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Dunmari Frontier - Session 79

Aftermath of Victory: in which enemies are interrogated and plans are made

Featuring: Seeker, Delwath, Kenzo, Wellby, Riswynn
In Taelgar: Dec 08, 1748 DR to Dec 10, 1748 DR
On Earth: Thursday Jul 13, 2023
Xurkhaz

After a victorious battle, the Dunmar Fellowshipuncovers enemy motives through interrogation and splits up to defend the city and destroy a powerful scepter.

Session Info

The party gathers the treasure from the Kadmos and Company Loot
Character advancement: reach level 12 at the end of the session

Summary

Timeline

The Mirror of the Past

Narrative

We begin as the battle ends, and the party collects and sorts through the gear from Kadmos and company. Kadmos, and the sorcerer Evelina, lie dead on the ground: Evelina killed in battle, Kadmos executed afterward. The remainder of the enemies are trapped in the mirror, after having been put to sleep by Delwath’s magic. After tending to Lubash, Riswynn turns to Seeker to try to remove whatever icy curse clings to him, despite Seeker’s insistence he is fine. However, normal restoration magic does not seem remove the curse - instead, it just makes it briefly visible, as a small icy flying gargoyle-like creature clinging to Seeker’s back. Something of ice is needed to drag the curse away from Seeker. Delwath attempts to banish it with his sword, but as it is fey, not a fiend, this has no effect. Deciding this is a problem for the morning, the party rests, planning to interrogate the prisoners in the morning.

The next morning, the party has a late breakfast with Lubash, Murook, and Azogar. They report the recent news, that Grash has begun slaughtering his army, seeking to turn them into undead. There is some discussion of the metaphysics of this situation, and whether the undead are still bound by Thark and thus unable to enter Xurkhaz, but ultimately it seems the risen orc zombies are a more serious threat than Lubash anticipated. Several options, including protecting the city from undead with Riswynn’s magic while those who can flee, are discussed.

The party then interrogates the prisoners, starting with Valius, the archer twin. After his cell is combined with Vargus’, his twin brother, Valius begins to speak in response to Delwath’s patient questions. He speaks of how he and his brother were mercenaries after they left the Chardonian Legion, traveling around, searching for a rumored lost dragon treasure in the mountains on the border of the Mawakel Peninsula, that kind of thing. But they were always more inclined to drink and eat and talk at pubs than actually find treasure, and eventually broke they ended up back in Chardon, signing up to hunt for treasure for the Society of the Open Scroll. After a few successful trips, Fausto sought them out, paying well but always pushing them to be a little more ruthless. When Vargus tried to get out, Fausto did something to him, with this cold iron crown, the Crown of Purity. From them on, Valius did what Fausto said, to keep his brother alive. Eventually, they were sent with the sorcerer Evelina to travel east, looking for old artifacts from Drankor, ending up in the Orcs’ territory, spying and scouting. From Valius, the party also learns a little more about The Cleansed. Their memories and personalities are not gone, just suspended: occasionally Vargus would have lucid moments, and talk about it feeling like a fog had lifted, but then the mists would close in again.

Next, the party talks to Antonia. It is clear after talking to her for a few minutes that she quite dislikes orcs and undead, and believes that Drankor is destined to be restored to greatness. Antonia does not know that Apollyon is undead; she clearly believes that finding the cloak, scepter, and crown is all required to restore him to life, to resurrect him. She believes that Vargus, Vola, and Hektor volunteered to be purified, cleansed of their impure blood, and the process went wrong. She believes Fausto is working to fix the process, to make it safe, so all humans can be cleansed and purified for the new dawn of the Drankorian Empire. It takes some time, but eventually Delwath convinces her that Apollyon is a trapped undead and Fausto seeks to free him, not resurrect him. This seems to shatter her resistance, and she tells the party what she knows. Grash has presumably spoken via Sending with Casian, and is likely on his way to attack the city. He suspects the party has the Scepter of Command, from talking to dead werewolves outside Tokra, and if he gets the cloak and the scepter, Apollyon can return in full power. The party agrees to leave her in the mirror for a year or two, and possibly release her in exile in the north, near Voltara, when Grash and Fausto are dead.

After some discussion, it is decided that Riswynn will remain and defend the city from the undead, with her divine magic, while the rest of the party flies north to destroy the scepter, preventing Grash from ever obtaining it. With this decided, the party speaks with Casian, who is dismissive and rude, insisting he will be rescued when Grash comes, up until the minute he is slain.

Finally, as the days passes noon, the party looks at the Cloak of Rainbows in Mirror of the Past, seeing the Mantle of Protection Vision. Then, Riswynn begins casting the Hallow spell, to bless the throne room, which takes 24 hours. The next day, as the spell casting is done, Seeker is reluctantly dragged into the room, freeing him of the fey curse of ice.

We end as Riswynn sets herself to casting Forbiddance, and the rest of the party turns north on Vindristjarna to destroy the scepter.