Tags
Baxicurel, Cuina Yar, Desert Dragons, DND, Items, Ley Seren, Recap, Valandriel
Chapter Three: Part Three
- The heroes lured the hill giants into the narrow streets of Masana and take them out before they can reach the fort
- They retreated to the fort and stage a final defense against the gnoll horde
- The gnolls scaled the walls and eventually smashed the gates open
- Captain Marcella and the heroes faced off against the gnoll flind, an avatar of Yeenoghu, slaying it
- With the flind dead, the gnolls retreated
- The gnoll flind and his horde seemed to have been imbued with demonic energy
Chapter Four
- The heroes were called to Oriac, capital of Auranoch, for an awards ceremony taking place during the holiday, Dragonfall, to honor their defense of the city of Masana by giving them medals of valor
- The city was far from festive, with many citizens either dejected or openly discontent
- From their contacts, the heroes heard that strange suits of armor have been recently brought into the city in large numbers
- They find a secret stash of the strange armor hidden under a ruined neighborhood, but without any more evidence, they are unable to convince the Captain of a credible threat
- During the awards ceremony, blue dragons soared overhead and a man calling himself the Blue Dragon, who wore a blue dragon mask, launched a surprise attack to try to kill Lord Protector Silvaras Crowbourne
- The heroes fought enemies who were hidden in the crowd: monks, witches, and suits of animated armor, while trying to save Silvaras by freeing his step-brother, Corbin “Crimson Death” Sand, from a force cage
- They weakened the Blue Dragon, who teleported away, and freed Corbin who forced the terrorists to retreat
Chapter Five
- Nadira tracked some of the terrorists to a temple in an abandoned town south of Oriac, and the heroes were sent to investigate
- The town was in ruins and covered in giant spiderwebs, and they fought their way through giant spiders
- Inside the temple, they found it guarded by all kinds of undead and shadows
- In the library, they found the plans for making the animated armor
- Inside a dried up well, they found a magic dagger of venom
- At the top of the temple in the main altar, they found a man calling himself the Red Dragon, who teleported away after they weakened him
- Afterwards, they found a letter saying that plans were ready for the “other”, signed only by the letter ‘A’
Chapter Six
- They reported what they found to Lord Protector Silvaras, and he worried that these self-proclaimed Desert Dragons were targeting his sister, Valandriel
- She had been living in the Sun Elven forest of Ley Seren, and he tried to magically contact her, but she didn’t respond
- Silvaras teleported the heroes to the Sun Elven capital of Seren Tir, deep within the forest of Ley Seren, and sent them on a mission to locate his sister
- They searched the city for clues
- The Sun Elven citizens found their presence unusual
- They visited the Palace, but he Sun Lord Selendriel, Silvaras and Valandriel’s mother, didn’t have time to meet with them
- They went to Valandriel’s home and found she wasn’t there but nothing unsual
- At the Temple of Souladil, the clergy were eager to help Sir Gregor and told them that a new orc tribe had been causing trouble in the forest lately, and when they recently razed an entire village, Valandriel left to hunt them down a couple days ago
- normally she would have returned from an excursion by now
- With Nadira to track Valandriel and guide them through the forest, the heroes set off on their mission as the skies darken from gathering clouds
- They find the remains of a group of dead orcs
- They reach their first major obstacle: the bridge over one of the rivers feeding into the Cuina Yar is broken
- while crossing the river using an extra long rope, they are attacked by a hydra from the water
- It started raining
- They drew the attention of and slay a wild chimera and take some of its hide
- They enter orc territory, as marked by bone effigies and blood markings
- They encounter strange, diseased orcs that explode when killed; stealthy, assassin orcs; orc worg riders, and orcs leaders that inspire grunts to greater ferocity
- A Elven archer is being chased by orcs, and the heroes save him
- The elf says that Valandriel was captured by someone wearing a green dragon mask and another wearing a black dragon mask
- Inside an abandoned Elven tower, they fought a powerful ogre that even survived a brutal sneak attack from Declan
- While searching the tower, a hungry displacer beast attacked
- They camp for the night in the tower
- The storm grew worse overnight with wind so fierce it made ranged attacks difficult
- They find the site of a large battle, over forty dead orcs and about ten dead elves, with tracks leading in two directions
- They head southwest
- In the distance, a hydra’s heads rise above the makeshift walls of an orc encampment
- As the pouring rain would negate the hydra’s weakness to fire, they decide avoid the camp instead
- They find a woman, Aurani by her accent, walking through the forest with a body floating on a magic disc behind them
- She says that her companion is wounded and in need of treatment
- As Eliana goes to check the wounded, the woman, the Green Dragon, attacks
- While they fought, the Black Dragon, an agile, one-armed warrior wielding a scimitar, joined the fray
- Whenever anyone got near him, they could hear the death screams of thousands
- The fight was bloody, but they managed to drive the Dragons off
- The wounded woman was Valandriel, who was suffering from a poison that Eliana was unable to cure
- Seeing Sir Gregor, she asked him to take her extra sword: Baxicurel
The Sword of Heaven’s Wrath, Baxicurel
By your blood, lay low the wicked.
The legendary, holy sword recovered from the ruined halls of the Dark Elven city of Parsenthes by the Human paladin Devaul and his companions. When Devaul submitted to death and became a death knight, Harken recovered the sword and eventually gave it to the Dark Elf paladin, Zerefin Sindefear, the founder and first Lord Protector of Sanctuary. When Zerefin died at the Battle of Sanctuary, his wife, Ellestriel, took the sword and gave it to the Half-Elf paladin Valandriel Crowbourne, Myer’s daughter. And she passed it on to the Aasimar paladin Sir Gregor Gallows.
The legends say that Baxicurel can summon a pillar of light from Heaven itself and rend the land in two.
The Cuina Yar
The massive river that runs from the western border of Sanctuary, through southern Greyfell, and across all of Ley Seren before reaching the Locean Sea.