Session 8

On their way out of the cave, the party encountered a gigantic form of the ice creatures they had been fighting. They immediately braced themselves for combat, but found that they creature had a desire to speak with the halfing. Speaking in broken common, it referred to itself and its collective as the Izer, and was grateful to Aravo Zacksted for freeing them from the mind control they had been under. He wished to repay Aravo, and asked Aravo what it was he most desired. Aravo asked for something of value in gold, and he was gifted with several precious ice gems. The creature then said that the Izer would be traveling north, to the All-Frosts, as they would die if they remained here for long. They parted on amicable terms.

The party found the denizens of McTint slowly returning to the town and getting back to work. They were dazed and confused but attributed it to a long night of partying, not remembering what truly had befallen them. They were also reunited with Fenris, who seemed slightly embarrassed for losing control of himself.

The party prepared to leave McTint and return to Auria, but where cut off as the road become full of Astraea soldiers. They were moving north, en route for a battle with Solon forces. The party was left with little choice but the wait for the soldiers to move through and the road to clear up. They noticed that one of the carts was being pulled, instead of by horses, by an old man. The old man was muscular and seemed to have little trouble with the cart, but it was clear but the way he was being treated that he was a slave. Several members of the party discussed if there might be any way to aid the man. Zathras tried to divine a solution, but learned that the man wished not be freed. Skarl Hrolfson was satisfied with this, saying there was nothing they could do for a man who wished not freedom.

Before they could depart, however, the man beckoned to Aravo. Aravo approached him, and the old man told him that he could sense evil on Aravo's person, a great and powerful evil, and he wished to know what was causing it. Aravo saw no harm in showing the old man the artifact, if just to sooth the old man's concerns that Aravo was up to no good. The man insisted that the artifact be destroyed at once. When asked how he proposed to do that, he told Aravo to drop it. Aravo did, and with a mighty stomp that cracked the earth itself the old man crushed the artifact. With that business settled, he returned to his slave-duties without much more world to Aravo.

The road eventually cleared up and the party pressed onwards to Auria. Along the way, Fariman's horse nearly tripped over a man laying outstretched in the middle of the road. It was Icabob Trainor, the monster hunter. He was using a spyglass to watch a lone cow grazing in a field. He insisted that the cow was evil and it was stalking him, and was somehow connected the conspiracy that he suspected was going on in Auria. The group decided to investigate the cow and learned that it indeed was giving off magical auras. Despite this, Fariman tried to milk it, at which point the cow turned into a quite enraged (and male) minotaur. The party engaged the minotaur and were successful in slaying it. Icabob was distraught, however, as his biggest lead in the Auria conspiracy was now dead. He told the party to be gone so he could examine the body for whatever clues remained. They gladly obliged and continued on their way to Auria.

They reached Auria without much other incident. The Arena was winding down, the last match was about to start, so the line in front of the city had dissolved. They returned to the church, on the way encountering Bastion and his Crusaders, as well as Marcus Hildebrand , with whom they had a less than warm reunion. Marcus had warned Bastion about the evil growing in the east, and he would accompany the crusade on a mission in the Dead Marshes to investigate and scout the Southlands. The party wished Bastion luck and continued into the church.

They met with the Scioni and Trinity  Splinter Faction representatives in the usual spot under the church. They recounted their mission through the destruction of the artifact. Marion and Paris  were disappointed to hear that they had destroyed it, but Lancaster  approved. They were told to take some time off to rest and recover within the bounds of Auria and return when they were ready for their next mission.

The party decided to catch the final arena match. After placing some bets, they got to witness a battle between two of the strongest combatants the arena has ever seen: The Golden Knight and the Hell of the East. It was an intense match that lasted several hours, but eventually Golden Knight proved victorious. Afterward, the party joined in the celebratory activities around town. When it came time to rest, they decided to look up Raven and used him to spend a night within the palace.

After resting properly and preparing themselves, they returned for their next mission. They were told about the old legend of the Red Prince, the fairytale about a prince who went mad and doomed his entire kingdom to undeath do to the loss of his love before it all sunk into the sea. They were told that Paris didn't think it was just legend and it was possible that there was a demonic artifact deep in the waters of the sea with the capability of raising mass numbers of undead. Paris thought he had pinpointed the general location where the kingdom had sunk and wanted to the party to investigate. They would need to travel north, through the Stolle Forests, where they would be a Scioni contact who would provide them with a method of traversing the ocean floor.

They went north with few problems, until they were deep in the forests. There they encountered a pair of rangers, who told them the way forward was barred because it was mating season for many of the animals and their presence may disturb them. Fariman swore on his family name that they would not hinder the wildlife, to which the rangers sounded surprised that there was any of that family alive. They explained that some time ago, the Fariman clan had tried to stand up to Solon forces who were performing experiments on the animals of the forest. The clan had been virtually annihilated in the process. The only survivors would be women and children, who have now been spread and likely joined up with other clans. This was all news to Fariman, whom Li'liok had never informed of any of this. Skarl eventually got them past the rangers by swearing a blood oath that they would not hinder the wildlife, cutting his hand to prove his word. The rangers were so surprised by the strange custom they felt no choice but to take his word for it.

They met with their Scioni contact, an impatient gnome inventor. He had a couple of inventions to assist the party with its mission. First he showed them his buoyancy rings, which allows someone wearing it to become super buoyant or non-buoyant based on what hand it is worn on. He also provided them with mouth pieces which would provide them with oxygen while they were underwater. They took a boat he provided out to the spot where Paris thought the sunken city would be and dived in.

It didn't take them long to locate what they were looking for: The massive palace of the Red Prince loomed in front of them, protected from the water surrounding it by some kind of magical bubble. The party passed into the bubble and entered the castle. Inside the castle they were assaulted by all manner of zombies and ghosts. They found that the way forward was blocked by a door containing the slots for four emblems, and they deduced that to get this door open they would need to found these emblems. As of the end of this session, the party's searches around the palace have succeeded in locating two emblems.