DM/
Eleint?30:?Day?8
Location:?the road to Ordulin
Time:?Dawn
After a night of education, music, food, and conversation, the group sleeps deeply without nightmares and wakes shortly before dawn, quickly packs and says their goodbyes, and departs with plenty of bread and cold duck in their packs.
Moods are high spirited after the wonderful night of rest. You're nearly a league into your travel before the first rays of sunlight crest the pines. Ashley wipes the moss from a weather worn milestone and sees Ordulin is 4 leagues on. At this pace, the Bard reckons they can reach the city by midday, even with frequent rests for the Gnome¡¯s short legs. Mooncrawler frequently moves ahead a hundred paces to scout for bandits or other potential threats, often encouraging Tabby to assist.
Most of the morning passes without incident. Frequent breaks for resting legs and eating snacks makes the journey somewhat pleasant. The day starts clear and warms nicely. Then, roughly a half league from your destination, Tabby smells smoke- not cooking fire smoke. Battlefield smoke. The acrid burning of lightning and magic. And a strange foul scent she doesn¡¯t recognize. But when she sees the look on Mooncrawler¡¯s face, the young Tabaxi feels her stomach churn.
The party progresses much more slowly and cautiously now. High noon comes and goes as your travel becomes defensive, protected, and vigilant. The stench of burning grows stronger and now and then a fine layer of fallen ash can be seen on sporadic leaves.
Finally, around mid-afternoon, the road bends to reveal the outskirts of Ordulin. The city is under siege! Outlying farms are either ablaze or smoldering ruins. Explosions pop within the city, and many shouts can be heard even at this distance.
The foul aroma that Tabby couldn¡¯t identify is quite prevalent now. Mooncrawler says a single word,¡°Brimstone¡±.
The Bard looks at each of you, sheer terror in his gaze. ¡°It¡¯s true, then. It can¡¯t be, but it must.¡±
He goes on to explain the recent history of Ordulin. On Nightal 1?, a??priestess named Elyril Hraven summoned a planar rift into the?, and a nexus from that plane, called the Adumbral Calyx, poured out of the rift, completely annihilating the city.??then emerged from the nexus and proceeded to animate the dead, incorporating the resulting monsters into his army. All that was left of the city was a dangerous whirlpool of uncontrollable?. The goddess??had ordered this be done so she could destroy??but the god??had delayed her by trapping her within the 'Ordulin Maelstrom'. She raged against the prison that was the Maelstrom, slowly opening a hole into the void that would eventually destroy the planet, but?, channeling the power of??and?; and?, wielding the divinity of Mask, closed the hole at the centre of the Maelstrom. Then, the floating Netherese city of??was deliberately crashed into Ordulin by??in order to destroy the Maelstrom itself.
¡°It is believed by some that Shar was destroyed, but most think she is still only imprisoned somewhere within the void,¡± he explains. ¡°The tales warn of Kesson Rel returning to Ordulin one day to release her, but he¡¯s supposed to be trapped in the Plane of Shadows and only Shar can free him. A catch-22 scenario if you will, keeping them both trapped forever.¡±
He wipes his face. ¡°But it seems someone has decided to try to free Shar. And not only did they bring an army, the cursed fool managed to summon a demon!¡±
And what do you do?
/DM
OOC- I'll leave it there for a moment. Feel free to ask the Bard questions, if you have any.
