Amazonia Imperiia - GM: Brovo

There is to be a meeting in Amazon Jungles between the Amazonians (represented by their Queen and Princess) and the Imperium (represented by General Florence) to determine the course of the future of their nations, and Queen Alexandria of Renalta and some of her Queen's Blades there to help. The Queen of the Amazons and the leaders of the Imperium wish to join their people together, but Amazon Princess does not wish to join the Imperium and says her mother is under demonic influence. The mission is to discover if Amazon Queen truly is under demonic influence and to either aid the joining of nations or uphold Amazon sovereignty, as well as the secondary goal of keeping Queen Alexandria alive.

Player List
Kraith - Kadaeux
Traxilus Fremuliaun - Icarus
Garren Halthar - Azathoth (inactive)
Count Richelieu - Athos
Ethyssa Abhorsen - Brand

---

Upon arrival in the Amazon, Queen Alexandria told the Blades to go gather information before the meeting truly got under way. Count Richelieu spoke words of caution to his companions and chose to accompany Queen Alexandria to the table where the meeting would take place, where he introduced himself to those gathered. Garren Halthar joined him and also introduced himself with his intent to aid in the peaceful unification of the two groups. Kraith chose instead to put his own talents to use by scoping out the tents of the Amazon Queen and her daughter, to see who came and went and to sense anything magical in or around them that might be cause for worry. Traxilus accompanied Kraith as something of a protective escort.

The speeches of Richelieu and Halthar were greeted with laughter from the Amazon princess and confusion from the others at the table for threefold reasons: the meeting had not yet started, they were breaking the social hierarchy, and they had not in fact been intended to participate directly in the negotiations since that was Queen Alexandria's job. They had managed to amuse the princess though, such that she quietly asked them to help her prove her claims against her mother, then invited them to talk to her about it in private in her tent. Kraith and Traxilus found the tents of both queen and princess, the former guarded and the latter not, though saw ways to potentially infiltrate both. However, they saw the princess going into her tent, thus leaving them with only the queen's tent as a plausible target for snooping.

Count Richelieu took the mockery in stride and chose to follow the princess and take her up on the offer to speak in private. Kraith considered his options and decided to try soulwalking into the body of one of the servants to do a little spying.

Princess Vyl informed Richelieu that proof of her claims could be found in a temple to the north, where her mother's soul is trapped. She said that Imperials had trapped the woman there, and she'd only been able to bring her mother's body back. She then offered to guide the Blades to the temple, or have them guided by one of the other Amazons if they did not trust her. Meanwhile, Kraith jumped into the body of a young boy servant and got a look around the Queen's sparsely furnished tent. He managed to influence the boy's mind enough to get him to look in a chest, which as it turned out was unlocked and contained documents, a glowing gem, and some pods that looked like peas, which the boy stole. While this all was happening, a mage circle opened up on the boat and another member of the Blades, Ethyssa, appeared and was brought up to speed by Garren.

Ethyssa took a stroll through the camp and found a rack of sparring equipment, and she asked some nearby Amazon women if they'd like to spar. Kraith went up to the guards at the Queen's tent and told them that the servant boy had bragged to him about taking the pods from the Queen's tent, and that he mentioned something about a gem, intending to get the guards to run off to deal with the boy and allow him time to go snatch the gem himself. Traxilus backed up Kraith's story and said he'd also received some offers of small bits of jewelry from servants, and he added in a snide remark about how the Imperium would never be so lax with security, so as to invite a fight if they weren't interested in chasing thieves.

One of the Amazon women, Elyssa, accepted Ethyssa's challenge and readied to spar; she said that the challenger gets the first move and readied to receive it. The guards at the Queen's tent took the bait and one of them ran off to find the boy, leaving only a sparse few guards around the tent since the other Amazons were either watching the diplomatic meeting or gathering to watch the sparring match.

Kraith was at something of an impasse dropped a non-verbal hint that Traxilus ought to do something to distract the remaining guard. Traxilus was deft in picking it up and decided to try something he hadn't done in many years: he flirted with the Amazon woman and managed to catch her attention, such that he awoke the passion her people were known for and was pulled into the Queen's own tent to have a little private fun. Ethyssa found her opponent much less skilled and experience than she had expected, and spent more time talking to the two Amazon women than actually fighting; she gathered more information on the situation at large and learned that most Amazons drank from the blood river that connected to the Blood Sea, though some (like her sparring opponent) chose not to because of the spirits and monsters that preyed upon those who did drink from the river. The sparring opponent, Elyssa, told a story of the Cataclysm of the past and how the Amazons had become as they were due to drinking from the river, as it conferred strength and power and the fiery passion for which Amazons were known to those who imbibed; the storyteller then asked to come along with Ethyssa, and got her companion Mira to agree to come along as well, and Ethyssa welcomed their company.

While Traxilus distracted the Amazon guard (congrats on being the first in LoR 2 to get laid, btw), Kraith snuck into the tent with the various noises covering his own and grabbed the gem, which he immediately recognized as a soul gem. Traxilus exited the tent a little while later and left a satisfied Amazon woman behind. Ethyssa and her two new pals, Elyssa and Mira, showed up around this time. They then saw Count Richelieu leaving the princess's tent and heading for Queen Alexandria, whilst Princess Vyl herself looked curiously at the group standing near the Amazon queen's tent.

Sarah's Request - GM: Kadaeux

The Queen's Blades have been asked to help the legendary Sarah Darkhammer retrieve an artifact, something with great religious significance to the Drow, from an abandoned temple in the Underdark. A Dwarven excavation party entered the temple two days ago and have not been seen since. The mission is to infiltrate the temple and retrieve the artifact, then give it to either Sarah Darkhammer or the Drow, with a secondary goal of rescuing the Dwarven expedition if they are in need of help.

