Session 71 continues here from Season 4.
The timeline advances to Day 145, the “Free Day” harvest holiday. This marks the beginning of winter and is the date chosen for the grand opening of Stroop’s Piggyback Bistro in Messersachs. The multi-level establishment includes a top-floor gaming and gambling den, a tavern with a live music stage and overflow outdoor seating, and a basement that houses a novelty magic store and workshop. Hilda Ironfoot, Stroop’s new bartender and resident “rumor sponge,” works the bar throughout the festivities. During the first night, Hilda pulls Stroop aside and points out a patron of interest: a young rock gnome named Collin Very Good Shoes, seated alone in a back booth.
Collin, she says, has been offering to appraise gemstones for patrons in exchange for drinks. He introduces himself as the third son of Torin and Liora, brother to Bjart and Finn. The party—Timidor, Stroop, Yrsa, and Sega—joins Collin at his booth, bringing him Oie Smokies (bacon-wrapped sausages) and ale. They carefully vet him: Sagon (discreetly using his wand of magic detection) sees Collin is wearing a transmutation-enchanted breastplate and has a magical staff. Yrsa rolls a natural 20 on an Insight check and determines that Collin is exceptionally honest and “charismatic” (far more than the dungeon master could ever be). Collin reveals he is a cleric of EyeQweetas (god of the forge) and was fostered by dwarf clerics. He mentions his ability, Blessing of the Forge, which allows him to imbue one set of armor or one martial weapon with magic. This item gets a +1 bonus until he dies or takes a long rest.
To test his appraisal skills, Timador presents a piece of quartz. Collin examines it with a 10-power loupe and explains the local “Sparta value system,” which evaluates stones primarily based on Carat weight and approximate Color, but pretty much ignores Cut and Clarity. While Collin says the quartz is worth 55 gold pieces to an average tradesman like the butcher down the street, it’s overvalued under that system, and its true value is only around 50 gp.
Collin then shares his urgent concern about Dampa Isle and the elven village of Sidehdome (pronounced “Shee-dome”), centered around a church. Archaeologists digging outside the village have unearthed a cloak of the bat (a shadow magic item that they sold for more funding capital) and a cursed object. Collin fears these excavations might be disrupting the delicate balance between Light and Shadow on the island. He compares it to how Law and Chaos were also at odds on the same isle. As to this, he relates how his grand-uncle Smittin Mickelfell spent years restoring a hilltop shrine dedicated to Shuekra. The shrine was built on ley lines, which Collin explains are the seams of where the universe was forged together.
He wished to at least warn the archaeologists of the potential danger, but he lacks funds to charter a boat (as he’s only a 3rd-level cleric and not wealthy). Collin offers to trade the party the sigil coordinates for a hidden teleportation circle that his great uncle discovered at the base of the Shuekra shrine on Dampa Isle in exchange for magical passage there. Sidehdome is only 6.5 miles away from the shrine and mostly downhill.
The party agrees to take Collin after Stroop completes his scheduled musical performance. Timador uses the provided coordinates and 50 gold pieces in material components to teleport everyone directly to the Shuekra shrine on Dampa Isle, arriving at 40:00 on Day 145. They materialize at the foot of a large statue of the deity carved into the mountain and split down the middle to represent his/her masculine and feminine aspects. Timador ritually casts several Phantom Steeds, which travel at roughly 13 miles per hour. Kime rides her clockwork horse. The group expects the journey to take 40 to 60 minutes.
It is the first night of winter, with clear, breezy, and surprisingly warm weather. The large celestial body EyeQweetas is visible in the sky. During the ride, however, Sagon notices strange opaque, flat patches—resembling glass shards or black chunks—flickering in the sky, momentarily blocking out stars and appearing to push together into larger masses when visible. Collin suggests this phenomenon is probably related to “shadow stuff” being released by the archaeologists’ dig. Timador casts Skywrite at an altitude of approximately 10,000 feet. He observes that the flickering occurs behind his magical writing, confirming the black spots are located at an even higher altitude.
As the party approaches Sidehdome—a quaint elven farming community—they see it's mostly small bungalow-style houses and gardens. Prominently featured is a glass-domed church dedicated to the sun god Freehett. It is also then that the local elves who are outside also begin to notice the sky anomaly and grow increasingly concerned. Just then, a 50-foot tall Storm Revenant—an elemental giant of moist stone, fire, wind, and crackling black necrotic power—erupts “butt first” from the ground near the archaeologists’ dig site. It immediately begins destroying tents and devouring the archaeologists, then spitting out the chewed parts of them along with a dissolving acid spew on the lead archaeologist.
