The following list is what you found on the persons and in the lair of the Order of the Corrupting Flame. Post in the comments what you want to claim for your characters, and you guys can sell the rest when next we play.
Weapons:
+3 Warhammer
+2 Morningstar
+2 Greataxe (2)
+1 Spear of Returning
Masterwork Composite Longbow (Str 15)
+1 Hunting Longbow
(27) +1 Arrows
Masterwork Longsword
Armor:
+2 Full Plate (2)
+1 Heavy Steel Shield (2)
+1 Healing Half Plate
+2 Twilight Leather Armor
+2 Glamered Studded Leather
+1 Studded Leather
Magic Items:
Amulet of Health +2
Eternal Wand of Cure Moderate Wounds
Minor Cloak of Displacement
+2 Ring of Protection
Wand of Magic Missile (5th level, 32 charges)
Hat of Anonymity
Amulet of Natural Armor +1 (2)
Cloak of Arachnida
Bolt Shirt
Ring of Invisibility
Scroll of Create Undead (11th)
Scroll of Teleportation Circle (17th)
Potions:
Cure Light Wounds (2)
Cure Moderate Wounds (6)
Cure Serious Wounds
Cierra's Spellbook:
1st - Charm Person, Distract Assailant, Feather Fall, Identify, Inhibit, Magic Missile, Ray of Flame, Shield; 2nd - Arcane Lock, Hideous Laughter, Invisibility, Scorch, See Invisibility, Sting Ray; 3rd - Dispel Magic, Fireball, Lightning Bolt, Lesser Telepathic Bond, Ray of Dizziness
Money and Goods:
8000 gp worth of spell components
20 vials of ink, 100 sheets of parchment
1000 pp
500 gp
1000 gp worth of gems
Monday, September 03, 2007
Saturday, September 01, 2007
Upcoming Schedule for September and October
September 7th - Savage Worlds Pulp Character-Building (Paul out)
September 14th - Game Off
September 21st - Savage Worlds Pulp (Paul out)
September 28th - Savage Worlds Pulp
October 5th - Savage Worlds Pulp (?)
October 12th - Expedition to Castle Ravenloft Arc Three
October 19th - Expedition to Castle Ravenloft Arc Three
October 26th - Expedition to Castle Ravenloft Arc Three
OK, so we're taking the second week of September 14th off because Paul, Nate and Dave are all out, and Randy will be very tired. Then we'll play Savage Worlds pulp to completion, either through September or into October depending on how long it runs, and then pick up with Ravenloft again in October, if that's cool with Nate.
For November, we can either come back to the Wolves, go back to pirates or play Deadlands (which I'm reading and prepping). I've also got the alternate Eberron campaign based on their "Eyes of the Lich Queen" mega-adventure that's supposed to run from 5th-9th level. Figure that if Matt Sturges wanted to play D&D, I might run that when he's available, so we have an alternate campaign to accommodate schedules.
I know that one week of November is Wizard World Texas, and we won't play then.
September 14th - Game Off
September 21st - Savage Worlds Pulp (Paul out)
September 28th - Savage Worlds Pulp
October 5th - Savage Worlds Pulp (?)
October 12th - Expedition to Castle Ravenloft Arc Three
October 19th - Expedition to Castle Ravenloft Arc Three
October 26th - Expedition to Castle Ravenloft Arc Three
OK, so we're taking the second week of September 14th off because Paul, Nate and Dave are all out, and Randy will be very tired. Then we'll play Savage Worlds pulp to completion, either through September or into October depending on how long it runs, and then pick up with Ravenloft again in October, if that's cool with Nate.
For November, we can either come back to the Wolves, go back to pirates or play Deadlands (which I'm reading and prepping). I've also got the alternate Eberron campaign based on their "Eyes of the Lich Queen" mega-adventure that's supposed to run from 5th-9th level. Figure that if Matt Sturges wanted to play D&D, I might run that when he's available, so we have an alternate campaign to accommodate schedules.
I know that one week of November is Wizard World Texas, and we won't play then.
Adventure: The Demons' Prophecy (7)
Eyre 22 - Eyre 27
The journey across the Demon Wastes was as harrowing as Gorash had promised. Fortunately for The Wolves, even without Gorash's guidance, Brand and Luggoth's expert tracking and hunting skills were up to the task of catching enough food to keep them fed, and the Cardinal's decanter gave them enough water. They moved more slowly due to the hunting, but they continued the 12 hour a day marching, which allowed them to make up the time.
