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Session 23, Swordwraiths of Keltar

Coins End 

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Session 23 – 2024-06-01

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==== Summary ====

The group had just finished off Tronald and his band of merry persons, all except Saxiron, who fled. Elenor had opened Tronalds spell book to read and his final stab at the party was an exploding spellbook. Elenor and Audra went down. Fortunately, Pyreece was able to keep them alive enough to get them through a good rest. They spent some time trying to determine what the potion that they found on Raarh did. It was kind of clear at the top and very cloudy at the bottom. It didn't look like any potion they'd seen before. They gave up on that and moved off the road to get out of sight and rest. Elenor cast an identify on the three items that they'd taken from Tronald and company. They identified the Long Bow that Taylor Swiftbow was using. It was a plus 1 bow. The cloak was a Cloak of Protection +2. The potion was a potion of flying. Audra was the only one using a Long Bow so she took it. Sairalinde' laughed at the bow but Audra pointed out that sometimes, one needs range a weapon, such as a bow, in order to hit a flying enemy. At least until it was on the ground. The Cloak of Protection went to Elenor. She's also holding the Potion of Flying. They were happy to find out later that it wasn't a half-orc laxative as Brandy had suggested earlier.

They rested for the rest of the day. Brandy had words with Selson, she let her know that she needed to be careful with Oglesby’s heart. Selson let Oglesby know about the conversation. He played it off as nothing. They rested, ate, and then finished their first rest cycle. They did a round of healing and then returned to resting for the rest of the night. During the night they saw more flashes of blue, green, and white in the distance. It appeared to be like heat lightning. They also heard a mournful howl in the distance for about 30 minutes. The next day, they set out for Keltar again. They arrived early that evening. It was still light out. They found the town to be mostly devoid of guards. They finally reached the Shattered Candle. It was a nice inn with a tavern. They ordered meals. Oglesby tried to get the lay of the land. At first they told him that they thought they’d come here on their way to the war up north. They learned from one of the patrons that apparently a couple of duchy’s had fallen to the witch. They found out that their guards had gone north to Shynkyf. They were told by yet another patron to stay inside at night. No one would explain why. They consistently told them to stay indoors at night. A bell gonged three times and people started heading out. Someone said that it was nearing dusk. 

Prosser, the owner barkeep sent home the last serving girl. Dodged questions about what happens at night. He finally told them they could stay for free and that he trusted them to pay for what they used. He locked the doors and windows and made them promise not to open them and then turned in. The party went upstairs and found rooms with a good view from their windows of the streeets below and began resting. Close to midnight, they heard the clanging of metal footfalls. They finally saw an armored individual come into the light. He went to a nearby door and checked it, then checked the windows. When they got a good look at him, they saw the armor was empty except for the infernal glowing red eyes. Another one appeared. A moment later, someone came flying into the scene from the shadows. He hit the ground and stumbled and fell. Another of these wraiths came into view. The person screamed for help. 

Brandy began firing on the wraiths. Audra, Pyreece, Oglesby, Selson, Kipp, and Tony went to the door. They opened it and began pouring out, telling Selson to re-bar the door behind them to protect the owner. Audra and Oglesby were still inside when one of those creatures entered. They fought him there while Pyreece, Tony, and Kipp fought them on the streets. Whenever anyone was hit by them, they became weakened. Audra took a huge hit right off the bat. When the first one that Brandy was firing on fell, the man they were fighting to help, took all of the stuff that fell with it and ran off. Pyreece went down as they finished off the last of the first four., It was a very tough fight but they managed to win. They bandaged Pyreece and left her to rest in the tavern while they collected all of the equipment that had dropped. Using a Detect Magic spell, they determined that all of it was magical. About that time they heard more screaming outside. Brandy took off first, followed by most of the rest of the party. They found a woman north and a little east of them trying to keep one of the wraiths out of her home but was likely going to fail. Brandy used a fire arrow to hit him while Audra ran up behind the creature and attacked it. As the creature turned to engage Audra, the woman was able to close her door and lock it. They finished off this one in a single round of combat. 

