#adventurepath

26 Arodus (August), 4716, Kintargo

Kintargo is known as the “Silver City.”  Sediments in the water give it a silvery shine at dawn and dusk. Every year silver salmon pass through to spawn up river. Many buildings and pathways are made from silver flecked stone. It is a beautiful city.

What’s not in the Kintargo tourism brochure, is the murder. Since the city has been placed under martial law, mysterious murder and disappearance is an ever increasing worry for the citizenry. 

In recent weeks they’ve survived fires, killings, gang wars, theft, and all the government has given them is rules, a curfew, and more taxation and regulation. The city is boiling with anger.

The Silver Ravens send Femick undercover again as the Dottari Leiutenant Yuri. He infiltrates the nearby guard keep and learns that the Hellknight Order of the Rack has taken over part of the keep, as they have at many locations in the city, apparently under the direction of Paracount Thrune. When asked about his investigations of the Longroad Coffeehouse, he keeps his answers vague and uninformative. 

Femick files a written report saying the leads that took him to the Longroads Coffeehouse proved to be a dead-end and no further investigation is required. He also steals information about the Dottari patrol routes and schedule.

Rexus comes to the team with some good news, he has set up an arrangement with a local blacksmith to supply the Ravens with gear, repairs, ammunition and anything else they can provide.  

He takes the group to meet the owner/operator of Falco Steel. An older man, Falco relies on his granddaughter, Lore Falco to do most of the smithing work. Lore is a strongly built and stern young woman who dutifully helps her grandfather keep the family business going. She does the smithing, and Gramps does the enchanting.

After leaving Falco Steel, the team heads for their next target. They have solid intelligence suggesting that a group of dissenters from the Thrune take-over are being held by a mercenary group at a local salt granary where the prisoners are used as slave labor.

While traveling to the salt granary, Boudicca suspects they are being followed, she sees someone spying on them from a nearby rooftop before they duck out of sight. While the party attempts to pretend that they don’t notice their follower, the mysterious figure appears out of an alley before them. 

She introduces herself as the Silver Raven. They in turn introduce themselves as THE Silver Ravens. They find that they have a similar aim: the liberation of Kintargo from the oppressive Thrune regime. The Silver Raven is welcomed into The Silver Ravens, for now...

They storm the building together. Femick and The Silver Raven charge in first, engaging the front lobby guards. Gabriel and Azwraith follow, blocking the hallway to the guard barracks. The mercenaries attack at the command of their leader, a stout dwarven warrior named Kossrani.  A deadly battle ensues that leaves the team injured but triumphant and Kossrani is dead.

They free the prisoners who are badly malnourished and exhausted. Laria helps find sympathetic homes to hide them while they recuperate. 

They thank The Silver Raven for her assistance and vow to work with her again soon.

The next day, the team is enjoying complimentary eel-sticks at a local market. The Ravens hear that the Chelish Citizens Group, a glorified gang of thugs that claim to represent the Thrune government, has taken Clenchjaw a prisoner and are planning their own crude version of a public excrutiation for him today at an old public fountain.

Gabriel, Boudicca, and Celeb immediately head to the site to stop the CCG and rescue Clenchjaw. There is already a crowd gathered. The Ravens worry that the crowd will be encouraging the torture but to their relief they are trying to intervene to save Clenchjaw.  The CCG has a platform in the middle of the pond covered by armed thugs on both sides.

In the middle is Clenchjaw, chained to the center of the platform with two starving feral mastiffs on either side of him. He is already beaten to a pulp and bleeding from multiple bite wounds from the dogs. The Silver Ravens fly into action immediately.

Celeb uses a sleep spell to pacify the two outer thugs, while Gabriel and Boudicca charge the platform to fight the others. Boudicca lands a powerful color-spray spell and knocks several thugs unconscious. The first danger is defeated but now the Ravens struggle to quell the crowd’s anger. Celeb’s goal is for no deaths at this incident today, but the angry mob has descended upon the two sleeping thugs and he fears they will tear them apart.

A voice rises above the crowd at the center of the platform, it is Gabriel, towering above them with his great height and shining armor. He pleads with them to show the villains mercy that was not offered to Clenchjaw.  

They calm and release the thugs. Clenchjaw is healed and freed from his chains. Celeb throws what food he can find on hand to the dogs to calm them, and using minor calming spells, he removes their collars and they flee. 

