Avlis Campaign: Chapter 6

[Orleron]

After the meeting in the government halls was adjourned and Mandaharuk was seen storming out, Jade and the heroes decided that they would need to do away with Mandaharuk. That meant they would have to follow him to wherever he was headed. Jade believed that he would be headed to the city of Brekon, which is the capital of the Orcish nation of the same name.

Earlier, it was revealed that Mandaharuk had the ability to cast a plane shifting spell when he needed to escape. Thus, he would be able to use that spell to travel the 1400 mile distance to Brekon very easily. Jade told the party members that she had a means of travel that was almost just as fast: shadow walking. She explained that by entering the plane of shadow, one could traverse the 1400 miles in about 24 hours.

She had the necessary magic scroll to accomplish this back at her residence in the government district. So, the party set out to fetch the scroll and get supplies for their journey.

When they arrived at Jade's house, they immediately stocked up on necessary supplies and magic. Jade told them they would need a shadowy place to open the shadow portal, and she had such a place in the kazeebo in her back yard. But when they opened her back door, they saw a familiar orc.... Mandaharuk.... "Leaving so soon?", he asked. Van explained that they were just about to leave, but now it looks like he'd be saving them the trip. She charged the evil cleric.... and was promptly headed off by two of Mandaharuk's dominators. At that point, a big battle broke out. Jade and Ari engaged two of the baatezu that Mandaharuk brought along. Andrinor and Orianna concentrated on the dominators. Blows were traded, and spells flew back and forth... nearly catching the whole place on fire. Eventually, Mandaharuk got off a flamestrike which utterly obliterated Orianna.... burning the life right out of her. Jade immediately called a retreat: Orianna was dead, and the rest were soon to follow. She told everyone to head back into the house and into the pantry in the kitchen. Van picked up Orianna's body and headed in, followed closely by Jade. Ari and Andrinor valiantly held off the pursuers at the door as long as they could. By this time, Jade had started casting, and a baatezu had teleported into the house. After a few more seconds, a portal opened in the pantry, and the heroes hastily threw themselves into it one after another. Jade then hastily closed it when they were all through.

When the tumult was over they were still in the pantry.... except the door to the pantry was now closed.... funny, they thought they had left it open when they were running into the portal. Jade opened the pantry door to reveal the kitchen.... except it was not scorched and bloody. It was just a dilapidated mess, and it was dark. Stepping out of the house, the heroes realized they were still in the city of Mikona, except it was different somehow. Everything was a warped reflection of the way they remembered it. The buildings were unkempt, and some were in ruins. The people were less numerous, and all of them were forlorn and dreary. It was also night time, when just a few minutes before they went into the pantry it was afternoon. Jade explained how the plane of shadow mimics their home plane, and that they would be able to use the plane's properties to travel much faster. Within about 10 steps, they were out of the city. Jade explained that they would have to divert their journey to the village of Blandenberg in order to try and resurrect Orianna. The village was about 400 miles away. They got there in about 10 hours.

When they arrived in Blandenberg, it looked much as it did in their home plane when they were captured from their places there weeks ago. Again, however, it was warped. Soon enough they found the temple of O'ma where Vanoviel used to serve as a missionary guard. They noticed that the temple was largely the same, but there were some small differences in the holy symbol and the religious items. They asked the acolyte at the door if they could see the head cleric for a resurrection. The acolyte showed them into an office where the head cleric sat.... the heroes were nearly taken aback when they saw who the head cleric was.... a shadow reflection of Mandaharuk! Once they managed to conceal their suprise, they asked the cleric for help. He agreed to raise the halfling girl in return for a favor. There was a local cleric of Valok who was causing trouble in the town. He was converting villagers to the ways of Valok, and stirring up anti-elven sentiment in the area. He needed the cleric and his local clerics eliminated. Van was a little concerned that this was not in accordance with O'ma's principles on her home plane, but she went along anyway to save her comrade.

Thus, the party set off across the village to the center of Valok's worship in the area. They walked into the building and asked to see Andreion.... on a hunch. Lo and behold, the acolyte on duty showed Van to a shadow reflection of her dead mentor! Van did not know what to do about this, even though she suspected this might be the case. She talked with her mentor a while, hoping she would find the kind old man she once knew... but to no avail. She left the room, and on her way down the stairs she wispered to Jade, "Burn it..." Jade shrugged and fireballed the staircase and upper hallway. The whole place exploded in flame. Andrinor cringed and wondered why no one ever told him about these things, as he drew his weapon. A fiery battle ensued in the stairwell, and eventually Andreion and all the clerics were dead either from Jade's fireball, wall of fire, Andrinor's flaming spheres, or the blades, clubs, and bows of the others..... well, one cleric died of smoke inhalation, but he didn't count.


The End: Chapter 6

[Vanoviel]

This is just for clarification the meeting with Mandaharuk on the shadow plane did not count as the time after the next time I saw him. This still leaves me two meetings with Mandaharuk to kill him.

[Orleron]

Oh so shadow mandaharuk's don't count? Why? Cuz they're black??

[Vanoviel]

I thought they were more gray. Why you gotta make it a black thing. It is a clear plot by the man to keep a brother (or in this case a small elf chick) down.

[Orleron]

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