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Civil War in Bistal
Prelude
In Bistal:
"I don't know what you think you are doing but I will never join you!!"
"Well I would not have picked those to be my last words."
Over the border in Svykur:
"Is this the man-boy?" the ogre sniffs at the cage in the cart.
"Yes, and remember...he's not food"
Back in Astol:
"The men are moving, General. We should hit our target in a three days."
"Good...good. By the time they know what hit them, they'll be standing in the ash of their brothers bones."
Somewhere in Aredel:
BAMPH!
"Where the....what...Oh by the Lords of Chaos, where in world am I? I mean it..where the hell am I at?"
"Where?! Oh you've got to be kidding me I said get me away from the Ogres, not take me to the Trogres. The next time I have dinner with your father we're going to talk about this."
Meanwhile.....
With the quaffing of the postions our heroes move at great speed to reunite with the Princess and hope to stop a bloody civil war.
Adventure Summary
Our heroes rode swiftly from the enemy camp with their new prisoners, gear, and three new defectors from the Southern Armies. When they stopped for a rest and lunch, Shane noticed that the area was/is a rest stop that the monks of the Order of Light keep for travellers on the way to the Temple of Light. Looking it over, it seems that it hadn't been kept up for weeks, not only that there seemed to have been some sort of fight here. Upon further investigating they found signs that a fight had taken place at the rest area and there was some blood dried upon the grass at the side of the road. As the group discussed what might have happened here, they noticed Hybar, the solider who came to Morduke the other night, nudging one of the new defectors urging him to say something. Toglard, noticing this began to drill the man about what he knew and warning him not to lie or hold back or he would kill him and then the guy next to him, emphasizing his point with a back hand to the face when the man didn't respond fast enough. The slap must have knocked the fear out of him, because soon after Lijer was offering all the information he knew.
It seems that the Baron Selcor had convinced the other southern barons to join his cause in over throwing the crown and siezing power for themselves. He had also made deals with numerous Ogre tribes that for help he would basically give them most of the southern baronies. The ogres where to advance into Bistal and make raids on villages. All three baron's made it seem that the Ogres had over run areas of their baronies. By doing this they were able to move large forces of their Barony armies closer to the northern barony's borders without raising to many eyebrows. Once that was done, the curtain came down and the fa sade was broken. Selcor and the other barons attacked, their men began to move in on the northern baronies. At first the attacks were small to medium size, never really hitting major cities or where the army was strong. But about a week and a half ago they made their biggest move. With some new allies, these female warriors, Selcor attacked the capital and was rather successful since the King and his family where slain, all but his son. His son was taken and sent south into the hands of the Fire Hands tribe for keeping. After that it went to basically full scale war, while Baron Nygern of the Low North Barony appears to still have over 90% control of his barony. Baron Fadoon of the High North Barony has lost over 30% of his land to either the Ogre's or Selcor's men, and Baron Bagren of the Mid North Barony (where the party is now) seems to have lost up to 20 miles west of his border to Grifin's men but still seems to be control of the rest.
About a minute after Lijer finishes talking Yrkol, a solider who spent most his time as a steward for the commanders of the southern armies spoke up. Accorinding to Yrkol, the attack on the capital had to be well planned and well executed since none of the bykin plant farms can be harmed in any way. As a matter of fact, if anyone is seen going through them, near them or even looking at them the orders are to kill who ever it is right away. It turns out the plant has some sort of magikal properties to it and Selcor wants the plants for that reason. Yrkol also informed the party that the Prince was taking by the Fire Hand tribe and will be taken deeper into Svykur to be used as a bargining chip later down the road if needed.
Armed with the new information the party headed to Bagren's keep to regroup with the Princess and her entourage. About an hour before getting to the keep Morduke recieved word from Kordova that the alchemist had discovered a antidote for the Amazon poion. However, it needed to be taken before the poison was introduced to the blood stream and lasted only four hours, but none of this had really been tested completely. It was also discovered that the bykin plant was one of the need ingredients for the antidote. When they arrived at the keep, they were shown in and while Hybar and the others took the horses and prisoners to the livery and cells, members of the party where shown to their room and told dinner was in an hour.
When the party arrived at the dining hall the found the Princess and some of her hand maidens waiting for them. Olowniuk noticed that Berrick was no where to be found nor was Cutter, some shuddered at the thoughts of where the two were at. Dinner started without the two men, and everyone was enjoying a good meal even though Toglard was at the same table as them. Some noticed that the Princess wasn't quite herself and seemed a bit nervous.
