Banewarrens d20 (Angelsboi's party)

[diaglo]

Not a wise choice

Vlad bent to reclaim his axe. Fiddle started to search the Minotaur. Alya turned her concentration on the Minotaur. A ring glowed. Fiddle picked it up. The memory of a letter Vlad had discovered early came to him. He put the ring on and concentrated.

"I'm coming for you Hedrack," Fiddle thought.

"Ah, I've been expecting you little o..." the presence replied before Fiddle screamed and pulled the ring off.

Darian peeled off and went to the other room. Calrom and Sully watched for trouble. The iron grate had several exits above in the main room.

A female voice sang out to Darian. "I am not your enemy. Come help me."

Alya began to sing for courage. Darian lowered the flame on his sword and sheathed it.

"Oh no, you don't," Alya sang another tune. "She is charming you Darian. Don't listen."

Alya moved to see her opponent. A half human, half feline creature. A lamia. The lamia shrugged and smacked Darian. The light of Lathander left his eyes. He was still conscious, but somewhat slower witted now. Vlad moved to the rescue. He activated the axe. So did Calrom. He fired several arrows. Fiddle scrambled to help. He ran as fast as his little legs would carry him. Unfortunately, it wasn't enough. Sully moved into view also. He tossed a ball of lightning behind the she-beast. She dodged aside unfazed.

"Whoa," Sully muttered. "Now that is impressive."

Darian pulled his sword and activated it. Vlad landed a solid blow. Calrom fired another volley of arrows. Fiddle closed a tossed Hole Punch. A scratch. The lamia knew she had bitten off too much. She fled out of sight.

"Now what?" Alya asked. "Do we pursue?"

Vlad and Fiddle huddled on either side of the passage. Calrom had his bow trained ahead. Time crept slowly past.

 

[diaglo]

Anybody got a light?

"What about this door?" Alya asked. She was standing in front of the silver door. It was slightly ajar.

"Here let me," Calrom stepped forward. He had the Minotaur's Huge Greatsword in both hands. He prodded the door. It swung open.

A reddish misty figure stood in the doorway. Alya fired an arrow into the thing.

"A wraith," Darian shrieked. "Be gone you foul thing." The light of Lathander radiated from his holy symbol.

PPpppooPP

It vanished.

Fiddle closed the door. "Must find a way to lock it," he muttered. Nothing.

"I guess we have to follow the lamia," Sully shrugged. "Seems like she must have our stuff."

 

[diaglo]

short quick version

The party entered the next room. There they encountered two vermin wights. Darian turned them while the others pelted them with ranged weapons and Vlad hacked them with his axe. After the encounter the Calrom searched the room. He disarmed a trap. Nothing of value or interest was found. They exited the room by climbing a stairway. At the top of the stairs Fiddle was struck by the lamia. The party quickly fought off the beast. Darian blocked her exit. When the lamia tried to flee, Vlad and Darian laid her low. Fiddle recovered his treasure. The party exited by way of a corridor that opened back into the iron grate. They found another sealed door. The door they believed mentioned in Vlad's letter. The one the Moandites used a Wish to open briefly. Inside they also met the paladin, Kalerecent. Darian and Fiddle quickly convinced him to leave with them. He had the body of his slain companion and spoke of a hag. The party filled him in on what they knew of the Sword of Light. He had another tale. He believed the Banewarrens, which was behind the sealed door, held the Sword. He was willing to go with the party to free Ivan.

The party rested and then revisited Ivan. All was as before. Fiddle led. Until they entered the first false tomb. The curst rogue had returned. The party quickly ended the rogue. They followed around to Ivan. Although Alya wanted to make sure no secret doors existed before their chat. Ivan asked the books be destroyed. Alya eventually agreed. First one, then the other. Ivan vanished. Fiddle unlocked the tomb of Kersherec. A holy warrior of the Sun god Imotep. His tomb was filled with riches. Kalerecent warred with the party over looting even Ivan's things. Fiddle still managed to pocket the gauntlets. However, it took some very strong persuading before the paladin would leave the tomb. He left for Tilverton to gather a council of Lathander while the party promised to follow.

The party headed to Peldan's Helm to buy some horses. Here they learned all was not well in the Helm. Thieves had visited since last the party was here. A gnomish bard lass had stolen the Sword from the Company of the Burning Brand. She flew and turned invisible. All care was being taken to recover the Sword and prevent further theft. Mouse had been roughed up by some over zealous people. Fiddle visited Mouse and bought new boots and a letter of introduction. He also purchased a riding dog. Marmaduke. the former companion of the heroes of Peldan's Helm. Timmay's steed. Horses were a valuable commodity and it cost the party dearly for 5 of them.

