Illusions

August 7, 2014

The group is in Whistledown trying to help with the oncoming portal invasion.  They are still not happy with Josef and the Count and Countess Dimitris.  The team gets ready for the invasion as best as they can.  Shar disguises herself magically and tells people that the nobles and Josef are not doing their best.  Fain goes to the local guild representative, Walther, and asks for his help.  Walther, though, will have none of it.  He completely admits to being a coward and says he will leave and come back when the fighting is over.  Fain is not happy and threatens and bullies Walther but Walther says he is leaving.  

Early afternoon, the day of the invasion, and Countess Anna Dimitris comes to see the group.  Only twenty minutes earlier, Adrasteia had a vision of a portal opening somewhere in a building.  Other than being sure it was in Whistledown, she doesn't learn anything else.  The Countess says she felt a portal open and knows where it is.  She apologizes for their behavior earlier and hopes that the group is willing to help with this issue.  The group agrees.  The Countess shows them to a house and says that it is in there.  

The group goes to reconnoiter the area.  Adrasteia goes to fly on top of the warehouse next to it but senses danger and so avoids it.  Adrasteia and Fain go around the far side of the house.  Volgash doesn't want to be subtle, and so strides right up to the house, bashes in the front door, and sees orcs!  He starts swinging! Trogdor goes to join him but isn't sure he's seeing orcs and hesitates.  Around in the back.  Adrasteia positions herself as the door opens and others break out.  Adrasteia sees they are not orcs and tries to get them to stop.  Fain rushes up and hesitates, even as Adrasteia tells him it isn't orcs, but then attacks to do non lethal damage.  Shar sets an illusion of fire on the place and the warehouse workers next door start sounding the alarm.  

All but Volgash see through the illusion.  Volgash cuts down four more even as the others try and stop him.  Fortunately, he's not raging, so he's able to stop.  Adrasteia manages to stop Walther so they can talk to him.  Fain again talks to him but Walther is even worse, especially when Fain turns him over to Josef, who had arrived after the calls of fire and fighting had spread through the town.  The group is not happy to see Josef and tries to get him into a Zone of Truth area that Adrasteia creates but he is not happy about that!  He avoids it, yelling it's illegal, and won't listen to anything.  

They are convinced that the Countess set them up and want to confront her.  Eventually, they head to the manor to confront the Countess.  They want to cast Zone of Truth again and the Count and Countess agree.  When asked, they bluntly say they did not do anything with the attack and the zone of truth confirms it.  They ask again about preparations for the invasion and are told they can go and help.  They go to where the portal will open and see a lot of the preparations.  They get a few barricades made and have little warning before the portals open.  However, instead of orcs, it's elves!  

During the battle, Fain again works to close portals, as does Adrasteia until Adrasteia sees the dwarf leave the portal.  She works to calm down and speaks to the dwarf, who is just observing for his people.  The others are hit hard with sword and spell but return with their own.  Soon, they push the elves back and soon the elves retreat back through the portals.  As they are healing and looking around, Fain manages to get one belt off of a body before they disappear.  They are thanked and hailed as heroes.  

Adrasteia gets a vision that Biston will be next and they talk to Ola, who had arrived with soldiers from Ilsurian and offers to help them get back to Ilsurian.  They still aren't happy about the situation in Whistledown as they aren't sure what will happen once they are gone.  

GM Notes

• The players figured out what was happening with regards to the orcs/rogues and were not happy but still go forward with it.  They did quite well in playing out what their characters would do, even as they hated it.  
• Not sure how we ended, so I will need to ask for clarification to finish this up.   
• A player wanted to know why some things happened as they did.  I agreed to tell him but warned him that knowing would perhaps take away any surprises.  I ended up spelling out most of the campaign to him and I was happy at how things flowed and he agreed how it all came together.   

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