Abadius 25th 17 - Once upon a time in a very very strange and distant land

The next morning the group gather their supplies in the courtyard as Vaneer begins to cast the plane shift spell allowing the group and their bundles of food to be drawn into a portal along with the “Harrowed” cards.

The group soon end up crashing into solid mud, picking themselves up they look around at their surroundings, the sky appears to look as if a child had drawn it, there was a wooded area nearby and a mass of tents which gave the appearance of circus.

Before they could decide let alone discuss what to do next the group could hear nearby a voice crying out in anguish “Come on guys! PLEASE stop!!! Oooooww!”

As they go to investigate the cry the find a little man dressed in white on the floor being kicked by a bunch of Tengus (Humanoid Crows)

The group step forward to try and stop the Tengus from attacking the figure on the floor but soon realise that they’d have to resort to physical force to stop the ongoing assault.

Miro stabs a Tengu(1) and seriously injures it,

“Kill Them! Kill Them! Kill Them!” Squawked Tengu(3),

Hugo attacks twice and hits twice killing off Tengu(1),

Vaneer attacks Tengu(2) and lands a hit,

Bob flanks with Vaneer and bites a chunk out of Tengu(2),

Natalia goes for an attack but misses her mark,

Otto magic missles Tengu(2) killing the creature,

Boss attacks Tengu(3) and manages to hit it hard,

Tengu(3) attacks Boss but misses,

Tengu(4) cartwheels behind Boss and successfully lands an attack on the fighter,

Miro flanks Tengu(3) and kills the creature,

Hugo moves into flank Tengu(4) and hits,

Vaneer also moves to hit Tengu(4) and smacks it in the beak,

Bob attacks Tengu(4) and rips it to death with a combination of bites and clawing.

Vaneer sets to healing those in the group that were injured in the fight as well as the now unconscious man in white whom comes round and thanks the group for their assistance.

They spend some time talking to the man and find that he works as a cook for a Lord Saseron and that outsiders to this realm tend to get eaten by this lord. Otto enquired about his daughter and the man confirmed that Lord Saseron did indeed have a young girl and that he wanted to eat the girl yesterday but couldn’t as he refused to cook her and so he had been kicked out of Saseron’s fortress.

Otto looked even more worried at this point but the man in white assured him that it would take months to find the fortress as it moves all the time. Though if they want to get there quickly then they’d have to collect the tokens.

Miro then draws his new toy (a holy weapon) with the intent to use it as leverage to interrogate the man but the plan backfired as when he saw the holy glow of the weapon he proclaims the rouge to be a hero and asks to kiss the hero’s feet to which Miro happily agrees to.

Upon further questioning the man divulges that there are 8 tokens in total which are held by the 8 conspirators, the first conspirator “Berniditty” is just over yonder in the central tent, he has a snout, backwards hands and loves to talk.

When they asked about the conspirators the man informed the group that there was a creator called ‘Sonnorae’ whom made the storybook world but 8 characters turned against her as the characters couldn’t change their story.

Miro tries to enlist the man’s help and in return he’d promise to make him ruler of the story land but man in white just returned a confused stare.

The group then decide to set their sights at the nearby tents and as they approach they instantly notice which of them was the central tent which when peering into they could see a very large cage at the opposite side covered with a cloth. There was also various animal acts performing including a stone type creature juggling and 3 bears riding around on unicycles entertaining what appeared to be a bored audience.

The audience notice the group standing at the entrance to the tent and begin to show interest in them shouting for them to perform something different.

Miro sensing his moment to be in the lime light decides to use his athletic abilities to perform a stunning acrobatic routine which has the crowd cheering and applauding for more whilst the other performers move to one side of the ring to allow the group to move through towards the cage.

AS they approach the cage they spot a door on one of its sides which was open and inside sitting on what appeared to be a naked man was a crocodile in a top hat and suit whilst stirring a cup of tea.

“Hello! And Welcome!! How are you? Please come in and have a look around!” boasted the crocodile.

Berniditty the ring master of this fine establishment as it turns out liked to talk…a lot!! Eventually Otto manages to work in the fact that the group are here to look for his daughter and the ring master pretty much repeats exactly what the man in white had told them previously.

