Lands of Mystery, Day 4

## Synopsis:

The Party had spent a week in the Southern Barrens, spending most of their time with their patrol-duty. They had not encountered much of importance in the past week, merely wild predatory animals straying too close to Tauren settlements and the odd Quillboar encroaching on Horde-territory.

This evening, the Party had felt several tremors and earthquakes deep underground the whole day, oddly reminiscent of the time of the Cataclysm. The Party chose to ignore it to continue their business, but remained wary of it just in case.

Astrae wished to spend this day sunbathing with her new cool sunglasses rather than patrol, so the Party picked up a wandering Laughing Skull, "Boneyeller", to help fulfill the day's duties instead. The Party learned from the Notice-Board that two groups of Alliance settlers had joined forces, acting as bandits in the land and harassing local caravans.

As the Party suspected they might be somewhat responsible for these encroaching Humans, they decided to take care of it, starting by searching the old ruins of Camp Taurajo.

Camp Taurajo seemed mostly empty, though the Party took the opportunity to loot the old ruins for any valuables that might've been left behind. The celebratory cheers from the successful scavenging drew the attention of a hidden Archer, who fired arrows at their feet.

Salarya correctly assumed that the Archer had missed his mark on purpose, and tried to hail him on friendly terms. The Archer revealed himself to be Ranger Fabion, who they had previously met among the Kul Tirans a week past. Ranger Fabion explained he had gone rogue from the Humans, deeming them to be dishonorable cowards who had turned to hiding in the shadows and thievery. The Party quickly suggested Fabion could help them infiltrate the Humans as their inside-elf.

Rumika quickly took the reins of the operations, and to most of the Party's horror, chose to disguise the *(almost)* all-female Party as a group of courtesans and harlots Fabion would bring to the Soldier-camp. After much heavy debate, the Party eventually agreed. Rumika went through the lines to teach each member of the Party the seductive arts, touching up their armor to look more alluring, or used her illusionary-spells to change the appearance of the less traditionally-attractive races.

Once the masquerading was done, Fabion *(quite embarrassedly)* escorted the group of courtesans into the Human soldier-camp. The Guards on duty were at-ease seeing Fabion's familiar face, not suspecting any treachery from the Elf, tossing out bawdy jests and cat-calls to the women he had brought along.

The Party picked out their targets, each and every one of them somehow managing to attract several guardsmen to their side at once. The Party and their escorts went to each their closed doors, before the sudden wailing of a Banshee signalled the Party to attack: The massacre on the unsuspecting Humans was swift and brutal, and met very little resistance. The rest of the lair was taken with their pants down in the confusion *(sometimes literally.)*

 In the end, all of the Kul Tiran and Alliance soldiers were slain in the battle, though the Captain, his wife, and a small group of civilians managed to flee, and were not pursued.

The Party regrouped, even meeting up with Astrae again, before they headed back to their base.

However, trouble surfaced on the road back: The same powerful tremors and earthquakes from that morning was shaking the ground underneath the Party, who quickly figured this was no natural phenomenon. In a moment's notice, a band of Orcish marauders riding mechanical bikes circled the Party, trapping them.

Inside the circle of marauders, a Goblin mole-machine surfaced above ground. Three armed Goblins emerged, identifying themselves as associates of the Gigabolt Corporation. They claimed the Party had illegally sabotaged their oil-operations in the Northern Barrens some weeks past, and had come for reimbursement.

Though the Party tried to argue the morality and legality of the Goblin's own actions, the Goblins made it clear they would abandon the Party to whichever punishment the Orcish Marauders would give them, unless the Party hopped into the mole-machine and came with them. Hesitantly, they agreed, and were brought deep underground, to the Goblin's lair...

## Party Experience:

* Today: 200xp
* Total: 200xp

## Trivia:

* **Player-Characters this session**: Astrae, Boneyeller, Mei-Li, Renheim, Rumika, Salarya.
* The sudden Mole-Machine kidnapping was the result of a delayed Critical Failure, after the weather-condition-roll at the beginning of the session rolled a 1, causing the unnatural earthquakes.
* One of the most uncomfortable events for the DM to craft Emotes for to date. The session has earned many unofficial titles, such as; *"Dare You Enter My Magical Realm?"* and "DDO: The *Hoe*down". *(I still love you guys.)*
* Below is an alternate header-image for the day's adventure: