Back to Barcanton/quest notes
The party breaks camp early and started for Barcanton.
As the road led up into the mountains, it gets colder and colder and the surroundings lands grow icy.
Towards late afternoon, they encounter a small house with smoke curling from its chimney.
Andrei enquires about being able to stay, however as the occupant was unwilling to help
they continued down the road.
Around 30 mins later they find that the road ends in a cliff with a dangerous, winding path.
With sunset fast approaching they head back to the house in desperation. Again Andrei asks
for help, and is again refused. A final plea for shelter for the children however changes the
demeanour of the occupant and the party are welcomed into the premises.
The owner of the house (it is a magical shelter) explained that he feared the party were
bandits however he had never heard of bandits with a couple of children in tow.
Belias turns out to be a very cheery, helpful Wizard who has left his master to open his
own shop in Gerbers Town, to the West.
He explains that the house is magical and gives Linden a scroll containing the spell. Belias talks about recent heppening in the duchy regarding a rise in Makesh supporters
Before turning in for the night, Mary uses the a couple of tents to construct a simple
shelter against the side of the house for the horses.
The following morning the group finds their trusty steeds safe in the shelter although
they must wait for the magical house to vanish before their horses can be freed from
their frozen-over shelter.
The path down the cliff had suffered a landslide during the night and the party has no
small problem negotiating it. Many bruises and scratches are gained both by the party
and their mounts as they slip and slide their way down.
Driven off course by the multitude of slips and falls, the party end up just inside
the fringes of the Delvar Wood, where they are challenged by an unseen assailant...
The unseen attacker(s) strike first at Mary, seriously injuring her with its first blow and killing her horse with a second, while Linden is spirited away on his horse by foul magicks.
A bird squawks overhead while something tries to warp and twist any wooden weapons.
Andrei, Jin and Mardram conjured leopard engage the Orcish Ranger but the entire party is struck by a flaming wall of... fire. The intense heat seriously injures Andrei and Jin, while driving Mary and Mardram back from the combat. Madram is driven back by the heat and is attempting to keep the party on their feet when a huge firey ball of... fire strike the ground in front of Mary.
Andrei is critically injured and thrown back by the blast, his life hanging by a thread. Many others are also badly injured.
The Ranger, now badly injured and flanked by Jin and the leopard, takes a potion and vanishes from sight. Jin swipes wildly where she thinks he is, but neither she nor the cat have any success
Mary rains a few good arrows down on the bird, injuring it badly and Mardram follows them up with a burst of sound. The bird narrowly holds onto conciousness and in response sends a pillar of burney fire Madrams way. Heavenly intervention seems to have been the only explanation as instead of being fried beyond a crisp, he too is now clinging to the verges of this earthly realm.
As the bird flys off laughing, Mary clips it with a final arrow killing it and sending it now humanoid shape crashing to the ground!
While Mary rouses the critically injured and lets Mardram do some more heavy duty healing, Jin rifles through the druids corpse.
12th June 2013
Recovering from their near pasting at the hands of the Druid and Ranger, the party reunite with Linden and the children.
At Lindens suggestion, Mary tries to determine the direction the attachers came from. Following some easily identified tracks, she finds a well hidden bivouac. A
careful search reveals a buried lockbox which she manages to unlock. Inside the box the party finds 5000gp
With the children on horseback they continue on their way and despite Lindens ailing horse they finally reach the road.
An hour down the road they cross paths with a group of travellers and their cart. Mary scouts ahead to determine the travellers disposition and finds what appears to
be a simple merchant and guard with a horse drawn cart. The guard is a little touchy and upon sighting the party, rides up to give them a once over before returning to the cart satisfied they pose no danger.
The cart is occupied by the former top wrestler in Nestris, Strong Sardram, now turned merchant in his retirement and he carries supplies destined for the Duchys Waystations.
After a few minutes of pleasant chat Sardram opens up a hidden compartment and displays some enticing wares for the party
While a little haggling goes on, Sardram enquires about the dissappearances and Andrei narrates the tale from start to finish
With the shopping complete, Sardram, his guard and the group all head back into Barcanton
19th June 2013
The party rolls into Barconton, and Strong Sardram bids farewell and continues on his way to Netris.
The local inn called The Roving Bard is run by a friendly man by the name of Jenson Pulley, who upon recognising the Sylvie and Carolus questions the party about the
whereabouts of their father. Jenson calls his wife, Fanny in and the children run to her obviously happy to see a familiar face.
Following 'The Telling of the Tale', Jenson confirms that the childrens Mother is in Dorduk, and arranges rooms for the party, including the Prince Suite for Linden. Andrei sweet talk Jenson into free stabling for the all, but Mary nearly scuppers the deal with a demand for free food as well.
