The Golden Horde

I woke up to a stinging cheek and Yvala yelling at me. “Wake up you Gods damned cleric or so help me I will use your body as a shield!” “What the hell Yvala!” I said slapping her hand away and blinking in the sudden light of the torch. “Not now. Yell at me later. Markas can’t take many more blows.” My mind was still foggy and I just stared at her. “What?” I asked, thoroughly confused. “Just go save his scrawny ass,” Yvala said as she yanked me to my feet and shoved me in the direction of the half-elf. I blinked a couple of times and finally the fog began to clear. Markas came in focus just in time for me to see a blow from a wight bring him to his knees.

I rushed over to his side and ran a hand over him, letting the healing energies flow into the worst of his wounds. Kord, bring back his strength to finish the fight, I prayed. The wights had taken the opportunity to close in around Markas and myself but Kalena blasted them away with a thunderwave. “You certainly picked a good time to wake up.” “Thank Yvala for waking me.” I said as I pulled him up. A green fletched arrow thudded into the skull of a wight next to me as I formed up back to back with the paladin. Since the rest of the party didn’t have to worry about protecting me, they turned their attention to the wights and the grue leading them. The fight was over quickly.

“So what the hell happened?” I said as I whirled about on Yvala. “You still owe me an explanation for slapping me.” I added as I jabbed a finger at her chest. She dismissively slapped my hand away and gave me an airy little laugh. “Well it worked, didn’t it? I was going to resort to stabbing you through the hand if it didn’t.” Her face softened, just a little. “Good thing you woke up when you did, too. As for what happened, I don’t really know. That’s more your expertise than mine. All of a sudden you just passed out on us. We tried waking you where you fell, but there are too many of these foulspawn crawling through the tunnels for us to stay in one place for long. We’ve been carrying you along for the last 2 hours, right up to the point where we ran into these wights.” “Guess I owe you thanks then.” I said. “Don’t worry about it. I’m sure you’ll be lugging my butt out of a tavern at some point.”

At that point Kalena could no longer contain herself and insisted on looking me over now that I was awake. As she did I mediated on what had happened to me. Why on earth would I just pass out? A mental attack? A smell? Was someone attempting to dominate me? I still haven’t come up with an answer that I’m satisfied with. But, as Yvala said, this was certainly not the place to sit and think.

The dirt tunnel abruptly broke into an open air courtyard. A blank granite monolith dominated its center, but the door on the back wall was far more interesting. It had been bricked up long ago, but now pulsed with energy. Black and purple tendrils of misty light showed through cracks in the brickwork. I looked at Kalena and saw that her eyes had gone wide as she bounced lightly on her toes. “It’s a portal to the far plane,” she said with more than a little awe in her voice. “It must be what the foulspawn and the cultists are after and what the paladins are protecting.”

Kyri and Yvala slunk into the courtyard to check out the other tunnels on the outer wall. As they did, a ghastly wail rose up in the corridor behind us. A tall female foulspawn was leading two males and several swarms of bugs. Markas stepped back to block the corridor and Kalena roasted the group with a fireball to give us time to get into position.

Being so close to the portal drove the foulspawn into a berserk frenzy. The fight went on a little longer than normal and we ended up with a few extra bruises, but shattered carapaces and the severed heads of the male foulspawn covered the brick floor. The female was a little smarter than the others and ran back down the dirt tunnel. Despite a couple of arrows and crossbow bolts lodged in her back, she made it around the corner before we could drop her. Shame too. She’d been wearing an interesting set of armor that had done something to our ranged spells.

Yvala and Kyri probably would have chased her down if it hadn’t been for the gold dragonborn that had started to spill out of the corridors into the courtyard. Drawn by the noise, they came out with weapons up and teeth bared. “Drop weapons,” shouted Kyri to the rest of us. Markas was a little slow so I elbowed him in the back. “We aren’t your enemies,” I said to the paladins in draconic. “Look at the corpses at your feet.”

They steered our group to one side of the courtyard, as a gigantic gold dragon swept down for the battlements and landed in the clearing the paladins had created. “I have guessed that you are not our enemies. You are persistent to be sure, but you have made no move to attack my sons. Whether you are the friends you claim to be remains to be seen.”

”I am Sylirix, gold matriarch of the Southern Continent. I have been on this isle for many years, protecting this portal from those who would use it for evil. Should the Torog high priests have access to it, they would open it and summon things most foul into our world. My brood and I have been the only things holding the cultist and the foulspawn back.”

“Why not just close the portal?” asked Kalena , somewhat timidly. “Alas, its aberrant nature makes it impossible for my magics to work on it, not that such a thing has stopped me from trying.” “Would it be possible for us to look at it?” “Of course my dear, have a look.”

Kalena moved up to the portal and examined it from top to bottom. She even wove a couple of spells to glean magical information. After a while she shook her head sadly and said to Sylirix. “No, I don’t have the skills to close such a portal.”Sylirix looked disappointed at our failure to fail the portal. “Ah well, if I cannot close it, certainly do not feel badly that you cannot. Come with me inside. We have more to discuss and I’m sure you could do with some food.” Sylerix singled out a few of her brood. “Argos, lead our guests to the dining chambers. Garothor, take your squad and collapse the tunnels the foulspawn have been digging.” With those commands the gold dragon spread her wings and flew off to survey the battlefields.

Finding Things by Falling Down

After taking the night to clean up and rest, we continued to the castle. Even from the edge of the clearing, we could tell that the castle was the site of a long, ongoing siege. Fresh and decaying bodies littered the ground from the trees’ edge all the way to the castle walls, along with broken tree trunks and scattered boulders. Some of the carcasses had been crushed by the boulders or falling trees; others were lying in scorched patches of earth. Fortunately for us, none of the cultists that remained were alive at this point.

We climbed over the field of debris carefully, figuring that we looked different enough from the cultists we had encountered earlier to not be immediately attacked. The paladins in the castle, however, didn’t seem to get the message. Walking a few more yards forward, I heard the ominous sound of a ballista being cocked. I looked up just in time to see a boulder fly over the battlements. “Scatter!” cried Kyri. I sure wasn’t going to argue with the elf’s assessment of the situation, and leapt over a trunk and huddled behind it. The boulder threw up plenty of earth and debris when it landed, but no body parts. I wiped the dirt from my face and looked up. On the battlements, a golden dragonborn give a signal to the others behind him and ducked back down. “Another one incoming!” I shouted to my companions as I zigzagged to another trunk. “Getting out of here would be a very good idea,” said Kalena from somewhere over my left shoulder.

However, Markas wasn’t ready to give up yet. “Let’s try to signal them again. Maybe because we didn’t signal properly they thought we were cultists.” He pulled the holy symbol of the Raven Queen from his cloak and held it high above his head as he marched toward the battlements. “We come in peace. We are adventures acting as agents of Perinor and guided here by an angel of Corellon.” Once again, the dragonborn either didn’t notice him or didn’t care. The next ballista fired a shot that landed less than a meter from the paladin. “Get your ass back here and stop being a target!” screamed Yvala from behind her trunk.

I looked back over the 300 yards of broken bodies and ballista craters that I had traveled over to get to this point with more than a little bit of despair. A slight thud to my right grabbed my attention, as did Kyri when she grabbed my shoulder. “Tavia!” she practically shouted at me as another ballista round landed. “Use the boots Aelerion gave you and get yourself to the woods!” I looked from elf to the woods and back. “Shouldn’t I stay in case someone gets hit?” She shook her head. “We can drag anyone out to you. Dragging you out unconscious is worse.” Another rock crashed into the ground. “Go! I’ll get the others out.”

