To Volunthus and Back Again...

Sorry for this post being a little bit later in the day then usual. busy day today at the office.

This week's blog will be a fun one folks, the session last night was absolutely wonderful from both a game point of view, and the point of view that I am about to have a lot of fun writing about it. So let's get to it….

We had left the week before with the party, sans their Dark Cleric friend, following the King's Huntmaster out of the city in pursuit of the wagon that escaped with Titus Chrysan on board. Well the party with minimal help from the King's man, tracked the wagon's departure, and with their fast horses they were quickly on its trail. It was simply three days of hard riding for the wagon to be in their sights, and then the chase was on. The Driver of the wagon looked back and saw the party, and as he whipped the horse team the wagon shot forward, surging with new speed. The party, their horses winded from the hard riding, were struggling to keep up. Tariel, drawing his bow from horseback, and stringing an arrow while imbuing it with his magical energies pulled the bowstring taut and fired, in an effort to slow the wagon so they could catch up...

Let me stop here and reiterate something for all of you DM/GM's out there. There are only so many things that you can fudge during a session, and unfortunately your player's rolls are not on that list. So when your player's tell you that they want to do something absolutely crazy, like firing a bow, from horse back, at full gallop, in the second range increment, at a target with soft cover, while having no mounted archery feats… there isn't anything you can do to stop him, and you had better be ready for all of your carefully crafted plans to fall apart. Anyway, lets get back to the action.

…and the arrow took the lead horse, of the team pulling the wagon, straight through the head. The horse died  instantly, falling to the ground, and the rest of the team harnessed to the lead horse went down as well. The wagon, its team down, but still with all of it's momentum, plowed the front end into the ground and then flipped onto its top. The driver died instantly when the heavy wagon flipped over with him sitting on the driver's bench, not a pretty sight when they found him. The four men on the inside, were all alive, but had been knocked unconscious, as head their prisoner, Titus Chrysan. With a little magical healing, Titus was up and about, and didn't seem any of the worse for wear, and as the team tied up the kidnappers and righted the wagon, they decided that it would be best to take Titus straight to Volunthus, where he could fulfill the destiny that Lucineo's High Priest of North Portsmith had predicted.

That's right, the entire chase sequence was negated when a one-in-a-million shot killed the lead horse. Which leads me to my Tip of the Day, "If something has a One-in-a-Million shot, that's the one you want to bet on, because another word for one-in-a-million, is a sure thing"

Finding no trouble on their way to the Fortress Volunthus, although the party did see a thick and rather large column of smoke coming from northwest of their position, the party made the journey quite quickly. It was when the came within sight of the city that the party was struck speechless by the 100ft tall white marble wall that ran around the entirety of the metropolis-sized city that sat within. Entering the city, they found a guard, and requested an audience with the leader of the Fortress/City. Without any debate they were taken before Commander James Sandoval, a Knight of the Protectorate, the highest class of Knighthood know to the Knights of Volunthus. Being taken to his office, in the spire of the Volunthus Keep, they were treated to the best view in the city as they could look out at the mountains to the south and the north ad the rolling plains laid out past the eastern and western walls. Commander Sandoval did not seem to be surprised at their claim that Titus, the King of Chrysanthus's brother, was to be the savior of the Realm. He simply called in his High Cleric, a Knight of the Eagle, and asked him to verify the truth of the words that the party was speaking. With that done, Titus went with Sandoval's men, and Sandoval listened to the party tell him about the fire they had seen while traveling to Volunthus. He had already heard from a patrol that had been in the area of the fire, but the fact that the kidnappers had been trying to take Titus in that direction was a cause for questioning. Making a decision rather quickly, Commander Sandoval offered the party a scouting contract, to work in concert with the Knighthood. The party quickly excepted the offer, and after a night's rest they set off to see what was going on in the Elven Woods.