A very generous lunch is served in in a well maintained private area, with Linden being served noticably finer meals.
Mary enquires after the children and discovers that Fanny and Jenson have decided that they should be handed over the local priesthhod who will transport them to thei
Mother in Dorduk. Mary is not sure if this is for the best and asks to speak with the head priest - Cerndrik, who agrees to talk to the group later in the afternoon.
Cerndrik arrives on time, along with a plate mail wearing guard. After recounting their tale, Andrei and Mary discuss options with Cerndrik. HE is of the opinion
that the children should stay until they could accompany the next pilgrimage to Dorduk in a month or so's time.
In the middle of discussions the guard, a Paladin whispers soemthing Cerndriks ear that disturbs him and he steps back to cast a spell. The target of his spell, Andrei, is accused of carrying that which is evil however in a panic he cannot think what it could be. The Paladin grabs Andrei by the arm while everyone else tries to figure out just what is going on.
As the priest continues his demands to reveal the evil presence, Andrei starts to strip until the Amulet of Malash looted from the crypt is revealed.
A tense standoff lasted for until an agreement was reached - Linden would study the artifact in the temple to learn what he could, and then turn it over to Cerndrik for cleansing. It would then be returned to Andrei if he still desired it.
As everyone relaxes Cerndrik calls for Jensen to serve wine...
10th July 2013
Following a tense standoff, Cerndrik calls for drinks in an attempt to foster relations between the groups
Linden takes the amulet down to the temple lab inorder to study it and makes an intersting discovery - the device is actually capable of being altered to be more... beneficial.
Several days hard work later, and with a little help from Mardram he beleives he has succeeded - all it needs is someone to verify it has worked...
The group try to get to see Cerndrik, however the Priests aide initially refuses to allow the group to disturb the top mans evening meal.
A little sweet talking from Andrei however managed to persude him to talk to Gresham who brought us to Cerndirks table.
The head honcho was dining with several others from the priesthood and was initially sceptical of Lindens efforts. Gresham however was unable to detect any traces of
evil on the artifact and pronounced it safe. This was enough for Cerndrik and he granted leave for Andrei to retain the amulet.
Following a good nights sleep, the party are enjoying brekfast when a ruddy faced chap approaches Linden asking if he can fix his grannys 'magic stone' The dull grey
ioun stone is cracked beyond any casual help, however Linden was able to show the man how to make the stone float, which seemed to alleviate his dismay at the stone
being drained of all magical power.
The party head to see Cerndrik to discuss the children, and while waiting for the morning standup... erm service to be completed Mardram notices a few locals
sniggering and smirking at Gresham and decides to ask the Paladin about it after the talk with Cerndrik.
The Head Priest has understandable concerns about the childrens safety while travelling with a party of adventurers. Mary as eventually talked into letting the
children travel with the preisthood on the proviso that that Mother is told of us and that we visit them as soon as possible after they arrive.
Mardram takes Gresham aside and asks him about the locals reaction and discovers that he is as perplexed as the halfling about at all. Sadly before Mardram can draw
more information from the hulking paladin, Mary is caught trying to listen in. Embarrassed, Gresham refuses to comment further and breaks off all conversation.
Mardram is unimpressed with Mary!
17th July 2013
The group leaves the temple and try to decide what to do next about the Makash cult.
A brief discussion brings about the idea of heading to the Druid grove to the North East and then on to the horse farm.
After several hours travel they find an old, but very well contructed bridge. Linden notes that this type frequently had hidden passages in its supports and Andrei soon locates one that has already been opened. Andrei scouts around the room and upon finding a trapdoor, borrows a rope to investigate. At the bottom was a long dead body and a loooong passageway. Unable to resist, Andrei and Mary take a walk down the tunnel only to return a few hours later empty handed.
The party press onwards and eventually make camp just before the road starts to rise into the Narg pass
As night falls, the party hears a screech. As they look in the direction of the noise, a large dark shape passes right over their heads, narrowly missing Mary.
Combat ensues, with Mary taking an early arrow to the knee. Linden and Mardram Sped and Blessed the party but Jin was next to feel the pointed sticks of pain from the Wynvern rider. Mary takes full advantage of the buff from Linden, loosing 5 arrows at the flying duo while Andrei runs for cover behind a couple of rocks. Linden counters the arrows with a Fireball!! which really hurt the rider. Again Mary makes it rain arrows on the rider, scoring a few good hits. Meanwhile Mardram is soaking up other people damage while he starts summoning something from the aether.
