Ruins of an Empire, Session 2: Macros & Scion

Meanwhile in Elkridge, the members of GoHAC gathered for breakfast in the large yet comfortable farmhouse kitchen and discussed the events of the previous evening. Jym and Mongo were the first to the table. Lethe came down sleepy-eyed and told them that Dawn would be sleeping in. Rael had not shown himself yet. Mongo complained about not getting a reward for saving the farmers from the warwing drakes. Jym was more concerned about collecting their fee from Marvos. They decided to go in search of payment as soon as they had finished their morning meals.

A pair of road weary travelers were just now coming into Elkridge. Scion, an elven woman and archer, and Macros, a tiefling man and paladin, were traveling together and looking forward to seeing the famous Last Harvest Festival in Elkridge they'd heard so much about. They were disappointed to see that the festival appeared to be canceled, since they could see no signs of decorations or revelers. In fact, the village seemed almost deserted and many of the houses were boarded up. Finally near the village center they saw figures gathered in discussion and approached.

Jym, Mongo, and Lethe had just started looking for Marvos when a stout looking farmer pulling a cart stopped in front of them and greeted them warmly. "I'm farmer Bumpkin, I own the biggest pumpkin farm on the edge of the village", he introduced himself, "and you folks saved my family yesterday. I'd like to offer you this here reward" and he gestured toward the goods in the cart. "My wife was up early this mornin' and baked this here pie for y'all", he explained as he handed over a massive steaming pumpkin pie to Jym. Next he pointed out a cask of pumpkin ale marked "Bumpkin's Private Reserve". "That's the good stuff right there". Also in the cart were five bottles of faerie berry wine, jewelry worth 50gp, and a small wooden box containing 25gp and 250sp.

Bumpkin continued, "This was all I could gather between me an' the other families y'all helped yesterday. The rest o' them ain't so generous see'ins how they've lost friends an' family to them damned drakes. I might'n be able to convince some o' them to contribute if'n y'all promise to go deal with the drake problem. They'll need some sort o' proof though. I'd keep my eyes open if'n you go out in the woods." Jym didn't promise anything, but the farmer thanked GoHAC for their time and help anyway and then left them with the cart.

At this time Macros and Scion approached the group and made their introductions. They asked what was going on in the village and Jym brought them up to date while sharing a piece of pumpkin pie. Marvos, the historian, finally made an entrance, looking red-eyed and disheveled having spent the entire night up examining and cataloging the first of the dragon bones recovered from the dig site. Despite his exhaustion he appeared to be full of barely contained excitement. His first order of business was to pay GoHAC for their services rendered the previous evening at the dig site. He produced a bag of coins and handed it over to Jym, "This is 500 gold, the money I would have spent on a month of wages for the farmers who were helping at the dig site. In the short time the necromancer held the site his undead minions managed to dig out most of the bones! So in retrospect they sort of did me a favor. Anyway, you earned this and if I don't spend it this season my budget would get reduced."

Marvos then asked the group if they'd be willing to do another job for him that could be quite dangerous, but also quite lucrative. Jym remarked that his group was currently down a couple members, however if Macros and Scion were willing to join them then GoHAC would be able to take the job. Macros and Scion signed up and then the group followed Marvos back to a large barn he was renting to learn about the job.

Inside the barn many labeled dragon bones lay in crates filled with straw. Benches and work desks lined the walls covered with books and papers. Near the back was a desk and a heavy looking metal chest. Marvos donned a pair of heavy leather gloves and apron before opening the chest and pulling out two chunks of glowing crystal. Scion could detect a strong aura of magic coming from the crystals, but could not pin-point its effect. Marvos began to demonstrate and lecture about the crystals. The smaller of the two chunks was drawn across the desk toward the larger piece, exhibiting a magnetic quality. Marvos explained that he had found these crystals buried along with the bones at the site. He hypothesized that these "dragon stones" or "chaos crystals" may have been shards of the power source that kept the citadel of Ustraternes afloat.

