Game Date: October 12, 53 AL
Rondax, faced with the champion of the emperor, had little choice but to join him in battle. He attempted to talk the warrior out of his armor, challenging his honor; Saracen simply raised his visor, revealing no face underneath. Rondax selected a halberd to keep the heavily armored master of noren-la, the art of shortsword and longsword wielded simultaneously, at bay. Saracen was powerful, however, and quickly closed with the wemic. Rondax evaded him as best as possible with a series of clever maneuvers, but was badly wounded. He eventually managed to pin the knight, and the two struggled to the cheers of the crowd. Rondax attempted to chew loose his extra longsword in order to attack him while he was pinned.
Suddenly, the field of battle was disturbed by a puff of smoke, in which appeared a highly confused wemic. The wemic, a warrior named Tagnox, was summoned to the field of battle by Flontara the Red, a fire elementalist terrorist in the arena. The wemic, which did not even know where it was and was outside the range of Flontara's vocal commands, was attacked by the arena pikemen, and defended himself in spite of Rondax's calls to come to his aid. Meanwhile, Flontara cast a shout spell to gain the attention of her summoned wemic, bellowing for him to attack Saracen and deafening a good portion of the crowd. The emperor's guards, however, were unaffected by the spell, and raced to attack Flontara as Tagnox turned away from his attackers and leapt to Rondax's aid. Flontara, seeing the approaching imperial guards, broke out her ultimate weapon: a scroll of fireball. The resulting explosion killed 99 peasants in the stands near the emperor's box and threw the arena into chaos.
Unfortunately for Flontara, neither the emperor's guards nor his imperial box were destroyed by her fireball, and the guards broke out crossbows. She used a jump spell to leap atop the emperor's box as the guards tried to shoot her. Meanwhile, down below, Rondax and Tagnox jointly attacked Saracen, but the guards were closing. Ulashi, encouraged by Jean-Luc (who addressed her as “Hey, Evil” and went out of his way to disclaim any cooperative effort on their parts), attempted to fly out onto the field of battle, but Anterra, the Wumpee majordomo of the arena, stopped her with the ring which allowed him to control her through her collar. Jean-Luc, seeing Rondax rushed by pikemen, used his dimension door Earthgift to join them on the field of battle. Flontara, with nowhere else to escape to, turned invisible and jumped into the stands, waiting for the panicking crowd to disperse before attempting to flee.
As the arena descended into riotous panic and the crowds fled, the fighters were surrounded by pikemen. They realized there was no reason to continue fighting at this point and broke off combat. Anterra arrived and ordered all fighters present to follow him into a secret sub-basement to wait out the rioting. Tagnox, when asked how he had come to be there, professed ignorance and offered to come along anyway. The arena guards herded the fighters into a secret sub-basement. Wo told Tyke to wait outside until the crowds had cleared, then open the passage to allow the group to escape. Saracen left to attend to the emperor.
The arena gradually cleared, and Flontara made her exit, disguising herself as a beaten peasant and settling outside the arena. Inside, Rondax and Tagnox talked and were confronted by Anamma, the zebranaur gladiator. Anamma challenged Tagnox, who assured him that he seldom ate his people and would no longer do so now that he knew they did not like being eaten, which only infuriated the zebranaur more. Rondax headed off a conflict between the two, then went to soothe and stroke his friend the alu-fiend, despite Jean-Luc's criticism.
Eventually Tyke opened the passage and slipped in. Behind Wo, he opened the portable hole. At the same time, Flontara recalled the wemic she'd summoned and cancelled the spell, causing Tagnox to vanish. The guards present were sent by one among their number (who had also reclaimed Saracen's sword from Rondax) to search for the vanished wemic in the catacombs. While the room was thus emptied of official presence, Tyke cast a floating disk as a distraction. As the other gladiators watched it, Wo, Rondax, and Jean-Luc entered the portable hole, which Tyke rolled up and took away.
Offstage, Tagnox arrived back in his homeland and, his curiosity of the North aroused, immediately set off in that direction. Also, Bono, Prentice, and Marcallis rescued the comatose Scorpion and the group's animals from the arena and recovered their gear.
