Daerius' Hoplites Baptism of Fire

1622, 17th day of Dark Season

After the rescue of the slave gang near Jonstown, the party decides to get off the beaten track, and they find refuge in a stead along an old mountain track into the Quivini Mountains and towards Boldhome.  Their host is hospitable, but gives a worried impression, and our friends soon understand the fellow is highly worried about events that have occurred recently in the area.  For months, patches of land would not allow plants to grow.  Then cattle died.  Goats were stolen.  The forest spiders, traditionally keeping to the deepest woods on the mountain flanks, wander all the way down to the valley, and endanger children and adults alike.
And only recently, chaos spirits attacked the stead, it took the visit of a gang of Storm Bull Initiates to get rid of the taint, and these Horned Barbarians ate and drank everything they could find on the stead as a thank you dinner.
Daerius has adopted four of the slaves, one of them is appointed sergeant, and he agrees to teach them his combat style, and pay a soldier's wage, in exchange for service.  The ex-slaves, bound by honor, would have been willing to fight for Daerius for free, but the young Talastaring shows himself generous.  After learning of the stead owners' sorrow, he decides to take his new recruits out to investigate and exercise.  The rest of the party stays at the farm, for safety, they say, but more probably for the resupplied food and drinks.

A fight ensues...

Daerius' party heads north into the hills, towards the forests, along steep tracks, not encountering anything until the reach the forest, and run into a pair of forest spiders.  They manage to take these down without too much trouble, and enter the forest, towards the ancient crags that supposedly spawn the chaos threat.  They fail to notice how they are being followed by a broo scout, and find themselves trapped when they enter the cave complex in pursuit of a Chaos atrocity called a Jack o Bear.  They find their way back out blocked, and a fight ensues.
At first things go well, but the pressure builds, and although the party cleverly retreat into the crevice to avoid being outnumbered, they start to suffer from the chaotic broos and their evil properties.  When Daerius goes down after an electrical decharge, things start to look bleak indeed, but then the Jack o Bear goes down, the party starts to reorganise, and they try to recover.  One hoplite goes down and is dragged out of the cave, and one of the broos tries to perform the vile broo impregnation on the poor soul, but at that moment our heroes break out of the cave, and manage to skewer the filthy beast before the worst comes to pass.  Quickly they recover their wounded, and prepare to head back to the cabin for healing and assistance.  This is not over.

Posted with Blogsy - (c) Rudy Boeynaems 2012-2013

Ilduvu attacks

1622, Dark Season,16

The morning after the attack by Lunar troops and the escape of the sorcerer and his henchman, the party finds itself wondering what route to take...  Should they continue to Prax, Pimper's block, risking detection in the open?  Or seek refuge in Boldhome, with Herculon's family, risking detection by the Lunar Home Guard or Ilduvu and his associates.  And if heading to Boldhome, is it best to take the trail through the mountains, in this winter weather, or track back to the Jonstown - Boldhome road and then south?
After due consideration, the decision is taken to return to the royal road and take a left for Boldhome.  So it happens.  After less than an hour of travel, the party spots a large convoy coming at them from the west.  It is quickly determined the convoy is not a Lunar platoon, and briefly after the characters can see what is heading towards them:  it is a slave convoy.  12 chained sartarite weak looking prisoners, clad in rags, and accompagnied by a dozen of Lunarese guards and their captain, as well as three sable riders.  They have the advantage of surprise, and hide in the shrubs, until the convoy has approached.  Sharkan, clumsily trying to hide behind a narrow tree, is quickly detected, and the Sable riders hurry over to make sure it's not a major nuisance.
Before Sharkan is captured, Giomanach steps forward from his hiding and starts casting Palsy.  Herculon starts incantating his Lightning ritual, and grills one of the Sable Nomads before he knows what hits him.  The remaining Sable Riders forget about Sharkan and charge forward towards Giomanach, who they consider the source of the lightning magic.  With the Lunars no longer paying much attention to him, Sharkan lets out his River Folk Warcry and leaps forward.  Sadly, he miscalculates the leap, and to make matters worst, he loses his footing when landing.  He ends up on his belly, with three Lunar guards closing in on him.
Herculon bellows loudly and charges forward, while Sharkan is hard pressed under the attack, almost losing his arm while backing up.  Daerius charges forward as well, and Raiko tries to sneak up behind the Lunars, but is spotted before he makes it that far.  Meanwhile, some of the prisoners have succeeded getting rid of their shackles.  Herculon kills one Lunar, then another.  The fight is turning against the Lunars very quickly.  Then Giomanach detects 3 flying shapes in the air, and he feels a cold shiver run along his spine.  Ilduvu has tracked them down, and he has brought help.  Two Wyvern Riders accompany the Griffin shaped Sorcerer.  Sharkan meanwhile scores his first Lunar kill, and, oblivious to the appearance of the sorcerer behind him, charges towards his next target.

