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<blockquote data-quote="Lylandra" data-source="post: 7214909" data-attributes="member: 6816692"><p><strong>Of Ladies and dragons</strong></p><p></p><p>Tinuviel and Cuin'halar leave the two diplomats in the care of Torrent, who promises to protect them should anything turn sour. </p><p></p><p>So the elves hurry to the huge cliff, planning to use their magic to elevate them without too much of a risk of climbing up (and possibly falling down). So they use a fly spell and go up at maximum speed. They pass by a confused-looking Girallon and a sphinx and get quite nervous once they realize the latter starts following them up. </p><p></p><p>Cuin manages to identify the sphinx as a hierarcosphinx – territorial, but not overly intelligent creatures. The sphinx almost catches up with them due to his supreme speed and Tinuviel uses an emergency dimension door to teleport both him and his brother up to the edge of the cliff. Thy get roasted by the burning sky in the process, but standing on solid ground seems totally worth it as both were not really sure how long their flying spell would last and they did not want to fight the sphinx in her own territory. </p><p></p><p><em>Note: They were really afraid of an aerial fight close to the cliff with no solid ground in sight. They skipped the clash with the Girallon by flying and it offered a short, comedic scene.</em></p><p></p><p>The beast reappears after a short time and this time they fight it. Cuin'halar manages to get lucky with a readied intensified shocking grasp critical and the sphinx falls to the ground. Tinuviel jokes about wanting to try out exotic, electrified meat some day, but Cuin tell him that they still have some unfinished business and time is running short.</p><p></p><p>After a short while they are hailed by a Timor mage patrol and brought to their Lady's towers. Both are thoroughly impressed by Lady Timor's entrance as the Archmage of Timor greets them from her balcony and formally asking them for their whereabouts before inviting them inside. They meet up with the Lady in her salon and are both equally stunned by her second entrance.</p><p></p><p><em>Note: I described her as a very noble, upright and really beautiful woman once they met her in the salon. Guess this and her demanding, queenly demeanor from the balcony scene blew them both away. </em></p><p></p><p>They begin their negotiations by showing her the evidence of an imminent Ragesian attack on Gallo's fend and she seems inclined to believe them. She tells them that she's not a friend of the Ragesians of their scourge and that she has to protect her citizens. She adds that while she will help Gallo, this would also leave her own country exposed to an attack from Innotendar should the Rags sack Gate Pass as “someone” just happened to re-open the Elfroad. </p><p></p><p>The elves apologize for any inconvenience their actions have caused, but proceed to tell the story of the Fire Forest and its inhabitants. They explain that they had to save the Seela and the elves and that they promised to defend their forest even if there aren't too many left of them. When they tell her that they couldn't just leave the Seela to die, Lady Timor seems to understand their reasoning and “good hearts”, but tells them that they should maybe consider the consequences of their actions before they act. </p><p></p><p>As they don't really know what the Lady seems to be hinting at (both realized she was turning bitter and worried at this point but kept her superficial posture), they ask her if anything was wrong. She then proceeds to tell them that her cousin and Proxy, Melanie Ursin, has been arrested and charged with conspiracy and treason a couple of days ago. As the subjects of her conspiracy are consorting with and helping the agents of Seaquen who are in liege with the suspected traitor and murderer, Gallo, she fears the worst for Melanie. </p><p></p><p>She hints that she knows political games like this too well and that both her and Melanie know their field, but as Steppengard seems to be very unpredictable lately, she fears for the worst. Still, she has to protect her own citizens and cannot possibly make any move that endanger Timor, even if Melanie is her beloved cousin. </p><p></p><p>Needless to say, Tinuviel and Cuin'halar are shocked to hear that the nice woman who helped them just a few days before might suffer a cruel fate. Tinuviel tells her that he asked Melanie to flee from Bresk with them, but refused. Lady Timor (who is at this point actively suppressing any kind of emotion) explains that she expected nothing less from a sensible, loyal person like her who would sacrifice everything to protect her Lady. </p><p></p><p><em>Note: Consequences. They did get Jinis out of prison and escaped the Talons. And the guards saw Tinuviel going on a date with Melanie. They would have known this was dangerous business the moment they rescued the “assassin's love” during the Police Brutality encounter. So of course they'd put Melanie in jail...