Session 6: AP Part 1

We played again tonight and I wanted to get the details down while they were still fresh in my mind.

The session opened with the group returning to the Clan Sietch with the body of Agamon, the former chief. His funeral will take a week to complete and they don’t have that long to wait. A new Chief will be chosen after a period of mourning and the group don't consider interfering in the process, a decision which may come back to bite them later.

Before heading South they discuss whether to try and invoke the spirits of the desert to slow the Dragonborn army. If they want to do it then Artemis will need to invoke their aid with the blessing of the witch Sybelle. This will cost him as his family is tainted by its association with the Tieflings. They decide not to and leave things be for now.

They head into the southernmost desert with a Clan Antarion escort. At the very edge of the Pashtun lands they are told of an old hermit, Udun, who lives on the edge of the Badlands who might be able to help them. Many people mutter about how they are mad and their bones will end up bleached by the sun.

Ignoring this sage advice they head out anyways. They find Udun living in a small hut on stilts surrounded by the bones of ancient creatures. He is a stunted and suspicious old shaman but quickly swayed by offers of food and wine. He tells the group of a way through the Badlands to the Forbidden City, a ruined Giant Hold now controlled by the Wizard Paldemar. The name is familiar to some. Paldemar is a former rival of Darius, leader of the Cabal, who was thought to have died in a power play 30 years ago. He warns the group that the City has become a hive of scum and villainy, populated by thieves, murderers, exiles and tomb robbers. He also gives them the name of a man he has heard of there, one Rothaar. He also warns the group of the People of the Rock, twisted bestial humans, one time slaves in the Giant Hold who now infest the Badlands.

As night falls Assamber and Udun talk shop, discussing magic item creation. The group have the hide of the dragon and Assamber is keen to create something from it. He leaves with the very strong impression that Udun is not quite just the mad old hermit that he appears to be.

Azhanti spends the evening meditating in the rocks. His presence attracts many spirits of the area, once desert powers who have been pushed to the very edge of extinction in this blasted wasteland. He opens himself to them and offers them power in return for their aid (Azhanti multiclasses into Feypact Warlock)

Setting off the next day the group head into the Badlands Their directions are generally spot on but some of their exploration isn’t. They disturb a grave ghost of the Beastmen and only just escape their ambush by the skin of their teeth. Fleeing into the mountain pass the pursuing creatures refuse to follow them. As night falls they enter the valley and see the ruined city built into the side of the mountain. The howls of hyena’s greet their arrival and they spur their riding lizards down into the valley and into the bowels of the city escaping their pursuers.