My goal to have drop-in sessions is slightly thrown off because there are a total of 12 PCs in two parts of Sheljar, on the road to Sheljar, in Telse and wandering the West. This session attempts to reconnect a couple of the plots.

Session Notes:
Doceo is the Uncommoner/Factotum Merchant who recently played their first ever session, a solo.
Telly is a Cleric of Light following Selley, the goddess of moons. This experienced RPGer is in their 1st 5th edition game.
Ajhenas joins this session. He’d missed the last one, but there’s a simple way to introduce him to the adventure and to get nearly every PC at the Inn.

Burning the Caravansary

Continuing on his journey towards the bog-city of Sheljar with its foul stench and haunted nights Doceo thinks he’s escaped the slaving group. After a couple more days he passes a bend around another abandoned orchard. There are flames on the horizon. He cautiously approaches a tiny settlement of three buildings (the caravansary). A few hours earlier Ajhenas heard a Kirtin horn sounding a unit’s call for help. He rushed away from the inn, through the stench and up the hillside. As a scout he moved quickly through the lands. Telly was a guest in the stables. He’d been journeying back towards Telse after a visit to Fort Ooshar.

The three are not yet allies, but the conflict is clear. Slavers have slain bonded companions – three ponies to the South that Doceo passes, Ajhenas sees a few dead retrieving dogs. Telley leaps from his room to see an axe beak run towards freedom and one of the resident goliaths fighting off a few humans with whips.

It is a fierce battle. Only the blessings of Selley and a few draughts of the Everflow keep the three PCs alive. They could not save the resident goliath. They are victorious – a slaving scout, three slaving guards and their leader are no longer. Some camp nearby is alerted as the companions of these evil souls wail and perish.

Rescuing Refugees

After laying the dead to rest in funeral pyres, one of honor for the animals slain by the slavers and one for the sake of sanitation for those that attempted to enslave the group, the three with their five dogs and heron search the grounds. There are two trails. One is where the axe beak ran and the other seems to be back to the southeast where the slaving group came from, and had taken their prizes.

They follow the axe beak with those that are alive and free. The two sides converse. The horn is found, as Ajhenas is disappointed it is from ages ago rather than a current unit. He is still out of touch of the Army to which he swore service.

Together the group goes back to their former caravansary home. Doceo’s isn’t the only cart, but both are loaded full. These adventurers and refugees head towards a place where slavers will not go – the haunted city of Sheljar.

Entering the Inn

Now, with a half dozen rescued humans and goliaths following them the group heads towards Sheljar and the inn. A smattering of skeletons try to stop them, but Telley’s goddess turns the inhuman creatures away.

The island-inn has ground that need not be fallow, and experts who can work it. Other nearby islands may also be rescued from the taint of the Necromancer and those tunneling nightmares. If Samul wants a kingdom he now has peasants, not just royalty.