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| Day 01 |
The party explores the ruined church surrounds (mostly graveyard). All plots are empty, many looking as though they were un-interred from the inside. They then explore the town of Red Falls. All houses are empty, as if people just stopped in the middle of meals, chores, etc. and left. Later, the party finds the three remaining inhabitants of Red Falls, inside the Silver Lantern: Merrick, a human miner, Ayla a "healer" (she wouldn't help the party members with injuries), and the innkeeper, a halfling called Oslo Bumblefoot. We were informed that the inn and town had been protected by a silver lantern that was taken by a stranger named Therion, after which all the dead buried around the church had risen from their graves, and the townspeople had all become enslaved zombies. Each night, the undead return to the iron mine. The survivors were not sure why, but they were concerned that something even worse would happen on the upcoming Full Moon in two night's time. The survivors agree to let the party stay at the Inn, and they get to witness the horrific spectacle of the entire town rising and heading to the iron mines. |
| Day 02 |
Our heroes ensconce themselves in the Silver Lantern, and are able to see the undead shamble into the woods and disappear into the mines. The party waits until dawn, and then searches the forest surrounding the mines, destroying any undead that hadn't made it to wherever their current resting place is. They appear to be "regular" dead bodies during the day. The group returns to the Inn to find that the three occupants are gone. |
| Day 03 | Our heroes enter the mine, and begin to find body parts, rats with body parts that aren't their own, an elevator, more bodies, and lots of aggressive (Tucker's) kobolds. |
| Day 04 |
After resting in the Inn overnight, the party went back to the mines. They met a man in the woods (some had caught glimpses of before), calling himself Phalen, an oracle of Pharasma, who called the party "The Saviors of Red Falls" and claimed they have the "aura of Pharasma." The heroes go back into the mines, now fighting kobolds that claim to follow the "Whispering One." |
| Day 05 |
As the heroes wend their way through the mines, they befriend (via Diplomacy!) a kobold gatekeeper named Neeps, and learn that the bulk of his tribe is working in the mines for the Whispering One. Those that die continue to work. The party is safely hidden for a night's rest. Neeps also helps the heroes find safe passage with his brother Lort. Later, the party successfully contacts Lort. He explains that his tribe is in jeopardy thanks to the kobold king Krill, who has sold their lives to the Dark One (human-sized cloaked figure). The king has two dozen of the "changed" kobolds as guards. Lort, with his band of a dozen stalwart kobold companions, leads our heroes into the depths of the mine. The combined party engages and defeats six kobold zombies guarding the lift to whatever awaits below. The party descends on the lift to find piles of old dead and skeletons, and can hear digging in one direction, and chanting of the Whispering Way's death cult: "Beyond death lies true life." They opt to follow the sounds of mining. The heroes find cells with dead prisoners in them-- except for one old man hanging on to life. They scramble to find a key or lockpick to release him from his cell, but first they must defeat a few more undead and kobolds. The party moves on through the mines, liberating most of the slaves, defeating the kobold king and his minions, to finally confront Therion, now a juju zombie.... |
| Day 06 |
Our heroes defeat their possessed nemesis Therion (and release and heal the last remaining human prisoner), only to have the blue glowing orb that possessed him to retreat and then jump to a kobold, who, in turn, leads a group of his companions to attack the party. After they are defeated, the orb flees to a skull sitting on an alter elsewhere in the mine. Upon destroying the skull it's hiding in, the orb transfers itself into the party's druid. Our heroes ransack the remaining tunnels, barracks, and Therion's living quarters. In addition to finding the silver lantern needed to capture the blue orb, they find a personal journal. The orb leaves the party's druid (with a bit of influence that will require some healing) and goes into the silver lantern. While she recovers from that ordeal, the group passes the journal around and determine that they must head to Rozenport to see Dr. Henri Meirtmane at the Sincomakti School of Sciences. After resting for the night, they determine which way to travel, and depart from Red Falls. After a day of travel, the party comes across a horseless, driverless wagon with blood splashed around it. The ranger determines that the occupant(s) were dragged west by something wearing ogre-sized boots, less than an hour prior. They follow the footprints and drag marks to mouldering tower surrounded by humanoid bones. There is a campfire within sends smoke out through the roofless building. |
