The Objects of Power - A High Elf Warhammer Fantasy Quest

Character Info - The Shadow Orc

The Shadow Orc's history was completely unknown, even to himself. He had only ever seen himself as a prophet to Gork and Mork and has no memories before this, he was granted a magical stone which contained legendary powers which he alleged was from Gork and Mork themselves

The Shadow Orc's mission from his malevolent deities was to serve a mighty champion and spread the glory of Gork and Mork across the lands. Eventually he found that in the mighty Orc Warboss Lawrunz of Araby.

The Shadow Orc used his powers to assist Lawrunz in Araby in bringing the Bay of Knives to its knees. With the Shadow Orc's help Lawrunz carved himself a kingdom in the Blazing Desert with the people of the Bay of Knives being easy prey for his adventurous raids, and eventual conquest.

The Shadow Orc participated in the siege of the White Tower, where Lawrunz of Araby and the majority of his armies laid siege to a combined force of High Elves and Dwarves.

It was discovered that the stone he possessed that gave him his powers was the shadow stone, one of the individual pieces of the Amulet of the Eight.

The Shadow Orc was killed during the siege by Telar Nighstrider, Sindor of the Silver Helms and Elaine Swiftwind. The stone was seized by the High Elves upon his death.

Episode 65 - El-Nasir's Folly

Results from Last Episode - Seek mercenaries first at the Free Cities, beginning at El-Nasir's Folly.

It was decided to head to the Free Cities, not only did they have the widest collection of mercenaries available, they also had the added benefit of not being involved with the Sultanate of El Basra and therefore would lessen the chances of the Druchii learning of your location, something you keenly wanted to avoid in your depleted state.

The White Tower was magically sealed and the secret entrance was noted, in case you returned and found it occupied again.

You set out across the desert, it was about two weeks or so to El-Nasir's folly which was the closest of the Free Cities. You made it through the desert with little incident, your low troop numbers allowed you to consume the water without the need for rationing. This was something which your troops were grateful for, clearly remembering the time when you almost ran out of water on your initial trip. Like last time you travelled at night to avoid the blistering heat. You spent your free time teaching your officers Arabyan and beginning your wizard apprenticeship with Maldor.

Your magical lessons were spent doing breathing and meditation exercises that seemed pointless. Maldor stated you would normally be studying but he didn't have access to apprentices reading materials. You felt like you were going nowhere fast with this training method but Maldor was pleased with your progress

Eventually the sands of the Blazing Desert gave away to solid dirt. A great mountain range could be seen looming in the distance, this was likely where Gold Mountain and the Dwarves were located.

Small shrubbery began to appear which eventually turned into trees. Signs of habitation began to show, you were now following crude roads and passed through a few scattered hamlets.

The humans retreated to their dwellings and gazed suspiciously as you passed, they most likely had never seen an elf before and you were told the natural human reaction was distrust. Considering the Bay of Knives had exposure to the Druchii you supposed they were justified in their suspicions.
As you moved closer to the settled areas the landscape changed to trees and grasses. Formalised farms were now present and you could see the occasional outpost or watchtower, the roads had more traffic on them and various humans either fled upon your arrival or stood their ground and stared with hostility.

Whilst moving through a village a small human stood behind his mother as you passed, the boy peeked out from behind his mother's skirt and gawked at you with bewilderment. You smiled as you moved by, he smiled back.

Eventually you found the city.

EL-Nasir's folly sat astride the Gold River, a wide and deep waterway that stretched some one hundred feet across. The city was divided into two sides of the river and several bridges of varying quality stretched across. The river was loaded with barges and small sailboats and you could see various warehouses on the shores inside and outside of the city.

The city was walled but expanded well beyond their protection, grain and other produce farms surrounded the city and continued up and down the city. You assumed the El-Nasir's folly was once an isolated keep or fort that was repurposed as a trading town grew around it. You estimated that perhaps three thousand people permanently resided within the town itself, it was far less grand than El-Basra but on the other hand appeared much newer. It was a town on the rise for sure.

You were greeted at the city boundary by a large number of worried looking guards. They spoke to you and you conversed freely in Arabyan which they seemed surprised at. Your measly force was of no real threat to the El-Nasir's folly and you were permitted lodging on the outskirts of the town along the river, you figured it was best to keep your elves separated from the humans as much as possible and only a small amount of you were to enter the town itself in your company.

