Hours later, Sheraviel, in an interrogation room with the would-be assassin tied to a chair and stubbornly refusing to talk, finally receives the following memo:
To: Cpl. Sheraviel
From: Cpt. Fenneval, Commander of the King’s Guard
Date: 2nd day, Month of the Boar, 1463
Re: Prisoner Identification
Prisoner identified as: SEURAT, PAUL
Born 17th day, Month of the Lynx, 1385 (Age 78; human equivalent 28) in Hylore, Aviona
1406: Father, Lt. Shal Seurat, killed in Great World Conflict.
1407: Enrolled, Bell Island School for Wayward Youth
1415: Enlisted, Imperial Marines
1417 – 1426: Served, Estren Territories; end rank Corporal
1427 – 1429: Attended Commando School, Findach Keep, Balvora
1430 – 1444: Served, Shield Lands; end rank Myrmidon (Sergeant)
(Distinguished Bravery Award, 1436; Overseas Commendation Award, 1442)
1445 – 1452: Served, Aviona and Balvora (Days of Darkness); end rank Staff Sergeant
1453 – 1457: Served, Bandit Kingdoms; end rank Gunnery Sergeant
1457 – 1462: CLASSIFIED
1462: Discharged from active service; final rank Staff Sergeant.
Sheraviel wonders what he was doing for five years that not even Fenneval can find out about, and that was worth a reduction in pay grade for someone who, prior to that, was on a slow but methodically rock-solid career trajectory.
Confronting Seurat with his identity and military précis yields no further information from him except his name, rank, and serial number. Sheraviel takes a break to confer with Captain Fenneval. "This guy was drawing military pay for five years. That gold would have to come out of funds for a certain unit. Can we find out what unit it was, at least?"
Fenneval grumbles something about being a fencer, not an accountant, but does not disagree with her assessment; after a couple days of subordinates checking records, he reports to her: "He wasn't listed on any Royal Army payroll, nor with the King's Guard. And we checked with Northwind, too, because as you know the Imperial Marines are a joint venture with them -- but their records are way better than ours and they can assure us 100% he wasn't with one of their units. That leaves the Chancellor's Battalion."
Sheraviel sort of half-nods, as she'd been more or less expecting this verdict. The problem is that it led in the one direction she didn't particularly feel qualified to go: namely, burgling the records room in Battalion headquarters.
Luckily, she thought, there was someone else who was better qualified for that sort of thing: she'd demand the favor of Cadogan instead.
Sheraviel, Agun, Rim, and Cadogan make their way to the Chancellor's wing of the palace, now mostly deserted. Sheraviel's pass gets them in the door and buys them some time out of sight of the guards; they quickly locate the records room and Cadogan, working as quickly as possible, is able to pick the lock on the door before the next patrol comes by.
Inside, unfortunately, a magic trap goes off, causing a black lion to appear and attack. Sheraviel, expecting something like this, gets the drop on it and avoids its pounce; with help from Cadogan and Rim, she kills it with her sword, whereupon it vanishes in a puff of brimstone. The group then turns their attention to the three banks of filing cabinets.
Cadogan searches for traps on the first set, fails to find anythithing, and begins to pick the lock; this sets off a magical acid trap, spraying him with caustic liquid and forcing him to start over on picking the lock. Eventually they get the cabinet open and find it contains personnel listings by unit. Not knowing which unit Seurat was attached to forces them to go through each folder, a time-consuming process. Luckily, Sheraviel's eidetic memory allows her to memorize a page simply by reading it, and with the trap set off there's no hiding the fact that someone has been in the room, so there's no need to put the folders back neatly. Eventully they find Seurat's name in the files for "Sigma Platoon," evidently some sort of black ops small unit.
Cadogan goes to the next set of cabinets and, knowing the acid trap is beyond his skill to find and disable, sets it off intentionally, using his incredible reflexes to avoid injury. This cabinet contains operations listing, again by unit; they find Sigma Platoon's folders quickly and steal them, moving on to the third cabinet.
At this point a patrol of the Chancellor's Guard appears in the corridor and knocks on the door, apparently aware that something is amiss. Rim arcane locks the door while Cadogan opens the third cabinet using the same methodology as the second. Inside are current assignments and last known residences, listed by person. The group is forced to find and pull each member of Sigma Platoon individually, resulting in a fair amount of lost time; more guards appear outside, and begin demanding that the door be opened.
As the party is pulling the last few files, the Chancellor's men manage to blast the door open and come pouring in. Cadogan, forseeing this, had left Agun to pull files and is standing behind the door as they come in, with Sheraviel on the other side and Rim standing straight ahead, glaive ready. The first guard to rush in takes a glaive to the face; the next is skewered on Cadogan's rapier, and the third and fourth find themselves engaged against Sheraviel's masterful defenses. A few guards in the hall throw spells into the room, creating stunning bursts of sound, but the group, although injured, steels themselves against the effects and continues to hold off the attack, eventually incapacitating or killing six guards and fleeing the Chancellor's Wing.
They are pursued by another patrol, which gains on them with superior running speed, but Agun slows their advancement with a grease spell and the party is able to escape back to the main areas of the palace. The Chancellor's Guards, arriving just after, demand their arrest; Fenneval technically outranks their commander, however, and orders them back to their posts, claiming that this was a "training exercise" to test their alertness. The glowering of the Chancellor's Guards tell the party that they've accrued some lasting enemies.
While Rim and Cadogan go to personally thank the Olidammarites for the loan of the monastery, Sheraviel and Agun spend some time cross-indexing the files they recovered from the records room. It appears that Sigma Platoon carried out a number of black ops during their existence, including assassinations and cover-ups. This activity does not appear to have fully ceased with the death of the Chancellor, and it seems their latest assignment was the cover-up of the murders in Fairpoint, to keep attention away from Dame Llewella, whom Lieutenant "Ironbriar" (so named in the files) considered a critical future ally. Of the squads making up Sigma Platoon, only one remains active -- the one of which Seurat was Staff Sergeant. That squad is now deployed in the Town of Fairpoint, with the members maintaining long-term cover identities as millworkers.
Stopping only to make sure Seurat is to be executed, Sheraviel announces to Fenneval her intent to return to fairpoint to wipe out the remainder of Sigma Platoon. Meeting Cadogan and Rim on the outskirts of Hylore, they quickly make the trip and begin surveillance of the lumber mill that sits on the banks of the river at the southwest end of town.
Staking out the lumber mill, it's clear that an attack from several directions will be needed, lest their targets simply escape from other exits. Thankfully, the mill is owned outright as a front for Sigma and has no civilizan employess, so everyone inside is a viable target.
The party uses message spells to maintain communication while Rim approaches the front door, pretending to be a missionary priest (as essentially he is); Agun remains across the street, ready to cast support spells but out of harm's way himself. Cadogan goes around back to the loading area.
As Rim knocks on the door, Sheraviel jumps on the rotating water wheel and rides it to the second floor, where she breaks in the window, sword drawn. A number of supposed mill workers immediately engage her with very functional rapiers, and she adopts a defensive posture, waiting for help to arrive and occasionally making a riposte if one of her assailants leaves an opening for it. Rim glaives the man opening the door in the face, then moves into the building, with Agun following. Cadogan slips in the back, cuts the throat of the person working there, and makes his way upstairs to the sound of clashing blades. Soon all four of the party are in the fight against a half-dozen or so remaining Sigma operatives. Agun's grease spell prevents the false cultists from flanking Sheraviel and Cadogan and launching sneak attacks against them, and Rim's glaive reaches in from outside the affected area. Within a few rounds, these remaining operatives are slain.
Searching the mill, they find a stash of grotesque masks, as worn by murder cultists; one of them radiates magic seems almost sentient, and Cadogan pockets it for future study. They also find a mirror that radiates magic, presumably used to communucate with "Ironbriar." Activating the item, they get a visual fix on him -- a high elf male of stern visage -- but remain out of sight themselves; Cadogan rasps, "The mill is compromised; I'll report in person while the others find a new base," and they terminate the communication, borrowing horses and returning post-haste to Hylore, but to the city administrative and legal district rather than to the palace.
