The Mournland By Air
In The News
Sharn Inquisitive: Sul 15 Vult – Front Page
Silver Flame Head Found Dead – Archieophant of the Silver Flame in Sharn, Ythana Morr, was found dead last Zol evening. Her body was found skewered on a lightpost in the lower city. A night watchman made the grisly find during his nightly patrol.
The watch is investigating the matter, but there isn’t much to go on. It is not uncommon for falls to claim the lives of Sharn citizens, but the watch has not ruled out foul play. Arvellus ir'Kren, high priest of the Cathedral of the Cleansing Flame, told the Inquisitive that Ythana always carried a featherfall amulet with her at all times and he found the death highly suspicious.
Astar Kemlat will replace Morr as Archieophant, and is currently the only suspect under investigation in the matter.
Chronicle
The dead gray mist hung before them like the veil between life and death. The mechanical flapping noise of the dirigible’s wings was the only sound in the still winter air. What lay beyond that wall was a mystery few had lived to solve - yet they were about to make the trip - into the Mournland.
The entire excursion had begun a week earlier. Cora, Thaspar, and Sadie were discussing what they should do with the dirigible they had attained from the late Korman Jorasco. It was costing them a bit of coin to get it stored and repaired, and they wanted to put it to some good use.
Sadie had the idea of putting an ad in the paper, offering the services of them and their craft. Cora agreed that this was an excellent idea (much better than most of Sadie’s ideas (such as selling rat pie)). Within days they had their first customer.
Elaydren d'Vown was as beautiful as ever. Her long yellow hair fell down the silken folds of her billowing blue gown. She had a grace rarely seen outside of elvenkind.
"I'm so glad you're back," she began.
She relayed everything that had happened since she had last seen the party. She had originally hired them several months ago to retrieve a schema from a hidden vault, deep beneath Sharn. At that time, she had wanted the trio to go in search of some other schemas, one of them deep within the Mournland. At the time the dangers of the Mournland, and other things, drew them away.
Since then, Lady d'Vown had sent another group out after the schemas. She relayed that the group had sent word of their success, retrieving a schema from somewhere in Darguun. They had then set out for the Mournland after the second schema. This was some time ago, and they had sent now word since.
Elaydren d'Vown wanted the trio to set out for the Mournland, retrieve the schema that the previous party had on them, and find the third schema, somewhere near the southern tip of the glowing chasm - a large rift in the earth which spewed magical light.
After meeting with Lady d'Vown the party trekked to the library to do some research on the Mournland. They had returned to the Lizard's Mantle and had generally agreed to accept the job first thing the next day.
As they were sitting around a table discussing their dirigible a warforged silently entered the common room. His arms were crafted from shimmering mithral plates, and inlaid with intricately carved silver. The rest of his body was hidden beneath an artisan's smock. He looked curiously around the establishment.
"Grab a chair!" a voice suddenly shot out from the tables. It was Cora. The warforged moved to take a seat with the trio.
It soon came out that the warforged (whose name was Garen) was actually looking for the group. He was a talented artist and artificer, employed by the city of
As it turned out someone with magical craftsmanship, who could maintain their flying machine during their journey was just what they needed, and so a partnership was born. The group spent the rest of the evening chatting and learning about each other. Garen seemed to be very curious, and found the odd behaviour of Cora particularly fascinating.
The next morning they accepted the commission from Lady d'Vown (after talking her up several thousand gold pieces), and purchased supplies. The next day they set of in their dirigible for the Mournland.
Traveling by dirigible was remarkably fast. The flying machine was not as quick as the Lightning Rail, or even the House Lyrander airships, but it could fly all night (with an unsleeping warforged at the helm). In five short days they reached the boundaries of Sharn, and the dead gray mists that blocked entry to what was once the mighty nation of Cyre.
The group stopped to stock up on supplies from a nearby town, and purchased an ample supply of goodberry wine - the only known method of healing within the Mournland. It was exceptionally expensive, even for a small dose.
