Session 41: The Retaking of Leil Yalir

When last we left our heroes...

Realizing (after a prolonged exchange with Onerama the Bald) that they had probably been misled, the Company decided to look for Captain Landras, who they found already marching back to Leil Yalir. It seems that during their absence, with the fort only held by a small garrison, that a force of some 300 Nalshbori had crossed the river and taken it by storm. One of the survivors had made it to Captain Landras to alert him, and now his cohort was speeding back to try and retake his fortress before the passages of the Cheyth were completely lost, and before more Nalshbori could arrive to more thoroughly reinforce Leil Yalir.

The Company went on ahead to scout out the situation, and based on what they could see, guessed that some 200 Nalshbori were currently holding Leil Yalir against them (in fact, this was a pretty close guess: it was 150). As Captain Landras's forces arrived, they decided on a plan: Captain Landras would attempt an assault to probe the Nalshbori defenses and, if possible, to take the gate. If that failed, the Company would attempt to steal into the fort under cover of darkness and open the gate to the attackers.

During the first assault (which did not at all go well for the attackers, who were repulsed with heavy losses), the Company noticed a boat gliding down the river with more reinforcements for the fortress. Taking a small squad of men, they opposed its landing, inflicting heavy casualties on these new-arrived Nalshbori before driving them off.

During the second hour of the battle, during which most of the Companions had decided to rest due to the heavy injuries they had received driving off the Nalshbori reinforcements, the attackers trying to man the battering ram found themselves pinned by archer fire from a tower, one of the outworks on the northern side of the Fort. Gathering a small knot of men about him, Klorpeim seized a scaling ladder and charged up the tower under a hail of arrow fire. Only Klorpeim and two of his men made it to the top, where they cut down archers until only four remained. But Klorpeim at last fell wounded to a knife which pierced his mail. Inspired by his example, Feiala and Thoranrai charged up the tower, cutting down the remaining archers and seizing the tower for Captain Landras's men. This proved to be the turning point of the battle, and the Fourth Cohort of the Cheyth Legion retook Leil Yalir in the third hour of the assault, at the setting of the sun. Klorpeim, alas, died of his wounds.

In the aftermath of the battle, the remaining companions found that Telini had completely disappeared, meaning she had either lied to them and then skipped town, or told the truth and then been "made to disappear" by Onerma, or someone working for him. In any case it was clear enough that someone had manipulated the Companions, and they are keen to figure out who.

The Ballad of Klorpeim

Session 40 - Insurrection

When last we left our heroes...

Arriving at the borders of Onerama the Bald's vast estates, with 450 Legionnaires at their back and Captain Landras who, thanks to the companions egging him on, was now spoiling for a fight, the Company found that Onerama had had at least a few minutes of advanced warning, and that his militia had assembled and blocked the passage of the road into Onerama's farmstead. A series of tense negotiations began as both sides seemed intractable regarding their demands:

The Company and Captain Landras: that Onerama should immediately stand down, allow himself to be arrested, and stand trial for his crimes.

Onerama and his militia: that the army withdraw immediately from his lands; barring that, that emissaries be sent unarmed beyond the barricade to parlay.

Eventually, the Companions managed to arrange a conversation with Onerama himself. After accusing him of being involved with the Cult of the Bloody Vulture--a charge he flatly denied--they were invited to bring anyone they liked (up to twelve men, who could retain their weapons) and spend as much time as they liked searching Onerama's farm for any evidence of necromancy. Onerama, in any case, positively refused to do two things: either to surrender unconditionally to the army that has just shown up at his doorstep, or to attack the numerically superior (4 to 1) force under the command of Captain Landras. "If Amborian blood is to be shed this day, it will be on your hands--not on mine."

Seeing no other choice than to take Onerama up on his offer, the companions chose 7 of Captain Landras's personal guard and began the search of the property. In the meantime, Captain Landras better positioned himself for overunning Onerama's makeshift barricade should the Companions find something incriminating.

The companions searched for nearly four hours until they found a secret chamber underneath the floor of one of the three large dining halls in Onerama's sprawling mansion. Here, they found not evidence of the Cult, but military-grade weapons and armor which had been forged and laid in reserve. They immediately sent two of the guards who had come with them back to Captain Landras to tell him what they had found. Onerama did not seem upset when they found it -- in fact he seemed quite pleased.

