Session 11 (11/12/2021)

## Day Six, Evening

**As** the travelers climb into their bunks for some rest, Holly takes the reins and guides the carriage horses down the dark road. He takes occasional glances over his shoulder, wary of the fiery blue skulls. He can see the quartet behind the carriage keeping pace–never closer nor farther back. Just… following.

## Day Seven, Morning

The sun rises on the carriage, still trundling down the road to Pinechill. Swage wakes up first, allowing time to pray to Gond and to perform his Blessing of the Forge ritual on his armor. As they awaken, the other travelers notice that the air inside the carriage doesn’t seem as cold. A look out the window shows that the snow they had been accustomed to in Seidan was gone. The surrounding ground was muddy, and the carriage jostles and rattles through the water-filled potholes.

Kaz relieves Holly and climbs into the driver’s box under the soft light of the morning. He looks back to see what the skulls have been up to overnight, but he has a difficult time spotting them. The skulls aren’t as easily noticeable in the rising sun and the mottled browns, tans, and grays of the surrounding ground. He manages to spot one, hovering just above the ground and following the carriage about forty feet back. He knew the other three must be there as well.

## Day Seven, Afternoon

When the sun reaches its zenith, Pele joins Kaz in the driver’s box and sends the Goliath back to his bunk to rest. As he heads toward his bunk, he sees Swage finishing up another ritual. Swage nods and determines that they are all riding in an Ethereal Carriage. Meanwhile, Pele sits in the driver’s box, deep in thought. Out of the corner of her eyes, she can see small forest animals hopping and foraging along the bases of the trees. Memories of home come flooding back, but the memories aren’t happy ones. She remembers the taunts and cruel words of the children who bullied her when she was young. She furtively looks for a rock to hurl at them in retaliation before she snaps back to the reality of the present. Pele furrows her brow.

## Day Seven, Evening

Soon, Dove reaches through the carriage window and gives Pele a tap on the shoulder. Pele gracefully slips into the carriage, and then Dove squeezes through the window into the driver’s box. The sun is starting to set. She breathes deeply and looks at the bright oranges and reds sinking below the horizon. There isn’t much of a breeze tonight, but the trees along the path are swaying, almost like an unknown force is compelling them to move.

## Day Seven, Night

Next to Dove, Estafador arches his back and sighs. It’s been another long day of traveling, and he needs to rest. Holly returns to the driver’s box, as Estafador and Dove head inside. Swage lies on his bunk, cautiously turning Zertis’ detached gauntlet dagger in his hands. Swage was determined to figure out how it worked, but he knew it would take several days of careful study, as well as help from Gond. He managed to delicately remove a small cover from part of the gauntlet, revealing an intricate network of cogs and gears. Swage grabs his notebook and begins to capture every detail.

It seems like another quiet night. Holly is pleased with how well the horses are driving tonight. He barely has to use the reins to keep them on the road. Holly scans the road and the tree line, looking for any glowing eyes or evidence the skulls may be gaining on them, but after six hours of nothing, he begins to grow tired. He nods off a few times before he’s able to shake it off and sit upright and alert, just in time to see several tree trunks lying across the road. He pulls the horses to a halt and calls through the carriage window for Kaz.

It’s the middle of the night, and Kaz doesn’t think a fight with some downed trees would be very exciting. He sighs. “How big are the trees?”

“Look,” says Holly. “I’m a dwarf. All trees are big to me.”

Kaz sighs again, rolls out of bed, grabs his maul, and steps out of the carriage. The melted snow has soaked the ground, and his feet sink into the mud with a sticky squelching sound.

The Goliath walks through the soft earth to the tree trunks. They’re about 25 feet long, but nothing he couldn’t handle. As he moves the first trunk, he sees that the bark has been gouged away in a rather unnatural manner. Holly keeps an eye out for any danger. He can see the quartet of skulls doing exactly what they had been doing for days now–hovering and watching. Suddenly, he sees a looming shadow move towards Kaz, who is focused on moving away from the second tree. The shadow appears to be about 15 feet tall and looks like a walking tree trunk. Holly ducks behind a tree as the shadow gets closer. He sees that this shadow-creature has long, dragging arms and patchy areas of fur. Holly removes one ball bearing from his bag and throws it towards Kaz. It strikes a tree trunk near Kaz, making a small “thwip” noise before falling into the mud. Kaz looks up to see the shadow lurching towards him. A huge smile breaks across his face.

