Campaign Timeline

6.050 T.E.I.
380 Yinka Timeline

Spring

The Silver Mine

Characters meet. Heplon, a brigand, traveling with Rhaegar's band of brigands, they meet Ardashir who wants to join them in their band, and he has several ideas on how to improve the band. They are looking for a silver mine they are going to rob, on the way they come upon a rider attacked by Garks, the rider is a Sulini called Zoran Serewan. In the battle for the silver mine Ardashir and Zoran dies , but they the rest manage to take the mine and returns home after posting some guards there.

The attack on Far and Kayan

Heplon and Drogo is in the village of Far when it is attacked by Cloudlords, he kills one of them in an ambush and gets away with the Cloudlords sword and helm. Drogo dies in the battle.

Heplon returns to the city of Cinvat with the news of the destruction of the village of Far and the town of Kayan, he is received by the high priest Papak of Cinvat, regional ruler, he in turn sends a raven to the capital and the newcomer Nerva is delegated the information and informed to investigate.

Scouting for Cloudlords

Nerva sends his spy Raznir to Cinvat and also sends a letter to Papak to send an advisor Cyrus with him, he also tells Papak to prepare some more military commander of the mission if it will come to that. Papak takes contact with a Clerical Warrior called Korch

The group Heplon, Raznir and Cyrus investigates a little and finds a warlord that is famous for his raids into Myri land, Jen´Gen. They go to him and hire his help, with him, his group and the scout Ashdar they enter the Myri land, heading for the capitol of the Myri.

On the way they attack a Myri village and destroys it before moving on.

In the vicinity of the Myri Capitol they see a big military camp with hundreds of Trained Myri soldiers, they also see training supervised by golden men (Cloudlords). They are discovered, Ashdar is wounded and captured. He is interrogated by a Cloudlord leader.

A force of Cloudlords finds the characters main camp and attacks it with golden axes and magical fire, Heplon is crippled and captured, Cyrus and Raznir manage to hide and get away, most of the other raiders are slain in the attack.

Heplon and Ashdar gets tortured by the Cloudlord leader, later a Myri leader frees them, Heplon is too wounded to get away and Ashdar gives him mercy of steel.

Ashdar joins up with Cyrus and Raznir and they return towards home, on the way home they meet a group sent to aid them Korch and Tadjeb.

They all return to Cinvat, reports what they have seen, divide loot and recreates a little. After a week they decide to go on a new expedition.

Leaving towards Myr once again, some in the group still wounded.

The dark rider

They are ambushed at the small Myri village they burned before, a Myri guard calls for help from a Cloudlord that attacks the characters (except Korch), using the superiority of air he harasses the characters until a distant thunder and a dark cloud comes closer.

Soon everything around them gets dark, and the thunder can be tracked down to a large warhorse with a black slender rider wielding a black translucent sword, The dark rider slays the Cloudlord and the characters manage to hide from him except Ashdar who he ignores after disarming him, he disappear as sudden as he came.

The Cloudlords lair

They continue their journey and after a few days gets a sighting of a Cloudlord on it's flying steed heading north. Deciding to follow it they continue up into the mountains.

After a couple of more days and another sighting they come up into the mountains and into a valley. Ashdar, Maegor and Raznir decides to hunt for some food, Ashdar and Maegor returns with prey but Raznir decides that hunting Shadow cats are more exciting then rabbits fails to return, they hear battle in the valley side and finds him bleeding and close to death next to a dead shadow cat.

You stay in the valley to recover and hunt for food, the second day a group of Cloudlords attack, drives all the characters into a gathering of trees (except Ashdar) and then burns it down.

Ashdar attacks them and get wounded and captured, after the fire they look through the trees and find Cyrus and Tadjeb and captures them too. Raznir and Cyrus gets away, one by hiding and one by being unconscious.

Cyrus, Tadjeb and Ashdar is imprisoned and later crucified and tortured by that same man (as Ashdar knows since before).

Raznir, Maegor and Korch starts tracking them down, making their way slowly up into the mountains to aid their friends, or at least to secure their silence.

Summer

The transition into the summer goes unnoticed, Raznir, Korch and Maegor heading deeper into the Gray Mountains, not even knowing where they are, only a heading.
Cyrus, Ashdar and Tadjeb are screaming under the terrible torture of the Cloudlords.

The guards change for Cyrus, Tadjeb and Ashdar and the torture stops, they get fed and also get a lot better treatment, but the days go by without any chance of escape.

Meanwhile Razid, Korch and Maegor goes deeper and deeper into the cold snowy mountains hunting whatever they can to stay alive and using magic when no pray around, but little by little they are getting closer and closer to their goal.

After almost two weeks of travel the characters stand above a beautiful vale, the Vale of Mersia, at the far end they can see the glimmering from the hold of the Cloudlords. Raznir decides that it is better for him to go alone and he stalks away and scales the walls of the fortress. After brief combat he manage to free the characters and they escape, escaping down a well to a underground river they do not know if they are from the ashes into fire or if they will be safe.

Ash Lairs

Following the river upstream so they will not come up into the vale they walk in the darkness for hours before they arrive to where it comes out from the mountain with no apparent way through. Backtracking for a while they find a small crevice that leads a little up from the main path, they follow that one instead, a much harder trail Ashdar has an accident and falls into a hole and into a cold fast underground river, the others are not able to hold on to him and he is swept away. Tadjeb is lowered to see what happens to him but falls and is swept away too, in a while followed by the others.

They are washed out in a small underground lake, pitch black, Raznir lights his magic light and after the others are finished trying to drown they manage to get up on some small land strip. At the further end of the lake a rope bridge is showing, Tadjeb and Ashdar gets there first with Raznirs help, and Raznir returns to get their equipment and Cyrus who is not so good swimmer.

For Tadjeb and Ashdar the rest is very short, while they sit there in the darkness they suddenly see red luminous eyes watching them, and something they can not see is capturing them, and short struggle starts and a falling enemy alerts Raznir and Cyrus that something is happening, when they get there though there is no trace of the characters but they surprise a small ugly green skinned creature... a Goblin.

Trying to escape from there swimming they are soon captured too by the goblins in some strange boat, they get all taken to a throne room where some Goblin king resides, Tadjeb and Ashdar who comes there first gets to prove themselves to the Goblins by fighting a captured Lugrôki, not knowing this creature at all they get to fight hard for their lives before they prevail with a well aimed throw by Ashdars sharp golden axe. After that things change for the characters fast, from being prisoners they are suddenly honored guests and after a while and a rather disgusting banquet they find out that the their hosts want to hire them as war leaders against some Lugro town deeper into the mountain, seeing no way to say no they start agreeing on a price, after that is settled (a purse of jewels each and two Rikka-tikka) they get to rest for a few days while preparations are made for the battle.

Wars under the mountain

The time for battle comes fast, Raznir and Tadjeb leads a force attacking from the outside, Ashdar and the Goblin king leads the main force and Cyrus providing cover. They all succeed above all expectations and has soon driven the Lugro forces into their center room where a Lugrôki king and some shamans reside, meeting much stiffer resistance now the tide does not change still, hardly slowing they are driving the enemies forces back until something happens with the Shamen, they have been chanting since the battle began and now they let loose some horror that is worse then all nightmares of the characters, the remaining Lugrôki comes into a religious frenzy and for a while it seems the tide is almost turning.

With Cyrus in the lead, followed by Tadjeb and Ashdar they attack the demonic creature and after a long and bloody battle they prevail. Meanwhile the king has escaped, taking some path deep under the city he travels north, Raznir follows them quietly but after being attacked by some smaller demonic creature is exposed and forced to retreat. He saw that the king and his guard wore a sign of a red claw, not knowing what it means they believe it being important still.

The get a couple of days to recover after the battle when they are disturbed by a sudden civil war among the goblins, the king who got wounded in the battle has been assassinated and now fractions fight for the power, before they are drawn deeper into this bloody conflict some Goblins loyal to the character leads them away, only managing to get one Rikka-tikka they are still happy to get out of there not empty handed.

Returning home

For several days they follow the goblins deep on cavern paths and after almost a week underground they come out of the mountain just a day from the Yinka capital, leaving the Rikka-tikka with Nebb and his goblins they return home, coming back for the Rikka-tikka later.

Cyrus and Raznir goes to report how their mission has went, get to talk to the Priest King himself, a great honor is bestowed for them. Meanwhile Tadjeb and Ashdar starting their recreation, fast spreading a rumor about them and their newly acquired wealth, they get many friends though.

The briefing with the Priest King does not go at all as planned, the Priest King is extremely upset on their behavior and does not want to throw the country into a new war with a force so dangerous as the Cloudlords. Upset and annoyed they leave the Priest King and turn to their Employers Papak and Nerva instead, Cyrus leaves the following day for Cinvat.

Recruiting

At Raznirs request Ashdar and Tadjed leaves for the goblin cave and bring down the Rikka-tikka under great secrecy, they hide it in a storage.

After a couple of days Ashdar, Raznir and Tadjeb leaves the capital for Ashren where Nerva resides. while there they find out that he shares their belief that something has to be done about the Cloudlords and that the priest king is not the man to do that, Nerva tells them he will start seeking allies and suggest that they travel south to find a man called Stephan in a slave mine close to the mountain border.

Said and done they travel south, sending the Rikka-tikka north to Cinvat and Cyrus, updating Papak and Cyrus with their plans through Ravens.

In the deep south in a slave mine they find the man called Stephan D'Artelle, a prisoner of war from Rhakhaan that is said to know a lot about war craft and sieges.

They return towards Cinvat with the new member of their group, the mood in the group is not getting better by Stephan's unwanted optimism and it is loading up to explode at any time.

