Chapter Fifteen - Blink Dogs

The group spends the afternoon gathering information on what's been happening in terms of these strange dogs.  They don't learn too much, just that they are able to move in and out of reality at seemingly random intervals.  No one has really seen much of them, save  for one elf, who heard barking and when he peered out the window he witnessed a dog that was popping in and out of his sight, then after grabbing a bag of food the hound quickly disappeared.

As the group marches towards the woods they hear barking, and turn around to see a dog standing before them.  It is behaving exactly the way the elves described.  Radamyr attempts use his knowledge of Spellcraft to discern what kind of magic it is, but he is unsuccessful.  The dog turns to run into the forest and after starting off to a run, he disappears right before their very eyes.

The group takes off in that direction, and after a few hours walking they come upon a small camp.  Arradel climbs a tree to get a better vantage point of the site, and the others march ahead. 

When seemingly out of nowhere, there are three dogs surrounding them.  The group is caught off guard by this.  When the see the way the dogs are snarling, it is clear they intend to defend this territory.  

As the group moves to defend themselves, they realize they are in for a harder fight.  Bogor and Liaathvain's attacks seem to just whiz right through the beasts half of the time.  The dogs' are randomly flashing in and out of existence, and the fight is proving to be rather frustrating.  

When suddenly, from out of the far side of the camp an arrow comes whizzing by and strikes Arradel's armor.  From the far side of the camp, a hooded elf walks out with his bow drawn. When the group calls out to him, he simply laughs, and readies another arrow.

Radamyr discovers that the Wand of Magic Missle that he picked up long ago in the goblin cave seems to hit the dogs regardless of whether or not they are in reality.  It is the nature of the spell that it cannot miss, this proves useful in the fight, and the group manages to fell one of the dogs.  With the pressure off of them, Liaathvain breaks away from the fight and runs over to the ranger, and engages the elf in close combat.

It doesn't take long for her to finish him off, and Bogor and Radamyr are able to finish off the dogs with Arradel providing ranged support.  

They loot the bodies of the ranger, and come across a vast assortment of gems, as well as another strange wand.

Arradel and Liaathvain make the journey back to Chartram, while Radamyr and Bogor stay and investigate the site.  Upon returning to the village, they meet with the Lord-Mayor of the town, and fill him in on what they have found.  He directs them to meet with the elf Baleer. The elf is able to magically teleport them back to the camp.

Radamyr is busy trying to use the wand, but nothing is really happening, when suddenly a trio of elves appear in the field behind them.  Baleer identifies the items for the group, and they learn the wand is a Wand of Delay Poison, used to greatly slow down the effects of any poison.  He informs them the slain ranger is named B'rathan, and he was exiled from the town around 25 years ago, for causing too many problems in Chartram.

He then teleports them all back to the village, where they spend the night celebrating their victory.

Chartram has welcomed them with open arms, and the group decides to call this village home.

Chapter Fourteen - Chartram

Our heroes wake up the following morning, with Arradel curious about the magic compass.  As a rogue she has the ability to attempt to Use Magical Device, and bypass any magical protections or safeguards the compass may have in order to use it.  The group watches as she tries to find a way to manipulate the object into working.

Her attempt is successful, and she closes her eyes, and after a brief moment the group watches as part of the compass begins to glow, and points them south!  Everyone is thrilled, and they decide that they are going to follow the compass' bearings.  After travelling for some time, they decide to check to see if the compass has anything new to tell them, and Arradel once again retrieves the item from her belongings and tries to use it, only this time it doesn't go as planned, and she is knocked unconscious. After the group wakes her up they decide that until they know more about this object they should refrain from using the device.

They keep heading south, and soon they come upon some sort of checkpoint.  Two elves appear to be stationed at a guard post, and as the group approaches they wave them over.  

The laid back and peaceful nature of the elves is in full display as they heartily welcome a group of strangers onto their land.  They tell them that further down the road they will come to the town of Chartram.