The marching was grueling, and every day at least one of the Wolves would be exhausted by the end of it, collapsing into Daern's Instant Tent and resting for the night, healing whatever minor wounds they had gotten in conflict with the creatures on the Wastes. The Wolves were able to handle many of them with relatively little difficulty, but they never had a day when they weren't subjected to some kind of attack.
On the second day, as the sun was at its hottest, their journey took them across a series of mesas surrounded by a river of lava, with creaky, half-broken wood and rope bridges connecting them. As they approached, a group of ten half-orc barbarians, members of the Carrion Tribe known as the Plaguebearers, came rushing at them. Some of them leaped fifteen feet across to get at them, while others rushed without care over the precarious bridges.
Maechen cast Haste as spears flew past Lysander and Brand, and as Pel cast a bull's strength on Luggoth and Lysander cast mirror image on himself. Luggoth had his greatsword out and swinging at the nearest Plaguebearer, slashing him three times across the chest, back and shoulder, but the barbarian roared angrily in response, refusing to die so easily, even after Maechen peppered him with magic missiles. Brand pulled out the brutal surge whip, swinging it with both hands for balance and knocking one of the Plaguebearers over the side, but the barbarian managed to grab hold of the mesa and begin pulling himself back up.
The Plaguebearers flew into a rage, swinging their filth-encrusted spears and destroying most of Lysander's mirror images, as well as wounding Luggoth, Maechen and Pel. Lysander drew his rapier and attacked, stabbing one of the barbarians viciously in the kidney, leaving him bleeding and weak, but still alive, at least until Pel finished him off with a barrage of magic missiles from his wand.
Luggoth chopped the head off his wounded foe and swung through into the next, following up with a vicious blow that literally cut him off at the knees and stabbing into his fallen torso to kill him as well. Brand, meanwhile, threw a wolf from his bag of tricks into the midst of another group of Plaguebearers before moving in to assist it.
The Plaguebearers showed no fear at having lost three of their members, and while one of them threw a spear at Maechen, the others destroyed Lysander's last mirror image and struck Lysander himself, and another stabbed Brand once more with his filthy spear. Maechen responded to his attacker with an acid orb, and Lysander once again unleashed a flurry of blows on one of the barbarians, knocking him off-balance with well-placed stabs at his arms, legs and chest. Luggoth moved in between the suddenly exposed Lysander and his foes, slashing the off-balanced foe across the chest three times to finish him before moving on to swing his sword at another barbarian.
As Brand waded into melee alongside his wolf, swinging his shortsword and rapier together, Pel drew his scimitar and waded into melee as well. Maechen stepped back behind him and fired his wand of magic missiles at the barbarian who had been struck with an acid orb, who continued to battle, stabbing a spear into Pel, before Lysander moved over and finished him off with a pair of deadly rapier stabs. Lysander opened up an attack on another Plaguebearer, which Luggoth finished off with a series of deadly blows from his greatsword.
Brand continued to exchange blows with his foes, looking more and more like a dirty pincushion, but he did finish off his opponent. Meanwhile, Lysander and Luggoth combined to kill two more. Battling the last remaining Plaguebearer, Pel took another spear hit, but responded with a flurry of rapier strikes, including one that included a burst of deadly power from his devastation gauntlets, and Maechen finished him off with a blast of magic missiles.
As they caught their breath, recovering from the quick but brutal battle, the Wolves looked behind them and to the west and saw an army of at least one hundred more of the Plaguebearers charging at them. Lysander cast Allegro as Maechen's Haste spell faded, and the Wolves dashed across the rickety bridges over the lava. Brand slashed the bridges behind them with his longsword, staying just ahead of the raging horde, and he was last across one of the bridges when it snapped underneath him, but he managed to leap over to the mesa, and the Wolves got safely away.
Two days later, just after sunrise, as the Wolves had begun following a brackish green stream of what might have been water, they came upon a massive beast, dressed in chainmail, drinking from the foul water. It turned and its red eyes burned as it charged at them, fire bursting from its nostrils and mouth.
Maechen recognized it, yelling out "It's a Nessian warhound! They're pets of fiends!" as it moved toward them, showing a caution that indicated its fiendish cunning. Luggoth shifted and charged, and the warhound bit into him as he came in close, hard enough that his fiery jaws even cut through the protection of Pel's fire resistance spells. Brand moved in to assist his friend, suffering a savage bite from the warhound as well, but biting back with a slash of his shocking shortsword.