In the ensuing battle, four 15-foot “triad” elementals periodically emerge from the giant’s body: a mud/slush whirlwind, a fiery dust storm haboob, a glowing ceramic earth elemental, and a creature of hot steam. The party, initially 600 feet away, charges forward on Phantom Steeds. The Red-Gold Company and Collin are riding two to a steed, leaving one member per pair the opportunity to open the combat with ranged attacks (at disadvantage due to long range). Stroop casts Aid to bolster the group hit points, and Collin upslots Bless to enhance the attacks and saves of Sagon, Kime, Stroop, and Vogelfest (Polymorphed as the boulder-chucking Grape Ape).
Most of the damage being done to the giant is also promptly healed by the expelled triads whose function appears to be step out, cause some destruction (with heat or physical attacks), scoop up some of “the damage” or residue energy, then step back inside of the giant. As they merge in this way, they regenerate away his damage.
While in close-quarter melee, the giant briefly grapples and lifts Kime 25 feet into the air before her magical armor and winged boots allow her to break free. The monk, meanwhile, is stuck fighting and evading two triads at once. Stroop is firing all the Eldritch Blasts he can muster. What’s even more ominous is that every six seconds, the weather conditions intensify: rain, wind, and temperatures. Eventually this develops into a winter storm and lightning attacks being called down upon and doing structural damage to the domed church.
Suddenly, Yrsa successfully casts Banishment on the Storm Revenant, which fails its Charisma saving throw and is sent back to its native plane. To protect her concentration for 1 minute (and then this Banishment will be permanent), Timador creates an invisible Wall of Force tunnel around the cleric. Timador then unleashes a sixth-level Lightning Bolt that instantly destroys the muddy shit-storm creature. Yrsa finishes off the steam/vapor elemental—which was frantically trying to get her! It had just found the open end of the Wall of Force when Yrsa's spiritual Euphonium "blows it away."
Kime’s arrows, supported by attack and defense of Sagon and Vogelfest, destroy the ceramic elemental, who was trying to pass underground to reach Yrsa. Also, as each elemental was destroyed it broke apart/dispersed, it loot dropped a metallic horse shoe. The remnants of its broken body then slowly dissolved away. Oddly, the last of the four triads did not drop the fourth shoe but instead left behind some type of warrior’s horn. Additionally, with the last elemental's defeat, the overhead storm dissipated. The church and the party—although damaged—survived. The archaeologists and interns… were not so lucky.
The session ended at about 41:00 on Bright Night of Day 145. The party can long rest whenever they wish.
As the session starts, the storm conditions have settled, and the night sky is clear. From a distance, the church structure with a glass dome appears to have sustained only minor structural damage. The party then checks the tent area where the archaeologists were. They discover that the lead archaeologist and her bodyguard were chewed up and spit out, and two interns were burned to a crisp by fire and acid spew. It is determined by their remains that six individuals were part of this group. The party considers using Speak with Dead on the intern corpses, which are mostly intact.
The elf who was shooting arrows on the rooftop, climbed down and jogged over. He is youngish, not quite an adult (395 seasons old). Very jubilant, he introduced himself as Kaelric Berkenboog. “I hit it! Helped you destroy it!” The party rewards him by presenting him with some of Kime’s +1 arrows. Speaking of magic, the three horseshoes loot-dropped were magic, as was the horn, which is a Horn of Blasting.
An older sun alf cleric, wearing vestments of Freehet, approaches next. She is Lirael Thornsbee, one of the town elders, curator of the Sidhedome church. Lirael expresses her thanks. She confirms minor damage to the church but no injuries in town. She explains that most elves were asleep or in a normal nighttime trance during the incident. The archaeologists, she confirms—“Glenda Fornsworth, Morris, Abraham, and others, their names were so… odd”—were excavating for tools and potential artifacts in the village’s small mithral mine. Sidhedome, she explains, is a community of high-, wood-, and light-alfs who have come together here to raise children (which is a lengthy undertaking, nearly as long as a human’s entire lifespand). As such, Sidhedome supports as many different types of cottage industries as they can in order to be able to provide the children many experiences and a well-rounded education.