Having turned, the rider again shoots at Mary, impaling her with several shots and hurting her badly. As the beast flys overhead, it tries to sting Mardram, but misses. Andrei tries to charge and shoot his crossbow, succeeding in merely scratching the Wyverns ear. Seeing Mary in trouble, Linden protects her with a stoneskin spell. Mardrams Dire bat finally appears and nearly takes a chunk out of the Wyverns tail. With several members looking poorly, MArdram positions himself well and channels healing energy torwards everyone.
Mary again does the arrow rain thing and is really starting to hurt the archer now. Andrei's madcap charge comes back to haunt him as the Wyvern simply lands on him, crushing him and poisoning him badly! Jin charges to her friends aid, sword all aflame and Andrei, clinging to life stabs the wyvern in the belly a few times. Linden, casually conjures something form the Wyverns worst nightmares, stopping its heart and killing it instantly causing the Orc to retaliate with a few arrows his way. Mardrams bat finally does something useful and the orc takes a nasty bite. Mardram rushes to help Andrei while Jin finishes off the Orc with her blade.
31st July 2013
The group settle down for what turns into an uneventful night, and wake to a misty, overcast morning. Disheartened by the weather they all set off certain that the cloud would burn off as the day progressed.
After a few hours heavy going through boggy tracks the gang are rewarded with a stunning view of the entire valley including their current goal - the horse farm.
The elation from the view is tempered somewhat as the trail down the hills turns into a narrow, shaded frost-covered track. As they travel along, switching back and forth along the slope the troupe ropes themselves together for safety. Rounding yet another bend Mardram calls a halt as the deeply shaded path is almost invisble. A swift spell later and a lit rock is thrown down the track illuminating a partially frozen trickle of water covering the next stretch.
Mary has a flash of brilliance and gathers sand a grit from the path to give grip on the trecherous surface.
The rest of the descent passes uneventfully and the party soon find themselves striding through the long grass of the plains when out of the corner of his eye Mardram catches flicker of movement off to the side. He barely has time to shout a warning and Bless the team before they are pounced upon by three Hill Cats
Madram dodges the first attack. but Mary was not so lucky and lay unconscious under the cats paws. Andrei being mounted was saved by his horse, but had to jump to safety as the beast like Mary collapsed to the ground.
Mardram backed away and channeled divine energy, rousing Mary and Andreis horse back to their senses.
The cats pressed the attack, pinning Mary and grappling Andrei however failing to hit Mardram.
Andreis horse, freshly healed, kicks out at the nearest cat however Mardrams pony is made of lesser stuff and bolts. The sudden motion catches the attention of the cat pinning Mary and it gives chase felling the pony in one attack.
The other cats see the tender morsel and converge to feed.
Seeing how close they had come to death, Mardram decides that they should flee as soon as possible, ie right fecking now! To this end he summons a large ape hoping to distract the cats, and heals the others as best he can.
In a fit of rage Mary rises to her feet and makes the fatal choice to shoot one of the cats. The arrow pierces its rump and draws its attention back to the Elf. The cat clears the distance between itself and the Ranger in a single bound and rips her asunder. Andrei, clinging to conciousness by his fingers takes revenge with a death dealing stab at a vital organ.
Mardrams simian summon grapples one of the cats, while the halfling stuns the other.
The cat wriggles free, but Andrei charges it down, killing it with a single thrust.
Between them, Mardram and the ape finish off the last feline and the remaining party members sit and contemplate the death of their companion.
7th August 2013
The party gather together their scattered belongings and load them and Marys corpse onto the rapidly dwindling contingent of horses.
The chore complete they head onwards towards farm. The road grew closer to the edge of the forest and several of the group spotted that they were being watched from the nearby trees. Just as they reached the watchers location, they were met by Cedarleaf the head Druid who, after hearing their tale proposed a trade - If the group retrieved the Hill Cat corpses, the druid circle would attempt to channel the remaining life-forces of the cats into the body of Mary. This would cleanse the Cats souls, and possibly resurrect Mary. He warned that this had not been done for many generations and there were tales of unexpected side effects, but the group felt it was worth the risk.
Fashioning a litter of sorts (a travois) from fallen branches, the 3 hill cat corpses were brought to the druids who lay them on three Altars, with Marys body going on a central Altar. The Druids began chanting and passed around a strong drink that turned out to be a hallucinogenic. The visions seen by each member of hte ceremony were indescribable and lasted many hours while seeming only minutes long. As the chanting reached its peak, the bodies burst into flames and burned hot and long.
Next morning everyone awoke to find themselves still in the grove, with a newly resurrected Mary. It turned out that the warnings were indeed correct as Mary had absorbed so much of the cat life-force that it had transformed her - she now resembled a tall cat, complete with claws and tail!
4th September 2013
As the party arrive at Court Farm it is quite clear that something in wrong - the gates are barred!