“A fight, friends!” he joyfully cries out as he leaps to his feet. He flies into a rage and strikes the creature squarely with his maul.

Inside the carriage, Dove has burrowed into her nest of blankets and doesn’t hear the commotion outside. Pele startles awake and rushes out of the carriage to see why Kaz was yelling. She sees the ugly creature and attempts to hit it with faerie fire, but the monster resists. Holly takes the opportunity to jump at the monster, stabbing it twice with his dagger, right before Kaz smashes it with another hammer blow. The monster roars in pain and comes at Kaz with claws and teeth.

Swage hears the sounds of battle outside the carriage and debates whether it’s worth getting up. He grumbles to himself before sitting up and rubbing his eyes. He sighs deeply to center himself, then casts Searing Smile on his mace. Swage leaps out of the carriage lifts his mace, and runs at the monster, hitting it squarely with a bludgeoning hit. The monster’s filthy, matted fur is instantly ablaze, and it cries out in agony as its body is engulfed in flames.

Dove’s eyes fly open when she hears the monster’s cry. She thrashes and kicks her way out of the blankets, grabs her bow and quiver, and tumbles through the carriage door. She quickly steadies herself and lets an arrow fly into the chest of the monster. As it momentarily staggers in the mud, Pele hits it with a Mind Spike spell. Smiling in satisfaction as the creature reels from the psychic damage, she pulls her drum out from her cloak and begins to beat it in a war cadence.

“Holly!” she cries out. “I can’t see you, and you’re super sneaky, so you can do this!”

The dwarf smirks as his spirit is lifted by the bardic inspiration. He runs at the tree he was using for cover and he runs a few steps up the trunk before pushing off of it to fly towards the monster. He stabs his dagger under the monster’s arm and rakes the blade down its side. It stomps and growls, but it isn’t able to cry out before it's hit with a third crushing blow from Kaz.

Hurt, dazed, and still on fire, the monster growls, and projectile spews a stinking, bright green sludge all over Kaz, Holly, and Swage. Holly isn’t concerned, since dwarves aren’t affected by poison, but his eyes grow large when he sees the toxic green sludge start to dissolve in the grass and leaves around them. Swage recognizes the acid attack and is furious. His armor is a prized possession, and he will not allow it to be destroyed by this stinking beast. He wipes his face, then reaches out a hand to cast Inflict Wounds. As his spell hits, he also calls down his spiritual weapon. The spectral anvil crashes down on the monster.

Dove notches another arrow. She strikes the monster directly in the sternum, causing it to stagger backward a few steps before falling, cracking its head on Swage’s anvil. The arrow in its chest cracks and fizzes as acidic blood leaks out of the chest wound, and the monster is still.

Swage immediately removes his armor and begins to wash it to salvage what he can, cursing all the while. Holly decides to name this monster Lump since it sat alone in a boggy marsh. Pele carves the name into a tree, while Dove plays a horrendous-sounding song on her lyre. While she’s carving, Pele thinks about what kind of creature Lump might be. She remembers learning about creatures called trolls, who may not sit alone in boggy marshes. They are very territorial but do sometimes band together. They can also regenerate health unless they are injured by fire, which Swage had handled for them.

Holly thinks the troll might have laid down the tree trunks as a trap, so Pele, Holly, Dove, and Kaz decide to follow its tracks to make sure there aren’t any more trolls hiding in the woods. Swage picks up his damaged armor and angrily walks back to the carriage.

The four plug their noses as they pass the stinking splatters of acid and pools of troll blood, and after following the trail for about ten minutes, they find a crude camping area. Rudimentary cooking gear sits next to a large fire pit, and a carriage awning that has been turned into a makeshift bag hangs from a tree limb.

