Campaigns » PnP:Shadows over the southern seas » PnP:Shadows over the southern seas/Chapter 4

[top]Chapter IV - Witch Hunt

[top]Summer 555 - The new council

The new council of the Southern Alliance opens with the questioning of the current management of the army and the payment of military expenses. The guilds press for the neutrality imposed by the previous council to be maintained, and team up for an interest rate on war loans.

Brosengae and Diemed sit at this table with a very clear plan: to strengthen alliances with southern houses as much as possible, through marriages, to guarantee a friendly bloodline that favors the restoration of the ancient Dieman Duchy - and of a future expansion of the Brosen Royal Guild. The privileged scion is of course the king of Aerenwe Norvien Swordwraith, who has meanwhile developed feelings for Marlae Roesone, feelings that give hope for a future fusion of the two realms. The round table of Ilien will become a furious duel, from which the Western states will emerge partially winners - the marriage marlae - norvien postponed, instead the marriage between one of the daughters of the Duchess Mierelen and the brother of Marlae is guaranteed, to whom Ectarius promises as wedding gift the title of Count of Albiele. Ilien finds himself in a crossfire - the Doge wants to help the King of Aerenwe on the one hand, but he has to wrestle Marlae on the other, as Roesone does not recognize the Doge high enough lineage to claim rights over the Mierese lands. The situation will explode one evening, when Alliene Tilgentor, wife of Vaesil, is kidnapped by a mysterious hitman and returned immediately afterwards with an invitation to Vaesil not to meddle too much with business that does not concern him.

The wizards meanwhile come to a consensus on the grimoire nature: it is Chaos magic, a primitive type of divine magic created in the days of the great southern empires, when Azrai was still present in the world. This magic makes it possible to make soldiers stronger and more violent, depriving them of humanity. Another ritual in the grimoire is in part a general absorption spell of divine essence: instead of absorbing so much essence from a single person, it absorbs every infinitesimal crumb of divine essence in a province, from every living creature present.

The churches will examine this discovery, and the response will be unanimous: Governor Vaumel has stained himself with demonic necromancy, and with him his government. A holy war is the only solution. But a holy war requires the approval of the gods: the auspices must be interpreted, for the cult of Nesirie one must see the flight of birds. It will take a week of reading.

King Norvien has a dream, an old man takes him to the walls of Ilien, makes him look south, and he flies, over the sea, into a land constantly at sunset, over a forest, a white tower leaning to one side. Upon awakening, his beard has a white streak: once a day, he can identify magical objects.

July 18 is an important day: The clerics express themselves outside the temple of Nesirie, in front of the kings and a small crowd. The auspices have been interpreted, Haelyn and Nesirie's message is clear: The gods approve. By the first winds of winter, sais Mother Genuair of the Vigilant sisters of Nesirie, the ships must sail. But the high prelate of Ruornil Celestial Spell, Suris Enlien, bursts in: Ruornil has spoken, there will be no victory if the magic is contrary, the Witch of Mieres must be stopped before sailing for war. Suris tells the crowd thath Ruornil appeared in a dream tonight, to the one who will be able to go beyond the fog. Here Norvien comes forward: he is the chosen one.

Cardinal Malik, steward of the Orthodox Temple, immediately casts a shadow on this long wait, the crusade should take place immediately, as Haelyn wants, he screams, not recognizing Suris's message. A little tussle breaks out between ruornites and haelynites.

[top]August 555 - The journey

King Norvien is in the position of having to decide who will be part of the expedition against the witch. It will be a handful of heroes, as Suris predicted that only a handful of nobles can overcome this feat. All the nobles make themselves available - who would refuse such glory?

The choice of the king will fall on Baron Ectarius Diem, of Diemed, Doge Vaesil Radim, count of Ilien, Edmund Volarae, court wiziard and first steward of Ilien; Marlae Roesone, black baroness of Roesone, and Coerden da grey, itinerant cleric of Cuiraécen. Those who do not participate offer magical items as a gift. Markessa, in the dungeons of Ilien, after so much imprisonment, lets out only one clue: you will never overcome the labyrinth.

