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Things were getting bad, everyone knew it. The small village of Hillcrest was in trouble. Orcs have been raiding the trading / farming settlement for nigh on two weeks now and the baron seemingly hadn't done anything. The village guard were spread thin and everyone secretly knew that they would not be able to repel a full force attack from these ghastly creatures. They also knew that he could not send them out to hunt these creatures and leave the town undefended. So the baron is stuck in a dilemma, wait for the orcs to attack in full force and have the whole village wiped out, or, send out the guard and risk the village while they're gone. No-one knows what he will do.
Then, whilst all are sleeping notices are put up around the village:
Adventurers Needed
The Baron of Hillcrest will pay 500gp to all who aid in the destruction of the town's common enemy
Those interested meet Mangan the Guard Captain at the barracks at noon
The response was good, and ten adventurers responded to the plea; Randall – an Elf Ranger, Jenett – a Halfling Druid, Arothas – a Human Necromancer, Storm – a Human Rogue, Corla - a Human Barbarian, Oran – a Half-elf Fighter, Iggley – a Gnome Fighter, Sagata – a Human Monk, Kanan – a Human Sorcerer and Arther – a Human Fighter.
Meeting with Mangan at the barracks, the group set out with the guard captain in tow to test their abilities. They were heading for a small orc encampment that they knew was nearby. On their way they met an old acquaintance of Randall, Kirk – an Elf Ranger. It was soon after this meeting that they were ambushed by orcs. The battle was over swiftly, and upon examining the loot that they got off of the orcs, the group found an amulet….an amulet that belonged to Mangan’s wife. Sudden realisation dawning on them, they looked back and saw that Hillcrest had become a funeral pyre. Mangan sped away from them back to the town whilst they started to make their own way back. Upon reaching the town, they found the dead bodies of the aristocracy of the town nailed to the gates.
As they entered the town they found a grim sight; the charred body of the guard captain. A small horde of orcs lay around him, showing that he had not gone down easily. As they stood, mourning in their own separate ways for Mangan and the other bodies spread across the town there was a voice behind them. It was a large orc, on its left there was another smaller orc, and on its right was a small dragon, which the orc told them was its pet. It was a hard and gruelling battle, but eventually the adventurers won out. On the orc they found two maps, one leading to where the treasure from the town was being taken, and the other back to the main encampment of the orcs. They then made there way back to the main barracks, which was largely intact and spent the night there.
Day two opened bright and early, the group agreeing to split up, one going for the treasure trove – dubbed the personal gain team, and the other going for the orc encampment – dubbed the Revenge Team. Both teams moved away from the town fast and onto their separate goals.
Randall led the Personal Gain team, map in hand and keen elf eyes checking for danger. Storm of course, as per usual, babbled on for a short while and as such got himself shot at. Randall was hit in the chest, so much for those keen eyes of his… After beating the orcs they stripped them of everything of worth and moved on. Very close by there was a camp where the orcs had been staying. After healing their wounds, Randall snuck into the camp. In the camp Randall managed to find a girl, she was weak but still alive. Giving her his healing potion, he took her out of the camp and brought her back to the others. She introduced herself as Nikki Limdone, daughter of the Baron of Hillcrest. After a rather brief conversation her voice changed and she attacked them, she was possessed. It was a hard battle and it nearly killed Jenett, Randall and Iggley. However, just as it seemed they were doomed a druid appeared, using her magics to restore them. She named herself as Evanwie Dremore, and explained that she had come due to a great evil power, but that it was now gone and so must have been Nikki. She then ran off, seeming ill at ease as if something had happened.
Now, both Storm and Jenett felt a strange urge come over them. Jenett managed to resist, however Storm did not. He lunged to attack Arothas but missed. Then, as if by the same influence, Oran and Iggley tried to attack Jenett and Storm, but were stopped by Randall you spotted them. It was a fight to the death, Sagata joining with Oran and Iggley. Soon after the battle, there was a noise and Shyleen, an Elf Rogue appeared. They swapped niceties and headed for the orc encampment nearby to rest for the night.
