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Joined: 6/29/2007
Posts: 209
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12/22/2006
…Serena teleported us back to her home and promptly healed Migos.
She seemed a little agitated, and even a bit distant, so we took it
into our own hands to continue the investigation.
We summoned Sujo by way of the amulets and asked him to come cleanse
Migos of his possession the same way he had previously done with
Serena.
It wasn't long before Sujo arrived with two of his comrades and began
to scan Migos. He noted that Migos had contracted Vampirism and was
being mind controlled, though didn't seem to find any artifact
attached to him the way he had found with Serena. We stated our
evidence against Migos and presented the book of dark arts that we
had found in Migos' room—Sujo and his comrades took Migos and the
book, mounted up, and left.
It was at that point that Serena seemed to decide to join us
mentally. She noticed that Migos was not present and began asking us
where he went. Wondering if perhaps she had gone mad again, we
filled her in on the details (having stood right there the whole
time, we assumed she was ok with the proceedings). She was furious
at us for not having done anything to prevent Sujo taking him away to
which we mildly pointed out that if she didn't seem to have a problem
with it at the time, we certainly weren't going to take issue with it
either.
It was then pointed out by some of my less illustrious companions
that now all of our hard-earned evidence was gone and we had nothing
to take back with us to our Empire. Sometimes I'm so smart that I
forget the obvious things. I hate myself.
With little prodding we were able to convince Serena to teleport us
to just outside the city of Dagonhold instead of her plan to fly in
and take Migos by force from the clutches of Sujo, his companions,
and the mighty dragon. (frankly, she must be mad again if she would
even consider trying to take anything from a dragon, whether by force
or not).
She teleported us to just outside the city and right in the presence
of a caravan. I swear I saw some of the merchant's pants sag a
little after we appeared, probably thought they were about to be
waylaid by a group of bandits. I may have to try that little stunt
sometime again, it is pretty funny.
We entered the city struggling to keep up with the obviously livid
Serena as she stormed in to the palace, bypassing the guards and all
custom, and forcing her way in to where Dathan was dining with his
wife , his mistress, and another individual. Dathan maintained
composure and led Serena and the rest of us to a private room where
he waited patiently for Serena to tell him the details. Sujo having
not arrived yet, Dathan was a bit in the dark.
Sujo agreed to allow two of our party to take part in the
interrogation of Migos—both as a courtesy, and also as our duty to
the Empire. Mort and I took the job.
It started out with Migos claiming he would tell us everything and
spouting all sorts of bad information. It was pretty obvious that he
was lying profusely, so Mort asked if there were any ways we could
prompt a prisoner to tell the truth. I smiled… this was my favorite
part.
The interrogator gave me a blazing hot prod and, as if I were an
amateur, instructed me to not actually touch Migos with it because he
would talk more as the prod got closer.
We questioned him and began gleaning information from him little by
little. Even in fear of pain and torture, he seemed to be holding
out on us, so again Mort inquired if there were magical means
available in which to force Migos to speak the truth. The
interrogator removed a small crown which he placed on Migos head, and
we resumed questioning.
This proved useful. We were able to learn that Migos had met an
individual by name of "Vale"—a fallen—a few years ago. Vale sent
Migos to acquire the sword under the premise that it would help him
accomplish the greater cause. Additionally, we learned that Migos
had acquired the rings to create wraiths from a man named Lazarus,
who was holed up in the Labyrinth. Both men were apparently Fallen
working to open a gate and allow their kind to enter the world and
enslave everyone. Migos seemed to be a rather sick man, aside from
being under control of the Fallen. He had chosen his mother of his
own volition, not that of the Fallen.
Questioning rolling to a finish, I decided to drive the prod and
prove a point. I smashed the prod in to his leg at which he began
screaming profanity and writhing in supposed pain. My employ in the
army as both a combat mage and interrogator gave me the mind to see
he was acting. It was at this point that we decided to inquire about
the Vampirism. He seemed to know nothing about it, save that he has
recently felt differently. Interesting…
Trying to gather a lead, we were able to glean that the mausoleum has
a series of catacombs under it where the Fallen had set up residence.
We left Migos in custody of Dagonhold and met to discuss our
options. We decided that we would return to the mausoleum and see
what leads we could gather there. During our journey, Schmendrick
pointed out that he had noticed Crespin acting stranger than normal
lately and analyzed him. He found that Crespin was under some sort
of influence, though the nature of the influence he could not
deduce. I decided to try out my special new spell that I wasn't able
to use on Serena because of Schmendrick's previous intervention, and
felt like I was able to remove some sort of curse from Crespin.
Continuing along, while Vance was scouting ahead he encountered the
most strange of things. Apparently a squirrel had decided to "talk"
to him and ask him to follow it. He brought it to the party either
to prove it to himself or because he feared an ambush of some sort.
With clarity, we all saw the squirrel talking and making motions for
us to follow it. Acting cautiously, we followed along to see what
business a squirrel had with us. We were led to a small grove where
the trees were set ablaze, and the squirrel seemed adamant to get
through the flames.
