Session VI: Get to the Tavern! Report

General Summary

Chapter 11 - Heading to the Tirabade Residence

Finally, the party is progressing towards the final part of the NPC’s objectives: the Tirabade Residence. The party approaches the residence, which was interestingly untouched, with only minor scratches along the sides of the walls. Anevia Tirabade moves in and looks around, seeing not much disturbed, but as she rounds inside the room, a group of housecat sized beetles emerge from the ground, and start attacking Anevia.   The party immediately starts to take up offensive positions as the fire beetles start wailing on Anevia. She pulls out a shortsword and starts wailing on the closest beetle as everyone else moves in, attempting to help the battle, and keep them away from Anevia. Slicing through one, the rest of the team moves in and starts staving off the incoming bugs. Quednys Orlun enters the fray by buffing the party, and Reid Moore aids in preventing Anevia from falling by using false life on her. As they dispatch another beetle, suddenly, three more appear out of nowhere, summoned by some unknown force! The party begins taking out the new summoned beetles, and then Anevia gets sliced up by a creature that steps out of invisibility, yelling out for Anevia’s head!   The party starts to move to cut off the new challenger, and Anevia moves back to take out the final beetle, laughing as she sees who it is: Vagorg, a Half-Orc Acquaintance of hers. It seems she has history with this mysterious attacker, and the mysterious half-orc starts wailing on Anevia as the party tries to keep the half-orc away from her. Anevia takes a couple of hits before the party surrounds the Half-Orc and puts some solid hits into the enemy. Anevia taunts the Half-Orc which enrages Vagorg which focuses solely on the crippled Anevia. Just to taunt Vagorg further, instead of focusing on the half-orc, she focuses on killing the last beetle. Yuhia Zhir takes on the last strike with Vagorg and sends him unconscious. The party relieves the Half-Orc of his armaments and ties him up. Meanwhile, Anevia limps over to the bedroom, and locates a hidden compartment in the wall, and removes a letter from inside.   As Anevia reads it, tears of joy starts streaming down her face as she sits on the bed, reading the note. She reveals that her wife was on her way to Defender’s Heart and had provided some potions to her to aid her on her journey. The party then next starts contemplating their next moves as they take up residence in the surrounding buildings to sleep for the night.  

