Rise of the Runelords Recap # 106 [RPG]

[24 Pharast 4708 continued]

 

Ava decides to try one final spell before giving up completely on her own ability to remove the dread wendigo curse that has taken a deep hold on Jinkatsyu,  With a fervent prayer to Sinashakti, she throws wave after wave of divine energy into the swashbuckling kitsune.  The curse resists almost as if it were sentient, and for a moment, Jinkatsyu’s fate teeters on a knife’s edge . . . but Ava’s will is strong enough to overcome the curse, and she tears it out of Jinkatsyu by its roots!  Although freed from its malign influence, the kitsune is drained and exhausted by the ordeal.  Kang mixes a powerful, foul-tasting restorative for him.  The adventurers decide to rest for the night.  Ava explains that she’d still like to teleport to Magnimar sometime the next day in order to buy some clothes and armor that fit her new body.

 

[25 Pharast 4708]

 

The heroes spend the morning traversing the rough trail to the wide ledge where the bones of Karivek Vekker remain, still frozen to the earth.  It takes some effort to break it free of the ice, but the body is successfully transported back to the cabin.  Once taken to the part of the cabin at the bottom of the cliff-face where Morgiana first encountered the spirit of Silas Vekker, the ghostly figures of both brothers manifest again in a strange, spiritual struggle!  Unsure of whether or how to intervene, the adventurers wait and watch.  

Jinkatsyu decides to get started in digging a grave for Karivek’s body, but has the awful luck to pick a spot under the decayed pine tree that stands nearby.  But the tree is far more than it seems—once a treant, it died decades ago from the arsenic polluting the soil, only to persist as an undead creature—a Horror Tree!  Its roots lash out at Jinkatsyu, crushing him while sending filaments of strange fungus

through his bloodstream.  But Kang hurls an explosive right into the monster’s gaping maw, and blows it apart from within!  Jinkatsyu regains his footing and finishes off the remnants of the abomination with his rapier.

 

After almost ten minutes of struggle, the ghost of Karivek Vekker suddenly sighs and stops struggling.  The spectral ghost’s teeth return to normal and his feet grow back before the entire apparition fades away into nothingness.  The ghost of Silas Vekker turns to face the Heroes of Varisia and speaks, fading away more and more with each word:  “You have saved my brother.  You have saved me.  I would reward you by simply taking the path to Xin-Shalast with me into the beyond, yet I sense that you would still harbor a desire to see those golden ruins.  Very well.  Look to the pages of my ledger for the way, and may Torag watch over you in the darkness to come.”  As the spirit fades away forever, several parchment pages manifest in thin air and float lazily to the ground.  Kang examines this carefully and explains to the others that they must continue heading north, following the Kazaron River until it branches, then follow the western branch to the end.  There, they must fast and wait for a night with a full moon, and then (this part is maddeningly vague) the path to Xin-Shalast shall be made clear.  With some hours of daylight still to burn, and a promise from the taiga giants to escort them out of their territory, the adventurers decide to leave the tragedy of the Vekker Brothers and the wendigo behind, and get started on the next leg of their journey.

 

[26 Pharast 4708]

 

The journey north is difficult, even with the giants choosing the easiest way forward through the trackless mountains.  Jagged rock, slippery ice, steep ascents, and a general lack of mountain-climbing training or gear bedevils the adventurers, and they make only slow progress.  But, hour after hour, they forge ahead, and soon reach the edges of the giant’s territory.  As thanks for their aide, and as a makeshift celebration of how far the adventurers have come, Ava magically conjures a feast fit for a king’s coronation.  At sunset, the giants give their solemn farewells, and are not seen again.

 

[27 Pharast 4708]

 

With the guidance of the giants no longer available, the adventurers make even slower progress than before, sometimes spending hours just to scale a few hundred feet of cliff-face.  Pessimism starts to set in.  Ava continues to conjure stone bunkers for the group to rest in each night.  On this night though, she sets her bunker at the base of a tall outcropping that just happens to be the roost of a massive, roc-sized avian called (in a translation from the original Shoanti) a “thunderbird.”  Bolts of lightning and heavy winds surround the thunderbird, forcing the adventurers to flee their original campsite and set up another one several hundred yards away.

 

[28 Pharast 4708]

 

In the morning, Ava thinks deeply about the vast array of magicks she can draw upon to speed the group’s journey towards Xin-Shalast, and realizes that one in particular will make the trip a trivial thing: by turning everyone lighter than air, they can float along magical winds at tremendous speeds!  No longer need they be hampered by difficult terrain or limited visibility.  An experiment with the spell proves incredibly successful, as the adventurers cover more distance in a single hour than would have with days of laborious climbing through the rugged Kodar range.  The western branch of the Kazaron terminates in a vast, icy swamp.  As the adventurers get closer to it, both Kang and Ava feel an uncanny sense of dislocation, as if they’re venturing into an area only loosed moored to the material plane.  The group decide to retreat outside the swamp and set up camp for the night.

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Director's Commentary

The DC to break the wendigo's hold on Jinkatsyu was very high, but Ava persisted with multiple castings of the necessary spell until she finally made it.

I thought the ghosts' spiritual struggle was a bit cheesy and fell flat, and there really wasn't much for the PCs to do besides watch.

I was wondering when or if that horror tree would ever get triggered!

Ava discovering wind-walking sped up this portion of the chapter dramatically.  I just don't know how groups without high-level full casters would make it through the extreme terrain and weather hazards.  It would definitely take a lot of preparation and patience!