Avlis Campaign 1, Part 2

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Chapter 4

The heroes continued the last leg of their ocean voyage to M'Chek. Captain Garrack informed them that they would be putting into port at the capital city of Mikona. He explained to them that once there, they would be on their own with no assistance. However, he told them to feel free to dispatch any messengers to the Kurathene Empire should they find any evidence of slave trading occurring in the city.

This conversation was interrupted by the sighting of a ship on the horizon.... the ship bore a striking resemblance to the slave ship which took the heros to the Seven Cities against their will. Garrack noted this as well, and made the decision to attack this ship even though he was somewhat low on crew. After a brief battle, most of the orcs, and one ogre on the ship were killed. They had a mage on board for defense, but that was taken out swiftly by an arrow from Orianna. Once the ship was looted, and the slaves were freed, the heros set off. Ari found a curious, and familiar gem on board the slave ship. It was a clear, quartz-like prizm. She somehow knew what it was, but she couldn't quite put her finger on it. While taking a nap later that day, she remembered that there was a word associated with the crystal. When she woke up, she held the crystal and tentatively said the command word. A bright beam of light appeared to shine from the crystal. After some tinkering and some help from Andrinor, they figured out that the direction of the beam of light could be controlled mentally.

Soon, they docked in Mikona and disembarked after saying their goodbyes to Garrack. The first order of business from there was to get past the customs agents. They were a little hesitant about letting elvenkind into the city, but the party members each decided to give them about 5 golden reasons why they should be let in. The next order of business was to find a place to settle. They decided that since they were in a strange city, it would be good to stick togethor until they each got their bearings. Upon sighting an Inn, they approached it only to find a man hunched over in the alley. The man turned out to be Andreion, Van's mentor. He was in pretty bad shape from a poison dagger stuck in his side. While he was dying, he said his goodbyes to Van, and told her that after leaving the Seven Cities, he decided to investigate the slave trade in M'Chek. He must have gotten too far in his inquiries because a Dominator of Valok found him and told him that his inquiries would end. Before that he found out why Valok's men attacked him.... the head cleric of Valok, Mandaharuk, has decided to help Lord Dagroth store and sort slaves in an effort to take over some of Arvanos' land way up in the Kurathene Empire. Lord Dagroth is power hungry and eager to settle new areas, and Mandaharuk of Valok was none to happy to oblidge him his request for some unknown reason. Andreion also handed the heros an invitation to a party at Dagroth's palace commemorating the Spring governmental session.

The heros decided that they would need to get into this party and find out more, and hopefully avenge Andreion. Orianna left to get forgeries. Ari left to find out where Dagroth's palace was located. Vanoviel left to try to get a job at Dagroth's palace as an easy entry to the party, after stopping off to make friends with a cleric of Mikon. The cleric told him the general layout of the theologies present in Mikona. Andrinor left to find anything he could get his hands on, and to get a lay of the city.

The party members then met up back at the inn with their new forgeries. Van left immediately to go report for work. The party was the next day.

At the party, there were many festive events. Van walked around serving drinks while Orianna listened in on conversations. Each member of the party was able to piece togethor small amounts of information. Van learned by flirting wtih Mandaharuk that something was suspicious between him and Dagroth. Orianna confirmed that Dagroth was asking Mandaharuk to store some slaves in the bottom of his temple before they could be covertly shipped out at night. The cleric agreed. He also mentioned his attack plans for Arvanos, and that shortly he would begin sending slaves to the basement.

At that point it got ugly. Party members were being clandestinely attacked at the party. They had to flee, but on their way out they ran into the Dominator that killed Andreion.

After a short and brutal exchange of blows, the heros realized they were outmatched. They beat a hasty retreat back to the Inn where they left their weapons and armor. The Dominator was in hot pursuit, and he would have caught them if he was not delayed by a darkness spell from Andrinor which was centered on his sword... the same one used by Ari's family for generations.