Recently, Sylnorin Crimsonguard, the community’s sole mining expert, unearthed a magic horseshoe from the mithral mine. Word somehow got to the archaeologists, who paid to fund a larger excavation and worked out a plan to split the value of their findings with the village. Lirael Thornsbee notes that a cursed neck ring, some jewelry, and a magical bat cloak had beendiscovered and sold off for additional supplies. Lirael expressed sorrow over the deaths and the destruction of the mine, which is now a huge pit. The villagers still retained the missing horseshoe artifact originally discovered. Though it detected of magic, it only worked as a set of four. The Uncommon magic shoes, Mirehardener (Leðjuskór), allow a horse wearing them to ignore difficult terrain from mud, water, snow, ice (and leave no tracks). The horse can even move across the surface of water up to 5 feet deep at full speed.
Additional information is exchanged, but the cleric is concerned when she learns that Yrsa did not destory the Storm Revenant, but instead Banished the creature to its home dimension. And although this was likely to the elemental chaos, Lirael feared that it may have been to a world that she calls The Fey Dark. The first night of winter, she explains, the veil (a fault in the universe) is thinnest between Daempa Isle and this dark realm. No place is this more apparent than at a location on the island known as The Stairs to Nowhere (aka “the impractical climb”). The Company, on a parallel world of Daempa has explored this area before, finding only a long flight of stairs that butted up against a stone cliff facing. Lirael explains that for 30 hours (from 45:00 to 15:00 the next day) a ghostly portal opens between the two worlds. Immediate on the Fey Dark side is cavern system that has historically proven not to contain hostile creatures, but instead is physically challenging and provides coming-of-age trials for the Thoron Scouts. This is the night of the scouts’ six tests of courage and fitness—called the Glimmoree.
As they are already camping in the area, the scouts—led by Lirael’s son Thalor—will enter as soon as possible. The villagers give the Red-Gold Knights the first horse shoe unearthed on faith in exchange for their help and if they can warn the scouts. The Company agrees to, and uses their Phantom Steeds, winged boots, and class abilities to race to the scout’s camp on the southeast edge of the island. They arive sometime between 43:30 and 44:00, and successfully convince the scouts to at least delay their start time. This allows the party to long rest and then tackle the Glimmoree tests, namely:
The company completes the trials in around an hour. Once they reach the mossy areas of the caverns, Sagon discovers what appears to be a small, hairy corpse far back in the moss. It is instead, a living brownie who was using the echo-moss as an amusement. As the the stepped forward (compressing the moss with his feet), the moss released stored messages like, “…Big Folk! Oh no, my poor heart!” This was followed by a theatrical gasp, and “Stern elves have slain poor Bindlewort!”
While the gathered party members were distracted by this brownie theater, a young pixie was caught while carefully trying to unbuckle Stroops belt and drop his pants. Caught, she uses her power to turn visible. She (Dimplebutt) and her sister pixie-sprites (Hunnymint, Cobbweb, Pineconn, and Starbug) agree to dance and perform for the Red-Gold Knights if she is safely released. They do so, doing a ballet routine of pirouetes, leaps, and arabesques.
Afterward, the sprites and brownie explain that they have been waiting in the caverns for their satyr friend, Emmanuel Puckthorn. Also, that they were here hoping that elf scouts would be visiting—who they could prank and amuse. The party then askes questions, and there is a lot of confusion about what time it is and when the sun comes up. Eventually, the party sets out on a six-mile quest to see if they can locate any Laurëvessë (“Golden Secret”) peaches. The drupe seeds within their stony shell pits are said to give off a Continual Flame-like glow until they slowly “burn” out.
Four miles into the journey, the party sights an outcropping of rock among pine trees. A stone shrine or platform there is populated by a bugbear and an elf hostage, who is gagged and restrained by metal fetters. The party rides forward immediately. The whole area is thick with bugbears and bloody-red capped hobgoblins waiting in ambush. Worse, one of them holds up a ceramic jar and releases some off swarm of ravens, who begin rapidly splitting into more and more separate murders of crows. The birds seem only (or firstly anyway) to attack the nearby wounded. They attached themselves to these wounds and relentlessly cause more damage. Knowing this, the ambushers made sure to first wound everyone they could, which included a magic-using bugbear who shot Magic Missiles. and a brutal tank of bugbear chieftain.
It is a lengthy battle as the party is forced to concentrate their main assault against the crows that grow exponentially otherwise. Worse, only certain types of damage do the birds harm. Finally the enemy is dispatched and the party recovers the ceramic jar, which Stroop was unable to break.
The approximate (Prime Material Plane) time is 54:11. The party can Long Rest again at 12:00.