As Lysander began singing a song to inspire the Wolves, Pel pulled a scroll from his case and let loose with a burst of searing light that singed the beast. Luggoth attacked, finding the chainmail barding and natural armor of the warhound difficult to punch through, but successfully slashing it once, and it responded with a breath of fire against Pel, Luggoth and Brand. Brand's ring protected him, and Pel dove out of the way with his roguish quickness, and Luggoth suffered only minor burns. The warhound took note of this muted reaction to his usually deadly fire breath and switched over to biting for the rest of the fight.
Pel cast bull's strength on Luggoth as Maechen once again hasted the entire group, but when he moved to join the combat, a deep crack in the earth split even further, nearly causing him to tumble in. Lysander leaped over the chasm before it could completely separate him from the rest of the Wolves, tumbling in to join the fight.
Luggoth flew into a rage, slashing and chopping at the warhound, which gave as good as it got with vicious bites. However, there was only one of the warhound, while there were many Wolves, and Brand and Lysander assisted Luggoth in melee as Pel and Maechen fired crossbow and magic missiles at it. Pel's bolt hit the warhound in the ear, causing it to bleed but having surprisingly little effect in terms of pain.
The Wolves, having dealt what seemed like a massive amount of damage to the beast with little outward effect beyond blood and anger, began to think about withdrawing, but Luggoth slashed again, cutting off one of the warhound's foreleg and then bringing his sword down through its skull, causing the red light to go out of its eyes.
After some quick healing using spells and wands, the Wolves moved on, and found the rest of the day relatively uneventful.
Two more days of travel later, deep into the night, the Wolves spotted a castle in the distance that they believed to be the headquarters of the Order of the Corrupting Flame. Brand was somewhat tired, and Lysander a little bit as well, but the rest of the Wolves were relatively hale and hearty, and they determined not to wait any longer before approaching. After a brief discussion, figuring out who could see in the dark conditions (Pel with his goggles, Lysander and Luggoth with their natural abilities), they decided to use invisibility on Maechen, Luggoth and Pel while Lysander and Brand snuck in with them, Lysander leading the way. After about two minutes of walking at a hurried pace, they saw that approaching the castle wouldn't be quite so easy.
The castle was situated in the middle of a stone formation, clearly modified by magic, that sat a hundred feet above a huge (Lysander estimated it at about 100-150 feet wide) lake of lava. The only means of access was via a 15 foot wide bridge of stone, and guarding that bridge was an assortment of skeletons, zombies and other undead. In addition to the tower, there were three smaller structures on the stony island, none of them any closer to the bridge. With five minutes to go before their invisibility wore off, Brand used his ability to dimension door the group to the front door of the tower.
Pel went to work on the lock with his tools, only to discover that the door wasn't locked. The Wolves quietly snuck in, finding a massive pit filled with spikes, skeletons and decomposing bodies in the entryway. Lysander looked down and saw that the bodies showed obvious signs of torture, and that they included men, women and children. Though none of the Wolves heard it, Maechen accidentally kicked some stones into the sides of the pit, alerting their foes in the next room. Byron and Cierra Deloreth, the ranger/assassin and mage of the Order respectively, as well as Oreth Cyrt, their half-orc barbarian/rogue, were in the next room. Byron spotted two of the Wolves and realized there were more there, so he had his sister cast see invisibility and invisibility on him, as Oreth cast Shield of Faith. Oreth and Cierra climbed the ladder to warn the others as Byron stayed behind to prepare a welcome.
The Wolves entered the common room of the castle, which was divided by a lake of naturally occurring lava, metal roasting spits hung across for cooking. They also saw a water barrel full of fresh water. At the back of the room, standing in front of the ladder leading upwards, there were six skeletons, the servants of Oreth and Cierra, but the actual members of the Corrupting Flame had already moved or vanished.
Little did they know that Byron was moving in, his masterwork longsword drawn, preparing to launch an assassin's strike on Luggoth. He became visible as he stabbed the sword, but Luggoth's toughness and agility saved him, and Byron used his bolt shirt to teleport over to the top of the ladder, hanging on by means of his cloak of Arachnida.
Lysander fired his bow, hitting Byron, but the assassin managed to flip out of the way avoid Maechen's lightning bolt. However, upon landing back on the ladder, he caught a crossbow bolt in the gut from Pel. He fired his own bow at Luggoth, sinking an arrow into his chest, before jumping up and onto the higher level.
Up on the higher levels, as Oreth went to warn Suthar Askarda, the blackguard leader, and Mareth, the cleric, Cierra was casting shield on herself, and Vento cast shield of faith and bull's strength to prepare himself. Down below, Brand cast embrace the wild to gain the scent ability in order to detect Byron, and Lysander cast Eagle's Splendor on Pel, who used his newly enhanced turning to destroy the skeletons.