Player List
Kasim Amibilus - Jorick
Naream Baenre- Sarzu
Andrea Llolth'Allin - Andrea
Eins Nimgrud - GreenGoat

---

Sarah Darkhammer led the party through the Underdark and to the abandoned temple, then told them to get to work. Kasim made a bit of humorous banter and asked Darkhammer for any helpful and relevant information she felt like giving, and she informed him that the artifact was likely to be in the center of the structure and that sleeping on the black stone that the temple was made of would lead to their wits being stolen. Naream chimed in with a bit of annoyance about how someone as powerful as Sarah Darkhammer could retrieve the artifact herself, and said that once they did find it they ought to give it to Andrea, who perhaps worships whatever faith the artifact is important to. Eins said she was more interested in finding and helping the dwarves who had gone inside the temple. Andrea said that helping the dwarves was a worthy cause, but their true focus should be the artifact, and suggested that the armored melee fighter Eins take the lead whilst the Drow mages and human archer followed.

The group headed into the temple and were almost immediately greeted by a dart trap, which was spotted by Andrea and thus not triggered. There were many metal doors along the way that they did not bother with, instead moving onward through the oppressive architecture reminiscent of a crypt until they came to a branch in the path. At the end of each path there were more metal doors, though the leftward door seemed to have been used by the Dwarves who had entered the temple before them. The group heard a rumbling sound as the entrance of the temple was sealed shut with stone.

Andrea thoroughly mocked and berated Naream for almost activating the first trap. When they got to the branch, Naream suggested they take the leftward door and follow the Dwarves, and though he said he would be of no help as a locksmith he also mentioned perhaps having something that could smash through the door. Eins decided to take the simple approach of applying brute force to the door to open it up. Kasim found that approach silly and set to looking for switches or levers nearby that might open the door.

The door was easily pushed away by Eins, since the dwarves had apparently broken it down and then just propped it back up, and it fell away into a seemingly bottomless chasm. There was a bridge spanning this chasm, and near the central support pillar there were two dwarves with vacant expressions and pallid skins, both armored and wielding tower shields and war axes. They spoke in unison and told the group to turn around and leave, and Andrea sensed something deep in the temple forcing them to speak. Kasim spotted a door and a couple levers on the other side of the bridge.

Eins was the first to move forward onto the bridge, and she tried speaking to the dwarves and telling them the group was there to rescue them. Andrea informed the woman that it was a waste of time, since they were being controlled by something, probably mindflayers, and said that they'd have to deal with them through some other means. Kasim reminded the group of what Sarah Darkhammer had said about sleeping in the temple, then drew his bow and readied to shoot one of the dwarves to incapacitate rather than kill him. Naream summoned four wights and instructed them to drop their weapons and subdue the dwarves.

The dwarves ignored Eins's words and fought Naream's wights, though slowly and poorly. One of the wights was pushed over the edge of the bridge, but the others got the dwarves to the ground. They couldn't pull the shields or axes away from the sturdy fellows, but they were held down fairly securely. Once more the dwarves spoke in unison and told the party to turn back, this time adding a death threat in for good measure.

Naream told the group that he could have his wights knock the dwarves unconscious, unless the others wanted to try to question them or subdue them in some other way. Eins made her way past the restrained dwarves to the other side of the bridge and promptly pulled one of the two levers. Kasim made his way over to the subdued dwarves and delved into the mind of one of them with his non-magic telepathy, hoping to figure out who or what was behind their mental enslavement. Andrea, who was also a telepath, decided to be very cautious about the whole situation and took up a post behind Kasim with a dagger at the ready to end his life if he showed any signs of possession.

Kasim's mental probing presented him with an inhumanly orderly mind and the image of a pale white face for a moment before it flickered to another view, the view through the eyes of a dwarf about to be eaten by a large insectoid creature that said something about a master, then had to break the connection lest he be taken over by the same force controlling the dwarves. Eins's blind lever pulling happened to work out in her favor and the door opened to reveal a web-strewn room with a mirror on the far wall, a red pentagram on the ground in front of it, a dead dwarf sitting against the far wall, and a small bag of gold on the ground near the door.

Kasim shared what he saw and concluded that, based on things Andrea had said earlier, they were probably facing at least one mindflayer and some giant spiders, and when he saw Andrea's dagger and positioning and said that the precaution had been a smart one; when Kasim realized Eins had gone ahead, he yelled for her to come back and warned her of the dangers of getting ahead of the rest of the party. Eins disregarded his concerned and picked up the bag of gold as discreetly as she could manage, then made for the dead dwarf to see if she could find anything of use on the corpse. Naream had his wights bash the dwarves into unconsciousness, then yelled at Eins to not disturb the pentagram or mess with the mirror. In a bit of an aside conversation in their native Drow tongue, Naream and Andrea discussed the stupidity of humans and what they would do with their corpses when they inevitably died due to that stupidity.

First Blow - GM: Brovo

A lich was found south of Tuleria, and a Liverian witch hunter has requested Renalta's aid after the rest of her squad died. The mission of the Queen's Blades is simple: kill the lich and retrieve its phylactery; their secondary goal is to keep the witch hunter who contacted them, Wren Vesper, alive.

Player List
Alexander Lyre - Desert Zephyr
Maher Adonai - Gat
Thailen Vicariss - Herzinth
Erasmus - Kangaroo
D.H. - Raen Elvarasi

---

The group landed ashore amidst an unnatural fog to find that even the flora and fauna in the area had fallen under the undead sway of the Lich. A green flare sent up by the boat's crew got a responding green flare from inland, indicating where Wren Vesper was likely waiting for them. Erasmus told his companions that he favored hurrying to the witch hunter rather than proceeding cautiously. Thailen agreed and set forth without waiting for further discussion on the matter. Alexander agreed with this course of action and joined it. Maher agreed that haste was preferable, but that they shouldn't run in blindly, so he moved to the fore of the group and used water magic to try to move the fog and give them a clear line of vision ahead.

Maher's efforts were extremely successful, clearing the fog for a couple hundred feet ahead and thinning it out in general. With the greater range of vision the group saw a red flare go up ahead and five shambling undead ahead that did not seem to be moving with any purpose, moving closely together in a group and all wearing similar tattered grey-black uniforms.

