Session 4/14/07

                Cyndele quietly requests that the rest of the companions allow her to speak for a moment.  She has received a vision from Arinna, and feels compelled to leave the Temple immediately and report back to her post in the Luminous Order in Sumberton.  She is confident that she will see her friends again, but asks that they honor her decision.  Everyone agrees, and the brave halfling paladin immediately heads back to the surface, promising to wait at the gates of Sumberton for the group’s safe return.

 

Only one passage remains unexplored in the southwestern quadrant of the Temple: the western passage out of Goramnus’ now defiled tomb.  After scouring the clockwork horror’s room for treasure, the group heads briefly north, then west into a darkened passage, shining their lanterns ahead.  A flicker of movement catches Klar’s and Altaer’s eye as the party moves into the western room, and suddenly the movement blossoms into a swarm of reddish-brown wings and bony proboscises as a flock of ten stirges bursts out of a small alcove towards the group!  The blood-sucking cavern dwellers quickly attach themselves to Altaer and Dvalin, burying their hollow beaks in exposed veins and sucking vital fluids out of their prey.  The adventurers furiously slash and stab the screeching beasts in a chaotic storm of steel and flesh.  Though Altaer is significantly drained, Dvalin avoids the worst of the stirges’ attacks, and soon all ten of the pests lie dead or dying at the party’s feet.

 

 

One corridor branches south from this area, and a faint, cold breeze smelling of an ancient meat locker occasionally blows out from the south.  Altaer is weak, but he agrees that this bears investigation before the group takes its rest, so they form up and advance as a group towards the cold, dank breeze.  The room to the south radiates a deep and palpable evil, though all is quiet within.  The group comes upon a shattered demon gate which seems frozen in time: three whitish draconic humanoids seem stuck halfway between worlds, locked within a shimmering gray haze inside the broken gate.  Here and there, black cracks in the haze can be seen, though which the cold, fetid breeze blows.  Jack experimentally tosses a pebble at one of the draconic figures.  The kinetic energy from the pebble breaks the stasis, and the three figures rush forward, attacking immediately.  Three more similar humanoids emerge from the gate a moment later, and battle is joined.

 

 

Klar’s toughness and strength in melee proves too much for the small white hordelings, who fall quickly to his ancestral axe.  The humanoids employ twin short swords and use two-weapon fighting style while occasionally blasting the party with cones of cold breath.  Altaer draws on his draconic heritage and identifies the creatures as whitespawn hordelings of Tiamat – one of the many breeds of Spawn of Tiamat that are rumored to exist.  The Spawn are bred on Avernus, the first level of the Hells of Baator in the outer planes, and they live to serve their chromatic Dragon Queen.  However, these six whitespawn are far from their base of power and cut off from reinforcements, and they die most efficiently when the party brings their full resources and tactics to bear.  As the fight ends, the adventurers note an eerie silence in the Temple as the broken gate collapses and becomes inert at long last.  It seems that the entire complex has been cleared out, with the exception of the inner chambers thought to house the true master of the temple: the drow’s fiendish spider.  To prepare to face this threat, the party rests for the night in one of the drow barracks, and their sleep is peaceful and uninterrupted.

 

Faerisa 23: Refreshed and ready for the final challenges of the Slaughtergarde Temple, the companions form up in tactical positions and march through the Temple corridors past Lanthurrae’s sanctum.  Opening the western door of the dead cleric’s worship room, they find a corridor branching north and south.  Klar leads the group north first, into a dusty room that holds three aggressive hunting spiders.  Jack fends off the spiders’ bites and slices through one, while Klar kills another and Dvalin and Altaer finisht he third.  They head south and quickly eliminate three web-spinning spiders, each the size of a large hound.  Though the spiders try to pin them and immobilize them in webbing, the adventurers’ tactics are too well-coordinated and the spiders stand little chance.  Klar, again the recipient of an enlarge person spell from Altaer, charges forward and busts down a set of bronze doors inlaid with symbols of Irindix, the Crone and Dark Huntress of the Underlands. 

