WotBS Lylandra's War of the Burning Sky continued

[Lylandra]

One week in the Monastery

As neither of them can really fathom a born creature who'd grow as big as the giant shark, the party immediately suspects that it might be a biomantic creation. So they drag the unconscious Cai Lei Wsu back to the Monastery and immediately ask for a meeting with the Two Wind Masters.

As expected, Pilus thanks them all for their effort of getting his stray student back and he promises to punish her accordingly. Cai stays all silent during their discussion of what they found out in the forsaken laboratory and is dragged away as she doesn't want to comment on the accusations made against her. The group is still somehow nervous that Pilus didn't seem to show any emotion besides his general serene demeanor. After all, he just got betrayed by his master student and had to imprison her.

After Cai is forcibly removed, Cuin'halar gets the cat out of her sack and directly asks the two brothers about what in all hells they just saw floating over the forbidden valley of storms. Now Longinus seems a bit surprised by this revelation and quietly nods at his brother as if he'd expect them to explain himself. Pilus just keeps smiling and shrugs defensively before spilling the whole soup:
Yes, he developed a biomantic defense mechanism for the Monastery and Eresh and it is about to be finished. After all, they would need to fend off these Ragesians who are clearly no friends of them – as they just proved by besieging Eresh. A nice side effect is that this would help to keep any other wannabe-invader off as well, hinting that a certain Elf King could turn out to be the next best conqueror after they hopefully defeat Leska. Still, the weapon is no threat to the outside world as it is bound to the valley, so no need to worry about the Tempest.

This still leaves them with a very uneasy feeling about Pilus' true motives. A feeling which is stirred even more the moment Cuin gets a flash of insight and finally finds out that Lsi Pu and Pilus are totally the same person.

As soon as he asks Pilus about his past activities in Dassen, Tinuviel gets really really mad and accuses Pilus to be a reckless murderer who doesn't care about anyone but his studies. Cuin and Torrent can calm him down a bit, but they nonetheless demand an explanation about the storm of a century that devastated Rego. After all, the country is still suffering from that event over a decade later and he did nothing to atone.

Pilus sighs and confesses that this was him back then, but he almost died in the process and meant no harm to anyone. He tried to develop a new kind of elemental binding ritual and fought with a really powerful storm elemental over the course of a week. And yes, he did not want any casualties which is why he conducted the ritual in the mountains while being all alone. After the ritual ultimately failed it took him weeks to recover. For why he didn't tell anyone or apologize to Rego? He was simply too ashamed and afraid. So when his brother found him, they decided to leave their old life behind and start something new, something meaningful.

Note: I really wanted to portray Pilus as fishy and creepy while still not painting him a villain. He has his reasons and basically a pretty reasonable explanation for everything he's done so far. In his eyes whatever he did is justified and was only done for the greater good. Even if that means trying to bind a raging elemental with unforeseen consequences or creating a freaking miles-long biomantic shark. And whenever someone calls him out he's just so bluntly telling the truth (from his point of view) that is is pretty disarming.

Now the party can understand his reasoning, even if that doesn't make things right for Lord Rego and his citizens. Cuin goes on to say that if the Monastery and its Masters truly wish to make a difference in this conflict then they should start helping out people who already suffered in the past. And a good start would be to contact Rego, apologize and use their damn storm powers to maybe give them good weather or something like that so they don't starve to death.

Longinus finally raises his soft voice and calls this a fair proposal. He adds that his brother is really sorry for what happened back then and will see what he can do for Rego. In addition they will create an orb of storms which can keep the firestorm in Korstull at bay. Meanwhile, he personally invites the young “mentalists” to join him in his studies as he is a master seer and pretty sure that both Crystin and Tinuviel can benefit from his guidance.

Tinuviel is a bit hesitant, especially as he knows how easily Crystin can be manipulated and how valuable her powers are. Still he sees this as the perfect opportunity for her to understand her full potential, so why not?

This evening, Tinuviel sends message to Simeonne to give her a full report on what happened in Ostalin, including the fate of Eril and his team. The headmastress seems relieved to finally know about her missing team's fate and she agrees that Pilus and his brother shouldn't be trusted too easily. But they'd still need their aid, so it would be wise to not upset or anger them too much.

Torrent visits him shortly after and says that she kind of misses “Tash” and his booze. Tinuviel is a bit surprised at this revelation and asks her whether she likes the Ranger to which she replies “Yeah, kind of. He's really a nice person, you know?”. This turns Tinu rather jealous and he says he thought that him and her were more than just friends. Torrent then grins and says that her cute little “more than friend” should then maybe decide what kind of relationship he wants as she'd surely not have any of his jealousy as long as he is fine flirting and making out with every other tavern girl.
“Lesson learned” he replies before gently kissing her.

Note: I totally left it up to Tinu on how to proceed with their relationship. As he constantly noted that he was sorry that he'd been such a jerk to Torrent by having affair after affair (and Torrent not minding at all because she's rather free spirited and didn't really have a relationship with Tinu), I thought that the little Elf might feel more for her. And tried to test him. So now she had this little moment with Tashalanos and I was actually a bit surprised that Tinu was upset about her swooning. We'll see how this turns out

The next days, Tinu, Three Weeping Ravens and Crystin are busy meditating and training with Longinus while Cuin'halar and Torrent prepare for their journey to Sindaire. They don't want anyone to know about their plan to clear the firestorm, so they debate on the best approach and check all the maps available.

Side-Note: Don't know if I already mentioned this, but my players can barely keep themselves straight whenever I say “Longinus”. They've both seen Life of Brian and the walking joke that is “Biggus Diggus” is called “ Schwanzus Longus” in the German version of the movie. So yep, Ostalin has become a giant pun-fest.

During the week, Tinuviel contacts cousin Shalosha via psychic messaging again. Shalosha tells him that she's happy to finally hear of someone who's not trying to get her home to Calanis as the constant sending and scrying attempts of the royal wizards strain her nerves. She says that she's adamant about finding help in Sindaire and maybe finding clues about the assassins of Coaltongue and asks him of his, Torrent's and Cuin'halar's whereabouts. Tinuviel says he's driven away some notable Ragesians lately, including a certain Second General Signus, but they are still in central Ostalin trying to convince the Khagan to become allies. He adds that she should still be careful to not run into the first Ragesian Army as he heard that Magdus is still around and he's no friends of the Sindairese. Shalosha thanks him and wishes him good luck but also replies that she'll be just fine.

Tinuviel then heads to Cuin to tell him about his talk with Shalosha. He's pretty upset when Cuin'halar calls him naïve to give away this much information while getting nothing in return. Tinu answers that is wasn't in his interest to spy on his cousin, but to check up on her well-being and he also said that they were still in dialogue with the Khagan. “But you totally told her about Signus. What if she runs into him now that he's running back to daddy Magdus?” he answers. Let's just say Tinu got quite embarrassed. But then he adds “At least we know something: She's being scryed all the time, so we can totally scry her without drawing suspicion!”. Now Cuin admits that he has a point there, so they could maybe scry her tomorrow before their trip to Sindaire.

The next morning they say goodbye to Crystin (who wants to stay with Longinus and learn being a seer) and Three Weeping Ravens (who promises to keep an eye on Crystin while trying to learn more about his new existence). Pilus hands his freshy forged Orb of Storms to the group of three and explains that its magic wouldn't last forever. He assumes that it will only last for a week. When they ask him whether they could turn it off and on again he says that it wouldn't be wise to try this as it could shorten the overall duration. Before they leave, Crystin comes to them and says that she and Longinus called upon a divination regarding their mission.

Crystin first gives them the following: “A perilous climb. Revelation, deception. Horses fly from fire.“.
She then adds that she had a “classic Crystin vision” not much later where she saw golden threads and black threads which intertwined when they met.

Finally, Longinus comes to them to tell them that they can count on his support. He says he had a divination he made a few months ago and is now pretty sure that it points to them:

“Three Ravens and two more climb the path accompanied by golden fire and silver steel. The hold the scales in their hands. Kindred spirit among them may find the sleeping dragon who slumbers in the world's heart and who baptizes everyone's fate in flames.”​

He's not sure whether the “Sleeping Dragon” points to the Flamebringer Dragon or whether this is meant as a metaphor but he knows that this will be important in the not so far future and if he can help them quench the flames then he'll surely support them.

