Desdichado
Hero
As a matter of fact, everything seems to have gone quiet. Amallind opens the door, and there is no sign of anyone about. Waving for the others to follow her, but keep a distance, they creep through the temple. At all points, it seems to be abandoned. They even find the large, heavy doors they had seen earlier. They are slightly ajar, so they enter the room beyond. This room is large, with wooden "boxes" that are reminiscent of the kinds that typically house choirs in cathedrals back in Liska. A heavy stone altar is in the center of the room, bloodstained and black. There is still no sign of anyone near. A strange dread comes over the party as they search the empty halls of the temple. There is a slightly charged feeling in the air, a kind of tension without explanation. Listening carefully they even think they can almost hear a strange and fell voice in the air; a deep voice that is more felt than heard, chanting or gibbering to itself in the darkness. The group supresses a shudder and decides that they have seen enough. They wisely decide not to see if the barracks under the temple are similarly abandoned. They quickly and quietly leave the compound and head back towards where they left Bria waiting for them outside.
Outside things are quiet as well, and it is getting very dark moving towards evening. The wind has calmed down considerably, but still blows dust in their eyes. They quickly walk away from the accursed temple, but are surprised to find that Bria is no longer there. There's no immediate sign of a struggle, but there is a faint trail that Amallind is able to follow. They decide it's time to see what Bria is up to, and make sure she's all right.
They follow the trail of Bria until near evening the next day without catching her. She seems to have been heading towards the Blood Pass, which is the direction they would want to travel anyway, but then she veers southward into a forest of broken and dead trees. Amallind (who really nailed all her perception rolls all night, as you might have noticed) hears some odd sounds and sees some shapes moving through the darkness -- three large shapes. They huddle together for protection, but continue making their way through the woods until they burst into a clearing of sorts. Ahead of them is a crumbling structure; a raised pavilion with broken columns. Through the trees burst two creatures with heavily armored riders. They lower their lances and charge the party.
(NOTE: Despite the picture, I knew no one else in my group has access to Fiend Folio so I was free to make this what I wanted. What they ended up being was Hobgoblin fighter-2s mounted on toned down dire boars. The players still thought this a very difficult combat, but that's partly because they weren't running on full at the beginning. Actually, they only faced two of the three that Amallind had seen earlier, and the hobgoblins used pretty lousy tactics to boot. But still, there's no call to go gratuitously killing PCs on this type of game, is there? 
)
After charging with their lances full into Baenn and Cyrus, the hobgoblins throw down their lances and draw longswords to continue hacking at the party. Gunderic finds himself climbing a tree, but when one of the goblinoid scouts passes him by, he climbs back down to flank and backstab the fellow. Baenn takes one of them down on his own, then chopping the creatures mount into a giant pork chop, but not without taking a few lumps of his own. The other three gang up on another hobgoblin, and their combined efforts are sufficient to bring him and his savage mount down as well.
They are surprised to find that the hobgoblins are very well equipped; their armor and weapons are of exceptional quality, and identical. These are not the roving scouts of a tribe of wanderers, but the scouts of a highly civilized and mobilized military machine. The group begins to fear for the prospects for Liska if this army has indeed been pointed in that direction. They are also concerned about the third soldier, who they have not seen in the area recently. Baenn remarks that they may have sent one of their number to report back on the finding of trespassers.
But first, it's time to set in for the evening, and Gunderic wants to make sure the location is safe. He climbs the crumbling steps to the top of the pavilion, and sees a sunken sqaure in the center, as if it once held a pool of some kind. The walls of the pool are cracked, and one crack looks large enough for him to enter, although the larger party members cannot. He crawls inside and sees a rough tunnel, as if dug by very large rats, leading around a corner for about twenty feet. He doesn't see any signs of life, but at the end of the tunnel, there is a wooden box. He quickly picks the lock, inspects the thing for traps and opens it. There is a brilliant flash of light and the sound of eerie, disturbing laughter, but nothing else happens (I thought about having it unleash some kind of summoned demon or somesuch, but it was late in the night and I didn't want to start something new. As it is, it came across as a kind of joke box more than anything else, and the laughter was imagined by my players as belonging to some kind of freaky clown. Ahh well, we'll see from the next DM whether or not this meant anything!) Inside is a very rich looking medallion, made of gold with a ruby crystal in the center (in fact, it looks a bit like the headpiece to the staff of Ra...)
Outside things are quiet as well, and it is getting very dark moving towards evening. The wind has calmed down considerably, but still blows dust in their eyes. They quickly walk away from the accursed temple, but are surprised to find that Bria is no longer there. There's no immediate sign of a struggle, but there is a faint trail that Amallind is able to follow. They decide it's time to see what Bria is up to, and make sure she's all right.
They follow the trail of Bria until near evening the next day without catching her. She seems to have been heading towards the Blood Pass, which is the direction they would want to travel anyway, but then she veers southward into a forest of broken and dead trees. Amallind (who really nailed all her perception rolls all night, as you might have noticed) hears some odd sounds and sees some shapes moving through the darkness -- three large shapes. They huddle together for protection, but continue making their way through the woods until they burst into a clearing of sorts. Ahead of them is a crumbling structure; a raised pavilion with broken columns. Through the trees burst two creatures with heavily armored riders. They lower their lances and charge the party.
)After charging with their lances full into Baenn and Cyrus, the hobgoblins throw down their lances and draw longswords to continue hacking at the party. Gunderic finds himself climbing a tree, but when one of the goblinoid scouts passes him by, he climbs back down to flank and backstab the fellow. Baenn takes one of them down on his own, then chopping the creatures mount into a giant pork chop, but not without taking a few lumps of his own. The other three gang up on another hobgoblin, and their combined efforts are sufficient to bring him and his savage mount down as well.
They are surprised to find that the hobgoblins are very well equipped; their armor and weapons are of exceptional quality, and identical. These are not the roving scouts of a tribe of wanderers, but the scouts of a highly civilized and mobilized military machine. The group begins to fear for the prospects for Liska if this army has indeed been pointed in that direction. They are also concerned about the third soldier, who they have not seen in the area recently. Baenn remarks that they may have sent one of their number to report back on the finding of trespassers.
But first, it's time to set in for the evening, and Gunderic wants to make sure the location is safe. He climbs the crumbling steps to the top of the pavilion, and sees a sunken sqaure in the center, as if it once held a pool of some kind. The walls of the pool are cracked, and one crack looks large enough for him to enter, although the larger party members cannot. He crawls inside and sees a rough tunnel, as if dug by very large rats, leading around a corner for about twenty feet. He doesn't see any signs of life, but at the end of the tunnel, there is a wooden box. He quickly picks the lock, inspects the thing for traps and opens it. There is a brilliant flash of light and the sound of eerie, disturbing laughter, but nothing else happens (I thought about having it unleash some kind of summoned demon or somesuch, but it was late in the night and I didn't want to start something new. As it is, it came across as a kind of joke box more than anything else, and the laughter was imagined by my players as belonging to some kind of freaky clown. Ahh well, we'll see from the next DM whether or not this meant anything!) Inside is a very rich looking medallion, made of gold with a ruby crystal in the center (in fact, it looks a bit like the headpiece to the staff of Ra...)
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