Renewing the Offense

And so the story finds us in the white-tiled war room of Bezia, with Queen Sapphire and Crown Prince Steel Claw at the helm. The air is thick with the gravity of the situation.
 
Currently, the battle lines are being pushed towards Bezia. If the conflict reaches the Bezian river, that puts our enemies less than two days from the castle keep.
 
Murg filled in the council’s knowledge about the Stillhill Smashers uprising.
 
There is question of a weapon, built in Hallowfen and disseminated to Eschaton and Nivarron that could end the war immediately. Alaine confessed, in his last breath, that the knowledge of this weapon was indeed passed on. It is both explosive and anti-magical in nature.
 
Marshall Lin revealed himself: he was not one to make council under normal circumstances.
 
 
 
Port Derrin, in Niverron, has broken free and declared independence. This has created a rift between Niverron and Eschaton. “This is a good sign.”
 
Theo proposed two plans: either push for Eschaton, with their forces divided, or go to Niveron and take that city, with Port Derrin as a foothold.
 
Prince Henrik is a thorn in our side. He is Eschaton’s crown prince, and is leading his forces personally – with a cruel command for all underneath him.
 
Administrator Connor abruptly left the council, after receiving an urgent message. He returned not a quarter of an hour later: “The Vecti High Chancellor Yu-Gin, at your pleasure.”
 
With an entire royal procession, Chancellor Yu-Gin made his arrival. Two dozen soldiers in all, with Yu-Gin standing above seven feet tall in the midst of the cacophony. He made no effort to conceal his magics, with a wand of immense power at his side.
 
In the wake of the attack from the Stillhill Smashers, who blamed the Vecti Confederacy, the chancellor had decided to come to Bezia to “clear the good name” of Vecti: “the war has ended, at least for the Vecti Confederacy”.
 
What we can learn from this is that Chancellor Yu-Gin has most definitely united Vecti as one confederacy.
 
The chancellor spoke one at a time to each of the council members, either threatening with his words or charming with his wiles. Queen Sapphire took the reigns, compromising to a sort of armistice between Bezia and the Vecti Confederacy.
 
Yu-Gin passed on some strange words to the party, calling the Vanguard “vadas el macar”, orcish for “friend of the sands”.
 
On Yu-Gin’s exit, Crown Prince Steel lost the end of his patience: he erupted in anger at Yu-Gin’s audacity to appear unannounced and invisible (to the nation) to the council’s eyes – only to speak as if he owned the place and then leave as if nothing was amiss. He burst from the room, fuming, to wander the outside of the war room’s walls to cool down. His sister apologized to the group, though not without sharing his sentiments and his anger.
 
Admin Conor confessed that Chancellor Yu-Gin arrived by teleportation, with Excellion sanction.
Steel made a mental note to speak with his sister, either in terms of war movements or to draft conditions of armistice and, more importantly, reparations. He made another note to ask Sawscha about the ability to construct the theoretical weapon of the Vecti Confederacy.
 
Flashback: Dannerick is coaching Murg on swordplay. The rest of the party was nearby, debriefing with Yrna who had military news to pass on.
 
Flash again, returning to current affairs: to Theo’s chambers, where the party relaxed after the encounter with the chancellor of the Vecti Confederacy.
 
The Grand Caravan Company had done extremely well under the leadership of its Head Auditor Murg. In a different yet similar way, the new vineyard opened by Theobald Hornraven’s estate had a record-setting first quarter.
 
 
 
More interestingly came news through Dannerick’s burgeoning spy network. One of his informants had come across a dragon’s hoard of information. Appearing from the very night itself, Dannerick’s best hand Rayna (a cunning female halfling) made eye contact through the second-story window before letting herself in. First, Rayna gave Dannerick a satchel of gold profit. “We raided some treasures on the front lines, getting profit for ourselves and cutting into the recruitment of the Vectis. But more importantly, news: the front lines are about to break. Prince Henrik is planning something drastic. Do you have a map?” With Murg’s visual aid, Rayna showed three points on the Bezian front lines where “Henrik is planning to concentrate is forces, break through the center line – in the woods, here.” She paled before continuing, “His plan uses human shields as defence, marching on Bezia at night and taking it before sunrise.” According to Rayna, Bezia has fifteen (15) days, as Prince Henrik is waiting for the shadow of the new moon. “It would have been tonight [the new moon], but the situation in Port Derrin has rattled them”.
 
