Session Five: A Requiem for Annie

Story so Far

The party remains one step behind Dohl’Shelt, and it is starting to feel like their efforts might be helping him. At the very least the Magisterium is profiting from their work.

Journal

Noble Kado has left our party, he chose to remain behind and comfort Calder in the death of his family. He may worship death, but his behavior often shows a care for the living.

As we arrived back at the Magisterium, we came upon a strange scene. A gnome and a halfling standing on a table arguing with Allthol. As we walk up it seems that they were part of an adventuring party that had a contract with the Magisterium, also hunting Dohlshelt. Finally we found a clue that could continue on our way. After some unpleasantness with the gnome, Syr Spar, proving his lack of education in the noble races, we merged our contracts and exchanged information. Their previous party had tracked Dohlshelt to the abandoned Darlo Mine. When entering the mine they triggered a trap and only Syr Spar and Willis survived.

We quickly prepared ourselves and made the three day trek to the mine. Upon arriving my new companions said that the landscape had been changed by some force, when asked for more specifics they were interrupted by Artek saying there was a large encampment over the ridge. Willis moved closer to scout out the whole of it, as he did this some sort of ritual began to take place.One of the cultists walked forward and from the cages in the center of camp we could hear the screams of a young child. As the child’s screams died down a large tree burst into purple flames and we could see the obsidian symbol forming beneath it. Dohlshelt beat us once again, and it cost the life of another child. Charging forward the party killed every single cultist in the mine entrance, except one who escaped with several cages. The battle was swift and fierce, but we weren’t going to allow their crimes to go unpunished.

Finishing the battle we searched the area, and found that the cages contained two children. One who seemed in good health, and one who had had terrible transmutative magics performed on her. Her body had been fused with that of a blink dog. The transformation was far from perfect and it was clear she wouldn’t live if we didn’t find her help. In a hurry we hitched two of carts up and raced back to Rathe’s Wall.

Despite our best efforts Annie perished, in truth while her passing breaks my heart, I can not help but think that it is kinder than anything that the mages of the Magisterium would have done in attempting to free her from the curse.

As we approached the town it was obvious that it was under attack, smoke could be seen rising and the gates were thrown open. Pushing our carts faster we rushed into town only to see bodies being lifted into the air. I stopped one of the guards to ask what was happening, and before he could answer an explosion rocked the Magisterium. He quickly filled us in that the floating bodies were cultists of Dohl’shelt, being summoned to power his attack on the city. The Magisterium itself was being attacked, but one of Dohl’shelt’s lieutenants was trapped inside, giving Annie’s sister to the guards we ran off in hopes of helping in the attack.

When we arrived at the Magisterium the attack had been defeated, but Grimjaw and Althol we arguing about what to do with the prisoner. The Magisterium wanted to keep him for information, and the Watch wanted him executed for his crimes. By way of mediating we offered to interrogate the prisoner and see if he had any information.

The criminal is a male eladrin named Shae Rahel the First Blade. After a fair bit of time we managed to come to an accord where he gave us information in exchange for a promise that we would try and secure leniency for him, and protect his mate from Dohlshelt.

He informed us that Dohl’shelt is simply a pawn of a larger scheme. A force from beyond the Mistwall, the Council of Four, has come to our island in an attempt to bring down the wall and allow the outside world in. Dohlshelt and his cult were to open the sigils which would create a crack in the wall allowing more Eladrin into our side. Eventually the wall would fall completely, and all the evils of the outside would flood in. Shae Rahel says that the Council started with this goal to find a new homeland for his people, but now they want to keep it for themselves. This is why he was willing to betray them. He told us we must proceed with all haste to the fourth sigil and stop Dohl’shelt.

On our way out of town, we spoke to Grimjaw. Explaining that Shae Rahel was not a minion of Dohlshelt didn’t help the case any. Hopefully his trial will not begin until we return so we can testify at how much his information helped us in saving the town.

Behind the Screen

Between this session and the previous one we lost 2 players, both Kado and Cerebus decided to leave the party for various reasons. They were replaced by Syr Spar a Gnome Paladin, and Willis a Halfling Rogue.

This was a less combative session overall with the majority of our time being spent in the interrogation of the Shae Rahel. I love sessions where you get the chance to get a good bit of exposition done, and this one certainly  did. Suddenly we knew why Dohl’shelt was doing what he was doing, and who the real villains were.

On a rules note the first fight with the large amount of cultists showed the benefits and disadvantages of having such low armour and to hit bonuses. A group of low level cultist should have been a relatively easy encounter, but the simple fact that they could reliably hit our tank made it a little harrowing. On the other side the rogue was able to carve through them really quickly. The game overall feels more deadly than previous editions, and that is a change that I really like.

Also a ton of hate for onion cutting DM who decided to reference FMA and Nina.

