Adventures in Oerth- The Bane of Vecna: Book One, Chapter Ten, Kester Part 1

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;" summoner of demon bunnies, and Andolin's twin

Skye Vindhalle, the Air Genasi Druid and saver of demon bunnies

Dervish, the Kasathe Fighter

Nanu, the NightmOrc Fighter who is late, slayer of innocent bystanders
Pimbin, the Halfling Shadow Monk of Nerull

Lan El'Mandragoran, the Human Paladin

Ralliakkan, the Drow Rogue
Andolin, the Half Brass Dragon, Half Drow Fighter/Ranger, and Pharin's twin

Pieces of Vecna acquired: Head, Hand, Eye, and Arm

Other components being kept out of the cult's hands: Book of Vile Darkness, Fang of Kas, and the sword hilt

***** Day 1 in Kester

       When the group awoke the next morning, they had a foul, bad feeling, similar to what they felt when they encountered the Book of Vile Darkness. While they were puzzling over what this could mean, since Lothar should have been in isolation with the book, Lan walked into their room. The paladin had a slim book in his hand, and the foul feeling was emanating from that. It turned out that Lothar had ripped two pages out of the Book and given them to Lan to bring to the group; pages can be ripped out of the book, and they just regenerate the next day. The first page had a list of what pieces of Vecna there are, and exactly what spell components the cult needed to bring the lich back. 

       While the group was discussing the pieces, Pharin announced he planned to dip the pieces they currently had- the Head and the Hand- in lead and make them mithrilmantine boxes to help conceal them from both cults. He told the group he needed to stay in Kester at least until the festival ended to have time to make the boxes; which worked perfectly since there was a series of five gladiatorial fights, and the grand prize was a component the cult needed to revive the lich: the Talisman of Ultimate Evil. The party decided to find out what the fights entailed and join as many of the preliminaries as they could. As they were discussing the fights, Ralliakkan joined the group, and provided Aurora with the diamonds needed to use her Raise Dead spell, so she could revive any of the party who fell in the contests. 

       After the group was done discussing the fights, Ralliakkan and Lan told the group that both the Arm and the Eye were currently in Kester. Lan took Skye and Dervish with him to go after the arm, and Aurora joined Ralliakkan to go after the Eye. Andolin, Pharin, Nanu, and Pimbin decided to go shopping in the Underdark bizarre. 

***** Aurora and Ralliakkan

       After following Ralliakkan for about two hours, making so many twists and turns down the streets of Kester that I lost track of where we were, we walked up to the cheapest brothel I've ever seen. Ralliakkan was able to walk straight past the pair of orcs guarding the doors, but they decided to hassle me instead... I hate orcs. I attempted to convince them to let me in, I was not paying 5,000 gold to go into a brothel THAT cheap. I also didn't have that much gold, but that's beside the point. Eventually I was able to charm one of them into knocking the other one out and let me in for free.

       By the time I had made it past the stupid orcs, Ralliakkan was nowhere to be seen. I described her to people and was pointed towards a room, that had a black haired female drow in it, but not the one I was looking for. It turned out Ralliakkan was in the next room over... When I came in the room behind her, I saw a very young looking male drow tied to a chair in the middle of a circle, surrounded by wards. She asked me if I wanted to remove the Eye, or extract information from the boy; I chose the latter, it had been a while since I had been able to use those talents. 

       Thanks to the stupid Eye, I was unable to charm the damned drow, leaving me with only one option: torture. I've been well trained in torture, as a bard you never know what kind of skills you'll need, so the college I attended in the Vale teaches you a bit of everything. The only thing I was able to get out of the lad was that the Eye wasn't working, thanks to the circle Ralliakkan had put him in. I did some of my best work, but I could not get anything from the boy. Once Ralliakkan returned, that was it for the boy, she scooped the Eye out, and it ate his soul. 

       There were two vampires waiting outside the room for us when we emerged, these ones in red cloaks instead of the usual red lacquered armor they usually wear. Ralliakkan threw an item that contained a Daylight spell at them, and I grabbed her, using Dimension Door to get us outside. We took off toward the inn, running as quickly as we could. 

