New Arrivals

The crew of Eliza’s Revenge sailed alongside us for a day before heading for their hidden homes. Prior to their departure, Captain Plate came aboard one last time. He gave Captain Raccan an elegant bow as he apologized profusely. “I dearly wish we could give ya the location o’ at least one o’ our refuge harbors, but ta do so would surely be death sentences fer any that remain behind. The fact that lot o’ you are headed into the mouth o’ the beast don’t bode well fer escaping without bein’ tortured.” Captain Raccan returned the bow. “Indeed, we understand the need to keep your own people safe. May the wind fill your sails.” I then cast a storm ward on the privateer vessel as our ships cut separate paths through the green ocean waves.

Eliza’s Revenge would no doubt be changing headings once the Southern Stream had passed from view. As for us, we were headed for the northwest coast of the continent. It wasn’t much to go on, but it was all the information we had on the location of House Wyvern. Three days after parting ways with Eliza’s Revenge, we made landfall. We’d specifically chosen a stretch of coastline that seemed deserted, and therefore unpatrolled. Leaving Captain Raccan and the crew to hide the Southern Stream, the Order of the Rampant Dragon set out overland to see if we could find any clues to the fate of House Wyvern.

Coastal Vertinia was stranger than any portion of the Perinor islands I had been to. It was stranger than even the ice covered headlands of Arborea my father had once showed me. The weather was hot, like high summer in Farport even though it was only late spring. Huge red-barked trees dominated the forests, with ferns and tall leafy bushes covering the forest floor. We made camp the first night in the roots of the giants, using their huge pinecones to start a crackling fire. After breakfasting on hot fruit pies from our everlasting provisions, we continued thought the strange forest, looking for signs of habitation.

Sometime around midday we found the civilization we had been looking for as the forest gave away to gently rolling farmland. Field after field stretched on for over a mile, leading to a grand two story manor and beyond. The variety of crops was incredible. From our hiding spot on the edge of the tree line, I could see fields of wheat, flax, onions, potatoes, and beets. Beyond the house I could see fruit orchards. The pleasant view, however, was marred by the field workers. Instead of being tended by hard-working peasant farmers, the fields were being turned under by ratty, underfed, over-beaten slaves. In the wheat field directly ahead, there was a group of ten chained together in a mix of humans and dwarfs, an arrangement obviously designed to make walking and working as difficult as possible. The pitiful group was overseen by three skeletal creatures with bat-like wings. Each overseer held the leash to a growling hellhound. The creatures were bone devils, vulgar entities created by infusing a fiendish spirit in to a freshly killed corpse, in this case tiefling corpses. The bone devils lashed out at the slaves with barbed whips, for no other reason than to cause pain.

We grouped up to discuss the situation. Freeing the slaves would, in the very least, get us some information about the manor off in the distance and the owner of the plantation. But the overseers were too far from the tree line to be taken out with arrows, even with Kyri’s range. If we charged from the trees, the bone devils would see us before we crossed half the distance and would raise an alarm. It was Rhegar who came up with the final plan. We would pose as a new group of slaves being delivered to the plantation. We would carry Garn’s spear lengthwise, as if it was being used to tie us together. Vixi would take Rhegar’s glaive and act as our tiefling escort.

We shuffled forward from the trees, tall stubble in the wheat field hiding the fact that our feet were not, in fact, chained together. The bone devils watched our progress suspiciously and one stepped forward hand raised. “Who are you?” he asked in a deep, bored voice. The warlock held her head high. “I am Bellavixi. Who are you?” The bone devil uttered a name in Fiendish then continued in common. “What are you doing here?” Vixi rose up to her full height and glared coldly at the bone devil. “I am bringing fresh slaves to his Excellency. Who are you to question me?” The bone devil backed up, dipping its skeletal head. “Sorry, mistress.” He intoned.

As his head dropped further, we made our move. Vixi threw Rhegar his weapon. The rest of us released the spear shaft and spread out, releasing attacks as we moved. Garn’s magic handaxe landed in the side of one of the hellhounds and lightning leapt to the infernal creatures around it. Kalena tossed an orb on another hellhound that threw a shockwave out to the animals on either side. Two arrows from Kyri tore into the overseer that had come to greet us and I called a beam of light from the heavens that caused it to crumble to a pile of bleached dust.

