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Message: <blockquote data-quote="TheBard" data-source="post: 55596" data-attributes="member: 2821">Episode 12: Zlata's SurpriseTime Elapsed: 6/09 - 6/21/495 A.I. SummaryThe chase, as it developed, was only on for a step or two. Despite Ingolf and Aoelif’s protests, the rest of the company decided that trying to chase down Kamak would not be worth the trouble. She had a substantial lead and knew the area, not to mention the fact that she was invisible and flying. So it was decided to quickly loot her command tent, round up any available horses and head back towards Tavia, by way of the orc village of Wodjar. Aside from a few scrolls, the only loot of consequence to be had in Kamak’s tent was the bizarre necklace that the Necromancer used to teleport across great distances. The half-orc Dusan had explained this artifact, and related that in order to function it had to be draped over the neck of a zombie or other undead creature, which was destroyed in the teleportation process – a procedure Dusan had referred to as “Necroporting.” The group hoped that by capturing this necklace as well as various other religious items, they had postponed or prevented the summoning ritual. These treasures were loaded up and the trip back to Tavia begun. Although the entire group were watching constantly for signs of Kamak or any other of the Necromancer’s forces, none were to be seen. The trip back to Wodjar was largely uneventful, until the sudden arrival of some strange burrowing beast with an apparent taste for horseflesh spelled doom for yet another of Zaccara’s mounts. Zaccara was lucky to escape with his life after his horse was bitten nearly in half by the creature, and when Aoelif and Theodorus’ mounts both spooked and ran, the seemingly insensate beast turned on the rest of the group with tooth and claw. Martaine and Ingolf quickly moved to flank the thing, and Nicasia rained down a volley of magic missiles. The creature shrugged off blow after blow, pressing it’s attack regardless of the odds weighing heavily against it, and after a few moments of fierce combat it was finally slain. Ingolf removed a portion of the creature’s hard, shell-like back plate as a trophy and tied it to his saddle horn before the group moved on.At Wodjar, the orcish shaman Slava greeted the group warmly and they related to him the unfortunate news regarding the remains stolen from the village “cemetery.” At Ingolf’s suggestion, Slava made a show of cursing the group and driving them out of the village, in the hopes that the other villages would think he was displeased at their attack upon the Necromancer’s forces, in the event he had agents among the populace. In truth, the priest of the Hanged God was pleased to learn of the blow struck against the servants of Nyag. Before “driving them out” he also told the group that a company of Vihar’s Immortals, along with his consort Zlata, were encamped near the trade road. Slava’s last words to the group warned them not to trust Vihar’s “witch.”Late that night, camped alongside the road through faerie, the group became aware that they were, yet again, being scried. This time, however, the unseen observer chose to reveal himself – it was the Necromancer himself, with many questions. He demanded to know who had employed the party to spy on him and disrupt his ceremony, and offered outrageous sums of gold for the party’s loyalty. No answer to his questions were forthcoming, though, and when he saw Zaccara’s spear, he seemed to believe that the cult of Balor had sent the group. This notion was reaffirmed by Theodorus, and the Necromancer swore that Balor could not destroy the cult of Nyag, saying that he had failed during his reign and would fail again – despite the current Rolgulkan nobles that had flocked to Balor’s cause. This last statement did little to reassure the group, most if not all of whom already had grave suspicions about Vihar’s intentions. No further disturbances troubled them that evening, however, and in the morning they resumed their march towards the Iconian frontier. Early the next day the group came across the Immortal’s bivouac: five large white canvas tents surrounded by a silk “privacy fence.” Ingolf couldn’t help but get the feeling that the company was expected. Arkon, the twin-sword wielding orcish commander of the Immortals, met the group at the edge of the encampment, and showed them to a tent where they could make themselves presentable before being escorted to Zlata. He warned them not to eat of the food in the tent, claiming that it was for members of the Immortals only. As this food proved on closer inspection to look very much like dried orc flesh, this commandment was not difficult to obey. The party then proceeded to get their story straight, well aware of the possibility of being overheard by the orc guards without the tent but unable to really do anything about it. The general consensus amongst the members of the company was that neither Zlata nor Vihar could be trusted, but it was to Lord Vihar that a complete reckoning of what had been learned was due, not to Zlata. Ultimately it was decided to fill her in on the basics, leaving out the sensitive issues of the Necromancer’s contact with the group and his “Necroport” abilities. Finally the party was presented to Zlata in her pavilion. She received their report earnestly after warmly greeting both Theodorus and Zaccara. She also penned a letter to her “husband” Vihar, purported praising the group’s thoroughness, and received from Martaine a hand-drawn map detailing what the group had learned about the Necromancer’s area of operation. Once the business was conducted, Zlata relaxed a bit. She provided a stout fortified Iconian wine to everyone present and discussed her own travels back to Rolgulka and the Vale of Thunder to prepare Lord Vihar’s holdings for his eventual return home. Zlata pressed the group to accompany her the rest of the way, as they had given there report to her and Arkon regarding the Necromancer, and she seemed dismayed by Ingolf’s insistence that the entire company travel back to Tavia to report personally to Vihar himself.Zlata insisted that the group remain in her encampment for the night at least, and as there seemed to be no easy way to avoid