Session 02
General Summary
Our heroes had captured the notorious Belzur Orloff. Before bringing him round they searched the
rest of his den. There were a couple more smoking rooms, one of which had a few book cases with
books on magic and the arcane in them. The other was purely for smoking. Dorian purloined a few
of the more interesting titles. There was also a tunnel leading north west and Drax's dwarven
senses told him this tunnel was leading directly to the University.
Searching the unconscious demonologistthe group found a letter from an unknown Embril
Aloustinai. This letter directed Belzur to recover the Book of Ertilre, which it said would be
important in the ritual to release Larin Karr from his prison come the time of the Celestial
Alignment later next year. He also had a key labelled "House of Bricks". This key had some sort
of magical aura about it. Elijah knew some local folklore about this house. It was a famous little
landmark on the edge of Fool's Pass. It was made of red bricks and could be seen from the road. It
appeared to have been abandoned for years. Why Belzur would have a key with a label on it with
the name of the house was a mystery. It was time to wake the captive up and question him.
Waking Belzur it was instantly apparent he was not right in the head. Years of opium addiction
had clearly addled his brains. But as Dorian questioned him he realised he was also under some
sort of magical compulsion. He kept saying that "She" had ordered him to find the Book of Ertilre,
although he really wanted to find the Book of Korbus - the ultimate summoning book. He knew
that the tower in the Duskmoon hills was his but he had forgotten how to get inside. He also
seemed to have no idea why he had a key labelled the House of Bricks. Belzur was clearly a wreck
and the group decided to take him to see Stylus Kant - maybe he could remove this magical
compulsion and they could get more sense out of him. Looking where the tunnel lead, and taking
into consideration that he seemed to have been down here digging towards the University for
months it was clear he was headed for the vaults under the Academy with a view to recovering the
Book of Ertilre for Embril. The Headmaster needed to be told about that too so that the book could
be moved to a safe location.
Leaving the sewers below Endhome the party headed for the Academy. They were ushered right
in to see the Headmaster and they presented Belzur to him, telling him all. Stylus was relieved that
Belzur had been captured and was worried about the news of Embril's aims to recover the Book of
Ertilre. He explained about who Larin Karr was and about the Celestial Alignment due next year
and how the Book of Ertilre could be used to weaken the Lich King's prison. He said he would
move it to a safe place and thanked the party for their efforts - they had probably just gone a long
way to saving the city!
Stylus dispelled the compulsion upon Belzur so he was no longer talking about recovering the
Book of Ertilre. Unfortunately his mind was still shattered and he didn't know who Embril was.
He did continue to go on about the Book of Korbus however and about how it was the most
important and powerful book on summoning ever.
After a lengthy but mostly unfruitful questioning they decided to hand Belzur over to Bragger to
pay for his crimes. Bragger thanked them and paid them one hundred gold imperials reward,
telling them that Belzur would be put on the next ship to Ursum and sent off to the Dark Lord of
House Ebon to deal with. he supposedly liked Belzur's kind. Bragger asked if they had any
success with the Green Tree Bandits and the group said they hadn't even left the city yet, but that
they were heading out tomorrow. They spent the rest of the day in the city relaxing and then got a
good night's sleep.
The next dawn saw them waiting at the west gate to be let out onto the King's Road. They passed
the King's Road Inn where they had stayed three mights previously and set out west. When the
Old Rock River flowed into the Gaelon River they turned north and as the sun began to set in the
west they came across a glorious sight. the setting sun illuminated a golden shrine dedicated to
Pelor. Sitting on a veranda watching the sunset was a half elf woman, with two large wolves
curled up around her feet. She smiled at Jaina, recognising her holy symbols of Pelor of course,
and welcomed the group in.
The heroes spent a refreshing few hours eating and drinking with their hostess, Priestest Gilda
Waynetrop. She expained she was the local priestess and that her mother had once been the druid
who oversaw this forest. Her mother had gifted her the two wolf pups (now fully grown) who
were called Rin and Ran. Jaina asked about the Church of Pelor and what the hold up was and
Gilda explained that the clerics of Dun Eamon in the north had sent a pilgrimage south to the city
escorting a holy relic. This relic was supposed to be the centre piece of the new Church in
Endhome. However the pilgrimage had been attacked by highway robbers and the relic stolen.
Gilda knew a ritual which would direct her to the relic but she was not up to taking on the Green
Tree Bandits alone. She offered to teach the ritual to Jaina if she would help track the relic down
and of course Jaina agreed.