Following the directions of the guards, they eventually come upon a humble elven conclave.  They are greeted by many elves as they make their way around town.  It's a breath of fresh air for them, as their experiences in town as of late have not been pleasant.

Locals tell them they can find a group of wizards on the other side of the town that might be able to give them some information on the compass.

After crossing the village, they come to large tree, with a staircase wrapping itself around it that winds all the way up to a large hut.  As they walk the stairs, and get the near the top, they gain sight over much of the forest's canopy and Arradel and Liaathvain are able to distinguish a large shape just over the mountains off in the distance.

It is the boughs of Alda'Orne, from far off in Verraway, homeland of the elves.  It is a massive tree, that is home to the elves' capital city.  They take a moment to admire the view and continue to make their way up into the cottage.

They are greeted by an elven wizard named Choska.  The group tells he and his assistants about their compass, leaving out parts of their journey that might draw suspicion from them.  The elves are fascinated with it, and will tell them they will help them uncover it's secrets, but it will take time.

The group then heads down to the local drinking spot, and while they are there enjoying themselves they learn the town has been having some problems with strange dogs as of late.  When they tell them about the worgs, the elves laugh.  They aren't concerned about a few worgs, they know how to kill them.  These ones have been different, and have been giving the town some problems.  Apparently, they've been able to teleport in and out of the town and run off with supplies.  They aren't sure how they've been able to do it, but it's become frustrating and it's upset the elves daily lives considerably.  

Knowing they are going to be here for awhile while the wizards attempt to discover the secrets of the compass, they decide to help out, and investigate this teleporting dog problem...

To Be Continued...

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Chapter Thirteen - A God's Call

Bogor and Liaathvain make their way around the city walls, looking to free up their horses from the stables.  Upon walking across the main road however, a knight on guard at the gates sees them, and starts making his way towards them.  Upon realizing who they are, he draws his sword and attacks them.

He proves to be a very worthy adversary however, and the fight lasts for longer than they both expected.  Liaathvain, concerned that she is at risk of losing her god's favour has been attempting to subdue him, rather than kill him which makes it a bit more difficult for her.  Bogor on the other hand is trying to use him as fertilizer for the grass, and as the knight succumbs to the blows of his enemies, he mutters his final words "My blood will feed the wolves," and then Bogor ends him.  It appears as if the knight was a member of the wolf cult, for his final words were very ominous.

As the two enter the stable to free the horses, Liaathvain has a change of heart, and believes the glowing light was a gift from a praying Eric, and now that the glowing has ceased, and she has the horses, she is willing to travel back with the group.

Meanwhile, Arradel and Radamyr are waiting for them to return.  They ask the fighter what kind of person Baltham was, and he doesn't tell them much besides the fact that he was a grumpy old man, and that he doesn't have any information on the magical compass.  He then takes his leave, and runs off into the night.

Arradel takes this time to confess to Radamyr that she lied to Liaathvain, and that she could find no sign that the wizard was evil.  This revelation troubles them, and they question the princess' motives.  Why would she claim that he was a man of ill repute?  Surely she would have known more about him.

Liaathvain and Bogor soon ride up, and tell them of their encounter with the evil knight.  Arradel soon suggests that rather than head back to Greyholt, they leave and travel south through the forest, until things blow over.  Liaathvain does not understand why they won't finish their mission and return to the Princess, but since there is no arguing with them she reluctantly goes with them.

Before they leave however, they hear a horrifyingly loud sound come from the Forum.  They listen closely, and they discern it is the sound of wood snapping and cracking.  There are terrible crashing noises coming from the city.  They are too far to see anything, but the fact that the sound is travelling this far suggests something terrible has just happened. The sound lasts for several minutes, and once it has quieted down, they leave.

