Chapter 13: Session 01

Chapter 13: [Cities of the Dead, Part 1: The Violet Path]

As some of the party spend a final night in Larka City among their friends, Soreiss, Slip, and Rin travel to the Bronze Bull's camp in the Lagragon Wildlands. They hope to find Orin Lamir, leader of this Trollkin hunting band, and secure his aid in their journey to Hruulgard and the Hills of Necropoli.

However, the palisade-walled camp is dotted with fires that blaze barely controlled. Slip extinguishes the remaining fires, and Soreiss learns that Orin has been missing since noon of the previous day. Furthermore, the Trollkin who attacked the camp were exceptionally well outfitted, organized, and seem to have been accompanied by something that seems only too similar to the description of a Dragon.

Slip, Soreiss, and Rin head off in the direction of Orin's patrol's route, with Rin having mixed success in tracking their passage. They find a wall of brambles that would be impassible to horses, and note that the patrol split, a larger portion of the eleven man force heading north. They opt to search in that direction, and find a busy crossroads that has not only the hoof print of the passing horses, but dozens of different, enormous boot prints. Ogres they figure, definitely Ogres. They follow the horse tracks east for only a few dozen yards before they find a dead horse in the road, brought down by half a dozen spears sticking through its flank. Using a bit of necromantic magic, Soreiss sees the last moments of the horse's life -- confirming a sudden ambush of Ogres who seemed to rise up from beneath the briars. They find no more sign of the patrol, and decide to return to camp, relay information, and get help. Slip remains behind at the camp to help put out fires in case of another attack, while Soreiss and Rin travel around reporting information.

Unable to find Lorin and Ruln at the Iron Wolves encampment at the Kinlari Hunt, and unwilling to take the time to search the region around their last posted checkpoint, they head to the Bulls' field office in Westroad and speak to the wizard Kestra. She takes a great deal of interest when the possibility of a dragon is mentioned and she promises that twenty men will be mobilized within two hours time.

During that two hour window, Soreiss and Rin return to Larka City, and speak to their allies in the Boathouse. They wait for Lugh to return from walking his dinner date home, and awaken Arius from his slumber. Mitu is concerned and offers his help, as does Lugh and the young warrior Arius, even though he knows it will get him in trouble come morning. They port to Westroad, and picking up Kestra and the troops, port again to the Lagragon camp.

A battle rages, fires burn on all sides of the camp and the front gate is no more than smouldering cinders. Slip and a handful of soldiers race to extinguish the flames while two large units of men are harrying over a dozen Ogres just beyond the wall. Kestra immediately orders her units to put out the fires and the front gate and join the soldiers outside in fighting the Ogres. She casts a spell of invisibility upon herself as she lifts into the air...

Indeed, about two dozen armed and armored Ogres surround the camp's burning walls, tossing pitch and oil to the flames. Soreiss opens a gateway though the southside of the fort, and Arius is the first through. The young warrior charges the largest and best equipped of the Ogres and nearly cleaves the Trollkin's leg from his groin. A second blow finishes him off in seconds.

Mitu, Soreiss, and Rin all pass through the magical gateway, and joing the battle. Rin leaps about taking attacks where he can find them and avoiding injury by virtue of his speed and mobility. Mitu charges, and knocks an Ogre sprawling to the ground, and then wades into the fray. Soon the big Ogren finds himself trading blows with several of the Ogres. Soreiss is charged by Ogres on sight, but his magical defenses save him until he is forced to take to the air, where he launches mystic bolts of flame at the battling Ogres. Arius cuts a path through the Ogres, focusing on one at a time, except when others seem to be having some trouble. Mitu trades blow for blow with one of the Ogre captains, eventually embedding a spiked club in the captain's head and felling him.

Meanwhile, Lugh remains within the camp and begins to summon a change in the already wet weather. Soon, the drizzle intensifies to a total deluge, thunder crashing and lighting flashing across the sky. Lugh takes to a lookout tower and begins raining lightning down upon the Ogres. His wolf joins Kestra's forces, and begins tripping up some of the Ogres.

Kestra and the Bulls are not faring so well, trading close range missile volleys with the Ogres. Kestra's magics seem to have little effect, until she uses a kind of lightning magic far beyond her normal range of power. Soreiss senses something strange about that power, even from across the battlefield, and knows it did not come from her at all. However, the magic is effective, leaving several Ogres sprawling. One unit of Bulls advances, even as Lugh brings his weather magic to bear upon this cluster of the fighting. Slip also finishes putting out the fires of the camp, and hurling spears of ice, joins Kestra's soldiers.

Arius, Mitu, Rin, and Soreiss soon have the ground littered with dead Ogres. Kestra's forces, while having a slight advantage, still struggle with the remaining handful of attackers. However, with the heavy hitters now able to join them, the remaining Ogres are mopped up in short order... only then do they notice that on cluster of Ogres seems to have fled the battlefield entirely.

As stripping the bodies of the dead commences (and an inventory of the wounded -- 11 wounded, 2 dead), Kestra gets a shocked look on her face. She shouts for Soreiss to open a gateway... and even as he complies, everyone sees the winged, serpentine silhouettes of six dragons advancing quickly from the north...