lastlands.com

Just as the players prepared for combat, a familiar voice cried out from behind them, “Stop!”.

It was Goris!

IT had been about 10 days since he last saw the group, sending them off with a tale of his death. Judging from the looks on the faces there at the ruins however, no one was surprised to see him – but Goris assured them their message had indeed helped, especially in the last few days.

After catching up for a little while, Goris noted the absence of Eddie. When the group told him he was left with the ship a few days ago, his demeanor fell grim. He told them that he had just come from the ‘elven tower’ to the North, where he had met with Merrik. Merrik had with him a child his men had kidnapped… a child that matched Eddie’s description.

They also learned (when Goris slipped) that Goris was the brother of Merrik, and also that Merrik was a prince of the Gadarian Empire (which made Goris one as well). Merrik was here to give Goris more work (though what that work is was not clear).

The group decided to head up to the tower… they did not want to head back to the ship to check on Eddie, only to miss Merrik leaving in his from the tower (they would later discover Merrik’s ship was the one that chased them out of Havenshore).

To get to the tower they would have to climb a steep and narrow path that wound it’s way up. During this trip, Merrik’s advisor (a Devil) began to kick undead subdwellers from the tower down onto them. To make matters worse, the subdwellers had an explosive stick shoved into their bodies. If the collision with the body didn’t kill you, the hope was the explosion that followed shortly thereafter would. This made for an interesting climb.

When they made it to the base of the tower, one of Merrik’s 6 lieutenants stepped out to face them. After a hard fought battle, the players came out on top and entered the tower. Working their way up, they made it to the top only to discover the ship had left during their ascent of the tower, but Merrik’s advisor awaited them. After a challenging fight with him, he stopped and pleaded with them to release him… in return he offered information, and perhaps aid when they next met… after all, he said, their paths were certainly meant to cross again with Merriks.

They learned Eddie was not there at the tower and that the child (here, but dead) was gathered by Merrik with some other people said to have some kind of powers. He intended on experimenting with them in some way. If the mutilated boy was any indication of the outcome of the experiments, then the others had no chance.

The players gathered up all the treasure Merrik had to leave behind in his hasty retreat and headed back to their ship where two days later they found Eddie, still working away on repairs.