Hey Readers,
It seems that I am just destined to always be late on all of these, and once again you have my sincere apologies. I will be writing two sessions today, the first one (below) is last weeks adventure. The one that I will be writing this afternoon was this weeks adventure. I swear that I will get back on a regular track, really I swear. For now though why don't I just tell you what happened last week...
So the adventurer's came out of the tunnel on the west side of the Ridgeback Mountains. Following their guide they were brought to Xiang Dei. Their guide told them that he would be taking them before the head of the resistance, and knowing that they still needed to complete their mission they had no reason not to follow their guide to speak with the man who held power in this part of the world. When they were brought through a back door into the Magistrate's office however, they thought they had gone from the frying pan and into the fire. It turned out however that the Vin-Yhoi Magistrate WAS in fact the leader of what they called the Weipo Resistence. Magistrate Quan was more then happy to meet with them when they arrived. He informed them that any enemy of Vin-Yhoi was gladly an ally of his. He then asked the companions what they had done to earn the enmity of Emperor Woo. Looking at one another, remembering what had happened the last time they had truthfully told their story, they hesitated, but in the end Namsuri stepped forward and told truthfully of their plight. The Magistrate, for his credit, did not interrupt, did not doubt there story, he simply sat and listened and seemed to weigh their words. After the story had been told, he offered the party rooms in his estate. Gladly taking the respite the party bunked down for the night, and in the morning were called back before the Magistrate. Magistrate Quan informed them that he believed in their story, and that he was willing to help them as much as he could in the future, if they would be willing to help him and his people now. Seeing there mission coming to a success the party agree whole-heartedly. The Magistrate informed them that the Emperor had become informed of the party's escape, and he thought that the agent in his dungeon giving away that they had a secret tunnel, which they had still not found, was testament to the importance of the prisoners that they had been. He told them that the Emperor had marched his legions, and that they were arriving on shore and through the small mountain pass even as the conversation was being had. He told the party that he needed them at one of the later landings on a secluded beach near the base of the mountains. There would be 20 ships making landfall there, and he needed them to be there to torch the boats as soon as they were able. They were confused as why all he needed them to do was torch the boats, but he was insistent that the particular act of putting flame to the boats would office for all that was planned. The adventurer's agreed and were giving horses to set out that night to get into position.
Riding hard the group arrived in the low dunes by the secluded beach in time to see the boats land, and see the army march of of them. 20 boats, with 100 soldiers per boat put 1000 men on the beach between the boats and the party. Seeing their cake walk disappear the party came up quickly with a new plan. Namsuri would sneak around and travel through the water to each boat and set a fire below decks where it would take longer for the men on the beach to notice. At the first sign that someone was noticing, Raistlin and Ulemon were going to create a distraction to draw the army's attention away from Namsuri, quickly setting fire to all of the other boats. The plan worked fairly to perfection. Namsuri had set fire to the bilge rooms and 3 of the boats, and was moving on to the tenth when luck finally left him. A soldier was aboard and Namsuri had to quickly hide or be spotted. Hiding behind a ladder, Namsuri bid his time, and at the right moment, with as much force as he could muster, he struck from the shadows. With a gurgle the man died. Namsuri quickly lit the fire but was spotted as he was leaving the boat by one of the soldiers friends that was waiting for the man that Namsuri had skewered to come back. Namsuri, for his part, immediately cast vanish and made his way to the next boat, but now the man was advancing with a few others on Namsuri's position. Ulemon and Raistlin had a decision to make, no one had spotted the fires on the other boats yet, but they saw the men advancing toward where they knew that Namsuri was going to be setting his next fire. Holding their actions they waited and held their breath. Luckily Namsuri set his fire and made his way to the next ship before he was discovered. Keeping up vanish spells now as he moved between ships he continued his job. As he moved to the 13th ship though he heard a yell, turned and saw smoke, and then saw as a giant fireball exploded by one of the cook fires. Ignoring his silent fire setting, he began lighting torches, and running down the line of remaining boats throwing them up onto the deck simply to start the fires as quickly as possible now that the jig was up. Raistlin and Ulemon for their part had just seen a man walking toward the first boat Namsuri had set fire, and they waited hoping against hope that he would be unaware. Moments later though the worst happened as at a run he started back to the campfires yelling about the boat being on fire. Raistlin took him with a scorching ray, and before anyone knew what was truly happening he fire balled the closest cook fire, but even in the chaos, their position was now known to the enemy. So even as Namsuri was firing the rest of the boats, Ulemon was taking position in front of Raistlin to give him cover as they kicked the hornets nest again with another fireball to keep the attention off of Namsuri. Ulemon held his ground even as he was rushed by the first five fastest runners. Even as Raistlin burned one down with another scorching ray Ulemon was among the remaining four, keeping them back from Raistlin as he continued to cast spells to create as much confusion as possible. The soldiers, although obviously trained, had trouble striking Ulemon as he fought from between them, but with his caster safely out of the way Uemon had no qualms about where he could or could not thrust a sword. Finishing the four soldiers in what seemed to be record time Ulemon readied himself for the next wave. Five more more running across the sand toward him, and even as two went down to a well placed fireball, the other three were on Ulemon like jackals on a carcass, taking damage now, Ulemon still fought them off, and reset himself as the rest of the army seemed to be coming at him all at once. He took his stance and readied himself for what would probably be his last stand. When all of a sudden he felt a hand on his shoulder. "Warrior, our job is done, the boats are aflame, quickly, let us withdraw" Ulemon heard the words Raistlin spoke, and for the first time in his life was glad to not have to fight. Turning with Raistlin they made their way into the dunes, and with a few quick spells later, were completely obscured from the searching enemy. For Namsuri's part, he was making his way back to where they had left their horses when he saw a hail of black arrows come out of the darkness and strike targets near the campfires. Specifically targets that had moments before been shouting orders to the men. Not having seen the archers themselves, and assuming that he would not be a target, Namsuri made his way back to the horses and met up with Ulemon and Raistlin. Thankful that they had all made it away safely they rode back to Xiang Dei.