This trip will have a lot of personal expectations. The Duchess Eirene Mierelen will donate a poisoned daggerto her son Ectarius, ordering that one between Norvien and Marlae must not return alive. Norvien hopes this trip will clarify his relationship with Marlae. Vaesil is charged by mother Genuair of discovering what happened to the mierese Sisters of Nesirie, whose capital in Mieres is in theCathedral of Tears, in the center of the huge forest of the country in the province of Serien. That will be the first goal of the kings, as the sisters will surely be able to help them. Vaesil also hopes to find information on his father, El Cidro Radim, who had disappeared again after helping them against the slavers and returning Adira Al-Qadimto Aryia.

Before leaving, the kings create a mock intrusion in Seaward, hoping to distract the governor with false information. They will disembark at Ghaele instead, known by Ectarius from his travels five years ago. Halfling spies are sent to the province to prepare the ground for them. On 5 August, clerics from various nations perform a sacred ritual to protect the essence of kings inside phylacteries for a month.

On August 19, a pirate ship departs from Deiismar Point, in Bliene, chased by a dieman ship. These two ships enter Mierese waters, and the pirates are helped by a lookout of privateers, who confiscate half of the booty. But the pirates are actually the kings of the south: they used a ploy to enter the country unnoticed. They will disembark on August 20, in the village of Kampurìver, helped by a halfling spy from Diemed. Here they will discover that** day and night have disappeared **, and there is an eternal sunset. The orogs and men of Vaumel have assumed terrifying, animal-like guises - the orogs have four arms and often feed on human flesh.

The next day the kings help the villagers defeat the orogs who kept the villagers as slaves and go south across the fields towards the remains of an ancient watchtower, where the halflings have hidden their equipment. A sudden lightning stormstuns them and deprives them of some of the divine blood. When they wake up, their halfling companion is gone. Arriving at the fortress they discover the halfling dead, along with the other spies: Wraiths of ancient soldiers of azrai, still watching the ruins of of the watch tower, have killed them. They will be able to defeat the ghosts and continue alone, without a guide, with the idea of ​​finding the forest and skirting it.

A week's journey later they will arrive in a forest, where they will have a first dramatic confrontation with the elves. After resisting two ambushes, and saving Norvien from a kidnapping, they decide to win the favor of the elves by rescuing all the captive elves from an orog camp near the forest. While planning the attack, they make a new discovery: Knights on horseback, the** Fluganta Serpento **, the flying snakes, patrol the skies in search of anyone with blood powers. The use of Marlae's blood power draws them into a fight in the woods.

The plan to attack the camp is successful, they secretly free the elves and then use terrifying spells to rain lightning bolts that delay the onslaught of the orogs long enough to take them away.

Among the freed elves they know Sertralin Foliadormu (roughly translated as Sleepyleaf ), the last of his tribe, who becomes their friend; he will help them with the elven tribes of the forest and guide them through it. Sertralin tells the group the story of the elves of Mieres: they are the elves who, in past centuries, were part of the platooons who fought alongside Rhuobe and Azrai in the battle of Mount Deiismar. 70 years ago, the wizard of the tower in the middle of the forest, Tamerlane also known as Mhistecai, passed the Name of the Wizard to an elf, who now calls herself Mhistecai. Mhistecai rallied all the elven tribes, especially the Foliaveka tribe, (Wokeleaf) , who ostracized and fought against the Foliadormu, until only Sertralin was left.

Sertralin leads the kings through the paths of the woods, following paths known only to the elves. That was a happy time for the kings, who were able to rest after so many battles and lost track of time. A week later (it seemed like a day or two for the kings), they found themselves facing a wall of fog in the middle of the forest. Thanks to the powers of the king of Aerenwe, the group is able to pass the fog. Sertralin stays behind to stop a group of Awakened Leaf who wanted to stop the kings. On September 1, the kings arrived in the province of Serien.

