Vult 9 - Vult 10, YK 998
Part Five: Scorpion's Sting
The journey back into the jungle and to the drow shrine took about four hours on horseback. To no one's surprise, Halas Martain begged off coming along, and so it was that Maechen, Lysander, Luggoth, Brand and Pel journeyed off to rescue Gunter Hegerin from a fate he probably deserved. On the way, Maechen rode alongside the dour Luggoth, explaining to him that he had been sent by his draconic master to observe Luggoth and his part in the prophecy. Maechen recited the passage of the Prophecy, which was: "In the year that an empire of blood strikes against the goddess of blood, a child will be born to a pack of wild men. This tribe, part beast, part man, will roam the land where Xoriat touched the trees and all within. This child, after twenty summers have passed but before twenty five, will find his destiny. He will lose all he holds dear at the hands of evil, and choose instead allies willfully wearing the mark of the wolf, some also bearing the marks of the dragon, to struggle against terrible forces. He will stand and be judged by gods, men and demon alike. He will face his own righteous anger. He will struggle with his own nature. And his decision will tilt the balance." Lysander thought this definitely sounded like Luggoth, but Luggoth himself wasn't so sure, having little interest in prophecy.
Eventually, their journey took them to a rope bridge crossing a deep chasm, which Hackrazet had told them would be about 100 feet or so from the drow temple. Wary of ambush and expecting drow trouble, the group drank antitoxin from the party's store of supplies. Brand then decided to do some scouting, using a scroll of talk to animal to speak with a nearby bird and send him on a scouting mission across the way. The bird gave them enough information to realize that there was a Scorrow with the drow, but didn't spot any of their foes hiding in the forest and undergrowth the other side of the bridge.
Lysander cast invisibility on Brand, who crossed the bridge. About halfway across, he spotted a drow hunter hidden in the underbrush, but when he realized that the drow couldn't see him, he continued on. Slowly, he snuck up behind the drow hunter, but as he was about to strike, a guttural voice called out a warning in the drow language, and a Scorrow rose from its hiding place in the underbrush.
While Maechen meditated to enter prophetic favor, Pel, Lysander and Luggoth charged across the bridge. Two Xen'drik boomerangs came flying out of the jungle, one of them nicking Luggoth's shoulder as he ducked out of the way of the other. Brand attacked the hunter, but with the warning he had gotten from the Scorrow, he managed to turn Brand's deadly sneak attack into merely a severe wound.
The Scorrow rushed over to help, slashing at Brand with his long knives and stinging him, the poison overwhelming Brand's system, even with the antitoxin, and causing him to weaken. Seeing this, Luggoth shifted and rushed to kill the wounded drow hunter in front of Brand, even as Maechen fired magic missiles at the Scorrow. Unfortunately, the magically-resistant Scorrow shrugged the attack, although he couldn't shrug off a slash from Brand's shortsword that chipped away part of his chitinous carapace. Pel, feeling the blessings of the Traveler so that he could evade the underbrush with ease, rushed over to the other drow hunter and dealt him a nearly deadly blow with his scimitar.
The Scorrow struck Brand again with knives and tail, and Brand stumbled back, struggling to remain conscious as the poison coursed through his system and swallowing a potion of cure moderate wounds. Luggoth pressed past the dead drow hunter and slashed the Scorrow with his greatsword, although the beast seemed in fine shape, enough to dodge Maechen's ice knife spell at least.
The other hunter turned and ran back toward the jungle, clearly intending to warn the drow at the temple, but Pel rushed after him, although the blessing of the Traveler faded just as he swung his scimitar, and he struck a thicket of vines instead of the hunter's head. Fortunately, Lysander was watching and managed to drop the runner with an arrow.
The Scorrow rained a couple of ineffective blows on Luggoth's glamered breastplate, and then was beaten down by Luggoth, magic missiles from Maechen and a wound from Brand's rapier. He scuttled back, heading for the deeper jungle, but before he could get far, Luggoth, Pel and Brand pulled out their bows and crossbows and peppered him with bolts and arrows, and Maechen finished him off with his wand of magic missiles.