They rode to Tilverton. 4 days behind Kalerecent. Only a little trouble at the border near the Thunder Peaks. Calrom was not on the party charter. And he was not sure if he wanted to be. When they arrived in Tilverton, a council had formed and would speak with them in the morning. Fiddle went to visit his contacts. While Darian, Alya, and the rest of the party also scattered across the city. Fiddle was also interested in finding Richter. He had also contacted the Bard.

 

[diaglo]

Next session

Fiddle will be absent next session which is this Sunday.

So I'll leave you all in the capable hands of my fellow party members. biorph (Alya) JoeBlank (Sully) howandwhy99 (Calrom) or Olgar Shiverstone (DM) will have to fill you in on what happens next.

maybe even Angelsboi (Richter) will have something to say.

 

[biorph]

Thieves in the Temple

Waking up the morning after their first night in Tilverton Alya stretched, rubbing some sore spots, dressed, and headed downstairs. She hadn't felt this exhausted or sore since that night with the garrison at Castle Kragg.

Calrom was the only one still around downstairs, Darian had decided to stay at the Rose Altar. Sully had gone off to visit some of his own kind at the temple of Gond, Fiddle had sent word he'd be off for a while taking care of some business at Grimwald's Revenge, and Vlad was dead drunk and probably still exhausted from the steady stream of maidens coming and going from his room. Alya smiled to herself. It was nice to see the warrior have some fun and good to know she still had her when it came to spreading rumors. She couldn't help wondering how Sully was faring as well.

A band of Elves were sitting in the corner looking displeased and angry at the world. As she went over to cheer them up, a young lad burst into the room breathlessly.

"THERE'S BEEN AN ATTACK ON THE ROSE ALTAR!" he exclaimed

Alya and Calrom looked at each other and immediately ran out the door, the elves would have to wait.

 

[biorph]

A Dark Day the Temple of Light

As Alya and Calrom raced to the temple the first thing that greeted them was the sight of a group of Purple Dragons standing over the fallen corpses of two Lathanderite priests and controlling the crowd outside. They were rebuffed trying to get inside.

"Off with you people, the temple doesn't need any more gawkers." The officer commanded.

"Please" begged Alya, "A friend of ours is a Lathanderite priest, we only wish to see if he is alright"

"Hmm, very well" replied the guard and sent someone inside to check on their story

"What happened here?" Calrom asked

"The temple was attacked last night, apparently 5 priests were killed defending some new artifact that the thieves stole." Replied the guard "We're tracking them down now, they won't escape justice, you can be sure of that."

A look of recognition passed between Calrom and Alya he said this. A short time later the runner came back saying that they had been authorized to enter. Alya and Calrom steeled themselves as they entered the temple, sincerely hoping that they Sword of Truth was the only thing that they had lost to the thief.

 

[biorph]

A Night's Tale

Alya was extremely relived to see Darian's curly blonde locks as she entered the temple. The priest appeared to be in one piece though the temple looked like a war zone.

"What happened?" asked Alya "Are you alright?"

"Thankfully," replied Darian "I was not injured in the fight. The High Father was able to survive but only because I was lucky enough to reach him in time. Others unfortunately..." he drifted off and walked them over to the altar, there the severed head of the paladin Kalrecent lay inches away from his wrapped body. "I'm afraid that the damage my mind took from the lamia attack led me to give the paladin poor advice in the battle, and resulted in his death. I have offered the High Father the sword Lathander gave to me in exchange for his return to the world of the living, it was the least I could do, I just hope Lathander understands."

"Well," a more cynical part of Alya thought to herself, "now we needn't worry about Himool finding his sword."

