The City of Ruin

While on the way to the ruined city, the party learned the story of Ald Calta. The ancient place had three types of inhabitants over its long and legendary existence. First, were the so-called Dragon Princes of old, who abandoned the citadel when their world came to an end. Second, were the barbarian men who came to settle there and make a civilization of their own. Third came the undead who rose from the ashes of the previous two. It was against this third group that the party was forced contend.



Ald Calta had once been the site of one of Erenth’s great lending houses. Its mistake was thinking to challenge the High King of Westrun without the might to back its threats. The High King’s armies, on the other hand, were tempered by nearly a decade of war in the Goblin Kingdoms. So when the High King sent them to contest his debts they brought unbridled devastation with them. Buildings were demolished, walls were thrown down, men were put to the sword. The women and children were sold into slavery or became exiles across the Provinces.

The sole building that had been spared the wrath of the High King all of those years ago was the Spear of Ris -- a true sky-scraping construct of white stone. It was thought to have been a way that the Dragon Princes studied the stars, then re-purposed by men into a temple of their patron deity. When the might of the High King crashed down on Ald Calta, it was swept clean and used as a crypt for a fallen hero General Faltus.

Legends told that the body of Faltus was still interred there, and though it was undoubtedly ravaged by the passage of time, his most prized possessions were intact, guarded by the legions of undead which lived among Ald Calta’s ruins. The party arrived in the ruined city to find it as rumored. No stones remained atop one another, except for the still white but crumbling tower.

When the party approached, they were attacked by skeletal dogs and then by wave after wave of skeletal warriors bent on vengeance. The party hid within the tower and secured the door using the magic of their wizard, Arabis. Once inside they contended with twenty undead warriors, one per level of the tower, and then absconded with their prizes – the sword, helm and armor of Faltus. They made their escape thanks to the magic carpet of Brumbar and returned to their waiting baggage train. They separated from their employer Griotte, woefully undercompensated, and returned to Shamsel.