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
The
VOIDRUNNER'S CODEX
is coming! Explore new worlds, fight oppressive empires, fend off fearsome aliens, and wield deadly psionics with this comprehensive boxed set expansion for 5E and A5E!
Community
Playing the Game
Story Hour
War of the Burning Sky (updated 24th May)
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="amethal" data-source="post: 4009624" data-attributes="member: 22784"><p><strong>Part 1 of 2</strong></p><p></p><p><strong>The Mad King’s Banquet</strong></p><p><strong>Act One – Message for the King</strong></p><p><strong>Scene 1 - Lyceum</strong></p><p><em>February 8th, 10am</em></p><p></p><p>A week has passed since our heroes saved Seaquen from destruction.</p><p></p><p>Noble hearted Jonathan spent much of that time helping to heal the injuries caused by the storm, whilst the rest helped out with the rebuilding to a greater or lesser degree. It is also a time to take stock and re-supply.</p><p></p><p>However, these activities are interrupted by a request to meet Simeon at his office.</p><p></p><p>When our heroes arrive, they find Simeon is accompanied by Kiernan, his right hand dwarf, and the fire mage, Katrina. It occurs to Gribron that Katrina has become a central figure in Seaquen’s politics in a short space of time. She greets the characters warmly, as is her usual habit.</p><p></p><p>Also there is a fourth person, a half-elf who Simeon introduces as Balan Bostom.</p><p></p><p>“If you remember the council meeting,” says Simeon, “I mentioned that we would be sending an envoy to Bresk, the capital of Dassen, to meet with King Steppengard, to try and convince him not to sign a non-aggression treaty with the Ragesians. Such a treaty would allow their troops to march through his lands, and both attack Gate Pass from a new direction and threaten us in Seaquen.”</p><p></p><p>“Who could forget that meeting,” says Gribron. “With those arrogant elves turning up and everything.”</p><p></p><p>“Since none of you claimed any diplomatic prowess,” says Simeon, “I have arranged for Balan here to be our envoy. If the king won’t listen, perhaps Balan can persuade some of the nobles to support us. There are eight lords of the eight domains, and they are a pretty disparate bunch.</p><p></p><p>“The journey to the king’s court is not without danger, and the court itself may be worse – there is a Ragesian inquisitor in residence at the moment. I’d appreciate if you heroes would accompany Balan, to make sure nothing happens to him.” </p><p></p><p>The party agree to the task, and arrange to meet Balan the next morning. Simeon offers to supply them with healing potions, and any other gear they might need.</p><p></p><p>On their way back to their quarters, they notice a young man staring at them. The man wanders over to them. He seems quite overawed to be speaking to the saviours of Seaquen.</p><p></p><p>“I… I’m sorry to bother you. I wanted to ask, are you going to Bresk? Would you be able to take a letter to my father?”</p><p></p><p>“News travels fast around here!” says Solsus. “What’s your name, and who is your father?”</p><p></p><p>“Sorry, I should have said. My name is Jineer. My father is Jinis. He’s Lord Gallo’s proxy at the court of King Steppengard. I’m afraid something bad is going to happen to him …”</p><p></p><p>“If he’s there and you are here,” says Solsus, “what makes you think he might be in trouble?”</p><p></p><p>“I spoke to that lady, Cristin. You know, the one who has visions. She said she had a vision about my dad, she saw him ‘Caged by Madness’. I don’t know what it means, but it doesn’t sound good. Please can you help me?”</p><p></p><p>They certainly remember Cristin’s visions from the time they travelled with her and her father through the Fire Forest. At that time, those visions which were comprehensible proved to be disturbingly accurate.</p><p></p><p>The party agree to take the letter. It is unsealed, and once out of sight of Jineer they inspect it carefully for poisons, hidden blades and the like, and then read it. Basically, its contents are as advertised, with the addition that Jineer has praised the party as the saviours of Seaquen and asks him to request their aid if he gets into trouble.</p><p></p><p>The next day the party leave town with Balan. It takes them a couple of days to get through the swamp to Vidor, but this time their journey is uneventful. From there it is a short journey to the Nasham River.</p><p></p><p>The breaking of the storm at least put an end to the constant rainfall. However, the weather has now turned colder. As a result, the Nasham River has frozen over, and the party are able to hire a reindeer-drawn sleigh and travel along it. </p><p></p><p>It is approximately one hundred and twenty miles to Bresk. The sleigh makes good progress across the ice, so the trip should take about three days. Throughout the journey, Balan picks up all the expenses, courtesy of a purse given to him by Simeon.