Chapter 12 - Pushing towards Defender's Heart

The party, waking up from their restless night in the city, takes stock of their surroundings, prepares and discusses their next moves. That night, they were able to avoid any creatures investigating their presence, and they took their good luck to mean that they should try to get to Defender’s Heart as quickly as possible, taking a more direct route. This location seems to be the best bet for the party, as they have plenty of supplies to sell, and perhaps meeting Anevia’s wife, and seeing what they can do to continue their journey. However, this route might be a little more dangerous as a direct route requires them to hurry a little more. Their plan of going straight to the Inn, however, pays off as they push through the next day, encountering a pair of Howlers.   The Howlers charge the party and one howls in the faces of the party, sending ringing through their ears. Setra pulls back her bow and shoves two arrows directly down its throat and down the back of its digestive system, piercing its body and sending it back to the Abyss. Yuhia runs up to the other one and engages him, as the rest of the party starts moving in to help dispatch the Howler. Jorryn moves up and casts at the Howler, sending white light into its body, damaging it, and Reid also attacks the creature with spells, while Yuhia continues to fight the porcupined large dog. The party then cleans up its wounds from the fight.   Finally, the party is able to continue, and progress quickly through the final quarter mile to Defender’s Heart, where they are finally met with a thankful sight: Defender’s Heart. This large building complex that covers multiple acres and looks like it was an inn that was built to look like a fortress. Recently, it looks like many have fortified this position, and its created kind of a half-fortress against the incoming demons. Defender’s Heart sits on the edge of what looks to be a great chasm that was caused by a large demon cutting a swath out of the city, giving it a naturally defendable position. Before the party approaches, a guard yells down to them, aiming a bow at them, telling them “Oi! Who are you, before you get filled with holes!” Reid then says he has the password and uses Message to whisper the message into the ear of the guard, and the guard lets the people below to open up the door. The massive front door to the building is then opened by some guards, and everyone is motioned to come in. The party hurriedly rushes inside, and the door is closed and barred behind them. Inside, the party sees that Defender’s Heart is even more busy than ever, and dozens of people walk around, cleaning the place, serving up food, and the proprietor with his bar maids tends to bar, serving drinks to people. Standing just inside the door looks to be a group of a dozen soldiers, crusaders, and mercenaries. They look to be preparing to go venture out into the city. As the party heads inside, one of the soldiers proclaims “Anevia has returned!” Coming down the stairs, a half-orc woman sees Anevia and runs to Anevia. Anevia immediately drops her crutch and limps over to the Half-orc, and they have a loving embrace and kiss. After a while, Anevia hobbles back with the half-orc and introduces Irabeth Tirabade to the party. It is revealed she is the commander of the Eagle Watch. The party takes the prisoner that they have been pulling all the way from the south, and some guards take the prisoner into custody. Irabeth tells them that she would like to learn of their travels and information but would first like to get the group at the front door to be sent away on a mission. Yuhia notifies Irabeth of the holed-up tailors they rescued earlier in the middle. Irabeth lets the party know that Kimroth Otai, the proprietor of Defender’s Heart, can get them any drinks they require, and they can head to the Armory to sell any supplies to the Eagle’s Watch. Anevia hobbles up to Irabeth’s room to relax.     The party heads to the armory to sell all of their equipment they are no longer using and seeks out some items to attempt to possibly get themselves some better items. After a bit of shopping, Irabeth invites them up to a makeshift meeting room to discuss their adventure so far.  

