Session 14 – August 28, 2016
4th of Floranur
We went to the docks on the river at the appointed time and were met by a fancy paddlewheel driven barge, “Lady Elspeth”. It was named after the wife of a prior thane.
We learned that it is not magical, but powered by two mules, in a manner similar to large cranes. It is of dwarven design.
Waldemar, the Urdjan Knight, greeted us, he was to escort us and hold the base camp. Waldemar would wait a week for us to make it back to base camp. He described the base camp as a safe place used by the Urdjan knights in the periodic forays to reduce the numbers of undead in the swamp.
Also aboard was Hansel Bergfinn, the ship master and 3 assistants.
Zho ni was concerned that Waldemar would be alone, so he gave him gold to hire more men. Waldemar relented and found an old hand named Harrald to help him keep watch while we ventured into the center of the swamp.
We took the boat as far as we could go, basically to within an hour by canoe and an hour of portaging equipment to get to the Urdjan Knights safe spot. The river was deep enough for the barge, but not wide enough. We loaded our canoes and the barge went back upstream.
The camp is an old dwarven ironclad with a hole in the side forming a ridge in the swampy ground. It has a paddlewheel similar to the one on the barge we used. It was surrounded by 8 posts with lamps similar to the Urdjan spirit lamps. They form a protective zone that keeps out undead.
When we arrived, one of the posts was out of alignment and a large number of zombies, including goblins, dwarves, humans, and an ogre were in and around the old ship. We used the landscape, bowmen, and magic to quickly defeat the zombies. A lot of arrows and a couple magic missiles made the ogre easy to knock down. Urman cast web to guard our right blank and took 5 zombies out of the combat. There were minor wounds to some, and Frike was knocked unconscious, but was up before the combat was over due to Zhoni’s healing ability.
We righted the lamppost, Waldemar said a prayer, and the anti-undead shield was restored.
The party rested overnight and relearned spells for their foray into the swamp.
After a couple of hours of portaging/paddling we encountered a frazzled old woman leading a goat. We did not believe her story of being from a fishing village south of Manheim. She claimed her husband worked on a farm during the warm months and that she was heading north by herself, and the mist obscured the road, and she ended up lost in the swamp.
All of this was too much to believe. Urman attempted to charm her, but it had no effect. Zho ni said that we wold help her, but only if she submitted to being bound and blindfolded. We did not trust her to go off by herself to Waldemar. If she found him, we feared that she was not what she appeared. So we trekked back the two hours and Waldemar discerned that she and the goat were evil.
She then revealed herself and her imp familiar. She was of magical persuasion and was going into the swamp to seek the reputed source of power. This further raised our suspicions of her being in league with the ogres, specifically the Enchantress.
Urman would have none of this evil imp, and blasted it with his magic missile, but only did a little damage compared with the effectiveness of his bolts of pure energy. The imp waited to see what we would do, and Urman urged the others to defeat the imp. Zho ni managed to capture it with hold person, and we used a magic weapon to slay it. Appropriate magical trophies were taken for future use.
We then found her spellbook. Fearing it might be trapped, we saved it for later.
All we learned is that her name was Hilda and she sought power for her own ends, and cared neither for the side of the vale or the ogres, but wished to remain apart from that struggle.
As she would not cooperate, or persuade us that we could trust her, Zho ni gave Otiben the nod to put her out of our misery. Waldemar did not like what we did, but Zho ni pointed out that this is war and she told us she was after the item we seek. We could not trust her to not thwart our plans.
We found some silver and copper coins, a potion,a bit of food and water among her other possessions and a nice black robe. We recovered her items and burned the bodies of Hilda and the imp to prevent them becoming future undead foes.
Zho ni rested and then found no traps on the spell book. Urman was able to discern the intent (name) of the spells, but could not use them, as Hilda was an illusionist. We left the book and other loot in a large sack with Waldemar.
The next day, we set out again. Perhaps two hours travel past where we encountered Hilda we found a low hill with a tree on top and a round door facing us. Otiben approached to investigate and saw that there was an intertwined vine patter around the door. As he approached, 6 vine like forms rose up, similar to the wicked stick things we fought in the forest west of Djoside.
We quickly defeated the creatures, and as we approached the tree turned and had a face on the trunk, and the trunk said these words:
A siren’s call I sing to madmen,
And snarling beasts reply.
I cloak myself in ebony,
Laced with shining diamonds bright.
Thrice a season I lift my veil,
To lay bare in all my glory.
Zho ni said, “Moon”, and the door opened to a passage going down.
