Ekat Kassen was a crusader and fortune seeker who came to serve Corvel in the year 936 post. While he fought with distinction, he soon realized that he wanted more from life and left the Corvel military to find his fortune elsewhere. His travels took him all over the region around
The Sea of Trade, Troilanos, and Sigil, and he decided to settle down in 946 after a very profitable adventure. Using a sizable portion of his fortune, he set out to tame a small area of the Blaris on the banks of the Tourondel River, making it a natural stopover for those traveling up and down the river from Marigor and Silverhead. For the next 10 years, the town, which was then known as Kassen’s Hold, grew and prospered.
All that changed when Asar Vergas came to Kassen’s Hold with a host of mercenaries under his command. Asar was an old companion of Ekat, and the two had traveled together for some time before splitting up just after Ekat’s last adventure. Over the years, Asar became sure that Ekat
had cheated him after that adventure. Promising great wealth to his mercenaries, Asar raided the town relentlessly for 2 months. Finally, the townsfolk managed to locate Asar’s camp in an ancient crypt, deep in the Magewood forest, and Ekat himself went out to deal with his old companion.
The battle was terribly bloody, with only a few townsfolk coming back to tell the tale. In the end, Asar was slain and his mercenaries scattered, but Ekat suffered a mortal wound. He died 2 days later.
In honor of their beloved founder, the townsfolk buried Kassen in the ancient crypt, interring his bones in a place of honor, above the simple sarcophagi used to inter Asar, his mercenaries, and the townsfolk that lost their lives in the bitter struggle. They placed an eternal flame above Kassen’s final resting place, so that all who visited might find warmth in the wilderness.
Over the years, the Crypt of the Everflame has become an important part of the history of the town, now simply called Kassen. The townsfolk view the crypt as a memorial to those difficult first years of the town’s history. Every autumn, a few of the townsfolk make a pilgrimage to
the crypt to light a lantern from the flame and bring it back to town, where it is preserved all winter, a symbol of the town’s resilience.
Most years, the town mayor and a group of dignitaries perform this quest. Every few years, however, a handful of younger townsfolk are given the honor of lighting the lantern. Many see this as a passage into adulthood, a taste of adventure before settling down to work and marriage. The quest starts out as a solemn ceremony in town, where the townsfolk gather to wish the adventurers luck, just as it was when Kassen himself left to fight the mercenaries. When the adventurers return a few days later, the town holds a great celebration in their honor. This also marks the final harvest celebration before the long winter.
Flak Gunder a dwarven smith, Axel, a dwarven lass, Neosho, a gnome mage, Tonan Turat, the prankster, Baulder Valderand, a bloodgaurd mage, and Dra'el Rendar, an elven acrobat all arrive at the town square, just before noon, dressed in the customary black attire to start the yearly ceremony to start the quest for the everflame.
Some of these young men and women already know each other and others are meeting for the first time. The meeting is a bit strange as no one but they are there. Normally the square is full, but they are a few minutes early.
At noon, the bells atop the Temple of Rellian toll their midday song, echoing throughout the quiet town of Kassen. As the peals begin to fade, the first of the townsfolk make their way into the square, dressed in black, as if attending a funeral. They slowly fill the square, moving quietly across the cold, hard ground, their eyes downcast and mournful. After a few moments, a murmur passes through the crowd as it slowly parts to let Mayor Uptal through. He leads the way with a tarnished silver lantern. Behind him, an old pony drags a cart laden with backpacks and supplies.
Once he reaches the center of the crowd, Mayor Uptal stops and calls out to the assembled townsfolk. “Once again the winter winds blow through the Magewood forest, marking the end of another harvest. There are wolves in the woods, howling at our walls, and serpents in our shadows, waiting to strike. Just as it was one hundred and seventy-four years ago, when Kassen himself left these walls to protect us, so it is today. Where are the heroes? Where are the brave folk that will venture out to Kassen’s tomb and retrieve the flame to keep this community safe for another winter?”
A push from unseen forces, make Flak, Axel, Neosho, Tonan, Baulder Valderand, and Dra'el take a step forward. They have been given the honor of retrieving the Everflame from the crypt this year.