At Steel’s insistence, Theobold contacted his mother Cassandra via a sending spell. Almost immediately she confirmed the arrival of Chancellor Yu-Gin; in Arcadia he asked for council and was granted it, without problem. “After all these years, there are rumors he wants to reopen transportation and communication with the Accord.” She mentioned that though Yu-Gin was born in the Vecti wastes, his birthplace is unknown – but he is new leadership in that region, which Madam Hornraven felt was a good change (despite the current conflict).
 
The group’s next visitor was Francis, with a trayful of tea and the small gryphon the vanguard had previously rescued.
 
 
 
“Izol could cast Dream on Dannerick’s ring of spell storing…”
 
Steel postulated that, using a dream spell, Dannerick could show Theobold a location known to him near Port Darrin. In this way, through knowing this location Theobold could teleport the vanguard to within a day’s ride of the port.
 
Go to the front lines. Set up a war camp. Set up defenses. Teleport to the White Cliffs fort, a day from Port Derrin. See what can be done in Port Derrin. Then teleport back to the front lines, hopefully within 15 days and within enough time to avert Prince Henrik’s assault.
Murg urged Francis to join the church of Abadar, and he relented (somewhat).
 
As the group gathered everything to leave, the queen herself made a nightly appearance. Sapphire was already clued into the plans (being the leader of Steel’s family and the crown), and relayed that Yu-Gin would be in Grandwatch, then to Veradin in order to return to the confederacy.
 
Steel contacted Sawscha. They were far off the coast east, and at Steel’s request Sawscha put aside their current project – whatever it was – to ask beseech the dwaves for a writ of teleportation. On their arrival to Bezia, on the vanguard’s leaving, Steel instructed Sawscha to seek his sister and try to figure out what the theoretical weapon the Vecti confederacy could have their hands on, or who (/what group of whos) could construct such a thing.
 
Izol accompanied Francis to Abadar’s temple, depositing his own monies, checking his account, and following Francis’ anoitment into the church.
 
Night passed, with all members of the vanguard and Sapphire’s administration worked tirelessly to ready the war party. And as dawn rose, the group of Redtails, thievesmen, clerics of Abadar, and all the supplies needed to fuel them collected in the courtyard of Bezia’s keep.
 
Marshall Lin met the company at the city gates. He summoned his own mount, a battle-scarred black direwolf. “I will scout ahead with my men,” he confirmed, throwing a stone of sending to Murg before dashing off with a half-dozen of his men. Dannerick joined them moments after, checking in with the main caravan as needed. He and the marshall personally oversaw that their road was undisturbed and silent.
 
Dannerick sent forth a sending to an ally of his; a shared look between he and the crown prince suggested an old face who was willing to meet the vanguard at their projected war camp.
 
A day in, Theobold detected a group following the caravan on the right flank. This was communicated to Dannerick, who redoubled the caravan’s route and concealed the group’s intentions. It was as if the vanguard had never left Bezia.
 
Three days after leaving the capital city, the vanguard successfully arrived at their proposed staging place.
 
Steel constructed what he could with his field station, and Murg besought Abadar to provide the rest of materials and fortifications necessary to reinforce the front. It only then became a question of manpower, which Izol at first tried to help with. His work was less than effective, and soon the man returned to the kitchen. Dannerick stuck by Lin’s side, surveying the area to better protect the front line and project possible ambush spots. The marshall lent his expertise in trap-building, creating pitfalls and other unseen obstacles to benefit the Bezian forces in the coming days. Theobold had a devilish idea to set several illusions around the area, programmed to give the appearance of a summoned bulette once the Eschatonians approach the battlefield.
 