Arriving in Cinvat they soon start with a lot of activities, Tadjeb and Ashdar does what they are good at, carousing, the more responsible Raznir goes to the temple, updates Cyrus and Papak in what have happened and introduce Stephan, later he also seeks out Korch and Maegor and updates them, meanwhile Cyrus and Stephan is starting to prepare the city for a major attack from Cloudlords and Myri

Tadjeb and Ashdar uses the way they are so apted on to search out new soldiers and begin a drafting for both an assault into Myr and the defense of the city

During the following days the force fast exceeds 1000 men, mixed army, church soldiers, brigands and raiders, Ravens fly to all parts of the country to gather up people the characters know, they only now realizing how many it is. From Ashren and Cinvat they also get almost a dozen clerics more or less trained in the arts of war and healing.

In the next few weeks the army is growing steadily, fortune hunters, mercenaries and brigands come from all parts of the land for the promise of gold and honor, in a while the situation is getting really problematic in Cinvat and a offensive needs to be started or the city will be torn down by it's own troops, the small city guard has no possibility to control so many warriors

The army is divided into two groups, a unit of about two thousand men will go into Myri land and provoke a response from the Cloudlords, meanwhile the remaining 1500 are fortifying the city under the lead of the foreigner Stephan, the units in the city is largely archers to counter a threat from above.

The campaign of Myr

The raiding army starts to move, working it's way into Myri land, destroying all resistance and leaving a trail of burned villages in it's wake. After a little more then a week the scouts see the first military Myri force in one of the major towns in the Myri land, a force of close to 1000 strong in a fortified town.

The morning after the attack comes, riders going in at dawn, showering the town with fire arrows, from inside the town the Myri longbows don't do much damage on the fast riders, the water supply of the village has been cut of further making it harder to put the fires out and then the rest of the force is attacking, storming the gates of the town and breaking through after only a little while of battle. Cyrus is one of the leading in the attack, crazed by the feeling of some demonic presence inside the town and the rest of the troops are affected by his battle frenzy.
The battle fast becomes a slaughter, the Myri don't have enough space to wield their long weapons are cut down by the attackers, a big group tries a breakout but are surrounded and cut down. Meanwhile inside the town Cyrus has located two demons inside the town, he kills one swiftly but is taken by the other one. When Raznir tries to free him he is cut down by the demons sword.

After the battle Raznir wakes up, alive in spite of his numerous wounds, a sharp pain from his right hand where his smallest finger is missing, Cyrus is next to him, unconscious but alive, no trace is left of the demon.
Tadjeb has a broken leg after the battle, Ashdar is suffering from numerous wounds and burns, all the enemy has been cut down and the town torched, the Cloudlord that was leading them is crucified on the palisade.

Scouts come in and report seeing demonic tracks leaving towards the mountains, Cyrus, awake by now organizes a hunting party of him, Ashdar and a group of scouts to track it down and kill it, the others stay there to organize the return to Cinvat.
A few hours from the town they come upon a old burial site where one of the tombs are broken recently, the tracks leads to the tomb and the group descends inside it. inside they get ambushed, Cyrus looses his hand and the light with it, in the confusion that follows the demon escapes and the group is no longer in any shape to follow it. The next day they leave for the main army.

The battle of Evod moors

Meanwhile the main army starts moving the morning after towards home, with almost half what is remaining of the army wounded it goes really slow for them and the morning after while in a plain area death strikes!

Coming in at low altitude the Cloudlords are over the army before the alarm sounds, almost two dozen of them spreading fire in the lines. After what seems like an eternity all that remains of the army is smoldering flesh and the sounds from the dying, then the rides land and slays and plunders all they can find.

By the time the scout group finds the army the survivors has gathered, less then a hundred from an army of once more then two thousand men, most of them broken and wounded. They all start for home and after almost a week they finally reach the city of Cinvat, the shock in Cinvat is hard when they hear that the Cloudlords have destroyed an entire army, but hastily preparations start for defending their city.

The battle for Cinvat

After a week of preparations a enemy army is sighted north of Cinvat, it is the largest enemy army ever seen in Yinka land, lead by mounted Cloudlords and 5000 men strong.

The army camps half a league from the walls of Cinvat, and a part of the army with longbows move on, stopping at over 500 meters the shower of arrows still reach deep inside the city, protected by the city walls and buildings the attack don't do much damage.

A couple of days go by before a sunny morning the entire army moves towards the city, the archers stopping at 500 meters, providing protection for the advancing infantry, helping them to reach the wall before the defenders can do any damage to them, the battle on the walls grow fierce but the defenders manage to hold the Myri back, with great losses though.

When the battle for the walls are at it's worse the darkness descends over the city, from the rising sun can suddenly be seen dozens of riders on their winged Pegasus, taking the defenders by surprise they quickly spreads out over the city wielding fire and steel, all attempts to bring them down seem futile.

Fires are raging all over the city and the fighting on the walls seem never ending, rains of arrows and glowing bolts of fire are going up towards the attacker, seemingly without any effect. When all seem at the most hopeless the new weapon is suddenly scoring hits, killing both a Cloudlord and it's mount instantly, in their attempts to take out the weapon another Cloudlord falls towards the city. Soon after two more fall to some strong beams of fire erupting from somewhere inside the city and the tide is turning fast in the battle, the surviving Cloudlords are trying to escape, leaving their Myri allies to fend for themselves, a counterattack is launched against the unprotected archers by Raznir and the Myri army breaks, being attacked all the way out of the land.

Repairs are started almost right after the battle, the city of Cinvat is badly battered from the attacks from the air and a couple of days later there is some incident inside the city where two houses are destroyed, a two dozen killed or missing, a foreigner is found among the dead, so suspicion is fast on the characters, but nothing is done since they are all heroes since the battle.

Autumn

Being called back to Achren to report to Nerva the characters head south, Papak, worried that their recent war has made them enemies with Priest King Mateche sends with them a few guards, including the giant of a man, Marduk. On their way they are attacked by Garks, but they survive that and reach the city of Achren.

Talking to Nerva they get their suspicions verified, Mateche has sent out a writing to detain the characters on sight, Nerva still supporting them has no intentions to detain them anywhere and instead suggest to them to make more allies and more of a name to themselves to be able to be too public figures for Mateche to be able to kill them.
In trying to find some way to make a name to themselves they hear about some trolls ravaging a village up in the mountains, to gain support from the little man they go out for troll hunt.

Troll Hunt

The character travels west from Achren up into the mountains to investigate the rumor there about a pack of trolls are ravaging the countryside and eating the miners there.
Arriving in the village where the problems are reported from they are received with some skeptics, more bands of 'heroes' have also been saying they would rid the village of their problem, and never been seen again, but the morning after the characters with the aid of a miner as a guide go deeper into the mountains.

At a small forest the miner leaves them after pointing out a trail where people been disappearing and the last seen place the other troll slayers was seen at, Ashdar picks fast up a trail from the trolls through the forest and higher up into the mountains where they locate a cave.
Entering the cave they go into a trap and has to fight for their lives.

The characters fast swords and axes inflict a terrible toll on the trolls and soon the outcome is in no question, one troll manages to escape them but the others are soon laying on the floor, beheaded to make sure they will not raise anymore. For the characters they have lost Va-hed the archer and several are wounded but none too serious.

In the night after the surviving troll tries a ambush on the character but it finds itself soon gutted and headless. In the morning the heroes go back to the small village and are greeted there as heroes in celebrations over a few days.

Returning to Achren they quickly start to spread out what heroes they are, showing of the troll sculls as a symbol for their bravery. Raznir, Cyrus, Ashdar and Ma-hed travels north to Cinvat to gather their army again for a new campaign in the south. Tadjeb, Marduk and Koch stays behind, recovering from their wounds.

A week later the army is gathered and the join up in Achren again, heading east to avoid the capital and by mistake cause a civil war, they find very fast there is no lack of volunteers in the towns and villages they pass and soon the army is three times as large as when they start and getting a serious problem with food. Not wanting to plunder their own farmland, Ashdar leads the army into Sulini lands, attacking villages and farms as they pass through.

Invasion and the battle of Telava

Ashdar, now leading the army after a brief quarrel with Tadjeb about the rights is seeing the initial victories as a sign. He leads the army deeper into Sulini land and a real invasion is on the move, after a few days they arrive at the city of Telava. Telava is a lot bigger then the towns and villages they have left burned behind, but since not a battle has been lost the cities stone walls does not feel like an obstacle and the army attacks. Fighting bravely they Yinka are slaughtered beneath the unbreakable walls of Telava, inspired by their heroic leaders they fight to the last man in the futile attempt to take the city. A few units manage to breach the walls but they are quickly surrounded by the Sulini defenders and destroyed or captured.

When the day is over and the night has passed the few survivors have gathered up out of reach from the city, less then ten dozen of the mighty army of three thousand men is remaining. The survivors begin a hastily retreat into Yinka lands again.

New wars

Almost a week later the group enter the city of Media, not being depressed by their defeat at Telava they continued recruiting for their army as soon as they got back into Yinka lands and after a few days in Media they have an army even larger then the one lost.

A fight for leadership erupts again and Tadjeb is the undisputed leader of the army. He begins to quickly organize a daring raid deep into the rich lands of Rhakhaan, with an army of almost 5000 strong he know that forcing through the pass will not be a great problem and they will be able to strike deep into Rhakhaan before a really organized army can meet them.

The army is organized from their experience in earlier wars into five parts, two parts of mostly spear armed infantry, mixed with bows and javelins lead by Raznir and Ashdar, two parts with most of the cavalry and the rest of archers and shaikans, lead by Koch and ****. The fifth part is consisted of the most unruly Yinka warriors, lead by the swordsman Ma-hed, and making up the vanguard of the army.

With his experience from earlier wars against Rhakhaan he also knows that attacking the two massive forts that guard the pass will be at too high cost if at all possible so he orders the army to march all night passing the forts under the protection of darkness. This plan works well and with a few minor skirmishes the army is almost intact and passed the forts.

Troll slayers

Making a camp up at a mountainside to be able to defend against a organized Rhakhaaneese attack during the day the army rests after the march, in the hour of the wolf something is happening though, a scream is heard from a guard that is brutally cut of, running to investigate they hear a mighty voice shout out "Troll slayers!".