The other two bone devils flew straight up. Unable to do much about the bone devils above their heads, the boys went after the canines on the ground. The heroes and hellhounds jumped around each other, trading blows and bites with the paladins and the warlord. Kalena centered an icy ray on one of the flying skeletons. It froze mid-stroke and plummeted to the ground, landing heavily on its cervical vertebra. Its companion flew toward Kyri and Vixi and they loosened arrows and curses in response. Knowing my prayers against undead would be less effective against these infused spirits, I added crossbow bolts where I could. On the ground, the hellhounds moved in to flank either side of Rhegar. He stabbed at one dog and it burned into a pile of ash, allowing him to move deftly out of their check.

The bone devil still in the air suddenly crashed to earth as two arrows from Kyri severed the membrane attaching the devil’s leathery wings to its body. It exploded into a pile of shattered bones on impact, fiendish spirit returning to the eighth circle of hell. The other bone devil stood and leapt back into the air. I ran toward it, hoping to get a prayer off before it could fly off to raise backup, but one of the hellhounds broke off to take a snap at me, blocking my route. Vixi cursed the beast, bringing it to a stop before it could do any damage. I stepped back, annoyed that the beast had ruined my attack, and caught a lance of faith across its back. The dog exploded in a burst of flames, spraying most of the party with bits of dog gore. Luckily, the bone devil was unable to escape when our wizard sprinted forward and released another bolt of energy into its frame. This time when the devil fell from the sky, it would not rise. Rhegar released the last hellhound from its miserable existence with a devastating swipe of his glaive. We gripped our weapons tightly, heads sweeping around see if our scuffle had attracted any unwanted attention. Fortunately, the closest overseers, some six or seven fields away, remained unaware of our presence.

However, we were not so lucky that our presence went completely unnoticed. As the slaves gathered around the Order, thanking us profusely for our bravery and cunning, I took a moment to take in our spectator. Standing on a dirt cart path between us and adjacent field was a female tiefling. She was tall, close to 6 feet, and quite striking. She had a lean, leggy build topped off by an attractive face, complete with pouty lips and bedroom eyes. Interestingly enough, her reddish hair was pulled up away from her face in complex system of braids and twists. Her minimal clothing, little more than two rectangles of black leather situated over her breasts and the cleft of her legs, amplified her feminity. A smattering of piercings and weapons, coupled with the tail and horns gave the tiefling a dangerously sexy look. She was completely different from our own mild mannered Vixi.

Though the stranger twirled a silver and black dagger between her hands, she made no move to attack us or to run toward the manner for help. Instead she viewed us with a kind of detached suspicion, as if she was too bored to give us much thought. I was taught not to judge a book by its cover, but something about the tiefling made me want to keep my weapon at ready. It’s the fact that she just watched you slaughter a group of three bone devils with hellhounds and doesn’t seem the least bit concerned about it, my inner wisdom screamed at me. I tried to push the thought aside but years of sidestepping the fights Kord liked to push into my direction had left me with an internal barometer for a coming fight. Right now the trumpets were sounding at full blast. If I knew anything about this woman, it was that violence followed wherever she went. She would need to be watched carefully.

Therefore, when Rhegar announced that he and Garn would go question our audience of one, I bit back my comment about ‘talking’ to scantily clad women and turned my attention to the slaves. I did, however, urge the chain a bit closer to the trio as I healed their wounds so that I could fry the harlot should she be a devil in disguise.