The group thanks him as well and asks Longinus to take good care for Crystin and Three Weeping Ravens. Then they say goodbye to the Master of the East Wind and start their journey to Sindaire. Even if they originally planned to scry Shalosha before leaving the Monastery, they don't know whether the Masters have means to intercept and “hack” into their scrying spell, so they decide to first walk for a while before starting their incantation.

Unfortunately their first two attempts at scrying the Shahalesti princess fail. Then Tinuviel succeeds and instantly shares his vision with the mind linked Torrent and Cuin'halar. However, the image they are getting from their third attempt shocks them a bit. They see Shalosha, and she's accompanied by a bunch of high class Solei Palantis guards. She's also holding a white flag and approaching a group of Ragesians while standing in the middle of a full fledged Ragesian encampment.

It seems like she's giving the scrying sensor some annoyed side-eyes before respectfully addressing a fully armed, black haired Ragesian with a commanding presence. The man introduces himself as General Magdus of the First Ragesian army and assures “Her Royal Highness, Princess Shalosha of Shahalesti” and her guards that there's no need to worry as he's a man of honor who'll respect a white flag and a request for parley. So as long as they don't try to play tricks on him they will be treated like guests, not prisoners. Shalosha returns the favor by saying that it is indeed an honor to be given the opportunity to talk to the man who's so loyally serving his late Emperor. While moving into the command tent, she adds that they my actually have more interests in common than he might think as she also wants to desperately find out who truly killed Emperor Coaltongue so she can save her people by taking away the Scourge's legitimacy.

The tent's defensive magics then block off the scrying sensor and the spell goes out. And now they know that they probably shouldn't share any more information with Shalosha lest they wish to risk also possibly informing Magdus in the process.

Note: I really enjoyed this reveal. I knew Tinu would be scrying Shalosha, so I prepared this little scene (and some more had he tried to scry her again) and watched their jaws drop when they realized that their dear princess was in fact not trying to contact the Sindairese, but their sworn enemies. Shalosha's general plan is to get to know Magdus, see if he is trustworthy and support him as new Emperor instead of Leska. She's also toying with the idea of proposing a political marriage to ensure that her father wouldn't attack Ragesia...

 

[Lylandra]

Into Korstull

They continue their journey through the town of Ronda and finally reach the outskirts of Gathin, the last hamlet before the continuing rain of fire over Korstull. They were warned in Ronda that Ragesian patrols might frequent the area around Korstull and got general directions on where the main encampment of the First Army might be located. Clever as they are, they plan to approach the castle from the other way round and want to visit Gathin for a final gathering of local information.

Just when they arrive in Gathin, they witness a group of Ragesians harassing a farmer. Their leader, some guy calling himself “Commander Rohat” is kind of throwing the farmer out of his home and demands him to leave everything and everyone insider to his patrol's personal pleasure.
As they don't know how many Ragesians more might be in Gathin, the group decides to hide behind some bushes to avoid getting rounded up themselves. Then Cuin'halar raises his voice from the bushes and orders Rohat to stop as he has surely better things to do than to harass innocent townsfolk. Rohat in return wants the “hiding coward” to show himself, waits a second, and then strikes down the farmer.

This surely enrages Cuin who steps out of his hiding, weapon drawn and ready for combat. Rohat, who's in the mood for more bloodshed, rallies his patrol to attack the lone, lunatic elf. Meanwhile Tinuviel and Torrent turn invisible and get to the mortally wounded farmer. Fortunately, Torrent's healing spells are able to save the man from bleeding out. Then they join Cuin in his fight against the Ragesian cavalrymen.

It turns out that “this lunatic” was stronger than anticipated and so commander Rohat and his patrol quickly meet their end. The farmer and his family thank them for saving their lives. From them, they learn that Ragesian general Magdus and his First Army are camping nearby and that they occasionally send soldiers to get them supplies. This has been going on for months now and it seems like they just turned up their level of cruelty.
They also find a message for Rohat saying that they should look out for “the Seaquenian squad” as divinations revealed that they may just arrive in Gathin soon.

They use all the information they got to draw a map of the area and decide to approach from the opposite direction of the Ragesian encampment. Tinuviel uses clairvoyance on parts of the encampment he saw when he scryed Shalosha and sees a small Shahalesti encampment nearby. He also sees the man he now knows as general Magdus taking a relaxed morning stroll through his camp.

They see this as a perfect opportunity to use the Orb of Storms and activate it. Just as Pilus planned, the orb creates a zone that negates the fiery (and strangely necrotic) rain in its area. So they clear the way and approach castle Korstull.

To their shock, the soldiers who died due to the sudden firestorm seem to have become undead. They fight off some of them who don't pose much of a threat and decide to hurry through this nightmarish wasteland as they know that the Ragesians had more than just normal soldiers fighting for them.

Just when they finally get to see the castle in all of its creepy glory, they hear something approaching from behind. What surprises them even more is the fact that the strange sounds belong to a wagon that's approaching them at high speed. For a moment they can see that he people driving the wagon are gnomes and then a lightning strikes from the sky, hitting the road between them and the wagon. In this very moment it feels like they are being watched by something sinister. Undead start to rise and the party first decides to seize the moment to get rid of their seeming pursuers. But then they realize that the gnomes start fighting the undead and that one of them is actually smiting them with burning enthusiasm, they decide to join the fight and help them.

Note: I was a bit surprised that my group wanted to leave Clan Millorn to their own luck, but they were kind of paranoid at this point and sworn to secrecy. They decided that all of their missions had to be top secret, especially the fact that they were after the torch. They also never told anyone besides their fellow Lyceans about the Trillith and the danger that they may pose.

I also was kind of confused that Clan Millorn would be ahead of the group in the original scenario and it made not so much sense in the way my group decided to approach. So I gave them their special pimped speed wagon to follow their trail instead. “What is this, a gnomish Ferrari ?!” Tinu's player asked.

After they finished the undead, the Paladin, Grellfin, hails them and thanks them for their help. Shortly after, the Clan's leader, Jorrina Waryeye, introduces herself while also telling Grellfin to maybe act more carefully next time as not all of them are keen on the smite-smash-for-honor approach. Tinuviel asks them how the hell they could have known of the breech so quickly and it turns out that Jorrina is a skilled divination expert who had a vision that a path to Korstull would open up here soon. Clan Millorn is surprisingly uninterested in the Torch and is more interested in the late Emperor's treasure. They suggest that they may share their findings as they assume that the Seaquenians are simply another adventuring group.

The party doesn't tell the gnomes about their quest for the torch and say that they are not interested in treasure, but rather seeking information about Coaltongue's assassins and his demise. Cuin adds that he is very sure that Korstull is a very dangerous place and most likely filled with more undead horrors, so the gnomes should better think twice about entering. The clan doesn't want any distraction from their goal though and they insist to go to Korstull with them. Cuin says that's fine with them as long as they don't get in their way.

After a bit back and forth, they finally reveal to Clan Millorn that they are interested in the Torch, but only to keep it from being abused by either the Ragesians or the Shahalesti. They promise that the Clan may keep anything that's resembling treasure (jewels, money and the like) while they would like to keep the things that may keep them alive or contain valuable information.

Then the two groups proceed to the entrance of the castle. As Tinuviel guesses that the main entrance might be the more dangerous path, they suggest that Jorrina and her team search for alternative means of entrance. Turns out that he was right when the two stone goddesses come alive and try to smash the elf to the ground. The two golems pose no real threat though.

After a short while, Clan Millorn joins them. The gnomes wonder about the two shattered statues and tell the team about the bulette tunnels they found. One contained an earth elemental which they didn't want to fight, so they decided to return to their partners. The mention of the elemental is enough to let Cuin, Tinu and Torrent search for the creature. They are happy to see that this one is actually not openly hostile to them as it only wants to protect his castle and was ordered by his master, Lord Gorquith, to do so. He hasn't heard from his master since a long time though and he cannot be free until he is released from service by his Lord.

The party promises to search for Gorquith as they also want to know more about the Sindairese rebellion since the rebels might become allies of Seaquen in time. And getting their hands on Gorquith (even if he is most likely dead) would surely help their cause.

When they return to Clan Millorn, they assure the gnomes that the elemental would cause no trouble for them. They also ask them to inform them should they find a Lord Gorquith or any notion of his fate somewhere. Then they enter the large foyer with its four doors and beautiful mural decoration. Here they decide to split up and take the right door, leaving the left one for the Clan.

