Session 6 17-18/5/4726 AR

 Oloria Gallentine of Gallentine Deliveries sends a message to invite you to visit her for an employment opportunity. At her large shop on Roseguard Road, the efficient and energetic Oloria welcomes you. Her eyes wide with anxiety, she speaks rapidly and breathlessly.

“Thank you so much for responding! I’m very concerned about one of my couriers—she’s long overdue. Her name is Narala and she’s a centaur. She’s extraordinarily fast, and she was supposed to come from Korvosa down the Granary Road two days ago. I hope she was just delayed, but it’s not like Narala to dawdle. I fear she might have been robbed, or worse, and in need of help. She has an aggressive streak and would be all too eager to fight. I need your help to find her, and her packages, and get everything back on track.”

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17/5:  Travel up Granary Road. Kill 2 hellhounds & 4 wolves attacking Shroon farm - Valeros is nearly killed. Find Narala petrified & partly eaten. Kill basilik, follow trail to ruined house in woods, kill 3 kobolds and recover satchel. Head back west, camping overnight at the Old Fishery.

18/5: Return to Otari, report to Oloria. Hand over packages, rescuing herbalist from stinkweed shamblers. Go north and explore an old Shoanti barrow, rescuing a half-orc mushroom collector from undead Shadow.

Keshani Account

1. Special Delivery! We are asked by Oloria to investigate her missing courier, the centaur Narala. She was carrying 3 packages: chillies for the Tengu publican Magaloy; 6 sword-shaped pins (representing gladiator victories) for Klorte Hengus at the Lumber Mill; and some herbs for Abanye the Herbalist. Backtracking Narala’s route we head down the Granary Road as far as Varlin Farm where we chat with the farmer – Henk Varlin – who tells us that lots of farms have been damaged by strange fires, noting it’s too early in the year for them to be natural brush fires. Jala Highstepper, head of the Farmers’ Guild, says that Lavinia Shroon’s farm was burned along with her hogs. At the Shroon farm we find burned fences, two dead hogs and a dead horse. Examining the corpses Kyra observes that whatever killed them has flaming bile and suggests hellhounds. Even as she says this, two hellhounds and four wolves emerge from the barn and attack. The hellhounds’ flaming breath badly injures many of us. The wolves focus on Valeros and he falls before their onslaught, only saved by Kyra’s timely intercession. Despite this the wolves and hellhounds are defeated. We rest up awhile at the Shroon farm tended by Jala and Lavinia before continuing down the trail in search of Narala. Before long we come upon a statue of a centaur that matches our description of Narala. The hindquarters of the statue are badly damaged and there is no sign of the packages she was carrying. (The basilisk responsible attacks the party & is killed).
2. As we search the area we instead find tracks from a small band of kobolds. Not far from Narala’s statue we catch up with them at a ruined farmhouse. After an abortive attempt at negotiations, the kobolds are killed and the packages recovered. Searching the ruined farm we also find some gold coins, a Marvellous Miniature Ladder, and a Potion of Leaping. Given how late in the day it is when we start back to Otari, we rest up overnight at the Old Fishery and get back to town mid morning. Oloria asks us to complete the deliveries and to keep the delivery fees. Magaloy pays us 10gp and tells us he needs some rare mushrooms for his next experimental brew and asks if we can get them for him from Slab Hill, said to be an ancient barrow mound. Klorte pays us 5gp and asks if we could investigate the possible arson attacks on the flume to the lumber mill offering us his magical hatchet as a reward if we do so. Our final delivery is to Abanye’s cottage – some way out of town – but as we approach we immediately spot that something is amiss. Valeros enters but triggers a trap that smashes a clay jug containing a viper into his head. The intruders in Abanye’s cottage are plant-like creatures called Stinkweed Shamblers. The shamblers are destroyed and Abanye released from the trunk where he had taken refuge. He pays us 5gp, a Scroll (Leaf) of Resist Fire and a Bird Feather Token.
3. The next day we go to Slab Hill to seek out the mushrooms, but find a discarded basket containing the mushrooms outside the entrance of a barrow that glows with green occult energy similar to the energy we observed in the Gauntlight Tunnels. Crocus belives it may be ghostly in origin. We enter the barrow – believed to be Shoanti in origin - and confront five skeletons and a wight. Before they are destroyed the wight drains Valeros, but Kyra assures him that he will recover with rest. The next room has six columns bearing the symbol of Desna. Grognar believes the doors of this room look suspicious and might close behind us, so Keshani tries to wedge it open with a spike. We enter the room and discover Grognar was right to be concerned – the door overcomes the spike and slams closed as does the exit on the far side of the room. Then magical starknives made from force energy detach from the columns and start attacking us. Our attempts to batter down the far door are unsuccessful and most of us take serious injuries. Recalling Shoanti burial practices Kyra encourages us to break the symbols of Desna on the columns. Keshani manages to destry one while Valeros succeeds in forcing open the far door. Desperate to avoid the spinning starknives Crocus dashes through the door and into danger! It’s the final resting place of Starhand (now a Shadow) and her zombie followers. A half-orc mushroom collector huddles against the far wall, his hair turned white from the horror. After a challenging fight we defeat the undead and rescue the half-orc who is called Fillruk. Keshani loots the coffins and finds some gems, a Pyrite rat and a Belt of Good Health. We return to Otari where we are rewarded with two doses of Capsaicin tonic for our efforts.

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