Nightbreeze
First Post
Very interesting, bring it on.
Terrace and the rise of Evil
Thanks
Thanks Nightbreeze. I am glad for your reply (and was even beginning to think that maybe my write up was not as cool as I thought it was
). I will *ahem* bring it.
-Akira1
"It's deceptive to say that you are what you eat. If you were, you would likely be heavily processed, refined and packaged, rich in high-fructose corn syrup and hydrogenated fats. Or even worse: caged for the majority of your life and fed strictly grain until you were slaughtered unceremoniously." - Eli Rosenberg
Thanks Nightbreeze. I am glad for your reply (and was even beginning to think that maybe my write up was not as cool as I thought it was
). I will *ahem* bring it.-Akira1
"It's deceptive to say that you are what you eat. If you were, you would likely be heavily processed, refined and packaged, rich in high-fructose corn syrup and hydrogenated fats. Or even worse: caged for the majority of your life and fed strictly grain until you were slaughtered unceremoniously." - Eli Rosenberg
Loose Ends
The cool shadows of the Scions inner compound, even though they provided relief from the blistering heat common to the central blood lands region, did not offer any comfort to Dr Adiago Yurobo Zhindzhe as he stood in the inner court yard and waited for his summons. As he watched, the Doctor filed the information away for careful study later. He was quite aware that it would not pay to appear to be to curious at observing the Clergy of the Scion in their place of Power. The Doctor observed the priestesses, all naked from the waist up with a series of interlocking chains crisscrossing their bare chests, wide sashes around their waists, heads shaved bald, and silk dresses or voluminous pants as they moved with clockwork precision through their home and center of power. There was an eerie quiet to the place and the chill in the air all combined to instill an abiding dread in Dr Zhindzhe.
Almost like a shade, she drifted out of the cool shadows quietly and addressed Dr Zhindzhe, " Good evening doctor, I hope you have not had to wait overlong." Iselia said in clipped precise tones.
Jumping slightly at her silent approach, Dr Zhindzhe stammered, " No Holy Priestess, I have not been waiting to long."
Turning, Dr Zhindzhe gaped at Iselia. The priestess was tall easily 6ft and had a statuesque build. She had tanned skin and brilliant blue eyes stared out of her shaved head. Her lips was thin and blood red and there did not seem to be a spare ounce of flesh on her well toned body. She had a wide black sash around her waist and a silver silk dress cut high on her left shapely leg. She wore a pair of embroidered black silk slippers. Over all of this though there was a sense of untouchable coldness that seemed to make her exotic looks almost alien.
With a slightly sardonic smile the priestess chided, "Its unseemly to gape Doctor. You have come here for a purpose and lets us go now and attend to that."
"Of course, Priestess Iselia." Dr Zhindzhe stammered as he began to follow her into the shadows of the Scions compound.
Iselia led Dr Zhindzhe into a suite of well appointed rooms overlooking a parade ground where scores of the Scions Priestesses performed calisthenics under the watchful eyes of their superiors.
Questioningly Dr Zhindzhe asked, "Pardon my ignorance, but your religion seems well, foreign compared to the ones more common to the Blood lands region."
Seeing his eyes directed to the parade ground Iselia replied simply, "The Holy Scion stresses perfection of body as well as spirit." and then pointing to a severely squared off chair she stated, "Sit Doctor, my time is not unlimited this day."
Hastily taking his seat, Dr Zhindzhe gathered his memory crystals and notepad and dived headlong into the questions by asking, "When I received your 'summons' to come here I was a little startled no less by the reason for your summons, The Adventuring group known as the Tainted."
"Yes, Ivanor, Damien, and Kalanaghar are one of the purposes that you have been given an 'invitation' to speak with me." The Priestess countered.
"Lets be frank here Iselia, you did not ask me to come here so much as you commanded it." Dr Zhindzhe said flatly.
With a simple nod of acquiescence and a cold glint in her eyes, she stated, "Of Course. Now would you like to hear my story?"
"Of course, I meant no disrespect." Dr Zhindzhe quickly replied.
"None taken Doctor." Iselia replied, "Now this adventuring group, the Tainted as you have called them had a very busy couple of days at the end of the Month of Skullsflame."
"I am beginning to get that impression." Dr Zhindzhe said.
Nodding, the Priestess said, "Well, the first major thing that occurred was that they did go to Brickface and accepted the Mission to go hunt a Unicorn."
"Really, I thought they were extinct in the Blood Lands Region." The Doctor replied.
"Logically doctor your statement cannot be true, How would they be assigned a mission if the target of the mission did not exist." The Priestess said coldly, " In any event they accepted the mission and then the first big revelation came to them."
Remaining silent and motioning the priestess to continue Dr Zhindzhe waited with anticipation on the revelation.
"The found out the identity of Mr Sleep. According to Brickface, he was not provided with the specifics on this mission, but he did explain to them that it came from higher ups and their success in this mission would directly relate to an increase in status for themselves and Lolita's Syndicate in general. To this end he introduced them to Mr Sleep so that they could get the particulars."
"And Mr Sleep was....." Dr Zhindzhe nearly shrieked.
"The Drow Female with the mo- hawk that is always in Brickfaces office. Apparently she wanted to see them first hand and assess them for herself. She began to make it a point to show up in Brickface's office when they were they to watch them." The Priestess stated.
"Amazing!" Dr Zhindzhe exclaimed. "So The Drow Female with the Mohawk is Mr Sleep. I would have figured that Mr Sleep would be male."
"Of course you would Doctor. You are not versed in the necessities of subterfuge and misdirection." The Priestess calmly replied. "Mr Sleep went on to detail the mission for the Tainted. She stated that they would travel to the port town of Orin approximately 3 days NE of Rath and there they would seek out the man named Bismark and he would transport them across the cloven straight into the Hinterlands, the ancestral home of the Barbarians."
"Of course" Dr Zhindzhe snapped. " If there were a Unicorn anywhere on this continent, it would be in the Hinterlands, that place is known almost as well for its biting cold as it is for the strangely magical creatures that inhabit its tundras."
"Well they accepted the mission and also on the morning of the 31st Day of Skullsflame, they saw the Grim Riders, who had accepted the mission for Lord Nominian riding out of the city." Iselia stated.
"I see." Dr Zhindzhe said as he looked at the calm and collected priestess. " What does that have to do with anything?"
"Nothing apparently. Damien did go out and ask around about it and he found out that Lord Nominian had been advertising for some time for a Mercenary company to exact some retribution for him on the town known as the Ruins of Castor. Apparently one of his caravans got attacked near this outpost on its way back from Ulmesh and the Lord Nominian took exception to the excuses that the Leaders of the Ruins of Castor gave him." The Priestess said in exacting detail.
"So why hire a mercenary company?" Dr Zhindzhe queried.
"To raze the town to the ground." The priestess stated calmly.
Dr Zhindzhe gaped at her as she said this and then in a low voice, " You cant be serious."
"As serious as a heart attack good Doctor." Came her cool reply.
"After accepting the mission, they received their payment and bought new equipment. They then decided to seek out Kespian Black and his thugs since they had been informed that he had gone to ground and was gathering the remnants of his forces for a break out of district 9." The Priestess quickly changed topics.
"What do you mean by a break out?" Dr Zhindzhe asked.
"Brickface after raiding their base of power and dealing them several considerable deadly blows thanks to the information that Amelia found in their HQ had essentially locked down all exits out of #9 and Kespian was going to have to fight his way out if he wanted to survive." The Priestess replied.
"I see so how did they go about finishing off Kespian?" Dr Zhindzhe asked.
" After a bit of wrangling about whether they should do this, they split up to gather information. Kalanaghar went seeking strange gatherings of people, and hooded people." The Priestess began.
"In this city!" Dr Zhindzhe interrupted.
Coldly and lethally Iselia said, "You have a rather annoying behavior of interrupting me when I am explaining things Doctor. In the future it would be good for you to learn and practice restraint when talking to a Priestess of the Scion."
With his eyes wide, Dr Zhindzhe backed up further in his chair and said, " As you command. "
"As I was saying," The priestess continued, "Damien went back to the actual old headquarters and there he ran into a bit of trouble. Kespian and his boys were still there. Apparently there was an underground cavern system that had been missed when Brickfaces people came through the first time."
Tapping a finger beside his nose, Dr Zhindzhe replied, "Clever."
"Indeed, Upon entering the house though Damien was assaulted by a Half Demon Barbarian who engaged him in combat. After trading blows, Damein stabbed the beast through the throat and finished him off. He then left to return to the Devil's Cup for their scheduled 2 hour meet up to share their information." The priestess said matter of factly. "Damien was not able to flee immediately and one of Kespians lieutenants, Saramus Fellwind came up with 4 Talons to investigate the sounds they had heard. Upon finding the dead body, Saramus dispatched the talons on a search for any likely intruders. Damien was safely hidden in a bush and when the Talons returned empty handed, Saramus smote one of them to death with divine magic and then declared that failure was not an option and that they were to go try again."
With a small furrow between his brow, Dr Zhindzhe asked, " Kespain had lieutentants?"
"Yes, He had two, a human male diabolist named Saramus Fellwind, who according to Amelia bore a tattoo across his head and was well connected outside of Rath itself, and a Drow Anti paladin known as Evo Shandar." The Priestess responded.
"Interesting so what did they do next?" Dr Zhindzhe queried.
"Ivanor spread around some money in hopes of locating a rumor monger. Even though his efforts did not bear fruit this time, he was given the names of 3 locals that might in the future provide information." The Priestess continued.
Nodding to indicate that the priestess should continue, Dr Zhindzhe continued to take down her words as she spoke them.
"They met up and compared notes and decided that they would go into the house and finish off Kespian and his gang." The Priestess continued.
The cool shadows of the Scions inner compound, even though they provided relief from the blistering heat common to the central blood lands region, did not offer any comfort to Dr Adiago Yurobo Zhindzhe as he stood in the inner court yard and waited for his summons. As he watched, the Doctor filed the information away for careful study later. He was quite aware that it would not pay to appear to be to curious at observing the Clergy of the Scion in their place of Power. The Doctor observed the priestesses, all naked from the waist up with a series of interlocking chains crisscrossing their bare chests, wide sashes around their waists, heads shaved bald, and silk dresses or voluminous pants as they moved with clockwork precision through their home and center of power. There was an eerie quiet to the place and the chill in the air all combined to instill an abiding dread in Dr Zhindzhe.
Almost like a shade, she drifted out of the cool shadows quietly and addressed Dr Zhindzhe, " Good evening doctor, I hope you have not had to wait overlong." Iselia said in clipped precise tones.
Jumping slightly at her silent approach, Dr Zhindzhe stammered, " No Holy Priestess, I have not been waiting to long."
Turning, Dr Zhindzhe gaped at Iselia. The priestess was tall easily 6ft and had a statuesque build. She had tanned skin and brilliant blue eyes stared out of her shaved head. Her lips was thin and blood red and there did not seem to be a spare ounce of flesh on her well toned body. She had a wide black sash around her waist and a silver silk dress cut high on her left shapely leg. She wore a pair of embroidered black silk slippers. Over all of this though there was a sense of untouchable coldness that seemed to make her exotic looks almost alien.
With a slightly sardonic smile the priestess chided, "Its unseemly to gape Doctor. You have come here for a purpose and lets us go now and attend to that."
"Of course, Priestess Iselia." Dr Zhindzhe stammered as he began to follow her into the shadows of the Scions compound.
Iselia led Dr Zhindzhe into a suite of well appointed rooms overlooking a parade ground where scores of the Scions Priestesses performed calisthenics under the watchful eyes of their superiors.
Questioningly Dr Zhindzhe asked, "Pardon my ignorance, but your religion seems well, foreign compared to the ones more common to the Blood lands region."
Seeing his eyes directed to the parade ground Iselia replied simply, "The Holy Scion stresses perfection of body as well as spirit." and then pointing to a severely squared off chair she stated, "Sit Doctor, my time is not unlimited this day."
Hastily taking his seat, Dr Zhindzhe gathered his memory crystals and notepad and dived headlong into the questions by asking, "When I received your 'summons' to come here I was a little startled no less by the reason for your summons, The Adventuring group known as the Tainted."
"Yes, Ivanor, Damien, and Kalanaghar are one of the purposes that you have been given an 'invitation' to speak with me." The Priestess countered.
"Lets be frank here Iselia, you did not ask me to come here so much as you commanded it." Dr Zhindzhe said flatly.
With a simple nod of acquiescence and a cold glint in her eyes, she stated, "Of Course. Now would you like to hear my story?"
"Of course, I meant no disrespect." Dr Zhindzhe quickly replied.
"None taken Doctor." Iselia replied, "Now this adventuring group, the Tainted as you have called them had a very busy couple of days at the end of the Month of Skullsflame."
"I am beginning to get that impression." Dr Zhindzhe said.
Nodding, the Priestess said, "Well, the first major thing that occurred was that they did go to Brickface and accepted the Mission to go hunt a Unicorn."
"Really, I thought they were extinct in the Blood Lands Region." The Doctor replied.
"Logically doctor your statement cannot be true, How would they be assigned a mission if the target of the mission did not exist." The Priestess said coldly, " In any event they accepted the mission and then the first big revelation came to them."
Remaining silent and motioning the priestess to continue Dr Zhindzhe waited with anticipation on the revelation.
"The found out the identity of Mr Sleep. According to Brickface, he was not provided with the specifics on this mission, but he did explain to them that it came from higher ups and their success in this mission would directly relate to an increase in status for themselves and Lolita's Syndicate in general. To this end he introduced them to Mr Sleep so that they could get the particulars."
"And Mr Sleep was....." Dr Zhindzhe nearly shrieked.
"The Drow Female with the mo- hawk that is always in Brickfaces office. Apparently she wanted to see them first hand and assess them for herself. She began to make it a point to show up in Brickface's office when they were they to watch them." The Priestess stated.
"Amazing!" Dr Zhindzhe exclaimed. "So The Drow Female with the Mohawk is Mr Sleep. I would have figured that Mr Sleep would be male."
"Of course you would Doctor. You are not versed in the necessities of subterfuge and misdirection." The Priestess calmly replied. "Mr Sleep went on to detail the mission for the Tainted. She stated that they would travel to the port town of Orin approximately 3 days NE of Rath and there they would seek out the man named Bismark and he would transport them across the cloven straight into the Hinterlands, the ancestral home of the Barbarians."
"Of course" Dr Zhindzhe snapped. " If there were a Unicorn anywhere on this continent, it would be in the Hinterlands, that place is known almost as well for its biting cold as it is for the strangely magical creatures that inhabit its tundras."
"Well they accepted the mission and also on the morning of the 31st Day of Skullsflame, they saw the Grim Riders, who had accepted the mission for Lord Nominian riding out of the city." Iselia stated.
"I see." Dr Zhindzhe said as he looked at the calm and collected priestess. " What does that have to do with anything?"
"Nothing apparently. Damien did go out and ask around about it and he found out that Lord Nominian had been advertising for some time for a Mercenary company to exact some retribution for him on the town known as the Ruins of Castor. Apparently one of his caravans got attacked near this outpost on its way back from Ulmesh and the Lord Nominian took exception to the excuses that the Leaders of the Ruins of Castor gave him." The Priestess said in exacting detail.
"So why hire a mercenary company?" Dr Zhindzhe queried.
"To raze the town to the ground." The priestess stated calmly.
Dr Zhindzhe gaped at her as she said this and then in a low voice, " You cant be serious."
"As serious as a heart attack good Doctor." Came her cool reply.
"After accepting the mission, they received their payment and bought new equipment. They then decided to seek out Kespian Black and his thugs since they had been informed that he had gone to ground and was gathering the remnants of his forces for a break out of district 9." The Priestess quickly changed topics.
"What do you mean by a break out?" Dr Zhindzhe asked.
"Brickface after raiding their base of power and dealing them several considerable deadly blows thanks to the information that Amelia found in their HQ had essentially locked down all exits out of #9 and Kespian was going to have to fight his way out if he wanted to survive." The Priestess replied.
"I see so how did they go about finishing off Kespian?" Dr Zhindzhe asked.
" After a bit of wrangling about whether they should do this, they split up to gather information. Kalanaghar went seeking strange gatherings of people, and hooded people." The Priestess began.
"In this city!" Dr Zhindzhe interrupted.
Coldly and lethally Iselia said, "You have a rather annoying behavior of interrupting me when I am explaining things Doctor. In the future it would be good for you to learn and practice restraint when talking to a Priestess of the Scion."
With his eyes wide, Dr Zhindzhe backed up further in his chair and said, " As you command. "
"As I was saying," The priestess continued, "Damien went back to the actual old headquarters and there he ran into a bit of trouble. Kespian and his boys were still there. Apparently there was an underground cavern system that had been missed when Brickfaces people came through the first time."
Tapping a finger beside his nose, Dr Zhindzhe replied, "Clever."
"Indeed, Upon entering the house though Damien was assaulted by a Half Demon Barbarian who engaged him in combat. After trading blows, Damein stabbed the beast through the throat and finished him off. He then left to return to the Devil's Cup for their scheduled 2 hour meet up to share their information." The priestess said matter of factly. "Damien was not able to flee immediately and one of Kespians lieutenants, Saramus Fellwind came up with 4 Talons to investigate the sounds they had heard. Upon finding the dead body, Saramus dispatched the talons on a search for any likely intruders. Damien was safely hidden in a bush and when the Talons returned empty handed, Saramus smote one of them to death with divine magic and then declared that failure was not an option and that they were to go try again."
With a small furrow between his brow, Dr Zhindzhe asked, " Kespain had lieutentants?"
"Yes, He had two, a human male diabolist named Saramus Fellwind, who according to Amelia bore a tattoo across his head and was well connected outside of Rath itself, and a Drow Anti paladin known as Evo Shandar." The Priestess responded.
"Interesting so what did they do next?" Dr Zhindzhe queried.
"Ivanor spread around some money in hopes of locating a rumor monger. Even though his efforts did not bear fruit this time, he was given the names of 3 locals that might in the future provide information." The Priestess continued.
Nodding to indicate that the priestess should continue, Dr Zhindzhe continued to take down her words as she spoke them.
"They met up and compared notes and decided that they would go into the house and finish off Kespian and his gang." The Priestess continued.
"Incidentally, after accepting the mission but before they went after Kespian, Ivanor went to see his mentor, the Cusp." The Priestess said plainly.
"Another person I ham going to have to talk to." Dr Zhindzhe mused.
Completely ignoring him Iselia launched onward saying, "Ivanor informed the Cusp that he would be leaving town for approximately a month because he thought that now would be a good time to get out of things involving the Scions Clergy and he told him where he was going." The priestess said.
"Would their leaving make things better for them with you all?" Dr Zhindzhe asked calmly.
With a cold smile the Priestess said, "If I were to tell you that good doctor, I would have to kill you."
With a long suffering sigh Dr Zhindzhe said, ' Alright please continue."
"Well the Cusp went onto the explain a few things about the Barbarians in the hinterlands, primarily that they were all solidly devoted to the worship of Batista, the raging one and that over the centuries various churches had attempted to convert them with no luck. and that they have a custom called the blood eagle. He also cautioned him about magical duels known as Tempest Fugits and to avoid them at all costs." The Priestess expounded.
"What is a tempest fugit and this blood eagle custom if you do not mind me asking." Dr Zhindzhe replied.