After giving Brand a potion of lesser restoration to fight off the effects of the poison, the group began moving toward the temple. They moved about forty feet into the jungle, hearing the distant sounds of chanting and drumming, at which point they sent Brand ahead to scout once again. He reported back that there were two drow warriors, two drow women (one obviously a spellcaster), a shaman and a bound and gagged Gunter, and they were performing some kind of ritual to a large scorpion with a fiendish appearance. He believed that because of the noise, they should be able to approach fairly easily.
This turned out to be true, and the Wolves moved into position. Brand fired first, loosing an arrow and killing the warrior who was guarding Gunter. Luggoth fired an arrow into the older drow woman, who reacted by using a scroll of invisibility. Maechen, seeing that the attack was on, launched a fireball that killed the younger drow woman and wounded the shaman, and Lysander launched into an inspiring ballad.
The drow shaman cast Prayer on his allies, and one of them moved over to push Gunter into the pit with the scorpion. Moving quickly, Luggoth shifted, flew into a rage and leaped into the pit, attacking the scorpion with a fury. This distracted the scorpion from its sacrifice and it turned to attack Luggoth, landing savage blows with its claw and tail. Brand also rushed in, pulling out his swords and attacking, but he miscalculated his approach and suffered a vicious claw strike from the scorpion as well.
Maechen cast haste on the party, and then flew into a rage himself, rushing up to attack the shaman. Lysander and Pel both shot arrows that hit the shaman before Maechen clubbed him. Meanwhile, Crowley, Brand's snake, bit the other drow hunter and knocked him unconscious.
Two more hunters emerged from the back of the chamber, throwing Xen'drik boomerangs into the fray, as Luggoth and Brand continued to exchange blows with the scorpion.
Lysander stopped signing, charging the wounded shaman with his rapier and running him through, as Brand launched a flurry of five blows on the scorpion, leaving it bleeding and dying on the floor of its own killing ground.
Luggoth, Pel and Maechen made quick work of the other two drow warriors, and the sacrifice was over. Or so it would seem. Even as Lysander began casting healing spells, and Brand used his pearl of power to cast embrace the wild and search for the invisible drow woman, she was moving into position. She reappeared next to Luggoth and tried to kill him with a skillful attack that marked her as an assassin. Fortunately, Luggoth's endurance enabled him to survive both the attack and the poison on her blade, and before he could respond to her attack, Maechen, Brand and Crowley had dropped her to the floor, leaving Luggoth to administer the final killing blow.
After finding some magic weapons and gold hidden in an altar, the Wolves mounted back up to head back to Hackrazet's farm.
Part Six - A Demon's Bargain:
Four hours later, as the sun began to set, the Wolves arrived back at Hackrazet's farm. He served them a meal of spiced Gur'kash meat and long corn mash, and offered them cots to sleep in the farmhouse above the Gur'kash. He explained that the Bulette usually attacked in the morning, and that it hadn't been by in a few days, so he expected it soon.
Worried about Gunter's health, the Wolves reluctantly decided to try and feed him. Brand prepared weapons, and Lysander a counterspell, as Pel removed his gag, intending to shove corn mash and water into him. The corn mash got to him before he could speak, but he had a second to speak before the glass hit his lips, and he began to cast what Lysander recognized as a teleportation spell, which he couldn't counter. Fortunately, Brand was quick to smack Gunter with their newly found magical hammer, causing him to fumble the words and lose the spell. Pel decided that Gunter had enough to survive on, and wouldn't be getting anything more.
In the morning, the Wolves were awakened by the sound of the celestial Bulette loudly munching on long corn out in the field. Luggoth leaped down to the floor of the barn, but slipped on a pile of Gur'kash dung and mildly twisted his ankle, causing Lysander to chuckle just a little as he nimbly tumbled to the ground and began singing to inspire. Maechen once again entered prophetic favor as Brand tumbled down and cast Cat's Grace, and Pel chose to simply climb down one of the ladders.
The Bulette continued to munch on long corn, blissfully unaware that the Wolves were moving out into the Gur'kash pen and preparing to attack. Maechen cast haste on the party once again, and Pel cast bless.
Having had its fill of long corn, the Bulette dove down into the ground, and the Wolves rushed out into the field, but found only that the hole had filled in. While Maechen, Brand and Pel continued to cast spells to prepare, and the haste slowly dwindled, the Bulette swam underneath the ground toward the Gur'kash pen. He emerged a few seconds later, swallowing one of the Gur'kash whole.
