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The Gate Pass Irregulars: A War of the Burning Sky Campaign
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<blockquote data-quote="Cafu" data-source="post: 6100392" data-attributes="member: 6692807"><p>We arrived in the House of Healing; it was just a normal townhouse really but there were about six priests there, shaven headed and who looked more like monks but they took one look and immediately began to tend to our wounds. Several of them brought out healing wands and quickly used them on us; at the same time, one of the priests approached Longhelim and spoke quietly to him. A few moments later, the paladin returned and said:</p><p> </p><p>“That was interesting. The priests said that they saw a phantom figure appear here briefly a little earlier and then it dissipated, as if it had ceased existing on this world. It was about the same time as Faden and I flipped from passive to berserker. I wonder if it was Balance?”</p><p> </p><p>John frowned: “Balance?”</p><p> </p><p>Longhelim then went on to recount his strange encounter with the woman who called herself Balance.</p><p> </p><p>John said immediately: “That was a trillith. One descriptive name; totally unknown magical powers and she also told us that we had met her kin? Ten to one that we have met yet another trillith.”</p><p> </p><p>Due to my state at the time, I hadn’t put the pieces in place but now I believed John was correct. Yet again we had come across one of these mysterious creatures. At least it hadn’t been overtly hostile, like the last one. This one just seemed to have affected most of the valley with some strange aura or malaise. I made a mental note to add another power which could possibly be associated with trilliths.</p><p> </p><p>As I was considering all the ramifications of John’s surmise, Victor said: </p><p> </p><p>“We’re forgetting the most important problem here: The large detachment of Ragesians approaching the town. Unless the people here get organized, we are going to lose a lot of them.”</p><p> </p><p>Longhelim stood up and left, going outside. </p><p> </p><p>Drudge asked: “Where’s he going?”</p><p> </p><p>Victor replied: “I think he’s going to see if he can find the town mayor or leader to try to organize them.”</p><p> </p><p>As we were waiting, I asked: “Drudge, can you tell me what happened during the battle while I was….not myself?”</p><p> </p><p>This took a few moments and as he was finishing, Longhelim returned, looking disgusted: </p><p> </p><p>“I couldn’t find anyone in authority; not enough time; the Ragesians are already on the outskirts of the town and when I tried to rally folk, they just ignored me.”</p><p> </p><p>“They’ve no idea who you are,” I said to him. </p><p> </p><p>“I know,” he sighed, “I was just hoping……..”</p><p> </p><p>Victor just said: “Well, you tried; now come on, we’ve got to get ready.”</p><p> </p><p>We thanked the priests for their help again and again looked for the best location in the town to set up defensively. </p><p> </p><p>As previously, it was a fairly narrow street with several tall, wooden buildings on each side. There were alleys between these but they were very narrow that only one person could actually emerge from these at a time. We did not have the time to barricade them but we could at least limit the emergence of the enemy from the side. The street was going to be our battleground; as well as possibly our deathground. </p><p> </p><p>We set up our formation as usual; the two warriors at the front, facing the direction from which the enemy was most likely to come; Felix, John and I were a short distance behind, ready to support with our spells, while Drudge was lurking wherever he felt he would be most effective with his arrows. </p><p> </p><p>The first attack was not long in coming; the two wyvern knights swooped down from the sky; they had obviously been sent to soften us up as they glided down low and dropped their dragon bombs. Thankfully, I had managed to cast my spell of fire protection by this point and although the loud bang was annoying, I was able to shrug off its more extreme effects. However, the knights miscalculated. When they dropped their bombs, they realised that they would not be able to bank and attempt to turn as rapidly as usual due to the narrow confines of the street; so, they had to glide, in a straight line, completely exposed to Drudge’s archery. </p><p> </p><p>They weren’t too keen on this so, instead they landed and turned on the ground; this was not ideal for either them or us; they lost their ability to strike from the air. But wyverns were very dangerous creatures even on the ground: they had landed at the rear of our group and one of them moved forward and rammed its tail stinger into my chest. Being poisoned by a wyvern is not something I would recommend; it makes one feel weak, dizzy, nauseous and hurts like the very devils. I managed to stagger back, tearing the stinger out but I could see the tip dripping with a colourless liquid and there was a burning pulse coursing through my body. I just about stayed on my feet when I saw Victor moving up, Living Blade of Innenotdar raised above his head, ready to deal mayhem; which is exactly what happened as with one continuous move, he slashed the beast to death, making the rider leap off and confront Victor. </p><p> </p><p>Longhelim had also tracked back, facing the other wyvern; this time, the battle took longer but there was never any doubt as to the outcome; Longhelim’s swordsmanship was just as strong as Victor’s albeit in a different way. He fenced with the beast and its rider for some moments, inflicting heavy wounds all the time; Victor, at this point, had managed to deal with the Knight from the previous wyvern. </p><p> </p><p>The burning in my body was getting beyond control and I felt a wave of weakness sweep through me; I sank to my knees and retched; that made me feel a little better; there was no time for weakness right now. The other wyvern, seeing me incapacitated briefly, ignored the danger presented by Longhelim and was urged forwards and by his rider; they both struck me; as the wyvern bit deeply into my arm and suddenly everything went black.