| Day 07 | The party decides to explore the (occupied) ruined tower, and fight their way through a half dozen well-armed goblins and a roasting horse. While exploring, the heroes descend into a cellar area, containing goblin bedding (ew), a very large, oblong wooden box (which contains nothing but some loose dirt, so our heroes smash it), a dead peasant, and a tied-up, unconscious ogre. Out of curiosity the party heals the ogre and sets him free. The bard is able to speak with him (Krug!) in a limited fashion, and befriends him. They find out that Krug is on a mission for his master, who will want to return to the smashed box before sunrise. He picks up the pieces of the box, while party members hastily collect the dirt. They opt to travel with Krug for a bit, though he seems to be going in the opposite direction from Rozenport. |
| Day 08 | Krug leads the heroes to his companion, Haven, a hunter of undead. The group leads Haven back to the tower from which the oblong box-- a vampire's traveling coffin-- was resting. Haven used holy water on the dirt from inside the box, and then got a good look at the dead peasant to see if he could identify him. The party chose to stay the night in the tower's basement. Eventually, they were attacked by wolves, no doubt controlled the the coffin-less vampire. |
| Day 09 | After fighting off the wolves, our heroes finished the night in the abandoned tower ruins, and made their way to Rozenport with Haven. Krug stayed outside the city limits. The party sold off some of their found treasure and restocked supplies. The heroes then went to meet up with Haven at Geraint's Arms for the evening, only to find that he was meeting with someone on a boat called the Night Star at the local river docks. |
| Day 10 |
After an uneventful night at the tavern in Rozenport, our heroes went to the docks to find that the Night Star had sailed north. A trip to the port master confirmed that it had headed up the river to Hyannis and would probably make a return trip the next day. The party decided to go on to talk to Dr. Henri Meirtmane at the Sincomakti School of Sciences. They discuss their adventure so far, and turn over the lantern to his care. He will research it as the party looks for Haven. The Wizard postulates that Haven has likely been kidnapped. The party members all purchase horses, hoping to reach the Night Star before it reaches Hyannis. I should step out of character and note that the DM is pulling his hair out now, as it took us a year to get to this point, and we somehow unanimously decided to go in the opposite direction of his carefully detailed plans. |
| Day 11 |
After a few hours of travel, the party stops to spend the night by the road to Hyannis. During a watch, a strange glow along the ridge line above them is noticed, and our heroes set out to investigate. They find a small, dilapidated cabin, and after a short investigation, the haunt within scares them, causing all their new horses to bolt in different directions. It takes several hours to retrieve them, after which is is nearing light, so they are able to search the cabin again. Upon finding a diary, they learn that the haunt's family, originally of Thrushmoor, died while he was out hunting, and for the fifteen years, since his own death, has been searching for the pack leader of the "talking wolves" responsible for the slaughter of the family. There is a map to the wolves' cave, and the party makes plans for a quick visit. The DM sadly watches the plot continue its way upriver as the party chooses to follow the random encounter After some further discussion, the heroes determine that their original quest is more time-sensitive, and continue on the road to Hyannis. They encounter a loan traveller and as they get closer notice the vines growing out of a male peasant yellow musk zombie. They destroy it with fire, and continue on, determined to complete their original quest before hunting down the yellow musk creepers. |
| Day 12 |
Our heroes arrive in Hyannis only to learn that Haven left the ship and joined a party heading up into the mountains. People encountered warn us of "Black Aggie, a specter originally buried in the local coal mines, who has been causing people to disappear at night. The party heads to the local inn/tavern has mirrors on every wall and smells strongly of garlic. The townsfolk live in fear. The party assumes that the inn is as safe a place as any, and, after some time drinking with and talking to a group of sailors, takes five rooms in the inn above the tavern. Later, the bard is woken up by the sound of scratching at the window of the corner room, and, after detecting evil on the other side of the window, opts to run down the hall and wake up the druid. She goes back with the bard to check the window, and concludes that whatever it was is gone. The bard opts to stay in the druid's room for the remainder of the night. |