</em></p><p></p><p>Both elves vow to do their best to help rescue Melanie (without causing a complete political meltdown). Tinuviel even states that he will serve Lady Timor the heart of Glibglammer on a silver plate should her cousin get harmed because of this. The Shahalesti then excuses himself to go find a proper silver smith while Cuin'halar stays with Lady Timor and tries to comfort her as well as he can. During their chat and the following dinner, it becomes clear to Cuin that Timor is currently being very stressed by her role of being the leader of her country and torn between her duties and her love for her cousin. He tells her of his and his father's feelings after the Taranesti genocide while Myriam explains the loss of her parents. The two of them get very close and decide to let go of all duty, sadness and fear of the future for one night.</p><p></p><p>Cuin stays with Lady Timor far longer than he usually does after spending a night with a lady. They both agree that it'd be really nice if they could just stay this way and forget the world, but both know that they got their roles to play in the upcoming conflict. Cuin promises to return with Melanie one way or the other and then heads to Tinuviel. </p><p></p><p>The latter tells his brother that he did order a silver plate engraved with Lady Timor's crest from the smith and that he also returned to the Sphinx and cut out some steaks which he then prepared for breakfast. They try out their Sphinx sandwich (which tastes better than Cuin would have imagined) and hurry to the Glaskeel cliff where they... do cliffdiving. Seriously. They jump off the cliff and use a featherfall spell at the last second. And they are both very thrilled by the experience. </p><p></p><p>Then they hurry to return to Gallo's Fend as quickly as possible. Lord Gallo is more than just pleased to hear that the party got him some reliable allies and explains how he will structure his defenses in the upcoming battle. Tinuviel wants to plan his rescue mission, so he goes off to buy a sending scroll and asks Torrent whether she can get a vision from her goddess regarding Nina Glibglammer. He uses his own scrying power to get a glimpse at Melanie and sees her sitting in the same cell where Jinis had been held days earlier. Also, it seems like she's been interrogated roughly.</p><p></p><p>Meanwhile, Torrent learns from her divination that “Nina Glibglammer” is dead. She also gets to know that a person looking like Nina is currently traveling with the forces of Steppengard and that this Nina is associated with the Ragesians. They don't really get what happened to Queen Steppengard though, but they know that she isn't protected by the book of the eight lands anymore.</p><p></p><p><em>Note: Never underestimate the powers of divination. It took them some questions of their commune spell, but they managed to find out that the true Nina has been replaced by someone not fully human. They suspected a move from Deception, but didn't know why he would ally with the Rags. They did ask for Steppengard and whether the Book's magic was still intact (which it was at that point) or whether the Queen had been charmed or replaced (she wasn't). The question for the book's protection came at last second, though they couldn't explain how this was even possible. </em></p><p><em></em></p><p>They deduce that with both Kelkin and Nina absent from Bresk, there will be no one left who could foil their magic with magical countermeasures, so maybe now would be the best time to invade the prison once again. Tinuviel uses the sending scroll to contact Melanie and tell her that they'll come to rescue her. Melanie's answer sounds pretty fatalistic as she urges them to stay where they are as the prison is warded by alarm spells and several Talons and knights of Steppengard.</p><p></p><p><em>Note: I didn't think about warding the whole prison with a dimensional lock which I saw as a mistake on my side. But they had a point, both Kelkin and Nina were already on the move and adding a permanent lock spell to the cells would have taken some time. In the hindsight I just think that their second jailbreak should have been more difficult.</em></p><p></p><p>The elves ward themselves with fire protection spells and teleport in front of Melanie's cell where the alarm goes off in an instant. Cuin'halar prepares to fend off the guards and tells Tinu to hurry and get Melanie out of her dimensional locked chains. Cuin'halar downs the first two approaching guards and they all hear someone who just sounds like the ragesian inquisitor shout orders at people. Cuin finds a strange item falling out of the mouth of one of the guards while Tinu wards Melanie with the same protection magic and prepares to leave. Cuin picks up the item and fends off another wave of approaching guards just before Tinuviel teleports them all to safety. </p><p><em></em></p><p><em>Note: Psionic teleport is so much more annoying than the regular version as it is basically greater teleport once you can spend enough PSP to reduce the mis-port chance to 0. The burning sky does fortunately hinder Tinu from hopping all over the globe in an instant (Tinu's player loves teleporting and plane-hopping and putting all those little PITAs upon me).