They ride south on their horses, Snowball and Fireball, for a long time, until they reach a safe area of the forest for them to set up camp.  Liaathvain agrees to take watch first, and after an hour or so she once again experiences a vision.  This time it is Eric, and he is kneeling next to what appears to be a very small lake.  She also sees various animals in her vision, and notices a deer in particular.  The vision then fades, and she is left bewildered.  That is until she sees a deer poke it's head out from the forest.  It looks at her with curiosity then turns around and begins to walk away.  

The paladin follows it until she comes across the same body of water from her vision.  There is no sign of Eric however, and as she approaches the water, a small gust of wind blows by her, and she begins to hear a strange sound of wood snapping.  She turns around to see that the exposed trunks of nearby trees are carving expressionless faces out of their wood.  The night air warms around her, and the mouths begin to move, and a powerful voice fills her head.

She receives the message, and realizes that her god has just spoken to her.  As soon as the message is received, she returns to the camp, and is left to question the strange encounter she just had.  She smiles though, knowing her god has not abandoned her.

Chapter Twelve - The Heist Pt.3

Liaathvain sits at the base of the stairs with a look of shock on her face.  Baltham, the wizard they were only supposed to steal from, lies dead at the top of the stairs. She's heard of Paladins losing their connection to their god for committing certain acts, and she's concerned that this might be one of those cases.  

It is at this moment Arradel has come up from the secret trap door in the basement floors, and after seeing what has happened, looks towards Baltham's bodyguard.  He has ceased his hostilities realizing the one who was paying him is now dead.  Arradel tosses him some gold to keep him silent, and he has no problem with that. She then runs upstairs to search for the compass.

When she enters Baltham's room, she sees a small box in a closet, she opens it up to check for the compass, and sure enough it is in there.  However, before leaving she is curious as to why the Princess thought the wizard was of questionable character, so she decides to scan the room for anything that could be evil, or at the very least, able to be considered evil.  She's going to need Liaathvain complicit in order for their escape to go smoothly.  To her dismay, there appears to be nothing of any kind of evil in the room.  Spying a stack of wizarding books, she decides she could at least use those.

As she heads down the stairs and tells everyone that she has the compass, she tells Liaathvain that the room is full of evil things, including books on dark magic.  The lie succeeds, and Liaathvain believes her.  It's at this point that the fighter hears the sounds of guards clamouring outside, and they realize the sounds of battle, as well as a somewhat burnt through staircase have attracted the attention of many knights.  The group decides the best option to stay hidden is to head into the basement, and the fighter accompanies them.

No sooner do they all make their way down into the basement, do the knights come storming into the house.  Upon feeling a very strange chill run up their spine, Liaathvain detects evil, and to the group's shock, she detects evil coming from right above them, though knowing this doesn't help them currently.  They are very much outnumbered, and they now have only one escape route, out through the basement window.

Radamyr casts ghost sound out the window to make it sound as if there are people running away from the house, which lures the guards outside away.  They take this opportunity to squeeze out from the basement and head for the city walls not too far away.

As they go to leave though, Liaathvain suffers a strange kind of vision.  She sees Eric the Cleric, kneeling by the tree over by the town's church, praying.  Then the vision ends.  She tells the group of what just transpired, and she believes it is her god calling to her.  The church is on the other side of town, and there is a good chance the city is on alert due to the commotion they've caused.  Despite the risks Liaathvain tells them that she plans on going over there, believing her god is sending her there.  

The group strongly disagrees with this move, and after a lot of deliberation she agrees to find a safer route by travelling around the city, instead of through it.  The group finds a wide open enough area, and chooses to plant one of their Feather Tokens.  A tree grows from it, and they use the massive tree to climb over the walls.  

They manage to land somewhat safely, after which something strange happens.  Liaathvain's hands begin to glow with Divine magic.  The group doesn't have any idea what this means, but Arradel and Radamyr both having no intention of following Liaathvain on her crazy mission, tell her they'll meet her in the forest afterwards.  Bogor, not wanting her to go alone, travels with her.

The glow emanating from Liaathvain begins to travel through her whole body, and she is fully healed from their previous battle, which is good news for her, for the fight to escape the Forum is not yet over.

