Age of Ashes Story Thread

[Aileen]

We spend one uneventful night at ground zero of the caravan attacks. There is a big burnt out hole filled with glass made from something very, very hot. Unfortunately because we are hiding out in the mansion nothing ever comes out. So we spend another day there drinking and eating and hanging out, until nightfall comes. This time we make a fire out of the remains of a wagon and sit around it waiting.

I’m cuddled up with Miklos under a blanket, enjoying the fire in the cool desert night. We start getting a little handsy just in time for Arun to try to sit next to us.

“There’s plenty of room elsewhere, Black Eyed Priest!” Miklos glares at him.

“You don’t want to sit with me?”

“No, I’m cuddling with my wife!”

Boundaries, Arun, boundaries! Luckily he goes to the other side and stares into the flames. And then suddenly from behind, a monstrous beetle erupts from the sand. It opens its maw and magma streams out of it at us. I’m completely fine, ducking under the stream. Poor Eliza is on fire.

I move in and hit the thing, but not all my strikes get through. It’s carapace is extremely hard, and when my kukri gets through it releases magma from its wounds. These things are truly devastating, especially to the defenseless travelers they prey on! I’m a bit overconfident when I dodge it’s bite the first time, as it gets me good with another strike. The mandible pierces through my right elbow, coming out the other side. The pain is immense, and my arm goes momentarily weak. My holy kukri drops from my hand and into the sand, and the creature grabs me around the middle and pulls me in while I’m distracted with the pain.

Miklos comes to my rescue, but I can’t escape! I get my kukri back, and try hitting over and over but just can’t get through. Arun casts healing on me which stops the worst of the bleeding, but I’m on fire and my skin is crisping up before my eyes. At last Miklos explodes it, and I’m absolutely covered in magma and beetle parts.

Then another beetle comes out a bit further away- just our luck! This fight goes a little better, but it tears into me. I don’t know why I taste so good to every creature we encounter. Maybe is the lotion I use every morning? It smells like honey and flowers... perhaps I should not use it, but Miklos loves how I smell! At last we explode this one, and then wait to see if more arrive. When no more come, we pack up and teleport back to Katapesh.

We arrive an hour and a half after sunset, and are able to meet with the Farmers’ Guild. Eliza hands over the beetle parts we collected and tells them of what we killed in the desert. They are pleased that the danger has been taken care of and present us with 3000 gold. A hefty sum, but not as important as their agreement they follow it with- they will also vote against the Scarlet Triad!

We are told Satla is looking for us and head back to her, being intercepted by a messenger on the way. It’s a letter for Arun from the Imperial Union of Breeders, where he worked for a few days. They want to support us but will not vote against the Scarlet Triad unless we do something for them. That something being fetching a rare camel, a Duneshadow, and bring it back to use in their breeding program.

“So... we go ask camel to come with us to have sex with lady camels? Why wouldn’t he want to?”

“Nadja, it’s not that easy!” Arun shakes his head.

“I had stallion when I was little, and he would trample us to get to lady horses. We can bring lady camels into the desert to lure him in!”

“That’s both the worst and best idea you’ve ever had, Nadj.” Eliza laughs

As we walk to see Satla the Soukmaster, another messenger boy appears and hands Miklos an envelope. We open it and it is an invitation to meet with someone named Wahar at the Red Daba for an extraordinary opportunity. We have so many things to do, but what harm can a quick drink and a chat be?

At last we reach Satla, and she has company. A man named Mekram and his little daughter Ansa. He is an ingot merchant and known for getting rare sky metals. Unfortunately his luck changed for the worst recently when a man and woman began a harassment plot against him, framing him for embezzlement and getting his shop taken away. He believes it is retaliation for him not being willing to take a lesser price for a rare metal. He needs our help to clear his name and stop the harassment campaign.

We take a break so Arun can fix us all up. My elbow is a mess, but with his stitching skills he gets it back in working order. I need to be fighting fit for the next arena match in a couple days! The poor man is exhausted and his sweet daughter has been crying and came to Satla herself for help. Eliza makes the mansion and lets them in to rest.

“Here you go, sweet dear,” I hand the little girl my chalk. “Is not much, but you can draw on the walls if you like!”

“Thank you,” she says shyly.

I pull her into a hug and pull myself reluctantly away as we go to head to Mikram’s shop. I look at Miklos and give him the pleading look.

“You can’t keep that one,” he says. “Soon, Nadja. Once all this is over, I’ll give you all the children you could ever want.”

I don’t think he knows what he is agreeing to. Of course we will have some of our own, but I intend to adopt every orphan of this war, every lonely person with no family, no matter how old. We are Varisian, after all, we are meant to live as a tribe.

We make it to Mikram’s shop, the Silver Ewe, and begin searching. There is horrible graffiti all over the walls accusing him of terrible things. Miklos and I water his plants as the others check the smelter. There is no evidence of dangerous ores being smelted here. Not much is found, so Arun and Eliza go to talk to neighbors while Bill, Miklos and I head to the Auctioneers Guild.

We talk to a fancy, dignified man named Maz Lataro. He apologizes and tells us there is nothing remaining of the auction from Mikram’s belongings. I discretely snap my fingers, and my lies flow freely.

“I am the buyer of most of them,” I say. “However my people did not get me the notes of sale- I would very much like to review them.”

“I cannot do that, I’m sorry.”

“Actually, it is against code 43 of the Katapesh Trade Convention to deny a buyer to view the bills of sale. Page 72 paragraph eighteen, if you wish to review.” I’m impressed at the words coming out of my mouth.

“Ah, yes. No need. I will get them.”

To my utter amazement he brings us the notes! They all have been sold by two names, Walyer and Anam.

“Everything went for a very low amount,” I say. “I would have been open to paying more, I am surprised my bids were accepted.”

“Indeed, very low. It is strange they were in such a hurry to be rid of them.”

We head out after getting the information, Maz refusing my money and an offer of a drink. He is quite the businessman, it seems. Instead of going to meet up with Eliza and Arun on their boring interviewing of neighbors, we head to the Red Daba to see if our contact is there.

We walk in and are immediately waved over to sit by a dwarf.

“Ah, my friends- sit!”

Chairs are pulled out for us, and we sit down. A steaming mug is placed in front of me, and I smell it. Spiced Varisian coffee! With sweetened cream! My favorite! I look up in amazement, but he just smiles. Bill’s drink is something that would probably melt the skin off my bones, and Miklos has fine wine.

“How did you know?!” I gasp.

“I know a lot about you, Nadja Kozlov,” he says. “And you, Bill, and you Miklos Kozlov.”

He tells us we are going about our dealings with the Scarlet Triad and turning votes against them all wrong. He represents a Consortium, which is not the Aspis Comsortium I find out. It’s got to be The Unseen Hand, then! They get their way with blackmail and terrorism, not the kind of people we want to consort with. I drop my fork, wanting to distract the dwarf from me casting message, but he notices and snaps his fingers. A servant comes and takes the fork, placing a brand new one on the table. Miklos finishes his drink, and before he even sets the empty glass down, another is put in its place.

We are given a job to do- go get a package from “the Seer” and bring it to the Marble Sphinx. This dwarf can get us anything we want, and there’s something I’ve been dying to try.

“Can you get Pesh?”

“Why would you want that, it’s nasty stuff.”

“I’ve had a lot of coffee and need to sleep tonight.” I bulls*** him.

“Right. I will see what I can do. Get the package to the Sphinx and we will have our deal. Good evening.”

We leave and rendezvous with Eliza and Arun. It’s a bit late, but what better time to go to the Night Stalls. It’s a morally corrupt place, of course they’re open late! We go to the tower of the Seer, and he greets us. He’s wearing red robes and in a stereotypical wizard tower, nothing surprises me anymore.

He welcomes us in, but when asked for the package becomes grim.

“The deal is off.”

When questioned he tells us the contents threaten his livelihood and his business. Arun tries to smooth over his concerns, Eliza uses some magic jargon with him, and I start lying out my ass. Eventually he caves. He presents us with a small wooden box with a heavy lock.

“I expect my payment to arrive by the usual channels.” He says as we leave.

We head to the Marble Sphinx. It’s nearly midnight and it’s very, very quiet here. We drop the package off, and most of us leave. I double back and climb up to the top of a building, and Miklos joins me. We lay on the roof and watch the Sphinx. Of course we get distracted and have a little romp on the roof before getting back to watching the Sphinx. Nothing ever comes, and when Bill comes to get us at four in the morning it is still there. We go back to the mansion and sleep.

We sleep until noon the next day, and have brunch as we discuss our findings. It is determined there is always two people involved in all of the situations. A female dwarf and a male human. They’ve been hanging out at a local gambling den, the Golden Scarab. So, we head down to the docks and enter the somewhat seedy establishment. Sure enough, there’s a female dwarf and a human man sitting at a table discussing card game strategies.

We swarm in on them, me standing behind the dwarf as Eliza threatens them. I quickly pickpocket the manacles off the dwarf lady, and sure enough they are Scarlet Triad manacles. Suddenly angered at Eliza, they both rise and draw weapons. And I’m just standing here with manacles. Perhaps I should have stolen one of her weapons?

