Session 4/28/07

                The party arrives at the Shining Citadel, where they are quickly ushered inside by an honor guard and introduced to Commander Layna Jaran, a paladin of Bahamut.  Lady Jaran serves the group a pleasant lunch in her council chambers and offers the Citadel as a base of operations for them as they advance towards the Armory in the nearby Slaughterscar crater.  Layna speaks of the demonic influence that has spread across the ‘Scar, blighting the land and causing the very air within the crater to become noxious and thick with fumes.  The companions rest for the day at the Citadel, preparing their gear and making a few last minute purchases from the Order’s supply depot.

                Alindor 8: In the early morning the group departs for the Armory, following a winding path through the eastern hills to avoid detection.  Klar believes the route through the hills will provide more cover than a journey in the open.  The trek goes well and Klar leads his companions through a series of foothills, steadily rising in elevation until they are well inside a hidden valley.  The air seems quite still and few animals or birds are about.  A sandy canyon choked with rubble eventually leads downward into a smooth rock funnel formation which seems to have been carved out by rushing water.  The half-orc ranger takes a moment to survey the land and decides that moving through the funnel and its underground passage will cut significant time off the party’s journey.  Using ropes, pitons and grappling hooks, the five adventurers rappel down the steep funnel and into a damp, musty passageway with rippling stone walls.  It seems this site was carved out by the flowing of some ancient river.

                As they move past the funnel into a 30’ wide underground passage, the tunnel slopes first down and then gently upwards after a quarter mile.  Light can be seen far in the distance at the end of the passage.  As they approach, Ayotunde sees a blackened bit of skull or bone in the sunlight at the edge of the passage.  The Malo cleric approaches the bone fragment and uncovers a severely burned human skull.  As she picks up the skull, the air around the party seems to shimmer and their vision goes fuzzy.  Simultaneously, a field of silence falls over them, and movement occurs as if restricted by some thick membrane; everything is slowed to an excruciating pace.  A wave of hallucinogenic silvery curtains flashes before the group’s collective vision, carrying whispers and dreamlike images of things lost and things desired as it passes over.  Jack’s half-formed dreambrand itches mightily as this wave pushes through him.

Ayo hears the skull whisper “Help us…” as she sees a ghostly rabbit appear near the exit to the underground passageway.  After a moment the strange field of slow haziness seems to fade, and Ayo heads toward the spirit rabbit as if in a gentle trance.  Though the rest of the group is suspicious of this omen, they agree to follow the cleric.  Everyone readies weapons and Klar walks beside Ayo as she leads them through the surreal, ancient landscape which they have emerged into.

                Klar’s calculations in regard to the lay of the land have proven correct.  As the party travels through this hidden, lost valley, they are clearly well ahead of the pace originally set by their ranger.  The valley is full of broken obelisks, ancient crumbling pillars covered with unknown script, and decaying fortifications along its winding gravel paths.  The air seems still and quiet, and all around them the adventurers can feel the watchful eyes of invisible guardians.  However, Ayo pushes on without fear and the valley is soon behind them as the hills slope downward into brushland and light forest.  Ayo allows the skull and the ever present spirit rabbit to lead her towards a burbling stream and a series of caves set into a nearby hill. 

                Suddenly a horrible screeching sound erupts from one of the cave entrances, and an aberrant form flies out to engage the party with hostile intent.  It is a grell – an aberration with a floating brainlike structure for a body and ten long, whipping tentacles – and it is accompanied by its many servants.  This grell wears a battle harness around its brainlike bulk, the bandoleers of which swell with alchemical bombs of acid and fire.  Two fiery skeletons rush out from the caves to support their master, the grell, and a pack of four scarified, bloody bugbears covered in gore move in to flank the party from another cave entrance.  Finally, a pair of slithering green gricks arrives from the rear of the caves to do the vile bidding of the grell.

                As the party forms up its ranks in defense against this assault, Altaer and Ayo notice the ritual scars and symbols worn by these foes mark them as cultists of Ethoar the Soul Burner, the Elder Bane of torture, murder and dark fiery destruction.  The grell flies above the battlefield hurling alchemical flasks from its many tentacles, and the bugbears fight ferociously in a foaming rage to take down their prey.  The battle is close and hard fought.  Klar collapses in exhaustion from his many wounds, but Ayo keeps him from passing beyond death’s door with some timely healing, and Jack acts as the party’s anchor, slicing his foes with his eldritch scythe.  Eventually the cultists are put down along with the burning skeletons and gricks, but the party has been badly wounded and brought nearer to total defeat than ever before. 

They immediately seek shelter inside the nearby caves, but discover a grisly shrine to Ethoar within.  Ayo is overwhelmed with sadness for the victims of the cult, but then she receives another vision: a cherry appears in the mouth of the blackened skull she found!  Ayo decides to plant her cherry pit and the skull together in the ruined shrine.  She does so, and then channels the divine energy of Shandae to help cleanse the site.  Almost immediately, a flowering vine begins to grow out of the former sacrifice pyre, and soon one vine has become several, and several have become dozens.  The party rests here for the night on a soft bed of gently writhing vines. 

