Session 22 – Aftermath of the Battle at the Keep
It should be noted that this was where the ONE YEAR break occurred. We fought this huge ambush battle. Then we took a year off. So, most of session 22 was discussion and reorienting ourselves as to what had happened a year ago in Session 21 and picking up where we left off. We didn't plan on getting much actual progress done on this first session back.
So, when Session 21 had ended, the characters were staying at Keep #3, half way through the dangerous region known as Fyrren's Wandering. They had just fought along side magrakian soldiers, chaddamarian priests and Aukarian pilgrims to defend the keep. They were successful in fighting off the bandits and humanoid tribes.
Most of session 22 was cleaning up the aftermath of the battle.
Callister, Rothar, Martin, Ugita and the sole surviving member from the Aukarian caravan (an aukarian woman named Gen) worked together with the soldiers of the keep to gather all the bodies of the dead and bury them. [It should be noted that Gen was Beth's new character so Gen will be joining the party and traveling with the group for awhile.]
Most everyone was wounded and had seen battle, but healing magic was passed around. Ugita, who was very proficient with healing spells, made sure everyone was healed up at least partially.
Grimnoth, the golem/zombie, was heavily damaged. His right arm was missing entirely and his left arm was severed just below the elbow. His mechanical eye was damaged and several of the artifical lens pieces were missing. He was bleeding from both of his organic ears and he was leaking. Finally, he was limping badly on a damaged knee.
Rothgar had been hit by an enchanted arrow from the assassin/archer (Kramtha's killer) and had been struck with disease. He drank Callister's Elixir of Wound Purging, a very potent healing potion, and was restored to full health.
Grubal was only slightly wounded and foraged for food while the others cleaned up after the battle.
Among the dead were the assassin/archer, four Duthelm bloodguards, one Duthelm Queen's Guard, several dozen dogmen, several dozen mixed breed bandits, most of the caravan people (the guests staying at the keep), Gremal (the saridian mage/engineer) and all the Chaddamarians including Toth, the elder and priest that Ugita had been talking to.
The characters rolled all the bodies for wealth, magic items and such. They then dug a mass grave for the bandits and dumped all their bodies in there. The rest of the people (magrakians, chaddamarians and aukarians) were wrapped up for later delivery to their respective governments.
Ugita animated a number of the bandits as undead to help in the labor.
Two of the humanoid bandits were taken prisoner. It turns out that they are pugnar, a canine humanoid race. Sort of like dogmen. There were several bandit groups united under one banner for this attack by "strangers" who were Duthelm, based on the description. Duthelm was definitely behind the attack. However, based on the interrogation of the two dog men, it seemed that only a few Duthelm people had been seen. Perhaps a smaller Duthelm group well in advance of the main Duthelm group sent specifically to slow down and harass the characters.
Here's the original list of stuff that was taken off of the bodies.
Recovered Items
A large uprooted and stripped tree. (The giant was using it as a club).
Miscellaneous loincloths, bits of clothes, mismatched boots, gloves, etc.
Miscellaneous moldy foodstuffs.
Miscellaneous pieces of poor quality armor. From the bandits
Empty potion bottles.
Lengths of hemp rope.
127 Hunedar (magrakian coins)
81 Gold coins (bearing an impressive seal)
7 Crude copper coins.
2 Large silver coins
Low Quality Map of Fyrren's Wandering
Ornate bone and wood staff. Very decorative and adorned with brightly colored feathers. Tipped with a small animal skull. (Appears to be some sort of shaman's holy staff).
Intact Potion - Unlabeled. Inside is a metallic, silvery fluid which continually sloshes about.
Scroll - Written in an undecipherable script.
Three Scrolls – Blank, but they detect as magical under a Detect Magic scroll.
A glass disk, slightly concave, two inches in diameter. A rune on each side. This is inside a protective metal box. This item and the 3 scrolls above were found in a wizard's satchel.
High Quality Battle Axe. Very well crafted. Bears a smith's mark.
The assassin/archer's longbow. Finely crafted from a fine grained wood which is a deep, lustrous black color. Decorated with silver glyphs along both upper and lower limbs.
Nine black arrows with serrated and barbed hunting tips. They are all identical and magical.
A single bone tipped arrow. Radiates magic.
Rothgar took the bow and arrows.
Ugita took the conclave glass disk.
Callister took the scrolls and the silvery liquid potion.
Beth's new character, Gen, sat and talked with the player characters. Gen was traveling with this group of Aukarians. She had previously been from Ithria and had grown up in Ormek on the southeast coast. She had traveled far to Aggradar in hopes of discovering the fate of her long lost grand parents who had come here some 75 years earlier. She was traveling to the Aukarian Republic.
Since her entire caravan had been wiped out, and the player characters were traveling to the Aukarian Republic, she asked if she could travel with them (again, safety in numbers... especially here in Fyrren's Wandering) and the player characters agreed.
Callister asked who the man was that he had killed in the duel. Gen informed the group that he was the "War Master" of this group (the highest ranking military official in a noble house) and that he had been protecting the group on their journey. Callister had not only killed one of the best warriors of all the people in the keep at that time (immediately prior to the keep being attacked), but had dishonored the warrior's noble house. She told him that there would be consequences in Aukaria if anyone there found out.
As a side note, Aukaria would hear about this – many of the soldiers working at the keep were Aukarian and felt that the duel Callister fought with him was unwarranted and dishonorable. Also, one of their number, a young Aukarian soldier, was being sent back to Aukaria to inform the government of the attack on keep #3. They would need supplies and men to rebuild the keep. While in Aukaria, he would tell the noble houses of this dishonorable duel and the fact that Callister had taken the warmaster's sword (a major social blunder in Aukaria).
So, that's where we ended Session 22. Most of it was cleaning up the aftermath of the fight and lots of role playing. Also, we introduced Beth's new character.