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The tiger-headed man
The rest of the group got there just in time to help Manius fight the two giant cobras. The hooded man was now invisible, and only Manius saw him after activating the special power of his Mantis Mask. Neolandus had retreated to a corner of the room to avoid getting wounded.
The giant snakes were terrible opponents and were able to bite Manius several times. Only the Hellknight’s incredible resilience allowed him to survive their potent venom unscathed. Meanwhile, the hooded man reappeared, blasting the heroes several times with bolts of lightning. Kaeso was able to evade every one of them, but Hipazia was badly wounded. Kindrasius was also shocked, but his body seemed to absorb part of the energy… perhaps preparing itself for another stage of his transformation into a dragon-man. Even the unfortunate Seneschal was hit by one of the blasts, but he miraculously survived it. Meanwhile, Zeeva relentlessly channelled healing energy, also moving to help her friends with healing through spells and wands. She also helped Manius finish off the second giant cobra with her longspear.
Meanwhile, the ground rumbled underneath everyone’s feet: the labyrinth was moving again! The heroes were worried that the false Vencarlo would return to beset them, but for now, they already had their hands full with the hooded man. Kaeso and Kindrasius were attacking him, but he was almost invulnerable, his agility and magical defenses allowing him to evade every single attack. He laughed as he kept on blasting the heroes with lightning. Hipazia conjured an Ice Storm behind him, but he avoided it through some magical resistance. He was quite a terrible foe indeed, but he looked human: when the winds of the blizzard blew off his hood, the group saw that he looked indeed like a bald Vudran man with several earrings.
Once the snakes were dead, the Harrowed Company cornered the Vudran man. Thankfully, Manius saw him as an obstacle to false-Vencarlo’s Suggestion to bring the Seneschal out of Arkona manor, so he helped the rest of the group against him. The Vudran man tried to use a similar spell to make Kindrasius leave the fight, but Hipazia had protected herself with a Magic Circle Against Evil, which also shielded her nearby friends against such spells. Seemingly out of such potent magic, the Vudran man underwent a transformation into a tiger-headed humanoid reminiscent of the many statues standing around the room. The companions weren’t sure what this mysterious Vudran creature was, but it was certainly a formidable foe. It attacked with great dexterity and speed, but fortunately, didn’t cause any grievous wound to anyone.
Finally, through a team effort that included Hipazia’s repeated casting of Diviner’s Fortune and an Enlarge spell on Manius, the heroes were able to slay the tiger-headed man. Manius’s powerful blows and Kaeso’s sneak attacks had been able to deal some damage despite the monster’s incredible resilience, and only Kindrasius’s holy arrows had been able to wound it normally. It had been quite a fight!
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Meatclaw
Unfortunately, as soon as that menace was out of the way, Manius wasted no time in grabbing hold of Seneschal Kalepopolis and dragging him out of the room.
“Manius, what are you doing?” demanded the middle-aged man. “Let’s wait for Zeeva to heal us before continuing!”
Thankfully, Zeeva had the time to use her wand of Delay Poison on herself and Manius as they rushed out of the room, to temporarily avoid the after-effects of the giant cobras’ deadly poison. The group found itself once again in the large cave with the lake and the rope bridges. Manius approached the lowermost bridge, but Kindrasius and Kaeso somehow convinced him that they were accomplished sailors (an enormous lie) and that they should leave using the boat.
The Hellknight accepted, but as he walked on the dock with Neolandus, a huge and terrible monster suddenly emerged from the water: half-crustacean and half-eel, this was the biggest Reefclaw they had ever seen, and some of them remembered the rumors they’d heard over the years of Meatclaw, a gigantic Reefclaw whose lair was somewhere in the cliffs north of Old Korvosa. It seemed that its lair had in fact been below Arkona Manor all this time…
Another difficult battle followed. Manius was still the size of a giant, but he hadn’t received any healing from his previous fight. He struck Meatclaw several times, but the monster was able to squeeze him in its deadly claws, and the Hellknight nearly died. The rest of the group slew the creature with arrows and rays of fire. As it died, Meatclaw thrashed madly, wounding Zeeva, before finally sinking below the surface and truly dying. The priestess of Pharasma rushed to Manius’s side and quickly healed him before he expired. As the big man regained consciousness, he seemed to be himself again: his near-death experience had somehow dispelled false-Vencarlo’s Suggestion.
Now Zeeva had the time to properly heal everyone, with some help from Kindrasius. The companions decided to bravely return to the labyrinth, to try and defeat the false Vencarlo and to find where the true Vencarlo was being kept.
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Stuck in the labyrinth
When they returned to the labyrinth’s entrance, the companions were subjected to the Symbol of Fear of the round room with the pool of dirty green liquid. What followed was possibly the Harrowed Company’s least heroic moment, as the three members at the front (Kaeso, Zeeva and the gigantic Manius) all fell prey to the symbol’s effect and ran away in panic, knocking down the rest of the group in their haste to flee down the tunnel.
After a few minutes, they recovered their wits and returned. Kaeso tried several times to disable the symbol, but kept falling prey to its effects, so the group decided to send Hipazia, holding the hooded man’s robe and averting her eyes, to cover the symbol.
The group tentatively tasted the foul green waters and were relieved to find that not only weren’t they poisonous, but in fact had a powerful curative effect. Everyone was completely healed of all wounds, including the effects of the insanity mist in the rooms with three chests, and the cobra venom still dormant in Manius and Zeeva’s veins.
Suddenly, the ground shook again, and the labyrinth went through another rotation. The companions found themselves facing a stone wall: they were stuck in this small room, without access to any lever! Their only mean of escape (barring another movement of the labyrinth) was Hipazia’s Dimension Door spell, but she could only take two other people with her…
The companions stuck the hooded man’s robe to the wall with daggers to cover the Symbol of Fear. Zeeva then cast a Locate Object spell on false-Vencarlo’s kukri. She sensed it moving behind her (while she was facing the robe-covered symbol), and to the right. It was moving fast, as if false-Vencarlo were running. The ground shook again, and now the round room’s opening showed the room with the scratched out Symbol of Stunning. The companions entered it, and continued on through the room with the covered Symbol of Sleep and to the throne room where Neolandus had been found. But still, they were stuck: there were no levers in this area. A look of extreme anguish and disappointment passed over the unfortunate Seneschal’s face as he realized that, after all this, he was back in his prison!
Zeeva noticed something odd: the location of the kukri had suddenly changed drastically, as if it had teleported back to the entrance of the labyrinth. She then felt it move, guessing it was going through the temple of the tiger-headed man, to the docks, and back up to Arkona Manor. It stayed there for a few minutes until her spell ended.
What did it all mean? Was the false Vencarlo going up to slay Lord Glorio Arkona? Or was Lord Arkona in league with this impostor? Was HE in fact the false-Vencarlo?
The companions did not know… They took some time to search for secret doors or illusory walls, but it was in vain. They were prisoners of the labyrinth…
Unfortunately, as soon as that menace was out of the way, Manius wasted no time in grabbing hold of Seneschal Kalepopolis and dragging him out of the room.
Somebody messed up his second saving throw...
I guess you got fed up with the suggestion effect and decided to let it end, as it has fulfilled its purpose and was getting in the way of a good story?
Indeed, symbols are nasty things : once triggered, they affect everybody in their area of effect, but it seems that a cover DOES neutralize them ("Covering or hiding the rune renders the symbol of death ineffective, unless a creature removes the covering, in which case
the symbol of death works normally.")
A symbol of fear goes active and back to dormant in a flash. It doesn't linger like the symbol of death. So once you know it's there, it's quite easy to circumvent. The tricky part is throwing your hood without entering the area of effect (if it's contact triggered), or doing it while looking elsewhere (if it's sight triggered).
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Yeah, I decided to get rid of the Suggestion effect to be nice. At that point, I thought they would just take the boat and "Escape from Old Korvosa". But no, that would have been too simple... and too sane. :)
I didn't know those details about the symbols... thanks for confirming it. The text of that spell was way too long, I got bored and didn't read all the way through it.
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The old man’s revenge
A discussion followed, regarding whether the entire group should stay there, or whether Hipazia should escape with a few of her companions with Dimension Door. In the end, it was agreed that she would leave with Zeeva, Manius and the Seneschal. Indeed, she could only carry three other people with the magic of her spell. Kaeso and Kindrasius would courageously remain behind, trying to hide in the labyrinth. Hipazia left her brave young servant her wand of invisibility, and Kaeso also handed to Kindrasius one of his elixirs of hiding.
Once their friends were gone, taken to safety by Hipazia’s magic, Kindrasius and Kaeso returned to the small round room with the healing pool. Hiding there seemed to be the safest place for them to stay. Of course, it was pitch black around them, which was quite unnerving. Each wore a Red Mantis Mask (Manius had lent his to Kindrasius), and Kaeso had activated its night-vision ability.
After around thirty minutes, the two men felt the labyrinth rotate, then several times again in the following few minutes. At some point, they had the chance to escape through the entrance, but they dared not leave their hiding place. Kindrasius remained entirely hidden behind the basin, but Kaeso looked out discreetly to see if anyone approached. All of a sudden, he saw a shape advancing quickly toward their hiding place – he hadn’t heard it come at all, so they hadn’t had time to use any magical item to enhance their skill at hiding. The enemy seemed to have spotted them. Hearing his approach, Kindrasius cast a Dancing Lights spell to illuminate the scene, and both men were flabbergasted to see that their assailant was none other than… Gaedren Lamm?!?
No, that was not possible. Kindrasius, in his murderous and insane rage, had reduced the old man’s body to gory pulp. His corpse could not possibly have been resurrected. What’s more, as they began fighting him, they noticed that he used some kind of exotic martial arts technique, and possessed great strength. It was impossible that the old fossil was really the one they were facing: it was likely another trick from a shape-shifter, trying to mess with their minds…
To make things worse, the two men realized that the magic of the healing pool couldn’t affect them anymore. Kaeso and Kindrasius gave a valiant fight, but alas, their enemy was neigh-invulnerable to Kaeso’s rapier, Kindrasius’s bow and his numerous Hideous Laughter spells. He struck both men mercilessly with his fists, and eventually, knocked them unconscious…
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Escape from Old Korvosa
Hipazia, Zeeva, Manius and Seneschal Neolandus Kalepopolis materialized on the north shore of the Jeggare River. To the north was a small wooded area; to the west, a guard tower; and to the south, on the other side of the river, sprawled Old Korvosa, with closest to them the dark shadow of Arkona Palace. The city seemed much calmer and darker than it had a few days ago, when they had observed it from the south, before they put an end to “emperor” Pilts’s mad reign of terror.
The four lucky souls who had escaped from Old Korvosa began searching the woods for a safe place to spend the rest of the night. Zeeva and Hipazia had used most of their magical energy and needed some rest. Seneschal Kalepopolis had spent a very rough last couple of days, but he nevertheless led the search, being at ease in the forest thanks to the training he had received in his youth as a Sable Company marine. As he followed him, Manius looked up at the moon and remembered that he and Zeeva had been bitten by Wererats several weeks ago. In perhaps three or four nights, the moon would be full, and then, would he and the priestess succumb to the plight of lycanthropy? Shaking his head, the Hellknight told the others that they might find better shelter at the guard tower, but the two noblewomen reminded him that it was now likely staffed not by friendly Korvosan Guards, but rather by some Gray Maidens…
They finally found a good spot. Hipazia had asked for a dense patch of trees, in case they got scried on again: she didn’t want their enemies to gain any information about their surroundings. Before they went to sleep, Zeeva informed Neolandus of the recent events in Korvosa. The gray-haired man gasped in horror at all that had happened recently, and was especially saddened to hear about the death of his old friend, Commandant Marcus Endrin.
He told his rescuers that he’d had a bad feeling about young Ileosa from the moment she had set foot in Korvosa. She had always been arrogant, condescending, spoiled and petty. But, until a few months ago, she had also been predictable and relatively harmless. Sure, she had been quite adept at manipulating her doddering old husband, but her actions of the recent few months had gone clearly far beyond this. The Seneschal had gathered in time some clues that seemed to hint that she had been directly responsible for the murder of her husband; the entire Trinia Sabor investigation had only been a diversion. But of course, once Ileosa had guessed that Neolandus knew too much, she had sent the Red Mantis after him. Only sheer luck and an extensive knowledge of Castle Korvosa’s layout had allowed Neolandus to escape with his life – barely.
But this recent tale of Ileosa’s seemingly immortal state and her sinister crown reminded Neolandus of a set of ancient monstrous fangs that were suffused with evil. He did not know which terrible creature those fangs had once belonged to, but they had been kept in a secret chamber in the pyramid below Castle Korvosa when the Chelaxian invaders had driven away its Shoanti guardians 300 years ago. Alas, none among the current inhabitants of Korvosa knew what those fangs were, or why the Shoanti were guarding them there. Neolandus suggested that perhaps his old ally Thousand Bones might be able to answer those questions. They had worked amicably for several months to try and reach a peace between the long-feuding Chelaxians and Shoanti, but unfortunately, civil unrest and Ileosa’s abrasive attitude had driven Thousand Bones away from the city. As far as Neolandus knew, he had returned to his tribe in the Cinderlands, to the north.
The companions informed him that they had met Thousand Bones before, and were also on good terms with him. They weren’t sure whether Ileosa’s power came from her new “crown of fangs” or rather if what seemed to be their queen was in fact a powerful demon or devil impersonating her.
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Oathday, Erastus 12th, 4708
Vimanda
Kindrasius and Kaeso woke up several hours later, badly hurt, naked and painfully tied to racks in a torture room. They saw that what appeared to be a naked and unconscious Vencarlo Orisini was also kept there. He had obviously been brutally tortured, likely at the brink of death… Standing watch over them were a very tall woman of exotic looks, with three faces and several extra limbs: she looked like some kind of Vudran idol come to life. The other woman present was much more mundane in appearance, though she was exquisitely beautiful, with long jet-black hair and a sinister shadow in her dark eyes. Kindrasius immediately recognized her as Vimanda, the woman who had dealt with Gaedren Lamm, bringing his little girls to a “fancy house”; Vimanda, who had allegedly been Verik Vancaskerkin’s girlfriend, the one who had given him as a gift that strange silver dagger that had later turned into a snake… an item that Hipazia had unknowingly carried around for some time.
Vimanda talked with the two young men, a smug smile ever present on her soft but cruel lips. She seemed to know everything about them: their past, their plans, their allies and enemies… They guessed that she was able to read their minds. She even knew where the rest of the group and the Seneschal were located. Kaeso and Kindrasius were, unfortunately, helpless, and only learned a bit of information from her: she hated Queen Ileosa, who had badly treated her masters, the Arkona family. She also sadistically informed Kindrasius that she was the one who had abducted his two missing “lambs”: Debius and Falvako. When asked about the tiger-headed man they had killed in the temple, Vimanda only smiled and said he had been a were-tiger, a rare lycanthrope from Vudra.
The Beatific One
It was perhaps an hour before noon. Zeeva and Hipazia had rested for a few hours, and had studied and prayed to regain their magic. They and the men ate what little food they had left in their packs. Zeeva used her magic to communicate with Kindrasius, who responded: ”Got caught. We’re in dungeon. Vimanda is mind reader. There’s the multi-armed. They know where you are. Come teach them a lesson”.
The Seneschal would remain hidden in the forest, waiting for their return. Hipazia used another Dimension Door to bring herself, Zeeva and Manius back to the entrance of the labyrinth below Arkona Manor. Zeeva then used a Locate Object spell to find Kindrasius’s bow: it was in fact only about thirty feet to the east of them. Hipazia transported them to that location by magic. They found themselves in a bedroom where Kaeso and Kindrasius’s gear was neatly stacked, next to the weapons and armor of another easily-recognized person: Blackjack!
Grabbing what looked most valuable and easy to carry, the group moved on: Manius kicked open the door that led to the torture room where Kindrasius, Kaeso and Vencarlo were held. They soon faced the many-limbed woman in combat, although Vimanda was now nowhere to be seen. A brutal battle began between a hasted Manius and this extremely tall woman who was protected by an illusion that blurred her silhouette. Hipazia recognized her as a Beatific One, a sort of Vudran devil. Fortunately, Zeeva had blessed Manius’s flail, so it could harm this fiend fully. The Hellknight and the Beatific One traded blows; both were mighty warriors, and they were closely matched in power. Thankfully, Zeeva helped with her spear, and Hipazia shot several volleys of Magic Missiles which tipped the scales in Manius’s favor, and soon, the Beatific One died, crushed by his massive flail.
Zeeva cured everyone with channelled healing energy. Vencarlo finally regained consciousness and thanked his saviors. Manius found keys on the corpse of his enemy and freed everyone from the racks. The men got dressed in their armor and equipment; they handed Blackjack’s gear to Vencarlo, which seemed to fit him perfectly.
“I guess I’ll use these things for now,” he said, but everyone knew his secret identity by now. With a grin, Kaeso even gave him back the daggers that he’d found at his house.
Kindrasius and Kaeso told the others that Vimanda had left shortly before the combat, through the double-doors to the southwest. They had heard the labyrinth moving close-by, and the sound of chains behind the double-doors to the north, which were now blocked by a Wall of Stone that Zeeva had summoned during the fight, fearing that reinforcements would come to help the Beatific One.
Her hope is that they'll move against Ileosa, ideally to defeat her, or otherwise at least to force her to reveal more of her powers and weaknesses as she battles them. I'm also not meta-gaming that, by the time they kill Ileosa, the PC's will be level 15 and will surely come back to clean up Arkona palace. In Vimanda's mind, they can't defeat her now (right) and will never be able to (wrong) because she assumed they would stay at this level of power all their lives, or pretty much. I guess it shouldn't be obvious to anyone, at least not the NPCs, that the PC's are destined to be level 15 in just a few in-game months. Except perhaps Shadowcount Sial, who's already hinted that he knows the PCs are destined for something great. He will try to use them to further his god's agenda, but of course that won't work out too well for either of them in the end.
Still, I find it a bit heavy-handed on my part that Vimanda just let them go so easily, since they now know a lot of things about the Arkonas. They don't know for sure that they're all Rakshasas, but they know a lot of their weird powers, and they know the layout of their abode quite well by now. Normally, she should've just killed them. But that would've been the end of the campaign, so I had no choice but to play her in this bizarre way… hoping that in the end, their wrath toward Ileosa and toward her brother (they suspected that the false Vencarlo/Gaedren Lamm/Vimanda was in fact Glorio Arkona) would outweigh any future retribution against herself or any secrets they would reveal about her family.
This isn’t something I’m totally at ease with as a DM, but it’s still preferable to a TPK, or even to the death of 2 PCs.
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The gizzard
Beyond the southwest door, the group found an illusory wall that led back to the entrance of the labyrinth. Ironically, they could have simply walked through it to free Vencarlo all along… Then, they broke through the stone wall that Zeeva’s magic had erected and opened the northern double-doors, which led to an enormous room that was situated below the labyrinth. Four massive pillars supported the ceiling; they were connected to a complex mechanism of gears and chains. An animated skeletal elephant was chained to each pillar, and the group discovered that, by ringing some bells attached to the chains and likely connected to the levers within the labyrinth, they could make the elephants move, rotating each section of the labyrinth. They did this three times in order to restore the maze to its initial setup.
They discussed returning into the labyrinth to chase Vimanda, but finally decided against it. They went back up to Arkona manor, noting that the corpses of all the enemies they had slain were still present. They found a mechanism that opened the trap door at the top of the round stairs above the fungal garden, and, after Kaeso muttered “Chamidu is blind”, they emerged in the luxuriant garden above. Daylight shone through the thick foliage and two of the Arkonas’ servants were waiting for them. The Harrowed Company was led back to the lounge by one servant while the other went to fetch his master.
