Session 17- Tempting Fate With Reincarnation
Day 38 11pm. The figure emerges from the cage behind Cirilli, a little dazed. Gathering himself, he drops the hood of his cloak to reveal himself to be a huge half orc named Gruumsh, a thief. A quick search of the room revealed some large chests, mostly empty save a few coins and Gruumsh’ equipment. Rearming himself he tells the party that he had traveled to Orlane and discovered the strangeness of the town, and the strange Naga statue beneath the Golden Grain. Just when he was figuring out that a Naga had a grip on this town, he was set upon by cultists, knocked out and locked up in the temple. He had yet to be brought to the Naga, and Cirilli confirms that the chests normally contain the treasure of the people taken over by the cult, but the cult has very recently brought all the treasure and prisoners off to the Naga’s dungeon. The new adventurer is welcome to the party, they quickly bring him up to speed on the combats and the likely mob that was coming up the stairs of the temple looking for intruders. The party, feeling very despondent over the loss of Thantas, lament over anything that could be done. They realize there may be a slim chance to retain a piece of Thantas body and attempt some type of magical reincarnation or resurrection. Looking out the front window of the temple the party spies a mob of cultists pouring into the temple entrance, and elect to rush to the back of the building and make their egress out the back window, closer to where their rope over the outer wall was left. They make it to the back room where they left Misha Devi, who is surprisingly still asleep. They bar the doors as best they can and attempt to set ropes and break the glass to climb out the window. Mandigor decides to try to take Misha with them as a bargaining chip/prisoner, but as the party was trying to scurry down the rope, the cultists broke into the window, and he instead just hurled her out the window, almost killing her. Upon getting on the ground in the back of the temple, the guard and remaining wolf immediately spot the party and begin calling out. A barrage of arrows took out the wolf, and the feeble guard was reluctant to engage, but continued to yell. The party was able to escape over the wall, but had to leave Misha behind, if she was even still alive. Upon breaking for the woods and meeting back up with Mandy and Mondy, the pair reported weeing a group of 3 people walking with a prisoner with a rope tied around their hands. They noted the location of the strangers trail, but decided not to investigate. Instead they decided to return to Ramne the hermit. They get to the trail that leads to Ramne and decide to camp due to exhaustion. They rest from midnight of Day 39 until 9am, then travel and reach Ramne around 2pm. Being the most arcane knowledgeable person the party knew, they hoped he had some answer to their Thantas problem. He is noticeably saddened by the story of Thantas death, and searches through his arcane scrolls and gives Draden a scroll of Reincarnation, saying he can no longer cast it, but perhaps Draden could. The party elects to tempt fate and see what kind of reincarnation Thantas will return as- after working the magic of the spell, Draden managed to return Thantas as an Elven Assassin! Thantas, keeping his thoughts and personality, but now having the knowledge of a new profession in a new elf body. They decide to rest the rest of the day, allow Thantas to recover from the reincarnation and assess all their clues and options. They realize that now that they have met Cirilli, who has been to the Naga’s dungeon, and Ramne’s weasel Whiskers now has her scent, the party can use the weasel to track to the Naga’s lair, which they earlier discovered to be somewhere in the Rushmoors. They also have the strangers trail that Mandy and Mondy saw while the party was in the temple. That trail led into the Dim Forest, and they do remember the prior clues that said the kidnapper Lareth, aka The Master, had his lair in the Dim Forest. Seeing how the cult is probably now hyper aware of any more assaults on the town or the temple, the party decides that returning there is probably not productive, and that ending the curse of the Naga will likely take them on a wilderness adventure to find the Naga and possibly Lareth’s lair. End session day 40 morning.
Session 18- Trek to the Naga’s Lair, Perhaps?
