Tantras - Forgotten Realms Campaign

[dante]

A few remarks; (I'm the DM of this particular campaign)

First of all, a slight correction of the events that happened. The characters did not open fire until after they had seen the mindflayer. So they knew what they were up against and decided to attack anyway.

I had not expected the party to attack once they realised they were facing a mindflayer and over a dozen bugbears. Had they run away, they most likely would have succeeded, perhaps losing only some equipment.

The party was certainly outmatched, but encounters like this are intrinsic to the kind of campaign I tend to run. I try to make the players feel that there is an entire world out there, which goes on regardless of whether the characters are there or not. It also means that occasionally they will encounter persons, groups or monsters far outmatching them. If this happens, I make sure the party has other options than fighting. If they choose to fight anyway, characters will get hurt.

 

[Corran]

Between sessions 10 and 11.

Finn says: I'll write a letter to my family to see if they can inform the families of Borric and Varsk about the sad events. Calim's parents live nearby however and the Tallendars live in Sembia.

I think we should reconsider the course we have been heading on. The two of us certainly can't fight orc warbands and I do not have the stomach for it anyway. I would suggest the following. All that fighting has brought us is grief, and there are easier methods of making money. I think we could make a living recovering ancient objects. I'm talking about antiques, but also other object, like lost church paraphernalia and anything else people would have recovered. I wouldn’t be surprised if we also would dig up a lost spellbook or two. Our experience in the goblin warrens, finding the Uthgardt burial mound, seems to indicate that there are still a lot of unexplored places containing items of value.

Personally I would prefer to work for libraries such as Candlekeep and the churches of Oghma and Deneir. I realise that that might not be enough to sustain us though and I think we should either just work as free agents and sell what we find to the highest bidder or we might find a wealthy patron who keep us on retainer or just pay us as long as we bring him everything we find. One thing though, with your spells and my knowledge of history, antiques and some diplomacy we can get a long way, but perhaps we need some one skilled in finding and disarming traps. I’ve heard that a lot of places are riddles with traps, why I don’t understand who would want to live in a trapped building. Locked doors might also give some problems; hence I think we should look for someone capable of dealing with these things. The only problem is that most of the people with these skills also have quite a larcenous proclivity, so we must be careful whom we recruit.

I think the best place to go would be Sembia. It would not be my first choice however I think it’s the best we can do. The people their have no taste or sense but a lot of money. We should see if someone there would want to employ us and if not we’ll just go and sell what we find on the free market there. There are lots of places to go delving nearby so that’s not a problem. The Dales and Cormanthor are a possibility, but if there really are drow there I think we should give it a pass. That leaves The Vast, meaning we could return to Tantras or The Vilhon Reach which is riddled with the remnants of older cultures I hear.

What I want to suggest is that we go to Shadowdale first to bring Calim’s family the sad news. This will extend our journey by probably less than a tenday, but it is the right thing to do. Afterwards we would travel south to Sembia and Selgaunt in particular. Cadrach’s family lives there and I have been to the city before. We should be able to get work there. On the way we keep a look out for anyone who might want to join us and we see if we can’t be paid for our journey by guarding a caravan going into the right direction or by transporting something ourselves.

What say ye?

Celedor’s reply: As I am travelling the world to learn more about magic as it is practiced beyond the halls of the university I have to agree that delving into ancient ruins offers the prospect of interesting magical discoveries. Although I can't help thinking that part of the reason that these treasures have not been discovered is related to the dangers involved in finding them. Part of this may be traps etc., but roaming monsters will always pose a threat. The ability to deal with them will remain important, and if we can't find those companions who can help us fight them by force, we will have to use tact. In any case, the possibility of uncovering ancient magical objects and teachings attracts me enormously, so I agree to your proposal. We can start off as free agents and see where the road takes us . . .

 

[dante]

game 12

I'm the DM of this campaign and I'll continue the story with the events of the last evenings, starting with session 11. This all happened quite a while ago, so there'll be a little less detail for the first several episodes, since I'm doing this from memory

After the catastrophic encounter with the Mindflayer and the bugbears, Finn and Celedor each made their way back towards Shadow Gap, which they reached by the end of the next day, Tarsakh 27. There they discovered that Purple Dragons were setting up a small camp here, to guard the gap against enemies who might use it to go towards Cormyr. Finn and Celedor ask permission to stay within the Purple Dragon encampment and spend the night there.