⚔️ Nadja Kozlov

[Chris Leitzel]

Okay, I am not good at being threatening or intimidating. Lesson for next time I suppose. Maybe I should have gone with impaling spike and worked form there.

And yes, I threatened the woman and the dwarf, but again, I took their actions against Mekram personally. And I was not going to try the diplomatic approach. So I threatened them, and they drew weapons. We did fight and we did take them down, but we healed them. We paid off the bartender to never mention what had happened in that tavern. may have overpaid, but I didn't feel like negotiating a bribe. And he let us use the backroom to question them. Again, I may have gone a little overboard trying to get them to confess, but I did not expect slapping a man with produce flame to kill him. But, after healing them again, they were much more talkative. We got them to confess, and using illusion magic, we brought them to the armorers and metalworkers guild and they admitted to everything. The guild gave Mekram his shop back and agreed to help him get his inventory back. Myself, Arun and Bill helped him set his shop back up. I hope Mekram and his daughter will be okay.

We then went to go deal with the breeder's guild and capture the rare beast they wanted, beginning with searching for a camel that may attract our quarry. Unfortunately, it appears the guildmaster has been poisoned. Bill brought a sample to the poisoner's guild to see if they could produce an antidote, and Arun and I stayed with him for protection.

Miklos wanted to get in good with the gladiator's guild, so he hosted another event, and I conjured another mansion for the venue. During the party, he must have said or done something, because he was suddenly challenged by the leader of the guild.

The next day, there we were, inside the arena when she arrives, accompanied by several large, multi-armed humanoid creatures known as the Bloodblades of Katapesh. Before we had time to even prepare, the horn blasts and the battle is on. I have no idea what those creatures were. They carried swords, swung fists, had breath weapons and were able to cast chain lightning, and lightning healed them.

Bombs, blades and spells were just blasting through that arena. The battle seemed to take forever, but after hard fought combat, we managed to pull off a victory. I will, for the life of me, never understand why a gladiator fight was the best time for Miklos and Nadja to have an argument, but they seemed to think before the fight was a perfect time. Aand they seemed to get into it again after Miklos was offered the position of guildmaster but turned it down. The gladiator guild will now vote against the Scarlet Triad.

After, we were given a message to met the Ghost of the Unseen Hand.

Also, I need to find a decent marriage counselor in Katapesh as I sort of promised I would pay for Nadja and Miklos' marriage counseling if we lived through the gladiator match.

Eliza

[Aileen]

Tossing the manacles onto the table with a clanging thud, I draw my kukri and slash at the female dwarf. Bill pulls out his rod of wonder (an actual wand) and suddenly the dwarf is covered in what looks like nectar! Wonderful rod indeed! The dwarf attacks Arun and the man attacks Miklos, slicing into him pretty bad.

“Now I gotta cut ya!” Miklos laughs, drawing his weapon.

I jump up on the table and go for the jackass who hurt my husband. This could have been a peaceful discussion but these people woke up and chose violence. We quickly take both of them down and manacle them, with Arun panicking that they might die. They would deserve it but we do need information.

Black Eyed Priest stabilizes them while the rest of us have a drink with the bartender who hid behind the bar.

“Perhaps a bar is not the best place to interrogate people?” Eliza asks.

“Perhaps not- is there a back room, sir?” I ask the bartender.

He tosses me his keys. Eliza slides 100 gold over to him.

“We were never here.”

“According to me, you were never born.”

After interrogating them, we get enough information to turn them over to the guild and prove Mekram’s innocence. Maybe we were a bit rough with them but the things they did to poor Mekram were unforgivable. They confess to framing Mekram, and the guild drops all charges and agrees to track down all his sold belongings. A happy end to a rough situation!

The next day we receive and invitation from our mysterious friend Wahar to meet with Ghost. Only problem is we have arena fight that day.

“Tell him we will come after the arena fight tomorrow!” Miklos tells the messenger.

“I was specifically told to deliver this and then f*** off.”

“Oh- well, here’s a gold for your f***ing!”

We are given little talismans with the invite, and I hope there’s no strings attached. Miklos and I put one each on our weapons that night regardless. We head to the Breeders’ guild to find a female camel to help us in our quest to find the Duneshadow. I know if we find a female in heat that it could draw it in, but the others keep making me laugh saying I’m looking for a slutty camel. It’s no laughing matter when we are led to the leader of the guild, and find that he is dying of poison. Yet another thing to investigate.

That night we have a party in the mansion, Miklos hosting it. A lot of people show up, and things are going great. Miklos has a lot to drink and decides to do Nadja presses over his head, and I think that might be what drew the attention of someone... for that evening, a messenger comes forth bearing the message that Bashez Shak has accepted his challenge for the rulership of the guild. Tomorrow, be there or be square. I am a bit miffed that there is no mention of me, his sidekick and wife- I fought just as hard as he did but I go unnoticed. I am not big and strong like my husband, but he and I are a team. It hurts a bit.

The next morning we arrive at the arena and already I feel sick to my stomach. The others are fighting with us, but I have very bad feeling about this guild mistress. Miklos does not even kiss me good morning this day, too focused on the fight. I am in no mood for this.

We walk out into the arena sand, and the stands are completely full. The guild mistress walks out rallying the crowd before the horns even start, notifying them of our challenge.

“And with me- the Bloodblades of Katapesh!!!”

The crowd erupts in cheers as several massive warrior creatures come roaring out behind her. I’m starting to think we are a little outmatched. She draws a kukri, much to my amusement, and a javelin and crosses them over her chest in a salute. Before we can even try to get the crowd going for us, the horn quickly blasts three times.

“COMBAT!!!”

That cheating b****! One by one the Bloodblades move up and breathe electric breath on us, but they are no match for my superior dodging skills.

“I need to get to her, she is my target!” I announce to Miklos.

“No, you’re not running in there! Stay with me.” He snaps.

“I wasn’t going to run in there, I’m just saying I need her in melee!”

“Well it didn’t sound like that!”

“What is your problem, Miklos?! I am not idiot!”

“GUYS! This is not the time for arguing!” Eliza snaps. “If we live, I will pay for your marriage counseling!”

Suddenly we are being pelted by heavy rain courtesy of the rod of wonder. It is helpful but it makes the creatures harder to see- not a problem for me. I move in and hit my other target, but then am attacked over and over again by what feels like two of them. They’re beating me down very very fast.

“Arun, I am very injured!” I call out.

“Hold on, you ran away from me! Makes it hard to heal you!”

“I had to fight, that is point of arena combat Black Eyed Priest!”

The Bloodblades by me dealt with, and Miklos dealing with the others now he’s in dragon form, I move in on the guild mistress. As I pass by her getting into flanking position, she laughs and slashes my thigh with her kukri. It’s a deep cut, and blood spurts out of it at an alarming rate. I scream in rage and hit her four times with my kukris. She grins evilly, drawing her other kukri and facing off with me.

“Oh, we’re gonna dance!” She snarls.

She gets me again pretty good, and then tries to fling sand into my eyes with her kukri. It misses, just getting some sand in my mouth. I spit it out angrily.

“You’ve cheated twice already!”

“Hello, head of the gladiator guild!” She laughs. “Get used to it, sweetie. Your husband will be doing it all the time.”

“He would never cheat on me!” I scream. “You’re dead, b****!”

Miklos dragon moves in behind her, but does not make his hit on her. I’m seeing red, both from anger and the profuse bleeding from my leg. If I’m going to bleed to death I am taking this horrible lady with me! I tear into her and after a few good cuts she finally drops, unconscious.

“Noooo!” One of the Bloodblades bellows.

I go to Miklos’s aid, flanking a Bloodblade. I hit him pretty hard, and Bill bombs him, but he’s a pretty sturdy creature. He whips around and slams his arm into my abdomen. I double over in pain as my insides crush, and am grateful that I didn’t eat this morning, as I would surely have shat myself. Miklos finishes him off, then blows a cone of cold into the air. The crowd is hushed for a moment, clearly in shock, then roars in approval.

We are escorted out to the back rooms, and I immediately lay down on a bench clutching my bruised stomach. The bleeding from my cut has stopped, but my leg is a wreck, and I really just want to go back to bed and forget today ever happened. However, we have a date with the Ghost after this. The other gladiators congratulate us and swarm Miklos. I am used to living in my husband’s shadow. This gladiator life is not for me, though when Miklos refuses to take over as the guild master I am a bit tempted to take it myself just to show him what I could do. Instead it is given to some Amra Alfugin, who seems nice. Finally annoyed with all the noise, I get up and limp out of here, Arun on my tail.

“Where are you going?”

“I need breakfast, Black Eyed Priest. And coffee, lots of coffee.”