Maher sent out three blasts of water and knocked three of the undead enemies down, then moved forward with his sword to get to work dispatching them permanently. Erasmus charged forward and attacked one of the standing enemies with a shield bash and sword strike. Alexander drew out a pair of pistols and fired toward the head of the other standing undead. Thailen charged forward alongside Erasmus with her own sword readied to strike at the heads of the enemies.

The two standing undead were dispatched easily by the attacks. They heard a feminine scream, one of frustration or perhaps a war cry rather than a pained scream, and the three undead lying on the ground stayed down upon hearing the sound. Thailen spotted Liveria's crest on the clothing of the undead and pegged them as the dead witch hunters.

Thailen hurried forward toward the scream and told her companions to just avoid and ignore the three undead laying on the ground. Erasmus disliked the idea of leaving enemies alive behind them, but he eventually agreed that meeting up with Wren Vesper was the most important thing to do and hurried onward. Alexander reloaded his guns and pondered the strangeness of the undead gecko that had been scampering about since they made landfall. Maher joined the others in hurrying toward the source of the scream.

The Blades crested the hill to see another witch hunter hanging dead from a tree. Soon thereafter they saw Wren Vesper moving over ground littered with the corpses of dispatched undead and being chased by a Gargoyle. The large creature noticed the new arrivals and threatened to take their skin, presumably after murdering them horribly. From behind they heard the shambling of the three undead they had left behind, now coming for them rather than laying prone.

Thailen took charge of the situation and shouted orders for what people ought to do: Alexander to shoot down the three undead, Wren to disengage from the Gargoyle and help with those, Erasmus and Maher to surround it and try to use their anti-magic on the Gargoyle to unmake the magical construct, and Thailen herself to help in surrounding it and try to distract or entangle it with her whip. Erasmus was fine with the plan, though he elaborated on the nature of his anti-magic being an aura and suggested Maher take the opposite side of the Gargoyle to be as far away from his aura as possible. Alexander complied with Thailen's plan and turned his attention, and pistols, on the undead. Maher took to the plan as well, and followed Erasmus's suggestion for avoid his null-magic zone; he shot a blast of anti-magic imbued water at the Gargoyle.

The undead gecko turned out to be Wren's companion of sorts and climbed up to her shoulder as she revealed a special weapon of sorts: a dragon rocket from the Kingdom of Dreams. Thailen's whip attack came first, and the Gargoyle grabbed the weapon and yanked her off her feet while mocking her attempt. It attempted to attack her, but Maher's water blast knocked it away and closer to Erasmus. Alexander's shots took one undead in the head and another in the knee. As Wren ran in toward the enemies, a figure flew out of the fog and pegged the unharmed undead in the head with a crossbow bolt. The new arrival was another of the Queen's Blades, a demon that went by the name of D.H. who had made his way to the party from the boat by way of his aeromancy and aid from the mages of the boat's crew.

D.H. turned his attentions to the Gargoyle immediately and unloaded his repeater crossbows at the creature, imbuing each of the bolts with air magic to speed their flight and shadow magic to give them some extra punch. Alexander was rather surprised by and distrustful of the new arrival, so he made to deal with the crawling undead and told Wren Vesper she should keep an eye on the new guy. Maher aimed another spell, this time a blast of pure water, at the Gargoyle. Erasmus taunted the creature to try to goad it into attacking him and weakening itself in his anti-magic aura. Thailen drew her sword and considered attacking the mouth, which might be a weak point, but settled for circling and distracting to allow the mages to do their thing.

D.H.'s barrage of bolts was rather ineffective, due to the mental strain of using so much magic causing most of them to go wide; only one bolt actually did damage, by way of a small crack in the Gargoyle's stone skin that managed to catch its attention. Wren ignored Alexander's advice and set to studying the Gargoyle. Alexander's single shot easily killed the already wounded undead enemy. Maher's water attack did nothing, and the creature's stone shell seemed to protect it from Erasmus's aura, and the taunts were entirely ineffective. The Gargoyle attacked Maher and, thanks to some watery protection, he was sent flying through the air to land behind Wren, Alexander, and D.H. rather than killed. Maher sustained a couple broken ribs, but he sensed a familiar presence nearby that may have intervened to make sure the wound was not more severe.

D.H. readied his crossbows and his magic for another assault, hoping to hit the crack he'd already made and drive some bolts all the way through the stone skin, though he told Alexander to aim for the wings to lessen the Gargoyle's mobility. Thailen ran toward the downed Maher and pulled him a bit farther away from the combat, and along the way she gave Alexander some contradicting advice in that he should aim for the face to distract and blind it.

Royal Blood - GM: Brovo

Liveria, a normally very insular country, has asked for Renaltan aid in solving the murders of two members of the royal family: the Crown-Prince Xavier's father and wife. Spymaster Mikan was dispatched to Liveria with a squad of the Queen's Blades. Their primary goal is to investigate and discover who committed the murders (and hopefully what their motivation was) and then bring them to justice, while their secondary goals are to keep Mikan and the Crown-Prince's daughter alive.

Player List
Rayne Walker - PCSutfin
Auric Oranthar - Maxim
Jason Drake - Aerandir
Ceann - Selvi
Rayvon Krayvitch - Tempest

---

Mikan and the Blades made their way to the Liverian throne room to find the Crown-Prince and his daughter there, as well as a falcon standing in the middle of the room, and were asked a simple question by Xavier: who are you and why did you volunteer to aid a country that openly disdains Renalta? Rayne Walker gave his name and a methodically delivered few statements about wishing to see Renalta and Liveria coexist peacefully. Auric said that he goes where he is needed most and left it at that. Ceann followed this up by saying that she wished to do what she could to rectify the tragic injustice that had befallen the Liverian royal family. Jason introduced himself and said that as a ranger he seeks to enforce justice everywhere, even Liveria. Rayvon stated not only her name but also her lineage, the nature of which she was sure Xavier would be very aware, and said that she owed allegiance to Liveria and would serve it as her family had before her.

