The Sea Wyvern sails for many days, making its way steadily south towards Burundi. During the voyage the heroes notice that Khyla has taken a liking to the new captain much to the chagrin of Challa her Nubian lover. Khyla claims to have no real interest in Diego, saying that her sole reason for seducing him is to try and win his loyalty and ensure that he will remain motivated to continue the expedition, but Challa seems to have difficulty understanding this.

Yog and Gimlet spend time studying the Serpent’s Skull, along with some help from Yazeed. Yazeed claims to not fully understand the ritual etched into the skull, but Gimlet suspects that he might know more than he lets on. They choose not to press Yazeed on the matter, but his secretive nature makes them suspicious.

In Desperation Bay about 20 miles off the coast of Burundi and not far from the port of Eleder, they locate the island known as Smuggler’s Shiv. The heroes have a map of the island that once belonged to the Nubian and was among Captain Enzo’s treasures. The map indicates the site of a lost Azlanti Temple, and it is here that the Nubian learned of a means of locating the city of Saventh Yhi. They decide that investigating the temple for themselves would be worthwhile, so they prepare an expedition.

The heroes set out with Yazeed to explore the ruins, while Khyla remains aboard the ship. Two sailors from the Sea Wyvern row them and their gear to shore in one of the island’s row boats, and agree to pick them up in a few days. Upon landing they follow a trail to the site of the temple. Along the way they encounter several snare traps on the trail, and soon get the feeling that they are being followed. This proves to be the case when they are ambushed by crazed, devil worshipping cannibals. Fortunately the heroes are alert and not taken by surprise. They fight the cannibals off, slaying several and forcing the rest to flee into the jungle. One thing of interest that they note about the cannibals is that they all seem to be northerners, and the PCs learn from interrogating a captive that they are the remains of the crew of a ship from the Duchy of Red Hand. They had been marooned on the island when their ship wrecked on the rocks just off the island’s coast several years earlier.

Having sent the cannibals a pretty strong message, the heroes continue on through the jungle. Soon they arrive at the site marked on their map. There is no sign of a temple, but they do discover four large standing stones that surrounding a six foot tall stone pyramid that is partially buried in the earth. The standing stones all have deep speech runes carved into them, and Yazeed believes the structure is what the Nubian referred to as a “tide stone.” He also believes that with some study he will be able to trigger the Tidestone, which should result in the nearby lagoon emptying out and the entrance to the temple being revealed.

Yazeed’s ability to decipher the Deep Speech script on the monoliths make the heroes realize that he most certainly knows more about the Serpent’s Skull than he let on. They decide to confront him about this, and Yazeed reluctantly admits that he had been withholding information. He claims that he thought it best if they didn’t know the nature of the blasphemous ritual the skull describes, for fear of the heroes be tempted to try to use it. He goes on to explain that he believes the skull is capable of transforming a human into a degenerate serpent creature. It is magic that the serpent folk would have used thousands of years ago to punish human slaves and create foul, subservient minions. The heroes are more or less satisfied with his response but still somewhat suspicious of the foreign Loremaster.

They camp the night by the standing stones, and the next morning Yazeed attempts to use the Tidestone with the help of Yog and Gimlet. Together they manage to activate the powerful artifact, and they watch in awe as the entire lagoon suddenly drains out to sea, revealing a pair of stone doors that open into the ancient Azlanti temple.

The adventurers light their lanterns and torches and head into the temple. Inside they discover a steep, tall, stone staircase that leads upward. It takes them to grand entrance chamber of the temple. Inside this room they find bronze doors that secrete blood, the skeletal remains of both serpent folk and Nubian pirates, as well as decaying artwork and religious iconography that suggests the temple once belonged to a cult of Zura, the obscure demon lord of vampires.

