Beybulat Tasho – Human Galmarian Swashbuckler and only member of the Notorious Nine on this expedition. Still a little confused about the details of what is going on but happy to be traveling with new folks for a bit.
Kelathadan (aka Kelli) – Elf Rogue. Continuing to follow along and hang back until it’s time for action, at which point she proves deadly when her rapiers and daggers find the backs of her enemies.
Fernith (aka Fern) – Half-elf ranger. Twin sister of Fynn and deadly archer. Although not necessarily thrilled to dealing with fiery threats she’d never allow Fynn to go into danger on his own.
Fynnhannar (aka Fynn) – Half-elf sorcerer with an affinity for fire. Twin brother of Fern and absolutely thrilled to be traveling into a fiery realm on the Astral plane. Accompanied by his rat familiar, Mr. Cheese.
Jasper Conroy – Human cleric and something of an unofficial father figure for Fynn and Fern. Finds traveling to new lands and having new experiences to be something of a religious requirement.
Skolax – Gargoyle NPC sent along to help the group by his master, Wrylish the Wizard.
Date unknown, Swallowed City, Astral Plane
The Swallowed City was actually a series of small independent land masses with buildings upon them that were all tethered together. However despite Wrylish claiming it was a bustling trade port, it seemed mostly abandoned. The odds of finding a ship seemed small.
“I think that wizard lie to us,” Bey suggested.
“Maybe, or perhaps something changed since he was last here,” Jasper suggested.
Despite how empty things seemed, they spied a few humans, heading towards a building with a large overflowing tankard upon a sign. Fynn saw a building with a sign identifying it as a Mage Hall and headed there immediately, with the others following.
Though once a no doubt large and grand building, whatever pulled these buildings to the Astral Plane and sheered off much of the top of it, and a new roof and chimney was clearly added afterwards. The stonework was well done, however, and some of the bricks had magical runes upon them. As they approached they saw that some of the stones were blackened and/or missing. Jasper knocked upon the door, but no one answered.
“Maybe we’ll break in later…” Fynn mused, and the party decided to find someone who might be able to provide information for them. Jasper tried to stop someone moving through town, but they ignored him and told him to just go to the tavern if he wanted to talk.
Inside the tavern, though Fynn detected some magical auras indicating that some folks had magical items, they decided to head in. There were only two folks at the bar, though they left abruptly when the group entered. Past the bar portion of the building was a room with a sign that said “Real Time Lounge”.
Jasper approached the bartender, a tiefling who identified himself as Zarbor, greeted him and informed Jasper that the lounge was, indeed a time where there was real space, though he urged Jasper and his companions to have a drink and move on, implying the lounge needed to be fumigated.
When Fern asked what happened to the mages he stated the the town was attacked by some raiders that the mages tried to help them fight off.
Fynn cast a Message spell upon Zarbor and his companions so that they could talk freely and not be overheard. The tiefling breathed a sigh and quietly informed them that the town had been taken over by Ifreeti and Djinn and that they were soon going to be noticed and enslaved by them if they did not leave immediately. He said that the mages were taken out by them, and that the chief mage, Rodaries, was missing.
Zarbor stated that they could stay in the Real Time Lounge if they wanted, but he didn’t recommend it as he suspected that the Djinn would see them and try to enslave them. Jasper, forgetting to whisper because he’d been drinking, promised to help them defeat the evil Djinn before Zarbor cut him off, denying knowing what he was talking about. Whispering, he promised to sneak them around and in the back so their presence would be less obvious.
Leaving, they slipped around and met the tiefling at a back door and he slipped them in. Although the rest decided to wait outside of the real time, Jasper went in, had a few drinks and a meal and rested for several hours.
While Jasper slept the rest head some noise in the main bar area. Kelly was able to determine that someone was interrogating Zarbor, claiming he was harboring outsiders. Zarbor told them the group had left and led them off in the wrong direction. With a threat to return later if the group was not found, the interrogator left.
A short time later Jasper emerged, fully rested and a moment later Zarbor returned and urged them to leave immediately and find Lord Alfred if they wanted to help, as he feared the Ifriti would return and burn the place down and possibly harm their children.
“Wait, what?” Fynn said. “Way to bury the lead!”
“They have your children?!” Bey asked.
Zarbor admitted that the Ifrit in charge, Rannog, had kidnapped their children to safeguard their behavior. He urged them to talk to Lord Alfred, claiming he was the only reason Rannog and the Djinn hadn’t killed everyone already.