They gathered its stuff and took it back with them. They rested the remainder of the night. Pyreece recovered a hit point by morning and woke up again. She did a little healing. About that time, the people started showing up. Prosser was surprised to find that they’d fought 5 of the creatures last night and destroyed them. The townspeople that arrived were very thankful for their assistance. They left to find the store, Grumph’s Magic Imperium. There they purchased three Extra Healing Potions. They also identified the uniforms of the wraiths as those belonging to the Ranarian. They were an group of people that settled this area and fought the barbarians that lived here a long time ago. The equipment was old but in excellent condition. The shop keeper bought most of it for 15k. They kept the 4 cloaks, two bronze chest plates, two large heavy shields, and a sword.  They purchased a bunch of various arrows. They went back to the tavern and were greeted by an older lady who had made each of them an apple pie. She thanked them for saving her.

This is where they ended the session.

Start the recorder!


==== Detail ====

The group had just finished off Tronald and his band of merry persons. All except Saxiron, who fled. Elenor had opened Tronalds spell book to read and his final stab at the party was an exploding spellbook. Elenor and Audra went down. Fortunately, Pyreece was able to keep them alive enough to get them through a good rest. They spent some time trying to determine what the potion that they found on Raarh did. It was kind of clear at the top and very cloudy at the bottom. It didn't look like any they'd seen before. They gave up on that and moved off the road some distance, out of sight, to rest. Elenor  cast an identify on the three items that they'd taken from Tronald and company. They identified the Long Bow that Taylor Swiftbow was using. It was a plus 1 bow. The cloak was a Cloak of Protection +2. The potion was a potion of flying. Audra was the only one using a Long Bow so she took it. Sairalinde' laughed at the bow but Audra pointed out that sometimes, one needs a range weapon, such as a bow, in order to hit a flying enemy. At least until it was on the ground. The Cloak of Protection went to Elenor. She's also holding the Potion of Flying. They were happy to find out later that it wasn't a half-orc laxative as Brandy had suggested earlier. 

They rested the rest of the day. During the rest, Brandy confronted Selson about just what her game was. Selson asked the obvious question, "Is he your boyfriend?". Brandy denied that and just pointed out that she'd known him a long time and didn't want to see him hurt. Brandy suggested that Selson was a little too pretty for someone like Oglesby. Again she asked, "What is your interest in Oglesby?". Selson reminded her that Oglesby talked to her first, she hadn't approached him. Selson added, "He's very friendly, very nice, and very sweet, and I'm sorry if you're jealous but , you know". Brandy assured him that she wasn't jealous. She told her that Oglesby was the only true friend she had in this world. She said, "I don't know what you're up to, but if you do anything to hurt him, to break his heart, you're going to answering to me for it. Because we've been together a long time, and we watch out for each other, and something about this doesn't sit right with me. So you better make sure your intentions are honorable with him because you don't want to get on my bad side.". Selson smirked a little and said, "Okay!".  Brandy said, "Good, take it to heart! You better be true!". With that said, Brandy walked off.

  
They rested until nightfall and then woke to eat some. After that, some returned to resting until they finished their full 8 hour rest. Selson asked Oglesby about Brandy and suggested that maybe she should go back to Wellforn, Brandy had made some vailed threats to her and that maybe her being here was a bad idea.". He told her she shouldn't do that, he added,  "Don't pay attention to her. She's a little high strung. She means well, we've just been friends for a long time so, she's probably a little over protective of me and I'm, in a way, a little over protective of her too! But don't take anything to heart.". They finished the 8 hour rest and everyone got a point back and then Pyreece cast some heals on those that were seriously injured. Oglesby, Audra, Tony, and Brandy were each given a healing. They rested again for the night. Brandy took the first watch. She noted the strange flashes that were coming from the north, like lightening. She noticed that sometimes it had a blueish or greenish tint to it while other times it was white. They guessed it was way further north than Shynkyf. It was past the mountains in the distance. Audra took the next watch and ask Sairalinde's to help her stay awake and alert. 

Around 3 or 3:30 in the morning, she heard some howls in the distance. She listened and watched in the direction that the sounds came from. She heard them again and they didn't seem to be getting closer. They were mournful though, not threatening, more like despair. She asked Sairalinde' what it thought of the howl but the sword didn't respond. The howling continued for about 30 minutes and tapered off. She also saw the flashes of light in the distance. Nothing really happened and the night ended. Everyone was rested again. Audra told everyone about the mournful howling. Pyreece healed Brandy, Kipp, Audra, and Pyreece some more. They set out north again and made it to Keltar by the early evening. It was a small walled town surrounded by green fields and a vineyard. It was about a half a mile off of the road. Looked like a safe place to spend the night. The walls stood about 10-15 feet high with guard towers to the east and west standing an additional 5 feet higher. They made their way into town and found a tavern at the center of town called the Shattered Candle. The homes looked well tended and the streets were clean. Even the walls around the village and the open gates at each compass point seemed friendly enough. The guard towers were not even manned. They didn't see any guards.

