Session 30 – Kaelig’s Story and the Kalanos Marshes

[avisarr]

Session 30 – Kaelig's Story and the Kalanos Marshes

The party had just snuck out of the main gates of Calannon. They had with them the renegard Kaelig, a wanted thief. They had just freed him from the gallows and the city guard was looking for them.

They also had with them Graekan, the warlord from Lord Verran's estate. Graekan had sworn to serve the party and slay any shapeshifters they encountered. Although that wasn't exactly the quest they were on, the party was glad to have him along for protection.

The party left the town of Calannon far behind and when they had put sufficient distance between the and the city, Ugita cast his Windwalk spell and soon the whole party was flying like wisps of cloud.

After about 25 miles or so, the party landed and assumed normal form. The Windwalk spell made them like the substance of clouds. As such, with the wind roaring by, it was difficult to hold a conversation. The whole party was eager to talk to Kaelig and had many questions for him. So, once they were safely outside of Calannon and far beyond the reach of the city guard, they stopped Windwalking and started simply walking. They followed the main road east toward the swamp.

They asked Kaelig everything – about the Desolation of Shidar, about the Wall, the ruins of Shidar, the lands they must first cross to get to the Wall and much more.

Here is what Kaelig told them:

Thank you! My Friends. Thank you! You have saved my life! How can I ever repay you?

You are a healer? How great is your healing magic? Can you bring back the dead? Then perhaps we can help each other.

Yes, I know the Desolation. Judging by your map, you're heading straight to the ruins... the lost city of Shidar... in the very heart of the Desolation. If you're heading to Shidar, then good luck to you. As far as I know, I'm the only person who's ever made it all the way to the ruins.

The ruins are a dangerous place. I've explored them a couple of times. But what interests me is what's UNDER the city. There is a great seal blocking the entrance to the catacombs beneath the city. I was never been able to get past the Seal. It is a great iron and stone thing called Death's Door.

On my last journey in, I had a friend with me. A sorcerer and scholar named Italus. Italus translated the symbols on the outside of Death's Door. It read like a history or something. Talked about a key. He wrote it all down in his journal.

We talked about possibly going after the key and then coming back. But we were attacked by a group of Shidaran zombies. We managed to kill them. But Italus died from his wounds. I buried him out there under a cairn of stones because I didn't want the Horde to get at his bones. I took his journal and came back. It wasn't easy. I barely escaped with my life. By the time I made it back to the Wall, I was almost dead.

This was months ago. Before I had time to replenish my funds or find out anything about the "key" that Italus had mentioned, I got mixed up in a rivalry between two houses. One of them was House Agrymond that runs the local thieves guild in this town. I was betrayed by the thieves guild for fencing relics from the Desolation without giving them a percentage. Bah! They didn't earn it. They framed me for the murder of a House Chamberlain (House Brykoth, if any asks). I was going to be executed during the Festival. That's when you showed up and teleported me away from the gallows. Thanks again for that!

Now, let me explain something to you... everyone who goes into the Desolation dies. Everyone who doesn't know what they're doing, that is. The whole region is a death zone. Several diseases are there, but the main one, the one that concerns most people, is something that the Chaddamarians call the Scourge.

What the Chaddamarians know of it is mixed with a lot of superstitious nonsense. I can tell you about it though. It's a wide spread sickness which quickly kills the victim. The body then undergoes a change. The corpse excretes a foul smelling pus which quickly hardens into some sort of cocoon. The next day, this cocoon bursts open and the corpse arises as some shambling undead monstrosity. The Chaddamarians call it a Shidaran zombie.

Unknown to the general public, there is an antidote which prevents infection from the Scourge. It's difficult to make...expensive, time consuming... and very delicate. Only a handful know that it even exists. Even fewer know how to make it.

The irony is that the Church of Chaddamar, the very government of that people, is aware of the existence of the antidote. But they consider it heresy. They keep its existence a secret and all samples of the antidote are confiscated and destroyed.

