Session
2
Mokharitos
(NPC Necromancer) shows up in the morning to tell Jack, Erianna and Tyrus that
he has managed to schedule a meeting with Councilwoman Danar, for noon. He doesn’t find Serena until noon to tell
her. They are taken into the Underfaust
and the Councilwoman tells them what information the Necromancers have
unearthed about the events of the previous night by the simply expedient of
speaking with the spirits of those killed by the renegade. Erianna is temporarily possessed by the
spirit of a down-on-his luck caravan guard, Darvus, and relives his capture and
ritual murder at the hands of the rogue necromancer, while the rest of the
party is allowed to see these events as they unfold around the possessed
halfling. After his ‘death,’ the
possession ends and the Councilwoman tells the party that they found additional
materials hidden in the bathhouse, sharing with them the leftover armor and
weapons of the skeletons (to sell or use, as they see fit) and also the
renegades spellbook, which she was forced to abandon (with all the pages on
creating the Bloodshadows, Viscera, etc ripped out). Serena leaves the room for the entire possession bit, as it does
not sit well with her personal beliefs.
[Note
to Tom, copy down somewhere what spells are in the spellbook, I’ll want that
sheet back.]
Councilwoman
Danar tasks them to return Darvus’ gear to his widow and child, in a nearby
village, about halfway to Three Moons, just past the neighboring mountain of
Mourning’s Fang, a last request from the spirit before departing.
They
set out an hour later, and end up camping in the shadow of the mountain. Early in the evening, they are set upon by
large red-eyed wolves, but Serena is vigilant and gives them plenty of warning,
so that Jack, with help, has his armor on just as the wolves enter the
party. One is slightly inconvencied by
the inevitable celestial badger attack from Erianna, and Jack then drops it to
the ground with two strikes. A second
nearly guts Mokharitos, pulling him to the ground, sure to finish him off with
a second bite. Jacks’ Dog ends up
saving the NPC, and with help from Spike (Erianna’s Riding Dog) and a
last-ditch dagger throw from Mokharitos finishes off that wolf. Jack eviscerates a second wolf on his own,
while a celestial badger (from Serena this time), and some spear and rapier
action from Serena and Tyrus take out the final wolf.
On
his guard shift, Jack skins the wolves, cooks some of their meat and otherwise
tries to salvage what he can from them.
NPCs
traveling to Hollowfaust give them a wide berth over the next day, even when
Mokharitos produces an all-concealing robe for his Bone Servant.
They
arrive in Nimora, the village where they expect to find Darvus’ widow and
child, and find that the town is much more reserved and closed up after dark
than on their previous visit (when they passed through on the way to
Hollowfaust a few weeks prior). Jack
finds a furrier who will give him coin for the slashed up wolf-furs (and takes
the barely edible meat off of his hands to feed to his own hunting dogs), and
also tells him of recent attacks on children in the community. Two outlying homes have been raided, the
parents slain and children kidnapped in the past two nights. Tonight is the third night of the full moon,
and it is speculated that there will be a third raid tonight.
They
find out that Darvus’ widow was the second victim, just last night, and that
his daughter is among the missing.
Searching her home, they find signs that at least three attackers struck
at once, two of them crouched atop the rooftops and throwing poison darts
through the slashed open windows, while one or more moved in through the door
and either threw darts and / or otherwise incapacitated the child and
mother. She was found dead, the child
missing. A single poison dart (that
missed its target and wasn’t recovered by the attackers) remains behind.
After
conferring with the local gossip / town matriarch, who helpfully draws them a
map of locals in the area with children, they encamp at the home of Darvus’
widow, who, for lack of a name, was called woodcarver Beth. :/
At
midnight, Jack spots small skulking figures moving through the darkness,
awakens the others and then steps out for a better look. The raiders, eight spider-eye goblins, see
him coming and attempt to flee, leading them into an ambush of others, and are
picked off by a combination of a Sleep spell, a Cause Fear, Rays of
Enfeeblement, a Ray of Frost, a few thrown hand axes, rabid war dogs, celestial
badgers, Magic Stones and a psychotic half-orc. It isn’t pretty, and only at the last does one of them turn to
fight, to no avail, as the poison dart has no noticeable effect on Jack.
Seeing
this wave of carnage, the ambushers decide to let the raiding party buy the
farm, sure that none of them will survive the attack, given the quality of
violence going on, and retreat, leaving their allies to die.
Tying
up the three sleeping captives is simple enough, and since they speak Orc, it
is up to Jack to interrogate them. The
goblin and Jack are tied with 8 Intelligence, making this interrogation a real
meeting of the mindless, but it is streamlined by a natural 20 on Jacks Intimidate,
modified by his +9, a bonus for being abandoned by its allies, and another
bonus because Mokharitos is using a Summon Swarm item to skeletonize the dead
goblins in front of him for ease of carrying back to Hollowfaust to sell at the
Bone Market…
In
short, the goblin agrees to tell him anything and take him anywhere. Dropping the other two goblins off at the
town furriers house, with instructions to interrogate them for directions if
the party doesn’t return, they prepare to head out in search of the goblin lair
and to rescue the missing children, whom the goblin assures them aren’t dead,
yet.