Luggoth shifted and crashed through the fence, slashing at the Bulette, and as the rest of the Wolves moved in, Maechen began firing magic missiles, which the Bulette's celestial aura shrugged off.
The Bulette landed a nasty bite on Luggoth as the haste effect faded, and the Wolves began attacking in earnest, surrounding the celestial beast and slashing at it. The Gur'kash panicked and stampeded, trampling over Maechen as they tried to flee.
Leaping into the air, the Bulette swung all four of its claws at Luggoth, slashing him badly, but he swung his greatsword at its exposed belly as it came down, cutting a six-inch gash and covering himself in some of its innards and half-digested Gur'kash. Lysander and Brand joined in on the attack as Maechen fired empowered magic missiles, and the severely wounded Bulette dove into the ground once more, disappearing before they could land a killing blow.
Unable to track down the Bulette, Hackrazet offered Brand another deal, suggesting that he could simply owe him a favor. The group was wary, given that they already owed a favor to a death priest, but saw no easy way out. Brand negotiated that the deal wouldn't involve killing anyone, or doing incredible harm to anyone they held incredibly dear, and Hackrazet accepted those terms, even throwing in a month worth of Eternal Rations as a thanks for their help in driving the Bulette off.
XP:
Lysander 2980
Luggoth 2980
Pel 2980
Brand 3798
Maechen 3798
Showing posts with label wrath of vulkoor. Show all posts
Showing posts with label wrath of vulkoor. Show all posts
Saturday, January 27, 2007
Saturday, January 13, 2007
Eberron Adventure Journal: The Wrath of Vulkoor
Vult 8 - Vult 9, YK 998
Part One - Arrivals and Departures:
Setting out following the direction of a generally confident Halas Martain, the Wandering Wolves rode their newly acquired warhorses into the Eberron jungles, hoping to reach Stormreach before the Golden Dragon departed for Khorvaire, where the news it carried would almost certainly spark a war.
After traveling about 10 hours, encountering surprisingly little resistance from local beasts, night fell and the weary adventurers decided to make camp. They made sure that Gunter was still bound, gagged and secured before resting, and they left Luggoth to keep watch.
As morning dawned, Luggoth awoke, groggy and uncertain what had happened. He remembered the sound of spellcasting, then silence cutting off his cries of alarm. He remembered pulling out his sword and then falling victim to paralysis as darkness enveloped the campsite. He saw shadowy forms moving through, and one of them took advantage of his paralysis to club him unconscious.
A quick glance at the camp revealed that Halas, Gunter and Tworock were missing. Before he could fully process this information, however, he heard rustling in the bushes nearby. Letting out a roar, he rushed toward the bushes with his sword. This stirred Lysander immediately, although Pel simply muttered in his sleep and rolled over in his bedroll.
Luggoth held his sword when a familiar face emerged from the bushes. Brand, last seen dying of mummy rot, emerged hale and hearty with a new companion, a human in explorer's clothes adorned with spell component pouches and a carved wooden club slung across his back. Luggoth's cries of surprise, and the sound of the reunion, soon woke Pel as well, and the Wandering Wolves had a reunion at the campsite.
Brand introduced his companion as Maechen, a servant of the same dragon that Muroni had followed, and then began spinning the tale of his father's rescue and what he had been doing in Eberron for the month. It was at this point that Lysander and Pel both noticed that they were down a few members. Brand's story would have to wait... there was a mystery afoot.
Luggoth recounted what had happened, and Brand informed them that they were in the territory of the Volentar Clan, drow who worshipped the wrathful aspect of Vulkoor. This was a hint as to what had happened when Luggoth discovered a note in the bedroll of Tworock reading, in scrawled Common, "This area belongs Vulkoor. Your friends go to Vulkoor. You leave or you go to Vulkoor."
Maechen cast a detect magic spell and found no lasting magical auras, but did determine from his experience that the spells were probably Hold Person and Silence, and that they were most likely cast by a cleric. The Wolves searched the area and together determined that all three of the men were taken without a struggle, that there were four in the group of drow, and that the drow had moved throughout the camp quietly and carefully before choosing who to take.