Further exploring the temple complex, they find a triggered pit trap that had been set off when the Nubian and his pirates explored the temple, and the heroes quickly start to realize that thanks to the Nubian the temple’s defenses have mostly been taken care of. Sometime later they discover the main chapel of Zura. However before they can examine it too closely, they are attacked from behind by a foul gibbering ooze creature that emerges from a hole in a wall. The thing is all ooze, eyes and mouths, and its horrible gibbering overwhelms the heroes with madness. Gimlet suffers the worst of it, and can’t and spends nearly the entire fight insane. The rest of the heroes do a little better. They regain their wits more quickly and engage the gibbering mouther. They find it difficult to kill, and they discover its nasty habit of spitting blinding ooze in their faces. They are also forced to deal with its attempts to drain their blood with its many lamprey like mouths. At one point it manages to pull Kalder’s sword from his hands with a sticky ooze tendril and imbed the blade within its body where it starts to dissolve the weapon with digestive acids. Fortunately, Flower manages to save Kalder’s weapon before too much damage can be done. To make matters worse, the fight with the gibbering mouther draws the attention of other temple guardians- three tiny constructs that vaguely resemble twisted dolls made from bird bones. The little creatures have poisonous claws and are capable of draining the life from a living creature with entropic magic. They don’t prove overly difficult to destroy, but their life draining magic certainly takes a toll on Kalder, nearly killing him before the heroes manage to destroy the foul things. They also managed to drive off the gibbering mouther, which retreats back through the strange little hole from which it emerged. Afterwards, the heroes realize that the hole and others like it access a series of tiny tunnels, though only Gimlet could probably crawl through them without the risk of getting stuck. They also note that the little bird bone constructs seem to navigate them very well.

Having dealt with the temple’s strange inhabitants, at least for the time being, the heroes press on into the main chapel where they hope to learn more about the cult’s connection to the Lost City of Saventh Yhi and determine more about how they might locate the city.

The Basics:

• A dread pirate known as “The Nubian” was exploring a mysterious island off the coast of Burundi. There he discovered an ancient Azlanti temple. In that temple he found clues that he believed could help him find the famous lost Azlanti City of Saventh Yhi somewhere in the jungles of the Burundi mainland. He recorded his findings in series of notes.
- You don’t know why the Nubian was exploring the island
- You don’t really know anything about the nature of this temple (you have since learned that it belonged to a cult of demon worshippers dedicated to Zura, the demonlord of vampires.
- You don’t know the details of the notes the Nubian made, but apparently one copy is in Yazeed’s possession and the original copy is in the Captain’s chest
- You have a map of the island that was made by the Nubian. There is an x on it that may well mark the location of the temple, which you have confirmed.

• The Nubian took his notes along with other treasures and hid them in a series of Sea Caves in the pirate isles where he apparently liked to keep his loot.

• Captain Enzo was working as a privateer and was trying to hunt down the Nubian. He found the wreckage of the Nubian’s ship in the Sunset Sea. There were only a couple of survivors clinging to the wreckage of the ship. They claimed the ship was attacked by a kraken. Captain Enzo spared one of the pirates in exchange for leading him to the Nubian’s treasure.

• Enzo recruited members of the adventure’s guild to help recover the Nubian’s treasure. Flower and some of his earlier associates were offered this job, but turned it down. Consequently, other guild members were hired. Enzo managed to recover the Nubian’s treasure from the Sea Caves, but it was a harrowing task, and several of the adventurers were killed. A halfling named Gavin survived but hasn’t been seen since he was drinking with Enzo’s chaplain after the expedition returned to Scarsport. The chaplain was found dead in an alley with his throat torn out. Enzo’s superstitious crew attribute the chaplain’s death to the “curse of the Nubian.”

• Enzo wasn’t able to fully decipher the Nubian’s notes, but he did see Saventh Yhi mentioned in them and he recognized the name of the famous lost Azlanti city of distant Burundi- a city said to be full of riches. He paid a visit to the Lorekeepers Hall in Scarsport and the Adventures Guildhall to try to learn more about Saventh Yhi. While Enzo was conducting his research, the foreigner named Yazeed caught wind of his inquires and offered his services to him. He helped Enzo decipher the Nubian’s notes, and the notes seemed to offer a means of finding Saventh Yhi.
- So far you haven’t really confirmed any of this. Everything you know is really based on what Enzo and Yazeed have told you.

• Enzo then set about organizing an expedition to Burundi to seek out this Lost City.