</p><p> </p><p>I was brought awake by someone pouring a potion down my throat; I couldn’t see anyone so I assumed it was John, invisible. As I looked around, I could see yet more trouble. </p><p> </p><p>From behind us, another set of figures appeared. They were more of the Ragesian scouts with their studded leather and stealthy movement. I shouted at Victor to be careful but he had already seen them and was getting ready for the new foe. Longhelim, had managed to finish the last wyvern and its rider and then also turned his attention to the squad of infiltrators. They showed their usual aggression, bounding forwards, short swords flashing; they decided to try to surround us; however, their plan was hampered by Victor’s and Longhelim’s swings. These slashed, cut and incapacitated while the enemy then had to face Drudge’s arrows; the ranger was raining death on all enemies, to wax poetically. Every time one of Victor’s blows did not finish that opponent, one of Drudge’s arrows would sprout from his torso, causing him to crumple, more often than not. The infiltrators had just been defeated with the exception of their leader, a half orc, when a new danger made its appearance. </p><p> </p><p>A formation of Ragesians came up the street; there were about ten of them. They were huddled together and covered almost fully with huge shields. It was obvious that they had heard of Drudge’s archery prowess and had taken precautions. Despite the unwieldiness of the formation, I could see immediately that this was a tried military tactic as they shuffled forward as one. The formation looked impregnable. </p><p> </p><p>Drudge took one look at it and said: </p><p> </p><p>“Those are tower shields; there is nothing I can do about that; my arrows will just bounce off.”</p><p> </p><p>Then he turned around and shot the infiltrator leader. I looked at that dead wyvern lying next to me and shuddered; they had almost killed me. Then I took my staff, sat up, positioned myself and shot a ball of fire just above the slow-moving formation so that the flame would rain down on them. I had so few of these charges left in my staff that they were becoming very precious but, as the formation dissolved and the soldiers all perished in flame, thereby never being able to take part in Ragesian conquests again, I thought it was well worth it. </p><p> </p><p>As the others finally tidied up the infiltrator leader, another formation, the same as the previous one, appeared from down the road; I aimed again, and the result was the same; all in all, the Ragesians tried that two more times and the result was always the same, with the exception of one situation when I had to use two of my balls of fire for the same formation. </p><p> </p><p>There was a slight break at this point. We took full advantage of this, drinking healing potions taken from the enemy. Nearly everyone was fully recovered except that I was still suffering from the wyvern poison. Then the final enemy arrived. </p><p> </p><p>Another squad of soldiers appeared; these were different. They were wearing full plate armour and wielded axes. Their equipment was polished and they looked like someone’s chosen guard; which they were for behind them, advanced the impressive, mounted figure we had seen before; he was almost ambling as if we were just the last obstacle to be mopped up in this silly little town. This must have been the sole commander of the army that had just entered the valley. Closer, I could see that he was a truly imposing figure; a bearded human with full plate armour and obviously an experienced leader of soldiers. I wondered what someone like that was doing here, in this gods forsaken place in the back of nowhere? Then I remembered Castle Korstull and the Torch of the Burning Sky again.</p><p> </p><p>The beast which bore the commander was closer now, so I could make it out in more detail. I have already described it but now I could add that it had a head with large ears but no sign of eyes; suddenly, the commander dismounted and with a quick burst of acceleration, this creature sped to the frontline. We steadied, waiting for the onslaught. I thought it would charge us but then the really nasty surprise occurred. It opened its mouth and let out a dissonant sound; and I mean it was so dissonant and loud that we could feel it in our bones and bodies. It was so jarring and loud that it was painful, very painful. Everyone clutched their ears as blood poured out of them. </p><p> </p><p>The commander then made a sign for his squad to finish us. Despite the roar of the creature, I managed to get one ball of fire off, burning some of the soldiers. Also, as some of them were charging forwards, I put a wall of flames in their path, again managing to burn them quite badly. This also had the effect of separating the commander from his bodyguard. They were brave though; I have to give them that as I saw them leap through the magical flame and attack Victor and Longhelim. Then came another surprise: another pair of squads of infiltrators had managed to sneak up on either side of us; I contained one side with another wall of fire, managing to burn several of them again. It also made the infiltrators move away, I assumed. I couldn’t see them anymore; unfortunately, that was on one side only though; on the other side the situation was different. </p><p> </p><p>The remaining infiltrators together with the soldiers combined and formed a solid formation with the unfortunate Victor and Longhelim in its middle. That may have been a mistake for the soldiers though; it gave them the advantage of being able to use their teamwork to strike at the two warriors more easily; conversely, it allowed Victor and