| Day 13 |
In the morning, our heroes depart Hyannis on horseback, and head up into the switchbacks into the Hungry Mountains. On the way, they find a cave entrance into what appears to be a Kellid shrine. They go inside to find themselves in the Temple of the Blackest Star, where they see a ceiling full of bats, a rune carved into the floor with the dwarven name "Dendor Stonehammer," a bloodstained altar, lots of bones, and then they are attacked by a vampiric mist. They dispatch the mist. Later, they continue on to find a river with a castle on the opposite bank. After crossing the river on a bridge they see two gargoyles detach from the castle to greet them.... Our heroes were able to successfully fight off the gargoyle, but both fell into the river. One took Slave with it, and the remaining party was unable to find her or the gargoyle she'd been grappling. After the battle, the party continued on the castle, only to discover they had no means of getting inside. After swimming across the river, the party finds a small bank to climb out, and find themselves near a small, unlocked tower. Investigating the inside turns up three sanity-destroying dead bodies and a lot of rats. They also find a small bridge to the larger keep, and attempt to make their way across, only to be re-attacked by a gargoyle. After a lengthy battle, they defeat the gargoyle and enter the keep. They find themselves in a barracks-style dining hall.... |
| Day 14 | The heroes intend to camp in this new room for the night, but first open the door leading further into the keep. They notice a red banner with a cockatrice on it; and three suits of armor. Unfortunately, interacting with the armor causes a lengthy skirmish, until the party can barricade themselves back in the dining area. Once the suits are quiet, they decide to make camp and set up watches. Things get worse when they overhear a conversation down at the main entrance-- five horses have been spotted, and the gargoyles seem to be missing. The "acolytes" are beginning a search of the keep.... |
| Day 15 |
Our heroes finally get some rest, decide to check out the temple in the keep and discover it contains an idol of Zura. As they flee from some cultists, notice a few horses and a large dog during their escape. The party manages to flee back through the same rooms, so as to inspect the temple. They discover it had been a library and managed to find one book bound in skin. In a nearby study, they also liberated a cacodemon talisman and fought off a few more cultists, and made yet another exit out a window into a courtyard. Upon seeing their horses and a caged dog, they liberated the lot and made a tactical retreat from the keep. |
| Day 16 | As our heroes from the plot, er, Keep, they notice that Slave is riding on her (presumed riderless) horse. They've also picked up what looks to be a dire corgi. Returning to the garlic-infested tavern, they report a vampire cult up mountain. They spend the night there recovering from their flight, sell some stuff, and attempt to plan what to do next. |
| Day 17 | Our heroes decide to follow some intercepted messages about heading to Carrion Hill, hoping they are following Haven. They also decided to go back to the Keep, as it was on the way to Carrion Hill. The party went through every room they could find, but the place was empty. |
| Day 18 | The heroes continue to travel over the Hungry Mountains. They briefly encountered a cyclops, and used diplomacy to return to their travel without combat. |
| Day 19 |
After an uneventful but cold night, the party encounters a section of mountain road with trees festooned with webbing. While arguing if it would be better to go around the long way and avoid the webs, the ranger became trapped under a deadfall, and the party ended up battling large spiders and ettercaps. Shortly after prolonged fight with ettercaps, a truce was called and the party safely left the trail in the Hungry Mountains to finally reach Carrion Hill. They spent the remainder of the day befriending townsfolk, pondering the massive number of crows and whippoorwills congregating, and spent the night at the Hearthstone Inn. |
| Day 20 |
