Author: Follow Me, And Die!

SESSION 193 Tuesday, March 6, 2018

We meet back at the safe house and Aldus, Mortimer, and Cvelnid have packed up and are taking Em to the small dwarven khel up river. It is not an ancient Khel. They want to keep Em safe.

Rallion waits until the others are away and sets his magic aside and ties a rope to the shard and shuts the rope inside the shard with it.

On his way back to join the party, the still invisible Nash has Serithaz influence the minds of all he passes to believe in Lysander and wake up shouting about Lysander. As this is midnight or so, we are not around to hear the result.

Nash arrives at the safe house and tells Em to pray to Lysander, the woman of his vision. He takes off Serithaz before speaking about this.

We find wating for us a warrant signed by Cuddy Hawke authorizing us to take a barge downriver with a contingent of guards.

We pass by the haberdasher on the way to the barge, and we find some thugs beating up – Benedict, a prior associate of Bavmorda’s new henchman, Estill. Estill hides in shadows evading him. The thugs, lead by Asa, claim he had a 50 gp reward on his head for burning the refugee camp and letting a bunch of Midmark refugees into Feldmark.

Rallion drafts the lot, including Benedict. Nash learns that Estill thinks very poorly of Benedict, but they come to an agreement to dump him in the river on the way to Landing.

Nash has Serithaz program the Haberdasher to go with us to finish the training of Bavmorda and Laris.

We stop by the ship and borrow the iron chest of the captain to put all our magic in so we can more safely take out the shard. We make the thugs carry it.

We get to the appointed dock, take charge of a barge and the two guards near it and head down river.

We go downstream and after 30 minutes, we meet up with survivors fleeing Landing, and learn that the infected are on the other bank perhaps 50 of them. 30 minutes later we see movement on the bank and they are the infected, many more than 50 but less than 100. They step to the shallows and one tries to get to us and is swept downstream. The rest stand watching and waiting. Laris bangs his grappling hook on the side of the barge to attact more of the infected.

Bav and Laris take turns trying to hook an infected and finally get one, and cross to the the other bank and tangle it in a fishing net we took (Rallion left 10 gp with the captain for the poor fisherman), and restrain it and Lambertus casts cure disease on it, and it quits moving. Bavmorda spinkles a bit of her cure disease potion on it and it rapidly turns the fungal growths black, much faster than the cure disease was doing. We bring the body along on our journey downriver to make sure it is truly deadly. Before restraining it, Rallion stowed his magic items and tried the shard, and it did not work. We really need to deal with this disease, in case magic is destroyed. All clerics need to go seeking the infected and cure them before we complete our mission…..

We reach landing at dawn and it is a scene of the chaos of battle. We go to the guard ship that we met going to Feldmark, and hear men calling for help. We board the ship and “kill” a severly infected cleric of Lysander. We use cargo nets for the cannons to tie it to the deck and rescue the trapped crew. Nash gives the commander his cure disease potion, and cures his wounds. Two other crew were scratched and Bavmorda sprinkles a few drops of the cure disease potions on the bite marks and it looks better.

We have learned that those killed and infected rise quickly. Those made ill take longer to die and turn. It appears that the combination of cure disease and the cure disease potion work. Perhaps two cure diseases per victim will have the same results. This makes the corraling and controlling of the afflicted who are undead the most crucial to control.

While questioning the commander and working out what to do, we are rammed by the undead whale. We get to the side of the ship that was pushed out of the way, and Rallion used his sword in its scabbard to slide down the rope tied to the barge and the lead guard cut the rope. The whale broke past the ship, and Rallion has just enough time to stow his magical gear, while Oskar prepare to open the chest with the shard….

{We roll for initiative next week….}

SESSION 192 February 28, 2018

River of the Damned/Dammed

7:00 PM 21st Senrilden

Dwarven Apocalypse Clock: 000.00.01.24

(1 month and 24 days until the dwarven space armada arrives. That’s 7 weeks and 3 days. Remember to subtract 1 week for training, 1 week to get to Lonely Isle, and 2 weeks to modify the ship – AFTER we get control of it, leaving 3 weeks and 3 days of wiggle room….)

While still in the Council Chambers of Feldmark, we learn that the inquisitor who replaced Greta had no direct support from the Dragon Empire. The heavy hitting dervishes, we took out when we interrupted the assassination. All that are left are the low level operatives any decent sized polity would have.