I nodded dumbly at Kyri’s back as she headed back toward the others. Thank you for sending me to Caling and Cora who both thought I would need to be able to cross a ballista field at a dead run. Kord swiften my feet as you do the winds before a storm. I kissed a token on a string about my neck for luck and took off for the woods. I could hear a crashing just behind me that I assumed was one of my teammates.

One last vault over a cultist’s body and I was inside the boundary of the woods. Panting, I turned back to the battlefield. Vixi picked herself up and stood next to me. Together, we could see Kyri helping Markas from a position close to the castle. Yvala had made her way over to Kalena and was helping the wizard navigate the debris field. The latter two were knocked down by a rock that landed way too close for my liking. Worried, I started to move toward them, but Vixi held me back. “Let Kyri help them if necessary. They might need your help when you get here.” Luckily they soon picked themselves up, and all six of the members of the Order of the Rampant Dragon were reunited at the edge of the woods.

Everyone sat down to catch their breath. I went around healing the scrapes and bruises we had all acquired in our dash out of the ballista field. Markas boiled with anger. “Why were they shooting at us? Could they not see we were allies?” Kalena attempted to comfort the half-elf with reason. “Perhaps the cultists have a tried to trick the paladins before. If they had enough casters an illus-“ Markas brushed her off. “I refuse to believe they will not recognize us. I’m going to find something to make a signal with.” He stomped off angrily into the woods, leaving the rest of us in the clearing.

“I think being the only guy might be rankling his feathers,” said Yvala with a smirk as we watched his retreating form. I rolled my eyes and turned to Kalena. “So you think the cultists could be using illusions on a field this size?” I asked. She shrugged. “Its very possible. I mean look at what they were summoning at us- and an illusion wouldn’t even involve killing themselves.” Vixi nodded. “It makes sense. Paladins don’t attack anyone without prior provocation unless they have a really good reason for doing so.” Yvala snickered. “Well I think it’s pretty clear that the gold bastards on the wall are going to keep shooting at us before talking to us.” “I agree,” said Kyri, “Good chances are that the castle has another entrance somewhere. I suggest we fan out and look for signs of it. Maybe if we catch one of the dragonborn face to face, we can reason with them.”

Ironically, it was Markas who found the entrance. He’d been stomping around in some brush when the ground gave way underneath him. The hole opened up into a series of honeycombed passages, some of which led toward the castle. Agreeing it was our best chance to get anywhere, we climbed down.

Up the corridor we heard chattering voices. Yvala crept forward, hiding in the shadows, to see what waited for us. A few minutes later, she returned. “There’s six of them. Humanoids, about halfling size, but really strange looking. Their skin has a weird purple and blue mottling to it, and their limbs are misshapen. Whatever they are, they aren’t friendly.”

Kyri and Yvala crept forward and opened the battle with several quick shots from a safe distance. Markas and I charged into the front under covering fire from Vixi and Kalena. The fight was easy enough, but there were some strange things that kept happening. For some reason, space would distort around two of the soldiers in the front. More than once I took a swing at one of them with my mace only to have it bounce off Markas’s shoulder plate. At one point one of the smaller beings would disappear and reappear between us, peppering our bodies with knife cuts.

We searched the bodies afterwards, looking for clue to where they had come from. Kyri found a beautiful bow on one of the creatures from the back ranks, which she swept up to keep for herself. Kalena stood apart from us, looking over one with a worried look on her face. “Something bothering you about these guys?” I asked. “Yeah,” she said with a sigh. “Everything about these guys matches what I’ve read about foulspawn. She looked up with me, eyes sparkling with curiosity and worry. “But foulspawn aren’t supposed to be able to get out of the Far Realm and into this world.” I shook my head, thinking about what we had encountered so far. “There are a lot of things that aren’t supposed to be on this island.” We’ll worry about it later,” said Markas nodding his head down the corridor. “We’re moving out.”

Several turns of the passageways later we came across more chattering. This time Yvala reported that two of the foulspawn were directed by grey-skinned ghouls to dig up corpses from the dirt floor. Disgustingly, some of the ghouls were snacking on the bones as they worked. When we were able to move in close, I called upon the power to turn the undead and felt the familiar hot wind of the spell flow out from my holy symbol. The ghouls hissed in pain and threw their meal of human bones at me. Luckily, ghouls have bad aim. The move left me open to a brutal attack from one of the foulspawn, but Vixi returned fire with an equally brutal spell. The ghouls were weak, like all undead, and easy to take down. One of the foulspawn had a nice cloak, which we took with us.

More gibbering came from up the next corridor. Vixi cursed under her breath in Primordial, and Yvala and Kyri snuck forward again to find another foulspawn leading a crew of the berserker soldiers. They let off shots and Markas charged forward. Kalena cast a fireball into the middle of the group and Vixi let the curses fly freely. We tried questioning one before he died. Apparently Kyri had noticed that they were sniffing the air and examining the ground as if they were tracking. But it was no use. He snarled in some unintelligible language before succumbing to his wounds. The leader had a set of leather repulsion armor, which Kyri exchanged eagerly for her own.

We stood around for a while after the last fight, deciding which way to go. Kyri finally took the lead for the time being. “There is something wrong with this whole situation.” Kalena said beside me. “Even if we do find the castle, there’s no guarantee that the paladins won’t just slash at us first, especially with all the foulspawn wandering around down here. “Maybe they won’t expect us to come from underground. Or maybe we just won’t find a door and we’ll have to leave.” “Let’s hope for that.” Kalena said.

This island really bugs me...

Aelerion wasn’t able to tell us much about Vertinia that we didn’t already know. Most of the continent was under the sway of Asmodeus, a fact we had inferred from Yvala’s info and the new ruling class of tieflings. Any pockets of resistance were so crushed and isolated after 100 years of fighting that they would be of little help to us in Perinor, never mind the fact that they would be nearly impossible to contact. Aelerion did know of one group we might be able to contact. A group paladins who worshipped Bahamut, lived on a small outlying island named Trion to the south of Vertinia.

Though the island wasn’t labeled on Captain Plate’s charts of the coastline, Aelerion was able to point out the correct island easily enough. Deciding that Vertinia held nothing more for us, we instructed Captain Raccan to set a course south. Yvala, knowing that the continent could only offer her a quick death, opted to remain with the Order. We made good time and came upon the island in a few days.

The lush green island rose out of the sea like a gemstone and I found myself wishing I was on one of my father’s ships returning to Farport. Pushing down my homesickness, I checked through my pack again as the crew readied the longboat to go ashore. Strangely enough, we’d received no signal of any kind from the castle, despite the fact that we could see them as easily as they had seen us approach. No banners flew from the turrets and no people had been seen on shore. Nevertheless, this had to be Trion. No other island on the small strand showed signs of habitation, much less a base of paladins. We decided to trek overland to the castle, even if all we found were remains.

Despite the fact that there was no harbor on the island, we found that wide swaths of jungle forest had been cleared to form a sort of crude road. We proceeded cautiously down the road, Markas in the lead, hoping to find some sign that the paladins Aelerion had spoke of were still on Trion. We hadn’t been walking long, maybe twenty minutes at most, when we came across a swirling cloud hovering over a dip in the road. After watching the cloud for a minute , Kalena and I decided to move in closer to investigate. As we moved in we heard buzzing. The cloud, it turned out was actually a thick swarm of flies hovering over a tiefling corpse. Odd, I thought, a body without the stench of death. Markas drew his sword and Kyri notched an arrow in her bow as I knelt down to examine the body. The corpse was brutally mutilated. The eyes and jaw had been torn out and a crude symbol of Torog, the crawler beneath, was carved into his chest. The horns, skin color, and stature of the corpse told me it was one of the new Capellite tieflings, a suspicion Yvala confirmed when she wandered up to look over my shoulder. But perhaps the oddest, and most unsettling, fact about the corpse was that it was fresh, not more than 3 hours old at the most.