With the defences set, we gathered in the war tent to discuss dreams. Izol prepared the spell, and as Theo took a snooze on a nearby sleeping bag the warlock set the dream magic upon Dannerick. At once the rogue fell into a similar sleep, one very relaxed and very lucid. To Theobold, he all at once saw Dannerick in the void between memories and dreams. With a wave of his hand Dannerick pulled images of his lost adventuring party, the group approaching a moat and then a n old decrepit fort. The adventurers clambered up the red rocks of the White Cliffs fort, to ambush figures in dark cloaks. Memories of a battle flickered by, with Dannerick drawing Theo’s attention to the specifics of the fort in order to solidify the image in the wizard’s mind. Like flames to wood, the red aura of rage flickered at the edges of Dannerick’s memory. To both dreamers, the fort began to burn with the fires of battle, with Dannerick’s adventurers shifting in focus. Slowly, the dream shifted to a new place: a high hall of Auren stone, covered with the aftermath of a battle lost. Dannerick – who in reality was shaking and shivering – wove left and right to avoid the attacks of a terrifying lich floating high above the combat. A dwarf split a small object, the undying phylactery of the undead wizard, who in their final moments rent space and time around Dannerick’s old friends. Light and darkness flashed, and the rift took both the bodies and the souls of the struct and all in it. Dannerick (and Theo) fell, tumbling to their demise, to the Auren plane and the material plane below.
 
Both Dannerick and Theo woke up in the same moment, covered in icy sweat.
Without pause, Theo gathered the party and prepared the spell of teleportation, all in the same moment. With Steel placating the horses, the wizard twisted the weave with Dannerick’s memories fresh in his mind.
 
“Wait!”
 
At the last of the last moments, Dannerick whipped out an old, tattered journal. “Whitecliff’s journal! We found it there, I don’t know if –” and that was enough for the wizard, Theo ripping the book out of Dannerick’s hand as his magic pulled the vanguard. At once the party was somewhere new, at a bombed-out fortress of hewn red stone. The weather was overcast, the sun beginning its decent somewhere behind the gray skies.
 
Having travelled this far, the final leg (a day and a half’s journey) to Port Derrin was uneventful. As the group crested the hill to the port, the clouds above seemed to very much be growing blacker and moving towards the port.
 
They all saw it then: the city, ravaged and destroyed. Yes, people moved; yes, some districts survived. The waters around Derrin held its armada, valiantly staving off whatever naval incursions had occurred. On land, Derrin’s livery looked unfamiliar to the vanguard: it was neither Eschatonian nor Nivarronian. “At least the city has held its own.”
 
Murg sought out whatever remanants was nearby: a lance corporal, dead to a nearby elven blade (shattered from fighting). Elves do live outside the port city in their own lands, just as much as this could be supplies from Hallowfen (before they ceased supporting the Bladelands). The cleric insisted we bring the corpse along, to consult with on the ‘morrow in Abadar’s presence.
 
As the party came within range of the gates, a dozen flaming arrows broke the path of the vanguard’s horses. “Who approaches, friend or foe?” In an equally, magically, loud voice the bugbear responded: “Friend, from Bezia!” In the same breath, Steel lifted a lance with the Bezian standard flying proudly; Izol flew the personal banner of the Vanguard.
 
“You couldn’t have come any soon! We will open the gates; prove your trust and you will be welcomed. This is war.”
 
We were greeted at the gates, in fortifications built from what rubble the Derrin defences could muster. The same voice from the walls greeted us, a Watch Captain Dathis. He had been in charge since the port had declared independence. In turn, the vanguard introduced themselves…
 
We were greeted as heroes. As the Vanguard of Veradin, living legends spun from tales.
 
Captain Dathis was starstruck. He gave us carte blanche: “Take whatever it is that you need. What we need now is hope.” He spoke of the weapon in Niverron and Eschaton’s theoretical weapon, as fearful as we were of its existence. Dathis himself heard of its existence from Vicar, a local drunk. At its mention she sobered up at once, explaining that Eschaton was planning to test the weapon “that they took from another world, from a magic tree or something”.
 
 
 
She was cut off by the resounding call of alarm bells. “To the south!”
 
From the ramaparts, the vanguard could see on the southern horizon: a black sphere. It looked as though it was hewn from black stone, and the size of a great warship. One of the lookouts held a scryer’s bowl attuned to the magical anomaly. He spoke one word: “Niverron.”
 
The sphere contained nothing. No light, no creatures, no nothing. It was vast and empty. It was not until one looked outside the edges of the light’s reaches that the scene was understood: they looked upon what was once Niverron. This magic, this sphere had engulfed Niverron and now everything there was no more.
 
Dannerick spoke one word, a name he had dared never to forget: “Valryn.”