Outside the arena, Tyke opened the portable hole near Flontara to give those within air. Flontara, stil disguised as a beaten peasant, approached, and Tyke told her, “Beaten peasant, stay away!” When she did not leave, Tyke ran away, still invisible, with the hole, using cantrips to obliterate his tracks. While the hole was open, Wo managed to slip away unseen.
The party regrouped at the temple of Britigit, where a priest treated their wounds. Flontara, who was having an affair with the priest and had gone to the arena to commit terrorism under the aegis of Britigit, returned and saw the group; she rushed in to see what was happening and saw Rondax. Flontara and the Britigine cleric pledged their support to him for his defiance of the emperor and begged him to remain and join their resistance. The group declined, and the cleric went to arrange passage for them to Bornhem in the Whitelands, leaving Flontara in charge.
While awaiting the cleric's return, Tyke scried Baron Stormslayer and informed him of their situation. The Baron angrily appeared in the church, and denounced Jean-Luc for the embarassment his capture had caused Ghantra internationally. He ignored his nephew's protests and ordered him to return to Ghantra as soon as his quest was completed. Refusing to teleport the group to the Whitelands, he stalked into the shadows and vanished.
The group departed shortly thereafter, hidden in the hold of a cargo ship. A week later, they disembarked in the former fishing town of Bornhem in the Whitelands, now renamed Red Fang and patrolled by orcish troops.
The party went to the temple of Plon, where Jean-Luc presented the cleric who had quested him with the mock head of Checkmate. The outraged priest demanded an explanation, and Jean-Luc argued that he had fulfilled the letter of the quest and the priest had overstepped his authority in assigning the quest. Other members of the group attempted to intervene on Jean-Luc's behalf, including Rondax; the priest coldly informed them that they had no business getting involved, and that Rondax, a savage animal, should leave the church at once. The priest told Jean-Luc that he was going to arrange for the removal of his paladinhood. Jean-Luc challenged him to do so, and the group left the church.
A short time later, a contingent of orcish guards stopped the party, demanding their arrest for refusal to leave the church of Plon when demanded. Having no stomach for a battle in the streets with a heavily armed and well-trained team of Gagnerians, the group fled. Bono tipped a lobster cart in their wake, and the resultant streetful of crustaceans slowed the orcs enough for the party to gain a lead.
Suddenly, a door opened, and a young woman told the group to enter her home and hide. With no other place to go, the party entered, finding themselves in a middle-class home with a cathedral ceiling, a man in a rain slicker with a fish, a startled-looking fisherman, and two young women, one of who had pointed ears. The other woman, who had only slightly pointed ears, introduced herself as Natalia Angell, and the others as her mother, father, and neighbor Mr. Sloan. Natalia ushered the party into the cellar, where Rondax asked her why she had slightly pointed ears. In the meantime, the orcs arrived, and Natalia's flighty mother went outside to talk with them. The party, fearful of being betrayed by the scatterbrained woman, listened through the drainpipe; to their astonishment, she sent the orcs on their way and put a man on the street who had seen where they went to sleep before he could reveal what he knew.
The party emerged from the cellar and Natalia's mother invited them to stay for lunch. She praised Rondax's lion cub Nora, and broadly hinted that Natalia should get close to Jean-Luc, citing his nobility and his knighthood. After eating, the group asked Natalia's father to ship them away to Estivinia, but he said that it would be too dangerous due to orcish patrols of the waters. Natalia's mother suggested that Natalia escort the party to the edge of the woods and the road away from the town. Mortified but faced with little choice, Natalia agreed.
The group slipped out of the house, creeping among the alleys and streets to avoid detection, and managed to exit town without incident. At the edge of the forest, Natalia intended to leave the group behind…until a bush spoke up. She hastily said that there had been no speech, but the bush protested, and its occupant, a faerie in miniature knight's gear, emerged. The tiny knight, in spite of Natalia's attempts to stop him, revealed that they were related, and offered to guide the party through the forest ahead. He hinted that the forest may have been “modified” slightly in preparation for Natalia's sixteenth birthday. Natalia agreed to accompany the group through the forest until they reached the main road.
