ZEITGEIST [ZEITGEIST] The Continuing Adventures of Korrigan & Co.

[gideonpepys]

Session 104 - The Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan

Previously on Zeitgeist...

• Seconded to the REID, Ludo, Brajham and Wil, the three surviving members of Unit B, have travelled to the deepest regions of the Cloudwood, where the rule of law does not reach, and the borders of Risur extend only in theory.
  
• They are joined by two dwarves: archaeologist and arcanist Orum Dwist, and his assistant Throgmorton. Dwist claims to have located the site of an Ancient burial chamber, where a powerful icon might be found – an icon similar in nature to the one they lost to the dragon Tatzel.
  
• A team of support staff, porters and scouts has also been assembled consisting of the bugbear Ffenwig, two goblins and three dwarves. (The goblinoids were recruited by Brajham; the dwarves by Dwist and Throgmorton.)
  
• Travel was expedited by fantastic means: Dwist has discovered an ancient network of standing stones that enable teleportation across vast distances. The unit travelled two days into the bayou to find such a stone, and within minutes were transported into the oppressive heat and dense foliage of the jungle.
  
• They are now running for their lives, having found themselves in the territory of an angry tribe of lizardfolk. Separated from their support team, they have caught sight of an overgrown triangular mound that might indicate the location of a Ziggurat. Dodging a hail of spears and darts, they hightail it in that direction.

The Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan - Lower Levels

• Ground beneath their feet gives way and pitching them into the first chamber of the shrine. Poison gas pervades the whole area. In this first chamber they find stucco dioramas depicting the ancient Olman way of life. Touching the dioramas causes vengeful Olam spirits to be released, each capable of releasing more spirits from the dioramas (for a total of 7 spirits, all a capable of draining healing surges). The party does well here, dispatching two spirits before they can release any more. A 'shepherd's crook' in one of the dioramas turns out to be a key to the door here.
  
• In the Hall of Thrashing Canes, the party struggles to bypass a simple obstacle - a pressure plate causing stone screens to bisect the hall, requiring brute strength to open. No one in the group is especially strong!
  
• In the damp and slippery Roost of the Conch the party encounter the hermit-crab spirit Kalka Kylla and its crayfish guardian. They successfully parley their way through the area and choose the right-hand door.
  
• The corridor here is slick with caustic lime. Round a corner are stairs that end in a rockfall where fresh air can be sensed. But the party did not come here to find a way out! Back along the corridor is a 'secret door' which erosion has revealed over time. A huge limestone block, it needs to be mandhandled out of the way, causing injury to all those involved.
  
• In the foyer beyond are six urns and a set of bronze doors, covered in heiroglyphs. Orum and Throgmorton successfully deal with a dangerous soporific gas trap. Wil and Brajham find healing ointment in one of the urns.
  
• Beyond the bronze doors is a large tomb, with jagged pillars, and a magical axe imbedded in the far wall, casting the shadow of a clawed forearm. Determined to inspect every are before moving on, the party opens the tomb and gets the drop on an ancient vampire, masked in jade and armoured in bronze and obsidian. The creature reclaims its axe but is forced to flee in mist form. Brajham defecates in the vampire's coffin.
  
  

DM's Note: The support team will provide the means to replace dead characters and/or allow new players to join in the delve. (We're anticipating the return of a previous member who played Krazy Krauss, Sly Marbo and Conquo.) I changed the tribespeople to lizardfolk because I have lots of lizardmen minis.

