Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Community
Playing the Game
Story Hour
The Gate Pass Irregulars: A War of the Burning Sky Campaign
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Cafu" data-source="post: 5943568" data-attributes="member: 6692807"><p>As I woke up, I could hear strange, compelling, eerie singing which suggested I look at the water and then go swimming. I shrugged off this strange compulsion and stood up to see what was happening. </p><p></p><p>Victor had already reacted and had joined Longhelim at the edge of our island, both looking intently into the mist. John stood and looked at the water, entranced. The song had obviously affected him. Tiljann had woken me while Drudge, Crystin and Torrent still slept, oblivious despite the shouting. Then the mist dissipated. </p><p></p><p>What it revealed was quite…..unusual. A small boat floated towards us; it had a crew of two: one woman in a striking green dress with red hair and wielding a fiery staff; another woman, this one with a pole guiding the boat and wearing a blue robe. The boat was decorated with several humanoid skulls, suggesting that diplomacy was not an option for us at this time. </p><p></p><p>In the next few moments, both of them stood and skillfully cast spells as the boat continued to float towards us but whatever they had done, it was just ignored by the group with the exception of Drudge, who having recently woken, cursed. I did not know what had happened to him but at least he was still conscious and moving. </p><p></p><p>Moreover John was now free of his entrancement as the two women on the boat had stopped singing. </p><p></p><p>I had seen enough. I moved forward slightly and cast one of my new spells. It was a famous spell; really, all it did was speed up the recipients, making them faster and more nimble. Warriors loved it for the simple reason that it gave them a huge advantage in combat as they were able to swing their weapons much faster than normal and allowed them to dodge enemy blows. </p><p></p><p>Not a moment too soon. As soon as I finished the spell, a shape burst from the water and threw itself at me. It was an enormous crocodile, the lizard like animal Drudge had pointed out to us as we travelled through the swamp; he said they were extremely dangerous. This one took a huge chunk out of me with its jaws and then tried to grab and drag me to the water, so I was able to concur with his description. Somehow, I shrugged it off, probably because it was still chewing the part of me it had bitten. Then, to make matters even better, another shape came out of the water, an ugly woman with little clothing but a very large dagger. She had been swimming with the crocodile; she sprang up and stabbed me. It hurt. </p><p></p><p>I managed to take another quick look around and saw that Longhelim was now standing and fighting on the boat with the two women, who were swinging their weapons at him. Victor had sped to the crocodile and hit it so hard that it drew its attention. It snapped and hissed at him, obviously badly hurt. I was too busy moving away to see what anyone else was doing but it concerned me that I couldn’t see any arrows flying from Drudge nor was there any sign of John. </p><p></p><p>I tried to aim a ray of fire at the crocodile but I was nervous of hitting Victor and over compensated. The bolt missed. Then the crocodile bit me again and everything went black. </p><p></p><p>I was brought to consciousness by a prod on my back and things were bad. The air was full of smoke, very nasty smelly stuff that somehow managed to get into my mouth, nose, ears and eyes. I was blind. I could nothing but try to expel it from my head. That was what consumed me. This feeling lasted quite some time; finally, this illness ended and then I found that I was held in place by a sticky, strong, magical substance. I could barely move until Drudge came forward with a torch and burned out the stuff around me. With great relief, I rolled out of the nasty gunk. </p><p></p><p>I looked around. As I watched, I saw that Victor was also recovering from the choking smoke. He looked pale, shaken and had vomited over his front; mind you, so had I when I was in the smoke. Torrent, Crystin, John and Felix were all still trapped within the viscous stuff and looked just as bad; Drudge and Longhelim continued to burn it away patiently. Finally, everyone was freed and as healing was done, I was able to piece together what had happened. </p><p></p><p>Not for the first time, Longhelim was a true hero. Victor had managed to deal with the crocodile and its ally very quickly; he hit the lizard and then struck the woman such a perfect blow that she collapsed, almost decapitated. Then, however, a negating magic was cast which cancelled the speed effect I had put on him. To add to this, as he moved to help Longhelim, another spell was cast on him which he said was the equivalent of his worst nightmares come to life and the only thing he could do was to try to get away from them. Longhelim explained that this was a spell of unnatural fear; as a holy warrior he was immune but it could affect almost anyone. </p><p></p><p>Then the woman in green cast another spell creating the nasty, viscuous mass which shot out of her hand and settled on the encampment, entangling almost everyone. She then topped it off by casting the noxious cloud of smoke on the area which incapacitated everyone as they had to stay in it. It was a messy, nasty spell. All of these were more magical effects which I could understand in theory but I had never met a practitioner who had skill in them. </p><p></p><p>That had only left Longhelim to fight the two women; he mentioned that the woman with the blue robe had disappeared and that the woman in the green dress kept healing the wounds he inflicted on her, but he finally managed to defeat both of them, having survived several magical attacks. </p><p></p><p>Longhelim told us that the blue robed woman was still alive and that she had disguised herself. Rather than a blue robe, she had in fact been wearing full plate armour. Curious, I approached the fallen and now they were unconscious or dead, their features were quite different; I recognized the enemy as tieflings, a race of outsiders with demonic connections; Longhelim immediately labeled them as evil. The blue robed or armoured woman