9th Eyre, 999 YK
- They prepare to leave the cave. As they are finishing up, a dark-skinned human, clad in furs and wielding a primitive spear, with tattoos that mark them as a member of the Razor Wind enters the cavern and freezes.
- Valaari puts their hand on their weapon. Zaphkiel gets in front of Naze and Bhaltair drops the chainmail they were carrying. Warren swears under his breath, and Runmae also readies their weapon.
- The man drops their weapon and shouts "Wait! Kalok Shash!"
- They have a brief conversation in Old Common, the man identifies them as Ghaash'kala and says he has wounded Ghaash'kala with him, and that the party should come outside.
- Valaari does sense motive and notices this man is incredibly distracted and jumpy, something about him puts them on edge.
- They agree to exit the cave, but if this is a trick they will kill him.
- The man backs out of the cave, picking up his spear, and Valaari follows closely.
- They see the missing patrol waiting outside! Arvel, Daruuc, and Voraash. They are all injured in some way. Arvel's right arm is broken, Daruuc is bloody and bruised, and Voraash's right leg is broken and he is similarly bruised and broken. There seems to have been some rudimentary attempt at medicine.
- Arvel rushes to Bhaltair and hugs them with their working arm. He's surprisingly chipper.
- The triber is still distracted and a little off putting. Bhaltair tries to identify if they're being influenced by something.
- Bhaltair notices the man is muttering something inaudibly under his breath, like he's having a silent conversation with something. He seems distressed by it.
- Valaari gestures for the others to approach so Naze can examine them, to see if the triber notices. He does, but doesn't approach.
- Naze checks the injured over, and sees the rudimentary attempt at treatment was surprisingly effective.
- Valaari observes the man to try and work out what's going on with him.
- Warren goes and talks to him, asks him what's happening. The man identifies himself as Auric, part of the warband that took the others prisoners and killed Kauth.
- Auric describes feeling pangs of guilt after capturing the group, and nausea at the thought of what was going to happen to them. A voice started speaking to him, asking him who he was, who he wanted to be. It is distressing.
- Valaari says there are people at Maruk Dar who can help. It sounds like Kalok Shash is speaking to him.
- They ask Auric is he wants to go back with them, his tribe will kill him if he returns.
- He tentatively agrees, he cannot return to his tribe.
- They go to travel, but Naze observes that they aren't in fit position to. They are injured and malnourished, they haven't eaten in days. They decide to rest and feed the new temporary party members.
- Bhaltair casts a Gentle Breeze to help them recover.
- While they rest for a bit, Auric has more news to share. His tribe has a new blessed chieftain, Valkhoth, who went onto a pilgrimage and returned with a gigantic khyber shard. It allows him to call on the service of demons. He's unlike the previous chieftains, he's smart, and he's begun talking to the other tribes. Trying to negotiate alliances.
- The Razor Wind think he will unite the tribes, and they will sweep through the Labyrinth and into the soft lands beyond.
- Bhaltair, who doesn't understand Old Common, asks why everyone looks so serious.
- Valaari explains everything that Auric just said.
- With that said, they reaffirm that they need to get back as soon as possible. They're going to travel through the night and try to live with the exhaustion.
- They debate for a bit whether to rest and then push for 16 hours of travel tomorrow, or to push 8 hours tonight and then 8 hours tomorrow.
- They decide to push through and not rest until they get to Maruk Dar, they need to be back as soon as they can.
10th Eyre, 999 YK
- They continue travelling throughout the night.
- As they walk, they make small talk to the others and Auric. Asking normal questions, like "how long have you been with the Ghaash'kala?" and "is it true you eat babies?"
- As they enter a canyon, they spot a peculiar sight! A tent with nice carpets arrayed around it, a dark-blue skinned old woman with ram horns sat in the middle with an array of bottles and bowls around them. Next to the tent is a demonic horse with purple flames in place of mane and tail.
- The old woman hasn't noticed them yet. Most of the group want to keep it that way!
- The players are disappointed about it, but their characters cannot risk stopping. They're exhausted and overencumbered, they need to get back.
- Warren marks down on the map that there was a creepy old lady here, they'll try and find them later.
- They reroute to avoid the old lady, much to certain players disappointment.
- They push through and arrive, exhausted, back at Maruk Dar in the early evening.
- In a sorry state, they spread out to deliver their stuff. They draft nearby Ghaash'kala to carry things to the appropriate places. Bhaltair, Naze and the injured to the Infirmary. Runmae and the drafted kala to the forge to deliver the metal. Valaari and Talana go to report to the leaders of the tribe and assigns Warren to watch Auric, get him some food or something.
- Talana and Valaari tell someone they need to speak to Torgaan and then head to the war room. Torgaan and Durrnak arrive shortly after.
- Valaari reports, they brought back resources, the missing patrol, and dire news.
- Valaari describes meeting Auric with the others, and explains what happened and who he is. They explain they extended an offer to Auric to join, and then delivers the news about Valkhoth.
- Valaari also shows them Soulsever, the vile axe they took from Kuugra.
