Revenge - Chronicle Part 3

Midwinter, 09th – 24th February 1022TA - Settling In and More Work.

The party decide they should begin integrating themselves into Norn Hill society. They arrange a party at the Bath House and invite the citizens of Norn Hill as well as many guild dignitaries and church officials. The party goes well, but during the later stages Rowley is involved in an altercation with Heslor Radizar leading to Heslor knocking Rowley to the ground. Rowley refuses to say what he did, just saying he was ‘talking’ to Heslor’s wife. They also discover that the businesses and property of the Heartstars are going to be sold.The next day they visit the Merchant’s Guild to find details of the shops to be sold. They discover that some of them belonged to Rowley’s and Aaron’s parents. The party agree to pool their funds and purchase some of the businesses. They form a company called the Sweetwater Trading Company and register with the Merchant’s Guild. They then hire a solicitor to purchase as many of the Heartstar businesses as possible when they are auctioned in three weeks time.

Later that day Ash and Rowley visit the Academical Society to talk to the Archmage. She tells them that the goblin mages were trained by human mages. They suspect two reclusive mages, Amonath and Bevin Dardarrion, are responsible for the training. They ask Ash and Rowley if they are interested in more paying work. The guild wants the party to capture the two renegade mages and find evidence of their actions. After a consultation the party agrees to the Society’s job. The Archmage will teleport the party to the renegade’s homes and she gives them some Teleport Runes to return. They teleport into a forest near Amonath’s tower. They sneak through the trees until they are outside the tower. After a brief investigation they discover that Amonath is asleep in an upper room. Aaron Long-doors into the room and Bruce merges through the tower walls. Bruce coats his dagger with a coma-inducing poison and stabs Amonath. Amonath succumbs to the poison and goes comatose.

They investigate the upper floor of the tower, overcoming many mundane and magical traps. They discover several magic items as well as some books and notes written in an unknown tongue. They ignore the lower levels of the tower and decide to return to Midwinter with Amonath and the notes. After handing over Amonath the party teleport to the location of Bevin’s tower. Bevin’s tower is made from a single block of green stone with no visible entrances. The party head towards the tower. Aaron scales the outside and finds a large, concealed door. They enter into a large chamber filled with carrion. Aaron again opens a smaller door leading further into the tower. The party head further in, defeating some apprentices and guards before arriving at the top of the tower.

Alerted to their presence, Bevin has already summoned a sword demon and several man-demons. The party encounter the man-demons, dispatching them after a fierce battle. Unfortunately, the party suffer a beating. Aaron, Esla and Rowley are unable to continue the battle so Ash, Luther and Bruce continue to a confrontation with Bevin. The three reach the top and enter battle with Bevin and the sword demon. Things go badly from the start and soon the three have all succumbed to Bevin. Below, Aaron, Esla and Rowley hear the approach of Bevin and the demon. Fearing the worst, Rowley teleports them back to Midwinter.

Back in Midwinter, Rowley and Esla rustle up some fellow Academical Society members and return to Bevin’s tower. As they approach the tower they see a Wyvern and the Sword Demon flying to attack them. Rowley magically controls the demon and forces it to kill the wyvern. They enter the tower and head to the top. Near the top they find Ash, Bruce and Luther who have been interrogated by Bevin. As Aaron frees them the others go up to battle Bevin and the remainder of his forces. A fierce battle ensues ending with victory for the party and their allies. They return to Midwinter with Bevin in chains along with his apprentices. The party are paid their dues by the Archmage.

They rest for a day before heading back to Amonath’s tower. They plan to ransack the tower for any books, magical items etc. They clear out a couple of levels before resting for the night. During the night they are disturbed by the arrival of three people teleporting into the tower. A short battle ensues and the intruders teleport away. Disturbed, the party return to Midwinter.

Midwinter, 25th February – 17th March 1022TA - Investigations and More Work.

The next day they head off into the town. They visit the building site of Henri duValle where a strange magical curtain hides the construction of a large building. The next day they attend the auction of the Heartstar businesses. They acquire several shops, warehouses and cotton mills. Some of the shops belonged to Rowley’s and Aaron’s parents. That evening, Aaron invites the party to the opening of his brothel/casino called Castaways.

After dealing with their new businesses for a couple of weeks the party visit the opening of Henri duValle’s new building. It turns out to be a new magical university owned by the Guild of the Arcane. Also at the reception, they see one of the three men who attacked them at Amonath’s tower.

After the reception the party once again turn their attention to the Grey Wind. Luther discovers that the drug problem is the Shambles and Docklands is on the increase. Luther begins to preach to the commoners of the Shambles and Docklands about the dangers of drugs. The party decide to shadow Heslor Radizar, to discover more of his involvement with the drug trade. Aaron finds Heslor doing a deal with a strange sailor. Aaron trails the sailor to a ship called the Taramis in the harbour.

