The Splitting Of The Order

The group descends to the water below after their battle in the skies with the Dred Pirate Cortez.

They hope to use the debris raining down from their battle and use the cantrip mending to repair their ship. They spend the better portion of the day and stand back to admire their work. It is capable but they have only completed a fraction of the repairs necessary.

They debate about how to best repair the rest of the ship as well as remove the massive amount of water they have been taking on in their bilge since coming to a rest on the seas. But sleep is a more pressing necessity so they take their positions in the ship and try to find rest.

Captain Araxie first must kick out Sang Yu from her bed. Sang Yu complains that it smells horrible in the quarters below. She complains very loudly all the way out of the captain's quarters, along the deck and then to the bunks below.

Lithonnites In The Night
2,800 XP

Sleep has not come to some before their is a sound from outer hull and Araxie notices her ship list in the waters from a change in weight. Soon enough everyone is up as they see long thick tentacles reaching over the railings. They grab for Captain Araxie on one side of the ship and Maddox's wolf companion on the other.  As they begin their battle, the creatures reveal themselves as large crustacean-like creatures. Looking more like boulders or oversized barnacles, the creatures are very resistance to the groups attacks.

It is not until Creed pushes one of the creatures over and sees it's soft underbelly that they find an easier way to kill these creatures. Soon enough they are either dead or thrown off the ship. It is not until they creatures are disposed of that the group sees the further damage these creatures did to their ship.

The next day the group begins their debate anew. What to do with the now extra damage. The eladrin high sorcerer, Taeilis suggests that he can teleport them to his temple which is very close to Baldur's gate, given enough time and gold. It will take him about 5 hours.

The others use this time to scour the ship to remove anything of worth before abandoning their ship. Araxie moves through the crew bunks to find only odds and ends as well as more than few copper pieces.

Rebirth
3,600 XP

Maddox moves through the minting and forging area and finally to the galley. The galley is in a horrible state. Tam, Maddox's ward, does not keep a clean kitchen. He has been cooking for everyone for the past few days but these duties, it seems, does not include cleaning up afterwards. The smell of rot is strong. Moving further forward he approaches a curtained off area. Moving the curtain aside, the smell of rot becomes overpowering. Piles of dead fish and other refuse is piled high.

Maddox stares in horror at the filth. It is then that he notices it move.

He retreats to the upper deck to get Creed. Together they return to the filth pile. It moves again and when Maddox puts he sword into the pile, a large naga rears out of the pile.

It is not as large as the mind control naga that they had encountered in the village but it is definitely related. It lunges at Maddox and attaches it needle lined maw around Maddox's head. Together Maddox and Creed battle the naga but when the worm-like creature breathes out a stinking foul cloud, both Maddox and Creed can hear both the naga and Tam in their heads. They are told to surrender themselves to "the one." They are also commanded to kill anyone who is not of "the one".

Maddox moves back down the length of the hold and first encounters Sang Yu. She at first seems puzzled by his demeanor but her look changes quickly when he slashes down his sword on her killing her instantly. He then moves to his groomsmen. It takes and extra swing for the old man but he too falls under Maddox's sword.

When Creed finally breaks the mind control he sees the naga again for the enemy it is and attacks and kills the naga. The mind control thus broken, Maddox looks down at the carnage he has wrought and screams for a diamond. He holds his old friend, his groomsmen for years and calls for a diamond for a resurrection spell.

No one has one.

Graveyard of ships

Meanwhile, Kame who is swimming in the sea, calls out to Araxie to follow him down to the bottom of the water. She immediately jumps in and swims down following the turtle. Below them is a collection of broken and sunken ships littering the sea bed. Kame doesn't stop there or go in any of them but continues down a small hole in the floor of the sea. They swim into darkness and then the tunnel turns up. They both emerge into a air filled cavern. Araxie climbs out and moves cautiously down a path. From what she can see and hear this system of tunnels probably holds more than a few caves and tunnels. There is a smattering of gold pieces that trails off down one of the tunnels.

Fearing that whatever lies ahead will take more than her and a turtle she returns to the surface. Excited to tell the others she climbs aboard and begins telling them of what she and Kame have found but it falls on deaf ears as she sees the dead bodies.

Maddox tells Taeilis to get back to working on the teleportation circle. They need to get out of here.

A Temple Robbery?

Once the teleportation circle is completed they step through to a temple. It is full of activity of young eladrin students practicing magic. Taeilis tries to get them out of the temple quickly and quietly but Araxie will have none of it. She complains loudly that she is owed the money for a new airship.

She doesn't quite know how much but she shouts out an amount, 50,000 gp.
She continues to harass Taeilis until he finally relents. He ushers them down a series of corridors until he comes to a large circular metal door. The temples treasure room. He uses misty step and enters the room. He procures a large bag of holding and stuffs enough emeralds and gold pieces to make up the cost of a new airship.

How this will go over with the temple is not quite clear but they leave before questions can be asked.

Finally, they arrive back in Baldur's Gate.

Onthar Frume's Wonder Ale

As they enter into the city they pass through what is normally a heavily guarded gate. The lone guard is doing a poor job of scrutinizing people as he finally sees Maddox and Araxie, both high ranking officers of The Order Of The Obsidian Dagger.

Once they tell him that they have been away for some months, they learn that there has been some difficulties for both the Order and the city in general, after the assassination of the previous leader of the Order, Ondine. He explains that Onthar probably would be better to explain.

Once inside the city walls, they notice that there are much fewer Order soldiers as there normally would be. People seem to be in good spirits regardless, if a little bit more rowdy. Creed passes an odd advertisement poster on a wall that catches his eye.

On the poster is the likeness of Onthar Frume's smiling face as he holds a wooden flagon of frothy drink. On the flagon is a smiling cartoon dragon with it's thumbs up. In large red writing at the top of the poster is the words "Wonder Ale" and below Onthar's image are the words, "Onthar Says, "Have one right now!"

Odd, but they continue on.

They approach the lower city's keep and they can immediately tell that something dire has occurred. The large towers of the keep are damaged and burned. As they get closer they can see parts of the keep's walls are damaged and burned as well. Inside the keeps walls they enter a side entrance to a less damaged area and fine a sparsely furnished large room with Onthar at the far end dealing with administrative tasks.



Reporting The Death Of Stool
2,000 XP (for completing the mission)

After informing Onthar of their mission, the deaths of the fugitives as well as Stool, the Emperor and his fire monks, possible prisoners and their various encounters they listen to Onthar as he fills them in on what has happened in the city while they were away.

The Splitting Of The Order

After Ondine's assassination by the fugitives the group was in pursuit of, the Order was split into those who followed the philosophies and practices of Ondine and those who were loyal to Onthar.

Onthar represented the old school Order. The oaths and the discipline.
Those who followed Ondine valued power and the money it brought.

The war was quick but brutal. The followers of Ondine, calling themselves the Order Of Wend, retreating into the mountains but not before capturing several prisoners, some quite important. Orson Goosecry, was the chancellor for the Order and thus knew where the Order's money was kept and how to retrieve it. Anyone else who seemed to know is either on the other side or dead. The Order has no money. There is also a very important individual that needs to be rescued.

Onthar pauses in his oration to call for drinks. A young soldier brings a large platter containing wooden flagons emblazoned on the side with the image of a cartoon dragon giving the thumbs up. Wonder Ale.

Onthar tells them of the miracle story that is Wonder Ale. A small family has re-energized the economy of Baldur's Gate with their amazing drink. A whole industry has been built up to support the drink. Flagon makers, street market vendors, poster makers and distributors. They will begin to export this wonderful drink across Faerun soon. Besides, allowing his face and endorsement, earns the Order a percentage and that is dearly needed at this time. The endorsement is heartily and easily given anyway.

