Session 18

Day 76
After debating some whether they have a chance of finding Petyr, the Sons decide to move a tad away from the mine and get some much needed shut-eye, since they have been up all night.

Day 77
After a good night's rest, they take the dirt road, or perhaps rather dirt trail, and head towards Passmore, the nearest village, according to the liberated prisoners. After six hours of walking they arrive, and find exactly what the demon had promised. All the men dead, babies eaten and the women, who are burying the dead, very angry at someones called the Sons of the Phoenix. However some fasttalking by Nevron deflects their suspicion from the group and in general have them wonder if a demon who did something this horrible can be trusted to tell the truth. The Sons help out with the dead, but decline to stay the night.

Day 78
During the night, Nevron is surprised on his watch by a Chimera, so the rest are awoken by it's flaming breath. Arath is torn a new one, before the tide turns and the Sons kill the beast. Nevron takes a token, a tooth.

Once up, the Sons continue their trip towards the Swamp of Death, and pass through Gyyae. The village is completely empty, the graves have burst open from below, there are multiple signs of battle and while investigating, the Sons of the Phoenix are attacked by 8 wights. They manage to deal with the foul undead, but feel the sting of their drain.

After the fight, Nevron decides to scout Harp, which is about 2 hours away on foot. His flyby as a pegasus shows a town just as empty as Gyyae. On his way back, he spots a man dragging two mules coming out of the hills and continuing by the dirt trail. Nevron flies back ahead of him, and the Sons leave Gyyae to meet the man.

As it turns out, the man is named Hullard, and he is a traveling merchant coming from Porrac and passing through to Lochhurst. He avoided Harp, as they were aware that something foul had happened there. He sells potions, and Urnyx finds some gems in his pockets and buys some healing potions and a potion that can "cure poison".

Day 79
The next morning, the Sons bid farewell to Hullard, and travel towards Harp. Harp is much like Gyyae, empty, with signs of graves having burst open and lots of tracks leading out of town. Urnyx also finds some horse-tracks coupled with someone in metal boots, but loses the trail again. As they pass through Harp, they note the huge wooden statue of a dragon located down by the edge of the swamp.

The continue north along the swamp towards Pedge, and as they arrive, they see magical energies from beyond the walled village. They decide to climb up top of the 180' ridge running behind the village, in order to circumvent the village. As it turns out, it was a smart move, because the village is crawling with undead, or so it appears. Beyond the village they see a naked cyclops in the middle of a ritual involving a gigantic cauldron. The magical energies come from the cauldron. The cyclops is in the company of a black-armored knight on a black horse. As the Sons debate what to do, the Black-armored knight flies away on his horse with hooves on fire, right through some sort of magical rift or portal.

The Sons decide that time has come and Nevron prepares to switch to a pegasus in order to carry the two others down...