The fortress
is calm. At least temporarily, nothing is trying to destroy the fortress or
kill its inhabitants, but the general feeling is that this peaceful respite
will not last. #8 has been brought up to date on events that occurred while he
was not operational. Tep has returned back home to the goblins to assure them
of his safety, and of the wishes of the gnomes to recommit to a truce and
possibly talk of striking out together against a common enemy. A message has
been sent back to the gnomes that Tep will return for talks with an entourage
in 2 days.
Carlana has
called a meeting of the townspeople to tell them about the coup attempt. She
also tells them about the goblins, and her plan to ally with them. The plan is
to attack the kobolds, to strike out instead of hiding behind the walls. She
tells the crowd that the recent violence has galvanized her wish to be a strong
leader, and recognise when things need to change. As such, she has made some decisions, and
asks that anyone that would call a challenge to her to do so publicly. With
immediate effect, she is abolishing the army – of which very little was left
anyway. The remaining army members are to be absorbed into the Firestrong
Guard. Crossbow – a young but experienced man is being made the head of the
Guard. Carlana also takes time during her address to tell the townspeople of
the death of Hammond, but of the escape of the other defectors. She also outed
her relationship with Erik, to avoid any rumour. At the end she asked for any
dissenters to make themselves known – and no one came forward.
After this meeting,
the townspeople seem to be in a generally positive mood. They appreciate the
candidness with which they were spoken to, and for the most part are happy with
the plan to strike out – feeling that the fortress has been less and less safe
as of late anyway.
Night falls.
Echo and
Enbel go to bed, and Altus and #8 – not needing sleep - stay up. #8 takes up
his post at the gate. The night passes
without incident. However, as the sun rises, a number of figures start to fill
the town outside the fortress– they appear magical creatures – skeletons
pulling themselves up out of the ground. Some of the ground seems to be
shimmering with residual magical energy.
#8 notices
and alerts the rest of the party, as well as Carlana. Soon afterwards, Charlie arrives
on the fortress wall with Carlana to meet with #8, and look at the creatures
outside. He thinks that these skeletal creatures are being animated by kobold
war mages – obviously using some item to amplify their powers. He speculates
that they obtained it in the recent raid on the save point.
Carlana: “ I
haven’t given you fair credit, I’ve been foolish, but I’m not proud. I’ve faked
pride since taking charge, and it’s completely overrated. You’ve saved me, and
us, a lot so far. Can you help us again? We want to attack the kobolds, but the
goblins won’t be here until tomorrow. in the meantime, those creatures are
swarming towards the forest. If there’s something there the kobolds want, I’m
damn sure I don’t want them to get it. Would you be willing to attempt to get
in there?“
She offers
them some armaments which may assist with the endeavour. Charlie opens the chest that was brought to
them and passes out the items.
The party
agree to try and get there. – they
notice that not many of the ghostly creatures can make it into the forest –
they appear to be congregating outside, having difficulty breaching the
treeline. Only a small few appear to make it into the forest. Ranger runs in
advance into the trees. The rest of the party follow, battling through the
skeletons. They recognise boltstone – areas where the ground has taken on an electrical
charge. This is obviously a secondary effect to the animation of the skeletons.
On breaking the treeline they find themselves in a maze. They have to find
their way through the maze to get into the forest. The maze keeps shifting and
changing however. At first the party are frustrated – until they eventually
realise that the maze is helping them – putting walls between them and enemies,
and slowly leading them to the exit.
They come
out and then kill off all the skeletal monsters following them – all but one,
who they follow to see where it is going. It wanders aimlessly, not seeming to
know where exactly its target lies, until it is split through the skull with an
arrow fired from above.
The assassin
reveals herself, a Halfling by the name of Avie. The party introduce themselves
and have dialogue with Avie – clearly named for the Halflings revered deity, Avandra.
She walks them back towards her camp
while she speaks, and they see a number of curious looking Halflings scattered
around a campfire. She tells them that she is the leader of a small group of Halflings,
and that they previously stayed out of all the fighting because they had
something much more important to worry about than a turf war. However she is quick
to say that they believe that now is a time to work with any willing allies to
achieve unity in Firestrong. She has a notable distaste for the kobolds, and
their obvious attempt to get to them in the forest.