Deep within the twilight realm of the Feydark, the Red-Gold Knights emerged from a brutal ambush against a swarm of nigh-endless ravens and a troop of hobgoblins and bugbears. As the dust settled, Sagon, the wood-elf monk, pursued the last straggler while the party discovered a sentient, chaotic evil +2 longsword named Bréagbastún. The sword claimed to be a “bastard” despite being a long sword. He can hear and translate from among the nine main languages (better if he’s been “in contact” with them later), but he won’t do so willingly for anyone who isn’t chaotic-evil. Amidst finding loot (including a spell book and a +1 great club), they freed a young elf. She soon revealed her true form: a changeling named Tolf’teen. She asked for forgiveness (she was used as an “elf” lure hoping to capture the scouts if they came this way). Then she pleaded with the party to infiltrate the hobgoblin stronghold of Sidhemur to save her sister Ceewich (who was held there in a little-used prison). She cited that many of the “sun worshippers” in the city had been sacrificed in dark rituals and preventing their souls from escaping.
The party’s infiltration point into the city was anything but clean. They traveled by Phantom Steeds near to the city’s edge, which is perched on a rocky hillock. They hiked closer unseen on foot through the nearby woods using Kime’s Pass Without Trace. From there, they moved around to the backside of the city and descending into the stinking, brown-hued river near a sewage tunnel. Yrsa used her Gauntlets of Ogre Power to bend the massive iron grates, allowing the party to slip inside.
As they moved through the murky waters, Timador masked their presence with a Major Image. His created scene depicted what the normal view of the tunnels should have looked like to the guard on a bridge would have seen—minus, of course, actually seeing the party advancing up on him. There was also an alligator-man lurking under the bridge. Sagon dove into the sewage, unleashing a flurry of blows on that creature that left the water bloody. Meanwhile Stroop bombarded the bridge guard with Eldritch Blasts. The guards went down fast and hard.
The battle intensified then as the knights headed east and breached the prison’s barracks. There, they encountering two thirteen-foot-tall Fomorian giants known as HornMo and FireMo. Kime’s animal companion, Vogelfest, was transformed into the massive Grape Ape to help even the odds. The ape-cat began hurling boulders with devastating precision, reducing additional elite bugbears to “paste.” Then, a terrifying FloodMo—a shark-headed monster with eight tentacles—erupted from the waste stream. As it moved to assault Yrsa, Stroop saved the day by casting Dissonant Whispers. The beast was forced to flee in psychic agony.
In the chaotic final moments of the jailbreak, Timador unleashed a fifth-level Ice Storm, coating the hallways in frozen death. Enemies were frozen in their tracks. In another portion of the prison, Sagon utilized his blinding speed and lightning-infused blade to strike down a female monk guard. Yrsa and Grape Ape then smashed open the cell doors to liberate not only the changeling’s sister, but also a wolf dog named Patches, and a host of other captives, including Vulpus the foxling.
To cover their retreat from a host of hobgoblins and bug bears pouring down the sairs from the crowded city above, Yrsa raised a shimmering Wall of Fire across the bridge leading to teh prison. This effectively blocked everyone from pursuing. Cries of, “Go around the other way,” were heard beyond the flames. The party used that extra minute Yrsa bought them to escaped alongside—sometimes carrying—the freed prisoners. They floated up out of the sewer into the river running near the city.
Once safely out of that stinking hole, most of the prisoners thanked the party. The players offered to take them all back with them and out of the Feydark. But, even though the bugbears were a recent threat, most of those who were freed decided that they would stay. This was their home. However, the small fox-like humanoid named agreed to join Kime’s forces (for a year) as Vulpus was excited to be taight how to become a ranger.
The party then made a quick detour to a peach grove to harvest anything remaining of the sunstone peaches. They managed to fine three rotted peaches and seven other pits. They then traveled six miles to reach the echo-moss caverns. Before returning through the tunnels there and back to through the portal to their own world, they shared a moment of levity with a pansexual satyr named Emmanuel Puckthorn. He led Stroop and Sagon in a don’t-burp drinking contest involving an alcoholic “peach love juice.”
The players lost but Stroop obtained a decent amount of the liquid to take home with him. The bard hopes the brew masters at his tavern can reverse engineer how to make it. With their mission a success, the party prepared to return to their home world. It’s early morning on Day 146. The party can next long rest at 11:45.