 

[gideonpepys]

Session 105 - Watery Delving

• After loitering uncomfortably in the vampire's tomb for long enough for Brajham to defile its coffin the adventurers retraced their steps back to the Roost of the Conch.
• They chose the opposite door and found steps that led down to another door, which Throgmorton approached cautiously. Before he could open it, the ancient vampire reappeared at the rear of the party, transfixed Brajham and bit down on his neck, draining his lifeblood. Another fight ensued, and this time the party was able to cause the vampire to discorporate before it could flee in mist or bat form.
• To be sure it harrassed them no further, they headed back to its tomb, where the vampire's body had already reappeared. Ludo manifested a psionic stake, Orum a mental hammer, and they used these projections to kill the creature once and for all, seizing its jade mask, breastplate and magical axe. When they made their way back through the Roost of the Conch Kalka-Kylla greeted them with a low bow.
• Returning to the door at the bottom of the stairs, they found a large, irregular room filled with dank water to a depth of three feet. Phosphorescent algae clung to the wall above a door opposite. After much inspection and hand-wringing, they waded across without incident. Brajham took his robes off and carried them in a bundle on his head.
• The corridor beyond turned to the right and went on for some time before ending in double doors. Water trickled out of the chamber they just left, down the corridor and under the double doors. There was an ogre-sized Olman stature in the middle of the corridor on the right. It held an empty tray. The dwarves quickly realised that this was the means to access a secret passageway. They also saw through an attempt to fool the casual observer into thinking there was a trap that might cause a cave in. With great effort they pulled the statue forward and squeezed through into the narrow passage beyond. This turned left and ended in another secret door - obvious from this side and in any event wedged open by debris that had been deposited by a trickling stream in the corridor beyond. To the right, the corridor ended in more double doors. Ahead, and just to the left, the stream disappeared under a single door, which they chose to explore.
• Another much smaller room filled with four feet of murky water lay ahead, with another door on the opposite side. Once again, after careful examination, they waded across, with Brajham and Ludo taking the lead as the water was too deep for the dwarves to manage comfortably. Opening the far door caused the water in the chamber to surge through the opening and sweep Ludo and Brajham down the corridor beyond, and round the corner to the left. Ludo was carried all the way down to double doors at the end of the corridor. The rush of water churned around these doors before seeping through into the chamber beyond.
• At length, once the party had regrouped and Ludo had recovered his compromised dignity, they tried these doors and found a huge room full of even more water. Steps led down into the flooded main section of the chamber, and out on the far side. The vaulted ceiling was supported by many pillars and a large brazier and two broken urns sat in the middle of the brackish water. Throgmorton judged the water to be around three feet deep. On this evidence, Wil waded in and plunged into a deep trench (which turned out to run the entire circumference of the chamber). At once, a light source previously concealed behind a pillar began to sweep across the room towards them.
• The light turned out to emanate from the phosphorescent tentacles of a giant snail spirit, eager for a fight. The spirit declared itself to be Tezcuziztecatel, Lord of Snails, Son of the Moon - once worshipped by the entire Olman Empire. A boaster, it explained how each of its attacks were part of its plan to defeat them.
• Throgmorton managed to yank Wil out of the water while the rest of the party dealt with Tezcuziztecatel. After causing a lot of harm, and dousing them all with acid when injured, the beast suddenly capitulated and became almost fawning. It offered to transport them across the water and the trench if they left it in peace, to which they agreed.
• On the far side, two large alcoves stood to the left and right of a pair double doors. Each contained an old fountain - one dried up and choked with debris; the other containing stagnant water which glowed strangely in the light of their sunrods. They discovered this to be the reflection from an amulet depicting a snail. Pocketing it, they went through the double doors...
• ... and found themselves at the unexplored end of the corridor with the ogre-sized statue. They retraced their route along the secret passageway and this time went right along the corridor it came to. From beyond the door at the end of this corridor they could hear a beautiful song. Bracing themselves for sorcery of some description, they threw open the door.

 

[gideonpepys]

Session 106 - The News in Brief

This week Unit B defeated a crooning nereid and her yuan-ti guardian; discovered a grand hall decorated with Olman frescoes; spotted a secret door hidden behind a stylised sun; pinched a valuable magical item from the jaws of a stone eagle; ignored the teasing lights of a hungry will-o-the-wisp; fought their way past a baker's dozen of well-preserved Olman zombies; awoke a pair of dangerous monks that had been sleeping for thousands of years; slew them both in a desperate combat; negotiated long and twisting halls and shifted aside a limestone block; ascended a slope that finally took them out of the poison gas and into the lowest tier of the ziggurat; took a well-earned extended rest and leveled up.