I conceded to its desires and proceeded to put out the flames with a
well placed water jet. We were somewhat surprised to find three
people near the center of the flames, two of them quite obviously
dead (I guess being ripped in half has that effect on people). The
other was unconscious but in bad shape. Schmendrick healed the man
and once he awoke we learned that he had been attacked by a man with
deep black skin—a Fallen—and that the fallen had cut down a magic
tree that was imprisoning a demon of some sort, and then torched the
place. Now we have just one more thing to possibly look in to, that
is, why the Fallen found it important to release this demon.
We continued on and the druid—Darby—followed along. We arrived at
the mausoleum and decided to begin our investigation. We entered the
catacombs through a secret passageway that Vance was able to locate,
and found ourselves surrounded by the dead.
Mort, with his sick habit of smashing all skeletons to ensure they
were dead, began doing just that. Unable to stop him in time, we
heard him yell that they were alive. The soldier in me took root and
I yelled for everybody to fall back in to a more defensible position
in the stairwell. My comrades actually listened, which surprised me
greatly (especially Crespin), and fell back to help hold a line.
Schmendrick quickly crafted a pentagram behind us up the stairs a
ways, to prevent our being attacked from behind, and the bloody
battle began.
Fighting in such close quarters was not a specialty I was trained
with, but I managed rather well in leading my comrades to victory.
We were able to hold off the onslaught of hundreds of undead pressing
to smother us and force us to join their ranks. My comrades fought
bravely and proved that they deserved my trust.
Unfortunately, a leader is always the prime target for the enemies.
At some point I'm not sure if one of my spells went awry or what
exactly happened, but I fell in combat, unconscious, battered, and
bruised. When I was roused later, I saw that we had managed to stave
off the assault and not a single companion lost their life. I was
both impressed and gratified. It really is too bad we didn't have a
chronicler with us to engrave this event in history… a small group of
soldiers overcoming the odds and beating a massive company of undead.
- Fooberichu
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Joined: 6/29/2007
Posts: 209
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1/19/2007
Having just finished exploring the mausoleum and not finding anything
useful (minus a bunch of paper scraps that Mort collected), we felt
we should camp the night down here and then set out bright and early.
The next morning we awoke at the crack of dawn and buffed up, ready
to be ambushed by the demon and/or the Fallen. We were relieved to
not be ambushed and managed to travel back to Dagonhold in a day
through heavy marching. We noted that the fire from the demon had
spread out and eventually died out on its own, but that it left quite
a swath in the forest. Darby was visibly choking back tears as he
looked at the damage, but managed to maintain himself.
Huffing and puffing, we arrived at the gates of Dagonhold. Even for
this time of night, the roads were unusually empty—something we had
noticed the entire length of the journey, actually—and the guards at
the gates seemed somewhat uneasy. After questioning, they let us
pass and told us to go straight to the inn and follow our business in
the morning because there had been an altercation in the city this
day.
Most of my companions stayed up a little later, but I went straight
to bed. I was exhausted from all the exertion of the battle the day
previous, not to mention a hard march today.
I was rudely awakened by a blast under my bed; my body flung into the
air like a rag doll. I landed in a crumpled heap in the corner and
as I lay there struggling to remain conscious I saw Mort run in to
the room wearing polka dot underwear and wielding his axe. The last
thing I remember before blacking out was noticing something across
from me which looked somewhat like an arm and I asked, "Is that my
arm?" Blackness engulfed me and the rushing sound of a waterfall
filled me ears.
I woke up lying halfway on the shore, halfway submerged in a small
pond at the base of a waterfall. Glancing about, I was unable to
determine my whereabouts, yet somehow this place felt familiar. I
dragged myself to my feet and noticed that my body was completely
intact—this is strange, I thought.
As I stood, I noticed a pathway leading from the pond out in to the
forest and felt compelled to follow it. Following the path, I looked
about in wonder and amazement. The forest was deep and lush, the
most beautiful I had ever seen. Nature seemed to engulf me and lead
me along the path, the sounds and smells soft to my senses. I felt
as if nature itself was somehow taking me as its benefactor and was
protecting me from some outside force or entity.
The path narrowed as it wound deeper into the forest, yet it never
seemed difficult to follow. Deeper and deeper I tread, but never a
sense of worry overcame me. Nearing what I felt to be the heart of
the forest, I came to a small circular grove of trees with an altar
of worked marble in the center. Placed carefully in the center of
the altar was an earthen bowl with fruits and vegetables, at its side
an earthen goblet. I don't know why I felt it was ok, but I
approached the altar and began to eat the fruit and drink the
beverage from the goblet.
Gorging myself on the most scrumptious fruit and the clearest and
coolest water I have ever partaken, it took me a moment to realize
that I wasn't alone. I felt a presence watching me so I stopped and
began to look around. I noticed that an owl was perched atop a low
lying branch on a tree adjacent to the grove; just watching me.
Perplexed, I turned and looked directly at the owl, our eyes meeting.