Lord Enzo Corinithi a noted noble and privateer has decided to head up an expedition to the Screaming Jungles of Barundi. There he hopes to discover the location of the lost mythical city of Saventh-Yhi.

The jungles of Barundi are rife with crumbling ruins- the ziggurats of Kembe, the fallen flying city of Kho, and poor, doomed Holy Xatramba. But none of these ancient relics have inspired the imaginations of adventurers and scholars more than Saventh-Yhi, the legendary lost city of the Azlanti and the only outpost of that vanished race so far south in Barundi’s interior. Saventh Yhi’s discovery would be the crowning achievement of any explorer’s career, and the gods know enough have tried it and failed. The fetid jungles of Barundi hold many secrets, but perhaps none so coveted as the location of Saventh-Yhi, which is believed to be concealed by ancient Azlanti ritual magic.

Recently Enzo located the treasure of a dead pirate known as the Nubian. The treasure was hidden in a Sea Cave in the Pirate Isles. Among the gold, silver and other valuables he acquired, it is believed that he found a series of notes describing a means of finding the Saventh-Yhi.

Enzo has not gone shared the details of these notes with the expedition, but he is set on heading to Barundi’s largest port- the city of Eleder. Eleder was said to have been established long ago by colonialists from Bhal Turath, since the fall of that empire, it has come under the control of the Nubians. However, Eleder is said to remain friendly and open to merchants, and Enzo believes it is the best place to launch the expedition from.

Ancient Azlant: According to legend, Azlant is an ancient civilization that existed before the time of even Arkhosia and Bhal Turath. There is much scholarly debate about what caused the fall of this mythic empire. Some say it was due to their war with the Serpentfolk Empire. Others say their haughty priests angered the gods, and some believe that their mighty wizards tampered with magics too powerful for them to control. Whatever the cause, the mighty Azlanti civilization did fall, and even today Azlanti ruins can still be found throughout the central known world. Man scholars believe that the Nubians and their sorcerer kings are the descendants of Azlant.

The Azlanti are not known to have built many settlements in Barundi. In fact, Saventh-Yhi is the only one of real note, and the reason for its construction remains a mystery. During the time of the Azlanti, Barundi is thought to have been under the control of the Serpent Empire. It is widely agreed upon that Azlant was at war with the Serpent Empire, and that they might have invaded Barundi to crush the hold of the Serpentfolk on that land. Today the Serpent Empire still exists, and it is still greatly feared. However, its existence is on a much smaller scale than it once was, and it only remains in lands well to the east of Barundi.

There is a new party line up as Matteo stays in Scarsport, Flower is joined by Keldar (human, warrior), Gimlet (gnome, sorcerer), and Yog (dwarf, wizard). They set out on an expedition aboard the Sea Wyvern in search of Saventh-Yhi in the jungles of Burundi. The expedition is led by Enzo Corinthi. Khyla Corinthi the guild mistress also joins the expedition.

At sea the caravel is caught in a storm and drifts off course near the Pirate Isles. Not long after the Sea Wyvern spots a pair of ships that sail out from behind an island point and begin pursuing them. Based on their flags, they are pirates and members of the brotherhood of the Scarlet Corsairs. Enzo, not wanting to take on two pirate ships, decides to try to navigate the Sea Wyvern through a dangerous reef in an attempt to loose the pirates. It works; the corsairs don’t pursue the sea wyvern but drop anchor and watch. The Sea Wyvern gets hung up on the reef and its hull is damaged. Flower and Keldar, along with several sailors leap off the side of the ship to work on hacking away at the coral with picks. While trying to free the ship they are attacked by aquatic ghouls (there are several wrecks nearby, probably infested with the creatures). Yog helps by casting a flaming weapons spell on their picks, and Gimlet hurls spells at the undead from up on the side of the ship. Keldar and Flower fight well with their flaming picks. They destroy several ghouls and drive the rest off. Keldar suffers the most injuries and is temporarily paralyzed by the nasty critters- falling into the water and starting to drown.

After defeating the ghouls they manage to free the ship from the coral and quickly patch the hull, as it starts to take on water. They sail on to the Valtonian city of Carvosa without further incident.

