Session 9/29/07

                Maia 15-16: In the early morning, the heroes mount up on their new giant owl steeds and direct them towards the city of Brindol.  There, they intend to sell off the treasure they’ve collected and equip themselves to face the perils of the Thornwaste.  They arrive in Brindol in the early evening of Maia 16, gliding over the city’s high walls and landing in the main merchants’ square.  The city is well underway with its preparations for war, and the townsfolk of Brindol seem tense and busy, though they turn out in force to give the party a heroes’ welcome.

 

                After selling their plunder at Shank’s Shivs (a high quality weapons dealer, despite its shady-sounding name), the group browses the merchants’ stands in the main square near the Cathedral of the Walker, a church dedicated to Jenoic the Walker Beside.  Besha’s eccentric multi-paneled cart is nestled among the crowd of sellers.  Aside from selling the party a few magical items, he has a long conversation with Jack about the Dreamlands, mentioning that he does business with both courts – Seelie and Unseelie – from time to time.  “But the Queen in Purple, now… she’s the one you don’t want to get noticed by.  Fill your mind with doubletalk, she will.  If you’re wanting questions about your heritage answered, you’ll be digging through a raft of half-truths to find anything solid to hang your hat on,” he tells Jack.

 

                As the evening turns to night, the companions settle in to the Craven Raven for drinks and dinner.  Klar is focused on the battles to come and Kaelin seems somewhat distracted, but Jack, Ayotunde and Altaer get deep into their cups and their smoke, sharing what they have with Besha.  After a few hours of public revelry, the four inebriated humans head over to Brindol’s Temple of Shandae for late night carousing with the temple priestesses, who are delighted to bestow their blessings on them.

 

                Maia 17: After collecting their newly enchanted weapons and armor from Shank’s Shivs, the party heads to the Academy of Brindol at Altaer’s suggestion.  The sorcerer wants to research the Ghostlord’s history before the journey to his lair in the Thornwaste.  Matron Damynda Rianthiar opens the library to Altaer and the others, whose reputation precedes them.  After browsing through dusty old history books all morning, they discover a few records which seem pertinent:

 

                The Ghostlord was once a druid known as Urikel Zarl, and he led a cruel lion cult in the southern region of the Vale.  His people were feral cannibals who believed their bodies would transform into lions at death and live forever.  Zarl’s evil work brought the wrath of the Rhestian lords down upon him, but when the cavalry of Rhest and the cultists met in battle they destroyed each other.  As a result, both Rhest and the Thornwaste fell to ruin.  Urikel Zarl was known to reside within a great stone lion high on a mesa in the heart of the Thornwaste.

 

                Satisfied with their research, the five companions prepare their giant owls for flight and leave for the Thornwaste after sharing a lunch of ham sandwiches and grapes with Besha.  The odd, fuzzy-bearded merchant toasts their success and gives his blessings for a safe return.  “This city’ll need you back soon, because the Red Hand is on the move.”  By late afternoon they are aloft and flying high over the Vale heading southwest towards the Thornwaste. 

 

                Maia 18-19: The first day of overland flight passes without incident, but on the afternoon of Maia 19 the party flies over the lands near Terrelton and glimpses the Red Hand army from high in the sky.  The horde has taken Terrelton and is preparing to march by night, its ranks of goblinoids now swelling to well over 3,000 soldiers, including many giants, ogres and magical beasts.  Wyverns, manticores and at least one black dragon (probably Regiarix) are patrolling the skies, but the party avoids these patrols using the clouds as cover and keeping a safe distance.  After seeing the horde in its fullness, it becomes clear that the margin for error at the battle for Brindol will be razor-thin at best.

 

                Maia 20: In the early morning the party flies their owls over the outskirts of the Thornwaste, and upon viewing the landscape they are more thankful than ever for the generous gift of flying steeds from the Tiri Kitor.  The Thornwaste is a nigh-impassible maze of thorny hedges, choking sawgrass as tall as a man and twisted, brittle trees covered in thorns and spikes.  Traversing the wastes would have taken many days without the giant owls.  The Ghostlord’s huge stone lion and the mesa it rests on are clearly visible from a few miles away, and by noon the adventurers have landed their owls atop the mesa, approximately a quarter mile from the open stone maw of the colossal lion monument.

