Two sessions: First, on the way back from the crypt, Darion was hesitant to go straight to the village, as he knew he would have to part with the sword, and he did not want that. Too great was the risk that it might be found by whatever hellspawn was scouting the forests all the time. So he suggested a southerly course to go up on a ridge of hills, in the hope of spying the Keep from there.

Alas, the group encroached upon the territory of some giant birds that reacted nervously. We suspected they might be giant eagles who protect a nest, so we decided to back off and gave them space. No need to make these noble guardians of the sky nervous when we could give them peace of mind instead.

We spent the night — and a heavy rain — farther west along the ridge in a big tent. The next day, going out to hunt, Apoqulis found weird near-human-ish tracks and we followed them, only to see them change into different tracks, claw tracks, and disappear, as if the creature leaving them had taken wing – although underneath the foliage of the forest.

A shapeshifter. Shapeshifters are generally bad news.

Hawk Friends

Searching the area to maybe pick up the track again, we discovered a giant hawk in its nest. It protected little baby hawks, and Apoqulis cast his freshly obtained spell “Speak with Animals” to make contact. He got off to a good start and learned the description of a red horned creature with a tail that roamed in the area, fitting with the description of the creature that harassed the farmers along the lake. The hawk called it a “Red One” – and a shapeshifter. It also described a second creature, “Green Ones”. Potentially orcs? Both of those were hostiles to be wary of, according to the hawk.

In addition, the party discovered a glowing plant, which was difficult to reach, in wild and rocky terrain. But Darion dared a climb and managed to get close. The plant was a flower with its blossoms filled with a glowing yellowish nectar. Darion left the plant in place but tenderly harvested some of the nectar, obtaining a yellow potion, which has a strong invigorating smell. And he even managed to climb back down without falling and breaking a bone.

Lion Killers

The party failed to reach any point where they might find a clear line of sight to the Keep. They finally decided it was no use and high time to return to the village. The vampire hunter agreed, as his initial hope of finding new crypts by randomly wandering through the wilderness had not materialized. On the way the party set up camp and spent the night in a protected cave-let. End of session as we heard noises and quickly donned our armor, just before wild creatures converged on us.

++++

In the following session, the camp was attacked by a trio of massive mountain lions, tall as horses or even larger. Despite that, the dice rolled in our favour: we fought them off and killed them, not least with the Two-Hander Endbringer, and with the effective help of a smart Halfling, Barthal, who came out of the darkness just when he was most needed.

We spent the rest of the night roasting great amounts of mountain lion steak, and burying the rest of them after skinning them and collecting their huge, golden-hued pelts and heads. Turns out Barthal also came from Morgansfort, we must have missed each other narrowly.

We waited out some rain, then hid Endbringer, wrapped in cloth, in a hollow tree on a hill overlooking our camp- and battle site, and returned to the village, even though it was a difficult decision for Darion to part from the fateful blade.

In Stormwing Village, we gifted the biggest lion hide to the leader of the village and brought the other two to the general store to sell them:
even heroes need to earn their keep.

Then we went to the tavern where we met Hezeroth the cat, already impatient from the long wait for us, and wondering what the heck we had been up to, going out there without him. And we finally learned the details of his contract.

Hellish Contract Law

Hezeroth listened to our tale and quickly identified the Red One as an Imp – which sounds a bit lesser than we expected, but is no reason to underestimate his prowess.

Hez had gone and learned the contract by heart, and recited it to us. Sadly, it did not contain any loopholes by with to relieve the cat of his obligation to teach a magic user. Indeed, the contract never even mentioned Hezeroth. He had just gotten the order to fulfill a bargain struck between an Evil Cleric called Azequia and a certain Jezgotha, King of Hell, but he himself was not explicitly tied to it.

Jezgotha — that name struck a chord. Hezeroth had spoken of him before, noting that this Jezgotha was immensely powerful. But that only as an aside. So now we knew that he was Hezeroths direct superior, and King of Hell to boot. So Hezeroth himself was a pretty big guy downstairs. (So we were lucky that he was so surprisingly nice for someone in such a position)

The actual contract demanded the following:

• Azequia was to free the infernal Xugrod from its prison
• and open a portal to hell
• and allow access to the land to whatever host of demons Jezgotha deigned to send.
• In return to this steep services, Azequia would be granted the rank of Eldri among the infernals
• and sit at the council of hell until the end of time.

Ambitious.
And troubling.

And no easy way to undermine legally, because the contract was pretty well worded and both parties were willing to fulfill it – at least as far as the host of hell getting into the Western Lands. After that it would not matter much to us.

The lynchpin was that Azequia was willing to do the deed but did not know how. That’s where Hez came in, the teacher.

The next step would be to understand more clearly what Hezeroth personally wanted. We would take that into account. Then there was no way around it, he had to teach Azequia. And then, in the short time frame between us finding Azequia and her opening any portals, we had to take her out. Her existence as a mortal here in the physical lands was the only part of the contract we could tackle.
It did not sound very nice, but ending her life was the single thing that could void the contract and –
– pardon to be dramatic –
– safe the world.

Eyes in the Sky

Speaking with a local druid, Apoqulis learned of a group of druids who were busy in the area, looking for something underground: a buried temple or other subterranean construction. That sounds slightly conspicuous given the presence of the underground prison of Xugrod.

There was a rift: the local druid and the searching druids did not get along well, and did not trust each other, but they were around here somewhere. What was their goal? Was it at odds with that of Azequia or were they friends? Or were they not aligned at all?

We were going to request from the druid that she and her animal/bird friends would help us scout out some details: Where the druids were, where the evil cleric was, what was generally going on in the stronghold (Red Ones, Green Ones), and potential sneaky routes leading up to it.

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