| Session Date | October 1, 2022 |
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| Player Characters | |
| Base XP Gained | Carry Over |
| Player Notes | ZZ's Notes |
Rested and recovered, the party returned to the dungeon they’d left off exploring the previous day. Moving within, they were attacked from above by a number of wight-spiders. However, Mordecai and Dane Smite were able to turn them and drive them all off, a few being slain as they tried to flee through the party. Most fled west, one to the south.
The party proceeded south, slaying the lone wight-spider that direction. After a lot of noise banging on doors by the paladin, they soon came to a room with four werewolves. They tried to surrender, saying that they had no desire to fight the party. They’d been recruited by the Wizard Copper somewhere further north and ordered to serve the Specter as scouts and spies. They’d only been in this dungeon a short time, having come with the Specter and a number of other undead. The Werewolves clearly feared their master; they were also aware the party had destroyed it. The party considered what to do with the four but, while doing so, they seemed to sense where this was going and they attacked. They did not survive long. In another room they found another half-specter, this one of the Dry Tree. This one they simply spiked into its room.
The party now decided to try the trapdoor to the north. On the way, they caught hints of movement from the wight-spiders, but these things seemed disinclined to attack the party again. Opening the stone trap door revealed the surface of a pool about 15’ below them. Not wishing to test the pool, Du transformed into a bat and flew down and around. He discovered the pool was not terribly large and opened into a cavern complex which was choked with webs and many great spiders. A particularly huge one sat to the west. As the druid flew back, he began to hear whispers. Back with the party, they soon all heard an odd voice addressing them, apparently the tremendous spider. It was Xymox, it said, once ruler of this place, but now in fear of the undead which had taken a number of its minions. It wanted the undead expelled from its home, though it did not offer any help to do so. Although it hinted that other means of entrance and egress existed, its poolside lair did not connect to the other lower section of the dungeon.
Given that, the party returned to the stairs down at the other end of the complex. There they ran into a pile of Giant Rats which Jarrika easily tricked into self-destruction with the Ring of Mammal Control. Dane picked up a small broach depicting a feather from the ground. Down on the lower level, the party discovered a room with four Wraiths which were turned by Mordecai. In an adjacent room they found five Wights standing around a pentagram inside which was a man of the Dry Tree, alive but seemingly paralyzed and with strange black and silver braided ropes draped across his wrists and ankles. The Wights were in the midst of a ceremony of some sort and did not attack…until they, too were turned by ZZ and Dane. The party now fell back away from the two undead groups and drew them after, where Hans and Burt were ready for them. Each cast a lightning bolt. All but one wraith was slain, and it followed shortly after.
From down the hall, a woman screamed and the party rushed to investigate. In a small room beyond the Wraith lair they found the fourth Wraith menacing none other than the woman Aleera, who they’d rescued from Castle Gold a week or two past. The Wraith was rapidly shot down before it could harm the girl. She was naturally pleased at her latest rescue, though seemed confused by Jarrika. She was also concerned to find a feather broach, which Dane happily handed over to her, much to Aleera’s joy. Meanwhile, ZZ cast remove fear on the trapped man who instantly shot to his feet and thanked the party. He was named Fulk, a simple man-at-arms of the Dry Tree. He’d been captured with the rest of the party and had been here for days, paralyzed and without food or water, while the Wights conducted some strange and evil ritual on him. Dane Smite ensured there was no taint of evil on him and his gratitude seemed sincere enough. He said that a Wight had told him he had been “chosen as the instrument to destroy his brethren” though the soldier had no idea what this meant. The braided ropes did stink of evil, though, so the party burned them, which seemed to break whatever power they’d possessed.
With the south clear, the party took the rescued two and put them outside the dungeon while the party proceeded to methodically destroy the remaining undead with a flame strike, magic missiles, and the like. This done, they returned to inform the great spider. It expressed its pleasure and invited the party to come down for a reward. It would not say what the reward was, and the party did not like the thought of doing so, and thus thanked the spider and departed.
Leaving the dungeon for good, the party debated either going to the Dry Tree or back to Sarkum, which is where Fulk and Aleera were headed. The party finally decided to go with them as they might not get a chance to come this way again any time soon and there was some curiosity about the place and its lady. Aleera seemed to have taken an interest in the soldier, and vice versa.
They left the great forest and entered the plains. After several hours trudging through the frigid, snowy weather they at last came to a strong castle set at the western edge of a small range of hills. His was the Castle of the Dry Tree, Fulk announced, and the party would be welcome there, he promised. He was correct, as Leptos had apparently notified the guardsmen about the party, who were eagerly admitted. The party noticed at once that this was a stout castle, not overly large perhaps, but in excellent repair and with an efficient and disciplined guard force. They were soon brought into a great hall, announced by the chamberlain, and given seats at a great banquet table, the feast already underway. At the head table sat the Lady of the Dry Tree, a young girl that appeared to be no more than in her early 20s. Leptos, too was there, and acknowledged the party in a friendly manner.
The party was allowed to eat with little questioning but, after they’d finished, they were directed to accompany the lady and a few of her champions to a nearby conference chamber. Here’ they were properly introduced to Ursula, the Lady of the Dry Tree and ruler of this region. She proved to be polite and clearly intelligent. In addition to her great beauty, she seemed to exert a strange but subtle power over all in her presence, one that inclined the party (and clearly her champions) to like her. A long conversation followed (most of which I did not write down, so you’ll have to fill I the blanks – also, I’m adding a few things my travel-addled mind forgot to mention).
The party learned that the Lady had ruled over this place for a considerable time. In fact, she ruled it during the war with the Wizards Three, some 80 years past! She spoke of the time with clear recall as one who’d witnessed things personally. Although she almost always spoke evenly with gentleness and little emotion, she did perk up when she spoke of the military defeat of the Wizards at Manston. “Still I remember the banners of the Dwarves as they came at the city from the south. Foremost was that of Kazakh and its lord, Frór [Nali’s father]. The armies of Gold besieging the city were trapped between the walls of stone and the wall of Dwarves. My own host, having crossed the Blueflood in secret, came from the west. Few of Gold’s army survived that day.” (I thought that tidbit with adding on -- I thought it might tie into ZZ's talk about swearing fealty to the Dry Tree).
The Lady also told them that she believed she’d become the Lady of this place specifically to stand against the Three Wizards, implying that it was the will of the gods. It was her destiny, and it was not yet accomplished. It was the sworn purpose of her company to fight the wizards, and even though all thought them destroyed long ago, still the Lady maintained vigilance lest they return. She’d known for some time now that they had returned, though her “arts” were often no match for the power of Gold, which made it difficult to find things out. She did know that Copper (who she said was weaker than Gold) was active in the north, recruiting monsters and mercenaries for his master. She was completely baffled by the relationship between the wizards, the undead, and the Giant King. When told of the Hooded One, she agreed that it seemed as if some power or agency was behind many of these things for some fell purpose. While she had no love for Sarkum, she said they’d managed to avoid open war for many decades.
The party learned that there had once been an alliance between the Dry Tree and its three closest neighbors of note: Sarkum, Haxsim, and Far Andor. She showed them a triangular quarter of a great parchment, cut in such a way that the irregular edge made matching up pieces such that no magic could counterfeit it. It was a charter granting her the right to charge tolls at the crossroads and on river traffic on the Caron. It was this that had led to the falling out with Sarkum when the grandfather of the current lord destroyed her customs house and burned their dock and ships on the Caron River. Her “brigandage” was merely a continuance in collecting the tolls which were hers by right.
The party stayed with the Lady and some of her champions late into the night talking…