⚔️ Nadja

[dragonforgotten]

Me and my companions lay in wait for the horrific creatures that have torn apart and terrorized the caravans in the desert. After some time they burst from the ground, large beetle like creature with burning blood and flaming breath. They die under our strikes and explode in a painful and violent fashion. Though we return to the farmers guild with evidence did there destruction in left agonizingly confused and curious. Who is Xoloiti and what ties does this creature have to these oversized insects. Sadly my questions are left bitterly unanswered and I come to accept perhaps it is beyond my knowledge for now. Back in the city a series of events transpire with blinding speed. A receive a letter from the union of breeders from the head of the union. I’m reminded how much they place business before justice. They will not vote to shun the tirade unless they can procure a mysterious purple striped camel named Duneshadow. For now the camel will have to wait as me and Eliza are pulled to investigate the wrongful defament of a black smith from the anvil union. He was approached by the slavers to procure a speacial type of metal for a purpose he can not be sure of. He denied them and thus misfortune has visited him and his family. It is clear to all of us the slavers wish to use this metal in there desire to repair the orb of dragon kind. This can not stand. We must clear this mans name. Elizas been possessed by a fiendish quest to stop them. It appears even she has shadows in her past as I have. The treatment the slavers have delt to this family has stired her wraith. She fears the slavers will do worst to the family so she secretes them away in the magic mansion. We search the blacksmiths shop and find it destroyed and evidence still. We split up. Me and Eliza go door to door of the and discover that the source of these terrible rumors is a kelesh man and a dwarven woman is the source of them. We lose both Nadja, Mikolas and Bill and retreat back to the inn before wondering the streets. When they return we share the news between each other and with the night still young I accompany them on a parcel pick up. They had gone to meet this mysterious benfactor while me and Eliza were left to wonder the city. Entering the night stalls we speak to a dark robes figure. He is hassitant to give us the parcel so I try to ease his worries that my companions are trusted and responsible people and they would not let him down nor place him in harms way. He is very impressed by Elizas knowledge.... then Nadja straight up lies to him in my presence. Boldly and unflinching. I cringe harshly inside but I understand her desires so keep quiet as her lies scorn me deeply. When we leave the man, package in hand i clutch my beads to my chest and pray for Nadja that she may be forgiven by Sarenrae for her mission is good at heart. Nadja wish to conduct this alone. I hesitate, fearing for her safety but at her instances I go. I grow frustrated in being pushed aside so often. My honesty does not make me unless useful to our mission. I am not just a minister of healing, I can also be a blade even if my skills have been honed in healing. It is Proably to young boldness I carry in seeing my fellow priests and paladins back before my first candle day.
The next day we follow our leads and corner the dwarf and man within a gambling hall. No plan was made. I did not expect what would happen. I stand by the door and watch as Eliza threatens the man. The man is not shaken and a fight breaks loose, people rushing past me with drinks and money till the gambling hall is empty save for the barkeep who wisely ducks under the bar. Sighing I draw out the flaming spiked chain and attempt to pull there weapons away to little success. When the man falls to Nadjas blade I jump quick and stabilize the mans condition. They may be slavers and part of that vexing organization but I grow tired of meaningless deaths. They must answer questions and only when I hear then should I judge. If they remorse or regret, offer them the
healing hand of friendship or the quick blade of the scimitar upon there necks should they be found unremorseful.
I desperately try to save there lives while the lot are speaking without a care of the consequences that would befall them should they die within the city walls. that tests my patiences. I slave away in my tool to preserve life, if they want answers they could at least give me a bloody hand. I still have not forgotten the dwarven guards in Kovlar. Evil as they were I still remorseful I could not save his life.
They are dragged into the back room and tied to chairs. I stay with them, watchful as they begin to awaken. Eliza is immediately in there faces, demanding answers. When they do not answer she suddenly strikes the man with all the force of her magic fire, nearly killing him. I stop his bleeding and burns and snap my wburning eyes onto the wizard and lose it.
“Corner now!” I push her against the wall and block her approach near any of them while Nadja takes over talks. I understand her rage but I can not condone torture.
Slavery broke my family, it corrupted my childhood and left me vengeful and bloody till I found peace with the arms of Sarenrea. Eliza must be feeling the same and the road to forgiveness is not a easy for painless path. I shall have to keep an eye on her and help guide her to it or atleast accept her feelings and hold restraint as I have learned in dealing with the tirade. The two agents are then secretes away and scorted to the guild were they confess to all there crimes and absolving our blacksmith. I spend the rest of that day with Bill and Eliza organizing workforce in the silver ewes repairs.
The next day we begin the camel hunt but upon trying to procure a female camel we are stopped by a messenger of the union of breeders.
“This is bad. Very bad. Come with me.”
We leads us back through there impressive stables to the union heads luxurious mansion where I find the head of the union feverish and barely lucid. I immediantly rush to his side, retrieving the staff from my bag as I fall into the familar role of acting physian. I question him and his doctors. His symptoms leave him weak, shaken, prone to fits of nigh walking and muttering. Eliza tries to put forth a second though but I shake my head as I prob more. He said he had a simple meal of spiced chicken before with salted bread and wines. Still nothing of note. I check his pulse and run over my knowledge in my hand.
“He seems to be effected by some form of nightmare vapors but his symptoms are strange. It shouldn’t be as deadly. There’s something else to this poisoning. Regardless He’s extremely weak. He will die if not treated.” I announce my thoughts out load and I concentrate the power in the staff to try and neutralize this toxin. It seems to have no effect but I manage to produce a detox to bay off the wrist of the affliction, it will atleats give the man another day till we can get to the bottom of this. Bill comes to the conclusion of the poisoners guild, they should have far more knowledge and how he could have poisoned. We are arranged a quick meeting with the head of the guild Hahcuss. He smiles at us, care free and offers us each a drink rimed with sugar. We hesitate and the man laughs.
“Come now. Do you fear I’ll poison you.”
I stare into his eyes and take a sip.
“No, if you wished to poison use then you would have done so already.”
We begin our meeting and I inform him of my diagnosis on the poisoning while Bill offers the knowledge of the nightmare vapors. Hahcuss promises he will look into it but he will need a day. I will hold him to it. For now my friends are to be called into the arena tomorrow.
I take my rest besides the poisoned man in every attempt I have in fighting his affliction. Eliza accompanied me again out of fear the assassin could strike again. She tries to move the man but me and all his doctors react negatively to moving a sick man in his frail state. She means well but such actions could worst his condition. We sit side by side till she bays me to head to bed as the night drags on. That she will wake me if he worsens. I take her advice but find I can not sleep with him not in sight so I grab pillows and blankets from around his home and sleep on the floor were I can easily reach him. I do appreciate Elizas company for I forget my own needs when others are in danger. We both awaken sluggishly the next morning. I place a powerful restoration on the sick man to bag off the call of pharasma and pray Over him to give him another day as I head to the gladiators arena. I find Nadja and Mikolas there, eager for a fight as we all gather . The gates open we assemble on the sand as a sea of people cheer and crow from the stands above us. Sand claws stands on the other side... along with seven six armed giants each holding swords. The crowd chants for the bloody blades as sand claws crosses her blades and declares the match start, cutting us off from making any bids to the audience. The battle is long and gruesome. I am left to healing, chasing after the fighters in my desperate need to place spells on them so the regeneration can lift some of the burden off me. The giants try to jolt me but I evade them as best I can. Nadja and Mikolas are having a lovers quell on the arena.
“Your tearing this family apart! I don’t have time to heal emotional wounds as well!” I scream at them. When I spy sand claws marching towards me i raise the reforging shield and manage to parry the blow. She would have destroyed my buckler if I hadn’t switched out for this match alone. Slowly the shield begins to mend itself as I retreat besides Nadja. Sand claws strikes down Eliza. My magic reaches out the wizard and heal her with sarenrea grace, then a large shadow looms over me. Instead of a dragon Mikolas I find one of the giants and begin to sweat in panick. I’m alone. He left me to fight sandclaws! I defend as much as I can. I deflect the blade but fail to ward off the blows of all five of his fists. I see the sixth come towards my face.....

I gasp, shooting up and the double over in pain as Eliza pushes me back down and puts the raw frozen stake back over my eye.
“Easy does it. Don’t want to you fainting again.”
I chuckle pressing the stake to my eye.
“Thank you... for Saving me miss wizard.”
She smiles backs and walks off the talk to Bill. I spy Nadja shuffling off and slowly I sit back up and chase after her. They had that fight in the ring. She probably needs a shoulder.
“Where are you going?”
“I need breakfast, Black Eyed Priest. And coffee, lots of coffee.”
Ah. I nod my head.
“I could use some as well. I feel as raw as this stake.”

Arun

[Chris Leitzel]

So after giving the new head of the gladiator guild his predecessor's armor and one of her kukris, we went off to meet with Ghost.

We arrived at the location near one of the city's fountains and waited. And waited. Two city guards and their constructs arrive and prepare to arrest a woman. As this happens, two men in different locations produce some kind of amulet and the constructs end up killing the guards and go on a rampage, causing the townspeople to scatter. And of course, we're the ones who have to handle it, because we always are.