The bag is out of reach, so Dove tells everyone to step back. She shoots an arrow at the rope tying the bag to the tree and manages to sever a few fibers of the rope. The bag spins as the rope begins to fray, and the bag hits the ground with a sickly sounding thump. The canopy breaks open, and a fetid mix of horse carcasses and humanoid remains to spill out onto the ground. Pele notices a small wooden chest amongst the viscera and uses her Mage Hand to pluck it out of the mess. The chest is covered in blood and bits of horse guts, and Pele doesn’t want to hold it. She looks at Kaz hopefully, and he takes the chest from her and holds it. She turns and sets fire to the remains as Holly reports he’s found more tracks. The group decides they should get back in the carriage and get on the road.

Swage is inside the carriage furiously working with his tools to repair his armor. As the carriage begins to move, Pele notices the skulls begin to move too. They keep pace with the carriage, never coming any closer than about forty feet. As Pele watches the hovering skulls, she remembers how she was able to telepathically communicate with Estafador. Maybe it could work on these skulls, too.

She concentrates on the skull closest to the carriage and messages: “Hello, traveler.”

She then casts Comprehend Languages. After a few moments, a dusty, croaking voice replies, “Hello, traveler.”

Pele is thrilled to learn that these skulls can talk, or at the very least, communicate.

She messages, “Why are you following us?”

The response: “We follow you because you hurt us.”

“Do you mean us harm?” she asks.

“You harmed us.”

“Fair enough,” thinks Pele to herself. After all, they had started it.

She messages the skull again. “That’s fair, but you came back to life. No harm, no foul, right?”

“Watch. Observe. Assess,” the skull replies succinctly.

“Will you attack us again?” Pele asks.

Silence.

Kaz leans out the carriage window, extending a middle finger towards the skulls. Dove had never seen such a gesture. She assumed it was maybe a Goliath cultural thing. She leans out the window as well, with her middle finger extended. She smiles proudly at Kaz.

Pele tries again with the skull.

“Do you work for someone?” she asks.

“Observe and report”

“Who do you report to?”

“The Collective,”

Inside the carriage, Swage wakes Estafador to ask him if he’s ever heard of The Collective. Estafador is confused about what Swage is asking, especially when Swage told him they also fought a troll.

“You killed a troll?” he asks in a daze. “No one woke me? What time is it?”

“The moon is in that position,” Pele tells him.

“Yes, yes, it is,” he responds and falls back to sleep.

## Day Eight, Morning

Dawn breaks and Estafador wakes up. He slides open the top drawer of a small table and removes a delicate teacup and saucer set. He pours an aromatic substance from his hand, and the carriage is filled with the scents of rainwater and honeydew. He sits and enjoys his drink, then puts the teacup and saucer away and climbs outside to the driver’s box, and takes the reins from Holly. Holly climbs inside and flops into his bunk. Swage dons a new set of chain mail armor.

From the driver’s box, Estafador can see the gates to a town in the distance. They had only been on the road for four days, and he wasn’t expecting to come upon a town so quickly. He asks Kaz for a map, but he sees there aren’t any towns between Seidan and Pinechill. He puzzles for a moment until he realizes the carriage has essentially been traveling all day and all night, except for a few stops along the way.

As they get closer, Estafador can see that the road that they’re on goes into a walled area with houses and shops. Kaz climbs into the driver’s box to get a better look. A large tract of farmland borders the town to the right, and a well-kept castle sits on a hill to the left. A light rain begins to fall as the carriage makes its way closer to Pinechill.

Kaz looks over his shoulder. The skulls are still tailing them. He doesn’t want the skulls to follow them into town. He doesn’t know if they would cause havoc, but they would frighten the residents, at the very least. Kaz’s jaw clenches with anger. Those skulls think they can beat us again. “Stop the carriage,” he growls.

Estafador pulls back on the reins, and Neigh One and Neigh Two come to a halt.

“Why are we stopping here?” asks Estafador.

“We are going to kill those skulls again,” Kaz replies.

Estafador seems excited.

“Want to help?” Swage asks.

“Of course!” Estafador replies as he pulls two pom-poms out from his robes. He lifts his arms and shakes the pom-poms in support.