DM's Note: Now that Unit B have negotiated the lower chambers and escaped the poison gas, we're returning to Flint for a couple of weeks to catch up with Unit A. Apologies for the brevity of the report, but this really is a mindless dungeon bash we've been enjoying and doesn't really justify the effort (fun though it is). As we have five players right now I'm running the adventure out of the box, read-aloud text and all. My frazzled brain is getting a nice long rest and I'm quite looking forward to finishing off the rest of the module in a month or so.

 

[gideonpepys]

Session 107 - Meanwhile, back in Flint

Lieutenant Dale was in charge of the operation to secure the Obscurati facility in Cauldron Hill. The only known access point - the natural chimney through which Borne had crashed - had been rigorously inspected and, thought the safest course of action would be to blow it wide open, it was decided that it was safe enough for a small team to rapel down and investigate the golem chamber before any evidence was destroyed by more rubble.

Unit A had been asked to accompany Dale's unit and they decided to take Conquo/Xambria along on his/her first test outing:

Delft had approached the unit just a few days earlier and told them that Xambria wanted to join the RHC. She knew a lot about the Ob and the unit's missions to date, and had a skill set that went some way towards replacing Malthusius and Leon. For his part, Conquo appeared to be offering no resistance to her possession. He seemed to hold the unit in high regard and remained grateful for their role in returning him to life. Even Lavanya's defeat and imprisonment did not seem to be a major stumbling block.

To ensure that this was the case, the unit arranged for the two to meet, bringing Lavanya up from the prison in mage-cuffs. She told them that she had created Conquo as an independent being, and could not expect that he would waste his existance in a futile attempt to free her. She reassured Conquo that she felt safe in the hands of the RHC and that his role as her guardian was over. The unti distrusted her blithe, breezy demeanour, but nothing seemed amiss on the face of it.

To be doubly sure, they took Conquo and Xambria along to Isaac and had their minds scanned for abnormalities. Isaac could find none. Leaving the technical matter of providing Xambria with an independent means of communication in the capable hands of Justin Rollins, they decided to test-run the pair on a number of missions.

Providing security for Dale and his men was an ideal opportunity, especially since Conquo had spent some time in the facility with Lavanya - albeit restricted to the VIP quarters.

As it turned out, there were no threats still lurking in the Ob complex, but the operation was worthwhile as it threw up the following:

• It was clear that the main golem chamber was the final destination for Reed Macbannin's reservoir of witchoil.

• No sign of Leone Quital's body could be found.
• The three Borne prototypes - Linus, Hunting and Colin - were removed for study.
• They discovered a laboratory where the flayed jaguars had been created, along with the engineers who worked there.
• The living quarters of Quital, Oddcog and Kasvarina were carefully searched: Quital had been hosting Gale before she was rescued, sharing fine wine and bromagio cheese with his 'guest' (who had been mage-cuffed); Oddcog's room was stuffed with machinery and odds and ends, accessible only by a crawlspace that led to a nest near the ceiling; Kasvarina's chamber had once belonged to Alexander Grappa - his personal choice of decor was covered by huge elfaivaran drapes and tapestries. Notably, there appeared to be no living quarters devoted to Lavanya. Conquo had been restricted to the VIP checkpoint and corridors. Lavanya had been working with Borne the whole time, he said.
• Gallons of charged witchoil were found in a golem lab. (Uru secured a whole barrel full, with plans to see if he could free the trapped souls into his bleak garden.)
• Over 100 staff - guards, engineers, elite engineers - remained in the complex. They put up no resistance. Their arrest, evacuation and interrogation was left in the hands of Dale's squadron.

This mission had not provided a combat test for Conquo/Xambria so the unit headed to the Battalion and put them through their paces. The results were not conclusive. A field-test would be necessary.