"A tempest fugit is a magical duel between two clerics involving only elemental magics and the Blood Eagle has a dual symbolism. On the one had it represents strength in combat, enemy leaders that are kidnapped out of the midst of their troops are often crucified and their backs are slit open and their lungs are pulled out and spread behind them in a gross parody of angelic wings. Its other meaning is as a warning of disease or some other sort of calamity, in this way usually survivors crucify the dead in a ring around the affected area as a warning to anyone not to enter." the Priestess explained.
Clearing his throat Dr Zhindzhe replied blandly, " I see."
With no emotion what so ever the Priestess bore relentlessly on, " They then researched the Hinterlands and found out a few interesting things about its background mainly relating to the Barbarians that live there and the native flora and fauna."
"Good idea, researching the place ahead of time." Dr Zhindzhe replied.
"It is only logical Doctor." The Priestess said matter of factly. "Once they were comfortably set that they were going to go to the Hinterlands, they then began to focus on eliminating Kespian and his gang. Kalanaghar and Ivanor hired the Mercenary Brock again and informed Brickface's office manager Eddie 2 Wands, Brickface was in a meeting, of what they had found out relating to Kespian. Damien stayed and kept an eye on the house and he saw Evo Shandar arrive with 12 Talons of Malice."
"Thats quite a force." Dr Zhindzhe commented.
"Yes, it is all things considered. This also seemed to bother Damien and Kalanaghar as they wanted word to be given to El'Tari and the stalkers so that they could have some back up when they went in." The Priestess said, " In any event they attempted to sneak into the grounds and around back to an empty shed that Damien had located on an earlier reconnaissance mission of the grounds."
"They seem to be gelling into an effective unit." Dr Zhindzhe said calmly.
With a flat stare, the Priestes bit off, "As you say Doctor. "Almost as soon as they entered the grounds, Kalanaghar and Ivanor made enough noise to alert 2 Talons that had been hiding in some shrubbery. Kalanaghar charged and struck one of them down while Ivanor commanded the other one to be silent. The silent one then ran towards the house but was chased down by Brock who threw an axe catching him in the back of the head. They then continued around to the back of the house and the shed."
"They got to the shed and then what?" Dr Zhindzhe prompted.
"Damien used one of his innate magical abilities and read the thoughts of the two guards that were stationed there guarding a secret exit from the mansion. This confirmed his suspicion that they were guarding an entrance to the house and as a group they began to move to surround the two nervous guards. Again though Kalanaghar and Ivanor made noise and gave them away so they simply charged and struck the two sentries down." The Priestess stated.
"They gained control of the secret entrance to the house." Dr Zhindzhe stated.
"Yes, they found a trap door and descended into a tunnel which terminated in a door with a figure similar to the one that was in the death box carved into it." The priestess said stoically.
"What exactly is that thing?" Dr Zhindzhe asked.
"How should I know Doctor." The Priestess replied.
Coughing slightly to diffuse the challenge that now hung in the air between himself and the priestess the Doctor said, "And how did they bypass this door."
"Damien examined and and found that there was no lock or door handle but the head could be turned on the statue to open the door. He opened the door and Kalanaghar, Brock, and Ivanor charged into the room." Iselia said.
"That probably was not the best tactic." Dr Zhindzhe commented.
"No, but all things considered it worked out for them." The Priestess Countered.
"Oh really." Dr Zhindzhe said.
"Yes, as they entered this room, they confronted Saramus, Evo Shandar and 6 Talons apparently packing things up so they could leave again." The Priestess said. "Evo Shandar summoned his innate magical abilities and dropped a globe of darkness on the center of the room. He and Saramus then fled to prepare for them when they come out of the darkness."
"Tactically sound." The Doctor replied.
"Yes, well Brock of course went berserk and charged running full into a Talon of Malice which he summarily slaughtered and meanwhile the other attempted to navigate through the darkness with varying degrees of success. Damien remained in the darkness to finish off the Talon Underlings. Kalanaghar using his training, and instincts, navigated himself through the darkness fairly uneventfully. Ivanor relied on his common sense to navigate his way out. Kalanaghar though reached the edge after Brock and then exited." the Priestess said.
"What had been going on in the meantime with Evo and Saramus?" Dr Zhindzhe asked.
"Evo hid near the exit from the darkness and prepared to sneak attack anyone that came out of the darkness. Saramus summoned 4 Quasits to assist him against the tainted." The Priestess commented.
"I see." Dr Zhindzhe commented.
"Well Brock was the first out and Evo stabbed him good followed by Kalanaghar who also got stabbed as he exited. Evo then withdrew behind Saranmus. Brock took a swing at him as he passed but missed. Brock and Kalanaghar then moved on Saramus but were stopped by the Quasits and Evo." The Priestess reported.
"It looks grim for the Tainted." Dr Zhindzhe said.
"Yes, Well it only got worse. Evo cast another spell and drained Kalanghar strength, after he tumbled into the room avoiding the Quaasits attacks, hindering his combat abilities while he engaged 2 of the Quasits. And Brock suffered under the claws of the Quasits loosing dexterity to their innate poisons. At the end of all of this, Ivanor came out of the darkness, intent on slaying Saramus Fellwind."
"His history indicates a marked distaste for diabolists." Dr Zhindzhe replied.
"Indeed" The Priestess replied as she locked her gaze on Dr Zhindzhe, "You have detailed reports on these people..."
"Yes, I do actually madam." Dr Zhindzhe replied.
"Where are they?" She demanded.
"If I told you that," Dr Zhindzhe replied," I would have to kill you." He said flatly.
For a minute a pregnant silence hung between them and then the Pristess brushed the Doctors comment away and said," Well Evo cast another spell on himself, expeditious retreat, and Kalanaghar and Brock continued to battle the Quasits, Each having dispatched one of them. Ivanor charged Saramus taking strikes from the Quasits as he went but ignoring them and struck Saramus a mighty blow causing him to lose concentration momentarily of the Quasits. At this point Kalanaghar somehow became disoriented and was left open to attack by the Quasits with no retaliation on his part and Saramus recovered though and blasted Ivanor with hell fire."
"Interesting. " Dr Zhindzhe said placidly.
"Well Evo fled just as Saramus was commanding him to help. Saramus for his part summoned the power of hel and struck Ivanor down with hellish might. Brock finished off his last Quasit and stepped over the prone form of Ivanor and struck Saramus down along with Kalanaghar who finished off his last Quasit as well. Damien remained in the darkness and using intelligence and common sense he slew the 6 underlings that remained lost in the darkness with him. He emerged and along with Brock and Kalanaghar they left in search of Evo Shandar." Iselia stated.
"What about Ivanor?" Dr Zhindzhe said.
"He recovered and remained behind, dismembering the Diabolist and eating his heart." The priestess said calmly.
With a shudder at the calmness of her voice Dr Zhindzhe said, " I also theorized that he had some form of intermittent explosive disorder. This mood swing though seems more typical of a rapid cycling bi polar disorder."
Staring at Dr Zhindzhe with flat unemotional eyes the priestess said, "In the next chamber, Kalanaghar, Brock, and Damein encountered 4 Talons and Kespian himself hiding wedged in a corner on the ceiling. Damien noticed him but no one else did and he positioned himself for a sneak attack on the unsuspecting Kespian after alerting Brock and Kalanaghar to the position of the Talons."
Dr Zhinzhde nodded and the priestess continued, " Damien fired his crossbow at Kespian and missed while Brock and Kalanaghar polished off two of the talons. Kespian descended by jumping at Brock and upon landing, he struck him in the throat stunning him. Kalanaghar engaged another of the talons and Damien did as well effectively gutting the talon in the process."
"Kespian seemed very effective." Dr Zhindzhe noted.
"He was." The Priestess replied. "Kalanaghar then was flanked by the two remaining talons, one of which was engaged with Damien. Kespian then went and tripped Kalanaghar and kicked him on the way down. Damien then moved in and stabbed Kespian critically causing him considerable damage Brock also recovered and moved on Kespian but missed him. Kespian then went into a flurry, he tripped Brock and attempted to stun Damien to no effect."
"The tide turned of course." Dr Zhindzhe said slowly.
"Yes. Kalanaghar stood and Kespain attempted to trip him with no effect. He and Damien and Brock then combined their efforts to finish off Kespian and the remaining 2 Talons." Iselia wrapped up.
"I see but what about Evo Shandar, did he get away scott free?" Dr Zhindzhe asked.
"No, he was captured on the first floor of the mansion by El'Tari and the stalkers. The tainted came up after looting the bodies and ran into El'Tari and company. Ivanor moved as if he were going to kill Evo but El'Tari interceded and made it clear that Ivanor would have to fight him and the Stalkers to get to Evo Shandar." The Priestess said.
"What!" Dr Zhindzhe exclaimed.
"El'Tari explained that Brickface wanted information on who it was that had hired the talons to go after him personally and since Evo Shandar was highly placed in the talons..." The Priestess left it hanging as she looked levelly at Dr Zhindzhe.
"I see. So is that all?' Dr Zhindzhe asked.
"Basically yes. There was quite a bit of intimidation of Evo by Ivanor, Damien and Amelia but yes basically thats it." The Priestess concluded.
"I see." Dr Zhindzhe said standing. "Thank you for this information."
As he was heading for the door Iselia standing behind Dr Zhindzhe said, "Doctor, you have not been given permission to leave yet. There is someone else who would like to talk to you."
As the priestess said this, the doors to the room they were in opened and Opal Mardochan strode in with several Templars and said quite simply as her hard eyes bored into Dr Zhindzhe, "Take him." The guards moved with a cold precision.
**********************To Be Continued**********************
"Another person I ham going to have to talk to." Dr Zhindzhe mused.
Completely ignoring him Iselia launched onward saying, "Ivanor informed the Cusp that he would be leaving town for approximately a month because he thought that now would be a good time to get out of things involving the Scions Clergy and he told him where he was going." The priestess said.
"Would their leaving make things better for them with you all?" Dr Zhindzhe asked calmly.
With a cold smile the Priestess said, "If I were to tell you that good doctor, I would have to kill you."
With a long suffering sigh Dr Zhindzhe said, ' Alright please continue."
"Well the Cusp went onto the explain a few things about the Barbarians in the hinterlands, primarily that they were all solidly devoted to the worship of Batista, the raging one and that over the centuries various churches had attempted to convert them with no luck. and that they have a custom called the blood eagle. He also cautioned him about magical duels known as Tempest Fugits and to avoid them at all costs." The Priestess expounded.
"What is a tempest fugit and this blood eagle custom if you do not mind me asking." Dr Zhindzhe replied.
"A tempest fugit is a magical duel between two clerics involving only elemental magics and the Blood Eagle has a dual symbolism. On the one had it represents strength in combat, enemy leaders that are kidnapped out of the midst of their troops are often crucified and their backs are slit open and their lungs are pulled out and spread behind them in a gross parody of angelic wings. Its other meaning is as a warning of disease or some other sort of calamity, in this way usually survivors crucify the dead in a ring around the affected area as a warning to anyone not to enter." the Priestess explained.
Clearing his throat Dr Zhindzhe replied blandly, " I see."
With no emotion what so ever the Priestess bore relentlessly on, " They then researched the Hinterlands and found out a few interesting things about its background mainly relating to the Barbarians that live there and the native flora and fauna."
"Good idea, researching the place ahead of time." Dr Zhindzhe replied.
"It is only logical Doctor." The Priestess said matter of factly. "Once they were comfortably set that they were going to go to the Hinterlands, they then began to focus on eliminating Kespian and his gang. Kalanaghar and Ivanor hired the Mercenary Brock again and informed Brickface's office manager Eddie 2 Wands, Brickface was in a meeting, of what they had found out relating to Kespian. Damien stayed and kept an eye on the house and he saw Evo Shandar arrive with 12 Talons of Malice."
"Thats quite a force." Dr Zhindzhe commented.
"Yes, it is all things considered. This also seemed to bother Damien and Kalanaghar as they wanted word to be given to El'Tari and the stalkers so that they could have some back up when they went in." The Priestess said, " In any event they attempted to sneak into the grounds and around back to an empty shed that Damien had located on an earlier reconnaissance mission of the grounds."
"They seem to be gelling into an effective unit." Dr Zhindzhe said calmly.
With a flat stare, the Priestes bit off, "As you say Doctor. "Almost as soon as they entered the grounds, Kalanaghar and Ivanor made enough noise to alert 2 Talons that had been hiding in some shrubbery. Kalanaghar charged and struck one of them down while Ivanor commanded the other one to be silent. The silent one then ran towards the house but was chased down by Brock who threw an axe catching him in the back of the head. They then continued around to the back of the house and the shed."
"They got to the shed and then what?" Dr Zhindzhe prompted.
"Damien used one of his innate magical abilities and read the thoughts of the two guards that were stationed there guarding a secret exit from the mansion. This confirmed his suspicion that they were guarding an entrance to the house and as a group they began to move to surround the two nervous guards. Again though Kalanaghar and Ivanor made noise and gave them away so they simply charged and struck the two sentries down." The Priestess stated.
"They gained control of the secret entrance to the house." Dr Zhindzhe stated.
"Yes, they found a trap door and descended into a tunnel which terminated in a door with a figure similar to the one that was in the death box carved into it." The priestess said stoically.
"What exactly is that thing?" Dr Zhindzhe asked.
"How should I know Doctor." The Priestess replied.
Coughing slightly to diffuse the challenge that now hung in the air between himself and the priestess the Doctor said, "And how did they bypass this door."
"Damien examined and and found that there was no lock or door handle but the head could be turned on the statue to open the door. He opened the door and Kalanaghar, Brock, and Ivanor charged into the room." Iselia said.
"That probably was not the best tactic." Dr Zhindzhe commented.
"No, but all things considered it worked out for them." The Priestess Countered.
"Oh really." Dr Zhindzhe said.
"Yes, as they entered this room, they confronted Saramus, Evo Shandar and 6 Talons apparently packing things up so they could leave again." The Priestess said. "Evo Shandar summoned his innate magical abilities and dropped a globe of darkness on the center of the room. He and Saramus then fled to prepare for them when they come out of the darkness."
"Tactically sound." The Doctor replied.
"Yes, well Brock of course went berserk and charged running full into a Talon of Malice which he summarily slaughtered and meanwhile the other attempted to navigate through the darkness with varying degrees of success. Damien remained in the darkness to finish off the Talon Underlings. Kalanaghar using his training, and instincts, navigated himself through the darkness fairly uneventfully. Ivanor relied on his common sense to navigate his way out. Kalanaghar though reached the edge after Brock and then exited." the Priestess said.
"What had been going on in the meantime with Evo and Saramus?" Dr Zhindzhe asked.
"Evo hid near the exit from the darkness and prepared to sneak attack anyone that came out of the darkness. Saramus summoned 4 Quasits to assist him against the tainted." The Priestess commented.
"I see." Dr Zhindzhe commented.
"Well Brock was the first out and Evo stabbed him good followed by Kalanaghar who also got stabbed as he exited. Evo then withdrew behind Saranmus. Brock took a swing at him as he passed but missed. Brock and Kalanaghar then moved on Saramus but were stopped by the Quasits and Evo." The Priestess reported.
"It looks grim for the Tainted." Dr Zhindzhe said.
"Yes, Well it only got worse. Evo cast another spell and drained Kalanghar strength, after he tumbled into the room avoiding the Quaasits attacks, hindering his combat abilities while he engaged 2 of the Quasits. And Brock suffered under the claws of the Quasits loosing dexterity to their innate poisons. At the end of all of this, Ivanor came out of the darkness, intent on slaying Saramus Fellwind."
"His history indicates a marked distaste for diabolists." Dr Zhindzhe replied.
"Indeed" The Priestess replied as she locked her gaze on Dr Zhindzhe, "You have detailed reports on these people..."
"Yes, I do actually madam." Dr Zhindzhe replied.
"Where are they?" She demanded.
"If I told you that," Dr Zhindzhe replied," I would have to kill you." He said flatly.
For a minute a pregnant silence hung between them and then the Pristess brushed the Doctors comment away and said," Well Evo cast another spell on himself, expeditious retreat, and Kalanaghar and Brock continued to battle the Quasits, Each having dispatched one of them. Ivanor charged Saramus taking strikes from the Quasits as he went but ignoring them and struck Saramus a mighty blow causing him to lose concentration momentarily of the Quasits. At this point Kalanaghar somehow became disoriented and was left open to attack by the Quasits with no retaliation on his part and Saramus recovered though and blasted Ivanor with hell fire."
"Interesting. " Dr Zhindzhe said placidly.
"Well Evo fled just as Saramus was commanding him to help. Saramus for his part summoned the power of hel and struck Ivanor down with hellish might. Brock finished off his last Quasit and stepped over the prone form of Ivanor and struck Saramus down along with Kalanaghar who finished off his last Quasit as well. Damien remained in the darkness and using intelligence and common sense he slew the 6 underlings that remained lost in the darkness with him. He emerged and along with Brock and Kalanaghar they left in search of Evo Shandar." Iselia stated.
"What about Ivanor?" Dr Zhindzhe said.
"He recovered and remained behind, dismembering the Diabolist and eating his heart." The priestess said calmly.
With a shudder at the calmness of her voice Dr Zhindzhe said, " I also theorized that he had some form of intermittent explosive disorder. This mood swing though seems more typical of a rapid cycling bi polar disorder."
Staring at Dr Zhindzhe with flat unemotional eyes the priestess said, "In the next chamber, Kalanaghar, Brock, and Damein encountered 4 Talons and Kespian himself hiding wedged in a corner on the ceiling. Damien noticed him but no one else did and he positioned himself for a sneak attack on the unsuspecting Kespian after alerting Brock and Kalanaghar to the position of the Talons."
Dr Zhinzhde nodded and the priestess continued, " Damien fired his crossbow at Kespian and missed while Brock and Kalanaghar polished off two of the talons. Kespian descended by jumping at Brock and upon landing, he struck him in the throat stunning him. Kalanaghar engaged another of the talons and Damien did as well effectively gutting the talon in the process."
"Kespian seemed very effective." Dr Zhindzhe noted.
"He was." The Priestess replied. "Kalanaghar then was flanked by the two remaining talons, one of which was engaged with Damien. Kespian then went and tripped Kalanaghar and kicked him on the way down. Damien then moved in and stabbed Kespian critically causing him considerable damage Brock also recovered and moved on Kespian but missed him. Kespian then went into a flurry, he tripped Brock and attempted to stun Damien to no effect."
"The tide turned of course." Dr Zhindzhe said slowly.
"Yes. Kalanaghar stood and Kespain attempted to trip him with no effect. He and Damien and Brock then combined their efforts to finish off Kespian and the remaining 2 Talons." Iselia wrapped up.
"I see but what about Evo Shandar, did he get away scott free?" Dr Zhindzhe asked.
"No, he was captured on the first floor of the mansion by El'Tari and the stalkers. The tainted came up after looting the bodies and ran into El'Tari and company. Ivanor moved as if he were going to kill Evo but El'Tari interceded and made it clear that Ivanor would have to fight him and the Stalkers to get to Evo Shandar." The Priestess said.
"What!" Dr Zhindzhe exclaimed.