After that, it's simply a matter of knocking door-to-door at judges' chambers until they find the right guy. "Ironbriar" (one Justice Robodar, actually) seems unsurprised to be accosted, and graciously asks the party to sit. Sheraviel announces his arrest; he urbanely nods and says, "Of course, and I understand my right to remain silent. But please allow me to voluntarily waive that right, because I believe I can change your mind."
He launches into a political monologue that, depending on one's point of view, could be anywhere from Utopian to revolutionary to treasonous -- pointing out the dangerous naiveté of the king and contrasting the supposed respect for citizens' rights inherent in Palamis' policies; he seems to be advocating something that resembles democracy, seemingly unaware of the irony of using clandestine, unilateral quasi-governmental action to achieve it. Cadogan has zero interest in politics, and rebuts with a thrust of his rapier. Ironbriar proves to be a competent cleric and defends himself ably, paralyzing and/or blinding half the party, but in the end he is cut down in his chambers, with Sheraviel flashing her credentials as the City Watch batters down the door. His body is taken away for posthumous sentencing and cremation, and the existence of Sigma Platoon is ended, along with the so-called Skinsaw Murders.
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Politicians? They never give fealty to their true gods, Nerull, Zilchus, and Erythnul. And they're booooooorrrrrrrriiiiiiinnnnnngggggg.
They deserve nothing more than the death I like to deal them.
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Unfortunately for Cadogan, his experiences with politics are just beginning; the next major event lands him in the middle of d'Ansac's Rebellion.
Oh, wars are FUN! Killing without consequence? Who DOESN'T love that?
That water mill fight was fun. I almost rode with Sheraviel up water wheel to a window, but I was talked out of it. A few days later when I remember that I had a ring of Ring of Jumping, I wish I had done it anyway.
A few days later when I remember that I had a ring of Ring of Jumping, I wish I had done it anyway.
Man, four or five years later, I definitely have no recollection of a Ring of Jumping. I vaguely remember Cadogan getting his hands on a horn of fog, but I have no idea when that happened. And of course we had the endless "hints" in the Houston Gaming thread about me "forgetting" that you guys had "found" a Staff of the Magi...
Several months later find Sheraviel, in full uniform, standing at attention at the edge of the great park near the palace at Hylore. There are throngs of people there, and the park itself is dominated by a massive sphere of brightly-colored cloth, in big stripes; it seems to waver in the light of the torches and spells. This is the project of Daressa of Corilaine, an artist, adventurer, and former member of the King's Guard -- she has bound elementals and created Aviona's first air balloon, to be launched at midnight.
There was a minor disturbance that morning, quickly forgotten in the furor.
Sheraviel is approached during the ceremony by "Pep," a diminutive, swaggering, wise-cracking half-elven guardsman. It is rumored that "Pep" was involved in the assassination of Chancellor Palamis, but no one is too sure of the facts. Leaning forward to be heard over the crowd, he says, "You're off of this guard duty. Fenneval's orders. We meet in his office in five minutes." Sheraviel dislikes "Pep" for his cocky manner and his supposed love of intrigue, but she cannot ignore the Captain's orders, and so appears on time. Already there are "Pep" and his companion Seth, a tall, taciturn guardsman with a blond crew cut and a bland manner.
"You'll have to miss the balloon launch," Fenneval says. "Ferdinand Larquest has disappeared; he was last seen at d'Ansac's tower, over on the Street of the Black Swans. You three are to investigate."
Larquest is a famed explorer; he sailed east around the coast of Aramni, south to the jungles far from the known kingdoms, and returned with maps and wondrous tales. More recently, he mapped large portions of the Estren Highlands. Sheraviel is aware of the irony of having to locate a famous locator, but is too self-possessed to voice something so obvious; "Pep" lacks her restraint and voices the thought while she's thinking it, increasing her dislike of him. But duty calls, so they're off to the Street of the Black Swans, south of the palace.
Things quickly go wrong. Leaving the other two across the street, Seth marches up to the front gate, brandishing his Guardsman's cloak and credentials; he is denied entrance. He turns back, walks across the street again, and murmers, "Non-regulation longsword, in a hitched scabbard. And poor grooming standards. Mercenary?"
Pep shakes his head, eyes wide. "That's Beresard, the duelist. I can see him from here, now that he's in the light!" he whispers. "They say he's killed thirty men."
Seth nods. Pep, motioning to Sheraviel, walks down the block, as Seth turns around and crosses the street yet again, drawing his sword as he does so. Pep and Seraviel quickly race down a side alley, towards the back of the tower, looking for a back gate. Pep begins climbing the wall there; Sheraviel, distracted by something to her right (a soft splash?), near the bank of the Lyorn River, heads in that direction instead. The sound of clashing swords comes from the front of the tower, and there is a yell from the rear courtyard. Sheraviel's perfect memory guides her to the exact spot in the river that she heard the sound. Reaching in, she hauls out a corpse, dressed in traveller's attire, with an amulet around its neck; a quick touch indicates that it's a magic amulet.
With some difficulty, she hauls the body up to the street, unwilling to leave it unattended. Pep finds her; he is supporting Seth, who took a sword thrust through the body and is at death's door. Sheraviel administers first aid as best she can, while Pep commandeers a wagon and loads Seth and the corpse into it, driving at breakneck speed to the palace. During the ride, he shouts to Sheraviel, "The tower was empty! D'Ansac returned to South Province this afternoon!"
At the palace, Seth is taken to the healers, and the corpse identified. It is the body of Larquest; around his neck is an amulet of proof against detection and location.
A few days later when I remember that I had a ring of Ring of Jumping, I wish I had done it anyway.Man, four or five years later, I definitely have no recollection of a Ring of Jumping.
The fact that you're able to re-create this journal proves your memory is better than mine. I think I would have gotten lost after the fight with the beach ball.
The fact that you're able to re-create this journal proves your memory is better than mine. I think I would have gotten lost after the fight with the beach ball.
I have an unfair advantage, insofar as I wrote most of the adventures! I'm trying to follow the basic outlines, but I'm sure I'm getting a lot of the details and connections wrong; and some of them I'm shamelessly re-creating on the fly. Like, it seems like Agun, Cadogan, and Rim should have been with Sheraviel when she went to d'Ansac's Tower, but that doesn't seem to fit the story (why would she stop for extra reinforcements?), so I glossed over that. Also, there would have been a good fight for the PCs behind the tower, but I can't remember the details, so I omitted that, too. I think at least one of the players maybe missed that session? But I can't remember who.
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The obvious next step is for someone to contact the Marquis d'Ansac in South Province, bring him up to speed, and ask him what's going on. The king does this himself with a sending spell -- which fails to receive a reply. Post horses are sent through Fairpoint and into South Province, to be turned back at the border. It appears the Marquis d'Ansac is in open rebellion against the crown.
An old elven general, Kelth, is brought out of retirement to put down the rebellion. Kelth became a household name during the Great World Conflict; he was known for unorthodoxly mixing magic and large-scale troop movements, and for concocting "surprises" by luring the enemy into expecting a certain sort of campaign, and then conducting another sort entirely. Rumor is that he used to have whole cadres of scryers and anti-scryers working overtime just to keep up with his maneuvers. Sheraviel, who grew up hearing stories of General Kelth's battles, is excitied at the prospect of serving with him, although at his present age it's questionable how able he still is. On the other hand, she grew up outside of Sovalles, the capital of South Province; d'Ansac's father Maurice was her family's lord.
Kelth makes the following speech to the to the assembled Royal Army and King's Guard, in the Month of the Boar, 1463:
I have been recalled to active duty because "retirement" from a life of service is as provisional as peace over the land. Most of you have not served under me before; to those, I will address a few comments before we begin preparations.
