Avlis Campaign: Chapter 2

[Orleron]

After locating the base of operations for the Andarr slave trade, the party reported back to General Borr'Gorak and Derot Slimshadow of the Grey Dirk guild.

Derot informed the party that a noble named Lord Hargon had been buying slaves from the local trade in order to free them only days after their purchase. Vanoviel relayed that she had seen Hargon on one such excursion to buy slaves while she was staking out Blythorne's Smithy.

The general was very pleased at the new information, and he immediately dispatched spies to gather more intelligence on the matter. He informed the heroes that as a reward, he would give them some money and free passage back to M'Chek where they came from. However, he said that before engaging on that journey, the slave bunker would have to be wiped out. So, after a small amount of negotiation, the adventurers agreed to help come along on the operation.

Borrr'Gorak's top aide, Captain Garrack, assigned the party a special job in the operation. He told them that intelligence reports found that there were two doors to the slave compound.... a front door facing the City of Andarr, and a back door facing the nation of Brekon to the north. The main attack would occur mostly from the front door, and the back door would be the site of a diversion set up by the newly hired party.

Garrack showed them to a room onboard their main ship which contained all they would need for a diversion: smoke powder kegs, metal tubes, clay stoppers, rope, various biting arrows, grappling hooks, weapon black, body black, etc. A new member of the team, Orianna the halfling rogue from the Grey Dirk, was somewhat proficient at the use of smoke powder and weapon black. She helped the party come up with a plan.

The attack would be at dawn. The adventurers sailed a small ways up the coast with the small army and disembarked towards the compound from the beach. After briefly scouting the area, they laced the back door with various explosives which were timed to go off in four successive detonations after a main explosion designed to take out the back door.

When it came time for the battle, the army gave a signal and the explosives were unleashed. The door flew inward into the compound and the other smaller explosives began to go off. Just at that point, some shady characters on the roof were alerted to the presence of the adventurers. They threw down a rope and told the party to quickly climb it. It turns out they were capitalizing on the battle at hand, and they were having a hard time penetrating the roof of the compound. They requested that in return for a share of treasure, the adventurers could lend them some explosives to speed the process of breaking and entering. Orianna, Van, Andrinor, and Ari gladly agreed.

They blew a hole in the roof and dropped down into what appeared to be an office occupied by two very suprised captains bearing Crullath's heraldry. After a brief fight, the foes were vanquished and Van settled down to the task of plucking various daggers and bolts out of her back and hip. (Andrinor and the thieves were not so adept at firing missle weapons into melee.)

As the room was being looted, in walked a very large man with a flaming longsword. He was furious that his office had been invaded, and after cleaving a thief in two with one fell swoop, he retreated from the battle via a ring of teleportation. As it turns out, the rest of the compound was being quickly overrun by Borrr'Gorak's men and the Grey Dirk.

Documents recovered from the office were brought to the general who was disturbed to find out that they spoke of the MAIN slave encampment being located in Brekon. This compound was evidently just a staging area to facilitate the transport of slaves from Andarr up to Crullath's lands in the former Kurathene Empire. Crullath planned to use the slaves as conscripts for his wars against Borrr'Gorak's Lord Arvanos. The general broke the news to the adventurers that their journey home would be delayed in order to take out this encampment.

According to the information on the captured documents, the journey to Brekon would be about a 4 or 5 day sail northward along the coast. Because of the delay, the general proposed payment for the adventurers for their further company before heading back to M'Chek. He assigned them the task of scouting the compound and reporting their findings in order to attack at dawn the next day. During the battle their task would be to concentrate on freeing the slaves.

Thus, the compound was scouted by the adventurers. They reported on the layout of the land, and the outer appearance of the compound. There was a portculis in the south face of the area, and the nort face housed a slave trade marketplace.

When the attack began, the party headed for the marketplace to try to gain secret acess to the compound. After getting help from Borrr'Gorak's archers with the guards in the towers, the adventurers entered the compound through a small slave tunnel where they are normally brought through for display on the market. At the end of the tunnel, they enountered resistance from a group of orcs. The party retreated back into the tunnel to try and lure the orcs in. However, a veerbeeg decided to join the battle. He stood at the other end of the hall and noted their strategy. As he was noting, Andrinor managed to get lucky with a vial of greek fire. The now angry flaming veerbeeg charged mercilessly and rushed the adventurers, hitting Ari square in the chest and taking her off her feet. The move would be his last, because he was promptly hacked to bits afterwards.

Slowly but surely, the adventurers worked their way through a group of orcs and came to a room filled with caged slaves. After fighting the warden and his assistant for the cage keys, Orianna began to unlock the cages while the rest stood guard. Van and Ari were quickly confronted by two suprised Ogres who walked down in to the cage room. After a few blows from Van, one Ogre fell. The other took a little longer, but eventually succumbed.

By that time, the slaves were freed and the party beat a hasty retreat out the way they came. The battle for the compound raged a bit longer before the slavers fell to Arvanos' men and the newly arrived reinforcements from the land of Arvanos itself.

The END: Chapter 2

[Edited on 2/13/02 by Orleron]

[Silk]

Actually, (what's her name...the cleric chick) tossed a huge canister of greek fire tousing the veerbeg with it. Then (the other elven chick) tried to shoot an explosive arrow to immolate the veerbeg... I think at the end, the Rogue was able to throw a vial of greek fire (lit) at the veerbeg to succesfully immolate him.

[Orleron]

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