Each of the group takes a drink and finds it the most pleasant and pleasing drink they have ever tasted. It takes a bit of convincing but finally Maddox gives in, despite his paladin beliefs, and he too questions his life long abstinence from alcohol.

A Dangerous Road
10,00 XP

The group then splits going it's various ways as a new group is formed from within the Order for the rescue mission.

H, the newly contracted researcher into firearms and munitions, is selected as is Vall, a warlock.

The new group leaves Baldur's Gate immediately and sets off towards the mountains. It is not long before H pulls his two-horse drawn cart off the road and examines the road ahead. He had noted a whiff of smoke on the wind and senses someone is up ahead.

The others disembark from the wagon, and soon arrows are flying. The group takes cover and tries to determine where the attacks are coming from.

The battle is fierce with many coming close to death.
H uses his red dragon mask to ignite his bullets to great effect as the enemy realizes it is hard to take cover from his newly invented firearm. This does not help him though, when he is banished to a hellish plane. That is until Vall distracts the mage enough for the mage to loose the spell and H pops back to this plane.

DM Note: Best Line Of The Night goes to Araxie "I don't have time for dead people."


With the enemies finally defeated the group assess their damage and prepares to move on.

Abandon Ship

The group returns to the Emperor bringing with them the food, tainted with the Mind Control Naga's eggs. They hold audience with the Emperor but get an uneasy feeling so they make a quick exit to their airship. Very quickly they are surrounded by the Emperor's monks but the group manages to blast their way out and are soon on the way back home, towards Baldur's Gate. They hope.

Using a map that Araxie found in a secret compartment in the desk within the captain's quarters of her ship, She manages, with some help from the others,  to plot a course that will bring them back to The Order back in Baldur's Gate. The journey will be long but they have an airship and gold enough to make it fly.

The days pass and each in the group finds activities to pass the time. Kame, the turtle, approaches Maddox one day to say he is concerned for Maddox's young ward. The boy, Tam, seems distant and speaks often of missing the "oneness" that he had experienced back in the village when several of the group became infected by the Mind Control Naga. Maddox promises to spend time with the boy. Training and focus will bring the boy around again. Soon enough, Tam's mood turns around and the group is treated to breakfast made by Tam every morning. Tam and Kame have longs talks in the netting by the bow every day.

The days pass peacefully until one day they notice a spot approaching them from direction of the sun. Hiding in the sunlight makes it hard for them to discern who or what is approaching. It could be the Emperor's army coming to exact some sort of revenge or control. Soon enough it is clear that it is a massive airship. Easily twice the size of the groups own ship. It overtakes them easily.

As it pulls along side they see a crew of dozens of goblins manning cannons. All pointed directly at their own ship. A goblin fires a bolt trailing a rope across the distance between the two ships hitting the main mast and soon a goblin slides across the rope. Landing at the base of the mainmast, the goblin begins to announce, in a loud and nasely voice, the arrival of the Dred Pirate Cortez. The scourge of the clouds, The claimer of vessels, The owner of the skies.

A handsome blonde man slides across the rope to land beside the goblin and gives the adventurers a choice of disembarking from and surrender their ship or die and the ship becomes the property of the Dred Pirate Cortez anyway.

The group answers with battle.

The battle is long and hard. Goblins fire cannons which rip apart the ship. It takes Captain Araxie all she has to control it while the others fend off a never ending stream of goblins.

Eventually, the group begins to gain the upper hand and takes the offensive. They swing their ship behind and begin to pursue the pirate ship. Most of the crew run aboard the pirate ship and clear away the remnants of the goblin crew. While Maddox confronts the pirate captain after chasing him through the ship.

Finally, cornered the Dred Pirate Cortez seems to have lost all his previous bravado. He holds his hands up towards Maddox and pleads for Maddox to wait. You see, he is not really the Dred Pirate Cortez. He's actually, Alex Swiller. He has just inherited the title and position from the previous Dred Pirate Cortez.

It's the ship and the name that put fear into people. Captain's don't surrender their ships to Alex Swiller.  They will surrender to the Dred Pirate Cortez. His name is legendary and has been for almost a century. He doesn't even know who the original Dred Pirate Cortez. He begins to back away towards the railing as he tells his story. How the previous captain stays on for a bit while they hire a new crew. All the while the old captain calling Alex, Dred Pirate Cortez. Alex has always felt goblins are less likely to mutiny so he chose goblins.

The group begins to tell Alex to stop walking towards the edge of the ship. That's when he tells them that it has been wonderful that they let him monologue for so long. Long enough for his goblin shaman in the engine to complete the ritual that will blow the ship apart. The Dred Pirate Cortez vaults over the railing and plummets down towards the sea.

The group runs to the edge and looks down to see the Dred Pirate falling and turn back to face them and then gives them a rude gesture as he smiles. Creed immediately sends out a Fireball which engulfs the pirate. They watch as a burning, screaming, Dred Pirate Cortez disappears below the clouds.

The group looks at each other and remember something about the ship being blow apart. Then they begin to run towards their ship.

Many can make it across the distance between the ships, either with magic or flying. Vadania has no such skills and is stopped at the railing and looks towards the hole in the back of her ship and her waiting friends. They throw out a rope and Vadania takes a running leap off of the pirate ship which has now begin to glow and swell, orange-red glowing energy beginning to show through the ever widening gaps between the planks.

As the pirate ship begins to blow apart in a fiery explosion, Vadania is able to just grab the end of the rope and hold on. The others quickly begin to reel her back up into the ship.

They stand their, once again in their own now very damaged ship watching the sky and it's rain of fiery debris descend down towards the sea.

DM note:  Level up everybody!

The Village That Became A Funeral Pyre

The adventurers are still in the subterranean cave which now has a gargantuan corpse of a mind naga in the middle of the cavern. It's fleshy corpse spreading out on the cavern floor. The group tries to awaken several of the townspeople who had initially come down here to protect their god but now mindlessly stand there staring blankly.

Maddox tries several times to use his healing paladin powers. Lay on Hands and Lesser Restoration seem to bring the townspeople back but only so far. The healed move dazedly about, confused and unable to speak. Only Sarkosh and Tam, Maddox's squire, are healed enough to come round eventually to speak, if a little confused.

Waking Up From The Dream

Tam speaks of waking from a wonderful dream in which he felt love and togetherness. He says he has never felt a belonging that strong. He looks at his mentor, Maddox sadly and then looks away.

The group is finally able move out of the cavern and up a ladder that was found hidden away in a corner of a small cave. Leading the townsfolk, tethered together with rope, they emerge into a rough earthen basement below a house in the village. They emerge back into the village with the sun setting over the mountains in the distance. They decide to think freshly on their situation in the morning when they are healed.

Araxie follows Nogan to his small tent, where he says he has a still for making his alcohol. If they are going to produce enough alcohol to heal the entire village they will have to get working.

The Incurable Disease

In the morning, Maddox tries every magical healing at his disposal. Each of the townspeople he tries to remove the mindworm affliction from, just becomes more ambulatory but little more than a mindless wanderer. Creed, the Dragon Blade, has seen the seemingly protective effects of alcohol that kept both Araxie and the town drunk, Nogan, from being infected by the mind naga's eggs. He leaves to find Araxie and how much alcohol they have produced.

Araxie awakens and the genasi, looks to find that the amount of alcohol produced during the night is meager at best. She decides that it probably isn't enough to really help anyone. So she decides to drink some of it. When Creed finds her there is not much alcohol left. Taking the meager amount he heads off to heal some villagers.