They decided to visit the keep and find Lord Alfred. It was a fairly imposing stone structure guarded by a pair of armored humans. They nodded to the group with no preamble one of them said “you are expected, please follow me.” They did, passing through halls with strange paintings and tapestries showing different scenes of the Prime Material Plane as well other parts of the Astral Plane.
After being led through a richly furnished palace they came to a large wood paneled hall with a man in a military style tunic seated behind a desk upon a dais. The man introduced himself as Lord Alfred Kinnebar, Solamnic knight of the Sword. As Lord Alfred met spoke several in the group saw that there was a figure hiding in the curtains behind him and that Lord Alfred was visibly nervous.
Fynn was able to get a peek behind the curtain and recognized the large red skinned horned creature as a Janni, which swiftly realized it had been seen realized he’d been seen.
“Come forward strangers,” Lord Alfred said, waving the group forward. “If you are outsiders you are my guests here, for now. Come before me so we might speak.”
Although everyone was hesitant, fearing a trap, Jasper and Skolax ultimately approached Lord Alfred’s dias, followed reluctantly by the others who.
Seeing their trepedation Lord Alfred announced, some what loudly, to them “I have named you my guests, so know that while you are here your safety is assured. “s you are not from the city,” he continued, “I will advise that we were recently attacked. As a result the city has been closed to outsiders while we repair the damage. You may gather the supplies you need to move on, but if you do not leave you will be arrested.”
Jasper thanked Alfred for his concern and inquired if he needed any further assistance while they were here.
“You must understand, raiders attacked our merchants and beat our citizens and I cannot take any action until I can protect my citizens. You must understand” he repeated with emphasis, his eyes flicking to the Janni behind the curtain.
Deciding that action was needed, Fern, Bey and Kelli began sneaking towards the Janni while Jasper and Skollax tried to keep it and Alfred distracted. Fynn, flanked by his summoned fire elementals and flaming sphere, simply opted not to move.
Realizing what the group was doing, Alfred leaped to his feet and ordered his guard to bar the door and to no let the Janni escape. Fern moved first, firing four arrows through the curtain, two of them striking the Janni, and the other two pinning it to the wall outlining the creature. Kelli moved next, running up and stabbing the Janni with her rapier.
The Janni sliced through the curtain and stepped through to get away from Kelli before getting stabbed again and then turned himself invisible. This was stymied, however, as Fynn cast a spell that caused the curtain to drape forward, revealing the Janni’s location.
Skollax took a gliding leap towards the outline in the curtain, pulling a longbow as he went, and fired at the Janni but missed. Bey followed up, moving close enough to the Janni and impaling it with his magical short sword and felling the creature.
Alfred thanked them, but warned that he’d put them all in grave danger. He stated that Rannog would kill all of them and the town’s children if he learned of it, and that he had an army of fire monsters.
Jasper was utterly unconcerned “Yea, yea, whatever. Where is this guy so we can go kill them and save your children.”
Alfred did tell them where Rannog’s headquarters was, but warned he was very powerful and served a greater master. “They call his master the Darkstar,” the lord told them. “It’s whispered he’s a celestial cast out of paradise. He came here with his consort, an Ifritti royal. I will never forget the moment they arrived,” he added with a shudder. “Rannog serves the Darkstar, and you must not draw HIS gaze here when you fight Rannog. Please be careful or we will all be destroyed even if you slay Rannog. I have never seen a being of such terrible beauty and unspeakable horror as the Darkstar.”
“So…that sounds like the guy who has the thing we need…” Fynn muttered flatly.
They group agreed to be as careful as possible so the children did not come to harm, and Alfred wished them well, “I give you the blessing of the Knights of Salamnia,” he said.
“Does that do anything?” Fynn asked.
“No…it’s just a wish of luck really…”
With that, the heroes left the keep and headed straight for the warehouse where Alfred stated they believed Rannog and his minions made their headquarters.
As they were on their way, Fern noted that they were being followed by a few townsfolk. She informed Jasper, Fynn and Kelli of this in elven. Jasper immediately switched to the Common Tongue and advised Bey and Skollax to confront them.
The group whipped around, hands on their weapons, and the visage of the townspeople disappeared and was replaced by strange fiery creatures that Fynn later speculated were Burning Dervishes. They whipped back their fiery cloaks and drew their swords.