The Crown-Prince seemed intrigued by Rayne's transition between outward personalities and Rayvon's hostility. He revealed that the falcon had been blocking a light-activated glyph that awakened gargoyles that do whatever the royalty wishes, and hesitated that the carpet that usually covered it (to be pulled away or burned to activate the gargoyles) was bloody and needed replacement. The glyph was then blocked by a table where Xavier and his daughter, bearing a bag of documents relating to the murders, sat and asked the visitors to sit as well and ask any questions they have. The daughter was introduced as Penelope, and she was apparently in the throne room when the murders occurred, but she could remember nothing of use.

Rayne put on a sympathetic mask and asked Penelope to tell them everything she remembered of the night of the murders. Rayvon and Ceann sniff around a bit, sensing some magical residue in the room that they attribute to the recently activated rune and also finding that Penelope has magical talent; Ceann then asked the Crown-Prince for details of the murder and a rundown of those who might have cause to order the assassination while Rayvon started going through the bag of documents, though after she finds nothing of worth therein she asks to speak to the who were first on the scene aside from the princess. Jason asked who might have a personal grudge against Xavier's family, then asked to speak to the men on duty without their superiors about and to search the area for clues.

Rayne easily drew Penelope in with his sympathy, though she did not immediately give any information, but the Crown-Prince saw through his acting for what it was. Xavier responded to the bombard of questions by saying that the cause of death was two arrows, though they were also charred by fire; he also said that the most likely enemy to his family was Renalta. He also mentioned that an ex-King's Ranger had been brought in to see if the arrows were poisoned or magicked and had found nothing, though he said they might want to talk to him themselves as he might be more helpful for fellow Renaltans. The Crown-Prince got rather peeved at Jason's questions and said they needn't bother looking around, as the guards and the ranger had certainly been competent enough to find anything that was there. At this point Penelope finally spoke up, saying that she remembered the assassin had been a woman and that she had said something about ghosts and fulfilling a contract, plus something about visiting another royal family. Mikan made the connection that the only nearby royal family was that of Renalta.

Rayne did not trust this information and questioned why the assassin would have spoken of such things in front of Penelope, to which the girl had no response; he suggested that the assassin was still in the city and had planted a false trail, and he told Xavier to stay on high alert and implied that Penelope might not be trustworthy. He then said that they should send a precautionary message back to Renalta and that he intended to go talk to the ex-ranger. Ceann said that too many people going to see the ex-ranger would just be unproductive and decided to go walk about the city and try to find the vantage point where the assassin must have observed the castle from, and she asked if Rayvon would come with her. Auric put the brakes to Rayne's tirade and said they should treat the threat as completely serious until proven otherwise, and he asked the Crown-Prince what the method for burning the glyph covering carpet was and how the victims could have been burnt without the carpet being burnt as well. Jason apologized to Xavier and explained that he was only trying to do the job they had called the Blades in for, and that they might find something the guards or ex-ranger had missed; he then explained how it would be foolish to think the assassin hadn't seen Penelope and the fact that they were able to move about the heavily fortified castle meant that they were still a relevant threat, then said he'd be going to talk to the ex-ranger as well. Rayvon agreed to go along with Ceann, whispered a warning to Rayne that he was not the leader of the group and that he needed to tread carefully, and then asked Xavier if he could have the remaining physical evidence of the murders gathered while the group was out in the city.

The Crown-Prince and Penelope both reacted rather negatively to Rayne's suspicions and implications. Mikan said she'd keep an eye on things and decide which of the two groups needed her help more. The princess relaxed once more upon Auric speaking against Rayne's implications, and Xavier approved of the fellow's efforts and responded to the question about the glyph with a succinct explanation of how it worked. Xavier seemed skeptical of Ceann's plan to wander about the city, but he suggested that she and Rayvon visit a wizard who might help tell them about the magic used in the assassination. Mikan decided to go along with the two ladies on their jaunt into the city. The Crown-Prince then said he needed to go attend to his personal advisor's wishes, to which Penelope reacted negatively; Xavier basically told her to shut her mouth and then left, leaving his daughter and the Blades to do as they had planned.

Auric felt some immediate suspicion and distrust about the advisor and asked Penelope who it was; the princess said her name was Mauvais and that she had appeared about a month ago, claiming to be born in Liveria, though the princess doubted it for reasons unspoken. Penelope then asked Auric if she could go with him, which he responded to with indecision to allow his comrades to chime in. Rayvon stepped in and invited Penelope to come along with the women instead, which the princess reluctantly agreed to. They chatted as they walked, exchanging bits of information about Renalta for answers about what was going on in Liveria, which included some more information about the mysterious advisor and the revelation that Penelope was an aspiring fire magic user, though not a particularly adept one; after more talk and Rayvon implying that there might be demonic corruption afoot, the conversation petered out and they continued on their way to the wizard. Rayne was rather irked by the Crown-Prince mistaking his meaning and the princess catching on to it, but he shrugged it off and decided to try soulwalking into Xavier to see what the man was up to.

Ranye's ephemeral form was intercepted by a mysterious female figure before he could get into Xavier's head, and she threatened him that she would kill him if he ever tried it again, then she branded the back of his left hand with a fingerprint and punted him back into his body. Rayvon and Ceann's group made it to the wizard's abode in time to see a Gargoyle tossed out of a window to shatter on the ground below, accompanied by a frustrated scream.

Rayne had a bit of an existential crisis as he realized he wasn't as great at political maneuvering and soulwalking as he thought and decided he'd have to play thing carefully from now on, then suggested that the time had come for them to go find and talk to that ex-ranger.