A few days later, the perfect opportunity arose when Malthusius' arm began to twitch. Unable to decipher the movements, but spotting a pattern, Uru asked for help and learned that this must be the same Danoran deaf sign language that Malthusius learned in order to be able to communicate with Ottavia Sacredote. There was no one in Flint who could decipher the code other than Luc Jierre. The nervous tiefling agreed to help if only through sheer boredom. He was in a bad way, having developed a facial tic in addition to his stammer.

The sign language was not easily decipherable as it normally took two hands. The movements were repeated over and over and it took Luc a long time to work out that the hand was making the right-hand gestures in sequence before making the matching gestures for the left hand. The two sets had to be noted down and lined up alongside one another before it could be established that they were navigational points, using the stars as a reference. From this is was possible to tell that the hand was marking a point on the map which turned out to be on the western peninsular of Shale.

The unit set off to investigate...

 

[RangerWickett]

Interesting side-plot. Remind me why Malthusius's arm would be acting funny?

 

[gideonpepys]

Interesting side-plot. Remind me why Malthusius's arm would be acting funny?

Malthusius has reincarnated. If they can reach this incarnation fast enough and remind him of his prior life, they can return him to his old self and access his memories (in much the same way Governor Stanfield has over the years). This would, of course reveal that it was the Governor who captured him and handed him over to Quital.

Sadly, it was Governor Stanfield who told them this (so he knows that's what they intend to do and that he needs to get there ahead of them).

The signalling arm (which is a bit slapstick for my liking) came about because Uru - having only recently buried the hatchet with Malthusius before his death and feeling particularly sad about his passing - went to the deva's apartment to get the arm and planted it in his spirit garden. That gave me the idea to have the arm lead the way to this wee side-plot.

 

[gideonpepys]

Session 108a - How Leon got back into the Dreaming

Shortly before Unit B departed for the deepest regions of the Cloudwood, Orum Dwist met with Leon Veilleux, introduced by Colonel Sebastian Harlock of the REID.

Their discussions centred around the possession by the dragon Tatzel of two powerful idols, and the resultant 'blight' the dragon was said to have inflicted on parts of the Dreaming.

Both the Vekeshi and the Unseen Court wanted the blight investigated and stopped; 'the Thinker' (star pact patron to both Leon and Orum Dwist) and Colonel Harlock wanted the rest of the idols recovered before Tatzel claimed any more.

It was Dwist who said that there were more such idols - the Thinker had told him as much. And he thought he knew where at least one of them might be hidden, based on clues discovered in an ancient burial chamber, where the shifting crystal idol was also found (and subsequently stolen by Tatzel).

To learn more, before Orum and co. set off on their mission, he and Leon journeyed to the cave in the bayou where the Thinker made its home - or, strictly speaking, where a means of communicating with the star being could be accessed: patterns on the wall of the cave that depicted constellations. Through meditation, the pair communed with the Thinker and learned that the idols were ancient artifacts connected to the planes, and that there were eight of them. The jade leviathan and the crystal tesseract were the two now possessed by Tatzel. Others were the bloodstone ape; the granite crocodile; the onyx scarab; the turquoise serpent; the glass butterfly and the amethyst uruboros. The Thinker told them that a dragon - even a relatively small, young dragon such as Taztel, could become greatly empowered by just one of these ancient artifacts.

To prevent him obtaining more, Orum would try to find them first; and Leon would try to confront the dragon and take back the ones he already had.

But first he had to get into the Dreaming. He soon discovered that the warnings of the Old Stag were not an exaggeration - the Unseen Court had closed all of the fey crossings between Risur and the Upper Dreaming, in protest at King Aodhan's decision to banish Borne into the fey realm. Leon approached the Vekeshi again and learned that some crossings remained open in Shale, where Old Faith adherence remained strong and mistrust of technology was rife. The folk of Shale had come close to outright rebellion following the imprisonment of Duchess Ethelyn, Governor of Shale, and the fey viewed them as staunch allies.