Clenchjaw promises them drinks are on him back at his place and thanks them again and again. The Ravens return to base and consider which Dottari patrol they will rob tonight.

The plan is, to stop the Dottari patrol and retake the money they have stolen from various businesses along their route and return it as they did before, but things go slightly awry. 

In the heat of battle, Boudicca kills one of the Dottari, and the others are killed as they attempt to flee. The patrol is a bloodbath, and the Ravens flee the scene, forgetting to take the stolen money.

The hornets nest has been suitably whacked. Dottari and Hell Knights descend upon the North side of the city from all points, and the Ravens are driven to their underground hideout beneath the Longroad Coffeehouse. 

Femick goes undercover as Lt. Yuri again, this time using sleight of hand to ensure that he leads the patrol that will scour the neighborhood near their hideout. He has to go a bit farther than he hoped in playing his role, but he is able to keep his squad of 10 Dottari from looking too hard at Laria’s.

Written with this track in mind: 

A Dream of Femick Embersword:

Voices all around me making small talk mixed with the clanking of glasses and plates. A hundred people in expensive outfits admiring one another. One voice rises above the others, simply exclaims the word “Look!”

Rising to gaze over the crowd and out the veranda doors away Southwest, we see huge columns of black smoke, even in the failing light they are plain to see. Many small ones, and three larger than the rest. The docks are the nearest. An entire pier is ablaze. 

The second great fire is across the calmly flowing Yolubilis, downtown in the shop district. There last is a huge plume of smoke to the Southeast. Alarm bells began to ring across the city.  Staring hard again at the shop district, my heart begins to pound in my chest.

I sprint for the balcony. Knock over a waiter. Shove an old fat lady aside.

As the balcony rail comes at me fast, I can see that it’s definitely the Badger. I dive off four-floors-up, glide to the outer wall designed to keep the riff raff out. I barely grab the edge of it with my fingertips. “GO” I yell at myself out loud. I pull myself up and race across the wall, again diving over the side to glide down into the streets below.

Running hard now, scimitar banging against my hip.  The fire is ahead and to the left, over the rooftops. I know which alley to take. I sprint through a small market knocking over chairs and tables. Through someone’s front yard. I’m on the right street now, there’s light ahead.

The Badger is consumed. It flows up the outer walls, bursts out of the windows. A forty foot wide pillar of black smoke churns out of the roof and up into the night sky.  People are running away from it. I can’t see inside, the fire is too thick.

Across the river to the South, I see a huge burst of fire rise up into the night and become smoke over the shops by the opera house. My stomach clenches, I can’t breathe, tears are coming. I race to the end of the burning dock. Voices yelling around me, at me, as I dive full speed into the river.

I shape my dive perfectly to slice through the calm flow. I see the reflection of a beautiful silver-haired elven woman with make up streaming down her cheeks and a crazed look in her eyes coming straight at me and then cold water surrounds.

The water smells foul, death and ash choke me as I try to breathe it, but it’s too foul. I surge ahead. I hit the surface on the other side so hard I launch all the way onto the sidewalk and start running as water gushes out of my chain shirt.  

In a few steps it’s fallen off me and I’m at a full sprint again. I can’t breathe but I’m not tired, I run on pure terror.

I cut through the dense neighborhood on the South shore of the river, cutting left and right until I get to the square. I burst out of a side street, straining to see to the West.

“No, no NO” I hear myself say as I confirm what’s burning. The surrounding buildings are caught too, it’s all on fire. I run straight at it. The heat knocks me off my feet and I sit on the stones in the middle of the street as the upper floor collapses down into the first. I struggle to my feet, hands shaking. Tears stream down my face. I can’t breathe. I’m trying to inhale and I can’t.

I feel hot, inside. My hands and feet are tingling. I feel like I’m on fire. I don’t notice the heat of the blaze anymore. I scream.

I feel a hand on my shoulder, turning me around. I look into the faces of four armored men. They wear red sashes with the symbol of a tyrant clasping them.

“WHY?!” I spit on them as I say it. They reach for their weapons. Maces or clubs or some other slow heavy thing. I have Stirling in my hand and sweeping across my body before they even raise their weapons. I take off the hand of the nearest soldier, his scream drowned out by my own. I dance through their clumsy attempts to strike me. Two more hit the street dead as I cut the shoulder tendons on the last.

Laying on his back in the street clutching his limp arm, I hold Stirlings blade an inch from his face as fire courses down the hilt to its tip. “Where is your Lord?!” I struggle to say to him.  “Opera house” he spits through clenched teeth.