The owl opened its mouth to call out and suddenly its face morphed in
to Schmendrick's face. I was startled and found myself sitting up
suddenly, in the inn, surrounded by my companions. Glancing around I
found Darby sitting close by and noticed something that hadn't really
caught my eye up to this point—he had the largest and most nasty mole
to the side of his nose and perched slightly above his lip. He was
chuckling about something which caused the mole to shift and three
long hairs protruding from the mole to wave about like grass in the
wind.
I was mesmerized for a moment watching them sway before I was snapped
back to reality. Mort was asking me what happened and pointing at a
large hole in the wall and the floor. It suddenly dawned on me that
Darby was chuckling because my robes were mostly tattered and all my
parts were full out for the world to see.
I jumped up and hurriedly dressed while Mort continued to pester me
with questions. Finally, he left to get dressed because some guards
arrived and began a formal investigation. Still stunned, I just
started spouting off about our mission and what was happening before
Mort cut me short and informed the guard that we were on official
business and needed to answer only to Dathan or Sujo. He conceded
and took us to meet with Ivan.
Ivan was noticeably annoyed at being disturbed during the middle of
the night, but we informed him of the events anyway. As an official
representative of the guard, and as our assigned liaison, he had no
choice but to accompany us in our investigation.
Having gathered my wits, I suggested we return to the room and I
could use "Images of the Past" to see what details I could garnish
from the events. I cast my spell and entered into the illusory world
of the past. I watched as the nimble would-be assassin slipped his
sword through the crack between the window and the wall and slowly
lifted the bar from the window.
Slipping through the window, I was able to size the man up—average
build for a Silothreni, dark hair held in the common fashion, and
dressed head to toe in a dark suit. He pulled an item from his pouch—
a small stone tablet—and cracked it in half. Lightly tossing it
under my bed, he turned to leave and stumbled as he attempted to
climb through the window, making a loud thunk. He quickly exited
with no time to spare as a massive explosion rocked the room,
blasting my bed to splinters and sending me sprawling through the
air. I slowed the illusion and watched as my body shook and
shuddered with the shockwave, my arms flailing wildly, my legs
snapping back and forth like a dying jack-rabbit. I watched in agony
as a large splinter entered my back and exited through my chest,
leaving a bloody hole.
The shockwave and shrapnel continued and knocked Kess from his bed,
sending him to the wall with amazing force. Luckily for him, my bed
(and my body) absorbed the majority of the blast and spared him from
life threatening injury.
I observed the rest of the events—Mort entering the room in his polka
dot underwear, the rest of my comrades coming to aid… and
interestingly, Darby invoking a blessing on my behalf in the name of
his God—Carthas. Just as he finished his blessing I watched myself
jerk awake staring wildly at Schmendrick in shock, then gaining my
senses and looking about.
Possibly one of the greatest drawbacks to being a mage is that you
tend to draw unwanted attention as one of the more powerful beings in
a group. I am uncertain why I was targeted, but perhaps Schmendrick
knew something I didn't. I recall him having asked Darby to use his
deity to enshroud Schmendrick's room with a protective mist—the same
mist he used to enshroud us in only days before when worried about
the demon—incredible foresight, if you ask me. I may have to ask him
about this later.
Back to task at hand, I informed everybody of every last detail I
saw. Asking Vance to perform his task as the ultimate tracker, I
showed him where the man entered and stumbled and waited. Vance was
able to locate a single dark thread but was quick to note that it may
not be associated with the assailant, but rather, could belong to the
bed or a previous occupant.
Having no other leads to work with, however, I cast "Seeker" on the
thread and with my comrades in tow, followed the tug until we located
a small home not far from Crystal's place. I asked Ivan to have his
men cover all exits to the building before we call on the people of
the home—something he apparently hadn't thought of—and then he
knocked loudly. After a few moments of knocking an aging woman
answered, wearing a rough looking and ill-fitting robe. We entered
the home and searched it, finding an older man struggling to fit in
to his pants. Since the spell was indicating his pants as the
source, he was taken in to custody and led away. In the meantime, I
decided to use "History" on his pants and see if they were the ones
involved in the botched assassination attempt. They weren't.
However, the spell indicated this man was involved in plenty of shady
business as it was, so I had no problem letting him be dragged away.
It suddenly occurred to me that if we could find the spell stone that
contained the explosive magic, I could use that to track down my
assailant. We returned to the room and I asked Vance to perform his
miracle and find me some pieces of the stone. He found two. Even
Mort surprised me and found a couple too.
We decided to call it a night and continue our pursuit in the
morning. Feeling vulnerable and afraid for my life, I asked Ivan if
I could sleep in the barracks which he grudgingly accepted and
allowed Kess, Vance, and I to do so.
I must say that I have never seen Kess so excited. He acted like a
child, jumping around excitedly and spouting off how he was a real
soldier now. Too tired to explain to him that just the act of
sleeping in a barracks did not constitute soldierdom, I went to sleep
and let him believe in his delusion.