Hipazia felt that she was being scried on again. After a few minutes, Lord Glorio Arkona and four servants joined the group. A tense exchange followed, where the group described how they had been attacked by monsters, and some of them had been tortured, below the manor. Lord Arkona listened to them calmly, smoking a long thin cigarette, and he said that he was shocked to hear this, although his composure did not seem shaken. The companions didn’t feel that he lied to them, even Manius with his Hellknight ability of discerning lies, but they learned little from Glorio. They got no apology from him other than an assurance that he would discuss recent events with his servant Vimanda and arrange for a meeting between her and the companions at a later date. He informed them that she was currently outside the manor on an information-gathering mission.
Even though they weren’t happy with how they had been treated below Arkona manor, the companions had accomplished what they had been after: they had met with Neolandus. Glorio also gave an inquisitive look at Vencarlo, who was dressed like Blackjack, and who had also been kept captive below his estate. After listening to the Harrowed Company’s incredible tale of their adventures below his manor, Glorio informed them that he wished for them to leave his estate. He kissed the hands of Hipazia and Zeeva, and watched as his men escorted the adventurers back to the streets of Old Korvosa. Kindrasius seethed at being prevented from going back below the manor to get more information about the Arkonas’ mysterious activities; he seriously considered attacking Glorio and his servants, but in the end, he decided not to.
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A strange gathering
It was now around noon; the companions spent the rest of the day walking around in Old Korvosa, making sure things were now under control. There was still some unrest due to the quarantine, but now that the Emperor of Old Korvosa had been dealt with and that the cure to Blood Veil had been distributed, things were a lot better than a few days before. They found an abandoned house that would temporarily serve as a discreet shelter. They feared that if they returned to the main part of Korvosa, they would be assaulted by the queen’s agents. Vencarlo brought Amin to the safety of this old house, Kindrasius went to get Salvator and Laori, and Hipazia fetched the Seneschal and brought him back with her teleportation magic.
It seemed that the Harrowed Company’s best hope of fighting the evil Queen Ileosa was to learn more information from Thousand Bones regarding her crown. Zeeva contacted the old shaman with a Sending spell: “Korvosa under the clutches of the queen. She wears Crown of Fangs found under castle. Need to know more about it. We are coming”. Thousand Bones replied to her with: ”Great Evil has awoken. Come to the Kallow Mounds east of Kaer Maga. The spirits must be consulted.”
Kindrasius knew that the Kallow Mounds were the ancestral home of the Skoan-Quah, where they watched over the bodies of their fallen ancestors laid to rest in cairns. He had been told that he had grown up in that place, although he could not remember it.
The Shoanti dragon-man then went to gather information and ran into Kirmo Savas, his wererat ally. The young lycanthrope was surprised at how different Kindrasius smelled now, perhaps due to his developing dragon attributes. He wasn’t aware of the presence of were-tigers in Korvosa, when Kindrasius said they had fought one below Arkona manor; he did however know Vimanda as a dangerous agent of the Arkonas, and that she also had the subtle smell of a beast: perhaps like a very clean dog. She did not smell like a feline like he supposed a were-tiger would. More immediately important, though, was that Kirmo had seen a man in the north part of town walking around with Pilts Swastel’s magical golden rod. This was a useful hint for the Harrowed Company who still had a bone to pick with the ex-emperor.
A strange gathering took place in the old abandoned house that evening: the five members of the Harrowed Company dined with Vencarlo Orisini a.k.a. Blackjack; young Amin Jalento; Seneschal Neolandus Kalepopolis, now dressed in rags; the eccentric artist Salvator Scream, as well as his raven-haired protector, Laori the priestess of Zon-Kuthon.
Everyone discussed the way forward. After several hours, the adventurers all agreed that, although they would’ve liked to remain and oppose Queen Ileosa and protect Korvosa, they would instead travel to the Cinderlands to try and learn more about her new and mysterious powers. Seneschal Kalepopolis would travel with them to seek refuge among dwarven allies in Janderhoff. Laori and Salvator would also travel up to Janderhoff, or perhaps even up to Kaer Maga if the dwarves proved too hostile toward the sinister elven priestess. Amin would remain in Korvosa, to be with his family for better or for worse. Vencarlo would also remain behind and try to put together a resistance, to help the people from the shadows until the Harrowed Company returned.
Indeed, for all his bravery and his notoriety as hero of the people, Blackjack said in a weary voice that he was growing old: his recent misfortune, getting caught by the Arkonas, clearly weighed heavily on his mind. He said that the days when one lone hero could watch over the people of Korvosa were gone: now the danger was greater than ever, and it would take several heroes to save the city. The times now belonged to the Harrowed Company, the rising stars of Korvosa. Though he would help them as much as he could, the greatest hope for Korvosa now rode on the shoulders of the five youngsters who had saved him from the Arkonas’ dungeon.
Later, Kindrasius talked with Vencarlo about Sabina. He felt that the Harrowed Company was on a collision course to clash with her some time in the future, but he wondered if perhaps she was not truly evil, but rather mind-controlled by the queen. Indeed, she wielded an evil-looking sword with a black aura, a weapon that Queen Ileosa had given to her as a gift when she had become her bodyguard. He had heard rumors about another mighty warrior-woman, Viorian Dekanti, the leader of the mercenary band called the Whispering Blades in Riddleport. She had reportedly gone insane one night and had massacred almost her entire company before vanishing mysteriously, taking with her a magnificent golden scimitar.
Vencarlo confirmed to Kindrasius that Sabina had indeed been his student some years ago – his most promising student, in fact. With a regretful tone, he admitted that he had been an old fool to fall in love with her. Alas, as was now painfully apparent, Sabina had no such feelings for her old mentor, nor her fellow student Grau Soldado, nor any man at all. Apparently, she was, as rumors said, only into women… Sadly both unaware of that fact at the time, Vencarlo and Grau had grown very bitter toward another, a conflict which had climaxed with Grau tricking his mentor into a duel with Sabina, a fateful confrontation in which the young woman had shown that she had surpassed her master by cutting off two of his fingers before storming out of his academy for the last time.
Over time, Vencarlo had found it within himself to forgive Grau’s treachery, but he had never been able to mend things with Sabina. Whether because of her own heart or of some despicable magic worked by Ileosa, she wanted nothing to do with her former mentor.
While the two were talking, Hipazia was chatting with Kaeso and the Seneschal. She suddenly felt that she was being watched, but it wasn’t as direct as it had been at the Arkonas’. She believed that the Seneschal was the target of the scrying, and that she had merely been caught in the nearby area. Later that night, she examined more thoroughly the green gem she had found in the labyrinth and recognized it as a third eye, an expensive and potent divination focus created by Vudran mages to use as scrying foci. She cautiously placed it back within the darkness of Kindrasius’s bag of holding.
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Fireday, Erastus 13th, 4708
The golden rod
The following morning, Zeeva used another Sending spell to communicate with Heldrin. Alas, her dwarven servant informed her that her house had been raided by a group of Red Mantis during her absence. The assassins had killed poor Saroko; Heldrin and Mouse had barely escaped with their lives and were now in hiding. Later that morning, Kirmo Savas led the group through a secret tunnel that only a few Wererats knew about: it passed below the river and connected the sewers of Old Korvosa with those of the main part of the city. Amin Jalento thus had the chance to get back home, and Zeeva was reunited with Heldrin and Mouse, who had been waiting nearby based on her magically-sent instructions.
After bringing the dwarf and the child to their temporary lair, Zeeva used a Locate Object spell to find Pilts’s magical rod. The Harrowed Company was then able to track down the item to an abandoned house that served as an inconspicuous hideout much like their own. Inside, the group found not Pilts, but rather one of his goons, in bed with the lovely Madam Halvara formerly of Eel’s End. Alas, the half-elven woman was kept chained to the bed and had visibly been severely beaten and molested by the brute. The companions easily neutralized the man before he could put up much of a fight, and began questioning him while Zeeva and Kaeso freed Halvara and healed her wounds. They learned that Pilts had used his magic to escape the building before the Harrowed Company came to finish him off, taking his last “faithful guard” with him, as well as his concubine Halvara. Later, when it had become clear that the now-blind deposed emperor was defenceless, the traitorous thug had murdered him in cold blood, dumping the body of the former master of Exemplary Execrables in the river after taking ownership of his magical items and of his woman. He had lived in hiding in the few days since then, simply passing the time indulging his primitive urges with the captive female until the heat of recent events died down.
Once he had comforted the badly mistreated Halvara, Kaeso took the chance to severely beat up the despicable thug, and then Kindrasius used his magic to blind him. Then the Harrowed Company left him in this helpless state, taking with them Pilts’s treasure and Halvara, who was at last a free woman after her long captivity. Once they were back at the house, Zeeva managed to find some clothes for her. Kindrasius said he hoped she wasn’t too mad at them for burning down Eel’s End. The beautiful half-elf shook her head: even though she had lived in misery since then, she had always known that Devargo’s hold over that part of Old Korvosa had been temporary. She did not miss his company, either, for even back then she had lived in fear of his murderous anger. Now, at long last, she was free from these horrible men. She seemed quite astounded to be in the presence of such powerful adventurers and important people like the Seneschal and Vencarlo Orisini. Even Laori took an interest in her, in part because of the bond of their shared elven blood, but also because she was eager to hear the tale of Halvara’s recent misfortune and suffering. Furthermore, realizing she had nothing else to thank her saviors with, Halvara offered to the heroes the same reward her former employee Fifi had given them a few days earlier: herself. Once again, Kaeso gleefully accepted the reward, and spent some time alone with her, away from Zeeva and Hipazia’s reproachful glares.
Later, Hipazia used her magic to transport some of her companions to the other side of the river. Her young Varisian servant went to buy some horses from some of his contacts at Trail’s End, knowing that the following day they would begin their journey away from Korvosa. Vencarlo also left toward East Shore, where he wanted to start preparing things for the following day’s event: indeed, the group had decided that they would get the Seneschal to make a public appearance to announce that he was still alive and that he and the Harrowed Company would oppose Queen Ileosa’s tyranny. They wanted to give hope to the people of Korvosa.
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Starday, Erastus 14th, 4708
Dude, where’s my horse?
Two hours before daybreak, Manius, Zeeva, Hipazia, Kaeso, Kindrasius, Seneschal Neolandus Kalepopolis, Laori Vaus, Salvator Scream, Heldrin Blackbarrel, Mouse and Halvara were taken aboard a fishing boat by one of the sailors the group had befriended after their liberation of Old Korvosa from the emperor’s clutches. They were brought across the river, where they separated into two groups: Laori, Salvator, Halvara, Heldrin and Mouse would begin riding toward the town of Harse, where the Leroung country estate was located. The Harrowed Company and the Seneschal would remain behind for now to give the speech, and would later catch up with the others.
That morning, Zeeva and Manius felt especially relieved: the first night of the full moon had passed, and neither of them had transformed into a wererat. It seemed that they had both resisted the plight of lycanthropy! Zeeva used her magic to communicate with Pontia Runario, Manius’s closest friend among the Hellknights. She asked her to bring Manius’s horse from the Black Bulwark to the woods outside the East Shore district. Still early in the morning, the group met dark-armored Pontia there. She had indeed brought Manius’s horse. They brought her up to speed concerning their recent adventures and findings, and Manius also gave her a letter he had written for Maralictor Zaren. It described this tale in more details, and he hoped to inform his order of the extent of Ileosa’s treachery so they would know how to act. He had preferred to do this in writing rather than meeting his menacing superior in person, guessing he must be in very bad standing with him after his many derelictions of duty of the past few weeks.
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Wanted criminals
That morning, Kaeso felt especially good. Now that Blackjack’s true identity had been revealed, his old fencing master Vencarlo had approached him in private and had explained that he knew the end of his career as Korvosa’s hero was drawing near. His recent capture by the Arkonas had clearly been a sign of this. Vencarlo explained that he had been trying to prepare a “replacement Blackjack” for years already: sadly, things had fallen apart with two of the brightest candidates: Sabina and Grau. More recently, his student Dengaro had shown promise, but he had unfortunately perished in the riots after King Eodred’s death. Now Vencarlo’s last, and perhaps brightest, hope was young Kaeso. They seemed to share a similar outlook on life: they were both fun-loving, daring, and were eager to help their fellow Korvosans, with little regard for the strict letter of the law. They knew that they were in a much better position to help the common folk of the city than the Korvosan Guards and the Hellknights.
And so Kaeso agreed to take over the role of Blackjack should anything happen to Vencarlo Orisini in the near future… just as a young Vencarlo had promised to his own mentor several decades ago, and so on since the very first Blackjack over two centuries ago.
As dawn rose, the companions began making preparations to escort Seneschal Neolandus Kalepopolis so he could give a rousing speech to the citizens of Korvosa at Endrin Square in the East Shore District around 10 o’clock. Before that, though, Hipazia decided to visit Theumanexus College to buy some scrolls to add to her collection. She and Kaeso made their way toward the north gate of the East Shore District while the rest of the group remained in hiding in the nearby woods. Unfortunately, upon reaching the gates, the young noblewoman and her retainer were quickly identified by the Gray Maidens despite giving false identities, and were detained in a nearby barrack after being stripped of their weapons, staff and wands.
They were made to wait for a few minutes in a room in the nearby barracks, under the guard of several Gray Maidens. Thankfully, Hipazia had thought of casting a Telepathic Bond with Kaeso, Kindrasius and Manius before leaving the camp. Upon hearing that their companions were dire straits, the rest of the Harrowed Company made haste toward the gates to come to their rescue.
A Gray Maiden captain and an Acadamae wizard wearing black robes adorned with raven feathers at the shoulders made their entrance in the room and began interrogating Hipazia and Kaeso. Hipazia recognized the wizard as Keptor Stenwer, but had never spoken to him before. Knowing that their friends were on their way, Hipazia used her magic to transport herself and Kaeso just outside the building before anyone could prevent them. They remained in hiding until their companions joined them.
The Gray Maidens let Manius, Kindrasius and Zeeva enter the city, but ten of the warrior-women were waiting for them on the other side of the gates, weapons ready. The companions answered in a deadly manner to the Gray Maidens’ orders that they lay down their weapons. Kindrasius blasted several of them with his lightning breath (a new-found power of his blue dragon heritage) and Hipazia killed some more with a Fireball. While Manius and Zeeva fought the surviving maidens with flail and spear, Kaeso hurried toward the barracks to try and reclaim his weapons.
Inside the building, Kaeso found himself beset by two more Gray Maidens, the captain and Keptor Stenwer; thankfully, Kindrasius soon came to his aid. While Kaeso retrieved his rapier and kukri (he had recently began using two weapons in combat), Kindrasius wounded Keptor with his earthbreaker, but the wizard quickly healed himself with a necromantic spell that drained some of Kindrasius’s life. Wounded by the Gray Maidens, Kindrasius had to flee outside the building to heal himself. Meanwhile, Manius had killed most of the remaining Gray Maidens outside, but Hipazia had been badly wounded by one of the captains and lay bleeding on the ground. Manius slew the captain and restored Hipazia to consciousness with a potion before rushing to help Kindrasius.
Meanwhile, inside the barracks, Kaeso killed two Gray Maidens but suffered a potent life drain from Keptor’s magic. He was, thankfully, joined by Kindrasius and Hipazia. Seeing that he was now alone against three opponents, Keptor vanished with a spell after assuring the heroes that they hadn’t seen the last of him!
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Escape from East Shore District
Zeeva came to help her friends after finally killing her last opponent near the gates. Manius had successfully taken a prisoner by knocking out one of the Gray Maiden captains, a deadly female warrior who had wounded him and Kindrasius several times with her blade. Curious about this woman’s identity and hoping she was not his sister, Manius removed her helm, which revealed… the familiar face of none other than Elvira Kamworth, the Acadamae wizard whose clone had been known as “Esia the amnesiac”. But while Elvira a.k.a. Esia had been extremely attractive, the face under the Gray Maiden helm had been scarred in several places, greatly marring her beauty. What’s more, her once long and beautiful golden hair had been cut very short as if with a crude knife. Just what the hell had happened to this woman? And how had she gone from being a promising Acadamae student to being a deadly armor-clad fighting woman?
While Zeeva healed her companions, they all quickly removed the helms of the other Gray Maidens, fully aware that more reinforcements were bound to arrive any moment. They realized that all of these women seemed to have suffered the same treatment as Elvira: really bad haircuts and nasty scars to their faces. Why? Thankfully, none of the victims had been Manius’s sister Corella, but a few of the faces looked familiar. He recognized several as former female Korvosan Guards. But, quite surprisingly, one of those Kaeso had killed was none other than Lady Marguerite Jeggare, until recently Korvosa’s most eligible bachelorette, her splendid golden curls now long-gone and her gorgeous face scarred as if by a sadistic tormentor…
The battle had taken place just after dawn, so the streets had been almost empty: only a few citizens had witnessed the bloodshed, and they had fled immediately, fearing reprisal or being hit by a stray spell or arrow. But soon, the heroes were alerted of the approach of a large number of Gray Maidens; they had taken severe wounds by fighting fifteen of them, they did not dare fight four times that number quite so soon… Hipazia delayed the warrior-women’s approach with an Ice Storm spell, and then the five heroes fled the city on the backs of the three horses Manius, Kindrasius and Zeeva had brought. They took with them the unconscious Elvira, as well as Marguerite Jeggare’s corpse.
The companions quickly made their way back to their camp hidden in the woods and informed the Seneschal that his speech had just gotten cancelled. They hurriedly gathered their things and fled north on horseback before the Gray Maidens had a chance to apprehend them…
After a few hours, they caught up with the first group who had ridden ahead of them: Laori, Salvator, Halvara, Heldrin and Mouse. They briefly informed them of what had happened. Hipazia was disappointed that she’d missed the occasion to buy those useful scrolls, but figured she could do so in Janderhoff. The heroes regretted not being able to have orchestrated the Seneschal’s speech, but hoped that their “explosive” victory over a group of Gray Maidens would have a similar effect on the morale of Korvosa’s downtrodden.
They rode hard the entire day, and thankfully, didn’t encounter any trouble. The group made camp in the woods that night, careful not to light a fire, and keeping watches the entire night.
Once Elvira regained consciousness, Hipazia tried to read her thoughts, but the Gray Maiden resisted. She watched the companions with cold blue eyes. There was no sign of friendship or recognition toward Hipazia from when she had met her at the Breaching Festival a few months before. When questioned, she answered very little: she was very stern and quiet, like a highly disciplined soldier… a far cry from the behavior of her clone Esia and her own friendly demeanour at the Breaching Festival. Zeeva sensed some evil within her, but Manius sensed no chaos with his Hellknight ability. In fact, of all those present, he only felt a chaotic aura around Kaeso and Halvara.
All that the companions learned was that she seemed to have no recollection of being named “Elvira”, but rather was called “Commander of squadron 35”. Hipazia and Zeeva used Break Enchantment and Dispel Magic to try and restore her, but to no avail. Further inspection of Elvira and Marguerite’s bodies showed that they were covered in scars, not just their faces. They had clearly been subjected to some kind of horrible torture. Zeeva’s opinion was that they had been brainwashed in a mostly non-magical manner. Elvira’s ailment was now of the medical rather than magical realm. Alas, it would require magic beyond her abilities to restore her. Only Bishop Keppira or Archbanker Tuttle would be powerful enough to help her at this point.
Laori was able to speak with Marguerite’s spirit with her necromantic magic. The noblewoman seemed to have forgotten her own name and now referred to herself as “Trooper 4 of squadron 31”. When questioned about why and how she had gone from being a highly social young noblewoman to becoming a Gray Maiden, she described a rather gruelling training period intermixed with torture, whose goal had been to teach her to be a fighter and to purge her of fear. When asked if she remembered her life as Marguerite, before becoming Trooper 4, she merely responded: “irrelevant”, which Manius and Zeeva found quite odd. Normally, her soul should have been compelled to answer yes or no by Laori’s magic.