Pouring enough alcohol into several villagers, in order to induce the villagers to vomit up the worms and eggs seems to make the villagers slightly more aware but they still do not respond to questions. Maddox who is tired and sweaty from his healing exertions, comes over to one of the villagers who have expelled their worms. Holding his hands over one of their eyes and then removing it quickly he notices that their pupils do not respond to light.

Maddox, turns to the others and tells them, with a disappointed look on his face,  he believes the infection has permanently damaged their brains. Barring the healing spell, Greater Restoration, the villagers cannot be healed.

Funerals Are For The Living
3,000 XP ("Saving The Village")

After much debate, it is decided to collect all of the villagers into a house and set it a flame. A funeral pyre to honor their deaths, for truly they are already dead.

The gruesome task takes the group most of the day. During that time they notice that some of the healed villagers cannot be found. They assume that they must have wandered off. Surely, they will not survive long. Already these villagers here, are looking worse. Their skin hangs heavily off their bones. They have not eaten or drank for a couple of days. Soon enough the villagers are crowded into five houses close together.

They make sure that Nogan is present before they light the houses on fire. When he arrives he is already quite drunk but his demeanor is somber and quiet. He knows what the group is doing is the right thing to do.

Araxie and Creed each pick a house and magically set their fires. Araxie with her new found armor producing a fireball which quickly consumes the house in flames. Creed walks into the middle of the house and envelops himself in flames. As he emerges from the house the flames are already consuming the house, smoke trailing behind Creed as he walks.

One by one the houses are lit on fire. Maddox gives a prayer for the villagers as the rest of the group bows their heads with the paladin. Nogan offers up a toast and each of the group drink from his offered cup. As they each take a small sip they grimace at the taste except for Araxie who takes a large swig. Tam smells the foul liquid and shakes his head before passing on the cup without drinking. Maddox does not force the boy to drink.

They spend the night watching the houses burn. The ashes float up into the star filled sky. Each of them spends the night with Nogan who simply passes out in the middle of the street.

A New Airship

The next morning, the group has decided to take one of the airships. They offer to take Nogan along with them. The old drunk refuses. He was born here in the village. This is where he will stay.

Creed flies off to retrieve the crab-like apparatus which is normally used to load the ships at their docks, but has been recently used to kill several villagers. He enters the large barrel-like housing and stares at near a dozen different levers. After a bit of trial and error he gets the machine walking along. Araxie and Valdania join him inside.

Maddox, Tam, Sang-Yu and the turtle Kame make their own way up the side of the cliffs to the docks, Maddox riding his dire wolf companion.

Maybe We Should Read The Manual

After realizing that they have not perhaps, practiced driving the machine quite enough, the group inside the crab-like apparatus find themselves tumbling off the narrow steps that climb the side of the cliffs. As they plummet off the side, Valdania tumbles through the inside and grabs onto a lever. A loud rumbling sound begins and they no longer feel like they are falling.

Creed, offers to go outside and find what's going on. He climbs out to the top and then...flies away.

Inside Valdania and Araxie look at the confusing jumble of levers and with great hesitation, begin pulling and pushing them. After finding the on/off switch for the external lights, they eventually find themselves piloting the device up and over to the top of the cliffs. When they land, Creed simply says that he knew they'd be alright.

At the top of the cliffs they see two of the village's airships. After loading all the valuables from one airship to the airship they are taking, the group moves through the ship examining their newly acquired mode of transportation. In the hold they see the massive block of ice containing an incredible amount of fish. All of the fish, no doubt, are infected with the Mind Naga's eggs.

Araxie acquaints herself with the rigging and the helm. She notices several golden sigils along the deck's railing as well as the boat's wheel. Maddox and Creed find below a crucible, sigil molds and a chest of gold coins. It doesn't take them long to deduce that this is the source of the golden sigils found all over the ship.

This Is The Only Way To Travel

Araxie begins shouting orders to raise the main sail and the rest of the group begin moving about doing just so. Soon the main sail is fully open and fills with a wind that wasn't there before. A large symbol, similar to the golden sigils around the ship adorns the sail writ large. The boat strains at the ropes holding it to the docks. Finally someone notices that they are still moored and releases the boat.

With a rush the boat flies off into the skies, through and then above the clouds. Everyone is exhilarated. Tam runs to the bow of the ship and gives a loud holler. Araxie grins from ear to ear. She has missed this. Missed it a lot.

Maddox and Creed move about the captains quarters and find a shelving unit filled with maps. There is a map currently on the large desk at one end of the room. Creed is able to get a rough course bearing on how to get back to the Emperor's palace. He goes topside to tell Araxie. She quickly course corrects and the ship responds smoothly and quickly.

A Toubled Maddox

Soon the group begins to relax and each finds their own place to be on the ship. Tam talks with Kame most of the time. The old turtle seemingly trying to counsel the slightly troubled boy. Maddox notices but he is troubled. He is worried that all that seems fine cannot be. The village seemed friendly and good but that was not the case. He is worried because his woman companion from the palace, seems friendly and good. Is it not so?

He moves to the captains quarters where he knows she is. He inscribes that ritual circle necessary for Zone of Truth and then knocks on the door. "Tell me you are good. Tell me that you wont betray me.", he demands.

Sang-Yu looks confused and then concerned. This is not like Maddox to question himself or those around him. "Of course not. You are mine.", she replies. Maddox lets the breath out that he didn't realize he was holding. "Ok". He closes the door on her and leaves, as she her mouth was opening with questions of her own.

As night falls they pass over the mountains into the valley of the Empire. Dotted below them are many small villages, the mountains forming a protective ring around the valley. Tam, who has been using the seeing glass at the prow of the ship, calls for Maddox. When Maddox approaches and looks through the metal tube, he sees a village below in the middle of some sort of festival. Several naked villagers, bound hands to feet are being ushered along towards a massive construction of a wicker man at the center of the village. Along the way other villagers toss stones and clumps of dirt at the prisoners yelling at them.

Maddox turns to the others, we must help them.

Any Landing You Can Walk Away From

Araxie begins to land the ship at full speed. What she hasn't acquired yet in airship piloting skills she makes up for with enthusiasm. Soon they are on the ground after making a large furrow in the ground with their keel.

Plans are made, dismissed and readdressed.

Finally they decide to use the ships weapons as well as stealth to enter the village and free the prisoners. Maddox and Creed disembark while Araxie floats the ship up and slowly towards the village. After coming close enough, Valdania activates the two forward spellguns. A thick magical fog rolls into towards the village quickly enveloping half of the village in a fog 10 feet high.

The Festival Of Kasai
8,150 XP

As Maddox and Creed move quietly through the village they soon run up against a fire monk who questions their arrival. The pair pose as visitors intrigued by the village's festival. They are told that it is their festival of Kasai, their fire god. They will be sacrificing these earth monks that they have captured, in Kasai's honor.

Creed, who looks intriguingly like a fire demon of sorts, conjures a flame within his hands and declares he his Kasai, himself. The act is convincing enough for the monk who prostrates himself on the ground. Maddox and Creed move quickly to free the bound prisoners and pull them back to safety between the buildings.

The disappearance of the prisoners is soon discovered and the monks spread out to look for them. Maddox and his spirit dire wolf begin attacking. Creed still uses his deceptive role as the villages diety to get the drop on the fire monks. As more of the village discovers they are under attack, many rush to the center of the village to where there is a huge construction of a wicker man.

Many of the villagers begin climbing inside the wooden statue of a humanoid, occupying is legs, torso arms and head. Someone sets is a flame and as it begins to burn the Kasai Man comes to life. The burning villagers providing their life energy to power the monstrosity. It lumbers down the street towards the group of attackers.

