After annihilating the outpost of the Church of Valok in the shadowy village of Blandenberg, Van, Ari, Orianna, Andrinor, and Jade went back to the temple of O'ma to recouperate. The next morning... as much of a morning as there is on the Plane of Shadow... they set off on their journey.
Meanwhile, far away, on the Prime Material plane there was a girl in trouble. Tupaia and her faithful cougar companion, Alistrina had no intentions of causing trouble when they stumbled upon a meeting of sorts. A group of M'Chekian special forces were deep inside enemy territory meeting with a contingent of Titanean fairies about a possible alliance against the elves. In return, the humans were pledging to help the the Titaneans against the O'ma fairies once the elves were out of the way. Through the course of this meeting, the conspirators became aware of the eavesdroppers, so they gave chase.
Tupaia and Alistrina ran for their lives with the conspirators on their tails. A little ways off, they spotted a large oak tree with a hollowed out trunk. Tupaia and her cougar ducked into it for cover. Immediately upon entry, there was a popping noise and everything turned dark for them. Where it was daylight outside a minute before, it was dark now. Tentatively, the pair stepped back out into the forest to discover it was night time. This puzzled Tupaia. She studied her surroundings, and she found that the plants were of the normal type and species for the area, but they were all made of some strange shadowy substance. She gingerly walked northward towards her home when all of a sudden her pursuers popped through the opening in the tree to come after her. The chase started up again.
Just as Van, Ari, and the other heroes were leaving Blandenberg, they spotted a lone female figure with a catlike animal running in their direction. Behind her, Van spotted some shadowy figures in pursuit. As the figures got closer, they hailed the girl. She frantically pleaded that the heroes help her against her attackers. Without knowing what to think, the heroes waited until the pursuers came within parleying range. They called out to them, and a female human stepped forward. She told them that Tupaia was a criminal who was wanted for espionage and that the heroes should hand her over. After more discussion, the heroes realized that the humans were from M'Chek and that they had evil intentions against T'Nanshi. They told the people who wanted Tupaia that they would not get her without a fight... and fight they did.
The humans drew out bows and started firing. Most of the arrows glanced harmlessly off of Van, but Tupaia was almost killed by a magic missle from the mage who in turn was almost killed by a lightning bolt from Jade. That same bolt took out one of the human bowman and a fairy.
Eventually the two sets of warriors closed in on each other. A steady exchange of blows occured for a while, only to be interrupted by an entanglement spell from Tupaia. However, due to a slight miscalculation, her spell managed to entangle just about everyone in the battle, on both sides.... much confusion ensued. It took a long time, but most of the humans managed to be killed. The surviving fairies attempted to change to their smaller form and break free. One fairy who did this was gobbled up by flaming spheres sent by Tupaia and Andrinor. The other one who managed was subsequently swatted by Van's flail to score a direct hit on a human enemy's forehead. The guts and refuse from the body stung his eyes a little bit, but it wasn't long before he was cut down by Ari's sword and aura bolts from Jade and Andrinor.
Eventually, all the enemies were slain. Tupaia formally introduced herself to the heroes. They introduced themselves in turn. Jade explained to the druid that she was now on the shadow plane, and that she could accompany them to get back to the Prime. Jade then explained the mission that the heroes were on, and that their mission played a large part in what Tupaia had just witnessed, as well as a large part in the safety of the world. Jade asked if Tupaia would be interested in coming along to help them, since their mission would eventually lead to the preservation of her homeland of T'Nanshi. Tupaia readily agreed.
Eventually the heroes reached Brekon. The city disgusted them immediately. The gates hung wide open, and all were allowed to pass through without harrassment. However, the occupants of the city were mostly orcs, goblins, ogres, and giant-kin. There were scatterings of humans, halflings, and even elves about the place, but not many. The adventurers entered the place to find an Inn where they could base their campaign against Mandaharuk. Jade told them that she had some connections in the city that she wanted to check out, and that she would meet them at the inn in 3 days time. She told them NOT to cause any trouble, but to explore and figure out how the place worked, so it would be easier to get to Mandaharuk. Then she left.
The adventuerers wandered around, and eventually they settled on their second Inn. After getting a room they turned in for the night. The next day they decided to split up and explore. Tupaia and Ari took Alistrina to explore the perimeter of the city. Orianna, Van, and Andrinor decided to explore within the confines of the walls.
