The Party

Ishiido Hanazaki

Varis (Formally)

Ember (Formally)

Morthos (Formally)

Tharen (Temporarily)

Aleia (Unofficially)

The Party is a mercenary group created by Wild Thunder and Varis that has since evolved into a group dedicated to serving the Lich Queen.

## History

### Arrival Arc

The Party was created prior to the events of the Elements of Fear, founded by Varis and Wild Thunder. The Party answered the call of Torvald Stonebreaker to come to the city of San Dolaire and take care of a bandit problem they had outside of town. The Party found the bandit fort and Varis attempted to sneak in using a girl scout disguise she had found in the woods. She managed to convince one of the bandits, Cookieman, to join them and help defeat his previous employer. The trio managed to defeat the bandit chief and took the supplies to Flintown on the other side of the island.

When they had arrived in Flintown it was under attack by Firenewts. The Party quickly took care of the FIrenewts at the cost of Cookiemans life. Once the fires were put out, the party delivered the supplies to a local general store and were asked by the towns leader, Mayor Guinness, to kill a creature that was living in the basement of the towns temple. The Party agreed to help and made their way there, they were however attacked by the temples Gargoyle guardians. Dealing with the Gargoyles they made their way into the basement and found a large Umber Hulk had dug its way into the basement. The Umber Hulk had managed to defeat Wild Thunder but Varis was able to kill the creature and ask the towns priest, Father Feracto, to heal Wild Thunder. The Party received their reward in a Ring of Water Walking and made their way back to San Dolaire to get payed for taking care of the bandits.

Once back in San Dolaire, Captain Torvald rewarded them with gold, San Dolaire credits, and the ability to but property in the city. After a day of searching, they agreed to buy a townhouse in San Dolaire and a dog they named Fang. On their way to the Squeaky Cat tavern they met a charming bard named Ember and allowed him to join their group. After a night of drinking with their new friend Dave, The Party started to make their way back to their new home but were stopped by the sound of a womans scream. They ran towards the scream to investigate and soon found that Charlotte, the bartender from the Squeaky Cat, had been killed in her home. When attempting to investigate they were caught and arrested by Lieutenant Dalf for interfering with an investigation. They were given a pardon from Torvald however and avoided jail time, they were asked to not investigate further as the guards could handle it.

### Pirate Arc

The following morning The Party had decided to look to the bounty boards for more work, soon finding a job from San Dolaires navy asking for the heads of three pirate lords that were terrorizing the local waters, Captain Mina, Captain Pinta, and Captain Maria. The Party quickly asked Dave to join them on their quest since the Squeaky Cat was going to be closed with the owner now dead and set sail to the pirate captains home of Filipe'. While sailing, their ship was rammed and attacked by a small crew of pirates. These pirates were quickly defeated but they had managed to kill The Partys dog Fang. On their ship the party found a Blood Spear and the head of an ancient vampire. Wild Thunder claimed both of these items and they returned to their ship.

The journey after was to the island was short and it was decided that The Party wanted to sneak onto the island and stealthily kill the captains. The Party was soon separated as Ember was caught with a crippling case of the shits, the rest went on without him. They traveled through the jungles of Filipe' to avoid attention and discovered that the island was also home to several large dinosaurs. They found a strange temple and chose to go through it, figuring that it must lead back to the pirates home. They had soon discovered that a strange cult of sorts was keeping zombies within the temple. The Party quickly cut through them. While going through the temple The Party encountered a pool of water, both Varis and Wild Thunder dared each other to jump in. Eventually Wild Thunder jumped in causing the water to rise and attack, revealing itself as a Water Elemental. The Elemental was defeated by Varis who launched a volley of Ice Knifes his new toy and fire a pair of laser beams from his vampires head into the lock, opening the door into the streets of Filipe'.

Once in the city The Party met a Ratfolk named Wrench who knew that they there to kill the three captains. Wrench offered to help and give The Party some information, Varis and Wild Thunder accepted and they learned that a revolution was going to be staged that night against the three captains. The Party snuck into the pirates meeting that night and were quickly left alone as the revolution had begun. The pirates were pillaging and destroying the city. The Party raced through the streets to the captains mansion at the back of the island, saving as many of the pirates families as possible, and found many of the pirates were already there looting what they could. The Party found that the captains were already on their boats escaping and raced down to the sea to chase them. Wild Thunder used his new ring to run straight to one of the boats as Varis rowed a simple boat after him. Once on the ship The Party fought against the captains Mina and Maria, set fire to the ship, killed Mina, and captured Maria. They brought Maria to land and questioned her as too where Pinta was going, she eventually told them that Pinta was sailing to the Isle of Leira to make himself unstoppable. With the ship they came in now filled with pirate families, The Party was now stuck as what to do about Pinta. Meanwhile another pirates ship, with blaring music and flashing lights, was heading towards the island, The Party choose to wait for the ship to dock to speak with the captain. Once docked the ships captain, a man known only as Captain Rad, made his way over to The Party and asked what had happened to the island. The Party explained and Rad decided that he would help Wild Thunder, Varis, and Dave chase after Pinta. He would not however allow Maria on his ship and he promptly shot her in the head, killing her instantly.