[top]September 555 - The beast man and the battle of tears

Arriving in Serien, the kings meet Countess Elaurie Serien. They discover a curious background. At the time of the last Sword and Crown, Vaesil Radim's father, El Cidro Radim, saved Princess Aubre Avan from Rhuobe's clutches. As a gift, the prince had named El Cidro count of Serien and promised the countess in marriage. The countess now claims Vaesil as a substitute, as El Cidro has never been seen! The kings, having ascertained that the countess is not an ally of Mhistecai or of the governor, offer to help them with the situation in the province while stalling with the marraige.

The Cathedral of tears, of the Sisters of Nesirie, is located in the nearby village of Valaerys. The cathedral was burned down by the mysterious tiger man, and claimed as a test laboratory for Markessa and Mhistecai. The heroes decide to infiltrate the temple, where they will find many monsters and Orog soldiers in the pay of the governor and loyal to the Tiger Man. In a cave of the dungeon under the chapel, the heroes finally kill the Tiger Man and free several slaves in the temple, including Donato Al-Qadim, brother of the mysterious Adira al-qadim already met in the city of the slavers. They will discover that there has been a break between Mhistecai and the tiger man, and that the witch keeps the entire province in a mysterious fog from which no one can enter or leave - including the soldiers of Vaumel.

[top]The battle of tears

On September 4th, the heroes return to Serien, and discover that Vaumel's soldiers want to retake Valaerys. The countess's troops are few, so they go up to the Scalata, the dwarven community on the slopes of the mountains, to recruit new troops with the proceeds stolen from the cathedral. In these days the relationship between Marlae and Norvien is consolidated, left behind to plan the battle.

On September 7, the battle of tears will take place, in front of the holy cathedral, between 400 between dwarven crossbowmen and elite soldiers, against 600 between pirates and orogs. At first, the charge of the orogs overwhelms the soldiers, but Edmund Volarae uses a battle spell that gives the dwarves the ability to destroy the monsters. The remaining pirates barricade themselves in the cathedral but Norvien leads the soldiers from a passage in the dungeon and defeats them.

The remaining members of the cult of Nesirie give the heroes a magical arrow which, when thrown into the air in a nearby lake, takes flight and guides the kings into the forest, all night, until they are in front of the leaning tower of Mhistecai.

[top]The Leaning Tower

The kings will spend several days inside the tower, a labyrinth made of teleporters until they reach the Witch's court. With great surprise they discover that Mhistecai is Elaenadaere Dhoelachnal, mother of Eirene Mierelen and grandmother of Baron Ectarius Diem. The kings discover that Mhistecai has summoned a monstrous creature, an eye, which has taken control of the tower's inhabitants, with the exception of the halfling slaves. The kings defeat the eye and in return obtain the alliance of the witch, who will refrain from hindering the kings with her magic or her elves.

Mhistecai tells them that one day the Tiger Man (Rakshasa is the term used by the Adurians) came from Aduria, and showed the governor a codex full of forbidden spells, with which the governor assumed more and more power. and influence, to the point of bringing pirates from all the major fleets on the planet under his fist. Vaumel used to sacrifice nobles to the Seadrake to win their favors, then he assumed so much power that he could rule the seas on his own. Each month a storm collects all the divine blood from the provinces - except for Serien, protected by the mist - and corrupts it. Thanks to this corrupt power, the governor has taken on more power than the Witch. One day the Tiger Man deliberately released the beholder, The Eye, from his prison to get rid of the witch, who was no longer willing to follow her master as the Governor was becoming stronger than her.

The witch generates a portal that teleports, without error, the kings to Ilien. It is September 12th. Coerden da gray will be left behind - after killing the Eye, he was tainted with Azrai's blood. The witch offers to help him deprive himself of it.