Read all the Kith’takharos Campaign session recaps here.
At the start of the game session, I expressed surprise over the initial goals of the new group of characters. One of the players replied, “Me, too.”
Cheyl, Jory, Gabrielle, and Bron gather in the Salted Eel for refreshments. A lean man in his late 20′s enters and takes a nearby table. He wears well-made traveling clothes and a sword at his waist. He props a longbow against the table.
After a few minutes, the man rises and approaches Jory, introducing himself as Ghost. He knew Jory years ago, when Jory fought on the riverboats. Jory does remember the man, but as a slight lad with a talent for unobtrusively performing his work. Bron immediately dislikes Ghost and sees him as a potential rival for Gabrielle’s affections.
Ghost shows the group a map he “acquired” downriver, and explains that it will assist him in finding treasure in the Eastern Frontier. Bron dismisses Ghost as a thief. Ghost soon bids Jory farewell and good luck.
The group meets Koran Thelig the next morning at the Jade Leaf keep. Koran has broken down a portable boat into various packs and prepared special cushioned clothing. Everyone piles into a large skiff and Koran leads them to a Teleportation Tower on a nearby island. This tower connects to another tower in Blood Scar Swamp Man territory. The latter tower is broken, and everyone must survive a fall upon arrival.
Bron transforms himself into a bird while the others don padded jackets and pants. Koran goes first, materializing in the air about thirty feet above the remnants of Tower 6. The group follows, and all survive the fall with only minor injuries. Koran explains that the tower sits in the middle of a burial ground. Indeed, the group sees many Swamp Man corpses atop scattered blocks that once comprised the upper level of the broken tower.
Koran and Jory descend sixty feet to the ground with the portable skiff. They run a half mile to the water’s edge, put together the skiff and stash it in heavy brush. After returning to the tower, Koran has Cheyl descend and hide in a nearby tree. Then Koran runs about the burial ground, drawing the attention of the Blood Scar dead. Many rise from their blocks and shamble after him. He returns to the tower and climbs up. The undead mill about the tower’s base.
Perhaps an hour passes before a large band of Blood Scar warriors approaches the tower, commanded by the shaman Eshosh. The shaman dismisses the undead and demands to know why the group has traveled so far to die. Gabrielle climbs down to parley, and her audacity amuses Eshosh. Soon everyone except Koran is on the ground to support Gabrielle.
Now Cheyl leaps from her tree onto Eshosh’s back. She holds her blades on the shaman’s neck, ready to kill. Gabrielle wants to know how the Blood Scar gained items belonging to the missing Luc, Sasha, and Whiskin. Eshosh admits that an elf girl traded the goods to his warriors in Bright Water tribe territory. In return for his life, Eshosh agrees that one of his warriors will take the group to the location of this exchange.
The warrior Hainish accompanies the group to the skiff and directs them north to the vicinity of another Teleportation Tower. They explore the tower while a storm rages outside. Hainish leaves and appropriates the skiff for his journey home. From a tower window, Gabrielle notices a girl in the nearby trees. Without notifying her companions, Gabrielle exits the tower and approaches the girl.
The elf girl taunts Gabrielle with words about her dead brother Luc. Gabrielle attacks, conjuring ogres to fight for her. The elf girl ignores the ogres and threatens Gabrielle with a two-handed sword. Gabrielle’s shouts attract Jory from the tower, and he arrives to find Gabrielle nearly dead and no enemy in sight.
Jory and Bron heal Gabrielle. Cheyl finds the girl’s trail and follows it to a large dead tree. The group soon learns how to open a door in the base of the tree, revealing a small room. They enter the room. The door closes and the room descends to an underground complex.
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