Session 28 – Phantom Hollow

The party (except for Eilenos) cleans themselves off, trying to get rid of the dragon’s slime that he had expelled onto them. They are feeling slighly sick. They take a look around and find more and more gold, but they can take no more.

We come out of the cavern and see below us, at the bottom of the cavern, is a huge pool of stagnant and fetid water. It smells horrible. We go back and ascend the tunnel, there is a platform there. We carefully walk out onto it and see that it is deserted. However there are weapons lying all around.

Eilenos discovers a magical hand-axe among the scattered weapons. It is very cold; Eilenos gives it to Krodmich. We continue climbing until we reach another platform. Some of us hear moaning coming from above. We take the path up and look around, but see nothing. Porodo dons his “cloak of eyes” and takes a look, but still sees nothing. Eilenos notices that when he puts it back on the second time, different eyes appear.

We come out and see we have ascended to ground level. It is eerily quiet, and almost night. We decide that we will camp here for the night using part of the tree’s trunk. Eilenos heals those who are wounded, but we still feel a bit sick.

We take watch and see nothing during the night. Sarthisis rests to regain his spell power. In the morning, Porodo looks around the area and up in the tree using his cloak. Krodmich fixes the lizard’s ring armor.

The party leaves and travels east and then south, along the border of the Five Kingdoms towards Hovelton. After we get a mile or so out of the Phantom Hollow, we notice that there is unnatural growth around. Vines protrude from the forest, however they look veiny and fleshy. Eilenos pokes it with his sword and a vile ooze trickles out. The party is distracted as a lumbering green mound, appearing like a moss-covered zombie, comes out of the forest near us.

Eilenos jumps from his horse and begins to charge the creature, however as he gets nearer to it he sees a large green cloud protrude from it. He holds his breath and charges through, slashing at it. He takes off an arm with his stroke. The others rush in and attack as well. Krodmich attacks with a torch, attempting to burn the creature. It catches aflame and falls to the ground, no longer moving.

There is moss on the ground near the creature, and we notice that it is quivering. Eilenos doesn’t seem to know what to do about it, but Nadia rushes forward and attacks it with her sword. Sarthisis douses it with oil and Krodmich throws a torch on, starting it on fire. We flee and see that the fire is extending into the forest as we go. The vines are also engulfed. The moss explodes in a huge cloud of spores. We take our cart and leave quickly. We can see the smoke in the distance.

As we travel further south over the next couple of days, we still see the vines everywhere. In several places there are carts by the side of the road that contain dead people and animals. They don’t necessarily look diseased, just as if they died quickly.

Two days later we reach Hovelton, a very small and poor-looking shanty town and farmlands. People and animals all around are dead, lying on the ground. As we come into the town we see someone standing at the center. He is wearing a tattered brown cloak with a hood drawn over his face. He is bent over a dead body, leaning on a gnarled staff. We come closer and Porodo jumps off of his horse to come up behind him. When Porodo is only a few feet away, Eilenos says “Ho there!” in a loud voice. The man turns around and we see that it is Josephus.

“I have much to explain, my friends,” he says. “But first let us give these people proper burials.” We all help him dig a large grave and we put the bodies into it. Josephus says a few words for them.

Afterwards he suggests that we rest in one of the nearby buildings and discuss the matters at hand. He comments about the plague and says that it is our fault. By visiting Phantom Hollow, we have unleashed this plague — apparently it is one of Galignan’s largest strongholds, and the slime dragon one of his pets. Josephus has been in Dakar since we returned from Mulkra. Galignan has assumed mortal form as King Randar of Salgrin, training and strengthening his forces in Dakar. The disease he created is transferred by spores, and is meant to infect men’s minds. This is how he has gained control over Salgran. We tipped him off to our presence by entering Phantom Hollow, and he has infected everything east of the Tarkin River with the plague, causing most everything to perish.

Josephus feels that we must go to Dakar and finish Galignan, which should be possible because he now resides in mortal form. However before that he will need us to follow instructions. He says as an aside, “Why did you travel there?” Eilenos says that it was the easiest way to get to Hovelton while avoiding the forest and Dakar, and he thought that by clearing that area of evil they would be striking a blow against Grom.

Josephus continues, and says that we must travel into Dakar and avoid his army, even before we adventure for Grom’s Bane. As it is, Galignan is only going to get stronger so we must strike now. Reinforcements are on their way and will be here within a few days and our purpose here will be clear. If we do not succeed, Kith-Katal (the lizard kingtom) will likely be his next target.

Session 27 – Phantom Hollow

We leave Old Durnick and travel towards Phantom Hollow, despite Josephus’ warnings. It takes us a few hours to get there. We see in the distance a huge tree as we approach the town. We estimate that it is between 200 and 250 feet just to the bottom branches. The roots are spread out all around and there is quite a lot of slashes and sap covering the trunk of the tree.