The party, accompanied by their reluctant guide and their eager faerie companion, set off. It was not long before Tyke was caught up in a faerie glamor and drifted into the woods on a floating disk. Rondax raced after him and tackled him, tumbling them both into a pool of water which was previously covered by an illusion. The group angrily proceeded, eventually coming to a fork in the trail; on the advice of Natalia, who saw faerie glitter over the left path, they went right. The group safely left the forest, and, leaving Natalia and her faerie cousin behind, continued down the road away from the White Coast.
In the present: The group proceeded west, coming upon a small town within a day. They stopped to buy supplies, and Marcallis, the only one among the party who spoke Bernish, learned from a shopkeeper that the Tedroxian border was about a week west and the orcs made border patrols on a weekly basis. He also said, to the group's surprise, that orcish rulership had been benign so far and even helpful, as the orcs allowed freedom of religion, created new jobs, and were planning to repair the nation's roads. For the next week, the group traveled with no incident on a lonely road, passing through a few scattered villages and camping out in the wilderness, where Rondax brought down an elk for food. Seven days after leaving Bornhem, they found an outpost located only two hours from the border. A merchant there told them that there were orcish guards at the border, and that he, unlike many of his countrymen, feared that the orcs would overrun Bernish culture and attack other human lands in violation of the Eyepoint Manifesto .
Outside the outpost, the group decided to split ways, with Rondax traveling through the woods with the party's taxable goods in his meat bags to avoid border duties, as well as the likely orcish interest in a wemic so far north. After two hours, the party heard shouting ahead on the road. Rondax and Bono crept forward, only to find a lone Ganlian human with a fauchard being accosted by six orcish border guards for crossing the border without proper identification papers. The man protested that his papers had been stolen by bandits; the orcs said that he was therefore weak and deserved to die anyway, and prepared crossbows to execute him for espionage. Bono alerted the rest of the party, and they moved forward just as the orcs were preparing to shoot the Ganlian. Jan-Luc admonished them to stop in the name of Plon; the orcs told him that Plon had no sway there, and that they were the legitimate force of law. The group protestefd the legitimacy of orcish rule, and and the orcish captain placed Scorpion under arrest. He responded with a mental attack; three of the orc fired their crossbows at the Ganlian and three at him, and the battle was joined.
Marcallis, who had been expecting an attack, cast a glitterdust spell, immediately blinding half of the orcs. Bono, who had been skulking in the shrubbery, was also caught, but managed to backstab one. Rondax leapt savagely out of the trees onto another, and Jean-Luc engaged the commander with swords. Tyke began casting magic missiles at the same orc, in violation of the honor code of both orc and paladin. Scorpion attempted to use his esper powers to double the pain of the orc stabbed by Bono. Prentice began to cast a bless spell, but was disrupted when an orc rushed him with a bastard sword. Manwhile, the Ganlian, who had dodged two of the crossbow bolts and had only been grazed by the third, moved into battle with astonishing grace for a man with a fauchard, following each sweep of the polearm's blade with a savage strike with the butt end of the weapon.
The orcs were difficult opponents, but the battle turned quickly in the adventurers' favor. Rondax savaged the orc he had engaged, leaving him a gurgling mass on the ground. Scorpion continued to mentally assault the orcs, downing another. Tyke followed his delayed-blast whistling magic missile (material component a dirty sock) with lightning strike and shadow bolt as Jean-Luc and the orcish captain dueled. Prentice assailed the blinded orcs with a flaming sphere, and the Ganlian cut a swath through their ranks with his fauchard. Meanwhile, Bono hid in the bushes, waiting for the magical blindness to pass, and Marcallis prepared a monster summoning II spell to summon allies. Two giant lizards arrived a short time later and killed another orc, as the Ganlian, Prentice, Scorpion, and Bono finished off two more.
Seeing that he was the last survivor, the orcish captain planted his sword in the ground and surrendered. The Ganlian tossed the sword back at him, refusing to accept the surrender, but the captain refused to fight again. He told the group that they could freely cross the border, and that he would report back to his commander to be killed for his failure. The group debated whether to allow him to return alive and risk another, larger attack force coming for them; Bono and Scorpion both attempted to knock the orc out, but failed. Th captain appealed to Jean-Luc's honor, offering a pass of safe conduct for the border, which he claimed was only a quarter-mile away. Jean-Luc allowed him to leave, taking the badges of his fallen comrades with him, as the rest of the party looted the orcish corpses.