Hoping that they were prepared for what lie beyond that wall of dead, gray fog, Garen spurned the dirigible onward. Silently the mists parted around them, and invitingly drew them in.
The mist was cold. Not the cold of a bitter winter's day, but a deep cold that seemed to radiate outward from their bones. The mist was oppressive; each of them felt a horrible dread, like the moment when you first truly realize that something terrible is really happening. But slowly, the mist fell away, revealing their first glimpse of the Mournland.
The scarred land before them was worse than anything they had imagined. The black and charred landscape stretched for miles. Huge explosions of fused glass, formed by unimaginable magical energies tormented the earth. Spikes of jagged rock, twisted glass, and broken ridges were all they could see. Everywhere were destroyed villages. Some seemed in pristine condition, as if they had never been touched, while others were burnt husks; and everywhere there were bodies: lying amid villages, or in the fused remnants of their fields. Some were rotting corpses, while others were perfectly preserved - looking up with shock and terror.
As they left the swirling mist of the dead gray fog, Garen noticed another patch of mist, this one behaving strangely. He could see that it was a mass of green and black fog which swirled together. Fanged mouths appeared and disappeared in the cloud and it swirled crazily. He realized that despite the lack of wind it was moving quickly toward them. The warforged found this particularly fascinating, but he also knew it was dangerous; he shouted the alarm and everyone prepared for battle.
As they fired upon it the green mist billowed up and surrounded the dirigible and it inhabitants. Gaseous mouths whirled around them, biting and chomping. The cloud stung as it enveloped them, and they felt the mist draining their very life force. As her comrades swung, slashed, and punched at the thick, almost solid cloud, Cora felt a powerful lethargy come over her. Everything was reeling. She fought back as best she could, but her life was slipping away. But then, suddenly, the cloud lifted and dissipated into the air, as if it had never been there at all.
A quick assessment revealed that Cora and Thaspar were in pretty bad shape. Knowing that nothing heals in the Mournland, the group decided it would be best to retreat to lick their wounds. Not a particularly auspicious beginning to their Mournland incursion.
Thaspar's body could heal remarkably quickly, but it took a bit longer for Cora to recover. After a few days of rest, they were ready to once again pass by the dead gray mist.
As the dirigible lazily floated its way across the barren landscape, everyone grew more and more unsettled, although Garen also seemed to become more curious. As they traveled they saw scorched towns, and dead bodies in fields of jagged rock. They flew over a vast plain. Bursting from the ground were the upper torsos of people. Encased in reddish-black glass their arms stretched upwards, as if clawing desperately at the sky. Blood rained from the sky, and children’s laughter could occasionally be heard in the distance, always turning to screams of agony and terror.
On the second day, as they passed in utter silence, suddenly a cry went up from Garen. He had spotted something that piqued his interest. Below them was a vast battlefield. Battered corpses and horribly rusted warforged lay strewed across a jagged plain. Garen wondered whether he might be able to revive one of the warforged. Although the rest of the group wasn't particularly keen, he managed to convince them to lower him on a rope to the battlefield below.
His feet came to rest amidst a large company of living constructs. They all looked badly damaged, rusted, and probably beyond repair, but he decided to try anyway. Who knows what secrets and knowledge such souls might possess?
First Garen grabbed a couple weapons which he figured were probably magical, and then decided to see who would be best to revive.
Walking up to a warforged who looked a bit more intact he pulled out his wand of Repair Light Damage. A quick wave of the wand did nothing. The construct still lay there: as lifeless as everything else in this accursed waste. A little dejected Garen moved to return to the dirigible - only he could not.
Looking down, the two nearby warforged, rusted and falling apart were holding on to his ankles. They displayed no signs of life now, but their grip was intense. He could not shake them off. This was getting a little creepy. With a shout, Garen signaled his crewmates to pull him up, while he hacked desperately at the arms holding him. In a shower of rusting metal bits the arms broke easily enough and soon Garen was being hoisted into the air. The link broken with their bodies, the hands soon crumbled to rust and fell away.
