Four Fates Under the Southern Sun, 3.5, Session 19

Start: 7:15 pm, Foreautumn 4, 401 GA

Nathan rushed to the aid of Roderic, his mortally wounded kinsman. With the party's aid, his wounds were mended so he would not surely die, as his arms and legs were broken.

Nathan thanked the party, and introduced them to Harris and Neils, two of his paladin brothers. They are part of an order dedicated to Illisidoira, named the Devoted.

Niels mentioned -someone- would need to escort their noncombatant fellows outside, and it should be at least one of them. He nicely asked for the party to arm him and Harris. They obliged, giving them a wounding shortsword and a +1 darkwood greatclub. The paladins thanked the party and wrangled their countrymen.

Before leaving, Harris spoke of something perplexing he felt worth mentioning. He told the party of how the head cultist, a foreigner named 'Baldwin', saved his life by instructing the harpies to save him and the other paladins for last. Additionally, he mentioned how he walked with a distinct limp and 'left bits of himself as he walked'. Harris had encountered one of these monstrosities in the past, and he called it a 'half-golem'. He detailed how this is the final stage of a cultist of Tarmyra's 'ascension'. His hammer, which the harpies plundered, should be able to harm Baldwin, but it is likely he is virtually immune to all other sources of damage other than blunt.

Chewing on that information, the party allowed the paladins to leave, except Nathan, who was happy to stay. They backtracked through the cultist's study and into the armory. There, they found several harpy munitions and foreign armor sets. Notably, they found a cannon, with cannonballs and several sacks of gunpowder.

Emilia began gathering the bags of gunpowder onto Winter, and cut small holes in the bags as they treaded through the fortress. She intended to blow the entire thing up, when they were ready to.

Hauling the cannon with them, unloaded, they made their way into the treasure room. It contained a stylized statue of Vollûr, an ancient serpent statue, a statue of the Marai goddess of night, a skull of a gold dragon, gold and mithril ingots, an exquisite drinking vessel, Harris's hammer, and piles and piles of gold. Pan expressed avaricious delight once he spotted the gold, and immediately began filling his bags with as much as he could lay his hands on. Harris's hammer was recovered and given to Nathan - temporarily.

They moved on to the mess hall. There, a group of burly barbarian harpies were bullying smaller harpies. Ryardynin decided to intervene - by casting a fireball. This spell instantly killed the weaker harpies and damaged the more formidable bullies.

Combat ensued. The party emerged victorious. They briefly examined the room, and found it to contain wines catered to a discerning palate. Notably, Adreassian Pear wine and Ishontil grape wine. Ishontil is a southerly province of the northern protectorate, renowned for its vineyards. The wine itself is dark and bold like a malbec. Whether circumstance or otherwise brought them here was not known. Nevertheless, they helped themselves, including Alasdair unearthing one from a pile of coal. Additionally, they uncovered a stash of bull's strength potions in the same room.

The party, not wasting much time at all, barged into the next room, which appeared to be a barrack. They glanced around, finding little to salvage here.

They moved up to the nursery. Most of the young harpies were asleep, except one. It asked Emilia's flesh golem if it 'was her new daddy'. Emilia responded by instructing the flesh golem to pulverize the toddler. It proceeded to slay every toddler harpy in the room, and all the unhatched eggs.

This infuriated and shocked Nathan, who fled downstairs. Ryardynin followed him, and tried to explain how they were doing what they did for the greater good. Nathan was not swayed, and claimed he would have taken in the children, all 37 of them, and taught them civilized ways. He expressed his great dismay at how his party were so quick to slay the innocent, who did not live the lives of evil their parents had. He held firm in his stance even if they were eating his fellows. Nathan surrendered Harris's hammer and left, joining his friends outside.

The party hauled the cannon upstairs and planned their attack against what appeared to be Baldwin's congregation.


Harpies slain counter: 65/100 confirmed (37 toddlers or eggs, 28 combatants). Unknown how many have perished outside fort Vendraal at the hands of Kryštóz Doryphoroi's myrmidons.
Cultists slain counter: 5/6
XP: 2,500

End: 7:30 pm, Foreautumn 4, 401 GA