Those long-term veterans among you know there has been no battle I have yet fought that I have not won. To nip foolish rumors in the bud, I can say, with no ego, that my present age has not dimmed the clarity of my vision the slightest whit. This battle will therefore be no exception. When we march on South Province, it will be at such a time as the end result of our campaign is already without any possible doubt.
This campaign will be conducted with the utmost regard for the rules of tradition and chivalry. We are not fighting against our fellow citizens of Aviona; we are fighting against a foolish, tragic breach of the public welfare. All supplies will be received from military supply lines; looting will be treated as a felony and prosecuted vigorously under the code of military justice, protestations of "living off the land" notwithstanding. Surrender of South Province personnel will be received in all cases with courtesy, restraint, and goodwill. Until such a time as they are rendered hors de combat, all nobles, citizens, and yeomen of South Province retain their titles and status, and will be treated as befits their rank.
That said, our preparations prior to departure will be meticulous, careful, and conducted under absolute magical security against surveillance. There will be no information leaks to Sovalles; nor will any hot-headed would-be heroes sally into South Province except under my direct and absolute command. Any soldier disobeying any aspect of these orders will be met with court-martial. Any unit leader who fails to heed these preliminary statements will receive the maximum penalty, up to and possibly including a Morganti execution.
It may be that this disruption of the peace can still be resolved by His Majesty through diplomacy. Assuming that fails, you and I shall resolve it -- with maximal efficiency and minimal chaos -- through military means.
I have spoken.
When Sheraviel next talks to Cadogan, he presents other ideas. "Maybe this marquis guy will win? It would be kind of cool to be on his side instead... just saying. Although Fairpoint ended up being a ghoul, which ain't cool. So dunno." Agun is also torn; he has no actual rank or status in Aviona, but he's still a mountain dwarf. If he openly supports the king's army, he makes it seem as if the Kingdom of the Elder Mountains is allied with Aviona, which is not the case. If he openly supports the rebels, he makes it seem as if the mountain dwarves are declaring war on Aviona, which is definitelty to be avoided. He decides to follow his companions' lead but lie low as much as possible.
Sheraviel thinks about the possibilities. Careers are made by bold strokes. Marching under Kelth's banner would be an honor, but going undercover into South Province and striking a coup herself would be even better. Informing the others, she begins to pack.
DM Note: I'm especially fond of Kelth's speech. Even the ending statement, cribbed from Burroughs' Martian books, seems to fit the old guy perfectly.
The group slips into South Province, avoiding Fairpoint and staying off the roads. This brings them past the edge of Littlewood Forest; camping, Cadogan spies lights in the distance, and can hear singing and fiddles. He begins to head in that direction when Rim hauls him back to their camp: "Best you not disturb the Fey Folk during their revels... they take not kindly to it." Sheraviel, having heard boogeyman tales of the denizens of the Littlewood, concurs vigorously.
Outside Sovalles, they arrive at an encampment: thousands of halflings are armed with pikes and are being drilled by soldiers. Among the halflings is a familiar man with his arms wrapped in chains, who is gripping a pike awkwardly and looks to have no faith in it; they recognize Auris, the former circus trapeze artist, and greet him. He explains that Shaleh, tempted by the chance to get rich through wartime profiteering, was glad to be in South Province when the border was closed; unfortunately, they got drafted into d'Ansac's army of peasant conscripts. Sheraviel is concerned that the conscripts' training seems fairly well advanced, but keeps this to herself for the time being.
Sheraviel is met by a pair of blonde elven women, sisters, whom she knew slightly growing up. They greet her respectfully and inquire her purpose, when she indicates she is obeying the requirements of chivalry (which is completely true, just not in the way they think) they make her welcome and explain the situation. D'Ansac is personally bivouaced in the field, overseeing the training of his levees. The sisters are members of his household guard; they warn Sheraviel that they were quickly forced to nix his amorous advances, but that otherwise he is a charismatic and very able leader.
She is taken to meet him, and he rises, all chivalrous, from his table of maps.
DM's Note: All of d'Ansac's dialogue was written and delivered with the character General Montcalme, from Michael Mann's "Last of the Mohicans" film, in mind. I actually rehearsed many of his lines and mannerisms prior to the game sessions in which he appeared.
"Ah, Seraviel," he says, recognizing her despite the fact that she was a girl when he last saw her. "I am Aujule d'Ansac, as of course you will recall. I am grateful that you have come back home during these dreadful times. Please, consider this camp your home. I see from your cloak that you have become a member of the King's Guard; I will appoint you to my own household guard, with an increase in rank and title, effective as of the time you crossed the border. You and your companions must have much to ask, but first, please take refreshment and rest as much as you need."
Sheraviel is introduced to the household guard and also to d'Ansac's elite corps of light cavalry/mounted infantry -- the area around Sovalles is famous for breeding excellent horses. In practicing with the household guard, Sheraviel quickly earns the epithet "Sheraviel of the Impenetrable Guard," as no one is able to land a touch on her in practice fencing; she is asked to teach this signature style to the others, but none have the knack of it.
DM's Note: In addition to the dodge feat, Sheraviel has Canny Defense, allowing her to add her Intelligence bonus as an insight bonus to AC. Stacking these together with her high Dex and habitual use of the Combat Expertise feat, she is nearly impossible to hit unless caught flat-footed or successfully feinted against (and her good Bluff/sense motive skill makes the latter unlikely).
Agun wanders over to where an intense amount of fabrication is going on. A ferocious-looking black-bearded hill dwarf is directing the construction of highly-advanced siege weapons; when not so engaged, he works at his forge, crafting superior weapons and armor -- and even magical items -- for the war effort. This is Albrecht "Half-Azer"; upon learning of Agun's magical skills and mountain dwarven heritage, he willingly allows Agun the use of his supplies and facilities, in exchange for his assistance. Agun begins scribing scrolls that he feels will be useful in the future, thinking that he half-hopes the war is a lengthy one.
The encampment has been without a cleric, until Rim's arrival. He preaches the doctrine of his goddess to the halflings and heals those who suffer accidental injuries, and proves so useful that Albrecht, taking him aside, reveals an ingot of dull black, lusterless metal. "Adamantine," the smith explains. "The only ingot I've ever seen, and I've been wondering for years what to do with it. It will be a symbol, as well as a weapon!" Over the next few weeks, he replaces Rim's mundane glaive head with one of adamantine -- nearly unbreakable, and capable of cleaving through rock or lesser metals.
In short, the party quickly becomes indispensible, and is thoroughly accepted into d'Ansac's army.
Cadogan finds that he enjoys d'Ansac's company, and has a number of "academic" discussions with him.
"Uh, no offense, Monsieur le Marquis, but even with a million conscripts as opposed to the -- what, hundred thousand or so you've got? -- surely you can't expect to beat the Royal Army? I mean, these halflings can barely handle their weapons."
D'Ansac smiles. "In this case, I believe there can be no war. For while these peasants are playing soldier, they are not tilling the fields or reaping the grain. So although I prepare for the worst -- which of course I must do -- I still believe that His Majesty must sue for terms, lest his whole nation starve next year."
Cadogan, impressed with the Marquis' ruthlessness, says, "Then why not simply make your demands up front, and spare all the trouble?"
The Marquis' smile disappears. "My friend," he says earnestly, "Perhaps as a human you cannot understand. Although we have very few laws, there are rules upon rules that govern the etiquette and honor of the high elven people. In my dealings with Larquest, I overstepped the bounds of what a noble may do, and so I can make no demands now at all, unless I can prove first that I can back them up."
However, d'Ansac receives no terms, and his spies report that vast amounts of material suitable for building siege weapons have been requisitioned by the Royal Army.