We end up fighting these constructs, who are completely unaffected by any kind of magic cast at them and are vulnerable only to adamantine. We were able to defeat them, but the two with the amulets had managed to escape. I do believe it took the dwarf guards less time to arrive on scene as we fought two corrupt guards in a less populated part of their city than it took the guards of Katapesh to arrive. Ghost contacted us about a next time. I do not know if this was a test, a set up or what.

After, we decided to check in with the poisoners' guild to see if they had created an antidote for the poison given to the head of the breeders' guild. Ironically, the guildmaster himself had been poisoned. The connection between both cases was salt. We investigated, finding out about an old woman and tracing the salt to a particular warehouse. Inside, we found the woman, who turned out to be an undead naga. Fortunately, the fight was quick and we defeated her. Searching around, we found the poison she was using and Bill, along with the members of the poisoners' guild managed to make an antidote.

The meeting of the various guild leaders is close. We had a choice to either wander the desert to find a magical camel for the breeders' guild, or remain in Katapesh for two days and wait for the meeting. Arun, for some reason, really wants to go into the desert for that camel, but we ultimately decided, with the vote so close and the possibility of the Scarlet Triad attempting something, to stay in the city.

Eliza

[Aileen]

I take a seat at the little table next to the fountain we are to meet The Ghost at, smiling as I take my first sip of the icy cold brew I’m about to drink.

“They ice their coffee here!” I exclaim to Miklos as he joins me, a huge plate of food in his hand and blood still staining his clothes. “I’m so happy!”

“Is that all it takes to make you happy?” He grins.

“Yes!”

It’s a beautiful day, I’ve got this delicious cold beverage, and I’m starting to feel better from our big fight. My beautiful post-gladiatorial combat morning is ruined when two Zephyr guards enter the plaza, accompanied by huge constructs. They hold up papers with a picture of a woman on them, asking if anyone has seen her. That’s when we realize she’s standing right by the fountain.

“Hey lady,” says Miklos. “Thise guards are looking for you!”

Everything happens so fast. I’m more focused on the beautiful, refreshing bean water passing over my tongue then anything else, and nearly choke when the constructs start heading our way. Two people appear, one in the alley and one in a window, pointing charms toward the constructs. Suddenly they turn on the guards, crushing them in an instant.

“What the hells!” I scream, getting to my feet.

Miklos rushes the constructs as they rampage through the plaza, me hot at his heels. One of them turns our direction and a cone of electricity erupts from its mouth. I feel the current pass through me, but I’m alright. We lock into combat with them a second later. I hit a few times, momentarily distracted by Arun turning into an Angel and Eliza hasting us. Then I receive a beat down, and find that I can’t move. I’m stuck staring at the constructs fighting my husband and I can do nothing to help. I’m stuck in place until one of them whacks me and suddenly I can move again.

I start hitting in a flurry of kukri strikes, and soon my construct falls over destroyed. I move to the other one, assisting Miklos as Bill keeps bombing and the others hurl healing and magic. Poor Bill comes down with a bad case of archers elbow from throwing so many bombs. I owe the poor leshy a drink in thanks. Miklos finally destroys the other construct, and we find ourselves in a silent courtyard. I run back to the table to get my drink, and see peshmongers peaking out from their shutters.

“No! Arun, Eliza- I told you to guard my drink! It’s all spilled!”

I want to cry, seeing my coffee spilled in a puddle and dripping off the side of the table. Well, nobody is watching me. I lick some of it off the table.

“Nadja!”

Well, I guess Arun was behind me. I have no shame! Eliza is by the corpses rummaging through their things when the other guards show up.

“Halt! You there, by the corpses!”

The guards question us and thankfully the Peshmongers come out and speak as witnesses. We are cleared and thanked for taking care of the problem. The guards leave, but the peshmongers are all accusing eachother of this business being their fault. I catch something about the pact masters golems being out of control and someone trying to control the drug supply, but don’t really care. What I care about is getting some Pesh. Miklos and I are planning on starting our family as soon as all this business with the Scarlet Triad is over, and I want to get all the bad things I can try out of the way before I have to be responsible for a human life. I find the nicest looking Pesh shop, and smile warmly at the dealer.

“Hello! Can I buy some Pesh?”

I’m given a discount, and take a dose soon after it’s given to me. Nothing happens. I take a few more, to the horror of the peshmonger.

“It’s not doing anything!” I whine.

“That’s enough for three men!”

“Can I buy more?”

“Yes. Full price.”

I leave disappointed. Curse my high metabolism! I sit back at our table and sulk.

“I’ll get you something that actually works, Nadja,” says Bill. “I know of things stronger than Pesh.”

“Thank you, Bill. You are good friend!”

We sit and wait but Ghost never shows up. It seems we’ve been set up, and we leave the plaza disappointed. So much for trusting Wahar- he’s full of s***! We head to the Poisoners’ Guild to check in on any progress the leader is making with finding a cure for our contact in the Breeders’ Guild.

“Something grave has happened!” Says one of the poisoners when we arrive. “Come with me!”

We are lead to the poison master and find him sweating and sick, in the same condition as the head of the Breeder’s Guild. He’s been poisoned! He shows us his glass, rimmed with salt, and tells us he thinks the drink was poisoned. As he tells us of his assistant seeing a strange woman with scarred hands working in the lab, we all slowly realize that there’s a connection. The breeders guild master had eaten salted flatbread. The poison master always has a salted rim. Our answer is in the salt!

“Is there a salt guild?!” Bill asks.

“Yes, there is! But there’s more than one salt storehouse.” We are told.

“It sounds like... a-salt!” I say, earning a slap on the bum from my husband.

We leave and Bill, Miklos and I go to get drinks while Arun and Eliza talk to people for information. We run into one of Miklos’s street sweeper guild friends on the way out of the bar to meet up with the other two, and tipsy Miklos asks him if he knows anything about a salt place.

“Yeah, hold out your hand!” He says.

My husband does so. The other guy grabs his hand, leaving something behind and pulls his hand away with a smirk. Miklos looks down and laughs, dropping the piece of camel dung.

“You fell for that last time, Miklos!” The man laughs.

“Yes, good one my friend!”

We rendezvous with Arun and Eliza, and head off to the salt warehouse they found out about. I go to a side door and check it, finding it unlocked. In I go, walking past some shelving, and I see an old woman working at a table.

“Hi!” I call

“Hello!” She looks up. “You’re moving really fast, dear, take a breath! The salt will dry you out!”

Eliza comes up behind me, leaning over my shoulder as I stop short.

“Excuse me, ma’am, have you seen anyone suspicious?” She asks.

“Why yes, there’s a fast moving woman right in front of you!”

Miklos goes down the other row and stops right in front of her, hand on his weapon.

“So, you like putting poison into salt, do ya?!”

The old woman suddenly turns into a horrible half snake monster right in front of our eyes.

“Pissss off!” She hisses, reaching out and caressing Miklos’s cheek.

“Don’t touch my husband!” I shriek, running in.

He gazes into her eyes, then shakes his head in a daze. Bill bombs, Arun runs in and casts regeneration on Miklos, and I get in behind the snake lady. Miklos roars, turning into a dragon, and bites her. She flies up in the air and goes for Eliza, who really got her good with a spell. I run back, slicing into the snake lady and leaving a huge gash, her blood spilling from the wound. Two more hits and she falls over dead. Miklos blows frost up on the ceiling, before coming back to his normal self.

Bill checks out the work station the old lady snake was at, and finds poisons, although he’s not quite sure exactly what they do for a few. I take a lick of salt and find it’s perfectly safe. Then again, I seem to be immune to poisons including fun ones. We take our findings, check in on the meat packers next door and warn them to throw out any salt they may have gotten. Then we go back to the poisoners and they let Bill work in the lab. He drafts up an antidote, and saves the poison master. We stay the night and in the morning he rewards us with two doses of Weaping Midnight Poison, which Miklos and I take for later use on our weapons.

As we go about our morning, Arun trying to convince us to make an impossible day trip into the desert to get the camel, we receive a letter from Wahar.

“Ghost is most intrigued by how your meeting went and will continue watching your actions.”

“That mother b****!” I shriek, sipping on my fresh iced coffee as we stand in the street.

“You tell Ghost that this is bulls***, I don’t care if you’re just a messenger!” Miklos yells at the kid who gave us the letter. “I am Miklos- nobody tests me!”

“I’m eight!” The kid yells back.

“Fine, take this!” Miklos flips the kid a gold piece.

“Wow! Now I can get hookers!” The kid grins and runs off.

“What a weird city,” I say. “Let’s go get drunk!”

“I’m with you, Nadja!” Bill says.

We walk off to the bar, Arun still sulking about the camel. The meeting with the guilds is coming up fast, and we have too little time to do much more but wait.

⚔️ Nadja

[Chris Leitzel]

At long last, it is the day of the meeting. The leaders and representatives of the guilds and the pactmasters had assembled. We mingled around, meeting a few people we knew, with Miklos recieving a tip that if we found ourselves in the Red Pyramid, to seek the frog.

