The Caravan - Chronological order of Events
A quick and dirty summary of everything the party encountered.
The protagonists
- Boldrek Honorbeard
- Filibert Chubb (retired)
- Izzy
- Lavanith Rhovan (retired)
- Odrik Hilderfinn
- Wyn Dawnwalker (retired)
The Godfall
A horrible sound, like the shriek of a fiend from the lower planes reverberates through your skull and you wake up slowly, blinking your eyes, feeling worse than you have ever felt in your life. Your entire body aches, your head especially. Your body is burned in many places and caked with blood; you have no idea if it’s your own.
You have almost no energy, your limbs feel heavy but you slowly sit up to take stock of your surroundings. A two-headed goat is nibbling on your footwear and you notice a furrow in the earth coming up to where you are lying, your body must have slid along the ground at some force.
As you get your bearings you see two covered wagons, both overturned, items spilling out, the draft horses dead on the gorse. You see more bodies lying around, condors are picking away at the entrails of some of them and the horses. More of those strange goats are milling about, eating anything laying around.
The characters wake up, more dead than alive, amidst a scene of carnage on the heath, somewhere in the Godfall. No one has any memory of the last seven days or so but of more pressing matter is a huge dust storm, a Felak, coming their way.
They quickly gather their packs, and a few extra, the previous owners are in no state to complain about it. Close by is a small cave entrance that leads to, what they hope, is safety. With the storm hot on their heals they crawl into the Godfall Caverns.
Back to the surface
The portal deposits everyone on a hill in a landscape that looks a lot like the Godfall. A road in the distance and an encounter with Will-o'-Wisps and skeletons eventually leads to a small hamlet called Norak, where they learn they are three days from Banak.
It turns out the village is in some need of a judge so they are quite pleased to see Filibert in his Pholtan tabard. Two days ago a dwarven woman came to town and stabbed the local carpenter, trying to kill him. He defended himself, blinding her in one eye, and now both have been held under lock and key. She claims that the carpenter killed her brother when he was in Banak, less than a week ago. The carpenter denies this though he does concede he was in the same dive bar as the brother, who was found strangled in an alley next to it.
Filibert decides, after a plea from the local sergeant, that due to a complete lack of evidence they will take the sister to Banak and try and find out what really happened before convicting anyone of anything. A halfling Imbar farmer tries to get a case to have his money returned but is found to be clearly lying about events.
Banak
The walls of the city come in to view long before you arrive at the gate. The guards ask for the reason of your visit but other than that you have no trouble entering the city. Once inside you immediately feel warmer as the wind has lessened considerably. You walk down Forgraic Avenue and come to Civic Square, dominated by the facade of the government building, the Palace of the Dukes of Lordraerra.
A market is held here most days and hawkers are yelling at any prospective buyers about the quality of their wares. It is quite busy but most people don’t seem to be in any haste. Dwarves are definitely the most common but you see quite a few humans, a good number of halflings and half-orcs and a few gnomes. There’s a half-elf at one of the stalls (“clean your knife easily with my miracle cloth!”) and you see what must be a tiefling exit from Thovir Auction House.
The party members take rooms at the All Home Inn, where it turns out Filibert left without settling his accounts. Everyone has places to go and things to buy and jobs to look for. It doesn't take long before the following is on their plate:
- The brother murder case.
- The Companions of Elric have asked to discreetly get rid of a bookkeeping teacher, Ingra Skobet, they recently hired at Assuagion Academy.
- An old warehouse owner friend has asked Odrik to look into the wife (Centak Sointu Duldren) of his son Kargrim, he suspects her of abusing him.
- Two engineers have gone missing underground at Water Worx.
- There is also, of course, the matter of the destroyed caravan they woke up amongst.
Wet Work
Two engineers have gone missing at Water Worx and the party is asked to investigate. They find two bodies, one has the other's dagger in the back, and the other seems to have been hit in the head by one of the buckets on the elevator. Our friends decide to investigate and when Izzy gets close to the water basin, a serpentine shape made of nothing but water rises up and drags her into the basin, under the surface.
Destroying the basin seems to be quickest way to uncover the entity that is completely invisible in water. Once all water has flowed out the creature explodes in a spray of liquid, but not after having almost drowned Izzy and Boldrek.
Odrik goes to see Kargrim and eventually manages to get out of him that he has been involved in a fight club with friends from work. He offers him some lessons with an old Bruised colleague which he accepts, as long as his father won't find out about any of this. In the evening Quadok Gunnar Balmung turns up at Odrik's room. He has heard that Odrik has been investigating Kargim's wife and he wants any info he might have on her, he'll even pay for anything Odrik might find in the future.
The fact they are all still missing a week of events from their memory and have no idea what happened to the caravan or even why they were on it, is a good reason to go by the temple of Pholtus and Abjura Dolana. The Pholtans can't shed much light; even a prayer to their god doesn't reveal much beyond a 'keep investigating'.
