Tarithnesti - Grotto and the Elven God of... Vengeance?
01 Deepkolt 349 AC
TARITHNESTI
Grotto looks to the head spymasters, Raz and Shadow. "It seems our allies here have helped us. If it pleases the spymasters, I have prepared a nice warm bed and filling meal for our comrades. Surely they are tired and need some rest. Will you have them follow me?"
Shadow says to the goblins “Go with Grotto and he will fill your bellies and put you to bed. You did good.” Shadow smiles at them and encourages them to go on.
Once they have left he turns back to the others and says," Three of us could polymorph into those little murder hobos and walk into their camp and fireball them back into the Stone Age, and then fly back, fighting this way into our ambush. More direct approach but if there are 400 of them we need to thin those numbers. What do you think?”
Ra’ziir thinks for a moment, “Attacking their rear flank will prevent any withdrawal while also driving them toward the city. We need to coordinate our timing, at least with those entry-points the Goblins are likely to advance on… Relocate any civilians where we can and fortify defenses in those areas.”
Commander Parnitha shakes her head. "Not a lot of places to relocate them to. Many of the temples planned on sending refugees here to Alinosti, and Sithelnost. Everyone thought the attackers would come up the Thon-Thalus and drive north. Instead, the dragons are flying down from Khur and the Khalkist Mountains and striking further and further south."
Kysek oversees the goblins pointing out locations on the map as well. Having aerial knowledge from his flight with Dusk; he looks at both locations being pointed to. The thief speaks, “Based on our aerial reconnaissance and where we recovered these three ‘fine soldiers’; the encampment is most likely here, not here.” He points to one over the other. “I will accompany the scouts; we will head here first.” The elf points to the most logical location between the two.
Kysek is able to correct the goblins' estimate. He has seen a large area that is likely the main goblin camp but the majority of the worgs are spread out so they can hunt and their riders can forage but they likely report in to this "central" location.
Shadow will discuss that he can polymorph himself into the form of the goblin named Sulk. He will “collect” the aforementioned goblins goods before presenting himself to the group with the plan of two more of us casting spells to look like the other two goblins. We “three” then go to the goblin camp while everyone else prepares the ambush. We will try and mass charm a group of the goblins and then maybe start an uprising against the Chief. Or maybe that Bläkmeg Seigebreaker makes a play for the top spot with some suggestions from us. Shadow lays out several ideas for the group to consider.
Ra’ziir agrees to use his Disguise Self to sneak into the enemy encampment before initiating "Operation: Fire in the Hole!"
Kysek continues to stare at the map, "Here is where they most likely report. Probably never at the same time. If we attack here... from the rear and drive them to the choke point, the worg riders will rally to save them. We coordinate through sending spells with our forces that should be here soon to hit the choke point. I might add; our reinforcements have been pushed hard for days. They may need a rest before we begin?” Kysek states. “Raz; what can Raven tell you of their arrival?”
OUTSIDE OF TOWN, AWAY FROM PRYING EYES...
Thanking Shadow and Raz, Grotto tells the goblins to stay close and follow him. "It is a short walk to where you must sleep. You can't be seen cavorting with us spies. It will blow our cover. Come with me. I have prepared a fire and a place for you to rest"
They arrive at a camp in the woods. A fire is burning hot and bright. Grotto feeds then their last meal of a bit of the foul worg bait he made earlier, telling their charmed minds that it is a fine meal.
"To make our ruse successful in case we are found out, we can't let it appear that you are welcome guests in our spy camp. To really make the deception believable, I must bind and gag you!" Grotto says to the placid goblins.
After they are bound and gagged, Grotto begins heating all manner of weapons, oils, and brings water to a boil.
He looks to his captives, his mind spins. The past and the present are one. "I have finally captured you. After all you did to me. All the years of torment in my slave pen. I finally caught you. I will find you all!"
Hours of horrific, sadistic torture ensues. All of the various ways Grotto was tormented when he was held captive come to the surface and are taken out on the three goblins. As the fire dies down, Grotto grows tired. Satisfied with the torment he has caused, he gives each one last cut to be sure they bleed a bit more. "Don't worry the forest predators will smell your blood. They should be here shortly to eat you alive."
Grotto turns and walks back to camp. "That was quite therapeutic. I have bottled those feelings up for too long." Grotto says to himself.
He returns to camp and cleans the viscera off of himself. He finds the others. "Our friends have been dealt with. What is the plan to find more of their kind with this new information we have?"