Alindor 9: By morning, the vines have taken over the cave and are bursting out of its mouths in search of sunlight.  As her companions turn to leave the now purified site, Ayotunde stops to see a ripe cherry blooming on one of the outlying vines.  She plucks the cherry, chews on its tart flesh, and puts the leftover pit into one of her many long dreadlocks. 

The group moves quickly down the hillsides into the southwest edge of the Slaughterscar itself.  The air and water within the demonic crater is noxious and the landscape crawls with strange, weeping rock formations that leak black bile, green acid and red or purplish blood.  Though the sun is not yet fully high in the sky, the clouds around the ‘Scar roil with red light and occasional bolts of purple, red and orange lightning can be seen streaking horizontally across the horizon.  The earth rumbles and moans its discontent as the party cautiously crosses the broken and cracked land towards a huge formation of jutting black rock.  The sharp black rocks claw their way out of the land at an odd angle, almost appearing as the frozen claws of some huge beast reaching out from the earth.  Slightly to the east lies a massive, preserved skeleton of a dragon, with its mighty ribcage poking up through the ground and forming a cagelike barrier around an ancient battlefield.

Altaer instinctively recognizes this spot as the site of Commandant Azra’s last stand.  The skeleton can only be that of his draconic ancestor!  The young sorcerer moves ahead to examine the site, but Dvalin and Klar advise caution, as they have both detected a large search party following the group at a distance.  The adventurers take shelter within the tall bones of Azra’s ribcage and await the arrival of their hunters.  As the hostiles approach, their identities become clear: the orc ranger who has hounded Klar since Riverbend has returned for his quarry.  This time accompanied by a dire wolf, an undead deathlock, two gnolls and spellscale necromancer, the orc bounty hunter orders his allies to attack.

Altaer casts enlarge person upon Klar and Jack, and the party’s warriors set their enlarged longspears and glaives against Azra’s ribcage to absorb the charge they know is coming.  In return, the enemy spellscale also enlarges one of the gnolls (a big bruiser in plate armor) and the orc ranger.  Both parties are aware of one another, so each group takes the time to enhance their combat abilities before joining battle.  Soon the gnolls and dire wolf crash into Azra’s ribcage and melee begins.  As the fight continues, a deep, resonant voice occasionally catches on the wind, encouraging the party to fight on.  Altaer believes the spirit of his dead ancestor Azra is encouraging the party’s heroics.

The orc – who yells out his own name, Maughar Bloodflayer, as he attacks – concentrates on filling Ayotunde with his oversized arrows.  This tactic distracts the cleric enough that the rest of the party is largely without her healing abilities for the remainder of the fight.  Jack, Dvalin and Klar make quick work of the dire wolf and one of the gnolls, while the spellscale necromancer Shalladra summons three skeletons armed with scythes to flank the party from the south.  Altaer fires his arcane blasts at a distance, and soon the party’s foes are dropping rapidly.  The canny orc Maughar again tries to flee, but this time he falls to Altaer’s magic.  Klar finds a note on Maughar’s body from one “H.K.” indicating that a sizeable bounty has been placed on Klar’s head.  The half-orc wracks his brain for some memory of an H.K. in his past, but no memories surface.

The bone yard of Commandant Azra seems the safest place within the ‘Scar to rest (at least, so claims Altaer, who is heady with the discovery of his dragon ancestor).  As such, the party makes a small fire and passes the night within the shelter of Azra’s bones.  In the early morning hours, Altaer receives a dream vision: he is among the troops in the final battle of Slaughtergarde and sees his ancestor Azra fall.  The vision changes to a scene of his grieving great-great-great grandmother Ilyuran (Azra’s lover), and finally it changes to Ilyuran giving birth to his great-great grandmother Imyatra.  Suddenly a great beating of massive blue wings spirits the crying child Imyatra away, and a vision of a terrible, cackling night hag swims in Altaer’s vision!  As he awakens, the sorcerer is covered in sweat and finds his heart beating rapidly.

Alindor 10: The hike from Azra’s grave to the jutting black rocks of the Slaughtergarde Armory entrance is a mere two miles west.  By mid morning the party has traversed the other ledges of the area and discovered a deep pit hidden by the claws of jagged black rock.  The pit holds many of the weeping, bleeding stones seen earlier in the ‘Scar, and a single winding trail makes its way deep into the earth towards the Armory’s probable location.  As the five companions spiral down into the pit, they encounter more broken obelisks carved with profane demonic script and strange, twisted trees that seem simultaneously petrified and horribly fleshy; these too leak a variety of vile fluids.  Eventually they reach the bottom of the spiraling path and find themselves before a massive, 40’ wide passageway guarded only by a huge tree.  The tree, like many others within this crater, seems twisted by its proximity to Abyssal energies.  As Ayotunde approaches the tree to investigate, the head of a large vulture-like demon appears out of the twisted fleshy trunk of the tree and squawks threateningly, its alarm echoing deeply into the Armory itself.  Ayo is quite startled and adds her own scream to the cacophony of noise, and there can be no doubt that the denizens within are likely alerted to the fact that adventurers have arrived to cleanse their final hiding place…

 Azarr Kul's Ambition