The World of Telvar

The city is the capital of the declining Khargish empire. It is ruled by a Council of eight people, representing each of the four churches, plus defense, trade and fishing, agriculture, and the stables. The council members make policy decisions and commoners are not present at those meetings—rather, the commoners tell their elders who tell the council members. There used to be a royal family, but it was eliminated along with forty people in the great castle by a single invading “Westerner,” a shocktrooper (we think). Since then the Realm established a colony in Barnacle Bay on Hasding Island (where Duke Haermond of Barnacus currently resides in his castle). The Realmish troops attacked the Kharg frequently until finally the Kharg had no choice but to seek aid in a war they were rapidly losing. They hired the privateer Zaklek to attack Barnacle Bay, and the attack appeared to proceed slowly but successfully as the Realmish supply lines were cut.

The Kharg had no money to give, so instead they paid in labor and goods. Specifically, they repaired the privateers’ ships when they sailed in. This required a great deal of wood, which the Kharg had little of. They were eventually forced to take wood from the Argo Forest to the east, which is a wood of treants. About this time the clerics of Silban in the area intervened and suggested a compromise wherein some of the wood would be cut down but properly replanted.

The Silbans were promptly annihilated by both sides and all-out war began. Every time the Kharg needed wood they would send massive forays into the forest with flaming brands to keep back the treants while they chopped down one or two trees, and then they fled. They dug a trench to fill the area with salt water and harm the trees in the vicinity to make this process easier. A small fortress was placed on the ruins of the Silban church.

Naturally, the cost of wood rose dramatically. Taxes were being raised steadily as wood became harder and harder to obtain. The citizens complained, and the most influential councilman, Lile, began to listen to them. Still, it was difficult to refuse the privateers, especially since it seemed that Barnacle Bay was completely blockaded and on the ropes.

A council meeting was due to occur in two weeks on the matter. We didn’t even have enough money to stay at an inn that long!

We settled into the cheapest residence possible—floor space in a rundown inn full of drunk half-orc privateers. The information compiled above was obtained from various sources including random townsfolk (from chatting in bars), the half-orcs, merchants and drover that Cassian met while posing as a teamster, the brownie druid of the Argo Forest (whose name was, I’m not making this up, Bobohead), and Matar.

We needed to identify two things:

Who was the grey philosopher? What exactly was his decision?

The first was actually simple to confirm. Chiaro used a Phantasmal Force spell to create a artist sketch of grey philosopher as he appeared in Cassian’s vision earlier. He was identified as Lile, the councilman. The crusaders in the earlier paintings were identified as the Barnacle Bay forces. Zaklek was the pirate.

We decided first that we should attempt to influence Lile’s decision by influencing the view of the people. Cassian’s vision had been of the councilmen arguing heatedly and both them and the pirates walking away angrily from a summit meeting. This seemed to indicate that Lile had refused to pay the wood. We decided to start on a propaganda campaign to encourage people to pay the tax, as then the pirates and crusaders would not simultaneously attack.

We did this for several days, and we experienced very limited success, until finally disaster struck. Kain was confronted by the “Minister of Defense” councilman, who we identified as carrying a very familiar bastard sword. This was one of the skeleton warriors!

He accused Kain of being a spy for Zaklek, and threatened him if he continued on this course. When Kain was unwilling to explain his presence or actions, the threats became more clear, and we put an end to the propaganda campaign.

It was becoming clearer that this was not a good solution in the end anyway. Clearly the Argo Forest was unwilling to negotiate, and wood demand would rise to an intolerable level. Then we began to think about the role of treachery in all this.

It was time to check out Barnacle Bay. Quentin flew to the site of Barnacus, and made some very interesting discoveries. First, he noted that where the town of Barnacus is in the modern day there was a completely square forest! As he circled in, Quentin realized that this was a Hallucinatory Forest and that it was all an illusion. Still, he was unable to penetrate the illusion with his sight, but he flew in and noted people camped in the forest. They were the crusaders, the Realmish army, and they weren’t being besieged by pirates…

Furthermore, there were six ships of Realmish make heavily camouflaged in the Bay between the forest and Hasding Island. Clearly the pirates had switched allegiances. Quentin noted in his eavesdropping that they were going to march that day or the day after on the Khargish city!

Simultaneously, we had Cassian speak with birds on the shore and we discovered that a fleet of 11 ships was headed this way, led almost certainly by Zaklek. Clearly things were coming to a head.

When Quentin arrived back, it finally dawned on us what our role probably was. Our mission here was to provide Lile with additional information to make a different decision and see if the results are different. We set about doing that.

We arranged a meeting with Lile, which turned out to be surprisingly easy. He rode out on a horse from the Temple of Thim (he was the high priest) and we convinced to him to give us an audience in a place of his choosing. He also chose the same spot as Matar, the park with the chopped down trees. There we eventually convinced him as we had Matar, and he agreed that we were probably not all suffering from the bizarre delusion. We insisted that he at least confirm our reports of the army. He agreed and (after remaining intently in thought for a moment) took his leave from the party.

We decided that there was nothing else we should do. We had done our part in the experiment and all we could do was wait.

Two days later, we awoke to find most people leaving the town and a few remaining behind to take up arms. Matar informed us that Lile had met with Zaklek on the shores and indicated that he had evidence of his treachery and both had stormed off angrily. We were horrified… had we somehow stumbled onto the same result despite our efforts, or in fact BECAUSE of them?