</em></p><p></p><p>They arrive in front of Lady Timor's tower in Glaskeel. Melanie, who is still shocked and confused by the events, asks the duo why they returned when she explicitly told them not to. Cuin explains that they don't leave their allies behind to suffer for their actions. Also, true resistance fighters protect and stand up for each other. </p><p></p><p>Lady Timor is more than happy to see that they did return her cousin almost unharmed. She knows that saving Melanie will probably mark her a complete traitor now, but as she already promised to support Gallo against Steppengard, it doesn't really make much of a difference. She then excuses herself to take care of Melanie who's still shaken. Meanwhile, the elves ask one of the mages whether they could examine the item they found in the mouth of one of the guards. The wizard identifies the token as something which can be used as a focus to bring back a body as an undead. </p><p></p><p>After a while, Lady Timor returns and says that Melanie needs some rest. She thanks them for their help and gives them the thumper for summoning the elder xorn should they ever need help. Tinuviel states dryly that he cannot keep his promise to bring his Lady the heart of Nina Glibglammer as she isn't exactly human anymore, but that he'd get her the heart of the inquisitor he heard in Steppengard's prison instead. As he seems deadly serious, Cuin puts him aside and mentions that he is getting dangerously comfortable with being cruel. He tells his brother that there is nothing wrong with getting revenge, but one should never enjoy cruelties as that'd make him not much better than the inquisitors. Tinuviel reluctantly agrees. </p><p></p><p>As they are completely drained after their rescue mission, Lady Timor offers them mount spells and so the elves get to cliff-dive once again. (Yeah, they became quite the adrenaline-junkies)</p><p></p><p>They return to Lord Gallo once more and find him amidst battle plans, discussing the recent news with Torrent, Jinis and his sergeants. It becomes clear that Steppengard is using everything she has as the other Lords and Ladies offer only minimal (and pretty slow-paced) support. This means that she has put Archmage Kelkin Thravanvost and his sphinx steed on the move, as well as some dangerous troll mercenaries and a wandering red dragon.</p><p></p><p>Cuin and Tinuviel remember the name Kelkin from their times in Galabs school and remember that their teacher once had a close friend of that name. They say that they'd try to get the wizard on their side, as Gabal used to choose his friends wisely and they could tell Kelkin that his friend died to the hands of the Inquisitors and the scourge. They also offer to spy on the marching army of Steppengard to gather some more information for Gallo. The Lord gladly accepts their offer and wishes them good luck. He also thanks them for everything they've done for him so far, considering the fact that they are not even Dasseni. They just brush it off and say that they all have to stick together against the Ragesians and that Seaquen will most certainly fall if Gallo's Fend gets breached. </p><p></p><p>So they head south for their intel mission the next day. They manage to find the camping army of Steppengard by the evening and knock out a patrol to gain some Steppengard uniforms. Then they sneak into camp. The chat with the simple soldiers to get a sense of the different areas in their huge encampment and get to know where the Archmage and the dragon usually reside. They also hear that the Picthlings burned some of their siege weapons when they moved past the Pichwood and that Königsmarschall Malkan ordered the remaining siege weapons to be guarded by the dragon. He's fireproof, after all. </p><p></p><p>They head to the dragon's area and find a huge wagon where the dragon usually sleeps. They are told that he is usually fed the same rations as the rest of the army, but that he also enjoys hunting and is especially fond of spicy meat. So they get themselves some chicken and sneak into the dragon's wagon. There they poison the chicken and the dragon's drink with all of the red madness poison they have still left, leave and hide. So the dragon returns after a while and finds spicy, roasted chicken in his wagon. He eats them and after a while gets really, really angry. He tears his wagon apart and starts a full rampage. The soldiers guarding the area try to talk him out of this madness, but they get roasted . </p><p></p><p>While Steppengard reinforcements arrive at the dragon's lair to fight the dragon and prevent it from endangering the whole army and general chaos breaks out, the group sneaks off to the siege weapons (those who haven't been torched by the draon's fire...) and burn them down. </p><p></p><p><em>Note: And this is what happens when players toy with stuff you gave them earlier. I loved their idea and we all laughed at