subplotkudzu | New Dawn session 5 (Reply)

In which our troubles multiply.

Session 5: Finding Herrine

They spend the next couple days doing reconnaissance on the site, finding the edges of the undead's trails and camping in a spot where they can observe without being observed as Hadassah constructs a comprehensive list of the walking dead below (based on their clothes, wounds and other distinguishing features). Once the count reaches over a hundred they decide that what they really need is a chance to talk to one of the residents. And yes, they have discerned that the locals can talk - at least, they communicate to each other.

Since the walking dead still hunt, and have some sophisticated if cruel traps, our heroes find a spot to arrange a counter trap of their own, with several of the group taking cover and Voilodion disguising himself as a shambling corpse through tearing his clothes and the careful application of rotting meat. He hides and awaits a patrol - the creatures move in groups of 4 to 6 - and tries to join them. He quickly learns that he doesn't speak their language, and when discovered he runs, leading the shambling creatures back to his companions, at one point even faking a stumbling fall to keep from escaping entirely. Once joined the battle is quick and decisive [I didn't manage to hit them even once!], with our heroes dispatching all but one of the walking dead, and trussing that one up for questioning.

They drag the stunned, bound and gagged cadaver man to an out of the way spot, then move and bury all of the other cadaver man remnants so as to minimize the chance of detection. Once his gag is removed the Cadaver Man pleads with our heroes in ancient common - the language of humans prior to the scourge, now distinctly different from the polyglot creole of Hava, but a language that Dex and Hadassah were taught in school - to let him kill them, because death at his hands would be far cleaner than the death that awaits them at the hands, well, ectoplasmic tendrils of SGr’iopjFKS. They politely decline his offer, and slowly piece together the fate of Herrine:

Within a century of that Kaer's closure the residents began going insane, falling prey to the bloatform's nightmares and insidious suggestions. People unknowingly turned on one another, driven by hallucinations and thoughts planted in their minds. Eventually, after many of the Kaer were killed, more than a quarter of the survivors took their own lives to end the madness. Only then did they learn the awful truth - that to suicide under the influence of SGr’iopjFKS was to leave their souls bound in torment to their corpses. In endless pain and under the more direct control of the horror the final war for Herrine began. Eventually the Cadaver Men captured, tortured and ultimately consumed every other name giver in the kaer. Just as the bloatform would eventually consume all of our heroes' Kaer as well, once it gained control of them. The only way to save their people was to let the Cadaver Men kill them.

Based on this, the group estimates that there are some two to three hundred Cadaver Men in Hava. It was also made clear that the Cadaver Man crave the flesh of the living, consuming it to replace their own decaying parts. When it is obvious to most of the party that the tormented creature would provide no more information, Voi became convinced that they could indeed get more, and necessary data from their prisoner by either torture or by offering the creature food from their own bodies - perhaps cutting off a toe and feeding it to him. The others staunchly reject this plan, while Voi digs in his heels and insists that it must be done. Eventually he throws up his hands and stalks away.

In this angry calm, Silver lays her hand on the Cadaver Man's foot, pushing her will into his name to dampen the curse that holds him to life the same way that she might dampen the curse on a tainted weapon or artifact. She is in no way sure this would work, but after a punishing and exhausting battle she manages to remove the Horror's taint for just a second, long enough for the Cadaver Man's true name to pass on to its rightful reward. Her brother helps her back up and the group wonders what to do next.

Maps are pulled out and plans discussed, but Voi refuses to have anything to do with the planning, saying that if the group was not going to follow his leadership then to hell with them. After a few minutes Hadassah takes a sort of control, arranging for another few days of reconnaissance to make sure that the Cadaver Men will not change their activities when their fellows down return. The shambling dead do indeed change behavior, spending several days searching in a widening circle around the camp for their lost members. They fail to do so, and the heroes of Hava manage to avoid detection as well, despite a few close calls.

With Vio sticking to his hostile silence the group head southeast, to the tip of the peninsula, with plans to circumnavigate the island, heading north across the bay with occasional forays into the woods to see what else they might find. They know that there was another kaer on to the West of Hava, but it will take them some time to get there, even with the magical horses. Still, no better plan presents itself.

This was where we ended the session.