Milo and Trouble at Ralanov
Sleep came easily to our adventurers, save Lor. The slaying of almost a dozen watchmen on his behalf will trouble his weary mind for days to come, but in other respects the sleep was refreshing to our heroes.
Awaking at midday, they joined a rather large crowd in the common room of the Warrior's Courage. People were celebrating, drinking, feasting, and swapping stories. In particular, the well-known bard, Jaren Windwalker, stood among a group of townsfolk and providing them with news of the outside world. Since the collapse of the light barrier around Aenith, magical communications into the city will once again work. Tarmus and Star pulled Jaren aside when the opportunity presented itself, and Jaren was more than happy to share what he knew with the subjects of some of his most recent tales.
For starters, Ralanov has nearly been liberated. The Northern Alliance had mustered an army and had been attempting to retake the city for several weeks. The tide has turned in the North's favor thanks to a new hero with the name of Lugtee Hardroc. Lugtee became famous for rescuing Devon Treespire, the lord of Ralanov, and the two of them have been leading forays into the city in an effort to liberate it. In sadder news from Mydrana, the people there say they have witness Cloudgatherer's death, having seen him consumed by some magic spell. In happier news, King Starfire of Glarcaster is still looking for a queen, but is narrowing his search and the elven nation of Huranti is celebrating their king's (Aran Leafpath) 100th birthday with a month long celebration.
As for local news, the Polarian army has withdrawn, retreating toward the west (towards Ralanov). Thrin has left for Ralanov to assist in the fighting, and Katrina has also left on a quest to redeem herself in the eyes of Bryle. The next day, the clerics of Bryle will hold a service for the slain watchmen, clerics, and the other casualties of the Polarian attack.
The news was a bit for the party to take in. So much has transpired in the last month, but it was good to once again hear of the outside world. Over the midday meal, the party discussed the news and celebrated along with the people Aenith. Lor was not present at the time, he had left much earlier.
While the party saw Milo in the common room, they did not pay him much heed. The halfling, curious as ever, proceeded to wander about the room, looking for anything curious. The party held many interesting items (at least to Milo): Tarmus's pipes (still not sure how to play these), Remus' selection of weaponry (a halfling could get lost in here), Star's lockpicks (nice tools), Gale's dagger (eh, just a dagger), and Gwen's pet rock.
"Gwen's pet rock?" Milo thought. The halfling studied the rock intensely, as if seeing something in it that others could not. Sitting at his table, Milo started to bang the rock on the table.
"Bang, bang, bang."
"Ow, ow, ow!" exclaimed Gale. Milo paused for a moment. Could there be a relation here? Naw, that would be silly...
"Bang, bang, bang, bang" Milo thwacked the rock faster upon the table.
"Yeeeoooow! Gimme that!" cried out Gale, as his fellow adventurers, and half of the inn, watched the party close in on the halfling.
Star took the rock from Milo, who admitted to lifting it off of Gwen. The rock was originally looted from the Dark Wizard's personal chest. However, not being magical, the party had not paid much attention to it.
Gale took the rock from Star and Star offered to buy Milo a few drinks. As they sat together at the bar, Star kept a close eye on the cleptic halfling. While Milo has always put whatever he has "examined" back so far, Star wasn't taking any chances.
<Slap> "Eek," Milo exclaimed, Star having slapped his hand as he reached for Star's dagger.
"Here, take this," offered Star, giving Milo another cup of mead. "Why were you banging that rock?"
"There's something in it," Milo answered, "some kind of glow."
"How many has he had?" Tarmus asked Star, who gave a him a smirk.
"I know! I'm going to the library," Milo announced. "Wait... no I'm not...I didn't say that," he added before leaving.
Star, Remus, and Tarmus followed the halfling. After carefully avoiding some of the librarians, Milo settled down at a table and started to flip through some books dealing with spirits. The three also saw Lor brushing up on his reading, and passed along the situation to the elven mage.
The party lounged around for several hours. Around dinner time, Milo returned, a triumphant look upon his face. Gale's soul piece was in the rock (or was the rock), and Milo could perform the ceremony to restore it to him (more specifically his weapon). Milo would only require a few things for the ceremony: a certain type of elven wine, a bathtub full of water with soap, couple kegs of beer, a variety of fruits, lots of meat, a dagger with an ivory blade, an antique rocking chair, and a large room (the Warrior’s Courage most expensive room).