Carnival of Chaos - GM: Kadaeux

Arian Village has fallen under the sway of a mysterious man in purple robes who says he comes from the Carnival of Chaos, and the ranger sent to investigate came back screaming of crows eating his eyes. Hanus Wolfblood, the General of Renalta, has decided to take a group of Queen's Blades and deal with the issue himself; not long after that decision was made, he received a letter by crow inviting him to the Crystal Lake Inn, located in the very same village, for a surprise meant for him. Arian Village is of note for being the home of most of Queen Alexandria's family. The mission of the Queen's Blades is to find out what is going on in the village, dispatch any threats as necessary, and keep General Wolfbood alive.

Player List
Aneura Shivan - Asuras
Cristoff Whitemarch - Tan S Lake
Tristan Whitemarch - Pseudonym (dead)

---

The group traveled to the village on foot and noticed a lot of crows along the way, and they arrived to find the village apparently empty aside from more crows. Aneura suggested that they proceed cautiously and try to talk to one of the villagers nearby before proceeding further. The brothers Whitemarch agreed, Tristan readying his sling and Cristoff keeping a hand to his sword and a spell in mind, and all three of them made for a nearby house and knocked on the door.

Upon knocking, the door turned into striped fabric and the town changed, houses becoming carnival tents all around. People appeared suddenly in the streets, and with them the loud noises of a circus at work. Only the inn and the crows remained from what they had seen before. A clown approached and welcomed the group to the Carnival of Chaos and told them to visit the inn to talk to the person in charge of the place.

Cristoff tried to sense any magic at work in the area and said they had little choice other than to go to the inn; he headed for the building and lightly bumped into a couple people nearby to be sure they were not simply intangible illusions. Tristan agreed and followed along, though he said it was obviously a trap and asked General Wolfbood if he had any advice to give on their situation. Aneura joined them in heading toward the inn.

Cristoff's attempt to sense magic gave him a deluge of magic from all sides rather than a specific point. He found that the performers were all illusions, though the crows seemed to dislike him finding this out and he narrowly avoided taking a wound from one flying at his face. General Hanus told Tristan to be prepared for anything and to not bother trying to predict what will come from the mind of the madman in charge. In the inn, the Blades found six children standing on floating boxes with nooses about their necks, one of which Hanus recognized as Queen Alexandria's niece. They were greeted by an illusion that looked like another performer, the source of which they could not detect, and were told if they attempted to attack the boxes would disappear and the children would die. The group was then informed that there were four main attractions (Gauntlet des Pendules, Galerie des Glaces, Circ de Cauchemar, and La Galerie Tournage), each housing some threat that would destroy the town, but if the challenge of each attraction could be defeated then the threat would go away. They would have to tackle each one individually, and if they tried to tackle any challenge as a team then the town would be wiped out, along with Queen Alexandria's family.

Cristoff chose to take on the Galerie des Glaces and suggested his brother Tristan tackle La Galerie Tournage. Aneura made clear that she didn't trust that the sick person running the show would hold to their end of the deal, then chose to take on the Gauntlet de Pendules. This left General Hanus to deal with the Circ de Cauchemar.

The illusory ringleader told the group that they had ten minutes to complete their tasks once started, and that if they failed in any way that would seal the fate of the village. Cristoff headed for the Galerie des Glaces and saw distorted mirrors inside the large red and white tent. Aneura made it to the Gauntlet des Pendules and looked inside to see large blades swinging back and forth through the length of the dark tent, visible for only a brief moment before slipping back into the darkness.

Cristoff tested out one of the mirrors to make sure it was real, then made his way into the mirrored tent while reading a spell. Aneura started forward into the darkness and the blades, taking it slow and trying to judge the distance and timing of each of the swinging pendulums before moving past them.

Cristoff's contact with the mirror shifted things around him, such that he found himself surrounded by mirrors all reflecting warped images of himself; touching more of them transported him again, and he found a pattern to the madness that led him toward what seemed to be the true challenge. He was in a dark area now and heard a hissing sound, then saw many reflections of the lit fuse all around him, and he knew his challenge was to find the right one and stop it. Aneura made it through the first couple groups of pendulums just fine, but then they started coming from strange angles and one almost took her head; the way ahead still seemed doable, but the path ahead forked and so she would have to choose which way to go. General Hanus found himself transported into a circus setting in which he was the lion of the lion tamer act, and after playing his part for a bit he detected the smell of burning gunpowder and found his way to several crates of explosives with lit fuses; he hurried to rip fuses from the explosives before they could go off. Tristan found himself at a shooting gallery and was instructed that he simply had to hit the bullseye to win; he fired three shots and missed them all, each miss being punished by a bullet ripping through him from the contest display, and with the third shot he died. The explosives for Tristan's challenge went off and decimated a quarter of the illusion and thus a quarter of the town it hid, serving as a painful reminder to the others that failure had dire consequences.

Cristoff heard the explosion but didn't let it distract him; to deal with the mirror issue he conjured a light and set about finding and removing the fuses that did not have backdrops of reflected light, which he figured would allow him to easily find the real fuse(s). Aneura also noticed the explosion, and she moved onward and took the rightward path without letting the death of one of her comrades take too much of her attention.

Cease Fire - GM: Tempest

The Templar Order and Rheinfeld Republic have come to a stalemate in their fight over who should legitimately control the divided Rheinfeld, and their leaders have realized that it would be in their best interests to declare a cease fire and alliance for the sake of dealing with the Papacy. Some within the ranks of these two factions disagree with the cease fire and the Papacy would very much like to interfere and stop it from happening. The leadership of the Order and Republic have requested neutral arbiters and Renalta has responded by sending out the Queen's Blades and Sisera, Queen Kouri's brother and adviser. Their main objectives are to secure the cease fire agreement, root out any dissidents in the ranks and prevent any of their plots against Taigyn (the Templar leader) or Alida Spiegel (the Republic's leader), and deal with any Papacy agents who try to interfere. Their secondary goal is to keep Sisera alive.