Pele smiles at the gesture and asks Estafador about The Collective. More awake this time, Estafador replies, “The Collective? Are you sure that’s what they said?”

Estafador explains that The Collective is just a big mistake. An “oops demon,” as he and the other demons call it. The idea was that if one flaming skull had a small amount of knowledge and consciousness, then an entire pile of flaming skulls could have the collective knowledge of every skull in the pile. However, the idea didn’t work out in real life like it did in theory. The experiment sort of worked, in that the individual skulls can do things that they normally wouldn’t be able to do. They can share memories or serve as sentinels or lookouts. He also adds that the skulls like to seek out other worthy bodies and skulls to bring back to their pile.

Pele takes a glass jar out of her bag and holds it up in front of her. A small black ooze wriggles inside the jar. Dove’s stomach turns and she tries to hide behind Kaz. “Larry can help us!” Pele exclaims brightly.

The other adventurers don’t seem as excited. Pele is certain that Larry will fight for them and starts to scheme up a way to release Larry from his jar in a way that won’t get everybody killed. After talking through a few scenarios, she realizes it’s probably too risky. One day, Larry.

Kaz is ready to smash the skulls. Swage prepared holy water to extinguish them for good, so it’s time to smash. Dove agrees and readies an arrow.

Holly decides he wants to talk to the skulls first. He knows they are capable of communication because of Pele’s successful use of her Message spell. The other adventurers think the plan is dangerous, but let Holly walk forward and wait in the wings in case he needs backup. Kaz joins him.

They lift their arms in the air to show they’re holding no weapons and begin to approach the nearest skull. Holly begins to make small talk, but the skulls cut to the chase and demand to know what he wants. Holly says that their Goliath was excited to fight, which was a mistake, but the adventurers have no more quarrel with them. The skulls reply that because of the party’s mistake, the skulls have been assigned to observe and report on the party’s movements. Holly asks if there is something they can do to appease the skulls. The skull thinks it over and then huddles up with its three companions to discuss the offer.

One skull says that they absolutely should not make any sort of deal with the adventurers. The second wants to at least listen to the offer, so maybe they can go home and be at rest sooner. The third reminds them that they are here to observe and report.

Holly can overhear the discussion, but he straightens up when the skull returns to talk to him.

“We cannot accept your deal,” the skull replies. “Our task is to observe and report until we are gone, or you are gone.”

Holly is dissatisfied with this answer and asks to speak to their manager.

Pele uses Message to speak with Kaz. “How’s it going?”

“It’s…. going,” he responds.

Despite being made of only bone and flame; the skull manages to bend its jaw into a facsimile of a smirk. “You want to speak to The Collective?” it asks snidely.

Holly asks for a moment to speak with his companions, and he and Kaz return to the carriage. Estafador can’t believe what he’s hearing.

“The Collective? He’s coming here?” he asks excitedly. “Oh! This will be fun to watch! How strong-willed are you, by the way?”

He continues to laugh, and Dove thinks that Estafador is more excited about The Collective coming to annihilate the adventurers than he is excited about meeting The Collective himself.

Pele and Dove are adamantly opposed to summoning The Collective. They want to kill the four skulls straight away and kill any others that might be sent to take their place. Kaz thinks it might be a fun challenge to fight whatever demon The Collective turns out to be. Swage pauses for a moment and decides to ask Gond for a second opinion. He bows his head and listens, but gets no response. Swage raises his head and looks into the eyes of the skulls. The eyes that scorched him with their devastating fireballs. In a solemn, serious voice, he says “Kill them again.”

Estafador continues to smile with excitement. He’s almost giddy. He says it’s not a great idea, or the right idea, or even a smart idea, but he still wants to see what happens. He warns Holly that if he makes a deal, he shouldn’t offer anything he isn’t willing to part with.

Despite the parties' protests, Holly decides he’s going to summon The Collective, like it or not. Worn down, the adventures finally give in.