They enter the stable and equestrian track area and find two former aquiline knights turned undead and riding on nightmare steeds. As they were proceeding very cautiously, they were able to spot the two fallen knights in advance, buff themselves and strike the two steeds hard. This causes the knights to fall down and be easy prey for the three seasoned heroes. Torrent is horrified that even devout knights of the Aquiline Cross can become such wicked creatures by the planar rift's magic and she assumes that something truly sinister must be going on in this castle.

They are suddenly pulled out of this thought when they hear screams of fear and then the familiar sound of weapons clashing. They hurry back to the foyer and see Grellfin valorously holding the entrance to the barracks, fending off what seems like an army of undead. Meanwhile, Oller tries to bomb them with holy water grenades while Jorrina prepares to unleash her illusion spells.

Note: I was a bit unsure what to do with the fact that Clan Millorn got tasked with one of the most dangerous zones in all of Korstull. As they immediately split up into left and right, Reddengrot had no time to alert the warriors and send out the patrols. This saved them from having to deal with the patrols later, but also meant that they'd have to fight the warriors AND the dread wraith in one go. I also didn't want to annihilate the gnomes without giving my party the chance to react, so I gave them the option to join the fight.

Also: More Monty Python jokes! And the Paladin holding the door is also a running gag in our group. “Can you just hold the dung monster off for a few more rounds?” “Umm...yeah... sure?”

The group immediately realizes that the Clan just got themselves into grave danger and decide to help them out. Cuin rushes to Grellfin's side and keeps the army of dark pyre soldiers from emerging and surrounding them all. Meanwhile, Tinuviel summons elemental fields into the barracks that start eroding the fiends slowly but steadily. This enraged Reddengrot who just flies through the wall and ambushes Tinuviel. Tinu gets heavily drained, but Torrent and the rest of the clan help him fight the dread wraith. Cuin'halar sings the Song of Forms which keeps Reddengrot from fleeing and so they kill him before he can retreat to Griiat. Meanwhile, the rest of Clan Millorn hides in Jorrina's invisibility sphere.

Clan Millorn thanks the trio for their help and especially Grellfin is impressed with their fighting prowess and teamwork. Cuin'halar, who starts to like the Paladin and especially his special dragon companion, takes him aside and talks to him in private. He says that he's pretty sure Grellfin is the one who has both the most combat experience and feels most responsible for his group. Therefore, he asks him to talk some reason into his comrades as this fight right now would have easily been the end of the clan had they not come for help. Grellfin sees reason in his words, but also says that he believes Jorrina and her abilities and she saw a good fortune for them in her visions. He promises to approach more carefully though.

Speaking of more carefully, Tinuviel totally misses a trap when he finds the secret door in the barrack's ceiling and gets blasted by the glyph of warding. They find nothing really useful in the armory though and give the gnomes their fair share of the treasure.

They proceed to the guest quarter of the castle only to find more undead and an... undead bulette. This results in a rather hilarious fight where they manage to get all of the undead soldiers stacked up nicely in the hallway while a hungry bulette tries to make its way to its preferred prey. They all fall victim to the Living Blade, a number of area powers and Torrent's holy energy though.

Next they find the bath house, or what's left of it. Cuin mutters that it is a shame what's become of this beautiful room when suddenly the hellwasp swarms arise. As they know that swarms can be quite nasty, Tinuviel summons his persistent psychic field again. Then they simply close the door, hold it shut and wait until the noises die off.

Note: I didn't expect that solution when I first read of this encounter. I knew from adventure 2 that swarms are kind of the archenemy of a melee-heavy party, but didn't anticipate that Tinu had taken come contingency AoE powers that turned out to be quite handy in this dungeon.

Once the bath house is safe to enter, they search and clean the room carefully and find, to Cuin's delight, a magical platinum hair pin. Needless to say that he immediately uses it to re-arrange his marvelous hair.

Then they head to the lift station and open the door. To their horror, the Feaster of flesh and soul that has been waiting there patiently ever since lashes out to Cuin'halar, grabs him, rips out his soul and swallows it. Torrent and Tinuviel panic at this sight, but manage to kill the undead horror before it can consume their friend's soul. Once the beast is dead, Cuin's soul return to his body. What is surprising, however, is the fact that his soul seems to sprout golden wings for the brief moment it needs to travel back to its body.

Note: I loved the Feaster in a pretty wicked way. I'm all for dangerous opponents that can become very deadly if they can simply do their thing if left alone but have some sort of reaction time to prevent a character's death. This is so much better than simple fail-or-die luck games that were all too common in 3.x.

Also, this monster let me hint at Cuin being more than he thought he is. To this point he had the idea that while he knew he could contribute to something important, he himself was more or less unimportant. He knew the Trillith would have a big role to play in the events to come and both Crystin and Tinuviel were among these “important beings”, so he had to do everything to protect them. Still he had some mild inferiority complex about that. And this is about to change very soon.

 

[RangerWickett]

Hm. A party with no rogues. I wonder how they'll handle the elevator.

 

[Lylandra]

Oh, they do have a rogue in Tinuviel. But his disabling skills were not really needed for the elevator.

 

[Lylandra]

Lord Jelly and his merry undead

As a short note for those who might ask why I'm speaking of “the gnomes” of Clan Millorn: I completely cut halflings from my campaign and replaced them with gnomes. I didn't feel like halflings were adding much to the campaign, no player was interested in playing one anyway and there was no instance where having a halfling was necessary for the plot. Gnomes on the other hand were established as a fearless, strong-willed folk since adventure 1 (Gabal, Badgerface) and so I kept them.

I also like the concept of the party's friendly rivals, even if they didn't really rival my own party's abilities. I toyed a bit with the idea of making the gnomes a bit stronger and let my players play them every now and then, but realized that especially Cuin'halar's player loves his character and wouldn't be too happy to play someone else (even if he envied Grellfin for his dragon). So I kept Clan Millorn at their original power level which made them a good deal weaker than the party.

The trio examines the elevator and its mechanism, but they quickly find out that it wouldn't be working in its current state. So there has to be some kind of power source or other means to activate it. They do spot the silvery glimmering end of the elevator shaft and Cuin thinks that this might be some sort of planar rift that could be linked to the astral plane.

The team re-unites with Clan Millorn and they discuss possible means of setting up a camp for the upcoming night. They all agree that the stables might pose a perfect spot as they'd avoid being cornered and Jorrina agrees to place her magnificent mansion there. The gnomes tell Tinu, Torrent and Cuin that they already scanned the area for traps and found none. What they did find was a pump that was guarded by undead and so they decided to retreat and discuss the matter with the others. They also heard strange, whistling noises from the supposed second floor, but didn't inquire any further, even if Grellfin was sure he smelled something fell .

The trio agrees to take a look at the undead, so Jorrina and her team can go on to prepare the campsite. To their surprise, they find the undead, a group of skeletal gnolls, hidden behind a secret door. Their leader, a nasty-looking individual named Thorkrid the Dark, insists that they leave this place or else they'll attack. Cuin, who didn't really expect the gnoll to be that talkative, takes this as an opportunity to return the favor. He asks them why he is guarding this specific room and doesn't roam free like the others. Thorkrid explains that he is serving his master, Inquisitor Griiat, who ordered him to make sure no one repairs the pump.

It turns out that Thorkrid isn't really fond of his “master”, as he'd rather like to rule over Korstull himself. Therefore, Cuin offers him a deal: Thorkrid helps them reach and remove Griiat (he explains that they hate inquisitors with a passion) by activating the pump and making sure no one deactivates it again. In return, they will leave Korstull after they finished their business here, so the gnoll can be king of the castle. A plan to which Thorkrid can agree, so he orders his cultists to repair the pump system.

This kind of beats two birds with one stone as Cuin hopes that a possessive gnoll could also defend his castle against the First Army, should they realize that the path to Korstull is open.

After they finished business with Thorkrid, they advise the gnomes to not disturb the gnoll cultist's lair. Then they investigate the strange whistling noise Clan Millorn heard earlier. The team gets to the kitchen where they find tiny footprints and signs that someone could have been here to gather food and wash the dishes a short time ago. They also hear sounds of a party (even if there is no whistling) nearby, but find the entrance to what appears to be the dining hall blocked. As they know that there should be an entrance for the castle's servants somewhere else (so they can bring in the food without disturbing dinner), they search for an alternative.

