NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Joshua Randall" data-source="post: 1014780" data-attributes="member: 7737">The Ministry of WindsKednor explained that, after his death at the hands of the ciquali, he found himself in the presence of the divine: Kirabá had called Kednor’s soul to account. That soul was judged lacking, its edge not yet honed enough to serve as heavenly blade, so it was made to await the resurrection of its mortal body. Fortunately, Kednor’s body was at last recovered and returned to life. It was then that Kednor decided he must walk the true path of the Father of Battle, rather than continue to follow his formerly godless ways. He gained a touch of the divine essence and would use those powers to advance the causes of good.DM’s note: Prior to his death, Kednor was a Fighter 6. After he died, I ruled that he could return to life as a Fighter 4 / Paladin 1. This would also allow me to begin qualifying Kednor for the Paragon prestige class, from BadAxe’s Heroes of High Favor: Dwarves.After trading their background stories, Brogun and Kednor observed the Feast of Fehmarn from the comfort of their balcony. King Ulnar of Sommerlund gave a rousing speech, reminding his subjects of their glorious history and their continued duty to hold back the forces of darkness. The king singled out the Kai Lords, warrior-monks dedicated to the God of the Sun, as exemplars of the best traits of the Sommlending. Finally, King Ulnar ceremonially reiterated his vows to protect his people in return for their continued fealty.And with that, the city erupted into celebration. It took three days for the revelry to die down enough to allow travel through the streets. On the fourth day, the two devotees of Kirabá along with their friend and patron, Dellarocca, journeyed northwest towards Toran, site of the famed Magician’s Guild. Brogun hoped one of the mages could free him from the quest compelling silence regarding the Shard of Gareth. As for Dellarocca, he sought an audience with Guildmaster Loi-Kymar himself. Though he wasn’t very forthcoming about what the discussion would be about, Brogun judged it had something to do with wheedling spell formulae out of Loi-Kymar’s tightfisted grasp.At the Guild, Brogun encountered a wizard named Nedín, who promised he would do his best to help with the quest if the two dwarves agreed to investigate the mysterious Tower of the Winds in a run-down corner of the city. Never ones to pass up an adventure, Brogun and Kednor set off for this tower, which was indeed surrounded by magical winds of high velocity. They fruitlessly tried to enter the tower but were rebuffed by its lack of any openings. Finally, after hours of searching had given way to hours of despondent waiting, the winds died down enough to reveal a magically concealed door in the base of the tower. Quickly dashing through it, the companions found themselves inside a featureless expanse of grey stone.Some eighty feet above their heads they could just make out an opening in the wall. It was only with considerable difficulty and numerous falls that two dwarves in heavy armor were able to climb upwards. There, they entered a room built into the side of the tower, a room whose outer wall appeared completely transparent! What was more remarkable was the strange creature therein, a barrel-shaped monstrosity with three arms, three eyes, and a toothy maw on the top of its body. What was even more bizarre was that the creature was furiously writing down notes of everything it observed outside its magical window. The reams of paper scattered around the room suggested that the xorn had been at its task for quite some time.Brogun cleared his throat, and the xorn reacted by using a bull rush to encourage Brogun to make the eighty foot journey to the bottom of the tower in a few seconds of free fall rather than several minutes of hard climbing. The priest of Kirabá and his cohort reacted badly to this suggestion, and proceeded to slash and pound their ill-mannered host into rocky fragments, though not without themselves suffering various painful wounds.The dwarves gathered up the papers for later delivery to Nedín, then climbed back down the tower and searched the bottom floor. They found a hidden entrance heading into the ground. Exploring, Brogun and Kednor battled zombies in a corridor filled with powerfully rushing winds that made forward movement nearly impossible. They then discovered a kind of living quarter consisting of various bedrooms. Unfortunately, three of these were occupied, and the dwarves were set upon by the self-styled Ministry of the Winds: Varen the sorcerer, Justina the cleric, and Traan the minotaur.Brogun slew a slavering wolf that turned out to be Justina’s animal companion, but Varen repaid this insult by unleashing a lightning bolt at point-blank range, rending Brogun unconscious and horribly wounding Kednor. The cohort managed to stabilize his master, but he was then grappled and pinned by the size-L Traan.Justina wanted to slay the dwarves on the spot in revenge for the fallen Wolfie. Fortunately, Kednor was able to negotiate a sort of trial-by-combat with the somewhat demented Varen. The minotaur Traan would represent the Ministry of Winds, while Brogun and Kednor chose to represent themselves as they lacked the funds to hire an expensive combat lawyer. Each side would be given 12 hours to prepare itself. With that, Varen locked the dwarven suspects into a room.The next morning, Brogun and Kednor were led by a seemingly despondent Justina into a large, open hall. Traan stood at the opposite end of the room, but Varen was nowhere in sight. At a shout from Justina, the battle commenced, with Brogun’s sound burst stunning the minotaur and buying time for a few preparatory spells. Traan eventually recovered and charged, head lowered, intending to gore the priest of Kirabá. But Brogun called on his god to strike the infidel blind, while Kednor repeatedly attempted to sunder Traan’s huge axe.The blinded minotaur was no match for the two dwarves, and soon fell. But no sooner had his body hit the ground than the deranged Justina set upon Wolfie’s killers with an insane fury. Unfortunately, she had neglected to take into account the advantages her two opponents had in BAB, Strength modifiers, and flanking bonuses, so she soon joined her deceased pet in the afterlife.Kednor and Brogun hadn’t time to catch their breath before Varen faded into view by blasting them with another lightning bolt. This time the brunt of the attack hit Brogun full-on, stopping his heart! Kednor twisted out of the way of most of the attack, and as Varen began to cast again, the fighter/paladin introduced him to the partial-charge-and-attack-at-plus-two concept, displaying the superiority of that tactic over Concentration-check-DC 10-plus-spell-level-plus-damage-taken, not to mention the fact that sorcerers have poor hit points.Kednor, lone survivor of the raucous trial, stood sadly over the body of his fallen master. Perhaps the wizards would know what to do. In the mean time, he would need money to fund Brogun’s revivification. He knelt and began examining the bodies of the strange inhabitants of the tower.</blockquote>

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