The curtain hid more than the group had first realised,
beyond was a large natural cavern where a glowing placid pool of water took up
about a third of its right hand side.
Within were three occupants eagerly waiting the groups
arrival, Irovetti being the coward he was, was at the far end of the cavern
between him and the group stood General Jurrg and a spirit Naga was happily
floating above the pool with menace in its eyes.
Vaneer tries to convince the General and the Naga that they
need not participate in this fight but his words went unheard.
Miro takes the charge as he uses his ring of invisibility to
tumble past the general,
Hugo charges at the general and manages to land two blows,
The general manages to cast a Haste spell,
The Spirit Naga casts chain lightening at the group hitting
all except Miro,
Vaneer cast Holy Smite on both the General and the Naga,
Irovetti creates another image of himself and then they both
start to sing,
Otto casts Haste,
Boss shoots at the general and hits him three times,
Bob bursts into a rage and charges the general hitting him
hard,
Natalia starts casting a spell,
Miro attacks the general from behind with such surprise that
all three of the halflings attacks find vital points killing the general
instantly,
Hugo throws an alchemists fire over the General to make sure
he doesn’t regenerate any of this wounds,
The Naga casts Baleful Polymorph at Miro but the spell fails
to take hold and then followed it up with a quickened scorching ray which does
hit,
Vaneer casts flamestrike on the Naga and hits for little
damage,
Irovetti moves towards Miro, swings his sword at Miro’s
rapier and destroys it completely leaving the Halfling standing in shock as he
looks at the hilt still in his hands,
Otto casts finger of death at Engalladis (Spirit Naga) but
the spell fails to affect,
Boss shoots at Engalladis but misses,
Irovetti attacks and injures Bob massively,
Natalia’s spell completes as a Dire Lion appears,
Dire Lion attacks Irovetti but fails to land a single blow,
Irovetti attacks the Lion and injures the creature severely,
Natalia casts Baleful Polymorph on Irovetti but the spell
fails to take hold,
Miro uses his mace to attack Irovetti and manages to land
two blows,
Hugo also attacks Irovetti but misses,
Irovetti attacks and hits Hugo hard,
Engalladis casts Wall of Force which blocks Otto and Natalia
from entering further into the cavern followed by a quickened scorching ray at
Vaneer which hits,
Vaneer casts Greater Dispel magic on Irovetti but the spell
fails to take effect,
Irovetti attacks Miro twice dropping the Rogue to the floor
in a bloodied mess,
Irovetti attacks Hugo and hits him hard as the fighter
struggles to stay on his feet,
Otto casts finger of death on Engalladis but fails to hit
the Naga,
Boss shoots at Engalladis and hits twice,
Bob attacks Irovetti but misses,
Natalia flamestrikes Engalladis which hits but does little
damage,
Miro Gurgles as death circles ever nearer,
Hugo attacks Irovetti but misses,
Engalladis casts Heal on herself,
Vaneer moves in closer to Irovetti and casts Heal on Miro,
Irovetti attacks Vaneer but luckily misses,
Irovetti attacks Miro, Hugo and Bob in a whirlwind display
hitting all three and drops Hugo to the floor,
Otto tries to cast Finger of death on Irovetti but fails,
Boss shoots at Irovetti but each arrow misses,
Bob foaming at the mouth still fails to hit Irovetti,
Natalia casts greater dispel magic on Irovetti which seems
to do something as his double disappears,
Miro tumbles to behind Irovetti and lands a blow,
Engalladis casts chain lightening again getting all except
Miro and Hugo,
Vaneer casts a healing burst,
Irovetti attacks Vaneer and Miro but misses both,
Otto uses dimension door to allow himself and Natalia to get
past the wall of force,
Boss switches to his human bane bow and Shoots at Irovetti
landing a hit,
Bob attacks Irovetti and hits twice,
Natalia cast dispel magic on Irovetti which appears to make
the Pitax King look weaker,
Miro attacks Irovetti and lands three massive blows,
Engalladis casts scorching ray at Miro and hits followed by
a quickened Magic missile which brings the Rogue to a stagger,
Vaneer takes the decision to cast cure critical on Miro whilst
Hugo passes away with wounds too heavy to heal,
Irovetti attacks both Vaneer and MIro, hitting both but
drops Miro back to the floor,
Otto casts chain lightening on Irovetti and Engalladis,
hitting both,
Boss shoots at Irovetti where the arrow finds its target and
drops the Pitax King.
