I'll need a bit to get back to you on Korrugineth, Nilus.
Arueshalae speaks up from behind you.
"It's located in a small wood southwest of where you said you fought the Woundwyrm. It sits at the end of a large gorge. unfortunately I don't know where the entrance is, but approaching it should not be an issue due to the trees and terrain."
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A Few Days Later
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As you prepare for your journey, Aron Kir walks in, bearing several items. He hands them over.
"After speaking with Jesker I went out to the tomb he spoke of with his blessing. These items came out of a sort of... crystal coffin to me. Anyways, here you are. This pendant seems particularly special."
Investigation of the items reveals them to be the following:
- A +2 composite long bow (14 strenght rating)
- http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic-items/magic-armor/specific-magic-armor/celest ial-armor
- a http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic-items/artifacts/minor-artifacts/talisman-of-p ure-good with one charge remaining
The talisman in particular radiates with incredible magical power. It is a minor artifact, and although it only has a single charge left, its ability to destroy an evil divine spellcaster is powerful indeed.
Aron then speaks up, his hoarse voice carrying as he stares at the map.
"I think you can help Aravashnial between missions if you are so interested. But for now, let us know what you intend to do."
Pick a mission! The towers, the raiders, or the missing cleric and defiled shrine. Each hex is roughly a day's travel, so you can of course do more than one mission on a journey. Finally, you can also just pick a direction and head out. Two votes and I'll go.
Your map of Citadel Drezen is now at the top of the screen as Citadel Drezen map with key.
Aron spreads out the map and an attached list of short descriptions.
"One of my prized possessions, this is a crude, but accurate map of the main floor of the citadel. This predates the demons taking over, and so I can't say what they're using the rooms for, or what damage has been done to the interior."
He sighs, shaking his head.
"Unfortunately this map does not really give us a secret entrance or anything so convenient. Drezen was designed to not be infiltrated."
As Sarkast looks over the map and thinks about the battles the group has had, it is obvious to him that the chimera flew out from somewhere.
Aron continues speaking.
"Once you're in, I'd recommend ensuring you have an easy exit as well in case things get difficult or if you need to rest. Area 7 here is a vault which is behind a second, false vault. Likely through a secret door. That is where the Sword of Valor was once held. If I was a demon, I'd have moved it, but it bears investigating nonetheless."
He grins, speaking in his low, raspy voice.
"Commanders, we are besieging a dwarven citadel which is held by demons that know how to teleport in reinforcements and rations. More to the point, a powerful demon will slay dozens of our troops without a thought while those such as you would stand against it. I imagine you know where I'm going with this."
Aron looks to be in better spirits than you've ever seen him. The thrill of battle and tactics seems to do well for his health.
"We could skip the undead and barge straight into the Citadel, but we leave an unpredictable foe behind us if we do so. Ghouls are just wandering around Kenabres, and an unlucky scratch can get someone paralyzed and eaten. If we can finish that off with minimal losses, we can strike directly into the Citadel. They're not coming out to meet us for obvious reasons and that chimera seemed to be their best weapon for these situations."
He grins at the party.
"This couldn't be going better. Let's get you some food and rest. We hit the graveyard tomorrow. Oh also, Ayesha, there were several days of food supplies for the prisoners. So although we're eating more now, our stocks have gone up."
Feel free to do anything you need, or just claim the full night's rest. I'll need Ayesha'a quartermaster roll once more.
Map is updated.
Clasping his hands behind him, the raspy-voiced young man starts speaking slowly and with gravity.
"Our goal here is of course to take the citadel, and we have two options. The first is to simply strike directly for the citadel. Drive a nail into Staunton Vhane's heart and be done with it. Option two is to take the city first. I recommend the latter option, but this is your army, commanders."
Aron spreads out his map and starts poking at it.
"There are three significant armies within city. In the northeast here at Paradise Hill, in the south at Southwatch, and in the west in the cemetery. Not only do we save ourselves great pain if we clean up behind ourselves, but they have significant value. Sarkast spotted a lot of supplies at Southwatch, and Anevia many prisoners that could join our cause at Paradise Hill. The undead I scouted out are a random element who could be quite dangerous. I firmly believe they need to be wiped out as well."
He then points at three more spots.
"And in the meantime, there are three areas of tactical importance. Commanders, I'd humbly suggest that since you are not experts in warfare, Irabeth and I handle the armies while you deal with these specialist missions. The first is to take the bridge, the second is to sabotage the catapults, and the third is to investigate this strange vault I found in the cemetery. If we can clear out all six targets, the citadel will be cut off, ripe for the taking."