Passing fleeing guards they find themselves eye to eye against a huge figure, standing more then 12 feet in height and with a heavy sword and shield a black troll is meeting them. Not being much for idle conversation the troll says he don't like troll slayers and battle starts between him and the four troll slayers Tadjeb, Ashdar, Raznir and Marduk.

The battle is not going so well for our poor heroes, as soon the troll can hit them they are not standing again, all is looking lost when suddenly Marduk, with a mighty blow, breaks the trolls helm and he goes down at once, not waking until hours later. Kurach the troll seems impressed with the characters skill in combat and after a fresh horse and a few bags of wine he is ready to talk business and is soon thereafter hired into their army.

In the morning when they are going to leave an army is gathered below the hill to prevent them to leave, although only a thousand men, it is still veteran legionaries and a match for the larger Yinka hoard. The battle is short and brutal and most of the enemy host is destroyed and the rest flees to safety towards the forts. Tadjeb orders the army to move out south at a high pace before some enemy reinforcements arrive.

The land right south of the pass is abandoned, with the exception of a few unlucky hunters and farmers the army continue unopposed towards some richer cities in the south. After three days of travel south the scouts locate an strong enemy army heading to cut of their way south. Not wanting to turn back home just yet they discuss how to deal with this threat and Ashdar comes up with a daring plan, he rides to the enemy army and delivers a place of battle for them and the enemy commander agrees.

The Rhakhaaneese Legion

The two armies camp on either side of a great field the characters decided to be a good point of battle, the enemy army immediately sets up camp and put a moat and palisade around it, preparing for next days of battle. In the middle of the night the mass of the Yinka army moves, quickly advancing across the field and when the vanguard, lead by Tadjeb and Ma-hed, is close to the palisade the clerics let loose the fiery fury of Yugal over the infidels. With the palisade down the vanguard and the cavalry storms in, trapping the defenders against their own palisade, the other forces quickly join in behind showering the defenders with spears and arrows and effectively closing any retreat for both attackers and defenders. Being trapped the carnage inside the camp is extremely brutal and soon the door of the palisade is cut of so there is no retreat at all for the defenders, fearing the fury of their attackers most fight to their death rather then risk being captured.
The enemy cavalry has almost all escaped harm and has reformed outside and charges the rear of the Yinka army, although only 80 they are all heavy knights on trained warhorses and they quickly wipe out all resistance there, slays most of the clerics and support troops. Raznir tries to organize his spearmen against the cavalry but the formation is broken again and again and he is close to be caught inside the enemy formation himself. Finally when the battle in the camp is won and the mass of the force is moving down to meet the cavalry they break out and rides north instead.

The character and their army plunders what they can in the camp, only a dozen prisoners has been captured and no knights or nobles, most of them are tortured to death before the army leaves, although very heavy losses the army's morale is on top after defeating a organized and well trained army like that, and still over half the force is in full fighting condition. Continuing south, now unopposed they aim at the closest of the villages and towns they have south of them

The next battle is going fast, attacking at dawn the villages 100 or so defenders are quickly overrun by the massive Yinka force, most of the army continues up the hills towards the castle standing there and in a matter of hours that has fallen too and the baron is taken prisoner.

During the rest of the week two more villages fall to their hands and south of them now they have a small city, Peli, less then two days from the city scouts return from the north reporting that a large enemy army is on it's way south after them, close to 8000 men and a whole cohort of heavy cavalry.
Desperate to find a away out of this now with their way of retreat cut of by a superior force they decide to ransom their prisoners in the city south of them first, the go to the city and proclaims their demands and have them met on the condition to spare the countryside, the price is agreed on 500 pieces of gold for all their prisoners.

Not being able to retreat north with the advance of the enemy army and to go around it can be hard it seems that the army's only chance is to continue their war south, hoping to keep enough pace to keep the enemy away from them

After much debate it gets decided to head south, a decision fueled by Cyrus revelation about wealthy lands in the south, taking a long way around the city to keep their word of not plunder the farms or villages around it. After three days of travel the army comes out on a road and starts following it straight south.
It shows to be a good decision, the travelers on the road has not yet been warned about the coming army, so they are completely unprepared about the danger coming. Many farms, villages and inns are set to fire after being plundered by the army, also no lone traveler escapes the fury of the Yinka.

After three more days on the road it is getting noticed that many of the rear scouts are not returning, and the ones that are returning has not seen anything. Raznir decides to investigate it the following night. He returns wounded the morning after, telling that elven archers are following you and taking out the scouts.

Battle of Antia

The day after the scouts in the south see the city of Antia, and the army approaches and prepares to attack, Raznir, not yet recovered from his wounds take a couple of men and infiltrate the city and will open the gates at midnight the night after.
That night in the camp they wake up by fire arrows striking the camp, no sign of the guards, forces are rallied to take on the new threat and confused fighting in the darkness continue until dawn, only a dozen or so slain elven enemies are found, the army's losses count over a hundred and many wounded. Not wanting to stand an assault like that one night more they start moving towards the city preparing for a nightly attack, scouts are out in force to take out any people who can see the army approach.
Raznir in the city finds some low life mercenary forces, namely Rafur and his band and hires them to take the gate and keep it open for the invading army. The rest of the evening Raznir is accompanied by Bark and Zephrim, two of Rafur's men.

With the gates open as promised and no warning to the city the outcome of the battle is already set, the Yinka army, furious after the attack on them the night before sack the city completely. Ashdar has a short encounter with the viscountess but she escapes the city unharmed. Most people in the city are slain or enslaved and many monstrosities take place by the unruly hoard.

Fall

For another day the ravaging of Antia continues, leaving not much left of the city, women and skilled workers enslaved, most of the others slain. The commanders gather in the palace and discuss where to go finding some maps they get a little better overview on where to go, Meluria seem to be a good place for a army to over winter, with it's warmer climate and dense jungles they could stay hidden from any pursuing foe.

The day after the army heads west instead of south, evading their enemies just barely, the elven army is still on their tracks but not strong enough to pose a serious threat.
After half a week of strenuous march they arrive to the river **** just above the city of Hœnydar, needing some way to make it across they attack a small settlement just a day and a half north of the city to take it's ferries and boats.
At the city and army under Viscountess Isador has started to gather and quickly march north to engage the Yinkas.

The ferrying over the wide river mouth takes a very long time, in the afternoon the day after Isador's army attack the few remaining Yinka, most of the three hundred left there is slain, a handful reach the boats but many are slain on the by the two galleys Hœnydar sent to reinforce Isador. Koch is mortally wounded and also Tadjeb is wounded, but they both manage to reach the other side.

They are not so well received in Meluria but manages to bribe their way south, heading towards the official capital of Meluria. After a week and a half they camp a day outside the capital, staying there for a few weeks resting and learning more about the culture and language

Treachery

The large Yinka army is getting a bigger and bigger problem for Lord Arona and finally he decides to do something about it

The character has started to plan their departure towards the western parts of Meluria, wanting to put a lot of jungle and mountains between them and the Rhakhaaneese warrior princess as soon as possible, Raznir leaves the group and heads south with a few trusted men to Lindasa to meet some people, and after that he is heading towards the isle of Plasidar.

Tadjeb receives a message from Lord Arona where it says that all the generals for the Yinka army should report to the castle for negotiations, gathering up the others, bringing Rafur as translator, Cyrus as spiritual guidance and Marduk for protection they come to the castle.

The negotiations is very one sided, Lord Arona tells them they need to leave with their army in a day and also has to pay 1/5 of all their treasures for damage they caused while being in Meluria. Severely offended Tadjeb and the others turn to leave the lord, then the doors close, hidden crossbow men come out behind the pillars, almost two dozen of them. Not giving them a chance to react they fire, and fast draw swords and pick up pole axes to finish the job. Rafur, severely wounded falls quickly under a hail of blows from the axes and swords, the other have time to close up and start defending themselves. Tadjeb orders the retreat and starts moving to the closest window, then a guard bury his axe deep in his abdomen, a fatal blow. The others manage to fight their way out, Cyrus gets the body of Tadjeb out, and Ashdar takes him to safety. Scattered in the city, lost contact with each other most of them hide and await the darkness, Ashdar gets unexpectedly helped out of the city by a mysterious man who also says he can save the life of Tadjeb, Cyrus glides out of the city as darkness falls.

The battle for Bazilaar

Enraged by the treachery of Lord Arona, Ashdar gathers the army for attack, sending a messenger to the city with a ultimatum, the messenger returns headless as an answer from the city.

As darkness falls the Yinka scouts locate a northern army heading towards them, not wanting to be trapped between two armies Ashdar makes the decision to attack the city...

The attack against the fortified city without any siege equipment seems both futile and suicidal They Yinka army are effectively stopped by the great city walls and their numbers getting decimated by the archers on the city walls, then with a great light the great gate explodes, burning splinters go everywhere, wounding friends and foes, with great losses they also get open the big iron bars that block the gatehouse under heavily losses and close range crossbow fire.
With the gate open the invading Yinka army pours into the streets of Bazilaar, against most other cities the battle would already be won by now, but the stubborn Melurians fight for every feet of city streets and the losses rise to catastrophic proportions on both sides. Outside the Yinka cavalry is attacked by the combined cavalry of Isador and Bazilaar and are nearly annihilated to the last man.
The main Yinka force in the city works it's way slowly down to the harbor, there they get under attack from the archers and ballista's from the two war galleys that is in port, desperate with no way to turn they board the dozens of smaller boats that lay in the harbor and boards the galleys, in the fighting one of the galleys is rammed and put on fire, the survivors take the surviving galley and take it out of the city, heading west.

Ashdar abandon ship as it heads west, swimming to shore and finding the mysterious man he left with Tadjeb, they round up some horses and head on the roads west in a very high pace, not stopping until he is almost unconscious and then just resting a couple of hours and riding again.

