Wandering Wolves: Lightning & Shadows

Dravago 6 - Dravago 13, YK 1000

It took the Wolves four relatively uneventful days to travel back through the jungles of Xen'drik to Stormreach. Halas Martain attempted no further escapes, and when they reached The Citadel of the Twelve, they found Resolute waiting there with Bethesne. He took Halas Martain into custody and the three of them returned, via Orien teleportation, back to Khorvaire.

After a quick journey to the Ship's Cat to pick up Luggoth, the Wolves decided to buy a few supplies around town. They stopped in at Black Iron and Dagoward's Apothecary to pick up some alchemical items, a magic sword and a magic crossbow.

Pel and Lysander spent a day looking around town and listening for information, and heard many choice rumors, all filed away for future reference. In particular, Pel learned that someone had bought 10 barrels of Sooka, a powerful alcoholic beverage, from Molou's Distillery, which was a fairly significant and unusual amount.

Late in the day, they met Ari Romhaar, the elemental mage, in The Ship's Cat to discuss the business with the Behir he had talked to them about a few months ago at the Wolves' Reward.

They found Ari Romhaar fairly trustworthy. He had been running his Elemental Carnival in Fairhaven for four years, having begun it just after the Treaty of Thronehold ended the war. During the war, he was a spellcaster in the Aundarian army. He is an expert with elemental magic, specializing in lightning, and is in several business associations, including one with Tyman Karch, who had vouched for him.

Ari explained that about nine months ago, during one of his regular scouting trips, he heard of a Behir terrorizing the swamps of Xen'drik. He went out to talk to it, and after four separate trips over two months, he offered it 10% of the gate and an up-front payment of 2500 gold to join his circus for a year. The Behir took the money and signed the deal, but when Ari went back with a barge to transport him, the Behir blasted it to smithereens, killed everyone on board and sent Ari packing. When he went back again two weeks later, having secured adventurers to help him, the Behir killed them and scarred Ari, nearly killing him.

Ari explained that he doesn't want the money back. He spent a lot of time and money on this deal, and the Behir negotiated in bad faith. He still has every intention of giving the creature its money, but he has no intention of letting it out of the contract it signed.

Pel and Lysander examined the contract and determined that it wasn't a forgery, that it was legitimate, and though some of the Wolves had qualms about capturing a sentient creature, they were convinced that Ari was the wronged party.

The next morning, using a map provided by Ari, they went back out into Xen'drik to find and capture the Behir. It took them the better part of a day to find it's lair, and when they did, the found the Behir eating noisily, totally unaware of their presence.

As they moved into positions, the Behir finished its meal and pricked its ears up. It snapped its neck up to its full height and looked around at all of them, easily spotting their hidden positions, with the exception of Pel, and said dismissively "Don't tell me Ari sent someone else."

Lysander pretended not to know who Ari was, but feigned interest in what the Behir was talking about. His delaying tactics didn't fool the Behir, however, and it made a run at Brand, lightning crackling all around it, starting the fight.

Pel called down a flame strike that narrowly missed the Behir as it crashed toward Brand, but Lysander pulled his songbow out of his cloak and launched a saga of vengeance that crashed into the beast. Seconds later, it was on Brand, and it swallowed him whole. William, unafraid of the lightning aura, moved in and stabbed Terminus deep into the Behir's neck, unleashing a gout of blood, and then he dropped into his rain of steel stance. Luggoth charged up to join him, slashing the Behir with his axe. The Behir tried to stomp Luggoth and William, but both of them were able to avoid his thundering stomp. Brand used his dragonmark to emerge from William's shadow, and the Behir responded by craning its neck down and swallowing William instead.

As Pel fired a bolt from his new crossbow, Lysander began a song of encouragement and fired another arrow at the Behir. The Behir found William to be a dissatisfying meal, doing as much damage with his rain of steel as the Behir's gullet could deal out, but he was unwilling to let him go. The pain distracted him, however, and he failed to land claw attacks on Lysander, Brand or Luggoth.

