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Message: <blockquote data-quote="LordVyreth" data-source="post: 1510526" data-attributes="member: 9626">The End of the Beginning, part 1As urgent as Lerissa’s note was, the party still had to finish their preparations before leaving.  Dane decided that while he was a loyal Delaspie citizen, this Lady Memory enigma would have to come first, and he formally quit his job at the library to join the group.  As usual with Delaspie bureaucracy, this took a few weeks.  Just as importantly, Rudyard had to spend some time finishing up his new mounts training, and everyone had to spend some time and money buying new equipment after the windfall of treasure they received in the library.  Finally, Tal realized that he wasn’t really in a position to be in a relationship until he quit this hazardous life, so he decided to break things off with White for now.  However, when he went to meet her, she had already left, with no word where she was going or even a goodbye to Tal!  Once everything was finished, it was almost a month after they finished their dealings with the library.  The party returned to Methosilang using Lerissa’s teleportation spell, and went to look for her, only to find her manor locked and guarded by royal forces!  Tal looked incensed.  “What is the meaning of this?”  He demanded.The guards looked at him with disinterest.  “By order of the royal crown, the noble title of Lerissa Turivain has been temporarily suspended.  Her royal manor has been barred from residency until her formal hearing can decide what to do with her.”“What reason could the crown possibly have to take such a drastic measure?  And show some respect!  I am of house Moinen, and my friend Tsine here is also of noble birth.”The guard suddenly straightened up, and his tone of voice became more serious.  “She was accused of heresy, good sir.  She was trying to convince the populace of an twelfth god that the church was hiding the existence of, and thus inciting a riot among the populace.”It occurred to Tal that maybe he would have to censor some of his new stories a bit before performing them.  “Where can I find her now?”“She is currently staying at the Fluid Temple,” the guard replied, referring to the human-run temple dedicated to the goddesses that are currently portrayed most often with human avatars.  “As a worshipper of Ordhari, she has sought aid from her fellow worshippers.”The party hurried to meet their friend.  She looked in less than perfect condition, but considering they first met her when she was a prisoner, she wasn’t that bad off comparatively.  She also had a look of defiance and determination.  She greeted the party with a warm but hurried voice.  “Ah, I’m glad you finally could arrive.  I was worried that something happened to you after you took so long to return.  Things have gone badly in Methosilang this past month.  Two villages at the very bottom of our sphere of control were attacked by an army of Malefactor drow, and other monsters.  The first one was finally ended a week later, when the military finally arrived.  Most of the invaders fled as soon as the military came close, so the town was easily retaken, but by then, many townsfolk were killed or taken into slavery.  Even worse, almost two weeks later, and during a full moon, many of the survivors suddenly transformed into horrible rat-like monsters.  They tried to flee the city, but were killed.  However, a second invasion occurred the same day.  When we thwarted it three days later, there were no survivors.  Everyone was killed or taken away.”The party was silent for a long moment after her story.  Malefactor drow?  They haven’t attacked Methosilang in centuries!  Many thought they were extinct, or even a myth.  But Quercus knew better, after his talk with his half-sister.  In fact, hearing about this invasion was already giving him a sick feeling in his stomach, like he knew what was coming.  Tsine, however, was the first to speak.  “What is the crown saying about this?”Lerissa spit with contempt.  “Bah!  They don’t accept the truth.  They’re insisting that the malefactors are league with the orcs!  That’s absurd; the orcs would never willingly work with elves, whatever type they may be.  However, we’ve learned that the invaders are mostly wearing robes, both red and yellow colored, and carry tiny scimitars.  We know what that makes them, don’t we?  But try telling the royals that!  They never found any holy books or other evidence of Bas, so they refuse to believe it.  I was warned once to stop spreading what we saw at the temple, and the second time I complained, they stripped me of my title and sent me and my family here!”“Was all this the reason you sent for us again?” Raz asked.“Well, no, actually.  We got some good news just before the invasions began.  We found a defector from the Orc Empire.  Fortunately, I was among the group that discovered her, so we were able to keep her prisoner as an official prisoner of the church before the royals could get their hands on her.  I sent for you because she was asking for some of you specifically.”The surprised party was led to another room, where a familiar lizard woman was waiting for them.  “Greetingsssss,” the woman hissed.  “I believe we did not exchange names the last time we met.  I am called Setisth.”Rudyard recognized her as the lizard woman they captured at the orc camp earlier, and then released.  “What are you doing here?”“I had to flee after what happened to Teggif.  You know, the kobold that apparently was the only survivor of your later attack.  Well, he was a survivor, at least.  He was killed by some human with metal parts attached to him.  It looked like the same thing our chieftain suffered from, but this one was in no pain.  He slaughtered poor Teggif without mercy.  I realized I would be next, but I couldn’t just desert the empire.  They would have killed my entire tribe to set an example.  I was able to fake my own death, and then flee here, hoping that I could be protected here.”The party was about to finish the conversation, but an aid walked in, whispered something to Lerissa, and left.  Lerissa nodded, and stood up.  “We have more concerns, I’m afraid.  A third invasion has begun.  We can’t afford to let them make fools of us again.  Fortunately, I have a plan this time.  Since the invaders flee from a direct invasion, I want a party to try sneaking in, or at least do minor damage to their army so they don’t simply run again.  The reason these raids have been so successful is because the enemy has been using some sort of magical device that blocks all divination and teleportation magic we try to use to reach the city.  This has slowed our armies immensely, as you can imagine.  Your goal is to find this magical item, and destroy it.  I have used what few contacts I still have to get a retaliatory strike prepared, and all you have to do is alert us when the item is destroyed, and they will teleport in to catch the enemy unprepared.  I will give you a scroll with the sending spell to use to contact me when you are finished.  Now, your secondary objectives include defeating their leaders, if you can find them and they look like they are within your capacity to fight them, and of course to find any real evidence that these invaders are really cultists of Bas.  Just helping the enemy defeat these zealots should help our standing in the city, but if we can prove Bas is a real threat, we might be able to get the kingdom to destroy to this cult before they get much stronger.”“What do we know about the enemy?”  The military-minded Dane asks.“Well, few specifics.  There are a lot of cultists, and possibly more of those were-monsters in their ranks.  The Malefactor drow are mostly the ones in the red robes.  We have heard reports of a giant bat-like monster that leads their air attacks, but it apparently has the face of a silent, pale-white elf.  We also got some information about their leaders.  One is a dark-haired man, with yellow spots in his hair.  The other is a drow woman, but she is clearly not pure drow.  She has horns, red eyes, and wings, and rides a flying, black horse.  She has been described by survivors as a brutal woman that begins a fight for any reason, against here enemies or her own servants.  The only ones she treats with any respect are the black-haired man, and a drow woman who apparently is a powerful cleric.Tal, Tsine and Flix gulped nervously after hearing the black-haired spotted man was involved, but Quercus was more interested in the demonic drow.  It was as he feared.  The Lady of Blood, the one that his sister warned him about, was here, and is another servant of Bas apparently.  Between her, the spotted man, and the Nightmare Prince, she had a number of powerful servants already, and that’s just the ones they already know about.  Can such a foe even be stopped?OOC Notes:  The session that included this part of the story was not the most well planned one from the party’s perspective.  Fortunately, I planned a timeline that describes events based on how long it took the party to arrive, so I knew exactly what has happened up to the point the party arrived.  If they arrived much earlier, Lerissa would still be a noblewoman, but if they waited much longer, they would have missed the adventure entirely!  Tune in next time when one of their enemies couldn’t even keep a straight face while fighting them!  And no, I don’t mean the Tasha spell was used.</blockquote>

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