The abjurers don't quite know, yet, what caused the memory loss but note that there are similarities with Shathûr magic, which makes little sense. However, when the party tells them about their underground adventures the interest level goes through the roof and more senior people are called in, including someone who might be the Magister, though he wasn't carrying a staff.
After hearing the entire story, the Abjura Dolana people make it very clear that the party should not tell anyone about what they found; having this information fall into the hands of Tipatshimun (there are quite a few members at Dubanôn), the Kasarian Embassy, or basically anyone, would be terrible for the world. They even go so far as to hire the party on retainer instead of making them pay for the consult.
Later, Filibert heads up the investigation of the murder of the brother. He speaks with the three friends who were drinking with the victim on the night of the murder. They all have interesting things to say and he learns which of them wore anything brown that particular night, possibly matching the brown bit of wool they found in the alley.
Boldrek finds a man who loiters along the street a lot and pays him to find more evidence or information. Eventually it pays off as the man manages to find a witness who noticed the side door in the alley open and heard a woman's voice and a man's voice speaking as he walked past.
The morning after the night before
Izzy wakes up, naked, in a bed in a ratty inn room next to a, also naked, dwarven woman. At first she doesn't remember much about last night, all the empty khel bottles might have something to do with that. She had gone to a tavern to meet the bookkeeping teacher and see what she could do to remove her from the board as asked but it looks like the tables had turned.
The dwarven woman is none other but the burgomeister; Jessra Throndor, and they are at a room at the Come and Go Inn, the cheapest lodgings in town. Their clothes and other belongings are nowhere to be found and eventually Izzy wraps the thin sheets around herself and goes to her own inn for some clothes and money before going to the burgomeister's home to collect some clothes for her. Jessra makes it home without too many people having seen her at the inn and Izzy eventually finds their clothes in the alley next to the inn. She decides to return the job to the Companions.
Filibert is contacted by the House of Light. Head of the church, Immar Chessar, asks for a favor; to administer last rights to a man called Ressic Kren and bring a small wooden horse toy back from his house. When asked he tells the paladin that the less he knows about the why, the better for everyone involved. The horse is specifically there for him to take, it won't be theft. When Filibert gets to the expensive home he finds priests of at least six other religions there. He delivers the last rights to the dying man and then takes the toy when no one is looking and returns it to Immar.
Odrik is on his way through town when a dwarven woman with green eyes asks him if he is, indeed, Odrik. She says she heard about his tavern stories of underground adventures and wants to know more. They step into the alley and there an 8' tall creature that looks like a hulking orangutan with a gruesome, drooping visage and tusks jutting from its jaw steps from behind a stack of crates when called by the woman.
She casts a spell on Odrik when he wants to run for it and the fighter can't move at all and looks on in fright as the creature grabs his head with its large hand. The woman then uses a spell to probe Odrik's thoughts as she asks questions about the statues they encountered. Our friend has other ideas and manages to throw his hand-axe at the woman and it connects solidly. Then he even manages to wrestle free from the grasp of the fiendish ape and runs as fast as his short legs can carry him. Neither the woman nor the creature pursue.
Afterwards Odrik tries to find out who the woman was and thanks to her green eyes, very uncommon in dwarves, he learns that she is likely Ilma Kratoc, lector of Conjuring at Dubanôn and a Tipatshimun member.
Boldrek is also out and about when he sees a human man in his thirties, wearing stained clothes and a leather apron, running through the intersection ahead of him. There are shouts from at least two voices: “Stop!” “Get him!”,”Don’t let him get away!” The barbarian takes his time to assess the situation and sees that the pursuers are a dwarven man and woman, judging by their dress and weapons, likely mercenaries or something of the kind. Our friend trips the male dwarf and makes him think it was an accident, helping him back up and trying to get some information, but the dwarf whose nose is even more broken now just runs on after he quarry.
Boldrek is in no hurry and leisurely makes his way in the direction of the chase, finding cabbages all over the street and helping the greengrocer get them all back in their crates, even getting a tasty Otteun apple for his assistance. Next he finds two men with a large painting that now has a human shaped hole in the middle of it. Then a tavern where the man apparently ran inside and then jumped through the window on the other side. His stroll ends when he hears sobbing and finds the man in a courtyard, his kneecaps having been well and truly destroyed.
He lifts the man up without any effort and decides to bring him to the nearest temple even though the man, who introduces himself as Milo Shrim, doesn't want to go as he has no money. It turns out that Milo is something of an inventor, or so he claims, and he borrowed money from a loanshark, Sinikka Dalmor, so he could get a new workshop to work on a new invention that would allow him to easily pay her back. Unfortunately his new invention hasn't quite progressed to a saleable state and now Ms. Dalmor wants 10 gold pieces.
