The Hellions - Episode Three

## **Arc Synopsis:**

Inzet, the capital city of Mowen's Borderlands province. Welcome to the Vanguard. An order of heroic Knights whose sole purpose is to protect the Trinity Kingdoms from threats beyond the ability of normal mortals. You are part of the Hellions Faction of the Vanguard, who patrol the wastes for the accursed dread hounds. These fiendish monsters have no tactics, no sentience, never tire, and are always hungry for mortal flesh. Until today, when something changed...

## **Episode Summary:**

Fall 1217. In this adventure, the two Hellions squads regrouped, reported to Mazz, and continued their search for clues.

This is the third adventure in the The Hellions Arc

## **Commanding Officer:**

Mazz (Massidy) Hebner – Second-in-Command, Vanguard: Hellions Faction.

## **Vanguard:**

* Nevelle Szmart - Tiefling Undying Warlock
* El Cangrejo – Crabfolk (Simic) Mastermind Rogue
* Dro Near’th - Drow Shadow Sorcerer
* Tyriel Criller – Human (Loxodon) Ancestral Barbarian
* Shepard Swiftfoot - Horned Halfing (Tiefling) Moon Druid
* Duvel Storm - Aarakocra Arcane Archer Fighter

## **Adventure Debriefing:**

### **The Brady Bunch**

Hearing the scream and seeing the huge burst of flame emanate from where 'Bob's Squad was, Shepard wild shaped, with El C grabbing on to his fur to ride along; and Duvel took off flying. Neither dire wolf nor aarakocra were slowed by the river. El C and Duvel stopped on the banks to assist the rest of the group across.

'Bob,' the Striker had tried to attack the group, red and black thorny tendrils had shot out of his palm and tried to strangle Auri, the goliath ranger. Acting quickly, Sabine had incinerated 'Bob' leaving nothing behind but an axe under the cremated foliage. The lack of a corpse led them to believe he may not have been of the material plane. The magical axe was made of a blackened iron, bearing a scale pattern along the face of the blade resembling an eye. 'Bob' had been a Striker for about a year, but only recently seemed a little different after a patrol into the Bluwoods.

Searching the area there was no sign of further hounds and no scent of fiends, even from where 'Bob' had been disincorporated.

The squads used the Vanguard supplied scroll to message Mazz and report in, and ask the next course of action. The return message "keep scouting for further incursions." Duvel attempted some recon from the air, but visual acuity was limited by the night's darkness. Dro conjured a bonfire and the two groups rested for the night.

### **Your Horoscope for Today**

Investigating the next day, no further trails are seen, but El C does find a seemingly discarded leather satchel. It contained a forgery kit and two letters:

one opened letter

* "Rilka, Forward the shipment to the First Eclipse. Be very careful with it, we need it intact this time. -Aradrine"

one unopened letter

* "LF FNCE N ZET. SCR GDS TRE GMS TRDE. 5in5 ENCRCH N TERR. FNISH N TWN N CM RTHLD. -SP.R.C-BT"

El C translated it to “Looking for a new fence in Inzet. We deal in many Scourge era goods, treasure, gems, and trade. Five-in-five wants us dead. When you’re finished in town you should come. -Spireling of Cebet"

Duvel suggested forging a new letter to leave in their place. Nevelle composed a note for El C to translate into Thief's Cant,
"MSN CPED b VG, N DR.P ORG "FRG SHK", w DDP O/S ZET (*w/ date 3 weeks from now*)"

Dro's aye-aye familiar, Captain, took up position to spy on the satchel for any people that interact with it. Duvel made one last ariel surveillance of the area, finding only that the danger had been eliminated for the time being.

### **Party in the CIA**

Returning to Inzet, El C turned over 20 short swords to the Quartermaster. In turn the QM did his best to appraise the axe Tyriel had, finding it was enchanted with magic that had a limited number of uses. Tyriel took a chance to bond with the axe, "Dryskill," in a controlled environment, and discovered it could induce fear in his enemies. While there, Dro picked up a pair of Boots of Levitation.

Dro and Duvel visited the local Riot House to ask about rumors, but no new rumors about forges, only some oddly symmetrical weapons in town.
Dro picked up on talk of requests for escort missions, miners, builders, and various others for reinforcing and rebuilding the walls of Inzet as the city keeps expanding.
Duvel asked about stories of someone who made an impossible shot at the Hellion's Tower, referred to as the Spectre of Shadhavar. Intruiged Duvel attempts the same shot (Nwalme once made to knock a possessed Ro'keer off the Hellion's tower). His arrow coming up a little short, Duvel vowed to keep improving his skills.

El C visited his magical inventor friend and picked up a new dagger, The Bigger Knife, to try out, and mentioned he was still waiting to find someone worthy of testing the Mutual Destruction bracers. Then to Pawn Voyage and by promising exclusive deals he procured a magical Winterbole Rowboat.

Shepard spent time with his sister, Sabine, encouraging her that she made the right call in the field to save her teammates. Following that he also worked with Mazz mapping where spawning locations were found. Reported on the empty weapons crates. Another team had also found an empty crate, pondered on why someone would even want to make the dread hounds more dangerous. Hearing from Dro that there'd been a big push on wall building, there comes the possibility of a motive, as there may be some big money involved.

Dro, Duvel, El C, and Nevelle headed to visit The First Eclipse and it's proprietor Aradrine. "Fortune-Telling, Herbs, and Spell Casting." Upon entering Nevelle starts sneezing due to an allergy to the sandalwood on the shelves. For 5 gold, El C asks for fortune and secretly mentions in thief's cant that he's looking for more than just his fortune. Aradrine using her cards clandestinely tells him "stock is empty," "items were stolen from her" and "she wants to get them back." El C and Aradrine headed into the back of the store to continue their conversation. Dro listened in to her thoughts while they conversed. Etherite had been stolen by her assistant halfling Rilka, and possibly left behind a handkerchief with the symbol of a seven-spoked wheel. In return for retrieving her Etherite she would help with a possible lead on the oddly symmetrical weapons. At the mention of the weapons, Dro picks up on the name Mr Fletchford. While distracted, Duvel pocketed some Dust of Sneezing and Choking. When the two come back out, Nevelle purchased a Scroll of Protection from Evil and Good.

Tyriel spent time asking other Hellions about the striker that turned. His team was sent to the Bluwoods after the red pulse over the Lake about six months ago, they came across a few beasts, krenshar, but nothing else. 'Bob' found the axe, and the squad returned. 'Bob' had seemed more and more interested in Hellions tactics.

With about three days until the next rotation, Dro felt his familiar connection break. Captain had seen a horned scaled winged humanoid leave something in the satchel.

### **Truck Drivin' Song**

Rather than split the party, the squad rented a few nasus mounts to expedite travel. Arriving after a hard two days ride, the satchel is found in place but empty. Nevelle determines it's an Uncertainty Satchel, one of a pair. Wanting to make their meeting on time they continued to ride quickly toward the abandoned shack outside the former city of Bastion.

A small three and a half foot tall figure is spotted beside a taller well-armed figure next to the shack.

## **Conclusion**

Gathering more questions than answers, Kell's Hells approached the mysterious figures.

## **Rewards**

Tyriel acquires axe, Dryskill

Two Weeks accumulated downtime