Gear, the lantern and a map are passed out to the young adventures as Mayor Uptal continues to boast to the crowd, “I present to you the brave heroes who will follow in Kassen’s footsteps to retrieve the Everflame! Some of them may not return, but I say to you that their sacrifice shall not be forgotten. Go, brave heroes, and do not return until you have the eternal fire.” With that, the mayor points to the south, the direction of Kassen’s tomb. The townsfolk begin waving goodbye with cold, solemn looks on most of their faces.
Our heroic party continue to talk and get to know each other as the travel the narrow trail to the crypt. Dra’el is in the far lead, keeping a look out. An hour into their 5 day journey, they break free of the skinny forest trail and into a nice clearing. As they enter the clearing, the hear a rustling sound in the outskirts of the clearing and see movement from the corner of their eyes. Goblin ambush!
Flak see’s the axe headed toward him and quickly blocks it. “Ambush! Circle, back to back!” Nine large goblins come rushing out of the woods, scythes at the ready and leap toward the party. Baulder loses a spinning rock, Axel unleashes a lightning blast, Dra’el. Tonan and Flak bring their weapons to bare and Neosho throws up an invisible shield to protect the group from the impending slaughter.
As the goblins come down on the party, with scythes swing and tusks snarling, they vanish. An illusion? Dra’el tells the group that he over heard a rumor from the Seven Silvers Tavern that the trip was rigged ahead of time by a few towns folk to test the young groups resolve. The group fared well and it was a very real illusion! Holgast had to be behind an illusion that good.
The party continued on their way, following the map that Mayor Uptol had given them. Towards dusk, they arrive at a very large clearing, The Broken Glade. It is a large clearing with tall grass and very open. There are remnants of campfires long since dead. This would make a great place to camp as it would be very difficult to sneak up on anyone. They make camp.
Tonan takes Flak’s shovel when he goes out to collect firewood. Tonan, being the prankster he is, digs a pit down the trail a bit and covers it with leaves. He is hoping to trip up someone into the pit. He climbs a tree to observe his work. Dra’els keen sight, sees him doing this and he forms a plan of his own. Between the pit and camp, he puts rope across the road to trip up Tonan on the way back to camp. To sweeten the pot, he collects fresh wolf droppings for Tonan to fall in. It works like a charm. As Tonan heads back up the trail in haste and in the dark, he trips on the rope and falls face first into the dung. Tonan gets back up to his feet grinning. He knew that he had been had.
Wolves howl in the night, but the night passes uneventfully. In the morning the party breaks camp and continues onward to get the Everflame.
Half a day’s journey goes uneventful for the group as they stop to rest, eat and refill their water skins in the cool water of The Gray Lake. Then they continue on.
Towards the end of the day they come to Serpent Gorge. The forest clears abruptly, with a small decline and then drops several hundred feet into the darkness. Being a bit cautious from the last “illusion”, Baulder finds a few stones and tosses them down the ravine to see how far it drops. To his amazement the rocks do not fall. Another illusion.
Baulder walks out and does not fall either. After 100 feet, he sees that he is still in the woods, on the trail. He beckons for the rest to follow. 100 ft further, Serpent Gorge appears again. This time it is real. It is getting dark, so the party lowers a rope and climb down to the bottom, where the entrance to the crypt should be. They will make camp there, and retrieve the Everflame in the morning.
As luck has it, when they reach the bottom of the gorge, they see a man staggering out of the crypt towards them. Its John, the butcher from Kassen. He must have been delayed setting up traps for them. The group also see a ghastly sight in front of the entrance. Two horses slaughtered and a dead man. Holgast is really good at these illusions. They party can even smell the blood and burnt flesh in this illusion. John heads toward the party when they notice that half is body is withered away and that his eyes are lifeless. This is no illusion!
The party attacks and kills John’s undead body. He manages to gasp a thank you as he dies. The horses and man are real too. The man looks to be some sort of bandit or mercenary. Perhaps he came here to loot the crypt.
Flak, Axel, Neosho, Tonan, Baulder Valderand, and Dra'el all decide to go into the crypt, retrieve the Everflame and get the hell out, instead of sleeping. There may be others from Kassen still in there that may need help. Dra’el casts a light spell and follows bloody tracks, into the tomb.