At the temple of Kismet Boldrek pays for the healing, which isn't cheap, 25 gp for a cure wounds spell! When he learns that Milo wasn't able to really sell any of his previous inventions (a bone scraper, a candle snuffer, an automated porridge maker, detachable pockets) he suggests that he should look for a partner who is good at sales. Milo is impressed at this advice and thanks him for everything when they get to his rather cluttered workshop.
There's even more to do today and the party finds out something new about the doomed caravan. At a wheelwright and supply store they find out they haven't been the only ones asking after the caravan; "funny, one of them tieflings was asking the same thing." So it looks like the Kasarian Embassy is looking into this as well... They also learn that, yes, a dwarf did order some things from here for two wagons, including wheels that work well on the heath. The wheelwright doesn't really remember much of significance about the buyer; it's been a while.
Bronzed
The next day the party is out on the street when they hear the unmistakable sounds of battle coming from around the corner. When they make their way there they see a dwarven woman in bronze armor and a little half-elf girl of about six years old being attacked from all sides. The woman wears a full face helmet (grey hair spilling from under it) and splint armor, she wields a warhammer and shield, all made of bronze. Odrik recognizes her; it's Ghalea Thovir, something of a celebrity around here and he has actually met her before. She started out as an adventurer but quickly shifted to close protection, offering her services to those who need to go to dangerous places and need someone to look out for them.
The attackers are all wearing leather armor and seem to be mostly humans and one or more half-elves. Heavy crossbows keep clacking as the assailants don't let up their assault, aiming for the girl when possible and Ghalea when not. The party rushes in to help and eventually manage to move the girl to an alley. Ghalea then uses an item to create a fog cloud and under its cover they all get away and rush to the Companions of Elric headquarters, as Ghalea has been exhorting them to do.
On arrival there is quite some confusion as no one at the headquarters knows anything about the girl and the goings-on. Eventually Dorna Hukhol, leader of the Companions in Banak shows up and straightens things out, whisking the girl away to safety and sending out security to intercept any attackers. At almost the same time Ghalea succumbed to her wounds and the poison running through her system, having been carried to the HQ by Odrik. See tells him to take her magical shield and use it well, and to let her son know that she died and how proud she is of him and how much she has loved him.
Dorna Hukhol thanks the party for all they have done, especially once she learns they were just happening by as the ambush took place. She promises that the Companions will talk to Ghalea's son when he'll come over once Odrik has informed him, and they will take care of the funeral and anything else he might need. She explains to them that she can't tell the party anything about the girl, not even her name; any information they might have will put them at (more) risk. Ignorance is bliss in this particular case, according to her. She does thank them again and offers them a free meal at the city's finest restaurant.
The restaurant, Banâd-Zirak, is many centuries old and looks the part. The interior is all wood paneling, a large horned skull on wall over a large fireplace. Floating spheres of light are dotted around the dining area. Dinner is great and then Boldrek take a first bite of his honey-glazed ham. Almost immediately he changes into black bear, to the consternation, or even outright panic of the other guests.
A heavily accented voice starts talking inside his head: "Did you think you could hide from me? You can’t flee anywhere I can’t find you. Do you know those insects that scurry around in shit? You are below those." Boldrek is taken aback and has no idea what's going on. He asks who he is talking to and the voice tells him that he is talking with Maior. The voice also explains that the dwarf stole his honeycomb. "Soon I am going to come and take back what is mine. Maybe not right now, I’m sooo comfortable right now, it’s so nice and warm, but in ten, twenty, anyway, you are mine and don’t you forget it.”
Maior seems to be done talking as it doesn't reply to any further questions Boldrek tries to ask. Unfortunately he is still in bear form and can't talk to his companions, all that comes out is a sort of growl or bark. He tries to communicate in other ways but with hardly any success. The other party members though have become somewhat accustomed to weird things happening and they try to reassure the manager. About ten minutes later the unfortunate dwarf turns back into his normal self; an improvement, some would say.
The next morning a message from the Companions is waiting; Dorna would like to see them again and the party goes. She explains that the unnamed girl isn't safe yet; the opponents, whoever they might be, have plentiful resources and will try anything to capture or kill the girl. Her plan is to send out a number of groups to various other cities to hopefully muddy the waters and make it impossible to tell where the girl really did go. The opponent will be marshaling forces though, so speed is of the essence.
She asks the party if they would be willing to be one of the groups going out. If so, they could even help out with another thing as well; ever so often the Companions go and collect supplies from an ally that lives north of the road to Zâram-Tûm. It's about a five day journey there, so if the party was to go in that direction they could gather the supplies and bring them back. Knowing that it is a lot to ask and there is a risk of them being attacked, she replies to Odrik's question about pay that she'll pay 15 gp per person, well over market rate.
