To Olvenking Hazendel's left side stood Horned King Malvolio I, the star-studded black blade of the sentient greatsword Blackrazor outthrust before him, legs wide in a swordsman's fighting stance, ellipsoid crimson flames flickering in the blackness inside the Y-shaped visor of Warduke's Helm as the tyrant antipaladin glared at Wastri. He felt a faint vibration in the gold-wire-wrapped hilt of Blackrazor ....
Two centuries before the Twin Cataclysms destroyed the Baklunish and Suel empires, the Ur-Flan archmage Keraptis trapped a soul-devouring negative energy parasite from an alien dimension, and forged it into a new form -- a greatsword with a blade that seemed to constantly mirror a star-studded night sky -- Blackrazor, "Eater of Souls".... For over twelve centuries, the ravenous blade has hungered for mortal souls, devouring untold multitudes, but never being fully sated ....
In that moment, as its new host held it forth to behold its newest prey, Blackrazor sensed something far more powerful than a mortal soul in the batrachian figure standing on the other side of the elf-king's prismatic wall .... Something far more .... delicious .... intoxicating .... immortal ....
Blackrazor's hunger awakened with a ferocity it had never before felt .... An aching desire bordering on desperation seized the soul-devouring blade, and it expressed its need to its host in a primal, wordless mental plea which was most analogous to a telepathic moan of lust ....
Feed me, my host! I must feed! WE must feed! Such a "soul" would sate my hunger for many days .... Never have I tasted the divine essence of a god before .... What powers might this prey's divinity impart upon me? Upon US??
Unbidden by the Horned King, Blackrazor enchanted him with a battle trance, compelling him and enhancing his already considerable natural ferocity ....
To the left of Malvolio stood the enigmatic Seer of Nulbish, Selephotsiphem, shrouded as usual in crimson-and-black robe and cowl, holding a jeweled adamantine rod topped with an orb of opalescent crystal that flickered with multicolored inner fire. Blackrazor had made no audible sound, no outward sign of its telepathic communion with its "host", but Selephotsiphem's cowled head turned swiftly to face the Horned King; though his face was half hidden in shadow, the strange Seer's sudden alarm was almost palpable, causing Olvenking Hazendel to also glance over at Malvolio, and at the sparkling black blade held forth in his gauntleted hands ....
"My King," rasped Selephotsiphem, "I beseech Your Formidable Majesty -- Do NOT feed that parasite the divine soul of a demigod." The Horned King made no acknowledgment of the Seer's words, seemingly oblivious to or ignoring him. "Verily, I say unto you, Malvolio," whispered Selephotsim, grasping the Horned King's right shoulder with the bony, claw-like hand of an old man with the grip of an ogre, hoping his unaccustomed familiarity and uncourtly manner would get Malvolio's attention ....
The Seer's unseemly insistence worked. The Horned King's red-flame eyes blazed as he turned his helmed head to look at Selephotsiphem. He knew who and what the "Seer of Nulbish" really was, and had they been alone, he would have deferred with something akin to devout reverence to his infernal patron. But they were not alone; the elf-king was looking right at them with an expression of keen elvish curiosity; there were also several others present to keep appearances up for; and Mephistopheles would understand .... (right?) ....
"You dare to lay hand upon Your King," growled Malvolio, "and address him in so familiar and uncourteous a manner? You say verily unto Your King what now??" Selephotsiphem removed the offending hand and bowed slightly and perfunctorily.
Selephotsiphem feigned the humility and conciliatory manner one would expect of a mortal court astrologer and advisor who has just been admonished by his tyrannical liege: "Forgive Your Majesty's humble servant, but .... I must strongly advise Your Invincible Puissance against wielding Blackrazor against Wastri .... At the very least, Your Majesty must take care not to deal the killing stroke to the demigod with that blade! Strike him down, by all means, but use a different weapon, Mighty Horned King! Better yet," added the Seer in a low, wheezing rasp, "let Your Majesty's mighty allies deal with the demigod, whilst Your Majesty sates the gluttony of Blackrazor on the souls of Wastri's mortal minions!"
Keenly aware of the proximity of not only Hazendel, but of several other curious allies standing nearby, the uncanny Selephotsiphem continued telepathically .... "Even I fear what may come of feeding the divine essence of a demigod to Blackrazor .... How would absorbing such great power affect the already near-mythic weapon?? What would Blackrazor become if it fed upon divinity??" In spite of himself, the disguised Archdevil and Lord of Cania felt an extremely rare and fleeting chagrin for not having considered this potential danger until now .... He nearly always had a contingency for every possibility in any given situation, but he had allowed other matters -- secret matters, concerning his infernal domain and the eternal Blood War -- to distract him from the present conflict.
Simultaneous to the brief exchange between "Selephotsiphem" and Malvolio described above, the bullywug vanguard of the Hopping Horde caught up with their frog-like demigod outside the South Gate, and beheld the magical barrier of prismatic force that now barred the archway in place of the sundered gate portals with bewilderment and dismay .... But Wastri was already in the process of analyzing Hazendel's prismatic wall with his divine senses, determining the exact series of spells required to bring down the barrier's seven component layers, each a different color of the visible light spectrum, and each presenting a different hazard to any that might attempt to pass through it ....
After a few seconds of ogling the multicolored barrier with his bulging eyes (his wide mouth gaping to reveal a lolling, sticky, batrachian tongue), Wastri called out in a strident, booming croak: "TO ME, MY LOYAL MAGES OF PURITY!! YOUR LORD HAS NEED OF YOUR MAGIC!! As powerful as the demigod was, Wastri's powers were still limited by his natural inclinations -- he had been a mighty warrior-monk as a mortal man, and his powers still ran along those same lines, albeit augmented by the salient powers he'd acquired upon ascending to demigod status several decades ago. He could use a considerable array of divine spell-like abilities, and even a few arcane spell-like abilities; but he did not have the power to cast all seven of the "key" spells required to "unlock" the seven layers that made up the prismatic wall ....
In answer to their demigod master's command, his three "Loyal Mages of Purity" advanced through the ranks of bullywugs from the rear of the Hopping Horde -- three humans of strong-if-not-pure Suel ancestry (two men and a woman, pale-complexioned and ill-favored in a batrachian way that was common to the human followers of Wastri), clad in parti-colored gray-and-yellow robes, embroidered with spidery arcane sigils, and stained with muck from the Vast Swamp, each bearing a gnarled staff engraved with arcane runes. At once, the three mages began to cast the requisite "key" spells in swift succession ....
First, the Wastrian evoker Grankuss uttered an invocation and thrust out his staff, blasting the red first layer with a cone of cold spell, and the red layer faded away; he followed this by casting a gust of wind spell, and the orange second layer vanished .... Next, the Wastrian transmutrix Wilmyrra uttered an incantation, pointing her staff at the yellow third layer, and bringing it down with a disintegate spell, followed up with a passwall spell to bring down the green fourth layer .... Then, the Wastrian conjurer Marthrick pointed his magic staff at the blue fifth layer and uttered a word of command, and a trio of magic missiles sprung from the tip of the staff to dispel the blue layer; he followed this by casting a daylight spell to bring down the indigo penultimate layer .... In a matter of less than a minute, only the final violet layer stood between the Hopping Horde of Wastri and the allied defenders awaiting them on the other side of the gatehouse! Wastri cackled hideously, his bulging eyes ablaze with unholy malice and anticipation ....
Among the allies gathered around Olvenking Hazendel of Sunndi, Horned King Malvolio of Medegia, and the Seer Selephotsiphem are several powerful adventurers and rulers of lesser fiefs. These include Countess Olivia of Pontylver, a mighty arcanist archmage and former adventuring companion to Malvolio and two of the others that were present (Lord-Protector Baron of Willip Monduel the gnome mesmerist, and Lord Bob Crossbowman).
Seeing that Wastri's trio of "Loyal Mages of Purity" were quickly dismantling Hazendel's prismatic wall, and would soon open the way for the rank-and-file bullywug minions and human cultists to swarm like a plague of locusts into Pitchfield, Countess Olivia stretched out the jeweled golden greater metamagic rod of delaying, ready to unleash arcane destruction upon Wastri and his trio of ugly, toadish magelings ....
In the Infernal Tongue of Baator, she issued a calm warning to her assembled allies: "When the violet layer vanishes, give me half a second before anyone charges out through the archway .... unless you like being incinerated, or you are impervious to fire ...."
Almost immediately after she spoke the warning in the language of devils, she was about to repeat it in Elven for the benefit of Olvenking Hazendel and Prince Melf Brightflame, when one of Wastri's homely mages -- the frumpy toad-lady -- cast a dispel magic spell, dispelling the final violet layer of Hazendel's prismatic wall, and without hesitating for so long as the blink of an eye, the Countess of Pontylver cast one of the mightiest spells in the arcane repertoire, freezing time itself all around her with a time stop. She then proceeded to cast a series of devastating evocations, delayed with her greater metamagic rod of delaying to detonate as soon as time resumed its normal flow again .... "Right .... about .... NOW!!", she announced to herself, as the meadow beyond the South Gate of Pitchfield, crowded with hundreds of bullywugs and perhaps three-score human cultists, not to mention Wastri himself, suddenly ignited into a blindingly bright maelstrom of delayed blast fireballs, a delayed wall of fire, and just to cool things off a bit after all that fire, a delayed polar ray, just for Wastri himself ....