The liberated slaves form a front before the approaching wyvern

The Wyvern riders land in front of the party and their released prisoners, and hostilities continue.  The prisoners quickly form a front, determined not to go into captivity again.  The Sartarites seem quite able to hold off the Wyverns, and our party members join the line and charge forward, but Ilduvu has other plans.  He feints a landing in front of the party, then pulls up slightly and lands in front of Giomanach, with the clear intention of ripping the sorcerer to shreds.  He attacks, grabbing hold of Giomanach's leg, blood pumping out of the open wound.  The Griffin then attempts to take off, Giomanach in his claw, and if not for the released prisoners jumping on the big bird to keep it on the ground, this would most definitely have been the demise of Giomanach at the hands of Ilduvu. The fight against the Wyverns goes well, one of the riders goes down, but the party is having a very hard time stopping Ilduvu.  The Griffin attempts once again to take Giomanach in the air, and another time several ex-prisoners jump on the shapechanged sorcercer.  Ilduvu casts wrack on those touching him, and the outcome is gruesome.  Five prisoners succumb, in their weakened state a single attack is enough to kill them, and the others back off, terrified.  Now Herculon, having dispatched his wyvern, charges forward, but even with his trememdous damage output it proves very hard to damage the sorcerer through his magical shield.
However, as the Lunars are all down, and the party starts concentrating on Ilduvu, he decides to live another day, and flies off south.
The party loot the victims, and use the equipment they find to outfit the surviving liberated prisoners.  The prisoners, according to Orlanthi Law, become endebted to the party, and decided to join them as henchmen.  7 survivors join their ranks, and a number of them agree to start studing the Talastaring Hoplite way of combat.  After using the equipment they can, they are sill left with 6 Hoplite shields, 11 Scimitars, 3 Peltast shields and 3 daggers.

Escape from Clearwine

1622, Dark Season,12

Luckily, lunch wasn't too hard to come by

 fter the decimation of the Lunar Slave Farm guard, Herculon and his gang had no time to inspect the premises much, whata with the escaped wizard who would quickly come back with reinforcements.  They just took the time to locate the body of Jaya, and headed back the way they came, through the old tunnel.  The Ernalda priestesses, with help from Yanioth Brandgorsdottir, make sure their traces are not visible, and offer the party shelter in a small shrine, 10 miles east of Clearwine.  There the party performs the rites for Jaya, in the way of the sun warriors.  They lament and get drunk and tell brave tales to remember her by.
Martulo is in a bad state.  He has become bitter and low on confidence.  He has lost one leg from the knee down, and is in dire need of healing.  But news from the Ernalda spies is not encouraging.  The Lunars are in an uproar, and are sparing no effort to find the attackers.  A desciption has been sent out, patrols are manyfold, and movement along the imperial roads is all but impossible.  On top of that, Ilduvu Illuviu is on the lookout for them.  There are patrols at every guard house, Chalana Arroy temples in all surrounding towns are being guarded, it seems the empire has a rather good idea what is going on.  Meanwhile, Sharkan, a traveler from Corflu, has arrived at the shrine.  He is one of the riverfolk, and a student of Sa'ar, and has been sent by the Zola Fel priest when he detected the disturbance in one of the River Voices.

