Story HourPost your ongoing tales from your campaigns, and read those from others for inspiration. Lots of other RPG boards post "Story Hours", but this is where it started!
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I'd like to say "thank you" to all the lurkers and readers who kept up with the adventures of the Risen Goddess on the last EN-Boards incarnation. Unfortunately, those threads are lost to the ethers, which is a real shame. The witty and insightful posts by the thread's posters were worth the read, and half the fun.
You know who you are-- thanks!
A metagame note: This campaign is definately 'nonstandard' -- one player and one DM. The two of us involved switch DMing duties from time to time, and each person plays the roles of one primary character as a PC, and the secondary characters as NPCs.
The characters are based on previously played PCs from earlier editions of the game (dating back to 1e and OD&D) who have returned to life as 1st level characters through the pasoun of Ishlok.
You can also check out stat blocks for the PCs, as well as review a complete glossary of character, location and NPC names, at the Risen Goddess Rogues' Gallery thread.
Last edited by (contact); 10th March 2008 at 10:43 PM..
Four adventurers sit around a familiar table in a familiar inn, not too far from a place they must have surely known their whole lives-- if they could only remember any of it.
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Taran Tar-Ilou, a pugnacious ranger, thick as a bull, and twice as mean,
Thelbar Tar-Ilou, a brilliant wizard, more fair of face and favored of speech than his aggressive younger brother,
Kyreel, a dark elven paladin dedicated to Ishlok the Mother, in her aspect of The Protector, and
Indianichus, a lighthearted and imaginative elven rogue and historian.
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They are trained well for their respective professions, and suitably equipped. They have known each other for . . . lives? Life? Surely they should remember their meeting. But their acquaintance is itself a mystery. How is it possible that they speak a foreign tongue and revere a goddess no one has heard of, yet possess thin and watery memories of a life half-lived in Greyhawk? One thing they all know for sure: their destinies revolve around one another, and they trust each other with bonds that run deeper than those of family and companionship. Blood has been shed-- between them and by them, of that they are sure. They know without speaking that there will be more blood spilled before they come to full knowledge of self.
Taran is a grim and hardnosed combatant, a man who believes in the ascendancy of the adventuring class. He is as entitled as a nobleman, and views the common folk with much the same sort of protective disdain that one might see from a sheltered Baron. He believes he has a duty to the people-- but he does not understand their lives. An adventurer to the core, Taran knows that deadly force proves the final point in any argument.
His brother, Thelbar, on the other hand, is a deep thinking strategist. He enjoys complicated intellectual pursuits, and studies architecture and engineering along with his magical lore. Thelbar is fond of the damaging spell, but focuses his attention on those that disrupt the mind-- illusion and enchantment are his specialties. Thelbar keeps a hawk familiar by the name of Sartre.
Kyreel is something of an enigma. As a dark elf, she is shunned by most good folk. Her companions know her and trust her implicitly, but there is something about her current form that seems divinely inspired. She knows that she has felt the call to Service, and that Ishlok is her Goddess. She is unwaveringly moral and beneficent.
Indianichus, called "Indy" by his friends, is a creature of curiosity. He is extremely intelligent and imaginative, and loves nothing better than exploring new places, particularly ones he knows he should not be in. A tomb-crawler to his heart, Indy's life is made complete by ancient artifacts, lost cultures, and forbidden temples. Dwarves are his special field of study. He speaks the language fluently and is well versed in Dwarven lore and culture. Indianichus views himself as the central character in a High-Romantic drama. That this belief is often in conflict with reality is of no consequence to Indy. For this rogue, no passion is too obscure, no leap of logic too unbelievable, and no body of contradicting evidence convincing enough.
The four friends agree that they will find no answers sitting still, and make plans to leave Greyhawk City. Kyreel and Thelbar both have dreams that indicate a journey south would prove rewarding. They bid farewell to their feebly remembered childhoods, and soon find themselves on the road traveling away from the Domain of Greyhawk towards whatever fate awaits them, and hopefully some answers.
They travel leisurely, and pass the time in conversation about their past, trying to jog one another's memory about this or that event, but in the end, the conclusion is the same. They all have thin and wavering 'memories' of growing up together in Greyhawk city, although considering their racial makeup that cannot possibly be true. They all also have a sense that the lives they remember are not their own, and that Greyhawk is not their home.
For his part, Taran is sure that he was once a great lord, although why anyone would want to serve him now is beyond him. Thelbar also, remembers bits and pieces of magical lore that no mere apprentice should have learned. Kyreel and Indy have similar memories and recollections, and all four agree that it is a relief to be leaving Greyhawk City and getting on with . . . something.
Their second day out, Taran is scouting through the woods, ranging a few hundred yards ahead of the group as is his custom, when he notices a pair of stout, tusked humanoids standing together near a barrow-mound. He watches them for a moment, then returns to his companions to report.
Memories or no, it doesn't take a lifetime of experience to know that orcs are bad news. The group sneaks up on the two feral brutes, and Thelbar enchants their simple minds, putting them to sleep. After 'taking care' of the sleeping orcs, Taran notices that they were guarding a small opening in the side of the mound. A circular slab of stone, recently pried free from the opening, lies on the ground next to the bodies of the two dead orcs.
As the party is looking at one another and deciding what to do, an empty waterskin flies from the opening and lands on the ground at Thelbar's feet! A guttural, hoarse voice barks a command in orcish: "Fill the skin, you sheep-raping kobold-spawn, we're thirsty. And keep your damned eyes open, Tarkh, or I'll have your manhood off!"
Thelbar is the only member of the group who can understand the strange, croaking language, and he smiles to himself. While the rest of the party stares at him incredulously, he calmly takes the waterskin, places it under his robes, and relives himself in it. He motions the group to hide themselves and he tosses the skin back into the hole. "Here you go, boss," he says in his best Orcish.
Thirty seconds later, there is a harsh scream from down below, followed by a string of Orcish curses so fast and foul that Thelbar is only able to follow about half of the diatribe against Tarkh's mother, spawn, ancestry and eternal orcish soul.
The big orc who emerges from the hole barely has enough time to wonder what happened to his companions before he, too is cut down by Taran, Kyreel and Indy. The group searches the dead orcs, and finds insignia and coinage that indicates that they are travelers from the Pomarj, far to the south.
The group climbs into the hole where they see that they are in a low, circular domed chamber, completely consistent with the hill's outside appearance. Like many of the old ruins around Greyhawk Domain, the walls here are covered with enigmatic runes and carvings. A piss-filled waterskin lies open in the center of the room, and at the far end, a rude excavation has obliterated part of the runic symbols and opened a passage deeper into the earth.
The passage is a thin tunnel of the sort used by tomb-builders as they seal a cairn. It leads into a network of passages completely below ground, and the party must light a lantern so the humans can see. The group listens carefully for any sounds of further orcish presence, but hear nothing. A quick search of the walls near the tunnel to the surface reveals a hidden door that slides open when forcefully pushed.
The group steps through the secret door and finds themselves in a hidden area. Magical writing covers the walls here, and at the far end of the chamber a large blue gem is ensconced in an ornate holder. A quick detect magic spell reveals that the gem retains some magical properties, but is currently inert. Thelbar studies the writing on the wall, and after a few minutes tells the group that this orb is only part of a complete magic item-- a rod, or staff of some sort, likely very powerful. It seems that this burrow is the holding place for a magical artifact, one that is stored in two parts to avoid its detection through magical means.
The group reasons that the orcs here are tomb-robbers, and likely have no idea what treasure is hidden in this place. Not that the friends could, in all good conscience, allow a war-band of orcs to come into possession of a magical artifact of power. They resolve to find these orcs, eliminate them, and unite the blue orb with its other piece. Kyreel says a short prayer of thankfulness, and invokes the Mother's blessing on the group.
Leaving the secret chamber, the party hears booted feet approaching from one of the passageways. They hear a orcish voice shout "Look! There! Lights, dead ahead! Let's kill it!" and an answering yell from several voices as weapons are drawn from sheathes. Within seconds, the party is embroiled in a terrible melee as orcs attack them from both ends of the passageway. Taran and Kyreel stand toe-to-toe with their orcish foes, as Indy uses stealth and trickery to fight the monsters. Thelbar sends several more orcs to a sleep that will prove their last, and when the final blow is struck, a half dozen orcs lie dead, and everyone is bleeding from wounds inflicted by Pomarjian steel.
The group quickly casts about, and Indy reports hearing more orcs down one of the corridors. Hoping to avoid a fight they can't win, the group snatches a few trophies from the fallen and retreats back out into the woods. After finding a suitable hiding place not too far from the embattled cairn, Taran does his best to hide their tracks, and the group tends to their wounds.
In the night, Thelbar dreams of the goddess Ishlok, and wakes up the next morning with a renewed sense of faith. He and Kyreel discuss the priesthood of the Mother Ishlok, and realize that they know of no one else who worships her. Between the two of them, they are able to reconstruct several rituals of blessing and sacrament sacred to Ishlok, and they both undertake vows to worship Her and search for knowledge of Her faith.
The group returns to the cairn and after a careful search discover that the orcs have left the place, stripping their dead, and marching to the southeast. A similar chamber to the one containing the orb is found, but unfortunately, the orcs found it first. The haft of the item is in their possession, already a full day ahead of the group.
The band moves quickly, and as fast as Taran can lead them, follows the tracks of the remaining orcs. Taran guesses that a full half or more of their number fell in the fighting, and the orcs seem hell-bent to get away from the area as quickly as possible.
After a few days of travel, the party discovers a camp where the orcs they had been following met with some other humanoid creatures. Trails leave that campsite in two directions. One group, the original orcs, travel due east, while the newer group leads a wagon to he south.
The party follows the original group, and catches them a day later. An ambush is sprung, and after a brief battle, the party is in possession of a prisoner, but not the item they seek. The prisoner is willing to talk in exchange for its life, and tells the group that he is the sub-leader of a raiding party that left the Pomarj twenty strong. After some losses due to infighting, and one particularly nasty fall, the group happened upon the cairn with sixteen of their members alive.
When the party killed nine orcs, the remainder panicked and bolted. The orc describes the other half of the orb-- a shaft of some strange metal, covered in runic inscription that "looked valuable". Unfortunately, the band traded it for healing magic to a mixed group of orcish and goblin traders at their last encampment. He says that the traders were from a clan of orcs that lives in an abandoned dwarven complex in the mountains to the south. He says that the orcs call the place "Frowninghome", but to the dwarves who built it, it was Khundrukar-- the Forge of Fury.
The group releases him with a promise to return straightaway to the Pomarj, and returns to the meeting place, hoping to follow the traders from Khundrukar and claim the staff for their own.
They arrive in the town of Blasingdell, Kyreel taking care not to show her face. The group meets with the Constable and other town leaders about the orcish activity operating out of Khundrukar. The Constable assures the party that they would come into the favor of Blasingdell were they to put a stop to this orcish activity. In addition, the dwarven merchant Kheldegan Tolm expresses an interest in purchasing any dwarven artifacts the group might recover.
