While the townsfolk of Tramàr partied into the night, Qaelik Xek and Kasandra Plane Shifted to the Elemental Plane of Ice where Qaelik had placed Talgo's sphere during the battle which freed the town.

After manifesting a fire wall to melt the ice and snow in search of the sphere, Qaelik returned to the material plane while Kasandra, detecting growling sounds, went to investigate.

The growling sounds eminated from two yeti who were fighting over what appeared to be a human corpse. When one yeti became the victor, Kasandra dominated the creature and commanded it to bring her to its lair. Along with the body.

Within the Yeti's cave, Kasandra nursed the human back to life while Qaelik and Fred the gnome, now returned to the Plane of Ice, tracked Kasandra to the cave. In order to go undetected, Qaelik manifested a box which the two wore as a disguise. (?)

Hearing sounds outside the cave, Kasandra exited to find Qaelik and Fred wandering around under a box and brought them back to the yeti's lair. The human, Delfan Lemans, told them that he was part of an expedition in the north of Cærlon (the westernmost continent) who had been sent from Veradün to investigate the Barbarian northlands.

Kasandra then dominated him and attempted to command him to obey her, but Lemans' loyalty to his commander and his mission allowed him to break free of her influence. Now recognizing her as a vampire, he drew his sword, a magic, silver weapon, and the two fought.

Despite his martial prowess, Lamans fell to Kasandra's executioner's blade and was cut in half. The party raided his corpse, then left the cave to continue the search for Talgo's Sphere.

The storm had ended, and now, the party could see into the distance where a massive city rose up from the ice. Teleporting there, Qaelik was amazed by the sheer size of the city, with walls so high, he was unable to fly over them.

Teleporting inside, Qaelik and Fred looked around as Kasandra, her flight augmented by GM Fiat, flew toward the city in dire-bat form. Once there, she shifted to gaseous form and slipped through the massive doors to the city beyond. Forming behind Qaelik, she spoke suddenly, startling him and causing him to sprint 260 feet in a northerly direction.

The city was huge, but uninhabited. Searching the metropolis from the air, the party discovered that it was built as a massive ring around a liquid lake upon which sat an island, the only inhabitant of which was a massive crystalline tree, so huge, it would take days to walk around its base.

Frozen within the tree were thousands upon thousands of giants, though it was impossible to determine whether they were simply frozen, or whether they were dead. Qaelik manifested a fire wall to thaw one out, discovering that it was indeed, dead.

Leaving the Plane, the party returned to Tramàr to rejoin the rest of the party. Kasandra returned to her coffin while the rest of the party went to get some rest.

Kryslyn, the Priestess of Ariyel, sitting on the roof of the inn, enjoying the wind, saw a cloud of dust in the distance. As it approached, she saw that it was caused by a column of troops headed through the town.

Kyle awoke to the sound of the troops entering the village and went to investigate as Qaelik, also alerted by the sounds, lept from his second-story window and ran to ask what was going on.

While several members of the party assumed that the troops were there in search of them for having escaped from prison, the leader of the troops informed them that the column was the 108th Fusiliers out of Port Væn, traveling to Diopolis.

In addition, the fusilier captain informed them that King Darius XIII had issued an order for the Grand Duke to step down from his position as regent of Amalthion. When the Grand Duke refused, the King sent vessels to attack the city.

The war had begun.

Saturday, May 26, 2007

In the first two Winds of War adventures, the Xeph, Qaelik Xek, while traveling through the ætherial plane, noticed a major city in the material realm. He decided to pop into town in his ongoing quest to find and sell items of magical power. Upon appearing between a merchant and a buyer however, Qaelik was assumed to be an arcane caster -- which has been all but outlawed in Amalthion. Hopping forward a minute in time, he appeared just in time to be arrested by the guards.

Meanwhile, Zynais, a cleric of Eryseydyn, the goddess of Luck, was asked by her High Preist to go around town and spread the gospel of luck. She went to a few taverns to play at Dice and won several ânar (gold pieces) in the game. As she played, the bard, Lumiere (or Lucifer, or just "Fred"), entered and began to perform the bagpipes.

As Zynais began to collect her winnings, another player -- who had obviously been cheating -- flipped the table and started a bar brawl. Zynais cast Obscuring Mist and hid in a corner while Fred the Bard continued playing until a brawler attempted to strike him.

The town guard showed up a moment later and arrested everyone including Zynais (whom they assumed was an arcane caster trying to disguise herself as a cleric) and Fred.

In gaol (or "jail" or "the constabulary lock-up") Zynais and Fred met Qaelik and a young woman who looked distraught over being jailed. Obviously an arcane caster, she was fitted with grimstone manacles (as was Qaelik and Zynais, but not Fred). The substance incurs a Caster Level check in order to cast spells while it is on one's person.

Calling her weasel, Luken, Zynais instructed the animal (with a 23 Handle Animal check) to get the keys to the cells and manacles. The weasel returned moments later with said keys, and the group was freed. The girl in the fourth cell thanked the group for freeing her and vanished into a Dimension Door -- She really was an arcane caster.