To Be Continued...

Chapter Eleven - The Heist Pt.2

With a plan in motion all they need to do now is wait for him to show up.  Arradel stays in the Donkey for several hours while the others hide.  Sure enough, Baltham shows up, but not alone.  He has a mean looking bodyguard with him.  After the wizard has taken his fill on drinks and food, he proceeds to leave the bar, and Arradel follows him.

The other three tail her, but keep their distance.  But just as Arradel passes a side street, three Knights of Alabaster walk out, and turn towards the three adventurers, and cut them off from their friend.  Arradel notices this but continues to follow the wizard, leaving a trail of arrows drawn on dusty windows in case they need to find her.

The guards happen to be the same three that Radamyr tried to charm on his first visit to the city, and just when things start to get a bit heated between them, there's a strange green glow that starts emanating from under Radamyr's cloak.  Radamyr tries to tell them it's nothing, but something has aroused the orb's magic, and soon a brilliant green flash occurs, and they are all knocked unconscious.

Arradel has kept a safe distance and manages to tail them all the way to the wizard's home, but when the bodyguard goes to do one final check of the streets, he spots what appears to be an old woman staring at them.  He approaches Arradel, wanting to politely ask what's wrong, but he is no fool, and sees right through her disguise.

When she tries to flee, he reaches out to grab her, but only grabs the costume she was wearing, and she barely makes it away.  Forsaking her costume she bolts, giving the fighter a full view of her armour before taking off out of sight. 

The other three wake up, with dirt and sand in their mouth and when they look around, they realize they are still standing in the street, but the three knights of alabaster, are not.  The orb has sent them away somewhere.  Once again, the orb has intervened with no explanation.  

When Arradel runs into her compatriots again they all have a story to share.  They tell the rogue about what happened with the knights, and Arradel informs them that their plan may be compromised.  Realizing their group may have just given their target a head's up that something is wrong, they decide to throw caution to the wind, and try something crazy. With the sun setting after a long day of information gathering, and waiting, they decide the best course of action is to simply walk up, and knock on the front door.

Arradel leads them down the winding path to the part of town with houses built with strange angles and alleys, until they walk up the front steps and reach the front door.  Radamyr and Liaathvain stand at the entrance, and begin to knock.

When the fighter answers the door, he is immediately suspicious and asks them what it is they want, noticing Arradel puts him on his guard.  They try to reason with him, but to no avail.  They aren't offering up any reason that he would believe, and he slams the door in their face.  After repeated attempts at negotiating fail, Arradel decides to sneak around the house to look for another way in.  At this point, Radamyr brandishes a spear he had purchased, and uses it to knock on the door.

When the knocking continues even after the fighter drives a sword through the door, in attempts to send them a message, the bodyguard decides he has had enough.  He bursts open the door with his weapon drawn, and the group finds themselves in a fight for their lives.  

They are severely outmatched by this man, but by sheer stroke of luck they manage to disarm him of his greatsword, a weapon capable of inflicting a lot of damage.  Bogor begins to rage and charges the fighter.  A big struggle ensues in the house, causing a lot of noise.

Meanwhile Arradel has found  a small basement window, with a lone candle lit, and she manages to shatter it and make her way inside, entering what she believes to be a secret basement.  She gathered this by the odd staircase leading up to the floor above.  She assumes there must be a trap door at the end of it.

The fighting continues inside, and Liaathvain manages to overhear a strange chanting come from around the corner, as she goes to look up she sees Baltham, preparing to cast a spell at the top of the stairs.  Not looking to kill him, she attempts to subdue him with non-lethal attacks.  She strikes him with the flat of her blade, but he is more sturdy that she realizes.  His eyes light up, and fire forms in his hands and he sends a Fireball flying at her, and she suffers more damage in one spell than any one source from their whole adventure.  They realize they are in a seriously dangerous situation, as the fighter is also not showing signs of slowing down.  

