Session011

Session Eleven - 18th August 2023

SHORT VERSION

As night fell, Messa Barristar, bearing bruises and seeking solace from her troubled life, visited the bakery where the party was staying. Mogadon comforted her and advised her to speak with Isperil Lightwind. In the morning, Phelm asked the party to leave the bakery temporarily, likely to check something hidden under a paving stone. The group reunited and inspected Basil's Potions, finding it emptied and the crime scene cleaned. They collected Basil's spell book and headed back to Kadra's house to inform the two council members (Kadra and Paumine) about what they had done at Basil's place.

With their undead horse and cart, the group departed Tomar's Crossing, only to encounter a mudslide that forced them into a time-consuming detour. Later, they stumbled upon a muskox graveyard and as night started to fall took a long rest, only to be attacked by wandering zombies. The battle ended with Mogadon turning some zombies and the party defeating the rest.

In the morning, they travelled on, Cormir somewhat exhausted through attempting to sleep the rest of the night in his armour. By midday, they reached Fort Frostfell, finding it seemingly abandoned. They entered the basement area through the secret entrance, explored the cellars a little further, and fought with three zombies that, perhaps agitated by the party's light source, had broken down the iron gate they had been trapped behind.

LONG VERSION

- Link to audio file - 

As the three in the bakery were starting to get ready to sleep, the door to the Barristar's house cracked open, and Messa Barristar crept into the Bakery he seemed desperately unhappy with her life, an the group could see that she had bruises on her wrist - seems that her husband is a bit of a bastard on the quiet. She came to listen to the party's stories to escape from her life for a bit. Mogadon gave her some comfort, and advised her to speak to Isperil Lightwind in the morning.

Day Thirty-Four - Checking out Basil's place again, then heading off to Fort Frostfell.

Once she crept back into her house, the rest of the night passed quietly till early morning when Phelm entered the bakery and both thanked the three of them for looking after the place, and in virtually the same breath, asked them to leave so that he could "sort out his secret recipe". In reality, the party guessed that he wanted to check on whatever it was he had stashed under the loose paving stone.

Using message to contact Morthos from where the Tiefling was staying with Kadra and Paumine, Drex suggests that the group reunite and perform a quick check of Basil's Potions - so he can use a Detect Magic ritual to search for anything they might have missed before. The group reunite and, after noting the absence of any sort of guard on the crime scene, break in to the building, claiming "Council Business" to any passerbys. As Drex spent ten minutes performing the ritual to detect magic, the others searched the building again, noting that his stock had all been removed from the shop, the bodies had been removed and the makeshift altar in the basement had been freshly whitewashed. Morthos found Basil's spell book (which also had three freshly written scrolls tucked into the rear pages - Spider Climb, Web and Haste, which Morthos kept hold of, being the person with the highest likelihood of being able to successfully read them.) Finding nothing else with the detect magic, the group went to Kadra's house, where Paumine and Kadra were working again to repair the last of the damage caused by the fire, and informed them of their return to Basil's Potions.

Collecting their undead horse and attached cart, the group set up the tarpaulin over the hoops on the top of it, transforming it into more of a covered wagon o protect it from the constant drizzle, and waving farewells to Tomar's Crossing, head off onto the trail that would lead them back to Fort Frostfell.

About half-way through the day, the ground tremors somewhat - something that had been happening at random ever since the meteor had hit the valley - and after a few moments, there was an answering rumble from somewhere a short way ahead. Coming around the next bend, the group can see that a massive mudslide has wiped away the trail, meaning that, to continue their journey with their cart, they would need to take a detour, probably adding several hours to their journey.

A few hours later the group come across a muskox graveyard - where a large number of muskox had died, their rotting carcases still stuck in the mud. Putting that gruesome scene behind them, they continued on before finally deciding to pause and take a long rest. Parking the cart out in the open, the group made a camp. Limited by the lack of firewood, the group prepared for a damp and somewhat uncomfortable night. During the middle of the night, Morthos spots some figures approaching and realises that they are bloated rotten zombies. A battle commences, with Cormir and Mogadon fighting with just their shields for defence, not having had a chance to put on their armour.

Mogadon uses his ability to share his night vision, and grants his companions Eyes of the Night before a pitched battle with nine zombies, each of which bursts a noxious cloud of poisonous gas upon first receiving damage. Mogadon turns five of them that flee into the dark of the night, and the others are brought low with a combination of blades, eldritch blasts and even a Guiding Bolt. One the four un-turned zombies are laid low, Mogadon casts some healing spells to restore some health.

Day Thirty-Five - Arriving at Fort Frostfell.

Once the grey light of morning starts to percolate through the overcast sky, the group restart their journey and make their way back to the original trail, finally spotting the rocky mesa with the grey stone fort atop it looming out of the rain. Leaving the cart with its undead horse in the lee of a nearby rocky outcrop, the group sneak their way towards the fort, which looks from a distance fairly abandoned. Making their way around the base of the mesa to the rear of the fort, they enter through the secret entrance they had previously used. Exploring the cellars under the fort, they find no sign of Harlyot Crushade or Harlen Barrypot, the pair seemingly having packed up their belongings and left, but they do hear the shuffling of the zombies and a chinking sound, like something tapping or scratching on glass. As the party shined their dancing lights around, the three zombies trapped behind the metal gate at the end of one of the corridors become somewhat agitated and start throwing themselves against the metal. Exploring further, they come across what must have been some sort of dining hall, with some obvious tracks of one being who had come and gone and seemingly just walked in circles, and one other older set that walked to and from another door in the room. Hearing a distant crash they realised that the zombies must have broken down the iron gate and so they rushed back into the corridor to meet them with ranged weapons. A brief battle ensued which quickly wiped out the zombies.

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