Avie: “ah,
the smells of kobold flesh in the morning… a memory that I will not soon
forget.”
When asked
why the kobolds have such interest in getting to the Halflings, Avie goes to
the campfire and takes a satchel from the warmth beside it, and pulls out a
dragon egg. They ask her where they got it, and she says it was saved from the
nest when the Firestrong , the dragon, was killed. Avie says that a dragon can
survive in hibernation for a long time – unhatched – but they had decided
recently to hatch it. Echo is quick to say that the dragon should not be kept
in the bag once hatched. Avie was disgusted at the very mention of it.
*(Note: This was Megan’s way of referencing –
without breaking character as Echo – the actions of a character I play in a separate
campaign – a Halfling named Dex, who captured a baby dragon in a bag of
holding, and feeds it with the bodies of slain enemies, or the occasional live
one.)
Avie
expresses an interest in introducing the party to someone else. A figure steps
out of the tent. It is a goblin, who proclaims “thanks to your rumour
spreading, I think the only people actually surprised to see me alive would be
you…. I am Set”
Instantly,
#8 is shocked and makes as if to attack and kill him. All the Halflings rise
from around the fire, hands on their weapons. At this point, Altus steps in asks
#8 to calm. They tell him of their deception – not knowing of #8’s
trustworthiness at the start – and therefore not letting him in on their
fabrication of the Set rumours.
Set doesn’t
take their rumours as insult. He tells his story. The gnome-goblin truce was
between Graf, Taka, and himself. Kobolds wouldn’t attack while the goblins and
gnomes remained united. Corvek was leader of the goblins, a role he had assumed
due to Set’s father’s sudden and suspicious death. He was to hold the position
until Set came of age. Of course, if Set never came of age, then he would retain
the position. Either way, while Set remained alive, his leadership had an
expiration date. He escorted Set to the temple for his trial – a passage into
adulthood, after which he would have been able to assume the leadership – but
denied him weapons. Fortunately, Set’s mother had slipped him a dagger,
accompanied by a note the party had found earlier when they had visited the
temple. “Dearest Set,….”
Knowing
Corvek’s intentions, Set killed him and then made it look like he – Set – was
dead and Corvek missing. He knew that Tep was next in line for leadership, and
that he’d do a good job. He didn’t think he could go back to the goblins
himself. He wandered north, and entered the forest, looking for shelter. This
was how he had met up with Avie, who had known Set’s father before he died. The
halflings asked him to remain on with them.
Set is
willing to leave Tep in charge, but in light of the recent activity from the
kobold troops around Firestrong, he’s
come up with a story that he thinks will let him go back to his people. He will
claim that Corvek and Set were attacked by kobolds, and that Corvek fought
bravely before being killed. Set had to flee to the forest and was taken in by Avie.
#8 decides to forgive the rest of the party for their suspicion at not trusting
him straight away.
Set then
leads them back to the tent and shows them a sleeping boy – the one who was a
survivor in the save point. His name is Fox. #8 takes set aside and apologises
for his misplaced bad feelings towards him. #8 thanks him, telling him “you
have brought me 2 steps closer to fulfilling my goal – of restoring Firestrong.”
They decide
to make a break for the fortress. Echo sends Ranger on ahead with a message to
let the people know of their attempted return, and to be expecting new arrivals
including a dragon egg which needs to be kept warm. They then split into 2
groups – Set, Avie, Halflings and Fox (w/dragon egg), and the other group Echo,
Enbel, #8, Altus
The party
are to distract and take out the skeletal creatures, allowing safe passage to
the others. Echo and #8 step out and open a path, which the other group scurry
through. After making short work of the creatures surrounding them, they
continue to the fortress. It is obvious that they are becoming a far more
effective fighting force, the events of recent days forcing them to learn
quickly to avoid fatal consequences.
As they near
the fortress, a ghostly apparition appears and challenges them. This apparition
makes a challenge to them, and promises them that they will see their precious
fortress razed to the ground.
When they
reappear at the fortress, there is a festival atmosphere. Clomp arrives with 3
imps in tow, looking for access to the fortress. Everyone seems to be jubilant,
with little premonition of the next days events.
*END OF
GAME 9*