that fact that the poison was called RED madness – which I told them once they used it on the dragon. I did roll for a Fort save for the dragon to see whether the poison would have a small or full effect (I wanted to give them credit no matter the dice) and rolled a 2 on top of that! So the dragon got killed by his own men and burned down some siege weapons in the process. Well played, boys <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" /></em></p><p><em></em></p><p>Once the chaos has calmed down, they make way to Kelkin Thravanvost's tent. On their way they realize that the Trolls camp amidst the rest of the army, so it wouldn't be too wise to attack them now. But the Archmage is a different kind of beast as he set up his tent far from the others. </p><p></p><p>They talk to Nashara first and ask her to speak to her “dear friend” Kelkin as they have urgent news for him. Cuin is pretty convincing, so she lets them pass. They realize that the Gynosphinx is acting strangely and has some sort of enchantment on her, but they don't want to complicate the matter and want to leave this affair to the Sphinx and her friend.</p><p>They introduce themselves to Kelkin as friends of Gabal who only want to talk and will leave him be as soon as he demands it. Kelkin remembers the name of the Archmage of Gate Pass, so he decides to listen to them. Cuin tells him that they came to Dassen to get help against the Ragesians, the very same people who killed Gabal and who now try to trick his Queen into letting them pass by promising her that they wouldn't harm Dassen. He then says that this is only a big lie, as the Inquisitors want to get their fingers on all magic users and that they will attack anyway, whether it is from the south (once they sacked Seaquen) or from the north (through the Alydi Gap). Kelkin says that that's all fine and logical but he's also a loyal man and promised his Queen to find the traitor who murdered her children and bring him to justice. Cuin then goes on to tell him that he learned that the Queen might have somehow lost her sanity as she's no longer protected by the Book of the Eight Lands. He doesn't have proof for this claim, but he asks Kelkin to examine the book and see if anything was done to maybe erase the Queen from it. He also says that the true Nina Glibglammer is dead and that the Queen has acted all strange in her presence, almost as if she was her thrall. He then suggests that Bresk isn't that far by Sphinx and that he could maybe prevent a total disaster and truly serve his Queen and country by unraveling the biggest conspiracy since the Blood Wars. </p><p></p><p>Kelkin sees truth in Cuin's words and agrees to return to Bresk to do some research for himself. Cuin thanks him and salutes to him in the traditional Gabalian stance before leaving for Gallo's Fend again.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Lylandra, post: 7214909, member: 6816692"] [b]Of Ladies and dragons[/b] Tinuviel and Cuin'halar leave the two diplomats in the care of Torrent, who promises to protect them should anything turn sour. So the elves hurry to the huge cliff, planning to use their magic to elevate them without too much of a risk of climbing up (and possibly falling down). So they use a fly spell and go up at maximum speed. They pass by a confused-looking Girallon and a sphinx and get quite nervous once they realize the latter starts following them up. Cuin manages to identify the sphinx as a hierarcosphinx – territorial, but not overly intelligent creatures. The sphinx almost catches up with them due to his supreme speed and Tinuviel uses an emergency dimension door to teleport both him and his brother up to the edge of the cliff. Thy get roasted by the burning sky in the process, but standing on solid ground seems totally worth it as both were not really sure how long their flying spell would last and they did not want to fight the sphinx in her own territory. [I]Note: They were really afraid of an aerial fight close to the cliff with no solid ground in sight. They skipped the clash with the Girallon by flying and it offered a short, comedic scene.[/I] The beast reappears after a short time and this time they fight it. Cuin'halar manages to get lucky with a readied intensified shocking grasp critical and the sphinx falls to the ground. Tinuviel jokes about wanting to try out exotic, electrified meat some day, but Cuin tell him that they still have some unfinished business and time is running short. After a short while they are hailed by a Timor mage patrol and brought to their Lady's towers. Both are thoroughly impressed by Lady Timor's entrance as the Archmage of Timor greets them from her balcony and formally asking them for their whereabouts before inviting them inside. They meet up with the Lady in her salon and are both equally stunned by her second entrance. [I]Note: I described her as a very noble, upright and really beautiful woman once they met her in the salon. Guess this and her demanding, queenly demeanor from the balcony scene blew them both away. [/I] They begin their