We last left our heroes getting attacking by four giant bats...
The bats swoop into the parties area and one of them (#4) takes a solid bite out of Gareth - finding the space between armor and neck. Harl charges the bat that but Gareth and stabs it with his spear, pulls it out, and slams the butt of his spear into the bats (#4) forehead. Gareth picks up a handful of stones to enchant and then slashes at the bat (#4) with his scimitar, regardless of the blood leaking from Gareth's neck. Anther of the bats (#1) swoops in closer Harl and Harl allows it to taste tip of his spear before the bat (#1) sinks its teeth into Harl's shoulder drawing a copious amount of blood. Prince Claren takes this opportunity with the bats (#1) back turn and slashes it across its back with his sword. Helestina decides to back up Prince Claren's efforts by rewarding the bat (#1) with a firebolt to the face and the bat reels and screeches with singed fur. Enama takes advantage of commotion and leaps into the air landing a flying punch directly into the bats (#2) face as A'anari lashes out with his whip - shredding one of the bats wings with the crack. Harl catches his breath but the loss of blood and the bats (#4) erratic movements causes Harl's spear point to miss its mark as Gareth launches one of his new enchanted stones at bat (#2) which cracks against the bats (#2) skull that drops the bat (#2) lifelessly to the ground. As Bat (#1) dives toward Harl, Prince Claren lashes out with his sword and in a single stroke - removes the bats (#1) head more efficiently then Ozzy at a concert. Bat (#3) turns its attention towards Harl but Harl is able to bring his shield to bear as the bats claws scratch against the metallic surface as Harl Drops to his knee and ends the life of bat (#4) by running his spear through its jaw and into the bats (#4) brain. On Prince Claren's back swing before the head of bats (#1) head even splashes down in the water, Prince Claren removes the tail off of bat (#3).
Helenista reaches out with some hand gestures and a moment of frost starts to appear over bat (#3) fur before it shakes its body violently and the frost vanishes. The look of shock vanishes over Helestina's face as Enama leaps across the water as she slams the end of her quarterstaff into the bats (#3) head so hard, its head snaps back and it falls backward lifeless in the water.
The party takes advantage of the calm and backtrack into the previous room to rest and lick their wounds. During this time, Harl remains silent for the most part and sits slightly apart with an thousand yard stare and mumbling softly to himself before joining the rest of the party as they pack up and continue their exploration.
The party continues to cautiously explore the beach and river looking for an easy way to cross as the river is fast moving. Gareth spots a bridge that is barely in the line of site and uses a strange reality bending technique to "bend" the bridge to there the party is on the beach. Enama decides to take the lead in crossing the bridges old rotted planks as the rest of the party follows behind. Helenista notices a rather large crocodile circling the bridge as multiple planks crumble and Enama and Prince Gareth are able to keep their toes out of the water and make it across. As the party regroups on the other side they heard multiple boards break as their beloved mule Lady falls into the water and the crocodile goes right for the tasty mule. Almost simultaneously Gareth releases the concentration on his ability and bridge snaps back into its original location as A'nari leaps into the water to fight the crocodile and save Lady. The party makes quick work of the crocodile without incident and everyone spends a few moments fawning over Lady before refocusing on the exploration.
As the party orientates itself, they discover that there is a boathouse off to the right that is close to them, what appears to be a large house off in the distance to the left, and a door set in a stone wall that is directly in front of the party but a good hike over the beach onto firmer ground. It was decided that everyone should investigate the boat house and Enama attempts to open the front door but it is looked. Peering through one of the barred windows Enama explains that she sees a group of skeletons working on building a boat and one of them notices the attempt to enter the door, looks up from the boat work, takes a few steps forward to the door before shaking the skeletons head and returning to the work at hand. The party decides not to disturb the skeletons and their boat building as Shadowgrumble "talks" to Gareth and explains that there is a werewolf to the left. The party decides to take that as a warning and head North through the wall.
