People are filtering into Hoddenhill, so we set up a program by which only a certain number of people are allowed in each month. This number is based on how the civic improvements are going, and Sekhet’s estimations of how many people the town can support.
Sekhet is not a civil engineer, but you pick a few things up studying at the Tower of High Art, and the program seems to be going well. Erendill offers to start a literacy program, so few of the townsfolk can read. Everyone thinks this is a good idea, and we offer economic incentives to the adults who join the program. Kids are encouraged to join the program, because it’s the first step in becoming a Knight in the new order Sekhet is starting in Branden’s name.
Two halflings named Bourbon and Rye show up. They’re spending money like crazy at the inn. Anya goes and checks them out. They seem foolish and young and impossibly rich considering how blindly naive they are.
Sekhet has them brought to him the next morning. He offers them jobs. His real goal is to establish a spy network and infiltrate Prince William’s city and effectively figure out what he’s up to. As Sekhet is talking to these two, he begins to suspect they’re idiots. So rather than set them up in the capital, he asks them to assume the duties of spies within Hoddenhill. Talk to the newcomers, find out if any of them have ulterior motives. They’re not that interested in this, so Sekhet sweetens the deal. They can have their own tavern. Not an inn, not a place to sleep, but eat and drink. They like this idea, and agree.
Glim suspects they’re incapable, and Sekhet agrees that it’s certainly possible. Glim offers to approach them as a stranger and see if they immediately blow their own cover.
They do, but it takes Glim a while and it’s possible a normal person wouldn’t ever get it out of them. Still, they seem like idiots.
Ogsbod has a visitor. The townsfolk are kinda freaked out by it, and Glim goes to check it out. It’s some other giant, not a Hill Giant like Ogsbod. We guess a Storm Giant or Stone Giant. It takes a while, and we have to send Anya who can speak Giant, but we find out the Giant is a Storm Giant who’s come down from the north to let Ogsbod know what’s going on with his family.
We squeeze the Storm Giant for some info, and learn a little about the giants. Sekhet makes a note to visit them, though it’s pretty clear these guys are like Titans and aren’t really interested in what humans are up to.
Gilmarra, the new Elven Druid we’ve acquired, reveals that she’s an ambassador from Finvarra, the King of the Elves of Ulster. Finvarra has come across the sea and sent emissaries out to determine what the state of the human nation is. Interesting.
The halflings reveal that they’ve got a map, a treasure map. They offer to lead us to the site they found, only a few hours away, and check it out. I tell Glim to take who he needs, and check it out. He takes Gilmarra and Erendill and the halflings.
They find an overgrown archway, which leads to an Elven road. We don’t know what it’s called, exactly, but this road cannot be seen unless you’re on it, cannot be entered or exited except through the archway, and speeds travel tenfold. In two or three hours, the group travels two or three days distance.
They arrive at what appears to be an Elven mausoleum. There are frescos depicting some kind of great individual, but he’s not an Elf. Hmmm…
They end up in a round room with 4 exits. They quickly discern that the room moves around, a la Murder By Death. They fight a bunch of skeletons, and eventually withdraw.
They come and get Sekhet, Harn, and Anya. We ditch the halflings. The six of us travel to the Elven tomb, and Sekhet recognizes that it’s the tomb of Dunatis The White, a human wizard who aided the Elves during the last Fomorian War.
We figure out how the room works, and head down one branching corridor. We come to a pair of double doors. We try to open them. They become very, very cold. Hmm. We force them open. Darkness falls over all of us. Something attacks in the darkness. More skeletons? Then something comes, something cold and dead and powerfully evil. Its hand passes through Harn, taking some of Harn’s life force from him. 2 levels. Harn strikes back, assaulting the cold in the darkness. He affects the thing, but we can’t know to what extent.
The spectre attacks again. Another two levels. Harn retreats.
Sekhet attacks, smites evil. Hits. Lots of damage. The spectre attacks.
Sekhet loses two levels. The paladin attacks again, another smite evil. More damage. The coldness reaches its hand out, passing it through the Atlantean’s armor, and pulling some of Sekhet’s life. 2 more levels.
We get out. A day later, Harn and Sekhet try to shake off the effects of the life drain. Sekhet recovers fully, Harn does not. Harn’s been made High Priest of the Weald, and believes he should concentrate on running the church instead of traipsing about the wilderness, risking his life. The rest of the party don’t agree, but Harn is adamant.
Also, it seems as though Kephara, Sekhet’s dragon, is growing. Quickly. What is the Elven Druid doing?
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