to be correct, although unconscious, was still alive. I had little desire to talk to her. She would only lie to save her life. They seemed like a trio of common bandits taking advantage of their abilities, especially the woman with her pet crocodile, who was probably some kind of warrior, bearing in mind how good she was with that dagger. I shuddered to think how many people they must have killed while they stalked the swamp. The decorations on their boat bore testament to their activities. </p><p></p><p>Longhelim then mentioned that the wizard in green tried to surrender but when the paladin attempted to strike her unconscious, she sought to strike him back, an action which drew retaliation; Longhelim also said that during her initial surrender attempt, she shouted that they had a prisoner but he added that she did not sound very convincing and could have been just saying that as a ploy. </p><p></p><p>Felix, Torrent and John administered further healing to everyone. I would have preferred to move but we did not have that option unless we were prepared to travel in the dark which was not advisable. </p><p></p><p>As we settled, Victor came up to me and spoke quietly: </p><p></p><p>“I am not sure how or why, but when the crocodile bit you and you fell, you burst into flame as if we were still in the Fire Forest; you also didn’t bleed from your wounds; I don’t know what it means but just so you know. Oh, and that speed spell you did?.....Longhelim and I both thought that it was…..tactically very advantageous.”</p><p></p><p>Later, as I was thinking about his comment, I smiled; “tactically very advantageous?” Heh, that was Victor speak for “please do it again”! </p><p></p><p>Now that Crystin was awake and free, she was eager and enthusiastic to learn what had happened. She was suitably horrified about the tiefling bandits, calling them several nasty names and using some words which she had almost certainly picked up from Longhelim. I recognized them. I am not sure if she quite knew what they meant though. Then she was distracted by a book which we had found on the tiefling who cast arcane magic. </p><p></p><p>“Oooh, let me see! Let me see!”, taking the book she opened it, blinked and then cast a spell that allowed her to read the magical script. </p><p></p><p>“Faden, look, look, here is a spell that allows you to make people’s nightmare’s come true; well not really but it does make them run away, scared to death; here is another that produces a sheet of flame from the user’s hands! Here’s the one that makes the poison smoke! This book is full of spells!”</p><p></p><p>Continuing like this, she reeled off a series of magical formulae which were mostly beyond her but comprehensible to me. The book was a treasure trove of magic! It was unbelievable! Spell after spell after spell. I will not bore the reader with a detailed description of all the formulae in this tome but suffice it to say that to me it was priceless. Slippery John was as glad as I, bearing in mind his new interest in arcana.</p><p></p><p>We also inspected several potions we found on the armoured tiefling, probably a priest of some sort according to Longhelim. I inspected them carefully, tasted a very small sample and then had to do it again just to confirm. After that, I was sure; there were four Elixirs of Love. These were magical but they were childish pieces of magic; sold to individuals for dubious purposes, mostly at places like fairgrounds. It was not a branch of magic that attracted me. Why on earth was she carrying them? </p><p></p><p>We had a brief discussion. Although the wizard had mentioned a prisoner, the chances of finding said individual in the swamp was impossible. Not even Drudge, who was an accomplished outdoorsman, felt any confidence in searching the swamp. We also debated the wisdom of taking the armoured woman as a prisoner. The guilt of the three bandits was manifest by fact that they waylaid us in the middle of the night with murderous intent and the decoration of humanoid skulls on their boat. It was unlikely that those were volunteered.</p><p></p><p>Then John said: “Come on, people! It’s obvious! We feed her the Elixirs and make sure that Longhelim is the first person she sees when he brings her to consciousness. Then he asks her to guide us to the prisoner.”</p><p></p><p>It was a brilliant idea and it worked like a charm. We fed her all four of the Elixirs just to be sure and in no time at all, she was putty in Longhelim’s hands. She introduced herself as Handrea and there was a lot of billing and cooing on her part; Longhelim looked quite uncomfortable but played his part and soon she was guiding us through the swamp to her abode. She kept excusing her actions by saying that it wasn’t her fault and that she and her companions were only doing the bidding of the half orc from the fish market. He wanted the Tidereaver’s Tear. </p><p></p><p>“And what is that?” asked Longhelim. </p><p></p><p>“Oh, it’s just a potion my little dove; nothing for you to worry about. Now, when we get home, can you tell your friends to leave us alone for some time. I would love to take you into my hut and…..”</p><p></p><p>“Of course Handrea but this potion?”</p><p></p><p>“I’ll tell you for a kiss.” </p><p></p><p>I turned my head at that point but admired Longhelim. </p><p></p><p>“Oooh, my little dove, you are such a great kisser. Well, all right, the potion. Look the druid has one. It is in that flask. It looks like blood…..because it is!”</p><p></p><p>She giggled at this point and kissed him again. </p><p></p><p>“It has to be made with the blood of intelligent creatures. Once the flask is activated, it bleeds and the person taking it bleeds as well. That is all harmless but the really clever bit is that one can ignore the effects of storms, bad weather and rough water; you can walk through all of that as if it was perfect calm. Isn’t that clever? The half orc wants as many as we can get. You will be so proud of me, my little dove. We have made so many. </p><p></p><p>It is very frustrating though. We get so few potions from one being. I don’t know what we are doing wrong but we need to get more. Children are useless for this, although they are the easiest to catch; usually they just sit there and cry; except for a couple, they tried to run; didn’t matter, the croc was always hungry. Mind you, lots and lots of humans and elves and half orcs and all sorts have been travelling in this swamp. It’s been a great hunting ground. I haven’t had so much fun since we ambushed that family of halflings and……”</p><p></p><p>I looked at everyone else, and we all looked very pale. I wasn’t sure just how many people this thing had murdered but her obvious disdain for life as she courted Longhelim proved her to be totally mad; murderously so in fact.