In addition, Kheldegan tells the group the legend of Dugeddin the Black-- a master smith who was forced to leave his ancestral home when it was sacked by orcs. He fled to the mountains north of Blasingdell and built Khundrukar, the Forge of Fury. From there, he waged a decades-long war with Orcs until he was finally overrun, and Khundrukar looted.
Indy in particular seems interested in exploring dwarven ruins. In his conversations with Kheldegan, the young elf exhibits much knowledge about dwarves and the dwarven way of life. Despite his gruff intent, the merchant finds himself relating to Indianichus, beard or no.
The party determines to hire some help, and find themselves particularly attracted to a young man by the name of Rex, a local warrior with big dreams. Rex agrees to go along with the group for a half-share of treasure, or one gold piece a day, whichever is greater. He hopes to help his grandmother pay off the lean on her home, and buy himself a striding warhorse.
The group searches the mountain face of Khundrukar, and discovers a well-hidden and well-fortified entrance, along with a smoke-hole further up the side of the mount. Indy is made invisible, and scrambles down the hole, then returns with good news-- the hole leads to a cooking area, currently unoccupied. The perfect place for a quiet assault.
The group's first foray liberates a pair of halfling prisoners, and surprises the orcish shaman, killing her before she can fully prepare herself. Thelbar is able to decipher her diary, and determines that she came into possession of the star-cairn staff, assuming it to be a magic item, but once she determined that she could not activate its powers, she grew discouraged and traded the object to the 'lizard-people' that live below.
The group discovers a stair leading to a lower level, and starts down, only to be ambushed by huge, bat-sized mosquito creatures-- stirges! After a brief and horrific few minutes that nearly spells the end for Indy, the group is able to drag his sagging form back up the stairs and fend off the stirges with lit torches.
They surprise a pair of wandering orcs on their way back to the smoke hole and are able to kill them before the orcs can recover and summon reinforcements. The group limps away from Khundrukar and sets up a base camp. Several days pass while Indy recovers from the horrible leeching, and Rex takes the freed halflings back to Blasingdell and picks up more supplies.
The group determines that the haft for the blue orb lies beneath the orcish-occupied areas, but decide that leaving any orcs at their back would be a horrible tactical error. Thus, they are in agreement-- the orcs must be killed or driven from Khundrukar, both for tactical reasons as well as Noble Principle. An assault is planned.
When Indy fully recovers, he scouts out the smoke hole, and sure enough, the orcs have lit a huge fire beneath it, no doubt hoping to discourage further assault. Indy is made magically resistant to fire, turned invisible, given the ability to spiderclimb and granted darkvision. He creeps into the orcish chambers, taking an account of their numbers and defenses. There are a pair of close calls, but in the end, he makes it back to the group with heartening news: The orcs suspect the smoke-hole entrance, and have had to split their defenses guarding the smoke-hole and the main entrance. Better yet, the orcs guarding the fire are standing within sleep spell range of the fire itself, easy pickings for a mage looking down from the surface.
Using stealth (and the sleep spell), the characters make their way into Khundrukar for the second time. This time, they are moving purposefully from room to room, on a seek-and-destroy mission against the orcs. Robbed of their shaman, the orcs are not prepared to stand against a stealthy foe who strikes with deadly effect, then slips away into the darkness. The party kills the orcs in small groups, and finally finds themselves confronting the orcish leader Ulfe, an ogre of unusually bad temperment (which, given the fact he is an ogre, is extremely bad indeed). Ulfe hands Taran and Rex the beatings of their young lives, and may very well have killed the entire group, save for some last-minute heroics, a pair of critical strikes, and a well-placed sneak attack from Indy.
The group accepts the surrender of the last few orcs left alive, and takes them to Blasingdell, where they will face human justice. The party sets about looting the orcish home, and making themselves comfortable in their new base of operations for further assault on Khundrukar.
An assault that proves all too quick in the coming. Within 24 hours of the last orc breath taken in Khundrukar, the stirges have been eliminated, and the party has explored the lower level, discovering the caverns occupied by the "reptile folk"-- lizardmen and their giant lizard companions. Luckily the group is able to confront the toughest of the cruel lizards before attacking the mass of the lizardman population.
The fight is fierce and almost fatal for the party. The lizardmen are tenacious, and fight as if they have nothing to loose. The lizardman have a sorcerer amongst their number, and he turns the tables on Thelbar, attacking the party time and time again with magical sleep. Thankfully, Rex proves entirely resistant to the sorcerer's spells, and saves the party with his accurate crossbow fire. All is almost lost as the sorcerer's pet lizard rampages through the sleeping group, but fortunately, Taran is able to rouse himself and run the beast through from a prone position just before its jaws sink into Thelbar's throat.
Badly shaken, and severely wounded, the party is forced to flee to the orcish warrens, and hide themselves in the shaman's disgusting lair. By the time they return to finish off the remaining lizardfolk, they discover that the remainder of the clan has fled. It seems that they fled in a hurry, because they left quite a bit of their treasure behind. But they must have also fled purposefully, for they have taken the best of their treasure with them, including the haft to the blue orb.
Thelbar and Kyreel have both taken vows to the Mother, and Kyreel chooses to pursue this path more deeply, reasoning that her devotion to the unique religion all four of the heroes share may very well provide the answers they seek.
Thelbar, for his part, is ever practical, and devotes the majority of his attention to the arcane arts, stating that his devotion to destroying his foes may very well keep them all alive long enough to find the answers they seek.
Indianichus shows a keen interest and aptitude for the arcane studies, and begins to take lessons from Thelbar, proving himself a quick study.
Taran begins training Rex in some of the finer points of swordplay, helping the young warrior improve his capabilities in melee.
A further exploration of the complex reveals the Forge itself, an area currently occupied by a band of Duergar Dwarves, up from the Underdark, looking for Dugeddin's secrets. The Duergar arcanist is a master of illusion, and the group wastes resources fighting with shadows before putting the villain down. The surviving Duergar call for a sundering of hostilities, and offer to exchange information with the group in exchange for peace. In the end, it is determined that the lizardfolk did not flee this direction with the staff-- they must have gone deeper still, into the unexplored depths of Khundrukar.
The group naively descends into the bowels of the Forge, and come across a large cavern containing an underground lake. The party carefully steps out onto an low shelf of rock that overhangs the edge of the lake. They are making a first cursory examination of the water itself when Indy cries out a warning that something . . . some things, are swimming toward them. The group readies itself for melee, only to be taken by surprise as a huge lizard, the size of a pony and covered with black scales, darts out from behind them slashing Kyreel with its razor sharp claws! The party attacks the beast in a state of general confusion, but their blows do little against the creature's armor-like scales.
The beast lifts its head and spews forth a stream of acid, burning Taran, and ruining his armor. The party scrambles madly to recover their wits, and manage a couple of feeble attacks, but the dragon fights like a half-ton house cat. Before anyone can truly hurt the beast, it springs at Kyreel, grabbing her and diving over the side of the ledge.
Indy and Taran are quick to shed their armor and dive in after their drow friend, but they have underwater troubles of their own-- the surviving lizardmen have gathered en masse around the ledge, and attack the newcomers with spears. Kyreel fights for her life, trying vainly to escape the cruel clutches of the beast, but to no avail.
The lizardmen prove more than susceptible to the deadly one-two punch of Taran's dagger and Indy's rapier. Kyreel manages to struggle free, and during the fighting, the dragon exposes itself to the surface, creating a target for Thelbar's magic missiles. Indy manages to position himself between the lizardmen and the dragon, freeing Taran and Kyreel to attack the horror, if somewhat ineffectively.
Nightscale, for her part, is smart enough to know when her window of opportunity is closing. In a flash, the serpentine horror uncoils and jets away, disappearing into the murky waters of the underground lagoon.
By the time the PCs manage to swim out to Nightscale's island in the center of the lake, the dragon has packed for a long vacation and taken her most cherished treasure with her, including all of her magic items, and the haft piece to the blue orb.
Kyreel, Indy and Taran horse around in the treasure pile, throwing coins at each other, and retelling parts of their first dragon fight. Thelbar stands alone, at the edge of the water. Looking at the orb, Thelbar sighs helplessly and reflects on the Magic Staff that Almost Was. Half in the possession of a no name mage from Goddess-knows-where, and half in the possession of a baby black dragon, fleeing for its life.
When the last nook and cranny of Khundrukar has been searched and scoured, several more monsters have fallen to the blades and spells of the party. (Don't even get me started on the f***ing roper. --author). In a side passage, shunned by the lizardmen, and covered with Yellow Mold, the group finds a limed-over skeleton clutching a magical bastard sword, Taran's weapon of choice. He gleefully claims it for his own, and names the blade "Black Lisa", after the heroine of a particularly gruesome folk tale involving patricide, poison and revenge.
Kyreel has experienced a divine rapture in the embrace of the Goddess Ishlok, and has begun channeling Her Divine Will in addition to her paladin abilities. Thelbar also has taken Holy Vows, but prefers to concentrate on his arcana. Indy has proven to be an apt pupil for the magical arts and can cast several spells now in addition to his stealthy practice. Taran, on the other hand, believes in dancing with who brung ya-- he pours his energy into the arts of war.
Thelbar crafts the first wondrous items for the group, most importantly a hat of disguise for Kyreel. Now the drow can travel openly amongst Good society without fear of unwarranted assault.
Indy takes several of the dwarven artifacts to Kheldegan Tolm, and the two of them haggle for days about points of minutiae regarding dwarven history and the value of the artifacts. In the end, Kheldegan agrees to buy a few of the objects, and arranges for Indy to meet some dwarven traders from a dwarf-fast to the east.
The negotiations go well, and Indy is able to win through the dwarves' distant nature with his knowledge of 'proper' custom, and obvious respect for dwarven ways. The traders agree to purchase the artifacts from Khundrukar, and agree to spread the news to nearby dwarven communities that the Forge of Fury stands open and ready for resettlement.
The traders linger in town for a few days, and Indy hosts them, toasting to their clan, and their Fane. This troubles one of the dwarves, and after beating around the subject for a proper length of time, tells Indy the following story:
He is from a dwarven hall near Ratik known as the Great Delve. He, like many other young dwarves were forced to expatriate because his King had gone mad. The King lost his senses sometime after a visit from a group of strange dwarves who came up from the Underdark, but claimed to be surface dwarves from a burrow far, far away.
The dwarf presents his shield, a gift from the foreign dwarves. Indy is shocked and transfixed by the glyph. He is sure he has seen it before, but cannot recall where. He reacts very emotionally to the symbol, and knows it to be the warren mark of the Filas Hali. None of the other dwarves recognize this name.
Further, the dwarf from the Great Delve tells Indy that the foreign dwarves had a king; a king by the name of Alvodar. The name sends tendrils of memory through Indy, and he is sure he has known this dwarf.