Soon the street is filled with this Kasai Man as it uses its arms to batter the group as it continually tries to stomp on them with its massive burning feet. Maddox and Creed are able to dodge out of the way but Maddox's wolf, Gray, is pulled into the burning mass of villagers inside of one of the feet. He lashes and bites but is unable to do much other than struggle to get out.

Back on the ship Araxie and Valdania have armed the balistas that are on the ship and begin to fire upon the only thing they can see which is the towering, flaming figure of the wooden monstrosity that is obviously attacking their commrades. Bolt after bolt is fired until one hits directly into the things torso and it collapses into a burning heap, the few villages still alive inside, begin to scream as they finally feel the tortuous flames consume them.

The fog slowly begins to disperse as they look around them.

Well, that's two villages they've destroyed now. What's next.

They Say Wine Is Good For You.

The group finds themselves split.

Maddox has moved back through the earthen tunnels to emerge back above the burned out building, in which they had discovered their now dead and burned quarry. As he emerges from the tunnel he stares around him. Surrounding the entire building is, what he supposes is the entire village. Over two hundred villagers stare at him, faces calm and placid.

Become One With Us
650 XP

"Join us. Become one with us.", they all say in unison. The small boy that had so recently badgered Maddox with a multitude of questions and seemed so full of exuberance, walks calmly through the crowd to stand in front of the paladin. He is quiet and calm. He explains to Maddox that he should put down his wandering ways and settle in the village. Here they know only peace and happiness. No one is lonely, angry, sad. They are as one.

The Slime And The Dark

Below Maddox, Gamma and Araxie are moving further through the earthen tunnels. They soon come to an area in which the tunnels become more solid rock. A larger cavern opens up in front of them as they look down the slope to the floor, several feet below them. The floor seems unnaturally slick. Gamma steps quickly and lightly, using his monk skills. As he steps down on to the floor below he finds himself standing in slick mucous up to his ankles. He moves quietly and smoothly through the cavern until he finds yet another larger cavern in which the mucous-like substance becomes less thick and barely covers the floor. He notices a figure moving through the far side of the cavern. As Gamma slinks back under cover, he recognizes the figure as Bhaga, the villager they had spoken to in the village above. He is carry something in his arms, cradled in front of him.

Araxie, standing alone in the dark waiting for Gamma, realizes that Maddox, Sarkosh and the turtle, Kame have somehow been separated from her and Gamma. She waits until she can wait in the horrible dark no more. She yells out for Gamma as loud as she can.

Gamma, who is in the next cavern, hears Araxie's call. Her call is then somewhat echoed above him in an odd resonance. He looks above him to see several strands of thick mucous stretched across the cavern from wall to wall, criss-crossing in an odd looking web. The strands reverberate with Araxie's voice giving her echo a strand other-worldly sound. Gamma sees Bhaga look around and hurries out of the cavern through an opening in the cavern on the far side. Gamma decides to check back with Araxie.

As Gamma returns to Araxie, he finds an slightly angry genasi staring at him. She scolds him for making her wait here in the dark for so long. Gamma explains what he say in the cavern ahead. Araxie asks him if he's noticed that the others have disappeared.

Escape Rather Than Death

Back in the village, Maddox staring at the villagers surrounding him, decides that while he can perhaps make it through the villagers, he would end up killing too many of them. This does not sit well with the Paladin. He casts Command upon as many as he can to flee but something is blocking his spell on them and only one turns and leaves.  He tries to cast again, telling them to kneel before him. A few of the villagers, awkwardly and resisting all the way down, kneel and prostrate themselves. He begins to back away towards the house and the tunnels.

At this, the village seems to move all at once, converging on Maddox and trying to use sheer numbers to bring down the paladin. He easily fends most of them off but some of the villagers bear weapons. One villager, a large barrel-chested man, drags a huge sword beside him. He swings at Maddox. Maddox is able to deflect most of the awkward attacks, the man clearly not trained in sword fighting. Maddox maneuvers around the wreckage of the burned house and, grabbing the rope still dangling down the shaft, is finally able to push the sword-wielding villager over the tunnels mouth. The villager doesn't scream, flail or make any sound as he plunges down the 40 foot shaft.

Maddox jumps down the shaft, using the rope to slow his descent near the bottom. Once on firm ground once more he lets go of the rope and sees the crumpled body of the villager at his feet, the sword laying on the ground. Maddox picks up the sword and moves through the tunnels looking for his companions. He spends several stressful minutes moving through tunnels only to find dead-ends and backtracking. He really should have paid more attention to the tunnels' layout when he was down here. Finally, he come across Araxie who directs him back to the slime cavern where the meet back with Gamma.

Worship  At The Feet Of Okina Hebi
7,600 XP

Gamma shows them through the caverns ahead. They finally come to the cavern with the echoing mucous strands above them. Gamma points in the direction in which Bhaga had moved through. They move to follow.

They enter a vast cavern. The groups dark vision extends only a part way into the vast darkness. But they hear a voice, the voice of Bhaga, up ahead. He welcomes them and hopes they have come to worship at the feet of Okina Hebi. Okina Hebi will show them the beauty of oneness with her. The group asks, what if they do not want to join, can they just leave?

Bhaga tells them that soon the world will be one. Those that are not of the one, will be of the others. The others can only bring discord, violence and seek to destroy the one. They must not be allowed to remain. Gamma exclaims it's not his fault he can't eat anything. That he doesn't even have a brain to infect. Bhaga reiterates, the world will soon be as one. Nothing else will remain. Maddox asks what will they have to do.

A large portion of what they thought was cavern wall, begins to move. With a slick, sucking, mucousy sound, the wall slowly descends until it moves along the floor and rises above them. Before them rears a massive worm like creature. It's back covered in rocks and dirt and it's mouth opening showing a mass of tentacles, each with its own mouth emerging from it. It moves until it is directly behind Bhaga, it's mouth rising to tower above the dwarfed human.

The group hears a voice, whispering and reverberating everywhere. The voice is coming from inside their heads. In an alien sounding voice, they hear, "Join me. Become one. I will bring a world of peace, joy and contentment. No more struggles seeking power or wealth. We will be as one."

Bhaga explains that other's of Okina Hebi's kind have failed to thrive in the empire. Their offspring devouring and depleting the lands nutrients until even they died. Okina Hebi, being the smartest and wisest had found another way. He made an arrangement with Bhaga. If Bhaga would take care of Okina Hebi's eggs and find a suitable place for incubating and growing them, then Okina Hebi would bring the village prosperity and happiness. Bhaga used the villagers themselves to grow the eggs in. In return, Okina Hebi brought peace and belonging to the entire village.

Bhaga says they shall bring that peace to the world. In the holds of their ships are food stuffs they will offer across the world spreading the oneness of Okina Hebi to all.

If You Are Not Of The One, Then You Are Of The Other

Maddox's sense of fiends suddenly flares, as their one time ally, Sarkosh, emerges from the edge of their darkvision, blade in hand. Blades begin to swing.

Araxie rushes at Bhaga, trident extended. Bhaga raises a mesh net that he was holding and throws it towards the rushing genasi. As the net falls over Araxie it transforms into a steel cage. Araxie begins to strike at the bars of her cage. Gamma running at an unnatural speed is able to move behind the large worm like creature and begins to pummel it with his stone fists.

