Session 6 (The Word of Life)

6th Rhaan - Autumn in Sharn brings heavy storms and plenty of rain. The temperatures drop slightly, leaving the place slightly less muggy but with a great deal more wind. After several days of relative relaxation the party were contacted by a half-orc by the name of Simon the orange; so named for the slight orange sunburn on his green-tinged skin. He brought news that Jonathan Carver wished to meet with them for an evening meal and business proposal.
The group made their way down to Cliffside and were directed to a strong wooden door in an alley between two warehouses. The half-ogre doorman unlocked it for them and guided them up a long set of stone stairs within the cliff itself. They emerged onto a half-stone, half-wood landing in front of an attractively carved. Inside the party were met by an exquisite halfling woman of indeterminate years who introduced herself as Kaeya, the matron of the Riverside Haven. Told that Captain Carver was waiting for them they were led into a formal dining room off to one side of the restaurant; decorated with classical art, tastefully arranged.

Captain Jonathan Carver is a slender man of early middle age and slightly above average height. He has dark hair, well styled, and grey eyes. Looking at him and listening to his smooth words and well-honed wit, it is hard to imagine his reputation as a cold-blooded killer and the "Scourge of the Coast". Nonetheless, the tails are common enough to have truth to them, despite his urbane manner.
Getting down to business, Carver announces that he has heard of the party by reputation and is interested in offering them lieutenant shares in his next venture.
He explains that he has information about an eberron shard transport vessel from the Shadow Marches and that he wishes very much to take the ship and its cargo. As lieutenants they would each receive a 10% share in the profit, with Carver himself taking a 30% share and the remaining 40% to be distributed throughout the crew.

Having accepted his proposal, Andrew, Dha'ron, and Maker assemble aboard the Queen of Khorvaire - Carver's flagship - and assist in the planning of the attack. It was decided that they would risk the shorter crossing by open sea so that they could assault the Shadowswift closer to Carver's base of operations rather than closer to the areas protected by the Brelish Navy. Accompanying them will be the Blade of Khorvaire, Carver's other, smaller ship. The Queen is a merchantman fitted for troop and cargo transport, while the Blade is a cutter designed for interception and combat at sea.

7th Rhaan - The Queen of Khorvaire and her little sister the Blade of Khorvaire set out with the morning tide just before dawn.

10th Rhaan - The men on watch during the day notice a dark storm front on the horizon.

12th Rhaan - After keeping a wary eye on it for the last two days, the approaching storm finished approaching and hit hard!

14th Rhaan - The Blade of Khorvaire started to experience serious problems with the strong wind and high seas. Its timbers strain and it shows clearly why it is a coastal vessel predominantly.

15th Rhaan - The Blade suffered from a broken mast! Bringing the Queen dangerously close, a rope is secured to the Blade so that its compliment of marines can cross to the Queen for the purposes of the attack. Five of the attempts go without serious trouble. However two marines fall overboard and quickly go under in the heavy swell. Seven sailors and four marines from the Blade had died in total, so Captain Carver sent over another two sailors to form a skeleton crew; thus allowing the Blade to limp to shore.

17th Rhaan - Ship ahoy! The Shadowswift, with its distinctive black hull was sighted off the starboard bow. The Queen of Khorvaire corrected course to intercept and Andrew, Dha'ron, and Maker kept the crew away from the helm by shooting dead the helmsman and then the navigator who attempted to reach the wheel afterwards! A Sleep spell was targeted on the open deck of the Shadowswift, causing three of the enemy guards to drop into a slumber - one of whom slid off the deck and drowned before waking. A volley of crossbow bolts and arrows scathed the black ship's deck, killing another five enemy men before the ships ground together for boarding. Carver, Simon, Andrew, Dha'ron, and Maker made quick work of the remaining guards and began to organize the search of the Shadowswift. As Captain Carver approached the captain's cabin at the rear of the ship, the door burst open and a hulking troll slammed into him; bearing both overboard into the sea! Stalking out afterwards was the very annoyed captain of the Shadowswift: a green hag who laid into the group for a short time before being outmatched and diving into the sea and disappearing under the waves.
A short time later, Captain Carver dragged himself over the railing, covered in scrapes and cuts. He then moved from person to person, killing each and every surviving crew member of the enemy vessel, ordering no quarter for the sick or injured below.
A logbook, some charts, a small box of gems, some luxury items, and a rather nice sextant were all taken directly aboard the Queen of Khorvaire while the crew transferred the eberron shard shipment to the Queen also.
In the captain's cabin, the group also found "The Personal Log of Captain Jethya Marana" and took that too.