The next day, after meeting with one of the Palace Mages, I used my
magic and we were again led on a chase to find the man associated
with this stone. We tracked the man down and learned that he was a
mage—searched his home and took him in for questioning. As it turns,
he was approached by somebody recently and through some trickery,
convinced that I (whom he called Schmendrick), was a threat to
Silothreni as a whole and must be dealt with. He contrived a plan to
assassinate Schmendrick and hired a friend of his to deliver the
explosive. We were able to track down and interrogate his friend.
After our investigation, we were finally allowed to meet with Sujo
and report our findings. He relayed to us that they had found
Lazarus and that he was more of a stooge in the greater scheme of
things. They learned about the gates and about a certain "tribe" of
the Fallen who were able to freely travel the planes without the
gates (Lazarus being one of them). They were after Schmendrick
because he was capable of opening the gates and allowing the rest of
their kind to flood our world, and they didn't care if they got him
dead or alive. The dead or alive part seemed to confuse my comrades,
but I filled them in that there are certain mages who are able to
extract useful information even from the dead.
I assume it was through some mishap or miscommunication that they
have identified me as Schmendrick, something I should take care to
fix or suffer the consequences.
We spent another night in Dagonhold before setting out for Dagonport,
as our investigation took the better part of the day. Kess spent the
time impressing the soldiers of the palace with his superb skill in
archery. Having spent so much time with the soldiers, that only
seemed to reinforce his belief that he was a real soldier… poor sap.
The next morning, we arrived to Dagonport about midday. I set out
immediately to find a vessel willing to carry us to the port city
near Tristen, and was able to locate a ship lacking of protection.
They agreed to transport us in exchange for our services as
protection in the event of any pirate attacks—something we all were
more than willing to do—and told us we set sail in two days.
Thus, with two days to spend, we all split and took to the sights of
the city. I spent most of my time near the docks, refamiliarizing
myself with the ins and outs of working on a boat, not having spent
any time sailing since I was a teenager. My father is an experienced
seaman and used to frequently take me out on his voyages, hoping to
instill a desire in me to follow his footsteps. While I enjoyed the
open sea, the greater call of duty as a mage deafened me to my
father's desires. I have never regretted my decision, still, it is
nice to revel in memories and take to the sea again.
After two days passed, we finally boarded and set sail. Stitch—
formerly known as Schmendrick, as he decided to alter his appearance
and identity before leaving Dagonhold—had trouble on the open sea at
first. I think I saw him leaning over the side of the boat heaving
for the better part of the first day at sea. Vance, on the other
hand, seemed to be a natural. He had an insatiable desire to know
more about how the ship worked and how the crew maintained the ship.
I was more than happy to show him around and teach him everything I
could.
Kess spent most of his time helping the seaman fix up their armory by
crafting arrows and bolts for their arsenal. They were more than
happy to have the resources added because there has been an increase
in pirate activity of late.
Four days in to our journey we were beset by a large and ferocious
storm. The storm beat us back and we lost ground which will lengthen
this journey for us. Coming out of the storm after two days, we
encountered a disabled merchant vessel. The mast had been snapped
near the base on the main deck and was hanging limp, barely attached
to the ship because of the rigging. There was no sign of life on
deck, so we decided to send a landing to investigate.
Not surprisingly, all of my comrades decided that they wanted to go
along to investigate, so the captain was forced to send two
longboats. We split in two groups, joined by three sailors each
group, and set out to investigate.
Arriving at the vessel, I realized that I no longer felt like I could
climb like I used to, so against my better judgment, I cast a spell
of levitation and floated up to the deck. Vance thought he could
scale the rigging but not used to sea travel didn't take in to
account the grime and water, and slipped. He managed to catch
himself at the last moment and climb the rest of the way without
incident, but he seemed embarrassed by the ordeal.
We spread out and investigated the main deck. Vance and I entered
the captains quarters and he scouted around, pointing out (thinking I
didn't notice it—but it was hard to miss) the signs of fighting
within the quarters. There were divots and slash marks throughout
the cabin where close quarter fighting took place, even some old
dried blood. He also located the captain's log and began reading,
finding out that a recent mutiny had occurred with the crewman. This
happened a little before a storm disabled their ship and left them
stranded here for at least a week. He continued reading the log so I
left him and followed with Mort, Crespin, and Kess as we descended
below deck to see what more we could find.
Remembering my lessons as a child, I switched the eye-patch I had
borrowed from Crespin from my right eye to my left, and prepared to
have better night-vision. Mort decided to attempt something, and I
was surprised to see him actually cast a spell to create light. He
seemed pretty pleased with himself, and we continued along.
Suddenly a man sprung out in front of Mort and flashed a toothy
smile, complete with missing teeth and golden crowns. His face was
gaunt, his beard patchy, his eyes without pupil. A zombie. Mort
kicked at him without hesitation but missed, then drew his knife and
lunged at it. He caught it square in the chest and knocked it back a
little, then Crespin pushed past him and knocked it down. Still
stirring, Mort and Crespin finished it off, so we continued more
cautiously.
