Ambushed

From Lexicanum

 Raiders in the Night

 The party spent the next couple of weeks helping the citizens of Heart’s Faith restoring order to their town, one day while resting in the tavern they were approached by Sir Vaimish Crasad, a paladin. The paladin explained that he and his sister Grier, a ranger, had been investigating an order of evil knights known as the Tacharim. His sister had infiltrated the organisation a few weeks ago and he had recently received a magical message from her warning him that the Tacharim were somehow interested in the March and that he must not let them get their hands on modrons. The message had ended abruptly then so he was not sure what exactly the Tacharim wanted with modrons, but whatever it was it wouldn’t be good! In response he was organising guards to help protect the March as it went across the Outlands from Excelsior to Tradegate. He offered the members of the party 200 gp each to sign on to help and if possible investigate what the Tacharim were up to and rescue his sister if she was still alive. The party accepted his offer, and next morning found themselves assembling outside the town of Excelsior with the other troops Sir Vaimish had hired. After a brief, but rousing speech, from their new leader they set off to catch up with the March.
The party were assigned slot mid-way along the length of the modron column and spireward. They took up their position a and began marching along – the modrons paying them no heed at all. That evening, their shift completed, they started making camp, the March went on oblivious.

Suddenly Atreus, who was setting up to take first watch, noticed there black-armoured knights approaching in the darkness, accompanied by what looked like dogs. Suddenly the dogs set off a fearful howling. The howls sent shivers of fear though the modron column and had an even worse effect on the party. All save the doughty Dronic were panicked by the fearsome howling and fled unreasoning into the night. Dronic did his best, and even managed to kill one of the fearsome hounds, but by himself he was unable to stop the three knights grabbing and making off with three modrons. Once the howls of the hounds ceased, the others returned to the campsite somewhat sheepishly.

Next morning they reported to Sir Vaimish, he identified the dogs as Yeth Hounds, though he seemed surprised that they had any effect on the modrons. After breakfast the party set out once more to take up their positions alongside the March. The day passed uneventfully but that evening they heard the sound of warning horns blowing from further down the column – one of the other groups was being attached. They decided it was too far to go to help and settled down for a restless night’s sleep. Early next morning when they awake, the March had passed by, but as the others prepared breakfast, Atreuss headed back down the trial to see what had happened. He found that the group of guards behind them had been massacred. According to the tracks it looked like a large group of horsemen, who had sped off spireward. He headed back to the others and reported to Sir Vaimish, who had just arrived. The party offered to track down the assailants, which Sir Vaimish heartily endorsed.
 
Using Dronic’s limited tracking skills they managed to track the party of horsemen for most of the day, but as the afternoon dragged on they lost the tracks in some rocky scrubland. Fortunately Hothfin spotted smoke rising in the distance and they headed towards it, arriving just as darkness fell. The smoke was coming from a large building, dominated by a watchtower atop which they could see three guards and a large warning bell. As they looked down on it around twenty or so knight, accompanied by yeth hounds rode out from the front gates – it looked like this was the place they were looking for!
 
The party spent some time trying to work out their best method of approach, given the overview of the area from the watchtower. Eventually they worked out a route that would keep them shielded as long as possible from the lanterns illuminating the base of the tower and the forecourt, and they made their way cautiously down. Once everyone was in place, Hothfin cast Silence on the bell and he and Vega charged forward to assault the tower. Petherwick cast Knock on the doors of the main building and the others charged forward. Crashing in through the doors, Droinic, Atreuss and Fiara found themselves confronted by an horrific sight. The  room was some kind of gruesome workshop where captive modrons were in the process of being dismantled – while they were conscious and screaming. Immediately they engaged the two guards in the room, and then as the workmen who charged at them brandishing fearsome looking cutting tools. After a somewhat gruelling battle, the guards and all the workmen were slain.
 
At the watchtower Hothfin and Vega shinnied their way up the ladder, crashing through the unlocked trapdoor and engaging the three guards on the roof. Hothfin bull-rushed one of them over the parapet and then he and Vega engaged the other two in combat. These guards seemed more resilient, or luckier, than their comrades iat the door and the battle took longer to resolve – the end result however was the same!