"Well well well, it took you long enough," he said. "I thought you'd never find it. Have a seat. Something to drink, perhaps? I have a spirit which has been aging the last three years. A delight for the palette, I assure you. As perhaps you'll see now, I am not a cultist--nothing of the kind, in fact. As for these weapons, this armor... Well. That is what I would like to talk to you about. I take it, based on your activities (especially you, Thoranrai--I know all about your history, including the child) that you are no great lovers of 'King' Onwae and the current regime? I thought not. You see, I've become increasingly aware that sooner or later those of us who live in the North will have to choose--as indeed will those of the Red Isle, and the Leopard Isles, where the rumor is they are already plotting an insurrection--to choose between freedom and slavery. It's for this I've been preparing, and for this that I've been trying to get Sir Ralus to meet with me. If I can convince him, then perhaps we can save the North before it's too late. The Cheybori must look out for themselves."

"Convince him of what?" the Companions asked.

"Why to be king, of course. King in the North. The North needs a strong leader, someone everyone respects and trust. That's Sir Ralus or it's nobody, and you five, well... you're his friends. So here's what I'm suggesting: he'll need a bankroll, and grassroots support. All of that, I can offer. All he needs to do is what he's really been doing for years now: lead us."

It was at this point--as the Companions were struggling at how to respond to this offer--that one of the guards they had sent out ran back in, breathless. "They're gone--Captain Landras, the cohort--all gone!"

Sessions 38-39: The Siege of the River Forts

With Mawish on his way, and surrounded by thousands of their enemies, the companions had to think quickly. Thanks to a distraction by Thoranrai (which involved burning the Nalshbori camp's three-armed augur alive in his tent), the companions managed to break Sir Ralus and a few other prisoners away--including Klorpeim [played by Hope] and Amsotha [played by PJ], two soldiers who had been captured by Nalshbori during the course of their duties around the River Forts. Fleeing the camp, the Company opted to take the more direct--and more hazardous--route west through the Serth Hatama, as a result of which they managed to avoid most of the pursuing Nalshbori forces until nearly in sight of Hural Yalir, when they were set upon the Icebound--legendary frozen warriors rasied by Orkon's sorcery. Despite the fact that they were alone, hungry, and mostly unarmed, the Companions managed to defeat the Icebound (Sir Ralus snapping a couple of necks with his bare hands), entering the fort immediately afterwards where Feiala's (who had been wounded in the encounter and was in grave condition) were tended by the fort's leeches.

This ended the Fall of 452. During the fellowship phase of that year, the companions undertook various undertakings as they rested in the vicinity of Cheykor.

---

The Winter of 452 began with unseasonable war on the marches.

It is the 14th of Harkel, when Amborian children ought to still be sleeping off the their meal from the 10-day harvest festival with which this month began. But things have gone otherwise along the marches of the Cheyth: Nalshbori have poured out via the old King's Road from Gashund-i-Yalir, laying siege to the two eastern border forts of Hural Yalir (in the North) and Galal-i-Yalir (in the South). The forts are holding out for now, bolstered as they are by supplies and reinforcements fed to them via the river, but nobody is sure how long this will last. Come Spring, reinforcements will almost certainly come from the Red Isle, if not overland, but in the meantime the situation is bleak--as is the mood in Cheykor. With most of the men of the village mustered into militia and women, children, and old men removed to smaller villages in the hills, Cheykor is quiet and morose. Only a few elders and opportunists have stuck it out, the latter hoping to somehow profit by their proximity to the war. Onerama the Bald has opened up his vast estate, some six miles to the north, to whatever refugees should choose to look for shelter, food, and work there. There are even rumors that he has been mustering his own force of armed men, who can move into action should the Nalshbori win the crossings...

The adventure began with the companions being called before the village elders of Cheykor:
Kaneral, Inyanyer, and Falaru - Village elders. During the day they can typically be found in the town square in good weather, or in the Cracked Beaker in bad weather.

