Recap 001

# Haven Continues

**Brutus the 67th - 73rd, 487**

*Still reeling from the Thing that Crawls breaking through one of his seals, our heroes head south in the hopes that a wizard lives and that they can reseal the beast before he breaks free from his prison. Their travels are disturbing and they find that those who die seem to rise again in one form or another. Psilo discovers his sister's dead body apparently killed by a human assassin from Thantis. While a battle rages at the druidic seals, the party finds and enters what they hope is the arcane tower.*

## Player Characters Involved

* Psilo Nightshade the fey druid played by Donnie
* Graham Finkle the human factotum played by Jason
* Vorillus Kastrom Scunckorum the human marshal played by Greg
* Horc Magebane the one and only half-orc fighter played by Dana
* Rafe Asher the human ranger played by Jeff
* Two Seven the chaos gnome barbarian played by Koski

## The Story so Far

On Brutus the 67th, some of our soon to be heroes gathered in the bar and kitchen of Fort Weyland a mercenary outpost near the cloakwood. Horc was celebrating his 15th birthday. This is the age where many of the orcish traditions considers a child now a man. Horc had recently dived, alone, into the woods and returned with his kill - a giant crocodile he had killed and fashioned into armor. Many drinks were shared and we were introduced to Kester and Conrad as well as Lady Len. A female half-orc who was unusually comely took Horc to bed making him a man but he *very* quickly returned to the bar. Suddenly a loud boom followed by an eerie silence filled the bar. Suddenly millions of stirges descended upon the fort and the party begin doing whatever it took to keep the swarm out of the inn. A similiar situation had happened in the barracks where Two Seven slept. An earthquake tore the fort apart causing cave-in's and destruction. Many of the fort lost their lives.

Kester and Conrad would blow their signal horns and many are drawn to them. The feywood is now cloaked in darkness and the realization that they are somehow now in the cloakwood dawns on the mercenaries. Even in the brightest of torch light, one could only see perhaps 20 feet in front of them. Kester and Conrad waste no time in departing with those healthy enough to travel with them leaving Lady Len a cleric of Brutus and Shala to help the fallen. Kaz decided to help the fallen and they spend an hour aiding the wounded and helping them rally around Lady Len. Horc finds a *healing belt* on a fallen mercenary and wisely takes it.

With the injured aided, Psilo convinces Kaz and Horc they need to travel south with him and Rafe to re-seal the arcane seal. Kaz calls out for volunteers and an injured Graham (a friend of Kaz) and one of the chaos gnomes decides to aid the druids in this endeavor. The seal is nearly 100 miles south, travelled through pitch darkness. Gathering what supplies they can, they begin their precarious journey through the pitch darkness.

The going is initially slow, the party can barley see and horrors fill the darkness with the terrain frequently unrecognizable. However they find an odd lagoon with a ancient house on a small peninsula in the middle of the lagoon. In the house they fight blurred bears, and living magic. The house appears to be abandoned with an ancient skeleton on the top floor. Here Rafe has a dream of his foster father, the arch wizard, who convinces Rafe that he is a wizard and touches his necklace which burns him.

After this, Rafe is able to see through the darkness with ease and they are able to travel much quicker south. They are frequently attacked by aberrant forms of friends and foes. They find the dead bodies of druids killed by chokers, attempt to ambush grimlocks from the depths of the earth, and other horrors of the night. At one point they are hunted by a wizard riding on aberrant wolves but the party is able to defeat their would be trackers. Horc finds his spear killing the wizard and with it, an odd sense of elation overcomes him as if the spear itself was joyful. The party watches with mixed emotion as Horc dismembers the wizard head, cuts out his tongue, and throws his dirty castin' hands as far from the body as he can.

## The Druid Grove

Five nights after leaving Fort Weyland, the party looks for a place to rest after their battle with the grimlock wizard and finds they are near a druid's grove known to Psilo. Upon arriving it's apparent that something is wrong. Rafe scouts ahead and finds a dead pixie that looks to have been taken out over a week ago, purposely, by humans equipped with cold iron. When Psilo see's this he discovers to his shock that it's his sister Psara Nightshade that was killed. Why humans from the city would be armed with cold iron and killing druids right before the arcane seal was broken is clearly suspicious and Psilo takes the branding on the man's body. They decide to bury her but while doing so she suddenly becomes filled with some type of life once more and begins screaming in a supernaturally disturbing manner that causes Horc and Rafe to become unwell. Two Seven quickly kills the aberration and they find that whatever was possessing Psara had restored a sort of life to her.

They decide not to camp there and headed south for another couple of hours. Right before dawn, the figure who had killed Psara was seen sneaking into camp by Rafe who was able to see through the darkness. The creature was clearly an undead, and yet one that had retained it's fighting style and memories. The man was able to nimbly dodge out of an entangle spell and dodge blows by hiding in the shadow. At one point an attack by Horc was almost entirely blocked by his flesh turned steel. Graham was able to identify several of the maneuvers he was using and knew he was well trained in the sublime way. Despite his fighting prowess, the combined efforts from the party, and the excellent leadership of Kaz, eliminated his skillful advantages and he eventually succumbed to the parties attacks.

After the fight it was decided to burn or separate all fallen bodies while travelling in the cloackwood and the party continued south.

## Is Anyone Home?

The party arrived where the original border used to be. A half mile clearing of the forest separated the Cloakwood from the Feywood. Rafe knew from memory that the tower would have been right on the other side of the border and they pressed on. Several of the party members could hear the sound of something loud, like roaring, coming from the east where the druidic seal is kept. Arriving at the wizard's tower they were able to open the doors and enter into what looked like a church room complete with pew's and an alter to some type of warrior.

No one could identify the warrior nor did they know why they would have been worshipping one where the wizards maintained their arcane seals. The fort built around the seal apparently had been recently damaged and a hoard of large spiders had taken to nest. Horc burned their webs and they decided to come charging down to defend their nest and protect their young. A pretty one sided fight ensued with Horc and Two Seven eventually getting into the tunnel to finish the rest off.

While searching the alter, a secret button was found that responded with Kaz pressed it with his finger but not when Rafe used his mace. Upon pressing it the first time a masculine voice asked a riddle: *"It helps us, it warms us, it gives us sight. It is a symbol of good, but sometimes it bites."* The party had some guesses but nothing seemed to happen. When Kaz pressed it again a gold key appeared atop the altar.

The party went down a long hallway that ended with a T intersection. Graham explored the right tunnel and gave the all clear, however, the moment he entered four wood golems began to move to attack. The party reacted quickly and moved into the flanking positions that Kaz had been working on with them. So soon after teaming up and the party was coordinating their attacks like a well trained combat unit. With many of the team needing slashing weapons, it took a while before the party was able to take them down. The larger wood golem pummeled at random and several of the party members took greivious wounds that exhausted the rest of the healing they had available.

The session ended with the party deciding to camp in the room to rest up with no thought given to how much time they had remaining before the next seal fell...