They set off down the road again, accompanied by the Ganlian. His name was Jonathan Silkblade, and he said he was on his way to Ghantra, too; he ingratiated himself to the group early on, and was quickly accepted as a traveling companion. They crossed the border into Tedrox without further incident, thus visiting the last barony not previously penetrated by the group. For three days they traveled down the fairly well-maintained Tedroxian road until they arrived at the capital, the crystal city of August Star, just in time to see its glittering spires catching the light of an autumn sunset. Jean-Luc broke out his regalia, and the group entered the city in full ceremonial formation. It was only a short time before they were recognized and met by the seneschal of Baron Winston Strongwall, who welcomed them to the country and invited them to the baronial palace.
The group arrived at Diamondnight Palace, where they were met graciously and invited to a state dinner. Bono gave yet another new identity for himself, Austin Nighthawk, and Tyke identified himself as the Secretary of State of Winnebago. The seneschal was shocked by this announcement, and informed the party, to their complete astonishment, that the Winnebagan ambassador had arrived only two days ago, and would certainly be pleased to see him. Flabbergasted, Bono and Tyke made hasty arrangements to surprise the “Winnebagan” at dinner, as Jonathan, who had suddenly discovered a new name for Bono and a new government official in the party's ranks, pondered the credibility of his new companions.
The party was escorted into the dining hall and announced with full ceremony, to Jean-Luc's delight. They met Baron Winston, a fat, jolly man who was pleased to have their unexpected company. He took Jean-Luc around to meet the emmissaries of other nations, tactfully avoiding the delegate from New Braghney. The diplomats included some surprising folk, among them the not-yet-recalled human ambassador from the Whitelands, a well-groomed orcish ambassador who had heard of Jean-Luc and praised his exploits, and a Nethenist cleric from Irelia. The Ghantran ambassador was none other than Jean-Luc's cousin Alexander Stormslayer, the Marquis of Everdark, who 2nd Group had caused to be removed from his posting in New Braghney. The two greeted one another coolly, and Rondax commented that Jean-Luc's cousin never moved his teeth when he talked. The Ganlian ambassador also turned out to be a reassignment– Emily Suncrest, the mage who had planned to kill Jean-Luc in Irelia but backed out at the last minute. She greeted him and nervously moved away.
As Rondax (self-styled Ambassador from the Beastlands) arranged to have a dead animal, a servant, and a bowl sent for his dinner, the rest of the group was finally brought to meet the Winnebagan ambassador, Rayorik Entrine. To Bono and Tyke's astonishment, the man recognized them as being the leaders they had pretend to be, and landed Bono in diplomatic hot water by telling the baron that this was the president of Winnebago (to say nothing of increasing Jonathan's suspicions). Baffled, Bono and Tyke sat down at a table with this emmissary from a fictional nation and his entourage. They found that the man was well versed in every detail of Winnebagan history the two had conceived, including those no one else knew yet. The conversaion was interrupted by the angry orcish ambassador, who threw down a Winnebagan document: a pledge of support against the “evil orcish empire” by Winnebago which Bono had written but never given to anyone. The orc claimed that it was posted in every embassy in the Seven Baronies and demanded an apology for the slander of his nation. Tyke, jumping into his role, told the orc that he would not rescind his nation's position and refused to argue with him further; the orc angrily stalked away. Rayorik quietly whispered to Bono that perhaps it would be wise for Winnebago to establish diplomatic alliances with northern nations along the Gagnerian border in the event of orcish attack, and then introduced his entourage: his wife, a scribe, and his “security advisor,” a slick-looking man named James Black whom the group immediately distrusted. Scorpion attempted to read the ambassador's mind, and found that he had no mind; his wife, however, seeemd sincerely glad to be in the presence of her president, and the other two Scorpion failed to read. Harboring deep suspicions and uncertain what to do, the group sat down to dinner, as Rondax eagerly tore a dead goat apart before a horror-striken servant who caught the blood in a bowl.