Player List
Alhvaharyis - Sathanas Rex
Draza Zorya - Elendra
Gahrul - Hank (inactive, puppeted by Elendra)
Lothar Wolff - Heyitsjiwon
Renaldo Ysattara - Griever (dead)

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The party arrived in the town of Kulseruck, on the border between the territories of the Templars and the Republic, and Sisera told them to accompany him into the church where the meeting would be held or mingle with the locals as they saw fit. Renaldo expressed a desire to talk to the people, though he said that someone ought to stay with Sisera to protect and assist him. Draza volunteered Gahrul the ogre for the task, which he agreed to. Lothar went with Renaldo whilst Draza and Alhvaharyis went out to talk to some of the refugees in the village to get information, though on the way the man noticed a peculiar group of guards atop the church. They found a woman who was fearful but willing to talk, and she says that the war is horrible for the people, and that the Papacy and Templars specifically don't care about the common people. Meanwhile, Lothar and Renaldo went off to find a pub to get information from anyone there, but they instead find a drunken captain of the Republic wandering about. Via his telepathic power, Lothar was able to find out about some men who were neither Templars nor of the Republic visiting the town and having some kind of meeting there. As it turns out, the drunken captain is supposed to be at the meeting so Lothar and Renaldo escort her to the church.

Gahrul's arrival at the church caused a bit of a commotion. Sisera went in ahead, leaving the ogre to navigate the door as best he could, and found the atmosphere of the room to be rather oppressive and tense. Four important folks were already present: Taigyn, leader of the Templars; Davian, his second; Alida, leader of the Republic; and Hanz, her second. After some chatter and bickering, Sisera gets right down to it: the Templars need the Republic's resources, but they must give something in return for them, so Sisera suggest that they provide military training to the Republic forces. This suggestion didn't go over too well, and was complicated by the arrival of the Lothar and Renaldo with the drunken captain. Alhvaharyis was stopped outside due to his Papacy uniform. Rising tensions were somewhat abated by the arrival of Draza with her calming presence, and she was recognized by both leaders and invited to join them at the table. Sisera laid down some scathing criticism and practicality and told those gathered that they really needed to work together to take down the Papacy. The Queen's Blade members noticed a Republic guard coming down the stairs from where the archers were positioned and giving a commander a report, and they noted that the gathered Templar forces seemed a bit divided as to whether they followed Taigyn or Davian.

Draza was invited to take the stage and give an impassioned speech to attempt to help matters along, which was punctuated by smashing a cookie to symbolize the way the Papacy smashes joy and hope, and a plea for those gathered to work together to join forces and fight against their true enemy. Davian was unmoved and responded angrily, with an insult and threat to the Republic's leader, but Draza spoke directly to him of the dreadful costs of war and managed to get him to simmer down and agree that she spoke wisely. Alhvaharyis had some troubles convincing the guards to let him in, but when he was past them he noticed the stairwell that led to the archer nest and pulled Lothar along to head upward and investigate. They looked around in the rooms upstairs and stumbled upon three armored men hiding in one of them, which caused one of them to call a signal out the window that was followed by a bang and cries of traitors in the archer nest above; Alhvaharyis used some magic to make them fearful, causing two of them to fumble with their weapons and a third to flee to a ledge outside the window, while Lothar yelled at them to surrender or die where they stand.

Those in the church all readied for a fight as they heard doors smashing open. There was some bloody fighting in the archer nest. Sisera ducked out of the line of fire, since his magic would be useless with Templars about. Four bowmen appeared and fired upon the peace meeting, though Taigyn distracted two of them with a magical burst of light before their eyes, and one of their shots went wide and missed Draza, its intended target. Two of the Republic soldiers showed their true loyalty and blocked off one of the staircases to protect the archers. The two guards at the front doors died and a group of five enemies came in that way. Renaldo could not react in time to any of this and took two arrows in the back, then fell over and died. Upstairs, Lothar's cry snapped the men out of their fear and one shot an arrow at him, which bounced off his armor. The other slashed Alhvaharyis's face with a dagger, obscuring his vision with blood.

Alhvaharyis used his magic to force his attacker to want to end his own life, which the mercenary did by slitting his own throat, though this spell left him very weak and without much power left to draw on. Lothar hurried forward and cut off the archer's hand, then tried to read his mind but only found pain there; Alhvaharyis finished the enemy off with a dagger to the chest. Lothar then looked out of the window to find that third man and saw him grappling with a Templar soldier on the ledge, and both of them falling to their death when it broke, then he could see the archer nest littered with Templar and Republic corpses and suggested that they hurry back to their allies, to which Alhvaharyis agreed and they proceeded cautiously out of the room.

The Templars and Republic soldiers fought together against the Papacy interlopers, doing rather well in dispatching many of them quickly. Gahrul, having seen the attempted attack on Draza, put his full strength into effect and lifted the heavy round stone disc that served as a table and threw it at the archers, and it had enough force to smash through them and some support beams and the outer wall of the church altogether. This seemed to get everyone's attention and send people running from the falling rubble of the balcony, to varying degrees of effectiveness. Alhvaharyis got hit in the leg by some wood shrapnel, Draza took a similar injury to the shoulder, Lothar got a bit battered by a fall as the balcony collapsed under him and Alhvaharyis, Gahrul was just fine, Sisera's leg was broken and pinned under some rubble, Alida broke an arm when leaping from the stairs to flee the rubble, Hans fell unconscious due to a blow to the head, and others took varying minor hits of no consequence. After all the commotion, the Papacy leader and two of his subordinates, both injured, remained alive.

Upon seeing Draza's injury, Gahrul was ready to charge and smash the remaining Papacy enemies. Draza however didn't want to see more potential collateral damage and figured that others could take care of the enemies, so she redirected the ogre to help the wounded. Alhvaharyis aimed more of his magic at the two injurer mercenaries, trying to ignite the greed in their hearts to have them attack their leader. Lothar headed right for the enemies and called for the Templar and Republic men to surround them and take them down.