Chapter 13 - The Defender's Heart

Assembling on the 2nd floor meeting room, Irabeth, her two lieutenants, and Orlun wait in the room. Orlun’s previously looking old man with a warm appearance seems to be very serious, as if his previous appearance and demeanor was an act. Orlun sits with his hands folded, waiting for everyone to come in, and Irabeth closes the door behind the party as they come in.   Irabeth starts, “I’m glad you were able to make it, Quednys.”   Orlun responds, “Indeed, I’m not exactly fit for this action. I’m glad I was able to run into these adventurers. These adventurers seem to have made their intentions well known.”   The old man stands with very little effort. Irabeth motions to Orlun, “Well, there has been a little bit of subterfuge that has been undertaken. Quednys is now… the head of the Riftwardens.” Orlun nods and sits down, and Irabeth continues, “Unfortunately, the Riftwardens seems to have been infiltrated, and Orlun has been working with us to find ways of trying to uncover the traitors. However, we have not had much success, and,” Irabeth says as she turns to the party, “I’m very interested to know what happened at opening ceremonies. As far as I have been able to tell, all of the Eagle's Watch that was assigned to the Opening Ceremonies did not make it.”   Reid speaks up, “Well—we did.”   “Yeah, it was a real downer,” adds Bosco.   “Though our survival could only be attributed to the silver dragon, as with her last moments, she cast a spell upon us that shielded us as we fell into the darkness of the underground,” Yuhia begins as she starts recounting the last week. Orlun, Irabeth, and her lieutenants listen intently on their report, incredibly interested on the Mongrelmen and the note for the possible places for cultists. Irabeth and Orlun look over it intently.   When the topic of Yuhia’s special blade that she has been carrying, Orlun listens intently and then asks Yuhia, “Do you mind if I take a look at it?” Yuhia agrees, and Orlun casts identify on the blade, and then looks at Yuhia.   “Well, it seems, that Radiance has taken a liking to you,” Orlun remarks at Yuhia as he looks over the blade with gold-glowing eyes from his identify spell.   “Is that the name of the blade?” Yuhia asks Orlun.   “Yes,” Orlun responds as he starts talking about the blade, “In 4692 AR, soon after the start of the Fourth Crusade, a paladin of Iomedae and renowned demon slayer named Yaniel spoke out against the Mendevian crusaders, accusing them of negligence and sloth, and claiming these faults were what allowed Khorramzadeh to invade Kenabres and damage the wardstone. Her accusations cut too close to the truth, and in a moment of weakness, her superiors threatened to excommunicate her. Instead, she said she would enter the Worldwound to fight the Fourth Crusade on her own, with only her magic sword Radiance for company. The church was happy to see Yaniel go, and in the 2 years that followed, she was thought to have been slain. Yet, when she returned back to Kenabres in 4694 AR, leading a small army of crusaders she’d rescued, both Yaniel and her superiors had changed. For her part, Yaniel had shed her pride and insubordination, and had gained a new appreciation for the difficult decisions the church’s leaders were forced to make. Conversely, the church leaders had learned that sometimes the truth is exactly what need to hear. Alas, Yaniel was assassinated before the year was out, slain by the lilitu demon Minagho only a week into her second personal crusade. Her followers managed to return to Kenabres with Radiance, but Yaniel’s body had been taken. The sword had gone dark after Yaniel’s death, its magical powers apparently lost, and so the crusaders elected to place it in the Gray Garrison on display. It was taken a few months ago, but apparently, it seems to have made its way back to all of you. It seems that this weapon has made itself less inert and is now attributing itself to you, Yuhia.” As he finishes, he hands the blade carefully back to Yuhia.   With that, he looks down at Terendelev’s scales that the party presents to Orlun, and he identifies the items, nodding. “It seems that Terendelev has provided you a boon from her remnants.”   Irabeth then looks down, “Yes, but there’s a further problem. That’s probably the last remnants of her body. After the battle at the cathedral, we thought that they would just put her on display, but that doesn’t seem the case. The demons have departed with Terendelev’s body, and there is no trace of where they took her body. If the demons have indeed taken Terendelev’s body, I can imagine that whatever their plans are, they are not good.”   “One perishes to even consider,” remarks Reid.   Yuhia then adds, “I’m more interested in how they were able to spirit away the remains of a dragon so easily, especially one that is large as she is.”   “Well,” Irabeth responds, “they have had a lot of help. You’ve seen some of the scars that have been across Kenebres. Well, those have been done by single creatures. They don’t have many of them, but they decided to leave, and go south.”   Yuhia then remarks as she thinks, “Perhaps the demons have headed south to exert more chaos. We could use this to our advantage, if we could muster up and retake the city.”   Irabeth nods and looks around, “Indeed, and that is what my plan is.”   Continuing, the topic of Chief Sull and his Mongrelmen come back up and the party presents the treatise to Irabeth and points out the entrance to the underground. She looks over it and then opens the door, asking the two soldiers to take a scouting party down to the Kenabres underground to accept the treatise. She turns to Orlun and asks him to create a document to send, and he gets out his quill and paper, writing up a document quickly. Irabeth signs and stamps it, and presents it to the guards, which take it and depart.   