Shattered Star #79: Homeward Bound

At the end of last session, we left our heroes fighting a monstrous, demonic vrock! All of its allies had been slain or driven off, but it stubbornly fought on…

 

Moments later another vrock appeared and in a booming voice said, “Narfu, my master agrees to your terms.” This shocked the rest of the party, but given two vrocks now faced them they did not have time to discuss the matter. The first vrock screeched, stunning several of the heroes but the furious assault of the paladins and Zainnis’ arrow swarm soon forced the first vrock to flee via teleportation magic.

The second vrock was less fortunate. Karelia struck the creature with a dimensional anchor, stopping it from fleeing. Shortly thereafter, it was dead. However, while the party had been busy fighting the vrocks, the shadow demon had returned and slain the party’s guide before once again fleeing.

With the battle won, the party rested, healed and then pushed on, carrying the body of their guide. Further down the tunnel, they encountered travellers heading up the Halflight Tunnel. After learning what had happened, and of a potential of some kind of demonic infestation, the travellers turned around and fled back down the tunnel.

An hour or so later, the party emerged into the daylight. They had survived. Giving over their guide’s body to the Dusk Wardens the party headed off toward to Lilywhite and the Mermaid’s Mistress.

That night, they camped in a small copse of trees to shelter from an impending rainstorm. The night was not peaceful. Just before his watch, Narfu suffered some kind of fit, which unnerved Grooble and Thaladan who were unfortunate enough to witness the monk’s distress. Later on, the party were again attacked. This time, a shadow demon crept close to the camp and unleashed several fireballs comprising the very stuff of the plane of shadow. Although it had surprise on its side, it had not counted on such a vigourous defence. Quickly it was slain.

This proved to be the last obstacle to the party’s return to the Mermaid’s Mistress. They reached Lilywhite later the next day and immediately boarded ship. Worried other demons would track them, they begged Markessa to immediately cast off. As soon as the tide was right, she did so and the party began their long voyage north.

Almost three months of relatively boring travel followed. After the rigours of their previous adventures, the heroes relaxed. Grooble and Narfu spent most of the voyage lurking in Grooble’s stateroom while Cortana spent much time tending to the spiritual needs of his followers.

Eventually, however, the Mermaid’s Mistress again entered friend Ratikan waters. The party were overjoyed. Much plotting and planning ensued, but before they could head further north to Windsong Abbey, Cortana had to visit his clan.

Here, he returned several important heirlooms he had recovered from Kara’s and Aq’s bodies long ago beneath the Lady’s Light. The clan were delighted to have such important objects returned to them and in thanks gifted both Cortana and Thaladan with particularly fine heavy warhorses outfitted with fine scale mail barding.

With this important task complete, Cortana and Thaladan returned to the Mermaid’s Mistress…

Published by

Creighton

Creighton is the publisher at Raging Swan Press and the designer of the award winning adventure Madness at Gardmore Abbey. He has designed many critically acclaimed modules such as Retribution and Shadowed Keep on the Borderlands and worked with Wizards of the Coast, Paizo, Expeditious Retreat Press, Rite Publishing and Kobold Press.

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