With Garen back aboard, they were discussing safety precautions for further trips to the ground when Thaspar noticed something funny out of the corner of his eye. He just caught a glimpse for a moment. Where Sadie had once been standing was instead a rotting corpse. It had the same build as Sadie but its putrid flesh was falling off its blackened bones. Suddenly realizing what he had seen he turned, but there was Sadie, nothing unusual about her.
Meanwhile, Sadie had a shock when she noticed that instead of Cora to her right, there was the rotting corpse of a halfling. She looked again, but nothing was amiss. A moment later, she experienced the same thing with Thaspar. Even Garen noticed Cora, then Sadie were walking corpses for a moment, out of the corner of his eye, but were normal when he actually looked. These visions were always sudden and in their peripheral vision, but when they looked straight on, nothing was awry.
They were starting to discuss this new turn of events when Thaspar perceived something. He could tell Sadie was lying about something. She was being dishonest. She was causing all this somehow. In fact, she had always been plotting their demise. He saw it all now. She was pure evil. She could not be trusted.
“I think Sadie is the cause of all this,” he suddenly said, “we need to get rid of her.”
“What”
Everyone tried to discuss this logically, but Thaspar was getting more and more agitated. He was getting very angry – which was quite unusual for the normally calm and austere monk.
Then Cora had an idea. She rummaged through her pouch for a certain vial. Several months ago when they had infiltrated the Boromar clan’s warehouse, she had taken a liquid from a distilling apparatus. Testing it with a little sip, she found that it had made her feel calm. Now, she figured this was just what Thaspar needed to calm his nerves.
“Here, take this,” she insisted.
“What is it?” Thaspar replied.
“Just drink it. It will calm you down.”
Reluctantly Thaspar drank the contents of the vial, and was pleasantly surprised. He found it tasted exactly like pineapple ice-cream, the most delicious food he could think of. What’s more, it was like the mouth watering ice cream he used to eat back in his youth in Arenal. As he drank the delicious fluid, a strange calm came over him. He wasn’t worried about Sadie any more. In fact, he wasn’t worried about anything any more. Everything would be all right. Why bother getting upset. He sat down against the gunwale of the dirigible and sighed contentedly. In a few minutes he had totally lost consciousness.
The next morning Thaspar awoke with the most excruciating headache imaginable. It felt like his brain had imploded, and tiny fire elementals were tearing at it from the inside out with flaming pitchforks. He felt really uptight, and all he wanted was some more of that potion that Cora had given him. He desperately wanted some more. He had to have some more!
In the meantime, however, Cora had come to an unpleasant realization. After observing Thaspar’s reaction, and with her experience on the streets of Sharn, she now knew exactly what that potion was. It was dreamily. Dreamily was a drug well known on the streets of Sharn. It made you happy – you didn’t worry about anything anymore, and was mildly addictive. This particular dreamily, however, seemed extremely potent. Thaspar’s reaction was stronger than any she had ever seen, and was in line with the strongest dreamily overdoses. His intense craving for the drug the next morning confirmed her fears. Thus, after conversing with Sadie, she decided to lie and say that there was no more of the drug.
This left Thaspar feeling miserable.
As the day progressed the feeling in Thaspar’s brain diminished from agony to extreme pain, but he still desperately wanted some more of that potion. He was just about to ask Cora again, just to be sure, when Garen shouted that he had seen something below.
Just ahead of the dirigible, on the ground, was a covered carriage. There were no signs of life around it, and the door hung open just slightly. It was creaking and thumping against the doorframe, manipulated by some breeze that they could not feel. The entire scene looked dangerous, but they also knew that the previous group had come here in a similar vehicle, so they had to check it out – in case the schema was inside.
This time, they lowered Sadie on a rope to the ground. There was no sound, save the creaking of the coach door. There was still no sign of a breeze. Very cautiously Sadie crept up to the coach. Looking around she reached forward to open the door.
Suddenly she felt a hand on her shoulder.