Traveling quickly, armed with some Sending Scrolls given to them by Commander Sandoval's aide, the party made their way toward the Elven Woods. Along the way as they slowed for a midday respite, they were ambushed by a group of men whose dress marked them as allies to the kidnappers who had taken Titus. Easily defeating the ambushers, the final two men turned to flee. Managing to get out of range of the party, the men did not slow, but a figure dressed in a robe of the purest black stepped from the forest, and with a word and a gesture the two men burst into flames. With his job seemingly accomplished, the dark robed figure twirled once and with the spin of his robes was gone, having teleported away. The ambush, along with the weird actions of the dark robed man, had the adventurers on edge, and because of this they were prepared for anything as they entered the Elven Woods. It was this added perceptiveness that allowed them to see the figures following them through the treetops, and without hesitation the party gave chase. Unfortunately this insight, and dogged determination to catch the watchers, led them straight into a trap. As they pulled up their horses and stared down the double line of Elven archers whose bows were drawn taut, arrows fitted and waiting to be fired. Slowly, beginning with Namsuri, the group raised their hands in surrender, and as they did, suddenly almost as if from the wind itself, an elf stood between them. His name was Lyaether, and he was a Captain of the Protectors, the elite Western Elven Rangers who protected their kingdom. After a brief apology by the party for chasing the scouts, and an even briefer apology by Lyaether for doing his job. Namsuri and Ulemon got down to the business of informing Lyaether of their mission, and asking him for any information that he might be able to provide. Lyaether, being very helpful after the initial misunderstanding, informed them that the army, for that is what they were chasing, had made a half-hearted run at the Mistrheal capital, before being immediately thrown back by the city's defenses. After retreating, they had skirted to the west of the city, but had kept to a mostly northerly route. Thanking Lyaether for his information, the party once again mounted up and started off in chase of this black army. Crossing through two other patrols of elves, with similar experiences, the party finally came to the edge of the Elven Woods. In front of them on the rolling plains they saw the black swath off in the distance that would be the black army that they sought. Seeing it heading still north, Raistlin cast a Sending Scroll to inform Commander Sandoval of their progress, and also to have him get word to Port City that they could be under attack next. Chasing as fast as their horses would carry them, the party caught up with the black army as they were busy sacking the city of Wonder. Dismounting and sneaking through the streets, the party came to the center of town where the noise and the smoke of burning buildings was thickest.

Tariel, being the first to spot the enemy among the smoke and flames drew back his bow... and the bowstring snapped. Looking at the bow in disbelief he didn't move as Namsuri and Ulemon rushed past him and attacked the two soldiers who stood at the intersection. Raistlin, not to be out done by his martial allies, pointed his staff and intoned the words of a spell, and one of the soldiers fell to his knees as his body burst into flames. The other was made short work of by Ulemon and Namsuri. Moving on from the intersection, the party saw city guards fighting in all directions. Tariel, drawing his reserve bow, took off to the west with Namsuri in his wake, as Ulemon and Raistlan charged north.

Note to GM/DM's if your players have a chance to split the party, you will hear two schools of thought on the matter. The 1st, is that by splitting the party, that they will arrive at the objective sooner by clearing the "minions" in two directions at once. the 2nd is the age old phrase "Never ever split the party" or my personal favorite "What? Is this an episode of Scooby-Doo?" Be prepared for both, and you will always be covered.

As the two prongs of the party split to help as many of the city guards as possible they worked their way quickly through the city. Namsuri, during a brief respite as he waited for two soldiers to come into range saw the same man in the black robes casting spells on a small group of fighters before again teleporting away from the battle. Having split from Tariel, who had taken off in a different direction to help yet more guards, Namsuri fought a delaying action as he slowly withdrew back to the last intersection where he had seen Tariel. Luckily, Raistlin had come around the corner behind the soldiers, and after dispatching the wounded man with a magic missile, he stepped up and provided a distraction for Namsuri who used his opponent's lack of defensive to lunge forward and rip out his throat with a single savage bite.

