Adventure Notes - Tova Sundara

Myself, Surx, Solia, Yashir, Lief

We were sent to the Neverwinter Wood to meet Agatha, a rather unusual woman who calls herself the Ghost of Neverwinter Wood. Apparently, a headless rider had taken up residence in the ruins of Conyberry and was gathering an increasingly large army of undead. Worse, these weren't ordinary skeletons. Several radiated light rather than the usual necrotic energy.

We fought our way through two sizeable groups of undead before finally meeting their leader. Solia and I discovered that combining her Spike Growth with my Spellfire Storm was particularly effective. We've taken to calling it the Pain Sandwich. I'm rather fond of that one.

One of the undead commanders wore white armor bearing half of a red skull, an emblem we later saw on the headless rider himself. Lief collected a piece of the armor, which I stored in my Portable Hole.

The rider introduced himself as Conquest. Rather arrogant, though strangely polite. He actually offered us time to rest before fighting him. He claimed to have two brothers and a sister, mentioning War and Death by name. He also spoke rather casually about conquering Neverwinter. Something tells me we haven't heard the last of that family.

After a difficult fight, we destroyed Conquest, and the remaining undead vanished with him. Only his golden crown remained, which Yashir took for further examination. It apparently possesses some magic, though we don't yet know what.

We returned to Agatha, collected our payment, and were sent home.

Of particular note: Conquest's siblings, the half-skull insignia, and that crown. All worth remembering.

Reward: 2,500 gp each. I also received a Scroll of Fire Storm.

And I absolutely intend to use the Pain Sandwich again.

Sit Rep

Group:
Yashir
Soila
Tova
Surx
Myself

We were summoned by Agatha, a supposed famous ghost, to deal with a number of skeletons who had taken over the nearby Conyberry ruins. She said some headless thing had taken over, and we needed to turn them all into dust if at all possible. There wasnt much to question here as we made our way into the fray, but each fight we had we were able to strategize our best approach...

An opportunity we did not let go to waste, as we created a sort of 'pain sandwich' that proved invaluable. First, a guard outpost on a valley that we quickly disposed of, though... I took quite a beating. The second, we were able to strategize around killing two of the targets that seemed to... bolster its allies in the previous fight, and that was my sole focus during it. Take them out as quickly as possible.

During the fight, Briar returned... I dont know why, and Solia didnt seem to, either...

But, our victory was cut short as the headless knight appeared, challenging us to one final dual. He said his name was Conquest, and his three siblings were all going to take over the world or some shit. His hubris was his downfall, of course, as we were able to fully recover before fighting him.

I hope we dont run into his three siblings...

Party: Yashir, Tova, Surx, Lief and me

This... was a strange experience. I wish I could say I wasn't entirely distracted, but I was. There was a lot of baggage in this party composition, and that's entirely my fault. We fought skeletons - so... so many skeletons and undead.

Tova and I had a pretty good hoard stragtegy called a Pain Sandwich, where her spellfire worked from above and my thorns worked from below. That was helpful. But I'm still not great at crowd control.

The best thing that came out of it was that when I thought all was lost...and certainly felt like I needed her... Briar came back. Inexplicably... she returned to me. And I feel like a part of my soul has returned. I'm so grateful for her.

We ended up fighting the headless knight we had come for, and his plans for Conyberry were ruined. I'm curious if there is more to this... but for now I'm glad for my girl.

Afterward, some things happened and the party removed my eye, but not until after it was all done. That wasn't part of the mission proper and shouldn't affect other jobs too much...

This isn't a very good account I'm afraid, but my memory's a little fuzzy in the aftermath.

- Solia

16 Marpenoth, 1502 D.R.

The Syndicate was called upon by a strange, ghostly woman called Agatha, which is both a common name and an appropriate one for a ghost for reasons I cannot explain. Myself, Solia, Surx, Tova, and Lief answered the call. It was a relatively straightforward mission, if a long one: destroy a bunch of undead and slay their leader, a horseman short a head.

The first batch of skeletons posed little trouble. Though they were alert, they did not see us coming, and we were able to take them by surprise. Solia and Tova collaborated to create what they colorfully called a "pain sandwich," an area of raining spellfire and spiked growth in a wide area of effect that kept the horde locked down, spread out, and fairly useless while we mopped them up.

The second group was larger, and tougher as well. By then we had identified several distinct types of the monsters, but there were simply too many; the pain sandwich was still effective, but less so than it had been previously. We persevered, however, thanks in part to the timely return of Solia's companion Briarfael.

Words fail me, and... well, my feelings on the subject are generally outside the scope of this mission. Suffice it to say, we dealt with the second group and then, at last, faced off with the horseman himself. He identified himself as Conquest, the first of four brothers. He was a jovial fellow, all things considered, but I for one grew swiftly tired of his antics. He reminded me of Vincel. We destroyed him, and with his passing, the remaining lesser skeletons vanished into dust.

-- Yashir adh Rumahr