For the remaining Yinka forces in Bazilaar the situation is hopeless, the Melurians are hard and experienced fighters and never giving up and the new Rhakhaaneese force shows a brutality never before encountered, showing no mercy, even to disarmed and wounded. By dawn the fighting has ceased completely, every Yinka that remained in the city has been slewn and decapitated, over a thousand spears outside the city walls are decorated with the heads of Yinka warriors. Several hundred Yinka has still escaped during the chaos of the battle when they saw how the tide was turning and without their leadership, and are loose somewhere in the jungle around the city.

Lady Isador and lord Arona sets out a price to kill of the remaining Yinkas in the forest and a great manhunt is starting, the cavalry is quickly finishing of the Yinka they can find on the roads, but in the deep jungles they loose the remaining survivors.
The few surviving Yinka fighters are slowly heading west towards Fulcrummia where they know their leaders wanted to take the army, slowly making their way west through the jungle many dies from fever or the venomous snakes and they need to take to brigandry to not starve to death. Marduk is one of the few leaders that also was cut of and forced to take the hard way west he leads around 200 men west, Korch is another with around 100 men, they are attacking farms and small villages to survive but keep in the deep jungle as much as possible to avoid the armored cavalry.

For the crew of the galley, they count almost two hundred, that survived after the battles in the harbor, they head west for 4 days before they stop at a sheltered river mouth, hiding and resting there for a couple of days they get joined by Korch and his hundred surviving men, and they are discussing how to continue. To avoid mutiny they execute the crew of the ship, trusting that now they have enough men to take them away anyway.

After a few days they are joined by a tired and worn out Ashdar, with a pale and slightly confused Tadjeb, who seems very much alive after the circumstances, the men are confused by this but takes it as another sign that he is set by Yugal to lead them to glory. They rest for another day before continuing west with the galley.

Lindasa

After a few hard days of travel, Raznir and his small party arrives in Lindasa, they stay there for a week or so making some connections with local people and also finding out as much as they can about Plasidar and how to get there. During this time Raznir hears rumors about what has happened in the city of Bazilaar, none of the rumors seem very reliable though, but he knows for sure something major has happened there and when he searches for his friends he can't pick up any trace of Tadjeb.

Just before leaving he hears a disturbing rumor from the north, someone is paying a hundred silver for every Yinka head, something makes his stay a lot more risky, he get room on a Fulcrummian ship for him, his companions and their horses and head towards Plasidar.

The Boiling Seas

After a couple of days they begin to be having problem with thick fog banks that makes navigation harder and harder also the temperatures are rising to disturbing levels, still continuing they have to go slowly and check how close they to the coast by checking the depths, many of the men starting to suffer from heat strokes as temperatures rise above 50 degrees (120 F).

After a couple of days in the dense fog limiting their sight to a few feet in the near boiling waters they are close to perish from heat and fatigue, the water and supplies are running out fast, then they hear a horn further ahead, something that could be another ship, as they go further they see the shadow of a ship passing them and shortly there after almost crashing into a pier.

Fulcrummia

Stopping and going ashore they find the other ship is secured against the pier too, ignoring it they go on land instead. They can hear the horn again as they pass the ship and know they been sighted, the small scout part prepares for battle, as no danger appears right away they continue a little further where they run into a group of pirates accompanied by a demonic beast in black armor, the beast attacks and the pirates withdraw from sight. The battle is short but bloody, but Cyrus, enraged by the demonic presence slays it, as the beast falls it withers away into nothing, only the mighty pole arm it wielded is still laying there.

The characters turn to go to the boat for reinforcements, Tadjeb, in spite of Cyrus protests picks up the demonic pole arm, but lets it go again after a brief discussion. Cyrus stays to deal with the weapon while the others start down to the boat. They suddenly hear a beastly roar and the sound of combat and fire, running through the fog they hear the battle end before they are within visual, then in the fog they can see a large black beast coming against them, roaring it attacks. This battle is also fast and bloody, the beast dies from the hands of Tadjeb(?), who stays to pick up the wounded Cyrus as the others continue down to the boat.

A scouting party lead by Tadjeb and Ashdar leaves inland to scout out what is there. After an hour or so they find a old fortress, being so close already they are discovered too, Tadjeb returns to bring reinforcements while Ashdar continues scouting the area, just a little while after Tadjeb left the scouts are attacked by a force of pirates from the fortress. The fight is bloody but Ashdar manage to lead his men to victory, but loosing 8 men and over a dozen wounded, they withdraw to wait the reinforcements, the least wounded of the scouts continue to investigate the area further away from the fort.

As Tadjeb comes back with over 200 men the scouts has found a small fortified village further south. They gather up and discuss a short strategy about what to do, and then Attack, the small village only having two dozen defenders falls quickly even it is fortified by stone walls. Ashdar and Tadjeb goes towards what they think is a church to take that with a following of men, well there the slaughter begins, at once side of the doors a large black demonic creature attacks the characters, being virtually invulnerable to the Yinkas weapons, some shadow starts at the same time ravaging the attackers and one by one the men combust into flames and die screaming. Finally and with combined efforts Ashdar and Tadjeb manage to personally destroy the beasts, but they have lost over a dozen men in the few minutes of the battle, more then the losses for the whole village.

 

After a few days at sea Raznir and his companions stop at a small Fulcrummian town to refill their supplies, their journey is made harder by heavy storms and rains, they only stop for a night though before continuing towards the Plasidar city of Gûl.

The Stranger

Watching the village from a distance the tall man was trying to judge the treat these foreigners were making, seeing a cleric and a couple of men managing to flee the village as it is put to the fire he decides to contact the invaders.

Apparently surrendering to the Yinka the stranger is quickly surrounded by the aggressive Yinka raiders, after a lot of problems with languages he manage to get them to understand he can help them take the fortress, all he wants in exchange is some books if there is any there. At the fort the dozen or so defenders can't put up so much resistance, being suppressed by the Yinka archers the elven stranger uses magic to burn down the doors, after that the fort falls within minutes. Before the fort falls they see a great shadow of some flying beast leaving the roof of the fortress, it looks like he has some rider.

Down at the boat Cyrus has been forced to abandon the galley since it is leaking too much water, instead they have taken the Fulcrummian ship at the pier and most of the troops has put up a camp on a little higher ground where also the temperatures are a little cooler. Laying and resting from his wounds on the boat he suddenly get a feeling of something being wrong, running up on deck he barely have time to react to the colossal flying beast almost landing on him, he calls upon the fury of Yugal and minutes after both the beast and it's rider is burned to ashes.

 

When the rest of the army returns the day after they also see the problems with the galley, being close to three hundred men and only having a ship that can take a hundred they have a problem, after a while they decide at least that the main force should march south while Cyrus, taking 50 men tries to get the ship around Fulcrummia to the southern shores.

The main force travels deep into the northern Fulcrummian wastelands in the next couple of days, a volcanic landscape that is covered by ash and brimstone, as they go deeper both Tadjeb and Ashdar starting to get more and more worried. One night they wake up by terrible screams, in the morning they find that eight guards are missing, the army turns sharply east, ordered by Tadjeb, continues in that direction until they reach the jungle. There they begin a hard march south through dense jungle filled with venomous reptiles and insects, many of the Yinka dies in fever and from the venomous reptiles.

 

Plasidar

Raznir arrives to Plasidar and makes himself at home in the city of Gûl. He starts looking for the Dyari that he heard a lot about there, he hears that a carriage leaves every midnight from a square close to the Doves Inn.

One day passing a small slave market he hears something familiar, going there he see a man trying to sell a Gark, getting a little sentimental he buys him. The Gark is very intelligent for his race and able to talk Rhaya even, he introduce himself as Nak-Enog and Raznir soon finds out he is an assassin. Maybe the beginning of a long and beautiful friendship *smile*

Aranmor

The ship after leaving immediately comes into trouble, not being able to travel by oars it gets stranded by no wind in the boiling seas and after a while the current takes them north west instead of west, the Yinka being inexperienced sailors is without the means to take the ship out of the current.

After a couple of days the fog clears up a little and they sight land to the North East, with the fog clearing they get a little wind in their sails and steer towards the isle, seeing that the isle is surrounded by dangerous reefs they steer until they come in from the northern side where it seems easier to approach the coast. Still as they come close to the shore they hear a crashing sound and the ship starts taking in water. They still manage to go ashore and begin trying to repair the ship, something that is hard without a single shipwright among them, scouts get sent out to look around.

Morning the day after only one of the scouts come back, completely insane and in rags, they begin to understand the danger of the place they have come to. New scouts are sent out and discover a wooden fort a couple of hours up a river. Cyrus decide they need to try and contact whoever living here. Ten men stay behind trying to repair the boat, the remaining thirty go with Cyrus to the fort. Approaching the fort they can see a ship next to it, a Fulcrummian ship and before they get any closer a alarm is sounded. Cyrus wanting to negotiate to force the enemy to give him the ship approach only with ten men, leaving the rest as support, but battle start and the Fulcrummian pirates are slain or burned when Cyrus ignites the fortress. While the battle rages a galley comes from upriver, stopping a couple of hundred feet from the fort they land several dozen men and a few large warriors clad in black demonic armor.

Cyrus and his men turn to escape into the forest from these demonic knights and inside the deep forest they soon get separated from each other, all day Cyrus hears the screams of his dying men, when he the morning after reaches the ship he finds all the men there slain and the ship destroyed.

---

6.051 T.E.I.
381 Yinka Timeline

Winter

After over a weeks march through dense jungles and rocky mountains Tadjeb and his small army reaches the southern coast of Meluria, after finding a road Ashdar tells that there is a town just a days march west from there and they immediately heads of to that place.

Reaching the town is no problem for them now when they have a little easier roads to travel, even though many of the soldiers are sick from the jungle march, the army is not allowed inside the town, but at least the leaders get to go inside and rest up a little and also gather food and supplies for the soldiers, they also meet a few surviving Yinkas inside the city that has escaped there after the defeat in Bazilaar. They also hear a rumor that someone is paying a lot of money for Yinka heads further east, they do not have so much doubt on who that is.