Just as the battle looks to be turning in favour of the wizard, he offers them a deal.  If the other three leave, he will spare Liaathvain's life.  Showing that he means buisness, he immediately begins to cast another fireball.  Liaathvain cries out for the group to listen. Being left to Baltham is a risk she is willing to take.

Realizing they have a very short amount of time before Liaathvain could be killed, Bogor makes a split second decision. While raging, he charges past the fighter, and runs up the stairs wielding his battle hammer. With no signs of holding back, he raises his weapon above his head for one powerful swing. He brings it down upon the wizard, and he crumples to the floor.  

The commotion of the battle has caused a few nearby citizens to panic, and they begin calling out for guards to investigate.  With their plan having gone completely awry, they now realize they have murdered their target.

What they haven't noticed yet, are the guards that are beginning to make their way up the road.

To Be Continued...

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Chapter Ten - The Heist Pt.1

With no sign of Boro at all, the group is concerned that perhaps he died in the attack.  The reality of the situation sinks in, and they realize that this is going to be a lot trickier than perhaps they first realized.  They don't know what to expect once they enter the Forum, and to cover more ground, they decide to split up.  The first thing they need to do is find out what their target looks like, and where he lives.  Arradel and Bogor head to the stables to tie up the horses, while Radamyr and Liaathvain decide to head into town to start gathering information.

However, their search proves to be fruitless as the town seems to look at them with an air of suspicion.  They are after all, the ones who brought the Worg's head to the church. They realize Versteeg had been telling everyone about their deeds, so word had travelled fast about them, even moreso when it was no longer hope that fuelled the conversation, but rather fear.  

Radamyr wasn't doing them any favours either when he tried to intimidate a local merchant into giving him information when it was clear that the merchant was reluctant to offer any info up.  Liaathvain was not at all happy about that, but Radamyr believed it to be the only way to get information from these people, who seemed to already harbour a serious dislike for them.  They were met with a roadblock again, at the registry where Liaathvain tried to be diplomatic with the clerk when asking about Baltham by name, however the clerk seemed to be thinking with his gut, and didn't trust their intentions, and turned them away.

Arradel and Bogor seemed to get a long a little better at the stables, when a nervous stable boy was approached by the rogue.  She was able to discern that the town wasn't like it used to be since the worgs.  He tells her he still hears the howling in his head, Arradel promises they will get to the bottom of this.  When he tells her the town is on a bit of a high alert, she decides now would be a good time to use some discretion.  She heads back to Boro's and disguises herself as an old woman.  

The disguise seems to do the trick as she seems to fool the guards.  They don't give her much afterthought, and her disguise seems to take attention away from both herself, and Bogor.

They too go seeking information, and Arradel thinks it a good idea to use some of her contacts in the city, assuming they are still alive.  She heads to the apothecary where a contact named Aiden works.  He wasn't harmed in the attack, and manages to tell her that Baltham seems to enjoy a regular schedule of visiting the Donkey. Before he can give her any other info though, his partner pulls him away for something else.

The four convene at the middle of town, and decide their last course of action is to use Arradel's other contact, Denae, a bard who works primarily out of the Drunken Donkey.  All except Arradel find a place to hide, while she enters the tavern.  

They're in luck, and Denae is currently putting on a small performance.  She takes a seat near him, and when there's a break in the song she reveals herself to him, and he tells her to meet him in the back alley.

She brings over the rest of the group, and Denae tells them everything he can about the wizard, and what's been going on in the town.  He tells them to be very careful, all the guards and citizens are on the lookout for them.  They aren't going to charge them for anything, but no one trusts them.  The town seems to think their actions lead to the worg attack.  The group thinks this is entirely irrational, but Denae assures them that fear can make a lot of people think crazy things.  He tells them he was a witness to the gruesome death of a few guards, and that he wasn't the only onlooker.  This town has changed.

