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Markos has fallen in with an odd assortment of companions, although each have their own goals and destinations for now fate seems to have set them all on the same path such that they have informally formed an adventuring party.
Aiu-Deimare (Aiu) is a giantish collector and teller of tales, frail for a giant she struggles under the weight of her armour but is Markos' equal in intellect and desire to expand her knowledge. [Akashic]
Daggakorian (Daggat) is a Mojh warrior, swift of blade and slow to trust. She (Markos knows that Mojh are functionally sexless but Daggat seems to identify as female) can nevertheless be ... quite gregarious when some person catches her temporary affection. [Snake Totem Warrior]
Zenon (Zen) is a frosty sort in more ways than one, pale of feature and the most likely to consider this arrangement only as long as it suits his purpose. Not as overall accomplished a spellcaster as Markos he supplements powerful bolts of cold energy with other magics and his crossbow. [Human Winter Witch]
Zedezir (Zed) is a rotund Verric with a relaxed approach to life. Living in harmony with the natural world he draws power from the Green to seek out and cleanse the Dark. Of all his companions Markos is least sure what to make of this one. [Verric Greenbond]
~~~
The party has arrived at the town of Brimsworth, a river town which seems to be divided into a prosperous North and a neglected South. Two Adventurers Guild buildings greet them as they enter the town - one busy, one virtually empty - but in the first instance they bypass them and take lodging in a well appointed but un-patronised inn to the south. The innkeeper greets them with great enthusiasm, especially when Markos passes over a gold coin to reserve rooms for a few nights. (Markos has never really gotten his head around the relative value of money).
Come morning at least one reason for the inn's lack of popularity becomes obvious - 3 of the party have picked up lice. A quick hygiene spell apiece resolves the personal irritation but something more will need to be done to prevent re-infestation.
The innkeeper helpfully explains a little about what has been going on in the town - apparently the King's Guard moved in and closed down the old Adventurers Guild for "repairs" and took so long about it that the Guild simply built a new structure on the other side of the road. The Guard then reopened the old guild themselves, but apparently take an extortionate cut of any treasure found. He recommends looking to the new guild for work, since at least one of the party is down to her last copper [cough Daggat].
There are a number of adventurers present at the guild but the most outstanding are a group which have arrived just before the party. They consist of a sibbecai wearing armour of iron rings, a faen with two swords strapped to his belt, some sort of giant shaman and a large, hairy human wearing barely serviceable (rotting) leather armour. They appear to bully the guildmaster (Jeffery) into giving them the pick of the available jobs before leaving.
By the time the party reaches the head of the queue (quickly because most of the others present drift away after the incident) only one job is available, and ironically it is for the Kings Guard who have been unable to find anyone to do it themselves. There is an old watch tower which needs reclaiming - somewhere inside is a powerful item which is leaking necromantic energies into the surrounding area. Two other parties have set out and not returned and the guildmaster is initially reluctant to give the job to unproven strangers, but is persuaded and even rents a horse for Aru to ride out and to bring back anything found.
Aside: he also tells that the source of the louse infestation at the inn is believed to be the innkeepers cat, "Molly".
Some time after setting out some members of the party notice that they are being followed at a distance, but it is hard to pick out more than shadowy figures. With this in mind a defensible place to spend the night is sought. On the near side is a set of large rocks - but pushing on a bit and fording a swiftly flowing river affords a forested hill with a clear top. On discussion it is decided that giving the pursuers a river to cross in the dark is a good bit of extra defence, although the crossing does not go smoothly for the party either being roped together (and to the horse) saves anyone being completely swept away.
Atop the hill - forested with ancient trees and ferns, is a regularly used camping site. Watches are set and although shadowy figures do appear on the edge of the clearing during the night they appear to do nothing but watch and are gone by morning. Checking around Zed finds a single large paw-like track but absolutely nothing else.
About midday on the second day the tower comes into sight and the party finds themselves crossing an ancient - and not-so-ancient - battle field and ruin. Several visible skeletons in good condition cause caution, especially after Markos detects a low-level necromantic aura suffusing the entire area. Sure enough part-way through the skeletons start animating and battle is joined. Aiu is thrown from the horse as it flees the undead. The skeletons are persistent foes - crossbow bolts simply pass through them and every time Daggart slices one apart with her scimitar it pulls itself back together and rises again. Markos has more luck with his staff - leaving it sheathed actually smashes bone and those so felled stay apart. A variety of improvised bludgeoning weapons and positive energy spells eventually win the day and (Zen or Zed)? detects a small trove of magical wands presumably lost during a battle long past and a marvellous magical map showing not only the scene but the positions of all. It does not seem tied to this location, surely a dungeon delver's or explorer's best friend. (Some digging is required to unearth both these treasures.)
After leaving the site of the battle and a rest to recover some of the energy spent another river crossing awaits before the keep. Fortunately a collapsed tower has provided stepping stones - nevertheless the less nimble of the party are buffed with Acrobatics spells from Markos and (again Zen or Zed?) before crossing is attempted. Several - but not Markos - still take a dip and are washed up downstream.