EN ROUTE TO TARITHNESTI
The smell of smoke and burnt meat filled the air. Ornforithalas signaled for the scouts to slow. Raven moved up the captain's position with Romulus and Eilra in tow.
"Split the scouts into four squads, we each take fifteen. Two remain here while the other pair circles around. Give us five minutes before moving in," Raven instructs Ornforithalas. The watch captain gave the order. The squads broke up. Romulus took one group and circled right while Raven went left with his fifteen.
Once everyone was in position, the elves converged, meeting in what had been, until recently, a small forest holding that had been home to two or three small families. Silence fell over the small clearing as everyone took in the carnage. Charred embers jutted out of earth at odd angles, still smoldering in the morning air. Burned bodies littered the ground. Romulus' eyes darted around, analyzing the scene.
"We have between fifteen and twenty victims - depending on how closely packed they were when the attack came," he announced as he slid out of Macula's saddle. "What was this place called?"
Ornforithalas cleared his throat, twice, before he was able to speak. "It didn't have a name. Too small to even be noted on any but the most detailed maps in the Tower of the Stars."
Raven took a step forward, "We should see if there are any personal effects that survived. We may be able to notify..."
Romulus forestalled him by raising one hand. "I will take care of that. And the burials. If one of the scouts wishes to remain and assist, that will be fine. Get the rest to Tarithnesti or we will have this scene repeated there."
Paytonilia asked if he could stay and help Romulus. The halfling looked over to Raven who asked why he would want to do that. The scout, who had yet to succeed at even the most basic of duties replied, "My father got me into this unit - he didn't want me in the thick of the fighting. I... I didn't take any of this seriously. I thought it would be a grand adventure. Kill some goblins, come back a hero, parlay my "heroics" into appreciation from some of the women I know. But... this? These were people and we're supposed to be protecting them. I just... I don't know. I just think someone should help lay them to rest."
Raven nodded. "Permission granted. Obey the wizard in all things." He turned to Ornforithalas, "Form up. Be ready to move out in two minutes. Double-time the rest of the way to Tarithnesti."
THE NORTH BANK OF THE THON-THALUS
Cedron, aimlessly wandering outside of a nondescript location, having been frecking around elsewhere and not paying attention. His presence awakened to the fact that he must remain aware if he wishes to be included.
The priest is the first to see Ornforithalas at the head of the scout column as they cross the frozen Thon-Thalus. The watch captain has a haunted look in his eyes. The men, obviously tired, march with grim determination.
Raven brings up the end of the line, one arm supporting Eilra as she struggles to keep up. Cassidy is fast asleep on the elf's shoulders, a thin line of drool escaping from the corner of his mouth and pooling in Raven's hair.
Cedron grasps the fringes of his blue cloak. He launches into the air and darts towards Ornforithalas. “Blessed be the path of Progress.” He prays as he seeks to help the solders close the last few steps to warmth, rest, and safety. The minstrel-priest scans the group and lends aid as needed.
While obviously tired from completing what should have been a four-day march in only two days, none of the scouts seemed to be injured. When Raven reached Cedron, he told the priest, "We found a burned out homestead. Maybe three houses, up to twenty dead. Romulus is searching through the remains and burying the victims."
Raven and Cedron find Commander Parnitha and arrange berthing and food for the scouts. They are put up in the warehouse across from the one claimed as an aerie for Redclaw and Dusk. Tarithnesti's kitchens open to them and within the hour, the remaining citizens start delivering food to the newly arrived troops.
Once that is taken care of, Raven reports in to the rest of the group and updates them on what he and Romulus discovered during their march.
LATER THAT NIGHT...
After the planning session breaks up and the party members retire for the night, Grotto lays down to sleep. After drifting off to sleep, he begins to dream.
In his dream, a crimson bull, its flanks criss-crossed with old scars appears before him. Grotto once again stood in the slave pits where he had spent so many years. The side of his face once again felt cold, the nerves burned away by the fire his captors had used against him. To his left were the cells where time had once been measured by screams and the drip of water. There were the pits where his brother, Jakarta, had been killed in a riot over a crust of moldy bread. But now the bars of Grotto's cage lay broken at his feet, red with old rust, and the goblins were gone—no, unmade, erased from the stone as if they had never crawled there at all.
Firelight gathered behind him without heat. A presence filled the cavern, heavy as an oath.
“Stone remembers,” said the voice. It came from everywhere at once: from the walls, the floor, the pools of stagnant water, from the crimson bull. “And so do I.”
The dwarf turned. The bull's eyes burned like coals pressed into a forge.
