What!? Bolgrim Dies? Shut up! (Jan 4, 2009)

(Sara says, "No way! I 'heart' Jooj!")

The world is closing in... life is getting complicated. Luckily, in the short term, Sassaurine provides enough goods and services where everyone is able to learn new skills, find rare materials and buy the magical items they need to carry out the Vanguards intended plan.

Time is growing short, a wedding is closing in and the groom hasn’t seen his bride in five months. So, with aplomb the group teleports themselves to the edge of the city wall. Then with a liberal usage of dimension door, the party quickly deftly moves across the city and to the Family Matrius’s estate. It is here, the group, decides to hold up.

Donner quickly settles into his old room. The rest of the group explores the house and grounds and then, including Churchkey’s parents they all hunker around the dinning room table for a long and candid discussion about the upcoming events and strategy.

First, a time line is established:

• there are five days until the wedding day
• invitations have been distributed. Turnout seems to be in the low hundreds
• as a group they decide that Bolgrim is going to marry the couple
• they need to find a way to resurrect Alec Tercivel
• they want to find out about Tercen Skellerage... is he
o a bad man
o just super nationalistic and thus doing as commanded
o being some-how manipulated/charmed etc.
o not really Skellerag, but a doppelganger of some kind
• check out the news on the streets about
o the wedding
o the cathedral to WeeJas and its impact on
 Temple of Pelor
 relationship with St. Cuthbert
o the impact of and the total number of ½ Orc mercenaries
o the Red Shields
• contact Skie
• contact Shensen
• contact Jennya
• contact the Chisel
• go to Barrett’s bar and make sure business is still good :)
• The family Matrius and the Family Taskerhill will meet in two days (on Day Three) to make full wedding plans and schedule etc.
• continue research on: (have a high level bard with Legend Lore, and access to a Library at the University not to mention a whole slew of investigatory spells)
o Deamonskarred
o Shackleborn
o Cagewrites
• Broadsides are not functioning (government shut them down)
• discussion of the noble families and alliances

Once the list of activities has been determined the Vanguard decides that in the best interest of safety they should remain incognito until the wedding proper. With that the group hunkers down for the evening with the exception of Barrett. Additional guards are put on watch and a hand written note is delivered to the Taskerhill’s from Churchkey. The note invites the wit filled and beautiful young Taskerhill to a private lunch on the morrow.

Barrett slips out of the house and makes his way to his home and to this bar. It is here Barrett feels far more comfortable. Barrett reconnects with some of his old contacts and makes it known to his trusted few that he is back in town.

Very early in the morning Barrett returns to the manor and joins the team. About a half hour later Bolgrim sets about the long ritual to bring Alec back to life, an expensive but important endeavor. Fifteen minutes later, Alec’s finger twitches, his chest fills with air and moments later his eyes flicker open.

The Vanguard figures out their first set of actions for the day.

First, Pepper and Barrett don their hats of disguise and make their way to the Cathedral of WeeJas. They question a number of the Acolyte preachers outside of the main doors. The Cathedral is closed to the public and all Acolytes until the grand opening. They are not sure when that will be, but it must be soon because security is pretty tight. The two do a little examination and figure out that the Cathedrals height blocks the sun from striking the Church of Pelor except at dusk. This of course is an amazing slight and in any other city would create a church war. But with the current power of WeeJas and the lack of Pelor’s influence this has gone unnoticed.

The two return to the Matrius estate and learn that Jennya is in hiding due to the fact that Kristoff, head of the church of Pelor, was assassinated. With the exception of a few lay priests, Bolgrim is the sole practitioner of Pelor in Cauldron. Between the seeming competition of WeeJas and St. Cuthbert for the souls of the citizens of Cauldron, and the slow erosion of traditional belief systems for both of these faiths, Jennya figures she is next on the chopping block.

The group comes up with some key activities for the remainder of Day 1:

• Keep Alec hidden, only reveal his new arrival on the wedding day
• Barrett has a whole list of activities that he wants to accomplish.... In fact there are eight items on his “to do” list. It will take him all day and a good portion of the evening.
• Donner will wear one of the hats of disguise and visit Skellerag. He will observe him with The Gem of True Seeing to at least determine if there are any glamers or other hidden aspects about him.
• The rest of the group will do research, talk with The Stormblades


Churchkey has a private interaction with Anna that needs to happen before the wedding, he quietly places the ring back in his breast pocket and returns to the discussion at hand.

Donner puts on his hat and transforms into Graflex the merchant. He makes his way to City hall looking for Skellerag. Being so busy he makes an appointment and says he knows where Churchkey is. The guards make Donner… I mean Graflex… wait for about fifteen more minutes and then Skellerag come out to meet him. The two have a good five minute conversation and Graflex is paid for his troubles. He is also promised a handsome reward for the whereabouts of Churchkey before the wedding day.

Barrett makes his way out the door at the same time as Donner, but his errands take him to eight different locations all over the city. Barrett doesn’t come back until late into the night.

Meanwhile back at House Matrius, the group is chatting when the front door flies open and the room explodes in spells and the flash of blades. Most notable are two fighter types. Their speed and ability to tumble not only frustrate Connel to no end but these two are positioning themselves into strategic flanking positions. Their obvious target… Bolgrim. Blades slash into his flesh, spells crash against his body. The power of Palor is great, but it can’t seem to keep up with the barrage of damage being done. The other focus of their attention… Alec Terceval. In Alec’s highly weakened state, the deadly tactics of these very able assassins takes Alec down in under 15 seconds.

