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 This
session lasted over ten days of game time from the autumn equinox. With fall
settling in, the kingdom of Olisford's lush plains and forests began changing
color. Leaves began falling from the trees, and the grasses began turning a deep
gold color. Autumn flowers bloomed, and the landscape was as perfect as a
painting.The session opened up with the party recovering in their inn rooms in the town of Ten-Penny. Idria had given birth to her son and the toll from the battle with Captain Ranaldo, a vampire who held a cursed watch tower within a nearby wood, had been heavy. Five days of rest and recovery were enough to see the party back up to full strength. (note the party had also just leveled to fourteen at this point) The druids who had sent the party on their mission to end the vampiric curse within their lands had to be notified that Ranaldo had been defeated. Thus, the party began with a day long hike into the forests where the druids were located. The druid glade was quiet as the sun shone brightly into it. The forest had shown signs of changing color and the dry leaves underfoot crunched with the passing footfalls. A large grizzly bear greeted the party within the glade, and it shifted into the shape of an older man. The druid took the news of the vampire's defeat, and as promised for their help, outlined the location of the witch of Olisford's swamp on their map. He also made mention that the witch was fond of the blue-bell flower, and asked that the party find a way to remove her from the area to stop the blight that she was spreading. The druid also mentioned that there was a nearby cairn field which grew blue-bells. The party, armed with this knowledge, headed from the glade to the cairn to collect the flowers in the hopes of making the witch a little happier. Not far out of the forest, the giggling sound of Dezma could be heard on the wind, and Idria used her black glass focus crystal to hone in on her shard-twin's location. She was only a couple miles away, and through her eyes Idria could see that she was creating poppets of some kind. The party wanted to finally confront this creature and so with Idria in the front clutching her baby, they went back into the forest. By the time they climbed a hill where Dezma had been, she had fled. A fire still crackled in a pit, and all of the poppets had been hung on the trees with the exception of the poppet that represented the baby. With her haunting voice still giggling and singing childhood rhymes over the wind, the party decided to call off the hunt and get back to the task at hand. They left the site and continued towards the cairns, arriving at dusk. With a thick mist creeping along the ground of the tall grass, the party set out collecting the flowers. It was there that they encountered the spirit of a crying woman who explained that the witch had cursed her to this limbo forty years ago. Asking if there was anything that they could do to help, she asked that they get the witch to release her spirit. The party camped near the cairns that night, unable to really sleep as noises were heard from the burial grounds as well as the baby waking up often crying. While cooking their evening meal, the party was approached by a female priestess of Lloth and her four Executioner companions (all drow). She claimed to pay homage to the child and gave Idria the choice of relinquishing her armor or the child to them. Idria and the party declined, hinting at violence if necessary. The priestess laughed and acknowledged their answer, saying that they would see each other soon. The five drow parted as night time settled in. The characters were all very grouchy when the dawn sun came up over the horizon. They broke camp and made their way back to Ten-Penny, planning on visiting the giant steading the next morning before moving into the swamps. Before they arrived at the city, they encountered a war party of elves decorated for battle. They were able to hide themselves quickly and went undetected, though the baby almost gave their position away yet again. After arriving at the town, the party was dismayed to learn that the elves had declared war for the destruction of their sacred tree. Human diplomats that had been sent to negotiate a peace were returned in a burlap sack. That is, their heads were returned. The mayor explained that the elves held the town responsible for they were harboring "a witch that had destroyed their tree and who it was said had given birth to an evil demon child during the crimson moon on the equinox". The mayor had refused to implicate anyone in the town of this as he did not know for sure the details and was not going to be quick to have someone sent to their death, but in return for this nobility the town would face the hardship of war without many soldiers to help. While sleeping that night within the inn (Idria had slipped Sardis some PCP seeds in his drink that night as his grumblings about hating her armor and her "demon-baby" were getting on her nerves), Idria was visited by Jerlaxa, a female drow assassin. The assassin claimed to be no friends of the underdark drow and wished to aid Idria, for she had heard that the deva had been forming an army. Her demands were simply that she be promoted to a ranking position within the army and be given command when Idria was not present. The deva thought on this and then agreed, and Jerlaxa accepted and disappeared out the window. Torn internally, Sardis decided that he had a way to make things right. In the morning as the party prepared for their journey to the giant's steading, Sardis broke away from his friends and instead headed for the elven forest. He was greeted with hostility by the elven warriors which were camped about. He explained he knew the chaos witch and where she was, and that the human town had nothing to do with them. He pleaded to the elves to let peace be an option. The