
City of Lansing – Northern Tetradias
Sandsar/Month IV, 933 HKV
While conversing with the members of Sorem’s Travelling Troupe, the Whiteflame Guild was introduced by Guin to Ryder, a bard whom the rogue had hired to write a play about the group’s adventures. Ryder seemed pleased to tag along, and mentioned that following individuals with such skill was sure to yield some interesting results.
Their meal was interrupted by a Shifter runner, bolting southward past the camp and into the city, only slowing slightly to cry out, breathlessly.
“Goblins!”
After glancing at one another, The group, along with Rayleesh and Dakka, swiftly followed, eventually making their way to Sheriff Tane Bonebreaker’s office. Breaker and his deputy, Shadow, calmed the runner down enough for him to explain that a large force of goblins had landed on the western coast of Tetradias, and was headed westward.
Ryder and Baergub were quick to investigate, asking if the runner had, perhaps, seen any creatures that looked like a cross between something that might be construed to be a bear, and something like a bug.
The joke was lost on the panicked runner, unfortunately.
The Guild also noticed several small, blue cubes which were sitting upon a contraband shelf behind the Sheriff, but initially didn’t think much of it.
Anticipating a coming attack, Vorlos volunteered to prepare the town as best as he could for a coming invasion, to which Breaker agreed. Asking for money to hire the remaining adventurers, Breaker explained that funds were handled by the owner of Lansing Sundries, Vzani Oleander.
For her part, Shadow left the office to organize scouts to alert of advance parties headed towards Lansing.
The group headed to the sundries store, and met with the deceptively perky halfling, Vzani, who was rather incredulous about their warnings of danger, and a coming army. At Breaker’s insistence, however, she finally gathered together two thousand pieces of gold, which Vorlos quickly realized was not smart to be carrying about.
Vorlos also noticed another blue cube sitting on a shelf behind the halfling, which Baergub asked to see. Casting Detect Magic on the object, the dwarven druid was able to detect a strong magical concentration of Evocation magic within the cube, and also noticed, possibly for the first time, the strong magic on Vorlos staff and boots, as well as Bathsheba’s blade.
Impatient with the Guild, Vzani asked if the dwarf was going to be purchasing the cube or not. Baergub responded he didn’t need it. Annoyed, Vzani agreed to keep the gold with her, but to have it available should the need arise, and shooed the party out the door.
The group convinced the guards to gather the adventuring captains, and all met in the Tooth and Nail, where Vorlos had held his impromptu gathering the night before.
While there, Baergub noticed another small, blue cube, sitting on a shelf behind the bar. This time, he reached over and picked it up, simply tossing the cube into the street, hoping for some kind of response. There was no effect, so Vorlos simply retrieved the cube and held onto it.
Eventually, several of the adventuring captains made their way into The Tooth and Nail, and the party explained the situation. There were several murmurs of disagreement and even outright doubt, but when the party offered each man two gold per day, six of them were interested, with a total of four hundred men.
Ryder, hoping to persuade more, sang a song of magical persuasion, which caused two others to turn their heads, and offer three hundred more men to the cause, which brought the final tally up to seven hundred.
With a possible force in hand, the party headed back to the Arrow’s Flight, except for Vorlos, who hoped to speak with the Sheriff, but instead only spoke with the deputy, Shadow, with Breaker out on patrol. She agreed to reach out to the barbarian as soon as she received word.
That night, the Barbarian headed out into the company of the Travelling Troupe, and slept underneath the stars after a mighty prayer to both Thor and Odin.
Upon the morning, Vorlos noticed that the blue cube he had taken with him from The Tooth and Nail the night before was suddenly pulsating with energy. He used the ability of the Queda Staff of Rithonne to determine what the energy was, and though he couldn’t quite understand the complex magic within the item, he could tell that it was designed to explode, and explode violently.
He threw the cube into the nearest forest as far as he could, before sprinting back into town and informing the others.
Quickly, the party split up, running in multiple directions, and gathering cubes from every place that they could remember. Baergub informed the guards of what to look for, and they combed through the city, finding several of the items. The cube was retrieved from Vzani’s shop, and Vorlos and Baergub rushed the items out to the north of the city.
Bathsheba made her way to the armories, but despite searching intently, couldn’t find anything at Tavon’s Smithy. When she made her way to The Forge, however, she was also unable to see any such item, almost just annoying the gnomish proprietor, who questioned why the adventurer was poring through his establishment.
“I can’t find it,” explained Bathsheba with resignation. “Which means you’re probably going to explode.”
Her words were proven true not five minutes later, as she passed by the Rusty Copper, which exploded with violence and shrapnel, a piece of which crashed into her head, dazing her.
Explosions rocked throughout the city, as well as to the north, where Baergub and Vorlos had tossed the cubes they had found. Mayhem followed the violence as a fire brigade went to work attempting to put out the dozens of fires blazing throughout the city’s wooden structures.
The worst blow, however, came when the adventuring captains explained more than half of their men had been killed or vaporized in the ensuing blasts, and there was no way for them to instigate a response.
The smokey night was dark with despair and pain.
Vorlos spoke with Teresa the druid the next day, who explained that, though she could not identify the source of the cubes, she could tell that such magic was not goblin-made, and that the goblins likely were not the constructors of these magical devices.
In the morning, Shadow informed the Sheriff and the Guild of her scouts’ reports – The goblin invaders were headed straight for Tetradias, and this ignited motivation in the party. Seeing the length of time that an overland route would require, they opted to purchase passage aboard a sailing vessel, paying one-hundred and twenty five gold pieces for the swiftest ship they could find.
They were insistent upon taking their horses, and were soon off to the north, crossing the Andromede Bay before heading up the River Tetra directly to the city of Tetradias.
Ten miles from the city, however, the sailors insisted that they go no further, and the party was forced to protect the ship as they unloaded the horses from the hold. Luckily, they only encountered a small scouting party, and were able to strike most of them down.
One goblin scout, however, escaped, prompting the party to quickly mount their horses, and gallop swiftly for the city, and hopefully towards safety.