Session 5 December 5 2009 part I A journey and Discovery

Attending:
Tom, Sean, Kyle and Leigh

Party Update and Review

Arendis (air-eND-dis)– Elven Ranger

"Handsome" Luke- Half-Orc Fighter -

Nadarresh (Nah-Darr-resh) - Dragonborn Ranger -

History: The party, having defeated the source of the attacking wolves, made plans to finish some tasks of their own, some more personal than others.  Arendis wished to speak with his druidic friends and mentor. Dayereth sought out more information on the magicks and symbols he had discovered and Luke and Nadarresh had promised to bury the dead bodies of the caravan and put their souls to rest.  Also, a trip to the Shrine of We Jas to empty the souls that had been absorbed into the dagger and to and allow them some peace.

Luke and Nadarresh make their way to the remains of the caravan planning to put the bodies a proper burial.  Arendis travels to see the Druids while Dayereth and (Mike’s Character) head towards Brix.  All of them to meet in Brix once their respective tasks are done.  Tired but refreshed at having done some good for the region and knowing that the wolves, while not evil, will play no further part in the death of so many innocents.

The caravan is laden full of goods 15 full wagons although most are in chaos, with broken axels, battered seats and sides from the battle.  Despite the carnage of the pack animals, horses and other beasts of burden that pulled its cargo there is calmness over the area as if the evil veil has been lifted.  The bodies have a few scavengers near them but the recent colder weather has helped to delay the normal decay and stench associated with death.  The ground although not frozen is hard packed and cold, making digging graves a daunting tasks even for two, strong fighters.  Their wills, steeled by their beliefs makes the job a little easier putting these bodies to rest with a proper burial.

Nadarresh walks the area again after several days, pleased that they have completed so much work despite all the death that surrounds them.  Both warriors could be seen meticulously moving the bodies, handling them as if asleep rather than dead.  Despite debris and carnage, they identified personal effects, in the hopes of reuniting them with the owners families, if any even survived.  More than a month had passed when the caravan should have arrived and including time for being delayed, the caravan was well past due both home and to market.  Intimate personal effects abound are probably best left to comfort the spirits. Luke picks up stray coin purses and loose change equal to 50 marks (GP) and 12 shrines (Eladrin GP) 75 silver coins were also found scattered among the corpses. Additionally one purse has a cache of shiny elven coins 5 platinum forests, 30 golden trees, and 40 silver leaf coins. The Elf went down fighting; he had a bloody silvered short sword in his hand.

A deep guttural roooarrrrrrrr seems to rumble and shake the ground suddenly.  Luke is so shocked by the sudden outburst that he trips and falls on his face.   He scrambles to his feet and whips out his sword, looking around for the attack.  Realizing that the roar is Nadarresh's, he feels a bit foolish and puts his sword away.

"Are you okay?  Did you see something terrible?"  He walks to Nadarresh with a concerned look on his face.

A harsh look is on his face, one that Luke hasn’t seen before, twisted in obvious frustration, he says, "I really don't know where that came from!  I was just angry at how much death came from all of this.  What do we do with their things as well?!  Burying them is the right thing to do & no one would even think to help these people even if they had the means unless someone told them to do it!  We are helping them to move on into the next life and I will ask Bahamut to usher them to a peaceful rest.  I think too of their belongings as personal but what use is their money to them right now?!?!  I plan to ask my father's caravan group to seek out who they might belong.  If we can get some of these goods back to them or be sold and the proceeds passed onto their kin then I will rest well knowing that we have done even more good to the region.  I ask you though Luke...how many do we try to bury?  All?  Yes!  Do we try to describe these broken & torn bodies to every caravan merchant we meet?  How many before we stop looking?"  Nadarresh was quite agitated but in frustration now, not anger.

"I just wish to see them onward to whatever awaits them.  I know that we could use the coins that they carried to better supply ourselves and our companions and help to fend off the regions thugs and beings intent on harming these same people.  I wonder though is it theft if we take nothing personal of theirs and do our best to find the true owners?  No, it is not as long as we stay true to our hearts.  I am helping them as are you, so the coins we take serve the common good of the people that died here.  If it is marked we turn it over and pass on what personal effects we can perhaps to the goodly monks of the region, Heironeous’ clergy should be able to help.

"These people . . . it's bad, what happened here, but they're in a better place.  A lot of them, anyway."

