Book 2: They Watched the Stars

Chapter 1: Escape From Skywatch

Sakuachi tells the group at dinner that she is very concerned about Pamak, the last of her missing companions. The Smiling Wolves saw a man in a shark skin armor outside the gates. While the party rests, Yoi-ko has a dream of the costumed man watching him from a dark forest. He wakes up thinking “that was wild”. He tells the group.

While Sammakko and Sakuachi go to the observatory, Kalathel, Hector and Yoi-ko decide to look for Pamak and Hissoi (the missing Smiling Wolf who was looking for Pamak).

Because the party cannot tell where they are going, they get lost and find a large talking winter wolf named Isthald. She proposes a bargain since she was cursed by a moon hag to have one eye which is normal and the other a hags eye (which can help to see in the night, but at the cost of seeing worse in the daytime). She would give one of us her eye and in exchange she would help us navigate and help fight. Kalathel gets all excited about it and accepts. Yoi-ko finds out that the moon hag was named Lunella, and secretly vows to find the hag and force her to take it back or to blind her!

After the exchange, Isthald takes the group to the gates. Just outside the gates, there are fresh foot prints which she is able to follow. Unfortunately, there is blood spattered about the cave entrance. Before we can flee… which we were not doing… a creature emerges; a Myroga dragon. It talks nonsense and the group just is like, “huh”? It tries another language and Hector can understand him and acts as interpreter. Hector and Yoi-ko chat about what to do while Kalathel combs his expansive lore of the occult and determines that the dragon is simple minded (true) and draws power from the sun (false). It yells at the group and power can be felt building around us. Hector charges it and hits it with his maul, but it seems that the hide is resistant to some of the blow. Then the ground explodes under Isthald and she is very hurt as she falls into the crater of the explosion. The Myroga wreaths itself in destructive energy. Isthald leaps from the crater and exhales frost past Hector onto the Myroga. Kalathel strides forward, using his expansive esoteric knowledge to determine its weakness but the dragon is inscrutable. Yoi-ko, practical to a fault, takes out a torch, lights it, and then stands behind cover. Hector, raging, slams it with his hammer but it doesn’t fall over. Angry, the dragon uses dark tendrils to attack Hector and Kalathel. The void energies seem to slither around Hector… odd and fascinating. Even so it slashes Hector, who licks up the blood like, “nom nom nom I don’t care.” Isthald leaps into action, insulted that her foe has ignored her after her attack, and rips into the Myroga with her vicious fangs. The dragon shrieks in its alien language and falls to the ground. Kalathel, with elven grace, slips beside the prone dragon and flesh parts where the knife passes. Yoi-ko, in his tiger stance, grabs him and then misses with a kick to the ribs. The battle becomes more and more furious! Hammer blow shatter bones, wolf jaws tear and freeze flesh, star knife slices through hide, and tiger strikes rake the beast. Still the Myroga continues on and flies back despite having its horn shattered by Hector. The ground erupts beneath Kalathel who cries out in pain and righteous indignation. Isthald and the Myroga crash and lock in a death struggle, jaws tearing. Her onslaught is too much and Myroga dies.

Kalathel’s wounds are treated by Hector after the combat. Hector treats his own wounds and Yoi-ko checks the body and then the cave. A pair of heads, Pamak and Hissoi the Smiling Wolf are on a platform. An astrolabe and gross jade figurine are found. Kalathel is able to determine that the figurine is magical and knows it to be called the Horrid Figurine and it has fright and nausea abilities. Kalathel is very, very excited. The astrolabe is the Astrolabe of Falling Stars and it is a mariner’s astrolabe with a special ability.

The dragon’s organs and heads were harvested along with valuable fluids and the group heads to the camp. People are sad about the deaths and Yoi-ko holds a ceremony for those who have fallen. Sakuachi says that she had a vision and that she feels that the Gatewalkers will play a large role in the imprisoning of Osoyo.

With the new raft and the locks open, the group leaves. As they get ready to leave, they are informed by sailers that we want to go to Winterbreak Bay and get ghosts to give us a boat because the lake doesn’t like rafts.

Treasure: moon hag’s eye, myroga dragon parts (head, horns, skin), 200 gp worth of gems, Astrolabe of Falling Stars, Horrid Figurine, 200 gp in coin, 2 weeks’ rations per person