Session 54

After a rowdy celebration at the statehouse, the party wakes up the following morning to find that the refugees, and even Eldar himself, are all passed out from drinking so much. As the refugees begin to wake up, hungover, Eskall uses his powers to cure Eldar's hangover so he can speak properly, after which Eldar says that they've had their fun and should now focus on the city. He says he will begin dispatching Enforcers to take stock of the city and find survivors to let them know of the situation and to establish a presence around the city again while they wait for the Dawnstar to arrive. The party sets out to help with the search efforts, locating survivors in the Aristocratic and Human districts and sending them to the statehouse.

After spending some time helping to rebuild, digging graves, burning undead corpses, and serving food to the survivors, the Dawnstar finally arrives in Eldham, shocked to find the residents piling up undead bodies for burning, and the commander of the 500-some Dawnstar soldiers greets the party, introducing himself as Ashar Ebonindir, a Human man in his 40s. The party fills him in on the situation in the city and how they managed to stop the undead and Ashar is flabbergasted and congratulates the party on their heroic actions and says that he will begin sending his veteran soldiers into the sewers to take care of the undead that remain there and send the fresh recruits to buildings around the city to clear out any undead that remain and to find survivors. Eskall asks to join Ashar to help where he can, but after letting slip that undead appear to become stronger in his presence, Ashar says he doesn't want Eskall anywhere near his men.

The party spends some more time helping out around the city until Lekaren 27, when they are gathered in the Dead Goose Inn after a long day of hard work to enjoy some stew Icarus was whipping up, when a strange woman entered the inn, dressed noticeably different from anyone in the area. All attention was drawn to her and she made her way over to the party's table, introducing herself, though after a moment of introspection, Dain and Summer recognize this woman as they had encountered her before more than a year prior -- it was none other than Estrea herself. She spoke with the party, congratulating them on their deeds and briefly conversating, before Estrea got to the point and told the party about a progenitor race that preceded the races of Aellorah known as the Titans, and told the party about the Titan that she herself created, a giant the size of a mountain named Tharsos. She said that unlike the other Titans created by her sisters, Estrea did not grant Tharsos immortality and he met his end some 16,000 years ago, when only Dwarves walked the planet and Elves were just a work in progress by Lys. She told the party that his remains lie in a mountain range known as Stillwind Pass in the Esterburn Highlands far to the north of Eldham, and that Aubron seeks to unearth his remains and reanimate them, asserting that should this happen, none on Aellorah would be capable of stopping Tharsos. She said Aubron had sent his undead to the north to dig up his remains, and the party must journey north to stop them before it's too late. Eskall then had a mini existential crisis, reaching out to attempt to wave his hand through Estrea's face, wondering if she was real, despite Summer elbowing him in the ribs several times, before Estrea decided to take her leave of the group, turning around and dissolving into a dark green smoke.

The party sets out for Fort Elden to make a pit stop before setting out on their long journey, and updates Kendel and Tamas on the situation, and are told that the Emerald Company, seeing no need for the strong Emerald Company presence in the Taungar Valley region due to the decreased goblin activity, could recall Kendel to Valensir any day now. Before leaving, Dain gives Giselle the lockbox he found in the burnt remains of Eldham's Excellent Elixirs, and adds some of his own money, giving her 500 GP. The party then sets off for Mythwell.

After a few days of travelling through the Bast Wilds, the party comes across a lone trader travelling through the woods. Eskall suggests robbing the man and taking his cart and horse before Summer hogties him and has him dragged behind the cart. Eskall escapes some time later, and on the 8th day of their journey, only a few days from Mythwell, the party is setting up camp near dusk when they begin to hear screams of what sound like soldiers to the west, and also screams of some nightmarish creature. They head towards the direction of the screaming when the screaming suddenly stops as they enter a clearing where they find a large number of dead bodies. Inspecting the bodies, Summer finds that they appear to be Dawnstar soldiers, and Eskall determines that they appear to have been dead for weeks. Eskall uses his divine senses to check for the presence of undead, and gets the sense that there are undead nearby, but nothing tangible, and senses that it is coming from the bodies themselves, in particular, the feeling is most strong from the bodies that have the black discoloration that resulted from some manner of life draining effect, similar to what the party saw happen to Icarus when the Drab drained him. The party gathers the bodies and douses them in oil before attempting to light them. When a flint and steel don't work, Dain uses Prestidigitation, sending the bodies into a whoosh of fire, prompting the screaming to resume, directed angrily at the players. However, the screams begin to die down into screams of anguish before Eskall begins to feel the undead presence fading, and then all goes silent. The party returns to camp, anxiously keeping watching before resuming their journey the next day.

The party reaches Mythwell after another three days, seeing several great spires rising up from behind the city walls. They are stopped and questioned briefly at the gates as to their business before being let in and being told where they could find certain goods they were seeking. After seeing Eskall turn his summoned steed into a mastiff, the Enforcer seemed shaken and told Eskall he should fit right in here, and told him about the Ars Aurum Academy near where the largest spire was.

Entering Mythwell, the party was hit by a wave of strong smells, indicating they were in the region of the city where they could find good food, particularly very spicy food. As they passed an inn bearing an image of a flaming moustache called "The Spicy Moustache", they were overwhelmed by the strong smell emanating from within. Eskall decided to investigate, and asked for the innkeeper's spiciest food, upon which he was told of a local challenge where he could sign a waiver to try the innkeeper's "Red Pork". The innkeeper cautioned Eskall that people have died eating it. He accepted and was brought a dish of an overwhelmingly strong scent, causing Eskall's eyes to water. He ate it little by little, nearly passing out from the scorching heat, but eventually pushed through, to the innkeeper's horror. The innkeeper paid Eskall 500 GP for his victory before telling him to get the hell out of his inn and never return.