Spinning around she saw the gaunt face of a man. He was pale and thin, his arm was long and spindly. He mouth hung open, but worst of all were his eyes. Instead of eyes, there were hollow, gaping sockets.
Sadie panicked. Shouting to her friends she ran, and was pulled up to the dirigible as quickly as possible. Once inside, they peered down, but saw no sign of the man; just the solitary coach, standing in the midst of a glassy plain.
Steeling her courage, Sadie decided to return, this time with Cora. Both were lowered down. Once again, everything appeared normal. Everything was eerily silent, save the coach door. They approached together.
Then, Sadie once again felt the hand on her shoulder. It was the same man. His eyeless sockets bored into her soul. His mouth fell open awkwardly, and he mouthed only two words:
“Turn back.”
Then, suddenly, Cora and Sadie found themselves surrounded by three figures. Their hearts racing with terror the pair took their assailants in. Two men, and one elvish woman, who might have once been beautiful. All were ghostly pale and gaunt. All had deep sunken sockets where their eyes had once been. This was what remained of the previous Mournland expedition.
The female grabbed Cora and moaned, “Turn back.” As the words came from the elf’s mouth Cora saw the skin around the woman’s mouth begin to rot. Her lips peeled back and yellowed teeth fell from her festering gums. The skin of her face turned green, and the rot spread over her entire body. The same happened to all three of the figures standing there. The bodies rotted away before their eyes, collapsing into lifeless corpses, still clinging to Cora and Sadie. Soon there was nothing left but small chunks of rotting flesh and their skulls, with tiny bits of tissue still attached. From the eye socket of the woman a tiny trickle of blood spilled out onto the earth. Seeping out, the blood flowed onto the earth to form two words:
Turn Back.
Cora and Sadie stood motionless in the sudden stillness. It was a long time before they moved. Cora searched the inside of the coach, while Sadie stood guard. Cora easily found the schema they were after, tucked under the seat of the coach, and with no delay they were being hoisted back up to the dirigible.
As the coach and the three skulls receded below them, a sudden cry came from above. They couldn’t see what was going on, but it looked like the dirigible might be on fire. Sadie began quickly climbing her rope, while Cora attempted (but failed) at the same maneuver.
On deck, Thaspar and Garen were desperately battling a cloud of living fire, which seemed to be maliciously burning their dirigible. It had a similar consistency to the green cloud they had battled earlier, but it was burning, and was setting the entire ship alight. It only took a few blows to destroy the creature, but it had started a considerable fire in the aft.
Working quickly Thaspar and Garen, joined by Sadie, quenched the blaze, but not before damage was done. Everyone could feel the ship loosing altitude, and it was plain that the fire had damaged the drive mechanism. After a cursory glance, Garen figured that he could fix the apparatus, but they would have to land first. Meanwhile Cora was pulled up on deck.
Thaspar spotted a patch of grass just to the north. Garen figured they could probably just make it there, and the only grass they had seen since entering this land was certainly a good omen.
After a harrowing several minutes the dirigible finally landed roughly in the grassy patch. The patch was 50 feet wide at most. Garen immediately began tinkering with the airship, while Sadie decided to take a look around.
The grass was yellow, and looked dead, or almost dead, but it was still better than scorched earth, and plateaus of black glass. The grass seemed to grow in long tufts. Sadie bent down to investigate, and was shocked and horrified. This was not a patch of grass at all. This was a patch of human hair. Tufts of long blond hair rose from the ground all around them. Sadie did not even consider finding out what was below those tufts, and she quickly returned to, and remained on, the dirigible.
After a few days of tinkering the dirigible was ready to take to the air again. Thaspar’s cravings had gotten worse, and he was getting very sick, and starting to act extremely strange and paranoid. After some consultation Sadie and Cora decided to give keep giving him the dreamily he craved, at least until they were out of the Mournland, and he could get over the addiction more easily. They did decide to dilute the mixture. Thaspar was overjoyed that Cora had found some more of the drug, and took it readily.
Immediately his headaches left him, and he was calm and at peace.
