The Town That Was Not There

[badams30]

Grimes - Fighter

Grimes steps up and nods at the small fellow, greeting all of the new party with "Nice to meet you. Yeah, my coin was in that vault too. I'm fixin'' to find out who did this and cut their legs off." He nods vigorously and pats the hilt of his sword for emphasis....

OOC: Grimes will let Dieter do the diplomatic stuff.... Also, was it possible for ol' Dandy to toss some healing my way prior to coming to the town?

[tumblingdice]

Castinus puts a protective arm on Shae's shoulder, remaining silent, staring at the newcomers.

[greyarea]

At Dieter's remarks, the paladin bristles and places his hand on the hilt of his great sword.

Reteid, the mage, replies, You dare question the banner and men of the king?!? His hands raise and fingers start to move.

The Elf smiles and pipes in, Relax, wizard. No need for your Power Words now. His voice is high and slightly musical and takes the edge off of the mage, Reteid. He turns his gaze to Dieter and his majestic horse canters up where the paladin and wizard are addressing you. He looks at the badge and smiles again. How quaint, he says, and produces from his saddle a sliver of crystal which he tosses on the ground before you. You can see clearly that it is marked with the Royal Signet, although how a signet seal can be embedded in such a hard surface is beyond you. From it, a bit of smoke arises, which forms into the nearly translucent head of the King.

It speaks, To all whom it may concern, the bearers of this token act on behalf of the King. They are Our duly appointed deputies to carry out Our Will and Our Justice. Within the Realm they will be provided every aid in carrying out Our Will. Only those that are so bestowed by Us may carry this shard. Thus spoken by King Nigel Stampiere in the Twelfth Year of Our Reign. The face then turns back to smoke which is then sucked back into the crystal.

The elf regards you again, in his high, melodious voice, Now that we have that settled. I'm sure that Sir Taris is happy that you have helped him in this regard. I was unaware that the Ogre Magi had returned to this area. Since you are too subjects of the Realm and seem to have no business here other than some lost ... coin was it? Then I'm afraid we must bid you good day.

He turns to the paladin and speaks as if you aren't there. Ser, I don't believe these ones have anything to do with this. Like the magi orders say, I think this the work of something much more powerful. Now that we've seen for ourselves what has happened here, perhaps we should be leaving to inform His Highness. Reteid and the other two also turn to the paladin, moving to discuss their options.

In the distance you see a large bird-like creature approaching.

Actions?

Dandy healing Grimes [1d6+1] = 5+1 = 6, [1d6+1] = 2+1 = 3, [1d6+1] = 5+1 = 6


Hit points and marching order
Grimes 32/46
--Furuk 30/51
Dieter 27/27
--Dandy 33/33
Castinus 29/29
--Shaelyyndenel 19/19
Einar 11/11

[badams30]

Grimes - Fighter

Grimes saunters up to Dieter with his hand on the hilt of his sword and he nods at the paladin and wizard and with a sly smile says "I'll show you quaint, you smarmy $&%#. I'll take that big sword and stick it up your #%$ and then I'll shave that stupid beard off your stupid face." He gets a sinister look on his face and says "Where were you when this town needed help from the cultists in the Skull? Or the dragon within? Pompous dopes...." He dismissively waves his hand at them and says "I assumed we were on the same side. Boy, was I wrong. Let's go, fellas, and try to get to the bottom of this, while these clearly important guys go about their important business."

OOC: Grimes doesn't particularly want to fight these jokers, but he surely won't let them disparage us.

[greyarea]

OOC: Some bookkeeping

After killing Vera and removing the Ogre threat at the manor, everyone gets 7000XP. This would be a good time to level up if the XP allows your character to. If it's enough for you to level up, PM me and we can work on rolling HP, etc

[Spanningtree]

Dieter - Mage

Grimes, let's not ruffle any feathers to early... HO!! He will say trying to get everyones attention. We have company it appears. Pointing toward the thing in the sky.

[greyarea]

The flying visitor comes into focus as it approaches. At first, you think it might be a giant eagle or some other bird, but that notion is quickly dispelled once it gets close enough. The leonine body and great wings, along with the human face, reveal it for what it really is: a Lammasu.