female elven commander considered this for a moment and agreed to a term of truce. Provided Ten-Penny gave as tribute half of their food stores and two hundred male children. Aghast, Sardis agreed to relay these terms. The mayor of the town, having no other choice other than war with an enemy that vastly outnumbered them, agreed to these terms with tears running down his face. Sardis watched broken hearted as children were rounded up, both child and parent alike wailing in despair. They were marched alongside wagons laden with food stores to the elves, who decreed that there would be peace. But at what cost? For his part, Sardis was paid ten platinum coins, which he sent back to the town before heading in the direction of the giant steading to rejoin his friends. At the steading, Idria learned that her giants had been attacked by the elves as well. Only the frost giant and three hill giants remained with a handful of human slaves and a couple of giantesses. The party immediately revoked the slaves position, paying them wages and freeing them to work for a living and a fair wage. The giants were unsure of this, but agreed to follow what Idria commanded. The servants were given quarters within the steading, leaving behind their filthy shed that was out doors where they had currently resided. Idria was also handed a scroll which was from a matron mother of a drow within the underdark nearby. The scroll demanded either the return of the Spidersilk armor that she had stolen from them, or the rights to raise her drow baby. Idria decided to ponder on this for a while, but no decision was made. That evening, Jerlaxa informed Idria and the party what Sardis had been up to, causing the party some turmoil. Sardis returned the next morning, forlorn over the events. He refused to go into details of what had happened, only that it was terrible but a neccessity. Jeraxle laughed and said that Sardis would make a fine drow someday, and told a tale in which she claimed to have extracted a similar tribute of dwarf children from a dwarfen city in the underdark. A twinkle in her eye, she casually told how the children were marched off of a cliff to their death, and claimed that what Sardis had done was similar. The warlord would not go into details still, simply leaving the table in his sadness under the glare of his companions. The party headed to the swamp where the dreaded witch of Olisford dwelled. The swamp was particularly foul. Everything was dead for miles around. The trees were blackened spectres jutting from brownish-red brackish water. A foul smell permeated the area. The center of the swamp was where the witch was situated. She lived in a tiny shack whose wood was bleached gray, and it sat on stilts out of the water. A small stove pipe jutted from the wooden roof and smoke puffed out, indicating that she was home. The party knocked on the door which opened on its own accord. The interior of the house was gorgeous. It was also at least three times the size as the outside would have indicated. Where the outside wood was in disrepair and bleached grey, the inside held polished floors, fine furniture, paintings, and the smell of a mixture of cooking, age, and decay. A lute played itself in the corner of the room and the party was greeted by Ulayah. She appeared as any grandmother may. She greeted the party warmly and offered some cookies before sitting down to her dining table and having some dinner while the party sipped on tea. The only thing that seemed out of place for her was her sharp teeth, her pension for foul language, and an over zealous love of the pain and misery of the people of Ten-Penny. She also seemed to have an unhealthy appetite for small children. The party regaled the old woman with past tales, and Sardis half heartedly told her of his tale with the children of Ten-Penny and the elves. The witch was over delighted at this, asking for more detail after more detail of the anguish that the parents and children must have had. This being the first time the party heard this tale in its entirety resulted in a shocked silence afterward. Sardis, feeling morally conflicted at this point, excused himself from the table, while Kris shook his head. True, the town had been saved but it seemed like a steep price to pay. Sometimes there are times where even the toughest decisions don't pan out well regardless of the branch chosen. Surely this was one of the toughest decisions that Sardis had to make, both in leaving his party to accomplish this, and sending the message to the town in the first place (though it is to be noted that it was the mayor of Ten-Penny who ultimately agreed to these terms). The mention of the witch's husband who dwells within the floating palace brought the old woman into an almost-fit of rage. It was then that Idria diplomatically brought the conversation to finding the palace's next location as well as freeing the ghost woman in the cairns of her affliction. Ulaylah laughed at the thought of one of her cursed victims crying out for help, for truly this was an evil and bitter soul. She agreed to help the party, for they had truly entertained her with their tales, on the condition that they take her with them. The party debated over this for some time. None wanted this creature with them, but it was pointed out that this would be serving the druid's wishes and freeing the area of the blight that she was causing. They agreed. The witch, being cunning, noted Kris was a paladin, and as such would be bound by his word. She made him swear that they would indeed take her with them and that no harm would befall her. Kris grudgingly made this oath. The party agreed to meet her at the griffon-grounds, east of the town near the border of Erethas and Olisford in the mountains (where they had landed). Leaving the swamp and the old lady behind, the party headed back to the cairns, where they met with the spirit woman again. The witch had given them