Outside the dining hall Cutter was making his fashionably late entrance when he was stopped by Hybar who looked out of breath and a bit alarmed. Hybar told him that when he got to the cell area that the guards where wearing Baron Grifin's seal and that's when they noticed that most of the armed guard was from the southern army. Fearing that they party was entering a trap he rushed to find everyone. Cutter sent Hybar to get the rest of the men and prepare for a hasty departure. Cutter then tried to open the door to the dining hall to find an Acarne Lock had been placed on it. When yelling through the door didn't work as well as he thought he tried giving it a boot, which also didn't work out as planned. Remembering there were chandeliers in the dining hall Cutter came up with a new plan and headed for the floor above the dining hall.
Inside the dining hall every heard the muffle yells through the door and then the kicks. Only Toglard was able to make out that it was Cutter and he was issuing some kind of warning. Scanning the dining hall quickly Toglard noticed some people behind the curtains on the other side of the hall, followed by the glint of steel from an arrow tip. Toglard let loose with a fireball killing five of the six hidden men. Before the other 12 guards or the rest of the party even blinked an eye, Toglard summoned a pyrotechnics spell, blinding nine of the 12 guards. It wasn't long before Ulrich made short work of them with a few quick mighty blowstm. Morduke quickly grabbed the princess and slung her over his shoulder as Cutter drop down into the room on a few of the blinded guards, while Shane took care of the last of the fireball group. Calling upon the power of Gramlock, Morduke gave the door a powerful kick. If it wasn't for the Arcane Lock the door would have been firewood, however, the Arcane Lock allowed the door just a few more brief moments of avoiding it's fate. As Morduke was kicking the door out, Cutter noticed that over 200 Grifin's men were mobilizing he also noted Hybar and company along with Berrick and the rest of the princesses entourage hacking their way through the men trying to make it to the carriages and wagons. Toglard let another fireball loose in the courtyard killing about 25 men while the rest took care of the guards regaining their site. Morduke let out a warning yell as he saw 18 men fill the hall way on the otherside of the door that was almost off it's hinges. Toglard once again showed his magikal prowess as he let a third fireball consume all but three of the eighteen men, then cast a spell increasing Ulrich's size almost a 150%.
Itching for some real action, Olowniuk ran into the hallway charging the remaining three guards. Using some of his own magikal skill Olown delievered an extremely mighty blowtm. to one of the three guards. Any other man would have normally fallen to his True Strike, but it was now that Olowniuk found himself facing not regular guards but three ranking officers. It may have been the fireball, or the shock of this non-fighter looking elf charging three obvious veteran soliders, or it could have been the 9 foot plus Kryllian wielding a great sword proportionate to his height standing down the hall behind them. What ever it was, Olowniuk was missed by all three blades of the warriors. (Some say Morduke claims that Gramlock bestowed luck on Olowniuk that moment.) It wasn't long before the three men were bleeding, dead on the floow and the party was moving through the hallways of the keep. As the party made it to the Main Hall of the house, Ulrich's large body was hit by five white bolts that dissappeared on impacted. The party found themselves facing a single, but powerful Wizard. It was Ulrich who charged this time, delievering a mighty blowtm. to the Wizard, Ulrich was a bit shocked to see the large gash made by his sword start to seal as the robes of the Wizard got smaller. But with the help of Shane, the wizard was quickly defeated but not before he slammed Ulrich with another magic missle from the wand in his hand. As Toglard quickly removed the items of magic from the Wizard, he noticed an archer preparing to fire from a hiding spot, raising the wand Toglard called forth another set of magic missles, killing the archer. Hearing sounds of great combat and some powerful spells going off, the party made it outside to see Nadimus on top of a seige machine command the small force of Orcs he summoned as Hybar and the group that was with him met up with the party. As the party gathered horses, carraiges and wagon Nadimus warned them to look out for the Trogres that he had within. Soon the party was riding hard from the keep as Nadimus called on a fireball to kill the trogres and anyone around them. As they rode away Cutter noticed that Baron's Bagren's barely alive body was in the back of one of the wagon's with Hybar.
Experience:
Player: Adventure: Total: Cutter Tubal 3,665 13,765 Morduke 3,465 14,141 Olowniuk 3,165 13,379 Shane Lee 2,815 12,915 Toglard 3,540 13,640 Ulrich 2,915 12,973
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