Session 347 - A Most Vile Poison
General Summary
The Story So Far
The King is dead. Long live the King.
King Minigath Elendsa, who had ruled the Kingdom of Kaldor well for thirty-three years, has been assassinated. His nephew, Sir Conwan Elendsa, has been crowned King, but the former King's bastard son, Sir Maldan Harabor, has contested this and made his own claim.
While the kingdom is embroiled in a civil war, the mysterious Esoterical Order of Lothrim has struck, and armies of orcs, many thousands strong, have invaded the fractured realm.
Meanwhile, the heroes have seized Baseta Keep and held it against a determined attack by an orc army. They now plan to strike back.
This is the continuation of Session 346 - Mog the Torturer.
Location - Baseta Keep in the Kingdom of Kaldor.
15th Larane (Summer) 727TR
Part 1 – A Most Vile Poison
The heroes have learned of a hidden grove near Lake Mylen, where a remarkable berry is grown. The Order of Lothrim’s alchemists use this berry as the primary ingredient in Daylight Elixir, an ointment that allows the eyes of the orc hordes to function effectively in sunlight. The party intends to visit this grove and poison the berry crops, so any ointment made using its berries will be toxic, hopefully blinding the enemy.
While waiting for the conditions to improve, the party spends a week disrupting the plans of roving and looting bands of orc marauders. They manage to trick several groups of foulspawn raiders into attacking each other.
Part 2 – At The Berry Field
A few days later, the party located the grove in the late afternoon and decided to attack at night. Scouting by Valeria’s Bird companion reveals two dozen small spotted orcs tending the berry fields. This orc species is particularly skilled in herblore.
However, the outskirts of the farm are well-guarded. Large poisonous vine-like plant creatures hide in the foliage and must be rooted out. They are eventually destroyed.
Scouting the grove, the party sees the orcs from a distance, tending to the crops and loading picked berries onto a wagon. One especially nasty-looking little orc is barking orders and generally bulling his fellows. While they are distracted, Dryueh, employing his superb stealth skills, dusts the poison over the berries in the wagon and parts of the field undetected.
As the orcs bunch up while their leader yells instructions, Valeria can’t resist detonating them with a Shadow Blast, creating a fireball from illusionary and real flames. Most of the orcs are incinerated, but the leader dodges and is unharmed. The remaining foulspawn attack and are quickly cut down, except the leader, who puts up quite a fight, ducking and weaving in and out and jabbing with his small swords. As the heroes finish him off, they spot something big moving close by, but whatever it is, it disappears into a nearby bank of trees. The Caretaker has arrived.
Part 3 – The Caretaker
The Caretaker emerges from the trees, a 10-foot-tall Treant covered in scorch marks from fires, lightning strikes, and a nasty-looking blight. Its long branches reach out and hammer Valeria’s Shadow Hound companion, almost killing him. He then pounds Rycon, staggering the knight.
The party counterattacks with a sword and spell. The Caretaker is a scary adversary; however, the party skillfully distracts and confuses it with various spells and hit-and-run tactics. Valeria starts destroying the berry fields, using a magical flame to set ablaze parts of the crop that Dryueh did not poison. This attracts the wrath of the Caretaker, and she is nearly pulverized, having to cast Fly and gain considerable height to escape. From this, she can sear the unpoisoned fields at will while the deranged tree-man takes his rage out on the grounded heroes.
Eventually, deep cuts by Dryueh and Rycon’s flaming katana take their toll. The party spares the Caretaker, who is near death; Dryueh envelopes him in a sphere of Darkness, allowing the heroes to escape. The party makes it appear that the caretaker drove them off and could not destroy all of the berry fields. Unknown to the enemy, only the poisoned plants can be harvested.
To be continued.NPC Interactions
Senior Agent Gaerin of the Order of the White Hand.
Senior Agent Khâl of the Order of the White Hand.
Related Reports
Player Characters
Valeria - Human - L15 Shadow Sorcerer
Background - Magical Experiment.
Archetype - Beastmaster.
Rycon - Human - L15 Fighter
Background - Rebel Knight.
Archetypes - Liberator Champion/Dual Weapon Warrior/Swashbuckler.
Dryueh - 1/2 Elf - L15 Thief Rogue
Background - Scout.
Archetypes - Vigilante/Medic/Shadowdancer/Wizard.
Next Session
Rycon
Dryueh
Valeria
Esoterical Order of Lothrim
Daylight Elixir
This ointment applied directly to the eyes suppresses the inherent foulspawn light blindness, but it is also a powerful stimulant that increases aggression and may be addictive. It may also decrease the orcs' lifespan, which is hardly an important consideration since no orc ever dies of old age.
The Order of Lothrim discovered the recipe for this foul concoction in Norlak’s Laboratory. Fortunately, the heroes destroyed the records of many of the alchemist Norlak’s more dangerous alchemical discoveries (refer Session 278 - Norlak's Tower and Session 280 - Secrets of a Lost Laboratory).
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