As the Revenge team set out, they met a sobbing man. His name was Brinos – a Human Cleric. He had been out of the town when the orcs attacked and had now lost his family. Soon after leaving the town they come upon two orc stragglers hunting Dire rats. Killing them they moved on and found their camp. It was cluttered with useless stuff and so they left it quickly. As they continued on their way, a burned out cottage loomed in the distance. Walking into the cottage Kirk found the remains of the inhabitants, and heard a strange whispering voice. Behind the cottage there was a path leading into the woods. The group followed it and found a nymph, who blamed them for the burned out cottage and endangering her forest. Though powerful, the nymph was quickly beaten due to an amazing shot from Kirk. They moved back into the cottage and settled for the night.
The revenge team awoke to a scream. It seemed to have come from the place where they had killed the nymph the previous night. Brinos went to investigate and found that the nymph’s body was gone. However, the group were unable to find anything else odd, and so they moved out, keeping aware just in case. The day passed without incident until they reached a heavily wooded area and a cliff face loomed up ahead. There were orcs guarding the entrance to the encampment, and so the group fought them. Kanan died suring battle and the group met Oddem – a Dwarf Fighter. After defeating the orcs the group moved into the cave which held the entrance to the encampment.
After solving a puzzle they get into the encampment, where they captured and interrogated a small orc. It appeared that he was the chef, but he didn’t have that much useful information. Killing the orc, the group moved on. They find two sleeping orcs in the next room and kill them quickly, finding on the orcs a small skull shaped key. They headed up the stairs and found the door which the key fit into. They opened it and found two prisoners inside of it, Alain,an Elf Rogue and Cleomi, an Elf Conjurer. They had been locked up foolishly with their equipment. After they geared up the group set off further, only to find themselves in a fight with a couple of orcs and their pet Dire Bear! They fought the battle and after winning found Cleomi’s familiar. Setting off again they came to another room which held a table. On the table was a small leprechaun, who after a long conversation talked them into resting there for the night.
As the Personal Gain Team set out, they came across another person, Romeo, a Human Fighter. They moved on, and after a short while came upon a goblin nest. Destroying it’s inhabitants quickly they powered on and near nightfall came to the trove. The path they were following ended at a huge tree jutting from a mountain. After Shyleen spoke to the tree its branches moved and shaped themselves into an arch. Walking through the arch the group found themselves in a cave. At the end of the passage they were in was a pool. Nearing the pool, a massive squid attacked them. After turning it into calamari they moved off to the right and down some stairs. Following a corridor they came to a room with a chasm and a bridge across. There were two piles of treasure across the chasm and a gem in the middle. Greedy Arothas couldn’t wait and ran across. Nearing the treasure, he seemed to hit a temporary barrier and the gem flashed slightly. After some tedious arguments over the treasure, the group decided that Arothas should leave, which he did. A while after he had left the group they carried on themselves, the only way being back. However, as they exited the chamber, the way back had changed! After making it across another chasm, this one lacking a bridge they found themselves in some sort of tomb. After Randall picked something up a barrier appeared and they had to fight some zombies. After beating the zombies they looked into one of the coffins and found some jewellery. Randall put it on and it seemed that everyone became infatuated with him. Eventually, just before Storm and Jenett killed themselves over him, Randall took the jewellery off. They moved into an adjoining chamber and found Tharil, a Half-elf Warmage, amongst a pile of bones. Whilst he was unconscious, Storm stole his equipment. They carried on through another chamber finding that it was all a big loop. Then Storm managed to find a trap, though he found it by setting it off. When he himself had regained consciousness it was Randall’s turn to play with traps. He ended up with his finger caught in a snare and had to cut it off! After searching through the coffins they found a kobold, who was responsible for the snare and thought he had caught a mouse not a finger. Storm took the finger off of Randall, saying that he knew a kinder who would buy it and they questioned the kobold, whom they named Pickle. They agreed to let Pickle come along and slept for the night.
Arothas left the group and continued back the way he had come. He started to hear voices in his head and noticed that the way had changed. He insulted the voice and then everything went black for him. He awoke and found that he was in fact dead, floating outside of his own body. He was now in a different room and the voice was still there. It offered him work. He agreed and was returned to life, gaining more knowledge at the same time. He was once again transported into a new room. Here he rested, awaiting his first mission under his new employ....