The hideous cacophony of agonized croaks and shrieks that echoed off the city walls and across the scorched meadow was morbidly satisfying to the allied defenders' ears, but even more edifying was the sight of dozens of black-charred bullywug and cultist skeletons collapsing all around the shrieking, writhing, immolated form of Wastri (who was apparently susceptible to burning, albeit mighty enough to withstand even the great holocaust Olivia had invoked upon him) ....
"YYYEEEAAAAOOOOOCH!!!, shrieked Wastri in fiery (and then frostbitten) torment from Countess Olivia's seemingly instantaneous and simultaneous barrage of devastating high-level evocation spells. He flapped his arms and twisted spasmodically as both blistering flames and flesh-freezing magical cold scourged his pale, mottled flesh. Despite the fact that he was a demigod, and durable enough to withstand several more such barrages, he was not immune to cold, fire, or the pain that could be inflicted by both ....
But a demigod he still was, and he recovered his wits far more readily than a mortal being would've been able to do in the wake of such a withering magical bombardment. His grossly frog-like face quivered with lingering pain and a fury that made bulging veins pop out on his bald pate (his gray bishop's mitre and been blasted off his head by the delayed blast fireballs, and now laid some twenty paces behind him, atop a heap of charred bullywug skeletons) ....
The three "Loyal Mages of Purity" had not fared well against the conflagration, either: the frumpy toad-lady was now a vaguely human-shaped, smoldering black heap of charred flesh and bones; the two male mages were screaming and writhing in the midst of Olivia's delayed wall of fire, apparently too mindless with pain to think of stepping out of the blazing reddish-violet curtain of magical fire ....
"I WAS GOING TO KILL THE SCRAWNY, EFFEMINATE, WHORE-SPAWNED ELVES, FIRST ...." squawked Wastri, his wart-studded batrachian visage bubbling with angry red blisters .... "BUT YOU'VE JUST CHANGED MY MIND, WHORE-OF-DEVILS!!"
Pointing the wicked business end of his glaive-guisarme, "Skewer of the Impure," at Countess Olivia, Wastri squatted low like an obese, man-sized, bipedal frog preparing to leap, then launched himself in a bounding arc through the now open South Gate archway, glaive-guisarme on trajectory to impale the pretty blond Countess between her breasts .... *CLAAANGGG!!!* An arc of blurred night-black star metal trailing silvery white traces deflected what would otherwise have been a fatal impalement of Countess Olivia .... "WHAA--??", grunted Wastri in startled surprise ....
Suddenly hasted by the ravenous Blackrazor, in addition to being compelled by the sentient greatsword into a battle trance that heightened his already considerable natural ferocity, Horned King Malvolio had darted between Countess Olivia and Wastri a split-second before the greenish metal head of the "Skewer of the Impure" could skewer the countess, and almost of its own volition, the star-speckled night-black blade of Blackrazor had swept the demigod's thrust aside like it was swatting a fly .... The hungry blade did not pause, but continued in an arc that spun back around on the upswing to carve a scarlet-billowing rift open in the flabby abdomen of Wastri, whose wide frog-like mouth gaped open in a bloodcurdling shriek of shocked pain and alarm .... Before the stunned demigod could react, Blackrazor had "tasted" its prey a second time, whetting its appetite for a "bigger bite" of this "delectable meal" ....
Malvolio was only vaguely aware of Selephotsiphem cursing in dismay and alarm somewhere behind him; he was vaguely aware of Countess Olivia briefly touching him on his right shoulder blade as she intoned a quick enchantment to compel him to even greater heroism, suddenly amplifying his martial prowess and bolstering him with magical vitality .... He ignored all other vague impressions that might try to distract his focus from the hateful, frog-like demigod that stumbled, backpedaling away from the voracious, star-studded, midnight-black blade .... "What?? .... Had the predatory greatsword just SNARLED?? Had Wastri heard it, TOO?? Or was it only an impression of my imagination? .... No. There it was again, a bestial growl, seeming to have come out of Blackrazor .... Wastri HAD heard it, too ...." The demigod's bulging eyes were fixed upon the long, black, star-spangled blade, like the eyes of a terrified herd animal beholding the gaping, fanged maw of a dire wolf in the last instant before the jaws sunk into its throat ....
Prince of Brightflame Melf dashed through the opened South Gate and ducked beneath Wastri's attempt to skewer him on the tines of his magical fauchard-fork, skidding into a flanking position with the Horned King. "OVER HERE, FROG-FACE!!", taunted the grey elf eldritch knight as he brandished a bright sun blade in one hand and a staff of power in the other.
Olvenking of Sunndi Hazendel warily moved into position to Wastri's left side, parrying an attempt to skewer him with Skewer of the Impure as he slid by the wounded and furious demigod's guard. "YOU HAVE MADE A GRAVE MISTAKE, WASTRI!! You should've stayed in your stinking swamp!"
Bob let fly a volley of +1 amphibian bane bolts specially crafted by Countess Olivia with the help of a Sunnd fletcher. They found their mark in the bigoted demigod's flabby body. 'YEAH, WASTRI!! YOU SHOULD'VE STAYED IN YOUR STINKIN' SWAMP!!"
The Battle of Pitchfield Meadow was resolved before the hour of noon that Sunday, the 9th of Flocktime. Several more deep gashes inflicted upon Wastri by the Horned King with Blackrazor convinced the demigod that he would be doomed if he didn't beat a hasty retreat.
"Selephotsiphem" was quite relieved when the battle ended with Wastri escaping back to his lair in the Vast Swamp by way of a teleport spell instead of being the fuel to catalyze a terrible apotheosis of the sentient greatsword Blackrazor ....
Deprived of the galvanizing force of their demigod leader's supernatural charisma, the remaining forces of the Hopping Horde were soon routed by combined forces of Sunndi's human cavalry mounted on barded warhorses, dwarven axe-wielders, elven archers, gnome siege engineers, and halfling slingers.
In celebration, Olvenking Hazendel decrees that no further taxes shall be collected from his subjects until the New Year of 601 CY. He holds a great feast in gratitude to the allies who came to the Kingdom of Sunndi's defense, and reassures the Horned King that he will not forget the terms of their alliance when the time comes for Sunndi to stand with the Horned Kingdom against its sundry foes.
Nooooo!!! I was so close! So close to feeding upon the divinity of that fat, bloated, wriggling morsel of a demigod!!! Another good bite, and I'd have devoured the meal and absorbed its power!!! Such a waste .... A demigod of bigotry, amphibians, and self-deception?? What an abominable waste of all that divine energy!!! I would have been transformed by such power!!! I would have exceeded even the Sword of Kas in my capacity to devour souls and spirits!!! It's so unfair!!!
Moonday, 10th of Flocktime, 600 CY:
Following a night of revelry celebrating their victory over Wastri and his Hopping Horde at the Battle of Pitchfield Meadow, Horned King Malvolio, Countess Olivia of Pontylver, Selephotsiphem, Sveinn Heldensson, Captain Arryn Aelberoth, and Malvolio's and Olivia's former adventuring companions, Baron of Willip Monduel and Bob Crossbowman of Greyhawk, bid farewell to Olvenking Hazendel of Sunndi ("until we fight side-by-side once more," Malvolio ominously reminds the grey elf king). Countess Olivia casts teleport to return them to the High Hall in Castle Nulbish.
During their (Malvolio, Olivia, et al) absence, the Horned King's Men had been busy promoting their various interests in Nulbish -- meeting with and beginning negotiations with Jocelle the Asmodean sorceress and her allies, formerly of the defunct Horned Society; meeting with the secret cult of Vecna renovating the old Mages' Tower Guildhall; finally meeting a few of the Horned King's "guests" in the upper chambers of Castle Skullgard; and at last, tracking down and capturing the renegade One-Eared Killer Doppelgänger of Nulbish (as he was coming to be known and feared), after it had brazenly infiltrated Castle Skullgard and severed the left ear of the scullery maid Kaylynn. (In the course of the latter adventure, they also managed to make friendly contact with the captain of a Scarlet Brotherhood ship on which the renegade dopplegänger had attempted to flee west up the Thelly River; for the record, the Scarlet Brotherhood captain's name was Sister Scanzia, and her ship was a caravel named the Osprey.)
