the Mind Mage
2009-07-20, 02:32 PM
The events that transpired to bring you to your present predicament:
Fourteen years ago your world crumbled as the drow burned Lockwood Orphanage to the ground and slaughtered every living person inside. Only you three managed to escape thanks to the headmaster's heroic sacrifice. You swore vengeance and awaited the day when you would be strong enough to take it.
You had your chance a few months ago when Brock Evenstein, the guard who happened to be on duty that faitful night, was found alive and well near the town of Stillwater. You three came together again and pursued rumors to chase down and extract some answers from Brock. Instead you found a vile cult of the undead demon prince Orcus who had captured the soldier while they searched through an archeaological dig site. After slaying the cultists, and releasing Brock, he told you how he had been bribed to leave his station that night by some members of the Bright Eyed Company, slavers who controlled Blackspur, a city to the north.
Before you left Stillwater you attended to the dark temple of Orcus hidden in the forest. You destroyed every undead and evil thing that attacked you, save one. The high priest of Orcus bargained for his life, offering to give you information on why you specifically were selected for destruction. You agreed to the bargain and left the temple as he psychically imparted the information.
The high priest had been hired by the drow Matriarch Yssilth Felzzris to find three gems of antiquity from the old Vaelari Empire of the east, who were reportedly scattered throughout the New Kingdom. But as the cultists of Orcus searched for the gems while being paid in demonic servants and drow necromancy, they made a discovery. Every gem had already been secured by a cloaked figure with strange eyes that would shift from red to yellow to blue, and every other color of the rainbow.
While the cultists never did find the strange man, they did manage to dredge up some of his history. It had been seen throughout the New Kingdom for close to two decades, and its appearance would mark times of great turmoil. It had been seen at rebellious gatherings which were then crushed by the armies of the New Kingdom. It had been seen when the Feywild Courts had savagely massacred a town too close to its borders. And it had been seen when Narren reavers from the icy north came to raid and pillage villages up and down the eastern coast. In fact the only time it had not been seen at great upheavals, was its first sighting twenty years ago, as it climbed down the last galleon that left Vaelar before the Darkening. And in its care were three babes: a shifter, a gnome, and a halfling.
After leaving Stillwater you made your way to Blackspur. There you searched out the mayor of Blackspur for the truth. Eventually one of the mayor's aides sought you out and led you into the mayor's private bathing quarters, knowing that once you killed the mayor he would take control of Blackspur. You slew the mayor's elite guards and threw him onto the slick bathhouse floors while he quivered in terror. He spilled everything to you.
Fourteen years ago the mayor of Blackspur had been a brutal slaver and smuggler who subjugated tribes of Elves and orcs to sell them across the Bright Kingdom, whose citizens sometimes ignore the plights of non-humans, despite the Royal Edict of Equality. His slaving team were full of young humans who thirsted for adventure and sport, and he named them the Bright Eyed Company. One of his most frequent buyers were the dark elves of the south, the Drow. They paid him thousands of platinum for his services and asked him to create a distraction large enough that the invading dark elves would completely unnoticed. While the drow murderers assaulted Lockwood Orphanage, the Bright Eyed Company ran amok throughout Lockwood and burned nearly two thirds of the town to the ground and slaughtered countless innocents.
After the razing of Lockwood, the Bright Eyed Company had been paid enough to start their own city, a bastion of darkness strong enough to make the New Kingdom hesitate to move against it. But the intervening years had made the mayor fat and lazy. The man who had burned a city for coin was now a mass of blubber and sweat, nearly naked on the ground before you.
Before you could kill him yourself, the mayor's aide ran a poisoned dagger through the fat fool before dashing out and calling for guards to take you prisoner for the murder.
The rest of the night was a harrowing escape from a city full of dangerous slavers out for blood. You cut a swath through the bathhouse into the main city streets, but you could not stay hidden for long. Instead you used the time to go to the slave pens and quickly freed as many as you could. The newly freed slaves worked to open the rest of the pens while you three held off the city guards. Within minutes hundreds of slaves came to your aide and you managed to escape while the slaves and slavers fought and turned Blackspur into a city of chaos.
Within a week you received a royal summons from none other than King Leode of the New Kingdom. He had been touring the provinces and had been close enough to hear first hand accounts of your exploits in the destruction of Blackspur. This is not the first time he has heard of you. In fact the king has had eyes and ears following you since you routed the cult of Orcus. He even knew of the Wanderer and the gems you seek.
After personally thanking you and congratulating you on your bravery, he asked you to do a personal favor for the Crown: break the stalemate in the northern mountains between the royal army and the invading orc horde. In return he would provide you with two rewards: 3,000 gold Crowns and the location of the Vaelar gems the Cultists sought.