Gahrul and Draza managed to get the injured away from the unstable rubble, which included getting Sisera out and laid on a pew until a skilled healer could attend to him. Things went a little crazy though, as Alhvaharyis's greed-inducing magic turned out to be a bit too powerful, so much so that it summoned a shadow of the demon Greed and affected near everyone in the room, including Alhvaharyis and Lothar to some extent. The injured Papacy mercenaries attacked their leader while the friendly forced turned on themselves as well, all of them yelling about gold and goods and what was or should be theirs. Davian went mental and attacked Taigyn, screaming about how he should be the leader of the Templar; though Taigyn himself had managed to resist the magic, he was thus drawn into the fighting nonetheless. The injured Alida tried to help him deal with the crazed second-in-command, but fails and draws Davian's ire; she is only saved by Taigyn getting himself and his shield between her and his subordinate's warhammer, taking a stunning blow to the head in the process.

Draza hitched a ride on Gahrul and said a prayer of hope to bring peace and sanity back to this place, then sang a happy song to try to inspire everyone to break free of the greedy impulses that had taken them over while tossing away the toys and gifts and sweets she had brought to make others happy, so that the temporarily maddened folks could grab and covet rather than fight each other. The spectre of Greed was rather angry at this and screamed that it wouldn't work, though some seemed to be slowly snapping out of it, so Draza started tossing away money and other more important belongings whilst still singing. Somewhere outside the town, an angel seemed to catch wind of this selfless act and changed course to head somewhere where he was truly needed. Lothar hurried to the rescue of the two faction leaders and bashed Davian in the head with his shield, sending the man to the ground and knocking the weapon out of his hand, then decried the man's weakness and said he was unfit to lead if greed could make him turn on his allies; Lothar further spread his disappointment by admonishing everyone to cease their fighting and protect their leaders. The combined efforts of Draza and Lothar managed to break Greed's hold on the minds of most of those in the church, but unfortunately that still left threats about: the Papacy men charged forward and were met by a small force of defenders; two Templars loyal to Davian tried to aid him by going after the Templar and Republic leaders, but they were intercepted by men from each faction; Davian seemed to be unaffected by Draza and Lothar's words and picked up a weapon from a fallen soldier and yelled that he was the only one fit to rule Rheinfeld. Lothar stood between Davian and the wounded Rheinfeld leaders and readied to defend their lives at the cost of Davian's if he must.

Here Cometh The Wolves - GM: Tempest

A string of vicious murders in Tuleria have been going on for a long time, and due to the rending wounds they seem to be the work of lycans or lizardmen; given the general racism against lizardmen and lycans in Tuleria, this could get ugly if not solved soon. The few eye witnesses have only seen a man in a large coat that obscured his features. Worse yet, all the victims have been friends or advisers of Archmagi Janelle or General Varro, two members of the triad council that rules Tuleria. These two have requested help from abroad, and the Queen's Blades have been sent in response. Their mission in Tuleria is to discover the identity of the murderer(s) and stop them by any means necessary. Of secondary concern, General Varro has been unstable lately and it would be beneficial to learn what is causing this instability.

Player List
Esyllt Boudica - Kestrel
Jellial - LimeyPanda
James Shatten - Heisenberg (inactive)
Saul - Slade
Laenaia Erltana - Alphakoka

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The group was welcomed by Archmagi Janelle herself, with one man, two lizardmen, and a white creature of some kind at her side, and she asked that they introduce themselves. Saul chose to forgo giving his name for the moment and instead asked Janelle for more information on the murders. Esyllt introduced herself and apologized for Saul's lack of manners in not giving his name, though she politely seconded his request for information. James simply introduced himself and left it at that. Jellial, who was very familiar with the city and the woman welcoming them, telepathically asked after a friend and was pleased to not receive news of any ill fate. He then introduced himself to the others as Janelle's representative in the Queen's Blades. Laenaia first magically probed the beast and discovered that it was bonded to Janelle as a powerful familiar and received a prideful telepathic message from the creature telling her to pay attention to the task at hand, then was the last member of the group to introduce herself.

Janelle responded to their introductions, notably with some disdain for Saul and James, and noted that some of those killed were skilled mages and soldiers. She then uncovered a corpse laying on a table in the room, mentioning that it was one of her friends who had been killed. It appeared to the group like he had been torn apart by an animal. Janelle told the group that Tuleria was already close to civil war due to racial tensions and that these murders were certainly not helping. She mentioned that General Varro was in the city and also investigating the murders, and she suggested that they go talk to him; Janelle also brought up his recent instability and asked the group to try to find the cause. She then took her leave and told them that the guards remaining in the room would be able to answer any inquiries and help with anything they needed.

James chose to take a closer look at the body to try to find any clue lingering upon it, and he asked Jellial to take a look as well. Laenaia asked the captain of the guard to arrange a meeting with Jazrael, the doctor who had been dealing with all of the corpses left behind by the string of attacks. Jellial joined the corpse inspection and outlined their four solid leads (Jazrael, General Varro, and two of his old friends in the city), and he shifted into his werewolf form to see if the wounds seemed likely to have come from claws like his own to either point them toward or away from the lycanthrope pack in the city. Esyllt pondered aloud about whether or not a lizardman could truly leave such wounds on someone and suggested that Jellial try smelling for clues; she then asked the guard captain to fill them in on the details of the original investigation. Saul suggested that James and Laenaia should go talk to the doctor, Esyllt should go with Jellial to chat with his old friends, and planned to go alone to talk to General Varro.

James found nothing of note in his inspection of the body. The guard captain told Esyllt that he was very sure his people were capable of the savagery of these attacks. The two other guards present, Shria and Bastian, were very impressed with Jellial's beastly form. The captain said that only humans had been targeted by the attacks, nobody with lycan or lizardmen blood in them, which was very strange since if they are political attacks many of General Varro's closest friends are lizardmen and should be prime targets. He also mentioned that there was some group calling themselves the Dragoon Knights who claimed to be working to save the world from the menace of lizardmen, and suggested that if the attacks weren't the work of lizardmen or lycans then it was probably this group. Saul felt that something wasn't quite right in what the captain had said, that something vital was being omitted. Jellial found that the cuts on the corpse were too even and not spaced like they came from a werewolf of his size, and that whatever did it was smaller and precise in its attacks. There was no smell to identify the attacker, as it had been washed away or covered up by too many others to pick out, but he did catch one strongly lingering scent that he could not identify. The guard captain introduced himself as Rexel and told the group that he and his subordinates could guide them all to those they wished to speak to.