The Horned King invites his former adventuring companions to remain at Castle Skullgard for as long as they wish and enjoy his hospitality, but both seem eager to depart--the wee gnomish Baron of Willip, Monduel, citing his concerns regarding Iuz's recent total conquest of the Shield Lands, and fears that the cambion demigod might next march on Furyondy's capital city, Chendl; and Bob Crossbowman citing his duties as Lord-Commander of the Watch in the Free City of Greyhawk. After gifting each of them with a generous token of his everlasting friendship in the form of precious gemstones, Malvolio bids his old adventuring companions farewell, and Countess Olivia returns them to their respective posts via greater teleport spells.
Meanwhile, in Rel Astra ....
Drax the Invulnerable proceeded with his plan to assemble a company of highly-capable adventurers and lead them on an expedition into the infamous Tomb of Horrors, where divinations (cast by Drax’s royal seer, the Fiend-Sage of Rel Astra) had revealed that the Hand of Vecna had resurfaced in the legendary trove of the ancient and fiendish demilich Acererak. Over the latter half of Planting, with the magical and mundane assistance of the Fiend-Sage of Rel Astra, Drax had made contact with several promising candidates, and had even managed to secure the services of some few of these.
By the first day of Flocktime, Drax had already recruited the Archmage Vernnend (former guild master of Rel Astra’s disbanded Guild of Mages), two “Dweomermasters” from the Sorcerer’s Nexus (Rel Astra’s recently reformed mages’ guild), the formidable swordsman Ranxxen Strangender (captain of the Bannermen mercenary company), and the cunning master thief Vornekern (one of the Five of Roland). By the 7th day of Flocktime, Drax had secured the participation of the increasingly delusional animus mage Jireen (another of the Five of Roland); and by the middle of the month, he’d convinced the notorious master thief Goldwhite to join the expedition.
Not long thereafter, one of Shifty Six defected, sneaking away to an unknown hide-out somewhere within Nulbish; this renegade doppelgänger was different from its fellows, possessing a murderous nature that compelled it to stalk and kill humanoid victims, sometimes assuming the guise of certain privileged victims for a time (until the victim’s friends and relatives grow too suspicious, at which point the killer doppelgänger abandons the deception and steals away to find its next choice prey).
One such victim had been the harbormaster of the Old Quay harbor, Dreskin Flumender — an Oerid-Flannae man of middle age, who had lived in a Riverside District townhouse with his wife, Blendrae. Dreskin had seemingly “disappeared” for a few days before “reappearing”, acting “strange” and giving flimsy excuses for his absence that “didn’t add up” to Blendrae Flumender. Initially, Blendrae had suspected her “husband” of infidelity, and accused him of such; when “Dreskin” hadn’t protested his innocence in the least, seemingly unconcerned with her angry accusations, Blendrae then began to fear that there might be something even more disturbing behind his bizarre behavior than a philandering husband. Her creeping suspicions grew into a dawning realization of the awful truth — that what looked like her husband was in fact something else. Blendrae confronted the doppelgänger, threatening to summon the city watchmen if it didn’t depart from the house at once. Instead, the doppelgänger murdered Blendrae, breaking her neck and stuffing her corpse in a closet off the foyer. Realizing that it was time to abandon the guise of the murdered harbormaster and move on to “greener pastures”, the killer doppelgänger looted a coffer containing Blendrae’s jewelry and Dreskin’s modest savings, absconding with the ill-gotten booty to yet another hide-out in the labyrinth of storm tunnels and sewers beneath the city streets.
Remembering that its left ear bore an arcane mark by which it could more easily be tracked with magic, the killer doppelgänger severed it with a knife, discarding it in an alleyway near the Flumender house. From that point on, it began to distinguish itself from others of its kind by adopting its current “title” — The One-Eared Killer Doppelgänger of Nulbish. Soon thereafter, while Kinky and the remaining “Shifty Five” doppelgängers were investigating the “case of the missing doppelgänger” (and the seemingly related murders and disappearances occurring in various neighborhoods around eastern Nulbish), one of the doppelgängers discovered the severed ear in the alleyway near the Flumender house, bringing it to “Master” Kinky’s attention. Kinky now realized the lengths to which the “deserter” doppelgänger would go to avoid being detected and apprehended. What Kinky and the remaining Shifty Five doppelgängers did not realize, was that their discovery of the severed ear had been observed by the cunning One-Eared Killer Doppelgänger, covertly spying on their investigation in the guise of an innocuous dockhand (albeit a dockhand missing his left ear).
The One-Eared Killer Doppelgänger not only realized that it was being actively hunted by Kinky and its former fellows, but that they would now be on the lookout for anyone missing their left ear. In order to throw them off its trail, the One-Eared Killer Doppelgänger conceived of a gruesome new strategy, which it had only just began to implement — severing the ears of a number of victims, but leaving them alive so they could serve as “red herrings” to confound and undermine the efforts of those trying to track it down. It made the brazen mistake of debuting its new plan right under the collective noses of the Horned King's Men and their fiendish allies, infiltrating Castle Skullgard and assaulting a lone young scullery maid, Kaylynn, severing her ear before fleeing from the castle. The hapless victim's screams of pain and terror brought the party to investigate, and the chase was soon afoot.
Drafting the Horned King's devils (5 erinyes, 5 bearded devils, and 5 imps) to quickly search the entire castle (via teleport, flying, etc.), the Horned King's Men soon deduced that the attacker had escaped from Castle Skullgard, so they raced out of the castle and across the causeway over the Thelly River, into the city of Nulbish. They first hastened to the Diabolical and Profane Temple of the Nine Hells to inquire about purchasing a scroll of locate creature, but the clergy there informed them that such a spell was the purview of mages, not priests. The three antiheroes then raced to the old Mages' Tower Guildhall, where the master necromancer, Conniveren Plaskerd, and several of his apprentices and minions were ostensibly restoring the guildhall for its original purpose (and not at all as a secret temple of Vecna .... ). They were able to acquire a scroll of locate creature from Master Conniveren for 700 gp.
Leaving the old Mages' Tower, the antiheroes dashed to their secret hideout, an abandoned warehouse near the Necropolis at the center of Nulbish, where they hastily changed into their alter egos -- Herzog Tanar'ri (a.k.a. Orsino of House Naelax/Ivid VIII), Kinky the Clown (a.k.a. Grimaldi of House Rax-Nyrond), and Drannoch "The Devourer of Dreams" (a.k.a. Erlick of the Saltmarsh Lassiters). Having done so, they hustled to the Chapel of Discord at the heart of the Necropolis (and of greater Nulbish), and Herzog Tanar'ri carefully (and thus, successfully) cast the locate creature spell from the scroll. Turning slowly to scan in a circle around him, the spell's range would cover the entire city, and they quickly ascertained the direction of their quarry -- it was to the southwest, and gradually moving westward.
Giving chase, the three antiheroes in their alternate guises were approaching the Old Quay near the western end of the city, about a block from the riverside docks, when they suddenly lost track of their quarry, for running water disrupts the divination, and the one-eared killer doppelgänger had boarded what had seemed like a Medegian merchant caravel. But in the same instant that Herzog Tanar'ri announced he'd lost the doppelgänger's trail, Kinky the Clown's observant eyes had descried the merchant caravel sailing away from a nearby dock, west up the Thelly River.
Following a shot-in-the-dark hunch, the three antiheroes improvised a hasty plan and executed it "on the fly" (no pun intended) .... First casting ant haul on himself so he'd be able to carry his two companions, Herzog Tanar'ri then drank a potion of fly .... In the time he'd done this, Kinky had and Drannoch had rendered themselves invisible by drinking potions of their own, and then each locked their armed firmly about Herzog's upper arms and shoulders. Herzog then (very clumsily and awkwardly) floated through the air (at a much-reduced fly speed), giving chase after the caravel sailing upriver.
Istus must have felt sorry for them, for the three antiheroes (all invisible, now, as Herzog had somehow managed to drink his own potion of invisibility, despite his heavy companions dangling from both shoulders) reached the mid deck of the caravel just before Herzog's potion of fly expired. They saw a nervous-looking pilgrim, clad in a cowled grey cloak and brown robe, hastily paying the female Suel captain for passage, frequently looking back down the river over his shoulder .... It was probably the doppelgänger (they reasoned), so they surrounded the "pilgrim passenger" invisibly ....
At a signal given by Herzog Tanar'ri, Kinky upended a jar of sovereign glue over the head of the "one-eared pilgrim passenger", immediately followed by Drannoch seizing the disguised killer doppelgänger about the waist and upending it, pressing its adhesive-coated head to the deck of the ship long enough for the magical glue to set. As both Kinky and Drannoch were now visible, Herzog dismissed his own invisibility potion and quickly explained the situation to the very-startled Suel captain -- just as some of her crew had finished lowering the Medegian flag the caravel had flown while within sight of Nulbish, and was in the process of flying a flag bearing the "Scarlet Sign" of the infamous and insidious Scarlet Brotherhood!