We found cargo still in the netting, and Mort passed word to have the
sailors relieve this ship of its cargo, and we continued on.
Entering the living area, we found an unfriendly sight. A large
number of zombies arming themselves and preparing for a battle. Mort
slammed the door shut and asked me to retrieve the other zombie's
short sword. I grabbed it and handed it over; he jammed it in to the
floorboards and door to help brace it—he intended on holding the door
while we looted the ship!
The sailors quickly cleared the room of the cargo and loaded up our
longboats, I sat out in the boat preparing some offensive spells to
sink the ship. I saw my comrades exit the boat quickly and board the
longboats, yelling that the undead were swarming out from everywhere
at this point.
Mort jumped from the ship's deck to the longboat—quite a risky
maneuver both for himself and for us in the boat—and landed safely.
He grabbed the oars from one of the sailors and propelled us along
faster than the other longboat.
At what I considered to be the prime distance, I let loose and
incredibly large and powerful concussion bolt and blasted the ship at
the waterline. The explosion rocked the large ship and sent a
shockwave filled with wood splinters our way. The ship lurched and
began to immediately take on water.
Vance quickly filled me in on what he learned from the ship log—that
they had picked up a new figurehead which was floating out at sea
after their original figurehead was lost in a storm. After that,
they began having issues with a ghost. Vance was convinced that I
needed to destroy the figurehead, so, being the enterprising mage
that I am, I cast flight on myself and shot into the air.
I regretted my decision to fly overhead as I noticed a lady on the
ship's deck aiming a bow straight at me. The woman had flowing red
hair that seemed to catch every wisp of wind in the air. Her long
body was clad in a flowing white robe that seemed to cling just right
on her voluptuous curves. Her beauty was exquisite… but that didn't
change the fact that she was aiming a bow at me… so I continued
flying straight up. Luckily my speed and my height caused her to
miss… a flaming arrow narrowly passed right by my ear so close I
could actually feel the heat singe my ear hairs.
I sped along to the bow of the ship and prepared yet another powerful
concussion blast. As I prepared, I dodged two more fiery arrows from
the siren. Finally taking aim, I let loose and blasted the
figurehead clean in half, leaving another gaping hole in the ship.
It lurched forward as it began taking on more water, and I sped away
towards our ship, leaving the crippled ship to take its place in the
depths below.
Landing back at our ship, I was greeted with cheers and ovation as
the sailors were impressed with my showmanship. Never before had
they seen such an amazing feat—a single man taking a ship down merely
by pointing at it.
I must admit I am a little disappointed in myself. Intending to lay
low and change my guise much the same way as Stitch (ie, Schmendrick;
I even dyed my hair blonde and dressed as a soldier), I inevitably
ended up publishing to everyone around me that I'm a powerful mage so
why don't you kill me?
As is life.
- Fooberichu
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Joined: 6/29/2007
Posts: 209
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2/3/2007
Aside from having to retell the story over and over again to the
captain and the crew, the rest of the voyage went uneventfully. We
arrived at Seaport after two days of additional travel and
disembarked with the intention of selling our cargo. The captain
apprised us of the situation—that it would likely take another day or
two to find a buyer and that the cargo we had shanghai'd from the
derelict ship would not bring much profit in Celestine lands.
Against our better judgement, Crespin decided to stay behind to
acquire our cut on the cargo, while the rest of us journeyed to
Tristen.
The walk towards Tristen was a solemn one; we were all reflecting on
the months past and the many things we had come to see and experience
as a result of our calling. It seemed as if my comrades were
somewhat reluctant to return home, perhaps afraid of having previous
stereotypes, accusations, and assumptions all brought up again.
Two days of solemnity passed and we finally arrived at the gates of
Tristen. To our surprise, the roads had been completely devoid of
life and, even more surprising, the gates of Tristen had been heavily
fortified. Standing watch were Imperial soldiers, in and of itself a
bad sign as the presence of Imperials could mean only the worst.
Even though the sun was fading under the horizon, we decided to
report straight to our employer—Otto. Not surprising, he was in his
office going over the day's events. He was somewhat startled to see
us, but quickly regained composure and asked for our report. Handing
over the box containing the head of a Fallen, he opened it
inquisitively. Choking back, he hurriedly replaced the lid to the
box and stated "charming." Mort handed him the letter from Lord
Dathan, and we began giving our report in sequence (leaving out
details of our trip through Phoenix, of course). Upon completion, he
said he'd review the reports with his people and get back to us.
Since it was still early in the evening, I decided to set out and
locate any of my former military companions to catch up on events.
It didn't take long before I was able to track down Jarrod who, not
surprisingly, had rejoined the military and made Captain. Rolf was
still on duty and was unable to join us immediately. I recapped
events with Jarrod and, perhaps erringly, filled him in on my
ancestry. He was taken aback by my ancestry and advised me not to
publish that fact too eagerly.
Upon sunrise the next morning, we all rose and met up in the inn.
