Reclaiming Paphos

After talking with lady Alagondar you make your way to the dock to take a boat to the island. The island is near the far shore and houses a large fortress manned by undead soldier that are to not be attacked unless you wish to die a horrible death and gain an afterlife as their prisoner. The fortress itself is safe enough as long as you obey the undead soldiers, some of which can talk, and do not break any of its rules. A few scouts have stayed the night but none enjoyed the experience or wish to talk of it.

The island is wooded and other than the fortress has only a cemetery on the north end of the island. The cemetery used to be infested with aggressive undead but the necromancers creating them were driven off and the cemetery reconcentrated.

Before the cemetery was cleared this island was used to let new scouts and guards get some combat experience. During that time they crafted a simple "dock" with a couple logs and planks tied together and your are dropped off there. The boatmen inform you they will be back at noon and an hour before dusk to pick up any wishing to return to the docks. As you step of the docks onto the island itself you feel an odd sense of foreboding as if being watched by someone, or something, that doesn't want you here. The tops of the fortress towers can be seen over the trees to the north west and you begin making you way there.

Moving into the clearing that surround the fortress surrounded by a nearly palpable dark aura that chills you as you stand there. The west gate open but manned by a squad of 4 undead in plate armor. As you approach the undead turn their helmed heads to watch and you hear one call back into the open gate. A tall pale man in leather armor and an officer's uniform walks forward to greet you. As you near you notice his eyes are black with red pupils and he greets you with a smile, revealing unusually pronounced canine teeth.


Welcome. The commander has ordered that the courtyard and smithy are free for your unescorted use. However before entering each of you must give your parole not to attack any of the guards, enter restricted areas which are guarded, or damage the fortress or any of it's facilities. If you will give me your bond to obey these restrictions you may enter. And he gestures into the fortress while glancing at you with a bit of curiosity and expectancy. His accent is unusual, sounding archaic and formal, but not too different from the common speech you all use.

The Safeguard was your basic city guard, Other than monitoring and trying to eliminate local crime they also were responcible fot the ar2ea outside the sity for about a days ride and acted as a millitia should the city fall under attack. The Legion as the primary military force was primarily focused outside the city anf focued on foreigh threats while the Safeguard was more directly under the councils control and focues o internal issues.


You stay until just before noon then after putting everything back Geis escorts you from the building. Together you make your way to the islands "dock" and await the boat to take you balk to town. The boatmen and guard are curious about your new cloaked companion but seem to assume he is another adventurer who turned up at the castle.

Maing your way through Ne Paphos you can tell from the way Geis moves and turns his cowl that though curious he is nervous in the crown and moves to avoid contact with anyone. Moving through the western gate you make your way through the grass fields and into the swamp using the now much improved road. Though still a simple dirt track the repeated traffic has packed it down making the trek relatively easy. As you near the western edge of the swamp you start looking for, then find, the smaller trail that will take you to Dean. The track has a clear marking but is small and little use. You follow it to a rough log bridge which you cross to a small island to find a crumbled strcture with a section cleared to reveal stairs leading down to a well maintained and cleaned basement.

Descending the stairs you find your way lit by small magical lights and are greeted by a several tiny golem that open a door as you aproach. Inside is a large room with several side side rooms. The clicks of the tiny golems moving about almost hides the steps of a largr golem who walks out of one of the side doors.


Good day to you Who are you and what bring you to my masters home.

Dean is unsure got far the item is from the node but will send a drone to help you locate it. If you agree to the mission he will teach you to control the city nodes. This will only work with authority. What you will have to do is "knock" on Dean's nice address and he will let you in on his authority. Once you have your own authority you can move on your own. But some nodes, like Dean's, are private and have additional requirements.

The drone is an odd looking figure. It's body is 4 orbs arranged in a pyramid. Each orb has 3 appendages that look to be able to act as feet, arms, or a head like appendage.

Dean takes the scroll and examines it. Thank you for your assistance with this.

He hands back a simple scroll. Opening it you skim the contents and learn the procedures that will need to be taken to gain control of a Paphos neighborhood, the Dock/Base or one of the remnants. Basically it requires a minimum number of people to reside within one of the neighborhoods, one of which must be recognized as a citizen or resident of the city, for a set period of time and then for the people to form an organization and select a form of leadership. You are confident that with the arrival of Lady Alagondar this should work and many of the requirements may already have been met. The expedition can likely sort out the remainder of the details in short order.

Both Aizashi and Skeeve feel a slight numbing from the tendrils where they were struck but both quickly destroy the tentacle. Arc Aims back along the tentacles and sinks two arrows into the area around their origin. As the shafts strike you hear them not hitting mud or some soft mushroom but a cracking sound as they penetrate something fleshy.

A worm-like creature erupts from the mound with part of its body still buried in the loose soil and fungus. It has multiple short fleshy legs alongs its length and 8 tendrils sprout from around its head, though a could are now mangled from your attacks.

Opening its mouth wide it raises its body high and emits a keening screech as a fluid is sprayed out over the group. Save test or become partially paralyzed, disadvantage on all rolls for 1 round After spraying you it flops down and lashes out with its tentacles once more.
1 damage to everyone and another save

Based on the activity you saw on the walls and the glimpse Arc briefly had over it it is estimated that going up in daylight would be far riskier so you decide to wait. Keeping the door open only a crack for some fresh air, augmented by a magical fan the Kaarik cobbles together in a couple of minutes, you settle down to wait.

As you rest you look over the items recovered from the pit and between Kaaric and Skeeve are able to identify their basic functionality. The book contains several chapters discussing magics with each containing a single spell while the wand contains only a pittance of it's previous might though it may be repairable. Popping out of the pack the ghostly kobold wanders off to explore the sewers and returns after confirming that they were standard for the city. Typically the sewer crawlers would not be that large and aggressive. I'm guessing they interbred with warborn monstrosities He chats a bit with you while you wait and pulls out some dice, proposing a game with wagers to while away the time while you wait.

If you want to play propose your bet up to 10 gold. Bets can be against just Geis or an open round with all participants contributing to the pot, winner take all based on their bet. (you bet 1 gold you get 1 gold per player) Geis will roll last.
Roll 5d6, up to 3 times by editing your post. Indicate in the successive rolls which dice are bring rerolled. set the visibility to "HIDE ROLL RESULT", and use yahtzee rules scoring, with everything but the "Chance" doubled on value, to determine the winner
Example below. Result 3,4,3,4,1 = chance= 15 or 2x4's = 16