Alec is laying dead… well, nearly dead on the ground. Churchkey is standing over his body. Connel is chasing down this large lug of an assassin who is far lighter on his feet than one would expect. Bolgrim is nearly dead. Pepper is expending spells bouncing between healing and attack spells. When Donner comes sauntering in the front gate. Immediately he takes in what is before him… Churchkeys parents are running as fast as they can toward him from the house. Three guards lay dead on the grounds. Donner takes off at a dead sprint for the house.

Churchkey takes a step toward the lumber oaf who is now threatening Pepper and making their way towards the nearly vivisected Bolgrim. Connel makes another frustrating charge toward these villains… large arcs of marking his path. When a vampiric Todd Vanderborden appears over Alec’s body and with a final blow a chunk of the noble paladin’s throat is torn free and consumed with glee.

Donner dashes into the room taking a defensive stance in front of Bolgrim and with due to the shouts of the others takes out his gem of true seeing.

Bolgrim takes a shaky breath and the energy of Pelor arcs towards Todd. Todd stumbles for a second and then smirks. With that the room erupts in flying chunks of ice. Bolgrim collapses on the ground Pepper quickly tries to cheat death but the damage is too great and Bolgrim slumps to the floor; his life essence staining the teak boards.

Enraged, Connel screams and his body is filled with blood lust. His now stationary target takes a full throttle death storm from his mighty two handed sword. His companion slips around Todd and begins running. Donner leaps toward the invisible spell caster and knocks her so hard that she stars for a few seconds. Her dazed blinking gives the rest of the group time to respond.

Todd is blocking the door and begins to step backwards into the hall when Churchkey in blind rage leaps at this undead foe. Somehow his hands don’t just touch Todd, but find there way around his throat and with that he unleashes all of his energy of pure good, of healing. Todd’s eyes bulge and his hands scratch at Churchkey’s armor and then in a silent explosion Todd is nothing but dust covering everything.

It doesn’t take long for Churchkey to come to blink the dust out of his eyes and charge down the corridor where the other assassin ran. Meanwhile, Connel, Donner and Pepper make quick work out of the remaining two in the room.

Donner then charges down the corridor and out the back door followed by Connel and Pepper. Churchkey charges up the stairs turns the corner and thunders his body into the locked door. He shoulders it again and stumbles through. Before him running on the air itself a good ten feet from the window is the female assassin. Churchkey leaps out the window and just can’t gain the distance needed. With that Churchkey falls with a heavy Thud and exhale of air.

Pepper casts a bubble of force around the escaping assassin, Donner jumps and some arrows are unleashed from below. The Assassin makes a bloody fall to the ground.

That night when Barrette returns the party has already scrambled for resources purchased at Sassarine and Bolgrim is again alive.

A few members make their way to the Taskerhill's. Churchkey and his parents go to seek some safety measures. It is here that Churchkey gets Anna alone and formally proposes.

Barrette reports on a number of things:
• He has Kristoff in his bag of holding. The other Acolytes of Pelor are scared nearly to death and a few of fled for their lives… but the remaining five are still carrying on their duties as they were given by their deity and Kristoff.
• Barrette has made contact with the Redshields and has asked them to come to the wedding and be body guards for an unknown guest. (Alec)
• He has some trusted people following Skylar Krewis and Skellerag to see what turns up.
• Researched info on Mayor, not a lot of info yet.
• Talked to Shensen and Jennya. They are hanging out together. Jennya has had two assassination attempts on her. She survives only because she ran and is able to hide with Shensen’s help.
• Talked to the Chisel and found out they are digging a tunnel down from inside one of Maavu’s warehouses to the Ebon Triad Tunnels. This won’t be finished for at least six months.
• There is a leak in the thieves’ guild. Someone is working with the government. With the number of guards, a depressed economy etc… the guild must be getting some government kickback. From who? Barrette isn’t sure.

DAY 2

The group again gathers at the dinning table of Matrius, this time Anna, Cora and Zach are also here to assist in any strategy. There is a lot of chatter bouncing from theme and topic without much direction.

Pepper returns moments later looking ashen. He has just cast a divination to determine the location of Todd. The remains of Todd are somewhere in the Temple of WeeJas. As this the members around the table are stunned. Perhaps a full twenty seconds goes by before the silence is broken. “We need to see inside that temple”

Scrying into the temple works pretty well. The main chamber looks pretty familiar to Pepper, but all the pews have been removed. Standing guard in the main room are a number of clerics, some ½ orcs and two Stone Giants. At this news the room erupts in discussion and debate.

A few things are determined:
1. Churchkey and Anna will be “officially married” on Day 4 not on Day 5. This wedding will be small with only 30 or so key people in attendance.
2. The public wedding on Day 5 will be the spectacle. They will be married again, but it will be a “military wedding”. Everyone in full armor etc.
3. They must storm the Cathedral of WeeJas.
4. Possible coordination of the Cathedral attack and that of one of the wall gates.
5. The private meeting with the Taskerhill's will still be on Day 3.

With this.. the group is still in serious discussion about the rest of the days events. What could it bring? The city of Calderon, their home their life’s blood is in peril. Can it be saved?

Stay tuned!