Chapter 4 - Return to Wasteward, Part 1; or why a weakened party should not press on into an obvious confrontation...
Days 7 to 10
Awakening the next morning, the party decided to continue their exploration of what they now determined to be a burial tomb. Neela, Trykaar, and Sebestyrn were all in rough shape, but Blixhaven and Jrak were in full health.
Returning to the entrance chamber, they decided to explore the two side doors that had been bypassed the night before. The first door lead to a chamber containing a large stone chest. Sensing a possible trap, Blixhaven explored the room, eventually discovering that the lid of the chest was rigged with what appeared to be a trigger for an unknown trap. He did his best to disarm the trap, but found out that he had not been successful when the opening of the chest triggered a fusilade of darts, one of which embedded itself painfully in his side. But he was to be rewarded for his risk when the dusty contents of the chest yielded two pearls and an ornate headband.
The second door in the entrance chamber led to a room containing a statue resembling a large upright sarcophagus, except that the head of the figure carved upon its lid looked distorted and appeared to have tendrils instead of hair. As Blixhaven approached the statue, the eyes of the figure suddenly opened to reveal green flames and batlike wings extended to either side of the head as it flew forward to attack. A hideous shriek wrent the air, freezing Jrak and Trykaar where they stood, and Blixhaven was forced into a retreating fight as the creature pursued him down the hallway to where Neela and Sebestyrn were providing cover. Slipping on a wet section of flooring, Blixhaven fell prone, his longbow clattering to the floor just out of reach. The wounded Neela and Sebestyrn now faced the creature alone, until the monk finally finished it with a flurry of lethal blows. When the party explored the sarcophagus, they discovered a ring carved with mysterious symbols. Putting the ring on, Blixhaven suddenly found he was able to read the symbols as forming a sentence: "A diplomat must first understand."
After much debate, Blixhaven managed to convince the battered party that they should return to the burial chamber, which they had so far avoided out of respect for the dead knight whose remains rested therein. Entering the room cautiously, Blixhaven was still caught by surprise when the dead knight rose to his feet, throwing a javelin that knocked him flying into the corner, where he lay unconscious and bleeding. Jrak and Trykaar came to his rescue, but found themselves in a desperate fight as first the half-ogre then the swordmage fell under the blows of the zombie knight's morningstar. Neela too was sent reeling, reduced to the edge of consciousness and unable fight. At this point, it was the brave Sebestryrn who stepped forward, unarmoured and wielding a small dagger. He distracted the knight, leading it around the chamber until finally securing the safety of the hallway. Realizing that the knight would not follow him into the hallway, he used his remaining crossbow bolts to weaken it, finally finishing it off in a desperate bid to save his colleagues, returning the service that they had done to him only two short days before.
The tattered party now realized that they must rest and recover their strength before continuing their journey. Two days were spent hidden in the room formerly occupied by the giant spider, as they used the last of their medical kit to bind the worst of their wounds.
When they finally emerged from the tomb, it was to blue skies and a sun that had dried up most signs of the storm that had inundated them during their last day of journeying. They now found themselves journeying across a landscape that showed more signs of habitation, both today and in the distant past. Stone ruins could be seen frequently during their travels, and the poor hovels of the current residents. But those hovels that the party came upon directly were either tightly shuttered or in ruins. There were also signs that they were not the only travelers on the road. At one point, they came across a blackened pathway, the adjacent trees being freshly scorched as far as they could see in either direction. At one point, Neela spotted a pair of Genasi ahead of them on the path. The Genasi also appeared to spot the party before running off in the other direction, and they decided to take to the woods. Returning to scout the path, Neela saw more than a dozen Genasi patrolling the area near where they had been sighted.
The next morning brought the party within sight of their destination; the next guardtower. Blixhaven and Neela scouted ahead. From the safety of cover, they could see that the door was open and hanging on its hinges, and that smoke had marred the stonework around the narrow windows of the second and third floors. Even more telling was the flock of carrion birds that circled the structure. Seeing no sign of activity, they entered the tower to find the scorched aftermath of a fierce battle. The tower had been thoroughly sacked, leaving nothing useful behind.
Assessing their situation, the party decided to make for the dock on the river, about four miles to the south of the tower. Setting off across country, paralleling the most likely path, the party was about halfway to their destination when Blixhaven, scouting ahead, was spotted by a pair of Genasi. Their shout of warning brought answering cries from other Genasi in the distance, and Blixhaven hurried to alert the rest of the party. After conferring quickly, it was decided that the others would hide while Blixhaven led the Genasi away. Jrak, Neela, Trykaar, Sybestern, and the captive elf hid in some dense bushes while Blixhaven hurried off, attempting to draw the attention of his pursuers. The swift scout led the Genasi patrols past his hidden comrades, and nearly all the way to the tower, before speeding off and taking a circuitous path back to rendezvous with his colleagues.
In the meantime, the rest of the party had continued on to the docks after the Genasi passed them by. Finding no sign of boats or the goblin defenders, they decided to head eastward, following the river in the direction of Wasteward. Once again moving cautiously through the woods, this time led by Neela, they soon overtook a heavily-laden Genasi wagon making slow progress along the winding road. Setting up an ambush, Neela hailed the wagon while the others snuck up behind. But a panicked driver quickly lashed his horses into action, forcing a scrambled rush on the part of the party members to prevent their escape. A powerful swing of Jrak's maul caught the passenger squarely in the chest, crushing his life from him, but Neela was forced to jump onto the rear of the wagon as it passed, dextrously climbing up to the driver's seat while it shuddered violently on the rough roadway. A few quick blows sent the driver tumbling over the side of the wagon and Neela managed to grab the reins and slow the wagon just in time to negotiate a sharp bend in the road.
While they waited for Blixhaven to catch up, the party began searching through the wagon for useful supplies.
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