"El'Tari explained that Brickface wanted information on who it was that had hired the talons to go after him personally and since Evo Shandar was highly placed in the talons..." The Priestess left it hanging as she looked levelly at Dr Zhindzhe.
"I see. So is that all?' Dr Zhindzhe asked.
"Basically yes. There was quite a bit of intimidation of Evo by Ivanor, Damien and Amelia but yes basically thats it." The Priestess concluded.
"I see." Dr Zhindzhe said standing. "Thank you for this information."
As he was heading for the door Iselia standing behind Dr Zhindzhe said, "Doctor, you have not been given permission to leave yet. There is someone else who would like to talk to you."
As the priestess said this, the doors to the room they were in opened and Opal Mardochan strode in with several Templars and said quite simply as her hard eyes bored into Dr Zhindzhe, "Take him." The guards moved with a cold precision.
**********************To Be Continued**********************
Dr Zhindzhe versus Opal
"His mind is very strong Opal and he will not yield the information we seek without a struggle." The High Priestess Ysilia spoke telepathically to her Superior in the Cadre, Opal Mardochan.
Quite calmly Ysilia, stood and adjusted her silk dress, red with a floral pattern in golden thread, as she faced her superior, her deep blue eyes unblinking and slightly challenging.
Biting off the oath she was about to utter at this womans defiance Opal stared back at her subordinate with equal fervor. She said quite plainly not using the telepathic means of communication, "Mind probes are not the only way to acquire the information we need Ysilia. I would have thought your years of priestess training would have impressed upon you the illogical thought processes that comes with relying totally on a single ability...."
Opal stopped and studied Ysilia a minute before she continued, " Perhaps you need to be reeducated?"
For a split second the calm challenging stance that Ysilia had adopted towards her direct superior shattered like so much glass and Ysilia nervously licked her lips at Opal's pronouncement. Seizing on her opponents moment of weakness, Opal pressed on relentlessly, "Do not ever dare to challenge me Ysilia. While you are a potent Priestess and telepath, I run the Cadre and am second only to the Scion himself for power in this city. I can hurt you in ways you did not even know existed."
Ysilia's lovely blue eyes widened at the cold calm in her superiors voice and quickly reassessed her position within the Cadre. She prudently stepped back, a sign of submission as Opal stared quite calmly at her. Clinically Opal began, "Now, what have we been able to salvage from the memories of the great Dr Adiago Yurobo Zhindzhe?"
Ysilia quickly began to inform Opal of what she had learned, "He has memories of meeting the adventurers known as the Tainted. He also possesses a great number of mental defenses and subterfuges. The information that I did get from him, I had to wrest from his mind and even then I am not 100% certain that what I got was not a carefully crafted lie on his part. His training reminds me of the Shezurite Sisterhoods mental training. He doesn't directly confront any assault. He subtly diverts it and then gains control of it somehow...."
Sensing her unspoken words at this point Opal pressed, "What else Ysilia!"
With a resigned sigh Ysilia stated, " I think he found out more about me than I found out at all about him Opal."
"Then you have failed?" Came the flat reply from Opal.
Shaken, Ysilia meekly bowed her head at this statement. Spots danced before her eyes as the full armed slap of Opal Mardochan set her sprawling to the cold stone floor of the observation room in the torture chambers of the Scion. Opal moved with a measured calm as she stepped over to peer down into the face of Ysilia.
She stated matter of factly, "I am truly disappointed in you Ysilia. First you attempt to press your superiority over me and then you report to me that you have failed in the mission that gave you this so called confidence....." Opals eyes narrowed as her mind began to process this illogical behavior in a valued compatriot and then it hit her.
Lashing out with incredible speed Ysilia's own mental attack slammed into Opals mind like a barrage neatly shredding Opals unprepared defenses and momentarily staggering the leader of the Cadre. Grim determination and a unceasing will to live though shored up Opals flagging defenses and the second assault met stiffer resistance.
The second assault consisted of millions of psionic insects meant to devour Opal's mental strength and leave her incapacitated and dieing. Opal pulled deeply on her own psionic strength and the assault of the bugs was consumed in Opals own defense, the void. Briefly the torrent of psionic energy increased and the bugs seemed on the verge of filling the unfillable void of Opals defense when they suddenly stopped leaving Opal drawing deeply on her own psionic might as her psyche drifted alone in the coldness of the void.
Momentarily confused Opal maintained her defenses and sent out probing thoughts for Ysilia. What she found shocked her to her core. Dr Adiago Yurobo Zhindzhe had easily dominated Ysilia, a High Priestess of the Scion and Opals number 2, and had also subtly been influencing their interactions provoking them towards violence against each other. Briefly she marveled at the mans subtlety and strength to have accomplished so much after several days of torture. As these thoughts drifted on the ends of her probes Opal found herself experiencing a growing sense of fascination at the Doctor.
Suddenly Opal shut down her void defense and retracted her mind probes as she chillingly realized that again the Doctor was gaining control of her, by turning her defense and her probes against her...Damn that man she thought. Opal instead wrapped herself in a field of pure psionic energy which would prove proof to psionic attacks. The field on the Astral plane appeared to be a suit of armor encasing Opal from head to toe. There on the Astral plane she finally came face to face with Dr Zhindzhe. he was wearing the form of his own avatar, the River.
"I have to hand it to you Doctor, your good." Opal spat.
The doctors mental response, "Thank you Opal. Your better than your subordinate, but the information you are seeking will not be given up easily. In fact, I predict that several priestess will perish in the taking, if you even succeed then."
Lashing out, Opal's avatar blasted the River, Dr Zhindzhe, with a consuming blast of white hot fire. Instead of retreating, Dr Zhindzhe allowed his river avatar to dissipate into a cloud of steam which began to rust the armor that Opal had encased her psyche in. The Doctor altered his attack so that instead of directly assaulting Opal it instead whittled away at her armor.
Panic stronger than anything Opal had felt in a long time began to grip her as she realized that the Doctor easily outstripped her own meager mental defenses. The training of the Scions schools though could not be ignored. Opal reached down deeply within herself to her other abilities. Besides be a competent Psionocist, Opal also was considered to be one of the most powerful Svirfneblin Illusionists on the continent. Using her magical abilities, Opal began to confuse and distort all attacks and feints by Dr Zhindzhe with her arcane magic and to a lesser extent her psionic abilities when applicable. Finally the assualts stopped and Dr Zhindzhe, who had been suspended in the middle of a 40 foot tube shaped room in the dark hung his head in submission.
Squaring her shoulders, Opal wiped the sweat that had beaded up on her forehead and walked into the silent chamber to look at the floating form of Dr Zhindzhe. The man himself was well toned and tall. He had the look of the Shezurite about him and Opal through her training noticed several peculiarities of the way he held himself that screamed out Shezurite training.
Calmly she spoke, "You are a dangerous man Dr Zhindzhe. Normally you would be exterminated and that would be the end of it but now the information you are willing to fight so hard to hide has me intrigued and now that your psyche has been exhausted, as well as your body, you will begin to yield your secrets."
Gesturing ever so slightly the floating form of Dr Zhindzhe descended down the tube to stand before Opal. She looked into his bemused eyes and she knew the illusion world she had created for his mind to interact in had taken a solid hold on him. Smiling grimly, Opal walked out of the room with the doctor behind her to a table and 2 chairs in the adjoining room.
Ysilia sat there drooling wordlessly as Opal passed by her and briefly Opal thought what a mess this was going to be to clean up. She seated herself at the table and the good doctor seated himself across from her.
With crisp business like gestures Opal stated, "Alright now Doctor, I want you to tell me everything you know about the adventuring group known as the Tainted." Opal subtly altered the spell she had cast on the doctor to incorporate her wishes into his mind. Opal sat back and waited. Dr Zhindzhe's eyes widened slightly and then he began to speak.
"His mind is very strong Opal and he will not yield the information we seek without a struggle." The High Priestess Ysilia spoke telepathically to her Superior in the Cadre, Opal Mardochan.
Quite calmly Ysilia, stood and adjusted her silk dress, red with a floral pattern in golden thread, as she faced her superior, her deep blue eyes unblinking and slightly challenging.
Biting off the oath she was about to utter at this womans defiance Opal stared back at her subordinate with equal fervor. She said quite plainly not using the telepathic means of communication, "Mind probes are not the only way to acquire the information we need Ysilia. I would have thought your years of priestess training would have impressed upon you the illogical thought processes that comes with relying totally on a single ability...."
Opal stopped and studied Ysilia a minute before she continued, " Perhaps you need to be reeducated?"
For a split second the calm challenging stance that Ysilia had adopted towards her direct superior shattered like so much glass and Ysilia nervously licked her lips at Opal's pronouncement. Seizing on her opponents moment of weakness, Opal pressed on relentlessly, "Do not ever dare to challenge me Ysilia. While you are a potent Priestess and telepath, I run the Cadre and am second only to the Scion himself for power in this city. I can hurt you in ways you did not even know existed."
Ysilia's lovely blue eyes widened at the cold calm in her superiors voice and quickly reassessed her position within the Cadre. She prudently stepped back, a sign of submission as Opal stared quite calmly at her. Clinically Opal began, "Now, what have we been able to salvage from the memories of the great Dr Adiago Yurobo Zhindzhe?"
Ysilia quickly began to inform Opal of what she had learned, "He has memories of meeting the adventurers known as the Tainted. He also possesses a great number of mental defenses and subterfuges. The information that I did get from him, I had to wrest from his mind and even then I am not 100% certain that what I got was not a carefully crafted lie on his part. His training reminds me of the Shezurite Sisterhoods mental training. He doesn't directly confront any assault. He subtly diverts it and then gains control of it somehow...."
Sensing her unspoken words at this point Opal pressed, "What else Ysilia!"
With a resigned sigh Ysilia stated, " I think he found out more about me than I found out at all about him Opal."
"Then you have failed?" Came the flat reply from Opal.
Shaken, Ysilia meekly bowed her head at this statement. Spots danced before her eyes as the full armed slap of Opal Mardochan set her sprawling to the cold stone floor of the observation room in the torture chambers of the Scion. Opal moved with a measured calm as she stepped over to peer down into the face of Ysilia.
She stated matter of factly, "I am truly disappointed in you Ysilia. First you attempt to press your superiority over me and then you report to me that you have failed in the mission that gave you this so called confidence....." Opals eyes narrowed as her mind began to process this illogical behavior in a valued compatriot and then it hit her.
Lashing out with incredible speed Ysilia's own mental attack slammed into Opals mind like a barrage neatly shredding Opals unprepared defenses and momentarily staggering the leader of the Cadre. Grim determination and a unceasing will to live though shored up Opals flagging defenses and the second assault met stiffer resistance.
The second assault consisted of millions of psionic insects meant to devour Opal's mental strength and leave her incapacitated and dieing. Opal pulled deeply on her own psionic strength and the assault of the bugs was consumed in Opals own defense, the void. Briefly the torrent of psionic energy increased and the bugs seemed on the verge of filling the unfillable void of Opals defense when they suddenly stopped leaving Opal drawing deeply on her own psionic might as her psyche drifted alone in the coldness of the void.
Momentarily confused Opal maintained her defenses and sent out probing thoughts for Ysilia. What she found shocked her to her core. Dr Adiago Yurobo Zhindzhe had easily dominated Ysilia, a High Priestess of the Scion and Opals number 2, and had also subtly been influencing their interactions provoking them towards violence against each other. Briefly she marveled at the mans subtlety and strength to have accomplished so much after several days of torture. As these thoughts drifted on the ends of her probes Opal found herself experiencing a growing sense of fascination at the Doctor.
Suddenly Opal shut down her void defense and retracted her mind probes as she chillingly realized that again the Doctor was gaining control of her, by turning her defense and her probes against her...Damn that man she thought. Opal instead wrapped herself in a field of pure psionic energy which would prove proof to psionic attacks. The field on the Astral plane appeared to be a suit of armor encasing Opal from head to toe. There on the Astral plane she finally came face to face with Dr Zhindzhe. he was wearing the form of his own avatar, the River.
"I have to hand it to you Doctor, your good." Opal spat.
The doctors mental response, "Thank you Opal. Your better than your subordinate, but the information you are seeking will not be given up easily. In fact, I predict that several priestess will perish in the taking, if you even succeed then."
Lashing out, Opal's avatar blasted the River, Dr Zhindzhe, with a consuming blast of white hot fire. Instead of retreating, Dr Zhindzhe allowed his river avatar to dissipate into a cloud of steam which began to rust the armor that Opal had encased her psyche in. The Doctor altered his attack so that instead of directly assaulting Opal it instead whittled away at her armor.
Panic stronger than anything Opal had felt in a long time began to grip her as she realized that the Doctor easily outstripped her own meager mental defenses. The training of the Scions schools though could not be ignored. Opal reached down deeply within herself to her other abilities. Besides be a competent Psionocist, Opal also was considered to be one of the most powerful Svirfneblin Illusionists on the continent. Using her magical abilities, Opal began to confuse and distort all attacks and feints by Dr Zhindzhe with her arcane magic and to a lesser extent her psionic abilities when applicable. Finally the assualts stopped and Dr Zhindzhe, who had been suspended in the middle of a 40 foot tube shaped room in the dark hung his head in submission.
Squaring her shoulders, Opal wiped the sweat that had beaded up on her forehead and walked into the silent chamber to look at the floating form of Dr Zhindzhe. The man himself was well toned and tall. He had the look of the Shezurite about him and Opal through her training noticed several peculiarities of the way he held himself that screamed out Shezurite training.
Calmly she spoke, "You are a dangerous man Dr Zhindzhe. Normally you would be exterminated and that would be the end of it but now the information you are willing to fight so hard to hide has me intrigued and now that your psyche has been exhausted, as well as your body, you will begin to yield your secrets."
Gesturing ever so slightly the floating form of Dr Zhindzhe descended down the tube to stand before Opal. She looked into his bemused eyes and she knew the illusion world she had created for his mind to interact in had taken a solid hold on him. Smiling grimly, Opal walked out of the room with the doctor behind her to a table and 2 chairs in the adjoining room.
Ysilia sat there drooling wordlessly as Opal passed by her and briefly Opal thought what a mess this was going to be to clean up. She seated herself at the table and the good doctor seated himself across from her.
With crisp business like gestures Opal stated, "Alright now Doctor, I want you to tell me everything you know about the adventuring group known as the Tainted." Opal subtly altered the spell she had cast on the doctor to incorporate her wishes into his mind. Opal sat back and waited. Dr Zhindzhe's eyes widened slightly and then he began to speak.
To the Hinterlands
Opal waited patiently as she adjusted her mental domination inside of Dr Zhindzhe's mind. She added a little extra twist to the pain he was receiving from her probe for all of the effort he had forced her to go through to get to this point.
The vaults of the Doctors mind were tremendous and Opal was more than a little shocked by the information she found stored there in his brain and in psilink memory enhancements. Slowly Opal let her presence sink into the Doctors......
Opal found herself in an altogether different place. She was standing in the middle of a large circular airy rotunda. The ceiling of this building was high and fantastic scenes of fires in the sky and points of cold radiance on a field of black played eternally across the roof. The walls of this room seemed to be semi transparent and understated to the point that unless one were looking directly at them, they seemed to vanish giving the impression of being in a large open room. Opal gaped at the mastery inherent in the work and she even jumped a lightly when the precise clicking of shoes on stone began to echo across the vast hall to her ears.
"The Dome of Heaven in Shezur, where I grew up as a child." A strong male voice said and from the surrounding darkness Dr Zhindzhe came walking on with his elegant stately pace. The Doctor strode up to Opals side and stood taking in the sight around him.
The Doctor was of course immaculately dressed. He breathed a deep sigh and continued, "This is my fondest memory, for it is here that I grew up and knew the most joy of my life."
Almost contemptuously Opal sneered, "I have no cares for you past laments Doctor. Quit stalling and take me to the information that I am seeking. I want your notes on the Tainted."
As Opal said this she again adjusted the controls she was exercising over the doctor and suddenly Dr Zhindzhe had a heavy silver chain clamped around his neck and held by Opal who viciously yanked on it causing Dr Zhindzhe to stumble and sprawl on the stone floor of the dome of heaven.
"Get up Doctor its time to go for a walk through the vaults of your mind!" Opal spat. She then began a determined walk towards the exit to the dome with the doctor running to catch up or be dragged.
"Please let me lead." The Doctor replied. "I know where to take you to access the information you seek. "
With a wave of her hand Opal destroyed the memory that the Doctor had of the Dome of Heaven and heaving on his chain yanked him up until he was inches from her face and growled, " Do not play any of your games with me Doctor. I will destroy your mind to find what I want."
Cowed, Dr Zhindzhe backed up from Opal and turned down a corridor that suddenly appeared behind him. As he went he said, "Come we will find what you are looking for in my office."
Opal Mardochan followed the Doctor down the corridor into his mind. This corridor itself was long and filled with file cabinets of varying sizes. Each cabinet had a name ascribed to it and they were alphabetized. Finally the corridor ended at a large heavy red oak door with an immaculate sign bearing Dr Zhindzhe's name on a plaque in the door. pausing to withdraw a key the Doctor opened the door and walked it heading towards a light almost airy looking desk. The doctor removed a large manila folder from the drawer and then took a seat in the leather covered chair that was behind it and began to leaf through sheets of paper completely oblivious to Opals glowering presence.
Standing in the middle of the thick carpet that covered the space in between the doctors desk and a large leather couch Opal shifted the focus of her probe slightly and Dr Zhindzhe flinched behind the desk and looked up with pain in his eyes.
"Don't waste my time doctor" Opal hissed. " I can take what I want remember the Dome..." As Opal said this as a wicked grin spread across her small pinched face. Opal knew that the doctor would never get the memory of the Dome of Heaven back that she had taken from him but he would live with the anguish of that missing memory.
"Here is what you are looking for I believe." Dr Zhindzhe gasped.
Opal walked over to Dr Zhindzhe's desk and snatched the papers out of his hands dated Day 1 of Kefolds 5th year New Era. Now were getting somewhere Opal thought as she walked over to the couch and sank down into the leather plushness of it and began to read the report on the Tainted as composed by Dr Zhindzhe.
Z: It has been a long time gentlemen. I see that you all seem a little more confident in yourselves than the last time we met.
I: Can we get on with this. There are matters that must be attended to.
Z: I understand so lets begin then. What have you been up to?
D: Well, we have finally met up and all of us are in the employment of a Turf Boss in the 9th district of Rath named Brickface.
Z: Yes, I have spoken to him. Quite a remarkable fellow.
K: They say he is extremely smart but that would not be obvious looking at him.
Z: So what is it you are doing for Brickface?
I: He asked us towards the end of last month, Skullsflame, if we wanted to take a mission of high importance that would take us out of the city- state for a while.
Z: I see.
D: We decided to take it because things were getting a little hot in the city for us. (Shoots a look at Ivanor)
Z: What is that look for?
K: *Chuckles* Lets say some people don't know how to keep their mouths shut.
I: I don't quite understand what your talking about. If you are referring to me not taking any crap from the people in this city ......
D: Not that, just the total lack of anything resembling caution when dealing with unknown factors.
Z: Is there some tension here?
D: I may be CE but i'm not stupid.
I: Are you saying that I am stupid!
Z: Allow me to intervene here gentlemen. I think what Damien is saying is that a lot of undo attention has been paid to you all because of certain behaviors you possess such as smarting off to the Scions Priestesses.