We get off the cart to explore; Sarthisis tastes the sap of the tree and it tastes very bitter. Eilenos and Sathisis see that there are small burrows underneath some of the exposed roots. We also see a skeleton laying on the ground nearby. It is clothed in leather armor which is in perfect shape, and he also has a backpack on his back. In the backpack we find 3 torches, 50 feet of rope, a waterskin and a pouch with 17 gold at his belt. He has a longsword, a dagger and an undamaged wooden shield next to him. Also in his belt he has a pouch with 3 leaves and 2 healing roots in it. Porodo identifies the leaves as Brye leaves, which counteract poison from a creature called a Mevoshk (a 12 foot long snake with black and yellowish coloration and a cobra-like hood).

Sarthisis smells the water in the waterskin and it seems to have a film on it. He decides to dump it out in one of the burrows nearby. As he does this he sees something slithering down the side of the tree — it appears to be one of the Mevoshk snakes! Sarthisis fires a magical icebolt at him and scores a hit. Krodmich also scores a hit and the mevoshk strikes back, biting him in the arm. The dwarf goes immediatly rigid and falls to the ground. Sarthisis kills the snake and Eilenos rushes to Krodmich to administer the cure. The first leaf doesn’t work so he uses the one the Dwarf had, and he is no longer paralyzed.

We notice a large one of the burrows in the ground and go to explore. We sense the stench of death emanating from it. We decide to descend and see what is down there. The ground is slimy and muddy, there are various insects here. Eilenos lights his lantern and Porodo pulls out his peysha mold to help light their way. Looking around, Krodmich sees small heat signatures above us. In front of and below us there is a huge opening where there is only darkness, except for torch lights that we can see. The area expands to a huge area. We see also hordes of bird-like creatures with huge spanning wings and large stingers protruding from their beaks.

Our torchlight seems to have attracted them, and they fly towards us to attack. They hit Eilenos, Sarthisis and the lizard with their beaks and they begin bleeding out. During the fighting, Eilenos loses grip on his sword and it falls into the darkness. There is no sound of it hitting the ground. Soon afterward Krodmich loses the grip on his axe and it also falls into the void. The creatures are defeated and we bind our wounds so we do not continue bleeding.

As we look below we see a small sliver of white light among the torches. It looks to be the same white light that Eilenos’ sword gives off when it detects those loyal to Grom. Porodo confirms that it is the sword with his excellent vision, and also sees a wooden platform down below with several goblins on it. They are looking curiously at the sword and have picked up Krodmich’s axe to look at it. Porodo fires an arrow at the one holding the axe and it goes through the top of its head, killing it instantly.

Sarthisis has an idea — he will tie all of us to him and cast his levitation spell so we can all be carried over to the platform. We do so and jump off of the platform, even though Eilenos is wearing plate mail. We freefall for several seconds and then Sarthisis casts his levitation spell so we float to the ground. As we are falling, Porodo catches a glimpse of niches in the wall behind us, and there seem to be zombies in them. We float in and begin attacking the goblins with missile weapons. We land at the center of the platform and continue attacking them. They are all killed except for one inside a small structure on the platform. It does not attack; it is cowering behind a box in the corner. Sarthisis decides to try and communicate with it but cannot. He puts it on a leash. Eilenos sees that his sword does not glow white around the creature so he may not be loyal to Grom.

Eilenos checks the items around that the goblins dropped, and the short sword that Eilenos was stabbed with appears to be magical. The blade is very cold. (The sword does standard short sword damage but when it hits it will do an extra D6 of cold damage. There are no bonuses to hit or to damage, etc.)

In the wall adjacent to the platform is a cave that lies in the cavern wall. We explore this area and see that it also smells rather rank. There are five large rats, one of them an extremely large “stink rat.” We run towards and attack, however Krodmich cannot because he is overcome by the stench. Eilenos, in the heat of the moment, loses his composure and pulls out his evil sword to attack. As he does, he thinks to himself “I could easily kill all of these rats in this room by myself. Hmm.” We quickly dispatch of them and Krodmich kills the stink rat after several more tries.

We check a dead adventurer that is nearby. He has a short sword, a light crossbow with 6 bolts and 9 gold. None of his items are magical. We see that there is a cavern that goes down further, and outcroppings to help climb upward to the next level. We decide to descend and see what lies below. There is about 50 feet of tracking back and forth and we see a fork where we can either go out the side of the cave or continue down. We come out the side and see torches and another building. There are two goblins guarding the area and we take them by surprise. There are more goblins on the platform, and one of them has a staff and robe like a magician. He leers at us and begins attacking with magical power from his staff. We manage to kill him and we search the area. His staff is certainly magical, Eilenos gives it to Sarthisis. (The staff has 26 charges of Ice Burst, with a range of 70 feet).

We return into the tunnel in the side of the cavern and go down another level. It is about 150 feet down. This area is completely empty. The next one down goes across the entire width of the cavern — we crawl across to the other side into another cavern the size of a small room. There is here, piled to the ceiling, an enormous amount of gold coins from all over Juravia. Sarthisis searches through it and finds a burgundy colored robe inside it. Eilenos ascertains that it is indeed magical. Krodmich finds buried on the opposite side a Dwarven axe — it is also magical. Sarthisis puts on the cloak and can suddenly see in all directions and heat signatures as well. The rest of us see two gold clasps appear that are eyeball-shaped. Soon eyeballs of different shapes, sizes, colors and races appear all over it. The party members are repulsed; Eilenos pokes his sword at one of the eyes and it blinks in pain, he recoils, disgusted. Sarthisis decides that he cannot wear it and gives it to Porodo.