Berniditty eventually admits that he does indeed have one of the tokens that could help the group but they would have to win it by proving that he is lying with only 5 questions as he likes to lie.

The group take a minute to have a think and discuss what they could ask to catch out the crocodile and decide to present Berniditty with an apple and ask if it’s a banana. To which he responds “Yes”

The group excited claim his response as a lie but the savvy crocodile says “ah but that is a banana in this realm unless you can prove otherwise?” to which stumped the group.

Dropped jaws in awe the group have to quickly re-think their approach when Otto says “How many fingers do you have on your right hand?”

Berniditty counts on his right hand and responds “6!, 5 visible and 1 which can only be seen by those with special vision like mine”

Otto then asks “How many fingers can we see then on your right hand?”

Berniditty then responds “4!”

Otto quickly dejects “No! We can see 5 like you said in your first response!”

The ringmaster laughs in delight as he reaches for a small gem which he offers to the group as reward to their efforts and offers to a map of the land to aid them in retrieval of the other tokens.

As the group exit the tent they are met by a very pompous Paladin whom demands that the group hand over the token so that he can use it to fulfil his destiny and defeat the evil of the land.

Before the group can respond the paladin suddenly falls to the ground unconscious with Natalia standing behind him with a large branch, they all look at her quizzically as she shrugs and responds “What! We were all thinking of doing it!” at which the group smirk.

Miro smirks even more as he then strips the paladin naked and drags his body back into the tent to offer the paladin to Berniditty as a new seat which the crocodile excitedly accepts.

With that little matter out of the way the group refer to the map they had been given and decide to head towards the briar which was an area of several miles covered in overgrown vegetation and thorns.

Eventually they happen across a silent clearing amongst the briar which was covered in crude banners and a garish colourful house. Whilst somewhere up in the trees a voice could be heard shouting “Be Gone! Be Gone!!”

Natalia notices a fluffy creature in the trees that when he realises he had been spotted jumps down in front of the group and appears to be some sort of Human/Rabbit creature wearing a make shift crown on its head (Rabbit Prince “Brambleson”).

Natalia remembers an old fairy tale she had heard as a child about a race of rabbit creatures where one rabbit wielded a broken sword that oddly enough matched the description of the sword the creature in front of them was wielding.

The group ask Brambleson about the creator and learn that the creator once had a scarf which is now held by Saseron as a trophy. The creator it appears was murdered in the prophet’s garden by the characters as they were bored of living the same story over and over.

When the group asked if they could have Bramblesons token, he responded with a yes providing they can catch him just as he uses a dimension door spell to move to the other side of the clearing and up a tree.

Otto laughs and casts a deep slumber spell which works on Brambleson and allows the group to get close and tie up the rabbit creature, when he finally awakes he reluctantly offers the group his token.

After spending some time talking with Brambleson the groupbid the rabbit prince farewell and continue travelling through the Briar till night fall.

Night fall in this land was different, it wasn't gradual oh no! like a childs drawing the drawn sun suddenly drops below the horizon and the moon suddenly flies into the sky with a couple of twinkling stars to match, the group decide to camp and rest from the days activities.

Abadius 24th 17 - The truth in the cards

We find ourselves in the Wyvernshore palace where little Edgar playing hide and seek with Helga.

Helga was hiding in a room of the west wing where the group had stored what was left of Old Beldame’s possessions after she had passed away nearly a year ago where she knocked over a box and discovered some playing cards, upon closer examination Helga opened the pack of cards and started to flip through them, just as Edgar entered to room to see a flash of light as the cards fluttered to the ground.

Not able to find his older sister young Edgar soon ran to his father Otto exclaiming “Father! Father! Helga has gone, missing!”

As Otto tried to figure out what Edgar was ranting on about the young lord led his father back to the room where the disappearance occurred whilst Edgar carried on spouting “Magic! Helga did magic just like father!” Otto now getting worried hastened his pace knowing that his daughter had no magic capability.

Otto enters the room with a pale face as he realises which room they were playing in and is confused as to how it was unlocked, as he enters Otto soon notices the cards on the floor as he turns to Edgar “What really happened Edgar? Tell me son”.