negotiations by showing her the evidence of an imminent Ragesian attack on Gallo's fend and she seems inclined to believe them. She tells them that she's not a friend of the Ragesians of their scourge and that she has to protect her citizens. She adds that while she will help Gallo, this would also leave her own country exposed to an attack from Innotendar should the Rags sack Gate Pass as “someone” just happened to re-open the Elfroad. The elves apologize for any inconvenience their actions have caused, but proceed to tell the story of the Fire Forest and its inhabitants. They explain that they had to save the Seela and the elves and that they promised to defend their forest even if there aren't too many left of them. When they tell her that they couldn't just leave the Seela to die, Lady Timor seems to understand their reasoning and “good hearts”, but tells them that they should maybe consider the consequences of their actions before they act. As they don't really know what the Lady seems to be hinting at (both realized she was turning bitter and worried at this point but kept her superficial posture), they ask her if anything was wrong. She then proceeds to tell them that her cousin and Proxy, Melanie Ursin, has been arrested and charged with conspiracy and treason a couple of days ago. As the subjects of her conspiracy are consorting with and helping the agents of Seaquen who are in liege with the suspected traitor and murderer, Gallo, she fears the worst for Melanie. She hints that she knows political games like this too well and that both her and Melanie know their field, but as Steppengard seems to be very unpredictable lately, she fears for the worst. Still, she has to protect her own citizens and cannot possibly make any move that endanger Timor, even if Melanie is her beloved cousin. Needless to say, Tinuviel and Cuin'halar are shocked to hear that the nice woman who helped them just a few days before might suffer a cruel fate. Tinuviel tells her that he asked Melanie to flee from Bresk with them, but refused. Lady Timor (who is at this point actively suppressing any kind of emotion) explains that she expected nothing less from a sensible, loyal person like her who would sacrifice everything to protect her Lady. [I]Note: Consequences. They did get Jinis out of prison and escaped the Talons. And the guards saw Tinuviel going on a date with Melanie. They would have known this was dangerous business the moment they rescued the “assassin's love” during the Police Brutality encounter. So of course they'd put Melanie in jail...[/I] Both elves vow to do their best to help rescue Melanie (without causing a complete political meltdown). Tinuviel even states that he will serve Lady Timor the heart of Glibglammer on a silver plate should her cousin get harmed because of this. The Shahalesti then excuses himself to go find a proper silver smith while Cuin'halar stays with Lady Timor and tries to comfort her as well as he can. During their chat and the following dinner, it becomes clear to Cuin that Timor is currently being very stressed by her role of being the leader of her country and torn between her duties and her love for her cousin. He tells her of his and his father's feelings after the Taranesti genocide while Myriam explains the loss of her parents. The two of them get very close and decide to let go of all duty, sadness and fear of the future for one night. Cuin stays with Lady Timor far longer than he usually does after spending a night with a lady. They both agree that it'd be really nice if they could just stay this way and forget the world, but both know that they got their roles to play in the upcoming conflict. Cuin promises to return with Melanie one way or the other and then heads to Tinuviel. The latter tells his brother that he did order a silver plate engraved with Lady Timor's crest from the smith and that he also returned to the Sphinx and cut out some steaks which he then prepared for breakfast. They try out their Sphinx sandwich (which tastes better than Cuin would have imagined) and hurry to the Glaskeel cliff where they... do cliffdiving. Seriously. They jump off the cliff and use a featherfall spell at the last second. And they are both very thrilled by the experience. Then they hurry to return to Gallo's Fend as quickly as possible. Lord Gallo is more than just pleased to hear that the party got him some reliable allies and explains how he will structure his defenses in the upcoming battle. Tinuviel wants to plan his rescue mission, so he goes off to buy a sending scroll and asks Torrent whether she can get a vision from her goddess regarding Nina Glibglammer. He uses his own scrying power to get a glimpse at Melanie and sees her sitting in the same cell where Jinis had been held days earlier. Also, it seems like she's been interrogated roughly. Meanwhile, Torrent learns from her divination that “Nina Glibglammer” is dead. She also gets to know that a person looking like Nina is currently traveling with the forces of Steppengard and that this Nina is associated with the