During the night there is a attack on Tadjeb, several men fully armed get inside the generals room, he armed only with a knife manage to hold them of until Ashdar comes to help, and seconds after Shúkort aids them too and burns down the room completely and almost Tadjeb with it, the entire Inn burns to the ground and the town guards are not very happy with them even though it is clear it was not their fault, Shúkort pays the innkeeper some gold for his Inn and they leave the day after.

A couple of days further west they reach a bigger city and stay there for a while, looking for employers, they discover even more of their former army there, almost two hundred men live up in the hills above the city and they all join again, the army now reaching almost 500.

A strange man looks them up, says he is working for a man called Durgan Cromm up in the Western parts of Fulcrummia and that he wants to hire them all, they find out it seems to be some conflict with a neighbor, but not so much more so they travel NW to meet this Lord Durgan Cromm

 

Raznir decides to investigate the carriage on the square, he leaves his friends to continue his work in Gûl and leave Nak-Enog at his room, hoping he will stay there. He then goes to the square in the late night and hide and watches. A little more then an hour before midnight a wagon stops there and just waits in the completely empty square, it is black and covered and all he can see is the tall pale man driving it. Just a little before midnight a couple comes there and the women goes into the carriage, the man leaves into the city again, Raznir decides to approach, the driver asks him if he is wanted there and then lets him go, inside the carriage he meets the woman and they head of towards Sidar.

 

Cyrus knows his situation is really bad on the Isle, he keeps careful and hides in the dense forest where it seems to be relatively safe, until it calms down, he starts investigating a little around the isle and finds a great Ruin city under rebuilding, Tarek Nev. He takes his time to scout the area and being really careful but it seems impossible to find a way into the isle, a couple of leagues from Tarek Nev he finds another ruin city, this too under rebuilding, but not inhabited so far, he discovers that many of the builders only work night time and are the dead remains of slaves.

He decides to try and escape the Isle, the only way that seems possible for that seem to be the Fulcrummian ships coming and going, one dark night he slips on one ship. Hoping it will head for safety.

 

Working with Darkness

Tadjeb, Ashdar and Shúkort meets with Lord Durgan Cromm and talk about employment, they accept a low fee for the soldiers since they get food and lodging during their service and at the end of it they will get ships with crews to take them towards Tanara again

After a few days for getting settled in their new location they are informed of plans of the war, Lord Durgan has a problem with a lord south of him, and have decided to teach him a lesson, the army will attack a small town that is under the rule of the other lords son, the town is to be put to the torch and the young prince to be put to the sword

After short preparations and some scouting the Yinka army moves to the town, they build a ram to get through the town gates but besides that they feel no other preparations are necessary since it is a small town with light defenses. At late evening they attack under the cover of darkness, archers keep the city defenders suppressed with fire arrows and javelins while the vanguard batter down the town gates and let the army pour into the city. The town militia falls fast but the people living there fight for their lives and inflict heavy losses on the Yinka invaders before they are crushed. Except for a few craftsmen every man, woman and child is slain in the town. The young prince head is brought back to Lord Durgan as a price. They put the town to the torch and also burn all the dead before leaving, the troops, being used to the rich Rhakhaan is disappointed on the poor amount of loot they get.

The get almost a week for the wounded to recover and for the rest of the troops to be training. During that time Tadjeb, Ashdar and Shúkort familiarize themselves with the surroundings. They also discover a hidden alliance between lord Durgan Cromm and some ebony skinned sorcerers, a discovery they have to pay dearly for.

In the end of the week Lord Durgan summons them and tells that an enemy fleet is only hours away, they quickly gather the army and boards the ships, preparing for their first real sea battle. About an hour from the harbor they sight the enemy fleet. Eight sails showing in the hard sea, against their own four ships it looks like the outcome can't go well. Three of the enemy ships circle around Lord Durgan's slow overloaded ships, the other five steer right into the formation and prepares for boarding. They enemy is taken a little by surprise by the massive counter fire of arrows that meet them, too late they start to realize that Lord Durgan's ships are so slow because they are overloaded by bloodthirsty Yinka warriors. The boarding actions start fast, the enemy flagship comes out of course by it's burning sails and end up right in front of Lord Durgan's flag ship, something that proves fatal, in the front of the ship a massive flow of red, unnatural, fire engulfs the enemy flagship, all the sea around it stays burning taking most of the ships crew as they try to dive for safety from their burning ship. The boarding fights are extremely bloody and violent, but the unleashed fury of the Yinka and their berserk commander prevails. In the horizon they can at the same time see a dark cloud descending over the three ships trying to circle the fleet, over the blood-filled sea they can hear the screams of the dying and when the cloud disappears the ships drift in the wind, not a living soul onboard.

The Yinka army has lost around 100 men to the waves but it is still an exceptional victory, only one ship was lost against the eight of the enemy, the fleet returns to shore to celebrate their victory and tend to the wounded.

A few days later Raznir and his company arrives at the army camp of the Yinka, he finds to his surprise that Tadjeb is still alive even though he has not been able to sense him at all after the battle of Bazilaar. He hears the full story about what has happen since they parted in Bazilaar, but tells them little himself about his adventures.

The Druids

After a few days Tadjeb has a especially bad dream, after he wakes up he gathers his guard and departs east for training his men, at the same time Ashdar and a couple of scouts depart at the same direction to try and find the last of the Yinka army still lost in the Jungles. Raznir, Nak-Enog and Shúkort decides that it is not so good to stay there alone and leave the army in the capable hands of Korch and leaves after the others, catching up with them in the night.

Tadjeb is not telling what he is on his way to do, but seem to know very well where he is going. After a couple of days when they enter the jungle he heads more NE, but Ashdar still goes with him to take care of his problem first, and finding the troops after that. A couple of hard days in the jungle more they sight a mountain and a lake, it seems to be the end of their journey, Raznir stalks away to scout ahead accompanied by Nak-Enog. He finds a cave with some people that look like monks, he sends back Nak-Enog to tell what he has found and decides to start the work himself, something that proves dangerous. He sneaks up behind the two men outside and kills the first one fast and silent, the other has time to call out for help before he can attack him, and the situation gets more stressed and he gets problem slaying his other opponent. Some other men have seen what has happened and starts chanting in some strange tongue, out of the ground some monstrous creation rises and starts to move against Raznir. Figuring that dagger against a creature made from stone is no good idea Raznir flees up the mountain, the others has by now heard what happened and starting to run to aid Raznir and hoping to still have some surprise left for the enemy. Ashdar runs up the mountain to aid Raznir but they are both forced to flee from the creature. Tadjeb and the others attack the cave and gets to face another stone creature summoned by the druids, as they reach the creature the rear lines are attacked by dozens of mountain lions, coming to aid the druids in the battle and the fighting fast gets bloody and losses are high on both sides. The battle rages for a long while, Tadjeb manage to slay one of the stone creatures and Shúkort makes the other fall down the mountain to it's destruction. A few of the druids flee into their cave while the others are slain in the battle, most of the Yinka attackers are dead or seriously wounded.

Tadjeb, Raznir, Ashdar, Shúkort and Nak-Enog manages to enter the cave to hunt down the remaining druids, Tadjeb enraged by the bloodbath outside looses control completely and runs into the cave searching for enemies to slay, the battle is fast and bloody, the druids that was skilled in defense already laying slain outside the cave so the ones left inside gets butchered without mercy. After the battle when Tadjeb calmed down he feels so empowered by his new battle rage that he rips of his necklace forced upon him by the Nurieti Summoners. With a sound of thunder a gigantic creature emerges from the remains of the necklace, crushing the roof by it's sheer size and it starts lashing around with it's scythe like claws, inflicting terrible wounds on the shocked characters. After a hard fight and the fact that the creature has problems moving they manage to defeat it, finally free from the cursed Nurieti Clerics.

After the battle they tend to their wounded and start preparing for returning to the army. Ashdar and Maegor continues east looking for Marduk, while Tadjeb, Raznir and Shúkort goes back west towards the fief of lord Durgan Cromm to settle the score with the black men

Leaving Aranmor

For days and days Cyrus lives in hiding on Aranmor, hiding from the demonic servants of Tarek-Nev, he takes his time and investigates the area and even tries to enter the city of Tarek-Nev, something he fast realizes the folly with when he can see the defenses there. On the western side of the isle he discovers the ruins of another city under reconstruction, this city is only built during the dark nights, by a host of Undead.

After almost two weeks another Fulcrummian ship comes ashore with supplies and men to Tarek-Nev. He manages the night after the sneak aboard the ship and hides down in the cargo hold for the departure, what he hopes will be back to Fulcrummia.

After being in hiding for a couple of days the ship finally leaves port and soon he can feel the familiar unbearable heat from the Boiling Sea, in the heat he starts to realize his danger when the full crew is on the ship he can't move away from his hiding place without getting discovered and his supplies and most of all water is running out.

A morning a few days into the journey he wakes up and finds a plate of food and a fresh skin of water next to him and a little while later he get more food and water, his benefactor is a Fulcrummian called B'Tar, once a slave at Aranmor, but now seeing his chance for freedom. During the rest of the journey he helps Cyrus with food and water in return that Cyrus will help him into safety once they land.

Almost a week at sea passes and only the last couple of days the climate gets cooler and more bearable and then land is sighted, B'Tar tells Cyrus that there is a Fulcrummian lord living there that is aiding Tarek-Nev. A while after they land they kill a guard and escape the ship, it does not take for Cyrus to find out that the army aiding Lord Durgan is his own people and his rage is almost unstoppable

After finding out that the others are planning an attack against the black men Cyrus calmed down and they make a fast plan about it. Raznir and Cyrus who the black men does not know about will use their magic to enter the castle while Tadjeb and Shúkort will enter normally after them. Tadjeb, who has an errand first goes down to the village next to the castle while Raznir and Cyrus tries to enter unseen, Shúkort is waiting for Tadjeb's return. Trying to sneak past the guards Cyrus is seen and the Guards sound the alarm by the help of a firewall Cyrus avoids combat with the guards and goes up to the roof instead with his magic. There he finds a old door what he breaks down and enters the castle. Unseen Raznir sneaks past the guards and start looking for the entrance to the catacombs.