In the shadowed depths of the Echo Moss Cavern, the Red-Gold Knights of Svarta pressed onward, their bodies etched with the permanent marks of their many hard-won choices. After rescuing the changeling Tolf’teen from bugbear and hobgoblin captors and freeing prisoners within the bugbear city, the party guided their companions—Colin and the nimble foxling Vulpus—across a fast-moving underground stream. Upon returning to their world’s version of Daempa Isle, the group escorted the young elf scouts safely back to Sidhedome. There, they enjoyed a long rest before parting ways with Colin, who chose to remain.
Back at the ancient shrine to Shrueka, the adventurers scoured the area for any hidden passages, only to come up empty-handed. Finally, the timid foxling Vulpus spoke up with a simple question: “Why don’t you just use the door?” He pointed upward to an extradimensionally concealed fey door none of them had noticed. He opened the shimmering portal, and the party stepped through into the safe fae haven beneath the shrine.
The corridors beyond were tight and claustrophobic, with low shafts barely five feet high. The group improvised bridges over pit traps using whatever debris they could find and squeezed through the cramped passages. Tension mounted as they entered a narrow hallway, senses on high alert. Their caution paid off when, while shifting a massive kern stone to reveal a hidden passage, a spectral banshee erupted from the rock with a blood-curdling wail. Timador swiftly stuffed chewed wax into his ears to help resist the deadly, exhaustion-inducing scream. The banshee struck viciously before vanishing as quickly as she had appeared—only to return again and again throughout the party’s exploration.
The relentless attacks, combined with the harsh underground environment, wore heavily on the party. Yrsa cast Restoration on herself to shake off the creeping exhaustion, while Timador expended a hag’s Charm of Restoration to clear his own fatigue. As they delved deeper, the adventurers uncovered the shrine’s long-forgotten layout: guest rooms infested with mimics, elevated ambush platforms behind arrow loops and murder holes, an audience chamber with private bedrooms, and a lush subterranean grove where ancient trees, grass, and flax somehow thrived in the darkness.
The mimics yielded a curious elf bone flute. The ambush areas connected to a hidden spiral staircase and back exit high above the cliffs. A hidden compartment in one of the thrones and a bedroom chamber produced enchanted needles. Behind the thrones lay a round chamber housing three scrying pools, fed by some manner of fey water spirit. Sagon’s Detect Magic revealed transmutation magic on the needles and divination magic swirling within the pools. The two end pools showed clear images of the shrine’s entrance and exit, while Yrsa, gazing into the central mirror, received a vision of her brother asleep beside a young girl. When the monk as well peered into the central pool, the water spirit attempted to charm the adventurers mentally, failed, and retreated somehow beyond the waters in frustration.
Timador attempted to Identify the central pool, but its magic had already faded. He then examined the needles, confirming each was a separate magic item of unknown purpose (but a good guess was for magical tattoos). After much careful experimentation, the party returned to the entrance and reset the mechanism’s handle. This action opened a passage to a verdant tree chamber inhabited by vegetation and will-o’-the-wisps. Small stone pockets and gaps in the living trees held pools of fresh milk, which Vogelfest and Stroop greedily lapped up. Timador filled several empty vials with the milk, while Yrsa relaxed in a living tree chair that gently reshaped itself around her.
Beyond this lush grove, they discovered a (seemingly deceased) gnomish manservant, a healthy milk cow, and a gnomish woman busily spinning flax into thread. The garments she wove carried powerful illusion magic, allowing any wearer to appear and pass convincingly as human. A nearby cavern held wheels of delicious, perfectly aged cheeses, which the gnomes offered to share in exchange for the adventurers’ assistance. Their true mistress, the party learned, lay sealed in a fae vault beyond the scrying pools. Her body remained perfectly preserved through repeated castings of Gentle Repose, trapping her restless spirit and preventing her from passing on. She was apparently the banshee that had been plaguing them. The bone flute was the key to opening the vault. The party struck a bargain with the gnome: he would use the flute to grant his mistress final peace once the last Gentle Repose faded, then return with both the flute and the binding necklace. He strongly urged the adventurers not to attempt the task themselves, warning that the banshee’s full fury could prove lethal on the living. The loyal servant completed the somber mission on their behalf.
With the shrine’s secrets unraveled and the immediate threats laid to rest, the Red-Gold Knights took a well-earned breath. They cast a Teleportation Circle and returned to their bastion, ready to train, recover, and steel themselves for whatever greater trials held for them.
