Tanevir's Request, Part 1

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About the Saga

Timeframe

Cast of Characters

Most of the Blackrazor Guild's leadership was lost in the Battle of Blue, leaving Tanevir Calywyn as the sole remaining power-member. Now the elven ranger-mage has a nagging suspicion that something isn't quite right at the Blackrazor Brewery in Brewerton he secretly sends a team of loyal new recruits to find out what.

This story features the origin of the cavalier Demetry Hawkins, and the introduction of Gnarth Binderstone into the regular campaign.

Notable Quotes

  • None.

What Has Come Before

The Blackrazors, returning from the Battle of the Blue with their dead, were intercepted outside of the city by their allies, Justiceseeker and Jander Drachen. The two Obsidian Bay leaders snuck them back into the city, avoiding the guards and keeping knowledge of their return secret from the rest of the city.

They then re-introduced them to the doppelganger Su-Quan and gave them a mission: awaken a sleeping demi-god trapped in a strange shrine in the Drachensgrabs. The Blackrazors agreed and left on their mission, arriving at the shrine a week and a half later. Once there, each member of the party touched a petrified wooden pillar as Su-quan spoke the words of what they thought was a summoning spell.

In reality, it was a trap. Touching the pillars triggered a magical attack that instantly ensnared them. As their minds faded into darkness, they heard Su-quan’s sinister laughter, and knew they had been betrayed.

The Saga

Good-month 2, CY 587

Tanevir’s Request

In the Free City reports of the great battle outside of Blue have slowly trickled in, and little of it has been good. The leaders of the Blackrazor Guild – Aaron Windstalker, Falgar, Luc, Killian, Kannett, Greggor and Ragnar Blackmane – are were all missing and presumed dead.

Back at the Blackrazor Guild, things were not going well for the forces who had been loyal the fallen leaders. The forces of the guild’s current master, Damaculas Everton, were in ascendance. This worried senior guild member Tanevir, who had good reason to question the man’s intentions. Over the last few months he had repeatedly sent his opponents on dangerous missions while saving the plum assignments for his own men. Then he sent the guild’s senior members to guard a shipment of goods in the wharf district while sending junior members on a near-suicide assignment against superior forces in the country.

With this in mind, Tanevir feared that Damaculas was setting the guild up for a fall, purposely leaving too few forces in the field to protect the guild’s properties there.

On the 2nd of Goodmonth, he wrote several notes and gave them to the few guild members he could still trust: Aesop the mage, who had joined the Blackrazors in Greyhawk, the Keolandish cavalier Demetry Hawkins, who had joined the guild as part of his quest to recover his family’s old holdings in the Poor March and Gnarth Binderstone, a young gnomish illusionist/warrior who had signed up after leading the Blackrazors to Blue as a scout.

He asked each of them to meet with him in a quiet place outside of the Guild. There he explained the guild’s situation as he saw it, and asked for their help. They needed to sneak out of the city and head north to the guild’s farmstead a day’s ride from the city. He suggested they find a sea captain named Sijin, who could smuggle them out of the city.

To find a captain

An hour later they finally caught up with Sijin, who nearly spit out his beer when they began talking loudly of needing passage out of the city. "Quickly you fools, outside!" he hissed. Once in the street, he demanded to know who had sent them. When they said Tanevir he scratched his faux beard and smiled. "Yeah, I do owe ol’Tanevir a favor. After this he’ll owe me one." He smiled. "You’ve got a deal."

Loading the Boat

"Come on you stupid pony get on the boat!" Gnarth shouted. "Ya think you can stay on land for ever? Come on, I’m going onto the boat!" he moaned. Demetry tried to help, but the pony refused to listen. The gnome took out his sword and started beating its ass end with the flat of his sword trying to get the thing on the boat.

"That’s no way to treat a good animal," Demetry said.

"He’s not a good animal." Gnarth growled.

Hours later, after Demetry had finally convinced Gnarth’s pony to board the boat, the Blackrazors found themselves a hundred yards of the shore of an unnamed Pomarjian beach. Since only Aesop knew how to swim, they decided to jury-rig a way in: they inflated a dozen wine skins.

They took the wine skins, urged their mounts into the water and jumped into the ocean after them. They worked their way up onto the beach and began talking about setting up watches and resting.

"My horse and I have traveled together for a long time, he can watch," Demetry said.

"I’d rather rely on people than, well, you know, a horse," Gnarth said. "You know what they say about horses and ponies don’t you," the gnome said. "They’re stupid!"

Demetry gave him a shocked look. Then shook his head and didn’t argue.

Gnarth ended up taking first watch, with Demetry taking second and Aysop taking third.