ur adventurers decide to travel into the wild, bad weather notwithstanding, north through the foothills towards the old haunted ruins, and further north towards the Creek.  AT one time theye spot several flying shapes, they estimate it to be a griffin and some wyrms, possibly with riders.  IT is quite possible the have been spotted now.  They walk around the haunted ruins, trying to stay out of trouble, and easily find some game and a place to sleep.  During the night, the camp is attacked by a smilodon, who manages to take a rather large bite out of Daerius' arm before getting stabbed in the head and running off.  Daerius stares at the dangling flesh on his forearm, and intends to continue without too much interruption, but in the end is convinced to accept some healing.  The party then continues north, all the way to the Creek, but they run into a set of tracks heading northeast.  As it started snowing, the tracks must be very fresh, and they determine it must be a raider party of Broos.  Giomanach immediately commands the party to hunt the vile beasts down, much to the frustration of Herculon, who wants his feeble brother in safety before getting into fights left and right, seeing how Martulo would slow them down if they need to run.  Giomanach does not intend to listen, however.  He runs off, angrily, and Herculon has to physically restrain the wizard.
After much shouting and clasping of heads, Giomanach finally comes to his senses.  The racket they have made has alarmed the Broo party, however, and just as Herculon intends to let go of Giomanachs neck, they see a wave of vile Broo coming over the nearest hill at a steady pace.
Sharkan immediately enters a frenzy, all worked up, he leaps into the charging pack of Broo and is attacked by several of them.  Herculon and Daerius take care of the threat without too much trouble, and Sharkan impressively holds off three attackers without going down.
After the fight the party decides to make it straight east, rather than following the river to the imperial road guardhouse at the ford.  They run into a small local caravan, trying to make it to Jonstown in the dreadful weather.  They hook up with the traders, despite the reservations they have.  When they are sharing the evening meal, a Triceratops thumps into view, and charges towards the assembly.  Several of the party run for their life, while the annoyed dinosaur tramples their dinner and rams into the cart in the process, before running off.
The party decides to leave the imperial road again, and keeps heading east, towards the Lunar Slave market of Pimper's Block.  There they set up camp for the night, and double watch, but the hard travel of the last few days take their toll, and both Herculon and Sharkan fall asleep during the watch.  When the horses start winnying, they awake in the last minute, and sound the alarm.  A group of Lunar guards is approaching them, and intends to take them by surprise, but this turns out very badly for the inexperienced Lunar troops very quickly, and a Red Moon sorcerer and a commander teleport out before the party has a chance to reach them.  There is now no doubt they have been spotted, between Jonstown, Swenstown and Prax, and not much is said when they decide to pack their gear, before dawn breaks, and continue their trip.  Maybe the weather in Prax will be better, and traveling will be safer...

The Lunar Slave Farm

1622, Dark Season, 1

The party lacks focus... (c) David Dunham

From Whitewall, the travel to Orlmarth territory is quick. The sorcerer's magic enables the party to keep running at a Leopards speed, and they arrive in Clearwine at sunset. The party get a Room in the Ram's Head Inn in Clearwine, and drink more than is good for them. They meet a Thane, Osric, who is also drinking heavily, and complaining about the Lunar oppression in general and the decadence of the Seven Mother Cultists in particular. The party make some good acquaintances and spend a heavy night.
The next day, at a a dying Red moon, the party starts investigating, but it is as if their spirits have left them. Nobody takes any initiative, and before noon, already they are sitting in the Inn, drinking the local wines, ciders and ales rather than preparing a plan of attack. Some of the party members find nothing better than pretending to be in the wine business in order to get some free drinks and samples, and they particularly annoy Alembic Curcuricson, a local major wine trader, with their drunken talk. It takes until the evening before they think of having a meeting with the Ernalda High Priestess, and by then their minds are less than clear. Still, the High Priestess recognizes their quest and tells them the story of the Colymar Council, and the banishment of Benava Chan and Kallai Rockbuster. That night the party goes to bed in a sombre mood. The Orlanthi still are reluctant to spring into action, although a full day has passed, and Jaya of Yelorna is getting restless.

Some secret information from an ancient tome...

The third day of the Dark Season, and a black moon rises. The party seems to be paralyzed with indecisiveness and unable to act. Herculon is ready for action, but without a plan. Raiko and Daerius further investigate the business opportunities the wine trade offers, without finding out much useful information. By nightfall, the party is once again in the Inn, a silent mood has taken over the heroes. Jaya, however, refuses to wait for a battle plan, and feels she must act. She manages to sneak up to one of the guard towers around the Slave Farm unseen, and attempts to surprise the guard. For several heartbeats it looks as if she is going to kill the three guards, but then bad luck hits, and she drops down, bleeding to death. With her last breath, she invokes her power of Yelorna, and makes sure what she has learned is transmitted to the rest of the party. This information, as will later become apparent, is the difference between life and death.
Alarmed by their vision of Jaya dying, the party finally springs to action. They learn of the earlier purpose of the Slave Farm site: a Issaries trading compound. They find an underground tunnel to the Slave Farm and manage to get in unseen. The second they are spotted, they find themselves in a large cave, and through the exit overhead several Lunar soldiers are preparing to open a large trellis, behind which the party can hear shrieks and furious howling. Before the Lunars manage to open the door to the monsters' lair, Giomanach manages to holdfast the locking mechanism, making it impossible to release the beast without powerful dispelling magic.
The party now quickly escape the cave through the opening, and after some brutal killing, they have managed to make a foothold for themselves. The building nearby has a balcony, on which a class of Lunar students is preparing a Lune spell. As more and more guards pour out of the door, and Herculon, Raiko and Daerius go butcher style, Giomanach is having a hard time keeping the troops channeled. Still, they manage and seem to start getting the advantage, when out comes a full Lunar Sorcerer. This fellow turns out to be a serious threat, and Giomanach exchanges a few spells, but the guards prove to be no match for the brutal combat experience of this party, and before the Lunar Mage can do more damage, he finds himself opposing five furious opponents. The Mage shapeshifts to his Griffin form, and, after looking Giomanach in the eye with a look full of revenge and hatred for a few seconds, flies off beyond reach.

