Into the Horror of a Child's Scream

Session 4 ended with the players returning with the survivors of the village. The player told Sterling about what happened and he was very concerned about the shape-shifting leader fearing it could still be among the people.

I wanted to use the 5th session to RP some of the dynamics going on in the fort.  I wanted the first part to be a capsule situation.  Sterling, the leader of the fort, a paladin, had Grim question the refugees that came in because Grim had the sword that detects enemies.  After some interesting conversations, they spoke of being kept in pits and that some may still be alive in the pits that were south of the village.  The children were taken elsewhere.  The sword glowed when it encountered the leader of the village.  Many of the villagers were angry with him.  The village leader broke and shouted he was glad the others died.  He wished they all had died.  A group of the other villagers jumped him and he was killed.

After the the murderer was arrested and found guilty, the players returned to the village to find survivors.  They found the pits to the south of the village and out of nearly three dozen people four more were saved.  Still no children were found.  One of the survivors said which direction they were taken. 

The players approached a large cave in the hillside.  As the got closer they path was lined with gruesome standards and black vein like stands ran through the ground.  And singing.  As the players neared the cave they could no see within even with their infravision.  After a few safety precautions the players went inside the cave and came out  next to a deep crevasse.  As they descended the singing became louder and more discorded.  When the players were able to see they saw the children set in small niches within the wall of the crevasse screaming.

End of session 5.

There was little to no combat in this session.  The only thing the players fought were a few stirges while they camped.  Damn big bugs.  This session was about establishing the dynamics of the fort.  A lot of RPing went on and this always helps me a the DM develop plot hooks down the line.