The Worldwound Incursion

The Fall of Kenabres

The party met at Kenabres, at the celebration of Armasse, a martial, historical and religious festival.  As the festivities reached their peak near the cathedral, the party blacked out.


They came to in a cavern with stinking headaches. As the headaches cleared, they remembered seeing Terendelev, the silver dragon guardian of the city, being beheaded by a demon, as the city was overrun by demons. As the dragon fell, they fell into a rift in the ground, which closed after them.

They began to explore their surroundings, looking for other survivors, and found three:

•   Anevia Tirablade, a semiretired adventurer with a broken leg
•   Aravashnial, a blinded wizard
•   Horgus Gwerm, an aristocrat

Leaving them under the care of Naralas, they moved down a passage leading off the cave. After some scrapes with Giant Maggots, Cockroaches, Cave Vipers and Flies, they came to a sizable 20ft building, with the symbol of Torag cared upon it. Inside, the old priest had despaired and was now an undead monstrosity, a Huecuva.

Having killed it, Gazzahk lead prayers over the body and they buried it, resting overnight in the chapel, much to Horgus displeasure.

The next morning, they set off. At the end of a very long passage, they found a cavern with statues lining the walls. Suddenly it went dark and they came under attack from a pair of Darkmantles, which showed a disinclination to attack the dwarven fighter. They drove off the second, having killed it’s mate.

Neatholm

After some healing, they moved on, encountering a Cave Fisher and some Dire Rats with deadly consequences (for the vermin concerned). Eventually, they came to a cave with a campfire. The dwarf it belonged to assumed them to be thieves and attacked, unsuccessfully, as Sothamus knocked him unconscious and tied him up. They took him with them, adding to their entourage, and demonstrating they were not thieves but kidnappers.

Continuing on their way, they came upon a pair of Mongrelmen, trying to move a fallen tower. One of the Mongrels basically told them to help free their trapped comrade or go away (only a little more politely than that) and the party decided to help. With Gazzahks knowledge of engineering (and  a  lot of muscle power), they managed too free the trapped Mongrelman and accepted his grateful thanks and guidance to his home.

On the way, the dwarf came round, and left the party, after a conversation with the Paladin. Soon after, they reached the Mongrelmens home, Neathholm and were introduced to Chief Sull. He was shocked to hear of the destruction of the city, and told the party how to reach the surface, offering the hospitality of his town and a chance to rest.

He also warned of a tribe of Mongrelman he called the traitors, who lived in the area they would need to travel through. Taking advantage of his offer (mainly because Horgus didn’t want to) they rested. They also added up party treasure, allowing the Chief to see the bat brooch. He explained that it was his sons, who had disappeared, at which Sothamus, gave it to him. Over come with emotion, the Chief thanked him and gave him a mighty weapon, a +1 morning star, asking only that he use it to kill the traitors.

They set off again, under direction of Lann, on of the men they had helped rescue, soon reaching the edge of the traitors territory, where Lann left.

They fought their way through a guard post into the living quarters of the guards, where a Monitor Lizard pointlessly attacked them.

Lair of the Vile and Vicious

An open door in the eastern wall indicated where the lizard had come from, revealing a dubious pantry.  They headed through a second door to the east into a common room with a stone table, where a Mongrelman shot at them and was swiftly dispatched. A door to the east led to a foul smelling slippery descent to a trash pit, which they ignored. To the south east, a hole in the floor led down, with a rope ladder, fifteen feet to a guard room, similar to the entrance. With a little difficulty, a pool of water was circumnavigated and the guards dealt with. They decided to go back up the hole and withdraw the ladder, heading north from the chamber they had started in, rather than investigating the blood stained table in the room.

Through the north door was a meeting room with two cultists (one of Baphomet, one of Deskari) who took exception to the parties presence for a short time, before dying ingloriously. A door to the east led to a long drop into water, which they avoided, instead heading north. An iron ladder took them down, into a sewer rats nest, where things briefly looked perilous.
An opening in the eastern wall took them to another Mongrelman guard post, and thence to a door.

