Session #42: Attack of the Burning Barn

Amnon missed the beginning.

Most of this session consisted of the battle with the charnel cinderhouse; most of the monsters were wiped out fairly early, with the skeletal legionaries being mostly non-factors and the vampiric mist (which Ctenmiir was apparently using as a proxy) being destroyed before the party really started to work on the cinderhouse. This proved to be a tough encounter, as the melee-heavy party was faced with an opponent that did large amounts of fire damage to anyone adjacent to it. Every healing power and most second winds were expended; by the end of it all, Cyrus & Shivra were both dying, with Shivra being a few hit points from outright death. The cinderhouse finally fell as a result of the party kiting it to death, working it over with ranged attacks until the horrible thing finally fell, the Doresannic shard within it disintegrating.

After this, the party returned to Falconia, and learned that the guard was being kept largely in Falconia due to the Wintersend Assembly - their odds of receiving help would be slim going forward. They informed Harwick of his wife's fate, Cyrus' Arkohsian delegation was permitted to attend the Wintersend Assembly, and the party learned that Elanath's Tower would be very difficult, if not impossible, to access, though they did not learn the specifics.

Cyrus and Amnon then split from the party; Cyrus to inform his superiors of their granted permission to attend the Wintersend Assembly, and Amnon to head to the Tower of Heiserrah to report to his master, the eladrin Sirilis Starsburden. Sirilis expressed particular interest in examining one of these Doresannic shards, and explained (to Amnon, who was alone) that Elanath's Tower had fallen to darkness as a result of dark experiments performed there. Ctenmiir, she inferred, was the vampiric servant once employed at the tower who had been cursed never to be able to leave it. The tower's builder, Elanath, had relocated to Nogram, the Village of Hermits, and become Elanath the Hermit. Sirilis said that he may know of a way to enter the tower, but that he would be difficult to talk to, as Nogram's inhabitants despise visitors.

We stopped after this, leaving the Falconian contingent of the party's visit to the wizard's guild there for next time. Amnon is on his way back from the Tower of Heiserrah with instructions to recover a Doresannic shard for investigation, and Cyrus has agreed to assist the party further once he has handled his duties with the Arkhosian delegation. Looks like the events of this tier seem to be building to a conclusion...