Rowley, Bruce and Aaron break into Radizar’s shop. They discover that Heslor has received a package of fresh drugs. He has left them in a hidden sewer entrance beneath the shop. As they are waiting, they hear people coming through the sewers. They are from the Shadow Guild. They take the drugs and leave behind a package of money. The party decide to take most of the money and ransack the shop to make it look like a burglary. They deliberately leave poisons in full view to bring suspicion on Radizar.The shop is found by a group of workers at a local baker’s shop. The workers alert the local watch who investigate the shop. Bruce, Rowley and Ash spend time visiting the local shops and coffee houses, spreading rumours about Radizar’s involvement with the drugs trade and the recent poisoning attempts. Later that day Radizar is arrested by the watch.

The party lies low for a couple of days before Ash and Rowley are asked to visit the Archmage at the Academical Society. They dutifully visit and are asked to perform another job. One of Midwinter’s spies, Brenna Hawkwind, has disappeared in the city of Zale. Midwinter’s troops are currently besieging the city and the Archmage wants the party to find and, if possible, rescue Brenna. The party agree to the task, thinking that they can also visit some of the Grey Wind members in Zale while they are there. The Archmage gives them a magical device they can use to locate her. Three days later, the party are transported to Zale with other Battle Mages taking part in the siege.

Zale, 18th – 21st March 1022TA - Rescuing the Spy and Dealing with the Alfrannare's.

During the next day’s assault they fly into the city. They locate Brenna in Zale’s Guild of the Arcane. Esla ‘tunnels’ into the Guild HQ and the party rescue Brenna. On the way out, Esla tunnels holes in the walls allowing Midwinter’s troops to enter the heart of Zale. After teleporting Brenna back to Midwinter, the party enter Zale again to investigate the home of Tirzar Alfrannare. Previous investigations have indicated that he is a priest of the lost god Balor.

The party head off to Tirzar’s shop – The Zale Herb and Spice Company. Using the ongoing battle as cover they break into the shop. After sleeping two of the staff they head upstairs. Half way up, they are attacked by two men. Bruce dispatches the two and chases after a third who is heading further upstairs. Bruce catches him in the attic trying to use a secret teleport gate. Bruce is able to knock him unconscious before he can use the gate.

While Aaron and Rowley search the shop, Ash and Luther interrogate the prisoner. He tells them that he is a follower of Balor and that the gate leads to their hidden temple. Eager to track down Tirzar the party head through the gate. The find themselves in a series of caves. Aaron jams the doors leading to various areas, locking some guards and cultists away out of trouble. After clearing out most of the caves they find the tunnels lead to a stone flagged cellar. They dispatch some guards but are unable to stop one from escaping upstairs.

They follow the escaping guard and find themselves inside some sort of border outpost. They are in a square tower surrounded by a wooden palisade guarded by soldiers in the colours of Zale. Luther scans the area for evil life-signs and the party home in on a group of bad guys further upstairs. They head up to a confrontation with Tirzar, his niece Alliandra, another Balite priest and the remaining guard. Tirzar begins by trying to tempt Luther to join him. Saying that Luther is blessed by Balor and his rightful place is at Tirzar’s side.

While Tirzar spouts his rhetoric, Aaron and Rowley spot Alliandra beginning to cast a spell. Aaron, who is invisible, sneaks forward and casts a knife at her. She falls off the tower, the knife in her chest. Battle ensues leading to the death of Tirzar and his allies, but Ash and Aaron are injured badly in the fight. While Luther fixes the injured, Bruce, Aaron and Rowley head downstairs to deal with some of the soldiers who have been attracted to the sounds of battle.

They dispatch some of the soldiers and force the rest to surrender. While the rest secure the soldiers and some merchants staying at the fort, Bruce returns through the gate to Zale City and brings back some Midwinter troops to control the outpost. After searching Tirzar’s living quarters Luther discovers evidence linking Tirzar and Heslor Radizar to the drug trade in Zale and Midwinter. The party then returns to Zale.

Luther interrogates the captured shopkeeper to find the location of Tirzar’s home as well as the home of Kelsar Zelradas, the Grey Wind’s accountant. The man knows Tirzar’s home but can only give them the address of Barric Zelradas, Kelsar’s father and Councillor of Zale. Bruce, Luther and Rowley head off into the city again, leaving the rest to recover in Tirzar’s shop. They sneak through the war-torn city to Tirzar’s house, finding it empty. They search it thoroughly and return to the shop with some spell books and journals written in an unknown tongue.

Bruce reconnoitres the Zelradas house but finds it still behind enemy lines. They rest out the night in Tirzar’s shop and wait next morning for the fighting to pass beyond the Zelradas house.

Zale and Midwinter, 21st March – 6th April 1022TA – Vampires and the Talarrys.

As dawn arrives the next day, the party set off into the war-torn heart of the city. They quickly find the home of Barric Zelradas, a two story town house in a rich part of town. They break in and investigate the ground and first floors. All they find are some servants who are quickly overcome. Ash and Esla investigate the cellar while the others question the servants. In the cellar they find Kelsar, sitting comfortably in a chair. As Ash approaches him, ordering him to surrender, Kelsar crushes a small figurine in his hands. The air shimmers with magic and a dozen strange figures appear in the room.