Inside the gates there is a palpable feeling of magic to all in the party sensitive to such things - most of all Zed who can also sense the presence of the Dark. A single dead and dried tree is present in the courtyard and on the far side the skeleton of a giant-sized humanoid with two heads is wired together up against the wall and causes a small amount of concern. No access to the three remaining towers is possible from this level but detect magic shows strong - almost overpowering auras emanating from both rear towers. Advancing slowly to the second level the structure is revealed to be overall quite unstable - and Markos' attempt to bridge a particularly unstable region with one of the tower doors fails spectacularly causing an entire section of walkway to collapse. Luckily he is able to leap into the tower and a rope walkway is able to be constructed - although Aiu and Zed each fall once before making it across on a second try. Aiu's fall is broken by the tower door - splitting it in half in the process - and later it is able to be put to use bridging another unstable area.
Up the stairs in this tower the stone walls become unnaturally smooth and the party finds a room with bones - but nothing else - covering the floor and a number of stone rods with glowing blue tips protruding from one wall. This is fairly clearly a key combination as there are matching homes in the opposite wall, but while the search for clues goes on there is a loud click and a skeleton materialised and animates in the centre of the room. It is pounded into the floor before getting much of a chance to do anything and all the bones present are swept over into one corner. Just as Markos figures out which rods appear to have been frequently moved there is another click and recognisably the same skeleton re-materialises in the corner. This time Aiu calls out to it and surprisingly it is able to communicate back although in doing so it struggles against some other compulsion. It keeps referring to a scroll that it must find - but another click later and it disappears again. Markos transfers the first two used rods across the room - causing a stair to fall down from the ceiling and locking all the other rods in place - the next two break as he attempts to remove them (oops). So Daggart(?) carefully leads the way up to the next level - and the stair closes behind the last to ascend.
In this almost painfully white-stoned room is a bookshelf, a couch, a chest and yet another skeleton this one wearing a thick fur coat. This one speaks much clearer demanding to know who dares enter. Aiu explains but things are a bit touch and go as when the skeleton last "took a nap" turns out to have been in the reign of a king several generations ago. It is not until the skeleton raises a hand that he appears to become aware of his own condition and accept the situation. He then explains that (he and) the watchtower guards an artifact called "The Scroll of the Undying" and every hundred years a ceremony must be completed to prevent this scroll leaking magic. Obviously it is a little overdue. If the party could bring him the scroll (as he is finding it difficult to move in his current condition) then he could perform the ceremony. He provides a wand which can control the stair, and also offers the use of a coat of some magical ability which was considered and declined unseen.
The door to the other tower seems to have been recently mortared closed, but the wood is dry and splinters apart before Daggart's blade, releasing a putrid odour which only increased within. A dark stair leads to a chamber heavily inscribed with runes - several of which Markos identifies as blast-runes - and at the centre a pedestal with a glass cover containing the scroll sitting on an unidentifiable rune. No-one is really willing to risk touching the scroll under these circumstances until Markos suggests leading the periodically-re-materialising skeleton here.
Upon entering the skeleton hesitates - then knocks the glass cover aside and proceeds to try and tear the scroll apart. As it tears ineffectually it's body gradually reforms around it from the inside out - an excellent anatomy lesson for those interested in such things - until eventually a Verric stands complete (if naked). He claims to be the Commander of the Keep, betrayed by his underling "Patches" (the skeleton in the coat) but confirms most of the story. The artifact does need a ceremony every 100 years to keep from leaking, but it is in two parts. The first part, here, restores the body but not the soul. The other part - in his coat in the other tower restores the soul but not the body. To be kept safe both parts need to be immersed in oil which will turn to tar, locking them away. Although there is probably no oil left in the watchtower stores after all this time there may still be some behind the bookshelf in his chamber. As a final act he sacrifices his body to "seal" the scroll so it can be safely handled for a time - Markos takes it and notices that even sealed it is cold to the touch.
Proceeding back to the first tower Markos distracts Patches by insisting on knowing the details of the ritual so it can be recorded whatever might happen in the next 100 years, while Aiu "returns the stair wand to the bookcase" and Daggart "takes up the offer of the coat". Patches challenges Daggart's action but cries out triumph as Daggart throws the second scroll to Markos who attempts to join the two parts - the first stays sealed however and as Markos grasps the second a terrible chill spreads though him causing him to drop both scrolls and collapse to the ground exhausted. Belatedly he realises that the Verric said noting about the scrolls being joined before being sealed and that was probably a bad idea.
Patches hauls himself to his feet, the coat falling away to reveal some sort of fire burning around his bones; and Zen cuts lose first with alchemists frost then with his own potent cold blasts buying time for Zed to pick up the sealed scroll and put it in one of the two containers of oil found by Aiu. The oil immediately hardens to tar - trapping the greenbond's hand in the container.
Patches proves particularly sensitive to cold attacks and only manages to strike Zen once before his body is blasted into fragments leaving only the head.
My memory is unclear - Daggart joined the fight but did Zed? And did Zed actually hit Patches with a positive energy spell?
Patches' head admits that completing the scroll grants one person immortality - at the cost of 500 years of darkness for all the lands, then attempts to bite Zen in the shins before Daggart brings her sword down in one final smashing blow. Meanwhile Markos has summoned up the last of his spell energy for the day (weaving 3 0-level slots into a 1st) and cast a Transfer Lesser Wounds spell - his hands momentarily protected by a sheath of positive energy he grabs up the second scroll and places it in the other container held by Aiu, avoiding becoming trapped as the oil hardens.
The two containers are suddenly drawn together as if lodestones, and then merge into one space before fading out completely. Fortunately Zed's hand remains.
[Session ends]