</p><p></p><p><strong>Scene 2 – Nasham River</strong></p><p><em>February 10th, 2 pm</em></p><p></p><p>At first, the journey is uneventful. There are convenient inns at which to spend the night, and the people of Dassen are polite, if not particularly welcoming. However, the closer they get to Bresk the more guarded and withdrawn the population seem to become. The party discover that the king has recently instituted a secret police force, called the Talon, to hunt out traitors and assassins, and as a result the people are wary of strangers – whilst eager to loudly proclaim their loyalty to the throne at every opportunity.</p><p></p><p>Solsus gets into the habit of flying above the sleigh in order to keep an eye out for trouble ahead. At one point, he hears the sound of a disturbance ahead and to the side of the sleigh. He disappears from sight, and flies over to investigate.</p><p></p><p> Strange and disturbing sight greets him. A large crowd of people are fleeing across the snow-covered hills. They are being pursued by a towering monstrous centipede with glowing red plates along its back. The centipede-like creature is obviously generating intense heat, turning the snow to water as it passes. Solsus realises that if the creature reaches the river it is likely to melt the ice, with very bad consequences for any of its quarry who are on the river at the time.</p><p></p><p>Thinking quickly, Solsus calls out to the others for assistance, then creates an illusion of a wall of ice between the centipede and its prey. The creature stops in puzzlement. It clearly has at least a rudimentary intelligence. It pauses for a second, then tries to melt the “wall” using the heat from its body. It hasn’t realised the wall is an illusion, and this allows its prey to open up a slight lead.</p><p></p><p>Solsus strikes the creature with a sling bucket, but the armoured beast doesn’t even notice. “This might take a while,” thinks Solsus, “and that illusion isn’t going to hold it forever.”</p><p></p><p>At that moment a roiling cloud of blackness surrounds the beast. Nauseated by the fumes, the creature vomits up the burnt remains of its last victim, and it retreats out of the cloud.</p><p></p><p>Gribron grins to himself. “You’d think a beast like that would have a stronger stomach!”</p><p></p><p>“Hopefully it is cleverer than it looks,” says Jonathan. “Or at least has something passing for a mind.” He lets loose a blast of mental energy, and the beast writhes in agony.</p><p></p><p>Agatha follows up with an eldritch blast, and Ambar launches two magical missiles of force which unerringly hit their target. Somehow it didn’t seem like a good idea to strike the hot creature with her wooden sword.</p><p></p><p>Jonathan fires a bolt of electricity at the creature, Ambar lets loose with some more force missiles, and the creature falls down dead. It clearly posed a threat to fleeing peasants, but couldn’t manage so much as an attack against an experienced party of adventurers.</p><p></p><p>The creature’s erstwhile prey come over to the heroes, and offer their heartfelt thanks. It emerges that they are refugees heading for Seaquen, and they promise to spread word of the party’s latest exploit, which can only increase their already impressive reputation.</p><p></p><p>February 10th, 3 pm</p><p></p><p>The sleigh continues to speed along the river – until suddenly it comes to an abrupt halt. Jonathan and Gribron are caught unawares, and are hurled out of the sleigh onto the ice.</p><p></p><p>Gribron winces in pain, and gingerly gets to his feet. Jonathan, in contrast, seems unharmed by the experience.</p><p></p><p>“How do you do that?” asks Gribron.</p><p></p><p>“All it takes is a positive mental attitude. I will away the pain, and there is no pain. Or injury.”</p><p></p><p>The party investigate the sleigh. In an unlikely twist of fate, one of the runners has caught on a loop of leather which is poking up through the ice.</p><p></p><p>“Let’s break a hole in the ice and see what’s under there,” says Gribron.</p><p></p><p>“I strongly recommend we move the sleigh first!” says Balan.</p><p></p><p>The loop of leather turns out to be a belt belonging to a corpse frozen in the ice. Further digging uncovers another two bodies. The ice around them does not match the rest of the river’s surface. It appears someone has melted the ice with fire, dumped the bodies in the resulting hole, then relied on the re-freezing of the river to hide the evidence.