Odds & Ends
Breachill, Isger; Rova 5, 4719 AR
The arrival in the Pickled Ear was a bit unexpected.
After stepping through the trapdoor from Citadel Altaerein's crypts, the group found themselves in a storeroom. There, the owner of the Pickled Ear - Roxie Denn - was somewhat shocked and annoyed to discover them. After clearing up the misunderstanding, they were lead into the rowdy bar. The Pickled Ear had a well earned reputation for serving a rather more rambunctious clientele, and it certainly lived up to the rumors.
The four took to grilling Roxie, wanting to know why the tunnel existed beneath her tavern and who had access to it. She acted cagey at first, not trusting "adventuring types" to do the right thing. She seemed concerned that after the recent attack on the council, tensions in Breachill were running high and that raw emotion would trump common sense. After Inagra took charge and assured Roxie that they were reasonable people that only wanted the best for the town, Roxie confessed that the bookseller Voz had been using the tunnels beneath the storeroom. The bar owner assured them that the necromancer was only using the crypts for research; she wasn't a terrible person, just an easy target for the insular people of Breachill. Voz was an outsider, meaning that anything Calmont said about her stuck more readily than it would a local. It made sense for her to turn tail and run.
The party accepted what Roxie said and prepared to return to the citadel. Well, most members, anyway.
Wrin walked out of the Pickled Ear into the darkening twilight on his way back to Greta's home to spend the night. Frustrated, the rest of the party returned through the secret tunnel and camped out in the fortress. Unfortunately, being so far away from creature comforts did little to help with Viggo's fever, which seemed to only get worse by the day. Even when Inagra took to preparing some dwarven remedies for him, he still seemed to be suffering.
When the party met up once more, they returned to the crypts, determined to clear out every last room, even though they had already fulfilled their duties. Behind a secret passage, there was a crypt featuring a wall lined with glowing blue runes. Before anyone could investigate further, however, undead sprung up from hiding places and lurched forward to attack. Uhn took the brunt of the assault, his very life force torn away from his body beneath their wicked claws. His hands shook as he stumbled away from the front lines, his red eyes clouding over. Inagra gasped when she saw the goblin's face. He looked as though he had aged decades in a matter of moments!
Suddenly wary, the group beat a fighting retreat. Viggo and Inagra fired crossbolt bolts while Wrin conducted a rolling sphere of fire around the crypt. It wasn't long before the creatures were naught but ash, though Wrin was afflicted much the same as Uhn. While recovering, Inagra studied the runes on the wall, noting that they were clearly quite old and were necromantic in nature, but... beyond that, she had no idea.
Viggo decided to blow them up.
Unfortunately, the mysteries of the arcane world are not so easily dissuaded from existing, and his efforts were only rewarded with a backlash of negative energy. Feeling particularly upset, Uhn charged the runes and slammed "Choppy" into them. He was sent hurtling across the room with the same backlash of energy. Realizing that they weren't going to get much further with their trial and error methods, they looted the nearby tombs and returned to Breachill to get some bed rest; between Viggo's illness and Uhn and Wrin's wilting, a short break was needed.
While the rest of the team stayed in and tried to recover, Inagra took to leading sermons in The Great Dreamhouse. Desna's faithful are well known for their acceptance of a multitude of faiths, listening carefully and tempering what they hear with their own faith. While that still holds true, Inagra's law and order zeal did test that theory to its limits. After only a few orations before the congregation, she was politely asked to stop. Her convictions were scaring some of the simple country folk.
On the second day of resting in town, however, a dark rumor began to circulate. A tall, white haired woman was stalking the streets of Breachill, sniffing the air and asking about her children. She had eyes that glowed pale in the sun and she wrapped herself in white furs. By the time these rumors reached back to Viggo, however, it was already too late. When the half-elf pulled himself down to the ground floor of Wizard's Grace, Inagra and Uhn were already staring down a giant of a woman. Trinil lay on the floor, lips blue and seemingly comatose.
"Where are my children?" the woman asked, her voice sounding like the stinging winds.
Viggo played dumb, shrugging and asking, "What do they look like? Maybe we can help."
A blast of icy winds sent Uhn diving for cover as the woman fixed Viggo with a hard stare. "I smell them on you," she growled. Viggo looked to his companions, unsure of what to do. Inagra seemed to want no part in this fight, while Uhn nodded eagerly. After weighing everything equally, the alchemist retrieved the wargs that he was hiding and passed them over to their rightful mother. In turn, she began to strike the puppies for being so weak and foolish to allow themselves to cling to a fleshling the way they did. Viggo gripped his bandolier of explosives tightly. He watched as the wargs limped after their mother and thought of nothing more than throwing one of his bombs directly at the back of the woman's head. But he didn't. Perhaps he regrets it still.
With the harrowing event behind them (and with Viggo still swearing to rescue "his children"), the party descended once more into the crypts. They were hale and hearty, ready to tackle what else remained. What followed was a short romp through the remaining wing; a forgotten armory filled with rusting blades and scrap armor. After a run in with a gelatinous cube, however, they were "ambushed" by two kobolds named Pib and Zarf who demanded to be given food. Uhn, still coughing up jelly, took to beating the ever living snot out of the two creatures while the rest of the group looked on in horror. After sending them on their way, battered and beaten, the group discovered a tapestry painted by someone with the name "R. Stagram" - no doubt a relation of Alak's. As though suddenly remembering the Hellknight, the group hurried back to town: Wrin and Viggo had a plan.
