An untamed frontier. Dark cults. Fickle fey gods. Ravenous fiends. Nothing black powder and sorcery won't fix... . Timberlands Campaign Diary
The heroes realized after encountering the horror of Whitebark’s Grove that breaking the fey siege around the Convent of Quite Grace required more strength than they could muster alone. As the dark invaders closed in the champions fled to the eastern farmlands. It proved a grim retreat. While the group lost their pursuers, they drank in the breadth of devastation the waning court had wrought on the lands. Fields lay half harvested if touched at all, but already going fallow and thick with rot as if they’d been untended for months. Farmhouses fell apart as corrosion claimed their boards and nails. The rustic folk floated above it all, converted to bubonic drifters by the dread disease Harvest Rot.
Into the night the heroes traveled. After hours of under the darkness of gathering rainclouds, they spotted a cabin amid the trees with scant light in its windows and smoke from its chimney. After a brief discussion, Sykes the eladrin rogue scouted ahead. As far as she could tell the cabin’s lone occupant was a lightly-armored dwarf snoozing against the hearth’s stones. The rest of the party discovered a dozen destroyed bubonic drifters in the front yard. They decided to knock on the front door. The dwarf, Kernz of One-Eye, greeted them after undo the gunpowder boobytrap on the front door. Kernz explained he was traveling to a ruin dating back to the Empire of Enuk’Lun that was on the far side of the valley. The dwarf hunted various sorts of ancient undead and collected their deathmasks. He’d heard the crypts there had a fresh crop, as it were. He’d stopped at the harvest festival at the Convent of Quite Grace for some mead and revelry first. Thus, Kernz was there when the waning fey attacked. It was a slaughter and he, along with others of martial means, was forced to flee. He’d hold himself up in the cabin here and was contemplating his next move.
The heroes explained the state of the siege at the center of the valley and that they were heading to the Nightveil Tower near an easter lake. Kernz figured it was better than wandering around the fallow fields killing drifters and asked to join them. The heroes agreed. In the morning they all set off into the warm drizzle.
A few hours later, the party neared the wizard tower. They found it guarded by patrols of hellhounds and small celestials; commonly bound embers as it were. An autumn eladrin, Isebrand, exited the tower to talk with them. He explained he was the senior wizard in the tower and the only one currently in residence. Isebrand invited the heroes and their companions inside. The rest of his order was aboard in the valley and beyond dealing with other fey incursions. However, he did have the remnants of the militia from Milestone Fork housed here. The champions took note that there was an unfinished stone golem on the ground floor of the tower. They soon met with ‘captain’ Godfrey Pikeman. Godfrey was promoted by his militia captain to be in charge before the harvest-rot infected fellow sacrificed himself to blow up a massive dire hive within the Apple Core Inn. The scene of this tragedy was previously visited by the heroes in Session.
Eshkar, the bearfolk nature cleric, offered his healing expertise to aid Godfrey’s injured men. He came to discover that there were still around twenty militia members left. They weren’t trained soldiers, though, mostly craftsman and farmers who’d elected to try and protect the valley. Eshkar set into treating their wounds the best he could.
The rest of the champions followed Isebrand to the top of the tower. There sat a strange apparatus like a looking glass but hundreds of times larger. As Isebrand operated its levers and wenches the party was able to observe the rest of Hillsbrook Valley. A smaller village to the north was overrun with waning cultists who’d build a great wicker portal after slaughtering the populace. Isebrand explained that’s where the fey host had come from but only sporadic reinforcements since then. The view was then moved to the inn at the northern crossroads of the valley. There the waning cult was in the process of building a second wicker portal. Isebrand also focused their attention on the same ruins from the Empire of Enuk’Lun that Krenz had mentioned. Isebrand’s lesser, Ghottel, had traveled to the ruins a few days past. She thought that the last materials she needed to complete the stone golem could be found there. However, Ghottel had yet to return.
Next, the party looked in on the mercenary fort meant to protect the valley. Its palisades still stood but were in poor shape. Dead fey and mortals lay outside along with two-dozen Lesionnaires and their support monsters. Past that to the north-west of the valley, Isebrand showed them that a fairy-cairn belonging to the Golden Court was active and explained he’d seen the summer fey repel small forays from the autumn villains over the last week. By the time the scouting was done, the rain clouds had become thunderheads and violent storms wracked the valley.
The champions caught up with Eshkar and discussed their options. In the end, they chose to travel to the Enuk’Lun ruins and find Ghottel. They figured if the stone golem was finished it could help them in an inevitable attempt to break the siege. With the bad weather, Eshkar used druid craft to see how long the storms would last. The bear folk not only discovered the storms would last far into the next day but there was an arcane tempest brewing. Gwaedd, the otter folk bard, recalled that such a tempest could be used to power difficult rituals and suspected that the waning cult might plan to harness it to open permanent gates to the feywild. That would allow an untold number of fresh dark fey soldiers into the valley. The heroes had to act fast.
