Session 66 - Collecting Quests
18th March 2023
In-game timeline: Start of session: 1489DR Alturiak 27. End of session: 1490DR Alturiak 30
Our Heroes have a plan. We'll see how long that lasts.
After hiring, and spending some time naming, a horse ("Thumb"), they head to the small town of Mistloch, south of Settlestone, and find out more about the problems besetting the town. Convinced that the problem lies on the small island, The Haunt, in the middle of The Mistloch, they recruit a local fisherman, Thardrus, to take them to the isle.
Our "Heroes" first decide to take a trip to the old Mistloch Mine nearby, which seems to now be home to some Hill Giants who moved in a number of months ago and could be linked to the problems of Mistloch. Upon arrival our "Heroes" are open and non-aggressive (which is VERY difficult for certain members of the party), and they get to talk to the three Giants in residence. The Giants explain that they know nothing about the problems of the waters around here, and that they are not looking for trouble, but the three of them were forced out of their home - a place they call "Hearth" - when two Frost Giants arrived and took over the clan from Winir, who is heavily pregnant and now lives here with her two mates. The party - well, all except Derrick, feel sorry for the giants and would like to help if they can. For now, they have other problems to sort out.
The following morning, our "Heroes" head out on the lake in a small boat. Derrick seems to have overcome his sea-sickness and is now much more at home on the water. As they approach the isle, the mists rise and the waters become turbulent. Ghostly lights and strange wailings come from the isle. Thardrus is not happy about getting closer to The Haunt and tells them to swim and wade the rest of the way.
Reluctant to remove their heavy armour, Derrick and Karoshi think about an alternative way to get to the isle. Karoshi decides to attempt to use one of the last two pinches of Pixie Dust, in the hope that it will allow him to fly across. Luckily for him, it does, and he launches up from the boat, scouts the isle and lands close to the shore waiting for the others. Derrick decides to use his Enlarge ability to wade to shore, keeping his head above water by virtue of his larger form.
Thardrus, worried and confused by this show of magic close to a haunted isle, rushes the other two off of the boat and quickly rows away. The party are unsure whether he will return for them.
As the three of them wade ashore, and Karoshi looks on, the waters suddenly rise around them and a creature, seemingly made entirely from water, rushes toward them! Iwee and Jaxii rush for shore but Derrick is caught by the creature. The enlarged fighter is battered by fists of water and almost falls, but just manages to hang on.
As Karoshi throws Lionel into the water to aid Iwee's escape, he hears a female voice from behind him, begging them, in light Elvish, to not harm "Kai" and that he doesn't mean to hurt them. Karoshi decides not to pass this information on. The female starts to sing a soothing ballad in an attempt to calm Kai.
Without knowing this, Jaxii, now out of the water, decides to fire a crossbow bolt at the body of water. Unsurprisingly it flies straight through the rising wave. It does, however, achieve something. It angers the water elemental and, despite the soothing singing of the female creature on sure, it continues to attack.
Derrick once again bears the brunt of this and is reduced almost to unconsciousness with the next smash from the hardened wave. The female elvish-like creature once again begs for the party to not fight the creature and this time Karoshi decides to pass the information on to the others. They focus their efforts on getting out of its reach, but do not attack it any longer and it seems that the singing from the creature, that they can see now is some form of Dryad, does seem to placate the water creature, who subsides back into the water and dissipates away.
Iwee heals up Derrick and they all turn to talk to the Dryad. She is not, as they first imagined, the spirit of the Siren, Angelica, who they had heard was sacrificed on this island 500 years ago, and was thought to be the cause of the hauntings on the isle. Instead, she introduces herself as Glisten, and her friend - the water elemental - as Kai. The party treat Glisten with some respect and she tells them what she knows. It seem that Angelica's spirit IS still on the island, and Kai was, and still is, linked to her and is unable to move away from the area until her spirit is freed - which will require the return and re-burying of Angelica's bones. This would not be a problem, as Kai, and his new friend Glisten, is very happy here, and is in fact possibly the reason why the land around Mistloch is so fertile, but his behaviour over the past 6 months has been very erratic, and neither Glisten nor Kai know why. This is very likely to be the cause of Mistloch's current problems.
The party visit the standing stones at the centre of The Haunt, and Karoshi, being the only one who can speak elvish, communicates with the spirit of Angelica. The siren's responses, in burning letters of sylvan upon the stone, are translated by Glisten. They discover that Angelica's bones were taken to Settlestone soon after her death, but are now in a place called "Azkael's Tower".
The party need to get back to Mistloch, but they seemed to have frightened off the only sailor who is around to transport them. It takes a lot of persuasion, and the use of an Inspiration and the promise of some fine whisky, to get Thardrus to return and take them back to shore.
The group head back to Settlestone for the night. The following morning, they head to the Archives to talk to the archivist, a dwarf named Paxton. He is very old and very deaf, much to the annoyance of Derrick. He is, however, very helpful and explains a lot about siren's bones and Azkael, who turns out was an old gnome who was an expert clockmaker and designed and built the old clocktower in Settlestone. His own tower is reputed to be on the Driscol Salt Flats, about 3 days travel to the North East.
Our "Heroes" are resolved to head to Azkael's tower on the hunt for Angelica's bones…