Shadow Walkers

One year before the Titan Breakers started their adventures in the Neutral Zone, other heroes encountered planewalkers.

Ep. 1-1: The Lost Beastmen

Friday, Summerset 12, 1126 SF (Jul 2, 2017)
Party: Perfidy (Aslene), Danja (Danana)

At the confluence of the Red Rock and Green Rock Rivers, the Shangon city of Diyun rested atop and within many towering islands. The cosmopolitan city bustled with fishing, lumber, food processing, and trade. The city was also home to the renowned Diyun College, a center of research and scholarship in the natural sciences (e.g., biology, herbalism, alchemy).

Perfidy was a female forest gnome rogue from the deep north. She was sent by her village to Diyun to study law enforcement. She had apprenticed for years with Dalla Teman, a Senior Inspector in the City Watch. As Perfidy neared the end of her training, Dalla decided that Perfidy was ready to work a case on her own.

Perfidy was ordered to investigate a series of burglaries in the market ward. First, per Dalla's instructions, Perfidy recruited a nature expert from the college: the female dragonborn Danja. Together, they questioned Garem the grocer and his son Jarem, as well as Pemil the chicken farmer, her son Athan. They determined that beastly humanoids were raiding the shops at night.

Ep. 1-2: Those Left Behind

Friday, Summerset 12, 1126 SF (Jul 4, 2017)
Party: Perfidy (Aslene), Danja (Danana)

Perfidy acquired some slow poison from a fisherman, and the heroes staked out Garem's shop. Three beastmen emerged from the sewer and started to enter the shop. The heroes killed one and drugged another. Perfidy summoned the City Watch, and ordered three watchmen to help purse the beastmen (Ister, Kerry, and Karn). Underground, the heroes were ambushed by a giant bat, before following the beastmen to their lair.

More beastmen attacked. A fierce, close-quarters battle ensued, in which both Kerry and Karn were almost killed. The beastman alpha was particularly dangerous. But the heroes triumphed.

They found many of the stolen goods from the shops, as well as two partly-eaten human men. On their bodies, Perfdy found notes that revealed that the beastman had been brought to Diyun to assist a band of planewalkers.

Note 1:

Here's the chant on this operation. Lijan says this portal is good for at least ten trips or a week. The key is to hum. The portal leads to a juicy trade burg on some dumb prime world called Tessera. We're going to get in, get the goods as usual, and get out. Berna is bringing the muscle: a pack of beastmen she controls with her new belt. Easy job, easy jink.

Note 2:

Frak Berna! If that leatherhead was going to up and flee, she could at least have left the belt. We're staying peery, but I don't know how long these furry bashers are going to stay obedient. I think they smell our fear. Lijan got the dark of this portal wrong. It started going wonky after just six trips. The Tannon Boys got nervous and turned stag. They just dropped their loads and bounced back through to the Cage. Now we gotta hope Lijan can be arsed to find a way to rescue us. If they get here too late, maybe this note will at least set the record straight. Frak Berna to the Nine Hells! -Cale

Ep. 1-3: Missing Exterminator

Monday, Summerset 15, 1126 SF (July, 2017)
Party: Perfidy (Aslene), Danja (Danana), Haelra (Basil)

Perfidy was briefed by Dalla on a new case involving an infestation. Perfidy stopped by Diyun College to collect Danja. Haelra eavesdropped and contrived a way to join the party.

The heroes met Tabit Jalid, a dwarf male and senior foreman of a Six Rings Trading Company warehouse. Tabit explained that his workers reported a minor infestation of wharlfings in the undercity below the warehouse. Tabit hired an exterminator, Bruna Cotter, who went down last night with her dogmole Rocky, but hadn't returned. Also, a Six Rings worker hadn't shown up for work: Bagulf Banks.

The heroes learned more by visiting the Exterminators Guild and talking with the senior clerk. They also obtained samples of Bruna, Rocky, and Bagulf. Danja borrowed a magical Located Creature dowsing rod from the College.

Ep. 1-4: Wharflings and a Gnoll

Monday, Summerset 15, 1126 SF (July, 2017)
Party: Perfidy (Aslene), Danja (Danana), Haelra (Basil)

The heroes descended into undercity. They found some dead wharflings, and fought some live ones. The heroes found Rocky guarding his unconscious mistress, Bruna. The heroes partly healed Bruna. The exterminator explained that she and Rocky had narrowly escaped from a gnoll, which was trapped deeper in.

The heroes sent Bruna and Rocky for treatment. They recruited three other exterminators to help fight the gnoll. After a fierce battle they defeated the gnoll. The heroes found two human bodies. Haelra used her magic to reconstruct and analyze the scene. The bodies seemed to have been slaves.