Longhelim to concentrate on one target at a time; and they did. Systematically, they began to lay about them with a series of thrusts, parries, slashes in a dazzling display of swordsmanship. Of course, as usual, Drudge was also laying down and almost continuous rate of fire into the melee with unerring accuracy and I managed create another wall of flames on one edge of this formation, isolating them from any reinforcements, as well as burning some of the enemy badly; all of this was weakening them considerably. </p><p> </p><p>The creature ridden by the commander lumbered off to the side, riderless, seemingly on some quest of its own. Felix was close to the warriors; he saw the wounds they were taking and decided to join in the melee himself. All of his healing, his wands and his spells were gone. Despite the desperation of our positions though, slowly but surely, we were beginning to thin out the military wedge around the warriors. </p><p> </p><p>Then, almost in a moment, the battle turned. Suddenly, Longhelim struck twice and two soldiers collapsed, unable to stand against him; then Victor struck and another soldier fell, leaving only a three. The warriors carefully made a withdrawal as the group had become dangerously spread out. In the background, I could see that the commander was standing back and drinking potions. He had obviously been hurt all the magic flying around.</p><p> </p><p>Then the creature suddenly came at us from the opposite direction. There was only one soldier left now, fighting Victor but the warrior immediately switched opponents. Longhelim came to engage the soldier. Oddly the beast did not use its sound attack, possibly because there was one of its allies in our group. </p><p> </p><p>Victor was getting badly beaten and slashed by the creature; then suddenly, everything went black again. </p><p> </p><p>When I was brought around again, John was feeding me a potion, as usual. </p><p> </p><p> I saw that the beast was dead and the body of the commander was nearby, his torso bristling with arrows; someone had already stripped him off his armour. </p><p> </p><p>I looked around me at the devastation. There were seemingly hundreds of corpses strewn around, many of them partly burning; broken spears and javelins lay around, some of them stuck in the ground; there were arrows everywhere, many of them stuck in orc bodies; the stench of burning flesh was everywhere and smoke whisped thinly into the sky. </p><p> </p><p>“What happened?”</p><p> </p><p>“One of the infiltrators got you. We didn’t see him in time. He was greatly weakened though and we got him before he managed to kill you.”</p><p> </p><p>“What about the commander, the beast and all the soldiers?”</p><p> </p><p>“Well, we beat them. You should have seen it! Victor went head to head with the beast……whatever it was. It nearly skewered him to death. It’s got some really nasty claws. He managed to chop its head off it but he was on his last legs; after that, we began to drink any old potions we found desperately, before that commander arrived; we managed to get rid of most of his bodyguard so it was pretty much him against us, thank the gods; we wouldn’t have been able to cope with him and them together; thankfully, most of the potions were healing. </p><p> </p><p>Anyway, so the commander comes up and that’s when Victor and Longhelim show their nous. They engage him together, but the person who is really giving him all the grief is Drudge. The two fighters are basically just trying to stay up and hit every so often while keeping him away from Drudge, who just shoots and shoots and shoots; and it was the arrows that did for him in the end.”</p><p> </p><p>I lay back down, staring at the sky: “Thank the gods. I really thought we were done for this time. </p><p> </p><p>I shook my head; all of a sudden, I felt so tired; and that damned wyvern poison was still affecting me.</p><p> </p><p>“So what now?”</p><p> </p><p>John grinned: “Now we gather all those lovely things that the army left lying around; the armour, the weapons, the magical stuff, the potions, everything.”</p><p> </p><p>I groaned: “John, there were hundreds of soldiers in the camp and in that army. How are you going to pick up all their things?”</p><p> </p><p>“Don’t you worry. I’ll think of something.”</p><p> </p><p>Longhelim then came up. </p><p> </p><p>“Come on you two, get up. We’re going to the House of Healing.”</p><p> </p><p>So, I stood up and joined the others. I saw that everyone was carrying lots of potion bottles. There must have been more than fifty. As we were walking, Victor gave me several and told me to start drinking them. Nothing loth, I began quaffing. Immediately, I began feeling better. </p><p> </p><p>Walking through the town was eerie. There were bodies everywhere; mostly of townsfolk but also of Ragesians. This could not be mistaken for anything but a battlefield. Here and there fires still burned, although they were dying. There were no wounded which gave us hope that someone may have come and collected them. </p><p> </p><p>Arriving at the House of Healing, we found that it had been attacked and smashed. There was no sign of the priests. We searched the place cursorily and John waved a wand briefly, before declaring that there were no secret doors or openings in the building. Then we discussed what to do next. John still wanted to loot the battlefield. Then Longhelim said: </p><p> </p><p>“Why don’t we go to the Inn?”</p><p> </p><p>“What inn?” I asked. </p><p> </p><p>“Oh, Three Weeping Ravens told me about it. It’s called the Inn at the Peak’s Shadow; apparently it’s the only one in town. I think that if any of the people are going to be anywhere, they will be there.”</p><p> </p><p>Finding it wasn’t too difficult and the paladin was right. There were people around; weeping, wounded, in shock, some desperately looking vainly for family, others hysterical upon seeing a corpse, but at least alive. </p><p> </p><p>The only person with some sort of authority was the Innkeeper, Thashalnos. </p><p> </p><p>Upon seeing us, he shouted: “You!”