You travelled north and encountered the Greatstone Wall, the only thing that had repulsed the constant orc invasions of years past. But this time something had changed. The orcs were flooding the area, pressing in against the wall. The fact that they died by the thousands did nothing to dim the flood of orcs. Inch by inch they moved closer and while the royal army fought valiently, their numbers were as a drop of water against the ocean of orcs.
You decided to take the initiative by moving against the orc mines through a small passage west of the Wall. The orcs had been mining Abaddon's Mountain for residuum, allowing their goblin allies to invent strange and destructive alchemical weapons. Abaddon had been amongst the mightiest primordials in ancient days before the gods had imprisoned him in their war, and his boiling blood ran throughout the mountain. When it hardened it could be mined for extremely devastating magical ability.
You waited outside the mine's doors until a strange and impossibly large machine wheeled out of the mine, flanked by orc guards. You surprised the orcs by attacking, killing the orcs while the cannon blasted at you from turrets mounted on its side. Although the blasts knocked you down time and again, you prevailed by killing the guards and circling around back. You slayed the goblins who were inside and piloting the machine. You then turned the machine on the mine, blowing out the doors and eventually you managed to collapse the mine, killing every goblin and orc trapped inside.
You stare at the mine's wreckage at length, amazed even now at how thoroughly you destroyed the orc base. But soon your gaze is wrenched northeast, where you perceive large gouts of smoke coming from a distant mountain top. Even from hear you can make out the bellows of orcish cries. It seems the Warchief is on a warpath to your mountain, and taking his army with him.
Southeast lies the Greatstone Wall, with the majority of the orc army camped north of the wall, and the royal army doing what they can to keep them back.
East lies the Laelith Forest, where the orcs have a large slaving town and the elves work in chains. You've heard rumors of an elvish resistance, but have no way to verify the claims.
The Warchief's army is coming at you from the northeast, although a forested valley lies between you. There is a road cut through the valley connecting the two mountains. It looks as though you may be able to sneak through the forest, but it would mean risking being found by the Warchief's small army.
To the north lies the palace of the Overlord. You've heard the master of the orcs has strange powers and is the one responsible for the seemingly endless army, but you have no concrete information about him.
You have enough time to journey to one of these locations or go back to the relative safety of the New Kingdom's plains.
What do you do?
Fourteen years ago your world crumbled as the drow burned Lockwood Orphanage to the ground and slaughtered every living person inside. Only you three managed to escape thanks to the headmaster's heroic sacrifice. You swore vengeance and awaited the day when you would be strong enough to take it.
You had your chance a few months ago when Brock Evenstein, the guard who happened to be on duty that faitful night, was found alive and well near the town of Stillwater. You three came together again and pursued rumors to chase down and extract some answers from Brock. Instead you found a vile cult of the undead demon prince Orcus who had captured the soldier while they searched through an archeaological dig site. After slaying the cultists, and releasing Brock, he told you how he had been bribed to leave his station that night by some members of the Bright Eyed Company, slavers who controlled Blackspur, a city to the north.
Before you left Stillwater you attended to the dark temple of Orcus hidden in the forest. You destroyed every undead and evil thing that attacked you, save one. The high priest of Orcus bargained for his life, offering to give you information on why you specifically were selected for destruction. You agreed to the bargain and left the temple as he psychically imparted the information.
The high priest had been hired by the drow Matriarch Yssilth Felzzris to find three gems of antiquity from the old Vaelari Empire of the east, who were reportedly scattered throughout the New Kingdom. But as the cultists of Orcus searched for the gems while being paid in demonic servants and drow necromancy, they made a discovery. Every gem had already been secured by a cloaked figure with strange eyes that would shift from red to yellow to blue, and every other color of the rainbow.
While the cultists never did find the strange man, they did manage to dredge up some of his history. It had been seen throughout the New Kingdom for close to two decades, and its appearance would mark times of great turmoil. It had been seen at rebellious gatherings which were then crushed by the armies of the New Kingdom. It had been seen when the Feywild Courts had savagely massacred a town too close to its borders. And it had been seen when Narren reavers from the icy north came to raid and pillage villages up and down the eastern coast. In fact the only time it had not been seen at great upheavals, was its first sighting twenty years ago, as it climbed down the last galleon that left Vaelar before the Darkening. And in its care were three babes: a shifter, a gnome, and a halfling.
After leaving Stillwater you made your way to Blackspur. There you searched out the mayor of Blackspur for the truth. Eventually one of the mayor's aides sought you out and led you into the mayor's private bathing quarters, knowing that once you killed the mayor he would take control of Blackspur. You slew the mayor's elite guards and threw him onto the slick bathhouse floors while he quivered in terror. He spilled everything to you.