The axe that Krodmich found seems to want to leap out of his hands. He tosses it and it returns to his hand after sweeping a wide arc.

Porodo, with his newfound powers of sight, sees a large dragon crawling through the hole. His scales are black and slimy. He says “Find anything interesting?” Eilenos says “Away, creature. We are protected by my lord Berethenu!” The dragon laughs and says “You live and die by my leave while you are here. Why are you here?” Eilenos says “We came to investigate the evil that is said to be in these caverns.”

Sarthisis begins casting a magic spell, and the dragon, seeing this, says “How quaint. I’m not an unreasonable dragon. Just leave all of your things in the pile and I will let you leave.” Eilenos says “I took nothing from your stash and I don’t mean to take anything, I just came here to kill you!” With that both sides attack.

Eilenos rushes forward and the dragon spits out a disgusting slime attack onto him. The initial impact causes damage, but the slime immediately sloughs off of his armor. The rest of the party moves to attack. After several moments of heated combat he falls down, dead.

Session 26 – Old Durnick

We rest for an entire day while party members regain their spell power. We then say our goodbyes to the refugees in the cave, leaving the horses in their care temporarily.

We return to the graveyard and into the crypt underneath. There are destroyed zombie bodies and bones here from our previous visit. There is a double door at the back of the room. This leads to a small rectangular room with descending stairs. Sarthisis hears noise from below.

We go in to investigate and there are three skeletons with swords and one is wearing plate mail. We defeat them and Eilenos takes the plate mail though it is certainly foul with the stench of the undead. He also takes a shield since his own was recently destroyed. Presently we get to a large door with Berethenu’s symbol on it. Above it says “Just Enter.” No amount of trying will allow Eilenos to enter, even as he presses the items of Antinius against the door. He removes his “evil” items and still cannot get through.

The party tries at the other doors in the dungeon but they are similarly blocked off. In the last room we find two necromancers, a male and a female. This must be the dark magic that Eilenos previously sensed. They cackle as the party enters, and the male says “I knew he would come back, they always do. Eilenos, join us in your rightful place by our side!”

Eilenos struggles with their words and looks angry. He hears in his head “Join me, Eilenos!” It is Necros’ voice. “Never!” Eilenos says. “I will destroy your minions and you as well!”

“Very well, kill them!” Necros says, now in a voice that everyone can hear. The necromancers attack. Sarthisis uses fire spells to attack them and defends himself with fiery armor.

Eilenos approaches the woman to attack — she points towards him and he falls to the ground unconscious, victim of whatever spell she put on him. Sarthisis runs towards the male and burns him severely. He throws a flask of oil on him as well, causing more damage. The necromancers are defeated and Eilenos is revived, though he nearly was killed by the woman’s spell.

Eilenos now tries the door to Berethenu’s chamber and it lets him through now that the necromancers are dead. There are two braziers in this room burning, though it has remained sealed for many years. In the center is a statue of a man with armor on made of shiny plate and chain and Berethenu’s symbol emblazened on the chest. His arms are outstretched and he carries a scabbard at his waist. Around him are stuck vertically into the stone several weapons and a parchment behind a pane of glass in the center. It is discovered that only Eilenos can read it. It says:

Twin Allies of Justice, Regal and Stout
Their Past, Present and Future Tragic
Steel and Stone
Wood and Magic
Their Crafts Joined Together to Shield and Protect
Berethenu’s Champion Against Darkness, Chaos and Neglect
Instrument of Evil’s Demise
Return to the Just
Claim Berethenu’s Prize

The party studies the riddle and after a few moments think that they have figured it out. Eilenos’ sword, Berethenu’s Will, is placed in the scabbard. The “wood and magic,” the arrows (which Eilenos ascertains are indeed magic) are placed in one hand and the warhammer of “steel and stone” are placed in the other. The riddle represents the cultures of Elves and Dwarves coming together to forge this armor for Berethenu’s Champion so they may all be protected from darkness.

As the items are placed the statue crumbles and only the armor remains. This is truly the Justice Guard, the armor of Antinius the Lightheart! Eilenos removes the skeleton armor and puts this on. He feels stronger as he does this, and he notices that dirt simply sloughs off instead of accumulating. He takes the warhammer as well since he knows in the future he will be wielding Grom’s Bane, Antinius’ own warhammer. Eilenos gives Porodo the magical arrows found at the site since he would be able to best use them, and also his (extra) magical longsword which he no longer needs.

The group searches further in the room and finds several more magical items possessed by the deceased necromancers. Eilenos finds one of their spell books and leafs through it — he thinks it is fascinating, but he suddenly notices that his paladin powers have disappeared temporarily (for an entire day, in actuality). Krodmich wrestles is away from him and throws it in the fire; he says that Eilenos will thank him later. Eilenos sulks but does not say anything.