As it happened, Uru, Rumdoom and Conquo were already planning to travel to Shale, hoping to find Malthusius' reincarnation. So Leon joined them (in disguise until they left Flint) and they sailed to Shale together aboard the Roscommon. Then they headed into the hilly interior of the peninsular, travelling as far as they could in their wondrous carriage figurine before the roads became too rough and narrow and they were forced to walk.

They were ambushed about one and a half days out of Shale. A group of militiamen wielding scavenged rifles opened fire as they approached a bridge over a gorge. The militiamen were supported by a shabby female warmage and two ogres. The leader of this band, a swaggering half-elf, was clearly under the impression that this was some sort of Danoran invasion. They would not desist, even when the unit tried to identify themselves as RHC. Only when most of them had been killed or incapacitated did their leader make good his escape along with a couple of riflemen.

Shortly after this episode, their paths diverged. Uru, Conquo and Rumdoom pressed on to find Malthusius; Leon headed off the trail to a remote hilltop village. When he arrived he found that the villagers had recently fled: fires still smouldered in hearths; farmyard animals ran free; chores had been left half-done. Clearly even these isolated folk knew a tiefling when they saw one!

Under the shelter of a lean-to where firewood was being stored he found the only remaining inhabitant - a blind, gap-toothed crone, spinning thread by hand. Leon greeted her in Primordial, making sure he ironed out his Danoran accent. She gave a hideous shriek of laughter:

"I know you, Leon the Crow. You owe me a debt already. How great a debt depends on how many threads are cut." She gestured to the various strands stretched across her loom. All were taut save one that wriggled in the breeze. Leon challenged the crone to explain herself and took a step closer, at which point she vanished with a puff of mist and another hideous shriek.

Even Leon could not help a shudder at this mysterious encounter. It was growing dark so he made haste, following his arcane sense to the hilltop where a red sunset seemed to almost crackle with fey energy. Certain that he had arrived at the right spot, Leon drew the curved sword he had been given by the Unseen Court, and watched as the runes on its blade traveled up his forearm. Thus marked, he made an incisive cutting motion through the thick air and was gratified by a portal that yawned outward from his cut. Beyond he could see a forest pathway and, keeping his sword drawn, he stepped through into the Dreaming.

 

[gideonpepys]

Session 108b - The Crossroads

Leon found himself at a crossroads with a battered sign post that had been defaced with obscenities and rendered illegible. The culprits stood alongside: four hairy, dirty spriggans who offered to point the newcomer in the right direction. "We will be your guides, traveller, for this sign has been spoiled by naughty sprites."

The first spriggan, Miggle, gestured down one path and said it was the road to the Birch Queen's Fair. "The Birch Queen is jealous and lovely. The other three are her suitors. She favours the River King, for what is a forest without water, without rain?"

The second spriggan, Mopsy, declaimed, "The Rowan King is proud and is forever calling an army to him, though it never marches anywhere. All the large creatures of the forest attend his Circle. Ever he seeks the Birch Queen's favour, but she will never take him as he consort." As he spoke, Mopsy sprang upon Miggle's head and they stumbled around comically.

The third spriggan, Morag, showed Leon the third road and said, "Cold is the River King. He demands tribute from the other three and though they gripe and talk of refusal, they always pay. The River King's Palace grows rich and fine!" He leaped on top of Miggle and Mopsy, whose forms, it seemed had begun to merge. Swaying this way and that, the three spriggan stumbled about, while the fourth spriggan, Mulch, said:

"The Oak King is steadfast and unbending and wards the forest against ill spirits. His Court is a place of learning and wisdom but the path to the deep forest is winding and long." With that, he jumped atop his fellows and began to merge with them too.

Leon knew both the Birch Queen and the River King. While searching for a means to free Korrigan's wife from the debt she owed to Jenny Greenteeth the unit had freed the River King from her influence. (The Birch Queen was her sister, and had provided Korrigan's wife with the means to protect herself from Greenteeth.) But fey nobles tended to begrudge the debts they owed to mortals, and Leon was uncertain of his reception. Nontheless, he chose to travel to the River King's Palace.

