Session Fifty-Seven Summary (Graveyard of Empires: After the Fall)

Session 57, August 11 2021

Introduction

We continue at 12:00PM on the 22nd of Laurilden in Montoa as the villagers and party deal with the aftermath of the orc battle. The group must figure out how to re-consecrate the healing lake and insure the safety of the Montoans from One-Horn's forces while also moving ahead with their plans to counter the DVL invasion ...

Larry's Summary

AT the lake, Felix casts commune with these 3 questions and gets a YES answer to each question.

Commune questions asked:
1-Will Remove Curse restore the lake's healing power after we clean it? YES
2-Is the Winter King amenable to our proposal to join the coalition to fight the DVLs? YES
3-Is there any of Myrientaxus' treasure left in Myrientaxus' lair that will directly benefit us in fighting the DVLs? YES

Lungmold talks to the emissary from Hizzou and the talks went well. The emissary thinks he can get the village elders to agree to be part of a defensive pact to deal with hostile forces West of the mountains.

Brendil looks at Velkin's notes on blood magic and talks to Kauri about blood magic.

Rallion, Lungmold, Velkin, & Will Seibold go looking for Hermengart. They come upon a burned patch of jungle in the rain and discover 7 giant beetles. Rallion entagles with blood magic and holds 3 and slows 2. Lungmold is attacked by the two not held and goes down.

Will is dropped by the two beetles who turn and blast fire out their hind ends and Will goes down, badly burned.

Rallion drops another entangle and gets 3 of the 4. One is not affected. Velkin rushes in and gives Lungmold a healing potion and he's back on his feet. Velkin bound Will.

Rallion strikes the beetle facing him, it turns and blasts him, and both he and Velkin are stunned.

Rallion is then slain. Velkin is invisible and safe. Lungmold charge but got hung up in the entangle.

Hermengart showed up just in time and distracted the beetle from slaying Lungmold, but Hermengart gets hung up in the entangle when he charges in.

Hermengart is slain and the beetle carries him off.

Just before the entangles wear off, Velkin comes to his senses and kills 3 entangled ones. The first 3 held ones come in and drag off Will and Rallion. One gets hung up. Velkin and Lungmold kill the beetles carrying off Rallion, Will, and Hermengart and slay one that was slept and one entangles.

They make a travois and pile on the bodies and head back to Montoa.

Back at Montoa, the villagers clean up the lake and Felix casts Remove Curse and the party and villagers heal up and top off their vessels.

It is after dark before Lungmold and Velkin return to Montoa with the bodies of their companions.

This brings a solemn tone to the party. Gath is sad when Rallion doesn't respond to prodding.

Lungmold relays to Gath that the party will fix him, so Gath picks up Rallion's body and carries it to the lake.

Lungmold places his glowing feather in one of Rallion's hands and Rallion's glowing feather in the other. Lambertus and Felix lower his body into the water and his body is no longer damaged, the feathers vanish, and Rallion glows.

Druul reaches into a pocket thinking of resussitation and gets a parchment with a rune that VElkin, Kauri, et. al. record.

They elect to bring the 5 orc and 6 hobgoblin prisoners to the lake and preserve Lambertu's final god stone, keeping it as a last resort to raise Rallion.

Lambertus begins slaying hobgoblins and it takes 5 of the 6 hobgoblins to power the spell of the rune. Rallion changes form and stands before all as a glowing unicorn. He cannot speak. Gath thinks that Rallion has ascended to become a higher power. Gath elects to stay with Rallion. Rallion decides to remain at Montoa and stand as a guardian of the lake and the village.

Ajax returned and relayed that about half as many of the orcs as were slain appear to be the surviving force and they are making their way towards the mountains. We slew about 70, so we estimate about 35 survived so about 70 remain of the original assault force.

Velkin's Scrolls

Velkin Scrolls 28 – Session 57

Montoa’s Lake Cleansed, Rallion Dies

Laurilden 22, 12pm

Current things: Reconsecrate the healing lake. Ajax following fleeing orcs. Missing Hermegart Prisoners: 5 orcs, one of them, Droog, is cooperative. 6 hobgoblins

Recharge stones from life forces? Hermergart – find Discuss with the Pirate Kings Diplomats back to Hizzou – they were successful in their negotiations. The Hizzou guards were killed

Felix casts Commune: 1-Will Remove Curse restore the lake's healing power after we clean it? YES 2-Is the Winter King amenable to our proposal to join the coalition to fight the DVLs? YES 3-Is there any of Myrientaxus' treasure left in Myrientaxus' lair that will directly benefit us in fighting the DVLs? YES

Lungmold converses with the Hizzou diplomats Their higher powers are Bocca and Niamah, the Mother brings the rain and the Father, keeper of the hearths. Their shaman also are not able to cast magic. He asks Kaliha if the feather has been of use. He tells her that it was blessed by the mother’s.

Brendil looking through Velkin’s notes and (he can read anything with his cloak) and it’s got a fair amount of the actual runes and stuff. Not much about the theory. Kauri says it’s not something to dabble in, you’re all in or out. (Out of Character: You can switch classes if you want. But it depends on how much you come to concentrate your actions and studies. If you start carving things into your arm, then you’re switching to Magic User and until you don’t use your current abilities, you wont ever get better at them though)

Rallion, Lungmold, Myself and Will go search for Hermegart. Not many birds around as we’re headed toward finding Hermegart. Velkin doesn’t get a response. A ways away – we find a break in the tracks. There’s a shriveled up and burnt line, about 100’ away, a large group of beetles are present. Fire beetles attack, 2 slowed, 2 made it through. The sound that the fire beetles butt spray torch Will Will goes down

Still invisible, I heal Lungmold, Another fire beetle blast hits us and stuns Rallion and I.

Rallion is killed by the firebeetle. Coup de gras

Hermegart is killed after distracting the one that was on Lungmold and a beetle carries him off.

Just before the Entangle wears off, I wake up and dispatch 3 of the beetles caught in it, Lungmold and I kill the rest of the beetles. We fashion a travois and haul the dead back to Montoa.

While we were gone, Felix casts Remove Curse after the lake is cleaned and restores it’s healing properties and our vessels get topped off.

Sun sets and Ajax returns. He followed the orcs and hobgoblins are definitely headed for the mountains. The force headed back is just under half of the dead left at Montoa, we killed about 70, so we’re figuring about 70 are left.

Lungmold takes Rallion to the lake and places his and Rallion’s feather on his body and the feathers vanish and Rallion glows, however his body is still inert.

Druul reaches into his pocket and pulls out an ancient common rune on a parchement. We record it then use it. Lambertus and I kill 5 of the hobgoblin prisoners to fuel the blood magic, however it’s a mixed result. Rallion returns as a Unicorn. We should have sacrificed the God Stone to raise him. Instead, the rune resurrected him in another form. Gath and Rallion are going to remain at the Lake as guardians.

Rallion is gone. A sobering time. He was our unspoken leader of sorts. Not that we followed blindly, but his loss is felt by all. Even this dark elf, used to the cheapness of life in the underdark. I might say I’ll miss him, but that may be going too far…. maybe? I gather his cloak and shortbow for my own among some of his other possesions. The rest of the gear from our fallen is distrubuted and we take the night to mourn our fallen.