In the shadow of Argonth

With looks of shock and awe plastered over everyone's faces, the group is silent for a number of minutes. All stand and watch as the floating fortress slowly descends from the sky and slowly stops, one hundred feet above the ground and half a mile from them; directly between our heroes and the town.

"Wahey! It's the cavalry, we're saved boys!" exclaims Dirk, showing the kind of delight that dwarves usually only display when they find a new vein of gold in a mine. "Get me on board that thing and you can have your 1000 gold piece reward on the spot!".

"But what is it?" asks Hawk staring at the thing.

"And what magic keeps it afloat?" remarks Dua, peering curiously at the underside of it.

"That, my friends is our salvation!" explains the gaudy Dwarven merchant. "It's called Argonth. A wondrous creation of the finest House Cannith Artificers and it carries a whole bloody army on it. I've never actually seen it before, but i've heard tell of it. They used it to move troops and launch attacks from during the Last War."

As the heroes watch from their viewpoint on the escarpment, figures can be seen dropping from the underside of Argonth. Figure after figure, after figure, drops and floats safely to the floor where they begin to form into platoons of twenty and take up tactical positions on the ground. The figures all seem to be wearing similar armour, armour that bears the symbol of the Brelish Army.

Eventually around four hundred troops are on the ground, and they start erecting tents, putting defences in place and heading into the town in small groups. One such group turns and heads directly towards our group.

"One should speak for us, not all at once." Hawk states in his mono-sylabolic way. The group agrees and Avalon volunteers to be the spokesperson. Dirk points out that hopefully his Dragonmark might carry some extra weight in any discussions and ensure a fair hearing.

The group of twenty Brelish soldiers slowly march up the escarpment and fan out in a typical military style. One human male soldier, whose armour clearly sets him a mark above the rest steps up and addresses the group.

"I am Captain Tarran Suthwell of the Brelish Army. Who are you and what do you know about what has occurred in Vathirond?"


Avalon embarks on an exciting blow-by-blow account of how they awoke, discovered their dire situation and commenced their escape. He is only moments into the tale when the Captain rudely interrupts him.

"Look, I have an army to deploy here, I need the short version with just the facts. I need to make tactical decisions based on intelligence, not recite a camp side story to troops for morale."

Vaelas steps in, pulls aside his desert face mask and gives a one minute recount of the whole nights occurrences. The Brelish Captain nods solemnly and turns to issue some orders to his men. Ten of the soldiers dash off back to the new camp. He then addresses the group again.

"Until we can verify your tale and involvement in tonight’s events, and until we can ascertain that you're not a risk to this undead problem spreading, you'll need to stay here. I'll leave these men to watch you, for your safety and the safety of others."

Half-relieved and half-wary, the group take the opportunity to get some much needed rest. Avalon uses his knowledge, guided by his Dragonmark, to clean and treat everyone's wounds as best he can. The spring sun fully rises and they manage nearly seven hours of rest before Captain Suthwell returns and addresses them.

"We've confirmed your story with other reports from survivors and it looks like you're to be considered heroes for not only escaping Vathirond, but for managing to save six others too. If you'd care to follow me, you're welcome to join the camp we're setting up just outside the town." The Captain turns and heads back down the slope towards the growing number of tents gathered in the shadow of the floating fortress.

Avalon calls out just as the Captain is leaving. "Is there anything we can do to help?" The Captain looks a little surprised at such an offer of heroic generosity.

"Of course." He answers. "We have sorties heading into the town every hour to try and rescue survivors, destroy undead, put out fires and limit the structural damage. You're more than welcome to work with one of our platoons and assist however you can. I'll give you an hour to prepare and then send some soldiers to join you."

"What keeps the fortress afloat and can we have a ride on it?" Dua enquires just as the Captain is about to leave. The Captain eyes the kobold up and down, then planting his fists on hips he barely manages to suppress a sneer.

"From Darguun are you? What's your business in town? What are you doing here where such trouble is to be found?"

Dua, a little taken aback stutters a reply, "Er..I...er...yes. Darguun is where I am from. Quite a nice place in comparison to what I've seen of this locale, definitely more culturally diverse. Are undead plagues common here or have I come at a bad time of year?" Captain Suthwell merely rolls his eyes and walks away.

Given the moments rest, the group converge on Dirk and enquire, quite assertively about the reward that was promised to them. Dirk pauses a moment to think and then asks, "Seems as you're heading back into the danger zone, are you sure you want paying now? There's no point in that gold being lost to zombies or laying to waste on a street? I'm going no where, not until Argonth leaves anyway. I'll be here when you get back. Shall I hold on to it until you return, for safety's sake?"

