| As the others sorted themselves out and checked their weapons, Kobort used his new cloak to scale the inside of the roughly spherical cave the party had found themselves in, and emerged blinking into the daylight. Looking around, he found himself surrounded by a couple of dozen roughly-dressed humans, clutching assorted primitive digging tools and looking at him nervously. Beyond, he was standing on a scrubby moor, at the top of a slight slope; a small and unsophisticated village was at the bottom of the slope, about a quarter of a mile away to the south. Behind him, to the north, a cliff dropped into a river valley. The ground around the hole he'd emerged from was pocked with odd blocks of dressed stone sticking up out of the grass. Puzzled, he communicated with the locals, and secured a rope to a firmly-planted spade for the others to climb out with. | |
Below, Hildraft was studying the paving stones that made up the floor of the cave they were in. Something was familiar about them, but it was only when he emerged into the sunlight that he put the facts together. The flooring was that of the entrance hall of Gorntar castle, and the outside location was the Valley of Eagles; but the castle was gone and a village in its' place!
Questioning the locals, the band discovered that the date was - probably - 1600 Imperial, 900 years later than it should have been. The people themselves were slaves to the "Masters"; the lizardmen; and ultimately ruled by someone they referred to as "the Dragon". As they talked, they noticed that one peasant had run back to the village, and now emerged, leading a group of remarkable creatures.
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Most of the were at least basically familiar with the
lizardmen of the Trakar swamps, so they recognised the
general species of the new appeances. However, there were
significant differences. These lizardmen were rather bigger than any the band had seen before; and most of them were wearing armour. Five were armoured in scale shirts and carrying swords and bows; the obvious leader had a glaive as well, probably magical; and skulking at the back was an obvious spellcaster. All wore black surcoats blazoned with a red badge, unknown to any of the band. |
Surya and Sack strung their bows and nocked arrows, and Kobort flexed his fingers ready, as Hildraft unslung his axe. Then Surya, who spoke some Krultac, called out to them "What do you want?".
| The leader halted, placing his hands on his hips in
the manner of one in complete control of the situation.
"You slaves will pile those forbidden weapons
here," he gestured, "and grovel for your
lives." He hooked a thumb at Hildraft. "Kill
the vermin," he finished in an off-hand way. This was enough to show which way things were going to go. Sack and Surya opened up immediately, followed by Kobort and Hildraft with their crossbows. Three of the lizards advanced while two more unhitched bows and started sending arrows back, though their shortbows were no match for the mighty longbows of the two warriors. The mage launched a spell with every indication of confidence, and appeared crestfallen when nothing happened. A couple of seconds later, he vanished, invisible. |
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Several minutes of intense combat ensued, with Hildraft getting several annoying wounds, mainly from arrows, though the mage also tagged him with several Magic Missiles. The leader was dropped early on by the two archers, and after a fairly stiff fight, the three sword-wielding lizards were disposed of. As the last one went down, the mage succeeded in making a Hold Person bite on Surya, and he froze, rooted to the spot and boiling with frustration. Just to add to the confusion, the mage followed that up with Mirror Image, and there were then four of him to choose from.
Kobort called on one of his new cloak's other powers, and dropped a magical Web over the lizard mage, dispelling his images and immobilizing him. Immune to the web, Kobort waded in and subdued him. Seeing both their leaders down, the two lizard archers tried to throw down their weapons and surrender, but the blood-mad Hildraft and Sack slaughtered them anyway.
As they were preparing to question the mage, the spell on Surya wore off, and he was able to move again. His temper had not been improved, and the subsequent interrogation of the lizard mage was not gentle or sophisticated. The creature boasted that the Dragon - Varkar Barduric - had made the lizardmen masters of the world, and all that humans were fit for was slave labour and shock troops. Disgusted, they finished him off and checked the bodies over. Some treasures were forthcoming; the list is available here..
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A new voice was heard then, congratulating them on their fight. Emerging from the ranks of the peasant workers came a different figure. He identified himself as one Sigred of Narthal, a priest of Aderra and an undercover agent for the King of Stryre. He was quite taken aback when the band responded by asking where the hells Stryre was anyway, and proceeded to fill them in on the basics of what had happened in the last 900 years. (See the Timeline for details!) |
He explained also that he was recruiting mercenaries and adventurers for a covert mission in service to his King, into the Desolation; he could explain no more than that, but offered the hospitality of the Basilica at Narthal for as long as the band wished to consider it. When they pointed out that Narthal was slightly more than a thousand miles away, Sigred grinned and hefted a crumpled scroll. "No problem," he replied..