The stones are very rare and highly valued for the curious byproduct they make, raw residuum. However, they also cause chaotic mutations to anything left in contact with them for long periods of time. Marvos suspected that there were more pieces of this curious material all around Wyvern Mountain and wanted to collect as much of it as possible. He figured they'd be surrounded by dangerous mutated animals and plants, so needed capable adventurers to help recover them. To help with that task, Marvos felt he could construct a kind of lodestone or compass if given some time.

GoHAC negotiated terms, recovering the shards in return for significant compensation and possibly a single dragon tooth as a trophy, and then waited for Marvos to construct his compass. Marvos made a curious gyroscopic device with the smaller of the crystals suspended in the middle that would swivel and point in the direction of the closest detectable chaos shard. He also provided GoHAC with a loaner bag of holding to place any shards in, which would shield them from the compass so as to not interfere with the device. His own large chunk was carefully shielded as well.

The adventurers headed out into the wilderness, following their curious compass in the general direction of Wyvern Mountain. Scion steered the group around natural hazards that the direct path would have led them through. Eventually the party entered a wooded area that had signs of being a regularly used hunting ground. As they passed through, a pack of hyenas burst out of the underbrush and ambushed the party. Scion noticed a furry humanoid figure lurking in the trees and carrying a bow. After the hyenas had closed with the party the figure stepped out of the trees and fired its bow at Macros, driving an arrow almost completely through his shoulder. Scion used her knowledge of nature to identify the archer as a gnoll, an cunning creature with a passing resemblance to a cross between a hyena and a human.

Scion used her twin-strike ability to pepper the archer and his hyena pack with arrows. Mongo daringly charged into the hyena pack, slashing and vaulting over their fallen bodies. Lethe and Jym fought back to back. Macros charged the gnoll, striking him valiantly. The gnoll to dropped his bow and drew an axe then cut Macros, bloodying him. The hyenas were dispatched quickly and Mongo rushed to Macros's aid. When Mongo struck the gnoll it dropped its weapons and surrendered crying, "No, don't kill Snarl!"

Mongo and Macros intimidated "Snarl" until he answered their questions. Snarl told them that he had thought they were just "delicious soft pink villagers", but villagers rarely came out this far. When asked if he'd seen any strange plants or giant mutated animals, Snarl's ears perked up and he said, "Yes, yes! Giant ants and sickly dragon-bat things." He agreed to lead the party to where he last saw these things. Along the way they passed the fresh corpse of a warwing drake. This one was covered in blisters and pustules oozing a glistening substance. The corpse was curiously devoid of scavengers or feasting insects. Snarl told them they were getting close to the "dragon-bat" nest now.

At the base of the mountain they approached a steeply sided crater-like formation. A cave entrance pierced the side of the crater wall, the slope leading up to which was covered by small boulders and scree. Snarl pointed toward the cave entrance and said that the giant ants come from there and that the drakes nest inside the crater. The party decided to force Snarl to come with them into the caves as an extra fighter.

Inside was a bendy passage leading gently downward. The compass confirmed that another chaos stone was somewhere nearby. As they reached a bend in the passage, Lethe heard the sound of buzzing wings coming from the cave entrance behind the party. When he turned back to look he could see the forms of giant winged ants silhouetted in the opening and crawling workers ants behind them. Snarl called out in alarm from the front of the group as he spied a group of warrior and worker ants closing in on the group from the front. They were surrounded.

The party was outnumbered more than 3-to-1 as more ants came swarming into the passage. Snarl defended himself from the ants using bow and axe. Macros and Mongo surged to the front of the group, protecting Snarl and assaulting the tougher warrior ants. The warrior ants thrashed about in a frenzy, slashing and piercing them with sharp mandibles and pincers. The winged drones flitted about the battle field, stinging Jym, Lethe and Scion with their acidic stingers. The worker ants tried to surround their combatants and support the warriors and drones. Scion and Snarl focused their attacks on the workers, easily thinning their numbers. When the drones were heavily damaged they shredded their wings, flinging damaging debris in an area burst around them, but Jym shielded his companions from the worst of it.