Okina Hebi turns around to bite at the stone golem, catching Gamma within its mouth. The sound of stone crushing and cracking echos through the cavern. Maddox fends off Sarkosh and sends his dire wolf to attack the naga monstrousity. Araxie is finally able to break through the bars of her cage and the cage collapses back into a mesh net upon the ground. She runs at Okina Hebi and pierces it with her trident over and over. Maddox begins to hack at the monster with his new found massive bastard sword. Large hunks of slimy flesh are hacked off splattering to the ground.

Okina Hebi whirls around again to catch Gamma once again within its mouth tentacles and crushes the stone golem until cracked and crushed Gamma falls to the floor dying. As the others continue to hack away at the monster, Okina Hebi then catches Maddox's dire wolf companion within it's tentacles mouth and begins to swallow it.

The group notices the sound of approaching footsteps. Several off them. They come from the direction the group took from the area of the burned out house. The villagers are catching up to them.

Taking advantage of the distraction, Maddox rushes to the side of Gamma and begins to grab as much stone material that has fallen from Gamma and performs the lay on hands magic that he has now more practiced with on the stone golem's form. The stone golem awakens from the brink of death and uses his own magic to heal himself more, stands and returns to pummeling the monster. His final punch moving through the naga's form until the hideous monster falls to the floor, it's massive body spreading out upon the cavern floor.

Where's It's Treasure!?

Araxie excitedly begins cutting into the monster pulling out massive amounts of slime, guts and unknown organs desperately in search of anything exciting. Maddox notices that both Bhaga and the tiefling, Sarkosh, as well as the group of villagers who had just entered the cavern, stand dazed and unmoving. Gamma moves around the cavern looking, for threat or treasure. Maddox experiments with different spells until a spell of lesser restoration is able to revive Sarkosh and several villagers back to their normal selves. The villagers are confused and have many questions but the group has other priorities.

Araxie turns to the others, now filthy and slime coated, and angrily exclaims there's nothing in here!

Gamma suggests she move through the cavern, perhaps there will be something useful somewhere, not inside the monster they just killed. She moves through the cavern until across a 20 foot chasm they see a multitude of dead bodies heaped in a corner, their weapons, coins and other belongings left to accumulate upon the cavern floor. They easily jump across and begin investigating the refuse pile. Gamma approaches a large wooden chest and cautiously moves around it looking for traps or other dangers. Seeing none he slowly opens the chest. He hears the sound of something piercing a bladder of some sort and braces himself when a puff of gas emerges from within the chest. He waits, then shrugs. Must be poison gas. Oh well, that's nothing to him and opens the chest fully to find treasures within.

The villagers, no longer in need of valuables have simply left them here with the bodies of several of the Emperor's monks. The group now spends much time pouring over new found trinkets, weapons and magical items. They test out new weapons, discern the magic of odd items. Finally they divvy the loot and move back through the cavern's many areas.

In one of the cavern's offshoots they discover a ladder leading back to the surface of the village. It emerges into a basement of a small home. The group, aiding the villagers as best they can, move up into the house and find it empty. They discuss what their next action should be. Maddox decides to go back to the burned out house to see what has become of the rest of the villagers.

Finding The Cure
1,000 XP

He finds most of the villagers still standing here. They are unresponsive without the connection to Okina Hebi. There is also a large barrel contraption standing in the middle of one group of villagers who are now laying on the ground dead, several of them crushed or cut in two.

The barrel stands easily 30 feet tall and about 20 feet around. Attached to it are four crab-like legs and two crab-like arms with large claws at the end. Standing, leaning against the machine is the old scrawny drunk, Nogan. He begins to slur his explanations. He saw what the villagers were going to do to the paladin, so he decided to help. He had always wanted to drive the machine, usually used for loading the ships but Walla brothers never let him. They said he wouldn't be able to drive it.

"Who just drove it, yah?!", he yells as he looks down at the bodies. It is then that it hits him that he has murdered several of his own villagers. Tears stream down as he says their names and unashamedly cries. He looks to Maddox and says that he had to do it, didn't he?

Maddox leaves him to his grief. He has the rest of the village to try and save. He begins to do the mental calculations of how many he can heal with his spells before he must rest and how many days it would take to heal the entire village. He goes to find the others.

Gamma, who has followed along, brought with him some of Araxie's wine she had. Curious as to what might happen, he pours some down the throat of the nearest villager. The villager coughs, sputters and then keels over vomiting upon the ground. The vomit is comprised almost entirely of small white worm-like creatures that wriggle and wither and shrink before Gamma's eyes. He repeats his experiment another time with another villager with the same results.

He turns to the others and smiles. Tada!

A Village That Thinks Together, Stays Together

The group of soldiers from The Order Of The Obsidian Dagger look down at the bodies of the three monks they have just killed. They tell themselves that the killing of them was just. They had raped a young beautiful woman. Killing them was too good for them. Maddox orders his retinue to stack the bodies on his war horse. They will give these monks a proper burial when they can. All deserve that much at least.

Kame, the old turtle, approaches the monks belongings and, curious, pokes through their packs. They did not have much. Thin bedrolls, more of the candles that they had seen the monks burning upon each rest and a few rations of wrapped rice. Maddox approaches and takes the meager rations and leaves Kame to put the few candles away inside his small pack.

A Devil For A New Friend

After resting for the evening, the group awakens the next morning to find the weather cold, grey and windy. By the time they make their way down the other side of the mountain pass, snow begins to blow around them. Below them they see, spread out before them far in the distance the faint outline of a large village and towering behind them some sort of massive towering rock spires. Beyond that is a blue haze that hints of a large body of water.

As they descend the mountain, they find themselves at the foot of the peak where there lays the ancient remains of a building. All that they can see is a field with stone ruble and pieces of walls of a building and perhaps of a tower. Maddox tells the rest to stay as he scouts further ahead with his summoned dire wolf. The wolf senses soon pick up the scent of a creature hidden behind a group of large rocks.

Laying injured and bleeding, is a tiefling. His travelling attire is ragged as it looks as if he has suffered in a recent fight. He holds his hands up to stay any strike from the paladin. He introduces himself as Sarkosh, a simple traveller and seeker of knowledge. Maddox, feeling secure, calls up the rest of the group.

A Violent Storm
8,000 XP

Further into the ruins, the group spots a single candle, sitting atop a short pillar, lit and shedding it's small globe of warm light, in the now swirling snow. As they approach, a man dressed in monks robes and tattooed in arcane symbols steps out of the glow of the candle. The group is surprised as he simply steps out of nothingness from very near the candle. He warns them that the Emperor has sent them here to die. The people here want nothing of the interference of the Emperor.

The group readies themselves as the wind howls around them. The gusting and swirling wind, hitting the group with snow and grit, begins to congeal and concentrate in two separate areas. The monk, shakes his head sadly and says, "We do not need your  Emperor's power here.". The two swirling areas of wind continue to grow until the group faces the monk and two Air Elementals, one much larger than the other.

The monk conjures a blast of wind that hits Sarkosh and Maddox's dire wolf severely enough to send them flying many feet back and flat on their backs.  The rest of the group move to surround the monk. Araxie stabs at him with her trident only to find that his form isn't as solid as she would have expected as her trident moves easily through his abdomen, leaving only a slight injury.

Sarkosh gets to his feet, some distance from the swirling winds of the meelee and, keeping his distance, fires off spells of Eldritch Blast towards the monk. Maddox charges his sword with Thunderous Smite and strikes at the monk. Soon enough the monk succumbs to his wounds, his body dissolving into wisps of cloud and blowing away in the wind.

Unfortunately, that still leaves the two air elementals to deal with, as they continue to pummel the group with gale force blasts which sends various members tumbling through the air and crashing into the rubble below. Gamma runs up a wall and pushes off the top to jump high into the air to punch into one of the air elementals. Gamma falls to the ground only to be engulfed by the elemental as it buffets him around. Gamma is finally able to escape from within the elemental but is flung through the air only to crumple into unconsciousness off near a broken wall.

