Halflings are happy, cheerful people... right?

They were on the road and still almost a week out of Irlhome. Halrforld began a jaunty tune to motivate the party, and boy, if he didn’t find the groove. His playing was inspired, joyous, uplifting and the music gave the party a jump in their step. Even the horses were affected as their speed picked up covering ground at a tremendous pace. The country side passed by them at an unbelievable rate. The anticipated week’s travel shortened to just 4 days where the party arrived at Irlhome just as the sun set. The decision was made to wait for the next day to enter the Halfling town. Camp was set up and they rested before entering the next day.

Saddled up, they entered the outskirts of the town. Residence type smoke from chimneys could be seen over the territory but there was no one about. There were no formal large farms and the homes were typical Halfling homes built in to the hills. And then the sound of a bell was heard. It rang three times and stopped. Continuing along the pathway found, Rennala spotted what appeared to be a child running between the hills and homes. But by the time she was able to catch the attention of someone else to look the child was gone.

Now concerned about the imposing image they might be presenting the group dismounted and began walking the horses and cart towards what they hoped was the center of town, still looking for any signs of people. And the bell rang three times again as they found what was seen as the likely center of town. A larger open area, surrounded by hills and homes or businesses and quite a number of hitching posts scattered about. The horses were tethered and each door in the square was knocked on to no avail. Not a single door was answered but the sound of a bell ringing continued at intervals. With no one found they followed the sound of the bell along a path towards the river. As they approached the sound of voices could be heard. Although not individually distinguishable the sound gave several members of the party the sense of some ceremony . About what seemed like half of a mile or so from the sound Rennala and Lili were sent over the nearest hill to get a look at the goings on and scout the situation.

Up and over the hill, in no particular sneaky fashion, they crested the hill to see a large gathering of the towns people, dressed in their best, surrounding what looked to be a religious figure standing on a dais, three circular wreaths standing behind him and a mounted bell near his platform. They returned to report. The choice was made to wait where they were and not barge in on the ceremony. Luckily for them the ceremony was just ending, the general sound of conversation wafting in their direction as the towns folk left the ceremony and began walking up the path where they waited.

A few folk passed by with a grunt or a nod. A furtive Halfling was spotted running back to the ceremony locale. He returned with what appeared to be the ceremony leader, who approached the party. He was dressed in his ceremonial garb and introduced himself as Lewellyn. Trying to be as unthreatening as possible they spoke with him, stressing they were passing through, asking if he could tell them what had happened. Lewellyn explained the sad tale. Two children, Niamh and Saoirse had been seen playing by the river and then went missing. They found tracks and put together a search party to find them. Offers of assistance were made and Lewellyn offered shelter and food for the night and a gathering of the town elders the next day to discuss the possibility of the party providing help.

The next morning… well… mid-morning, the elders came. Aisling was the speaker for the town and filled in the rest of the tale. The search party of four were outfitted with the best equipment they had and went off hoping the path did not lead them to the Forsaken Forrest where many a myth of evil things were well known to their people. The children and the search party were now assumed lost and most likely dead as clothing from several of the party members was found washed up on the river bank, ripped and torn. But this story trigged a memory for Halfold. He knew the lore of the story of General Fiadh. A Halfling commander that took ‘an army’ in to the area and all were lost. The area now thought to be haunted by the undying remnants of that force, capturing and ‘absorbing’ those that wander in the area.

The group agreed to have a look around. The town offered a chest of valuables for their help. 4 potions of extra healing sat atop a bed of silver on the chest. They graciously accepted the potions and returned the coin back to the people. The towns people came with more. They brought all sorts of food and several casks of fresh water, enough to last ‘at least a week’. The amount was easliy enough for three weeks. Supplied and ready the party set off heading north west trying to stay away from the swamp and marsh as long as possible and skirting the southern edge of the very old growth Sylgawnan Forest. Traversing near the forest edge Cord and Rennala took a small side venture in to the woods to look around. The trunks were large starting at about 3 feet in diameter and the ground was littered with what looked like huge seed pods. Two pods were taken from the ground and stored in the wagon.

