Session 08: Take the Long Way Home

Game Date: Saturday, August 16, 2008
In-Game Dates: Lassday, Grimander 13 – Marksday, Noctaver 2nd, midday

The weary adventurers get some well-needed down-time as they recuperate in the guest suites of the Royal Palace. Blood Eagles stand guard at the door, and serfs take care of their needs for food, drinks, even going out into the city and selling their loot, and buying other magical items and adventuring gear. Dalatris sweetens the pot by giving them 12,000 gold as a reward for their continued services for the city and an additional 4,000 from her personal account. She wants to treat them to a dinner, nothing fancy, just a last meal before they leave early the next morning.
After lunch, Kitala comes in carrying Bartelby. The pseudodragon stammers an apology to the group, which is accepted more by some members than others. After an awkward silence, he leaves. Kitala makes some strained conversation as well, but soon has to go. Caspian has had a headache that is getting steadily worse. Finally, just before supper, the others notice that he’s being unusually snippy, and is pale and sweating. Lumi feels his forehead; he’s burning up! She mixes him an herbal remedy to bring his fever down, and he drinks that. He feels some better, but still is strangely weak and clumsy. He goes with everyone to supper, but still doesn't look or feel well at all.
Supper is a simple but excellent affair. Dalatris, DuVrok, and Kitala are there, along with the crown Prince, Anadan. Dalatris tells them that she has never met Kartharine, but has heard of her, and hopes this book will be safe in her hands. She tells the party that they know there are Vaniri agents on the royal city, who will quickly learn that the Jeredrakes have failed them, and most likely come for the book themselves if they want it so badly. They know next to nothing about the secret agents of the Vaniri Empire, only rumors that they use a kind of magic unknown in these lands, or any of the other kingdoms. Whatever their abilities, they are sure to be watching the roads between Fallo and Brindinsford. Dalatris breaks out a map of the kingdom and traces a suggested route that goes west and then north, cutting through the forests and grasslands. It will take longer, perhaps more than a week longer than normal, but their passage should be nearly impossible to track.
Rowan mentions to Dalatris that Caspian is sick, and wonders if she can heal him magically, so they all start out on their trip healthy. Dalatris frowns as she studies him, then casts several spells in succession. The first removed the disease, and the others cured his weakness and slowness. She tells them that he'd contracted Slaad Fever from one of the blue slaads that bit him the day before. Unchecked he would have eventually become a slaad himself. Though Caspian likes the idea of having massive claw attacks, he decides that he enjoys being human a bit more.
They spend a pleasant night in the palace quarters, and the next morning a squad of Blood Eagles accompanies them to the city gates. A few early risers in the city recognize the party and cheer and wave, but for the most part, their exit is unremarkable. The weather has finally changed from an unseasonably warm late fall to chilly and damp. A thin drizzle falls as the party leaves the city, and continues throughout the day. The first night they spend in a roadside inn, realizing that this is the last time they'll have warm beds for quite a while. Rowan is suspicious of everyone in the tavern, but most seem to be local farmers who know each other. There's one solitary half-elf who is dressed like a ranger sitting near the fire, not seeming to pay attention to anyone. Rowan goes over to check her out, but the conversation quickly turns into the other ranger crying over some adventurer who just left her. Rowan retreats as quickly as she can, looking uncomfortable.
By the early afternoon of the next day they have traveled past the outlying farms and ranches surrounding and supporting the capitol city. They reach the road marker that Dalatris pointed out on the map, and cut into the woods. Rowan uses her easy trail spell both to help the party cover ground faster and to help hide their tracks from anyone following them. The forest literally parts for them, and they simply ride along in an ever-moving island of clear space for the first three hours of the day. Rowan can cast the spell twice a day for three hours at a time, so she uses it at the beginning and the end of the day. The rest of the time she forges a trail for the others to follow as best she can, which is pretty well.
The only encounter they have in the first few days is coming across a camp of several bugbear hunters. The party manages to creep around the camp undetected, and continue on their way.
Ten days out of Fallo, they reach a small town nestled in some low rolling downs. The rain breaks and the sun shines for the first time since their leaving the city. The people of the town seem friendly. Very friendly. In fact, everyone they pass greets them with some variant of “Hello stranger! Welcome to Calm!” Lumi and Althea feel strangely at peace as they enter the town, but everyone else is really creeped out. Rowan would have everyone just keep going, but Aiden's horse threw a shoe earlier in the day. The farrier/ blacksmith is just a large, fair-haired woman who is just as congenial as everyone else. As they look around, Rowan notices that everyone, even the mayor, seems fairly young. No one looks older than their mid 30s in the town. Even creepier.
Getting some lunch at the town's tavern, they meet a friendly innkeeper, a beautiful innkeeper's daughter, and a friendly local Priest of Pelor.
