Rise of the Runelords Recap # 104 [RPG]

[22 Pharast 4708 continued]

 

The Heroes of Varisia continue their exploration of the Vekker Brothers’ haunted cabin, hoping to find clues as to the whereabouts of the legendary city of Xin-Shalast.  Kang uses a couple of vials of liquid fire to burn a hole through the wall of a chamber containing a mound of dwarven bones.  The master alchemist then enters to examine the bones, only to find that some of them appear to be wearing his own equipment!  An instant later, Kang believes himself surrounded by a whirling storm of shadowy forms as the cannibalized dead arise to gnaw at his flesh.  He stumbles out of the room, alive but bleeding from mysterious wounds.

 

Just as he returns, a strange knocking sound starts to echo through the cabin, seemingly to come from the lower entrance.  The adventurers huddle near the top of the shaft, taking up defensive positions, but are startled when the entire cabin seems to groan and shake!  The hammering sounds continue as spectral images of starving dwarves can be seen flittering about.  Jinkatsyu is suddenly possessed by an overwhelming hunger for sentient flesh, and tries to kill Ava with his rapier!  She makes a run for it and is badly hurt, but buys enough time to channel divine power to drive the haunted remnants away.  Jinkatsyu returns to his senses, having been spared the torment of actually feeding on an ally, but it’s clear the detrimental effects of the possession remain.

Morgiana opens the door to check on the blizzard and is startled to see a single ghostly dwarf manifest.  His facial features are curiously indistinct, and although he speaks, his lips barely move:  “You . . . you are alive?  You do not hunger?  Ah . . . this is what I sense in your blood.  Greed.  You seek the City of Greed.  You should abandon your quest, lest you end up like me.  Cold.  Dead.  Eaten.  But I suspect you cannot be swayed.  Know then that I know the way to Xin-Shalast.  I can show you the way, but
only if you bring me my brother.  He died on a ledge in the mountains a mile’s walk north from this cabin.  I can feel his soul out there, still hungry, still insane.  Bring his bones to me so that I might reconcile with him.  Once he is at rest, I will show you the way so that I might rest as well . . .”  The vision fades, and Morgiana rushes back inside to share what she’s seen with her teammates.

 

Although Jinkatsyu argues that the group shouldn’t rest in such a cursed place, the others are insistent that it’s safer inside than out in the blizzard.  They fortify the bunkroom and everyone tries to sleep.  Jinkatsyu, however, tosses and turns as terrible nightmares of feasting on Ava’s flesh wreaks havoc on his state of mind.  Strangely enough, Ava has a corresponding dream—of being Jinkatsyu’s victim.

 

[23 Pharast 4708]

 

 Morning finds Jinkatsyu sweaty and bedraggled, having gained little rest.  Ava shares the contents of her dream, saying it’s best to have everything out in the open.  Jinkatsyu says he’s dangerous and can’t trust himself, but Ava promises that the fiend in their nightmares is not the real Jinkatsyu.

 

The group set off through the rocky, snowy terrain, glad that the previous day’s blizzard has subsided.  Erik spots an old, disused trail that matches the ghost’s directions.  Even a mile’s journey across the treacherous landscape takes much of the morning, though Morgiana’s harness of magical wings allows her to soar effortlessly above the others.  Following the trail requires ascending a difficult cliff face, and more magicks are brought to bear to get everyone to the top.  Although natural wilderness competence is often lacking in the Heroes of Varisia, sheer magical power allows them to overcome most obstacles.

The trail ends at an uneven shelf of rubble and rocks covered with ice and packed snow.  A thin fog hovers just above the ground, but the adventurers notice the tops of about a dozen gravestones protruding out of the mist.  Kang’s excellent vision allows him to spot the remnants of an old fire pit, and, laying near it, a corpse frozen solid and preserved by the cold mountain air: broken and mangled as if it had fallen from a great height, its legs end in charred, blackened stumps.

But before further investigation is possible, everyone can feel a great rumbling underneath them.  Instants later, a huge, gaping maw pushes its way out of the packed snow, followed by a tubular body almost 35 feet long, exhaling a punishing gust of freezing cold!  And somehow things get worse, as almost simultaneously, a spectral image arises from the frozen body on the ground, its ghostly mouth filled with fangs that drip streamers of blood that fade away to mist before striking the ground!  The first creature, known in the north as a frost worm, almost cuts Jinkatsyu in half with a terrible bite

before tossing him aside like a rag doll.  It breathes out a storm of hail that nearly batters Erik to death.  But the adventurers rally and focus all their efforts on the worm, killing it only to pay a terrible price: in its death throes, the worm literally explodes and levels everything around it.  Although Jinkatsyu somehow manages to dive for cover and Erik and Morgiana endure the blast, Ava and Kang are killed instantly.

And the ghostly presence of Karivek Vekker still lusts for flesh!  It attacks Erik, and only through the superhuman efforts of the aasimar and his surviving allies is the ghost temporarily dissipated.  But now that they’re at their weakest, a final horror emerges: the clouds darken, the wind begins swirling with hints of a new blizzard, and the keening of the wendigo cuts through the mountains like a knife.

 

Only during the first assault on the Kreeg Clanhold in Hook Mountain has this epic quest to stop Karzoug been so close to utter failure—will the remaining heroes yet find a way to survive?

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Director's Commentary

Swashbucklers have few weaknesses, but low Will saves can be one of them.  This session we see Jinks possessed, and things get dark!  Some really good role-playing by both him and Ava though.

The ghost plot (needing the bones to be returned in exchange for info on Xin-Shalast) was a bit trite in my opinion.

That exploding worm was a real shock!  And it was amazing the survivors managed to fend off the ghost that ambushed them afterwards.  Things got really dire, and I was pleasantly surprised it didn't end in a TPK.