When the battle ended, the passage was filled with the stiffening corpses of ants. Their bodies were dusted with a shimmering substance, possibly raw residuum. Mongo cut out the acidic stingers from the drones and put them in his sack along with his growing collection of strange animal parts.

Scions of Punjar, Session 5: The Mill on the Hill

When last we looked in on Chiana, Corvus, Aletha and Regnor, they had just finished searching the abandoned iron mines outside of Punjar. After defeating Haledon and his Crimson Hand band of ruffians they discovered various contracts, notes, and journal entries tying the bandits to a mysterious woman calling herself "Cadavra". Cadavra had been paying these bandits to exhume bodies and deliver them to her at an old windmill on a hill overlooking Punjar. It was Latimer who, against the stipulations of the contract, had sold some of the grave-robbing loot inside the city limits, tipping off the Dev'shirs that their family crypt had been pillaged.

After Jym and Mongo had left in search of Mongo's brother, the remaining four companions decided to see this mystery through to its end. After some light shopping to replenish their supplies the group gathered information about the windmill. Certain locals of Punjar spun stories of the place, of how it was supposedly haunted by the old miller's ghost who murdered his entire family before committing suicide by throwing himself under the mill stone. In particular, a young looking rogue described how he and a girlfriend had gone up there in months past to prey on the "old witch" who supposedly had moved in there. They never made it past the rotting fields surrounding the dilapidated structure, as the young man claimed the scarecrows placed throughout the fields came to life and began to attack. The young man ran and made it back to Punjar safely, but he never saw his girlfriend again. He hadn't gone back to look for her.

These stories did not perturb our heroes. They bravely went in search of the witch they suspected was Cadavra. Outside of Punjar they came across the split in the road that would take them up a hill to the windmill in the distance. A murder of crows fought and croaked over a corpse at the side of the road. After the crows were shooed away the corpse was revealed to be that of Latimer's, frozen in a pose of mortal terror. The Coruvs said a quick word of peace for the unfortunate dead rogue and then the party continued up the road toward the windmill.

Surrounding the windmill were fields of grain, rotting and going to seed, hemmed in by an aging wooden fence. Moldy bales of hay dotted the fields, interspersed with ragged scarecrows. Each scarecrow had an asymmetrically lumpy pumpkin for a head carved to look like a scowling face and held a long rusty scythe in one out-stretched hand. The party moved cautiously across the field, staying on a narrow, muddy path. As they passed between a trio of scarecrows, the creatures shuddered to life and began creakily advancing toward the party. Their pumpkin heads were lit from the inside by a ghostly green glow, and their gaze had a weakening fear effect on anyone who held it for too long.

Chiana searched her knowledge of the arcane and decided that these creatures must be a type of homonculi, a magical construct that is employed in warding specific areas or items. Aletha guessed that they might be vulnerable to flame, seeing as how they were obviously constructed of cloth, wood, and hay, so blasted one with her witchfire. She guessed right and witnessed it ignite readily and burn. She moved freely about the difficult terrain of the fields using her many teleportation abilities to stay away from the reaching scythes of the scarecrows as they closed in around them. The other party members had a more difficult time staying out of reach and moving about due to the mud, weeds, and snarls of undergrowth covering the ground. Regnor kept one of the scarecrows busy while Corvus, Chiana, and Aletha fended off the other two. Once the homonculi were destroyed and all wounds were tended they continued on toward the windmill.

As they approached the windmill, Regnor caught sight of movement at the top of the tower. A white haired woman looked down from a small window and when Regnor looked up she launched a bolt of eldritch energy at him before cackling and disappearing from view. Regnor was singed, but not seriously hurt. Aletha recognized the bolt as the work of a warlock, but of which type she could not tell. Rather than enter the windmill via the front door, the group searched the exterior of the building for another way in and found an old grain chute around back. Chiana detected a glyph of fire warding the doors, so disarmed it before opening them. A dirty metal slide disappeared into darkness beyond them. Before heading down the chute, Chiana performed a ritual of Corpse Light to provide light and to warn of any unseen undead.

