Session 0015 - Into the Mournland

Roster

List of characters who's player was in attendance

Player characters who's player is attending the game start with 1 Hero Point, and can get more during the session.

Absent

List of characters who's player was absent

Player characters for missing players do not start the session with a hero point, and can not get any more during the session.

003-Ferdinand Blackvenner: James
008-Failin: NPC

Session Log

After the combat with the undead Alicia spends some time treating wounds in the party. She manages to alleviate the temporary blindness from Ferdinand but does not help Saferous recover fully from his sprained ankle. Saferous has a couple of lesser healing potions he crafted to help cure some wounds on Eriana and Sarroxtíoð.
The group notice it is very quiet now in the quarry, so they feel it is safe to explore the large room to the west.
The large chamber contains a few enormous blocks of rough red stone. This place was probably where the marble was shaped, polished, and prepared for shipping. Large fireplaces occupy the center of the north, south, and west walls, each made of a different type of stone: red stone for the north, white stone for the south, and black stone for the west fireplace. Six statues stand around the room, two to each side of one of the fireplaces. The entire floor of the chamber features a detailed map of central Khorvaire showing the nations of Aundair, Cyre, Karrnath, Thrane, and Breland. While cities, topographical features, and even major mines are shown in bas relief on the map, no text identifies the locations.
While Alicia is treating wounds, Sarroxtíoð and Rocinante take a look at the details in this large chamber. The statues depict a dragon and a lion carved from red marble, a wolf and falcon carved from white marble, and an armored knight and a griffon carved from black marble.
After examining most of the statues, Sarroxtíoð notices very fine small writing on the back of the next of the dragon statue. It is artfully worked into the statue and hard to notice, but apparently written in common. It reads "Whitehearth, White Seal, NE 9."
He and Rocinante return to searching the other statues and notice similar writing on the bac of the necks of all the other statues. This is a summary of all the phrases they decipher on each statue:

Red Dragon: "Whitehearth, White Seal, NE 9."
Red Lion: "Tallis, Black Seal, E 4."
White Wolf: "Cabblen Hall, Red Seal, SW 15."
White Falcon: "Blackhearth, Black Seal, SE 12."
Black Knight: "Kronu Hall, White Seal, N 6."
Black Griffon: "Redhearth, Red Seal, SE 7."