Realising that Gilda had lived in the forest a long time Drax asked her if she knew anything about
a dwarven warrior being buried here. She said that she did indeed. At the northern edge of the
forest was an ancient elven tomb. She did not know why but for what ever reason the dwarven
warlord, Azram Dutenhammer, was buried there. She could only assume that dwarves and elves
were closer in elder days. She gave directions to the crypt. She was also able to give precise
directions to the House of Bricks which she didn't really know any more about than Elijah had
already told them. Finally she was vaguely aware of the wizard's tower of black stone on the edge
of the forest. All their questions answered the group settled down for a restful night in the shrine
of Pelor.
The next morning Gilda and Jaina held a quick joint ceremony and called upon Pelor to bless the
group in their search for the relic. As part of this ceremony Jaina incanted the ritual prayer to
locate the relic and with a bearing in mind the group set off into the forest to track it down. They
treked north following the Old Rock River for about 10 miles or so and then plunged off into the
forest proper, using the ritual to direct them. As dusk began to fall the sharp elven eyes of the
wizard Dorian spotted campfires in the distance.
Elijah and Sabretooth the cat snuck off to do a reconnaisance. They came back with tales of five
guards stationed around a campsite with a few tents and campfires with bandits drinking and
singing. One of the bandits was playing a lute and singing well. The group planned to try and take
out all the sentries one by one. Elijah and Sabretooth darted off through the forest and began to
slip behind the guards. A hand over the mouth and a sharp slash of Elijah's dagger and the guards
fell dead one by one. Until the one on the far side of the camp. This one was so far away that
Elijah went alone. Sabertooth didn't like to go that far from Dorian so he stayed back watching a
different guard. Elijah got right up next to the guard but just as he was about to slit his throat the
guard moved and the strike struck his leather jerkin instead. The guard yelled out in surprise and
fear and all hell broke lose!
Hearing the commotion Drax and Jaina charged into the bandit camp from the south east whilst
Elijah, on the far north western side, disappeared back into the forest like a shadow before the
guard could stop him. More bandits came to look for Elijah but couldn't find the sneaky halfling
and they were soon called south to the main camp where Drax was laying about him with his axe.
Bandits rushed the dwarven warrior to fall at his feet, many of them headless. Jaina supported him
with bolts of holy spellfire. Dorian hid back in the bushes but mentally directed Sabertooth to
sneak up behind bandits and rub up against their legs. This normally cute approach was deadly as
Dorian then unleashed a powerful electrical shock through his cat familiar, burning more than one
surprised bandit to a crisp! Soon shouts of 'Beward the devil cat!' were ringing through the trees.
At this stage the leaders of the bandits had been roused from their tents. There was the minstrel
who had been entertaining the group with his lyre. he carried a rapier and ran to the edge of the
fight and started to chant words of mystic power, trying to get Drax to flee, but the battle rage was
on the doughty warrior and he was having none of it. From another tent came a dwarven fighter in
splintmail and with a huge axe. Beside him came a tall human warrior, clad in rich looking leather
armour and with a long and short sword pair in hand. As they advanced to surround Drax, Dorian
stood up from behind a bush and unleashed his powerful arc lightning spell, blasting the dwarf full
in the chest. The lightning bolt jumped from him to the human warrior, but the nimble warrior
ducked in time. The only thing keeping the dwarf on his feet was his bloodimindedness. Until
Drax smahed him over the head with the flat of his axe blade and he slumed unconscious to the
forest floor.
The human warrior tumbled past Drax and back towards the main campsite calling the few
remaining bandits to his side. The minstrel quickly drew a crossbow and fired a hopeful shot at
Drax before dropping back behind a tent towards the twin bladed warrior. Drax chased his but
could not catch him and Jaina's holy bolt struck the tent and fizzled out. Elijah popped out of the
bushes to slay another bandit and stick his dagger into the warrior's side, hurting him badly. The
minstrel rushed to his friend's side but was felled when out of the bushes lanced magical bolts of
force, stunning and knocking him unconscious. Drax moved in and a huge two handed sweep of
his axe threatend to take the head off the one remaining bandit leader, but his fast reactions saved
him life but resulted in him getting a nasty gash across his chest. Gulping in air the bandit leader
turned and fled into the forest. His woodlore was strong and within seconds he had disappeared
from sight.
The group collected together, Jaina saw to a couple of small wounds the group had picked up and
they took stock. Searching the tents they found a small treasure chest of jewellery in one tent,
some music and small instruments in another and dwarven affectations such as a small beer barrel
and a pipe and weed in a third. The last tent looked like a store tent. Around the campsite were
dotted taurpaulins and bedrolls. The group had gained two captives, the dwarf who was called
Grump Berger and the minstrel who was called Garland Franks. They recognised him as the
minstrel who had played at the King's Road Inn the night they had arrived in Endhome three or
four nights ago. It was time to question their captives and then chase down the leader, Fell Tarmic,
who had escaped with the relic of Pelor...
... Meanwhile, at the Heaven's Gate Inn, back in Endhome, the beautiful High Priestess Embril
Aloustinai's eyes flickered open dangerously as she felt her geas spell on the demonologist Belzur
get broken. So, her pawn had been uncovered. Anger simmered in her heart but she held onto it,
refusing to unleash it here in inn. After all, maintaining a low profile was vital.
The next day a confused looking Belzur was lead, shackled at hand and foot and with a gagging
mask over his face, down to the dockside where he was ushered aboard the Flying Fish, bound for
Ursum and the port of Selkie. Standing in the shadows of a nearby alley was a hooded figure,
Embril. She watched the demonologist board the ship and watched the ship weigh anchor and
begin to set off through the crowded harbour. With a word and a gesture Embril unleashed a
powerful spell and suddenly and seemingly unexplicably the Flying Fish was engulfed in a roaring
and all consuming fire. Men screamed and other captains worked frantically to keep their ships
away from the doomed wreck. Within seconds the Flying Fish was burnt to the water line with no
survivors. Embril cast one last smug look over the scene and moved swiftly away through the
shadows...
... Back in the Penprie Forest, our heroes are questioning their captives. Drax asked the dwarf,
Grump Berger, why he had taken up banditry. Grump replied that it was because they made him
rich. And he got to live a free life, going where he wanted and being his own boss. It was a good
life. Drax then asked how long they had been attacking clerics. Grump looked abashed an
answered.
"We have been bandits for a couple of years now. We started off hitting rich merchants and even
gave some of their goods and money to the poor in the slums of the city. Slowly though our
leader, Fell Tarmic, got more and more greedy. He started hitting any old merchant caravan, rich
or struggling. A couple of months ago a definite change came over him. He got more reclusive
and insular. He stopped coming to sit around the campfire of an evening and stopped sharing
drinks and songs with us. He started to obsess about a statue. He kept talking about it to himself:
"Must find the statue", he would often be over heard saying to himself. Then a few weeks ago he
organised his most audacious raid yet. He targetted a well defended caravan of clerics. We have
never hit any church goers before. The boys were not too happy to have changed from merchants
to clerics but we trust Fell. He has lead us this far safely. It was a hard fight. We lost a few of the
lads. Fell insisted we kill every last guard and cleric. That didn't seem right, but we reluctantly
agreed. One guard got away. Fell was livid. All Fell took from the caravan was a single golden
statue. It looked valuable so we were okay with that, but was it worth it for that? Attacking a holy
caravan? We were bound to take the heat for this. Now I guess we are. We tracked the guard who
got away down but he got to the Holy Shrine on the west edge of the forest. The priestess there
must have healed him and sent him on his way. Fell was furious, saying that now people knew he
had the statue. We have been on the move ever since, heading slowly north west. Fell keeps
saying he needs to make sure to get the statue to "Her" but we don't know who he means and he
isn't telling. And now you have destroyed what was left of our merry band. And Fell has gotten
away and taken the statue with him. Maybe that's for the best. "
Elijah conjectured that the evil Embril has been laying magical compulsions on more than one
person in this area. There was some discussion about seeing if the two captives wanted to work for
the party but it was decided that being associated with bandits was probably a bad idea. Instead
they would offer the bandits their freedom for information on where Fell Tarmic might have fled
to. The bandits agreed.
The minstrel, Garland Franks, told the group that he thought Fell had probably headed off for the
Marble Fountain. He said that Fell fled north-west and in that direction, along the game trail that
Fell took, about three miles away lay a beautiful glade. In this glade stood an enchanted fountain
made of purest white stone. For hundreds of years, a unicorn had guarded the fountain. Anyone
drinking from the fountain would be cured of their injuries - and with the deep cut Drax's axe gave
him that was bound to be his goal. The dwarf, Grump, laughed at the story. He agreed that Fell
was probably headed there and even agreed that the fountain healed wounds - he had benefitted
from its power himself in the past, but said that the legends of the unicorn guarding it were
"bollocks".
Armed with this knowledge the party let the bandits take a few minor possessions and flee into the
darkness. They collected their gear together and set out along the game trail leading north west out
of the campsite, in the direction, they hoped, of a magical fountain and the last leader of the Green
Tree Bandits...
Report Date
10 Apr 2024
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