Having already been well-paid by the "pilgrim passenger" for safe passage to Scant, and now given a handsome bribe (twice the doppelgänger's fare!) by the fast-talking and quick-witted wizard who looked like a half-demon cambion of some kind, the Captain of the Osprey shrugged in satisfied disinterest, not wishing to become any further entangled in the bizarre manner than she already was, and agreed to drop the three antiheroes and their captive off on the north riverbank, only a few hundred yards upriver from Nulbish. (The captain, Sister Scanzia of the "Hidden Kingdom of Shar," didn't seem to care that the antiheroes had seen her crew exchange the Medegian flag for the flag of the "Scarlet Sign" .... ) After securely binding the kicking and screaming doppelgänger with rope, Kinky used his jar of universal solvent to free the captive's head from the deck as the Osprey slowed to a stop in the shallows near the riverbank to let the disguised Horned King's Men and their prisoner disembark ....
Dragging the bound-but-still-struggling one-eared doppelgänger back into Nulbish via the Riverwatch Gate, they stopped at the Riverwatch Blockhouse and Gaol, where they locked their prisoner securely inside a cell, wrists bound in manacles and ankles in shackles, to await "the Horned King's justice" (i.e., torture and death) while His Invincible Puissance was away in Sunndi to the south, fighting in the war against Wastri .... So ends the tale of the One-Eared Killer Doppelgänger of Nulbish ....
Nightfall on Moonday, 10th of Flocktime (the night of the Horned King's return to Nulbish from war in Sunndi, and one day after the party captured the one-eared killer doppelgänger) ....
At around ten of the clock at night, as Grimaldi unwinds in his private chamber, a silver raven figurine of wondrous power flits through his open tower window with a metallic hum of silver wings beating the air, delivering to him the following message from his royal father, King Lynwerd of Nyrond:
“P. S.: We are informed by means of her chalk-scribed message-board—for she only doffs her scold’s bridle to sup or drink, with the sword of a pious paladin of Heironeous poised to smite her at the first incantation of a spell or hex—that your mother has cursed us to die by the hand of Iuz the Enemy, but we are no marsh-waddling peasant bumpkin, and we know a desperate bluff for what it really is. She has had no such opportunity since the day we captured her, and fitted her with the scold’s bridle and finger irons. We fear not, so fear thou not as well.”
Grimaldi (a.k.a. Kinky the Clown) must now decide whether or not he would willingly succeed his father Lynwerd as the King of Nyrond, should Lynwerd be slain in battle and his body captured by the forces of Iuz—a very real and imminent possibility!
Just before midnight on the night of Moonday, 10th of Flocktime ....
The basalt bat figurine of wondrous power bearing the sigil of House Lassiter in Saltmarsh flutters with a mechanical whirring sound through the open window of Erlick's private tower chamber in Castle Skullgard, just as he was contemplating a visit, accompanied by Orsino and Grimaldi, to his noble house in distant Saltmarsh ....
The little black stone bat leers up at Erlick as it perches upon his knee, and speaks in a metallic and gnomish version of his father Egan's voice:
Unable to restrain himself until morning (nor for any other moment beyond the immediate present), Erlick called at the door to the Horned King's bedchamber--despite having heard a feminine whimper from within. "GO WANDER IN A MAZE!!-- I'M PLANTING ROYAL SEED!!", bellowed Malvolio. Though he almost grasped the peril he was in by committing coitus interruptus against the Horned King, Erlick grinned in satisfaction at how much more human and relatable Malvolio had become in the wake of relinquishing the dreaded Sword of Kas. When Erlick had first met him, the Horned King might as well have been a malevolent twin of the modron hierarch Primus for all his affinity for humanity--not much more like a human being than the sinister and reptilian Selephotsiphem.
"I beg Your Majesty's pardon," insisted Erlick, "but 'tis a matter of significance concerning my noble House of Lassiter in Saltmarsh, My Horned King."
Erlick's expectations of a heavy missile hurled against the inside of the door, or a vile curse from the pits of Hell, or a roar of rage, or even a sigh of frustration were disappointed. There was only a singular silent pause, followed by a muffled command: "Hide yourself beneath the comforter, trollop of Father Dis ....", followed by a half-whispered declaration: "You've yet to even bend my lance, you corrupt and profane slattern of Baator ...." (For such were the "sweet nothings" of the Horned King's bed .... )
The door opened, revealing Malvoilio, clad in Warduke's Helm (.... period).
"A thousand-and-ten pardons, Your Forbidding Majesty," began Erlick, his ivory complexion blushing to a pallid salmon as he cast down his gaze--but not too far down ....
"I won't have you flogged for this, my cockerel-withering Lassiter, but you'd best be out with whatever trumps my sowing at this accursed hour, before I reconsider.", Malvolio replied.
"My Horned King," Erlick re-began, "I request Your Majesty's permission to travel, along with mine comrades-in-arms two--Grimaldi the Fool and Orsino the Clever--to assist my family in House affairs. Of course, with the blessing of the Horned King, this will bring my noble House of Lassiter more firmly into accordance with, and actively pursuing the Horned King's will in the greater Flanaess ...." Erlick felt that he'd been rambling, but the Horned King neither interrupted nor seemed the least put out at this point. In fact, he seemed to be intrigued, intently listening to Erlick's improvised litany of courtesy.
"Granted.", answered the Horned King, and then, "I shall have the Countess Pontylver conjure you and your plot-mates to your ancestral house in Saltmarsh as soon as you are all ready. Let us at least permit the countess her beauty sleep. At dawn, you shall be returned to your nativity, to hear all that your noble father has to say .... It may be that Lord Egan has news concerning our dangerous mutual enemy ...." As Malvolio rattled off these sentences in an offhand manner, his mind racing, Erlick got an unsettling feeling that his father and Malvolio shared secrets that he was soon to be initiated into ....
Malvolio shakes his helmed head and chuckles derisively at Erlick of Lassiter before asking him, "Say thee, My Dear Lassiter: Have you never thought it odd that your father should choose to send his only soon to a foreign and unrelated realm, to 'keep an eye' on ME?? Whose powers of perception could not fail to sense your flagrant motivations were I deaf, dumb, and blind?? Heh-heh-heh-heh ...." Erlick had no reply, but could only stand there in dawning realization that something secret and insidious was being unveiled before him by the Horned King, and that it had been he and his companions who'd been in the dark all this time ....
"And what's more, why would I so recklessly risk my life and spirit by trafficking with the monstrous and utterly ineffable Sword of Kas?", asked the Tyrant of Medegia rhetorically, "Hells! I'm not even a swordsman, really. I've always favored the Suelii langax, or 'Suel long-axe,' devised by our rapacious Fruztii, Cruskii, and Schnaii kinsfolk in the frozen Thillronian Peninsula, but I digress. The ONLY reason I would ever have agreed to quest after and claim the treacherous Sword of Kas was to keep it out of the hands of another .... While it was in my hands, the Sword of the Betrayer was a terrible instrument of wanton slaughter that impelled my conquest of Medegia, and even greater dreams of a Great Kingdom of Aerdy Nova .... But in his hands .... Had he wielded the Sword of Kas for the same term that I had, he would have unravelled Vecna's godhood, made of himself a god, and conquered Prime Material Plane worlds, Lassiter .... Not mere realms of foolish mortals." Malvolio half-consciously ousted the nubile erinyes Cattiness from beneath his silken comforter on his bed--his appetite for such sport had waned with talk of these matters.
"Your father and I became .... well, not friends, per se, but .... two evil chaps who both loathed and opposed a mutual greater evil chap. One with a mentality--nay, a LACK of mentality, a MADNESS--that would harmonize in a perfect cacophony of Chaos and Evil with the awful Sword of Kas. Your father, Lord Egan, said this to me when he agreed to send you here as a hostage: 'I would only recall him if he needed to bear witness to a revelation regarding our common enemy, that he may relay the vital information to you without error.' He calls you home now, My Bad-as-Nessus Lassiter! It can only mean he has discovered news about a fugitive cambion warlord named Ely Cromlich ...." Malvolio's flickering red-flame eyes blazed at Erlick, as if the name should mean something to him.
"Ely Cromlich.", The Horned King repeated, shaking his helmed head at Erlick's clueless expression. "Well .... I won't spoil the tale for you now. Your father will tell you all you need to know about Cromlich. Suffice it to say that he played a key part in Vecna's apotheosis to godhood, and it is whispered that he knows the secret to unmaking Vecna's godhood, as well .... AND the secret of making NEW gods out of mortals. For this reason, he is too dangerous to be allowed to live."
So,.... In a few weeks much of Rel Mord's military, and her top generals, will be 1,000 miles west of the Duntide?!!
So,.... In a few weeks much of Rel Mord's military, and her top generals, will be 1,000 miles west of the Duntide?!!
BLUELODE: Formerly, Bluelode's three linked and walled keeps defended this village of 900 people and the vital gem resources of the Thelly riverbed. Harnnad's personal elite plate-clad Steel Squadron were the guards there and constantly watched over the panning. A mage employed a wand of metal and mineral detection to meet the quarterly quotas Harnnad laid down to keep his coffers full. Any form of theft was punished by immediate execution. The keeps, with their very strong walls and elite troops, were also said to contain dungeon-prisons where Harnnad incarcerated political enemies or those he suspected of treachery. And there were rumors of a drow torturer with fine interrogation skills dwelling below the central keep.