Just another quick sidebar here people. Bite is a fairly minor attack. For a Kitsune it is only 1d4 damage, and if you don't have a strength score to bump it, that much damage isn't going to threaten anyone. But as part of a full round attack, when it crits, and the opponent is flatfooted, and the said attacker is a rouge with sneak attack, well lets just say that bite is AWESOME.

Tariel on the other hand found himself also fighting off two opponents as he was rushed when the city guard he was moving to save fell with a sword sticking out of his chest. Being pushed into melee combat he quickly dropped his bow and drew his longsword, and that is when he knew he was in trouble. In fact he was on his last legs when Namsuri and Raistlin came up and flanked his opponents and put them down before they could do the same to Tariel. For the moment they had no opponents between themselves and the center of the city, and they took off to find the source of the fighting.

Meanwhile, Ulemon, had teamed up with a city guardsman, and they had been cutting a path through the black clad soldiers as though they were mere wind-up toys. Picking up more and more guardsman as he kept up his slow and steady progress, he eventually came to a long boulevard. The guardsmen, seeing friends and civilians, and not being as heavily burdened in their armor as Ulemon was, rushed forward, leaving Ulemon to try to catch up. At the same time that he was running toward a large unburned building with a host of soldiers in front of it, his companions were approaching it from the opposite side. Putting an end to the last soldiers on the cross street they had found. Tariel, Namsuri and Raistlin had a front row seat for what was to come. As if materializing out of thin air, a huge Black Dragon appeared its leathery wings beating the air as it hovered over the Temple of Tyr that sat at the center of town. They looked up, and at the top of the stairs to the temple stood three men in red stained armor, who had been holding the doorway against all comers. They watched as these men saw the Dragon, just as it reared back its head, and spewed forth a great blast of acid. The men fall screaming in pain, as did half of the attackers on the steps. If that wasn't enough, they saw that a being riding the dragon was also casting a spell, and as he finished the top of the stairway burst into flames. Seeing that the last of the black clad soldiers were fleeing the city in the wake of the destruction of the face of the temple, the party saw as the man on the dragon began casting another spell. Knowing that time was short, the party, each and everyone of them acted swiftly. Ulemon throwing his sword quickly drew his longbow and tried to fire a shot through the flames and smoke at the dragon, but due to the length of the shot, and the poor condition it fell short. His companions on the other hand seemed to be having better luck. Namsuri saw that the wizard, for that is what he had to be was trying to teleport himself and his dragon out of combat. Raistlin, his combat spells depleted from the earlier fighting, turned and bestowed a spell upon Tariel, and Tariel, who had reclaimed his bow before hastening to the center of the city, put all of his remaining magical ability into the one shot that he aimed at the wizard upon the dragon's back...

...As he released the shot, many things happened at once. The wizard saw the shot, and through the use of a quickened deflection spell sent the arrow just enough off course that it hit his magical shield, where it deposited its scorching ray spell with a small burst of fire, without doing any damage to the wizard, as his second quickened spell took Tariel off of his feet and deposited him on his backside as his bow snapped in two in his hands, and the wizard finished his spell and he and his dragon teleported away from the battle.

That is where the session ended for the night. For the record. Tariel blew an Arcane Point into his bow, as well as Raistlin casting True Strike on him, and the Scorching Ray he empowered the arrow with, he was shooting with a MASSIVE bonus to damage, that ANY wizard would have had to worry about, and he was doing this with a +31 to his attack roll. But as the dice giveth, they taketh away. A 1 is a 1 is a 1, and it doesn't matter what your bonus to hit is, if you roll a 1, it is simply a waste of time and spells. We all had a good laugh as there was really no harm done to the party, with the exception of Tariel's reserve bow biting the metaphorical dust. It was a fun session and the party, whether they realized it or not, uncovered a lot of plot that they would have to deal with in the next few sessions to come. It would seem that an army clad in black had made its way through the western part of the Realm, and now they had to find out why.

But until next time readers... may your axes fall quickly and your arrows always strike the intended target...

-Eraser