Expedition 87: Unleashing the Tidehulk

## A Dream and a Warning

### Roster

Bast, the Admiral, Shabel, an Elfshadow, a Young Air Elemental, Sorin, Ammoni, Elemental Chaos, and the Tidehulk, ascended.

### Success

We have bested our foes and retrieved all we lost and more. We have marginally advanced the power of Nerulla and Ra’al. SUCCESS!!!

**Date: 15th of Monpel**

**Roster: The Admiral, Bast, an Elfshadow, Shabel, TIDEHULK THE MASTER OF THE SEAS, a Young Air Elemental on their first mission, some Elemental Chaos, Sorin, and Ammoni.**

**Expedition Objectives:** Enter the Imperial Camp and extract Bast, our magic items, and whatever loot can be gained.

**Expedition Log:** “Today, Enkidar, I’d like to share a slightly different story. I have spoken to you of the Chainbearers of Gilgamesh; his children who choose to rule and adjudicate in his Empire. Most, as you know, died or renounced their chains after Gilgamesh fell. But some still remained, and today I will tell you of how two of them met a bitter end.

“These chainbearers bore the names of Aldrex and Aldani. Aldrex was the Grandson of Gilgamesh, a wizard of skill and power, who commanded the 1st Vidharan Legion of the Warborn, a mighty force of Gilgamesh’s soldiers, born and bred to fight his enemies. Aldani was his second, great-grandaughter of the Emperor, though Aldrex’s senior by decades. She was a zealot of the Church of Gilgamesh, and pursued its tenants in all things. Her fury and faith burned in her such that all foes seemed undaunting to her.”

“I do not know how they met, or what they did in Vidhar before or after Gilgamesh fell, but it came to be that they arrived in a valley far to the north of here, on the Eastern continent. It was a fine valley, good for growing grain and easily defensible, though this was of no consequence against Liefsend, that nation of necromancers and vampires far to the North; the Imperial Valley existed at Liefsend’s pleasure. But it thrived in its suborned state, and the chainbearers that ruled it built a miniature model of the Empire in the East. They commanded with absolute power, and their Warborn were loyal and disciplined subordinates. They raised a great fortress-church to Gilgamesh in the center of their town, and layered stout defenses around it. They kept up discipline and punished deviance.”

“These chainbearers were no fools; but they were chainbearers, and it ground them to be denied their rights. They declared that they had the right to take whatever they needed or wanted from anybody. But this declaration had no teeth. Indeed, Aldrex and Aldani had a certain shrewdness and business sense. They were content to trade with their neighbors and build up their defenses without aggression. When the nearby nation of Kiore came to them, requesting grain to feed their hungry, Aldrex and Aldani traded it for timber and labor, and both nations prospered.”

“But some prejudices die harder than others; no elf or half-elf was permitted to enter Imperial lands and live. The chainbearers made exception for this rule only once, when a half-elf lied to them boldly, and masterfully. This deceiver claimed that she knew that the Emperor was not dead, and that she could find him if given time. This was the flawless argument to persuade Aldrex. Without his Grandfather, he was merely a wizard of middling ability. He had been made great by his ancestor’s name, and the remotest chance to regain the immeasurable power, freedom, and position he had lost enticed him. He let the half-elf go, though Aldani would have executed her for being an elf and therefore a corrupting schemer. He took some wealth and items hostage and commanded this half-elf to find Gilgamesh for him.”

“This was not to end well for him. This half-elf *was* a schemer, and she preferred not to negotiate with the Empire when she had the power to do so.”

“She had left behind a spy, her familiar, cunningly passed off as a pampered pet, to keep watch on the Imperials while she went and gathered her forces. They crept close to the Imperial camp in the dead of night, coming from the foothills to their south. Six mighty spellweavers, a cleric, a divine spellweaver, a sage, two wizards, and the half-elf combined their powers to raise a nightmarish horde.”

“The first sign of the murderous invaders was mist, creeping across the ground. The wary sentries at the walls quickly sounded the alarm, and woke the sleeping and unready chainbearers from sleep. As fog covered the guards’ sight and alarm bells turned up muffled or wrecked, Aldrex went to the fortress-church of Gilgamesh to guard the half-elf’s familiar, whom he had sworn to keep safe, and defend his nation’s wealth. Aldani roused a mighty force and prepared to sweep the camp.”

“But their foes were cunning. As orcs rushed to gather weapons and arm themselves, they haplessly wandered into the armory, a stout building, which should have been safe in all but the most desperate sieges. But the half-elf did not attack with men and steel. A gust of wind killed first that night: an air elemental, snuck into the armory through cracks in the wall. It threw a Warborn into the spear of his commander like a sack of flour.”

