Vale of Tears - Part 1

(written by Angus McLoed - scribe)

Day 1

Most adventures start their careers being complete novices with their weapons and stuff. Some of us decided not to. I especially wanted to be really good with my weapons before going out.

As luck would have it, a late employer turned up. This was a tall dark gentleman, oiled hair and looking rather immaculate, who gave his name as Lord Bahram Originally we thought he was from Arabie but it turned out he was from a plane called Kublai. He told us that his land was being attacked by a race called the Skyre, some sort of rat people and had come here for assistance. Also the Vizier's daughter, Corsime, had been kidnapped by these creatures.

Anyway I'm Angus McLoed, one of Brigetta's younger brothers and the seventh son of the Laird. My fellow adventurers were also a bunch of newish people.

Harry - a halfling (the only non-human) wearing a leather vest, green tunic, had a muddy complexion and spiky hair. Earth mage.

Arcturus - male human 6' tall, slim, reasonable red/gold coloured clothing mostly consisting of leathers. Long red hair with a white stripe. Fire mage.

Penelope (Sin). 5'3" human female, athletic build, long black hair, blue bandana, pirate like dress. Air mage.

Mr Rippley. Human male wearing nothing but a loincloth and not carrying anything else. He said he was a really good swimmer. Water mage.

Seemed a rather straight forward mission, get in, rescue the damsel, get out. Rippley became the Military Scientist, Arcturus the party leader. No one wanted to be scribe and, even though I'm probably the worst speller the Guild has ever seen, apart from the odd orc, took up the quill.

We were getting there by boat. Not sure how that's going to work but I guess we're going to find out. So we headed off down to the docks. When we got there, there was an argument going on with the harbour master. Something to do with dock fees and their refusal for cultural reasons to pay them. So Rippley stepped in and paid them. The Arabic looking person, presumably the captain, seemed rather offended by this but walked off without dispute.

The ship itself looked like it had seen better days. It had originally been the Emperor's pleasure barge but had fallen into disuse because of the problem with the Skyre.

Once on board, we had to wait for Bahram who was exploring the city. Finally we got underway and headed out into Confederation Bay. The trip to where we were we were going was going to take weeks.

A cabin with bunk beds in it had been assigned to our use. A few alterations to ensure Sin's privacy, such as a screen, and we were set.

That evening we were invited to dinner with Bahram. His manner could only be described as stilted, as if he was trying to be strictly correct and proper with his choice of language. He told us we were going to the capital city, called Ishafan, and their land had been prosperous and their empire vast until the Skyre had arrived from the west and invaded. Now they were fighting a war of attrition, and I was getting the strong impression that it was only a matter of time before the Skyre overran what was left.

He also told us that there was an additional complication. The Vizier was sick, poisoned by the Skyre. The poison came from an insectoid species called the Askraii. The similarity of how the names sounded was going to cause some confusion. The cure for this poison was some sort of jelly that could be obtained from the Askraii Queen. We also got the impression that curing the Vizier was more important than rescuing the daughter. Something to do with relative contributions to their society.

After he had told us what he wanted to tell us he then proceeded to ignore us as if we were beneath his notice. I found that rather irritating but declined to comment. After all, we were their guests, and besides, they were in control of our way home. It would not do to get them mad at us for any reason.

Later on in the voyage, we met the three mages that were on board. They were doing something with a cup and seemed to be worshipping it. The room they were in was painted black and covered in runes. The entire room seemed to radiate mana. From what we could tell, one was a rune mage, the second, an Earth/sand mage and the third an Earth/animal mage.

Not many on board spoke Common. Their language was called Kali and seemed to be similar to Arabi. The only ones that did, when they deigned to notice us, was Bahram and his assistant, the Captain and the three mages. Harry started to attempt to learn bits of their language. He also became addicted to a root, called melange, that everyone around was chewing.

On the way out the ship was accompanied by a pod of whales, which caused great excitement among the crew. I have to admit, it was a rather spectacular sight.

Day 9

Finally came the morning of the transition. I definitely wanted to see that so it was an early morning wakeup call. There really wasn't much to see. One second we were in Alusian waters then suddenly the air was hotter and the water a different colour. But we were still nearly three weeks from our destination at this stage.