Map is updated with a map of Drezen and notes on the six points.
He steps back, folding his arms.
"Thoughts?"
The night passes by uneventfully. Sarkast, Aron, and Anevia work and are able to find a hole which seems to lead into a massive underground complex. Aron takes a while watching the hole before he returns back to the group, shaking his head.
"We've found an entrance into the hive. This is going to be miserable and frankly, you want to leave as many people behind as you can. All of you are vital to this mission and the crusade, but you're also the most powerful people here."
Aron draws on the ground with a stick, speaking in his gravelly voice.
"It's a straight twenty foot drop into the hive. Once down there, you need to be as stealthy as possible. Get in and kill the queen as quickly as possible. If you make too much noise, or if you take too long the swarm will come down on you. And you will go mad. And you will die. So you require stealth, speed, and a way to kill any swarms you encounter."
Aron carefully spits into the dust as he watches the swarm.
"I don't think they give a toss about us, Dejik. If we get close they'll destroy the army - no question. But we could probably camp at this distance without issue. So if we want to let the casters magic themselves up some ways to deal with the swarm I'm all for it. That wind spell sounds good though."
Aron looks over the vescavores slowly. He looks back to the group.
"Vile things. Fire spells will harm them, but like most abyssal creatures they're resistant to them. Same with electricity. They'll eat the armour right off of you as easily as your flesh, and most dangerous is that they yammer with the madness of the abyss. I have encountered them once and most of those that survived were never the same - they can drive you permanently insane."
What he said. And right, same for identifying magic items now that I think of it.
Aravashnial and Aron ride up alongside the group and peer out. Aron groans miserably.
"I'm glad to get my mind off of matters, but vescavores damn it they're going to rip the army to shreds," he looks over to the group and Aravashnial, grimacing.
"And it's not like you can swat the things with a sword. Any chance you casters have some spells that blow things up?"
Aron squats on his haunches and looks up miserably, tears streaming down his face.
"I grew up in Cassomir as a burglar, and was ... very good at it. I joined a gang, became very rich. Became quite the hedonist. Name an indulgence, and I was involved. The drugs were the worst and they started to erode my abilities."
He scoops up some sand, staring at it dully as he speaks, his raspy voice speaking more and more rapidly as he pours his heart out.
"I was captured. Convicted. And sentenced to a three year tour of the Worldwound. It changed my life, it gave me the structure I needed, showed me the horrors of the world, and showed me the power of good. The power of love. After my tour I volunteered to stay on, and became a crusader. My problem is I landed with the Kenabres Wolves. They saw me as a street thug, which I was, and so I ran with my own kind. This is where I found demon blood, shadowblood - tools of the demons to destroy the crusade. I fell completely into addiction."
He chokes up as he speaks.
"I was so lost in the drugs that people - friends, died on my watch. I sought to find help, and went to the temple of Shelyn."
He and Sosiel smile at each other.
"We have been through trial sand tribulations, forceful separations, and seen many deaths. All the while Sosiel has been my beautiful shield against the shadowblood, but it has always clawed at my mind. If I stop moving, I think of shadowblood. If I lie down, I think of shadowblood and some bastard knew that!"
Aron stands up and throws the dust to the ground.
"Obviously the clerics of Shelyn knew. I've told a select few others - the only here on campaign uh... Anevia knows as we've worked together a lot. A paladin named Gerand when he was having a hard time. I told Nurah once one night we were both drunk. That's all I can think of."
Sorry! I didn't get notifications on this game for some reason.
Sosiel spreads his hands and Aron takes a step back, hard-faced before his knees almost buckle.
"Damn you yes. Shadowblood. I... I just found it in my pack! It was there, staring at me! The power it gives me, Gods Sosiel I need help. I don't know where it came from!"
Aron remove his backpack and opens it up before producing several inky-black vials with trembling hands.
"I don't know why this happened to me! I haven't even seen this stuff in so long. It just appeared!"
Aron makes to throw the vials but stares at them for a moment before he simply dumps them on the ground and turns away.
The army uses 4 consumption for the day.
Aron looks to Sarkast, showing some surprise. He stammers for a moment.
"I..." He shakes his head sadly. "I doubt. I don't know if we can win this war. The demons may have us on this crusade."
Anevia looks at him with some worry as Aron lapses into silence, trudging back to camp.