Radiance

They opened the door and found a large room, with a small maze leading deeper in to it. As Sothamus and Gazzahk began to explore followed by Darla (who was trying to avoid Horgus, who was sorely in need of something), someone turned out the lights. Two Dretches hidden in the gloom, attacked but were dealt with mercilessly, as such demons are. Beyond the maze was a door, which they left for now and went to clear the area.
They went back to the hole in the floor the common room and went down it to the Mongrelman guard post and so to the meeting hall with the stone table. There was a door to the south and one to the north.

To the south the door lead to a kitchen with a butchered dire rat on a table in it. The door to the north lead to the quarters of Hosilla, the leader of the mongrelmen and Inquisitor of Baphomet. She and her Tiefling guard put up a rather wimpy fight. A search of her quarters found a lockbox containing a long sword called Radiance and a note.

Radiance was once a great Paladins sword, called Yaniel and Sothamus took it under his protection, for the time being.

Now was a good time to rest, for the sake of their companions, of course. After some consideration, they decided to rest in the common room, on the grounds that it was small, cramped and had a door to the rubbish chute in one corner (which is better than average as party decisions go). During the night, Naralas was on guard, when water began to seep from the door. He promptly woke the nearest person as an Amoeba formed in the rooms corner. Fortunately, the nearest person happened to be Sothamus, who engaged the Amoeba, fighting until everyone in the room was awake.

Sothamus and Darla explored the chute next day  but found nothing but unpleasantness. They went too the sluice room, thinking a bath would be good, but decided against after seeing Gar in the river below. Finally, they went back to the door at the end of the maze and made their way along a long corridor sloping upwards, eventually emerging in the open air, almost 3 kilometres from where they had fallen into the earth.

Before them lay Kenabres, a smoking, apocalyptic ruin.

Amid the Ruins

They decided to  take Horgus home and set off along the side of a trail of destruction. As they passed a ruined building, Gazzahk saw a Dire Rat ahead and shouted a warning, as they came under attack. As Gazzahk and Sothamus fought at the front of then group, Horgus and Anevia were sorely pressed , Horgus being badly wounded. After the rats were defeated used lay on hands to heal him as Darla bound his wounds.

They continued to the Blackwing Librarium (as Horgus informed them). The building was in ruins and four of the librarians were tied up with a fifth stacking books around them, guided by some Tieflings and a cavalier. They rescued the librarians, taking the Cavalier prisoner and continued on their way.

Towards night. they reached a manor house belonging to Kandro, according to Horgus. It was severely damaged, but having checked the place out, they decided to rest. On Naralas watch he aheard buzzing and threw a light pebble, spotting a Demonic Giant Fly. He woke Sothamus (and everyone else) as the flies attacked. Apart from nearly killing their prisoner and wounding some of them, they killed the flies and the rest of the night passed peacefully.

Defender's Heart

They decided to spend another day resting. During Darla's’ watch, with Gazzahk awake, sounds were heard outside. By the time they investigated, all they found were some tortured bodies, so they went back to bed.

The next day, they continued their progress towards Gwerm Manor. On the way, they came upon three knights with a captive who they were about to sacrifice, convinced that the blood of an innocent would give their blades power against demons. They were quickly disabused of this notion and slain, their captive freed to forage for food for her ill mother.
They reached Gwerm Manor, finding it deserted, but otherwise in good order. True to his word, Horgus paid them and they left him there.

They next headed for the Tirablade residence, to find out what had happened to Anevia’s wife Irabeth. On the way, they met some Tiefling looters, who gave the wrong answer to Sothamus cry of ‘Desist or die.’ They found the Tirablade residence empty, apart from a fire beetle that appeared and attacked Anevia. They killed it and another one appeared. Suspecting an invisible summoner, they searched for him, using detect mgic to find and dispatch him. After some healing, Anevia opened a secret panel and found a note from her wife giving the Defenders Heart password as "Silverstrong". The party divided the potions left for Anevia without asking her, then Darla gave her her scale from the dragon, which mollified her a little.

Defender's Heart, a large inn that proved to be the HQ of the Eagle Watch, commanded by Irabeth. After Irabeth and Anevia had said Hi, they told her their news.She was interested to learn of the mongrelmen and the Templar safe houses. It was decided the safe houses would be the next port of call for the party.