Before he could thank the spriggans, they jumped to block his path. "We've changed our minds!" bellowed the snaggle-toothed maw of what was now a single, smelly and hirsute giant. "You must stay with us! You must be our dinner guest!"

It reached out to grab Leon, who vanished in a burst of flame that caused the huge spriggan to yelp, before reappearing some distance down the road and running away before the spriggan could give chase.

 

[gideonpepys]

Session 108c - Déjà vu‏

Eventually his path met the river, and Leon paid a wood elf boatman to take him to the island palace of the River King - a brightly shining structure of beautifully sculpted pure white stone. There he made his way to the River King's inner court, in a great bubble beneath the surface of the river. (It had taken him weeks to gain access the last time; now, as a servant of the Unseen Court, he simply announced himself and walked in.)

Surrounded by his court, Ulorian the River King slouched on his throne, looking for all the world as if he would slide off it. A languid, pallid elf, he seemed bored by Leon's presence, and by his request for help and information, turning the matters over to his courtiers.

Leon was looking for Dantes - the satyr bard who had helped him before. He was told that Dantes had left to answer the call of Nbed the Lord of all Satyrs. Nbed was in turn the seravnt of the Rowan King who was calling an army to him to confront the Blight which threatened the forest.

"That tiresome centaur is is always calling an army to him," said the River King.

When asked about the Blight, no one was able to say exactly what it was, merely that they had heard about it in reports from the Oak King's Court. Leon remembered seeing great swathes of forest blackened and twisted, but his suggestion drew dismissive laughter. The Oak King could be trusted to prevent such a thing from happening. This was all very strange, as if the entire court had forgotten everything that had previously transpired.

Leon asked about Tatzel. The courtiers admitted it had been a long time since anyone had seen or heard of the dragon, but then no outsiders had come to the Upper Dreaming for the very long time, and so no one had needed to leave. (Tatzel held the key to mortals' departure.)

This conversation was interrupted and the throng parted for an elderly lizardman who walked with the aid of a stick, and wore thick spectacles: an incongruous sight. This was the Lizardman Minister who had entrusted the Jade Idol to Leon long ago. Tatzel had claimed that he was the Lizardman Minister in polymorphed form and insisted on taking the idol back (along with Rehu Ketu, Leon's pseudodragon).

The Lizardman Minister said that Tatzel had been lying. He was, after all, a green dragon. He warned that it was a mistake to have given the idol to Tatzel and insisted that Leon attempt to get it back (which was what Leon ws trying to do in the first place, and why he was trying to find Dantes).

But wait - Leon had seen and heard all of this before! He had already been to the Dreaming, come to the Palace, met with the Minister and learned about Tatzel's lies. He had then gone on to travel the Dreaming, and learned the true extent of the hideous Blight at first hand in the company of... who was it again? He could not remember.

Before he could ask the Minister about this strange feeling of déjà vu, the audience was interrupted again - much more rudely this time - by an earsplitting crack of thunder and a bright white light. The watery ceiling of the chamber sizzled and steamed in the aftermath of the lightning strike. Before the River King's throne a broad-chested and white-haired eladrin man now stood, flanked by two burly firbolg, daubed in woad. The eladrin crackled with the energy of a barely contained thunderstorm: he was a bralani.

"Ascodel!" breathed the River king. "What brings the Herald of the Great Hunt to our Palace?"

The eladrin said that he had come to find out why there more so few game animals at large in the forests - too few for the Great Hunt, which would have to be postponed, a matter of grave concern to the Unseen Court. The River King replied that he had no knowledge of such matters - that the great beasts of the Upper Dreaming were the responsibility of the Rowan King.

At length it was decided that both Ascodel and Leon should visit the Rowan King's Circle to find answers. Ascodel viewed the tiefling with suspicion, but could not deny that he bore a Mark of Passage that only the Unseen Court could bestow. For his part, Leon thought that there was something vaguely familiar about Ascodel that he could not quite put his finger on.

