Much of the group’s latest endeavors have touched – directly or tangentially – on the plots and machinations of the emperor to the east, Coburgn. Perhaps it is time to have a go at the root of all evil so a happy retirement might be undertaken without a cascading crisis interrupting their enjoyment of fine ales and airship rides. Some legend lore is undertaken and there are some additional scraps of data unearthed. The story of the gate captain’s rise to power and some subsequent expansionist hijinks are mulled over. It seems that the arc of history seeks a second meeting ‘twixt Malchor and the conqueror of the east. To the airship!
The airship journey is undertaken with additional paranoid precautions. As the group departs for an extended drift across Coburnia, Malchor and Goldpiece regale the rest with tales of yore, including how Malchor shattered a demi-lich’s head with a timely spell…and how Goldpiece got the unicorn staff from the druid woods. The Baron of Botkinburg is described and there is a brief reminiscence of ole Thunderballs the barbarian and how he exploded a righteous Paladin by fumbling a potion. Ah…good times. When mortality was high and party churn was regular.
IN any case – as they drift across the lands…it really doesn’t look like that much has changed. Perhaps the ports are filled with sunken ships and there are a few more watchtowers along the roads than Malchor recalls from 400+ years ago…but look! Peasants, toiling in the fields – just like the old days.
There are a few visible changes, notably wide sections of cobblestone road that cut across the Great Dale, and a dam that powers a series of waterwheels in a burgeoning industrial center show some drift from the agrarian society that held sway long ago.Still…inspection is done at a distance – or by the spying eye of the birdshaped druid, since the party is keen to stay unnoticed. Unnoticed they remain, and so they heave into view of the towering ‘tree’ of Ausfang. Hundreds of wyverns roost on the top of the towering structure. Chimneys and balconies dot the upper reaches, but the crystal ball does not reveal any sort of aerial landing strip, so they set their sights a bit lower. They tell the majordomo to pilot the airship back to the manor house, while they shroud themselves from prying eyes and swoop down to the entrance to the vast gates of the city where Malchor begins seeking a secret stair that he trod centuries past. The stair is discovered and the path is recalled successfully and so it is that in the space of a few hours, the group has wormed its way inside the twisty walls and is once again treading the corridors of the dread emperor’s citadel.
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