The rest of the party needs little convincing, as they recognize the name of Alvodar themselves, though none of them know exactly why. They are sure that this Alvodar is a being of great virtue, and must certainly be sought. If the dwarves of the Great Delve are having troubles, and Alvodar is there, then into the Great Delve they shall go.
The catch? The Fallen Hall is on the other side of the Flannaes. Between the characters and their eventual destination are the Flinty Hills and the Bone March, a land every bit as unpleasant as its name would indicate. The group prepares itself for a long overland travel, spending their hard-won adventuring loot on magic items and gear. Horses are purchased, stout hill ponies suitable for long overland travel. Rex, for his part, purchases the largest and most impressive warhorse he can find, and proudly names it 'Lac.
During their first week of travel in the Flinty Hills, the group notices a strange sight off in the distance. A long, narrow object, suspended in mid-air, stretching from approximately 2 feet to 20 feet off the ground before it disappears. As they approach, they spot a very strange bird in a nearby tree.
The brightly colored four-winged creature is the size of a small horse, and as they approach, it attacks them with bursts of lightning that issue from its hooked beak. Its wings radiate equilaterally from its central axis, and it possesses an amazing level of mobility that no normal bird could ever hope to achieve. Merely keeping one's eye on the thing is difficult enough, nonetheless convincing it to stand still long enough to shoot at!
They defeat it, but must use all their most potent magic to do so. They then approach the object, which they can now see is a ladder, and call out. Indy and Thelbar explain that the ladder is most likely a rope trick currently being used by an adventuring party hiding from the bizarre and predatory bird.
Unfortunately for them, there are no friendly adventurers here. The ladder is in fact completely normal. Of course, no ladder can really be called normal when it is dangling from a rift in space bridging the prime material plane with the plane of Air. On the Air side of this dimensional rift is a transmuter of malevolent disposition with his gang of hyper-aggressive gnome barbarians digging in a chunk of floating prime material plane for buried treasure.
Yes, literally.
One of the gnomes climbs down the ladder, and tells the PCs to mind their own business, and move on. Or at least that's the general drift-- he isn't near that polite. The gnome is nasty and insulting, and it isn't long before Taran decides he's had all the lip he's going to take out of a little half-dwarf who would need a step ladder to polish his own belt buckle. Hostilities commence, and it's not pretty.
Unknown to the party, a large air elemental has been resting quietly at the base of the ladder, and once swords are drawn, it begins tearing through the party's ranks, picking up characters and depositing them one hundred feet away. The transmuter, on the other side of a vortex, orders his remaining gnomes to find out what is keeping their companion, and terminate with prejudice anyone they don't recognize.
The aggro gnomes drop screaming from the vortex (which is kind of like a horizontal door between the two planes) with their blades drawn, only to charge face-first into a color spray. They fall unconscious, wake up, go blind, then stumble around. It would be like a typical night on the town, except at the end of it, they all die.
Meanwhile, the air elemental is causing complete chaos amongst the spellcasters, and Kyreel and Taran have just managed to fight their way underneath the dimensional rift where they can be seen by the watching transmuter. The two heroes charge up the ladder and into the plane of air, where the dire fellow attempts to parley.
"Gentlemen!" He says with an oily leer, "We've gotten off on the wrong foot. Perhaps there is enough treasure here for all of us?"
As soon as he sees that his ruse isn't going to work, he is quick to lightning bolt the dirty do-gooders. Unfortunately for him, they don't die. (Strange, that's never happened before . . . they usually die when they are blasted in the face like that.)
The mage is backing away from the heroes toward the opposite end of a 20' x 15' slab of earth, clay and grass floating in an endless expanse of blue sky and majestic clouds. A stiff breeze whistles through the place, disturbingly void of the normal earthen smells such a wind might bring.
Thelbar sends his hawk familiar Sartre up through the portal with a live shocking grasp spell. Sartre dodges around the mage's shield and delivers a critical hit! The mage is staggered, and in far too much pain to put up any sort of defense against the big man with the sharp sword. Taran cuts him into two twitching, evil pieces.
The PCs gather on the slab of dirt and begin to explore the prime pocket floating in the plane of air. The mean little gnomes had already dug up a large, wooden chest, and were in the process of destroying the lock to get it open. One whack from Black Lisa later, the PCs are counting coinage and examining a pair of magic items.
On the body of the transmuter (well, the upper half, that is), Thelbar discovers a hide bound diary, of ancient manufacture. The book is stamped with heraldic markings revealing its maker to be a craftsman from the Great Kingdom, pre-splintering! Thelbar opens the tome, and discovers that he is holding the spellbook of an ancient wizard, now long gone, who had sequestered caches of coins and magic in various pocket dimensions and inner planes, then connected the caches to a series of static 'portals' in and around the Great Kingdom. The portals are partially sealed, opened by spell-completion, like some magic items. This transmuter (Mother have mercy on his soul), bought the book from a curio shop in Nyrond, and has partially translated the text.
What the transmuter missed, but Thelbar does not, was the hidden text describing a series of rituals that would fundamentally change aspects of an applicable spell. If the rituals in this book work, any spell could be made more mighty, or lengthy in its duration, all without a greater expenditure of magical resource by the spell-caster. If this book is correct, Thelbar realizes, every wizard in the Flannaes would kill to possess it.
The implications of the work captivate Thelbar, and he calls for a camp. The heroes settle down on the prime material pocket to rest. Indy and Thelbar pore over the ancient tome, while Kyreel and Taran watch the majestic (and altogether too massive) cloud formations whirl and tumble through the endless expanse of sky.
When they awaken in the morning, well rested and ready to resume their journey, they find that the portal back to the Prime Material plane has closed. They are standing alone on a 15' x 10' x 20' chunk of dirt and grass floating in an infinite void of Air . . .
The better part of a day passes while Indy and Thelbar debate possible ways to get off the plane. Tempers grow heated, then frayed. Taran cycles through a manic phase, followed by despondency that leads to black implications of how bad his next foe will have it.
Thelbar occupies himself by learning about the laws of physics in this place. He is able to stand comfortably on all sides of the Prime pocket, simply by stepping over the edge, and onto the alternate surface. He determines that 'down' is relative here, relating to one's belief, rather than a physical constant. He ties rope around himself and attempts the following experiment. By believing that 'up' is 'down', Thelbar is able to fall away from the Prime pocket. By reversing his mental orientation, he can fall back towards his friends. Although it is crude and clumsy, Indy points out that should their situation grow desperate enough, they could 'fall' through the Plane looking for help. Thelbar points out that he thinks they already are.
Objects have neither a 'down' or an 'up', traveling through the void at a constant speed, along whatever path they were launched. In fact, this Prime pocket is surely rocketing through the void, its trajectory swayed by the mental 'down' of the beings sitting upon it. If there is a 'terminal velocity' here, Thelbar reasons, it would be determined only by an individual object's weight, not any constraint imposed by the atmosphere.
Late in the afternoon of the second day (at least as they remember time-- there is no sun or moon here, just an even expanse of unchanging light), the group has resigned itself to its helpless state. Even Indy has grown sullen and quiet, and stopped pestering Thelbar to let him examine the book. Kyreel is flinging chunks of dirt and clay into the void when she spots a speck off in the distance. The speck grows larger at a leisurely rate. The entire group is soon staring 'up' at the spot, arguing amongst themselves about what it is.
Hours later, the argument is settled. The thing is close enough that there can be no doubt about the object's nature; it is a ship. A sailing vessel, by the looks of it, complete with masts and sails. The heroes are at first overjoyed, thinking themselves rescued, then subdued when Taran points out that the ship may not be friendly.
The fact that he seems to relish the prospect of fighting an entire ship full of people does not diminish the validity of his observation. The group readies themselves for whatever may come, and settles in to wait.
Hours pass, and Kyreel, Rex and Indy strike up a tense game of 'hidden stone', an orcish gambling pastime the duo have come to love. As they play, they keep an eye on the ship. Thelbar manages to coach Taran at believing in a different down, and between the two of them, they rotate the Prime pocket until they can watch the approaching ship without straining their necks.
The ship sails closer, and is soon near enough that the party can make out individuals standing at its rails, watching them. A loud bellowing floats toward them, and they make out a crude and heavily accented phrase in common: "On the rock, there! Prepare to be boarded!" Weapons are swiftly readied, and shortly thereafter, a pair of large humanoids leap from the ship and sail through the void toward the Prime pocket.
The two aggressors are half orcs, armed with orcish double axes, and Indy is barely able to observe how strange it is that sailors would be wearing plate mail armor before battle is joined. Thelbar hides himself around one 'corner' of the Prime pocket, and opens the hostilities with a magic missile. Taran and Kyreel attack one of the half orcs, while Indy fences with the second. Rex darts about, covering his friends with his crossbow and firing into the melee. The fighting is intense, but it soon becomes apparent that the half orcs intend to subdue and capture the group rather than kill them. They are extremely skilled fighters, and use their double weapons to swiftly disarm Taran, sending Black Lisa twirling end over end into the void.
Sartre is dispatched to fetch the blade, and Taran draws his backup weapon, badly wounding one of the half orcs. In a matter of seconds, the battle has turned against the boarders, and both of them fling themselves from the rock, and 'fall' back towards their ship, which is sailing in leisurely circles around the Prime pocket.
"Well done, well done!" A voice calls from the prow. The heroes look up to see that they are hailed by a female orc, dressed to the nines in garish and loose fitting clothing. She wears a prominent medallion depicting a series of arrows radiating outward from a central point, a universal symbol for Chaos.
"Listen, you're not off the reefs, yet," she shouts. "You can be stubborn, and starve to death here on your rock, or you can join us. My name is Ragna, and this is my ship. The Marrow Down needs good fighters like yourself. Join me, and I can promise you a fine life of high piracy, along with an equal share of any salvage gold we might win for ourselves. Scorn me, and I will send my Raiders," she gestures toward the horde of small, gray humanoids crowding on deck "to kill you all. What say you?"
The party converses for a moment, but realizes that the cards are all in Ragna's hand, and they have no choice to agree. Indy, for his part, is beside himself with excitement. He exclaims that he has always wanted to be a pirate, and could we join them? Oh, please! Taran shrugs, pointing out that killing dungeon inhabitants for treasure isn't that much different than killing sailors for treasure, despite Kyreel's protests to the contrary. Thelbar, in the end, casts the final vote, pointing out that at least with Ragna, they will be less likely to starve.
And thus the group joins Ragna's Raiders, sailing through the void of Elemental Air, as the Marrow Down's new ship-to-ship combat specialists.
6-- "Below there, on deck! Land ho . . . and she's flying right toward us!"
The group is brought onboard, and introduced to the half orcs who just a minute ago were their mortal enemies. Ragna introduces the two as Mishkal and Hamm, her sons, and the Marrow Down's former ship-to-ship combat specialists. Mishkal and Hamm look less than pleased about their new shipmates, and the two groups stare daggers at one another while Ragna presents her first mate, the lieutenant and the bosun.