Some vigorous knocking succeeds in only getting a response from a young girl who quickly runs to her father in some distress.
A polite enquiry by Mardram reveals that a serious situation has occurred. Mrs Court has been trapped in the basement by several beasts of unknown origin.
With no knowledge of their foes, the party spend a few minutes preparing themselves with various spells, much to the agitation of Mr Court.
Cautiously they enter the basement, its darkness only alleviated by a overturned lamp burning in the corner. The dim flickering light reveals a couple of fiendish looking brutes prowling the room.
Insert Fight sequence here...
The last beast flees underground only surfacing briefly to take a swipe at Mary
With the last beast hiding, Linden and Mardram are able to locate the trapped Mrs Court in a sub basement. As they try to get her to follow them to the surface, the last wolverine burst through the wall almost collapsing the stairwell An awkward battle ensues, destabilising the walls further. The creature finally dies and with a bit of bracing of walls, Mrs Court and Linden escape, barely!
Unfortunately the Courts life savings are now buried under several tons of earth.
With everyone safe, talk turns to how to retreive the Courts buried safe. With a little scratching of heads Andrei comes up with a plan to use one of Mardrams Summoned Earth Elementals to safely dig down Following a quick batch of instructions from Linden the elemental vanishes through the nearest wall only to emerge a few moments later trailing the slightly dented safe behind it.
With the safe now... safe Mardram examines the corpses and get mary to skin them resulting in 2 hides (500gp, 1500gp) and a variety of dagger sized claws and teeth
Mr Court then takes them on a tour of the stables and offers them a good deal on some fine, fine horses (4000gp for 5)
One more door in the stable remains and Mr Court takes them through to see nothing less than a young Hippogryff!
The beast was found in the mountains, alongside the corpse of its mother and Mr Court is trying to rear it himself.
18th September 2013
The party awake the next day refreshed and ready to go. Mr Court chances his arm and asks if they could investigate the hole in his basement created by the monsters.
Always interested in a mystery, the group gather themselves together and venture into the darkness.
Upon entering Mardram recalls that he has an Ioun Torch in his pack and fishes it out. The head-orbiting device provides bright but flickering illumination as a result of its turning motion.
With no knowledge of what could be ahead of them, they travel slowly with frequent stop to listen for movement of voices, but the only sounds are of water dripping and running down the walls.
As the passage turns a bend, its ceiling takes an abrupt dip, forcing all but the diminutive Mardram onto their knees. Linden finally has enough of the flickering torch light and gets out his oil lamp which he hand to Mardram - the only party member still walking upright.
The passage gets wetter the further they travel until suddenly Mary kicks a wall and water comes pouring out.
She slips but Mardram quickly manages to grab her leg and prevent disaster. Linden however was not so fortunate and barrels into both of them sending everyone sliding uncontrollably down the slope!
The tunnel branches and it looked like they would be split up, but everyone headed the same way, coming to rest a few seconds later in the darkness. Lindens lamp is nowhere to be seen but although coated in dirt, Mardrams torch provides dim lighting.
As they take inventory of their situation, out of the darkness comes an almost invisible, oozing blob...
Mary gets to her feet, while Mardram hoping to block the monster in the narrow tunnel summons some help in the form of two small Earth Elementals.
Lindens lets off a few offensive spells while Mary shoots it and the creature is soon dispensed.
With everyone safe again Linden manages to find the remains of his lamp which he believes he can get back in working order, and they decide to investigate the other tunnel.
A few minutes later they find that the tunnel leads into a stone room featuring a raised dais on which is drawn an obviously magical symbol.
The dais is littered with broken glass which with a little investigation could only have come from a nearby shelf that had collapsed, spilling its contents everywhere.
It would appear that the shelf had been home to a variety of magical compounds including unholy water and when they were spilled on the dais the monsters that attacked the farm had been summoned.
With nothing to contain them they dug their way out and ended up at the farm.
The only other exit from is a spiral staircase that led up to an old stone door. Mardram and Mary push on the door, but only succeed in moving it slightly.
Lindens eye for engineering detail notes that the door and hinges are badly frost damaged, and a sharp strike in one place should cause the door to fall open.
Sure enough a firm tap of Mardrams mace causes the stone to split from corner to corner and half of the door falls outwards.
The door is not the only weakened part however and the entire roof starts to buckle.
Mardram is the first to notice and gives a warning cry before inexpertly launching himself through the door, clipping his foot and falling in the process.
Cat-like Mary bounds through perfectly and turns to help Linden who stumbles and bangs his knee.
With the threat of death by crushing imminent, Linden is spurred to make the leap of his life, coming to rest several metres past Mary.
