The Plains

As night falls in the plains your feet start to grow weary and wet from the constant slushing through the plains lands. Having made the cross over from the western forest to the eastern forest you now believe youre on the right path towards the caverns after having originally been lost the day before.

Ahead of you is the eastern forest, and ever so slightly in the horizon the Thulon Mountain range has finally poked out in a beginning sight of its splendor for all three of you to see. The mountains have a bright orange color to them from the waning of the sunlight. You feel as though a half of days travel is all that you may need to reach the mountain range, and afterwords the caverns await, somewhere.


As you begin to travel forward you begin to notice a weird ambient light coming from out of the forest. Its bright enough that even now in the outskirts of the forest you can see this cyan color shine through the trees. You try to listen for any sound but notice that the only thing you can hear is a few critters crawling about but even then, the animal noise seems to have died down significantly.

You run through the forest, nimbly avoiding the jagged branches and brush as you search for the source of the light. Along the way you start to notice some of the trees visibly wilting, even if its slight. This all comes to a point where you reach a small 20 foot clearing that has been blackened with dead rotting grass and plants with a wilted stump in the middle and a man reciting some sort of verse to a makeshift statue that lies on the stump that appears to be made out of bone. At the base of the true is a couple slain squirrels and rabbits, arranged in a way to look like its an offering. Blue Light envelops both of his hands as he recites his passages. The air around you begins to feel dry and cold, like the essence is attempting to weasel its way in to suck the life out of you.

He turns around and a shrieking voice beckons out of the man "You dare defile my ascension to Acolyte? Your corpses will please the Forgotten Lady". His face is an ashen pale, with his eyes somewhat tinted red unnaturally. One of his hands now glows green as he picks up a quarterstaff. The blue glow begins to envelop this as well and both lights illuminate his tattered bloody robes.

Please Roll Initiative

Awenasa watch out!

Dammit I knew it!!!

The mage moves back a bit towards the edge of the clearing before swinging their staff towards the ground. Some of the blue light falls to the ground where it was swung. After a few moments the blue light fades as the ground breaks open and a crude skeleton pulls itself out of the ground, brandishing a sword.

The first strike of your rapier cuts through the weakened bone like a hot knife through butter. As the Skeleton begins to fall to the ground the second strike makes sure the Skeleton is done as the strike launches the skeletons head into the forest.

Elons long sword comes down and mortally slashes through the mages chest, who cries out in agony. Perhaps due to his convulsions, the magic stone harmlessly launches by, missing the mage and hitting a nearby dead tree and skipping off into some leaves.

Blood coming out of the side of the mouth of the mage, he manages to lift his left arm and a gust of noxious gas shoots towards Elon.

Skeleton is Slain

Mage has taken 10 points of damage.

Elon make a constitution throw.

It is now everyones turns, regardless of the result of the throw

The gas enters into your lungs and creates a volatile burning sensation inside of you that causes you to lose your breath, knocking you unconscious, taking 12 damage

Awanesa you attempt to cure the plants and give them life but are only partially able to do so, with some of the plants being permanently wilted by some magical force.

Leif you are start searching the ruins and dont find much of value on the mage outside of a small pouch containing 6 gp. The statue near you glows a pure white light.

the stone cracks the statue and the light arcs and imbues you, filling you with ancient knowledge and expertise. It seems like it was harmless and had no adverse effect on you, but you feel as though your natural abilities have gotten stronger.

Each of you gains 300 XP, which should be enough to level you up

Level 2
HD 2d10

New ability:

I always thought I can from someone I’ve just never known who. I’ve never met anyone quite like me. From a very young age, I was in nature. I’ve never known anything else. I’ve encountered towns but I hate them. Too many people and too much deceit. Nature never lies.

The night goes on without too much of a stir. While each of you keep watch though you get a feeling that you're being watched or that you're in the presence of something. The hairs on your neck twitch ever so slightly

Elon you smell a rotten smell, quite the same as the one before you slayed the mage. The ground around you has been desecrated, which is overwhelming to your nose but yet something else picks up as well with an equally as foul odor.

Awenasa you dont seem to notice much when you actively search your surroundings.

Day begins to break, and although sleep may have been peaceful, the watch was eerily haunting for all of you as you had taken your turn to watch over the group. When morning comes, the nauseating smell that you had been sensing Elon will have dissipated. It may be of such noxious odor that you may think you're still smelling it, but at this point its most likely your brain remembering the scent.

