Session 1-24-09

Maia 2 - Maia 4, 23CR

The days pass as the four companions and their assembled friends recover from the Revelry of Maia at Ayotunde's estate, the Furrow of Shandae.  Ayo is pleased to have guests on the land, and all take good rest and gather peace into themselves as they rest on the cool ground or bask in the early springtime sun.  On the afternoon of Maia 3, the gathering finally begins to break up, with Captain Harreck and Alistair departing north along with the Bloodflayer orcs and the Kagan dwarves, the latter two parties heading south to the Wyrmsmokes and the Forge respectively.  By evening, Findar, Ashaela and the elves of Shul Sennek are giving their farewell embraces to Ayo and the others, and Vintra's halflings are busy packing up the catering wagons and preparing to return to Sumberton.  Besha, for his part, has decided to stay awhile and makes himself busy in Ayo's guest quarters.

The heroes consider what they have heard from Azra and the earth Huntsman of Jenoic.  Assuming their information is reliable, the planar seals which the gods erected to protect Gaia from demonic and diabolic invasion are weakening.  Further, the Blood War between the demons and devils which has been waged across the planes for untold eons seems to be entering a critical stage and threatening to spill into Gaia once more, as it did hundreds of years ago when the Thulkarr beat back Mu Tahn-Laa's demon hordes.  The Spider Queen Lolth herself is reportedly urging her loyal drow to action against the surface world as a part of some Abyssal gambit, and is perhaps even working against another aspect of herself - the Dark Huntress.  To complicate matters further, Gaia has now seen the return of a powerful Dreamlord fey known only as the Exile, who is locked in a sort of divine gambit with Jenoic, the prime male deity of Gaia and close ally of the Sisters Shandae and Arinna.  The Exile is somehow involved in the manifestation of dreambrands upon the youth of Gaia (those born during or after the Convergence of the Dreaming and prime material Gaia), and Jenoic's aspect the Huntsman told Jack that the Exile's agents "bear false marks, false brands."  With so many factions moving quickly to establish themselves for whatever games are to come, the companions agree that their enemies will likely show themselves sooner than later.

Maia 5, 23CR

Uncertain precisely what action to take, the heroes are spurred into action the next morning when one of Kaelin's agents sends a message by courier falcon.  Kaelin is sunning himself naked on a rock near a cold-flowing stream in the Furrow when he is forced to scramble for his falconer's glove and catch the incoming raptor on his arm.  A missive from Agent Buzzard of the Hexahedron reads: 

"Lord Kaelin - Drow forces threatening in numbers 10-20 at Traveller's Rest in Vermillion Ridge north of Jewelford.  Innocents slain and buildings raided.  Force is likely a scouting party for larger drow incursion to follow from Underlands.  Probable drow family connection with defunct Slaughtergarde drow - Lolth worshippers.  Disrespectfully, Agent B. in the name of nothing sacred."  The missive is properly encoded with Agent B's secret Gwardo symbols, which are so secret that no one is allowed to know they exist.

With the drow already moving against soft targets in the Valley of Obelisks, the companions know there must be no delay to their response.  They are now lords and ladies of the Kingdom of Oberwald, and heroes of the realm as well.  Clearing their minds and sharpening their blades in preparation for battle, the four set out from the Furrow on owlback to investigate the attacks at the Traveller's Rest Inn.  After several hours' flight, they arrive at the foot of the aptly named Vermillion Ridge to find only a burned out hulk of a building where the inn once stood.  As Kaelin and Altaer approach the smoking timbers of the ruined inn and notice several scorched and maimed corpses, an arrogant female voice calls out from the trees.