“She was doing magic tricks!” responded Edgar, “Then she was speaking to something but no one was there and then woosh!! She disappeared!” as the young lord started to get teary, Otto reached to his son and ruffled his head, “you did right Edgar, go find your mother and bring her here ok?” Edgar nodded as he rubbed his eyes and was soon running down the corridor.

Otto began picking up the scattered cards and soon found the pouch that the cards came from, inside the pouch was a strip of paper that read ‘Cursed! Do NOT use, Do NOT give away’ Otto muttered a curse of his own.

Margot soon arrived at the scene of the crime with a worried and confused look on her face, “Otto? What’s happened? Where’s my daughter?” she exclaimed.

“I don’t know!” Otto admitted as he slumped to his knees, “I’ve not seen these cards before but I think they are some sort of minor artifact that the old Beldame had in her possession” he continued.

“So what do we do?” Margot started to wail

“Summon the council; I need advice and answers NOW!” Otto forced himself up off the floor with the cards in hand.

Less than an hour later, the council and the group were sat in the council room where they had been updated with the situation.

Acolytes were sent to the colleges to search books and archives for any sort of information on the cards, “Can’t we just ask the Old Beldame?” suggested Akiros, “It won’t work” responded Vaneer, “She’s been dead to long and besides we’d need her body for me to get the answers needed but we cremated her” the cleric continued whilst shaking his head.

Towards the end of the meeting one acolyte brings back the results that the cards are unique and would cause travel to the Harrowed plane if the right cards were drawn, it was then decided that Vaneer would prepare his spells to allow him to send the group to the harrowed plane, in the mean time Vaneer casts a divination and commune spell to see if Erastil could offer any advice.

Divination – “A one way journey to a story book land, to return retrieve the tokens and scarf in hand, Bring food.”

Commune –

-         Is Otto’s daughter safe?

o       Not for long

-         What are the tokens?

o       Appearance of Gems

-         What are the main creatures of the plane?

o       No

-         How many tokens are there?

o       No

-         Do we need a token each to return?

o       No

-         Is the food we need to bring, just for us?

o       Yes

-         Is the scarf on the Harrowed plane?

o       Yes

-         Should we expect much resistance in rescuing the girl?

o       Yes

The group set in for an early rest so that Vaneer can prepare for the dimensional travel awaiting them.

Erastus 25th 14 - Ironing out the fine details

The following day the group and Lord Henry gathered with Aecora to discuss her request about what territories the No-men tribe should be given.

The meeting was short as the discussion went really well, the no-men we given most of the territories that they had asked for with only 3 territories to remain neutral between both the No-men and Varnhold where Dragonmere gets an overall ruling should there be a disagreement between both factions.

Late in the afternoon the group begin their return to Wyvernshore.

Erastus 24th 14 - The Fate of Varnhold Revealed

A large audience had gathered within the hall of Varnhold, all waiting for young lord Henry to appear and for the council on the fate of Varnhold to begin.

“Henry..” said Vaneer as they approached the hall, “I’d like to ask you something” he continued,

“Now’s not the time Vaneer” Alyanna interrupted,

“Wait, look I just don’t trust Surtova and I wanted to offer a casting of Discern Lies to help Henry see what is being said truthfully and what isn’t, Alyanna I can give you a casting as well?” the cleric continued.

“That isn’t too bad of an idea Vaneer! Any chance you could cast it on us as well?” pipped up Otto

“Well, gods willing that shouldn’t be a issue” Vaneer responded looking at Henry and Alyanna waiting for a decision from either of them,

“Ok Vaneer” Alyanna took the clerics hand, “Thank you, I know your just looking out for Henry but I think your right it might come in handy for Henry to know if anyone has deceit in their hearts.”

Vaneer cast the spell over the group, Henry and Alyanna and then they all entered the hall leaving both Henry and Alyanna sitting in the middle of the room surrounded by a circle of lords, ladies, diplomats and townsfolk all eager to hear what the young Henry decides.

Lord Otto begins the proceedings by delivering Dragonmeres proposal to Henry and the gathered delegates,

“Lord Henry, delegates and most importantly residents of Varnhold. I lord Otto stand here today as first to offer my sincerer apologies at the loss of your father and ruler Maegar Varn but not all is lost the Varn bloodline still carries on with Henry here.

Dragonmere has always been a friend to Varnhold over the years, so much so that even marriages between both kingdoms citizens have occurred” as Otto motions to both Vaneer and Alyanna.