After getting the details of the Marrow Down, her routine, and their role in it, the party settles down for a hearty meal of salt beef and hard tack. Ragna tells them of a place called Haven that is the Marrow Down's port of call. She refers to herself as a privateer, and approaches her piracy with a religious dedication. Ragna, and her Raiders, oppose a group they call the Wind Dukes, great creatures of Elemental Law that seek to order and subjugate the free denizens of the Plane of Air.
Ragna herself was once a Prime Material denizen, but stumbled through a one way portal, and found herself marooned like so many others. She was taken in by a pirate (the father of her sons, by the way), and soon found a clerical calling serving Chaos, and opposing Law.
Kyreel bristles at this tale, but diplomatically refrains from argument.
Haven, she tells them, is protected from the scrying of the Wind Dukes. She says that the Marrow Down is due to dock there in a few weeks. Perhaps, if the group proves themselves worthy, she might introduce them to some friends of hers who possess the means to travel between the planes.
Ragna's Raiders, with the exception of her sons, are neither human nor orc. They call themselves Gith, and are thin, grey humanoids possessed of a sullen and generally disobedient nature. They all revere Ragna, that much is clear, and they call her the greatest pirate any of them have ever had the pleasure to serve under.
Below decks are the 'oars' manned by ogres. As velocity through the plane of air is determined by relative weight, the 'oars' are actually huge chairs set into the hull and oriented so the massive giants are seated with the prow of the ship as their 'down'. The ogres have the easiest job on board-- sit there and grow fat, the fatter the better. Indy remarks that he's never seen so many happy ogres in one place, and they certainly eat better than anyone else on board!
Several days pass, and the PCs play with "Head"-- a captive vargouille the Gith pirates have turned into a mascot. They practice 'falling' through the Plane of Air, and are tutored in some of the finer points of fighting in free-fall by Mishkal and Hamm.
Kyreel manages to debate with Ragna about her views on Freedom versus Order, without the issue coming to blows. Ragna is a zealous woman, fully in opposition to the Wind Dukes and what she terms as "their senseless and arbitrary oppression of our Natural right to determine our own destinies". Sartre, for his part finds himself agreeing with Ragna, and through his connection with Thelbar engages Kyreel in a lively argument about free will contending with duty to determine a creatures moral obligation. Kyreel contends that laws provide the structure that allows Good people to work together for the betterment of all, and without worldly Law, the consequences would be disastrous. Furthermore, she argues, the Pasoun (the central spiritual reality of the Ishlokian faith-- a type of reincarnation) proves that our temporal laws merely mirror irrefutable Metaphysical Principles.
Sartre contends that as long as an individual cleaves to the Good out of fear of a law, he has not really made a choice, and therefore is not really good. Laws, Sartre argues, are necessary only because the mass of sentient-kind are petty and scheming at heart. A true Being of Distinction should regard laws as beneath him, and strive for righteousness out of his own capacity for reason.
Thankfully, neither Ragna, nor any Wind Dukes were around to hear this.
On day three of their first voyage as Pirates of Elemental Air, an object is sighted. The crew hastily prepares the ship for a chase, and a tense waiting begins, with the crew attending their normal duties, but in a very subdued and tense manner. Over the course of the next day, the object gets slowly closer.
Ragna glowingly tells the PCs that she has caught "The Lighthouse", and seems eager for revenge against someone called Captain Philius and his associate Kruul. Philius and Kruul, she states, serve the Wind Duke B'hii, who has claimed this stretch of Air. As the day (a relative term in the plane of Air) wears on, it becomes obvious that the Lighthouse cannot hope to outrun the Marrow Down.
The Lighthouse itself looks like a narrow sliver of cliff face, cut from some rocky shore and suspended in space. On the top of the cliff is a narrow tower, the upper half of which is glowing with a magical and eerie light.
As the pirates get close, the Lighthouse begins an unusual maneuver, sacrificing its forward motion in order to spin on its horizontal axis. Thelbar immediately realizes that this is a defensive maneuver meant to make it impossible for the Marrow Down to grapple and board.
Ragna looks confused (and a little worried), but says that this will only delay the inevitable. She is outlining her attack strategy when the call comes from the crow's nest:
"On deck, there! Object off the starboard bow! Half-noon and sinking fast, Cap'n"
Ragna dashes up to the lookout as nimbly as any rogue, and returns just as quickly. She pulls the party aside and summons her sons.
"Silver 'gainst gold that's a Wind Duke warship, comin' on. We don't have enough time to destroy that sodding rock," she points toward the lighthouse, "but I'll not run off without bloodying Philius and Krull." Ragna looks up toward the oncoming object, still only a speck in the sky. "The boys need me here, and we've got to get this ship ready to run - - the seven of you're gonna have to dry-jump over there, and give 'em what they got comin'."
She fixes each of the group with a cold stare. "I'm counting on you. All those who love Freedom are too. Let's black this Duke's eye, and slip their hangman's noose! Now get to it!"
DM's note-- The party was attempting to 'dry jump' (without a rope) from one plane of a slowly moving object to one plane of a rapidly rotating object. They were aiming for a spot at the base of the tower, and were using an untrained skill. I was giving the smarter characters an Int check, and the more nimble characters a Dex check, depending on what tactic they would use. To hit the target (a 5' x 5' square on the combat map) was DC 25, to land within 10 feet was DC 20, and to hit the right plane at all was DC 15. Mishkal (Jump skill at +8) and Thelbar (Int 18) were the only ones to miss entirely, but landing across the face of the rock so spread out almost got them all killed:
The party follows the lead of Mishkal and Hamm, and for the most part land near the Lighthouse tower. Thelbar overshoots completely, and has a moment of panic, before he realizes he can move in any direction by believing in a "down" other than the one he's falling toward.
Indy, Taran, Rex and Kyreel land safely, but are separated from one another. Indy is invisible, but the others are swarmed by bloodthirsty bugbears wearing the Ducal livery.
Thelbar tries again, but overshoots his target-plane a second time. To the characters standing on the Lighthouse, the ground is their "down", and thus, they do not seem to be moving, rather, everything else is whirring around them like the sun and moon gone into overdrive. The roars and cheers of the Gith watching the fight from the Marrow Down slowly become louder as the ship "circles" into view, then fade just as suddenly as the rock blocks out the sound. Thus, Thelbar, falling in a straight line, seems to be flying a graceful curve over the battle site.
Taran would have wondered how Thelbar could fall in circles like that, but he is surrounded by bugbears. But he is not alone. Everyone is surrounded by bugbears, as they swarm out of the empty-looking lighthouse. The bugbears are all Ducal Marines.
"It's a trap!" screams Hamm, "Kill them all!" (Apparently, it's been awhile since Hamm went to strategy school, because 'Kill them all' does not generally follow 'We've fallen for a trap'.)
Rex has the presence of mind to drop to the ground and play dead, after facing off with six of the furry bastards. Kyreel rushes to Rex's side, fooled by his ruse, and the two of them proceed to cut a swath of death through the ranks of their foes. A swath that dies a premature death when a nine foot tall bull-headed behemoth "falls" toward them from the top of the tower, then gracefully "falls" the other way at the last moment, landing right behind Kyreel. Kruul the minotaur, right on schedule.
Magic missiles come streaking from the top of the lighthouse into Taran, weakening him. On the other side of the lighthouse, Mishkal joins Hamm, and the two of them start killing bugbears in a frenzied orgy of double-headed axe swipes and gore.
The vicious minotaur has a wicked looking brand on his chest that matches the symbol on the bugbear's livery. The first thing he does is bellow a challenge at Kyreel, sonically assaulting the paladin. Fortunately, Kyreel's inherent spell resistance is up to the task, and she is unharmed. Unfortunately, there is no resistance that will help against a minotaur's greataxe. Soon, Rex is forced to grab Kyreel's unconscious form and "fall" back to the Marrow Down where Ragna is able to provide some magical healing, and get her back into the fray.
Taran manages to get near to Kruul and lays into him, but cannot stand toe to toe with the beast for long. He falls, but is rescued in time by Kyreel who "lands" nearby, and administers some healing magic of her own to stop Taran's bleeding.
Meanwhile, Indy has used a spiderclimb spell to reach the top of the lighthouse, and spots an older man dressed in an outlandish outfit (replete with multiple buckles, no less) clutching a spear wreathed in a crackling blue electrical field. Unbeknownst to the man, he is stalked by a Master Thief. Indy creeps ever closer to the sorcerer, taking careful aim, then . . . he strikes! And misses! And stumbles!
Fortunately, Thelbar has finally landed, and yells "cover your eyes" in the foriegn language he and Indy share before enrapturing Captain Philus with a hypnotic pattern. Thel turns his attentions toward Krull, casting the last of his magic missiles at the beast.
After disarming and binding the good Captain, Indy runs halfway down the side of the tower, and begins firing his bow at the minotaur. Hamm and Mishkal are still threshing bugbears like a drunken farmboy taking dad's plow out for a joyride. Kruul can't withstand the magic missiles and arrow barrage, and is felled. The surviving bugbears curse in Auran and "fall" in every direction, leaving the PCs alone on the rock with Captain Philius, and a dozen dead bugbears.
They return to the Marrow Down. Ragna congratulates the heroes heartily, bestows kisses on her embarrassed sons, and gives the command to shove off, and away from here!
She examines her prisoner, and removes his gag. Philius smugly regards the pursuing vessel and crows "You're done for now, Ragna. We have you at last. Surrender to me, and I can assure you the most civilized of treatment."
Ragna replies that the Marrow Down has a few tricks in her yet, and orders full sail! Three points into the wind! Thelbar seems disturbed at Philius' total composure and lack of concern.
The approaching object, it can now be seen, is a massive chunk of rock, shaped like a stalactite, swiftly gaining on the fleeing pirate vessel. "Thrice-damned Ducal Fleet," Ragna curses. She turns to the party and whispers conspiratorially "We won't win this fight. That's the D.F. Piercer, and she'll leave us in pieces. If you want to flee, well . . . I understand."
Thelbar asks for a moment alone with Ragna and questions her about the maneuverability of the Marrow Down. Can she rotate, like the Lighthouse? No. Can she turn? Much like a Prime Material sailing vessel. Thelbar proposes a bold strategy: Turn the Marrow Down around 180 degrees and charge the D.F. Piercer! At the last moment, the pirates will veer to one side, and use their position broadsides to board the Wind Duke's privateer. They will then battle the crew for possession of the ship. A do-or-die struggle, to be sure, the kind to inspire fierce fighting from the meekest scupper's mate!
Ragna looks at Thelbar with newfound admiration, and spreads the plan amongst the boys . . .
Philius' smug composure cracks when Ragna orders the ship around, on a course to ram the D.F. Piercer. It is now Ragna’s turn to gloat, and point out that she has more tricks up her sleeve than he has given her credit for, and this time it is the fox that will nip the hound! The prime-material reference seems lost on Captain Philius, but he is able to get the drift of it.