Salvator was morbidly interested in Marguerite’s corpse: he felt certain that this once gorgeous woman, now disfigured and dead, would make a great subject for his next painting.
Laori offered to torture Elvira to try and learn more information (in a disturbingly enthusiastic manner), but the group turned down her proposal. Kindrasius explained that Elvira had likely been tortured so much already that it would have no effect. He described to Laori his experience torturing Jolistina, and how little effect it had. Laori was very interested in the description of the atrocious acts he had performed on that other elf woman. In fact, she seemed to be really turned on by it. Kindrasius got the distinct impression that the elven priestess made advances to him for the rest of the night, her “appetite” having been awoken by his gruesome tale.
Instead, Kindrasius went to see Zeeva, for whom he still had warm feelings. He tried to get an idea of whether she felt the same way about him. Sadly, Zeeva responded that not only was she still mourning Darius (who had been dead for only two weeks), the horrors of recent events had shaken her too much to even think about romance. She assured Kindrasius that she considered him as a good friend, though, and yet she admitted that she was worried about his blue dragon heritage: Hipazia had told her that blue dragons were evil in nature. She hoped that this wouldn’t draw Kindrasius to the dark side. Thankfully, the Shoanti seemed to be more in control of his actions that before. His faith for Pharasma had grown deeper in recent times, especially since her divine intervention, which had saved him from Lady Andaisin’s death touch in the temple of Urgathoa.
Later that night, Zeeva used a Sending spell to inform Vencarlo of what had happened that day; he surely was aware of the commotion, but might not know the details. His answer was: ”Good job. It was smart to leave. Flying devil women are helping them, and something more dangerous with a deep voice.”
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Sunday, Erastus 15th, 4708
Elvira’s troubled mind
The next morning, Hipazia successfully caught Elvira in a magical charm and learned more from her. Surprisingly, she had forgotten all of her magical training from the Acadamae. She claimed not to remember her name, but had a sort of psychotic twitch when the name “Elvira” was mentioned. Hipazia, who had been reading her thoughts at the same time, saw a brief series of flashing images that sent disturbing shivers of dread in her mind. She caught glimpses of the tortures Elvira had suffered, some of them at the hands of Queen Ileosa herself… Other brief memories were of Professor Karpangram (the Acadamae’s mysterious Transmutation dean) injecting unknown substances into Elvira’s veins with syringes.
Zeeva then used another Sending spell, this time to contact Hipazia’s former mentor, Nicklod Starweather: “Hipazia: captured Gray Maiden. No recollection of past life. Tortured beyond madness by queen; no magic trace. Any clue on how to restore the mind?” His response was: “Incredible. Blackjack has contacted me to investigate Gray Maidens. Will have further insight later. Be careful: powerful devils now serve the queen.”
It was early in the afternoon when the group approached the town of Harse, close to which the Leroung vineyard was located. However, the group had made the decision not to pass through the town, nor to go visit Hipazia and Kaeso’s relatives. They figured it would put them in too much danger. They needed to remain out of sight. However, Hipazia and Kaeso did make a brief visit in town. They brought with them the body of Marguerite Jeggare, hidden beneath a cloak. Zeeva had cast a Gentle Repose spell on it. They rented a room at the inn for several weeks and discreetly placed Marguerite’s body there, along with a note from Hipazia describing recent events, including the nature of the Gray Maidens as she best understood it and the circumstances of Marguerite’s death. Once the two were back with the rest of the group, Zeeva contacted Serrian Jeggare, Marguerite’s older brother, with a Sending spell, informing him simply that his sister was waiting for him in that room at the inn in Harse.
The group then continued riding north. Their next destination was Janderhoff: Heldrin had revealed to them that he had once operated in the dwarven city’s underground and that he had many contacts in the underbelly of the city. Indeed, he had once been a criminal, but when Zeeva’s grandfather had saved his life, he had put his life of crime behind him and had become his servant. It seemed that among dwarves, even rogues believed strongly in honor. Heldrin assured Zeeva that he would be able to keep the Seneschal safe, as well as Mouse, Halvara, Salvator and anyone else who wished to stay in Janderhoff. Despite his shady past, Zeeva knew that she could trust the aged dwarf, who was almost like an uncle to her, so she convinced the Seneschal (who had few others options anyway) to accept.
The group also discussed the fate of Elvira: she was now charmed by Hipazia, but was still a liability. Some (Manius, Kindrasius and Laori) suggested simply killing her, but others (Hipazia, Zeeva, Kaeso and the Seneschal) took pity on this poor woman who had already suffered so much, and asked that she be kept alive longer, in the hopes that they would find a way to save her.
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A HISTORY OF ASHES
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Moonday, Erastus 16th, 4708
Janderhoff
The Harrowed Company and their friends traveled for another day toward Janderhoff. Kaeso felt much worse than usual: he was wracked with guilt at having killed the highly-desirable and high-born Lady Marguerite Jeggare. Hipazia was also sad because of the death of the young woman, but saw it from a more rational stance. She observed that Queen Ileosa seemed to be systematically going after Korvosa’s most attractive young women, enslaving and mutilating them.
Thirsty for revenge, Kaeso asked Zeeva to scribe a scroll of Sending so that he could talk directly to Queen Ileosa. He sent this message to the monarch: ”I know what you did to train your Gray Maidens. I’m going to kill you, fatass. I’ll raise you as my pet zombie.”. The queen replied to him with: ”When you get tired of running and hiding, come play with me, little mouse. Meow.”
The companions also discussed the role of other powerful characters in Korvosa, especially the masters of the Acadamae. They already knew that Togomor had ties to the cult of Urgathoa and that Professor Karpangram was linked to the treatment of Gray Maidens, but they wondered if, and how, Lord Toff Ornelos was involved with the queen’s nefarious schemes.
The group finally reached an agreement about Elvira’s fate: Zeeva used a Plane Shift spell to send her to heaven in the hopes that a benevolent spirit would take pity on her and cure her affliction. Hipazia placed a note on her explaining her condition. Zeeva later used her magic to send messages to the three powerful clerics they knew in Korvosa: Lady Zenderholm, Archbanker Tuttle and Bishop Keppira: ”We have the following: Seneschal with us, proof that the queen is true evil, the Gray Maidens are captured tortured souls. Beware the queen.” She received a reply from each: Lady Zenderholm was now in hiding and had been contacted by Blackjack for a specific mission. Bishop Keppira was offering shelter in the Gray District for enemies of the crown. Archbanker Tuttle remained neutral in light of recent events, his main goal being the well-being of his church and of Korvosan citizens, regardless of who sat on the Crimson Throne.
At the end of the day, the companions finally reached the dwarven city of Janderhoff, where they found some discreet shelter thanks to Heldrin’s connections.
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Moonday, Erastus 23rd, 4708
A new member
The companions stayed in Janderhoff for a week, resting from their recent ordeals, and trading with the dwarves for more powerful weapons, armors and items to add to their arsenal. Now and then, Hipazia felt that she or someone close to her was the target of scrying, but she was able to dispel these magical sensors. Zeeva and Hipazia used their magic to stay in contact with other allies and acquaintances. They learned that Ziria Fordyce (Kaeso’s young flame) was safely at her family’s estate in Palin’s Cove and had not been indoctrinated into the Gray Maidens. Serrian Jeggare had retrieved Marguerite’s body in Harse and vowed that someone would pay for what had happened to her.
A response from Nicklod Starweather bore great news indeed: with the help of Blackjack and Lady Zenderholm, he had been able to free Field Marshal Kroft from below Longacre Building, saving her from becoming another Gray Maiden! They were now all part of the growing resistance.
One day, Kindrasius was approached by a mysterious person who turned out to be in fact none other than Trinia Sabor in disguise. The beautiful young artist told him about her recent adventures since they had parted company: she had helped defend a town from bandits, and had joined a group of dwarves who explored dangerous caves. She was now more of an adventurer than before, and moved as she was by Kindrasius’ tale of how bad things had become in Korvosa, she asked to join the Harrowed Company in their journey to the Cinderlands.
One evening, Zellara appeared once again in front of the heroes and gave them another reading of the Harrow. Now was a time for battle, and strength would be a necessary attribute. The ghostly woman sensed that the Harrowed Company had grown very strong indeed. Everyone got a reading from her; in general, Zellara made a parallel between the characters’ recent exile from Korvosa and the flight of the Shoanti when they were driven out of their lands by the Chelaxians centuries ago. Once again, the companions each drew a special card and saw a glimpse of what lay in their future:
Kaeso: the Fiend. A beautiful red-haired woman in a Red Mantis outfit…
Hipazia: the Paladin. A massive Shoanti warrior.
Kindrasius: the Cyclone. A monstrous mass of dark tentacles emerging from water.
Zeeva: the Bear. An enormous sand worm devouring a tiny humanoid figure.
Manius: The Forge (his personal card from the very first harrowing) A rugged man with a repeating crossbow in his hands.
Wealday, Erastus 25th, 4708
The Cinderlands
Finally came the time for the Harrowed Company to resume their quest. They said their good-byes to Seneschal Kalepopolis, Heldrin, Mouse and Halvara, who would remain in Janderhoff, as well as to Laori and Salvator, who were headed to Kaer Maga (the dwarven city was most certainly not to their liking).
After a day’s journey north, the companions reached the foot of the Storval Rise and they made their way to its top with many Dimension Door spells cast by Hipazia. The following day, they journeyed through the arid wasteland of the Cinderlands. Thankfully, they were protected from the heat and thirst by Zeeva’s divine magic, but they still disliked the wind and dust. They saw the exotic fauna and flora around them, as well as ruins of huge ancient Thassilonian monuments, half-buried in the dirt. This was by far the most exotic journey any of them remembered taking (even counting Kindrasius, since he did not recall his childhood years in this place).
Near the end of the day, they were approached by a group of wary Shoanti in a rocky valley. One of them was Ahalak, a warrior of Thousand Bones’s troop they had met in Korvosa earlier. He was pleased to recognize Kindrasius (a.k.a. Bagas-Tawoga among the Shoanti), as well as the helpful Tshamek he traveled with. “Thousand Bones said you would come,” he said with a smile in the Shoanti tongue. Hipazia, Kaeso and Trinia understood that language and were able to have a conversation with the natives, but Manius and Zeeva felt a bit left out. Kaeso told them a few simple phrases, but when Manius informed Ahalak that he had three testicles, the Shoanti’s confused look and Kaeso’s sudden burst of laughter caused the Hellknight to realize he had been duped…
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Here are the characters at level 9:
Kindrasius Edelbark (aka: Bagas-Tawoga) (N Male Shoanti Ranger/Bard/Draconic Disciple, Level 2/4/3) – Worships Pharasma
Str: 16 Dex: 15 Con: 13 Int: 13 Wis: 8 Cha: 20
AC: 21 HP: 72 Fortitude: +8 Reflex: +11 Will: +6
Initiative: +6 Speed: 30’
Melee attacks: Masterwork earthbreaker +11/+6 (2d6+6, x3)
Ranged attacks: +1 holy longbow (+2 str) +11/+6 (1d8+5, x3)
Height: 6’4”. Weight: 160 lbs, Age: 24, Hair: Black, Eyes: Green.
This tall and thin man has long black hair and is dressed in dark, patched-up studded leather armor. He wears a black tricorn hat and a black cloak with a hood.
Feats: Precise Shot, Point Blank Shot, Weapon focus: longbow, Rapid Shot, Arcane Strike, Deadly Aim, Improved Initiative, Leadership.
Traits: Magical Talent, Orphaned.
Skills: Acrobatics 14, Appraise 5, Bluff 11, Climb 7, Diplomacy (via Versatile Performance) 19, Disguise 9, Escape artist 6, Knowledge: Arcana 11, Knowledge: History 7, Knowledge: Local 8, Knowledge: Religion 7, Linguistics 5, Perception 10, Perform: Dance 10, Perform: Oratory 19, Sense Motive (via Versatile Performance) 19, Spellcraft 9, Stealth 14, Survival 5, Swim 7, Use magical device 9.
Favored enemies: Undead +2.
Languages: Common, Shoanti, Varisian, Draconic.
Main equipment: Holy longbow +1 [+2 str], Mithral chainshirt +1, Masterwork earthbreaker, Wand of Cure Light Wounds (21 charges), Flask of curses, Bag of Holding Type 1, Wand of Tongues (11 charges), Wand of Cure Moderate Wounds (30 charges), Cloak of resistance +1, Ring of protection +2, Headband of charisma +2.
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Kaeso (CG Male Human (Chelaxian/Varisian mix) Rogue/Duelist, Level 8/1) – Worships Cayden Cailean
Str: 13 Dex: 18 Con: 12 Int: 15 Wis: 11 Cha: 17
AC: 25 HP: 68 Fortitude: +5 Reflex: +13 Will: +4
Initiative: +8 Speed: 30’
Melee attacks: +1 rapier +11/+6 (1d6+2, 18-20), +1 kukri +10 (1d4+1, 18-20),
Ranged attacks: +1 composite shortbow (+1 str) +12/+7 (1d6+2, x3)
Height: 5’9”. Weight: 168 lbs. Age: 19, Hair: Auburn, Eyes: Black.
Feats: Weapon Finesse, Improved Initiative, Dodge, Mobility, Combat Reflexes, Dazzling Display.
Rogue talents: Trap spotter, Power attack, Two-weapon fighting.
Traits: Framed (Family Honor), Fast Talker.
Skills: Acrobatics 15, Appraise 6, Bluff 18, Climb 5, Diplomacy 11, Disable Device 16, Disguise 10, Escape Artist 10, Intimidate 15, Knowledge: Dungeoneering 6, Knowledge: Local 6, Perception: 12, Perform: Dance 8, Sense Motive 11, Sleight of Hand 15, Stealth 16, Swim 5, Use Magical Device 14.
Languages: Common, Shoanti, Varisian, Sylvan.
Main equipment: Mithral chain shirt +4, Rapier +1, Composite shortbow +1 (+1 str), Ring of protection +1, Cloak of resistance +2, Wand of invisibility (10 charges), Kukri +1, Red mantis mask.
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Hipazia Leroung (LG Female Chelaxian Wizard, Level 9) – Worships Irori
Str: 8 Dex: 16 Con: 10 Int: 21 Wis: 16 Cha: 16
AC: 17 HP: 47 Fortitude: +6 Reflex: +7 Will: +10
Initiative: +7 Speed: 30’
Melee attacks: Masterwork Quarterstaff +4 (1d6-1, x2)
Ranged attacks: +1 light crossbow +8 (1d8+1, 19-20)
Height: 5’9”. Weight: 137 lbs. Age: 25, Hair: Blonde, Eyes: Brown.
Favored school: Divination
Prohibited schools: Illusion, Necromancy.
Bonded Item: quarterstaff.
Feats: Scribe Scroll, Combat Casting, Toughness, Spell Focus: Evocation, Spell penetration, Great fortitude, Point blank shot, Greater spell penetration.
Traits: Framed (Dropout), Mathematical Prodigy.
Skills: Appraise 11, Bluff 5, Diplomacy 12, Intimidate 4, Knowledge: Arcana 12, Knowledge: Dungeoneering 16, Knowledge: Engineering 10, Knowledge: Geography 9, Knowledge: History 9, Knowledge: Local 11, Knowledge: Nature 9, Knowledge: Nobility 9, Knowledge: Planes 11, Knowledge: Religion 11, Linguistics 9, Perception 12, Sense Motive 12, Spellcraft 19.
Languages: Common, Varisian, Celestial, Infernal, Draconic, Shoanti.
Main equipment: Quarterstaff (bonded item), Spellbook, Cloak of resistance +1, Bracers of armor +2, Ring of protection +1, Pearl of power (level 1), Belt of dexterity +2, Headband of intellect +2 (Knowledge: Dungeoneering), Amulet of natural armor +1.
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Manius Alazario (LN Male Chelaxian Fighter/Hellknight, Level 5/4) – Worships Abadar
Str: 22 Dex: 16 Con: 18 Int: 14 Wis: 9 Cha: 10
AC: 27 HP: 102 Fortitude: +12 Reflex: +8 Will: +5
Initiative: +9 Speed: 40’
Melee attacks: +1 heavy flail +19/+14 (1d10+11, 19-20)
Height: 6’2”. Weight: 250 lbs, Age: 22, Hair: Black, Eyes: Brown.
Feats: Power Attack, Cleave, Intimidating Prowess, Great Cleave, Nimble Moves, Improved Initiative, Lunge, Weapon focus (heavy flail), Iron Will.
Traits: Unhappy Childhood (Tortured), Reactionary.
Skills: Acrobatics 3, Climb 7, Handle Animal 4, Intimidate 16, Knowledge: Dungeoneering 7, Knowledge: Engineering 7, Knowledge: Local 7, Knowledge: Nature 3, Knowledge: Nobility 3, Knowledge: Planes 4, Perception 10, Ride 7, Sense Motive 4, Survival 5, Swim 5.
Languages: Common, Infernal, Varisian.
Main equipment: Hellknight armor +3, Heavy Flail +1, Ring of Feather Falling, Amulet of natural armor +1, Cloak of resistance +2, Ring of protection +1, Boots of striding and springing, Red Mantis helm, Belt of strength +2.
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Zeeva Foxglove (NG Female Chelaxian Cleric, Level 9) – Worships Pharasma
Str: 18 Dex: 14 Con: 19 Int: 11 Wis: 20 Cha: 16
AC: 21 HP: 101 Fortitude: +13 Reflex: +8 Will: +14
Initiative: +2 Speed: 20’
Melee attacks: +1 Longspear +12/+7 (1d8+7, x3)
Ranged attacks: Light Crossbow +8 (1d8, 19-20)
Domains: Healing, Repose.
Height: 5’6”. Weight: 130 lbs, Age: 25, Hair: Black, Eyes: Brown, Date of birth: Abadius 25th, 4683.
This attractive woman has pale skin and long jet-black hair. It is clear that she is of noble birth from the elegance of her gestures and speech. It is also obvious that she lived some traumatic events in her past, judging by the haunted look that often comes over her sad, dark eyes.
Feats: Selective Channeling, Extra Channeling, Power Attack, Weapon focus (longspear), Toughness, Scribe Scroll.
Traits: Love Lost (orphaned), Rich Parents.
Skills: Appraise 4, Diplomacy 11, Heal 17, Knowledge: Nobility 4, Knowledge: Religion 12, Profession: Merchant 11, Sense Motive 13, Spellcraft 7.
Languages: Common.
Main equipment: Breastplate +1, Longspear +1, Light Crossbow, Headband of wisdom +2, Cloak of resistance +3, Handy haversack, Belt of constitution +4, Ring of protection +2.
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Trinia Sabor <Cohort of Kindrasius> (CG Female Chelaxian Bard, Level 8) – Worships Shelyn
Str: 10 Dex: 18 Con: 8 Int: 14 Wis: 12 Cha: 15
AC: 21 HP: 52 Fortitude: +1 Reflex: +10 Will: +7
Initiative: +4 Speed: 30’
Melee attacks: +1 Rapier +11/+6 (1d6+3, 18-20)
Height: 5’3”. Weight: 100 lbs, Age: 23, Hair: Blonde, Eyes: Green, Date of birth: Kuthona 22nd, 4684.
Feats: Arcane strike, Combat expertise, Improved trip, Weapon finesse, Dodge.
Skills: Acrobatics 15, Appraise 9, Bluff 13 (Versatile performance), Climb 5, Diplomacy 9, Disguise 7, Handle animal 13 (Versatile performance), Heal 3, Intimidate 13 (Versatile performance), Knowledge: everything 10, Perception 12, Perform: Sing 13, Perform: Percussions 13, Sense Motive 13 (Versatile performance), Spellcraft 13, Stealth 15.
Languages: Common, Varisian, Shoanti.
Main equipment: Ring of protection +1, Rapier +1, Masterwork whip.
