Characters:
Kathy - Vochma
Micah - Cardhu
Mark - Corlis
Ben - Gerald
Liz - Quera
Joe - Moth
Josh - Bo
Author's note: Much time has passed once again. Details are fuzzy…
As the group recovered from the recent battle with the witches, a party of Shastan barbarians approach along the trade route. When they arrive, the party noticed they were acting strange. Corlis approached the caravan and realized they were the same group the party had encountered earlier. As he closed with the lead wagon, the driver turned to Corlis and said "Corlis, we have found you." And collapsed into a pile of decaying flesh and bone! The remainder of the drovers quickly followed suit. The party quickly searched the wagon and discovered a large number of the tribe tied up in the wagons. They told a tale of woe, claiming they were attacked by morakanth wearing the seven-pointed star around their neck. The morakanth slew many of the party, then enchanted the remains and placed the rest of the tribe in the backs of the wagons.
The party elected to take the tribesmen into Kernan, where they would hopefully be safe. When the party arrived in town, one of the barbarians did a tarot reading for them, revealing a powerful woman and a ruler who were lovers, and a devil were involved in the problem facing us. The key to the problem was surrounded by illusion and trickery, and that grave consequences and woe were involved in the problem's outcome. The party was not happy with this reading, but agreed that the ruler and woman involved were probably Sernelia and the Duke. There was a devil heavily involved as well. The reading referred to lost hopes, confusion and lost before the Wheel or Fate would come full circle. The interpretation was a tremendous victory at terrific loss, probably one or more party members. A great Wamphri was supposed to emerge from the tower when the conflict was done.
As the party prepared to go pay a visit to the Duke, the baboon-folk they met a while back entered town, and approached. They indicated a great evil was afoot, and they would attempt to keep it at bay. They then sent out SEVEN sentinels to surround the town (but not Serelia's tower) who set up a tremendous baying and howling.
The party then paid a visit to the Duke. He did not seem to be himself, and a quick test by Bo revealed that he reacted very strangely to holy water. We suspected that he was possessed by something. Harald the page was fearful, which has never been the case before (apparently the Duke had been "disciplining" him - poor lad). The party asked the Duke about Sernelia, and he staunchly denied her having any involvement in the evils afoot. The party left, then quickly returned to the keep when they heard the screams of Harald. Once again they confronted the Duke, who was outraged at the imposition - he went so far to accuse the party of treason. The party agreed, told the Duke that we did not believe he was in his right mind, and that Harald was coming with us, the Duke finally agreed, but came along as we went to visit Rayward.
When the Duke attempted to enter Rayward's shop, a warding he had in place was set off, and the Duke ran off and eventually entered Golga's lair. Shortly thereafter, a strange black thing reached out of Sernelia's tower and killed the baboon that was guarding the area nearest the tower. Rayward said evil was afoot and locked the place up tight. The moon was full and evil was afoot. Rayward agreed to cast an augury, so we asked the question:
We received the following in answer:
Greaaaat…
The next morning, as the sun rose, the party entered the halls of Golga, after paying a stop at Gilric's to invest in a large supply of garlic oil. As soon as we entered, we encountered the mouths and walls of flesh. It appears that Golga's corpse gathering has been put to use building fleshy walls. We advanced inward, and the entry way vanished behind us. Further, and a group of zombie things attacked the party. The narrow confines of the corridor allowed only one to fight at a time. Luckily Corlis was in front, and Bo revealed some amazing bow skills, shooting past five or six of the party to hit the zombies unerringly.
Next we spotted Sernelia ahead, and Vochma launched a quick lightning bolt at her. She fled, and we pursued, but apparently she vanished. We checked behind a couple of doors, and encountered a strange three armed and legged creature that we eventually dispatched (once again Corlis and Bo proved to be the creature's demise). However the creature bit and poisoned Corlis, who was forced to use his last magical ointment to cure himself.
Once again Sernelia popped up and enveloped the party in webs, then cast a strange disorienting spell. We freed ourselves and attempted to advance but found our way blocked in all directions by sealed doors and strange magic. Then, part of the party was struck by a lightning bolt from the mists, and several were wounded seriously. Strangely enough, Bo seemed to absorb the blast and suffer no harm.
We stand now in the center of a four way intersection, debating the way.
The party has (not including items distributed):
Main Site: HOME