Brand could tell from the prints that two of the drow were carrying Tworock, and one each was carrying the other two men. Brand guessed that they were probably taken as sacrifices to Vulkoor. He theorized that the drow hatred of giants might have informed their decision to take Tworock, although he couldn't guess why they might have taken Gunter and Halas. He offered that the drow often passed without trace, but that they should try and find their trail.
Part Two - A Trail of Gold:
As Brand suspected, there was no trail to be found once the drow got about 20 feet from the campsite. However, Luggoth spotted something in the mud, a gold piece, and picked it up to determine that it had an arrow scratched into it, pointing down the trail. They guessed that Halas must have been dropping the coins to leave a trail.
On horseback, the Wolves and Maechen began following the trail, and found additional gold pieces along the way. About every ten minutes or so, they found a piece of gold. Luggoth realized as they were following the trail that the drow, despite being hidden, had been taking a circuitous route, doubling back on their tracks and making random detours. They were obviously taking no chances about being followed.
After about three hours and 20 gold, the adventurers found their first platinum piece. It would be the last one they found, because about the time they were to reach the next one, they found instead something that had been eating them. A very large, mutated rust monster, which after snapping up the platinum piece on the trail, turned its attention to the metal-laden adventurers in front of it.
The Wolves feared the creature's immense size and rusting abilities, but they were able to put it down fairly quickly. Pel and Maechen unleashed magic missiles from their wand as Luggoth and Lysander peppered it with arrow fire. Pel blasted it with enough magic missiles to blacken its face and destroy one of its eyes, and Luggoth followed up with an arrow into its burned head that put it down for good.
Unfortunately, the rust monster had eaten the rest of their trail, but they were able to follow the large beast's tracks and find where the drow's pass without trace abilities had faded. They could see that the four drow were still traveling, and they still showed all the signs of carrying all three prisoners.
Part Three - Canyon of Darkness:
As the Wolves continued on, they saw that the path lead through a box canyon, twenty feet wide and thirty feet high with considerable jungle cover above that rendered the canyon fairly shadowy and dark. Fearing an ambush, Pel, Lysander and Brand moved stealthily into the canyon. Unfortunately, they didn't know that Ashkala and Teralas, a pair of drow raiders, waited in the tree cover above and had spotted them coming from a ways away. When they entered the canyon, however, Lysander spotted Ashkala in the branches and cried out "drow!" just as they launched their ambush.
Xen'drik boomerangs whistled down out of the trees, impacting Brand and Pel, as Lysander pulled out his bow and fired an arrow into Ashkala's arm. Maechen and Luggoth rushed up to join the group as Brand fired his bow at Ashkala as well, one scratching his cheek and the other landing solidly in his leg. After the arrow impacted, however, a cloud of darkness enveloped the two drow, making it even harder to see them amidst the foliage cover.
As Pel readied his crossbow, the darkness dropped suddenly into the midst of the Wolves, and Brand heard something landing on the jungle floor. Ashkala drank a potion of healing that reduced but didn't eliminate his wounds as Lysander and Brand moved forward out of the darkness, further into the canyon. They emerged just in time to be targeted by Neveress, a drow firebringer who had been invisibly watching from the end of the canyon. She launched a fireball into their midst, blasting Lysander, Brand and Brand's animal companion, Crowley, a viper that dropped nearly dead to the floor of the canyon.
As Pel moved up to cast cure light wounds on Crowley and prevent his death, Luggoth shifted and charged, easily covering the immense amount of ground to slash at Neveress with his sword.
Two more boomerangs came whizzing down into the group, both aimed at Lysander, but only one connected. Lysander was badly wounded, and for some reason a vision of his death entered his mind, as he witnessed another fireball launched into their midst, resulting in his instant fiery demise. He was shaken out of this vision as Pel moved to him and cast cure moderate wounds, and Lysander began singing, inspiring Luggoth's second attack on Neveress, which slashed her apart and dropped her, dying, to the jungle floor. Maechen tried to use a Grease spell to get the drow to fall, but Teralas managed to nimbly leap to another branch, aided by the rope harnesses he and Ashkala were wearing.
