Today is Halloween and that means….absolutely nothing in the grand scheme as far as the Plunderbund Consortium. On the other hand, this is my favorite holiday so today, I give you my last spooky themed music video for awhile. This is from my favorite horror film of all time, Nightmare on Elm Street 3. If you’ve ever heard of this band, then you know the song. Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you…..Dokken. Thank you for checking us out.
In case you missed any of the past blogs/chapters, just go to 9Deuce and look through the archives and start from the beginning to get the full experience.
Tales from the Plunderbund Consortium
Dark Sun Campaign – Chapter 9
The day was finally here, Coraanu was to meet with Balic’s Sorcerer King, Andropinis, at his castle in the Magaleon. Believing this to be his chance to scope out High Defiler Vaerhirmana, Coraanu convinced Illana to come with him well ahead of the meeting so that they could scope out the magic school where the defiler taught prior to his meeting.
Upon reaching the entrance to the Magaleon, Coraanu and Illana were immediately shuffled in. Coraanu was told showing up extra early was a particularly good idea. After entering the Magaleon, the pair identified the magic school and headed over. Entering the magic school, the two started talking to the receptionist, who identified the pair as more pro-environment, anti-magic journalists looking to write a damning news article. She quickly ushered them into the office of public relations.
While in the office they met with an individual who gave them the party line. “While it is regrettable that defiling magic has a negative impact on the environment, such magic is necessary to secure the defense and economy of Balic.” After the rehearsed speech was over, Coraanu began asking about Vaerhirmana. They were told that Vaerhirmana was a very well-liked and important teacher at the school, and that they could sit in on his afternoon lecture if they so choose. As the lecture fell during Coraanu’s meeting with Andropinis, they agreed that Illana would stay for the lecture.
Upon reaching Andropinis’ palace, Coraanu was quickly ushered into the throne room, where he came face to face with the old, yet imposing, visage of Andropinis. The sorcerer king informed Coraanu that he first became aware of Coraanu when the scrying magics he had placed near the Rez informed him that new visitors had come to see his “old friend Rez.” As he was monitoring the party to discover who had drawn Rez’s attention, he was drawn to Coraanu, as he noted that Coraanu’s mind had been severely tampered with by a combination of magic and psionics that were on a sorcerer king level.
Interested in who could have done this to Coraanu, the sorcerer king offered to reverse the damage if he were to perform a task. Andropinis informed Coraanu that Rez always tells her new “champions” about the location of a vault in the ruins of Kalidney. In that vault supposedly lies an artifact, one of the orbs of Kalid-Ma. However, no one who has ever entered the vault has ever escaped alive. Andropinis told Coraanu that if he retrieves the obsidian orb for him, he would be happy to uncover whatever has been deeply buried in Coraanu’s mind. At which point Andropinis informed Coraanu he could leave.
Completely shaken by this information, Coraanu decided not to attend the end of Vaerhirmana’s lecture and instead waited for Illana, who had found the lecture boring as she pretty much knew everything taught that day. Illana attempted to talk with Coraanu about what happened at the meeting, but he remained tight lipped.
The next morning, Pane-Pan informed the group that he was ready to take revenge for his clutch and murder Girias Olivian. Being able to stay at the Olivian plantation allowed Pane-Pan to learn that Girias had been staying in the guest house at the edge of the plantation as he studied to enter the military academy. After days of observation, Pane-Pan learned that the guest house included Girias, his teacher, his girlfriend, 4 half-giant guards, and 20 Olivian house soldiers. Girias’s day included outside training in the morning, breakfast and study inside, lunch, weapons training outside, independent study, dinner with the girlfriend and teacher, then free time and bed.
After considering the available options, Pane-Pan decided that he and Coraanu would consume their fruits of invisibility, sneak in after dark, and murder-stab Girias to death. Upon reaching the guest house, the two saw that it was guarded by two of the half-giants. Coraanu, hiding in the shadows, used his minor illusion spell to create a distraction. After one of the guards left to investigate, Pane-Pan used his mental powers to convince the others that his mother had fallen very ill and that he had to rush home to take care of her. The half-giant failed to resist Pane-Pan’s mental thrust and he rushed off into the night.
