Wandered Roads 25

Wandered Roads of Varisia
Session #25
September 24, 2013

Campaign Timeline

The Shard of Pride

Fireday, 21st of Lamashan

The group of heroes continued their search for Natayla. Daellin, Calina, Kallin, Samad and Leela paused for a moment to take stock. There remained one door ahead of them, no doubt leading to the last remaining room of the ramshackle building. Daellin takes a moment to use his Farstrider magic to allow everyone to see in the darkness as if it were daylight. From his vantage point in the attic, and newly found darkvision, Samad could make out the shapes of several figures, some of which may be Goblins, crouching in the rafters above the next room. He relayed this information to his companions below as they prepare to move into the next room. Before they can enter the room though, a voice calls out to them, a female voice speaking in fluent Varisian. The voice demands the ‘interlopers’ to ‘flee from her realm’ and that they are ‘not worthy to take audience with her.” This goes on for a moment, with Daellin calling back some smart mouthed comments. It was clear that whoever was shouting was becoming agitated by the refusal to comply. Daellin led the charge into the next room and found it to be similar to all the other rooms of the building with its floor rotted and fallen away to reveal another sewage filled pit. A large fireplace could be seen in the far wall and a ladder could be seen leading up inside it. Three Goblins were crouched on a non-collapsed section of floor near the fireplace. They immediately shouted threats and engaged, leading off with thrown poo-pots and charged in with their dogslicers held high.

Meanwhile, as Samad made his way forward through the attic space, the Goblins watching him began firing arrows at him, which he was fortunately able to avoid. As he got closer, he realized that the 3rd figure he had spotted above resembled the description of Natalya. She continued to command her Goblin minions to deal with the intruders.

Down below, Daellin nimbly followed the narrow ledge around one side of the room while Calina and Kallin moved more slowly around the other edge. Leela held back in the doorway, waiting for the right moment to make her move. Calina and Daellin were quickly engaged by the Goblins and suddenly a huge purple black beast of a worm erupted from the fetid pool of below. It was large enough to reach all the way up to the crumbling ceiling of the room. It undulated back and forth as it looked for a target to swallow in its large, fang lined mouth. Calina and Kallin both attacked the thing and quickly realized that it was nothing more than an illusion, though it took the others a few moments longer to realize it. The heroes presses on, trying to make their way to the fireplace and access to the attic. Daellin reaches the fireplace first and squeezes in, only to find a Goblin Snake hiding in the corner. The beastly Goblin faced serpent belches a horrible cloud of disgusting gas at Daellin, it nearly incapacitates him and Calina who is crowding into the fireplace behind him. Daellin stops to battle the creature while Calina heads up the ladder. Kallin crowds in next and attempts to climb the ladder, but the cramped confines of the fireplace make it difficult for the large Half Orc to make his way up. Leela quickly follows once Kallin makes it up. Daellin dispatches the Goblin Snake and heads up as well.

Battling Natayla and her minions!

Meanwhile, Samad manages to somehow lose his balance and the mercenary falls from the rafters all the way down to the nasty brown and green liquid below, joining a Goblin who had also fallen. The two scrambled in the liquid near the thrashing giant worm and Samad managed to dispatch the Goblin before he could even get his footing along the shallow edge of the pit. Samad then hurries up the ladder and joins his friends above.

Up above, Calina confronts Natayla while standing on the neck of a fallen Goblin. Natayla continues on with her prideful demands and will not entertain any possibility of surrender. She throws some potion vials and misses as Calina continues to cover her with Whisper. Natayla tries some magic, but it is not effective until she flings a bolt of magical acid directly at Calina, striking her and nearly disintegrating her enchanted armor. Calina begins letting arrows fly at her but it seems she is somehow magically protected. Eventually Kallin, Leela, Daellin and Samad arrive in the attic space and join the fray. Samad manages to disarm Natayla and Daellin moves in close and attempts to grapple her, but that is not successful and she manages to break free and nimbly run across a nearby attic beam. Set on not letting her get away, Daellin follows her and makes a flying tackle, knocking both to the floor below. Another brief struggle ensues, but then suddenly, Natayla clutches her side and collapses, unconscious.