Posted with Blogsy - (c) Rudy Boeynaems 2012

Herculon becomes a Storm Acolyte

1622, End of the Earth Season

The reception committee

The party is received in the great hall, and encounters a number of famous Orlanthi. The High Priest tells them about the underground maze, and the acolyte challenge, and Herculon decides to take the test. The tunnels are magical in nature, and tend to change layout depending on the situation. They can lead to the evil town of Karse, into the Troll Woods, or into the ancient chaos remnants underground. The party decides to aid Herculon - passing the test of leadership - and they descend into the catacombs. Most of the threats are taken care of without too much trouble, but a headhunter poses a big problem. The beast carries a sorcerer's head and it has Daerius marked. The monster attempts to cut of the party using darkwall, but this is averted three times in a row, and the party understands they have no choice but to advance - passing the test of strategy - and hack the evil being to bits.

 

Skeleton agression.

The party then advances into another room filled with skeleton remains, and they rightly expect a trap - passing the test of insight - and walk in anyway - passing the test of courage. Sure enough, the bones form into skeletons, and it takes the party quite a bit of trouble to get the better of the undead, with Herculon narrowly escaping l;osing a leg and prematurely ending the examination.Herculon distinguishes himself with four decapitations. Daerius also fights bravely, and separates two skeleton heads from their bodies. After the fight the party returns a magical sail to the High Priest, and Herculon becomes a proud Acolyte of Orlanth. The party has some opportunity to do business with some of the traders in the temple, and Giomanach puts in an order for a silver dwarven axe with Ironmound the dwarf. The party also finds a master leatherworker that can turn the dragonscale skin into armor.
After the test and ceremony the party decides to continue their travels, and they take the tunnels to the Troll Woods. There, they are quickly spotted by Troll patrols, but the haste cast by Giomanach makes them too swift for any opposition to organize, and they make it out of the dark troll woods in a record time. As they re-enter Heortling territory, they run into a village with a peculiar visitor. A talking wyvern has convinced some of the villagers to become his followers, and this creates enmity in the clan. Things get out of hand, and a fight ensues, in which Giomanach suffers a serious wound. The wyvern is slain, and another dragonscale hide is looted.

 

Beware of false prophets!

The party take the road to Whitewall, the last bastion of Orlanthi freedom, and here they find another leatherworker. The last day of Earth Season, the party spends in Whitewall.

 

Posted with Blogsy - (c) Rudy Boeynaems 2012

The Old Air Temple

1622, End of the Earth Season

 

After their encounter with the evil Shaman, the party takes some well deserved Recovery in Swenstown. During the evening outing the party runs into a bunch of Lunar soldiers, and they barely avoid a bar brawl. The next morning they leave Swenstown, en route for the Old Wind Temple, when they run into a Lunar worker hamlet. Raiko and Jaya decide to sneak into the campment, but Jaya is spotted, and three guards head forward. When the guard realize who they are up against, they change plans, and although Raiko and Herculon finish off one guard each, they third one escapes through the portal.

A wyvern Patrol: this might hurt

The party does not want to wait around for the rest of the Lunar garrison to arrive, and they make a run for it. They are spotted by a wyvern rider, but manage to escape nonetheless, until they take a false turn and stupidly run into a Lunar Patrol with two wyvern riders. The lunar sorcerer immediately start casting a Red Lune, but is burned to charcoal seconds later by Herculon's lightning spell. The rest of the guard charges, and Jaya barely escapes death when one of the wyverns take a bite out of her. The other beast attacks Daerius, who fails his parry. By this time, Giomanach is casting palsy, and manages to down one of the beasts. It takes two more lightning spells from Herculon to finish the fierce dragonbreed off. The victors take home the nice scale hide.

