Session Seventeen

Flashback Campfire Scene: "Old Roads, Old Friends"

Arrival in Aflan

The Fields of Silence

An Afflicted Town

The party investigates a few locations in Aflan. At the Town Green, the party is attacked by several huge swarms of strange-looking flies, almost prehistoric looking. Vaurvan investigates the shrine to Fither, God of Decisions and Progress, but can't find anything wrong with it, other than the food offerings have rotted away. At Blue Moon Homestead, Vauvan's now-collapsed childhood home, he finds signs that his parents are alive and living out of their cellar. A visit to the Pale Trees reveals that the grove and the shrines to Gaios, God of Land and Forests and Demi Vin, Goddess of Agriculture are intact and still hallowed ground.   The party heads back to the Gooseberry Inn near the town's center, the only stone building, and the only building that remains mostly intact. Within, they find the majority of the townsfolk gathered, tending to injuries, sharing in a few roasted partridges that were hunted from some distance away. Our heroes learn that since the Bird Moon eclipse, the fields of Aflan have been afflicted by droves of pestilence and waves of blight. As if in the span of a moment, all fruit began to rot from the inside out, still on the vine or branch. Flies appear in swarming droves, forcing all residents to stay inside while the fields are eaten by these bugs. Locusts chewing through stalks and leaves, and worms chewing through what healthy produce remains. At the pinnacle of the eclipse, the earth shook, sending bowls and pots shattering from shelves, and causing beams to splinter, a few houses destroyed in the quake.The townspeople have taken refuge in root cellars. Not only this, but several locals, such as Odo Hayward, have a strange figure atop a hill just outside of the town center - a gaunt, sickly looking centaur looking down upon the farmland.   The strange centaur figure has appeared not only in the distance, but also in townsfolk's dreams. Several locals, Vaurvan's father, Heim, included, have had eerily similar dreams: a strange landscape of endless plains, being chased or pursued by looming, gigantic figures wielding massive weapons, only to stumble as the dreamer feels the pain of three arrows enter their torso. Just as the dreamer is about to collapse to the ground in pain, they look up to see the gaunt, sickly centaur watching from the hill ahead... and then they wake up.   Vaurvan gave a very impressive speech to the villagers, encouraging them to seek safety while this blight goes over, recommending relocating to distant towns. There was some resistance, farmers such as Odo Hayward objecting that their families are tied to the land here, and they would weather the storm. A few locals looked askance at Vaurvan, doubting his logic and resisting his persuasion, since he has been gone for years, then returns for all of a few hours before telling everyone to leave.   Frustrated, Vaurvan stormed off, letting his rage escape him a couple times, while Blackfin followed at a distance to keep an eye on him. Blackfin also noticed the sickly centaur watching him from a distant hill. When he sent Maccus, his familiar, now in seagull form, to investigate, the centaur disappeared.  

Perchance to Dream

Cheyanne approached Vallia, Vaurvan's mother, after his outburst, and had a heartfelt conversation where Vallia recognized where Vaurvan was coming from, but further explained some of the metaphorical roadblocks to getting the villagers to relocate, and described some of the ways the settlement has adapted; sending hunting parties to bring back game, finding the edges of the blight so they can haul back fresh water. Vallia admitted that she herself had an idea on how to investigate things, some herbs that can induce lucid dreaming, but admitted she was too scared to face the settlement's communal dream. She asked if Cheyanne and/or the rest of the party might try in her stead.   Cheyanne agreed, and once our heroes regrouped, they all agreed to brew Vallia's dream tea and fell asleep.

A Giant Battlefield

Our heroes "awaken" to find themselves in an endless plain. As they pick a random direction and start walking, they notice puddles of blood, and discarded weapons - ones much too big for them to wield. Soon, distant sounds of battle reach their ears, and they find the battlefield they cross much more treacherous. Avoiding gigantic corpses and weapons, our heroes traverse a swath of scorched earth, and then an icy plain dotted with dangerously sharp icicles. Through some clever maneuvering, they passed through both obstacles, to arrive at what they can only presume is the center of the battlefield.

Mortal Intervention

In this area, the grass is trodden down like a skirmish had taken place, and no massive corpses or discarded weapons lay nearby. A giant, shadowy figure looms over a sallow and cadaverous centaur, who has three giant arrows thrust through his torso. The giant wields a huge, viciously serrated spear, poised to make the killing blow on the centaur. At our heroes' entrance, the giant turns to them. Wordlessly, he hefts his spear in their direction, his eyes gleaming with menace.   And thus, combat ensues. Harmony wielded Secretstealer at the giant to glean any scrap of information she could, and she identified him as Horker, The Great Wolf, the giants' god of hunting. Cheyanne casts cure wounds on the centaur, and spends several rounds investigating his situation. After several rounds of combat, finally the party defeats the giant attacker, and is able to focus on the centaur, who lies no longer dying, but seemingly frozen, not quite awake and not quite asleep.