In Carvosa, Enzo requests that they escort him and his treasure to an inn called the Captain’s Rest. He puts them up in the fine establishment as payment. Khyla, Challa and Yazeed the loremaster also accompany them. The heroes are forced to share a room and that night they are awakened by a terrible screaming sound.

They find that Captain Enzo is dead, killed by a hulking ape demon that is still lurking in his room. The heroes engage the ape demon and manage to kill the creature, though Flower sustains some terrible wounds from the beast.

In the aftermath of Enzo’s death, they take control of the pirate treasure he recovered from the Nubian’s horde, and investigate what happened. It becomes clear that Enzo had likely unleashed the demon by tampering with a strange gold idol that was part of the treasure horde. In Enzo’s sea chest they also find a skull of a serpent’s head that is about the same size as a man’s. It is etched with runes written in the deep speech, and it is clearly magical. The heroes deduce that the alien script seems to be the directions for some sort of ritual spell, but they can’t figure out what the ritual does.

They realize that with the death of the Captain, first mate Diego will likely have little interest in continuing the expedition. In order to ensure this happens, they managed to get Unger on their side by offering a higher rate of pay to him and the crew. Kalder and Unger have a wrestling match to work this out, but Unger wins and the PCs are forced to pay more than they might have liked.

They spend a little more time in Cardova selling off some cargo, but eventually they set back out for Barundi.

I haven’t got around to writing up a detailed summary of this session yet. Basically, the heroes journey back to Scarsport. On the way they stop at a trading post that is owned by a friend of Tharvald’s named Oleg. They discover that Oleg has been plagued by a group of bandits working for a “bandit king” calling himself the Stag Lord. They help Oleg and his family by ambushing the bandits when they come to the trading post to collect their monthly tribute from him. They then follow the trail back to the bandit’s camp and deal with more of the bastards. However, this does not prove to be the camp of the Stag Lord. They learn he has a fort in the Cairn Hills and several groups of bandits all report to him.

After helping Oleg they return to Dwarfmeet. There they run into Raphael Polmino who has been sent by his father to meet up with the heroes and see about the mine. Raphael isn’t stupid and believes his father sent him to get him out of the city since he was stirring up shit between the Polmino and Corinthi families. Consequently Raphael isn’t particularly committed to his task and is mostly interested in drinking and carousing in Dwarfmeet. The heroes file their report with him anyhow and go out drinking with Raphael. Tharvald is paid and thanked for his excellent service, and he returns to his family.

While in Dwarfmeet, the heroes learn that the full moon is approaching, and that during nights of the full moon, the werewolves that plague the surrounding forests attack the town. As a result the lumber camps and everyone living outside the walls hide within the city for those three nights, while the Black Plumes, local militia and ranger order known as the Fang Watch defend the city.

Flower and Matteo discover that there is a decent bounty for werewolves and a bounty for the head of the Stag Lord, but they decide that instead of sticking around to help deal with such matters they will return to the Scarsport with Raphael, Ninon and his entourage and report back to the Adventurer’s Guild.

During Torin’s wake the characters learned about a manticore that had been plaguing the hillmen of Redhold. In fact, Hrask the dwarf had come to Redhold to deal with the critter. The wake carried on through the night, but a little after midnight the heroes returned to the guesthouse exhausted and drunk on mead- some much drunker than others. There, Nenthas put on the tiger pelt cloak and began flaunting it. Bjorne grew angry at the elf and demanded he remove the cloak. When Nenthas got hostile towards Bjorne and refused, Bjorne came at him (unarmed) and wrestled him to the ground. He was in the midst of giving the wood elf a good pummeling when the elf managed to pull his hunting knife and stab it into Bjorne’s side. Bjorne rolled off the elf, bleeding horribly from his wound. He desperately tried to summon the strength to cast a healing spell, but before he could Nenthas cast a spell of his own. The elf’s dark magic drained the remainder of Bjorne’s life force, sending the skanzi warrior to his death. Nenthas then ran out of he hut and disappeared into the night. Matteo was too drunk to react to the horrible deed. Flower was more sober, and he grabbed his sword and axe. He chased after the elf. With the aid of the cloak Nenthas was very fast, but Flower had great stamina, and managed to leap down and slash the elf with his blade as Nenthas ran down the ramp that led from the Thane’s plateau to the rest of Redhold. The two fought, and Nenthas again used his drain life spell, this time stealing some of Flower’s life force to heal his wound. It wasn’t enough to bring Flower down, and he slashed Nenthas across the throat with his blade, killing him.