When Warduke Malvolio conquered Medegia and drove out the occupying Ahlissan forces of Grand Prince Xavener of the House of Darmen, Prince Harnnad fled to the relative safety of Kalstrand, capital of the United Kingdom of Ahlissa, to seek asylum with his cousin Xavener. Most of Harnnad’s Steel Squadron and other minions followed him there, though some deserted to start a new life elsewhere. The drow torturer was slain by Malvolio himself.
Currently, Bluelode is governed on behalf of Horned King Malvolio of Medegia by Lord-Mayor Galdredd (LN male human [Oerid-Flannae] expert 6), a native of Bluelode and former clerk of records at the central keep, who denounced Prince Harnnad and swore fealty to the Horned King when the latter conquered Bluelode in 597 CY. Galdredd finds his new position as lord-mayor of Bluelode far more agreeable than his previous lot as a bullied clerk under the oppressive rule of Prince Harnnad and his Steel Squadron. Therefore, he works diligently to ensure that the Horned King remains satisfied with the output of the village’s gem-panning operation, employing trustworthy and vigilant overseers to watch over the panning (but without the brutality that had been typical of Harnnad’s Steel Squadron). Just as Harnnad had done before him, Galdredd also employs a mage—Smendrig of Mentrey (LN male human [Oerid-Flannae] wizard [diviner] 5)—equipped with a wand of metal and mineral detection to ensure that quarterly quotas comparable to those previously demanded by Harnnad are regularly met.
Prince Harnnad of House of Darmen (NE male human [Oerid-Flannae] fighter [two-weapon warrior] 12) still claims the title “Prince of Nulbish,” and chafes at his impotence to reclaim the territory wrested from him by the Horned King. His cousin Xavener assures Harnnad that he will be reinstated once Medegia is once more conquered by the forces of Ahlissa and the House of Darmen, but for the time being, Harnnad has little choice but to bide his time and exercise patience as a “prince-in-exile” within Xavener’s royal court at Kalstrand.
CITADEL OF SALT: Here, a castle has recently been erected on the site of a keep razed by Osson during the Greyhawk Wars which once protected an old salt trade route from the east, hence the name. Former Prince of Nulbish Harnnad had dwarven prisoners taken from Sunndi. He forced them to work on the fortification, their loyalty ensured by the fact that their children had been kept hostage at Bluelode against any possibility of sabotage. Unfortunately, since most of the laborers they directed had been criminals serving forced labor terms, the dwarves couldn’t keep up with the punishing schedule for completing the work (which was planned to finish in the summer of 586 CY). The dwarves had been regularly beaten and brutally treated by their captors, many of whom had been orcs and half-orcs.
The citadel had been built as a defensive bastion and riverboat base to protect the lands from the folk of Sunndi, making their work even more odious to the wretchedly unhappy dwarves that had been forced to work here. Liberated and reunited with their children when Medegia was conquered by Warduke Malvolio in early 597 CY, the dwarves were given the choice to return to their homes in the Glorioles Mountains and the highlands of Sunndi, or stay and continue to work in the salt mines for a fair wage as free dwarves. Many chose to remain in a show of gratitude to their liberator, and continue to mine salt here, residing within the recently completed Citadel of Salt. These resident dwarves are led by one of their own, Overseer Grankus Ironbeard (LN male dwarf [hill] fighter 4/expert 4), castellan of the Citadel of Salt, who reports to the Horned King at the end of each quarter, supplying him with salt for his table in addition to a considerable share of the salt trade profits.
The party might search for a potential ally among the dwarves that dwell and work here, for they have conceived of a potential plan to rig the upcoming “First Annual Nulbish Contest of Champions” (to be held immediately following the week of Richfest), to ensure that an allied dwarven champion of their choosing wins the tourney and the grand prize—the sentient dwarven thrower, Whelm. Almost all of the dwarves here are lawful good, and would not make for very suitable allies to a party of amoral antiheroes like the player characters. However, one among them is of lawful evil alignment—Durrnik “Fellhammer” of the Hestmark Highlands (LE male dwarf [hill] fighter 7) (see Durrnik’s full stat block and brief backstory in the document entitled First Annual Nulbish Contest of Champions).
All but cast out by his kinfolk (Clan Deephammer of the Hestmark Highlands), even other dwarves consider Durrnik “Fellhammer” to be avaricious, dour, and humorless, and he has an evil reputation among his fellows at the Citadel of Salt—just the sort of dwarf the player characters are searching for. Durrnik would not need much convincing to enter a tourney rigged in his favor to win the legendary Whelm ….
Between Moonday 10th and Godsday 11th of Flocktime, the party investigates the gem-mining town of Bluelode and the salt mines protected by the Citadel of Salt, both on the bank of the Thelly River, and ascertains that either location might provide a suitable new permanent residence for the vampire Baron of Thellywatch-Upon-Nulbish, Corum of House Cranden, who currently lairs in his ancestral crypt beneath the Necropolis of Nulbish.
Further, while investigating the Citadel of Salt, the party makes the acquaintance of one of the dwarven salt miners who stands out from his fellows--indeed, he is not well regarded by the other dwarves, who report that he has been all but cast out of his ancestral clan in the Hestmark Highlands, Clan Deephammer, for his exceptional avarice, cruelty, and irreverence toward Moradin and the other Moradinsamman ("Kin of Moradin")--Durrnik "Fellhammer." The party mentions their upcoming First Annual Nulbish Contest of Champions (without going into their plans to rig the tourney in favor of a preferred champion), and it seems that a few of the more formidable dwarves at the Citadel of Salt are intrigued--among them, the wicked Durrnik "Fellhammer."
Late afternoon (~6:00 PM) on Godsday 11th of Flocktime, after concluding their surveys of Bluelode and the Citadel of Salt, the party is transported to the noble House of Lassiter in Saltmarsh by Countess Olivia via her casting a greater teleport spell.
Erlick's ancestral abode, House Lassiter, is a classic and stately mansion that towers on the precipice of the sea cliff overlooking Saltmarsh's harbor. Gargoyles perch on its eaves and lightning rods jut from its rooftops. A coat of arms over the gate depicts a crossed dagger and key on a field of gold.
The Lassiters are one of the original families of Saltmarsh, descended from Moria Lassiter, one of the adventurers who founded the town. They remain active in town, particularly in the merchants’ guild, the Saltmarsh Playhouse, and the Saltmarsh Museum. They also have ties to the Lilybrook Orphanage. Egan Lassiter is the current ruling noble (and Erlick's father). His opinions often cause great arguments in the town council (of which he is a member), and he has nearly as many enemies as friends in town.
At House Lassiter, Erlick and his companions are warmly greeted by Lord Egan and the rest of Erlick's almost pure Suel-blooded family--his alluring but sadistic older sister, Abilene, and his shy younger sister Elzabette. They introduce their current guest, Blaygus, a tall woman with dark-blonde hair and somewhat masculine features, garbed in a black robe and carrying a staff of rune-engraved ash topped with a large, icosahedron-cut onyx.
After Erlick assures Lord Egan and his guest that they may speak freely among his companions, who are aware of the Lassiter's religious faith and sworn to absolute secrecy, Lord Egan admits that his guest, Blaygus, is a high-ranking member of the cult of Vecna, and while she confesses that she has little interest in leadership, her competence and knowledge often result in her filling in for absent leaders in the cult.
Blaygus herself confirms this, and frankly confides, "I initially chose the cult of Vecna to gain easy access to the secrets of lichdom, but I have since become reliant on its knowledge base. Unlike many members, I have managed to remain unentangled by a web of secrets due to a combination of forthrightness about my own personal information and an extensive series of pointless falsehoods about myself which I use to confuse those who would try to gain power over me--good luck sussing out the difference between what is true and what is false."
However, Blaygus does not wait to hear whether or not the party knows of Sigil or its Armory, but continues at once: "Within the Armory stand four portals to some of the foulest regions of the Inner Planes, one of which leads to a smoldering realm of endless ash. While the Doomguard hold a redoubt on that sea of dead embers, they once controlled Vecna's nearby skull-shaped fortress Cavitius, but were driven from it when the Arch-Lich claimed it as his own. In their retreat, the Doomguard were forced to abandon many of their dearest treasures and have ever since sought a chance to retake the tainted citadel. Thus, when a period of inactivity was reported, it was Ely Cromlich and a taskforce of the Doomguard's most capable warriors who were ordered to infiltrate the fortress and recover what they could."