A Sleeping God

As combat winds down, the party has a moment to investigate this centaur that appears to be caught between waking and sleeping.   The party pulls out the three arrows from the centaur's back, and with each arrow, they get an impression of a single syllable echoing in their mind. Harmony detects that each of the three arrows is divinely infused with the domain of blight, pestilence, and famine. Cheyanne puts the three syllables together and speaks "Fexnas" to which the centaur blinks.   Vaurvan stabs Blackfin with an arrow and Blackfin disappears from the dream field, waking in his bedroll on the town green.   Vaurvan snaps the pestilence and famine arrows, but is unable to snap the arrow of blight. Finally, Cheyanne addresses the centaur as Fexnas, the god of Blight, and with the centaur's slow blink, the rest of our heroes wake up in their bedrolls. Cheyanne finds that she has a tattoo of a prehistoric looking fly on her sternum. She identifies this as the boon of Fexnas, which will allow her to cast insect plague once at fourth level, which will ignore allies.  

Waking Up

Vaurvan speaks with Heim.   Harmony communes with Viena. Viena seems displeased that Harmony is getting distracted and taking so long to deliver the Cube to Viena's reliquary in Z'Veena.   Cheyanne speaks with Lilvi about everything that just happened. Lilvi shares a little more about her former mentor Varvis at Avail, and she recalls something about a small group studying the theory of ley lines. That seems to line up (no pun intended) with what the party is beginning to investigate since the events at the Hearth.

Quest Log

Race for the Rails

• Figure out who's behind the sabotage of the Rusty Rails rail line.
• High Noon Shootout: Survive the Vipers gang attack on Copper Ridge. Completed: Session One.
• Wanted: Dead or Alive: Hunt down Fang, the leader of the Vipers bandit gang. Completed: Session Three.
• The Big Bang: Survive the rockslide triggered by the explosion at The Cut, and save as many townsfolk as possible. Completed: Session Four - WIP.
• Under the Light of the Moon: Investigate the large object discovered at the blast site near the Cut. Completed: Session Five - WIP.
• "H.": Follow up on the lead in Z'Veena about the mysterious "H." who hired the Vipers to disrupt the Rusty Rails construction project. Letter found in Session Three.

The Vipers

• Find out where the money went. Get it back.
• Red Rock Ridge: Clear out the Vipers bandit gang from their hideout/stronghold near Copper Ridge. Completed: Session Three
• As the Crow Flies: Track down "Crow", the mage who sold Sage, the snake with a hundred mage hands to Fang, leader of the Vipers bandit gang. Completed:Session Eleven
• The Mysterious S.V.: Find where the stolen money went by tracking down "S.V.", per a letter from Fang's boot, received in Session Three. S.V. likely captains the Nightscream, a sky-pirate dirigible airship, last seen traveling south along Readmuse Range.
• Sage, the Snake with a Hundred Mage Hands: Track down the snake used in the Copper Ridge heist. Calicrysta Byrch says it is probably seeking its mother - search for a large, darkly iridescent scale similar to the one Crysta used to create Sage. Perhaps in Z'Veena?

Uncovering the Past

• Work with the Trill Society to uncover and identify the mysterious object unearthed by the explosion outside Copper Ridge.
• The Trill Society: Visit the headquarters of the Trill Society, an archaeological guild. Completed: Session Nine Report
• The Vault of Shadows: Locate and explore the Vault of Shadows, returning to the Council of Matrons in Tarana when finished. Completed: Session Fourteen )
• Primordial Remains: Follow up with Field Crew Callithrix after they've had time to excavate the site near Copper Ridge.

A Curious Wreckage:

• Investigate the airship wreckage and learn what happened to the vehicle.
• Dearest Renegade: Investigate the crashed airship, Dear Renegade, its wreckage located outside of Copper Ridge. Completed: Session Two
• Repair the Black Box: Repair the glass orb recovered from the crashed airship. Lew's notes at Rainwood Hall indicate the Lascari twins in Nova Excelsium were the creators of the orb.

The Blinded Seers:

• The Hearth of Zivaria: Travel to and explore the Hearth of Zivaria (Completed Session Fifteen)
• The Sole Survivors: Stop the cultists from eliminating all of the Ghytan clerics assembled. Escort them to safety.
• A Prophecy Spoken: Decipher the prophecy spoken by the surviving Ghytan clerics.

The Awakening:

• Tracing Leylines: Lilvi mentioned a visiting scholar at The Avail Academy who was discussing the theory of leylines. Perhaps the leylines have something to do with Fexnas' awakening?

Other Missions:

• Assorted and unoffiliated missions (for now...)
• Restore Zeb's Memories: Zeb, who runs the Copper Tubs bathhouse in Copper Ridge appears to have serious amnesia.
• Haunting Blueprints: Follow up on the airship tower blueprints found at Lew's workshop at Rainwood Hall, as found in Session Nine Report.
• The Genesis Cube: Escort the Cube to the Pillars of the Aesnii, Viena's shrine in Z'Veena.
• Back to School: Investigate the missing and ill students at The Avail Academy.