He calls a discussion; when Sheraviel repeats General Kelth's remarks, the Marquis cannot quell an expression of interest. He orders the drill instuctors to distribute the following announcement to the more than one hundred thousand halfling conscripts:
"Ladies and gentlemen, I know many of you are concerned at leaving your farms and your regular life, but you should know that your bravery, and your service to this province, will be repaid with interest. Any one of you who fights against the invading army in the days to come immediately becomes a free yeoman thereafter, and after the war can retire to the countryside with a military pension as befits your veteran status. Any of you who are captured by the enemy immediately become veterans, entitled to full benefits back-dated to the start of your training. I will give each one of you official papers explaining these grants. Again, know that you have the respect and admiration of your lord, and earn great honor and prosperity for yourselves and your families."
Cadogan reads this missive with something like awe. "So, they'll all surrender, right?" he says. "And then the king not only has to feed and house them all, but, bound by Kelth's promise, owes them all veterans' back-pay besides. It will bankrupt the entire kingdom!"
D'Ansac nods sadly. "I had hoped it would not come to this, but it seems we are now playing for keeps. One other thing concerns me greatly, which I hope you, Sheraviel, and your friends can help me with. I have an arrangement with Lord Fairpoint to stand aside and let me through his lands, which means I can take my horsemen and directly attack the city of Hylore itself, while the Royal Army, which bivouacs north of Hylore, must take the wider road through the hills instead. But I have not heard from Fairpoint in some time, and so I am concerned. Surely he has returned from Estren by now. So, I wonder if you could do me this favor: ride to Fairpoint, and see if you can gain an audience with Lord Fairpoint and present this dispatch." He hands Sheraviel a letter.
"If he does not get that letter," Fairpoint says, "Then I must fight Kelth in the Seladan Hills, where his infantry will be at a disadvantage, but I do not think that edge will be enough if I do not have time to deploy the siege weapons on the heights. Luckily, I have a friend in the lake the army will pass, who can hopefully delay them. So, if you get no reply from Lord Fairpoint, or if the Royal Army comes sooner, meet me in the Seladan Hills."
Sheraviel and Cadogan collect Rim and Agun, mount the steeds provided by the Marquis, and ride -- but as soon as they come to a fork in the road, Sheraviel continues east towards the hills and the lake, rather than turning southeast to Fairpoint.
DM's Note: Of the six players and DM, we had one ex-Army enlistee, one retired Army sergeant, an active Army specialist, etc. -- and one West Point dropout. Only two regular players had had no military experience. So if the setup for this particular scenario seems overly military-heavy, there you go. (Also, for any Lee Child fans, I'd been reading The Enemy when I wrote the stuff with Seurat and Sigma platoon.)
On the road, with Auris and Shaleh along for support, they encounter a fireteam of four of d'Ansac's mounted infantry on patrol. One of them dismounts and signals for the party to draw rein and identify themselves. Stepping forward, the dismounted man doffs his hat and bows, as courtesy dictates; Sheraviel, in turn, draws her sword and kills the man, with no hestiation and no remorse. Agun, reacting quickly, causes two of the other horses to spill in the road, and Auris' chain yanks the fourth horseman from his saddle. The party quickly puts the remaining soldiers to the sword, then drags the bodies into the nearby brush, fleeing before the remainder of the squad arrives.
The party decides to travel off the road thereafter, which puts them perilously close to the edges of the Forest of Littlewood. However, by traveling during the day and camping as far as possible from the woods while still out of sight of the road, they manage to avoid mischief from the local fey and detection by d'Ansac's troops.
They pass quickly through the Seladan Hills and, in the last pass that exits into the broad valley separating the hills from the southernmost spur of the Andoor Mountains to the north, they come across a misty lake.
Out from the water steps what looks like a gorgeous blonde woman wearing a long, flowing green dress, sopping wet -- but her legs beneath it are those a goat, and she has fangs. This is the Green Lady of Seladan Valley, a glaistig and one-time lover of the Marquis; she sings beautiful, lilting notes in the language of the fey. Cadogan is all about beautiful girls, but is ultimately too vain to succomb to the blandishments of another. Agun, leary of bodies of water after his experiences with magic fountains, likewise resists. Shaleh has no interest in women; Auris has reserves of calm and mental strength that have never been tested, much less exceeded. Sheraviel, as always, retains her self-possession and keeps her thoughts to herself.
But Rim is entranced, and seeks to walk into the lake to join the glaistig. He strides through Agun's grease as if it isn't there; notices Cadogan dancing in from the side and scares him off with the glaive. Auris trips him with the chain, moving forward to grapple him, but by then Rim is at the shore of the lake. The glaistig attempts to drain Auris' blood, only to take an arrow in the chest from Shaleh's short bow. More arrows follow, plus the piundings of a telekinetic fist from Agun. One spell from the Glaistig nearly strikes Sheraviel full-on, but her sword seems to parry it -- something Agun notes and mentally files away, although Sheraviel doesn't seem to notice at the time. Eventually the Green Lady is slain, and the party camps to rest. Rim is free of his beguilement after the glaistig's death; Agun remarks, "If even Rim fell for her spell, the troops of the King's Army wouldn't have had a chance. They'd have drowned to a man, and never made it into the hills."
Cadogan has another thought. "You know, I keep wondering why a guy who owns a castle wants to fight out in a bunch of uncomfortable hills instead..." Agun suggests they find out, and Shaleh, thinking there may be valuables to loot, heartily agrees.
The vanguard of the Royal Army arrives at the lake the next day, and Sheraviel bows to them, explains that she has been guarding the border, and stresses that, whatever happens, they must not take any halflings prisoner, and indeed should not fight them at all if possible. The party then mounts and gallops back the way they came, but bypasses d'Ansac's encampment to the north, angling for the city of Sovalles and his castle there instead.
Well, it is better to die with the comforts of home rather than in a muddy field.
I'll never get soldiers.
d'Ansac's castle is deserted when the party arrives. They approach the postern gate, and Cadogan motions them to wait; he takes seemingly a long time studying it, then, working carefully, picks the lock. Motioning everyone to stand back, he ties a rope to the gate, unreels it until he's 30 feet or so away, and then pulls the gate open. Immediately a gout of flame erupts from the gate, but Cadogan's ploy keeps everyone out of the blast radius.
The door to the inner keep presents something more of a problem -- Cadogan immediately notices the telltale flickering of multiple protective spells. Sheraviel and Rim ponder over it, but make no definite conclusions; Agun steps up and considers the door. He inhales deeply on his cigar and is quiet for a good 30 seconds before speaking.
"D'Ansac fire trapped the other gate, so if he's done the same to this door, he can't have done anything else to it like Arcane Lock or Alarm. Of course, he could have done those two instead of a Fire Trap, but that still only leaves two effects to get past. The only other options I can think of we'd be able to see, barring some kind of illusion. The whole situation changes completely if he used divine spells, but we haven't seen any way that he could have had access to that. Still, you never know."
He ponders some more. Slapping an arcane lock on the door, and then throwing up an alarm spell on the door, is MUCH easier than intertwining the two spells. In other words, a very good wizard would actually cast the alarm to monitor the arcane lock spell -- but a lesser wizard (or one who was in a hurry) would simply cast them both on the door itself.
Agun says, "Okay, this is what it sounds like we have to do: Sheraviel casts detect magic so that she can specifically target the specialized alarm spell -- there almost has to be one there -- with her sword. She has to make sure that her first swing hits it, because just touching the door could set off the alarm. If I'm right about her sword, it will dispel the alarm. Once that's out of the way, Cadogan should try to pick the arcane lock and open the door. If he fails, we'll use Rim's glaive."
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There is a violent spark as a spell of some kind is unraveled; for those with detect magic active, instantly the flickering that denotes proximate abjuration effects is replaced by the steady glow of the arcane lock spell. Held breath is released as the Marquis fails to appear in a huff of displaced air. Cadogan detects no traps; a touch of Agun's wand of knock suppresses the arcane lock, and Cadogan, working with infinite patience and care, is able to pick the mechanical lock after what seems like an eternity.
The door opens into the Marquis' wine cellars; Sheraviel almost immediately notes the presence of a secret door, and Cadogan, attempting to steal a bottle of Cheval Blanc '58, trips the mechanism to open the passage.