Blaygus pauses to sip red wine from a goblet before continuing: "None know what truly happened at Cavitius, but only Cromlich returned alive. In the wake of his later acts, some believe the half-fiend came face-to-face with Vecna himself and either sold his service to the demigod in return for his life or was destroyed--his spirit being replaced by something more inclined to Vecna's will. Either way, Ely Cromlich returned to Sigil serving a new master. In the months and years that followed, Cromlich secretly studied magic and--with the help of numerous powerful demons--laid powerful symbols of chaos and disruption within the walls of the Armory. When war came to Sigil, he acted to hasten the destruction of many of the city's more lawful factions by tainting the area around the Armory with chaotic energy, inciting riots, and open fighting with an incursion of demons. During this chaos, though, he was killed. His sacrifice proved sufficient, however, and when Vecna sought to enter Sigil, the city's fundamental wards barring deities were weakened enough to allow him entry. For Cromlich's work, the ascending god restored the half-fiend to life."
Pausing only long enough to quaff the rest of the red wine in her goblet, Blaygus goes on to give a detailed physical description of the fugitive: "A master of many weapons, the greatest of which is his own cunning mind, Ely Cromlich stands just over six feet tall, with jet black skin, short white hair, and sharply pointed ears. Most notable, though, are the terrible scars on his right side, where the demonkin was struck by a sphere of annihilation. When Vecna returned Cromlich to life, he created a golden right leg and arm to replace his servants lost appendages, as well as a golden left hand and eye to forever display the fiend's allegiance. Even crippled, Cromlich is deadly and sly, but he remains embittered at having lost so much in the service of our admittedly fickle god."
Blaygus holds out her empty goblet, and Lord Egan refills it from a carafe of the finest red wine. Sipping more of the vintage, she concludes her dissertation: "Ely Cromlich is very dangerous to our faith. He wanders the planes, hated and hunted by survivors of his faction and the agents of innumerable deities. After his ascension, Vecna largely abandoned his minion, although for some unknowable purpose he does maintain a shield over Cromlich that acts as a permanent nondetection spell. Despite the aid he personally provided our god, few in our cult know of the half-fiend's acts and he bears little status. Many of those who have learned of his role in the Maimed Lord's apotheosis suspect that he knows the secrets behind Vecna's ascension to godhood, and seek him out to prevent an influx of undeserving deities, or to learn how to achieve their own apotheoses. Others believe that knowing how the Maimed Lord achieved his power means Cromlich might know how to strip Vecna of his godhood. In either case, Ely Cromlich might know the greatest secret in all the multiverse and, for that, he cannot be allowed to live."
Lord Egan picks up the narrative where Blaygus left off: "There is good reason to believe that Cromlich seeks revenge against Our Maimed Lord for his perceived abandonment. Five years ago, I received a revelation from one of Vecna's planar heralds, the fiendish ghast known to us as Gusten the Bloodfiend. Gusten came to our house while you and your sisters slept, Erlick, when you were yet on the verge of manhood. The fiendish herald of the Arch-Lich revealed that Ely Cromlich was questing for the dreaded Sword of Kas, as part of a plot to unravel Vecna's godhood and destroy him forevermore. Gusten further revealed that Cromlich was seeking for the infamous blade in the catacombs beneath the ruins of Pontylver, a Solnor Ocean port on the coast of Medegia. At that time, your liege Malvolio was known as the Warduke of Medegia, and was in the midst of a campaign to conquer the former See, ousting the forces of Grand Prince Xavener, Overking of Ahlissa. I made contact with Malvolio with the magical aid of another cult member, and revealed to him the dire threat posed by Cromlich should he acquire the Sword of Kas. Fortunately, your liege was amenable to our cause, and did not wish to see Cromlich acquire the fell Sword of Kas any more than did we of the hidden faith. He recognized that he was one of the very few alive on Oerth with the fortitude and will to make the grave sacrifice I was asking him to make .... to be the custodian of the Sword of Kas. Fortunately, Warduke Malvolio was not only willing, but was able to succeed in the perilous undertaking, and he found the vampiric blade before Cromlich was able to. Wielding the Sword of Kas, he confronted Cromlich in the deepest catacombs below Pontylver, and after a brief melee, forced the half-fiend to flee--whereto, none could divine. Thereafter, Malvolio took his current title--the Horned King--and named his newly-conquered realm of Medegia The Horned Kingdom. The rest of the tale is more or less known to you."
Lord Egan pours himself a goblet of the red wine and drains it in several pulls. He then adds: "It is of dire importance that you warn your Horned King that Cromlich has recently been sighted wandering the lands of the Flanaess once again. He has the power to travel far and wide, not only throughout the lands of Prime Material Worlds such as our Oerth, but also throughout the planes of the multiverse. He could turn up anywhere. It may be that Cromlich will go to the Horned Kingdom to seek the Sword of Kas, so you must all be vigilant, and your liege must be forewarned. Though we can only guess at his reasons for coming here, to the Flanaess, it is known that Vecna has several secret domains here, and it seems all too likely that Cromlich seeks revenge against his former master." Concluding his warning, Lord Egan peers inquisitively at Erlick. "Now. I cannot help but feel that even had I not called you home to impart this dire news, my son .... You would have come of your own accord, for your own reasons. Or am I imagining things?"
"I know the secret method to strip the ungrateful Vecna of godhood, and I shall have my revenge! I will kill a god, and in so doing, I shall BECOME a god! And then, all who have wronged me shall be crushed like ants beneath my iron-shod heel!!"
Late afternoon (~5:55 PM) on Godsday 11th of Flocktime, in the map room of Castle Skullgard:
The Horned King's Men have concluded their business in and around Nulbish for the time being, and are now prepared to journey to Saltmarsh and pay a visit to Erlick's ancestral home--the Noble House of Lassiter--in answer to the cryptic summons of his father, Lord Egan. Gathered together in the privacy of the seldom-occupied map room of Castle Skullgard, they are presently joined by Countess Olivia, who carries one of several bags of holding she personally owns. After perfunctory greetings, she gets to the matter at hand.
First, she addresses Erlick of Lassiter: "You know your father far better than anyone else here, Erlick .... Blood or not, he is a high priest of VECNA .... I think you also know far better than the rest of us what exactly that means, yes? And this esteemed guest currently visiting your native home--this 'worthy pilgrim' that 'whispers odd tidings'.... None of us know them from Holy Al'Akbar! I can't help but fear that you and your companions might be bumbling in over your heads unawares ...."
Secondly, she fixes her keen blue eyes upon Orsino: "You've proven yourself to be as remarkably eloquent in diplomacy as you are diabolically clever in deception, Orsino .... You do your shrouded bloodline proud ...." She half whispers the latter declaration before continuing: "You three are about to undertake a diplomatic challenge far beyond duping simpleton town guards or dimwitted peasants. It will take your utmost cunning and guile to make high-ranking lieutenants in the cult of Vecna believe that a young upstart anti-paladin is worthier to attach the Left Ear of Vecna than they themselves are .... To convince those who are long practiced in seeking power only for themselves to relinquish it to one from whom they might easily snatch it instead."
Thirdly, she turns to Grimaldi: "And you--You've proven yourself to be surprisingly canny for a Fool and a Madcap--even brilliantly inspired, at times, Grimaldi. Your talents at traditional thievery might best be reserved for adventures other than this one, but the experience you've acquired in only a brief time as Guild Master of the Thieves' Court here in Nulbish, and as an unofficial magistrate of civil matters, might prove useful indeed in the coming trial. All I can say to you is this: watch the backs of your comrades, as you have always done, for your eyes are keener to lurking and hidden perils than theirs will ever be."
Now the Countess of Pontylver peers down at her bag of holding, undraping the drawstring and opening the magical container to squint down into the shadowy extra-dimensional interior, and thrusting one hand within to fish around momentarily, before withdrawing it, now holding a delicately engraved silver headband. She thrusts it toward Orsino, sternly asserting: "This is strictly a temporary loan, Orsino. I expect its return in good condition--assuming you return from Saltmarsh alive, of course. Wear this circlet of persuasion--MY circlet of persuasion--during your visit to House Lassiter. It is one of several ways I shall now endeavor to amplify your already considerable persuasiveness."
Next, she fishes a pair of leather scroll tubes out of the bag of holding, and also hands these over to Orsino, inquiring of the investigator-wizard: "Are you familiar with the first-order divination cultural adaptation? These scrolls bear the arcane version, but there is also a divine version. It is most useful to diplomats, spies, and intriguers of all shades, allowing the caster to seem as a native of a single designated culture. If the caster speaks the language of that culture, they will speak it with a perfect native accent under the spell's effect. It seems to make true natives of the designated culture somewhat more favorably inclined toward the caster. Here's one to use during your visit to House Lassiter, and another you can inscribe in your spellbook as a consolation prize .... for not getting to keep my circlet ...."
Again fumbling in her magical extra-dimensional bag, Olivia next produces a cedar jewelry box or coffer and opens it, revealing six little glass potion vials, each filled with an effervescent and transparent amber liquid. She distributes the potions of eagle's splendor evenly among the Horned King's Men, 2 to each, explaining: "Potions of eagle's splendor, to enhance your inherent charm and guile .... Make them count."