They made their way to the Shattered Candle, passing a few people on the streets and mostly homes. They went into tavern I the inn. There were lots of tables and patrons. They received a few looks but nothing to weird. While most went to a table to sit down, Oglesby made a beeline to the bar. He ordered an ale for him and Selson ordered Absinthe which seemed like a rather strong drink for a young lady to order. The barkeep welcomed him and gave his name as Prosser. The rest of the group looked over the room and especially looked for anybody showing the infinity symbol. They didn't see anyone that didn't look like regular people enjoying time at the inn. They ordered stew and bread and ale. Brandy, in a slap at Selson, ordered her a glass of milk. Some ordered wine while others ordered ale. Prosser was curious about where they were headed. Oglesby told him that they were just exploring, seeing what adventures might befall them. 

Somebody suggested that there was a witch queen up north that was starting a whole civil war thing. He added, "So you probably don't want to go that way. Oglesby asked them to tell him about her. He called out to another man, Burt. He asked him about her and he told them about that. Some stories say that she's destroyed two duchies. He suggested that he might leave town, head to Manshaka. Oglesby asked if anyone was going to put on a defense and go up there and help them? The man said that when he'd seen their group come in, he thought they might be heading that way to help. Most of the soldiers here had gone to Shynkyf. There isn't much going on here. Another gentleman in red robes said, "We got troubles of our own mate!.". Oglesby said, "Troubles of your own? Do tell! What troubles might that be?". 

The red robed gentleman looked at Oglesby and put his head down and said, "You know, you probably should just go ahead and leave…yeah, you should get out of town.". Oglesby reminded him that they'd just got here! He said, "If you have troubles, well that's sad to hear. I just wondered what it might be!?". The robed man said, "Just immerse yourself in culture during the day! Stay inside at night!". Oglesby asked, "What happens at night?". Everyone in the tavern grew quiet. They looked at the robed man wide eyed. The robed man reiterated that they stay inside. A lady seated at one of the tables spoke up and said, "Hey, it's almost dusk!". The robed man said, "I best be getting home!". He headed to the door and left. The other patrons wrapped up their meals and paid and left as well. 

Oglesby turned to Prosser and said, "Well, that's one sure way to clear out a crowd.". Prosser said, "Look, I'll put you up for the night, no charge!". Oglesby accepted his fine offer. He motioned for the others in the party to come over. They got up and meandered over to the bar. Oglesby told them that they were invited to stay for the evening free of charge. They all thanked him. Audra asked what was up with being inside before dark. Prosser said, "Most of these people are farmers, they have early mornings, you know that.". Audra asked, "It looked as though they suggested it would be dangerous to be out at night?". The server brought out the food and even gave the milk to Selson who said, "I didn't order this!". The server said, "It's courtasy of…", and pointed out Brandy. They gave each other looks. Selson turned to Oglesby and offered him the milk. He said, "Never, never touch the stuff.". Selson said, 'Well, I don't know why she gave this to us!", indicting Brandy. They passed looks back and forth at that. 

Kipp moved to a window and sat and looked out. The server packed in her stuff and bid them a good night and left as well. It was starting to get darker outside. Audra questioned Prosser again, "So what is the deal with…obviously your server is not going to work on the farm in the morning, she's going to come back here and work so what's the deal with everyone rushing out of here and going home before dark?". He looked out the windows and said, "You know…no customers here for her to serve so we're closing up shop!". They observed that everyone was nervous. Audra again asked, "Is there something we should be concerned with outside going on tonight?". Prosser said, "Look, don't ask so many questions.". Audra said, "Give us the answer and we'll stop asking the question! I assume you want us here because we might be able to fight off what ever it is. If that is the case, then what is it? What's going on?". 