Day 12

The voyage continued on. We basically kept out of everyone's way unless we were needed for something. A bit further on we learnt something rather disturbing from Bahram. This trip was secret and not many knew that the ocean even existed, much less that there was a ship. As a result five hundred people who were on this ship were to die. We thought initially he was talking about the crew and Rippley, especially, wanted to do something about it. I wasn't sure that was a good idea especially given the current situation with the Skyre and the repercussions of any intervention by us could rip their civilisation apart. We discovered later that most of the people on board were prisoners, and were condemned to die anyway. Ripley still wasn't keen.

That night, we were in our bunks when we became aware that we had company. It started off with a plague of rats then a voice called out "Kill them all" and the fight was on. Were we being invaded by pirates? Or was this the start of the revolution?

The first wave was the rat swarm, and some of these looked rabid with glowing green eyes. There's a giant rat up there as well. I flicked a rat off then I got pounced on by two of the bad guys, and the only weapon I had handy was my dirk. Fortunately I'm used to sleeping in soft leather. Not sure how the others were getting on but I decided to concentrate on one opponent and get him out as fast as possible. The rats were swarming all over us and all I could do was ignore them. They were also biting the opposition but they didn't seem to be too bothered by then.

It seemed like hours but was only a few minutes later that Bahram's assistant and three other warriors burst in and started laying into our opposition with the call "Kill the Skyre". My next blow took out one of my bad guys then I finished off the other one who was being pounded by one of the warriors. I noticed that the assistant had a really nice sword, and was slicing through the opposition like a hot knife through butter. Finally, the pressure was off and I was able to grab my claymore and help turn the giant rat into mincemeat.

Once it was all done, we were given the shock announcement that Bahram was dead, slain by this group. They had taken him out, grabbed the documents pertaining to the Guild and our employment, then went to take us out. We were allowed to keep any coin and mundane equipment but anything strange, such as the green pebbles one of them had used. I had originally thought that they were some sort of Quickness but it turned out that they had the effect of making them faster, but easier to hit, as if they were enraged. Sin was in a really bad way and Rippley was not too far behind. So they were taken to the apothecary. It was soon discovered that the apothecary also spoke very good Common. He used purple pebbles as if they were healing potions, drawing the glow from the pebbles into the body.

Day 13

The next morning, I decided to witness the funeral for Bahram. The corpse was set on a pyre and put on fire. More of those purple stones were on the body and as the body burned, they began to glow. By now it was Th'rsday on the second week of our voyage. Harry cast Lessers on all of us.

I then went to see the apothecary as I was concerned about healing supplies, as well as Harry's continual use of the melange root which appeared to be rather addictive. There wasn't much that we could do about the withdrawal symptoms except help him through it. Also, when I asked about healing supplies, I was handed a box of bandages and other mundane healing equipment. However he did mention some of the other drugs she had, something to make a person fight better, another to enhance one's ability with the ladies. He didn't get a chance to explain the others as he fell asleep from his use of the melange root. I took samples to have them analysed and maybe duplicated by the Guild herbalists.

A bit later on, around lunchtime, there was a major crisis. People were dying horribly from the food. Harry and I pitched in to help try and figure out what was going on by using Detect Poisons and Detect Auras. Since I didn't speak the language, I basically threw everything I detected as poisonous over the side. They soon got the idea. Most of the trouble seemed to be with the bread and flour but there were enough contaminants to cause serious problems before we got to port. So, some of the crew started fishing, bringing up some rather interesting specimens.

A bit later on, one of the mages came up on deck and went over the side. When I looked, there was a strange large fish frolicking alongside and acting a bit un-fishlike. Was this mage, the earth/animal one, a shape-shifter?

It took us most of the day to check all the foodstuffs and quite a lot of it was turfed overboard. That evening, we were led to Bahram's office for dinner. It turned out that the assistant was actually the Emperor and Bahram was his second. He told us that there had been a Skyre infiltration and they had been hiding on board. It is believed that all of them had been found. It was going to be another week and three days before we reached port, which would make our arrival date the 23rd. The Emperor confirmed that this was a penal ship. They had been going offplane to collect condemned prisoners and bring them here to fight the Skyre. If they survived that, then they could become citizens. So far, only three had done so. It was his uncle who was the one dying of poison.

