Galt has been eating its self from the inside out for forty odd years now. Until now, its never been quite so literal until now.
Aldis Stormbeard Venture Captain of the Pathfinder Society
The Characters:
Fik the half-orc monk and follower of Irori and reluctant master to Brother Chen
Tasilon a Human fighter/merchant on the run from trouble at home in Qadira
Templeton Granger a silver tongued noble from Varisia who could talk you out of your last copper.
Prank: A Gnome summoner from Varisia who rides around on a clock-work eidolon, he calls “Wonky”
Having left the barge, The Varisian Prince, to go back down river to alert Taldor and Andoran as to the fate of the forces they sent to the Galt frontier; the caravan continues their way toward the city of Woodsedge. Finding the countryside abandoned the caravan stops to harvest some crops that were ready. As they complete their days work, they were quietly surrounded by a band of scavengers from the city looking for anything they could find that would feed a hungry population under siege from both inside and outside Woodsedge.
I have been very productive the past few days. On the trek to Wood’s Edge, we happened upon several very unkempt fields of grain, of which we availed ourselves, netting two bushels in total. While we gathered, we were approached by Stormbeard and Prank, a dwarf and gnome respectively. It bears noting that Prank at the time was encapsulated within an eight-foot-tall mechanical monster he referred to as “Wonky.”
It seems the zombie infestation was not as aimless as we thought. The zombies were preceded by a comet – a comet that was the source of worship to a rebellious faction within Wood’s Edge who controlled the city to the west of the river that bifurcates the town. Stormbeard mentioned that the zombies seemed to have specific purpose in their shamblings… something I had not observed, but he had been dealing with than longer than we had, so I was willing to take his word for it. When Stormbeard inquired as to our business in Wood’s Edge, a merchant named Chevan piped up that he had a shipment of coffee for one Dundas Montgomery. But more on that later…
The caravan is lead into the city via smuggling tunnels, that passage was safe but the moans of the army of zombies above could be heard even in the tunnel, and their shamblingkept a steady flow of dirt raining from the roof of the tunnel, most unnerving the caravan was happy to reach the other side of the tunnel.
Templeton and Fik meet with Stormbeard and Prank to findout about the comet and the rise of Dundas on the other side of the river. After a bit of stage make-up Templeton, Fik, Prank and Stormbeard stealth their way across the river to attend a rally hosted by Montgomery.
Our cause is just, and the heavens were our herald! Those oppressors fear our power and what we can accomplish. They have vowed to stop us, but they could not find a living army to oppose us so they had to send an army of the dead!!!
Even now as our enemies plot and plan to end our uprising, there is a shipment of gunpowder en route as our blacksmith is crafting guns from plans I have brought from the engineers of Alkenstar. This will let us turn the tide, and take out movement across Galt and to lands beyond our borders!
Dundas Montgomery in a speech to his followers in Woodsedge, Galt
Templeton uses wit and guile to get an audience with Montgomery. During that audience a bargain is struck for Montgomery to clear out a temple of Abadar in exchange for the gunpowder, but over the course of the three days it takes to clear out the overrun temple in the middle of the river. Templeten and the rest substitute ground coffee for the gunpowder making for an unhappy surprise when Montgomery’s forces make their move on the forces on counter-revolutionaries. This leads to their ultimate defeat.
Meanwhile Tasilon takes steps to fulfill the oath he took to follow the vengence quest of his fallen comrade Crux.
Information was readily available about the man named “Doc”. A Dwarf, amateur alchemist, slaver, priest. Not quite the line up that I had expected. Everyone was eager to sing praises of his deeds during the undead problems, how he’d stepped up into the shoes of the local priest who fell in combat. How he’d been keeping the infirmary going and healing anyone regardless of their allegence. It also came to light that he’d recently been heard to have had a loud, almost coming to blows, argument with several other dwarves and a Qadiran. It was impossible to sift through the accounts to find the truth they held. It didn’t matter, I was going to have to look into his eyes either way and tonight was as good a night as any other.
Lucky for me the Temple to Sarenrae was on “our” side of the city. It had been converted into part infirmary and part orphanage. Many of the parents in the town were either taken by the undead or by Montgomery and the children had no where else safe to go. As I entered I was greeted by one of the older children, he was 13 if he was a day, who welcomed me to the Temple then noticed my symbol and realized that I was a worshiper. He bowed and offered to lead me to “Brother…Accolyte…ummm…Father Trol” immediately.
From a letter home from Tasilon aBin Zaleem of Qadira
Ultimately Tasilon found a person redeemed and willing to cooperate to help his former comrades find redemption or a merciful end as Sarenrae perscribes,
veg-geek 