The pair then consumed their fruits and snuck into the house. As they entered Girias’s bedroom, they saw that he was joined by his girlfriend. Unfortunately for them, they set off the girlfriend’s psionic sensor, and she awoke, waking Girias and warning him that someone was in the house. Still invisible, Pane-Pan infused his weapon with psychic power and struck hard at Girias while at the same time flooding his mind with images from when Girias and his friends slaughtered Pane-Pan’s clutch. Though much damage was done to Girias, Pane-Pan failed to land a killing blow, and the attack caused the invisibility spell to drop.
The girlfriend then responded by using her immense psychic power to banish Pane-Pan to a labyrinthian pocket dimension. To free him, Coraanu attached the girlfriend and broke her concentration on the spell. Returning from the pocket dimension, Pane-Pan asked the girlfriend to step back and let justice be done. The girlfriend agreed to step out of the fight as long as they left her to ransack the place and make it look like a robbery gone wrong as soon as the deed was done. Agreeing to the terms, Pane-Pan proceeded to tear Girias into little chunks.
The next morning things at the Olivian compound were in disarray with rumors of an attack and the death of Girias. As it did not appear that suspicion had fallen on the adventurers, they decided to “step out” and investigate the Mount Laeron dungeon map they had previously bought from an elf.
Finding the entrance, Coraanu scouted on ahead until he found a room, which appeared to have been a makeshift sleeping quarter, covered in blood, but without bodies or skeletons to indicate who, or what, left the blood. As he tried to leave the room to report, Coraanu walked into a forcefield and was violently thrown back into the room.
Wondering what was taking so long, the others came to investigate. When Coraanu informed about the trap, Dimebag, Pane-Pan, and Hookeri entered the room, while Alexa took a, “lets wait to see what happens approach” and Illana informed the party that, “I don’t enter rooms that don’t let me out.”
Opening the door, the party members in the room saw a demonic portal guarded by a Hezrou demon (a being of mostly claws and teeth). The party decided that they were going to lure the demon back into the blood room. Unfortunately for the rest of the party, Hookeri’s pet Jakar ran into the room to attack the Hezrou and was promptly left dying on the floor. When Hookeri ran in to stabilize the pup, the entire plan went to hell. Everyone (except Illana) then ran into the room and engaged the demon.
After being significantly damaged by the adventurers, the Hezrou placed a forcefield around himself and summoned 10 lesser demons from the portal. Luckily, despite not passing the forcefield in the other room, Illana was able to throw a fireball thought the open door into the portal room, killing nearly all of the lesser demons instantaneously. Unluckily for Hookeri’s Jakar, it was caught in the blast, killing it outright.
Enraged at the loss of its minions, the Hezrou dropped the forcefield and resumed its attack. During this time Dimebag came up with the ingenious to tie the dead Jakar to a rope and throw it into a portal to see what would happen. As it so happened, a Marilith demon (giant half-snake lady with many arms all holding weapons) was slithering past the portal and saw the dead Jakar land in her dimension. Thinking that the Jakar was adorable, she picked up the pooch with the intention of resurrecting it as a demon-Jakar that she would carry around in her purse and show off to all of her friends at demonic tea time. Dimebag felt a tug on the rope.
Feeling the tug, Dimebag pulled on the rope. The Marilith emerged from the portal, looked at Dimebag holding the rope and said, “Are you trying to take my puppy!!!!!” Petrified with fear, Dimebag said, “no ma’am” and dropped the rope. The Marilith then returned to the demon realm with her soon to be resurrected and snuggled demon pet.
With the Marilith gone, the adventurers were easily able to finish off the Hezrou demon. Upon killing it the portal closed and the forcefield dropped. After the adrenaline of battle subsided, Hookeri fell to his knees and cried out, grieving the loss of his beloved pet.
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