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.
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.
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