</p><p></p><p>Each body has the same device on its clothing – a leopard and a serpent dancing under a sunburst. Balan recognises this as the livery of Lady Dene, one of the eight lords of Dassen. Two of the men were shot in the back by crossbow bolts. The third appears to have been hanged.</p><p></p><p>The party are reluctant to be caught with unexplained corpses, and decide their best course of action is to burn another hole in the river and toss the bodies back in. Jonathan persuades the others that he needs to carry out a full autopsy first, and spends a happy ten minutes with his tools while the rest of them find somewhere else to look.</p><p></p><p> <em>February 10th, 4 pm</em></p><p><em></em></p><p>It is starting to get dark, and the party are on the lookout for an inn to stay the night.</p><p></p><p>The road normally winds and turns in the distance, but at this point it is running alongside the river. Up ahead the party can see a colourful caravan of three wagons stopped by the roadside. The halfling owners are remonstrating with a group of armed men who are engaged in searching the wagons. The men – four foot soldiers and a mounted leader - are wearing what Balan identifies as King Steppengard’s symbol – a rearing sphinx surrounded by eight small triangles.</p><p></p><p>As the party approach, there is a woman’s scream. The halflings increase their clamour as the King’s men pull a human woman out from a concealed crawlspace underneath the middle wagon.</p><p></p><p>Solsus, invisible, calls out to the men, who try to figure out which of the party is speaking.</p><p></p><p>“Move along,” says the mounted man. “This is the King’s business.”</p><p></p><p>In response, Jonathan throws back his hood and waves of fear flow out from him towards the men. Gribron repeats the trick that worked so well with the magical centipede, and two of the men are caught in a black cloud that leaves them retching.</p><p></p><p>The enemy leader draws his sword, and strikes down his prisoner. Those of his men who are not incapacitated turn on the halflings.</p><p></p><p>Solsus flies soundlessly forward and checks on the woman. She is alive, but only just. Carefully, he uses his healing power to close the worst of her wounds.</p><p></p><p>Agatha tries to blast the leader from the saddle, but he is a tough opponent – he sways but he does not fall. Snarling, he moves his horse forward and strikes at Agatha, but she dodges nimbly out of the way. </p><p></p><p>Jonathan fires a blast of fire at the nearest soldier. The man screams in pain, but is still alive. Compassionate as ever, Jonathan follows up with a blast of ice to put out the flames. “Don’t bother to thank me,” he says, as his victim turns into a half-burnt, half-frozen corpse.</p><p></p><p>Gribron waves his hands, and a cone of scintillating lights shoots at two of the soldiers – and the invisible Solsus. Fortunately, Solsus has seen this particular spell before, and manages to cover his eyes in time. This is the second time Gribron has sprayed his fellow party members, but at least this time it wasn’t deliberate.</p><p></p><p>Ambar and Agatha manage to down the enemy leader, and his troops collapse under the magical onslaught of the rest of the party.</p><p></p><p>Their female victim, now fully healed, is very grateful. The halfings have suffered superficial cuts and bruises, but are otherwise fine.</p><p></p><p>“Who are those men, and why were they attacking you?” asks Solsus.</p><p></p><p>“They are members of the Talon, the secret police force,” says the woman.</p><p></p><p>“I see they were wearing badges,” says Gribron. “They obviously take their secrecy every bit as seriously as the Gate Pass Resistance does.”</p><p></p><p>“They stopped our wagons and accused us of being spies,” says one of the halflings. “We are peaceful merchants, heading home to Ostalin. What could we be spying on? This kingdom has gone mad, and the sooner we are safely back home the better.”</p><p></p><p>“But you were smuggling this lady,” says Agatha.</p><p></p><p>“My name is Hethal,” says the woman. “After the tragic death of the king’s family …”</p><p></p><p>“The what!?!” exclaims Balan. “We haven’t heard anything about this.”</p><p></p><p>“It was terrible,” says Hethal. “The King’s five eldest children were at a party. They and all the other guests were cut to pieces, but there was no sign of any assassins. Almost at the same time, as far as we can tell, the King’s other thirteen children and the Queen were fatally poisoned at dinner. The King would have died as well, but purely by chance he was delayed from attending the dinner by one of his nobles, who wanted to complain about the Ragesian ambassador.”</p><p></p><p>“But what does this have to do with you?” asks Solsus.