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| Current Campaign: The Knights of Eaton | |
| Episode 2: "Orasi in Darkness" | |
| Year: 1753 Summer | |
| Location: Talonshire, Greymour, Karad, Orasi | |
| PCs: | |
| NPCs: | |
| Previous Episode: "The Blood of Kings" | |
| Next Episode: "The Siege of Kandorr" | |
| Previous Campaign: The Thuzuulan Heresy | |
The party rests in Talonshire briefly before embarking to Larkos and then to Orasi beyond. They skirmish against highwaymen until they reach Morengiliath, where they again confront sinister adversaries deep in the bowels of the cursed city. They successfully collect an heirloom and after they are threatened by a creature of great power they return to Kandorr, who receives them with much fanfare.
Story
Act One: Reprieve in Talonshire
The party withdrew to the Lonely Shepherd in Talonshire to recover from the emotional and physical turmoil inflicted on them at the Kel Hamin Gap. Jacob, meanwhile, buys passage for the group upon the Forceful Response, the flagship of a merchant fleet captained by his old friend Alva Cromwell. The group boards the vessel a day later and, after a rambling drunken prayer by the ship's mage O'Brien, the fleet sets sail for Greymour. The fleet stops in Greymour to exchange goods and next sails south to Brundhai. While enjoying shore leave at the wharf pubs the crew heed the tale of a sailor, recently debarked from Larkos, who claims there is great wealth to be had in the ruins of Orasi. They confirm the report through merchants and traders in the area and Borric decides the group should investigate the rumors. By Cromwell's introduction the group gains a private audience with Oronius, a young prince of Bonebreak Tor, who provides them with an elite vessel and sends along four of his knights to accompany them to the Kerrdos mountains.
Act Two: In the Gloom of Morengiliath
After a stop-over in Larkos and a sporadic series of fights against highway brigands, the company arrives at the gates of Morengiliath after four weeks of travel on Orasi Road. Using powerstones loaned from Cromwell, their mages disable the magical spells upon the door. Corwin teleports himself and another person inside and, after a lengthy search, they disable the locking mechanisms on the massive steel doors. The doors creak open and blast them with dust and stale, rank air. As they unpack their torches and exploring kits, Borric orders Tasselhoff to guard the entryway and gives him command of the Torrian knights. As Tasselhoff's unit arranges a defensive position the others light their torches and begin their trek into the heavy gloom of the vast entrance hall.
For hours Borric's team explores empty shrines, libraries, pantries, kitchens and living quarters but find little of value and no signs of life other than great threads of cobweb from bone spiders. They return to the entryway and regroup with Tasselhof's unit and Borric makes plans to venture deeper into the mountain realm after a night of sleep. The next morning they reassemble and Grespin replaces Tasselhof, who joins Borric's team. Hours spent roaming the deeper halls of the city yield only more rotted furniture and lichen, but Margaret notices recent signs of crag troll activity. Simon is the first to notice a perpetual humming noise that causes faints vibration among the shallow pools of water collected in some rooms. The presence of these pools indicates a hidden water source somewhere and the group surmises there are aqueducts or springs they have yet to find.
As the party moved further into the deep Margaret realizes they are being tracked by things in the darkness; she cautions the team to ready their weapons and they form a defensive posture as they proceed towards the route that leads to the central atrium linking Morengiliath with Orasi. Within minutes they are assaulted with a hail of stones, spears and arrows; the crag trolls have cornered them and are pressing them into a narrow corridor. The group counter-attacks with spells and arrows and a brief chase ends at the moss-coated door of the great hall. Borric orders his axe-wielders to hew down the door to make an escape route—they strike at the door repeatedly. In the melee Simon takes a moment to observe the situation and notices massive cracks in the flooring and ceiling of the hall; he sees droplets of moisture beaded along these cracks. He has time enough to shout, "No!" before a final axe swipe splits the moist wooden door and a massive wall of water comes falling from the other side. The entire party is scattered and swept away in a sudden flood that carries them further into the mountain.
