The Lonely Coast Campagin – Seeking Cynric’s Folly (Session 8)

Yikes! Zombies! Again? Really?!? Yes, zombies again but at least these aren’t pirate zombies like encountered on the Nydam (or pibies as I started to call them). In out last session, our heroes arrived at Wolverton. They rested, restocked, and sought out some information before deciding to head west towards Swallowfeld and the Temple of Vélen to discover if any information about the location of the lost keep of Cynric the Ironwolf. During their travels they, of course, found adventure in the form of dead charcoalers and a recently unearthed complex of some sort. The complex looked like it might be Dracmosi in nature…a civilization that predates the Thaeden (the current dominant culture) by at least two civilizations.

In their explorations of this complex, they had opened a door and loosed a zombie.

And that is exactly where we pick up this session’s recap after the break. Thomas was missing this session and so RJ played Thalimor in his absence.

The zombie lunged forward but Osric was too quick for it and closed the door before it could escape. However, this didn’t mean the party was safe. Thumping commenced from that door and the other two nearby. One by one, a zombie each broke through the three different doors and attacked. As they came out one by one, the heroes had little difficulty in dispatching them. Beyond the doors were small study or meditation chambers that had nothing but debris.

Back in the long hallway, a corridor and a final door were discovered further along. A low moaning could be heard coming from beyond the door…perhaps zombies…and so the party elected to not open it at this time. Instead, they headed down the side hallway. This opened up into a larger chamber with a dais and an altar of some sort at the far end and double doors in a small alcove on one of the side walls. The “altar” had some sort of bowl atop it while the doors each had the symbol on them…mirror images to each other. The bowl, on closer examination, had the same symbol ringing its other lip and was filled with a dark, murky liquid of some sort.

Going through the double doors, our heroes found a fairly large room. The far end of the room was raised some five feet above the rest of the floor with stairs leading up to it against each side wall. A pedestal sat atop this raised area with some sort of metal box atop it. A pool of a roiling, nearly glowing, orange liquid was in the center of the room. Pikes of various lengths rose from the middle of the pool and were topped with skulls. Despite being nervous about something happened, nothing did as the party spread out about the room to further explore.

Osric and Thalimor took the stairs up to the raised area to get a better look at the box. It was made of metal and was covered with strange runes and carvings. There was no apparent lock or even seam to indicate that the box would open. As Thalimor got closer to get a better look at the box, he felt a slight movement on his hand. Looking down, he saw the runes on his magical ring moving and shifting…the ring that Danu had given him and that Kargan had identified as being able to open something or things. As her reached his hand out towards the box, a seam appeared on the box. The now apparent lid lifted easily.

As Osric and Thalimor peered inside, Osric felt a small breeze blow his hair. Inside the box was a wicked looking dagger with a blood red stone set in its pommel. The stone had a symbol etched or embedded within it. It was the same symbol that was on the statue in the chamber that the party first entered…a symbol that Thalimor thought might be Dracmosi in nature. Picking the dagger up, Thalimor had a flash of intense anger directed at Bay. If that damn sailor had only put on the yellow dress and let Thalimor’s plans come to fruition on the Nydam, they probably never would have gone through what they did and those who died would still be alive. If only Bay had only listened to his better, things would have turned out better. He should pay for his refusal with his blood! Thalimor took a step towards Bay but then shook off the anger and put the dagger away.

Magnus, who had been just inside the doors leading into the room, heard a whispering voice from behind him in the prior room. The priest didn’t look and instead quickly moved to a safer location. As he did so, the pool in the center of the room started to roil with more agitation or, perhaps, anger. Osric and Isenthorne approached the pool. As they took up their positions, two creatures emerged from the liquid. Both looked just like the statues in the alcoves in the initial chamber…pale, bald, long-armed, and heavily clawed.

The creatures viciously attacked. Although their foes did a good deal of damage, the heroes were victorious. After removing the heads of the creatures…just in case they might revive, they resumed their explorations. Bay slid his spear into the pool only to find that it was perhaps only four feet deep. When he removed his spear, the liquid stuck to it in a rather viscous fashion. Water simply rolled off of the fluid. Reluctant to touch the stuff, Bay abandoned his spear.

With nothing else of apparent interest in this room, the party considered resuming their search for the children. They decided that first they would head back to the entry chamber to see if the statues, similar to the creatures they just defeated, were still there as statues. As Osric headed down the corridor back the way they had come, he spotted someone lying in the corridor a short distance away. It was one of the children!

Before he could approach, a fairly high-pitched voice squealed out from farther down the corridor. No one could be seen but the voice threatened that if the heroes did not place this child in the pool, then the other child would be killed. The voice said that they had five minutes to make their decision. Osric picked up the child, who was unconscious, and the party backed away to discuss. It was quickly decided that there was no way that they would place the child in the pool and they decided to bluff and tossed the body of one of the creature’s they had killed back into the pool from which it had risen.

