Wandering Wolves: Scars of Karrnath (1)

Zarantyr 2 - Zarantyr 15, YK 1000

Having driven off the attack by Cavoletta and her allies, the Wolves turned their attentions to Breyten d'Orien and Url, who were in deep trouble with House Tharashk and House Orien. Brand sent a Sivis message to his father, who was arrested immediately upon entering the Orien enclave in Passage, as he'd expected. However, it took only a few hours for that to change.

Aeromus d'Orien was arrested and taken into custody by House Orien security, and a trial was scheduled for him and Traega, to determine the truth of what was going on with both of them. House Orien requested that Breyten and Url be sent back to Passage for the trial, and the Wolves decided that, in addition to security from Houses Orien, Tharashk and Deneith, they would send Luggoth with them to make sure the two of them arrived in Passage and were incarcerated. They made arrangements for Luggoth to come and meet them in Karrnath when he was done.

The rest of the Wolves went to their linked portals on Silver Lake Isle and traveled to Korth, where they were met by a House Orien coach that was to take them to Karrlakton to meet with General Gustavus Karlach, commander of Karrnathi military forces in that city.

Karrnath was in the throes of the worst blizzard that anyone could remember, colder than many of the Wolves had ever been. William thoroughly enjoyed the chance to revisit his homeland... the rest of the Wolves weren't so fond of being without their creature comforts of Sharn or the Wolves' Reward.

The travel took a few days, but it was uneventful. Throughout most of the journey, the windows on the coach had a view of the Mournland, which was unsettling to say the least. Freezing weather and the dead, gray mist of the Mournland left most of the Wolves with a less-than-pleasant first impression of Karrnath.

After two days of travel, they had a brief stop in the town of Vurgenslye, and then they traveled for another day and a half, reaching Karrlakton late in the day. The coach deposited them at the headquarters for Karrlakton's military, and they were greeted by Corporal Hanish Viett, who took them in to General Karlach's office.

Karlach, a man in his early sixties, was dressed in his full military uniform, complete with a number of medals and ribbons, and wearing the ring of the Order of Rekkenmark, as well as a fur hat in the Karrnathi style. William quickly recognized that Karlach was a highly-decorated officer.

Karlach offered the Wolves some vedbread (crusty bread with sharp ved cheese) and lamb and vegetable stew, and then proceeded to tell them why he had asked to see them.

"I was an officer in the Karrnathi military during the Last War. I saw action in the Talenta Plains and the Mror Holds, but for most of the war I battled against Thrane. Just after I was promoted to lieutenant, I met Count Werner ir'Orlok. It was in 961, during the Siege of Shadukar, under the command of General Horacht. We took Shadukar and pillaged it completely, with necromancers reviving the bodies of their foes to bolster the ranks of their armies. When we were finally forced out by Thranish troops a year later, Horacht ordered them to shut the gates of the city and put it to the torch, leaving the city an utter ruin, filled with dead and undead."

"It was a horrible thing, but much as I disliked them, I followed my orders. I didn't like Orlok, though... he was creepy, even for a necromancer, and I got the sense that he was sizing him up for some kind of horrible projects."

"I was very nearly your uncle, William, and I should have been. I met your aunt Hannah when I was home visiting family in Karrlakton. She was 19, and had just begun work as a Blademark, and I was was 37, and had just been promoted to Major. We shared a long distance courtship throughout the war, never in one place long enough to spend more than few days together. I proposed to her after a few years, but both of us knew that nothing would come of it until after the war was over."

"When Cyre was destroyed, we both knew the war was coming to an end, and we both transferred back to Karrlakton. I took over command of the forces here, and Hannah took a job training Sentinel Marshals instead of going on active missions so frequently. We made plans to marry as soon as the war was officially over. Just after these plans were made, Hannah had to go out to rescue some of her students who had disappeared on a mission into the Shadow Marches, chasing rumors that Count Orlok had been risen from the dead. She never came back."