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The Kallow Mounds
The Harrowed Company arrived at the Kallow Mounds, the main settlement of the Skoan-Quah (Clan of the Skull), Kindrasius’s tribe. Although he still remembered almost nothing of his childhood in this place, due to a trauma he had suffered as a teenager, Kindrasius (known as Bagas-Tawoga among his people) felt that the place was somehow familiar. Most the Skoan-Quah regarded the tshamek (the word for strangers in Shoanti) with a mix of curiosity and apprehension. Many of them had never actually seen a tshamek before.
The travelers were welcomed by their old friend Thousand Bones, as well as by One-Life (the chief of the Skoan-Quah) and Ash Dancer, an aged shaman who turned out to be none other than Kindrasius’s mother. A wingless dragonne also rested on a nearby hill, ready to defend the Shoanti village. Although few of the villagers recognized Kindrasius, the strangers were well received in the village, as Ahalak and Thousand Bones had told the clan about their heroic actions in recovering Gaekhen’s remains.
While the others were led to a tent they could use to rest and refresh themselves, Kindrasius spent some time with his mother. As the Shoanti are made hard by their tough way of living, both remained quite stoic and unemotional in each other’s presence. Ash Dancer touched her son’s shoulders and hands, noticing the signs of his draconic heritage. She nodded and informed him that his father, Sagwiva, also had the blood of the blue dragons running in his veins. But Kindrasius had never shown signs of having inherited it as a child. On the Storval Plateau, blue dragons were vicious monsters, and the human mixed-breeds who bore their blood in their veins were generally shunned by the Shoanti.
Kindrasius had disappeared during his rite of manhood, in which he had ventured into a cave inhabited by the spirits. Not long after his disappearance, his father had gone in search of him, but had never returned either. Despite trying to reach them with her magic, Ash Dancer had never heard back from them since today. Kindrasius now supposed that he had perhaps heard his mother’s voice within the deranged chorus haunting his shattered mind, but had never paid it attention. Only in recent months, through his adventures within the Harrowed Company, had his sanity begun to return.
Meanwhile, the others explained to Thousand Bones in greater detail the reason for their journey: they needed more information about that sinister crown that seemed to give Queen Ileosa so much power. Thousand Bones guessed that it was indeed some ancient evil that the Shoanti had once guarded, however, he said that it had been another clan, the warlike Sklar-Quah, who had been watching over it before the Chelaxians drove them away from the region, three hundred years ago. He offered to speak with the spirits of the Sklar-Quah ancestors that night, in the presence of the Harrowed Company.
Suddenly, the discussion was interrupted by angry shouts from outside. The companions followed Thousand Bones out of the tent and saw that a group of seven Shoanti had recently arrived. They appeared quite different from the Skoan-Quah, who in general looked much like Kindrasius: tall, thin and long-haired. The newcomers were more muscular and had all shaved their heads. The largest of them was a towering giant of a man who wielded an earthbreaker over his shoulder as he growled at Chief One-Life in the Shoanti tongue. Not far from him lay the covered body of Berak, a fallen warrior, which they had brought to be buried alongside their ancestors in the cairns watched over by the Skoan-Quah.
Thousand Bones briefly described these warriors as members of the Sklar-Quah (“Sun Clan”), the most warlike and xenophobic of the seven quahs (“tribes”) of the Shoanti. The biggest of them was called Krojun Eats-What-He-Kills.
“Why do the Skoan-Quah harbor tshamek trespassers?” demanded Krojun in a menacing voice.
“Tell me, Krojun,” replied Thousand Bones as Chief One-Life struggled to find an answer, “when did the Sklar-Quah become judges of who trespasses on the Kallow Mounds where the ashes of our fathers lie?”
“You change the question, Thousand Bones,” replied the hulking warrior with a sneer. “These ones bring trouble to the Cinderlands, and you know it. The coming days shall reveal to us all who is right about them.”
“Perhaps. But not today, and not here. Would you have word of Berak’s burial tainted by bloodshed get back to your Sun Shaman?”
Krojun paused, the cords in his neck straining, but then he exhaled and grinned. “You misunderstand me, Thousand Bones. My grief has wounded my words. But see to it that no tshamek defiles our memories here.”
Kindrasius then challenged Krojun to a duel to prove that the tshamek were not as weak as he implied. So Manius (who needed to have the conversation translated to him by Hipazia) found himself “volunteered” for a game of Sredna against Krojun. The two large men got down on all fours and a strap of leather was tied behind their heads. For several long moments, they glared and cursed at each other in their respective languages, and then they began to pull back harder and harder on the leather cord, struggling against the rising pain that it was causing at the back of their skulls. The Shoanti had gathered in a circle around them; sadly for Kaeso, none of them wanted to bet on the outcome of the match.
Finally, after a long struggle, Manius emerged victorious in this challenge. Krojun roared and flailed around in the dirt as the Hellknight got back to his feet. Then, the big barbarian stood up and grinned at Manius. “You pull like an aurochs dam in heat, little tshamek. Well done!”
“What did he say?” asked Manius.
“He just called you a cow…” replied Kaeso.
This was the group’s first encounter with the warlike Sklar-Quah; once Krojun was out of earshot, Thousand Bones worriedly informed the Harrowed Company that the Sklar-Quah were planning to wage war against Korvosa, having heard about the city’s weakened state after the riots and the plague. They saw it as their chance to finally reclaim the lands that had once been there, despite the protests of Thousand Bones and the other peace-loving Skoan-Quah, who were looked down upon as being weak and of dishonouring the legacy of their ancestors by making deals with the tshamek.
The companions noticed mixed reactions in the village after the Sredna match. Some of the Shoanti were disappointed that one of their heroes had been bested by a tshamek, but others were glad that the bully Krojun had finally been beaten.
That evening, the group shared a great meal with the Skoan-Quah around a bonfire. Kindrasius, Kaeso and Trinia traded stories with the natives, and they also danced with them. Zeeva remained much quieter, preferring to speak with Thousand Bones. She had earlier accompanied him to visit the cairn where Gaekhen had been placed to rest.
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The legend of Skurak
After the feast, Thousand Bones and Ash Dancer brought the companions to the cairns where were buried some of the ancestors of the Sklar-Quah from the time of their exile to the Cinderlands. After a long ritual, however, the spirits of the Sklar-Quah categorically refused to reveal anything regarding Ileosa’s crown: they wanted nothing to do with the descendants of those who had stolen their land and who had murdered their families. They seemed to feel little more love for Kindrasius: an estranged Skoan-Quah with cursed dragon blood in his veins…
The Harrowed Company understandably felt quite disheartened by this turn of events… Had they traveled all this way for nothing? Discussing with Ash Dancer and Thousand Bones, the best course of action seemed to be to befriend the Sklar-Quah, but that seemed like an impossible task…
The group then went to see Krojun and the other Sklar-Quah. Kaeso and Kindrasius tried to reason with them, explaining that the war against Korvosa would bring nothing good, but the Sklar-Quah would not be swayed. The adventurers also offered their group’s services against the enemies of the Sklar-Quah such as the giants and the orcs, to prove their good intentions, but again they got rebuffed: accepting the help of tshamek would make the Sklar-Quah appear weak.
Hipazia, however, gleaned some useful information from the exchange via a Detect Thoughts spell. She discovered that Krojun was in fact much more intrigued by the strangers than he let on. Most of all, he was curious about Manius, this mysterious warrior who wore such a strange armor, and who had bested him at his own game. The noblewoman was also surprised to discover that Krojun, this enormous barbarian whom she had glimpsed in Zellara’s latest Harrow reading, felt strong emotions for her despite his stoic demeanour. He found her quite attractive and longed to touch her hair of soft gold…
Within the thoughts of one of Krojun’s companions, she heard mention of a certain Skurak, who had once been accepted into the Sklar-Quah after a feat of heroism. Feeling that this might be the seed of a plan, Hipazia later mentioned this to Thousand Bones, who told the group the legend of Skurak, a warrior of the Sklar-Quah who had been cast out of his clan long ago after killing his brother. He had later redeemed himself by being voluntarily eaten by Cindermaw the Clan-Eater, a gigantic worm that was one of the deadliest predators of the Cinderlands. After cutting himself free from the worm’s entrails with a knife, Skurak had journeyed back to the lands of the Sklar-Quah, where he had been accepted back into his tribe.
The group then started to put together a bold plan to gain the acceptance of the Sklar-Quah. What they finally ended up with was rather convoluted, but seemed like their best hope: they would first travel to the Acropolis of the Thrallkeepers, an ancient Thassilonian ruin where they would get the mark of Desna from a stone globe. This would flag them as allies of another tribe of Shoanti, the nomadic Lyrune-Quah (“Clan of the Moon”) who often traveled near the Wyvern Mountains. Among them, they would find a Truth-Speaker who would bear witness to their survival of Cindermaw’s bite. They would then journey with this Truth-Speaker to the Sklar-Quah, where they would hopefully be accepted within their ranks, and then would come back with a Sun Shaman (one of the spiritual leaders of the Sklar-Quah) back to the Kallow Mounds to speak with the Sklar-Quah ancestors and learn about Ileosa’s crown.
… whew!
The group really didn’t feel confident that this complex scheme would work, but it was their best option at the time, so they decided to go along with it…
Oathday, Erastus 26th, 4708
The following morning, the group said farewell to the Skoan-Quah and left the village. Thousand Bones had given them some potions, wands and magical war paint to help them in their journey. What’s more, Ahalak would be traveling with them as a guide. They heard nothing from Krojun and his peers: they had already left the camp before they woke up.
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The first day of the quest to win the approval of the Sklar-Quah, traveling in the desolate landscape of the Cinderlands, was made easier and safer thanks to Zeeva’s magic (protecting against the heat and providing food and water) and Ahalak’s guidance. Hipazia felt like she was being scried on, as she would again almost every day of the journey. Most of the time, she was able to dispel the sensors, but she and her companions were left wondering who kept on observing them like this.
Kindrasius launched a discussion about the fate of the Shoanti. He spoke of an optimistic view of the future when the Harrowed Company would defeat Queen Ileosa and take control of Korvosa and its holdings as benevolent rulers, with perhaps Hipazia or Zeeva on the Crimson Throne. He voiced his desire that the Shoanti be given some of the lush and fertile land south of the Storval Rise. That only seemed fair to the rest of the group; the least enthusiastic person was, of course, Manius, who has a member of the Order of the Nail had vowed to protect civilization from “savages”.
Fireday, Erastus 27th, 4708
The second day did not start well for Hipazia: as she was getting dressed in her tent at dawn, she was bitten by a large red snake that had curled up in her boot during the night. Thankfully, she survived the venom and was able to quickly slay the creature with a barrage of Magic Missiles. But again, she wondered: was this only a coincidence, or had this snake been placed there by some animal-controlling villain that was spying on the group from afar?
Starday, Erastus 28th, 4708
Around mid-day, the group was attacked by six vicious acid-spitting giant insects called ankhegs as they travelled through a rocky canyon. Ahalak was almost devoured by one of the monsters, getting saved at the last moment by Trinia’s healing touch. Manius also nearly lost his beloved black warhorse during the fight. Thankfully, other than that, the group was able to defeat the creatures with relative ease.
Sunday, Erastus 29th, 4708
On the fourth day of traveling to the Acropolis of the Thrallkeepers, the group found the decomposed head of a Shoanti hunter left as a warning to all others of his kin. Ahalak cursed the devil tshamek that was otherwise known as the Cinderlander: legend had it that he was the ghost of a Chelaxian general whose army had been slaughtered by the Shoanti, and who was now prowling the Cinderlands, slaying lone Shoanti hunters in an attempt to avenge his fallen men. Trinia was very worried by this scary tale.
The group noticed that they were being followed. Using her magic, Hipazia brought most of the Harrowed Company with her to confront the strangers. Once they appeared on the hilltop, the adventurers realized that their mysterious observers were the group of Sklar-Quah warriors that were led by Krojun. The big Shoanti explained that they had followed the tshamek for several days, curious to see what kind of trouble they would get themselves into. The group felt that they didn’t have particularly nasty intentions toward them (something that Hipazia confirmed with another Detect Thoughts spell). When they mentioned the Cinderlander, Krojun growled and said he disagreed with Ahalak: he had caught glimpses of the Cinderlander and believed him to be a living man, just a very cunning and stealthy one. He vowed that he would one day catch him, and kill him.
Kindrasius pondered whether the group could try to find the Cinderlander in an attempt to get in the Sklar-Quah’s good graces. Manius concentrated on the “savages” and did not detect any chaos in them, but noticed that Kaeso, Trinia and Ahalak were all of a chaotic nature.
Moonday, Erastus 30th, 4708
The Acropolis of the Thrallkeepers
The following morning, Zeeva used her magic to speak with the skull of the Cinderlander’s victim. She learned that he had been killed by surprise, but that the Cinderlander indeed seemed to be a Chelaxian man using a crossbow and screaming bolts (like Jolistina). He had a firepelt cougar as a pet. Once she was done, Ahalak performed a Skoan-Quah ritual to put that hunter’s spirit to rest.
Later that morning, the group saw a dragon flying over the Wyvern Mountains, which were now quite close. Not long after that, Ahalak worriedly pointed to the dark clouds gathering to the northeast. An emberstorm was coming, a wave of fire that burned everything on the plains. They had to hurry to reach the Acropolis of the Thrallkeepers and take refuge before the coming of the emberstorm!
Fortunately, the group made it in time. The Acropolis was a set of ancient Thassilonian ruins. They entered the largest and most well-preserved building. A wide stairway passed next to a large side- room where the group left their horses. Ahalak remained behind to watch over them. Hipazia kept a Telepathic Bond with him, in case he got into trouble.
Further down into the ruins, the Harrowed Company found an enormous room with a huge pool of cold, dark and murky water at its center. The black granite walls were decorated with ancient Thassilonian runes. The companions searched this main room, but found nothing magical or dangerous. They chose not to investigate the water. Trinia was worried that this place was dangerous. Kaeso examined a large slab of stone and discovered that it was an unusual door: when he touched the seven-pointed star engraved on it, it slid into the ceiling, revealing a smaller room at the center of which was a well from which emerged a pillar of green light. The rest of the group remained in the pool room, wary of the green light, but Kaeso entered and began to examine it. As he did so, another door/slab in the far wall opened, and two familiar silhouettes emerged from it: Shadowcount Sial and his bodyguard Asyra. For once, Asyra was not wearing heavy robes: her body was only covered in chains. Her devilish nature was now plainly evident, with glowing red eyes and unusually gray skin. Shadowcount Sial smiled confidently at the group: for some reason, he did not seem surprised at all to find them in this unlikely place…
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Moonday, Erastus 30th, 4708 (continued)
Plan B
The companions were quite surprised to find Shadowcount Sial and Asyra in this unlikely place. Sial explained that he had left Korvosa once it became clear that Queen Ileosa’s power and evil was growing; he sought a way to oppose her. His initial plan had led him here, where the ancient Thassilonian order known as the Thrallkeepers had perfected a variety of summoning rituals. He had been hoping that he could use one of them to conjure something that could defeat Queen Ileosa, but alas, his search had been in vain: many of the writings had been destroyed, and those few that were left were now too incomplete to be usable. In particular, the Thrallkeepers had planned on summoning an immensely powerful creature from the darkness between the stars, but there was no writing describing how to finish their ritual, so it was impossible to replicate it. Shadowcount Sial mused that their attempt might have been interrupted by the great cataclysm that had brought the end of the Thassilonian Empire itself.
“So it seems that I must now consider my plan B…” said the white-haired priest.
“What’s plan B?” asked Kindrasius.
“You are,” replied Sial with a dark grin as he looked at each member of the Harrowed Company.
Shadowcount Sial reminded everyone that they now lived in the Age of Lost Omens: the death of Aroden, the god of humanity, about a hundred years ago, had brought an end to an era during which prophecy could be relied on. The events that many oracles had foretold for centuries had been revealed as lies and false dreams when that great god had died, and many of these seers had perished at their own hands, driven mad by the shock of that realization. Now, in current times, very few had the wisdom, the knowledge, and the power to catch glimpses of the future. Shadowcount Sial claimed to be one of these few. He saw several paths of light that the Harrowed Company could follow; most were dim and led to their demise, but one glowed brighter, and would lead them to victory over Queen Ileosa. It required that they form an alliance with the Sklar-Quah, as they had already guessed. He also saw that his own destiny was intertwined with that of the Harrowed Company: he would need them, and they would need him. If they cooperated, they would both reach their goals.
The conversation was suddenly interrupted by a telepathic message from Ahalak (who shared a Telepathic Bond with Hipazia, Kaeso and Kindrasius). He informed the others that Krojun and his men had entered the Acropolis and were leaving their horses with him before going down the stairs. The companions acknowledged him, but chose to ignore the Shoanti for now. Instead, they searched the nearby rooms. One of them had a statue of Lissala (the goddess of Runes and Knowledge), an idol that was half-woman and half-snake, with a Sihedron rune instead of a head; it was made of gold and jade. Sial explained that the worship of this goddess had ended with the fall of Thassilon. Trinia used her magic to read the Thassilonian runes on the walls: they extolled the virtues of Runelord Karzoug, allegedly the wisest of the seven Runelords who ruled over Thassilon ten thousand years ago.
During their exploration, the ground shook as if by a small earthquake. That seemed strange.
The group studied the shaft of green light and noticed that it had an effect of Feather Fall, allowing users to safely float to the lower level of the complex, 70 feet below. Sial found a secret compartment under the statue of Lissala: a large copper ring that could be fitted over the well of green light, with several metal wedges that could be placed on it, making forms with their shadows on the ceiling. Kaeso found the correct placement for these wedges, which showed a map of the large complex.
Kaeso, Hipazia and Manius then went down the shaft, but before the others could join them, four Red Mantis assassins suddenly appeared: they had been hiding in the shadowy recesses of the ceiling. It was quite unbelievable that nobody had noticed them until now, but it was probably caused by the contrast between the focused bright light of the well and the shadows in the rest of the room. The heroes reacted quickly: Kindrasius shot one of the assassins and Asyra struck another one with two chains that grew from her wrists into weapons. Trinia sang to bolster her allies’ attacks, but was unable to cast a spell due to the disturbance of a nearby assassin. Zeeva was severely wounded, but killed one of the Red Mantis with a thrust of her spear in his throat.
Once again, the ground briefly shook as if by a small earthquake…
Kaeso and Hipazia suddenly appeared to help their comrades, having been transported by Hipazia’s Dimension Door. Manius climbed the rope he had previously attached to the nearby statue of Lissala and also joined the fight. He killed two of the remaining assassins, but the fourth one stabbed Zeeva several times. She fell to the ground, dead! Her companions watched in horror, as their cleric’s life had never been threatened so suddenly and violently before. Kindrasius roared in rage and attacked the Red Mantis with a bite, having transformed into his half-dragon form. Shadowcount Sial rushed to Zeeva’s side and quickly read a scroll that allowed him to breathe a new life into her. She woke up as if by a traumatic rush of adrenaline and let out of a horrible scream of pain, but at least she was alive. Meanwhile, Trinia tripped Zeeva’s assassin with her whip, and Kaeso struck the villain fatally with his rapier and his kukri.
It had been a quick and brutal fight. Zeeva stabilized one of the unconscious Red Mantis assassins to take him prisoner. All the others were killed. Manius had slain one so thoroughly that his mantis helm was badly damaged, one of its antennae hanging askew. The group looted them while Trinia helped Zeeva to heal herself. Zeeva thanked Shadowcount Sial for saving her life, but she then shuddered as she remembered the terrible pain that had brought her back. She would never forget the torment of Zon-Kuthon’s touch. Asyra watched her silently with her eerie red eyes and just the hint of a smile on her lips. Manius wondered about their new allies and tried to detect some Chaos in them, but only found some in Kaeso and Trinia.