You entered the town with Telar, Maldor, Bakrat and five Silver Helms. Skoren and his ironbreakers were free to do what they wished and they entered the town as well to seek trade agreements for their kin.

The people of the town lined the streets as you passed and you spoke with various merchants to see fresh provisions for your soldiers. Whilst wary of you initially, the merchants understood the language of coin and once they determined you were good for it they were happy to provide their services.

You made enquiries into the availability of mercenaries and were disappointed to find only a single company of light infantry,known locally as "dervishes", were available. You met with their pay officer to discuss their services and negotiated a suitable deal. As a result of this you acquired the services of two hundred men who were equipped with curved swords, small shields and each carried two to three javelins.

Telar seemed unimpressed with the soldiers after viewing several of them and warned they would melt away under pressure from heavy infantry or cavalry. Regardless you were lacking a front line and any bodies to fill it will do for now.

According to the paymaster the majority of the mercenary companies had moved to the south due to a lack of conflict in the area. The town however was flooded with adventurers, dozens of small parties made of a hodgepodge of races and personalities.

You made further enquiries and learnt that a famous Tilean explorer named Humberto Bolognesio was in town. The explorer was planning to launch an expedition into the Steaming Jungles in search of the lost city of Tlaxoatl, an ancient city said to be made of pure gold. Many tried to look for this city before but it is alleged that Huberto has found a secret map revealing it's location whilst adventuring in the dreaded heart of the Southlands. Humberto's expedition numbered two hundred and it was soon ready for departure, the adventurers were in town hoping to gain a spot amongst its ranks.

You spoke to Bakrat about this alleged city of gold, the city had been rumoured to exist for centuries but none have ever managed to find it. Few who entered the steaming jungles ever returned and there was little information on what laid within. The only safe method of passage into the interior of the jungle was via the Lost Outpost far to the Southwest. The fact that this explorer was even attempting entrance into the jungle at this location was either utter lunacy or there was at least some credit to the theory that he was in possession of some type of unique map or guide.

You considered these options. The stones of the amulet of the eight were spread across the Bay of Knives by King Khalfani long ago, likely so the amulet could never be re-assembled. If you were going to hide a magical stone so no-one could find it, the middle of an inaccessible jungle would be high on your list of places.

Then again if it was inaccessible now it was likely inaccessible back then too Could you risk wasting time traversing around the jungle on no more than a minor guess?

According to Bakrat accessing the jungle was from any area other than the Lost Outpost was nothing short of suicide, was their credence in what was said about this Humberto Bolognesio? Could he indeed possess information that others in the past had not? Would he be your best bet into piercing through the heart of the jungle safely?

You knew that all that was required was for you to be in the general area for the stones of the amulet to detect each other, once the amulet stones interacted with each other it was only a matter of time before one was located.

On the other hand you were still desperately low on soldiers, you were now relying on humans as the core of your army. Two hundred light infantry were not going to defend your archer and artillery core if you were faced with a determined enemy. Maybe you should concentrate on your military before searching for the stones, you already knew where one of the stones were, somewhere in the Blazing Desert. You had no concrete information at all that a stone was contained within the Steaming Jungle, only a loosely formed theory.

And what of the adventurers? Whilst unreliable from a military context adventurers could perform tasks which soldiers could not, such as odd jobs, deals and small matter tasks. Would it be worth hiring a few parties to perform such roles? Adventurers were not beholden to any form of contract like mercenaries were so if they were allowed within your ranks they could cause you all types of trouble.

What do you do?

……………………………………………………

Choice 1: What direction will you take?

[] C1 Option 1: Meet with Humberto Bolgonesio to discuss your forces taking part in the expedition. Your primary goal was to use it as a vehicle to search the Steaming Jungles for one of the magical stones.
[] C1 Option 2: Focus on your military and head south towards Qatar to purchase more mercenaries.
………………………………………………

Choice 2: What do you do about the adventurers?

[] C2 Option 1: Hire some, they may be useful later.
[] C2 Option 2: Leave them, they are more trouble than what they are worth. You can always pick up more in any major city or town if you ever need them in the future.