“You did not merely kill,” the bull continued. “You answered. They broke you by inches, by days, by mockery. You repaid them in kind, carving fear into their hearts until they understood what they had made.”
The dwarf clenched his fists. In waking life, he told himself it had been necessary. Justice. Survival. But here, in the dream, the memories stood bare.
“I felt no mercy,” he said. “Only… rightness.”
The bull, the god, inclined its head. “That is why I came. Mercy is a luxury for the unwronged,” the god said. “You were wronged beyond measure, and you repaid cruelty with cruelty sharpened by purpose. For this, I praise you.”
The prison began to crumble, not into rubble but into runes, glowing and sinking into the dwarf’s skin. He felt no pain—only weight, like a mantle settling on his shoulders.
“Wake,” said the god of Vengeance. “There are still debts in this world. And now, you know how to collect them.”
Grotto startles awake. His head feels like it is still in a dream. He looks at his body to see if the runes in his dream still remain. He thinks hard about the voice. "Could this be the same voice from the elven tomb? The holy symbol seemed to be a horn. Could that have been a bull born?" Grotto rubs his eyes. Splashes some cold water in his face and takes a drink of it. "This war is vengeance for these elves. It will please Hanseath to wage it. With the power of Hanseath and this elven bull god of vengeance on our side, we are sure to find victory! Glorious war will be waged, blood debts repaid!" Grotto thinks to himself
"Now, I am become death, destroyer of worlds!" Grotto yells with a wild look in his eyes.
MEANWHILE, IN SILVANOST
Alara sat up suddenly. She wiped the sleep from her eyes and looked at the papers spread out on the table before her. She must have drifted off while going over the plans for the ongoing renovation. She could hear the tolling of bells, hear the clamor of hundreds, perhaps thousands of her people moving in the street outside. She rose, adjusting her black gown and slid her feet into the soft white slippers she had kicked off onto the floor last night and moved to the door. She pushed it open and watched men, women, and children streaming down the avenue toward the Tower of Stars. She stepped into the throng and was swept along like a leaf on the wind as the crowd carried her toward the city center. The Tower soon came into view. Griffon riders circled above. The chatter of voices rippled like a wave and broke against her. "The Barrier Hedge is burning!" "The dragons have managed to set it on fire."
One by one, then in groups of two, threes, fives, the elves began to disperse, reassured that their leaders had things well in hand. Alara shook her head, her long locks swaying. "The Council is assembling," she whispered to herself. Not the one that Elar, Daebella, Adfaren, Elamyar, and Kysek served on, but the Noble Council. The Heads of the Houses.... "#^%@," she cursed softly to herself. No matter the image the nobles were trying to project, she knew, knew, that things had gotten out of hand.
02 Deepkolt 349 AC
The next morning, Romulus and Paytonilia arrive. The elf sleeps atop a conjured force disk, covered in a blanket. Romulus, his face stained with soot, yawns and asks for some hot food. "I scoured what was left of the houses back there. Everything of a personal nature was either burned or looted. I could have tried summoning the spirits of the dead but that would have meant spending another day there." He sighs, "I buried what was left of the bodies in a mass grave, spoke some words over them on behalf of Mystra and Silvanus." He looks over at his sleeping assistant. "The boy did well. He's green, no doubt of that, but he worked his $^% off yesterday."
Grotto looks over the newly arrived troops to survey their health. Once satisfied they need naught but rest and a meal, he goes to the kitchen to help prepare food with the sparse ingredients on hand. After he servers the troops, he meets with Raven and the others to hear of enemy movements.
He tells the others of his dream and how he believes it is the same god who spoke to him in the tomb. Grotto tells them that between a god of war, a god of vengeance, and a god of progress backing them he feels confident in their chances. "Let us find more enemies, we can show them what war and vengeance really mean!"
Raven furrows his brow at the thought of an elven vengeance god but says nothing, instead planning to ask Eilra or Ornforithalas if there is such a thing in this world.
Kysek listens to what Raven and Romulus report in regard to what they had seen on their march. He clues them in on the plans that have been in the works prior to their arrival. He also informs them of our “new friends” and how we continue to bluff them so they are aware in the event they meet. He shows the two the points on the map we are looking at, the plan to attack from the rear, and drive them forward to the choke point, allowing the Wargs to rally to save them.
He then pulls Romulus aside and asks him to share some spells with him. He explains to him his plan for he and Dusk. “Can you assist me my friend?” He asks.
"Easily. Shadow and I both have that enchantment laid upon us. I can show you the spells after I get some sleep."
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