The party enters through the the door and find themselves in a wide room that contains a long dead warrior still clad in armor and holding a weapon surrounding by four zombies holding different weapons. The party seized the surprise as the zombies did not immediate react to the parties presence. During the ensuring combat Enama almost got cut down by a battleaxe and everyone noticed that every time Harl's spear made contact with their undead flesh red energy spider webbed just under the undead flesh. In addition to the zombies appeared to go out of their way to attack Harl. After the zombies were put down, Harl placed his hands on Enama's wounds and healed her. The bodies are searched and anything of value is packed away.
The party moves into the next area and they find themselves in a room adorned with three stone coffins and an altar in the corner. It was quickly decided to not touch the stone coffins as Gareth explores the altar and finds an old leather book covered in dust. Gareth blows off the dust off of the cover but the title is so worn that he cannot read it. As Gareth starts to open the book Helenista yells "No" but it is too late and the book is opened. As soon as Gareth looks at the pages a shadow materializes from each of the coffins and swarms the party members. The party is unsure of how effective their attacks are but notice then shreds of shadow fall off the shadows main bodies and vanish into thin air. As soon as Harl made contact with his spear, the same spider webbed red energy in the shadow's mass which causes the other shadow to single minded move towards Harl - this movement allowed the rest of the party members cut down the shadows without much trouble. As the last shadow is driven into nothingness the party takes a quick stock of their wounds as A'nari proudly stood guard over Lady. For all of the trouble, only sixty gold is found in the coffins.
The party does not dally in the now shadowless room and soon finds themselves in a T shaped hallway. The left path appeared to circle around and a alcove was noticed in that direction. The party decided to take the path to the right and discovered a staircase off to one side. As they discussed to descend the staircase, the party was hit with a nauseating stench of rotting flesh and it was decided to come back to the stairs and continue down the eastern passage. Sooner rather then later the party finds themselves in an area adorned with a chest on the table, wooden debris thrown across the floor, and a pale gaunt figure laying on a rotting straw mat facing the wall. The eyes on Harl's spear seem to glow a little bright and Harl reaches out with his hand and lets a crackling burst of purple and black energy fly but the energy misses the figure and displaces parts of the straw mat. This action causes the pale gaunt figure to stir, stand up, and charge at the offending Harl as the gaunt figure growls in frustration.
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PLAYER NOTES: I have to say, the combat with the bats was really intense as two of the bats almost took out Gareth and Harl with a single bite. The DM's dice went cold and everyone was able to escape without anyone dying. After this encounter, we all had enough experience to make it to level 2 and the DM decreed we needed to take a short or long rest to take advantage of the level up and that causes everyone to retreat into the previous room for more safety. During this downtime, Harl has a vision of the Raven Queen offering him power in lie of his Service and Harl agrees and is flooded with new power.
Gareth is a Psionist that the DM home brewed and the trick with the bridge was one of the psychic abilities. It was hilarious that everyone (except the DM) forgot that we hade the Mule Lady with us until the DM announced it failed its save and ended up in the water with the crocodile. After this incident, everyone became hilariously aware of Lady and it was a side focus to keep the mule out of harms way and made sure that one of the party members was leading Lady. I am really interested in if Lady is going to survive what the DM has called this side quest, "The Belly of the Beast."
When the shadows popped out of the stone coffins I was really worried that we were going to lose someone had shadows are very difficult to deal with at low levels. The magic users had an advantage in this combat but what really helped the party survive is the DM's dice went cold and the shadows did not land a single hit on anyone. After this recent combat with more undead, it became obvious that Harl's spear possessed some magic but was also cursed and the undead seem to go out of their way to try to take a bite out of Harl.
The level up really saved the parties bacon in the later encounters and opened up some more options. In addition, this session I felt like all of the players really started to hit their stride and the characters are getting more comfortable working as a team and more active.
Though, I feel like we missed out on some really great interactions with NPCS like the skeletons building the boat, whatever was in the mansion down the beach, and the werewolf. We were clipping a long at a good pace and making cautious decisions (<--- which is a good thing).
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