</p><p></p><p>As a precaution, as we were travelling, we asked if they had any further defences in their home and she mentioned a group of skeletons but nothing that would worry a great man like Longhelim. </p><p></p><p>Thus forewarned, we arrived at an island with three habitable and two ruined huts. Next to one of the huts was a huge pile of bones. I couldn’t even guess how many people must have been killed to create such piles but it was more than……as I said, I couldn’t even guess. A closer look showed that some of the skeletons were much better preserve than others. We landed on the island and indeed, a great many of the creatures, more than I thought in fact, suddenly stood up and rushed to meet us; only to be met by the combined religious power of Longhelim and John, who both brandished their holy symbols at them: </p><p></p><p>“Begone foul creatures of the eternal night!” thundered Felix, showing a weathered wooden circle carved with runes that looked as if it had travelled for thousands of miles.</p><p></p><p>“Begone foul creatures of the eternal night!” this from John, except that his imprecation was more of a squeak; also it looked less impressive as he waved an odd looking mask at the skeletons; half of it seemed to be grinning and the other half looked to be grimacing. </p><p></p><p>Ultimately though, the end result was shattering explosions of bone as all the skeletons burst into shards.</p><p></p><p>After that, we began to check the huts. Each was locked with a large brass lock; we had found three brass keys on the tieflings which presumably corresponded with these locks. Before we did anything, we called out to anyone to see if we received a response from any prisoners but there was no answer. The first hut was opened and revealed a table with three small coffers; there was also a manacled corpse strung to the wall in one corner; it was maggot ridden and most of its entrails hung out of its stomach. It also stank. The latest victim no doubt; poor wretch. We closed the door and moved to the next hut. </p><p></p><p>That one revealed another bound and gagged figure. This one was a red haired woman who was alive and whole, thank goodness, albeit in quite a skimpy under dress. We freed her, with the gag being the first to be untied; she just looked at us and smiled: </p><p></p><p>“Well, it’s about time you got here; much longer and I would have had to do something about this myself”; this while she was still bound and on the floor. </p><p></p><p>Not responding, we unbound her and then asked who she was. </p><p></p><p>“I am Katarina of Gate Pass. I am a mighty sorcerer as well as a student of all things arcane and the only reason I was captured was because of the incompetence of my help; not that I was in trouble mind you. I would have handled it; I was just waiting for the right time to get out of here”. </p><p></p><p>The lady was obviously a character. I decided not to tell her the fate of “her help”. I suspect that we had just found the remains of one of them in the first hut. </p><p></p><p>John also ignored the bravado and just said to her: “I have a letter from you from your brother, Rantle”. With that, he gave her the scroll which Rantle had entrusted to him all those weeks ago. She took it eagerly but looked disappointed when she realised her brother was obviously not with us. Then she read the scroll and put it away in her clothing. Then she looked at us: “Well, now what?”</p><p></p><p>We looked at the final hut. There we found a cauldron and more equipment that looked as if it was needed to brew these potions. There were various glass containers with traces of blood and gore. The cauldron was just………nasty. Yet more evidence of what the tieflings had been doing. There was also a set of equipment wrapped in a fine dress; this was seized by Katarina, who exclaimed that it was her red dress as well as other items. </p><p></p><p>Once we had finished, everyone looked at each other. Victor and Longhelim; John, Torrent and I; Drudge and Felix and finally we nodded to Longhelim who looked at us. Then he said: </p><p></p><p>“Handrea, please turn around. I need to take your bonds off”. </p><p></p><p>As she did, he executed her. It had to be done; not only for the crimes she had committed but for the crimes she would commit in the future. She had no morals or ethics, no sense of right or wrong, of life or death, of consequences. To her, other beings, sentient or not, were purely prey for her and her purposes. Her justification was that if an individual could not defend its life against her assault, then it did not deserve to live. I nodded to myself. As distasteful as Longhelim’s action was, I was convinced we had just saved hundreds of lives in the future; and as for her comments about the children in the swamp……. </p><p></p><p>No one raised any objections although Crystin looked wide eyed.</p><p></p><p>We picked up the coffers from the first hut, which were full of platinum coins of Shahalesti denomination. That was odd and something to ponder upon later. We took the extra boat and distributed passengers. After that, we continued to our destination.</p><p></p><p>Thankfully, as we progressed, although we saw various groups of figures and the odd animal or two, they steered well away from our little convoy. Katarina said that the groups were likely to be goblins. They infested this area. We also heard a very strange noise. It was indescribable; I had never heard anything like it. Katarina said that it was a dragon and that it sounded in distress. We just looked at her. Katarina said a lot of things. </p><p></p><p>Victor then pointed out that a hawk that seemed to be following our progress. That was more interesting. We kept an eye on it. </p><p></p><p>Finally, we arrived at a point where the water finished and we had to walk. We decided to carry our boats with us for the moment. It was obvious that a great many other people had landed here already and we decided to do the same thing. As we trudged along, we saw a great many of the boats abandoned on the side of the trail. The ground dried up quickly and soon we were on a firm trail with green countryside around us. </p><p></p><p>It was still raining.