19 August 2008

Longmaple and the Necromic Bomb

Sereck's Journal Entry

The wind swept quickly by Serecks head as he rode his horse at break-neck speed. The rest of the party surrounded him, as they too rode through the makeshift road headed towards the town of Longmaple. With feelings of dread, Sereck looked over his shoulder at the distant black dot on the horizon behind him. There, floating, was death itself, a malevolent sphere of necrotic energy, bound for the town of Longmaple to loose is destructive power on the unsuspecting townsfolk. Looking at his companions, Sereck knew that they alone held the key to the town’s survival and the sphere’s destruction. Silently, he urged his horse faster, knowing that his great dragonborn weight was already causing the mount to reach its limits of endurance.

Suddenly the trees began to thin, as the party exited the forest and entered a large plain.

Kernosh, following behind Orrin, rises up in his saddle and points into the distance towards a dark shadow along the horizon.

“There it is! We are almost there.”

“It’s about time…” mumbles Cabal as the rest of the party silently rejoices.

Arriving at the town wall, Kernosh calls the group into a slow gallop as he rides towards the openeing gate, and eventually dismounts indicating the rest of the group should do so as well. He then walks over to the lone guard standing at the front gate into Longmaple.

“Greetings gatekeeper. My companions and I need to see the leader of the town, or maybe the head priest. It is in regards to the black orb on the horizon. We have information that is critical to the survival of the town.”

The guard looks at Kernosh with total disdain. He has been a guard for a long time, and tales such as this from adventuring parties was nothing new. “Listen, you don’t need any fancy story to enter town, we see adventurers all the time. Besides, based on your symbol of Bahamut, you are welcome here. But, if you really need to see the town leader, well, you have your work cut out my friends. The town is broken into five sections, with a single noble leader in charge of each but the neutral section. Those four make up our city council although they hardly ever agree on anything. Oh, and each section has its own church and high priest too. You should head to the center of town, that’s neutral territory and the place that I send most adventuring parties that arrive here.”

The party looks at each other, but has no better suggestion. Eventually, all eyes fall to Kernosh, who shrugs and smiles back at the gatekeeper. “That would do nicely. Maybe if you could give us directions to the neutral temple then we will be on our way?”

The guard smiles, thinking the groups anxiety was from potentially being turned away and not realizing it was due to the ever present danger from the orb. His directions are crude, but they are enough for Orrin and Kernosh to easily find the temple in the neutral area. The party can’t help but notice the size of the town as they pass through it. Longmaple could easily have over two thousand residents. Some of the buildings are large, and there are many two and three story structures throughout the city. Twice, the party can see large mansions sitting up on small hills. Guesswork is they are probably the home to the noble leaders the guard had spoken of.

Occasionally, people of different house colors can be seen, arguing among themselves over goods and other current matters. It suddenly becomes obvious to the party that this town is very divided, as the people seem to be taking a very strong stance about their chosen patron. Most of the shop owners are without colors, which makes sense since the party is traveling through the neutral area. They seem somewhat immune to the harassment, and it explains how anything gets done in this town.

As the party arrives at the central temple to Bahamut, we all turn and gaze at the orb. Cabal pulls out a tablet and begins to write numbers and calculations down. Sereck looks over his shoulder, but isn’t certain what’s he’s doing. Cabal finally finishes and puts the parchment away. He then addresses the party in a very serious tone, very unlike his usual self.

“Six bells at most until that thing impacts the town. Whatever plan you have in mind, it better be a fast one.” The last question was directed at Kernosh, as all eyes go to him. Sereck can’t help but feeling the warlord doesn’t like to be in command, as again he nods and turns towards the temple. But, before anyone can even enter, a tall and gangly half-elf comes walking down the stairs. He is smiling, and wearing the symbol of Bahamut proudly on the front of his robe. It is obvious to Sereck that he is a priest of no small order.

“Greetings travelers,” he begins, “I am Tydlin, head priest here at the temple.”

As he begins to look our group over, his forehead crinkles in thought as he continues, “None of you appear to be wounded at all. When I saw you walk up, I was certain you had been attacked. As you can see, the hall is crowded with refugees and others who are afraid of the dark omen that black dot represents.” He points off toward the black orb as he talks, and then looks to us for explanation. Sereck can almost feel the man’s hope that we have good news, and he feels terrible that he knows it is anything but.