</p><p> </p><p>Heads turned towards us. </p><p> </p><p>“You saved us! You saved the town! I saw you, fighting the Ragesian general! You have our gratitude. The Ragesians would have killed us all. Who are you? What are your names? You killed so many of them. You must be mighty heroes of legend to come and save us.”</p><p> </p><p>He looked at us expectantly and Longhelim introduced himself and the rest of us. Then he took us into the inn where he introduced us to two monks, a man and a woman; they were disciples of the East and West Wind Styles. These were the two forms of training which were followed by the monks in this place. Pilus and Longinus were the masters each discipline: Pilus of the East and Longinus of the West. They were friendly enough, in manifest difference with their colleagues in the Monastery. They even gave us a warning: </p><p> </p><p>“You must beware of the guardians who guard the way to the Temple; very powerful air elementals. However, there is a way to get past them; a safe word.”</p><p> </p><p>Longhelim, being unfailingly polite, thanked them for their information while I was still sputtering and then turned to Thashalnos and asked: </p><p> </p><p>“Is Becchus around?”</p><p> </p><p>“No, I haven’t seen him. I fear the worst.”</p><p> </p><p>“Well, can you direct us to his house, please. We need to find him.”</p><p> </p><p>The innkeeper gave us directions and after thanking him, we left, reaching the house without mishap. </p><p> </p><p>Reaching the house, we approached cautiously. It had obviously been attacked. Part of it showed signs of fire and there was still some smoke rising from it. We called out to Becchus, not wanting to startle him if he was inside, but there was no answer. Going inside through a door that was only partly hanging from its hinges, it was quickly obvious that Becchus was not there; the place was ransacked and there was wreckage everywhere. A cursory search revealed nothing. Then I said: </p><p> </p><p>“John, you know that handy wand of yours? The one that finds secret doors?”</p><p> </p><p>He was ahead of me; he already had it out and within moments, he unerringly found a bit of floor that looked like any other but then he reached down, gave a cunning twist to the board and suddenly, a ring pull was apparent. John looked at Victor, who stepped forward. He took the ring and gave it a strong pull; it didn’t budge. So he braced himself and gave it a long sustained pull: again, it failed to budge so Longhelim stepped forward and the two of them managed to pull it open with a crack as the trap door was pulled out of its frame. Beneath was a cellar, inside of which stood a man, blinking rapidly in the light. He was thin, disheveled, wizened and looked weak and hungry. </p><p> </p><p>I looked down at him: </p><p> </p><p>“Are you one of the team from Seaquen?”</p><p> </p><p>He sagged to the floor, looking immensely relieved: </p><p> </p><p>“Thank the gods; you’re finally here. Yes, I’m Eril and I am part of the initial group from Seaquen.”</p><p> </p><p>We helped him out and gave him some water and food. He took them gratefully but immediately began to fill us in, as if he felt that this was his most important mission: </p><p> </p><p>“To the East, there is a mysterious valley. It’s called the Valley of Storms and local legend has it that it is always covered by a storm cloud, hence the name. These legends also tell of people who have gone there and never come back; well, after the storm in Seaquen, as you can imagine, our attention was drawn by this legend and the other members of the expedition were convinced that there was a connection between this valley and the storm in Seaquen. Everyone wanted to go to the Monastery and ask them if they could confirm this; but the team had been refused entry for over a week. Every time we went up there, we just met this pair of eyes through a slit in a door: they belong to Caela, who is one of the main disciples up there. She was just getting irritated with us; first she said that the storm had nothing to do with her masters; then she said that we were really rude to even suggest something like this; finally she just told us to……go away; only she didn’t use those words.”</p><p> </p><p>He paused.</p><p> </p><p>“Later we found out that some gossip. Apparently, she is the main disciple of Pilus, but……she used to be from Longinus’s school. This is the source of some tension between the brothers, so it is said.</p><p>Anyway, we were getting ready to try again when the Ragesians arrived; at that point, I didn’t feel like doing anything but I do remember a silver raven coming from the monastery with a message. The team was very excited and said that they had finally received an invitation. They all hot-footed it up there; I didn’t feel like it but I do remember that they didn’t return; that gave me enough of a shock to go and see Bechus. That good man hid me every since. Where is he by the way…...?”</p><p> </p><p>Longhelim, ever the diplomat, replied: “We don’t know. We haven’t seen him either.”</p><p> </p><p>Eril then said: “What is happening with the Ragesians? Are they getting ready to attack? Do you have a way of getting out of here?”</p><p> </p><p>Longhelim gave him a very quick recitation of events. </p><p> </p><p>Eril became very excited: “Oh my! The Ragesians are defeated? And you helped? Why, you must go to the Valley of the Storms! That’s where the answers are! If you can find out what is going on there, then that will be a huge step forward in solving the whole mystery of the storm.”</p><p> </p><p>“Just how far is this Valley?”</p><p> </p><p>“It’s about a day away; there is even an ancient road going straight there.”