Luke says "Telling someone what happened seems like a good idea, even though there's no way we could haul all this stuff.  If we go to Holderness next, maybe there's someone there we could tell?  The, um... owner of the caravan or whatever...")

As they continue talking and working, Luke spends some time looking for small, easily carried, valuable things to take with him.  He's not being a thief, but he figures that stuff will get stolen if it is just left out here, whereas they may be able to return some things to people's families by taking them now.  Ultimately, if he takes any valuable things and can't find anyone to whom they should be given back, Luke will donate them to the church.

Nadarresh takes his time with each person noting what they have on them, hoping to remember as many details as he can to better describe the people he has seen...

His mind settled by venting to Luke, Nadarresh looks at the goods and calls out to Luke, "15 wagons worth of trade goods!   Flour, iron, preserved fruits, cloth, dried fish, tar, charcoal, a few bricks of salt here as well.  Far too much to carry without draft animals pulling wagons, so we will need to get my father's group or another to come out here and recover the goods before brigands come to claim them."

"We can get supplies here, carrying what dried goods and provisions we can carry comfortably.  Get the others and then continue on together, apart if necessary, although with all the evil we have faced I think it best we stay together!"  He smiled then and continued working.

Later that afternoon, having just buried three more bodies and marking the graves, Nadarresh pauses to get some water and some dried fruit, leaning back low against a tree until he settles into a half lying position, his head ridges leaning against one of the larger roots.  He pours some of the preserved fruit into his mouth taking a third of its contents in one gulp, letting the flavor sink into his mind.

Among the scattered remains, Luke discovers a fallen Path messenger, marked by his white tunic with a tree and uncovers a mysterious letter and medallion.  Luke looking at the box and opening it, examining the contents, Nadarresh too far away to see anything except bits of metal as the sun shines off of it, shifts up into a sitting position.  Luke sees the box is quite sturdy and lined with a soft dark purple with a central square case, perfectly fit in the middle, surrounded on all sides by stacks, ten high, each, of platinum coins.  The central box holds a bright amulet, smooth on one side except for etched markings of six severed hands in a circle.  A dark, foreboding feeling fills him as his stomach twists into seemingly a million knots!  Forcing every fiber of his being, the box is slammed shut and Luke takes a long drink from his waterskin. 

Luke is curious about these things that the Path messenger was carrying.  He thinks, "Maybe I should see what these things are so I can make sure they get to whoever they were going to."  He decides to keep this to himself for now and continue his work here and now.  But then he reconsiders: "Maybe I'm just indulging my own curiosity by opening seals and locks to things that are none of my business.  I must make sure my idle desires don't make me pry into holy secrets that haven't been revealed to me."

Having difficulty deciding what to do, Luke determines to pray to Heironeous about it.  He puts the scroll tube, the box, and the key into his pack, and continues to work on burying the dead for now.  He will pray in the evening, when this work is done, and decide after that what to do.

Luke takes another long drink from his waterskin.

"Nadarresh, do you have any idea what six severed hands in a circle mean?"

Nadarresh just shrugs and shakes his head no, then grabs some more of the preserved fruits and heads over to Luke.  He looks at Luke trying to get an idea of what he's asking about.  Guessing it had something to do with what was in the box, he says, "Is there something bad in there?  (Leigh have I seen the six hands in a circle before while traveling with my father?)  I'm not sure if I have ever seen anything like that...skull and cross bones my brother drew once when he thought Pirates were interesting...but nothing with six hands let alone one..."

He sits next to Luke and hands him some of the preserved fruits.  As he sits down with two more jars, he spots Arendis walking towards them a way off.  He sets one of the jars down next to himself and Luke as Arendis joins them. 

After reading the letter it is revealed that the path was looking for him to enlist his aid not turn him over to Lord of shattered bridge whom has indeed placed a bounty on his head. The letter also hints that some lady from Luke's past still has great faith in him. In order to convince the rest of the party to aid him Luke then reveals his true name, that he is an exiled and honor bound Knight of the Order of Heironeous.  He has killed some men, who had done unspeakable things but were to be let go, due to lack of evidence.  They were guilty, knew that they were and flaunted the fact they would not be prosecuted.  Luke stood guard over them and in a rage killed them for the sake of justice.  Nadarresh supported what he did, softly saying, “Justice…” as Luke spoke.  The three better acquainted with Luke now, vowed to watch out for each other as they had been doing and make their way to Brix.