WOW – The Dragon Emperor sent in a strike force of dervishes to get control of the orbital defences. They failed in that regard, but they brought back a piece of Prixithalma to the mainland, and since they have plenty of dragons to get dragon blood, they raised her. Serithaz doesn’t think that we can raise Prix if she is alive elsewhere. It would waste our supply (one shot) to try.

Upon learning this news, Nash was inspired, and asked Serithaz if we could sacrifice DVLs instead. Serithaz didn’t see a reason it wouldn’t work, as the ritual only specified dragon blood. Serithaz pointed out we know where a dragon is…. (Lonely Isle – Lysander).

Not having a dragon ally to raise, our plans changed.

The council likes out idea and have identified all the clerics and druids in the area that can cast cure disease. They will send a task force to kill any infected, and cover the mouths of the task force when they burn them. The job of the clerics and druids is to keep the task force healthy. (This means certain death to all the refugees.)

First we want to get to Greta’s house and find any goodies and communication devices/transportation devices (mirrors), other magic, and possible gold & gems. The council gives us permission and sends word.

We arrive and the city watch has just gotten there to surround the place.

We wait for them to do so, then Nash tries to kick in the front door and fails. Rallion easily kicks it open. We go upstairs first. We put the fear of traps and magical death into the guard officer, so they stay outside to maintain the perimeter.

We go upstairs and Nash “hears” someone (with his Psionic clairaudience ability) and we go towards that door. This time Rallion can’t force the door, but Nash runs into Rallion and gets it open.

Inside is an old man burning papers. He stops, not sure what to do. Nash commands him to stop. Rallion stepped forward and put his sword to his throat and told him to ‘Kneel’. The old man complied.

We learned he is the butler of Greta, and was totally fooled by the Inquisitor, and thinks we are agents of a coup by Cuddy.

Nash knocks out the old man. Serithaz confirmed that the old man worked for Greta and had no idea. The papers are all about the boring machinations (what Serithaz thought of them.) of the rope makers guild, in a city where the various guilds mostly got along.

There is a magical mirror that has what appear to be spider web like cracks. Nash puts his hand in and feels wet and resistance. Serithaz questions the copy of the inquisitor, and the other mirror was on the airship that is now at the bottom of the port at Midmark. We ask Kalgun and he thinks a mending might work to fix the other mirror if cast through this mirror. We eye that as a potential escape route. (If we can recover it without flooding someplace.

Nash is nearly petrified by a magical trap on the door to Greta’s private quarters, as he had taken off the skull cap and not asked Serithaz to question the copied inquisitor. Inside we find the chest with a false bottom, that we previously learned of via Serithaz. The false bottom has 500 gp in Midmark coin, and 15 standard 1,000 gp gems. We pocket that, and put everthing else back, even the gold necklace of office as guildmaster of the ropemaker’s guild.

We turn over the house to the guard, giving them the all clear.

We go to the Evenkeel temple and Lambertus, AKA ‘Sam’, the vault inspector, cons a young acolyte, in combination with a charm person spell from Laris, to show us the tombs and vaults.

After conning him out of the vault key, we learn that there are 10 scrolls with some cool spells, even resurrection! More importantly, there are three chests, each with a DVL/magical trap. Only the key of the Patriarch (who is actually the Matriarch) will open them safely. Laris and Bavmorda make an impression of the vault key.

We leave and Bavmorda’s new henchman puts a sleeper hold on the lad, and Nash has Serithaz erase our visit from his memory. Rallion grimly shakes his head….

The rest of us sneak out, those with elven or dark elven cloaks don them first, after Kauri casts invisibility on Nash, who sneaks in and uses Serithaz to zero in on the “Patriarch”. Scanning the mind of the Patriarch Nash learns what the key looks like so he can draw it out. The Patriarch is in a meeting with other clerics making plans to go with the city task force tomorrow at noon.

Rallion keeps pointing out that he thinks we should head down river and at least take care of the whale. He is willing to go forward with the shard to see if it works on the diseased undead. We know it will work on the whale, since we turned it. We can also see if cure disease works or not, but it should based on the experience of Thorfus and Axel after returning from the pathology lab under Xen Khel.

Our other option is to take the sub to where the Hull and Sheaf fleet is and commandeer one of them, if we can’t quickly save the city for Bavmorda and Laris to complete their training….