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Tentacles
Trinia brought the captive assassin back to consciousness; Kindrasius tried to question him peacefully, but the man only remained silent. He also resisted Hipazia’s Detect Thoughts spell; the diviner did manage to read Asyra’s thoughts, though, but she recoiled in disgust, as the chain devil was vividly picturing the disturbing tortures she would like to perform on the captured Red Mantis. So it seemed that the best course of action was to question the assassin “the hard way”. Manius and the worshippers of Zon-Kuthon offered to take care of it. The others decided to let them go about their grim business, but had no wish to witness it, so they all floated down the well of green light.
Manius was no stranger to torture: it was a frequent practice among the Hellknights, who often had to extract the truth from criminals by force. The interrogation room beneath the Black Bulwark had an extensive collection of “information-extraction devices”. Shadowcount Sial opened a satchel he was carrying, which held a “travelling torturer’s kit”, a collection of light tools that would allow him to perform his dark deeds on whatever unlucky victims he found.
“That’s a nice set of tools you’ve got there, Shadowcount,” said Manius.
“Why, thank you. I have more sophisticated devices back in the Bone Tower, but these will have to do for now, I suppose.”
And so the priest of Zon-Kuthon began his abominable torture of the Red Mantis assassin, helped by Asyra and Manius. He was very skilled. It only took a few minutes before the stoic assassin began screaming in pain. Another earthquake shook the ground; it seemed stronger than the previous ones. But then, the assassin answered Sial’s questions.
His team had been sent to the Acropolis to kill the Harrowed Company. His leader, Cinnabar, had been scrying on them and had overheard that they were headed here. She would soon come to finish the job. They answered to Mistress Kayltanya, the leader of the Red Mantis in Korvosa, whose base of operations was in Castle Korvosa.
Before more questions could be asked, though, the stone door leading to the pool room suddenly opened, and two large, viscous green tentacles writhed on the other side. They emerged from the dark pool and had seemingly triggered the door’s opening.
Shadowcount Sial gasped in fear: “The Havero… So they were successful in conjuring it after all! It must have been in the dark pool all along…”
Manius and Asyra each attacked one tentacle and wounded it, but they got struck back, hard. Manius was caught by one of the tentacles, and despite his great strength, he was unable to free himself. Realizing that they were in dire straits, Shadowcount Sial used another scroll and touched Manius and Asyra. They vanished and suddenly reappeared in a sinister room decorated with torture devices and symbols of Zon-Kuthon (a skull with chains coming out of its eyes). A stairway led up, and a large stone door stood in a nearby wall. Around them, four dusty mummies lurched to life and approached Manius with hunger in their small glowing eyes.
“The master has returned…” they hissed. “He brings new life with him…”
“This Hellknight is not to be harmed,” ordered Sial, and the undead backed away from Manius.
“Are we in the Bone Tower?” asked Manius.
“Yes, it’s located not too far from the Acropolis.”
“Can we go back to help my friends?”
“As I understand it, there’s currently an emberstorm all around us. The tower is protected from it, but it would be unwise to leave the premises at this time.”
“Can you contact them by magic, then?” asked Manius hopefully.
“I’m afraid that such magic is not available to me at this time. We must trust that they will be resourceful enough to escape this predicament on their own.”
“Otherwise, you might need to consider plan C, master,” said Asyra with a disturbing smile.
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The Spherewalker’s Mark
Meanwhile, Kindrasius, Kaeso, Hipazia, Zeeva and Trinia explored the lower level of the Acropolis. No traps or magic could be detected in the round room at the base of the shaft, nor in the wide hallway that opened to the north of it. However, Trinia noticed that part of the wall in this corridor was of a different color, and further investigation showed that it was a big stone block that had been moved some time in the past. It wasn’t clear how this block could be moved, though. While the party examined the area, a third earthquake shook the ground.
The group then entered a large room decorated with stars and symbols of Desna: the blue butterfly. Near the middle of it, a big stone sphere stood suspended on three metallic rods which hovered in the thin air. It radiated strong divination and the rods had an aura of transmutation. Kaeso and Kindrasius investigated the device. Nothing happened when they touched the sphere. It was decorated with shapes of islands, seas, rivers and mountains. Sadly, none of them, not even the knowledgeable Hipazia, recognized that this sphere represented Golarion itself.
Kindrasius pressed a button on one of the rods, which got pushed away by the weight of the stone sphere that suddenly came free; lacking support, the heavy globe crashed to the ground, getting cracked and causing a thunderous noise to reverberate throughout the area. Immediately after that, a fourth earthquake shook the ground: it was stronger than any before it.
Kaeso clapped sarcastically at Kindrasius’s blunder. He then investigated the sphere and understood how to activate it: he touched it and thought of the starry sky, and suddenly vanished, finding himself suspended in space, surrounded by the glittering lights of distant stars. Below him hovered the enormous but very distant globe that looked like this sphere with its seas and land masses. It was an exhilarating experience, and as Kaeso waved his hands toward the sphere, he noticed that a blue butterfly now adorned his left hand: the Spherewalker’s Mark! Thinking of the Acropolis, Kaeso returned outside the sphere, where he explained to his companions what he had done. Each of them then replicated the experience, and now each sported that blue butterfly on their left hand. Their senses felt heightened from having a blessing of Desna placed on them.
Heading back to the pillar of light, the group saw globs of red liquid gently floating down the shaft, to form a pool of blood on the ring of blue stone at its bottom. They called out to Manius, but he didn’t answer. They spoke with Ahalak through the mental link: he was safe, but heard shouts coming from downstairs. It seemed that Krojun and his men were fighting something.
Kindrasius and Kaeso levitated back up the pillar of green light, and saw that Manius, Sial and Asyra were gone; so were the corpses of the Red Mantis, although there was a huge amount of blood on the ground. The huge stone “door” leading to the pool room stood open, and from beyond came the sounds of a furious battle: Krojun and his men were battling several tentacles that emerged from dark pool. Kindrasius immediately recognized this scene as the one from his Harrow vision, and he felt himself empowered by Zellara’s magic…
Dotting this thread forever. This is making for a great read! :D
Second that, I think this thread is quite an inspiration.
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Moonday, Erastus 30th, 4708 (continued)
The Havero
The companions considered fleeing from whatever monstrosity lurked within the dark pool, but the Sklar-Quah warriors were locked in combat already, and the Harrowed Company sought to gain their approval; so they decided to risk their lives to help them. Three of Krojun’s Thundercallers had already been gripped by the tentacles and dragged down below the surface. Krojun and his three remaining warriors fought valiantly against insurmountable odds.
Trinia, Hipazia and Zeeva levitated up the shaft of green light to join Kaeso and Kindrasius, who had already waded into battle to help the Shoantis in melee. Using his earthbreaker, Kindrasius struck with greater power than usual thanks to the magic of the Harrow. The tentacles were very resilient, but could be disabled if enough force was applied. Hipazia assumed that the monster they were facing was a kraken. Zeeva joined the two men and attacked with her spear. Trinia used her music and her magic to bolster the rest of the group, but was too far away to use her healing spells on the wounded Sklar-Quah. Hipazia blasted the tentacles with ice, fire, lightning and sheer arcane power.
But as the heroes and the Shoanti destroyed tentacle after tentacle, a seemingly endless quantity of the sickly green appendages emerged from the pool…
All four members of the Sklar-Quah fought furiously, gripped by a barbaric rage. Krojun destroyed several tentacles by himself, but alas, two more of his warriors lost their lives in the battle: one was dragged below the surface, and the other was torn apart by two tentacles.
During a brief lull in the battle, Zeeva and Hipazia directed the others toward the room with the green light shaft: they believed that the monster had initially been awoken by noise, and that if they could remain quiet, it might return to a dormant state. Everyone, including Krojun and the other remaining warrior, Tamar, rushed into the room. Kaeso was the last to enter, and he used his thief’s skills to disable the mechanism that triggered the door’s opening.
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Silent pillage
Zeeva, Trinia and Kindrasius healed everyone’s wounds. Krojun and Tamar were panting, and as the rush of adrenaline that had come with their battle-lust faded, they were gripped by a profound sadness at the loss of their comrades, and a deep shame at having been saved by tshamek. They grudgingly thanked the Harrowed Company for their help, but it was clear they still didn’t consider them friends.
Using her magic, Zeeva contacted Manius and learned that he was with Shadowcount Sial and Asyra in the Bone Tower, which had been erected not far from the Acropolis. Even though the group’s initial plan had been to stay in the green shaft room quietly, Kaeso soon grew impatient and decided to explore the area. He discovered that two tunnels which led to other parts of the complex had caved in. After disabling another door that led into the pool room, he found an old shrine decorated with the statue of a beautiful mermaid. He then spent some time removing the gems that adorned her tail with his dagger.
Meanwhile, the others examined a room whose walls were covered with Thassilonian runes. Trinia read them and translated for the others: the Thrallkeepers had summoned a powerful creature from beyond the stars, an alien monstrosity called a Havero. It had the shape of a colossal sphere of flesh from which emerged countless tentacles. Clearly, this was the creature that slumbered in the pool.
After about 45 minutes, Hipazia and Zeeva realized that Trinia’s reading was getting them nowhere, so they shook her from the trance she had become a victim of while reading the magical runes. After dispelling the hypnotism trap, Hipazia continued reading thanks to Kindrasius’s wand of Tongues, and surmised that the Thrallkeepers had most likely been exterminated by the Havero, for the writings were suspiciously incomplete. She believed that the Havero was mostly asleep, and that the tentacles’ movements were just its most basic reflexes as it was gradually waking up. Most likely, the “earthquakes” the group had felt earlier had just been of the creature’s massive body moving around as the noises they made disturbed its rest. From what she understood, if they had to fight the Havero itself, not just its half-asleep tentacles, they would be in terrible danger…
Thankfully, the tentacles seemed to have gone back to a dormant state for now. The Harrowed Company and the two Sklar-Quah warriors hurried past the pool room and rejoined Ahalak in the room with the horses near the entrance. They waited quietly for a few hours, and finally, the emberstorm abated and it became safe to go outside. It was horribly hot and the thick smoke made it difficult to breathe, but it was surely less dangerous than being stuck in the ruins with the slumbering Havero. A few hundred yards away, they could see the shape of the Bone Tower, which they hadn’t noticed earlier in their hurry to escape the approaching emberstorm.
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Moonday, Erastus 30th, 4708 (continued)
Once the storm had passed, Krojun and Tamar parted ways with the Harrowed Company. A bitter exchange had taken place between Kindrasius and Krojun, in which Kindrasius had outlined his group’s plan to join the Sklar-Quah in order to find out more information about the demon that was allegedly controlling Queen Ileosa. He was very confident and confrontational in his statements to Krojun, even raising his voice so loud that the rest of the group feared that he would awaken the Havero again. There seemed to be little love lost between the two headstrong Shoanti, so an alliance between the adventurers and the Sklar-Quah seemed unlikely at this point despite the recent fight against the Havero.
Later, Shadowcount Sial also parted ways with the group. He said they would meet again soon, and asked Zeeva to contact him by magic once they had spoken with the ancestor of the Sklar-Quah. The party spent the night in a ruined building of the acropolis.
Toilday, Arodus 1st, 4708
The following day, the group journeyed closer to the mountains. Ahalak led them toward a place he knew to be often inhabited by one of the sub-clans of the Lyrune-Quah at this time of the year. Along the way, Zeeva and Manius received more training on the rudiments of the Shoanti language from Kindrasius.
Early in the evening, the group reached an ancient tower decorated with the symbol of Desna. It was majestic in beauty, but unfortunately, nobody from the Clan of the Moon was present. Ahalak, Manius and Kindrasius saw tracks on the ground indicating that a large group of humans, probably members of the Lyrune-Quah, had recently traveled from there to the mountains. It seemed that a few dozen giants had followed them not long after. The Harrowed Company decided to follow these tracks up the mountain the following day, and spent the night in the Temple of the Moon.
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Wealday, Arodus 2nd, 4708
The next day, the group followed a wide trail that led up the flank of the mountain. It was relatively easy to climb, and they still saw tracks of the Lyrune-Quah and giants ahead of them. After some time, the group encountered a band of hill giants, ogres and giant wolves, which they attacked. The enemies were assaulted by powerful magic: Confusion cast by Kindrasius, Fireball cast by Hipazia and Flame Strike cast by Zeeva. Manius and Kaeso fought in melee, and Trinia even managed to trip a giant with her whip. Some of the giants and ogres fought each other or maimed themselves due to the confusion effect. All in all, it was an easy victory for the heroes of Korvosa.
Further up the path, the group passed through a bank of thick clouds, and then emerged at the summit of the mountain, where a brass ramp led up to a castle that was floating on a cloud: most likely the residence of cloud giants. Alas, the citadel was besieged by a larger group of hill giants. The companions left Ahalak and the horses at the bottom of the ramp and hurried up to help the denizens of the castle. The ascension was made especially difficult due to some violent shocks that frequently resounded through the structure. Hipazia, Manius and Zeeva lost their footing and nearly plummeted to the ground far below, but each managed to catch the edge of the path at the last moment.
Then, a muscular, bare-chested giant approached the group. He wore a thick leather helmet and mask, and his hands were covered with massive adamantine gauntlets: those were the instruments that had breached the wall of the citadel earlier. The colossus grunted a brief laugh before engaging the group, but he was also easily defeated, in large part due to Kindrasius’s Hideous Laughter spell.
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Wealday, Arodus 2nd, 4708 (continued)
The breach and the pillar
Further up the ramp, the companions encountered another group of hill giant warriors who had breached the wall of the citadel and who were fighting one of its last guardians: an air elemental that was soon overcome by their brutal attacks. The leader of this group was a grim stone giant whose plate armor was decorated with the severed heads of Shoanti and orcs. A furious battle ensued between these invaders and the Harrowed Company; in the end, the adventurers prevailed, but some, especially Kaeso, had been wounded in the fight.
As Zeeva was healing everyone, the group examined their surroundings: the castle was beautifully furnished with art and fineries, whose elegance was in stark contrast with the primitive attackers. The group ventured deeper inside the structure, hearing the sounds of battle ahead. They were approached by a black cat through which spoke the voice of the master of the keep. He asked the companions to investigate some danger on the lower level: someone was endangering the magical pillar that supported the weight of the entire castle.
The group ventured down some mist-filled stairs and entered a large room that was also shrouded in mist; even the walls, floor and ceiling seemed as if they were carved into a cloud. In the center of this space was a large pillar of mist that, impossibly, seemed to provide support for the citadel. Although it would normally be impervious to normal weapons, it was currently being slowly destroyed by an unlikely creature: a massive blue humanoid insect that wielded an ice-covered spear. Some members of the group recognized this as an Ice Devil, a dangerous foe indeed. Near the creature was a haggard frost giant who seemed only vaguely aware of his surroundings, but Hipazia and Zeeva understood that there was a link between him and the devil.
Ignoring this insight for now, the group decided to take advantage of the giant’s vacant expression and attack the devil while it was busy hacking at the pillar. Unfortunately, that did not yield the expected results: Kindrasius’s arrows and Hipazia’s Scorching Rays completely failed to harm the fiend, and when Manius approached it, he was overcome with fear and fled up the stairs. Zeeva, Kindrasius and Hipazia all failed to remove this unnatural fear from him. Trinia tried to trip the Hellknight with her whip, but he simply bolted past her, unhindered, and his unstoppable flight merely tore the weapon from Trinia’s grasp. The Ice Devil looked over his shoulder and telepathically warned the foolish mortals not to interfere with him, but did not attack. Finally, Hipazia used a Dominate Person spell to force the frost giant to absorb the Ice Devil back inside of him. Taking a few moments to read her new minion’s thoughts, she understood that he was called Bran-Fir and had always been possessed by devils. He had been cast out of his birth tribe and had later become adopted by the hill giants of the Jurn tribe.
Let’s see your cats save you from this!
The group went back upstairs and were joined by Manius. The massive warrior sheepishly gave Trinia her whip back. The cat thanked the companions for their good work and led them where they were now most needed: a huge hall at the center of which stood the gigantic bust of a heroic and wise-looking bearded man. Perched at the summit of this grandiose tribute to himself was a white-bearded and robed Cloud Giant who was using a barrage of spells to defend his life from the assault of several hill giants led by an armored hill giant woman with a tattooed shaved head. This impressive female warrior was riding an enormous triceratops. On raised galleries on either side of this great hall stood several Shoanti warrior-women who were shooting arrows at the hill giants.
The Harrowed Company found itself fighting the giantess astride the triceratops. The massive dinosaur nearly trampled several of them to death, and the giantess struck Kindrasius with her sword, but the group was able to slay both of these dangerous foes. Both of them fell to Kindrasius’s rain of arrows. Meanwhile, Hipazia had directed Bran-Fir to unleash his Ice Devil on the other hill giants. Once their leader was dead, the remaining hill giants were swiftly slain by the devil, the Shoanti archers, the Cloud Giant mage and the adventurers.
The Cloud Giant cheered loudly as the last enemy fell, and he levitated down to the floor. He introduced himself as Zoarth and thanked the Harrowed Company for their help. They learned that he was a mage who lived alone in this castle, with his cats. Once, a female giant had lived here with him, but she was now gone. There seemed to be a sad story tied to this, but Zoarth said no more. He wasn’t sure why these hill giants had raided his castle; all he wanted was to be left here in peace to do his alchemical experiments.
The Lyrune-Quah warrior-women approached the characters warily at first, with their tamed wolves at their sides, but they warmed visibly when they noticed that the heroes wore the mark of Desna on their hands. Just as the group had suspected, the Lyrune-Quah had fled the temple of the moon when it had become aware of the approaching band of marauding giants, and had sought shelter in the citadel of their ally Zoarth. Apparently, the most violent giant tribes of the mountains had been on a rampage since the defeat of Lord Mokmurian, who had been their master until very recently. This mighty Stone Giant wizard had apparently been slain by a group of human adventurers earlier in the summer. Zoarth now spoke of an even greater danger to the north, in the Kodar Mountains, which worried him and other giants, but waved it aside and told the adventurers that they surely had a mission of their own already, and that they shouldn't concern themselves with this.
Zoarth later opened a massive door at the end of the hall, behind which the rest of the Lyrune-Quah tribe had been hiding from the attackers: mostly children and the elderly. Among them was Akram, the tribe’s truthspeaker, who was intrigued when the adventurers approached him with their request to witness one of them being devoured by Cindermaw. Although this seemed like madness to him, he accepted to come with them, as a gesture of thanks for the help they had provided his tribe, and out of respect for the mark of his goddess, Desna, which was on their hands. Akram was surprised, though, that Manius had not received this blessing. The Hellknight began to explain that he had been occupied at the time; the old Shoanti watched him with an intense expression and seemed very intrigued by him, and took him to the side to hear his whole story.
Looting their enemies, the group found that the giantess’s sword bore runes in the language of giants which said: "let's see your cats save you from this." Zoarth was astounded by this message: it seemed to be personally directed at him (his many cats had by now entered the hall and come to surround their master and climb on him), yet he couldn’t imagine anyone wishing him harm like this.
As a gesture of thanks, Zoarth later rewarded the adventurers with many potions of his own making. Zeeva interrogated the dead spirit of the giantess by magic and learned that she had been sent by Grunf, the leader of the Jurn tribe, specifically to kill Zoarth. These orders had in turn come from Grunf’s new mistress, a mysterious and powerful giantess who somehow wanted Zoarth dead…
“How could anyone not like me?” wondered Zoarth as he absently stroked a cat’s fur with a gentle finger.
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Oathday, Arodus 3rd, 4708
The companions spent the night in Zoarth’s castle. Hipazia did not sleep well, as she had a very difficult time maintaining her mental control over Bran-Fir due to the presence of the devils in his soul. In the morning, Zeeva sent the possessed Frost Giant into the Abyss with a Plane Shift spell. The group figured that the best way to get rid of this evil was to send it to a place of greater evil.