The party survives a night of being safely indoors in a nice inn. They plan a bit of shopping and then a trip to see the mayor, who has dire need of some help from adventurers. Carmilla spends a lot of time asking around for Haven or Krug, but neither have been seen so far. Later, the heroes meet with the mayor, and learn about the deaths and attacks of townspeople and the town guards (known as "the Crows"). The party agrees to investigate, and head to the scene of at attack. Carmilla takes Slave and goes and talks to the local temple to Pharasma, and mentions that the party had met their oracle, Phalen. She is informed that that was not possible, as Phalen had died three years older, as an old man. Carmilla is told that he is buried in the crypts below the temple, and she makes plans to come back with the party to visit. Meanwhile, the rest of the party talks to some of the Crows about the attacks. Once the party is back together, they head into house of the latest attack. Finding some books they hope to prove useful, they discover there are stairs beyond the cellar they are searching, and head down the steps into catacombs in an entirely different style of architecture, following symbols that appear to be for something known as Yog Sothoth. Later still, the party comes across a horrific scene well below the basement they are searching. It appeared that some cultists had attempted a ritual with deadly results, and at least two of the cultists' bodies were left behind on a hill of bones with an altar at the top. The heroes discovered a copy of the Pnakotic Manuscripts, and had to fight off a ghoul to keep it. (Yes, the DM would like to leave some notes about that encounter.) |
| Day 21 |
Our heroes spend a night below ground, in a chamber near the bone-filled "sunless grove," in what appeared to be a campsite set up for five. The wizard and bard spent part of that time reading through the Pnakotic Manuscripts and associated notes. They return to the surface, only to find the town in utter chaos as people try to flee the city. The party seeks out the mayor to find that more people and buildings have been attacked. Armed with potions and scroll to help them find the invisible horror that was likely what was summoned in the caves below the town, they turn to the church the town historian lives in. The church appears to be abandoned, though they do find a secret room below the church's sanctuary.... After a sneak attack from within the secret room, the party finds the historian they went to seek. After gleaning some needed information from him, they leave him to visit the odd islands in the caves below the church, and fight some violet fungi. |
| Day 22 |
Our heroes finish off the violet fungi, only to return to the church and find that the historian and the church destroyed. They turn to the middenstone factory next, only to discover it run entirely by a staff of zombie laborers. The man they meant to talk to is a necromancer, and combat against him and his undead workers ensues. Later, the party heads back to the Mayor's office. His staff has determined that the huge, invisible creature is the spawn of Yog Sothoth, and a banishment ritual will be needed. Even later, the heroes determine that they need to follow the whip-poor-wills. The druid transforms herself into one while the rest of the party prepares to follow. They follow the birds to Crove's asylum. The front doors hang open. The party finds one other door and picks the lock, ending up in the asylum's kitchen. The heroes fight their way through many rooms in the asylum, combating the insane, and the insane orderlies as they go. Later, they finally come upon Crove, who is invisible and has evil intent. They pursue him, but before they can dispatch him, they hear stomping and screaming on the floor above. They each try to work their way up to the ground floor, where the bard smells the worst thing imaginable, and judging by the horrified look, the druid sees something she wished she hadn't. The rest can only see the staved in iron doors buckled by something much to large to fit through.... |
| Day 23 |
Managing to remove the invisibility from the creature breaking its way through the door of the asylum, the party is able to battle a Thing That Should Not Be. After a lengthy battle, the heroes have defeated the spawn of Yog Sothoth, at risk to their own sanity. Now, they must banish it from the plane.... |
| Day 24 | After collecting the remaining "residue" of the spawn, the party contacted the mayor and rested the remainder of the night. The Crows continued to look for Crove, some with our heroes as they went back through the asylum's lower levels. They found morlocks where some inmates should have been, and managed to not get killed by a chaos beast. Otherwise, there is hope that Carrion Hill can return to whatever constitutes normal for the town. |
| Day 25 | The heroes have experienced lost time while traveling between past and future Cottering, and arrive back in Carrion Hill five months later than anticipated. |