</p><p></p><p>“The King’s response was to form the Talon. It’s headed up by his advisor, the gnome wizard Nina Glibglammer. They have been scouring the countryside, accusing people of all sorts of things. My boyfriend, who is one of Lady Dene’s envoys, was accused of being one of the assassins. He managed to escape with two of his friends, and is heading back to his lady to give her news of what’s been going on.</p><p></p><p>“I heard that the Talon were coming for me because of my connection to him, and these brave halflings agreed to try and smuggle me into Ostalin.”</p><p></p><p>“Then we have some bad news for you,” says Jonathan, putting on his most sympathetic voice. “We found three bodies in Lady Dene’s livery buried under the ice. I guess your boyfriend didn’t make it back to Lady Dene.”</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="amethal, post: 4009624, member: 22784"] [b]Part 1 of 2[/b] [B]The Mad King’s Banquet Act One – Message for the King[/B] [B]Scene 1 - Lyceum[/B] [I]February 8th, 10am[/I] A week has passed since our heroes saved Seaquen from destruction. Noble hearted Jonathan spent much of that time helping to heal the injuries caused by the storm, whilst the rest helped out with the rebuilding to a greater or lesser degree. It is also a time to take stock and re-supply. However, these activities are interrupted by a request to meet Simeon at his office. When our heroes arrive, they find Simeon is accompanied by Kiernan, his right hand dwarf, and the fire mage, Katrina. It occurs to Gribron that Katrina has become a central figure in Seaquen’s politics in a short space of time. She greets the characters warmly, as is her usual habit. Also there is a fourth person, a half-elf who Simeon introduces as Balan Bostom. “If you remember the council meeting,” says Simeon, “I mentioned that we would be sending an envoy to Bresk, the capital of Dassen, to meet with King Steppengard, to try and convince him not to sign a non-aggression treaty with the Ragesians. Such a treaty would allow their troops to march through his lands, and both attack Gate Pass from a new direction and threaten us in Seaquen.” “Who could forget that meeting,” says Gribron. “With those arrogant elves turning up and everything.” “Since none of you claimed any diplomatic prowess,” says Simeon, “I have arranged for Balan here to be our envoy. If the king won’t listen, perhaps Balan can persuade some of the nobles to support us. There are eight lords of the eight domains, and they are a pretty disparate bunch. “The journey to the king’s court is not without danger, and the court itself may be worse – there is a Ragesian inquisitor in residence at the moment. I’d appreciate if you heroes would accompany Balan, to make sure nothing happens to him.” The party agree to the task, and arrange to meet Balan the next morning. Simeon offers to supply them with healing potions, and any other gear they might need. On their way back to their quarters, they notice a young man staring at them. The man wanders over to them. He seems quite overawed to be speaking to the saviours of Seaquen. “I… I’m sorry to bother you. I wanted to ask, are you going to Bresk? Would you be able to take a letter to my father?” “News travels fast around here!” says Solsus. “What’s your name, and who is your father?” “Sorry, I should have said. My name is Jineer. My father is Jinis. He’s Lord Gallo’s proxy at the court of King Steppengard. I’m afraid something bad is going to happen to him …” “If he’s there and you are here,” says Solsus, “what makes you think he might be in trouble?” “I spoke to that lady, Cristin. You know, the one who has visions. She said she had a vision about my dad, she saw him ‘Caged by Madness’. I don’t know what it means, but it doesn’t sound good. Please can you help me?” They certainly remember Cristin’s visions from the time they travelled with her and her father through the Fire Forest. At that time, those visions which were comprehensible proved to be disturbingly accurate. The party agree to take the letter. It is unsealed, and once out of sight of Jineer they inspect it carefully for poisons, hidden blades and the like, and then read it. Basically, its contents are as advertised, with the addition that Jineer has praised the party as the saviours of Seaquen and asks him to request their aid if he gets into trouble. The next day the party leave town with Balan. It takes them a couple of days to get through the swamp to Vidor, but this time their journey is uneventful. From there it is a short journey to the Nasham River. The breaking of the storm at least put an end to the constant rainfall. However, the weather has now turned colder. As a result, the Nasham River has frozen over, and the party are able to hire a reindeer-drawn sleigh and travel along it. It is approximately one hundred and twenty miles to Bresk. The sleigh makes good progress across the ice, so the trip should take about three days. Throughout