Without further ado, the impatient bralani bore them into the air - himself, Leon and the two firbolg, whose names were Drust and Eogan - and spirited them at great speed across the treetops of the Upper Dreaming until at length they arrived at the Rowan King's Circle.

 

[gideonpepys]

Session 108d - The Rowan King's Circle

The Rowan King's Circle could be found on the great plains of the Dreaming close to the edge of the forest. Low stones formed the circle, and the Rowan King stood atop a sloping stone slab that gave him a vantage over his petitioners. His hill giant champion stood alongside. Some distance away could be seen and heard a camp of colourful tents where the Rowan King's army continually gathered without ever growing larger or marching anywhere.

The Rowan King was a pompous piebald centaur with a bronze breastplate and a bronze helm with a stiff, red plume to match his stiff, brown beard. When they arrived he was dealing with a group of ogres who were complaining that some of their brothers had been found slain in the forest. Seeing more important visitors had entered the circle, the King waved his hand and the ogres begrudgingly retreated to the edge of the circle, where the King's bugbear warriors also stood.

"How comes a red devil to the court of the Rowan King!?!" the centaur bellowed at the top of his lungs. "But I see you bear the mark of the Unseen Court! We are privileged! I have been overlooked these many centuries, but this hell-spawn has been found worthy!"

Ascodel would bear none of the King's condescension and on behalf of the Great Hunt demanded to know - in a voice almost as pompous and just as loud - what had become of the great beasts of the forest.

"They dwindle and grow scarce," answered the Rowan King. "We have heard talk of a blight from the Oak King and thus we gather our troops. My greatest warrior, Nbed, will lead his satyrs into the forest and deal with the menace forthwith!"

Leon asked if the bard Dantes was among Nbed's army. All satyrs had answered the call, he was told. But when he requested permission to speak with Dantes, the King asked first for a favour: that Leon should take his suit to the Birch Queen and use the silver tongue of his cursed race to win her for the Rowan King.

Before Leon could respond, a great outcry arose from the ogres: The firbolg Drust bore wickedly barbed javelins on his back identical to those that had slain their dead brethren.

"What of it?" snarled Eogan. "The boars, bears and stags are gone. The only brute beasts left in the forest are ogres, and the firbolg must have their hunt!"

A fight broke out at once. Ogre struck firbolg; firbolg struck back. Ascodel joined in and the Rowan King ordered his bugbears to restrain the impertinent newcomers. When he was assaulted along with the others, Leon fought back, at which point the Rowan King joined in. It seemed he had only been waiting for an excuse to bring this upstart tiefling down to size.

Ascodel was a powerful ally: bursts of lightning and thunder sent the bugbears reeling and his swirling aegis warded Drust and Eogan from harm. The bralani could fly above the battlefield and rain down elemental might upon his foes and he could protect his allies with buffeting winds.

Leon caused the ogres to fight one another, and - while seeking to defend himself as best he could - tried to figure out the best way to bring the ruckus to an end. Fey politics were complex and alien. It was unclear if he or Ascodel (or neither or both) outranked the Rowan King. For his part, the Rowan King appeared to be enjoying himself immensely, until Ascodel slew his hill giant champion, at which point he lost his temper and began to fight in earnest. But the firbolg were fierce and Ascodel a force to be reckoned with. It was all too clear which side would win.

Suddenly, the skies grew dark. Sounds of battle faded and the circle seemed to dissipate along with its occupants. Though they still bore wounds and blood on their blades, only Leon and Ascodel remained. It was night, there was smoke in the air, and the deathly stench of a recent battle, and nearby fires illuminated an army camp which had suddenly expanded all around them.

"What devilish trick is this?" demanded Ascodel, but Leon had no answer.

They heard shouts and saw large figures - giants? ogres? - coming towards them through the darkness. Deciding that discretion was the better part of valour, Leon and Ascodel slipped between the tents and made haste away from the any potential foes, hoping to find out what on earth was going on before they got into any more trouble.