What We Do in the Realm of Shadows - Episode Two

This week we played the second session in our new Soulbound RPG campaign - What We Do in the Realm of Shadows -  picking up from the Previous Week... 

This week the retinue filed through the realmgate, past the slaughtered Duardin garrison of the small fort that had been built around both sides of the realgate. 

Luckily, the fort on the Ghyran side seemed just as remote as the one in Ulgu. 

Unfortunately, they had no idea which way to proceed. When last they'd passed this way, the area had been an open, marshy plain... but was now dense jungle. 

Eventually, Harald the Spirit Torment found a track leading away from the small fort and it was decided that all should follow that. The track was clearly not often used and the going was very slow as the deadwalker zombies and deathrattle skeletons had an especially difficult time navigating the rough dense marshy terrain. Many toppled over into the mud, dropping the baggage they were carrying - ruining many of Lady Esmerelda's best gowns and dresses!

After a LONG days march the pathway lead to a small settlement in a more open river valley. They decided to wait until after nightfall to approach... which wasn't that far off... 

Once it was fully dark, Sir Raven the Dour galloped up out of the dark on his undead nightmare mount... He skewered one of the nightguard at the town gate on his lance. His momentum carried him clear to the center of town, where the dead guard was dropped and he galloped back towards the gate and abducted the second guard and cantered back to the jungle where the rest of the group waited... 

Lady Esmerelda then put on her charms to get the guard to tell them where the realmgate was. He claimed he'd heard of a realmgate to Shyish, and knew the general direction from town, but said no one ever went there because it was in the "tainted lands"... Then the group insisted the guard to join their retinue (or die!) and lead them to this realmgate. 

There was some discussion about what they should call this new member of their retinue, who had identified himself as... Lloyd... perhaps...? It was generally concluded that they should use the same naming conventions they used for all their mortal "familiars" - who were all named after their original familiar named Guillermo... but they changed the first letter and cycled through the alphabet. As they currenlty had two Duardin names Muillermo and Nuillermo, some though he should obviously be names Ouillermo, but Sir Renmold thought that silly and they should skip vowels and just call him Puillermo... 

I'm not sure the matter was ever fully settled...? 

They waited until daylight and then set out with the guard leading the way... Some Deathrattle skeletons were assigned to march with him, a few to guard and make sure he didn't run off and others to try and chop a trail though the dense undergrowth. 

Harald the Spirit Torment, who was unhindered by the dense terrain, wandered hither and thither, scouting ahead and to the flanks of the slowly moving column. 

Later in the day, he spotted a trio of three small, weird-looking trees directly in their path. After a moment he realized they were Dryads. Harald told them to move out of the way and be gone! The trio did not move a branch. They remained standing where they were and continued to stare at the spirit torment. 

Harald decided to rush at the Dryads in hopes of scaring them off... 

The Dryads interpreted this move as an attack and took a defensive posture slashing at Harald with their wicked sharp branches as he sped past them. They did little damage to Haralds etherial form. Harald fought back bashing one to splinters with his massive chains and locks.

Then smashed a second one to kindling. 

Sir Renmold of Sylum Field, who was at the rear of the column, had absolutely NO IDEA anything was going on at the front! 

(So Finnegan described how he was taking one of the Duardin swords and using it to pin one of Lady Esmerelda's dresses to a deadwalker zombie that was having a really hard time staying on it's feet while carrying the dress - and making special care to not further ruin the dress, but strategically pierced it to make it more of a deeper, plunging v-cut front)

The guide/guard and skeletons heard some commotion ahead, but had no idea what was going on. 

Lady Esmerelda just barely made out what was transfolding and ordered all the zombies and skeletons forward, though they shambled very, VERY slowly... 

Sir Raven the Dour galloped forward, as best he could, only barely not being swept off his mount by low branches and vines... and utterly destroyed the third Dryad... 

There was some discussion of whether the "blood sap" of the dryads (and other sylvaneth) was sustaining to vampires... or if it was more like maple syrup and would cause violent vomiting like other normal food...? 

After the third Dryad was destroyed the jungle around them came alive with activity and noise and i was clear there were many, MANY more Sylvaneth that had been stalking them! 

And that's where we had to end it... 

Who or WHAT is lurking out there in the Jungle!??

Will they EVER make it back to the Realm of Death!?  

Find out next week on the next episode of What We Do in the Realm of Shadows!