</p><p> </p><p>That was interesting; if there was a road going directly to that valley, then it must have been in use for something at some point or other. </p><p> </p><p>Longhelim looked at Victor and everyone else. The warrior replied to the unspoken question: </p><p> </p><p>“It has to be the Valley. The Monastery will not open its doors; it is borderline hostile and is willing to let the Ragesians kill hundreds of people to preserve its non-involvement. By the use of those guardian air elementals, it is even willing to kill directly to preserve that neutrality. At the moment, these monks aren’t allies; the best that could be said is that they are not enemies; we need to find something that they want or need; that is the only way we would gain access. This may be the Valley; there is nothing else here at the moment.”</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Cafu, post: 6100392, member: 6692807"] We arrived in the House of Healing; it was just a normal townhouse really but there were about six priests there, shaven headed and who looked more like monks but they took one look and immediately began to tend to our wounds. Several of them brought out healing wands and quickly used them on us; at the same time, one of the priests approached Longhelim and spoke quietly to him. A few moments later, the paladin returned and said: “That was interesting. The priests said that they saw a phantom figure appear here briefly a little earlier and then it dissipated, as if it had ceased existing on this world. It was about the same time as Faden and I flipped from passive to berserker. I wonder if it was Balance?” John frowned: “Balance?” Longhelim then went on to recount his strange encounter with the woman who called herself Balance. John said immediately: “That was a trillith. One descriptive name; totally unknown magical powers and she also told us that we had met her kin? Ten to one that we have met yet another trillith.” Due to my state at the time, I hadn’t put the pieces in place but now I believed John was correct. Yet again we had come across one of these mysterious creatures. At least it hadn’t been overtly hostile, like the last one. This one just seemed to have affected most of the valley with some strange aura or malaise. I made a mental note to add another power which could possibly be associated with trilliths. As I was considering all the ramifications of John’s surmise, Victor said: “We’re forgetting the most important problem here: The large detachment of Ragesians approaching the town. Unless the people here get organized, we are going to lose a lot of them.” Longhelim stood up and left, going outside. Drudge asked: “Where’s he going?” Victor replied: “I think he’s going to see if he can find the town mayor or leader to try to organize them.” As we were waiting, I asked: “Drudge, can you tell me what happened during the battle while I was….not myself?” This took a few moments and as he was finishing, Longhelim returned, looking disgusted: “I couldn’t find anyone in authority; not enough time; the Ragesians are already on the outskirts of the town and when I tried to rally folk, they just ignored me.” “They’ve no idea who you are,” I said to him. “I know,” he sighed, “I was just hoping……..” Victor just said: “Well, you tried; now come on, we’ve got to get ready.” We thanked the priests for their help again and again looked for the best location in the town to set up defensively. As previously, it was a fairly narrow street with several tall, wooden buildings on each side. There were alleys between these but they were very narrow that only one person could actually emerge from these at a time. We did not have the time to barricade them but we could at least limit the emergence of the enemy from the side. The street was going to be our battleground; as well as possibly our deathground. We set up our formation as usual; the two warriors at the front, facing the direction from which the enemy was most likely to come; Felix, John and I were a short distance behind, ready to support with our spells, while Drudge was lurking wherever he felt he would be most effective with his arrows. The first attack was not long in coming; the two wyvern knights swooped down from the sky; they had obviously been sent to soften us up as they glided down low and dropped their dragon bombs. Thankfully, I had managed to cast my spell of fire protection by this point and although the loud bang was annoying, I was able to shrug off its more extreme effects. However, the knights miscalculated. When they dropped their bombs, they realised that they would not be able to bank and attempt to turn as rapidly as usual due to the narrow confines of the street; so, they had to glide, in a straight line, completely exposed to Drudge’s archery. They weren’t too keen on this so, instead they landed and turned on the ground; this was not ideal for either them or us; they lost their ability to strike from the air. But wyverns were very dangerous creatures even on the ground: they had landed at the rear of our group and one of them moved forward and rammed its tail stinger into my chest. Being poisoned by a wyvern is not something I would recommend; it makes one feel weak, dizzy, nauseous and hurts like the very devils. I managed to stagger back, tearing the stinger out but I could see the tip dripping with a colourless liquid and there was a burning pulse coursing through my body. I just about stayed on my feet when I saw Victor moving up, Living Blade of Innenotdar raised above his head, ready to deal mayhem; which is exactly what happened as with one continuous move, he slashed the beast to death, making the rider leap off and confront Victor. Longhelim had also tracked back, facing the other wyvern; this time, the battle took longer but there was never any doubt as to the outcome; Longhelim’s swordsmanship was just as strong as Victor’s albeit in a different way. He fenced with the beast and its rider for some moments, inflicting heavy wounds all the time; Victor, at this point, had managed to deal with the Knight from the previous wyvern. The