Topaz Solutions

Sothamus and Irabeth sat down and discussed thier captive's fate. Irabeth took him on, assigning three of her more honest knights to his imprisonment and the party rested and planned. They decided to deal with the safe houses first and then free the city (or whatever). Exhausted by so much planning, they rested. Their rest was disturbed by the prisoners escape, but they were too tired to investigate.

The next morning they went back to Nyserian manor and established that it was indeed deserted. Next was Topaz Solutions, where they found six men sheltering inside the shop. The men explained that they were innocents, sheltering from  the invasion, but the last one had a sack full of plunder. As they pointlessly explained that it belonged to them, Darla declared theft was wrong, causing Sothamus to attack. Two of the miscreants ran, the others fought, with the net result the two were taken prisoner. As Darla lectured them on their evil ways, they attacked her in the hope of shutting her up, and died. The party searched the shop, diligently avoiding the area with the secret door, until they were just leaving.

They went downstairs into a vegetation filled basement, were a magic mouth said “Ahh...I hope you are among Iomedae’s slaves... I would hate to think of mere peasants wasting such a personal greeting from Lord Baphomet!”. At this, a Mandragora clawed its way out of vegetation and attacked. After some initial confusion, they beat it and unearthed a box containing five holy symbols of Iomedae. At this point, a statue of a six armed serpent smashed a bilious bottle (a bit late, due to a reading error by the universe) and the party left, taking the sack of plunder to return to its rightful owners.

The next stop was the Tower of Estrod, which proved to be overselling a mound of rubble. Naralas gave the password from the note and was let in. As Naralas took the bedroll offered and attacked with his staff, one of the cultists went downstairs as the party forced entry. The first cultist dealt with, the one downstairs ran out of  weapons, as Gazzahk disarmed him. Finally he fell, reduced to a breadknife as a weapon. Before the party was a locked door.

The Tower of Estrod

They searched briefly for a key until Gazzahk opened the door by traditional means – battering it into submission. Beyond, they came under attack from their former prisoner, Chaleb, who had thought this was a  safe place to be. He was accompanied by a Tiefling, who broke the rules of chivalric battle, by healing him throughout the combat. Finally, Chaleb fell, followed, shortly after, by the Tiefling. Searching the place, the party found a letter.

They returned to Defender’s Heart to report the success of their mission and were taken by Irabeth to meet Quednys Orlun, who briefed them as follows:
 
“As horrific as recent events have been, we’ve come to realize that they are, in fact, merely a prelude. The razing of the Kite, the destruction of our wardstone, Terendelev’s murder, and the assault on the city were nothing more than opening gambits. The Worldwound is on the march in a more concentrated assault than we’ve seen since the fall of Drezen. It’s fair to say the Lord of the Locust Host is finally making his move. The end of this hundred-year-war is upon us, and it falls to us to ensure victory.
“While the Templars of the Ivory Labyrinth were scattered, those who serve the Lord of the Locust Host himself remain concentrated in Old Kenabres. What we’ve heard from within the barricade they’ve erected is ominous. The cultists are waiting for something, and based on our own information and what you’ve managed to recover so far, it sounds like the vile witch Areelu Vorlesh will soon be coming to Kenabres. And it appears that we’ve determined what she intends to do.
“When the wardstone was destroyed by the Storm King, it exploded and destroyed the Kite. The network along the border failed, but did not fade completely. I believe this is because a significant portion of our wardstone still exists, and that the cultists have taken it to the old garrison in Old Kenabres. From what we’ve learned, they’re hoping to engineer a way to somehow reverse the field generated by the wardstones—essentially, to use our own greatest defense as a devastating weapon.
“The attack on Kenabres had a predictable result: causing the crusade to gather at the border to defend it. Some wonder why the demons haven’t attacked in stronger numbers. I believe that Areelu was counting on us massing along the border, and that if she can corrupt the wardstone field, she can strike a devastating blow against us all. In effect, we’ve lined up for the slaughter.
“Vorlesh is surely seeking some object of great Abyssal power, likely the Nahyndrian crystal mentioned in the missive you recovered, and with it she intends to turn the source of our hope into an unimaginable nightmare. We cannot hope to evacuate everyone from the border—I doubt they would give up the defensive line even if they knew what the enemy planned. But we can still stop this from happening—we just need to have someone infiltrate the Gray Garrison, locate the wardstone fragment, and destroy it.”
 