Beyond is a large, bare stone chamber. Around the points of a pentagram on the ceiling are five magical lights -- permanent, fixed daylight spells -- that converge like spotlights on a forcecage on the floor in the center of the room. The pitiless magical glare illuminates the cage's occupant in stark relief.
Inside the cage of force is an old, hunched, wracked creature with red eyes and fangs, rendered helpless by the bright light and obviously unable to get free of the cage. Closer inspection indicates a familial relationship to the Marquis -- although this one was older before he became the twisted thing he is now. With a sneer of horror and disgust, Sheraviel realizes that this was the Marquis' predecessor: old Maurice d'Ansac, who was Marquis of South Province until sometime during the Days of Darkness, when the current Marquis (Aujoule d'Ansac, his son) took over.
Rim (whose undead sense went off powerfully upon entering the room) whispers, "Look how weak he is... it might be 30 years, or more, without any blood."
"Um, hmmm. Errr. I don't like this..." adds Cadogan.
At a loss for what to do with this information, the heroes saddle up again and head for the Seladan Hills. Their long detour has allowed the Royal Army a chance to array itself, facing d'Ansac's forces; a parley has been held, terms offered to d'Ansac (and refused), counter-terms offered to the crown (and refused by Kelth on its behalf), and, with those long formalities attended to, it's time for battle!
In the hills, the party crests a slope to see d'Ansac's vast army of peasant militia assembled, supported by archers and pikemen, and by d'Ansac's elite light cavalry/mounted infantry battalion. Kelth signals, and the Royal Army trundles forward a larger number of catapults and ballistae than Sheraviel would have thought they had with them, or could even obtain; immediately, these are destroyed by an incoming barrage from d'Ansac's awesome array of highly-advanced siege engines. From her vantage point, Sheraviel can see that the remnants of Kelth’s engines were merely wooden mockups. While d’Ansac’s engineers reload his weapons, Kelth’s heavy infantry surges forward and engages the defenders’ line, and the purpose of the ruse becomes clear.
Kelth's elven archers keep d'Ansac's horsemen at bay while shielded spear phalanxes weather the defending archers' fire and move to support the halberdiers. Still, the defenders outnumber the attacking forces by almost three to one – and pyrotechnic hell begins raining down on the Royal infantry, inflicting heavy casualties and quickly breaking apart the blocks of their formation. The source of the fires is a hill near the party, where Albrecht and his cadre of hill dwarf apprentices are casting spells. As the heroes approach, the two sisters from d’Ansac’s guard – Bellica and Sabrisse – step forward and salute gravely. Bellica, the older, says, “Forgive me, Sheraviel, but our lives are sworn to the cause of the Marquis. It is with great regret that we will slay you if you proceed – please understand we hold you in great respect, and bear you no personal animosity whatever.” Sheraviel, understanding the social conventions that govern mayhem among highborn elves, nods to them and draws her sword.
Cadogan, seeking to charge them unexpectedly, is dealt a deep wound by Sabrisse. Meanwhile, Agun begins counter-spelling Albrecht’s efforts, while Rim calls on his goddess. To his astonishment, Albrecht’s followers throw down their implements -- most of them have been converted to Rim's religion in the time he spent with them -- and they drag down their former master. Albrecht Half-Azer is slain by a weapon that he himself crafted -- Rim's adamantine glaive. Sheraviel and Cadogan incapacitate the sisters, but fail to inflict the coup de grace on them.
Auris and Shaleh, among d’Ansac’s ranks of conscripts, take this to be their cue. Throwing down his pike, Aurus unwarps the chains from his arm and begins wraking havoc among his own lines. Shaleh quickly produces her short bow, concealed until now, and begins firing on d’Ansac’s horsemen. At this point, Kelth's heavy cavalry, screened until then by mass invisibility spells, smashes into the defenders' flanks while the halberdiers and spear phalanxes – safe from the raining fire and granted respite by the chaos in the enemy ranks – are able to regroup; d'Ansac's peasant army is ground into dust.
Aftermath:
Continuing on to invest the castle, the invaders find d'Ansac's father in his forcecage. Daressa cuts him down with Állam as well, ending the d'Ansac line.
In the months that follow, the story comes out. During the Days of Darkness, great evil invaded Aviona, and old Maurice, defending his lands against the darkness, had been infected by it -- he was bitten by a vampire, and became one himself. His son, then of age and proving to be a capable noble, could not bear to destroy his father, so he imprisoned him and devoted his life to the search for a cure.
Years passed; d'Ansac, instrumental in continuing Larquest's exploration and mapping projects, was also intercepting Larquest's communications to the crown regarding his findings. In the Estren Highlands, Larquest had located something -- some item that d'Ansac thought could cure his father. Demanding the location, he received it from Larquest, but was forced to kill the explorer when Larquest stated his terms for delivery: he wanted to know why exactly d'Ansac was interested. As there was no known cure for vampirism, knowledge of Maurice's fate would lead to his immediate extermination, which was not to be countenanced. D'Ansac was fully prepared to pay any consequences, no matter how high, in pursuit of his aims, and slew the explorer -- thereby precipitating a civil war.
King Elcore summarized it this way: "Rather than despise the late Marquis, Aujule d'Ansac, we should remember him well, and learn the lessons he taught us. During the Days of Darkness, evil walked naked over the land, and none were safe. In repelling the seige on his castle, the old Marquis was infected by a fiend, and became one himself. His son could not allow harm to come to the people he was sworn to protect -- but nor yet could he bring himself to destroy his beloved father, who had raised him alone from childhood.
"For thirty years he searched for a cure, and, having believed that one was finally within his grasp, he overreached... and thereby brought a tragedy upon us all. No one is above the law; no matter what their personal circumstance. And what can be forgiven in a commoner, a high noble should know better. Must always know better. Lest ultimate destruction overtake them, as it did both father and son."
DM's Notes: This one was a lot of fun for me, because I got really attached to d'Ansac -- it was fun to see the party become great friends with him, only to jerk the rug out from under him. It also gave me a chance to sprinkle the mileau with other colorful characters -- it always sort of bugs me for a campaign to have exactly four people in the world who matter. Pep and Seth were PCs from a previous Aviona reboot (I'd run this adventure for them, and they invaded straightforwardly along with the Royal Army, so I figured I'd keep that aspect but move it to the background). Daressa was from an unrelated campaign before that. Having their sheets handy meant I didn't need to invent new people on the spot; still, I tried to keep the current PCs as the movers and shakers, the ones in the spotlight.
As coincidences of potential interest, Pep and Seth's party, back in their day, had another PC named Alanna, whose foster daughter (actually a sorcerer attracted as a follower with the Leadership feat) became a vampire-spawn whom Alanna was eventually forced to destroy. Near the end of a different campaign, Daressa (played by me at the time) was also killed by vampires and rose as one (and thereby became an NPC, which kind of bummed me out!). Come to think of it, as I'm typing this, in my PBP game they're hunting a vampire. So there are a lot of vampire connections here. That said, vampires, it should be clear, are always monsters in Aviona, rather than love interests!
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Andostre/Agun here.
This avatar was for the character that I was planning on rolling up if Agun ever bought it. Kirth claimed that no PCs were safe, but not a single one died while they were still actively played by their player (although Cadogan came close).
Jym was a halfling "recruit" in d'Ansac's army who rebelled against the second-class citizenship of halflings in Aviona. He was a rabble-rouser who viewed the PCs as heroes for some reason I hadn't yet contrived, making stirring speeches for things important and inane. He was to be a Kirthfinder minstrel and would have hopefully filled the functional void that the wizard Agun would leave, if not the emotional void that Agun would leave in everyone's hearts.
Kirth claimed that no PCs were safe, but not a single one died while they were still actively played by their player (although Cadogan came close).
Luck of the dice -- you saw me roll 'em, right in front of everyone! Alas, you guys never quite got to the hardcore rocket-tag levels of the game...