After the fight Flower, Matteo, Tharvald and Nino were all brought before Thane Orwyn to account for the dreadful events. The thane was angry that his son’s sacred wake had been disrupted by such despicable violence. Some of that anger was directed towards Flower for delivering justice to a criminal in his village- a role that should be assumed only by the Thane. Flower gave back the cloak to try and salvage some of the good will he had lost with limited success. It was decided that the bodies of Nenthas and Bjorne be given to Vorn, the crag tiger that the tribe kept in their beast pit. Flower and his companions were banished from Redhold. Their horses and mules were made ready and they were sent out into the night. They camped not far from the hold, and their night passed peacefully.

Two days later they arrived at what remained of the Polmino Silver Mine. They first spent some time exploring the ruins of the town built outside the mine. They discovered that a pair of owlbears had made a den in one of the warehouse buildings. After some discussion they decided it best to take care of the critters before they caused them problems. This proved easier said than done, but after using up the majority of their alchemists’ fire and many arrows they slew both the beasts, though both Matteo and Flower took some nasty injuries, and had luck not been on their side they likely would have been killed. On the bright side, they recovered a pair of owl bear eggs that they knew would fetch a good price back in Scarsport.

In the mines they encountered stirge, signs of purple worm activity and some strange little, aberrant creatures with overly long, rubbery limbs that were far more like tentacles. The things were hostile and caused them some problems, but they killed a few of the critters and drove some others off. The mine itself seemed in tact in many areas and Nino the miner made many notes to bring back to the Polmino family. Due to the presence of the “chokers” the PCs opted not to explore the lower sections of the mine, but they inferred that there was a good chance that the miners had accidentally tunneled into the underdark.

While they were exploring the upper levels of the mine, a large warband of orcs had made their way into the valley and were scavenging among the ruins of the town. The heroes figured it was only a matter of time until the orcs came to explore the mine, so in order to deal with them they concocted a clever plan. They waited until the warband was starting to move towards the mines, and then they used their final flask of alchemists fire to light the smelting house on fire. This resulted in arousing the dozens of stirge that had made the building their home. The little critters flew out in a swarm and immediately set upon the orcs, driving them off. Once the orc threat was dealt with and the stirge had flown off to find new homes, they band emerged from the mine and began the journey back to civilization. On their way out of the valley they spent a bit more time exploring a few of the more intact buildings in the ruined town and were fortunate enough to the find a stash of hidden treasure that must have belonged to the mine manager. This extra compensation made the dangerous expedition seem more worthwhile.

Flower, Matteo, Bjorn and Nenthas, accompanied by Nino and Tharvald made their way into the Cairn Hills. Around noon on their second day of travel in the hills, crows drew them to the site of a battle. After investigating the scene they discerned that a hillmen hunting party had been ambushed by an orc warband. There were eight dead hillmen and almost as many dead orcs at the scene. Clearly there had been more orcs, but the remainder of the warband had looted the bodies and moved north, deeper into the hills.

Tharvald recognized one of the dead hilllmen as a warrior named Torin “Tigerclaw” who regularly visited Dwarfmeet. Torin was the son of the Thane of the Tigerclaw tribe, one of the more prominent tribes in the hills. It was noted that Torin’s crag tiger pelt cloak was missing. Nenthas recalled that according to hillmen custom hillmen warrior must be buried in their clan’s cairn or their souls will not rest peacefully. Tharvald suggested that they might receive a reward and the goodwill of the Thane if they brought Torin’s body back to Redhold, the clan’s home. Nino was opposed to this course of action and encouraged the heroes to avoid the hillmen and head for the mine. There was some discussion on the best move, but the heroes agreed that they should take Torin’s corpse to Redhold. They buried the rest of the hillmen bodies and built a small cairn over them. A litter was constructed for Torin’s body and fastened to a horse. Tharvald estimated that if they marched hard for the remainder of the day and all of the next day they could make it to Redhold.