Every time I go in, I purchase a supply of the antidote from certain underworld contacts. I don't have the skills to brew the stuff myself. I usually buy it from a mage named Kaemus. Unfortunately, Kaemus was executed by the Church for crimes of heresy this past winter. The Church is very good at sniffing out necromancers. But there are others who know the formula. Before he died, Italus told me about an associate of his who might be able to help us find the key. A vaullian historian by the name of Lesoth. Italus said that he knew the formula as well. I was planning on finding this Lesoth and asking him about the key. I don't know Lesoth personally and I don't know if he is skilled in alchemy. But perhaps he can concoct some of the antidote, for a price. If not Lesoth, then I don't know. The only other person I know of who knew the formula is the original creator of the antidote. A necromancer named Saramuthak. However, I heard he was been imprisoned last year. Probably dead by now. Let us hope that Lesoth can make some of that rare distillation for us!

"What did you say?" asked Ugita, his eyes lighting up. "Did you say Saramuthak?" 

Yes. Saramuthak. You know of him. He's a well known necromancer. As you can imagine, he's had his share of troubles with the Church of Chaddamar. He's been labeled a heretic and idolater. He's been in trouble with the Church for years. He was imprisoned a couple years ago in the town of Soleth, not far from the Wall.

Saramuthak probably knows more about the Scourge and the Antidote than anyone. And Lesoth knows more about the Desolation and its history than anyone. If Italus is right, then Lesoth will be able to tell a great deal about the ruins of Shidar. And what might lie beneath them.

I have managed to find out where Lesoth is. He runs a small museum in the town of Hansuse.

Tell us more about this antidote.

The antidote is difficult and expensive to make. And one full dose must be taken every day while in the Desolation. Else, you will contract the Scourge. It's that simple. The Scourge is what kills most people that walk into the Desolation. Stupid fools!

The antidote can not be mixed ahead of time or it loses its potency. It consists of two different elixirs that must be mixed prior to consumption. Also, the antidote has a strong magical enchantment. It is very unstable. If it is exposed to any magical energy, it becomes inert. Useless. Therefore, you can't use magic to whisk yourself into the Desolation. Any magic at all will destroy the antidote. Teleport, flight, etc. Any strong magic like that which affect the body could disrupt it. Therefore, you have to walk into the Desolation.

You said Italus wrote everything down in a journal. What's in his journal?
I don't know. I can't read it. Italus writes his notes in Old Kartese. It's the ancient runic code used by sorcerers from the old Kytohan Empire. Now used by Chaddamarian sorcerers. I can't read Old Kartese.

What kinds of creatures are in the Desolation?
Oh, all manner of things. There are the shidaran zombies of course. Lots of those. And saber scorpions, death worms, razor bats, acid jaws... all manner of nasties. But the worst is the horde. You've heard of them I'm sure. Once each year, in the summer, the Horde comes and scours the land... they kill everything.


What about this swamp that we've heard of too the east? The Kalanos Marshes? What of them? We have to fly over them before we get to Chaddamar...

The Kalanos Marshes are a dank and dreary place. The air is so thick and stale you can fill it pushing down on your lungs, soaking through your skin. It's bad air in there. Makes food rot quicker than normal. I hear that wounds don't heal right as well. Not til you get out the other side at least.

Whether by road or by wind, we must be careful. The Sorcerer-King does not take kindly to sorcery not of his own making. During his reign, others who showed talent in the Craft were hunted down. They say that nothing goes unnoticed by him in the Marshes... that he can smell magic in the wind.

I've talked with soldiers of the Dark Watch. I've swapped stories with them. You should hear some of the tales they tell. Tales about things in the Marshes... big lizards, tribes of boglings, beasts that do his bidding. They say he has spies in the Marshes, agents of evil.

They also say that there are Black Obelisks in the swamp. Don't know what they're for. But I heard one tale that says a patrol of Dark Watch soldiers camped next to one. The next morning, the Obelisk and the whole camp of soldiers was gone. Not a trace. That's the thing about them Obelisks.... They say that they never stay put. Never in the same place.


After Kaelig finished telling them everything they knew, they recast the Windwalk spell and again took to the air. They followed the road from the air. Soon, they saw a caravan down below on the road, heading west into the Aukarian Republic. It was a Chaddamarian group of 3 wagons. Heavily armed. Many soldiers. It looked like they have seen battle. Muddy boots. Bandaged wounds. Bodies loaded in one wagon.

