Journal entry 18

Adventure Journal - Session 18

Having routed the frost dragon guarding a section of Agronomir’s staff in the Temple of Burning Ice– Barrack, a defensive minded dwarven Fighter, protector of the party; Marik, a dragonborn Warlock, inescapably bound to a pact made with the fey that grants him praeternatural powers; Jaeran, an elven Cleric upon whom Pelor has granted a modicum of divine power; Luke, a cloaked half-elf Wizard of arcane might; and Ur-Kadar, dragonborn Paladin of Bahamut, a holy warrior dedicated to upholding the tenets of his faith and dispensing justice with his powerful axe – the adventurers return to the troll cave to discover their companion - Syxia, a tiefling Rogue, dark daughter of a cursed bloodline, her ancestors given to the infernal worship of fiends – missing and the cave she was sheltering in showing great signs of battle.

Immediately Jaeran and Luke cast their spells and rituals to locate the party’s missing member, but to no avail. Though the castings were great she was beyond the magic’s ability to transverse, either by distance or misfortune. Being unable to gather any information on their missing companions and with an appointment with an old acquaintance drawing close the party determined to return to Folkestone and regroup. Gating into Neltharian’s basement yet again the party immediately ask him what he can do to find their missing companion. Neltharian informs the party that he needs some item to help attach a searching spell to, at which Luke hands over a pair of silken, frilly panties; undergarments that had gone missing some time before from Syxia’s possession. Saying he needs time for the spell Nelly excuses himself and the party heads into town to attend their various affairs.

Barrack and Ur-Kadar head to the newly built temple of Bahamut, with its shiny statuary and fresh appearance new converts to the church have been a regular occurrence. Jaeran travels to the temple of Pelor and has the above observation pointed out to him-resulting in a complete bankrupting of the elven priests funds to help maintain the temple’s position in the city. In exchange the high priest teaches the elf some much-desired rituals. Luke heads to the Crested Cock, as is his custom to find Pendingle, who is much sorrowed by falling in love with a woman of status. Marik goes looking for Drachen Silvani to see if any new magical toys are available with the wealth of a dragon’s horde (he leaves disappointed). The group meets up at the crested cock after their errands with Barrack telling Maldrick of the winter wolf pelts being made into rugs for the inn.

The next morning the party travels out into the woods to meet their previous companion Tolinyr. Barrack greets him and immediately begins questioning him about the Staff of Agronomir. Tolinyr gives the party a brief synopsis of where he has been (leaving Luke suspicious) indicating that he has joined a coalition of individuals trying to derail the cult of Orcus as well. Their plan has been to get ahead of the cult and find one of the seals before it is broken. Once such a location has been found it is their intention to fortify and defend it. The eladrin wizard also expounds saying how he might have exaggerated the danger that the staff presents, merely saying it could be used to enslave and summon demons in the wrong hands. Barrack tersely says, bah, it is merely a useful tool then, no more evil or good than the hand wielding it. Much less to worry about than they were initially led to believe. The party leaves Tolinyr, letting him know that if he or his mysterious group needs help (i.e. blunt force), they are more than willing to lend a hand to kill cultists.

Returning to town the group head directly to Neltharian's to see what he has learned. The great wizard has narrowed down Syxia’s location to near Dunwin in a manor that the group believes to be the estate of Valen Thantos, her father. The group immediately asks if Neltharian has a gate address in Dunwin, to which he replies yes. With the address in hand the group gathers their equipment and immediately head out in search of their lost friend. Using the gate address the party teleports half way across the continent and find themselves in a basement. Belatedly Barrack realizes that this gate is located in house Talnivarr, the wizarding house who would like to have a talk about a certain raid the group performed some time ago. Keeping their heads down and letting Luke do the talking they quickly get outside of the house and go looking for the seedy side of town.

The group goes through several plans, ranging from going through town trying to look incompetent and draw attention to them. They put out a contract for information on Syxia to which a poor report made the group refuse payment (information provided by Syxia’s brother). Despite the group’s efforts at being discrete and subtle, they returned to the modus operandi and mounted up and rode for the Thantos estate. They arrived and politely knocked on the gate, requesting to speak to Syxia. A servant returned and informed them that unfortunately Syxia has been slain. The group verbally pushed their way into an interview with Lord Valen and said their good byes over her grave. Jaeran queried whether efforts had been made to raise Syxia to which the answer was she was beyond saving.

Furious beyond words Barrack and Ur-Kadar started to verbally formulate plans for revenge. Syxia’s family offered them the hospitality of their guesthouse while they discuss family matters. They could possibly be able to help with avenging Syxia. In the morning the party sat down and was informed that Syxia’s family wanted vengeance for their daughter/sister’s demise. Despite there being no love lost, there was a matter of pride and honor involved. However they could not take direct action without inviting further reprisals, an outside force could take action. Barrack adopted an ice-cold smile and simply said point us in the direction.

The next morning, armed with the gate address of Syxia’s former fiancé, Zarunkumar Argus, the group teleported into the basement of House Argus. Two startled guards leapt to their feet to stop the intruders. Barrack and Ur-Kadar barreled into them with Luke and Marik raining deadly spells upon their head quickly defeating them, but the damage was done, the house was alerted to the group’s presence. Racing upstairs the group encountered their first resistance at the top of the master stair. Standing guard to a double door was a trio of tiefling guards. Adopting their standard formation with Barrack and Ur-Kadar up front, a pair of tiefling black blades attacked from behind striking the group’s more vulnerable members. The group divided their efforts between the fronts with Luke sending one of the backstabbers over the rail as he was unable to resist a hypnotic illusion. The door guards were beginning to fall when the tiefling rogue still upstairs suddenly disappeared only to reappear behind Luke stabbing him with his poisoned blade. The rest of the tieflings were quickly overwhelmed. The tiefling recovered from his fall and ran back up the stairs. He was met by Marik and Ur-Kadar and he suddenly turned invisible as well. Surprising everyone Barrack suddenly hurled his throwing hammer at empty space. Even more surprising was the hammer stopping, striking the invisible tiefling up the side of the head. The injured tiefling stumbled through the double doors out of sight.

The party waited a minute to catch their breath before barreling through the doors to confront the master of the house. Battle was immediately met without quarter neither asked for nor given. A wall of fire was thrown up to slow the tieflings along one flank, thinking that even if it couldn’t harm them, at least it would slow them down. Zarunkumar, however, found it useful and he mentally threw Luke into his own spell! Barrack stayed back with Jaeran and Luke keeping the sword swingers off so that they may cast their spells. Ur-Kadar rushed the tiefling lord, slamming him into the back wall of the room, in retaliation Ur-Kadar was spelled and hurled across the room. The battle raged on, when most of the guardsmen fallen, Barrack charged Zarunkumar and began hammering into him. This gave Ur-Kadar a chance to engage the tiefling and between the two heroes the dark master quickly went down. The remaining tieflings posed little resistance after their father fell, falling quickly to the heroes. The house was raided for loot and soaked with oil and other consumables, and then set alit. By comparing their fallen foes to various portraits in the main hall, they conclude that there is one member of House Argus unaccounted for. The heroes gated out as the fire built, returning to Folkestone, with Syxia avenged they could return to the business of stopping the cult of Orcus.