Ragesians. They don't really get what happened to Queen Steppengard though, but they know that she isn't protected by the book of the eight lands anymore. [I]Note: Never underestimate the powers of divination. It took them some questions of their commune spell, but they managed to find out that the true Nina has been replaced by someone not fully human. They suspected a move from Deception, but didn't know why he would ally with the Rags. They did ask for Steppengard and whether the Book's magic was still intact (which it was at that point) or whether the Queen had been charmed or replaced (she wasn't). The question for the book's protection came at last second, though they couldn't explain how this was even possible. [/I] They deduce that with both Kelkin and Nina absent from Bresk, there will be no one left who could foil their magic with magical countermeasures, so maybe now would be the best time to invade the prison once again. Tinuviel uses the sending scroll to contact Melanie and tell her that they'll come to rescue her. Melanie's answer sounds pretty fatalistic as she urges them to stay where they are as the prison is warded by alarm spells and several Talons and knights of Steppengard. [I]Note: I didn't think about warding the whole prison with a dimensional lock which I saw as a mistake on my side. But they had a point, both Kelkin and Nina were already on the move and adding a permanent lock spell to the cells would have taken some time. In the hindsight I just think that their second jailbreak should have been more difficult.[/I] The elves ward themselves with fire protection spells and teleport in front of Melanie's cell where the alarm goes off in an instant. Cuin'halar prepares to fend off the guards and tells Tinu to hurry and get Melanie out of her dimensional locked chains. Cuin'halar downs the first two approaching guards and they all hear someone who just sounds like the ragesian inquisitor shout orders at people. Cuin finds a strange item falling out of the mouth of one of the guards while Tinu wards Melanie with the same protection magic and prepares to leave. Cuin picks up the item and fends off another wave of approaching guards just before Tinuviel teleports them all to safety. [I] Note: Psionic teleport is so much more annoying than the regular version as it is basically greater teleport once you can spend enough PSP to reduce the mis-port chance to 0. The burning sky does fortunately hinder Tinu from hopping all over the globe in an instant (Tinu's player loves teleporting and plane-hopping and putting all those little PITAs upon me).[/I] They arrive in front of Lady Timor's tower in Glaskeel. Melanie, who is still shocked and confused by the events, asks the duo why they returned when she explicitly told them not to. Cuin explains that they don't leave their allies behind to suffer for their actions. Also, true resistance fighters protect and stand up for each other. Lady Timor is more than happy to see that they did return her cousin almost unharmed. She knows that saving Melanie will probably mark her a complete traitor now, but as she already promised to support Gallo against Steppengard, it doesn't really make much of a difference. She then excuses herself to take care of Melanie who's still shaken. Meanwhile, the elves ask one of the mages whether they could examine the item they found in the mouth of one of the guards. The wizard identifies the token as something which can be used as a focus to bring back a body as an undead. After a while, Lady Timor returns and says that Melanie needs some rest. She thanks them for their help and gives them the thumper for summoning the elder xorn should they ever need help. Tinuviel states dryly that he cannot keep his promise to bring his Lady the heart of Nina Glibglammer as she isn't exactly human anymore, but that he'd get her the heart of the inquisitor he heard in Steppengard's prison instead. As he seems deadly serious, Cuin puts him aside and mentions that he is getting dangerously comfortable with being cruel. He tells his brother that there is nothing wrong with getting revenge, but one should never enjoy cruelties as that'd make him not much better than the inquisitors. Tinuviel reluctantly agrees. As they are completely drained after their rescue mission, Lady Timor offers them mount spells and so the elves get to cliff-dive once again. (Yeah, they became quite the adrenaline-junkies) They return to Lord Gallo once more and find him amidst battle plans, discussing the recent news with Torrent, Jinis and his sergeants. It becomes clear that Steppengard is using everything she has as the other Lords and Ladies offer only minimal (and pretty slow-paced) support. This means that she has put Archmage Kelkin Thravanvost and his sphinx steed on the move, as well as some dangerous troll mercenaries and a wandering red dragon. Cuin and Tinuviel remember the name Kelkin from their times in Galabs school and remember that their teacher once had a close friend of that name. They say that they'd try to get the wizard on their side, as