The Wolves began climbing up the ladder as the Order continued casting spells, with Mareth casting Shield of Faith and Veil of Shadow, a spell Vento also cast on himself. The Order was ready for a battle, as were the Wolves, when Brand initiated the combat by dimension leaping onto the second level. Cierra responded with a ray of dizziness that missed him, and then Vento charged in with Rhino's Rush, slashing him with his greataxe. Luggoth responded by shifting and leaping into the room, causing fear in Byron and slashing his sword across Vento's right arm, denting his plate mail.
Brand moved in to join Luggoth in attacking Vento, and Vento responded by slashing Brand with his axe. Byron tried once again to shoot Luggoth with an arrow using his Distract Assailant spells, but failed to connect with the armored and heavily agile shifter, and he took a burst of magic missiles from Maechen in return. Pel cast Prayer, aiding his allies and weakening his enemies.
As Suthar and Mareth climbed down the ladder to join the combat, Cierra tried to cast Hold Person on Luggoth and, when that failed, dropped a fireball in the midst of the Wolves. Unfortunately for her, the fireball had little effect on the Wolves but was enough to finish off Vento after the damage he'd suffered from Luggoth and Brand. Byron began firing arrows in bursts of three, first at Luggoth and then at Brand, and Lysander stepped up to cast a cure moderate from the wand on the beleaguered Brand.
As the battle was joined in earnest, Maechen cast Haste on the Wolves and Pel used a Keen Edge scroll on his scimitar. Tired of being fired upon, Luggoth charged in to attack Byron, but the one who had his attention was Suthar.
"Foul beast! Do you truly believe the Silver Flame didn't know? The passage spoke of tilting the balance, of struggle... could they trust that this unknown child, tainted with the very beast blood that the Silver Flame had once fought against, would tilt towards good? Or was it not imperative that they act? If they were wrong, the Prophecy would unfold without them, but if they were right, they would be saving the world from great evil."
Mareth cast Sacred Healing so that all of the Order would begin regenerating as Oreth joined the battle, attacking but missing Luggoth, and Cierra fired a Divine Vengeance spell at Brand. Byron stepped back from Luggoth, firing arrows, but he was shaken by Luggoth's intimidating presence and missed all three shots, which allowed Luggoth to painlessly move forward and slash him again. Pel cast a web spell that slowed all of the Order and trapped Oreth.
As Mareth cast a Mass Aid spell to counteract Pel's Prayer, Suthar closed with Luggoth and began attacking him, ranting all the while. "According to the Prophecy, you're fated to kill Jaela and plunge Eberron into war again. So you see, my bestial friend... you're as damned as I. You just haven't committed your act of heresy yet."
Luggoth responded by saying "You don't understand, I don't care if I'm damned, as long as you're dead!" and landed two vicious blows on Suthar.
"And I don't care if I die, as long as you're damned," Suthar responded, spitting blood onto the floor. "Your father didn't die quickly, you know. He fought like a demon to prevent me from getting to you. I had to disembowel him to get him to stop, and even then he kept clawing at me, pathetically, trying to stop me. His resolve was actually quite impressive... even though my men had cut off your mother's head, even though I had your baby sister's skull crushed with a mace, he wouldn't give up. Only when all of his lifeblood had spilled did the light in his eyes finally go out, as he realized he had failed."
As Suthar and Luggoth battled, Brand drank a potion of cure moderate wounds and then stabbed Cierra through the heart, killing her. Byron cried out with rage at the death of his sister and fired arrows at Brand, hitting him with one of them, as Lysander moved in to help Luggoth with Suthar, stabbing him with his rapier. Maechen opened up with bronze dragon breath on Oreth and Byron, but Byron dodged both that and an attack by Pel, focusing his enraged attacks on Brand, who had killed his sister.
"Mareth, I believe it's time we were leaving," Suthar said, causing Mareth to cast a Mass Sanctuary spell that shielded the living Order members from attacks by Lysander and Maechen, but the rest of the Wolves resisted. As Suthar tried to walk out, Luggoth attacked him, and the same thing happened with Oreth and Brand. Lysander, unable to attack directly, set fire to the web, dealing a little damage to Mareth before she could escape. Maechen, unable to attack, cast bull's strength on Brand, who could, as Pel moved in and attacked Byron.
Luggoth rushed over and bit Suthar in the jugular, causing the blackguard to stumble to the ground. As he stood up, Luggoth attacked again, and the unsteady Suthar missed his return attack on Luggoth. The rest of the Wolves and Order moved in to join the battle, exchanging some blows, and as Oreth and Byron attacked, they lost their protection from Sanctuary. Byron tried to kill Brand with a sneak attack and failed, and Brand launched a retaliating strike with his rapier, as Lysander stabbed Oreth.