Session Four: A farm on fire

Story so Far

With Dohl’shelt continuing to assault the city of Rathe’s Wall with a variety of terrors, the heroes move onto their next mission. Another small landowner with a problem.

Journal

After the disaster that our mission to the Mill was I was very worried about what might come next. Dohl’shelt’s plans seem to encompass much more than just kidnapping. We used our letter of introduction to the guards and met Watch Commander Grimjaw, a rather sturdy female dwarf who seems to be dealing with the overwhelming amount of extra work the watch has rather well.

We spoke to her for sometime trying to get information about Dohl’shelt, but the guards are just as clueless as we are. Once we figured that we have no new leads we asked if there is anything else we can do to help at this time. She told us that a farm on the outskirts of town just burnt down, the owner and his family are all missing. He was seen in town last night, but no one has heard from the family. Our mission was to find the owner and his family, then determine the cause of the fire.

Conveniently no sooner do we receive our mission than Pael Calder, the farmer, walks up to the watch tower. He says that he was in town visiting friends, and that he spent the night in town. We could smell the alcohol on him which stuck with what we had heard from some of the guards earlier. We spoke to Calder to try and determine if anyone would want to hurt him or his family. He says that he has no enemies that he knows of. Following him back to the farm is a small trek, but it gave me a chance to see the surrounding countryside. I have been so caught up in everything going on I hadn’t noticed how different Rathe’s Wall is from my home. I miss the woods and the graceful architecture of home.

The farm was completely destroyed except for the grain silo. The livestock had gotten free, but after a quick head count Calder informed us that none were missing. Whatever else this fire was, it wasn’t to steal from him. The search was a quick one, Calder’s family had been in the home when it caught fire. Everything we saw pointed to this being an act of arson. The fact that both the barn and the house burnt down even though they weren’t connected being the biggest clue.

Thalous searched the barn while Kado tried to comfort the poor man. His brand of comfort doesn’t work for anyone not a follower of Hades, but is more than I can do. I understand his pain, being the last alive of your family is a terrible burden. For now though I am more focused on finding the culprits. My justice may still be sometime in the future, but Pael Calder will get his.

Thalous’s search revealed that there was a spot that had been protected from the fire by magic. The magic used was something particularly strong, beyond anything I can conjure. Thalous told me that was also having visions of tentacles crawling over the space. Remembering the mill we searched around until we found a trap door that led to a long tunnel. The tunnel headed off in the direction of the cemetery for an unknown distance. We gather up the rest of the group and head down the tunnel, Pael decides to follow us. He has no wish to be left alone with the ghosts of his family and whatever caused the fire.

As we walk down the tunnel Calder explained to us that his family is descended from an elven family. His branch was disowned for breeding with humans. That’s when they left the capital and settled here in Rathe’s wall. The tunnel led to a crypt containing the remains of his ancestors even though he has lived on this farm his whole life he had no knowledge of the crypt.

Exploring the crypt led us into several encounters with the undead remnants of the Calder family. Mostly the undead fell quickly to our attacks, the exceptions being some sort of unliving elven child who’s fell magics knitted their wounds as fast as we could cause them. During the exploration we also found some treasure, the half orc found the secret passage leading to it. The brute made the choice to keep whatever he found valuable in the chest, and leave the copper pieces for the rest of us. I hope he found enough to make up for the disfavour this caused with the rest of the group.

Once we finished exploring the crypt we found the key to the last door, beyond it was some sort of temple to Calder’s ancestors. As soon as we passed the threshold demons were summoned and set upon us. Banding together we fought them back, but it was too late. The symbol on the floor of the room turned black as obsidian, whatever these symbols are I do not think the change is a good one for us.

When we leave the farm we saw that the explosion from last night was something that destroyed a portion of the cemetery, I am unsure why anyone would attack the dead that don’t move when there are so many undead wandering around causing problems. Back at town we report our findings to Watch Commander Grimjaw and are informed that the Magisterium is purchasing the land from Calder. I don’t trust this.

Behind the Screen

This session had some of the most constant combat we have seen, and it was the first time we face the undead. It is a big difference fighting skeletons and zombies than what it was in previous editions. Before skeletons had a small of resistance to damage, 5e makes resistance automatically half damage. Which is great for the party member that does only a little damage, this way they can at least do something. It really hurts the massive damage dealers though. As a party we just weren't equipped for dealing with that sort of resistance. We then faced zombies, now these guys used to be low level fodder. In 5e they were given undead fortitude, a really awesome rule that means when they are reduced to 0 hit points instead of dying they take a constitution save based on the damage taken. Those child zombies lasted 4 or 5 turns of just passing this save. This turned a relatively easy encounter into something really dangerous.

One of my favourite parts of the new edition is that you can no longer take for granted that the party is going to destroy an encounter. Even with all the healing available and all the new skills, simple mistakes can quickly end an adventure.