Session 37 - Gashund-i-Yalir

"Run."

The company did as Varsuja instructed, dragging away the wounded body of Thorinta--though not before Feala nimbly managed to snatch the coral necklace from around Varsuja's neck. Fleeing into the Serth Hatama, the strange tower and their companion, Varsuja, were soon lost to sight -- not even the stone roof of the tower now visible among the trees. 

That night, Thorinta died of his wounds, and the Company buried him beside one of the many blighted green pools which are found amid the Withered Wood. This pool Feala cleansed during the ceremony, and with it the spiritual toll of the Company's journey began to lighten perceptibly. Moving deeper into the Withered Wood, the Company came at last again upon the main thoroughfare of the old northern road, and with it, the recent tracks of Nalshbori companies and wagons.

It wasn't long before the Company encountered one such company. Fortunately, they'd managed to disguise themselves as Nalshbori before they fell in with a roving band of Sea Scorpion raiders, just come from an expedition to the outlands. Since the Company did not have a disguise for Oratsos (but DID have a necklace), they had decided to pass him off first as a rogue Nalshbori prisoner, and later as a normal Amborian prisoner. He was still passing for the former when the Sea Scorpions offered to take him off the Company's hands. Thoranrai managed to talk them down, and the Sea Scorpions were on the verge of moving on when a taunt from Thoranrai resulted in an outburst by one of the Nalshbori warriors. In a flurry of blades and hooked spears, Thoranrai took him down, though a second squabble over the dead warrior's weapons and armor almost resulted in a much larger, much deadlier confrontation.

Thoranrai backed away, and the Company were allowed to press on to Gashund-i-Yalir.

As the treeline breaks on either side of you, the sprawling encampment of Gashund-i-Yalir stretches out before you in every direction. Built, destroyed, rebuilt, and destroyed again over the centuries, Gashund-i-Yalir has been the property of Amborian kings and Nalshbori warlords, and is currently the main Nalshbori outpost West of the Wanle Cheyth. There are ruins all around, most of them now repurposed to support the city of hide tents. The sound--the noise--the smells--all of it is somehow familiar, and yet repulsive -- a grim parody of the great cities of the Ambori. 

The Company managed to infiltrate the camp with only minor difficulty (and by subjecting Oratsos to a fair amount of abuse), and were directed to the Slave Pen, into which Oratsos was cast--meeting Sir Ralus and some two or three dozen other prisoners in the process. At that moment a general murmur began to spread throughout the camp: "Mawish. Mawish is coming."

Session 36 - The Half-Ruin House

When last we left our heroes…

The party had been traveling through the forest on their mission, when the party scout, Feala, spotted a tower off to the side of the path they were following. Upon closer examination, the tower looked as though it had been recently patched together where it had begun to crumble. Varsuja, the sneakiest of the group, creep closer to the tower to get a better look and see if it were occupied. Determining that it was safe, she retuned to the party and they all advanced to enter. But before entering, Varsuja stopped them and reminded them of the Well Priestess words, “Do not trust everything you see in the wood. You would not be the first to be led astray there.”

Upon entering, the party was met by the sight of a banqueting hall, the table full of all sorts of fine foods and drink, and the walls adorned with suits of armor. They decided that the hall held some type of enchantment and that eating the food would not be the wisest course of action. Looking around the hall, they noticed three doors. From behind one of the doors, Thoranrai could hear the sounds of laughter and music. But when she opened the door the sound of merriment ceased, and her eyes were met with the sight of twelve stone figures, both men and women, sitting around a banqueting table in various stages of a meal. 

Thorinta took it upon himself to open one of the doors from which he could hear hushed whispers coming from. Upon trying the handle, he found it locked, and the voices ceased. He then took a sword from the wall and tried to use it to pry open the door. He was unsuccessful, and his hand started to calcify, making it impossible to release his grip on the sword.

Varsuja opened the last door and found herself drenched in saltwater from a wave that came crashing into her. The door led out to a beach which she stepped out onto only after having a rope tied around her waist, the other end tied to Thoranrai, who was to pull her back in the event that something should go wrong. Once out on the beach, Varsuja could see a distant city with great ships, their sails black as night, headed towards the city. She was unsure if the Nalshbori ships were headed there to attack the city, or where returning home. It was at that moment that she had Thoranrai pull her back in, the ominous cries of a vulture causing her some uneasiness. 

Feala told the party that they needed to leave right away, and she and Thorinta started heading for the door. But Varsuja took it into her head that she should leave something on the beach so that they could find it later should they come across it, and then they would know where to find the doorway into the tower. She suggested they leave a tent peg, but Thoranrai thought that silly, and thought that they should leave something heavier that would not get buried in the sand and be lost forever. After some argument, Thoranrai took her brother and they both headed to the banquet room with the stone statues to acquire one to be left on the beach. 

Meanwhile, outside the tower, Thorinta and Feala found themselves face to face with a figure on a horse. His skin was white, and his lips as red as blood. He proclaimed himself as the guardian of the tower, and challenged the trespassers, declaring that the only way to leave the tower and break the curse would be to defeat him in combat. Thus, Thorinta engaged the knight in combat.

Back in the tower, Thoranrai and Oratsos laid their hands on one of the statues and found that their hands became stuck to it and were slowly turning to stone. Varsuja offered to solve the problem with a swift cut of her sword, but they declined her help. Varsuja then finished tying her tent peg with her ribbon and drove it into the beach. A cry for help from Feala brought Varsuja to the aid of her companions outside the tower, and she picked up the cursed sword that lay in the hands of the wounded Thorinta, using it to fight the knight. With the help of Feala, Varsuja managed to cut off the hands of the knight before driving her sword through him.

Thoranrai and Oratsos meanwhile had sung a sacred song, and as they did so, the statue that they were stuck to began to come to life and turned her head to look at them. Their hands now free, the woman turned back to stone. They joined the others outside the tower where they found Thorinta wounded and bleeding from a lance through the chest, and Varsuja with sword in hand. Her face turned deathly white, and her lips as red as blood. She turned to them and said, “Run.”

[This AP courtesy Hope]