Note: I applaud both my player's quick thinking and the really logical layout of Korstull at this point. I'm usually not that fond of dungeons, but I really liked this one as it made sense and offered lots of opportunities to explore and to talk to its denizens.

After a quick search, they find the secret door leading to the banquet hall. To their surprise, the undead inhabitants seem to be enjoying themselves with a big party, led by a huge ochre jelly on a throne who seems to be wearing an ioun stone.

“Who disturbs the feast of Lord Gorquith and his fellow Lords?!” the jelly speaks in a bubbly voice, before the other skeletons answer “Food!” in unison. The trio is even more surprised by this revelation. They quickly explain that they are no food, but could be of help to the sindairese rebels. They add that they were looking for a “Lord Gorquith” as they are emissaries from Seaquen who wish to form an alliance against the Ragesians. This is convincing enough for Lord jelly to call off the attack on the delicious mortals and start negotiations.

Gorquith explains the reason for his dreadful existence due to Inquisitor Griiat's cruel means of executing the rebel leader. He says he hopes Coaltongue is rotting in hell for his crimes against Sindaire and adds that he'd gladly join forces with any enemy of Ragesia, but he's also pretty sure that his allies would be horrified by his new form. In return the party tells him all that happened during the time he was locked in Korstull. They hope to find clues on the Torch's and Coaltongue's assassins' whereabouts (Gorquith: “Make sure to give them a medal for their deeds when you find them!”). It also seems like they have to dispose Inquisitor Griiat (and maybe also another Inquisitor named Darius) first, so they'd be really grateful for any information about Korstull.

Gorquith seizes the opportunity to propose yet another deal: Return him to life, so he may lead his forces once again. In return, he will provide them with vital information and they may keep all the castle's treasure on top of that. He tells them where the needed resurrection scroll can be found and they promise him to return in time.

Note: See, just talk one sentence with an NPC and you can be sure that at least Cuin'halar talks back. He wouldn't start a fight unless he's 100% sure that his opponent is a despicable person or unless he knows that bringing someone down is necessary. Tinuviel is easier to stir to violence and the two brothers can (and thankfully do!) debate quite a lot about their preferred courses of actions.

Also, Gorquith. Going from a really cruel scene to crude irony that gave me a good laugh in a matter of a few sentences. Whoever came up with the ioun-stone wearing skeleton in an ochre jelly and the macabre feast has a brilliant sense of humor.

As Gorquith gave them the information that the needed resurrection scroll is in the healing haal behind the chapel area, and the party did find some hints that there might be devils somewhere upstairs on the foyer stairs, they return to Clan Millorn and ask Grellfin Flintfindercandle whether he'd like to accompany them as a paladin could be interested in driving evil forces away from such a hallowed ground. Grellfin agrees and so the team is expanded by one gnome paladin and his faithful white dragon.

They find the entrance to the chapel area barred as well, but Tinuviel uses the keyhole to dimension door himself to the other side and remove the immovable rods. Behind the door they find an unhappy looking imp who's about to run off. They manage to catch the creature who instantly begs them to do him no harm as he's only Luxkamma's servant and did nothing wrong.

Grellfin wants to smite the pitiful imp, but Tinuviel, Torrent and Cuin'halar ask him to wait just a moment as the creature might have some valuable information. After all, he just mentioned a “mistress Luxkamma” who might be either another devil, an inquisitor or an evil spellcaster. Pilmat starts crying over the debate and so Tinuviel feels the need to gag him as he doesn't want to alert this Luxkamma.

Once Grellfin promises to give the imp a chance and Pilmat promises to stop his wailing, the imp explains that he once served a wizard and only wishes to be his own master. Luxkamma and her lover Alsau enslaved him however and said they had orders from a certain Guthwulf to examine the castle. Then they sent him to make a deal with Griiat, but he was too afraid to do so and so he just told them that everything's alright. Needless to say that the party is relieved to hear that these devils are not in league with the master Inquisitor.

Now that they know how many devils are roaming around here, they tie up and gag Pilmat and leave him in the foyer while they cautiously sneak from room to room to catch the devils unaware. They manage to kill two bearded devils who are brewing poison in the chapel kitchen, find a powerful undead soldier in the storage and decide to just keep him locked up.

They find the main bunch of devils, including Luxkamma and Alsau, the bone devils, in the Main chapel where they are enjoying themselves with painting obscenities over the holy murals. Grellfin has enough of this blasphemy and charges Liselle, the erinyes. A huge battle breaks out and as soon as the party downs Alsau and the other two bearded devils, Liselle and Luxkamma teleport away to hide invisibly. This makes the party start looking for them and the bring them down after a few minutes of a game of hide, stalk and seek.

Grellfin is satisfied in the end and they also find the promised scroll of resurrection in the hall of healing. Tinuviel asks the rest of the group to search the whole chapel are to which everyone can agree. They all make small offerings in the Pantheon hall, clean up the statues of their respective patron deities and Grellfin fills several vials of holy water (for Oller, he says).

Once they enter the meditation chamber however, they suddenly feel watched. When Tinuviel touches one of the mirror shards lying around here, he can momentarily see a spectral image of an inquisitor who turns to watch him directly in the eyes. What is even more frightening is the fact that there are several mirrors in this inquisitor's room and they all depict different areas of Korstull. Not wanting to be watched any further, they withdraw from the chamber.

On their way down they pick up Pilmat and promise him to bring him to Lyceum where he can be dismissed from this plane and sent back to the hell he was called from. Pilmat seems content with this plan and congratulates them on their heroic victory over nasty, wicked Luxkamma.

While Grellfin takes Pilmat to their campsite in the horsetrack area, the rest of the group pauses for a moment to talk about the resurrection scroll. As Gorquith told them earlier, Coaltongue brought a huge dragon skeleton with them when he had this castle built and they know only one dragon this skeleton could belong to: Syana. Now there could be this tiny chance to actually resurrect the guardian of Ycengled with the scroll, but they also promised Gorquith to return him to life. And as much as Cuin wishes to see Syana alive again, he should probably keep his promise and see what he can do for the dragon once he reaches her.

Note: This put me totally off-track. I honestly didn't think about this possibility and on paper there was no concrete reason why a resurrection spell should fail. Now this could “simply” break the end of adventure 6 and the beginning of 7 for most groups, but Syana is a very special dragon in my campaign and I'd probably give away all of her secrets and destroy some of my future gambits should she come back to life. We had some discussion about my little problem in this thread http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?513854-Oops-they-did-it-again and I ruled that Syana would lack too much of her soul to come back should someone really try to resurrect her.

Then they head back to Lord Gorquith and his band of merry undead. They say that they'll keep their promise and resurrect him as soon as he died a second time. “But what about me?!” cries Findle, Gorquith's minstrel “this isn't fair!”. This leads to a discussion between the Sindairese aristocrats until the party offers to resurrect them all if they agree to be killed and have the needed material components transferred to the Lyceum by an official degree.

Then they go on to put them all to rest, take a tooth of each Lord with them and resurrect Gorquith. The Lord is more than grateful for his rescue and gives them the promised information on the upper areas of Korstull. He also gives them the code for the elevator and adds that this is some rather deadly trap for any uninvited intruder. The trio then returns to the campsite and decides to take a longer rest for the night as the pump will need several more hours to reach the required pressure level for the main lift.

See, no rogue needed. In the end, honest diplomacy saved the day

 

[Lylandra]

Deceptive Nightmares

Lord Gorquith, the Seaquenians and Clan Millorn all decide to go sleep in the secure shelter of Jorrina and they put special emphasis on keeping the rebel leader safe as they know that there are still Ragesians out there somewhere. The Clan and the party agree to take turns on standing watch for the night.

During one of the first watches, two gnomes come running back to the shelter, bringing news of turmoil at the main entrance. The three heroes decide to take a look at what's going on there and find the earth elemental fighting undead intruders. They call out to the earth elemental that his Lord is safe within Korstull and that he may retreat. This causes the undead to hammer against the massive door and Oller takes the opportunity to bombard them with his holy water grenades through the arrow slits. Cuin, Torrent and Tinuviel help him get rid of the undead.

Suddenly, they hear combat noises coming from the stables area. Fearing for Gorquith's fate, they rush back to their shelter and find a chaotic scenery. Jorrina Grellfin and some of the Clan Millorn guards are desperately fighting a fully grown Vrock and two incorporeal undead they identify as tragedies. Grellfin is in a smity mood, as expected, but the fight seems too much for even the valorous paladin.

