large flame that ignites the pile of worms leaving nothing but a silver ring rested atop a pile of ashes. After inspecting the ring, Llobh hands it to Orimnok to identify the item. In the mean time, Polis and Khagmadog scrutinize the surrounding walls for any concealed or secret doors, there are none. Orimnok hands the ring back to Llobh saying it is a Ring of Free Action. The party exits the basement and asks Gelmir to climb the tower for them. He does so with relative ease and tosses a rope to the party below. Mores and Gotrek stay at the base of the tower, while the rest of the party ascends. Khagmadog loses his footing on the way up but manages to recover. Within the upper chamber is a collection of tattered furniture, destroyed by exposure to the elements. In the center of the room there is a large study with a tome resting upon a reading stand. Khagmadog approaches the book and notices that the book is bound in humanoid flesh. As he touches, Orimnok warns him that it emanates a great evil. Contact with the book flashes dark energy through his body injuring him to near death. Mores hears about this book from down below and bolts up the tower, immediately laying his hands upon to tome. Dark energy courses through Mores' body injuring him as well. Feeling discouraged by this evil book the party descends the tower. Sir Oran stays behind and puts the book into his bag. After exploring the remainder of the tower the party decides to continue heading eastward. They descend the precipice on which the tower was built and return to the hissing wood. A deep lamentation can be heard coming from the trees beyond. A flickering pale blue light breaches the space between the dense trees to the east. Moving forward toward the light and sound they see a host of about 500 ghostly Dwarves marching in unison while singing. The party follows. After the song ends one of the ghosts acknowledges the party saying that they are headed to Tiwaz Katalbuyk to spend the remainder of eternity. Mores and Sir Oran have some good banter, while Llobh and his wastrilith "Swirly" have a heart-to-heart that results in swirly being un-summoned. Eventually the host of Dwarves breaches the hissing wood and enters a clearing beneath the eastern mountains. The Dwarves keep marching and their ghostly forms dissipate as they approach the mountains. In the center of the clearing is a stone with inscribed dwarven runes. The party interprets this to be some kind of riddle and beckon the king to perform a ritual. He stands before the party, calling them fourth one-by-one, shaving a section of their beard (or stubble, ponytail, skin?, spit) with one of Ezekiel's axes, wrapping the hair around the stone, and smashing it with a hammer. With each successive stone smashed the runes begin to glow brighter. As the last stone is smote, an illusory image unveils itself revealing a stone stairwell that traverses the mountains to the east. There are hundreds of blank stone foundations along the stairs. About an hour into their journey, the first of these foundations is home to a large statue of a noble dwarven figure. 5 more statues are found until the party finds themselves at the base of a large tunnel hewn into the mountain itself. Goswin consults a scroll in her bag and remarks that this fits the description of where they will find Dracothrax. Alas the party has reach, Rest at Journey's End

Campaign

Runehammer

Protagonists