 

                Two smaller lion statues flank a dark cavern entrance below the lion’s mouth.  The group moves cautiously forward, but the cave beyond seems uninhabited.  Klar and Jack step forward, but as the party moves inside, a stirring on the ceiling of the cave alerts them just as a huge, blue-scaled behir drops on top of them!  “Varanthian will punish all interlopers, glory to the Red Hand,” she screams in draconic, her booming voice echoing deep into the stone lion.  There is no doubt the complex is now alerted to the party’s presence.  The behir drops from the ceiling, pinning Klar and Jack beneath her bulk, and she snatches and swallows Altaer.  The sorcerer desperately tries to burn his way out of her gullet with scorching rays, and manages to blast a hole in Varanthian’s muscular tissue before her digestive juices can finish him off.  Klar and Jack slice at the behir’s belly while Kaelin bravely stands before her and Ayotunde channels her healing magic, keeping her companions on their feet.  Varanthian grabs Ayo with her prehensile tail and begins to constrict, but Jack finishes her off with a powerful hideous blow channeled through his scythe after Klar cuts deeply into their foe with his double-axe.  With a mighty groan and death rattle, Varanthian ceases to move and her life bleeds out.

 

                The party moves past the outer cavern after finding a concealed door and enters the main lair of the Ghostlord.  Aside from their encounter with a single ghostly lion guardian with a baleful corrupting gaze, the inner passageways are eerily quiet and the group is convinced that an ambush has been prepared for them.  They follow a winding passage downward into a long chamber filled with sickly yellow light.  A pool of mustard-colored water holds a lion which seems to be in suspended animation, and the pool’s rim is made up of hundreds of lion skulls.  The pool must be where the Ghostlord corrupts the lions of the Thornwaste into his ghostly guardians.

 

This macabre chamber is, in fact, the site of the ambush the companions feared.  Once all five have entered the room, a half dozen lesser bonedrinkers emerge from alcoves in the wall to attack.  These hungry undead try to attach their tentacles to the heroes and inject a bone-dissolving ichor into them, but Ayo channels the divine power of Shandae and emanates a burst of positive energy, severely damaging several of them.  The fight seems to be going in the party’s favor, but just then a commanding female voice calls out: “Attack!  For Azarr Kul and the Red Hand!”  The southern and eastern doors of the chamber fly open and six Doom Fist hobgoblin monks quickly surround the heroes.

 

As the monks and bonedrinkers trade blows with the party, the clear female voice begins to chant a war dirge to Tiamat in Goblin, boosting their efforts.  Jack tries to pinpoint the voice, which seems to be coming from the eastern corridor.  However, he can see nothing there.  A moment later his instincts are proven correct, however, as the chanting reaches a peak and the crack of thunder and lightning can be heard from outside.  As if from thin air (or more likely, from a bard using greater invisibility) a powerful arc of electricity strikes Kaelin in the chest, severely weakening her.  As the battle continues, the chanting seems to rise and climax each time another arc of lightning flashes out from the east corridor.

 

 

Kaelin whirls and dodges, blocking blow after blow with his shield and slashing deeply into one of the bonedrinkers, ending its unlife.  As he hears the chant to Tiamat from the eastern corridor, Kaelin starts to sing a tune of his own, taunting the Dragon Queen with a bawdy rendition of the original chant.   [To the tune of "La donna mobile"] "Oh, mighty Tiamat/She isn't very hot/She'll cook you in her pot/She digests ogre snot") Though his attempt at a countersong doesn’t seem to have any direct effect, it does anger the Doom Fists into concentrating most of their attacks on him, (which is a good thing, generally, since he has such good armor) and he receives another bolt of electricity to the chest for his trouble.

 

Altaer angrily sends a fireball down the corridor, burning a retreating Doom Fist to death, but the chanting continues.  Their invisible assailant has singlehandedly turned the tide of the battle, badly burning Jack and Kaelin with her bolts.  Ayo’s healing magic is nearly depleted and Altaer’s magic can’t seem to bring down the chanting bard or even pinpoint her precise location.  Though the bonedrinkers and Doom Fist monks begin to fall to Klar and the others, the female voice calls out again: “Ghostlord!  Honor now your pact with Azarr Kul and send your guardians to destroy our enemies!”  With that, the chanting ceases and the mysterious, invisible bard flees from the battle.

