Session012

Session Twelve - 29th September 2023

SHORT VERSION

After a battle with zombies, the group explored Fort Frostfell and encountered two ghosts, members of the Order of the Last Bastion. These spirits sought release from their servitude to the necromancer Ralekai Gravemore. They told of a magical shield as gratitude for their freedom from undeath.

The group found some gold, a dwarven tankard with a map engraved on it, a zombie rat trapped in a cloche and the mentioned shield as well as an Iron Flask. They ventured deeper into the fort and discovered Feriae the Wise, a druid ghost. She had been trapped by Ralekai and sought help to find her fellow druids to combat the demonplague. Feriae explained the history of the demonplague, the demon behind it (Xancrown) and Ralekai's misguided efforts to cure it.

Upon her request, the group broke the seal imprisoning her so she could find her fellow druidic ghosts to see how they can amend the ritual they had previously used to seal the valley with a glacier - to instead destroy Xancrown once and for all. Ralekai was believed to be heading to the Storm Elf Barrows, but in the absence of knowing where that was, they chose to head to another location where he was known - Gardong Marhold, an ancient dwarven ziggurat. They picked up an Iron Flask, later discovering it contained something otherworldly and collected valuable gems from Chillwyrm's lair so they could later perform an identify spell.

Heading to Gardong Marhold they set up camp and rested, the night passing without incident.

LONG VERSION

- Link to audio file - 

After the battle with the three zombies, the group returned to the room with the large table and fountain in the corner and cautiously opened the door to the next room, where they discovered a "throne room" of sorts, where they encountered two ghosts. A knightly figure and a clerical figure - the later showing an archaic holy symbol of Mater - the god of the poor, downtrodden and sick. It becomes, clear that the ghosts are from the original (founding?) members of the Order of the Last Bastion - which originally built Fort Frostfell a hundred years earlier - before the order relocated to larger premises in Safeharbour some twenty years ago.

It transpired that the ghosts had been summoned from their rest by the necromancer Ralekai Gravemore, but had not been dismissed, and asked the party to "put them out of their misery and allow them to return to their afterlife." After a brief dialogue, during which they mentioned, by way of reward, an enchanted shield that could be found disguised as stone on a statue elsewhere in the complex.

After a brief prayer by Mogadon to get the departed spirits, the group searched the room, discovering a hidden compartment in the back of the throne-like seat in the room. Drex used his Mage Hand to gingerly pull out a decrepit bag from inside. Several of the 100 gold coins that the bag contained fell from a split in the bag, but rolled towards Drex before Morthos could grab them. Also inside the bag was a tarnished copper sceptre, showing the same ancient Mater holy symbol, as well as a very old Dwarvish drinking tankard with a map on the side of it.

Returning to the corridors, the group pressed on, exploring the old cellars further. The next door they opened revealed a room with two tables. The first had a large glass cloche trapping a zombie rat on it, with several heavy books sat on top of it holding it down.

Beyond, at the far side of the room there was another table and chair. This one was littered with papers and decrepit books, but what drew their eyes first was an old man, chained up next to it, sprawled half on and half off the chair. A nearby bed, within the range of the chain, and a latrine bucket showed that this man had been held captive here for a while, Unfortunately, it appeared that he had died of dehydration or lack of food - and probably only recently.

Based on the papers on the table, it appears the man had been summarising the books - mostly from what looked like history texts. A scrawled note in considerably worse handwriting, stated that his name was Piotr Scragmore, formally the official historian and scribe from Safeharbour and that his captor was an undead, and he was very worried since he hadn't come to feed him for nearly three days..

Realising that, had they explored further when they were here before, they might have saved his life, the three who had been there before looked guilty for a second, then shrugged and moved on, with barely a second thought. Oblivious to the other's missed opportunity to save a life, Mogadon followed alomg as the party searched the corridors further.

Passing through the broken down iron gate where the zombies had come free, they found three statues, one of which held a stone shield that turned out to be detachable - the one the ghost knight had spoken about. The shield was lighter than it looked, and clearly magical, as leather straps formed on the back where there had been none. Realising it would be better than the one Cormir had, the group agreed that their trained fighter should use it. Despite that, the group decided to wait for just over ten minutes for Drex to perform a ritual to detect magic - confirming the shield was definitely magical, and that Mogadon's ancient dwarven drinking tankard also had a faint magical aura that looked protective in nature - probably the reason it was still in good nick. It also revealed a magical aura coming through the door from the next room.

Cautiously opening the door, the group felt the temperature drop, and another ghost appeared, this one that three of the party recognised from their unconscious dreams the last time they were in the fort - the kindly faced middle aged woman with twigs in her hair. She appeared to be trapped in some sort of arcane circle, and after briefly assessing the motives of the party, the ghost revealed she was Feriae The Wise, a thousand year dead druid. She had been relatively recently trapped in this basement by Ralekai Gravemore, and knew a lot about the demonplague, and the demon behind it - Xancrown (follow the link for the details), as well as admitting that she, along with the other members of the Druid's Circle Minas Herion had been responsible for creating the glacier that had effectively sealed the demonplague in the valley for the last thousand years. She now believed it might be possible, using a variation on the ritual they had performed back then, to actually destroy Xancrown once and for all, but she needed to search out her fellow druid ghosts to persuade them of this course of action.

Upon her request, Morthos broke the symbols on the floor, freeing the ghost from Ralekai's imprisonment, and she indicated that she was going to search the valley for some of her fellow druid ghosts - and asked for the party to help her by finding and dealing with Ralekai, as although he claimed to be searching for a cure for the demonplague, she was concerned that he was actually going to exacerbate the situation instead. Feriae said that she knew Ralekai was searching for the Storm Elf Barrows - where the ancient elven kings were buried - as he believed that would help him with his research. Feriae didn't know where the barrows were, but the group recalled having heard Harlyot Crushade talk about Ralekai being based at Gordong Marhold - an ancient dwarven ziggurat that had been exposed by the retreating ice. Morhos also recalled seeing a map sketched on the wall in one of the rooms above, that indicated Gardong Marhold was about a day's journey away.

The magical aura Drex had detected earlier, apart from the aura of the trap that Feriae had been trapped in, emanated from an iron flask sitting on a shelf in the room. Feriae knew nothing about it however and bade the group farewell, promising to find them again sometime so she could let them know on her progress in finding her fellow druids ghosts.

Deciding that it would be a good idea to formally identify what they had found, Drex remembered that he had given a pearl, an essential spell component, to the wyvern on their previous visit. Morthos, aided by Spank, crept up the stairs and managed to salvage 8 gems, two of which were pearls. Now worried that the strangely gem obsessed wyvern would return and be vengeful for the theft of its gems, the group decided to postpone exploring the rest of the above ground part of the keep, and instead returned to their cart and its undead horse "Bessie" and started to make their way towards Gardong Marhold. As the afternoon waned, they finally made camp, finding a spot a little away from the very rough trail they had been following - a trail they had noted looked very like it had probably been made by the very same cart they were using.

With no vegetation (and therefore certainly no firewood) on the land that had been under the glacier up until very recently, they made cold camp in a hollow, hoping the natural terrain would be sufficient to hide then from prying eyes. Taking the time to perform the ritual, Drex discovers that the Iron Flask is actually a powerful magic item, capable of trapping extra planar creatures within it - and that it had something trapped inside it already.

The night passes quietly...

LEVELLED UP TO LEVEL 4

Day Thirty-Five - Travelling to Gardong Marhold.

On to Session 013

Back to Session 0011

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