Day 40 morning. The party decides to depart Ramne’s Glade, using Whiskers the Weasel to track them from Orlane to the Naga’s lair. They make arrangements with Ramne and his forest animal friends to get a message back to Gregory, Malden’s squire, and the rest of the hirelings. He sends a forest creature to Cedar Crossing with a note from the party to meet them in the outskirts of Orlane, Ramen will keep an eye out for them and secret them to his knoll until the party returns. They take a wide berth of the town and pick the trail out of town back at their rendezvous point from the temple assault. They figure it will be a day's travel to the Dim Forest, then probably three days travel through to the Rushmoors. From there it could be a few more days into the swamp until the weasel tracks the lair. The first day of travel is rather uneventful. The party avoids Orlane and any patrols of cultists, later on they find some reptilian tracks that cross the main road, following a gully depression across the road but then turning almost parallel to the road. Unsure, but after inspecting the tracks, it is likely they are Troglodyte tracks; they decide to continue on the road. Later that evening, during Draden’s watch, he observes a flying projectile hurtling through the sky, flames trailing behind. It crashes many miles into the Dim Forest. He notes the location. Day 41- After discussing the meteor-like object from the night before, the party sets out, traveling into the Dim Forest proper, after several hours of traveling through more and more densely grown forest. At midday the trail widens and the scrub from the forest thins, the party is traveling through this wide pathless tract when they discover a cave perched atop a small round hill formed of cobbles, boulders, and loam. They spy a few larger bleached white femur bones of possible men or other humanoids outside the cave. They approach, wondering what could be inside, quietly they listen, and hear bear-like growling from inside. Thinking the wiser of possibly disturbing a bear and her cubs, they creep back down the hillside and follow along until the road forms back more solidly. Later that day, moving cautiously along a densely wooded and muddy ridgeline, a few members of the party at the front of the line trigger a trap that sends them hurtling down the hillside through a muddy track into a heap, fortunately they take no injuries. At the base of the mudslide, the party gathers with those who did not fall, and they discover yet another of the hiding shacks that the kidnappers are obviously using to traffic people. Thinking it empty and deciding to destroy the shack, they immediately realize it is locked and there is a very real person inside the shack, shaking it and yelling. Smashing the lock and freeing the prisoner they find it to be Draden’s old companion Rev. Ramsey. They had met initially when the party first arrived in Orlane, then Rev. Ramsey intended to head back east to the Wild Coast, to try to form a party to fight the kidnappers. He tells the party he did not make it very far outside of Orlane before being kidnapped by a group of humans, one of which was wearing a spiderweb detailed suit of chainmail. It must be this Master, this Lareth, they had already heard that the Master had his main lair in the Dim Forest. Rev. Ramsey said he was left here by the 3 kidnappers to be gotten later. They had a second kidnapee who was more cooperative that they kept moving along. He gathered that Lareth’s lair was one day away, but that would not take them in the direction of the Naga’s lair, Whiskers confirms. The party has a decision- follow the trail to Lareth, or continue on to the Naga’s lair. Figuring it only 1 day away, they decide to investigate Lareth’s lair now, and hopefully only shortly postpone the trip to the Rushmoors. They equip Rev. Ramsey as best as they could, giving him the magic chainmail from Abramo, a shield, and a club. They make camp and set up guards for the night. It goes uneventfully. Day 42. Another day of travel. At one point along the road they spot a large rock off to the side. Investigating, they encounter a huge boulder 25 feet diameter, bound to the ground by several heavy chains crossing over the top of the boulder and bolted into the exposed bedrock around the boulder. No markings are located on the boulder chain, or area. The party is unsure if the boulder itself is the thing being chained to the ground, or if the boulder covers a hole or portal in the ground and acts as some type of cover. A little disturbed, the party moves on. They travel the rest of the day into denser and denser forest, the Dim Forest letting very little light penetrate to the forest floor. At dusk the party comes across a clearing in the forest containing a small outcropping upon which is the remnants of a ruined round tower. After careful investigation of the hillside and the tower ruins, Gruumsh the thief leads the party up the hillside and descends the stairs leading down inside the tower ruins. Even being sneaky and having invisibility cast on him, his footsteps are still picked up by a green slime hanging on the wall above the bottom of the stairwell, it lands right on top of Gruumsh. He calls out and begins removing his armor. The party assists him in scraping and burning off the slime, and though singed and armorless, Gruumsh survives the encounter. The party regroups outside the stairwell entrance, ready to descend again, or possibly get rest and try again in the light. End session 8pm Day 42.
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