Heroquest 4

The search for the Valley traitors

It has been many years since this took place but given recent events and the apparent destruction of the cult of Ravannon I felt it was time I sat and recounted what I could of those times past.

Those who took part were as follows:
Ruff
Dec
Gellix
Zen
Carl
Kalran
Brother John
Wilf (R.I.P)
Melkeron
Crumbel(R.I.P)
Grendel(R.I.P)
Lathrodec
Wolf
The Count(R.I.P)
Starion
Spark
Aradel
Finn

At this time the Time of Reckoning was just at hand and the group holding the Status for the White Retreat had been abducted by parties unknown. We were following their path and encountered a very strong band of Kalid that we fought and killed; they had information that lead us to the Ikarthian triangle and a base of operations for a group linked to the Ravannon cult.

We journeyed there - once we were inside the Triangle we were assailed by some creatures that were Hordling-like but were not Hordlings as we understand them. The fight we had with them was intense and was very hard because the leader had the ability to drain power from you irrelevant of any power protections you may have had including permanent effects.

We traveled further into the Triangle towards our goal; we knew that some guild leaders had come to this area also to look at what was going on. We came upon a figure dressed in red with a group of undead; he called himself Cardinal Lungash and proceeded to attack us so we fought back and drove him off - unfortunately he eluded us.

We continued on and were met by another figure in red who turned out to be Kleinwort Ironfist the Assistant Guild Leader of the Gauntlet sect - he was seeking information as to why we were in the area so we explained what had occurred and what we were trying to achieve. He then lead us to his camp where we met and shared council with Avalon. He let us know that Taraman was in the area we were heading to and may well contact us.

We pushed on to a deserted section of the compound and proceeded to set up camp. We saw lights approaching and took precautions and were surprised to see ghosts approaching us; we were told we needed to pay to stay here. They were Ikarthian’s and guests meant nothing to them; they wanted items to trade at the fair that was happening in the next few days. A fight ensued as Crumble (a Humacti) wouldn’t trade with these creatures and we would not let him fight alone. We were victorious and set watches as it was late at night.

Ruff I believe was on guard when he saw some movement of the natural animals in the area and he went to investigate. Moving towards us in the early predawn light was a large band of armored warriors. The alarm was called as they got to us and the knight announced himself as Horst von Krieg, a Knight of our Dark Lady and told his retinue to kill us. A long fight ensued and the sun was well up in the sky before we had driven him off. He retreated to a building that we were unable to gain access to. We then went to explore our surroundings.

We came across a trader that was here for the market - while there a Kalid approached us and told us that Serbitar was coming here now. As we had had dealings with him before we moved away to try and give ourselves time to prepare. Unfortunately we didn’t have time and they fell upon us with great fury. We didn’t see the Serbitar we expected to see but there was a barbarian like being covered with furs and very powerful - this we later discovered was another Serbitar. The fight was intense and long they seemed to be using a large amount of poison and during this fight unfortunately Crumble met his ultimate demise.

We gathered our fallen and started back to our base - we had not moved far when we saw another group moving towards us. There was another Knight amongst them. He announced himself as Sir Guys de Valour and in our weakened state were hard pressed and as some more of our number fell we scattered to attempt to regroup later. Eventually we regrouped and ress'ed the fallen.

During this time we were approached by Taraman who told us that there would be a group moving into the area later in the evening carrying some information that we would benefit from. We decided that as it was early evening we would send a small group to report to Avalon on our endeavors since we had last met. They left and returned with a grave sight of Avalon chasing them. It wasn’t until they got closer that it was apparent that he wasn’t himself - he had in fact been raised as an undead. We dispatched him and took precautions to ensure that it wouldn’t happen again.

By this time it was getting late - as it was getting full dark the Ghosts returned asking for payment and we dealt with them. We then set about preparing ourselves to ambush the group that were coming to this area. We laid our ambush and saw the lights approaching; we then fell upon them and a heated battle ensued. There were Drow from House Drannath amongst them along with snake beings. We eventually tracked down the ones carrying the information and dealt with them.

We returned to our base and had a look at the information. There was much translation to be done. Upon our return we discovered that someone had come to our camp and raised Crumble as a ghast which we slew and made a decision that we would all go once we were able to the Plane of the Sleepless Dead to retrieve his spirit so it could rest in peace.

We were very tired and we decided to take a brief rest and then do the translations. As we retired it was shortly after that Taraman came to us with great urgency saying that he felt we had little time to decipher the information. We had a book called the Book of Shadows and several scrolls that from the little we gleaned was about a ritual that was being prepared to help Ravannon ascend to become an aspect of the evil sphere. As we were translating the books and scrolls disappeared from our grasp.

We retired for a short while longer - when we awoke we were aware that Spark was missing; we searched the area for any sign of him or what may have occurred to no avail. There was little we could do so we went to investigate the market that was happening. We were moving along and we saw figures moving towards us - as they approached they turned out to be Minotaur’s with golden heads. They approached us and started trying to remove ensorcelled or empowered items from us and they eventually got one and destroyed it so a fight ensued and we destroyed them.

We moved down to some buildings where we encountered some Gypsies trading with a Kalid - while we were there the Kalid grew ill and died; he appeared to have been poisoned. After they tried to encourage us to join with their games we chose to leave to investigate some figures we had seen in purple. As we approached they appeared to be Concillium members. We chatted to them (our relations with them at the time were quite tense because we were trying to obtain the Green teaching scrolls from the Taranor and they didn’t want us to have them). We then saw some Shadowsfall in the area also and the usual level of distrust between us was present. They then left their building and moved off.

