Eyre 6-Eyre 22
As the Cardinal got his bearings after several weeks in statue form, he explained to the Wolves the dangers of the Demon Wastes. Inside the Wastes, they would face deadly heat and a variety of fiendish beings who dwelled within. That assumed they could get past the Ghaash'kala, or "Ghost Guardians," the barbarian tribe sworn to prevent anyone from entering the Labyrinth, the natural formation of caverns and mesas that sealed the Demon Wastes away from the rest of Khorvaire.
In order to aid them, the Cardinal provided them with a few essentials. First he gave them his Decanter of Endless Water, which would ensure that they didn't go thirsty in the Wastes. Then he confirmed that the map they had found was probably a map to the compound of the Order of the Corrupting Flame, somewhere in the middle of the Wastes. Most importantly, he sent a message spell to Gorash Orno, a member of the Ghaash'kala. Gorash was a half-orc who had grown up in Thrane, and whose family still lived there, and the Cardinal was a family friend who had known the half-orc since his days as an infant. He called in favors owed by Gorash to guide the Wolves into the Labyrinth.
The Cardinal explained that though he could get Gorash to bend his oaths about letting someone enter the Wastes, even with the connection between the Silver Flame and the Binding Flame that the Ghaash'kala worshiped and the Cardinal's friendship, there was no way to get Gorash to bend on his oath to prevent anyone from leaving. The Ghaash'kala believed that anyone who entered the Wastes was potentially corrupted, and thus they would not let anyone out. In order to provide the Wolves with some sort of escape, the Cardinal told them he would arrange a vessel to sail around the other side of the coast with Verodin Atrelioth onboard. With any luck, a combination of Lysander's scrying and Brand's teleportation would allow them to board the boat. Brand asked about teleportation within the Wastes, and the Cardinal generally advised against it, saying that the magic of the Rakshasa Rajahs might interfere with it unpredictably.
Fearing that Whitehearth would not survive in the Wastes, Brand sent him back to his mother's village. The Wolves then set out along the Shadowcrags to get to the rendezvous point the Cardinal had arranged with Gorash.
After traveling for the better part of a day, the Wolves came to look up on the Labyrinth, a vast network of canyons and mesas that forms a natural maze of stone, some hundreds of miles across. Standing at a crack that made an entrance into the maze was a six and a half foot tall half orc dressed in burned and bloodied leather armor, a holy metal sword at his side. This was Gorash Orno. He warned the Wolves to turn back, warning them that even if they survived to reach their foes, they might be corrupted by the very nature of the Wastes. The Wolves insisted that they had to go in, Luggoth insisting more firmly than all the rest, and Gorash grimly agreed to take them in.
The heat was overwhelming, but Pel quickly set up a routine where he would cast a resistance to energy on everyone but Brand, who was wearing the Zakya's ring of heat resistance, at the beginning of each day. As a result, they were able to ignore the adverse effects of the heat, as well as avoiding dehydration with frequent use of the Cardinal's decanter.
Gorash told them that the journey would take them about twenty days at a standard pace, but he hoped to march longer each day and cut the time by as much as half. With the eternal rations that Brand had, as well as those they had acquired from the Zakya, they wouldn't have to hunt for the first eight days of the journey, which would help as well.
The Wolves generally managed to travel 12 hours each day instead of 8, although every day it tested the endurance of at least one of their number to do so.
In the middle of the first day of travel, the Wolves got their first taste of the dangers of the Wastes that did not involve the heat. As they walked through the caverns, at least one hundred feet tall on each side, an enormous ball of what seemed like lava began rolling toward them, pseudopods of flame and magma writhing in and out of its form. None of them could identify it, although Lysander guessed that it was some kind of ooze.
Pel aimed the Decanter of Endless Water, preparing to use its geyser effect on the massive ooze. As Brand and Luggoth began firing arrows to no noticeable effect, Gorash drew his longsword, Lysander began singing and Maechen entered Prophetic Favor. Then they had their next surprise about the nature of the ooze, as it moved its pseudopods in such a way to suggest spellcasting, and indeed tried to put Maechen and Lysander into a deep sleep, which they resisted.
Maechen blasted the ooze with an ice knife, which seemed to have an effect of slightly slowing and wounding it. Luggoth tried two more arrows, having some minor effect thanks to the magical nature of his bow, and Lysander began firing arrows from his magical bow as well. Seeing the minimal effect, Brand dropped his bow and pulled out his swords, moving up to draw the creature out, and Gorash moved up with him.
The ooze charged in, grabbing Brand with a powerful physical blow, and he could feel some kind of ooze in his system, but it was having no effect thanks to his ring of fire protection. Maechen tried a lightning bolt, but couldn't get past the ooze's magic resistance, and Luggoth decided to switch from his bow to his sword, as Pel unleashed a spray of water from the Decanter to minimal effect.
Gorash rushed in to help Brand, and was punched by the ooze in response, but he managed to attack in kind with his sword, sending jets of lava to the ground like spurting blood.
Maechen cast Haste to give the Wolves and their ally an advantage, and Brand tried to slip free of the ooze's grasp, finally deciding to dimension leap away from the creature's grasp. Luggoth charged in and joined Gorash in hacking at the ooze, but the creature responded by smashing and grabbing both of them, and they were held fast, struggling against its demonic strength. Pel gave up on the Decanter and threw a vial of holy water at the ooze, which sizzled on its surface, causing it some pain, but it was completely unclear how hurt (or not) the creature was.
Maechen used a spell to determine the creature's abilities and vulnerabilities, learning that they needed magical bludgeoning weapons to hurt it, and that it was vulnerable to ice, but somewhat resistant as well. As he shouted this information out, Brand grabbed Maechen's club, intending to give it to Luggoth when he broke free, but instead he had to rush over and dimension door Gorash away from the ooze before their guide was killed. Pel blasted away with magic missiles, but was unable to overcome the creature's spell resistance.
As Maechen cast a spell to give himself a bronze dragon's lightning breath and blasted the ooze, Luggoth managed to struggle free of the creature's grip and run back to join Brand and Gorash. Everyone was free, and someone suggested the idea of escape rather than battle. Even the dedicated Gorash had no trouble agreeing to this, but they hit a snag as the ooze moved with surprising speed and grabbed Pel, Maechen and Pel. Brand used one of his last dragonmark abilities for the day to teleport Maechen away, and Lysander used his dragonmark to summon a shadow ice storm while Pel fired his wand of magic missiles inside the ooze.
Exhausting his dragonmark completely, Brand teleported Lysander and Pel away as Maechen breathed lightning on the ooze once more. Before the ooze could close again, Luggoth grabbed Maechen and ran, with the rest of the Wolves close behind him.
Later that night, burned and beaten, the Wolves used Daern's Instant Tent to rest and recover. Worrying about how long they could keep up this pace, they exhausted healing spells and magic wands of healing to get everyone back up to full strength for the next day.
On the next day, again at about midday, they had their second encounter with the denizens of the Labyrinth. As they were walking, Brand caught a shadow on the ground, and looking up carefully and subtly, he spotted that they were being watched. There were some eight beasts following them, each about the size of a large cat, coming from different sides of the cavern.
Brand identified them as feral yowlers, the results of long-lost magical breeding experiments. They were pack hunters, evil and cruel, and they hunted by using a fearful yowl that shook their targets and made them easier prey. Even as he related this, the yowlers let loose with their piercing cry, and even the hardened Wolves found themselves a bit distracted by it.
Fortunately, Lysander was able to counter the effect as he began belting out a bawdy elven war song, and the Wolves leaped into action. Brand rushed forward into one of the groups, slashing at one of the yowlers, as Luggoth went to another cavern and attacked a different one, shifting as he did so. Maechen cast Haste once more, although Brand was outside its effect, and Gorash charged up to help the ranger as Pel fired his crossbow at one of the yowler's high up in the cliffs.
The yowlers pounced down into the canyons, moving in groups to attack. The battle soon split into threes, with Gorash and Brand defending against three of the yowlers on one side, Luggoth battling two others on the other side and Maechen, Lysander and Pel dealing with the remaining three in the center.
Lysander acquitted himself well, stabbing his rapier into the neck of one of the yowlers and then swinging his sword back around to stab it in the foreleg, putting it off-balance and allowing Pel to slash at its vital points twice with his scimitar. To their dismay, even three well-landed blows, though bloody and effective, didn't bring down one of the hideous catlike creatures. Brand discovered the same thing when he swung a salvo of three blows at one of his attackers, and Luggoth discovered a nasty property they had, a gift from their displacer beast traits, that gave them a minor displacement effect.
The yowlers struck back with claws and teeth, and they nipped at heels and legs, trying to trip their foes or distract them to help their pack-mates. Gorash was badly wounded, but all of the Wolves were feeling the results of multiple wounds, even as they continued to swing their attacks at the same beasts, none of which would seem to fall. Maechen flew into the air and breathed Silver Dragon breath, but the yowlers resisted its paralyzing effects.
Finally, after a barrage of rapier blows from Lysander, Pel was able to flank a badly wounded yowler and finish it off with his scimitar. Lysander tumbled over to flank the other yowler attacking the changeling, and he stabbed another well-struck blow from his rapier, stabbing into the creature's spine and causing electricity to run all through it and down its tail. To his dismay, this didn't kill the yowler. On the other side of the canyon, Brand felled his first yowler with a deadly strike through the chestbone, and it fell in a bloody heap.
The yowlers regrouped and attacked again, knocking down Pel and Luggoth and tearing Gorash's chest so badly that he fell unconscious, bleeding into the sandy floor of the Labyrinth. Brand wasted no time teleporting him across the cavern, but one of the yowlers they had been fighting followed, even as the other one moved to help its pack.
Luggoth didn't get up, instead slashing with his greatsword from the ground, killing one of the yowlers he had been attacking and starting in on the other one. Lysander continued to move and attack, stabbing with his rapier and trying to stay out of the way of the yowlers' teeth and claws, wounding one badly enough that Maechen was able to kill it with a well-aimed magic missile.
As Pel cast a healing spell on himself and Brand used a wand to help Gorash get up, the yowlers attacked once more. One of them bit Lysander in the arm, the other began stalking towards Brand, who was unable to get his sword out in time because of the use of the wand. However, the badly wounded Gorash, his sword drawn, stepped in front of his savior and slashed at the incoming yowler, wounding it badly and dodging its return attack. Maechen, meanwhile, used his dragon breath to paralyze one of the yowlers who had moved in to attack Pel and Lysander.
As Luggoth continued to chop from the ground, Pel and Lysander teamed up on another one, and the yowlers' numbers were diminishing. Lysander stabbed his foe in the chest, leaving a bloody, sucking chest wound, as, on the other side of the canyon, Brand finished off the yowler that had come after him and Gorash. Luggoth slashed at the hamstring of the last yowler attacking him, and it began to run pitifully away, as did its deeply wounded friend, but Luggoth killed it with a throwing axe, and Maechen touched down on the ground to smash the skull of the paralyzed yowler with his club. The last yowler, its chest wound leaving gouts of blood behind, wasn't fast enough to escape, and the Wolves fell upon it and killed it.
Badly wounded after the battle, the Wolves and Gorash nevertheless managed to travel a full day and a half again, and used a number of healing spells and abilities while resting in their tent. Fortunately, the next two days were uneventful, save for the brutal endurance tests that 12 hours of daily marching were causing.
On the fourth night, Brand heard a loud sound outside their tent, and when he looked out, he saw a massive, fiendish tyrannosaurus rex charging toward them. The Wolves and Gorash scrambled out, and as Lysander cast Allegro to increase their speed, Brand popped the tent closed and they fled from the frustrated beast, which watched its dinner speed magically away.
After an hour or so, they found another campsite and rested uneventfully until morning.
The next day, as they traveled, the screaming winds that echoed through the caverns were replaced by a loud whooshing sound, and a flash flood swept through the Labyrinth. Luggoth, Lysander and Maechen managed to scramble to higher ground, but Gorash, Pel and Brand were swept away in the flood. They managed to keep their heads above water and avoid the boulders and trees caught up in the maelstrom, and Maechen, using his flight spell, was able to fly ahead and catch them and get them out of the water. The Wolves waited for the rushing water to die down and then were on their way again.
This was the general tone for their march, a couple of days of uneventful travel interrupted by the occasional rockslide or flood or deadly creature. They ran afoul of a bluespawn godslayer that found Maechen's draconic alliances offensive, but they were able to flee from the beast with the help of Allegro, and they battled and killed a pair of greathorn minotaurs that thought the Wolves would make a tasty snack.
After eight days had passed and their eternal rations were expended, they found themselves traveling slower, even at forced march speeds, because they had to keep an eye out for food. The hunting was sparse, but with Gorash's knowledge and Luggoth and Brand's skills, they were able to hunt enough game to keep the group fed.
Finally, just over two weeks later, they emerged at last from the Labyrinth. Gorash pointed out across the expanse of volcanic wasteland, telling them that they should be careful, because being out in the open on the Wastes would be more dangerous than the Labyrinth. He guessed that at the speed they had maintained through the Labyrinth, it would probably take them about six days to get to the Order's fortress. He also told them that whichever of them survived should come to find him, and perhaps they could join his tribe. He had found them brave warriors, and he owed Brand in particular a debt of gratitude for saving his life.
Flattered but not entirely pleased by the notion of staying the Wastes as members of the Ghaash'kala, the Wolves turned to face the next leg of their journey: A week long trek across the Wastes in search of a deadly group of former Silver Flame warriors who had lived in this vast expanse for over twenty years.
XP
900 XP (Brand/Pel/Maechen)
667 XP (Lysander/Luggoth)
1600 XP (Gorash)
Saturday, August 25, 2007
Friday, August 24, 2007
Eberron Adventure Journal: The Demons' Prophecy (5)
Therendor 13-Eyre 6, YK 999
Upon deciding they were safe from immediate reprisals from Solgar, the Wolves went directly to Oura Gellast to tell her what they had learned. When they told her that he was a Rakshasa, she was shocked and worried. She insisted that they had to get out of Thaliost and Thrane immediately. "Solgar is more dangerous than I'd guessed... he'll have trumped up charges within the hour. You need to cross the border into Aundair."
Oura agreed to come with them, but only after she had gotten Rav Corus, the priest who had covered for her. He'd be in danger as well. Brand used his connections to get first class passage booked to Fairhaven on the afternoon lightning rail, but just before the train was to depart, a young boy gave them a note indicating that Oura wasn't coming. She couldn't leave others behind to face the danger for her.
The journey into Aundair was relatively brief, although it was about 20 hours until they reached the city of Fairhaven in the early evening the next day. Onboard the train, the Wolves took time to rest and heal, and Lysander tried to scry Cardinal Ossul Hetrion, but he was unable to find him.
Upon arrival in Fairhaven, they went to the House Cannith enclave to see if Lady Elaydren was available. As luck would have it, she had returned from her honeymoon in Stormhome three days prior, and she met them in a lush reception chamber with cheese, wines and open arms. She also had a message, in a sealed envelope, that was addressed to Maechen Eyre in Draconic tongue.
The message was from his master, who indicated, in the usual obtuse speech of a dragon, that they should go to the Eldeen Reaches and Brand's mother, which would take them on the next leg of their journey, according to the will of the Prophecy. Elaydren offered to hide them for as long as she could, even if it put her own position in jeopardy, but they didn't need to take her up on her offer, as they decided to follow the directives of Maechen's master and head to the Eldeen Reaches. Elaydren offered them magebred horses and provisions, an offer they did accept.
Before they left Fairhaven, however, they had some messages to send and errands to run. Pel sent a vague, coded message to Brand's mother to expect visitors, but to be wary of danger, and he also sent a coded message to Alestair Marktaros in Trolanport to apprise him of their travel plans. Lysander sent a message to Arenydee and his superiors in House Phiarlan to give them an update, and Luggoth sent a message to Savannah that Sharn might not be safe, and that she should be especially careful.
After that, Lysander and Pel went to seek information about a cult of the Traveler in Fairhaven so they could get some scrolls to help if they should encounter a Rakshasa again, all the while subtly spreading the rumors of Solgar Dariznu's true identity. With little time in a bustling metropolis, they had a difficult task, but the two information-gatherers' exceptional skills helped them find a congregation of The Dark Six.
Unfortunately, later that night, Pel found out that the congregation was considerably more dangerous than the average Traveler meeting, and the price requested for scrolls was not in gold, but in favors to dark gods, a currency he wasn't willing to pay. Or at least, not willing to pay again, as an encounter with a priest of The Keeper who recognized his god's mark upon Pel reminded him of the price Lysander had agreed to for his resurrection, several months ago in Stormreach.
Before they left, Lysander scried on Verodin Atrelioth, and found him sitting at an inn in Trolanport that Lysander recognized as the Satyr's Pipe.
The next morning, the Wolves began their long horseback journey from Fairhaven to the Towering Woods of the Eldeen Reaches. They kept a low profile, traveling via less well-used roads and camping rather than stopping at inns, and had a relatively uneventful journey. About ten days into the journey, five days after they had crossed the Aundarian border into the Eldeen Reaches, they received a message from Alestair: "Cardinal kidnapped, most likely Rakshasa. We encountered Zakya, it escaped. Backtracking Cardinal's route from Sharn, hoping for clues. Further communication via Artos d'Sivis in Trolanport."
Three more days later, deep in the Towering Wood, the Wolves encountered one of the dangers of the Eldeen forests, a pair of horrid bears, twisted by the magic of Gatekeeper druids to protect against Xoriat, but now roaming free and remaining true to their bestial natures.
Having caught the attention of the beasts, the Wolves dismounted and began preparing for battle, as Maechen entered a state of Prophetic Favor and Pel cast Bless on the group. Luggoth moved forward and was attacked by one of the bears, which missed, dripping acid from its claws as it swung.
Brand and Luggoth engaged the bears as Maechen used fireballs to soften them up. One of the bears slashed at Brand, leaving an acidic rent in his armor and slashing him open at the chest. He fell to the ground, bleeding and unconscious. Lysander tried to distract the bear from his grievously wounded friend using mirror image as Pel cast Sanctuary and moved in to administer healing magics.
Luggoth shifted, his fearful presence driving one of the bears away temporarily. The other, emboldened by the blood it had drawn from Brand, remained in the fray, but suffered a deep sword wound from Luggoth, as well as a piercing from Lysander's rapier and a burst of magic missiles from Maechen. Though bloodied, the massive beast seemed to hardly feel these wounds, and the Wolves began to worry about the encounter.
