(G449 17/04/2021 via Roll20 - AP, KT, JF(GM)) WA84

 

(G449 17/04/2021 via Roll20 - AP, KT, JF(GM)) WA84

[Back in the forests around Cedarsproke, Fenrir was changing his plans.]


DAY 498(13th Flamerule)(July) ...

Fenrir came very close to giving the order to teleport everyone into the heart of the lair of the Night King right then and there.

But, almost like a drunk man suddenly coming to his senses, he realised that they were not prepared for such a tough encounter. They had only just finished a big fight in the house of Blackthorn the Druid, Veddic was low on spells and Raz  was tired from all his rage-filled axe chopping.

Fenrir tried the communication charm, but it was silent, he could not reach
Reinward again.
'OK,' he said. 'He's likely still alive, and he has all those things on his wrists, he's probably fine for now. Change of plan.'

Pweety teleported them to Westgate, he then thanked her and paid her off. He then, in the company of Veddic and Raz, flew out to Spectre Island to see Random.

Meanwhile, Ren was indeed still alive, but could hardly be described as being in a situation that was 'fine'.

He was in the prison area with the Darklady Dahlia Vhammos (a vampire of the Night King's  Court) and some of her guards.

'This is your last chance to take the easy way and tell us of the prophecy!' she demanded
of him. Random blathered some nonsense in reply.
'Very well,' she cried. 'Bring forth the Diabalos!'

Ren was briefly left alone in a cell. It was well appointed as cells went, with a bed, a desk, a chair and even a bearskin rug to keep the floor warm.

For some inexplicable reason he decided to break off the bears incisors and stick them in his mouth. When he was pulled out of the cell he saw a new face, that of a small rather nervous looking diabalos.

It was Bwabazwards, the fellow that Fenrir and his friends had rescued from Cormariel Castle some time ago on behalf of the Night Parade.

Ren began to beg for mercy, but managed to bite his own lip with the bear teeth. When his mouth started to fill up with blood, he spat it out at the Darklady. Perhaps he hoped it would have the same effect as it had had on The Twilight Knight, but it did not, as none went in her mouth.

He tried to apologise, but the guards grabbed him. Bwabazwards was shoved forward and told to do whatever it was he was about to do.
Ren felt dizzy, and his will slowly began to break.
'No! Please!' he begged, 'I'll tell you!'
'Well speak then!' demanded the Darklady.
But Ren only stalled again. She snarled and left the chamber. Ren slipped into unconsciousness.

He awoke in a large mansion house stuffed full of fabulous treasure. Bwabazwards was there.
'Is this a dream?' he asked.
'Yes,' confirmed the diabalos. 'I've tried to tailor it to your desires and make it
comfortable for you.'
'What do you want?'
'I don't know, but you know what they want. What is it? A prophecy?'
Ren nodded.
'Well, you may as well tell me, I'll get to it sooner or later,' sighed Bwabazwards.

Ren decided to tell some lies, making up some nonsense on the stop, but what came out of his mouth was the first stanza of the prophecy.

''
Then one chose of Ilmater will come,
On ancient wings and by fated airs decree,
No players proclaim, no fife, no drum,
But by quiet night, by land or sea,
''

Bwabazwards produced a notebook and wrote Ren's words down.
'What are you doing, why did you write that down? That's not what I said!' Ren wanted to say. But what came out his mouth was the next stanza of the prophecy.

This went on for some time, Ren not knowing the best thing he could have done in the circumstances was keep his mouth shut, and Bwabazwards, somehow, stealing the information the vampires needed from Ren's mind.

In the end he tried picturing a brick wall (or something) in his thoughts, and this helped a bit, but he could still not stop his tongue from wagging.

He was about to reveal the last lines of the prophecy when another figure appeared.
A large armoured man pushed aside the diabalos who fell to the ground with a scream.
'Silence devil!' shouted the knight.
'My name is Sir Liroc Dragonscale,' said the man. 'I am a Triadic Knight, sent by Ilmater. Wake up now lad, someone is being sent to help you.'

Ren woke with a start, and found he was back in his cell. With no better options he settled down to wait.

Meanwhile - over on Spectre Island, Random had quiet a lot of information to give to Fenrir. This is what he said:

''
I've been given a new job, straight from the top. I've hired, at great expense, a  warlock, a cleric and a barbarian. I will be the rogue!

We are going west to Tezzir to cause chaos over there and get noticed. In essence we will be pretending to be Barry and his friends.

I'm hoping this will buy you some time. But be warned, you've killed Katheera Urdo and Sharkchum. They have both been resurrected and are out for blood. Your blood. Well, mine  now. It's good that you still have Blackthorn alive - good thinking! - Put him somewhere  safe and out of the way for now.

The next targets you go for, don't kill them, it's pointless. Bribe them, banish them, lock them up, do whatever you like, but don't kill them! They just come back and cause  problems. Unless they are a vampires of course, and effectively already dead anyway.

So, the plan is this. Cavu is in the Vampire Keep, dragging the Night Masks gaze to the  east. I am in Tezzir, dragging their gaze to the west.

Try and do the following, not necessarily in this order, but this is what I would suggest.

   1. Figure out the Prophecy and do what ever needs doing. Gerty tells me that it is vital
   2. Kill the Croamarch
   3. Have the sword to hand
   4. Have the crown (or whatever) (Ren's prophecy) to hand
   5. Have support of mercs
   6. Have support of at least 4 of the other factions
   7. Have Raz married to Thistle!
   8. Have support of at least 5 'demographics'
   9. Weaken or destroy the Night Masks
   10. Nobble all rivals or at least the biggest ones

   - and when that is all done, declare Raz king!
   