Seconds later, however, Teralas and Ashkala dropped to the ground anyway, swinging down on ropes and cutting them free with their drow long knives. Maechen blasted Ashkala with an empowered magic missile, killing him, and the other Wolves quickly surrounded Teralas. He acquitted himself well, fending off attacks from Pel and Brand, but Brand deflected his return attack and threw him off-balance, allowing Lysander to summon his new keen rapier from his glove of storing and stab Teralas all the way through his chest, resulting in a burst of electricity running up and down the drow's frame. Before he could recover from this blow, Maechen rushed up and bashed the drow's skull in with his club.
While searching the drow, Brand found a scorpion on Teralas' body. It tried to sting him and failed, and Brand crushed it. None of the others had anything similar, but they did have some magical armor, potions, an amulet, a ring, a scroll and a wand, as well as masterwork weaponry.
As Lysander and Maechen identified some of the items and Pel placed the rest in the haversack, healing Lysander and Brand further as well, Luggoth climbed the rope into the trees and looked around for other snipers. The creaking branches supported him well enough to look around and he determined that this was the last of the drow in the area.
Part Four - The Survivor and the Demon Farmer
Despite this assurance, the Wolves moved more cautiously from this point, with Brand and Lysander scouting quietly ahead as the rest of the group rode slowly behind them on horseback. Brand found the tracks of the last drow, realizing that the three that had attacked them were part of the same band that had kidnapped their allies and their prisoner. The tracks indicated that the drow was carrying the three prisoners on some sort of stretcher, leading them to guess he or she must be fairly strong, but it also left a very easy trail.
Lysander returned to the rest of the group as Brand scouted ahead, following the trail. As he moved, he heard movement about fifty feet ahead in a group of bushes. He moved quietly, using cover, to get closer to the bushes, and the movement stopped. Brand stopped as well, looking around and casting a spell that gave him blindsense so that he could spot an invisible man, about 10 feet away, trying to sneak past.
"Martain? Is that you?"
"Who's asking?" came the reply.
Brand revealed himself to be one of the Wolves, showing his ring as identification, and Halas Martain became visible. He explained that he had been feigning unconsciousness when they were captured, and that he felt he was outnumbered and didn't want the other hostages to get hurt, so he didn't attack, but he did leave coins. Brand feigned ignorance in the coins, pretending to have tracked the traceless drow, impressing Halas while annoying him at the loss of his money.
Halas offered his own inflated account of what had happened as the two men headed back to rejoin the other Wolves. After the shaman had carried them for a short while, another band of drow, made up of about six drow warriors, met him in the jungle. Two of the warriors and the shaman carried Gunter off in one direction, while two of the other warriors took Tworock in a different direction. The other two warriors were carrying Halas, and he decided to make his move, since they had never bothered to disarm any of the captives, thinking them soundly unconscious.
Halas gave an account of a brave battle in which he was wounded by their scorpion chains (this much was borne out by some fairly nasty looking wounds) but managed to prevail, and Maechen, not yet annoyed by Halas as the rest of the Wolves were, took pity on him and offered him a potion of cure moderate wounds, which he greedily but gratefully drank.
Halas led the Wolves back to the spot where the drow had split, but unfortunately, they had used their pass without trace ability and were basically gone. The Wolves determined that Tworock would want them to prevent the war and resolved to go after Gunter, but they weren't entirely sure how they were going to do that. Then Brand offered that he knew of an informant in the area, about two hours to the south, who would almost certainly know where the secret shrine was. The Wolves resolved to go to this informant.
After about two hours, the group did indeed reach the farm of Hackrazet, a babau demon who had retired from the Demon Wastes to open a farm for eternal rations. His crops were Long Corn and Gurk'ash, flora and fauna used to make the expensive rations. As they arrived, though, the Wolves saw that something was wrong. The corn was trampled and eaten in several spots, and the fence showed signs of being patched several times as well. The Wolves approached the farmhouse of Hackrazet, and he greeted them, as he had met Brand once before and knew his father well.
The Wolves explained their dilemma to Hackrazet, and he offered an exchange. He knew where the shrine was, probably four hours to the north, and he'd offer them directions if they'd agree to do something for him. It seems an old enemy had unleashed a celestial bulette on his crops, and Hackrazet was unable to destroy the beast. In addition to being difficult to deal with thanks to its celestial nature, he worried that if he destroyed it, he might call down some fairly nasty holy wrath upon himself. But if some adventurers were to destroy its corporeal form, sending it back to its celestial home, they would surely not suffer the same consequences. Or at least, not to the same surely fatal extent as Hackrazet would.