Shifting out of his bestial form to heal, Luggoth swung at the bear again, leaving another deep gash in its chest. Lysander stabbed at its haunches as well. Brand, though unconscious, was stabilized by Pel's healing magics, but Pel shifted his focus to healing Luggoth, who was now going toe to toe with the horrid beast, even as the other one stopped its flight now that Luggoth's form was no longer fearful.
As Maechen peppered both bears with magic missiles, Luggoth shifted again, once again terrifying the more distant bear, which reconsidered its return and fled into the forest. The remaining bear swung one more acidic claw into Luggoth before another slash from Luggoth's greatsword and magic missiles from Maechen's wand finally killed it.
The remainder of the trip was uneventful, and on the morning of Eyre 4, the Wolves arrived at the village of Sharri Wayfinder, Brand's mother. They found a small but thriving druidic and ranger community, and met Sharri's husband, a ranger named Beren. They told the Wolves that their arrival was welcome, because the community had need of them.
Rorsa, the awakened dire wolf that the Wolves had rescued from Whitehearth in the Mournland, was there with her pack, although she had clearly been in a fight recently. She explained that a day before, she and her pack had encountered a band of trolls who were hunting in the forest. They had managed to escape, only losing two of their number, but there were forest trolls in the pack, and that meant they could certainly track the wolves back to the druid village. Sharri asked if the Wolves could deal with the troll band before it endangered the village.
By way of help, Sharri provided them each with goodberries and antitoxin for healing and poison resistance, given that the forest trolls were known to use poisoned weapons.
Brand was able to track the troll band, and the Wolves began silently approaching the troll camp. Brand scouted ahead, and saw that there was a massive mountain troll, the size of a giant, three ogres and a forest troll hiding in a tree. They were in two clearings, close to one another but separated by trees and a stream. After making plans and casting a number of spells to prepare themselves, they launched their plan.
Lysander used his mirror image, hat of disguise and a black bear from Brand's pouch to look like a pack of rangers so as to arouse less suspicion as he wandered into the range of the remaining trolls and ogres. He began singing, successfully fascinating every one of the monsters, except for the Mountain Troll.
Fortunately, it was enough of a distraction for Maechen to get off a fireball spell that killed one of the ogres and wounded the Mountain Troll slightly. This was the signal, and the rest of the Wolves charged in, with Luggoth and Pel combining to kill one of the other ogres as Brand, Whitehearth and the bear engaged the last ogre. The forest trolls, one of whom Brand hadn't seen, began throwing javelins, one of which hit Pel, but he didn't succumb to the poison.
Lysander pulled out his bow and began shooting seemingly ineffective arrows at the mountain troll, even as the black bear and Whitehearth continued to engage the remaining ogre. Whitehearth fled after the ogre landed a powerful blow to his skull, but the bear remained and managed to bite and claw the ogre to death.
While Pel began firing his wand of scorching ray at one of the forest trolls, Brand cast blades of fire on his weapons and dimension leaped into the tree to kill the other one, knocking it out of the tree. The angry mountain troll moved toward Maechen, whose know vulnerability spell failed, but Luggoth shifted and raged, moving in to attack the giant beast. He successfully got its attention and earned a solid smashing from his club as a result, which knocked the shifter down and severely bruised him.
Seeing the troll raising its club to finish his friend, Lysander, thinking himself protected by mirror image, rushed in to distract the troll, but discovered rather painfully that it could smell his true location and had no trouble hitting it with his tree trunk sized club. With both Lysander and Luggoth badly wounded at the hands of the mountain troll, Maechen fired off an empowered fireball in the vicinity of its head, hoping to bring it down, but it seemed only more angry at the damage, and angrier still as Luggoth stabbed his sword deep into the beast's ankle. Roaring with pain, he smashed Luggoth again, nearly killing him but missing Brand and the bear as he swung the club in a great arc.
Seeing the danger the mountain troll possessed, Pel distracted himself from combat with the forest troll that had closed with him and popped a flame strike scroll out of his infinite scrollcase instead. The flame strike angered and damaged the troll further, but it was difficult to tell if all the damage was having any effect on the massive foe.
The forest troll, clearly not liking the odds, ran away as the Wolves all began concentrating their attack on the mountain troll. Maechen fired empowered magic missiles and Pel fired his wand of scorching ray, as Brand moved in with his bear to attack the gigantic troll in melee. Luggoth and Lysander managed to crawl behind trees, and Lysander used magic to heal Luggoth, who had recovered somewhat from his wounds by shifting forms again.
As Maechen fired another empowered magic missile, Luggoth stood up and pulled out his longbow, but he didn't need it, as Pel fired one last scorching ray at the mountain troll and it fell, crashing to the ground and causing it to shake for a full 10 seconds.
Brand tracked the forest troll that had fled to their cave lair, and the Wolves killed it with little trouble. There, they found the trolls' stash of treasure and magic items, as well as an interesting package of a ring, a weeks' worth of eternal rations, and a map with notes in a language none of them spoke on the back.
They returned to the village to rest and memorize spells, and to tell Sharri that the trolls had been dealt with. In the morning, a comprehend languages spell revealed that the note was something the forest troll had written down, indicating that a Zakya was coming to the cave soon, and that he had the cardinal with him. It didn't take much deduction to realize that the map was more than likely a map to the Order of the Corrupting Flame's headquarters in the Demon Wastes, and that the Zakya was bound there. It was clear that the troll was an operative of the Lords of Dust, and the ring (protection against the fiery elements of the Wastes) and rations were for the Zakya. This was why the Prophecy had directed the Wolves to the Eldeen Reaches, clearly, and they weren't about to miss the opportunity.
Armed with this knowledge, the Wolves went back to the cave to await the arrival of the Zakya. They weren't sure exactly when he was coming, and so they took turns on watch. Pel spent his time outside as a troll, doing his best to "think troll thoughts" to fool any incoming Rakshasa, and Lysander used his hat of disguise to appear green and warty as well. He sensed someone trying to read his thoughts and resisted, and they saw another troll approaching.
The disguise didn't fool them, and the "troll" quickly revealed itself to be a Zakya.
The Zakya charged in and attacked Lysander, and the rest of the Wolves emerged from the cave. As Pel began casting align weapon on the Wolves' weapons and Maechen cast defensive spells on Luggoth, the Zakya maneuvered to keep his back protected and attacked Brand.
Maechen cast Haste on the group, and they moved in with their good-aligned piercing weapons and made short work of the Zakya, which only managed to score one hit on Lysander and one hit on Brand before he died.
Dumping out the Rakshasa's bag of holding, they discovered some a gem, some gold, a scroll, and a stone model of Cardinal Ossul Hetrion. They quickly realized that the Zakya had transformed the Cardinal to make him easier to transport, and Maechen used one of his scrolls of stone to flesh to restore the Cardinal. He was grateful, and offered to help them destroy the Order of the Corrupting Flame. For Luggoth, the thought of dealing with the men who had killed his family was more motivation than the favor of a high-ranking Cardinal of the Silver Flame and the reward he offered. But he'd take that too.
XP:
Lysander 1920 XP
Luggoth 2113 XP
Pel 2273 XP
Maechen 2273 XP
Brand 2513 XP
Upon deciding they were safe from immediate reprisals from Solgar, the Wolves went directly to Oura Gellast to tell her what they had learned. When they told her that he was a Rakshasa, she was shocked and worried. She insisted that they had to get out of Thaliost and Thrane immediately. "Solgar is more dangerous than I'd guessed... he'll have trumped up charges within the hour. You need to cross the border into Aundair."
Oura agreed to come with them, but only after she had gotten Rav Corus, the priest who had covered for her. He'd be in danger as well. Brand used his connections to get first class passage booked to Fairhaven on the afternoon lightning rail, but just before the train was to depart, a young boy gave them a note indicating that Oura wasn't coming. She couldn't leave others behind to face the danger for her.
The journey into Aundair was relatively brief, although it was about 20 hours until they reached the city of Fairhaven in the early evening the next day. Onboard the train, the Wolves took time to rest and heal, and Lysander tried to scry Cardinal Ossul Hetrion, but he was unable to find him.
Upon arrival in Fairhaven, they went to the House Cannith enclave to see if Lady Elaydren was available. As luck would have it, she had returned from her honeymoon in Stormhome three days prior, and she met them in a lush reception chamber with cheese, wines and open arms. She also had a message, in a sealed envelope, that was addressed to Maechen Eyre in Draconic tongue.
The message was from his master, who indicated, in the usual obtuse speech of a dragon, that they should go to the Eldeen Reaches and Brand's mother, which would take them on the next leg of their journey, according to the will of the Prophecy. Elaydren offered to hide them for as long as she could, even if it put her own position in jeopardy, but they didn't need to take her up on her offer, as they decided to follow the directives of Maechen's master and head to the Eldeen Reaches. Elaydren offered them magebred horses and provisions, an offer they did accept.
Before they left Fairhaven, however, they had some messages to send and errands to run. Pel sent a vague, coded message to Brand's mother to expect visitors, but to be wary of danger, and he also sent a coded message to Alestair Marktaros in Trolanport to apprise him of their travel plans. Lysander sent a message to Arenydee and his superiors in House Phiarlan to give them an update, and Luggoth sent a message to Savannah that Sharn might not be safe, and that she should be especially careful.
After that, Lysander and Pel went to seek information about a cult of the Traveler in Fairhaven so they could get some scrolls to help if they should encounter a Rakshasa again, all the while subtly spreading the rumors of Solgar Dariznu's true identity. With little time in a bustling metropolis, they had a difficult task, but the two information-gatherers' exceptional skills helped them find a congregation of The Dark Six.
Unfortunately, later that night, Pel found out that the congregation was considerably more dangerous than the average Traveler meeting, and the price requested for scrolls was not in gold, but in favors to dark gods, a currency he wasn't willing to pay. Or at least, not willing to pay again, as an encounter with a priest of The Keeper who recognized his god's mark upon Pel reminded him of the price Lysander had agreed to for his resurrection, several months ago in Stormreach.
Before they left, Lysander scried on Verodin Atrelioth, and found him sitting at an inn in Trolanport that Lysander recognized as the Satyr's Pipe.
The next morning, the Wolves began their long horseback journey from Fairhaven to the Towering Woods of the Eldeen Reaches. They kept a low profile, traveling via less well-used roads and camping rather than stopping at inns, and had a relatively uneventful journey. About ten days into the journey, five days after they had crossed the Aundarian border into the Eldeen Reaches, they received a message from Alestair: "Cardinal kidnapped, most likely Rakshasa. We encountered Zakya, it escaped. Backtracking Cardinal's route from Sharn, hoping for clues. Further communication via Artos d'Sivis in Trolanport."
Three more days later, deep in the Towering Wood, the Wolves encountered one of the dangers of the Eldeen forests, a pair of horrid bears, twisted by the magic of Gatekeeper druids to protect against Xoriat, but now roaming free and remaining true to their bestial natures.
Having caught the attention of the beasts, the Wolves dismounted and began preparing for battle, as Maechen entered a state of Prophetic Favor and Pel cast Bless on the group. Luggoth moved forward and was attacked by one of the bears, which missed, dripping acid from its claws as it swung.
Brand and Luggoth engaged the bears as Maechen used fireballs to soften them up. One of the bears slashed at Brand, leaving an acidic rent in his armor and slashing him open at the chest. He fell to the ground, bleeding and unconscious. Lysander tried to distract the bear from his grievously wounded friend using mirror image as Pel cast Sanctuary and moved in to administer healing magics.
Luggoth shifted, his fearful presence driving one of the bears away temporarily. The other, emboldened by the blood it had drawn from Brand, remained in the fray, but suffered a deep sword wound from Luggoth, as well as a piercing from Lysander's rapier and a burst of magic missiles from Maechen. Though bloodied, the massive beast seemed to hardly feel these wounds, and the Wolves began to worry about the encounter.
Shifting out of his bestial form to heal, Luggoth swung at the bear again, leaving another deep gash in its chest. Lysander stabbed at its haunches as well. Brand, though unconscious, was stabilized by Pel's healing magics, but Pel shifted his focus to healing Luggoth, who was now going toe to toe with the horrid beast, even as the other one stopped its flight now that Luggoth's form was no longer fearful.
As Maechen peppered both bears with magic missiles, Luggoth shifted again, once again terrifying the more distant bear, which reconsidered its return and fled into the forest. The remaining bear swung one more acidic claw into Luggoth before another slash from Luggoth's greatsword and magic missiles from Maechen's wand finally killed it.
The remainder of the trip was uneventful, and on the morning of Eyre 4, the Wolves arrived at the village of Sharri Wayfinder, Brand's mother. They found a small but thriving druidic and ranger community, and met Sharri's husband, a ranger named Beren. They told the Wolves that their arrival was welcome, because the community had need of them.
Rorsa, the awakened dire wolf that the Wolves had rescued from Whitehearth in the Mournland, was there with her pack, although she had clearly been in a fight recently. She explained that a day before, she and her pack had encountered a band of trolls who were hunting in the forest. They had managed to escape, only losing two of their number, but there were forest trolls in the pack, and that meant they could certainly track the wolves back to the druid village. Sharri asked if the Wolves could deal with the troll band before it endangered the village.
By way of help, Sharri provided them each with goodberries and antitoxin for healing and poison resistance, given that the forest trolls were known to use poisoned weapons.
Brand was able to track the troll band, and the Wolves began silently approaching the troll camp. Brand scouted ahead, and saw that there was a massive mountain troll, the size of a giant, three ogres and a forest troll hiding in a tree. They were in two clearings, close to one another but separated by trees and a stream. After making plans and casting a number of spells to prepare themselves, they launched their plan.
Lysander used his mirror image, hat of disguise and a black bear from Brand's pouch to look like a pack of rangers so as to arouse less suspicion as he wandered into the range of the remaining trolls and ogres. He began singing, successfully fascinating every one of the monsters, except for the Mountain Troll.
Fortunately, it was enough of a distraction for Maechen to get off a fireball spell that killed one of the ogres and wounded the Mountain Troll slightly. This was the signal, and the rest of the Wolves charged in, with Luggoth and Pel combining to kill one of the other ogres as Brand, Whitehearth and the bear engaged the last ogre. The forest trolls, one of whom Brand hadn't seen, began throwing javelins, one of which hit Pel, but he didn't succumb to the poison.
Lysander pulled out his bow and began shooting seemingly ineffective arrows at the mountain troll, even as the black bear and Whitehearth continued to engage the remaining ogre. Whitehearth fled after the ogre landed a powerful blow to his skull, but the bear remained and managed to bite and claw the ogre to death.
While Pel began firing his wand of scorching ray at one of the forest trolls, Brand cast blades of fire on his weapons and dimension leaped into the tree to kill the other one, knocking it out of the tree. The angry mountain troll moved toward Maechen, whose know vulnerability spell failed, but Luggoth shifted and raged, moving in to attack the giant beast. He successfully got its attention and earned a solid smashing from his club as a result, which knocked the shifter down and severely bruised him.
Seeing the troll raising its club to finish his friend, Lysander, thinking himself protected by mirror image, rushed in to distract the troll, but discovered rather painfully that it could smell his true location and had no trouble hitting it with his tree trunk sized club. With both Lysander and Luggoth badly wounded at the hands of the mountain troll, Maechen fired off an empowered fireball in the vicinity of its head, hoping to bring it down, but it seemed only more angry at the damage, and angrier still as Luggoth stabbed his sword deep into the beast's ankle. Roaring with pain, he smashed Luggoth again, nearly killing him but missing Brand and the bear as he swung the club in a great arc.
Seeing the danger the mountain troll possessed, Pel distracted himself from combat with the forest troll that had closed with him and popped a flame strike scroll out of his infinite scrollcase instead. The flame strike angered and damaged the troll further, but it was difficult to tell if all the damage was having any effect on the massive foe.
The forest troll, clearly not liking the odds, ran away as the Wolves all began concentrating their attack on the mountain troll. Maechen fired empowered magic missiles and Pel fired his wand of scorching ray, as Brand moved in with his bear to attack the gigantic troll in melee. Luggoth and Lysander managed to crawl behind trees, and Lysander used magic to heal Luggoth, who had recovered somewhat from his wounds by shifting forms again.
As Maechen fired another empowered magic missile, Luggoth stood up and pulled out his longbow, but he didn't need it, as Pel fired one last scorching ray at the mountain troll and it fell, crashing to the ground and causing it to shake for a full 10 seconds.
Brand tracked the forest troll that had fled to their cave lair, and the Wolves killed it with little trouble. There, they found the trolls' stash of treasure and magic items, as well as an interesting package of a ring, a weeks' worth of eternal rations, and a map with notes in a language none of them spoke on the back.
They returned to the village to rest and memorize spells, and to tell Sharri that the trolls had been dealt with. In the morning, a comprehend languages spell revealed that the note was something the forest troll had written down, indicating that a Zakya was coming to the cave soon, and that he had the cardinal with him. It didn't take much deduction to realize that the map was more than likely a map to the Order of the Corrupting Flame's headquarters in the Demon Wastes, and that the Zakya was bound there. It was clear that the troll was an operative of the Lords of Dust, and the ring (protection against the fiery elements of the Wastes) and rations were for the Zakya. This was why the Prophecy had directed the Wolves to the Eldeen Reaches, clearly, and they weren't about to miss the opportunity.
Armed with this knowledge, the Wolves went back to the cave to await the arrival of the Zakya. They weren't sure exactly when he was coming, and so they took turns on watch. Pel spent his time outside as a troll, doing his best to "think troll thoughts" to fool any incoming Rakshasa, and Lysander used his hat of disguise to appear green and warty as well. He sensed someone trying to read his thoughts and resisted, and they saw another troll approaching.
The disguise didn't fool them, and the "troll" quickly revealed itself to be a Zakya.
The Zakya charged in and attacked Lysander, and the rest of the Wolves emerged from the cave. As Pel began casting align weapon on the Wolves' weapons and Maechen cast defensive spells on Luggoth, the Zakya maneuvered to keep his back protected and attacked Brand.
Maechen cast Haste on the group, and they moved in with their good-aligned piercing weapons and made short work of the Zakya, which only managed to score one hit on Lysander and one hit on Brand before he died.