The party opens the two sarcophogi in the room and there is much gold and jewels contained within. There is far too much to take so we simply grab as much as we can, load it into the bags we have and leave the crypt. We return to the caves and inform the refugees there of the remaining gold and that the necromancers were destroyed. They thank us, and several of them marvel at Eilenos’ armor.

We rest in the caves for two full days to regain our strength and then prepare to leave Old Durnick.

Session 25 – Old Durnick

Opting not to take the quiet approach, we charge into the lutemaker’s shop. There is nothing here except for broken instrumetns. We decide to hole up here for a while and Krodmich fixes some party members’ armor.

Sarthisis checks out the window periodically and sees orcs tending to the bonfires in the center of town. We are not sure why they are doing this.

We decide to make our way across town to an abandoned cave for a more defensive position. We search the entire area and find nothing. Eilenos checks the walls at the back and senses something magical, perhaps a doorway. However the group cannot figure out how to activate or open it. We decide to stay for 10 hours and watch both the front entrance and the “magic door.”

Aliga watches the front entrance and sees three skeletons in the graveyard — there are certainly undead active here. They never go out of the gate and seem to be congregating in the southwest corner.

At morning we decide to take care of the giant. We sneak around the town and approach the silos, near a large farm. The giant’s tarp is hung over two silos and we hear snoring from within. Sarthisis tosses his lit torch towards the tarp. As he does this he casts a spell on the torch and a 4-foot being made entirely of flame emerges and walks towards the tent. It scales the tent and the entire lean-to collapses on the giant as it lights on fire. The giant awakens. The flame being, at Sarthisis’ direction, goes around the perimiter and continues to burn the canvas.

The giant emerges, roaring and rushing angrily towards us. Aliga strikes with a wind attack from Kili’s Storm. The elemental also moves to attack the giant. Other party members do ranged attacks at the giant and then surround for close combat. We kill him and grag the tarp off of the silos to see his home underneath.

Sarthisis finds a locked banded chest in the hay and realizes that the giant is wearing the key to this around his neck. After prying it off of the giant he opens the chest and finds many riches inside. Piles and piles of gold and jewels — much more than we could ever carry.

Sarhtisis takes nine diamonds as “magic components.” Aliga finds a suit of dull silver Elven chain mail that bequeaths major protection from harm, dexterity and little noise as it moves. As we are fawning over the armor, Sarthisis is pocketing over 800 coins and all the gems and jewelry he can find. Even though this must be incredibly heavy inside his robes, he seems to be able to move normally and it sounds as if he only has a few coins in his pockets.

Sarthisis takes the key from the ring and we see that Nadia is moving towards the house. We remember that she said this is her house. The place is completely trashed. She goes upstairs to investigate and finds four orcs in the bedroom. We kill them, and Nadia breaks down in tears. She regains her composure after a few minutes and searches through the rubble. Under a floorboard she finds a master-crafted longsword which she says belonged to her father. She leads us out of the house.

We get the cart and load up the loot from the Giant’s dwelling. We find that there were 8,000 gold coins and 3,000 gold worth of jewelry and gems. We drag the giant into the barn and burn it. We work our way through the town and burn the rest to make sure that nothing survives. At the smithy’s we find some armor repair kits for Aliga’s armor and some other random items. The rest of the town besides the mausoleum is burned.

The party finally ventures into the graveyard. Eilenos senses great evil here and is uncomfortable. We go in slowly with torches lit. It is about 8am. A large chimney comes out of the main room and light streams through from above. There are two zombies and six skeletons in here. We briefly have the idea of burning the place down and them with it, but then just decide to attack. Eilenos uses the bludgeon spell on his sword to destroy the skeletons.

After the skeletons are destroyed, Eilenos checks one of the sarcophagi. Nadia scolds him, saying that these are people she knows buried here and she will not have him defiling their graves. Eilenos apologizes and says that he was merely trying to ascertain that they had not been previously defiled. Sarthisis checks and sees that none of them have been disturbed. We re-light the brazier at the center of the room and depart from the crypt.

The party returns to the cave at the northwest end of town for an entire day to rest. We play dice games together and Krodmich regales the group with stories from Ironhallow Hall. Sarthisis inspects the back wall further with a spell from his reportoire. He sees that there is certainly a secret door here, and that a group of Elves passed through here five days ago.

Sarthisis speaks Elven to try and pass through, but nothing works. Nadia presses her Elven sword against it, and again nothing. Krodmich closes his eyes and charges at the wall, and he passes through! He sees a corridor with torches along the walls ahead. Sarthisis brings the horses into the cave and we all go through the tunnel. The tunnel appears to have been built by Dwarves. We come out into a large hall with thirty foot ceilings and huge stone columns. Nadia is amazed that this is here — she has never heard anyone speak of it.

In here we see several small “buildings” carved in stone, and lights emanating from them. We call out towards the buildings and say that we have come with Nadia and have purged the town of evil. They come out and greet us; there are fifteen in all.