Thus they set out. Having to deal with the stubborn pack mules and Torin’s body made going slower than they would have liked, but they made progress. As evening approached, the adventurers were following a stream through a narrow valley, flanked by steep, craggy hills when they heard the sounds of orc warhorns behind them. Looking back, they spotted over a score of orc warriors accompanied by several hyena like creatures. The orcs had obviously spotted them as well, and the savages were in pursuit. The adventures realized that they had no hope of outrunning the orcs without abandoning the mules and Torin’s body, so they began eyeing the area for a defensible location. Up ahead they spotted a trail making its way up one of the rocky slopes. It lead to a small, boulder strewn plateau. A carved out tunnel was dug into the hillside at the far end of plateau. Presumably it was an entrance to one of the many ancient cairns that the hills were noted for. They hastened up the narrow trail in single file. When they reached the top they saw bones strewn in front of the entrance to the cairn and realized that it was likely occupied. Inside they discovered that a peculiar ogre who had conversions with a skull belong to his dead mother. They managed to cut a deal with the ogre, and convince him that if he didn’t help them fight the orcs or at least let them protect him he’d surely be slaughtered.

The orcs sent up a vanguard of eight warriors and three krenshar to try to deal with the heroes. It was not enough. Bjorne had managed to prepare two paralysis glyphs in front of the cave entrance, and they were triggered by the krenshar, leaving two paralyzed. The other was quickly killed in melee. The orcs then charged in and were shocked by Nenthas blasting them with bolts of lightning. The damageh wasn’t enough to kill them, but several were severely wounded, and retreated. The remaining orcs were quickly finished off by the heroes. Only the leader of the band, with his massive spiked shield, proved to be much of a threat. The ogre hung back and busied himself with devouring a dead krenshar- much better than him turning on the heroes.

There were still many orcs left at the bottom of the trail, but they had hidden themselves among the boulders and rocks and did not seem eager to assault the cairn. Thus, a standoff began. The heroes convinced the ogre to let them camp the night in the cairn and post a watch- the beast seemed in a good mood; after all, he had not been injured, and he had a full larder. The night passed, and the orcs didn’t send any raiders up the trail. Instead, they attempted to make it seem like they had left. They had scouts blow horns further down the valley, but they kept their forces concealed at the bottom of the trail, presumably waiting to ambush the heroes. Luckily the keen eyesight of Flower and Nenthas spotted a few of the orcs move about down below.

The next morning Bjorne went out and taunted the orcs, while Matteo mooned them. This proved to be enough to convince their chief to lead his forces against them. The heroes were outnumbered more than two to one, but they had a defensible location, an ogre and spell casters. The fighting proved fierce, but this time the ogre insisted on joining the fray, and he helped slay several ogres with his great club. The heroes shattered the morale of the orcs, and the survivors retreated.

After the fight they discovered that the dead orc chief had been wearing a crag tiger pelt cloak. Tharvald recognized it as the one belonging to Torin. Unfortunately, the ogre wanted it for himself, and when Nenthas told him he couldn’t have it, the ogre smashed him with his club. A brief fight ensued, and the heroes slaughtered the beast.

Having defeated their enemies, they set out for Redhold. They marched hard until dusk, at which point they arrived. The village was protected by an unmortared stonewall, and they had to do some negotiating with the guard and eventually the Thane himself. However, the fact that they were returning the body of the Thane’s son won his trust, and he granted them guest rights.

They were escorted to the guesthouse, located near the Thane’s hall, and after a brief rest they joined the Thane for a feast in his hall. It was somewhat of a somber affair, for the death or Torin and the hunting party was tragic news for hillmen. However, the sting of the loss was tempered by the knowledge that the heroes had meted out justice against the orcs that had killed their people. The Thane even allowed the heroes to keep his son’s cloak, as a reward for their deeds.