“That nameless officer knew his duty, and called allies to storm the door and gather the weapons his people needed to defend themselves. A blast of steam roasted them. Steam mephits turned the armory into a sauna, where even orcs’ natural night vision was nearly useless. This was a disaster for them: out of the shadows came an undead horror, an Elfshadow, conjured by magic older than the suns. It ripped strength from its foes with a cruel eldritch blade, before vanishing like smoke. The armory became a bloodbath. Reinforcements to Aldrex and Aldani would not come, and dozens of warborn died trying to lay hands on swords and pikes.”

“Aldrex and his guards hunkered around the entrance to the basement of the fortress-church, awaiting Aldani and aid. Aldrex did not know the nature of the threat, nor the objective of the attack, and before he could so much as cry a warning, his guards were dead. A porcelain panther, an elemental of unique viciousness and cunning, mauled one, while ice mephits, cleverly disguised in the eaves of the building, skewered another with a well-placed ambush. Aldrex’s allies, of course, rushed to his aid, and the stout door to his hideout permitted Aldrex to fight back with all the precision and cunning of a true war wizard. He slew some mephits, and for a moment, it seemed like this threat was trivial. Then he heard a low growl.”

“The half-elf’s familiar, no longer cowering in her wickerwork cage, mrowled and yowled with intensity. Aldrex could scarcely believe his eyes: the familiar, with careful and rigorous precision, was casting a spell.”

“More ice mephits erupted into existence and swarmed around Aldrex and his one remaining guard, the mightiest Warborn of the legion, victor of duels and champion of the Empire. The mephits had caught Aldrex out of position and by surprise, and he was forced to fight for his life. He incinerated some mephits, while the Campion slew others; but before either could totally quell the threat the sly elementals had opened the door to the forstress-church and in surged the panther, in surged the empowered mephits from outside.”

“Aldrex and the Champion were outnumbered five to one. No reinforcements could come, the chaos was too widespread. Lesser men would have died against such hopeless odds. The Empire's best were made of sterner stuff. The Champion knew his duty, and he unflinchingly defended his Chainbearer, striking out against the panther again and again, and taking the blows stoically in turn. Aldrex was magnificent. He placed every one of his dwindling spells precisely to maximize his advantage, and his Burning Hands were, thankfully, uniquely effective against the ice mephits.”

“When the Champion struck down a winged fey familiar, lurking invisibly, Aldrex at last grasped what was happening: the half-elf was attacking the camp remotely, seeing the action through the eyes of her allies' familiars, and she had somehow poured out magical powers to her summoned monsters to make them into vile and uncontrollable threats. She had never intended to uphold her bargain; she had merely bought time to plan an attack that would allow her the most advantages. And she was too craven and cowardly to even come herself; she had sent minions and magical constructs rather than risking her own neck!”

“Fury, then, moved Aldrex to yet greater feats. By his hand, every elemental around him perished. The Champion, moving with indomitable will, smashed the panther to pieces with a precise axe-stroke. The death of that beast unleashed an earthquake like a god stamping the earth, but Aldrex and the Champion were triumphant. The half-elf’s familiar, like her master, was cowardly, and fled as soon as she could. She left with her tail tucked between her legs, and Aldrex and the Champion emerged victorious, ready to gather Aldani and their Captains to their side, and take back their city.”

“But this was not to be.”

“What Aldani was facing, while Aldrex won his victory against impossible odds, cannot be described. Not truly. Unless you had witnessed the horror of it firsthand, smelled the blood and gore on the air, seen the cold, ruthless precision with which the killer moved, you could not understand the sheer *monstrosity* of what the half-elf had sent against the chainbearers. But I shall endeavor to convey some of it.”

“As Aldani was returning to the fortress-church in the center of the Imperial city, she was drawn up short by a monkey, carrying a pail of water and some vials, staring with kleptomaniacal intensity at the fine cloak Aldani wore, once the half-elf’s property. This, in and of itself, was more comical than threatening, but then the monkey had stepped forward, dropped a vial of potion into the water-pail, and drunk another. And then the monkey *changed.*”

“Like some vile, vicious mockery of the divine form of a celestial angel, the monkey grew wings. Brilliant radiance erupted from its every hair. It levitated off the ground, eyes growing as bright as criminal suns, and it unleashed a screech of pure greed. As one, Aldani’s soldiers flinched back, even Imperial discipline unnerved by this abomination. Only Aldani herself, armed with fury and faith, was not daunted.”

“She might have lived, had she run, then.”