Nadia rushes to embrace one of the Elves. The rest come out and begin to ask us questions. An elf named Talamir explains that a week ago they heard the mausoleum gates thrown open and they went to investigate. In the catacombs they saw two robed figures and then were attacked by zombies. A horde of orcs and the giant came later while they were preoccupied and took over the town. The survivors hid here in the secret area of the cave.

The party says that they will leave soon to purge the crypt of the undead. The people here say that they will care for our horses in the meantime. We give them the chest of gold and the jewels that the giant stole. Talamir and a Dwarf, Ulfgar, take us to a nearby building and explain that the crypt was built not only to hold the dead, but to protect a very powerful item, one of Antinius’ trappings. He draws a crude map of the area where the item lies in the crypt. There are three doors at the center with Berethenu’s symbol on them and no key. They do not know how to open the doors. Perhaps agents of Necros have been raising the dead in the area to ask them questions about how to enter the crypt and steal the magical item. Talamir apologizes but he says that he knows no more about the tomb. We say that we will waste no more time and leave immediately to purge the crypt.

Session 24 – Old Durnick

The party has soundly defeated the pack of bandits and mounted their heads on sticks. They continue along the plains towards Old Durnick.

At midday they come upon a large stand of trees and see smoke on the horizon. They continue around the woods. They come to a clearing to see the town completely destroyed. Two bonfires burn at the center and the town’s silo is disused and covered with a tarp.

Nadia immediately breaks down in tears. The party sees a greenskin coming out of a building nearby. Sarthisis pelts him with an ice bolt and Nadia slashes him with her sword. She continues to smash his inert body even though he is most certainly dead. Eilenos calls “Hey, we were going to question him!” She gives him the evil eye and continues smashing the orc’s corpse.

Sarthisis rushes into a nearby building and finds nothing except a pair of fine boots. Eilenos goes to comfort Nadia ans she breaks down in tears.

The group ties off the cart in a clearing nearby and continues towards the town clandestinely. Sarthisis and Aliga (the bird) sneak into the town quickly. Sarthisis uses a healing spell to tell how many orcs are in each building. He signals the numbers to Eilenos.

Sarthisis, Aliga and Krodmich sneak into one of the buildings and slash the sleeping orcs’ throats. They move to another building across the street and hear fighting inside. They burst in and dispatch them handily.

The party reconvenes and Nadia informs them of the specifics of the town. She assists in going into another building to kill more of the orcs. The party moves to the temple and it smells horrible. Eilenos peers through a window and sees three orcs inside praying. The party tosses two flasks of oil inside and the orcs start on fire. Eilenos runs to the front and blocks the doorway with his shield and prevents them from escaping. They are killed and their shrine to Grom (covered in feces) is destroyed. Eilenos hacks the head off of the statue with his sword.

The party moves towards the farm in the northeast corner of the town, and as they do so they go past the graveyard and see that it is mostly unmolested. Eilenos senses evil here, and it appears that some graves have been dug up. We wait to investigate and go to the farmhouse. From there we see orcs patrolling the area. We also see a Giant’s head protruding from a silo tent.

The group continues to the tailor’s building and rush in. There is nothing in the main room but an ogre is in the back room, who is attacked and killed. Krodmich takes the ogre’s giant mattock even though it is four times his size.

The party moves on to the Town Hall. They peek into the window and it appears to be a dining room. There are six orcs feasting on what appears to be human body parts. The party rushes in to attack, and Nadia calls out that one of them has a horn at his belt. Before the party can get to him he reaches for the horn and blows it to call in reinforcements. The party kills him and his five friends.

Porodo rushes outside to take on any reinforcements. Six orcs, two with bows are approaching. He uses the “roar” spell on them and they all flee except for two. Another ogre crushes one of those fleeing as he approaches and runs into the battle. Porodo dips an arrow in poison and fires it into his chest. The others join Porodo and the enemies are killed. The party loots their bodies, Sarthisis takes the leader’s horn.

Eilenos finds a mgic belt with Grom’s image, it is magical and helps to increase his strength. He decides to take it despite the fact that it is an item of Grom, or perhaps because it is so it can be used against the agents of Grom.

Session 23 – Old Durnick

The party, consisting of Krodmich the Dwarf, Porodo the Ranger and Eilenos the Half-Dunnar are traveling through the Midlands from the Spine Mountains. Upon reaching the south area along the river they come to the River Rat.

In a booth toward the rear they see a Meriiki and a Kithsara. Porodo sees that they carry Kili’s Storm and robes similar to Thatsaru’s. They approach the party.

The bartender motions for Krodmich to come forward. He gives Krodmich a letter from Josephus. There is a map and the letter tells us to go to Old Durnick (for Nadia) on our way to the Port of Gredaine and then the Island of Nyambe-Tanda. He says that Grom’s Bane, the enchanted warhammer of Antinius the Lightheart, resides here in the possession of the “Jungle Protector.”

The lizard introduces himself as Sarthisis and says that he also got a letter from Josephus. The others ask if he will be accompanying them on their mission. He says that he is not sure; the person who delivered the message saved his life and he felt bound to respond to it. Eilenos says that they do not have to answer now as the party means not to leave until morning.