After a hard days work and discussion of the case and boxes’ contents Luke rests by the fire eating dried fish from one of the wagons as he slips off into slumber perhaps Heironeous will provide guidance in his dreams?

Dreaming peacefully: Luke is standing on a high hill overlooking valley with a white walled city. Alabaster towers rise though low lying mist and he finds his view flowing into a tower window high above the cloud obscured streets. An ageless woman wearing flowing gowns and the crown of an empress sits on a chair embroidering a pillow. She sticks her finger with the needle and a single drop of blood falls through the air and splashes on the floor. The drop soon becomes an ocean and Luke finds himself on a raft being tossed in a great deluge. The raft becomes lost in this endless ocean and after what seems an eternity of turmoil Luke is washed up on an island large enough for only one lone tree for shade. The ocean is utter calm and the scene is strangely silent. In the shade of the tree sits a box identical to the one found by Luke in the caravan.

Before he can approach the box he suddenly sits up wide awake to the smell of cooking bacon. It is mid morning and Nadarresh is cooking an enormous slab of bacon over the fire.  "Best not to waste it!" it is the only comment necessary.

They set off for Brix and halfway there they encounter some local Gnomes, a father and son being accosted for what seems like Pumpkins.  Four thieves have short swords and crossbows and before the group can even manage to get close the father is fatally attacked and his son does his best to fight them off.  Arendis manages to strike one of them but Nadarresh gets shot near his knee, slowing his progress to the attackers, luckily he has his bow and fires off some shots but with his leg, his shots miss wide of their respective marks.  Luke charges in then, attacking one but manages to get caught between a pair of them.

Normally in the thick of things, Nadarresh does his best but his skill with the bow is nothing compared to his ability with his swords and the thieves take little interest in him.  Luke does his best as well but is hard pressed to fight being attacked from two sides.  Arendis uses a new power he learned and summoned a forest spirit to help in the fight.  After some struggling the trio are able to defeat two bandits, capture one but the fourth escaped.

Inspecting the cart they find that it only contains pumpkins, no hidden gold or valuables.  The thieves are also poor farming types, with little more than the clothes on their backs.  It bears investigating and Nadarresh and Arendis trail the last thief but then decide to go back with the cart and the bodies into town as it is getting late and they need to get to Brix soon.

Brix is busy and has so many beggars begging for of all things food.  Nadarresh gives away much of his food that he collected from the caravan keeping enough for himself for the next two days.  A lesson in how the guards of the north gate operate is surprising as the guards confiscate the cart and then start selling the pumpkins to the people.

They travel to the different districts, finally finding the shrine of Heironeous where a single keeper takes care of the place, and who is elated at all the money we donate to him.  He tells us that Arageth can be found in the King’s Row section at the mission where they distribute food.  They decide to go there as soon as possible but seeing so many beggars and starving people, much different than when they were last here, Nadarresh goes into a weapons shop to both sell his axe and see the state of things.  A man is trying to sell his grandfathers old crossbow but the shopkeeper is reluctant to pay much for it.  In trying to sell the axe, the Dragonborn finds that he will have little if any luck.  He offers more gold to the man and after testing it, he sells it for 15 gold pieces.

They enter King’s Row to find much more activity here and while walking they see a bunch of kids huddled together pointing and laughing.   A stray dog wanders down the alley they are pointing at and is suddenly and violently grabbed by a tentacle from the sewer and dragged down in the blink of an eye.  Drawing on his experiences, Nadarresh realizes and tells them that the disgusting aberration is known as the lurker below.  The lurker below dwells in deep chasms and forgotten places scavenging almost anything for food. They have powerful tentacles to grasp prey and a huge maw. Their bite is filled with the filth fever disease; they have an unnatural cunning and are sometimes found in dark tunnels beneath ancient cities and ruins.

   Soon after they find Arageth feeding the poor in King's row.  The party learns that the medallion “The Amulet of Hextor” is a ransom for the safe return of a Cleric who had uncovered the rod of Heironeous but who had fallen into the hands of a band of thugs.  They now send one of his fingers each month with their demands.  The requested ransom was one thousand gold.  Arageth exaggerated to church officials to help him found a proper temple in Brix, so the church gave him a total of eighteen thousand gold, all in platinum.  The exchange is to take place at the Peak of Drakespire Mountain on the night of the full moon. The request is renewed after each quarter moon (week) with instructions scribed on a finger (which appears to be from Ragar, the missing priest.) Ragar has only 3 fingers left at this point and Arageth doubts they will proceed with toes...