Still plenty of undead to deal with. Tittlin was finally back in control of himself, conscious again after I’d potioned him up mid-fight. I yelled for him to get back in the action - we had frost giant zombies, flame skulls, and those damn zombie clots still causing problems (although dropping the reverse gravity field from the lodestone helped chip away .
The fighting was brutal. Flame skulls kept blasting us with fire while Ghurde ran around keeping us alive and turning undead when she could. Silvanus held his own, switching between his glaive and bow, even summoned some kind of draconic spirit that breathed cold and tore into the zombie clots. Guy’s got more tricks than I realized.
Tittlin got back into the fight and immediately started picking off targets from range. Good to have him shooting with us again instead of at us. Between the three of us and Ghurde’s support, we managed to clear out the remaining undead.
Once the fighting was done, Tittlin immediately went looting. Of course he did. Found a footlocker near Aemmin’s tent and just… touched it. Triggered some kind of trap that blasted all of us with necrotic energy. Knocked him unconscious and nearly killed the rest of us that were nearby.
I dragged myself over to check the chest while Ghurde was patching people up. Inside were papers - passages from a necromancy textbook. Written by Momen. Recognized his writing immediately. The passages detailed the dangers of high-level necromancy, particularly around resurrection and the dark arts that liches use.
Tittlin managed to decipher some notes Aemmin had scrawled in the margins. Turns out he was preparing contingencies for various necromantic rituals, trying to find ways around the risks. One thing that stood out - he’d written down the location “Elvenset” and circled it. Also noted was Silvanus’s magic item, that Mantle of Spell Resistance he’s been wearing.
Tittlin immediately suggested we destroy the mantle. Silvanus pointed out there are probably dozens of those in the world, and any high-level wizard could make more. Fair point. He kept it.
We swept the area for anything else useful. Found a magic carpet under Aemmin’s bedroll - five by seven feet, can carry 600 pounds. Tittlin immediately claimed it and stuffed it in his bag of holding. Mentioned maybe trading it to Merric for the broom since he really only uses the flying component of the lodestone anyway, which he finally returned to me.
Silvanus helped us get back to Trondkan. I thanked him again for coming with us and helping rescue Tittlin. Offered to have him join us back at the Fief to meet with Momen, maybe discuss what happened. He was hesitant - said he’s a hunter, not a researcher, and his priority is always the northern towns. But he agreed to consider visiting once hunting season dies down. Good to have made that connection at least.
We collected our reward from the town for solving their water problem. Then I used Rafnar’s card to teleport back to the Fief.
Got back and immediately went to find Momen. Showed him the papers we’d found. His face went pale when he recognized his own writing torn out of his textbook. I explained everything - Aemmin was up north with an undead army, poisoning the water supply. We fought him, managed to kill him, but then his body turned into maggots and burrowed away while laughing maniacally.
Momen was completely flabbergasted. He examined Aemmin’s notes carefully and explained what he was seeing. The techniques Aemmin had written down - the spells, items, potions - they’re all things necromancers use to try and stave off the mental degradation that comes with pursuing lichdom. The problem is, they don’t really work. Almost always ends in insanity.
The maggot thing? That’s apparently the first steps toward lichdom. Various necromantic magics to cheat death. Means Aemmin is about a quarter of the way there. Whether he goes insane before or after achieving lichdom depends on how fast he progresses.
As for Elvenset - Momen explained it’s not really a town, more of a monastery. A large gathering of monks attempting to achieve enlightenment. Given that Aemmin circled it and he’s currently worried about going insane, Momen suspects he might be trying to do something with those monks to increase his mental fortitude. What exactly, we don’t know.
Tittlin shared that when he was in the orphanage, some monks came and took one of the other children away one day. Might be related, might not be. Hard to say.
Momen checked his books and figured we have about a month before Aemmin can pull himself back together. That gives us time to handle the banquet situation with the Fossen family - that’s in two days - and then potentially head to Elvenset to figure out what Aemmin is planning.
So now we’re back at the Fief, resting up before heading to Brandstrad for the banquet. Tittlin’s flying around on his new magic carpet like he never wants to touch the ground again. Can’t really blame him after everything that happened - I just hope for all of our sakes that we can better protect all of us against possession in the future.