A hiss from Kyri drew me out of my contemplations about where the tiefling could have possibly come from. My eyes followed the line of her arrow down the path to where a human stumbled about in a dazed manner. His shaved head and black robe made me uneasy, but not nearly as much so as the dagger in his hand. He raised his head and appeared to see us for the first time. He cocked his head to the side for a minute, then continued on toward us.

Markas stepped forward, brandishing his sword and blocking the stranger from getting to the rest of the party. “Can we help you?” he asked. “Who helps the wicked when the world is swallowed whole?” the stranger replied. Markas glared at the man, no doubt suspecting he was the cause of the corpse on the road. “Are you lost?” Markas asked. The stranger gave our paladin a mad smile as he took his dagger and placed it against his palm. “We are all lost. Merely meat for Torog’s maw.” “Enough of this talk of the Crawler,” Markas snarled, “Now, are you looking for something?” The stranger laughed and carved something into his hand. He threw it up and I could see the symbol of Toreg dripping blood down his forearm. In a high pitched voice he screamed. “The name that speaks, the frozen tongue, the wounds that bite, the thousand young!"

As he finished his last words, glittering beetles began to spill from his eyes and mouth. More poured out from the bottom of his robe. The body of the cultist – for its obvious now that’s what he was – crumpled to the ground and more beetles crawled from the pile of skin. The beetles swarmed toward the party and I was glad that my years of training already had my new mace pulled from my belt loop. The beetles were evil, quick, and dangerous, but we dispatched of them after a fashion. Several thunderwaves, courtesy of Kalena, helped immensely in dispersing the swarms. To my utter disgust, when I went to wipe the bug guts from my armor, I found that the beetles had reverted to their former form of internal organs and that my armor was covered in human guts. It didn’t take long for the rest of the party to recognize this horror. I heard Markas throw up in the bushes behind me. Wiping the bug guts and slime off our armor, we looked at the revolting sack of human skin. The only weapon he had was a dagger, which to Yvala’s delight was found to be coated with poison. She tucked it in its sheath and secreted it away about her person for later.

Looking out over the trees we could see a thread of smoke on the path ahead and headed in that direction, looking for answers about the corpse and the cultists. The clearing ahead revealed a set of four ramshackle huts and two campfires. Unfortunately, instead of paladins we found more black-robed, crazy, bug cultists. They were in the middle of doing ritualistic cultist things, but as soon as they spotted us, they rushed toward us. Kalena acted quickly and threw a cloud of poisonous gases out over the front half of the camp. She caught quite a few but two groups of four remained untouched. They gathered together, one group in a circle and one group in a cross. Both groups could be heard chanting “Gone the mind and gone the body, gone the sin and gone the wanting. To the bones and ash return. Sun will die. World will burn.” As one, they raised poisoned daggers and slash their own throats. “Did we just see a cult suicide?” questioned Yvala. Markas shrugged. “Well, it sucks to be insane,” he remarked. I shook my head. “I’m thinking something bad is coming. Nothing good that I know of comes from ritual suicide.” Kalena managed to move her cloud and catch some more of the crazy cultists, but as soon as she did, two grells appeared where the groups of cultists had fallen.

The grells were disgusting slimy things that looked like giant brains with squid like beaks and tentacles spilling from the bottom. With unnerving speed, they flew toward us. One managed to grab Kalena. A couple of blows from Markas and I released the wizard while Kyri, Vixi, and Yvala took out the other grell before it could capture anyone else. Kalena’s cloud removed the remaining cultists before a third grell could be summoned. Luckily, none of evil beetles appeared as the majority of the cultists in this camp were too old to pull off the spell. A search of the hovels turned up nothing more than ritualistic garbage and a few more poisoned daggers. Asking Yvala if she wanted to take more daggers was like asking her if she wanted to steal something, a guaranteed yes.

We kept to the pathway since it continued on toward the castle. We had gone roughly another two miles when we ran into a third group of Toreg cultists. They were probably priests of the cult, as these ones had more ornate robes and a few pieces of jewelry. One stood apart from the rest, directing some of his acolytes to rush up and block our path while calling others toward him. Kyri shot an arrow at the leader but the long range meant the rest of the party could only watch as the lead priest and seven of his students formed a full symbol of Toreg. He gestured wildly to his group as he chanted, “Feed the teeth, feed the tongue. Feed the horror yet to come. Feed the dark and feed the night. Feed the claws and feed the bite.” As expected, they slashed their throats, spilling blood onto the ground.

Out of the corner of her eye, Kalena saw a group of four trying to form a cross. “Hurry and break the groups before they can chant,” she warned as she tossed a fireball at the group. Yvala downed another with a quick crossbow bolt. A hulking gug pulled itself from the blood-soaked dirt and human corpses. Its four arms waved wildly as it roared and grabbed for one of the cultists. Apparently, they couldn’t control the summoned creature very well. The cultists gave it a wide burst as it lumbered toward us. “I’ve had enough of these stupid cultists and their slimy bugs!” said Vixi as she threw an eldritch bolt at the beast. I could hear Markas murmuring a prayer to the Raven Queen as I channeled the might of Kord into my own strike. The remaining cultists joined up with the gug, but Yvala and Kyri made a couple precise strikes to take them down. A well placed bolt from our frustrated warlock finally caused the gug to explode, coating the party yet again in a layer of slimy guts.

This time the bodies yielded some pretty good gear. We took what was useful, including several pendants and a pair of gloves for Vixi. As Yvala exchanged her armor for a better set found on one of the leaders, she commented, “All these cultists are starting to bother me.” Kalena grinned mischievously, “Are they beginning to bug you?” Yvala glared at Kalena. “I so hate you right now for saying that," I said as I threw a gob of bug slime at the cheeky wizard.

Mount Calathon

Polyxena Thanaphe was quite possibly the most annoying person I had ever had the unfortune of meeting, and that included all the brainless warriors that make up the majority of Kord’s followers. She did nothing but complain as we made our way from Mason’s Rock to Mount Calathon. First it was that we didn’t bring her silks and other treasures with us as we fled the city. Then we heard all about how she had been mistreated by her keepers and how we were continuing this trend of mistreatment. After she grew bored of that subject, she moaned on about how tired she was. When we finally reached the base of the mountain and were forced to abandon our mounts, she complained about the state of her shoes and how tired she was.

Around dark the party decided to stop and set up camp. The holy aura surrounding the mountain was irritating to any creature of devil or demon decent, meaning the tieflings of Vertinia. This was a bit of luck for the Order, since it meant we wouldn't have to be worried about any of the locals coming across us by accident. Unfortuneatly, it was also giving Yvala, Vixi, and the princess major headaches, so they sat while the rest of us went about our tasks. Markas set up a perimeter, I built a fire, and Kalena and Kyri set about preparing supper. When Kyri gave Polyxena her pie, the snotty brat turned her nose up at it. “I want her to go and find me something,” she said haughtily pointing at me. Tired and thoroughly disgusted with her behavior all day, I rolled my eyes and replied back, “Are you insane? I'm a cleric, not a ranger. I wouldn't know poisonous mushroom from a safe one if I depended on it. So unless you feel like retesting my healing skills, I suggest you eat what the ranger gives you.” The princess scowled at me before storming off in a fuss to the edge of the firelight. I slumped down next to Yvala. “Maybe I should have kept my mouth shut and just fed her the mushrooms around here. At least, then he mouth would be too swollen to talk.” Yvala snickered and gave me what might have been a smile.