…………………………………………………….
Changes as a result of Previous Choices


You have gained a career! Apprentice Wizard
Skills: Speak Language (Arabyan),
Inventory Change: Magical Sword (bonus in fighting checks)
Low Quality Magical Staff (small bonus to casting spells)
The lifestone (massive bonus to casting petty magic and magic from the Lore of Life)

Relationship Changes
Hadrir Oakenshield +3 (likes you)
Skoren Oakenshield +7 (friend)
Maldor of Saphery +2 (now +5, strongly likes you)

Pics: A Dervish

Episode 66 - Humberto Bolognesio

Results from Last Episode: Meet with Humberto Bolgonesio to discuss your forces taking part in the expedition. Hire adventurers for use later.

You made enquiries into Humberto and learned he was out of town and would return in four days, apparently he was finalising the groundwork for the expedition.

You hired forty five adventurers, spread amongst teams of five or so. Most were Arabyan men, the rest were a few Arabyan women and a sprinkling of men from other human cultures. There were no elves and dwarves among them.

With the adventurers came a wide variety of skills. There were strong fighters, roguish thieves, con artists and even a few wizards. Security was tightened in the camp, especially around the command tents and storage. Each watch was supplemented by at least one Shadow Warrior, if anyone was going to catch a thief it would be them. Various magical alarms were put in place around your treasure in case of rogue events.

Your elves did not respond well to the influx of humans amongst your forces, with most of your elves showing more distrust towards the humans. Particular attention was paid towards the adventurers, if trouble was to be had it was going to be with them.

Supplies were replenished, the troops were rested and eventually Humberto returned to the town of El-Nasir's folly.

You had gathered intelligence on the "great adventurer". Allegedly Humberto had uncovered untold riches and monuments across Lustria and most recently, the Southlands.

For all intents and purposes he seemed quite well known and was most likely a person of notoriety in his home country of Tilea. He was rumoured to be both handsome. charismatic and reliable, hence the large quantity of adventurers seeking entrance into his ranks.

You met some of his expedition too, hardened Tileans who were the core of his force, his conquistatori. The conquistatori were made from a collection of sword and shield infantry (called rodeleros), crossbowman and the odd handgunner or two. All attempts to speak to them were largely shut down; they appeared to be entirely loyal to Humberto and would not trade any words with you.

You did manage to speak to the packmen who were mainly comprised of local Arabyans. All seemed motivated by the expedition but perhaps more in terms of payment as opposed to success rate. As expected they were not told the specifics of what they were going to do. Regardless, Humberto appeared to be offering very generous wages to whoever he selected to accompany him.

Eventually you met Humberto in a tavern upon his return. Humberto was a beast of a man. He was somewhere in his early forties, with dark shoulder length hair and an exaggerated moustache and goatee.

Humberto was barrel chested and wore his billowy shirt mostly unbuttoned so his ample chest hair was on full display. This combined with puffy pants made him look utterly ridiculous. This observation was clearly not shared by the half dozen townswomen and wenches fawning over him. Maybe it was a human thing?

Humberto almost spat his drink out upon sighting you. As usual you were flanked by Telar, Maldor, Bakrat, Sir Herron and a small group of Silver Helms. You would have struck an impressive sight to anyone, even a dwarf.

Then you realised he was looking at you in particular. You groaned inwardly, he was one of those. You supposed It could hardly be helped, now that the bandages on your head had been removed and most of the swelling and discoloration had gone from your nose and eye you were more or less back to your normal self.

You intended to use his infatuation to your advantage in determining the validity of his expedition.You approached him alone and in a friendly manner, introducing yourself in Arabyan. Fortunately he replied and the two of you conversed in the local language.

*Persuasion Check passed*

Humberto took a keen interest in you, it was easy to deflect his questions into meaningless answers while on the other hand you stayed well on topic. You indeed learnt that the expedition relied on an ancient map recovered elsewhere which would guide him to Tlaxocatl. As a result of this Humbeto had put together a team of expert jungle specialists from across the new and the old world to help him achieve his task.

Normally access to the Steaming Jungle was not possible from El-Nasir's folly due to heavy swampland. Humberto had allegedly found a way across it, from where he would ferry his force down the river and establish a base camp towards the interior of the jungle, something that no-one had done before.

Humberto's expedition numbers were around two hundred and fifty. The expedition contained over one hundred conquistatori, a few local auxiliaries and the rest engineers and supply men.

You expressed that you would consider joining him and that you were not interested in claiming a large portion of the wealth as you only sought one particular item. You suggested that you share the base camp and use your combined forces to help scout the jungle together. You would be looking for your item and he was looking for Tlaxoatl and you would share information in regards to your findings. Humberto admitted that the your forces were large enough to provide protection whilst being small enough to not be overtly unwieldy within the jungle itself.