       We had been running for two hours, and were almost back to the inn, when they caught up to us- again in the cloaks. In a single fluid movement, moving with the speed and grace of a dancer, Ralliakkan sliced both of the vampires to small pieces, then continued running toward the inn. That is the first time I've ever been attracted to a drow. When we got back to the room, she said she was going to go contain the Eye, and used some sort of magic portal.

***** Lan, Skye, and Dervish

       Lan had arranged to purchase the Arm from someone in town, so when he arrived with Skye and Dervish, they were presented with a large, ornate box. Once Lan confirmed that the Arm was in the box, he payed them a small fortune for it. The seller had planned to betray Lan though, so as soon as his payment was taken the seller's guards all drew crossbows and trained them on Lan. Skye and Dervish instantly prepared for a fight, but Lan is as good at convincing people to do things as Aurora; the seller had his guards drop their bows. The seller's agents attempted to tail the group, but they managed to evade them. Skye went back to the inn with the Arm, while Lan and Dervish went shopping.

***** Pharin, Andolin, Nanu, and Pimbin

       Kester, being a city of scoundrels, is full of pickpockets, most of which are pretty good at what they do. Others, are simply stupid and attempt to rob a nightmorc. This time they did not drop him down a sewer grate, but instead he tripped over an instrument cart. Pharin had Dancing Lights swarm him, and make the fool run in terror. The rest of their shopping trip was relatively uneventful, no other thieves were daft enough to try to rob Nanu.

*****

       The group found out the details of the fights taking place over the next four nights, there was a bare knuckle fight that night, a ranged fight the next night, followed by a magic fight, and finally a subterfuge fight. The winners of each of these, and the fight from the night before, which had been a warrior knight-type fight, would face each other in a final combat to win the talisman. After much deliberation they decided that Andolin would join the bare knuckle fight, Dervish would enter the ranged, Pharin the magic, and Pimbin the subterfuge. They considered having multiple people in each fight to increase their chances, but decided it could end up being detrimental to them, since it would ensure at least one teammate would die. 

       Andolin easily sliced through his opponents that night and was declared the winner of the bare knuckled fight, his prize was a portable fortress.

***** Day two in Kester

       The majority of the group went shopping that day for supplies to aid them in the fights, with the exception of Skye and Aurora. Skye had been told by city officials that if she wanted to help the city, she should take care of the rat problem. Since she knew that Aurora had a Flute of Rodent Control, she recruited her to assist, and the two spent that day planning how to exterminate that many rats. Skye eventually decided that they should buy a Bag of Devouring, and charm the rats into that; after much searching the two found one, and since they wanted to watch Dervish's fight, they decided to start this project in the morning.

       Dervish found the ranged fights to be challenging, but he managed to slice through each of them in the end. He seemed to barely win the last one, peppering his opponent with arrows, leaving her a pincushion in the end. His prize was a Mantle of Displacement.

***** Day three in Kester

       With the exception of Aurora and Skye, everyone went shopping again the next day. The bard and the druid set to work exterminating rats, and Aurora charmed them so well that they were literally dancing in the streets. By the time they went to meet the group for Pharin's fight, they had killed over 108,000 rats.

       Pharin attempted to disguise himself as a crazy, elderly wizard for his fight, but with wizards age usually brings about power, so his ploy made him the fan favorite. Fortunately he realized his mistake in time, and revealed himself for his true age; he attempted, and succeeded, to convince the crowd he was fairly feeble minded, beating his first opponent to death with a broom, and dropping Andolin's portable fortress on top of the other one... Pharin won a mantle of spell resistance for his efforts.

***** Day four in Kester

       Again everyone went shopping except Aurora and Skye that day. The pair spent their day charming rats again, this time only killing 22,000. When they went to the officials for payment, they did not believe that the two had actually killed all those rats. Apparently Skye had only decided to do this to help people, not for money. I wasted two days I could have been getting drunk on helping her kill stupid rats for no reason other than that she's nice.