With little choice in the matter, the Wolves agreed to Hackrazet's terms. He then produced a scroll of Geas from a magically trapped chest and asked that one of the adventurers' agree to be ensorceled as a sign of good faith. After trying to pawn off Halas, which Hackrazet saw straight through, Brand was given the quest spell. The Wolves were on the clock, now. They had to deal with the drow and rescue Gunter and return to handle the bulette within the next day, or the spell would begin having its ill effects on Brand. They mounted up and began the journey back into the jungle, heading for the drow shrine.
XP:
Lysander 700
Luggoth 700
Pel 700
Brand 900
Maechen 900
Part One - Arrivals and Departures:
Setting out following the direction of a generally confident Halas Martain, the Wandering Wolves rode their newly acquired warhorses into the Eberron jungles, hoping to reach Stormreach before the Golden Dragon departed for Khorvaire, where the news it carried would almost certainly spark a war.
After traveling about 10 hours, encountering surprisingly little resistance from local beasts, night fell and the weary adventurers decided to make camp. They made sure that Gunter was still bound, gagged and secured before resting, and they left Luggoth to keep watch.
As morning dawned, Luggoth awoke, groggy and uncertain what had happened. He remembered the sound of spellcasting, then silence cutting off his cries of alarm. He remembered pulling out his sword and then falling victim to paralysis as darkness enveloped the campsite. He saw shadowy forms moving through, and one of them took advantage of his paralysis to club him unconscious.
A quick glance at the camp revealed that Halas, Gunter and Tworock were missing. Before he could fully process this information, however, he heard rustling in the bushes nearby. Letting out a roar, he rushed toward the bushes with his sword. This stirred Lysander immediately, although Pel simply muttered in his sleep and rolled over in his bedroll.
Luggoth held his sword when a familiar face emerged from the bushes. Brand, last seen dying of mummy rot, emerged hale and hearty with a new companion, a human in explorer's clothes adorned with spell component pouches and a carved wooden club slung across his back. Luggoth's cries of surprise, and the sound of the reunion, soon woke Pel as well, and the Wandering Wolves had a reunion at the campsite.
Brand introduced his companion as Maechen, a servant of the same dragon that Muroni had followed, and then began spinning the tale of his father's rescue and what he had been doing in Eberron for the month. It was at this point that Lysander and Pel both noticed that they were down a few members. Brand's story would have to wait... there was a mystery afoot.
Luggoth recounted what had happened, and Brand informed them that they were in the territory of the Volentar Clan, drow who worshipped the wrathful aspect of Vulkoor. This was a hint as to what had happened when Luggoth discovered a note in the bedroll of Tworock reading, in scrawled Common, "This area belongs Vulkoor. Your friends go to Vulkoor. You leave or you go to Vulkoor."
Maechen cast a detect magic spell and found no lasting magical auras, but did determine from his experience that the spells were probably Hold Person and Silence, and that they were most likely cast by a cleric. The Wolves searched the area and together determined that all three of the men were taken without a struggle, that there were four in the group of drow, and that the drow had moved throughout the camp quietly and carefully before choosing who to take.
Brand could tell from the prints that two of the drow were carrying Tworock, and one each was carrying the other two men. Brand guessed that they were probably taken as sacrifices to Vulkoor. He theorized that the drow hatred of giants might have informed their decision to take Tworock, although he couldn't guess why they might have taken Gunter and Halas. He offered that the drow often passed without trace, but that they should try and find their trail.
Part Two - A Trail of Gold:
As Brand suspected, there was no trail to be found once the drow got about 20 feet from the campsite. However, Luggoth spotted something in the mud, a gold piece, and picked it up to determine that it had an arrow scratched into it, pointing down the trail. They guessed that Halas must have been dropping the coins to leave a trail.
On horseback, the Wolves and Maechen began following the trail, and found additional gold pieces along the way. About every ten minutes or so, they found a piece of gold. Luggoth realized as they were following the trail that the drow, despite being hidden, had been taking a circuitous route, doubling back on their tracks and making random detours. They were obviously taking no chances about being followed.