I wanted to know of our opponents, how best to fight them. The Emperor had some experience and he told us that the Askraii are ambush fighters and their stings are loaded with poison. They attack in groups of three or four. The Skyre are masters of assassinations and were keeping the cattle and fields poisoned. They were basically armoured rats with polearms and attack in stupidly large hordes. They have little tech and no magic but they do have some sort of projectile weapon that sprays poison.

Day 14

The next morning, breakfast was fresh raw fish.

Day 23

Finally, on the 23rd, we saw land. Desert stretched on from the coast to the horizon. We arrived at the coast city of Zazem where the prisoners were unloaded. It should be noted that not many people outside Zazem knew of it's existence as it, and the sea, were kept a state secret. Meanwhile we were to catch the sky barge to Ishafan. So, along with the Emperor and his entourage, we headed off on our own jetty then boarded a hot air balloon pulled by two large dragonfly creatures. From the air, we could see a tunnel going underground where wagons and troops were going into. A dustcloud could be seen in the distance.

We headed off to the northwest and finally reached Ishafan. It was made of old solid walls and even the fields had walls around them, like petals around a flower. This place was definitely set up for a siege. Weapons such as ballista and vats of boiling oil were spaced around the walls and the guard towers were packed with guards. One of the petals had been turned into a cesspit and we could smell it. Many of the buildings were in disrepair and it was evident that all their resources were going into maintaining and strengthening the wall. Even part of the palace, the largest and most elaborate in the city, was starting to be cannibalised. The entire city looked about one size too small for the populace. Finally we landed on the top of the palace and were greeted by five more mages and an honour guard. Also there was a rather poncy looking person in a purple turban.

News was exchanged and when it was revealed that Bahram had died then the call went out for his son. When this sixteen year old boy arrived, he was hoisted off on the mages and carried off.

We were then told that the town north of here, Mossad, had rebelled. They had escaped the worse of the Skyre invasion and were basically holding on in efficiency. I guess they were getting tired of most of their resources being diverted out. Also the southern city, Bellshazar, was under siege and had basically been cut in half.

When the news arrived that the young boy was to be crowned king, there was a lot of cheering. There was also more cheering when the assembled crowd was told we were here to save them. I just hope we don't disappoint. Anyway, the crowning was done and we bowed towards the new ruler and vowed to do what we could. Maybe it might have been easier if we had been presented as visiting ambassadors.

A bit later on, we went to see how the vizier was doing. Still alive, but not too good. They had nearly lost him while we were on the way back.

On the way to the apothecary's office he gave us a green pebble each. I thought this was the battle rage stuff that the Skyre had used but it turned out to be a different one. This one was designed to teach languages. So we swallowed them and the apothecary babbled at us in Kali. All we initially got was a headache that was feeling like the worst brain freeze I had ever had but, after a while, I was actually beginning to understand every word he was saying. He told us that these could be used to learn any language so I showed him some dwarven. He expressed an interest in learning it.

At the apothecary he obtained for us the following: Rama, that cures poisons, usually used for plants, stings and such things, Moist bandages, that were soaked in healing salve for wounds, Poa - a brown paste that make us smell like a predator. Alak, a puffball mushroom that explodes with a highly toxic dust. There was also more of that battle drug and a cream that protects from the sun, something like aloe vera.

We were also warned not to let the cure get into the poison.

It was a small party of Skyre that had abducted the daughter, three of them. One of them was bigger and had red boils. Checking her room yielded no clues but we noticed an thorny plant going up the wall. Turned out to be raw melange. Talking to the plants yielded no useful information.

We were on the third floor and it was noticed that there were small marks, like the indent of climbing claws going up the wall. Up above were diplomatic chambers and we were told that they were usually off limits to the guards. But we went up there anyway and managed to gain entry past the ambassadorial guards. The ambassadors here were from Bellshazar.

Inside, we discovered a four week old crime scene. And no one had noticed? Two corpses in the main room, presumably the ambassadors, and a dead guard and a dead Scrye in the secondary room. The Scrye was wearing a cloak made of something called saba cloth, which they make, which allowed them to blend into the shadows. Harry was very interested in it and insisted on wearing it even though it stank to high heaven and was probably infected. The deaths happened the same time the vizier's daughter was kidnapped.

