Dunmari Frontier - Session 6

Festival Ambush: in which the Festival of Rebirth is marred by a gnoll attack

Featuring: Kenzo, Wellby, Delwath, Seeker, Riswynn
In Taelgar: Apr 04, 1748 DR to Apr 06, 1748 DR
On Earth: Thursday Aug 06, 2020
Karawa

The Dunmar Fellowship prepares for their journey, gains a new ally, and defends Karawa from a gnoll attack during the Festival of Rebirth.

Session Info

The Dunmar Fellowship meets Riswynn for the first time.

Summary

The party splits to run errands and gather information in Karawa as rumors of evil spread and refugees arrive.
Seeker helps fortify the temple and learns about the mystical Red Mesa.
Riswynn Brawnanvil joins the party to recover a dwarven heirloom from Raven’s Hold.
A gnoll attack disrupts the Festival of Rebirth, leading to a fierce battle where the party prevails but Kenzo is seriously injured.
The party plans to depart Karawa the following morning, as the town prepares to flee westward.

Timeline

Apr 04, 1748 DR, afternoon: Errands and preparations for travel in Karawa. Refugees fromBas Udda fleeing gnoll attacks begin arriving in Karawa. Say farewell to Alesh, who is leaving to scout.
Apr 05, 1748 DR, late afternoon: Riswynn arrives in Karawa.
Apr 05, 1748 DR, evening: Festival of Rebirth begins at sundown with announcement of plan to flee west at first light in two days time. Burning shrine of Jeevali casts embers to the winds, despite still air, which is interpreted as a sign supporting the decision to flee.
Apr 06, 1748 DR: Day of fasting, prayer, and preparation. Festival of Rebirth concludes with a solemn procession, which is interrupted by a gnoll attack on the outskirts of town. Party prepares to leave Karawa at first light.

Narrative

As the session opens, the party has just left the council meeting, and rumors are starting to circulate around Karawa that evil is afoot in the wilds. Havdar has started to circulate among the people, recruiting those who can ride and fight; the celebratory atmosphere of the fair and games is fading as news and rumor spreads.

In the afternoon, the party splits up to take care of errands and preparation. Delwath checks in with people he knows from living in town for several months, and spends some time trading coin for gear and potions. Kenzo speaks with Candrosa briefly, who does not have much knowledge about Raven’s Hold in particular. Wellby goes to talk to the Charmhearts again, learning that they had a hard time at the market, as Ander is not improving, and disrupted some of their selling days. Callie tells Wellby a bit more about Raven’s Hold: it is set in a river valley a few miles east of the road, near where a small river flows out from the mountains. Ander approached by walking in the river past the gatehouse of the outer walls, and then across the drier plains towards the inner fortress when he was attacked.

Seeker goes to talk to Ikram, to try to learn more about the book he received. Ikram does not have much more information, but while he is at the caravanserai it is apparent that refugees fleeing the attacks to the south, on Bas Udda and the agricultural land around it, are starting to arrive in Karawa. Seeker also spends some time studying the oddity of the Red Mesa, and the fact that the temple built into it seems to be older than the rock of the mesa itself.

Late in the afternoon, Alesh and her two traveling companions come to say goodbye and good luck before they head south to scout in more detail the situation in that direction. They discuss Raven’s Hold briefly, and learn it was a holdfast from before the Great War, and also the site of a trading outpost of the Dwarves of the southern mountains.

The next morning, Seeker spends much of the day helping to fortify the temple of Shakun, where Candrosa and some other acolytes and mystai of Shakun will remain when the villagers abandon the town, while the rest of the party finishes any other preparations for their trip. Meeting back at Ikram’s caravanserai a few hours before the festival of Jeevali’s rebirth is to begin, the party is introduced to Riswynn Brawnanvil, a dwarf from the Yuvanti Mountains who is looking for companions to travel to Raven’s Hold. She is heading to Raven’s Hold to try to recover a lost family heirloom of the Brawnanvil clan, as rumors have reached the dwarves of the Yuvanti Mountains that humans from the west have been seeking artifacts left behind in the rush to flee the great upheavals after the Great War. Not wanting to see their heritage fall into the hands of the humans, an expedition has set forth, but fearing it would not focus on a minor holding far to the east like Raven’s Hold, the Brawnanvil clan sent their own treasure hunter.

After this meeting, the Festival of Rebirth begins. Suma, the priestess of Jeevali, and a number of litter bearers carry a tall sculpture shaped like a tree, and seemingly made of vines, and dried flowers, and bits of wood and seeds all pulled together into a trunk, with a design that spirals up to a crown of branches and leaves at the top. They carry the sculpture to the desert, where Suma tells the story of Jeevali’s miracle. When the Dunmari first settled the land, it was dry and dead, a barren landscape cursed by the plague. The people suffered, and died, from drought and hunger and fear. Jeevali wept for her people, crying tears that poured from the heavens, cleansing the land and purifying the soil. Rivers sprung up where her tears fell, and the land was blessed. But as she cried, she put so much of her power and spirit into her tears that she began to fade away. She diminished, and was gone. For a year, the people prayed, singing her name every day, calling to her, begging her to return. The harvests that year were bountiful, the lambs and calves and foals healthy and numerous. As the winter rains fell gently on the land, the people prayed and chanted her name. In the spring, as new life began to grow from the fertile soil, Jeevali also grew from the ground, the power of the belief of her people restoring her.

At the climax of the story, the tree-shrine is set alight. As the shrine catches on fire, as it bursts into flames, it doesn’t just burn normally, but pieces of it drift off almost like fireworks floating in all directions, but mostly west. And as these embers drift to the west, a sign goes through the crowd as Suma says that Jeevali is with us, Jeevali is going west and we will follow her. The next morning, the procession that marks the festival is a solemn affair, with none of the usual costumes and flair and joyous dancing. People gather their contributions to the new shrine, and by some trick of the light or by the magic of the gods these all these individual offerings begin to fuse together.

As this is happening, a murmur starts at the edge of the crowd, which becomes a shout and then screams. The party charges towards the disturbance, seeing three gnolls, creatures that look like a horrible combination of a human and a hyena, with the legs and head of a hyena and the torso of a human, wearing crude armor and carrying nasty short swords. With these gnolls are three monstrous creatures that seem to be giant maws filled with viciously sharp teeth, on four legs. A vicious battle ensues, and eventually the party defeats the attackers, with everybody contributing some key moments. Seeker dispatches one gnoll with a rune that heats its sword until it catches fire, and puts another to sleep. Wellby attacks the creatures with arrows from a balcony, as Delwath, Kenzo and Riswynn engage up close. Surprisingly, Ander walks toward the battle, seeming to wish to be devoured by the mouth creatures. Seeker trips him up by molding the earth into difficult terrain, trying to keep Ander away, but he continues to struggle forward. Seeker then uses his stone shaping ability to make a drawing of green vines appear on the ground. Seeing the vines, Ander becomes terrified and faints. During the fight, Kenzo is badly wounded, and falls unconscious, barely avoiding death.

After the battle, the party gets a much needed night of sleep, before preparing to head north at first light.