The D.F. Piercer is a massive vessel, fully one-hundred and fifty feet long, and sixty feet wide at its aft, narrowing to a vicious eight feet in width at is fore. The vessel is built for ramming, and flies without sails, at speeds unmatched by ships like the Marrow Down. Something about the D.F. Piercer bothers Thelbar, though he cannot quite put a finger on it.
The wait as the two ships close on one another is almost unbearable. Ragna’s Raiders leave only enough crew active to execute a last-minute turn, and Ragna sends up a parley flag in order to confuse the enemy. The rest of the Raiders lurk about the starboard side, trying to look inconspicuous and conceal their boarding-pikes.
As the two ships near one another, a collision looks immanent. Taran and Thelbar stand at the prow of the Marrow Down and can make out their foe: three score or more tall, willowy, blue-skinned humanoids, led by a winged man and a floating aberration that looks for all the world like a giant, grey cone of scaly flesh, with a spiky maw at one end, and two sets of arms protruding from its forepart at the cardinal directions. The fact that the thing is obviously casting spells to prepare itself and the winged man is not lost on Thelbar.
"A Lawgiver," Hamm says over Taran's shoulder. "They must want us bad, if they’ve sent that thing all the way from B'hii's court. The flyboy standing next to him is a Wind Duke Navigatior.
"Hamm," Thelbar begins, "The Piercer--is she . . . alive?"
Hamm laughs evilly and mutters "Not for long".
Their conversation is interrupted as Ragna shouts "Now, lads! For freedom! Turn this ship!"
The Marrow Down lurches suddenly as the ogres below decks shift their weight to the side, and the vessel veers onto a course designed to bring them deck-to-deck with the D.F. Piercer. The maneuver is only partially successful, and the horrible Wind Duke ship tears into the Marrow Down just to the starboard side of the prow, below decks. There is an awful rending tear, and the two ships are locked together, with the starboard-side ogres below decks smashed into a bloody mess and sent flying out into the void. Ragna’s Raiders give a hearty yell, which is matched by the Wind Duke’s marines, then leap over the side of the ship to engage their foe.
The adventurers tell Mishkal and Hamm to concentrate on keeping the Raiders fighting together, and say that they will engage the Wind Duke and his Lawgiver. They leap into the Air, this time with greater success than when attacking the Lighthouse. Ducal marines stand in their way, however, and while the Lawgiver releases small bursts of lightning from its fingertips, Taran, Rex and Kyreel begin laying into their foes.
They manage to fight their way toward the Lawgiver, his phalanx of bodyguards proving no match for the party’s fighting prowess. The Wind Duke Navigator, roused to action, sails effortlessly across the void, and lands on the Marrow Down, looking to engage Ragna with his greatsword. Thelbar grabs his brother and leaps to her defense.
Ragna’s Raiders fight viciously enough to make her proud, and the Wind Duke’s troops fall back before their assault. To finalize matters, a few of the surviving ogres manage to reach the D.F. Piercer and begin smashing blue-skinned men with pieces of the Marrow Down’s shattered hull.
As the fight progresses, the D.F. Piercer tears deeper and deeper into the Marrow Down, shattering the frail wooden ship and sundering it in two. The Lawgiver shows no desire to engage in hand-to-hand combat with a fierce human, a crafty elf, and blood-covered drow, and before the heroes can kill it, the Lawgiver speaks a phrase in Auran and disappears.
Meanwhile, Ragna is desperately ordering some of her Raiders to transfer stores from the forward half of her former ship to the aft, and Thelbar and Taran are left to confront the Navigator. The winged man fights coolly and mercilessly, and proves himself more than up for the task. Thankfully, a handful of Ragna’s Raiders aid the cause, and distract him long enough for Thelbar’s spells to stun him, allowing Taran to strike him down. Thelbar binds the Wind Duke’s wounds, and the two heroes leap for the aft side of the ship just as the Marrow Down splits into two pieces.
Without its Navigator, or Lawgiver, the D.F. Piercer has lost its will to fight, and the giant vessel does the impossible, reversing its course, and tearing free of the fore-part of the pirate ship. Indy, Rex and Kyreel leap into the void, and manage to land near Taran on the aft half of the Marrow Down. The heroes tend to one another’s wounds and watch the D.F. Piercer pull away from them, and sail off into the void. Ragna takes stock of the situation, and counts heads--twenty gith, four ogres, her sons and herself are all that remains of the once proud Marrow Down -- alive at least, but shipwrecked and floating aimlessly in an infinite void of Elemental Air.
8-- Left adrift, Fine Manners are proved to be a function of a full belly.
The ogres and gith begin the shipwrecked voyage in relatively high spirits - - they have just beaten a superior force of Wind Duke Royalists, and lived to tell the tale. They are, after all, still free.
The D.F. Piercer’s former Navigator says little, but when questioned reveals the following: The plane of Air is mostly an empty void-- clusters of "islands" comprised of elemental matter, Prime pockets or sentient-made objects float in the void, separated by mere hundreds of miles. Away from a cluster center, floating objects become more and more rare.
The clusters themselves are many thousands of miles apart, each cluster administered by a different Wind Duke, each with differing levels of power, and thus, authority.
The splintered remnant of the Marrow Down is falling away from the populated center of this particular 'island cluster’. If they don't strike land soon, it will all be over for Ragna's Raiders -- starvation for sure.
The party sets up a small section of the ship’s deck as their own demesne. They surreptitiously examine their rations, and divide them equally amongst themselves, setting aside enough food to keep their Wind Duke captive alive. He is gravely wounded, but under Kyreel’s ministrations he can be expected to live. Indy, for his part, is ecstatic, adopting the gith pirate’s manner of dress and speech, and declaring himself a ‘Jaunty Pirate’, whatever that is supposed to mean. He jokingly threatens to make Taran ‘walk the plank’, and is rebuffed with a threat involving the haft of Kyreel’s spear, Indy’s posterior, and a decidedly unnatural and swift scabbarding.
The gith grow more standoffish as the days progress. Certainly they resent Thelbar and Kyreel’s stubborn insistence that the Wind Duke be kept alive, despite the rapidly dwindling food stores. The Raider’s attitude begins to degenerate as their hunger grows. Ragna and Kyreel can both create water but neither of them can produce food from thin air. The ogres especially are unused to the hardship, as they had been over-fed in order to keep them as heavy as possible.
Mishkal and Hamm keep to themselves, growing ever more surly (as if that were possible), and glaring at the heroes. It seems their recent victories side-by-side have not erased the memory of the humiliation they suffered at the hands of the party in their first meeting.
Indy, completely undaunted by the latest chapter in his 'great romantic adventure', practices swashbuckling, spouting pithy phrases while thrusting at the air with his rapier. If the ogres glare at him more balefully than usual, he takes no notice.
As the days blur past, one just like the former while adrift in Elemental Air, Taran has a pair of powerful dreams:
In the first, he is a great general, and has led his forces against a previously unbeaten foe. The dream takes place the night before a decisive battle. A battle he knows his men cannot win, but one he has committed them to out of pride and anger. It is a painfully poignant dream--he is addressing his officer corps, and gives them his pessimistic appraisal of their chances. He offers each one of them an opportunity to withdraw and return home, with no loss of honor. To their credit, they reply to a man that they will not leave his side.
The next phase of the dream takes place after this battle. Taran has been captured his troops defeated, and he is led in chains through a crowd of jeering foreign commoners, on his way to be beheaded. He is cursed by the enemy priests, and informed that the manner of his execution will prevent his soul from traveling into the afterlife, dooming him to a restless undeath.
He awakens with hatred in his heart, and the name of Ishlok on his lips. His foes were Ishlokians, that is for sure--his enemies named themselves after the Goddess he so passionately reveres. Even the wise council of Kyreel cannot answer that riddle, but they both agree that he is remembering his lives before this one, in the manner of the Pasoun.
His second dream is reoccurring and much more pleasant. In that one he recalls the friendship of a silver dragon, a being who--he is sure-- was a boon companion in this misty half-remembered life. As his dreams intensify, he seems to undergo a subtle physical alteration. He finds that through concentration he can enhance his speed and stamina, or cause a faint shimmering of silver dragon scales to rise on his skin, toughening his hide. The dragon's name is Galathonriel, and their souls, it seems, are intertwined.
Rex takes to watching the gith, sitting awake while the others sleep, and sleeping with a loaded crossbow. He petitions Taran for some more training, and they begin lessons, under the baleful gaze of Mishkal and Hamm.
Thelbar and Indy study the tome found in the possession of the wizard who had opened the original portal to the plane of Air. The book contains a few unique spells dealing with planar travel and dimensional magic, as well as an effective description of the rudimentary principles of Ritual Magic - - a casting methodology unknown to most Greyhawk mages. The time they spend shipwrecked is not wasted from Thelbar's point of view, and he takes to deciphering this book, studying during his entire waking hours.
Over the course of a week, the attitude of Ragna's Raiders degenerates, and one evening (morning? afternoon?) the party hears a loud argument taking place in Auran between Ragna, two gith and the ogres. Indy casts comprehend languages and is able to determine the following:
The gith have noticed that the party doesn't look as hungry as everyone else. The ogres point out that well-fed adventurers make for well-fed ogres. Ragna forbids them from harming her 'guests', berates the gith for forgetting their Code-of-the-Air, and states emphatically that after the Battle of the Lighthouse Spin and the fight with the D.F. Peircer, the party are now Raiders, just like the gith.
The gith and ogres reply that "Ragna's Raiders" is a meaningless designation if Ragna isn't the captain anymore. Ragna calls them mutinous scum, but the ogres take this as some sort of compliment. The gith spokesman points out that the Marrow Down is destroyed, and as the Auran saying goes; "there are no Captains on driftwood".
Hamm says that he is in favor of eating the party, but Mishkal (who has made friends with Thelbar) wants the mage to be spared. Ragna forbids her sons from aiding this mutiny, and Mishkal at least obeys. Hamm, on the other hand, has been spoiling for a rematch and intends to have it.
The ogres, ever the peacemakers, propose to eat the elf first, and then see about the others.
Indy says "I knew it! They always eat the elf first . . ." and slips into the shadow of a wood overhang.
The ogres step up to a landing (8' below the main deck level) where the party has been spending their time. The toughest of the bunch accuses Thelbar of hoarding food. Thelbar replies that he has not been hoarding food, he has been eating it, and if the ogre had not the foresight to keep his own rations, it will cause Thelbar no sleepless nights.
Perplexed at the aggressive response from such a little man, the ogre intimates that he might just take the food anyway. Thelbar slips his fingertips into the small pouches at his waist, and cooly informs the overweight ogre that he will die if he tries it. The ogre calls Thelbar's bluff with a guttural, mocking laugh.
But it's not a bluff. Thelbar raises his hands and places a fireball behind the four menacing ogres, wounding them, and instantly killing every gith left on the ship. In one fell swoop, only four ogres and Hamm remain to press their mutiny.