SESSION 190 – February 14, 2018

Prior to going to share our message with the council, we move to the square to have a noisy place to discuss our plan. In the square is the normal hustle and bustle of such large groupings of people. The Fishwicke people are there flagellating themselves.

Suddenly a pregnant woman does a waddling run into the middle of the square screaming about death, fishes, and other strangeness. This intrigues the Fishwicke people, while a group of assassins (Imperial Dervishes) shadow step to go after the people the woman was with. [We later learned the woman was Em, and the people were those who fled Midmark in Thorfu’s submarine.]

The assassin’s only hit one of their intended victims, the Matriarch of Merendur’s temple in Midmark, Alesta Dracul, and she only fell because of their poisoned blades. Strangely, the other’s missed.

Lambertus recognized these people, and Rallion had seen some of them before on his trips into Midmark before being sent on his mission. The party springs into action.

We shield Em from her attackers, as she was also on the assassin’s list. We quickly brought down the weaker killers. One managed to hit Laris, and he also fell due to the effects of poison.

Oskar rushed forward with the chest and opened it, removing the magic from all the assassins, as well as those we hoped to aid. Including removing the spells from the aged elf, Aldus Runnelbrook, who could only look at Oskar wondering what just happened.

The assassins were unable to hit any of their other targets. Their targets fought back, and with our aid we quickly subdued them. One exploded, but we got everyone clear before that happened. Two of the shadow steppers were left alive, which Rallion later regretted, as we had no opportunity to question them. Rallion later urged their eyes be put out to prevent their escape. Lambertus cast slow poison on Laris, and Nash cast it on Alesta to buy time to save their lives with remove poison.

Baswick the Midmark Harbormaster revealed as an agent of Feldmark, interceded when Nash didn’t want them touching Em. We ended up in the same room under guard with the party from Midmark and we revealed some of what we know.

While she was still unconsious, Nash had Serithaz insert into Alesta Dracul’s memory that he and Bavmorda were who she was to meet to deliver the sub. After she awoke, she was sticking to that story. Rallion continues to rub the bridge of his nose, at all this. During the fight, while Em was safe with Nash, Nash told Serithaz to fix Em. Em now is in her right mind, and understands where she is.

A priestess from the local temple of Baldrick Evenkeel cast slow poison.

We make a plan with the Midmark group and they make a poor argument that does nothing, and we deliver a message about not burning the disease victims to prevent spreading the contagion via the ash. We don’t trust councillor Grete Kygh of the Ropemaker’s Guild, who has had a sudden change of opinion about helping Midmark. We make a suggestion about helping through the temples, so it is not a political issue, which the Feldmark Council adopts, and the Hull & Sheaf ships are to be left out of it, to prevent further political entanglements.

We meet up with Baswick who delivers us to a safe house under control of the Feldmark secret police. We suggest to Baswick if they won’t put out the eyes of the shadow steppers, perhaps they could cast continual light in their eyes, so it isn’t permanent. We hole up for a week and train.

SESSION 189 – February 7, 2018

Night of 7th Senrilden one moon is half waxing and other half waning and we set sail to the south.

Captain Nigel estimates 5 days to reach Feldmark.

Khaleen, AKA Bavmorda, spends the journey getting to know the crew.

Nash preaches Lysander.

Rallion keeps watch at night and scans the horizon with the telescope and chats with the sailors on watch.

The Bronze Wizard had enough rations to make it on partial rations, and the party had some food, but needed enough food for 31 days. Lambertus created food & water to allow us to avoid a starvation ration.

One sailor, Asa, knows Laris. He hold a grudge against Laris for winning all his wealth on the eve of his wedding, forcing him to take to the life on the sea. Still owing Laris. Laris charms him and forgives the debt Asa owes him.

Nash offers the ESP helm to Laris, and Laris tries it on and learns many things from Serithaz. Rallion told him not to do it. Rallion checks him out when he finishes his chat with Serithaz. Rallion isn’t convinced Laris is OK.