Perfidy sensed someone nearby. She sent the exterminators back, and discovered a group of nine runaway former slaves from an eastern province of the Empire. The runaways explained that they were supposed to meet a member of the Veiled Path here in Diyun. But instead two strangers met them. The runaways were suspicious, and one of the strangers summoned the gnoll to threaten them. She lost control of the monster and fled, collapsing a tunnel behind her and her accomplice. Two of the runaways fled from the gnoll (only to become the corpses the heroes found), while the rest barricaded themselves in a dead-end room.

The runaways had been hiding for days. The heroes gave the runaways food and planned their next steps.

Ep. 1-5: A Desperate Villain

Monday, Summerset 15, 1126 SF (July, 2017)
Party: Perfidy (Aslene), Danja (Danana), Haelra (Basil)

While Danja and Haelra guarded the runaways, Perfidy made contact with the Veiled Path through Darde, an experienced criminal. Darde connected Perfidy to Fridu, a human female longshoreman. The two women met in the Brass Needle mens' apparel shop and made a plan to relocate the runaways somewhere else in the city, until further passage could be arranged. Perfidy returned to the party.

An hour later, back in the undercity, two men approached on the underground river, rowing a skiff. The boatmen were ambushed by a garroter crab but the heroes defeated it. The heroes got the runaways safely on the skiff and sent them on their way.

Perfidy recruited two guardsmen, Nathe and Ryker. The heroes explored the sealed area of the undercity, tracking Bagulf's signal. Beyond a locked door, they were attacked a desperate woman. The villain disabled two guardsmen and attempted to escape. But Perfidy struck her down. The heroes found an incriminating note on her body, as well as the corpse of Bagulf Banks. They stabilized and healed their guardsmen allies, and wrapped up the case.

The note read:

Major Takhar,

My report follows. All glory to the Burning Masks!

Summerset 7, 1126 SF
Your intel was accurate: I have discovered signs of a Pather waystation here in the city. Or should I say, somewhere under it. I've found a contact who claims to know the precise location. I'm negotiating.

Summerset 8
We've agreed on a price. Tomorrow night, the contact will lead me to the waystation.

Summerset 9
Tonight, I shall spy on the waystation. I am prepared with stealth magics. If things go sour, I have a new scroll of summoning that should aid my escape!

Interlude: Haelra's Apprenticeship

Haelra set out to find a familiar. She found and killed a bat, then walked out of Diyun into the forest. Her casting of Find Familiar brought her Ellison, a female genet with a dark stripe down her back and dark spots on a woody-gray coat.

Perfidy arranged for Haelra to start an apprenticeship to a City Watch coroner named Loodran Hune, a human male. After lunch, Haelra was the first to return to the morgue. She interrupted a half-orc male in a hooded cloak who was tampering with a corpse. Haelra killed him.

Haelra learned that the half-orc was a mugger named Vesnal, and he had a half-orc partner named Opper. Vesnal suspected that Opper had held back on sharing some loot: a magic ring. Vesnal confront Opper and he fled. Before Vesnal could catch up, Opper ran into some City Watchmen. When Opper resisted arrest, they killed him. Vesnal believed that Opper had swallowed the ring, so he used a scroll of Invisibility to sneak into City Watch headquarters and search Opper's corpse.

Ep. 1-6: Rats & Kobolds

Tuesday, Summerset 16, 1126 SF (August 10 & 15, 2017)
Party: Danja (Danana), Haelra (Basil)

While Perfidy was attending to other matters, Danja and Haelra were contacted by the Diyun City Watch. The Watch needed experienced campaigners to investigate a report of giant rats in the sewer. Danja and Haelra took the job. The heroes searched the area of sewers using Haelra's familiar, Ellison, and Danja in giant rat form (via Wild Shape). They found a nest of rats, including a swarm and several giant rats. They also found a sleeping kobold sentry in a nearby tunnel.

Danja used Speak with Animals and her rat form to deceive the giant rats, one by one, and lure them away for Haelra to kill. Finally, the heroes dispatched the swarm. But during that fight they alerted the kobold. He retreated to alert a small group of other kobolds. The kobolds all had black, mask-shaped burns around their opaque black eyes, and they fought with feral fierceness. However, Danja and Haelra ultimately triumphed. The heroes searched the kobolds' crude camp and found a troubling note:

(Draconic)
My Brave and Loyal Soldiers,
Sneak into the city. Breed giant rats. Trust only those with the sign of the Mask.
When the time comes, you will use the rats to cause mayhem and distraction.
Wait for my instructions.
-V

Ep. 1-7: Spying on the Tosics

Friday, Summerset 19, 1126 SF (August 13, 2017)
Party: Perfidy (Aslene), Danja (Danana), Haelra (Basil), Ylva (Flutterbye), Res (party)

Perfidy, Danja, and Haelra were called to a meeting in the City Watch Headquarters. A half-orc male warlock introduced himself as Wode, a member of the Gray Chamber. Wode recruited the heroes to aid in his work. Wode had determined that the heroes all supported the emancipation of the slaves, making them suitable for investigating and opposing rebels who want to restore legal slavery.