So, with Thaspar tripping out on dreamily, they set their course for the glowing chasm. There was some contention among them, over whether they should head directly for the chasm, or stop outside to the Mournland to recover. Ultimately, however, their decision was made for them.
Cora was just looking out of her spyglass toward the glowing chasm, when she noticed something odd. In the distance was another ship. It was hard to make out any details, but it looked large, probably a Lyrander ship. It was coming in from the east, and it was heading for the glowing chasm. Though they did not know who the ship was crewed by, they knew that often there were others vying for these schemas. They set their course at full speed toward the chasm.
The next two days as they approached the chasm were relatively uneventful. There were more showers of blood rain, and everyone (except Cora) would occasionally catch another party member (except Garen) looking like a walking corpse. But nothing attacked them directly. They were very glad to be in a dirigible – they knew that an expedition on foot would not have been nearly so easy.
All the while the airship got closer. It was clear that they were both making for the Glowing Chasm at full speed, and that they were probably going to arrive at the same time.
On the morning of the third day (though it was hard to tell day from night in this darkened land) they found themselves no more than an hour from the chasm, but they also found something else. The airship had altered its course in the night, and was now bearing down on them – at ramming speed. They had no more than fifteen minutes, to plan their course of action.
Garen set about casting infusions. As an artificer he had the ability to imbue items with temporary magical traits, but it was a slow process (typically taking about a minute). Sadie even tied a rope around her waist, and Garen turned it into a magical belt. Everyone was faster and better protected, when the actual battle came.
They could see the massive shape of the Lyrander airship hurtling towards them. The fiery ring around the ship roared as it bore down on them. Thaspar and Sadie fired arrows, while volleys rained down on their small craft. As the ship drew near they caught their first sight of the inhabitants.
Garbed in the thick armor, the crew held cutlasses and shields high. Beneath the rusting plates were walking corpses; undead soldiers. But unlike typical zombies and skeletons, they were nimble, and displayed signs of intelligence. They roared warcries and readied grappling hooks.
The huge airship, at least six times the size of the dirigible, was hurtling towards them. It was coming in fast, from above, trying to come crashing down on them. Behind the controls, Garen desperately tried to maneuver the craft out of the way. He understood the controls best, but he lacked the reflexes for this type of flying. Somehow, he managed to bring the dirigible up, so that it just missed the airship. In fact, the dirigible went whizzing across the deck of the ship, the airships gunwales splintering against the bottom of their craft.
As the dirigible careened across the ship, grapples were thrown and soon undead were pouring onto it. They jumped and ran, almost apelike onto the craft. Some brandished dual cutlasses, while others fought with sword and shield.
Cora and Sadie drew their weapons and fought the abominations with ferocity. Sadie’s more feral shifts lately seemed to be having an effect. This time, when she shifted, she appeared even more rat like than usual, even sprouting a rat’s tail. She bit and clawed at the horrors.
Meanwhile, Cora had also learned some new tricks. As her skills improved, Cora had been taking note of the construction of her foes armor – she had some new ideas of how to get around that armor. As her dagger found a narrow gap her opponent roared.
Thaspar had also joined the battle. But he wasn’t too concerned. What was the worst that could happen? He half-heartedly began punching the undead.
Garen was trying to fend of an armored, rotting corpse while still maintaining some semblance of control over the dirigible. The airship was still very close, and was rotating in an attempt to strike them again. As his comrades battled around him, he saw too late that the dirigible was careening toward the airship. The world was in suddenly slow motion, as the dirigible flew through the ring of fire surrounding the ship and crashed, hard into the airship’s deck.
Everything was in chaos. The balloon of the dirigible was burning and descending onto the combatants below. Armored skeletons were shouting and rushing towards the craft. Garen and Cora leapt from the burning dirigible, onto the airship deck. Sadie and Thaspar stayed behind to battle the skeletons.
Garen pulled out his massive axe, and began swinging it fiercely; hewing the undead legions with the same skill he had in his army days. Cora, on the other hand, quickly found herself surrounded by the skeletal creatures. Her dagger was like an impenetrable wall of steel. Swirling it through the air she parried attack after attack. From every angle there was the clang of metal as she thwarted all advances.