After completing their class-level training, the Red-gold knights meet at Messersachs on Day 159 with Baron Bart. Before be given their mission there is discussion of political news and rumors. The Svarta espionage efforts (plus some covert acquisition of information via Stroop's spy network) lately has been focused on the four land masses that have been grafted onto TheWorld: Meide in the North, Akhir al-Sharg in the East, Eldorath in the Southwest, and Sólbjorg in the Southeast. As in the North with Faerz'ress residue, these other three lands also seem to be having difficulties with certain schools of magic. Specifically, near Akhir al-Sharg, the Ökenveld mages have had difficulties employing their traditional Illusionary and Evocation magics when fighting Fae forces that have been attaking their eastern areas employing powerful Enchantments. Likewise, the intelligent animal humanoids nearby Eldorath have been under assault by red and white dragons, who are destroying local rainforests. The Bonobo wizards there have had failures with the Abjuration nd Enchantment magics. ANd some of Svarta's Ogre Magi alies in the southeast have admitted that their Transmutation and Necromantic magics have failed against the threat of Solars and Ki-rin attackers.
As all of these magical failures seem to be specifically targeting the strengths of the three other City States, the Svarta military believes the anti-magics in these areas has been placed their deliberately. Svartaland itself employs a lot of Divination and Conjuration magics, so the Faerz'ress in the near northern realm to them also seems likely deliberate, as does the strengthening of Necromantic threats in the region. Hoping to learn more about the nature of Faerzress, Svarta is assigning Inventer Zak Munten (most recently of Kuststad) to conduct tests in Meide. Zak is ideally suited for such study as he specializes in the opposing forces of Conjuration and Necromancy.
The party's immediate mission is to escort Zak safely to Fort Framlin, then to report to Commander Macgram Grimhide for a new mission. Zak Munten is also carrying a large supply of Faerz'ress Frá-vera "Fizzy Wizzy" spell scrolls, which can temporarily negate the anti-effects of Faerz'ress. Zak gives a 1st- and 2nd-level verson of the scroll to Tmador for the party to use if needed.
The trip to Norr is now faster, as Zak casts a Teleportation Circle spell that takes them directly to Freeport. Well, not exactly Freeport as it turns out. Much of Freeport, its buildings and citizens have been relocated nine miles to the east where a New Freeport has been established (much of it underground and formed with stone shaping spells). What was Freeport is now the (under construction) military base of Ingegerd. The surround region has been annexed by Svarta and renamed Greenhook County. "Pirate King" Jarl Maddocks now serves in New Freeport as Regional Governor.
The party and Zak still need to travel by Steenwagon through the Faerz'ress-rich Norr mountains. They do so, passing through Precis Industry and the steamwagon stations on the way to Fort Framlin. Framlin likewise has underground some rapid growth, with improvements to the fort itself and the construction of several new buildings to house military troops and also Meide refugees, who have lost their homes during the many battles and skirmishes against a nigh-endless supply of zombie and skeleton raiding forces. The party is assigned a temporary building of their own, but they also use some of their down time between missions to construct a new building for themselves. They also invite "Batman" Bork (plus Trandel the Cleric, Zortan the Mighty, and Derek's brother (Jerek) who has join that trio after his brother Derek's body was lost during a battle with vampires) to occupy this building when the Red-Gold Knights aren't in the area.
The party then meets with Utetro the Towncrier (and now Bard and Chronicler to Macgram Grimhide), who fills them in on what Grimhide wishes them to resolve for him. Several forces coming down from the Northwest (from a location determined to be the city of Saragoss) are infected by some type of plump green zombie worms. The bodies of these zombies appear almost healthy and not overly dead, but deep inside them, a swarm of these worms is breeding and controlling them. Worse, while in combat, some of these worms can be ejected from the swarm up to 30 feet away, where they hope to latch onto a new host body, burrowing quickly beneath the skinn and rapidly turning the new host into a worm zombie. Fire seems to work quite well to thwart the worms that have recently latched on. But Remove Disease and Remove Curse versions of the Restoration spell is needed to delay and/or destroy the worms once they've infected a host. (It is uncertain how long the worm-zombification takes, but it is a rather short period of time after the initial bite. The worms multiple quickly once beneath the flesh.)
The party sets out during Bright Night and camps safely in the mountains within a Tiny Hut. In this way, they are at the river they need to cross by early morning. No sense encountering these things when they are more active at night. Using stealth and Kime's expert knowledge of wilderness terrain, they make their way northwest and north avoiding getting too close to the local villages, even when they spot a few of the (mostly inactive) worm zombies surrounding a farmhouse. Close to 10 o'clock on Day 160, they arrive on the outskirts of Saragoss.