From inside the Behir, there came an appalling crunch as William and Vendetta went to work on the creature's internal organs, and the Behir's eyes crossed, dazed by the attack. Luggoth ignored the lightning crackling through him and slashed again at the outside of the Behir, and Brand took aim and marked the beast for death. It fired off a clumsy lightning blast which grazed Luggoth and Pel, and tried to stumble into better position, but the Wolves were having no real trouble with it.

Pel used his trick strike to move into a position where he could manipulate the Behir's movement. Lysander, after seeing the beast shake off his disturbing visions, jumped onto a nearby tree and swung on a branch to run up the back of the Behir. The Behir stomped and knocked down Whitehearth and Luggoth, but the sound of a victorious surge by William resulted in more blood pouring out of the beast. William followed up with his bodyguard's link strike, and the Wolves saw Vendetta stab right out of the Behir's gullet before withdrawing inside to do more damage.

The Behir, even in its arrogance, could see that the fight was going poorly, and tried to withdraw, but Brand, William and Luggoth all attacked him as he tried to flee. He called a halt to hostilities and offered to surrender, and the Wolves ignored his request as the self-serving bluff that it was. In response, he tried to eat Whitehearth, who leaped out of the way.

Lysander, firing from the back of the Behir, launched an arrow into two of his feet, pinning him to the spot, as William spun Vendetta around and slammed the pommel into the back of the Behir's throat, causing his eyes to cross and pass out. William climbed out of the Behir, and the Wolves followed his trail back to his lair.

The found a not-inconsiderable amount of treasure and dispersed it amongst themselves, setting aside 2,500 gold to give back to Ari Romhaar. Then they began wondering how they were going to get the thing back to Stormreach. Finally, they settled on dosing him with some of the Sooka liquor Pel had bought and pushing him into a portal that Brand opened.

The portal closed immediately, and Brand had to spend 10 minutes opening another one. When they returned, they found a panicked group of the Stormreach Watch desperately whacking the Behir with their weapons, unable to penetrate its hide even when it was unconscious. William went and paid gold to some dockworkers to roll the Behir on logs over to the harbor.

Ari, having heard the new that the Behir was captured, came and found them, recovered his gold and paid the Wolves what they were due. They made arrangements to meet soon about bringing the Carnival of Lightning to the Wolves' Reward to perform.

With the Behir and the fugitives dealt with, the Wolves' last reason for visiting Xen'drik was the party being thrown by Kira of the Order of Q'annhyrde's on the next night. Their invitations read simply "Hylanus - The Black Wrack" and "Illumination." Pel and Lysander easily determined that Hylanus was the name of an elf who sometimes visits the Black Wrack, a tavern in Locksmith Square that boasted that it was the "largest tavern in Stormreach."

Lysander went to investigate the Black Wrack, and found a colorful collection of locals and visitors drinking and a wall known for having job postings for adventurers. He spent some time watching the staff, and didn't find anything particularly noteworthy or germane to the Order or Hylanus. After his scouting, he went to the Phiarlan enclave in the Temple district and spoke with Zarzalia Shol d'Phiarlan, a female dragonmarked bard, who looked into the records and determined that the Order had not hired House Phiarlan to entertain at their party.

Pel, meanwhile, stopped in to visit his sect of the Traveler. He discovered a little bit about the Order of Q'annhyrde, notably that they were believers in something called "the Age of Mortals" and generally of a nihilistic viewpoint. He was also told about the Cabal of Shadows, a sect of the Traveler that operates deep underground in Stormreach and is rumored to be involved in dealings with the Bilge Rats.

William took some time to write a letter back to Karola, describing his conquest of the Behir. He then rolled it up, put it in a bottle and threw it into the Thunder Sea.

