Gunnar,
Eldarondo, Sir Robin and Brother Christos were sitting in the Temple refectory,
nursing their tankards of ale. Eduardo (the Magnificent) sat slightly apart,
avidly reading a scroll.
“It’s really
time we moved on.” Gunnar muttered. “These monks have had enough of us, I know
I’ve had enough of them.”
“Fine, but
where can we go?” Eldarondo replied. “We’re broke, we need money.”
“We are
broke because Eddie spent all our money on that scroll.” Sir Robin pointed out,
helpfully.
Eduardo
looked up at the mention of his name.
“I can make
you fly, fly like a bird!” he said happily.
“Let’s face
it, we need a job!” Christos announced, pointedly ignoring Eddie.
“You’ve been
listening to the Ranger.” Gunnar grumbled. “Anyway, where is he?”
Suddenly the
door flew open and Sintamo rushed in. He rapidly crossed to the table and sat
down, clutching a letter.
“Comrades,”
he announced “I’ve found us a job. Paid work!”
Everyone
looked at him expectantly.
“We have
been approached for help by the City Council of Longstat. They are experiencing
some strange occurrences and, having heard our reputation, are asking us to
investigate.”
“What sort
of ‘strange occurrences’?” Gunnar asked suspiciously.
Sintamo
glanced down and read from the letter “Err…over the previous few months there
have been an increasing number of unexplained killings and kidnappings
throughout the city…. sightings of strange, demonic creatures flying at
night….blah, blah.”
“Oh, the
usual.”
“Do they
mention giant spiders?” Eddie asked in a worried tone.
“Don’t they
have a city guard to deal with this sort of thing? Why do they need us?” Sir
Robin queried.
“Apparently
the sightings seen to centre around the Temple of Talas, a foreign mystery cult
which has been gaining a small, but devout following amongst all ranks of the
population. Several City Councillors are now thought to be followers of Talas,
so the High Guild Master cannot be sure who to trust, hence the need for
outside assistance.”
“I’m all for
smiting demons!” Christos exclaimed.
The rest of
the party looked at him without enthusiasm.
“Given our
reputation, the Council are offering us a reward of 300 silver coins if we are
successful.” Sintamo added.
Eldarondo
and Gunnar exchanged glances and both nodded.
“Sounds fair
enough, I’m in!”
“Me too!”
“What if we
are not successful?” Robin asked. “It’s a long way to go for nothing.”
Eldarondo
looked at him pityingly “If we fail, we’ll be dead!”
Robin smiled
“Oh, that’s alright then, I’m in.”
“The council
has sent 30 silver coins for us in advance for travel expenses.”
Eddie still
looked unsure.
“They also
offer free future access to the City’s library, which is famed for its
extensive collection of ancient scrolls and books.”
There was a
crash as Eddie leapt to his feet, knocking his chair over, the dashed towards
the door.
“What you
doing, Eddie?” Gunnar called.
“Packing my
bags, come on!” Eddie replied as he rushed through the doorway, barging a
startled monk out of the way.
Chapter 1 The Discovery
Not wanting
to alarm the followers of Talas’ cult within the city, who might in turn warn
the Temple High Priest that the party are investigating him, the High Guild
Master has arranged for the party to meet with the Captain of the City Guard at
a tavern, a day’s journey to the east of Longstat. The Captain has been
responsible to gather all the information so far on the strange occurrences and
will brief the party on his findings so far.
However,
when the party reach the tavern, they find the place in uproar. A local
shepherd has just come in with the garbled tale of seeing armed men and flying
monsters gathered by the road to the city. Deciding to press on and
investigate, the party come to a point where the road runs through a wooded
valley. In the distance can be heard the sounds of battle, screams and the
clash of steel.
Set Up.
The road
starts at the middle of the south edge, runs straight to the centre of the
table, then curves to the West and exits at the NW corner. The rest of the
table is covered with clumps of trees and patches of bushes and dense
undergrowth. Movement off of the road is difficult, for each action after the
first spent moving roll a DL10 test to avoid falling or becoming entangled in
brambles or low branches. Vision is limited to 12” and all ranged attacks,
including spells are at -2.
There are occasional
dead bodies scattered around, mostly men, some in the city guard uniform and
some in armour decorated with strange symbols and runes. There is also the
corpses of some unfamiliar small, demonic-looking, creatures.
Traps:
There are no traps.
Foes:
2
hordes of 3 Chaos Cultists.
2
Cult warriors (armoured guards).
When the AMBUSH! card is drawn, 1 Cultist leaps
out from the nearest cover.
Reinforcements: 1d6 Cultists.
