The Ruins of Rhest

The Road to Rhest

The Party spent some time discussing the best way to get to the ruined town of Rhest, eventually deciding to go through the Witchwood. They headed northwards, following game trails cautiously, and managed to avoid any hobgoblin patrols ( or angry  girallons )and camped overnight without incident.
Next morning the woodsman they had met a few days ago, found them and offered to lead them through the forest to the edge of the marshes.  He managed to take them route that avoided all but one of the hobgoblin patrols which the Party quickly made short work of.

Towards the end of the next day they reached the northern most bounds of the Witchwood (after a brief diversion as they hadn’t told their guide that the Bridge a Skull Gorge was out) and set up camp on the edge of the marsh. During Rosil’s watch that night, he heard a strange buzzing sound and something flittered by his head. He moved across to wake Gothram to find a small creature attached to the sleeping fighter. Drawing his knife, he cut it off, and woke him. They found creatures attached to all the others and either killed them or the stirges fled, satiated with blood. Louella and Almund seemed most badly affected by the blood loss, but Louella managed to cast Restoration to help.

Next morning, rather than trudge through the marshes, they headed along the Rhest roast, to find it blocked by a palisade and crude watchtower constructed of logs . Gothram approached the tower initially pretending to be  a merchant, but quickly got bored and it devolved into a frontal assault. The palisade was manned by hobgoblins with two ogres, who proved a brief challenge before being slaughtered by sword and spell. Gothram was badly injured in the assault an Cecily’s god’s healing powers were once more called upon.

The Blackfens

Having captured the palisade blocking the Rhest road, there was some disagreement about what to do with it! Eventually the Party settled on taking the doors of the hinges,  which Cecilythen  removed. Afterwards  they headed on down the road, which progressively worsened as they got deeper into the fens. Rosil, suddenly called a halt as something on a nearby island drew his attention, Wading knee-deep into the fens, it turned out to be the partially dissolved corpse of a giant owl. He turned back to inform the others when a green dragon-like creature leaped from the water and attacked him. After a challenging combat during which Rosil nearly drowned, but was saved courtesy of Almund, the creature was slain. On recovering, Rosil began removing the head to add to his collection.

As he did so, Almund spotted a giant own circling above them, seemingly marking their position. As she warned the others four other owls each with an elf mounted upon it settled near them. The elves, who introduced themselves as the Tiri Kitor,  where at fist suspicions of them, particularly a Gothram was less than welcoming. Louella hastily  explained why there were there,and their attitude shifted and they thanked them for destroying the "harrowblade", and invited the Party to accompany them to  Starsong Hill.

Before they left one of the elves gutted the razorfiend and removed a gold ring from its gizzard. The leader of the elves, Kiliar, handed Rosil a chest he retrieved from the razorspawn’s nest. Through the rest of that afternoon, the Party followed the elves through hidden paths  in the swamp to the their settlement of Starsong Hill.

On arrival, they were welcomed by the High Singer, Trellara Nightshadow and the Speaker of the Tiri Kitor, Sellyria Starsinger. Almund and Loella explained once again why they were in the swamp and the Speaker, on behalf of the tribe, offered them what little help they could provide. They were shown to tents where they could rest and were invited to attend the funeral rites for the owl’s rider, Lanikar, next noontide, which the Party graciously (for the most part) accepted.

Next day the elves’ funeral ceremony for Lanikar consisted of an hour of song led by the deceased’s sister, Trellara. Usually the body would be burned atop a pyre and the ashes collected in an urn to be kept in the Hall of Ancestors. Since no body was recovered, the pyre consisted of boughs and branches collected by all the elves and anointed with holy water, along with various small mementos. These ashes were placed in a proxy urn, along with Lanikar’s ring. After the ceremony, the elves spent the rest of the day in celebration of Lanikar’s time with them, with feasting, dancing, and storytelling (particularly of stories involving Lanikar himself) taking them well into the night.

Next day the Party purchased some supplies, were told they were welocm in Starsong Hill any time, and were given directions to Rhest. They set off through the fens, and pausing only to retrieve Cecily when she fell into some quicksand. They followed the elves directions to where a  large, dark lake brooded in the marshland, measuring nearly two miles wide. The cloying reek of decaying vegetation and swamp ooze was thick in the air, and countless frogs and insects and marsh birds chirped and croaked and called to each other.  Out near the middle of the lake, dozens of decrepit stone buildings jutted from the black waters. In most cases, these buildings sagged and leaned treacherously, the windows of their upper stories now even with the still lake’s surface. Two buildings that seemed to have survived relatively intact drew their attention—one a large stone tower, about a quarter-mile from the southern shore, and the other a large stone building near the lake’s centre. Both structures had rickety wooden walkways ringing them at water level which looked like recent additions.

