Shadow World - TE 6052-02-03 to 6052-02-10 - "Nulgier to Haalkitaine" - Session #2

Keety the thief and Raelen the warrior monk thought it best to collect Jymsan the mage back in Lethys before taking on the catacombs.  They gambled that with Jymsan’s wealth, he might spring for Keety and Raelen’s airship fair to Haalkitaine.  They might even arrive before the horse bound group.  The group staying on course is, Tyrus the prince, Cadonium the cleric, and Morden the mentalist.  They push north continuing on the Steppe Highway.

Two leagues north of Nulgiers, Tyrus spies a gothic ruined spire almost a half mile to the east.  Interested, they investigate.  Upon arriving they see a graveyard surrounding a ruined stone church.  In the back of the ruins is a stairwell leading underground.  The whole place is apparently dedicated to one “Agravond”.  They descend after the spell users anticipate there is nothing threatening in the entrance hall below.  Not far down the curved stairway, Ty’s bastard sword begins to glow.  Using the light from his undead seeking sword they explore the the crypts.  They open unmarked grave after grave, but find nothing of interest. 

They find the sword glowing brightest to the west.  During their searching, they hear a scraping of stone sound from the west.  Soon afterwards a Barrow Wight emerges from the western darkness frightening the spell users into retreat.  Before any are able to run though, the crypt-thing unleashes a cold ball blasting up the party with iron-hard ice and arctic cold snow.  Cad goes down with a frozen hip, Ty is dazed, and the mentalist is running scared already up the stairs with frozen legs.  The Barrow Wight takes its time and sharpens his two-handed sword against his armor while marching for them.  Tyrus stands first and moves in front of Cad protecting him from the powerful wight and encourages the others.   In a feat of incredible swordsmanship, Ty proceeds to hack the barrow wight to pieces while the mentalist telekinetically distracts it with flung tomb rocks and the cleric uses his holy powers to repel it. In the end, the creature falls and they loot “Lord Agravon’s” tomb.  They take his magic sword and armor and loot a magic ring in a litter of gems and jewels from his vault.  Happy to be alive and richer for it, they head back to the highway.

Back on the road, the next town is Minon, but there is nothing much there.  They stay the night and barter with the trader in the morning.  They sell the Lord Agravon’s (possibly evil) magic armor and sword for one thousand gold in gems.

The next evening they reach Calthos, but during the day they deal with a gargantuan giant snake that was constructing a wild horse.  The mentalist slept it followed by the trio promptly cutting it to ribbons.  Surprisingly the wild horse didn’t flee, instead it took a liking to Tyrus and kept pace with the group for the rest of the journey.

In Calthos, they stay the night in the Silver Horse Inn, keep their noses clean, and then leave at dawn.

The journey to Vyrrs is quiet arriving around 10 PM.  After a peaceful night’s rest at the Monk’s Cup, they leave at dawn.  On their way north out of town they notice the marshaling of city forces seemingly preparing to march north.  Could Vyrrs be allied with the Usurper Frelik?  They would be sure to report this event.

The group doubles their pace offering the horses frequent rests and plenty of water from nearby streams. Tryus realizes that the rescued horse moves with far greater agility than any of their horses.   Late morning they avoid an infestation of giant webs very close to the east side of highway. In the afternoon a giant oak tree falls and crashes off the west side in a wooded area.  Then the party thinks they hear at least one giant stomping through the woods.  Instead of investigating, they avoid it and continue their march all the way to the Orgos crossroads.

They arrive at the crossroads around noon.  They continue along the Steppe Highway north instead of visiting Orgos, which, the sign says, is about a mile west down a pine forest road.  They did not want to take a chance that the Vyrrs army might catch up.  The terrain changes from medium forests and fields to an expansive moor with bizarre rock outcroppings that look like daggers in the fog. Early afternoon they hear a loud scream of some humanoid falling to their doom into some sort of immense pit to the east.  They continue another thousand feet down the highway and see bouncing wisp-like lights not far from where they thought the scream came from.  Ignoring all this, they press on.  

By midnight, they make it to the Orgosian camp, a casual broadening of the Steppe Highway that lasts for a quarter of a mile or so.  They find several travelers and merchant caravans encamped.  They party rests with Tyrus doing most of the guard duty.  In the morning they move on toward the Blue River and Gryphonburgh.  Normally foggy, today the moors are clear.  Later that day they arrive at the famous Gryphon Bridge that provides entrance into Gryphonburgh.

As they approach the Gryphon Bridge, it becomes clear that this is an impressive engineering achievement dating back far into the past of Rhakhaan, if not earlier. A massive structure, it stretches nearly one hundred feet from end to end. It is imposing, yet graceful as it spans the river in one low sweeping arch. The bridge is constructed of blocks of a dark green-gray stone like granite, fitted together with great precision; and there is no sign of mortar to bind them together. There are six lanterns on green metal posts lighting the bridge, and flanking the entrance at both ends are two carved crouching gryphons. These stone effigies are about half the size of a real gryphon, but they still can be intimidating. They imagine terrible undead and demons might have difficulty passing this bridge; they envision it is like a ward against evil that protects the town from the inhabitants of the moors.

They spend the evening at the Green Gryphon Inn then leave for Haalkitaine on the beautiful Greenway highway without a word to any of the locals.

Halfway to Haalkitaine, they happen upon a sacked caravan.  It's guards and merchants dead and looted, killed by an impressive number of arrows.  The bags and the rest of the caravan loads is completely sacked and looted.  They estimate the armed robbery occurred about an hour ago.  With no one to save and nothing to take, they journey on.

Late in the evening they arrive at the venerable city of Haalkitaine, Capital of Rhakhaan.  They find the city has erupted in mass celebration.  Outside mounted on spears, they plainly see the severed heads of Frelik and hundreds of his men.  Tyrus' brother, the Emperor, must have finally located and took out Frelik. Tyrus’ immediate questions: has his brother reclaimed the Phoenix Crown from Frelik?, If so, what has he done with it?, and what of Vyrrs, does he know that duchy’s military appeared bound north?

From outside the city walls they see that Rhakhaan’s capital has an eclectic mixture of architectural styles, but most older buildings (as well as the city walls and towers) are constructed of locally quarried blue granite. It is obvious the city's greatest natural defensive feature is no doubt the Blue River, which forks to provide a wedge of land against the knees of the Grey Mountains.  Now at the end of the Greenway, the party stands before one of the great gates into Haalkitaine: the Sunset Bridge and the gleaming Ice Gate beyond.  The session ends with the group gazing into the gigantic faceted jewel of white læn that is embedded into the arch above the city entrance.  It shines like an iceberg in the sun.