 

Inside the room beyond the bronze doors is a huge, black spider with dozens of tiny red eyes.  The beast is enormous – more than 15’ wide and equally tall – and it intelligently scuttles forward to engage the party.  Its keeper, a female drow wizard, uses the shadows to launch a complimentary attack with a ray of enfeeblement.  The spider viciously bites into Jack, but the fey human’s breastplate turns aside its huge fangs twice.  Klar cuts deeply into the fiendish spider’s black hide, exposing its organs and causing it to bleed heavily.  A moment later, Altaer’s magic penetrates the spider’s spell resistance, and the sorcerer lands a deadly scorching ray right in the center of the spider’s head, burning its eyes and brain and killing it instantly.  The arachnomancer wizard flies into a rage, blasting the group with her spells as she is able, but a lone drow cannot hope to stand against five seasoned adventurers alone, and she soon falls to Dvalin’s new axe Kurnmor.  The stoic dwarf honors her sacrifice even as he cuts through her belly, muttering grimly to his fallen enemy, “You were a worthy foe.” 

 

With the final guardians of the Temple dispatched, the second remaining ruin of Slaughtergarde now lies in ruins.  Lanthurrae’s plans to use the gates have been foiled, as have Shenn’s and Garranach’s evil experiments with the altars.  The party has completed its assigned mission for the Luminous Order by destroying all the places of evil power they came across within the temple.  Satisfied with their work, they scour the Temple for treasure and return to the Surrinak Hunting Lodge above ground.  Klar takes the time to scribble a crude eviction notice for the Surrinak family on some parchment, affixing it to the door of the lodge as he departs.

 

By late evening, the companions have returned safely through the Oakwood to the elven settlement Shul Sennek.  The forest warden Findar greets them happily and informs them that Cyndele passed through yesterday on her way to Sumberton.  As promised, Findar puts the adventurers up in one of the sheltered treehouses and entertains them with food, tales and fellowship throughout the night.

 

Jack learns more of dreambrands in his conversations with Findar.  The elves, as well as the younger races, have been studying the dreambrand phenomenon for the last ten or so years.  The brands began manifesting about twelve years after the Convergence, around the time the first generations of post-convergence children were coming of age.  Some children manifested the brands around puberty, and some people don’t manifest the brands until well into their twenties or later.  Each dreambrand identified so far has both a concordance and a brand – for example, one might manifest an Axiomatic brand of Healing or a Draconic brand of Frost.  Each brand seems tied to one or more spell-like abilities which the manifester can use once or more per day.  The method and/or lineage by which one manifests a brand is yet unknown, but elven scholars and many others are working hard on unlocking the mysteries of the brands.  They are definitely a post-Convergence phenomenon, however – no known brands existed before the great planar shift.

 

Findar also regales the young Altaer with a story of sacrifice:  he tells the sorcerer of a brave and canny brass dragon named Azra, who fought the demonic hordes of Slaughtergarde alongside the Thulkarr.  Azra died while singlehandedly defending his lover, a female knight of Bahamut’s order, from an entire strike team of demons.  His bones may still lie somewhere in the Slaughterscar.

 

After hot baths and a refreshing meal, the adventurers relax in the safety of Shul Sennek’s trees.  Jack meets a lovely elf woman, Lliana, who is a member of the forest wardens like Findar.  Jack and Lliana get to know each other better, sharing a warm night together under the quiet boughs, and Jack is sure he would be welcomed back by the lovely red-haired elf.

 

Faerisa 24-28: The following morning, the group packs up for the five day trip back to Sumberton.  The party’s journey back to the City of Bridges is aided by good weather, and the annual spring thaw now seems firmly underway.  Only the occasional wisps of white clouds mar the clear blue sky as the companions travel north to report their success, and the nights are clear, cold and quiet.  On the evening of the fifth day of uneventful travel, Klar spots the walls of Sumberton and by nightfall the party is safe within the city.  They enjoy a quiet evening meal with their friend Cyndele, who is at the gates to greet them as she promised.

 

Faerisa 29: After a filling, hot breakfast of eggs and toasted cheese bread, the adventurers stroll over to the Sumberton chapterhouse of the Luminous Order to report their success to Captain Armin Harreck.  The wolfish captain is pleased to hear their tales of battle and exploration within the Slaughtergarde Temple, and he raises his gray and black eyebrows in approval as the party tells him of their successful destruction of the Temple’s many altars.  After the debriefing, Harreck pays all five companions the promised 800 gold pieces each, and pledges the lasting gratitude of the Luminous Order of Bahamut for what they have accomplished.  Each PC now has an active Affiliation Score of 7 with the Luminous Order (Ayotunde has a score of 8).  Though the captain offers a place in the Order for any of the five who would take it, they each decline.  Harreck urges the adventurers to rest up, sell their treasures and re-equip themselves, as he has further work for them as soon as they are ready.