Regnor was the first one down the slide. He landed on a pile of old and moldy grain that puffed up in clouds and made him cough. He swung his axe about in the darkness only to have it come back covered in cob-webs. Chiana was next down the slide, carrying the green flickering light source. She illuminated the basement which held at its center a massive grind stone with the main wooden shaft disappearing into the ceiling above. The mechanism was currently not operating. Stairs led up to the main floor along with an ancient looking grain lift. The corpse light Chiana carried surrounded ghostly figures locked in combat on the other side of the stone. Chiana and Regnor watched in amazement as the spirits of the old miller and his family played out the last few moments of their lives. Aletha used her fey-step ability to teleport safely down into the basement, while Corvus was not so graceful and ended up tumbling down the slide and landing in a pile at their feet.

Whether it was Corvus's clumsy entrance or something else that caused it, the spirits seemed to notice the party for the first time and turned their murderous gaze on them. The miller and his wife became dark shadows, Corvus identified as wraiths, and phased through the mill-stone to reach out at the party with numbing cold and shadowy hands. Corvus was assaulted by the miller's wife and was drained of much of his life force before he could crawl away and gain his feet. When he did, he retaliated with a rebuking blast of radiant power, but the wraiths' rage must have protected them from its effects. Regnor faced off with the miller's spirit, but his axe did minimal damage to the insubstantial wraith. Chiana and Aletha moved cautiously away from the fight and tried to engage them from range.

Just then a forked bolt of lighting shot out from the wall of a heretofore unremarkable closeted space on the other side of the room. The bolts struck Regnor, Aletha and Corvus. Corvus was knocked unconscious by the shock and lay still on the ground. Chiana spotted the place where the magical bolt came from and noticed small peek holes cut into the wood made to look like simple knot-holes. She approached the door to the closet and found it locked by arcane power. Another cackling laugh came from the other side of the door as a barrage of magic missiles shot out from the peek-holes and struck Regnor. Regnor and Aletha focused on defeating the wraiths while Chiana worked at disabling the arcane lock on the closet. As the wraiths were defeated and the lock was broken, Chiana heard the unmistakable sound of yet another door closing.

Inside was a small room with no obvious exits. After reviving Corvus and resting up, the party searched the small closet, but still could not locate Cadavra's escape route. Chiana was forced to perform a ritual to help them detect the secret door. Once the ritual was complete the outline of a well concealed door in the stone wall became visible. Once detected it was easy enough to open.

The door led to a natural stone passage that winded its way deep underground. The passage opened up onto a large natural cavern with a cold stream running across the middle. Two lesser passages exited the cavern, one on each side of the stream. Chiana's corpse light gave the faint outline of six bodies just under the surface of the water as she approached the stream's edge. Without hesitation Corvus once more called on the Raven Queen to rebuke the undead, this time his radiant blast threw the bodies of four of the creatures out of the stream and onto the other side. The remaining two corpses stood knee deep in the stream and hurled foul necrotic flesh from their own bodies at the party. Corvus was weakened and driven back by the foul stench.

Cadavra showed herself yet again in the far passage. This time she let loose with a massive fireball, blasting and burning all of the party members. Regnor shook off the flames and then leaped the stream in a single bound, landing amidst the zombies and Cadavra on the other side. He slashed at her viciously. She screamed in pain before summoning a dimension door and disappearing inside it. Regnor was left to take out his anger on the zombies shambling to their feet.

Together they mopped up the rest of the undead in the cavern before proceeding down the passage they suspected Cadavra must have gone. The passage doubled back on itself and came to another large chamber with most likely the same stream further on running through it. In the center stood a massive black cauldron with a foul green mist bubbling up from it. Surrounding it was a ring of animated corpses in various stages of decay. Beyond the cauldron guardians they could just make out the form of Cadavra, smiling evilly to herself and beckoning them further into her den.