Arriving back into Xiang Dei they found themselves in a carnival atmosphere. Emperor Woo had sent a sending to the Magistrate declaring his renouncing of all claim to the new Nation of Weipo. The now Emperor Quan, welcomed back the party as conquering heroes and threw a feast in their honor. During the feast he informed them that as repayment for their duty to Weipo, that he would right it into the laws, that in the future if Volunthus came to Weipo for aid… they would find it. The party went well into the night, and when the party found themselves in the morning they had fresh horses, and the new Emperor had provided them with a map of the route they had told him that they planned to travel. Wishing them luck on their mission, the Emperor bid them goodbye, and they parted the city as friends, and dare say it heroes of Weipo. Half a day down the road, when they stopped for a midday break Namsuri who was keeping watch heard to beings walking toward them through the woods. Before the party could see them they heard the argument the pair seemed to be having, thus their weapons had all been put away by the time that Donovan and Davin had entered their camp. Demanding that the dwarves send them back to the own time, the dwarves looked shocked… "but you sell have other objectives on the quest that you have undertaken…" the dwarves tried to argue. Well one argument and a few Knowledge History checks later turned out that the names on the list that they had been given, were not all from the same time period, and with that knowledge, the party allowed Donovan and Davin to speed them along to their next "time". With the spell being cast, and a flash around them, the group found themselves suddenly in the desert. Quickly taking their bearings, the party moved northeast to the City-State of Oasis. Upon entering the city, the party made their way to the grand bazaar. All seemed as it should be and they quickly found out that they were now 215 years before their own time. The only problem they had was Raistlin getting dirty looks from some people who still remembered the horrors the black robes had committed during the War of Magic, but other then the slight prejudice, the party had no problem making purchases and getting a quick lay of the land. As the light started to fade to the west, the party made their way to the Shaw's palace. Speaking to the Shaw's Majordomo, they were led to a waiting room to wait for their audience. It was not until five hours later that the party was led in to see the Shaw. However, none of them had complained as the waiting room was outfitted with food, drink and harem slave girls enough for ten men. Being called into the Shaw's audience chamber they walked into a six sided room, with a throne sitting on a slightly raised in front of the wall directly ahead of the door they had entered through. Having taken the lay of the land, doing some quick research, and having remembered some of the History of Quastalia, the party was ready, and came to the Shaw with an offer of assistance in helping him to convince his rivals to see the promise in his plan that he would present the next day at the first "Desert Conference" that would take place between all of the leaders of the Eastern Desert. The Shaw, sat quietly and listened to their proposal, and when they were finished quickly snapped his fingers and the room started filling with guards. As the doors closed again he rose, and spoke for the first time, as he walked off his dais toward the group, his Majordomo behind him. "I have to clue how you learned of my plans, but you will rot in the dungeon until they come to fruition, I will not have you spoiling everything" With that the guards advanced. Seeing that is was all a misunderstanding, the party tried to simply hold their ground, the guards for their part were not trying to kill them, simply trying to disarm and capture them. But as soon as Ulemon made for one of the exits all of that changed. The Shaw threatened the rest of the party with death if Ulemon did not stop. Having no desire to see his friends killed he stopped, and surrendered. It was then that Namsuri took a chance and explained to the Shaw exactly what all was going on…
That was where last weeks session stopped, on that amazing cliff hanger. It was really fun watching the party make all of their plans and everything to have them thwarted by the fact that they had given the Shaw no reason to trust HOW they had acquired all of the information that he had told less then five people. It is always fun running a battle where no one is really trying to kill anyone else, although deaths did occur. Stupid Wizards and their spiked pits, and Kitsune bite attacks that crit ON TOP of sneak attack damage. Anyway, I hope to have this weeks adventure up soon. Now that I finally have some free time. Until next time fans, may your dice only fumble when your life is not in danger, and may you see 20's when they annoy your DM the most…
-DM Eraser
No comments:
Post a Comment