Plauged Darkember 4th

Party

Konguq-Human Wizard,

Captain Ace-Human Rouge, Quartermaster

Vodren-Human Cleric Healer and Navigation

Bron-Dwarf Fighter, Battle Master

Ryai- Elf Spellblade, Night Watch

Vorlo-Hobgoblin Apothecary and Helmsman

The party leaves Vikaze, still wary of the seeker they met. Vodren manages to track Broud through the woods and find evidence of him running and then later ambushed. The tracks around Broud's are Gnolls, along with a dire hyena. Unfortunately with the level of exhaustion the party has, they are unable to travel faster than a crawl to follow the tracks.

Ryai sends Marovie to scout ahead. The owl returns and informs Ryai of a figure in a brown robe standing in a clearing. With the party already being on high alert Ryai, Konguq, and Vodren split off to try and surround the figure and send Ace and Bron to try and see if negotiations are possible. Vorlo still not feeling well, pulls away to try and take care of himself. When Ace approachs the figure a large fly erupts from the hood and in a celestial language shouts "more sacrifices"

Negotiation was never an option.

Before the fly can attack Vodren manages to fizzle it out with a shot of light. The body that it came from shambled towards Ace, and the rouge manages to shoot it down quickly with a crossbow bolt. As the body goes down an burst of maggots explodes from the body, attaching to Bron, Konguq, and Ace. The party struggles with the swarm, with Bron taking the major brunt of the attack from them. With the sustained damage, the party takes a quick rest to recover before heading back.

Marovie scouts again and finds a large mound that a home looks like it was built into. He also spots the giant up ahead keeping watch. Ace splits off to investigate and case the exterior. He finds more of the large fly creatures around the back with Broud's things. He also notices the back door and a front door, along with the meditating giant.

He returns with the information and tells the group. The group discusses their options. Vodren worried that Broud might already be dead and Ryai reminding him that even if he is, they can't leave his body there. Vodren decides to lure the giant away by summoning his own dire hyenas. The giant is confused by the creatures, but follows them back into the woods.

The party decides to enter through the front door. Before heading in, Vorlo offers the party lavender oil to rub on their skin to repel future bugs.

Carved into the stone of the door, Bron reads that there is a trap just beyond it. However a proverb below the initial writing indicates to use the door as a shield. Ace carefully opens the door while the rest of the party hides behind Bron's shield. A large metal fist shoots out the door, with gore already on the other end.

The party slips into the first room of the place and realize that this used to be someone's home. When they try to approach the door, an image of a snake strikes out at them. Ace swipes at it with his cane and quickly learns it's and illusion. Moving the illusion away, Ace cracks open the door, and alerts the two other cultist on the other side of the party's presence. With the two alerted, the group decides to attack and Bron pins the one cultist against the wall, being attacked by a mob of flies. Vorlo chucks a clay pot of the lavender oil into the swarm poisoning them. Ace, seeing the opportunity, ducks to the ground and shoots the pinned cultist in an artery, killing him.

With the one down, Bron chases after the other cultist. Ryai tries to slip past the swarm but becomes severely damaged, and feeling something happen to him. He gives chase after Bron and tries to shoot the cultist, but misses. Konguq follows suit and tries to contact Broud. She gets no response.

Vorlo in an attempt to get rid of the swarm, falls backwards onto the door reactivating the trap. While it misses the swarm, the flies escape outside the home. Bron pins the last cultist to the door, killing him and telling the party to stay quiet.

With the chance to regroup, Ryai recognizes the quilt on the wall as a family heirloom with portraits of the dwarven family that lived there on it. Despite wanting to investigate further, he is more concerned with what the flies did to him. Vodren takes a look and finds a large welt on his left shoulder. Bron mentions that he has a similar one on his elbow. Using Vorlo's healers kit, Vodren manages to extract two maggots from the welts.

Ace investigates the quilt further and finds that a map of the home is sewn into it and jots it down. The party discussess thier next move. With Ryai and Bron being spent, the majority of the party looks for a quick rest. Ace offers to scout ahead and Vorlo offers to go with him, disguised as the cultists.

While they scout, Konguq puts a pebble in the next room to keep an eye on things. Ace and Vorlo begin their investigation with Agratok with them. The first room they are greeted by sleeping Gnolls and a Dire hyena. They try to investigate the adjacent room but find it blocked by dirt. As they proceed they see the living room being ravaged by a bear. It looks up to them but continues it's scavenging. They go to check the master bedroom and discover that's where the altar is, with other cultists practicing their ritual. They luckily do not draw thier attention and head to the mudroom where they meet a larger Gnoll named Thrash watching the back door.

Thrash asks them why they aren't at their posts. Ace explains that he heard that their mutts were causing a ruckus and needed to investigate. Thrash takes offense and threatens to tell the others. Ace threatens him and Thrash lashes out. His attack however bounces off and he lets the two continue their exploring.