The pactmasters called the meeting to order. After getting through old business and various things in town, they get to the new business. Miklos presents our case against the Scarlet Triad, our group's encounters with them and the things they have done. We did have the support of some of the city's guilds as we had helped many of them out over the last few days. Of course the Triad tried to turn it around, accuse us of various questionable actions and all the things they did for the city. But, to his credit, Miklos made a very convincing argument.

The vote was made and the Scarlet Triad lost its status as a protected guild of the city of Katapesh. It was at this time the Triad's representative announced the Triad would leave in three days and they had one of the pactmasters held hostage to ensure their safety, promising to release him when they left. Having no choice, the pactmasters ordered that the guilds could not move against the Scarlet Triad.

However, we are not a guild of the city, and the remaining pactmasters asked us to rescue their colleague and eliminate the Triad. We were willign to do this, but I wanted assurances that we would not be prosecuted for anything we did while carrying out this task.

While Nadja crept in the shadow of the Red Pyramid, the headquarters of the Scarlet Triad, Arun and I used the prying eye spell to scout what we could see, finding a few paths, but the entrance to several secret tunnels, one of which was near the statue of a frog, and a devil and a few demons, who were, of course, near the frog statue. And thus, we entered the pyramid. We got the guy in the front room to leave, as he was not a part of this, with Miklos handing him some gold.

Moving into the pyramid, we battled a group of demons and were able to defeat them. And now, we stand at the statue of the frog, ready to open the passage and go deeper into the Red Pyramid.

-Eliza

[Aileen]

“Can I have my initials monogrammed on the blade?”

“I can do that,” Mekram says, fanning the flames of his forge as we speak. “Is that all?”

“Hmmm,” I think for a moment, overexcited about my custom weapon he is making for me. “Pink leather grip!!!”

“What? No,” he sighs. “I’m sorry Nadja, but do you know how hard it is to get bloodstains out of pink?”

“I supposed you’re right. How much?”

“About three thifty.”

It was about then that I thought I saw he was not a ingot salesman, but a giant monster with red eyes... but then the flames die down and I realized it is in fact Mekram.

“Here’s four hundred!” I say, dumping it on his counter. “Do something nice with your daughter!”

“Thank you,” he smiles. “I appreciate it. Come
Back in two days and I’ll have the kukri ready for you.”

I skip out of the shop and head back to the market where I find Miklos, grinning stupidly. He lifts me clean off my feet, kissing me in the market square, much to the annoyance of some trying to get by.

“Close your eyes, Nadja!”

“Okay!”

I do so, and hope he’s not pulling the prank on me that he did once when we were kids, leaving me standing with my eyes closed for a very long time while he and Laszlo went and ate cake without me. He wouldn’t now... would he?

“Alright, open!”

I smile as I open my eyes and see a little golden statuette on the ground. He’s grinning ear to ear, obviously excited about it. I crouch down and see it’s a statuette of two golden lions.

“It’s so cute, Miklos! Thank you!”

“But wait, there’s more!”

He speaks the Varisian word for “love”, and suddenly the statues turn into two real lions! Someone walking by screams, but the lions just walk over and sit waiting for a command.

“Are they real?!”

“Yes, my lady wife,” he pets the one closest him. “And they’re all yours.”

Another day goes by and finally we come to the day of the guild meeting. We pregame at a tavern nearby and finally go to the meeting that evening. There are many familiar faces inside, and I quickly lose my husband to his friends in the street sweeper’s guild. I see the leader of the Aspis Consortium and go over to chat. He’s cordial, knowing me from my week spent with them, but tight lipped about how they plan to vote.

Next I join Arun and Eliza as they corner Yuri, the Scarlet Triad representative. He’s a charming little bastard, even kissing my hand as I greet him. He sees the Scarlet Triad manacles on my hip, and smiles.

“Ah, you’re one of us! Can we count on your vote?”

“I do not vote.”

“Ah, yes you’re a woman,” he laughs. “Why don’t you come for a drink in my tent after this and we can get better acquainted?”

I walk away, seeing Miklos talking to the lady from the Gladiator’s Guild, annoyed with how nice and confident the Scarlet Triad is being. I am instantly enraged when I see the Gladiator’s Guild leader openly flirting with my husband, playfully hitting his arm as she fake laughs, flipping her hair. I put myself in between them, leaning against my husband.

“Hey there! How’s your new kukri treating you?” I ask, a bit snippy.

“Just fine!” She smiles, and I want to punch her. “Oh, I would be into a little sandwich action!”

“Excuse me?! We are married, we don’t want anyone else!”

“What? No, look-“ she grabs something off a tray being walked around. “They’ve got sandwiches!”

The meeting comes to order, the Pactkeeper taking to the stand. As we go to our seats, the leader of the Aspis Consortium finds me again. He leans in close and whispers in my ear:

“Should you find yourselves in the Scarlet Triad headquarters, look out for the frog- he will lead you to the downstairs!”

He clinks glasses with me and I’m left wondering if this is solid advice or an invite to a strange after party. I take a seat and soon lose interest in the pact masters talking. Miklos takes the stand for us, the most intimidating presence in our group, and I worry he might turn into a dragon on the stand, but he doesn’t. He speaks very well, and I’ve never been more proud of my husband. Yuri goes next, for the Scarlet Triad, and of course he’s smarmy and likable. He makes lighthearted jokes to rouse the audience, and then proceeds to tear into us. He claims our adventures are convoluted and we are scammers. I didn’t get eaten by a purple worm, a giant sea bass and a sand monster to be called a liar!

The other guild leaders speak, many coming to our defense, except the Breeders’ Guild who apparently valued the camel we did not get for him over us saving his life from his poisoning. Ungrateful bastard! At last the Pact Keeper calls for the vote.

We win! Almost everyone except the damned Breeders’ Guild voted against the Scarlet Triad. Their protections are rescinded, and they are expected to be held accountable for their actions. Yuri is furious, and takes to the floor. He announces that they will be leaving the city, to seek more accepting lands and better allies. Also, they have one of the Pact Keepers held hostage, who’s safety will mirror their own. The Scarlet Triad is given three days to evacuate the city. Yuri and his consort storm off, and I have half a mind to follow them, but the Pact Keepers wish to speak with us.

We leave the place a bit later after our meeting with the pact keepers, with the task of raiding the Scarlet Triad’s headquarters and the rescue of their man Sandar Khan. I split from the group, going to stake out the Red Pyramid while they go have a drink.

I creep around in the dark, looking for another way in besides the front entrance, but I am soon disappointed. Looks like the front is the only way to go. Eliza tells me in my head that she is scouting with her prying eye, and keeps me apprised of what she sees in there. Demons, lots of demons. Because of course the Scarlet Triad has to go all out. The slave trade must be highly competitive.

I receive word that the others are coming to the front of the pyramid, and I start crawling on my stomach toward it. After a few minutes I hear someone snort with laughter behind me.

“Nadja, we can all see you.” Says Arun.

“Dammit!” I hop to my feet, and we all walk to the entrance.

We head inside where I was told there’s a nervous looking man, and we find a nervous looking man. He panics when he sees my two kukri out.

“This isn’t a museum!” He has a sudden revelation.

“No, it’s a slave trading den,” says Eliza. “Why are you here? Are you one of them?”

The poor guy tells us his story. He’s here as a caretaker of the pyramid, working off his student loan debt. My husband kindly pays off his debt, which I am grateful is not much money as I was about to flip out at him for spending our future child’s own school money. The young man is so happy and grateful that I can’t stay mad, and he runs off into the night free from the Scarlet Triad.

We take to the right corridor, knowing that the frog statue with the secret passage is there, but also knowing we need to go past a room with Crucadaemons. They’re horrible demons that enjoy torturing people, and are one of the worst ways to die as they like to prolong pain. So, we head to the room to take them out. I dash in first, moving myself into the corner and tearing into one of them. Suddenly I hear horrible whispering voices in my head.

All alone... she came all alone!

I guess I can let them think that. They start throwing their knives attached to chains at me, one of the demons knocking itself over. The one on me hits incredibly hard, slicing into my arm. My blood shoots out hot and fast, the wound bleeding all out of proportion to the cut. Another demon knocks itself out and it takes everything in me not to laugh. Can’t get too confident when demons are involved.

Bill starts bombing from the hallway as I try to keep them occupied with my kukris. Suddenly I’m paralyzed, and they keep laying into me as I stand helpless and unable to move. Miklos runs in and breathes cold, followed by Arun who heals me. My cut stops bleeding, but they start whacking me again. One gets me really good, and then another takes me out.

I’m not sure how long I’m out, but Arun gets me back to consciousness and I see there’s only two left. I start hitting my original target as Miklos dragon and Eliza destroy the other one. Bill takes it out with a bomb.

Feeling my life draining rapidly through a gaping wound in my thigh, I panic as I try to stop the bleeding. It takes Arun and I holding pressure and putting on a bandage so tight I can almost not feel my toes to finally get it under control. Oh how I do hate knives! The little demons were easy to take on at first, but I definitely learned a lesson in giving everything the benefit of the doubt.

“Right... to the frog?”