"I've always assumed that Orlok killed her, but I've been searching for him ever since. I've hired House Tharashk scouts and inquisitors, as well as my own scouts, and one of them came to me a few weeks ago to tell me he spotted activity in Iceridge Tower in the Icetop Mountains, which was one of Orlok's labs during the war."

"If it is Orlok, my scouts will need stronger support to handle him. If the Wolves will go up to the base and rendezvous with my scouts, I'm willing to pay each of you. In addition, I have some pull with the Sentinel Marshals, and I know, William, that you have petitioned to become one. If you can capture or kill Orlok, I think I can get them to make you a Sentinel Marshal."

Karlach handed each of the Wolves a small pouch, with an extra one for Luggoth. Inside was gold, platinum and a gem for expenses.

He then asked if William would indulge him in a game of Conqueror. William hadn't played the game since he was a boy, and after an early lead, the general began dominating his game. The Wolves decided to help, with Lysander engaging the general in talk of stories and history from the region, while Brand spotted weaknesses in the general's game and imparted them to William, and Pel tried to convince the general that William's game was stronger than it looked.

The combined efforts of the Wolves won the game, although William wasn't entirely happy to have, in his mind, cheated. Karlach accepted the loss with a smile and told William that he should practice, making it clear that he thought the Wolves' help was a fair counterbalance to his much greater experience with the game.

After doing a little shopping in Karrlakton, and spotting a number of doomsayers in the Mournland-adjacent city, the Wolves boarded the Orien coach again. They traveled for 3 days to Vedykar, then 3 and a half more days to Vulyar, where they boarded the Eastern Line lightning rail. After about 15 hours of travel, they arrived in the small mining town of Irontown.

There they were met by a House Vadalis representative who gave them four magebred horses to take out to the base. The horses had camping and cold weather gear on them, and the Wolves bundled up to head into the freezing weather. It helped a little, but they still found the weather absolutely chilling, and travel was extremely tiring.

After two days in the blizzard, exhausted from the cold, they realized that they were lost, and that the white, mostly featureless landscape offered few clues which direction to go. Fortunately, William was able to recall some elements of the Karrnathi wilderness from his school days that pointed them in what they thought was the northeast, and Brand was able to discern from the way the snow fell that they were nearing Lake Dark, which was the correct way to go. Lysander recalled a story he had heard about a soldier lost in a blizzard, and some of the things he had done to survive, and finally all of the Wolves were able to spot the faintest trail leading to a cottage, with light in the windows.

The cottage belonged to Kravitz and Hestia Bonne. Kravitz was a one-legged veteran of the Last War, and it was clear to the Wolves from the symbols in their home that they were worshipers of the Blood of Vol. This, they explained, was why they lived in isolation away from the town, and they also said that they held no love for the Emerald Claw and its bastardization of their religion. The Bonnes were smithys, and they sold armor and weapons to Irontown from time to time.

After serving some food to the Wolves, they told them that they had recently celebrated Revelation Day at their temple, but that their priest, a mummy, and the rest of the followers had betrayed them. They had used the blood from the ritual to create a blood elemental that they intended to take with them to the Mror Holds for some kind of Emerald Claw operation. When that time came, they would come down from the temple to get Hestia and Kravitz, and they would either have to go with them or be killed as traitors to the cause.

Kravitz asked if the Wolves, in exchange for a safe place to sleep and rest, would go to the temple and deal with the Vol cult. The Wolves were all too eager to do this anyway, and so, after a night of sleep and warmth that got them back to their fully rested and ready selves, they followed Hestia out into the snow once more to find the Blood of Vol temple.

The temple was a few hours away from the cottage, and it was a fairly impressive structure, built of stone with stain-glass windows and only one entrance. William, never once for ceremony, kicked open the doors and charged in.

The mummy was overseeing a ceremony in the candle-lit temple, surrounded by close to a dozen cultists, and a blood elemental and blood amniote, a kind of ooze, stood in the center of the temple.

William moved in to draw both the elemental and the amniote to him, and managed to keep their focus on him throughout the battle. Pel, Brand and Lysander spread out throughout the temple in preparation for the battle.