The beast alights with nary a sound and it's difficult to not be in awe of this creature. Dandy, cleric of Belenus, drops to one knee and gazes at the ground in the presence of it. The paladin holds a hand up in greeting and the conversation stops. A wind blows through the long mane of the Lammasu and rffles through its feathers.

Without moving its lips, you hear from the Lammasu, in a high pitched voice, There's trouble at the Mill.

The paladin replies, Is it safe?

Not even close. The Crystal Cage was shattered and and the Trident taken.

Reteid muses, That's the third. They've all been taken now.

Yes. The King is distraught. And there is evidence this is all the work of the one you suspect.

The sound that emanates from the diminutive companion is like a woman's voice in an echoing chamber. What evidence is this? We need to know.

From behind the mane of the Lammasu, a brownie appears with what looks like a piece of paper. He's barely over a foot tall and clad in various shades of green. He runs over to the others and hands the paper to Reteid. As the wizard looks over the paper, the brownie looks at you. His already big eyes get bigger. Who are you? he asks with a smile.

At nearly the same time, Reteid exclaims, Keraptis!

Actions?

[Craigers07]

Furuk - Fighter

Furuk tries to calm down Grimes after the Lammasu makes his appearance.

"I know you're mad...I'm pissed too. It looks like we've lost everything."

He waits and looks to the riders for their reaction to the news of the mill.

[tumblingdice]

"Keraptis? Who's Keraptis?" Castinus asks, taking his hand off Shae's shoulder.

Edit: Castinus originally said "who in the nine hells is Keraptis?" but I then decided he wouldn't talk like that in the presence of a lamassu, especially after just leveling up.

[greyarea]

The mage looks at Castinus and seems to put on his "professor hat" and says, Well over a millennium ago, the wizard Keraptis rose to power in the valleys of the northern mountains, bringing the local warlords under his thumb with gruesome threats—threats that were fulfilled just often enough to keep the leaders in line. Under Keraptis' overlordship, the influx of rapacious monsters and raids from the wild mountains decreased markedly, dwindled, and then almost stopped.

Seeing this, the populace did not put upmuch resistance to paying Keraptis' rather heavy taxes and tithes, especially when sto- ries of what happened to those who balked were circulated. Those lords who protested disappeared in the night and were replaced by the next in the line of succession, who was usually inclined to be more tractable than his predecessor.

Gradually, as all dissension was stilled, the taxes and levies became even more burdensome. Eventually the wizard was taking a large piece of everything that was grown made, or sold in the valleys, including the newborn young of livestock.

Around this time there began numerous reports in the land of sudden madness, demonic possessions, and sightings of apparitions and undead. Furthermore, monstrous incursions into the settled lands began to increase as raiding parties of humanoids burnt whole villages, and evil and fantastic monsters appeared from nowhere to prey upon the harried peasants.

At the height of these outrages came Keraptis' tax-collectors with word of a new levy. One-third of all newborn children were henceforth to be turned over to the wizard!

As one, the people arose and destroyed the sorcerer's hierarchy and marched on his keep. There, led by a powerful and good
cleric, and his ranger acolytes, they destroyed Keraptis' minions. The great wizard barely managed to escape to the south, accompanied only by his personal bodyguard company of deranged and fanatical evil gnomes.

Keraptis fled to the cities of the south and west. Wherever he went, he found that his reputation preceded him, and he was unable to stay anywhere for long. Once again retiring north, he came to the shores of the Lake of Unknown Depths, where he heard tales of haunted White Plume Mountain. Investigating further, he at last found the refuge he was looking for in the tangled
maze of volcanic tunnels beneath the cone. He and his gnomes vanished into the shadow of the Plume, and humankind
heard no more of the evil wizard.

That was almost thirteen hundred years before the present day. Now, seemingly, the hand of Keraptis is once again interfering in human affairs. If it is in truth the ancient wizard at work here, he must be thwarted before his power grows once more!

He holds out the paper for you to see.



The paladin says, We must stop him. We must go to this place and retrieve what is ours!

NO says a voice that echo within your very souls. The Lammasu has spoken. We must return to the king to defend our kingdom. It is up for others to go and take these items of power from him.

Actions?