⚔️ Nadja

[Chris Leitzel]

The frog lead us down a long stairway to what appear to be chambers under the pyramid. Inside the first room, we encounter two agents of the Scarlet Triad. Nadja runs into the room to fight them. One of them manages to cut her with a scimitar and as soon as her blood hits the floor, a creature with six arms, each holding a weapon, the upper body of a woman, and a long snake-like lower body appears that just tries to kill Nadja.

Arun identified it as some sort of naga. It is only after we managed to kill it and the Triad members that I was able to determine it was a marilith, a demon from the Abyss. While Arun healed Nadja and Miklos, I used another prying eye to search out the area.

We moved on, going down a hallway, which had a magical trap, and a fresco of people battling genies. I was able to disarm the trap and we moved on, finding a few Scarlet Triad members in a room. From one of them, thanks to a suggestion spell, we learned the pactmaster was in the great library in the sub-basement, before we killed all of them. We did attempt to try to let one of them, the one I had used the suggestion spell on, but he attacked us immediately after, so he died.

We went down the hallway to another room. And there, we found a man and three wizards...

Eliza

[Aileen]

I make a makeshift handle, opening the not so secret door. The frog statue pushes inward, revealing a corridor. It’s dark so I light up Eclipse and hand it off to Eliza. We find steps going down, and follow them. I go in the lead, approaching a large chamber, and see two men laying in wait.

One shoots me as I enter, so I go after his friend. Crossing the ornately decorated floor, I get in behind the guy and start hitting him with my twin kukri. He turns, growling in anger as he draws his scimitar, and slices into my exposed arm. Blood spurts from the cut, dripping to the floor. Suddenly a shadow from behind me darkens my opponent, and he grins wickedly.

Miklos runs to my aid, and I turn to see him attacking the most horrible creature. It’s like the Naga lady we killed in the salt warehouse, but worse. In each of her six hands she holds a longsword, and her massive tail looks like it could crush someone pretty easily. And that’s exactly what she does to me. She strikes me with the tail as she screams at Miklos, and I’m caught up in its strong coils. I can’t move as it wraps around me, squeezing as it goes. I feel my ribs starting to crack, as well as my back to my great relief before it hurts.

The Scarlet Triad man starts wailing on me again with his scimitar now that I’m held and helpless. My acid kukri drops out of my hands as the snake lady squeezes harder.

“‘LIZA!” I gasp, the air quickly being stolen from me. “HELP!”

Suddenly I can breathe again, taking in deep gulping breaths as someone steadies me on my feet.

“Thank you!”

“Yeah, whatever. Shield!”

Arun gets to work patching me up as Eliza shields herself in front of me. The snake lady is enraged that her quarry escaped, an audible crunch sounding as she squeezes herself. Miklos is a dragon now, and she attacks him with her many swords. It’s a bit of a mess and she draws more of her own blood than his. She’s cursing and spitting in anger at Miklos now.

“Don’t run off!” Arun pleads with me as he wraps a bandage around my bleeding wrist.

“I’m not! I’ll be good patient for once!”

“Good, you’re half dead. Just give me a sec and you can go! But be careful, I’m not a miracle worker!”

He casts a healing spell, and suddenly I feel like I can take on four of these guys. I run in, going back to my original guy. The snake lady hits me with a sword as I move in, but I hit the man harder than she does me. Eliza casts chain lighting, and it takes my guy out with a sickening crackle. The beam stops inches from my face, my hair standing on end as it crackles and burns the air, and then it’s gone. Miklos slays the naga lady, and she disappears. Bill kills the last guy with a bomb, and we are left to catch our breath.

I go to Miklos, kissing him on his snout as I hold pressure to a large wound on his chest. He slowly calms, turning back into his human self, and gives me a real kiss.

“You two, get a room!” Eliza snaps as she examines the floor.

“This is a room!” Miklos replies.

“What made that thing appear?” Asks Eliza. “Did they summon it, Nadja?”

“No, that man cut me, and it appeared the second my blood touched the ground!”

“Ah. This floor was magic,” Eliza points at the designs and the blood stains on the floor. “It’s gone now. Also, Arun- that was a Merrileth, not a f***ing Spirit Naga!!!”

“Dammit! I knew Jerry from cleric school was full of s***!”

Arun heals Miklos and I as Eliza prying eyes ahead. It appears safe enough to go on, but this place is huge. We head to the next corridor, Miklos and I in the lead. I hesitate when we start to pass a mural on the wall, flashing back to the gate in to Katapesh that made me live several elven lifetimes, an event I still have nightmares about. I stop Miklos from going ahead.

“Eliza, I am concerned.”

“Care to elaborate?”

“Paintings!”

She does some magicky stuff, and reveals it is in fact magic. After more magicky stuff she motions us to go forward.

“I dispelled it. Should be fine.”

Miklos and I walk forward, and just as we get to the painting Eliza gasps.

“Oh no!”

My heart racing, I stop in my tracks.

“I’m kidding, keep going.”

We get to a door at end of corridor, and I open it. There’s a few guys in here as well as bunks, and I wonder how many more agents are in this compound. Eliza asks me to hold off going in until she does something. That something being a fireball. I wait for the flames to lessen, and Miklos and I dash in, taking up positions. I whack one guy, and then they all start hitting my husband. This just angers me, he is love of my life and I don’t appreciate anyone trying to take him from me.

Miklos kills the guy I’ve been working on, and I help him with the other one. The third guy is hanging back and talking to Eliza after she fireballs again. He reveals we need to get to a sub-basement to find the pact master we are looking for.

“Do you yield?” Eliza asks as the other guy drops to Bills bomb.

“Yes!” The guy says, and then steps in and hits Miklos.

“Do you wish to be redeemed in the light of Serenrae!?” Offers Arun.

“Yeah, sure.” The guy keeps going for Miklos, the lying bastard.

“Well, I tried.” Arun draws his scimitar, a rare sight indeed, and hits the guy.

I move in and slay the man, shaking my head. He could have gotten off easy, but these Scarlet Triad guys are all whipped.

Taking a quick breather, we gather up some weapons, and then head down the corridor again. This time we come to another room full of people, and what looks like a wizard. I guess we are in for another good fight.

⚔️ Nadja Kozlov

[dragonforgotten]