Not a minute later, a scream arose from Polyxena’s direction. Two shadowhunter bats were swooping down at her as dark creepers popped up from the bushes. We made quick work of the beasts, once we figured out that they could do less damage to us if we remained within the ring of light thrown by the campfire. And once again, Polyxena threw bolts of green fire about without having any recollection of doing so afterwards. At the end of the skirmish, Kyri grabbed the brat by her arm and slammed her down next to the fire. “Move from this spot, and we’ll let them take you,” she threatened. Thankfully, the rest of the night was uneventful.

We broke camp just after dawn and were able to reach the peak by midmorning. The temple itself was surrounded by a shimmering twisting grove that threw off an eerie silver and blue light. Circles of blue lightning danced across the surface and we could see portions of the maze rearranging itself. But before we could approach the grove, a set of spectral guardians rose from the ground. They launched themselves at our party but our fighting skills were more than a match for the spirits.

Kalena and Vixi used their knowledge of the arcane to bring us safely through the maze in less than half an hour. Once on the other side, we were able to see the temple in its full glory. Though overgrown and uncared for, the temple had once been a glorious place. A large dark pool was surrounded by rock columns glowing with the mark of Corellon. We approached the pool carefully; as we did the water began to bubble and roll. A black dragon the size of a horse splashed out of the pool and howled. The fight was long and quite frankly frustrating. The coward kept releasing a cloud of magical darkness that it kept hiding in. In the end, either frustrated or bored, it flew off, leaving us to explore the temple and call Aelerion. We opened the locket and set it on a rock near the pool as cool blue light spilled forth from its face.

This time, instead of appearing as a five year old boy, Aelerion appeared as a boy of 9 or 10 with wings sprouting from his back and a bow and quiver of arrows at his side. I noticed a large linen bag slung over his left shoulder. He landed on the ground next to the party and clasped his hands together excitedly. “Great, you made it here! Now we can get the princess ready for her special day.” Polyxena preened at the angel’s words. Aelerion ignored her and continued speaking to the party. “You see, Tiamat’s forces are spread pretty thin on this world. You saw the bulk of them during the invasion of Perinor. Now she’s looking for allies herself, and plans to enter into a divine duality with another evil god, similar to the duality that Corellon and Sehanine shared many centuries ago. This will bolster her power, expand her sphere of influence, and allow her to take over more of the world, Perinor included. But we’re going to stop that.” At this point he smiled wickedly and looked over Polyxena for the first time.

“You see, Polyxena here isn’t the one we need. This deposed tiefling heir is actually an avatar of Zariel, the devil princess who Tiamat threw out of hell when she took over Avernus, the first plane of Hell. I’m here to offer her a chance at revenge by entering into the duality herself, thereby blocking Tiamat’s union. But for the god to be interested in changing his wedding plans, the princess must first possess his heart…” Aelerion trailed off and reached for his bag. With morbid fascination, I watched as he pulled out a desiccated, still-beating human heart. “This is the heart of Vecna. I think you know what to do,” he said with a wink.

As a one, we turned to Polyxena. Her skin had blanched and with an “Eeep!” she turned on a heel and ran for the shimmering maze. “Oh hell no!” I said aloud as I gave chase. Out of the corners of my eyes, I could see Kalena and Yvala – the other two members of the party that had been mistreated as much as myself - running after the girl as well. Yvala caught up first, and tackled the girl to the ground. A spell apiece from Kalena and myself knocked the brat unconscious. Grabbing Polyxena under each arm, we dragged her back to the alter stone by the pool. We laid the girl out on the stone and someone commented on the situation. “Should we really be cutting this girl’s heart out?” Setting my face and gripping her arm harder, I replied, “We’re in the middle of a divine war. Sometimes hard choices have to be made. And this one is for the good of Perinor. Now cut.” I looked at Aelerion as I said the last part.

Aelerion made quick work of replacing the girl’s heart with the Heart of Vecna. He motioned for us to release our hold and magically healed the incision. As we did, Polyxena transformed into her true form. She grew to a height of ten feet, bat wings sprouted from her back and her horns became more prominent on her forehead. With a smile she traced the scar down her chest, smiled, and vanished. Marcas looked at the location she had disappeared from and said, “Wow, not even a thank you.” Yvala looked at him incredulously and said “Not killing us was her thank you.”

Mason's Rock

“Oh, no. There is no way I’m going.” said Yvala emphatically, holding up her hands. “It’s bad enough that you want me to go into Mason’s Rock where half of the city guard will be able to recognize my face. But traveling with five obvious outsiders is a sure-fire way to get myself caught and hung, which is something I’ve been trying rather hard to avoid.” I snorted incredulously as I crossed my arms across my chest. As if there’s a town on this continent she isn’t wanted in, I thought. “Well, as much as I’d love to leave you on the boat, we can’t.” I was going to continue but Markas silenced me with a glare. The paladin turned his attention to the rogue. “As our cleric was saying, we need you to come with us. Your knowledge of the town is the only way we can get in to find this Polyxena and get out again without losing our heads.”

Yvala looked unconvinced, so Kyri tried a slightly different approach. “It’ll be a challenge, but I’m sure we can succeed with your help.” Yvala dropped her hands to her side. “Well if the lot of you are that desperate, I’ll go. But we’re not going dressed like this.” Kyri inclined her head toward the rogue, “Of course. We will submit to any changes you see fit.” Yvala smiled and grabbed Vixi’s hand, pulling the warlock out of the room. “I’ll do you first as I need time to think about how to make the rest of them acceptable.” Kyri and Kalena filed out behind, waiting for their turn. Markas cornered me before I could slip out the doorway. “Despite your personal feelings toward our resident rogue, we need her to get in to House Hydra’s post here and get back out again. I know you don’t trust Yvala, and frankly she hasn’t gone out of her way gain our trust. But she hasn’t betrayed us yet and until she does, she can stay with us. And right now, we need her expertise. So, Tone It Down.” I was going to roll my eyes at Markas’s big brother speech, but thought better of it. “Fine. I’ll do what she wants. You can even supervise if you want.” He seemed satisfied by this and stepped aside. “Probably a good idea. I’ll fetch you when it’s your turn.” “Not like I want to get caught anymore than the rest of you.” I muttered as I passed him.

Which is why, two hours later, Markas was watching calmly as Yvala attempted to yank the hair from my scalp. Okay, she was actually twisting and braiding it into an approximation of her own piled locks, but it felt like the hairs would be pulled out at any minute. His presence was the only reason I was sitting through the whole thing quietly and not berating the rogue for the torturous procedure. When she had finished, Yvala selected a black dagger from an array of weaponry and threaded it in through the back to hold everything in place. As few swipes of a makeup brush and I was declared finished, my blue robes already having been exchanged for a blood red tunic and flowing black pants under the curseforged chain. “I hope you haven’t given me a hairstyle advertising my status as a whore.” I said under my breath. Yvala must have heard because she answered back. “No, it’s a mercenary’s style. But the dagger indicates that you’ve done assassin’s work, and only an idiot would sleep with a known assassin.” I ignored the comment and watched as she went to work on Markas.

