SourceMaterial-Avlis Campaign 5, Part 3
This is Avlis Source Material
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Chapter 10As they arrived in Riftside, the adventurers found themselves on a high rise that gradually descended down to a large town. The cavern was immensely high, with only black roiling vapors visible distantly above them. Shortly after entering, a black rain began to fall lightly from the strange cave ceiling. The unusual sight made them concerned, and as they passed a wandering half-orc merchant, the group enquired about the rain. The merchant only had some half-coherent explanation about planar rifts and occasions of weather infiltration from one of The Nine Hells. Ash collected a sample and Lana dared Booker's to sip it, which he did, but nothing happened. Continuing onward, the group found out the location of an inn where they could rest and recuperate. As they walked down the hill into the town, the cavern floor began to slope upward once more to a higher area located in the center of the town where the Inn was.
To finish the task, Ash ran up to the mortally wounded elf, dragged him into an alley, and slit his throat. Aghast, his party members asked what just happened. Ash explained that as an ex-serviceman of a sereg unit, his life was forfeit if any of his old unit members should find him. The sereg he killed was a member and fellow soldier from his unit, and Ash was sure the sereg would have attacked if he saw Ash first. Moreover, there may be other members of his old unit in town. The group decided to get out of public and head for the inn to lay low. They arrived at The Bronze Knob Inn and managed to have some quiet time drinking and listening to the local patrons. Once they had a good night's sleep, they came downstairs for breakfast and found the Inn empty. Immediately in their confusion, arrows flew at them from hidden locations. Gradually they spotted a troop of stealthy sereg'wethrin all around, and a fight began. Over time, the fight turned against the sereg'wethrin unit. Two fled. Two were captured, and the rest died. One of the captured sereg who seemed to be in charge of the group refused to speak when taken back to the rooms and questioned. Ash and Maloney sent the group downstairs and killed him. The second sereg surrendered before the battle was over. He told them that shortly after Ash abandoned the unit due to his discovery of sorcerous powers, the same thing happened to this sereg. He said his name was Berylath, and asked if Ash could mentor him to help him learn to control his powers. Ash reluctantly agreed, noting that the sereg never raised a hand against the party in that battle. The group then packed up and got out of the Inn and began to look for passage across the Planerift River. A goblin fishmonger told them that a nixie named Harlok ran a boat across for a fee, so they sought him out and began to negotiate. Harlok said he would do it for 10gp, the protection of the PC's, and their promise to deliver a couple crates to a noble living on the side of Dwarfbow Lake, about 20 miles to the west. The party discussed it but found that the destination was along their route anyway, so they agreed. As the nixie Harlok poled them across the river on his two-level low-riding barge, the group heard a thumping sound from the cargo hold. Bookers and Lana went to investigate and found the noise coming from a crate, which happened to be one of the ones the captain charged them with delivering to the noble estate on Dwarfbow Lake. As more thumps emanated from the crate, and the two crates below it, the group decided to open one of them and root around in it. They soon discovered a metalic egg with an off-yellow color. Instead of exploring the crates further, however, the group was distracted when the boat was attacked by vicious subterranean river sharks. As they dispatched the creatures and made it to shore, the eggs began to hatch, and soon the group was being followed by three newborn pyrite dragons. Instead of being aggressive, however, the dragons were curious. After some deliberation and searching of the crates, a note was found and the group realized that the eggs were deposited by the dragons' mother into a gold dragon's nest to trick it into raising them. The gold dragon caught the trick, however, and was returning the eggs to the "Lady of the Dwarfbow", which they supposed was a pyrite dragon in humanoid form. Wanting none of that quest, the group tricked the dragons into a distraction and abandoned them, teaching them the phrase "People are not food." in the process. Continuing their journey onward toward Darkstone, the group entered the Pyrite Caverns where they encountered some minotaur bandits and an ooze para-elemental, which they dispatched. |
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