Adventures in Oerth- The Bane of Vecna: Book One, Chapter Four, Yecha

The Bane of Vecna, those present in this chapter:

Aurora Isilime, the Valley Elf Bard, "The Silver Tongued Siren," who has more instruments than she can carry

Pharin, the Drow Wizard, "The Dark Conjurer," and summoner of demon bunnies

Skye, the Air Genasi Druid and saver of demon bunnies

Dervish, the Kasathe Fighter

Nanu, the NightmOrc Fighter who is late, slayer of innocent bystanders

Lan El'Mandragoran, the Human Paladin

Jayce, the Human Barbarian

Aeryn and Aerys Shayl, the Human Ranger twins

Upon seeing Yecha in flames, our heroes asked their driver to move faster, and since the carriage is magical, they arrived at the gates of Yecha quickly. The gates were smashed in and the terrified screams from the villagers, along with the sounds of battle, reached the Bane's ears. They asked the driver to bring them straight to the center of town, where the fire appeared to have begun. Pharin had Nanu make him a large circle and fill it with water so he could summon water elementals to quench the fire; Aurora stayed near Pharin to keep him inspired while he did this. Skye attempted to contain the fire using her air abilities, with mixed results, while Dervish used his magic water jug to help get the fire out. The group quickly realized that the fire wasn't normal, it was a magical fire, making it more difficult for them to quench. They also noticed that the doors to the houses and buildings they could see were blocked off, trapping the occupants inside.

After Pharin summoned his first elemental, who he offered it the same deal he had given the fire elemental- that if it put out the fires it would be set free, the fire was quenched enough for Nanu to charge into the building. Nanu burst into the flaming building, and using her decanter of endless water, she sprayed the flames that were scattered in the room... She also killed five people who had been trapped in the room. Pharin ended up summoning a total of seven water elementals to help get the fires out, and they eventually began a downpour, putting an end to many of the fires quickly. By this point Pharin had also opened a small hole into the Plane of Water.

*****
Aurora

I had been playing my bagpipes during the fire fighting to keep the group inspired, while staying inside the Circle Pharin had laid down. When he finished summoning his elementals he asked me if I "wanted to play with the big boys." I was intrigued, so I gave him a nod that I wanted to hear more. Pharin told me to send my Siren Song through the tear into the Plane of Water to call forth what he hoped would be a bigger elemental. I decided to give it a try, and altered my tune to something more fitting for calling water. I played my heart out, giving the song as much power as I could, and after a few seconds we saw results. A large tentacle began snaking out of the tear... I hadn't intended to call anything with tentacles, but I decided to work with what I got, adding more charm to the song; but the creature I had summoner was too strong willed for me.

I had accidentally summoned an enormous kraken, who was trying to rip its way into our world. Yes, I summoned a kraken with bagpipes... How many bards can say that? The beast began attacking us, and at that moment a giant dwarf looking fire guy appeared outside the circle; the rest of my friends had to deal with that, I had a kraken to banish. I tried a couple more times to exert control over the monster I had called, but it responded by whipping me out of the Circle. Somehow I managed to keep my song going even while flying thirty feet through the air. During my battle of wills with the kraken, a group of cultists showed up, adding more to the fight my comrades were engaged in. Lan, Aeryn, and Aerys appeared at about the same time that the cultists did; apparently the Head of Vecna was somewhere in this... city... calling it a city is generous, but as far as size goes, it fits.

With the appearance of those three the cultists were taken out quickly, but Lan was banished to another plane, with one of the cultists. We still had to get rid of the bloody kraken. Pharin tossed me an enchanted dagger, and told me to ask the kraken its name; if he got its name he could put it in a phylactery. The kraken was stubborn though, and refused to give me its name; it also threw me again, this time by flooding the area. The tear was growing, but we couldn't let it finish ripping its way through. Pharin managed to bring Lan and the guy who had banished himself with Lan back, and Lan simply yelled at us to run and took off.

While Pharin and I worked to rid ourselves of the kraken, by trying to get its name, and by simply telling it to leave, it took hold of Skye. Everyone except Pharin and I ran to her rescue, trying to sever the tentacle; if they could summon the tentacle Pharin could close the tear and seal the beast back in its realm. Try as we might, I was unable to get its name or make it leave, and Pharin was unable to put it in his phylactery. Finally our friends managed to sever the tentacle, and we were able to slam the door it was using shut.

*****

The villagers thought that the Bane was to blame for their town being set on fire; who could blame them, all they saw was the Bane summoning elementals and krakens, flooding their town and hurting their crops. They surrounded the Bane and began making accusations, which could have been calmed but the group did not let the Silver Tongued Siren deal with the crowd, and every attempt they made to soothe them only made things worse. Dervish produced an item that allowed him to send everyone except Lan, who had left while everyone was battling the kraken, to a paradise. They agreed to spend the night there, to let things blow over a little with the villagers. It was in this paradise that Aeryn and Aerys told the group that the Head had appeared in Yecha after the pieces had been scattered.

Eight hours later the group emerged from Dervish's paradise feeling refreshed. They found themselves surrounded by villagers who had been up all night cleaning up the mess of bodies and kraken pieces that the Bane had left. Needless to say, the villagers were not happy to see the Bane. They tried to talked to them, but they wouldn't listen, not even to Aurora; but that was kind of her doing, since she was using the bagpipes to help give her friends inspiration to make this easier. Their carriage was also nowhere to be seen, and they had left it near the battle. Pharin summoned thirty-two bunnies to offer the villagers as breakfast, but that made matters worse, since the bunnies would destroy what crops hadn't been destroyed by the flooding the tear had done. Pharin's solution was to give all of the bunnies heart attacks, which angered Skye; they still didn't want the bunnies, so Pharin sent them away, much to Aurora's relief.

For a moment it seemed that the villagers would attack the Bane, but the group explained exactly why they were in Yecha. The townspeople presented the Bane with a chest, containing both the Head of Vecna, and the vampire skull they had gone there to obtain. The Bane gathered their belongings and found their carriage waiting outside of the gates. Pharin performed the ritual with the vampire skull, fang, and lich blood to find out which direction they needed to go next. The fang pointed south, so they set their carriage in that direction and entered the Yecha Hills.

They spent eight days traveling through the Yecha Hills and the Udgru Forest that lies south of the Hills. The cultists came after the Bane on three different occasions, and the Bane made quick work of them. Much to Aurora and Skye's vexation, each time Pharin summoned another batch of bunnies to hurtle at the cultists; Aurora's fear of the bunnies kept growing. They finally emerged from the forest and decided to head to Ekbir.