20th Rhaan - Another light crew was sent aboard the Shadowswift and both vessels sailed for three days to Blackstone Keep in the southern peninsula of the Shadow Marches. The Blade of Khorvaire had arrived and work had already commenced in replacing the mast. Supplies were gained, ships refitted, and crew members were able to stretch out and eat fresh food at last.
During their time at the keep, the group had evening meals with Jonathan Carver and he hatched a devious plan: to wait several more days and then sail back to the Shadow Marches as if returning for another shipment of goods!

Session 5 (The Word of Life)

18th Barrakas - After the initial surprise of a talking skeleton, the battle was joined! After a furious fight, both of the undead were returned to an inanimate state and the party was able to continue on their way to the partially ruined tower nearby.

The tower was eighty feet tall and nearly square. There was a pale flickering light emanating from the rooftop and access to the building was gained by scrambling over the rubble of one largely destroyed wall. Moving swiftly but carefully, Andrew, Dha'ron, and Maker searched the tower room by room. They discovered a small amount of Cyran coins, some shortspears, a copper pendant with a tree inscribed on it, and a slim wooden box - later opened to access the wand inside - in the officer's study.
The party heard noises outside and went to look. They found rank upon rank of armored zombies in formation outside the keep, preparing to enter. Reacting to the incoming threat, the party ran to the roof and found only rubble and an elevator of much more recent construction than the building itself. The elevator's guiding beam was the flickering light that had been seen from below. It was being debated whether they should run for it another way when their hand was forced by the arrival of several zombies climbing up the walls and attacking them!
Forced to fight inside the elevator, Dha'ron's axe had its haft chopped in two by a particularly aggressive zombie before it was dispatched.

The elevator shuddered to a halt on top of the glass plateau, again resting at a recently constructed platform. For three days, the three explorers headed south along the plateau, making do with dry rations and the stale leather-flavored water from their waterskins.


21st Barrakas - At around mid-morning of their third day of walking they saw a figure silhouetted against the sky, visible between jagged spurs of glass rising from the plateau. The figure was robed from head to foot and was chanting in a keening wail, arms raised above him. There was a blood-red glow being omitted from the tablet, lighting up the figure and proving it to be the item they were seeking to retrieve.
The party dashed forwards to try to stop Saren Domant but his ritual was too close to completion to be halted and he uttered the word of power inscribed on the tablet...

...for a moment there was no reaction, then Saren contorted, twisted, and exploded in a burst of power, showering blood and viscera around where he had stood. Andrew very nearly died at that moment too, being close enough to clearly intuit the power of the spell. Thankfully his mind was resilient enough to deny the influence of the waves of power washing over him and he collapsed unconscious instead of dead!
Once he regained consciousness, the party searched through Saren's belongings and took his potions (Remove Fear and Lesser Restoration), his scroll (Resist Energy), his wand (Cure Light Wounds: 15 charges remaining), and his magically imbued morningstar (+1 Morningstar).

They then picked their way further south to the tip of the plateau and found Saren's rope ladder that he'd secured in order to leave.

26th Barrakas - After a further five days of travel the three arrived in Darguun and purchased a horse and cart in Rhukaan Draal.

2nd Rhaan - They had traveled along a riverbank until reaching Sterngate and had managed to get passage on the lightning rail back to Sharn over the course of four days. Once they arrived they found that Praxxas Magister had taken a sabbatical and returned home to the Talenta Plains for a while. Morgrave University arranged for the tablet to be taken off display and handed it into the care of House Kundarak. A silver Aurum member by the name of Harrin d'Kundarak placed it inside a chest which then went into a twin-Khyber sharded adamantine locked chest which required Kundarak blood to open the Arcane Lock and other seals.
Each member of the party was given a purse of fifty platinum coins in thanks for their efforts in returning the valuable tablet.

Later that same night, Dha'ron was chased and attacked by a werewolf in the streets of Sharn! It was itself chased off by the arrival of the swifter of a pair of guardsmen. In particular a golden-eyed man who took Dha'ron immediately to a Jorasco healer and administered belladonna to stave off the infection of the lycanthropic disease! He introduced himself only as Kelmar at the time and returned to his partner just as quickly as he left. Now Dha'ron bears the taint of lycanthropy, but not the curse itself.

Session 4 (The Word of Life)

23rd Lharvion - Arrival back in Sharn from Stormreach.

