WB2, Session 20: Southland Tales

Session 20: "Southland Tales"
Wednesday 21st, April 1001AC
(destiny token 1)

Companions

• Urist, dwarven cleric of Kagyar (level 3)
• Rurik, dwarven fighter (level 3)
• Zao-rin, human monk (level 3), keeping watch at camp
• Danik, human scholar mage (level 3), focusing on his personal research
• Serrin, human bounty hunter (level 3)

Lost companions

• Grom, half-orc druid, went missing during dragon attack.
• Adran, gnome bard, fell to his death after being dropped by a Drahie.

And so the companions took a long rest in the village after their last encounter. The following morning, after Urist was giving up on his glyph idea, they discussed what to do next. Despite all that it entailed and the recent activity of wraith Drakkin since the release of the Bound, they agreed that finding the Crown of Submission was the good move and that, once in their hands, they could decide what to do with it.

Following the Shade of Tranun-Kur's information, Rurik took the lead of their journey toward what the Drakkin has called the "Sun Palace", home of the Sun Jaws High King and depository of the Crown itself.
The day was spent exploring first the south corner of the Inner Sea, then the group headed South East toward where the trails of Black Mist had disappeared. When Danik asked for a break, they had reached the high grounds of a rocky hill chain past low grasslands. A quick camp was organized as well as the usual watches and while the long rest was uneventful, the two Dwarves noticed that the entire area was most likely very rich in Silver veins.

The following day, they pushed further South East, soon reaching the edge of an stone flatland. As far as eyes could see, the ground was somewhat large flat stone slabs, as if a paved desert. Almost completely flat, time had however taken it's toll and the landscape was dotted by fallen blocks of rock from the ceiling...and the Sun Palace should be somewhere there.

As Rurik was about to lead the companions through the flatlands ahead, Urist noticed a hooded figure pacing back and forth on the edge a mushroom forest. Approaching, it proved to be a female elf, her features almost completely hidden by her heavy blue leather cloak, with only parts of a face visible, revealing a beautiful gray and white skin.

For a time, the elf seemed to completely ignore the group and their calls, even shouts. As she kept talking to herself in elvish, only Serrin understood but most of it made no sense.

Finally, the woman left toward the north, entering the mushroom forest, still ignoring the group. As Urist used his Channeled Divine power to try and heal a limp in the elf left leg he had noticed, she suddenly jumped in combat readiness, as if completely surprised by what had just happened.The woman was called Samshira Niasmalissar and clearly a shadow elf, one of the very recluse elf races whose homeland was far to the southwest of the Heldannic Territories, somewhere under the Khanates. Apparently, she at first believed that they all were simply illusion of her mind but when Urist's powers had some actual effect on her, she realised that they were real.

Inviting them to her home (a giant hollowed mushroom tree nearby), she revealed that:

• She arrived in the cave about 60 years ago with four companions (two named: Ololen and Fentumal). Apparently something happened and she's been alone for a very long time now.
• When She removed her cloak so that Urist could Restore her left leg, it was revealed that her entire left side was completely burned and melted. Her face showed skull bone in some places, left arm almost completely gone with only a charred stump left, her left leg just a melted piece of bone and flesh holding together with a mushroom hard bark harness.
• Because of her injuries, she seldom travel far from her home. She seems however well versed in trapping and managed to survive alone despite this for quite a long time.
• She mentioned that the Black Dragon leaves her pretty much alone this far south.
• Finally, she seemed desperate for company and begged the companions to stay and live with her, getting angry and cursing them when the group decided to resume their journey south toward the Sun Palace.

After another long rest near the edge of forest, the group finally stepped onto the stone-lands, heading south. Quickly, the cliffs in the distance revealed that they would reach the southern limit of the cave, but after a couple hours, Urist once again noticed something odd in the distance, like a massive statue poking out of the ground. Closing in, they discovered that:

• The ground had collapsed on itself here, leaving a chaotic mix of rock and debris everywhere.
• A massive Dragon Head poked out of the ground, at a slightly bent angle. The statue was complete stone, usual white with slim veins of black and was in poor condition. In the dragon maw however was a large stone representation of a Sun and soon Serrin noticed that the Sun itself was hollow and contained a stairwell going down, big enough to fit a grown man.
• The entire Dragon Head statue seemed to have been some kind of observatory, though now at ground level and mostly broken down.

Making sure the area was stable, the companions began their descent into the Dragon Maw stairs. After a couple minutes, they finally reached a slightly larger room. There, they found Tranur-Kun, his spectral form lying on the ground, the black filaments giving him form whirling around and unstable.

• Tranur-Kun revealed that the Bound and his sons were gone, trapped by the High King Aman-tas and his priests. Despite having thousands of Rock Claws wraiths on his side and the Sun Jaws having only a limited force of what he called Guardians, the priests' magic had apparently drained them and caged them within the Throne Room.
• He indicated that he still felt his sons and his brothers behind the door, but that the Priests were preparing something.
• The western door, the one Tranur-Kun indicated would lead to the Throne Room, was surrounding by a mass of whirling Black Filaments, forming a black aura around it.

As Urist heard this and the companions were quickly investigating, dark forms started appearing through the walls and doors and battle erupted! The creatures did not have body's per se, but were masses of filaments, black aberrations with vaguely Drakkin shapes. As Urist, Serrin and Rurik slashed and bashed the few that had appeared, more came through the wall, their touch so dreadful it weakened the body more than any blade could.

As seconds passed and more creatures appeared, the dissipating shade of Tranur-Kun warned the companions: 

"They'll keep coming! They'll hunt you down! All my brothers..my sons! They'll use them against you! They'll all come and go back to them!

We were in the...thousands..."