Based on her accomplishments during the rebellion, Sheraviel has proven herself as an ace operative for the King's Guard, ensuring her entry on the coveted Special Assignments roster. In the course of duty, she can now get away with most legal infractions short of major felonies (and sometimes even those, depending on her Bluff results when submitting her reports). As an added plus, she is spared routine guard duty.
Agun is a tuition-deferred full-time student at the University of Hylore. He has placed out of the introductory classes, and is pursuing the equivalent of a 4th year course of study. This also gives him access to the libraries there (+2 to Knowledge (lore) checks given research time, and he can also take 20), which he uses to research runestones like the one he found in Estren. In addition, he's got Albrecht's spellbooks to study.
Cadogan has a number of minor arrests and suspected felonies removed from his record. Although he initially falls under suspicion of the most powerful Hylore mob (an organization headed by "Mr. C") as a "Royalist stoolie," his criminal reputation is restored (and then some) when word leaks out that he assassinated Lord Fairpoint's daughter. He now receives side jobs directly from Mr. C's capos, drastically increasing his revenue and underworld status.
Rim "The Glaive" has become something of a legend among the common folk, as the story of his routing of the thugs at the inn is retold, and the tales of the defeat of Albrecht Half-Azer grow as they circulate (rumor has it that Rim personally healed half the royal army, before miraculously neutralizing Albrecht's spells, allowing him to be defeated). He no longer suffers any racial penalties or mistrust when dealing with halflings or humans, and hill dwarves in Aviona believe him to be an actual saint.
Sheraviel's next assignment comes fairly quickly, but it lacks the intrigue or glamor she was expecting. In essence, it's a missing persons case: a wealthy old town gentleman, "Mr. Paternoster," has disappeared, and his granddaughter is concerned. Sniffing disdainfully, she looks into his affairs, getting the impression of a well-off, nice but somewhat vague, and very lonely old man.
Meanwhile, Cadogan, hanging around Mr. C's casino, is watching a sweating, drunken middle-aged man bet outrageous sums at the blackjack table. Not wanting to see him incur debts that can't be easily collected (a lot of extra work and hassle), Cadogan instead pre-emptively takes him outside and interrogates him. The man, Phil by name, has just been let go from his job as accountant for the Quicklime Syndicate, a kind of upscale call-girl service. Unfortunately, Phil had to buy his way in, and is now heavily in debt to them -- something they take as seriously as Mr. C does. Phil was trying to win the money by counting cards, but either he wasn't as good at that as he thought, or else luck just wasn't with him...
Cadogan steadily applies more and more pressure, pushing the almost-broken Phil completely over the edge. He begins babbling about Quicklime running a badger-game variant on customers, "disappearing" them and looting the estates; a former cop named Otto makes sure that investigations go nowhere. Less directly involved is someone named "Monk," who despite his name is apparently an insane druid of some kind; Phil is absolutely terrified of him.
Meeting Sheraviel, Rim, and Agun for dinner and drinks, Cadogan peripherally feels out Sheraviel to see if this information is worth anything to the King's Guard. Sheraviel, feeling it might have some bearing on her case (or at least lead to a more interesting one), feigns disinterest; by the end of dinner, it's clear that all four of them intend to make Quicklime a side project. After drinks, they happily shake on it.
Sheraviel goes alone to Quicklime's offices, is seated in a nice lobby and offered refreshments, and asked what sort of companionship she's looking for. Making it clear that she wants to talk official business with management, she is granted an interview on the spot with Calvin Styler, head of the Quicklime Group. Styler is pleasant and courteous, obviously proud of efficiently administering a first-class and very profitable escort service, but the interview is inconclusive. Sheraviel fails to gain access to client records, although she is told that Clarissa Mackinay is the star of the outfit; she commands outrageous fees, and can afford to pick and choose her assignations.
Going to Captain Fenneval, Sheraviel, nearly biting her lip in frustration, asks for the advancement of state funds for expenses related to her investigation. As a member of the Special Assignments roster, she needs not give a more detailed explanation, which is fortunate -- Cadogan plans to use the money to arrange a date with Mackinay, to try and (cough) pump her for information. He is to act as bait by pretending to be a rich playboy without family or local friends; if that fails, more direct interrogation may be needed.
Cadogan is nearly as pretty as any of the Quicklime employees, and with his glib tongue, considerable presence, and rock-star sensibilities, he quickly talks his way into an assignation with her. The meeting is arranged at the posh Balfour Hotel, in a room rented for roughly a third of the state funds that Sheraviel requisitioned; caviar, strawberries, and champaign are brought in; Sheraviel hides in the closet, and Shelah, contacted for just this purpose, is on the balcony. Auris, Agun, and Rim are disguised as hotel employees and have the corridor staked out.
Mackinay arrives; she and Cadogan exchange small talk, which very quickly and unexpectedly becomes larger talk. Her professional duties are discharged frequently between more talk; it begins to rain outside, prompting Shaleh (on the balcony) to silently curse Cadogan and wish his death. The night passes, Mackinay departs with the remainder of the state funds, and Cadogan, humming, takes a shower before opening the doors.
Sheraviel is cranky from sleeping upright in a closet. Shaleh is soaking wet and miserable. Agun, Rim, and Auris apparently spent most of the night playing cards in a nearby room. And Cadogan has learned nothing.
Well, nothing useful to the investigation, that is. Cadogan has learned that he is in love with Mackinay. In addition to seeing her as a physical goddess, he senses in her a kindred spirit, and apparently the sentiment is reciprocated -- Cadogan's native suspicion and great skill at sensing others' motives convince him of that.
Rim can only hope that getting Cadogan loose from Clarissa will be as easy as pulling a tooth was for him...
DM's Note: Cadogan made some kind of absurdly high Diplomacy check to impress Mackinay; I promptly rolled for her in return and scored a natural 20, confirmed as a critical success. The love-at-first-sight stuff we made up on the spot to retroactively explain the high die rolls, with Derek voluntarily ceding partial control of his character (in not pressing for information or torturing her for it) -- the guy takes his roleplaying VERY seriously, and doesn't let metagame knowledge get in the way.
Once again without any information or funds, Sheraviel is not pleased. "Cadogan," she says, "I paid for results, not entertainment. I still expect information. If you can't or won't get it from that redheaded hussy, you'll have to burgle Quicklime's offices. I assume the state funds you've already spent are more than enough to cover your professional fee."
Turning to a disheveled Shaleh, she adds, "To get back at Cadogan for a thoroughly unpleasant and unnecessarily long evening, would you be so good as to babysit him during this assignment?" Shaleh smiles, collects Cadogan, and they proceed to the Quicklime building. As it is just before dawn, the place is closed; Sheraviel, Agun, Rim, and Auris stake it out from various vantage points, while Cadogan and Shaleh break in.
Inside, Cadogan's abilities to find and disable traps prove inadequate to the task of beating Quicklime's security; luckily, Shaleh is quite a bit more adept at these sorts of tasks, and soon the two have a fairly large amount of information to discuss. The group meet up again at the Guardsman's barracks, and review Shaleh's find.
Quicklime's customer records do include a file for Paternoster, who was one of Clarissa Mackinay's clients. They set it aside. Next is Cadogan's -- seeing more information about himself in the file than he's comfortable with, Cadogan burns it. The group retains the rest of Maickanay's client files. Sheraviel, with her eidetic memory, can recall the pertinent details at will after having read them once, but the hard copies can be used as incriminating evidence, assuming a number of them turn out to be unsolved missing persons. Sheraviel assigns a number of junior guardsmen to do the legwork; after a week of this, enough data has been collected to indicate that a small but select fraction of Mackinay's clients are all without immediate friends or family, and are all missing. Interviewing the investigating officers of the City Watch reveals that there is only one common police thread --all of the routine investigations were assisted by Otto Geraint, a former police lieutenant who still moonlights for extra pension money. Paternoster's case was also assigned to a City Watch officer -- but uninown to the routine case officer, Paternoster's family connections brought in the King's Guard as well. "They made a mistake with the old man," Sheraviel says, "In assuming he was out of touch with his granddaughter, and that no one else would look. I propose making them pay for that error."