burning in my body was getting beyond control and I felt a wave of weakness sweep through me; I sank to my knees and retched; that made me feel a little better; there was no time for weakness right now. The other wyvern, seeing me incapacitated briefly, ignored the danger presented by Longhelim and was urged forwards and by his rider; they both struck me; as the wyvern bit deeply into my arm and suddenly everything went black. I was brought awake by someone pouring a potion down my throat; I couldn’t see anyone so I assumed it was John, invisible. As I looked around, I could see yet more trouble. From behind us, another set of figures appeared. They were more of the Ragesian scouts with their studded leather and stealthy movement. I shouted at Victor to be careful but he had already seen them and was getting ready for the new foe. Longhelim, had managed to finish the last wyvern and its rider and then also turned his attention to the squad of infiltrators. They showed their usual aggression, bounding forwards, short swords flashing; they decided to try to surround us; however, their plan was hampered by Victor’s and Longhelim’s swings. These slashed, cut and incapacitated while the enemy then had to face Drudge’s arrows; the ranger was raining death on all enemies, to wax poetically. Every time one of Victor’s blows did not finish that opponent, one of Drudge’s arrows would sprout from his torso, causing him to crumple, more often than not. The infiltrators had just been defeated with the exception of their leader, a half orc, when a new danger made its appearance. A formation of Ragesians came up the street; there were about ten of them. They were huddled together and covered almost fully with huge shields. It was obvious that they had heard of Drudge’s archery prowess and had taken precautions. Despite the unwieldiness of the formation, I could see immediately that this was a tried military tactic as they shuffled forward as one. The formation looked impregnable. Drudge took one look at it and said: “Those are tower shields; there is nothing I can do about that; my arrows will just bounce off.” Then he turned around and shot the infiltrator leader. I looked at that dead wyvern lying next to me and shuddered; they had almost killed me. Then I took my staff, sat up, positioned myself and shot a ball of fire just above the slow-moving formation so that the flame would rain down on them. I had so few of these charges left in my staff that they were becoming very precious but, as the formation dissolved and the soldiers all perished in flame, thereby never being able to take part in Ragesian conquests again, I thought it was well worth it. As the others finally tidied up the infiltrator leader, another formation, the same as the previous one, appeared from down the road; I aimed again, and the result was the same; all in all, the Ragesians tried that two more times and the result was always the same, with the exception of one situation when I had to use two of my balls of fire for the same formation. There was a slight break at this point. We took full advantage of this, drinking healing potions taken from the enemy. Nearly everyone was fully recovered except that I was still suffering from the wyvern poison. Then the final enemy arrived. Another squad of soldiers appeared; these were different. They were wearing full plate armour and wielded axes. Their equipment was polished and they looked like someone’s chosen guard; which they were for behind them, advanced the impressive, mounted figure we had seen before; he was almost ambling as if we were just the last obstacle to be mopped up in this silly little town. This must have been the sole commander of the army that had just entered the valley. Closer, I could see that he was a truly imposing figure; a bearded human with full plate armour and obviously an experienced leader of soldiers. I wondered what someone like that was doing here, in this gods forsaken place in the back of nowhere? Then I remembered Castle Korstull and the Torch of the Burning Sky again. The beast which bore the commander was closer now, so I could make it out in more detail. I have already described it but now I could add that it had a head with large ears but no sign of eyes; suddenly, the commander dismounted and with a quick burst of acceleration, this creature sped to the frontline. We steadied, waiting for the onslaught. I thought it would charge us but then the really nasty surprise occurred. It opened its mouth and let out a dissonant sound; and I mean it was so dissonant and loud that we could feel it in our bones and bodies. It was so jarring and loud that it was painful, very painful. Everyone clutched their ears as blood poured out of them. The commander then made a sign for his squad to finish us. Despite the roar of the creature, I managed to get one ball of fire off, burning some of the soldiers. Also, as some of them were charging forwards, I put a wall of flames in their path, again managing to burn them quite badly. This also had the effect of separating the commander from his bodyguard. They were brave though; I have to give them that as I saw them leap through the magical flame and attack Victor and Longhelim. Then came another surprise: another pair of squads of infiltrators had managed to sneak up on either side of us; I contained one side with another wall of fire, managing to burn several of them again. It also made the infiltrators move away, I assumed. I couldn’t see them anymore; unfortunately, that was on one side only though; on the other side the situation was different. The remaining infiltrators together with the soldiers combined and formed a solid formation with the unfortunate Victor and Longhelim in its middle. That may have been a mistake for the soldiers though; it gave them the advantage of being able to use their teamwork to strike at the two warriors more easily; conversely, it allowed Victor and