Soggy Bottom Boys

September 25th, Albanus 1

The morning after their meeting with the Praetor, the band joined Oshan for the trip abroad.  The magus explained that he had two goals.  First, he needed to go to Dulsanius -- hopefully for only a brief period.  When Oshan fled Dulsanius (after his brother Ardashek murdered their father Ardashevrik and replaced him as the God King), the lord of Dun Amer aided his escape.  Oshan hadn't spoken to lord Breshev and his wife, Alafia, since then.  Recently he'd heard rumors that his brother learned of Breshev's "treachery" and punished him for it.  The magus had tried to contact his friends through sendings, but could not reach Breshev, Alafia, or their eldest son Darshev.  Teshan, their second son, responded -- but only to curse Oshan and tell him never to speak to him again.  Oshan wasn't sure what (if anything...) he could accomplish in Dulsanius.  But he had to go to Dun Amer and see what had happened.

After that, he wanted to spend a couple days in Sobel Ka.  There were two reasons for this visit.  First, Sobel Ka was a great trading nation and Oshan wished to arrange the sale of a number of magical items he'd made.  Second, there might be word of Breshev, Alafia, and Darshev.  Dulsanian refugees generally fled to Rostilla and Sobel Ka.  

The first order of business was to help Oshan think things through.  Clearly, the idea of returning home rattled the wizard;  he wasn't entirely sure what he hoped to accomplish, and what precautions he ought to take.  After much discussion the band worked out a plan -- and gave Oshan some suggestions for ways to make his life safer.

Under the cover of illusions, the party teleported into a canyon a couple miles north of Dun Amer.  Dulsanius turned out to be a waterless, desert country.  Distressingly cold, too.  They marched south past shrivelled weeds and dried grass until they came to a small port city.  Dun Amer had no defensive walls -- merely arches and a small ceremonial fence to mark the edges of the town.  As they neared, they saw something odd.  The main road leading into town had been marked off.  Small stones surrounded the last 200 feet before the gate.  Clusters of women knelt at the edges of this boundary, praying and lighting candles.  And there were a distressing number of crows hoping about, pecking at things...

Coming closer, the party found that the "things" were bits of bone.  That entire section of the street was covered with shattered skeletons, some of which still had scraps of flesh.  Severus, who spoke Dulsanian, went up to one of the women and asked what had happened here.

She related a grim tale -- one the God King had ordered them to tell to all of the curious.  When the God King's treacherous brother Oshan sought to flee Reese's wrath, Breshev Lord of Dun Amer aided his escape.  Many God Kings would have levelled the city for this treachery.  But this day Reese was merciful.  He lined his troops up around the edges of the road into town, then ordered that the eldest child of each family should come out to meet him, bearing a lily (a flower sacred to the Weeping Woman, and symbolizing surrender and submission).  The city did as it was commanded;  Breshev's own son, Darshev, led the youths.  When they walked out into the army, Ardashek closed the gates and proceeded to trample them with his chariot.  Any who sought to flee were forced back by the soldiers.  When all of the children lay dead and the road was soaked with blood, Ardashek ordered Dun Amer to remember his mercy and praise it to any stranger who came.

The party all agreed that Dulsanius had just placed itself high on the list of "Evil Countries that Need to be Smacked Down".  (As a side note, I look forward to the day when you finally visit Insula Mollita and Fransk, the two necromantic kingdoms.  Getting Titus in and out of them safely would be a real adventure!)

As Oshan stood, dazed and sickened by this tale, young Marius noted something unusual.  One wizened crone seemed to pay close attention to the Prince's reaction.  Oshan asked the priest if he could find Darshev's body in amongst the carnage, and Marius replied yes, with a prayer he knew.  Before the boy prayed, however, Titus walked over and stood beside the suspicious hag.  She immediately began prattling at him in Dulsanius and holding out her hand.  The paladin smiled and nodded politely, not understanding a word of this.

Marius and Severus walked into the road -- drawing appalled stares from the women around it.  But as they approached Darshev's bones, four shadowy snakes rose up out of the ground:  shadow asps.  The old woman promptly stopped smiling and started to chant in Dulsanian.  A moment later, she disappeared.

Severus immediately picked up his younger brother and charged back out of the bonefield.  Corvina whipped up one of her new, improved fireballs and singed all of the serpents.  As the snakes boiled forward, Titus stepped between them and Oshan.  But he was only partially successful.  Two of the asps stopped to attack him, while the other two slithered around his ankles towards the mage.  Gaius attempted to add "snake-stapler" to his resume, only to discover that half of his arrows passed harmlessly through the incorporeal creatures.  Leyna, meanwhile, was more worried about the vanishing crone.  She reminded Oshan that Alive could see invisible, then rushed over to where the hag had been.  A second later, Oshan dispelled the invisibility spell, and the oldster appeared in front of Leyna -- giving the fighter a good, solid target to aim at.  Marius (recovering his dignity after Severus put him down) called down the Gods' blessings on the group.

The asps struck both Oshan and Titus, and they felt their strength drain out of them.  Corvina dropped another fireball into the melee.  It lightly singed both the mage and her brother -- but it also destroyed two of the hard-to-hit serpents.  A flurry of blows eventually brought down the other two, leaving the party slightly weakened, but essentially fine.  On the other side of the melee, Severus jumped on the crone as Leyna waded in, blade swinging.  The Count successfully got the old girl in a head-lock -- but she whipped out a poisoned dagger and began trying to saw off one of his hands.  Blow after blow rained down upon her from Leyna... yet this "old woman" seemed remarkably tough.  Leyna finally did dispatch her, before she could stab Severus.  And when they removed "her" hood, "her" body shifted into the corpse of a thin, disreputable-looking man.  An assassin, sent by King Ardashek to watch for his brother, no doubt.

The party quickly grabbed Darshev's bones and the old woman's belongings, then teleported back to Viridistan before the city guards made it out to them.  There they rested and healed, and prepared to head to Sobel Ka on the next morning.