XP awarded 800
Total XP to date: 2900

The heroes learned that Marcello Bonarti, The high priest of Rao, ventured into the Ruins with a dozen Black Plumes and a pair of acolytes to try and destroy the unholy column of flame the heroes had discovered in the lair of the fire cult. They failed at this task, and Marcello was driven mad by the flames. He was taken to the barracks of Black Plumes to be held, as he was no longer able to perform his duties due to his insanity and was a danger to himself and those around him.

The PCs headed to the party being held by Lord Mayor Corinthi to celebrate the 50 year anniversary of Scarsport’s independence from Nerath. En route they came across a crowd watching a duel in the streets between two nobles, Raphael Polmino and Tito Corinthi. Raphael won the duel fairly, but afterwards Tito hurled a dagger at his back. Nenthas managed to use his prestidigitation magic to pull the dagger out of the air, saving Raphael. The crowd turned on Tito as a result of his cowardly action, and he and his few cronies fled the scene in shame. Raphael informed Nenthas that he was in the elf’s debt, and offered the group a chance to do some work for the family.

At the party the heroes met many different individuals. They were offered a couple of job opportunities, including the chance to join a privateer named Enzo Corinthi on a quest for a dead pirate’s treasure horde. Additionally, a pair of merchant dwarves from Karakast mentioned a newly discovered Cairn in the Cairn Hills and said that they were looking to hire some capable adventurer sorts to help explore the cairn. The heroes also learned that the Lord Mayor’s home is rumoured to magically powered by a powerful devil imprisoned in ancient dungeons below the manor, dungeons that were built during the time when Scarsport was occupied by Bhal Turath. Matteo hooked up with an older noble- a widow named Grazia Vandergast, and at the end of the night he went home with her…

After the party, the characters spent some time discussing their options. They decided that they would visit the Polmino family and see about finding some employment with them. It turned out the Pomino’s were interested in hiring them to scout out a failed mining operation in the Cairn Hills that had been lost after an orc raid nearly 30 years earlier. Since the raid, the family had not tried to reestablish the mine. Giotto Polmino, the patriarch of the family had taken a recent interest in seeing it operational again. He agreed to pay the heroes 5gp each per day to investigate the mine and report back on its status. To help with the mission he hired an old, veteran miner named Nino to accompany them. He also agreed to provide them each with a hardy horse, as well as two pack mules and supplies.

When all was ready the heroes left Scarsport. They headed north to the town of Dwarfmeet. In that rough and tumble frontier town they hired a local forester/guide to take them to the mine. The next day they set out into the Whitewolf Forest, heading northwest towards the hills and the mine.

The forest was too large to make it through in a single day’s march, and they were forced to camp for the night. In the night they learned why the forest had its name. It began with the howling, and at first, the wolves skulked about the outside of the camp, seemingly afraid of the large fire the PCs had built. Eventually, a group of them grew bold enough to attack. They were led by a werewolf and proved to be savage foes. The heroes prevailed but Matteo, Flower and their guide were wounded quite severely. Fortunately, Bjorne was able to heal the bulk of their wounds with his magic.

xp awarded: 600
Total xp to date: 2100 (+100 for character background)

Back at the guildhall, Matteo, Nenthas and Bjorne recruited the half-elf ranger Flower to join them in an expedition to the Ruins district of Scarsport to try and find out more about the fire cult that was threatening the city.

In the ruins they rescued a squatter named Matthis from a band of goblins that had ambushed him. It turned out that Matthis and his wife had gone out in search of their thirteen year old daughter who had disappeared. Mathis explained that other folks from his clan had gone missing too. At first, they thought it was goblins, but then they realized that wasn’t it, and in fact the people that disappeared had been taken by men, men with burns on their faces.

Matthis wasn’t quite giving them the whole story, and in exchange for agreeing to help rescue his daughter, he explained that about a month ago a prophet came into the camp; the man went by the name Ganthet. He claimed that he had traveled from the east, and that gods had gifted him with prophetic visions. He demonstrated his divine powers by creating fire in the palm of his hand. He spoke of a war starting in the heavens, and sins of man being responsible. He claimed that it has been this gods’ war that has been the cause of the strange weather. He promised to help any who joined him help find salvation and punish the cityfolk for the suffering they have caused them. He was quite persuasive, and some of the tribe followed him, especially the younger hot heads. Not long after was the big fire in the ruins. Then members of their clan started to disappear.