As it turns out, several more adventuring groups are present within the encampment, all of them going north, and most going towards Dagger Falls to help fight off the Zhentarim. Celedor and Finn, looking for new companions to continue their adventures with, join up with a group of 4 men, travelling north towards Dagger Falls. This group (the new PC's) are willing to join up with Celedor and Finn. This group consists of Janusz Smaczny, Paladin of Torm, very intent on going to Dagger Falls to help them against the Zhents. Second member is 'Nat', a half-orc mercenary, who's willing to go anywhere he can make some money. The other two members are Lauda, a rogue and Ilimitar, a Gold Elf wizard.

Together they travel north the next day, accompanied by two more groups of adventurers. During the day of travel, Celedor and Finn convince Nat, Ilimitar and Lauda to give up on going to Dagger Falls and go towards Mulhorand instead, to find easier loot than in a fight with the Zhentarim. But first they go to the place where the group met the mindflayer and the bugbears. Arriving at the campsite, they find a number of bones around the fireplace, and a small shallow grave where the dead bugbears are buried.
The group takes a few hours to properly arrange the burial of their fallen comrades, then travel on towards Shadowdale, from where they take a small raft downstream to Ashabenford. Only Janusz, the paladin decided he wanted to go on to Dagger Falls and leaves the group behind.

After a few days, the group arrives at Ashabenford, and think about how they want to go towards Mulhorand. After hearing there were several orcish and goblinoid warbands, mostly from Zhentil Keep in the area east of Ashabenford, the group decides to go back towards Tilverton and a port in Cormyr. From there they could sail towards Mulhorand.

Trying to make a few goldpieces while getting to where they want to go, they apply for a job as guards for merchants. A fur merchant from Tilverton is willing to hire them for a few silvers a day. He already has one guard, a strange monk who claims to have no name. They travel along the road from Ashabenford to Tilverton for several days, underway they encounter a small group of orc warriors with wardogs. There is a small scuffle and the orcs retreat. Hover, they return during the night and a battle ensues. While the group manages to kill most of the orcs and drive off the last survivor, some of the members are so severely wounded they cannot travel any further. The group sets up a small camp for another day to give time for the worst wounds to heal a bit. The next day, on the 9th of Mirtul they continue their travel.
In the afternoon of the 10th, when they are about halfway between Ashabenford to Tilverton, they suddenly see the area around them darken until it seems to be midnight. From the darkness in front of them step forth three figures, dressed in fine black clothes. One seems to be a warrior, the other two a young and an old wizard. They order the group to stand down and from the sides, more shadowy figures appear, taking away their horses and weapons. Celedor and Finn recognise the figures instantly as Shadovar. As the shadovar wizards step forward, they muster every person in the group and also the fur merchant. The old wizard asks the terrified merchant whether he is a member of the group or not. The man vehemently denies any involvement with the group, claiming (truthfully) he only met them a few days ago and hired them as guards for his caravan. The wizard makes a small gesture with his head and one of the shadovar warriors standing behind the hapless merchant slits his throat. The shadovar order the stunned group to walk into the woods, and after a few miles walking into the dense forest, they arrive at a shadovar encampment.

All party-members are tied securely to a very large tree, gagged and blindfolded. One by one the shadovar untie one of their prisoners and have him taken before the wizards who ask a number of questions. The gold elves Celedor and Ilimitar are treated much better than the other prisoners. From the questioning it becomes clear that the shadovar are looking for information on Evereska, and in particular on its Mythal. The elves tell the shadovar they are from Silverymoon. Celedor really is from Silverymoon, while Ilimitar only spent some time there. Interrogation for the others is not as friendly, the monk in particular suffers terrible agonies when the shadovar question him. Because he will not give them his name, they torture him with white-hot pokers, branding him several times on his arms, chest and face. They tie him back to the tree and he is in very bad shape.

The monk, having decided he's had enough tries to escape, but no sooner has he loosened his bonds, two shadovar guards standing closeby cut him down. As a punishment, he is nailed to the tree instead. That night, an hour or so after midnight, the group suddenly hears the sound of battle erupting from the shadovar camp. They hear the sound of lightning bolts and steel hitting steel. After less than a minute, the sounds die down again. Then, some men with dark cloaks and heavy armour take away their blindfolds. The group stares into the faces of a large number of Zhentarim warriors.

 

[dante]

game 13

The Zhentarim warriors cut the group loose from the tree, even carefully removing the spikes from the monks hands. Looking across the shadovar camp, well over a hundred Zhentarim are here, and the bodies over some two to three dozen shadovar are seen. However, the shadovar wizards escaped with a few warriors. Shortly after being released, the Zhentarim force the group to accompany them on a long journey north, towards Zhentil Keep. The group, unsure what to do, decide to go along without resistance.