Their bluff, sadly, was called. The voice stated that it knew that the child had not been placed in the pool. The voice introduced itself as Aerlium and claimed that it had been trapped in the box for untold centuries. As thanks for freeing it, Thalimor was free to leave whenever he would like. The others, however, could only leave if they agreed to one of Aerlium’s bargains. First, however, a deal was struck to get both of the children back. Aerlium offered the children in exchange for two of the party drinking from the bowl atop the altar.

Isenthorne immediately agreed to do so to save the children. Bay followed just after. The liquid was disgusting and burned as it was swallowed. It was sickening and seemed to move as though it had a life of its own once it was in the gut, feeling like it was tearing them apart inside. The pain and nausea was intense and, shortly after, Isenthorne vomited the liquid back up but Bay did not. Whatever he swallowed felt like it had “taken root” inside him.

Aerlium noted that Bay was “blessed” by her? his? its? mistress, Rosszanya.

Additional bargaining commenced regarding the safe passage of the party from the complex. Aerlium seemed quite confident that they would need a guarantee of safe passage in order to get out alive. Eventually, they settled on at least two more drinks from the bowl. Isenthorne again volunteered immediately. Osric also volunteered. Both drank and experienced what Isenthorne had experienced with her first drink. Both, unlike Bay, purged themselves of the liquid. Aerlium simply noted that neither were worthy of the Mistress’ gifts. Aerlium indicated that the four of them…Bay, Thalimor, Osric, and Isenthorne were all free to leave with the children. The fifth in their party, however, was not. He could if he would just give his name.

Magnus, however, refused to give his name and so Aerlium said that his life was forfeit. The others decided that their first priority was to get the children to safety so they tested Aerlium’s claim of guarantee. The long hallway had become filled with at least a dozen skeletons and a handful of zombies; Aerlium’s confidence, it seemed, was not misplaced. The creature’s guarantee also held; none of the undead attacked as the party sans Magnus passed through.

As they reached the entrance to the complex, they found that the two skeletons in the alcoves had indeed became creatures like those from the pool. The snarled and snapped and looked enraged but could not reach the party…almost as though they had some sort of invisible leash.

Aerlium revealed itself for the fist time at this point. It was some sort of imp-like creature and flitted about just outside the entrance. The imp reiterated that the heroes were safe as they traveled through the complex and were free to go whenever they wished. The heroes picked up on the imps meaning and asked about their safety once they left the complex. Aerlium indicated that it could not guarantee their safety out of the complex and neither could it guarantee that any of the inhabitants of the complex would not follow them out and attack. The imp was true to the letter of the agreement but not, in the party’s opinion, to the spirit. Aerlium was unmoved when this pointed out and just reiterated that it would uphold its end of the bargain but would consider any attack on it or its allies inside the complex as the party breaking the agreement.

The party headed back to Magnus in the “altar” room to discuss what they might do. Aerlium, for his part, let them know that it would be heading out to explore for awhile and see how things had changed during its centuries of imprisonment. [An idea that might have been sparked by one of the party’s offers…an offer to go and fetch something for Aerlium from the surrounding area that it might want.] It was decided that Bay would try to escape with the two children and make it to Swallowfeld with them. With his magic, he could move faster than everyone else for a short period of time. The others would fight with Magnus so they could all get out.

Bay carried the still unconscious children to the entrance. Casting his expeditious retreat spell, Bay picked up the children and ran out the entrance, heading for the cliffway and, hopefully, eventually Swallowfeld. One of the clawed creatures instantly set off after him. Despite his magically enhanced speed, Bay was barely keeping ahead of the creatures. The battle against the two by the pool hadn’t given the party to see just how fast the things could run. As his spell faded, Bay realized that he was still at least a couple of miles from the village and the creature was maybe a thousand feet behind him.

To possibly make matters worse, there was a wagon approaching from the direction in which Bay was running. There were at least a few people walking alongside it and a couple riding on the wagon. With the creature now closing the distance between them, Bay headed for the wagon…debating whether he should renew his magic and continue running, perhaps leaving these travelers to be attacked by the creature but buying him some time, or turning to fight, hopefully with some new allies amongst those travelers.

The rest of the party was preparing for the battle in the complex.

[That, of course, is where we stopped. Not only was it a bit of a cliffhanger but we were about 15 minutes from our normal stopping time and there was no way I wanted to start and then stop in the middle of what could be a couple of rather major battles.

Beer Tasting: We had picked up a growler of Oaked Aged I-10 IPA from Intuition Brewery in Jacksonville the night before and cracked that open early in the night. Rachel and I had tried it at the brewery and liked it. The regular I-10 IPA is a solid IPA and I think the oaked version adds a nice touch. However, not everyone in the group is a hophead. Although Muse considered liking it, she concluded that she still doesn’t like IPAs. So I’ll have to call it a hit but not a crit. Next up was 3 Fonteinen’s Oude Geuze. This one was a hit but I kind of figured it would be based on prior hits…tart and woody and bubbly, I wasn’t surprised by it being well received. I’d have to say that overall it was a crit with the group.]