The sorcerer and alchemist didn't trust Alak. Something about him rang hollow to them. Maybe it was his cheerful demeanor, sense of humor, or just strange fascination with getting his ring back, but whatever the reason, there was no way they were about to hand over the ring. The two went to work crafting a reasonable facsimile while Uhn hunted around town for clues. Sadly, all he turned up were posters with Rorsk Axebane's face drawn on them. It seems that he and a number of the Black Lanterns had been missing for several days now.
"He's fine," Uhn rationalized. "He went of his own accord," the goblin told himself. "I'm sure he hasn't run into mother," he argued. "Even if he did find her, I'm sure she didn't kill... him..." Uhn was overcome with guilt. He may have indirectly killed a man.
The next day, Uhn impatiently waited while Viggo and Wrin attempted to pass off their forgery to Alak. He seemed happy enough with the results, and even invited the group to visit him at Citadel Vraid if ever they were in Varisia. Inagra stared at the forgery on his finger, wanting so badly to say something to the nice, young man. She didn't harbor the same suspicions as her associates, and had even taken a liking to Alak. But she stayed silent. Maybe things were better this way, she reasoned.
Suddenly remembering, Inagra mentioned the locked door in the Reliant Book Company. Voz's place of business had stood for so long without being investigated. There were rumors in town that one of the Black Lanterns had attempted to open the door and was killed for the trouble. Taking no chances, Viggo built himself a small barricade of books and attempted to disarm the trap. It took a few tries (and several ruined books), but he managed to break through to a small, messy room beyond. Inside, esoteric books and formulae were scattered around the floor and bed. Uhn snatched up a book and took to pawing through it, not anywhere near as superstitious of the written word as the rest of his kin. Inagra discovered a translation of a spell that was said to provide protection from "The Great Darkness" within Alesta's Ring. Viggo even found plans for some sort of invention that he felt he could perfect with a little time. However, it was Wrin who discovered a breakthrough with Voz's notes.
"Guardian's Way," he muttered.
Before the group could go any further, though, Uhn opened up about his fears for the stonemason. He was starting to think that... maybe Rorsk had followed his advice and sought out his mother after all. After some debate, the party struck out for Scalehoarder lands at a quick pace, trying to arrive before night fell. Unfortunately, as the autumn moon rose high above them, the darkness of the woods began to close in. Skulls adorned sticks driven into the ground, horrible taunting songs could be heard in the forest, and beady red eyes always followed them. While Uhn did not expect a warm welcome, he certainly wasn't ready for the rest of his tribe treating him as some sort of outsider. He and his friends weren't allowed inside of the Scalehoarder walls. Instead, Chieftain Fim herself came to the gate to meet Uhn. While surrounded by her (significantly shorter) guards, she denied ever having seen a dwarf pass through her lands. Uhn knew his mother was being honest with him, but couldn't stand her sneering, grating voice. Violence erupted in a split-second, but before anyone could react, Uhn was slammed into the mud with Fim standing triumphant over her son once more.
The party picked up Uhn and made their way out of the forest, electing to march throughout the night to make it back to warm beds in Breachill. Tomorrow, they told themselves, tomorrow they would see what Guardian's Way had to offer. That night, while Wrin took up his place on Greta's couch, the councilwoman explained that Guardian's Way used to be an outpost used by the goblin forces during the Goblinblood Wars. It's since changed hands numerous times between bandits and militia. It was thought to be abandoned now. Wrin mused darkly on the "abandonded" Hellknight keep and went to sleep.
After Inagra roused everyone for an early trek to Guardian's Way, Uhn took to scouting the perimeter. He spotted a trio of half-orcs high up in treetop stands, watching for intruders. Beneath them, in the center of the outpost was a rundown station, presumably the former headquarters of the commanding officers. The goblin was lucky, he hadn't been spotted yet. After reporting back to his allies, they decided to send Uhn and Viggo ahead to try and make their way over to the building beneath the half-orcs. Unfortunately, the forest is filled with all sorts of twigs eager to be snapped underfoot, and the two were almost immediately discovered.
Wrin and Inagra streamed out from cover while arrows whizzed into the bushes where Uhn and Viggo were. The sound of a bell ringing clanged in their ears while more half-orcs appeared in the treetops. Balls of fire torched enemies, dark power crushed their insides, yet the sentinels fought back ferociously. Uhn squared off with one before he noticed an emblem on his armor: a white dagger dipped in crimson. The Bloody Blades. On cue, the door to the station was thrown open and Dmiri Yoltosha joined the fray, her twin blades dancing a shining jig. Viggo found himself dodging to and fro as the seasoned combatant pressed him back. Unfortunately, her men were not as well trained, and they fell to the onslaught of the four adventurers. Seeing as she was losing any chance of success, Dmiri ran for the mountain wall behind Guardian's Way, shouting out for help.
"Voz!" her rough voice called. "Voz, help! They're coming! They're coming!"
It seems like the confrontation with Voz is just around the corner. Just who is this woman that they have been chasing?
-Dungeon Master