The party agrees and is told by another Companion how they can find the ally. They just need to look for certain way-points and make their way to an escarpment. Once there, they are to make the sound of a whippoorwill three times. Then they should just go to sleep, after waking they will find the wagon full of supplies and ready to return to Banak.
Boldrek decides to go by Abjura Dolana to ask about his new bear troubles. His status as one of the Balturian cavern explorers gets him an immediate consult with Sentinel Hull Nurian. The barbarian is vague at first but Hull has already heard about the scene at the restaurant at night. In the end Boldrek allows the Sentinel to cast some spells on his honeycomb. It doesn't appear to be magical but when Hull casts a dispel magic at it, a wave of force is launched from the honeycomb powerful enough to throw the mage into wall behind him. When he is brought to, he suggests Boldrek take the item and go, though if he learns more about it, please share.
Road Trip
The journey is easier than one might have imagined, no attack comes and other than a drunken caravan driver barging into their room at the first night, no one unfriendly accosts them. After five days they come to the two trees with entwined branches where they are to leave the road.
The escarpment, at least twenty foot high here, comes into view and thanks to the clear directions it isn’t too much trouble to find the right spot; a small barrel has indeed been hidden in an old tree, just as described. The party succeeds at making the sound of a whippoorwill and starts to make camp for the night.
But then there’s a sound and part of the rock façade turns to mud and sloughs away, leaving a tunnel. From it steps a very exotic looking woman, she’s quite attractive, with delicate features, but it’s unclear what exactly she is, she’s neither human nor elf though she is about that height, most remarkable is the color of her skin, which is a pale green hue, her eyes are a soft yellow, and her hair has a golden sheen.
“Welcome,” she says as she approaches, “oh, you are not exactly who I expected to find.” She looks at each party member in turn. “You were sent by the Companions of Elric, correct?” she states, and once this is confirmed she looks relieved. “I could use some help, if you would please follow me,” she tells them and then turns around and walks back into the tunnel, “you can leave the wagon and the horses here, they will be safe.”
Coming through the other side of the tunnel reveals a hidden paradise of sorts. A hollow in the escarpment of about five hundred yards on each side holds verdant fields not seen anywhere in the Godfall, apart from around the Silvalhuese River. Many different vegetables and grains are growing in small plots, each looking better than the last, and quite a few out of season. There are softly swaying stalks of ripe grains, carrots so orange they almost make your eyes hurt, strawberries looking too succulent to be real, and so many more.
Further to the back grow all kinds of herbs around a rustic cottage that wouldn’t look out of place in a Miforan village. A small brook babbles as it winds its way around the area and then disappears under the rock and in one corner is a small meadow with at its center a large tree brimming with fruit of different colors. It feels nice and warm here, much more so than on the other side of the tunnel.
“Please come inside,” says the mysterious woman and she makes her way to the cottage. “I’m Kore,” she states when they reach the cottage and she ushers them into the large kitchen and has them sit around the table, “would any of you like anything to eat or drink?” After taking care of refreshments and a minimum of small talk she comes to the point.
“As you may know, not too far north of here is the Haklur Desert. It’s a place where not a thing can grow and it has been this way ever since the Collapse. This cannot stand, it is an affront to nature itself, and to me, personally, as well, and so, I have made it my life’s work to reverse it and bring nature back where it belongs,” she explains as she sips her tea, “as you have seen outside, I have been experimenting and I think that once the desert has been returned to nature, the rest of the Godfall will also change for the better, and more can be grown here without the use of magic.”
“Now, to why I could use your help. For my experiments I require things from that blasted place and while I have more of the sand than I’ll ever need, I’ve run out of the liquid that goes for water there, it can’t be stored indefinitely. So, I would like for you to go and collect some for me. I won’t lie, the Haklur Desert is not a place any living creature would want to be, it’s not good for you. But I know where you can find some water there and you should not have to be in the desert for more than two days at the most, and, I will supply you with remedies to counteract the deleterious effects.”
There is some discussion about a payment for this trek into the desert and she explains that she has not inconsiderable powers and resources, she might be able to help them in some way. In the end the party decides they would like some healing items in payment. She spends the rest of the day with Boldrek, discussing his new bear issue and teaches him through meditation exercises how he can, hopefully, return to human form, should it happen again.
The next morning she provides a description of a well-hidden trail to a cave in the desert where water has collected in a pool. She hands over a large glass bottle on a stick and impresses upon them not to touch the water in any way, let any water on the outside of the bottle evaporate before storing the bottle. She produces a tin containing tiny balls of a not very pleasant-smelling substance; “take one every eight hours, suck on it till it dissolves, it will protect you from the worst effects.” And she gives each of them two pomegranate-like fruits; “these will heal your wounds should you get injured.”