Campaign3/session-2
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Session 2: Clayfinger
36 Orran 810
Moon-shadows played across the arid scrub-land as the party watched Mundori walk up the towering rocks and peer into the rock chamber below. For a moment, Mundori was still and silent, then he stiffened and scampered down the far side of the rock. A moment later he ran from behind the finger-like outcropping of rocks with another dwarf in tow.
Mundori explained that there is another dwarf inside the rock chamber, about to have his eye poked out with a burning ember by a demarian. The two dwarves were apparently sent by Darlock as advance scouts before his arrival. The dwarf who followed Mundori after Mundori introduces himself as Angnar Wald.
Beh proposes a strategy session to discuss how to penetrate the rocks and free the dwarf, but apparently no-one is listening, because everyone else heads straight for the rock's entrance, confident that their sheer numbers will be sufficient to carry the day and make up for any lack of a plan.
Once inside, the party discovers there is not one Demarian, but four! They are still undaunted and immediately engage in melee combat. Rahaza storms into the entrance-way, forgetting the zone of silence enveloping the rocks, and barely manages to escape a Demarian's sword thrust. When she tries to cast a spell, she quickly realizes that she cannot speak the words of invocation, and quickly flees the rocks.
One of the Demarians scampers up the rocks like a spider and makes her way up the central rock spire, until she is standing above the chamber looking down on the fight thirty feet below. Beh spots the figure and seems to sprint up the rock toward the Demarian, but finds himself stuck ten feet below her. He fires his crossbow at her, but the shot goes wild into the darkness.
Meanwhile, Rahaza gathers her wits outside the zone of silence and creates a ball of fire which then rolls into the melee and scorches one of the Demarians. Spotting the figure perched above the combat, and suspecting that she might be a mage, Rahaza shoots the flaming ball up in the air, trying to hit her but failing as her target neatly dodges out of the way.
The Demarian mage, now above the zone of silence, mutters in the tongue of Demaria, and a fireball shoots from her hand into the chamber, enveloping friend and foe in a furnace of flame. She laughs as the flames lick out of the rock chamber, like a bellows blown forge.
Rahaza loses her grip.
A second later, a similar fireball shoots from Rahaza's outstretched hand, the words of her casting screamed from the depths of her soul. The fireball envelops the pinnacle of the stone finger, including the Demarian mage and Beh. Though the Demarian mage was the focus of Rahaza's wrath, it seemed that Beh took the brunt of the attack.
The Demarian mage snarls at Rahaza, and seems poised to return fire when from below, Angnar commands the stone finger to become as clay. The stone does as it is told, and the face of the central stone spire turns soft, and no longer able to support itself. The clay collapses into the stone chamber, and everyone inside scrambles clear to make sure they are not buried alive.
Beh gracefully slips down the rock face, and away from the spreading clay, and watches as the Demarian mage disappears into the rock chamber, surely enveloped in the clay. A second later, the rock that Beh was standing on toppled over, since it's support against the central spire was gone, and snapped in half, pinning the Demarian mage beneath it.
With the other Demarians dispatched, the group searches the dead for any indication of how they knew where to find Darlock's men, but they come up with nothing.
Angnar manages to pull the Demarian mage from beneath the rock, unconscious, but still breathing. The mage's fate is discussed, and it is decided that she would not do anyone any favors while she is alive. Aethra steps in and delivers the killing blow, a vicious slash to the neck. Everyone is shocked by the violence and venom of the attack. Perhaps Rahaza isn't the only one with issues regarding Demarians.
Angnar summons Darlock using a message crystal, and half an hour later Darlock arrives by means unknown to the group. He suggests that they relocate to another group of rocks in case a follow-up party of Demarians arrives.
Several hundred meters away, the group takes shelter in a cluster of rocks shielded from the surrounding land by a low hummock. This is fortunate, since Rahaza has lost all her wits, and has created a brilliant light, "so no Demarians can sneak up on them." That her light serves as a beacon for miles in the surrounding countryside is apparently lost in her frazzled mind.
Darlock describes the plan, and the role that the party will play in it. Their first objective is to infiltrate the salt mines beneath Sunai and free the slaves, killing as many guards as possible, but leaving a few alive so that they can be controlled later. Darlock emphasizes that the takeover of the mine must be undetected by surface authorities to buy the dwarves enough time to evacuate the slaves and take care of "other business".
The second objective is to kill the Seizorann of Sunai. He explains that the head of the creature is not much larger than a human, and if it is covered by goldspun robes, it will be unable to draw magical energy from it's roots, making it weak enough to kill with magic or explosives. The goldspun robes must be taken from the clerics which serve the Seizorann, since there is no other source of the material within Sunai.
Mundori asks why the clerics use the goldspun robes, and Aethra explains that they need the robes to prevent the wearer's magical essence from being sucked away by the Seizorann.
Darlock furnishes Mundori with another message crystal, and instructs them to contact him when they have secured the mine. The dwarves will then breach the lowest level of the mine and take over from there.
The group accepts the mission, and bid Darlock, Nehrkin and the dwarf they rescued in the gap goodbye. The party departs the rocks and travels several miles toward Sunai before setting up camp for the night.
During the first watch, Cathon spots riders in the distance arrive at the stone outcrop where the were just a few hours before. He alerts Beh and Rahaza, but does not wake the others. They watch for many tense moments as the dark figures mill about in the distance, just barely visible in the moonlight. Finally, after half and hourglass of time, the riders mount and depart along their original path, apparently not following the trail left by the party as they left the area.
37 Orran 810
The rest of the evening passes uneventfully, and after the morning meal, the party resumes their journey to Sunai. The heat is oppressive as the group finally catches their first good look at the city. The glittering black walls shimmer through the baking heat as the group approaches, and as they draw near, they can see the roots and tendrils of the Seizorann, obsidian black choking out the light stone beneath that must have formed the original wall. Like an evil ivy that has enveloped the fortifications, the roots of the Seizorann dominate all that can be seen of the city, including the outer gate-house and towers.
The party passes through the outer gates into a courtyard that leads to a second gate and the city beyond. Beneath a sprawling canopy, a Demarian bureaucrat sits watching the group as it approaches, flanked on either side by a bulky guard. Aethra approaches the official, and produces some documents from within her veiraft.
The exchange between the official and Aethra is quite heated, and at one point, she has her hand on her sword, looking as if she is on the verge of unsheathing it and striking the bureaucrat down. The guards watch the exchange with little interest, which is surprising to all who are watching. With the exception of Gorin, no one in the party has any idea what was said. The entire exchange was in Demarian.
The heated moment passes, and the official shakes several demars out of the papers and slips them into his robes. He hands the documents back to Aethra, and nods toward the inner gate. As they leave, he offers her one more comment, which Aethra seems to shrug off as she walks toward the inner gate with her companions and into the city.
Previously: From Hebridonia, With Love
Continued in: Live and Let Die
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