Using cooking oil and soot, she blackened his bright armor. “Lucky this is already a little banged up.” With an added eye patch and a bit of mussing to his dark hair, he too was ready to go. I looked around at the rest of the group and had to agree that we looked a lot more dangerous than we had before Yvala started. Vixi retained her leather chestpiece but had swapped her leggings for a short skirt and a pair of heeled boots. A pair of daggers was visible on either thigh and her hair was done up in a similar fashion to mine. Kyri kept all of her armor and weapons, she already looked dangerous with her cutlass and longsword on either hip and the vicious longbow strapped across her back. In addition, Kalena would cast a spell to change the fletching of the arrows from green to dark blue right before we entered town. Kalena wore her fiery robe open and a short dress underneath. Her hair was twisted out at various angles and I could see beads glittering as she turned her head. Yvala had swapped out her own outfit for a pair of tight leather pants and deep red bodice. Under the bodice, the billowy sleeve of a purple tunic concealed a good deal of weaponry. After passing out dark cloaks to everyone, Yvala instructed us to keep the deep hoods up and we headed out of the cove and into Mason’s Rock.

The journey was fairly easy. Two hours had us overland and on the main road into town. It was late afternoon when we arrived at the city walls. Holding my breath, I waited for the guards to shout out and take us into custody. Instead, they barely ran an eye over our motley party. They’re probably told to pay more attention to who’s leaving than who is coming inside. Most of the windows and doors were partially open. Small groups of city dwellers stared out from the shops, inns and alleyways, eyeing the party with marked suspicion. I pulled the hood of the cloak lower over my face, squared my shoulders, and tried to add a bit more bravado to my step. Luckily, Yvala still knew the streets and denizens of Mason’s Rock well. A couple of bribes and a single stabbing later, we stood in front of the villa Princess Thanaphe was staying at.

A gated tunnel ran through the wall into an open courtyard and from the street we could see planter boxes and a three foot hedges. The whole place had an air of desertion about it. “Well maybe there’s someone inside,” Markas said. The gate swung open with a push, and we walked through the tunnel, looking about wearily and the roofs and doors surrounding the courtyard. A teenaged tiefling was sitting in the middle of the hedges wearing a split purple skirt and matching bodice, no doubt our Princess Polyxena Thanaphe. She had been watching a small whiney child tear the leaves of one of the hedges, but shushed it as we approached. “Hi. Hello. What are you doing here?” she asked us, voice straining with nervousness.

Kyri answered her question. “We’re looking for the heir to House Wyvern.” The girl smiled brightly. “Oh, that’s very interesting. Hold on a second.” She turned to the child and swatted at her. “Shut up you little brat.” “But I want candy.” It pleaded. “Eat something that wriggles in the ground. For two seconds, shut up.” Turning back to us she smiled again. “Now what was it you were looking for?” Kyri smiled back at the girl tightly. “The heir of House Wyvern. We were given information that they were in residence here.” The girl seemed to ponder this. “Well, I’m a princess.” “Oh” “I’m a princess. This one’s a shit,” she said pointing at the child, “but I’m a princess. Want to take me?” “Are you of House Wyvern?” asked Kyri, looking to the rest of the group for confirmation. “I have no idea, but I am more than willing to leave this place” said the girl, scoffing at the dilapidated building. She whirled around on the child as it started up its protests for candy again. “I am going to kill you, you little brat. Shut up.”

“Well who else is with you?” Kyri asked the girl that claimed to be royalty. “I don’t care. I just want to leave.” At this point Markas was looking a little fed up. “I’m going to go keep watch,” he said simply before moving back toward the door to the street. “Is anyone in the house?” “I don’t know. I know I have been saddled with this brat…Hey! Don’t put that…Fine put it in your mouth. See if I care.” She turned to yell at the child. “I think everyone is on vacation and I have this, who I don’t deserve.” “And who is this.” Kyri asked watching the scene between the tiefling youths with a questioning look. “And who is this? Your sibling? Your child?” “This is a brat. And no it’s not my brat. And it’s not my sibling. I’m not related to this, I would not be related to this. This is obnoxious and I don’t deserve obnoxious. I deserve nice things.” The girl said smugly. “I’m going to kill you,” she said to the child as it pulled the leaves of the bottom of a hedge.

Uncomfortable with the whole situation, I went over and picked up the child. I didn’t like this girl’s attitude and I certainly didn’t like the way she was treating the young child. She can’t be more than a year younger than me, but she’s so undisciplined. Did no one teach her manners? And everyone knows that children misbehave more when you yell at them, I thought. The girl looked down her nose at me. “I wouldn’t do that,” she said in a singsong voice, “It bites.” The child turned and looked at me brightly, deciding I was much more interesting than the princess who had been watching her. “Can we go steal things?” she asked. That was all it took to bring Yvala over to my side. Brilliant.

“By the time I was your age I was your age, I was picking pockets everyday in the town square.” The child bounced excitedly on my hip. “Oh can we do that. I want to do that.” Moodily, I muttered. “You could be sent to the monastery like I was.” The child wrinkled its nose. “That’s not fun. I want to go with her.” Across the courtyard, Kalena looked thoughtful for a moment. “I was being taught how to burn things.” “I already know how to burn things.” It said. Yvala beamed and got down to the kid’s eyelevel. “Now little girl, you don’t want to listen to such prudes. If you listen, I’ll teach you how to make money.” The teenager was looking a little annoyed that the attention had moved off of here. “I don’t care what you do with that. I don’t care if you sell it.” Yvala clapped. “I have just the place.” I turned to Yvala, as I set the child on the ground. “We’re not selling the child!” I said loudly.

Meanwhile, Kyri had dug the locket out of her pack and opened it. Blue light spilled from the locket and Aelerion appeared superimposed over the picture of the woman. “Oh good you found her! But I can’t manifest here. Can you take her to a shrine or a temple? There’s one about 50 miles northwest of here at the summit of Mt. Kalathon.” “Sounds like a good place to be. Shall we bring the other child with us?” Kyri asked. “What? No, just Polyxena.” Aelerion said as he faded.

“Heads up!” cried Markas. I looked up to see black clad figures climbing down the roofs. “Make sure we protect the Princess,” he added. “Wait, you have to rescue me properly!” Polyxena whined. “We need to go to my room and get my things.” The black clad figures on the roof fired first. Kalena, Yvala and Polyxena were hit by crossbow bolts. Kalena hit two and they exploded into clouds of dust. But unlike the vampires at Tiegel Manor, moldy cloth wrappings dropped to the ground. “Don’t breathe the dust! We’ve got mummies under those black suits! Mummy rot is hard to cure!” I cried. Looking up on the roof, I noticed that the mummy across the roof was holding a short bow. One of the ninjas swung at me and his blade sliced the unprotected flesh on my arm, but I ignored his hit, not wanting to bring a cloud of mummy dust down on Yvala and I. Instead, I called up my prayer of daunting light and released it on the mummy with the short bow. It screamed as it was seared by the column of white light. I drew the flameburst cross bow and passed it to Yvala. “Now would be a good time to fire at the guy on the roof.” I said. She nodded as she took the shot. It sailed through the sniper’s shoulder as it continued to writhe in the light of my prayer. Markas shifted toward Yvala and I and laid down a sacred circle to help protect us from the mummies’ attacks.