“And..” the ruler of Wyvernshore continued, “Even though a member of my own personal council and close friend is linked to this fine town and its rulers daughter I would like to say now that this should not affect Lord Henry’s decision this day. As such during the days we have been here Dragonmere has been nothing but open to Varnhold and other delegates about our actions and investigations.”

“As a ruler I know that this decision is not going to be easy for Henry but if any advice I can suggest is that a ruler should always do what’s best for his subjects and not themselves. Though I digress, Henry, Dragonmere would welcome you and your citizens with open arms should you wish to join our kingdom and as such we would offer protection, advice, growth and stability though we would still offer the same should Varnhold decide to remain independent.” Otto continued,

“Though what ever Varnhold decides I would like them to know that Dragonmere would always see them as friends, though we would say that we do feel that Varnhold would not prosper under the protection of Restov and Surtova but if that is the choice you should make we would honour that decision” after which Otto returned to his seat allowing Lord Nirion to step forward with his speech.

“House Surtova would like to extend the hand of friendship to Varnhold and that should they accept our offer and join our kindom they would be received with gratitude. However Lord Otto may have brought peace to the lands with the Centaurs which is great news (lie!!) we would respect all pacts and wishes of Varnhold no matter what they decide” then Nirion took his seat,

The routine followed, delegate after delegate all seem keen to copy lord Otto’s words stood in front of Lord Henry spouting off truths and some lies until finally it came to the turn of the Centaurs.

War priestess Aecora Silverfire strode forward and greeted the assembled people and began to speak, “Greetings to all assembled here, my name is Aecora Silverfire leader of the No-Men tribe, lord Otto and his friends have earned our respect and friendship though I would ask that what ever happens to Varnhold that the ruler would seek council with us to negotiate the boundaries of our territory as well as allowing diplomatic channels to remain open between my tribe and the tribe of man” and then she returned to the place where she stood.

Lord Henry then stood and thanked everyone for their time and efforts, he would now retire to think through all that has been said and he shall return later today with his decision for all to hear and left the room with Alyanna.

Some hours had passed and eventually news got round that Lord Henry of Varnhold had reached a decision and requested all to reassemble in the hall.

With all the delegates assembled the young lord entered the hall and stood with all eyes focused on him, “Errr..thank-k you for coming!”

Alyanna nodded at Henry as encouragement to carry on,

“I Henry Varn have listened to everything you all have had to say today, I have spent some time thinking about what I feel is the best course of action for the citizens of Varnhold. To that avail I personally believe that the future of Varnhold would be better served under the banner of Dragonmere as I feel Lord Otto genuinely cares for the welfare of my kingdom”.

The chamber erupted in outrage and applause at the same time, eventually the room quietened as Lord Otto stepped forward, “All! All! Please! Lord Henry has made his decision and though some may of you may not be pleased with the outcome it is the outcome he has decided upon and we should honour that!

“Lord Henry, thank you for your kind words. Dragonmere welcomes Varnhold to the kingdom though I would still like you to rule over Varnhold but under Dragonmere’s protection and guidance, you are their rightful heir after all it would not be just to take that away” Otto bowed to the young lord whom smiled in return.

Sarenith 25th 14 - In the spirit of Openness

The group spent the evening taking watches over the young lord of Varnhold and no further attacks took place.

It was decided over breakfast that Vaneer would attempt a commune with Erastil to see if the nature deity could shed some light over the previous nights attack. Miro also decided to do some of his own investigation work around town and hired a number of children to take turns to follow the female that had shown such keen interest in Henry Van.

Miro’s investigations proved of little use, the children reported back that the women just wondered around town all day avoiding everyone and only ever seemed to talk her pet ferret.

The Halfling soon decides to break into the women’s room and rummages through her possessions only to find a handful of fine clothing and a small amount of gold proving to the rouge that she was of no importance.

Meanwhile back at the commune ritual the group had invited numerous town folk, young lord Henry and of course Lord Nirion to bear witness to the questions and answers in a show of openness and trust.