Finally, Maechen breathed lightning breath at Suthar, who dropped to the ground, his eyes rolling into the back of his head. An enraged Luggoth looked down at Suthar, whose eyes registered exactly what had happened as the shifter stabbed his greatsword into the man who had orchestrated the murder of his tribe and then followed through by cutting Byron's head off and slashing a deep wound in Oreth.
Mareth, enraged by the death of Suthar, promised Luggoth that though he might kill them, he would remember them forever, and tried to cast Wither Limb, which Luggoth resisted. In casting the spell, she opened herself to attack, and when Lysander stabbed Oreth, the rogue flinched, drawing attacks from Lysander, Pel and Luggoth, whose sword claimed another member of the Order.
Mareth, all alone, was blasted by Maechen's magic missiles and then surrounded by the Wolves. She tried to inflict critical wounds on Luggoth, but failed to connect, and after Brand stabbed at Mareth, Lysander moved in to attack as well. He moved into Maechen's line of fire, preventing a blast of lightning, but Lysander yelled out to "do it, I'll be OK," Maechen blasted the cleric with lightning, killing her despite her armor of healing.
As Luggoth's rage began to end, he returned to Suthar's corpse and chopped his head off.
The Wolves explored the remainder of the compound, finding a stash of treasure and expensive spell components, as well as a teleport circle inside the stable. After debating whether it would take them to safety or to the lair of the Lords of Dust, they decided to try it as their best, easiest means of escape.
Brand was dismayed to find that the circle teleported them into the Eldeen Reaches, meaning that the victims of the Order had clearly been from villages in the area. He marked the location of the teleport circle, since it was a gateway from the Demon Wastes, and determined to tell his mother about it. Then the Wolves, bloody and battered but victorious and loaded down with treasure, began their journey back to the village of Sheryn Wayfinder.
XP
3800 (Lysander/Luggoth)
4180 Pel
4770 (Maechen/Brand)
The journey across the Demon Wastes was as harrowing as Gorash had promised. Fortunately for The Wolves, even without Gorash's guidance, Brand and Luggoth's expert tracking and hunting skills were up to the task of catching enough food to keep them fed, and the Cardinal's decanter gave them enough water. They moved more slowly due to the hunting, but they continued the 12 hour a day marching, which allowed them to make up the time.
The marching was grueling, and every day at least one of the Wolves would be exhausted by the end of it, collapsing into Daern's Instant Tent and resting for the night, healing whatever minor wounds they had gotten in conflict with the creatures on the Wastes. The Wolves were able to handle many of them with relatively little difficulty, but they never had a day when they weren't subjected to some kind of attack.
On the second day, as the sun was at its hottest, their journey took them across a series of mesas surrounded by a river of lava, with creaky, half-broken wood and rope bridges connecting them. As they approached, a group of ten half-orc barbarians, members of the Carrion Tribe known as the Plaguebearers, came rushing at them. Some of them leaped fifteen feet across to get at them, while others rushed without care over the precarious bridges.
Maechen cast Haste as spears flew past Lysander and Brand, and as Pel cast a bull's strength on Luggoth and Lysander cast mirror image on himself. Luggoth had his greatsword out and swinging at the nearest Plaguebearer, slashing him three times across the chest, back and shoulder, but the barbarian roared angrily in response, refusing to die so easily, even after Maechen peppered him with magic missiles. Brand pulled out the brutal surge whip, swinging it with both hands for balance and knocking one of the Plaguebearers over the side, but the barbarian managed to grab hold of the mesa and begin pulling himself back up.
The Plaguebearers flew into a rage, swinging their filth-encrusted spears and destroying most of Lysander's mirror images, as well as wounding Luggoth, Maechen and Pel. Lysander drew his rapier and attacked, stabbing one of the barbarians viciously in the kidney, leaving him bleeding and weak, but still alive, at least until Pel finished him off with a barrage of magic missiles from his wand.
Luggoth chopped the head off his wounded foe and swung through into the next, following up with a vicious blow that literally cut him off at the knees and stabbing into his fallen torso to kill him as well. Brand, meanwhile, threw a wolf from his bag of tricks into the midst of another group of Plaguebearers before moving in to assist it.
