A Most Perilous Path
2026.06.11
Gathering their battered comrades and meager supplies, our adventurers plunged deep into the Nyrwood, pursued by ravenous and ghoulish hounds, intent on cracking their bones and devouring their flesh. Through creative tree-climbing and a game of not-it, the rag-tag band fought back the canine horde, with but a single loss.
While seeking shelter on a sacred hill, we gained our first real taste of the touch of the Chaos Lords upon the group, as the Gravedigger decided to act upon the Alchemist's innocent observation that a sacrifice may be required at the altar of the ancient Druids. An unwitting Mendicant had already volunteered as sacrifice by climbing onto the altar to take a well-deserved nap – a sleep they would never awaken from – as the Gravedigger murdered him there before his kith. One cannot easily say whether the bolt of lightning that struck the altar from the heavens was truly a curse upon the perpetrator, or perhaps a salute to this newly corrupted soul.
A further day of slogging through muddy tracks brought our band to the gates of the ancient and semi-ruined Castle Nyr. Confounded by roaming undead sentries and winged beasts soaring over their heads, they sought a narrow cliffside path around the side of the great rock upon which the Citadel stood. With guile, they set upon langerous Obiesh shirking their duty to enjoy an evening meal of roasted halflings. The artifice of hiding two of the party's own halfings in sacks on the trail, while causing a commotion such that the alarmed undead would hurry past in pursuit, permitted a cunning ambush ending with a swift hurling of the Obiesh into the yawning void below!
At first the three rescued halfings were elated to join the party... that is until the Chaos-tinged Gravedigger started tormenting them like a cat toys with a mouse. Seeing how they had merely escaped from the roasting-pole to the fire, two of the rescued halflings seized their last opportunity to flee, while their lone comrade stayed behind as a captive distraction. I imagine, we shall learn more of his fate, later.
As to our band, we leave them deep in a dank cavern beneath the Citadel for now, amongst faerie-touched springs and strange pools, while the rocks shudder and steam hisses from the darkness. More confident in their growing abilities, yet with the cracks of division spreading between their ranks, for they have all chosen a most perilous path. For some, perhaps, a path far more perilious than others.