After about three hours and 20 gold, the adventurers found their first platinum piece. It would be the last one they found, because about the time they were to reach the next one, they found instead something that had been eating them. A very large, mutated rust monster, which after snapping up the platinum piece on the trail, turned its attention to the metal-laden adventurers in front of it.
The Wolves feared the creature's immense size and rusting abilities, but they were able to put it down fairly quickly. Pel and Maechen unleashed magic missiles from their wand as Luggoth and Lysander peppered it with arrow fire. Pel blasted it with enough magic missiles to blacken its face and destroy one of its eyes, and Luggoth followed up with an arrow into its burned head that put it down for good.
Unfortunately, the rust monster had eaten the rest of their trail, but they were able to follow the large beast's tracks and find where the drow's pass without trace abilities had faded. They could see that the four drow were still traveling, and they still showed all the signs of carrying all three prisoners.
Part Three - Canyon of Darkness:
As the Wolves continued on, they saw that the path lead through a box canyon, twenty feet wide and thirty feet high with considerable jungle cover above that rendered the canyon fairly shadowy and dark. Fearing an ambush, Pel, Lysander and Brand moved stealthily into the canyon. Unfortunately, they didn't know that Ashkala and Teralas, a pair of drow raiders, waited in the tree cover above and had spotted them coming from a ways away. When they entered the canyon, however, Lysander spotted Ashkala in the branches and cried out "drow!" just as they launched their ambush.
Xen'drik boomerangs whistled down out of the trees, impacting Brand and Pel, as Lysander pulled out his bow and fired an arrow into Ashkala's arm. Maechen and Luggoth rushed up to join the group as Brand fired his bow at Ashkala as well, one scratching his cheek and the other landing solidly in his leg. After the arrow impacted, however, a cloud of darkness enveloped the two drow, making it even harder to see them amidst the foliage cover.
As Pel readied his crossbow, the darkness dropped suddenly into the midst of the Wolves, and Brand heard something landing on the jungle floor. Ashkala drank a potion of healing that reduced but didn't eliminate his wounds as Lysander and Brand moved forward out of the darkness, further into the canyon. They emerged just in time to be targeted by Neveress, a drow firebringer who had been invisibly watching from the end of the canyon. She launched a fireball into their midst, blasting Lysander, Brand and Brand's animal companion, Crowley, a viper that dropped nearly dead to the floor of the canyon.
As Pel moved up to cast cure light wounds on Crowley and prevent his death, Luggoth shifted and charged, easily covering the immense amount of ground to slash at Neveress with his sword.
Two more boomerangs came whizzing down into the group, both aimed at Lysander, but only one connected. Lysander was badly wounded, and for some reason a vision of his death entered his mind, as he witnessed another fireball launched into their midst, resulting in his instant fiery demise. He was shaken out of this vision as Pel moved to him and cast cure moderate wounds, and Lysander began singing, inspiring Luggoth's second attack on Neveress, which slashed her apart and dropped her, dying, to the jungle floor. Maechen tried to use a Grease spell to get the drow to fall, but Teralas managed to nimbly leap to another branch, aided by the rope harnesses he and Ashkala were wearing.
Seconds later, however, Teralas and Ashkala dropped to the ground anyway, swinging down on ropes and cutting them free with their drow long knives. Maechen blasted Ashkala with an empowered magic missile, killing him, and the other Wolves quickly surrounded Teralas. He acquitted himself well, fending off attacks from Pel and Brand, but Brand deflected his return attack and threw him off-balance, allowing Lysander to summon his new keen rapier from his glove of storing and stab Teralas all the way through his chest, resulting in a burst of electricity running up and down the drow's frame. Before he could recover from this blow, Maechen rushed up and bashed the drow's skull in with his club.
While searching the drow, Brand found a scorpion on Teralas' body. It tried to sting him and failed, and Brand crushed it. None of the others had anything similar, but they did have some magical armor, potions, an amulet, a ring, a scroll and a wand, as well as masterwork weaponry.
As Lysander and Maechen identified some of the items and Pel placed the rest in the haversack, healing Lysander and Brand further as well, Luggoth climbed the rope into the trees and looked around for other snipers. The creaking branches supported him well enough to look around and he determined that this was the last of the drow in the area.