</p><p></p><p>As we began to walk along, I asked Torrent: </p><p></p><p>“Your mentor, could you tell us a little about him?”</p><p></p><p>“He is called Lee Sidoneth and he is a powerful druid. He knows the ways of nature and he is a great man. He lives in Seaquen proper and I can’t wait to see him again”, was the answer.</p><p></p><p>Interesting: a druid, living by the sea; very likely to have great mastery over the element of water then. I wondered if there was connection with the Kraken, the Great Elemental of Water but decided that it was probably too fanciful. That set me off on a separate train of thought: If the Great Eagle of the Air had the Order of the Aquiline Cross connected with it, I wondered if the other Elements, the Kraken, the Worm and the Dragon had their own orders. Maybe these Ragesian Dragon Riders were the equivalent Order for the Dragon of Fire?</p><p></p><p>As I mused about this, I missed a group of figures appearing in the distance, but closing rapidly. Thankfully others from our group were more alert than I and had seen them; I was warned as they suddenly dropped the boats; thankful for their warning, I cast several protective spells. A horn sounded from the approaching group. Four of them broke off and sought cover; they were archers and their bows were ready. The remaining three approached us. Moments later, we could discern them as elves. Not just normal elves either but in uniform, well armed with swords and bucklers and very large bows in the case of the quartet which had sought cover. In fact, they looked remarkably like the Shahalesti warriors we had met in Gate Pass. </p><p></p><p>Their leader, all chiseled features, impeccable armour and military bearing despite the weather, approached us. We had just come out of the swamp, were covered in muck, soaked by the rain and were generally disheveled from carrying our boats; in other words, not a very prepossessing group. The only person that looked even remotely glamorous was Katrina, who looked at the elf frankly. I was concerned. </p><p></p><p>“Greetings travelers; we are a military detachment from His Majesty’s Ship Osprey. We are patrolling these lands for Ragesian agents, smugglers and sympathizers. Please drop your possessions for our inspection.”</p><p></p><p>Immediately, everyone among us bristled but Longhelim stepped forward.</p><p></p><p>“Thank you for your courtesy sir.” The voice was in full action, soft, beautifully modulated, charming and persuasive.</p><p></p><p>“You are indeed correct. This land is overrun with Ragesian spies and sympathizers. You have my admiration for your dedication to your task, thankless though it may be. However, may I put it to you Sir, that we are exactly the opposite. We all hail from Gate Pass and we are warriors against the Ragesian oppressors. It is our dearest wish to expel the Ragesians from our city. We will of course co-operate fully with you but please, may I know, whose authority do you consider yourselves to be under when you perform your inspections here near Seaquen?”</p><p></p><p>The elven leader produced a quite splendid scroll which he handed to Longhelim who immediately passed it to me without looking at it and continued engaging the elven leader in conversation. </p><p></p><p>I read it quickly. It was an impressive document, grandly named “The Treaty of Sherayel Derathi”, giving this elf a blanket authority on land and sea to inspect anything and anyone, anytime and anywhere in the name of King Shalaadel. Under the terms of this treaty, anything and anyone that could be perceived to be of potential help to Ragesia, could be confiscated, again in the name of the Shining Lands of Shahalesti. Moreover, it was signed by the aforementioned Shalaadel, King of the Shahalesti; only him mind you. I presumed that “confiscating anyone” actually meant taking them prisoner if need be. I leaned forward and whispered all of this quickly to Longhelim. </p><p></p><p>He took the scroll from me and handed it back to the leader. </p><p></p><p>“This all seems to be in order sir; please, before we continue with the inspection, tell me what does His Majesty Shalaadel intend in Dassen?”</p><p></p><p>The elf seemed more friendly by this time, no doubt charmed by Longhelim. He answered: </p><p></p><p>“His Majesty is disturbed both by the latest actions of the Ragesians and the response from the land of Dassen. He offered an alliance to King Stepengaard of Dassen but that ruler believes that the Ragesians are not his enemies. Therefore King Shalaadel has sent a fleet under Admiral Felshanth to show his support for and encourage an alliance between Seaquen and the Shining Lands of Shahalesti. In fact, he is conferring a great honour on the city. He is sending his most skilled negotiator to speak on his behalf: His daughter and heir, the Princess Shalosha. We are positive that under her expert guidance, our nation and Seaquen will rapidly form an alliance.”</p><p></p><p>As this information was imparted and the conversation flowed, Longhelim’s manner and charm was yet more evident and the body language of the elven patrol eased. The archers, tired of their vigil, cautiously came forward; they were also introduced and everyone relaxed. Soon, more and more courtesies and pleasantries were exchanged and everything became very civilized. Longhelim at one point began to take off his equipment and was on the point of handing it over to the elven leader, who glanced at it cursorily and said:</p><p></p><p>“Look, it’s obvious that you are no more Ragesian sympathizers than I. There is no need for us to detain you any further. Please carry on to Seaquen and go about your business”. </p><p></p><p>With that, we said our goodbyes and carried on. As we walked, Longhelim whispered: </p><p></p><p>“It’s nice not to have to fight our way through that”. </p><p></p><p>“We could have taken them!” this from Katarina. </p><p></p><p>Everyone just rolled their eyes at this.