Adventures of the Outsiders

Our group has started out as a ragtag group of adventurers traveling through the village of Acornfield in the Rivellan Union. There they found the long lost ducal crown of Steelcairn and decided to return it together to the rightful owner (or maybe the highest bidder).

(For the adventures of the previous party see Adventures of the Avalanche)

## Theft on the Highway

It was the eight month of the year 488 of the Imperial Calendar in the lands of Aegeron, the Old Continent. It had been almost fifty years since the great Succession Wars that ravaged the lands. From the ashes of the old Imperium new kingdoms rose and life had once again returned to mundanity. But for our group of adventurers an everyday life is not what fate had in store. They all had their various reasons why, but they all stayed at the Emerald Dragon Inn on that fateful day in the village of Acornfield.

Being the only three guests, our heroes could not turn down the offer to sample the innkeeper's special homebrewed ale. What they did not know was that goblins have snuck into the inn's cellar the previous night and poured a vile concoction into the barrels that put even the most hardened drinkers to sleep within an hour. After they blacked out the goblins raided the inn, taking all valuables, including items of great personal value. There was no question, our adventurers had to recover what they lost.

After talking with the locals and raiding the supplies of the now long gone village hero *Bernard Oakbottom* (but only second to the pumpkin grower *Flori Greenfoot*), the party tracked down the goblins and put an end to their villainy. As they were going through the goblins' hoard the party found a small ironwood chest. Within it they found an adamantine crown along with an official letter from the God-Emperor elevating House Gallowin of Steelcairn to the ducal throne of the city. It seemed the message never arrived. Although the Imperium was no more, but such a crown could still be invaluable to House Gallowin, so the Outsiders decided to take the crown to the free city of Steelcairn and return it to the rightful owner (or maybe sell it to the highest bidder).

## Bound for Servitude

   On their way south the party passed through Ebonrock, one of the major cities of Ilorin. While the city seemed nice, news of the spreading Arpenian Plague forced the party to leave but not before taking a job from the Northern Gale Trading Company that they could complete along the way.

The NGTC had lost a caravan about a week before and over half a dozen members were unaccounted for. It was feared that the orcs who raided the caravan took them captives and may even keep them as slaves. The party was promised a reward if they returned the captives to safety, however the reward varied greatly depending on whom they save, the reward for returning the young noble scion of *House Hartster* to safety was to be rewarded with a 100 gp, while saving the caravan guards was only considered worth a single gold piece.

The party learned that it was the *Drybloods*, one of the Cleaver Orc tribes that attacked the caravan. They were based in the Plains of Throkkar, a desolate wasteland not far from the old imperial highway the caravan was traveling on. After consulting with the captain of the local highway patrol outpost the party learned that the Drybloods have several hundred warriors, thus a direct attack would suicidal (even for heroes as mighty as them). Instead they sought out *Ughash,* an orc hermit who promised to help them in exchange for a favor. He asked the party to retrieve a single piece of bone from both the elder dragon Brarsur and the legendary orcish warlord Jolagh. Both being dead for

   centuries made the choice easy for the party, and they quickly procured what Ughash asked for, although (to save time) they chose not to cover up the fact that they defiled Jolagh's tomb.

In exchange for the bones Ughash granted them a totem and painted the mark of Gruumsh on the, which allowed them to enter the camp of the Dryblood and even compete for a part of the plunder and slaves in the Trials of Gruumsh.

At the Dryblood camp the party met a strange merchant, who they later learned was Sir Berthold, a ranger of the Knights of the Holy Flame. He was scouting out the defenses of the orc camp, while his comrades and the bannermen of House Hartster are hiding about a day's ride away. He asked the party to cause a distraction that would allow his men to sneak up on the orc camp and take it by surprise, allowing them to free the slaves with minimal losses. Unfortunately the only thing that would distract an entire orc camp is a challenge to the warchief. The next day, before the slaves could be sacrificed to Gruumsh, the party issued a challenge to Warchief Burzum, who chose to take them on by himself. But his pride ended up being his undoing as the Outsiders defeated the gigantic orc, just in time to see the knights overrun the camp. What followed was nothing short of a massacre, the knights put all the orcs to the sword and burnt the camp to the ground. While the camp slaves were all liberated, but the party learned that two elves had already been sold to the drows. Not willing to risk a journey into the Underdark, the party decided to leave them to their fate and collect the reward for the others from the NGTC.