The journey back to Zhentil Keep takes just over one and a half weeks, arriving at the gates of Zhentil Keep on Mirtul 29. The group is brought over the river to the northern side, where reconstruction of the city walls is in full progress, and the Black Temple of Bane has been rebuilt for the most part. There the group is brought into the dungeons and chained to the walls. All this time they have been treated quite fairly. More than 24 hours later, without food or drink, a Priest of Bane arrives, accompanied by two servants carrying a brazier fire and some iron pokers. The priest of Bane interrogates the group about the shadovar, what they wanted to know and what the group has told them. The group tells him everything they know, the priest is pleasantly surprised by the ease of interrogation and doesn't even need to resort to torture. So he leaves them again for another day or so.

Then, a group of about 15 orcs bursts into the dungeons and strip them until they only have a loincloth left. Then they are unchained from the wall and dragged out of the dungeons. Accompanied by a group of orcs, they are marched north out of the city. They are marched north for several nights, the orcs rest by day until they arrive at the entrance of a small mine at the southern edge of the Dragonspine mountains. There they are dragged inside to a large underground cave. There they see some 3 dozen prisoners, guarded by about a dozen orc warriors who're led by two wizards, a human warrior and Varon, a priest of Bane. Each member of the group is chained by the neck to another member, order to sit down and given a small bowl with thick porridge. Apparently, the work-shift has just ended and the slaves can go to sleep.

The group quickly decides they want to free themselves as soon as possible. After most of the guards and the human overseers have gone to bed, they make their move. Quickly, they overpower the three orcish guards, suffering only minor injuries. They take the weapons and armour of the dead guards and sneak towards the quarters of the humans, intent on killing them too and taking their equipment (the gold elf wizards are particularly keen on the spellbooks of the Zhentarim wizards). The group finds the four overseers, they were praying in the temple of Bane and were not surprised. The battle was short but furious and the party was thoroughly thrashed by their Zhentarim opponents, who quite surprisingly did not kill them. They are tied down however and hauled by the alerted orcish guards into a large tunnel, where they are chained to a wall. The priest of Bane, Varon, explains to them he has specific orders to keep them alive for now. However, they must be punished, so he has a few prisoners dragged from the sleeping area and has them tortured to death in an agonisingly slow way. As a final punishment, he has an orc whip them until they are unconscious.

A few days later, they slowly awaken in terrible pains from the open wounds on their backs. As their health slowly returns, the other slaves warn them never to try anything again or suffer the consequences. The group decides to wait a while and see if there are any other options. For about two weeks they work in the mines every day. Its an iron ore mine and they hew large chunks of stone with iron ore and haul them out of the mine. Then, just after they went to sleep, the party-members hear somebody sneaking towards the group. Suddenly they hear the sound of arrows flying through the air, followed by a soft gurgling as the orcish guards are cut down before they even knew enemies were nearby. A group of about 20 persons, humans and half-elves start to remove the chains of all the prisoners, signalling them to be silent. A few of the prisoners start praying, terrified by what they know will happen to them if their escape attempt would fail.

The liberators methodically exterminate all Zhents within the mine they can find, only the priest, Varon, isn't found. Quickly, everybody is moved out of the mine and the liberators start to move the freed slaves into the mountains. The leader of them is a woman, Fianne Ulkheri and she explains that she and her friends are former slaves as well, they have a small encampment a few days travel from here and everybody is invited to join them.

After a few days, the group arrives at the campsite, where another 50-60 former slaves live. Altogether, there are well over a hundred persons in the camp. The group is very careful and meticulously plans every mission. For nearly three months, the group stays here and trains. The wizards use this time to learn the spells from the spellbooks they've captured from the Zhent wizards in the mine.

Then, after three months have passed, Fianne announces they are ready for the next mission. A large abandoned dwarf mine, some four days travel from here, contains a large number of slaves. The plan is to wipe out all Zhent fighting power, free the slaves and get the hell out of there. A day is used to plan for the mission, and about 50-60 men will participate in the attack. Fianne has extensive information on the place, she explains that they planted a person inside as a slave, and he is feeding them all the information needed for a successful attack.

 

[dante]

game 14

After four days, the war party with the PC's arrives at the Zhent mine. The next evening, they assault the fortified entrance to the mine. A wizard bursts open the main gate with a knock spell and the entire group charges in, easily butchering the hapless guards at the gate. Rushing forward, they charge into a large anteroom, where another small group of guards is overrun. The group breaks down another heavy fortified door with a knock spell, unfortunately, this sets off a large trap, and from small holes in the walls, large gouts of acid pour over them Most succeed to avoid serious injury and jump on tables to escape the acid on the floor. The acid streams down the stars the group has to take to get to the mine.