</p><p></p><p>A little later still, Victor sidled up to me, talking quietly: </p><p></p><p>“So, Shalaadel is sending a fleet to Seaquen? To show his support for the town? Or to make sure he controls anything and anyone sailing into and out of the harbor; I believe that is a blockade by any other name; and his only daughter is turning up to “negotiate” on his behalf? He must be either truly desperate or consider Seaquen and the Lyceum to be crucial to Shahalesti; probably a mixture of both. We had better remember what they did to Innenotdar. If the Shahalesti annex Seaquen after Gate Pass forges an alliance with the Lyceum, then our city basically trades one master for another.”</p><p></p><p>I nodded at his thoughts, also thinking hard.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Cafu, post: 5943568, member: 6692807"] As I woke up, I could hear strange, compelling, eerie singing which suggested I look at the water and then go swimming. I shrugged off this strange compulsion and stood up to see what was happening. Victor had already reacted and had joined Longhelim at the edge of our island, both looking intently into the mist. John stood and looked at the water, entranced. The song had obviously affected him. Tiljann had woken me while Drudge, Crystin and Torrent still slept, oblivious despite the shouting. Then the mist dissipated. What it revealed was quite…..unusual. A small boat floated towards us; it had a crew of two: one woman in a striking green dress with red hair and wielding a fiery staff; another woman, this one with a pole guiding the boat and wearing a blue robe. The boat was decorated with several humanoid skulls, suggesting that diplomacy was not an option for us at this time. In the next few moments, both of them stood and skillfully cast spells as the boat continued to float towards us but whatever they had done, it was just ignored by the group with the exception of Drudge, who having recently woken, cursed. I did not know what had happened to him but at least he was still conscious and moving. Moreover John was now free of his entrancement as the two women on the boat had stopped singing. I had seen enough. I moved forward slightly and cast one of my new spells. It was a famous spell; really, all it did was speed up the recipients, making them faster and more nimble. Warriors loved it for the simple reason that it gave them a huge advantage in combat as they were able to swing their weapons much faster than normal and allowed them to dodge enemy blows. Not a moment too soon. As soon as I finished the spell, a shape burst from the water and threw itself at me. It was an enormous crocodile, the lizard like animal Drudge had pointed out to us as we travelled through the swamp; he said they were extremely dangerous. This one took a huge chunk out of me with its jaws and then tried to grab and drag me to the water, so I was able to concur with his description. Somehow, I shrugged it off, probably because it was still chewing the part of me it had bitten. Then, to make matters even better, another shape came out of the water, an ugly woman with little clothing but a very large dagger. She had been swimming with the crocodile; she sprang up and stabbed me. It hurt. I managed to take another quick look around and saw that Longhelim was now standing and fighting on the boat with the two women, who were swinging their weapons at him. Victor had sped to the crocodile and hit it so hard that it drew its attention. It snapped and hissed at him, obviously badly hurt. I was too busy moving away to see what anyone else was doing but it concerned me that I couldn’t see any arrows flying from Drudge nor was there any sign of John. I tried to aim a ray of fire at the crocodile but I was nervous of hitting Victor and over compensated. The bolt missed. Then the crocodile bit me again and everything went black. I was brought to consciousness by a prod on my back and things were bad. The air was full of smoke, very nasty smelly stuff that somehow managed to get into my mouth, nose, ears and eyes. I was blind. I could nothing but try to expel it from my head. That was what consumed me. This feeling lasted quite some time; finally, this illness ended and then I found that I was held in place by a sticky, strong, magical substance. I could barely move until Drudge came forward with a torch and burned out the stuff around me. With great relief, I rolled out of the nasty gunk. I looked around. As I watched, I saw that Victor was also recovering from the choking smoke. He looked pale, shaken and had vomited over his front; mind you, so had I when I was in the smoke. Torrent, Crystin, John and Felix were all still trapped within the viscous stuff and looked just as bad; Drudge and Longhelim continued to burn it away patiently. Finally, everyone was freed and as healing was done, I was able to piece together what had happened. Not for the first time, Longhelim was a true hero. Victor had managed to deal with the crocodile and its ally very quickly; he hit the lizard and then struck the woman such a perfect blow that she collapsed, almost decapitated. Then, however, a negating magic was cast which cancelled the speed effect I had put on him. To add to this, as he moved to help Longhelim, another spell was cast on him which he said was the equivalent of his worst nightmares come to life and the only thing he could do was to try to get away from them. Longhelim explained that this was a spell of unnatural fear; as a holy warrior he was immune but it could affect almost anyone. Then the woman in green cast another spell creating the nasty, viscuous mass which shot out of her hand and settled on the encampment, entangling almost everyone. She then topped it off by casting the noxious cloud of smoke on the area which incapacitated everyone as they had to stay in it. It was a messy, nasty spell. All of these were more magical effects which I could understand in theory but I had never met a practitioner who had skill in them. That had only left Longhelim to fight the two women; he mentioned that the woman with the blue robe had disappeared and that the woman in the green dress kept healing the wounds he inflicted on her, but he finally managed to defeat both of them, having survived several magical attacks. Longhelim told us that the blue robed woman was still alive and that she had disguised herself. Rather than a blue robe, she had in fact been wearing full plate armour. Curious, I approached the fallen and now they were