21. Into Avelis (Part 12)

## Starring

* Kaitlin as Corbin
* Sophia as Laika
* Noel as Fran

and

* Kat as your DM

—Noel

## Intro

Sophia has cursed the players with darned music magic, though Juniper is immune as when Shania Twain was popular they were listening to exclusively Christian rock. They conclude as a group that Shania Twain is an honorary member of the Christian rock genre.

## Aw, Marty!

As soon as the grate swings shut behind Corbin, two guards approach and find him on the floor. They assume that Corbin, who is still in bird form, is a runt of the blotter birds. One guard, named Marty, throws his cloak over Corbin, picks him up, attempts to feed him jerky and then eventually takes him to the botter bird aviary. Corbin does his best to not be noticed by the birds.

## Corbin: Dame-sel in Distress

Once the party realises something went wrong with Corbin’s scouting they send Gingie to the grate to sniff around, she returns with one of Corbin’s feathers, having been smart enough not to step on the grate.

After waiting just long enough to complete a long rest, the party heads down to the grate and Fran becomes a fart in order to spy on the Torvaic base. In gaseous form, she follows the hallway at the bottom of the stairs to the doorway of Torva’s war room. In the middle of the room is a map of Avelis, with broken tower tokens deliberately placed on significant locations. Set against the furthest wall is an obsidian throne with a large golden sword lodged into it’s back. To the right of the throne is a small door. After Fran overhears a Torvaic guard grumbling to himself about his friends saving a bird, Fran decides to explore inside the door next to the throne.

Inside the small door is a room lined with tall, heavy bookshelves and furnished with a black wooden desk. Cold air is coming from behind one of the bookshelves. Going through a crack in the hidden door, Fran finds a long stairway going downwards. Rather than attempting to reach its end, she instead heads back past the war room and locates the aviary.

Although she does not find Corbin inside, she does see that there are shutters at the top of the room, assumedly where the birds enter and exit. Fran returns to the grate, and now having an idea of where things are, is able to see the shutters from the outside, on the left most peak of the mountain.

## Hatching a Plan

The party (minus Corbin) come up with an incredible idea to bust Corbin out of bird jail; Fran will cause an avalanche and make an illusory Wivvil on the side of the mountain where the aviary is located. Laika, using Thaumaturgy to project her voice, will imitate Wivvil to try and cause a reason for the blotter birds to be released.

This plan, surprisingly, works well; with the shutters to the aviary being opened as soon as Laika’s projected voice triggers an avalanche. Fran, taking artistic liberty, makes illusory Wivvil snowboard down the mountain. Having followed the flock outside, Corbin immediately spots the party and rejoins them, retaking human form.

Laika, using the power of love, is able to pick them all up in a group hug and, blindly trusting Fran to cast Feather Fall, she jumps them downward through the shutters and into the Torvaic base.

## Torva's Jaws (duunnn dunnn… duuuunnnn duun… duuunnnnnnnn dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dunnnnnnnnnnn dunnnn)

### Thank god Corbin cast Pass Without Trace

The party begins to make their way out of the aviary. With Fran casting an illusion on the hallway to make it appear empty, they are able to see that the war room has now erupted into a flurry of activity. This is not eased by the sudden appearance of Torva.

He emerges from a shimmer in the air, and is closely followed by Cecilia. As they pass the hallway the Guardians are hiding in, Cecelia looks directly at them through the illusion, but she does not say anything.

After giving a series of sharp orders, including the request that Falen come find him, Torva once again steps through a portal with Cecelia following.

### Aren’t you a little short for a Torva army man?

With Maeri’s assistance, Fran is able to cast Disguise Self on the entire party. Aside from her and Laika’s skin colour they look like Torvaic soldiers. After a brief diversion to steal golden plates, the party enters the war room.

They are able to get a better look at the sword in the throne, which Laika is just *so* into, and then stop at the war table. Fran literally writes notes on the position of Torvaic tokens on the major cities in the world, which they assume to be indicators of where Torva is enacting influence.

The Guardians head down the last hallway. They immediately enter the barracks and steal uniforms that approximately fit them, just in case they are still inside the base when Fran’s Disguise Self runs out. They also steal what looks to be a soldier's diary.

Corbin Wild Shapes into an ant to check out the door furthest from the war room, discovering three other doors along a small hallway. Corbin investigates one of the rooms, finding an elaborately decorated bedroom with a high-elf man sleeping in the bed. Despite really wanting to steal some trinkets, Corbin retreats back to let his friends into the hallway.

They steal a set of keys from Commander Hastas' unlocked, empty room and use them to try and open the other doors. They fail, as first they are interrupted by an angry human man (assumedly Commander Bronca), and then wake up the sleeping elven man in the decorated room. They get away unscathed by pretending to be the cleaning crew and Laika charming the elf out of his room. They steal a bunch of his stuff.

The party makes their way to the door behind the throne. Now working on a time limit as they know that the elven man will soon figure out something is wrong, Corbin decides to summon some animals as a distraction as Laika picks the lock on the door. As she fails, Corbin once again turns into an ant and crawls into the room, finding a study. There doesn't appear to be any way to open the door from the other side without the key. As Laika crit fails on a lock picking check, and is attempting to pull the broken tool out, the elven man from the bedroom grabs her by the shoulder.

## Message to Chantel

**Noel:** And then, last of all, here is a message to Chantel.

**Sophia:** The code word is ‘Lin’. Kayla Lin.

**Noel:** Go, go, go!

**Sophia:** The agent…. is... active… What does Kat say? [Intensely] The agent is going…!

**Noel:** She went!

**Sophia:** She’s gone!

## Features Characters

### PCs

* Fran
* Corbin
* Laika

### NPCs

* Gingie
* Marty
* Torva
* Cecelia

## Featured Locations

* The Farah Mountains
* Torva's Jaw