After helping Matthis bring his dead wife back to the squatter camp, the heroes headed for a hill in the middle of the burned out district of the city. The hill had the remains of three ruined temples on it. Around the back of the smallest temple they discovered the entrance to a crypt and heard muffled chanting and the occasional scream come from inside. The entrance was warded by an alarm system made up of hanging strings of chimes. The floor of the wide stairs that led down into the crypt was coated with flammable alchemical oil. As they considered their options they heard a growling from down below, much like the sort a fierce dog might make. They also spotted a large band of goblins making their way through the plaza, likely searching for the PCs, as they had killed several goblins earlier in the night.

The PCs hid in among the pillars of the small temple that sat atop the entrance to the crypt. Bjorne lured the goblins down to the temple entrance and the little buggers gleefully lit up the oil on the stairs, burning up several of the goblins that had already gone in to explore. Much chaos then ensued among the goblins, but eventually the ones that remained decided to move on, having no interest in tangling with the fierce hound waiting below (a hound that wasn’t burned up by the fire they had started).

With the goblins gone the heroes waited a little longer for the fire they had started to burn out, and to see what reaction the cultists had. Soon a pair of cultists emerged from the crypt and began to drag out scorched goblin corpses. The PCs decided to ambush the pair. One of the two was a particularly big fellow with a massive maul on his back, and he landed a nasty blow against Matteo with the weapon. Bjorne was hard pressed when the hound came up and joined the fight. It was no regular hound, but a deadly hell hound. Fortunately, the heroes were able to gang up on it and bring it down before it could unleash its fiery breath weapon.

Finally, they descended into the crypt. They hadn’t made it far when they were ambushed by fire cultists. The heroes were faring well until Sin Burner, the cult leader and several reinforcements joined the battle. Flower sustained nasty knife wound in the back from one of them, and Bjorne was tripped and fell into a fire. Matteo and Nenthas also took their share of injuries, most of them burns. In the end, they cut down the fanatical cultists and Bjorne drove his spear through Sin Burner’s chest. It was tough fight, and Flower was brought to unconsciousness.

XP Awarded: 800
Total XP thus far: 1500 (+100 bonus for a completed character background)

Previously in Scarsport, Sesssion #1:

The characters were recruited by Lord Deputy Harlech to investigate the suspicious burning of a bar in the dock ward called the Sea Dragon’s Tankard, which was owned by a man named Belric. In the dock district they encountered a chatty prostitute and three sisters (barmaids from the tavern) who had plenty of ideas about who might have been responsible including Belric’s brother, a fellow named Leg’s Giovanni and either Belric himself.

A more promising but disturbing lead presented itself when a woman (prostitute) on fire burst out of an alley. Catching a glimpse of a hooded man with a torch they pursed him into the alley. A chase ensued, but it came to an abrupt end when one of the men they were chasing lit himself on fire and tried to burn Nenthas to death with a flaming bear hug. Nenthas sustained some nasty burns, but survived, and was later healed by Bjorne. Bjorne stabilized the “human torch” with healing magic so that they could interrogate him. It was clear that he had been affected by some sort of mind influencing ritual magic, and this may have been part of the reason he wasn’t the most talkative fellow, but he did mention something about “The Sin Burner purging this depraved city in the name of the Fire Lord.” He also made mention of them finding him in the Ruins.

Shortly after this encounter the sky clouded over at an uncanny rate and rain began to pound the streets. Then the Sea Devils struck. The fish men came out of the ocean and unleashed bloody slaughter Scarsport. The heroes were resting in a nearby tavern and came to the defense of the city and engaged the Sea Devils, fighting valiantly until the Black Plumes mobilized to drive them back into the sea. The fight was not easy, and none of the heroes came out unscathed.

After some more investigation the heroes still had no real idea about who this “Sin Burner” person was, but they did suspect that he was likely responsible for burning down The Sea Dragon’s Tankard, and that he may be targeting establishments and individuals not meeting his “moral” standards. Given the state of the moral fabric of Scarsport, the heroes rightly concluded that the entire city is in danger.

XP awarded: 700