unconscious or dead, their features were quite different; I recognized the enemy as tieflings, a race of outsiders with demonic connections; Longhelim immediately labeled them as evil. The blue robed or armoured woman to be correct, although unconscious, was still alive. I had little desire to talk to her. She would only lie to save her life. They seemed like a trio of common bandits taking advantage of their abilities, especially the woman with her pet crocodile, who was probably some kind of warrior, bearing in mind how good she was with that dagger. I shuddered to think how many people they must have killed while they stalked the swamp. The decorations on their boat bore testament to their activities. Longhelim then mentioned that the wizard in green tried to surrender but when the paladin attempted to strike her unconscious, she sought to strike him back, an action which drew retaliation; Longhelim also said that during her initial surrender attempt, she shouted that they had a prisoner but he added that she did not sound very convincing and could have been just saying that as a ploy. Felix, Torrent and John administered further healing to everyone. I would have preferred to move but we did not have that option unless we were prepared to travel in the dark which was not advisable. As we settled, Victor came up to me and spoke quietly: “I am not sure how or why, but when the crocodile bit you and you fell, you burst into flame as if we were still in the Fire Forest; you also didn’t bleed from your wounds; I don’t know what it means but just so you know. Oh, and that speed spell you did?.....Longhelim and I both thought that it was…..tactically very advantageous.” Later, as I was thinking about his comment, I smiled; “tactically very advantageous?” Heh, that was Victor speak for “please do it again”! Now that Crystin was awake and free, she was eager and enthusiastic to learn what had happened. She was suitably horrified about the tiefling bandits, calling them several nasty names and using some words which she had almost certainly picked up from Longhelim. I recognized them. I am not sure if she quite knew what they meant though. Then she was distracted by a book which we had found on the tiefling who cast arcane magic. “Oooh, let me see! Let me see!”, taking the book she opened it, blinked and then cast a spell that allowed her to read the magical script. “Faden, look, look, here is a spell that allows you to make people’s nightmare’s come true; well not really but it does make them run away, scared to death; here is another that produces a sheet of flame from the user’s hands! Here’s the one that makes the poison smoke! This book is full of spells!” Continuing like this, she reeled off a series of magical formulae which were mostly beyond her but comprehensible to me. The book was a treasure trove of magic! It was unbelievable! Spell after spell after spell. I will not bore the reader with a detailed description of all the formulae in this tome but suffice it to say that to me it was priceless. Slippery John was as glad as I, bearing in mind his new interest in arcana. We also inspected several potions we found on the armoured tiefling, probably a priest of some sort according to Longhelim. I inspected them carefully, tasted a very small sample and then had to do it again just to confirm. After that, I was sure; there were four Elixirs of Love. These were magical but they were childish pieces of magic; sold to individuals for dubious purposes, mostly at places like fairgrounds. It was not a branch of magic that attracted me. Why on earth was she carrying them? We had a brief discussion. Although the wizard had mentioned a prisoner, the chances of finding said individual in the swamp was impossible. Not even Drudge, who was an accomplished outdoorsman, felt any confidence in searching the swamp. We also debated the wisdom of taking the armoured woman as a prisoner. The guilt of the three bandits was manifest by fact that they waylaid us in the middle of the night with murderous intent and the decoration of humanoid skulls on their boat. It was unlikely that those were volunteered. Then John said: “Come on, people! It’s obvious! We feed her the Elixirs and make sure that Longhelim is the first person she sees when he brings her to consciousness. Then he asks her to guide us to the prisoner.” It was a brilliant idea and it worked like a charm. We fed her all four of the Elixirs just to be sure and in no time at all, she was putty in Longhelim’s hands. She introduced herself as Handrea and there was a lot of billing and cooing on her part; Longhelim looked quite uncomfortable but played his part and soon she was guiding us through the swamp to her abode. She kept excusing her actions by saying that it wasn’t her fault and that she and her companions were only doing the bidding of the half orc from the fish market. He wanted the Tidereaver’s Tear. “And what is that?” asked Longhelim. “Oh, it’s just a potion my little dove; nothing for you to worry about. Now, when we get home, can you tell your friends to leave us alone for some time. I would love to take you into my hut and…..” “Of course Handrea but this potion?” “I’ll tell you for a kiss.” I turned my head at that point but admired Longhelim. “Oooh, my little dove, you are such a great kisser. Well, all right, the potion. Look the druid has one. It is in that flask. It looks like blood…..because it is!” She giggled at this point and kissed him again. “It has to be made with the blood of intelligent creatures. Once the flask is activated, it bleeds and the person taking it bleeds as well. That is all harmless but the really clever bit is that one can ignore the effects of storms, bad weather and rough water; you can walk through all of that as if it was perfect calm. Isn’t that clever? The half orc wants as many as we can get. You will be so proud of me, my little dove. We have made so many. It is very frustrating though. We get so few potions from one being. I don’t know what we are doing wrong but we need to get more. Children are useless for this, although they are the easiest to catch; usually they just sit there and cry; except for a couple, they tried to run; didn’t matter, the croc was always hungry. Mind you, lots and lots of humans and elves and half orcs and all sorts have been travelling in this swamp. It’s