A heavy downpour begins on the 9th, our second full day of travel, and lasts a few days. We easily top off our water barrels. About 2:00 PM, there is a shout, we go up to see what it is. There is a boat with two islanders rowing for all they’re worth tryhing to escape a ship with tattered sails and the anchor chains apparently pulling the ship. Suddenly a zombie whale surfaces and chomps down on the boat and chews up the men. The ship changes course and closes with us. We notice pox riddled undead aboard. Nash attempts to turn with no effect. Lambertus casts prayer. We fire arrows. Lambertus turns and the whale wheels about, with no apparent affect on the creatures on deck. Captain Nigel and his crew manage to pull ahead and away. This ship was flagged out of Vargen.

The next day the rain is merely heavy, instead of a constant downpour.

On the 10th, Laris pulls Rallion aside during Rallion’s watch. Laris asks about the degrees of evil of ancient dwarves and devil fish. Rallion explains that the devil fish are allies of convenience, the enemy of my enemy.

Rallion gives 30 GP to Captain Nigel to pay his crew, and promises to pay the berthing fees.

We round the bend into the mouth of the Feldrun River and are greeted with a sea of masts at Landing. Landing is the small town at the mouth of the river. There is a picket of a warship and two armed merchantment preventing travel upriver. Across the river from Landing is a camp of refugees.

We are approached by Captain Holger, who is a merchant captain impressed to naval service. He must view our crew to make sure none are sick and see the ship.

Rallion tries to avoid showing the Writ as Keepers of The Council. However, his story of pilgrimage to the Grove of the Verdant Fellowship is not good enough. He relents and shows the captain the Writ. We learn that there is a lot of mistrust of agents of Midmark and what goes on with the Empire there. The high priestess, Alesta Drucal, of the church of the sea god, M…. escaped with a motley crew in an underwater boat. One was Baswick the asistant, and then Harbormaster. He was revealed as an agent of Feldmark, one of their Shadow Guard, the equivalent of the Grey Cloaks of Midmark. A dwarf with a skullcap with an eyepatch built in (Mortimer), and a large woman (Svelnid), and two crazy people.

Rallion is willing to let him take the writ, to show the officer in charge of the warship, but the others won’t have it, so Rallion, Bavmorda, Nash and Laris go with Captain Holger to the Flying Goblin, under Commander Evrardin, of the Feldmark guards. We learn of odd things in Feldmark and a power struggle. A member of the council suddenly changed her opionion about aid to Midmark. Grete Kygh of the Ropemaker’s Guild. The other faction who was once her friend, Cuddy Hawke opposes her. He is from the Carpenter’s Guild. Feldmark is a more tru democracy, one vote per person at 16 years. Although more guildmasters on it than others. It usually worried about the harvest and transport and other much more mundane matters.

The main sources of tension are:

– Refugees – a poweder keg issue

– Weird Dwarven numbers in the corner of everyone’s vision.

– Fishwick People

– Anti-Refugee Forces

Feldmark was a very laid back place until recently.

The Hull & Sheaf is the main trading copmany out of Midmark. There is argument that since their office can’t be contacted that their ships should be impressed into refugee duty. This would weaken the company, and make the merchants of the Merchant League would gain greatly by that. The commander suggests it would be best to leave them alone and move on, but that’s beyond his control.

Cmdr. Evrardin, is sending Capt. Holgar with us, as we probably can’t dock without him. The fee is 5 gp per day.

We see the road busy with carts laden with crops going to town for trade, and mercenaries guarding them, and obvious refugees who somehow got to this point heading toward Feldmark.

Capt. Holgar gets us to a dock, and Rallion pays 50 GP for ten days, as we may need more than a week. Capt. Holgar recommends an inn, The Black Bridge, named after the black bridge that crosses the northen branch of the Feldrun river. WE take a wagon/carriage. He arranges two rooms for us, and Rallion pays. Bavmorda puts out the word that we are hiring muscle, adn we get nibbles of interest. 2:00 PM we say to come talk to us. The next day, we go to HLM the half elf haberdasher, miliner, lapidary Haruth Mithlum Larkson to sell our loot.

Laris wears the hat once worn by Edan, the one made by Chaunese Silverbrow. Haruth is a pupil of Silverbrow and he was eagerly greeted, adn we we welcomed “to the party.”

We sold our loot and made a hefty sum. Most are ready for training. It apears we will be here for two weeks.

Captain Holgar is eager to get us to the council to speak with them. We fear that the council woman with the sudden change is wearing an inquisitor mask, and either a Dervish or Inquisitor. We had no time to discuss this in detail, other than Rallion mentioning his fear and that he will let others hold his magic while he bears the shard.