As Irovetti falls to the floor the Naga’s demeanour changes
to that of confusion as if it had been under some sort of enchantment or
control, as soon as she sees the party readying weapons towards her she agrees
to leave in peace.
Natalia and Vaneer then set to work healing the group as
best they can with what spells they have left.
Before leaving Engalladis hinted at a secret door in the
pool that might be of interest to the group, so once wounds were suitably healed
the cleric casts Water Breathing on himself and enters into the pool.
After sometime the cleric does find a hidden underwater door
which lead into an underwater grotto with white rose shaped crystals protruding
from the walls and a long object wrapped in some sort of cloth was floating in
the middle of the grottos water.
Looking at the crystals, Vaneer works one free from the wall
as it then crumbles in his hands and so decides to leave the crystals be.
His attention now on the long object in cloth, Vaneer
unwraps the cloth which he soon realises is the shawl that they have been asked
to look for and wrapped within it was a magic sword that he did not recognise
but soon discovers it is ‘Briar’ which also belongs to the owner of the Shawl.
Once Vaneer remerges from the pool and the others had
finished checking the cavern and Irovetti’s room the group head up stairs in
search of their off spring.
The group find the prison with ease and it is decided to
send Natalia shaped shifted as a mouse and an invisible Otto down the stairs to
the prison to see if they can pick off or lure some of the creatures guarding it
back up to the rest.
The prison guards being a number of hell hounds and a ugly
looking gargoyle are barraged with Black tentacle, confusion and fire breath
spells which after a short period of time wipes them out allowing the prisoners
to be rescued.
News is then spread of Irovetti’s defeat as the group lay his
body to rest in public for a day as proof to the citizens of Pitax.
Before even the day was out or the group even fully
recovered the four remaining noble houses of Pitax had each sent individual
requests for audiences with the Otto and the group to discuss the future rule
of the city.
The group knew there would be bickering and backstabbing
going on so they arranged to meet all four houses at the same time in a show of
honesty and openness to which they agree to.
In the meantime however Miro, Vaneer and Natalia take to the
streets to talk to the populace about the houses and what their opinions are of
them.
The Liacenzas family were tough by reputation and they also
protected their interests first above all else, they were the previous rulers
of Pitax for 40 years which had been earned through trade.
The Vascaris family owned the docks and shipping companies,
they have quite a bit of influence because of their shipping ties.
The Strocalles family are apparently not to be trusted and
are only interested in profits and are known to have criminal ties.
The Cattanei Family is a failing house, they would love to
come to power so they could use it to revive their name.
Before the meeting the group gather and discuss their thoughts
and opinions on the future of Pitax, the conversation doesn’t take long but
they bring forth a plan that they feel is amenable to everyone’s interests.
The meeting is gathered in public and as expected the noble
houses shouted and tried to back stab each other in hopes they would make
themselves stand out as the next suitable rulers of Pitax.
Otto steps forward and waits for the crowd to quieten before
announcing that Pitax would now fall into the Kingdom of Dragonmere but Pitax
would not be ruled locally by one ruler.
“The Council of Nine” is what we call it,
The Nobel houses again argued and complained but the
citizens cheered, again Otto waited for the noise to quieten before explaining
further.
Pitax would be ruled by Dragonmere via Wyvernshore aka Otto,
but generally rulership and day to day control would be controlled by the
council of nine. The nine would sit in power for 4 years at which point if the
council seems to work then it would remain.
The Nine are made up as follows,
1 representative from each of the 4 noble houses,
2 Citizens of Note and Trust (nominated by the populous of
Pitax each year)
1 nominated citizen from the populous of Pitax (to be voted
for each year),
1 representative from Wyvernshore which will alternate
yearly from the groups offspring whom will remain here to form part of the
cities protection, development and link to the council of Wyvernshore.
The Council will be headed by a chairperson nominated from
the Nine but can only server as chair person for a year to prevent corruption
and under handedness.
As expected the citizens where cheering in happiness whilst
at least two of the noble houses looked a little pale and worried at what had
been proposed.
Whilst the city celebrated in its new found freedom the
group retired to recover from the strains of the day.