To escape the jail, Qaelik took Zynais and Fred into the ætherial plane where they went first to the Temple of Eryseydyn to retrieve Zynais' belongings and then to Fred's house to retrieve his. Both places were soon searched by the Civil Guard, though thanks to Qaelik's teleportation abilities, they were not caught.

The group left the New City, entering the Peasants' quarters and traveled to the Three Crowns Tavern where they met a well-dressed man and an unassociated mystery-man in one corner. As they sat having dinner, a small, elfin woman wearing a cloak entered. She sat in one corner with her hood up until approached by the well-dressed man who assumed that the four (Zynais, Qaelik, Fred and the new woman) were part of the same party. He seemed to assume that the mystery-man in the corner was also a member.

He told the party of a man in a town called Mertzer, who had acquired an artifact. He told the party that he wanted this artifact removed from the man who currently held it, though aside from that, he wanted nothing to do with it. He offered information in exchange for this object, and the party decided that the task just might be worth their trouble. After this exchange, the girl, Kasandra drew her sword and attempted to attack the well-dressed man's table. The hooded man blocked her sword and revealed himself as a vampire. Kasandra immediately recognized the glowing red eyes which matched her own as another undead being.

After the party left, all but the vampire, Kasandra, went to retreive their traveling clothes with the teleportation assistance of Qaelik. As they retrieved Fred's belongings, they heard a knock at the door. It was Brüninel, Fred's next-door-neighbor, a nosy gnome with a penchant for gossip. They shooed her away, ensuring her that everything was alright, though a few moments later, the Civil Guard showed up. They attempted to ram through the door, but failed, as they never rolled higher than a 5 on their Break DC checks.

Meanwhile, Kasandra, who had turned four guards into vampire spawn, reported to the town guard (with a Disguise check of 31), that an arcane caster and a vampire were in town. The guard immediately wrote down her report and filed it, making the city slightly less safe for the well-dressed man and the hooded mystery-man.

Escaping the town guard, the party began traveling southeast toward the next city on the map, Port Væn. A small city of 7,000 people, it is the first stop on the road to Diopolis.

Meanwhile, the Grand Duke's retainier, Kyle Elric, was instructed to locate an artifact that the Grand Duke's loremasters insisted was a danger. Kyle was instructed to ride with Kryslyn, a cleric of Ariyel, the Goddess of WInd, to Mertzer, where the artifact was last seen. The two of them set out by Mistrunner ship, making the trip to Port Væn in two solid days.

The rest of the party, traveling by horse, arrived in Port Væn on the fourth day, two days after Kyle and Kryslyn had left. They went about town shopping while Kasandra and Qaelik retired to her wagon for an hour of... Stuff.

The party left Port Væn at the end of the third day and continued on to Tramàr, a newly established thorpe a day's ride from Port Væn. Meanwhile, Kyle and Kryslyn, having arrived in Tramàar, discovered that all was not well. The villagers were hiding, and a dark mood had fallen in town.

Making camp for the night, Kryslyn and Kyle watched for anything strange, though neither of them could see the trouble brewing right outside their tent.

A kind of temporal distortion was occuring, and Kasandra, Qaelik, Fred and Zynais all arrived at the same time while for Kyle and Kryslyn, only a single night had passed. Leaving her retainers at the edge of the city, Kasandra entered to see wisps of darkness all over the town. She dominated the local barkeep and demanded to know what was going on. All he would say is that the town had been taken over by Them.

Walking to the Town Hall, Kasandra, Zynais, Kyle and Kryslyn entered to find five priests standing around a dark orb sitting on a pedestal. Kasandra immediately blended with shadow (rolling a Hide check of 43) while Kryslyn opened the door to the outside to discover that there was nothing beyond it: They were trapped in an extradimensional pocket.

Kasandra demanded to know what was happening, appearing near what looked like the head priest. The black orb responded by demanding her obedience. She paused, waiting to see what the orb offered.

Qaelik and Fred entered the town hall as well, but instead of the five priests, the orb and the rest of the party, they saw only the town hall, a forty-by-sixty room with an octagonal podium in the center.

Then, the orb folded space-time, desecrating the already unhallowed area, and the whole party was transported into the room with the five priests. All five turned and attacked the party, though they were dispatched by Kasandra's sword and Qaelik's and Kyle's fire-control abilities.

As the sphere threatened the party, Qaelik bolted up and grabbed it, then Plane Shifted to the elemental realm of Ice. Burying the sphere in the snow, he Shifted back to the party. A moment later, an abominable snowman picked up the sphere, but dropped it again as it felt icky to the creature.

The town, now free of the sphere's influence, threw a party in the party's honor. They offered them whatever they asked for, and the party thanked them for the meal, then moved on.

Next week: Ventzra and Kalamane.

After three years, finally an update. >:P