Land of the South Winds campaign

[joshuagoliath]

Sir Arnwulf was just made a Knight of the Realm at the hand of the King of the LotSW. His first OFFICIAL assignment was to travel to a small Duchy in the southeast, and "assist" the Duke in putting a stop to the raids being conducted by Tezcat, which are stealing supplies- foods, weapons, and armor- that are being shipped. These raids are also helping prevent the locals from making any headway for cutting down the jungles. He's also told he's the 6th representative to be sent.

UNOFFICIALLY, he was also told that he is supposed to investigate who is feeding information to the tezcat, and helping them. Clues point to the Duke or someone close to him.

Helping Arnwulf is an old associate, Eziroth the Elven Wizard, who's a bit... unstable. He is DEFINITELY on Arnwulf's side, and will act as he sees will best benefit Arnwulf and the mission. In about a week, an old scholar will be joining him, an accountant who will pour over the Duke's books to see if he can find where any "irregularities" may point.

The knight before arriving, Arnwulf and his carriage driver were ambushed. The driver, Bob, survived, but barely. Arnwulf easily dispatched the two would-be assassins. On one, he found a torn piece of cloth that had the duke's crest on it.

Upon his arrival, the Duke gave him a quick dismissal, but arranged room and board- at the cheapest inn in town. After their meeting, Eziroth informed Arnwulf that someone was scrying on them.

Arnwulf decided that his team would not be able to concentrate, research, and study with cockroaches crawling around them. Out of pocket, he's paying for a much more expensive hotel, but only has the cash to pay for about a week.

As they are getting settled, an eandroth knocks on the door, and says that his boss is downstairs, wanting to talk. Arnwulf goes down, and has a meeting with an elderly elf wearing robes. The elf says that he will pay for one year at the hotel if Arnwulf will do a small job for him. Additionally, this job would help Arnwulf gain the favor of the Duke.

The Duke's capital used to be further southeast, but rising sea levels forced them to move. The old manor is still there, but falling into severe decay. A rocky landbridge provides access.

As the Duke's daughter prepares to come of age, there's a family tradition that requires a specific pendant handed down generation to generation. The family has commissioned a duplicate, as the original is in the old family crypt. While the copy would work, the original would be highly preferred.

The Elf wants to the original reclaimed, and given to the Duke. Arnwulf agreed to do the job.

[joshuagoliath]

So, Sir Arnwulf, and his (mostly) trusty mage Eziroth prepare to travel to the old Manor house and hit the crypt. Since it's on a small jetty of land only accessible by a land bridge that exists shows only at low tide, they hire three simple guardsmen to protect the landbridge, and a good dwarven warrior to actually enter the crypt with them.

They make a very uneventful trip to the old manor, they quickly locate the crypt and go in. The first bit is simple, with Dane (the dwarf) taking the occasional gold/silver handles off of graves, but otherwise not disturbing the bodies. A few floors down, though, they find themselves on a balcony, overlooking about 20,000 graves, a mix between elven and dwarven bodies, with dates that are several thousand years out of date. Eziroth recognizes the timeframe, and dates the graves to when the world was in the grips of the Order of the Cracked Opal. This gives weight to Arnwulf's theory that a place such as this could be inhabited by demons or dyvals.

A little further in, they come across a room of graves that have been smashed and shattered, but there are NO bones to be found. At the end are massive double doors that require both Arnwulf and Dane to open. They establish a simple battle plan that as soon as the doors are cracked, Eziroth lets loose a fireball. They hear someone and something react. Slamming the doors, they repeat the process, then charge in. Unfortunately, a fireball comes back OUT this time, knocking Eziroth off of his feet and dazing him. Dane immediately begins smashing into some animated skeletons, while Arnwulf goes toe to toe with a Tezcat necromancer!

The battle doesn't take too long, and then they are able to actually examine the room. In the middle, arranged in a splayed pattern, are 5 ornate sarcophogi, with a gold inlay in the floor connecting them in a pentagram.

The open all five graves, examining the contents, and find some intriguing loot (almost all of which stay in place), but also that the oldest point of the Duke's lineage wasn't simply nobility, but that he was actually a KING!! They also find the silver frame to the pendant they're looking for, but it's missing the gemstone.

Shortly, the gold inlay starts to glow and flow, and a stairwell opens down. Going down to investigate, they find themselves in a circular room that has walls like funhouse mirrors. In the middle of the room, they find the gemstone.

When Arnwulf picked up the gem, the reflections disappeared, and an enormous (even for its race) Beast stood before him, and proclaimed itself Drictlu, First of the Servants of Lord Dyval, and said that the claiming of the gemstone had freed him from his prison. In return, his offered each of the three any one wish that was within his power. Arnwulf asked for knowledge that the creature didn't have, his wish thereby wasted, Dane asked that when the Beast went back to its own dimension that it would kill as many other deevils as it could, and Eziroth made a simple wish.

Upon return to civilization, Arnwulf sent a message to both the King and the Duke as to what they found, along with sending the pendant to the Duke.

Shortly thereafter, he was arrested on charges of trespassing, breaking and entering, desecrating a crypt, and theft of property.....