The party speaks with Brom Amerton, a riverboat captain, to book passage to Salgran. The man says that the trip takes about 4 days. Sarthisis listens around and hears that one of the barges were attacked by thieves recently.

The group is able to procure two free merchant suites at the River Rat. Before they retire, Eilenos plays dice and wins a whole 2 silver after several rounds. Krodmich arm wrestles and wins twice against patrons from the bar.

The next morning the party comes to breakfast and asks the two newcomers if they will be coming along on the journey. They agree and all leave presently on the barge. The trip is very boring. Porodo asks the lizard and the bird how they came to be here. Sarthisis (the lizard) says that they were kidnapped.

The bird says that he was jumped by Necros’ assassins and he awoke in a dungeon. A week later there was a battle and another Meriiki appeared and saved him. He was given the swords and the other Meriiki died. The rest of the group realizes that it was Dan’Tok. We explain that he was our friend.

We continue, on the second day we encounter a tradesman on a raft. He is selling pelts and we buy none. We move into the area of the Blood Marshes. The next day another barge passes with 15 soldiers, the River Patrol. They stop us and demand to know why we are traveling in this area. Eilenos says that the party is making a delivery to the River Patrol in the amount of 50 silver. They accept the bribe and continue on.

The next days we come across another ship with many people on it. They are drowning someone and we ready to attack them, but realize it is just “pirate justice” and move on.

On the fourth day we come to the Trader’s Post. There is a stable, a smoke house and some other building. We stop and purchase repair pieces for our armor and some other supplies. We buy two horses and a modest cart. Krodmich purchases a keg of ale.

We leave and Nadia leads us around the forst to Old Durnick. It takes us three days to get to the town. On the second day we are attacked by brigands, but they are greatly outmatched and we kill all of them. The lizard mounts their heads on pikes as a warning for other brigands.

Session 4 – History Lesson

The party decides to infiltrate Readi-Med’s warehouse to find evidence before we make our demands to the president of the company. Reg tries to hack into their servers for several hours, but is caught in the act by security. He jacks out before they can identify him, but takes massive strain by doing so. Skaale is able to ease some of his pain with healing spells.

The party is unsure of the correct approach at this point, so they go to consult with Smoke Jaguar. Smoke tells the group that he can hook them up with some stealth suits to assist them in getting into Readi-Med’s facility. However he cannot get silencers, the party would need to do that themselves.

After retrieving the equipment, the group sneaks their way into the complex by snipping through the barb wire fence. Though they are not extremely stealthy, they manage to get to the building undetected.

The building is broken into, and the group finds a cold storage area. Reg hacks the inventory records of a nearby computer and looks for items listed as “body parts.” He finds a room that is designated for organs, and the party stealths its way towards the location. Guards are detected nearby and they are passed without raising the alarm. The party goes into the organs room and sees various frozen bits in containers.

Skaale and Jack fill a cooler with random organs and the party sneaks out of the room. Several dwarf guards are seen at the exit of the building, blocking their way. Reg hacks one of the guards’ cybereyes to make him see the illusion of someone running down the corridor. The guard does not move and Reg gets kicked out of his system. The building’s doors suddenly locks; it appears that security has been alerted.

Jack ducks his head out into the hallway and sees a very strange sight — monkeys on roller skates, with Uzi’s?! The monkeys begin firing on our position and whizzing past. Jack takes a couple of slugs and falls back; Skaale heals him. Nacre jumps out of the door and fires a grenade arrow towards the monkeys. The others follow him, firing their weapons. The monkeys shoot back and a they suddenly explode from detonated cranial bombs. The party is wounded badly; Nacre is unconsious and possibly dead.

The group makes their way out of the building and ahead of them they see what appear to be a pack of hellhounds. The party is confused and thinks that they have possibly died and gone to Hell. Suddenly from the top of the hill, massive gunfire erupts. It kills the hellhounds and covers the group’s escape from the building, but as they reach the summit of the hill, no one is there. A wall of fire comes up behind them to cover their escape. They don’t ask questions, but leavel quickly in the van.

The party returns to home base and Smoke Jaguar meets them there. He says that the group’s plan of threatening Readi-Med will not work; using their connection with DocWagon would be a much more effective method. Most likely they would wish to avoid a PR scandal and would bring Readi-Med in line.

A professional-sounding letter is prepared and sent to a corporate member of DocWagon. He responds to the party within a day and a meeting is arranged at a high-end restaurant. The group members dress nicely for the meeting.

The party shows him photo evidence of the crime and an agreement is reached. In exchange for the group’s silence, the man will give 250,000 nuyen to the boy’s family as well as lifetime DocWagon contracts. The party is offered 1 million nuyen and lifetime super-platinum DocWagon contracts, as long as they agree never to do a run against DocWagon. The party accepts the offer.

Session 3 – History Lesson

The group surveils the building for three days and do not see the van again. Apparently the lead has gone cold.