While the others are away Korch puts the army moving, preparing for a attack from the lords men or something worse, they are also moving down into the harbor area to prevent any enemies to escape them by boat and possible alarming the other black men of Aranmor.

Meanwhile the sound of battle and cries from the dying is heard from the village, Tadjeb while trying to strength then himself has lost control in the village and is slaying people left and right, after a while he calms down and walks up to the castle, the guards when they don't want to let the blood-drenched creature in is brutally slain.

Tadjeb meets up with Raznir inside the castle and together they go down to the catacombs while Shúkort silently follows them, Cyrus is still trying to find his way down from the upper stairs. At a guardroom at the bottom of the stairs they find the bodyguard of the black clerics, wearing a demonic looking armor and a big jagged sword. They engage him and discover to their frustration that their weapons barely can damage the armor while all their efforts are spent on avoiding his jagged sword. Shúkort is not able to enter the battle without causing damage to his friends and he has no way of getting passed them, hearing Cyrus on his way he retreats back up the stairs and they prepare for making a big BBQ of the entire room, hoping that their friends will survive. a pale young woman enters the room of the battle and tells Tadjeb to sleep, a command he is fast to follow, with only Raznir fighting against the armored guard the battle soon is over, Raznir badly wounded is forced to give up.

Then all hell breaks loose, with a rush of air and a massive thunder, two great spheres of fire is unleashed down the stairs, their aim being less then perfect causes them both to explode in the middle of the stairs causing massive damage in all directions. Cyrus is badly burned from his own magic and is helped out of the area by Shúkort, Tadjeb awakens and resumes the battle, but now the black men has arrived and summons forth a hoard of demonic creatures that attack Tadjeb, Raznir uses the general confusion and flees his captives, following a path he seen one of the black men take. Tadjeb is unable to defend himself against this hoard of monsters and is soon captured and tied up.

Raznir following the black man finds his way out of the castle on a ledge overlooking the sea and the harbor, there the cleric is chanting and after a while Raznir can see the sea is starting to move and then he can see some shapes climbing out of the water, followed by more in an endless stream, it takes him a few seconds to realize that this is the men who was slain in the sea battle a few weeks passed, brought back by evil magic, the undead army moves fast to surround and attack the Yinka army guarding the harbor. Carefully Raznir sneaks up behind the tall cleric, armed with a poisoned dagger, and stabs him. Instead of screaming and dying what would be the normal reaction the man just turns around and look at Raznir with dark dead eyes, struck by fear Raznir flees the man, hearing his chanting behind him.

When Cyrus wakes up he can hear battle from the outside of the castle, seeing what is happening with the army he rushes to aid them, taking the roof way what he came in. while up on the roof he can see Tadjeb apparently freed approaching the army and just walking passed the dead, Tadjeb orders the men to surrender and cast down their weapons, but this only enrages them with a religious fury that the dark forces has taken their general too, the cry out Yugal! and charges, within seconds the general and his men meet in a short but bloody battle, within a minute half a dozen men lay slain on the ground, one of them being their general, still enraged they attack the ring of dead with renewed strength and suddenly walls of fire cuts the enemy army in half and helps the remaining Yinkas to escape the entrapment, seeing their cleric Cyrus they follow him away from there. Shúkort who also escaped from there meets up with them at the old encampment and they head away from the castle as fast as they can.

After running from the tall cleric only a few minutes Raznir discovers that he didn't come out of the engagement unharmed, a burning pain in his lungs almost stopping him from getting air at all forces him to stop or suffocate himself, relived he can see that the cleric has not followed him at least, but see him staggering into the tunnel they came out from, apparently wounded, but with the dagger dipped in Gaggur he should be dead. After resting almost an hour and seeing the army escape the clutches of the dead he slowly starts to go south, leaving the army and the castle behind him, after only a little while he is found by his loyal servant Nak-Enog who helps his master when he looses his strength to walk, Raznir knowing he been cursed moves south towards nearest town hoping he will find help for his ailment.

Ashdar manages to find Marduk after days in the dense hot jungle, he discovers that Marduk is now a leader for a large band of brigands and has not been able to move further west by the Rhakhaan army south of them and the price on all Yinkas heads, together they start finding a way over the wilderness traveling mostly by night to avoid enemy scouts, after almost a week in the wilderness with their supplies depleted they finally get sight of Lord Durgan's castle, discovering that there is no trace of the other or the Yinka army...

After days of travel with supplies fast running out Cyrus and his men comes down to the southern coast and soon reaches a small town, considering the price on Yinka heads they decide that it is best to send in Shúkort to buy some new supplies, and after that they start of west, not sure where they are going.

A couple of days later Cyrus, Korch and Shúkort reaches the capitol of Fulcrummia, camping north of the city they send in their Fulcrummians and Shúkort to scout a little about what is going on and buy some supplies. They return with the information that a Rhakhaaneese army is only a day further east of their position, they also hear that the price for Yinka heads are still there.

Lady Isadora

Raznir and Cyrus decides that they need to warn Lady Isadora and hopefully divert her attention to a more dangerous threat then hunting poor Yinkas, the write down all they know about the Nurieti and Aranmor and Raznir and his companion Nak-Enog goes to deliver the letter. After only a day they are attacked by demons of the burning night and is not capable to move further, they also get separated and badly wounded Nak-Enog tries to escape back to the camp. Half a day later when Cyrus has discovered that Raznir is not moving ahead he decides to go and help him in case he is in some trouble, so he takes two scouts and a little while later he finds Raznir going back. He hears about the demons and they decide to continue the trip.

The first night they are attacked, a arrow kills one of the scouts and demons attack the camp from all sides, Cyrus calls for Yugal's powers and incinerates all camp but still the fight goes against them and eventually the both fall. The demons instead of finishing the job rip apart their equipment until the find the document and then disappear with that, then Raznir and Cyrus recovers the other scout is gone and so is the demons.

Not having the document they must deliver the message themselves so they continue their dangerous trip. Later in the afternoon, even though it is daytime they are ambushed by the same demons, now when they are not surprised the fighting goes different and after a minute only smoldering corpses remain from the demons.

Before the evening they are sighted by a Rhakhaan patrol and captured (by choice) they are chained and brought before Lady Isadora, they tell her all they know about the new enemy and ask for an alliance against this enemy, something Isadora is not at all interested in, as thanks for their information she decides that they will remain alive for two more days before being hung and they are shackled in the middle of the camp.

That same night they wake up by the sound of battle and think they can hear Yinka shouts at the north edge of the camp, using the confusion they use magic to summon an utterdarkness over the area and in the cover of the darkness they break their bounds and escape. On their way out they can see that a few Yinkas has attacked the camp, all of them seem frenzied and equipped with demonic armor and weapons, they also hear an enraged Isadora calling out to hang the traitors, valuing their lives they are fast to disappear out in the night. Almost three days later they finally reach the camp again. Once there they start discussing a way out of their situation and they think that they might be able to get a boat to take them to Plasidar and from there maybe be able to hire a Navigator that could take them home or at least to Nomikos. In the camp they also find that a wounded Nak-Enog has returned.

Ashdar, after finding that the army has left lord Durgan's castle in a hurry decides to investigate it further, with the use of his magic he has no problem to get into the castle from the roof. Taking the narrow stair down he realize the trap too late, a slight smell of death is only warning when a rusty sword is thrust at him from the shadows, getting away with only a scratch as the sword glides of his leather armor he turns to see his opponent, a sight that fills him with fear, a long time ago he knew this man, and he also remember him being killed in the sea battle weeks ago, a gaping open wound, from a Fulcrummian sword, across his face, still witness of his demise. With slow unnatural moves the dead raises the sword again. Using the magic of the axe Ashdar has it ready and lets it land heavy over the neck of the dead before the sword could fall, the head hits the ground with a wet thud and blinded the dead moves past him.

He runs down some stairs to get away from this unnatural enemy and to find the castle lord, down in the larger hallway of the castle he can see some pale shapes moving slowly, staggering, towards him, deciding this is not his fight alone he retreats back up the stairs and escapes the castle.

Ashdar rejoins with Marduk and Maegor down at the old camp site and explains the situation for them, Maegor has also seen that down in the harbor is standing hundreds of shapes, not moving or talking. They decide to try and find the survivors of their army and rejoin them, maybe that way getting an explanation to what has happened and they find the tracks of only a few dozen men leading away south-east.

With their supplies already finished the journey is extremely slow and strenuous, the men already half starved has to struggle to even stay alive and many does not make it. After several days in the wilderness they sight a city, using the Melurian bandits that joined Marduk they are able to buy some new supplies before following the tracks east after the coastline. There after only a couple of days they join Cyrus and the others, the men on both sides are rejoicing to see each other.

Plasidar

With their situation of being between a rock and a hard place they decide they must try and leave Meluria at all, being in Fulcrummia they should be able to find a captain that could take them at least to Plasidar for a fee, and there they can be able to find and hire a navigator that can start taking them back home, giving Shúkort a lot of money they send him to the city, he gets accompanied by Nak-Enog, who decided camp life getting too dangerous after Marduk came into the camp, but not enjoying the company so much, getting worse when he discovers that the city gates are closed all night so he will have to camp outside until dawn. Once the morning comes he has no problem getting into the city, the Gark seem to have disappeared during the night so he has no problems with that either and he starts to find a captain with ships enough to take their entire army, over 250 men.

After talking to several barbaric humans he finds one captain that are willing to take them to Gûl, The captain Argan seems to be a very stern man, even when he is drunk as he is when Shúkort finds him and after a while he is convinced to take on a load of 250 slaves and ship them to Gûl for a price of 15 silver per head. This being a very high price, but since the winter is over the land that is the only way since the captain needs to risk his ships and crews against the winter storms. They decide to leave in the early morning after and Shúkort, goes back and informs the others.