Dumping out the Rakshasa's bag of holding, they discovered some a gem, some gold, a scroll, and a stone model of Cardinal Ossul Hetrion. They quickly realized that the Zakya had transformed the Cardinal to make him easier to transport, and Maechen used one of his scrolls of stone to flesh to restore the Cardinal. He was grateful, and offered to help them destroy the Order of the Corrupting Flame. For Luggoth, the thought of dealing with the men who had killed his family was more motivation than the favor of a high-ranking Cardinal of the Silver Flame and the reward he offered. But he'd take that too.
XP:
Lysander 1920 XP
Luggoth 2113 XP
Pel 2273 XP
Maechen 2273 XP
Brand 2513 XP
Friday, August 17, 2007
Out tonight
My incoming email's experiencing about a 12 hour delay right now, so I'll post this hear in case the same goes for outgoing.
Since my mom and step-dad have decided to come into town this weekend, Shawna refuses to let me go to gaming. I don't know why she won't let me avoid my parents. I help her avoid hers all the time!
Anyway, sorry. I will be at gaming next week.
Since my mom and step-dad have decided to come into town this weekend, Shawna refuses to let me go to gaming. I don't know why she won't let me avoid my parents. I help her avoid hers all the time!
Anyway, sorry. I will be at gaming next week.
Crew Manifest
Being the Crew Manifest of The Stunted Lady
The saltiest sea-dog sadists this side o' the locker. Keep a weather eye out! Afore ya know they're even close, ya feel the steel on yer neck.
Nose to the wind brother.
If ya catch a hint of rum mixed with blood, piss, and vinegar, beware! Yer sea days er through, yer hell days er just beginnin'!
The Crew Manifest of the Stunted Lady
Captain Remy the Two Fisted Midget (Randy)
Hanno Nurvi--Lead Boarder (Chris)
Rude Willie McKitrick---Quartermaster (Dirty Dave)
Blackpowder Barclay--Sniper, Bodyguard, Hitman, Marine (Paul)
Jebediah Cotton--Master of Sails, Navigators Babysitter, Grizzled Veteran
Gurglin' Pablo Jones--Bright, Lookout
Johnny Bones--12 year old navigator prodigy
Hawkeye McGee--Agile, Master of Guns
Barnacle Brainjack--Carpenter, Happy
Sweatin' Wallace Dawkins--Surgeon (Young, rotund)
Gorgeous Roger Morgan--Bright and um, yeah, boarding party (bp)
Poopdeck Enrico--Lazy
The Last Blain Brother--Clueless, bp
Reekin' Radly Jones--Coward
"Tripod" Ezekiel Straw-Veteran, bp, distinguished
No-Eyes Javier-Agile, Lookout-ropemonkey, bp, distinguished
Scurvy Gums Wally-Sneaky, bad teeth, bp
Fartin' Rupert Slaughter--Gung Ho, bp
Booker Earbeard--Happy, bp
Eel Skin Jake--Veteran, bp, distinguished
The saltiest sea-dog sadists this side o' the locker. Keep a weather eye out! Afore ya know they're even close, ya feel the steel on yer neck.
Nose to the wind brother.
If ya catch a hint of rum mixed with blood, piss, and vinegar, beware! Yer sea days er through, yer hell days er just beginnin'!
The Crew Manifest of the Stunted Lady
Captain Remy the Two Fisted Midget (Randy)
Hanno Nurvi--Lead Boarder (Chris)
Rude Willie McKitrick---Quartermaster (Dirty Dave)
Blackpowder Barclay--Sniper, Bodyguard, Hitman, Marine (Paul)
Jebediah Cotton--Master of Sails, Navigators Babysitter, Grizzled Veteran
Gurglin' Pablo Jones--Bright, Lookout
Johnny Bones--12 year old navigator prodigy
Hawkeye McGee--Agile, Master of Guns
Barnacle Brainjack--Carpenter, Happy
Sweatin' Wallace Dawkins--Surgeon (Young, rotund)
Gorgeous Roger Morgan--Bright and um, yeah, boarding party (bp)
Poopdeck Enrico--Lazy
The Last Blain Brother--Clueless, bp
Reekin' Radly Jones--Coward
"Tripod" Ezekiel Straw-Veteran, bp, distinguished
No-Eyes Javier-Agile, Lookout-ropemonkey, bp, distinguished
Scurvy Gums Wally-Sneaky, bad teeth, bp
Fartin' Rupert Slaughter--Gung Ho, bp
Booker Earbeard--Happy, bp
Eel Skin Jake--Veteran, bp, distinguished
Friday, August 03, 2007
Upcoming Schedule for August and September
August 3rd - Pirates of the Spanish Main (Randy, Jason and Chris)
August 10th - Game To Be Decided (Randy, Jason and Chris)
August 17th - Game To Be Decided (Randy, Jason, Chris and Nate)
August 24th - Eberron: The Demons' Prophecy Part Seven
August 31st - Eberron: The Demons' Prophecy Conclusion
September 7th - Savage Worlds Pulp? (Paul out, Dave out)
September 14th - Savage Worlds Pulp? (Paul out, Dave out)
September 21st - Savage Worlds Pulp? (Paul out)
September 28th - Savage Worlds Pulp? (Everybody in?)
OK, so it looks like August is off for about half the group in the first three weeks, and then back on for the last two. That should give us enough time to finish up the latest Eberron adventure. I know Paul is out for two weeks in September, but I don't know if anybody else has anything going then. Jason, any interest in running a Savage Worlds pulp game around that time? Maybe one where Paul's character can trap door out in the 2nd and 3rd sessions, and trap door back in at the last? Dave, what do you think about playing pulp at that point? Will your other-game prep work be done at that point?
Alternately, if Jason's up for a couple one shots in the first and last weeks of September (or a two-parter with an extended break), I can run an Eberron one- or two-shot in the middle of September with new characters. Let me know what you guys think.
Then in October, we go back to Ravenloft, and after that, it'll probably be time for another return to Eberron.
August 10th - Game To Be Decided (Randy, Jason and Chris)
August 17th - Game To Be Decided (Randy, Jason, Chris and Nate)
August 24th - Eberron: The Demons' Prophecy Part Seven
August 31st - Eberron: The Demons' Prophecy Conclusion
September 7th - Savage Worlds Pulp? (Paul out, Dave out)
September 14th - Savage Worlds Pulp? (Paul out, Dave out)
September 21st - Savage Worlds Pulp? (Paul out)
September 28th - Savage Worlds Pulp? (Everybody in?)
OK, so it looks like August is off for about half the group in the first three weeks, and then back on for the last two. That should give us enough time to finish up the latest Eberron adventure. I know Paul is out for two weeks in September, but I don't know if anybody else has anything going then. Jason, any interest in running a Savage Worlds pulp game around that time? Maybe one where Paul's character can trap door out in the 2nd and 3rd sessions, and trap door back in at the last? Dave, what do you think about playing pulp at that point? Will your other-game prep work be done at that point?
Alternately, if Jason's up for a couple one shots in the first and last weeks of September (or a two-parter with an extended break), I can run an Eberron one- or two-shot in the middle of September with new characters. Let me know what you guys think.
Then in October, we go back to Ravenloft, and after that, it'll probably be time for another return to Eberron.
Saturday, July 07, 2007
Remy The Two-Fisted Midget
History: Left on the orphanage steps in a basket with a note that read "We don't want this misshapen freak." He was bullied relentlessly by the other children, which made him mean and also quite tough. By the time he was 10 years old, he'd beaten up every child in the orphanage at least once, and had had plenty of the rules of the adults who couldn't be bothered to stop the others for teasing him.
So he left, after stealing several bottles of sherry from the headmistress' cabinet. He found that life outside the orphanage was not much less difficult for an ornery midget, and found himself engaged in plenty of tavern brawls. Eventually, he started fighting on the streets for money or trade, until the day he won a fight for a map of the territories, which inspired him: It was time to take to the seas and use his well-earned pugilistic skills in service of acquiring enough booty to keep him in whores and whiskey for the rest of his days.
Friday, July 06, 2007
I propose this for campaign theme song:
and just because it exists, here it is in Finnish:
Oon rosvo merten!
Eberron Adventure Journal: The Demons' Prophecy (4)
Therendor 9-13, YK 999
Having successfully raided the Flamekeep Archives for information, the Wolves had to decide what to do next. The discussion broke down into two camps, as Lysander suggested going to Thaliost to investigate Archbishop Solgar Dariznu, while Pel and Brand favored sending a message to Alestair Marktaros in Korth and then going to Trolanport to try and find Cardinal Hetrion.
Still uncertain about where they were headed but sure that they needed to find a safer place to discuss it, the Wolves split up as they headed back into Flamekeep. Luggoth and Lysander went to the inn where they had been staying to pack their gear, while Maechen and Pel went to the nearest Sivis message station to send a message to Nalos Venteri. After his response didn't come back in about 10 minutes, they went back to the inn to meet up with the rest of the Wolves.
Brand, meanwhile, went to the Lightning Rail station and, using his House connections, he purchases lightning rail tickets for the Wolves at a discounted rate. The tickets would take them to Sigilstar, leaving with the evening train in about four hours.
The rest of the Wolves met Brand at the Lightning Rail station, where they found a quiet corner at one of the station taverns to talk further. While enjoying a light meal of Thranish cuisine and ale, they wondered about whether or not anyone was tracking them, or whether their infiltration of the Flamekeep Archives was not yet a matter for law enforcement. Pel suggested letting the lightning rail leave without them and taking a different route out of town, but given that no state of alarm or even hints of anything wrong had shown up, the Wolves determined that this was more of a step than necessary.
However, it was deemed necessary to split up and keep their eyes open while waiting for their train to leave. Brand went into the staff lounge and chatted with local members of House Orien, while Pel and Luggoth (using the hat of disguise) wandered through the station, changing identities continuously and keeping their eyes open for anything unusual. Lysander and Maechen returned to Flamekeep proper to see if they could pick up any information. None of them found anything out of the ordinary, or anything to suggest that the burglary of the Archives was known to anyone outside of Erv, at least not yet.
Four hours later, as the sun began to set on Flamekeep, the Wolves boarded the lightning rail for Sigilstar. After a nine hour journey, during which they rested and used healing magic to regain their strength, they arrived in Sigilstar, the "crossroads of Thrane." Upon arrival, Pel sent another message via Sivis message station that read "Nalos Venteri, currently in Sigilstar, please send word."
When no immediate response came, Pel joined the rest of the Wolves at an inn located at the station, Crossroads' Rest, where they rented several rooms and rested. Early in the morning, they had meals of biscuits, porridge, spicy beef and fruit and vegetable skewers. Lysander then used his mirror to scry on Alestair Marktaros and watched him sleeping in a room somewhere.
Discouraged, the Wolves were ready to move on, but Pel continued checking the message station, and a few hours later, still early in the morning, he received a reply from Alestair. It read: "My friend, is the way clear for me to return to Thrane? Are you on the trail of those who have framed me, and who mean our mutual friend harm? Please, tell me where your plans take you?"
Pel responded with: "The way is not yet clear, many posters yet up in Flamekeep. We have discovered some information in regards to a previously thought disbanded group and we leave today for Trolanport, hopefully to see our mutual friend."
And Alestair responded: "Would like to speak more freely, any way to divert to my location?"
The Wolves, running low on funds, nevertheless decided to secure an airship to Korth to speak with Alestair as soon as possible. Lysander agreed to perform aboard the Pride of Thrane, the airship bound for Korth, and secured passage for himself and his companions for only 300 gold as a result. His performances were adequate, but not much more, perhaps due to the distracting nature of the mission they were on.
During the travel, the Wolves kept a low profile, but Pel adopted various guises to try and her some rumors. He heard some terrible things about Solgar Dariznu, archbishop of Thaliost, hearing that he engaged in public burnings, that he rarely emerged from his mansion, that the city was a hotbed of political unrest and dreary, broken citizenry, and that shifters should not enter the city and expect to leave with their lives.
20 hours later, in the very early morning, they arrived in Korth. They found Alestair, in his Nalos Venteri guise, waiting for them at the airship tower, and he gave them directions to The Boar's Head, a disreputable tavern in a bad part of town. The Wolves went there, separate from Nalos, and ordered bread, stew and ale to munch on while they waited for Nalos. He soon joined them, and they told him what they had discovered.
Nalos suggested that since he could not return to Thrane, that the Wolves should go to Thaliost and look into Archbishop Dariznu, try to find some proof of his involvement in the plot or continuing involvement with the Cleansing Flame. Nalos would take the Beginner's Luck to Trolanport to meet up with Verodin and the Cardinal. He told them that some within the church were working to oust Archbishop Dariznu, and that the secret organizer of these forces was Oura Gellast, a half-elf paladin who lived in Thaliost. He suggested that she would be a good place to start if they were investigating Dariznu.
Nalos, Maechen, Pel and Lysander worked up a code that they could use to communicate, and then they parted ways.
When the sun finally rose, the Wolves took the lightning rail to Rekkenmark, and then took a ferry across the river to Thaliost, arriving at midday to find a dreary, rain-soaked city. Pel used his skills to disguise most of the party, while Luggoh wore the hat of disguise to hide his shifter features from the potentially hostile town.
They got a recommendation from one of Nalos' local contacts to check in at Yarin's Place, a circumspect inn where they wouldn't be bothered. After checking in, they did some information gathering, and it didn't take long to find out that Oura Gellast was in one of the chapels. Pel disguised himself and entered the chapel, finding it relatively empty, but seeing a half-elven woman in armor talking to the priest at the front. The priest broke off his conversation to approach Pel, and Pel explained that he was seeking Oura. The priest pretended she wasn't there, asked if there was somewhere she could contact Pel when he next talked to her, and Pel gave him the name of Yarin's Place.
Pel left, and as he did, a child sitting out in front of the church got up and began to surreptitiously follow him. Pel didn't notice, but Lysander and Luggoth spotted him. Lysander cast invisibility to track the child, and Luggoth simply moved as quietly as he could. Maechen followed as well, carrying one of the rings of communication while Pel carried the other.
Lysander watched as the child stood outside the inn and watched Pel order a drink and casually sit at the bar, and then followed the child as he walked back to the church and went inside. A few moments later, Oura walked out and headed over to the tavern, followed by Luggoth, Lysander and now Brand.
Oura came into the bar and sat down with Pel to talk to him. It was clear that these precautions were to make sure that Pel wasn't an assassin, as she had been the subject of assassination attempts before. After she determined that Pel wasn't evil, and didn't seem to mean her any harm, they all walked back to the church.
Oura led them to the priest's private chambers, where they could talk. She revealed that Solgar hadn't been seen outside of his mansion in two and a half months, since the last time a shifter was burned in town. She also confirmed rumors they had heard that the priest's pet was a dire tiger, brought back from Xen'drik, and learned that he mostly sent Bishop Valtar Talandros out into town to carry out his orders. Other than a few Knights of Thrane who patrolled the property, Oura didn't know the details of Solgar's security.
Lysander used flight and invisibility to check out the mansion, finding a half-dozen guards patrolling the grounds and timing it out to determine that there was about a thirty second window to get in without being spotted. He was surprised to see that the mansion was relatively small and somewhat rundown, and that all of its windows were painted black, preventing anyone from seeing in.
Determining that their best course of action was to get Talandros out and try to infiltrate the mansion looking for information, the Wolves arranged with Oura for her friend the priest to call Bishop Talandros away during the next day. After resting for eight hours and preparing spells, they had the priest summon Talandros and then, after the bishop had left, they approached the gate.
Pel cracked the gate lock quickly, and the Wolves sprinted across the grounds to the heavy wooden doors. The door locks proved a little more tricky, and one of the guard patrols was coming around the corner as Pel feverishly worked at the lock. Lysander used a ghost sound to distract them long enough for Pel to crack the lock and get them all inside.
Once inside, they found a long hallway leading to some stairs, one set leading down into a foyer with a heavy pair of doors beyond it, the other leading upstairs. Brand spotted tiger tracks going upstairs and human footprints heading down, and so they began moving downwards. Then they heard it, a low growl from upstairs, and as Lysander readied his bow and Pel readied a scroll of web, they saw the dire tiger emerge.
Brand tried to charm the animal, but it resisted. Luggoth drew his bow and aimed it as Maechen turned invisible, but Lysander began singing and managed to soothe the beast, holding it fascinated.
Pel cautiously moved downstairs and went to the doors, but then they opened of their own accord, and Solgar Dariznu was there, holding a mace and wearing armor. He began talking to them, asking what they were doing in his home, although it seemed clear he knew more than he was letting on. He asked them to please release his tiger, which Lysander reluctantly did. He explained that he was a harsh man, but a fair one, and that Cardinal Hetrion was the corrupt one, so devious he had fooled even noble servants of the Silver Flame into following his plans, a loyal and dangerous servant of the Lords of Dust.
Even masters of reading mood and expression Pel and Lysander couldn't get a read on Dariznu, but Luggoth picked up on hostility as Dariznu began pushing him about the death of his family, finally asking him if he was sure they hadn't done something to deserve it. Luggoth loosed his arrows, which thudded into Dariznu with no visible effect, and Maechen tried casting magic missiles but met some kind of resistance that defused them before they struck their target.
The tiger charged, and Brand and Whitehearth stood ready to attack as it ran down the stairs. Luggoth shifted and flew into a rage, leaping off the balcony to attack Solgar with his greatsword moments after Solgar cast something that Maechen recognized as an arcane spell.
Maechen put it all together. Devious and crafty, invulnerable to most weapons, resistant to magic, an arcane spellcaster... Solgar Dariznu was a Rakshasa! When his lightning bolt failed to elicit a response from the Archbishop, he knew he was right, and Solgar, the truth now revealed, let his humanoid tiger form show.
Lysander put up an illusory wall of fire to block the dire tiger, but it leaped through and slashed at the bard, only to be met with vicious attacks from Brand and Whitehearth. While Whitehearth nipped at the tiger's ankles, distracting it, Brand stabbed relentlessly at vulnerable points, stabbing the tiger in its flank, its forelegs, its shoulder and one particularly painful and damaging blow that destroyed its right eye.