Finally Harry sent the cloak off to be cleaned - and it never came back. However, it gave me an idea and I managed to convince the assistant that we should get some even though that they were rare and highly prized. So he took us to the vaults. We obtained two cloaks, a rather nice warpick, a composite bow, a gold orb with pearls on it, and a chest containing a void.

Day 24

The plan was to go after the Askraii and get the cure, especially since there was no cure to where the daughter had gone. So the next morning, we joined the convoy going north to Mossad. It consisted of three battlewagons driven by eight animals called kataras. Some of the guards have salamanders in tubes. Hm .. Hand held flame throwers. Twelve more armoured guys were on younger looking kataras. There were also four chariots and lots of foot troops, all of which I noticed were badly armed and armoured. We were invited to ride in the battlewagon with the assistant.

The Askraii nest was four hours travel to the north at the end of a canyon. Three hours out, we passed a really enormous puffball. A bit later on we made a slight detour to see the remains of a city called Cuzamzam. We could see it spread out on the sands below as we gazed at it from the top of a cliff. It was then we noticed that the place was seething with Skyre, and it was sure that they weren't there three weeks ago. I started speculating what would happen if it was possible to use one of those dragonfly towed balloons to pick up that giant toxic puffball and drop it on all those Skyre. The assistant considered the idea but wasn't sure it could be safely harvested.

A bit later on we discovered the remains of a Skyre slave train consisting of human slaves chained together. One of the humans was female and I first thought it was the missing daughter but the body was identified as a scullery maid. There were also dead Skyre and all of them had red boils? Were they diseased?

It was now we discovered that the local religion doesn't allow speaking to the dead and even resurrections. Visiting healers and necromancers are warned to be very careful.

Finally we reached the canyon area where we got off, along with the assistant and ten of the foot soldiers. The nest was another elven mile away. Harry and Rippley had Walking Unseens on while Sin and I had a Saba Cloak each. As we got close, two of the foot soldiers were carried off by Askraii with wings.

The cave was in the side of the canyon and all plans of stealth went right out the window as the assistant and the soldiers shouted battle cries and charged in. So I did the same.

The plan was basically to get through to the Queen as fast as possible but we were soon encountering heavy resistance that we had to hack our way through. The air was getting acrid and there was a keening sound in the air. We had to do this as fast as possible. I found that the warpick was nearly just as good as the assistant's sword, at least when I could hit with it. I also decided to use the battle drug. Somehow I felt I was going to need it, even though I was feeling a bit dubious. But we had to push ahead as fast as possible otherwise we weren't going to make it.

Sin used the predator scent to attract the Askraii in her direction while the rest of us charged through, hacking and slaying as fast as we could. Finally we reached the queen and while I kept her distracted, Harry was able to harvest the jelly. Unfortunately he got an arm hacked off while doing it. Once we were all clear, a puffball was thrown at the Queen and she was soon consumed. The rest of the Askraii went absolutely berserk, some chasing us as we rapidly retreated but many of them were fighting each other. During the retreat, I was rendered unconscious.

I woke up on a wagon , the rest of my companions around me. Harry was in a rather bad way and I did what I could to ease his discomfort, mainly by the application of melange. A dust cloud could be seen in the distance and we could hear the sound of a horn. This turned out to be an approaching warparty who were going to Cuzamzam to see what was going on.

We met up with the warchariot and accompanying troops. Their medic went to work on Harry's arm stump and we were handed bits of salva, a cactus with healing properties. We were also told there had been sightings of Skyre on the south side of the city and a field had been poisoned with some sort of blight. Even the cattle had been poisoned. Wiccan magic?

Even though the roads may not be safe, we rode back to Ishafan at speed, constantly on the watch for Skyre. I was definitely relieved when we got to the city without incident and reached the northern gate. However, I was starting to get annoyed with the guards when they stopped us and searched us in meticulous detail.