Oller and the trio are quick to join the battle, when Tinuviel suddenly switches targets and stabs one of the Millorn clansmen. When he realizes what he just did, Tinuviel is frozen in shock and insists that he was sure he'd hit the demon. Grellfin knocks out one of his own as well and neither of them can really explain what is happening. Cuin'halar, afraid to actually harm one of his friends, blindfolds himself and lets Tinuviel guide him towards the right target. This tactic seems to work and so they are able to kill off Kyzu-Nior, the Vrock Griiat summoned to kill them.

Still even a Vrock is usually not able to make allies turn against each other and so this strange occurrence stays a mystery. After they barely save the two stabbed gnomes, Jorrina runs off to look for her missing clansmen who ran off in fear. Fortunately, she finds Zooten and Verane hiding inside the shelter while Earnest ran off to one of the stables.

Note: I just had to make this one big fight to keep my party challenged. And yes, I totally used Deception's powers to let the good guys hit each others. Fortunately, no one suspected one of the gnomes to be the real culprit and they instead took this one on Griiat. Deception loathes his brother Empathy with a passion and so he decided to make his life as miserable as possible. And what better way to do that than to make him hurt innocents? (Well, turns out that his second gambit hit Tinu much harder in the end, but more of that later)

After they are sure that there are no more enemies around, the party tells Lord Gorquith the story of his faithful earth elemental. The Lord thanks his guardian for his service and dismisses him as he doesn't wish to keep him bound to Korstull forever. Then they resume their rest.

During his sleep, Tinuviel dreams of Crystin who appears floating in front of him. She tells him of a vision that might happen very soon: She saw him, Cuin'halar and Torrent ride a comet which landed in a vast field where they were surrounded by other people led by a newlywed couple. She tries to go more into detail, but then simply vanishes. Tinuviel then sees a vision of Shalosha and Magdus being wed in a splendorous ceremony. Everything seems fine until the bridal kiss when Magdus becomes more and more passionate until he tears away Shalosha's beautiful wedding dress and ravishes her. During this scene, she desperately calls to Tinuviel for help who is unable to move at all.

The elf awakes in shock and tells Cuin'halar everything he just witnessed in his vision. Full of barely contained anger he mumbles that he's totally going to kill Magdus should he ever come close to his cousin. Cuin tries to calm him down and reminds Tinuviel of the often very symbolic meaning of visions. He adds that he might just have a bad dream as well, so no need to get murderous.

They switch watch and Cuin encounters a strange dream as well. He remembers his soul being ripped out by the Feaster, but this time, the horrific being tear away his golden wings. His soul returns to his body and he feels relief and peace. The war comes to an end and he and Lady Timor start a happy family together. But then one day he goes off to Ycengled to look after his people. This is when he sees a person shrouded in a dark cloak slaughter all the remaining Taranesti. Once he killed the last of them, the person reveals himself to be Tinuviel before finally stabbing Cuin as well.

Note: I admit it, that was kind of cruel. So what happened was that Deception, who was very close to them all the time, just manipulated their dream and turned their fears and paranoia against them. In Tinu's case I used his latent feelings for Shalosha (his player told me that he loved her despite his relationship with Torrent) and crossbred them with his very own adolescent fears of what might happen to her in the Ragesian camp.

For Cuin, I mixed his longing to be special on the one hand and his growing feelings for Lady Timor on the other and mixed it with his worst fear: The total annihilation of the Taranesti. As he's in most cases the more calm and reasonable of the two elves and tries to talk Tinu out of his murderous intents, I found it kind of fitting to have him turn assassin without Cuin's guidance. Plus, this gave me an option to foreshadow the “corpse in Ycengled” spook of adventure 7.

Cuin wakes up and discusses what he just dreamed about with Tinuviel. He stresses out that he doesn't think he'd ever betray him or turn against his people. Tinuviel agrees, psionically links their minds and says “I feel like this is Deception's work. He's toying with our minds. We should be very, very cautious.”.

Once they finished their rest, Thorkrid sends a messenger who says that the pressure is at the required level. However, something at the mechanism is still amiss, so they need a bit more time to fix it and Thorkrid would appreciate any kind of help so he can become master of Korstull soon. The group agrees and so they send some of Clan Millorn's “mechanics” to help out the gnolls.

Shortly after, they hear noises coming from the entrance as a seemingly clumsy ragesian scout enters the castle to take a peek inside. The group quickly overwhelms the lone soldier and demands to know where she came from. The terrified scout explains that she's one of Magdus' soldiers who was ordered to report what's going on inside the castle. The trio demands to know where her friends are as she surely wouldn't have come all alone and the soldier tells them where her comrades can be found (she demanded that they'd kill neither of them though). They pick up the Rags and tie them up, then leave them in the foyer as they know that the soon to be expected First Army will surely release them.

Note: They insisted that there had to be more than one scout as “normal” Rags are no reckless jackasses and I could agree to their reasoning. Hence the three Ragesians.

Now they know that time is running short. They discuss their next steps with Clan Millorn and Lord Gorquith and while neither of the two parties wishes to be caught by the First Army, they also agree that running into Griiat and his army in what might be a mish-mash of the Astral Plane and the Elemental Plane of Fire might not be the best idea. So they agree that Grellfin helps them out again while Jorrina prepares to hide the rest in an invisible sphere should the Ragesians enter the castle before their fight with Griiat is over (or in case they were defeated)

Note: So I changed the “DM's contingency plan” a bit. Should they fail to defeat Griiat, there would still be a Ragesian army plus Shalosha and her elite bodyguards to rescue them in time.

Thanks to Lord Gorquith, they now have a map of the upper floor of Korstull, including possible traps like the arrow slits in the Watch Hall. So as soon as the lift mechanism is completely repaired, they enter the elevator and use the corresponding code in the correct sequence. The team of four is reasonably impressed by the elaborate death trap, especially the last wall of force. On their way up they prepare a good amount of buff spells as they know that they'd most likely be in the Astral Plane where time loses its meaning.

Note: Cuin and his ridiculous planar knowledge checks. Gabal would have been proud. We had a short debate on what “timeless” would all imply as “no aging” etc could be interpreted that nothing with a time-based duration would expire, including buffs. As I knew this would probably be the only time they'd fight on the Astral, I agreed to their interpretation and buffed everyone on the opposing side with Griiat's buffs as well. Just don't do this with players who hate math games.

They pass the silvery rift to the Astral plane and reach the upper floor of Korstull without any hindrance. Then the elevator door opens and Cuin immediately uses a wall of stone to shut off the arrow slits, and then casts a wall of force to cut off the Elite Quarters before going against the Dark Pyre soldiers one by one.

Once they are sure that they won't face any nasty surprises from behind, Tinuviel offers to invisibly sneak into the Dance Hall, take a peek and return with more information. He's a bit surprised when he's cut off from the rest of his team as soon as he enters the hall. Walls of fire appear at every entrance, a large double door is opened and a ghostly Inquisitor appears to greet the fool who dares to enter his playground and who will soon become fuel for the Dark Pyre.

“Oh sh*t, they can see me!” he shouts towards his friends who immediately rush through the wall of fire to come to Tinu's aid. They too see the Inquisitor, his hell cat companion and a seeming army of undead who seem to defy gravity. And then, right behind Griiat, they see the Dark Pyre. And inside of its flames, like they are frozen in time, they see three elvish looking figures. Cuin'halar takes a look around and his heart falters for a second when he sees what's hovering above them all: The skeleton of the gold dragon Syana.

Note: They really feared that Syana might have been turned into a drakolich or a skeletal dragon by Griiat and were so grateful that she was “only” hanging up there. Still a heart-wrenching situation for Cuin, who knew that Syana was not only the guardian of Ycengled, but also his mother's mentor and friend.

 

[RangerWickett]

Thanks for the inspiration on how to mess with characters' heads. By odd coincidence, in the game I'm running, I've decided to reuse Deception. We're playing Pathfinder on the core setting of Golarion, and the party is helping protect Desna, goddess of dreams. I wanted to inject some chaos into the fairly loyal group of PCs, so why not play a classic song this particular group of players has never heard before.

I'll have to use the "take what they're afraid of and present it as a dream portent of betrayal" idea.

 

[Lylandra]

You're welcome

Deception is such a great adversary for any character-focused group. Especially if you know your PCs well. So I hope you're going to have as much wicked fun as I had. Especially with Tinuviel who really started to hate Magdus with a passion.