Two of the cultists revealed themselves as warlocks, firing desiccating curses at Brand and William, and following up with deadly curses that scoured the flesh more quickly from their foes. As William continued to battle the amniote, the elemental and the occasional cultist, Brand and Lysander made quick work of some of the cultists, and Pel engaged the mummy.

His opening salvo was to blast it with the scourging radiant light of the Traveler, then he pulled out his scimitar and began hacking at him, as Brand moved in to help. Lysander, with help from Whitehearth, engaged two of the more brutish cultists.

The mummy focused attacks with his skull-headed mace on Pel, and before long, all of the Wolves had plenty of scrapes and bruises. The desiccating curses were taking their toll on Brand, who was barely able to remain on his feet, and the elemental and the amniote had been pounding relentlessly on William.

With most of the cultists dealt with, the wounded Wolves focused their attacks on the mummy and his blood elementals. Pel called down a flame strike that set the mummy on fire and damaged the last remaining cultist, who fell under the sway of Lysander's persuasion and found himself marching toward the snow outside, firing his bow back at his tormentors without much effect.

The mummy, on fire and dying, stumbled into William's reign of steel stance, and William swung Terminus and cleaved the undead priest's head from his shoulders. A wave of necrotic energy swept out from him, infecting all of the Wolves with the curse of mummy rot. William turned back to attack the elemental and the amniote, and Pel moved in to join him. Brand teleported in and finished the elemental with a flurry of his blades, right after it managed to smash William into unconsciousness.

The Wolves focused their attacks on the amniote, and Lysander finished it off with a song powerful enough to cause deathly fear in the barely sentient ooze. As Pel moved to bandage William, Brand charged outside and finished off the last remaining cultist before he could return to cause more trouble.

Searching the blood-soaked temple, the Wolves found a couple of rooms where they could rest, shielded from the elements. They also found the cult's treasury, which included valuable gems and gold, as well as a blood red potion of vitality brewed from the blood of the cultists and the mummy's herbs. In addition, William found a letter from Count Orlok, clearly addressed to the mummy. It read:

"I have word that our operation in the Mror Holds has encountered some difficulties. The resistance at the mining operation is more severe than anticipated, and I have a request to provide some reinforcements. As you are the nearest Blood of Vol cult available, and my own forces are busy providing security here at the tower, I need you to take as much force as you can muster to the ir'Mroranon mining operation as soon as possible. Perhaps the ritual you had been working on to create constructs of blood would be useful to this purpose.

Lady Vol will look on your assistance quite favorably. The dragonshards we are procuring at the mining colony are crucial to Operation: Ascendance."

Lysander ministered to each of the Wolves to deal with the after-effects of the mummy's curse, and with his help, all of them managed to shake off mummy rot. Unfortunately, Lysander himself didn't, and the next morning, the hale and hearty Wolves saw that their elven companion looked sallow, sickly and near-death. They realized that in order to save him, they'd have to journey for two days across the blizzard conditions without resting, for fear of Lysander taking a turn for the worse.

Wandering Wolves: The Opening of the Wolves' Reward

Vult 27, YK 999 - Zarantyr 2, YK 1000

With only a few days until the opening of the Wolves' Reward, Brand gathered the Wolves in the war room and told them that he had received a communication from his father.

Brand and Traega had done some exploring in the Shadow Marches and found a rich dragonshard field, which they offered to House Orien as a way to buy Traega some favor with the House again. Traega arranged to have the map sent to the Orien enclave in Passage, where one of his contacts would get it to the higher-ups so it could be sold to House Tharashk, who would pay handsomely for another field in the area.

Traega's contact stole the map and passed it off to Aeromus, Brand's uncle, who immediately made plans to sell it directly to House Tharashk, cutting Orien (and Traega) out entirely. This sale was to take place at the gathering of the Houses for the opening of the Wolves' Reward, where no one would think anything of high-ranking scions of the House meeting.

Fortunately, Traega had anticipated something like this, and had sent a false map to his contact. He sent the real map to Brand and instructed him to watch Aeromus's agent during the opening of the Wolves' Reward, and to put the real map into House Tharashk's hands immediately after Aeromus's agent handed over the false map. The result would be Tharashk's anger at nearly being sold a fake map and House Orien's anger at being cut out of a deal, and with Traega heading to Passage as soon as the switch was made, the hope was that Traega would be reinstated and Aeromus arrested.