Otto brought us back to review the report with us and apprised us the
situation. The two undead groups were indeed in the vicinity of
Tristen and were attacking the outlying villages and towns. They had
made a few sorties against Tristen, though minor. Otto wanted us to
join up with a company of soldiers and track down the groups of
undead and put them to final rest.
Taking another day to prepare, we set out to track down and destroy
these undead menaces. With Vance in the lead, it didn't take us long
(perhaps a week) to track down the first group of undead warriors.
As we prepared to ambush the group, the captain of the soldiers began
making some very silly and stupid assumptions and tactical decisions,
to which I promptly spoke up. It was obvious he had never before
encountered the Undead, and perhaps was fresh out of the military
academy. It was quickly decided—unanimously, I might add—that he
should step down and allow me to take the lead. He was reluctant to
give up his position, but having already heard stories about our
group he conceded.
I led my comrades in glorious battle and witnessed the fury and
precision with which my comrades were able to dispatch the threat.
The soldiers were extremely impressed with the skill my friends
displayed and the raw power I help in my hands. Kess never felt any
happier than surrounded by a group of soldiers cheering his uncanny
ability to put arrows through eye slots, ear canals and other small
openings of the body. He felt a true soldier and had I the
authority, I might even make him one.
Quickly continuing on to the location of the other undead group, it
took another few days before we were able to come upon them and
unleash hell upon their company. If the first battle was intense,
this one was ungodly. The undead had amassed a strong group of
warriors and the wraith leading them fought with such ferocity as to
inflict fear and pain into the hearts of most of our accompanying
soldiers. Yet again my comrades displayed such valor fit for legend
and slaughtered the hapless undead cronies.
Tallying our losses, we found that we had lost only a single soldier—
one who decided he wanted to be as heroic as us and broke the lines.
His body was so riddled with holes from arrows and sword wounds it
was difficult to identify him.
We returned to Tristen as heroes. Everybody lauded our success and
showered us with praise. Apparently our continued successes
impressed Leonold and he entrusted us with the safety of his daughter—
Reena—for an escort mission.
Deciding it was high time for us to become an official mercenary
company, we formed a group with me as leader. I was hesitant at
first to take the mantle, but logic prevailed and I accepted.
As an official mercenary company, I was able to negotiate a higher
pay for the escort job and we took it. We had to escort Reena to her
grandmother's house in a small town a couple days journey from
Tristen. Apparently Reena was to become involved in politics (as a
judge, none less) and her father wanted her out of town for a small
time. He was worried that travelling alone, however, might get her
into trouble with the bandits that have also been attacking a lot
lately.
The trip was uneventful, although Reena was very interested in
finding out everything about everyone. She tried to get more
information out of me than I was interested in sharing, though I did
speak with her for a lengthy amount of time. She grew bored with me
and moved on to my other comrades.
Shortly after arriving to her grandmother's house, we were asked to
step outside while she conversed with Reena. Vance was immediately
beset by some foolish villager who challenged him to a duel. Vance
accepted and was bested. Angry, he struck the man very heavily
across the back of his head with the pommel of his sword and knocked
the man senseless. I healed the man and allowed him to waken, and he
was furious. He challenged another duel, this time Crespin
accepted. We all left, but were shortly joined by Crespin who
explained he beat the man fairly and gained his respect.
- Fooberichu
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Joined: 6/29/2007
Posts: 209
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3/16/2007
Darby arrived in a rush; apparently Stitch, Vance, and himself were
ambushed while tracking the Suul invaders. He filled is in on the
sketchy details, that Vance had been scouting ahead and suddenly
attacked by a party of Suul. Stitch came popping in out of nowhere,
whilst Darby turned tail and ran. He didn't really know what had
become of Stitch and Vance but seemed to think that in the least,
they were probably taken captive.
Mort set out seeking his buddy in the guard so I accompanied him
thinking that we could meet up with Jarrod and get a formidable force
together. Luckily Jarrod was willing to help and after several
minutes (actually quite impressive given the short notice) had
organized a strong unit of soldiers and mages. Setting out with
Darby leading the way, we were able to locate the "abandoned" tower
where the Suul had apparently set up base.
Not finding anything around the tower, we were not surprised when a
particularly clumsy soldier accidentally found the entrance to a
subterranean base. Entering, we heard voices echoing from deep
within the caverns; we slowly moved in.
Just as we were entering, Stitch popped in and apprised us of his
side of the story. He had managed to save Vance and left him in town
helping guard Crespin's family along with James. He had previously
infiltrated this base via a portal and luckily was nearby when Vance
was attacked.
Stitch led us to the room where he had entered but found that the
wall containing the portal had since been collapsed. Searching some
more, we located a sort of prison room where twelve prisoners were
chained up to some pillars of interesting workmanship, each connected
via some cables to a large glowing green orb in the center.
Pragmatically, Stitch pointed out that the orb was draining the life
energy of the prisoners and was likely a trap of some sort – this
reinforced by some of the more level headed prisoners comments for us
to stay away.