 

[Lylandra]

An unexpected conclusion

Note: For the battle with Griiat, I decided to try out a pathfinder version of minions who have a bit more effective HP (called wounds) and a decent hit bonus. I felt like buffing all combatants would be over the top and using low level mobs would be completely futile. Did I mention that I really like the 4e minions?

Cuin, fearing for Tinuviel's life, decides to ignore the heat of the wall of fire (he had buffed resictance anyway) and dances into the room to fight the undead. Torrent and Grellfin follow his example, using their holy energies to keep Griiat's minions at bay. As soon as he realizes that gravitation is kind of subjective in the astral plane and that the undead seem to make use of that fact, Tinuviel uses his psionics to join the group of enemies at the ceiling.

While Cuin tries to keep the sergeants and the invisible hellcat at bay, Grellfin charges at Griiat and uses his holy power to make the ghost corporeal. He isn't able to do much damage though, but insists that he'll fare just fine. Meanwhile, Griiat uses his blade barrier and unholy fire against the group. As soon as Cuin sees an opportunity, he jumps at Griiat and defeats the inquisitor. Fortunately, this kills all of the other undead as well as the Dark Pyre bursts with power, unleashing a wave of energy. It also seems like they just returned to the material plane.

The group is happy for now and after they heal up their wounds, Grellfin decides to get the rest of his clan up there as well. Meanwhile, the other three examine the Dark Pyre. Now they can clearly see the shapes of three elves, one of them holding a fiery torch in one hand and a jagged scimitar in the other hand. What's unsettling Cuin however is the fact that he knows this weapon. He heard tales of Shaalguenyaver, the black, soul-eating scimitar of Rhuarc, the half-elven Knightslayer and remembers that he saw him once in the vision of the Torch's creation. And that torch-wielding hooded figure might just be the very same, deadly Rhuarc.

Note: Shaalguenyaver. Another one of *those* words. It becomes far easier when you cut it down into the three pieces "Shaal" (meaning obviously "bright" like in Shaaladel) "guen" and the ending "yaver" (meaning something "dark" like in Taryaver). I think someone tried to make a believeable elvish language there...

Tinuviel takes some time to collect some small bone fragments from Syana's skeleton as he wishes to try resurrecting her later. Torrent offers them to be able to at least talk to Syana, as she memorized a speak with dead spell. She doesn't know whether this will work on a dragon who's been dead for decades though. Cuin wants to give it a try, so the cleric prepares the corresponding ritual.

Meanwhile, the two elves decide to search the remaining upper floor of Korstull. They realize that time might be pressing as they can see an army approaching the castle. What's really disturbing them is the sight of elven troops among the Ragesians. Troops that can only belong to princess Shalosha.

They also find the Sky Palanquin, a magical carriage that is fueled by souls and might be used as an emergency escape mechanism. Fortunately, there are also enough soul gems to get this thing running. Finally, they get to the throne room and find... an unconscious man who seems to have written down a crude prophecy with his own bloody fingertips. They suspect that this guy might be Inquisitor Darius, the second Inquisitor Lord Gorquith spoke about. They decide to write down a copy of the prophecy, but don't know what to do with the guy. After all, he's an Inquisitor who will most likely have committed great cruelties against the Sindairese and other enemies of Ragesia.

Before they can make a decision, the rest of Clan Millorn arrive at the upper floor and Torrent calls them to join in her ritual. Fortunately the ritual works as planned and the grand skeleton moves its massive jaws to answer their call.

Syana says that she senses something familiar in Cuin'halar, and that he must be somehow related to her faithful student Eshânii. Cuin replies that he is indeed Eshânii's son who gave her life to protect the secrets of Ycengled from the Shahalesti. Syana is saddened to hear about her student's fate, and, over the course of their questions, also tells them that it wouldn't be possible to revive her as she used too much of her soul to share her magic with the Syllith. She also explains that she created her daughter Trilla via soul magic as she couldn't find a mate and wanted to seek out the secrets of life. She says that Trilla always had a unique form of psychic magic, and also strange dreams that would manifest from time to time, but she thought that her daughter would be able to control them in time. She then adds that Tinuviel also feels a bit like Trilla and the elf explains that he's somehow connected with a dream of Trilla.

Last, Cuin asks about the “ancient evil” Three Weeping Ravens mentioned that might be somehow corrupting Ycengled. Syana answers that there is indeed a spirit of pure evil in the Temple of Echoed Souls, but it is trapped there. She warns them to not go there and that this presence is among the few entities she really feared. Cuin thanks Syana for her wisdom and promises that they'll get her body out of here and give her a proper burial once they can safely return to Korstull.

Note: I don't follow the rules with the speak with dead spell too strictly as my party doesn't spam it to gather random information. I know that there are PCs out there who just kill opponents to get the info out of them via speak with dead (as it is easier than to subjugate or trick them), but... that's really not our approach. So I tend to be more lenient with the conversations.

They return to Darius and the Imperial chambers where they decide that Darius could have some valuable information as well, so it would be wise to try to save him from his delirium. Fortunately, Torrent has the required spells ready, so she heals Darius while the other two erase the written prophecy so neither Ragesians nor Shahalesti can read the text.

Note: And the restoration wands were conveniently placed up there as well

After they made sure that the treasure in Coaltongue's chamber is harmless even if there are dried puddles of blood everywhere (and yes, they were worried about the necromantic cheese!), they call for Clan Millorn so the gnomes may collect their fair share. Meanwhile, they drag Darius to the Inquisitor's chamber and heal him up. The trio explains the confused Inquisitor that they are part of General Magdus' troops and allies who came here to rescue the missing Inquisitor and to find out about their Emperor's fate. Darius believes them and tells them the whole story:

He stood guard at the imperial chamber when three elvish looking people attacked them. They killed the other guards and one dark elf lady kissed him with a poisonous kiss. He fell to the ground but saw that one of the elves had the bleeding body of his emperor with him. Then the three fled the scene and he lost consciousness.

Before they can question Darius any further, they all hear Jorrina Waryeye shrieking somewhere in the dancing hall. “Earnest, what are you doing!?” she screams and she sounds pretty terrified. As neither Tinu nor Cuin want any last minute casualties, they ask Torrent to care for Darius while they make a beeline to the dance hall. There they see Earnest, one of the Millorn clansmen who's holding up a strange glowing gem towards Syana's skeleton. His body starts sprouting tendrils and they immediately know that this has to be the Trillith Deception.

Tinuviel begins singing the Song of Forms and Cuin charges at the transforming gnome. “Leave her alone!” he shouts and tries to attack the Trillith, but he happens to wound Tinuviel instead. Cuin instantly recognizes this scheme from the fight with the Vrock, so he closes his eyes and asks Tinuviel to guide his strikes. Tinu forms a mental connection with Cuin and this time the coordinated attack works.

“It is too late. Grandmother will destroy you all!” he screams as he falls to the ground and finally dissolves in black mist.

It seems like they came too late indeed, as the dragon skeleton starts weeping bloody tears while flesh begins to form around her bones. Cuin who knows that they should better get the rest of them out of here runs towards Lord Gorquith, hands him his old hat of disguise and asks him to turn into a different person. Tinuviel rushes towards Torrent and Darius and dimension doors them all next to the Sky Palanquin.

Meanwhile, Syana is resurrected, but raging with anger. Fortunately she's still chained and needs some time to get rid of her bones, so the group has enough time to get everyone lacking fly spells into the Palanquin and depart through the glass window.

They get out of the frying pan and into the fire as there is still an army of Ragesians out there who see the glowing Palanquin and its fiery hippogriff steeds and decide that these must be the adventurers they are looking for. The party is lucky though as the first volley of arrows isn't able to reach them at all.

Next, they send wyvern knights to intercept the carriage. To their shock, they are accompanied by a group of elven soldiers who are led by none other than princess Shalosha herself. Cuin tries to fend off the Wyvern while Tinuviel flies towards Shalosha, greets her happily and even dances around her like a foal. Shalosha requests Tinuviel to take this situation seriously and demands that they land and surrender as they cannot win against an army of Ragesians. She promises them that they'll not be harmed though.

Just when she finished her demands, Syana breaks through the window with a mighty roar. Shalosha doesn't understand what this is all about, but she knows dragons and she knows that this one is angry. So she orders her Solei Palantis to leave the Palanquin and deal with the dragon instead. The she uses an invisibility spell as she doesn't want to become dragon food.