Rondax, faced with the champion of the emperor, had little choice but to join him in battle. He attempted to talk the warrior out of his armor, challenging his honor; Saracen simply raised his visor, revealing no face underneath. Rondax selected a halberd to keep the heavily armored master of noren-la, the art of shortsword and longsword wielded simultaneously, at bay. Saracen was powerful, however, and quickly closed with the wemic. Rondax evaded him as best as possible with a series of clever maneuvers, but was badly wounded. He eventually managed to pin the knight, and the two struggled to the cheers of the crowd. Rondax attempted to chew loose his extra longsword in order to attack him while he was pinned.
Suddenly, the field of battle was disturbed by a puff of smoke, in which appeared a highly confused wemic. The wemic, a warrior named Tagnox, was summoned to the field of battle by Flontara the Red, a fire elementalist terrorist in the arena. The wemic, which did not even know where it was and was outside the range of Flontara's vocal commands, was attacked by the arena pikemen, and defended himself in spite of Rondax's calls to come to his aid. Meanwhile, Flontara cast a shout spell to gain the attention of her summoned wemic, bellowing for him to attack Saracen and deafening a good portion of the crowd. The emperor's guards, however, were unaffected by the spell, and raced to attack Flontara as Tagnox turned away from his attackers and leapt to Rondax's aid. Flontara, seeing the approaching imperial guards, broke out her ultimate weapon: a scroll of fireball. The resulting explosion killed 99 peasants in the stands near the emperor's box and threw the arena into chaos.
Unfortunately for Flontara, neither the emperor's guards nor his imperial box were destroyed by her fireball, and the guards broke out crossbows. She used a jump spell to leap atop the emperor's box as the guards tried to shoot her. Meanwhile, down below, Rondax and Tagnox jointly attacked Saracen, but the guards were closing. Ulashi, encouraged by Jean-Luc (who addressed her as “Hey, Evil” and went out of his way to disclaim any cooperative effort on their parts), attempted to fly out onto the field of battle, but Anterra, the Wumpee majordomo of the arena, stopped her with the ring which allowed him to control her through her collar. Jean-Luc, seeing Rondax rushed by pikemen, used his dimension door Earthgift to join them on the field of battle. Flontara, with nowhere else to escape to, turned invisible and jumped into the stands, waiting for the panicking crowd to disperse before attempting to flee.
As the arena descended into riotous panic and the crowds fled, the fighters were surrounded by pikemen. They realized there was no reason to continue fighting at this point and broke off combat. Anterra arrived and ordered all fighters present to follow him into a secret sub-basement to wait out the rioting. Tagnox, when asked how he had come to be there, professed ignorance and offered to come along anyway. The arena guards herded the fighters into a secret sub-basement. Wo told Tyke to wait outside until the crowds had cleared, then open the passage to allow the group to escape. Saracen left to attend to the emperor.
The arena gradually cleared, and Flontara made her exit, disguising herself as a beaten peasant and settling outside the arena. Inside, Rondax and Tagnox talked and were confronted by Anamma, the zebranaur gladiator. Anamma challenged Tagnox, who assured him that he seldom ate his people and would no longer do so now that he knew they did not like being eaten, which only infuriated the zebranaur more. Rondax headed off a conflict between the two, then went to soothe and stroke his friend the alu-fiend, despite Jean-Luc's criticism.
Eventually Tyke opened the passage and slipped in. Behind Wo, he opened the portable hole. At the same time, Flontara recalled the wemic she'd summoned and cancelled the spell, causing Tagnox to vanish. The guards present were sent by one among their number (who had also reclaimed Saracen's sword from Rondax) to search for the vanished wemic in the catacombs. While the room was thus emptied of official presence, Tyke cast a floating disk as a distraction. As the other gladiators watched it, Wo, Rondax, and Jean-Luc entered the portable hole, which Tyke rolled up and took away.
Offstage, Tagnox arrived back in his homeland and, his curiosity of the North aroused, immediately set off in that direction. Also, Bono, Prentice, and Marcallis rescued the comatose Scorpion and the group's animals from the arena and recovered their gear.
