RECAP: Jade Regent, 6-14-20

Last time: we fought the undead horde, but we also heard a voice – at first just laughing, but it seemed to be coming from above and all around us. It was definitely the flamingo woman. We’d heard her at some points, but we hadn’t seen her. The party was gearing up to go after her, but we weren’t sure how to do it.

The party couldn’t help the caravan for the first nine rounds of combat against the undead. The caravan, however, was holding its own, so when the party returned, we finalized the undead defeat.

At this point, we revisit the story of Dead Man’s Dome: the guard who drew the giants to the dome and then crashed the dome on top of them and himself. It’s more of a legend than anything, but now we suspect it’s true. Esteban retold his story: he’d gone over to investigate the ghost; as he watched, the ghost didn’t seem normal. The ghost came to Esteban and he sensed something amiss, so Esteban didn’t attack. The ghost couldn’t communicate, so Esteban allowed it to touch him – Esteban could then hear the ghost’s voice, and its warning: undead are coming. I can help, it said; either fighting or lighting. Esteban chose lighting, and it lit the battlefield, illuminating the approaching undead horde.

As the caravan moved, the ghost’s light disappeared. Esteban pointed out the ghost and rode over to it. The party followed, and Esteban dismounted and walked over. The ghost spoke to Nisha: “Pharama’s veil is thinner for me here, so I can talk to you. I was told to give aid to you. I wasn’t sure by whom. I got the impression he specifically referred to those people from Wolf’s Ear.” Mitch, Belana, and Munpo.

Nisha tells everyone that the ghost was asked by another to aid the party. When asked who asked him to help, the ghost didn’t know. He described a tortured soul that was full of guilt, sorrow, and remorse. The ghost also said he had messages for certain members of the party (mainly the original people from Wolfs Ear). The ghost told each member from Wolfs Ear that they were being watched over by this spirit and that they were doing great things to honor the lost people of Wolfs Ear. The ghost stopped at Mitch longer than the others and told him the spirit wanted him to remember who he used to be and who he is now and that he should use that as a guide as he continued to progress. Based on the description of the spirit and what was said to each, Nisha and Mitch became convinced that the spirit was their friend, mentor, enemy, and protector Zoltar.

When the party asked the ghost how they could help him, he just stated that he wanted to perform his duty which was to protect travelers who stayed at the dome. He wanted no other service.

Regarding the flamingo woman: she’s at least partially of my kind, said the ghost, but also not; though we killed her at the tower, we saw something come out of her – a spirit perhaps, but some sort of energy. “She is a new one,” the ghost explained.

We camped the night at Dead Man’s Dome, and the next morning Kainyn cast Arcane Mark on some stones. Kainyn estimated there were a couple of days worth of repairs to do to the wagons, so staying at Dead Man’s Dome (and safe from wandering undead) might be in order. The ghost helped us to locate resources – wood, mostly, from the ruins. In the meantime, Ulf tells us aboutour Ul-Angorn. The people there are very nosy; it could be their isolation, it could be just plain old rudeness, but they are offputting. Jaagin is the next stop, some three or four days further south. We start to see changes in the land and terrain; difficult in some places, but welcome all the same. Jaagin is larger, better supplied, and more of a real city.

The sun comes out, and the animals start feeling better. We made great time on the road and could see the lights of the town as the sun went down. Ulf goes ahead to find a place for the caravan to park and stay. We entered the town, and got lots of attention, but no one did anything untoward. We stayed overnight, trying not to talk to the locals. We move out towards Jaagin the next morning, first thing. On the path, we encounter a huge river with a surrounding ravine that requires us to traverse it, causing some damage to the wagons but not too bad. Past it, we see conifers and patches of snowless ground. Even closer to Jaagin, we pass a river with liquid water running, and we no longer have to cast Endure Elements on the livestock. The wand peters out on us just in time.

The next big town after Jaagin is on the other side of the mountains. Jaagin about Sandpoint-size; it’s a fairly big town. We parked the caravan at the streams so the animals have fresh water and sanitation. We plan to spend about 5 to 7 days in Jaagin. Our last night there, we had a few drinks and planned on heading for bed early to get a jump start the next morning. Kainyn notices some earrings that Amiko was wearing were left on a table in the common room, so he picked them up to take to her. At her room, the door is ajar and it opens unlatched; it’s cold inside, and Amiko is missing. At the window, Kainyn looks for Amiko but saw nothing out of the ordinary. Kainyn told the party and runs outside, followed by Munpo and Savior. Kainyn thought he saw blueprints, like maybe someone jumped from Amiko’s window. They were approximately a size 16 shoe, a big fellow. Kainyn pointed them out, and Belana confirmed finding tracks going down an alleyway, an alleyway that Esteban asserts would be the way he’d go if he had kidnapped somebody. Everyone went that way, and they found more tracks a couple streets over.

Esteban told the party he wanted to go talk to some people he’d met, to see what he could find out about the kidnapping. The rest followed the tracks, which seemed to be headed out of town, so Munpo changed into an owl and flew to recon the area; he saw nothing, however. He checked out the edge of town, but saw nothing there, either. Kainyn tried to intimidate some locals: “Big guy carrying a woman – did you see him??” But people have no idea. Esteban returned: it’s the Five Storms group that took Amiko, the same guys from Kalsguard, and they have connections down south as well. Munpo flies southward, but again doesn’t see anything at first. He landed, however, and then found more footprints. We suspect the creature may be moving invisibly.

We all followed the tracks, eventually catching up to Munpo and Savior. Savior takes off and we followed for a while, eventually arriving at a forested area with a well hidden cave. Esteban saw something – “It looks like a bug” he yelled. Munpo awakened the trees to aid us in case something passed near.  Savior was then attacked by two giant ice spiders, and heavily wounded while Munpo desperately flame striked them to save his friend. Mitch charged but stumbled and failed to strike. Drinek attacked, with some sort of ray, and landed some fire on the spiders, which hurt them grievously. Drinek and Munpo focus on delivering fire spells, hoping to capitalize on their suspected vulnerabilities. Kainyn and Mitch finish off one spider, while Belana and Mumpo’s  fire spells continued to hurt the remaining spider. Esteban spotted some movement in the woods to the left, and out of the woods charged an ogre mage surrounded by magical fog. The ogre mage attacked Nisha and beat her down surprisingly hard. Mitch detached from the spiders to assist Nisha, leaving Kainyn and the spellcasters to finish off the remaining spider. Mitch beheaded the ogre mage, and Drinek finally killed the remaining spider.

Amiko was found in the woods to the northwest, about 100 feet away from the cave mouth – unharmed, but unconscious. We searched the ogre mage and the interior of the cave and find a few things:

Ogre Mage

• +3 Necklace of Natural Armor (Nisha)
• +3  Brawler’s Bracers (Kainyn)

Cave

• Mostly decomposed husks, lots of mundane equipment and weapons in various states of decrepitude.
• +1 Longbow (Mumpo, for deconstruction)
• Quiver of Efficiency, with 4 +1 flaming arrows and 20 regular arrows (Esteban)

Kainyn also gave Esteban a Wand of Flame Arrow.