Conallglen Session C2

In the last session, the two different sets of player characters came together and met, gasp, at a tavern (or, at least, at the door of a tavern). They learned quite a bit about the Conallglen area and agreed to perform a task for the local priestess, Tamuril, in exchange for her healing Drogar of lycanthrope (presumably contracted from the rat goblin in that ruined temple that group of PCs had found themselves previously).

The party had set off across the Tawlyn and had reached the two shrines that had been defaced and desecrated and to clean and, hopefully, find who had performed this blasphemy. The damage was extensive and the party had decided to make cleaning a secondary task and find who was responsible, thinking that some tracks found leading deeper into the wilderness (those skeletal ones) from the shrines were, in all likelihood, the culprits.

There are potential spoilers below the break for the adventures, “The Crucible of Freya,” from Necromancer Games (although they aren’t obvious) and for the adventure, “The Tomb of Abysthor,” also from Necromancer Games (although it is just a minor bit from the beginning).

The party followed the tracks up the side trail, leading deeper into the rugged lands of the Blacktooth Ridge, in the hopes of finding those responsible for desecrating the shrines to Myr and Tyr. The path (and tracks) led up a series of steep switchbacks along a cliff face. Drogar and Shory went ahead to scout and found a small plateau at the foot of yet another steep cliff. The cliff had an opening, almost a crack, that seemed to provide passage into the mountain. Above the crack was a lintel that once had a symbol carved into it but it had been badly defaced and chipped away. The tracks led right into the crack and it didn’t look like any care had been taken to try and disguise this fact.

Drogar took the lead and headed into the opening. Darkness surrounded him a short way in (as one might expect in a cave) but he could tell that he had entered a larger chamber. Although the light from outside could not illuminate the chamber, it was enough to disrupt Drogar’s dwarven vision. So the dwarf took out a torch and flint and steel to light it. As he struck the flint and steel and set off sparks, he could spot movement in the flash of light. Another spark, more movement. Another spark, somethings were coming closer.

Drogar retreated towards the entrance and the light. A skeleton (as the tracks on the trail had suggested) stepped forward and attacked the dwarf with a sword. Romulus came forward and repelled the undead creature and then cast protection from evil on Drogar.

After lighting a torch, Drogar moved forward. The room he had sensed before was filled with five skeletons, all armed with swords. The creatures could not approach Drogar so he tried to keep them at bay. Bryn followed him in the room and, as she did, a very ugly man…probably with orcish ancestry…stepped in from a passage opposite the passage the dwarf and halfling had entered from. He carried a rather wicked looking mace and was dressed in black robes adorned with symbols of Orcus (like the ones defacing the shrines).

Although Romulus suffered a grievous wound from a simple touch by the evil priest in the ensuing battle (I think the party assume he was an evil priest), the party prevailed and the priest was saved by the magics of his twin brother (a pattern that would be repeated in many sessions to come). [Oh, Remus is a human wizard so as a special ability he got to pick one 1st level cleric spell that he can learn as a wizard spell…I’ll give you one guess for which one he picked. ]

The party took some gold found on the “half-orc” as well as his mace (although I think they later discarded it once they figured out it wasn’t magic and was kind of nasty with filth).

Exploring the passage that the priest had come from, the party found a rather large chamber that looked a large hall. Alcoves lined both sides of the hall but each was empty. There was, however, a large pile of bones and filth piled in the center of the room. The bones themselves looked to have been desecrated with evil symbols carved upon them.

Drogar cut off the head of the priest and wrapped it in its own robe to take back to Broadwater as proof of having dealt with the defiler. The party camped on the plateau for the night but it was an uneventful evening. In the morning, they headed back down to the lake to meet the boat and head back to Broadwater.

