... the hunted become the hunters ...
Our cast of characters...
Dracon, human initiate of obad hai & beastmaster of the Wegwier;
Kalik, halfling initiate of Avoreen;
Milik, halfling sorcerer;
Kaganost, wemic apprentice shaman;
Kendradell, female half-elf bard & initiate of Lydia;
Murray, human wizard;
Nikolai, suloise human initiate of Lendor;
Sabian, gnome thief (Greyhawk City).
and finally;
Marcus, half-elf (oerid/high) initiate of Hieroneous (Rel Mord)
[5th of Coldeven, 577]
When last we left our intrepid band, they were enjoying the hospitality of Nicholai's uncle, staying in that worthy's manor outside Seltaren in the Duchy of Urnst. One morning a few days after the feast, Nicholai's uncle, Danushan, summoned him from his bed quite early, with disturbing news.
Several days before the arrival of Nicholai and his friends, a man and
two servants bearing a letter from Nicholai's cousin Sascha in Verbobonc
had presented themselves at Danu's gates. The gentleman, a sorcerer and
obvious sage who called himself Ka'antos, bore several interesting scrolls
detailing the early days of the Suloise in the Sheldomar region, and as
such had been acccepted as an entertaining and learned guest under Danu's
roof. Early this morning, however, Ka'antos, his two
associates, and Flavius had been seen riding out the gates of the manor
like the Host itself pursued them!
Danu could not say for certain whether Flavius was in Ka'antos' company
willingly or unwillingly, but he thought it odd and possibly ominous that
Flavius, so recently unmasked by Danu's magic as a servant of Darkon, would
choose to flee in the company of what, Danu was ashamed to admit, was a
largely unknown quantity. The most telling description Danu could offer
of Ka'antos (and his servants) was that all of them had appearantly taken
vows requiring them to hide their faces (which, for
sorcerers, is not that strange, as vows go...)
Over breakfast Nicholai related this information to his companions, who quickly reached the consensus that Flavius and his new companions must be caught up to and at least questioned regarding their strange behavior. While in the midst of the meal, a stranger arrived, claiming to be Flavius' brother Marcus, an initiate of Hieroneous who had been guided there by visions of the evil acts his brother was guilty of. He quickly agreed to join the group in pursuing his brother, but it was soon discovered that before their flight, the saddles and tack of both the party and the household had all been sabotaged, requiring Nicholai and Dracon to spend half the day travelling to town and securing undamaged equipment.
By the time the party finally began following Flavius and Ka'antos, they had a solid lead of nearly half a day on them. The group was forced to delay slightly longer by an invisible sneak thief in the inn they chose for the night, who originally tried to enter the room Milik and Kalik shared, but wound up fleeing out the window of Dracon's room (Dracon was the first to open a door in the hall where the party's rooms were located). A search of the grounds succeeded in locating only the cloak their unseen assailant had employed, which had been doused along the hem with rabbit urine to provide a scent that could be eaily discarded.
The next day saw further delays, as the party lost time following the wrong forks in the road, etc., but eventually the party returned to the city of Leukish where they learned that Flavius and his companions had last been seen the day before, riding their strange black horses out across the waters of the Nyr Dyv itself!
While waiting for a boat, Marcus consulted the priest who maintained the Justicar's temple in town, and secured the use of a Divination to determine Flavius' destination. The vision he was shown revealed a ruined black ziggraut surrounded by mountains, which seemed to lie to the northwest. Drawing the connection between the ruin in Marcus' vision and the crypt they had so recently explored, they sought a sage in town whose expertise ran to the ancient Flan, but found him murdered in his (ransacked) tower.
After giving the local authorities a day or so to gather what evidence they could from the tower, the party secured permission to search it for themselves, in the hopes that whomever had searched it and killed the sage (named Leck) might have missed something. Though it took several hours and many translation spells cast by Dracon, they eventually found half of a torn copy of 'the diaries of Tsojcanth', a name Kendradell recognized from her studies as being linked to Tharizdun and the black ziggraut temples. During their search, however, Murray uncovered a fell volume of warm black leather, inscribed with a silver sickle design. After perusing it for awhile, he declared himself the book's protector, as it was too dangerous to allow to fall into 'unworthy hands'.
Sensing that the book had some control over their friend, they eventually managed to convince him to allow them to take it to the local temple of Delleb (a temple which Leck himself had belonged to), and they soon managed to both break Murray's obsession with the book and destroy it. The next day the party paid a vastly inflated fare (their reputation on the lake preceeded them) and soon reached the isle of Admundfort.
Their stay on Admundfort was brief and uneventful, and the only news that might have pertained to their quarry concerned the finding of an abandoned barge off the coast of the Shield Lands several days prior. The party was soon at sail again, making landfall in Whillip soon thereafter.
Once in Whillip they consulted with numerous priests and sages, trying to learn more of Tsojcanth and Tharizdun, the possible location of the ruin they sought, and in the process learned the name and bits of the legend of Iggwilv, as well. Eventually the group decided to journey to Perrenland to seek more 'local' information, though they first had to detour south towards the Gnarley, so that Dracon could participate in Obad Hai's holiday on the 4th of Growfest (577, for anyone who's counting).
The evening ended with the group's arrival in Perrenland, where they learned that Flavius and his party had last been seen in the region nearly a month before...
[21st of Planting, 577]