Gabal used to choose his friends wisely and they could tell Kelkin that his friend died to the hands of the Inquisitors and the scourge. They also offer to spy on the marching army of Steppengard to gather some more information for Gallo. The Lord gladly accepts their offer and wishes them good luck. He also thanks them for everything they've done for him so far, considering the fact that they are not even Dasseni. They just brush it off and say that they all have to stick together against the Ragesians and that Seaquen will most certainly fall if Gallo's Fend gets breached. So they head south for their intel mission the next day. They manage to find the camping army of Steppengard by the evening and knock out a patrol to gain some Steppengard uniforms. Then they sneak into camp. The chat with the simple soldiers to get a sense of the different areas in their huge encampment and get to know where the Archmage and the dragon usually reside. They also hear that the Picthlings burned some of their siege weapons when they moved past the Pichwood and that Königsmarschall Malkan ordered the remaining siege weapons to be guarded by the dragon. He's fireproof, after all. They head to the dragon's area and find a huge wagon where the dragon usually sleeps. They are told that he is usually fed the same rations as the rest of the army, but that he also enjoys hunting and is especially fond of spicy meat. So they get themselves some chicken and sneak into the dragon's wagon. There they poison the chicken and the dragon's drink with all of the red madness poison they have still left, leave and hide. So the dragon returns after a while and finds spicy, roasted chicken in his wagon. He eats them and after a while gets really, really angry. He tears his wagon apart and starts a full rampage. The soldiers guarding the area try to talk him out of this madness, but they get roasted . While Steppengard reinforcements arrive at the dragon's lair to fight the dragon and prevent it from endangering the whole army and general chaos breaks out, the group sneaks off to the siege weapons (those who haven't been torched by the draon's fire...) and burn them down. [I]Note: And this is what happens when players toy with stuff you gave them earlier. I loved their idea and we all laughed at that fact that the poison was called RED madness – which I told them once they used it on the dragon. I did roll for a Fort save for the dragon to see whether the poison would have a small or full effect (I wanted to give them credit no matter the dice) and rolled a 2 on top of that! So the dragon got killed by his own men and burned down some siege weapons in the process. Well played, boys :) [/I] Once the chaos has calmed down, they make way to Kelkin Thravanvost's tent. On their way they realize that the Trolls camp amidst the rest of the army, so it wouldn't be too wise to attack them now. But the Archmage is a different kind of beast as he set up his tent far from the others. They talk to Nashara first and ask her to speak to her “dear friend” Kelkin as they have urgent news for him. Cuin is pretty convincing, so she lets them pass. They realize that the Gynosphinx is acting strangely and has some sort of enchantment on her, but they don't want to complicate the matter and want to leave this affair to the Sphinx and her friend. They introduce themselves to Kelkin as friends of Gabal who only want to talk and will leave him be as soon as he demands it. Kelkin remembers the name of the Archmage of Gate Pass, so he decides to listen to them. Cuin tells him that they came to Dassen to get help against the Ragesians, the very same people who killed Gabal and who now try to trick his Queen into letting them pass by promising her that they wouldn't harm Dassen. He then says that this is only a big lie, as the Inquisitors want to get their fingers on all magic users and that they will attack anyway, whether it is from the south (once they sacked Seaquen) or from the north (through the Alydi Gap). Kelkin says that that's all fine and logical but he's also a loyal man and promised his Queen to find the traitor who murdered her children and bring him to justice. Cuin then goes on to tell him that he learned that the Queen might have somehow lost her sanity as she's no longer protected by the Book of the Eight Lands. He doesn't have proof for this claim, but he asks Kelkin to examine the book and see if anything was done to maybe erase the Queen from it. He also says that the true Nina Glibglammer is dead and that the Queen has acted all strange in her presence, almost as if she was her thrall. He then suggests that Bresk isn't that far by Sphinx and that he could maybe prevent a total disaster and truly serve his Queen and country by unraveling the biggest conspiracy since the Blood Wars. Kelkin sees truth in Cuin's words and agrees to return to Bresk to do some research for himself. Cuin thanks him and salutes to him in the traditional Gabalian stance before leaving for Gallo's Fend again. [/QUOTE]
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