In a whirlwind of activity the day of vote has finially arrived. We saved the not only the union of breeders guild from poisoning from a snake woman but also the poisoners guild head as well. Sadly we could not retrieve the camel as we have run out of time. Getting dressed up is a strange sort of thing for me. It is not often I go to fancy gatherings and important meetings. Besides the meeting with the silver raven council this has to be the second time I’ve gotten dressed for it a party since I kept missing the wild party Eliza and Mikolas have been throwing. The moment we arrive I go to meet with the unions of breeders to see if they would vote to cast out the tirade. They don’t give me a clear answer which worries me. Then we met with the tirade leader Uri. I’m filled with mixed emotions meeting this man face to face. His people have caused misery and torment where ever they go, they were the ones who caused the attack of the cinder claws and funded Voxs plans of securing castle Alterian. He’s everything I expected but what I want to know is why? Why do all this? Why try and fix the dragon orb? What is he scheming. Unfortunately I don’t get to ask these questions. It’s not the time and place. When the vote is cast in both filed with pride when many of the guilds side in our stance of casting out the slavers but disappointed in the union of breeders for not doing the right thing despite all the evidence stacked against the triade. All because we prioritized the life of two men over a camel.
With Uris back against the wall he reveals to all of use that he has a hostage, One of the pact masters in his custody. He demands no harm shall come to him if the guilds do not act upon there justice to arrest him and his entire organization, allowing them to leave unscathed. With that he departs and we soon follow in there wake as the pact master ask of us to return one of there own safe from harm.
Me and Eliza work together to scout the interior of the red pyramid and find practically horde of demons resting within its walls along with a nervous human at the entrance. When we find a frog statue in our search Nadja enlightens us that the aspis consortium has revealed to her that it is a secret passage lays beyond it.
Prepared for battle we charge into the pyramid and I have to stop the party before they can kill the frighten man inside. He’s simply a tour guide to the pyramid, laden with student debt and caught up in affairs far larger then himself. Miklos, swayed by his money woes instantly pays off his loans and lays the gold into the mans startled arms. I’ve never seen someone crying and laughing till now. He runs off and we are free to progress deeper inside. Nadja charges into the room besides the secrete door and does battle with the torture demons. Surprisingly not the shadow kind but the razor blades and swinging knife kind. Me, Nadja and Mikolas are cut up in there assault but we come through victorious. A quick patch job we enter the secret tunnel. Nothing we can do about the open entrance as the statue sinks into the walls so I trust in my luck and my faith that no unfriendly sorts will follow us.
We soon stumble upon two triade agents. This looks deceptively easy but it soon reveals its sinister nature as blood decorates the floor curtesy of Nadja. A terrible creature with a woman’s upper half, a snakes lower and six deadly arms slashing with terrible blades. I start running through my mind once again for what I learned and find... something that matches this creature.
“It’s a undead Naga! Wait... I said that last time. Curse you jerry!” I shout annoyed as I remember back in my acolyte days how he ripped the section of snake fiends from my textbook to copy for later. He never did return those pages. Curse him!
The creature strikes Nadja wraps her up in her coils, me wincing as I can hear her bones snapping. Why!? I just fixed her! Why must you challenge me so my goddess!?
I take a gamble knowing that Eliza shall pull her out of danger. I begin to weave power Magic’s through my prayers and a wave of energy washes over the evil beings in the room by the decree of my faith to destroy evil. I’m shock the creature does not even weaver against this decree but the two evil humans in the room weaken under my words. Mikolas rushes the creature as Nadja vanishes from her coils and reappears besides me while Eliza wards herself against attacks.
“Please Don’t run off!” I pleads wrapping her bleeding wrist.
“I’m not! I’ll be good patient for once!”
“Good, you’re half dead. Just give me a sec and you can go! But be careful, I’m not a miracle worker!..... yet!”
I pull out the bindings and push her bones back into alignment again, using healing magic to take the pain. Then she’s off running. Together they are able to slay the creature
“Ah. This floor was magic,” Eliza points at the designs and the blood stains on the floor.
“It’s gone now. Also, Arun- that was a Merrileth, not a f***ing Spirit Naga!!!”
I pull out my demonology text book. Inside it I see Jerry’s name and throw it in the ground.
“Dammit! I knew Jerry from school was full of s***!”
Again I patch up the gaping cuts and the broken bones while Eliza uses the magic eye to see ahead. We go down a passage and spy a fresco on the wall of a efreet fighting a band of warriors. This feels like this has historic significances but we do not have the time to look. Nadja terrified this hall way could be another trap like what happened to me and her before so Eliza tries to sense magic. Nadja is on point again. The hallway is magically trapped and Eliza is able to safely remove it so we can go open that door. More men lay in wait inside. I stand back, throwing cantrip at them while Nadja and Mikolas hack at limbs. Eliza is able to enchant answers out of one and he reveals that there leader is father below in this pyramid.
Do you yield?” Eliza asks as the other guy drops to Bills bomb. My jaw nearly drops. Mercy! She’s actually offering him mercy! She does care!
“Yes!”
“Do you wish to be redeemed in the light of Sarenrea!?” I spit out fast out of fear and excitement.
“Yeah, sure.” He says. I linger to see if his words are true but seconds later he slashes at Miklos, liar.
I sigh, disappointed and harden my gaze.
“Well, I tried.” drawing my scimitar. I approach him and with a flourish cut into his bicep as frost and acid lick up the wound. He’s quickly delt with as all I can do is shake my head in disgust, wipe the blood from the blade and place it into its sheath.
“Disappointing. I almost thought he meant what he said.”
“Maybe next time Arun.” I sigh as Nadja shakes my shoulder.
“Hopefully.”
“Arun! Quick! I need medical attention.” Cries Mikolas
And I need coffee. I roll up my sleeves and pull out the needle and thread to see up his flayed arm.
“You called?”

Arun

[Chris Leitzel]

We continued onward into the Red Pyramid, opening the door to see 4 men, one a man with a short sword, sap and shortbow, and three with wands. We managed to take one of them down quickly, but the other two wandslingers, who we later figured had to be sorcerers, started to fly and unload with spells I was unable to counter due to not knowing them. They were very resistant to a lot of the fire and ice effects Miklos and Nadja have. After a hard fight, we managed to take them all down.

After taking time to heal ourselves, we searched the room. We found an occult scroll, the deed to an estate in Katapesh, some potions we did not identify and a secret passageway. We journeyed down the passageway.

There, we encountered two daemons. We really should stop letting Arun try to identify fiends. He keeps blaming someone named Jari for his inability to identify fiends. Maybe I should give him the Extraplanar Codex I picked up after I finish copying spells from it. It may help.

We went right for the attack, and one of the daemons grabbed Bill. They asked who is the captive and who are the guards after grabbing him. We had a choice: we give them Bill's soul and they would let us go, or we fight and they take out souls. We opted to fight and it went fairly quick, but they were not casting spells at us.

We continued onward to another set of doors. Hopefully, this is the sub-basement. It may be wiser to grab the Pactmaster and get out of this place, trying to attack it again. But, sometimes, we rarely get to take the wiser path.

-Eliza

[Aileen]

I open the door to the big room filled with papers, a guy in armor and a few casters. This should be an easy fight with three of them in flimsy robes! I have a very good feeling about this. I go after the armored guy, and Miklos runs in on the magic guys who start trying to fly up. Miklos hacks at one of them as his spell is going off, and the poor guy looks horrified as three of his fingers are sliced clean off. The guy next to me focuses his attention on Eliza, our own spell slinger, so I cut him and leave him for now.

I go to help my husband, jumping up on a pile of papers and hacking at the missing fingers wizard. I get him good in the shoulder, and he falls prone. Miklos finishes him off. The other casters start slinging spells from the air, but they’re a bit out of my reach unless I use my bow or climb up on a bookshelf- so I go help Eliza and Arun with the first guy I was going to hit.

I am merciless with him. You don’t touch my wizard or cleric without consequences, and I am the consequence. I slice into him, carving my name into his arm, and he snarls in rage.

“What the hells is ZK? NK?”

“Nadja Kozlov- your undoing!”

“What?!”

“Me, I am Nadja Kozlov!”

He hacks into me a bunch, I hack him back, Arun lays into him with a scimitar, and soon the man passes out from blood loss. Satisfied, I drop my kukris clattering to the floor, and draw my bow.

These magic guys are harder to hit than I though they would be, not seeming to mind even when they are stuck with my flaming arrows. Dragon Miklos keeps them chilled with his dragon breath but they don’t care. They’re almost scarier than people with armor, all our run ins with wizards and the like have not gone very well. Magic is scary.

Soon they’re all dead, and we explore the room while Arun tends to us. In the pile of papers a deed to an estate is found, and everyone gets excited. We don’t know what the place looks like, but it sounds fancy... something like Beschamel Estate. Miklos grabs my hand as the others talk about moving into it and what they will do with it. There’s some talk of selling.

“Nadja, it will be perfect for us and the children!” He announces. “Katapesh is a great place to have a family! I can street sweep and fight at the arena, you can... I don’t know...”

“Stay home with the baby and do Pesh?” Eliza offers. “Congrats, you two!”

“What?! No, there’s no baby!” I snap. “And you know I’m immune to Pesh!”

Everyone always assumes Miklos is going to be the head of our family, and I’m just the wife. I love my husband and of course I want a big family with him, if we even survive taking on the Scarlet Triad and all the horrible things that come with it. After seeing the vision of the castle and Breachill being destroyed by Dehak I don’t know what our future will bring. I want to be a mother more than anything, but I will not give up being a warrior. I am good at what I do, very good. Maybe I want to go fight in the arena and join the Aspis Consortium? I can still do all that and raise our children! And I will! We could be very happy here in Katapesh, or on the road with my family in Varisian, or even in Breechill granted it isn’t destroyed. I have to prove myself even harder to be seen as a hero like my husband is, and I’m doing it. I will not be reduced to a simple housewife.

We find a secret door and I check it, still fuming. It opens into a room with chairs and tables and weird rippled walls. There’s two big creatures that seem to shift around in place, shimmering strangely. More demons! I go in and start hitting one, but miss. I should have hit, but it’s like it was there and then it wasn’t.

Mine fails to hit me, but does hit himself. The other one grabs Bill and starts squeezing him. Miklos runs in, raging.

“You leave my wife alone! You- drop the leshy!”

Eliza seems to be having a conversation with the demon in her head, and notifies us that it thinks that she is the master and we the slaves or something crazy. Clearly she pisses it off when she asks for Bill back, because they get all worked up. I keep wrecking mine, slicing and dicing with my kukris. The thing is probably deafened, thanks to the thunder runes, and doesn’t have as much energy as it once did. It grows angry with me and tears into me, grabbing me in a strong tendril and drawing me in.

“I think not! Nobody touches me there except my husband!”

I kill it, and drop to the floor. I run over to flank with Miklos on the other one, but Bill kills it with a bomb. We take a moment for Arun to stitch us up, and discover the demons had a bag of holding filled with onyx gems- worth a massive amount of money. Eliza is excited, getting closer to being able to buy some magic book or something she’s been dying to get.

Things seem to be going well, almost too well. I fear what other horrors the Scarlet Triad hides down here, considering they have a big, horrible demon upstairs. I’m waiting for it to come find us down here if something worse doesn’t. I’m fine to continue on, held together by Arun’s bandaging and stitches, but Eliza is running out of spells and I’m sure Arun is as well. We head out, hoping we can find the kidnapped pactmaster before it’s too late.

⚔️ Nadja

[Aileen]

Coming to two separate doors, we split up and go through both. Miklos leads Eliza in and I take Arun. I find a door, and listen to it, not hearing anything inside.

“Miklos! A door!”

“Coming!”