A little puzzled, the party acquired the requested items the next day. Star "acquired" the bottle of wine (he picked the lock, took the wine, left the money for it) the previous night. While a few members of the party attended the service for those slain in the attacks, the other members spent their time in the marketplace. As nighttime rolled around, everything was ready.
Milo ran about the room, seeming to put everything precisely where it needed to be, often moving an item an inch or two in a direciton and re-examining its position. When he was satisfied, he asked Gale to stand in the middle of the room and placed the other members of the party in specific locations.
Milo then asked Gale to drive his blade into the rock. Gale hesitated, but with some reassurance from Milo, did as the halfling asked. There was a small spark, the rock disappeared, and Gale fell to the ground. Canthor immediately checked on him, he was alive and unconscious.
"Whew, glad that's over with," remarked Milo, popping open the expensive elven wine and starting to drink. The party stared at him for several long moments. "What?" he asked. "Throw him in the tub and let's have a feast!" With a shrug the party joined in.
Gale awoke the next morning in a bathtub, in the middle of a room with food everywhere along with his passed out friends and Milo sleeping on the bed. He also had a tattoo on his arm that said "Mom", courtesy of Star (who doesn't really know how to give tattoos). Gale was upset with the halfling, but Milo reminded Gale that he fulfilled what he said he would do: restored Gale's soul back into his blade. Gale decided he would not give Milo a beating.
While Milo was enjoying his large room, new antique rocking chair, and ivory letter opener, the party proceeded downstairs for their morning meal. As the party finished their morning meal, Olon Matran, high cleric of Bryle, entered the Courage. He asked the party to do what they could in Ralanov, as it would only be a few more days before the army that had left Aenith would pound the Northern Alliance forces between them and the walls of Ralanov. The party readily agreed, and as soon as they could locate Lor they would be off.
However, locating Lor was a bit of a problem. The party checked the library and found he wasn't there. Next, Olon cast a sending to Lor, asking him his location. Lor returned a short reply to the effect of "I'm busy" that made Olon's eyebrow rise up a bit. Slightly frustrated with the elven mage, Olon cast a scrying spell to see for himself. Lor was speaking with a cleric at the Temple of the Spirit. At the temple, Lor refused to emerge from the clerics chambers, and Olon had to ask the party to respect their privacy (there was some mention of having Remus knock the door down, but he wisely asked Olon for a key instead).
Without Lor, the party proceeded to the Great Library. Olon asked the party to trust him as he handed each of them blindfolds. He was not supposed to show the party "this", so if the party doesn't see it... The party proceeded down a few flights of stairs blindfolded, each holding the shoulder of the person in front. When the party did stop, they could hear a small "whoosh" sound.
"After you feel a disorienting sensation, you can remove your blindfolds, but not before." Each member was given a small push, and reality spun end over end. As quickly as it had started it was over, each standing on solid ground once again. Removing their blindfolds, the party took a look around. The were in the courtyard of Temorana, Ralanov's castle and central building. They had emerged from one of over twenty archways in the courtyard leading to the main entrance of the castle, which they were only (roughly) 50 feet away from now.
The sound of lightning rang out from above the party. Looking up quickly, the party could see the end of a lightning bolt shoot out from one of the upper levels of the castle. In the same breath, the castle's main doors burst open, and a well tanned, tall, muscular bald man grunted "Who you?" in bad Common.
"Hi!" greeted Star, "Olon sent us." Star drew a silver short sword, a piece of proof Olon had provided them to avoid being killed by the forces of the Northern Alliance.
"What? Where you come from?" the barbarian grunted, trying hard to figure things out. The barbarian was standing in front of a heavy plated dwarf, and a woman dressed in traveler's clothing holding her bow. When Star inquired of her if she was the one in charge, the fighting began.