 

After taking care of business around town and upgrading their equipment and accessories, the party returns to the Luminous Order chapterhouse for supper with Harreck and the halfling wizard Alistair.  Harreck serves good red wine, a roast shoulder of beef and various fermented preserved vegetables and fruits.  He speaks of recent augury attempts made by Luminous Order clerics – all the augurs pointed to a third and final ruin of Slaughtergarde which survived the war and the closing of the Abyssal rift by the Thulkaar’s obelisks.  The party has already heard of the Slaughtergarde Armory and its chief commander, the gnoll warchief Gashkarr.  The auguries of the Order seem to confirm what they’ve heard from the drow Corvael whom they interrogated.  Between Harreck’s knowledge and their own, the party determines that the Slaughtergarde Armory is within the dangerous region to the south known as the Slaughterscar. 

 

Harreck offers the nearby Shining Citadel, south of the town of Jewelford, as a base of operations for the group as they explore the Scar.  The Shining Citadel is the power base of the Luminous Order in Oberwald and serves as a connecting point for the Order’s operations in both the Valley of Obelisks and the Elsir Vale to the south.  The party will find healing, repair and merchant services within the Citadel (3000 gp limit), and their affiliation score allows them free room and board.  Harreck is willing to pay each adventurer 1,500 gp for their efforts in rooting out the evil of the Slaughtergarde Armory.  The captain believes there is a dark alliance afoot, perhaps involving goblinoids, undead and Gashkarr’s demonic gnolls.  He suggests this motley crew might be directed by some greater power, perhaps even one that resides on the Abyss or some other plane.

 

After the meal and meeting, the party heads back to the Sly Wink for some rest.  Waiting in the lobby for them is a raven-haired beauty of a half-elf with a slim waist, small pert breasts, and pale porcelain skin.  She introduces herself as Naryalla of the Ebon Cabal, and mentions Eli the Purveyor of Wonders as the man who informed the Cabal of the party’s doings.  She buys a round of drinks and informs the group that their quest to the Armory might be even more profitable if they were to successfully reopen a certain Abyssal gate which is rumored to still exist there… for their services, she will pay each adventurer 2000 gp.  The Cabal, she insists, is not out to commit acts of evil, but exists to further its own power through arcane and planar research of all kinds.  An opportunity to explore a functional gate of Slaughtergarde would be unprecedented!  However, the group is fairly suspicious of Naryalla’s motives and those of her Cabal, so they politely decline her offer and head up to sleep in preparation for a long journey.

 

Faerisa 30 – Alindor 7: The morning of the last day of Faerisa is clear and warm, and the party departs together at the first light of dawn.  They head south along the main road out of Sumberton, keeping along the road until they reach the Kurkle Ridge.  At Ayotunde’s request they turn east and hike for two hours into the red rock canyons of the ridge in search of the pyre site where she recently planted a seed.  Klar’s orienteering skills quickly locate the place, and the group is surprised to see a small cherry sapling already growing strong where Ayo’s seed was planted.  The sapling is clearly powered by the divine magic of Shandae, as it has already undergone several years’ worth of growth.  A single ripe cherry droops from the lowest branch, which Ayo picks and immediately pops into her mouth.  The cherry is tart but ripe, and as she chews down to the pit, Ayotunde realizes she must keep this new seed and find another site at which to plant it.  Such is the will of Shandae, who moves with grace through her mortal worshippers.  After saying a prayer of thanks to the Earth Mother, Ayo gathers her things and the party moves out together to continue their journey in earnest.

 

For the next seven days they travel safely by road through the Valley of Obelisks towards Jewelford and the Shining Citadel just south.  Aside from a few scattered rainclouds and short bursts of rainfall, the weather continues to grow slightly warmer and the chill breezes lessen as the group moves south.  The spring thaw is now fully underway.  On the morning of Alindor 7, the companions pass the small town of Jewelford and catch their first glimpse of the Shining Citadel nestled among the southern foothills of the valley. 

 

Azarr Kul's Ambition