Stitch and the Imperial mages who had accompanied Jarrod's force
decided to try and magically disarm the trap while the rest of us
vacated the caverns.
Exiting the base, we saw the wicked glow of massive flames emanating
from Tristen, the flicker of light filtering through the smoke
dancing on our eyes. Mounting our horses, the officers in Jarrod's
force as well as my comrades galloped forward to the rescue. The
footmen dashed quickly behind us hoping to reach the city in time.
Upon arriving at town our eyes were met with a sight none of us had
expected nor hoped to find—a towering demon terrorizing the
populace. Throngs of townspeople were enthralled by its power and
attacking the other townspeople attempting to douse the flames and
fight off the demon. Battle ensued, epic and wrought with heroics
and bravery; fit for a bard. We managed to down the demon with
minimal casualties and, after helping clear the remaining fires,
returned to the outskirts of town to recover Stitch and the mages.
As if our night had not already been filled with stress and drama, we
found that the entire base had been collapsed and Darby was digging
frantically to find survivors. It should be noted that, much like
when we "saved" the lady Serena from her madness, the area was now
devoid of all things magic. Darby was not bound to magic like I was,
so he was using the power of his God—Carthas—to dig my comrades
free. Stitch was laying limp nearby yet clearly alive thanks to
Darby's quick action. I had Kess toss him upon my horse and I
extracted him from the magic void and quickly healed him. Somebody
else had also lifted an Imperial captain to their horse, some Josias,
whom I also healed.
We returned to town, our rescue work now finished. Heading back
home, I found that my home had been lightly damaged in the fray and
decided that I would repair it in the morning to come.
That morning as I was working on my home, Mort approached desirous
that I would identify a relic he had acquired in our journeys. A
cloak pin of some sort, apparently of Sentinel origin. I agreed on
the condition that while I identify his pin, he finish the work on my
home. Finishing the identification, I found that the pin would
likely serve Vance much more than Mort as it would increase his
ability as a woodsman. Still, it would be nice to have another
member of our company be somewhat skilled in the woods, so I kept my
reservation to myself.
Work on my home complete and Mort's pin identified, we met up with
the rest of our company at the inn to discuss the previous day's
happenings. Stitch was noticeably (and understandably) distraught by
the loss of Willy the night before so, like a good friend and
Captain, I helped him get very drunk. From the corner of my eye, I
noticed a young woman enter the inn and took note that some of my
comrades noticed her also, particularly Mort. Mort approached her
and after a couple moments speaking, talked her into coming to our
table.
It was as she got closer that I realized I was looking at Kess… or at
least, what Kess would be if he had breasts. It was a bit sickening,
looking back, to find that I was attracted to her. I shouldn't be
attracted to a female version of Kess, especially since in appearance
he's more than halfway there anyway. The lass' name was Angel and
had only recently come to town. Kess was convinced that she was his
long-lost sister and, given the mirror-likenesses of the two, I'd be
willing to stake a large bet on that theory.
The conversation moved from topic to topic and didn't take long
before I realized Vance was not with us. Questioning my comrades,
Kess stated that Vance is a prick and decided to ditch us
for "another job". That didn't sound very much like Vance at all
but, since he wasn't here and I had seen him alive and safe the night
before, I didn't have much else to go on. Perhaps our years-long
friendship has come to an end for unspecified damages or slights?
The next day we decided to journey out and see if we could track down
the Suul army. On our way, Darby informed us that Stitch had been
cursed (which is the root cause of his sullenness), and thankfully
used his divine power to remove it from Stitch. Immediately Stitch
regained his composure and was reminded that Willy could not have
been "killed", but that was probably trapped in a state of suspended
animation. He asked Darby to accompany him back to the collapsed
caverns and teleported away, stating that he'd catch up with us.
- Fooberichu
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Joined: 6/29/2007
Posts: 209
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4/6/2007
Continuing our journey, Stitch and Darby caught up with us late that
afternoon. Mort was doing a good job tracking the path the Suul left
behind (glad he is using that pin I identified for him the other
day). We were led back to the caverns we found while looking for the
sunkissed flowers last year. Interestingly, they were clean now and
had obvious signs of recent residency.
We left our horses outside with Darby and entered. Looking around,
we found a section we previously hadn't noticed (or perhaps had been
added) that led deeper into the caverns. Hoping to learn as much as
quickly as possible, I turned Crespin into a body of air and sent him
out scouting. Maybe I would've learned my lesson the last time I did
that, but apparently I hadn't.
Some time passed while we waited for Crespin, who had passed to the
other side of a locked door, before Stitch and I both thought we
heard him yelling—howbeit faintly—from the other side. Mort and Kess
took that as the opportunity to break the door down, announcing our
presence to anybody who might've been on the other side. Pushing
forward, I noted that the door had a thin strip of metal in the frame
that exuded magic. They probably knew we were here already anyway.