The Rendering Works

 The barely had time to catch their breath when three Takarim knights, armour-clad and armed with broadswords came crashing out of one of the doors at the far end of the room and battle was joined once more. From her vantage point on the watchtower Vega heard the clash of arms and, leaving Hothfin to watch out for the main party of knight’s returning, headed to join the fray. At the knight’s charged towards her Fiara cast mirror image, Atreus and Dronic moved to support her. Even Petherwick charged in, his quarterstaff swinging. Dronic was wounded in the battle, but by the time Vega arrived to help there was only one night remaining, and he was swiftly finished off. rendering works
 
Once the last of the knight’s was slain, Atreus moved to search the area they had come from. He found a series of barracks with enough accommodation for thirty knights, but no more in residence. He also found an entrance to the stables where five horses stood patiently. On the other side of the corridor were a series of dormitories for the workmen – two of these were empty and in the third a group of workmen barricaded themselves in and refused to come out. Petherwick meanwhile had discovered a series of pits covered by locked grates, in which modrons yet to go through “processing” were being held. One of those pits also held Greir Crasad, With Fiara’s lock-picking skills it proved short work to open the grates. The Ranger was most grateful to be rescued, but the modrons once released simply set off – presumably attempting to rejoin the Great March.
 
Greir was even more enthused when she discovered that they had been sent by her brother. She warned them that the ringleaders of the plot Sethetis, a human cleric and Yissa Nyclar a bariaur, were upstairs. When she asked where the rest of then knight’s were, and was informed they had ridden out an hour ago – presumably to attack the March., she asked whether anyone had warned her brother of the attack. Somewhat sheepishly they admitted that they hadn’t though of that! Unfortunately Petherwick had no magic that could help, and with an hour’s start they was no way they could overtake the knights to warn Sir Vaimish. Suddenly Petherwick recalled the favour owed to him by the sword archon and mentally summoned the angel. The sword archon appeared instantly and readily agreed to take a warning to Sir Vaimish, and even offered to aid in combating the Takarim. Her brother warned, Greir offered to look after the wounded modrons while the party headed upstairs.
 
In the first room they came to, they found an unconscious human, whose legs had been amputated and replaced by those of a monodrone. He was tended by an alchemist who surrendered immediately. The alchemist seemed most indignant at the interruption, and went on and on about how they had ruined an important scientific experiment. Quickly tiring of this, Vega clubbed him into unconsciousness. Petherwick then dragged him downstairs and dumped him in one of the pits that had held the modrons. The next room proved to be empty, but in the third they found three of the alchemists desperately trying to control a raging bariaur who had had an arm replaced by a modron arm and had a modron monocle surgically grafted into his eye-socket. Dronic crashed through the door an ordered the alchemists to stop. Dutifully the three alchemists, dropped the ropes they were using to restrain the maddened bariaur. Unfortunately the bariaur took the opportunity to flee crashing straight through Fiara and Vega standing in the doorway. Both were bowelled over, as the bariaur reared up, his hooves crashing down on Fiara with a sickening crunch. The others charged in and attacked the bariaur as Petherwick dragged the mortally wounded rogue away from the flashing hooves.  The bariaur, obviously made barmy by the surgery performed on him, was quickly slain and the three alchemists joined their fellow in the pit below. Petherwick and Vega meanwhile, tended to Fiara’s horrific wounds.
 
At the end of the corridor was a series of rooms much richer appointed that the barracks or dormitories below. The first three of these were empty, however in the fourth the found the human – presumably Sethetis! The cleric of Set had a bodyguard –a fire grue - who moved to protect his master. While the party were distracted dealing with the bodyguard, Sethetis, deciding that discretion was the better part of valour, gulped down a potion of polymorph, and changing into a snake slithered away down a crack in the floor. The party swiftly moved on to the final room where they discovered Yissa. The bariaur, quickly surrendered when asked to do so, and joined her fellow colleagues in the pits. On searching the area they found a magical shield and a crossbow. Petherwick also recovered Sethetis’ journals which he appropriated.
 
Returning to rejoin Greir, they held a hurried discussion on what to do next. Atreus reckoned they probably had an hour or two before the knight’s returned. The most vexatious question was what to do with the badly maimed modrons. Fiara suggested putting them out of their misery, but Grier wasn’t happy with this suggestion. Eventually Greir got a cart from the courtyard and hitched up a couple of war-horses from the stables. The modrons were carefully loaded in and then the prisoners tied together and tied to the end.
 
Before they left, Vega decided to torch the building. She called out a warning to the workmen barricaded in their dormitory and set the building afire. With the prisoners dragging behind the cart in a long chain, and complaining bitterly all the way, they took a circuitous route back toward the Great March, avoiding running into the returning knights. Sir Vaimish was pleased to see them and even more please to see his sister. He took  the prisoners into custody, and offered the party and additional 50 gp each to escort his sister and the modrons back to Mechanus where they could receive treatment, to which the party readily agreed.