Act Three: Malindril
The group is quickly separated as they clutch desperately for purchase against the forceful waters that sweep them through flooded corridors; some are stunned after being violently battered along the stone walls and pillars and two knights are helplessly thrown into the chasm of the central atrium, where they plummet to their deaths. Borric and Simon clutch the lip of a stone doorway before the water can carry them into the chasm and they climb to the open floor one level above them; Borric quickly unleashes his rope and they loop it around a pillar to catch the knights who pass in the stream below them. After several minutes they manage to save the others but they realize Margaret is among the missing.
Margaret had plunged over the chasm but was quick and agile enough to grab the ledge of a bridge spanning the center of the atrium. She clung to it and pulled herself up against the force of the water and managed to crawl to safety on the other side of the chasm, three levels below the rest of the party. Stunned and injured, she staggers deeper into the halls of Orasi and lays down to rest. When she comes to, she is being tended to by an Ashakre warpriest who introduces himself as Astor Bloodfiend. He heals her wounds and he informs her Osari is being repopulated but that most citizens still avoid the deeper regions of the city, and that no one has dared venture into the throneroom where Thuzuul met his demise. He indicates the ornately carved stone platforms dotting the levels and informs her that these are used as teleportation beacons by their magi and together they teleport to find the main group.
They teleport as high as the platforms will take them and climb the great spiral staircase to the ruins of the throneroom high above the empty city. In the fire-scarred antechamber they find the remains of Elthwain and dozens of Ashakre warriors and Thuzuulan acolytes. Within the throneroom they find the remains of Captain Velwyn, the celebrated Dragon Lord of Keldoras, and a dozen other bodies. Bloodfiend arranges the bodies in repose and performs a small ceremony for the dead. Simon walks to a heat-scorched crater near the center of the throneroom and discovers a fist-sized amber powerstone lying at its center. He brushes the dust from it and presents it to Margaret. Borric finds a claymore embedded in one of the stone pillars and dislodges it—it briefly glows a dim blue and is coated with a rime of frost. Borric packs it away and hitches it to his kit.
The room is rocked by a blast of icy wind and a hail of rocks and glass as a squat black mass thumps onto the throneroom floor. It shakes sheets of snow from its sable wings and rears its thick head at the knights of Eaton, who are scrambling to their feet. A deep, viscous voice booms out beneath the stars:
"Intruders. Your racket stirs me. You agitate the trolls and spiders above me. You pour water down upon me. I have eaten the flesh of your companions and for that small gift I am obliged to reciprocate with a warning: leave this place immediately."
Mustering all his training in diplomacy and etiquette, Simon apologizes for the group and they back out of the throneroom without drawing weapons. When they are back at the teleportation beacons Bloodfiend identifies the creature as Malindril, a young carrion dragon who makes her home in Morengiliath. The group treks back through the city and returns to the entrance where they meet up with Grespin and the Torrians, who are surrounded by fresh dead. Grespin reports their position was assaulted by the highway brigands from days ago and that they killed the lot of them.
Bloodfiend travels with the group as far as Larkos. After they make the weeks-long trek to that port city he gives Margaret a gift bracelet, showing her how to use it to call to him whenever she is in great need of an ally. From Larkos the Torrians return to the Tor and the group journeys back to Eaton. Upon their return they are welcomed back into Kandorr with fanfare and a week of festivities. King Croyd receives the amber jewel and places it to his trophy room. In the ceremonies that follow Simon is squired to Margaret, Tas is initiated into the Rangers of Eatonshire and Drake is awarded a small parcel of land and a title in Greendale.
Meta
Game notes
- played Fall semester, 1991
Plot Points
- In Act Three the group finds the remains of the dead from the adventure Thuzuul at Orasi.
- Bloodfiend's calling as a priest of Moloth compelled him to travel to Osari, where he believes he was meant to find Margaret. This is due to a CRIT 18 on the Reaction Roll table upon meeting her.
- Bloodfiend gave Margaret a bracelet Enchanted with Trace, Beacon and a Scrying spell.
Points Awarded
- 6 point for all
Season Pool
- 10 points