Echoes of Pain
| Echoes of Pain | |
|---|---|
| Date | 05/25/25 |
| Storyteller | Tire |
| Tier | Expert |
| Player Characters | Peaches, Ramesses, Sanaa, Seskro, Vliegen the Windborne |
| Rewards | 300xp, Shining Wayfinder, Scroll of Consecrate Flesh (2), Scroll of Procyal Philosophy (2), Demon Hunting Bands, Camp Shroud (Minor) Formula, 895g |
| Result | Success |
| Author | Sanaa (Foster) |
| Downtime | 12 days |
Log
Holdfast Sunbeams (their title for scouts) have reported that a village has unexpectedly gone quiet. A group of Associates, including myself, were hired to investigate to discover what happened to the villagers.
We traveled to the village, intending to meet the Sunbeams for an initial report before beginning our investigation the next day. The Sunbeams reported no observed activity in the village. One body was discovered in the streets of the village the day previous. One of the Sunbeams went to examine the body more closely and was trapped within the confines of the village by a barrier. The barrier allows entry but prevents exit. Circumstances surrounding the barrier were quite unusual and freeing the trapped Sunbeam became a new priority for our group.
Our group decided to first investigate the barrier before deciding on any further course of action. As reported, the barrier allowed both magic and physical objects to pass through it, but did not allow any magical or physical effects to pass back through. Surprisingly, the barrier also showed itself to prevent even smells passing to us from the inside, though air was able to freely pass through. Passing through the barrier had a strange effect on Ramesses, who reported a sudden onset of hunger and thirst as soon as he passed through the barrier, and Peaches, who reported some fatigue.
Inside the barrier, we approached the body and discovered that it had died of both hunger and thirst. Traces left behind by the stranded Sunbeam indicated she had been spooked by something while near the corpse and had quickly fled through the town while taking some efforts to hide her tracks. We eventually came across a sealed door with sounds emanating from the other side. After knocking, we finally found Lysa, the Sunbeam who was trapped inside the barrier. She seemed unharmed, though she reported sightings of at least one fiend present with us within the barrier. We decided to quickly move towards the temple (a temple of Iomedae).
Inside, three individuals seemed to be exerting some sort of control over the actions of the townsfolk- a man, a woman, and what appeared to be a daemon. The man directed the townspeople to attack us, claiming that we would "steal away their salvation." We managed to subdue the townsfolk without seriously harming any of them and then struck down the daemon, though it was able to summon several lost souls to attack us just before it was defeated. Eventually, we were able to dispel the lost souls and slay the cult leaders who had taken over the town. We hoped that was enough to drop the barrier and free the townspeople from the strange influence they had seemed to be under.
In the aftermath, we recovered 11 soul gems from the apparently empowered cacodaemon. Destroying the souls did not return their original owners to life, but Nalinivati willing, it saved them from a much worse fate. We were able to exit the barrier with Lysa in tow. The supernatural hunger and thirst seemed to have faded as well. We returned to Onadbyr and promptly reported our findings.