Wode believed that someone or something from the Underdark was providing magical items to criminals and rebels. The heroes had already found evidence of this group: the Burning Masks, an anti-emancipation rebel group. "We've uncovered their operations in Shango City and elsewhere in the western empire. I was sent here to investigate any activities on the border and in the Neutral Zone."

Wode usually worked with a team of Crusaders of the Dawn, but that team was currently in the Neutral Zone. Wode sought the cooperation of the Diyun City Watch Commandant and Mayor-Commander to form a new team: Diyun City Watch Special Cases. He brought in two more members: another combat caster (Ylva) and a warrior (Res).

Wode ordered Special Cases to investigate Lord Mosul Tosic and Lady Endera Tosic. Their wealth was based on furs, timber, and furniture, all using slave labor. An informant had revealed that the Tosics' recent guests have included anti-emancipation sympathizers. "Your mission is to infiltrate the estate, spy on the inhabitants, learn more about the Burning Masks, and disrupt/thwart any Masker agenda."

The heroes made preparations, including working with contacts to learn more about the Tosics. They learned that the Tosics had become isolationist in their forest estate, only visited by anti-emancipation writers and speakers. They had replaced most of their estate guards with foreigners with unusual accents. The heroes also learned that the Tosics had no children.

The party split up to travel to the estate, rendezvousing at a freshwater muscle farm on the Red Rock River. Danja and Ylva changed into weasels and hid on Haelra. The remaining heroes approached the estate openly, under the cover story of investigating the treatment of freed slaves and hunting suspects in open City Watch cases.

The estate guards called forth Myfir, the steward. Myfir explained that the lord and lady were on a picnic, and they had taken most of the estate's staff with them. Myfir was joined by a man who called himself Lonir Tosic. Lonir claimed to be the son of Mosul and Endera. Perfidy and Res conferred with Myfir, while the weasels covertly explored the mansion. Haelra distracted Lonir by feigning weakness.

Ylva found evidence that the Tosics were planning a powerful ritual that night to open a gate, at a location away from the estate. Ylva and Danja also discovered two servant children, Nari and Tinga. Finally, Danja discovered an azza gremlin near death.

A confrontation between Perfidy and the guard captain escalated until Myfir gave Perfidy an excuse to arrest him. Haelra kept Lonir distracted while Perfidy and Res left with Myfir. Meanwhile, Ylva and Danja escaped through a drain with the children and gremlin.

The party reunited back in Diyun.

Ep. 1-8: Stopping the Tosics

Friday, Summerset 19, 1126 SF (August 19, 2017)
Party: Perfidy (Aslene), Danja (Danana), Haelra (Basil), Ylva (party), Res (party)

The heroes shared what they had learned with each other, and then with Wode. They split up to prepare to move on the Tosics' ritual site, Shattercrack Bluff. Danja researched the site and learned that a graven hulk was buried there: the Angry Woodsman. Danja also consulted Professor Hiltor, an expert on planar travel. Perfidy and Haelra learned that the Tosics had been cruel masters, sending Nari and Tinga's parents to another city where they'd died. Tinga had been particularly traumatized by Lady Tosic's inhumane use of magic (e.g., Hold Person).

Myfir offered what intellgience he could. He knew that:

• The Tosics were very interested in the news that Shangon Army battalions are being redeployed to western provinces to enforce the Articles of Emancipation.
• Through their businesses, the Tosics were stockpiling weapons in eastern provinces.
• The Tosics seemed to have a deal with Lonir to name him as their heir, in exchange for something.

Wode shared that someone had been providing the Burning Mask rebels with experienced trainers and commanders, allegedly from "a remote part of the Untamed Lands." Also, the Burning Masks were getting kobold operatives from some other mysterious faction, which fit with Danja and Haelra's encounter in the sewer.

Wode requisitioned fast travel for the heroes: a group of gryphon-riders called Talia's Fury. Wode originally planned to join the heroes in confronting the Tosics, but abruptly learned that a rebel arcanist was making her way to Shattercrack Bluff. Wode took Ylva with him to intercept this arcanist.

Talia's Fury transported the remaining heroes to near the ritual site. Haelra used her familiar, Ellison, to scout the bluff. The Tosics were indeed present. Having unearthed part of the Angry Woodsman, they were preparing to use his bloodstone hearts to power the gate. The Tosics were reinforced by Burning Mask cultists, a house guard with a mastiff, and many kobolds. The estate staff was bound nearby, possibly as sacrifices for the ritual.

Perfidy lead the creation of a plan. Following the plan, the heroes stealthily approached the bluff. They surprised the enemy and a tumultuous battle commenced. The heroes fought fiercely, reinforced from the air by Talia's Fury. Lord Tosic fell without too much difficulty, but Lady Tosic proved to be an arcanist of considerable power and resilience. Nevertheless, the heroes triumphed, slaying all their enemies except for one cultist, who they took into custody.

The heroes searched the bodies and studied the ritual site. Then they called on the City Watch for the clean-up, and eventually returned to Diyun.