Complications: None
Scenario Event: A random PC spots the Captain of the City
Guard 8” away through the trees, fighting against a demonic creature (Minor
Demon). As they watch, the creature strikes the captain to the ground. The
demon remains in play as a normal Loner foe from this point.
Wandering Monster: If a wandering monster card is drawn, roll a
d6.
1-3
– Cult Warrior
4-5
– Imp
6 – Winged Lessor Demon (Chaos Champion with 6" move) - subsequent 6’s
are an imp.
Wounded Captain
The captain is still alive and will tell his
news to the first PC to spend an action in contact. The cult of Talas is in
fact a cult of the Chaos Demon Xichtul. The high priest has discovered a gateway
in the barrier between the planes of existence, deep in the caverns beneath
Longstat. He is intending to open the gateway to the realm of Chaos and let Xichtul
into this world. The ritual will take place the following night. The temple is
heavily guarded but there is a secret entrance into ancient tunnels beneath the
city, only known to the highest-ranking city officials. The High Guild Master
(the head of the council) has a map of the tunnels in the Guild Hall.
But the cult are aware that the party have
been summoned, so expect them to try an prevent the party from reaching the
Guild Hall.
The wounded captain dies immediately after
telling his tale.
Victory Conditions: The PCs must cross the table and exit from
the North edge.
Other individual rewards: A PC carrying an out-of-action PC off the
table gains 1 XP. Killing a Minor/Flying Demon earns 1XP.
The party move along the trackway, and spot a heavily armour fighter charging towards them.
"Stay on the road!" Sintamo yelled as Sir Robin charged off into the undergrowth to meet the warrior.
"I said, Stay on the....." he trailed off as Gunnar sprinted into the trees after Robin.
"Oh, whats the point?"
Gunnar's axe swing is deflected by the armoured warrior, whose counter attack staggers the dwarf, but fails to pierce his armour.
With his other blade, he catches Sir Robin with a backhanded blow to the side. Robin gasps as a rib snaps, but launches a blistering attack of his own that draws blood from his opponent.
"He's quite good, isn't he?" Gunnar shouts.
"Not good enough!" Eldarondo responds as he sticks an arrow through the warrior's throat.
More cultists move in.
Eldarondo tries to get a clear shot through the trees.
"That one in front looks handy." he remarked.
(In fact he had failed his first activation and the resulting card had given the nearest foe and extra hit point!).
His first shot misses, but his second arrow drops one of the cultists. Now another of the heavily armoured warriors is closing in on the PCs.
As the PCs prepare to face the onslaught another cults leaps out of the undergrowth and attacks the dwarf, but is swiftly cut down.
"Where did he come from?"
The rest of the party have problems of their own, another horde of cultists have shown up behind them. Brother Christos prepares to charge into their midst when Eduardo calls him back.
"Christos, step back 3 paces you mad god-botherer!".
"Why?" Christos demands, but complies anyway.
There is a searing explosion of flame.
"Oh, that's why!"
The last surviving, but badly singed, cultist, looks around in astonishment.
With a gesture, Eddie launched a small flaming missile that burned a hole through the man's chest.
"Not worth a fireball." Eddie muttered as the cultist dropped to the ground.
"Steady, stand shoulder to shoulder." Gunnar ordered.
"I'm having them!" Robin responded and charged the cultists working their way to the pairs's left, cutting one down. He then exchanged blows with the final cultist, wounding the man in the arm, but taking a nasty cut in the leg in response.
Gunnar stared after him briefly, then shrugged and charged the warrior in front of him.
The warrior parried his axe with one sword, thrusting the other through the dwarf's armour. Gunnar grunted in pain.
An arrow flew past his ear and pierced the warrior's mail.
"Will you stop blocking my shot!" Eldarondo yelled.
Robin dispatched his last opponent and moved to Gunnar's aid.
"This one's really good too!" Gunnar muttered as he took a second wound from the armoured warrior.
Robin parried a viscous blow and responded with a thrust that dropped his opponent.
Through the trees the PCs saw a desperate battle between a man in the livery of the City Guard and a towering demon. As the watched, the demon struck his opponent to the ground.
Another cultist appears behind the party and charges forward only to be cut down by Sintamo.
As Sintamo moves off into the trees, Eddie is ambushed before he can follow. Squeeking in panic, he draws his sword, closes his eyes and flails around.
"Got you!" exclaims a deep voice.
Eddie opens his eyes and sees the cultist laying dead at his feet.
As the rest of the PCs gather together, the Demon charges towards them. Christos swiftly used his healing skills to stop the blood flow from the dwarf's more serious injury.
With a clear line of sight to the creature, Sintamo draws back his bow string.
Twang! His bowstring breaks.