As the camp sets up, Aron approaches all of you. Sosiel follows closely behind, never far from Aron. Distantly, the sound of Nurah singing to the exhausted troops to raise their spirits as they make camp
"We should hit the entrance to the Ahari riverbed tomorrow," he rasps. "The going will get easier, but certainly more dangerous. Good scouting efforts will be required; it's good to have Sarkast and Anevia here."
Let me know if you have camp activities - Ayesha needs to make her quartermaster check.
If you had more questions for the tieflings, let me know. Otherwise I'm fast-forwarding through the mass battle.
The pit vanishes and the tieflings pop up onto the ground, where they are quickly bound. Triumphantly, you make your return up to the camp and are greeted a runner who dashes off to report the news with a note you're supposed to meet Aron and Irabeth.
The prisoners' bravado fades instantly as they are brought through the clean, efficient camp of the highly-trained paladins. They are taken off to a holding tent for questioning while you go to meet Aron and Irabeth. They both sit in the command tent, looking over a map of the area.
"I heard the brimorak went down quite nicely, well done." His raspy voice is a little hard to hear in the din of the camp. "No time to strike like the present. They will be disorganized and sending out search parties soon enough and we are ready to march. Aravashnial and Sosiel have enough obscuring mist spells between the two of them to obscure our advance behind some rolling fog, so we can catch them unawares."
Incidentally, the paladins are apparently mounted although the game never makes mention of it. Consider yourselves the proud owner of light combat-trained horses.
Aron looks at the silence of the group and then cuts in, slapping his hands together.
"I was brought here to handle the tactics Irabeth, let me suggest something. From Anevia and Sarkast's scouting report we've got around two hundred of the horned buggers down there by the ford. Tiefling have no discipline. Individually they're hard to outsmart, but as a group they're sharp as marbles."
He produces a crude map of the ford.
"We have a good incline down to the ford, and if we can draw them away from the ford itself, a good mounted charge should crush them."
The hollow-eyed man grins over at the party.
"According to Anevia and Sarkast, they've got a little goat-demon amongst them. That's a brimorak according to Aravashnial and almost certainly in charge. It's been leading patrols of itself and around ten tieflings, probably out of boredom. So my suggestion is our fine heroes here crush one of these patrols. Leaderless, they're more likely to fall for an ambush."
He looks at all of you, his hands shaking a bit as he rolls up the map.
"So what say you commanders? Take Anevia with you and give us a signal once the brimorak is dead. We'll advance in the meantime and set up our ambush."
Aron nods slowly. "Good, the demons use a lot of magic and although paladins are good at resisting it, they're tactically limited in terms of how to deal with it. You're a welcome addition; if she can find the scroll."
He rolls up his map. "Any questions? Ayesha, I'll want you to review the troops and provisions before we go. It will take around two days to mobilize the army; we'll also want to see how long the Queen takes to get that scroll."
Today and the weekend will be last cleanup in Kenabres. So if you have any business to take care of, further shopping to do, questions about the army and tactics, or clever ideas these next couple days are the time to do so.
Aron cuts in. "I can't think of any better core troops to have in a fight than paladins, but there's still an army to run. Ayesha's mind for logistics is going to help a great deal. If you have any friends, allies, or others with talents of any kind, try to get them to come along. What we lack is variety. That said, I think we can begin our march in the next day or two. Last thing we need is a bunch of bored crusaders."
Maps will have to be up tomorrow night, sorry!
Aron stands. Despite being quite young his voice is quite hoarse and his manner is matter of fact and cold. He spreads out a map of this section of Mendev on the table. A few pleasantries are exchanged until Aron loudly clears his throat.
"On my advice the Queen has recommended the following approach to Drezen. I'm going to assume you don't know the terrain around here very well, apologies if I'm a little too basic." He taps his finger on a river leading northwards from Kenabres.
"This is the Sellen River, it passes alongside Kenabres and then travels north, parallel to the border of the Worldwound. I recommend we travel along it via the eastern shore; the terrain is difficult on the western shore and if we were ambushed it would be suicide. Travelling northwards we veer from the river to the town of Valas' Gift."
His slender finger draws a line northwards. "We then cross the river at Vilareth Ford. This is the northernmost crossing point on the West Sellen. It's guarded by a small contingent of crusaders and so we should have safety and welcome there."
Aron lets out a long breath, and then places his hand along a river drawn on the map. "This is not a river, this is a dry riverbed that was once the Ahari, which is a good natural trail. We'll be in the Worldwound at that point, and can continue to Drezen. Does this make sense? "
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