Session 25 - "Get Down and STAY DOWN!" - Abbey Isle

Mon 19th Oct 19:30 - 23:00

In-game timeline: Marpenoth 18 - Marpenoth 26 DR1489

We rejoin our "Heroes" back in Neverwinter, having scared the puritanical residents of Whitewater silly with some demonstrations of magic and booming sounds of thunder in a cloudless sky. But they did manage to kill (one of) the witch(es?). So they didn't *completely* piss off the townsfolk. Which for this group, is a rare plus.

A bit of shopping, and investigating the origins of the blade that Devon received seemingly by mail-order in the post, and, to the great relief of Captain Hawkeye, the naming of the ship, "Silvermoon" (though the new freight company itself is still nameless, which may hamper its ability to win contracts and make money), and the party is ready to set off on the high seas again towards Abbey Isle.

Another week at sea produced another storm - a bad one this time - but most of the group are now comfortable at sea. Except Devon, who once again spent half of the journey throwing up both above and below decks, and ended up exhausted.

Land sighted, the party took one of the rowboats ashore, with the assurance from Hawkeye that she would be back from her delivery in 4 days, and would be able to wait for a day and a half before having to set back for Neverwinter, in order to remain on schedule.

The team rowed ashore, avoiding the reef that surrounded the island, and put to shore on the only real landing spot on the southern tip of the island, on a small beach that was nestled between high cliffs that ringed the edge of the island. Pulling the boat up the beach, above the tide line, all seemed well and the group were inspired by their respective deities for the good deed they were about to do. And then Alwaith fell unconscious.

Unsure what the problem was, Devon and Drogan slapped Alwaith a few times in order to try to rouse him. They seemed to enjoy doing this. Eventually Alwaith did come round, whether from the slaps or from some other reason was unsure, as he was, as is the way with Alwaith, very secretive about why he fell unconscious and what it meant. He would only say, mysteriously, "I have travelled far". The others were confused, but did not seem impressed. With no further information forthcoming, they turned round and carried on with their business.

Which amounted to surveying the scene. The only obvious exit from the beach was through a gap in the cliffs, on a rising path that seemed to disappear into large sand dunes which covered the land for as far as they could see. On either side of this path were two posts, with "PRIVATE" written in clear letters on signs atop the posts. They ignored the warning, of course.

Between the posts Drogan spotted something in the sand - a body, possibly, and while the others discussed whether that should cast protection spells and detection auras, Drogan just reached in and pulled the body out of the sand.

It was a halfling female, dead and with a body scarred with slashes and deep cuts, as well as her flesh in places torn off, right to the bone in some areas. Drogan proceeded to loot her body, finding only a note with some cryptic jumble of numbers and letters, and mentioning a "big rock".

Setting out into the barren dunes, Drogan tries to see if he can follow where the initially obvious path goes. He manages to find the remains of a path that winds between the dunes, travelling in a variety of directions, for an hour or two, with progress slowed considerably due to the shifting sands they are walking on. After a while the trail that Drogan is following seems to fade and disappear, and they are faced with bleak, open sands. No sign of a "big rock" anywhere. The directions they took bear no relation to the letters and numbers (now obviously directions and distances) on the note, so they pick a random direction to travel in….

…. And are faced with a number of skeletons, rising from the sand, and sporting shards of crystals, a mixture of clear and red, enveloping their bodies like armour, as well as a pulsating red crystal where their heart would be… if they were human… and still alive.

The skeletons were more annoying than tough, and between them the party manage to take them down, though every hit they scored on a skeleton seemed to be met with a blast of flying shards of small crystals. When all the skeletons were down, the party started to relax… only to see the 'dead' skeletons start to rise again! They manage to take them down on a more terminal basis by smashing the crystal in their heart cavity, which seemed to be fused into their bones somehow.

Retracing their steps back to safer parts before moving on, they manage to progress a little while longer before once again being faced with more of the skeletons emerging from the sand - fewer this time, but they seem to have damage resistances (and, to be fair, vulnerabilities) that the other skeletons did not show. Could this be due to tougher undead as they progress through the dunes, or an incompetent DM forgetting to read his own homebrewed monster stats the first time round? Either way, they manage to take down these skeletons too, and destroy the crystals before too many can rise again, though Drogan and Dwarrow do take a fair bit of damage from the two fights. Alwaith has managed to keep his shiny new armour pristine as usual, and Devon, still exhausted, is reeling emotionally though not particularly physically, from actually taking some damage for a change, and from not having seen *anywhere* to hide for the last few hours! His fear of wide open spaces is proving to be a larger challenge than the creatures they are facing.

At this point Dwarrow, always the thinker of the group (though, to be fair, there's not much competition for the title), spots that the last few movements they have done without any encounters seems to match, *in reverse* the last directions on the piece of paper! The party tentatively continue to reverse the directions on the paper from that point, and, to their relief, reach the end of the dunes without further incident. And, lo and behold, the directions end at a "big rock".

Our "Heroes" are now faced with a decision - Go straight ahead, on a more defined path with the odd flagstone marking the way, leading to fairly barren hills ahead; go north-east towards a valley; or north-west which seems to lead into a small wood. The party is torn. Drogan wants to charge ahead; Devon wants to find something, anything, that he can hide behind, so wants to head for the trees; Dwarrow, using brains rather than brawn or self-preservation, wants to use the woods as possible cover to find the location of the Abbey; and Alwaith is too busy topping up his hit points with magical, temporary health to really care. So the north-west it is.

They head for the woods, with vegetation slowly getting more abundant, more varied and taller as they go. Devon starts to relax. It's getting late, and they decide to camp for the night, though without a fire - Devon is the only one who can't see in the dark and he needs to fully rest up anyway to get rid of his exhaustion, so a cold camp it is. The only disturbance in the night is on Dwarrow's watch - he spots movement in the bushes and wakes up Drogan, who immediately, true to form, runs after it. He doesn't quite catch up with it, but does spot a humanoid figure running off deeper into the woods. Dwarrowsteel persuades Drogan to just let it go for now, and the rest of the night passes uneventfully.

And so we leave our "Heroes" fresh from a cold night's rest at the edge of some woods, having managed to traverse the dangerous dunes with some brawn and some brains, and are ready for the hunt for the Abbey!