The paladin walked up to the tiefling with a loose gait, Garn a few steps behind. He kept the glaive at his side, with a loose one handed grip to indicate that he didn’t wish to fight, at least immediately anyway. She kept the dagger in hand, using it to idly remove a bit of dirt from underneath a fingernail. “So you’ve taken an interest in our fight?” he rumbled, not threatening but not totally friendly either. She smiled at him. “It was entertaining.” “Are you from around here?” asked the dragonborn. “No, not at all. And from your question, I doubt you are either.” Her voice was low and sultry. Rhegar ignored it for the most part. He looked off to the side, trying to appear bored with her games. “We have only just arrived.” She seemed to pounce on this information. “And what would bring you to the Baron’s manor.” “We did not know it belonged to him.” “So you are strangers to this land. I am Yvala. What brought you to Vertinia?” Rhegar decided to play it straight with the tiefling. “We came by sea. We are searching for an individual that will fulfill a prophecy in our homeland. What we have found has not been what we expected. Tell me how are things here?” Yvala sighed dramatically. “Oh you know, the usual. Death. Tyranny. Destruction.”

Over to the side, Markas had released the slaves from their chains. Kyri had pulled the repaired box of everlasting provisions from her pack and doled out a meat pie to each of the waif-like slaves. I was currently blessing each of the drudges with a healing prayer to cure the welts left by the barbed whips. “We have a ship on the coast. The work would be hard, but I suspect that Captain Raccan could easily train you to pull rigging.” One of the dwarfs came up and began shaking her hand. “Ma’am the hardest work we could be put to could be no contest to our daily toils in this hell.

Kalena had wandered over to where Garn, Rhegar and Yvala stood. “We need information more than we need anything else. After all, we are trying to prevent what happened in Vertinia from happening in our own homeland.” Yvala gave out a small laugh as she ran her eyes up and down the wizard, giving her a dangerous smile. “I would not advertise that, not if you are trying to leave this country in one piece and avoid unwanted attention.” Kalena looked a little miffed at the tiefling’s disregard, but pushed on. “Tell us about this Baron.” Yvala gave a smile that flashed teeth. “A charismatic individual, or at least he likes to think he is. He had good food, and good wine, but I make sure to keep daggers under my pillow at night. He is….unusual.” “How?” asked Rhegar, tightening his grip on his weapon. “Well for an eighty year old, he’s very handsome.” “Is this depressed aging common in Vertinia?” Kalena interjected. Yvala smiled again. “Oh no. He’s a vampire.”

Why thank you Kord, for throwing something new and different at us. As if demon infused corpses weren’t enough, I thought. I hate vampires. When I was younger I had accompanied Merrab on a mission to clear out a mansion of the scum on Wit’s End. Many legends about vampires are wrong. Stakes wound only because they are sharp and pointy and sunlight merely stops their regeneration. It did explain the heavy scar tissue on the necks of the slaves. They were probably regular items on the vampire buffet.

“Surely there those who are opposed to this Baron and his cult.” Rhegar growled. “Of course there are.” Yvala purred. “But they won’t associate with me. I had to flee to protect myself after I threw something belonging to one of their leaders into the river. It was self defense, I assure you.” She tucked a stray strand of hair behind her hair, attempting an innocent look I didn’t believe for a second. Kalena continued on questioning the stranger, hoping to pull a bit more information from her. “Well we wouldn’t want to get you in any more trouble. Perhaps if you could tell us a bit about the ruling houses, we can be on our way. We’re looking for one called Wyvern.” “Baron Teigel belongs to House Shoggoth. I know that House Kraken patrols the coasts and there is one called Basilisk that is further inland. But I don’t know anything about a House Wyvern.”

With that information Rhegar seemed to come to a conclusion. “There is much work to do in this land, if these slaves are anything to judge by. We will be continuing our search, starting with a through cleansing of this plantation and its vampire masters. You are welcome to accompany us.” I almost fried the paladin with a burst of holy flame. The nerve he has to invite a viper into our mix without consulting the group, I seethed silently. I glared at his back as Yvala rocked back on her heels, considering the offer. “I accept. It’s a good offer and I couldn’t have stayed here much longer anyway. Besides the drunken oafs I left on the porch, the staffing isn’t much during the day. Most everyone is asleep, waiting for night to come.” “Then we go now, while the sun is strong. Kyri, Tavia, give these slaves some of our extra supplies and send them back to Raccan” stated Rhegar, happy to be jumping into a fight. “We’ve already given them directions.” I replied coldly, silently vowing to watch our new arrival carefully. “Then we’re off.”