We were finally let into the city. That was when we discovered that the Scrye had tunnelled into the pub cellar. They had been held off and there were a lot of dead Scrye, nearly all of them covered in those red boils, which reminded us of smallpox. The place reeked of death. All the Scrye were blackfurred except for a larger white furred one that was clutching a staff with a large green crystal on it. This one had magic in it, the nature of which was poison. The building was finally set on fire and the tunnel collapsed, especially since it seemed that there were live ones further back.

We headed to the palace, located in the southern sector of the city. The jelly was delivered to the apothecary who constructed the cure and gave it to the vizier. Meanwhile we were told that the King wanted to see us. We told the tale of our adventure and basically spent the rest of the evening there.

The next few days was spent healing up and planning what to do next. We had been told to take a dose of salva with every meal but not too much. It was certainly working. The vizier was also getting a lot better and very concerned about his daughter.

Day 27

It was decided to see the mages as maybe they had a clue on how we could locate the vizier's daughter. To get there we entered the door on the left side of the throne (the one on the right led to a backroom), down the spiral staircase and along a long corridor, a very long corridor, and I was really sure I had seen that crack on the wall at least three times before.

Finally up another set of stairs in the left hand tower, the Mage tower, of the Palace and there was no way that corridor should have been that long. Finally reached a room that was painted with that black mana paint. In the centre, was the cup and a large bronze statue of a sphinx with glowing green eyes. All eight mages were in a circle, prostrated towards the statue.

The eight mages were, Time, Shapechanger, Sand, Null, Summoner, Celestial, Rune and Mind. The summoner had bits missing from him implying that maybe a literal pound of flesh was required. They also told us that the green crystals were used to store magic, basically like a mana tear. The purple ones store life magics. Also the black paint was made from ground up green crystal. I was hoping for an E&E but maybe the chronomancer could locate her in the timestream. A long shot but it was worth a try.

We were told to wait an hour while they prepared. When we got back, we discovered three people were chained to the floor. Their life force was required to power the spell to send two of us and the mage back in time. Sin and I were chosen to go.

The ritual was cast and, at the climax, the chained people were killed and the chronomancer, Sin and I vanished, reappearing in the vizier's rooms at the time of the kidnapping over four weeks ago. We could not interact with the timestream, only observe, but we could see virtually everything, even through things. The six year old daughter was unusual in the fact she was blond hair and blue eyes, making her rather unique. Her GTN was pure human and we got the distinct impression she was an angelic being, or at least a descendant of one. Anyway, we watched as the Skyre, all with saba cloaks, came in, held a knife to the daughter's throat as the vizier was cut down, then two of them dragged her back down the wall as the third, wounded one, went up. We followed the two with the daughter down into the garden then, near the wall, they seemed to be swallowed by the sandy ground. That was as far as we could follow them but we were able to memorise the location before returning to the present.

Harry discovered a depression in the spot. When we stood on it, it sucked us into the ground and deposited us in a tunnel. However, the area of magic shrank every time we prodded it. A lantern was lit so we could see then we attempted to see if we had a line of retreat. Sin was able to reach the surface, trailing a rope but was unable to return. A digging team was summoned to dig down. Meanwhile we were being attacked by rats and Skyre.

After I took two good hits from the oncoming Skyre, while ignoring the rats, I decided to take the battle drug again. Ripley had already done so he was already taking them down with thrown javelins. Still, even with the battledrug and my claymore, I was just getting really unlucky, being really battered before I could get a hit in. Arcturus was doing rather well with firebolts though.

There was also other problems using the battledrugs which may have made their use unwise in the situation. One was that, under their influence, it was possible to hit the wrong person by mistake because, basically we were hitting anything that moved until it stopped moving, and it didn't matter if it was friend or foe. This was definitely shown when Ripley started attacking Harry. The other problem was the duration as they lasted an hour, so when we ran out of opposition, our comrades were perceived as a threat in our battle haze. Fortunately, I was more concerned with ripping off rats - at least until one of Ripley's javelins knocked me unconscious.

I woke up, wrapped up in chains on the surface. The diggers had broken through and hauled us out. Other creatures had arrived that were eating the corpses and rats were still swarming down there. Soldiers with salamander cannons were dispatched to destroy as many as possible.

...

Their was blood, and hatred raided down on us, in a hail which even the strongest of heroes could not with stand.. other things came to be.