- Torgaan asks some questions, how long has this been an issue, where is this Auric? Valaari answers them.
- Torgaan mentions that he was once a member of the Razor Wind. Valaari thinks it would be good for him to speak to Auric.
- Valaari also mentions the lightning storm, that was weird! Torgaan mentions another carrion tribe defector spoke to him about it, they thought their god was angry.
- Valaari then gives inventory on what they recovered, and Torgaan recognises the Byeshk. It's used to fight the spawn of Xoriat, they don't need it often but when they do it's important to have it.
- Valaari asks Torgaan if he knows anything about Ghoran, but Torgaan is unfamiliar with the term.
- Valaari takes Torgaan to speak to Auric.
- Warren takes Auric to the mess hall to get some food and also introduce him to gambling. While they sit, more carrion tribe defectors sit around them and press a mug into Auric's hand. They ask how he heard the call, and they all exchange stories. None of them had been there for longer than a year, prompting a somber moment of reflection, most of them don't last long in the Ghaash'kala. Warren had never really thought about this before, how hard it must be for those who have left the Carrion Tribes.
- Tunri's experience was an intense one, she experienced the evil being burnt out of her, and then wandered until a Ghaash'kala patrol picked her up.
- Dakar hasn't truly heard the call, but Warren overlooks this because Dakar gave him a drink.
- Torgaan and Valaari arrive and ask to speak with Auric.
- Jumping to the Infirmary, Bhaltair and Naze arrive with the injured and the supplies. Naze gets a chewing out for bringing injured people when she wants supplies.
- Naze and Bhaltair put the supplies away and notes Denzel isn't here.
- Naze wonders what happened, did Denzel die? He wants to ask Kait but doesn't want to get on her nerves.
- Bhaltair has no such qualms and just asks Kait.
- Denzel fully recovered a few days ago, he's around somewhere!
- Bhaltair asked if they knew anything else about the disease but they don't, just that it was hard to treat.
- Kait then asks for Bhaltair to run her through what they collected.
- They run inventory on the supplies they brought back, enough supplies to last the tribe for a while! Bhaltair also mentions wanting to try and grow some of these things locally, they collected seeds!
- Bhaltair asks if they can help at all, and Kait says they look like they need rest themselves. Bhaltair says they can go for a bit and then rest, and Kait begrudgingly allows it.
- Bhaltair asks if they have any semiprecious stones they can use, and Kait gives them a requisition note for a clearer stone (worth 50gp mechanically)
- Bhaltair asks if they use soap and how they make it. Tallow from beasties, mostly!
- Naze almost falls asleep. Poor boy.
- They send Naze to bed.
- Torgaan talks to Auric and receives a more detailed summary than Valaari gave.
- Valaari then goes to find Lharc Suusha and show her the weapon. Lharc explains that it isn't the first time they've seen such a weapon, though they're thankfully rare. In theory, the weapon could bind souls and prevent them from joining Kalok Shash. Lharc will store it securely in Maruk Dar while they examine it.
- Most of them then go to bed, but Bhaltair spends a few hours helping in the infirmary with their new semiprecious stones.
11th Eyre, 999 YK
- They regroup in the morning and Valaari updates them all.
- Bhaltair asks if they should do an object reading on the weapon they recovered?
- Bhaltair, Valaari and Warren go to the chapel to speak to Lharc and get access to the weapon.
- Bhaltair first does a psychometric assessment, looking for emotions attached to the weapon. They experience pain and fear, and see a multitude of faces they don't recognise. This weapon has killed a lot of people.
- Bhaltair wants to delve deeper, but warns the others that this could injure them. Is it worth it?
- They decide to use the Object Reading instead, looking for an event that occured within the last month.
- Bhaltair experiences a specific instance of someone being murdered using the axe, by the same orc that they fought with it. They feel their "essence" be pulled into the axe. This vision is from the perspective of the victim, unusual for this spell. This implies the victim is within the weapon.
- Valaari comments that this weapon is evil. Warren thinks it could be useful.
- Valaari says "yeah but no", but Warren adds that it could be used to bind a demon, no?
- They don't know enough to say what might happen if a demon was killed with it.
- There is a brief discussion of this. If the chieftain is giving these weapons out, what are they doing with the collected essence?
- There's a lot of questions. Warren doesn't do brain stuff.
- This is why they're leaving it with the Sar'malaan, they do brain stuff.
- Bhaltair does a further reading, and sees the moment that the weapon was bequethed to Kuugra. They get only a glimpse of the person who gave the axe, a large Sakah of Rak Tulkhesh, with a mess of metallic horns on their head. Some of those horns glow. They also note Razor Wind tattoos, and metallic scar tissue.
- Valaari asks Bhaltair if they could draw what they saw, even though the description was fairly distinct, it might help.
- Bhaltair makes a very good sketch of the individual, using shading to denote the patterns they saw, and makes notes around it denoting the colour and which areas were metallic.
For Next Session
Runmae reunion with Denzel
Downtime!