Back at the main entrance, Konguq sees that another Gnoll enters the room. He barks orders and the others wake up and sit at attention. While they moved, Konguq sees a phrase written in dwarven. She writes it out and Bron tells her it says that there is a treasure in a room across from the nursery. She manages to tell Agratok about the nursery before the connection is cut.

Agratok tries to pull Ace towards the nursery. Despite Ace's protests, Ace checks the nursery room and finds a skinny dwarven woman with blue and green hair in the corner, working on some alchemy. She tells Ace that even if she's not in prayer, she's still doing grandfather's work. They decide to leave her alone. Ace goes to investigate the kitchen area while Vorlo goes on watch.

Ace tries to peer into the kitchen, and finds what looks to be an animal person standing near a pot. When he returns to Vorlo, he points out a hidden door across from the nursery. When they investigate, they find two young dwarven children hidden inside. The two quickly slip into the room and try to comfort the children. They tell the two that they're going to get them out of there, and the oldest girl grabs a few things, claiming that they are their family.

The connection returns to Konguq with Agratok and he tells her about the children. Prepping for the worst Ryai and Konguq grab the two corpses of the dead cultists and begin thier work. Konguq animates one from the dead, and Ryai goes to work making a circle.

The duo slip back to the mudroom with the children hidden under their cloaks. Thrash questions them and tells them that he's told the other Gnolls to go in the look out. The two men then slip out the backdoor and are accosted by flies, trying to return back to the front. The two manage to distract the creatures looking for an offering by chucking the dirty daggers they took from the cultists.

When they get back, they find Konguq with her new zombie Zim, and Ryai partially through a summoning ritual. They quickly decide that Vorlo returns to Larian's camp with the kids to get them to safety, leaving the party. Ace then recounts what he saw to the group and then they decide what to do next. Ryai during, decides they are still going to need help and finishes his ritual, summoning Skoragnit. The demoness appears and Ryai requests her assistance in healing, asking that she repair her work. She is soothing and friendly, but quickly drops to all fours and begins to sniff around the circle. She recognizes the scent of Proseus. She requests that Ryai release her from the circle and he obliges. She explains to the party that Proseus cheated her out of a deal and gave her rotten flesh and noticed that the home is tainted by him. For healing, she asks that she joins the party to hunt and punish the demon that cheated her.

The group mostly obliges, but Vodren isn't comfortable with a demon around. He mentions his disappointment in Ryai for summoning her, but Ryai asks if Paladine would have given Ryai the body Skoragnit did. Both of them knowing the answer being no.

Skoragnit heals Ryai, and offers to assist the others, but Bron refuses. Skoragnit however compliments Vodren on his work removing the worm from Ryai's back.

While healing the party tries to figure out their next step. They decide that they are going have Ace try and pass as one of the members to try and take over the cult to get the Gnolls on their side. With a little help from Vodren and Skoragnit they manage to convince the Gnolls of the idea and propose a deal. That the Gnolls will take out the cultists if the party deals with the witch. They agree.

The group goes to the nursery assuming the dwarven woman inside was the witch. As the group prepares, a rat explodes beneath them, accidentally bringing the goblin witch right to the party. A fight breaks out while the witch manages to flee back to the kitchen. She talks with Proseus, the demon Skoragnit wanted to kill. The group surrounds the demon and he unleashes wail after wail, forcing Konguq and Vodren to fall unconscious and Skoragnit to fall under Proseus's control. Ryai glances to Ace seeing a lost cause and tells him to get to his side so they could escape to Wayreth. Ace however, reaches out to Mishakal asking for her aid. She responds and tells him to go help his friends. He rushes to Vodren's side and stabilizes him while Mishakal uses Ryai's moonbeam to eliminate Proseus. Ace stabilizes the group and Skoragnit comes to her senses, disappointed she couldn't kill Proseus herself. Skoragnit heals Konguq and Vodren (despite Vodren not wanting her to) and thanks the group for their assistance. Ryai asks if he can call her again and she agrees.

With the party healed, the Gnolls return with evidence of their work splattered across their face. The group talks about what to do next and offer that Vodren go and befriend the bear. The Gnolls laugh and egg Vodren on to do it. Once they get there, they realize that the bear was an illusion to scare off people. They enter the living room and find a large locked stone door not on the map. There they find a very sick Broud and two moaning dwarven skeletons. They pull him out and Vodren looks him over and realizes that it's the exact same thing that plagued the Dimernesti they saved in Good Bay. Meaning healing him might mean another fight, something the party wasn't ready for. Vodren attempts to stabilize him instead to buy time but does it too well and heals Broud. A Gorilla plague spirit comes out and the Dandies prepare for a round 2 with Morgian