Of course, four ogres and Hamm may well be enough. The battle is pitched, with Thelbar and Kyreel exposed in the front ranks, both forced to flee the fight. Taran calls on his "scales of the dragon" to protect him from harm, but without Rex at his side, he could not have finished the fight.
In the end, the party is badly wounded, the ogres are slain, the gith are burned to a man, and Mishkal convinces Hamm to stop fighting, lest he too be slain.
Mishkal whispers into his brother's ear, "There is plenty to eat now, brother. Leave this fight be".
Ragna, tears streaking her orcish face, begs the party for mercy, and asks them in the name of the Goddess they serve to help her save any of her Raiders who still live. After a moment's hesitation, Kyreel steps forward and begins using her orisons to stabilize any Raiders who are still breathing. In the end, six gith are saved, but remain unconscious as they are badly burned.
The very next day, Ragna confers with the party. She stresses the need for unity. She says that if they run across a small enough ship, she believes that the eight of them (the party, Ragna, Mishkal and Hamm) could still take it and leave enough of the crew alive to sail back to Haven. She is hopeful that they might yet return home as Free Beings.
Before the party can answer her, Mishkal interrupts the parley and exclaims "Object ho! Eleven-nines!" (In the plane of air, directions are described on two axises, one running from prow to stern, and one running from starboard to larboard, both describing clock faces. So, eleven-nines is eleven o-clock front to back, nine o-clock left to right.).
The party hurriedly gathers their gear, and prepares to board the object, should it prove to be a vessel.
Kyreel tells the party that should they encounter a superior Wind Duke force, she wants to surrender rather than fight. The Wind Dukes, she reasons, are the group's true allies, and certainly more trustworthy than this pirate scum. Indy says "Pirate . . . scum?" and stomps away to pout. Thelbar points out that if they were to surrender they would be hanged, as they are now criminals in the eyes of the Dukes. Kyreel, however believes strongly in the Truth inherent in Justice, and restates her opinion. No resolution is achieved.
After a tense hour of waiting drags into a tense afternoon of waiting, the group realizes that whatever the object is, it's very, very big. Miles long, most likely.
Ragna tells the party that it's a prime pocket, and there are only two kinds of those: The kind the Wind Dukes make, and those made by a Sundering. She's not sure which is worse. The Wind Dukes pull huge sections of Prime Worlds through to the Plane of Air for use as military bases and even cities. That option would likely spell the end for them all.
Sunderings occur when massive cataclysms rip parts of a Prime loose and send it violently through a dimensional portal. The most common cause for a Sundering? When Gods make war. "If you're lucky," Ragna says, "the Sundered island is territory belonging to the looser."
Over the course of the next day, the island slowly comes closer. As the Marrow Down (or what's left of her) approaches, it becomes obvious that this island is the product of a Sundering. Essentially triangle shaped, it includes a tropical lake surrounded by lushly forested hills, with jungle lowlands toward the sharp edge. All around the island are trees and rock flaking off from the edge of the prime pocket, slowly drifting away from the island that birthed them. There is some sort of structure protruding from the center of the lake, but it is difficult to determine any details. The underside of the island is rocky and jagged. A thin stream of water drains away from the lake, falling away from the massive floating island in a stream that extends away as far as the eye can follow.
After some tricky navigation ("All together now, lads--fall! Fall!") , the remainder of the Marrow Down lands on a rocky 'beach' near the tip of the triangle. Ragna asks the party to determine if there are any Hostile sentients on the island, while she tends to the wounded Raiders. Desiring to keep her sons from fighting, she orders them away from the party and sets Mishkal and Hamm to the task of building a new ship.
A brief foray into the island reveals tracks of large, clawed beasts, as the tracks of great cats. The party reports this information and organizes double watches, explaining to Ragna how this is done on land.
The next morning (always a relative condition here), the party determines to map their new home. The first thing they discover is a tree-village inhabited by intelligent monkey-like beings, who build elaborate tree-top structures, but arm themselves with crude spears. Fortunately they are not hostile, and after some spellcasting the group is able to communicate their peaceful intent, and are taken to meet the tribe's leader.
The creatures are quiet, intelligent, and thoughtful. They mark their own history, care for their young, and utilize magic, fulfilling Indianichus' "three determinates of civilized sentience". The monkey-people (or Phanatons, as their name for themselves is pronounced in common) have some unique characteristics. Their history revolves around a series of cultural heroes, revered for their ability to think creatively and introduce new ideas and concepts to the tribe. The Phanatons possess an amazing aptitude for learning, picking up a crude version of common speech within hours, but seem entirely unable to imagine. Thus, they have no art that has not been made before, no new tales that have not been told before, and no new living strategies that have not been tried before. The sundering of their island has thrown them into a confusion almost akin to insanity. They cannot comprehend an event that does not have historical parallels, and cannot adapt. They can, however, perform any task to the exact standard it is demonstrated to them, and they obey any commands given by a recognized leader without hesitation.
"These creatures would make perfect sailors", Thelbar observes.
The leader tells the group that the big cats and lizard-kin have come down out of the hills after the Sundering. He does not know why the island splintered from the prime, but suspects it may have something to do with the snake-people of the lake. No one in the tribe remembers the event, but they all remember a period of great disquiet and terror amongst them, and when it was over, they found themselves in this 'land where the sun has gone hiding'. In addition to their confusion, the clan is terrified and hungry, refusing to leave their trees for fear of being eaten by one of the large predators that now roam their territory.
Taran vows to protect these beings, calling them the "first worthwhile creatures we haven't had to kill in this whole damned plane". The group tells the chieftain that they are going to have a look around, and see what they can do. A plan to escape the island is beginning to form.
On a foray out toward the hills, the group encounters a massive dragon-like lizard-- a twenty-foot tall behemoth that runs on its hind legs and snatches Indy whole into its gullet! The thing has teeth like daggers, and for the first time in their young adventuring careers, the heroes believe that they have likely met their end. They face a terrible lizard--a king amongst its kind. Rex is in awe.
Fortunately, the group manages to land several lucky blows, and cut Indy from the creature's throat before he is suffocated or crushed. Shaken and battered, the group retreats to the Phanaton's tree-home, fearing to face Mishkal and Hamm in their current sorry state.
The next day, they return to Ragna and her sons, noticing that the surviving gith are up and around and healing nicely. Mishkal and Hamm are as surly as ever, and the staring match between the half-orcs and Taran almost erupts into an outright brawl before cooler heads can intervene. Taran mutters under his breath that next time he fights those dirty bastards, he'll finish the job. Indy chimes in, threatening to hang them from the mizzenmast until the gulls pick at their eyes, and then feed the remains to the sharks!
Taran stares at the elf stonily.
"There are no sharks here, Indy," Thelbar says.
The group meets with Ragna and lays out the following arrangement: The Wind Duke Navigator is to be their prisoner alone, and they will take him to the Phanaton settlement. Ragna may meet with the Phanaton leader, and if he is willing, can enlist the monkey-creatures into helping build a ship. She is warned, that if she loves her sons, she would do well to keep them from even hinting that they might harm one of the Phanatons. Thelbar instructs her, in no uncertain terms, that a third bout between his group and her sons would be their last act.
Ragna is overjoyed to hear the news, and replies that she is confident that she can teach the Phanatons to build a ship out of whatever native material is available, and furthermore, if the creatures are as clever as Thelbar says, she'll turn them into the fiercest crew of pirates the plane of Elemental Air has ever seen.
The Phanatons prove amiable to this course, and take to their instruction readily. They show Ragna and her boys how to build out of a native silk-like material that hardens into a fibrous strength. Ragna, for her part is overjoyed, and is soon predicting (loudly) a piratical reign of terror the likes of which will make the Wind Dukes shiver in their sleep at the mere mention of her name!
During this time, the party stays in the Phanaton encampment, wary of attack from Mishkal and Hamm. The group wisely reckons that if the half-orcs really want them dead, now would be the time to do it. They take the Navigator and set up a base-of-operations in an unused hutch.
"By rightful Law," the Navigator says to Kyreel one morning, "I am Governor here until this island is disposed in B'hii. Release me, and I will speak on your behalf at court. Know this, I am a Navigator, and the mysteries of the spaces between things are known to me. Unlike Ragna, I am not lost. Release me, and we can free-fall to the nearest inhabited sanctuary."
Kyreel replies that she will have to think it over, and discuss it with her companions. The group again fails to reach consensus, and Kyreel returns to ask the Navigator a few more questions: Can he guarantee that no harm will come to the party if they turn themselves in to the Wind Dukes?
"I guarantee a fair and just inquiry."
Can he provide for the well-being of the Phanatons?
"The Phanatons are now subjects of the Wind Dukes with no more nor any less right to their place in the service of B'hii."
In the end, the risk seems less with Ragna than throwing themselves upon the dubious mercy of a Wind Duke court of law. At least with the orcish pirate, the Phanatons will be well-loved. The party tells the Navigator that he is to be set free once Ragna has finished her sailing vessel, and take his word that he will try no escape until that time. Once he gives his word, they release his bonds, and free him to walk about and exercise. In particular Kyreel enjoys his company, and if the Navigator lacks slightly in mercy, he certainly understands principles of Justice and Duty as well as anyone Kyreel has ever known. The two have many conversations late into the evenings.
-----
Ragna is confident that a ship can be built. The ship needs only integrity, as there is no concern about water-tightness. She estimates that they will be ready to go sooner than later owing to the single-mindedness of the Phanatons and their ability to rapidly assimilate knowledge. The Phanatons themselves are concerned about predatory attacks, so the ship is built above ground, in a rigging suspended from nearby trees. The rigging also serves as an eventual launching cradle for the ship, so the vessel is built upside-down (in order to fall away from the island right side up).
The second day of construction, the island is rocked by one of the massive storms that drift endlessly here in Elemental Air. Mini-vortexes to the plane of Water, the storm must have itself been thousands of miles across. Life on the island comes to a complete stop as every creature on it hunkers down and hides from the storm.
Taran, Thelbar and Kyreel take the time to sit down and hash out a strategy session (Indy, of course, attends, but he spends the majority of the time playing with a fat toad he has pulled out of the nearby forest). The group is concerned that some of the larger predators in the nearby jungle might attack the Phanatons while they are busy building a ship, and learning how to sail it.
Thus, the group mobilizes to form a pro-active line of defense, and spend their days combing the nearby jungle on seek-and-destroy missions against anything higher up on the food chain than an intelligent monkey.
They fight with a cat-headed man riding a sabre-tooth tiger. Neither the tiger or the warrior can withstand Thelbar's color spray, so fortunately no one is seriously mauled (no one who isn't at least half cat, that is). Smaller reptilian hunters are also encountered, and dealt with. But one issue seems to be plaguing everyone's mind--the structure in the middle of the lake.
A closer examination reveals that the thing is a ziggurat pyramid that rises out of the water approximately fifty feet. It is one-hundred-plus feet to a side at water-level, and most certainly larger still under the surface.