The group follows the acid stream down the stairs and find a large pool of acid at the bottom, which is prevented from flowing away because of a large door. The acid is already weakening the door and the wizard who has been casting the knock spells is reluctant to use her last knock spell on this door. One of the warriors volunteers and charges into the door with his full weight, then plunges into the acid pool. The door bursts open and the entire group charges forward again, the PC's in the lead.

Behind the door they find a plateau adjoining a large vertical shaft, some 80 feet wide and a few hundred feet deep. There are a few guards there, who have positioned themselves in front of the stairwell that descends into the large shaft, clinging to the walls. The monk, being the fastest charges into the Zhent guards and mauls one of them pretty badly. Before the rest of the warparty can rush to his aid however, one of the Zhent guards shoves him into the shaft and the monk takes a hard fall. He plunges headlong into a waterfilled basin at the bottom, comes floating up to the surface, unconscious. After a few seconds, large tentacles pull him down, never to be seen again.

Without time to mourn for their fallen comrade the group presses on. A group of about 20 run towards the sleeping quarters of the human guards and their leaders, other move further down to attack the overseers and free the slaves. The PC's join the attack on the sleeping quarters. These quarters are connected to the main shaft by a single tunnel, which is closed off by a large door. Using the last knock spell, the door is opened and everybody charges in. Nat, Finn and Lauda corner a small group of guards in a room, while Celedor and Ilimitar charge forward with the others to find the leaders, While Nat wipes out his opposition, Celedor and Ilimitar scour the other areas of the living quarters for opposition.

A few more opponents are killed before a coordinated defense can even be mustered. The attack starts to falter, when they reach a heavy wooden door, fortified with heavy steel plates. Even continued pounding with a battering ram does not succeed in breaking down the door. For a short while, Ilimitar and Celedor entertain the idea to bypass the wall with a few persons with a Dimension door spell, but Fianne decides against it, it would be too dangerous. Elsewhere in the mining complex, the slaves are freed and escorted outside. Fianne decides to break off the attack, but as a last attempt to kill the Zhents behind the closed door, she orders all flammable materials that are available to be stacked up to the door and set on fire. Heavy smoke from the fire makes it impossible to stay and see what the results are, so they go outside, join up with the others and the freed slaves and start their journey back to the main camp, together with nearly 200 newly freed slaves.

Among the new slaves is a young dwarf, quite remarkably for a dwarf is he a paladin of Lathander. He was born and raised as a slave and learnt from Lathander from other slaves. His knowledge of the faith of Lathander is very limited. One of the warparty of Fianne, Erisa, who is a priestess of Lathander takes upon herself to teach this young dwarf (Tharzaim, new PC) more about Lathander. After two days of travelling, Fianne has a rather unpleasant announcement, she has noticed that they were being scried while resting. Apparently, the Zhentarim have sufficient information to scry the group. She can't tell exactly who is being scried, but it must be her, one of her closest aides and confidantes or the PC's, who were also close by. Tharzaim is also one of them, as he was near Erisa and therefore near to Fianne when the scrying happened. Fianne decides it is too dangerous to stay with the large group or return to their camp, she would only endanger them all. Instead she wants to try to flee towards Phlan and further, escaping from Zhent territory and their sphere of influence.

 

[dante]

game 15

So, Fianne and her closest companions, together with Celedor, Finn, Nat, Lauda, Ilimitar and the dwarf Thazraim leave the rest behind and travel southeast, towards Phlan. They travel by night, in order to prevent detection and to make it more difficult for the persons scrying them to recognize where they are travelling. The group also avoids speaking about where they are heading. By day, the group seeks shelter and rests. After a few days, they leave the mountains behind and start crossing the plains towards Phlan. After about 5 days, as they are resting during the day, they watch a patrol of several horsemen, Zhentarim most likely, pass them less than 500 feet away. The group decides not to interfere. After traveling another night, they see a single wagon, drawn by two oxen and guarded by a dozen horsemen riding almost directly towards the group. At first, the party decides to hide and see if they are noticed or not, but then they realize that the cargo of the cart consists of 7 prisoners, bound very securely and with leather masks over their heads so they cannot see.

Fianne immediately decides they will free these poor souls and so the battle begins. As the group reveals itself, 6 horsemen charge, while one of the others hurls a fireball which seriously hurts several. Fianne responds with her longbow, killing the spellcaster with three arrows through the head. A short battle ensues, in which the horsemen are killed, except for one, a priest of Bane who gallops away. A volley of arrows from Fianne and others finally succeeds in cutting him down.

Quickly, the prisoners are freed, and they turn out to be a group of Purple Dragons, accompanied by a Warwizard and two Harpers (easily identified by the small black harp that the Zhentarim burnt into their foreheads). The group, now 20 in number continues to travel towards Phlan, where they arrive on .the 16th of Marpenoth. There, the group boards a ship towards Calaunt and Tantras, where the group wants to go. After a voyage of less than a week, the group arrives in Tantras.