The ground has healed some, but it looks as though some of the ground is permanently desecrated by whatever magic or being was being called upon. Some animal noises can finally be heard in the vicinity when originally it was almost pitch quiet if not for the light wind rattling the leaves of the living trees and the branches of the dead ones.

As you try to recover the area it seems as though you've done as much as you can with your power. There seems to be residue left over by whatever was being practiced here that doesn't seem to go away with ease

In awhile you approach a massive mountain range, which Elon and Leif would know as the Thulon mountain range. . The grandeur of the Thulon Mountains is quite a sight. The mountains are much more jagged and knife like than any other mountain range youve had the chance to come across. The peaking stone jutts like daggers towards the sky. Some say the mountains were a result of an ancient battle between pantheon long forgotten to this world and time. The tan and dark brown of the mountains shines in its splendor as a cool midday sun radiates overhead the range. An arch goes over the top of a valley like opening through the middle of the mountain range. This is a man made pathway developed many years ago by a mining contingent from Rock's Haven. The tracks youve been following seem to split at this point. Some head towards the middle pathway while some seem to jut off to the right

They both appear to be from the same time meaning whoever had made these tracks had split up on purpose. It looks like the path diverting right was setting up to flank something ahead of you guys

You get close and you can tell from the footprints there are some signs of struggle. The ground in between the mountain range is littered with dried splotches of blood. Some areas still feature some wet spots because of how much pooled in places but you could surmise someone or something died here by the amount of blood loss

You come across some bodies disposed of off to the side of the mountains. A quick look at them shows they have recently passed, but they are not freshly dead. Their clothes look a little scattered, as if someone had been searching through them for something.

I investigate the bodies to see if any clues or anything remain.

It appears that whoever searched through these bodies left behind a small ledger in one of the mans pockets. The small leather bound pocket book is hard to read on some pages as it appears smeared by water which has allowed some of the ink to run off on the pages. You do notice towards the back what appears to be a slight note containing the following:

The rest of the scene appears picked clean

Awanesa you notice that one set of tracks goes back where you came from but you notice the same tracks, and those of others leading further into the mountain range. One separate set of tracks seems to go back as well but goes towards the right in the direction of one of the two previous forests youve trekked along on your journey to here.

As you guys walk in you see the camp area to your right in the mountain side. A little bit of the embers still remain but it appears to have been put out with some kicked dirt and what not.

The path forward through the mountain is carved out by some miners from previous excursions. It will be wide enough for you to cross but it leaves you in a vulnerable position as you make your way through the mountain side.

Its slightly after midday when you reach the caverns area of Arathus. The cutout leads you to a huge cliffside where a path is carved out serpentine style down the side of the cliff. The ground feels solid enough that a trek forward wouldnt seem dangerous, but it is slightly narrow so you may find it somewhat uncomfortable that a fall of well over 400 feet awaits you if you carelessly stumble off the side.

A step forward and a look below is a breathtaking sight. Below is a bay of water, with waves crashing onto the sides of the rocks. To your left the bay turns into the Arathian Ocean. Out way far in the distance from your height you can see the masts of some merchant ships bobbing across the choppy waters. To your right is an embankment made of sand and loose rock that fell off the cliffs. The serpentine pathway splits to go both to this embankment, as well as one path that leads across to the other side of the bay and another path made by miners presumably to explore some of the various caves and caverns that eat into the cliff side like cavities.

You notice some muddled steps that lead up to one particular cavern. The steps seem a little dusted away so its hard to notice anything on the ground that could lend a hint other than they stop becoming traceable once they reach a cavern.

You notice a couple crudely made carts containing rocks in them. There is powder on the rocks, and on the equipment that looks like something was used to blast their way into the caverns.

Perception rolls for Leif and Awanesa.

Perception

I look around, carefully.

You both notice on the rocks some carvings. At first glance to an unwary traveler it may seem as though they are nothing more than sketches or coincidence but theres a particular feeling youre getting by looking at them that they seem to be of more purpose than mere sketches.

The runic symbols seem to indicate the rocks are imbued with some kind of magic. It takes you a moment to look around before noticing the caverns have various cavities in the sides of the walls where these rocks could possibly go into. You deduce that the rocks could be some sort of key system.

You notice that some of them do, but that there are also many more cavities than there are stones. Sometimes even, you come to find that a stone could fit into more than one cavity itself.

As you venture deeper into the cave you hear some shuffling of steps coming from the location of the cart. A quick glance on the sides of the cave show silhouettes of what appears to be atleast 2 or 3 individuals.