The Hellbenders decided to leave early noon making the most of the sun.
Our heroes were heading down South through the Lush Lands hoping to find the ruins of Castle Rostak and hopefully some clues as to how to defeat the growing undead army. It was a long shot as the Rostaks up until a few days ago, had been the stuff of children’s tales.
To avoid the undead army as much as possible, the Hellbenders headed South West towards the mysterious Elderthorn Forest as the undead seemed to stay clear of the Forest.
Thorga sending his Pseudodragon ahead to scout, could see several different features ahead that would provide the party some cover: An ancient guard tower, now in ruins, a recently burned down farm and a lake with trees surrounding it.
The party headed for the tower.
The Ancient Guard Tower
DM note, I made this encounter half Skills Challenge from D&D 4e and half combat encounter.
The party dodged between the trees, silently out-maneuvering the undead partrols. However the undeads were blocking the path so the party decided to destroy each group of undead once by one. Fortunately the groups were not that big.
Reaching the ancient tower, Kaari spoke to the trees and learned something bigger was inside the tower. Kaari tried to stealthily open the door, but the creature inside was sleeping up against the door and in woke as the door slowly hit it.
With an angry growl the sleeping creature smashed the door open and out stepped a Fomorian, a cursed giant and a foe unlike anything the party had seen before.
Not knowing how to handle the unusual giant, the party were almost taken by surprise by its Evil Eye had it not been for Polly the Owl Bear using it’s newfound screech to scare the big giant.
Unfortunately, the commotion had attracted nearby undead groups leaving no time for the party to investigate the tower beyond a quick look inside before they had to retreat into the shadows of the trees.
The Lake
Moving hastily and stealthily, the party reached the lake.
Fortunately, not a lot of undead patrols were found here so our heroes quickly cleared the immidiate area.
Kaari spoke to the young leaves by the water edge, while they were not experienced as the old trees by the Tower, they could still provide information of trapped wind to be found at the bottom of the lake.
Kaari jumped in the lake to investigate while Thorga and Pestilence clear out the undeads around the lake.
At the bottom of the lake, Kari found a glass bottle and with it in her grasp she swam back up just in time to hear the remaining undead blow its alert horn.
Time to run and run fast.
Sun Flower Grange and the Family Stonemaker
Elderthorn Forest was within sight. Maybe a mile or so away, but the undead behind the party closed fast from all sides.
At this point, Thorga’s Pseudodragon alerted him that a farm was just over the hill. And the party, tired from a day of fighting and running, changed course for the farm.
As they ran to the farm, they could see a family working in the garden, singing and chatting as they carefree worked the soil.
Running for their lives the party shouted at the family to alert them to the oncoming danger. The family quickly opening the short gate around their farm to let the heroes in.
Panting, the Hellbenders told the family of the wave of undead in their wake, but the family puzzled said they couldn’t see any danger and as the heroes turned around they no longer saw the war torn plains. Instead the Lush Lands stood in its mighty green beauty, unscarred from battle, as it had been years ago.
It was clear the family was worried for the party, but had no idea what the heroes were fleeing from.
They cared and welcomed the party into their farm. They gave them the guest room and left them to be to find their composure as it was clear to the family that the heroes were in distress.
While the party recovered their breath and wits, Karl, Carolyne, the boy Patrock and the girls Sissel and Little Juniper started cooking for their guests helped by the old man servant Krautious.