We then saw some figures in what appeared to be Taranor colours and the Shadowsfall were moving to attack them so we chose to help the Taranor. We then killed the Shadowsfall and we found out that the Wizards Concillium were basically trying to force them to hand over the scrolls and we promised our aid in trying to help them out.

On our way back we saw some ghosts in a building and investigated and saw them re-enacting a scene from their past - they were questioning the actions of Ravannon. We then moved back to our base to consider what to do next.

While we were discussing, a group of Gauntlets accompanied by Galadrin and Sardonyx approached - they told us that there was a possible site for the ritual close by and we may want to go and look at it. Night was falling and we decided to investigate.

As we approached a group of Drow from House Tumdurgal approached and said that the Wolfhold members were to follow them. They did this and we were left with Drow guards. Time passed and we grew concerned for our fellow group mates and we chose to move past the Drow whose response was to attack us. A long fight ensued which involved the group of Drow and Cardinal Lungash (also known as Kariel Lungash).

We took a prisoner as dawn was breaking called Ghiovani, a necromancer who we tried to interrogate but the Wolfhold members took it upon themselves to do this and he was left tied up, and sadly he escaped during the night, although he was chased for some distance.

Shortly after this some of our number awoke saying that we were about to be attacked. We readied ourselves and very shortly after Guys de Valour and his retinue that were also enhanced with Ravannon priests arrived. We fought him well into the morning and I believe we killed him at least once although he had the ability to function beyond death that I understand some knights can do. Eventually he fled and we pursued him and he sought refuge in one of the buildings we couldn’t get into due to the wards.

We needed to recuperate and carry on with investigating the buildings. We started to move about the area trying to pass the wards to various buildings because we had surmised that there were focuses being placed at certain points to enhance the ritual.
We happened upon a way into a building and saw the corpse of the Kalid who had died the previous day. We eventually worked out how to remove his corpse.
We continued on and came upon a strange beast that appeared to be undead but wasn’t, but it was capable of breaking limbs when it struck them.
We continued on and eventually returned to our camp.

As we were working out our next direction to explore we saw a group of figures moving in the distance; we then resolved to move to them and investigate. As we traveled over to the area we saw that this was a different group of Knights. This was led by a knight called Jasper de Verve. We relatively easily dispatched his retinue and he issued a challenge to Ruff who accepted it and an honorable combat ensued.

We divided ourselves - some of us moved up to investigate what they had left as the focus. Ruff defeated the knight and under the terms he was allowed to leave the field of battle. We joined the rest of the group who were being chased about by a mummy with a Michaliner tabard on. We spent much time trying to lay the mummy low while not destroying it as we believed it was one of our missing White Retreat members. During the course of the battle it caused many fatal diseases on people. We eventually laid it low and proceeded to attempt to remove the spirit from the body because it appeared that a major spirit of disease had been bound to it. It was not a true mummy - once we had removed the spirit we were left with a much weakened Duke Hanrow who we escorted back to our camp.

We spent time recuperating and night fell - we then moved to another focus point. When we arrived there we were confronted by Spark or more correctly the more conscious side of Spark the elemental but he still recognized us and had no desire to fight with us, but he was prepared to defend this focus point to the end if needed. We tried various non-lethal methods of removing him from the area.
We then had some heated discussions about killing him and eventually we elected to not try to kill a Valley member and friend even though it may be for the greater good as some viewed it.
We were exceptionally tired by this stage and we knew the ritual was going to take place at dawn so we returned for a hour or two’s rest. The time for the ritual approached we prepared ourselves and moved toward the area.

We approached the amphitheater that was the site of the ritual whereupon we were assailed by Ravannon cultists, Horst von Krieg, and 4 or 5 serbitar’s. We got to look in the area while fighting - there we saw the aspect of Ravannon that was the focus of the ritual. In the area were also some valley members - those that I can remember were Venga Ward who was Assistant Guildleader of the Warden sect, Vulminor the Assistant Guildleader of the Hospitalers sect.
As we watched Ravannon approached and slew Venga Ward - unfortunately this was his final death. We pushed the fight harder and got to the remaining victims.

When we got there we became aware of an effect that caused good power to be slightly less effective in its protection, and it seemed that evil power was much more easily accessed. The fight became very intense and we were being pushed back down a narrow valley. Ravannon stepped forward and cast a mass harm upon our first 2 ranks which included all our warriors - needless to say we were hard pressed to keep our front line alive but somehow we managed it. We slowly whittled down the numbers until only Ravannon was left - the sun was high in the sky when we finally slew him. We slowly recovered our dead and moved back to our camp to rest.

Some time later we awoke and considered what to do next - we knew other members of the towers were converging on this area so we chose to wait for a short while and see what occurred. A little while later a group of Gauntlets, led by Kleinwort Ironfist, Apshal Farlight (who was Assistant Guildleader of the White Path) and Sardonyx. They asked us what we had been doing, and as the conversation went on it became clear they were not working for our towers. It culminated in them asking us to join them in the cult of Ravannon because they believed it was the best way for things to go. We (surprisingly enough) told them to stick it and a fight ensued. We dispatched all bar Sardonyx who we were surrounding and raining blows upon him but he had the ability to transport him onto the plane of fire even while being attacked so he eluded us this time.

During the course of this fight some of our number noticed another fight occurring on a hill between Zanak Scorpion (who was leading the drow we had been attacked by earlier) and Sir Faldor Steel. They implored him to come to our aid which grudgingly he did. We explained to him what had gone on and what we had found out about the traitors within our towers. We were given leave to return to the towers after briefing him.

I hope that this is a fairly accurate recounting of events that took place far to long ago - I believe they are accurate but they may not be totally so if you would like any more information look up those who are still about that took part in this very important section of our history.

Melkeron