Ah, such an obedient husband! I am lucky woman, in more ways than one! I pull out the skeleton key and easily get in through the door. Eliza discovers the door was magically barred, but nothing stops a Nadja with a key! In we go and find a fairly nice bedroom, with drawers of fancy clothes and workout clothes. Obviously someone who cares about his appearance. Ah! Journals!

“Yuri Zandovar- ‘How I Did It’.” Reads Eliza.

She briefly skims through the five journals and it seems to be highly detailed records of the past twelve years of Scarlet Triad operations here in Katapesh. She shoves them in her bag, and finding nothing else of interest in this room, we move on.

The next room has some tables, stools and remnants of meals. There’s scraps of food and a bread knife left out. My stomach growls and part of me wants to stop and make a sandwich, but there are more important things to attend to. As I walk over to one of the curtains cordoning off part of the room, I hear a noise. Judging by everyone suddenly standing still, they heard it too.

Arun goes and pulls the curtain up, exposing a guy inside. He’s in studded leather, with the typical Scarlet Triad weapons and gear. He looks up from the papers he’s been hurriedly searching through, and seems surprised to see Arun.

“Who are you?”

“We’re... invaders.” Replies Arun, unable to lie.

Miklos goes charging in past Arun, yelling in rage. That’s my man! Eliza follows after him, casually asking where we can find the sub-basement.

“You go all the way to the end of the hall, and keep going- you’ll be there eventually.” The guy replies. “Wait, why did I just tell you that?!”

An arrow goes whizzing past Eliza into the room I’m still in, and it’s looking a bit crowded behind that section of curtain- so I go open another part. I walk in on a guy in robes, sitting cross legged on a bed and shuffling through papers.

“Mom?” He looks up, confused, and then panics.

I start hitting him with my kukri after ascertaining he’s also Scarlet Triad. He stands up and starts to move, but I hook my kukri into his leg. He casts a spell and disappears.

“We’ve got a runner!” I call as I try to locate him. “He’s invisible!”

Not finding him in here I run out around the curtain and flail my kukri around. Nothing! Crafty little bugger. Meanwhile, the first guy is running away from my husband, getting towards the door only to be intercepted by Bill.

“Hello!” Says our Leshy.

“There’s a crazy man in there!” He calls to Bill.

“There’s a crazy mushroom in here!”

Bill bombs him, and Miklos runs out and finishes the guy off. I’m a little concerned with where the invisible guy went, and my fears are confirmed when there’s a sudden loud, earth shaking metal stomping coming down the corridor.

“There’s a massive metal construct thing!” Bill warns us, running back from the doorway.

Sure enough, a massive metal construct comes pounding into the doorway, it’s face a grill filled with a flaming heat, like an oven. It blows hot steam into the room, which I effortlessly dodge. Now we hear the wizard in the hallway casting something.

“Arun! Open that door!” I call.

“Why, Nadja?”

“We need to go around!”

He opens it.

“It’s just a room!”

“F***! Check the other one!”

He runs past me and goes behind the curtain. I hear a groan a moment later.

“Another bedroom!”

Guess we gotta go through it. I run up and try to tumble through the massive things legs, but fall on my ass. I try again and make it past it. Miklos follows after me just as it blows steam into the room again. Suddenly a huge metal fist comes at me, but I duck just in time! I roll through its legs again to get on the other side, and hit it with my thundering kukri. Miklos turns into his dragon form and breathes a blast of cold. I shiver a little but it doesn’t do anything to me. I’ve been with him long enough to get used to it, we may have had some unintentional blasts while... anyway.

Eliza and Arun port into the hall, and the big metal thing slams a fist into Arun and nearly hits me. Eliza runs off yelling after the wizard guy, now visible, as he runs away down the hallway. Arun follows after them. Miklos, Bill and I keep after the construct, and finally after one of Miklos’s blows it shuts down!

“Oh thank the gods!” I growl, mopping sweat from my brow. Miklos runs off down the hall after the others, and I take a quick breather. The sound of metal banging and bending startles me, and I watch in silent horror as the construct comes back to life. It breathes steam down the hallway.

“He’s back up!” I yell. “He can’t blow smoke out his ass so I’m safe!”

Bill bombs it a few more times and it goes back down. Only to come back up a moment later. I hit it, it turns and pummels me. I’m hit so hard my soul nearly leaves my body. I can hear buzzing in my ears, I smell... waffles?

“Are you okay?” Eliza shouts.

“I’m fine!”

“Are you fine, or are you ‘Nadja fine’?”

I’m probably not fine, but I’m tough! She knows me too well. I’ve already almost died many times, what’s one more? I’m shocked my brain still works with the amount of hits the old noggin has taken. We have a good healer, and it shows.

It keeps going down and coming back up, all of us laying into it with weapons and bombs. I don’t think we have the capacity to destroy it! Not with what little we know of it. Frustrated beyond belief, I remember that the wizard had some papers he was looking through. Maybe there will be instructions on how to use this horrid thing?! I disengage and run back in, heading to the bedroom.

“Nadja!” Eliza’s voice pops in my head. “Arun opened a door... you need to come back here!”

Oh, lovely. What have we gotten into now?

⚔️ Nadja

[dragonforgotten]

We scuffled with a group of evil wizards and slavers which do not impede us much besides to draw out the fight by flying in the air. In our investigation we discover a secret door and descend deeper into the heart of this haven of evil. We stumble upon two astral daemons who seem to be confused for they asked Eliza how much we are thinking shes a seller of slaves. We ignore these offers and proceed to slay them from this plane of existence. I pair up with Nadja after I stitch together everyone’s injuries. Nadja finds a door and manages to crack the lock to reveal a bedroom filled with expensive clothes and livery. Eliza picks up a journal resting on the desk as it becomes apparent that this is URI’s journal, detailing his plots and schemes but we do not have time to delve into it. Carrying on we find a room filled with currents but there’s noise coming from behind the fabrics. I push it aside and see a triade agent.
“Oh. Hi there.” I start awkwardly as I feel the stares of my friends at my back as they stare at the man beyond me.
“Who are you?”
“Well, that’s kind of akward. You see We’re... invaders.”
With that Mikolas runs screaming into the curtained room and begins to hack at the man, Eliza follows after him as I look behind me to see Nadja laying into a wizard look man sitting on a bed on the other side of the second curtain. I catch the conversation between Eliza and the agent as she makes him confess the way forward towards there leader. When he vanished I try to block the only door out I can see while I spy Bill block the entry way. The poor man I found runs out from behind the curtain, trying to flee from a raging Mikolas but only to run into a Bill how melts his face with acid. It all seemed to have gone well till Nadja calls out that her wizard pulled a vanishing act and has gone missing. We still our motions. Trying to find him but to no success. Suddenly the ringing of metal and the hiss of steam begins to vibrates in our ears, shaking the ground. Bill peeks outside the room.
“There’s a massive metal construct thing!” Bill warns us, running back from the doorway.
Oh by the divine rays of Sarenrea what in the world is coming to visit us next? Eliza throws a spell at it before it reveals its black metallic frame fills the entry way. It unleashes a steam of burning steam into the room we are in as our skin scorches and we all hiss in pain.
Arun! Open that door!” Nadja calls to me as I look at her confused. Should I we deal with this before running head long into something else?
“Why, Nadja?”
“We need to go around!” Ah true. A good thought.
I throw it open only to be met with disappointment.
“It’s just a room!”
“F***! Check the other one!”
I run past her through the other curtain and throw open the other one only to shout in defeat.
“Another bedroom!” I scream out, feeling trapped.
It’s truly becoming a dire situation.
Nadja and Mikolas tumble behind the machine of death as me and Eliza hear that wizard shout his invocations and drain some of vigor from our bones, that spell harming Bill more then the two of us. As the machine steams us again Eliza teleports me and her beyond it and begin to assault the mage. As I can hear the pained screams of Nadja I returned to engages the machine and heal her just as Mikolas breaks the machine or so I thought. As I channel the healing energy and pour it into her the machine begins to click and steam and stands once again, slamming me hard with its metal fist. We keep fighting it as Mikolas slays the wizard. Again me, Nadja and Bill down the machine only for it to restore its functions and attack.
“I don’t understand!? It’s not going down?!”
“Arun do you have any idea what it is?!”
“I don’t know?! Ummm... steak golem! Weak to fire! Must be!”
“Your brain is full of saw dust!” I hear Bill scream out.
“That’s an andamantine golem! Fire will heal it!”
“Ahhh Damn! I’m too stressed out for this! How do we stop it!”
“I don’t Know!”
“Eliza!?”
“I don’t flippen know either!”
“Mikolas?!”
“Roar!!?” He screams tripping the golem as it powers down again.
I’m frantic, my thoughts gone in the wind and a unkillable monstrosity before us. Something has to change! But what?! Where did it come from?!” I look behind it and see a door. Could it come from that door?! Don’t know! Maybe there’s a key? A code?! Something to turn it off!
“I’m going ahead!” And then a activate the cloak and vanish towards the door. I throw it open and feel my hope dive into dispair as I don’t find the key to my hopes. I look down into a massive forge, two demons and more agents.
“Guys! I made a error in judgment!”

Arun