Carrion Crown, as told by Inquisitor Victoria van Helm.
Dear Inquisitor Coim,
After our undersea adventures, we headed back to town, and took a day.
On the 19th, we noticed that there's some sort of... presence... in town. Things seem unusually quiet, no birds singing, frogs croaking, and suchlike. Ronan and Hecathia also appear to believe I'm being possessed by the Frog Globe. I think this is patently ridiculous, and the globe agrees.
As we discussed the matter, Hecathia noticed a mysterious aura out in the forest that retreated as quickly as it arrived. We couldn't really let this go, and went to investigate it.
We advanced down familiar paths just outside town, and around a corner found a most horrifying sight -- what was left of two deer were splattered all over a nearby tree. Whatever it was, it looked like it had torn them apart manually.
Hecathia realized this could be an offering to Griselda, god of the hungry moon. We hear breaking branches... and the one who made the offering. A large wolf-like biped barged out of the woods! The monster was especially furious with Hecathia, and she in turn seems to recognize him.
We had a turn to make ready. Hecathia hastes us, I line up my shot.
I lunged forward, and branded him for retribution, but Ronan suggested we try to cure his werewolfism mid-combat. I agree, and prepared to dispel his curse on my next turn.
Hecathia prayed, as she does. The beast took poorly to being touched, and mangled me severely. As I got mauled, I heard Ronan remark he's almost capable of removing diseases.
To recap on what's required to cure werewolfism, we needed a simultaneous cure diesase and remove curse. I can remove curses, and had thought the paladin capable of the remove disease. But he wasn't. Nice to know. Would have been nicer to know prior to committing to the plan.
I instead settled for some small revenge on the werewolf, dancing around him to stab him in the back, and backing off considerably.
Hecathia engaged in banter. I learnt the werewolf 's name was Atamarius, and that he was looking for the heart of Sain. He took her bait, and charges towards her -- Ronan was not able to hit him and deal damage as he pushed past, and so Hecathia took a heavy hit for her bants.
Ronan charged in, and sliding on his chest, knocked the feet out from under Atamarius. I charged in as well, and put my knife clean through his bicep.
Hecathia backed off herself, and Ronan tried to stand up. I stabbed the werewolf in a frenzy. He tried to get up, but I didn't let up. He took a step, and lashed out at Hecathia. Ronan answers by taking out his guts, and Hecathia finished him off.
Ronan offered to heal me afterwards, but I invited Ronan to "Keep your non-disease-curing hands off me, you would-be paladin".
We looted the werewolf's corpse, particularly his grand sword, and after heading back to town, left it for Kalathas.
We travelled back to Thrushmoor to drop the seastone effigy off at Ronan's house first, then moved on.
During our trip, I learnt that the werewolf was actually contaminated with some unspecified space-plague disease -- whatever it is, I'm not exhibiting any symtoms, and appear to be immune.
The journey seemed quiet, if eerie, and after a few days, we passed by a fisherman's cottage -- it looked abandoned, but not for very long. Naturally, we decided this would be a good place to stay.
Hecathia's sense tingled, as she could feel a disturbance nearby, feel some major undead further up the hill. We decided to go for it, buffing up, and step into the forest.
Almost in response, the flora and fauna got weird. And further in, at treetop level, is something approaching a rift in time and space. We'd need a wizard to close it off or something.
Lucia's indifferent about it, and suggested just leaving it, as it wasn't exactly teeming with monsters. It eventually crossed our mind that it might only be devoid of threats because the monster was already here?
A giant, 40' tall spider stalked towards us! It was tall and agile, but not terribly strong; I branded it for retribution, and the team laid into it for damage.
Somewhere, I think I heard the voices of the gods discussing our fight:
"You successfully slice through the underside of the spider. Now you're covered in spider goo."
"No, my outfit!"
"Then it falls behind you, okay?"
"It falls onto Ronan."
Ronan (Imitating GM) "Does a 36 hit?"
Gm: "No, actually, it's only thirty... actually, yeah, 36."
The spider eventually decided it had had enough, and withdrew from combat, fading out and bouncing away. I couldn't see it, but clearly Hecathia could; she was staring up at the trees, and with her magic, smashing them one by one. She smashed one last tree, and pointed where it landed with a thump.
Lucia slung a fireball at it, and the fireball hit something invisible and vanished. I ran forward and took a pot-shot with my crossbow, but hit nothing.
The rest of the party charged in and had more luck, massacring it, but not before it violently poisoned Ronan. The party managed to hold him down and pump enough restorative magic into him to keep him from death's door and let him ride out the poison.
And that's all for now; we'll be moving again shortly.
Glory to Pharasma,
Vic
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