The Blood Thickens

The party went from the heightened clearing back into the forest, having seen a couple caverns from the clearing. On their way they bore witness to the master of the Dorei Verda, and one of the dragons that fought in the war a thousand years ago, one of the founders of Ael’Tas as it swooped down on a giant elk to feast on the flesh of the cute petable huge critter. The elk stood no chance.

Later they found the caves, and after meeting a baby bear, they found a more interesting cave, featuring a bloody trailer smeared across the wall. The party managed to avoid the traps. Under the cover of Invisibility the party moved, only to be greeted by hostile dark elves that attempted to dispatch of Tara. In panic she banished both of them, and while Arthur quickly snatched whatever seemed relevant, the group dashed outside. Unfortunately both Tara and Meicoril touched some blood in running, and their skin started to become blotched around the arms.

The dark elves, realizing their hideout was discovered burned their camp to the ground and disappeared deeper into the tunnels, whilst the group tried to catch their breath, hiding beneath somewhere in the forest. As the party retraced their steps they found no sign of the dark elves, but they did find a hidden tunnel deeper into the cave.

At the end of this cave they found a giantess, blood flowing from her like rivers. Close to her, there were several ogres, her tribe mayhaps? And a troop of wolves, which though all in horrific conditions because of the bleeding disease that blighted, only some really should have been dead already. We offered our aid to the giantess and she mocked us, saying the dark elves had already offered theirs, and pointing towards a clump of flesh that one day used to be an Ogre. The dark elves’ help cleary had failed and if anything backfired horribly. The group asked if the giant had any idea what caused the disease, and luckily for them, she had. Through veritable rivers of blood, she took us to a clearing where the blood flowed into a basin, about 25m in radius. A couple of investigative tricks revealed that the central tower, ending on a jagged spike rising from the basin was a necromantic artefact, pulsing out the disease, and letting the blood flow towards it. The secondary purpose of the pillar was to use this blood for a nefarious purpose that became clear as soon as we tried to destroy the tower (thanks to the giantess for tossing a big boulder towards it), the tower entered in some sort of defense mechanism, creating blood golems to stand our progress.

It was an arduous and dare I say it, bloody affair. But the group ultimately proved victorious. And as the necrotic tower collapsed, the disease started to slowly fade away, and the blood everywhere started to brown, being returned to its normal state.

The Giant collapsed from exhaustion, and with some clever action of the resident healers of the party she was brought by just enough for the party to say their goodbyes while she nested herself into Orpheus’ rather than Hades’ arms.

From there the party moved back towards the cellar they came from, and with the good news mentioned and all of them saved, most of the group went to bed, whilst Tara (aka, the one that can’t sleep) related of their heroic tales to the people that saved them from the Abyss (or was it Hell.) With finally gaining some rest, the group was ready to visit the Dorei Verda, and after that, go back to Ael’Tas.