The mummies were not pleased with my tactics. The sniper’s arrow punched into my chest. The three remaining mummies jumped from the roof. One swung at Kalena, but she threw up a magic shield just in time. The other two brought scimitars down onto Yvala and me. Blood poured from our wounds, and I could feel my armor send a magical backlash at the ninja. Kalena called for Polyxena to move again and this time she did. Kalena unleased a wall of sound that caused two of the ninjas to explode, bathing the wizard in two doses of dust. Polyxena, seemingly not of her own volation, raised her arm and released a steam of green fire at a ninja.

The two ninjas who had been initially menacing Yvala and me, raised their scimitars for a simultaneous attack on me. One hit my legs and the other took a head shot and I blacked out. When I came to, a few moments later – probably thanks to the warlord tactics for healing Garn had taught Kyri before he left – Yvala was looking at me with concern. I sat up in time to watch Kyri fire at four of the mummies on the ground. One missed but the other three exploded in clouds of dust. Unfortunately, the elf took a flurry of attacks from the mummies closest to her as well as a lungful of mummy dust for her brave actions. Kalena fired rays of frost to immobilize one ninja and a cloud of daggers on another.

I stood painfully and started a powerful healing spell. Kord does bless the strong… A warm healing breeze wafted over me, Yvala, Markas and Polyxena. It also washed over the mummies around me, weakening their future attacks. I wove another healing prayer from the faith floating in the air to heal my wounds completely. Yvala pulled her flaming sword and sliced into one of the ninjas. Markas moved around the hedges to help us. The mummies struck again but this time I was able to keep the attacks from doing major damage. The princess unleashed a fire ball to the mummies attacking Yvala and me. One exploded, showering the two of us with both mummy dust and burning us in the backlash.

Since I had just been bathed in mummified dust, I wove together a prayer to turn the undead, a prayer I had been avoiding since I knew it would likely cause the mummies to turn to more dust. One did, and the others were seared by the hot wind of the spell. Polyxena raised her hand again and a giant spectral claw appeared in the air. It attempted to pull the ninja away but it evaded. Kyri’s arrows took out the one on the roof, and one on the ground. A final blow from Markas took out the last remaining mummy.

We grabbed Polyxena and quickly got out of town. Luckily, our bribes had been sufficient enough to guarantee our safety on the way out. We finally returned to the Southern Stream after three hours of leading Princess Polyxena Thanaphe through the woods. She whined the entire time about how hard walking was, why we didn’t get her things before we left, and how we should have protected her better during the battle. By the time she plopped down to sleep in Captain Raccan’s quarters I was ready to sell her to the contacts in Mason’s Rock Yvala had mentioned. Unfortunately, I could neither sell the picky princess nor go to sleep myself. I took Kyri, Kalena, Yvala and myself down to the cabin which served as the infirmary and spent the next 6 hours administering the potions, policies, pots of steam, and prayers that would cure mummy rot.

Curtains Drawn

Holding our weapons tightly, we gathered around the double doors leading to Avaro Tiegel’s personal chambers. Markas gripped the doorknobs tightly and with a flick of his wrists the doors sprang open. The master’s chamber was opulent and lavish. Embroidered tapestries hung from the walls and ornate bookshelves filled the spaces in between. Trays of rotting food dotted the low tables spread throughout the room. Tiegel and his spawn lay sprawled across fine cushions layered over the wood floors. A huge wooden desk occupied one full corner. Two stacks of paper rested upon it and between it a severed hand floated in the air, busily writing out page after page of letters. As usual, the windows were painted black.

Markas charged straight for Tiegel and swung his flail. The flail connected with Tiegel’s shoulder and lightning shot out to everyone within 10 feet of the baron. From the door, Kalena tossed an orb onto a spawn wearing a blue waistcoat and the resulting shock knocked two others off their feet. Garn charged into the room right behind Kalena’s attack, devastating the vampire in blue. Sneaking behind Garn and Markas, I made for the right side of the room, hoping to get near as many of the spawn as possible while I prepared to turn the vile undead. Yvala sprinted into the room and, with a well placed dagger, brought the attendant to his final resting place.

Baron Tiegel smiled so that his elongated canines showed. “Oh good,” he said in a voice like rich velvet, “breakfast.” He stared deep into the paladin’s eyes, but the half-elf was unamused. Snarling, the vampire master brought his ornate broadsword across Markas’s chest. I stole a glance to my side and, to my horror, saw the flesh closing over Tiegal’s shoulder. The vampires were slowly moving in toward me, but as I was in the middle of preparing my prayer, there wasn’t much I could do to protect myself. Seeing my predicament, Kalena moved into the room. Stopping behind Markas for protection, she traced a complicated sigil in the air. “Sorry Tavia,” she said as the symbol glowed green. A wall of sound burst from the spot. It hit me with a bruising force but hit the vampires closing in on me with just as much power and the blackened window behind me shattered. Driven by the force of the spell, a vampire in a red dress flew out the window and compelled by gravity, fell to the ground. A second was pushed through the battered frame but I could still see his hands holding the broken pane. Looking up into her green eyes, I expressed my gratitude to the wizard. “I don’t think there’s any way I can thank you for doing that.”

Seeing that I was now safe, Kyri moved the trajectory of her arrows to the master, but by now the Baron was fully awake. He held up his hand and the arrows turned aside just enough to flutter his clothing as they went by. The vampire hanging from the window lost his grip and plummeted to the ground. A female spawn tapped Kalena on the shoulder and whispered “Behind you.” It attempted to trap her in a gaze but the wizard merely shook her brown hair and parried its attack. I vocalized the words to my prayer and the searing wind blew into the three vampires still around me. One slammed into the wall, another burst into the cloud of dust, and the master slid in front of an unopened window. Yvala obliged by firing her crossbow through the glass pane.

Markas attempted to strike Baron Teigel again but the vampire’s reflexes were faster than the half-elf’s. “Are you sure you wouldn’t want to relax?” the vampire crooned. Markas’s eyes glazed over and he swayed on his feet. “Ah that’s what I was waiting for,” said Baron Tiegel before he opened his mouth wide to feed off the paladin but an arrow slammed into his forehead, cutting off the attack. He surged forward again but his teeth clanged off the plate armor. Annoyed, he snarled “What’s a guy got to do to get a good meal around here.”

Kyri spun and slammed two arrows into two remaining spawn. They died messily, spraying the stacks of paper with ichor. A thrust from Garn’s spear brought down the last one, shouting at Markas to “Shake it off” as the vampire crumbled to dust. Luckily, I was able to catch a lance of faith across Tiegel’s chest, the radiant power of the prayer doing far more damage than it would to a normal opponent. Markas managed to stun Avaro Tiegel, allowing Yvala to toss a shuriken at the Baron and Kalena to place a cloud of daggers over his head. Garn moved in, cutting off Teigel’s only path out of the sunlight. At that point it was fairly easy for Yvala to sneak up behind and strike a terrible blow with her flaming sword. A final blow to his wounded shoulder was too much for the vampire to take and he crumbled to dust.

A silver circlet peeked out from Avaro’s ashes. We stuck it in Markas’s bag and dove into the papers with enthusiasm. Despite being soaked with vampire blood, the stacks of letters were still readable. Kyri and I volunteered to go through the stacks while Kalena, Garn, Markas, and Yvala began on the numerous bookshelves. The letters were written in a number of languages, mostly common, and the bulk were boring correspondence and party invitations. Kyri found one in high fiendish that she presented to Kalena. “Well it references Aurincia and Perinor. And there’s a date that’s a little less than five years in the future, but that’s all I can glean. We’d need to find someone pretty shady to be able to read the rest.” She tucked the letter into her pack.