Part Four - The Survivor and the Demon Farmer
Despite this assurance, the Wolves moved more cautiously from this point, with Brand and Lysander scouting quietly ahead as the rest of the group rode slowly behind them on horseback. Brand found the tracks of the last drow, realizing that the three that had attacked them were part of the same band that had kidnapped their allies and their prisoner. The tracks indicated that the drow was carrying the three prisoners on some sort of stretcher, leading them to guess he or she must be fairly strong, but it also left a very easy trail.
Lysander returned to the rest of the group as Brand scouted ahead, following the trail. As he moved, he heard movement about fifty feet ahead in a group of bushes. He moved quietly, using cover, to get closer to the bushes, and the movement stopped. Brand stopped as well, looking around and casting a spell that gave him blindsense so that he could spot an invisible man, about 10 feet away, trying to sneak past.
"Martain? Is that you?"
"Who's asking?" came the reply.
Brand revealed himself to be one of the Wolves, showing his ring as identification, and Halas Martain became visible. He explained that he had been feigning unconsciousness when they were captured, and that he felt he was outnumbered and didn't want the other hostages to get hurt, so he didn't attack, but he did leave coins. Brand feigned ignorance in the coins, pretending to have tracked the traceless drow, impressing Halas while annoying him at the loss of his money.
Halas offered his own inflated account of what had happened as the two men headed back to rejoin the other Wolves. After the shaman had carried them for a short while, another band of drow, made up of about six drow warriors, met him in the jungle. Two of the warriors and the shaman carried Gunter off in one direction, while two of the other warriors took Tworock in a different direction. The other two warriors were carrying Halas, and he decided to make his move, since they had never bothered to disarm any of the captives, thinking them soundly unconscious.
Halas gave an account of a brave battle in which he was wounded by their scorpion chains (this much was borne out by some fairly nasty looking wounds) but managed to prevail, and Maechen, not yet annoyed by Halas as the rest of the Wolves were, took pity on him and offered him a potion of cure moderate wounds, which he greedily but gratefully drank.
Halas led the Wolves back to the spot where the drow had split, but unfortunately, they had used their pass without trace ability and were basically gone. The Wolves determined that Tworock would want them to prevent the war and resolved to go after Gunter, but they weren't entirely sure how they were going to do that. Then Brand offered that he knew of an informant in the area, about two hours to the south, who would almost certainly know where the secret shrine was. The Wolves resolved to go to this informant.
After about two hours, the group did indeed reach the farm of Hackrazet, a babau demon who had retired from the Demon Wastes to open a farm for eternal rations. His crops were Long Corn and Gurk'ash, flora and fauna used to make the expensive rations. As they arrived, though, the Wolves saw that something was wrong. The corn was trampled and eaten in several spots, and the fence showed signs of being patched several times as well. The Wolves approached the farmhouse of Hackrazet, and he greeted them, as he had met Brand once before and knew his father well.
The Wolves explained their dilemma to Hackrazet, and he offered an exchange. He knew where the shrine was, probably four hours to the north, and he'd offer them directions if they'd agree to do something for him. It seems an old enemy had unleashed a celestial bulette on his crops, and Hackrazet was unable to destroy the beast. In addition to being difficult to deal with thanks to its celestial nature, he worried that if he destroyed it, he might call down some fairly nasty holy wrath upon himself. But if some adventurers were to destroy its corporeal form, sending it back to its celestial home, they would surely not suffer the same consequences. Or at least, not to the same surely fatal extent as Hackrazet would.
With little choice in the matter, the Wolves agreed to Hackrazet's terms. He then produced a scroll of Geas from a magically trapped chest and asked that one of the adventurers' agree to be ensorceled as a sign of good faith. After trying to pawn off Halas, which Hackrazet saw straight through, Brand was given the quest spell. The Wolves were on the clock, now. They had to deal with the drow and rescue Gunter and return to handle the bulette within the next day, or the spell would begin having its ill effects on Brand. They mounted up and began the journey back into the jungle, heading for the drow shrine.
XP:
Lysander 700
Luggoth 700
Pel 700
Brand 900
Maechen 900
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