The Bastards of Erebus Sewers of Westcrown Our heroes have come to the attention of a group of freedom fighters (or terrorists, depending on your point of view) who are planning to win freedom from the oppressive regime by being nice to people. As they go about their lawful business, each is approached by a young lady, requesting that they attend a dinner meeting that evening at Vizio's Tavern. Gorac and Opal went directly there and arrived promptly on time, soon joined by Ethaldrin who had taken a more circuitous route to avoid being followed. Meanwhile, the paranoid Roderick broke into the upstairs of the tavern to eavesdrop. After eating, Janiven explained that her purpose was to gather a group of like minded citizens to try to improve the lot of the citizens of Westcrown. As her speech came to an end, there was a frantic knocking at the door and Morosino, a human child, burst in, wide eyed and frantic (probably dazed and confused as well). At this point, Roderick made his presence known, which nearly turned unpleasant as everyone drew weapons, until Janiven said he had also been invited. Morosino told them that someone called Arael had been captured and the Hellknights were on their way! Janiven lead them out through a secret door as the clanking of full plate approached the inn and they made their way into the sewers, to get to a safe house. Unfortunately, it swiftly became clear that someone had tampered with the markings that showed the way and they became lost. However, apart from a brief run in with some Hellknight Armigers, they made good progress. They continued to roam the sewers, encountering ambush skeletons, very poor goblins and then some mushrooms. As they approached the mushrooms, they began to shriek (the mushrooms, that is) and the air grew very cold. Moving forward, both Gorac and Ethaldrin succumbed to the bone numbing cold. Opal rushed in to drag them clear but was overcome herself. As they started to freeze to death, Janiven started to drag them to saferty one by one, while being force fed potions of cure light wounds by Roderick to keep her on her feet. They continued to search the sewers for their escape route, facing the challenge of Zombies and a weird shadowy beast, before finally Janiven identified the sewer exit to the safe house and they made their way out. Gaolbreak They ate and washed and scoured the safe house for armour maintenance equipment, all the while listening to the rest of the resistance arguing over the name of their organization. Once everyone was recovered from their ordeal in the sewers and introductions had been made, they settled in, at Janivens insistence, to plan the rescue of Alael, who they learned was to be moved the next day to the Order of the Racks stronghold. The eventual plan was for Janiven and the others to pretend to be bandits and draw of the guards, while the party dealt with those on the wagon and effected the rescue. A bridge fording a stream was chosen as the best spot for this daring raid. The first part of the plan worked well and the mounted guards charged away off up the road, dreaming of glory. The second part was a little less successful, as the wagons remaining guards proved to be ferocious fighters, felling Ethaldrin almost immediately, with Gorac swiftly following suit (several times). However, in the confusion, they managed to overwhelm the guards and their leader and rescue the imprisoned resistance leader. Shadow Hunt They repaired to the safe house, with Sigismund vanishing to his secret paths while the others moved Arael. Once there, once proper introductions had been made and congratulations offered, Arael advised they lie low for a while until the consequences of his rescue became clear. It wasn't long until they learnt that the city and the order of the rack where having a political row, with the city pointing out that the rescue happened outside of its jurisdiction and was therefore not its problem and that perhaps the order should maintain law and order rather than chase invisible terrorists - this went down badly with the order. After a few days, Arael asked them to visit him and he explained that a poor area of the city near the docks was being ravaged by a shadow beast and that it would look good for the newly formed resistance if the scourge was ended by them. As the only fighting force available to the resistance, he asked our heroes to help, to which they agreed with varying degrees of enthusiasm - until it became known that an anonymous lady was offering a reward. They staked out the docks that night initially with little success. Ethaldrin found a local drinking establishment and discovered the location of the nearest and most recent attack. They tracked the beast to a sewer entrance (which came as a surprise to them) and set off to beard it in its lair. This proved to be an abandoned warehouse near the dock front, which they entered via the toilets from the sewers. As they explored the cluttered building, they came under attack from not one but two shadow beasts, which caused them some difficulties but were eventually brought down. They left the bodies where the mysterious lady had asked and soon after, in dark mysterious ways received their reward. The Bastards of Erebus After the rescue of Arael, they laid low for a week or so, to gauge the authorities response and let any repercussions blow over. Once it became clear that the city authorities viewed the escape as a matter for the Order of the Rack, since it occurred outside the city limits, Arael asked them all to a meeting at the shrine where he explained that a group of Tieflings calling themselves the Bastards of Erebus were causing havoc i the old ruined section of the city, having graduated from thievery to murder. Since the authorities seemed to be doing nothing, he saw this as an opportunity for the black ops section of the resistance to make a stand for the people of Westcrown. The party agreed and set off for the ruins, following the path that Janiven had scouted for them. Reaching an outlying building (a tailors) they sea that the area around the thieves base was mostly destroyed ruins, with a small number of houses still extant. They made their way into the tailors and came under fire. Overcoming the initial resistance, Ethaldrin made his way upstairs, only to meet a tiefling who fought well, despite being drenched by a create water spell from Gorac in mid battle. A second tiefling upstairs called out of the window to anyone who would listen but the party soon won this battle. They moved on to another building, where they found stairs leading down. Following them, they found themselves nearly overwhelmed in the darkness that masked the movements of several tieflings and finally beat a tactical withdrawal. They regrouped in a ruin some distance away and spent an uncomfortable night recovering from their ordeal. The next day, they moved to a different house near the church and discovered two undead wolves, which caused them some discomfort. Having dealt with the undead, they moved into a tunnel leading to the catacombs once more and found themselves back in the room from which they had had to retreat. This time, the fight was less arduous, as there were fewer of the tieflings to deal with. They moved through a door into a large chamber, guarded by two dogs which were swiftly dealt with. As this was happening, they came under magical assault from a sorcerer and Ethaldrin found himself being attacked by a glowing morning star, all seemingly from a patch of darkness at the far end of the room. As Roderick started gathering all of the papers from the large desk in the centre of the room, the others moved into the darkness, seeking their attackers. This took some time, as they moved through the area swinging wildly until the sorcerer finally revealed his location by magic missiling one of them. It took some time longer before the cleric was panicked into using his abilities to directly attack them, thus dropping his invisibility and, once visible, he was quickly dealt with. They healed themselves and prepared to move on. They ransacked the room and retired to their bolt hole to recover from their exertions. The next day, Roderick proposed an audacious plan of guile and cunning, which the others agreed to as it only put him at risk. As they watched, he crept stealthily to the foot of the bell tower and climbed it, slaying the rather surprised tiefling as the top with a single blow. At this point, the minor gap in his plan came to light, as the other gathered at the base of the tower and asked him to throw down the rope. Shrugging, he crept part way down the bell tower and listened, as the others climbed up, with varying degrees of stylistic elegance. Ethaldrin joined Roderick and they moved to the door at the base of the tower to listen, hearing sounds of gambling in the temple beyond. The others joined them and they burst from the tower, their movements having alerted the guards beyond. The fight was mercifully brief for our heroes but not without difficulty. They moved into the catacombs, meeting more tieflings, one of whom, a sorcerer, seemed to have either a racial dislike of half orcs or a hatred of clerics, as he targeted Gorac with magic missiles. As the battle raged, Ethaldrin opened a door and found himself in combat with several undead wolves, a combat the others left him to as the sorcerer fell before their onslaught, only to leave them fighting hell dogs instead. The hell dogs proved challenging but were unable to stand before the might of Gorac, Roderick and Opariel and just in time, they were able to aid their comrade against the undead. Having won the day, they moved to explore the last areas of the complex.

Annals