In addition to the client files, Shaleh managed to turn up some property deeds as well. The Quicklime Group owns the building just burgled, and also owns three houses: one on the Bay of Princes, in an upscale section of Hylore; one in the ritzy downtown area; and one far north of the city, in Camberlin County, up in the Andoor Mountains.
Sheraviel nods curtly. "First, though, I think we need to see who's in these two houses here in the city. And we need to make sure Calvin is out of circulation for a bit, along with Cadogan's new girlfriend. And we need to annoy Otto as much as possible..."
No one lets me have any fun.
From the shore side, the fancy house on the Bay is part of a stuffy gated community of high elf gentry, Arbor Grove Estates, with strictly-controlled access. Rather than pick the lock on the gate in broad daylight, the party hires a boat and uses it to check out the house from the water. It looks quite nice, with a nice big balcony overlooking the bay. It also has an occupant who closely matches the description the PCs received for Otto Geraint -- a middle-aged human, bald and heavyset, with a glowering expression. As Sheraviel can attest, the place would cost something like triple what he made over the entire course of his career, so handsome unrecorded payoffs are fairly certain. Cadogan pulls out a crossbow; Sheraviel puts her hand out and lowers it, saying, "We want to put them all off-guard, not just stage a frontal assault. We need to know who else is involved and what their capabilities are."
As it turns out, Sheraviel has some talent at art. The other Guardsmen assume she's trying to emulate Daressa of Corilaine, a master painter, but her motives are far more pragmatic -- given an eidetic memory, it's often useful to be able to re-create for others what you can already see so clearly. In any event, she puts that talent to work, creating an elaborate poster, which she then copies a dozen times. She affixes the original to the gates of Arbor Grove Estates; it reads:
LORD GERAINT and the Quicklime Group PRESENT
The first annual WALK ON THE WILD SIDE!
Beautiful ARBOR GROVE ESTATES
Humans and gnomes will be in attendance, and a rumored half-orc special guest!
START: Friday 6 pm; End: Sunday ?
PLACE: Lord Geraint's Mansion
Beer, wine, and elf girls!
She directs Rim to destroy the lock on the gate using his adamantine glaive; the party then posts the copies of the flyer in strategic locations around the city.
"That might annoy him," she says. "So now it's time to look in on Cal." Cadogan grins. "How much you want to bet he's in the swanky pad downtown?"
DM's Note: Jess door actually drew up the poster while we were playing, resulting in unanimous applause from myself and the other players, and in a hero point for Sheraviel. Who says Craft (fine arts) skill is a waste?
Calvin Styler isn't at home in the ritzy downtown penthouse, but Clarissa Mackinay is. Sheraviel, holding her at sword point, announces her arrest; Cadogan, using every ounce of silver in his tongue, quickly changes her status from "accessory to murder" to "material witness,"
and she is brought in, supposedly to bear testimony against Styler, once he's found and arrested.
At the guard barracks, Cadogan's persuasion is overruled, and Mackinay is booked as an accessory. Although physical evidence other than the (admittedly circumstantial) ledgers would strengthen the case against her, magical means can often elicit the truth. Knowing this, Cadogan carefully cuts her bonds, out of sight of the others, using his often-practiced but seldomly-used skill at sleight of hand. Sheraviel leaves the room to fetch Captain Fenneval, Cadogan unobtrusively jams the door open, and Mackinay flees down the corridor.
Cadogan pauses to get a cup of coffee, so that he can claim to have been unaware of her escape, and then follows down the corridor. Agun, Auris, and Shaleh, present at this time and interested in the proceedings, are behind him. Turning the corner, Cadogan sees Fenneval approaching, trailed by Sheraviel. Clarissa attempts to slip past them, finds there is insufficient room in the corridor, grabs a nearby unlit torch, and attempts to knock Fenneval down with it in order to get past him. Fast as a striking snake, Fenneval's rapier is suddenly in his hand, and suddenly through Clarissa's body -- and then, much, much more slowly, her body crumples to the floor. Cadogan, almost as if in sympathy, does likewise, and lets out a low wail; Mackinay is silent.
Even Sheraviel is moved to sympathy for the stricken Cadogan, although she shows it less than Agun, whose sarcanstic quips now have an undertone of pathos that one would have previouly thought impossible. Cadogan pulls himself together mostly by means of anger: obviously it was Styler's fault, for dragging Mackinay into a life of crime; obviously it was Quicklime's fault, what happened to her; obviously Styler, Otto, and the mysterious "Monk" must pay for what happened to her. With grim purpose, he proposes an immediate trip to Camberlin County, and the others agree -- without Mackinay as a witness, physical evidence will be needed, and Styler is still at large. Sheraviel leaves word with Fenneval to put the word out for Styler's arrest and detainment; Sheraviel, Agun, Cadogan, Auris, and Shaleh go looking for Rim.
Unfortunmately, Rim is not to be found in any of his usual spots -- the tavern near the monastery; the hill dwarf quarter of the city; the newly-constructed church to his goddess. Cadogan is almost feverish with eagerness to go, and Sheraviel doesn't want the trail to get cold, so with regret, they proceed into the Andoor Mountains without Rim.
Following a map, the group finds the hiking more difficult in places than they had envisioned, and at one point comes upon a wall of fire blocking the trail: a group of ravens looks down from a nearby fir tree, and as they approach, a set of bipedal, man-sized, black-feathered monsters comes bounding down the nearby slope, cawing horribly and springing to attack! Agun recognizes these as "dire corbies," although he suspects that these particular specimens were magically summoned, rather than captured in the underworld. After a brief and unspectacular combat, the party slays these monsters; all but one of the watching raven flees, and Agun discharges his crossbow at the remaining one -- prompting a baleful glare on its part as it, too, flies away. Simply waiting for a period of time is suffifienct to get past the wall of fire, which sputters out after a minute or so.
Continuing into the mountains, they find Camberlin County to be everything that Cadogan had initially caricatured it as: "rural" and "squalid" both come to mind. Emerging into a clearing amond the maple and hickory, they find a ramshackle shack, with rubble in the yard and an obvious still. A large, hardbitten mountain man accosts them and, seeing Sheraviel's cloak, accuses them of being royal tax collectors; he threatens to sic his pack of dogs on them, and the party quickly moves on.
Continuing on the trail, the group soon reaches the Quicklime house: a sturdy structure of wooden timbers and shakes, with a slate roof and an external lean-to shed. To one side are the remains of a gigantic wicker crow, mostly burned, and the remnants seared; under it is a large pile of black ash. Sifty the ash idly, Agun encounters a metallic object -- which, when cleaned off, proves to be an adamantine glaive head.
Further, more careful sifting reveals a set of charred bones, noteably missing a second bicuspid.
The party has found St. Rim and his glaive, but his relic tooth is missing...
In the shed, Cadogan's quick reflexes allow him to avoid a bite from a rattlesnake hidden under some burlap sacks. Nailed to the wall, with silver nails, are three emaciated housecats; with an eerie thrill, Agun notices that they don't cast shadows. The nails have an aura of necromancy. Feeling this is something best attended to, they dispel magic on the nails and pull them, setting the cats free. There is nothing else of interest in the shed except for mundane tools and drying herbs.
Around the back of the manse is a pit containing a lime pool. Probing in the pool reveals a number of calcified skeletal remains -- including one with a valueless locket identified as one habitually worn by Paternoster. The party has their hard physical evidence, if only they can make the arrests.
Inside the house, the party encounters Otto Gerraint. His familiar -- a full-sized winter wolf -- attacks them; slaying this, they manage to kill Otto as well, despite Cadogan fighting against them half the time from Otto's confusion spell. Agun makes a quip about the legality of posthumous arrests, but Sheraviel simply shrugs and says, "It's a lot easier this way for everyone."