Continuing on Cord spotted tracks along the way. They were a mix of barefoot and skeletal feet, in a very disorganized arrangement making it impossible for him to estimate the numbers. They continued on, keeping an eye all around for signs of these undead. Jade was the first to spot them as they shambled towards them out of the huge trees and called for a halt to engage. Gwyn gave the first action casting a Prayer covering almost the entire party. Jade followed with the use of a Rael’s Arrow, striking and knocking down the first skeleton. Halrfold cast an Entangle, tying up four more as Rispin issued a Fireball engulfing another three, including what appeared to be the skeletal leader.

The battle was now engaged. Erik shattered a skeleton with his great hammer. Halrfold tried his first use of his newly acquired martial skills but failed the attempt at a Push. Rispin let loose a Magic Missile striking the skeletal leader again, but it did not fall and it issued forth a Magic Missile of its own striking Lili. Three more skeletons were destroyed as Jade hit one with a bow shot while Gwyn and Erik dropped hammer blows. And now with limited targets available Jade turned her attention to one of the zombies. Halrfold continued his martial tussle with a skeleton as Magic Missiles became the spell of the moment from Rispin and Jade. Gwyn attempted a Spiritual Whip but it fizzled. Erik followed up with a smashing blow on a zombie as Ben finished one with his sword.

The fight continued as Rispin shattered yet another with a Magic Missile. There were return attacks as Rennala was struck by a skeleton and a zombie and Erik was targeted by a Magic Missile from the skeletal leader not just once but on successive attacks. Cord and Erik fought back scoring hits. And then the battle turned… literally… as Gwyn reached down for her clerical powers, causing the two lesser skeletons to begin to flee. With these undead now in flee mode Jade destroyed one with a Magic Missile as Cord destroyed one with a sword strike. Lili pressed her attack from horseback striking a zombie, knocking it down. As Hal cancelled the Entangle he had set up Gwyn unleashed his second round of Turning resulting with the remaining zombies now in flight. Rispin and Jade finished off these zombies with a Lightning Strike and bow shot, respectively. This left just the skeletal leader who was finally destroyed by Ben.

Jade grabbed the wand carried by the skeleton leader. It was a wand or scepter fashioned from a long bone and a small skull. A Detect Magic revealed it was definitely magical and the most likely source of the Magic Missile attacks employed by this creature. There were no defining activation words but Jade tried to use it by intention. She felt a tiny pull from within herself as the missiles were issued forth. They took the wand and placed it securely in the wagon.

The group kept moving, heading for the bottleneck area between the forest, the crevasse and the marsh. During day 8 they were set upon by crocodiles ranging up from the marsh. Their first act was to engage Rennala’s horse while several others went for Jade’s. Rennala was able to spur her horse out of range and the crocs turned their attention to the horse tethered to the back of the wagon. This horse took several hits from the crocs and was almost downed until Gwyn loosed a Ranged Cure Light, providing the horse with just a little more. This effort was critical as the next attack would have brought it down without the healing provided. Cord got the wagon moving as quickly as possible and was able to get out of the area of croc attacks. Jade’s mount was not as lucky. It was hit and hit again. Lili charged up from behind Jade and shouted for her to “Jump!” A quick assessment and Jade agreed. She leapt from her saddle, slipped but was caught by Lili’s hand. They strained together as Jade was positioned behind Lili on her horse. Spurring on her mount they escaped the range of the crocs and Gwyn placed a Dust Devil in their way, obscuring the retreating party allowing them to escape.

A total of eleven days had passed when they finally made it around the marsh to the exposed bank of Long Lake. Cord used one of the message crates provided by the elders of Irlhome to send word back regarding their current progress and state of affairs. After a little rest they planned to move on with the Forsaken Forest just ahead.

And now.... another Halrfold original bardic tale.....

Top of page

Previous Session Notes

Next Session Notes

Back to the History Index

Back to the Dungeon

This page and its contents are presented solely for the purpose of the RPG game events conducted by a private group. Any references to people or places is explicitly within the context of these RPG games and has no connection to any other similarly named source.