• Kaneral: Late middle-aged, has a stump for a left leg. Quite happy to tell you all about how he lost his leg fighting one of the great Tusked Beasts of the Cheyth Wood.
• Inyanyer: Old and toothless, has a keen and penetrating glance. Longs for the days when he was a famous hunter and warrior.
• Falaru: Younger than her two fellow elders, Falaru is rumored to be gifted with the second sight. Her husband and children were lost during a Nalshbori sortie some thirty years ago.

The elders introduce the Companions to Telini, the red-haired fletcher and go-between for Onerama the Bald who many of the companions had met previously. She was battered and bruised, and her story was one of ill news:

• She told how she was summoned to Onerama's chambers. She thought nothing of this--as someone who works for him, she reports to him frequently. When she entered, she found him and three or four of his closest foremen standing around a ritual circle. It had apparently become time for Telini to be inducted into the worship of Tauran-Tauror, the Red Vulture. Telini fled (though not before she was struck across the face and also managed to grab the small vulture idol the cultists were using) and headed for Cheykor.

The elders laid out the situation for the companions: Onerama has a small army gathered at his estate, not to mention hundreds of refugees. If he is in fact a servant of the Vulture Cult whose presence in the area was revealed during the previous year, he could take one of the border forts, or even Cheykor itself, by storm. The elders need someone to go to Leil Yalir and warn Captain Landras of the threat. He has enough men that they should be able to deal with Onerama. The situation is doubly delicate, since Leil Yalir is also vital for resupplying Hural Yalir across the water, which is currently under siege.

The companions traveled to Leil Yalir and, after a bit of discussion with Captain Landras, managed to convince him of the reality of the threat. Leaving a small force to man the fortress until he returns, Captain Landras mustered his company, and with the companions began the short march to Onerama's farm.

Session 37 - Gashund-i-Yalir

"Run."

The company did as Varsuja instructed, dragging away the wounded body of Thorinta--though not before Feala nimbly managed to snatch the coral necklace from around Varsuja's neck. Fleeing into the Serth Hatama, the strange tower and their companion, Varsuja, were soon lost to sight -- not even the stone roof of the tower now visible among the trees. 

That night, Thorinta died of his wounds, and the Company buried him beside one of the many blighted green pools which are found amid the Withered Wood. This pool Feala cleansed during the ceremony, and with it the spiritual toll of the Company's journey began to lighten perceptibly. Moving deeper into the Withered Wood, the Company came at last again upon the main thoroughfare of the old northern road, and with it, the recent tracks of Nalshbori companies and wagons.

It wasn't long before the Company encountered one such company. Fortunately, they'd managed to disguise themselves as Nalshbori before they fell in with a roving band of Sea Scorpion raiders, just come from an expedition to the outlands. Since the Company did not have a disguise for Oratsos (but DID have a necklace), they had decided to pass him off first as a rogue Nalshbori prisoner, and later as a normal Amborian prisoner. He was still passing for the former when the Sea Scorpions offered to take him off the Company's hands. Thoranrai managed to talk them down, and the Sea Scorpions were on the verge of moving on when a taunt from Thoranrai resulted in an outburst by one of the Nalshbori warriors. In a flurry of blades and hooked spears, Thoranrai took him down, though a second squabble over the dead warrior's weapons and armor almost resulted in a much larger, much deadlier confrontation.

Thoranrai backed away, and the Company were allowed to press on to Gashund-i-Yalir.

As the treeline breaks on either side of you, the sprawling encampment of Gashund-i-Yalir stretches out before you in every direction. Built, destroyed, rebuilt, and destroyed again over the centuries, Gashund-i-Yalir has been the property of Amborian kings and Nalshbori warlords, and is currently the main Nalshbori outpost West of the Wanle Cheyth. There are ruins all around, most of them now repurposed to support the city of hide tents. The sound--the noise--the smells--all of it is somehow familiar, and yet repulsive -- a grim parody of the great cities of the Ambori. 

The Company managed to infiltrate the camp with only minor difficulty (and by subjecting Oratsos to a fair amount of abuse), and were directed to the Slave Pen, into which Oratsos was cast--meeting Sir Ralus and some two or three dozen other prisoners in the process. At that moment a general murmur began to spread throughout the camp: "Mawish. Mawish is coming."

