Diamonds

“Diamonds”
Rise of the Runelords episode
Episode no.	Episode 98
Date	2010
Game Master	Abbe
Characters	Honeypot Nathaniel Nell Velicia
Episode chronology ← Previous Next → "Haunted by Dwarfs" "The Ascent"
Rise of the Runelords chapter list

In this chapter the heroes reunite the remains of the dwarven brothers and fight a wendigo.

Diamonds

We walked back toward the horrible haunted house making sure to walk close to the mountain to avoid anyone falling through as Velicia had done on the way there. The blizzard still raged making our progress slow, but steady. After struggling for some hours we got back into the zone where Honeypot's weather ritual still calmed the storm. It was strangely quite in the heavy snowfall. We headed to where Velicia had put the remains of the dwarves that she took out of the house. As we arrived and Velicia started putting the remains we brought next to the other pile, ghosts started to form. Guessing that they would, I jumped out of the way from the bones, thinking of the hurting aura the ghost at the mine had earlier. Velicia even warned the others. Two dwarven ghosts of the brothers formed. They started arguing in a strange dwarven language, but somehow I understood it anyway. From what they said to each other we found out that one ate the other. It was another family tragedy resulting in a haunted house.

The wendigo.

Their arguing was drowned when the blizzard suddenly broke the silence and probably Honeypot's ward. The wendigo we had heard howling before, appeared out of nowhere and attacked Velicia, surprising us. I quickly threw my dagger at it and hid in the bad weather. Velicia cast magic that threw it towards us and the dwarves knocking it down. There were other monsters barely noticeable in the blizzard also attacking us. They were some kind of storm elementals. Honeypot quickly attacked the wendigo and with good footwork and a powerful attack Nathaniel forced it closer to us and the dwarves. Their ghostly aura pulled it even closer to them and it was hurt by the thundering magic surrounding the arguing dwarves. It got up but was still dazed by Velicias attack and impaired by Honeypot's, so it couldn't do much else. We renewed our attacks, me throwing my dagger and Velicia creating a magical burst from her sword. Nathaniel struck it, forcing it to stumble further but it teleported away and disappeared in the blizzard. I slid away into the blizzard too and search for it. A little surprising I found it flying straight up from where it had been. I threw my dagger into it and made it fall down to Nathaniel. I also attacked one of the smaller monsters that had been flying around and made it stumble down to the dwarves. Velicia, Honeypot and Nathaniel all attacked the wendigo that was starting to look really hurt. I called for Pelor to help me destroy it and struck true, causing massive damage. Honeypot followed by knocking it prone but when I tried to stab it up close I got snow in my eyes and missed. Instead I helped Velicia to sneak in the attack so we could destroy it with the might of Pelor. The other monsters fled when the wendigo was defeated.

It dissolved into sparkling stars, slowly falling to the ground. They lay glittering in the snow. I bent down and looked at one of the stars. It was a sparkling diamond. I had heard of those before but never seen one, yet I knew it was an astral diamond. To make sure they wouldn't disappear in the snowfall I quickly collected all seventeen. The argument between the dwarven brothers also quited down. They had reconciled. The dwarf who had asked us to bring his brother said:
"You have saved my brother. You have saved me. I should reward you by simply taking the path to Xin-Shalast with me into the beyond, yet I sense that you still harbor a desire to see those golden ruins. Very well. Look to the pages of my ledger for the way, and may Torag watch over you in the darkness to come…”
The ghost faded away but where it had been, things fell from the thin air. It had left the pages and some clothes. It turned out to be a magical raven cloak and cloth armor of defying frost. I went into the house and was met by Kaven who knew of the fighting but not fully what had happened. I told him as he prepared dinner.

That night I tossed and turned in my sleep. I didn't really feel safe in the haunted cabin, but knowing that there would be no more sheltering buildings before Xin-Shalast we took an extra day's rest to really catch our strength for the hard journey in front of us. The blizzard had calmed during the night and during the day the snowfall stopped too. To help us prepare and relax Honeypot used some kind of magic to create a hot spring near the cabin. She bathed in it for most of the day. I waited for weather to clear up some before I joined her during the afternoon. Velicia took the opportunity to make some magical items. She helped me by making the smooth slippers I had been wanting and some other things as well. The second night I slept better but I still had bad dreams of family tragedies in haunted houses.