Ø      Were the Assassins hired by one of the Noble houses of Brevoy?

o       No

Ø      Were the Assassins hired by anyone currently in Varnhold?

o       No

Ø      Were the Assassins hired by someone from Drelith?

o       No

Ø      Were the Assassins hired by the No-men Centaurs?

o       No

Ø      Were the Assassins hired by anyone in Dragonmere?

o       No

Ø      Is the assassination linked to the previous attempts against Lord Otto?

o       Yes

Ø      Were the assassins hired by anyone from Ravenmoor?

o       No

Ø      Were the assassins sent by the clerics of Gyronna?

o       Yes

Ø      Will there be another assassination attempt in the near future?

o       No

Natalia sends messengers to Wyvernshore and Restov informing them of the evil cult of Gyronna and their attempts to assassinate various lords of the realm and requests that a purge of the cult should be instigated across the lands.

Sarenith 24th 14 - Crouching Mantis, Hidden Assassins

It turned out that the ring that Miro had given young Lord Henry yesterday was a ring of friendship to which the twin ring was currently being worm by Hugo.

The group were currently sitting in the Waterhorse enjoying a quick tipple whilst discussing the events of yesterday and what they would possibly say to Henry in less than a month’s time.

“I don’t care at the end of the day what Henry chooses as long as it isn’t that blasted House Surtova!” insisted Vaneer slamming his flagon on the table.

“Agreed Vaneer, but if that’s what the boy chooses then we can’t help it, all we can do is make sure that Henry sees everything for it is, we hide nothing from the boy nor Surtova that way they can’t use anything against us” responded Otto.

“Want me to stab them?” Asked Miro,

“No, that wouldn’t do us any favours” Otto said with a sigh,

“Hmmm, folks? Should this ring be hurting me?” asked Hugo as he looked at his hand,

Miro was picking up his flagon as he started to respond, “No, not unless Henry is being attacked”

He was halfway through his gulp when ale was suddenly sprayed across the table as the group rushed to their feet and hastily made their way to where Henry was staying.

As they approached the house where Henry was staying whilst repairs where being made to the fort the group saw Henry running out of the door towards them with an male elf in red armour chasing after him.

“Over here! Lad!!” shouted Vaneer to Henry,

“Where is Boss?” Otto asked as Henry got close and hid behind Hugo

“His inside fighting another” young Henry responded

“Give me the boy!” the elf said as he approached towards the group.

Vaneer in response casts a holy smite on the assailant and shouts “We need this curd alive for questioning!”

Otto casts Deep slumber but the spell fails to affect the Elf,

The elf suddenly stops and begins to change size and shape into that of a large red mantis.

Natalia suddenly remembers rumours of a band of assassins that wears red armour, that are hired anonymously and turn into mantis like creatures.

The mantis leaps and lunges towards Hugo.

Another assassin dressed in black suddenly appears behind Otto and attacks him from behind,

Miro moves to flank the mantis and hits the creature.

Natalia casts a fairy fire on the new assassin should she try to disappear as suddenly as she had just appeared,

Bob attacks the mantis and manages to hit,

Vaneer uses Skybolt to shoot at the mantis and hits,

Otto steps away from the female assassin and casts a hideous laughter at her but the spell fails to take hold,

The mantis attacks Hugo and manages to grapple the fighter,

Female assassin attacks Otto and hits him very hard,

Miro takes another swipe at the mantis and manages to sever the creature’s leg killing instantly and forcing him to return to his elven form,

Natalia casts flame strike on the female assassin,

Vaneer lets out a healing burst to aid Otto,

Otto attempts to cast hideous laughter again but the spell still fails to take hold,

Boss emerges victorious from his fight,

Female assassin attacks and hits Otto again,

Miro aids Otto and moves to attack the remaining assassin,

Bob joins the fight and manages to claw at the assassin twice,

Natalia casts a flame blade and manages to land a blow against the assassin,

Vaneer approaches Otto and gives his lordship a cure critical wounds spell to keep him fighting,

Otto casts scorching ray at the assassin,

Boss joins the fight and lands a successful blow,

Female assassin attacks Otto twice doing enough damage to drop him to the ground bleeding,

Miro saves the day by almost slicing off the assassins head with a well placed blow dropping the assassin’s lifeless body to the ground,

Natalia checks in with Boss to see what had happened whilst Vaneer tended to the wounds of Otto and Hugo as well as making sure that Henry was unharmed and safe.