The group determines to explore the place, and uses water-walking spells to reach the ziggurat. The lake has drained significantly enough to reveal that the base of the structure is built onto an island formation, with coral reefs just below the original water level.
A series of cave-like openings in the coral are radiating a nauseating smell of dead fish. As adventurers can neither resist caves nor dead fish, the group edges closer.
Suddenly, horrific amphibian humanoid abominations leap from the caves, charging the characters in a blind fury! Fortunately, after a fireballl from Thelbar, and a pair of cleaves from Taran, the fish-men are no more.
As the group is exploring the ziggurat itself, they notice that the entrance to the place seems to be at the very top of the structure, which is reached by means of stairs carved into one side of the structure. Taran is in the lead, followed by Kyreel, then Thelbar, with Indy picking up the rear.
A trapped step sends a flurry of darts rocketing into Taran and Kyreel. The paladin is only grazed, but one of the darts striking Taran draws blood, and within a matter of seconds, Taran's perceptions begin to distort.
He turns to his companions with a confused look in his eye, and says "I'm alright. I'm just . . . kind of floaty right now."
Before anyone gets the chance to ask him what 'floaty' is supposed to mean, he is picking his way back up the stairs, trying to keep them A) from melting completely away, and B) clear of the morass of glowing snakes that are now oozing out of the pores of the rock.
The rest of the party looks at one another and watches Taran's exaggerated progress up the steps. Kyreel says "He has been poisoned, but I think he is unhurt."
Metagame note: Taran just took a whopping 2d6 Cha and Wis damage, after failing both his primary and secondary saves against poison. He is now hallucinating harder than Jimi Hendrix taking a weekend holiday with Timothy Leary.
The party enters the structure through an opening in the floor of the top level. The group lights a torch for the human's benefit, then lowers a rope and climbs down. They find themselves in an alien chamber, decorated with a mixture of relief carving and fresco paintings that seem to depict snakes crawling all over the walls with a life-like and disturbing effect. Apparently Taran wasn't far off in his hallucinatory assessment of the scene.
The group hears a rasping hiss from just beyond the edge of their torchlight, and draws their weapons. A horrific dessicated snake with a human-like head and one human arm approaches them. The thing is withered and encrusted with filth. The creature mutters alien words of power and a shimmering hemisphere of green energy surrounds it. Taran charges the beast, apparently no less useful for having slipped into a hallucinogen-induced psychotic state, but his attacks cannot pass the energy field. Kyreel mutters a blessing to counteract the vile nature of the room, and Indy tries to get around the back of the snake creature for a sneak attack. The creature gestures again, and Kyreel is struck by transparent vipers extending from the beast's one extended hand. Thelbar recognizes a magic missile spell when he sees one, and reasons that fire is best fought with fire. But the energy sphere harmlessly absorbs his magic missiles, provoking a rare curse from the well-spoken mage.
Indy and Taran press the thing, with Kyreel aiding. The creature proves immune to Enchantment spells of any sort, but is not fully prepared to melee with three capable combatants. After a burning hands from Thelbar, and near-simultaneous strikes from the others, the mummified creature collapses to the ground with a hiss, it's energy field slowly fading away.
"I don't know what that thing was, but I'm not sure that I want to ever see another one again," Indy says. "He pulls his pet toad from his pocket. "At least Vognu is safe."
"Put that snake back where you found it," Taran says. "They're all in our pockets, but the fire on the mountain top won't let us stop now!" And with that piece of advice, the burly fighter ducks through a low archway some 3' high.
Unfortunately for Indy, the mummified snake-thing isn't the last one they see, and the party battles with three more of the dusty monstrosities before discovering another hole in the ground leading deeper into the ziggurat.
The chamber below is a massive square room, decorated like the ones above, but with a series of pillars forming a large circle in the center of the huge space. The pillars themselves are carved into the shapes of hundreds of snake-like abominations writhing together to form a grotesque mass. Given the poor lighting conditions in the room, it is no wonder that the group does not spot a pair of real snake-men using a psionic camouflage.
As the party prepares a rope, and begins their descent, they are hit with the first of two waves of utter revulsion. The small, animal parts of their minds are stimulated into an unreasoning terror and loathing. Taran succumbs and begins his retreat, but as the group is trying to gather their wits, arrows come flying out of the darkness, striking Indy and Kyreel. The two elves feel their muscles clench around the arrow wounds, as poison seeps into their bloodstream.
It's time to run for it.
The group manages to make it to the level where they fought the mummified abominations, but are dismayed to realize that the real means of passage for the ziggurat's main inhabitants are a series of fist-sized holes cleverly disguised by the artwork on the wall. Small vipers come streaming out of the holes at some unspoken command, and the party has only their luck to thank that no one is severely poisoned by the things.
Once back in the fresh air and suddenly comforting half-light of the plane of Air, the group high-tails it for the Phanaton camp to rest and recover.
The group makes it back to the Phanaton camp, and heals physical wounds and relaxes themselves. Taran, unfortunately, spends the night sitting in a corner with his knees drawn up to his chest, either refusing to see or unable to see his friends and their attempts to ease his suffering.
Taran is made of stern stuff, however, and as his body is throwing off the vice-grip of the poison, he spontaneously regresses to a previous lifetime . . .
-----
It is his incarnation as a general again, although he is much younger this time than in his previous dreams. He has a sword in his possession -- an intelligent blade that possesses a powerful dislike for evil dragonkind, red dragons in particular.
In this life, Taran was a quiet and tongue-tied youth, but while in his sword's company, he found a ready friend with whom could communicate using his mind, not his stilted speech. The two would while away hours spent guarding this camp or the other, discussing dragonkind, political thought or the tactics of war.
Galathonriel (as that was the sword's name) was the soul of a silver dragon, placed into a weapon that he might continue to oppose his enemies after death. Many fighters will tell you that their sword is their best friend, or that they trust only their blade. In Taran's case, this was literally so.
It burned at Taran, and hurt him, that Galathonriel could not have a body to fly free, and live the life he so fondly remembered. Through a series of elaborate adventures, Taran managed to find a way 'between the worlds', and speak with the powerful spirits charged with shepherding the souls of the dead. A bargain was struck, and Galathonriel was given a new body, and a new life.
Somehow, through that process, part of Taran's soul remained with the dragon, and part of a dragon's soul was left in the man. In this life, as Taran grows in stature, elements of Galathonriel's primal magical gift are bubbling to the surface, reflected in sorcerous abilities.
If Galathonriel was still alive when the remnants of Taran's army was dashed upon the rocks of the Ishlokian Imperial Guard, Taran cannot recall. The Lord of Rethmiir (called The Dragonslayer, called Scion of the Blade), Taran Tar-Ilou was executed as a war criminal by the High Justicar of Her Glorious and Most Radiant Goddess Ishlok, Protector of Her Holy Empire, in the Fall of the year 1122 Founding.
He was reborn of whole cloth in Greyhawk city, a world away from his home, charged with a great and terrible purpose. Galathonriel, it seems, is still with him, integrated into the new whole.
-----
When Taran awakes, he is still sitting on the floor. The room is empty, and as he starts to stand a wave of nausea overtakes him, and he kneels on the ground for a moment. As he does so, memories of the previous night's visions return to him, and he recalls snakes crawling all over him, inside his clothes and under his skin.
At that point, a tiny silver triangle-shaped head emerges from his vest pocket. It is a silver-colored viper. For a moment, Taran is unsure if he is still hallucinating, but he realizes he can feel the snake's presence in his mind, as if the little creature has burrowed out a nest for itself within his consciousness. It is an extraordinary sensation, and quite pleasant. Taran smiles, and wishes for the snake to crawl out onto his arm. The viper responds instantly, traveling down to Taran's calloused sword-hand, where it coils around his fist.
"I think I'll call you Galathonriel," Taran says.
"Be careful," Kyreel says as she enters the small room, "don't drink this all at once." She hands Taran a conch shell filled with a foul-smelling tea. "The Phanatons say this will purge you, and by my augury, Ishlok concurred. I petitioned the Goddess to restore you to a sound mind, and it seems She . . ." Kyreel trails off as she notices Taran's new pet.
She regards the fighter for a moment, searching for signs of further madness. Seeing none, she shrugs and says, "Keep your snake from eating Indy's toad lest we all are forced to suffer his grief. Drink this now, and come to your bed."
After Taran recuperates, the group feels ready to finish what they started in the temple. Everyone is enchanted to resist poison and suitable spells are prepared. Unfortunately for the two remaining snake-priests, their dark God was the looser in the war that produced this sundering. Their faith is strong, but their spells have evaporated away into the mists of Elemental Air. They are no match for a group of skilled, prepared adventurers. They are killed quickly, and the heroes fall to looting their temple. Much gold is found, along with unique artifacts and record keeping devices.
"Let's watch our backs," Thelbar cautions, "if Mishkal and Hamm wanted to kill us yesterday," he lifts a handful of strangely shaped gold coins, "they are going to be beside themselves to kill us now."
"Fine with me," Taran says, "let 'em try. And the sooner the better."
"Be still, friends," Kyreel says. "We have led Ragna to believe that we intend peace with her sons," Kyreel says, "and I will not have us betraying ourselves in the name of wealth. Let us keep our find as quiet as we can, and keep the peace."
It is several days before the Phanaton ship is ready to launch, and the group maintains their patrols, but encounters no further enemies.
Ragna determines to name her new ship the Island's Gift, after their adventure on the isle, and with the Phanatons clinging to their places with their feet and tails (and everyone else hanging on for dear life), Ragna gives the order to shove off. Every sentient in the boat changes their belief that up is down, and suddenly, the Island's Gift is falling away from the Isle of Trepidation, and the party bids a silent farewell to both the sundered island and the Ducal Navigator--the lone being left behind.
Ragna proves true to her word, and takes the party to Haven; a sprawling port-city built on three sides of a cube-shaped sundered rock. The place is strange beyond the heroes' experience, with creatures of all kinds mingling in the streets, drunken sailors fighting and singing (mostly fighting), and a few overworked prostitutes too tired to really argue when rebuffed.
Ragna introduces the group to a wizard who, she claims, owes her a favor. The wizard is dark, mysterious, and altogether unwholesome, but Kyreel manages to restrain her desire to smite him long enough to allow him to cast the spell of transportation that will send the group home.
Ragna's Wizard friend can't promise a pin-point delivery, but he says he will get the group close to their destination of Ratik. Mishkal and Hamm neither come to say good-byes, nor attack the group (which was the more likely option). Ragna, for her part, gets all teared up, and gives each of the characters a crushing orcish hug, promising to keep their deeds alive as pirate tales.
The group arrives close enough to the mountains to recognize how far they are from the place where they ventured into Elemental Air. They take a moment to breathe in the familiar smells, and are startled at how loud everything is out here in the middle of nowhere. Rex wonders aloud what happened to 'Lac, his first real warhorse.