They agreed to the plan, with Irabeth and the crusaders attacking to distract the demonic horde. Quednys leant them a Rod of Cancellation to aid them in their mission and several of Neathholm’s mongrelmen volunteered to join them.

The next day they set out for the garrison, pausing only to kill some Abrikandilu demons who tried to ambush them.

As they approached the garrison, they saw it was guarded by two rather large gentlemen.

The Garrison

A brief discourse with the over stuffed gents ensued, and battle was joined. After a few rounds, the Vermlek demons abandoned their hosts and climbed the side of the building, casting inflict spells at the party. Sothamus took the opportunity to go through the open door, straight into several Tieflings. A brutal battle took place, the party eventually victorious. They moved on, finding a museum, with two Abrikandilus practising their puppetry skills. Once they were dispatched, Sothamus cleaned, while Naralas played snap.

At the back of the building was a shrine to Iomedae, which Sothamus also cleaned after disposing of the cultists who had taken residence there. At the far end of the shrine was a seret door, which glowed but proved beyond the parties wit to open.

The Priest's Chambers

As the rest of the party searched the shrine (or cleaned it), Darla opened an innocuous-looking door at the rear of the room, to be met by a bomb thrown by the alchemist within.  She called for aid, as he threw another one, causing her to retreat. Sothamus and Gazzahk moved in, and the alchemist was swiftly defeated, after causing quite a lot of damage with his bombs. They recovered a sword and a note ...

While healing took place, they took some time to consider the secret door. Eventually, they read the runes that had so carefully been cleaned by Sothamus, which read “Let us inherit thine arms, Iomedae.” and got access to the armoury, which was shared between them. Leaving the Mongrelmen to guard the shrine, they moved to the final door on this level, bashing it in.

Within, a couple of Dretches caused problems, before a lengthy fight up the stairs against cultists and Tieflings removed all hope of a stealthy move into the heart of the complex. The party started opening doors quickly, finding an empty barracks, and a conference room containing a strange winged creature, a Peryton. The Peryton caused them some difficulty before finally being slain.

The Wardstone Legacy

After healing, they opened the other unlocked doors on this level. The first room was a library with most volumes shredded by a Schir demon. Taking exception to his wanton destruction, they killed him and recovered a Manual of War, together with some lesser works. The next room was the garrisons pigeon coop, which was overrun by demonic flies which attacked. At first the battle went well for the party, until it went dark and the flies started spitting acid. Despite this, with Gazzahks aid, the party prevailed.

They next battered their way through the locked door to find several Zombies, gathered round a scrying pool. Making short work of the zombies, they cleaned and refreshed the pool, gaining a vision of the wardstone fragment being guarded by a deformed elf, They went upstairs, where they came upon a Fiendish Minotaur, who was a belligerent opponent but ultimately ill-fated. There were two mangled helms in the room, which Sothamus gathered were old. A door led off the chamber.

The Wardstone

The party quickly healed and opened the door – within were a deformed Elf (called Jeslyn, an oracle) and a couple of Abrikandilu demons, guarding the fragment of the wardstone. The party attacked them, leaving the destruction of the wardstone until, near death, Sothamus finally used the rod of cancellation. There was a terrific explosion, causing damage to all except the party, who wee miraculously spared. The sole effect on the party was to stun them for a while, while the energies released caused a series of visions:

Round 1: An unexpected side effect of the wardstone’s destruction occurs. If the holy energies stored in all of the wardstones were the waters of a vast lake formed by a dam, then the fragment just destroyed was the plug in that dam holding the waters back. Rather than simply diffusing the wardstone’s border as the Eagle Watch theorized (and thus removing the border from possible corruption), all of the energies of the wardstones along the border rush out of the “hole” caused by the final destruction of the last and largest fragment of the Kenabres stone. The energy of all of these simultaneously draining artefacts infuses the PCs (though not Irabeth or any other ally present, nor does the energy harm allies) with incredible power, causing them to glow with golden light. All debilitating conditions and wounds are immediately healed as the PCs are restored in an instant to full health. All expended spells are instantly restored, and all limited use per day abilities recharge. Any dead PCs are restored to life as if by true resurrection, but are automatically stunned for a few rounds as the power surging through their bodies overwhelms every sense. Irabeth, if she’s present, frantically tries to help the PCs recover for the next few rounds, but to no avail. This event does not go unnoticed. All along the border, other wardstones f lash with golden light as well, momentarily supercharging their effects. Thousands of demons are destroyed by the f lash of light, and many more are wounded. The attacks along the borders suddenly cease, and the surviving demons f lee back into the depths of the Worldwound, thus they do not witness the wardstones fade into total inertness. Although the defenders rejoice at the unexpected pulse of energy, the fact that their greatest defense has apparently burned itself out is cause for concern—ramifications of this development are explored in the next adventure.

Round 2: Areelu Vorlesh learns of the development via magical links to the Material Plane, and immediately abandons her efforts to secure the perfect Nahyndrian crystal to corrupt the wardstone. She works quickly to prepare a vengeful strike against the PCs, hoping to corrupt the mythic power they’ve now got within them to somehow salvage part of her plan. The PCs, still stunned, receive a vision of the first wardstone being erected in the Kite here in Kenabres in 4639 ar, in a ritual involving the aid of the Hand of the Inheritor—the herald of Iomedae: a golden, winged angel with a halo of small swords around his head. This event happens soon after the Second Crusade begins.

Round 3: In the year 4665 ar, the PCs see a vision of a 20-year-old Hulrun leading the burning of dozens of supposed “witches” in the courtyard of the Kite before the wardstone. This event launches the Second Crusade.

Round 4: In the year 4692 ar, the PCs see a vision of Khorramzadeh the Storm King leading a brazen attack on Kenabres. The Storm King manages to strike a resounding blow with his sword against the wardstone, which suffers only the tiniest of cracks as the balor’s sword shatters. Khorramzadeh is then attacked and forced to f lee when the silver dragon Terendelev nearly kills him—this event launches the Fourth Crusade.

Round 5: In the year 4712 ar, the PCs see a vision of  Irabeth chasing a burly dwarven man—Staunton Vhane (leader of the Hammers of Heaven mercenary group) into the courtyard containing the wardstone. Both paladins are heavily wounded, and as Staunton backs against the wardstone, smoke rises and he screams in pain. He ducks to avoid one of Irabeth’s blows, then manages to smash her knee with his hammer, dropping her to the ground. Staunton seems ready to deliver a death blow, but the sound of approaching soldiers forces him instead to back away and summon a fiendish giant wasp that he swiftly mounts and then f lies away to the north, abandoning Kenabres.

Round 6: The PCs see a vision of Minagho, a beautiful demonic woman with a long thin tail, clawed hands, and curling horns protruding from where her eyes should be, placing the wardstone fragment in this room and of Jeslyn using a wish granted by Minagho to create the cage around it before Minagho teleports away.

Round 7: The PCs see a vision of an event they know will now never happen—Areelu Vorlesh using a deep purple Nahyndrian crystal the size of a human’s head to corrupt the fragment, causing the entire border to f lash with nauseating mauve fire that devastates the border cities and transforms countless crusaders into half-fiend slaves of the Worldwound. The PCs should realize at this point that the demons’ entire plan was to draw as many crusaders to the border to defend it from their attacks, in order to maximize the damage this event would have caused.

Round 8: Areelu activates a device called an imago lens in the Abyss that allows her to use a project image spell to appear before the PCs.
 
The party ceased to be stunned as the image appeared before them of a demonic woman with batlike wings. She spoke, opening a rift in reality as she did so, allowing a number of babau demons to attack the party. At the same time the party were bolstered by a god, allowing them all to be heroes and easily defeat the demons.

The destruction of the wardstone unleashed the mythic potential in each of them and they gained their first mythic tier.