Humberto pondered for a time before finally agreeing that you could join, his only condition was that you commit to the expedition for at least two months, and you were only entitled to a quarter of the share of whatever wealth was located during your tenure. You attempted to negotiate a better deal but it was refused, this was fine to you as you were not short on wealth to begin with and amassing it was not the purpose of your foray into the jungle. *hard persuasion check failed*

You considered these options. The Steaming Jungle was large and the interior was completely unknown, two months was not an unreasonable time frame to spend searching for one of the magical stones in a jungle of that size. You didn't actually know if a stone was in there and you were only operating on a hunch that one could be.

Despite his hubris, Humberto was an experienced explorer and had a team of seasoned experts familiar with the jungle. You and your elves had absolutely no experience in this environment at all and should you ever wish to return to the Steaming Jungle you would have to launch and fund an entire expedition by yourself in the future.

Then you considered the time frame. Did you have two months? Could you stand living in an inhospitable environment for that long? The only advantage you could see in trudging around the jungle was it would eliminate the place as a potential stone location, or preferably find one. You also considered a second option. Whilst the potential for danger was high, being in the jungle may actually be safer than being outside of it.

Whilst in the jungle you were free from whatever obstacles you may face whilst moving freely around the Bay of Knives. Reinforcements from Uthuan were expected in about three months and if you spent the majority of the time in the relative "safety" of the jungle you may just live long enough to see them.

Your combined forces would total around seven hundred souls, with the majority of them being combat forces. Food and water should not be much of an issue, unlike the desert so combined with rations you could live in the jungle for quite some time. The biggest issue was disease, which Elves were somewhat resistant towards. Your human allies on the other hand, not so much.

But then again with a place which is reported to be so lethal as it was, jungle diseases were likely far from the worst thing you would find within.

What do you do?

Choices

[] Option 1: Join the expedition and commit to two months in the jungle

[] Option 2: Leave El-Nasir's folly and miss the Humberto expedition for good.

Pics: A Rodelero

Episode 67 - Welcome to the Jungle

Results from Last Episode - Join the expedition and commit to two months in the jungle

It was decided, you agreed to the conditions set by Humberto. Extra supplies were purchased, in particular herbs and medicines, and two days later you set out.

Your expedition headed northwest and you discovered the impossible swamp and marshes that prevented most from entering the jungle proper. The entrance to the jungle was surrounded by a barrier of mud so thick that no person could safely walk through without sinking. The mud barrier was at least a kilometre in width and stretched for almost the entire Gold River.

Despite this Humberto still managed to navigate it, he explained to you that there was a window of about three weeks of the year where the swamp receded to a level where it could be nominally traversed in certain locations, and of course he knew where they were.

Humberto would send his guides through the mud, prodding with long sticks. Where his men would walk, others would build a wooden walkway above the mud. It was slow going but after four days Humberto achieved the impossible. He made a supported walkway across the swamplands that was strong enough to ferry his wagons, pack animals and soldiers. And he did it without losing a single person to the sinking.

Humberto explained that this bridge was one way and within the next two weeks, the rains would raise the water and mud levels and the makeshift walkway would wash away, closing the exit until the next year.

With that the expedition entered into the jungle itself, you had entered the north east section of the jungle, close to the Gold Mountains. Hummberto's plan was to pick up a major river that runs from Sultan's Falls, build rafts and then ferry the expedition inland.

A makeshift basecamp was established as the expedition put to work felling trees and building rafts of all sizes. Canoes (which Humberto had brought with him) were launched downstream to scout out the river for potential hazards.

You were impressed with the work ethic of the expedition and even insisted your elves assisted, much to their protest. You reminded your elves that the expedition was to be built and trust and cooperation. There were those amongst your ranks who viewed the humans as servants or perhaps slaves to a certain extent. You stressed the importance of teamwork and that the elves would be relying on the humans for quite some time. At least until the reinforcements came from Ulthuan.

The canoes returned and confirmed there were no water obstacles ahead, at least for a time, and the expedition continued down a great wide river into the heart of the jungle.

The river journey took several days and you camped on the river each night. The sounds of the jungle were like nothing you ahd heard before, in truth the jungle sounded more alive at night than in the day and it was difficult to sleep.