The group has grown in experience, and power. Both Indy and Taran have bonded with animals from the island, Vognu the frog and Galathonriel the silver snake. Several magic items have passed from the hands of enemies to the characters, most notably Captain Philius' shocking shortspear and ring of flying, in the possession of Kyreel and Taran, respectively.
After a couple of days travel, the group is able to orient themselves using a map purchased in Greyhawk City, and are nearing the city of Ratikill, in Ratik.
The party notices a cloud of dust on the horizon and moves to investigate. What they see is a troop of thirty-five armed knights and footmen forming an honor guard for an unarmed black-robed individual whose face and visible skin are covered in intricate tattoos.
Worse yet, the soldiers are flying a flag that sparks painful memories in the minds of the party. A black crescent moon set against a maroon circle, the whole of which is outlined by seven golden stars. It is the banner of the Ishlokian Empire – the same nation that executed Taran a lifetime previous, and likely killed the others as well.
Metagame note: The Ishlokians were terrible foes: an imperialistic bunch of xenophobic elitists. Ishlokians hold to the
Demon Decree--a doctrine espoused by their Emperor-Priests. The Demon Decree states that magic is in every instance a manifestation of Demonic power, and all non-humans are inherently, irredeemably Evil. The Ishlokians were best known for their genocidal wars against demihumans, elves in particular. The Holy Empire of Ishlok perpetrated these atrocities in the name of the Goddess that Kyreel serves, but certainly did not receive any spells from her. The the Demon Decree was likely a reaction to the fact that they could no longer channel Divine magic. The Emperor-Priests consorted with Devils, and introduced Baatorian politics into the world of Isk.
So if you spot a troop of 35 armed Ishlokian knights and light footmen escorting a black-robed individual, what would you do? If you answered, "lead with a fireball, centered on the black-robed bastard", you would have agreed with Thelbar.
The heroes gain the element of surprise, and decimate the Ishlokian ranks with spells and missile fire. To their credit, the Ishlokians rally quickly, and came forward in an ordered charge maneuver, bringing them into melee with Taran, Kyreel and Indy.
The black-robed individual simply disappears shortly after being burned by the fireball, and does not return. Taran fights his way through footmen, Cleaving at every step, and Kyreel wields her shocking spear to great effect.
Metagame note: The comedic moment of the fight was Indy commanding his toad familiar Vognu into battle. "Vognu! Get their leader!" "Burrrap". Flop. Five-foot move. Next round: "Burrrap". Flop. Five-foot move. Toads don't even have an attack! Vognu had to flop himself onto the foot of an Ishlokian soldier to discharge his
shocking grasp spell!
After several rounds of furious melee, the field belongs to the heroes. The knights are slain to a man, and the few surviving footmen have surrendered their swords. Thelbar questions one of the footmen, who calls him an "elf-loving Demon scum", and haughtily informs Thelbar that he is now marked for death. The black-robed man, he informs the group, is none other than the ambassador to Ratik from Knurl.
"You are now criminals of the worst sort," he states, "murderers and assassins".
The group debates the fate of the surviving Ishlokians, and determines to set them free, albeit far from safety, and without horses. After they leave, the party discusses the implications of their actions.
Indy asks, "How were we supposed to know that black-robed bastard was the ambassador from a nearby allied nation? Is it our fault that he can teleport himself, and that one fireball isn't enough to kill him? Can you blame us for assuming that all Ishlokians are racist, theologically retarded scum, even the ones who would like to appear otherwise? No, my friends, we have done no wrong. In fact, we should be lauded at the highest level of Government for exposing their treachery! For freedom! And, um . . . Justice! Who is with me!"
The group stares at Indy, then Vognu flops out of his bag, spraining a leg.
The group obtains passage on a sea voyage up the coast of Ratik, to her capital city of Marner, very near the Great Delve. Most of the party becomes seasick, including Indy, who decides that maybe being a Jaunty Pirate isn't all it's cracked up to be. Vognu, on the other hand, is fine, although he complains about the salty air chafing his skin. Vognu is a delicate toad.
Upon their arrival in Marner, Indy begins gathering information about the Great Delve, and the mysterious disappearance of the dwarves there that happened a year earlier.
13-- For great justice! Let fly every propagandist!
The party is sitting in a local adventurer's watering hole when it happens. They have struck up a friendship with several Northern barbarians and learned the following: Ishlokian war ships began landing along the coast last year, and they have established a base North of Ratik, from which they have made war against the Frutzii clans who live there.
Further, the Ishlokians have allied themselves with the Baron of Knurl, who is the father of Lady Evaliegh, Ratik's leader and Baroness. The Ishlokians are a mystery to the people of Ratik, but they claim to follow Pholtus of the Blinding Light. Their exact relationship with the Theocracy of the Pale is unknown, but they seem properly rigid and closed-minded enough to please Pholtus.
As the group is enjoying a meal and a pint, the bar around them suddenly grows quiet. Looking up, the heroes spot a brace of armed guards entering the place. "We are looking for these men," the guard captain says, holding up a portrait of the five heroes. Indy slides under the table, and sneaks away.
Killing a brace of Ishlokians is one thing, but attacking honest guards who are merely executing their duty is another. The group stands and surrenders without a fight. Indy remains hidden, and manages to slip out of the inn. He frantically tries to think of some way to free his fellows, and follows them to the prisons, but can find no opening.
He charms a local guard captain, and discovers that his four friends are to be tried on charges of Unwarranted Use of Magical Force, Assault of a Nobleman by a Commoner, and Base Murder. If they are found guilty, they will be executed, and their possessions taken into the treasury of Ratik, as befits political criminals.
But Indy is not defeated quite yet. He composes a stirring revolutionary tract, accusing the Baroness Evaliegh of conspiring to frame adventurers for crimes they did not commit, in order to take their magic items from them.
Indy's logic: Most adventurers don't give a whit about politics, but tell them someone wants to steal their magic, and they will scream for blood. Indy begins posting his seditious tracts in every location frequented by adventurers, and starts a general outcry to "Free the Ratik Four". He befriends a group of bards, and asks them to spread the heroic tale of the Ratik Four and their betrayal at the hands of the power-mad Baroness.
Being a revolutionary is even more romantic than being a pirate.
Metagame note: At this point, Indy purchased a rank in Profession (Revolutionary). The DM thought he should buy ranks in Profession (Rabble Rousing), but that's just sour grapes. He's just bitter that Indy crafted such a powerful and compelling public opinion movement.
Indy's next step is to retain the services of a barrister. A man possessed of a razor-sharp mind and impeccable reputation. Er, at least one who is willing to work pro-bono (Indy's treasure was confiscated along with his friends' . He manages to sweet-talk a gnomish barrister by the name of Cocrane into taking the case. Cocrane begins work on a legal defense that will leverage popular opinion, point out how handsome Thelbar is at every opportunity, and string together a spurious chain of legal loopholes and long-forgotten precedent. Indy loves it.
Four days later, Indy is arrested while buying fruit at the market.
He is unceremoniously dumped into a cell with his companions, and he excitedly brings them up to speed on the airtight defense, well . . . the creative defense that Cocrane is putting together for them. After Thelbar is restrained from throttling the elven rogue, and Kyreel's breathing resumes its normal course, Taran smacks Indy on the back of his head, and calls him an idiot. Indy comments that it is a shame how quickly counter-revolutionary indoctrination can happen in prison.
The group is called before the Lady Evaliegh to be given an opportunity to confess their crimes. Cocrane is present, and insists that his clients remain silent, preferring instead to answer all of the Lady's questions himself. Thelbar almost has to be restrained again, but manages to gather his composure.
Indy stares slack-jawed at the Lady for the duration of the questioning. She is devastatingly beautiful, a true noblewoman in bearing, well spoken, and obviously extremely intelligent. Indy fancies that she shares several private glances with him, confirming his suddenly growing belief that the two of them are in love, tragic lovers separated by a cruel political divide neither of them can overcome. Oh, the humanity.
Cocrane, ever the clever barrister, invokes an ancient legal provision that allows political prisoners to be judged by the Council of Northern Lords--the entire assembly of leaders East of Tenh. Gathering the assembly will take weeks, if not months, buying the party time. More importantly, the group will be judged by Lords who may oppose Ishlokian involvement in Evaliegh's court.
The party has nothing to occupy their time until the trial, as even games of chance are forbidden in the Ratik prisons. Taran baits the guards, trying to start a fight, but the rest of the group merely sits silently, lost in their own thoughts. Rex wonders aloud what his Grandmother would think if she could see him now.
At the trial, the group stares down a trio of black-robed Ishlokians, one of whom they recognize.
"Hey, your burns healed pretty fast, baldy -- you look like an ugly map of Tenh," Taran says before Cocrane can hush him to silence.
When the defendants are introduced, the name "Tar-Ilou" provokes the only reaction from the black-robed trio the courtroom would see during the whole trial. It is hard to say whether the Ishlokians were scared, startled or just surprised, but one thing is for sure--Taran and Thelbar's family name is known to them.
The trial is a 'Northman's Court' with only the noblemen in the room allowed to ask questions. Cocrane, as the barrister, is allowed to answer for the defendants wherever he deems necessary. The trial is brief, and after an afternoon's deliberation, the Lord's Council delivers the following verdict: The defendants are sentenced to five years in a labor camp, at the end of which time they are to be turned over to the Baron of Knurl for execution.
It is a message-verdict, sent from Evaliegh to her father-in-law. He will have his revenge, but not at his leisure. It seems she is taking this opportunity to remind him who is Lady in Ratik. The verdict also highlights another political schism. The Lords of the area are deeply divided about the 'alliance' the Baron of Knurl has made with the outsiders.
Metagame Note: "Outsider" is the name the locals have given the Ishlokians, there is no implication of outer-planar origin within this use of the phrase.
The night after the trial, as the party is discussing the implications of the sentence, their cell doors are unlocked and opened. A masked man (or woman) says, "I am here to free you. Follow me and be quiet. I am taking you out through a secret passage. Move."
Just like that, the heroes are drinking in the nighttime air, and examining their gear, all intact and strapped to horses. Indy gloats that his revolutionary movement must have long arms, but Thelbar thinks that this is the work of one of the Northern Lords. Likely one of the Lords hates the Ishlokians as much as the party does, and determined to blunt the interest the Ishlokians had in seeing the party dead. It might even be Evaliegh.
Amongst the gear, the group finds their map of the area, with additional writing on it in Isenthanian Proper*. There is a site marked 'outsider camp', not too far from Marner. More outsiders! But are they Ishlokian, or are they like the party? Will they have some answers to this mystery of memory?
*Isenthanian Proper is the foreign language the party speaks. It is a derivate of Old Ishlokian, the language spoken by the black robed rat-bastards.
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. He manages to sweet-talk a gnomish barrister by the name of Cocrane into taking the case. Cocrane begins work on a legal defense that will leverage popular opinion, point out how handsome Thelbar is at every opportunity, and string together a spurious chain of legal loopholes and long-forgotten precedent. Indy loves it.
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