After saying their good-byes to Zoarth and the members of the Lyrune-Quah, the Harrowed Company continued its journey through the Cinderlands, this time heading toward the feeding grounds of Cindermaw. Ahalak still led them, and old Akram accompanied them. Zeeva kept him almost constantly protected with a Shield Other spell, as the group feared that if the old shaman died, their quest would come to an end. They especially feared a surprise attack from the Red Mantis, but thankfully, none came. Only local predators presented some danger, and although the vicious creatures of the Storval Plateau would be considered a deadly challenge to most groups of hunters or adventurers, the Harrowed Company was now so powerful that these encounters were not even worth mentioning in their chronicles.
Once again, the travel through the arid wasteland was made much easier thanks to the protection and sustenance provided by Zeeva’s magic. With his hat’s brim kept low over his brow and his cloak furling in the wind, Kindrasius did not feel much at home in this place, even though he knew it was the place of his birth. He spent some time conversing with Akram, learning some stories of his people. The old truthspeaker asked many questions of the tshamek as well, especially from Manius, who was the strangest of them all. Even though the Order of the Nail had for mission to bring order among the savages, Manius remained polite with the primitive shaman, knowing that his cooperation was vital for the success of their quest.
That evening, the group took shelter in old ruins where crawled many scarabs that glowed with various colors. These things were called jewel beetles. During the first watch, Kaeso and Trinia were alerted by the approach of a massive enemy. Trinia hid the group with an illusion spell while Kaeso woke everyone quietly. Soon, a huge bipedal monster called a Red Reaver made its way through the illusion, and roared as it attacked the group. Even though they weren’t protected by their armor, Zeeva and Manius courageously attacked it in melee, while the others shot the creature with spells and arrows. Zeeva was badly wounded, but Manius struck powerful blows on the Reaver, almost killing it. Finally, it was Kaeso, who approached from behind and struck from the shadows, that killed the creature with his rapier.
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Fireday, Arodus 4th, 4708
The following day, Ahalak brought the group to the area where Cindermaw was known to roam. Dunes dotted the country side, but the guide warned the adventurers that they were no natural formations: rather, they had been created by Cindermaw’s constant burrowing. The group searched for the gigantic worm for several hours with the help of spells of flying, but did not locate it.
Starday, Arodus 5th, 4708
Cindermaw
The following morning, Cindermaw finally detected the group’s treading into its domain. It circled them, periodically surfacing from the ground like a great burrowing whale. The group set into motion their plan to recreate Skurak’s legend: Kindrasius and Manius were the two who volunteered to get eaten by the gigantic monster. Meanwhile, Trinia and Ahalak fled the area with everyone’s horses, while Zeeva, Akram, Hipazia and Kaeso hovered in the air thanks to various magic spells, waiting on standby to witness the feat of courage of their allies, and to lend a hand if needed.
Manius and Kindrasius awaited the great worm’s approach, making loud noises to attract its attention. They had been protected from acid by spells and potions. The enormous worm finally burst from the ground near them, and now they felt the heat that emanated from it and saw the inferno burning inside its maw: that was something they had not anticipated, and they only barely had time to drink fire-protection potions before the monster breathed a cone of flames on them. It would have grievously burned them if they hadn’t been protected.
The two men courageously taunted the monster so it would swallow them. It eventually did so, a painful process that nearly killed the unfortunate Kindrasius. It was a terrible experience to be in the suffocating innards of the creature, but at least the two men could see where they were: some burning stones that might have once been a magical portal to a place of fire still burned within its digestive system. The two heroes immediately began furiously digging into the worm’s belly to escape with their lives: Manius, with Kaeso’s kukri, and Kindrasius with his draconic claws. They both made it out, escaping the worms’ stomach on opposite sides of the furious beast. But now, badly wounded and covered in slime, they were still adjacent to this terrible monster. Safety was not a sure thing at all, and both heroes realized that they hadn’t actually planned this far ahead: now what?
Thankfully, Manius still had in his pack the group’s last flying potion that they had received from Zoarth. He quickly drank it, flew up, located Kindrasius (who was drinking a healing potion and whose life was flashing in front of his eyes as Cindermaw was turning around to finish him off) and dove down, grabbing hold of his Shoanti companion and heroically lifting him in the air and flying off into the distance, only narrowly escaping Cindermaw’s deadly jaw!
They had done it! Manius and Kindrasius had replicated Skurak’s legend: they had been swallowed by the terrible Cindermaw, one of the deadliest creatures of the Storval Plateau, and they both lived to tell the tale!
And of course, Akram the truthspeaker had seen it all.
Once they were at a safe distance from Cindermaw, the Harrowed Company regrouped and Zeeva healed the wounded. Ahalak then announced that he would guide the heroes to Flameford: this was one of the more traditional Sklar-Quah camps, and it was the home of one of their Sun Shamans, who were the descendants of the spiritual leaders of the Shoanti who had lived in what was now Korvosa.
Moonday, Arodus 7th, 4708
Tshamek no more
After two more days of traveling, the group was approached by a group of Sklar-Quah burn-riders, courageous horse riders who had taught their mounts not to fear fire. They fiercely informed the tshamek that they were trespassing on their lands, but Kindrasius and Akram were able to convince them to escort them to the camp of Flameford. In the village, the group received a very tense welcome from the tshamek-hating Sklar-Quah tribesmen. Thankfully, the chief of the tribe, Ready-Klar, and the Sun Shaman, were reasonable enough to listen to Kindrasius and Akram. The group’s “friend” Krojun was also present at the camp, and listened with barely contained anger.
When Akram told the courageous deed of Kindrasius and Manius’s exploit against Cindermaw, several of the Sklar-Quah seemed astonished and sceptical, but none dared to challenge the words of a truth-speaker. The Sun Shaman and Chief Ready-Klar deliberated on this in a tent for one hour, during which the group felt the tension of many Sklar-Quah warriors on them. Krojun watched them balefully, with crossed arms. Kindrasius approached him and tried to men fences, but his words had the opposite effect of what he intended to do, and he ended up angering the hot-tempered Krojun even more.
Finally, the two leaders of the community emerged from the tent and gestured for the tshamek to approach the bonfire at the center of the village. Then, one by one, the Sun Shaman asked for the companions to say their names. He then announced that they were tshamek no more, and were to be considered Shoanti, free to roam the Sklar-Quah’s lands as they willed, as long as they respected the tribe’s peace and tradition. Many of the tribesmen seemed very upset by this, but again, none dared to challenge the Sun Shaman’s decision.
The group was offered the village’s hospitality, and a yurt to rest from their journey. Akram, however, bade good-bye to the group, saying that tradition forbade him from sharing a sunrise with the Sklar-Quah. He would return to his people, and Ahalak generously volunteered to escort him there.
Once they were in their yurt with the Sun Shaman, the groups explained to him the situation with Ileosa’s crown and their need to get information from the Sklar-Quah’s ancestors. Alas, there was yet one more obstacle in their way: the Sun Shaman stated that such information was only for the ears of the Sklar-Quah, and although the members of the Harrowed Company were no longer considered tshamek, neither were they members of his tribe. When she heard this, Zeeva lost her temper for the first time since her companions had met her. She began cursing the Sun Shaman in a mixture of the Chelaxian tongue and broken Shoanti, berating him for denying them such information after all that they had been through. The old man watched her with a somewhat amused expression and proposed a compromise: if they could pass the Trial of the Totems, then they would be judged worthy of becoming honorary members of the Sklar-Quah and would be eligible to hear the secrets.
Not knowing what this trial consisted of, but seeing they had little choice, the adventurers reluctantly agreed. The Sun Shaman refused to say more about the trial, but told the heroes that they should rest, for it would start just before sunrise the following day. Hipazia once again used the subterfuge of her magic, and read the mind of one of the Sklar-Quah tribesmen, seeing that the Trial of the Totems consisted of holding heavy stone totems on a nearby rise for two straight days with no water or food, and at the mercy of any local predator that came along.
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Toilday, Arodus 8th, 4708
The Trial of the Totems
The companions were woken up before dawn by the Sun Shaman. The Trial of the Totems was to take place today. The old Shoanti guided the Harrowed Company in the pre-dawn darkness on a 20-minute hike to a nearby two-tiered plateau called Bolt Rock.
The Sun Shaman showed the companions six large stone totems that were lying horizontally at the foot of the ramp leading up to the first level of the hill. They were ten feet long, quite wide, with a round bottom, and glowed faintly in the dark. The shaman explained that, at sunrise, the group would have one hour to bring them up to the first plateau, where they would be set in holes in the ground. Each companion would have to keep one totem upright until the next sunrise, when all totems would then be carried to the second plateau for another full day of keeping the totems upright. This was indeed to be a test of strength, endurance, willpower and patience.
The adventurers thought of several ways of making the trial easier, from filling the holes with sand to help keep the totems upright, to erecting magical walls to hold the totems or at least shelter them from the wind, but the sun shaman indicated that such shenanigans would disqualify them. Likewise, he informed the participants that they could be seen from Flameford, even at night, thanks to the glowing property of the totems.
Manius briefly inspected the ground nearby and noted the presence of various animals, but knew that Bulettes (monstrously large predators also called “land sharks”) roamed the region…
Sunrise soon came, and the companions began the arduous task of bringing the totems up to the first level. The things were, thankfully, hollow, which meant that they weren’t quite as heavy as anticipated, yet they were also more fragile. Still, the things were so ponderous that Hipazia couldn’t even make hers budge at all. Manius was able to lift one and move slowly around. Kindrasius and Zeeva were able to do this as well, but even more slowly than Manius. As a group effort, all totems were brought up and placed in vertical positions, and then one person was put in charge of keeping each one upright. The Sun Shaman wished everyone good luck and departed.
Then began the waiting. Time seemed to stretch endlessly; hours seemed unbearably long under the sun and at the mercy of the relentless wind. Thankfully, everyone was protected by Zeeva’s Endure Elements spells, and the cleric was able to conjure more food and water for everyone. Keeping the totems upright wasn’t that difficult most of the time, but required vigilance, as sudden gusts of win risked toppling them over.
Kindrasius and Trinia took turns telling tales, trying to pass the time and to keep the group’s morale high. Manius grimly endured the trial, reminding himself that these were just two unpleasant days to go through in order to save Korvosa. Hipazia tried to empty her mind and meditate to make time go faster. Kaeso was probably the one who suffered the most from boredom. This was like sheer torture for him, and he hated the Sklar-Quah with a passion for forcing the group to go through this stupid ritual. He didn’t give a damn about joining their stupid tribe anyway…
A few times during the day, there were a few close calls when a person’s totem almost fell to the ground, but most of the time, a second person was able to come and help to keep it upright. Only once did Hipazia’s totem fall to the ground, getting slightly damaged. The others helped her set it back up. The Sun Shaman had explained that if a totem fell, as long as it didn’t completely shatter and was quickly placed back in an upright position, the person could keep going with the trial.
After what seemed like an eternity, the sun went down and night fell. The companions were still waiting, standing next to their totems. Their muscles were aching: their arms, from holding the totems; their legs, from standing up all day. They even took quick turns for “bathroom breaks”, but alas, there was little privacy to be had in this place…
As people got more tired, holding the totems upright got more and more difficult. Kaeso and Trinia also dropped their totems once each, and Hipazia’s fell a second time. Hers was now starting to show serious damage. She worried that it would not survive a third fall…
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Wealday, Arodus 9th, 4708
At the second sunrise, Krojun came to check up on the group. The companions watched him warily as he observed their status with a critical eye. He snickered derisively when he saw that Kaeso’s totem had fallen and cracked. He then showed favouritism by praising Hipazia on her patience and resolve, despite the fact that her totem was in much worse shape than Kaeso’s. Krojun nodded with respect to Manius and Kindrasius, who were holding their totems without showing any sign of fatigue. Likewise, he was impressed that “mere women” like Zeeva and Trinia had made it this far.
Krojun then announced to the group that they were to bring their totems up to the second level. The companions wearily lifted the totems with aching arms and painfully brought them even higher up into a new set of six holes. Krojun then departed, and the second day of “torture” began.
It was long.
It was boring…
Kindrasius and Trinia didn’t have the energy to keep on telling stories anymore. Zeeva had cast Lesser Restoration on herself to fight off the fatigue, and Kaeso, Kindrasius and Hipazia drank potions for a similar effect. Only Manius and Trinia had to endure the fatigue on top of everything else. Trinia felt especially tired. Zeeva hadn’t had the chance to learn new spells, so it was Hipazia’s turn to shield everyone from the heat of the sun with the wand of Endure Elements that Thousand Bones had given them.
Trinia was so tired that she almost fell asleep standing up. She had a fatigue-induced vision of a pool of water, seeing her own reflection as an aurochs, and feeling that she was the guardian of the Cinderlands and had nothing to fear of predators.
Later, in the afternoon, Kindrasius alerted the rest of the group: he had noticed that some strange things were moving on the ground. It soon became apparent that what looked like shark fins moving along the rocky soil, were the tips of six monstrous Bulettes who had detected some prey!
Soon, the six creatures ascended Bolt Rock two by two and a brutal fight began. Kaeso and Kindrasius shot arrows at them and Hipazia blasted the monsters with two Fireballs and a newly-learned Disintegrate spell. Zeeva had her spear ready and skewered a Bulette as it charged her, killing the monster instantly! Manius and Trinia switched spots so the Hellknight would be closer to the fight. While the small blonde bard hung back and used her bardic magic to help everyone, holding Manius’s totem upright, the powerful warrior was beset by several Bulettes, and ended up killing four of them by himself! Zeeva was badly wounded, but finally, the last of the monsters was killed by Kaeso’s arrows.
Things had gone pretty well all in all: the group had survived a terribly dangerous encounter. Alas, in the tumult of battle, Trinia and Zeeva’s totems had been knocked to the ground, and Trinia’s had shattered in several places. She had, alas, been eliminated from the trial. She walked back toward Flameford, but met a group of Sklar-Quah riders along the way who had come to check up on the group. They were extremely impressed with the slaughter of six Bulettes!
The five remaining contestants continued their boring task of holding the totems in place. Eventually, night fell. They were all tired, so very tired…
Some time during the night, Hipazia’s totem fell again, and just as she had feared, it broke. She had come so close… but she had to get down from Bolt Rock and walk back to Flameford to go join Trinia in her tent. At least she got a few hours of well-deserved rest while the rest of the group was still stuck on Bolt Rock.
Oathday, Arodus 10th, 4708
The sun rose.
Four silhouettes stood atop Bolt Rock, each of them triumphantly still holding a huge totem upright.
Manius, Kaeso, Zeeva and Kindrasius had all endured the two-day-long Trial of the Totems!
The Sun Shaman and several members of the Sklar-Quah had come to Bolt Rock just at sunrise to witness the end of the ritual. With a warm smile, the old shaman congratulated the four champions and welcomed them all within the tribe of the Sklar-Quah!
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Oathday, Arodus 10th, 4708 (continued)
The adventurers took most of the day to rest from the ordeal of the Trial of the Totems in their tent at Flameford. When they finally emerged late in the day, their new brothers and sisters of the Sklar-Quah held a great feast in their honor. Gone was their status of tshamek, now they were truly received as members of the tribe. Kindrasius and Trinia told stories of their past adventures, especially regarding their encounter against Cindermaw. Krojun, drunk, approached Manius and offered a rematch of Sredna, only to be beaten again. Kaeso was approached by a beautiful bald Shoanti woman who made advances at him. She insisted, however, that he shave his hair if they were to get together – he politely refused the offer.
Things seemed to be going quite well now, and the heroes’ status had not only granted them the Sun Shaman’s promise that he would travel with them to the Kallow Mounds to reveal the secrets of the ancestors, but now the Sklar-Quah’s plans of attacking Korvosa had been abandoned: clearly, some tshamek were capable of great honor, and there was hope for peace with them after all.
During the day, Hipazia was able to not only notice that Trinia was being scried on, but she caught a glimpse of the originator of the spell: a tall red-haired young woman dressed all in blood-read leather - clearly a member of the Red Mantis, and probably the infamous “Cinnabar” that a captive assassin had told them about in the Acropolis. Cinnabar was furious that Hipazia had thwarted her spell, and she cut the connection abruptly
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Sunday, Arodus 13th, 4708
Cinnabar’s strike
It took three days to travel from Flameford back to the Kallow Mounds, the territory of the Skoan-Quah, Kindrasius’s birth tribe. Besides the Sun Shaman himself, Krojun and three thundercallers also accompanied their new brothers and sisters of the Harrowed Company. The group approached the Kallow Mounds late on the third day, but soon became aware that something was amiss: there were cries and sounds of battle being carried by the wind coming from the Skoan-Quah village. The glow of fires revealed many humanoid shapes fighting on the ground, with a large number of flying creatures hovering over the tents, and periodically diving down to attack! Over the din of battle came two noticeable noises: the roar of Wicked-Claws the dragonne that was the defender of the village, and some eerie screams that reminded the characters of Jolistina’s screaming bolts.
“The tshamek devil!” growled Krojun as he launched his horse at a gallop toward the Kallow Mounds, soon to be followed by everyone else.
As the group approached, they saw that the warriors of the Skoan-Quah were facing a large number of Red Mantis assassins and foul gargoyles. They were fighting bravely, but they seemed about to be overwhelmed – the arrival of the adventurers and their Sklar-Quah brothers could not have been timelier! As they got closer, the heroes also recognized the familiar silhouette of Shadowcount Sial’s Bone Tower standing beyond the tents, on the other side of the village.
The Harrowed Company hurried toward the left side of the village, to come to the aid of several Skoan-Quah, while Krojun, the Sun Shaman (now in the form of a huge fire elemental) and the thundercallers went to help to the right. A Shoanti man and a Shoanti woman were fighting four gargoyles, while a familiar-looking, pale-skinned woman was kneeling next to the body of an old Shoanti woman who had collapsed to the ground. Manius and Kaeso were the first ones to come to their aid. The Hellknight rode atop his great warhorse, sowing destruction with his heavy flail, while Kaeso rushed one enemy after the other, striking deadly surprise attacks with devastating effects. Both men were empowered with the magic of Zellara’s Harrow, which made them even more dangerous than usual. As they saved the Shoanti from the gargoyles, they realized that the pale-skinned woman was none other than Laori Vaus, who was using her healing magic to keep Kindrasius’s mother (who had been badly wounded by the Red Mantis) alive.
“Hi guys!” exclaimed the elf cheerfully, as if she were unaware of the battle raging on around her.
Hipazia came to the aid of the warriors and blasted a gargoyle with Scorching Rays. Manius and Zeeva then went to the aid of a woman who was trying to defend her children against another foursome of gargoyles. Hipazia aided them with a powerful Lightning Bolt that nearly killed two of the monsters. Kindrasius and Trinia aided the rest of the group with bardic magic and deadly arrows. The gargoyles tried to kill Hipazia, but she was well-defended by Manius and Zeeva, who finished off these foul creatures.
Meanwhile, Kaeso headed deeper into the village, and ran into Thousand Bones, Shadowcount Sial and Asyra fighting side-by-side against a large group of Red Mantis and gargoyles. Many enemies already lay defeated at their feet, and it seemed that, although they had slain many, they had expended most of their spells and were about to get overwhelmed. Farther beyond them, Kaeso caught glimpses of Chief One-Life and the dragonne Wicked-Claws fighting more enemies, with more of the Skoan-Quah warriors helping them.
As Kaeso approached, he also noticed an unshaven Chelaxian who aimed a repeating crossbow at Thousand Bones. He had a cougar pet at his side, and Kaeso understood that this was the infamous “Cinderlander” who had killed so many Shoanti. Striking suddenly, Kaeso nearly killed one of the Red Mantis assassins with one blow. He was then surrounded by two of the assassins, but was so agile that he could avoid their deadliest attacks and only suffered superficial wounds.
