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Session 26 – Lord Verran

The next morning the players awoke (most of them had hangovers), packed up and left for their short journey north to the noble house of Verran, House Bulivar.

The players borrowed horses from the House Draskon taven/inn. Also, the left Grimnoth in the closet with some gear. They felt it would be better to leave him behind and keep him completely out of sight.

On the road, the party passed by several small farming communities. Large palatial estates with vineyards stretched as far as the eye could see.

A few miles down the road, they saw a huge herd of woolly bison. Several horsed men were herding the great beasts across the broad grasslands.

Not much time later, the party heard the clip-clop of a heavy horse. A huge man in heavy armor and a massive horse approached from the south. He soon caught up with the party.

"I am Daesher of House of Vanadrad. Elder brother to Galatis. He challenged you to a duel and you nobly defeated him. You do honor to yourself with this act. A man of your skill but lacking your virtue might have slain him with a single blow. You must forgive his arrogance. He is young, foolish, headstrong. Were his sword as sharp as his tongue, he might have bested you. For sparing his life, I am in your debt. If ever you have need, you may call upon my blade"

Daesher and Callister had a short discussion and the party thanked the Warlord for his offer. The party continued on north.

The party soon came to the estate of House Bulivar. Vineyards and farm lands surrounded the estate. The massive central building was circular in design and four stories tall. At the center was a huge round courtyard.

They were greeted by the Chamberlain, an old Aukarian male dressed in regal finery and robes.

"Welcome to House Bulivar. You are, no doubt, weary from the road. Please allow us to extend to you every courtesy that House Bulivar has to offer".

As it was at Sarroch's place, the party members were given silk robes and slippers. Their weapons were taken and wrapped in silk. This was the Aukarian tradition.

The Chamberlain offered them food and perfumed baths. The Herald then greeted the party. The party explained to him that they sought an audience with Lord Verran to discuss his journeys into the Desolation of Shidar, the land beyond the Wall. The Herald brought them to meet Verran.

They entered the chamber and found that Verran's main hall was a trophy room. Dozens of animal heads stared down at the party. A pair of huge wulfren dogs (large steel grey dogs) were seated beside the noble's throne. Verran himself was a tall man, well built, with a mane of white hair, goatee and beard. Brilliant blue eyes. Dressed a bit gaudily.

The party discussed their journey with Lord Verran and made their proposal. They wanted him to be their guide into Chaddamar, beyond the Wall and then into the Desolation of Shidar. They knew that he had been into the Desolation several times and that he could successfully get them to their destination.

Verran decided that such heady conversation would be better over food. He ordered a huge feast prepared in the courtyard and then regaled the party with tales of his adventures. Several times, the party subtly tried to steer him back to the topic at hand, the Desolation of Shidar, but Verran's stories tended to wander a bit.

When Verran heard of Rothgar's skill with the bow, an impromptu archery contest was held after the meal. Rothgar outshot all of Verran's guards and impressed everyone.

Regarding the Desolation of Shidar, Verran responded: "The Desolation is always a magnificent hunt. However, the last time I ventured there, I barely made it out with my life. It is no simple hunting trip... the Desolation is a daily fight for survival. And it's a long journey through Chaddamar. As you can imagine, I'm a wanted man there. Allow me the night to consider it."

The characters were shown to their rooms. They were given three large adjoining bed chambers.

Later that night, Beth went for a walk in the cool night air. She wandered toward the noble's chambers, snuck past several guards and managed to sneak into the library. The library was next door to the noble's conference room. She listened intently and heard voices in the conference room. It was Lord Verran, the Herald and another voice. They were discussing the Desolation of Shidar and the word 'outlanders" came up several times. She heard them mention "the Scourge" once or twice. She remembered that term from somewhere. Ugita had heard something from the Chaddamarians during his late night argument about the "scourge". She wondered what it was. She returned to bed before she was discovered.

