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Dunmari Frontier - Session 89

Cleansing Kharsan: in which the party explores Kharsan and recruits followers

Featuring: Seeker, Delwath, Kenzo, Wellby, Riswynn
In Taelgar: Jan 20, 1749 DR to Jan 30, 1749 DR
On Earth: Thursday Nov 30, 2023
From Uzgukhar to Pava and Avaras’ House via Kharsan

In the aftermath of victory, the Dunmar Fellowship is honored in Uzgukhar, explores and cleanses Kharsan, and recruits new followers, while contemplating their next move.

Session Info

New crew for Vindristjarna are introduced: Aygul, Nuzkar, Amil, Kethra

Summary

  • The Dunmar Fellowship is celebrated in Uzgukhar after their victory.
  • Two orc sisters, Nuzkar and Aygul, join Vindristjarna’s crew
  • They explore Kharsan, discovering Grash’s plans and battling spectral remains.
  • A cleansing ritual is performed, releasing trapped souls in the orc warren.
  • The Fellowship meets with Pava and Avaras; the dwarf Kethra and the Dunmari monk Amil join the crew.

Timeline

Mirror of the Past

Narrative

We begin in Uzgukhar, at the celebration of the victory in the Battle for Uzgukhar, after the unveiling of the statue of the hero Riswynn in the Plaza of Freedom. The party, and especially Riswynn, are hailed as heroes and saviors, and the mood of relief and hope is palpable, overlaid on the mourning for those lost. As the evening progresses, Loremaster Azogar stands and in his frail but strong voice, speaks the full story of the Cloak of Rainbows.

For the next few days, the party rests in Uzgukhar, giving time for Wellby to recover from his death, and taking a well-deserved breather after the battle. Kenzo marks the Dunmari new year, the 192nd year of the Nayan Dynasty, on January 23rd, beginning to develop his own new traditions of meditation and worship. As they prepare to leave, to head west to reconnect with Pava and Avaras and perhaps recruit Amil to join their crew, two orc women approach, Nuzkar and Aygul, asking to join the crew. That day, January 24th, is an uneventful day of travel over the Garamjala Desert.

The next day, January 25th, the party receives another message from the Philosopher’s Guild, concerning Rai’s hand. The message is strange. After discussing the message for a short time, the party finds themselves passing over the now-empty city of Kharsan, once Grash’s base, and decides to investigate. Faldrak sees this as a perfect opportunity to be allowed to fly Vindristjarna, but the party is not quite ready to allow this, it seems.

Kharsan seems relatively quiet. The party explores the palace, which was once Grash’s headquarters, but now seems abandoned. The stables and great hall are ruined and cleared out; further searching uncovers a few restless haunted spirits of the plague dead in the old kitchens, which are easily dispatched. The remains of Grash’s looting operation are also in the palace, along with a few treasures missed or destroyed. The most informative find is what looks like a planning room, with a map table and slate to draw on. It has been smashed, but from the available pieces and clues it seems pretty clear that Grash was planning on attacking Dunmar had he succeeded in getting the Cloak of Rainbows.

Exploring the rest of the city, the party casually slays a few more specters, and stumbles across the library, which is now a giant wasp nest, but the wasps are immediately destroyed by Delwath’s sickening radiance spell. Although most of the paper has been shredded and turned to giant wasp nesting material, something might be salvageable, and it is packed for transport to Vindristjarna where perhaps Nuzkar will see what she can decipher from it. The party also briefly explores the orc warren, which is empty, but the central building contains a series of gruesome murals depicting Grash is battle, slaughtering defenseless innocents as the avatar of Thark.

The next morning, on January 26th, the party briefly returns to Kharsan with the orcs Nuzkar and Aygul. Nuzkar is deeply saddened by the orc warren, mourning the hundreds of orcs who must have been born and bound to Thark here, and asks the party to burn it all. Kenzo and Riswynn, as the orc warren burns, cleanse the spirits of the place as well, and see not just the orcs, but many others, especially the Dunmari who died in the Great War, trapped between the plague consuming Kharsan and a wall of fire summoned to prevent them from reaching the safety of the Monastery of Bhishma nearby. As the fire burns, Kenzo feels Bhishma’s hand freeing the trapped, lost souls still stuck here, and Wellby briefly sees again the river of souls where he spent an hour before being resurrected by Riswynn’s magic.

That afternoon, before departing Kharsan, the party looks at the broken Dunmari sword in Mirror of the Past. The next day the party travels west, and arrives at Pava and Avaras’ House on January 28th. Here, they meet Kethra, a dwarven smith and great-grandaughter of Nora Silverspark, who has traveled far searching for Riswynn, hoping she’ll be her mentor. They also speak at length with Pava and Avaras, who are very happy to see everyone looking so well. Pava wishs to record Delwath’s story, and is amazed at how Kenzo has started to reinterpret and expand the Bhishma traditions of storytelling in new ways, asking if Kenzo would take Amil with him as an apprentice. The party spends the next day just catching up and resting at Pava and Avaras’ House.

As they prepare to leave on January 30th, with Amil and Kethra joining the crew of Vindristjarna, Pava updates them on the situation in Dunmar, between Sura and Nayan Karnas. We end as the party considers intervening.