K: That is not the smartest thing in these situations.
Z: In any event you all accepted the mission *rifles through some pages* at the behest of Mr Sleep, herself.
D: Yeah Ivanor was winking at her when Brickface announced who she was.
K: LOL
Z: Ivanor?
I: What! She was always there after a point looking everybody up and down I had had enough.
Z: I see. So you left Rath.....
I: Yeah we left on the 1st day of Kefolds and traveled for 2.5 days to the NE to the port town of Orin.
K: On the night of our first day out, we encountered a band of dire wolves led by a Cinder Wolf.
D: Yeah they very nearly killed us before we were able to finish them off.
All that tripping and provoking attacks of opportunity, and then the Cinder Wolf could breath fire.
Z: I have heard of such creatures.
K: Well they attacked and Damien alerted us to their presence. The 3 dire wolves rushed right out at us and a round later the Cinder Wolf showed up.
I: We took out the first 2 fairly easily and the third one as well. The cinder wolf fled after his pack had been slain. I was gonna chase him but decided against it.
Z: How do you mean?
D: We used tactical fighting flanking and positioning to regain the advantage we lost to the Dire wolves when they charged us.
K: In other words we out fought them.
Z: I see.
I: Well nothing happened over the next 1.5 days on our way to Orin. There was a swarm of vampire bats on the second night but they were nowhere near us.
D: Just as an aside the terrain up there is pretty ugly. it went from broken scrub land to a lot more uneven ground and buttes and plateaus. We reached the forest on the evening of our third day.
K: Things picked up a little bit in here. First off We all were noticing that something was wrong with this forest and only later did it occur to us that the bark on the trees was covered with millions of blood flies.
D: We stayed on the path and did not disturb them.
I: Then the raven showed up.
Z: A raven!?
I: Yeah it gave us the evil eye and then cawed once and flew directly at the trees with the Blood flies causing them to swarm all over us biting and stinging.
D: We reached Orin shortly after that and that place was a mess.
K: It was like something out of Resident Evil.
Z: I am not quite following, what is Resident Evil?
D: There were vultures on the walls. They had eaten so much they were to fat to fly and could barely move. I kicked one down when I climbed the wall to get a look into the town.
I: It looked like there had been a series of battles within Orin itself and finally everyone either got killed or carried off. There were broken barricades and some of them had been set on fire.
Z: What did you all do next.
D: Well I set off to search the town for survivors.
K: No you didn't, you were gonna look for treasure.
D: Loot survivors, semantics.
I: *Clears throat* Anyway, we moved into the town proper and found the mayors house/city hall. It was still fairly intact and Kalanaghar had seen movement in one of the upper story rooms.
K: Yeah this place was deserted. There was glass from the windows that had been broken out and claw marks in the doors that still remained on their hinges. We decided to barricade the other entrances out of the mayors home and were in the process of doing this when Ivanor went and got himself attacked again.
I: That dead dog came out of nowhere. Well, this undead dog came after me. I had some strange modifications done to it. Its back legs had been lengthened and its fore legs shortened to increase its running speed and it had extra muscle added to its jaw area, and it was drooling this green slime. I kicked its butt.
K: I helped a little.
D: I watched.
I: Little being the operative word here.
Z: Gentlemen can we please stay focused. What did you find in the mayors house?
D: The mayors son. Peldrin. He had a sweet set up. He was holed up in the attic of the house with all of the liquor he could find. He rigged up several crossbows with rags that he could light on them as well as throwing alcohol bombs when we opened the stairs to go up into the attic.
K: If he had of had porn it would have been complete.
Z: Had what?
D; he set me on fire.
Z: !
D: *flexes wings* It didn't hurt doctor.
Z: I see....
I: *Exasperated sigh* Never mind Dr Zhindzhe. Peldrin told us that we were all going to die and that they were going to come for us.
Z: Who?
K: The undead. We found Peldrins fathers town log and apparently 2 weeks before we came to this town there was a plague of some sort that killed off all of the young children and old people. The children and old people came back to life after a couple of days as udead.
Z; Thats hideous.
K; Yeah, it gets worse. At first the townspeople of Orin did not know a difference and allowed their dead relative to return. Thats when it got bad.
I: I despise the undead.
D: Is that why you wouldn't use your turning ability on them?
I: I did use my turning ability.
K: So the undead began to spread like a plague in this town.
Z; What started this plague?
D: We think theres a Necromancer somewhere around there.
Z: Did you find out for sure and neutralize him?
I: No, we were otherwise occupied.
Z: How do you mean.
K: Someone was trying to steal our food wile we were in the mayors house talking with Peldrin. I climbed down a rope out of the attic window and went after them. Ivanor and Damien followed.
I: Whoever it was, they cloaked themselves in invisibility as they fled. It was a Hobgoblin named Skoldiz and a human named Sven.
D; We were able to still follow them because they had been looting the town and had several jingling bags of loot on them.
Z: Goodness.
D; they stopped outside of a shop and when they appeared, they were ready to fight. The Hobgoblin had his war staff and a dagger that was crackling with electricity at the ready and the human,Sven, had a Spear.
Z: Did violence break out?
K: No, we talked and decided to make a deal with them instead. We asked for a safe place to stay in exchange for the food that we had on the horses.
D; Yeah we would not be able to take it with us.
I: The only problem is that the safe place they knew of was there own hide out. They told us general stuff like stay near the wharves the smell there throws off the undeads scent. So we went to the wharves and naturally enough there was a cannery.
D; The hobgoblin wizard and the human were there. They agreed to let us stay and then we made another deal to fix one of the boats.
I; In one of the undead attacks, the undead had sank all of the ships in the Orin harbor effectively blocking it. Sven turned out to be a sailor and we made a deal with him to sail us across the Cloven Straights and into the Hinterlands.
D: That Hobgoblin was most likely going to kill Sven, he kept giving him these looks and whenever something had to be done he gave Sven a look.
K: Yeah Sven was not long for the world.
I; We stayed the night there because Peldrin had told us the udnead come at night and that they already knew we were there anyway so they would come.
Z: Did they come?
D: Yeah but they just kinda wandered around aimlessly until the Spellstitched Ghouls showed up.
Z: Spellstitched Ghoul?
K: Yeah their leaders, they are like normal ghouls except they have some minor arcane power.
I; The Ghouls directed the Zombies on a relatively thorough search for us but they found nothing.
D: yeah and the next day, we went out to fix the boat the Hobgoblin armed himself with several items from the loot they had gathered.
K: We went out and used our horses to help beach one of the sunken boats and then Sven and us went to work fixing it.
I: We were disrupted by a surprise return of the undead.
K: Well it wasn't exactly a surprise, one of those Dead Dogs came back and told us that we were going to die then it left.
Z: Those things can talk!
K: We think it was the Necromancer that created him talking through it.
I: We gathered up our stuff and as a group we began to move towards the Cannery. Before we got there though, the streets filled with Undead and Spellstitched Ghouls.
D: The hobgoblin and Sven apparently had worked out there own escape plane before hand.
Z; What do you mean?
K; The Hobgoblin began casting a spell and motioned for Sven to come over to him and drink a potion.
D: The potion was a potion of flight and Sven flew up taking the hobgoblin with him as the flew over the undead.
Z: They abandoned you.
I: Not exactly the spell the Hobgoblin had been casting was fireball and he wiped out 1/3 of the zombies with ease.
Z: I guess that has to count for something. What did the rest of you do.
D: I fled.
K: I fled.
I: I stayed to fight. Undead are an abomination to my church. Peldrin stayed with me.
Z: You stayed against what odds?
I: About 26 to 2.
D: I tumbled through all of these ghouls that Ivanor had turned and got past 2 Spellstittched ghouls as well. The ghouls cast acid arrow at All of us but only got Ivanor and Kalanaghar. Once I was clear of them I sprinted for the Cannery.
K: I ran after Ivanor had turned a lot of them too. One of the Ghouls chased me back to the cannery.
Z: It did.
K: yeah but the Hobgoblin had two flaming spheres that he was controlling and he sent them after the Ghoul which went up in flames.
Z: Alright Ivanor what happened back with you.
I: I fought two of the ghouls but before this began, Peldrin did something extraordinary.
Z; How do you mean?
I: Well he had been talking to me about my faith whenever we had a free moment and apparently he gained faith in my deity. He used his faith to keep the Ghouls at bay.
Z: I have heard of the phenomenon of spontaneous faith before but you witnessed it. What was it like.
I: Well it was kind of like he channeled positive energy but not so much like that.
K: hes going to become Ivanors cohort later on.
Z: A cohort?
D: Follower.
Z: I see.
I: Anyway he had to do this because when the undead came he got unhinged and began attacking. I had cast an Invisibility to Undead on us but he did not know and attacked them breaking my spell.
K: After that they simply walked away.
D: After Ivanor realized that he would not be able to defeat the 2 Ghouls in hand to hand combat. 6 attacks against 1 attack is not good odds.
Z: I would have to agree. In any event.
K: We fixed the ship and Sven was going to sail us across the straits. Peldrin and the Hobgoblin decided to go back to Rath.
D: yeah Peldrin is probably dead under a bush now on the way to Rath.
K: yeah I don't give him very good odds.
I: I gave him directions to my church in Rath and directed him to seek out the Cusp. Then we all parted ways.
Z: Fascinating.
Opal waited patiently as she adjusted her mental domination inside of Dr Zhindzhe's mind. She added a little extra twist to the pain he was receiving from her probe for all of the effort he had forced her to go through to get to this point.
The vaults of the Doctors mind were tremendous and Opal was more than a little shocked by the information she found stored there in his brain and in psilink memory enhancements. Slowly Opal let her presence sink into the Doctors......
Opal found herself in an altogether different place. She was standing in the middle of a large circular airy rotunda. The ceiling of this building was high and fantastic scenes of fires in the sky and points of cold radiance on a field of black played eternally across the roof. The walls of this room seemed to be semi transparent and understated to the point that unless one were looking directly at them, they seemed to vanish giving the impression of being in a large open room. Opal gaped at the mastery inherent in the work and she even jumped a lightly when the precise clicking of shoes on stone began to echo across the vast hall to her ears.
"The Dome of Heaven in Shezur, where I grew up as a child." A strong male voice said and from the surrounding darkness Dr Zhindzhe came walking on with his elegant stately pace. The Doctor strode up to Opals side and stood taking in the sight around him.
The Doctor was of course immaculately dressed. He breathed a deep sigh and continued, "This is my fondest memory, for it is here that I grew up and knew the most joy of my life."
Almost contemptuously Opal sneered, "I have no cares for you past laments Doctor. Quit stalling and take me to the information that I am seeking. I want your notes on the Tainted."
As Opal said this she again adjusted the controls she was exercising over the doctor and suddenly Dr Zhindzhe had a heavy silver chain clamped around his neck and held by Opal who viciously yanked on it causing Dr Zhindzhe to stumble and sprawl on the stone floor of the dome of heaven.
"Get up Doctor its time to go for a walk through the vaults of your mind!" Opal spat. She then began a determined walk towards the exit to the dome with the doctor running to catch up or be dragged.
"Please let me lead." The Doctor replied. "I know where to take you to access the information you seek. "
With a wave of her hand Opal destroyed the memory that the Doctor had of the Dome of Heaven and heaving on his chain yanked him up until he was inches from her face and growled, " Do not play any of your games with me Doctor. I will destroy your mind to find what I want."
Cowed, Dr Zhindzhe backed up from Opal and turned down a corridor that suddenly appeared behind him. As he went he said, "Come we will find what you are looking for in my office."
Opal Mardochan followed the Doctor down the corridor into his mind. This corridor itself was long and filled with file cabinets of varying sizes. Each cabinet had a name ascribed to it and they were alphabetized. Finally the corridor ended at a large heavy red oak door with an immaculate sign bearing Dr Zhindzhe's name on a plaque in the door. pausing to withdraw a key the Doctor opened the door and walked it heading towards a light almost airy looking desk. The doctor removed a large manila folder from the drawer and then took a seat in the leather covered chair that was behind it and began to leaf through sheets of paper completely oblivious to Opals glowering presence.
Standing in the middle of the thick carpet that covered the space in between the doctors desk and a large leather couch Opal shifted the focus of her probe slightly and Dr Zhindzhe flinched behind the desk and looked up with pain in his eyes.
"Don't waste my time doctor" Opal hissed. " I can take what I want remember the Dome..." As Opal said this as a wicked grin spread across her small pinched face. Opal knew that the doctor would never get the memory of the Dome of Heaven back that she had taken from him but he would live with the anguish of that missing memory.
"Here is what you are looking for I believe." Dr Zhindzhe gasped.
Opal walked over to Dr Zhindzhe's desk and snatched the papers out of his hands dated Day 1 of Kefolds 5th year New Era. Now were getting somewhere Opal thought as she walked over to the couch and sank down into the leather plushness of it and began to read the report on the Tainted as composed by Dr Zhindzhe.
Z: It has been a long time gentlemen. I see that you all seem a little more confident in yourselves than the last time we met.
I: Can we get on with this. There are matters that must be attended to.
Z: I understand so lets begin then. What have you been up to?
D: Well, we have finally met up and all of us are in the employment of a Turf Boss in the 9th district of Rath named Brickface.
Z: Yes, I have spoken to him. Quite a remarkable fellow.
K: They say he is extremely smart but that would not be obvious looking at him.
Z: So what is it you are doing for Brickface?
I: He asked us towards the end of last month, Skullsflame, if we wanted to take a mission of high importance that would take us out of the city- state for a while.
Z: I see.
D: We decided to take it because things were getting a little hot in the city for us. (Shoots a look at Ivanor)
Z: What is that look for?
K: *Chuckles* Lets say some people don't know how to keep their mouths shut.
I: I don't quite understand what your talking about. If you are referring to me not taking any crap from the people in this city ......
D: Not that, just the total lack of anything resembling caution when dealing with unknown factors.
Z: Is there some tension here?
D: I may be CE but i'm not stupid.
I: Are you saying that I am stupid!
Z: Allow me to intervene here gentlemen. I think what Damien is saying is that a lot of undo attention has been paid to you all because of certain behaviors you possess such as smarting off to the Scions Priestesses.
K: That is not the smartest thing in these situations.
Z: In any event you all accepted the mission *rifles through some pages* at the behest of Mr Sleep, herself.
D: Yeah Ivanor was winking at her when Brickface announced who she was.
K: LOL
Z: Ivanor?
I: What! She was always there after a point looking everybody up and down I had had enough.
Z: I see. So you left Rath.....
I: Yeah we left on the 1st day of Kefolds and traveled for 2.5 days to the NE to the port town of Orin.
K: On the night of our first day out, we encountered a band of dire wolves led by a Cinder Wolf.
D: Yeah they very nearly killed us before we were able to finish them off.
All that tripping and provoking attacks of opportunity, and then the Cinder Wolf could breath fire.
Z: I have heard of such creatures.
K: Well they attacked and Damien alerted us to their presence. The 3 dire wolves rushed right out at us and a round later the Cinder Wolf showed up.
I: We took out the first 2 fairly easily and the third one as well. The cinder wolf fled after his pack had been slain. I was gonna chase him but decided against it.
Z: How do you mean?
D: We used tactical fighting flanking and positioning to regain the advantage we lost to the Dire wolves when they charged us.
K: In other words we out fought them.
Z: I see.
I: Well nothing happened over the next 1.5 days on our way to Orin. There was a swarm of vampire bats on the second night but they were nowhere near us.
D: Just as an aside the terrain up there is pretty ugly. it went from broken scrub land to a lot more uneven ground and buttes and plateaus. We reached the forest on the evening of our third day.
K: Things picked up a little bit in here. First off We all were noticing that something was wrong with this forest and only later did it occur to us that the bark on the trees was covered with millions of blood flies.
D: We stayed on the path and did not disturb them.
I: Then the raven showed up.
Z: A raven!?
I: Yeah it gave us the evil eye and then cawed once and flew directly at the trees with the Blood flies causing them to swarm all over us biting and stinging.
D: We reached Orin shortly after that and that place was a mess.
K: It was like something out of Resident Evil.
Z: I am not quite following, what is Resident Evil?
D: There were vultures on the walls. They had eaten so much they were to fat to fly and could barely move. I kicked one down when I climbed the wall to get a look into the town.
I: It looked like there had been a series of battles within Orin itself and finally everyone either got killed or carried off. There were broken barricades and some of them had been set on fire.
Z: What did you all do next.
D: Well I set off to search the town for survivors.
K: No you didn't, you were gonna look for treasure.
D: Loot survivors, semantics.
I: *Clears throat* Anyway, we moved into the town proper and found the mayors house/city hall. It was still fairly intact and Kalanaghar had seen movement in one of the upper story rooms.
K: Yeah this place was deserted. There was glass from the windows that had been broken out and claw marks in the doors that still remained on their hinges. We decided to barricade the other entrances out of the mayors home and were in the process of doing this when Ivanor went and got himself attacked again.
I: That dead dog came out of nowhere. Well, this undead dog came after me. I had some strange modifications done to it. Its back legs had been lengthened and its fore legs shortened to increase its running speed and it had extra muscle added to its jaw area, and it was drooling this green slime. I kicked its butt.
K: I helped a little.
D: I watched.
I: Little being the operative word here.
Z: Gentlemen can we please stay focused. What did you find in the mayors house?
D: The mayors son. Peldrin. He had a sweet set up. He was holed up in the attic of the house with all of the liquor he could find. He rigged up several crossbows with rags that he could light on them as well as throwing alcohol bombs when we opened the stairs to go up into the attic.
K: If he had of had porn it would have been complete.
Z: Had what?
D; he set me on fire.
Z: !
D: *flexes wings* It didn't hurt doctor.
Z: I see....
I: *Exasperated sigh* Never mind Dr Zhindzhe. Peldrin told us that we were all going to die and that they were going to come for us.
Z: Who?
K: The undead. We found Peldrins fathers town log and apparently 2 weeks before we came to this town there was a plague of some sort that killed off all of the young children and old people. The children and old people came back to life after a couple of days as udead.
Z; Thats hideous.
K; Yeah, it gets worse. At first the townspeople of Orin did not know a difference and allowed their dead relative to return. Thats when it got bad.
I: I despise the undead.
D: Is that why you wouldn't use your turning ability on them?
I: I did use my turning ability.
K: So the undead began to spread like a plague in this town.
Z; What started this plague?
D: We think theres a Necromancer somewhere around there.
Z: Did you find out for sure and neutralize him?
I: No, we were otherwise occupied.
Z: How do you mean.
K: Someone was trying to steal our food wile we were in the mayors house talking with Peldrin. I climbed down a rope out of the attic window and went after them. Ivanor and Damien followed.
I: Whoever it was, they cloaked themselves in invisibility as they fled. It was a Hobgoblin named Skoldiz and a human named Sven.
D; We were able to still follow them because they had been looting the town and had several jingling bags of loot on them.
Z: Goodness.
D; they stopped outside of a shop and when they appeared, they were ready to fight. The Hobgoblin had his war staff and a dagger that was crackling with electricity at the ready and the human,Sven, had a Spear.
Z: Did violence break out?
K: No, we talked and decided to make a deal with them instead. We asked for a safe place to stay in exchange for the food that we had on the horses.
D; Yeah we would not be able to take it with us.