Later in the evening the group also discoverer that there was an attempt on Lord Nirion’s life which also failed….just.

Sarenith 23rd 14 - Bad News is never easy but don't worry Uncle Miro will tell you about the Birds and The Bees!

We find our raga band group just a little over a mile away from Varnhold, in the distance the town could be seen along with a mass of tents that seem to have appeared around the outskirts.

“Surtova!” grumbled Boris, “They certainly don’t waste any time, do they?” said Hugo.

Otto sighed, “We’ll what do you expect from them snakes! Sorry Miro!” responded Vaneer, Miro rubbed his chest remembering the wound he received from his family spy at a young age before replying “Not to worry, that house is long overdue their comeuppance, I just would prefer it to be us that delivers it” as the Halfling smirked.

“I have an idea which will wipe the smugness of their faces” declared Natalia,

“Go on,” encouraged Otto,

“Well, Surtova are here to claim Varnhold as the citizens have gone missing right, so instead of releasing the soul jars that we’ve collected in town why not release them here and march into Varnhold with nearly a thousand citizens and declare that the No-men tribe helped rescue them?” Natalia suggested to the group.

Vaneer smirked, “It certainly would put the wind in their sails”.

So one by one the group took each Jar out of the portable hole and after a bit of time half of the Varnhold populace stood before the group where between them they explained what had happened to Varnhold with the lich and now that they had been rescued with the aid of the centaurs they are coming to home to find house Surtova is trying to lay claim to their lands.

And so they marched the last mile and about as a mass of near a thousand over the hills towards Varnhold, a sight that could not be missed even by the most sight challenged.

Shortly a small group of riders could be seen heading towards the group and greets them to enquire the matter of business that requires such a large number of travellers. Once the riders where informed that this group were the missing residents of Varnhold they agreed to escort them back into town to see Lord Nirion Surtova.

Nirion Surtova, cousin to the King Regent Noleski Surtova. A charmer with feathered hair and angular features exited a large tent as the group arrived in town.

“So! What’s this then?” Nirion expressed towards one of the escorts.

“Sir!, this is Lord Otto from Wyvernshore and his party sir! And hmmmm….” Responded the solider,

“Spit it out man!” Nirion demanded,

“And the residents of Varnhold sir! Lord Otto claims to have found and rescued them” the solider spluttered out finally.

Nirion’s expression noticeably changed from that of childish interest to annoyance, “Oh has he now??? well that’s great news, well done my Lord Otto.”

Otto smirked and waved the residents to return home, “Well we can’t take all the credit we did have a little help from the No-men centaur tribe to be honest”.

Nirion’s expression quickly changed to that of disgust and worry, “Well that’s……NICE! We had wondered where they had disappeared to and obviously wanted to make sure their town was protected for when the returned.”

“Obviously!!” snorted Miro

“Vaneer!?” a female voice shouted from the tents entrance.

The cleric looked in the direction of the voice and saw none other than his wife Alyanna and her youngest brother Henry Varn.

“Alyanna! You’re a sight for sore eyes! But what the blazes are you doing here?” Vaneer exclaimed whilst walking over to embrace her and greet Henry.

“I got worried, so we wanted to see what was going on” she replied,

“Have you been…” Vaneer started to ask,

“Lord Nirion has treated us well my dear so please no need to worry” replied Alyanna pre-empting her husband’s question.

“Though…” she continued “there is one worry, there’s this female that’s being trying her best to impress herself upon Henry but we can deal with that shortly, please tell us what’s happened, where’s father?”

Vaneer, Natalia and Otto began to recount the story of Varnhold and the events that led up to them making friends with the No-men and the discovery of the Lich and his lair to the fate of the Varnhold council.

Hugo then kneels in front of Henry and presents the youngster with his father’s sword.

“Don’t we think it’s a bit soon to be letting this youngling rule?” interrupted Lord Nirion “surely Lord Henry should wait till he is of age, in the meantime Surtova would” He continued …

“Surtova, would what?!” Vaneer aggressively interrupted “marry off a young boy without his knowing to usurp his rulership?”