As the ship, called the Northern Ride, arrived in Tantras and the entire group was disembarking, suddenly, two arrows were fired into the group. One bounced off Nat's heavy armor, the other struck the Warwizard from Cormyr in the chest. Immediately she collapsed and nearly died from the virulent poison on the arrow that struck her. Reaction by Ilimitar was swift, and seeing two men with bows on top of a nearby warehouse, he tossed a fireball right between them One of the two managed to duck away in time, the other was fried on the spot and dropped onto the warehouse roof, slowly rolled over the edge and hit the ground with a resounding thud. Then, several more members of the group tried to pursue the other assailant, but he managed to escape in the crowds. Ilimitar himself was stopped by a few cityguards who were not amused by his fireball tossing.

In the meantime, Erisa and Thazraim managed to stabilize the female warwizard while Nat stood guard. The cityguardsmen order Ilimitar and the others to follow him to the Temple of Torm, where a paladin of Torm, Tyana Silversword questioned them on the events. She was upset about the fireball, but when the recovered warwizard spoke a few words with her in private, her attitude changed. She did emphasize that fireball tossing inside the city perimeter was definitely out from now on, but she forgave this first transgression. She proceeded to offer them employment, as agents in the service of Tantras and the Church of Torm. Their work would mainly consist of resisting Mulmasterite (and through them Zhentish and Thayan) influence in the Vast. As payment, they would receive 7 goldpieces per day as well as room and board and all necessary equipment and healing to perform their tasks.

 

[dante]

game 16

After accepting the offer of the Church of Torm to work for them in exchange for a 7gp fee per person per day as well as provision of all equipment and healing that the party needs, the party settles into their quarters inside the temple. That evening, the group enjoys an opulent meal, together with Fianne and her group as well as the Harpers, purple dragons and warwizard. After the 9-course meal, the warwizard and the purple dragons bid farewell to everybody and go to a portal in the dungeons of the Temple, which will bring them back to Cormyr. The Harpers have decided they will stay around for a while, while Fianne and her friends have also accepted employment with the Church of Torm. Fianne indicates that they will use the time between missions to prepare plans for bringing their companions in the Dragonspine Mountains out of Zhent lands and to freedom.

Ilimitar and the others spend the next few days in the safe comfort of Tantras and the Temple of Torm. Nat spends a lot of time practicing his
weapon skills against the soldiers in service to the temple, while Ilimitar explores the library on the templegrounds. Thazraim seeks contact with the temple of Lathander within the city. He befriends one of the priests, Augeas, who is at first a bit startled by his lack of knowledge of the temple etiquette and some of the finer points of Lathanders teachings. After talking to Thazraim for several days, Augeas brings the dwarf into contact with another paladin of Lathander who lives in the city, Vaudrey. She explains to Thazraim the requirements that Lathander places on his paladins. But after about a week, on the 6th of Uktar, Tyana sends for the group.

A priest of Torm in the village of Melladant, some 100 miles east of Tantras, on the road from Dragon Falls to King's Reach had sent a letter to the Church, informing them he had found evidence of the existence of a Temple of Cyric in or near the village. The letter didn't provide any
specifics, and Tyana wanted the group to go to the village, find the Temple and if possible destroy it. So, the next day, the party left for Melladant, well equipped with armor and weapons from the armory of the Temple. At the end of the 9th of Uktar, the party saw the village lying in the distance. Deciding it was not a good idea to just go into the village and risk alerting the Cyricists, only Finn went into the village to make contact with the priest of Torm and get the rest of the story from him.

So, while the rest of the group set up camp, Finn sneaked into the village under the cover of darkness and went to the tiny temple of Torm. Knocking on the doors of the temple, he found out there was nobody there. However, directly adjacent to the temple there was a small house, which seemed to belong to the resident priest. The priest was home and invited Finn in. They discussed the letter that he sent, and the priest told him everything he knew.

The priest, a young man named Ryin had only been in the village for about 7 months. He paid regular visits to the local inn, the Tusked Boar, in order to talk to the passing travelers. As he did that, he saw that every two-four weeks, small groups of rather unsavory looking figures came through the village and spent a night at the inn. About two weeks earlier, while he was present in the inn, a group of adventurers ended up in a barfight with a small group of them. One of the unsavory figures was knocked unconscious, just beside the table the priest was sitting at. When he looked down at the man to see if he was all right, he noticed a holy symbol of Cyric hanging by a chain from his neck. While the priest was unwilling to confront the guy, he did sneak up the stairs to the room of these guys and went inside to search it. In the room, he found a holy book of Cyrics church and a letter of invitation to the Church of Cyric in Melladant. The letter was signed by 'Crimson Dagger'. The priest then left the room again, trying to leave everything behind as if he had never been there. Unsure whether the local law would be able to handle these guys, he wrote a letter to his superiors in the Temple of Torm and sent a messenger to Tantras with the letter.

