Fall of the Forraze
Darrowmar
In which the party puts an end to the Forraze clan on Darromar, and brushes up against the infernal source of their power. Also, The Mordrin has been been forced to alter the terms of her deal.
A few days travel brings the party to the vicinity of the home village of the Forraze, a place called Ferro. The walled town is a hundred feet from the base of a karst column featuring a glowing red cleft in its side, and burn patterns on the ground suggest that the cleft occasionally erupts enough to engulf the town.
The party climbs a nearby column to camp on the top and observe the town. Form their vantage they can see that the town is in a state of agitation - an older orange robed figure is striding back and forth all day, issuing orders to the townsfolk and what appear to be three assistants, younger men in tattered orange robes. The older man, near sunset, walks away from the town and into the cleft nearby.
Ramach casts a clairvoyance spell into the cleft to see what the man is up to. Inside is a large cavern, in the middle of which glows a large flame-filled shape, vaguely humanoid and many times the size of the old man on his knees in front of it. The shape seems to notice the clairvoyance sensor, and a bright flaming arm shoots out and destroys it. The party then sees the man running back to the town.
More orders are issued, and soon townsfolk are manning the walls and the three assistants are on the roof of what looks like a central temple, waving and chanting around a lit brazier. About 30 minutes later, a column of light flashes into the night sky form the brazier, and a large bonfire in the shape of a man and about twice as big comes out of the cleft, climbs the hill, and circles there. 30 minutes later another flash, and a second man of flame emerges, and circles the town. 30 minutes later, a third flash, and a third man of flame comes out and stands in the middle of town near the temple.
The party sits tight and waits it out. By dawn, all the men of flame have dissipated. The party waits longer, and observes what happens next.
That morning three groups of runners go out from the town, presumably to bring news to unknown others. That afternoon, the older Forraze walks into the cleft with 6 young villagers. Later, he emerges with 3 of them wearing orange robes.
The next day, a troop of 10 well armed men from a nearby clan arrive with one of the runners and set up defensively around the temple. That afternoon, the older Forraze once again brings a group of young men into the cleft, and fewer of them emerge as new Forraze.
Knowing that once a day the head Forraze is out of the walls with only young boys as company, the party sets up an ambush for the next day. They use the invisibility wand's final charges to get close to the cleft, and when the older Forraze walks over with a third and even younger group of new recruits, the party surprises him all at once. He is obliterated without casting a single spell, and as the alarm is raised in the town the party grabs the young men and runs back to the base of their own karst column to ask the kids some questions. They are followed and watched by a few townsfolk, but they do not attack.
The kids convey in their terrified way that the Forraze protect the town, but have recently suffered great setbacks. The head Forraze was taking new kids into the cleft to "be one with the flame", a procedure that has a fatality rate of about 50%. The town sent out three calls for nearby clans to bring armed protection - one sent the ten men and the other two clans are expected in the next day.
About half an hour after the alarm went up, a flashing column of light brightens the twilight sky, and the party knows that the remaining Forraze are performing their man-o-flame ritual again. Looking over towards the town, the party sees a man of flame emerge form the cleft, and begin to zoom straight for them.
A plan quickly emerges. Orosh will confront the flaming man and then lead it away, and the rest of the party is to get to the town, stop the ritual, and kill the remaining Forraze. Orosh rushes the oncoming flame, and then runs away. The man of flame follows, never quite catching up but slinging spells of its own, calling down great gouts of flame from the sky to slowly roast Orosh as he runs.
The rest of the party rushes the village. At the outer walls they are met with some firebolts and some regular bolts from the frightened and poorly-armed townsfolk. They break through quickly, and then join a running battle in the streets of the village with the armed clan who came to protect it and the newly-minted young Forraze, who seem to be able to do no more than stand on walls and rooves and rain down firebolts. Koros eventually breaks through to the roof of the temple, slaying the young Forraze performing the ritual and kicking over the brazier. At the same time, others in the party witness th distant man of flame dissipate to nothingness. The majority of the warriors are killed or knocked out, and the remainder eventually flee.
The ritual stopped and the last of the Forraze slain, Doran and Koros go search for Orosh and find his barely conscious and badly burned body laying prone in a nearby field. Revived by Doran's healings, Orosh accompanies them back to the village.
Before taking their leave, the party investigates the cleft. Akissi enters, and immediately comes back out badly burned. She says whatever is in the cleft spoke into her mind and asked her to be one with the flame. When she refused, arms of heat radiated out towards her and she ran. She reports seeing an alcove with a few chests on the other side of the cavern. Koros can't resist, and armed with a dagger granting protection from fire, he enters the cleft. He is in the cave for longer, but emerges - also badly burned but in possession of some gold, a sack of tattered orange robes, and a grab bag of minor magic items.
The party leaves the town to its recovery, and returns to the Anaxar's hold. They once again present themselves to the guards at the inner gates, and are once again told to wait.
While they lounge in the seedy ale-shacks of the outer hold, they hear the most recent exciting gossip. Two Arcanists flew into the hold a few days ago, and purportedly spoke with The Mordrin before flying back out again. Everyone has tales of humans being able to fly (supposedly the head Forraze could at times), but its rare enough that it creates a buzz. A cousin of a someone's sister's friend overhead the Arcanists berating The Mordrin about something she promised them.
That night, the same sickly girl knocks on the doors where the party sleeps, and leads them again into the woods, and again turns into The Mordin. She doesn't say much, but the party knows the game now and begins asking her yes and no questions.
She evidently cannot give them the body of Morran. Although it pains her to welch on a deal, she was recently reminded of previous obligations that take precedent. She warns the party again about certain powers-that-be that may be taking an interest in the newly active Lakesla on Darrowmar. She does, however, indicate that sometimes things do get stolen from her clan. She says that her clan does guard things well, and such thefts are never easy. She says she will be in touch about the paperwork.
Later that evening, a tired young boy delivers a stack of some kind of drawings, and on the last page is a crude map pointing to a location near the Traverton. The party understands that they have been given implicit permission to steal Morran's body back.
They grab their gear and head to a camp closer to the Traverton to scope out the new location and make a plan.