Countess Olivia next touches each of the three antiheroes, laying powerful mind-affecting enchantments upon them that compels them to greater heroism ....
Finally, the Countess bids the Horned King's Men draw near and standby for a greater teleport .... A heartbeat later, they stand in the cobbled street just outside the wrought-iron gate and fence enclosing the stately Noble House of Lassiter in Saltmarsh ....
Having heard word of the upcoming First Annual Nulbish Contest of Champions from heralds sent out to every city and large town of 2,000 or more inhabitants, a growing number of visitors are attracted to the city of Nulbish.
Freeday 7th of Flocktime, ~1:00 PM: From the Ahlissan city of Rel Deven comes
Starday 8th of Flocktime, ~11:30 AM: From beneath the Glorioles Mountains comes
Sunday 9th of Flocktime, ~6:00 PM: From the Solnor Coast port of Rel Astra comes a caravan of six merchant wains drawn by teams of oxen and other dray beasts, the canvases covering the wains emblazoned with the coat of arms of Rel Astra and the Solnor Compact League of Merchants and Traders. These merchants from Rel Astra plan to set up stalls and tents selling a variety of crafted goods, consumables, and other wares, including an alchemist selling alchemical items, and a potion-brewer selling elixirs, oils, philters and potions of all kinds.
Moonday 10th of Flocktime, ~4:00 PM: From the North Kingdom capital city of Eastfair comes a
Godsday 11th of Flocktime, ~2:30 PM: From the Ahlissan capital city of Kalstrand comes a
Waterday 12th of Flocktime, ~9:45 AM: From the Ahlissan Principality and city of Innspa comes
Starday 15th of Flocktime, ~11:15 AM: From the North Kingdom city of Kaport Bay comes the Kaport Bay Carpentry Company of some dozen carpenters, inquiring of the ferryman at the Thelly River north bank ferry station whether the job of constructing stands, vendor stalls, arena barriers, etc. has yet been contracted to anyone. They are directed by that elderly chap to inquire in the neighborhood under reconstruction by orcs and brigands just inside Grandwood Gate and to the east. They ask the "foreman" among the human brigands, who sends them to inquire with one of three of the Horned King's Men--Orsino the Sage, Grimaldi the Fool, or Erlick the Noble Squire of His Horned Majesty. They will await an audience with one of these three courtiers on the causeway outside the gatehouse of Castle Skullgard. The 12 expert carpenters (9 humans and 3 forest gnomes) have 4 covered wains, each drawn by a pair of oxen (8 total), and these wains are laden with axes, saws, lathes, levels, plumb lines, angles, workhorses, and other tools of the carpenter's trade, plus enough timber to start building stands, stalls, arena barricades, etc.
Sunday 16th of Flocktime, ~2:30 PM: Up from the Hestmark Highlands to the south, mounted on a dire boar in studded leather barding, rides
Moonday 17th of Flocktime, ~8:00 AM: From the Ahlissan city of Hexpools rides in
Waterday 19th of Flocktime, ~3:15 PM: From the Solnor Coast port metropolis of Rel Astra comes
Earthday 20th of Flocktime, ~5:00 PM: The remodeling of the old Fairhost House (where the party first discovered the Shifty Six), the Flops (a rundown tenement building of apartments), and the old Redchapel Hostel (a two-story inn formerly operated by the Fairhost clan of hostlers before their extinction from the Greyhawk Wars and the Red Death circa 582-583 CY) is completed. Grimaldi is informed that these locations are now suitable to open for business and to start operating as inns and/or apartments for rent.
Freeday 21st of Flocktime, ~4:20 PM: Completely booked up until after Richfest, the Undertaker's Rest Inn begins referring travelers seeking lodging to the "just opened, newly remodeled" Redchapel Hostel, Fairhost House, and Flops (unless the party comes up with a better name to call this apartment building). These establishments are newly opened for business, and therefore still working out "bugs" in their system/protocols, but they have been hastily staffed by apprentices and junior thieves of the Thieves' Court Guild and their auxiliary "Nulbish Beggars' Guild" members. The Horned King generously lends his scullery maids, One-Eared Kaylynn and her colleagues, to assist and train the apprentice thieves and beggars in the professional ways of the hospitality industry--housekeeping, front desk clerking, etc. Resisting the urge to fall back on the skills of their original trades when dealing with annoying customers--thieving and begging--proves to be the new employees' biggest challenge initially ....
Starday 22nd of Flocktime, ~2:00 PM: Despite the churlish manners of the "innkeepers" at the Redchapel Hostel (Slippery Pete is clearly profiling travelers when quoting rates), Fairhost House (Gingersnap is offering her "in-house massages with happy endings" to married men staying at the house for a premium "up-charge", provoking the wrath of their wives), and the Flops (Fleabag claims that it's "standard practice" at Nulbish inns and apartment buildings for patrons to entrust the safekeeping of their most valuable possessions with the innkeeper, who charges a "security deposit" based on the value of items stored), these newly opened businesses begin to fill up with travelers coming to enjoy the Richfest revels and the much-promoted tourney to take place on the final day of the festival.
Sunday 23rd of Flocktime, ~9:45 AM: From the Ahlissan capital city of Kalstrand rides in
Ehlissa Nightingale should be offered a residency at our theater while she stays in town for her to show off her skills and to have our local players learn form her.
Ascension of Lynwerd
In the fall of 585 CY Archbold appeared to suffer a stroke. Clerics convened in Rel Mord and determined that he had been poisoned. Within hours of the discovery, Archbold's younger son Prince Sewarndt and a group of military officers attempted a coup. Only the intervention of the capital's entire clergy of Heironeous prevented it. By the time Lynwerd could lead an army to his father's side, Sewarndt and a handful of his cohorts had fled. Sewarndt's treachery shattered Archbold, and he abdicated in favor of Lynwerd in Fireseek, 586 CY.
In his first year on the throne, Lynwerd seized the western half of Almor, realigned the command structure of his military, and reduced taxes to prewar levels. While the tax reductions boosted morale, its economy remained in deficit and debt. In 589 CY a long-planned marriage between Lynwerd and Lady Xenia Sallavarian was scheduled to take place in Richfest. In Wealsun, Lady Xenia collapsed and remained in a coma for some years. In 590 CY with starvation and sedition common, Lynwerd initiated a number of radical policy shifts including reducing the size of the royal court and restructuring Nyrond's internal political boundaries.
In Spring 591 CY Lynwerd announced a Grand Celebration of the fifth year of coronation in Rel Mord to be held during Growfest. Invitations were to be sent out by the newly expanded Royal Mail Service to all Nyrondese nobility and allied states. At this gala Lynwerd was to make a declaration as to the final status of the former Almorian lands then under Nyrondal control with speculation at court divided on what it would be. Many supported granting the area full status as a Royal Duchy, and others wishing it to be an independent nation. Durinken, High Priest of Rao, announced portents that the year's crop would be the largest in decades.
Lynwerd was married to Xenia Sallavarian in 594 CY. King Lynwerd and Queen Xenia's daughter and heir, Princess Archarzi, was born in 595 CY. Sewarndt's coup in 595 CY captured the capital city, Rel Mord, with the assistance of supernatural allies, and in the course of the assault he killed Archbold. In autumn 595 CY, several campaigns around the country, led by Lynwerd's supporters and loyal nobles, succeeded in recapturing nearly all major provinces and cities. The reconquest ended when Sewarndt died at the hands of his brother at the very gates of the Royal Palace in Rel Mord.
On Waterday 12th of Flocktime, Blaygus travels to the extraplanar, torus-shaped metropolis of Sigil (SIH-gill, meaning the city, as opposed to SIH-jill, a cryptic symbol), using a secret portal and key she knows of in the Nyr Dyv region. At Sigil, she searches around the outer perimeter of the great rubble heap that was formerly the Armory, and locates an instant fortress--one of those magical extra-dimensional portable iron towers invented by the archmage Daern--and raps soundly on its rust-speckled iron facade with her staff.
The lithe, black-leather-clad form of Pentar, Factol of the Doomguard, appears atop the battlements of the instant fortress, coldly gazing down at the necromancer as she raps insistently upon the iron facade of the square tower, the reverberations echoing metallically throughout the fortress. "WHAT?? WHAT DO YOU WANT??", cries the leader of the Sinkers down to the black-robed woman (Blaygus).
Looking up at the dark-clad woman atop the Daern's instant fortress, Blaygus called in reply, "TO TELL YOU SOMETHING YOU'D BE INTERESTED IN HEARING, ABOUT A RECENT SIGHTING OF SOMEONE--"
Quickly cutting off the necromancer, "RIGHT!! OKAY!! HOLD ON A SECOND, FOR THE LADY'S SAKE ...." She vanishes from the top of the tower, slipping quickly down through the trapdoor into its uppermost chamber, then swiftly descending--sliding--down the ladders to the ground floor, where Pentar opens the door to admit this black-robed necromancer woman with mannish features ....