Trying to figure out a course of action given that the Rakshasa had them out-matched, Pel fired a scorching ray at the wall to set fire to the house. Angered by the attacks on his tiger, Solgar cast a rainbow blast of energy at Brand, who continued to move and strike with Whitehearth, again severely wounding the dire tiger, which was now gushing blood and looking considerably weaker.
Maechen, detecting the mood of the combat, cast flight on himself and flew to Lysander, preparing to cast a flight spell on him as well. Lysander, Brand and Whitehearth continued to attack the tiger, which bit Brand but dealt only a small fraction of the damage it was receiving.
Hoping to save his tiger, Solgar accepted a call for the battle to stop. He tried his best to corrupt Luggoth, telling him that the rest of his friends could go if only he would stay. That if he stayed, Solgar would promise him a confrontation with the man who killed his tribe, the man who had personally killed his father. He argued with the Wolves that Luggoth didn't need justice or good to triumph, that he just wanted revenge, but Luggoth replied that the Rakshasa didn't know him at all.
Once Brand was sure that Luggoth didn't want to stay, he dimension leaped over to him and dimension doored out, taking Luggoth, Maechen and Whitehearth with him. Pel cast Sanctuary on himself and fled, and a suddenly very alone Lysander used the wand of darkness he had for cover and fled as well.
The Wolves didn't stop running until they were quite far from the Rakshasa's mansion. A retreat for the Wolves was rare, almost unheard of. And now, they faced the difficult question of what to do next?
XP:
Luggoth 1200 XP
Pel 1200 XP
Lysander 1200 XP
Maechen 1500 XP
Brand 1500 XP
Having successfully raided the Flamekeep Archives for information, the Wolves had to decide what to do next. The discussion broke down into two camps, as Lysander suggested going to Thaliost to investigate Archbishop Solgar Dariznu, while Pel and Brand favored sending a message to Alestair Marktaros in Korth and then going to Trolanport to try and find Cardinal Hetrion.
Still uncertain about where they were headed but sure that they needed to find a safer place to discuss it, the Wolves split up as they headed back into Flamekeep. Luggoth and Lysander went to the inn where they had been staying to pack their gear, while Maechen and Pel went to the nearest Sivis message station to send a message to Nalos Venteri. After his response didn't come back in about 10 minutes, they went back to the inn to meet up with the rest of the Wolves.
Brand, meanwhile, went to the Lightning Rail station and, using his House connections, he purchases lightning rail tickets for the Wolves at a discounted rate. The tickets would take them to Sigilstar, leaving with the evening train in about four hours.
The rest of the Wolves met Brand at the Lightning Rail station, where they found a quiet corner at one of the station taverns to talk further. While enjoying a light meal of Thranish cuisine and ale, they wondered about whether or not anyone was tracking them, or whether their infiltration of the Flamekeep Archives was not yet a matter for law enforcement. Pel suggested letting the lightning rail leave without them and taking a different route out of town, but given that no state of alarm or even hints of anything wrong had shown up, the Wolves determined that this was more of a step than necessary.
However, it was deemed necessary to split up and keep their eyes open while waiting for their train to leave. Brand went into the staff lounge and chatted with local members of House Orien, while Pel and Luggoth (using the hat of disguise) wandered through the station, changing identities continuously and keeping their eyes open for anything unusual. Lysander and Maechen returned to Flamekeep proper to see if they could pick up any information. None of them found anything out of the ordinary, or anything to suggest that the burglary of the Archives was known to anyone outside of Erv, at least not yet.
Four hours later, as the sun began to set on Flamekeep, the Wolves boarded the lightning rail for Sigilstar. After a nine hour journey, during which they rested and used healing magic to regain their strength, they arrived in Sigilstar, the "crossroads of Thrane." Upon arrival, Pel sent another message via Sivis message station that read "Nalos Venteri, currently in Sigilstar, please send word."
When no immediate response came, Pel joined the rest of the Wolves at an inn located at the station, Crossroads' Rest, where they rented several rooms and rested. Early in the morning, they had meals of biscuits, porridge, spicy beef and fruit and vegetable skewers. Lysander then used his mirror to scry on Alestair Marktaros and watched him sleeping in a room somewhere.
Discouraged, the Wolves were ready to move on, but Pel continued checking the message station, and a few hours later, still early in the morning, he received a reply from Alestair. It read: "My friend, is the way clear for me to return to Thrane? Are you on the trail of those who have framed me, and who mean our mutual friend harm? Please, tell me where your plans take you?"
Pel responded with: "The way is not yet clear, many posters yet up in Flamekeep. We have discovered some information in regards to a previously thought disbanded group and we leave today for Trolanport, hopefully to see our mutual friend."
And Alestair responded: "Would like to speak more freely, any way to divert to my location?"
The Wolves, running low on funds, nevertheless decided to secure an airship to Korth to speak with Alestair as soon as possible. Lysander agreed to perform aboard the Pride of Thrane, the airship bound for Korth, and secured passage for himself and his companions for only 300 gold as a result. His performances were adequate, but not much more, perhaps due to the distracting nature of the mission they were on.
During the travel, the Wolves kept a low profile, but Pel adopted various guises to try and her some rumors. He heard some terrible things about Solgar Dariznu, archbishop of Thaliost, hearing that he engaged in public burnings, that he rarely emerged from his mansion, that the city was a hotbed of political unrest and dreary, broken citizenry, and that shifters should not enter the city and expect to leave with their lives.
20 hours later, in the very early morning, they arrived in Korth. They found Alestair, in his Nalos Venteri guise, waiting for them at the airship tower, and he gave them directions to The Boar's Head, a disreputable tavern in a bad part of town. The Wolves went there, separate from Nalos, and ordered bread, stew and ale to munch on while they waited for Nalos. He soon joined them, and they told him what they had discovered.
Nalos suggested that since he could not return to Thrane, that the Wolves should go to Thaliost and look into Archbishop Dariznu, try to find some proof of his involvement in the plot or continuing involvement with the Cleansing Flame. Nalos would take the Beginner's Luck to Trolanport to meet up with Verodin and the Cardinal. He told them that some within the church were working to oust Archbishop Dariznu, and that the secret organizer of these forces was Oura Gellast, a half-elf paladin who lived in Thaliost. He suggested that she would be a good place to start if they were investigating Dariznu.
Nalos, Maechen, Pel and Lysander worked up a code that they could use to communicate, and then they parted ways.
When the sun finally rose, the Wolves took the lightning rail to Rekkenmark, and then took a ferry across the river to Thaliost, arriving at midday to find a dreary, rain-soaked city. Pel used his skills to disguise most of the party, while Luggoh wore the hat of disguise to hide his shifter features from the potentially hostile town.
They got a recommendation from one of Nalos' local contacts to check in at Yarin's Place, a circumspect inn where they wouldn't be bothered. After checking in, they did some information gathering, and it didn't take long to find out that Oura Gellast was in one of the chapels. Pel disguised himself and entered the chapel, finding it relatively empty, but seeing a half-elven woman in armor talking to the priest at the front. The priest broke off his conversation to approach Pel, and Pel explained that he was seeking Oura. The priest pretended she wasn't there, asked if there was somewhere she could contact Pel when he next talked to her, and Pel gave him the name of Yarin's Place.
Pel left, and as he did, a child sitting out in front of the church got up and began to surreptitiously follow him. Pel didn't notice, but Lysander and Luggoth spotted him. Lysander cast invisibility to track the child, and Luggoth simply moved as quietly as he could. Maechen followed as well, carrying one of the rings of communication while Pel carried the other.
Lysander watched as the child stood outside the inn and watched Pel order a drink and casually sit at the bar, and then followed the child as he walked back to the church and went inside. A few moments later, Oura walked out and headed over to the tavern, followed by Luggoth, Lysander and now Brand.
Oura came into the bar and sat down with Pel to talk to him. It was clear that these precautions were to make sure that Pel wasn't an assassin, as she had been the subject of assassination attempts before. After she determined that Pel wasn't evil, and didn't seem to mean her any harm, they all walked back to the church.
Oura led them to the priest's private chambers, where they could talk. She revealed that Solgar hadn't been seen outside of his mansion in two and a half months, since the last time a shifter was burned in town. She also confirmed rumors they had heard that the priest's pet was a dire tiger, brought back from Xen'drik, and learned that he mostly sent Bishop Valtar Talandros out into town to carry out his orders. Other than a few Knights of Thrane who patrolled the property, Oura didn't know the details of Solgar's security.
Lysander used flight and invisibility to check out the mansion, finding a half-dozen guards patrolling the grounds and timing it out to determine that there was about a thirty second window to get in without being spotted. He was surprised to see that the mansion was relatively small and somewhat rundown, and that all of its windows were painted black, preventing anyone from seeing in.
Determining that their best course of action was to get Talandros out and try to infiltrate the mansion looking for information, the Wolves arranged with Oura for her friend the priest to call Bishop Talandros away during the next day. After resting for eight hours and preparing spells, they had the priest summon Talandros and then, after the bishop had left, they approached the gate.
Pel cracked the gate lock quickly, and the Wolves sprinted across the grounds to the heavy wooden doors. The door locks proved a little more tricky, and one of the guard patrols was coming around the corner as Pel feverishly worked at the lock. Lysander used a ghost sound to distract them long enough for Pel to crack the lock and get them all inside.
Once inside, they found a long hallway leading to some stairs, one set leading down into a foyer with a heavy pair of doors beyond it, the other leading upstairs. Brand spotted tiger tracks going upstairs and human footprints heading down, and so they began moving downwards. Then they heard it, a low growl from upstairs, and as Lysander readied his bow and Pel readied a scroll of web, they saw the dire tiger emerge.
Brand tried to charm the animal, but it resisted. Luggoth drew his bow and aimed it as Maechen turned invisible, but Lysander began singing and managed to soothe the beast, holding it fascinated.
Pel cautiously moved downstairs and went to the doors, but then they opened of their own accord, and Solgar Dariznu was there, holding a mace and wearing armor. He began talking to them, asking what they were doing in his home, although it seemed clear he knew more than he was letting on. He asked them to please release his tiger, which Lysander reluctantly did. He explained that he was a harsh man, but a fair one, and that Cardinal Hetrion was the corrupt one, so devious he had fooled even noble servants of the Silver Flame into following his plans, a loyal and dangerous servant of the Lords of Dust.
Even masters of reading mood and expression Pel and Lysander couldn't get a read on Dariznu, but Luggoth picked up on hostility as Dariznu began pushing him about the death of his family, finally asking him if he was sure they hadn't done something to deserve it. Luggoth loosed his arrows, which thudded into Dariznu with no visible effect, and Maechen tried casting magic missiles but met some kind of resistance that defused them before they struck their target.
The tiger charged, and Brand and Whitehearth stood ready to attack as it ran down the stairs. Luggoth shifted and flew into a rage, leaping off the balcony to attack Solgar with his greatsword moments after Solgar cast something that Maechen recognized as an arcane spell.
Maechen put it all together. Devious and crafty, invulnerable to most weapons, resistant to magic, an arcane spellcaster... Solgar Dariznu was a Rakshasa! When his lightning bolt failed to elicit a response from the Archbishop, he knew he was right, and Solgar, the truth now revealed, let his humanoid tiger form show.
Lysander put up an illusory wall of fire to block the dire tiger, but it leaped through and slashed at the bard, only to be met with vicious attacks from Brand and Whitehearth. While Whitehearth nipped at the tiger's ankles, distracting it, Brand stabbed relentlessly at vulnerable points, stabbing the tiger in its flank, its forelegs, its shoulder and one particularly painful and damaging blow that destroyed its right eye.
Trying to figure out a course of action given that the Rakshasa had them out-matched, Pel fired a scorching ray at the wall to set fire to the house. Angered by the attacks on his tiger, Solgar cast a rainbow blast of energy at Brand, who continued to move and strike with Whitehearth, again severely wounding the dire tiger, which was now gushing blood and looking considerably weaker.
Maechen, detecting the mood of the combat, cast flight on himself and flew to Lysander, preparing to cast a flight spell on him as well. Lysander, Brand and Whitehearth continued to attack the tiger, which bit Brand but dealt only a small fraction of the damage it was receiving.
Hoping to save his tiger, Solgar accepted a call for the battle to stop. He tried his best to corrupt Luggoth, telling him that the rest of his friends could go if only he would stay. That if he stayed, Solgar would promise him a confrontation with the man who killed his tribe, the man who had personally killed his father. He argued with the Wolves that Luggoth didn't need justice or good to triumph, that he just wanted revenge, but Luggoth replied that the Rakshasa didn't know him at all.
Once Brand was sure that Luggoth didn't want to stay, he dimension leaped over to him and dimension doored out, taking Luggoth, Maechen and Whitehearth with him. Pel cast Sanctuary on himself and fled, and a suddenly very alone Lysander used the wand of darkness he had for cover and fled as well.
The Wolves didn't stop running until they were quite far from the Rakshasa's mansion. A retreat for the Wolves was rare, almost unheard of. And now, they faced the difficult question of what to do next?
XP:
Luggoth 1200 XP
Pel 1200 XP
Lysander 1200 XP
Maechen 1500 XP
Brand 1500 XP
Thursday, July 05, 2007
Savage!
Alright, gentlemen, here's what I think we will do. I have a short Pulp scenario with Pre-gen characters for us to run through tomorrow night before we make pirate characters so that you can get a feel for the game mechanics. Then we can make characters with better understanding of the system.
I have posted links in the links section to let you take a look at the Savage Worlds system and download a Pirate character sheet so check it out! (Even better: the Character Sheets are dynamic PDF's so you can fill them out on your computer if that is your desire!) Be thinking of what type of character and background you would like. Is your character a fortune hunter, or a scurvy dog of a murderin' pirate? Are you ex-navy? What is your nation of origin? Are you a gunner or a pilot or an expert swordsman? Are you an ex-doctor turned indentured servant turned pirate?
Character generation is basically a matter of buying stats and skills and using Edges and Hindrances (Advantages and Disads if you will.) I have playtested the system this week and it has a lot of potential but it really is player based so bring your "fun" hats!
Arr, see ya Friday, ye thrice-cursed 'lubbers!
I have posted links in the links section to let you take a look at the Savage Worlds system and download a Pirate character sheet so check it out! (Even better: the Character Sheets are dynamic PDF's so you can fill them out on your computer if that is your desire!) Be thinking of what type of character and background you would like. Is your character a fortune hunter, or a scurvy dog of a murderin' pirate? Are you ex-navy? What is your nation of origin? Are you a gunner or a pilot or an expert swordsman? Are you an ex-doctor turned indentured servant turned pirate?
Character generation is basically a matter of buying stats and skills and using Edges and Hindrances (Advantages and Disads if you will.) I have playtested the system this week and it has a lot of potential but it really is player based so bring your "fun" hats!
Arr, see ya Friday, ye thrice-cursed 'lubbers!
Sunday, June 24, 2007
Holy weapon church fund drive
Since we're in the need of some scratch to take on the tiger-headed bad guys, I thought I'd start a thread on earning some extra income. My second idea is long term and won't help us while we're on a time-table, but maybe we could try to earn some additional cash in between adventures.
Quick cash: We could sell the aquatic scale mail, bull rush whip and instant tent. Randy, could you please give us sale prices on each item? Anyone else have something valuable and non-essential to sell?
Long term plan: According to Dragonmarked, House Orien sometimes sends teams into the Mournland to explore the rail lines to see what kind of shape they are in. Conceivably we could get paid by the house to go do a little treasure hunting.
Other ideas?
Quick cash: We could sell the aquatic scale mail, bull rush whip and instant tent. Randy, could you please give us sale prices on each item? Anyone else have something valuable and non-essential to sell?
Long term plan: According to Dragonmarked, House Orien sometimes sends teams into the Mournland to explore the rail lines to see what kind of shape they are in. Conceivably we could get paid by the house to go do a little treasure hunting.
Other ideas?
Saturday, June 09, 2007
Adventure: The Demons' Prophecy (3)
Therendor 9, YK 999
After a fairly cursory search of Erv's shack, the Wolves found an elaborate key around Erv's neck and a locked trap door, hidden beneath a threadbare rug. Pel determined that the door wasn't trapped, and as the Wolves joked about the Silver Flame's lax security, he turned the key.
At which point he discovered the true nature of the Flamekeep Archives security, which was partly based on deception. The door wasn't trapped, but the key was, and Pel barely resisted the sleep poison that a hidden needle injected into his finger.
While Pel steadied himself, Brand used a piton to spike the door to the cottage shut and Luggoth and Lysander tied up Brother Erv.
The trap door opened to reveal a deep pit, with a faint glow emanating about 100 feet below, visible by Lysander's low-light vision. The Wolves used a rope to climb down, at which point they found a medium sized chamber with a glowing Silver Flame sigil in the floor and a glowing silver-blue wall on one edge. Maechen identified it as a Wall of Force, and assured them that there was no easy way to dispel or destroy it. However, teleportation would allow them to bypass it.
Brand decided to go first, using his dimension leap ability to jump past the wall, and he found himself in a deep, thick, magical fog that slowed his movement and made it impossible to see more than five feet in front of him. He cast Embrace the Wild to enhance his senses and began scouting by moving along the walls, determining the width of the room and extent of the fog. When he emerged from the fog, he saw a room with three dragon statues at the far end, guarding an enormous wall of silver flame, and a stone statue in the center of the room that he took for a golem.
After reporting back via the ring of communication he had borrowed from Pel, Brand dimension leaped back to them and then, using his dimension door and the dimension door scroll they had purchased, the group appeared in the fog.
Luggoth was the first to step into the center of the fog, rather than along the walls, and so he discovered the deep chasm in the center of the room. Fortunately, his feather fall token saved him from a deadly fall, and he climbed back up the side of the chasm.
Slowly, the Wolves began emerging out of the fog and into the other room. Within a few seconds, one of them had accidentally wandered into the range of the stone golem, which was activated by the presence of intruders. He quite deliberately stepped on a pressure plate, causing one of the dragon statues to spew a fireball from its mouth, which blasted half of the Wolves, even as the golem stepped up and punched Maechen, cracking his ribs and forcing him to step back into the fog and drink a potion to cure his wounds.
Luggoth charged into battle, but couldn't quite get his sword to bite into the golem's rocky exterior. Brand, using the adamantine longsword, was luckier, slicing a small chunk off the creature's side, but triggering a fireball from one of the other dragon statues and suffering a brutal head blow from the golem as a result, knocking him unconscious. As Lysander reached out and dragged Brand back into the fog, Pel tried the passwords they had gotten from the Kundarak courier, to no avail, and cast resist energy (fire) on Maechen.