Longhelim to concentrate on one target at a time; and they did. Systematically, they began to lay about them with a series of thrusts, parries, slashes in a dazzling display of swordsmanship. Of course, as usual, Drudge was also laying down and almost continuous rate of fire into the melee with unerring accuracy and I managed create another wall of flames on one edge of this formation, isolating them from any reinforcements, as well as burning some of the enemy badly; all of this was weakening them considerably. The creature ridden by the commander lumbered off to the side, riderless, seemingly on some quest of its own. Felix was close to the warriors; he saw the wounds they were taking and decided to join in the melee himself. All of his healing, his wands and his spells were gone. Despite the desperation of our positions though, slowly but surely, we were beginning to thin out the military wedge around the warriors. Then, almost in a moment, the battle turned. Suddenly, Longhelim struck twice and two soldiers collapsed, unable to stand against him; then Victor struck and another soldier fell, leaving only a three. The warriors carefully made a withdrawal as the group had become dangerously spread out. In the background, I could see that the commander was standing back and drinking potions. He had obviously been hurt all the magic flying around. Then the creature suddenly came at us from the opposite direction. There was only one soldier left now, fighting Victor but the warrior immediately switched opponents. Longhelim came to engage the soldier. Oddly the beast did not use its sound attack, possibly because there was one of its allies in our group. Victor was getting badly beaten and slashed by the creature; then suddenly, everything went black again. When I was brought around again, John was feeding me a potion, as usual. I saw that the beast was dead and the body of the commander was nearby, his torso bristling with arrows; someone had already stripped him off his armour. I looked around me at the devastation. There were seemingly hundreds of corpses strewn around, many of them partly burning; broken spears and javelins lay around, some of them stuck in the ground; there were arrows everywhere, many of them stuck in orc bodies; the stench of burning flesh was everywhere and smoke whisped thinly into the sky. “What happened?” “One of the infiltrators got you. We didn’t see him in time. He was greatly weakened though and we got him before he managed to kill you.” “What about the commander, the beast and all the soldiers?” “Well, we beat them. You should have seen it! Victor went head to head with the beast……whatever it was. It nearly skewered him to death. It’s got some really nasty claws. He managed to chop its head off it but he was on his last legs; after that, we began to drink any old potions we found desperately, before that commander arrived; we managed to get rid of most of his bodyguard so it was pretty much him against us, thank the gods; we wouldn’t have been able to cope with him and them together; thankfully, most of the potions were healing. Anyway, so the commander comes up and that’s when Victor and Longhelim show their nous. They engage him together, but the person who is really giving him all the grief is Drudge. The two fighters are basically just trying to stay up and hit every so often while keeping him away from Drudge, who just shoots and shoots and shoots; and it was the arrows that did for him in the end.” I lay back down, staring at the sky: “Thank the gods. I really thought we were done for this time. I shook my head; all of a sudden, I felt so tired; and that damned wyvern poison was still affecting me. “So what now?” John grinned: “Now we gather all those lovely things that the army left lying around; the armour, the weapons, the magical stuff, the potions, everything.” I groaned: “John, there were hundreds of soldiers in the camp and in that army. How are you going to pick up all their things?” “Don’t you worry. I’ll think of something.” Longhelim then came up. “Come on you two, get up. We’re going to the House of Healing.” So, I stood up and joined the others. I saw that everyone was carrying lots of potion bottles. There must have been more than fifty. As we were walking, Victor gave me several and told me to start drinking them. Nothing loth, I began quaffing. Immediately, I began feeling better. Walking through the town was eerie. There were bodies everywhere; mostly of townsfolk but also of Ragesians. This could not be mistaken for anything but a battlefield. Here and there fires still burned, although they were dying. There were no wounded which gave us hope that someone may have come and collected them. Arriving at the House of Healing, we found that it had been attacked and smashed. There was no sign of the priests. We searched the place cursorily and John waved a wand briefly, before declaring that there were no secret doors or openings in the building. Then we discussed what to do next. John still wanted to loot the battlefield. Then Longhelim said: “Why don’t we go to the Inn?” “What inn?” I asked. “Oh, Three Weeping Ravens told me about it. It’s called the Inn at the Peak’s Shadow; apparently it’s the only one in town. I think that if any of the people are going to be anywhere, they will be there.” Finding it wasn’t too difficult and the paladin was right. There were people around; weeping, wounded, in shock, some desperately looking vainly for family, others hysterical upon seeing a corpse, but at least alive. The only person with some sort of authority was the Innkeeper, Thashalnos. Upon seeing us, he shouted: “You!” Heads turned towards us. “You saved us! You saved the town! I saw you, fighting the Ragesian general! You have our gratitude. The Ragesians would have killed us all. Who are you? What are your names? You killed so many of them. You must be mighty heroes of legend to come and save us.” He looked at us expectantly