Blaygus informs Pentar (falsely) that Ely Cromlich has joined Drax the Invulnerable, self-styled "Overking of the Solnor Coast and Aerdy Nova", in an expedition to the Tomb of Acererak in the Vast Swamp, with the objective of obtaining the Hand of Vecna, and informs her (truthfully) that Drax already has implanted the Eye of Vecna, and seeks the Hand in order to further increase his formidable powers.
She lies that Ely Cromlich no doubt intends to steel both Eye and Hand, possibly in a bid to destroy Vecna and become a god himself ....
This combination of falsehoods and truth has the desired effect: Pentar recalls all surviving Sinkers (members of the Doomguard) from the four fortresses on the para-elemental planes of ash, salt, dust, and vacuum, and on Freeday 14th of Flocktime, a longship filled with Sinkers from the inner planes appears amidst an oblong shoal of rocks in the Nyr Dyv, and begins to sail east ....
Drax the Invulnerable proceeded with his plan to assemble a company of highly-capable adventurers and lead them on an expedition into the infamous Tomb of Horrors, where divinations (cast by Drax’s royal seer, the Fiend-Sage of Rel Astra) had revealed that the Hand of Vecna had resurfaced in the legendary trove of the ancient and fiendish demilich Acererak. Over the latter half of Planting, with the magical and mundane assistance of the Fiend-Sage of Rel Astra, Drax had made contact with several promising candidates, and had even managed to secure the services of some few of these.
By the first day of Flocktime, Drax had already recruited the Archmage Vernnend (former guild master of Rel Astra’s disbanded Guild of Mages), two “Dweomermasters” from the Sorcerer’s Nexus (Rel Astra’s recently reformed mages’ guild), the formidable swordsman Ranxxen Strangender (captain of the Bannermen mercenary company), and the cunning master thief Vornekern (one of the Five of Roland). By the 7th day of Flocktime, Drax had secured the participation of the increasingly delusional animus mage Jireen (another of the Five of Roland); and by the middle of the month, he’d convinced the notorious master thief Goldwhite to join the expedition.
On 17th Flocktime, Drax led his newly-formed company of adventurers on a perilous expedition deep into the Vast Swamp. Within the last week of the month, they’d tracked down Acererak’s ancient Tomb of Horrors, discovering the Black Academy (or Bleak Academy) and Skull City, a school of necromancy within a walled community that had sprung up on the hillside containing the tomb over the past few decades.
Posing as applicants seeking to study necromancy, Drax and his companions infiltrated Skull City and Bleak Academy, located the entrance to the Tomb of Horrors, and made their first foray into the infamously deadly dungeon on or around 23rd Flocktime, liberally casting divinations to forewarn them of the myriad perils on all sides. Proceeding with extreme caution, they at last penetrated into the former crypt and lair of Acererak, finding only a pile of charred bone and ash left over from the demilich’s destruction circa 577 CY, and no sign of the Hand of Vecna.
By the time Drax and his company have discovered that the demilich Acererak was apparently destroyed some decades previously, and that there was no sign of the Hand of Vecna within the nefarious demilich's tomb, Factol Pentar were navigating through slow and dangerous waters of the
It is important as a trade route within Nyrond and the Duchy of Urnst. The Nesser lowlands are exceptionally fertile, with rich, dark soils, although flooding is not uncommon. The Nesser is slow traveling within the Gnatmarsh, at the southern most parts of which it then merges with the Duntide River. Travel on the Nesser is hazardous within the Gnatmarsh because of the fauna there.
The Nesser forms a natural border between Nyrond and the Duchy of Urnst to Nyrond's west. The Franz River flows into the Nesser at its northern reaches, at Fennelmore Marsh at the borders of Nyrond, the County of Urnst and the Duchy of Urnst, and is the natural border between Nyrond the County of Urnst.
The Rhennee could be encountered on the Nesser River.
"ROW!! ROW FASTER, DAMN YOU!! .... Cromlich probably already has the Hand and the Eye, at the rate we're going!" The Sinkers pick up the pace for a spell, but it is not sustainable .... The summer heat, the gnats and mosquitos, the crocodiles snapping at their oars, and occasionally immense sheets of giant spider webbing across the channel between a river islet and the bank slows the longship's progress ....
Drax is temporarily perplexed and mightily vexed by the absence in Acererak's tomb of the Hand of Vecna, so he withdraws his company from the Tomb of Horrors and spends some time among the "professors" of Necromantic lore and arcana at Skull City, the school of necromancy that has sprung up around the mound containing Acererak's Tomb.
His conspiracy with master thief Vornekern of the Five of Roland had at least come to the desired fruition--in the course of their initial foray into the Tomb of Horrors, the increasingly delusional animus mage Jireen (whom Vornekern had plotted with Drax to eliminate, as Jireen had also been one of Roland's ruling Five, and had become an increasingly troublesome liability among the Five of Roland) had been encouraged to recklessly fly on his carpet of flying straight into the black, circular void within a green devil's face carved in relief at the end of a corridor wall early in their explorations. He never came back out of that infamous black void, which Drax had learned through study and divination was equal to a stationary sphere of annihilation. So at the very least, master thief Vornekern was now bound by their agreement to preserver until Drax had obtained the Hand ....
Enduring hours of litanies and lectures on the nature of the plane of negative energy, Drax and his companions finally learned about Moil--"The City that Waits"--and about Acererak's presence there in the Fortress of Conclusion. It did not take the crafty animus archmage long to discover the means by which one could travel to Moil and the Fortress of Conclusion, where the gradual reformation of the demilich Acererak was being facilitated by his proximity to the Hand of Vecna .... He learned that the portal to "The City that Waits" was the very same perilous black mouth of the green devil's face that had annihilated Jireen and other hapless adventurers before him, unlocked with a most peculiar key--a bone from the remnants of Acererak, which laid within the final vault of the Tomb of Horrors! The Hand was now within his grasp!
Drax's delay at Skull City in the Vast Swamp was just long enough to allow Factol Pentar and her legion of Doomguard minions to sail out of the Sea of Gearnat and down along the southern coasts of Onnwal and Idee, victoriously repelling two different pirate ships flying the Scarlet Sign, before reaching the hilly west coastline that held the Vast Swamp like a massive bowl.
They camouflaged their longship, the Entropy's Storm, in a vale near the strand, and proceeded to march into the Vast Swamp, unaware of the myriad perils and hazards that awaited them in that vast and dismal wetland.
Just after nightfall on Starday 22nd of Flocktime, during a torrential downpour that causes the overflowing bogs of the Vast Swamp to run over, and threaten to flood even the maze of narrow streets and alleys within Skull City, despite its elevation atop the great mound containing Acererak's infamous Tomb of Horrors ....
Drax the Invulnerable leads his elite companions on a second foray into that perilous labyrinth of lethal deathtraps and bewildering magical wards. They are one fewer in number and strength this time, for early on in the initial foray into the Tomb of Horrors, the delusional animus archmage, Jireen (previously foremost of the Five of Roland), was utterly annihilated when he flew on his carpet of flying into the circular black mouth of the infamous green devil face (at Drax's and Vornekern's urging).
Nonetheless, the band still consists of a veritable rogues' gallery of mighty and unscrupulous adventurers; besides Drax himself, the expedition's members are: the Fiend Sage of Rel Astra, a molydeus tanar'ri of great power and extensive occult knowledge; the archmage Vernnend, former master of the original Rel Astra Mage's Guild; two Dweomermasters of Rel Astra's reformed mage's guild, now called the Sorcerers' Nexus; the master thief Vornekern, one of the Five of Roland (and Drax's co-conspirator in Jireen's destruction); the legendary and enigmatic master thief known only as Goldwhite; and the formidable swordsman and leader of the Bannermen (a renowned mercenary band of the eastern Flanaess), Ranxxen Strangender.
They moved more swiftly and with greater assurance this time, having learned the best ways to proceed through the obstacles and hazards of the dungeon during their previous foray, and penetrated through to the crypt of Acererak in less than an hour (roughly a third of the time of their previous foray). After Drax had plucks the ancient jawbone of the demilich from the dusty floor of the crypt and secures it inside one of his belt pouches, they turn back and make their way back to the yawning, jet-black, circular void of the green devil face's open maw. Drawing the jawbone of Acererak from his belt pouch, Drax commands his company in sepulchral tones: "Fear not, my companions! The remnants of Acererak serve as the key to unlock the gateway to Moil--"The City that Waits".... We shall not be devoured by the mouth of the green devil, as was the mad fool, Jireen! The Hand of Vecna awaits! It shall be MINE!!"
Drax passes first through the black portal. The Fiend Sage, showing no outward sign of the trepidation even he could not entirely banish from his mind, follows his liege with only the briefest hesitation. After a much longer delay, during which the remaining companions muster their resolve, and silently wonder if they are plunging headlong into irreversible annihilation .... the rest of Drax's intrepid expeditionary company passes through the black mouth of the green devil face and into the dimension where Moil awaits ....