[NOTE: For this game, both Niki/Kyone and Jen/Art were unavailable. There were 4 players: Lisa/Praxis, Valarie/Akara, Micah/Nikolai, and (in her 1st game) Elizabeth/Ginger]

January 13, 2013
In-Game Date: Summer 10

Our game began with the party leaving the company of Radiant Embers Grandmaster Sol and the newly appointed Master Paladin Meepo. As they were leaving Dambrath, the two religious leaders gave them paperwork to make their travels in the nation of Coventry easier. The papers listed the party as Heroes of the Realm, citing their duties as delivery of fallen soldiers, assistance to local officials, and defense of the land.

Upon entering Coventry, the party stopped to speak with the border guards: two injured human soldiers from Dambrath (Patton & Normandy), and three guards from Dambrath, two human indentured servants and their “supervisor”, the freewoman elf Mrs. Leafmore. After some conversation with the guards, the party learned that Coventry has occasional issues with indentured servants who flee the country, which is why they have “Hunters” who track them down. Hunters are, apparently, not the nicest of folks, and the party agreed that they’d avoid crossing paths with any, should the opportunity arrive.

The party took the northward road, with the eventual goal of reaching the Tavern of the Sun & Moon, in the north of Coventry. Along the way, though, they passed by the Coventry Facility for the Peaceful Care of the Perpetually UnRavenous, known to locals as the “Empty Aviary”. They learned that this facility, run mostly by the church of the Raven Queen (with support from members of the Society of Life), cared for comatose patients whose souls, for some reason, had not yet been taken by the Queen’s ravens.

While Akara spoke to Mother Superior Mary Eunice about a strange situation regarding the Ravenite Avenger Sikel (whom the party had met in Waterdeep and buried in northern Dambrath after he aided in stopping the undead invasion), the rest of the party toured the facility, where they met Dr. Xavier, a psychometrician who was seeking to use crystals to enhance psychic energy in a comatose Shardmind. The flashing colors on the crystals were also serving as a distraction for a pixie named Ginger, who soon remembered that she had also been sent on a mission to meet the party.

Ginger’s message came from Lady Artania in Waterdeep, who had received word from the druid Mother Yew back in Ionia. Apparently Mother Yew’s “slight problem” was a little more urgent, and she asked that the party make all due haste in returning to Ionia. However, Lady Artania told Ginger that Mother Yew is a treant, so “all due haste” to her may mean “within the next few seasons”, as treefolk tend to view time a bit differently. Nonetheless, Lady Artania said that her estate in Kislev (in the shadow of Mt. Dethek, near the ruins of Helmsgard) had a portal to a portion of the Feywild that bordered Ionia, so if they decided to take a break from body delivery, they could head north to Kislev and skip back to Ionia quickly.

The party decided that, at the very least, they’d deliver the body to the Tavern of the Sun & Moon, which was on the way to Kislev, and they’d decide from there whether to deliver the rest of the Coventry bodies first or to head straight to Artania’s. Before departing, Mother Superior gave the party a basic map of Coventry, with Earl titles and county delineations marked.

After leaving the Aviary, the party continued northward, through the lands overseen by the Earl of Dunwall, an Elvish Lord who had posted signs saying poachers would be banished to the Fey realms. A young tiefling boy ran out in front of the party’s carts, and asked for help saving his sister. The boy, Gill, said he and his sister, Cat, had been walking through the woods, not at all poaching, while their mother, a freewoman, worked hard to pay their rent at an in in Freeton, a village further up the road. He said that a hole opened up in the ground, and that his sister fell in. Then there was a scream, but that got quiet quickly.

The party soon found the hole (leaving Art, Kyone, & Jimmy with the carts). Tying some rope to a nearby tree (and leaving Gill up top), the party descended into the hole, (mostly) smoothly. It appeared that the hole was actually a cave-in into a previously buried structure of some sort. The room they dropped into had several expensive looking stone sarcophogi, one of which was open and empty. They also saw many empty body-sized shelves around the edge of the room, and lots of markings in the dust of feet that were not fully-fleshed. They found markings in this room that mentioned the lost kingdom of Cappadocia, a former undead nation from several centuries ago.

The party began a trek through several lavish rooms filled with undead. When they reached the last room, they saw young Cat suspended in some sort of magical harness, and an undead tiefling performing some sort of ritual. After nearly dying under the dual auras of chillborn zombies and blazing skeletons, the party finally turned the tide, stopping the ritual. They found papers explaining how to “put a household to sleep” in lieu of the coming attacks seen by oracles in the Cappadocian capital of Rahesh. The party decided to warn the Coventry authorities, especially given the rumors they had heard almost a month earlier about ruins of Cappadocia being dug up.

The game ended with the party returning to the carts, heading towards Freeton.

Experience: 600 XP each. Everyone should be at 6,600 XP

Treasure:
- 4 gems, each worth 100 GP
- 800 GP
- +1 crossbow of restraining (Akara)
- +2 Tanathriel staff (?)