Outside the arena, Tyke opened the portable hole near Flontara to give those within air. Flontara, stil disguised as a beaten peasant, approached, and Tyke told her, “Beaten peasant, stay away!” When she did not leave, Tyke ran away, still invisible, with the hole, using cantrips to obliterate his tracks. While the hole was open, Wo managed to slip away unseen.
The party regrouped at the temple of Britigit, where a priest treated their wounds. Flontara, who was having an affair with the priest and had gone to the arena to commit terrorism under the aegis of Britigit, returned and saw the group; she rushed in to see what was happening and saw Rondax. Flontara and the Britigine cleric pledged their support to him for his defiance of the emperor and begged him to remain and join their resistance. The group declined, and the cleric went to arrange passage for them to Bornhem in the Whitelands, leaving Flontara in charge.
While awaiting the cleric's return, Tyke scried Baron Stormslayer and informed him of their situation. The Baron angrily appeared in the church, and denounced Jean-Luc for the embarassment his capture had caused Ghantra internationally. He ignored his nephew's protests and ordered him to return to Ghantra as soon as his quest was completed. Refusing to teleport the group to the Whitelands, he stalked into the shadows and vanished.
The group departed shortly thereafter, hidden in the hold of a cargo ship. A week later, they disembarked in the former fishing town of Bornhem in the Whitelands, now renamed Red Fang and patrolled by orcish troops.
The party went to the temple of Plon, where Jean-Luc presented the cleric who had quested him with the mock head of Checkmate. The outraged priest demanded an explanation, and Jean-Luc argued that he had fulfilled the letter of the quest and the priest had overstepped his authority in assigning the quest. Other members of the group attempted to intervene on Jean-Luc's behalf, including Rondax; the priest coldly informed them that they had no business getting involved, and that Rondax, a savage animal, should leave the church at once. The priest told Jean-Luc that he was going to arrange for the removal of his paladinhood. Jean-Luc challenged him to do so, and the group left the church.
A short time later, a contingent of orcish guards stopped the party, demanding their arrest for refusal to leave the church of Plon when demanded. Having no stomach for a battle in the streets with a heavily armed and well-trained team of Gagnerians, the group fled. Bono tipped a lobster cart in their wake, and the resultant streetful of crustaceans slowed the orcs enough for the party to gain a lead.
Suddenly, a door opened, and a young woman told the group to enter her home and hide. With no other place to go, the party entered, finding themselves in a middle-class home with a cathedral ceiling, a man in a rain slicker with a fish, a startled-looking fisherman, and two young women, one of who had pointed ears. The other woman, who had only slightly pointed ears, introduced herself as Natalia Angell, and the others as her mother, father, and neighbor Mr. Sloan. Natalia ushered the party into the cellar, where Rondax asked her why she had slightly pointed ears. In the meantime, the orcs arrived, and Natalia's flighty mother went outside to talk with them. The party, fearful of being betrayed by the scatterbrained woman, listened through the drainpipe; to their astonishment, she sent the orcs on their way and put a man on the street who had seen where they went to sleep before he could reveal what he knew.
The party emerged from the cellar and Natalia's mother invited them to stay for lunch. She praised Rondax's lion cub Nora, and broadly hinted that Natalia should get close to Jean-Luc, citing his nobility and his knighthood. After eating, the group asked Natalia's father to ship them away to Estivinia, but he said that it would be too dangerous due to orcish patrols of the waters. Natalia's mother suggested that Natalia escort the party to the edge of the woods and the road away from the town. Mortified but faced with little choice, Natalia agreed.
The group slipped out of the house, creeping among the alleys and streets to avoid detection, and managed to exit town without incident. At the edge of the forest, Natalia intended to leave the group behind…until a bush spoke up. She hastily said that there had been no speech, but the bush protested, and its occupant, a faerie in miniature knight's gear, emerged. The tiny knight, in spite of Natalia's attempts to stop him, revealed that they were related, and offered to guide the party through the forest ahead. He hinted that the forest may have been “modified” slightly in preparation for Natalia's sixteenth birthday. Natalia agreed to accompany the group through the forest until they reached the main road.