"So what exactly happened" asked Calrom

"It was several hours before dawn this morning" began Darian I was awakened to the sound of shouting and screams of pain. I grabbed my mace and sword and rushed out into the fray. There I found the night guards dead inside the main hall as well as the bodies of several other priests. There was a trail of muddy boot prints leading into the back storage area. Kelrecent was already in battle with a new acquaintance of ours. You remember him, about 6 foot 4, wearing splint mail armor, long somewhat string blonde hair, been dead about a thousand or so years, goes by the name of Kersherack. The High Father lay slumped in a corner, bleeding, but not yet dead. As I entered the room Kelrecent called to me to stabilize the high father and I was able to use my remaining abilities to do that much at least. As I turned to help Kelrecent engage the revenant of Kesherack, The beast pointed at the two of use and screamed 'DEFILERS, WHERE IS MY SHIELD?!' I thought that the creature only wished to have its equipment back, so I told him it was at The Windlords Rest. Then I made my mistake. I told Kalrecent to stand down and let the creature pass. I had thought that if it had what it wanted it would simply leave. I was wrong. As Kelrecent stood down, the creature took the opportunity to cleave his head from his shoulders, using his newly regained sword and proceeded to advance on me. I summoned all the energy of Lathander's might I could Muster but the creature stood there unfazed, even on this hallowed ground. I ran towards the main area hoping to outrun the beast, but still it advanced on me. I ran to the altar and was preparing to try to turn once more, when it stepped toward the altar and then screamed out in pain. It turned and fled from this place. I am sorry my friends, I had only hoped to save more lives, believing that if holy power had no effect the rest of the party would be much more able to handle this than I. Were you attacked? Is everyone okay?"

"No, we're were undisturbed" replied Calrom "no thanks to you." Darian looked abashed.

"So how are we going to prepare for tonight?" asked Alya

"The High Father has requested to see us to discuss that very matter." answered Darian.

 

[biorph]

Divine Magic: The Gathering

As Darian led them into an office in the back part of the small temple they saw a middle aged priest still magically tending to his own wounds. He looked up as he saw the young cleric enter and smiled.

"Ahh Darian" the High Father said "I understand I owe you my life"

"I'm glad I was at least able to save one life," Darian mumbled softly

"Nonsense my boy, you did what you thought was best, and in your current state you couldn't have known it was wrong, but we'll fix that in a minute. These are your friends who helped you recover the sword I assume?" asked the priest.

"Some of them your grace, the others were otherwise detained I'm afraid."

"There appears to be a revenant about, who wants his possessions back very badly it seems. Unfortunately he did manage to get away with the sword"

"Was it in fact the Sword of Truth?" asked Alya

"I'm afraid we didn't have time to identify it." responded the high priest

"TIME! YOU DIDN'T HAVE..." Alya had to physically bite down on her tongue to prevent herself directly insulting the high priest. 'An animal messenger and a paladin 4 days in advance was not enough warning? Why didn't they have the spell prepared as they entered the town.' she thought to herself.

"Yes," the priest continued nonplussed "however I'm calling together a convocation of the Lathanderites to discuss what to do about the sword and the news of the Banes that Kalrecent brought to us."

"Hmm, we're on our way to see Filani" began Alya regaining her composure "Perhaps her insight would be useful as well, she is quite knowledgeable on any number of topics"

"If you believe she'll be able to aid us in our search then please by all means ask her." said the high priest "Well if that is all I will leave you to any business you have in town. Darian if you will stay behind I'll see that you have you mind restored."

As they left Alya mumbled to herself "Over a week's worth of warning and still they didn't have even a single war wizard on hand to perform an hour's work."

 

[biorph]

Door to Door

Several minutes later Darian came out and the three of them traveled to The Tower of Wit and Woe. He had a bright gleam in his eye as he came from the office.

"My apologies," He said "I'm afraid the priests of Lathander can tend to be a bit..,.flaky, sometimes."

"Nevermind, let head to Filani's" Said Alya, "I'd still like to know what the rest of this stuff we got from that thing is"

"Who is the person anyway?" asked Calrom "And how can she afford her own tower?"

"Filani is a sage specializing in information gathering" began Darian "She can afford it, because she always knows just how much her information is worth, and is more than willing to charge full price for it."

They soon approached the tower in the center of town. Calrom seemed awestruck as they approached. Alya found it kind of cute and a 'first time in the big city' kind of way. Calrom obviously didn't get out of the forest much.

"Greetings Mistress Alya." called out the elf guarding the tower "Come to see the lady of the tower today?"

"Greetings to you." Alya replied "Indeed we have, is Filani in?"

"She is, head on up." said the elf, who blushed scarlet as Alya gave him a wink and a smile in passing.

As Alya approached the doors she called out "Open up already, we've got business to attend" Calrom stopped awestruck as the large stone doors opened on command

"It's just a simple matter of letting the doors know who's boss." Alya told him.

 

[howandwhy99]

This looks really good, Sean. I can't wait 'till you get to Calrom showing off his new spell: Complete Submersion (or Puck Pedestal).