## Dug too Deep

On their way to the elven city of Osh Elethiel the party learns that something terrible happened in the copper mines near the village of Brimrock. None of the people who entered it in the past week returned. Naturally our heroes agreed to investigate the matter. They were joined by the paladin Daronton who was also traveling through the village.

Entering the mine their minds were immediately touched by some sort of malevolent presence that bid them to head deeper. Later they encountered the local noble, Lord Moewin, who was trapped in a storage room. Only after freeing him did the party realize that he was under the control of the dark presence that delved in that mine and his men locked him up to keep him from going further. Our heroes followed the nobleman and after a long journey they found themselves in an ancient imperial ruin. There they fought an undead knight that was somehow connected to some arcane machinery and used it to raise the dead as its servants. Seeing no other alternative the party destroyed the device, which destroyed the undead and seem to have freed Lord Moewin's mind. The party later learned that the lord's miners discovered the old imperial complex and the lord ordered them to loot it, which has awakened its defenders.

After receiving their well earned reward the party retired to rest for the night. The next morning they learned that Lord Moewin set fire to his own estate during the night and has apparently perished along with all his servants. They also learned that the lord lied to them about the artifacts he had taken from the ruins. They were sent to the city of Osh Elethiel to be sold to the highest bidder.

Since it was clear that there was more to the imperial ruins that the party previously thought, they decided to head to the city and find whatever Lord Moewin had taken from the ruins, perhaps those could shed some light on these mysteries.

## Our Benefactors

    Our heroes came to Osh Elethiel to find the artifacts Lord Moewin had taken from the imperial ruins, which might shed some light on what kind of creature our party has (unwittingly) unleashed on the world. A mysterious note also told Ea to visit the city. Who was this mysterious benefactor why did they get Ea out of prison?

After some sleuthing around the party learned that the artifacts from Brimrock are kept in one of the impenetrable vaults of the Dwarven Bank. An apparent dead end.

After they accidentally got Ea arrested, a shady man called Siegfried Six-Fingers (Six for short) pulled them out of trouble. Turns out he was connected to the cryptic benefactor who facilitated Ea's release from prison back in the Rivellan Union. As Fate would have it, Six also wanted to break into one of the vaults of the Dwarven Bank and had a plan on how to accomplish this seemingly impossible task. Naturally the party joined forces with him.

First the party had to do a favor for a high ranking magistrate to acquire some maps of the city's sewer system and the ancient ruins and caverns under it, allowing them to approach the vaults from below. The magistrate asked our heroes to get rid of a Reaton Red agitator, which they accomplished without (much) violence.

Having proven their competence, the employer of Six met the party in secret. It was Mithrellas Inaren, niece of Ea's former lord, Charles Gustav. It was she who had facilitated Ea's release from prison and Six was working for her. Turns out Lord Gillton, one of the men she suspects to have betrayed his uncle, keeps a ledger of his sensitive business dealings in one of the vaults. She wishes to acquire it and use it to learn the identity of the other traitors.

Having learned the identity of Ea's and Six's "benefactor" the  party set out to acquire one of the legendary Swiftstone Gauntlets, which would allow them to pass through stone as if it was air, the only known way to circumvent the magical protections around the vaults. They accomplished through an elaborate con/heist in the Coinfeet Manor. The last obstacle was finding out which vaults housed the artifacts and the ledger. This information could only be acquired from Virion the beautiful, an eccentric information broker. In exchange for the information Virion tasked the party with preparing an extremely exotic and hard to prepare meal for his upcoming dinner party, which the party managed to accomplish just in time.

Finally the party entered the vaults of the Dwarven Bank and even managed to escape with what they came for. Mithrellas was pleased and rewarded the party handsomely, after which Six smuggled them out of the city where they were now wanted men and women.

