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.

Janfeng Forest and The Kodama

Back in Baldur's Gate at the keep of The Order Of The Obsidian Dagger, the newly self-appointed leader of The Order is Onthar Frume. He has sent word out to various senior members of the Order. He assembles an eclectic group of The Order's soldiers and they begin to arrive at the keep.

Onthar greets the soldiers of The Order in the Great Hall in the keep. There is Maddox a virtuous paladin knight, his armor polished to a shine. An intriguing looking female genasi rogue, Araxie Pearl, stands, with a slight inebriated wobble. A massive, quarter ton clay golum strides into the room, but he hides his features behind a massive cowled robe, named E-102gamma (named after the experiment that created it). And finally, a slight half-elf female, Vadania, stands proudly in her cleric robes.

Track Them Down

Onthar tells them that he is tasking them with a mission to assist him in fixing a grave mistake he has made. He tells them of hiring a group of outsiders whom he thought were up to the task of investigating The Order. He had worried that The Order was succumbing to corruption and wanted it ferreted out. He had given them too much free reign. He goes on, with a grave look, telling them that this group abused their powers and killed and robbed prodigiously. They are even suspected in the death of The Order Of The Obsidian Dagger's previous leader, Ondine.

Other investigators, as well as the group in question, had traced some of the city's corruption to a group of thieves and assassins who called themselves 'The Children Of Gwynt'.  But the group apparently insisted on abusing their power further and worked their way into Ondine's tower, killing him and several soldiers. They briefly tried to convince Onthar that Ondine was behind the whole corruption but when pressed for evidence they fled, killing a couple of soldiers of The Order in their escape.

The Order finally tracked them down to a mansion in the upper city, belonging to a noble of some growing influence, a young woman named Lady Stehlen. Once The Order gained access to the mansion they found Lady Stehlen, her servants and much of her belongings gone. This vile group is suspected of killing or abducting Lady Stehlen and stealing much of her household.

The assembled group is charged with bringing these individuals to justice. He hands them a handful of parchment scrolls. They are charcoal sketchings of each of the suspects, along with their names: Yeva Abramovich; Azalea; Oor; Artemis; Searaphina. If they are attacked they must defend their lives, so retrieving the bodies will do as much justice as Onthar desires. BUT....Onthar stresses that there is one among them that is not to be harmed.

A young myconid, going by the nickname, Stool, is not to be harmed. He must, in fact, be returned to Onthar. They are deep and close friends. He worries for Stool's life and his innocence.

Onthar, finally standing as the meeting draws to a close, tells them that they will have to travel by portal to Ondine's tower, where they believe the fugitive group has fled to. There they have used a powerful portal to travel. Where that powerful portal links to is unknown. Hence they have assembled a group with various skills, backgrounds and abilities for this mission.

The group is ushered along by an old mage, who introduces himself as Levi Titanbrow. He leads them to a large room with four large alcoves. Within each alcove is a large fountain. Levi explains that the entrance to the top of Ondine's tower has been blocked somehow and they must teleport into the tower via these fountain portals. When they are ready the simply step into the water. The group first has to get ready, Maddox must call to him the rest of his retinue as well as his horses. E-102gamma, asks for any magical items that would be useful.  Levi tells gamma he will look for what he can with such short notice and find the spell that will enlarge the fountain to accommodate the party including the horses.

Soon Levi returns with a few items which the group divies up and the group, horses and all step into the fountain's pool.

They are instantly transported to the top of Ondine's tower. The room is large and mostly barren. Several large blood stains and streaks as well as smashed furniture and bones littered around the room attest to some gruesome happening. The group steps into the portal circle and makes their best attempt at activating the teleportation portal. White light engulfs them and immediately they find themselves high in the mountains, surrounded by clouds....with the partner portal circle below them but 20 feet over. Below them is 30 foot drop to the mountainside.



On Top Of Ol' Janfeng

Several of the group are able to land nimbly without much effort and scramble back up the mountain to the portal but Maddox, not the most nimble of paladins, crashes to the earth and rolls until rocks block his further tumble down the mountain. Eventually they all make it back up the mountain to the top where the large teleportation circle is carved in the rock.