Bribing their way passed the guards the slaves are stowed onboard the ships, the captain does not seem too surprised that the Dyar lied to him but decides not to make a problem of it. Just before dawn the ships sail out heading towards Plasidar

For the land bound Yinkas the trip is worse then terrible and a lot of talk is starting about even going by land to Tanara again would be better, even though chances are that none would survive that way, but after a couple of days they come into the calmer waters of Bay of Gûl and sight the great city.

The city watch not wanting so much trouble does not let more then 50 men go ashore at a time and also no weapons longer then two feet are allowed so many Yinkas arm themselves with the short swords plundered from their earlier campaigns. The army once ashore scatter fast, none faster then Ashdar.

Shúkort and Raznir goes to find a Navigator and quickly finds the obelisk in the city, there they call for a navigator and there is a shimmer and a tall elf is standing there, they tell him they want 6 ships guided to Nomikos and eh agrees on the meager sum of 200 gold per ship.

Faced with a problem of lacking the money Cyrus decides to claim the church taxes from the remaining men in their army, this well covers the navigators fee and leaves them with pretty much to spare too, something they will for sure need to get from Nomikos and home towards Tanara.

Raznir goes all around Plasidar to find a man who can cure his ´curse´ without any real luck, he meets with a withered old man who say he can cure any curses but after paying the man 100 gold he gets the answer that it is a disease, not a curse, so he has to continue his quest. At evening fall he finds a man that claims to be able to cure his predicament and goes with the man down to his laboratory, the man apparently an alchemist takes out a syringe and injects some fluid into Raznir who shortly thereafter looses consciousness.

Meanwhile Ashdar is out carousing the taverns in the better parts of town with his fair elven slave. While going between the taverns he note a group of men carrying a box, and from that box he can see a pale army hanging out, although slightly intoxicated he has no problem realizing the seriousness of the situation and he follows the group to a small square in the upper part of Gûl. There they rendezvous with a carriage with 4 black horses and a tall man is negotiating with the party with the box, Ashdar decides that he must interfere before Raznir is taken somewhere else and he walks up to them.. As soon as they notice him 6 of the men draw curved swords and advance on him... with a glimmer the first man is cut down by a flying axe and within seconds the second man two, after that they are getting a little close so Ashdar retreats towards a house to fast get up on the roof and take care of his enemies from there... too late here hear a metallic ´clack´ and something sharp strikes his arm, he retreats up the house and there he realize something is very wrong, his head starts spinning and before he knows it he sees the ground whirling towards him... then all is black.

The next day Cyrus and Shúkort is out looking for places where they can find new books and spells they come across the slave market where they see a familiar face... bloody, wounded, naked and a lot more pathetic then they last saw him they see their friend Ashdar being auctioned out to the crowd standing below. After some dirty tricks they manage to get him cheap though (fifty five pieces of silver). Ashdar tells what he has seen about Raznirs capture and they come to the conclusion that he has been taken to Sidar, the Dyar city on the north side of the isle. They return to their ships to discuss an attempt to free him and they get introduced to a new recruit found by the men, a mercenary with really 'good' reputation and years of experience. They ask this new man to join them as a guard when they travel to Sidar, his name is Raul.

They need to buy horses and then head out towards Sidar, the Dyari center of Plasidar, on the way already Shúkort starts thinking that it might be a pretty bad idea for him to take people with him like this but they are already on their way and not wanting to turn. During the camp at night the can hear a rumbling noise getting closer, when it comes closer still they hear it is horses and a carriage, being on a narrow road with a steep fall on one side and a hill on the other they have no place to turn, they try and signal to the arriving carriage before something happens but it is too fast and crashes into their horses.

Very irritated a Nyezla Maveh steps out of the carriage with her follower, she is not amused to find people, especially humans on the road, but before things get too hostile Shúkort shows his skill in bootlicking and they get to follow with her to the city, Shúkort inside the carriage, Ashdar and Cyrus chained behind, of their friend they have not seen anything since before the crash, during the hard march to Sidar, Cyrus escapes chains and follows the carriage at a distance instead.

Sidar

Once in the city Shúkort tells Nyezla about the capture of their friend Raznir and what they think might have happen, she seem to have an idea about what it could be and they hear nothing more about it, Ashdar is kept in a stable like 'prison' while waiting for Shúkort

During the next couple of days Shúkort get to stay and tutor his fellow Dyari mages in what he discovered in Fulcrummia and what he knows about Aranmor, they are fascinated with the thought of a new demonic realm and the apparent practicality of the Demons of Black Hêl. Only hours after their arrival, a naked, wounded and worn out Raznir is taken back to them, preparations are made for Raznir and Ashdar to go back the following evening, something they are not objecting to at all, Shúkort tells them he will be back before they leave.

Once back in Gûl, Raznir is having a field trip, people start dying the city, everybody involved in the kidnapping of Raznir or that been involved with the alchemist is getting murdered or having fatal freak accidents, there is not so much doubt from the other characters what is going on, but none of them want to interfere. Raznir finds out that the medicine the alchemist injected into him has taken out his spell casting ability and it will be about a week before it will return for him, that is something that does not make Raznir more happy about the situation, but he gets one more dose of the potion from the Alchemist before the Alchemist shack is burned to the ground with the poor old man inside it still.

On the set day the Navigator Iarsang and five followers to him show up from no where in the harbor and shortly there after the ships set sail out of the bay of Gûl.

As soon the ships comes out of the Bay of Gûl the winter storms start for real, the next few days are not easy at all for all the Yinkas without any marine experience (most of them) but because of the Navigators and very skilled crews they manage through the storm at a good pace.

The Storm

After four hard days in the storms, Iarsang tells the characters and the captain that a essence storm is going to cut them of and that they need to seek refuge in the city of Lindasa on the southern coast of Meluria. Not wanting to dispute the Navigators knowledge they head to the harbor as fast as possible and in the afternoon the day after they tie up their ships on the storm ridden piers of Lindasa, having some problem with the city guard at first it more becomes a standoff when the Yinka army will not leave and the guard does not have enough troops to do something about them. After a dispute with the captain of the guards Shúkort gets arrested, but later Nak-Enog frees him. At that time the Essence storm comes over the city, Shúkort, Nak-Enog and Raznir are seeking shelter in a abandoned stable and the rest of the men stay in a occupied storage down at the docks.

For Shúkort and Cyrus the storm is especially hard, serving as conductors for the unleashed essence they take a serious beating, most others manage pretty well until everything goes black in the storage and with a terrible sound the fabric of reality itself is ripped apart and a rift opens to the other worlds... In the darkness screams can be heard and as the lights starts to come back a hideous shape becomes visible, over 8 feet tall, black as sin and with scythe like claws. It's head is taken only a great maw filled with dagger long teeth, rows upon rows.

The Rippers claws and teeth goes through the unarmored Yinkas like they were water and their swords and arrows just bounce of the creatures thick hide, not even scratching it, Raul, seeing the desperate in the situation takes charge and organizes a fast retreat from the beast that seems completely invulnerable against their weapons. They manage to get out of the building and retreat down to the harbor to make a stand there, the creature however does not seem to follow, instead they can hear the screams from it's victims deeper in the city.

As sudden as it started the essence storm passes, the storm it came by is also slowing down to a gale and the rain is still pouring down. Raznir, Nak-Enog and Shúkort returns to the others, finds them at the docks and after finding out what is going on he returns to the storage building and there finds a blinded and seriously wounded Cyrus that was left in the confusion... wounded as he is and left without power after the storm he is not even capable to heal himself.

During the morning they can still hear fighting and confusion in the city and they decide they need to do something about it, with their knowledge of the demon they reach the conclusion that only magic and magical weapons will hurt it so a small team of those armed with enchanted weapons decides to take it out, Cyrus is not capable of following due to his injuries but Shúkort goes with them even though he is almost without power too.

Finding the demon is the least of their problems, it is just roaming around in the city going from house to house, killing all it can find, the city guard has been in battle with it and suffered serious losses, so they have nothing to object to the reinforcements they are getting.

Besides the group that will attack the beast there is also one group with heavy chains that will try and capture the beast, or at least slow it down, this plan does fail when the group with the chains reach the beast before any other and the Ripper turns quick and cuts into the defenseless Yinkas. The battle is fierce and bloody, in the end only Ashdar and Raznir is capable of fighting the monster when Raznir finds a opening and pushes the dagger deep into the brain of the creature that dies immediately.

During the next few days they are left alone by the city guard, they even get some help with materials to repair their ships so they can be on their way faster again, Cyrus attempt in healing himself ends in catastrophe, he gets a serious burnout and loose all ability to cast spells for several weeks. When they ships are repaired the Navigators return within the hour and their journey towards Ormian resumes. The next few days goes by quietly and they reach the harbor in Ormian safely.

Nomikos

A treasury in knowledge, the largest public place of written knowledge that can be found in all the world, this is heaven for all magicians and scholars and pilgrimages goes to the isle from all over the world. The port of Ormian is a place always bustling with activity and dozens of different languages can be heard at any time.

During the next couple of weeks they find out a lot more about the demonic forces of Aranmor and also a little about the old history of Tanara, that millennia's ago the land was ruled by a people called only the Cloudlords. Descriptions from the old texts is identical to the Cloudlords they are having the problems with. For the magicians the library is a haven of magical knowledge as well and for Raul who is looking for information about the southern parts of Rhakhaan he gets most of his information from the travelers down at the harbor areas, they also find detailed maps of the close regions and find clues to that it might be a land way to Tanara south of the pass.

