The personal effects of the slain foes are worth a total of 300GP.
On Orett:
On Ghun:
On self
Continue on to the temple.
The party makes it back to the temple with no further encounter. Crossing the catwalk you can clearly see that you have stirred up quite a hornet's nest-as orcs, trolls, ogres, and a few giants rush about shouting wildly.
As you enter the chapel, the outside noise falls away and a sense of bliss cloaks your spirits. Fabian Blix's ethereal form appears before you-I sense you have brought the bones of Tamand Varias for his final judgement.
“Yes, I think we have them. Should we place them on the altar?”
Yes my son. Let justice be done upon his soul.
Place the bones on the altar.
As the bones are placed on the altar, a dark malevolent energy surges through the room and the shady form of a man dressed in full plate appears above the bones. A sibilant voice speaks-So Fabian, after all these long years we meet again. Have you changed your mind, or are you still puffed up with self-righteousness?
Fabian's ghost responds sadly-No Tamand, my only regret is that I did not realize how deep the evil had reached inside you. Had I known I would have been more prepared and things would have gone differently.
Tamand's shade-You mean we could have died sooner? What use in that?
Fabian's ghost-Yet we all died in the end, as all men must. Some of us, however, died with honor and love still in our hearts. Even now Tamand it is not too late for you to repent and find the grace of our good goddess. Will you not ask her forgiveness?
Tamand-NO! You serve a goddess who is weak and failed! I did what I had to do to give us the best chance to hold out! I'll never call on her again and for all her love it did you no favors then or in the years since. She is weak, like you, and her forgiveness is worth less than nothing to me. Let me show you what REAL power feels like!
With that last statement Tamand's shade grapples with Fabian's ghost and the two spectral forms battle back and forth across the otherwise quiet chapel. After several minutes it becomes clear that the dark energies and denizens of the place are feeding Tamand and he is going to overpower Fabian.
Fabian's ghost looks to the party and pleads-I need your strength my friends. Please!
Each PC that is willing to lend aid roll one to-hit roll at max BAB and make a DC 24 FORT save.
I shall aide you Tamand!
second chance
Energy flows from Orett and Ghun, apparently strengthening Fabian, although dark rays spring out from Tamand's form striking:
Daardra
and
Eng
Fabian goes on the offensive, pushing Tamand's shade back towards the strong light of Sarenrae's altar.
Fabian-Again my friends!
FORT saves as well please.
-ha, classic blunder-
use clw wand on herself
-12 hp
The party bravely intervenes in the ethereal struggle of the doomed souls. A beam of negative energy lashes out from Tamand at:
As positive energy streams from Orett and Eng, Fabian's ghost forces Tamand's shade all the way back to the altar and light begins to form in a ball around him, slowly compressing.
Tamand-NO!!! The dark will not be reduced; a stream of ethereal images looking like mutilated corpses, most missing significant sections of meat and bone, appear and swarm about Fabian's ghost, somehow wounding it.
Fabian calls out for aid again-Once more my friends!
I shall not give in!
Back foul shade!
"Aaaarrrrrggggghhhhh!"
Two huge bursts of energy pulse from Daardra and Ghun. Combined with the the energies of Eng and Orett, Fabian's ghost draws the ball of light tighter and around Tamand's shade until the shade is fully formed about the bones on the altar.
An otherworldly screech of metal on stone rips the air as a rent in the fabric of reality opens near the stack of bones. Wraith-like limbs, coated in foul ichor, reach out through the planar rift and grab hold of Tamand's bones, drawing them through the rift and into the abyssal darkness beyond. Tamand's screams can be heard as the last of the bones are drawn through, and the foul sound of moist, slavering jaws and smacking lips can be heard from another place and time; Tamand-NO!!!! This is NOT what I was promised!! Aaaaaaaaagh........
The rip in reality closes with the sound of thunder and a blast of energy washes over the party, knocking all to the floor. Your consciousness begins to fade, but you can hear the soothing voice of Fabian in your minds-Well done my friends. My stay here is at an end. Thank you for bringing justice to this place. I leave you a gift that will help you in your struggles against the Storm Tyrant, Volstus. Use it to seek out the final resting place of Nargrym Steelhand. The sun shine upon you in all the dark days to come.
You awaken atop a low hill some five miles from the Fort, fully healed and rested. Lying near you is a crystalline geode, clearly the other half of the one you found back in Trunau.
You can see the smoke of several fires rising from the Fort, and even from this distance can see and hear the sound of battle as the orcs and giants fight each other. Clearly the end of Grenseldek has spelled the end of the threat from the Twisted Hearts tribe.
Level up!
And there was much rejoicing!
“Let’s return to Trunau to let them know what happened. Maybe they will have more knowledge concerning the Storm Tyrant and Nargrym. We can put the geode together there as well.”
Head out.
What path do you take back to Trunau? It's a goodly distance.
I would like to take the best path. The one that travels by Gems'r'us and The Home for Lost Magic Items.
Can we go back the same route we came by?
You can, however, the most direct route would be to head straight South through some low hills and plains that are on the orcish frontier of the Belkzen/Lastwall border. With no interruptions, the march should take about a week.
Returning the way you came would have you marching along the Esk river until you reach Castle Firrine (about a week). Once you reached Firrine, you could pay to travel by boat down the Esk and up the Kestrel (about 2 weeks) and then a days march to Trunau.
Let’s go the shortest route.
The first two days of travel are relatively uneventful, given that you are in the orc hold of Belkzen. You determine that the area surrounding the Fort is empty as all the watchers and scouts have been drawn in to settle the fight over who (if anyone) will lead the Twisted Hearts moving forward.
On the third day your path leads you through a rough series of hills. You are on high alert as the various gullyeys and washes significantly reduce visibility and are perfect sites for ambush.
Perception checks please....
Squirrel!
Ghun sees some bleached bones that almost blend into the nearby rock. There is also some old dried blood nearby. Clearly death is no stranger to this place.
Daardra sees a few small rocks slide down from above a bit further on in the gulley and for a moment swears seeing the hindquarters of a large goat dash out of view. Her keen elven ears definitely heard some hooves on stone.
We may want to take the high ground here. Spotted a goat-like creature up ahead, probably ambush ready.
"Goat? Ghûn eat goat for dinner!"
Is there high ground we can follow rather than the gulley?
Not without significant backtracking (about 1/3 of a day). You could try making some climb rolls up the rough sides of the wash channel.
Is there any cover?
Maybe we’re destined to get a catchy theme song and become the Goatbusters.
You can get full defilade on one side of the gulley or the other, but if there are foes on the other side you would be fully vulnerable to any ranged attacks coming from that direction.
How long would we be exposed. If we started sprinting before they expected it, we might be able to cover most of the distance before they acted.
“Don’t you have a spell that would make some of us undetectable for a time Daardra?”
Yes, but I don't cast it on us, I have to cast it on the people I'm hiding from. and it only works for me.