The party was asked by Anton Vyrlich to deliver Lord Kell's written response to the elves at their camp outside the village of Hillsreach. As they made their way along the road to Hillsreach to deliver the letter, they came upon a brutal scene. Dame Astrid's hunting party had been ambushed. As they hurried to the sound of her hunting horn, they came upon the aging and badly outnumbered knight singlehandedly holding several skeletal and zombie creatures at bay as all the other members of her group lay dead around her, as well as a score of undead animals.
With their strength added to hers, they were able to overcome the last of the undead hodags and owlbears and regroup. Dame Astrid explained that soon after heading out on a hunting trip, she and her daughter and their retainers were set upon by a small army of undead, led by what appeared to be some kind of humanoid creature they had never seen before. They had taken Abbie off into the woods somewhere, and she must be rescued!
Astrid told them to seek out the elves while she returned to Hillsreach for the rest of her gear. She believed the elves had information about these creatures, as the increased frequency of undead had driven the elves out of their isolation. She would meet up with them as soon as she was prepared. She told them to follow a series of ravines into the woods, and they would find the elven camp.
They set out to meet the elves of the Valinesti clan, and reached their campsite after an hour of travel on foot. The treacherous ground gave way as they went, causing some of the party to fall into a ravine and take a bit of damage.
The emissaries were a high druid, Ghaelvwynne, and a ranger, Baelen. As Moghash and Donaghast conducted the parlay, some tense words were exchanged between the half-orc and the druid, who would often look at the half-orc suspiciously as the discussion unfolded.
The elves explained that strange-looking humanoids were encroaching upon their lands and killing the creatures of the forest, which they would then raise as undead minions. The humanoids looked vaguely like four armed goblins and tentacled hobgoblins. One band of humanoids had ventured into the elves' sacred lands, which were taboo to enter except to bury the dead. The elves were concerned that the humanoids might find their burial grounds and try to raise their ancestors as undead horrors. They reached out to Lord Kell, a half-elf, for assistance, and made a promise to him in return, which they did not disclose to the party. As Ghaelvwynne read the letter the party had delivered to her, she nodded. The deal had been struck.
She directed the party to toward the burial grounds, and asked them to make all haste, for if the humanoids were so bold as to attack Hillsreach, they must have a base of operations- quite likely the caves where her clan's dead were interred!
The party made their way into the sacred lands and encountered zombie pegasi, an opportunistic kelpie, and eventually, an ambush party of the four-armed goblins.
After overcoming each obstacle, they reached the caves that served the elves as their burial grounds. Before they could enter, though, a still badly wounded Dame Astrid had caught up to them at last. She had reached the elves, who told them where the party had gone, and she had then followed along.
As they entered, the were set upon by the remnants of the goblins that had fled their prior encounter, as well as several undead dire porcupines. Hearing a shriek off in the darkness, Dame Astrid raced off to find her daughter. As soon as the goblins and porcupine zombies were dealt with, the party followed after and came upon another scene of battle.
Dame Astrid was engaged in battle with the tentacled hobgoblin creature, and as the party converged on the battle, Dame Astrid was brought down by the creature. The party quickly engaged, and after what was the most challenging fight of their adventuring careers, they defeated the tentacled aberration. It had lashed out at all of them with poisoned tentacles and claws, wounding them badly, and even managing to slay the paladin, Donaghast, with a particularly devastating barrage of attacks.
In the aftermath of the battle, they freed Abbie of her bonds and gathered up the fallen. The half-orc made sure that the hidden toms were intact, and they made their way back to Hillsreach. As they passed the place of the elven camp, they took note that the elves had alreaady gone, but to where they did not know.
Upon their return to Hillsreach they began to make preparations for sending Donaghast's body to the Redeemers in Yorvik, while Abbie began the process of transporting her mother's body to their family crypt in Logash for a proper burial.
The party then made their way back to Hannsport to report what had happened-- success, but at a great cost!
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