The Hallows of Horsia 8 - A Cold Return

 

Objective

Go to the camp at Horsa and provide support to the king's men as neeed.
 
 

Observations

The undercity of Horsa still exists on the material plane.
  The Horses wearing Byron's magic shoes can injure themselves severely if panicked or improperly ridden while in flight.
  Horsa is haunted by several spirits and accosted by ogres from the other side of the river.
 

Follow up

Explore the revealed sewer tunnels and determine the level of threat to continued operations near the Horsa crossing.
 

Preparation Details

Flying horses were prepared to speed travel times.
 

Operation Details

We were told by Zorky that the king wants the bridge over the river rebuilt. We were to go down and provide some security and assistance towards that goal. We took some of the horses fitted with Byron's magic horseshoes to facilitate faster travel and made our way down via Ogden and the king's road.
 
 
  The horses struggled a bit in the heavy snow, but once we made it to the king's road, we were able to get them airborne. Traveling at pace on the road caused some odd magic phenomena below the horseshoes, mainly consisting of arcs of lightning towards the ground.
 
 
  One of the horses was injured beyond a salvageable point when an attempt was made by one of the party members to slow down. After putting the injured horse down, we had the changelings share a horse since they were the lightest pairing in the party.
 
 
  On arrival, we were greeted by a Captain Likiwurt, who briefed us on the camp's progress and challenges. It was reported that apparitions had killed one of his men last night. The apparitions were apparently heralded by the ghost of a small girl who asked one of them to play a game before the attack began.
 
 
  The engineers told us that there was likely still a structure under the city. I warned them of the arena and kraken that was supposedly housed under the city. They explained that there was a sewage tunnel under the ground near the camp that could be accessed via a targeted detonation. We agreed that checking it out was in everyone's best interest.
 
 
  Around this time, we noticed ogres across the river were playing some kind of competitive throwing game using bodies in place of more traditional throwing implements. The guards stationed at the river didn't seem alarmed as the bodies never got overly close to the near side of the river and thus were of no danger to us due to the strong current.
 
 
  While waiting for the engineers to complete their work, storm clouds began forming overhead. Around the time the clouds fully manifested overhead, the ogre's redoubled their efforts, managing to land a couple bodies on our side of the river. Apparitions appeared and the thrown bodies began standing up to attack. The fight was intense, leading to the lose of one more guard, several injuries and what appeared to be some kind of magical aging of the engineer Itro.
 
 
  Tri, the other engineer, finished taking care of the explosives while we prepped Itro for transport to the capital for treatment. The detonation revealed the sewer that was expected at that location. Lansa investigated and appeared to be verbally accosted by some kind of hyper intelligent rat. Lansa believes the rat told them that the Kraken is down the northwest tunnel while the northeast tunnel contains something notable, but ambiguous.
 
 
  Rather than stick around to investigate, we elected to escort Tri and Itro back to the capital so the guards didn't have to reduce their own forces. A letter was given to Tri to explain his situation and ensure Aceso would see them quickly.