“What! No never!, You just want to do the same for Lord Otto” exclaimed Lord Nirion,

“Ha! You wish that were true!” Vaneer then turned to Henry,

“Henry, listen. The path ahead won’t be easy but I speak the truth when I say only you can decide Varnhold’s fate. I can’t tell you which path is best, I would truly hope that you would either accept Lord Otto’s help or stay independent like your father did.”

The cleric then turned to everyone gathered,

“To that end, I would suggest that we give young Lord Henry a month to grieve the passing of his family and then a month today all those wishing to express interest in Varnhold can present their hearing to Henry whom then can decide the fate of Varnhold himself”.

“We will send an small number of guards to keep an eye on matters here and Lord Nirion you are welcome to do the same but under the instruction that no one tries any underhanded business to buy favour.” Finished the cleric,

“But…I’d rather you stayed Vaneer” squeaked Henry whom then looked at his sister Alyanna whom was still trying to hold back the tears of her fathers passing.

Vaneer looked at Otto and the Lord nodded in agreement, “Well, if the young lord requests it then who are we to refuse! We shall stay the month and make sure things return to normal” boasted Otto

Otto then turned to Natalia, “Could you send a message to Wyvernshore? Let them know what has happened and what is happening here, tell them know that we’ll return in over a months time and that they should send carpenters and builders here immediately.”

Natalia nodded and sent an animal messenger.

Lord Nirion insisted that he also be allowed to stay till the meet in a month’s time and the group agreed that in the sake of fairness this would indeed make sense.

Miro then handed young Henry a ring and asked him to wear it before taking the young lord away for a chat about the birds, the bees and the risks of strange women flinging themselves at you.

Sarenith 21st 14 - Your Zombie face and my magical mace!

As the group approached the Centaur camp they could hear the sound of war horns being blown in the distance. At the sound of the horns the group and Xamanthe rush over the hill to see the No-Men centaur camp surrounded by a hoard of 300 to 500 zombies shambling forwards with intent to attack the camp.

“Ah! I wondered what had happened to those Zom…” Miro started to say before being prodded by Vaneer who subtly pointed towards their Centaur companion whom was starring at the mass of undead. “Well let’s hope that Aecora got our message in time and that the hoard didn’t catch them by surprise” mentioned Otto.

“What message?” asked Xamanthe, “We saw a mass of zombies marching across a plains in the distance as we climbed death valley and as we wasn’t sure where they were heading we sent messages to everyone to warn them of the hoard” responded Natalia.

“Lets no waste any more time, my tribe needs help” said Xamanthe as she held out her hand to Vaneer in offer for him to ride on her back into the fray.

Vaneer and Xamanthe ride into the horde where both score hits against a number of zombies,

Miro charges in and hits killing another zombie,

Otto lets off a fireball at a mass of zombies,

Natalia casts a flamestrike at another mass of zombies,

The centaur force lets a folly of arrows fly at the zombies before engaging in close quarters combat,

So far the Centaurs had dispatched 200 zombies and the adventurers had so far taken care of 40 of the zombies.

A group of zombies attack Vaneer and Xamanthe with only one zombie managing to land a hit on Vaneer,

Another group of zombies attack Miro, again only one zombie manages to land a hit on the Halfling Rouge,

Vaneer lets out a burst of positive energy which destroys another 9 zombies,

Miro attacks 2 zombies and with such force that his blades manage to take out a total of 4! Zombies,

Otto lets off another fireball which takes care of another dozen zombies,

Natalia casts a lightening bolt which scorches another couple of zombies,

Bob finally charges into the fray as he jumps at 2 zombies and knocks them both flat to the ground before dispatching them,

Boss attacks and takes out a zombie and a half,

The Centaur force finishes the job as they dispatch the remainder of the zombie hoard without any fatalities.

As the dust of combat begins to settle cheers suddenly erupt through the air as the centaur force celebrate their victory as they and the group return to the camp for some festivities.

Through the evening the group and Xamanthe update the centaur tribe with stories of their journey to fight the lich and rescuing both Xamanthe as well as the citizens of Varnhold.

The centaurs begin to have a discussion between themselves which began to worry the group but shortly afterwards Aecora approaches the group and offers them their legendary bow ‘Skybolt’ as a token of the tribes friendship with Dragonmere and in recognition of all their hard efforts in showing that not all 2 legs are evil creatures.

The party continues till late before the group finally decides to settle in for the night.