Days 87-94 (10-17 May)

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## Days 87-94 (10th-17th May)

The party travels North directly towards White Beach – this ends with the encounter with the Dark Hoof Centaurs (104.017) and the meeting with Bez Drock (104.016) mid afternoon on the 17th May.

## Day 94 (17th May) – Mid-afternoon

Quercius, Caradoc and Twoo take two of the parties’ horses and head off for White Beach at speed.

## Examination Of The Battle Site & Fire Remains

### Vinmira Corpse

Front of corpse shows severe scorching as if subjected to a brief intense heat, skin is red and blistered. In addition the corpse has been stabbed with what were probably spears a number of times, both front and back, and then trampled.

### Human Corpse 1

Similar heat exposure and wounds to Vinmira, this character had been wearing leather armour, now ruined. No obvious identifying marks.

### Human Corpse 2

Has the most severe heat damage, and might well have died from it, since there appears to be no stab wounds on this corpse. The character had been wearing chainmail armour, much of which is now fused, so intense was the heat blast. Around the corpses neck is found a Wild Holy Symbol – now damaged.

### Doppelganger Corpses

All three were apparently further away from the heat, since though they bear some signs of blistering and charring their cause of death is obviously spear wounds and trampling. Doppelgangers are another of the legendary creatures covered by the GSOV.

There are around 25 Dark Hoof Centaurs corpses here, all have been damaged beyond regeneration capacity (in general – heads removed). None of the Centaur corpses bear any heat damage as per Vinmira and the others.

### Best Reading As To Timeline

With Francis and Joshua scouting around they broadly read the situation as:

* 8 horses arrive from the direction of White Beach
* 6 humanoids get off and build the campfire, it looks as though the horses depart West
* The doppelgangers appear to have been nearby moving around in what could be a patrolling pattern
* Vinmira and the 2 humans were near the fire in a tight group, whatever heat effect hit them also affected the fire which shows signs of having been blown back slightly
* Centaur hoover appear from nowhere in an area of up to 30 yards radius of Vinmira and his pals, difficult to count how many
* General melee ensues, once Vinmira and his pals are dead the surviving centaurs make a big thing of trampling their bodies
* Around 30 centaurs survive the fight and head off in 5 groups of 6 (West, SW, S, SE, E – broadly) – The party took out the SE group, Bez trashed the S group

### Searching & Det Magic

Recovered from the bodies and the ground: 43gp 12sp 18cp

On the ground near the fire: A semi melted piece of mithril that was once a Wyldwood holy symbol, worth 20gp as mithril scrap

On Vinmiras body: 1 ring (magical), 2 scrolls, 1 magical, the other written in no language the party understands

On Human corpse 1: A dagger (magical)

On Human corpse 2: A ring (magical), a Wild holy symbol (makes the clerics and druids feel a bit nauseous), 2 potions

Scattered around: 1 spear (magical), 1 hand axe (magical)

(Yes, the most loot you have found for quite a while!!)

I assume the party then makes its way to White Beach, the trip is uneventful but takes a few hours so you get there after dusk.

## White Beach Arrival: Quercius, Twoo and Caradoc

After a nearly two hour ride the group arrives as the South East gate, there you are quizzed by the gate guards as to your purpose in the city, personal religious beliefs, political affiliations, how long you anticipate staying and the like. The guards make note of your answers, but don’t seem hugely interested in what they are, however you do believe that whilst answering the questions the group of you are under observation. Once the questions are complete each person is handed a small brass disk with a hole and leather thong, you are advised to always keep this on your person and present it to the city authorities if so requested. The disk must be surrendered upon leaving White Beach. You are then free to enter the city.

Bez Drock’s directions lead you to the area known as ‘the Diamond Square’ and when you finally reach the house, you see it is not so much a house as a very large villa, square layout, with each side being around 400’ in length. Checking out the area first, the party notes that there are two smaller entrances on to the alleys behind the villa, plus a large set of double doors that open on to the main street. There are no exterior windows. The main doors appear to have no locks or keyholes but do have a pentagonal inlay that matches the ‘key’ that you were given.

Near the villa are a number of similarly grand properties, mostly designed along the same lines. The street is quiet, although there is an ornate carriage parked outside a villa entrance a few hundred yards down the street.

Seeing no one around Quercius moves to the door and presents the key to the lock mechanism. To nobodies surprise the door smoothly opens and the group of you enter. Caradoc turns to close the door and is bowled off his feel by a large armoured Maratasen barging into the entranceway, he is followed by a similarly armoured human and a rather portly Ariel, somewhat out of breath.

The Maratasen, says nothing but keeps his paw close to a longsword on his belt, once the Ariel has entered the Human brings inside the parties’ horses, then removes the key from the door and then closes the door. Leaving Quercius, Twoo and Caradoc facing the three intruders.

The villa is built as an open square, with a large central garden, dominated by an Oak tree that seems somewhat out of place this far North, there is a covered path around the perimeter of the garden and each of the villas rooms have doors onto this path. The large entranceway has a small stabling area on the left, and the human takes the parties horses into that area. There are some visible bloodstains on the floor here, and it looks like at

Ariel: “Bloodtooth, check the place out, the Guardians body must be somewhere around, don’t disturb anything if possible.”