 

A good mood.

The party now tracks back, and finds the correct road to the Old Wind Temple, but are spotted by a Marble Phalanx Patrol, who block the road to the temple just outside the reach of the temple magic. Another fierce battle ensues, and again the party is unable to shove aside the powerful warriors, until Giomanach starts throwing around stones with his Animate Stone sorcery. The Lunars understand they might actually get in trouble, and decide to fight another day. Our heroes gain access to the Old Wind Temple.

 

 

Posted with Blogsy - (c) Rudy Boeynaems 2012

Across the Plains of Prax

1622, End of the Earth Season

 

Jhonen's caravan en route to Swenstown

Our heroes have felt the wrath of GimGim the Grim and escaped with their lives, albeit with some help from Sun Lord Yelanda. That is an achievement in itself. Their loyal newtling sidekicks have escorted them out of the town, and out of harms way, with the aid of some riverfolk friends and a reed boat. The party decides to seek refuge at the dwarf knoll oasis, where the run into Jhonen, a merchant seeking protection for a trek to Boldhome. Our adventurers decide on the spot. They wil escort Jhonen to Swenstown, then travel south to the Old Wind Temple. From there, they will head to the Ernaldori lands and liberate Herculon's captive brother.
The party heads west from Dwarf Knoll, using Tada's as a reference point, and steer clear of Moonbroth and the ever-increasing Lunar presence there. They make it to Pimpers block in one day, then decide to press on to the hamlet of Thorsen, on the road to Swenstown, so they can have a good night's sleep. Jhonen the merchant is no unknown in Thorsen, and his arrival causes some excitement from the locals. Jhonen's goods are eagerly inspected, and business is good, and the Issaries merchant invites his guards for a drink in the Obese Hog's Inn that afternoon. Of course our heroes accept, and Raiko once again ends up rather drunk by sunset. In order to get his head clear again, he orders a banquet, a clear indication of the level of luxury this party has become used to during months of training and no adventuring.
At dinner Giomanach notices one of the locals looking at Jhonen in a funny way, and that same evening there is some noise in the hallway. Giomanach investigates and finds the same local threatening Jhonen with a knife. The sorcerer intervenes, and the local scurries off.
The next day, travel goes a lot less quickly, and the mountain roads prove hard to negotiate with four wagons of goods. When the road is blocked by large boulders, the party has no choice but to clear the road, and before they are back on their way it is getting dark. They decide to set up camp on a clearing on the top of the mountain. As they do this, they notices a pack of wolves on the slopes, and during the night, the wolves stay near the camp looking for opportunity. The party sets up a perimeter of torches to keep the canines at bay.
The next day, after only an hour of travel, the party is attacked by a group of archers. They quickly deploy, only to find out there is a second half of robbers attacking them in the rear. The situation is less than ideal, and things would look ugly if not for the hardened adventurers: Giomanach quickly dispatches some crowd control, and Herculon, Daerius, Raiko and Jaya make the thieves see the error of their ways. They are no match for the veteran warriors and are quickly dispatched. If Jhonen noticed the use of vile sorcery, he does not let on: after the fight he congratulates the group for their efficiency.

The last village to visit before arriving in Swenstown is Aylesford. The party arrives at the village perimeter and notice corpses everywhere. Clearly something is very amiss here. As they roll into the market square, they notice the buildings, with the chapel being particularly gruesome. The door has been pulled out of the hinges, and inside lie most of the villages women and children, brutally slaughtered. Giomanach starts barking orders to Jhonen's men, in order to create a safe zone quickly, while the rest of the party start tracking. They find weird tracks leaving the village and follow them. After a few minutes they run into a clearing and notice a group of men around a crackling fire. Two leather tents are standing near the fire. Our party manages to sneak forward and launch a sneak attack, and within seconds several of the warriors are dead. Still, one manages to open a large cage, liberating a chaotic being halfway between a bear and a human. The monster charges out, howling, and runs into Herculon. In the same second, a shaman crawls out of the tent.
A fight ensues, the shaman summoning his fetch, a spider- like spirit, and several haunts. The players have a lot of trouble getting the better of these guys, and it takes the arrival of Giomanach on his speed enhanced mount to make it happen.

Posted with Blogsy - (c) Rudy Boeynaems 2012