After the conversation, Finn left again and sneaked out of the village to return to his friends. The group decided to o into town in separate groups and stay in the Tusked Boar, waiting for more unsavory figures to arrive. Just a few days later, on the ... of Uktar, a group of five persons entered the inn, two half-elven women and three human men. One of the women and all three men wore armor and booked two rooms in the inn. At that time, late in the afternoon, most of the party was present in the inn, only the paladin and Celedor were out. Ilimitar and Nat were at a table quite close to the entrance of the inn; Finn and Lauda were at the table in one of the corners. As the group of men and women settled down at a table in another corner, Lauda went to the innkeeper and asked where the outhouse was, then proceeded out the door in that direction. Once outside, he quickly climbed up one of the walls of the inn, into the corridor on the first floor and sneaked towards the rooms of the newly arrived. After checking for traps or other inconsistencies, he picked the lock and went inside. Once inside, he carefully started to search the room for information.

Just as Lauda went into the room upstairs, the non-armored female nudged the other woman, who motioned the three men to follow them and they walked towards the stairs. Finn, who had been sitting with Lauda, realized something was wrong and tried to distract the group by posing as a drunk and trying to fall in their path, making a lot of noise in the process, hoping it would alert Lauda. One of the men gave him a good shove and pushed him out of the way as the women started running up the stairs. Lauda, realizing something was wrong, bolted for the window and tried to get out before he was caught. Unfortunately, he failed to hold on and made a hard drop from the first floor. The women who were coming up, hearing the noise, ran into the room and looked out the window and looked straight at Lauda lying on the ground beneath them. Quickly Lauda ran back towards the common room of the inn and sat down. Finn had moved to the bar by then and was ordering another beer, trying to keep up a masquerade.

Very soon afterwards, the women came down from the stairs again with the three men, and walked straight towards Lauda in the corner. Lauda cordially invited them to sit down and discuss the matter. The women and one of the men sat down with him and started a very tense conversation. The two other men, having realized than Finn was sitting with Lauda before, came up to him at the bar and 'invited' him to join them, which Finn did. In the meantime, Ilimitar and Nat were some 20-30 feet away, trying to hear what was being said between Lauda and the woman in armor, who seemed to be in charge. Both Nat and Ilimitar were ready to pounce the moment they thought that trouble would start. The woman talking to Lauda insisted on knowing who he was and what he wanted. She invited him to step outside to resolve this matter, but Lauda steadfastly refused. While Lauda admitted readily to sneak into their room and looking for clues which would indicate their identity, he refused to say why, though he hinted at having masters who wanted to know and at some connection to the temple of Cyric in the village. The woman threatened him in veiled terms with torture and other forms of violence, but this didn't persuade Lauda. Then, Lauda asked who they were and tried to insist on them revealing their identity and/or allegiance.

Suddenly, the unarmored woman tried to cast a spell, Ilimitar saw it was some kind of charm spell and decided it was enough to warrant a response, though not a lethal one, and cast a color spray. The color spray had a limited effect on two of the men, while the charm spell failed to affect Lauda. The woman in armor tried to calm things down for a moment, and while she prevented a general melee from breaking out, tension rose to a peak. In the meantime, the regular patrons of the inn were trying to get away from the fight as soon as they saw the bright lights of the color spray.

Then, Nat jumped up and shouted: Freeze in the name of Torm. Then, all hell broke loose, one woman tried to cast a spell, only to have it fail as a fireball from Ilimitar, who also had cast a haste spell just before, and a beer-mug from Finn broke her concentration. The fireball, badly hurt the warriors, and injured the woman in armor. While the other woman and Finn were unharmed, Lauda had taken the full force from the blast and was also seriously injured. The goons next to Finn tried to stab him with short-swords and while one missed the other really struck home, seriously injuring the rogue. The woman in armor suddenly cast a spell and reached out to strike Lauda. Lauda, boxed up in a corner could not evade the blow and as the negative energy hit home, Lauda slumped into the corner and died. Ilimitar kept pounding the corner with another fireball, which fried one of the warriors, followed by a magic missile targeted at the unarmored female.