The Plaguebearers showed no fear at having lost three of their members, and while one of them threw a spear at Maechen, the others destroyed Lysander's last mirror image and struck Lysander himself, and another stabbed Brand once more with his filthy spear. Maechen responded to his attacker with an acid orb, and Lysander once again unleashed a flurry of blows on one of the barbarians, knocking him off-balance with well-placed stabs at his arms, legs and chest. Luggoth moved in between the suddenly exposed Lysander and his foes, slashing the off-balanced foe across the chest three times to finish him before moving on to swing his sword at another barbarian.
As Brand waded into melee alongside his wolf, swinging his shortsword and rapier together, Pel drew his scimitar and waded into melee as well. Maechen stepped back behind him and fired his wand of magic missiles at the barbarian who had been struck with an acid orb, who continued to battle, stabbing a spear into Pel, before Lysander moved over and finished him off with a pair of deadly rapier stabs. Lysander opened up an attack on another Plaguebearer, which Luggoth finished off with a series of deadly blows from his greatsword.
Brand continued to exchange blows with his foes, looking more and more like a dirty pincushion, but he did finish off his opponent. Meanwhile, Lysander and Luggoth combined to kill two more. Battling the last remaining Plaguebearer, Pel took another spear hit, but responded with a flurry of rapier strikes, including one that included a burst of deadly power from his devastation gauntlets, and Maechen finished him off with a blast of magic missiles.
As they caught their breath, recovering from the quick but brutal battle, the Wolves looked behind them and to the west and saw an army of at least one hundred more of the Plaguebearers charging at them. Lysander cast Allegro as Maechen's Haste spell faded, and the Wolves dashed across the rickety bridges over the lava. Brand slashed the bridges behind them with his longsword, staying just ahead of the raging horde, and he was last across one of the bridges when it snapped underneath him, but he managed to leap over to the mesa, and the Wolves got safely away.
Two days later, just after sunrise, as the Wolves had begun following a brackish green stream of what might have been water, they came upon a massive beast, dressed in chainmail, drinking from the foul water. It turned and its red eyes burned as it charged at them, fire bursting from its nostrils and mouth.
Maechen recognized it, yelling out "It's a Nessian warhound! They're pets of fiends!" as it moved toward them, showing a caution that indicated its fiendish cunning. Luggoth shifted and charged, and the warhound bit into him as he came in close, hard enough that his fiery jaws even cut through the protection of Pel's fire resistance spells. Brand moved in to assist his friend, suffering a savage bite from the warhound as well, but biting back with a slash of his shocking shortsword.
As Lysander began singing a song to inspire the Wolves, Pel pulled a scroll from his case and let loose with a burst of searing light that singed the beast. Luggoth attacked, finding the chainmail barding and natural armor of the warhound difficult to punch through, but successfully slashing it once, and it responded with a breath of fire against Pel, Luggoth and Brand. Brand's ring protected him, and Pel dove out of the way with his roguish quickness, and Luggoth suffered only minor burns. The warhound took note of this muted reaction to his usually deadly fire breath and switched over to biting for the rest of the fight.
Pel cast bull's strength on Luggoth as Maechen once again hasted the entire group, but when he moved to join the combat, a deep crack in the earth split even further, nearly causing him to tumble in. Lysander leaped over the chasm before it could completely separate him from the rest of the Wolves, tumbling in to join the fight.
Luggoth flew into a rage, slashing and chopping at the warhound, which gave as good as it got with vicious bites. However, there was only one of the warhound, while there were many Wolves, and Brand and Lysander assisted Luggoth in melee as Pel and Maechen fired crossbow and magic missiles at it. Pel's bolt hit the warhound in the ear, causing it to bleed but having surprisingly little effect in terms of pain.
The Wolves, having dealt what seemed like a massive amount of damage to the beast with little outward effect beyond blood and anger, began to think about withdrawing, but Luggoth slashed again, cutting off one of the warhound's foreleg and then bringing his sword down through its skull, causing the red light to go out of its eyes.
After some quick healing using spells and wands, the Wolves moved on, and found the rest of the day relatively uneventful.
Two more days of travel later, deep into the night, the Wolves spotted a castle in the distance that they believed to be the headquarters of the Order of the Corrupting Flame. Brand was somewhat tired, and Lysander a little bit as well, but the rest of the Wolves were relatively hale and hearty, and they determined not to wait any longer before approaching. After a brief discussion, figuring out who could see in the dark conditions (Pel with his goggles, Lysander and Luggoth with their natural abilities), they decided to use invisibility on Maechen, Luggoth and Pel while Lysander and Brand snuck in with them, Lysander leading the way. After about two minutes of walking at a hurried pace, they saw that approaching the castle wouldn't be quite so easy.