       By the time Pimbin had to be at the arena for the subterfuge fight, his opponent had killed every other contestant in the match. The odds were favoring him too much, so Aurora convinced the crowd that his opponent was actually Ralliakkan, swinging the odds to a more profitable angle for the group. His fight was the most grueling of them all, and he only won because Pharin invoked Haasenpfeffer. While Haas did not actually show up, because he was still frolicking with Jayce's soul, Pimbin was raised and given the opportunity to backstab and finish off his opponent. The halfling won a figurine of wondrous power, the one shaped like a horse, that gives its user a nightmare steed.

       The group had prevailed over all who stood before them, Pharin, Andolin, Dervish, and Pimbin were to face a mysterious opponent known as "The Barbarian" the next day. Everyone assumed it was Jarrid, since Lan had said the cult had a champion in the fights, and they had not seen any other contestants that seemed linked to the cult.

Adventures in Oerth- The Bane of Vecna: Book One, Chapter Nine, the Road to Kester Part 2

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 Half Brass Dragon, Half Drow Wizard; "The Dark Conjurer;" summoner of demon bunnies, and Andolin's twin

Skye Vindhalle, the Air Genasi Druid and saver of demon bunnies

Dervish, the Kasathe Fighter

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

Pimbin, the Halfling Shadow Monk

Lan El'Mandragoran, the Human Paladin

Andolin, the Half Brass Dragon, Half Drow Fighter/Ranger, and Pharin's twin

Pieces of Vecna acquired: Head and Hand

Other components being kept from cult: Book of Vile Darkness, Fang of Kas, sword hilt

***** Day 8 to Kester

       Our heroes spied the drow priestess of Vecna and the gray dwarf-looking fire guy (duergar) from Yecha surrounded by the ruins of a little farm town. The priestess was standing over someone, looking like she was questioning or threatening- probably both- the individual. There were bodies strewn everywhere, giving the appearance that a large battle had taken place before the group arrived. The dwarf was busying himself destroying a house while the priestess interrogated her prisoner. 

       Pharin used dust of disappearance to make the group invisible, while Dervish and Nanu surrounded the priestess and dwarf in silence arrows so Aurora could start her bagpipes without alerting them. As the party advanced on the pair, the dwarf noticed the silence that surrounded him and broke one of the spells quickly; he then hurried over to the priestess. Once they had finished removing the silence spells, they began trying to strip away the group's buffs and defenses. When their first spell went off, Nanu was suddenly visible, and just a few feet from them. Pharin summoned a pair of "wolf bunnies" and a pair of cave crickets- their chirp is so loud that it engulfs any sounds made near them, rendering spells that require speech useless. One of the bunnies exploded the moment it got near the priestess, likely because of something she did. The group peppered the pair with arrows while Nanu began a melee assault; Andolin appeared behind the pair, stabbing the priestess in the back. 

       Apparently the pair decided they did not want to fight the group this day, they vanished into thin air. The figure they had seen the priestess standing over was still alive, and turned out to be another cultist of Kas. It was decided that they needed to send him somewhere that was better equipped to interrogate the vampire; Pharin sent a message to Lan, who appeared a couple hours later- looking like he had just come from the ruins of Greyhawk; Lan took the prisoner away quickly. During the wait I noticed that the vampire never took his eyes off my drum, he could somehow tell that the Hand was inside it. 

       There was one mostly intact house left, and the group stayed there for the night.

***** Days 9 and 10 to Kester

       We did not get attacked at all this day, but we did meet a very expensive merchant who was also heading to Kester; after much discussion we decided to travel with him.

       The next day was also peaceful, and we gratefully enjoyed the break we were being given by the cults.

***** Day 11 to Kester

       Our heroes were not attacked on this day either, though they did see fighting in the distance. Bodies were flying, and the group couldn't see what exactly was fighting what. Skye decided to scout the battlefield, and discovered it was two thri-kreen hunting parties, but she couldn't tell what exactly the thri-kreen were fighting. After much discussion, the group decided it wasn't their business and stayed away from the fray. 

***** Day 12 to Kester

       That morning the group was awoken by the terrified whinnies of the horses that pulled the merchant's wagon. One of the horses was being shredded to pieces by some unseen force, which made the group decide to investigate from the safety of their Huts. What they saw was worse than they imagined... it was Pharin's demon bunnies. They had finally caught up to the monsters, and now had to face their creation. 