After a multitude of strikes from Sarkosh's eldritch blasts, Araxie's trident strikes and finally, Maddox's continual thunderous smites, the elementals dissipate into nothingness. As the group moves through the ruins they approach the candle burning, oddly unwavering during the massive winds. As they enter the candles glow, the see what the candle's glow was concealing. A hoard of weapons and treasure. Probably from the many soldiers the Emperor had sent to claim his taxes from this land.

As the examine their new found treasure, the group finally notices the hulking lump of stone that is lying, umoving off in the corner. Gamma it seems is not getting up after the battle. In fact he has been slowly dying while they divvy up their loot. Rushing to his side they soon realize that they do not have the knowledge or skill to aid their fallen comrade. After multiple failed attempts they arrive at the method of rubbing dirt and stone into his wounds and attempting to heal and lay on hands all at the same time. This stops him from dying but he is still unconscious.

We Are As One

After spending some time tending to their own wounds, Gamma finally awakens and the whole party is able to move on towards the village of in the far distance. As they approach the village, the land becomes lush and fields grow on either side of the small paths between fields. People move about and wave at the group in a welcoming manner. Children run about and finally brave approaching the group. A few of them poke and prod Gamma. Some are fascinated by the tiefling's horns and tail. Some ask Araxie what she is. She answers with a hissing sound as she flutters out her gills, scaring off the kids until, in the distance she can hear their screams turn to laughter.'

One precocious child, Vijay, asks Maddox questions in rapid fire succession. He in turn asks the child about the village and it's inhabitants, and if they have a leader. The child responds there is no leader "We are as one."

He peppers Maddox with questions until his mother sends him away, and Maddox poses the same question to her. Who is their leader he would like to talk with him. The woman responds with the same, "We are as one." But if they need to talk to someone it might as well be Bhaga. He is in the village center preparing for the festival feast. She hopes they will stay for the feast.

Araxie meanwhile, has found the town drunk, Nogan. As various people ask if she is here for the feast, Araxie asks if there will be alcohol. They shake their heads, no. But there will be more food than the village can eat so she must come. She chats with Nogan, an emaciated old man in tattered clothes, he tells Araxie that the villagers are all a bunch of wangbadan! The village often tries to take his alcohol but he makes his own, from fermented sheep's milk. He offers Araxie some. She takes the entire bottle, takes a huge swig and walks away. Soon she is walking incredibly crooked.

The Air Ships

Gamma and Sarkosh wander through the village to investigate. They pass the village square where there is a bustling activity getting ready for the feast. Hanging pendants and lanterns. Setting up tables. Gamma and Sarkosh move on. They finally stop at a smith's workshop. A gentleman there named Imarran asks them if they are staying for the feast. Sarkosh asks if he has any weapons. Imarran says that he mostly provides fishing and construction supplies for the vessels moored on the cliffs near the waters.

With that, Sarkosh backs up and looks over the roof of the smith to see, off in the distance, rocks spires over a hundred feet tall rising into the sky out of the water. With some dificulty, Sarkosh can make out a couple of large sailing ships anchored to the rocks high above the waters, floating and bobbing in the air. Sarkosh motions to Gamma and they take their leave from Imarran and go off to investigate. The smith nods to them, "We are as one."

Sarkosh and Gamma climb the many many stair until they are eventually at the top of the rock spires. There before them is a complex of well constructed bridges, quarters and docks to which two large sailing vessels are moored. They are greeted by a large man, Agni, who asks if they wish to have a look at the ships. The quickly agree and are given a tour of the main deck of one of the ships. It is a large vessel, defended with a few balistas and a large hold which smells like fish. They thank Agni and return to the others.

The Feast

Meanwhile, Maddox and Araxie find Bhaga. He is a tall thin man who is directing work in the village center. They approach him and ask if he is the town's leader. He tells them that there is no leader here, "we are as one." But if they are here for the feast then they can stay in...he pauses... a nearby house. He walks and directs them to follow. They soon meet up with the rest of their group at a large house but soon most of the people in the house leave for the feast as they encourage the group to follow and join in. They stay back to discuss.

Maddox's servant girl, Sang Yu, fails to convince Maddox in accompanying her but is able to convince Araxie who unstably gets to her feet to go along with Sang Yu. Gamma and Sarkosh leave to join the feast but before they arrive, Gamma chooses to hide, and keeps to the now growing shadows of dusk. Sarkosh sits down and tries to make small talk to those around him.

A Passionate Speech

Maddox, sighs and finally leaves to join in the feast with the others. A spot has been saved for him by Sang Yu who beckons him over excitedly. Araxie has traded her sheeps's alcohol for her own wine. They all eat and there is much excitement throughout the villagers. At one point, someone notes that Maddox is not eating and inquires why.

Maddox responds with an impassioned speech about the Emperor's lands suffering from a famine while these people gorge themselves and do not give over their food tax, so that others may live. The village is quiet as they all listen to the passionate paladin. Bhaga stands up and says that Maddox is correct. They must not forget the rest of the world. That is why they are preparing a shipment of fish in their ships to give to the famished lands.

Maddox notices Sarkosh, at another table give a slight nod and affirms what Bhaga is saying. Maddox nods to at Bhaga and sits and eats. The rest of the villagers return to their enjoyment of the feast.

An Abrupt End

As he evening sky grows black, musicians play and then all at once, the villagers are stand without cue, and pray. They all praise the glory of Okina Hebi.

Then without a single word, they all disperse into the night. Silently returning to their homes.

The group is left alone at the village center.

The group returns to their accommodations for the evening, all except Sarkosh. Sarkosh finds an out of the way place and lights the candle that they had found in the ruins. Hidden by the candles glow he sets out to watch during the night to see if anything curious happens.

The next morning, Kama, the old turtle has found Sarkosh asleep still hidden by the candles glow. He seems curious about the candles curious power. Sarkosh gets up and stretches painfully to rejoin the others.

A Late Burial And A Burned House

Maddox announces that they have forgotten about the bodies of the three brothers they have killed o the mountain pass. They are still strapped to his war horse. This has to be fixed. He travels to the smith's for digging tools. At the smith, Imarran, tells Maddox that he need not buy the shovels he can use them and return them, "we are as one."

In fact, he says that should he wish, the children of the village would probably volunteer to do their digging. With a whistle, several children come running and indeed are excited to help. Maddox directs them to an out of the way part of the forest surrounding the village. As he is looking for a clearing they find one as well as a completely burned down house.

He asks the children whose house this was and is answered by vagueness and odd looks. He tells the children to dig, which they do with enthusiasm. While they dig, Maddox begins inscribing the runes around the hole they are digging, necessary for Zone Of Truth. Once done, he asks them again. A few of them answer, that it was the house the strangers were staying in. Maddox shows them the charcoal drawings of the fugitives they are pursuing. Yes, those are the strangers.

Where are they now?
The children laugh. They're still there!

A Gruesome Discovery
1,000 XP

 The group moves towards the house. They each start digging through the wreckage. Araxie is the one to first spot something. She finds the body of a small young myconid, a grimace of horror and pain still on his myconid face. Stool. Poor Stool, who was to Onthar Frume, the leader of the Order Of The Obsidian Dagger, a top priority in retrieving alive.

Soon they find the dead bodies of each of the fugitives they were tasked with finding. Maddox reaches down and removes the broaches signifying their belonging to The Order. This will have to do, for proving to Onthar the death of the fugitives.