We continued, investigating side rooms and passages until we came to
yet another heavy locked door. Mort and Kess did their work and we
found the room to be pitch black—the deepest darkest black I have
ever seen. We attempted to use my stone (which I had kindly turned
into a bright sunlight on entering the cave) to penetrate the
darkness, but nothing could be seen. We attempted a torch, which
also was useless. Mort decided on passing through and shortly came
back, telling us that he heard a rattling sound much like a baby
rattle when he was inside.
I ordered Kess to fire a few shots into the room in the general
direction Mort hear the rattling, which prompted Mort to return and
attempt to use some magic he had recently learned. It wasn't long
before he came barreling out the door with Crespin over his shoulder
and a goblin in tow, hooked by the backside of his axe through its
groin. Dropping Crespin lightly, he turned around and proceeded to
beat the goblin into the nastiest bloody pulp I have EVER seen,
gurgling out profanity and oaths in Celen whilst he ripped its
ribcage out and crushed its head.
I attempted to heal Crespin but he remained deathly white. Stitch
decided to recover Darby and see if he could heal him and was gone a
short while. Upon returning, Darby was quick to identify Crespin in
a state of vampirism and that the goblin Mort had pulverized was a
vampire (and would likely return to life). Taking that as our cue,
we chopped it into little bits using Crespin's sword of ghost slaying
and then took all the chunky bits into another room to build a large
fire. Darby used some clerical magic to begin cleaning the area of
the taint and then took Crespin outside where he said he would purge
him of the vampirism.
The rest of us followed the outer path until coming across a room
heavily trapped. The stones set in the floor were all springy,
convincing us that if we let our guard down we would find a trap the
hard way (or easy way, depending on how you look at it).
We painstakingly (ok, when I say we, I guess I mean Mort) removed
each panel one by one to make sure they were not the trapped ones.
Finally reaching near the end, Mort found the traps. As he was
working around them, Stitch decided to pick up one of the trapped
stones, finding it to be extremely hot; he tossed it.
It exploded loudly in the corner where it hit and very shortly after
that, a voice yelled out to us to surrender. He stated that we were
surrounded and that he had our comrades from outside. Mort yelled
back "all ten of them?" to which the voice replied "yes!" He was
obviously lying, since we only had two people outside.
Mort took that as his opportunity to charge forward and catch them
off guard and rushed forward. As he neared the doorway, he fell flat
on his face. Kess saw a soldier through the doorway and shot an
arrow at him, striking him right through the eye and dropping him
instantly. Stitch ran forward and brought Mort back up, Mort
continued forward and began to engage in melee with the would-be
ambushers. Kess attempted to fire another arrow and watched it
deflect harmlessly away from a magic barrier. Stitch grabbed Kess
and teleported to the other side… or so I thought.
As Stitch was teleporting away, I prepared a decent sized concussion
bolt and watched him disappear. While I didn't hear the *pop* as he
appeared in the other room, I didn't pay it much heed because he
could have popped in near the back of the room. However, after not
seeing any more soldiers drop on the other side and noting that Mort
had stopped moving again, I realized that Stitch had not successfully
made his teleport into the other room.
Caught in a split-second decision like that has not always been a
strength of mine, and I paused briefly wondering what I should do.
In essence, my entire party had effectively been wiped out instantly—
Mort incapacitated by magic, Stitch and Kess teleported off to who
knows where, and of course, Crespin and Darby were not present.
Thinking about the predicament I was in, I took a quick glance to my
right hand where I was quickly reminded that I still hadn't used my
concussion bolt. Grinning, I decided the best course of action was
the crazy course of action and prepared to teleport to the other room.
Luck was on my side as I popped into the other room and maintained
control of my senses. I was attacked from behind by one of the
soldiers, but luckily my armor deflected the blow. Turning, I threw
the concussion bolt at the feet of the nearest mage and was satisfied
by the massive boom and wet crunching of bone as the blast knocked
him into the wall. The soldier who had just attacked me fell to the
ground, possibly unconscious, and I turned to see Mort had been
knocked free of whatever magic held him bound.
Quick as the mongoose after a snake, Mort dispatched the remaining
mage and soldiers while I ineffectively washed the soldier behind
me. Seeing what Mort had just done, he turned tail and ran. Mort
chased after him and I went from person to person slitting throats to
ensure they were all dead.
Thudding followed by a loud scream was pleasing to my ears until I
heard Mort yell "HUGO!" I quickly got back up and ran after just in
time to watch him drop Hugo. Mort entered the room where Hugo was
and I watched him attack yet more soldiers. Since he wasn't really
paying attention (and I wasn't really thinking), I slit Hugo's throat
and was quickly reminded why I didn't want to do this—he turned into
a pile of ash. Oops!
Mort returned and I said I had no idea what happened to Hugo… *cough
cough*, and we proceeded to loot everybody. After looting, we
started looking around and were fortunate enough to find the
prisoners—including Crespin's soon-to-be brother-in-law—and
subsequently located Stitch and Kess in a deep hole with broken
appendages. We pulled them up and healed them and then led the
prisoners back out…
- Fooberichu
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