“As Aldani moved to grapple with the monkey, the water pail was also starting to glow. It buckled, then shattered. From it emerged a beast that was, if one were imprecise about one’s biology, an octopus. It had wings, and it was the size of a house, but it was, superficially, an octopus. But its soul was not that of a cephalopod. Its soul was a blank, swirling void of violence. It was the Tidehulk, and it was terrible”

“Aldani struck the monkey, and the Tidehulk, with rage. It was futile. The Tidehulk moved forward, raised up all eight of its gargantuan limbs, all sheathed in burning radiance. It batted Aldani down with a hurricane of blows, more than the True Mountain, Torr Battlehammer himself, could have hoped to endure. She was smashed to the ground, broken. The kleptomaniacal angel-monkey looted her corpse. Her soldiers could not stop him. The Tidehulk killed them next.”

“Aldrex witnessed the monster that was decimating his forces, and in his wisdom, held back, calling his Captains to his side. He knew that only a full Century of the legion even had a chance against the beast, and the armory raid had prevented any large force from organizing. Aldrex knew he would need to buy time, and so he had his Captains, the best orcs of the legion, armed with only boar-hunting spears, form a defensive circle around the fortress-church. If he could endure long enough, the legion could reorganize. And the tide would turn on the Hulk.”

“As Aldrex readied himself to again defend the sanctuary of the legion, however, he felt a gust of wind.”

“With a whirl, the Air Elemental, having escaped the scrum at the armory with its speed and fluid form, hurled Aldrex into his own Captain’s spear. With a joyful chitter, the steam mephits dodged around Aldrex to loot the treasures of the Legion, and the Champion found himself suddenly weakened as the Elfshadow, erupting from the darkness, stabbed him in the leg.”

“All this could have been reversed, perhaps. Aldrex had survived many poor engagements. But the Tidehulk was not a normal foe.”

“As it downed another potion and regained its strength, the Captains found, to their horror, that their great boar-spears could not match the Hulk’s reach. The great beast, with a massive lurch, brought down its arms and slaughtered half the Captains with one attack.”

“What could Aldrex have done against such power? He had cast his mightiest spells and they had merely annoyed the enormous, celestial abomination. He tried to flee, but before he could, the Air Elemental, with dull focus, caved in his skull against the ground. The Tidehulk ripped his limbs from his chest, crushed his bones, and drank his blood.”

“The Champion, the last light of the Legion, was all that remained. But I hesitate to even speak of his pathetic death. He died to the Elfshadow, one painful stroke at a time, each blow stealing away a small piece of the vigor with which he had fought for the Legion, until he could barely stand in his armor. He had lived just long enough to see his commanders die, to grasp the blind abyss into which the Legion would be thrown, to witness the steam mephits and the Air Elemental stealing away the items taken in the half-elf’s false deal, and the entire wealth of the nascent nation, leaving the 1st Vidharan penniless. Such a crushing demise should not be wished on any living thing.”

“By the time the sun rose and that dreadful night ended, the last chainbearers were dead. With them, the Legion’s future had gone. They had no wealth, no promise of a returned Emperor to trust, no leaders to follow. They had only despair left to them, or rage.”

“I tell you this in penitence, and supplication, Enkidar, for as you have surely guessed, I am the half-elf that orchestrated this dreadful event. I had little love for Aldani and Aldrex. Both thought little of my life or worth. But they were living, thinking beings. They traded fairly with their neighbors. They were pillars to their people, however harsh and twisted the system they served was. They could have become better. Instead, they are gone, and what they left behind will only grow worse. The legion now has nothing left, save its enemies.”

“Tomorrow, you will face Ur’Hammish, by whose authority you were to be put to death. You owe him no love. He has no right, in the gods’ eyes, to live any longer than you. But even though you could justly strike him dead, I urge you to think, to search, and to consider a solution that does less harm. For Ur’Hammish, cruel though he is, has led his people to safety, given them security, and tried to keep peace against all save you and your kin. He could become better. And, were he better, he could be good. And the world does not have enough good people in it.”

“I have had my fill of vengeance and bloodshed against other humanoids. It is not what it’s cracked up to be. I do not wish you to earn regrets, like I have earned.”

—A story told by Valorie Vayer to Enkidar, in a Dream woven on the night of the 18th of Monpel.

**Expedition Result: We have bested our foes and retrieved all we lost and more. We have marginally advanced the power of Nerulla and Ra’al. SUCCESS FOR THE DARK SIDE!!!**

**Expedition Loot: Cloak of Vanishings, Bracers of the Drakehall Guard, Glimmerward, and the Animated Shield, all retrieved. 60 gold pieces, Auldrex’s spellbook. Possibly stains on our immortal souls.**