As Maddox is moving through the wreckage, his foot falls through some loose boards and he is stuck, his foot dangling in a hole. The children begin moving in towards the house. Gamma is able to nimbly across and help Maddox out of the hole. Sarkosh moves towards the opening that Maddox's foot has made and peers down. The boards underneath him break free and he plummets several feet down and crashes upon his back in a darkened pit below.

As he gets up he can see a large cavern which seems roughly made and a tunnel leading off into darkness. He tells the others and they soon fashion enough rope to descend. One by one they do. Maddox unfortunately loosing his grip and crashing to the dirt floor. As he watches each of his companions descend, Sarkosh decides to distract the children by summoning small earth elementals which begin to perform acts of acrobatics, somewhat amateurishly. But is it seems to serve the purpose.

The group moves cautiously through the rough tunnels. As they move further and further down, they notice that some sort of mucous lines the tunnels in places. After finding a couple of dead ends Gamma decides to dig through a collapse section. As he breaks through and uses his uncanny monk ability to move through the slight opening, Maddox realizes that he has left his squire and Sang Yu in the village above. They may be in danger as these villagers may be the ones who killed the fugitives.

Maddox rushes back to the surface.

As Maddox pulls himself up and out of the tunnel, he stands up to find, what seems, the entire village has surrounded the burned out house and are all staring at him.

Maddox, swears to himself. Oh shit.

Strangers In A Strange Land

The soldiers of The Order Of The Obsidian Dagger pause in their mission to aprehend the fugitives from back in Baldur's Gate, as they meet a strange creature in the forests of Janfeng. He is a large turtle who stands to meet the soldiers. He is covered in moss and mud but stands proudly, with a fine sword hilt protruding from the back of his shell. The turtle introduces himself as Kame.

He has been set upon a quest to correct the imbalance of chi in the world. He has been roaming the world for many years and has recently come to this forest. The group asks if he has seen the fugitives they are seeking, as they show him the scrolls bearing the images of each of the criminals. He has seen them. In fact they had tried to kill him and take his sword. They were not worthy of his sword and he was not willing to part with it just yet. The sword, he tells, them has granted him long life and great power and intelligence.

Only The Worthy

The great ancient hero Hatsune Namba, with his dying breath imparted great power and knowledge to Kame, who was just a normal little turtle at the time. The embedded sword, if it were removed would kill Kame. Gamma asks, who would get the sword, if, heaven forbid, that Kame was dying. Kame simply answers, "one who is worthy".

The Mystery Of The Kodama

They ask if Kame has seen little white spirit creatures that are oddly shaped, disturbing and deadly. Kame, recognizing their description, tells the group that they have encountered kodama. They are spirit creatures who are vast in size and power. What we see of them as just parts of their vastness. Kame likens it to what a fish would see of a person, if that person were to simply stick their toe into the water. The kodama are varied and some are good, some mischievous and some evil. But their motives are their own and cannot be understood easily. At least they only seem to come out after sunset.

The group talks among itself and then turns to ask Kame if he would like to accompany them upon at least part of their quest. They too seek to right the balance of power in the world by bringing these fugitives to justice.  Kame agrees that serving justice is one way to bring balance back into the world. He will go with them.

The party travels for another day and again that evening, the kodama make their appearance. Unfortunately for the young squire of Maddox, he is on watch during the kodama's appearance. He shakily moves to inform Gamma who is the closest. Gamma barely waking tells the boy to simply watch them and not to provoke them and it will probably be okay. The boy retreats into his the other servant's tent to continue his watch through the small flap openings of the tent. For reasons known only the the kodama, they quietly retreat back into the night.

An Unfriendly Welcome

The next day, the group travels a long way until they finally leave the unnerving quiet of the Janfeng forest. Traveling now along short growing grassland they soon see a vast storm up ahead. The storm is unusual in that it is perfectly round, continually swirling over the same spot, pouring vast amounts of rain down upon what seems to be a village. As they get closer the storm seems to quickly abate and the travelers continue on into the village moving through wet and muddy farmland.

The land though doesn't seem to be producing much. Some of the group pull up bits of the crop and find that it is a rice crop but the plants are short, withered and mostly brown. The land itself seems to have many places where it is caved inward and the soil is grey and leached out looking. The farmland is not doing well.

As they walk through the scattered huts of the village they see many old people bustle about, trying not to make eye contact as they hurry away. The group does not notice any young people. No children playing. No young people planting or tending the crops. Just adults and the elderly.

Finally, a middlep-aged woman approaches the group and asks what they are doing. The group tells her of their mission. They ask if the woman has seen the fugitives they are seeking. She tells them that she hasn't seen them but has heard of strangers entering the land a few weeks ago. They were powerful and dangerous. She tells them that, last she heard they were at the emperor's palace. The woman, Cho Lian, invites the group to her hut where they can be dry and eat.

She ushers them into a small hut where the group sits crowded upon the huts floor mats. The woman begins to boil water and reaches deep into a mostly empty large clay jar. She produces a few small handfuls of rice and begins to boil it. She begins to introduce the group to the Village of Sinju when an old woman barges into the hut and scolds Cho for serving their meager amounts of food to strangers.

The soldiers watch as the younger woman argues about having to honor guests with a meal, even if it means going without. There will be a way they can get food. The older woman gives the group a scrutinizing look then sits down. They learn that the old woman is Shima and Cho asks the group if they could perhaps keep the existence of the odd storm to themselves. It would seem that people with the ability to manipulate water are sometimes taken, to serve the Emperor. At this, Araxie pulls her cloak and hood a little further down to hide her genasi face. Even most of the young have been taken to serve the Emperor, leaving many villages with no young people left.

They ask about the Emperor. They are told he is Emperor Chi Deng Wend. He controls all the land. Vadania, mulls over the name, Chi Deng Wend over and over in her head. Something is familiar about the name. But the connection is allusive.

The group is invited to stay the night, but the old woman, Shima, insists that they must leave in the morning. She will not tolerate it if the village is punished for harboring these strangers. With that the group settles in. Araxie, Vadania and Gamma taking Cho's offer of the warmth and dryness of her hut, while Maddox and his retinue erect their tents just outside of the hut.

A Firey Welcome

It late into the night, almost towards dawn, when Gamma, who is awake hears footsteps approaching. Many footsteps. He can see many spots of fire surrounding and encroaching the village. He quickly warns the others. As they prepare themselves, dressing themselves and donning their armor, Gamma sees now that the village is being entered by at least a half dozen monks, each of their hands aglow in fire. They move from hut to hut until someone, an old man, points towards Cho's hut. With firey hand signals the rest of the monks begin to move towards the hut where the group is.

One of the monks, this one wreathed completely in flame from head to toe, approaches the group. He face is scarred and burned and his eyes glow slightly with the color and movement of fire. He calls himself Duzang Lok, the captain of the Emperor's guards. The Emperor himself requests the presence of the group at the palace.

The group inside the hut looks to Kame. Kame shrugs and says, "not all power can be trusted."
The group politely declines.

As the language becomes more insistent, Gamma pipes up and says that he challenges Duzang. If in the contest Duzang wins they will go, otherwise they are to be left alone. Duzang smiles and asks what kind of challenge. Gamma says a race.

Duzang apparently cannot resist a challenge and feels the massive robed figure of Gamma poses little challenge. He agrees. The two line up together at one end of a dirt and gravel lane. His fellow monks line the small road and light fires along the way to light the show. As soon as the countdown reaches zero, Gamma rushes forward using his monk's incredible speed. Duzang seeing this, steps into the fire closest to him and disappears. The group looks on only to see Duzang reappear at the end of the lane stepping from the last small roadside fire. He handily wins.