The trail of foot prints ends shortly in the crypt. They end at a pool of clear water. Along side the pool is a lantern, still burning and something god and shiny at the bottom of the pool, about 8 feet down. Either the lantern was left by John or there are others still in here.
Flak decides to push on to get the Everflame first and then come back for what appears to be a gold bar at the bottom of the pool. He leads the group through an open door. He is following the sounds of sobbing.
They enter a round room with a deep pit in the middle of it. The pit has a stone bridge that crosses it. On that bridge is a man, sobbing. A closer look and Axel can see that the man’s legs are crushed and lifeless. This man has also has the wide eyed hysteria look in his eyes. He is sobbing and laughing at the same time. He is Ian Roldare from Kassen.
Axel starts a healing ritual that will take 3 days to complete as the others question Ian. “Run for your life”, “Save my sister”, “you will all die and become his minions…” and other nonsense Ian blurts out hysterically. He never stays on one subject.
From what little they could make out, Ian, his sister Dimira, and John came to set the traps for the young adventurers. A band of bandits arrived and started looting tombs. In doing so, they awoken something that slaughter not only them, but it attacked them too. It sucked the life out of John and crushed his legs leaving him for dead. It took Dimira.
Continuing onward, leaving Ian to heal in the magic circle, the party heads down a corridor where Ian indicated that the monster went with his sister. The Corridor led to a room with an open coffin and with the Everflame sitting in the corpses chest. Tonan immediately grabs the Everflame and his hands pass right through the illusion and into a coffin of rotten pig entrails, meat and god knows what else.
A scream is heard and quickly muffled. A booming voice is heard from the level below, “Kill her quickly so that we may live and bring more of our brothers and sisters back to aid us. The sacrifice to Marg needs to be completed!”
Our heroes run to aid, what appears to be Dimitra Roldare’s scream. They inter a large room with the walls lined with crypts, stacked 3 high. At the end of the room is a large crypt on top a dias. It is open and the remains of Kassen can be seen. To the sides of Kassen’s crypt are two other, smaller ones. Dimitra is tied down to one.
Reaching into Kassen’s crypt is a large lich. He is wearing a breastplate, helmet, medallion and he pulls out a broadsword from Kassen’s belongings and turns to stab young Dimitra through the heart.
In front of Kassen’s tomb is 4 undead men. Two of them are old mummified men, the other two are much fresher and are dressed like the bandit that was found crushed. They rush the group.
Rage fills Baulder as he channels magic into a whirling stone spell. The moss and insects shrivel and die in this room as he tosses the stone at the lich. It impacts and explodes. The Lich turns, damaged badly from the blow.
Flak, Tonan and Dra’el each rush a zombie and attack. Neosho attacks from the back of the room with spells. Dra’el finishes off the zombie he is on and goes to free Dimitra. He cuts one of her hands free and hands her the dagger. She cuts the rest. Dra’el returns to battle.
Neosho notices that two more corpses start to animate and rise up. She rushes one, crushes its knees and skull with her quarterstaff. She is not a gnome to be trifled with.
The Lich, outraged, attacks Baulder. Dra’el, Flak, Tonan and Axel join in after finishing off their zombies. Neosho is about to be surrounded as two more corpses rise. They hammer the lich with everything they got, taking a few minor wounds themselves. In a final blow, Tonan takes his head off and then stomps it to dust. The other zombies collapse to the delight of Neosho.
A blue shimmering image of Kassen appears above his corpse and beside the Everflame.
“Shortly after my demise, the cult of Marg raided this tomb and put a curse on me and Asar. Anyone who would disturb our slumber and take our medallions would suffer and release the powers of Marg to raise an undead army. The bandits did this, but you have saved me from the curse. I thank you.” He then disappears.
The group restore the dead to their places, resealing the crypts and light their lantern from the Everflame. They go back to Ian and Dra’el and Tonan volunteer to stay with Ian as he heals, while the rest of the group return home to Kassen.
The trip home is uneventful and the town of Kassen throws a big celebration in their honor. The trials that they went through to retrieve the Everflame were more real than planned, but the young adventures proved their abilities and are ready for grander adventures…..
TO BE CONTINUED . . . .
Chronicled by BJ
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