Tales of Amn Season 2, Session 4 [April 1, 2025]

Excerpted from the Diary of Vadania “Necro” Amakiir

After hiding the bodies of the fallen leather daddies in the woods to avoid discovery, our party, still accompanied by Mogh Ruith and his cow, continued on to Honiesale. Shortly into our hike, and with Daisy’s aid, we came upon Madame Primm just off the path and among the trees. She was uninterested in coming along with us, but told us that Daisy would stay with us as her proxy. From this point on, the cat became much more affectionate, riding upon each of our shoulders in turn, clearly a glutton for physical attention.

After another period of hiking, Shawn and Claera discovered that they were both seeing the faintest of shadows moving through the trees. They were barely visible, more like whispers of shadows. We all found it odd. Mogh Ruith told us that it is not unusual for those who “walk the path” between worlds to become aware of the shadows. Having crossed that plane, we are now attuned to them, but that we needn’t worry, as they will not harm us.

I let Critter roam a bit freely while we were hiking. He kept disappearing off the path to explore and then coming back to us. At one point, he brought me back a leather glove with the emblem of Torm embroidered on it. I’ve no idea where he got it, nor what I should do with it, but I stuck it in my pack regardless.

As the light of day began to fade, the air cooled significantly. Still a few hours from Honiesale, I was not looking forward to another night spent on the frozen ground. Suddenly we came upon a fork in the road. One direction led to Athkatla, the other to Honiesale. Both roads seemed heavily trodden. Straight ahead of us, between the roads, we noticed a plume of smoke. Likely some kind of camp; that of friend or foe, we couldn’t know.

Before we could decide the best course of action, Daisy took off like a bat out of hell toward the fire, and Shawn followed suit. The rest of the party followed them while Shadow slinked off to the side and I climbed a tree. Both of us intending to get a look at things from an undetectable viewpoint. Before they even reached the camp, they came upon a tall and lean middle aged human standing in the woods. A small number of individuals well behind him around the fire at camp. He was elaborately dressed in white robes with gold adornments, gaudy jewelry, and long flowing hair. Daisy reached him first and leapt onto his shoulders, purring loudly. He quickly grabbed the cat and threw her at the ground. Shawn saw this and charged without thought. He slammed into the midsection of the man and as though he were made of brick, fell backwards with the wind knocked out of him.

The human told us simply to call him “His Holiness”. None of us, save Mogh Ruith, knew of him. His holiness made it clear to us that civilized people, said with no small amount of derision, follow him and follow the lore. He and his party were out in these woods searching for a way onto the path of the travelers. There was obviously no love lost between he and Mogh Ruith. They exchanged a few heated words before the Keeper performed some sort of spell and Mogh Ruith suddenly froze, fell from his cow, and lay bent and unmoving on the ground. He told us that the reward for “the keeper” was the same whether he is brought in dead or alive, and that Mogh Ruith has been taking righteous children into the other world. At this point Madame Primm emerged, seemingly from out of nowhere and yelled that it was a preposterous accusation. Affronted, his holiness made it clear we would have to accompany him to Athkatla.

Moving toward us from their places around the fire, three other beings came forward to join his holiness, a priest and two knights, adorned in similar, but less ostentatious garb. Obviously, and yet again, a peaceful parting was not in the cards for us.

A wild battle ensued. Drakon’s new glaive proved to be the most worthy weaponry; it swung fast and true and every hit made devastated its mark. Shawn threw an ice knife that positively destroyed one of the knights, before he was hit by Him with a spell that paralyzed him and left him floating with pink bubbles streaming from his lips. Madame Primm responded with magic of her own, and let loose a shriek spell, cutting our enemies in half when they ran away in fear; although a few of our own did get caught in the crossfire. Even Critter got into the fold, going straight for His achilles. Fireballs and arrows flew this way and that before Drakon hit Him with a stream of fire and He made to run away before collapsing. He was dead. Seeing this, the only remaining member of his party turned heel and ran.

Spell broken, Shawn regained control of himself and Madame Primm performed some sort of dark ritual on the corpse of Mogh Ruith before once again disappearing into the woods. The cow was still alive, but inconsolable, crying streams of milky white tears. How does one even begin to comfort a cow? More importantly, would Primm’s spell work? Could Mogh Ruith be saved?

Unable to answer these questions in the moment, and weary and battleworn, we gathered round the abandoned fire. A boiling stew was a welcome sight to all of us and we availed ourselves of the food and drink left behind. Claera also availed himself of much of His Holiness’ jewelry. Clearly a devotee of Torm, much of it was emblazoned with his symbol.