The characters were awakened suddenly in the middle of the night to a woman's scream. This was followed immediately by the clash of steel and a tremendous crash. These sounds were distant, occurring in another chamber and possibly on another floor. The players rushed out to their balcony overlooking the central courtyard, but couldn't see what was going on.

Commotion erupted and Verran's guards began running around. The party heard shouts of "arrest the Outlanders!".

The guards burst into the party's rooms and the Herald pushed to the front. "Arrest them." Rothgar and Callister fought the guards while Ugita, Martin and Gen fled out the back door.

Ugita and Gen ran down to Lord Verran's chambers. They came upon a startling sight – Lord Verran lay dead on the floor, a wound on his chest, with a dark purple mist rising from it. Two guards lay dead nearby. The lady of the house and a handmaiden cowered in terror in the corner. Kneeling of the slain lord was the house healer, chanting some healing spell, but it was clear that Lord Verran was slain and much more powerful magic would be needed.

Across the room, they saw Callister brandishing a bloodied sword. Something in his face didn't seem right – a wicked grin, a sense of satisfaction, a grim determination. Ugita and Gen immediately realized it must be a morphian. They had left Callister up in the other room fighting the guards. He could not possibly have gotten down here so fast. And judging by the reactions of the lady, handmaiden and healer, this "Callister" was definitely a morphian.

Ugita quickly checked Lord Verran causing the healer to stagger back in fear. Lord Verran was definitely dead.

The night quickly degenerated into a chaotic battle that ranged all over the four story mansion. Because the mansion was shaped like an enormous circle around the central courtyard and all levels of the house were open to the courtyard, most of the battle took place in either the courtyard or on the circular balconies overlooking the courtyard. As a result, many people witnessed events below or across the open space on another part of the balconies.

The battle ranged all over and most of the time combatants were chasing each other from room to room.

At one point, Ugita summoned four giant skeletons. When they were summoned, the skeletons tore their way out of the earth like arising from the grave, leaving gaping holes.

During the battle, the House Mage was standing up on the roof and firing powerful combat spells at the skeletons. The House mage destroyed one with a blinding beam of energy.

At several times during the battle, "duplicates" were seen. That is, Callister saw what looked like himself battling the house guards. At another time, the party would see TWO Ugitas or TWO Rothgars. They quickly realized they were facing at least two, and possibly more, morphian shapeshifters who were assuming their identities. It seemed that the morphians were intent on framing the characters and were making sure that the guards and servants of this noble house were witnesses.

Ugita, examining the bodies of the Verran and other dead officials in the house found that the wounds showed discoloration. An obvious sign that poisoned weapons had been used.

Callister was going head to head with the War Lord of the house, the chief soldier and military commander. Gen, who witnessed this battle, pleaded for the warlord to lower his blade. She quickly told him that they faced a common enemy, the morphians. Gen pleaded for both Callister and the war lord to put the swords away and begged the warlord to listen to her. For an instant, the warlord saw two Callister's, one he was fighting and one across the courtyard. The Warlord, finally, lowered his blade and showed the first hint of doubt. Gen quickly convinced the warlord to fight WITH them against the morphians.

Ugita witnessed Rothgar firing upon Rothgar. There were two of them – one in the courtyard and one on the roof. They were firing at each other, exchanging arrows. Both were hitting the other. Ugita waited, trying to determine which was the real Rothgar. Then it happened. The one on the roof missed. His arrow hit the dirt behind the Rothgar on the ground. That made up Ugita's mind. The real Rothgar DOESN'T MISS. Ugita dropped a flame strike spell on the Rothgar on the roof. The Rothgar-morphian was blown off the roof by the concussive force of the fiery blast and fell into the courtyard. Seeing that the shapeshifter was still alive, Ugita threw another flamestrike at him. The ground around him was scorched black, but the morphian stood up. He quickly changed shape into a large raven and then flew away. Ugita lost track of the bird.

Eventually, the battle ended. The warlord, now convinced that what Gen and the others were saying, was true. The soldiers lowered their weapons. There was no sign of the shapeshiftes. They had suddenly fled.