As Gamma slinks off into the shadows, either in lieu of an attack or simply sulking, Kame says, "well, I guess we're going to visit the Emperor. As with water one must move with river."

The Flame Palace

The group moves off, accompanied by the firery monks. As dawn breaks, they see the palace ahead. Beautiful and splendid with wealth. Inside the doors of the palace is a beautiful marble palace with flaming braziers at every turn. They are greeted by a tall handsome man wearing fine silk robes. This is the Emperor.

He welcomes them to his land and says that he must know everything that goes on and has heard of new strangers. So he has asked them here to meet and to know them. The group tells him of their mission to apprehend the criminals and shows them the scrolls with their likenesses. He nods at seeing each one and tells them that, yes, they were here. They were very powerful and like all power must be used or risk that power being released where it can hurt you

Emperor Wend goes on to tell them that he has tasked the other group with collecting an outstanding food tax but he catches himself. Honor must be shown. The group can bath and relax and they will talk more when they rejoin him for supper that evening. Several servants emerge and present each of the group with clothes and towels and offer to escort them to their quarters. The group looks at themselves, covered in mud and grime from days of travel. They agree and go along.

Just outside their guests rooms is a large communal hot spring bath. Steam roils of it's surface and, after dismissing the guards and servants, Araxie jumps in and contents herself just laying at the bottom of the hot pool. Gamma stands by the door uninterested in jumping into any more water. While Vadania goes to find Kame. Kame is looking at the vastness of the Emperor's receiving room whn Vadania finds him. She approaches the dais only to find a large dog like creature with two long trailing tails. It is sleek and black and stands the size of a good size horse. She tries to talk to it but it snarls and bares it's teeth. A few guards collect together to watch a potentially good spectacle. After failing to appease the creature, Vadania slowly retreats back to leave the creature alone. Kame advises, "it is best to leave some dogs lie".

Meanwhile, Maddox is extremely taken with his personal servant. Sang Yu is young, beautiful and eager to please Maddox as she takes to massaging the large paladin. He eventually tells Sang Yu to wait for him in his room while he talks to the rest of his group. Each of them debate their next course of action.

An Awkward Dinner

Soon enough they are summoned for dinner and each arrive in the dining area of the palace. The low table has many cushions arrayed around it and each of the group finds their place until Emperor Wend enters and joins them. An odd array of food is set before them. Most everything is unrecognizable to the group, save for the rice. Vadania pokes and prods while smelling it, trying to determine if it is poisoned at all. But the odd texture and smells of the food unfamiliar to her make it so she cannot determine any sort of poison. Gamma sits not even looking at the food. Stone golems need not eat.

Emperor Wend notices the large cloaked and hooded figure of Gamma not eating and begins to take offence. Do they not know his empire is suffering from a massive famine. Many villages are forced to give most of their food the the palace, just so their Emperor can continue to protect the land for them. Many starve and die so that the palace and it's monks can continue to protect it's people. Gamma is finally able to persuade the Emperor that he means no offence. He simply does not eat.

It is then that Vadania, silently puts the sounds of "Chi Deng Wend" together. She has mulled the sounds over and over in her head and finally concludes that "Chi Deng Wend" has been anglicized into the "Children Of Gwynt". The thieves/assassin's guild back in Baldur's Gate which was a source of corruption from within the government and The Order Of The Obsidian Dagger itself.

Emperor Wend tells them of tasking the criminals they are seeking, with collecting food from a village who has not yet given over the tithe for many seasons. It is rumored that they have produced much and simply do not want to serve the Empire. He paid the other group a hefty sum but has not heard back from them yet. He is willing to offer the same job to this group and offers the sum of 500 gold pieces. After some negotiating it is agreed upon that they would do the job for 200 gold each as well as the servant girl, Sang Yu.

A Nighttime Visit

That evening, each of the group is in their quarters sleeping. Gamma choosing to sleep in the beautifully tended rock garden atop a black boulder, stepping from shadow to shadow so as not to disturbed the sculpted "waves" in the white pebbles.

Maddox talks to his new servant girl, Sang Yu and finds that the palace does not always treat it's servants well. He has noticed this. Many of the servants bear the scars of burns which they try to cover up as much as possible. Sang Yu tells Maddox that shortly after her arrival at the palace that she was raped by three brothers. They still lear at her everyday and she fears for her life. Maddox promises that he will take care of it.

Vadania, sleeps fitfully, choosing to sleep fully armored. Something feels off about this place and she will not let her guard down. She dozes until a few drops of wetness splash her face. She tries to ignore it but it occurs again. Finally she jumps out of bed and inspects her room. She notices that the glass of water on her bedside table is empty, it's water is outside the glass forming the tiny figure of a girl. The image of the girl looks like she is pleading and trying to say something. Vadania cautiously approaches and listens. The watery form of the girl  is pleading for help, "You must come find us. We are below." She repeats this until the girls form looks off to something out of Vadania's sight, holds her hands up defensively, her face a grimace of fear. The water collapses silently into a puddle upon the bedside table.

Very unsettled. Vadania, struggles to fall back to sleep.

Off To Nalin Village

The next morning the group collects itself and tells Emperor that they shall travel to the village of Nalin to collect his food since it coincides with their own mission of tracking down the fugitives. They have decided to come back and investigate the potentially imprisoned "below" the palace when they have learned more.

They do have one more request. The Emperor must give them some representatives from the palace itself. Three guards should do. Maddox points out three of them, The Fai brothers; Huo; Shan and Lao. The three brothers that Sang Yu has accused of raping her. Maddox does not tell anyone this. Simply requests the three guards. The Emperor agrees to this.

The newly built party travels across the land. Araxie, Vadania as well as Sang Yu suffering the lecherous stares of the Fai brothers for much of the trip. Each night as they bed down for the night, the brothers lay down their mats, light odd grey candles at the foot of each mat and meditate in front of the candles the entire night.

After a couple days of travel they move up into a mountainous pass. The air becoming chilled and the wind picking up. During a moment when Maddox can talk to his group without being overheard he tells them of his plan to murder the Fai brothers and why. But first he must be sure of what Sang Yu has told him. Araxie is tasked with setting the brothers up with a make work mission of checking out a strange sound further down the mountain. Eager to please the exotic looking Araxie the brothers scramble down the mountain.

Justice At Knifepoint
1,350 XP

Once the Fai brothers are out of earshot, Maddox quickly performs the spell of Zone of Truth. A faintly shimmering hemisphere appears, encompassing the group, some of the tents, the soldiers mats and their lit candles. Maddox begins to question Sang Yu but Gamma holds his hand up to hold Maddox's question. Gamma quickly puts out the candles, their odd smelling incense smoke lingering up to the edge of the hemisphere.

Maddox asks Sang Yu directly. Did the Fai brothers really rape her. She looks humiliated and shocked that one would talk about this in the company of the entire group but she lowers her head and meekly replies, "Yes. They did rape me."

Maddox dismisses the spell and the group waits for the brother's return.

They do not wait long. The brothers come scrambling back up to the encampment, only to be ambushed by Maddox, his spirit dire wolf, and the rest of the party. Before the brothers can react two of them are dead and the third pleads for his life. He never even touched Sang Yu. None of them had.

Maddox grabs hold of the last brother then holds a dagger out to Sang Yu. She takes it unsure of why he has given it to her. He tells her to go ahead and kill him. She deserves to be the one to kill him. Her hand shakes unsure of what to do, until she lowers the dagger.

Maddox understands. Not everyone is built for killing. He snaps the last of the Fai brother's neck.

Justice is served.