Session 23: Welcome to the Hive

As the heroes re-grouped from their fierce battle, dwarves suddenly came streaming back up the side tunnel shouting about a monster. The party soon realized that the demonic monster they had just fled must be making its way down the side tunnel. The dwarves said that Tomi was bringing up the rear.

The heroes headed down the tunnel to support Tomi. When they reached her, she and a few dwarves were trying to bring down the tunnel but with no luck. She told the party to leave her and to bring down the external bridge to the citadel, but Clancy was able to convince her to come with them.

The party exited the tunnel and made their way out of the citadel, emerging once again into the blizzard. As they made their way across the chasm, they could hear the sounds of the pursuing monster raging behind them. At the other end, they joined the dwarves in trying to destroy the bridge. Zhang was particularly effective with his maul of smashing. Finally a small chunk of the bridge at the far end fell away just as the monster emerged from the gatehouse, howling with rage. At that moment, Mid brought the spidership down and crashed it into the bridge at the point where it had been weakened. The entire bridge gave away and fell into the chasm. The monster raged impotently, but then sulked back into the gatehouse, where the party could hear sounds of massive destruction.

With the monster once again contained, the heroes retreated to the dwarves’ field headquarters where Tomi thanked them for their service and gave them a belt of dwarvenkind to mark them as friends of the dwarves.

After saying their goodbyes to Tomi, the party contacted Ramas. It was agreed that after the blizzard abated, he would meet them and return with them to the hive. The heroes then took a well-earned rest.

When they awoke, the blizzard had spent itself and the sky was clear and blue. Ramas joined them and invited them back to the Hive where they would be inducted into the Guardians of the Veil.

The heroes followed Ramas’s ship as he sailed up through the sky of Oerth and into space. The trip was short as they approached the smaller moon of Oerth. As they approached, the heroes realized that this irregular shaped moon had been drilled out in multiple places to provide for the berthing of ships and fortifications. The inside of the moon was honeycombed with tunnels and rooms. This was the Hive, headquarters of the Guardians of the Veil. Ramas guided the PCs to a particular berth. When the party left their ship, they were greeted by several people, who introduced themselves as the heroe’s staff. Ramas arrived to inform the players that as Guardians of the Veil, they were entitled to their own habitation within the hive, which included this berth and the staff members in front of them. This staff included Aylana, a half-elven steward, Rizz, a goblin cleaner, Habi, a rock gnomish cook, and Brug and Dug, two half-orc brothers who provided heavy labor.

Aylana gave the party a tour of their new stronghold, which included separate sleeping quarters and several rooms that could serve as labs, libraries, and exercise rooms as well as several storage room. A shared dining room/living quarters included great circular windows that showed Oerth orbiting below them. After getting settled in, Habi made them all a fine meal.

Ramas informed them that the party would need to select a captain and a name for themselves. The elected captain would be required to attend the Council of Captain meeting the next day. After some discussion, Kiki was unanimously elected as the party’s captain and their name was decided to be the “Dark Stars.” Most of the party then retired to their rooms for a much deserved rest, while Clancy sipped a tea and literally watched the world turn for a few hours before going to bed.

Kiki attended the Council of Captains meeting the next day, with the remaining members joining the gallery. She was introduced to the Council and the Dark Stars were officially inducted into the Guardians of the Veil.

The remainder of the council meeting was taken up by Ramas’s report of the growing threats to the Oerth system. An upstart warlord named Alexandros had taken over the militaristic Tomani city of Ventium. From their he had expanded rapidly across the region, taking over most fo the free cities of the Tomani. He was now threatening the Kingdom of Aedun and the Duchy of Rauschdorf. Importantly, he had taken the city of Welzinwald in Rauschdorf. Welzinwald was an important location along the Dresium road. Most of the Dresium coming from the mountains to the North flowed through Welzinwald. Since its capture, the Dresium trade from the West had basically ceased.

Ramas then described the recent encounters with the Mi-go and his concern that they were a growing threat. Some captains were skeptical. However, in the end, it was decided that one band would investigate Welzinwald with the goal of reviving the dresium trade while another group would investigate Yuggoth to see what the Mi-Go were up to. Kiki volunteered the Dark Stars to investigate Welzinwald, while Klaudia, the somewhat haughty leader of Klaudia’s Crusaders volunteered to investigate Yuggoth.

Before departing, the heroes recognized that Postia Ventonius was also in attendance. After greetings, she revealed that she had come to accept her situation and had joined with Klaudia’s Crusaders as a full member of the Guardians. Concerned with Klaudia’s dismissiveness of the Mi-Go threat, the heroes advised Postia to exercise caution in scouting Yuggoth.

Before departing for Yuggoth, the Dark Stars did a bit of shopping on the Hive which had several shops. They all socialized with other Guardians as the Guardian’s Roost, the only tavern on the Hive. While there, Terlis met another mage named Dadaelus who was the leader of Dadaelus’s Legion. Dadaelus was able to share some spells with Terlis.

The party also gave plans to Aylana to turn one of their rooms into a library, one into an exercise room, one into a performance room, and one into a … rat room. Aylana, ever the professional, agreed to see to it right away. With that, the party took their leave and boarded their ship for the new adventure in Welzinwald, which would mark their true return to Oerth.