During the search of the statues Eriana uses the party writing kit to draw out a copy of the map on the floor of the chamber. She notices a lot of prominent places people recognize, such as the city of Sharn, Thronehold, and the Mournland. It is also possible to see roughly where the Salvation outpost must be, though it is not on the map, and roughly where the quarry should be.
She also takes notes and writes down what is written on each statue. The party ponder over this, wondering what it means. They recognize the name "Redhearth" as being the name of the secret Cannith workshop the professor hired them to locate. In his letter to the party he suggested it would be one of several workshops identified in the quarry, so they assume the other names must represent those.
Various theories are posited, and they try lining up statues and looking at where the lines intersect, trying to guess if the numbers represent miles from the quarry but see nothing on the map corresponding to this.
Alicia thinks that the term Seal must refer to a specific symbol or physical seal of some kind. Sarroxtíoð recalls in his searching the fireplaces seeing an interesting design on the floor at one of them encased in the strange crystal. He goes back and uses his pick to clear away the glass an get a better look.
They all agree this must be a seal, located directly in front of the south fireplace. 006-Sarroxtíoð then goes and uncovers two more seals located directly in front of the other two fireplaces, buried under the crystal.
Finally, they reason that the letters and numbers are a combination of cardinal directions and a distance measure of some kind. Alicia thinks it could simply be paces, so she goes to the red seal in front of the north fireplace and starting from there counts out seven paces heading to the south east.
Looking down on the map, she sees a marked location on the map that could be the symbol of a mine or the like, though it has no label. The party consider that if this town was run by dwarves they would have a difference pace, so they try a shorter pace and then a longer pace and these don't land anywhere on the map with a marking.
Eriana notes this on the map as the probable location of the Redhearth Cannith workshop.
They then pace out all of the other locations and they gain confidence in their approach. When paced out by a human standing at roughly five and a half feet tall they all land on a location in the map that have a similar symbol. Eriana marks them all down on the map and notes their names from the statue.
The Redhearth workshop location falls within the Mournland. The other locations are scattered around the continent.
After this, the party head back to their camp to regroup with 008-Failin. Saferous is still limping, but given a hand by Sarroxtíoð.
They get back to the camp only a couple hours before sunrise. To get a solid period of rest, they sleep until around noon the following day. Afterwards, Alicia spends a couple of hours using her Lay on Hands ability to cure the remaining injuries in the party while explaining what they discovered to Failin.
He recognizes the spot on the map, and tells them it is not terribly far from the quarry. Apparently the mine lies due east of a fort to the south called Gorgonhorn. That fort lies within Darguun, and he does not recommend going there. Unfortunately, that also puts the Cannith workshop inside the Mournland and it is clear that Failin does not want to go there. He states that the party hired him to take him to the quarry. There was no agreement to go into the Mournland.
The party then try to convince him to take them to the workshop. Alicia and Eriana do a good job of convincing him that with his cart they can quickly get in and out and avoid having to linger more than they need to. He eventually agrees, but only if the party agree to increase his fee by 20 silver pieces per person. This brings his total charge to 80 silver pieces per person, or 480 silver pieces in total.
They agree to his terms, so Failin then plans their route. They need to travel roughly 80 miles south to the road east of the fort of Gorgonhorn. They then turn east into the Mournland for roughly 30 miles to reach the workshop.
The party start their journey in the mid-afternoon, travelling about half-way to the road east of Gorgonhorn. It is a clear day as they travel south along the edge of the wall to the Mournland. Their journey is uneventful, and they get a solid night of rest before starting out early on Aryth 18. This also happens to the the birthday of Saferous.
Just before noon, they reach the road and immediately turn east and ride into the mournland through the wall of mist.
The wall of roiling mist rises ahead of you, appearing solid and ephemeral at the same time. Passing into the cloying mist is like entering an alien plane of existence. Light barely reflects through the shifting layers of vapor. Sounds become muffled and distant, even when produced nearby. The place has a narrow, ominous feel to it, and a feeling of isolation and growing dread builds within you as you travel deeper into the mist.
If not for the land cart being piloted by Failin they could easily get lost and turned around in this mist, but eventually they emerge on the other side of it. The mist gives way to a desolate, barren landscape. The ground is cracked and broken, and in some places it has fused into jagged glass. Few plants grow in this region, and those that do appear to be twisted and dangerous.
After about half an hour along the same road on this side of the wall of mist they come across some ruins of a siege engine used in the last war. The fallen soldiers look as though they were killed merely moments ago, though they surely died more than two decades ago during the Last War. Still, their wounds appear fresh and they have not yet begun to show the slightest effects of decomposition.
Even though it is mid-afternoon the entire area is bathed in perpetual twilight. Everything is eerily silent, with no apparent sounds from wildlife to be heard. As the cart advances on the road towards the scenes of the battle Ferdinand, who is sitting up front with Failin, notices movement among the corpses.
Emerging from among the corpses are five large skeletal wolves. They move with surprising burst of speed, leaping at the cart. The first one running towards the cart has a few ranged attacks aimed at it. Eriana throws a flyssa and Rocinante casts an Ignition cantrip at it but both miss, and Saferous throws an Alchemist's Fire at it, missing but splashing it. It lunges at the cart driver, Failin and lands in the drivers seat and bites him while trying to bowl him over, but he manages to stay upright.
Eriana uses her whip against that undead wolf and manages to trip it up, sending it off the drivers seat and under the cart. There is a satisfying crunching noise as the cart drives over it and the party in the back see crushes bones on its still form receding behind them.
At the same time, the other four undead wolves run and leap onto the moving cart. Three of them land on the canvas covering, and tear through it to land into the cab with the other party members. The fourth undead wolf lands in the drivers seat between Failin and Ferdinand.
For the next few rounds of combat the undead bite at the party and try to pull characters to their feet. Saferous does not have a decent weapon to use, so he resorts to punching at it. Eriana pushes the undead and manages to force two of them out of the cart. They get up and try to catch up, but even as fast as the wolves are they can not match the speed of the cart (the cart moves at ~15 miles/hour, or a game speed of 150 feet).
Ferdinand ends up fighting the undead wolf in the drivers seat while Failin focuses on driving. At one point the wolf pulls him off his feet, but in the process also falls prone. Ferdinand gets up and gets a critical hit on the undead creature, killing it and causing it to fall off the cart.
Inside the cab, Sarroxtíoð uses his Vitality Lash spell against the undead to good effect. Rocinante uses Electric Arc and Ignition cantrips to attack the creatures while Alicia takes out a mace and tries to smash them before returning to the crossbow after the one closest to her was pushed off the cart by Eriana.
After the brief combat the undead creatures have been destroyed and the cart continues along the road, leaving the site of the siege engine battle well behind them.