Ulgrotha: the Spiriting

Party: Rollo, Taurio, Sorval, Zantaroth, Vultha, Iskren

 Xivaskir 19

After rendez-vousing with Rollo and retiring for the night, the party bunkers down in their airship for some peaceful sleep. 

They awake the sound of masonry crashing down, rush out and see the Blessed Shade, a massive island that floats over Shademurk, listing to the side, with old ruins falling down onto the town, in the vicinity of the Boros Barracks and the nearest city wall. The ruckus and fallout are loud enough to be heard quite some distance away, so it is probably not looking good for those who dwell in that area.

Hoping that the Boros guild will keep matters in hand, the party sets off to the portal and heads to Ulgrotha by inserting and removing the silver coin Iskren carries. A gateway opens and leads into a void.

The place the party arrives at has a raised platform which is surrounded by strange petrified trees, on which small glowing red orbs sit. A group of pillars keeps the ceiling up, a massive carving of a face sits on the wall opposite the only door the chamber has. A bunch of smaller pillars, apparently sliced in half, stand before the carved face. The floor has some stale puddles of water through which the roots of the trees snake.

As the party approaches the door, elaborately carved figures on it come alive! A skeletal ball rolls into the fray, distracting the group as two strange creatures sneak up from behind. The frackas that ensues is quite spectacular, leaving but the group standing in the room. As they take in their surroundings, Taurio discovers his greataxe (it was on his back the whole time), the others find a longsword with an emerald set in the hilt and a leather armour. 

Emerging from the underground portal-hall, the party finds themselves popping into a forest. A massive, misty forest. All that stands out to the party is a sole tower from which they emerge, they find themselves further from civilisation as they know it, but they are undaunted by this development. Sorval extends his divine sense and spies a cluster of undead beings nearby. Iskren attempts to parlay with the undead. Ihsan, the leader of the undead, wastes little time to sow discord between those that arrived and his master, implying Sengir to be a corrupting influence and Serra's mercy to be denied to him. Zantaroth feels like he heard enough and steps in to violently end the conversation. The second brawl of the day goes well for our heroes, ending with them eventually slaying the evil spirits.

Afterwards, the clerics of the group exchange information on their respective callers from this realm, Zantaroth calls upon the Spirit of the Bear (accidentally summoning a Spectral Bear) in order to get information. The bear informs Big Z that they have vanquished forces of Sengir and Serra, that an alliance is made between those two to fight Autumn Willow. It also informs Zantaroth that an alliance with Autumn Willow is possible if the party earns the right to do so. When Zantaroth requests more information, it explains retrieving the corpse of Ihsan from Sengir's domain would be a good start. Before disappearing, it tells Big Z that going to the Dark Barony can be done by crossing "The Great Bridge" and passing through the Koshun Mountains, or by going to An-Havva and taking "The Carriage Road".

A discussion ensues where the party tries to figure out who their actual allies are. Sorval, meanwhile, finds some scraps on a nearby skeleton (probably belonging to an adventurer who died less than a month ago), including a Pointless Dagger, a map, a receipt from the An-Havva Inn and a note stating the bearer to be diplomatic envoy for the township of Aysen.

Considering their injuries, the party then decides to take a quick rest, bandage some wounds and eat a bite, before deciding on their next course of action