Cursing, he rapidly restrings his bow and takes another shot.
Twang! the replacement string snaps!
"I told not to buy those cheap knock-offs from that travelling peddler." Eldarondo remarked.
In the meantime, 6 more cultists arrive on the road behind them. Seeing Eddie alone in front of them, they charge forward. Panicking, Eddie miscasts his fireball and is surrounded by heavily armed cultists.
Hearing Eddie's cries of "GETOUTOFIT! SODDOFF!" Sintamo turns, but before he can move to assist he watches in astonishment as, eyes tightly closed, the wizard cut his way through the ranks of desperate cultists.
"OUCH!" Eddie screamed as the last cultist gave him a shallow cut across the shoulder.
"Don't be a baby!" a deep voice intoned as Eddie somehow parried the cultist's thrust and stabbed him through the neck.
"How does he do that?" Sintamo wondered.
As the demon closes, Christos stepped forward a swung his shiny mace against the creature's armour. There was a Crash! and, to his horror, the truesilver coating dissolved into cloud of sparking flakes. The cleric was so astonished at the event, he didn't even see the demon's blade descend and cut into his side.
Robin and Gunnar joined him in a viscous melee against the towering demon. Robin's sword bit deeply into it's flesh and the dwarf's axe cut halfway through one of the creature's legs, but the monster maintained his attack on Christos, raining down a succession of viscous blows that knocked his off his feet.
"Gunnar, duck!" Sintamo called.
As the dwarf dropped to one knee the ranger sent an arrow that hit the demon in the eye and lodged deep in it's skull. With a final roar the demon crashed to the ground.
Seeing another armoured warrior approaching, Robin charged him, but already badly wounded, he was felled by the warriors blades.
Now Sintamo moved forward to shield the fallen Christos from the charging armoured warrior. In a brief fight the ranger cut his opponent down.
"Look out! There's another demon coming through the trees" Robin warned.
"It's got wings!" Gunnar added, helpfully.
Standing astride Christos' body, Eldarondo cooling aimed and hit the oncoming demon with an arrow.
"A fireball would be nice, where's Eddie?"
"Helllp!" as if in answer, Eddie called as he rushed up to the group, chased by more cultists.
"I'll get these, you roast that beastie!" Gunnar ordered, stepping between Eddie and his pursuers.
At the sight of the winged demon, Eddie promptly fainted.
"Useful!" Eldarondo muttered as he shot two more arrows into the demon.
As Eddie climbed to his feet, the elf finished off the demon with a stab to the chest and Gunnar made short work of the cultists.
Taking advantage of the brief lull, Eldarondo checked Christos' wounds.
"He's breathing but there's nothing I can do for him here. Gunnar you're have to carry him." he instructed, then rushed over to check on Robin. After patching the worst cuts, he helped Robin to his feet.
"Can you walk?" Eldarondo asked.
"Just about." Robing muttered.
"Get going, follow the road and we'll catch you up."
Dazed, Sir Robin staggered along the road, using his sword as a crutch.
"I think he's still alive." Sintamo called, gesturing to the Demon's first victim.
The Ranger moved across to the fallen captain, just in time to hear the man's dying words.
Hearing noises the Ranger looked up.
More cultists were approaching from all directions.
"Time to go go! Run everyone."
"Run he says!" Gunnar muttered as he hoisted Christos' body across his shoulder.
As he moved after Robin's limping form, Sintamo spotted more cultists appearing through the trees.
"Eddie!"
"On it!"
The horde of cultists disappeared in a ball of flame.
Eddies started giggling.
Sintamo smiled at him, "Well done. Now RUN!"
Sintamo and Eldarondo took up rearguard positions, covering their comrades' retreat.
A hidden cultist charged the ranger, but was cut down.
As Robin almost reached safety, an imp sprang on him. But even in his weakened state, the knight dispatched the beast with ease.
More foes were closing in.
"Shoot and move!" Eldarondo shouted. "You go first, I'll cover."
Taking turns, the pair zigzagged back, shooting the occasional cultist to discourage the others, until all the party had reached safety.
On hearing Sintamo's discovery, they decided to rest just long enough to patch up the wounded, then they would press on through the night, to reach Longstat early the next morning.
As they sat around a fire, eating a hurried meal, Sintamo gestured at Eduardo.
"Eddie, when you were fighting with your sword, were you talking to yourself?"
Everyone looked at Eddie.
"In a funny voice?" the ranger added.
Eddie blushed and looked down.
"No."
Sintamo nodded.
"Eddie, does that sword talk to you?"
Eddie looked at him, open mouthed, his eyes wide.
"I thought I was hearing things..."
