Lenny's player put in an appearance but only for the day so I decided that some mystical strangeness would go down a treat as an excuse for her arrival considering they're in Ustalav. Knowing that there were zombies milling about the town and doubtless following (slowly) behind them, the party crossed the drawbridge and then argued about whether they should encamp on the unnatural valley floor (steep sides, flat bottom, relatively level) or go up to the one of the mini-keeps (about ten foot diameter and ten foot high) that perced on the top of the two cliffs.
Proteus wanted to stay down in the valley (which Archer termed the 'killing field') but they managed to convince him to go up when Lhye floated up and determined that it was empty and rather ruined (though still solid enough to provide protection from the rain). A silk rope was dangled down for those who couldn't climb on their own or levitate. Once up there, they saw Lenny start to materialise but as all they saw at first were translucent hands, Proteus panicked and thought there was a ghost so he slid down the rope to the bottom.
Lenny, finding herself slowly disappearing and growing translucent on the quarterdeck of their ship back in Augustana, raced down to the orlop deck where she desperately drank some rum (figuring she wasn't drunk enough for this). Finally figuring that it was all still too weird and she wasn't getting drunk enough quickly enough, she tried to kick off the spigot but her foot had already gone and merely passed through.
It was a strange sight for the others as the ghostly female figure knelt down and seemed to be slurping at some non-existent substance before leaning back and snapping out a kick. Finally they could see enough of her to know it was Lenny and Lenny could see Ustalav superimposed over the decks before finally she was sucked through to where they stood.
At this time, Proteus noticed the raven and sent his monkey to go and talk to it. They did, indeed, speak, but only about the weather from what Proteus could surmise. It made sense, considering that he hadn't told the monkey what to ask about. So he asked the raven what it wanted and it cawwed at him to 'fuck off'. It flashed its tail feathers at him insultingly so he shot it with an arrow, which did very little but sent it flying off.
Proteus was told that the ghost was only Lenny (who was thirsty for rum) and the others headed into the mini-keep. Proteus tried to climb up the rope but failed so badly (critical failure) that the rope snapped and dropped down beside him. Proteus called out for help but thunder and lightning kept cracking every time he tried to speak (damn bird). So he picked it up, tied it to the end of the arrow, and shot it ... only for another natural 1 to send it flying up and over the cliff with the rope and into the distance.
Lhye took pity on the missing Proteus and went down to check if he was still alive. He then tried to assist Proteus up the cliff by levitating behind him and steadying him. Proteus rolled yet another natural 1 and dislodged a lot of rocks. The two hit the dirt, thankfully unhurt, but a larger boulder rolled loose and smacked into the winch which sent the crank circling and dropped the drawbridge over the moat.
They had to defeat the zombies that shambled over but then Archer dropped a rope over the side and they all climbed up and rested in the keep until the storm passed and they could re-set their spells. During the night, they levelled up. The mysterious bone in Proteus' hand pulsed and vibrated a strange tune that taught him new songs. Lhye had strange dreams while the lightning and thunder sand in the air around him. Lunjun had some interesting epiphanies that helped him figure out how to cast a few new spells.
When they awoke at around mid-afternoon, Archer scraped some guano off the roof and found sulphur deposits in the crevices of the walls. Combining that with some charcoal off the fire that Arexia and Wellard had built the night before, he uses his Gunsmithing kit to make 12 charges of shot for his gun.
They then headed back down in the valley and continued along until the valley became like a caldera (a round depression in the rock) with the flat road continuing around a large circular curtain wall around 700feet in diameter. The wall also was surrounded by a moat filled with red-eyed piranha from the River Kingdoms.
The drawbridge was down so Lhye tried to levitate up and over it.
So that's the first half of the session done. I've run out of time to type it up but I'll do the second half the day after tomorrow.
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