Lake Rhest

The Party spent some time on the shores of the lake wondering how they would get to the buildings in the centre. Eventually decided to head for the wooden hut on stilts  they had seen along the shore in the optimistic hope that it might be a boathouse! Rosil and Almund had a close run-in with some giant crocodiles along the way, after which they decided to heal and rest up in a ruined building.

Next morning  they made their way towards the shack – Gothram confidently leading the way. The shack was occupied by lizardfolk, but the fishermen proved little challenge to the Party, Gothram pretty much cutting them down single-handedly, except the one who tried to flee  by swimming away who fell to a flame strike from Louella. Under the shack, they found a reed raft with which Almund was quite keen to practice her boat-handling skills, but none of the others seemed keen. While the paladin messed about in the water, Louella wildshaped into hawk and flew over the lake to recce it.

Most of the buildings were little more than ruins mostly submerged under the lake, but two of the surviving structures – a bell tower and a large civic building in the centre - seemed occupied, the bell tower she could see hobgoblins moving around and there were four ogres snoozing on the roof of the central building. After the druid reported back they decided to wait till night to assault the bell tower,. Everyone crammed onto the raft, while Amund tried to instil some sense of order. As they neared their destination, Louella dropped into the water and wildshaped into a shark, guiding through the ruins.

They manged to reach the bell tower unnoticed and Gothram and Almund led the assault, pretty much slaughtering all the hobgoblins within.

Wyrmlord Saavrith

Having secured the Rhest Bell Tower, the Party embarked once more on the flimsy reed raft and, paddling silently, headed for the large building in the centre of the lake. What must have been an impressive stone structure now lay half submerged in the lake. Its facade still displayed majestic heroes bearing heraldic lion devices and armed with swords, spears, and bows, their countenances carved into marble pillars. The building’s ground floor was now completely submerged, and its second floor sat just above the water level, its marble heroes caked with moss and mud. The third floor was partially collapsed, exposing its rooms to the sky above. A wooden walkway had been lashed together around the building’s perimeter, and a floating bridge led to a nearby low ruin surrounded by a wooden fence. Two flights of wooden stairs led up along the facade to the ruined roof above.

They decided to head for the ruined building nearby and Gothram leaped from the boat over the low wall. Fortunately for him he landed on a wooden walkway, unfortunately for him the greenspawn razorfiend floating nearby instantly attacked. By the time his friends arrived to help , Gothram was a bloody mess on the floor. A vigour, mass from Louella and then a lay on hands from Almund saved the fighter, as the others engaged, casting spell and firing crossbows at the razorfiend. While Louella wildshaped into a shark and attacked below the waterline, Gothram got to his feet and leaped at the creature, greatsword swinging . He got in a good hit before crashing into the water and starting to drown. Rosil leaped into the water and while the others despatched the razorfiend, dragged the unconscious fighter out. Cecily meanwhile dealt with an inquisitive ogre, who had come to investigate the noise.

The Party took a few moments to heal-up before Almund led the way along the walkway only to be hit by two javelins hurled from the roof opposite. Louella, still in shark form,  leaped over the low wall, which she instantly regretted, coming face to face with a black dragon swimming towards her. The others dashed across the slippery walkway, heading for the town hall’s front doors, which they crashed through coming face to face with a large ettin.

Louella swam as fast as she could away from the dragon, which surfaced and used its breath weapon on Almund, before flying forward attacking the paladin and grappling her. As the others faced off against the ettin, Louella beached herself on the walkway and wildshaped back to her normal form, just in time to see the dragon rise up into the air, followed by a crossbow bolt from Rosil,  the paladin firmly clasped in her jaws. Immediately the druid cast summon  nature’s ally to bring a giant eagle to help. Before the eagle appeared, the dragon dropped the paladin from around 60ft up, fortunately the paladin was able to reduce the damage of the fall by turning her fall into a swan dive!

While Rosil fired his crossbow and Louella case multiple spells, the eagle got in a few hits before being torn to shreds. Meanwhile Gothram and Cecily had disposed of the ettin, Gothram calling  to Rosil to come add to his collection of heads! The dragon, badly wounded headed up into the roof area of the building and instructed the ogres there to attack.

As the ogres came down the stairs, mostly to be slaughtered, a large goblin emerged from one of the rooms and attacked Louella. As he did the dragon appeared in the doorway and used its breath weapon again. It soon learned the error of its ways a critical smite evil from Almund finished it off. The ogres and dragon slain, the goblin quickly surrendered, realising he was outclassed. Searching the nearby rooms they found the dragon’s hoard, some treasure in a locked chest and various  magic items including a strange adamantine necklace interwoven with a lion’s teeth and claws, which Cecily was reluctant to touch due to the aura of evil surrounding it. They also found a latter written in a language none of them could read, which according to Saavrith was from his mum!