Humberto and Telar were taking no chances with security either and each night in camp as much as the jungle as possible would be cleared away and small defensive positions were built and the watch was diligently set.

During your time with Humberto and his conquistatori you determined he was in fact, the real deal. Yes he was a braggart and an "adventurer", representing everything negative in that connotation, but there was no denying he knew his stuff.

Despite this you found him too loud and boisterous for your company and tried to avoid him where you could. In your free time you continued teaching Arabyan to your officers and continued your magical studies under Maldor.

Every night you completed the pointless meditation exercises under his tutelage and he taught you the arcane language. The most regular exercise you were taught was the basics of channelling and drawing in the winds of magic, the first part of any spell.

Maldor would have you meditating or performing flowing hand gestures, while chanting the arcane. He would have you doing this for hours and he encouraged you to practise whenever you had free time. You were grateful these lessons were conducted in the privacy of personal tents as you were convinced you looked like an idiot whilst doing them.

Maldor would have leaves from a tree scattered on the table, the purpose of the channelling exercise was to manifest the winds of magic in a physical component, the idea being that when the winds were channelled the leaves would be disturbed. You tried for hours over multiple days at this task however you were unable to achieve any results and were at your wits end.

Then one day, the leaves moved slightly. You couldn't believe it, you completed the channelling exercise again and sure enough the leaves on the table shifted slightly. You continued to chant and eventually with a gust of wind that rattled the tent, the leaves were violently thrown up and scattered about in a triumphant mess. You did it!

"You're a wizard Elaine," you said to yourself smugly.

You demonstrated your new ability to Maldor and he was suitably impressed, he stated the next step was learning the basic cantrips that most mages can do. You looked forward to the new set of challenges.

After the fourth day of sailing the forward scouts returned and stated the rapids ahead were too dangerous for the larger rafts to navigate. It was now decided that a permanent base camp would be established as it was estimated you were now somewhere towards the centre of the jungle. Landfall was made and the camp was set up. Humberto wanted to call it Camp Antonia, after his third ex-wife. You accepted this as, quite frankly, you didn't care what it was called. You were after a stone of power, not glory in exploration and riches.

Scouting parties were sent out and returned stating that no immediate threat was detected. The jungle was cleared and felled and palisades were constructed. Hunting groups were assembled and the first of the exploration parties were assembled.

Each exploration party would consist of about fifty people of a variety of skills, they would be sent out at a maximum distance of about three days from basecamp. They were to return to basecamp at the end of this stretch and report what was found. If there was something of significance located they were to return and fetch the senior members of the expedition to investigate it.

The jungle was divided into quadrants, north, east, south and west. Humberto and yourself would each be responsible for searching one quadrant at a time. Since there was no knowledge of what lay in any direction you decided to take responsibility of the Northern quadrant. Despite having seven hundred or so members in the expedition, this did not acquaint equal portions of exploration parties.

The expedition first had to attend garrison duties, building parties, river exploration and hunting and fishing teams. On top of that they had to cycle in rest and recover. You could therefore only muster two exploration teams each at one time.

Before you had been traversing rivers of the jungle with relative speed. Now you were in the thick of the jungle, with progress through the inland itself being relatively slow, so having troops three days away from camp at a time would not actually be as far as one would think. The parties quite literally had to hack their way through the undergrowth to make any sort of progress, so initial exploration would be slow. If a party ran into trouble they were to either retreat or send a messenger back and ask for reinforcements.

Humberto decided to take the western quadrant and was among the first to enter the jungle. You needed to decide whether you personally would lead an exploration party or were your services better performed in camp.

The stones of power seemed to react to each other when in the general vicinity, so Maldor at least should always try and be with one of the parties. If an item was located it was to be recovered and delivered to yourself or Maldor, if a location of interest was located you or Maldor were to investigate it personally.

What do you do?

[] Option 1: Lead an exploration party. Both Maldor and yourself possessed a stone of power and therefore were able to sense them. The more of you out in the jungle with a stone increased the chances of you locating one quicker, plus it would set a good example to the humans that you were a frontline leader.


[] Option 2: Stay in camp. Your strengths were better used for managing and coordinating the resources and managing the camp. Leave the adventuring to the soldiers and the mercenaries. When they locate something you need to see, they will know where to find you.

Pics: High Elves patrol the jungle.