Thankfully the letters and documents provided enough information for us to piece together the heritage of House Wyvern. The heir we were searching for was one Polyxena Thanaphe. The deposed princess was currently under the protection of House Hydra in their stronghold of Mason’s Rock. It was a few days overland from Tiegel’s manor, but could also be accessed from nearby coves. Yvala looked decidedly unpleased that we would be traveling to the city, but didn’t say anything. We grabbed maps, nautical charts and any document relevant to House Wyvern, and we headed outside.

“I don’t feel good about that stairway or the door with the sigils. Either one could contain a portal to hell.” Markas said as we exited the manor. “Well, we could burn it down,” stated Kyri frankly. “I suppose…” Markas began but trailed off. I followed his gaze to see a line of dust rising up from the road. Quickly we hid in the bushes alongside the porch to wait. Much to our surprise, Rhegar appeared. He jumped down from his horse and started toward the manor.

“Rhegar, it’s finished. We killed Baron Avaro Tiegel,” said Kyri. “What are you doing over there, then?” he asked. “We were debating whether or not to burn it down.” Rhegar looked at the lot of us incredulously. “Well yeah. You people talk too much.” Shaking his head at our actions, he launched into a small speech.“I return with news. The Council has spoken. The lands of Arborea shall remain a mystery no longer. A ship has been fitted, supplied, and crewed, and they have renamed her the Silver Talon. We are to meet her at sea. Garn, in the name of your ancestor Krazixaz, you are to lead the expedition. We all know the prophecy and none would sail there but under your command. And Garn, Nala is aboard the ship and waits to hear of your adventures.” He looked around at us as if to hurry us. “So let us make haste. Round up the last of the slaves and burn this hellish house to the ground.”

“But there still may be slaves inside,” protested Markas. “So light the fires and break open the windows. We really don’t have time for this sort of thing.” Rhegar went to gather kindling from the forest, disgusted with our lack of movement. “You know we have a wizard who can set fires.” Markas said. “And a cleric.” I added. “Oh, no. The lot of you would have to discuss it first.” Annoyed by the paladin, I uttered the word that lit the hand crossbow on fire. “Fine.” I said testily and aimed for the window of the sigiled room. Rhegar’s face lit up immediately. “Now that’s more like it.” He continued to light small fires along the perimeter. Kalena and I dropped spells and prayers of flame into the manor. Kyri even relieved me of the crossbow to launch a few bolts onto the roof. Before long the building was burning nicely. Through one window we could see bone devils chanting around a pentagram, but they seemed unable to leave. In any case none of us knew what they were doing. Taking several horses from the stables, we rode quickly back to the Southern Stream and headed to sea to meet the Silver Talon.

The celestial messenger aboard our ship led us to the Silver Talon in just under two days. To my delighted surprise, my dear friend and indeed the dragonborn who had taught me to speak and read draconic – Cora – was aboard the ship. She scooped me up in a crushing embrace that lifted my toes two feet above the decking. “Oh I’m so glad to see you. I was afraid that I wouldn’t be able to say goodbye properly before we shipped off for Arborea. But then Bishop Jorda told me you were sailing with Garn.” She said happily. Setting me down, she ran an eye over my gear. “I have to admit that you have acquired a nice set of chainmail in your travels. But where is your staff?” “I traded it out in our latest adventure.” I said, holding up the shield and bastard sword. Cora laughed. “About time. I never understood why you carried that thing around instead of a good solid shield. But the sword has got to go. Come on, we’ll find a mace to fit those tiny hands.”

Less than an hour later I watched as the Silver Talon sailed off for the frozen continent where my father and brothers fished rich waters. I stared after the ship long after she sailed over the horizon, well aware that I may never see my three dragonborn friends again. “Tavia, come inside and get some rest.” Kalena said, from the doorway to the forecastle. “You’re going to need the rest for when we reach Mason’s Rock.” I nodded my head, and she headed back inside. I offered one last silent prayer before following her. Kord, keep their sails filled and their sword arms strong. Let them have the strength to retake their homeland.

Searching for Baron Tiegel

We turned our attention to the large double doors leading into the manor. I was sure that half the manor had been roused by our little tussle but the doors remained firmly closed. Yvala sauntered up the steps and Rhegar followed ploddingly. “We’re sure there isn’t a back entrance? No kitchen door, nothing?” Vixi asked, note of resignation in her voice. “I haven’t seen one in the time I’ve been here. And, I did lead you around the back so you could see for yourselves.” Yvala said in a bored voice. “The last fight was pretty loud and right on the front porch too. Personally, I’m surprised that no one has come out the door yet.” Markas said. “Well I am an invited guest in this house. No one would take notice if I went inside and took a look around.” Yvala said smoothly. I didn’t particularly like this plan. It would give Yvala a chance to confer with her fellow conspirators without the rest of us breathing down her shoulder. But I didn’t like charging into the unknown either, no matter how fond Rhegar was of that plan. And the others were nodding their heads in agreement with her plan.

We stepped to either side of the doorway. Yvala stepped inside and closed the door behind her to prevent any prying eyes. A few minutes later, two slaves bearing wine came out of the double doors. Their eyes went wide at the sight of us. Garn grabbed one and Markas took a hold of the other, making sure to cover their mouths to keep from screaming. “Keep quiet.” I told the slaves calmly. “We’re here to take care of the Baron. We’ve already released some of your fellow slaves. If you follow the cart path past the onion and wheat fields and into the huge trees, you should be able to catch them.” The slaves nodded enthusiastically and took off at a run when they were released. “Thank you.” One cried over her shoulder.

Yvala appeared on the porch after a few more minutes. “Most of the household is asleep but the front hall will be a bit of a problem. There are three overseers and their hellhounds are mulling about waiting for their shift to start and half a dozen more bone devils on the upper balcony.” “If we crashed in there would be nothing stopping them from going and getting help,” said Markas. “What if we could draw a few out here?” asked Vixi. “We would be able to use the doorway as cover,” added Kyri. Yvala interrupted the debate. “I have an idea. I could order a couple of the bone devils to come out here to beat the slaves for some infraction.” We mulled over this. “It seems like the best idea. And even if one or two run, it’s likely they won’t find anyone who cares. And it is one less that we would need to keep from running away. I’m all for that.” Markas said with a grin.

We arranged ourselves on either side of the door while Yvala splashed some wine across her stomach and thighs. Acting furious, she threw open the door. “You two, leaning on the stairs, a slave spilled wine on me. This cannot be tolerated. How can you accept such insolence?” she snarled. The bone devils in question began moving toward the door. “Their suffering will be long, my liege,” one intoned. They stepped out the door and let out a bloodcurdling howl at the sight of us. One uncoiled a barbed whip and struck at Rhegar. The other fumbled and his whip caught the doorway. Vixi cursed the one in front of her with a nasty little spell. My own flame burst off to the devil’s side and the bone devil laughed as he blocked Garn’s spear thrust. Yvala drew her sword and her strike bit deep into the devil’s side. She used the attack as a diversion to slip through the doorway. After Markas struck the bone devil on the right with a heavy blow to the ribs, Kalena was able to destroy the fiend with a cloud of daggers.

The lesser bone devils unfurled their wings and flew over the balcony, heading toward the doorway. Vixi killed a bone devil hovering in the doorway and my sacred flame hit the devil on the porch this time. Garn moved into a flanking position on the devil and yelled for Yvala to attack, which she did with a flourish. The hounds, sensing that their masters were in danger, rushed the doorway. They growled and snapped their slobbering jaws, but were unable to hit anyone. A second blow from Yvala’s sword brought the other bone devil down.