Jellial informed the others of his findings and said he'd be willing to follow any of their leads, although talking with the lycan pack or lizardmen would be best suited for him. Esyllt was concerned about Saul going off on his own and being rude to someone important to the investigation, so she asked him to come along with her and Jellial; she also asked Jellial to get the lizardmen guards who were awed by his appearance to see if their claws were a match to the wound patterns on the victim. Laenaia was pleased with the idea of splitting up to cover more ground and was also interested in seeing the results of Esyllt's suggestion about the lizardmen. Saul shrugged off Esyllt's concerns and went to speak to General Varro by himself, motioning for Captain Rexel to lead the way.

Bastian and Shria, the lizardmen guards, chatted with each other about how the group seemed to be doing little in the way of investigating so far. Esyllt experienced a vision of a golden warrior fighting off a dark figure, and received a seemingly prophetic message as the vision fades. James informed Laenaia that he'll take to the roofs for a better vantage and use of his skills, and Bastian said he would lead them to their destination. Shria offered Jellial to join in on their investigation, if he'd have her. Meanwhile, Captain Rexel took Saul to General Varro's encampment, noting as they went through that a lot of the warriors here took human teeth as trophies, and the captain seemed uncomfortable in the camp. He told Saul to stay on the main path and keep his head down to avoid trouble. They made for General Varro's abode and were stopped outside by lizardmen guards who told them only blood and the invited may enter.

Laenaia was ready to go, but asked Bastian if there was anything he could tell them about the doctor before they got there, or any warnings needed. Saul had a bit of a conversation with the lizardman guard and gave a speech detailing how the humans would drive them out if it came to open conflict, and eventually he impressed the guard enough to be allowed an opportunity to talk to a Clansmaster who paid attention to the goings on in the city, and perhaps the General Varro afterward. Jellial and Esyllt made their way into the city accompanied by the two guards, and as soon as they entered the lycan pack territory they were accosted from behind, with someone clapping a hand over Esyllt's mouth and pressing a blade to her back. Esyllt warned Jellial of this telepathically and then tried to read the mind of the woman holding her, who had bestial thoughts and some kind of barrier to this kind of intrusion in her mind, which she made more evident by ordering Esyllt to get out of her mind. As it turned out, the woman with the knife was Maylene, one of Jellial's friends in the city, and she had thought Esyllt might be an enemy; after things were sorted out, Maylene invited them to go talk to the packmaster, which they agreed to do.

The Hunt for Diana - GM: Brovo

Diana, one of the three remaining pure blood vampires, was once a guard for Queen Kouri in old Renalta. After remaining out of sight for a long while, there are reports that she has resurfaced in the Free Hold of Southblood and is gathering vampires of her bloodline for some reason. In the hopes that old loyalties might still hold weight, Queen Kouri has sent out some of the Queen's Blades to find Diana, and she gave them a locket that may help stir those old feelings. Their primary goals are to recruit Diana and her brood into the Queen's Blades and find out why she chose to resurface in the Free Holds rather than somewhere more friendly to her kind. Their secondary goals are to give the locket to Diana unopened, and to prevent any Liverian witch hunters or Rheinfeldian crusaders from finding her, because both those factions attempt to eradicate all supernatural forces.

Player List
Tromund Five-Blade - Commander Kalic (inactive)
Nadira Adonai - Genais
Hector Thanos - Teancum (inactive)
Mathew - Alex (inactive)

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The Blades were dropped at the docks with a lead telling them to meet an agent of the fabled Crescent Sisters at The Queen's Inn, but very soon after getting off the boat Nadira found a note instructing her to travel to a weaver's shop called the Crescent Sisters' Finery on the other side of town. Nadira decided to pursue the note and go to the weaver's shop. Trom agreed with her choice and joined her on the way to the shop. Hector said that splitting up the group was a bad idea, so he went along as well. Mathew also agreed and made a quip about getting some new clothes.

The group was almost caught in a sandstorm, a local natural phenomenon known to be strong enough at times to flay flesh from bone, but made it to the weaver's shop in time. They were called in by a man who had his face covered. Inside the building there was a shopkeeper, who an elf and clearly a vampire, as well as a dwarf and a tall woman with a scarred face. None of the people spoke to the new arrivals, leaving them to initiate conversation or inspect the shop as they willed.

Nadira looked about the shop a bit, then asked the lookout why she was brought there. Hector inspected some hats, then redirected Nadira's question to the shopkeep.

The dwarf yelled at the shopkeeper to respond to the questions, which he did. The elf said that some plans had been interrupted by the sandstorm, and that in the basement there was a path to some underground chasms, and that answers awaited them there. The dwarf introduced himself as Stotgar. The shopkeep then mentioned that there was a killer of some kind prowling the city lately, one that alarmed even the Crescent Sisters. He also told the party that there were mindflayers in the chasm, and that Diana chose to hide down there because such creatures don't affect vampires. He finished by saying that Diana wanted to see if the Blades had what it took to reach her.

Mathew tried probing the minds of the four strangers around him: the elf's mind was silent, the human woman was ambivalent, the dwarf was excited to go into the caves, and the door guard rebuffed his mind reading completely. Nadira wasn't pleased of the idea of having to go underground, and she asked to bring up the rear for the group.

Stotgar the dwarf seemed rather chipper and ready to go kill some mindflayers with his crossbow, which he had named Matilda, and then tried to comfort and encourage Nadira when she voiced her worries. The door guard fellow dressed in orange handed out torches and joined the group on their way down into the depths. They were immediately faced with a choice of three paths to take, two with dangers known and one new even to their guide.