Counseled by Pel and Lysander, Brand determined that the best thing to do was make sure that the representatives from House Orien and House Tharashk didn't see each other until the gala on opening night, and to make sure they were in the semi-private dining room on that night, more or less assuring the time and place of the hand-off.

On the morning of Vult 27, the Wolves gathered with the ambassadors from Galifar's Hope to greet the Daughters of Sora Kell, making a rare appearance outside Droaam. They came walking up to the casino entrance with an Oni mage, Crezyan Rrac, in tow. The Wolves couldn't say anything about Crezyan Rrac's role in the plot, nor his ties to the Lords of Dust, without implicating themselves, and they weren't happy to hear that Crezyan was being appointed the Droaam ambassador to Galifar's Hope.

They were even less happy when Sora Teraza declared "This place will be baptized in blood." She then stared at Luggoth and said "I would speak with you" before heading inside and up to Galifar's Hope.

With that nerve-rattling meeting over, the Wolves went back inside the casino to deal with various business. Lysander was running all over the casino making sure that the opening night festivities, including performances in the Wolfsong Hall, The Wanderers' Prospect and Rorsa's Den were going according to plan. Brand was coordinating with Chance, the casino manager, and Diarmand, the casino's head of security, on the House Orien/House Tharashk intrigues, and Pel, William and Luggoth went up to visit the Daughters of Sora Kell.

While Pel and William stood in the hallway talking with the beautiful Sora Katra with Sora Maenya and Crezyan Rrac looking on, Luggoth went in to speak with Sora Teraza, the oracle. She told him of her interpretation of the Prophecy, that his murder of Jaela Daran was preordained, but that she believed that it would be done to save the world from plunging into darkness. She also explained that some of the Chamber, and the Lords of Dust, did not believe this, and thought that Luggoth was to be responsible for plunging the world into darkness. In addition, she revealed that the Prophecy indicated that Luggoth was going to kill Ttemmal the Rakshasa, which was why he had sometimes disobeyed his masters' wishes and tried to murder Luggoth instead of corrupting him.

Luggoth insisted that he didn't care what the Prophecy said, that he was going to do what he could for his friends and loved ones, and the Prophecy be damned, but Sora Teraza insisted that the Prophecy would determine what happened to Luggoth and his friends, and that he therefore cared very much. In addition, she told him that his role in the Prophecy made him important, and that many would seek to curry favor with him. Sora Teraza was no different, and she told Luggoth that if she had further information for him in the future, she might send for him.

As Luggoth had a thoroughly uncomfortable meeting with Sora Teraza, William and Pel had an equally, if differently, uncomfortable meeting outside. William did his best to stare down Crezyan Rrac, remembering his attempts to kill the Wolves. Pel engaged in verbal repartee with Sora Katra, and was surprised and discomfited to learn that her skill with diplomatic double-speak and hidden meanings surpassed his. Without directly saying anything, Pel was able to discern that the Hags knew all about the Wolves' involvement in Breland's attempted assassination coup, and that they knew as well that Crezyan Rrac was an agent of the Lords of Dust. He was also able to learn that Sora Katra preferred to know the secret agenda of their ambassador, rather than to have someone whose betrayal might be unpredictable.

Fully convinced that the Daughters of Sora Kell were formidable opponents, the Wolves descended by air skiff back down to the casino, where they were met by Brand, who informed them of what had been going on while they had their meeting.

The House Orien contingent had shown up at midday, and in addition to a dozen Orien representatives, they were led by Aeromus's son, Brand's cousin, the weaselly Breyten d'Orien, with the bestial Url Conaway accompanying him as security. Url had come to Brand and informed him that his scouts had seen a group of fey creatures advancing out of the Whitehorn Wood, moving to rendezvous with a larger army in the Eldeen Reaches, which was almost certainly planning an assault on the Wolves' branch of civilization in what they considered their wild. He counseled sending the most powerful agents the Wolves could manage to deal with these leaders before larger trouble resulted.

