Session 4
From AngilleWiki
The imp you captured, and treated as well as you could under the circumstances, ended up telling you everything he knew about the situation between Rashanishu and the three humans. His name? Grishona. Yeah, James needs to come up with a list of good names so that on the fly he doesn't come up with silly names pulled from music. Anyway. Grishona actually became friendly towards Etty, thanks to her magic. I figure Vadin and Ettyneen will progress at generally the same speed at being able to change people's opinions, but for completely different reasons.
You all continued the trek north along the imp/worg tracks. Between Grishona and Tauron, the travel was pretty easily kept on the right trail. Although even they could not stop the rain when it came. Kovar's scowl was easy to read - I'm gonna have to clean and oil all this armor, too soon. Almost immediately after the rain started, the party crested a ridge to reveal... Tauron's valley of gorgeous forest and life. Except... it was all burned! A forest fire had swept through hundreds of square miles of Tauron's home, devastating everything including his heart, which now smolders with a passion that yearns to destroy the parties responsible for this treacherous deed. As the party followed the trail, they noticed a dried up stream that borders the destruction, effectively walling it from the trail. In the middle of the path, you found a woman lying face-down, frail and bedraggled. Tauron (and anyone else with effective wilderness lore/training) recognized her as a Nyad, and he rushed to carry her to the stream. As she felt the healing flow of the rain refilling her stream, her eyes opened and her beauty returned. She told a story of how three men and a squad of imps set fire to the northern edge of the forest, and how they were able to glean some kind of magical power off of the destruction of the trees and wildlife. Tauron's rage burned ever higher after that.
The party spent the night in another forest glade, after tying Grishona to a tree and convincing him it was for his own good. During the night, it seemed as if Etty was approaching the camp, but Vadin and Shadowfist (correct me if I'm wrong) knew Etty was asleep in the middle of camp. After a confusing scuffle with the intruder, who even tried to become Leif while grappled with him, the party was able to replace Grishona tied to the tree with the doppelganger tied to the tree. After an intense several moments of tension while the party deliberated what to do with the petty thief, Kovar finally executed it by beheading it. Leif at this point was trying to come to terms with the difference between the redeemable Grishona and the unredeemable doppelganger.
The next day was spent in travel to the Temple of Strife. At the end of the day, the party was traveling (as silently as each of them could) across a barren plain surrounding the temple, following in the footsteps of Grishona who had been sent ahead with the message. The plain was filled with just barely noticable bits of metal sticking through the ground, and upon closer inspection were revealed to be implements of war. Kovar's enthusiasm over the history contained beneath the soil was barely contained by his sense of duty towards Grishona, Cyrista, and the crown. Just as the non-sneaky members of the party stepped over the last hill before the temple, a crackling noise could be heard from the ground, and undead horrors started to crawl out and attack the party members! Everybody geared up for a battle with people who had already died once, pulling out all their blunt weapons. Dozens of skeletons and zombies, some not quite human even, descended upon our heroes, but didn't count on a priest being among their prey! Leif's control over so many of the undead swung the battle irrefutably. The only difficult part became trying to take down the uncorporeal shadow of movement that babbled incoherently enough to incite madness in those around it. But that became less of an issue when two weapons gained magical attributes, and Etty brought her wand to bear against it.
After crushing the bones of all the undead, the group advanced upon the temple itself.
