Post by hubertbartels on Jun 23, 2022 15:01:54 GMT -5
Clean up on the Hecate Estate
We thought we were done with the Hecate estate – the orcs were freed, the villains trying to open up the Seal were defeated, and the enslaved warforged from the Lord of Blades released. Sure, there’s the little problem of restoring the wards on the Gate but how difficult could that be? All we would need is a Gatekeeper druid to recite some words and seal up the place and it’s beer time.
The closest Gatekeeper druid might be in the Shadow Marshes? Oh no, this is going take more traveling and more talking. So we decided to head to Zilport to find out how to get to a place Trouble has never heard of before.
Crossing a high bridge from the Hecate estate onto the main road, we found a lot of Brelandish guard activity going on. At the far end of the bridge, we meet Lieutenant Hallwinter. He was busy organizing relief for the refugees escaping the collapse of Hecate Manor. Lieutenant Hallwinter stopped us and asked us if we would examine a waterfall on the Hecate property; he had lost several men there to poisoning or something. He would be glad to accompany us.
We descended back down into the Hecate estate. Following a game trail, we came to the waterfall. There was a cave behind the waterfall. Lieutenant Hallwinter stayed outside as we entered the cave.
Beneath the veil of falling water, we discovered three Brelish guard bodies and six more thugs. Disposing of the attempts to bar our entry, we continued down the cave.
The first hundred feet was natural rock. Then worked stone. It looked like old Dhakaani work. We moved quietly until we saw faint traces of light ahead. There was also the sound of some one shifting dirt and stone. Kadrin ran ahead to find out more.
He returned with a report of a strange alchemy lab where the corpses of Brelish guards where being bleed into cauldrons. We followed the monk up the corridor. The sounds of shifting stone stopped. Torbrand threw a burning torch ahead. Revealed in the light were three Mythos ghasts. They hissed at us and came runnning.
Torbrand lit up the corridor with a fireball. Burnt, the ghasts made a valiant effort to take us down but we destroyed them.
In the momentary silence, a raspy voice ordered something to go out and kill us. Then, coming around a cornet was another Mythos ghast and something that was not of this world – tentacles, wings, five eyes – perhaps an elder thing from beyond the stars? Behind them was a warlock in robes, gesturing and muttering.
Kadrin ran past the ghast, avoided the thing and attacked the deathlock. While the monk was taking out the warlock, we managed to kill the ghast and whatever that thing was. Inside the room that they come out of, we found a summoning circle and a book. The corridor went on a bit before ending in a collapsed ceiling. The ghasts had been trying to burrow deeper into the complex.
Back outside, we made our report to Lieutenant Hallwinter. He returned with us to the Brelish outpost on the borders between Breland and Zilargo. We caught a coach from the fort to Zilport, a day’s journey/ Once in Zilport, we made our way to Toby Marks – a fisherman’s hut where we found Sister Garaele and the rest of the stuff we took out of Hecate’s manor. He had asked him to transport the items here using his fishing boat.
Zilport was connected to the rest of the world through scheduled transportation. A Lysander boat took us to the harbor of Sharn. From Sharn, it should be easy to find a scheduled flight, train or boat to take us anywhere we needed to go.
To get to the Shadow Marshes, there was only one way – to travel on a sailing vessel with House Tharashk – to the one port in the Shadow Marshes – Zarash’ak, deep in the Vile Marshes.
We thought we were done with the Hecate estate – the orcs were freed, the villains trying to open up the Seal were defeated, and the enslaved warforged from the Lord of Blades released. Sure, there’s the little problem of restoring the wards on the Gate but how difficult could that be? All we would need is a Gatekeeper druid to recite some words and seal up the place and it’s beer time.
The closest Gatekeeper druid might be in the Shadow Marshes? Oh no, this is going take more traveling and more talking. So we decided to head to Zilport to find out how to get to a place Trouble has never heard of before.
Crossing a high bridge from the Hecate estate onto the main road, we found a lot of Brelandish guard activity going on. At the far end of the bridge, we meet Lieutenant Hallwinter. He was busy organizing relief for the refugees escaping the collapse of Hecate Manor. Lieutenant Hallwinter stopped us and asked us if we would examine a waterfall on the Hecate property; he had lost several men there to poisoning or something. He would be glad to accompany us.
We descended back down into the Hecate estate. Following a game trail, we came to the waterfall. There was a cave behind the waterfall. Lieutenant Hallwinter stayed outside as we entered the cave.
Beneath the veil of falling water, we discovered three Brelish guard bodies and six more thugs. Disposing of the attempts to bar our entry, we continued down the cave.
The first hundred feet was natural rock. Then worked stone. It looked like old Dhakaani work. We moved quietly until we saw faint traces of light ahead. There was also the sound of some one shifting dirt and stone. Kadrin ran ahead to find out more.
He returned with a report of a strange alchemy lab where the corpses of Brelish guards where being bleed into cauldrons. We followed the monk up the corridor. The sounds of shifting stone stopped. Torbrand threw a burning torch ahead. Revealed in the light were three Mythos ghasts. They hissed at us and came runnning.
Torbrand lit up the corridor with a fireball. Burnt, the ghasts made a valiant effort to take us down but we destroyed them.
In the momentary silence, a raspy voice ordered something to go out and kill us. Then, coming around a cornet was another Mythos ghast and something that was not of this world – tentacles, wings, five eyes – perhaps an elder thing from beyond the stars? Behind them was a warlock in robes, gesturing and muttering.
Kadrin ran past the ghast, avoided the thing and attacked the deathlock. While the monk was taking out the warlock, we managed to kill the ghast and whatever that thing was. Inside the room that they come out of, we found a summoning circle and a book. The corridor went on a bit before ending in a collapsed ceiling. The ghasts had been trying to burrow deeper into the complex.
Back outside, we made our report to Lieutenant Hallwinter. He returned with us to the Brelish outpost on the borders between Breland and Zilargo. We caught a coach from the fort to Zilport, a day’s journey/ Once in Zilport, we made our way to Toby Marks – a fisherman’s hut where we found Sister Garaele and the rest of the stuff we took out of Hecate’s manor. He had asked him to transport the items here using his fishing boat.
Zilport was connected to the rest of the world through scheduled transportation. A Lysander boat took us to the harbor of Sharn. From Sharn, it should be easy to find a scheduled flight, train or boat to take us anywhere we needed to go.
To get to the Shadow Marshes, there was only one way – to travel on a sailing vessel with House Tharashk – to the one port in the Shadow Marshes – Zarash’ak, deep in the Vile Marshes.
