The latest in the Jaystorm saga
The Malfestian-Satilian War
The city where the player characters started this war is a complete ruin- the sewers are all over run and the buildings have been charred by flaming cats. Elonora showed up (Thank you Verrel!) to help Gray, they found Carey in the basement of this place and his now pregnant wife had just been stolen off by a Demon and we have to save her so the baby isn't raised by an evil power, because this baby is supposed to be some god of creation. Then we find BerakJ, the half-gnome-half-dwarf wack-job who helped them in a bit of fighting, and he got lost or something. Then they found Forgan, a Malfestian Ice Drak who is fighting for the Satilians and keeps getting his arm chopped off. We go off and fight (Defeat a mage with this magic Chrysalis thingy, take over small islands in a swamp, get lost in the mad manifestations of the ghost of Terrigas Duraith with a bunch of Mercs and defeat it, save the villagers, transport them on the merc air ship to a back-woods mountain trading town, and that's where we left off).
Braderick, the leader of the Mercanaries needed to make a deal in this mountain trading town, so while he did that, we took a coffee break and got some work done on armour, bought supplies and recruited a Giant who happened to be a bard and pretty good with forging tools (not an expert, but better than any of us!). A couple of the gnomes ressurrected Terrigas Duraith and got a few magic items off of him, but then he got to go back to sleep. That's good. With one of those items, we were able to ressurect the Manticore that had fallen from their numbers! Biggleschwatt!
As we left the trading town (where Forgan wasn't very welcome, may I add) we were headed towards a snowstorm that arrived just about nightfall and just about the time we reached the swamps. We tried to convince him, but General Ballan Scheiss was not about to leave his troops. The plan changed from trying to bail them out, we'd try to push them through. The position they were in was not all that pleasant. Wintery swamp water on one side about a mile to shore that they'd have to swim through and crazed malfestians and a man wearing a burlap sack on his head (who everyone is convinced will kill us all) on the other side. We chose the Malfestians. pushing our way through, Forgan led the way puching through lines of infantry and bowmen ready to kill us all. We started off with about 200 Satilians, 3 Crimson Blades (nobody else left in that group) and about 10 in the army of the White Lion. Luckily (for him) One of the Crimson Blades is already undead (for reasons unknown to us right now), so damage didn't really affect him so much. Sure, he was tripping on his guts for a bit there and walking was somewhat impeded as his limbs were broken and twisted, but he pressed forward.
What a trooper.
We punched through, losing lots of men along the way, some way back in the swamp, but all of them were kicking Malfestian Butt!. We did get the last sheilder in this part of the army, though! Woo hoo! We reached a point where we weren't sure to go - straight south would lead us to the archers, ready to set us all on fire, the east would take us to the Malfestian camp where we would probably find the Red Gauntlet AND Bag head man, plus if we went that way, we'd be directly in the line of the Cavalry as they made their way around trying to run us all over and make us dead, so we headed south west where we faced down a small Malfestian troop, led by a priest of Marduk (or whatever name he's going by these days) who let out this war cry and sent Elonora running away crying for her mommy.
Gray killed him in one hit.
Then he killed the son and squire of this Malfestian knight he killed a couple days ago.
Once Eleonora calmed down and realized she had dropped the general off her back as she took flight, she decided to land, get herself together and head back. Then she saw Baghead and his loony troops. She didn't think he would be the doom of the world, so she thought "Hey, what the heck, maybe I'll kill this guy and lay their fears to rest". Well, she didn't kill him, but he didn't kill her either. He tapped her with his brass flute and his troops collapsed around her (because they were naked in the middle of winter for probably weeks at a time), so she just walked away confused, flew off and found the rest of the gang (whoever was left) taking cover in a small grove of trees for the night.
It was totally messed up.
Seriously.
Meanwhile, David returned to the camp followed by our new friend the Bard Giant from the north lands. He came with furs and high spirits. He told a story to the freezing troops and with his bardic magic, lifted their spirits and warmed their hearts. Gray spoke with the General before we all went to sleep and they discussed Carey's unborn child being the God of Creation and how Carey will die when the child is born. Very sad.
The next morning, the storm was still raging. Our bard friend (MacCarr)was making breakfast for us all, but unfortunately, breakfast included a cooked dragon egg....We won't tell Forgan. Gray made up his mind and when the morning came, he left to go help Sashradan, Collette and Raquel fight the Hollow Warrior. Sir Forgan and Elonora stayed in the forest glen with the troops, healing up those bnadly wounded for most of the morning. Later in the day, there was a wind carrying a cry for help that followed Forgan around for some time. It asked for Gray, but since he wasn't there, we went to the call which was from north of the river. MacCarr came with us and helped us out quite a bit. When we arrived at the broken down keep, Forgan saw that it had a magical ward around it. Perhaps a trap by the Malfestians? MacCarr focused a bit and then told us it was just Braderick, the leader of the Mercenaries and his half-orc cleric.
Wait a minute...why were they here and not on their Elvin Airship?
When we got inside, we saw the 2 of them terribly wounded - especially Braderick who was stabbed through the back and out through his chest. His spine was severed and his lung was punctured. It wasn't pretty, but we managed to keep him alive until a better healer came along and fixed him up completely the next day. We'll get to that in just a second...
The next day, Balan's troops decided to move north to the Keep as a stronghold for a while, which was good timing since the Malfestians started moving into the forest! Along with the Satilins, the Crimson Blades and the remaining army of the White Lion came Kyros, swashbuckler extrordinaire and his Rasta Ninja sidekick whose name escapes me. Aslo, there was a Malfestian Mage named Lionel who managed to A.) fix Daniel, the undead Crimson Blade and make him alive again with the help of Jubalo the southern Vennan Priest, B.) scry on Gray and we could find out where he is, and C.) "beam us down" to this place where the Hollow Warrior is said to be - where Gray just was. Gray showed up at the Keep before we could "beam down", so he congratulated Daniel on his new lease on life and got him to keep his promise to marry Erica, the other Crimson Blade though reluctantly. Gray aslo accepted knighthood in Jubalo's order of Vennan Paladins which was a very good thing! He got more powers and freedoms and protection just by being knighted! Cool! After that, we said out goodbyes, got MacCarr and headed back to the Rutlands to deal with this Hollow Warrior bit. (go check out that section for more updates)
So stay tuned for the exciting (???) conclusion (!?!?) of JAYSTORM!!!*dun dun DUN!*