Campaign journal
by RPGPunditWhen last we left our heroes, they had finished defeating a gargantuan red dragon, and making him swear 24 hours of servitude to Sir Firearm (who's an avenger).
Also, they had discovered (through a message on Galafilo's scroll of Communication, sent by his family in the Five Shires) that the Master's forces have marched form Akorros into the hills, engaging the Darokinian legion there.
The PCs start to fly north, heading to Darokin as quickly as they can. They travel up to the hills south of the Cruth mountains, and they find a nest of Griffons and Rocs, living together as one tribe. There's a heated battle, the aerial attacks of the creatures taking the PCs by surprise and keeping them off-balance, but eventually with some strong teamwork they defeat the creatures (8 griffons and 7 rocs).
In the nest they find some treasure, and single Roc's egg. Knowing that such an egg could be very valuable if they sell it quickly in Thyatis, they decide that the next day Corwyn will teleport very quickly with the egg to Thyatis city and sell it while the others keep moving north, and then the day after Alendalan will teleport to pick him up.
Corwyn teleports, and as usual, the teleport misfires. For some reason, whenever Alendalan teleports Corwyn, he tends to misfire the spell and Corwyn ends up underground. This time was no exception, and he finds himself in solid rock. Luckily he was prepared, having cast Travel and Survival and starts to travel up to the surface. Along the way he passes a cave with a large Crystal Dragon, which he flees from quickly, rather than risk confronting.
He gets to the surface, finding himself in a very lovely garden in what appears to be the centre of the city. Around the garden are walls, and a huge palace. Then he notices a group of armed guards in legionnaire armour with black capes rushing toward him. A little too late, as they win initiative and kill him outright with multiple Smash attacks!
The other PCs are blissfully unaware of this, meanwhile, and continue to proceed north, getting to the Cruth mountains.
The next day, Alendalan teleports to Thyatis, informing the others that he'll just go, pick up Corwyn, and be right back. They wait... and wait.. and wait.. until several hours go by. Unable to do anything else about it, they continue to wait out the day.
Alendalan, meanwhile, ends up in the same garden, and gets slaughtered in one round by the same Praetorian guards.
When Corwyn wakes up, he finds out that he's been "Raised Fully" by a patriarch of Valerias, and that he's currently in the prisons of the Emperor's palace. The Praetorians are trained to Smash first, Raise-dead-and-ask-questions-later, when it comes to people unexpectedly appearing in the palace grounds, especially in these times of war with Alphatia.
Even so, they check out Corwyn's papers, figure out that he's a Darokinian diplomat and not an Alphatian assassin, and give him his stuff back. They inform him that Alendalan is here too, currently in a number of different small bags, and that they'll raise him tomorrow. Meanwhile, Corwyn gets invited to an audience with Emperor Thincol. Thincol thanks Corwyn profusely for the "gift" of the Roc egg, and spends the day chitchatting with him (it turns out Thincol is a bit of a blowhard, pontificating about every topic under the sun). Corwyn listens with polite attention, and learns that the war with Alphatia is not going too well for Thyatis. The Emperor wishes he could help Darokin, but obviously Thyatis has its own problems right now, and can't provide any aid in the struggle against the Master.
Finally, the day after, Alen is revived, and the two of them leave Thyatis with a bad taste in their mouths (and not just because of the fish sauce). They teleport back to the others, who have been waiting bored and half-frozen in the mountains, and proceed north into Darokin.
It takes them another three days to get to Darokin city, and when they do they rush to see the Defence minister (the President is no longer there, he's fled to Selenica in order to maintain the government if Darokin city should fall).
The defence minister looks like he hasn't slept in days, and has been drinking heavily. He informs the PCs that the latest message from the 3rd legion, in the hills, is that they can only hold out against the Master's army for another 24 hours. The Dwarves and elves are already in Corunglain, but the Karameikans have not yet arrived in Athenos. Once the hill troops fall, there will be nothing standing between the Master's troops and the lush Darokin valley (and the capitol).
The Defence minister proposes to the PCs that there is one more thing they can do, one more ally they could gain that would make all the difference. That ally is Sind, or rather the Sindi people, who have fallen under the yoke of the Hule's occupation. If the PCs are willing to travel to Sind, they could try to attempt a revolt against Hule there, and the disruption that would cause might destabilise the Master's entire war effort.
The PCs come up with a plan. They read the intelligence reports on Sind, and learn that the Maharajah of Sind, Chandra, is likely dead, overthrown and replaced by a relative of his, a puppet of Hulean rule. The plan would be to travel to Sayr Ulan, use a Raise Dead Fully scroll on the Maharajah, and help him to lead a rebellion against Hule. The Defence minister agrees, and manages to get them a Raise Dead Fully scroll. After confirming the viability of the plan with a Commune spell, the PCs agree that will be their next step.
That's it for this session. At the end of the session, the PCs are:
Corwyn, Cleric of Asterius lv. 28
Sir Firearm, Avenger of Vanya, lv. 22
Alendalan, Karameikan/Alphatian(by marriage) elf, lv. 10
Galafilo, Halfling Sheriff lv. 8
Duroc, Karameikan Dwarf lv. 8