Episode 93: Return to Terlis

Leaving Thorn behind, the party arrives in Terlis to find the city in distress. While their friends at Nightstone Abbey try to help the HOB unravel some mysteries of the Old Ones and Wardens, chaos erupts at the North wall…

#### DM/GM Intro

It started as a simple Dungeon Run. Five strangers, all of them the same level of experience at that time, found a strange artifact in an abandoned Dragon's lair. To identify it, they contacted a wizard of the Natural Order named Torvalt the timid. Torvalt told them that what they found was no ordinary treasure, it was The Secret Keeper's Amulet, a magical relic that dates back to a time no one in all of Aïn remembers. A time before the Great War of Ideas 300 years ago. A time when the Wardens came into being. While few still believe they exist, the 100 foot tall Wardens have presided over a lasting peace in Aïn. Recently, however, the Wardens have been captured and that peace has been shattered. Vicious demons roam the countryside laying waste to towns and besieging cities. Demons unleashed by the same cabal responsible for the Wardens capture. Armed with The Secret Keeper's Amulet, the heroes of Bingle have been trying to track down and free each of the Wardens battling members of the cabal along the way. Fardinald Ertinfert the mad scientist, Yan Mo the warrior with claims to the throne, Vik the wily con artist, and their leader Kalkata Theed the Ashen Mage.  A powerful spell caster connected to a subterranean species called the Drow. Though these adversaries have been treacherous, the heroes of Bingle have managed to rescue three of the Wardens so far. In doing so they have discovered a link between The Secret Keeper's Amulet and the lost history of Aïn.

Each time they have brought the Amulet into the proximity of a Warden it has unlocked a vision of the past, clues about the Wardens origins and the threat they were created to oppose. Luckily the heroes have been assisted in this quest by the wizards of the Natural Order. After they freed the Storm Warden near his camp, Torvalt the timid portaled the team to the city of Terlis to meet with another member of the order the Scholar of Nightstone Abbey, Hermil Fesh. Fesh had mentored James Quillus during James' time at the school, and helped the team search the Abbey's vast library for more information about the Wardens. Unfortunately a moratorium on magic was in affect in Terlis forcing all spell casters out of the city and into the Shantytown to the north. The team found the restrictions of the moratorium difficult to abide and when an Abbey wizard named Audric Lucern tried to take custody of Fahima's magic phoenix, Uggo threatened his life in graphic detail. The next day Lucern turned up dead, killed in the exact manner Uggo had described.

The team was immediately wanted for the murder. Even their casual contact in Shantytown, a merchant named Jorl, was imprisoned for associating with them. The heroes of Bingle fled the city leaving unfinished business and numerous questions in their wake as they continued to investigate the Wardens they were eventually drawn to Uggo's home town of Thorn. The Orcs of Ook Duun had captured Torvalt the timid and a Sky Child named Diphthe and used them as bait to lure Uggo into a confrontation with his brother Brakka the War Chief of Thorn. Uggo defeated Brakka in single combat and became the new leader of the city. In doing so the team discovered that Brakka had been operating in service of a dark entity swimming in the waters beneath Thorn. It was an Aboleth, that had been using its psychic ability to infect the Orcs with an insatiable rage. In destroying the vile creature, the heroes of Bingle dissipated that undercurrent of rage leaving the Orcs of Thorn without the aggression that had been at the heart of their identity. Uggo knew he needed to do something to protect the city, to reinstill confidence in the people he was now leading. Speeches and declarations of policy could only go so far and Uggo knew he and the rest of the heroes of Bingle would need to leave thorn to continue their quest. He needed something that could heal and inspire, that could point a new way forward and reconnect to the strength of the past at the same time. Retrieving the seeds that his mother had secreted away, Uggo led the entire city out to the site of the Ancient Ancestral Tree, that his brother had cut down, the burial spot for countless honored Orcs of the tribe. Planting the seeds with the bodies of fallen citizens, he created not one but three sacred trees to grow anew. A Tree-une (Triune). Planting the seeds was not enough, Uggo realized he needed to show his people the magnitude of their responsibility, the grace and majesty of their heritage and the gift of choosing their aggression rather then relying on it. Uggo summoned the spirits of his Ancestors,

the three astral forms that had been with him since the day he killed his father and then he let them go. Releasing their life force into the seeds he had planted and severing his ties to their power. Everything he had gained in devotion to their lineage, the skills, and talents, and experience earned as a Barbarian, was gone. Sacrificed in an instant for his people. For Thorn. Siv tried to stop it, his keen perception in that moment registering the fact that Uggo was doing something risky and dangerous. He rushed at Uggo and tried to tackle him to the ground but Uggo used the last bit of his Barbarian strength to cast Siv aside and complete his sacrifice. In the end, Uggo was reduced to a level 3 Paladin vulnerable and weak, just as the demons emerged from the tree line. But Uggo's sacrifice did more then just infuse the new Tree-une with strength and energy to grow, it also served as an example to the assembled Orcs of Thorn. The heroes of Bingle protected Uggo and turned back the attack, they were joined by countless Orcs newly emboldened by their leader, able to tap into rage as a resource instead of a crutch. They smashed the demon threat and reclaimed their collective resolve. But, even with their victory at the Tree-une, the heroes difficult decisions in Thorn were not over. Diphthe the fallen Sky Child was changing. Inflicted with a curse that no Remove Curse spell could expunge, Diphthe had become Diph Theed. A creature confined underground hopelessly digging in the dirt. She was becoming a Drow. Faced with the dilemma of what to do with Diph Theed, the team was conflicted. Siv and Lily wanted to leave Diph Theed in the caverns beneath Thorn. But Fahima, James and Uggo voted to send her through a portal directly in the Ashen Mage's Lair to join the Drow. And so it was, that as we ended last week one of the teams earliest allies walked through a portal and into the home of their greatest enemy. Now the team looks forward to what's next. Uggo,under powered and vulnerable said his good byes to the woman that nurtured him. James, slowly gaining the physical characteristics of a demon himself  contemplated returning to his hometown. And the rest of the team faced the reality of trying to compete their quest with Uggo's reduced strength and ability.