When Arothas awoke he was on a foggy heath, and in front of him was Nikki. She told him that she was his to command. They made their way forward, Nikki telling Arothas of his mission here. The Artefacts he was looking for were supposedly in a nearby fort, a fort protected from his Master’s own powers. It was protected by ancient priests and once they entered these priests would be awoken from their otherwordly slumber. Arothas continued, not caring for these priests. He went down a corridor where he met an armed guard. Arothas had hoped that it was an illusion and so stepped to the side, becoming trapped in a trap. Bars shot up and imprisoned him. The armoured man then scoffed at him and went on his way. Arothas sent a fireball after him but it seemed to have no effect. He returned with some others and they took a seemingly subdued Nikki. Arothas attempted to find an escape, but he failed miserably and was shot in the neck by a blowdart. When he woke up he had been stripped and Nikki was standing nearby. She told him that her placidity had been a charade so that she would not have to fight them. Arothas got up and dressed himself whilst Nikki told him that there was some sort of protection against evil spell at work in this place. They went up the stairs from the basement they had been in and ran into the same guard. After some banter they fought. After a long battle the guard accidentally impaled himself on the bars which had previously held Arothas and had not gone down into the ground properly. They went back the way and found the source of the protection from evil spell. Removing it, they continued to walk around, bumping into more guardians of this place, including the Abbot. The guardians tried their best but were not powerful enough to hold back the necromancer. The Abbot of the group had dropped his staff, and when Arothas picked it up he heard his master’s voice. You have done well, now that you are in possession of the staff I can enter this place. Bring it back to me, along with the orb and I shall give you your reward. I shall send some others to finish this offSoon Arothas was transported back to his master’s lair and found upon his own bed a parchment which made him the baron of Hillcrest. Arothas was excited by the news, but decided to wait until he had rested before he set off.
The personal gain team awoke and set on their way. They entered a new area which seemed to be quite grand in its architecture. They entered what appeared to be a bedroom, where, low and behold, Nikki was present! After some unpleasantries she and Pickle left the room, Pickle apparently aligned with her. The group followed her into a throne room, where it was revealed that the kobold had been possessed. Nikki released the kobold and the group fought. Eventually Nikki died, again, and hopefully for the last time. Pickle came out of hiding and decided to join up with the group, becoming Randall’s animal companion. In the throne room there was a small enchanted lift, which when the group entered they were taken up and at last out of the trove. Outside was a heavily wooded area and they continued on their journey, now looking for a town in which they could sell their loot. An old man came along on a cart and Romeo joined him, seeking his own goals. However, soon everything went black for the group. When they all awoke they were in some kind of wooden hut, reunited with Romeo and naked, not exactly the most pleasant of sights, especially when it came to Jenett. They managed to untie themselves and Romeo knocked out the guard outside the room. They appeared to be up in a tree, and there seemed to be quite a few more huts like the one they had been placed in. Across from this hut there was a rope bridge leading to another hut. They ran across and were met by a flurry of arrows. In the other hut was the group’s equipment, Tharil finally being reunited with his own gear. Together, Randall and Romeo took down the archers. Then they heard the voice of their captors. It seemed like the old man had been a trap set by someone called Robin Hoodless. They went down the ladders and fought this less than famous archer, his men crowded around watching them. The battle was theirs, and after victory the merryless men agreed to join them. However, this wasn’t the only excitement. It seemed that the merryless men had built the huts on a treant, who was less than merry himself. A couple of men were crushed before they all got the hint to run away. After a while of running they came to a stop, the treant was huge and therefore not very fast. Randall asked the merryless men where they were and the nearest town. It was Lidlen, and they spent the rest of the day travelling there.
They arrived at night, and once they had reached the town and had been let through the gate they sought out an inn in which to rest. Randall chose his own separate accomidation and they all had a sound night’s sleep in a bed for once.
When the revenge team awoke the leprechaun had left them. They swiftly ate some breakfast and then made their way up the stairs. Beyond the stairs a Half-orc and to other orcs were waiting for them. The half-orc, who seemed to have a brain cell in his head told them that the army had already left the day before and that the leprechaun had been an illusion to keep them back so that the army could get even further ahead. After this brief exchange of unpleasantries the battle began. When they defeated the orc they rushed from the camp, seeking to catch up with the orc army.