the journey, Balan picks up all the expenses, courtesy of a purse given to him by Simeon. [B]Scene 2 – Nasham River[/B] [I]February 10th, 2 pm[/I] At first, the journey is uneventful. There are convenient inns at which to spend the night, and the people of Dassen are polite, if not particularly welcoming. However, the closer they get to Bresk the more guarded and withdrawn the population seem to become. The party discover that the king has recently instituted a secret police force, called the Talon, to hunt out traitors and assassins, and as a result the people are wary of strangers – whilst eager to loudly proclaim their loyalty to the throne at every opportunity. Solsus gets into the habit of flying above the sleigh in order to keep an eye out for trouble ahead. At one point, he hears the sound of a disturbance ahead and to the side of the sleigh. He disappears from sight, and flies over to investigate. Strange and disturbing sight greets him. A large crowd of people are fleeing across the snow-covered hills. They are being pursued by a towering monstrous centipede with glowing red plates along its back. The centipede-like creature is obviously generating intense heat, turning the snow to water as it passes. Solsus realises that if the creature reaches the river it is likely to melt the ice, with very bad consequences for any of its quarry who are on the river at the time. Thinking quickly, Solsus calls out to the others for assistance, then creates an illusion of a wall of ice between the centipede and its prey. The creature stops in puzzlement. It clearly has at least a rudimentary intelligence. It pauses for a second, then tries to melt the “wall” using the heat from its body. It hasn’t realised the wall is an illusion, and this allows its prey to open up a slight lead. Solsus strikes the creature with a sling bucket, but the armoured beast doesn’t even notice. “This might take a while,” thinks Solsus, “and that illusion isn’t going to hold it forever.” At that moment a roiling cloud of blackness surrounds the beast. Nauseated by the fumes, the creature vomits up the burnt remains of its last victim, and it retreats out of the cloud. Gribron grins to himself. “You’d think a beast like that would have a stronger stomach!” “Hopefully it is cleverer than it looks,” says Jonathan. “Or at least has something passing for a mind.” He lets loose a blast of mental energy, and the beast writhes in agony. Agatha follows up with an eldritch blast, and Ambar launches two magical missiles of force which unerringly hit their target. Somehow it didn’t seem like a good idea to strike the hot creature with her wooden sword. Jonathan fires a bolt of electricity at the creature, Ambar lets loose with some more force missiles, and the creature falls down dead. It clearly posed a threat to fleeing peasants, but couldn’t manage so much as an attack against an experienced party of adventurers. The creature’s erstwhile prey come over to the heroes, and offer their heartfelt thanks. It emerges that they are refugees heading for Seaquen, and they promise to spread word of the party’s latest exploit, which can only increase their already impressive reputation. February 10th, 3 pm The sleigh continues to speed along the river – until suddenly it comes to an abrupt halt. Jonathan and Gribron are caught unawares, and are hurled out of the sleigh onto the ice. Gribron winces in pain, and gingerly gets to his feet. Jonathan, in contrast, seems unharmed by the experience. “How do you do that?” asks Gribron. “All it takes is a positive mental attitude. I will away the pain, and there is no pain. Or injury.” The party investigate the sleigh. In an unlikely twist of fate, one of the runners has caught on a loop of leather which is poking up through the ice. “Let’s break a hole in the ice and see what’s under there,” says Gribron. “I strongly recommend we move the sleigh first!” says Balan. The loop of leather turns out to be a belt belonging to a corpse frozen in the ice. Further digging uncovers another two bodies. The ice around them does not match the rest of the river’s surface. It appears someone has melted the ice with fire, dumped the bodies in the resulting hole, then relied on the re-freezing of the river to hide the evidence. Each body has the same device on its clothing – a leopard and a serpent dancing under a sunburst. Balan recognises this as the livery of Lady Dene, one of the eight lords of Dassen. Two of the men were shot in the back by crossbow bolts. The third appears to have been hanged. The party are reluctant to be caught with unexplained corpses, and decide their best course of action is to burn another hole in the river and toss the bodies back in. Jonathan persuades the others that he needs to carry out a full autopsy