Session 58 - Don't Touch The Bones!

Wed 19th Jan 2022 19:30 - 23:15 (Online)

In-game timeline: Nightal 26 - Nightal 29 DR1489

Our "Heroes" had a somewhat restless night at the Hearthstrains' in Settlestone. Alwaith disappeared into the outhouse and returned sweaty and distracted - the others could only hazard a guess as to what he had been up to. Drogan then had an unsettling dream overnight and woke up with damp sheets. He mentioned that he had dreamed of Meepo. The rest of the party were hesitant to ask for details.

Before Dwarrow returned from Silvermoon in the morning, there is a knock at the door and it seems the stables have lent the party a pair of horses for their use. As they find out later, Dwarrow managed to persuade the Mayor to ask the stable owner to lend them horses in return for their helping out the town. The horses they have been lent are old and somewhat knackered, but will serve better than walking.

Dwarrow arrives and the group head to the Inn to discuss their next steps. Unsurprisingly, the discussion lasts a while, and despite having agreed a plan previously, decisions were slow in coming. They spend an hour talking about how Alwaith never has any money.

They eventually decide once again to head for Azkael's tower. 

Then decide to visit Paxton at The Archive again. This unsurprisingly takes a while - Paxton is not the fastest of people. They get a bit more information about the Driscol's Salt Flats. Devon also gets a little more information about Tandred the Bard. Eventually, finally, they head off.

They follow a well-trodden trail in the direction of Mithral Hall until nightfall, then camp by the side of the trail. The following day the move away from the trail and head into the northern hills, where travel comes slower, but is still uneventful. After another night they head further north and eventually spot some white-coloured plains in the distance. Around lunchtime they reach the edge of these plains and see that the whiteness comes from a vast plain of salt, where the snow does not settle. As they make their first steps onto these salt flats, they all start to feel quite disconcerted from the strange noises that are carried on the unsettling winds.

As they progress on the flats, they can spot, in places where the salt ground is clear and almost transparent, the bones of strange creatures deep beneath the salty ground. This sight seems to trigger some distant memories in Drogan of something he was taught back in school about this place - it was the site of a deep freshwater lake home to numerous creatures but was somehow 'invaded' by creatures from another plane - a plane of salt - and the lake became very dangerous to navigate and be around. The Dwarven engineers at the time devised a very clever mechanism to drain the lake very slowly over time, trapping the dangerous creatures as the waters receded. Over time these creatures became trapped in the evaporating waters and their bones remain encased in the salt flats as the plains were created. Drogan suspects that the bones they can see deep beneath the surface are possibly the remains of these creatures, or the bones of the original freshwater animals whose habitat was invaded, and maybe the unnerving sounds they are hearing are the memories or souls of these creatures.

Alwaith's knowledge of the arcane hints that maybe some of these bones - those of the strange salt-plane creatures - could be valuable as reagents for magical uses.

As it is getting dark, the party decide to stay off of the flats for another night and camp in the surrounding hills, then set off early the next morning to see where Azkael's tower could potentially be.

The following morning they follow an old, faint caravan trail on the flats. They surmise that the trail probably leads in the direction of Mithral Hall, so they guess that maybe a half-day following this trail, then heading north, would take them to the approximate centre of the salt flats, where they hope to be able to spot a tower, whenever it should appear.

Stepping onto the salt flats once more, they sense the winds picking up, and again are somewhat unnerved by the wailing sounds on the air. After a number of hours' travelling, they are still able to see the hills behind them - the terrain is pretty flat and visibility is good. Under Drogan's navigational expertise, they decide to head away from the faint trail in an attempt to scout to the centre of the flats.

After another hour or so they think they can spot something in the distance - maybe about a quarter of a mile away. Devon sends Nige on a scouting mission and he returns with reports of a campsite, but with nothing obvious moving there.

After some discussion they decide to head towards this campsite, cautiously. Upon arrival they discover a couple of tents, seemingly abandoned long ago, and the bones of a horse. There is a large hole nearby. The group search around and discover a useful map of the salt plains (which will improve their ability to navigate around the area), and the journal of Theo Greyfingers, which is written in Dwarvish, but has a hidden message in thieves cant. The superficial writings talk of a caravan of goods heading from Mithral Hall carrying innocuous goods, but the hidden message talks of an organised "dig" which is looking to excavate the bones of a salt-boned aboleth, which may fetch a good price.

They investigate the nearby hole, which is about 30' in diameter, and about 20' deep. At the bottom there are a number of random bones scattered around, plus some large bones on the floor, and some similar large bones sticking out of the walls. More worryingly, there seems to be the skeletons of four dwarves and two wooden ladders lying on the floor.

Drogan volunteers to climb down into the hole, using ropey to help his descent. The rest of the group stayed at the top, and Dwarrow held back a little, holding on to the horses. Drogan checks out the four dwarven bodies and spots that some bones have been broken, though does not know the cause of death. The only weapons around seem to be small picks and hammers, more suited to digging than fighting.

With the $$ signs clouding the party's vision at the thought of possibly valuable bones, despite the Dwarven skeletons nearby, they (well, apart from Devon who prophetically said "Don't touch the large bones!") called to Drogan to gather together the large bones so they could lift them out of the hole and maybe carry them back with them.

As soon as the Barbarian touches one of the large bones, he immediately senses the winds picking up. The group at the top of the hole suddenly see a swirling wind nearby picking up masses of salt from the ground and forming into something more substantial - a large mass of circulating salt in the vague guise of a figure. As soon as the creature forms, it speeds to the hole and drops down with ease, at which point Drogan sees it coming directly towards him!

ROLL FOR INITIATIVE!