The group decides to find out some more info on Harris Corp to see if there is any evidence of the crime. Reg hacks in and finds that there are 3 warehouses on the site. The firewall is very tough but he sees a flaw in it — several hours later he is able to get in. He finds records on their vans and some of them seem suspicious. He looks into the buildings futher and finds a very secured area in one of the buildings. He tries to gain entry to the secured area and succeeds. He finds the name “Kelemen Torcidek” encrypted in the file, and a similar file to the one found before with strange symbols on it.

Reg comes out and tells the rest of the group what he found out. Kelemen is apparently a regional director of DocWagon. The group begins thinking of ways to get into the building…for a very long time.

The party devises a plan to get into the Readi-Med building; Skaale and Eclipse go in first and Skaale tells the receptionist that he has a headache. He goes into the lobby and pretends to fill out a form. One of the guards comes over and recognizes the runners — he introduces himself as the son of one of the men we got out of Chicago 15 years ago. His name is Bertoldt Freiherz. Skaale thinks that he can be trusted and tells him the whole story. He says that he can get the runners into the secured area but we must avoid the cameras. Reg is able to log in and loops the cameras for one hour so we can move about undetected.

Bertoldt lets us in and the Skaale and Eclipse look around. They see bodies but not the body of the Ork kid, unfortunately. There are boxes in each body drawer with random body parts and organs. They have symbols on them that correspond to the fields in the database. They have an idea and put RFID tags on all of the organs, and then quickly get out of the room when they are finished. Jack pretends that he was getting sick and comes out of the clinic as well. They thank Bertoldt for his help and tell him to call if he ever needs anything, and also tell him to say “hi” to his dad.

A week later, the party is alerted that the organs have moved and they have gone to Harris Corp. A day later most of the RFID chips are deactivated, save one. That one goes to St. Luke’s Hospital downtown.

It is decided that Mark, the Ork boy, is surely long gone by now and the party probably won’t find any trace of him or his organs. There is discussion of what to do, since those responsible must be caught in the act. A camera is left on the building. After two weeks, there are six people captured by the camera who are matched up as being missing.

The information is packaged up nicely by Reg and a video is made showing the missing person’s report along with the video evidence collected. The words “WE KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING” are placed in block letters at the bottom of the video. Before sending this out, the apartment is cleaned out entirely and the party abandons the area. Also, Bertoldt the security guard is notified that he should terminate his position with the company so he could not become liable.

The party prepares to send an email to the president of the company of Readi-Med, but they are as of yet unsure how to word it.

Session 2 – History Lesson

We decide to case the West Allis clinic to see if Reg can hack in and get some information, security tapes, etc. from their network. He fails in his attempt to get in and gets out of the network by the skin of his teeth, with no info.

We park the car a few blocks away and prepare to do some physical investigation. Skaale goes astral and studies the building, seeing that there is a strong astral barrier surrounding it. He recognizes the signature as being of corporate origin. He returns to his body and reports what he saw. The others except for Skaale and Reg leave the car and do a walk-by.

Reg continues trying to hack into the network for several hours. Jack, Nacre and Eclipse go around the building and then go to George Webb’s for some food. Reg is eventually able to gain access but is caught again by security. This time he manages to talk his way out of the situation by telling the security program that he is an operator doing routine maintenance. He digs through some security recordings but does not find anything of value. He tries for info on which doctors were working that night and finds the names of three along with their addresses. They all live up on the prestigious north side, however, which we cannot go visit or risk being caught by the authorities.

As Reg is continuing to sift through the data to find anything else of value, Skaale notices a suspicious black van pull into the ambulance entrance of the clinic. He backs up the car a few feet so he can see what is going on. The men are bringing several large cooler-type containers into the van. Skaale and coms the rest of the group to tell them what has happened. The group exits the George Webb’s and comes back towards the car. Skaale pulls around the south side of the clinic and the other members of the group meet him there. He jumps in the back seat and Jack takes the driver’s position. Reg is still deep in the Matrix.

The van pulls out of the clinic driveway and we follow. Jack tries to stay a fair distance away but it seems that they have caught on to us. They swerve wildly and turn right down another street, and then left at the next one. Skaale says not to follow them, but Jack ignores him and squeals the tires as we make the turns to pursue. The van turns into an alleyway and we follow once again. They slam on the brakes and the van doors open. Two men with submachine guns begin to open fire on Jack’s car. He rams them and one of the men falls off onto the hood of the car, but he is still firing his weapon.

One of the other men tosses a grenade underneath the car as they continue to fire on us. The windshield is busted and Jack’s car is now immobile, so the three group members bail and run away from the car. When they are not twenty feet away the car explodes in a huge ball of fire, lifting up some ten feet off of the ground. Reg gets a piece of shrapnel in his neck from the explosion, and Skaale rushes to heal him. As we are recovering we see the van hurriedly pull away and disappear.

Skaale, Jack and Reg walk the mile or so back to the other party members. Jack is cursing the whole way about his car and vows revenge on the guys that did it. Skaale and Reg take their motorcycles back to the warehouse, and the others take the bus. Even the weirdos on the bus won’t sit next to Jack because he is scorched and covered in blood.

