Half a was day spent following the silver strand.
Eventually the silver strand slowly began to weave into a
massive, powerful torrent of a silver watered river. At this point Zzamas turns
to the group and bids them farewell as she could not travel any further with
them.
As the group watch the river flow past them they could see
masses of souls could be seen floating within the river. Vaneer and Otto after
a short discussion both believed that it would be possible for the group to
travel in the river and suffer no ill effect from it.
The group wade into the river and in no time the rivers
current picked them up and carried them off downstream. Along the way they
occasionally saw many outsiders tending to the river from the banks which also
allowed the group to figure out how fast they were travelling along the river
in this otherwise featureless scenery.
Just in that moment both Miro and Vaneer noticed something
swimming in the river and heading towards the group just as a large creature,
like an elongated humanoid lizard erupts from the river.
Vaneer remembers the
creature as a powerful daemon that loves eating souls but obviously has a drool
on at the sight of Miro.
Creature casts a spell at Vaneer and hits as the cleric
turns pale and begins to feel woozy,
Vaneer casts attempts
to cast a spell but fails to penetrate the creature’s defences,
Miro strikes at the creature but his attacks appeared to
pass through the creature,
Creature attacks Miro five times but only lands one blow,
Vaneer casts magic circle from evil over the group,
Miro attacks again but misses,
Otto casts a quickened haste followed by a hold monster,
Natalia casts Baleful polymorph which takes effect as it
turns the creature both physically and mentally into a turtle,
Vaneer deals with the damage dealt by the creature before
the group continue their swim.
As they travel along the waters they soon pass a celestial
and a demon searching for a daemon in the area, Otto soon directs them in the
direction of a certain turtle they had encountered.
They continue along the river for some unknown amount of
time but eventually the whiteness of the plane begins to fade into a grey with
a moon sprouting a sinister face as the group soon find themselves in The Boneyard.
Soon the river flowed into a large area where it split into
various tunnels. Natalia used her druidic abilities to find the direction that
the group needed to head in and they soon made their way down one of the larger
passages.
Otto casts invisibility sphere over the group as they spent
the next few hours wondering through the passages where they pass hundreds of
souls standing around in queues whilst song bird like clerks directed the souls
about the place.
As the group walk around the place they notice in the distance
a sombrely tall pale woman wearing many veils and bat wings but she doesn’t seem
to notice the group. They do however eventually notice a man carrying numerous
scrolls following them around the place even though they were invisible.
After much debate the group greet the follower and ask about
his business, he soon tells them that he wants to help all travellers and that
he is known as a contract devil, which in exchange for a person’s soul when they
pass away would grant them any wish they could desire.
The group ponder about the deal for a while and discuss it
amongst themselves but decide to decline his kind offer 'for now’.
Eventually after a few more hours of traipsing around the
group emerge into a continuous field of gravestones set in an eternal night,
now they began the arduous task of searching for Miro’s gravestone.
The group travel for what feels like days with no success
till a little bird landed on Natalia’s shoulder whom after she casted a ‘speak
with animals’ spell finds out that they were in completely wrong area but if
they were to travel through a nearby portal they would have a better chance of
finding Miro’s grave.
With the bird coming along for a ride the group pass through
the suggested portal. Once on the other side the bird continued to direct the
group through to another portal. As they emerge from the second portal the bird
leaves them as it finally directs them towards a nearby dome before flying off.
As they make their way towards the black dome in the
distance a group of humanoid’s called ‘Psychopomp’ notices them and points
towards them with their scythes.
Otto then casts invisibility sphere over the group again
before continuing to travel towards the dome.
When they got closer a black dragon with feathers could been
seen guarding the entrance to the dome they were heading for. Otto believed the
creature to be a very powerful psychopomp so the group agreed that the ‘honesty
approach’ was probably the best approach in this situation.
The group approach the huge black creature and greet the
creature cheerily which lead into a large back and forth conversation, with the
creature's only response being “Elaborate Further”.
Hours pass and after a tiring conversation the creature
finally allows them to pass into the dome with two conditions, the first is
that they must return to him after they complete their task and the second was
not to touch any gravestone other than the ones they sought.
Inside the dome was again another far stretching field of
gravestones but they could tell from the names on them that these graves were
for cultures and kingdoms closer to Dragonmere. After some time searching
around inside the dome the group eventually find Miro’s itsy bitsy tiny
gravestone.
After some encouraging Miro takes the cursed blade and
smacks it over the top of his gravestone thrice causing it to shatter all over
the floor as a blue glowing orb emerges from the hilt of the blade and flies
off to where ever it goes. With only the hilt remaining, and no traces of magic left in it the party leave the remains of the sword on the grave.
Before returning to the Psychopomp guarding the dome the group
take some time to find each of their gravestones and like Miro’s none give any
indication of when or how each of them would bite the dust. Once they return
the creature surprises them by offering them a portal to return them home.
As they step through the portal they soon find themselves
standing in a field which after taking some time to get their bearings realise
that they are only four days away from Wyvernshore but instead of it being a
few days later in Rova they quickly discover its Pharast! They had been gone for
6 months!
Otto decides that walking for four days is too much
considering they had been away for six months so he teleports the group into
Wyvernshore castles courtyard just in time for his official coronation as King
as he’s kingdom grows, which allowed just enough time to bathe and catch up
with the council beforehand.
They soon find out that the eldest of their off-springs had
gone looking for the group and have tried their best to deal with some of the
kingdoms issues but there is still the odd problem that requires the parent’s
attention to resolve.
A civil war had also broken out in Brevoy after there was an
assassination attempt on one of the House Surtova figureheads which had failed.
Apparently, the poisoned blade used in the attempt was found with a message
saying the attempt was made on Miro’s orders.
House Surtova had come to Wyvernshore wanting blood but as
Miro was conveniently not around they returned to Brevoy to try and ‘Bully’ the
other noble house into backing Surtova’s demands but the reaction wasn’t as
well received as they had hoped causing unrest.
And if that wasn’t nose pinching in disbelief enough, Choral
the Conquer (an Ancient Red Dragon who conquered the lands that now form Brevoy several hundred years ago and left the rule of the country to members of his bloodline, House Rogarvia All of whom unfortunately disappeared mysteriously overnight some 30 years ago) had re-appeared claiming
that the ‘Current’ rulers of Restov were not fit and that the heir of house
Rogarvia needs to be presented to the dragon in exactly one year’s time, else he would reduce the country to ashes!
As to the issues that the children didn't get round to resolving; some
Boggards near fort Drelev have become unruly and require attention and dispatching,
also travellers have been mysteriously disappearing in the swamp to the north
east of Fort Drelev and no one can seem to figure out who or why.