She is quickly tied up and a search reveals some potions, thieves tools and climbing gear and a strange coppery shard of metal, no longer than an Orc’s hand. Daellin can see that the shard contains strong magic and before he can caution her, Leela grabs it.

Almost immediately, Leela begins making demands and ordering her companions to do her bidding, calling them unworthy servants at best. Realizing that she has somehow been cursed by the object, possibly in the same way that Natayla had been the heroes try to devise a plan. Daellin attempts to knock it out of her hand but is unsuccesful. Samad shoves her into the sewage pit, which only incenses her even more, now that her clothes are covered in filth. Calina and Kallin enter the pit and begin to act as if they are willing servants, which calms Leela a bit. Calina offers to help her out of the pit but then just picks her up and holds her. When Leela begins to suspect treachery, she starts to kick Calina over and over. Kallin then comes up and uses his magic to place Leela in a healing slumber. The sleeping Gnome drops the shard in the muck and is hauled out of the pit. Daellin quickly removes his shirt and begins searching through the cesspool for it, being careful to not touch the artifact. Eventually he finds it.

Meanwhile, Natayla and Leela both wake groggily. Both seem somewhat confused, ahsamed and sorry for their recent actions. Natayla explains that she found the shard and was going to turn it over to Shelia Heidmarch, but was overcome with its prideful curse, turned on her own gang and then went on the run, as they wanted her dead. She thanks the party for ‘rescuing’ her and continues to apologize. She is untied and wishes to accompany the group back to Heidmarch Manor.

Before setting off across down reeking of a sewer and dripping filth, Kallin has everyone gather close in and uses his divine magic to cleanse everyone from head to toe, though some of the nasty odor lingers on.

Eventually they make it back to Heidmarch Manor and Shelia meets them in one of the parlours. She is excited to hear about everything and is quite astonished when she is shown the artifact. She explains that she thinks it is one of the pieces of the Shattered Star, an ancient Thassalonian artifact of great power. She explains how the curse can be mitigated by placing an Ioun Stone in the small indention in the base and she offers one of her own Stones to test her theory. When the Ioun Stone is placed on the coppery metal, it flashes and the Stone is fused with the Shard, becoming a coppery bump where once was an indentation.

Before more can be discussed, Samad reaches out and picks up the Shard. He is immediately bonded with the artifact and gains access to all its abilities, it even shows him an image of where the next Shard is located, somewhere within the Irespan piling known as the Crow. Natayla then exclaims that is where she found the first Shard and it makes sense that the other one might be there. Shelia makes no design on keeping the artifact and in fact, encourages a search for the rest of the Shards. She even offers to help research them to at least track down which types of Ioun Stones would be needed to suppress the curses in the other Shards.

Shelia eventually bids the group farewell and they head back to Kaijitsu Manor. Natayla asks if she can walk with them and along the way she tries her best to explain what had happened to her and what she knows about The Crow. She then heads back to Heidmarch Manor.

Back at home, they are greeted by a drunk Ehlyna who complains that they had been off all day having adventures without her. She then goes on to say that Vexeron is getting close to locating the whereabouts of the ravens whose feathers they stole in order to magically seek them.

Characters Present:

Kallin Hawkril, Half-Orc shaman and budding Priest of Pharasma - played by +Daniel Ernst
Calina - Varisian Human archer and scout - played by +Carol Coburn
Leela Cardnool, Gnome scout, cartographer and Illusionist - played by +Lisa Smith
Daellin Silvanthalas, Elven Farstrider Ranger - played by +Ben Lipe
Vexeron, Human wizard - played by +Greg Grady
Ehlyna Fuzziface - Dwarven Warrior - played by +Jodi H
Samad Aldhul, Human ex-mercenary - played by +JeCorey Holder
Ellie - Halfling Finder of Things - played by +Megan McCarron

and +Jason Woollard as the DM