Once they retrieved their gear, they had lost the Dominator. Van decided to head back to the temple of Mikon to tell the cleric what happened to them, and maybe get some assistance with the Dominator. The cleric received them well, but he said that he would not interfere in such affairs. At that point, the Dominator caught up to the party while they were exiting the temple. A grand fight ensued on the steps. Ari, and Orianna pelted the warrior with their bows, and Andrinor with his crossbow. Van waded in and engaged. It was hard fought because of the wounds the party members received from their first encounter. But because of the healing they got from the cleric of Mikon, and Van they managed to pull through.... the Dominator was slain.

Chapter 5

When we last left our heros, they had just killed an evil holy warrior working in the service of the god Valok. The adventurers were a little worn out by then, because it was the middle of the night.

We picked up immediately from that point.... disposal of the body. Everyone in the party figured it would not only be unsanitary, but downright risky to leave the body of a high ranking city church official in the middle of the street.... especially when he was last seen chasing the heros down the road. So, the plan was to drag the body into a nearby residential area and drop it down a sewer.

As they were putting their plan into action, an elven lady stepped out of the shadows. She introduced herself as Jade Sunstreamer, an emissary from the elven nation of T'Nanshi. The party was a little skeptical of her at first... especially since she immediately set about asking probing questions about their actions. But after a while it became clear that her interests were similar to theirs.... She informed them that th Church of Valok in the city was mainly responsible for instigating the wars with T'Nanshi, and for promoting the slave trade. Jade was not suprised to find out the details about their past adventures, which the party laid out for her.

Jade was especially amused at their latest accomplishment... killing the top holy warrior of Valok in the city. She asked the party if they would be willing to accompany her to the governmental session the next day. In return, she would give them her protection, which she assured them was a big deal.

So, they went back to their Inn. Jade met them there the following noon, and took them to the building in the Government district where the Noble Assembly was in session. Lord Walsington, the head of the nine noble panel that ruled the land, allowed the adventurers to speak.

Lord Dagroth and Mandaharuk, the high cleric of Valok, were both present. They were outraged at the speach given by Van. A big uproar sounded in the chamber, and Lord Walsington called for order. He announced that a judgement would be passed the next day.

That night, Jade accompanied the party to their room at the Inn. She enlarged one of the doors on an empty room to make it stick tight. That served as a decoy. On the real door, she placed an illusion of a bare wall in its place.

That night Mandaharuk attacked. Sure, the illusion fooled him, but it didn't stop the Baatezu he had with him from seeing through it. Three of his templars burst into the room after he shattered the door with his clerical magic. The heros woke up and fought for their lives. Jade, Van, and Ari took the front.

After dispatching the three templars, things got ugly. Van got hit by a flamestrike spell from Mandaharuk, and Jade went after him into the hallway only to run into the Baatezu, which no one saw until this point. Mandaharuk promptly casted an insect swarm into the hotel room, and everyone immediately started to scramble.

A bloody battle between the cleric and the devil, versus the heros and Jade took place. Eventually, the Baatezu fell, and the cleric retreated using a plane shift spell. The heros fell to licking their wounds.

The next day, everyone was gathered in the chamber of Nobles, including some members from the Commoner's Assembly. Lord Walsington pronounced his judgement. Mandaharuk was to be banished for his part in the slave trade. All of his acolytes would be interrogated pending a banishment. Dagroth was to be fined a sum of one million gold pieces, he said as he surrepitously put his pinky up to the side of his lip.

Both men were outraged. Mandaharuk stormed out, and the session ended.

Jade told the adventurers that that was not the last they saw of Mandaharuk and his church. The only way to get Valok out of the affairs of men and elves, was to destroy Mandaharuk, and some of his church along with him. She suspected that Mandaharuk would magically journey to Brekon, the capital city of the orcish nation by the same name.

She said she had a way to get them most of the way there...

Chapter 6

After the meeting in the government halls was adjourned and Mandaharuk was seen storming out, Jade and the heroes decided that they would need to do away with Mandaharuk. That meant they would have to follow him to wherever he was headed. Jade believed that he would be headed to the city of Brekon, which is the capital of the Orcish nation of the same name.

Earlier, it was revealed that Mandaharuk had the ability to cast a plane shifting spell when he needed to escape. Thus, he would be able to use that spell to travel the 1400 mile distance to Brekon very easily. Jade told the party members that she had a means of travel that was almost just as fast: shadow walking. She explained that by entering the plane of shadow, one could traverse the 1400 miles in about 24 hours.