been a great hunting ground. I haven’t had so much fun since we ambushed that family of halflings and……” I looked at everyone else, and we all looked very pale. I wasn’t sure just how many people this thing had murdered but her obvious disdain for life as she courted Longhelim proved her to be totally mad; murderously so in fact. As a precaution, as we were travelling, we asked if they had any further defences in their home and she mentioned a group of skeletons but nothing that would worry a great man like Longhelim. Thus forewarned, we arrived at an island with three habitable and two ruined huts. Next to one of the huts was a huge pile of bones. I couldn’t even guess how many people must have been killed to create such piles but it was more than……as I said, I couldn’t even guess. A closer look showed that some of the skeletons were much better preserve than others. We landed on the island and indeed, a great many of the creatures, more than I thought in fact, suddenly stood up and rushed to meet us; only to be met by the combined religious power of Longhelim and John, who both brandished their holy symbols at them: “Begone foul creatures of the eternal night!” thundered Felix, showing a weathered wooden circle carved with runes that looked as if it had travelled for thousands of miles. “Begone foul creatures of the eternal night!” this from John, except that his imprecation was more of a squeak; also it looked less impressive as he waved an odd looking mask at the skeletons; half of it seemed to be grinning and the other half looked to be grimacing. Ultimately though, the end result was shattering explosions of bone as all the skeletons burst into shards. After that, we began to check the huts. Each was locked with a large brass lock; we had found three brass keys on the tieflings which presumably corresponded with these locks. Before we did anything, we called out to anyone to see if we received a response from any prisoners but there was no answer. The first hut was opened and revealed a table with three small coffers; there was also a manacled corpse strung to the wall in one corner; it was maggot ridden and most of its entrails hung out of its stomach. It also stank. The latest victim no doubt; poor wretch. We closed the door and moved to the next hut. That one revealed another bound and gagged figure. This one was a red haired woman who was alive and whole, thank goodness, albeit in quite a skimpy under dress. We freed her, with the gag being the first to be untied; she just looked at us and smiled: “Well, it’s about time you got here; much longer and I would have had to do something about this myself”; this while she was still bound and on the floor. Not responding, we unbound her and then asked who she was. “I am Katarina of Gate Pass. I am a mighty sorcerer as well as a student of all things arcane and the only reason I was captured was because of the incompetence of my help; not that I was in trouble mind you. I would have handled it; I was just waiting for the right time to get out of here”. The lady was obviously a character. I decided not to tell her the fate of “her help”. I suspect that we had just found the remains of one of them in the first hut. John also ignored the bravado and just said to her: “I have a letter from you from your brother, Rantle”. With that, he gave her the scroll which Rantle had entrusted to him all those weeks ago. She took it eagerly but looked disappointed when she realised her brother was obviously not with us. Then she read the scroll and put it away in her clothing. Then she looked at us: “Well, now what?” We looked at the final hut. There we found a cauldron and more equipment that looked as if it was needed to brew these potions. There were various glass containers with traces of blood and gore. The cauldron was just………nasty. Yet more evidence of what the tieflings had been doing. There was also a set of equipment wrapped in a fine dress; this was seized by Katarina, who exclaimed that it was her red dress as well as other items. Once we had finished, everyone looked at each other. Victor and Longhelim; John, Torrent and I; Drudge and Felix and finally we nodded to Longhelim who looked at us. Then he said: “Handrea, please turn around. I need to take your bonds off”. As she did, he executed her. It had to be done; not only for the crimes she had committed but for the crimes she would commit in the future. She had no morals or ethics, no sense of right or wrong, of life or death, of consequences. To her, other beings, sentient or not, were purely prey for her and her purposes. Her justification was that if an individual could not defend its life against her assault, then it did not deserve to live. I nodded to myself. As distasteful as Longhelim’s action was, I was convinced we had just saved hundreds of lives in the future; and as for her comments about the children in the swamp……. No one raised any objections although Crystin looked wide eyed. We picked up the coffers from the first hut, which were full of platinum coins of Shahalesti denomination. That was odd and something to ponder upon later. We took the extra boat and distributed passengers. After that, we continued to our destination. Thankfully, as we progressed, although we saw various groups of figures and the odd animal or two, they steered well away from our little convoy. Katarina said that the groups were likely to be goblins. They infested this area. We also heard a very strange noise. It was indescribable; I had never heard anything like it. Katarina said that it was a dragon and that it sounded in distress. We just looked at her. Katarina said a lot of things. Victor then pointed out that a hawk that seemed to be following our progress. That was more interesting. We kept an eye on it. Finally, we arrived at a point where the water finished and we had to walk. We decided to carry our boats with us for the moment. It was obvious that a great many other people had landed here already and we decided to do the same thing. As we trudged along, we saw a great many of the boats abandoned on the side of the trail. The ground dried up quickly and soon we were on a firm trail with green countryside around us. It was still raining. As we began to walk along, I asked Torrent: “Your mentor, could you tell us a little about him?” “He is called Lee Sidoneth and he is