The Session 2

After having escaped from the previous dungeon filled with cryptic and incredibly vague information, in addition to a large variety of magically constructed monsters, the PCs attempt to make it towards the capital city of the land of Etheria, the Hub (technically known as Convergence, but everyone calls it the Hub). Meanwhile, the DM, finally learned some character names:
Aharone (spelling more or less accurate), known as the "exalted one," aasimar cleric.
Aky, known as the... physically active... one, elf bard.
Gulliver, known as the liar, human rogue.
Branwyn, known as the narcissistic, elf sorcerer (of the wild magic variety).
Khoshek, known as the corrupted one, teifling warlock.
And... a half-orc barbarian of some name, known as "the reader" by himself, "the bigot" by others.
Anyways, as the party decides the most effective way to make it to the Hub quickly would be to find a riverboat and rent it so that they can use the speed of the river to their best advantage. Unfortunately for them, they run into a guard patrol beforehand, and are ushered off course to the city of Stahd, where they resupply and get another quest hook - some evil orc that looks remarkably like the half-orc in the party (and rides a giant spider - minor detail) has been raiding nearby towns. Thanks to the backstory of Aharone, once they found out he was in town they figured he'd be the best man for the job (Aharone was raised by the Church of the Knowing, and has gone on multiple protective missions before), and that whatever company he kept was likely the best of the best based on his reputation. So before the party can share the crucial information that they learned in the previous dungeon (there's the distinct possibility that one or more god is dead, some mad wizard from a bygone age is enacting hell from beyond the grave, etc), they are sent off with a new mission to accomplish.
Before heading out, Aharone talks to the guards to learn what they know, and doesn't learn much about the orcs... But does learn about ruins of new evil stalking the land, of magic becoming corrupted, of walking dead in the northern lands, and strange monstrosities in the others. Dark days, the men say, dark days indeed.
Dark days indeed.
The party heads out. Unfortunately, none of them take the time to try and mask their presence, so the orc party they are hunting quickly discovers their presence and lets them follow for a while, eventually deciding that enough was enough and capturing the party pretty much single-handedly. As part of the butt-kicking the party experiences, a very large orc who turns out to be the half-orc barbarian's half-brother has a little face-off with his half brother, and mauls him (but does not kill him).
The orcs then carried them to ritual grounds, and prepped to burn the party alive as part of a ritual sacrifice. Thankfully, the party got saved (after experiencing some minor burn wounds) by an even larger goblin raiding party. As it turns out, while the goblins are considerably smaller than the orcs (in many ways), they still have a strong enough burning hatred that they are occasionally willing to try and kill a raiding party that looks distracted. Even so, the goblins specifically made sure to avoid raiding while the half-orc barbarian's brother wasn't around (he goes on patrols riding his giant spider. NBD). They considered finishing the ritual the orcs started (there's no love lost between the goblin clans and human settlements), but one of the goblins, a scrawny guy named Wazo who happened to be cousin to the leader of this small raiding party, asked to "not burn them to death this time." Wazo had been saved by this party before, and wanted to be able to call the debt even.
The party left before the goblins could change their mind. Following a map they received in the previous dungeon, they took off to the mountains, figuring that while they were nearby they might as well explore the place. The party discovered another abandoned outpost in the mountains, this one built with the theme of undead in mind. A whole lot of corpses and blood later, the party made its way to the bottom floor, and found a room with a giant magnet in it, which almost stole everything Branwyn owned. Fortunately, the half-orc barbarian was more than strong enough to save her gear after the magnet snatched it. They continued exploring, killing zombies and skeletons and the occasional wraith, before stumbling upon a revenant. They freed the monster, and attempted to give chase after it fled, but ended up doing battle with a wraith instead (which nearly killed several party members). By the time they finished taking care of the bloody thing, the revenant had fled.
They followed its trail, and found their way into a large metal room, one where an angry iron golem wandered. The second it saw the party, it attacked, and literally punched a hole in the chest of Aharone, the party cleric (he died). It then proceeded to chase and attempt to destroy the rest of the party, which managed to lure it into the magnet room, where it got stuck against the magnet and was effectively defeated.
And that was the majority of the adventure today. At one point they found a partially ruined journal that belonged to an ancient wizard named Melvinicus the Maker, which gave some important background information, and Aharone ended up returning as a sentient undead, but those are all minor details. The important part is, the party mostly survived.