Session 36 - The Half-Ruin House

When last we left our heroes…

The party had been traveling through the forest on their mission, when the party scout, Feala, spotted a tower off to the side of the path they were following. Upon closer examination, the tower looked as though it had been recently patched together where it had begun to crumble. Varsuja, the sneakiest of the group, creep closer to the tower to get a better look and see if it were occupied. Determining that it was safe, she retuned to the party and they all advanced to enter. But before entering, Varsuja stopped them and reminded them of the Well Priestess words, “Do not trust everything you see in the wood. You would not be the first to be led astray there.”

Upon entering, the party was met by the sight of a banqueting hall, the table full of all sorts of fine foods and drink, and the walls adorned with suits of armor. They decided that the hall held some type of enchantment and that eating the food would not be the wisest course of action. Looking around the hall, they noticed three doors. From behind one of the doors, Thoranrai could hear the sounds of laughter and music. But when she opened the door the sound of merriment ceased, and her eyes were met with the sight of twelve stone figures, both men and women, sitting around a banqueting table in various stages of a meal. 

Thorinta took it upon himself to open one of the doors from which he could hear hushed whispers coming from. Upon trying the handle, he found it locked, and the voices ceased. He then took a sword from the wall and tried to use it to pry open the door. He was unsuccessful, and his hand started to calcify, making it impossible to release his grip on the sword.

Varsuja opened the last door and found herself drenched in saltwater from a wave that came crashing into her. The door led out to a beach which she stepped out onto only after having a rope tied around her waist, the other end tied to Thoranrai, who was to pull her back in the event that something should go wrong. Once out on the beach, Varsuja could see a distant city with great ships, their sails black as night, headed towards the city. She was unsure if the Nalshbori ships were headed there to attack the city, or where returning home. It was at that moment that she had Thoranrai pull her back in, the ominous cries of a vulture causing her some uneasiness. 

Feala told the party that they needed to leave right away, and she and Thorinta started heading for the door. But Varsuja took it into her head that she should leave something on the beach so that they could find it later should they come across it, and then they would know where to find the doorway into the tower. She suggested they leave a tent peg, but Thoranrai thought that silly, and thought that they should leave something heavier that would not get buried in the sand and be lost forever. After some argument, Thoranrai took her brother and they both headed to the banquet room with the stone statues to acquire one to be left on the beach. 

Meanwhile, outside the tower, Thorinta and Feala found themselves face to face with a figure on a horse. His skin was white, and his lips as red as blood. He proclaimed himself as the guardian of the tower, and challenged the trespassers, declaring that the only way to leave the tower and break the curse would be to defeat him in combat. Thus, Thorinta engaged the knight in combat.

Back in the tower, Thoranrai and Oratsos laid their hands on one of the statues and found that their hands became stuck to it and were slowly turning to stone. Varsuja offered to solve the problem with a swift cut of her sword, but they declined her help. Varsuja then finished tying her tent peg with her ribbon and drove it into the beach. A cry for help from Feala brought Varsuja to the aid of her companions outside the tower, and she picked up the cursed sword that lay in the hands of the wounded Thorinta, using it to fight the knight. With the help of Feala, Varsuja managed to cut off the hands of the knight before driving her sword through him.

Thoranrai and Oratsos meanwhile had sung a sacred song, and as they did so, the statue that they were stuck to began to come to life and turned her head to look at them. Their hands now free, the woman turned back to stone. They joined the others outside the tower where they found Thorinta wounded and bleeding from a lance through the chest, and Varsuja with sword in hand. Her face turned deathly white, and her lips as red as blood. She turned to them and said, “Run.”

[This AP courtesy Hope]

Session 35: Into the Serth Hatama

When last we left our heroes... Crossing the Cheyth (with only a few minor hiccups as Tanurendal fell overboard after overconfidently trying to pole the barge down river), the Company stopped at Galal-i-Yalir long enough to ask a few questions about Sir Ralus' disappearance, but were unable to press the matter for fear of giving away the purpose of their mission. They continued on their way, pressing up the Serth Hatama for some miles until, on the third day since crossing the river, their path wound into a narrow gorge that dipped below the line of the trees. There, amid a honeycomb of abandoned caves, they encountered one of the Great Horned Beasts known to frequent those regions. With the aid of the freshly arrived Oratsos, Thoranrai's brother, and some keen shooting from Varsuja, the Company managed to lay the great beast low, after which they found a few valuable odds and ends in a cave nearby -- no doubt the remains of the beast's previous prey.