Fourteen years ago the mayor of Blackspur had been a brutal slaver and smuggler who subjugated tribes of Elves and orcs to sell them across the Bright Kingdom, whose citizens sometimes ignore the plights of non-humans, despite the Royal Edict of Equality. His slaving team were full of young humans who thirsted for adventure and sport, and he named them the Bright Eyed Company. One of his most frequent buyers were the dark elves of the south, the Drow. They paid him thousands of platinum for his services and asked him to create a distraction large enough that the invading dark elves would completely unnoticed. While the drow murderers assaulted Lockwood Orphanage, the Bright Eyed Company ran amok throughout Lockwood and burned nearly two thirds of the town to the ground and slaughtered countless innocents.
After the razing of Lockwood, the Bright Eyed Company had been paid enough to start their own city, a bastion of darkness strong enough to make the New Kingdom hesitate to move against it. But the intervening years had made the mayor fat and lazy. The man who had burned a city for coin was now a mass of blubber and sweat, nearly naked on the ground before you.
Before you could kill him yourself, the mayor's aide ran a poisoned dagger through the fat fool before dashing out and calling for guards to take you prisoner for the murder.
The rest of the night was a harrowing escape from a city full of dangerous slavers out for blood. You cut a swath through the bathhouse into the main city streets, but you could not stay hidden for long. Instead you used the time to go to the slave pens and quickly freed as many as you could. The newly freed slaves worked to open the rest of the pens while you three held off the city guards. Within minutes hundreds of slaves came to your aide and you managed to escape while the slaves and slavers fought and turned Blackspur into a city of chaos.
Within a week you received a royal summons from none other than King Leode of the New Kingdom. He had been touring the provinces and had been close enough to hear first hand accounts of your exploits in the destruction of Blackspur. This is not the first time he has heard of you. In fact the king has had eyes and ears following you since you routed the cult of Orcus. He even knew of the Wanderer and the gems you seek.
After personally thanking you and congratulating you on your bravery, he asked you to do a personal favor for the Crown: break the stalemate in the northern mountains between the royal army and the invading orc horde. In return he would provide you with two rewards: 3,000 gold Crowns and the location of the Vaelar gems the Cultists sought.
You travelled north and encountered the Greatstone Wall, the only thing that had repulsed the constant orc invasions of years past. But this time something had changed. The orcs were flooding the area, pressing in against the wall. The fact that they died by the thousands did nothing to dim the flood of orcs. Inch by inch they moved closer and while the royal army fought valiently, their numbers were as a drop of water against the ocean of orcs.
You decided to take the initiative by moving against the orc mines through a small passage west of the Wall. The orcs had been mining Abaddon's Mountain for residuum, allowing their goblin allies to invent strange and destructive alchemical weapons. Abaddon had been amongst the mightiest primordials in ancient days before the gods had imprisoned him in their war, and his boiling blood ran throughout the mountain. When it hardened it could be mined for extremely devastating magical ability.
You waited outside the mine's doors until a strange and impossibly large machine wheeled out of the mine, flanked by orc guards. You surprised the orcs by attacking, killing the orcs while the cannon blasted at you from turrets mounted on its side. Although the blasts knocked you down time and again, you prevailed by killing the guards and circling around back. You slayed the goblins who were inside and piloting the machine. You then turned the machine on the mine, blowing out the doors and eventually you managed to collapse the mine, killing every goblin and orc trapped inside.
You stare at the mine's wreckage at length, amazed even now at how thoroughly you destroyed the orc base. But soon your gaze is wrenched northeast, where you perceive large gouts of smoke coming from a distant mountain top. Even from hear you can make out the bellows of orcish cries. It seems the Warchief is on a warpath to your mountain, and taking his army with him.
Southeast lies the Greatstone Wall, with the majority of the orc army camped north of the wall, and the royal army doing what they can to keep them back.
East lies the Laelith Forest, where the orcs have a large slaving town and the elves work in chains. You've heard rumors of an elvish resistance, but have no way to verify the claims.
The Warchief's army is coming at you from the northeast, although a forested valley lies between you. There is a road cut through the valley connecting the two mountains. It looks as though you may be able to sneak through the forest, but it would mean risking being found by the Warchief's small army.
To the north lies the palace of the Overlord. You've heard the master of the orcs has strange powers and is the one responsible for the seemingly endless army, but you have no concrete information about him.
You have enough time to journey to one of these locations or go back to the relative safety of the New Kingdom's plains.
What do you do?