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Dunmari Frontier - Session 36

Night of the Howl: in which a werewolf is subdued and hidden lair discovered

Featuring: Kenzo, Wellby, Delwath, Seeker
In Taelgar: Jul 01, 1748 DR to Jul 02, 1748 DR
On Earth: Wednesday Dec 22, 2021
Tokra

The Dunmar Fellowship subdues a cursed werewolf, learns of cursed ruins, negotiates between Dunmari factions, and encounters animated statues in a hidden tunnel.

Session Info

Summary

  • The Dunmar Fellowship stands guard at the Archives and subdues a werewolf, , who is revealed to be Dag Hardstone, cursed with lycanthropy.
  • Delwath, with divine aid, cures Dag of his lycanthropy, while the rest of the party remains vigilant through the night.
  • The party learns from veteran Ashar about Govir seeking out a cursed fort and decide to investigate the fort themselves.
  • Summoned by Commander Illyan, Kenzo admits to the party’s clairvoyance spying, and Illyan tasks them with delivering a truce message to Sura.
  • Using a scroll, Seeker sends the truce message to Sura, who agrees to a non-aggression pact while seeking the gods’ will.
  • The party heads north, discovers tracks leading to a hidden tunnel, and upon opening a door inside, they find statues that come to life.

Timeline

  • Jul 01, 1748 DR, late evening: Return to Archives. Stand guard as the full moon rises. Hear a howl from below. Investigate, meeting the Hardstones, including Dag Hardstone, who has been cursed with lycanthropy. After subduing Dag, Delwath restores him with a ritual
  • Jul 01, 1748 DR, night: Delwath, Seeker, and Wellby sleep at the Archives; Kenzo returns to the monastery to ensure the Lakan mystai are safe.
  • Jul 02, 1748 DR, morning: Meet at Darshana’s Caravanserai after breakfast; speak with Darshana. Learn that Govir may have vanished searching near an abandoned fort guarding a place of strange, cursed magic of madness from Ashar, a Dunmari veteran.
  • Jul 02, 1748 DR, noon: Return to Kirian’s. Asked to visit Dunmari army camp and speak with Illyan, the commander. Attempt to spy with clairvoyance, but are detected. Narrowly avoid severe punishment after Kenzo admits to the spying; conscripted to get a message to Sura to try to prevent war. Use scroll of Sending.
  • Jul 02, 1748 DR, early afternoon: Leave north to look for Saka, but decide to investigate the abandoned Drankorian fort first. Discover tracks, leading to a hidden tunnel, enter, follow tunnel to a door. Delwath’s looks through the door with his newfound powers, and see hideous statues. Open door, as the statues come alive.

Narrative

Our session begins as the party crosses Jita’s Square, leaving Kirian’s after dinner and heading for the Archives, to keep watch of signs of werewolves in the night, as the full moon rises. At the Archives, the party debates what to do, while Ardan summons extra guards. During the debate, the party hears a piercing howl, cut short. After initially splitting up to cover more ground, the party reconvenes in the basement of the Archives, where the Hardstone clan quarters are and the howls are coming from. 

A werewolf has broken loose from some chains, and despite the Dwarves telling the party to go, they stay and subdue it without damage. Fallthra Hardstone runs sobbing to the dwarven boy that the stunned werewolf shifts into – her son Dag Hardstone, cursed with lycanthropy in the attack on the archive some weeks ago. He started feeling the effects a few nights ago as the moon waxed towards full, but Fallthra, her husband Delig Hardstone, and her brother Morkral Hardstone thought they could handle it somehow. After Dag is subdued, Delwath communes with his patron, who still has some divine connection, and is able to restore Dag to himself. At this point, Kenzo returns to check on the monastery, while the rest of the party sleeps in the Archives, keeping watch through the night. 

In the morning, the party meets at Darshana’s Caravanserai outside the west gates of Tokra, to try to learn more about Govir’s comings and goings from the old soldiers he swapped stories with there. Darshana points them to a small group of older veterans who she says Govir hung around with. One of them, Ashar, missing an eye from his time fighting gnolls during the Summer of Red Storms, is happy to chat. He tells the stories of his battles that summer, and then moves on to speak of Govir. He came to chat about a month ago, asking about strange old forts north of the city. He had brought some map that he said was a clue, as well as records of the battle against the Fraternity of the Empty Moon. He wanted to go explore the ruins to find out how the gods protected the soldiers that fought for Dunmar there, saying the gods would protect him too. After some discussion of the fort, Ashar’s friend revealed he had snuck there on a dare as a child, but it was horrible – nightmares for weeks, imagining killing his friends and being pleased with himself for it. 

After speaking with Ashar the party decides to head north, looking for Saka and investigating the fort. But as they return to Kirian’s to leave word, they are greeted by a small patrol from the Dunmari army, summoning them to come speak with the commander of the army, Illyan. The captain of the patrol, Amay, agrees to give the party a few moments in their quarters to get organized. During this time Seeker casts clairvoyance on the commander’s tent, seeing him reading papers after breakfast, and then hearing a discussion where he is asking what is taking his men so long to get back with the party. He then notices a ring on his finger glowing, swears, and gets the Chardonian mage, Drusa, who sees the clairvoyance sensor. 

The party then goes to meet with Illyan. When they arrive, the camp is on alert, and Drusa, the mage, tells them they may not enter carrying magic or weapons due to a recent spying attempt on the commander. Everyone refuses to comply, until Kenzo resolves the standoff by agreeing to go in himself, without magic or weapons. 

Meeting with Illyan, Kenzo admits to the clairvoyance, convincing the commander that this was a reasonable precaution given everything they have faced with Agata and the dangers of hags. Illyan is angry with the party for the spying and their refusal to even meet the demands to speak with him, but he senses the godly presence on Kenzo and decides not to kill him for the capital crime of spying on an army commander in the field. Illyan has summoned the party because the high priestess of Tokra, Kaleha, has prayed and received a vision from Sonkar that to her suggests the gods greatest desire is to avoid Dunmari fighting Dunmari. Kaleha has tasked Illyan with finding out what Sura wants, and whether she will agree to a truce to put the matter of the rightful ruler of Dunmar in the hands of the gods. He tasks the party with bringing Sura this message of truce. 

The party decides to use their scroll of sending to avoid the potentially long journey across the plains. Seeker sends the message: “Kaleha knows. Offers truce: stay east of river, they will stay west while priests discern gods’ will. Sonkar dreads war. Accept? Send messenger, safety promised.” Sura replies, “I also wish to know the gods’ will. I do not know how their will will be known. But until then, I will not fight.” This is enough to satisfy Illyan for now, and he gives the party permission to continue on their business, but to let him know when they return to town from their journey north.

Heading north of Tokra, the party decides after some debate to at least briefly investigate the old ruins before turning upriver to look for Saka. Cutting across the plains, Wellby’s sharp eyes and halfling luck turn up footprints and claw prints in the dry earth. Turning south to follow the trail, the party comes to a small depression in the ground with a small pile of rubble and stone at the southern end. Seeker’s sharp eyes and familiarity with stone and earth reveal that the rubble hides a hidden tunnel heading southeast, towards the city a thousand feet or so away. After debating how to avoid the crossbow trap pointed at the rubble, Seeker eventually just digs through the dirt to drop into the tunnel from above. The party travels some ways underground, until they come to a steel door. As Delwath looks through the door to reveal a room with four large, grotesque statues, the session ends as the party swings the door open and the statues’ heads turn in alarm.