(Early Sea Season 1615)
It was Sea Season 1615 when the party returned from Raus Fort to Pavis having completed their mercenary contract. At that time the party consisted of Aransar McGae (Steve), Orstanor Estavsson (Phil), Callum Blax (Paul), Brand Banesson (Mario), Kurtulmak and Stromon (Marcus).
Pavis was a hotbed of gossip and activity. The legendary site of Balastor’s Barracks had been found near to Griffin Gate in the rubble, and adventurers were heading into Pavis from all quarters, but the party were more concerned with re-establishing communication with their inside contact with the outlawed Orlanth cult, headed in Pavis by Krogar Wolfhelm. Aransar and Orstanor approached Krogar in Gimpys, but the Wind Lord warned them off with a shake of his head. The party took rooms at the inn and were contacted by Krogar’s allied spirit which is bound into an alynx. Krogar had an interesting story to tell. He was under scrutiny by the Lunars (not unusual in itself) because of the arrival of a group of Anilla cultists, who had arrived a week before and made various claims upon the resources of the governor of the city. A specific part of the rubble, the Furner Fields were to be sealed off for purposes unknown. In the days that followed, the Lunars purchased many expeditionary supplies, and a large, heavily armed force of hoplites and cavalry went into the rubble and had not been seen since.
Anilla is the goddess of the Blue Moon and the goddess of secrets, and many of her cultists work as secret police for the Lunar Empire. It was not merely for curiosities sake that Krogar asked the group to enter the rubble and see what it was that the Lunars were up to.
Krogar made available what little resources he could command for the party. Brand acquired a farsee spell to better observe the goings on, and Orstanor learned a powerful dispel magic spell for circumventing any magical warding that the Lunars had erected.
They entered through Gimpys secret tunnel and began their unlicensed entry into the rubble, successfully avoiding the zebra riders on patrol. They decided to climb the Blind King’s Hill which overlooks Furner Fields, and it was whilst moving into position that they encountered a group of novice adventurers who had come off worse in an ill-conceived attempt to enter Balastor’s Barracks. They came upon the party as four survivors out of a party of ten, who had apparently been destroyed by vampires. These adventurers were all Orlanthi, fresh out of Sartar, and were slightly overawed by this veteran party of expatriots, but agreed to help their cause if only to play a minor part in their nations fight for freedom as well as learning how real adventurers went about their business.
Observing the Lunar camp from he safety of the Blind King’s Hill, Brand was able to perceive that the Lunars were excavating some ruins. There were supplies and tents and an unusual mound covered in tarp. Several sables were tethered to a post just away from the smallest tent.
The party crept to the ruins around the site without being detected, although as they approached, a lone figure emerged from the small tent. He was attired in distinctive blue garments and swathed in a voluminous hooded cloak. He mounted a sable and rode off towards New Pavis.
The Lunars were being lax for some reason, with only two sentries posted, and these closer to the Troll Stronglands rather than the Hill. Several warding spells were detected, and Orstanor was able to remove one with magic. From here it could be seen that the Lunars were investigating a vertical shaft that appeared to be the entrance to some fairly grandiose kind of crypt. Using the finely honed stealth skills of the born hunter, Stromon cunningly alerted the entire Lunar camp to the group’s presence, and Lunar soldiers in various states of combat readiness began to spill from the tent. The sentries were charging at Stromon and probably would have slain him had not Orstanor stepped from the shadows of a building and put his short blade through the soldier’s ribs.
Fortunately, the group had made a contingency plan, with several members attempting to flank the camp, and this now paid off, with the surprised Lunars under attack from two sides. The result was a massacre, with only one lunar of twelve surviving some very impressive bow and javelin work on the part of the party. Not having the stomach to slay a surrendered foe, the survivor was disarmed and sent off into the Rubble, his fate left to the Gods.
The strange mound was uncovered and a line of Lunar soldiers with injuries ranging from the invisible to the physically horrific were discovered. It was decide that these had all been victims of whatever lay within the crypt, but why the Lunars had used their own elite troops and not dwarves or even slaves was a mystery.
Half the party entered the crypt, and found signs of traps, and many chalk markings showing a safe route down a tunnel, many of which were surrounded in the gory evidence of how the safe route was discovered. The bas-relief carvings on the wall seemed to have a heavily draconic influence, and the group finally discovered the crypt containing the skeleton of what appeared to be a Dragonewt. Upon the lid of the crypt were ancient carvings in a language which was not only indecipherable, but unrecognisable. Fortunately the strange pieces of equipment carried by professional adventurers yielded something other than encumbrance, and Aransar produced chalk and charcoal, and a rubbing was made.
Feeling that they had outstayed their welcome, and becoming acutely aware that they had slaughtered an entire Lunar squad and then let one go, the group began their retreat back to the city. The more experienced members had entered the Rubble through Gimpy’s secret tunnel, but the FNG’s had come with a licensed expedition to Balastor’s Barracks. Although offered passage through the tunnel, the newbies wanted to keep the sables that they had plundered from the camp, and began to concoct a cover story. The two groups split up and agreed to meet at Geo’s in two days time…