       Pharin set to work making a circle to entrap the monsters, he thought that since they were once his it might work. I used my flute of rodent control in hopes that I could charm the monsters into leaving, to no avail. This brought their attention to us, terrifying those of us who looked at them into paralysis- except for Dervish, who was so scared of them that he ran away. Pharin managed to call one of the bunnies to his circle, while the other two continued to glare at the party and devour the horse. 

       Dervish recovered from his fear and turned back to face the demons, he completely shredded one of them- but it didn't go down. Pharin put that bunny in his bag of devouring to finish it off, and managed to lure the other two into the bag as well. This ensured that the beasts would die and never return. 

       Later that day, as the group was beginning to look for a good place to camp for the night, they spotted more of Vecna's cultists heading their way. It looked like they were looking for the group, but couldn't ascertain their exact location- until they actually saw them. Pharin had made an attempt to contain the Hand, and it was somewhat working. The party made quick work of the clerics, but the fighters gave them a bit more trouble- of course the group was able to take them out without much injury. 

***** Day 13 to Kester

       We were granted another day of peace from the cults. We did spot a thri-kreen hunting party in the distance, but we decided to just sneak around them; thri-kreen can be difficult to fight, and they don't have gear that's really worth the effort it takes to kill them. 

       That night as we were setting up camp, we heard the crackle of an explosion, and saw a streak of flame in the distance. It appeared to be about sixty miles from where we were, so we didn't worry much about it.

***** Day 14 to Kester
  
       Around midday the group saw both cults battling each other in the distance. Andolin had developed a hatred for undead and demanded that the group go kill them- after much deliberation the group decided to let the cults kill each other first, then they would sneak up and kill whoever was left standing. In the end there were only three of Vecna's cultists left standing, and Andolin decided to teleport to the battlefield to finish them off. Taking them by surprise, he killed all three in a single stroke. 

       When they were about thirty miles outside of Kester, they came upon a Brewfest celebration. The majority of the group joined in the festivities that night.

***** Day 15 to Kester/Night 1 in Kester

       When the group began making their way to the gates of Kester, still with the merchant, they saw a group of the vampires arguing with guards- the guards were paid not to allow them entrance to the city. While our party passed the cultists, they all had their eyes on my drum- apparently all of this bloody cult can sense where I'm keeping the Hand.

       Once they were inside the gates of Kester, they parted ways with the merchant and began to head toward an inn. Along the way, an idiotic 15 year-old human male attempted to cut Nanu's pouch from her belt. We think he thought himself invisible. Nanu grabbed the boy by the throat and lifted him with ease off the ground. Pharin patted the lad down and found a small dagger in his possession, which he proceeded to throw down the sewer grate that was near them. This dagger hit a poor drow male who happened to be walking under the grate at that moment. The wound wasn't fatal, it only hit him in the shoulder, but it hurt like hell. Pharin then lifted the sewer grate, and Nanu dropped the human down it... and he landed on top of that poor drow, killing both of them instantly. 

       When they reached the inn Andolin had pointed them toward, Pharin went inside to get them a room, while Andolin wandered off, and everyone else waited outside. Apparently one of the vampires had been tailing the party, and Andolin captured him as their prisoner. Once inside their suite the group began torturing their prisoner. 

       Pharin remembered the ritual that would allow him to find other pieces, and took some of the vampire's blood for it. Unfortunately, the Hand was in their custody, so it pointed at Aurora. 

      During the interrogation of their prisoner, Lan showed up with the vampire he had been given days before. The paladin joined in the torture, and Andolin produced a sun stone of Pelor that Lan had given him. After much of nothing, Lan used a spell that forces undead to speak the truth, though the group didn't learn much from it. They were told that the cult had many of Vecna's pieces, but they could not get an exact number or which ones they had.

       Eventually, when it became clear that they would get nothing more useful from the vampires, Pharin summoned brain slugs, something drow priestesses use to extract information. Andolin used one of them, at great pain to himself, and demanded to learn everything it knew; during this memory transfer, its head caved in. When Andolin finally came back to himself, he told the group that there was a huge gathering of the vampires in the Vale. They could only mean my Vale, since it's the closest one to Kester- now things were personal, they had invaded my home.

This shows the path the group traveled in this chapter.