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There is no way to tell which way the trail goes
Hey guys. I should admit that I've been thinking of shutting this game down. I'm not sure what happened, but I feel like the campaign has lost its energy. Maybe it was the rotating cast of players, or maybe I was using too loose of a blueprint for the game, but something went wrong, and I feel that the game has just been limping along.
"Thank you for your honesty. While I wouldn't ordinarily take stock in a single rumor, there have been strange sightings outside the town as of late. Your theory of a powerful conjuring makes sense and I shall send out a messenger bird at first light. I'll take this man off your hands and see if he knows anything about what is going on. A long shot for sure, but somethings fate does smile."
"Interesting. What evidence do you have of those proceedings? Forgive my skepticism, but that it a rather drastic claim."
The hellknight begins to look concerned. "Do we know what kind of trouble?
The hellknight takes the prisoner from Vera. "Your devotion to duty and the order of Cheliax is admirable. May Asmodeus smile upon your deed this day." He takes the man through a doorway to the rear of the building. Through the solitary window of the barracks' lobby, you see the fading light of daylight. Night will fall soon.
The party arrives at the town's barracks. It stands apart from the rest of the town as the only local structure made entirely of stone. Heavy wooden doors with the symbol of the Devil Queen mark the main entrance. You can see a few poor souls locked within the cells of the structure behind barred windows. You enter a lightly decorated room. A heavily armored man sits behind a desk of hardwood. He looks up, expressionless, as you bring the preacher to him. "I suppose this is the man who was speaking out in the town square."
I think so. I thought we had lost everyone for a little bit.
As Vera escorts the offending preacher to the local barracks, Kurt catches something out of the corner of his eye. Near the side of a building, he sees what appears to be a small child watching the group. Her black hair is kept to a short pixie cut. Her blue eyes glare at the group and follow them through the crowd. She wears a short, plain, green dress. But as Kurt tries to get a better look at her, she disappears from view.
He doesn't resist as Vera pulls him to a standing position. "So what are you going to do with me?"
Vera is able to force the man to the ground while Ulfred continues to monitor the complete lack of guards. "I'm guessing I hit a nerve," the preacher says.
Vera gets a solid hold of the preacher. Let me go! he says. However, he doesn't try to fight back or harm the tiefling. Everyone go!
Holy crap. I thought everyone had disappeared. Waiting on Vera and Jasper then.
Jasper, Ulfred and Vera can go.
"Let not this spawn cloud your thoughts. She is the personification of the deals struck by powers in charge. Hear her voice call out the Lord of the Pit. She knows her place is damnation and she would bring every good soul down to burn with her. Rise up, good people and let her hear your conviction! Let her know that you will no longer bow to the chains of the damned!"
Seeing an enforcer of Cheliax take the stage and confront the preacher shocks the audience back to their senses. They begin to disperse despite the protest of the elven speaker. He quickly realizes that his moment is gone. He sighs and begins to depart.
"Too long have we suffered under the tyranny of the devil monarchs. The wealthy take advantage of the workers who toil so the nobles have food to eat and clothes to wear. This foul nation even allows its merchants to trade in civilized folk as if they were cattle, and for the simple price of a stamp. Something needs to change. The social structure of the diabolists must be broken. The devils from which theyvdraw power must be abolished. Only then, can the world change." The speaker is an young, elven man. He wears simple leathers. He is working the crowd up into a fervor. Strangely, the guards are nowhere to be seen.
As you make your way back to the town, a crowd has gathered in the twilight of the town square. A loud voice can be heard over the many voices, but there is only a single sentence that can be heard. "Cheliax must be destroyed!"
Awesome. There wasn't a response for a few days. I thought I had lost the group.
It is beginning to get late. It may be best to return to your hut before darkness completely falls.
How many people are still here?
The Iron Gods game that I run has just lost its gunslinger. Is anyone interested in joining in?
"We've seen beasts like these, and we have been tracking them down, but they always seem to get away. If you ever manage to get close enough, to strike them, the air itself seems to shimmer and protect them. We haven't had any luck with capturing or killing them."
"We know nothing of any slavers here. Have you tracked any to the woods?
Vera's arrow hits home and strikes deep within the archer's chest. He collapses behind the tree where he was hiding. "Kalfa hold!" he shouts out. The wolf and its mistress don't move further towards you, but they don't really stand down either. "Who are you?" he asks. "I haven't seen you in our woods before.
Jasper, Ulfred, and Vera can go.
After a while, you lose the tracks among an area of torn dirt and scratched trees. It looks like a struggle took place here. You see a wolf taking shelter in the tall grass. A woman dressed in black scaled hide crouches next it. While the others are distracted by the savage pair, Kurt manages to catch someone aiming a bow at the group from behind a tree.
