Fastormel and the Mist
Arc 6.
The road
The party rode north to help Banner investigate the mist over Fastormel. They spotted goblins and a bugbear withdrawing into the forest, and then an ettin came out of the trees, loudly enthusiastic about eating horse and dwarf. It died confused. They lost the goblins at a stream and carried on north.
The mist
Unnatural, and obvious about it.
- Fifty to sixty feet high
- A perfectly sharp edge — it does not diffuse, it stops
- Dampens sound
- Sets everyone's nerves on end
They found Sharwyn and Braford already scouting it. Kvothe went deeper and counted twenty to twenty-five zombies, many of them orcish. The town itself sits outside the mist. The undead walk its streets.
The Lord of the Mist
In the town square: a white stone tower rising up into the mist. A shambling figure ducked behind a building; Kvothe followed and confirmed the town was full of undead.
As they approached the tower, a well-dressed man in old-fashioned clothes stepped out — the vampire they had released from the Gulthias Tree.
His terms, delivered as administration rather than threat:
- Fastormel is his domain
- He controls the river and the trade routes
- The Lord Warden of Fallcrest will acknowledge his authority and cease hostilities
- He needed only one of them alive to carry the message
Then he went back inside and shut the door.
The escape
Outmatched and surrounded, the party ran. During the fighting retreat Jocelin saw a humanoid figure escape through a sewer grate — not undead, something else. Never identified.
They cut their way out of town and camped near the Spiderfell, where a second ettin attacked on first watch alongside arrows from shooters they never saw. They survived the night.
A griffin and a gnome
Travelling toward Fallcrest they found a griffin attacking a gnome. They killed the griffin and saved Rindle, who joined the party.
In Fallcrest they reported to Banner, who said he would carry the vampire's claim to the Lord Warden.
What they read about dragons
Between trips the party looked up Deep Dragons, and the description was uncomfortably specific: rare, shapechangers, spellcasters, deep black or purple, a breath weapon of spores that cause mental damage, and a preference for lurking in the Underdark.
They wrote it down and moved on.