a small tincture containing a red liquid that she said would release the spirit, and sure enough the concoction did just that. Sighing, the spirit was released to the next world. For their efforts, the party was told by the ghost that they could claim an item in the tomb she was crying near. The tomb was dusty and dry and contained a sarcophagus. Opening it, they found a sturdy leather belt with grey stones inset into the leather. This belt of Giant Strength was claimed by Sardis and boosted his already-considerable brawn. It rained that night, and the party spent it within the dry confines of the tomb. The next morning, the sun shone brightly on the drenched ground and the party headed toward the giant steading one last time, where Idria said goodbye to her child (leaving him in the care of the giantesses and Jerlaxa. The party reached the griffon's grounds as the sun was going down and, exhausted, set camp. The witch claimed for her ritual to work she would need to be left alone, and hobbled to a nearby cave. Jerlaxa appeared and spent the evening with the party, taking possession of letters that Idria wrote her child and flirting with Sardis who was not pleased with the drow's advances towards him. The night spent high up in the hills was chilly, and the fire's warmth quite welcome. The next morning, the witch came out of the cave and said that they must make way to the nearest port city, which happened to be Landinium. She did not go into details, only that they would need to conscript a boat which would take them to their final destination, and that they only had a couple weeks before the palace appeared. The griffon flight back to Landinium was spent in silence and was quite tiring. Clinging to the back of the griffons for over twelve hours can be as such. The party landed atop the palace and spent the evening in their tower, which had not been occupied in quite some time as they had been away from home for many weeks. The next day was again sunny and cool. Sardis and Nefzen managed to find a ship's captain who knew the Isle of Heroes (as the witch had called it) and could take the party there for a fee of one hundred gold per passenger. He claimed the seas were rough this time of year and that the isle itself was not a safe place to travel to. (Many call the Isle of Heroes a myth or a fairy tale, but indeed it existed, colonized by the Ordarian empire over one thousand years ago, it's people, it was said, simply vanished without a trace for no apparent reason) While passage was being obtained, Kris and Idria went to visit the King of Landinium, who had been stricken ill when they were last here. The Queen had declared all mages to be arrested, for she claimed that the assault on her husband was a direct result of the wild magic that had been unleashed upon the world, and that the mage's were at fault and in league with fell powers. The mage's guild itself that Maddie had belonged to had been cleared out, and its members arrested and sent to the city dungeons. Even Olan, the guild master and member of the Circle of Nine, was shackled, and the queen set a death notice over him. Idria asked if they could inspect the king. The queen at first was outraged and denied the request, but Kris was able to convince her that maybe they would see something that her own physicians could not. They were unable to detect anything out of the ordinary, other than the king lay near comatose and in the grips of another heavy fever. Idria thought that some clues or a ritual of sorts could be found within the Mage's Guild. The queen agreed to this request, and sent Soroko's father with them to ensure nothing was taken from the place except for what was needed. The mage's guild had been boarded up and was quite dusty from non-use as well as dark. Searching, Idria found a manual discussing various medical techniques and found a ritual that would help pinpoint the source of an infection. It only needed the gall-bladder from a beholder, and wyvern's blood amongst other small mundane items, to work. Fortunately the apocathery in the city had the items on stock, and after paying a hefty price of five hundred gold for them (considering that the average field worker made a silver piece a week, five hundred gold represented a lifetime's wages for most people), Idria and Kris headed back to the palace. Kris performed the ritual, mixing the concoction within the gall bladder and first giving the blood to the king before supping the rest. A temporary connection was made between the king and to Kris, and the paladin was able to discern a small metal spider wrapped around Cyddrik's spinal column and with which it was injecting poison into the man's system over time. Removing the item was not possible. But neither Idria, nor Kris, nor the physicians in the room, were able to come up with a safe procedure to help the king. For their efforts though, the queen ordered them recompensed for the cost of the ritual and gave them an additional five hundred gold. Back at the tower, the party shared a final meal together and in conversation Idria asked the witch about the king's ailment, being sure not to mention the king himself was afflicted. Ulaylah, while knitting and humming a childhood tune, occassionally substituting gruesome lyrics in place of the true lyrics, recounted that there was a ritual she had heard about long ago that she had wanted to try, which involved magically manifesting a small construct into a host and slowly poisoning them with it. Removal of the item was nearly impossible, she said, chuckling to herself, but that the person who had performed the ritual would have a kind of control-rod which could be used to deactivate the item. The party had much to think about as they lay down for sleep that night. The far distant rumble of thunder over the ocean foretold a dangerous journey they would undertake on the morrow.. |
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