Prosser paused and then started locking the door, putting a bar on it. He moved to the windows and shuttered them. He turned to them and said, "Look, I'm off to bed, just don't go out! If you do…well just don't! You're welcome to stay here as long as you like. I trust you to pay for what ever you eat or drink.", looking at the door he added, "Don't open that door!". Brandy stepped up to him and said, "Just tell me what the hell is going on around here. You lock yourself in at night, why?". Prosser looked at Brandy and said, "You are very brave for your stature.". She put her hands on her hips and gave him a questioning look. He said, "You've been most kind, I don't want to see anything happen to you, just stay inside.". Audra asked again, "What might happen if we go outside?". He reiterated, "Just don't!". Elenor said, "It would be nice to know so that if something does happen or does get in, we'll be prepared to fight whatever it is". That's when they heard distant deep sounding clang of a bell. It tolled three times. Apparently it was the warning for everyone to get into their houses. Brandy said, "Well, isn't this just a bunch of shit!". 

Prosser headed up the stairs. They decided to go find some rooms up there and look out the windows. They went up stairs and found some empty rooms and opened the shutters and gazed outside. The streets looked empty. All the windows of the other building across the street were closed and shuttered. They left the rooms unlit so they could look out the windows without being seen. They couldn't find a staircase or ladder to the roof. Audra had suggested that it would offer a vantage point where they might be able to fire on something if it were needed. They stayed in and watched out the windows. Brandy not only opened the shutters on a window, but opened it as well so she could hear what was going on outside. It was quiet for a while, especially quiet since everyone had gone home for the night. 

Somewhere close to midnight, they heard the sound of steal stepping on the cobblestone outside. The sound grew closer. Out of the window to the south, they didn't see anything at first. In the moonlight, they eventually saw the outline of a figure emerge and as it entered the torchlight of the town, it became visible, dressed in armor, carrying a weapon, and marching in a military fashion. The suits of armor don't contain people. There flesh appeared insubstantial only a skull is visible beneath the helmet. Worse yet, the eyes of the creature glowed an infernal red light. They heard the steps of more than one. It came from the southeast. It went to a door across the street and tried it. Then it moved to a window and tugged on the shutter and it was locked as well. A second one came up the road behind it. He went to another door and did the same routine. The rest of the party moved to windows to looked out to see what was going on. 

About that time, they heard the sound of a man screaming from the south side, screams of, "Help!". No one saw anything at first but Audra and Pyreece began moving downstairs. It was suggested that if they opened the door, it might let them in and endanger the tavern owner. Pyreece said, "We can have Selson or somebody stay behind and lock the door behind us but I can't allow this kind of abomination to walk around in the streets.". Those looking out the windows saw a man leaping through the air, about 15 feet off the ground and travelled about twenty feet out of the shadows. He stumbled and fell to his knees. He was armed with a short sword. Another one of the wraith like creatures came out of the shadows after him and the other two turned and came after him. Brandy started firing from the window. Audra unbarred the door and suggested that Selson rebar the door behind them. Pyreece went out. Brandy fired at the one chasing the man with plus 1 arrows. She hit it.

The battle was joined. Elenor fired magic missiles from the window with Brandy. Pyreece moved outside and tried to turn the undead. She failed but she got their attention. Brandy continued firing down from the window. Tony came out and joined Pyreece and asked what they were. Kipp came outside to help as well. He attacked and hit one. As they hit back, each person that was hit not only took damage but also felt weakened. A Swordwraith entered the door of the tavern while it was opened and attacked Audra. Audra, Pyreece, and Tony were all hit multiple times during the fight. Audra was able to return the favor. The sword, Sairalinde', gave her the feeling that it was disgusted with these things but didn't seem to do anything in the way of special damage to them. Tony was unable to hit anything with his mundane weapon. He kept trying though. Oglesby was near Audra and stepped between Selson and the wraith and hit the wraith. Selson tried to hit it with her sling but she missed. The man that was chased, jumped up and pulled his sword. Baffled as to who was attacking these things. 

