In the jungle PCs meet a renegade Daray freebooter, BB, being chased by a giant troll. Kill troll. Questioning reveals there is now a platoon of Lomari Pride of Nergal - the greatest warriors in the world - at the slaver fortress town. Reach the Fortress of Woe that evening, infiltrate via stream gates north of the fort, get into the wall towers and seduce/kill 2 lots of 3 guards; reach northern sea tower, wipe out the Reaver garrison of 10 and kill Captain Vilstrak, get 6000 gp from his treasure chest. Sever the boom rope and destroy the winch with Thunderblade.________________________
The Raid on the Isle of Woe (Part 1) Judith/Aeshma
With the launch hidden under the vegetation, we head through the jungle towards the Margish Slavers’ fortress. A couple of hours later the typical jungle sounds are drowned out by the din of a Dhari warrior crashing through the undergrowth pursed by an enormous troll. The Dhari cries out for help and we oblige, attacking the troll. The Dhari, BB McGinty, turns out to quite a skilled warrior but on his own would still have been outmatched by the monstrous troll.
As we rest after the fight BB tells us that he had been a mercenary in the employ of the Slavers but had been forced to run after killing another of their mercenary soldiers in a fight over a girl. He goes on to say that shortly before he fled, he observed a band of armoured Lomari disembark: forty of the Black Lions of Nergal, a Lion Priestess and their entourage. Even such a small group of such renowned warriors will stiffen the resistance of the Margish against the attacks of the combined Kal Zinan and Quodethi forces.
Soon the jungle thins and we reach a ridge line overlooking the natural harbour where the Slavers have built their fortress. A cluster of buildings are surrounded by a curtain wall about 15’-20’ high, punctuated by watch towers and ending in two larger towers that make high walls protecting access to the harbour. Looking at the two harbour towers, Aeshma thinks it likely that they support an underwater boom to defend the harbour, and that the boom will need to be sabotaged to allow the Quodethi galleys into the harbour to land.
The town looks like it holds a little over a thousand people but most of those are likely to be slaves held in large warehouses. The wall has a sturdy main gate, a smaller postern gate and a water gate that allows a small stream to run under the walls and into the town. With the vegetation having been cleared near the town walls we decide to use the cover of darkness and the stream bed to approach the walls.
Being stealthier than the others, Aeshma and Vorstag go forwards to open the water gate and are quickly joined by Zerda. The others soon join us and after we dodge a group of inebriated soldiers – with a little help from Zerda – we decide to use the walls to access the nearest harbour tower. Aeshma and a disguised Zerda, aided by their minder, Vorstag, con the guards into letting us in to the tower, while BB, Amos and Finnris wait the chance to follow.
Vorstag kills two of the guards while with equal speed Aeshma and Zerda kill the third before any alarm can be raised. We take the crimson sashes that identify the Slaver soldiers and start along the wall. Aeshma cons her way through the next two towers by pretending to be a new officer on an inspection patrol.
Soon we reach the harbour tower which is manned by a squad of guards who are both tougher and less gullible than the wall guards led by Captain Volstrak. He allows Aeshma and Vorstag into the tower to explain what they are doing. While these discussions under way, the rest of the party decide to find their own creative way to get into the tower: Zerda, disguised as a woman, convinces the guards on the parapet to throw down a rope to let her up while the others climb. Unfortunately there are more guards on duty than they expected and one is able to give the alarm.
Unsurprisingly the discussion downstairs are quickly curtailed by the alarm being raised and the increasing sound of fighting on the roof as Zerda is quickly joined by BB, Finnris and Amos. Taking advantage of the distraction Vorstag focuses on assassinating Captain Volstrak before he can join the fight and his men last only a few seconds longer. On the next floor down we find one end of the huge winch mechanism used for raising and lowering the harbour boom. Using the Thunder Sword Amos smashes it into unusable splinters and cuts the rope releasing the boom to fall to the sea floor.
With the main harbour defence out of action for at least a week we focus on getting back to the launch so we can alert the fleet to the presence of the Lomari contingent…
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| Isle of Woe Slaver Fortress |
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