I: The only problem is that the safe place they knew of was there own hide out. They told us general stuff like stay near the wharves the smell there throws off the undeads scent. So we went to the wharves and naturally enough there was a cannery.
D; The hobgoblin wizard and the human were there. They agreed to let us stay and then we made another deal to fix one of the boats.
I; In one of the undead attacks, the undead had sank all of the ships in the Orin harbor effectively blocking it. Sven turned out to be a sailor and we made a deal with him to sail us across the Cloven Straights and into the Hinterlands.
D: That Hobgoblin was most likely going to kill Sven, he kept giving him these looks and whenever something had to be done he gave Sven a look.
K: Yeah Sven was not long for the world.
I; We stayed the night there because Peldrin had told us the udnead come at night and that they already knew we were there anyway so they would come.
Z: Did they come?
D: Yeah but they just kinda wandered around aimlessly until the Spellstitched Ghouls showed up.
Z: Spellstitched Ghoul?
K: Yeah their leaders, they are like normal ghouls except they have some minor arcane power.
I; The Ghouls directed the Zombies on a relatively thorough search for us but they found nothing.
D: yeah and the next day, we went out to fix the boat the Hobgoblin armed himself with several items from the loot they had gathered.
K: We went out and used our horses to help beach one of the sunken boats and then Sven and us went to work fixing it.
I: We were disrupted by a surprise return of the undead.
K: Well it wasn't exactly a surprise, one of those Dead Dogs came back and told us that we were going to die then it left.
Z: Those things can talk!
K: We think it was the Necromancer that created him talking through it.
I: We gathered up our stuff and as a group we began to move towards the Cannery. Before we got there though, the streets filled with Undead and Spellstitched Ghouls.
D: The hobgoblin and Sven apparently had worked out there own escape plane before hand.
Z; What do you mean?
K; The Hobgoblin began casting a spell and motioned for Sven to come over to him and drink a potion.
D: The potion was a potion of flight and Sven flew up taking the hobgoblin with him as the flew over the undead.
Z: They abandoned you.
I: Not exactly the spell the Hobgoblin had been casting was fireball and he wiped out 1/3 of the zombies with ease.
Z: I guess that has to count for something. What did the rest of you do.
D: I fled.
K: I fled.
I: I stayed to fight. Undead are an abomination to my church. Peldrin stayed with me.
Z: You stayed against what odds?
I: About 26 to 2.
D: I tumbled through all of these ghouls that Ivanor had turned and got past 2 Spellstittched ghouls as well. The ghouls cast acid arrow at All of us but only got Ivanor and Kalanaghar. Once I was clear of them I sprinted for the Cannery.
K: I ran after Ivanor had turned a lot of them too. One of the Ghouls chased me back to the cannery.
Z: It did.
K: yeah but the Hobgoblin had two flaming spheres that he was controlling and he sent them after the Ghoul which went up in flames.
Z: Alright Ivanor what happened back with you.
I: I fought two of the ghouls but before this began, Peldrin did something extraordinary.
Z; How do you mean?
I: Well he had been talking to me about my faith whenever we had a free moment and apparently he gained faith in my deity. He used his faith to keep the Ghouls at bay.
Z: I have heard of the phenomenon of spontaneous faith before but you witnessed it. What was it like.
I: Well it was kind of like he channeled positive energy but not so much like that.
K: hes going to become Ivanors cohort later on.
Z: A cohort?
D: Follower.
Z: I see.
I: Anyway he had to do this because when the undead came he got unhinged and began attacking. I had cast an Invisibility to Undead on us but he did not know and attacked them breaking my spell.
K: After that they simply walked away.
D: After Ivanor realized that he would not be able to defeat the 2 Ghouls in hand to hand combat. 6 attacks against 1 attack is not good odds.
Z: I would have to agree. In any event.
K: We fixed the ship and Sven was going to sail us across the straits. Peldrin and the Hobgoblin decided to go back to Rath.
D: yeah Peldrin is probably dead under a bush now on the way to Rath.
K: yeah I don't give him very good odds.
I: I gave him directions to my church in Rath and directed him to seek out the Cusp. Then we all parted ways.
Z: Fascinating.
A Mystic Hajj
D: We got to the Hinterlands 2 days later.
K: This place was different.
I: yeah for one thing it was cold.
Z: I have heard that about the Hinterlands.
D: We walked into the big primeval forest that covers most of the hinterlands and ran into tribe Angrijmier. They were not going to let us pass saying something about their ancestors had not been appeased.
I: they wanted us to cut our hands and fling the blood about us to appease the bad spirits.,
Z; How barbaric...
D: They are barbarians. Anyway after the bloodletting they took us to Hamall.
Z: The Contact Bismark was supposed to lead you to.
K: The same one. He was pleasant.
D: Yeah he hated non humans apparently.
Z: I am sure your appearance caused quite a stir Damien.
D: Not really, i kept myself under wraps.
K: Hamal would not even speak to us. he addressed everything to Ivanor.
D: He wouldn't even accept our half of the money we had to pay him to take us the the lands of the Ragnnaar.
K: he said it was cursed and threw it across the room.
I: he had a cleric with him and he challenged me to the Tempist fugit.
Z: The elemental battle of divine magic.
I: Yeah, I told him that my scythe was my strength and then declined.
Hamall had wine brought to us by his drow female slave and then we were off to the lands of the Ragnnaar. Hamall ran the whole way there and we had to as well since we did not have horses.
D: Yeah I got sick.
K: I had to stop as well.
Z: How did Hamall take this?
I: He stopped but made it known that he did not like to stop. We then ran on for most of the next day before We came upon a fence of skeletons and then Hamall because very careful. he told us we were in Ragnnaar lands and that we were not alone.
D: The Ragnnaar came out of the woods and surrounded us.
K: Where Hamaal and the Angrijmer were burly, the Ragnnaar were lean and their women seemed to occupy places as powerful as the men. There were naked female warriors mixed in with the men when they confronted us.
I: There was some superstitious mumbo jumbo about Hamall having a "doom" and marrying some woman from the Ragnnaar clan or fighting her.
D: The leader of these people was Falthor. He had a really kewl bow and was a lot more fun than Hamall.
K: yeah he talked to us even though he had a drow female for a slave as well.
I: We went to their camp and as Falthor said, ate the bloat, and drank from his fathers cup to the fog moon.
Z: The bloat, and a fog moon?
I: According to Gunhilda, the Norn, the bloat is food, and the fog moon is just some old ritual they no longer even know why they follow it, its now more of a toast or salutation.
D: We sat around and told stories of what we had done in the past with Falthor and then Gunhilda arrived.
I: A petite big busted blonde with blue eyes.
D: These people were better all around than the Angrijmer.
K: Yep.
I: Gunhilda told us that she would help us but first we would have to prove ourselves by completing a mystic hajj.
Z: A mystic hajj?
D: She told us we would have to die and then come back to life.
Z: I am not following this.
K: She didn't mean it literally. To the tribe we would be dead until we completed the quest that Gunhilda had placed on us.
Z: And that was......
K: To kill a dragon and bring back its horns.
Z: A DRAGON!
D: Yeah. I don't know why but all of a sudden it seems like everyone is interested in horns.
A contemplative silence descends at this statement.
I: Well we completed the hajj.
Z: Just like that.
D: Uhhhh no.
Z: Explain please.
K: Well we were sent to this mountain called Heimskrigla which roughly translates into "place of the wyrms". There were all sizes shapes and colors of dragons fighting in the clouds over the mountain.
D: They had fought for so long that the ground was saturated with their blood and the area for a mile around was a flat plain of clay. It also was steadily raining blood as we walked out into this.
I: We drew the attention of a curious type of wyrm. It could not fly but it could make incredible leaps and it did not have a breath weapon but it was incredibly vicious.
Z: Vicious you say.
I: yeah it bit me for half my hit points in its first attack.
Z: half your hit points......
(Clinicians Note: More of this adventurer lingo. Must do an in depth review of this curious dialect)
D: Then it proceeded to beat the crap outta all three of us at once. I got scared of it though and fled.
K: yeah it incapacitated me.
I: I was about to go down myself but I called on my faith and it protected me.
K: That pretty much saved all of us.
I: That and the critical cleave I got on it.
Z: So you were basically the hero of this encounter Ivanor?
I: Yeah you could say that.
D: We took its horns and returned and the Ragnnaar had a feast and party ready.
K: Gunhilda gave us the direction to the valley of the Unicorns and warned us that there was an awful burning light that hung in the sky inside of the valley and that we would know we were close when the mists grew swollen and thick.
Z: A cryptic response.
D: She is a Norn.
Z: A norn?
I: Oracle.
Z: I see.
The cool stone of the Scions temple did nothing to dispel the heat and sweat that was rolling off of Opal Mardochan as she sat in the underground torture chambers with Dr Zhindzhe seated across from her. The mans will was cracking and soon she would have what she wanted but by the dark god himself the effort it was taking was tremendous.
Standing on wobbly legs Opal looked at the comatose form of Dr Zhindzhe and in a dry whisper she said, " Next time doctor you will give me what I want and not this meaningless drivel." Turning on her soft slippered feet, Opal left the room and Dr Zhindzhe in the all consuming darkness.
As the stone portal to the room closed, the vacant eyed Dr Zhindzhe blinked once to get the sweat out of his own eyes. A part of his mind was working furiously to penetrate the psionic and magical wards that prevented his escape from this place and yet another part of his brain was working to dredge up as much of his memory palace as he could. Opal was voracious and her rambling inside of his head had to be contained until he could deal with her properly. With a grim determination, Dr Zhindzhe began to spin his next trap for the unsuspecting Opal Mardochan.
****************To Be Continued****************************
D: We got to the Hinterlands 2 days later.
K: This place was different.
I: yeah for one thing it was cold.
Z: I have heard that about the Hinterlands.
D: We walked into the big primeval forest that covers most of the hinterlands and ran into tribe Angrijmier. They were not going to let us pass saying something about their ancestors had not been appeased.
I: they wanted us to cut our hands and fling the blood about us to appease the bad spirits.,
Z; How barbaric...
D: They are barbarians. Anyway after the bloodletting they took us to Hamall.
Z: The Contact Bismark was supposed to lead you to.
K: The same one. He was pleasant.
D: Yeah he hated non humans apparently.
Z: I am sure your appearance caused quite a stir Damien.
D: Not really, i kept myself under wraps.
K: Hamal would not even speak to us. he addressed everything to Ivanor.
D: He wouldn't even accept our half of the money we had to pay him to take us the the lands of the Ragnnaar.
K: he said it was cursed and threw it across the room.
I: he had a cleric with him and he challenged me to the Tempist fugit.
Z: The elemental battle of divine magic.
I: Yeah, I told him that my scythe was my strength and then declined.
Hamall had wine brought to us by his drow female slave and then we were off to the lands of the Ragnnaar. Hamall ran the whole way there and we had to as well since we did not have horses.
D: Yeah I got sick.
K: I had to stop as well.
Z: How did Hamall take this?
I: He stopped but made it known that he did not like to stop. We then ran on for most of the next day before We came upon a fence of skeletons and then Hamall because very careful. he told us we were in Ragnnaar lands and that we were not alone.
D: The Ragnnaar came out of the woods and surrounded us.
K: Where Hamaal and the Angrijmer were burly, the Ragnnaar were lean and their women seemed to occupy places as powerful as the men. There were naked female warriors mixed in with the men when they confronted us.
I: There was some superstitious mumbo jumbo about Hamall having a "doom" and marrying some woman from the Ragnnaar clan or fighting her.
D: The leader of these people was Falthor. He had a really kewl bow and was a lot more fun than Hamall.
K: yeah he talked to us even though he had a drow female for a slave as well.
I: We went to their camp and as Falthor said, ate the bloat, and drank from his fathers cup to the fog moon.
Z: The bloat, and a fog moon?
I: According to Gunhilda, the Norn, the bloat is food, and the fog moon is just some old ritual they no longer even know why they follow it, its now more of a toast or salutation.
D: We sat around and told stories of what we had done in the past with Falthor and then Gunhilda arrived.
I: A petite big busted blonde with blue eyes.
D: These people were better all around than the Angrijmer.
K: Yep.
I: Gunhilda told us that she would help us but first we would have to prove ourselves by completing a mystic hajj.
Z: A mystic hajj?
D: She told us we would have to die and then come back to life.
Z: I am not following this.
K: She didn't mean it literally. To the tribe we would be dead until we completed the quest that Gunhilda had placed on us.
Z: And that was......
K: To kill a dragon and bring back its horns.
Z: A DRAGON!
D: Yeah. I don't know why but all of a sudden it seems like everyone is interested in horns.
A contemplative silence descends at this statement.
I: Well we completed the hajj.
Z: Just like that.
D: Uhhhh no.
Z: Explain please.
K: Well we were sent to this mountain called Heimskrigla which roughly translates into "place of the wyrms". There were all sizes shapes and colors of dragons fighting in the clouds over the mountain.
D: They had fought for so long that the ground was saturated with their blood and the area for a mile around was a flat plain of clay. It also was steadily raining blood as we walked out into this.
I: We drew the attention of a curious type of wyrm. It could not fly but it could make incredible leaps and it did not have a breath weapon but it was incredibly vicious.
Z: Vicious you say.
I: yeah it bit me for half my hit points in its first attack.
Z: half your hit points......
(Clinicians Note: More of this adventurer lingo. Must do an in depth review of this curious dialect)
D: Then it proceeded to beat the crap outta all three of us at once. I got scared of it though and fled.
K: yeah it incapacitated me.
I: I was about to go down myself but I called on my faith and it protected me.
K: That pretty much saved all of us.
I: That and the critical cleave I got on it.
Z: So you were basically the hero of this encounter Ivanor?
I: Yeah you could say that.
D: We took its horns and returned and the Ragnnaar had a feast and party ready.
K: Gunhilda gave us the direction to the valley of the Unicorns and warned us that there was an awful burning light that hung in the sky inside of the valley and that we would know we were close when the mists grew swollen and thick.
Z: A cryptic response.
D: She is a Norn.
Z: A norn?
I: Oracle.
Z: I see.
The cool stone of the Scions temple did nothing to dispel the heat and sweat that was rolling off of Opal Mardochan as she sat in the underground torture chambers with Dr Zhindzhe seated across from her. The mans will was cracking and soon she would have what she wanted but by the dark god himself the effort it was taking was tremendous.
Standing on wobbly legs Opal looked at the comatose form of Dr Zhindzhe and in a dry whisper she said, " Next time doctor you will give me what I want and not this meaningless drivel." Turning on her soft slippered feet, Opal left the room and Dr Zhindzhe in the all consuming darkness.
As the stone portal to the room closed, the vacant eyed Dr Zhindzhe blinked once to get the sweat out of his own eyes. A part of his mind was working furiously to penetrate the psionic and magical wards that prevented his escape from this place and yet another part of his brain was working to dredge up as much of his memory palace as he could. Opal was voracious and her rambling inside of his head had to be contained until he could deal with her properly. With a grim determination, Dr Zhindzhe began to spin his next trap for the unsuspecting Opal Mardochan.
****************To Be Continued****************************
To the Valley of the Unicorn
The following documents were unearthed in a historical dig off the southern coast of Garsis in the area formerly known as Elzelik-Rath. They appear to be a historical accounting of a journey, or maybe a fictional story recounting the exploits of fabled heroes. They were originally composed by a bard known simply as Fendril of the Company of the Broken Horn.
Gunhilda sat upon a large stone on the outskirts of the Ranaga encampment and distractedly traced runes into the dirt at her feet. The nights festivities, those that had ended in any event, Gunhilda thought with a wry smile, had left most of the camp asleep and their snores created a buzzing counterpoint to the often feral yowls that were coming from other parts of the encampment. The heavy overhanging clouds that blotted out the sky, seemed to roil of their own accord this morning and Gunhilda squinted her brilliant blue eyes up at them wondering what events had been set into motion by the arrival of the outsiders and how this whole thing would play out.
As if her thoughts had summoned them, the adventurers, known as the Tainted walked across the frozen earth towards Gunhilda and she took this moment to reassess them as they approached her. Damien the Drow Fey'ri, even though he was one of the damned Drow, she found that his chaotic nature often suited her a lot more than Ivanor, the cleric of Cambion,the Lord of Nightmares and Death. Ivanor was a tall human male that seemed very rigid and finally came Kalanaghar another damned Drow but a decent swordsman none the less.
"Lady what is that you are drawing in the ground?" Ivanor asked as the Tainted approached Gunhilda.
"Nothing to concern you." Came Gunhilda's reply as she stood and dragged her deerskin wrapped feet over the runes that had sprang unbidden into her mind. "Attend me while I give you direction to the Valley of the Unicorns."
They listened as she laid out their travel directions and a few warnings as well.
"No one from our clan has ever been there and returned with the same description of the place, but you will know you are near it when the mists come upon you unbidden. There is rumored to be a terrible fire that blazes in the sky there and all manner of strange and evil creatures."
"So we are to travel to the Northeast from here." That was Ivanor.
"Yes, for approximately 3 to 4 days before you will be in the region where this place is rumored to be." Gunhilda replied.
"May the blessings of Batista be upon you all." Gunhilda said by way of a benediction as they began to depart.
"Cambion has always walked with me lady." Replied Ivanor.
Silently Gunhilda mused, "I am sure but who is going to hold Cambion's hand when you go into a place where your gods do not even dare to tread?" Outwardly Gunhilda simply watched as the Tainted walked out of the hold of clan Ranaga.
The forest of the Hinterlands, known as the Elde Forest, stretched ancient and hoary over most of the Hinterlands, the area formerly known as the 7 Kingdoms of the Westmen. The diffuse light that normally reaches the ground in this region, was even more filtered and under the ancient canopy, total darkness reigned. The cold and the remnants of snow combined with the darkness made travel slow going for the Tainted as they moved through this forest.
"I hate forests!" Ivanor began as they traveled slowly through the murk. "Whose idea was it to come out here anyway."
"I think it was yours" Damien replied slyly from the shadows. "Something to do with your church."
Kalanaghar retained his usually stoicism as he moved through the forest. Like Damien he had also grew up in a forest but not one nearly as ancient and untamed as this forest was. "I think I see a place that we can camp up ahead" Kalanaghar replied as they continued to move through the forest.
The camp was struck and the Tainted set about breaking up their duties among themselves. Kalanaghar took the first watch and nothing of import occurred during his tenure.
During Damiens watch, a couple of bears came frolicking into the camp. They had been causing some noise earlier and Damien had prudently attempted to wake Ivanor at their approach.
"Ivanor replied, "You woke me for a couple of bears!" and then promptly went back to sleep.
When warned Kalanaghar did wake up at least and then Ivanor once again was alerted and woke up. At this point as well the bears, smelling the food in their packs began to tear up their backpacks to get at it.
Ivanor became enraged and Damein and Kalanaghar moved in to end the threat of the bear. Stepping from the shadows behind one of the bears, Damien drove his knife into the creatures flank at nearly the same time Kalanaghar drove his sword into the second bears shoulder. Both bears immediately fled the camp but as they did they issued startled cries of alarm....and alerted their mother, who was foraging nearby.