Planning to lure the golem into the chasm, Maechen cast grease on the area in front of the pit and then readied a flask of acidic fire to throw at the golem. Pel cast Sanctuary to avoid the golem's attack so that he could try to disarm the dragon traps, and Lysander cured a healing spell to awaken Brand.
As Maechen threw his acidic fire, burning a small hole in the golem's right shoulder, Pel managed to reach in and disarm one of the dragon fireball traps. Lysander cast mirror image on himself to attract the golem's attention, but it strode over to Maechen, activating another fireball before it swung a rocky fist and caught Maechen in the solar plexus, briefly taking his breath away.
Grievously wounded, Maechen stepped once more back into the fog, but Lysander and Luggoth stepped back out to engage. Luggoth drank a potion of bull's strength and took the adamantine sword offered by Brand while Lysander moved in and found his weaponry somewhat ineffective against the stony defender.
As Pel continued to work at disabling all three dragon traps, Brand called forth a black bear from his bag of tricks and Luggoth shifted, entered a rage and began swinging the adamantine sword with great force to begin carving up the golem. Lysander switched to support mode, casting healing spells on the shifter.
Maechen took out one of the stone to flesh scrolls he had gotten when he had joined the Wolves and cast it on the golem, momentarily reverting the creature to a fleshy form. This more vulnerable form suffered serious damage as Luggoth, Brand's bear and Lysander all struck successful blows, and Maechen followed up with a burst of magic missiles from his wand.
The golem continued to pummel Luggoth, but it had been worn down by the battle and by Maechen's magical gambit, and Luggoth swung a final mighty blow with the adamantine longsword that shattered it.
After taking a bit of time to heal the damage they had suffered at the hands of the golem, Maechen and Pel worked out that the dragon traps, if reactivated and triggered with heavy chunks of stone, might drain enough magical fire to temporarily bring down the wall of fire they were guarding.
This worked, and the Wolves soon found themselves in a short corridor with locked stone doors on either side. Pel determined the doors were not trapped, and the Wolves decided to try the one on the left first. After two tries, and with the help of guidance spells and songs from Lysander, Pel managed to pick the unusual lock, which was clearly meant to respond to the amulets that the Cardinals wore.
Pel, the first one through the door, saw that it opened into a hall with four statues, each one a great Thrane hero from the war. However, he quickly determined that this was an illusion, and instead realized that the room was a gigantic pool, with slick, 3 foot ledges on either side. He had scarcely had a moment to take it in when a huge water elemental emerged from the pool and attacked.
As Maechen entered prophetic favor, Lysander and Luggoth both focused their attention to disbelieve the illusion and see the pool for what it was. Lysander moved in and hit the elemental with his rapier, but Luggoth slipped on the wet ledge and fell into the pool.
Maechen began firing magic missiles at the elemental, even though he hadn't been able to disbelieve the illusionary room, and thus couldn't see the pool. Lysander tumbled past the elemental to allow room for the other Wolves to enter and struck another glancing blow with his rapier, and the elemental responded by reaching over and grabbing Lysander in one arm. As Pel opened up with a scorching ray, turning part of the elemental into superheated steam and earning a satisfying roar of pain, Brand began firing his bow at the elemental.
Maechen fired off a lightning bolt at the elemental as it reached over and grabbed Pel, who fired off another scorching ray from his wand despite being grabbed. The elemental struck Luggoth with the hand that held Pel, but in return he suffered an attack from Luggoth's sword, and Brand continued to pepper the creature with arrows.
As Maechen began unleashing magic missiles from his wand, the water elemental pushed Lysander and Pel to the bottom of the pool and let them go, intent on grabbing the others.
Luggoth, Brand and Maechen pressed their attacks as Lysander and Pel began swimming to the surface, and the elemental turned into a vortex, trapping Lysander and Pel in the water and crushing them with its swirling waters. However, Pel and Maechen continued to blast it with spells and Luggoth continued to swing with his greatsword, even though it meant being dragged into the vortex as well.
Before the elemental could drown or crush the Wolves, however, Maechen's continual barrage of magic missiles did enough damage and caused the creature to dissipate.
Once past the pool, Pel picked the lock on the double doors at the end of the room and got the Wolves into a room filled with what seemed at first to be random debris and colored glass. Maechen realized that it was in fact some kind of map room, with markers indicating significant battles of the Silver Flame or Thrane in general, and Pel was able to determine that some of the glass markers had been moved and in some cases removed. However, despite analyzing these clues, the Wolves were unable to figure out exactly what the map meant.
At the other end of the room, the Wolves saw an immense pair of iron doors with the same unusual round lock and three stone tumblers with numbers on them. Pel set one of the codes on the tumblers and, taking about five minutes, managed to pick the lock.
Once past the iron doors, the Wolves found themselves in a hallway with a series of alcoves leading up to a solid silvered steel door with no lock or handle or obvious means of egress. Each alcove contained a bookshelf full of thick leather-bound books. The books were marked with a silver embossed symbol (a sword and axe, an armor and shield, a robe and boots and a hammer and pick) and an inscrutable character. The Wolves figured out that since there were 26 different symbols total, they probably indicated letters of the alphabet, but they still weren't able to work out what the books meant.
After trying to puzzle out the system and figure out what the books meant, Pel spoke the pass phrase from Kundarak to get the silver door to open. The Wolves then saw a smaller room with four alcoves, each one marked with a glyph matching one of the four symbols on the books. Each alcove contained three dials (one with A-Z, two with 0-9) and a lever, and Pel managed to work out how the device might work. After much debate, Pel set a random sequence of numbers and letters into the "Robe and Boots" alcove and pulled the lever. A pair of magical gauntlets appeared.
There was further debate and attempts to decipher the arcane coding, and then the Wolves determined to try random selections on the other alcoves. As a result, they wound up with one item from each alcove, and then they would produce no others. Using Detect Magic and Identify, they managed to discover that they had gotten a pair of Devastation Gauntlets (which went to Pel), a +1 Brutal Surge Whip (which went to Brand), a suit +1 Buoyant Splint Mail (which went into the bag of holding) and Daern's Instant Tent (which went into the Haversack.)
After taking some time to heal, the Wolves went back to the other door and picked that lock, skipping past a mundane library of Silver Flame information to find a small reading room with two portals, one purple and one blue. Recalling the color of the paper from the Kundarak courier, they jumped into the purple portal, and found themselves in an immense other-dimensional library with a comfortable warmth, magical lighting and a massive array of books. All of the books appeared empty, but Brand quickly discovered that by speaking the name of what they sought, whatever information the Silver Flame archives contained appeared within it.
They researched a variety of information, including the nature of Nalos Venteri, who turned out to be an agent of the Argentum, a branch of the Silver Flame devoted to securing magical items for the church. They also learned that Cardinal Ossul Hetrion was a devoted healer, traveling often to bring his healing gifts and the word of the Flame to the world. Most importantly, they found a fairly complete history of the Order of the Cleansing Flame.
The Order of the Cleansing Flame was formed in YK 970, during the Last War, by a priest named Solgar Dariznu. It's mandate was to "Keep a wary eye out for the return of lycanthropes or the undead threat, and burn such dangers down to ash before they can grow."
The membership of The Order was kept small, about a dozen clerics, paladins and warriors at a time. They operated fairly autonomously, but there are records going back to almost its founding of discipline against its members. One was excommunicated in YK 972 and fell in battle alongside the Emerald Claw two years later. One was executed in YK 974 for crimes against humanity that included a massacre of women and children "suspected" of being in league with the Lords of Dust. Each time a member fell, another was recruited. In 977, when their massacre of an entire tribe of shifters was revealed, the entire Order was to be tried. They escaped the judgment of the Silver Flame and fled. At the time, their membership of twelve was led by a paladin named Suthar Askarda, and he managed to get half of the Order out of Thrane. The other half were killed in the escape attempt. They have never been caught.
Solgar Dariznu left the order in YK 974, and began moving up the ranks. In 994, just after Jaela Daran assumed the mantle of the Silver Flame, the first Archbishop of Thaliost,a large city on the northern border between Thrane and Aundair, died of old age and Solgar became Archbishop.
Lysander sketched out the images of those who were members of the Cleansing Flame, and after the Wolves determined they had enough information, they walked back into the portal and found themselves in a glade within sight of Erv's hovel.
XP:
Maechen 2920 XP
Brand 2920 XP
Pel 2485 XP
Lysander 2485 XP
Luggoth 2485 XP
After a fairly cursory search of Erv's shack, the Wolves found an elaborate key around Erv's neck and a locked trap door, hidden beneath a threadbare rug. Pel determined that the door wasn't trapped, and as the Wolves joked about the Silver Flame's lax security, he turned the key.
At which point he discovered the true nature of the Flamekeep Archives security, which was partly based on deception. The door wasn't trapped, but the key was, and Pel barely resisted the sleep poison that a hidden needle injected into his finger.
While Pel steadied himself, Brand used a piton to spike the door to the cottage shut and Luggoth and Lysander tied up Brother Erv.
The trap door opened to reveal a deep pit, with a faint glow emanating about 100 feet below, visible by Lysander's low-light vision. The Wolves used a rope to climb down, at which point they found a medium sized chamber with a glowing Silver Flame sigil in the floor and a glowing silver-blue wall on one edge. Maechen identified it as a Wall of Force, and assured them that there was no easy way to dispel or destroy it. However, teleportation would allow them to bypass it.
Brand decided to go first, using his dimension leap ability to jump past the wall, and he found himself in a deep, thick, magical fog that slowed his movement and made it impossible to see more than five feet in front of him. He cast Embrace the Wild to enhance his senses and began scouting by moving along the walls, determining the width of the room and extent of the fog. When he emerged from the fog, he saw a room with three dragon statues at the far end, guarding an enormous wall of silver flame, and a stone statue in the center of the room that he took for a golem.
After reporting back via the ring of communication he had borrowed from Pel, Brand dimension leaped back to them and then, using his dimension door and the dimension door scroll they had purchased, the group appeared in the fog.
Luggoth was the first to step into the center of the fog, rather than along the walls, and so he discovered the deep chasm in the center of the room. Fortunately, his feather fall token saved him from a deadly fall, and he climbed back up the side of the chasm.
Slowly, the Wolves began emerging out of the fog and into the other room. Within a few seconds, one of them had accidentally wandered into the range of the stone golem, which was activated by the presence of intruders. He quite deliberately stepped on a pressure plate, causing one of the dragon statues to spew a fireball from its mouth, which blasted half of the Wolves, even as the golem stepped up and punched Maechen, cracking his ribs and forcing him to step back into the fog and drink a potion to cure his wounds.
Luggoth charged into battle, but couldn't quite get his sword to bite into the golem's rocky exterior. Brand, using the adamantine longsword, was luckier, slicing a small chunk off the creature's side, but triggering a fireball from one of the other dragon statues and suffering a brutal head blow from the golem as a result, knocking him unconscious. As Lysander reached out and dragged Brand back into the fog, Pel tried the passwords they had gotten from the Kundarak courier, to no avail, and cast resist energy (fire) on Maechen.
Planning to lure the golem into the chasm, Maechen cast grease on the area in front of the pit and then readied a flask of acidic fire to throw at the golem. Pel cast Sanctuary to avoid the golem's attack so that he could try to disarm the dragon traps, and Lysander cured a healing spell to awaken Brand.
As Maechen threw his acidic fire, burning a small hole in the golem's right shoulder, Pel managed to reach in and disarm one of the dragon fireball traps. Lysander cast mirror image on himself to attract the golem's attention, but it strode over to Maechen, activating another fireball before it swung a rocky fist and caught Maechen in the solar plexus, briefly taking his breath away.
Grievously wounded, Maechen stepped once more back into the fog, but Lysander and Luggoth stepped back out to engage. Luggoth drank a potion of bull's strength and took the adamantine sword offered by Brand while Lysander moved in and found his weaponry somewhat ineffective against the stony defender.
As Pel continued to work at disabling all three dragon traps, Brand called forth a black bear from his bag of tricks and Luggoth shifted, entered a rage and began swinging the adamantine sword with great force to begin carving up the golem. Lysander switched to support mode, casting healing spells on the shifter.
Maechen took out one of the stone to flesh scrolls he had gotten when he had joined the Wolves and cast it on the golem, momentarily reverting the creature to a fleshy form. This more vulnerable form suffered serious damage as Luggoth, Brand's bear and Lysander all struck successful blows, and Maechen followed up with a burst of magic missiles from his wand.
The golem continued to pummel Luggoth, but it had been worn down by the battle and by Maechen's magical gambit, and Luggoth swung a final mighty blow with the adamantine longsword that shattered it.
After taking a bit of time to heal the damage they had suffered at the hands of the golem, Maechen and Pel worked out that the dragon traps, if reactivated and triggered with heavy chunks of stone, might drain enough magical fire to temporarily bring down the wall of fire they were guarding.
This worked, and the Wolves soon found themselves in a short corridor with locked stone doors on either side. Pel determined the doors were not trapped, and the Wolves decided to try the one on the left first. After two tries, and with the help of guidance spells and songs from Lysander, Pel managed to pick the unusual lock, which was clearly meant to respond to the amulets that the Cardinals wore.
Pel, the first one through the door, saw that it opened into a hall with four statues, each one a great Thrane hero from the war. However, he quickly determined that this was an illusion, and instead realized that the room was a gigantic pool, with slick, 3 foot ledges on either side. He had scarcely had a moment to take it in when a huge water elemental emerged from the pool and attacked.
As Maechen entered prophetic favor, Lysander and Luggoth both focused their attention to disbelieve the illusion and see the pool for what it was. Lysander moved in and hit the elemental with his rapier, but Luggoth slipped on the wet ledge and fell into the pool.
Maechen began firing magic missiles at the elemental, even though he hadn't been able to disbelieve the illusionary room, and thus couldn't see the pool. Lysander tumbled past the elemental to allow room for the other Wolves to enter and struck another glancing blow with his rapier, and the elemental responded by reaching over and grabbing Lysander in one arm. As Pel opened up with a scorching ray, turning part of the elemental into superheated steam and earning a satisfying roar of pain, Brand began firing his bow at the elemental.
Maechen fired off a lightning bolt at the elemental as it reached over and grabbed Pel, who fired off another scorching ray from his wand despite being grabbed. The elemental struck Luggoth with the hand that held Pel, but in return he suffered an attack from Luggoth's sword, and Brand continued to pepper the creature with arrows.
As Maechen began unleashing magic missiles from his wand, the water elemental pushed Lysander and Pel to the bottom of the pool and let them go, intent on grabbing the others.
Luggoth, Brand and Maechen pressed their attacks as Lysander and Pel began swimming to the surface, and the elemental turned into a vortex, trapping Lysander and Pel in the water and crushing them with its swirling waters. However, Pel and Maechen continued to blast it with spells and Luggoth continued to swing with his greatsword, even though it meant being dragged into the vortex as well.
Before the elemental could drown or crush the Wolves, however, Maechen's continual barrage of magic missiles did enough damage and caused the creature to dissipate.
Once past the pool, Pel picked the lock on the double doors at the end of the room and got the Wolves into a room filled with what seemed at first to be random debris and colored glass. Maechen realized that it was in fact some kind of map room, with markers indicating significant battles of the Silver Flame or Thrane in general, and Pel was able to determine that some of the glass markers had been moved and in some cases removed. However, despite analyzing these clues, the Wolves were unable to figure out exactly what the map meant.
At the other end of the room, the Wolves saw an immense pair of iron doors with the same unusual round lock and three stone tumblers with numbers on them. Pel set one of the codes on the tumblers and, taking about five minutes, managed to pick the lock.
Once past the iron doors, the Wolves found themselves in a hallway with a series of alcoves leading up to a solid silvered steel door with no lock or handle or obvious means of egress. Each alcove contained a bookshelf full of thick leather-bound books. The books were marked with a silver embossed symbol (a sword and axe, an armor and shield, a robe and boots and a hammer and pick) and an inscrutable character. The Wolves figured out that since there were 26 different symbols total, they probably indicated letters of the alphabet, but they still weren't able to work out what the books meant.
After trying to puzzle out the system and figure out what the books meant, Pel spoke the pass phrase from Kundarak to get the silver door to open. The Wolves then saw a smaller room with four alcoves, each one marked with a glyph matching one of the four symbols on the books. Each alcove contained three dials (one with A-Z, two with 0-9) and a lever, and Pel managed to work out how the device might work. After much debate, Pel set a random sequence of numbers and letters into the "Robe and Boots" alcove and pulled the lever. A pair of magical gauntlets appeared.
There was further debate and attempts to decipher the arcane coding, and then the Wolves determined to try random selections on the other alcoves. As a result, they wound up with one item from each alcove, and then they would produce no others. Using Detect Magic and Identify, they managed to discover that they had gotten a pair of Devastation Gauntlets (which went to Pel), a +1 Brutal Surge Whip (which went to Brand), a suit +1 Buoyant Splint Mail (which went into the bag of holding) and Daern's Instant Tent (which went into the Haversack.)
After taking some time to heal, the Wolves went back to the other door and picked that lock, skipping past a mundane library of Silver Flame information to find a small reading room with two portals, one purple and one blue. Recalling the color of the paper from the Kundarak courier, they jumped into the purple portal, and found themselves in an immense other-dimensional library with a comfortable warmth, magical lighting and a massive array of books. All of the books appeared empty, but Brand quickly discovered that by speaking the name of what they sought, whatever information the Silver Flame archives contained appeared within it.
They researched a variety of information, including the nature of Nalos Venteri, who turned out to be an agent of the Argentum, a branch of the Silver Flame devoted to securing magical items for the church. They also learned that Cardinal Ossul Hetrion was a devoted healer, traveling often to bring his healing gifts and the word of the Flame to the world. Most importantly, they found a fairly complete history of the Order of the Cleansing Flame.
The Order of the Cleansing Flame was formed in YK 970, during the Last War, by a priest named Solgar Dariznu. It's mandate was to "Keep a wary eye out for the return of lycanthropes or the undead threat, and burn such dangers down to ash before they can grow."