27th Lharvion - The PCs are in and around Morgrave University when they hear a commotion and, upon investigation, discover that the tablet had been stolen from its display in the upper halls! An inquisitive (Creilath Movanek, a well known half-elf) was summoned and asked to look over the scene. He quickly concluded that the culprit had most likely come from the docks, as there were traces of white oakum (untarred caulkling twine) snagged on the pedestal as well as the presence of Cliffside limestone. The PCs made haste to the Cliffside docks only to see a ship starting to cast off with a pack-bearing figure near the stern. Dha'ron, being the fastest of the crew, ran down the docks - narrowly avoiding being tripped by an unseen assailant in the crowd - and leapt after the ship... falling into the harbor instead. Once he clambered out of the drink, Dha'ron, along with Andrew and Maker, witnessed a band of tritons out in the far harbor board a Brelish cutter and slaughter the crew. The good news of the day was that they could identify the fleeing vessel as the Vengeance of Falnar; Falnar being identified as a town on the southern coast of Cyre, near to the Darguun border.
They then returned to Morgrave University to prepare for a trip to the Mournland. Praxxas Magister had been poisoned, which explained his absence from the crime scene, but he did arrange for them to receive travel passes to take them by lightning rail as far as they could go towards their ultimate destination. He also arranged for a Breland Sentinel to accompany them on their mission to recover the valuable tablet.


3rd Barrakas - It had taken a couple of days to organize everything and they had been on the lightning rail route for a day now with their companion - Timar Mesis, a Sentinel of Breland - and it was now the evening of their first night in the lightning rail sleeping compartment they had been provided with. During the night hoofbeats were heard over the rushing of air and crackling of the storm elemental propulsion. Looking out the window with dancing lights cast into the darkness, the PCs saw a band of hobgoblins riding hard for the carriages. Each hobgoblin was armed and armored and grim of visage. With that in mind, combat was joined and several of the hobgoblins were dropped from their horses by magic and ranged weaponry before even reaching the lightning rail. Some of them made it onto the roof of the carriage though, and Timar burst into action, climbing onto the roof with them. As Andrew stuck his head out the window to see what was going on, he saw a blade plow through Timar's back and out his chest, tumbling him off the roof and onto the ground, lost in a blur of bloody steel as the rail continued onwards. The rest of the hobgoblins noted the position of the PCs and dropped into the carriage with them, only to be dispatched fairly swiftly.

6th Barrakas - Now without Timar Mesis, they were approaching Starilaskur - their disembarking point - when they heard the beating of leathery wings and an inhuman shriek in the sky above! There was another shriek, this one louder and more piercing, and the carriages shuddered violently and the leathery beating of wings resumed after the creatures diving attack on the lightning rail elemental compartment.
Andrew, Dha'ron, and Maker jumped to their feet and ran forwards to check on the damage, arriving just in time to witness another shrieking dive on the lead compartment, this time tearing the elemental binding asunder and partially releasing the storm elemental, driving it into a wild frenzy and propelling the carriages far faster than they were intended to go. The other carriages were decoupled by Maker, and the PCs managed to stay largely out of harm's way while the elemental raged out of control and the compartment and a half screamed through Starilaskur without stopping and straight into the thick grey mists that border the Mournland. Eventually the elemental wrested itself free of its bindings and dissipated into the air, taking the crackling of lightning with it and soaring off into the evening. The carriages coasted along the conductor stones for a further two hours before reaching a halt deep within the Mournland. Their rough knowledge of Cyran geography and trust in the fact that the lightning rail had to have stops along the way led them to trudge along the often shattered conductor stone line for a couple of hours before reaching the town of Taralanth. The town was an eerie display of what truly awaited them in this most accursed of lands: corpses lying where they fell, pallid and pale but without any sign of decay. They picked a fairly secure spot and camped for the night; Maker keeping watch through the long hours until dawn.

7th-19th Barrakas - Again combining their sketchy knowledge of the landscape with Dha'ron's survival skill of finding north, they set out southwards for a long journey into the unknown. After twelve days of staying out of sight and skirting any major threats, they came across a horrifying sight - animated corpses locked in eternal battle - made even more eerie by the lack of any sound beyond the clashing of arms and armor.

27th Barrakas - They had been flanked by the glass plateau for several days now, its jagged presence a constant companion on their travels. On this particular night though, they would witness a savage storm illuminating the scene with flashes of purple lightning. Lightning that revealed a stone tower nestled near the base of the glass plateau. Lightning that, between periods of oppressive darkness, revealed a pair of heavily armored skeletons; each bearing a pair of wicked scimitars. One of the skeletons levelled its undead gaze at the group and rasped out in a harsh whisper "you should not have violated our lands..." and the pair moved in to attack!