Before too long, the party could see a vast green swath ahead of them with fog hovering above it. They flew over a small village at the edge of the swamp. The saw hunters in swamp boats and men herding pigs. The road they followed was soon obscured by vegetation and fog.

An hour into their flight over the swamp, the party saw a bright glowing streak shoot up from the dark trees below. It was a bright ball of blue lightning and it curved through the sky in a great arc toward the party. The energy ball struck Ugita. The lightning enveloped him in a bright glow. Ugita quickly realized that the energy field was draining the power from his Windwalk spell.

Ugita flew toward the ground and the rest followed. All of them felt their flight power simply draining away. They barely reached the ground when the spell ended abruptly.

Almost as soon as everyone hit the ground, they heard the creak of leathern wings. A large beast – bat like wings, reptilian body and a somewhat vulture like head – 15 foot wing span, flew up to the group and started flapping and hovering above them. After a minute or two, they saw that it had some sort of collar. Then, they saw the eye in the collar. A great severed eye embedded in the collar stared at the party. With a single arrow, Rothgar blinded the eye and with a second arrow, the beast came crashing down.

The party continued on foot. They quickly found the road and followed it east through the swamp. They came across huge mushroom trees, thick yellow clouds of spores and heavy fog. They came upon huge feathered leeches that infested the swamp trees, monstrous swamps and choking vegetation.

The party was attacked by a hulking, hunched over beast. It strode in on hind legs and hacked at the party with huge claws. Its roar bellowed and shook the trees. It was also wearing an eye collar, but the party quickly dispatched it.

The party began to hear drums in the distance. This time they were attacked by boglings, three scythe lizards and an ogre. The party retreated from the horde and found themselves at a river. The ruins of a once mighty stone bridge. Rubble from the bridge choked the river.

The party fought bravely against overwhelming odds, but they held their own. About half way through the battle, Kaelig began yelling for the party members to retreat. They turned to where he was pointing and they saw that a strange humanoid like thing was stalking through the swamp toward them. It was a golem of some kind, fashioned completely from black stone. It was covered in glowing gold runes and glyphs.

Kaelig yelled "Don't let it touch you!"  The party fell over themselves to retreat from this thing. It stood nine feet tall and had quite a long reach.

The party retreated while Kaelig quickly explained that this new enemy, this "rune golem" was a servant and construct of Lothiramar. By merely touching them, the rune golem could teleport them to the dungeons of the Sorcerer King.

Graekan the warlord took the rune golem on alone, allowing the others to escape. He also fought two scythe lizards and a half dozen of the boglings swamp creatures. His blade was a dizzying blur and kept the beasts at bay.

The party managed to use this time and make their escape. But Graekan eventually fell in battle. The party fled and put as much distance between them and their attackers as possible. They ran for hours before collapsing in exhaustion. They made a camp that night and did their best to hide. They took turns standing guard and listening for any sounds of pursuit.

The next morning, they struck camp and headed east again. This time they stayed off the road until the marshes began to break up and they realized they were near the eastern edge. After another hour, the road came out of the marshes and into broad grasslands. Before them lay the Chaddamar Theocracy, a vast religious nation. This was the nation that had built Garreon's Wall, beyond which was the Desolation of Shidar, the very place where the party was headed. Kaelig had been to Chaddamar many times and knew his way around. He led them toward the town of Hansus.

After another 4 hours on the road, the party finally reached the town of Hansuse. There were subtle differences in the culture here. The architecture of the larger buildings was different. The communities and farms were more fragemented, more numerous.

Kaelig led them to the town's museum. It's a large single tower some six stories tall and held a commanding presence over the town. Large stone steps led up to the front door where a large iron bell hung. Kaelig walked up and rang the bell and, after a moment, the door opened.

The curator and historian that ran this small museum was a respected vaullian (the grey skinned, somewhat elephant looking humanoid race – the same race that Sarroch the Wise was). His name was Lesoth.