Even though they knew it was a distraction, the Wolves couldn't afford to ignore it. They left Lysander and Chance to make sure that the House Tharashk and House Orien groups didn't meet up early and took magebred horses to the south to deal with this enemy force.

The enemy force was made up of a unicorn, a firbolg hounder, a centaur hunter, a shifter representing the Children of Winter and four cyclops.

The unicorn charged and impaled William, who was suddenly forced to take it much more seriously as a foe, as Pel engaged the Firbolg by calling down a flame strike on him and his allies. Brand, in a blur of speed and teleportation, rushed across the river to engage the centaur archer in melee, as Luggoth flew into his frost rage and attacked the other shifter.

None of the Wolves present understood the elven that their foes spoke, but they were able to discern their motives when the centaur barked out a command and the cyclops turned to attack Brand, using the flat of their blades. Clearly, they had been told to capture a House Orien scion at least, quite possibly Brand specifically.

William maintained his reign of steel stance, keeping the Firbolg and Unicorn close to him as Luggoth stayed with and killed the Children of Winter Doomspeaker. Pel used all his deceptive talents and martial talents to cut the Firbolg and leave him bleeding, finishing him off by cutting off one leg and then, when he had fallen to the ground, slicing his throat open.

Brand kept at the centaur with his blades as the centaur responded with arrows, until Whitehearth was able to finish it off, bringing it down and tearing out his throat. The Wolves had hoped to capture one of the attackers, but the unicorn put on a burst of speed and fled down the river.

It was an eight hour trip back to the casino, and it was the middle of the night when they arrived. The Deneith blademark at the door told them that Diarmand had been looking for them, and had a few things to tell them, so they went to wake him up. They found him in his room with a giggling young woman in his bed, which did not amuse William at all.

Fortunately, they also learned that while matters of interest had occurred while they were away, none of them were terribly urgent, at least as far as the Wolves were concerned. A female-identified warforged named Scabbard had arrived, claiming to represent the Lord of Blades and wanting a seat at the table at Galifar's Hope to represent their new nation, formed in the Mournland, which had caused quite a stir with the ambassadors. In addition, Josilian d'Tiarlan of House Sivis and a Blood of Vol priestess named Ermena Dorn had both requested an audience with Pel. He resolved to meet with them in the morning.

Brand went to talk with Lysander, and learned that the House Tharashk contingent had arrived and immediately been taken to Rorsa's Den for some bawdy entertainment that they were now sleeping off, and they hadn't had any interaction with Breyten, whom Chance had plied with booze and whores, or Url, who had spent a fair amount of time "casing" the casino as if looking for weak spots in its security.

The next morning, Pel spoke first with Ermena Dorn, a soft-spoken woman who explained that the Blood of Vol, like worship of the Traveler, was associated with evil because of bad elements, but that the religion itself wasn't wholly evil. She explained that it was about worshiping the divinity within one's self, and choosing life over death, and that some viewed undeath as one way to avoid death, which Seekers of the Blood of Vol considered unwelcome, and even unnatural. She argued that allowing a temple of the Blood of Vol in The Wolves' Reward would go a long way towards showing people that the religion wasn't violent or dangerous, and would help to undercut the damage done (and the influence over many religious adherents) by the Emerald Claw.

Pel wasn't convinced that it was a good idea, nor that the other Wolves would go for it, but he did agree to talk with Ermena again in a few days before she left to go back to Karrnath.

Pel's visit with Josilian, the gnomish barrister for House Sivis, was less difficult, although no less surprising. It turned out that Sava Kharisa, Councilor in Sharn, had willed her art gallery to Pel upon her death, and now that the Pel who had taken possession was revealed to be a fraud, Josilian had papers for Pel to sign so that he could take possession of it.