Sessions 32-34: The Sleepers Awake

When last we left our heroes...

The second time through the Siege of the Inyalia-i-Parujar ended in ruin, when both Kalaru and Anerash were betrayed by their would-be lover, the Lady Falanarai, and Tengelbur died fighting on the walls. The third time through seemed to be fated to end much the same, though this time it was Anerash who betrayed both Falanarai and Kalaru, opening the secret way and allowing Mawish to enter. This time, however, Tengelbur and Anaris were prepared, and as Mawish raised a spear to strike down the sapling growing in the courtyard of the Tower, Anaris stepped in front of it, taking the blow instead. Then Tengelbur struck the anvil, and as Mawish's forces petrified, transformed into the Withered Wood.

The world fell away from them, and they awoke again sitting around the temple in the Sorcerer's Tower, back--as far as they could tell--in their own time. But the tower was falling to ruin all around them, the now-motheaten tapestries in the room depicting, as far as they could tell, their own adventures. Making it down to the lower floor (with Tengelbur having taken the bell and cups as souvenirs of their strange journey), they found that the great, wounded tree was absent. In its absence, the whole tower seemed to be crumbling to the ground.

They quickly explored the ruins--finding an ancient treasure chamber and enough to make all of them comfortably wealthy--before heading out, leaving just in the nick of time. When they were barely out of site of the tower, it collapsed behind them. Heading south to to Kor-Gilin, they were met by evil omens. Apparently, however much time they had spent in the Tower, evil things had passed in the world outside, and War had crossed over to the western side of the River. In the nearly empty common room of the inn, they were accosted by a stranger who identified himself only as "a Wanderer," and informed the Company that they had been gone for seven seasons. In their absence, well...

---

It was at this point that we rewound, back to only a season after the Company's departure. A completely new company had been formed, called in by Lieutenant Samlon for a mission of great delicacy and urgency. They were:

• Varsuja, a Cheybori bird-tamer played by Hope.
• Thorinta, a Feirkanbori and Knight of the Order of the Leopard.
• Thoranrai, a Feirkanbori spy and ally of the previous party, whose most recent escapades seem to have included acting as a political provocateur for the Scarlet Sisterhood, and faking her own death.
• Feala, a Sothbori Well Priestess, who for her own reasons has come North seeking answers about her past.

Meeting Lieutenant Samlon at the Cracked Beaker, the company was met with dire news: Captain Ralus, commander of the Border Forts, had been taken in battle recently after his scouting party was ambushed by Nalshbori on the eastern banks of the Cheyth. Given the similarity of this incident to how Prince Galal was captured several decades ago, Samlon suspects that Ralus was betrayed by one of his own men. Unsure who to trust, he's brought in the Company from outside to bring back Ralus--who he believes is currently being held at the great Nalshbori encampment of Gashund-i-Yalir on the Eastern Bank of the river. He's offered to pay the Company the hefty sum of eight treasure each for the return of Sir Ralus.

After agreeing to take the job on, the company were provided with Nalshbori clothing and gear, along with pendants of blighted coral which will ensure that they look like Nalshbori once across the river. That done, they set about making their personal preparations to cross. Varsuja and Feala went to the Sacred Well in the village and met with Feiala, the priestess there, who blessed them for their journey, but also gave them some vague and ominous omens of what was to come. Thorinta headed down to the waterfront, where he met with Weiksura, the nasally dock-master, with whom he made arrangements for a ferry the following morning (one which would be polled by Thorinta himself in order to save the cost of boatmen).

For his part, Thoranrai went to inquire of the local amber-cutter Vitherai (meeting Talarja along the way, who was evidently visiting for the evening), asking about the best places to search for amber across the river. This, it was felt, would strengthen the Company's cover as amber-hunters, disguising their real agenda, which was as yet a secret. After some hesitation, Vitherai showed Thoranrai a small sliver of red amber which she had kept (in fact from the lump that Tengelbur gave her) and directed Thoranrai to the Bent Grove, promising to pay her well if she could return with more of the same.

With their preparations made, the Company prepared at last to cross the Cheyth before venturing into the Withered Wood...