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The Broken Kingdom
Prelude
At the borders of the High South and Mid South Baronies of Bistal:
"Farkwan?! What are you doing here? You're supposed to be dealing with Fygern" Selcor finishes as he stands up from his desk.
"Fygern has been dealt with. He's at the Chamber, as is Fadoon both ready to go, however, I have some disturbing news, Selcor. It seems that the Princess has gotten away." The shake in Farkwan's voice shows his nervousness.
"Excuse me? What do you mean the Princess got away? How did she get away? She was in a keep, a keep controled by Grifin, a keep that housed 500 men. So please tell me how in the hell did she escape?!" Selcor's voice raises evenly but powerfully as he talks.
"It was Tubal's Bravos..." Farkwan's voice trails a bit as Selcor looks at him with a cold, hard stare.
"Pardon me?? Tubal's Bravos?!" Selcor's anger is becoming more obvious.
"Ye..yes. It seems that word of Cutter Tubal and his men's actions over the last three days has spread rather quickly. We're guessing that news of what happened at Bagren's keep is probably already spreading. The people, specially those in the northern areas are referring to the group of men that he's leading as Tubal's Bravos. To make things worse it's rumored that Cutter has already recruited at least a half dozen of our more sympathetic men already and there are reports from numerous camps that a lot of men are talking about breaking free and joining Tubal's Bravo's, even some of the farmers and commoners are talking about picking up a sword and joining the Bravos." Farkwan takes a few nervous steps back away from Selcor as he comes around the desk. Once in front of the desk Selcor leans back against it, his look goes from anger to a slight bit of worry.
"Well we will have to put a stop to this right away. Anything I need to know about" the sound of annoyance is back in his voice.
"Uhm, actaully yes there is. They also have Baron Bagren." Farkwan stands back a bit. Selcor's face goes long at hearing this.
"Well, that's not good."
"You're right gentlement it's not good at all......for you!" both men come to attention upon hearing this and they see a over six foot Amazon coming walking in, with about four more behind her.
"Mistress Xahrena, what are you doing here?!" Selcor sounds a bit suprised and angery at the same time.
"I'm making sure you do what you're supposed to do and do it right. But it seems I should have shown up earlier, because it's sounding like things are getting out of your control Baron Selcor." Selcor's face turns red at this, and his anger washes away any other trace of emotion.
"Listen to me you bitch, don't think you can just come in here and start to....." Selcor's words are cut short as Xahrena lifts up her hand towards him and he's sent flying back into the wall. He remains pinned there as her hand stays lifted pointing at him.
"Watch your tongue, dog. Did you honestly think that you were the ruling partner in this agreement?" She laughs aloud. "Please, Baron let me remind you that we are in charge here, not you. We are allowing you to live, understand? We have need for you and your abilities, but remember once the need is gone we will need a good reason to keep you around, so I suggest being a good boy or you'll find yourself dead or in the Pits." she presses a small dull gem on her arm band and Selcor falls to the ground. "Now this is how you handle the situations at hand. Send word to all divisions, find the most prominent sympathizer and potential trader to the Cause, and publicly draw and quater him. Post the quaters at the four corners of the camps. This should send a signal to the rest of the men that there is no other choice. And this a war gentlemen,not some prissy little game, all divisions will attack as soon as they recieve their orders. The northerns have had plenty of time to make up their minds. I'm sure a little blood bath will help many feel they've made the wrong choice by not joing us.
I would also suggest, for your sakes Barons, that you retrieve Bagren. The deal states that we get three baron's and the king of Bistal for our Chamber. We have two Barons and the King, we're not very picking on where our third comes from. You have three days." And she walks out of the room.
"Well this part of the may was probably a bad idea" Farkwan says as he leaves himself, leaving Selcor behind alone.
Adventure Summary:
The party arrived in Bykin close to dinner time, from some distance away the castle was observed through various spyglasses to determine if the capital had fallen to Selcor and his men. Convinced that everything was ok, they started riding down the road again. About a half mile away from the castle, the party was stopped by four men on horses. The leader introduced himself as Bow Guy1 and asked the business of the party. The party's credibility was established when the men with Bow Guy1 recognized Cutter, seeing the that party was no threat and the Princess really was Princess Genna Bow Guy1 led that party down to the city and castle.
Entering the castle they noticed that it had suffered a lot of damage from the first set of attacks on it, but still the morale was rather high on the streets of the walled city. Making their way to the Throne Room, the party was a bit suprised to hear "Cutter Tubal and Tubal's Bravos" announced before the Princess, and that the Princess wasn't even announced. The party could see the look of annoance on Advisor Alamar's face, but the look of relief on Captian Tormak's. Unhappy with the breeche of ettiquite Ulrich announced Princess Genna of Hikria, the rest of the group noticed the look of suprise on Alamar's face, and then the look of anger as he listened to Princess Genna inform him that the Council has placed her here as the interm ruler until Prince Gremon is restored to the Throne or a proper ruler is placed there. Cutter wasted no time and soon Tormak and himself were going over the battle plans of the Southern Baronies.
After some discussion it was decided that since they knew Selcor's army counted a 1000 men strong, they would ride to Farkwan's army, where the count was unknown. After a day of riding they came upon the encampment. Ulrich, using his military knowledge figured the camp was holding close to 2000 men. While the party discussed their next course of action, Olowniuk suggested with great vigor that he could sneak down there and kill Farkwan and get out with no one being the wiser. After some debate, the group agreed on the idea. Toglard cast an invisibility on Olown and away he went. Olown weaved through the camp looking for Farkwan's tent, during this he noticed a elite force of mounted knights and seige equipment. It wasn't long before Olown found his target. As he approached the tent he noticed two guards on duty at the doors of the tent with two more making rounds on the perimeter of the tent. Using a few spells Olown drew the attention of the guards at the tent and a few others in camp. With their attention on something else, Olown slipped past the gaurds into the front room of the tent. Hoping to find Farkwan asleep, his hopes were shattered when he saw Farkwan talking to two other figures in the next room of the tent. Olown waited what seemed like forever before the two figures opened the door to the next room on their way out. He saw two of the Amazon women walk out, as they left one stopped and looked around the tent for a bit, and then left. With Farkwan alone, Olown slipped into his room and delievered to quick blows in his back. Getting ready for his third and final strike, Olown noticed the robes of Farkwan shrink and part of his wound close. Screaming for help, Farkwan tried to get away. Olown was able to deal a few more blows before the guards made it to him, killing Farkwan. Scrounging quickly Olown gather what he could in the tent and ran passed the guards who missed him with their swords.
As Olown made his way through the camp, the rest of the party moved into a better position to create a distraction if needed. When the camp started to stir, responding to Farkwan's cries, the party moved in. Toglard let off a few spells, while the fighters moved in and started killing all the soliders they could. Cutter jumped up on a horse and while leading a second horse he rode towards Olown, when he reached him Olown threw the booty on the horse and then jumped up in the saddle himself. Moving quickly the party rode away from the camp, and again was suprised when they weren't followed. Once they realized that they were not being followed by anyone the party made their way back towards the capital quickly.
Experience:
Player: Adventure: Total: Cutter Tubal 2,500 16,265 Morduke 2,850 16,991 Olowniuk 2,750 16,129 Shane Lee N/A 12,915 Toglard 2,850 17,090 Ulrich 2,450 15,423 Solvay 2,150 8,150