"Worthy prey at last!  Slay them in the name of the Spider Queen!" cackles a hidden drow priestess.  Four drow vanguards appear from beneath a zone of invisibility and charge the party, spinning oversized glaive-like greataxes with fury and wild abandon.  These ones are glassy-eyed and wrathful, in full rage against the surface dwellers their spider goddess so hates.  They call their priestess' name: "Lithara!!" as they charge the party's ranks, whirling and spinning in a wild drow battle dance.   Lithara blasts the heroes with repeated volleys of unholy blight while summoning sword spiders and deathjump spiders to assist her vanguard.  Kaelin's blade cuts deeply and repeatedly into spider bellies, spilling the stinking guts of the oversized arachnids onto the earth.  Ayotunde burns several of the vanguard badly with her flame strike, and then dispels Lithara's invisibility with a well-placed disenchantment.  Jack heaves to with his scythe, cleanly decapitating a raging vanguard and stepping forward to repeat the performance with his battlemate a few seconds later.  This second unfortunate's head flies several feet away and lands with a "plop" at the feet of the last bloodied vanguard, whom Altaer burns to death with his searing scorching rays a moment later.  "We are but the first of many, surface cattle!  I will die for my goddess!" hisses Lithara, now alone and bereft of her summoned support and her loyal vanguard.  "I will be reborn again as a tool of her will.  Beware the ten-thousand-spider swarm!  The Spider Queen will devour you, body and soul."  Alone against the might of the four companions, whose nation her warriors have now invaded, and whose citizens her raiders have now killed, and denied her magical protections by Ayo's dispel magic, Lithara cannot hope to survive.  She fights skillfully and with ruthless cunning, but is soon cut down by Jack and Kaelin as Altaer burns her flesh with his white-hot magics.

Upon searching Lithara's body, the party finds three items of note aside from her mundane equipment: a personal journal, a note bearing wax postage seals and unusual script, and a gleaming black mithral chain shirt woven in the style of interlocking spiderwebs, this last of which Altaer folds up carefully for further study.  The note, itself tucked into Lithara's journal as if to mark a particular page, reads: "Styx Oarsman: It is as you expected.  A source here confirms that the goddess is on the move.  Attack and kill her enemies without pause or mercy.  I've learned the location of a portal for you.  It leads from the marketplace of this great city, into a set of caverns situated in an underpopulated area of the Prime sphere known as Gaia.  I do not know if it works both ways.  I shall continue to find out more information and leave it for you at the Oarsman.  Have your messenger present this letter."  In the margins of the note, Lithara has written in her own spidery script: "A bent piece of iron works - a horseshoe or a lizard's bridle."

In Lithara's journal, the heroes find a chronicle of larger, broader topics than herself and her personal activities, primiarily focusing on the worship of Lolth, her goddess' religion, rites and services, as well as a rambling treatise on the political and social lives of the Lolthblessed, the Spider-worshipping drow of Gaia who are loyal to Lolth unto death or beyond.  The last entry is of particular interest.  A margin note in Lithara's script reads: "Rule-of-Three intrigues me as few others have.  As he would say: a riddle, an enigma, a puzzle.  Regardless of his ultimate loyalty (impossible to determine), he would make a fine sacrifice to honor the Spider Queen."  The group has never head of a being called Rule-of-Three, but Ayotunde's knowledge of planar geography pays off: she has heard tales of a tavern called The Styx Oarsman which is reportedly located in the great city of Sigil, the City of Doors in the Concordant Domain of the Outlands.  Sigil is ruled by an enigmatic being known as the Lady of Pain, and it exists in the shape of an enormous hollow ring.  Legend has it that the only way in or out of Sigil is through one of its interplanar portals.

Based on the information Lithara was carrying, it seems the Lolthblessed drow of Gaia have indeed discovered a one- or two-way portal to the City of Doors, and that the portal is likely somewhere nearby or within the Vermillion Ridge.  The companions have little trouble tracking the drow attackers' trail back to a cavern further up into the rust-colored foothills.  However, Jack and Kaelin both feel it would be wiser to retreat and prepare properly before continuing on to a possible destination outside of Gaia.  To date, none of the four companions has travelled to the outer planes, although their contact with the gates of Slaughtergarde has shown them a few harrowing glimpses of the Abyss from the other side.  All agree to return home, quickly pack and prepare, and then deal with whatever might lie inside the dark cavern further up the ridge.

The Threefold Sundering