Dove decides that the least she can do is try to protect whoever wants to stand before this demon, and she opens the Demonomicon. This is the first spell she’s cast that wasn’t her Hunter’s Mark, and she’s nervous and excited at the same time. She steadies her voice to read the incantation. Magical runes light upon the ground, forming a protective circle around Kaz, Holly, and Pele. Dove and Swage have decided to hang back, just in case.

Once the circle is cast, the four skulls begin to come together. They stack, one on top of the other, and all look at Holly. Suddenly, the four skulls morph into one giant skull. Its large jaw unhinges, and its mouth opens, revealing a portal.

The adventurers hear a rattling, chittering sound as a demonic monster made of bones climbs out of the portal and stands on the ground in front of the circle. Its carapace is composed of an assortment of bones fused, and its arching back and swooping, the barbed tail is made of connected humanoid spines. Its dagger-sharp claws are connected to hands made of human skulls.

It stares at the adventurers, and in a rattling, echoing voice, asks “Which one of you wanted to speak to The Collective?”

Holly answers, and the bone demon smiles. Its face is a mesh of skulls that seem insectoid, but on closer inspection, they are warped human skulls.

Holly asks who the creature is. It responds it is one of many, but it is the next level. It asks what Holly has to offer. It peers at him and stops.

“This is intricate magic,” the demon muses, looking at the runes on the ground.

“Yes, I know it’s not perfect, but we wanted to ensure our safety,” Holly responds.

Dove’s ears burn. “You know I can hear you, Holly,” she whispers harshly at him. She thought the spell had turned out well.

The demon tells Holly that the skulls to stop following them if Holly would make a deal with his master. He adds that the master wants Holly, and he would get unfathomable knowledge and power in return.

Holly isn’t interested in sacrificing himself, so he asks the bone demon if they could perform a service for the master, to make up for Kaz attacking the skulls unprovoked. Holly also tells him that the skulls are not reliable, as the four almost gave up and went home.

The bone demon weighs this information and says there is a man named Morthos who walks the material plane. Morthos made a deal with the master but didn’t hold up his end of the bargain and has forsaken the master. If Morthos is killed, then the adventurers would be free.

Holly agrees to the deal over the protests of the other adventurers. The bone demon adds that they will still have one skull watching them, just for insurance. With those words, a tiny, fiery skull emerges from the portal and floats next to the bone demon. The demon says the skull will remain with them until Morthos is killed. It gives another awful, toothy smile and disappears back through the portal.

Pele and Dove are outraged. Pele protests that it isn’t the group’s business to be involved, and Dove refuses to kill a stranger. Kaz is seething that he was roped into a deal with a demon, and Swage is furious that one of those damned skulls is still following them.

Pele, Kaz, and Holly use their insight to try to figure out what might be the problem with Morthos. Swage casts Zone of Truth on the skull and finds out that it just won’t stop talking. Between the insight and the information from the skull, the group learns that Morthos wasn’t always a bad person. He made a deal with the master to gain power, and in return, he was to lie low and await orders. However, Morthos instead went rogue and drew attention to things that needed to remain secret. Morthos is a Tiefling warlock, with red skin, long horns, and flowing robes. He bartered his soul for power and caused the death of many people in the village of Silverpeak about five years ago. The little skull makes sure to tell Holly that Morthos must be killed, otherwise bad things will happen. The bone demon is full of bad juju.

The little skull pauses and looks around. He says that he’s excited to be away from the collective for once and thinks the adventurers look like an interesting group. Dove asks him for his name. The skull pauses again, thoughtfully. He says no one had ever asked him before. In his mortal life, he was a human fighter named Skippy, but he would like for his name now to be Skeletor. The group agrees that it’s a much cooler name.

Pele starts to warm up to Skeletor.

“Bone to Ash,” she says to him in Primordial.

“Ash to Bone,” Skeletor replies.

The little skull continues to chatter on about whatever comes to mind. He starts a long story about his favorite game show, the Price is Right, hosted by Demon Drew. There are lots of amazing prizes on the show, but if you lose, you die, and–

Swage and the other adventurers were just about at the end of their rope. Swage grabs Skeletor and stashes him inside his flashlight, hoping for a moment’s peace. The adventures look at each other in tense, uncomfortable silence, processing that they were bound in a demon pact.