Kernosh again walks up from the party to address the high priest.

“Greetings Tydlin, I am Kernosh, warlord of Bahamut. I am afraid I do not bring any good news. My party and I know exactly what that orb is. Conjured by Bannites and the Fey, it is a ball of evil necrotic energy coming straight for your city to cause unimaginable damage. But, we also know how to destroy it, and that is why we are here. How many priests are in this temple that could help us destroy that black sphere by assisting in a ritual of cleansing?”

“You have the ritual, where did you come by something like that?” asks Tydlin.

“Oh, I picked this book up off a very dead Bannite after he tried to get in our way,” answers Cabal in a very matter of fact voice as he taps the book at his side.

Thinking that salvation has literally fallen on his doorstep, the half-elf smiles at Kernosh happily.

“Why, I have another priest who is inside working on the injured. We will both gladly help in ridding the world of this evil.”

Cabal suddenly coughs out a loud noise at this announcement.

“Two? There are only two of you? The ritual will require at least twenty priests if it is going to work at all.”

“Twenty,” says Tydlin. And he looks around at the party, suddenly not happy at all. “That is going to be very difficult. I do not know how easy it is going to be to get the other priests to cooperate.”

This news quiets the group, as they ponder what could keep priests from destroying evil. Orrin suddenly comes up with a different idea. “The priests don’t have to be of Bahamut, do you have any other temples in town? Hopefully there are some here in the neutral area perhaps? We can perform the ritual here where it is neutral territory, right Cabal? But we need to have twenty.” Cabal nods in reply to Orrin’s question.

The priest smiles lightly, his facial expression being answer enough. “No kind sirs, there are small shrines to many gods throughout the town, but the only temples are to Bahamut. And I’m afraid each temple is isolated. You have to understand, the priests all get along, but we can’t show any favoritism even among ourselves. Since each priest in their respective area’s are so close to their noble leader, if they started working together, it would look like a secret alliance and the other nobles would use it for a pretence to start a war. Above all else, we priests want to protect the innocent. So, I’m afraid if even I chose to spend time with a priest from any area, I would then have to go spend time with all of them. And yes, before you ask, the nobles are exactly that paranoid.

This news does not bode well to Sereck, and from the looks of the others, they understand better than he the problems this must create. Sereck decides to follow whatever advice Kernosh gives. The party begins to talk quietly in a small huddle. There are few dragonborn in town that Sereck has seen, so the presence of two of them chatting in front of the temple in quick hushed tones attracts more than a little attention. Occasionally, Sereck spies someone writing something down and then running off. It is obvious a spy for one of the nobles in Sereck’s mind. Street urchins can always earn easy money by gathering information, and who ever notices one more orphan on the street? Sereck was certain the warning would arrive at each noble house long before any of the party did.

Duncan, the normally quiet dwarf, turns to address the priest with a question, “couldn’t ye just send runners to each of the temples? Explain the situation and save us runnin’ around town?”

Again the priest smiles a crooked smile before he replies, “if only it were that simple. But I’m afraid if you or I don’t show up in person, they would not respond. It would be beneath them.”

Orrin asks “ok, who are the leaders of the temples. We will just have to spread out and ask them ourselves.”

Tydlin nods at the plan. He then signals to a young acolyte to come over. He whispers in his ear and the boy runs off inside the temple. He then addresses the group again.

“That would work. If you were to go to the leader’s one at a time, it would look bad anyway. So allow me to tell you whom you need to speak with. Glenn is the priest for Ergon. I think he would be very reasonable listening to another follower of Bahamut, much more than Ergon himself. But be warned, his is the largest temple in the city, so he might try to use that in some way as leverage when he finds out you need priests.”

Kernosh looks over at Sereck, standing there quietly in his crystal armor, and a smile crosses his scaly face. “I believe this one will be for you to talk to Sereck. You must make certain he understands the severity of the situation, and don’t let him try and talk you into anything.”

Sereck bows to Kernosh as he replies “I will not fail in this task.”

Tydlin, watching the exchange, can’t help but be distracted as he says “You know I must admit, I’m surprised that you two are trying to help so much. I mean the few dragonborn we have in town pretty much stick to the neutral areas and don’t go out of their way to help other people, unlike the two of you.”

