Previous: On The Trail (2)
Session 7: Darklife?
The trip back to the elven city was quick an uneventful. Once back in the city, the Strongwillow sisters immediately went to their uncle for information. He told them that the incursion by the humans who killed their parents was somehow linked to a powerful artifact coming on the market. The artifact, a staff called "Darklife" was last known to be owned by a necromancer named Falon Gareth who lives in the city of Xraxus. Willamet asked the sisters if they could travel to Xraxus and try to gather some information about the staff. Jelana told him that the group would go to Xraxus, but that she needed someone to travel to Keren and buy their parent's weapons back from Shellen Moya.
They left the very next morning for Xraxus. The first leg of the trip was uneventful, but once the group left the relative safety of Leonay, they joined with a caravan headed north along the trade road. Along the way they were attacked by marauders trying to ransack the caravan. The attackers were defeated mainly because of the efforts of the companions, and the companions were able to keep the contents of the marauder's wagons. The caravan pulled into Cetonasia before continuing the rest of the way to Xraxus. In Cetonasia the group sold the contents of the marauder's wagons and restocked their supplies.
The remainder of the trip went by uneventfully. Once in Xraxus, the sisters went their separate ways to gather information. Jelana went down to the docks to try and find someone with links to the black market, and Alisnier went to a local authority to try and get information about where Falon Gareth resides.
Both of the sisters were able to find information fairly quickly. Before sundown the group was walking the road heading to Falon Gareth's home. The group walked up to the necromancer's front door, knocked, and were greeted by a small man who introduced himself as Maximus Reign. Maximus has worked for Falon as a scribe for many years. He invited the group into the parlor and asked why they were looking for Falon. Alisnier and Jelana started to tell the story (with Grafton periodically interjecting information that the sisters would have preferred to remain unsaid). Maximus expressed regret that he couldn't really help with too much information, but he did mention that Falon often works with a necromancer named Albaran Delhomme who lives in Ash-Melin. Falon comes and goes at a schedule completely in his own mind, sometimes leaving for months at a time.
The following evening, Jelana and Grafton went to Crabtown's Best, a small tavern where she was to meet with someone who was supposed to have information about how to purchase the staff on the black market. Jelana didn't really think that this person actually had the staff, but she figured she had to look into every possibility. The meeting went pretty much as she expected, with the contact asking for 100,000 gps and Jelana asking for some time to raise the money.
Alisnier went to F.O.D.D.E.R. headquarters (an adventuring guild) to use their library to research the staff. The following is the only information they were able to find.
Referred
to as “Al Kimadu” in the southwest, little is known of this powerful staff.
Several rumors exist which claim to detail the history of the device, yet
no verifiable account has ever been discovered.
All tales of the staff have several consistent details.
First, the primary function of the staff is the creation of lesser
undead. Though details vary, most
stories describe legions of men rising from death on battle fields and striking
down their living fellows. Several
well known accounts of such events exist in the histories of nations in and
around the area known to current cartographers as “The Hive Lands”.
Historical facts lend some credence to these accounts; Many of the
victors in these (mythological?) battles are also reported to have the support
of powerful practitioners of the necromantic arts. Because hard facts are rare in these cases, all of the above
is generally considered conjecture by sages of the modern era.
Rumors have placed the artifact in the possession of various wizards on the Arrean continent (the Feebs family of Rhys, court mages in Anasazi, and the reclusive Falon Gareth .. just to name a few). Though there may be some merit to these assertions, It is doubtful that such a potent magical item would remain unused for long periods of time if in the possession of a capable wizard (as all of the previously mentioned candidates certainly are). Most likely, the artifact either lies hidden among the treasures of some long-slumbering dragon, or a mage/collector from another world has taken the thing as a prize. By any account, Darklife has been out of the public eye for more generations than are convenient to count. If it were to surface in the hands of a capable and motivated mage, its location would not stay a secret very long.
The group left the following day. Two nights later the group was ambushed by a group of thieves led by a creature from the lower planes, a filth imp. The group defeated the attackers and continued on their way to Ash-Melin.