As Sadie dispatched the last skeleton aboard the dirigible, she found herself enveloped as the burning dirigible balloon fell upon her. Struggling furiously to escape she bounded down to the deck. Thaspar lackadaisically meandered off the flaming craft.
Soon a pitched battle raged all around the fire. Garen hacked through the creatures, cleaving them nave to chaps. Sadie bit, clawed, and stabbed furiously, while Thaspar half-hearted punched a few zombies.
It was all Cora could do to stay alive. Surrounded on all sized by cutlass swinging skeletons she dodged and parried admirably. But she was getting very tired. She didn’t know how much longer she could keep this up. Suddenly a cutlass caught her in the side. Then another pierced her, punching right through her left flank. She yelled with pain, and pushed the attackers away. She simply could not keep this up.
Thaspar and Sadie were just finishing off the undead to the starboard side, when the captain arrived. A well dressed, and well armored skeletal form. He brandished two very large cutlasses. He was also casting a spell.
Reaching out his bony hand he caught hold of Sadie. For an instant their eyes locked. Then she felt her life drained from her and huge gashes appeared on her body. Not fazed in the least, she rushed into combat with the captain. Thaspar soon joined. He trundled over to the captain, stumbled, and accidentally landed a blow on him.
Cora had taken some serious blows. Thaspar and Sadie were tied up with the captain. Garen was hacking his way towards her, but she couldn’t hold out that long. She made a sudden leap in one direction, and then tumbled in the other. All eyes fell on where she should have been, but she was not there. In fact, she was nowhere to be found.
On the other side of the dirigible Cora paused, her chest heaving with effort, to drink a vial of goodberry wine.
The captain attempted a second spell, but Sadie slashed him across the face with her sword, silencing it. He raised his cutlasses and attacked. The battle was fierce, but he was outmatched. Sadie ripped him to shreds, while Thaspar punched him once a in a while. With a final bony crunch, he fell as a crumpled heap to the deck.
In the meantime Garen and the healed Cora had finished off the undead of the aft side of the ship.
They stood, at last, in victory, atop an airship, around their burning dirigible, with the broken bones of their undead foes scattered around them.
Timeline
- Sul 1 Vult – Dirigible ad runs in Sharn Inquisitive
- Sul 3 Vult – Met with Lady d’Vown, and met Garen
- Wir 4 Vult – Accepted Mournland job
- Zol 10 Vult – Reached the edge of the Mournland
- Wir 11 Vult – Entered and immediately left the Mournland
- Sar 14 Vult – Re-entered the Mournland
- Mol 16 Vult – Thaspar takes his first dreamily and crash landing
- Zor 19 Vult – Set off in the repaired dirigible
- Sar 21 Vult – Battle with skeletal airship
Heroic Actions
- Thaspar accidentally stumbled and hit the skeletal captain
- Cora parried with insane skill against many opponents
- Garen cleft a zombie from nave to chaps
- Sadie bit the head off a skeleton
Heroic Quotes
- "The problem with an invisible dirigible would be all the birds flying into it.... Hey! Free birds!" - Sadie
- "Have you seen Vaneesha lately?" - Cora, "No, and I don't think she's seen me either." - Thaspar
- "This is much better than that rat pie selling idea you had Sadie." - Cora
Adventure Names
- Robert - Thaspar's Drug Trip Through the Mournland
- Robyn – The Glorious Beginning and Untimely End of Our Dirigible / A New Friend
Legends & Lore
It is said that in the Mournland, magic energy springs from every crevice. There are reports of huge geysers of pure magical energy, and rain with dangerous magical affects. Some have even reported large clouds, or pools, of magical energy roaming the landscape, as if spells had come to life.
Statistics
Date Played:
Session Length: 8.5 hours
Experience Gained: ??/character
Foes Vanquished: Living Cloudkill Spell, Living Burning Hands Spell, Airship and Skeletal Crew
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