Session 2
Real Date: October 10, 2010
Campaign Session: 2
Adventure Session: 2 (The Abandoned Monastery)
Campaign: Legacy of Fire
Adventure: Howl of the Carrion King
Theeurth Date: Lorendon 16-21, 2901
Location: Kelmarane, Har’Akir
Players/Characters Present:
Andrew Sayer – Tain
Fred Munn – Marud
Jay Robinson – Ribas
John Rugwell – Dyn
Richard Bennett – Sabir
Tommy McGowan – Diox
The Lady Almah now tasked the party with securing a base of operations prior to entering Kelmarane proper. For this purpose, she and Garavel had selected the long-abadoned monastery of St. Vardishal, a saint of the church of Erdhon, sun-god and patron of Har’Akir. This monastery stood at the northern end of the valley of Kelmarane and from its towers it would be possible to survey the gnoll-controlled town. Father Zastoran told them that it had been abandoned even before Kelmarane fell to the gnolls, when a cult dedicated to the dark god Caravok the Destroyer had infiltrated the monks of Erdhon and destroyed them from within.
The team trekked the short distance to the abandoned monastery. They found it rife with pugwampis. The dangerous little pests had set up a large nest in the desecrated temple of the sun god, and maintained a dangerous pack of baboons as guards. The team defeated the baboons, several very large spiders and eventually, the pugwampis. During the exploration of the monastery, they learned that St. Vardishal had appeared to the first Erdhonite clerics in the area and directed the foundation of the monastery. They also learned that he was originally one of the “Templars of the Five Winds”, immortal jann (a race of normally mortal djinni) in the service of Nefeshti, a powerful djinni princess. On her behalf they had fought the cult of Caravok the Destroyer and eventually fought beside her against a terrible being of fire at the Pale Mountain. They also found a book entitled The Courts of Stone and Flame which detailed the names of the Templars of the Five Winds and their characteristics. It also named the being of fire as Jhavul, a disgraced efreeti nobleman.
During the final confrontation with the pernicious pugwampis, the team took on the entire tribe that lived in the rafters of the temple. The pugwampis were led by the grossly fat but vicious King Mokknokk, whom the party destroyed after a tough battle.
The team also found a densely overgrown courtyard. In its center, they found an enormous nest and three very large eggs, which they took and later used for very large omelets.
In the monastery’s crypts, protected from the pugwampis by a wall of fungus, they found the evidence of the monastery’s last battle, the skeletons of priests and cultists locked in an embrace of death. They also found an abandoned alchemical laboratory inhabited by some large and very dangerous slime molds. One engulfed Ribas, while the other actually forced its way into Diox’s mouth and nose. Once there, it transferred the precious cargo it had held for centuries: the fading memories and instincts of St. Vardishal. In that moment, Diox became “The Moldspeaker”.
Once the party had defeated the slime molds, Diox followed a powerful urge to return to the overgrown courtyard and dig in a specific spot. There, he dug up a beautiful elven curve blade. He knew immediately that this was Tempest, Vardishal’s sword.
Back to Howl of the Carrion King, Part 1.
Forward to Howl of the Carrion King, Part 3.