August 27th, 2017

As Several Plot Lines Come Together, The Return to the Quarry

From my left:

Nick playing Merrick the 6^th level human fighter who is SO CLOSE TO LEVEL

Paige playing Keeva the 4^th level halfling infiltrator

Chris playing Deckard the 3^rd/6^th level human ex-fighter/thief

and the DM playing Ydee the 6^th level half-elf thief for the absent Catherine

No, really, that was it. On the plus side, XP heaven for those who were there!

The game resumed with the party, including their two unnaturally aged members, just outside of the passages under the quarry. Quickly making their way out of the quarry as the sun set, they moved as far away from the quarry as they could before camping for the night. Luckily the night and the following day passed relatively uneventfully and the party dispersed in town to each take care of their own needs. Desorna and LaVeya went to look for retirement communities to join that offered soft food and aqua-aerobics. Niall went to the church to put in some time. Mirin decided that she had some exploring to do, perhaps across the ridge. Ivan went to give lectures on how to make friends and influence people. Ydee had to see a man about a horse. And Flever went to the store to buy chicken feed and got lost.

Meanwhile, our remaining three intrepid adventurers and one chicken began planning for their next heroic action. With visits to the church (the shrine. Too small to be a real church, but anyway), Gander the dwarf who was waiting for word on new work crews, Deckard's underworld contact (where he just missed running into Ydee), and finally the trek out to see Glykras, the adventurers gathered some information that might be useful.

First and foremost they learned the actual names of what they had been facing: grave shadows, barrow wights, and the dreaded grave wraith. They also learned that sunlight was anathema to these creatures and if they could somehow expose them to bright sunlight it would make them easier to fight and destroy. They learned of the existence of items known as sunstones which could fill an area with light equal to daylight, but that were rare. Of course, Glykras had one with a few charges left that he was willing to rent or sell, for a rather high price. But, then again, how much would Desorna and LaVeya be willing to pay to have not been aged?

From the church they learned that there was a wandering bishop named Charles the Restorer that was supposed to be in town soon. The high priest said that Charles was so named for his magical item he carried: a rod of restoration. He also mentioned that the bishop was knowledgeable in the areas of undead and could be used as a resource for more information about the creatures under the quarry.

It was also learned that grave shadows were usually created by grave wraiths killing people by aging them, and that it was possible that there were more grave shadows now than there used to be because the dwarves who may have been killed inside might have added to the ranks. Also it was thought that only silver weapons could actually kill any of these creatures.. Otherwise, after a certain amount of time, they would reform to continue their hauntings.

The bishop hit town and when he learned of the infestation of undead he grew serious and asked for a meeting with the party and Gander. He offered his assistance since in his younger days he hunted undead and still knew how to best fight them. But there would be a price for his assistance. From Gander he negotiated a seriously reduced price for stone to expand the small shrine into an actual church, as befits a growing town. From the party he got an agreement to half the treasure gained from adventures with his assistance to help pay for the new church and associated costs. Without much argument these terms were agreed to.

During the time since the previous adventure Merrick had inexplicably permanently lost three hit points, as in his maximum was now 56 instead of 59. But, in a related note, the shield seemed to have finished its transformation into a legendary magical shield. Identification showed that it was a +1 shield that could do 1-4 points of electrical damage to those who hit Merrick when he was using the shield. It may or may not have had any other ability. Who can say? Mirin couldn't before she vanished on her wanderings.

Oh, it was also learned that Flever was a horrible absentee father to his chicken child. Someone needs to work on that.

After leaving word in town for their fellow adventurers who might want to catch up to them, the adventurers headed off to the hills after preparing themselves through the purchase of silver-tipped arrows and other powerful items both rented (the sunstone) and purchased (an amulet vs life draining) from Glykras. He thanks you for your support.

The trip out seemed to be progressing fairly uneventfully until early morning before the sunrise when Keeva, who was on watch, saw movement through the trees and began to hear loud thudding footsteps. She wakened Deckard who grabbed Merrick's helmet of vision and put it on so he could potentially see what was coming. After a bit it was possible for him to make out the form of a squat and sturdy (if eighteen foot tall) giant weaving through the trees; a giant with darn greenish skin which helped it blend with the foliage and which reminded Deckard of another such creature that the party had faced before. Waking up Merrick and Charles, he took out his bow and fired an arrow at the giant, distracting it from its task and bringing it to the battle.