Soon, the rest of the Harrowed Company came to his aid. Manius and Zeeva were ambushed by two more Red Mantis assassins that had been hiding behind a tent, but were only lightly wounded. A big battle took place against the Red Mantis. Thousand Bones and the worshippers of Zon-Kuthon seemed quite relieved to see the adventurers come to aid them. Manius struck mighty blows and felled several enemies, but he was severely wounded by the Cinderlander’s screaming bolts. Thankfully, he kept on fighting despite the blood loss and the unnerving sound of the projectiles. He felt extremely focused in this fight, as he had foreseen it in Zellara’s Harrow reading.
Finally, Hipazia was able to paralyze the Cinderlander with a spell while the rest of the group killed the Red Mantis. Kaeso rushed the hunter’s cougar and killed it in one shot. Manius, badly bleeding, approached the Cinderlander atop his horse and removed the crossbow from his unmoving hands. It’s only then that the Cinderlander escaped the paralysis, but he was now defenceless and surrounded. There was no mercy to be had for him, as Kindrasius sought vengeance for the countless Shoanti he had killed, and shot several arrows at him. Kaeso finished off the Cinderlander, but as soon as the man fell, Hipazia and Zeeva rushed to stem his blood flow, wanting to keep him prisoner. Laori followed them eagerly, already taking out her torture implements and volunteering to question him.
Once the Cinderlander was stabilized and manacled, Zeeva and Thousand Bones performed some quick healing of everyone. Kindrasius found himself standing close to Shadowcount Sial, and the white-haired man fixed him with his dark eyes and smiled grimly.
“Our paths cross again, as was foretold…” said the priest.
Alas, the adventurers had little time to catch their breath, as their final set of opponents approached. The tall red-haired woman that Hipazia had seen by scrying and Kaeso had seen during the Harrow reading made her appearance, with four more Red Mantis assassins at her side, as well as two giant praying mantises of a blood-red color.
Cinnabar eyed the companions with cold eyes devoid of any emotion. “The Harrowed Company… we meet at last. If you hadn’t been so damned hard to catch, all these savages wouldn’t have needed to die. But now, it’s too late. Your final hour has come at last. I’ll enjoy killing you, especially you, Lady Leroung, who kept disrupting my scrying. Your blood will soon flow on my swords…” and she showed her two long serrated blades, which were already slick with the blood of many unfortunate members of the Skoan-Quah clan.
“Not if I disintegrate you first, my dear!” spat Hipazia as she began weaving the magic of her most destructive spell…
Manius and Kaeso were the first two to act: they charged ahead and each of them quickly killed one of the giant praying mantises. Both summoned insects disappeared in a haze of blood-red gas. Then, the two adventurers were each ganged up on by two assassins. Kaeso was able to evade their attacks with his uncanny dexterity, but poor Manius was badly wounded despite his magical armor. Cinnabar used some kind of magic to become invisible, and Hipazia cursed, halting her casting mid-way and casting a spell to see invisibility instead.
“Watch out, Manius, she’s coming for you!” she called out.
Meanwhile, Shadowcount Sial, Asyra, Laori and Thousand Bones were fighting more gargoyles that had swooped down from the skies to harass them. Zeeva joined Manius and wounded one of the Red Mantis assassins with her spear. Kindrasius shot his powerful arrows from further back, while Trinia bolstered everyone’s attacks with her bardic magic.
Alas, Cinnabar used invisibility and the distraction provided by one of her underlings to strike terrible blows on Manius. The mighty Hellknight had taken too many wounds and was now bleeding from many places. It was too much, even for him. He collapsed from his horse…
“Nooo!!” exclaimed Zeeva.
The priestess of Pharasma and Kaeso kept on fighting the remaining assassins with the help of Kindrasius. Hipazia tried to disintegrate Cinnabar, but alas, the agile leader of the Red Mantis avoided the deadly spell twice, and it had no effect.
Suddenly, Cinnabar winced in pain as Zeeva wounded her, but then she exclaimed: “Behold, priestess, the power of Achaekek, assassin of the gods!” And with that, she transformed into a gigantic praying mantis and struck Zeeva with her sharp appendages. Zeeva and Cinnabar fought for a while, giver of life versus giver of death, while the rest of the group killed the rest of the Red Mantis assassins.
Finally, as Cinnabar was the last enemy standing, her thick insect’s shell was pierced by Zeeva’s mighty magical spear. Blood poured out of the wound and the insect-woman let out a keening wail. As life left her and her magic failed, she reverted back to her human form. She had been impaled completely by the strength of Zeeva’s blow.
The cold cruelty had finally left her eyes, and was replaced by what seemed like gratitude and relief as she gazed at Zeeva in her last moments of life. “I’m free now, mother…” she muttered before dying.
She seemed finally at peace…
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Sunday, Arodus 13th, 4708 (continued)
The Aftermath
Zeeva rushed to heal Manius, and stopped the blood flow just in time to prevent him from dying. He had come very close to becoming Cinnabar’s last victim. All around, Thousand Bones, Ash Dancer and a few other healers were also using the last bits of magical energy left at their disposal to heal the most wounded among the Skoan-Quah. The battle had taken a deadly toll on the tribe: around one third of its members had been slain, including Chief One-Life. The adventurers of the Harrowed Company heard this with stoic demeanours, while within their minds, they were making not-so-witty observations about the irony of the chief’s name, especially since Thousand Bones indicated that his wishes had been to remain with the spirits after death, and not to be resurrected.
The companions took some time to loot their enemies and distributed their most valuable magical items amongst themselves. They also kept a close eye on the captive Cinderlander, who was at risk of being murdered by vengeful Shoanti.
The Harrowed Company, along with Krojun, the Sun Shaman and the other warriors of the Sklar-Quah, had saved the village. Without them, the Skoan-Quah of the Kallow Mounds would likely have been slaughtered by the Red Mantis, although after giving them a very difficult opposition. Around thirty Red Mantis assassins and a similar number of gargoyles had died.
Shadowcount Sial invited the adventurers to spend the night in the Bone Tower, but only Manius accepted the offer. They took the Cinderlander with them, and secured him with chains. Laori and Sial then began preparing the man for the following day’s questioning, which meant that they basically tortured him out of spite, making sure to hurt him but to keep him alive and conscious. Manius took interest in the proceedings and could not prevent himself from testing his newest Hellknight power: with a mere touch of his finger, the unfortunate Cinderlander was wracked with terrible pain. The man was tough and endured it as well as any mortal could hope to, but he still spent a very unpleasant couple of hours. The two priests of Zon-Kuthon seemed very interested in Manius’s ability to cause pain with a mere touch.
“You swine…” panted the Cinderlander. “You are Chelaxians… why… are you helping these savages?”
But unfortunately, his question remained unanswered by anything other than more torture.
Once the entertainment was over, Laori accompanied the (still very badly wounded) Manius to his room and helped him out of his armor. She swooned over his impressive physique and his many battle-scars, which she traced with her delicate fingers. One thing led to another, and the two found themselves spending the night together, a night of passion filled with both pleasure and pain…
Meanwhile, the other members of the Harrowed Company rested carefully in a large tent that had been assigned to them, setting watches in case any Red Mantis were still in the area, but they were, thankfully, undisturbed during the entire night.
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Moonday, Arodus 14th, 4708
Interrogation
The following day was rather grim, and consisted mostly of cleaning up the village and burying the dead Skoan-Quah. The adventurers lent whatever help they could. They noticed that Manius seemed quite joyful, despite the fact that he seemed, strangely enough, in even worse shape than the night before. Some mysterious scratches had appeared at several places on his body; perhaps they were the fingernail marks of a certain elven woman… Zeeva sighed and healed him properly.
The group questioned the Cinderlander, who became enthralled by Hipazia’s enchantment magic. They learned that he had been hired by the Red Mantis in Kaer Maga, as he was one of the best guides to the Cinderlands. He had worked with them for the past few weeks. He confirmed that Cinnabar had been in charge of them and had been scrying on the group.
His hatred for the Shoanti came from the fact that his entire village, including his family, had been slaughtered by Shoanti warriors some years ago. The members of the Harrowed Company listened with nothing but jaded sarcasm for his plight. Once his tale was finished, Hipazia cancelled her enchantment and prepared to hand him over to the Shoanti to be executed. The Cinderlander kept a brave face despite his impeding doom, and Hipazia toyed with him, mentioning that she would raise him back as an undead to prevent him from joining his loved ones in the afterlife. She was only bluffing, but she enjoyed sensing his fear through telepathy. Once she was done toying with him, she handed him over to the Skoan-Quah, who had him executed in front of the entire village.
Once that was done, Zeeva questioned the spirit of Cinnabar and learned that there were around thirty Red Mantis assassins left in Korvosa, and that their leader was called Mistress Kayltanya. She asked Cinnabar to clarify her dying words, and the assassin explained that she had been raised among the Red Mantis, but lacked the cruelty and killer instinct that her mother had hoped to see in her. Because of this, Cinnabar had been cursed since her childhood to be forced to kill at least one person every week. The horrible experience had driven all emotion from her soul, and she had become a dispassionate killer. But during all those years, she had been a prisoner of that curse, seeking only to escape. Only death had freed her.
Once again, this sad tale was met with detached cynicism on the part of the members of the Harrowed Company. Further questions informed them that Queen Ileosa had indeed become much more powerful since she had begun wearing the Crown of Fangs. Two mages of the Acadamae were among her main allies: Togomor (the new Seneschal) and Professor Karpangram. To the group’s relief, Lord Toff Ornelos, rumored to be an extremely powerful wizard, was not among the queen’s allies (at least, not to Cinnabar’s knowledge).
During the rest of the day, Zeeva and Hipazia contacted several of the group’s allies with Sending spells:
- Ziria Fordyce was doing well; her family was slowly returning to the city now that the plague was over, and she mentioned that they were on the rise under the new order.
- Hipazia’s family members were still at the Leroung estate in Harse, prudently staying out of Korvosa for now. They seemed safe for the moment.
- Blackjack and Nicklod were still part of the rebellion, along with Cressida Kroft (now stripped of her military rank and working in the shadows), Bishop Keppira D’Bear, Ishani Dhatri, Grau Soldado and Amin Jalento among others. Sadly, the beautiful golden-haired and long-legged paladin Poss had seemingly been captured by the Gray Maidens, and was most likely being indoctrinated…
During the day, Krojun approached Hipazia and courted her. The beautiful young noblewoman humored him politely, but she had no desire to interact with him in any way. She took her duty as a member of the Leroung family very seriously, and knew she was expected to marry someone from the Chelaxian nobility. Although she already had eyes on the throne of Korvosa, if she ever obtained it, she wanted a cultured and refined husband to rule at her side.
Trinia was similarly rebuffed by Kaeso. The young woman felt miserable that the handsome young man, who had a reputation for “doing it with anything that moves” had judged her un-shag-worthy… She spent the rest of the day sulking.
Kindrasius, who still harboured a hope of one day winning over Zeeva’s heart, introduced the dark priestess of Pharasma to his mother, Ash-Dancer. The old Shoanti woman seemed to respect the priestess of death, and the feeling was mutual.
Later, when questioned about their presence in the Shoanti camp, Laori explained to Kindrasius that Shadowcount Sial had powers of prescience and divination. He had somehow known that the Harrowed Company would find useful information in this place, and had brought her here to help out. However, Laori confided that she didn’t like Sial so much, as he was very secretive and kept her in the dark on several issues. She warned Kindrasius that he should not trust him too much.
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Speaking with the spirits
That night, the ceremony to speak with the ancestor of the Sun Shaman, which was the goal of the group’s entire series of trials in the Cinderlands, finally look place. Thousand Bones, Ash Dancer, the Sun Shaman, Krojun and the four new members of the Sklar-Quah (Kaeso, Zeeva, Manius and Kindrasius) went together to where the Sklar-Quah ancestors’ remains were being kept. None other was allowed to come, including Hipazia, Trinia and the followers of Zon-Kuthon.
It was a fairly complex ritual that involved sitting around a fire, decorating one’s body with ritualistic paint, smoking holy herbs, chanting, humming and holding hands. Although it was very unusual for the ex-tshamek adventurers, the herbs soothed their senses and opened their minds. After some time, they became aware of translucent spirits appearing all around them. Most of them were strangers, seemingly of Shoanti origins, but a few of them could be recognized as the adventurers’ loved ones who had passed away: Miss Edelbark, Kindrasius’s foster mother/lover; Manius’s mother; Zeeva’s parents and her brother Aldern (barely recognizable as a horrific undead monster).
Kaeso was also sad to see his father, who had mysteriously disappeared during his childhood. A body had been found after he had stolen an extremely valuable necklace from the Fordyce family one evening, but young Kaeso had always clung to the hope that it had been a mere decoy planted by his father to elude pursuit. Now, alas, he had confirmation that his father was no more. The spirit approached Kaeso, started a gesture to place his hand on his shoulder, then thought better of it, as he was now incorporeal.
“Son,” he said in a voice from beyond the grave, “you’re now a grown man. Not bad with the blade, either, from what I’ve heard. Listen, my boy. You’ve got to avenge me… from the b##%% who backstabbed me.”
Kaeso felt a lump in his throat, but was able to ask: “The Countess?”
“Yes… I’ve heard that nowadays she goes by the name Vimanda… Find her for me, Kaeso… Kill her… and get back the necklace! It should be yours, now…”
Vimanda… That horrible woman again… the one who kidnapped little children and who had tortured Kaeso and Kindrasius below Arkona Manor…
Another familiar spirit came to join the companions: Zellara. Unlike the others, who finally faded back into the spirit world, Zellara remained and even sat down, cross-legged, among the group. Thousand Bones and Ash Dancer noticed, with some surprise, that this spirit had an unusually strong tie to the real world.
“Yeah, she’s an old friend of ours,” said Kaeso.
For some time, the Sun Shaman spoke with one of his ancestors, a gaunt old man. He then related what he had heard to the Harrowed Company. Several hundred years ago, long before the coming of the Chelaxians in Varisia, his ancestor had been contacted by a powerful hero from a land to the east, a man named Mandraivus. This knight was gathering a group of powerful and pure-hearted individual from various places in Golarion to oppose a monstrous tyrant named Kazavon, who ruled from his sinister fortress of Scarwall in the lands between Varisia and Ustalav, to the east.
The Sun Shaman’s ancestor agreed to help Mandraivus; along with other heroes, they were able to infiltrate Scarwall and, after an epic battle that cost the lives of many of them, defeated Kazavon, who turned out in fact to be an extremely powerful blue dragon. So mighty was this monster that he was nearly immune to all forms of attack, except Mandraivus’s sword, Serithtial, a blade forged by Iomedae, the goddess of justice.
And yet, even once he was slain by Serithtial, Kazavon’s body kept trying to come back to life. The only way the heroes were able to prevent his resurrection was to separate seven key parts of its body: Mandraivus asked seven of his remaining companions to each take one of the seven body parts and bring it, in utmost secrecy, to a safe place where it would be watched over, hopefully forever. None of the seven were to tell the others where they were going, not even to Mandraivus himself.
The Sun Shaman’s ancestor was task to handle Kazavon’s fangs, which he brought back to a holy site that was in fact the pyramid atop of which Castle Korvosa now stood. For many years, the wise old shaman watched over the dark relic, only informing his son and his most trusted disciples of the evil that he had placed within a secret chamber under the pyramid. Then, for several generations, the wise and powerful shamans of the following generations watched over this artifact of great evil. But alas, as everyone knew, three hundred years ago, the armies of Cheliax had driven them away, leaving no-one to watch over the “Midnight Fangs”, nor to even remember their existence or their location.
This story rang true to the characters: when he heard about Kazavon, this terribly evil blue dragon, Kindrasius somehow knew he had a link to him. It was his voice he had heard in his head among the numerous other voices during his years of insanity: the most terrible voice of them all… And he was sure that it was Kazavon’s spirit that had also tormented Salvator through nightmares, and had inspired him to draw those dreadful paintings, especially that one of the man standing before a field of impaled victims, removing the skin of his hands and revealing blue scales beneath.
Kazavon…
The essence of the monstrous dragon had touched the souls of Kindrasius, Salvator and seemingly those other artists who had committed suicide, and whose skulls Laori Vaus had collected during her stay in Korvosa…
And now, it seemed that a fragment of Kazavon’s soul actually lived within Ileosa, who surely had somehow found the Midnight Fangs below her husband’s castle… And had obtained this source of immense power…
The Sun Shaman nodded wisely when the adventurers mentioned this possibility. Ileosa’s survival of Commandant Endrin’s attack: how fast she had regenerated from receiving an arrow through the neck, totally resembled the tales regarding Kazavon’s near-invulnerability. What’s more, he mused that someone with two souls would become extremely powerful. While the shamans of old had been strong enough to resist the influence of the Midnight Fangs, the weak mind of a petty young queen had likely not had the same defences… and now, her mean and vain mind had likely been corrupted into a form of evil a thousand times fouler. With Kazavon’s powers at her disposal, there was no stopping her…
… except perhaps for the one thing that had once, long ago, laid Kazavon low: Serithtial.
As far as the Sun Shaman knew, when his ancestor had left Scarwall along with the six others who carried the six other parts of Kazavon’s body, Mandraivus had remained behind with a handful of warriors to hold the citadel. But legend said that one of the many hordes of orcs who lived in this dreadful land called the Hold of Belkzen had attacked Scarwall not long afterwards… Although most of these orcs had seemingly perished, Mandraivus and his men had never been heard from again, either. And Scarwall had been a haunted, cursed and avoided place since then. None of those who had entered it in the centuries since Kazavon’s fall had returned…
The way forward seemed dangerous, but clear to the Harrowed Company: they would travel to Scarwall and try to claim Serithtial, which seemed their best hope of defeating Queen Ileosa.
Zellara informed the group that she had heard songs about the sacred blade of Mandraivus in the spirit world, even though Mandraivus’s soul itself had never traveled to Pharasma’s realm. She sang in a clear voice:
”Fate of steel—Serithtial
Her cage for years sustained
Four enthralled in lost Scarwall;
Undead to keep her chained.
A spirit first, red war his thirst
Still stands at post of old;
A second foe, infernal soul
Waits high in tower cold.
In kennel’s grime third bides his time
Then vents his killing breath.
And on a stone ’mid ash and bone,
The final dreams of death.
The spirits worn and battletorn
And locked in their damnation,
The chained one’s hold at last grows old
And ushers in salvation.
Yet hope remains amid the chains
When blade’s stone cage has crumbled,
Friends to dread and the death of the dead,
Keys to Kazavon humbled.”
Zellara then once again gave a Harrow Reading to the companions, explaining that their very souls would be in danger in sinister Scarwall. The cards marked with the star would be key to their survival.
Then, with the help of Thousand Bones and Ash Dancer who created a bridge between the Harrowed Company and the Spirit World, each of the four companions was blessed by Zellara in a way they had never been before: their weapon or armor was imbued with special powers to fight the spirits of the haunted castle.
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Technically, we’re not oathbreakers…
It was very late in the night when the companions approached their tent, but Hipazia, Trinia and the worshippers of Zon-Kuthon had been waiting for them. The oath that the group had given the Sklar-Quah stipulated that they were forbidden from speaking of what the Sun Shaman had told them to those not of the tribe. Kaeso and Kindrasius remained very evasive when questioned by Shadowcount Sial about the ritual: they merely said that the queen possessed a powerful artifact that required another artifact to destroy it. They said weren’t sure what it was or where to find it: they would sleep on it and consult Pharasma the following day.
Shadowcount Sial fixed them with unblinking dark eyes… had he believed their lie?