Ready for combat, the Dervishes immediately leaped into action. One gazed at Skollax, looking to affect his mind but the gargoyle shrugged off the effect. Another charged Fern, striking her with his blade. Another physically changed into a column of fire. Yet another turned invisible, and the fifth grappled Fynn’s flaming sphere and shoved it into his cloak, absorbing the flame into itself.
Fern, feeling the one that absorbed the power of Fynn’s spell was likely now stronger, ignored the one stabbing at her and fired several arrows at that one, wounding it.
Fern was backed by Bay and Jasper, the former charging in and stabbing the Dervish who attacked her and the latter stepping up and delivering healing toher.
Skollax, meanwhile, took to the air, flying out of reach of the enemy and preparing to dive.
Fynn turned himself and Kelli invisible, telling her “Go ahead little murder elf.” With a smile, Kelli slipped forward and stabbed the Dervish that had absorbed the flaming sphere, wounding it badly.
The creature fighting Fern continued to slash at her, undoing Jasper’s healing and wounding the half-elf again, while another Dervishes continued to strike at Skollax. A third lashed out at one of Fern’s fire elementals, striking it and causing it to wink away back to the elemental plane of fire. The fourth struck Bey, wounding him, but the barbarian was able to disarm him a second later. The final enemy, who had transformed into a column of fire, lashed out at Bey with flame, burning him. Bey retaliated with his magical short sword, wounding the Dervish in turn.
Kelly, invisible, lashed out with her rapier and short sword, brutally killing the Dervish that had been attacking Skollax.
Fern retaliated on the enemy that was attacking her, filling him full of arrows and grievously wounding him.
Skollax took to the air, dodging the attacks of the Dervish near him, and fired his bow down at them, nearly killing the one Fern had filled with arrows.
Fynn drew a wand and used it to conjure a small, localized but powerful storm of ice, striking the column of fire and the enemy who dropped his sword, harming both them badly.
Jasper moved and healed some of Bey’s wounds.
“Thank you cleric man,” the Galmarian said, getting a nod back from Jasper in response.
The Burning Dervishes frantically tried to move out of the effect of the ice storm, one turned and fled in a panic, while the other moved out of the storm and cast a spell that turned him invisible. The Dervish who was filled with arrows lashed out at Jasper but was unable to penetrate his armor. He was killed a second later by Kelli.
The final Dervish took out Fynn’s other fire elemental, while Fern shot at him, although her arm hit Bey on the pull, causing the arrow to go off course and strike the invisible Fynn instead.
“Sorry!” she called to her brother.
“Careful!” Bey admonished Fern, as he ran up to the Dervish she’d just shot at, lashing out with his magical short sword and cleaving into it. Skollax followed up from the air with a pair of arrows, wounding the enemy further.
Fynn, for his part, targeted the Dervish that turned into a column of fire and cast a spell on him that dampened the fire, causing a huge plume of smoke to emerge and injuring it. Then, in recognition of his sister’s error, followed up with a Protection from Arrows spell.
Jasper moved up and struck at a Dervish and the two traded ineffectual blows while the invisible Dervish suddenly appeared behind Jasper, lashing out at him and striking him with a sneak attack. He was cut down a moment later by Kelli, and the next one was killed a second later by Fern’s arrows.
They turned their attention to the Dervish who had turned into a pillar of flame and was fleeing, with Skollax flying after him and firing with his bow, though missing. Fynn, however, merely used his wand again, pummeling it with ice and hail while Kelli gave chase Fern slowed it in a hail of arrows, allowing the elf to catch up to the creature and finish it off.
The group collected themselves, ready to continue onto the warehouse to rescue the town’s children, though they knew that if the enemy was aware of them enough to send assassins that whatever they would find at the warehouse might be prepared for them.
“DMs” Notes: The Fire Team continues their adventure. The idea of how the Swallowed City came to be never really was explored (or even inquired about) by the PC’s but I like the concept. Essentially portions of a city got yanked from some world on the Prime Material Plane and existed floating around in the Astral now. The citizens pulled with their buildings tethered the chunks of floating land together so they would remain together and now they are just a floating town drifting through the Astral.
Being a Dragonlance fan I also appreciated Lord Alfred’s origins, showing again that the Astral connected to all worlds and serving as a little Easter Egg in the adventure. I’m not sure it was caught by most of the players as I believe only me and my co-DM Tim are fans of the franchise within our group, but I enjoyed it and that’s enough for me.
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