TSM Update: New Foes, Old Threats

IN OUR LAST SESSION…

… our heroes, pursuing a clue from a crude map taken from Mons Millmaster, prior to his trial and execution, had arrived at an old abandoned farmstead, thinking that perhaps the runaway midwife Damentia Lancaster was holed up inside. The house and detached barn most recently belonged to the Albarado family, who once raised wheat and corn and ran a small distillery. The structures have fallen into significant disrepair. However, the heroes found that a twist of smoke rose from the chimney of the supposedly deserted house.

Having left Dain to stand watch, Norm, Tia and Tovlakov had arrived via horse. They dismounted and surrounded the house. Tia took the direct approach and pounded on the front door. There was the sound of movement inside, but not response. She shouldered the door open and found the dwarven midwife inside a room of decay and squalor. Dementia wore a long leather apron, splashed with fresh blood. Blood covered much of the floor. With a shriek, Dementia fled down the hallway, away from Tia, and, presumably towards Norm and Tovlakov perched outside the rear door.

However, the midwife turned right at the end of the hallway, eschewing the door. When Tia rounded the same corner in hot pursuit, she was met by a blow from an almost comically oversized wooden club wielded by Dementia. The fight, then was on.

Tovlakov battered down the back door. He and Tia faced the midwife head-on, while Norm kept a careful distance.

The midwife let out a great roar and grew until her head scraped the shabby ceiling. She had transformed into a giantess. The once oversized club was now wielded with great power. She moved nimbly as to be able to reach all three combatants. Dementia took repeated blows from Tia, from Tovlakov and enchanted missile attacks from Norm, but kept up the fight. Her great power was too much for Tovlakov, and even eventually took down Tia.

Faced with this seemingly unstoppable foe, Norm deployed his kruthik familiar, Fluffy, to try to draw her away while he used invisibility to avoid detection. Norm was able to drag his allies to safety and, meeting up with Fluffy on the road, they made their way back to Rankford Mitte.

Dain was able to restore the fallen camerades. The heroes discovered that they had returned with a somewhat cryptic log from the midwife’s lair. It listed familiar surnames, with dates, some followed by “boy”, some by “girl”, some by both words. Some of these were crossed out. Over drinks at Hugo Brewer’s place, they deduced that perhaps these were dates of baby deliveries, which indicated that some of the children, perhaps, had not survived. But maybe some of those declared dead… lived still?

A representative of Azan’s rangers arrived and reported that Azan hoped to meet with the heroes at the Old Mill in the Heartland. They assented.

Traveling to the Old Mill the following day, the heroes reflected on how relatively safe the roads around Rankford had become.

At the Old Mill, Azan informed the heroes that in their efforts to hunt down any surviving elven allies of Marver and Eeger, they had chased their quarry into an underground passage that led to what Azan believed to be an ancient entrance to the fabled lost dwarven kingdom

Azan agreed to provide some security in Rankford if the heroes would hunt down this escaped elven traitor. He asked that the elf be brought back alive.

The heroes were led to the wood’s edge and given instructions on how to proceed. They eventually met up with Azan’s sentry at the site of the recently discovered tunnel. A door was concealed in the earth behind a huge boulder.

The heroes made their way down the passage, beyond the disarmed traps about which they had been warned. And at the end of it, they discovered a seemingly ancient, ornate dwarven door. It contained runes of an ancient dwarven script, but the phrase “Dol Segur” was prominent.

Beyond the door, which opened easily with the Warden’s key in Tia’s possession, were a group of a half dozen shambling undead. The heroes were able to make fairly quick work of the zombies. In the dimness beyond the great door, they discovered the partially consumed body of an elf. Likely Azan’s quarry.

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