28/05/2024 - Fontainmere Abbey (6)

The Left Trail

In the morning, the Companions decide that it would not be good to return again to Greenest and press on. At the junction, Logan does some tracking but can’t work out which way they went. However, the left hand trail looks more used, so they choose to go that way.

They ride along as a slower pace. This trail is definitely well trodden. There are side trails, but they are smaller and this is clearly the main path.

Watcher in the Trees

As they proceed along, Malcolm becomes aware of some sort of buzzing in his head that is of a magical nature. He’s not sure what it is but as they proceed along the trail it gets a little stronger.

Logan then spots a look-out high up in a tree watching the trail, partially camouflaged, who soon spots the Companions, mimics a bird call and then climbs down the tree. They ride forward. Logan, Sam and Malcolm opening fire with bows, but only Sam hits. The figure stumbles but runs into the undergrown, making it difficult to follow with horses.

Turning West

They resolve to ignore him and carry on. They come to another branch in the main trail, with one trail heading west and another heading north. They can see smoke to the west, from some sort of settlement about a mile away.

Malcolm mentions the strange magic feeling buzzing in his head, which is definitely to the west, but no one else can feel it.

They resolve to investigate the settlement. They see ahead a small group of people, who scatter when they see the riders. Sam bemoans that they obviously know they are here.

Valley of the Cultists

As they move closer to the settlement, the trees thin out and they see a watch tower at the top of a cliff. The cliff is a horse shoe shaped, with the opening pointing away from them. The cliffs are about 20 feet high and at the bottom, in some sort of valley with cliffs on three sides, is a large encampment with tents and wooden buildings.

There must be hundreds of people living there, possibly more than 500. There are some ladders for climbing up the cliffs and a group of armed men are climbing up to confront the Companions. When they look closer, it seems some of those living in the valley and coming to attack them are goblins and not human.

They also spot a large cave in the side of one of the cliffs. It stands out because the stone around the entrance has been shaped into the large mouth of a dragon. They realise this is one of the main outposts for the Cult of the Dragon.

Turning North

Facing around 20 armed men approaching, the Companions turn back and head back down the trail at a gallop. When they reach the fork in the trail, they turn north and head that way for a few hours. They eventually slow down and stop to rest.

While they do, they see a small group of people coming from the north. These travellers are cautious and stop, bows ready. Logan stands up and introduces himself. The travellers comment that he is from Mhoried. Logan says they are heading to a Shrine in the north. Brother Gregory backs him up, saying they are pilgrims and he is guiding them to the Shrine of Navron.

The travellers warn them about bears and flooding on the trail and then pass through cautiously.

The Companions continue north for a few days, making progress and passing small settlements and farmsteads. They encounter the occasional travellers on the trail, but they keep their distance.

Another Village

The encounter another village, surrounded by fields. They are spotted by a watchtower and a group of villagers muster to protect their homes. A middle-aged man in armour, looking a little like a retired knight or adventurer, steps forward. He is clearly in charge and challenges the Companions in an Anuirean accent.

They introduce themselves and again give the story that they are pilgrims heading north. They are given the option of travelling around the village, or trading. They resolve to trade and enter the village, buying food and supplies from the villagers, then press on to the north.

Pursued by the Cult

The Companions press on and the land begins to rise towards the mountains. The terrain becomes more broken, with cliffs and valleys. At one point, having to move the long way around a valley, they notice further down the mountainside that a group of about 20 people are following them A number of whom are Goblins and the rest humans. They realise that the Cult has been pursuing them and are about half a day behind them.

Logan considers laying traps for them when the opportunity presents itself. The Cult members are on foot, so they resolve to use their horses to get further ahead of them. He sets a few, but they are fairly basic and unlikely to hold the Cult up for long.

Brother Gregory guides them towards the place where one of the Five Peaks actually has three different peaks, which is where the Shrine lies. As they get nearer, they see a tall, black column of smoke rising from the peaks.

Eventually, they reach a place where two cliff sides come close together, but there is a narrow gorge between them that can be traversed. Brother Gregory leads them through it.

Navron Plateau

On the other side, they emerge on a plateau high up in the mountains. There is small lake, around which are a number of crop fields. On one side is a cave mount, with a stream running into the lake. On the other side is a large Abbey or Monastery building that has very recently been burnt down.