The party, accompanied by their reluctant guide and their eager faerie companion, set off. It was not long before Tyke was caught up in a faerie glamor and drifted into the woods on a floating disk. Rondax raced after him and tackled him, tumbling them both into a pool of water which was previously covered by an illusion. The group angrily proceeded, eventually coming to a fork in the trail; on the advice of Natalia, who saw faerie glitter over the left path, they went right. The group safely left the forest, and, leaving Natalia and her faerie cousin behind, continued down the road away from the White Coast.
In the present: The group proceeded west, coming upon a small town within a day. They stopped to buy supplies, and Marcallis, the only one among the party who spoke Bernish, learned from a shopkeeper that the Tedroxian border was about a week west and the orcs made border patrols on a weekly basis. He also said, to the group's surprise, that orcish rulership had been benign so far and even helpful, as the orcs allowed freedom of religion, created new jobs, and were planning to repair the nation's roads. For the next week, the group traveled with no incident on a lonely road, passing through a few scattered villages and camping out in the wilderness, where Rondax brought down an elk for food. Seven days after leaving Bornhem, they found an outpost located only two hours from the border. A merchant there told them that there were orcish guards at the border, and that he, unlike many of his countrymen, feared that the orcs would overrun Bernish culture and attack other human lands in violation of the Eyepoint Manifesto .
Outside the outpost, the group decided to split ways, with Rondax traveling through the woods with the party's taxable goods in his meat bags to avoid border duties, as well as the likely orcish interest in a wemic so far north. After two hours, the party heard shouting ahead on the road. Rondax and Bono crept forward, only to find a lone Ganlian human with a fauchard being accosted by six orcish border guards for crossing the border without proper identification papers. The man protested that his papers had been stolen by bandits; the orcs said that he was therefore weak and deserved to die anyway, and prepared crossbows to execute him for espionage. Bono alerted the rest of the party, and they moved forward just as the orcs were preparing to shoot the Ganlian. Jan-Luc admonished them to stop in the name of Plon; the orcs told him that Plon had no sway there, and that they were the legitimate force of law. The group protestefd the legitimacy of orcish rule, and and the orcish captain placed Scorpion under arrest. He responded with a mental attack; three of the orc fired their crossbows at the Ganlian and three at him, and the battle was joined.
Marcallis, who had been expecting an attack, cast a glitterdust spell, immediately blinding half of the orcs. Bono, who had been skulking in the shrubbery, was also caught, but managed to backstab one. Rondax leapt savagely out of the trees onto another, and Jean-Luc engaged the commander with swords. Tyke began casting magic missiles at the same orc, in violation of the honor code of both orc and paladin. Scorpion attempted to use his esper powers to double the pain of the orc stabbed by Bono. Prentice began to cast a bless spell, but was disrupted when an orc rushed him with a bastard sword. Manwhile, the Ganlian, who had dodged two of the crossbow bolts and had only been grazed by the third, moved into battle with astonishing grace for a man with a fauchard, following each sweep of the polearm's blade with a savage strike with the butt end of the weapon.
The orcs were difficult opponents, but the battle turned quickly in the adventurers' favor. Rondax savaged the orc he had engaged, leaving him a gurgling mass on the ground. Scorpion continued to mentally assault the orcs, downing another. Tyke followed his delayed-blast whistling magic missile (material component a dirty sock) with lightning strike and shadow bolt as Jean-Luc and the orcish captain dueled. Prentice assailed the blinded orcs with a flaming sphere, and the Ganlian cut a swath through their ranks with his fauchard. Meanwhile, Bono hid in the bushes, waiting for the magical blindness to pass, and Marcallis prepared a monster summoning II spell to summon allies. Two giant lizards arrived a short time later and killed another orc, as the Ganlian, Prentice, Scorpion, and Bono finished off two more.
Seeing that he was the last survivor, the orcish captain planted his sword in the ground and surrendered. The Ganlian tossed the sword back at him, refusing to accept the surrender, but the captain refused to fight again. He told the group that they could freely cross the border, and that he would report back to his commander to be killed for his failure. The group debated whether to allow him to return alive and risk another, larger attack force coming for them; Bono and Scorpion both attempted to knock the orc out, but failed. Th captain appealed to Jean-Luc's honor, offering a pass of safe conduct for the border, which he claimed was only a quarter-mile away. Jean-Luc allowed him to leave, taking the badges of his fallen comrades with him, as the rest of the party looted the orcish corpses.