Back at the warehouse everyone recuperates for a day or two. Reg is healing from the damage he took and Skaale is attempting to bond his sustaining foci with various spells. Reg plays a joke on Jack by anonymously purchasing a month pass to the bus for him. Jack guesses that it is Reg who did it and is none too happy. Jack later enlists Wiz Kid’s help to salvage what is left of his car, but there isn’t much left except the frame.

Reg, remembering the license plate of the van, searches out the owner and finds it registered to Harris Corp at 1310 E. Grange. Jack searches online for information related to Harris Corp. He finds that it is a subsidiary of Abbott’s Labs, which is owned by DocWagon. We surmise that either someone on the inside of ReadyMed is working with DocWagon to do the organ harvesting or DocWagon is trying to frame ReadyMed for the crimes.

Since the group no longer has a vehicle they decide to go car shopping. Jack buys a Bulldog Stepvan that will ostensibly hold everyone and all of their gear. Eclipse and Skaale pitch in 12,000 nuyen each.

Reg sets up Jack with a new fake SIN and the group leases out a space in the building across the street from the clinic in his name in order to surveil the building. It is on the first floor just west of the ambulance entrance. The party watches the goings-on at the clinic for a few days before making their next move.

Session 1 – History Lesson

We are introduced to Register Zero, or “Reg” who is a 19 year old Technomancer. He carries around a small musical keyboard and will sometimes zone out and play. His companion is a Dwarf shaman. We learn that Nutz was not put in cryo-freeze with us and escaped away somewhere instead.

Wiz Kid says that they overlooked the abilities we gained from the staff, otherwise they might really have dissected us. Even so it took months for his staff to detox us before they brought us out of freeze. Hopefully they didn’t miss anything.

Wiz Kid takes us to the old warehouse, which he has kept everything preserved the way we had it when we left. The sub, Jack’s car and Skaale’s motorcycle are in storage here. We start getting comfortable with the warehouse again, and Jack goes next door to his old office. He finds a 15 year old whiskey in the drawer.

Moments later an elderly couple comes into Jack’s office and ask for his help. Their son Mark worked at a bar somewhere in Milwaukee and after work a few nights ago he disappeared and no one has seen him since. They offer to pay 9000 nuyen for us to find him. He says he will do it for 7000, but asks how they found out about his services. They say that they found him listed in the book.

Jack coms the rest of the group and they agree to take the job. Skaale mentions that he wouldn’t mind doing an easy job since they all have to get their bearings. Reg hacks into the others’ conversation and offers to help. Jack tells him the name of the bar and Reg starts to look into their records. He finds some security videos that were supposedly deleted from the previous night. There is also one from the night of the incident but he isn’t able to recreate that one.

Mark’s parents return with a pair of his pants. Jack gets the scent and tells the rest of us that we should visit the bar to see if we can find anything there. Jack meets us all at the warehouse and helps Reg disguise himself so he looks older, with a ridiculous moustache. We leave for the bar and purposefully arrive separately a few minutes apart so we don’t gain attention.

Reg goes to the bar and drinks 2 beers, and watches the trid. The others filter in. Jack asks the head bouncer if he saw anything happen to Mark. The bouncer is surly at first but once he hears that Jack was hired by Mark’s parents he is more helpful. He says that there was a Ready-Med van in the alley behind the building 30 minutes after Mark left. He noticed that it was van #269. He never saw Mark after that.

Jack asks around to the other patrons, but no one is particularly helpful. He goes outside to the alleyway an dpicks up Mark’s scent. There are also tire tracks here, ostensibly from the Ready-Med van. He calls the rest of the group out to help look for other clues, but we find nothing further. Jack hypothesizes that the Ready-Med van kidnapped him.

Reg hacks into the Ready-Med servers and finds a record showing that a van was sent to the bar, but there is no record of who the technicians were or why they came. Reg makes a user account for himself so he can log in easily at a later date. There is also a strange file in this directory. He downloads the file and sees that it contains the names and addresses of two Ready-Med employees. Afraid that someone might catch him, he quickly jacks out with the pilfered info.

Reg examines the file and it is very strange. It has columns of data with dates, icon symbols, and seemingly random numbers. We figure that these cannot be records of stops, because the dates go several days into the future. Perhaps they are schedules of some sort or a list of people to be kidnapped.

Reg checks the papers looking for reports of missing people and finds nothing. He then checks the public message boards and sees mentions of people who went missing the same night as Mark. Five of these people had accounts with Ready-Med. He finds their personal information and downloads it all.

Using the name and address info we found, we go to the house of the driver, a man named Fred Savage. We interrogate him and he is very scared and cooperative. He says that they picked up Mark because he had a heart attack. They were able to revive him in the van and he was taken to one of their clinics — he knows nothing more. Skaale manifests in the room, scaring he and his wife half to death, and they ascertain that Savage is telling the truth. The party departs, and on the way out Reg blocks all of Savage’s calls so he cannot phone the police. We question the other driver, a female, and she corroborates the info that Savage gave us.

After more study we realize that the “12” column may correspond to organs they need, since there are 12 general areas of the body. We decide to go to the clinic Mark was taken to and look around.