It won't be easy. Here is 100,000 gold. It's everything. (in Bag of Holding Type I)

If after 30 days you need more, shoot 10 Eldritch Blasts straight up in the air, 1 every  minute. We will be watching.

Or if that's too conspicuous, put an advert in the Westgate Gazette looking to buy a  second-hand Comyrian waffle-iron and give the address for the pickup.

At the moment, the Night Masks suspect you, but also think that Barry Shitknees may just  be attacking them in the manner of 'the Watch Commander', to try and miss-direct them. Try to do everything to keep them thinking that.

Eventually they will work it out, and when they do, expect a big attack.

To help with this, Gerty has given this clock to me, to give to you. She called it the  Doomsday Clock. The more danger you are in, the closer it gets to midnight. At the  moment, you can see that it is 15 minutes to midnight.

If you see it moving closer, then perhaps try and misdirect them, or lie low for a  while. If it does go to midnight, then be sure to be ready.

I can't predict what they will do, but I would guess it will not be a direct assault,  at least not to begin with.

They will try and cause chaos, by killing watchmen, by using dopplegangers to discredit  you, by bribing other officials to disavow you. If the Croamarch is still alive they  will drip poison in his ear against you.

If that doesn't work, then it will be all out war, so try and deal with them before  that, as an army of 10,000 vampires from the east on Westgate's doorstep would pretty much spell the end of this little escapade.    
''   

So, after Fenrir and Random had talked for some time, Fenrir stuffed Blackthorn (barrel and all!) into a store room in the Plane of Shadows dungeon on the other side of the Spectre Island portal.
   
After that, they went to the Mercenaries' Guild of Westgate - or one of their establishments in the city anyway, and talked to a clerk there in regards to hiring some muscle for a short while.

Fenrir went in disguise - as Phillipos Mountobattenous - someone who looked like an adventurer.

'We want some people to take on vampires,' he said.
He then paid over the money and arranged to have two powerful wizards and two strong fighters be  put at his disposal for the next twelve days.

DAY 499(14th Flamerule)(July)

During the night, back at the Court of the Night King, Ren was trying to make lock picks from the items available to him in his cell.

Poor Ren was at his wit's end. He was in way over his head and he knew it. He'd stepped off the boat in Westgate expecting to make a bit of money from some light thievery or trickery.
Or if the worst came to the worst, as a caravan guard or bagman for a corrupt guild.

Instead he was embroiled in a plot so fiendishly complicated he was sure he only understood one-tenth of it. That included prophecies, noblemen, vampires, demons, some of the most powerful  forces in Faerune, up to and including the gods themselves!

And here he was now, trapped, alone, terrified and only having narrowly avoided being a  vampire's breakfast. And it was like this that the woman he knew only as "Jane" found him.

Somehow she managed to slay the guards outside and unlock the door of the cell. She ushered him out into the main prison room. He noticed that she only had three red rings left on her wrists. Two on the right and one on the left.

She grabbed Bwabazwards by the scruff of the neck and sought approval from Ren to kill him. Ren said no though, assuming that the diabalos was there against his will too. Bwabazwards slunk back into his cell.

Ren went over to a table where all his possessions had been laid out. He tried the Amulet of Communication, but could hear nothing.

Jane took two red pills from her pocket and gave one to Ren. She motioned for him to take it. He, in turn, motioned to her to go first. She shrugged, sighed and  took the pill. A minute later she was dead.
Ren gulped and put the red pill into his own pocket, deciding not to commit suicide just yet.

Instead he snuck out into the main corridor and found his way to a large store room.
In here he could see the two female wizards that had helped abduct him, sleeping on luxurious looking bed rolls. A skeleton was also ambling about there, so he shut the door and left before he was spotted.

With nowhere else to go, he went back to his cell, hiding Jane's corpse under the bed, then hiding himself under the bearskin rug.

And there he waited until six in the morning.

Rescue was on its way! One of the few weaknesses of the defences of the Court of the Night King was that the Teleportation chamber was kept free of all blocking spells such as Dimensional Lock. Why, can only be guessed, perhaps so that people and vampires could come and go as they please. It is separate and away from the main area, so perhaps that was considered defence enough.

For whatever reason, it allowed Fenrir, Veddic and Raz a chink in the armour that they could exploit - they could not teleport directly to Ren as he was in area that was Dimension Locked.

The mercenaries that they had hired were:

Nocknod 'Dinkledonk' Brightman - a female gnome wizard, who appeared to be quite self-centred
Ria Dibbler - a female halfling wizard, who appeared to be honest and true
Danui the Soldier - a female elf fighter, who was tough and battle scared
Quellian Stomper - a female elf fighter, who appeared to be somewhat crazed

From the Teleportation Chamber a corridor lead north, past more locked door. As soon as they started moving up it though they were attacked by vampire guards. Veddic turned them, but then the non-undead guards, a tough lot of heavily armoured men arrived.

These were Carlos Company, a band of fifty or so mercenaries that had gone missing some  months ago and who now appeared to be all dominated by vampires.

Fenrir and Ren were communicating with the magical amulets by now, and Ren tried to make his way towards his rescuers as best he could.

The battle raged in the main corridor, more armoured men rushing in to take the place of those that fell. Raz and Danui held the line while Fenrir blasted away from the back.
The Carlos Company men were incredibly tough though and it took a long time to slay even one of them. The wizards came up to help, casting spells from the rear as best the could.

Ren, by some miracle, managed to squeeze past all the fighting and once he was clear and on his way to Stomper (who was guarding the portal), Fenrir ordered the retreat and they all ran back to the Teleporter room. The two wizards cast their spells and within a few seconds they were all back at the Mercenaries hiring office.

'That all went rather well,' smiled Fenrir as he slapped the somewhat dazed Ren on the back.