Players Present: Zyldi, Elgard, Seraphina, Nor, Galliard, Rahn, Eridor, Kanye
Players Missing: Kulu
Written by the Almighty DM
Chester leads Zyldi to a tree that has enough bananas on it to provide the whole party with a nutritious breakfast, cementing his place as Such a Good Boy. As the party is finishing up their meal a familiar woman is suddenly in their midst. She hands Galliard a scroll and tells him “Once you know how to get to the Soulmonger, tell me immediately”. She then thanks him for his hard work and vanishes, and a few things happen at once:
- Seraphina uses her Divine Sense and knows that this woman is a powerful undead
- Divine Sense also tells her that Chester is a fiend
The party then launches into a huge debate over the following topics:
- What the hell just happened? Who was that?
- What did she give Galliard?
- Chester is a fiend? but I thought he was a good boy?
- Kanye, looking for more of Galliard’s scrolls, discovered that Galliard and Rhan have been carrying around the slowly decomposing bodies of Kilgore and YikYak in their cart.
- What do we do with these bodies?
After some spirited conversation the following things come to light, and decisions are made:
- The lady was none other than Zaldara, the Duchess of Rot, from the beginning of the parties adventure. Galliard has been in constant contact with her since the raid on her tower, and she gave him a scroll to teach him the spell “Animate Dead”. Galliard is convinced that she can help him make his undead Death Metal band the best it can be, and has been accepting her sporadic and maybe-eventually-harmful tutelage
- Galliard acquired Kilgore’s body legally and within the bounds of Kilgore’s own will, and therefore should be allowed to keep her. YikYak’s body was destroyed as compromise
- Chester may be a Good Boy, but he is a fiend, so we can’t trust him. Zyldi tells him that he can no longer travel with them and has him leave the party. Sad music plays as he tearfully walks away
What a day! But wait, it is only the morning. Right before midday the group comes upon an area where the branches are thick and overgrown. As they begin to hack away at the branches, a woman made of vines and leaves appears from the jungle and implores them not to harm her forest any more. She introduces herself as the Wimba Bride, and is saddened over the damage that the undead have done to her forest. She retracts the vines and gives the party passage and begs them not to hurt the forest any more. They agree, and she disappears.
That evening as the party is setting up camp the Wimba Bride reappears and thanks them for respecting her forest. She offers them a soup made from Tonga Leaves as thanks. The Tonga Leaf is not anything that Zyldi has heard of from talking to the locals or from Q’Washa, but nevertheless Nor and Eridor give it a try. After a few sips they begin convulsing and seizing, and the Wimba Bride’s face twists up in an unnatural grin, and gold coins appear over her eye-sockets. Ants begin to pour out of her skull and begin to bite Nor and Eridor. As the party begins to mount an offensive against this threat she vanishes into the Ethereal Plane, leaving behind only a cackling laughter. Nor and Eridor have some slightly bloody bite marks but are no worse for the wear.
That night Nor and Eridor experience terrible dreams. Whenever Nor falls asleep, all he can see is the terrifying Hag’s face as she drills a hole into his head and ants pour into the hole. Kanye sits with his friend through the night, comforting him through the fitful nightmares. When morning comes, Nor feels worse than the day before.
Disheartened by the events of the previous night, they press onward. Chester bursts back into view and begs Zyldi to follow. Zyldi, knowing it is probably a trap, decides to go anyway. She sees a tall tree stump that wiggles. She decides not to approach and calls out. As the party comes upon the sight, the stump transforms into a withered old woman with a bag sewn around her neck. The bag looks like an old black sack, and there are things moving around inside it. This old woman (…ok, it’s another Hag) lunges forward and rakes her nails across Zyldi’s face, doing minimal damage but drawing blood. She then vanishes into the Ethereal Plane. Elgard notices as he comes upon this scene that Chester vanishes at the same time, like he is somehow a part of or tied to this Hag woman.
That night Zyldi has fitful dreams where she is in a sack that is thrown into the ocean. There are other creatures in the sack with her – a bird, a snake, and a vicious canine – and she is torn to shreds as the wakes up. Nor, however, is able to finally sleep through the night and begin his recovery from his previous ordeal.
Zyldi, like Nor, feels worse after her night of nightmares, but takes heart that it may be a temporary condition.
The party travels for a few more days, fights a few more battles with some undead off camera, and finally arrive at OMU: THE FORBIDDEN CITY.
The city is enclosed by sheer cliffs 100 feet high. Ruined buildings and stone boulevards sit in the overgrown basin underneath colorful birds that glide overhead. A waterfall plunges down one corner of the cliffs, forming a thick river that rushes its way through the eastern half of the city before dropping down even further into a lava pit down in the southeastern corner of the city. Steam rises ominously over the ruined palace near this molten pit.
Galliard takes out a pen and paper and sits down to study and sketch out this scene. The first thing he notices is that every 100 feet or so along the cliff there is a Gargoyle keeping watch over the city. However, there are two spots where the Gargoyles have a gap in their line: in the northeast corner where the waterfall goes over the cliff, and in the southwestern corner where there is a gap in the wall that leads to some natural stairs and a path into the city.
Which path will they choose?
[title redacted] - D&D 