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Diomedes: IWD Update 2

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atcDave

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An exciting moment as we marched out with the expedition. Hrothgar seemed to be a good leader, no doubt energetic and commited to helping a neighboring town. We had not only seen most of the expedition members around town the last couple days, but obviously many of them were old friends.

Which made the tragedy of it so bitter. An avalanche started up high as we walked through a valley. My team was right near the front talking with Hrothgar when we saw something (someone?) up a slope, and snow just sort of broke loose in their wake. Hrothgar yelled at everyone to hurry, hurry! He held fast yelling to his companions. I first stood back with him yelling and gesturing towards the others. As Psyche ran by me, Hrothgar gave me a shove and said “get your team out of here!”

I complied and we made it. But no one else did. It was just the six of us. Rookie adventurers. Still several hours out from Kuldahar.

We had made it to the last pass, Kuldahar Pass.

It was overrun with nasty Goblins.

We battled several different groups of the little guys. And a group of orcs had laid claim to a Mill. We saw evidence of the slaughtered owners, and routed out the orcs. And some more goblins.

In the main equipment room we found a young boy hiding in a storage closet. Shuri coaxed him out. We learned he was Jermsey.

From here it was about an eight hour hike into Kuldahar.

We arrived none the worse for wear. But sadly for this small town, we were all the help that would arrive.
Our first order of business led to us meeting Arundel, the arch-Druid. He had asked for help, that we would gladly provide to our utmost. He reported strange weather patterns, monsters in the area, and several locals had disappeared including the priestess of the Temple of Ilmater.

He thought the source of trouble might be a tribe of yeti, and restless undead in the nearby Vale of Shadows. An old burial ground. We agreed to check it out in the morning.
For now, it was late afternoon and we were tired. It seemed prudent to explore around the small town with what remained of the day.

A father and son practicing archery. They had little information for us, but it is good to make friends as we travel!
We got some chow at the Root Cellar Tavern. A hospitable place. Except one of the barmaids, by the name of Lysan, seemed more like a blast of frigid air.
“What, I was just trying to be friendly.”
“Right buddy, you tell yourself that!”

After eating, we set out for the Inn to get some sleep.

We had an encounter with a spectral boar. It reacted to abroken tusk Shuri had picked up earlier. It claimed the tusk, and seemed to impart some of its strength on her.

The next day we set out towards the Vale of Shadows.

We were barely at the edge of town when had our first run in with some cranky yeti.

We continued into the Vale, and had a few more yeti to fight.

We also explored several ancient tombs. No doubt the dead were restless!

There were four smaller tombs, before we found a single much larger one at the far end of the Vale.

After shattering a horde of skeletons and zombies, we encountered a more articulate sort. He introduced himself as Mytos. We explained our situation, seeking the source of trouble for Kuldahar.

He denied knowledge, but refused us entry to investigate. Naturally this came to blows. We destroyed Mytos and a number of undead guardians he had with him. The evil was plainly detectable here, but we were finding no clear connection to the problems of Kuldahar.
We explored deeper into the tomb, at least two levels down.

The undead grew more dangerous too. We faced mummies, wights and undead spellcasters.
What we hadn’t planned on was Psyche using so much of her almost forgotten thieving skills. We had tripped a few traps so far and suffered minor injuries. But now Pryche was growing more confident in her old skills and traps bothered us less as we went deeper into the tomb.
We finally stood before The Black Wolf himself, an ancient warrior named Kresselack. He offered us information if we chased off an Aurilite priestess who had paid unwelcome visits to his tomb.

This was unexpected. Auril, the Frostmaiden is a frightening goddess of unrelenting winter. Such could explain *some* of the troubles besetting Kuldahar. Psyche mentioned a yeti cave we cleared several hours ago had shown some signs of human usage. So we trekked back to it to see what we could find.

HAH! Yeah, well, apparently Lysan really was a frigid piece of work.

We put an end to her reign of terror, apparently she really had put a curse on this valley. It had made many of the dead restless, several ghostly images appeared and thanked us for their return to peace. We reported back to Kresselack and he was appreciative. But the information he gave was a bit underwhelming. He claimed to only know that nothing in this valley was the true source of evil facing Kuldahar.
Garaint grumbled that he’d just taken advantage of us to remove *his* problem. No doubt, there was a shred of truth to that. But I reminded him Lysan brought trouble too, and we would have needed to deal with her anyway.

We headed back to town with only a minor piece of information. Arundel suggested we head off to a forgotten old temple, that had split from the druids of Kuldahar a generation ago. They may know more of what was going on.

Finally Psyche visited a small outfitter and got some gear more fitting to her now expanded role on the team. No doubt we need her, she counts as two of us! [gushing newlywed husband is narrating]

In the morning we’ll head off to the Forgotten Temple.

*****

I sort of liked how Psyche unlocking her thief abilities worked so well in this case. If we figure she hadn’t practiced thieving since she was 12, it makes sense it might take a while for her to remember what she once knew. And it clearly justifies a different look for her!

A few of these renders are moments from Lava’s “Rediscovery of Kuldahar” mod. A lot of little encounters and mini-adventures. I really like how it brings the little town to life more. What some gamers may not like is it is enough of a boost in experience that you will likely set out for the Vale of Shadows with your whole team at 3rd level. That does make everything before Kresselack’s Tomb a bit of a walkover. We entered that tomb at 5th level, and were all 6th level by the time we were done (Psyche is still only 5th) which I think is more on target (the experience boost in Kuldahar is *small* in an absolute sense).

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