Midnight RPG - Chapter 43.473

Andrew

I meant to ask you about this earlier ... hopefully there's still time to get it done before the end of the week.

One of the big questions I'll have going into this confrontation with Diero and crew is what they want. I may be wrong, but I don't know that this means combat, at least not right away. If they just wanted us dead, the dragon could have easily strafed us from the air. So I'm guessing they want something else.

GM Commentary

Confrontation with Diero... You're right. It may not be what they want. However I'd offer that:

• for all intents and purposes when last you met you nearly killed him, grusomely!
• his "rejuvination" wasn't easy or without pain/sacrifice and it took all these months, he's had time to build hate.
• the first time he met you slaughtered his guard and his "torphies" coming out of the Aruun, he barely got away.
• Kyuad flatly said fuck you about him asking to court Collune.
• His master is looking for you...
• and Izrador has finally been roused to your "legend"

There's a good chance he's looking to kill you or beat you soundly (before doing who knows what)...

It's true the dragon could have just strafed you from the air. However, a couple things.

• Diero wants you to know why and by whom you will be defeated.
• The dragon's fear effect is important to this dragon "the Vanguard" (even though it doesn't know some of you may not be effected). So landing and intimidating is the "surprise round" effectively that we'll begin on next game.

For sure this MIGHT not come to a battle. However, if it does it will be more about gloating and posturing from Diero and then tactics from the Dragon once it understands your capabilities. IF it does become a battle... Oh to be SURE this WILL be a truly "real" and smart dragon tactic battle.

Andrew

The obvious question, then ...

at any point during the torturing of Collune, the trip to the mirror, or the journey through the mirror to the North, did Diero or Vanguard ever mention what they were headed up here to do?

GM Commentary

Here is a "timeline" of the events that follow that box.

The wood and iron straps of the box were first assembled in a small carpenters home/shop just north of Eisen. This is it's "birth" as a portal for Durgaz's sight.

That shop was raided in tax collection by a deformed Erenlander minor priest of Shadow and his goblin/hobgoblin guard. The box-maker was nailed to the roof of his shop for having unlawful tools found in a hollow anvil. He was not dead, but was being attacked by crows of the north when the tax-collector band road away.

The trip north zig-zagged back and forth along the Road of Ruin. The tax-collector's band never ventured more than 5-6 miles from the road, keeping in sight as much as possible of the Shadow Highway as they grew "richer" with booty collected.

Entering the squallor entrances to the hell on Aryth that is Eisen finally, the tax-collector bartered off as much of his collection as he could for food and safety while in the tortured village. Eisen was furious at this time, as it seemed many "runners" with news from the Erethor and Gamerillian front were returning to the FeyKiller.

The box was handed over to a hobgoblin that used if for several weeks to stand victims on as he hung then flayed them.

Left to rot with blood, Edgar Chander (the Ungral) grabbed the box up some weeks later where he brought it to his master's horse band.

From Eisen it followed the Road of Ruin, occassionally stopping at hostels and villages - the Legate band taking food/bedding and searching for a group fitting your descriptions.

This led the box and the band to Baden's Bluff, where rumors that Diero recognized as sounding as though your group could be involved led him on the Road of Salt and Tears, beyond and into the Erethor. It was in the Bluff that Diero was "traded" a pack of bloody-blood-thirsty mountain hounds bartered for information given to a gaunt man with skin stretched over his frame of a mix of Dorn/Sarcosan descent (stangely similar in "look" to Kyuad actually as far as his gauntness).

Into the Erethor and the Green March they travelled looking for the Legend...! Diero found Shealgruf's legion coming down from "retaking" (for the moment) the Gauntlet (to prove that he could) for the Legates of the Rivers Fang. The box then travelled (hanging from one of the Bloody Borther's hourses) Diero south nearly 100 miles from the forest edge. There the box saw the deal struck with One-Arm... THIS would be glorious he told the general! While he described as much as he knew to the Legend, Diero actually either held back or truly knew little about your heroic group. He spoke much of Kyuad and (you) Durgaz, but only minor descriptions of an Elf and the fact they were corrupting other shadow priests for your resistance cell (ie. Zal and Ahemia who resembled Legates!).

Diero watched the Battle for First-Hold, holding the Bloody Brothers Chander from rushing in. He chose a small stock from the Hobgoblin "Trigger" unit at this time. And following the battle gone badly retreated with them and the other Legate Clerics into the deeper Erethor.

For weeks they waited and evaded.

Finally Diero ordered the Brothers to sneak in and capture people/families, etc... Until he could get something of use.

Once gathering this "distraction" he sent the Hobgoblins and Legates toward the northern shore (as well as sending Neega to find the Vanguard) to create a distraction to get the Black Mask orcs to move away from First-Hold. Where he then offered a barter to First-Hold: Collune for the families he'd captured. Collune freely gave herself.

Used to stand Collune on as she was tortured, her blood and intestines running down the box... It was finally given the contents of the woman's head.

Travelling out of the forest and up the Road of Ruin, they road hard to the Bluff. There in town, the aftermath of the Death of Zaindal was crazed. Diero used this confusion to find his way into a hidden temple where he merged with the twin-Mirror of the Bluff.

Burned of any flesh and blood spilt on it from the mirror's power, the box would have emerged in the cradle of the Eye of Shadow. Gasterfang. But it didn't... Diero tossed it from the "Grey Realms" (this unholy Path of Dal Colia) into the Cold Downs as he watched Anaximath pass over your band of heroes!

And now the remaining bits of it lie where it fell (I assume you took a part of a board from it or something).

During the torturing of Collune, while the box was at the feet of her "torture rack" and the Bloody Brothers Chander were nearly finishing having their way with here... In the near background you could hear the conversations of the Legate Diero and Anaximath the Vangaurd. They spoke as if newly built allies. A deal was struck. It seemed the Dragon was actually prompted into taking the deal from Diero's intimidation regarding HIS master's wishes...
This exchange did seem to support a "barter" that could be had... One thing that Diero would accept that he told the Vanguard...

"...capturing the Lich 'alive' if possible... dead if necessart, but the BODY must stay intact... the Priest seeks to examine it."

... is the agreement that the dragon agreed to.

You are free to dig deeper in any of those areas if you like. Just ask any questions and I'll direct the "conversations" as you like.

Andrew

I'll definitely be going into some of that in more depth, but first: I recently gained Legend Lore as a new Seer path ability, which might be handy for learning more about the Vanguard.

In order for this to work, we may need to clarify some stuff ... namely, whether or not having several days' worth of detailed visions qualifies as having the subject of the spell "at hand". (If it's not, the usefulness of this ability takes a pretty big hit ... a useable-once-per-day ability that takes 1d10 days to use isn't the best.) If it is, I'd still need to have devoted 1d4x10 minutes to the casting ... but it's probably not too unreasonable to retcon that the spell was actually cast the night before, in the castle, when Durgaz was "reading" the box in the first place. At that point, he did already know about Vanguard and would have identified him as the biggest threat (perhaps wrongly), so it would have made sense for him to research his enemy.

If all this seems like too much stretching, no biggie. I do think it'd be cool, though.