The Wolves then took a journey up to Galifar's Hope to find out what had happened with Scabbard, and they overheard that she had indeed been granted a seat on the table, non-voting at present, over the strenuous objections of the four remaining Five Nations of Karrnath, Thrane, Aundair and Breland, and over the furious anger of non-voting Cyre. The tie-breaking vote had come from Maechen, on behalf of Argonnessen, which caused no end of discussion and frustration amongst the ambassadors.

The discussion got even more heated when Ambassador Neya ir'Krell of Aundair and Ambassador Valtar ir'Wynarn of Thrane began arguing about the rightful possessor of Thaliost. The city was to have gone back to Aundair when the war with Droaam was over, and in return Thrane was to get a larger chunk of conquered Droaam, but since the war ended in peace rather than conquest, things were still being hashed out, and it didn't sound like the decisions were going to be made easily.

William took some time to talk to Karrnathi ambassador Sedge Avadarn, laying out any number of plans for aggressive military action by Karrnath. Avadarn patiently explained to William that there was more to his home culture than warfare, and that he should experience the art, the food and the other culture of Karrnath, rather than looking for targets which might ignite the Last War again.

The rest of the day was spent in preparation for the gala opening, which was held in The Wanderer's Prospect restaurant, with entertainment provided by House Phiarlan. During the event, the Wolves chatted with several friendly faces, including the very pregnant Lady Elaydren d'Cannith, who expressed worry about her Uncle Merrix and concern for the head of her House, Jorlanna d'Cannith, who was experiencing criticism due to her relationship with Kalen d'Orien.

William was flagged down by Lieutenant Vorik Taggert, a Karrnathi soldier who presented a message from General Gustavus Karlach, whom William knew from his teen years when General Karlach was dating his Aunt Hannah. He asked that William come to see him in Karrlakton as soon as he was able.

Brand, meanwhile, had a chat with a scarred gentleman named Ari Romhaar, an Aundarian lightning mage with a lightning-themed "traveling carnival of wonders." He explained that he had gotten the scars thanks to an attempt to capture a Behir in Xen'drik for his circus, because the adventurers he hired were not up to the task. Once Brand determined that the adventurers he spoke of were not the Young Wolves, he agreed to consider Ari's offer to come down to Xen'drik with him and capture the beast, although Pel expressed that they definitely wanted to do some research on Romhaar before agreeing to anything.

And then it was showtime for Traega d'Orien's plot. Brand watched as Breyten d'Orien exchanged his map for money with the House Tharashk operative, and Brand rushed in to give him the real map. As the House Tharashk contingent was beginning to ask pointed questions, however, a loud, brusque female voice rang out.

The voice belonged to Cavoletta, werewolf servant of the Lords of Dust, who announced that she was there to kill Luggoth. She transformed into her werewolf form, a handful of patrons revealed themselves to be cultists of the Lords of Dust and, to the horror of everyone there (and the intense anger of William) the House Deneith Blademarks drew their weapons and revealed themselves to be working for Cavoletta.

Or so it would seem. In fact, William quickly spotted that they were not fighting in the Deneith style, and given that he knew several of the men to be Deneith, he quickly realized that they were suffering fiendish possession. With a yell to "Take them alive! They're possessed!" he waded into the fray.

Luggoth, for his part, snarled at Cavoletta "I've been waiting for this" and charged into battle. Pel cracked his cousin across the face, activating his dimensional bond and told him to "stay put" before pulling both of his swords and leaping into battle as well.

William, Pel and Brand made short work of the cultists, even though they were emboldened by Cavoletta's bloodcurdling howl. The Blademarks split between supporting Cavoletta in her battle against Luggoth and trying, unsuccessfully, to keep William out of the fight.

While Pel, William and Brand did their best to knock out the Blademarks, Luggoth and Cavoletta tore into each other. Cavoletta began to look unsteady on her feet, and Pel moved into heal Luggoth, giving him just enough strength to land a final blow on Cavoletta, who responded by tearing into Luggoth twice more, but the frost covering his body, combined with the grievous wounds he had dealt her, took its toll, and she collapsed to the ground, mere seconds before Luggoth himself had to stumble to a chair to fight off the moon frenzy coursing through his veins as a result of her bite.

No one ever accused the Wolves of throwing a dull party.