Spring

Entering Rhakhaan again

After almost four weeks in the library they decide it is high time to return to their journey, the weather has calmed down pretty much since the violent winter storms, but they still decide that it would be best trying to find a land way back to Tanara. With the research of Raul and his employment of a couple of new men he has discovered that through the southern highlands it should be possible to reach Tanara, only problem seems that they need to pass through the lands of Arch Prelate of Esov Mur, a very powerful stronghold for United Church of Orhan, who will most likely not have much to spare for a bunch of ´murderous pagans´ crossing their lands, to avoid them as much as possible they decide to try and reach the lands of Lord Machaera as fast as possible. Although a Rhakhaaneese lord, Machaera seems to be a lot more mercenary then the pious forces of Esov Mur.

They buy passage from captain Argan once more and after a short trip in the bay he sets them at land at a desolate shore lots of cover, the deception is compromised when Cyrus shines out in a divine light before they go ashore, they hasten more in case they been discovered. While they are landing some of them think they can hear bells far away, Raul decides to investigate that while the others continue their journey inland.

At noon the next day they can hear horses closing on their position, shortly thereafter Raul returns and says that he seen a force of about fifty horsemen advancing on them. Being warned before they prepare an ambush quickly.

The riders have no time to react to the fast moving Yinka force, the first fall before they even seen the threat and then the Yinka warriors are on them before they get any time to form up for a formation. The battle is short and brutal, some move around the Cavalry and effectively cut of any retreat and the enemy fall to the last man. No prisoners are taken. After the battle they take all the unhurt horses and what equipment they need from the dead, and make a fast mass burial, for the Yinka they have only lost twenty men, a victory well needed after the passed months of retreating and defeats.

Continuing the journey up to the highlands, the days pass on and the scouts find out another mounted force is following them, this one is about 200 men and will probably not fall as easy, but as the terrain gets harder they figure they will not catch up anytime soon. As they are getting closer to the mountains Raul tells them about a fort that is located there, a fort he claims to own, the others somehow doubt that, but decide to go with him to investigate. Cyrus and Marduk stays behind and continue with the army.

The Fort

Going up the mountainside for more then a day they finally reach the fort, and it is as Raul said it a real fort, not manned for several years, but still pretty much intact. They start investigating the old fort and down in the basement they come across a serious spider infestation (one foot spiders), Raul gets bitten by one but manage to stop the poison before it does too much damage.

Meanwhile the main force is continuing up the highland and starting to get close to the border of Machaera's lands, their followers still not able to catch up with them.

At the fort they continue deeper into the spider infested cellar, they see in what used to be a torture room a old faded pentagram and a big crack in the floor and wall. Following the crack down they have a hard climb and almost fall down a deep chasm in the wall, what looks like some old mine shaft. Raznir goes up the wall to investigate and returns and tells that he saw some mining equipment that has been left, apparently Goblin in origin. After continuing a little further they find a mining tunnel passing over their heads, cut in half by the rift they are walking in, there they see traces of more spiders and decide to investigate it, and for Raul and Ashdar they immediately see the chance for some fast loot, After investigating a little and finding a huge mining complex they seem to have triggered some kind of alarm, because from everywhere big spiders are coming, dozen and dozen of them, the raiders flee for their lives, Shúkort manages to hold back the mass of them with firewalls but still they seem to come from all directions, back in the chasm they start up to the basement again, then they see something huge, a spider large as a horse is coming from deeper in the chasm after them, but before it catches up with them another firewall delays it enough for them all to be able to retreat up and close the hatch to the basement.

Returning to the outside they see that large spiders have been there too from the size of a net in front of the door, cutting that Raul is almost slain by another big spider about the size as a man or a big dog, they defeat the spider and see that their Yinka friends left outside are fighting for their lives against half a dozen of the big ones, they decide to flee instead, letting their men cover the retreat.

Meanwhile closer to Machaera's border Cyrus and his army have seen a couple of watch towers, they decide to approach one to make contact with them and ask for passage through Machaera's lands. The guards there demand a tribute of 300 silver and will take a message to the lord about their request, so after that they have nothing else to do but wait.

Raul takes the shape of a raven and flies ahead to the camp and talks to Cyrus, they know that the army is coming closer and closer and realize they will have to move or be attacked in the open, the army starts fast to move up to the mountainside at a good defensive position that Raul has scouted for them, once there they are joined by the others too and soon after by a enemy army setting up camp below.

To meet the enemy heavy cavalry in open battle would result in too high losses so they decide that they have to be disturbed a little during the night so they can at least make them more tired, Ashdar and Raznir sneaks down into the enemy camp to create some chaos. They are surprised on how slack the security is in the camp, no palisades, only 10 or so guards and no apparent order in the camp. With their experience in Rhakhaaneese military units they get very suspicious and fears a trap, but Raznir sneaks into the camp to set some tents on fire while Ashdar sneaks around the camp to the horses to create some panic among those.

Everything goes as planned and chaos breaks out in the camp when the horses panic and some tents catch fire, one of the guards spots Ashdar and manage to hit him at almost three hundred feet, but the wound is light and Ashdar has no problem getting away from there and to return to the main camp where they meet up again.

At noon the following day the enemy army leaves their horse and advances up to the Yinka stronghold, it is an ill planned operation and almost a third of the force falls for the arrows, stones and spears from the Yinka defenders before they signal retreat. The Yinka not satisfied with not going into close quarters charges down the hill as the enemy retreats and routs them completely after a short and bloody battle, less then a quarter of the enemy force manage to retreat down to their horses and flee, for those not reaching the horses they are fast ridden down by the Yinka warriors, no prisoners are taken but the enemy captain manage to escape.

The morning after they leave towards the watchtowers again and there they get into contact with a larger force sent out by Machaera, and they are escorted to his fort for negotiations.

Machaera - The sword

After two days in Machaera's highlands the party reach a old fort with two small villages on each side. They camp on a hill close to the fort and a dozen men is escorted to the fort for negotiations, there they meet the infamous lord Machaera. They are invited for dinner and explain to the lord that they want passage for themselves and their men through his land into Yinka land, and in return for this they are willing to put their military expertise to help Machaera

Machaera wants in return for helping them a small military favor, he has a problem with a young taxman that he would want removed, a young lord named Jon Taldar, who works for the Archprelate of Esov Mur and apparently is a little too good in what he's doing. Machaera is convinced that if something should happened to the young lord, like he would be attacked by Yinka brigands or something like that and sadly die, he could make it a lot easier for the party to reach their homeland, and he would only require 70% or the tax box. The characters seeing a potentionally good ally agrees fast to this deal, and also sees it as a last chance to get some good plunder before coming home.

They are escorted to the coast where they are told that the bailiff will come to a small town north of them in a couple of days and they are told that it would be in everybody's best interest that something happened to him before he reaches the town. The Yinka party with plenty of time to prepare scouts out a good ambush place and Raul goes out scouting and soon finds the bailiff and his men and they can fast calculate where and when is the best place for attack.

In the evening the day after just before the young lord makes camp the hills are swarming with screaming Yinka warriors, the heavy cavalry tries to form up to crush the enemy but the Yinka are upon them before they can gain formation and speed, riders tries to break out both north and south, but after going a few hundred meters they meet big groups of Yinka mounted archers and don't even have time to react to the danger before they fall from the arrows, the fight is over in a matter of minutes in spite of Lord Taldar's brave and heroic standoff towards the end, none of the Yinka he met matched him in combat, but with lack of time Ashdar gave order of disengaging the lord and killing him with arrows.

They take the taxes and also plunder all the fallen enemies and make a new camp in the hills, after a couple of days they meet with lord Machaera in the small fishing town and he provides them with guides to help them home again. In the small town they notice a strange activity of large ships going there, the conclude fast that it is pirates or smugglers unloading at the port, what remains a little of a mystery is how the ships can be there in the pirate waters of the White Swan, they do not think it is so likely that he would make a deal with petty human smugglers or something. After a day they find out that it is no mysterious deals or anything, but after studying the elven pirates for years the smugglers know when and where they are going, and can so avoid them.

Summer

Going home

Machaera comes through for them and after a couple of days they are set up with guides to take them over the mountains, home to Yinka lands

The journey across the mountains is very hard even though the summer already set in, but for the hardened Yinka warriors it proves to be no problem for them. After reaching over the mountains they say goodbye to their guides and arrange a place for a future trade station to get trade started between Machaera's barony and Yinka land.

After a couple of days travel NE they reach the first settlement, a small pretty isolated Yinka town called Rahmet, and they decide to make up a base of operations here, away from the prying eyes of the priest-king.

They start investing in everything that might help them getting the trade started, mostly trade houses, inns and ranches. They hire soldiers and workers to be able to expand their operations and start planning for how to best return to the central parts of Yinka land without attracting too much of a attention from powers not on their side.

Rahmet

The town of Rahmet is a small calm place that is perfect for the characters plans, they quickly secure the area around it, sends out patrols to stop the brigandry into Machaera's lands

After a few days in Rahmet to rest after the long journey they decide to go and report, they take out a way that will lead them through the Sulini land, but with a small party it should be no problem staying undetected, especially with Ashdar capable of hiding their tracks and Raul that can give them constant reports of what they have around them. For the first time they realize during the journey the powerful essence flow that separates the Yinka lands from the Sulini lands, but they encounter no problem passing through it.

In a little less then a week they arrive at the city of Cinvat, and there meet up with the high priest Papak, they spend all night there talking about their adventures, telling him about the threat with the black men from Aranmor and in general what they have been doing. He decides that they need to contact their other ally, Nerva, and together come up with a suitable plan for how to go on from there.

They leave the morning after for Achren, disguised as normal guard patrol escorting a priest so they will not attract unwanted attention. They make the trip to Achren in a day and immediately seek out Nerva to tell their story again.

As always Nerva meets them in the mysterious fashion, sitting behind the curtains so they can only see his siluette, they tell him all their news, and leave all the documents they have about the black men, something that seem to interest him a lot, but he does not think there is some immediate threat from them. He in returns tell them about the situation in Yinka land and what been happening since they left, and that Cloudlords started to be seen again when the summer starting, and that they are getting more and more bold. Also t