Tupaia and Ari went out the gate that they entered originally, and they started to circle the perimeter. They found two more gates. A little while later, Alistrina the cougar was troubled by the scent of something following them. She couldn't figure out what the scent was... but it was definitely not orc or goblin. Tupaia and Ari pressed on. Shortly after, they spotted a couple figures on the walls of the city looking down on them. So they smiled and waved. At that point the figures disappeared, and about 6 more appeared out of thin air in front of them. They introduced themselves as urban sprites, and they were interested in the heroes because it wasn't often that fairy kin came to Brekon. They were wondering what the party was doing in the city. After some warming up, and talking, the urban sprites alerted the girls that there was trouble brewing under the temple of Valok. An urban sprite named Harry claimed to have seen all the influential clerics assembled at the bottom of the temple for a summoning. They were summoning large amounts of denizens of evil.... enough for an army it seemed. This troubled Tupaia and Ari, and after the urban sprites gave them a tour of the city, they returned to the Inn.
Meanwhile, the other heroes explored the city. When they got to the temple of Valok, a hooded figure approached them. He introduced himself as Kalik. He was an orc who claimed to know a lot about the dealings of the city, and that for a price he would tell the heroes whatever they wanted to know. Van agreed to this and motioned for the rest to follow Kalik to an Inn. Once there, Kalik gave them some information. He told them that the orcs were planning on using the slave army and Crullath's army to wipe out Lord Arvanos in the north. Once that was done, the orcs would turn on Crullath and take all the land for themselves. Kalik saw the merit of this plan... it would give them eventual control of the whole east coast, along with unification with Dubunat, the other orc nation. But Kalik saw flaws in this plan too. Namely, the orcs were not powerful enough yet to pull off a plan such as this. He told the heroes that if the current plan could be stopped, and he could install himself as leader, the attacks could be averted. Van asked why he doesn't kill Mandaharuk, and he explained that Mandaharuk, while influential, was not the most powerful figure. The government was in league with Mandaharuk, specifically two generals, Gilun and Bilak, and a district head named Crayn. Those three had to be eliminated for change to come, and then if they wished to kill Mandaharuk afterwards, they could. He explained that in exchange for all this information, the heroes are to go to the Goblin's Niche and kill the three people he mentioned. Van agreed.
All of the adventurers met back at the Inn and exchanged information. Van was troubled to learn that an army of baatezu was being raised in the lower depths of the temple of Valok. She went back to tell this information to Kalik. He paid her for it hansomely, and said that now more than ever they must kill the generals and district head.... to weaken the resolve of the invasion. Van gathered the heroes and went to the Goblin's Niche.
The place amazed and disgusted them. The Goblin's Niche was a pleasure house for orcs, goblins, and other nasties. The girls in the establishment were according to that taste. At the front desk they were met by a charismatic goblin. After some palm-greasing, he told them that government officials and generals do in fact frequent the place... usually they are in the suites on the top floor. Van promptly ordered a suite and 3 female goblins for the whole party. A likeable ogre named Francois was summoned to show them all up to their room. When they got to the top floor, they glanced around and noticed one door being guarded by an ogre and some orcs. After Francois took his leave, they noticed another hallway with a hill giant guarding the door.
The heroes made a plan. They would go up on the roof and hop onto the balconies of the rooms to sneak in and kill the occupants. Using some rope and some of Ari's biting arrows, they made easy access to the roof from their own balcony. Orianna walked over to the suite directly across and snuck in. She found a sleeping orc there who had just finished with his whore. She killed them both in their sleep, stole a governmental medalian off a chair and snuck out. One down.
The next one was a little tougher. Upon entering the suite guarded by the orcs and ogre, they awoke the general. He scrambled to put his clothes on. By the time a few arrows from Orianna and Ari flew at his neck, he had turned his clothes into platemail! Just as he picked up his wicked looking axe to charge, some more arrows caught him in the throat and he fell dead. The ogre guard bursted through the door with his orc companions at that point. The Ogre charged and slammed into Van. He was slain soon after. Tupaia and Andrinor roasted the orcs with some flaming spheres for a while before they fled, only to be cut down by Van while retreating.
After Tupaia put the flames out with some conjured water, the party set the place back to normal. Ari slew the ogress whore, and they left. Now the worries came. They had to kill the next general without rousting the hill giant. Tupaia went back to the room and paid their goblin whores to try to distract the giant, while the rest of the party went for a full attack.
The plan worked. The general was suprised in bed, and he was cut down with his whore in a fairly short and brutal battle. The giant did not hear it at all. Quietly, the heroes slipped out of the building togethor and back to their inn to recouperate once more.
The End: Chapter 7
Avlis Campaign: Chapter 7
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Avlis Campaign: Chapter 7
"Truth has no form."
--Idries Shah
--Idries Shah
I think it's very important for the DM to make the PCs (us) invest something into the characters. Josh has done a good job of both giving each character a reason to be involved and tying the stories together. I give him a lot of credit, it's much harder than you would expect.
That's coming from someone who has tried it.
That's coming from someone who has tried it.
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