Later, all six members of the Harrowed Company regrouped in their tent, where Zellara reappeared and did another Harrow reading specifically for Hipazia. Once she was gone, and before getting ready to sleep, the group had Hipazia cast a Telepathic Bond on herself, Trinia, Kindrasius and Manius. Then, the two men brought the two women up to speed via telepathy. This way of proceeding soothed Manius’s sense of honor: “Technically, we’re not cheating,” he pointed out. “We’re not actually speaking.”
Trinia proved her worth as a master bard by giving more information to the rest of the group: she knew that Kazavon had been a chosen of Zon-Kuthon, in addition to being a warlord and a gigantic blue dragon. She gazed uneasily at Kindrasius, suspicious of his link to the dreaded monster of legend…
She also informed the group that Kazavon had first appeared as a mercenary captain in service of a young nobleman called Count Andachi of Tamrivena, from the land of Ustalav, around seven hundred years ago. For centuries, the county of Tamrivena had been assaulted by orcs coming from the Hold of Belkzen to the west, but the territory had always been heroically defended by its powerful orders of knights, and the valiant counts leading them.
Unfortunately, young Count Andachi possessed none of the courage or battle prowess of his ancestors. Unable to fight off the orcs by his own means, he had struck a bargain with Zon-Kuthon for the protection of his lands. The mighty Kazavon had appeared not long after, seemingly as a coincidence, but it would later be revealed that he had in fact been an envoy of the Midnight Lord.
For some time, Kazavon served Count Andachi well: he slaughtered countless orcs, and drove them back far into the Hold of Belkzen, where he established his own impregnable fortress of Scarwall. Alas, some time later, he turned against Andachi, murdering him, as well as countless soldiers and knights of valor, undoing all the good he had done by destroying the orcs. Kazavon had ruled for many years, threatening the lands all around, repelling the attacks of human and orc armies alike. He ruled with an iron fist and committed horrible tortures on his captured enemies. It was only by the courage, skill and prowess of Mandraivus, the hero of Lastwall, and a gathered band of heroes, that the despot had finally been slain.
Kindrasius decided that the following day, they would use the Elixir of Shadewalking they had found on Cinnabar to travel to Scarwall in secret: he did not wish for Shadowcount Sial to accompany them and put their mission in jeopardy. He suspected that the priest had goals that were in conflict with the group’s.
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The Harrow Reading
The Chosen:
- Kindrasius: The Queen Mother. (A strange female monster made partly of gray skin and partly of metal; her right arm ends in a sharp scythe blade).
- Kaeso: The Carnival. (A crowd of couples dancing happily together at a fancy ball, but at the center of this celebration stands Death itself…)
- Hipazia: The Lost. (A worm of monstrous proportions with spikes coming out of its foul flesh and a strangely human face)
- Manius: The Winged Serpent. (A great black-scaled dragon).
- Zeeva: The Publican. (A skeleton clad in armor and whose skull is wreathed in flames)
Kindrasius
Past: The Wanderer, the Rabbit Prince and the Marriage.
Present: The Trumpet, the Joke and the Dance.
Future: The Twin, the Empty Throne and the Juggler.
Zellara’s interpretation:
“For your present, the Trumpet and the Dance are in opposition. One represents your courage, and your desire to solve all the world’s problems by yourself, but the Dance indicates that everyone and everything has its place… And that sometimes you can’t do everything by yourself. You might receive help from people you wouldn’t expect.”
“In your future, I see some trickery... Your plans will face a setback as you make your move against someone who is not who you think it is.”
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Manius
Past: The Mute Hag, the Midwife and the Desert.
Present: The Liar, the Winged Serpent and the Demon Lantern.
Future: The Hidden Truth, the Tyrant and the Inquisitor.
Zellara’s interpretation:
“The Winged Serpent comes again in your reading: you are destined to fight this deadly black dragon, although the cards indicate that its powers might not be those that you could expect…”
“The Hidden Truth: you will make a tremendous discovery in Scarwall… I am sure this card indicates Serithtial itself. Hmm… I also see the Tyrant, Kazavon himself, in your future, and an “Inquisitor” opposing your goals… Could this be one of the Hellknights?”
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Kaeso
Past: The Hidden Truth, the Joke and the Foreign Trader.
Present: The Teamster, the Mountain Man and the Rakshasa.
Future: The Desert, the Liar and the Empty Throne.
Zellara’s interpretation:
“In your reading, I see a difficult obstacle… Surely Scarwall… And within it, there is an entity that controls others… That keeps them as slaves. Their servitude is what gives it power. As long as they are its slaves, it cannot be defeated.”
“Your future is clearly outlined here: the desert represents a difficult journey through a dangerous place: reaching Scarwall in the orc-infested Hold of Belkzen, and the Empty Throne represents the restless dead who will oppose you… Hmm… To be clearer, you should be very careful when you are in a place that was once a throne, or a place of power within Scarwall. You will be especially in danger there.”
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Hipazia
Past: The Keep, the Tyrant and the Fiend.
Present: The Avalanche, the Lost and the Wanderer.
Future: The Carnival, the Big Sky and the Tangled Briar.
Zellara’s interpretation:
“Scarwall’s past is strongly present in your reading: the Keep represents Scarwall itself, and how it was taken from the grasp of Kazavon – the Tyrant. Yet the Fiend is the truly strong card in this placement: it is a True Match, and we should be reminded that Kazavon was NOT truly slain...
“The rest of your reading revolves around this “Lost” card that you picked for as your chosen card. This hideous monster, wracked in pain, who lives alone in the darkness. He was cursed for his misdeeds.”
“In your future, I see this strange dance that Kaeso also glimpsed as his chosen card. Be very careful not to let yourself become enthralled, entangled, by the seductive music, otherwise you will become a pawn of death, just like the other dancers.”
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Zeeva
Past: The Desert, the Empty Throne and the Fiend.
Present: The Joke, the Twin and the Juggler.
Future: The Dance, the Unicorn and the Vision.
Zellara’s interpretation:
“In your reading reading, the menace of Kazavon, who was never truly slain, looms like a shadow despite his defeat, his “empty throne”.”
“I sense another group on a similar quest such as yours… Hmm… Perhaps the Priests of Zon-Kuthon. I sense an obstacle ahead in your quest that will not be surmountable without their help. Yet I also see that among them there is one who relies too much on his ability to manipulate the future, and that he will come to regret it at some point.”
“The card of the Dance indicates that we will need to part company in the future, though its placement in your reading hints that we will meet again.”
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Here are the characters at level 11:
Kindrasius Edelbark (aka: Bagas-Tawoga) (N Male Shoanti Ranger/Bard/Draconic Disciple, Level 2/4/5) – Worships Pharasma
Str: 18 Dex: 17 Con: 15 Int: 13 Wis: 8 Cha: 20
AC: 24 HP: 110 Fortitude: +10 Reflex: +12 Will: +7
Initiative: +7 Speed: 30’
Melee attacks: Masterwork earthbreaker +13/+8 (2d6+7, x3)
Ranged attacks: +1 holy longbow (+2 str) +13/+8 (1d8+5, x3)
Height: 6’4”. Weight: 160 lbs, Age: 24, Hair: Black, Eyes: Green.
This tall and thin man has long black hair and is dressed in dark, patched-up studded leather armor. He wears a black tricorn hat and a black cloak with a hood.
Feats: Precise Shot, Point Blank Shot, Weapon focus: longbow, Rapid Shot, Arcane Strike, Deadly Aim, Improved Initiative, Leadership, Toughness, Manyshot.
Traits: Magical Talent, Orphaned.
Skills: Acrobatics 17, Appraise 5, Bluff 11, Climb 8, Diplomacy (via Versatile Performance) 21, Disguise 9, Escape artist 7, Knowledge: Arcana 11, Knowledge: History 7, Knowledge: Local 8, Knowledge: Religion 7, Linguistics 5, Perception 12, Perform: Dance 10, Perform: Oratory 21, Sense Motive (via Versatile Performance) 21, Spellcraft 9, Stealth 17, Survival 5, Swim 8, Use magical device 9.
Favored enemies: Undead +2.
Languages: Common, Shoanti, Varisian, Draconic.
Main equipment: Holy longbow +1 [+2 str], Mithral chainshirt +2, Masterwork earthbreaker, Flask of curses, Bag of Holding Type 1, Cloak of resistance +1, Ring of protection +2, Headband of charisma +2, Belt of dexterity/constitution +2.
= = = =
Kaeso (CG Male Human (Chelaxian/Varisian mix) Rogue/Duelist, Level 8/3) – Worships Cayden Cailean
Str: 13 Dex: 20 Con: 14 Int: 15 Wis: 11 Cha: 19
AC: 26 HP: 94 Fortitude: +7 Reflex: +15 Will: +5
Initiative: +11 Speed: 30’
Melee attacks: +1 rapier +15/+10 (1d6+2, 15-20).
Ranged attacks: +1 composite shortbow (+1 str) +14/+9 (1d6+2, x3)
Height: 5’9”. Weight: 168 lbs. Age: 19, Hair: Auburn, Eyes: Black.
Feats: Weapon Finesse, Improved Initiative, Dodge, Mobility, Combat Reflexes, Dazzling Display.
Rogue talents: Trap spotter, Power attack, Two-weapon fighting, Improved Critical (rapier).
Traits: Framed (Family Honor), Fast Talker.
Skills: Acrobatics 16, Appraise 6, Bluff 18, Climb 5, Diplomacy 15, Disable Device 22, Disguise 11, Escape Artist 11, Intimidate 18, Knowledge: Dungeoneering 6, Knowledge: Local 6, Perception: 14, Perform: Dance 9, Sense Motive 13, Sleight of Hand 17, Stealth 19, Swim 5, Use Magical Device 18.
Languages: Common, Shoanti, Varisian, Sylvan.
Main equipment: Mithral chain shirt +4, Rapier +1, Composite shortbow +1 (+1 str), Ring of protection +1, Cloak of resistance +2, Kukri +1, Red mantis mask, Belt of dexterity/constitution +2, Headband of charisma +2.
= = = =
Hipazia Leroung (LG Female Chelaxian Wizard, Level 11) – Worships Irori
Str: 8 Dex: 16 Con: 10 Int: 21 Wis: 16 Cha: 16
AC: 17 HP: 62 Fortitude: +6 Reflex: +7 Will: +11
Initiative: +8 Speed: 30’
Melee attacks: Masterwork Quarterstaff +5 (1d6-1, x2)
Ranged attacks: +1 light crossbow +9 (1d8+1, 19-20)
Height: 5’9”. Weight: 137 lbs. Age: 25, Hair: Blonde, Eyes: Brown.
Favored school: Divination
Prohibited schools: Illusion, Necromancy.
Bonded Item: quarterstaff.
Feats: Scribe Scroll, Combat Casting, Toughness, Spell Focus: Evocation, Spell penetration, Great fortitude, Point blank shot, Greater spell penetration, Precise shot, Still spell.
Traits: Framed (Dropout), Mathematical Prodigy.
Skills: Appraise 11, Bluff 5, Diplomacy 14, Intimidate 6, Knowledge: Arcana 12, Knowledge: Dungeoneering 18, Knowledge: Engineering 11, Knowledge: Geography 10, Knowledge: History 10, Knowledge: Local 11, Knowledge: Nature 10, Knowledge: Nobility 10, Knowledge: Planes 11, Knowledge: Religion 11, Linguistics 9, Perception 13, Sense Motive 14, Spellcraft 21.
Languages: Common, Varisian, Celestial, Infernal, Draconic, Shoanti.
Main equipment: Quarterstaff (bonded item), Spellbook, Cloak of resistance +1, Bracers of armor +2, Ring of protection +1, Pearl of power (level 1), Belt of dexterity +2, Headband of intellect +2 (Knowledge: Dungeoneering), Amulet of natural armor +1.
= = = =
Manius Alazario (LN Male Chelaxian Fighter/Hellknight, Level 5/6) – Worships Abadar
Str: 22 Dex: 16 Con: 18 Int: 14 Wis: 9 Cha: 10
AC: 27 HP: 123 Fortitude: +13 Reflex: +9 Will: +6
Initiative: +9 Speed: 40’
Melee attacks: +1 heavy flail +20/+15/+10 (1d10+13, 19-20)
Height: 6’2”. Weight: 250 lbs, Age: 22, Hair: Black, Eyes: Brown.
Feats: Power Attack, Cleave, Intimidating Prowess, Great Cleave, Nimble Moves, Improved Initiative, Lunge, Weapon focus (heavy flail), Iron Will, Improved critical (heavy flail).
Traits: Unhappy Childhood (Tortured), Reactionary.
Skills: Acrobatics 4, Climb 8, Handle Animal 5, Intimidate 17, Knowledge: Dungeoneering 7, Knowledge: Engineering 7, Knowledge: Local 7, Knowledge: Nature 3, Knowledge: Nobility 3, Knowledge: Planes 4, Perception 12, Ride 10, Sense Motive 4, Survival 6, Swim 7.
Languages: Common, Infernal, Varisian, Shoanti.
Main equipment: Hellknight armor +3, Heavy Flail +1, Ring of Feather Falling, Amulet of natural armor +1, Cloak of resistance +2, Ring of protection +1, Boots of striding and springing, Red Mantis helm, Belt of strength +2.
= = = =
Zeeva Foxglove (NG Female Chelaxian Cleric, Level 11) – Worships Pharasma
Str: 18 Dex: 14 Con: 19 Int: 11 Wis: 20 Cha: 16
AC: 22 HP: 122 Fortitude: +14 Reflex: +8 Will: +15
Initiative: +2 Speed: 20’
Melee attacks: +1 Longspear +14/+9 (1d8+7, x3)
Ranged attacks: Light Crossbow +10 (1d8, 19-20)
Domains: Healing, Repose.
Height: 5’6”. Weight: 130 lbs, Age: 25, Hair: Black, Eyes: Brown, Date of birth: Abadius 25th, 4683.
This attractive woman has pale skin and long jet-black hair. It is clear that she is of noble birth from the elegance of her gestures and speech. It is also obvious that she lived some traumatic events in her past, judging by the haunted look that often comes over her sad, dark eyes.
Feats: Selective Channeling, Extra Channeling, Power Attack, Weapon focus (longspear), Toughness, Scribe Scroll, Dodge.
Traits: Love Lost (orphaned), Rich Parents.
Skills: Appraise 4, Diplomacy 12, Heal 19, Knowledge: Nobility 4, Knowledge: Religion 14, Linguistics: 4, Profession: Merchant 11, Ride 0, Sense Motive 14, Spellcraft 7.
Languages: Common, Shoanti.
Main equipment: Breastplate +1, Longspear +1, Light Crossbow, Headband of wisdom +2, Cloak of resistance +3, Handy haversack, Belt of constitution +4, Ring of protection +2.
= = = =
Trinia Sabor <Cohort of Kindrasius> (CG Female Chelaxian Bard, Level 9) – Worships Shelyn
Str: 10 Dex: 18 Con: 8 Int: 14 Wis: 12 Cha: 15
AC: 21 HP: 57 Fortitude: +3 Reflex: +11 Will: +8
Initiative: +4 Speed: 30’
Melee attacks: +1 Rapier +11/+6 (1d6+3, 18-20)
Height: 5’3”. Weight: 100 lbs, Age: 23, Hair: Blonde, Eyes: Green, Date of birth: Kuthona 22nd, 4684.
Feats: Arcane strike, Combat expertise, Improved trip, Weapon finesse, Dodge, Greater trip.
Skills: Acrobatics 16, Appraise 9, Bluff 14 (Versatile performance), Climb 5, Diplomacy 10, Disguise 8, Handle animal 14 (Versatile performance), Heal 3, Intimidate 14 (Versatile performance), Knowledge: everything 10, Perception 13, Perform: Sing 14, Perform: Percussions 14, Sense Motive 14 (Versatile performance), Spellcraft 14, Stealth 16.
Languages: Common, Varisian, Shoanti.
Main equipment: Ring of protection +1, Rapier +1, Masterwork whip, Cloak of resistance +1.
Hi. Quick word of appreciation, just to let you know you are still read.
I don't remember anything about Skeletons of Scarwall, except that I was favorably impressed after reading it, some years ago. So, I'm looking forward for your next posts.
I don't remember much either about the Shar-klah adventure, and so can't really put my finger on the changes you made, but I can testify that the way you played it, it flowed well.
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Excellent, thanks a lot!
Sorry, I must confess that I haven't read your Age of Worms updates in the past few weeks. :(
But I am planning to get to them eventually. ;)
Some things I changed in "A History of Ashes":
- Only one Boneslayer from the Skoan-Quah accompanied the group, since it's already a 6-person group, and my players don't really like having NPCs tagging along on their adventures.
- I foreshadowed Shadowcount Sial in earlier adventures, to try to make his appearance less "random".
- I replaced the Temple of the Moon encounter with parts of the adventure "Curse of the Riven Sky", for the following reasons:
a) I found these encounters more interesting.
b) They made a link to the Rise of the Runelords campaign, which Kindrasius's player (who was my player in RotRL) appreciated.
c) It gave a bit more experience and treasure to the PC's, which is the 4th adventure is lacking.
- I changed Cindermaw's tactics to make him less annoying to fight: he tried to swallow them almost right away. Otherwise, I was worried that the encounter would have been too confusing.
- I changed the final encounter to take place in the Skoan-Quah camp instead of the Sklar-Quah camp for these reasons:
a) I like the Skoan-Quah better and wanted to bring them back in the story.
b) On the part of the Red Mantis, attacking the Sklar-Quah camp seemed like SUCH a bad tactical move... That I couldn't justify it. So I decided that, feeling they couldn't deal with the PC's directly, they decided to get rid of the Skoan-Quah in the PC's absence, to prevent them from speaking to the ancestors (in my game, the Sun Shaman can't talk to the ancestors by himself, he needs the Skoan-Quah to make a bridge to teh spirit world. To me, it seems that speaking with the spirits is really the Skoan-Quah's "thing", and I feel the adventure as written kind of robbed them of that). But they miscalculated (mostly due to Hipazia's uncanny ability to f*** up Cinnabar's scrying attempts) and attacked too late, so the PC's were able to defend the village.
At the start of the adventure, I was worried that my players would complain strongly about the Shoanti chained quests, but I was pleasantly surprised: they were really good sports and did them *almost* without complaining.
As for Skeletons of Scarwall, I also really like this adventure. Unfortunately, though, I think it will face the following challenges for our group:
- The players tend to be kind of jaded, so I'm pretty sure we will totally NOT have the "sinister, scary atmosphere" that would be best suited for this adventure around the table, no matter how much effort I put into it.
- It's quite combat-intensive, so I am worried that Kindrasius's player, might get bored by so many fights.
- The players (as I feared from the very start of the campaign, yet was unable to avoid despite my best efforts) decided to completely ditch the Zon-Kuthon priests (no matter how friendly and cooperative I made them), so now I'm struggling to see how to bring them back into the story as something more interesting and meaningful than a "speedbump" encounter in the middle of the 5th adventure where the PC's will run into them in the middle of Scarwall and just go "Oh no, not those guys... let's kill them!" Because the thing with my players is that they dislike having NPC's tagging along with them even in the best conditions, but when those NPC's are *evil* and worship the god of their new arch-nemesis, then it's completely out of the question (which I can't really disagree with - they are right not to trust them - but it's just that it would make the adventure so much more fun if they did).
- I changed the final encounter to take place in the Skoan-Quah camp instead of the Sklar-Quah camp.
I totally agree with you here. Attacking the Sklar-Quah, who are amongst the fiercest fighters in the Cinderlands, is a bad move. I also expected their camp to be much bigger. In my campaign, the Sklar-Quah camp will be huge, as all battle-ready Shoanti are gathering there for war. So I'm also planning on having the Skoan-Quah camp attacked instead. Since the warriors have already left for the war gathering, the camp will be severely weakened and attacking it will not seem like sheer suicide to the highly-trained assassins.