You forgot I slipped her my ring of invisibility ;-)
You forgot I slipped her my ring of invisibility ;-)
For all the good it did her... a captain of the guard without a permanent see invisibility (or at least high Perception and Blind-Fighting) isn't much of a guard captain, after all!
The group continues their exploration of the manse, finding the remainder of the ground level to be relatively innocuous. When they descend a set of stone stairs to the basement, however, things get a bit weirder.
In a small cell at the base of the stairs is a cloaked figure sitting at a desk; this proves to be a trained carnivorous ape, Robert E. Howard-style, that leaps up and attempts to rend Sheraviel. Sheraviel's guard keeps the thing off her long enough for Cadogan's vicious sneak attacks to slay the thing, and the party moves on to a large workroom occupying most of the rest of the basement. Here there is a large cauldron, a gold-bladed sickle, a large amount of herbs and other plants, and evidence of one or more half-completed magical projects. An insane-looking man is working there; looking up at the party's approach, he attacks unarmed, his assault forcing the party on the defensive -- this is evidently "Monk," of whom Phil was so terrified. A spinning kick leaves Cadogan heavily wounded, and Auris, stepping forward, appears to have met his match.
With Agun and Shaleh assisting Sheraviel and Auris, the tide of the battle quickly turns, and Monk quickly retreats into a root cellar, the floor of which is a maze of spike growth that slows pursuit. Turning a corner to avoid Shaleh's arrows, he conjures a wall of fire to block the party's approach; by the time Sherviel dispels the wall with her sword, Monk has taken the form of a snake and fled through a small hole in the wall.
The party returns upstairs. Night has fallen and something very large and multi-legged seems to be on the roof, trying to get in; the party bars the shutters, performs first aid on Cadogan, and anxiously waits until dawn, whereupon the presence on the roof disappears. Departing cautiously, they set the house afire in several places and burn it to the ground before starting back to Hylore.
On the way to the rustic cabin with the still, they are ambushed by crossbow fire; Sheraviel, caught off guard, is incapacitated, and Auris charges the nearby hill, with magical support from Agun, and manages to grapple the sniper (the mountain man they'd encountered earlier) long enough for the others to gain the hill and kill him, also slaying his pack of half-rabid mongrel dogs. Agun remarks, "In the future, let's NEVER walk on the road unless we know all the bad guys are dead!" -- advice the party follows carefully thereafter.
The group is battered, wounded, and in bad shape when they finally arrive in Hylore. There, they learn that Cal Styler has been found and arrested in the meantime; with the evidence they acquired from the lime pit, he is convicted and executed. With Monk's projects interrupted and his house and laboratories destroyed, Sheraviel feels they have completed their mission, despite the fact that Monk is technically still MIA.
Cadogan, however, takes Monk's escape as a personal affront. Re-opening the Quicklime building as his new headquarters, Cadogan quickly establishes something of a criminal network of his own, "borrowing" Mr. C's "soldiers" in exchange for providing the boss a handsome cut of the profits, and retaining Joachim as his lieutenant and emissary to the Olidammarites. Most of his activities, while otherwise profitable, center on the cultivation of contacts in Camberlin, and on the location of the fugitive Monk.
DM's Notes: I've mentioned that all of the players were DMs in their own right, with their own games; that being the case, scheduling conflicts were inevitable. Silverhair, having his hands full and then some DMing his own games, had announced prior to this adventure that this had become the case for him (my understanding was that he was DMing more than one weekly game himself). As the adventure was written, the Syndicate counterattacks the party as they're being investigated/attacked. I therefore picked Rim as their target because it seemed like an internally-consistent way of accounting for his PC not being present thereafter (having a different player's PC potentially killed and having them take over Rim in that instance would have been do-able, but not as simple overall). No offense to Silverhair was intended; he was (and is) an excellent player and DM.
For similar reasons, Jess Door also resigned as a player after this adventure, leaving Sheraviel to be played by the remainder of the group.
"Monk," as a druid/monk, was a test of the revised mutliclassing options available in our house rules; he proved more successful than I had anticipated, meaning that I could probably have made his CR equal to the average party character level + 2 or 3 (as opposed to ACL+4) and still had him be a credible opponent. His escape set him up nicely as a recurring villain, however, which I hadn't intended but wasn't too upset about!
Inside the house, the party encounters Otto Gerraint. His familiar -- a full-sized winter wolf -- attacks them;
There was a lot of fur, fangs, and screaming. That's all I remember.
P.S. Auris looks even better updated!
Male human monk 6/fighter 1
Init +8; Senses sixth sense +2, uncanny dodge; Perception +12
Languages Common
AC 25, touch 19, flat-footed 18 (+4 Dex, +3 dodge, +2 insight, +2 natural, +4 armor)
hp 60 (7 HD; LW 30/HW 15)
Immune circumstance penalties
Saves Fort +6, Ref +9, Intu +7, Will +5; evasion, mettle
Spd 30 ft.
Melee +2 spiked chain +13/+8 (2d4+9) or unarmed +13/+8 (1d4+9/19-20 plus 2d6)
Face 5 ft.; Reach 5 ft. (10 ft. with chain)
Base Atk +7; CMB +11 (grapple, trip +15); CMD 24 (28 vs. grapple, trip, etc.)
Special Atks ki attack +2, weapon form +3
Ki Powers Known (CL 6th, capacity 3rd)
2nd (1/day)—cure moderate wounds (self only)
1st (4/day)—daze (Strike; 9 HD max., DC 13), inertial armor
0 (at will)—accelerated movement, feather fall, guidance, sudden jump
Attributes Str 11, Dex 18, Con 13, Int 10, Wis 15, Cha 11
SQ favored class (monk); ascetic warrior
Feats Adaptability (B), Canny Defense (B), Combat Expertise (B), Deflect Arrows (B), Dodge (B), Exotic Weapon Proficiency (B)(spiked chain, unarmed), Improved Initiative, Improved Grapple, Improved Trip, Serenity (B), Sixth Sense (B), Weapon Finesse
Skills Acrobatics (7/+14), Athletics (1/+4), Bluff (3/+6), Concentration (6/+9), Endurance (7/+11), Handle Animal (1/+4), Heal (2/+7), Knowledge (Warfare) (1/+4), Perception (7/+12), Stealth (6/+13), Survival (1/+6)
Equipment cold iron spiked chain (ignores deflection bonus to AC), amulet of natural armor +2
You should learn Roll20. ;)
Blocked at work :(
Weeks pass, and eventually Cadogan gets notice of what he suspects may be a potential lead on "Monk." Rumors are that a "demonic cult" has recently become established in a small village called Cleftrocks Hollow, which is located not far from Monk's former manse. Pausing only to find his companions, he travels quickly north, using post horses until reaching the fall line to speed the journey.
They reach the outskirts of the village, marked by trash fires, and stop in at the local church. Noticing it is dedicated to St. Cuthbert, Sheraviel nearly demurs, having previously experienced "healing" under the cudgel of the local priest in Elliston. The village priest of Cleftrocks Hollow, however, is of a different fibre. A man of obvious Hepmonaland ancestry, he has a mellow baritone voice and a genial manner that impresses the party, and they agree to stay with him during their stay in the village. When they remark on his obvious lack of a congregation, he complains of the demon cult, which he claims will be holding a ceremony at the graveyard that night.
This suits the party very well, and they proceed to stake out the cemetary. That night, a crowd gathers. A gorgeous elven woman strips naked and steps to an altar, holding a long, curved dagger; she uses it to sacrifice a goat, and a demonic presence appears, to the cheering of the crowd. Fearing the demon will notice them, the party retreats to the church. A number of ghasts try to stop them at the edge of the cemetary, but these are fairly easily defeated, although Rim's channeled energy would have been a welcome addition.
Back at the church, they find their new friend the priest -- with the back of his head bashed in.