Back in Broadwater, the party headed off to the Temple to report back to Tamuril what they had found. As part of their report, Drogar revealed the decapitated head of the Orcus priest. Needless to say, this sort of dwarven diplomacy was not overly welcomed in a Temple of the Twelve and Tamuril chastised Drogar for such behavior. Upon hearing how badly the statues had been damaged, Tamuril was resigned to the fact that the shrines probably cannot be fully restored. Romulus, however, agreed to continue to pursue the cleansing of the shrines as best as possible.

By the afternoon, everyone headed back to the Cask & Flagon for some refreshments and rest and relaxation. Bryn danced and spoke with Tannil quite a bit…although I think the dancing bit might have been at his suggestion. She learned from him that the innkeeper of the C&F does indeed have a dragonfly ring that he sometimes wears. Tannil also admitted that he’s seen other folks sporting a dragonfly in one fashion or another but he was very reluctant [perhaps fearful] to go into much detail or actually provide any names of such individuals. [Don’t forget, the dragonfly appears to be the symbol of Maeve and her followers.]

Tannil suggested that Bryn and he go get some dinner at the Drunken Cockatrice, the town’s other inn. The food there is much better as are the rooms but they are a bit pricey. Better, according to Tannil’s logic, to spend the money on the food but stay at the cheaper C&F. The already smitten halfling was clearly disappointed that others decided to join the fledgling couple for dinner. Drogar and Shory stayed at the Cask & Flagon but everyone else headed over for dinner.

Birch was performing at the Drunken Cockatrice when they arrived. He eventually joined the merry group for some dinner and conversation. By this point though, Tannil’s, um, interest in Bryn was a little clearer and the pair headed back to the Cask & Flagon. This was, on Bryn’s part at least, more to keep Tannil from hearing the discussion that was about to happen at dinner and not a reciprocation of Tannil’s more lustful interests. A fact that was made quite clear to him when they arrived at the C&F.

Meanwhile, back at the DC, the twins and Clarissa asked Birch quite a few questions about Ednowain. They learned quite a bit for the price of a rather expensive dinner and a number of drinks. First, Birch confirmed that Ednowain and Tamuril had been romantically involved at one point and that the priestess is NOT interested in discussing it.

There was another woman as well. A human “witch” named Glenis who lived in the woods. She is rumored to have also been romantically involved with Ednowain. The tale, which isn’t told that often in town, also claims that Tamuril cursed the witch with blindness in her jealousy.

Birch also shared that Ednowain’s keep was about a day’s travel from Broadwater and sat atop a rocky outcrop in the hilly woods to the north. He admitted that he had been there, sharing that he would not be a very good storyteller if he didn’t go and look at sites that generate stories. Before the party could even ask, he insisted that he would NOT lead them out to the keep. It wasn’t that he believed the stories that a vampire haunted the keep; instead, he had better things to do…like drink and eat and sing.

Clarissa, who was already somewhat suspicious of Tannil, turned the questioning to the halfling. Birch shared that Tannil was, in fact, the only halfling that had resided in Broadwater for quite some time and had been there for a few months. Other halflings might come to town to trade but they were typically part of the communities that lived in the Slinn Marsh and on the Talwyn. It also seemed like the halfling didn’t have any gainful employment and just hung out at the inns.

There was a period awhile back where Tannil had disappeared for a couple of days and had been seen leaving town with a woodsman by the name of Hanil. And yes, Hanil did know the location of Ednowain’s keep. Birch also shared that he had heard Hanil mention seeing an old woman in the woods as well…perhaps the witch Glenis. Could she even still be alive? Any romantic involvement with Ednowain would have been nearly one hundred years ago.

With no other questions, Birch went back to providing the entertainment for the dinner crowd at the Drunken Cockatrice and Clarissa and the Twins headed back to the Cask & Flagon. Although Drogar and Shory had retired to their rooms earlier, Bryn was still in the common room (Tannil was also gone as his advances had already been rebuffed by Bryn…such a heartbreaker). Bryn shared that the innkeeper had offered her a free drink or dessert but she had declined (presumably with the fear that any such offering might be drugged).

Clarissa filled Bryn in with what they had learned from Birch and that’s pretty much where we stopped the session.