Tinuviel and Cuin do the same while Torrent stays in the Panalquin to guide it through the canyon below. Tinuviel comes too close to Syana though and gets feared by her menacing presence. Cuin intercepts Syana and tries to lure her away from the rest. Shalosha unleashes barrages of spells against the dragon and Cuin is pretty impressed by the princess' determination.

After a not so long fight, Syana is about to collapse. Cuin uses this time to turn visible again and tells the dragon that he's sorry for what he has to do now. Then he strikes her down with his scimitar, making sure that everyone is watching. Surprisingly, Syana's body doesn't fall to the ground, but rather dissolves into golden dust, forming the image of the guardian of Ycngled one last time. This aura floats right through Cuin'halar and resonates with something inside him. The two auras seem to combine, magic starts to erupt from Cuin and manifests then in the form of a big golden egg right in the elf's arms.

Both Tinu (who recovered from his fear) and Cuin are surprised by this chain of events, but they immediately turn the eye invisible and store it safely in Cuin's bag. They really don't wish to risk a Shahalesti seeing this.

Note: Yep, this is a real gold dragon egg, formed by the remnants of Syana and the soul shard that Eshânii sent to Cuin'halar when she sacrificed herself. Cuin's player loves dragons and Cuin always had his special connection to dragons of all kind (like Naielasza), so I decided that his “special something” could manifest itself in the form of an actual gold dragon. And he was really happy to the prospect of raising a tiny dragon. We'll see whether Syana foresaw this possibility.

As the Palanquin runs out of soul power, it does have to land next to the Ragesian army. The group is accompanied by Shalosha, but quickly surrounded by ragesian soldiers who all point their weapons at them.

“Careful, I just defeated that dragon” Cuin grumbles. Meanwhile, Darius is confused as he thought his new allies to be Ragesians as well. Shalosha explains that they are, unlike her, acquaintances, but not allies. She demands that the party hand over the inquisitor and “surrender” to General Magdus who only wishes to talk to them and would let them go as soon as he knows what happened to Coaltongue and the Torch.

Cuin turns sour in response. He says that Magdus had been in this area for months without making any progress and he doesn't see why they should be the ones doing the dirty work for the Ragesians. They all, including Clan Millorn, risked their lives in Korstull, so they have earned the right to question Darius. When Shalosha explains that she and Magdus are no friends of Leska and wish to find another way to get rid of her, he adds that he doesn't see Magdus or her as an enemy yet. So if they maybe want to become allies instead (as they all might have the same goal), they should maybe let them question Darius in Seaquen for one or two days and return him later. He promises that they won't do magical tricks on him. Shalosha says that this would be okay as long as they agree to talk with General Magdus about a possible alliance as well.

Tinuviel tries to convince Shalosha that they are family and that she'd be better off allying with them instead of Magdus. When Shalosha isn't convinced at all – she points out that they could have told her about their mission to Korstull as she would have supported and helped them, Tinu replies that he just had to protect her and that he's really happy to see her faring so well. He then approaches her, caresses her cheek and kisses her.

Shalosha is stunned for a moment. Then she slaps him just hard enough to non-verbally drive him off, glances over her shoulder at the just arrived Magdus, turns around and leaves.

Note: That took me by surprise as well. I was totally convinced that Tinu was in a happy relationship with Torrent and only worried for his cousin. His player mailed me that Tinu wasn't too happy about the prospect of Shalosha marrying Magdus (even if neither of them had officially proposed and this was until now all just based upon visions and nightmares) and that Tinu somehow thought he might be Shalosha's future match in a few decades from now. But going full Katrina on Torrent? That really wasn't on my radar. And it made their return to the promised parley even more interesting.

Also Shalosha... my vision of her is that of a politically savvy, idealistic and capable leader who has just been pampered by her father too long. I painted her as a bit more mature than Cuin and Tinu who are barely adult (both are around 50 and Shalosha is something around 100 years old). Which is why I cannot really see her falling for Rantle... sorry, my dashing scoundrel.

Cuin and Torrent are speechless as well. Once they recover from what they just witnessed, they decide to talk about the incident in private and part with Clan Millorn. The gnomes are happy about their joint venture and hope they'll go on adventures again someday.

Before they teleport back to Seaquen, they can see that Shalosha is busy talking to Magdus and it seems like she's trying to hold him back. They decide to leave before things escalate even further.

 

[Lylandra]

Negotiating with a General. Or: The return of the bastard

Note: Seems I forgot to talk about the Halfling Earnest aka Deception in my last post. I must admit that I kind of tricked my players a bit by not using all english handouts. I loved the word-play with “the earnest lie deceives” which was meant to be played literally on Earnest (and which also reminded me of the great “Importance of being Earnest” play). But I know that sometimes english sayings or wordplays or even words with more than one meaning can be hard to get for non-natives (I suffer from this all the time as a player! Plus we had quite a discussion on the meaning of “alight” in one of Nevard's visions, so I'm a burned child when it comes to language) as long as you don't know the background (which I, in the case of WotBS, do know, as I am the DM). And so I tried to translate the name and the words of Darius' prophecy into German. Which is why Earnest became Ernest (Ernst would have been the alternative, but he would have stood out too much) and the phrase “the earnest lie decieves” became “die ernsthafte Lüge täuscht” with Deception being “Täuschung”. Seems like I got them this time

Tinuviel teleports the party and the still invisible Gorquith to Seaquen. There they separate the rebel leader and the Inquistor and take Gorquith to Simeonne. The headmastress seems more than happy to see them all, and especially Gorquith, alive, even if they couldn't get their hands on the torch. She promises the Lord that he'd be more than welcome to join the anti-Leska-Alliance and that they'll hand him all the information they get out of Darius once they finish their interrogation.

Then they bring in Darius and try to explain what happened while he was sleeping. His emperor died and Leska seized control. She is basically in an all-out war with the rest of the world and some parts of the Ragesian army (Magdus and maybe Danava). So they ask him whether he'd be loyal to Coaltongue or whether he'd rather be on Leska's side which would mean trouble for him once they hand him back to Magdus. As Darius is quite the loyalist, he'd stick with Magdus and Coaltongue and says that he always got along well with “The old Dragon” he had been protecting and his “Best Man”. When they talk about Griiat and his atrocities, Darius explains that while he's no stranger to violence (but who isn't these days?), there are some inquisitors who enjoy torturing people and who take the writings of Guthwulf as some sort of bible. He doesn't really remember what he was writing down though, only images of a burning sky, an icy wind, fire and the dying scream of a large bird. And there were draconic eyes watching him from afar.

Simeonne seems satisfied with the info, and says that while Darius is a de facto prisoner, he should be treated well as he might remember something valuable. After all, he has to be transferred back to Magdus in a few days. Regarding the General, Simeonne asks the party to play envoy of Seaquen once again if the time arrives. Katrina, who's basically become Simeonne's secretary, and who's also wearing a brand-new anti-divination crown, offers to accompany them on their trip as she knows a bit of ragesian customs and they surely don't want to step on a general's toes. Cuin muses that Tinu might already have done that, but doesn't go into more detail.
After the meeting, Cuin'halar quickly moves to his room to take care for his gold dragon egg. He's read quite a bit about Dragons in the past, so he knows that he should probably keep it warm. He asks Tinuviel whether he may use his portable oven as soon as he realizes that “warm” might be quite a high temperature for a fire-based dragon. Both elves discuss how and why this egg could have come into being and what they are supposed to do with it. Cuin muses that it might be the crystallized essence of Syana that could or should be transferred to Trilla, but he can also sense some kind of life growing inside the egg, so maybe this is a reincarnated Syana. Or her child.

Note: Tinu originally commissioned the oven to recharge Toma's fire gem along the road. He really fears the burning sky, the little teleport-bunny. As expected, Cuin turned out to be quite a protective “dad” and decided to keep the egg a secret from anyone else.

Then Katrina knocks at their door and, as soon as she sees Tinuviel's face, she slaps him hard. “You bastard! You vile, evil, no-good idiot! You pitiful disgrace of a man!” she scolds him. Tinu takes a minute to grasp that Kat must have spoken to Torrent (who's her room-mate and also her friend) and she must have told his ex about “the kiss”. “Kat, I'm sorry. But you haven't seen what I have...” he tries to explain, but she doesn't let him finish. “You will make things right for Torrent or I swear that you'll pity the day you were born, you high-nosed Shahalesti!” she shouts before slamming the door in front of him.

