Knightfall
World of Kulan DM
World of Kulan: Crisis in Bluffside Game
Big Tim stands, once again, waiting. This time, however, the man he's come to know as Relgar Aspergim waits with him — not that drafter-wizard appears put out by waiting. He has a book to scribble in and formulas rolling around in his head. The time likely will pass quicker for him than Tim. Relgar sits at the same table in Oakfirst Manor where Tim first met Relgar and his other previous allies — Custodio Vecchi, a member of the Bluffside Elite; Elkgrar Ashhand the dwarf cleric of the Builder; Terger Alela, a member of the Dark Lanterns; Thersean Stormdancer, a mysterious elf attache; and the ex-convict named Demetrios Zinon Aris Rhodes, aka Rhodey.
Besides, Relgar, only Custodio remains alongside Tim. The young soldier is tasked to the pursuit of Phelix Del Cannitha, a renegade sorcerer who seems hell bent on ruining the lives of the people of Bluffside. Custodio sits across from Relgar and keeps an eye on the wizard. The young guard has become fond of the eccentric arcanist much like a younger brother watching out for his older, awkwardly-innate sibling. Lord Commander Reginald Oakfirst is in the room, as well, waiting. As are several new faces that Tim has only met in the last 24 hours since Terger and Rhodey were pulled away from the group during a meeting in Stormgrove Manor.
Lady Samantha Pomander, one of The Five, had come to see them in the morning after arriving there, and Tim had assumed it meant she had a lead. Instead, she tasked Terger to come with her immediately for a mission she couldn't tell Tim and the others about. Surprisingly, she had Terger take Rhodey with the young Lantern, and told the rest of you that the mission to find Phelix would have to wait a day. “The Wizard Council needs time to look at the markings on the inside of Growers' Gate, anyway,” she had said. All had been free to stay in Stormgrove, but without Terger there, you all had felt like you were trespassing in his old home. It was weird.
Twelve hours in, Tim soon found himself back in Oakfirst Manor where the High Priestess of Mirella had yanked him from his world to this new one, which he now knew was called Kulan. The lands around him were a jumble of city-states and old decadent empires, but here an now, he was in the city known as Bluffside, which many of the locals referred to as the City on the Edge. It was a good an honorific as any other would have been. Bluffside itself wasn't a kingdom but a free city ruled by a group known as The Five. That was the simple way of looking at it. In truth, there is also the Wizard Council and their isolated district, the Adamantine Security Council that controls the Mining District, and the entrenched pantheon of gods that control much of the Temple District.
Add to that half-a-dozen powerful guilds spread throughout the city, the guards/soldiers known as the Bluffside Regulars and the more renowned Elites, as well as their leaders who run the Military District and, right now, have New City under a stat of martial law due to the machinations of the renegade sorcerer. Rumors abound that while a group of heroes were trying to capture him, the sorcerer set off a series of magical explosions that destroyed over half of New City. Hundreds of people were killed and that district has been under martial law ever since. Every time it's believed that The Five will lift it, another incident takes place somewhere in the city. Most of those incidents have been here, in Old City. The oldest part of Bluffside that isn't the ruins of Sem La Vah that stands in the center of the six districts, seperated by walls, open fields, and gorges.
And so you wait for Lady Pomander to arrive once more with news of Terger and Rhodey. But this time, she doesn't come herself. She sends a messenger with a note for Oakfirst. He reads it, shakes his head, and sighs.
“I knew it. Terger won't be back. His mission has been extended indefinitely. And it seems he let Rhodes go! Gods, I knew letting that man out of the city was a bad idea. We'll never see him again.”
“And what of Elkgrar and Thersean?” Custodio asks.
“I assume Thersean has been called back by the dragori, but there is no mention of him. Perhaps the dragori aren't as interested in the renegade as we first feared. But, Elkgrar, he's been assigned to a temple of the Builder in the Granite Kingdom to the south. It's a posh position, and I'm sure his father got it for him.”
“A reward for Elkgrar nominating his father for the vacent seat among The Five,” Custodio muses.
“More than likely,” the lord commander agrees.
“So, we're on our on,” Custodio looks at Big Tim, Relgar, and the newcomers in the in the room who are trying to fill in the gaps with what they already have learned.
“There should be more than enough of you, even without them,” Oakfirst says plainly. “Now that the planar key to Phelix's enclave has been identified by young Relgar.” All eyes turn to look at the crystalline flower that was harvested from the ruins overnight. Relgar had found the truth in one of Lady Stormgrove's books in the library of Terger's home. It was very delicate and now sat in a glass case on the table.
“And you're sure about the location of the portal?” Custodio asks again. The man likes to talk, a bit too much.
“The Wizard Council is sure. The portal is on the inner side of Old City's exterior wall near the Gardens and Growers' Gate. There just not sure how to activate it.” The guard commander looks at the newcomers. "That's why we have some new experts here." He waits for them all to introduce themselves and speak up on the matter.
OOC: Heading right into it! Make any Knowledge or other skill checks you want for more details about what your PCs know of the current situation. (And don't forget some backstory, if you like.) If you don't want your PC present right from the start, your character should already be in Old City and heading to Oakfirst Manor.
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