The group cast quick glances at each other and almost unanimously decide to take their gold, two hundred each, there and then on the spot. Vaelas is the exception, and the elf decides to gamble and let the dwarf hold on to his gold for a little longer.

The soldiers that Captain Suthwell mentioned soon turn up and together the group head into town to help where they can. The streets seem safe at first with no sign of undead and plenty of other Brelish soldiers around to look after each others back. Things soon get a little more dangerous though as they head back into the depths of the town.

Hawk also keeps an eye out for any lost goods that might need rescuing from fire or destruction, and manages to scavenge a fine quality hand axe, a holy symbol of the Sovereign Host, two bottles of red wine and a few silver coins.

During the foray into Vathirond, Avalon takes a moment to ask one of the guards how the Argonth knew to come to the towns assistance.

"Well, I don't have all the details," responds the guard, "but I believe that the House Sivis enclave in Vathiron sent a message reporting some kind of attack or problem. That message was sent to various commanders and relayed to the House Sivis enclave on the Argonth."

Seeing a few perplexed looks on the groups faces, the guard goes on to explain. "House Sivis is the Gnomish Dragonmarked house of Scribing. They have enclaves in most major cities and as a result of the last war, in many major strategic locations too. For a five gold piece fee, they will magically relay a message to any other Sivis enclave on Khorvaire."

Over a period of five hours they manage to coax nearly two dozen refugees from their hiding places and escort them out of the town. They also destroy nearly twice that number of undead on their route. The extra man-power ensuring that they barely suffer a scratch in their fights.

By early evening the group finally re-emerge from the city and head to the Brelish army camp to rest and recover. They are allocated a single tent between the five of them and take a much needed rest. Vaelas does a quick search and manages to find Dirk, who has secured himself a two man tent and a nice meal of venison. Dirk returns the elf’s money when requested and agrees to come see the group when he finishes his meal. Shortly later, Dirk heads over to the groups tent.

"Well lads, looks like you did a reasonable job of rescuing me, and a good job of rescuing other refugees too. You could have a bright future ahead of you. In fact, I'd like to offer you all employment. I'll pay you each a two gold piece per day retaining fee, so that you're basically getting paid even when you aren't doing anything. Then i'll pay more on a job by job basis depending on what the job involves."

More than one eyebrow is raised at the thought of being paid two gold pieces per day for doing nothing. Apart from on Hawk, who raises exactly one eyebrow (his monobrow joins in the middle you see). The group unanimously agree to Dirks offer and slaps on the back are offered all round.

Gargamadua settles down to study the scrolls that the group found on the fallen half-elf mage outside the city gates. He also examines the two wands and ring at the same time. After a few minutes he has managed to decipher some of the scrolls.

"This one casts a web of sticky substance at a target and holds them in place!" He excitedly explains, waving one scroll aloft. "This second one will dispel magical effects and this third scroll that took me a long while to identify is ironically enough used to identify magical items". Dua then proceeds to use the third scroll on one of the wands and is pleased to discover that it is a wand of Resistance.

"Resistance? Hrm....and the ring has exactly the same magical aura around it, and was found on the same person. I think it would be reasonably safe to assume that what we have here is a ring of resistance!" The group nod in appreciation of the Kobolds skills of deduction. Hawk nods and puts the ring back on.

Avalon heads off and starts to ask a few guards a few questions. "I'm looking to send a message from the Sivis enclave on Argonth." He's disappointed to discover that the one on Argonth is for Brelish Military use only. He manages to find a guard known as 'Shifty Jim', who says he can get a message sent for triple the standard cost. Avalon agrees and pens a quick letter to be sent to his parents.

*Letter to be inserted here when Alan sends the DM a copy*

Meanwhile, Vaelas speaks to the rest of the group. "I'm a little concerned that our new employer doesn't have the highest morals in the world. He seems to be far too motivated by money for my liking." Others nod and agree to bear it in mind.

Half an hour later the aforementioned employer turns up and informs the group that not only has he managed to secure them passage out of the area on Argonth, but he has also found them a new task to take on. "The Argonth will take us to the nearest city, Starlilaskur 300 miles south-west of here, and that town has apparently been having problems with bandits in the nearby countryside. There's a bounty out on each bandit, so we're going to go in there and capture the lot of them alive!".

"How?", asks one or more curious individuals. Dirks just shrugs and smiles. Frowning a little, Vaelas probes for more information on the bandits.

"What do we know about them? Why are they doing what they are doing? Are just farmers fallen on hard times or perhaps they have a just cause that is being perverted?"

Dirk just shrugs. "I don't know why they're doing it. But the fact is they're breakin' the law, robbin' and killin' folks and that needs to stop. Plus I did say that we'd take them alive, more charity than they've shown some of their victims." Huffing and puffing in frustration, Dirk stomps off to his own tent.