Kernosh turns to the priest and merely says “some dragonborn are born to be more than just shopkeepers and guards.”

Tydlin absorbs this comment, then shakes his head and continues.

“Arren is the priest in Kerrin’s part of town to the north east. I don’t know him well so I don’t know what his reaction will be, but you should go to Arren to talk instead of Kerrin.”

Orrin moves forward at this and announces “I will go to the Arren. We have to split up and that’s the closest place to walk to.”

The priest nods in reply, then looks at Orrin quizzically trying to decide if that was a good reason or not.

He then continues naming the last two contacts.

“Onden is the high priest for Carl Genwald. Carl holds the area in the south east part of town. I would warn you though he is not a very reasonable person as he is always urging Carl to expand his territory, so you should probably talk to Carl directly. And finally the last but not the least by far is the countess Ann. Her priestess is Heather. I would suggest you talk directly with the countess, she could easily veto any decision that Heather would make no matter how serious the matter.”

After a brief discussion, Kernosh makes the final roster decisions. Cabal is more than eager to go see the countess, but Kernosh thinks that would be a very bad idea. “I will visit the countess myself. Cabal, you can go talk with Carl. Try not to scare the noble with any of your illusions?”

Duncan, again unusually vocal, interrupts Cabal as he is about to explain the usefulness of his illusions.

“I will be travelin’ with the mage here. That way I can be making sure he doesn’t get himself into any trouble.”

Cabal looks taken aback at Duncan’s statement, until he sees the slight grin under the moustache and beard of the dwarf. He then pats him on the shoulder in acceptance of the new team. But Duncan wasn’t quite finished, as he looks to Tydlin and asks, “are there any kind of racial prejudices that we should know about?”

Tydlin is shocked at the question, and then sees the logic to it. “No, you should be fine. There are no Tyflings in your group. And if you do get stonewalled by any of the servants, this is a merchant town. Single silver, or maybe even fifty copper should buy you past any troublesome servants or speed up an audience if you need to.”

The party nods and begins to turn around when Tydlin clears his through. Turning around to confront him, he sheepishly asks “would it be possible to see the ritual you wish us to perform? It would allow me the time to get materials ready and to duplicate any parts that others may need to read.”

Cabal looks at the book that he is suddenly holding very close to his side. There is a lot of information in the book, not just the one ritual, and he now is being asked to give the book up? Thinking to himself how insane that would be, he is confident the book won’t leave….

“Why of course,” says Kernosh, “that makes perfect sense. Cabal?”

Kernosh puts his hand out waiting for Cabal to hand him the book.

Cabal is fuming, but for some reason he walks close to Kernosh and hands him the book.

Kernosh turns and makes a big deal about handing the book to the priest, mentioning how valuable and hard the book was to acquire and that it has the only ritual in it to save the city.

While this is happening, Cabal can’t help but notice the coin purse dangling from Kernosh’s side. Nobody seems to be watching, and he gently lifts the pouch off the dragonborns belt without him noticing. The book is suddenly forgotten as it takes all of Cabals might to not yell out in victory.

Paging through the book, Tydlin comments “it is going to cost some money for these materials in the ritual. I don’t know if I will have enough.”

Without hesitation, Cabal opens the pouch, grabs a few silver coins, and closes it back up hiding it snuggly within his jerkin. “Here you go Tydlin, this should cover everything,” as he passes the coins to the priest.

Kernosh actually thinks that Cabal is finally learning how to deal with people as he nods his approval to the mage. Cabal is smiling ear to ear as he nods back.

With orders laid out, the party again begins to depart before Tydlin calls for them to wait yet again. Curious, the party turns around in time to see the acolyte quickly exit the temple with four scrolls and a candle. Lighting the candle with a flick of his hand, Tydlin takes a ring of his finger, heats it up, and seals the scrolls with wax using his ring. Once all four are sealed, he walks to the group and hands them to each of the teams.

“This is a letter of introduction mentioning my support. It also says that the priests should meet here on neutral territory. I do hope this works; maybe it will become a time of not only saving the town from certain destruction, but of building a bond among us all.”

 And with that, the priest waved goodbye as the party separated to the four corners of the town.

First Campaign