Two nights from the town of Westcarlham, the party's camp is invaded by a
swarm of bloated plague zombies rising out of the nearby lake and while
fighting them off, the heroes discover the undead 'burst' when slain.
Forewarned they are able to deal quite handily with the creatures, with
Laris doing his best to defend Gith'orl from attack. Only then do they
discover that the monsters were only a distraction to allow the creator
of the zombies, a night hag, to try to invade the Moreta's iron
fortress. Tay Vorn and Lissa try to fight off the hag, with Lissa trying
to break Tay Vorn's bow over the hag's head. Gith'orl and, more
importantly, her Osirian dagger finally convince the hag to withdraw for
now, promising to return.
Pushing on to get away from the environs
of the lake, the troop are able to rest at a military way-station run by
an old man called Hansla. As well as Naz'el taking the opportunity to
teach Lissa some of the more practical skills of adventuring (such as
cooking), the comrades are able to discover that the 7th Nexian Hussars,
who unknowingly supplied the parties identification papers, have been
recently reassigned to the southern fortresses.
Arriving in
Westcarlham, the party find rooms to stay in the Golden Auroch inn.
Close to the Mana wastes, Westcarlham has both a large military presense
and a healthy population of gnomish engineers. Despite the warnings
about the hag hiding off the road to the north, the authorities dismiss
the encounter, suspecting the party of exagerating a minor encounter
with a local witch. The party also hear of the Rhenee orcish tribes
casting treasures into the southern lake to placate the great beast that
supposedly lives in the lake and of the gnomish attempts to raise those
lost treaures. Few of the people in Westcarlham believe in the Rhenee
legends, thinking that it is perhaps just a kraken or similar, but the
orcs believe that if the creature stirs, it will destroy the world.
At
the nearby Temple of the Shrines, Naz'el is able to talk a priest of
Nethys into helping him summon an Arbiter Inevitable to carry back his
message to it's masters about the Ifrit plan to invade the Elemental
Plane of Water. Tikmala, the Nethian priest, warns Naz'el that despite
being creatures of logic, Inevitables are not to be trusted. Indeed,
Marut Inevitables are towering beings of stone, steel, and storm who
bring a fitting end to those mortals who try to cheat death in attempts
to live forever.
Talum meets Boldock, one of the gnomish engineers,
who is recuperating at the Temple of the Shrines after having been
turned to stone by a creature in the high fells east of the large
fortified temple compound. Despite the first thoughts that it might be a
medusa, from Boldocks description, they begin to suspect that it might
be an aberation created by the Mana Wars called a Beholder, a multi-eyed
monstrosity. Wishing to know more about such a creatures capabilities,
Gith'orl consults Sarenrae who blesses her with a vision of the
beholder being maimed in combat with another monstrous creature.
With
a cover story of being firearms merchants, the party meet with Selra of
the Merchants and Traders Guild who directs them to Miyori of the
Miyori trading house. Miyori's sons, Kharles and Artur, have been
captured and held for ransom by bandits that are reputed to have a large
number of magical weapons. This might also be a clue to the location
of one of the Star Cairns , where these weapons were researched and
crafted. The fight at the ransom exchange became a confused mess partly
because of the party dividing and confusion over who was to hold back
in reserve and who was to go forward to meet the bandits and partly
because the leader of the bandits attempted to use his cursed sword,
Silver Tongue, to entrance the entire party. The end of the fight though
revealed that the party had won through again, despite the magic sword
attempting to possess Gith'orl and the revelation that the hostages
brought to the exchange point were in fact bandits in disguise, one of
whom they have taken alive.
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