The Wild Rovers went to interrogate the captured duergar, named Bertram, who had tired of the duergars’ joyless existence and wanted to taste the finer things of life. He was not exactly forthcoming, cooperative, or interested in making deals, but he did divulge that a schism had developed in duergar society between two factions: those that supported their King Lomic, and those that supported High Priestess Drothmara, Aengus’s former captor and orchestrator of the Highgate Crown heist. The “upstart” priestess reportedly sported headwear resembling the stolen crown and commanded mind flayers among her minions. Three females with elf-like features comprising a third party were said to have recently arrived on the scene and tended to disappear and reappear suddenly; the Rovers thought this description matched that of Urna’s shadar-kai lieutenants.
Continue reading “Session 40 — Royal Pursuits”Session 39 — Checkmate
With Ammun quietly observing and occasionally offering ideas, Jani deciphered the duergar battle plans, revealing three locations of attack: The district they had just defended, the royal palace, and the barracks. Just then, First Hammer Rosa Rustblade, leader of the militia, burst into the room, eager to consult with Ammun. The palace had just been attacked, and the king had been captured and carried off. Upon learning that the battle plans revealed her own base of operations as the third target, she rushed off to defend it. Ammun provided the Rovers with a potion that might protect two of them from the duergars’ mind control magic before they too left The Infirmary.
Continue reading “Session 39 — Checkmate”Session 38 — Flayed Confidence
Compelled by some charm, Aengus urged his friends to follow as he turned around and began marching back into the dark tunnel. Urs was elated to return to battle; Vara and Jani were very apprehensive about this sudden change of plans, but did not use force to restrain Aengus.
Continue reading “Session 38 — Flayed Confidence”Session 37 — Undermined
On a hunch that Aengus’s old friend from divinity school, Skorgithra “Granite” Undergranite, might know something about the “secret society” of clerics subverting King Murgrim’s prohibition against magic, the Rovers went to visit with him. They learned the rumors were true, and also that High Sonnlinor Ammun Amberbranch — the high ranking cleric who opposed Aengus at his trial — had not been seen for a long time. When they asked if the king’s recent behavior seemed strange, Granite cited common gossip that the royal bloodline was a bit inbred and that his judgment had always been questionable. Granite also let slip that Aengus’s estranged fiance was banging some lord at Highgate.
Continue reading “Session 37 — Undermined”Session 36 — Exile Interrupted
During their last evening on Alfi’s island, Aengus identified Urs’s grotesque bodily distortions as a curse from the fomorian that killed Desmond. He prepared to cure it, but the malady faded overnight on its own.
Continue reading “Session 36 — Exile Interrupted”