The membership of The Order was kept small, about a dozen clerics, paladins and warriors at a time. They operated fairly autonomously, but there are records going back to almost its founding of discipline against its members. One was excommunicated in YK 972 and fell in battle alongside the Emerald Claw two years later. One was executed in YK 974 for crimes against humanity that included a massacre of women and children "suspected" of being in league with the Lords of Dust. Each time a member fell, another was recruited. In 977, when their massacre of an entire tribe of shifters was revealed, the entire Order was to be tried. They escaped the judgment of the Silver Flame and fled. At the time, their membership of twelve was led by a paladin named Suthar Askarda, and he managed to get half of the Order out of Thrane. The other half were killed in the escape attempt. They have never been caught.
Solgar Dariznu left the order in YK 974, and began moving up the ranks. In 994, just after Jaela Daran assumed the mantle of the Silver Flame, the first Archbishop of Thaliost,a large city on the northern border between Thrane and Aundair, died of old age and Solgar became Archbishop.
Lysander sketched out the images of those who were members of the Cleansing Flame, and after the Wolves determined they had enough information, they walked back into the portal and found themselves in a glade within sight of Erv's hovel.
XP:
Maechen 2920 XP
Brand 2920 XP
Pel 2485 XP
Lysander 2485 XP
Luggoth 2485 XP
Thursday, June 07, 2007
Upcoming Schedule - June through August
June 8th - Eberron: The Demons' Prophecy Part Three
June 15th - Gaming Off (Baby)
June 22nd - Eberron: The Demons' Prophecy Part Four
June 29th - Eberron: The Demons' Prophecy Part Five
July 6th - Savage Worlds or Pirates (Nate out, Paul possibly out)
July 13th - Savage Worlds or Pirates
July 20th - Savage Worlds or Pirates (Nate out)
July 27th - Gaming Off (Randy & Paul at San Diego)
August 3rd - Savage Worlds or Pirates (Nate out)
August 10th - Savage Worlds or Pirates (Nate out, Paul possibly out)
August 17th - Eberron: The Demons' Prophecy Part Six
August 24th - Eberron: The Demons' Prophecy Part Seven
August 31st - Eberron: The Demons' Prophecy Conclusion
Updated the schedule now that we know for sure how the baby affected gaming.
The Demons' Prophecy adventure is running longer than I thought, and since it heavily involves Luggoth, I want to make sure Nate is there for it, so I think we're better off moving it a little and finishing in August.
Given that, Jason, do you have any interest in putting together a two-parter for July 6th and July 20th? I'd love to play Savage Worlds, and if you wind up picking up Aces & Eights, I'd love to give that one a try as well. Alternatively, if you want to just clear July for the game, I can make sure Part Five has some amount of conclusion (I think it will, with a nice pulp-ish "Tune in next month" kind of cliffhanger) and we can skip the weird one Eberron session in July to bring it back in August, which might work better. That would give three sessions (or four, if you don't mind running one without me and Paul at somebody else's place) for Savage Worlds, etc.
If that works out, I figure we can wrap Eberron for a while in mid-August and then return for another go-round of Ravenloft? That sound do-able to everyone? And if Nate isn't free to GM Ravenloft, maybe we can use those weeks to continue/finish up the Savage Worlds/Aces & Eights/whatever game Jason runs in July?
I guess the question is, Jason, are you up for putting a game together for July/August alternate weeks? And Nate, are you up for picking up Ravenloft in August?
June 15th - Gaming Off (Baby)
June 22nd - Eberron: The Demons' Prophecy Part Four
June 29th - Eberron: The Demons' Prophecy Part Five
July 6th - Savage Worlds or Pirates (Nate out, Paul possibly out)
July 13th - Savage Worlds or Pirates
July 20th - Savage Worlds or Pirates (Nate out)
July 27th - Gaming Off (Randy & Paul at San Diego)
August 3rd - Savage Worlds or Pirates (Nate out)
August 10th - Savage Worlds or Pirates (Nate out, Paul possibly out)
August 17th - Eberron: The Demons' Prophecy Part Six
August 24th - Eberron: The Demons' Prophecy Part Seven
August 31st - Eberron: The Demons' Prophecy Conclusion
Updated the schedule now that we know for sure how the baby affected gaming.
The Demons' Prophecy adventure is running longer than I thought, and since it heavily involves Luggoth, I want to make sure Nate is there for it, so I think we're better off moving it a little and finishing in August.
Given that, Jason, do you have any interest in putting together a two-parter for July 6th and July 20th? I'd love to play Savage Worlds, and if you wind up picking up Aces & Eights, I'd love to give that one a try as well. Alternatively, if you want to just clear July for the game, I can make sure Part Five has some amount of conclusion (I think it will, with a nice pulp-ish "Tune in next month" kind of cliffhanger) and we can skip the weird one Eberron session in July to bring it back in August, which might work better. That would give three sessions (or four, if you don't mind running one without me and Paul at somebody else's place) for Savage Worlds, etc.
If that works out, I figure we can wrap Eberron for a while in mid-August and then return for another go-round of Ravenloft? That sound do-able to everyone? And if Nate isn't free to GM Ravenloft, maybe we can use those weeks to continue/finish up the Savage Worlds/Aces & Eights/whatever game Jason runs in July?
I guess the question is, Jason, are you up for putting a game together for July/August alternate weeks? And Nate, are you up for picking up Ravenloft in August?
Saturday, June 02, 2007
Eberron Adventure Journal: The Demons' Prophecy (2)
Therendor 5-9, YK 999
Part One - House (Cannith) Party:
Upon arrival in Fairhaven, the Wolves disembarked to run a variety of errands. Luggoth received a message from Savannah, back in Sharn, that everything was relatively stable, and that she missed him. Lysander went out and purchased an elaborate mirror for use in scrying, while everyone went out to buy some potions and scrolls for the next leg of their journey.
The next day, the Wolves showed up at the mansion reserved by House Cannith for the wedding. It was a lavish affair, attended by many members of all three branches of House Cannith. Before the ceremony, a dozen of the finest wines in Aundair flowed freely, and fire roasted vegetables from several Aundairian farms were taken around by finely-dressed waiters and waitresses.
Brand had a brief, strained conversation with his uncle, and the other Wolves got a glimpse of Url, his shifter bodyguard, who did indeed look like a dangerous individual, even though he wasn't allowed to carry any weapons into the ceremony.
Pel spent a great deal of time gathering rumors and gossip, hearing a lot of talk about Thaliost, a city lost to Thrane during the war. It was clear that many Aundarians longed to have it back, even though many admitted that Thrane has now had Thaliost for over 20 years, longer than Aurala has sat upon the throne of Aundair. Pel also picked up a simmering dislike of the Eldeen Reaches, which seceded from Aundair about forty years ago.
When he tried to gather some thoughts about the current situation in Sharn, Pel gathered that many of the Aundarians, even in the nobility and military, were somewhat nervous that this could spark another war. Many believed that King Boranel was itching for a reason to get back at Droaam for the murder of his bride Chaseva, even though no link between the Hags of Droaam and the murder had ever been fully established. Several even supported a conspiracy theory that the King's Dark Lanterns had fomented the gang war, with help from the Tyrants and the Boromar Clan, in order to set up a situation where Breland could justifiably declare war on Droaam.
After a couple of hours of mingling, the congregation was assembled in the hall, where they witnessed an elaborate swordfighting demonstration by several members of Aundarian nobility and several other members of House Cannith including the groom, Hetris d'Cannith). It slowly segued from a general display into a show wherein Hetris "rescued" his bride to be from Karrnathi soldiers and swept her up to the altar.
The rest of the ceremony was fairly standard for the Sovereign Host, as the priest praid for their future happiness, their health and the health of children to come and for the gods to make their family a beacon amongst Vassals. This last was greeted with thunderous applause from the House Cannith members in the audience. Then the guests, following instructions on cards in their seats, burned offerings in small ceramic vessels with the Celestial Crown or signs of one of the Sovereign Host gods on the bottom. The two then exchanged rings and a brief, chaste kiss before inviting the guests to join them in a feast.
After enjoying a more wine, a meal of pan-seared rabbit with a wood-nut sauce, a mushroom-rice casserole and a half-dozen different dessert pastries, the guests lined up to greet the couple, pass along gifts and enjoy the music provided by a dozen House Phiarlan bards and the dancing that comes with it. Hetris and Elaydren were especially pleased that the Wolves had commissioned an artist from Sharn to paint their portrait.
Elaydren asked the Wolves if they had seen Barron Merrix d'Cannith, and expressed some mild surprise that he didn't come, since he did accept the invitation. She asked the adventurers to carry a message with them to Sharn, but when they told her they weren't going back immediately, she decided to use a Sivis message station instead. After an hour, the couple departed on a couple of Valenar stallions to head out for their honeymoon in the country.
After the wedding, the Wolves retired to the apartment that House Orien had set up for them. Lysander set up his new mirror to try and scry the half-fiend they had encountered on the lightning rail. He saw the being, in a dark room somewhere, talking to someone in the shadows. The low, growling voice asked "Why did you try to kill Luggoth?"
"Ttemmal ordered it."
"I sent you to Ttemmal to follow my plans, not his. He's simply worried about the prophecy... Wait... we're being watched."
Before Lysander could sever the connection, the being in the shadows stepped forward, revealing himself to be a humanoid with a tiger-like head and glowing cobalt eyes. A Rakshasa, and a powerful one. He said "Well, hello there" before Lysander was able to finally cut the spell short.
A few hours later, as the Wolves slept, there was a knock on the door. Nalos Venteri was in the hall, and he told them that he had secured an airship. They were leaving in the middle of the night, rather than the morning, in case anyone had overheard their conversation and because it would be easier to slip out without anyone seeing them.
They went down to the docking tower in Fairhaven and met Captain Morris Blacksilver, the captain of the free airship The Beginner's Luck. They climbed aboard for a 20 hour flight to Flamekeep in Thrane. While they traveled, Lysander (seeing the use for an independent airship) got Sivis Message station contacts for Captain Blacksilver, who turned out to be an ex-Brelish soldier who had won the ship in a game of cards.
While on the trip, in between sleeping, Pel illuminated for the Wolves what he knew about The Demon Wastes and the Lords of Dust. He told them that there weren't many settlements in the Wastes, and the best known was a sketchy hamlet called Festering Holt. The Wastes were dominated by warring barbarian tribes, including one called the Ghaash'kala who worshipped Kalok Shash, the binding flame which might have been the same as the Silver Flame. The Ghaash'kala were charged with making sure nothing entered or left the Wastes.
The Lords of Dust were the servants of fiends who were imprisoned by the Silver Flame in the Age of Demons. The most common among them were Rakshasa, shapeshifting demons that can assume any human form and possess considerable magic powers on their own. He also revealed that he had heard that neither sword nor mace could harm them, only a spear or arrow blessed by the forces of good.
Part Two - Allies Lost and Found:
As the sun began to set in Thrane, The Beginner's Luck settled into the docking tower in Flamekeep. However, as they were climbing out of the ship, Luggoth spotted a Wanted poster which indicated a man who looked very much like Nalos (without the red hair and glasses) was wanted for multiple murders. Luggoth tore it down and passed it to Lysander, who sidled up to Nalos and put his hat of disguise on him while showing him the poster. Which, incidentally, referred to Nalos as "Lukar Drosin."
Nalos was exceedingly nervous, and explained that he had been using a cover identity, but that otherwise he had been telling them the truth. He hadn't murdered anyone, but if this had been done, clearly he had been compromised, and it was dangerous to stay with them. Even with the disguise options available to them, Nalos felt that the people looking for them might have magical abilities. His presence could compromise the Wolves, who probably had not been discovered yet. He gave them a contact for him in Korth, in Karrnath, and asked them to send him a message when they knew anything. He told them that the information they sought would probably be in the Flamekeep Archives, but he didn't know much about how to get to them.
As The Beginner's Luck departed again with Nalos on board, the Wolves heard someone yelling out. "Lysander? Is that you?" They saw a paladin of the Silver Flame walking toward them and calling out to Lysander. Then most of the Wolves recognized him as Verodin Atrelioth, the paladin they had rescued from the Cult of the Dragon Below in the previous year.
After a few pleasantries, the Wolves told Verodin what was going on. Verodin revealed that he was on his way to meet Cardinal Hetrion in Trolanport. The Cardinal, whom the Wolves had met when he restored Brand after a vampiric attack, had told Verodin not to talk to anyone else in the Church, which lined up with what Nalos had told them. When Verodin let slip that Cardinal Hetrion's first name was Ossul, they realized that the Cardinal targeted for assassination was someone they knew.
Verodin had to go to Trolanport, but he didn't think the Wolves should come with him, because of Cardinal Hetrion's instructions. The Cardinal had told him to trust only four men, and three of them had been murdered, supposedly by the fourth one. However, the news of corruption in the church did remind him what he had heard about a corrupted band of ex-paladins and clerics from many years ago, a fanatical group named The Order of Cleansing Flame. He didn't know anything else about them, but knew that all that information should be in the archives. He gave them a few names and places to use in Flamekeep that would help them find some information about the Archives.
Part Three - The Flamekeep Archives:
The Wolves went into town and found an inn that Verodin had recommended. While Luggoth used the hat of disguise to appear as Gareth and buy weapons for dealing with the Rakshasa, the others spent about half the day checking in on Verodin's contacts and others.
After spending a few hours, they learned that the Church stored all of its documents and records in a heavily guarded, enclosed chamber inside the Shining Cathedral. The only way to walk through its walls is to be a Cardinal, and to be detected as the purest worshipper of the Silver Flame. However, there were rumors that even some of the Cardinals are not pure enough to walk directly into these record chambers. For this reason, the Flamekeep Archives were created. They were built by House Kundarak, and the entrance was guarded and trapped, passable only by a series of safeguards. Rumor had it that they are either underground or extradimensional in nature.
As far as accessing the Archives, they learned that Some five miles from Flamekeep itself, there was an understated hovel belonging to a hermit named Erv. Many citizens of Flamekeep know about Erv, but few knew that Erv is in fact an agent of the Silver Flame charged with guarding access to the Flamekeep Archives. They also learned about a few of the security measures. Each High Cardinal had a medallion that would identify them to some of the security measures, and they also got a series of passwords that were generated by House Kundarak and passed along by courier every day.
Seeking information on House Kundarak, the Wolves did another three hours of research and found out that intercepting the Kundarak courier was no easy task. When the package was sent, the new passwords don't take effect until all of the High Cardinals had received them, signed the piece of paper, and had it returned to the Kundarak enclave. The password document, once signed, was sealed with a glyph of warding by the courier, and was not opened until it is presented to the six Kundarak wizards charged with Flamekeep security inside the Kundarak enclave. In addition, Lysander checked in with one of his contacts in Flamekeep to find out about a few useful things for breaking into the Archives, which included adamantine weapons, waterbreathing magic, protection from fire and some kind of teleportation.
Luggoth decided to pick up masterwork weapons that could be blessed when holy weapons turned out to be too expensive.
Pel and Lysander used their disguise abilities to pose as "peasants" and visit Erv, but he quickly saw through their ruse and told them to go. That night, the Wolves spent several hours formulating a plan to intercept the couriers and get the code phrases.
While Brand went and picked up an adamantine longsword, the rest of the Wolves went through the first part of the plan. Pel kept an eye on House Kundarak, communicating with Lysander and the others using their rings of communication.
When six couriers emerged from House Kundarak, Pel picked one at random then followed him on his route. He found a blind alley on the route and marked it with chalk so that the other Wolves could get ready. Pel saw him go into House Kundarak and then, after a short time later, he emerged with the rest of the couriers.
Lysander stepped into the alley when the courier did and fired off a sleep spell, which put the dwarf right out. The others rushed in, Pel disabled the glyph and they got the information out. They found two number codes and two words, each tagged with "Archives" and "Library." Maechen also got a flash that he should cast Detect Magic on the paper, and when he did it glowed purple, although that faded when his spell did.
Pel then shapechanged into the dwarf, recast the glyph of warding from his scroll, and then poured a dose of dreamlily into the courier to cast suspicion on him. While the rest of the Wolves secured the doped up, sleeping courier, Pel walked back up to the Kundarak enclave, meeting up with the other couriers. They said that he had been the one who got the codes today, and sent him in, which revealed to Pel that he had lucked out and picked the only courier who had actual codes.
Once in, Pel dropped off the codes and left. One of the wizards asked him how his wife was, and he gave a non-committal answer, which seemed to confuse them, but let him get out.
The Wolves geared up and headed out to Erv's shack, disguising themselves as a Cardinal and his retinue. However, they didn't fool Erv for long, and as soon as the door was opened, he attacked Pel.
The Wolves rushed in and attacked Erv, who began fighting with monk abilities. He dodged most of the attacks from Maechen, Brand, Pel and Lysander, but he couldn't duck Luggoth's greatsword, and he was taking quite a beating without dishing out enough damage to Luggoth in return. Finally, with Pel firing spells out of his wand and Luggoth slashing and smacking Erv, the monk dropped, unconscious but alive.
XP:
Pel 1920 XP
Luggoth 1920 XP
Maechen 1920 XP
Lysander 1620 XP
Brand 960 XP
Part One - House (Cannith) Party:
Upon arrival in Fairhaven, the Wolves disembarked to run a variety of errands. Luggoth received a message from Savannah, back in Sharn, that everything was relatively stable, and that she missed him. Lysander went out and purchased an elaborate mirror for use in scrying, while everyone went out to buy some potions and scrolls for the next leg of their journey.
The next day, the Wolves showed up at the mansion reserved by House Cannith for the wedding. It was a lavish affair, attended by many members of all three branches of House Cannith. Before the ceremony, a dozen of the finest wines in Aundair flowed freely, and fire roasted vegetables from several Aundairian farms were taken around by finely-dressed waiters and waitresses.
Brand had a brief, strained conversation with his uncle, and the other Wolves got a glimpse of Url, his shifter bodyguard, who did indeed look like a dangerous individual, even though he wasn't allowed to carry any weapons into the ceremony.
Pel spent a great deal of time gathering rumors and gossip, hearing a lot of talk about Thaliost, a city lost to Thrane during the war. It was clear that many Aundarians longed to have it back, even though many admitted that Thrane has now had Thaliost for over 20 years, longer than Aurala has sat upon the throne of Aundair. Pel also picked up a simmering dislike of the Eldeen Reaches, which seceded from Aundair about forty years ago.