An earthshaking roar echoed through the forest followed moments later by ground shaking foot falls. For an instant the Tainted stood still shocked by the approach of this behemoth. Then Ivanor smoothly drew his scythe and took up a position to face whatever came out of the forest. Damien melded smoothly into the shadows and Kalanaghar hid behind a tree. Time stretched out and in the distance, Ivanor could see trees swaying and waving crazily as whatever it was approached. Tensing as the beast came closer, Ivanor resolved to charge it as soon as it came out of the gloom of the forest.
The mother Dire Bear, did not know what hit her as with a yell nearly as fierce as her own, Ivanor charged and delivered a wicked slash across her broad hairy back with his scythe. Time seemed to lurch and snap forward twice as fast at this point. The mother bear reared to her full 15 feet dwarfing Ivanor her cruel claws glinted evilly in the murk and her large razor sized teeth sparkled. With another roar, the mother bear lurched into the assault on Ivanor. Her large shield sized paws slammed twice into Ivanor and the screech of claws on metal spread through out the forest. The drip of Ivanors own blood after the initial splatter became a rang hollowly in the forest. Again Ivanor whirling his scythe about him as he went moved in on the mother bear and ducked under another titanic sweep of her arms and was able to deliver a foot long gash across her side which sent roars of pain billowing from the mother bears mouth.
Suddenly like a shadow, Kalanaghar was there and his sword and knife weaved a nearly hypnotic pattern before the eyes of the mother bear as he relied on his skill and speed to help him evade his much larger and slower opponent. The mother bear bled from numerous nicks and cuts inflicted by Kalanaghar. Before she was able to land a blow on her second more agile opponent.
Damien for his part moved through the darkness silently maneuvering himself into position to deliver a deadly strike to an unprotected flank on the mother bear.
Enraged by the tenacity of the Tainted, the Mother bear frenzied. Her eyes dilated with fury and adrenaline surged through her muscles. With one punishing blow she caved in the breast plate of Ivanor and sent him flying backwards from her and with her second she sent Kalanaghar flying as if launched from a catapult. The sickening crunch of bone could be heard as he struck a tree. Dropping to his knees in pain and gasping for breath, Kalanaghar reached into him to that innate magic that all of his race were born with. Crawling forward slightly and holding his wounded side, he concentrated on the mother bear and the world through his eyes suddenly changed. He was still in the forest, but he was now seeing it through the eyes of the magical realm. Glowing tendrils of magic, brilliant reads and blues suffused himself and several items on his companions, almost lovingly and with supreme skill he pulled several streams of magic and wove them into an impenetrable dome of darkness around the enraged mother bear.
A howl of rage and frustration escaped the mother bears as the world around her suddenly went black. Seizing the moment of the brief respite, Ivanor called upon the favor of his deity and his wounds sealed themselves. He firmly got to his feet only swaying a little. At the same time the mother bear charged from the globe of darkness obviously confused and angered by its sudden appearance to find herself no where near the threats she had faced.
Damien then using his own innate magic also summoned a globe of darkness and the mother bear, confused and disoriented by this tactic charged again intent on simply escaping the darkness now. She fled into the woods on the trail of her cubs leaving the Tainted to breath a sigh of relief and tend their wounds.
Another day of travel found the Tainted on the great tundra of the Hinterlands. The tough looking scrub brush was the only thing that broke up the unrelenting boredom of this plain. The grayish green smudge of the forest lay behind them now and the Tainted looked disconsolately upon the plain ahead of them. A thin layer of ice and snow also covered the ground.
"Whats that?" Damien announced after they had been traveling on the plain for a few hours.
Turning and squinting Kalanaghar stated, " It looks like a bird of some sort."
"Can we tell how far off it is?" Ivanor queried.
"No, I cant tell if its a really big bird and is really far away or if it is a small bird that is not so far away." Kalanaghar replied.
"Well lets just continue on and ignore it." Ivanor stated.
And with that, the Tainted continued on at a brisk walk and soon their avian companion broke off and left them alone. Darkness found them on the plain and they set up camp. Now that they were not moving, the plain seemed to come to life with all types of predators. Wolves, dire and otherwise roamed the tundra as well as dinosaurs and other dangerous creatures.
After completing another sleep cycle, the Tainted continued on in their journey only to realize that they were out of food. Ivanor and Kalanaghar began to succumb to their lack of food and by the third day of their travels, Ivanor was no longer able to continue at his normal pace and he sank to the ground exhausted after their third day of travel. Kalanaghar recovered somewhat and using some of his survival skills was able to acquire enough food to nurse himself and Ivanor back to health.
Damien suspiciously did not require food and when asked he simply waved an ornately carved ring and said, " No need." then smiled.
The Tainted then rested an additional day to regain their strength and then continued on looking for the Valley of the Unicorns. Late on their 5th day of travel they began to notice eddying swirls of mist around their ankles which swiftly began to thicken and quite suddenly they were engulfed in an opalescent cloud of mist which blocked their vision to only a few feet from their face.
" We have plenty of rope lets tie ourselves together so that we do not become lost in this fog." Ivanor suggested.
The others dutifully followed this directive and in a few moments they were tied together and moving through the fog again. The mists thickened and became even more damp as the Tainted moved through them.
Almost with warning, the mist wall ended and the Tainted stumbled out of the fog into a different world entirely. The sky was devoid of the usual cloudy overcast they were accustomed to and the breeze that was blowing through this place was cool and refreshing unlike the blistering hot winds that normally plagued the central blood lands region. Ivanor, recovered first as Damien and Kalanaghar both were totally blinded by the unaccustomed light.
Ivanor noticed several things. There was an abundance of plant life and it all seemed soft and fragile. There were none of the usual thorns or obvious poisonous or lethal aspects that he would normally associate with plants on these plants. Small creatures with vividly colored wings flitted about on these plants and rose in swirling masses on the soft breezes around them. The animals seemed non aggressive, and the usual claws talons and scales and vicious demeanors were replaced with soft fur, cotton ball tails and large floppy ears. They seemed almost inquisitive but would always bound away as Ivanor approached them. The final thing that he noted was that the colors were sharper here and more vibrant.
"Thats going to be a problem" Damien said as he squinted up at the ball of fire that filled the blue cloud free sky and his small speck of darkness which did not seem to blot it out at all.
******NEXT THE BATTLE WITH THE GUARDIAN OF THE VALE*********
The following documents were unearthed in a historical dig off the southern coast of Garsis in the area formerly known as Elzelik-Rath. They appear to be a historical accounting of a journey, or maybe a fictional story recounting the exploits of fabled heroes. They were originally composed by a bard known simply as Fendril of the Company of the Broken Horn.
Gunhilda sat upon a large stone on the outskirts of the Ranaga encampment and distractedly traced runes into the dirt at her feet. The nights festivities, those that had ended in any event, Gunhilda thought with a wry smile, had left most of the camp asleep and their snores created a buzzing counterpoint to the often feral yowls that were coming from other parts of the encampment. The heavy overhanging clouds that blotted out the sky, seemed to roil of their own accord this morning and Gunhilda squinted her brilliant blue eyes up at them wondering what events had been set into motion by the arrival of the outsiders and how this whole thing would play out.
As if her thoughts had summoned them, the adventurers, known as the Tainted walked across the frozen earth towards Gunhilda and she took this moment to reassess them as they approached her. Damien the Drow Fey'ri, even though he was one of the damned Drow, she found that his chaotic nature often suited her a lot more than Ivanor, the cleric of Cambion,the Lord of Nightmares and Death. Ivanor was a tall human male that seemed very rigid and finally came Kalanaghar another damned Drow but a decent swordsman none the less.
"Lady what is that you are drawing in the ground?" Ivanor asked as the Tainted approached Gunhilda.
"Nothing to concern you." Came Gunhilda's reply as she stood and dragged her deerskin wrapped feet over the runes that had sprang unbidden into her mind. "Attend me while I give you direction to the Valley of the Unicorns."
They listened as she laid out their travel directions and a few warnings as well.
"No one from our clan has ever been there and returned with the same description of the place, but you will know you are near it when the mists come upon you unbidden. There is rumored to be a terrible fire that blazes in the sky there and all manner of strange and evil creatures."
"So we are to travel to the Northeast from here." That was Ivanor.
"Yes, for approximately 3 to 4 days before you will be in the region where this place is rumored to be." Gunhilda replied.
"May the blessings of Batista be upon you all." Gunhilda said by way of a benediction as they began to depart.
"Cambion has always walked with me lady." Replied Ivanor.
Silently Gunhilda mused, "I am sure but who is going to hold Cambion's hand when you go into a place where your gods do not even dare to tread?" Outwardly Gunhilda simply watched as the Tainted walked out of the hold of clan Ranaga.
The forest of the Hinterlands, known as the Elde Forest, stretched ancient and hoary over most of the Hinterlands, the area formerly known as the 7 Kingdoms of the Westmen. The diffuse light that normally reaches the ground in this region, was even more filtered and under the ancient canopy, total darkness reigned. The cold and the remnants of snow combined with the darkness made travel slow going for the Tainted as they moved through this forest.
"I hate forests!" Ivanor began as they traveled slowly through the murk. "Whose idea was it to come out here anyway."
"I think it was yours" Damien replied slyly from the shadows. "Something to do with your church."
Kalanaghar retained his usually stoicism as he moved through the forest. Like Damien he had also grew up in a forest but not one nearly as ancient and untamed as this forest was. "I think I see a place that we can camp up ahead" Kalanaghar replied as they continued to move through the forest.
The camp was struck and the Tainted set about breaking up their duties among themselves. Kalanaghar took the first watch and nothing of import occurred during his tenure.
During Damiens watch, a couple of bears came frolicking into the camp. They had been causing some noise earlier and Damien had prudently attempted to wake Ivanor at their approach.
"Ivanor replied, "You woke me for a couple of bears!" and then promptly went back to sleep.
When warned Kalanaghar did wake up at least and then Ivanor once again was alerted and woke up. At this point as well the bears, smelling the food in their packs began to tear up their backpacks to get at it.
Ivanor became enraged and Damein and Kalanaghar moved in to end the threat of the bear. Stepping from the shadows behind one of the bears, Damien drove his knife into the creatures flank at nearly the same time Kalanaghar drove his sword into the second bears shoulder. Both bears immediately fled the camp but as they did they issued startled cries of alarm....and alerted their mother, who was foraging nearby.
An earthshaking roar echoed through the forest followed moments later by ground shaking foot falls. For an instant the Tainted stood still shocked by the approach of this behemoth. Then Ivanor smoothly drew his scythe and took up a position to face whatever came out of the forest. Damien melded smoothly into the shadows and Kalanaghar hid behind a tree. Time stretched out and in the distance, Ivanor could see trees swaying and waving crazily as whatever it was approached. Tensing as the beast came closer, Ivanor resolved to charge it as soon as it came out of the gloom of the forest.
The mother Dire Bear, did not know what hit her as with a yell nearly as fierce as her own, Ivanor charged and delivered a wicked slash across her broad hairy back with his scythe. Time seemed to lurch and snap forward twice as fast at this point. The mother bear reared to her full 15 feet dwarfing Ivanor her cruel claws glinted evilly in the murk and her large razor sized teeth sparkled. With another roar, the mother bear lurched into the assault on Ivanor. Her large shield sized paws slammed twice into Ivanor and the screech of claws on metal spread through out the forest. The drip of Ivanors own blood after the initial splatter became a rang hollowly in the forest. Again Ivanor whirling his scythe about him as he went moved in on the mother bear and ducked under another titanic sweep of her arms and was able to deliver a foot long gash across her side which sent roars of pain billowing from the mother bears mouth.
Suddenly like a shadow, Kalanaghar was there and his sword and knife weaved a nearly hypnotic pattern before the eyes of the mother bear as he relied on his skill and speed to help him evade his much larger and slower opponent. The mother bear bled from numerous nicks and cuts inflicted by Kalanaghar. Before she was able to land a blow on her second more agile opponent.
Damien for his part moved through the darkness silently maneuvering himself into position to deliver a deadly strike to an unprotected flank on the mother bear.
Enraged by the tenacity of the Tainted, the Mother bear frenzied. Her eyes dilated with fury and adrenaline surged through her muscles. With one punishing blow she caved in the breast plate of Ivanor and sent him flying backwards from her and with her second she sent Kalanaghar flying as if launched from a catapult. The sickening crunch of bone could be heard as he struck a tree. Dropping to his knees in pain and gasping for breath, Kalanaghar reached into him to that innate magic that all of his race were born with. Crawling forward slightly and holding his wounded side, he concentrated on the mother bear and the world through his eyes suddenly changed. He was still in the forest, but he was now seeing it through the eyes of the magical realm. Glowing tendrils of magic, brilliant reads and blues suffused himself and several items on his companions, almost lovingly and with supreme skill he pulled several streams of magic and wove them into an impenetrable dome of darkness around the enraged mother bear.
A howl of rage and frustration escaped the mother bears as the world around her suddenly went black. Seizing the moment of the brief respite, Ivanor called upon the favor of his deity and his wounds sealed themselves. He firmly got to his feet only swaying a little. At the same time the mother bear charged from the globe of darkness obviously confused and angered by its sudden appearance to find herself no where near the threats she had faced.
Damien then using his own innate magic also summoned a globe of darkness and the mother bear, confused and disoriented by this tactic charged again intent on simply escaping the darkness now. She fled into the woods on the trail of her cubs leaving the Tainted to breath a sigh of relief and tend their wounds.
Another day of travel found the Tainted on the great tundra of the Hinterlands. The tough looking scrub brush was the only thing that broke up the unrelenting boredom of this plain. The grayish green smudge of the forest lay behind them now and the Tainted looked disconsolately upon the plain ahead of them. A thin layer of ice and snow also covered the ground.
"Whats that?" Damien announced after they had been traveling on the plain for a few hours.
Turning and squinting Kalanaghar stated, " It looks like a bird of some sort."
"Can we tell how far off it is?" Ivanor queried.
"No, I cant tell if its a really big bird and is really far away or if it is a small bird that is not so far away." Kalanaghar replied.
"Well lets just continue on and ignore it." Ivanor stated.
And with that, the Tainted continued on at a brisk walk and soon their avian companion broke off and left them alone. Darkness found them on the plain and they set up camp. Now that they were not moving, the plain seemed to come to life with all types of predators. Wolves, dire and otherwise roamed the tundra as well as dinosaurs and other dangerous creatures.
After completing another sleep cycle, the Tainted continued on in their journey only to realize that they were out of food. Ivanor and Kalanaghar began to succumb to their lack of food and by the third day of their travels, Ivanor was no longer able to continue at his normal pace and he sank to the ground exhausted after their third day of travel. Kalanaghar recovered somewhat and using some of his survival skills was able to acquire enough food to nurse himself and Ivanor back to health.
Damien suspiciously did not require food and when asked he simply waved an ornately carved ring and said, " No need." then smiled.
The Tainted then rested an additional day to regain their strength and then continued on looking for the Valley of the Unicorns. Late on their 5th day of travel they began to notice eddying swirls of mist around their ankles which swiftly began to thicken and quite suddenly they were engulfed in an opalescent cloud of mist which blocked their vision to only a few feet from their face.
" We have plenty of rope lets tie ourselves together so that we do not become lost in this fog." Ivanor suggested.
The others dutifully followed this directive and in a few moments they were tied together and moving through the fog again. The mists thickened and became even more damp as the Tainted moved through them.
Almost with warning, the mist wall ended and the Tainted stumbled out of the fog into a different world entirely. The sky was devoid of the usual cloudy overcast they were accustomed to and the breeze that was blowing through this place was cool and refreshing unlike the blistering hot winds that normally plagued the central blood lands region. Ivanor, recovered first as Damien and Kalanaghar both were totally blinded by the unaccustomed light.
Ivanor noticed several things. There was an abundance of plant life and it all seemed soft and fragile. There were none of the usual thorns or obvious poisonous or lethal aspects that he would normally associate with plants on these plants. Small creatures with vividly colored wings flitted about on these plants and rose in swirling masses on the soft breezes around them. The animals seemed non aggressive, and the usual claws talons and scales and vicious demeanors were replaced with soft fur, cotton ball tails and large floppy ears. They seemed almost inquisitive but would always bound away as Ivanor approached them. The final thing that he noted was that the colors were sharper here and more vibrant.
"Thats going to be a problem" Damien said as he squinted up at the ball of fire that filled the blue cloud free sky and his small speck of darkness which did not seem to blot it out at all.
******NEXT THE BATTLE WITH THE GUARDIAN OF THE VALE*********
Battle with the Guardian of the Vale(1)
"What do you mean its going to be a problem?" Ivanor asked.
"I am having problems seeing properly in this dazzling light. " Damien replied.
"Lets find the Unicorn and get out of here. This place is slightly unsettling" Kalanaghar whispered.
Shielding their eyes against the glare, Kalanaghar and Damien, with Ivanor in tow moved out to search the valley.
From their point of entrance, they commanded a view of the entire valley. It was small a little over 3 miles across but it was filled with hills and valleys and with strange plant and animal life. A large stream seemed to cut directly through the center of this place. The misty borders of the fog could clearly be seen in the distance marking the terminus of the valley and the blue dome over head was filled with the light of a burning ball of fire.
A thunderous sound could be heard as the Tainted moved further into the valley. The ground trembled to the rhythm of many hooves and suddenly in the dale ahead of the them, a herd of unicorns burst into view. There were well over 200 of them ranging in size from colts to full grown. They ranged the gamut of colors from white to blue to black. As one it seemed they ran through the valley and vanished around another hill leaving a cloud of dust and swirled water as the only sign that they had even been here.
Ivanor was the first one to feel the sense of menace. 100 yards away, standing on a plateua overlooking the Tainted the evil creature stood. It was a unicorn and unlike the others they had just seen, it had a long tufted goatee hanging from its chin. The creature looked magnificent. As it stood defiantly in the glimmering light. Its white coat seemed to sparkle with gold shimmers and it stamped a large platinum colored hoof on the ground and tossed its proud head in defiance of the intruders. It's glorious mane, was white with a mixture of golden glinting hairs that shimmered as he stood. The creatures deep chest heaved as he raised his 4 foot long horn and calmly assessed the Tainted.
"This is the place where your evil will die." The Unicorn telepathically projected to the Tainted.
"What is this place?" Ivanor demanded of the Unicorn.
"This place will be your grave." The Unicorn declared as he leveled his lance like horn, which was white with gold inlays, at Ivanor and charged.
"Grant me the power Celestian, to defeat the enemies of life and peace." The Unicorn intoned as he charged Ivanor. The invocation worked and as he came careening at the startled Ivanor, the Unicorns horn burst into golden energy.
The impact of the Unicorn slamming into Ivanor would have normally knocked a lesser opponent flat but Ivanor instead was impaled on the horn of the Champion of the Valley. The unholy power of the Unicorns deity smote Ivanor in a concussive boom as the Unicorn struck him and with a mighty toss of his head, the Unicorn paladin freed his horn from Ivanors body.
Seizing the opportunity, Kalanaghar and Damien moved to out flank the Unicorn. Damien moved in with his dagger low squinting in the harsh light of this place and attempted to gut the proud stallion to no avail. Kalanaghar then moved in and delivered a series of swift cuts to the creatures flanks. Ivanor for his part delivered a massive blow to the unicorns shoulder.
