What actions? Fleeing from the battle, of course. Lacking the help of the adventurers, Lady Siena agreed to the terms proposed by Lord Bersk to marry him in return for military support. Bersk himself lead his army just in time to surround and attack from behind the horde of monsters besieging the castle at Beverna. He dueled the enemy warlord, a giant of a man in red plate armor[1], dealing him multiple killing blows, which the other accepted, laughing. After the battle has been won, the warlord was dismembered, his bodyparts hung on the gates. Only a select few knew the horrible reality: the man was fused to his armor.
The adventurers could then observe the "administrative changes" enacted by Lord Bersk. They were invited for dinner, having contributed to the gathering of allies. However, the Lord made it pretty clear that he's the boss, and that the adventurers are simply mercenaries. The priests of the Masters had been banished, and the twin priests of the old gods were given places of honor at the table. Lady Siena did not seem pleased by all this, but she played the part of the dutiful wife.
Harsh, you would say? Good. The game world does not care that you don't want to fight - the battle takes place anyway, with or without you.
And so, not trusting the adventurers too much, Lord Bersk sent them off on a forlorn mission - to locate the last possible allies for the war effort: elves and dwarves rumored to be living in the Zarek Valley, not seen for tens of years. The party made whatever investigations they could. A talk with the baroness made it clear that she is unhappy, but willing to bite the bullet for the survival of her people. A visit to the library pointed to old accountant's papers detailing tradings with elves and dwarves generations ago.
The party decides to head out towards the last known/rumored location of the dwarves.
On the road, they study the book found in the dungeon/castle. Its pages are filled with gibberish, the only clue being the inscription on the altar in which the book was found: "Only the rising sun will reveal greatness." After a couple of days, they realize that the pages are legible text when looked at exactly at sunrise. They give the book to the sage accompanying them, and he promises to study it each morning.
The adventurers then leave the traveled roads, heading into the forest deeps.
After some snooping around, the party does encounter two dwarves, although they are in a sorry state. The dwarves were sent out by the dwarf hold, isolated for years, but now affected by a deadly disease. The messengers had been overcome by the disease themselves, unable to gather up camp and carry on. The adventurers promise to help them out, and go to the mountain keep they were heading to. Previous messengers had been sent to an abandoned dwarf keep that had an alchemical laboratory in days past, but they had not returned.
The adventurers reach the keep, where they encounter a couple of dwarves sitting around at the entrance, with more dead dwarves strewn out, along with a hairy mess - a creature unrecognizable in death. The living dwarves tell their tale of being merchants, trying to access the keep, but being attacked by things in the dark. The adventurers agree to help them, and they breach the keep together.
A few steps in, the dwarves turn on them. A screeching demon appears from a side chamber and bombards the adventurers with magic missiles.
A wounded dwarf transforms into a werewolf!
In fact, they all do!
I had a lot of fun telling the adventurers whenever their physical attacks made contact but failed to do damage. Insert regrowing limbs, flesh knitting back, eyeballs reforming etc. Of course they didn't really learn, and kept smacking the lycanthropes. Fortunately, they had some magic users too, and managed to bring the treacherous dwarves down.
But during the battle, some adventurers had been bitten...
[1] Triggering a few flashbacks in Solid, who had fought opponents armed and armored in red livery once before.
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