first, and spends a happy ten minutes with his tools while the rest of them find somewhere else to look. [I]February 10th, 4 pm [/I] It is starting to get dark, and the party are on the lookout for an inn to stay the night. The road normally winds and turns in the distance, but at this point it is running alongside the river. Up ahead the party can see a colourful caravan of three wagons stopped by the roadside. The halfling owners are remonstrating with a group of armed men who are engaged in searching the wagons. The men – four foot soldiers and a mounted leader - are wearing what Balan identifies as King Steppengard’s symbol – a rearing sphinx surrounded by eight small triangles. As the party approach, there is a woman’s scream. The halflings increase their clamour as the King’s men pull a human woman out from a concealed crawlspace underneath the middle wagon. Solsus, invisible, calls out to the men, who try to figure out which of the party is speaking. “Move along,” says the mounted man. “This is the King’s business.” In response, Jonathan throws back his hood and waves of fear flow out from him towards the men. Gribron repeats the trick that worked so well with the magical centipede, and two of the men are caught in a black cloud that leaves them retching. The enemy leader draws his sword, and strikes down his prisoner. Those of his men who are not incapacitated turn on the halflings. Solsus flies soundlessly forward and checks on the woman. She is alive, but only just. Carefully, he uses his healing power to close the worst of her wounds. Agatha tries to blast the leader from the saddle, but he is a tough opponent – he sways but he does not fall. Snarling, he moves his horse forward and strikes at Agatha, but she dodges nimbly out of the way. Jonathan fires a blast of fire at the nearest soldier. The man screams in pain, but is still alive. Compassionate as ever, Jonathan follows up with a blast of ice to put out the flames. “Don’t bother to thank me,” he says, as his victim turns into a half-burnt, half-frozen corpse. Gribron waves his hands, and a cone of scintillating lights shoots at two of the soldiers – and the invisible Solsus. Fortunately, Solsus has seen this particular spell before, and manages to cover his eyes in time. This is the second time Gribron has sprayed his fellow party members, but at least this time it wasn’t deliberate. Ambar and Agatha manage to down the enemy leader, and his troops collapse under the magical onslaught of the rest of the party. Their female victim, now fully healed, is very grateful. The halfings have suffered superficial cuts and bruises, but are otherwise fine. “Who are those men, and why were they attacking you?” asks Solsus. “They are members of the Talon, the secret police force,” says the woman. “I see they were wearing badges,” says Gribron. “They obviously take their secrecy every bit as seriously as the Gate Pass Resistance does.” “They stopped our wagons and accused us of being spies,” says one of the halflings. “We are peaceful merchants, heading home to Ostalin. What could we be spying on? This kingdom has gone mad, and the sooner we are safely back home the better.” “But you were smuggling this lady,” says Agatha. “My name is Hethal,” says the woman. “After the tragic death of the king’s family …” “The what!?!” exclaims Balan. “We haven’t heard anything about this.” “It was terrible,” says Hethal. “The King’s five eldest children were at a party. They and all the other guests were cut to pieces, but there was no sign of any assassins. Almost at the same time, as far as we can tell, the King’s other thirteen children and the Queen were fatally poisoned at dinner. The King would have died as well, but purely by chance he was delayed from attending the dinner by one of his nobles, who wanted to complain about the Ragesian ambassador.” “But what does this have to do with you?” asks Solsus. “The King’s response was to form the Talon. It’s headed up by his advisor, the gnome wizard Nina Glibglammer. They have been scouring the countryside, accusing people of all sorts of things. My boyfriend, who is one of Lady Dene’s envoys, was accused of being one of the assassins. He managed to escape with two of his friends, and is heading back to his lady to give her news of what’s been going on. “I heard that the Talon were coming for me because of my connection to him, and these brave halflings agreed to try and smuggle me into Ostalin.” “Then we have some bad news for you,” says Jonathan, putting on his most sympathetic voice. “We found three bodies in Lady Dene’s livery buried under the ice. I guess your boyfriend didn’t make it back to Lady Dene.” [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
Playing the Game
Story Hour
War of the Burning Sky (updated 24th May)
Top