The Unicorn at this point went wild and relying on its animalistic instincts lashed out with its hooves and bucked. It slammed its horn into Ivanor again nearly ruining his armor and delivered a couple of swift hoof strikes to Damien as well as shifting himself out of their encircling strategy. Again the Tainted came in at the Unicorn causing him considerable pain and the Unicorn then summoning its innate magical abilities teleported leaving the Tainted breathing heavily and slightly confused.
With a grim look on his blood splattered face Ivanor growled, " Where did he go!"
He got his answer a few seconds later as the unicorn came galloping in from behind and slammed his horn into Ivanors back. Kalanaghar jumped to the attack and delivered a severe cut to the Unicorns flanks. The Beast shook Ivanor free of its horn and then trampled him into the dust. Damein and Kalanaghar for their parts moved about attempting to outmaneuver the Unicorn to little avail. His flashing golden hooves kept Damien at bay and Kalanaghar was not fast enough to out flank the unicorn before he moved.
Rearing and turning, the Unicorn charged Ivanor again and slammed his horn into his side. Anticipating this the Tainted acted as one. Ivanor and Kalanaghar both delivered devastating attacks to the unicorn while it attempted to disengage its horn from Ivanors side. The Unicorn again trampled Ivanor and distanced himself from the Tainted and summoning his innate magical powers healed himself.
Standing 50 feet apart, the Tainted, and the Unicorn eyed each other warily and suddenly the Unicorn came hurtling back in on them. Damien had craftily positioned himself to be able to deliver a sneak attack and Ivanor and Kalanaghar simply waited. The horn struck Ivanor again and this time the Tainted pounced. The Unicorn, Paladin of Celestian and Defender of the Valley of the Unicorns, fell under the combined assault of the Tainted.
For an instant, silence hung heavily in the Valley and it seemed almost as if nature itself had paused to pay homage to its fallen defender. A slightly chill and discomforting breeze stirred through the valley.
Looking around slightly, turned and walked a little ways off into the valley to contemplate these events and the words the Unicorn used to describe he and his companions, evil.
Meanwhile, Kalanaghar and Damein set about retrieving the horn, their primary mission and then harvesting as much of the unicorn as possible from blood to internal organs. Kalanaghar attempted to skin the beast for its magnificent coat but was unable to remove the skin intact. After a few hours of this Ivanor returned to bury the body.
Drawing upon their knowledges of arcane matters and alchemy, the Tainted concluded that a unicorns horn was an agent against poisoning, had properties against undead and could be used in the creation of superior healing potions.
As he did this, Ivanor said a prayer to his deity and was granted a vision pertaining to the soul of the Unicorn. This past in an instant and by the time the Unicorn was buried, the wall of fog surrounding the valley had nearly completely dissipated and the sky had acquired a thin over hanging of the cloud cover typical of the rest of the Blood lands Region.
Over the next 9 days the Tainted journey back through the lands of the Ranaga and Angrymyre and found the irrepressible Sven waiting with the boat they had acquired at Orin. They sailed back into Rath and Sven promptly bribed the dock master and then sold the skiff.
The Tainted for their part, gave Sven some money after he had begged to stay on with them and then made haste to Brickface's office to deliver the Horn. They then sifted through the general street gossip and found that a couple of things were at the forefront of everyones minds. The Grim Riders had successfully returned from their razing of the Ruins of Castor and the Cold Rider, the Lich Kings Lieutenant was coming to pay a social call on the Scion at the beginning of the month of Kefolds.
Brickfaces office is a 2 story building of black stone and wood with no visible windows to it and a single entrance. Knocking on the door, caused a single large eye to appear and the high pitched tinny voice of Eddy 2 Wands came through, "Hey guys, come on up, the doors open."
Walking up the narrow landingless stairs, the Tainted approached another door that was opened at their arrival and found themselves in Eddy's office. Eddy's office was plain and functional. There was a desk for Eddy and depending on the day from 3 to 7 chairs for guests to sit and wait upon the pleasure of Brickface. Eddy himself was a human male with glowing sometimes green sometimes blue eyes and a square angular face that seemed more carved than anything else. He also had a solid build and wore a bandoleer of wands across his chest. He also always seemed to smile with his large white teeth.
"You guys are back a few days early." Eddy commented.
"Yeah. We thought it best to get this back in the alloted time." kalanaghar replied.
Eddy simply nodded and then said, Brickface will see you guys.
The door to Brickfaces office was large and painted red and stood cracked open. The inside of Brickface's office was a little more ornate than Eddy's but only moderately so. there were no wall hangings here and Brickfaces desk was a little larger and more ornate. There were three chairs in here which Brickface gestured were for the Tainted.
Sitting to Brickface's right was Amelia. His diviner and second in command and if street rumor were to be believed, his lover. She was a big rawboned human female with red hair and brilliant green eyes. She had a severe look to her and distrusted everyone except Brickface. She glared at the tainted as the filed in which drew a wink from Ivanor.
"So you have had a fruitful mission." Brickface intoned.
The tainted said nothing. They simply deposited the Unicorns horn on the desk in front of Brickface.
"Go get Mr Sleep." Brickface said to Amelia who immediately stood and withdrawing her wand of Dimension door vanished to retuirn a few minutes later with Mr Sleep in tow.
Mr. Sleep is a Drow female that customarily wears tight fitting leather armor and has a mohawk of white hair on her round head. Sleep took the horn and then said, " I do not know if you may know or not, but The Cold Rider will be arriving in the city in 9 days. Because of the success of your mission, we will have a front row seat by the investors for this expedition to get the horn. You all are invited to participate." With that Sleep turned and Amelia teleported them both away again.
The meeting with Brickface ended and the Tainted collected their their payment and spent time getting readjusted to the city of Rath and shopping. Sven also spent this time recruiting some muscle for the Tainted and suggested that they should get an official base of operations so to speak.
The first day of Kefolds came quite suddenly as the Tainted were enjoying a breakfast at the Devil's Cup. Mr Sleep walked in in her customary black leather flanked by a hulking Ogre Half Red Dragon that she Identified as Mr Fixit, Lolita's, the Crime Lord that ultimately employed them all, personal bodyguard and assassin.
As Mr Sleep led them to their appointed spot, they met several other Mr's. The met Mr Book, and Mr Dark as well as their retinues. The jostling crowds that lined the parade road that led to the Scions Compound in the center of the city was lined with people but the jostling crowd parted easily for them as they approached their spot and a file of the Scions priestesses formed up around them keeping the crowd from pressing in by sheer intimidation.
A loud trumpet sound announced the arrival of the Cold Rider and his retinue. At the head of the group came 5 men. They were exceedingly tall and thin and all had chalk white skin and black eyes, lips and fingernails. They were dressed in long flowing robes with high black belts and red half cloaks. They had pointed felt hats on their heads and they seemed to move with an almost alien intent.
"Sarn Mystics" Mr Sleep whispered as the 5 passed directly in front of where they were standing.
Behind the Sarn Mystics came 20 females. They were all browned skinned, some were bald and others had their hair done up in elaborate braids. They all wore an abundance of jewelry, bracelets, necklaces, and had exotic looking nose and eyebrow piercings. The moved with a practiced grace almost like a hunting lioness. They were dressed in loose fitting multicolored robes. They had high cheekbones and broad noses. They exuded a sense of fierce sensuality and controlled lethality.
"The Wives if the Cold Rider, all are of the Shezurite Sisterhood." Mr Sleep filled in.
And finally the Cold Rider himself came riding in. He sat regally upon the back of a Nightmare which stamped its large sooty hooves and bursts or brimstone puffed up. The Nightmare was bigger and more fierce looking than normal members of his species. His eyes seemed to bear an intelligent malevolence that seemed directed at anyone that met its eyes. Sitting in the high pommeled saddle, the Cold Rider rode with his eyes locked on the rising temple complex of the Scions with a look of acute disapproval. He was dressed in black full plate with a pheonix, picked out in red gems on his chest. A long grey cloak flowed down his back and his black hair curled thickly with white wings at his temples. His face bore a cold aristocratic mien and his dark brown eyes dismissed most of the people in the crowd as he rode majestically in.
It was only a minor nearly imperceptible shift, but suddenly the Shezurite all seemed to be looking in all directions at once and the Sarn Mystics seemed on the verge of massive amounts of carnage. A single bone white shaft arced from somewhere above and behind the crowd and plunged towards the Cold Rider everything seemed to move in slow motion.
There was a scream from one of the Shezurite and with an annoyed look, the Cold Rider shifted his attention from its studied ignorance of the crowd to looking for what disturbed his entrance into the city. The arrow slammed into a field of brilliant red energy and for a split second it hung unmoving in the air and suddenly the red energy field exploded like broken glass and it as replaced by and orange, then yellow, then green, then blue, then indigo, and finally a violet energy field, all of which shattered as easily as the red field had. A look of shock crossed the Cold Riders face as the arrow cut through his defensive magics, and punctured his necrosteel armor to sink over half its length in his dead heart. The Vampire known as the Cold Rider lurched and then toppled over backwards from his nightmare mount dead...with an arrow made from bone and bearing hints of gold standing from his chest.
Motion came suddenly and chaos erupted. the Scions priestesses as one seemed to draw their maces and began beating the crowd back and quickly surrounding and hustling the Cold Riders retinue into the Scions Compound. Mr Sleep and company including the tainted were escorted to safety by their group but before they left it was noted by Damien that a figure wearing a red and black cloak was fleeing the scene on top of one of the buildings.
________________________________________________________________
(1) This is the actual beginning of the main campaign story arc. The previous adventures served to set the story up to this point as well as allow the characters to pursue their own interests and form their own connections with the NPC's within the campaign world. They were perhaps 7th level when they battled the Unicorn Paladin of Celestian in the Vale.
*****************Next An Interlude*************************
"What do you mean its going to be a problem?" Ivanor asked.
"I am having problems seeing properly in this dazzling light. " Damien replied.
"Lets find the Unicorn and get out of here. This place is slightly unsettling" Kalanaghar whispered.
Shielding their eyes against the glare, Kalanaghar and Damien, with Ivanor in tow moved out to search the valley.
From their point of entrance, they commanded a view of the entire valley. It was small a little over 3 miles across but it was filled with hills and valleys and with strange plant and animal life. A large stream seemed to cut directly through the center of this place. The misty borders of the fog could clearly be seen in the distance marking the terminus of the valley and the blue dome over head was filled with the light of a burning ball of fire.
A thunderous sound could be heard as the Tainted moved further into the valley. The ground trembled to the rhythm of many hooves and suddenly in the dale ahead of the them, a herd of unicorns burst into view. There were well over 200 of them ranging in size from colts to full grown. They ranged the gamut of colors from white to blue to black. As one it seemed they ran through the valley and vanished around another hill leaving a cloud of dust and swirled water as the only sign that they had even been here.
Ivanor was the first one to feel the sense of menace. 100 yards away, standing on a plateua overlooking the Tainted the evil creature stood. It was a unicorn and unlike the others they had just seen, it had a long tufted goatee hanging from its chin. The creature looked magnificent. As it stood defiantly in the glimmering light. Its white coat seemed to sparkle with gold shimmers and it stamped a large platinum colored hoof on the ground and tossed its proud head in defiance of the intruders. It's glorious mane, was white with a mixture of golden glinting hairs that shimmered as he stood. The creatures deep chest heaved as he raised his 4 foot long horn and calmly assessed the Tainted.
"This is the place where your evil will die." The Unicorn telepathically projected to the Tainted.
"What is this place?" Ivanor demanded of the Unicorn.
"This place will be your grave." The Unicorn declared as he leveled his lance like horn, which was white with gold inlays, at Ivanor and charged.
"Grant me the power Celestian, to defeat the enemies of life and peace." The Unicorn intoned as he charged Ivanor. The invocation worked and as he came careening at the startled Ivanor, the Unicorns horn burst into golden energy.
The impact of the Unicorn slamming into Ivanor would have normally knocked a lesser opponent flat but Ivanor instead was impaled on the horn of the Champion of the Valley. The unholy power of the Unicorns deity smote Ivanor in a concussive boom as the Unicorn struck him and with a mighty toss of his head, the Unicorn paladin freed his horn from Ivanors body.
Seizing the opportunity, Kalanaghar and Damien moved to out flank the Unicorn. Damien moved in with his dagger low squinting in the harsh light of this place and attempted to gut the proud stallion to no avail. Kalanaghar then moved in and delivered a series of swift cuts to the creatures flanks. Ivanor for his part delivered a massive blow to the unicorns shoulder.
The Unicorn at this point went wild and relying on its animalistic instincts lashed out with its hooves and bucked. It slammed its horn into Ivanor again nearly ruining his armor and delivered a couple of swift hoof strikes to Damien as well as shifting himself out of their encircling strategy. Again the Tainted came in at the Unicorn causing him considerable pain and the Unicorn then summoning its innate magical abilities teleported leaving the Tainted breathing heavily and slightly confused.
With a grim look on his blood splattered face Ivanor growled, " Where did he go!"
He got his answer a few seconds later as the unicorn came galloping in from behind and slammed his horn into Ivanors back. Kalanaghar jumped to the attack and delivered a severe cut to the Unicorns flanks. The Beast shook Ivanor free of its horn and then trampled him into the dust. Damein and Kalanaghar for their parts moved about attempting to outmaneuver the Unicorn to little avail. His flashing golden hooves kept Damien at bay and Kalanaghar was not fast enough to out flank the unicorn before he moved.
Rearing and turning, the Unicorn charged Ivanor again and slammed his horn into his side. Anticipating this the Tainted acted as one. Ivanor and Kalanaghar both delivered devastating attacks to the unicorn while it attempted to disengage its horn from Ivanors side. The Unicorn again trampled Ivanor and distanced himself from the Tainted and summoning his innate magical powers healed himself.
Standing 50 feet apart, the Tainted, and the Unicorn eyed each other warily and suddenly the Unicorn came hurtling back in on them. Damien had craftily positioned himself to be able to deliver a sneak attack and Ivanor and Kalanaghar simply waited. The horn struck Ivanor again and this time the Tainted pounced. The Unicorn, Paladin of Celestian and Defender of the Valley of the Unicorns, fell under the combined assault of the Tainted.
For an instant, silence hung heavily in the Valley and it seemed almost as if nature itself had paused to pay homage to its fallen defender. A slightly chill and discomforting breeze stirred through the valley.
Looking around slightly, turned and walked a little ways off into the valley to contemplate these events and the words the Unicorn used to describe he and his companions, evil.
Meanwhile, Kalanaghar and Damein set about retrieving the horn, their primary mission and then harvesting as much of the unicorn as possible from blood to internal organs. Kalanaghar attempted to skin the beast for its magnificent coat but was unable to remove the skin intact. After a few hours of this Ivanor returned to bury the body.
Drawing upon their knowledges of arcane matters and alchemy, the Tainted concluded that a unicorns horn was an agent against poisoning, had properties against undead and could be used in the creation of superior healing potions.
As he did this, Ivanor said a prayer to his deity and was granted a vision pertaining to the soul of the Unicorn. This past in an instant and by the time the Unicorn was buried, the wall of fog surrounding the valley had nearly completely dissipated and the sky had acquired a thin over hanging of the cloud cover typical of the rest of the Blood lands Region.
Over the next 9 days the Tainted journey back through the lands of the Ranaga and Angrymyre and found the irrepressible Sven waiting with the boat they had acquired at Orin. They sailed back into Rath and Sven promptly bribed the dock master and then sold the skiff.
The Tainted for their part, gave Sven some money after he had begged to stay on with them and then made haste to Brickface's office to deliver the Horn. They then sifted through the general street gossip and found that a couple of things were at the forefront of everyones minds. The Grim Riders had successfully returned from their razing of the Ruins of Castor and the Cold Rider, the Lich Kings Lieutenant was coming to pay a social call on the Scion at the beginning of the month of Kefolds.
Brickfaces office is a 2 story building of black stone and wood with no visible windows to it and a single entrance. Knocking on the door, caused a single large eye to appear and the high pitched tinny voice of Eddy 2 Wands came through, "Hey guys, come on up, the doors open."
Walking up the narrow landingless stairs, the Tainted approached another door that was opened at their arrival and found themselves in Eddy's office. Eddy's office was plain and functional. There was a desk for Eddy and depending on the day from 3 to 7 chairs for guests to sit and wait upon the pleasure of Brickface. Eddy himself was a human male with glowing sometimes green sometimes blue eyes and a square angular face that seemed more carved than anything else. He also had a solid build and wore a bandoleer of wands across his chest. He also always seemed to smile with his large white teeth.
"You guys are back a few days early." Eddy commented.
"Yeah. We thought it best to get this back in the alloted time." kalanaghar replied.
Eddy simply nodded and then said, Brickface will see you guys.
The door to Brickfaces office was large and painted red and stood cracked open. The inside of Brickface's office was a little more ornate than Eddy's but only moderately so. there were no wall hangings here and Brickfaces desk was a little larger and more ornate. There were three chairs in here which Brickface gestured were for the Tainted.
Sitting to Brickface's right was Amelia. His diviner and second in command and if street rumor were to be believed, his lover. She was a big rawboned human female with red hair and brilliant green eyes. She had a severe look to her and distrusted everyone except Brickface. She glared at the tainted as the filed in which drew a wink from Ivanor.
"So you have had a fruitful mission." Brickface intoned.
The tainted said nothing. They simply deposited the Unicorns horn on the desk in front of Brickface.
"Go get Mr Sleep." Brickface said to Amelia who immediately stood and withdrawing her wand of Dimension door vanished to retuirn a few minutes later with Mr Sleep in tow.
Mr. Sleep is a Drow female that customarily wears tight fitting leather armor and has a mohawk of white hair on her round head. Sleep took the horn and then said, " I do not know if you may know or not, but The Cold Rider will be arriving in the city in 9 days. Because of the success of your mission, we will have a front row seat by the investors for this expedition to get the horn. You all are invited to participate." With that Sleep turned and Amelia teleported them both away again.
The meeting with Brickface ended and the Tainted collected their their payment and spent time getting readjusted to the city of Rath and shopping. Sven also spent this time recruiting some muscle for the Tainted and suggested that they should get an official base of operations so to speak.
The first day of Kefolds came quite suddenly as the Tainted were enjoying a breakfast at the Devil's Cup. Mr Sleep walked in in her customary black leather flanked by a hulking Ogre Half Red Dragon that she Identified as Mr Fixit, Lolita's, the Crime Lord that ultimately employed them all, personal bodyguard and assassin.
As Mr Sleep led them to their appointed spot, they met several other Mr's. The met Mr Book, and Mr Dark as well as their retinues. The jostling crowds that lined the parade road that led to the Scions Compound in the center of the city was lined with people but the jostling crowd parted easily for them as they approached their spot and a file of the Scions priestesses formed up around them keeping the crowd from pressing in by sheer intimidation.
A loud trumpet sound announced the arrival of the Cold Rider and his retinue. At the head of the group came 5 men. They were exceedingly tall and thin and all had chalk white skin and black eyes, lips and fingernails. They were dressed in long flowing robes with high black belts and red half cloaks. They had pointed felt hats on their heads and they seemed to move with an almost alien intent.
"Sarn Mystics" Mr Sleep whispered as the 5 passed directly in front of where they were standing.