3rd of Goodmonth, CY 587

Heading North

Late morning the next day – the 3rd of Goodmonth -- the Blackrazors came across a ragged band of humans heading in the direction of Obsidian Bay.

"I want to talk to these people," Demetry said.

"They may have news."

"They may have news? They may kill you!" Aesop said.

Demetry scoffed at the notion and continued along.

Gnarth tried to talk Demetry out of it with harsh whispers. "My friend, all free swordsmen are supposed to be fighting with the army. They’re going to impress us into service!"

Demetry scoffed again and kept heading north. A small group of soliders from the army intercepted them. After a brief conversation Demetry learned that the Battle of Blue had stopped the humanoid forces heading toward that city, but that the force had sustained heavy losses. Demetry paid his respects and the Blackrazors continued north.

Bugbears!

Coming up on an enemy encampment, Demetry raised and lowered his lance in a formal salute and then shouted "Wake up you monsters!"

One of the monster shouted "Gar bras desra!"

"Gar bras desra!" Gnarth shouted back gleefully, with no idea what he said.

Demetry charged forward with Aesop on the back of his horse and Gnarth riding after him on his pony. At 100 yards out Aesop gets off the horse. As Demetry charged in Aesop followed while Gnarth casted a spell, blurring himself. Demetry’s first attack proved fatal to his opponent – a foul bugbear. The creature managed a nasty counter attack as it fell to the ground and Demetry’s horse tore through their ranks.

Their forces fired an ineffective volley of crossbow bolts at Demetry. Two bugbears attempted to smite Gnarth, but he laughed and easily ducked their blows. Aesop sent a shrieking ball of fire into the midst of the humanoids and managed to kill one of them as it exploded. Demetry killed a second bugbear on his second pass, but was dismounted on his third pass. He called for his horse as – with an expression of absolute outrage on his face – he fell to the ground. He ducked blows from the bugbears and muttered an old bit of wisdom: "Dad always said to attack the ends! The ends!

Gnarth attempted to spook an opponent with a spell but the bugbear stubbornly refused to run screaming for the hills. His opponents tried to hit him but failed. Meanwhile, Aesop sent lightning crackling through his opponents, slaying two of them. He followed up with a magic missile which killed another one.

Dismounted, Demetry screamed "Come on you evil heathens!" and charged into combat on foot. He dropped another bugbear with an expert blow, but the creature got out a nasty strike of its own as it broke through Demetry’s defenses. Fortunately its attack amounted to little more than a scratch.

Across the battle field, Gnarth yelled insults at his opponents as he dropped both of them with wicked slashes of his sword. He jumped onto the body of one and gleefully shouted "That will teach you to mess with the little people." A few seconds later he shouted to Demetry "Do you need help?"

"No, go help the mage" he grunted and then killed another opponent.

Meanwhile Aesop found himself face to face with the leader of the bugbear band. He spread his hands and sent a barrage of magic missiles slamming into the leader. The leader fell to his knees.

Behind him, Gnarth ran toward one of the bugbears heading toward Aesop. His first strike was a feeble miss, but his two follow-through attacks connected. The creature fell.

Demetry, hurting but still competent, killed the last standing bugbear. He took a deep breath.

Reflections on the Fight

"You’re a good fighter you took out the biggest man," Demetry told Aesop later on. "I am ashamed of myself for not killing him."

Aesop comfortated him with a reassuring pat on the shoulder. "It’s ok ... you didn’t know he was there." Demetry just shook his head and went about cleaning up his armor. As he did that Aesop and Gnarth collected the bugbears’ treasure, which included quite a haul of platinum and gold. They also found a good-quality halberd, which Demetry took into his possession.

The Ruined Farmstead

Later that day they found a ruined farmstead. Gnarth used his ring to turn invisible and investigated. He found some unsavory types poking around the devastated farm. He headed back to his friends and told them about it. After a brief argument, Aesop reluctantly agreed to head in with Demetry while Gnarth remained invisible.

The leader of the group told Demetry that they’d found about a half-dozen burned out barns that left little extra for "good folk like us" to pick through. "There’s a battle coming we can tell," the gruff, thin-looking leader told Demetry. After Aesop gave the three people food, the Blackrazors bid them farewell and headed on toward their own homestead.

The Blackrazor Farm

Later that day, they arrived at the Blackrazor Guild Farm, guarded by a handful of redshirts. They were surprised to see Demetry and his friends there and asked how they got out of the city. "Well we do have SOME friends in the city," Gnarth said. They then learned that although humanoids had been about, none of them had threatened the farmstead. They eat and retired to bead only to be awakened by the arrival of Tanevir. The elf poured himself a glass of wine, motioned to his tired friends to sit down, and then asked them to tell him of their journey to the homestead.

Experience & Loot

  • No experience and/or loot is available for this saga.
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