On the fifth day, the revenge team continued on their travels chasing the orc army towards the town of Lidlen.
The Personal Gain Team awoke to a town teeming with life. It appeared that there was a village fete in progress, full of weird and wonderful things to buy and do. There were several contests happening, and so the group decided that they would stay in the town and have a bit of fun for once. One of the stalls available was The Deck Of Many Things Stall, where you pretty much gambled with your life. All but Jenett took part, and of those that took part Romeo came off the best, gaining great experience. Randall had to endure trials and Storm had a tussle with fate. Romeo entered a Gladiatorial Tournament, but alas he was beaten. Randall entered and won the Archery Tourney. He also entered the Jousting tournament but failed to win the hand in marriage of the fair maiden. Jenett entered and won the Conjurer’s Chess tournament, as well as a karaoke competition, for which she got herself two golden carrots. The group stayed pretty much separate, using all the exotic stalls to both stock up and get rid of the things they didn’t need. All in all it was a good day for the group, who went to bed late in quite a good mood.
When he awakened, Arothas was taken to the town of Hillcrest. There was a circle of tents where the survivors had gathered. After a bit of a misunderstanding of names he met the leader of the survivors. There, using the plan formed by Drakenforth with a letter from the Baron stating that whoever defeated the orcs and brought back his coronet would be baron. Of course, Arothas just so happened to have the coronet, and so was named baron of Hillcrest. He ordered the people to continue burying the dead, and when that was done he ordered them to rebuild the town as best they could. After that he found that he did not have much else to do, and so he decided that he had some of his own problems to deal with. Using Drakenforth’s power he teleported to Falcon Lord Keep, the home of his father. He was not on the best of terms with his father it seemed, and had gone their to kill him. Things went a bit wrong though during the fight and Arothas’ father managed to wrest his staff of power from him. Made afraid by Arothas’ power, he leaped from the window, breaking the staff as he went and shattering half of the keep. Arothas fled, realising that he had brought too much attention upon himself to confront his brother as well. Drakenforth was obviously not happy with his display, and he was whisked away swiftly. He was back in Nikki’s presence, who seemed to not like being dead seeing as she kept returning. She introduced him to an orc, Slaz – an Orc Fighter and a woman, Georgie Wood – a Human Dread Necromancer who were to be helping him from now on. They were to be sent to investigate a zombie occurrence in a town up in the mountains. They were teleported in the same way, and when they arrived at their destination they were in the middle of a snowy field. Up ahead they could see the town they had been sent to, Nedraes. Making their way up there they were told by the villagers that the zombies were of course originating from the graveyard. They made their way there, and met with Viridian – a Human Rogue and Assassin. They went through a trap door in the church, and came into the crypt. Here they found hundreds of small empty coffins, only big enough for children. They was not much in the crypt itself, they were only assailed by two zombies, but as they reached its end they found that it opened up onto the town for some reason, and that there were over one hundred zombies – children – attacking the town. At this point Slaz and Viridian had fallen behind the group. They followed the zombies and met up with Adrianna Blackstorm – a Human Fighter and Korsah – a Human Sorceror. Soon they learned the source of the zombies, a lich. He informed Arothas that Drakenforth had betrayed him(Arothas), that he was to be used as a sacrifice on Drakenforth’s path to divinity. They fought and defeated the lich, fleeing the town which was now burning. They travelled for a while, until they came upon a giant, who managed to crush Arothas and nearly kill Georgie. They managed to stablise Georgie, but Arothas was dead. They moved on, coming across a cart and horses, and made their way to Anatharen. Once inside, they sought out a cleric to revive Arothas, leaving him with the cleric and spending the night in a nearby Inn.