In front of the burnt building are the bodies of a number of people wearing monk’s robes. They move forward to investigate, weapons drawn. The Monks are dead, but they did not die in the fire. They were killed by swords, arrows and maces. Logan sees a number of tracks around, suggesting there has been a lot going on.

Burnt Abbey

The outer stone structure of the Abbey is still standing, but the inner wooden parks are smouldering ash. There are more bodies in the ruins, burnt to cinder. As they explore the burnt ruins, they wonder who has done this and if the Cult of the Dragon was involved.

Behind a burnt door that looks like it was barricaded, they find more bodies in a room spared the fire. The monks have not been burnt but may have died from the smoke, with black soot on their faces.

Logan manages to notice that one of the senior monks is still breathing, just. Brother Gregory helps him move the body out of the room and brings the man around with smelling salts and gives him some water.

They check more bodies, but the rest of the monks are all dead. There is a library, but almost all the books have burnt.

What Happened Here?

A few hours later they leave the ruins, bringing out the only monk survivor in Brother Gregory’s care. When the monk is feeling stronger, they ask what happened.

He tells them brigands from Cariele came, after a pilgrim who was a Prince. The Prince escaped and the brigands started to kill the monks, including Patriarch Benedict, who they drew and quartered. A few of the surviving monks fled and barricaded themselves in room, but the brigands burnt down the Abbey.

Logan checks again for tracks and determines the brigands were using horses and there were over a dozen of them, as they wear boots, unlike the monks who wear simple sandals. They left through the gorge, meaning the Companions horses have ruins the tracks that way.

Preparing for the Attack of the Cult

The attention of the Companions soon turns to the impending arrival of the group of Cultists who are following them. Their only was into the plateau is via the gorge, so Banquo proposes building a barricade at this end using stones from the Abbey.

Logan suggests moving smaller stones to the top of the gorge to throw down on the Cultists once they are trapped at the bottom of the gorge, blocked by the barricade.

They set to work on their plans, but the work is hard because the stones are heavy and the sides of the gorge are steep.

Investigating the Shrine

Sam, less accustomed to manual labour, tires before the rest of them and takes a break. His attention is drawn to the small cave and decides to investigate it, drawn by the slight magical buzz that resonates across the plateau.

He lights a torch and enters. There walls have crystals in them that reflect the light and give the place a mystical appearance. There is a small pool, into which a trickle of water is constantly falling from some source in the mountain, the flows out into the lake in the plateau. At the back of the pool is a large, colourful rock crystal that has been shaped into the fist of Haelyn.

The Pool

The surface of the pool is surprisingly clear and smooth despite having water trickling into it. Sam keeps seeing things in the surface of the pool from the corner of his eye. He touches the Fist of Haelyn and feels a rush go up his arm and he sees his reflection looking strangely at him from the water.

Driven by some sort of instinct, he starts to undress and puts first his hand, then his foot, then his entire body into the pool. He then ducks under the surface and feels like he goes down and down. When he looks up, he begins to see things in the top of the water, although he is having to hold his breath to do this.

Visions under the Water

Many visions appear in the surface, constantly changing. Sam wills them to slow down and they focus on Prince Edmund, arriving with his guards in his pilgrim garb. He is greeted by the monks and comes into the Shrine, putting his hand into the pool.

Prince Edmund stays at the Abbey for a while, listening and learning from the monks. Then one day a group of armed men on horseback arrive. Edmund has is guards prepare for a fight, but one of his guards betray him, holding a sword to his throat.

The armed men kill the rest of Edmund’s guards, but Edmund makes a run for it and climbs up a steep rise that horses cannot follow. The Prince is not very strong, but he is skinny and agile. He holds out there for a few days, refusing to come down despite the cold and having no food.

Sam becomes vaguely aware while the Prince is doing this, the Companions were delayed in their quest to find him by the activities of the Cult in Greenest.

Prince Edmund Captive

The leader of the armed man, a tough and mean-looking man, starts to kill the monks. He calls out to Edmund that if he does not surrender, he will kill them all and burn down the Abbey.

Eventually, cold, hunger and wanting to save the monks, Prince Edmund surrenders. The leader then has the rest of the monks killed anyway, apart from a few who manage to barricade themselves in a room in the Abbey. The Brigands then fire to the Abbey and take Prince Edmund away.

Dragon!

While Edmund is sat, hands tied on a horse, he looks up and sees a dragon fly over the plateau.

Sam is then forced to surface from the water to breath.

End of Episode Six