1.2.21 - To the Graveyard

So… after we had our talk with Nash and his brother, Boreal, put an ax in his skull we set out knowing that we had new allies in these orcs. It would take us a few days to get to the graveyard run by Doomguide Yovir to find the Blade of Lathander, so Cannon, She-Rah, and I headed off down the road on foot while Rhys flew as a bird back to Melvaunt to pick up our orders from a long time ago and we told her to meet us at the farm where we left Elisande! (I couldn’t wait to see her!)

   On the way to the farm, we passed over the kobold bridge where Cannon corrected the commander and his soldiers about how they were acting. The leader pulled out a really crumpled piece of paper that had pictures of me, hairless Cannon, Rhys, Ears, and Freyadis on it. Then, soon after, we said goodbye to our friends and we passed by the now sealed tomb of Ears' family. By the end of the afternoon, we arrived in the small farming community and we were greeted with cheers and were recognized as heroes. It had been several months since we last saw these people, but they remembered us. As we approached the Rennon farm, we saw that there was indeed a giant goat there from when I sent Eli her goat (Fairy Princess Telcanah) and her name had been painted on the mailbox. She looked as healthy as could be and was finely dressed. She called Mrs. Rennon “ma”, but I didn't mind. She invited us to stay for dinner and to stay for the night before we must press on in the morning. Ma Rennon seemed surprised to see us and was thrown off by our arrival but made a good host anyways. We were shown to the attic where we would be staying and barely got through putting our gear down before Eli started asking about our adventures, what I had brought her, and why I hadn’t written to her at all. I gladly told her of our exploits while waiting for Rhys to get back with my bag of holding to find a gift for her. Rhys arrived just in time for dinner, nearly giving Ma Rennon a heart attack, and brought pies with her. I gave Elisande the bullette dagger Rhys just picked up along with the keys to She-Rah’s dungeon. We learned that life had been fairly undisturbed for these people with the exception that their crops didn’t sell for quite as much under the dragon’s rule; Pa Rennon even goes to Phlan once every once in a while to sell their crops. The dragon was completing projects previously unstarted by the ruling council of Phlan. The Rennon’s have started farming more goats than crops, so before we go Rhys gave them a lesson on caring for goats in an environmentally safe fashion. We said our goodbyes before turning into birds to make the last stretch of the journey to the graveyard. While flying over the swamp we did notice an odd sight of a medium-ish black dragon sleeping above the ground in the swamp. A few of us also noticed that a jungle has sprung up in Valejo Keep where She-Rah senses there was a pool of radiance.

   We made our way over towards the temple, where I snuck up to find Cassette, though much older looking, sitting on the steps. Upon approaching her, I asked her some questions about what has happened, how things have been, and whether we can go into the graveyard. She told me that things had been very bad recently as the undead had taken the graveyard and made nightly journeys to the city to take people to convert to their ranks and Brother Keefe and Doomguide Yovir had not been back from within for months. She also said that three of their relics, necromancy stones, and the dracolich statue had been taken. Cassette asked that we save Phlan from the undead, as not even the dragon had been able to stop them, and that she had been hoping we would be able to come back and help her. (I also learned that there have been tons of dragons about, of various ages and colors.)

Without hesitation, Cannon had She-Rah throw him over the wall of the cemetery in order to defeat these undead monstrosities. The other three of us followed suit. The inside was nothing like it used to be and was like its own separate world from the outside, one full of fog and darkness. We found a section of larger tombstones and were ambushed by a vampiric Brother Keefe--in possession of one of the stones--some minotaur skeletons, and some zombie ogres.