and Longhelim introduced himself and the rest of us. Then he took us into the inn where he introduced us to two monks, a man and a woman; they were disciples of the East and West Wind Styles. These were the two forms of training which were followed by the monks in this place. Pilus and Longinus were the masters each discipline: Pilus of the East and Longinus of the West. They were friendly enough, in manifest difference with their colleagues in the Monastery. They even gave us a warning: “You must beware of the guardians who guard the way to the Temple; very powerful air elementals. However, there is a way to get past them; a safe word.” Longhelim, being unfailingly polite, thanked them for their information while I was still sputtering and then turned to Thashalnos and asked: “Is Becchus around?” “No, I haven’t seen him. I fear the worst.” “Well, can you direct us to his house, please. We need to find him.” The innkeeper gave us directions and after thanking him, we left, reaching the house without mishap. Reaching the house, we approached cautiously. It had obviously been attacked. Part of it showed signs of fire and there was still some smoke rising from it. We called out to Becchus, not wanting to startle him if he was inside, but there was no answer. Going inside through a door that was only partly hanging from its hinges, it was quickly obvious that Becchus was not there; the place was ransacked and there was wreckage everywhere. A cursory search revealed nothing. Then I said: “John, you know that handy wand of yours? The one that finds secret doors?” He was ahead of me; he already had it out and within moments, he unerringly found a bit of floor that looked like any other but then he reached down, gave a cunning twist to the board and suddenly, a ring pull was apparent. John looked at Victor, who stepped forward. He took the ring and gave it a strong pull; it didn’t budge. So he braced himself and gave it a long sustained pull: again, it failed to budge so Longhelim stepped forward and the two of them managed to pull it open with a crack as the trap door was pulled out of its frame. Beneath was a cellar, inside of which stood a man, blinking rapidly in the light. He was thin, disheveled, wizened and looked weak and hungry. I looked down at him: “Are you one of the team from Seaquen?” He sagged to the floor, looking immensely relieved: “Thank the gods; you’re finally here. Yes, I’m Eril and I am part of the initial group from Seaquen.” We helped him out and gave him some water and food. He took them gratefully but immediately began to fill us in, as if he felt that this was his most important mission: “To the East, there is a mysterious valley. It’s called the Valley of Storms and local legend has it that it is always covered by a storm cloud, hence the name. These legends also tell of people who have gone there and never come back; well, after the storm in Seaquen, as you can imagine, our attention was drawn by this legend and the other members of the expedition were convinced that there was a connection between this valley and the storm in Seaquen. Everyone wanted to go to the Monastery and ask them if they could confirm this; but the team had been refused entry for over a week. Every time we went up there, we just met this pair of eyes through a slit in a door: they belong to Caela, who is one of the main disciples up there. She was just getting irritated with us; first she said that the storm had nothing to do with her masters; then she said that we were really rude to even suggest something like this; finally she just told us to……go away; only she didn’t use those words.” He paused. “Later we found out that some gossip. Apparently, she is the main disciple of Pilus, but……she used to be from Longinus’s school. This is the source of some tension between the brothers, so it is said. Anyway, we were getting ready to try again when the Ragesians arrived; at that point, I didn’t feel like doing anything but I do remember a silver raven coming from the monastery with a message. The team was very excited and said that they had finally received an invitation. They all hot-footed it up there; I didn’t feel like it but I do remember that they didn’t return; that gave me enough of a shock to go and see Bechus. That good man hid me every since. Where is he by the way…...?” Longhelim, ever the diplomat, replied: “We don’t know. We haven’t seen him either.” Eril then said: “What is happening with the Ragesians? Are they getting ready to attack? Do you have a way of getting out of here?” Longhelim gave him a very quick recitation of events. Eril became very excited: “Oh my! The Ragesians are defeated? And you helped? Why, you must go to the Valley of the Storms! That’s where the answers are! If you can find out what is going on there, then that will be a huge step forward in solving the whole mystery of the storm.” “Just how far is this Valley?” “It’s about a day away; there is even an ancient road going straight there.” That was interesting; if there was a road going directly to that valley, then it must have been in use for something at some point or other. Longhelim looked at Victor and everyone else. The warrior replied to the unspoken question: “It has to be the Valley. The Monastery will not open its doors; it is borderline hostile and is willing to let the Ragesians kill hundreds of people to preserve its non-involvement. By the use of those guardian air elementals, it is even willing to kill directly to preserve that neutrality. At the moment, these monks aren’t allies; the best that could be said is that they are not enemies; we need to find something that they want or need; that is the only way we would gain access. This may be the Valley; there is nothing else here at the moment.” [/QUOTE]
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The Gate Pass Irregulars: A War of the Burning Sky Campaign
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