She had the necessary magic scroll to accomplish this back at her residence in the government district. So, the party set out to fetch the scroll and get supplies for their journey.

When they arrived at Jade's house, they immediately stocked up on necessary supplies and magic. Jade told them they would need a shadowy place to open the shadow portal, and she had such a place in the kazeebo in her back yard. But when they opened her back door, they saw a familiar orc.... Mandaharuk.... "Leaving so soon?", he asked. Van explained that they were just about to leave, but now it looks like he'd be saving them the trip. She charged the evil cleric.... and was promptly headed off by two of Mandaharuk's dominators. At that point, a big battle broke out. Jade and Ari engaged two of the baatezu that Mandaharuk brought along. Andrinor and Orianna concentrated on the dominators. Blows were traded, and spells flew back and forth... nearly catching the whole place on fire. Eventually, Mandaharuk got off a flamestrike which utterly obliterated Orianna.... burning the life right out of her. Jade immediately called a retreat: Orianna was dead, and the rest were soon to follow. She told everyone to head back into the house and into the pantry in the kitchen. Van picked up Orianna's body and headed in, followed closely by Jade. Ari and Andrinor valiantly held off the pursuers at the door as long as they could. By this time, Jade had started casting, and a baatezu had teleported into the house. After a few more seconds, a portal opened in the pantry, and the heroes hastily threw themselves into it one after another. Jade then hastily closed it when they were all through.

When the tumult was over they were still in the pantry.... except the door to the pantry was now closed.... funny, they thought they had left it open when they were running into the portal. Jade opened the pantry door to reveal the kitchen.... except it was not scorched and bloody. It was just a dilapidated mess, and it was dark. Stepping out of the house, the heroes realized they were still in the city of Mikona, except it was different somehow. Everything was a warped reflection of the way they remembered it. The buildings were unkempt, and some were in ruins. The people were less numerous, and all of them were forlorn and dreary. It was also night time, when just a few minutes before they went into the pantry it was afternoon. Jade explained how the plane of shadow mimics their home plane, and that they would be able to use the plane's properties to travel much faster. Within about 10 steps, they were out of the city. Jade explained that they would have to divert their journey to the village of Blandenberg in order to try and resurrect Orianna. The village was about 400 miles away. They got there in about 10 hours.

When they arrived in Blandenberg, it looked much as it did in their home plane when they were captured from their places there weeks ago. Again, however, it was warped. Soon enough they found the temple of O'ma where Vanoviel used to serve as a missionary guard. They noticed that the temple was largely the same, but there were some small differences in the holy symbol and the religious items. They asked the acolyte at the door if they could see the head cleric for a resurrection. The acolyte showed them into an office where the head cleric sat.... the heroes were nearly taken aback when they saw who the head cleric was.... a shadow reflection of Mandaharuk! Once they managed to conceal their suprise, they asked the cleric for help. He agreed to raise the halfling girl in return for a favor. There was a local cleric of Valok who was causing trouble in the town. He was converting villagers to the ways of Valok, and stirring up anti-elven sentiment in the area. He needed the cleric and his local clerics eliminated. Van was a little concerned that this was not in accordance with O'ma's principles on her home plane, but she went along anyway to save her comrade.

Thus, the party set off across the village to the center of Valok's worship in the area. They walked into the building and asked to see Andreion.... on a hunch. Lo and behold, the acolyte on duty showed Van to a shadow reflection of her dead mentor! Van did not know what to do about this, even though she suspected this might be the case. She talked with her mentor a while, hoping she would find the kind old man she once knew... but to no avail. She left the room, and on her way down the stairs she wispered to Jade, "Burn it..." Jade shrugged and fireballed the staircase and upper hallway. The whole place exploded in flame. Andrinor cringed and wondered why no one ever told him about these things, as he drew his weapon. A fiery battle ensued in the stairwell, and eventually Andreion and all the clerics were dead either from Jade's fireball, wall of fire, Andrinor's flaming spheres, or the blades, clubs, and bows of the others..... well, one cleric died of smoke inhalation, but he didn't count.

Sources

Chapter 4 notes

Chapter 5 notes

Chapter 6 notes