When he tried to gather some thoughts about the current situation in Sharn, Pel gathered that many of the Aundarians, even in the nobility and military, were somewhat nervous that this could spark another war. Many believed that King Boranel was itching for a reason to get back at Droaam for the murder of his bride Chaseva, even though no link between the Hags of Droaam and the murder had ever been fully established. Several even supported a conspiracy theory that the King's Dark Lanterns had fomented the gang war, with help from the Tyrants and the Boromar Clan, in order to set up a situation where Breland could justifiably declare war on Droaam.
After a couple of hours of mingling, the congregation was assembled in the hall, where they witnessed an elaborate swordfighting demonstration by several members of Aundarian nobility and several other members of House Cannith including the groom, Hetris d'Cannith). It slowly segued from a general display into a show wherein Hetris "rescued" his bride to be from Karrnathi soldiers and swept her up to the altar.
The rest of the ceremony was fairly standard for the Sovereign Host, as the priest praid for their future happiness, their health and the health of children to come and for the gods to make their family a beacon amongst Vassals. This last was greeted with thunderous applause from the House Cannith members in the audience. Then the guests, following instructions on cards in their seats, burned offerings in small ceramic vessels with the Celestial Crown or signs of one of the Sovereign Host gods on the bottom. The two then exchanged rings and a brief, chaste kiss before inviting the guests to join them in a feast.
After enjoying a more wine, a meal of pan-seared rabbit with a wood-nut sauce, a mushroom-rice casserole and a half-dozen different dessert pastries, the guests lined up to greet the couple, pass along gifts and enjoy the music provided by a dozen House Phiarlan bards and the dancing that comes with it. Hetris and Elaydren were especially pleased that the Wolves had commissioned an artist from Sharn to paint their portrait.
Elaydren asked the Wolves if they had seen Barron Merrix d'Cannith, and expressed some mild surprise that he didn't come, since he did accept the invitation. She asked the adventurers to carry a message with them to Sharn, but when they told her they weren't going back immediately, she decided to use a Sivis message station instead. After an hour, the couple departed on a couple of Valenar stallions to head out for their honeymoon in the country.
After the wedding, the Wolves retired to the apartment that House Orien had set up for them. Lysander set up his new mirror to try and scry the half-fiend they had encountered on the lightning rail. He saw the being, in a dark room somewhere, talking to someone in the shadows. The low, growling voice asked "Why did you try to kill Luggoth?"
"Ttemmal ordered it."
"I sent you to Ttemmal to follow my plans, not his. He's simply worried about the prophecy... Wait... we're being watched."
Before Lysander could sever the connection, the being in the shadows stepped forward, revealing himself to be a humanoid with a tiger-like head and glowing cobalt eyes. A Rakshasa, and a powerful one. He said "Well, hello there" before Lysander was able to finally cut the spell short.
A few hours later, as the Wolves slept, there was a knock on the door. Nalos Venteri was in the hall, and he told them that he had secured an airship. They were leaving in the middle of the night, rather than the morning, in case anyone had overheard their conversation and because it would be easier to slip out without anyone seeing them.
They went down to the docking tower in Fairhaven and met Captain Morris Blacksilver, the captain of the free airship The Beginner's Luck. They climbed aboard for a 20 hour flight to Flamekeep in Thrane. While they traveled, Lysander (seeing the use for an independent airship) got Sivis Message station contacts for Captain Blacksilver, who turned out to be an ex-Brelish soldier who had won the ship in a game of cards.
While on the trip, in between sleeping, Pel illuminated for the Wolves what he knew about The Demon Wastes and the Lords of Dust. He told them that there weren't many settlements in the Wastes, and the best known was a sketchy hamlet called Festering Holt. The Wastes were dominated by warring barbarian tribes, including one called the Ghaash'kala who worshipped Kalok Shash, the binding flame which might have been the same as the Silver Flame. The Ghaash'kala were charged with making sure nothing entered or left the Wastes.
The Lords of Dust were the servants of fiends who were imprisoned by the Silver Flame in the Age of Demons. The most common among them were Rakshasa, shapeshifting demons that can assume any human form and possess considerable magic powers on their own. He also revealed that he had heard that neither sword nor mace could harm them, only a spear or arrow blessed by the forces of good.
Part Two - Allies Lost and Found:
As the sun began to set in Thrane, The Beginner's Luck settled into the docking tower in Flamekeep. However, as they were climbing out of the ship, Luggoth spotted a Wanted poster which indicated a man who looked very much like Nalos (without the red hair and glasses) was wanted for multiple murders. Luggoth tore it down and passed it to Lysander, who sidled up to Nalos and put his hat of disguise on him while showing him the poster. Which, incidentally, referred to Nalos as "Lukar Drosin."
Nalos was exceedingly nervous, and explained that he had been using a cover identity, but that otherwise he had been telling them the truth. He hadn't murdered anyone, but if this had been done, clearly he had been compromised, and it was dangerous to stay with them. Even with the disguise options available to them, Nalos felt that the people looking for them might have magical abilities. His presence could compromise the Wolves, who probably had not been discovered yet. He gave them a contact for him in Korth, in Karrnath, and asked them to send him a message when they knew anything. He told them that the information they sought would probably be in the Flamekeep Archives, but he didn't know much about how to get to them.
As The Beginner's Luck departed again with Nalos on board, the Wolves heard someone yelling out. "Lysander? Is that you?" They saw a paladin of the Silver Flame walking toward them and calling out to Lysander. Then most of the Wolves recognized him as Verodin Atrelioth, the paladin they had rescued from the Cult of the Dragon Below in the previous year.
After a few pleasantries, the Wolves told Verodin what was going on. Verodin revealed that he was on his way to meet Cardinal Hetrion in Trolanport. The Cardinal, whom the Wolves had met when he restored Brand after a vampiric attack, had told Verodin not to talk to anyone else in the Church, which lined up with what Nalos had told them. When Verodin let slip that Cardinal Hetrion's first name was Ossul, they realized that the Cardinal targeted for assassination was someone they knew.
Verodin had to go to Trolanport, but he didn't think the Wolves should come with him, because of Cardinal Hetrion's instructions. The Cardinal had told him to trust only four men, and three of them had been murdered, supposedly by the fourth one. However, the news of corruption in the church did remind him what he had heard about a corrupted band of ex-paladins and clerics from many years ago, a fanatical group named The Order of Cleansing Flame. He didn't know anything else about them, but knew that all that information should be in the archives. He gave them a few names and places to use in Flamekeep that would help them find some information about the Archives.
Part Three - The Flamekeep Archives:
The Wolves went into town and found an inn that Verodin had recommended. While Luggoth used the hat of disguise to appear as Gareth and buy weapons for dealing with the Rakshasa, the others spent about half the day checking in on Verodin's contacts and others.
After spending a few hours, they learned that the Church stored all of its documents and records in a heavily guarded, enclosed chamber inside the Shining Cathedral. The only way to walk through its walls is to be a Cardinal, and to be detected as the purest worshipper of the Silver Flame. However, there were rumors that even some of the Cardinals are not pure enough to walk directly into these record chambers. For this reason, the Flamekeep Archives were created. They were built by House Kundarak, and the entrance was guarded and trapped, passable only by a series of safeguards. Rumor had it that they are either underground or extradimensional in nature.
As far as accessing the Archives, they learned that Some five miles from Flamekeep itself, there was an understated hovel belonging to a hermit named Erv. Many citizens of Flamekeep know about Erv, but few knew that Erv is in fact an agent of the Silver Flame charged with guarding access to the Flamekeep Archives. They also learned about a few of the security measures. Each High Cardinal had a medallion that would identify them to some of the security measures, and they also got a series of passwords that were generated by House Kundarak and passed along by courier every day.
Seeking information on House Kundarak, the Wolves did another three hours of research and found out that intercepting the Kundarak courier was no easy task. When the package was sent, the new passwords don't take effect until all of the High Cardinals had received them, signed the piece of paper, and had it returned to the Kundarak enclave. The password document, once signed, was sealed with a glyph of warding by the courier, and was not opened until it is presented to the six Kundarak wizards charged with Flamekeep security inside the Kundarak enclave. In addition, Lysander checked in with one of his contacts in Flamekeep to find out about a few useful things for breaking into the Archives, which included adamantine weapons, waterbreathing magic, protection from fire and some kind of teleportation.
Luggoth decided to pick up masterwork weapons that could be blessed when holy weapons turned out to be too expensive.
Pel and Lysander used their disguise abilities to pose as "peasants" and visit Erv, but he quickly saw through their ruse and told them to go. That night, the Wolves spent several hours formulating a plan to intercept the couriers and get the code phrases.
While Brand went and picked up an adamantine longsword, the rest of the Wolves went through the first part of the plan. Pel kept an eye on House Kundarak, communicating with Lysander and the others using their rings of communication.
When six couriers emerged from House Kundarak, Pel picked one at random then followed him on his route. He found a blind alley on the route and marked it with chalk so that the other Wolves could get ready. Pel saw him go into House Kundarak and then, after a short time later, he emerged with the rest of the couriers.
Lysander stepped into the alley when the courier did and fired off a sleep spell, which put the dwarf right out. The others rushed in, Pel disabled the glyph and they got the information out. They found two number codes and two words, each tagged with "Archives" and "Library." Maechen also got a flash that he should cast Detect Magic on the paper, and when he did it glowed purple, although that faded when his spell did.
Pel then shapechanged into the dwarf, recast the glyph of warding from his scroll, and then poured a dose of dreamlily into the courier to cast suspicion on him. While the rest of the Wolves secured the doped up, sleeping courier, Pel walked back up to the Kundarak enclave, meeting up with the other couriers. They said that he had been the one who got the codes today, and sent him in, which revealed to Pel that he had lucked out and picked the only courier who had actual codes.
Once in, Pel dropped off the codes and left. One of the wizards asked him how his wife was, and he gave a non-committal answer, which seemed to confuse them, but let him get out.
The Wolves geared up and headed out to Erv's shack, disguising themselves as a Cardinal and his retinue. However, they didn't fool Erv for long, and as soon as the door was opened, he attacked Pel.
The Wolves rushed in and attacked Erv, who began fighting with monk abilities. He dodged most of the attacks from Maechen, Brand, Pel and Lysander, but he couldn't duck Luggoth's greatsword, and he was taking quite a beating without dishing out enough damage to Luggoth in return. Finally, with Pel firing spells out of his wand and Luggoth slashing and smacking Erv, the monk dropped, unconscious but alive.
XP:
Pel 1920 XP
Luggoth 1920 XP
Maechen 1920 XP
Lysander 1620 XP
Brand 960 XP
Monday, May 28, 2007
Brand Updated
Brand is updated for whoever might play him on Friday. I added a few notes in the comments section on a few of his strategies along with a breakdown of his many attacks when using 2 weapons. Enjoy!
Saturday, May 26, 2007
Eberron Adventure Journal: The Demons' Prophecy
Olarune 22 - Therendor 4, YK 999
Part One - Fire on the Five Nations Express:
With two weeks to go before the wedding, the Wolves finished making preparations for the wedding, as well as other business while out of town. Those who didn't already have fine clothing purchased tailored outfits from Davandi Fine Tailoring in Upper Menthis. Meanwhile, Lysander called in a favor to get Sharis d'Orien, a member of the Entertainer's Guild, to spend the next week in Sharn looking for William.
As previously arranged, the Wolves went and met merchant Tyman Karch, who was on his way back to Aundair via the Five Nations Express, and signed on as his personal security. Karch was impressed with what he'd heard of the Wolves' skill, and Brand had gotten a recommendation from the Head of Security in Sharn's Orien enclave to boot. The Wolves were able to stay in one of the rooms in the first class coach, while Karch and his wife Miala stayed in another and his two children, Arabesque and Garren, stayed in the middle room with Karch's personal assistant Ollander Finch.
The first leg of the journey began early in the afternoon in Sharn, and the trip took about seven hours to arrive in the Brelish city of Wroat. Along the way, Brand chatted with the Orien security, and discovered that one of them, a man named Hervar, had bet his fellow security 10 gp each that with the Wolves aboard, the train would have some kind of accident.
Tyman's children very much enjoyed playing with Whitehearth and were fascinated by Luggoth, much to the chagrin of their keeper Ollander Finch.
Lysander decided to explore the train a little bit, but didn't get any further than the other first class cart, where he was stopped by a pair of mages, some House Cannith scions and some lower Brelish royalty who recognized him and pleaded with him to perform some of his music and stories from his recent tour. Bowing to his newfound fame, Lysander spent much of his time that day in one of the dining rooms, playing for the occupants of the first class cart as well as Luggoth, Maechen and Brand.
Pel spent much of his time aboard the lighting rail speaking with Tyman Karch about potential real estate purchases and a holding company he was planning on setting up in Sharn. Karch was cautious, perhaps even skeptical, but definitely interested, and provided Pel with a Sivis message station in Fairhaven where his assistant often checked and sent messages.
The Wolves took their security duties seriously, watching at each stop to see who climbed aboard and departed the Five Nations express and checking several of the other carts, but there didn't seem to be anything amiss. Stops in Hatheril and Sword Keep in Breland were uneventful, as was the first stop in Aundair in Marketplace.
After about two days of travel, the Wolves had not grown complacent, but they were starting to believe they might get out of the journey without some kind of incident. Then, very early in the morning, about halfway between Marketplace and Passage in Aundair, the incident found them.
About five hours after leaving Marketplace, with the moon high in the sky, the Five Nations Express was passing foothills and the Eldritch Grove, with the Tower Vigilant about fifty miles in the distance. Little did anyone aboard the train know that someone had been waiting for them to pass this point.
While most of the Wolves were sleeping, Luggoth and Lysander were on late watch, and they could tell immediately that something was wrong when the roar of the elemental ring stopped and the train began slowing down. Luggoth and Lysander quickly woke their charges, with Luggoth getting the merchant and his wife to their washroom and Lysander helping Ollander to carry the sleeping children to the same washroom so they would all be together. Brand woke on his own, having detected the change in sound, and he looked out the window to confirm that the lightning ring was out before yelling a warning. Maechen began to stir, but Arenydee and Pel were still meditating and sleeping, respectively.
As Luggoth climbed out onto the front of the cart, the rest of the Wolves began to wake in their chamber, and Brand walked to the rear of the cart to see if there was anything noteworthy there.
Seconds later, there was, as a huge fire elemental roared to life alongside the slowing train and began walking to keep up. Luggoth drew his bow and began firing, and Maechen unleashed magic missiles out his window, but the powerful strikes seemed more or less absorbed into the arcane monstrosity. Brand activated his dragonmark to teleport to the roof alongside Whitehearth and drew his bow to join in, while inside, Arenydee and Pel began hastily donning their armor.
Another huge elemental flared to life on the other side of the cart while the first swung his fiery fists into Luggoth, scorching and bludgeoning him. Luggoth shifted into his bestial form, continuing to pour arrow fire into the creature, as Maechen (nudged by Pel) grabbed a stoneskin scroll from Pel's case and began rushing down the corridor toward the besieged shifter. Brand began firing arrows at the first elemental as well.
Another blow from the elemental set Luggoth on fire, and he stepped back into the center of the platform, away from the elementals' reach, to put himself out. Lysander pulled out his bow and began firing at the newly arrived elemental while Brand drank a potion of fire resistance, slinging his bow and drawing his swords.
Pel, suspecting treachery from one of the mages in the other first class cabin, cast a scroll of keen edge on his scimitar and burst in, only to find that no one seemed to be awake.
Then a fiendish being appeared in the sky, his invisibility dropping as he unleashed a supernatural blight on Maechen, Lysander and Luggoth. The enemy was clearly fiendish in nature, with red-tinged skin and leathery bat wings. Seeing this, Luggoth downed a potion of haste for a longer battle, and Lysander loosed an arrow from his bow, pinning one of the fiend's arms to his chest. Maechen rushed outside and cast his stoneskin scroll on Luggoth before preparing a lightning bolt spell, which bounced seemingly harmlessly off the fiend.
As Brand engaged the first elemental in hand-to-hand combat using his rapier and short sword, the other elemental got past his guard, climbing on top of the roof and punching him hard in the back, which gave the other elemental an opening to smash him as well. He was protected from their fire effects, fortunately, but would still be bruised in the morning.
The fiendish being called something out in a guttural language none of the Wolves recognized, and the elementals changed their targets, focusing in on Luggoth. As Lysander began singing an inspiring ballad, Arenydee finished putting her armor on and Pel charged up the ladder to the roof to join the fight.
The fiend tried to free his arm as he continued to fly upwards, battered by arrow fire from Luggoth and Lysander as he did so.
One of the elementals began pounding and burning holes in the roof, trying to get to Maechen inside, while the other pounded on Luggoth with burning fists. Maechen fired off ice knife and magic missile while Brand continued to slice away and Pel cast spider-climb to rush around and begin using healing magic on the wounded Luggoth.
The stoneskin kept Luggoth alive, but he was still taking quite a beating, and finally he gave up on firing his bow at the fiend and instead pulled out his greatsword to begin counter-attacking the elemental. Meanwhile, Arenydee moved to protect their charges, moving them out of the washroom near the battle and back into the one at the rear of the train.
As the fiend finally freed his arm, he began casting a spell, dodging an arrow fired at Lysander to disrupt and vanishing, the result of either teleportation or invisibility. Lysander then rushed up the ladder and drew his rapier, ready to engage the elementals in melee. One of them took advantage of Maechen ducking out to fire magic missiles and smashed both fists down onto him, nearly killing the mage and setting fire to him as well. Maechen stumbled back, putting himself out, and drank a potion of healing before firing back with magic missiles and a grease spell that he hoped to use to trip the elemental off the train.
As Lysander and Pel both began casting healing magic on Luggoth, the enraged shifter finally managed to destroy the first elemental. Calming briefly, he drank a strong healing potion before charging back into battle against the other one, joining Brand and Lysander, both of whom had already changed targets.
Pel began firing his wand of magic missiles at the elemental, and it couldn't long stand the combined assault of the Wolves using magic and blade. However, with a growl of frustration, it stopped punching holes in the roof attempting to catch Maechen as he dodged out of the way, and instead thrust both of its massive arms into the interior, causing the hallway to catch fire. This was its last act, as Luggoth landed a few more deadly blows before Pel finally evaporated the elemental with a burst of magic missiles.