a powerful druid. He knows the ways of nature and he is a great man. He lives in Seaquen proper and I can’t wait to see him again”, was the answer. Interesting: a druid, living by the sea; very likely to have great mastery over the element of water then. I wondered if there was connection with the Kraken, the Great Elemental of Water but decided that it was probably too fanciful. That set me off on a separate train of thought: If the Great Eagle of the Air had the Order of the Aquiline Cross connected with it, I wondered if the other Elements, the Kraken, the Worm and the Dragon had their own orders. Maybe these Ragesian Dragon Riders were the equivalent Order for the Dragon of Fire? As I mused about this, I missed a group of figures appearing in the distance, but closing rapidly. Thankfully others from our group were more alert than I and had seen them; I was warned as they suddenly dropped the boats; thankful for their warning, I cast several protective spells. A horn sounded from the approaching group. Four of them broke off and sought cover; they were archers and their bows were ready. The remaining three approached us. Moments later, we could discern them as elves. Not just normal elves either but in uniform, well armed with swords and bucklers and very large bows in the case of the quartet which had sought cover. In fact, they looked remarkably like the Shahalesti warriors we had met in Gate Pass. Their leader, all chiseled features, impeccable armour and military bearing despite the weather, approached us. We had just come out of the swamp, were covered in muck, soaked by the rain and were generally disheveled from carrying our boats; in other words, not a very prepossessing group. The only person that looked even remotely glamorous was Katrina, who looked at the elf frankly. I was concerned. “Greetings travelers; we are a military detachment from His Majesty’s Ship Osprey. We are patrolling these lands for Ragesian agents, smugglers and sympathizers. Please drop your possessions for our inspection.” Immediately, everyone among us bristled but Longhelim stepped forward. “Thank you for your courtesy sir.” The voice was in full action, soft, beautifully modulated, charming and persuasive. “You are indeed correct. This land is overrun with Ragesian spies and sympathizers. You have my admiration for your dedication to your task, thankless though it may be. However, may I put it to you Sir, that we are exactly the opposite. We all hail from Gate Pass and we are warriors against the Ragesian oppressors. It is our dearest wish to expel the Ragesians from our city. We will of course co-operate fully with you but please, may I know, whose authority do you consider yourselves to be under when you perform your inspections here near Seaquen?” The elven leader produced a quite splendid scroll which he handed to Longhelim who immediately passed it to me without looking at it and continued engaging the elven leader in conversation. I read it quickly. It was an impressive document, grandly named “The Treaty of Sherayel Derathi”, giving this elf a blanket authority on land and sea to inspect anything and anyone, anytime and anywhere in the name of King Shalaadel. Under the terms of this treaty, anything and anyone that could be perceived to be of potential help to Ragesia, could be confiscated, again in the name of the Shining Lands of Shahalesti. Moreover, it was signed by the aforementioned Shalaadel, King of the Shahalesti; only him mind you. I presumed that “confiscating anyone” actually meant taking them prisoner if need be. I leaned forward and whispered all of this quickly to Longhelim. He took the scroll from me and handed it back to the leader. “This all seems to be in order sir; please, before we continue with the inspection, tell me what does His Majesty Shalaadel intend in Dassen?” The elf seemed more friendly by this time, no doubt charmed by Longhelim. He answered: “His Majesty is disturbed both by the latest actions of the Ragesians and the response from the land of Dassen. He offered an alliance to King Stepengaard of Dassen but that ruler believes that the Ragesians are not his enemies. Therefore King Shalaadel has sent a fleet under Admiral Felshanth to show his support for and encourage an alliance between Seaquen and the Shining Lands of Shahalesti. In fact, he is conferring a great honour on the city. He is sending his most skilled negotiator to speak on his behalf: His daughter and heir, the Princess Shalosha. We are positive that under her expert guidance, our nation and Seaquen will rapidly form an alliance.” As this information was imparted and the conversation flowed, Longhelim’s manner and charm was yet more evident and the body language of the elven patrol eased. The archers, tired of their vigil, cautiously came forward; they were also introduced and everyone relaxed. Soon, more and more courtesies and pleasantries were exchanged and everything became very civilized. Longhelim at one point began to take off his equipment and was on the point of handing it over to the elven leader, who glanced at it cursorily and said: “Look, it’s obvious that you are no more Ragesian sympathizers than I. There is no need for us to detain you any further. Please carry on to Seaquen and go about your business”. With that, we said our goodbyes and carried on. As we walked, Longhelim whispered: “It’s nice not to have to fight our way through that”. “We could have taken them!” this from Katarina. Everyone just rolled their eyes at this. A little later still, Victor sidled up to me, talking quietly: “So, Shalaadel is sending a fleet to Seaquen? To show his support for the town? Or to make sure he controls anything and anyone sailing into and out of the harbor; I believe that is a blockade by any other name; and his only daughter is turning up to “negotiate” on his behalf? He must be either truly desperate or consider Seaquen and the Lyceum to be crucial to Shahalesti; probably a mixture of both. We had better remember what they did to Innenotdar. If the Shahalesti annex Seaquen after Gate Pass forges an alliance with the Lyceum, then our city basically trades one master for another.” I nodded at his thoughts, also thinking hard. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
Playing the Game
Story Hour
The Gate Pass Irregulars: A War of the Burning Sky Campaign
Top