 

It seems the Ghostlord has indeed thrown his lot in with the Red Hand, because as the female bard departs at least four ghost lions move toward the rebirthing chamber to finish off the fatigued adventurers.  Jack slices through a Doom Fist monk’s neck and calls out: “Urikel Zarl!  We hold your phylactery and we wish to parley!  Call off your guardians and we can discuss the return of your amulet.”  As he invokes the Ghostlord’s former identity and mentions the phylactery, the lions withdraw and Klar finishes off the last of the bonedrinkers, cleaving through the undead into an unfortunate Doom Fist and decapitating the hobgoblin on his follow through strike.  The chamber falls silent for a moment, and then a rasping, dry voice filled with ancient malice echoes throughout the halls.

 

“You have spoken my lost name and claim to hold that which is most precious to me… I come forth now to claim what is mine.”  The druid lich strides down the southern corridor and into the chamber.  “Give it to me!  Return my property or I shall add your corpses to my collection and transform you into my undying servants.”  The druid lich appears as a skeletal human with faded, rotting robes of lion skin adorned with the bones, teeth and claws of many lions.  His black and gold eyes glitter with anticipation as he senses his phylactery nearby.

 

Jack steps forward.  “Zarl, you’ve allied with Azarr Kul and the Red Hand and we’re here to end that alliance.  They stole your phylactery and hid it in the ruins of Rhest, where we claimed it from the hoard of a dragon.  We came here to bargain with you.”

 

“There will be no bargain!  RETURN MY PROPERTY AT ONCE!” screams the lich.  “You will claim none of my treasures and you will leave!”  But Jack holds firm, standing before the ancient blighter with his four friends at his side.

 

“Here’s what I propose, sir:  you stop assisting the Red Hand with your undead and necromantic charms, and we return your amulet.  That seems reasonable, eh?”  Jack’s straightforward manner seems to impress the Ghostlord, and he stops ranting to listen to each of the companions tell his or her version of the battle at Rhest and the recovery of the phylactery.  After several tense minutes of negotiation, he reaches out to Jack with a dessicated, clawed hand.

 

“Your bargain is fair, and I was coerced by that sweet-talking harlot Ulwai after I discovered my amulet had been stolen.  You truly have it… I can feel it near.  Now give it to me!  And I shall honor my half of the bargain.  The Red Hand will have my support no longer.”  Jack nods and withdraws the adamantine chain with the lions’ teeth from his haversack and passes it to the Ghostlord, who snatches it away triumphantly.  “Now leave this place,” he hisses menacingly, “and never return.  Our bargain is done.”

 

Departing without another word, the heroes wind their way up the passageways of the stone lion and mount up their giant owls for the return flight to Brindol.  Though the bard Ulwai has escaped, they feel that they have accomplished their mission and that the Red Hand’s elite forces will be considerably weakened without the support of the Ghostlord.  They fly north all evening, leaving the Thornwaste’s barren and inhospitable landscape behind.  Around midnight they find a secluded hill in the lowlands near the Hammerfist Hold to make camp.

 

Maia 21-22: The two-day flight back to Brindol passes quickly, as the skies clear and allow easy aerial passage through the southern Elsir Vale.  The party spots an occasional refugee wagon train heading east towards Brindol, but the Red Hand forces seem not to have penetrated this far south or east yet.

 

Maia 23: About two hours past dawn, the companions fly towards Brindol, approaching from the south.  During the morning’s return flight they catch sight of the bulk of the Red Hand army, which has marchd past the burning ruins of Talar and now stands about 12 miles west of Brindol.  As they land their owls near the Cathedral of the Walker, they are greeted by Kain Ulverth and his father, Captain Lars Ulverth, along with Soranna Anitah of Drellin’s Ferry.  The horde is no more than two or three days’ march from Brindol, and they will be needed for siege preparations as the battle draws near…

 

Azarr Kul's Ambition