Session 4: Arrival at the Citadel

Quickly, Clancy sent his ferret familiar underneath some of the wagons to gain a view of what was going on. The wagons were arranged in a circle as they normally are when the caravan camps for the evening. Inside the circle lay bodies and signs of destruction indicating that a battle had taken place. However, the battle that left these grisly reminders appeared to be well over. The growling and shouts came from Kafia and his guards as they were pinned against the wall of a wagon by a snarling pack of hyenas. Among this pack, were three slavering giant hyenas, easily the size of a bear.

The party charged into action, rushing in from both sides of the embattled wagon. With a strum on his instrument, PPP sent a wave of sonic energy that burst among the hyena pack. Hyenas were flung in all direction and most did not get up again. The giant hyenas shook their heads, but growled as they closed in on fresh meat.

The rest of the party entered the fray. Zhang Min swung his mighty hammer and seriously damaged one of the giant hyenas, while Kiki assisted Kafia and his guards in fending off the remaining two. Riya was a blur of motion as she hit at another giant hyena with fist and sword. Mid was able to eliminate the last normal hyena with a thunderwave from her musical instrument, sending it hurling backwards to tumble among the high grass. Meanwhile, Clancy and Terlis fired arcane energy from the cover of the wagon. Just as the last giant hyena fell, two giant bugs burst from the ground, perhaps attracted by the stench of carrion, spitting venom on Kiki and Zhang Min. The party quickly turned its attention to these creatures. Although hard-pressed, their numbers won the day. They were assisted by Terlis’s illusion of a giant Roc that scared one of the Ankhegs into retreat.

As the party began to take stock of the situation before them, they heard the sound of moaning. Rushing toward the sound, they discovered a gravely injured Hsun. Clancy cast a healing spell to stabilize Hsun and the wounded man fell fast asleep after asking about his parents. The PCs took him to Lina and Knute’s wagon where after some rest, they were able to wake him and ask some questions. The caravan had come under attack by gnolls as they settled down for the evening. Hsun himself had been attacked by a large fierce gnoll wielding a wicked morningstar. It had greviously wounded him in the side and he had been flung under a wagon where he apparently escaped further notice. Before falling, he had noticed that there appeared to be a hooded human or someone of humanoid appearance traveling with the gnolls. This person sat on horseback at the perimeter of the battle, observing but not engaging.

The skulls painted in blood across the wagons indicated that the caravan had indeed been attacked by the Bloody Skulls gnoll tribe. After searching the site, the party discovered that only four people remained unaccounted for, presumably taken captive by the gnolls. These were Omar Dobi, Liao, Ju, and Postia Ventonius.

Before long, a large Ranger Knight party arrived led by a grave looking older man who the PCs discovered was Julius Ventonius, the father of Postia Ventonius. He quickly took charge and ordered the PCs to return to their own caravan and see to its safe arrival at the Citadel.

With much frustration at not being able to help their friends, the PCs returned to their own caravan and made for the Citadel. While en route, Terlis was able to use a magic ritual to identify a ring he had found as a Ring of Mind Shielding.

As the party came over a final rise, they saw the Citadel of the Arcane before them. Set between two large peaks at the foothills of the Spine of the World, the Citadel itself was easy to mistake for some large glacier. Its color was light blue and it appeared featureless and smooth from top to bottom with no observable entrances. Off to the east, on a rise, lay the much more familiar form of a castle, the Keep of the Roads End, which housed a large contingent of Ranger Knights. In front of the keep were a vast number of wagons making camp.

The caravan approached the Citadel to within a half-mile and then stopped. The merchants waited knowingly. Shortly, a small portal appeared at the bottom of the Citadel and then shut. Slowly the party could make out a figure approaching. The figure seemed to occasionally “blink” and then suddenly appear closer. As it got closer, the party could see that it was a nine foot tall hairless blue giant of indeterminate sex. It wore a long robe and seemed to glide just above the surface of the ground.

The arcane had no direct interaction with anyone as it came close. It looked in the first set of wagons owned by the dwarven couple and then set on the ground in a meditative position. Shortly, it got up and nodded at the merchants before proceeding with the same exercise on the subsequent wagons. Clancy came up to look in the dwarven merchants’ wagon and found it filled with chests of gold and jewels. The dresium had disappeared.

After it had completed its task, the Arcane returned to the Citadel in the same fashion that it had arrived. A portal once again appeared and then quickly vanished.

The party was rewarded for the efforts by Lina and Knute with an additional 200gp and given leave to enjoy themselves in the keep if they wished. As evening settled in, the PCs helped Lina and Knute set up camp and then headed out to explore the keep.

Within the outer bailey of the keep, the PCs were able to take care of a bit of shopping at the local blacksmith and with a kooky old herbalist named Marisha Mooneye. They then proceeded to the local tavern, the Empty Purse, for a spot of entertainment. Mid and PPP convinced the innkeeper, a jovial old Keltish man named Quinn MacReady, to let them perform. Mid gave a stunning performance and was able to use her otherworldly talents to charm several bystanders, including Quinn.

After the performance, a half-orc named Imsh was so taken with Mid that he came over to ask her a bunch of questions and fawn over her performance. He was followed by a Zambian warrior named Ramas who introduced himself as the leader of a band of adventurers (of which Imsh was a member) who had also served as guards on a recent caravan. The other members were an albino monk named Claudio who could not speak due to his vow of silence, a cheerful young Zambian woman named Umara, and a quiet elvish woman named Shava. Ramas was friendly and very curious about the PCs experience with the Bloody Skulls.

Upon leaving the tavern, the PCs were called into an alleyway by a shrill voice. Carefully approaching, they discovered a disheveled, skinny older man who was grinning and cackling. He introduced himself as Jed and asked the PCs if they wanted to make a lot of money. After some cackling and confusion, he told the PCs that he knew where the Bloody Skull hideout was. He figured that with a large enough party, they could wait for the Bloody Skulls to leave on their next raid and then go in and eliminate the guards and steal as much dresium as they could carry. Then, they could go tell the Captain the location and earn a reward on top of it all. Jed told the PCs to meet him at dusk at the entrance to the keep tomorrow if they were interested.

Jed did not seem entirely mentally stable, so Clancy returned to the tavern to see if Quinn had any information on the old man. After some small talk, Quinn told Clancy that Jed was the local town crazy. He claimed to be a “prospector” hunting dresium in “them thar mountains”, but everyone knew that the dresium had been tapped out this close to the Citadel for centuries at least. He mostly just seemed to hang around town and get drunk.

The next morning, the party decided to attempt to visit Captain Ventonius to see if they could discover any additional information. In route, they stopped by another merchant named Rannos selling provisions from his wagon. Rannos did not have much equipment of worth, but did reveal he was selling at a discount since he was leaving the next morning. The PCs found this odd as most wagons were not heading back until the Bloody Skulls were dealt with. As the PCs turned to continue their business, Zhang Min noticed a slight woman in a dark cloak approach Rannos. He noted that it was an odd time of day to be wearing a cloak as the sun was not yet bright in the sky and there was no rain. Returning to the merchant, he found that they both cut off conversation as he approached and the woman hurried away, quickly being lost in the crowd.

With that, the party headed back toward the keep to meet with Captain Ventonius.