The air is cool and damp and night will soon fall. They search around the top of the plateau and find that the portal's arcanic symbols which empower the teleportation spell have been at least in parts, chiseled out. Someone has attempted to mar the portal. While it obviously still works, the scarring of the runes has made the portal dangerous.

The group is also able to find an old path which leads down the mountain. They follow it along until they come to a bridge crossing a deep chasm. On the near side of the bridge they witness two giant mountain goats grazing. In the small grass covered landing before the bridge the group notes massive amounts of blood and gore. There would seem to be a massive slaughter of several giant mountain goats recently. The group inspects the area and deduce that the slaughter probably occurred no more than two weeks ago.

Emotionally Scarred Goats

Maddox approaches one of the giant mountain goats. He casts speak with animals and his mind enters that of the goat. He asks the goat if they have seen people that look like this, concentrating and producing a mental picture of each of the fugitives. The goat's horror is obvious. Maddox receives a mental image of several horrific demons, who slightly resemble the characters Maddox concentrated on. These demented demons spout fire and lightning and hack mercilessly at the goats brothers and sisters. The death and horror color the entire vision of the goat which Maddox sees. The demon characters rejoice and cavort in the killing.

Then when the goats herder and caretaker, a small hermit of a man and in the vision wreathed in a glowing holy white light, arrives to save his flock, the demons descend on him while he attempts to placate the demons. The vision is horrific and saddening. The goat pleads with Maddox, "food?". Maddox reaches down and grabs a tuft of green  grass and feeds it to the goat.

The fugitives have been here.

The group spends the night in a small foul smelling cave. Carcasses of goats litter the cave floor in here too. They also find the body of the hermit from Maddox's conversation with the goat.  His body, sliced open and crushed, lies face down in a small stream of water.

In the morning the group makes their way slowly down the mountainside and eventually come to the thick forest which surrounds the mountain for several miles. Inside the forest, under the canopy of leaves the forest is dark and quiet. No signs of animals. No bird song. Just the sound of the wind through the trees. The group travels until it becomes to dark to continue. They find themselves a slightly open area to rest.

The Kodama Of Janfeng

As the group sits there, Araxie notices something odd sitting on a branch a few feet away. It is a small white creature whose soft white body has a head which watches here and bobs and twists in a very odd fashion. As she quietly notifies the rest of the group she notices another and then another. The creatures try to gesture to them and eventually Araxie gets up and follows them.



Feeding The Widow Creeper
2,950 XP + (4,950 /2) XP

The creatures lead the group, with Araxie in front towards a cave. Araxie tries to speak with the little creatures but they do not answer. Suddenly, with the sound of cracking branches, a huge spider-like creature emerges from the cave and grasps at Araxie. Vines shoot out of it's mouth and the genasi is tightly gripped in the vines, thorns piercing her skin.

The others are quick to respond and rain down spells and weapon strikes against the wooden creature. The Widow Creeper takes the hits, as bits of its body splinter and break off. But it still holds on to Araxie. It draws Araxie closer and it's fangs bite down and pierce Araxie's head and it begins to feed on the fluid and matter within.

The small spirit-like creatures do not seem to respond to this. They simply watch and begin to approach different members of the party. One of the little creatures touches Maddox's horse and the horse screams in pain and dies. Araxie tries to  communicate with the creatures and finds that the creatures, who communicate more through feelings and images than words, are simply trying to feed one of the forest's creatures because it is hungry.

Emploring the creatures that this group doesn't want to die and that they are on a important mission, the little creatures retreat and blink out of sight. Soon enough the widow creeper succumbing to the groups skills is finally trampled by Maddox's summoned war horse and becomes little more than kindling.

Sword In The Shell

After a long rest the group continues to travel through the forest, until they come across what looks to be a turtle lying face down among some bushes. What stands out about the turtle is that is has a large long sword sticking out of it's shell.

Maddox approaches cautiously and grabs and pulls at the sword. He is barely able to step back in time to avoid the swinging foot of the turtle as it turns and swings it's leg in a kick towards Maddox's face.

It stops. Smiles and says in a slow old voice, "What do you want with my sword?"