Session 426 – A Man who wants to Die

The Story So Far

Ash - An expert in the occult and a skilled monster hunter. Ash uses his talents and budding alchemical expertise to battle what people fear most for a price.

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Ryobi - A monk of the embattled Order of the Warriors of Mameka. Ryobi is given an important mission: retrieve the holy blades containing the souls of his brother knights, which were lost in the recent Rethemi civil war.

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They are joined by Vinzent, a bard with a morbid demeanor and a haunted past.

This is the continuation of Session 424 – Duel to the Death.

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25^th of Kalen (Spring) 729TR

After a botched mission, the heroes become outlaws, wanted for mass murder, robbery, and blasphemy. They have fled the Kingdom of Rethem and now await being recalled.

Over the last months, the party has travelled the world to the enigmatic Karejian Islands. Fortunately, Vinzent speaks Karejian well, having learned it so that he could converse more easily with the attractive priestesses of the goddess Halea, who use that as a temple tongue, and has instructed Ash and Ryobi enough to hold a conversation.

The heroes have completed a few odd jobs, dealing with various threats to the locals, including strange, sap-dribbling plant creatures terrorising the olive groves of a minor noble. They now have some money and wait in the City of Trikal to start their next heroic adventure.

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Location: The City of Trikal, on Horita Island in the Kajerian League.

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Part 1 – A Man Who Wants to Die

The elderly, obviously very ill and frail noble, meets with the heroes. Tryfon el Frangatos has seen better days and speaks with a shallow breath, interspersed with coughing fits. When asked what the heroes can do for him, he replies, “I need to die,” he says dramatically.

The ailing nobleman elaborates that he wants to ensure the future of his family, and as he does not have much time left, he has devised a plan. He tells the party of the Aegesir Karkanos.

He wants the heroes to kill this imposing sea monster and harvest some of its bile. He plans to drink it, which will allow him to see the future and guide his family through the dangerous future, before dying.

But first, the Karkanos must be slain, an extremely difficult task. Sailing between Ezinsan and Gazantel Islands will probably attract it, but battling it at sea is considered suicide; any vessel will likely be sunk. The Karkanos must be fought on the coast. Legends hold that the great hero Tacines of Perstrona defeated the Karkanos after his brother called it by blowing an enchanted horn. The Horn of Tacines is said to drain the vitality of the blower and weaken the gigantic Aegesir.

The heroes agree to help and are told that the scholar Spyridon el Lorilis has researched the long-lost, legendary horn and believes he knows its location.

Part 2 – A Scholar with a Problem

The scholar Spyridon el Lorilis is a delighted man; a trio of monster hunters is precisely what he has been looking for. He, of course, will be more than happy to help, provided the heroes confidentially handle a small problem for him.

His family has access to a secret underground spa that they have kept hidden for generations. He believes the mineral pool possesses medicinal properties and that bathing in it can help cure illnesses and slow down the aging process. However, over the last decade, it has grown extremely hot, and the steam has begun to rot the glowing fungi that illuminate the surrounding caverns. Worse still, strange anomalies have been spotted lurking in the murky fog.

To complicate things further, the underground spa and caves are dangerously close to the city’s temple of Agrik. Spyridon speculates that the divine Balefire ceremonies may have contaminated his spa. If the heroes can eliminate these mysterious monsters and restore his spa, he, of course, will happily divulge all he knows about the long-lost artifact.

Part 3 – The Misty Caves

Ash recognises the glowing mushrooms in the caves below. They are Zahuruk Fungi, and he can use them as an ingredient in a bomb, which is particularly effective against undead. Unfortunately, the warm, moist air has caused most of them to wither away, and only a few of the fungi still remain.

One patch of mushrooms looks particularly rotted, almost smouldering. Suddenly, the mass comes alive. Lurching forward, the heroes have to hack their way through the demonically possessed fungi. Later, the heroes find a cavern where the Zahuruk mushrooms are corrupted with a rusty material, and protected by strange, gigantic, metallic, clawing, slater-like creatures. However, when they are stuck, these bizarre elemental insects burst into a cloud of rust and are easily destroyed.

Part 4 – The Contaminated Spa

The last cavern the heroes investigate is the most choked by steam. A hot pool of water, fed by a small waterfall, dominates the west side of the chamber. In the cavern, a boiling and aggressive mass of steam waits. With malevolent intent, the scalding water ball rushed forward, blasting the heroes with searing vapor. Worse still, the intense damp heat radiating from the elemental terror exhausts the heroes.

Ryobi is struck by repeated explosions of boiling water and severely scolded and nearly killed, but only Vinzent’s magical healing keeps him in the fight. Ash coats his weapons with a tailored concoction that should cool this boiling heatwave, then rings an enchanted bell he found some time ago in the vast desert. The bell tolls for the evil elemental, wracking its essence and severely weakening it. Ryobi follows up with a series of well-placed strikes diminishing it further until it cannot hold itself together, and it explodes. Ash is caught in the blast and passes out from the pain and burns, but luckily, Vinzent is there to revive him.

Part 5 – Shielding the Spa

With the immediate threats destroyed, the heroes investigate the pool. They are sure that the divine magic of the balefire rituals performed in the nearby temple of Agrik is seeping over and influencing the cave. This unwanted divine essence appears to be drawn to the pool and must be thwarted.

Ash believes he can create a series of small, enchanted figurines that should repel the sacred magic, but he fails badly. Ryobi, a devoted warrior of Agrik, refuses to petition the high priest of the offending temple to stop its ceremonies, so another option must be found.

The heroes approach the city’s temple of Eoni. The Pelnala (High Priest) Father Alcon of the Temple of Saint Margeta is informed that a client wishes to shield his bath from the divine magical emanations emanating from the Temple of Agrik. The humble, well-mannered priest has the perfect solution: Icons of Saint Margeta. These miniature paintings of the saint can be placed around the bath to protect it from evil, and they are available for a modest donation to the church.

The heroes listen with interest as Father Alcon tells the story of Saint Margeta.

She was a renowned healer who saved many lives during the darkest days of the Red Death, a deadly plague that struck Kajeria around 175 years ago. The priestess bathed the sick in a magical healing pond in a grotto, whose location has since been lost. Sadly, the good, pious priestess was so selfless that she worked herself to an early grave.

The heroes suspect that the healing pond from the legend and the grotto they have just cleared are one and the same, but decide to say nothing.

Back in the caverns, the icons are placed around the pool, and soon the temperature begins to drop. The icons are indeed resisting the malicious balefire magics, and it recedes. Spyridon el Lorilis is thrilled and, as agreed, tells the heroes what he knows of the Horn of Tacines.

To be continued.

NPC Interactions

Tryfon el Frangatos - Head of the noble Frangatos family.

Spyridon el Lorilis - scholar and expert on Ageseir.

Father Alcon - High priest of the Church of Saint Margeta.

Created Content

City of Trikal.

Order of Saint Margeta.

Aegesir.

Related Reports

Nothing this week.

Player Characters

Ryobi - Human - L12 Monk

Background - Temple Guard.

Archetypes - Barbarian/Fighter.

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Ash - Human - L12 Thaumaturge

Background - Weaponcrafter.

Archetypes - Alchemist.

NPC Companion

Vinzent - Human - L12 Bard

Background - Cursed.

Archetypes - Blessed/Disciple of Thalia.

Next Session

Session 429 – The Horn of Tarcines.