You find no sign of the strange shapeshifter. However, you do find two series of tracks near where you had originally seen the creature. One set of tracks is clearly a booted humanoid. The other is from some kind of large canine.
The slaver falls backward away from the blade point. He dies gurgling on his own blood.
The man drops to knees and begins to beg for his life. "It was just a job, honest! We hated doing it, but we have to work somehow!"
"No. We aren't here to cause trouble. We're just passing through to get out of trouble's way."
"It was that red headed elf girl. She had us round up the town. No big deal, we were planning on making a profit from bleeding that backwater village dry. But she cast some kind of magic and burned all the villagers alive. Then something came out of flames. Ivdidn't get a good look. We all ran when it snatched several men up in massive jaws.
Have you guys decided on anything?
It's actually three unconscious guys. The two sleeping guards plus Tabo. And then there is the guard that surrendered.
Ulfred knocks the wind out of Tabo. Taking advantage of his opening, Kurt strikes the slaver with a blade of lightning. He carves through the orc's energy shield and cuts him down in a spray of blood. Seeing the leader fall, the remaining guard drops his weapon and surrenders. For Vera, Tabo is still alive, but barely.
The last remaining guard steps into a position to threaten Ulfred. He strikes out with his spear.
[Ooc]Still waiting on Ulfred and Jasper.
The machines in the room begin to whir and hum. Buzzes and clicks emit from the walls around you. The circular table in the room shines to life and a faint, transparent image of a circular desert complete with a rock formation right in the center of the terrain appears on the flat surface. The desert looks familiar and small line of disturbed sand shows that it is indeed a picture of the desert just outside. You see that there is another set of caves on the side that you had not explored.
The barrier moves in the air and positions itself directly between Vera nd the halfbreed. The projectile shatters against it with a sharp cracking sound.
The map is up. Feel free to move yourselves into position. I made a box that represents where you would be able to set up in.
The slavers with the greatsword and longbow slump to the ground, snoring loudly for all the world to hear. Tabo spits on them in disgust. He draws his sickle from the sheathe at his belt and waves his arm in a circle in front of himself. A barrier of red energy shimmers into being between you and him. Ulfred, Vera, Jasper, and Kurt are all ready to go.
The guards to the back of Tabo are wearing the slavers traditional chainmail. They are heavily laden with gear. One of them wields a longspear, one a greatsword, and one a longbow. The ground is solid and counts as normal terrain. There are a lot of trees around that could give you cover against ranged attacks.
Thinking quickly, Cyrene hopes to end the fight before more blood is shed. Using her signature sleep spell, she mentally throws a blanket of drowsyness upon the slaver thugs and their half orc master.
Cyrene speaks to Vera in her mind, again. You were looking for the slavers. I have brought you to them. These men are responsible for ambushing lone travelers and lost children, forcing them into a life of chains, and bringing fire to the homes of those who try to stop them.
Cyrene uses her telepathic abilities to find her party members. They had gone farther from where she left them than expected, but catching up is no trouble. She also begins to sense a familiar presence growing closer. The mind is well shielded from her probing, but she can feel its sadism and something else. Fear, she recognizes. She quickens her pace to catch her party before they run into him. At once, two things happen as Kurt moves to get a closer look. Cyrene returns to the group with a stranger of tiefling descent, and the source of the voices rushes into view. Tabo, the half orc slaver rushes through a patch of undergrowth and stops dead in his tracks upon seeing you. He is flanked by three of the guards that served as part of the caravan. He recovers from his surprise quickly. "Well, I never thought I'd see you again. Caused us quite a bit of trouble back in Mulberry. I would've thought you'd run as far away from us as possible when we burned your hideout to the ground. We caught your gunslinger friend. Made sure his last moments were a living hell."
Vera hears a voice inside her head. Follow me if you want to find the slavers. The strange, elven woman uses her head to beckon the tiefling to follow her. She turns and begins walking in the direction of the forest surrounding the town. Kurt, Ulfred, and Jasper begin following the strange bird, but have difficulty keeping it in sight. It keeps randomly changing colors along the whole spectrum of the rainbow making it hard for their eyes to keep it in focus, especially when it turns green and brown to match the trees or blue and white to match the sky. Fortunately, it becomes vibrant reds and purples and golds at least as often, and they are able to use those sharp contrasting colors to keep it in view. Suddenly, they hear a familiar voice from surrounding forest. The owner sounds out of breath and frightened. "The town's just up ahead. We can hide there until they pass". Another voice, less familiar but still out of a memory answers. "What is the town going to do? They're as doomed as we are. We need to get further away than that." The first voice responds, "We need a couple of days to get supplies we can plan out next move after we've had some sleep."
Well, that's unfortunate. I hate tobsee you go.
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