Finn fought a desperate battle against the warriors, but was quite seriously hurt by now and was also hit by a magic missile from the unarmored woman. In the melee that ensued, the male companions of the women all died and Finn was fatally struck by another spell from the armored woman. The unarmored female bolted for a nearby window and jumped outside, while the other woman ran for the door. Unfortunately for her, a blow by Nat's greataxe caught her as she tried to get by him and she went down. Ilimitar pursued the remaining female and downed her with another magic missile in the back as she was fleeing. Returning inside, Ilimitar and Nat managed to keep the armored woman and one of the warriors alive, but all help was too late for Finn and Lauda.

Both opponents were securely bound and gagged to prevent spellcasting. As the fighting died down, the innkeeper had already started to put out the fires started by the fireballs. As Thazraim returned from his trip around the village and the surrounding countryside, he found the inn in disarray and two of his friends dead. The group called for the presence of a member of the local law, and even though the innkeeper was busy restoring some semblance of order and cleanliness, he did find the time to politely but firmly insist that Ilimitar and Nat find residence elsewhere. So they paid him for the damage they had done and asked if they could borrow a tent, which the innkeeper provided with great haste.

 

[dante]

the story continues...

As Nat and Ilimitar are setting up the tent, two men approach them. One man introduces himself as Iperus, the leader of the local militia. He inquires as to what they intend to do with the prisoners and suggests they could hold them in the local jail, a tiny building with only one cell and a guardroom. Nat graciously accepts the offer and escorts the prisoners to the jail, staying there with a young militiaman to guard them. After several hours, Ilimitar takes over for him. The next morning, Nat is awakened by a group of people standing around his tent. As he steps out of the tent to investigate, a man steps forward and addresses him:'Sir Paladin, we are most grateful for what you and your companions did for our village. We heard of your heroic fight in the inn with the Banite priest. We would like to offer you a breakfast we have prepared for you and your companion." Nat accepts the invitation, grumbling a bit about rather being addressed as Sir, rather than Sir Paladin and follows the group to a large farm where a table is set for two. As Nat enjoys a big breakfast, Ilimitar is also approached while standing guard in the jail. He declines the offer, even when the villagers say they could bring the breakfast to the jail for him. At the end of the morning, as Thazraim joins them, they start the interrogation of the female priest of Bane. Thazraim tries to tempt the woman, named Aselie to revealing all she knows about the Temple of Cyric. He tells her that she probably hates the Cyricists as much as he does. Since she will be executed, he suggests she might be able to please Bane one last time before that, by providing the information the party would need to destroy the Cyricists. Aselie tries to barter for her life, but soon realises that this is not an option. All she asks for then is a quick death, which she is promised. She tells Thazraim that she was also hunting for the Cyricists, but she doesn't have very solid information on who is involved. The Church of Bane was informed of the existence of this cell of Cyricists by a travelling priest of Bane, who saw a rune that is regularly used by Cyricists carved on a stone some 5 miles north of town. This travelling priest wnet on to Mulmaster and alerted the Imperceptor there. He ordered her and her companions to find and destroy the Cyricists in the town, and that's why she's here. She was told to squeeze the innkeeper and the blacksmith for information, but she never got to that.

Having heard enough, the group quietly rounds up the innkeeper and the blacksmith, asking them to join them in a room in the inn for some important meeting. Once there, Ilimitar starts to pressure them into telling the truth, while Thazraim tries to see whether they tell the truth or not. (not having access to the Zone of Truth or Discern Lie spell, they have to do this with Sense Motive). First they are questioned together, both denying vehemently any involvement with Cyric or any other cult. The innkeeper, Sethus claims he worships Shaundakul, the blacksmith claims he follows Tyr. Thazraim the paladin believes the innkeeper but has his doubts about the blacksmith. Then they separate the two and Ilimitar continues the interrogation of the Blacksmith together with Thazraim, while Nat guards the innkeeper in another room. Ilimitar casts a prestidigitation spell and uses it to create a small red ball over the head of the blacksmith, who looks up anxiously. Ilimitar explains that this is a lie-detector spell. If he tells the truth, the ball turns green, if he lies it will be red. The blacksmith starts to get really afraid and nervous by now, as Ilimitar asks more questions. Ilimitar asks if the blacksmith has ever worshipped Cyric, the blacksmith denies the accusation and looks up at the ball, which Ilimitar turns bright red. The blacksmith starts to cry and yells:' no really, I've never even seen a Cyricist in my entire life'. The interrogation continues for quite a while, but the blacksmith continues to deny any involvement. He is also asked if he had any 'peculiar' clients. He tells about three of them, Obrinia Selamm, a gem merchant living in a large mansion north-east from town, Gerinne a retired adventurer and Widanc Daryk, also some-one who retired and started a farm nearby. But Thazraim, who has been watching him intently, thinks he's not telling them everything. Finally, the blacksmith admits to making an offering to Myrkul some 15 years ago, when a plague swept through the village, but nothing else. Thazraim still doesn't believe him though. They repeat the interrogation with the innkeeper, who also protests his innocence. Thazraim does believe his story overall is true enough.