He tells them Baltham is due to show up that night, and it will be obvious when he comes in because the grumpy old man pays him to play the same damn song over and over that everyone seems to hate.  That's how she'll know it's him.  When he asks why they want to know about him, they tell him they can't say, which worries him, but he's willing to put his faith in Arradel.

Radamyr then pays him to craft a full version of the song "The Clumsy Cleric", which he agrees to do, and will begin working on it when he can.

To Be Continued...

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Chapter Nine - Mission Interrupted

The next day the group is brought to a small area inside part of the noble's corner.  The princess is waiting with a guard, and when she sees the group arrive, she waves him away.  

She tells the group she believes the key to preventing the wolf cult from returning to strength is to find that city once again, and use whatever power lies within to destroy it once and for all.  The problem, is finding the city, since no record of it exists.  She believes she has a way of locating it though.  She knows of a Verrawayan object known to be a Magical Compass, capable of leading whomever owns it to great sources of magical power.  She also knows it is in the possession of a rather nasty wizard, currently living in The Forum named Baltham, but that he won't part with it willingly.  They'll need to steal it.

Upon hearing they would be stealing something, Arradel's ears perk up, and she decides to join in the conversation, having recused herself from it originally on the grounds that she doesn't like Wandaella.  Her mind was quickly changing, however.  

To help them, she offers them a potion of invisibility, and gives them some gold.  She can't give them to much, for the royal treasurers are keeping an eye on the family's gold reserves, in an attempt to ward off any bribery that may arise due to the political climate in Dahldrum.  When they ask if they can have some horses for their journey, she agrees to give them two.  They thank her for her help, and head off to the stables to prepare for their journey back to The Forum.

Leading their horses across the pillar, Arradel stops by a local jewellery stall, and tries to plant the seed that they are heroes, on a quest to save the kingdom.  Bueller, the jeweller is amazed that they would risk themselves for the kingdom, and watches in awe as they make their way down the pillar.

The group rides out across the plains, passing by the farmhouse they burned to the ground after battling necromancers.  They take in the beautiful scenery of the rolling hills, but they stop when they see something strange.

A very small forest seems to have sprung up in the middle of the plains almost overnight.  They certainly didn't see this the first time they passed through the plains.  Deciding to investigate they ride over.  They tie the horses up to one of the trees, and cautiously make their way to the central area from the eastern corner.  Remaining hidden, the group spies the body of a human lying face down in the dirt, and sitting right next to him, a Kobold.  

The kobold appears to be whimpering, and crying out in pain.  Liaathvain senses evil nearby, but they inch their way closer to investigate, ready for action.  Liaathvain and Bogor head in first to try and see what has happened to the Kobold, who now seeing the two approach continues to whimper and cry out, but makes no move to try and run away.

Once they ask it if it's alright though, it lets out a loud cry, and many kobolds step out from behind the opposite treeline, including three new, tall lizards they've never seen before called Troglodytes. The trap is sprung.  

A long fight ensues, but the group manages to fight them off, even when they went after their horses. One poor kobold in particular had a rough go in the fight, and he was spared after the fight so he could be questioned.

Arradel threatens him with her dagger, and asks who that human was.  He tells them he doesn't know, but that he was tortured and used to make Feather Tokens so they could make this forest.  When asked why they would go to all this trouble, he responded by telling them because they hate their group, and wanted revenge for killing their brothers and sisters in their battle in the forest on their way to the goblin cave.  

When they ask him how they knew about them, he responds with "All Kobolds in this region know of you!" This causes the group to cheer, and be quite pleased with themselves.  When they realize that the kobold just wants to kill them, they see no further use for him.  Arradel finishes him off, and they tend to their horses.

With the help of their horses, they are able to make excellent time, and arrive at Boro's house late that night.  They make their way inside, and hope to find Boro home. However he isn't anywhere to be found.  They decide they would spend the night there, and explain their situation to him should he come home.  

They rest up, knowing that they have a mission to accomplish the next day.

To Be Continued...

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