The personal gain team awoke once again to the joyous sounds of the town fete going on around them, but that was soon to change. Less than an hour after the festivities beginning once again, large pieces of stone started to rain down upon the town, Lidlen was under attack. It seemed that the mages guild was safe from the attack by its enchantments, and so the team and the townsfolk fled into its safety. The archmage told the team that the town was under attack by orcs, led by a demon. They were the same orcs that had attacked Hillcrest, and they were the servants of a greatly powerful wizard named Drakenforth. They left the safety of the guild, and went to meet the demon, who sent Tharil screaming for his mother. The rest though, stayed and fought, eventually winning out the battle. With their leader vanquished, the orcs scattered and the town was safe, though greatly damaged. The team made their way back to the mages guild, where they found that the archmage had himself been locked in an epic battle of his own. He was badly hurt, dieing in fact, but before he left this plane he gave them a gift. It was a pendant, and was in fact the thing that Drakenforth had been trying to destroy. He needed to destroy this one artefact in order to become a god, but the archmage had protected it. He gave it to Randall, telling them that once it was destroyed Drakenforth would be temporarily weakened, enough for the group to kill him. The archmage then died, and the mages took him away from them. An hour or so later, the new archmage came out to meet them, as it was a time of crisis he had been elected swiftly. He and several other mages transported the team to the main city of the land, Anatharen. There they met with the main mages guild, who granted them each a gift. They told the team of a tower of vines which had started to rise out of the nearby forest. This was where Drakenforth was to be found, and so they sent them there. They entered the Tower of Vines, and scaled up its first level. Here the terrain changed entirely to something that would be found in a dungeon, not a living breathing tower such as this one was. The tower seemed odd, very odd. They found an old man who was quite crazy and ended up dieing by Romeo’s hand. As well as this, everyone seemed to start losing body parts, everyone save for Storm, who was agile enough to keep his body in one piece. Eventually, after going down several dud corridors, they found the way out and into another room, where they met some sort of werewolf hybrid. Killing it, they made their way through the room and past a door which had a puzzle set into it. Behind this door was a stairwell which went exceedingly high. Climbing it, they entered another chamber, however, when they stepped into it they found themselves on a beach. The air was warm and wrong. On the beach there was a bimbo whom, after talking to, was so annoying that they attacked her, only to find out that she was a mindflayer! They killed the horrid beat and moved on. After the mindflayer was killed, the beach was revealed to be merely another room. The next place they came to had three beds, one too hard, another too soft and the last just right. As Randall settled onto the just right bed, a large bear wearing a blonde wig came bursting into the room, followed by three humans whose breakfast had been eaten! After a brief conversation, the bear knocked the humans out and asked the group to follow it to Drakenforth. Follow it they did, and when they finally met the dark overlord, they found out that he was little more than an eccentric gnome. They fought and killed the gnome and his badger - though the badger managed to get a mouthful before the battle was over. When Drakenforth died the tower started to collapse, the vines receeding into the ground, and due to Romeo's brilliant idea the group grabbed on and rode the vines back to the ground.
The revenge team continued travelling, until at last they reached the town of Lidlen. Unfortunately, they were too late, the town had already been attacked and the orcs had scarpered soon after. Instead, Brinos contented himself with helping the wounded whilst the others sought to find out what was going on. The mages guild had the answers and Cleomi asked if it would be possible for the group to follow after the personal gain team in seek of Drakenforth. The mages guild agreed and Alain went to gather everyone up. Corla and Kirk elected to stay behind, to help defend the town. The group had a mission once more. When they arrived in Anatharen they were met by the mages guild in the city, and were given all the details before being sent along once more to the tower of vines. However, when they got there Drakenforth was already defeated, and so instead they waited for the tower to collapse entirely.
When Adrianna and Korsah awoke, there was a slap-up breakfast awaiting them. After their meal, Korsah went to seek out the mages guild whilst Adrianna went to check on Arothas. Korsah was quite nastily turned away from the mages guild as he was an acquaintance of Arothas. When Adrianna reached the church Arothas was alive and arrogant again, hoorah! Of course, there still remained the matter of payment to the cleric, which was a grand sum of 7,000 gold pieces. Georgie had already told the two that she was going her own way, and so they devised that they should take her belongs and use them to pay for the revival. Arothas first decided that a disguise was in order, and so bought a longsword, some black hair dye and changed his name to Eneren. Then they set after Georgie. Knocking her unconscious, Korsah took her to the mages guild, who gave him 5,000 gold for her, whilst Adrianna sold her equipment for 8,500 gold. Now all that remained was to use the money. They paid the cleric and then split the remaining money between themselves. Then, they saw that the tower was collapsing, and made their way there.
With everyone together, it turned out to be a happy ending after all.
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