I am running harder than I ever have in my life. I pass people in the street, most are fleeing.  Some yell at me and try to follow but they can’t keep up.

I see more soldiers ahead in Aria Park, in front of the Opera House. Four on the street and two more at the doors. 

Through clenched teeth, I whisper “Celeb Yavie Cuar” and Stirling changes in my hands into a longbow. The artifact faithfully conjures arrows with shining silver tips into my hands as I draw, lighting each one aflame as I fire. Six shots, six hits. Two guards fall dead, the others retreat around the side of the building with their wounds.

“Celeb Yavie Salka” and Stirling changes back into one scimitar and then splits into two. I kick the front doors open and charge into the foyer. Two more of Thrune’s flunky guards are dead before they hit the floor. I enter the main hall, race down through the cheap seats yelling “THRUNE, FACE ME!”

Guards appear at the balcony on either side of me with crossbows pointing down. 

“Celeb Yavie Lindur” as my swords become a violin and bow, I struggle to focus enough to play but finally find the music and freeze them just as they take aim. They stare at me in horror as Stirling changes back into a bow and I put a burning silver arrow through each throat. They fall into the orchestra pit with a terrifying crash one by one. 

Running boots and armor turn me around in time to see Thrune’s bodyguard coming at me from the side hall. She leads with a huge polearm and has a running start. Stirling returns to sword form at a whisper and sparks fly as her blade scrapes mine in passing. 

The strength of her blows is jarring, I cannot block them so I deflect and dance around them. There is a foul black fire smoldering in her eyes and a savagery to her movements that suggests she is more than she appears. Again and again she brings her weapon around in long sweeping strokes and thrusts that destroy the seating around us as if they were paper.

I am on my heels and need to fight smarter. My rage has not cooled but I am thinking again. I fake a stumble after her last swing and she lunges hard at the false opening.  She quickly regains her footing and turns with another killing stroke but my hand holds the back of her neck and my sword has passed through her heart before she can bring her huge weapon around.

I tear Stirling free of her as she growls and stares at me from the ground, somehow still alive. I feel the spell hit me before I see The Count standing on the balcony with his outstretched hand. A thousand invisible bricks build a wall around me. I cannot move, I still can’t fucking breathe.

I hear wings. The flapping of small leathery wings behind me. Something sharp stabs me in the leg, then the hip, then the neck. The heat drains out of me and numbing cold seeps in. I feel frozen and heavy. The only part of me that still moves is my heartbeat. It slows, and stops.

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A Dream of Devoted Saranites:

Voices all around me making small talk mixed with the clinking of glasses and plates at a warm evening party with the patio doors all open. A hundred people in absurdly expensive outfits admiring one another. One voice rises above the others, simply exclaims the word “Look!”

Rising to gaze over the crowd and out the veranda doors away Southwest, I see huge columns of black smoke, even in the failing light they are plain to see. Many small ones, and three larger than the rest. The docks are the nearest. An entire pier must be ablaze. 

The second great fire is across the River, downtown in the shop district. A huge plume of smoke 50’ wide. Alarm bells began to ring across the city.  Staring hard again at the shop district, my heart begins to pound in my chest.

I sprint for the balcony. Knock over a waiter. Shove an old fat lady aside.

As the balcony rail comes at me fast, I see the fire blocks away. I dive off, four-floors-up, glide to the outer wall designed to keep the riff raff out. I barely grab the edge of it with my fingertips. “GO” I yell at myself out loud. I pull myself up and race across the wall, again diving over the side to glide down into the streets below.

 Running hard now, scimitar banging against my hip.  The fire is straight ahead but the main street is blocked for construction. I know which alley to take. I sprint through a small market knocking over chairs and tables. Through someone’s front yard. I’m on the street again now, there’s bright light ahead.

The building is consumed. It flows up the outer walls, bursts out of the windows. A forty foot wide pillar of black smoke churns out of the roof and up into the night sky.  People are running away from it. I can’t see inside, the fire is too thick. I cut left around a neighboring building to try to see the front entrance on the dock side. It has completely collapsed.

Across the river to the South, I see a huge burst of fire rise up into the night and become a smoke cloud over the city. My stomach clenches. I can’t breathe. Tears are coming. I race to the end of the burning dock. Voices yelling around me, at me, as I dive full speed into the river.