“I totally earned that” Tinuviel sighs. “Yeah, you do”, Cuin'halar replies. Then Cuin tries to talk reason into Tinu. He says that while he could understand if his brother developed some hidden feelings for “the princess”, he should at least decide on his stance on Torrent. Especially after they just got their feelings sorted. After all she's their friend and even if Torrent seems to be the most mentally stable of them all, she has surely been hurt by Tinu's actions. So he should at least apologize and decide on their further relationship.

Tinu answers that it isn't that easy, as he does love Torrent, but he also knows that they will have no more than a few decades together as Torrent is a human and he is an elf. “So you're really planning to woo Shalosha in advance?” Cuin asks, eyebrow raised. “She'll need me. Calanis is a hornet's nest and she'll be the ruler of Shahalesti some day. She needs an ally she can trust. The world can't bear a second Shaaladel. Neither can it bear Shaaladel influencing Ragesian politics via Empress Shalosha”. Cuin laughs in return. “So you think that you, fifty-something, could be a political anchor for a woman double your age who was born and raised in Calanis? This is still about your vision of Magdus, isn't it?”

Tinuviel sighs and looks very unhappy. Cuin explains that he's in a similar situation right now with Lady Timor and he doesn't know what to do witht the fact that she's a human. But he decided that he wouldn't let dark thoughts cloud what could become a wonderful relationship and neither should a young, passionate elf like Tinu. “Thinking of grief is for old men” he says and sends Tinu off to Torrent.

There he sincerely apologizes for kissing Shalosha in front of her. Tinu tries to explain what he saw in his vision, so he establishes a mental link between himself and Torrent and shows her the full vision. Torrent says that she understands his motives, but thinks that it would be wiser to talk to Shalosha without embarrassing her (and Torrent) in front of her troops and her potential ally. She says that she doesn't know enough about this Magdus guy to judge whether the vission is a genuine warning of a potential abuser or just a bad dream. She says that she'll forgive him this time, but he needs to make up his mind regarding his feelings for Shalosha as he was the one who wished for a “real” relationship.

Tinuviel returns to Cuin and says that everything will be alright. Although he's still worried about a potential marriage between Shalosha and Magdus. Cuin tries to tell him that he saw no signs of any “potential marriage” between these two besides Tinuviel's vision, so he'd better calm down a bit. He has to agree though that the prospect of such a union would be troublesome indeed. Shalosha, despite her high self-esteem and prowess, is still the daughter of Shaaladel and doing his bidding. So even if she wanted to stabilize the relations between Ragesia and Shahalesti by marrying Magdus, this could easily lead to Shaaladel dictating ragesian politics via Shalosha. Also, as they both assume that Shalosha is the last thing that keeps Shaaladel from becoming a total megalomaniac dictator, having her in Ragos would turn things worse for all non-Shahalesti in the country. So Tinu suggests that he could write an honest letter to his cousin to explain all this to her. And Cuin can for once agree to this plan.

A few days later, the meeting with Magdus and Shalosha is scheduled in the ragesian encampment. On their way to the command tent they briefly meet Shalosha and Tinuviel asks her to not marry Magdus as this will make things worse. Shalosha's turning away from him in response and she looks as if she's somehow afraid.

They enter Magdus' tent alongside his Second General Octavia who formally introduces the two parties and then leaves. The general puts a small, beautifully decorated book aside and places it close to the portrait of an older woman. He then addresses the Seaquenian emissaries by saying that he asked Princess Shalosha of Shahalesti to join them later as he needs to make something clear: The Princess is his honored guest and therefore he cannot allow anyone to harass or hurt her. Even if they are family. He adds that he can understand the passionate character of a young person though, which is why he can put aside past transgressions if they are not to be repeated.
Tinuviel doesn't seem to understand Magdus' intentions, so he turns quite sour and replies that a free citizen of Gate Pass won't take orders from a Ragesian General.

The General's voice turns a bit more intense as he says “Careful now, lad. I bear no ill will against you yet. But you forced yourself on my guest against her will and I, as both a host and as a man of honor, cannot let you do this again. Also, I promised the Lady her safety and I intend to keep this promise.”

Note: I was really amused to let Magdus turn this into a role-reversal as it was Shalosha's self-proclaimed "savior" Tinuviel who was being a manipulative creep just to keep her away from Magdus and to hide his secrets. As for the General? He was really married to his job till this day.

“What a great way to start negotiations...” Cuin'halar sighs as Tinuviel bit by bit understands that Magdus sees his kiss as an offense against Shalosha. Cuin says that if they are now about to make things clear, he'd like to bring up the issue of the Ragesians who are harassing innocent Sindairese as they had to put down a patrol who tried to kill a farmer and enslave his family. He tells Magdus about the incident who stays pretty cool and even says that they did nothing wrong by “punishing” his patrol, as they went against his orders. Feeding an army is one thing. Terrorizing people is on a different level.

Then Princess Shalosha enters the tent, accompanied by her loyal bodyguard Rihalles. She asks the Solei Palantis officer to leave her though as she wishes to have a private talk with the General and the emissaries.

Magdus starts the talk by bringing up the issue of Darius. He says that he's glad they honored their agreement and brought the Inquisitor back. As a sign of goodwill he says he will order the release of four Seaquenian spies who got caught while they were sniveling around his encampment. They are barely more than kids anyway and were treated well, he assures.

Note: I found that the fate of the team who was sent to Sindaire wasn't mentioned anywhere in adventure 6, so I assumed they could be prisoners of the Ragesians.

They then talk about the murderers of his Emperor and the Torch. Cuin says that they didn't find the artifact and don't know where it is, but they did find an image of the assassins in the Dark Pyre. Shalosha adds that she had her mages examine the Pyre who brought her images of three people: One Half-elf and two others who seem like the drow of legends. She also knows that the Half-elf goes by the name of Rhuarc and that this guy tried to kill her father, at least if the info from Rihalles is correct. Cuin smiles slightly and says that the drow, or droalesti, once lived with his people, so they are barely the stuff of legend. He doesn't know why any of them would have beef with Coaltongue though.

Magdus then brings up the issue of succession. He says that he served his emperor loyally and he knows that Coaltongue would have wanted to see him on the throne instead of the impostor Leska. He thinks that the scourge is barbaric and that the Inquisitors are on a way too long leash these days, so he'd definitely change that.

The team replies that they do have to discuss these matters with the alliance leadership, but they don't see much reason why Magdus shouldn't be Emperor. At least as long as he doesn't try to conquer the rest of the world, so they'd need some kind of peace or non-aggression treaty if they were to support his claim. In return, he would be invited to join the rebel forces with his army, which would mean supplies, but also a combined leadership.

Shalosha says that her part of the army is already allied with Magdus and she has no reason to not trust him. The rest of the Shahalesti is busy defending their homeland, so they cannot really bring much to such an alliance right now. But she'll talk with her father about a future collaboration. Tinuviel sees this as a sign of Shalosha's upcoming proposal, so he intervenes and asks her to consider the consequences should she marry Magdus: Her father would lose his voice of reason and also gain influence in Ragesia.

This seems to shock the elven princess and she turns pretty angry. “How can you know my plans before I decided on them?!” she almost screams “What have you done to my mind? Are you trying to trick me? Get out!”

Note: I was pushing Tinu close to the edge with Shalosha. He knew that he could explain every weird action he made if he just revealed his knowledge about the Trillith. But he didn't dare to do so as he feared that either Shalosha or Magdus would use this knowledge for their own gain.

Now Magdus seems pretty confused. He tries to calm both parties down and orders Tinuviel to cease whatever magic he might be casting right now (both Torrent and Cuin confirm that he isn't) and then asks Shalosha what these “wedding plans” are about as he, the “groom-to-be” seems to be the last of them all to know this. “I was thinking about it...” Shalosha whispers. “I thought it could... form a lasting bond between our two countries. My father would never dare to attack his only child. Any my children, our children, could ensure a lasting peace between old rivals”. The general raises his eyebrows at this revelation and says a bit hesitant that he does feel honored, even if this way of proposing a union is both unique and utterly strange. He adds that he and Shalosha would need a break to talk about these new issues and Tinuviel asks to have a moment with his cousin afterward. He then hands her a personal letter and asks her to read it.