D&D: Adventures in Eberron - Make-Up Session

The group skipped the session that would have happened on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, for understandable reasons. There had been talk about running a one-shot of some sort, but that didn't happen. And so we find ourselves here, having a make-up session that most of the crew couldn't make it too. No worries, our DM showed up and our hero, Carsten Brich, was joined on the other side of the screen by Edgariel Grandsword (elf wizard/artificer). As a precaution against the unthinkable we added an NPC/sidekick to the evenings activities, Brody the Fighter/Bard.

Before we set off on the nights adventure, and while our sidekick was being generated to accompany Edgariel, the DM filled me in on what has come before. Which was a thing that I had been wondering about and certainly appreciated being brought up to speed. Not knowing, or understanding, where we were and what we were doing was more than a little frustrating. That is now less of an issue. I have an idea how it all started and how the rest of the group came to be here in the jungle of Xen'Drik. I won't repeat it all here, but let me give you a broad overview of what has happened prior to the arrival of Carsten Brich.

Things started in Sharn with a single adventurer and some trouble with a missing warforged. That led to finding and rescuing a bunch of warforged who were being forcefully repurposed. Then there was the talk of the ancient writings, the search for, and finally, the recovering of said writings. Which of course revealed a draconic prophecy which led the group south to the mysterious continent of Xen'drik. Their adventures led them to acquiring the first of two artifacts they were searching for, the Crystal of Ebon Flame. From there they found their way to the haunted elven ruin and met for the first time the splendid traveler of paths unknown, Carsten Brich. Having broken the haunting over those ruins, we continue deeper into the continent, making our way towards the Ring of Storms and the many fingered ravine known as the Giants Handprint. Our goal being to find the second artifact, The Stone of Fate.

Given the available characters, we chose not to do anything that would significantly advance the group story. Instead, we focused in on a pair of encounters that occurred as we followed the Hydra River south through the jungle. We choose to follow the river, rather than traverse the unknown jungle, in hopes of making better time and having easier travel as we seek to reach our destination at the Ring of Storms. We found Brody stumbling through the jungle and, leaving the rest of the party behind, followed him a short distance away hoping to find his former companions. Instead, we encountered a group of hungry ghouls led by a cunning ghast with a strange, blue triangle on it's forehead. We emerged victorious, but found no sign of Brody's companions and returned to the main group to continue on.

We took a break from trudging through the forest later in the day and as the rest of the party went to fetch water from the river, a small horde of skeletons rose up from the undergrowth around us. There were more than a dozen human skeletons and one large skeleton, probably that of an ogre. I can only assume that a force of soldiers went out to take down an ogre and there were no survivors. Then along comes some necromantic force and suddenly there is a threat in the jungle just waiting for us to kick off our boots and lay down our packs. In the time it took for the rest of the party to return to camp we had destroyed the threat and secured our camp for a rest.

I can only hope the remainder of the journey through this undead-infested jungle is less eventful and includes more support from my fellow travelers.