Kalena dropped a second cloud of daggers in front of the other door in an attempt to block the minions from exiting. Rhegar in front of the doorway and took out two of the lesser bone devils with his icy breath. Enraged at being trapped, three of the bone devils rushed the right hand door. But Markas was able to push back the first two and crushed the skull of the third with his flail. The three dogs on the porch were beset with attacks from Yvala, Vixi, and Garn. With the dogs tied up, I was finally able to move and take out the last overseer. The dogs still had some fight in them, though. Both Yvala and Rhegar suffered nasty bites. Markas finished one dog and Kyri peppered another with arrows. As Kalena’s cloud of daggers faded, Rhegar careened though the doorway and into the entrance hall. “There’s three in here running for help.” He yelled. Yvala ran through the door and skewered a bone devil hovering near the floor. She pulled a dagger from her hair as she turned toward Rhegar. It shot from her hand and thudded into the back of the bone devil beside the paladin. Kyri drew back her bow and killed the last bone devil and the remaining hellhound with an arrow apiece.

Cautiously, the rest of us moved into the entrance way. The devils didn’t have much on them, other than barbed whips and chainmail. Markas exchanged his wooden shield for a steel one carried by the lead bone devil. Though I was loath to abandon my maple quarterstaff, I recognized the need for additional protection in the fights to come. “Markas please pass me your old shield,” I asked. He did, and I adjusted it to fit on my slender arm. I plucked a bastard sword from the corpse of another bone devil and nodded to indicate that I was ready to push onward.
“Now I know some of the spawn like to use a lounge room across from the one I was lodged in.” Yvala informed us. “Easy, we kill them first then,” decided Rhegar. He took the ever-burning torch from his pack and thrust it into his belt. We formed up behind the door to the lounge. Rhegar threw open the door and charged toward the back of the room. He thrust his glaive into the painted window and the glass shattered, opening a beam of light into the vampire’s quarters. It fell over two of the vampires, who froze in place and started to smoke lightly. Yvala, Markas, and I rushed into the room right behind the warlord. Of the three attacks, mine was the only one to hit. As I did, the vampire faded a bit, and then fizzled. “It’s just a blur effect. He’s not actually phasing. He’s still there.” Markas shouted. Kyri followed close behind me and slashed at the blurring vampire with her long sword without hesitation. Kalena stood in the doorway and released two icy beams at the vampires in the sunlight, freezing one to the ground and killing the other. “Tavia, over here!” shouted Markas. As I moved past, I could hear him murmur, “Perfect time for what you do best.” I let the words of encouragement enrich my prayer as I pulled the strands of faith into my holy symbol. When I released the prayer in a storm of searing wind, it did even more damage than usual, hitting and immobilizing all but one within reach.

Irritated by my devastating attack, the one vampire I had missed lunged forward. His long nails left stinging scratches on my skin but I threw him off before he could bite me. Another leapt on Rhegar, biting his shoulder. It was Kyri, however, that came off for the worse. The blurry vampire solidified and locked onto Kyri’s purple eyes with his own deep blue orbs. Swaying under his spell, she didn’t put up any fight when he sunk his canines into her neck. Vixi cursed the vampire feeding on Kyri and it screamed before crumbling to gray dust. Attacks from Rhegar, Garn, and Yvala turned three more vampires into piles of ash. Kyri shook off the vampire’s bite and traded her sword for her longbow. The vicious weapon reflected the elf’s mood and sharp thorns sprung from both the arrow shaft and the curve of the bow. The green fletched arrow punched through the midsection of a fifth vampire.

All in all, the vampire spawn didn’t stand much of a chance against a prepared party of adventures and we soon cleared the room. At the far end of the hallway, there was a set of servants’ quarters and a door set with demonic glyphs. Yvala didn’t know what was behind the imposing door other than that she had been told not to try to open it. We left it for the time being, and moved to the hallway on the other side of the entrance hall. There we found more of the same; a pantry, more servants’ quarters, an empty ballroom and two empty guest rooms. The door below the main staircase proved to hide a staircase that spiraled down. There was no light, but the unpleasant whistling noise coming from below reminded me of the cavernous shaft on Aelerion’s Island. We shut those doors quickly and decided to continue searching for Baron Tiegel upstairs.

There were two rooms on the upper story. Yvala pointed to a set of double doors. “Avaro Tiegel is in there, spending the day resting in the company of his vampire spawn. This,” she said indicating the door of our side, “is something of a pleasure quarters for his personal guard.” “Well that’s an easy choice,” said Rhegar, “we take out the guard first.” We arranged ourselves behind the big dragonborn and he threw open the door with a bang. The room held five female slaves in scant, yet expensive looking robes and three tiefling bodyguards. Unlike the guards on the porch, these three were huge hulking specimens. Muscles bulged across their chest and down their arms and legs. Vestigial wings sprouted from their broad backs, but there was no way the puny appendages would hold their weight. Personally, I was far more worried by the generous amount of razor sharp teeth showing past their narrow lips.

Kyri fired first from the doorway and was rewarded with two dull thunks as the arrows bit into their intended target. Using the arrows as cover, Yvala ducked into the room. She brought her short sword up in a quick swipe but the bodyguard parried easily. He did not, however, parry Garn’s crushing attack that came right behind the rogue.

About that time, the situation turned upside-down on us. Rather than fleeing, the slaves began to laugh as their images flickered. Extravagant bat-like wings sprouted from their backs. Their clothing became briefer. Now we were surrounded by eight, rather than three enemies. One raised its eyes and locked Garn with a glowing blue gaze. She made a beckoning gesture and Garn followed docilely, not even flinching as another succubus ranked her claws across his back. Another succubus ensnared Yvala in her gaze, allowing her partners to reap at the tiefling. With a mighty prayer to the Raven Queen, Markas charged into the room. He slammed into the succubus controlling Yvala, and the rogue shook off the spell. Following his fellow paladin’s lead, Rhegar did the same for Garn, the swing of his blade causing the succubus to lose her concentration on the spell. From the hallway, I wove a healing prayer and sent it toward the injured Yvala.

Attacks flew back and forth between the party and the devilish guards. At one point, Garn brought out his magic hand axe and the resulting lightning sparked to all but two of the fiends on the far end of the room. Kalena launched one of her sleep spells at the far end of the room and was rewarded with the snores of one of the muscled tieflings. Somehow in the middle of things Yvala became dominated again. Under the succubus’s spell, she turned and swung at Markas. He was able to avoid the clumsy attack and she shook off the daze before she was forced to attack anyone else. Vixi ran through the room and struck a blow to the sleeping tiefling that ended his life. I dropped a hovering succubus with a lance of brilliant golden light and Kyri dropped another with a well placed arrow. The tide of battle turned our way and it didn’t take much for the eight of us to batter our way through the guards.

At the end of the brief encounter, Rhegar noticed his armor hanging in disarray. When he attempted to fix it, the whole thing fell apart. The side links had been torn to pieces by a rending blow from one of the succubi. “You’ll need to have that fixed.” Markas said wearily. Rhegar shook his head in agreement. “I’ll take a horse from the stables. I’ll take the path we sent the slaves on and make sure they’re still on the right path to the ship. I’ll be back as soon as possible.” He turned and headed down the stairs. “The sun could very well be down by the time he returns. We attack now or we don’t attack at all.” Garn said to the rest of us. “Well, then, I guess we flambé this guy.” Kalena said, rubbing her hands together with a little smile of anticipation.