They set off down the road again, accompanied by the Ganlian. His name was Jonathan Silkblade, and he said he was on his way to Ghantra, too; he ingratiated himself to the group early on, and was quickly accepted as a traveling companion. They crossed the border into Tedrox without further incident, thus visiting the last barony not previously penetrated by the group. For three days they traveled down the fairly well-maintained Tedroxian road until they arrived at the capital, the crystal city of August Star, just in time to see its glittering spires catching the light of an autumn sunset. Jean-Luc broke out his regalia, and the group entered the city in full ceremonial formation. It was only a short time before they were recognized and met by the seneschal of Baron Winston Strongwall, who welcomed them to the country and invited them to the baronial palace.
The group arrived at Diamondnight Palace, where they were met graciously and invited to a state dinner. Bono gave yet another new identity for himself, Austin Nighthawk, and Tyke identified himself as the Secretary of State of Winnebago. The seneschal was shocked by this announcement, and informed the party, to their complete astonishment, that the Winnebagan ambassador had arrived only two days ago, and would certainly be pleased to see him. Flabbergasted, Bono and Tyke made hasty arrangements to surprise the “Winnebagan” at dinner, as Jonathan, who had suddenly discovered a new name for Bono and a new government official in the party's ranks, pondered the credibility of his new companions.
The party was escorted into the dining hall and announced with full ceremony, to Jean-Luc's delight. They met Baron Winston, a fat, jolly man who was pleased to have their unexpected company. He took Jean-Luc around to meet the emmissaries of other nations, tactfully avoiding the delegate from New Braghney. The diplomats included some surprising folk, among them the not-yet-recalled human ambassador from the Whitelands, a well-groomed orcish ambassador who had heard of Jean-Luc and praised his exploits, and a Nethenist cleric from Irelia. The Ghantran ambassador was none other than Jean-Luc's cousin Alexander Stormslayer, the Marquis of Everdark, who 2nd Group had caused to be removed from his posting in New Braghney. The two greeted one another coolly, and Rondax commented that Jean-Luc's cousin never moved his teeth when he talked. The Ganlian ambassador also turned out to be a reassignment– Emily Suncrest, the mage who had planned to kill Jean-Luc in Irelia but backed out at the last minute. She greeted him and nervously moved away.
As Rondax (self-styled Ambassador from the Beastlands) arranged to have a dead animal, a servant, and a bowl sent for his dinner, the rest of the group was finally brought to meet the Winnebagan ambassador, Rayorik Entrine. To Bono and Tyke's astonishment, the man recognized them as being the leaders they had pretend to be, and landed Bono in diplomatic hot water by telling the baron that this was the president of Winnebago (to say nothing of increasing Jonathan's suspicions). Baffled, Bono and Tyke sat down at a table with this emmissary from a fictional nation and his entourage. They found that the man was well versed in every detail of Winnebagan history the two had conceived, including those no one else knew yet. The conversaion was interrupted by the angry orcish ambassador, who threw down a Winnebagan document: a pledge of support against the “evil orcish empire” by Winnebago which Bono had written but never given to anyone. The orc claimed that it was posted in every embassy in the Seven Baronies and demanded an apology for the slander of his nation. Tyke, jumping into his role, told the orc that he would not rescind his nation's position and refused to argue with him further; the orc angrily stalked away. Rayorik quietly whispered to Bono that perhaps it would be wise for Winnebago to establish diplomatic alliances with northern nations along the Gagnerian border in the event of orcish attack, and then introduced his entourage: his wife, a scribe, and his “security advisor,” a slick-looking man named James Black whom the group immediately distrusted. Scorpion attempted to read the ambassador's mind, and found that he had no mind; his wife, however, seeemd sincerely glad to be in the presence of her president, and the other two Scorpion failed to read. Harboring deep suspicions and uncertain what to do, the group sat down to dinner, as Rondax eagerly tore a dead goat apart before a horror-striken servant who caught the blood in a bowl.
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