The castle was situated in the middle of a stone formation, clearly modified by magic, that sat a hundred feet above a huge (Lysander estimated it at about 100-150 feet wide) lake of lava. The only means of access was via a 15 foot wide bridge of stone, and guarding that bridge was an assortment of skeletons, zombies and other undead. In addition to the tower, there were three smaller structures on the stony island, none of them any closer to the bridge. With five minutes to go before their invisibility wore off, Brand used his ability to dimension door the group to the front door of the tower.
Pel went to work on the lock with his tools, only to discover that the door wasn't locked. The Wolves quietly snuck in, finding a massive pit filled with spikes, skeletons and decomposing bodies in the entryway. Lysander looked down and saw that the bodies showed obvious signs of torture, and that they included men, women and children. Though none of the Wolves heard it, Maechen accidentally kicked some stones into the sides of the pit, alerting their foes in the next room. Byron and Cierra Deloreth, the ranger/assassin and mage of the Order respectively, as well as Oreth Cyrt, their half-orc barbarian/rogue, were in the next room. Byron spotted two of the Wolves and realized there were more there, so he had his sister cast see invisibility and invisibility on him, as Oreth cast Shield of Faith. Oreth and Cierra climbed the ladder to warn the others as Byron stayed behind to prepare a welcome.
The Wolves entered the common room of the castle, which was divided by a lake of naturally occurring lava, metal roasting spits hung across for cooking. They also saw a water barrel full of fresh water. At the back of the room, standing in front of the ladder leading upwards, there were six skeletons, the servants of Oreth and Cierra, but the actual members of the Corrupting Flame had already moved or vanished.
Little did they know that Byron was moving in, his masterwork longsword drawn, preparing to launch an assassin's strike on Luggoth. He became visible as he stabbed the sword, but Luggoth's toughness and agility saved him, and Byron used his bolt shirt to teleport over to the top of the ladder, hanging on by means of his cloak of Arachnida.
Lysander fired his bow, hitting Byron, but the assassin managed to flip out of the way avoid Maechen's lightning bolt. However, upon landing back on the ladder, he caught a crossbow bolt in the gut from Pel. He fired his own bow at Luggoth, sinking an arrow into his chest, before jumping up and onto the higher level.
Up on the higher levels, as Oreth went to warn Suthar Askarda, the blackguard leader, and Mareth, the cleric, Cierra was casting shield on herself, and Vento cast shield of faith and bull's strength to prepare himself. Down below, Brand cast embrace the wild to gain the scent ability in order to detect Byron, and Lysander cast Eagle's Splendor on Pel, who used his newly enhanced turning to destroy the skeletons.
The Wolves began climbing up the ladder as the Order continued casting spells, with Mareth casting Shield of Faith and Veil of Shadow, a spell Vento also cast on himself. The Order was ready for a battle, as were the Wolves, when Brand initiated the combat by dimension leaping onto the second level. Cierra responded with a ray of dizziness that missed him, and then Vento charged in with Rhino's Rush, slashing him with his greataxe. Luggoth responded by shifting and leaping into the room, causing fear in Byron and slashing his sword across Vento's right arm, denting his plate mail.
Brand moved in to join Luggoth in attacking Vento, and Vento responded by slashing Brand with his axe. Byron tried once again to shoot Luggoth with an arrow using his Distract Assailant spells, but failed to connect with the armored and heavily agile shifter, and he took a burst of magic missiles from Maechen in return. Pel cast Prayer, aiding his allies and weakening his enemies.
As Suthar and Mareth climbed down the ladder to join the combat, Cierra tried to cast Hold Person on Luggoth and, when that failed, dropped a fireball in the midst of the Wolves. Unfortunately for her, the fireball had little effect on the Wolves but was enough to finish off Vento after the damage he'd suffered from Luggoth and Brand. Byron began firing arrows in bursts of three, first at Luggoth and then at Brand, and Lysander stepped up to cast a cure moderate from the wand on the beleaguered Brand.
As the battle was joined in earnest, Maechen cast Haste on the Wolves and Pel used a Keen Edge scroll on his scimitar. Tired of being fired upon, Luggoth charged in to attack Byron, but the one who had his attention was Suthar.
"Foul beast! Do you truly believe the Silver Flame didn't know? The passage spoke of tilting the balance, of struggle... could they trust that this unknown child, tainted with the very beast blood that the Silver Flame had once fought against, would tilt towards good? Or was it not imperative that they act? If they were wrong, the Prophecy would unfold without them, but if they were right, they would be saving the world from great evil."