Irabeth then remarks, “Hopefully, they will be able to help. We’ve only been able to recover about 150 soldiers and mercenaries, which is a far cry from the number of defenders we had prior to this incident. We are looking for additional forces to join the group.”   Putting up his finger, “If I may,” Reid remarks, “if you could send some minor soldiers to Gwerm manor. We were able to rescue the lord, and he’s hold up in a safe room in the basement. He has quite a few provisions, and perhaps they can be of better use to the army.”   Yuhia adds, “and perhaps he’s not the easiest person to get along with, I think he could be of use to us. He does seem to be of use to us. He seems like an intelligent man. Perhaps he can help us in some kind of… logistic capacity. He is a merchant after all.”   “Indeed,” Reid expands, “if you inflate his ego, soothe it quite a bit, he becomes quite amenable.”   Irabeth nods, looking over at one of her lieutenants, “I will take that under advisement, we will find more information about this Horgus. Perhaps this Mr. Gwerm can help us regain the city. Its probably in his best interest anyways.”   Continuing on, the party talks about emerging from the underground, the Blackwing, and Irabeth remarks about Aravashnial, speaking about her annoyances, but his trustworthiness. Reid then starts another line of discussion, “The question on my mind, is, what next? We’ve had limited success so far, we each to seem in one piece, much to our credit. What can our small band really do?”   Yuhia perks up, “You would be surprised, many wars are sometimes won via the efforts of small strike forces. There’s always stories of the armies, but there’s also some of bands of little less than our size doing great things. Perhaps we can see more about Topaz solutions, and then head south to the Tower of Estrod, and then, from there, we can head through the city to the Nyserian manor.”   Reid nods, and adds, “I will say this, while necessity brought us together for self-preservation, we seem to work quite cohesively as a group. It might behoove us to continue.” Yuhia agrees, and Reid continues, “Its not exactly what I expected. I’m a librarian researcher after all.”   Setra speaks up, “I was quite happy to find you all.” Bosco adds, “You could say its… destiny.”   Reid, a little off put about the destiny remark, continues, “Yes, not one to put faith in… well, faith. It seems there is something guiding us together.” Yuhia agrees and adds, “Honestly, what we’ve been through, we might be the best ones to see about assailing these hideouts that these forces seem to have taken.”   “Just so,” Reid speaks up, “the news that the larger denizens have moved on, as worried as I might be for the lands to the south is quite a relief that they are not just waiting around the corner here.” The rest of the party agrees, and Reid continues, “It seems we just might be dealing with… the left overs.”   Yuhia then remarks, “I doubt the demons are organized enough to leave a rear guard. Specially to occupy a city like this—”   Irabeth then interjects, “Actually, what has been going on is that the demons have left just that. There is indeed still demon remnants that are organized,” a remark that surprises Yuhia and Reid.   “Normally,” Reid explains, “demons are the elements of chaos. Its odd to see them organize.”   Yuhia then offers, “Perhaps there is something larger going on, forcing them to cooperate.” Irabeth nods, “Indeed, Khorramzadeh is one of the leaders of those groups, but Khorramzadeh has moved on. He has left some of his lieutenants, and his lieutenants that have taken over the Gray Garrison. It is an older garrison that used to host the wardstone, but when the citadel was made, it was moved into the citadel. However, now that the wardstone has been destroyed, the demons have moved into the Gray Garrison. It now sits as a fortress for the demons in this area.”   Irabeth then turns around to a map and points to the Gray Garrison, “our plan is to eventually retake the city, but, until then, I would like you all to gather more information from the leads you have.” Irabeth turns back around and looks at the party, “your team seems capable enough. You’ve been able to get my Anevia back to me, and I thank you. Once we have discovered enough information about our enemy, we can attack the Gray Garrison with the right amount of information, and the right amount of forces.”   Reid agrees, “That seems more suitable for a band such as ours.” Yuhia nods and agrees as well, and so does the rest of the party. With that, the party establishes a plan for tomorrow and gets into their new rooms and sleeps for the night.  

Chapter 14 - Topaz Solutions

After a decent rest of the night, the party wakes up and prepares to leave. The party notices that, overnight, Setra got a new pet: a pet Wolverine and she has named it Emily. It snarls as it walks alongside Setra. With new information, Setra uses her skills to locate a great path that allows the party to move unhindered to Topaz solutions. The party sneaks through the city and is able to make it to Topaz Solutions. When they approach, they hear some rustling from inside. Half of the party drinks their invisibility potions and looks inside. Inside, they see five creatures rummaging through Topaz Solutions, as if they are raiding the jewelry shop. Setra begins combat by sending arrows into one of the enemies. Jorryn and Yuhia takes up residence in front of her to defend against the people that can attack.   Upon letting loose of the arrow, the enemies draw their weapons and start advancing on Setra while the other two maneuvers to flank Setra. Reid and Bosco file into the room to aid the combat, and the party beats down the enemies. Soon, they are low on hitpoints and try to make it out the door. Unfortunately, with the party blocking the door, their attempts fail, and one is left, which drops his weapons and surrenders.