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Tl;dr: A group of adventurers from Ruined Oak go to protect workers building an outpost southeast. A moment of kindness brought about the death of many workers.

Future Adventure Notes:
•Raving madmen should probably not be given shelter that is within thirty feet of workers.

Session Title: GKE Outpost Building attempt 2
Session DM: Genthrock
Session Date: 25 Mar 2022 @ 23:00 UTC
Session Risk: 6

Characters:
•Ardenn (Rogue 2) (played by Mal) (aka That Bow Guy)
•Bar’Sah (Sorcerer 2/Wizard 2) with Clockwork Owl the Familiar (played by Tootired78)
•Free (Barbarian 2 / Rogue 1) (played by Le Count) (aka Thug Free)
•”Sister” Mavus (Paladin 3) (played by Arden) (aka That Half-Elf Zealot)
•Sina (Paladin 4) (played by RCB) (aka That Tiefling Zealot)
•Stark (Druid 4) with Booya the Wildfire Spirit (played by Geokhan) (aka That Pyromaniac)

I, Bar’Sah, was once again forced to help the rabble in order to maintain my place on this wretched island. Grouped again together with scoundrelss and zealotss and one poor soul was just a plain lunatic. How far I have fallen. Regardless I, Bar’Sah, endeavored to make sure as many of the people we left with returned as possible, though the many workerss that died died to faultss of my lesser companionss.

Our group was contacted by a foreman named simply George. He and hiss crew had been hired to build an outpost, southeast of Ruined Oak. I was surprised he did not have any bribe money for his own personal safety, but thingss are different here. We set out along the road and with no truly notable encounters during the day, arriving at the construction site safely.

We did not however have no encounterss. Thug Free and That Half-Elf Zealot tried to scare a dangerous number of hyenass from an aurochss corpse for no apparent reason. The workerss, the foreman and some of our group plus myself watched in peculiar shock as this went on for awhile. They offered no explanation why, and frankly I did not care for one.

The first night was preternaturally quiet. During my watch, a low rumbling sound off to the south was noticeable, and getting louder and closer. Shouting in alarm to wake the sleeping, I searched as far as I could seeing through my owl, and what I saw filled me with dread. A massive horde of beastss, including aurochss and wolvess were stampeding away from something and towardss uss.

Naturally That Pyromaniac began lighting the grass between us and that horde on fire, helped by Thug Free. The others began to shift the wagonss to make a wall and urged the workerss to huddle enmasse behind our emerging barricade. I, Bar’Sah, used magic to get grease on the ground in front of our fire. Many of the mindlesss beastss did turn from the fire, those that did not slipped in grease, eventually providing a wall of crushed bodiess that kept most of the beasts from threatening uss.

Behind the horde, slowly approaching in an odd, halting, shifting manner, walking on all fours, eyeless but staring directly at uss were some sort of shadowy goblin creaturess. That Pyromaniac and That Half-Elf Zealot were severely injured by these when the creatures managed to attach to them somehow. Each creature disappeared when killed in a puff of smoke, the last leaving a note. “Looking but never seeing, hearing but never listening, it is a matter of time before the chains rattle for ye.”

No workers were harmed during thiss. The rest of the night went quietly. The day seemed like it would be peaceful at first, but then suddenly, four huge pterodactyls swooped down intent on taking either us or the workers as a meal. They were not prepared for the bolts that I, Bar’Sah, and That Bow Guy sent their way. I was almost free of That Half-Elf Zealot, who was being carried off, but That Pyromaniac sent his familiar in and its fiery burst teleported her to safety.

This night, early in the evening, I was awoken by a shout. There was a ghostly image, with chains arcing towards a silvery image of a man with a cape, eyes sewn shut, controlling the ghost somehow. The ghost let out a wail of such horror, it caused both zealots and Thug Free to collapse, dying on the ground. I, Bar’Sah, heroically urged our workers to flee the vicinity and escorted them away while flinging magic towards the ghost. That Bow Guy tried to shoot it as well but magic seemed more effective.

That Pyromaniac proved himself a capable healer, which was surprising. He managed to prop up some of the dying who then propped up the otherss. During this, more chains were heard rattling, and some zombies and skeletons clawed their way out of the ground, proving a dangerous threat to those still dying. When the wailing ghost was destroyed, an image appeared in the air. To me it looked like a dagger in a skull, but some of the others knew it as a cultist symbol. The silver figure disappeared after the ghost died.

The rest of this night was peaceful, as was the next day. Near the end of the day, we were approached by a mysterious figure, who was muttering about having “chased it here“, asking us if we had seen a creature, with no face, tall gangly limbs, promising “he’ll get it first.” Something about his mannerism and speech brought to my mind the ravings a madman had left in a slime filled cave I had been to, he confirmed he was the writer of such. Immediately I tried remove him from our company but the soft hearted foolss, especially That Tiefling One would not listen to me. That Pyromaniac seemed to enjoy having another madman around.

Unnamed Madman

Our workers paid the paid the price for their folly. That raving lunatic’s connection to something eldritch caused him to start screaming an unholy sound during the night. Five ballss of lightning appeared. It was unclear if the sound caused or was being caused by the summoning of five ballss of lightning.

Able to move through walls as if they did not exist, these balls just exploded near our workers, killing many as they were trapped inside the newly finished walls of the outpost. All before any of uss could react to it, despite having a person on watch. Most of these balls of lightning exploded but a few were destroyed by uss. Foreman George informed us after this that work could not continue.

In the morning, I used magic to send that raving madman away from Ruined Oak, not want to have to deal with more of his friends. We returned there safely with the remaining workerss, having only finished roughly one-quarter of the outpost construction.