Avlis Campaign 2: Chapter 2

[Orleron]

Stunned from the kidnapping of Orianna, the heroes regrouped and went back to the surface. While Tupaia went to put her affairs in order at the Dagroth estate, and Van went to consult a cleric of O'ma on the matter, the rest of the party went to the library once more.

This time they had better luck because they had some clues as to what they were searching for. Arie found an interesting book that had references to the continent of Khanjar Kuro AND her lost stone. The book was called the Journal of Yeermayah.

One thousand years ago, during the founding of the city of Mikona, there lived an acolyte named Yeermayah. He was a follower of a great psionicist named Neeldrick Volray. Rumor had it that Neeldrick was very powerful for a human, and was living well beyond his normal lifespan. The journal went on to record that immediately after the time of the giant explosion set off by the orc mages that ended the Great War, Neeldrick found a curious stone. He believed that it once belonged to an elf named Solerion Rinthon, and that it was actually a piece of a powerful sword carried by him. The sword had four stones and this was one of them. Yeermayah the acolyte detailed Neeldrick's frustration with unlocking the secrets of the stone. Solerion was believed to have died in the explosion, although his body was never found, and thus he was unavailable for comment. Eventually, Neeldrick gave up and placed the stone somewhere in his monestary.

A little while later, a thief named Gor infiltrated the monestary. Yeermayah wrote about how he posed cleverly as an acolyte and worked his way over towards stealing the stone. The curious little dwarf-like man seemed to know a lot about the stone, for just as Neeldrick found out his plot, the dwarf recited a command word and disappeared.

Neeldrick was enraged, and he used his psionic abilities to trace the destination of the teleport. He went after the thief and was never seen again. Before he left, the acolyte heard him mumble, "Khanjar Kuro? That's got to be .... 1200 miles southwest..." The rest was unclear.

Having much newfound knowledge, the heroes worked on getting to Khanjar Kuro. In the library, Kung ran into a curious man who seemed to be knowledgable in the ways of magic. He asked the man if he had any magical means to transport several people, and the man responded that he could... for a bit of money, but it would be risky without knowing an exact location. Kung went and told the others.

Meanwhile.....

Orianna found herself in a small metallic room with a cage on one side and some tables and chairs in the other. An arrow slit let in the room's only light. The spirit who kidnapped her told her to drop all of her gear and get into the cell. After she did this, she found the cell had another occupant. He was small and mean looking, with slighly scaly skin, crazy hair, and a small lizard -like tail. She was afraid to disturb him, but when she finally did, she found out his name was Gor. He looked at her with his cat-like eyes and told her that he was the servant of the Uraki-Oni spirit.

After a little while, the spirit left on some other business and the curious little creature known as Gor went out of the cell to tidy the place up. As they talked, Orianna realized that Gor seemed to know her.... even knew her name. She could not figure this out, and every time she pressed him, he would not want to talk about it. He seemed very disturbed and more than a little insane.

Eventually, she worked out that he wanted to escape, just like her. So they made some plans.

While the spirit was away, they made their break for it. Orianna gathered her gear and explored the tower a little bit before leaving. She found some words engraved in the walls in two places. When she recited the second set of words, the tower began to collapse. Luckily, she and Gor were right by the front door and were able to get out unharmed. But when they turned around, they noticed the tower had compaced into a palm-sized cube. Amazed, Orianna picked up the cube and ran off in the direction indicated by Gor.

Along they way they ran into some trouble battling some wayward spirits of the wood, ikiryo. But soon, they were out of the swampy terrain. At this point, Gor took his leave and ran off as fast as he could away from Orianna, deaf to her protests. Stranded, Orianna continued along a road, down which she saw a village in the distance.

Soon she encountered another stranger. He was short, with crazy hair, and very dwarf-like. When she introduced herself to him, he told her his name was Gor, and he would be happy to be her guide to the village and around the area. He was kind, and looked like he wanted to help, so she accepted.


Back in Mikona....

Van found a cleric of O'ma and sent a message back to her keep about their situation and eventual trip. Then she came up with the idea of scrying on their location. Going back to the library and gathering the party, she learned of the plan to teleport there. With Tupaia's scrying ability, and the hired wizard, the heroes were able to find Orianna's exact location and teleport right to her.

United, and introduced to their new guide, the heroes continued on to the village in search of Arie's stone, and the spirit who was bent on corrupting the rest of Avlis.