Lesoth was friendly and jovial. He offered the weary adventurers tea and biscuits. Lesoth was quite distressed to hear Kaelig tell of the death of Italus. Italus had been friend to both Kaelig and Lesoth. Ugita assured them that when they reached the Desolation of Shidar beyond the wall, that he would be able to resurrect Italus. Kaelig and Lesoth were both glad to hear this, but Lesoth was also a little disturbed... such things were simply not openly discussed here in the Theocracy.

The party had a thousand questions for him and Lesoth had a thousand answers.

Most of what the party learned from Lesoth was history about Shidar. (He IS a historian, after all).

Here's what they learned:

The Known History of Shidar

0 CY - After the Cataclysm, the Kytohan Empire fell. The north east region was once a larger peninsula, but the coasts collapsed taking many fishing villages with them.

72 CY - The only major city left was Daetowa ruled by Duke Morgoth. According to legend, Lord Morgoth built a great underground fortress beneath his city. Perhaps to protect his people from the World Storm or raiding bandits who pillaged the newly-wrecked world. It is said that these great halls beneath the ground were a marvel to behold. It supposedly held the wealth of the region.

155 CY - A century later, the city of Daetowa was overrun by humanoid tribes. Within 50 years, nothing remained by ruins.

185 CY – Some years later, the ruins of Daetowa are abandoned by the humanoids. The ruins of Daetowa were left to the weeds.

851 CY – In the ninth century, the ruins of Daetowa were rebuilt and the town of Shidar was founded.

1050 CY – For two centuries, Shidar grew and developed into a major city. It became a shining center of culture, learning and magical power. The healers of Shidar were exceptionally powerful. They mastered all manner of healing. At the height of the cities power, they developed the power to bring back the dead.

1136 CY – In 1136, miners quarrying stone uncovered a shaft that ended in a great seal. They believed they had uncovered the entrance to the legendary Mines of Morgoth. The Seal was opened. The catacombs underneath began to be explored.

Shidar began to have problems. Murders in the night, strange creatures hunting the nighttime alleys, animals acting up, disease. These problems became worse.

The nobles of Shidar decided to construct a new seal over the opening. This great stone edifice was a building with a single great iron door. Death's Door is the name of the great iron and stone building that seals this ancient underground catacomb. It was created by a group of city-sponsored mages led by a great wizard named Adezar.

Amidst great controversy, Adezar created a key that could open Death's Door. Some politicians were horrified that such a security breach was allowed. Others wanted the option of some day opening the door and slaying the demons of the underworld.

The device that could open the door was magical and needed only be touched to the door to open it. Hence, this device could have been made in any form. But Adezar decided to fashion it into the likeness of a key. This choice was artistic, nothing more. The key is fashioned of bronze and is 18" long. It is heavy and highly decorative.

The key was intended only to be used in ceremonies. An ornate oaken box was fashioned to house the key.

Those who feared the opening of the Door assaulted the Town Hall and, during the battle, the Key was shattered into 3 pieces. - the circular handle, the shaft and the teeth. (The Ring, the Rod and the Teeth). Satisfied that the Key was no longer a threat, the mob disbanded.

The pieces were collected and later studied by Adezar. Such was the power of the enchantment that the key was not destroyed. Indeed, each part still possessed the magic of the whole necessary to open the door. There were, essentially, now THREE keys that could open the door. Nobles fought and squabbled over the 3 keys. These three keys have changed hands many times over the centuries. Because of their unique design, they are easily identified.  Hence, the fate of each is known.

The Current Locations of the Three Pieces Are Known:

1. The Rod is held by the Arch-Wizard at Mount Durrodis
2. The Teeth are held in the treasure vault of Duke Heingoth in the Iron States.
3. The Ring is held by Lord Kaimar of Chaddamar.

Based on this information, the decided they would go after the Key. But before that, they wanted to go find out what happened to Saramuthak. If he had only been imprisoned a year or two ago, he might still be alive, rotting away in some dark dungeon cell, a prisoner of the Church of Chaddamar. Ugita convinced the group to go after him.

Also, Lesoth had the formula for the antidote, but had never made it. The party felt that if there was a chance to rescue Saramuthak, HE would be the best person to make them a batch of the antidote for their adventure into the Desolation. After all, Saramuthak invented the formula.