So, despite the downpour and late hour, the party left their companions behind in the safety of the tower and struck out for the ruins. Krenz elected to come with them. While it wasn’t easy going, the heroes encountered no resistance along the way. The weather was just too poor for any but fools to be out.
Not far from the ruins they encounter an injured but recovering Ghottel. She explained that access to the central crypt she needed was sealed behind some manner of puzzle. She’d made a mistake in unraveling it and was attacked by the ancient dead. The part healed her up and headed to take a look at the aged door and puzzle themselves.
Around the askew structure, there were three grim visages of the sorcerer-king Enuk’Lun. Under each of these stone faces was a depressed pedestal carved with different symbols in the Tongue of Enuk’Lun. Gwaedd cast comprehend languages and he and Eshkar worked on translating. Wild, the tabaxi ranger, found a higher position despite the rain to keep an eye on things while Sykes, the dervish Riley, and Krenz stood by.
One pedestal bore the word “Will”, the next “Heart” and the last “Mind”. Spread throughout the ruins were six other statues of Enuk’Lun. Each held a sandstone sphere in one hand and a stone scroll in the other. Ghottel explained when a sandstone sphere was lifted it transformed into a different substance and that the spheres had to be deposited on the correct pedestal. The party went to reading each statue’s story in turn, below:
“The wide-mouth Noth'laon laughed when they heard of the living deity Enuk'Lun. They mocked His holy missionaries while flaying their flesh with barbed tongues. They sent curses born by screaming corpses to the Sorcerer-King's court. Meteors bearing Noth'loan's hideous runes rained from the sky. With skin as thick as dragon leather, Enuk'lun's grim visage remained stoic. He knew the Noth’loan would fall under his sandals as every people did.” The sphere turned to a petrified dragon scale when removed.
“Under the Noth'loan's star-born magic, the blessed army of Enuk'Lun withered. His exalted wizard-priests were reduced to cinders, His mauls turned to pillars of salt. The songs of the wide-mouthed fiends drove His blades mad and in bloodlust, they fell on one another. Many of His tusks were reduced to bubbling, shrieking fat. Though the battle was lost to these blasphemies, Enuk'Lun's titanic resolve never rusted. He would bring the star-worshipers to heel.” The sphere turned to steel when removed.
“Behind their animated stars, the barbed-tongued Noth'loan awaited the sorcerer-king's second army. The heads of the failed first force wailed from atop the wide-mouthed fiend's pikes. The arrogant heretics believed their blasphemous magic would bring them victory once more. The fools did not realize that behind Enuk'Lun's grim visage lay a halcyon intellect unparalleled across the world. His wizard-priests had grown giant bats with horns that devoured magic. Bearing His saddles, the magebane swarms shattered those animated stars.” The sphere turned to gold when removed.
“His mauls clashed against the Noth'laon's axes. His wizard-priest dueled their apostates. His hands traded blows with their juggernauts. Across the northern plains the blood of men and wide-mouthed fiends mixed. Smoke blotted out the sun as the fate of the world hung in the balance. Either blasphemy or truth would prevail that day. The barbed-tongue hierophant walked through the chaos screaming a challenge to the living deity. The sorcerer-king stepped down from his palanquin and cast aside his armor. He faced the arch-heretic with only his thews as strong as any sword and broke the pagan.” The sphere turned to iron when removed.
“The wide-mothed Noth'laon pleaded for mercy as they offered their lands, their treasures, and their women to the living deity Enuk'Lun. Yet, they would not offer their faith to the sorcerer-king. Tribute was not the Sublime One's goal. The grim visage of Enuk'Lun only wished to wipe the lie of divinity from the land for the sake of all. His blades gathered the molted young of the Noth'laon in their star-kissed temples and lit the structures aflame. Their cries left his expression unmoved for his core was unmovable as the mountains.” The sphere turned to basalt when removed.
“And so the wide-mouthed Noth'laon threw themselves prostrate at Enuk'lun's feet. Their barbed-tongues now sung only his praises. Their idols were cast down and His grim visage erected in their place. The only stars the conquered needed were in his benevolent gaze across their cities and fields.” The sphere turned to meteorite ore when removed.
The party proceeded to remove the spheres they thought represented the Will, Heart , and Mind of Enuk’Lun. However, they erred the first time, and a force of wizard-priests of Enuk’Lun ((Deathlocks)) and Mauls of Enuk’Lun ((Wraiths)) sprung from their graves. Krenz of the One-Eye was overjoyed to have death masks to reap. After a brief battle, the heroes put the restless down and tried the puzzle again. This time they set the correct spheres in place. The crypt door opened and out spilled a mummified corpse of one of the lost Noth’loan. They retrieved the tome Ghottel needed from the body, along with a strange crystal with trapped stars within. Then the soggy nighttime trek back to Nightveil Tower began.
Comments
Post a Comment