Without substantial evidence and without a confession, both men are set free again. Looking for more clues, the group interrogates the Banite warrior, who identifies himself as Wejin, they captured as well. He pleads for his life, promising to change his ways. He doesn't provide much information, claiming Aselie never informed him about what exactly was going on. He does profess to attacking a farm some 7-8 miles north from town, since Aselie believed the temple of Cyric might be in there. During the attack, the farmer couple who lived there was killed, though he claims he didn't hurt them. Also during the day, the head of the militia comes around, and asks if he should make the arrangements for the burial of Finn Margaster and Lauda, to which Nat and Ilimitar agree.

That evening, at dinner, a woman enters the inn with a small child on her arm. She shuffles closer to the party and addresses Nat: 'Good Sir Paladin, I'm very sorry to impose on you like this, but could you perhaps look at my child, she is very ill.' Nat grumbles about not wanting to be addressed as a Paladin, but on the suggestion of Thazraim, they take the child into another room to look at her. Thazraim quickly determines the child is quite sick, with a high fever and casts a remove disease on her. Then they return to the woman in the common room and Thazraim hands over the child, saying that the grace of Torm has cured her. The woman thanks Nat profusely and making small bows she moves away and out the inn.

The next morning, on the 14 of Uktar all three, Thazraim, Nat and Ilimitar go scout out the stone where the rune of Cyric was said to be and the surrounding area. They inquire about the persons that the blacksmith mentioned during his interrogation and even visit them. Obrinia tells them she doesn't know about anything really suspicious going on, just two small groups of orcs passing north of town about a week ago. Widanc is home on his farm, working in the field with his wife who says she is a druid. Two more men live at the farm, both professional hunters. Gerinne is not home; he is out hunting according to his servants.

The group returns to the village, not being much wiser. They stop at the shrine of Torm and ask the priest Ryin about Gerinne, Obrinia and Widanc, but he can't tell them any more. They also ask him to pray for some Zone of Truth spells the next morning, they might need them.

The next morning, directly after breakfast, the group decides to haul in the blacksmith for further interrogation and go to his smithy. They find the door locked and nobody answering their call. The apprentice of the blacksmith is also standing outside, not sure what to do now his master is not opening the shop. Nat bashes in the door and searches the house. The groundfloor is empty, but in the sleeping room in the attic, they find the blacksmith, lying dead in his bed. A steel pin has been driven into his head from below and the blacksmith's hand is resting on the end of the pin. Nat immediately rushes out again and to the inn, where he tells the innkeeper he must come along. Nat's not sure yet whether this is to make sure the innkeeper doesn't run away or to make sure he doesn't get killed.

The party then proceeds to search the blacksmith's home from top to bottom. Under a floorboard in the attic, they find a small book and a leather pouch. The pouch contains a holy symbol of Cyric, the book is a holy script of Cyric, but it also contains a loose note with four names on them: Sala, Peristans, Kalmen and Sumeon. Then Iperus arrives, head of the militia. He has heard of the death of the blacksmith and has already ordered thirty men to don their militia outfit. The four names are quickly determined to be the first names of four persons in the village. Sala and Peristans are a farmer couple, living just outside of town, Kalmen lives in town but is a stonecutter with a small quarry some 5 miles to the east. Sumeon also lives in the village and does mostly odd jobs for farmers. All are immediately taken into custody and prepared for interrogation.

With so many prisoners, the time had also come for the execution of Aselie, the priest of Bane. Thazraim beheads her with one stroke of his longsword. When it comes to Wejin, he's still pleading for his life, begging the party to spare him. Thazraim is willing to believe him, but Nat is not and wants to kill him. As the discussion becomes more heated, Nat tries to cut it short by simply killing Wejin. He swings his axe and hits him square in the chest. Wejin falls to the ground, screaming in pain, but he isn't dead yet. Thazraim steps between Nat and the downed prisoner and tells Nat to stop this. He then turns around and stabilises the dying man. Turning back around, Thazraim and Nat discuss what to do with him. Nat is adamant about killing him, but Thazraim is willing to let him go. Unable to come to a conclusion, they ask Ilimitar who has remained silent all this time to cast the deciding vote. Ilimitar votes for killing him, and Nat quickly dispatches Wejin.

 

[Corran]

After a very long hiatus the website has been updated again.

 

[Corran]

Nevermind, my bad.