Behind the Sarn Mystics came 20 females. They were all browned skinned, some were bald and others had their hair done up in elaborate braids. They all wore an abundance of jewelry, bracelets, necklaces, and had exotic looking nose and eyebrow piercings. The moved with a practiced grace almost like a hunting lioness. They were dressed in loose fitting multicolored robes. They had high cheekbones and broad noses. They exuded a sense of fierce sensuality and controlled lethality.
"The Wives if the Cold Rider, all are of the Shezurite Sisterhood." Mr Sleep filled in.
And finally the Cold Rider himself came riding in. He sat regally upon the back of a Nightmare which stamped its large sooty hooves and bursts or brimstone puffed up. The Nightmare was bigger and more fierce looking than normal members of his species. His eyes seemed to bear an intelligent malevolence that seemed directed at anyone that met its eyes. Sitting in the high pommeled saddle, the Cold Rider rode with his eyes locked on the rising temple complex of the Scions with a look of acute disapproval. He was dressed in black full plate with a pheonix, picked out in red gems on his chest. A long grey cloak flowed down his back and his black hair curled thickly with white wings at his temples. His face bore a cold aristocratic mien and his dark brown eyes dismissed most of the people in the crowd as he rode majestically in.
It was only a minor nearly imperceptible shift, but suddenly the Shezurite all seemed to be looking in all directions at once and the Sarn Mystics seemed on the verge of massive amounts of carnage. A single bone white shaft arced from somewhere above and behind the crowd and plunged towards the Cold Rider everything seemed to move in slow motion.
There was a scream from one of the Shezurite and with an annoyed look, the Cold Rider shifted his attention from its studied ignorance of the crowd to looking for what disturbed his entrance into the city. The arrow slammed into a field of brilliant red energy and for a split second it hung unmoving in the air and suddenly the red energy field exploded like broken glass and it as replaced by and orange, then yellow, then green, then blue, then indigo, and finally a violet energy field, all of which shattered as easily as the red field had. A look of shock crossed the Cold Riders face as the arrow cut through his defensive magics, and punctured his necrosteel armor to sink over half its length in his dead heart. The Vampire known as the Cold Rider lurched and then toppled over backwards from his nightmare mount dead...with an arrow made from bone and bearing hints of gold standing from his chest.
Motion came suddenly and chaos erupted. the Scions priestesses as one seemed to draw their maces and began beating the crowd back and quickly surrounding and hustling the Cold Riders retinue into the Scions Compound. Mr Sleep and company including the tainted were escorted to safety by their group but before they left it was noted by Damien that a figure wearing a red and black cloak was fleeing the scene on top of one of the buildings.
________________________________________________________________
(1) This is the actual beginning of the main campaign story arc. The previous adventures served to set the story up to this point as well as allow the characters to pursue their own interests and form their own connections with the NPC's within the campaign world. They were perhaps 7th level when they battled the Unicorn Paladin of Celestian in the Vale.
*****************Next An Interlude*************************
Interlude 1: The Lady Ravensbrow(1)
The light of faerie fire illumination and torches reflected up from the city below contrasted sharply on the alabaster features of Claudia Ravensbrow(2) as she stood in the tall slender tower that she was currently using as her base of operations in the City- State of Rath. Her fine red silk dress clung alluringly to her as she stood calmly looking out at the city sprawling beneath her. A fine blood crystal decanter stood on a low table near the door and three tall backed chairs with clawed feet and heavily padded cushions stood in a circle in the center of the chamber.
Normally Claudia had the patience of a stone but tonight she was having difficulty keeping her emotions under control. She still could not believe that the Cold Rider, a Vampire and one of the Lich Kings top Lieutenants, had been assassinated and if the buzz her informants was getting was correct, someone had used an arrow made from an enchanted unicorn horn to accomplish this.
Her jet-black hair fell in luxurious black waves down to her waist and in her palm she clutched a very sweaty scrap of a note. Looking at the piece of parchment for the hundredth time, Claudia could not help but shudder as a cold spike of fear stabbed into her spine. The note handed to her in one of the local temples by a Fell Matriarch herself and former member of the Cold Riders retinue, one Ebe Nadachingo, had stated that the Scion had had most of the Cold Rider’s retinue killed and was slowly torturing the survivors attempting to gain information on the motives of the Lich King. A crease between her eyes was the only hint at her emotional turmoil as she moved away from the window lost in deep thought.
A magical alarm on the door rang out in Claudia’s mind and caused Claudia to stop and stare at it apprehensively. The Scions noose was closing tighter and soon she knew she and her compatriots would have to flee for their own lives. Collecting herself she squared her shoulders and cleared her thoughts. She knew that if anyone was going to enter that door they would have to know the correct magical phrases and speak them in the proper sequence or the spell traps she had woven into the door would stop anything short of a dragon. For a sickening second, Claudia wondered if maybe the lateness of her companions was due to the efforts of the Scions Priestess Opal Mardochan and her Cadre. Claudia quickly ran through her inventory of memorized defensive spells and then she unstrapped her wand holster and let the cool metal of a Kazum Kesh Death Rod slide down into her left hand.
Claudia waited for what seemed an eternity before the door opened and swung soundlessly in on its well-oiled hinges. Striding into the room, two men one tall muscular and dressed in the leather and metal armor of the Grim Riders(3), his large metal wolf’s head pendant gleamed sharply in the light and his large grayish red beard stood out all over his face. His cold gray eyes seemed to dismiss everything in the room except Claudia and when she looked into them she saw a fury and fear there that she had not seen weeks ago. The other male a tall slim man dressed in flowing green robes trimmed with gold thread and a wide leather belt around his waist along with soft looking silk slippers shut the door after his familiar a black cat named Batiste sauntered in haughtily on their tales. Batiste stopped and scanned the room looking for hidden dangers or traps. Satisfied that they were safe for the moment the cat jumped up into one of the chairs and nonchalantly began to groom himself.
”What took you so long Raesene? I was beginning to wonder if you were coming back at all.” Claudia stated as Raesene himself unpinned his veil and poured himself a drink from the blood crystal decanter.
Swirling the black liquid around in the glass, a wry smile spread across Raesene’s dark features as he inhaled the scent of the Drow wine known as Quroulie he closed his vibrant green eyes and exhaled deeply. “ I got distracted Claudia, you know I cannot resist a damsel in distress.”
Claudia stiffened at his nonchalance and disregard for his companion in this endeavor. Taking one step forward she raised her hand with the Death Rod in it and pointed it at Raesene. Raesene stopped swirling his cup and suddenly his familiar seemed ready to pounce. “You will not endanger our work here again by going off on one of your escapades. You were simply to go get the good priest here and return. If this happens again you will not have to worry about Opal and the Scion catching you.”
Claudia’s threat hung like a miasma between the two of them until the Barbarian cleared his throat. The tension in the room visibly relaxed and the familiar went back to grooming himself as Claudia placed the Death Rod back into its holster. Pouring another glass, Raesene handed it to the Barbarian and then picked his cat up and sat placing the animal back on his lap. Everyone took their seat then.
Raesene visibly relaxed now after the tense moments of a minute ago explained, “ I was not on an escapade as you say Claudia. I saw the Black Demon(4) and engaged him.”
Claudia looked flatly at Raesene and said, “Continue”.
Raesene said, “The Beast was fighting a drow warrior in an alley where he had slain 2 more Grim Riders.” As he said this, Raesene tipped his glass towards the Barbarian and then he went on, “ It was the Drow known as Kalanaghar and I think you are familiar with him Claudia?”
Claudia waited a minute as that name rolled around in her memory. She said, “ Yes, I know of him. He is one of those adventurers I had a run in with a few months back.” Claudia tapped the side of her chair with a staccato rhythm.
Into this rhythmic silence the Barbarian began in his deep baritone voice, “ I did not come here, risking my life to watch you two fight and then contemplate old friends.”
Turning in his chair so that he was facing Claudia who leaned forward and steepled her fingers the Barbarian said, “You said your employer would protect us from retaliation and so far none of that protection has materialized. Grim Riders are dieing on a nightly basis now and Grakus is wondering if we do not need to take the information we have and seek our security somewhere else.”
Claudia eyed the barbarian, Valinar, coldly over her steepeled fingers. As things went Claudia knew that she and Raesene along with Batiste could take the Barbarian Cleric but it would be a tough fight with no guarantee that she and Raesene would both survive. Valinar was known as Valinar the Smiter and he was one of the founding members of the Grim Riders. Eyeing him all Claudia could see was calm self-assurance and fury. All of these thoughts flashed through her mind and out of the corner of her eye she could see that Raesene was prepared to attack as well as Batiste.
Leaning back in her tall backed chair Claudia said, “ Perhaps you could go sale your information to Opal and gain a measure of revenge against the Scarlet Circle, but do you really want to be on the bad side of my Employer?”
The barbarian heard the capital that Claudia had put into the word Employer and his face blanched slightly and she could see his resolve weaken a bit.
She said, “ Would you rather be hunted by the Circle and all of my Employers resources or a lone demon with a Demon Touched Kel’Soval (5)controlling it?”
Sensing her advantage Claudia pressed, “Leave the Demon to us and remember you and your friends will be reimbursed for all losses.”
The Barbarian seemed to have been mollified by this but he ventured, “ When are you going to do something about the demon? I need something to take back to Grakus.”
Suddenly from outside a column of fire and a low rumbling explosion shook the room. Dust from the ancient stones filtered down and settled over everyone inside the tower. Standing Claudia and the others went to the window and looked out on the city. In the distance they saw a building burning with a bright orange fire. Distantly the cries of the wounded could be heard as well as the clash of arms. Moving and pouring herself a glass of the Drow wine Claudia watched as both men stared out at the street battle.
Rejoining her companions at the window Claudia said, “The first pieces in this game have begun to move Valinar and soon we will check mate this Black demon, his Kel Soval master, and their Shoon allies.”
Grimly Valinar turned to Claudia and stared harshly at her. He stated, “ Lets hope your little turf war does not get out of hand. Grakus is leery of lending you anymore help as it is until some of this protection you have thrown about materializes.”
The orange light of the fire made Claudia look ghastly as she sipped from her blood crystal glass. With a small smile playing across her lips Claudia stroked the large Barbarians arm and said, “ All in due time Valinar, all in due time.”
Turning from the Barbarian, Claudia stood in front of the window and watched the opening maneuvers of the pawns that had been set in motion.
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(1): This story is a combination of my notes on the movement of certain NPC's combined with some of the movements of the Players. Some of the events (The fight between Kalanaghar and the Black demon and why its killing Grim Riders) are not chronicled here yet but will be in future posts.
(2): In the first set of adventures, Claudia attempted to hire the players characters to steal something from a warehouse.
(3): The Grim Riders: The Grim Riders are a mercenary company composed of 500 Berserkers, and 100 Clerics of Batista the Raging One, that operates out of Rath and the lands of the 7 tribes (the same place the PC"s went to get the unicorn horn). They were hired early in the game session and the events of their exploits will be coming up soon.
(4): This is the same creature that was in the death box earlier in the story. They grow and become more powerful as the eat people which also makes them less docile and more aggressive and unstable.
(5) Kel' Soval- A member of the Shoon Hierarchy, their task is to control the Black Demons who have grown above a certain size.
****************Next: Interlude 2: The Lich King Awakens*************
The light of faerie fire illumination and torches reflected up from the city below contrasted sharply on the alabaster features of Claudia Ravensbrow(2) as she stood in the tall slender tower that she was currently using as her base of operations in the City- State of Rath. Her fine red silk dress clung alluringly to her as she stood calmly looking out at the city sprawling beneath her. A fine blood crystal decanter stood on a low table near the door and three tall backed chairs with clawed feet and heavily padded cushions stood in a circle in the center of the chamber.
Normally Claudia had the patience of a stone but tonight she was having difficulty keeping her emotions under control. She still could not believe that the Cold Rider, a Vampire and one of the Lich Kings top Lieutenants, had been assassinated and if the buzz her informants was getting was correct, someone had used an arrow made from an enchanted unicorn horn to accomplish this.
Her jet-black hair fell in luxurious black waves down to her waist and in her palm she clutched a very sweaty scrap of a note. Looking at the piece of parchment for the hundredth time, Claudia could not help but shudder as a cold spike of fear stabbed into her spine. The note handed to her in one of the local temples by a Fell Matriarch herself and former member of the Cold Riders retinue, one Ebe Nadachingo, had stated that the Scion had had most of the Cold Rider’s retinue killed and was slowly torturing the survivors attempting to gain information on the motives of the Lich King. A crease between her eyes was the only hint at her emotional turmoil as she moved away from the window lost in deep thought.
A magical alarm on the door rang out in Claudia’s mind and caused Claudia to stop and stare at it apprehensively. The Scions noose was closing tighter and soon she knew she and her compatriots would have to flee for their own lives. Collecting herself she squared her shoulders and cleared her thoughts. She knew that if anyone was going to enter that door they would have to know the correct magical phrases and speak them in the proper sequence or the spell traps she had woven into the door would stop anything short of a dragon. For a sickening second, Claudia wondered if maybe the lateness of her companions was due to the efforts of the Scions Priestess Opal Mardochan and her Cadre. Claudia quickly ran through her inventory of memorized defensive spells and then she unstrapped her wand holster and let the cool metal of a Kazum Kesh Death Rod slide down into her left hand.
Claudia waited for what seemed an eternity before the door opened and swung soundlessly in on its well-oiled hinges. Striding into the room, two men one tall muscular and dressed in the leather and metal armor of the Grim Riders(3), his large metal wolf’s head pendant gleamed sharply in the light and his large grayish red beard stood out all over his face. His cold gray eyes seemed to dismiss everything in the room except Claudia and when she looked into them she saw a fury and fear there that she had not seen weeks ago. The other male a tall slim man dressed in flowing green robes trimmed with gold thread and a wide leather belt around his waist along with soft looking silk slippers shut the door after his familiar a black cat named Batiste sauntered in haughtily on their tales. Batiste stopped and scanned the room looking for hidden dangers or traps. Satisfied that they were safe for the moment the cat jumped up into one of the chairs and nonchalantly began to groom himself.
”What took you so long Raesene? I was beginning to wonder if you were coming back at all.” Claudia stated as Raesene himself unpinned his veil and poured himself a drink from the blood crystal decanter.
Swirling the black liquid around in the glass, a wry smile spread across Raesene’s dark features as he inhaled the scent of the Drow wine known as Quroulie he closed his vibrant green eyes and exhaled deeply. “ I got distracted Claudia, you know I cannot resist a damsel in distress.”
Claudia stiffened at his nonchalance and disregard for his companion in this endeavor. Taking one step forward she raised her hand with the Death Rod in it and pointed it at Raesene. Raesene stopped swirling his cup and suddenly his familiar seemed ready to pounce. “You will not endanger our work here again by going off on one of your escapades. You were simply to go get the good priest here and return. If this happens again you will not have to worry about Opal and the Scion catching you.”
Claudia’s threat hung like a miasma between the two of them until the Barbarian cleared his throat. The tension in the room visibly relaxed and the familiar went back to grooming himself as Claudia placed the Death Rod back into its holster. Pouring another glass, Raesene handed it to the Barbarian and then picked his cat up and sat placing the animal back on his lap. Everyone took their seat then.
Raesene visibly relaxed now after the tense moments of a minute ago explained, “ I was not on an escapade as you say Claudia. I saw the Black Demon(4) and engaged him.”
Claudia looked flatly at Raesene and said, “Continue”.
Raesene said, “The Beast was fighting a drow warrior in an alley where he had slain 2 more Grim Riders.” As he said this, Raesene tipped his glass towards the Barbarian and then he went on, “ It was the Drow known as Kalanaghar and I think you are familiar with him Claudia?”
Claudia waited a minute as that name rolled around in her memory. She said, “ Yes, I know of him. He is one of those adventurers I had a run in with a few months back.” Claudia tapped the side of her chair with a staccato rhythm.
Into this rhythmic silence the Barbarian began in his deep baritone voice, “ I did not come here, risking my life to watch you two fight and then contemplate old friends.”
Turning in his chair so that he was facing Claudia who leaned forward and steepled her fingers the Barbarian said, “You said your employer would protect us from retaliation and so far none of that protection has materialized. Grim Riders are dieing on a nightly basis now and Grakus is wondering if we do not need to take the information we have and seek our security somewhere else.”
Claudia eyed the barbarian, Valinar, coldly over her steepeled fingers. As things went Claudia knew that she and Raesene along with Batiste could take the Barbarian Cleric but it would be a tough fight with no guarantee that she and Raesene would both survive. Valinar was known as Valinar the Smiter and he was one of the founding members of the Grim Riders. Eyeing him all Claudia could see was calm self-assurance and fury. All of these thoughts flashed through her mind and out of the corner of her eye she could see that Raesene was prepared to attack as well as Batiste.
Leaning back in her tall backed chair Claudia said, “ Perhaps you could go sale your information to Opal and gain a measure of revenge against the Scarlet Circle, but do you really want to be on the bad side of my Employer?”
The barbarian heard the capital that Claudia had put into the word Employer and his face blanched slightly and she could see his resolve weaken a bit.
She said, “ Would you rather be hunted by the Circle and all of my Employers resources or a lone demon with a Demon Touched Kel’Soval (5)controlling it?”
Sensing her advantage Claudia pressed, “Leave the Demon to us and remember you and your friends will be reimbursed for all losses.”
The Barbarian seemed to have been mollified by this but he ventured, “ When are you going to do something about the demon? I need something to take back to Grakus.”
Suddenly from outside a column of fire and a low rumbling explosion shook the room. Dust from the ancient stones filtered down and settled over everyone inside the tower. Standing Claudia and the others went to the window and looked out on the city. In the distance they saw a building burning with a bright orange fire. Distantly the cries of the wounded could be heard as well as the clash of arms. Moving and pouring herself a glass of the Drow wine Claudia watched as both men stared out at the street battle.
Rejoining her companions at the window Claudia said, “The first pieces in this game have begun to move Valinar and soon we will check mate this Black demon, his Kel Soval master, and their Shoon allies.”
Grimly Valinar turned to Claudia and stared harshly at her. He stated, “ Lets hope your little turf war does not get out of hand. Grakus is leery of lending you anymore help as it is until some of this protection you have thrown about materializes.”
The orange light of the fire made Claudia look ghastly as she sipped from her blood crystal glass. With a small smile playing across her lips Claudia stroked the large Barbarians arm and said, “ All in due time Valinar, all in due time.”
Turning from the Barbarian, Claudia stood in front of the window and watched the opening maneuvers of the pawns that had been set in motion.
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(1): This story is a combination of my notes on the movement of certain NPC's combined with some of the movements of the Players. Some of the events (The fight between Kalanaghar and the Black demon and why its killing Grim Riders) are not chronicled here yet but will be in future posts.
(2): In the first set of adventures, Claudia attempted to hire the players characters to steal something from a warehouse.
(3): The Grim Riders: The Grim Riders are a mercenary company composed of 500 Berserkers, and 100 Clerics of Batista the Raging One, that operates out of Rath and the lands of the 7 tribes (the same place the PC"s went to get the unicorn horn). They were hired early in the game session and the events of their exploits will be coming up soon.
(4): This is the same creature that was in the death box earlier in the story. They grow and become more powerful as the eat people which also makes them less docile and more aggressive and unstable.
(5) Kel' Soval- A member of the Shoon Hierarchy, their task is to control the Black Demons who have grown above a certain size.
****************Next: Interlude 2: The Lich King Awakens*************