The Wolves gathered together at the Ship's Cat, where Luggoth, Brand and Whitehearth had been relaxing for the day. Lysander used a bardic ritual to seek rumors, and was able to learn that Hylanus was an assassin for hire who worked for House Thuranni, and that he specialized in blade tricks, stories, bawdy jokes and illusion magic, and that he has operated for several years in Stormreach.

Forewarned as best as they could be, they sought out Hylanus at a corner table at the Black Wrack. He asked them "What do shadows seek?" and they responded with the code phrase from their invitation, "Illumination."

Hylanus knew them immediately, by sight and by reputation, and made small talk with them, focusing particularly on trying to tease information out of Lysander. All the while, Pel studied him, trying to detect his mannerisms so that he'd have an easier time spotting him even in disguise.

Hylanus asked to see their invitations, and told them that they needed to go an alley in Locksmith Square where they would find a hidden door. They were to knock on that door, and someone would ask them "What do dragons and demons alike fear?" The answer was "The Age of Mortals."

The Wolves took their leave of Hylanus and went to the Silverwall district and Locksmith Square. It took them a few minutes, but they found the right alley and the right door, and made their way past security for the evening, a pair of Iron Golems, to enter a very decadent party. Dozens of prostitutes of various races, though mostly elf, tiefling and human, lounged about or danced for customers, while a half-dozen elven bards sang raucous and disturbing songs mocking demons, dragons and gods.

Lysander recognized the place by reputation, realizing that they were in Shadows, an upscale brothel run by House Thuranni. Rumor had it that this was Thuranni's only real presence in Stormreach, and that they generally served as purveyors of pleasure, rather than assassins, while here.

The sumptuous buffet table included a number of items, including something that was obviously scrambled dragon eggs mixed with cheese, peppers and meat. Brand examined the oversized egg shells containing the scrambled egg dish and determined that they were real dragon. Luggoth and Pel both ate the dish, but the other Wolves refrained. William in particular said that if he ever had a dragon asked him if he'd eaten dragon eggs, he wanted to be able to say no.

The Wolves spotted several local celebrities in the crowd, including a dwarf named Jannus Amanatu who was the son of the Storm Lord Yarrick and a member of the Golden Lions, a group of the city's most respected families. Pel also spotted Genne, a changeling that he had heard was a member of the Cabal of Shadows.

Tira, the shapely tiefling woman who was throwing the party, made a point to come over and talk to Luggoth and the rest of the Wolves. She spoke disdainfully of gods, demons and dragons, explaining that the Order believed that mortals were supposed to shape their own destiny. They believed that the Prophecy, and indeed most traditional morality, were a farce.

Lysander offered up a parable about religion and how mortals couldn't really see the shape of it, relating to mice and a musician, and Kira acted amused, but didn't have an immediate answer. She left to mingle, specifically mentioning to Luggoth that he would fit in well with their Order.

However, Luggoth was somewhat disgusted by this show of decadence and amorality. He caught the eye of Dekker d'Orien, the Siberys heir who had brought them to Xen'drik. Dekker made several cryptic comments about The Order, and told Luggoth to ask around about where the name came from.

Luggoth sought out those answers, and found them in the form of a beautiful elven woman who offered physical temptations to go with the answers. Luggoth resisted the temptation, and got only information. He learned that Q'anhyrde is also the name of a dragon in Khorvaire, who served the Chamber for almost a hundred years, deciphering and shaping the Prophecy, but who eventually declared that nothing mattered but the present. Many believe he is the one who started the Order.

The Wolves had had enough of this party and the Order, and they left reasonably early without indulging in most of the debauchery that was offered. While most of the Wolves went back to the Ship's Cat, Luggoth went to the temple district to visit a Church of the Silver Flame before settling in for the night.

Early the next morning, they heard someone banging desperately on their door. When they opened it, weapons at the ready, Elias Volan tumbled in. He looked exhausted and badly burned, and managed to mutter one word before passing out.

"Demons."