Mareth cast Sacred Healing so that all of the Order would begin regenerating as Oreth joined the battle, attacking but missing Luggoth, and Cierra fired a Divine Vengeance spell at Brand. Byron stepped back from Luggoth, firing arrows, but he was shaken by Luggoth's intimidating presence and missed all three shots, which allowed Luggoth to painlessly move forward and slash him again. Pel cast a web spell that slowed all of the Order and trapped Oreth.
As Mareth cast a Mass Aid spell to counteract Pel's Prayer, Suthar closed with Luggoth and began attacking him, ranting all the while. "According to the Prophecy, you're fated to kill Jaela and plunge Eberron into war again. So you see, my bestial friend... you're as damned as I. You just haven't committed your act of heresy yet."
Luggoth responded by saying "You don't understand, I don't care if I'm damned, as long as you're dead!" and landed two vicious blows on Suthar.
"And I don't care if I die, as long as you're damned," Suthar responded, spitting blood onto the floor. "Your father didn't die quickly, you know. He fought like a demon to prevent me from getting to you. I had to disembowel him to get him to stop, and even then he kept clawing at me, pathetically, trying to stop me. His resolve was actually quite impressive... even though my men had cut off your mother's head, even though I had your baby sister's skull crushed with a mace, he wouldn't give up. Only when all of his lifeblood had spilled did the light in his eyes finally go out, as he realized he had failed."
As Suthar and Luggoth battled, Brand drank a potion of cure moderate wounds and then stabbed Cierra through the heart, killing her. Byron cried out with rage at the death of his sister and fired arrows at Brand, hitting him with one of them, as Lysander moved in to help Luggoth with Suthar, stabbing him with his rapier. Maechen opened up with bronze dragon breath on Oreth and Byron, but Byron dodged both that and an attack by Pel, focusing his enraged attacks on Brand, who had killed his sister.
"Mareth, I believe it's time we were leaving," Suthar said, causing Mareth to cast a Mass Sanctuary spell that shielded the living Order members from attacks by Lysander and Maechen, but the rest of the Wolves resisted. As Suthar tried to walk out, Luggoth attacked him, and the same thing happened with Oreth and Brand. Lysander, unable to attack directly, set fire to the web, dealing a little damage to Mareth before she could escape. Maechen, unable to attack, cast bull's strength on Brand, who could, as Pel moved in and attacked Byron.
Luggoth rushed over and bit Suthar in the jugular, causing the blackguard to stumble to the ground. As he stood up, Luggoth attacked again, and the unsteady Suthar missed his return attack on Luggoth. The rest of the Wolves and Order moved in to join the battle, exchanging some blows, and as Oreth and Byron attacked, they lost their protection from Sanctuary. Byron tried to kill Brand with a sneak attack and failed, and Brand launched a retaliating strike with his rapier, as Lysander stabbed Oreth.
Finally, Maechen breathed lightning breath at Suthar, who dropped to the ground, his eyes rolling into the back of his head. An enraged Luggoth looked down at Suthar, whose eyes registered exactly what had happened as the shifter stabbed his greatsword into the man who had orchestrated the murder of his tribe and then followed through by cutting Byron's head off and slashing a deep wound in Oreth.
Mareth, enraged by the death of Suthar, promised Luggoth that though he might kill them, he would remember them forever, and tried to cast Wither Limb, which Luggoth resisted. In casting the spell, she opened herself to attack, and when Lysander stabbed Oreth, the rogue flinched, drawing attacks from Lysander, Pel and Luggoth, whose sword claimed another member of the Order.
Mareth, all alone, was blasted by Maechen's magic missiles and then surrounded by the Wolves. She tried to inflict critical wounds on Luggoth, but failed to connect, and after Brand stabbed at Mareth, Lysander moved in to attack as well. He moved into Maechen's line of fire, preventing a blast of lightning, but Lysander yelled out to "do it, I'll be OK," Maechen blasted the cleric with lightning, killing her despite her armor of healing.
As Luggoth's rage began to end, he returned to Suthar's corpse and chopped his head off.
The Wolves explored the remainder of the compound, finding a stash of treasure and expensive spell components, as well as a teleport circle inside the stable. After debating whether it would take them to safety or to the lair of the Lords of Dust, they decided to try it as their best, easiest means of escape.
Brand was dismayed to find that the circle teleported them into the Eldeen Reaches, meaning that the victims of the Order had clearly been from villages in the area. He marked the location of the teleport circle, since it was a gateway from the Demon Wastes, and determined to tell his mother about it. Then the Wolves, bloody and battered but victorious and loaded down with treasure, began their journey back to the village of Sheryn Wayfinder.
XP
3800 (Lysander/Luggoth)
4180 Pel
4770 (Maechen/Brand)
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