Campaign3/session-4
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Session 4: Thunderball
37 Orran 810
As Gorin, Mundori, Beh and Angnar are about to implement their strategy to attack the Demarian guards in the mine, an explosion in a nearby passage deafens them. Rahaza, Aethra and Cathon emerge from the dust and smoke of the explosion, and explain that Darlock decided to breach the mine immediately due to security concerns over the dwarf that was rescued in the gap.
The party works together to block off the escape of any guards to the surface, and attacks a group that was sent to get re-enforcements. They are quickly dispatched, and it is apparent that the dwarves have the situation in hand.
With the mine secure, the group moves on to their next objective: securing the goldspun robes needed to enter Rannoch Temple, the home of the Seizorann. The party follows three nilhen to the surface, who have been sent by the dwarves to make sure no-one on the surface is aware of the dwarven army amassing underground. The Nilhen take up stations by the entrance, and the party is unnerved to find that all of the workers are completely unaware of the Nilhen, or of their group! The workers continue about their business as if everything is normal.
The party exits the mine, and follows Aethra to a rendezvous with her "nephew" Feiruhn, whom she instructed to investigate the location of goldspun robes in the 'high neighborhood' of the city. She also asked him to be on the lookout for a female Kyelsoran elf, since it is likely that it might be Cathon's lost love, Malena.
While they walk, Mundori hangs back and expresses reservations on the entire situation, and about who Aethra might really be. As they turn into an alley, Mundori jumps Aethra and grabs her hand. The disguise she wears only effects visual appearances, and Mundori can tell she really has SIX fingers. So she's NOT a Kyelsoran elf.
Mundori pins Aethra to the ground and demands that she explains herself before he lets Rahaza burn her alive. Aethra struggles and tries to plead her way out of the situation, but finally relents and removes her disguise. Her appearance changes, and the group can see she has six fingers like a Dargai, but also has the elven facial structure and ears. Her skin is darker than either a typical Elf or Dargai.
"Half-breed," Rahaza mutters.
"Is that what you are?" Mundori asks Aethra. At first, Aethra agrees, but Mundori does not believe her. "Tell me the TRUTH."
"I can't," Aethra hangs her head. "Too many lives would be ruined if my people's secret were revealed." Mundori presses, and after some more threats, and some assurances that they would keep it quiet, Aethra relents. "No one will believe you anyway if you told them. I am Scaryn."
Almost everyone knows that the Scaryn were a race that were wiped out by the Elves in a great war over 800 years ago. They were supposed to resemble elves, but with much darker skin. Aethra explains that her people have been in hiding since the elves started their war of genocide against the Scaryn. Many live in Demaria, disguised as Dargai.
The party seems satisfied with her explanation, but wonders why she is involved with the dwarves. Aethra explains that she is simply a paid mercenary, but that she is also working for her own people by weakening the Sheyar'tyl, which seek to rule all of Demaria.
Mundori lets Aethra stand again, and with the situation diffused, they continue to their rendezvous with Feiruhn. Moments later they meet the Dargai youth, lurking in the shadows of the wall that separates the 'high neighborhood' from the rest of Sunai. Feiruhn leads the group over the wall, and through the quiet streets to a home where he has seen a Kyelsoran elf, and a Sheyar'tyl priest wearing a goldspun robe.
Everyone except the dwarves approach the windows of the rear of the house, and see that there are seven clerics in a room, surrounding the corpse of a Dargai woman, Nai Ethryn, the warkaster that attacked the group in the desert! They can also see a Kyelsoran female standing in the corner, watching passively. Cathon indicates that it IS Malena! While the party makes an assualt plan, the clerics begin a ritual, and the body of the fallen warkaster begins to twitch.
With the plan set, Angnar leaps through a window and lands on the thrashing body of Nai Ethryn, and smashes the table that she is lying on. The others spring into action and being attacking the clerics.
Beh grabs Malena and tries to pull her to the window, but she fights him viciously, and Cathon has to take over. Finally, Cathon manages to wrestle the screaming elf out of the window and into the garden.
Angnar, who finds himself in the middle of seven angry clerics, is quickly struck down with divine vengeance, only to be saved later by Mundori, who comes to Angnar's aid with a wand of curing.
Beh attacks several of the clerics, dodging their attacks and laying some of his own damage down when one of the clerics strikes him blind! Fortunately, Beh is Fehrsa-Onai and has been trained to fight without sight. Though limited in his ability to attack offensively, Beh is able to hold his own against the clerics that attack him.
From the safety of the garden window, Rahaza sends a rolling ball of fire into the room to menace several of the clerics, including the head cleric that was leading the ceremony.
Gorin, thoroughly disgusted by the 'lets jump through the window' approach, enters the building from the front, disguised as a late arrival to the cleric's circle. He slips into the fray, and stabs the head cleric in the back. Her lifeless body thumps to the floor with a satisfying thud. Funny, she didn't look that bad off when he stabbed her... must have something to do with the knife.
The party quickly dispatches the remaining clerics, and at the same time, Malena ceases to struggle against Cathon in the garden.
All is quiet once more, and as the party catches their breath, they wonder if anyone heard the attack.
Previously: Live and Let Die
Continued in: View to a Kill
Campaign 3 Index