I shape my dive perfectly to slice through the calm flow. I see the reflection of a beautiful silver-haired elven woman with dark lines streaming down her cheeks and a crazed look in her eyes coming straight at me and then cool water surrounds.

The water smells foul, death and ash choke me as I try to breathe it, but it’s too foul. Holding my breath, I surge ahead. I hit the surface on the other side so hard I launch all the way onto the sidewalk and start running as water gushes out of my clothes and concealed armor.  

In a few steps it’s fallen off me and I’m at a full sprint again. I can’t breathe but I’m not tired, I run on pure terror.

I cut through the dense neighborhood on the South shore of the river, cutting left and right until I get to the square. I burst out of a side street, straining to see to the West.

“No, no NO” I hear myself say as I see which building is burning. The surrounding buildings are caught too. It’s all on fire. I’m running straight at it. The heat knocks me off my feet and I sit on the stones in the middle of the street as the upper floor collapses down into the first. I struggle to my feet, hands shaking. Tears stream down my face. I can’t breathe. I’m trying to inhale and I can’t.

I feel hot, inside. My hands and feet are tingling. I feel like I’m on fire. I don’t notice the heat of the blaze anymore. I finally gather a deep breath. I scream.

I feel a hand on my shoulder, turning me around. I look into the faces of four armored men. They wear red sashes with the symbol of a red cross in a red circle.

“WHY?!” I spit on them as I say it. They reach for their belts. Maces or clubs or some other slow heavy thing hanging there. The scimitar is in my hand and sweeping across my body before they even raise their weapons. I take off the hand of the nearest soldier, his scream drowned out by my own. I dance through their clumsy attempts to strike me. Two more hit the street dead as I cut the shoulder tendons on the last.

Laying on his back in the street clutching his limp arm, I hold my blade an inch from his face as fire courses down the hilt to its tip. “Where is your Lord?!” I struggle to say to him, my voice wavering.  “Opera house” he spits through clenched teeth and a look of terror.

I am running harder than I ever have in my life, straight down the middle of the street.  People I pass are yelling at me. Some try to follow but they can’t keep up. Every part of me feels like it’s on fire but I feel energized. 

I see more soldiers ahead in Aria Park, in front of a huge grey building on my right. Four men on the street and two more at the doors. 

Through clenched teeth, I whisper “Celeb Yavie Cuar” and my scimitar changes into a longbow. Silver arrows with shining silver tips conjure directly into my hands as I draw, each one bursting into flame as I fire. Six shots, six hits. Two guards fall dead, the others retreat around the side of the building with their wounds.

“Celeb Yavie Salka” and the bow changes back into a scimitar and then splits into two blades. I kick the front doors open and charge into the foyer. Two more guards are dead before they hit the floor. I enter the main hall, race down through the cheap seats yelling “THRUNE, FACE ME!”

Four guards appear at the balcony 20’ above me with crossbows pointing down. 

“Celeb Yavie Lindur” as my swords become a violin and bow, I begin to play and the archers freeze just as they take aim. “Celeb Yavie Cuar.” They stare at me in horror as the violin changes back into a bow and I put a burning silver arrow through each throat. They fall into the orchestra pit with a terrifying crash one by one. 

Running boots and armor turn me around in time to see a huge woman coming at me from the side hall. Black hair, clothes, and armor, but solid white eyes.  She leads with a huge polearm and has a running start. “Celeb Yavie Salka.” Bow returns to sword form and sparks fly as her blade scrapes mine in passing. 

The strength of her blows is jarring, I cannot block them so I deflect and dance around them. There is a foul white fire smoldering in her eyes and a savagery to her movements that suggests she is more than she appears. Again and again she brings her weapon around in long sweeping strokes and thrusts that destroy the seats around us as if they were paper.

I am on my heels. I fake a stumble after her last swing and she lunges hard at the false opening.  She quickly regains her footing and turns with another killing stroke but my hand holds the back of her neck and my sword has passed through her heart before she can bring her huge weapon around.

I tear the scimitar free of her as she growls and stares at me from the ground, somehow still alive. I feel the spell hit me before I see a bald man in grey plate standing on the balcony above me with his outstretched hand. A thousand invisible bricks build a wall around me. I cannot move, I still can’t fucking breathe.

I hear wings. The flapping of small leathery wings behind me. Something sharp stabs me in the leg, then the hip, then the neck. The heat drains out of me and numbing cold seeps in. I feel frozen and heavy. The only part of me that still moves is my heartbeat. It slows, and stops.