The battle continued for a while. When one of these creatures expired, it screamed and evaporated, leaving a pile of armor and weapons on the ground where it once stood. Brandy killed the first one but was using up her +1 arrows pretty quickly. The mystery guy they were defending grabbed a lot of the gear that fell from the first one that died and ran off with it. Brandy yelled something about him being ungrateful. Audra finally killed the one in the building. Brandy finished off another one. Pyreece fell just before Audra and Oglesby got there. Oglesby dropped the last one. They bandaged Pyreece and got her back into the building. She was still unconscious. They left her to rest that way until she would be able to accept the full benefits of a potion. Brandy was officially out of her magic arrows. They had scooped up the armor and weapons of the creatures they'd killed and brought them into the tavern. Each had a long sword, a cross bow, bronze plate armor, a long shield, and a cloak. They collected 3 of each. Tony pointed out that his sword didn't hit these creatures. Audra gave him her backup plus 1 long sword to use. When they cast detect magic on it. All of the items glowed.

Audra asked Sairalinde' if this equipment was evil. He told her the weapons were crap. About this time they heard another scream from the north. Brandy threw open the door and headed out. Audra, Kipp, Oglesby, and Tony joined her. As they approached the next intersection, they saw a door to one of the houses being pushed on by one of these creatures. There was an old woman inside trying to push the door closed. Brandy fired at the creature with an arrow of fire. Audra ran up behind the creature and hit it. Elenor ran out of the door of the tavern and got within sight of the creature and fired a magic missile hitting it. It turned to hit Audra. As it did, the door behind it closed and latches inside were heard clicking into place. The swordwraith hit Audra back. Brandy hit it with another fire arrow and dropped it. They gathered the fallen equipment and went back to the tavern. They added the equipment with the others. Now they had four of everything. They observed that the creatures were uniformly dressed. They had markings on them that they'd not seen before. 

They rested and waited. There was no more activity for the night and they made it to the morning. Everyone who rested got a point back. The strength was going to return, one point per day. With daylight, people started moving out into the streets again. Activity started to return to normal. Lots of people started showing up at the tavern. They came there to shake the hands of those that risked their lives fighting these creatures. Prosser wanted to know what happened. The people knew that there was fighting in the streets over night and some of these creatures were taken out. Elenor asked about shops to sell potions. They told them about Glumph's Magic Imporium. They gathered the equipment, put it in the bag of holding, and headed to the shop. The people followed along as the went. They were gathering quite the crowd. Once there, they went after some potions. They bought 3 potions of extra healing. Brandy looked for magical arrows. He had 20 plus 1 arrows and she purchased all 20 for 800. Kipp chipped in 200 toward it. Audra picked up 5 acid arrows. Oglesby asked about a nice short sword. The shop keeper didn't have anything better than what he already had. Elenor asked about magical sling bullets. They were priced at 300 gold per 5 bullets. Elenor, Pyreece, and Oglesby, each bought 10.

The shop keeper asked if they were joining the war. Oglesby told him that they were already busy fighting the war in town. The shop keeper's eyes lit up and he asked, "Was that you guys? I heard about that.". Audra told him that they'd taken out 5 of them but assumed there were more. He told them that they showed up about a week ago and didn't know where they came from. Audra pulled out some of the armor and showed him the uniforms to see if he recognized any of the symbols. He said he'd seen that in history books. It is the symbol of the old Ranarian. They used to settle this area. They fought battles here against the barbarians. The piece, he thought, was a very nice historical piece. Audra told him that the creatures were wearing them. Elenor asked if any of it was magical and whether it was good or evil. He did it for free in honor of what we did the night before. He pulled out a scroll and after reading it, was able to identify everything. The swords were plus 1, the bronze plate mail armors were plus 1, the heavy cross bows were plus 1, the large metal shields were plus 1, and the cloaks were plus 1 cloaks of protection. 

Audra and Pyreece each took a bronze plate mail armor and large shield. Audra got her plus one sword back from Tony and gave him one of the plus ones from the wraiths. Brandy, Oglesby, and Selson each took a cloak. Once they divided the gold up, they headed back to the tavern. When they arrived, there was a little old lady waiting for them. She'd made each of them an apple pie and thanked them for helping her. 

The session ended here.

Start the recorder!

3 Long sword plus 1, 1,000 gold each = 3,000
2 heavy shields plus 1, 1,000 gold each = 2,000
2 bronze plates plus 1, 2,000 gold each = 4,000
4 Heavy crossbows plus 1, 1,500 gold each = 6,000

15,000 gold total divided among 8 = 1,875 gold each.

Exp. 625 + 63 = 688