The battle against the flaming demon tested both the party and the strange, armored Centaur. Had it gone on much longer, surely someone would have died, far too early in their adventurous life. But in the end, they had defeated the beast and were thankful for their lives. As they slowly healed each other, and began introducing themselves to the Centaur, a horde of smaller demons suddenly appeared at the forests edge and charged towards the group…
The Centaurs name turned out to be Sar Kal-Aldonis of the 10th Order. He is a Paladin of Dana and a Watcher. He explains that a “Watcher” is a member of a select group of Paladins dedicated to watching the Umbral Gate. If it were to activate, the Watchers are the initial force to enter the gate, survey the situation, and establish communications with the good-aligned races and nations of the world. While all of this seemed strange and exciting to our exhausted group, the final shock came when Sar Kal-Aldonis mentioned that the activation of the Umbral Gate signified that the Overlord had once again become active in the world. OK, that really sucks!
While our team of hearty, bruised adventurers took all this in, they suddenly notice a very large force of smaller demons exiting the forest edge and rushing towards them. The number of demons would surely overwhelm the party, who were still recovering from the fight with the larger demon. As they prepared themselves for the deadly clash, they notice behind the rank of demons are a group of Centaurs, dressed similar to Sar Kal-Aldonis, just exiting the forest. They leveled their lances, set their shields, and charged the rear ranks of the demons.
As the battle quickly unfolded, and everyone offering up their final prayers to their Gods, another smaller group of Centaurs exited the forest. These Centaurs, dressed differently, raised their staffs high in the sky, tips touching, causing a golden light to form. The light rapidly spread outwards towards the ranks of the demonic horde. As the golden light touched each demon it screamed, then simply vanished, banished from the world. The remaining demons were quickly dispatched by the party and the Centaurs, leaving no one the worse for wear. Death will have to wait for another day.
The small group of Centaurs near the forest quietly disappeared within, while the group of Centaurs surrounded the group and Sar Kal-Aldonis, greeting him warmly. The group of Centaurs, upon learning that the party was allied with Sar Kal-Aldonis, quickly saluted all then wheeled back towards the forest and disappeared within.
Sar Kal-Aldonis thanked the group again, and told them that now that they had returned, they would be sending out ambassadors to each realm within one full cycle of the moon. With that Sar Kal-Aldonis saluted the group, turned, and quickly galloped towards the forest and its deep recesses.
With that the adventurous adventurers returned to the road, heading toward Greyport, the general direction indicated by the ghostly apparition back in the Town of Southbach. Upon arrival, the party obtained their citizenship papers and sought out the local Black Swan Adventurers Guild. What they find was shocking! A run down, dirty, disgusting excuse for an adventurer’s guild. Inside was worse, with drunks and filth everywhere. As they soon discover, this was all a ruse, designed to help avoid unwanted attention to the real World Guild Chapter House. Below the facility was a hive of activity, all within a clean, well maintained underground operation, run by expert operatives of the World Guild.
The Guild Master of the local chapter house is Cer-radol LiVaure. The party delivers its chaotic report to him, and upon mentioning the Centaurs and the Umbral Gate, Cer-radol stops the note taking and says this situation requires much higher level involvement. He leaves the room and returns a short while later, followed by an older gentleman with long flowing hair, wearing an amazing robe trimmed in blue. This new gentleman introduces himself as Mage Lord Alkor. Turns out he’s high up in the ranks of the Blue Flame Guild. Publicly they are just a common Mage Guild, but as he reveals, its highest ranking members are all allied with the World Guild. They are clearly not so common after all! Well, after gathering their information in minute detail Alkor bids them farewell and rapidly departs.
At which point the group, still waiting for a sign from their ghostly apparition, decides to ask Cer-radol if he has anything they can do while they wait. Cer-radol says yes and directs them to a small fishing town called Ingpool, about a day’s ride south of the city. Seems a large number of people have been reported missing over the past few weeks. The party says they will take it and prepares to head south. Upon arriving in this strangely quiet town they note that its mostly built on stilts, that most of the townsfolk seem to be afraid and non-talkative, and there are numerous homes that seem recently abandoned. Turns out those homes were, until recently, filled with their owners, who have since disappeared.
After unsuccessfully trying to talk to the locals in the tavern, the party strikes up a conversation with the tavern owner, Manner, the not-so-bright. They learn that fisherman and families alike have been disappearing from the boats, from the town itself, as well from the surrounding area over the past two weeks. He also mentioned that his daughter has been missing for two days. Of note was his mention of “She has returned!”. Not much else could be learned about that. Lastly, that all of this began just over two weeks ago after a small localized earthquake had struck. Interesting! With what little information they had learned, the party decides to talk to the fisherman by the docks to try and learn something more concrete. While talking with a fisherman they spy a fisherman a couple hundred yards offshore suddenly slump in his boat, then a slim humanoid arm reached up from the water, pulling him slowly down under. OK, that’s more concrete. Time to set a trap!
So, the two heaviest party members take out a fishing boat near dusk, hoping to entice this aquatic creature into attacking them. Unfortunately, that never happened, but they did learn that the boat could barely hold them due to their combined weight, which forced one of them to constantly bail water out of the boat. The adventure was not a total waste of time however, as they did find the hauling rope of a fisherman’s net floating nearby, and upon pulling it up discovered a local fisherman, dead for several days, with its arms and legs intentionally woven into the loops of the net. That seemed rather odd.
And so, our rowdy, wet adventurers stopped there for the night, reflecting on what they knew, and trying to discover some clue that would lead them to the creature in the deep.
Until next time…
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