I say with pride that we didn’t panic. We simply went to Lile to ask what had happened. He explained the situation, that he had confirmed the crusaders’ advance and knew that he could not hold the city. Therefore he was evacuating the city except for enough volunteers to make it look like they were still there defending it. He would wait until the final moment of the attack and then activate the staff, destroying the city and killing all the crusaders and pirates.

Thinking we had failed, we nearly despaired. Then we realized that things had changed as Lile said, “The bridle of Farin left two hours ago.” It had been replaced by a replica. The town was being evacuated. These things were different than Cassian’s visions, which was a very good sign.

We realized that had done our part and said our goodbyes. We left town and picked a good vantage point in the mountains to the south (where the Blue and the Gray now reside) to watch the huge explosion that would happen. Quentin warned the Argo Forest of the imminent disaster in the hopes of reducing the damage.

From our neat vantage point we could see the city and its surrounding areas, nestled between the Argo Forest and what we realized was the Trenhurst Forest to the west. The townspeople had noted that even in this time no one had ever come back (they’d tried to get wood there—now that’s a fun logging expedition).

The crusaders passed us, encompassed in a moving illusionary forest that moved across the ground! (Though none of our characters know this, Edwin explained that the Codex of Illusions can create some pretty disturbing one-shot illusion items) Zaklek and his ships landed and the fighting began in earnest. The combat had been going on for about three or four hours when there was a sudden roar. The entire plain underwent a ripple effect as all the ground blew sky-high and then sunk lower in a wave which spread outward. We could see the shockwave approaching, and the entire party was knocked off its feet, leaving us stunned and nearly killing Chiaro (he took 10 damage).

The ripple effect spread out, unearthing about a quarter of the Argo Forest and uprooting all the trees and flinging them about. The wave moved west, enveloping the farms, and then it reached the Trenhurst.

And completely and abruptly stopped dead, leaving the Trenhurst completely unaffected.

The city’s land had sunk, and before we could walk back, a mist had already set in down below. Since we hadn’t come out of the “dream” we decided to go back down to the city to investigate. Suddenly we found ourselves on solid ground…

And we awoke on the floor of the grey philosopher’s building. (Each of us had to make a system shock to see if we were healed of the damage inflicted in the combat, which only Morgan both failed and was actually injured anyway) The skeletons and the philosopher lay nearby, their equipment gone outside of the two swords on the skeletons.

Some things had changed. The area was no longer consecrated evil ground. The Wall of Fire was gone. There were 160 dead skeletons on the floor below. And we noted that the mist, while still present, was considerably less oppressive than it had been.

We buried the philosopher and the skeletons and carved tombstones for them (with Stoneshape). The second skeleton warrior, by the way, had been the leader of the outpost next to the Argo Forest. Also, we noted that the “high ground” we always camped on was the top of the druidic stones marking the former Silban temple.

We buried the skeletons in a mass grave. We Rest Eternalled the philosopher and his men.

We checked out the rest of the city, but the undead had vanished. It was clear that ships had been moored at the harbor, but that they had sailed away.

Yes, a half-dozen ghost ships just sailed north toward the Korinn Empire.

Not our problem.

In the lighthouse we found two hideously trapped chests containing about 4000 gp each. The skeletons’ swords were magical. We also found a fourth skeleton of a crusader with a petrified arm reaching for the smashed bridle case in the Temple of Thim. His stone hand held the tattered remnants of a bridle.

Perhaps the replica was nastier than just a simple copy.

For the moment, there was little of interest in the city. The mist remained and the swamp remained, although the evil was gone. The place was not inhabitable, but perhaps now the Argo Forest can reclaim some of its land. In any case, the city will soon be infested by lizards and snakes and killer frogs and whatever else. But at least we accomplished our mission.

We returned home uneventfully. A quick check with the Argo Forest confirmed the existence of one Bobohead, who told many stories that no one deemed worth remembering. So we’ll never know.

We learned that we had been asleep on the floor of the temple for two weeks! This is even more bizarre when you consider that we didn’t spend that long in the simulation?!

We sold our stories of the ruins to Augman for sage credit. He passed several on to Orimaxes in Cromwell.

The treasure:

Platinum staff with singing bird—we learned that this was the Staff of Kings (from Matar)—will be presented to Duke Haermond on behalf of the party as a potential diplomatic gift to the remaining Kharg. (It doesn’t actually do anything, it’s just worth a lot)

Falchion +1/+4 vs. woodland creatures—will be given to the Druidic Court as partial payment for training and donation.

Bastard Sword +2—Also has the awe-inspiring power that it Mind-blanks twice a week. Even though no party member uses the bastard sword, we kept it for this ability.

Five Force Beads and an Illusionist Scroll—We gave up two to the Baron and kept the rest. We owe a good magical item in salvage tax, but it seemed worth it.

Chiaro gets the Illusionist Scroll, which has Hypnotize and Hypnotic Pattern, which he does not have.

Treasure amounted monetarily to something like 10-15,000 gp.

An exciting and satisfying conclusion to an adventure that has been on our mind for a long time (since 2176).

Next time, training and the rainy season of 2183-4!

Joel/Balinor