this, all agreed. She feasted the company (presumably not on food reserved only for Vihar’s Immortals) and was as charming as a 9’ tall, boar-tusked woman can possibly be. She also seemed quite content to be away from her “husband” Vihar, and made rather blatant advances on Ingolf. The young alfar bard had no particular desire to become the subject of a bloody tapestry on the wall of Vihar’s summer home, so he declined adamantly, pointing out to Zlata that Vihar would need to exercise only the least part of his famed might to quash Ingolf like an insect. Zlata at that point asked Ingolf how he would feel about reporting to her concerning Vihar’s movements – who he was sleeping with, who he was meeting with, and so forth. She offered him a rather heavy looking pearl in return for any intelligence he could provide, and so Ingolf accepted, grateful to have the conversation deflected from the prospect of becoming Zlata’s paramour. Zlata also took a moment to remove Vihar’s brand from Ingolf palm with a kiss – a turn of events that was unexpected if not welcome.Rebuffed by the comely elf, Zlata turned her attention to the spear-wielding, foul-smelling human fighter, who at first blush seemed a more appropriate choice to warm her bed in the first place. Zaccara had none of Ingolf’s misgivings and rapidly accepted the ogress’ advances. He also allowed her to handle his spear, not for the last time that night as it turned out, and all were a bit concerned when they saw exactly how Balor’s weapon responded to her touch, becoming larger and even more sinister looking. She told Zaccara to expect the spear to grow in power as he advanced his own skill, and she also made an offer to have Balor’s mark removed from his neck. This intrigued him more than anything, and he promised to speak with her further in the future.After more wine was served and food consumed, the group was shown to a tent for the evening, apart from Zaccara, who was lead of to whatever fate awaited him by Zlata’s eunuch butler, after receiving a stern lecture from Martaine (followed by a Bull’s Strength when the priest could not dissuade Zaccara from his sinful course of action.) None of the group were particularly thrilled with the idea of spending the night in the middle of the Immortal’s encampment, but all were in need of sleep. Ingolf summoned forth Cu Dunn, his magical onyx dog, and instructed him to wake the group if he detected anyone sneaking around the area of the tent.  With that, the group apart from Zaccara fell into a heavy sleep, aided in some cases by the large quantities of wine they’d consumed, wondering what would become of Zaccara and if perhaps they entire company had made a grave error in ever speaking with Zlata at all.Zaccara, for his part, did not reappear until the next morning. None in the group failed to note that, not only was he dressed in the height of Rolgulkan fashion, he hardly stank at all. As the group made ready to depart, Zaccara proved to be something less than gentlemanly about the whole affair, and related the tale of his evening’s experience thus:“Well, first off that big nutless mountain of flesh that waits on her, I forget the name, first off he took me outside the camp down to that little stream and told me to undress. I went for my sword, but he got all upset an’ said I had ta’ wash up before Zlata would see me. That sorta’ made me mad, ya’ know, cause I don’t much go in for that fancy stuff, plus I’m thinking, she’s an ogre, right? But I figured I could go along this once. So I got naked and hoped in the water, and that bastard took my clothes and burned ‘em!”Nicasia and Theodorus, at least, were actually somewhat relieved by the revelation that Zaccara’s lousy garments wouldn’t be making the trip back to Tavia with the rest of the group. The fighter continued:“So then he scrubbed me damn near raw, and gave me this get-up to wear. Somebody remind me to change into something else before we meet Vihar. Wouldn’t do to greet the man in clothes his wife give me. So anyway, after that, they put this stinking stuff on me, some sort of perfume I guess, and took me to her tent. She was dressed in some bit of silk or other, but not for long, heh.”Aoelif interjected her disgust at Zaccara’s willingness to sleep with the ogress, which prompted Zaccara’s final revelation and nearly sparked a brawl between the two: “Funny thing, that. Guess the old orc was right, Zlata is a witch after all. After we got down to business she did some sort of magic. Guess what Aoelif, she made herself look just like you! It was great!”Only the sudden appearance of Arkon prevented the pair from coming to blows. It seemed like a good moment to depart, and so the company mounted up and left the Immortals camp behind them. Zlata, being a late riser, didn’t bother to see them off. The remainder of the trip back to Tavia was peaceful, aside from Zaccara’s constant baiting of Aoelif and her continued offers to settle the matter with steel.Footsore, dust-covered and weary, the group arrived back in Tavia in a week’s time, after paying off the spriggan hiwaymen they’d met on the trip into Rolgulka with “one tenth” of the loot they’d recovered. By amazing coincidence, Ingolf convinced them, this amounted to nothing but one large sack of copper coins – which the two shape changing giants were pleased to get. Back in the city, the gave a report to Vihar, turned over the “Necroporting” necklace to him, delivered Zlata’s letter, and by and large were glad to be done with the affair. He paid them the full agreed upon amount, as well as a bonus, but left them with a tremendous number of unanswered questions regarding the what they’d just done on his behalf. As it is generally unwise to pry into the affairs of the nobility, and double so when the noble in question is 10’ tall and muscled like a young god, the group decided that the answers could wait for another day.Notable Quotes: "Bwahahahaha" -- the players, sans Jessica when Zlata polymorphed herself into Aoelif for her lovemaking session with ZaccaraNPCs Encountered Lady Zlata— Vihar's consortSlava — Priest of the Hanged God, headman of WojdarArkon — Captain of the Immortals, Vihar's elite guardLord Vihar — Ogre Mage Lord of the Vale of Thunder.</blockquote>

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