Esla runs back upstairs, calling for help, while Ash tackles the new arrivals – vampires. A battle ensues ending with the destruction of the vampires and the capture of Kelsar. When they investigate the vampire’s remains, they discover two rings bearing the crest of the Damador family. The party flee the city and return to Midwinter, taking Kelsar with them. Back home they begin to interrogate him to gain information on the Damador vampires. They discover that the Talarry family, now living in Rowley’s ancestral home, are hiding vampires in their crypts.

After the interrogation, the PCs argue about what to do with Kelsar. Finally, Rowley magically charms him and together they rob the Grey Wind bank accounts of 15000 gold crowns. They then hand Kelsar over to the Church of Orloth. The priests there interrogate him further and decide to raid the Talarry estate the next day. They invite the PCs to join them in the raid.

The following day the assault takes place. The PCs assault the main house while the Paladins and Priests of Orloth attack the crypts. In a fierce battle, the PCs defeat the Talarry and Damador lords in the house then aid the Orlothians defeat the final vampires in the crypts below. The Orlothians declare to the city that the Damador and Talarry families have been in league with the Unlife and confiscate their assets.

Relaxing after their efforts, they attend another high-society party and witness a flight of dragons flying over Midwinter to attack Zale. A few days later, the assets are auctioned off by the Merchant’s Guild and the party buy back the Talarry house in Beaconsfield. For the first time in twelve years, Rowley is able to sleep in the Bluewater house stolen from him by the Grey Wind.

Midwinter and the Wyrmsdown, 6th April – 7th May 1022TA, The Master’s Quest.

Ash, Esla and Rowley are approached by the Archmage shortly after their return to Midwinter. She explains to them that they are ready for their Master’s Quest. In order to gain the rank of Master in the Academical Society they must find the body of Jasper Longheart, one of the society’s founders who has been missing for 400 years. After investigations at the Society and a Private Library, they decide that Jasper disappeared trying to find the tomb of Allyra III, the last of the Annan Emperors.

They spend a few days poring over maps and ancient books until they track down the tomb’s location to a remote part of the Wyrmsdown near the Whitewater Valley. They begin to look for ways to reach the area and discover that there are a network of obelisks and lay-lines crisscrossing the planet that may be used to reach the location. They travel to an obelisk 3 days ride away and attempt to use the obelisks. Apart from extreme tiredness and headaches, there seem to be no ill-effects. They return to Midwinter to get ready for an extended trip. There, Ash is warned by the Archmage to not use the obelisks because many mages have been driven mad or killed by their use. Ash tells the others but they decide to go on.

They travel back to the Oak Hills and use the obelisk to travel to the depths of Tanglewood Forest, the northern Stonelands and finally to the Whitewater Valley. From there they head off south and begin to search for the tomb. After several false starts and a weeks travel, Luther resorts to a Commune spell to locate the tomb. Armed with new information they set off for the tomb’s location.

They enter the tomb, made by dwarves and filled with fiendish traps. After a lot of work from Aaron and Bruce they finally reach the central chamber of the tomb. Rowley discovers the chamber is filled with magical as well as mundane traps. In the chamber there is also the body of Jasper and Allyra’s sarcophagus on a raised dais. They disarm the mundane traps and recover Jasper’s body. Before they attempt to open Allyra’s sarcophagus, Luther divines that it is guarded by Spectral Guardians who will activate when someone touches the dais. The party concoct a plan to fool the defenders. Rowley casts a series of Cloak spells on the Guardians so they will not detect Bruce who then opens the sarcophagus and steals the contents. Buoyed by their success, they return to Midwinter.

Midwinter, 7th May - 11th May 1022TA, Ladron's Story.

The party return to their home is Beaconsfield. The next day, sitting down to breakfast, the butler brings in a visitor named Ladron. He tells the party his story. He was a sailor who was shipwrecked on an island and rescued several years later by pirates. More importantly he was chained to the oar of the pirate's ship when it attacked a fleet of vessels. He managed to escape from the pirates and spent ten years hunting them down. When he killed the last one, he found a locket with the pictures of a man and woman inside. The locket had belonged to Aaron's mother, Sarina. With only three of the pirates left to kill, Ladron was in Midwinter and approached the party for help in capturing and killing the final three pirates - the same pirates hired by the Grey Wind to murder their parents.

The party agree to help Ladron, hoping to gain more information from the pirates regarding their parent's fate. The first of the pirates, Elija Hagerson, is tracked down to the Docklands area of Midwinter. They ambush him and take him to their old house in Norn Hill. There, they interrogate the pirate. He knows that Swiftblade has recently gained a ship captaincy and left the city two weeks ago. Entwistle is in the employ of a merchant family recently arrived in Midwinter from Zale. Hagerson’s memory of the attack on the parent’s fleet is hazy. He is really unable to add much information other than all aspects of the deal would have been organised by the captain.

On to Part 4 of the Chronicle.

Home | Links | Search | Site Map | Contact Us | ©2007 Stephen Hardy