Lysander yelled out to warn everyone about the fire, and Brand began rushing down to get to the area as Pel rushed through into the merchant's room and soaked the blanket from their bed in water from the washroom. Lysander soaked one of the other blankets, and the two of them handed them out into the hallway to Brand, still protected from fire, who used the soaked blankets to put out the fire before it could spread.
The Wolves rushed to the front of the lighting rail to see what had gone wrong and found that all of the crew were unconscious, although alive. Neither Pel nor Lysander could easily identify the magic used, but Maechen stepped forward and suggested that it was a powerful evil spell known as Blasphemy, which would have temporarily banished the bound elemental and potentially killed or at least stunned the crew, as long the caster was on his native plane. Maechen suggested that this meant that the creature had been only half-fiendish, native to this plane. Sure enough, after a couple of minutes, the crew woke back up and the air elemental powering the lightning rail flared back to life as well. The train was back underway, and everyone returned to bed, except for Luggoth, who stayed up to watch over the merchant and his family.
Part Two - Agent of the Silver Flame:
A few hours later, before they had arrived in Passage, there was a knock at the Wolves' door. When they opened the door, they saw one of the mages from the first class cart, a red-haired gentleman in spectacles and fine traveling clothes, bearing a holy symbol of the Silver Flame. "Hello, my name is Nalos Venteri. I'm an agent of the Silver Flame, and it is very urgent that I speak to you in private. May I come in?"
Though the Wolves were wary, especially Luggoth, they let Nalos into their cabin so he could talk to them. Venteri explained that he had been trying to talk to them since just before they left Sharn. He had heard rumors of an assassination plot against a High Cardinal named Ossul, and had done some digging while in Sharn on business.
In Sharn, he discovered that it was worse than he thought: Someone high up in the church was behind the plot, and they planned on framing Luggoth for the crime. Doing a little digging, he found out about Luggoth, his family and the atrocity that wiped out his tribe. He told Luggoth that he believed a corrupted splinter of the Silver Flame killed his tribe, which served to confirm what Pel had learned from communion with his god.
Nalos also revealed that he had been attacked by the half-fiend while in Sharn, but that he had managed to escape. He was going to try and talk to the Wolves before they got onboard the Five Nations Express, but he couldn't catch them in time, and since then he's been waiting for a quiet moment. With corrupt and most likely high-placed servants of the Flame involved, Nalos had already been seeking outside help, and now that the half-fiend knew that he was on the case, he worried about who else might be watching.
Nalos asked if the Wolves would accompany him to Thrane to try and find out who was behind the conspiracy to assassinate Cardinal Ossul. He explained that he believed it to be someone extremely high up in the church hierarchy, perhaps even an Archbishop or Bishop seeking to eliminate Ossul to move up the ladder to the Council of Cardinals.
Given that the Wolves were currently uninvolved, Nalos suggested that they should attend Elaydren's wedding, and not let on that they had met him. If there were spies watching them, they'd have no way of knowing that Nalos had contacted the Wolves. He told them that while they attended the wedding, he would secure them transport to Thrane, and come and get them the day after the wedding.
The Wolves agreed, and Nalos went back to his cabin. The rest of the trip was uneventful, and on 4 Therendor, the Five Nations Express pulled into the station in Fairhaven.
XP:
Luggoth 900 XP
Lysander 900 XP
Brand 1120 XP
Pel 1120 XP
Maechen 1120 XP
Arenydee 675 XP
Part One - Fire on the Five Nations Express:
With two weeks to go before the wedding, the Wolves finished making preparations for the wedding, as well as other business while out of town. Those who didn't already have fine clothing purchased tailored outfits from Davandi Fine Tailoring in Upper Menthis. Meanwhile, Lysander called in a favor to get Sharis d'Orien, a member of the Entertainer's Guild, to spend the next week in Sharn looking for William.
As previously arranged, the Wolves went and met merchant Tyman Karch, who was on his way back to Aundair via the Five Nations Express, and signed on as his personal security. Karch was impressed with what he'd heard of the Wolves' skill, and Brand had gotten a recommendation from the Head of Security in Sharn's Orien enclave to boot. The Wolves were able to stay in one of the rooms in the first class coach, while Karch and his wife Miala stayed in another and his two children, Arabesque and Garren, stayed in the middle room with Karch's personal assistant Ollander Finch.
The first leg of the journey began early in the afternoon in Sharn, and the trip took about seven hours to arrive in the Brelish city of Wroat. Along the way, Brand chatted with the Orien security, and discovered that one of them, a man named Hervar, had bet his fellow security 10 gp each that with the Wolves aboard, the train would have some kind of accident.
Tyman's children very much enjoyed playing with Whitehearth and were fascinated by Luggoth, much to the chagrin of their keeper Ollander Finch.
Lysander decided to explore the train a little bit, but didn't get any further than the other first class cart, where he was stopped by a pair of mages, some House Cannith scions and some lower Brelish royalty who recognized him and pleaded with him to perform some of his music and stories from his recent tour. Bowing to his newfound fame, Lysander spent much of his time that day in one of the dining rooms, playing for the occupants of the first class cart as well as Luggoth, Maechen and Brand.
Pel spent much of his time aboard the lighting rail speaking with Tyman Karch about potential real estate purchases and a holding company he was planning on setting up in Sharn. Karch was cautious, perhaps even skeptical, but definitely interested, and provided Pel with a Sivis message station in Fairhaven where his assistant often checked and sent messages.
The Wolves took their security duties seriously, watching at each stop to see who climbed aboard and departed the Five Nations express and checking several of the other carts, but there didn't seem to be anything amiss. Stops in Hatheril and Sword Keep in Breland were uneventful, as was the first stop in Aundair in Marketplace.
After about two days of travel, the Wolves had not grown complacent, but they were starting to believe they might get out of the journey without some kind of incident. Then, very early in the morning, about halfway between Marketplace and Passage in Aundair, the incident found them.
About five hours after leaving Marketplace, with the moon high in the sky, the Five Nations Express was passing foothills and the Eldritch Grove, with the Tower Vigilant about fifty miles in the distance. Little did anyone aboard the train know that someone had been waiting for them to pass this point.
While most of the Wolves were sleeping, Luggoth and Lysander were on late watch, and they could tell immediately that something was wrong when the roar of the elemental ring stopped and the train began slowing down. Luggoth and Lysander quickly woke their charges, with Luggoth getting the merchant and his wife to their washroom and Lysander helping Ollander to carry the sleeping children to the same washroom so they would all be together. Brand woke on his own, having detected the change in sound, and he looked out the window to confirm that the lightning ring was out before yelling a warning. Maechen began to stir, but Arenydee and Pel were still meditating and sleeping, respectively.
As Luggoth climbed out onto the front of the cart, the rest of the Wolves began to wake in their chamber, and Brand walked to the rear of the cart to see if there was anything noteworthy there.
Seconds later, there was, as a huge fire elemental roared to life alongside the slowing train and began walking to keep up. Luggoth drew his bow and began firing, and Maechen unleashed magic missiles out his window, but the powerful strikes seemed more or less absorbed into the arcane monstrosity. Brand activated his dragonmark to teleport to the roof alongside Whitehearth and drew his bow to join in, while inside, Arenydee and Pel began hastily donning their armor.
Another huge elemental flared to life on the other side of the cart while the first swung his fiery fists into Luggoth, scorching and bludgeoning him. Luggoth shifted into his bestial form, continuing to pour arrow fire into the creature, as Maechen (nudged by Pel) grabbed a stoneskin scroll from Pel's case and began rushing down the corridor toward the besieged shifter. Brand began firing arrows at the first elemental as well.
Another blow from the elemental set Luggoth on fire, and he stepped back into the center of the platform, away from the elementals' reach, to put himself out. Lysander pulled out his bow and began firing at the newly arrived elemental while Brand drank a potion of fire resistance, slinging his bow and drawing his swords.
Pel, suspecting treachery from one of the mages in the other first class cabin, cast a scroll of keen edge on his scimitar and burst in, only to find that no one seemed to be awake.
Then a fiendish being appeared in the sky, his invisibility dropping as he unleashed a supernatural blight on Maechen, Lysander and Luggoth. The enemy was clearly fiendish in nature, with red-tinged skin and leathery bat wings. Seeing this, Luggoth downed a potion of haste for a longer battle, and Lysander loosed an arrow from his bow, pinning one of the fiend's arms to his chest. Maechen rushed outside and cast his stoneskin scroll on Luggoth before preparing a lightning bolt spell, which bounced seemingly harmlessly off the fiend.
As Brand engaged the first elemental in hand-to-hand combat using his rapier and short sword, the other elemental got past his guard, climbing on top of the roof and punching him hard in the back, which gave the other elemental an opening to smash him as well. He was protected from their fire effects, fortunately, but would still be bruised in the morning.
The fiendish being called something out in a guttural language none of the Wolves recognized, and the elementals changed their targets, focusing in on Luggoth. As Lysander began singing an inspiring ballad, Arenydee finished putting her armor on and Pel charged up the ladder to the roof to join the fight.
The fiend tried to free his arm as he continued to fly upwards, battered by arrow fire from Luggoth and Lysander as he did so.
One of the elementals began pounding and burning holes in the roof, trying to get to Maechen inside, while the other pounded on Luggoth with burning fists. Maechen fired off ice knife and magic missile while Brand continued to slice away and Pel cast spider-climb to rush around and begin using healing magic on the wounded Luggoth.
The stoneskin kept Luggoth alive, but he was still taking quite a beating, and finally he gave up on firing his bow at the fiend and instead pulled out his greatsword to begin counter-attacking the elemental. Meanwhile, Arenydee moved to protect their charges, moving them out of the washroom near the battle and back into the one at the rear of the train.
As the fiend finally freed his arm, he began casting a spell, dodging an arrow fired at Lysander to disrupt and vanishing, the result of either teleportation or invisibility. Lysander then rushed up the ladder and drew his rapier, ready to engage the elementals in melee. One of them took advantage of Maechen ducking out to fire magic missiles and smashed both fists down onto him, nearly killing the mage and setting fire to him as well. Maechen stumbled back, putting himself out, and drank a potion of healing before firing back with magic missiles and a grease spell that he hoped to use to trip the elemental off the train.
As Lysander and Pel both began casting healing magic on Luggoth, the enraged shifter finally managed to destroy the first elemental. Calming briefly, he drank a strong healing potion before charging back into battle against the other one, joining Brand and Lysander, both of whom had already changed targets.
Pel began firing his wand of magic missiles at the elemental, and it couldn't long stand the combined assault of the Wolves using magic and blade. However, with a growl of frustration, it stopped punching holes in the roof attempting to catch Maechen as he dodged out of the way, and instead thrust both of its massive arms into the interior, causing the hallway to catch fire. This was its last act, as Luggoth landed a few more deadly blows before Pel finally evaporated the elemental with a burst of magic missiles.
Lysander yelled out to warn everyone about the fire, and Brand began rushing down to get to the area as Pel rushed through into the merchant's room and soaked the blanket from their bed in water from the washroom. Lysander soaked one of the other blankets, and the two of them handed them out into the hallway to Brand, still protected from fire, who used the soaked blankets to put out the fire before it could spread.
The Wolves rushed to the front of the lighting rail to see what had gone wrong and found that all of the crew were unconscious, although alive. Neither Pel nor Lysander could easily identify the magic used, but Maechen stepped forward and suggested that it was a powerful evil spell known as Blasphemy, which would have temporarily banished the bound elemental and potentially killed or at least stunned the crew, as long the caster was on his native plane. Maechen suggested that this meant that the creature had been only half-fiendish, native to this plane. Sure enough, after a couple of minutes, the crew woke back up and the air elemental powering the lightning rail flared back to life as well. The train was back underway, and everyone returned to bed, except for Luggoth, who stayed up to watch over the merchant and his family.
Part Two - Agent of the Silver Flame:
A few hours later, before they had arrived in Passage, there was a knock at the Wolves' door. When they opened the door, they saw one of the mages from the first class cart, a red-haired gentleman in spectacles and fine traveling clothes, bearing a holy symbol of the Silver Flame. "Hello, my name is Nalos Venteri. I'm an agent of the Silver Flame, and it is very urgent that I speak to you in private. May I come in?"
Though the Wolves were wary, especially Luggoth, they let Nalos into their cabin so he could talk to them. Venteri explained that he had been trying to talk to them since just before they left Sharn. He had heard rumors of an assassination plot against a High Cardinal named Ossul, and had done some digging while in Sharn on business.
In Sharn, he discovered that it was worse than he thought: Someone high up in the church was behind the plot, and they planned on framing Luggoth for the crime. Doing a little digging, he found out about Luggoth, his family and the atrocity that wiped out his tribe. He told Luggoth that he believed a corrupted splinter of the Silver Flame killed his tribe, which served to confirm what Pel had learned from communion with his god.
Nalos also revealed that he had been attacked by the half-fiend while in Sharn, but that he had managed to escape. He was going to try and talk to the Wolves before they got onboard the Five Nations Express, but he couldn't catch them in time, and since then he's been waiting for a quiet moment. With corrupt and most likely high-placed servants of the Flame involved, Nalos had already been seeking outside help, and now that the half-fiend knew that he was on the case, he worried about who else might be watching.
Nalos asked if the Wolves would accompany him to Thrane to try and find out who was behind the conspiracy to assassinate Cardinal Ossul. He explained that he believed it to be someone extremely high up in the church hierarchy, perhaps even an Archbishop or Bishop seeking to eliminate Ossul to move up the ladder to the Council of Cardinals.
Given that the Wolves were currently uninvolved, Nalos suggested that they should attend Elaydren's wedding, and not let on that they had met him. If there were spies watching them, they'd have no way of knowing that Nalos had contacted the Wolves. He told them that while they attended the wedding, he would secure them transport to Thrane, and come and get them the day after the wedding.
The Wolves agreed, and Nalos went back to his cabin. The rest of the trip was uneventful, and on 4 Therendor, the Five Nations Express pulled into the station in Fairhaven.
XP:
Luggoth 900 XP
Lysander 900 XP
Brand 1120 XP
Pel 1120 XP
Maechen 1120 XP
Arenydee 675 XP
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
Communion
Olarune 18, YK 999
Upon Lysander's return to Sharn he is approached by a messenger bearing a note. It reads:
"My dear friend L,
As I am aware from some of our private conversations that, in matters of faith, you are somewhat dubious, allow me to invite you to witness a brief ritual that might shed some light upon my own recent re-dedication.
If you would at your earliest convenience proceed to the address below, I will be pleased to provide you a demonstration as well as with a delicious repast as we discuss it's ramifications.
The apartment belongs to one of my flock who is currently away and has generously loaned it to me for this purpose. He is a individual of great discretion so it would be best if you would disguise yourself and insure you are not followed on your way here.
I and He who walks among us await you patiently.
Faithfully yours,
P"
When Lys arrives (Jase and I agreed over the phone just that now he would) Pel shows him in and pours them both some wine. After some brief pleasantries he says, "Well, let's to it then, shall we?"
Secure behind the arcane protections of Malfiore LeQuande's locked and bolted apartment doors, and with his fellow Wolf at the alert, Pel bows before his private altar to the Traveler, lighting the incense and clearing his mind. He speaks the appropriate benedictions to this most mysterious of deities and humbly makes the following inquiries:
1. Were agents of The Silver Flame responsible for Luggoth's parents' death?
2. Did Aeromus have a hand in the assasination attempt on Brand's father?
3. Did Vadis engineer the theft of the schema and creation pattern from my possesion?
4. Are the Emerald Claw planning an attack upon the Wandering Wolves?
5. Was the list of names that Zan found a "hit" list?
6. Is William d'Deneith currently in Sharn?
7. Is it now very likely that war will erupt between Breland and Drooam?
8. Is Vadis planning for harm to come to Councilor Kharisa?
If the answer to 8 is "YES" go to 9a., if "NO" go to 9b.
9a. Is he trying to set me up as a "patsy" for these actions?
9b. “Will an alliance between House Orien and Hackrazet help give Traega d’Orien the ability to freely return to Khorvaire to reunite with his loved ones?”
After the spell is cast and the answers given, Pel and his friend will adjourn to the dining room to dine and discuss.
Upon Lysander's return to Sharn he is approached by a messenger bearing a note. It reads:
"My dear friend L,
As I am aware from some of our private conversations that, in matters of faith, you are somewhat dubious, allow me to invite you to witness a brief ritual that might shed some light upon my own recent re-dedication.
If you would at your earliest convenience proceed to the address below, I will be pleased to provide you a demonstration as well as with a delicious repast as we discuss it's ramifications.
The apartment belongs to one of my flock who is currently away and has generously loaned it to me for this purpose. He is a individual of great discretion so it would be best if you would disguise yourself and insure you are not followed on your way here.
I and He who walks among us await you patiently.
Faithfully yours,
P"
When Lys arrives (Jase and I agreed over the phone just that now he would) Pel shows him in and pours them both some wine. After some brief pleasantries he says, "Well, let's to it then, shall we?"
Secure behind the arcane protections of Malfiore LeQuande's locked and bolted apartment doors, and with his fellow Wolf at the alert, Pel bows before his private altar to the Traveler, lighting the incense and clearing his mind. He speaks the appropriate benedictions to this most mysterious of deities and humbly makes the following inquiries:
1. Were agents of The Silver Flame responsible for Luggoth's parents' death?
2. Did Aeromus have a hand in the assasination attempt on Brand's father?
3. Did Vadis engineer the theft of the schema and creation pattern from my possesion?
4. Are the Emerald Claw planning an attack upon the Wandering Wolves?
5. Was the list of names that Zan found a "hit" list?
6. Is William d'Deneith currently in Sharn?
7. Is it now very likely that war will erupt between Breland and Drooam?
8. Is Vadis planning for harm to come to Councilor Kharisa?
If the answer to 8 is "YES" go to 9a., if "NO" go to 9b.
9a. Is he trying to set me up as a "patsy" for these actions?
9b. “Will an alliance between House Orien and Hackrazet help give Traega d’Orien the ability to freely return to Khorvaire to reunite with his loved ones?”
After the spell is cast and the answers given, Pel and his friend will adjourn to the dining room to dine and discuss.
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