After half a day of sailing Captain Rads ship arrived at the Isle of Leira, Pintas ship was already there but it was abandoned. The Party asked Dave to stay on the ship while they, Rad, Aster, and Square went onto the island and chased Pinta. Along the way they encountered a deserted Darkling village, eventually coming to a bridge that spanned a chasm. Across the bridge they saw Captain Pinta kill a Darkling and cut the bridge to slow their chase. Square alerted The Party that he knew of a tunnel that dug into the chasm and lead back out to the other side of the chasm. Following Squares advice, they attempted to cross the chasm however their movements alerted and awakened the Earth Elemental that lived beneath the ground. A battle began and the elemental was slain by The Party. The continued onward and soon made their way to the top of the islands mountain where an elderly Darkling waited by a statue of the illusion goddess Leira. The elder explained that Pinta went down into the mountain to take a power of Leira for himself, further explaining that in order to go after him, one of the party members would have to participate in a trial as well. Wild Thunder volunteered and The Party made their way down into the mountain.

After several puzzles and a battle with a Bugbear, The Party had caught up with Pinta and he allowed Wild Thunder to speak with Leira and accept a power for her. With a prayer at her statue, Leira rewarded Wild Thunder with the ability to control an invisibile tiger that he named Survivor. After receiving his power, Wild Thunder challenged Pinta to a battle, Pinta accepted. After a short battle Pinta was defeated and killed. The Party then returned to Rads ship and they sailed back to Filipe' where their original ship was docked. After a brief goodbye The Party sailed back to San Dolaire.

### Killer Arc

Once returned to San Dolaire, The Party was met with a hoard of protesting individuals outside of the cities center castle. An unnamed guard appeared on a risen platform and announced the following changes would be made to the city; San Dolaire credits would be discontinued and the people would be able to exchange them for standard gold pieces, Torvald Stonebreaker will be arrested and replaced for his incompetence in solving the cities series of murders, and Torvalds second-in-command would take over his position as Captain of the Guard. Satisfied with these changes the crowd slowly dispersed. The Party was then payed for their previous work and Varis gave Dave a platinum piece for his assistance in the job. Dave then split from The Party, Varis and Wild Thunder returned home.

The following day The Party was visited by Lieutenant Dalf who told them that they had been requested to visit the new guard captain, Ardrin Silversun. They obliged and followed Dalf to the center castle, back to what used to be Torvalds office. The new guard captain explained that he was promoted to this position to first and foremost solve the various murders in San Dolaire from the past few weeks. In order to accomplish this goal Ardrin asked The Party to help in the investigation and find the killer. The Party agreed to help and were given full access to whatever evidence that they had collected. This included a list of the victims so far and a description of what people have seen. The killer appeared as a large person wearing a white apron and a wore a mask that matched the visage of an oni. Those killed were all women business owners including Charlotte, Spamela, and Willow.

With no real hints to the killers identity The Party was lost as to where to start. Wild Thunders attention was drawn to a rat that squeaked loudly at them as they spoke, chasing the rat The Party came to an alleyway where they were met with Wrench once more. Wrench explained that he may be able to help find the identity of the killer in exchange for some information from The Party. With no other options they accepted Wrenches offer and followed him into a shop called General Mills. The shop served as a secret entrance into the cities criminal underground. Wrench told The Party that he didn't know who the killer was but that he knew someone who does. Wrench brought them to a bartender that was working in the criminal underground named Walter. Walter said that he did have the info they sought but would not give it to them until they fought in the fight pit within the underground. The Party agreed and jumped into the fight pit and faced their opponent, who happened to be a member of Captain Rads crew, Eggbert. The Party almost lost here but luckily Varis was able to kill Eggbert by shooting him in the head. This battle impressed Walter enough for him to reveal that the killer had been down in the underground a few times but he was always wearing his mask when he came down. All Walter knew of him was that he was a man and that he worked in food service in the business district of San Dolaire. With this info The Party made their way to that area.

Once in the area The Party was able to narrow the killer down to three business. An exotic grocer called Erotic Exotics, the restaurant Fine Folk, and a butcher simply called Brellys Deli. In the end Varis discovered the killer to be the owner of the butcher, a man named Brelly. Varis managed to chase the man into his own freezer and trapped him in there. Varis quickly grabbed Wild Thunder and the pair went into Brellys freezer to catch him. It turned out that Brelly had stolen the corpses of his victims and kept them in his freezer and once confronted he used magic to raise the six corpses to fight for him. The Party was able to kill Brelly and put the zombies down. Once everything had settled Varis grabbed Brelly and carried his corpse into the streets. Surrounding citizens were shocked and someone called the guards over. Soon Varis and Wild Thunder were arrested for parading a corpse in the streets. After about an hour in individual cells The Party was personally released by Ardrin. Ardrin thanked The Party for finding the killer and told them that he would be in touch with them for more work in the future.

### Fire Elemental Arc

A few days later The Party was contacted by Ardrin once again and quickly made their way to his office. Once there Ardrin asked The Party if they were aware of the Firenewts that lived on the island. He went onto explain that he wishes to take the initiative against them and remove them from Calfore's volcano. tbc