Session 1
General Summary
The party had just recovered the Book of Vitiris and were trying to decide what to do next. They
elected to start by heading back to the dwarven stronghold of Khazagrim to pick up Fortuna's
trusty steed, Blade, and the rest of the horses. From there they were not sure what to do, but
thought they might head back to Thistledelve to see if they could help out with the siege going on
there.
Two nights into their trip back to Khazagrim the mysterious wizard Myrddin wandered into their
campsite. They were not in the slightest bit surprised to see him. He told them that the time was
not yet due for the Book to be used and for The Demon Prince to be banished for a further 1,000
years. He had been banished for 999 years so far and he must be banished after 1000 years, so the
group have a few months left to wait.
In the meantime Myrddin suggested that they occupy their time searching out two ancient artifacts
that he said might help in the battle against The Demon Prince. He went on to describe the legend
of the Eye of Pelor, a holy artifact that was supposedly the eye of the sun god's avatar when he
was present in the lands of Hishan to the south west. The Eye was supposedly hidden on an island
off the coast of Hishan and Myrddin gave the group a map which led to the island and which had a
cryptic verse on it. The other artifact was The Sword of Karith. Karith was a legendary paladin of
old, the last grand master of The Knights of the Sun. His sword was taken and placed deep in a
temple of the sun after his death as no one worthy of wielding it was found. Many paladins had
since quested to recover the sword but none had ever found it. It's location was supposedly
somewhere deep in the depths of the southern desert.
The party agreed to go in search of the Eye of Pelor, known as the Globe of Arden in southern
lands and then to quest for The Sword of Karith once that was recovered. They planned a route to
take them down through the centre of Albion, right through the orcs, with the intention of kicking
a little Orc butt along the way.
The group travelled down out of the mountains after having stopped at Khazagrim to collect Blade
and the other horses. They were given a heroes feast by the dwarves for they had slain
Ashardalon, the mighty dragon. On their way through the northlands of the Kingdom they
encountered a few patrols of orcs and set right to some wrongs. They were visited in the night by
the ghost of a village priest. He asked them to set his church to rights. They went there and found
the priest's body still hanging from the bell ropes, his church desecrated. The party buried the
priest at sunrise and cleaned up and reconsecrated the church in Pelor's name. Travelling on they
soon entered the area around the town of Thistledelve. Here they were attacked by a roving band
of trolls and then came across a small detachment of knights lead by Sir Balain of Eastward, who
were beset by two score orcs. The group routed and slew most of the orcs, saving the knights.
Rather than the expected thanks, the knights responded by arresting Lady Fortuna and the group
on the grounds of treason! It seemed that Sir Mangarack, head of the knights, and incidentally the
groups top suspect as being a traitor and in league with The Demon Prince, had ordered their arrest
on sight. Sir Balain was clearly distressed to be doing this but like a true knight he followed his
orders. Agreeing that he had no way to stop the group escaping if they so decided to do, he
allowed them to keep their weapons as they agreed to be taken to Littlebrook. They told Sir Balain
that they would not be taken to Sir Mangarack though, as they suspected him of treason and that
they wanted to be taken straight to the king! Sir Balain said he would see what he could do when
they arrived in the capital.
The journey to the capital was quite quick, passing down the King's Road. They stopped in
Waymeet, trading information with Tallisan the barman, and Marik the druid. It seemed that war in
the east was settling down - the easterners had retreated back from Eastward after the
assassination and disgrace of Lord Taranaka and Eastward was no longer under threat. Perhaps the
eastern front would be quiet now as winter was fast approaching again? Marik told them that
Shilana was doing well and was very healthy. Flek sent her his love.
Within two days the group were being escorted into the gates of Littlebrook. Crowds gathered to
cheer as the heroes were brought in. The knights did not make it appear that the heroes were under
arrest, more like they had an escort. The party were very popular in Littlebrook since they saved
the city from the Scarlet Lord months ago.
Sir Balain took the party straight up to the Palace, as they requested but sent his knights off to Sir
Mangarack to inform him of where he had taken them. Once they were safely delivered into the
hands of the Royal Guard he bid them good luck and returned to the chapter house. The party
were put up in a suite and the king was told of their request for an audience.
Within minutes the king had answered their request and they were summoned to the throne room.
They rushed there under guard and were ushered in. Just the king and 4 personal body guards were
present in the throne room. The party approached the throne and began to speak with the king,
explaining to him that they had been arrested for treason but that they believed that it was Sir
Mangarack who was the one guilty of treason. The king then said that Sir Mangarack could not be
guilty of treason as he was loyal to the demon Arrtenach, and Arrtenach was in fact the king! With
that he changed shape into a towering 20' tall demonic being and his four body guards also
changed into 8' tall vulture headed demons! The party had found Arrtenach and they were not at
all prepared!
At this stage all Hell, quite literally, broke lose. The paladin and barbarian rushed the king, whilst
Kai rushed one of his bodyguards. Arundel and Flek launched magical spells and arrows into the
fray. Arundel cast an incantation to speed everyone in the party up and that probably tipped the
balance in the party's favour. The barbarian and paladin were pressing the fight on Arrtenach when
he simply vanished. After that the 4 demon bodyguards were fairly easily dispatched by the
heroes.
They opened the door and got the guards to summon Cardinal O'Connor immediately. A few
minutes later the Cardinal appeared and demanded to know what had happened. The party
explained and it was obvious to them that he had already cast magic to aid in the detection of any
lies. Anyway, the four vulture demon bodies were a big clue as to the veracity of our heroes' story.
The Cardinal and Arundel oversaw the removal of the bodies - using teleportation spells to dump
them in the lair of Ashardalon and bring some gold back whilst they were there. Cardinal
O'Connor could not help but be impressed with the fact that the group had slain Blaze.
He left for The Cathedral saying that he would commune with Pelor in the morning to find out
what had happened to the king and what they were to do next. Meanwhile the party were to be
kept in the palace until the morning. They suspected they would be in danger so they set a watch
through the night.
Sure enough, at midnight, with most of the group asleep, the demon Arrtenach, the right hand
demon lord of The Demon Prince himself, teleported into the bedroom where the party were
sleeping. This time he had come prepared. He was surrounded by a deep dark unholy aura and
there were already 9 images of himself magically floating around him, making it impossible to
pick his true form out. The cry went up and battle commenced. Arundel was struck by a
feeblemind spell no sooner than he'd got out of bed and was useless for the rest of the fight.
Arrtenach summoned unholy power and smote the group with unholy light. This caused Flek to
scream in pain and terror and lose the use of his senses for the rest of the fight, but not before he
had got one telling arrow in to hit the demon lord. The royal guards rushed in to help but they
were of no use against the power of Arrtenach. Kai, Tor and Lady Fortuna pressed the attack as
the demon lord summoned more and more evil spells to fight our brave heroes with! Each time
they struck down and dispelled his images he simply summoned more. It was as if there were no
end to the magical powers of the evil being. Even when he was struck by them, the unholy aura
about him seemed to suck the very strength from the people striking him! Eventually the group
wore his magical protections right down and with one great blow, calling on the sun god Pelor,
Lady Fortuna struck the evil demon lord, Arrtenach, and smote his soul, banishing him back to the
depths of Hell where his master waited to return. The Demon Prince's servant was banished and
any chance The Demon Prince had of returning to reap havoc in the lands of Albion were quashed.
The party of Lady Fortuna, Tor, Kai, Flek and Arundel had saved the kingdom from ruin. They
truly were heroes.
Report Date
10 Apr 2024
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