Lumi has a chat with the priest, who explains that for whatever reason, this whole area is suffused with positive energy. It keeps people calm and happy, and healthy as well. The town really doesn't have any problems except the occasional magical beastie that wanders out of the forest once every half-dozen years or so. Rowan has asked Althea to do her mind-reading spell to see if these townsfolk are on the level, but as far as Althea can tell, everything is okay. There is something she picks up on, about something that happens to travelers after they've spent the night in town. Everyone keeps alluding to the inn serving a truly wonderful breakfast, but refuses to elaborate more. Rowan explores the inn and the surroundings with her headband of true seeing activated, but everything is as it appears to be.
Finally Rowan is convinced that no one here intends to do them harm, and she gives in to the relaxing feeling of the town. The whole party gets their horses shod with shoes better suited for traveling through the wilderness, and they enjoy a day of relaxation, including a dip in the local bath-house, which pipes water in from a nearby hot spring. Finally they retire for the evening, and all sleep very well. Aiden entertains a few of the town's ladies in his room, and Althea entertains the entire tavern with a few songs. Even for a town where happiness and beauty are an everyday part of life, the patrons and innkeeper find themselves deeply moved by Althea's music.
In the morning, the party gets their breakfast orders, and each breakfast comes with a small crystal glass filled with a few ounces of a clear liquid. After a last bit of trepidation, the party drinks up. They feel the effects immediately... feeling stronger, healthier, quicker. They look up in amazement at the innkeeper's daughter as she explains. There is a spring in a cavern deep beneath the city that slowly fills with this liquid. The spring always produces just enough for every member of the town to have one of these drinks every year. It's also custom for strangers who spend the night to get a glass as well. The reason they must spend the night is because only those with good hearts can stand to be in Calm for any length of time. By staying overnight, the party has proved themselves worthy of their drink of the elixer of youth. It isn't true eternal youth; for people here still die after their allotment of years is up, but they stay strong and healthy until that time.
Feeling great, the party leaves the town and heads back to the trail, feeling refreshed. The cold weather and rain returns as they set out again, but the party doesn't mind too much.
Three days out of the village, they come within sight of the small fort that stands just inside the border of Pythia. Rowan sees evidence of patrols, but they skirt around the fort without encountering anyone.
Another three days pass, and the party comes upon a crossroads. They breathe a sigh of relief... they are exactly where they hoped to be, and a little ahead of schedule! Lumi notes a glint of sunlight on metal in the trees across the road. Rowan peers out, and can just make out a man keeping watch in the tree with some kind of goggles on his head. Everyone takes cover in the trees and brush; it doesn't seem as though the watcher has spotted them.
The party confers. It may very well be a ranger in the employ of Pythia, or it could be an enemy. Or it could be some bandit and have no bearing on them whatsoever. Figuring that it's safer to avoid detection if possible, the party creeps off, parallel to the road for a mile or so before crossing the road and continuing North by Northeast.
Another few days pass. The party comes upon a pair of deer standing stock still on the game trail Rowan is leading them down. The adventurers approach, but the deer don't move. A closer inspection reveals that the deer have been petrified. Further on, they find a few more petrified creatures. The words “basilisk,” “medusa,” and other evils are muttered by the party. Aiden remembers that powerful beholders can petrify as well, but keeps that thought to himself, as everyone seems strung-out as it is.
In the misty grey light of late afternoon, just before Rowan activates her easy trail spell, they hear a crashing of creatures coming through the woods towards them. The party readies weapons and spells, but what comes crashing through the brush are a group of frightened deer, followed by a quickly-moving badger. The party relaxes for a moment after the animals pass, but soon the sound of several more large things crashing through the trees. This time the noise comes from two enormous skeletons of what used to be trolls. Behind them creep two large hounds who seem to blend into inky invisibility when they creep through the shadows of the underbrush. Behind them come two black, thin, humanoid shapes that float a few inches off the ground. Their eyes are the only thing in them that isn't black, and those gleam with a pale malice and a hatred of all things living. They seem to be moving with a purpose through the woods, but when one of the hounds spots the party, the creatures turn towards them.
Rowan fires off an arrow at a shadow, which sails through the incorporeal creature without doing it damage. Caspian casts true strike and readies his weapon for a blow. Aiden sends a fireball powered with positive energy into their midst, bowling the shadow mastiffs off their feet. The humanoid shadows don't seem too affected, but the troll skeletons definitely lose some rib bones and other sections of their animated skeletons.
Lumi steps up, brandishing her new holy symbol, and shouts a word of power. Her holy symbol blazes with a blinding white light. Under it's intense glare, the shadows dissolve into nothingness, and the troll skeletons collapse into inanimate bones, the evil power giving them un-life blasted away.
Althea glows with the brilliance of the noon-day sun as she uses her Aasimar power of daylight. The shadow mastiffs growl as their ability to meld into the shadows is neutralized. The bard begins singing her haunting melody as the mastiffs creep forward, their powerful jaws slavering and their red eyes glowing with rage...