Quickly the party took cover behind the archways. The portal that had brought them to Ralanov had closed immediately after the last member had emerged, but they had moved little since then. Gale quickly few up to the barbarian, striking him with his double bladed sword. The barbarian returned the favor in spades, dishing out a good sum of damage to the fighter. Yeric also rushed in, attempting to close on the bowwoman quickly. In response, the dwarf in full plate called on his divine powers, and placed a blade barrier around the party. Luckily, all four party members affected managed to avoid it, and the fighting continued. Remus became paralyzed during the fight, Gale and Gwen were nearly slain by the raging barbarian, but in the end the party proved victorious. Gale slew the barbarian, Remus knocked out the dwarven cleric of Valeya, and the female rogue was subdued in a similar fashion.
The fight over, the party proceeded to tie up their captors. Elven ears could hear footsteps approaching their location from within the castle. Quickly Star closed the doors and asked Remus to hold them shut. The large man looked at the elf, took out two rods, and holding them against the doors, he clicked a single button on each of them before walking away, leaving the rods suspended in the air. (Gotta love immovable rods).
The footsteps came to the doors, and attempted unsuccessfully to open the doors. Seconds later, a magical doorway appeared just in front of the castle doors and Lord Devon Treespire and a man with bright red hair emerged. The red-haired man pointed a staff of swirling colors at the party, but Star was already holding out the silver sword once again.
"Wait, wait. We are foes of Polary," he called to the pair.
"Who sent you, lad?" asked the red-haired man, still holding his staff on the party.
"Olon sent us," Star answered. This seemed to convince the red-haired man, now lowering his staff. Devon however, wasn't as thrilled.
"Thieves!" he spat at the party, pointing accusingly at Gwen in particular. "You stole from me and now..."
"Not now," the red-haired man stated, holding his multicolored staff across Devon's chest to hold him back. The Lord of Ralanov appeared to have a respect for the staff as he quickly quieted. The red-haired man introduced himself as Lugtee Hardroc. He and Lord Treespire have been conducting hit and run missions into the city for several days, attempting to weaken Polary's hold. However, in the last few days (since the fall of Aenith's light barrier), they have had to contend with the Dark Wizard, who they have fought to a standstill thus far.
"I suggest we leave for now," Lugtee suggested. The party readily agreed, and hoisting their prisoners they proceeded to leave the city while avoiding Polarians. A squad of 20 came upon them suddenly, but just as suddenly Lugtee dispatched of them with a single prismatic spray from his staff (which blinded Star and Yeric, Star was healed by Canthor, but Yeric would have to wait).
At the Northern Alliance camp, several hours later when Lor had met up with the party (teleport), Lugtee informed them of the situation: they are going to retreat. While they would have taken the city with continued raids by Lugtee and Treespire, the Dark Wizard has made the situation more difficult. The approaching army would flank the Northern Forces and crush them. And so, the plan is to retreat to Gryphon's Forest, use the trees as cover, and think of a new plan. The party consulted Thrin over the suspected rumor of Cloudgatherer's death, and it came as news to her. The party knew more about it than she did. After spending the night rumaging through their spoils (the three they defeated were Mithral Blades, Polary's "not-so-secret" police force), they distributed a few items of magic before settling in for the night.
The next day, Lor, Gwen, and Star teleported to Mydrana to learn more of the rumors. Sure enough they found eye-witnesses who claim to have seen the archwizard be "consumed" by magic. A following blast of light blinded onlookers, but they found the clothing of the wizard. Only the wizards of Mydrana Magica would go near the clothing. Star managed to arrange to see the clothing, he even asked if he could have it, but the wizards refused (go and make a similar set of clothing, they told him).
The three returned to the Northern Alliance camp, and debated their next course of action. Star was vocal in his desire to vanquish the Dark Wizard, once and for all. Lor was doubtful, he suspected the party would suffer heavy losses if not slain outright in such a fight. The debate lasted quite some time, but in the end Lor's opinion prevailed, and the party would retreat to the Gryphon's Forest with the army.
DM's Notes: The fight went a little easier, especially since I forgot barbarians have uncanny dodge and Star dealt quite a bit of sneak attack damage (did I say barbarian? I meant barb/fighter).
Also, did I get the final decision right? There was quite a bit of discussion at the end of the session on "what do to next". Any decision is fine with me, but the worst decision is indecision!
Anyhow, let me know how you enjoyed the adventure. Any ideas for future escapades, plans, or personal vendettas (damn that Dark Wizard, damn him to the Burning Depths!) feel free to respond. I may or may not offer XP this time so beware!