From Lord Moewin's vault the party took a large set of old research notes. From those they learned that the imperial ruins under Brimrock was actually a prison built to contain the demon Kal'goz, Lord of Strife. The party also learned of a ritual which they used to find where the demon was heading. Turns out Kal'goz was going to Steelcairn, just as our heroes.

## Sins of a Father

The party was saved by the devil Ragruz during their last adventure. In return he asked the party to help him collect a debt from Meiji Al-Sharaf, the governor of Esdia. After weeks of sailing the party finally arrives to the city of Esdia, where their instructions are to meet Ragruz at the Wild Manticore Inn.

Turns out Ragruz and Meiji had a contract, which was almost fulfilled, except for 3 wishes which the devil owed to Meiji, who chose not to make these wishes, thus avoiding to pay "what he owed". The party was tasked by Ragruz with finding out the three wishes of Meiji. Of course the real purpose of the mission was for the party to also fulfill these wishes, thus negating this part of Meiji's contract, allowing Ragruz to collect on his "debt". Unsurprisingly Meiji turned out to be a vile, hedonistic nobleman who was also Rayne's biological father.

First Meiji asked the party to "evict a squatter in his basement and bring him its house". The party found that the basement under Meiji's palace had just a single living being: a djinni. Due to a failure in communication the party was forced to fight the djinni, but in the end they destroyed it and took his lamp to Meiji, satisfying the first wish.

Realizing that his first wish was too easy, Meiji came up with something more complex: "*The last day I saw my wife Samira I gave her a violet rose. Bring me that bloom, I wish to see it again*." The party journeyed to the remote villa where Meiji's wife Samira (also Rayne's mother) had been living for the past decade. After fighting off her guardian the party found Samira, an old, fragile woman. From her they learned the tragic story of how Meiji, once an honorable man, turned in desperation to a devil for help, which slowly turned him into the vile person they met. It was also this deal that cursed Meiji's bloodline, resulting in Rayne being born a tiefling and later led to Samira's rapid aging. Fortunately for the party Samira was an avid painter and she did capture the rose Meiji asked for in one of her paintings, which the party took back to Meiji to satisfy the second wish.

Finally Meiji asked for his third wish: "*Undo my greatest regret*". A wish deliberately meant to be impossible for mortals (but not for devils, as the contract required). But he made a fatal flaw. He assumed his greatest mistake was signing the deal with Ragruz, but in reality his greatest regret lied with what he did with his daughter. He assumed her dead, but in reality he was mistaken, Rayne was very much alive. As this was revealed all three of his wishes had been granted, so Ragruz claimed his soul. And with that, the debt the party owed to the devil had been repaid...

## The Eagle's Last Stand

While traveling through the city of Temple Crossing in the Aurithage Hierarchy the party saw a notice promising a great reward for adventurers who would risk venturing to the abandoned Fort Aquila and retrieve the signet ring of the imperial general who perished there. Our heroes quickly sought out the one who posted the notice, who turned out to be a half-elf scholar named Avys, who pointed them towards the old fort and warned the party of bandits. What she failed to mention is that the bandits occupying the fort were mercenaries she tasked with retrieving the same artifact, but they broke their contract and had been preying on other adventurers who tried to complete the task for Avys.

Fortunately they were no match for our heroes, similar to the undead guarding the depths of the fort. In the end the party returned to Avys with the signet ring, for which she gave them their reward and promised to contact them for future jobs.

## Spoils of War

The Kingdom of Iregion had been plunged into civil war as the commoners rose up against their wizard masters. But where others see chaos, the half-elf scholar Avys saw an opportunity to add another historic artifact to her collection. With a plan already formulated she only needed a group of capable (and expendable) mercenaries to carry it out. Naturally she reached out to the Outsiders.

The party was tasked with stealing an old imperial relic from the laboratory plane of a wizard, no small feat. This was made significantly easier by the fact that Avys found a way to teleport them into the laboratory and that they chose to sneak in as the Angel Queen's forces were assaulting the laboratory. In the end our heroes returned with the artifact, earning their just reward.