The Maratasen nods, and moves into the villa.

Ariel: “Okay you three, before any introductions are made, and to avoid any unpleasantness please fill me in on why you are here and what you are doing with a key to Onwen's residence.”

The human emerges from the stables and nods to the Ariel.

Ariel: “Gill, go and check things out with Bloodtooth, lets find out what happened here.”

The human moves into the villa as well, taking the same direction as the Maratasen.

The Ariel, despite being obviously unfit, seems remarkably comfortable at being left in the company of the party, he has a Wyldwood symbol hanging from his neck and as he faces the party Querius and Twoo are convinced they see a brief flickering image of a large Bear looming over him.

For the next 30 minutes the party brief the Ariel on what has led them here, the Ariel makes no attempt to interrupt or ask follow on questions, just lets the party talk.

The Maratasen and Human return just as the party is reaching the description of the attack by the Centaurs, the Ariel holds his hand up to them and asks the party to continue.

After 5 more minutes of speaking, the story has been told.

Ariel: “Hmmm, so typical Bez Drock, loyal to a fault but once his temper is up his brain shrinks to the size of a pea.”

Ariel: “Gill, Bloodtooth, did you find him?”

Human (Gill): “Yes sir, there has been quite a fight here, definite Wild involvement, I am surprised Bez Drock survived to be honest, the old goat must have been tougher than he looked.”

Ariel: “Well that is the Shanah for you, hard as rock….. and just as intelligent sometimes.”

Ariel: “OK, well the Ariel and the Hobbit will need to stay here, you.”, indicates Quercius, “can come with myself and Bloodtooth if you wish.”

Quercius opts to accompany the Ariel and Bloodtooth, whilst Twoo and Caradoc are left in the company of Gill.

Ariel: “To introduce myself, I am Uil Treesoar, a humble servant of Wyldwood, as you are obviously aware things have gone somewhat pear shaped around here and I volunteered to tidy up some of the loose ends.”

The little group passes a number of corpses, a couple of doppelgangers but mainly humans. About a third of the way around the courtyards Bloodtooth leads you into a room which has a stairway down. Descending, you come into a large wine cellar, largely unstocked – which has again seen a fair amount of conflict. Two Ogre bodies lie sprawled off to one size, both appear to have been mauled by some large animal.

The group passes through an archway into another smaller wine cellar, from the blood on the floor there was a fight here, but the only corpse is that of an old man lying on his back in the centre of the room. The corpses arms have been crossed on his chest and a small Oak twig has been placed upon the chest.

Uil: “Well, he tried at least……sigh.”

For the next 15-20 minutes, Uil carries out funeral rites on the dead body. From the little that Quercius knows, the ceremony being carried out – in a somewhat condensed form – is normally reserved for the highest echelons of the church.

At the end of the ceremony, the small group leaves the small cellar, Uil turns round and casts a spell and the small cellar is filled with flame.

Uil: “Right, well in theory I need to be off, but I think I can spare some time to answer a few questions…..and I am sure you have a lot of them. Lets talk and walk……”

The group of you walk back to the entranceway.

Uil: “The key things you need to know are that Onwen was the Guardian, the equivalent of the Shanah First Sword. He was granted that honour in order for him to be able to hold together the unweaving of the voidspell, this has meant that for the past 20 odd years the clearsighted in the Church have been focussed on one thing - keeping the spell knitted together for as long as possible. But now Onwen has passed on, clearsight will become the normal, a new Guardian will be selected and we will need to finalise preparations for the return of the Dragonriders and their armies if possible. Ever since the Wild left, the church has been planning for its return, except the idiotic Elves decided to blend in a spell of forgetfulness when they opted to leave…. So nearly all of our preparations went on hold or were lost.”

Uil: “Also, what we hadn’t appreciated up till now was that Soratan, when he led the Wild through the void had obviously planned for a return at some point. This dwarf you called Vinmira would seem to be a representative of a small and very secretive cult that was obviously established to support Soratans return. How that all worked given the Elven blending in of the forgetfulness effect we have just started trying to determine.”

Bloodtooth makes some strangled rumbling sounds, and you realise that he has no tongue.

Uil: “Yeah, I know, I know – we have to go. Look folks, I have no doubt that Onwen stashed some info here somewhere, most of which is now irrelevant, I don’t have time to look for it now, and the only item of real value he had was his holy symbol – which is no longer here. Use your common sense with what you find, Wasstron at the Dunes is a reliable route to get information back to the church authorities.”

Uil: “Gill, give these nice people their key.”

Uil (to party): “There will be a couple more keys around here somewhere I am sure. From talking to the landlord he cannot turf you out for another 16 days – don’t let him try to convince you otherwise.”

Uil: “Right, Gill, Bloodtooth, lets hit the road again, my poor poor feet think I have some vendetta against them, but we have people to see and admonishments to administer.”

Gill rolls his eyes somewhat but falls in behind Uil as the trio leave the house.

….. a couple of hours later….. the rest of the party arrive…..

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1. ↑ Zoom session 18th March – Meeting Bez Drock