There was some ranged attacks as the giant closed with the party which led to some hits. Deckard and Keeva spread out away from the front-line Merrick so they could pepper the giant with arrows. The under-armored Merrick gave as well as he got in the resulting melee, but it was through the assistance of Charles that Merrick stayed upright and in the fight. Finally, thanks to a Keeva backstab or two, the giant was felled and his corpse was cleared of any items of interest. It was discovered that the giant was carrying what could best be described as a guaranteed firestarter: a large piece of canvas saturated with oil or tar to make it easy to light and burn. The heat of the fire would also warm the tar to make it viscous and stick to whatever it was placed on or over. Since this firestarter was at least ten feet by ten feet when unrolled, and the giant's original path seemed to be directed at Treefold, there was a lot of concern over what was behind this.

The adventurers, now fully wakened as the sun peeped over the eastern mountains, continued on toward the quarry.

Reaching the quarry the heroes wasted little time before descending into the quarry and leading the bishop around the tunnel that they had discovered. All was quiet as they led him into the empty first room of the tomb. They had just started looking around when the blackened skeletal figure of a barrow wight removed itself from each of the near corners behind the party and moved to attack, limning themselves in the blue-white flames as they did so. Keeva and Deckard did their best to stay at range and use their new silver-tipped arrows and Merrick's obsidian blade helped him in the fight. Then the four grave shadows coalesced into being behind Keeva.

The battle became slightly more desperate as Keeva found herself in the totally not-wanted position of front line fighter. Luckily the party was able to hold their own against these foes, and the blinding flash of destruction that met one of the barrow wights from Charles' mace of disruption. Once the wights were down the shadows were much more easily defeated and the party stood victorious. For the moment.

But by then it was after 7 and Nick had to be home for his 8 o'clock bedtime. So we ended there as Nick and Paige departed.

Experience points for the party (i.e. Welcome to xp heaven):

Merrick - 3000

Keeva – 3000

Deckard - 3000

Ydee - 1500

Epilogue:

While those of the current Treefold party were frozen in time, Chris and I discussed the adventurers of the previous Treefold party, which led to the question “What has Lucius been doing?” Inquiring minds with free time and an hour or so available wanted to know, and thus...

From my left:

Chris playing Lucius the 7^th level human holy warrior of chaos

Lucius was a wanderer now that much of the party had settled down at Trinidon's stronghold. There was nothing wrong with that, but for one who served chaos there was always the desire to wander in search of the next challenge, the next test, and to overcome it if all possible. So Lucius did so.

In his wanderings he came across several oddities, including a row of nine wooden stakes, each about five feet tall and eight inches in diameter and spaced roughly five feet apart on a hillside. Each one had a decaying head of a hill giant mounted on its spike, and carved into each of the stakes was “Katrina was here.”

Lucius found himself drawn to the fortress that they had cleared long ago. He talked with Bishop Canver and looked around at where the workmen had cleared fields and planted crops and how they were now preparing the land for the village that would soon grow into a large town if all went well. But Lucius found himself often standing by the fortress wall at the top of the cliff and staring out to sea. It seemed something out there was calling to him... And where he was called, he would go.

Murdock had just arrived in town with his ship and had offloaded the cargo and passengers he had brought. He didn't have another cargo yet, so he was willing to go exploring across the waters of the bay with his old ally Lucius, seeing where the holy warrior was being called to. For several days they sailed across the waters and around islands until Lucius saw the place that he knew he was meant to find. It was a tall pinnacle of stone stretching toward the clouds above. There were shelves here and there on its sides broad enough to support thick growths of trees, brush, and vines. Murdock called this place the Skyspear and offered to anchor offshore and away from the shifting sandbars that could cause any ship to founder. He and some of his men would row Lucius in on one of the ship's boats and wait while Lucius explored.

Lucius began to explore and found a series of roughly cut and long eroded hand and footholds that would allow him to ascend to the lowest of the forested shelves roughly seventy feet overhead. Carefully he climbed and found his way into tunnels and chambers filled with ancient signs, words, and hints of past inhabitants and their lost civilizations. He found curiosities and puzzles that he couldn't pass, and some scrapes and crawls that he could. And, in the end, he found a place where he could look down into a crowd of alien eyes that looked back up at him. Then he knew he had found his next challenge, and now he needed to get a group together to face it properly...*

Experience points:

Lucius - 500

Footnotes:

* Since this was designed as a multi-session adventure written for the original party it is NOT something Lucius or anyone else should take on solo. Thus I have been vague on what was seen and found and such so as not to make the current/new party think that it is for them to follow. But if any are curious, you know Chris takes good notes...