Brief Recap:

Seige of Heklamar

Humphrey floats down to the top of the castle wall next to Bronk and Bardock and prepares his staff to fling lightning at the dark female. But by the time he lands, she has retreated well beyond spell range. Moving even faster than when she approached, she is nearly a mile away in only a few seconds, across the great body of the Githyanki host. Then her aura disappears.

With an aura of his own (one of smell), Blade sees her move by, a black and purple blur. His wyvern bucks wildly, arching its back and whipping its tail, which is armed with a poison stinger Blade remembers. He reigns it in and directs it toward the castle wall, and the animal reluctantly obeys, calming. He is beginning to like the wyvern, now that he can't smell it any more. The gore covering his body drowns out the smell of the animal he rides.

Ghotu sees Blade returning, and calls to the archers not to attack. Blade lands the animal in the courtyard behind the wall.

Blade unfastens the saddle of the wyvern and says "Fly away birdy, before I skin you for boots. " the winged reptile takes to the air and flies off iover the horizon. Blade jumps into the nearest horse trough to wash the stench and and gore from him.

The Githyanki on the ramp are killed by the archers and trebuchets, ending the attack. More gith regroup, ready to enter the ramp.

The seige lasted all day, and the defenders of Heklamar held out. The Githyanki host lost a great number, many of which were humans who either served willingly or were compelled by a great influence. They tried several different tactics: employing spells to fling fighters over the wall who tried to use psionic power to land safely (with varying success), bringing seige towers to the walls (which were quickly incinerated by the defending spellcasters), teleporting warriors inside the city (with rather poor accuracy), and other tactics less successful. But though they wore the defenders down by a third, they did not take the outer walls of the city.

The enemy halts their assault long after sundown, and the Great Eye sets on a weary company. As they exit the stairs leading from the wall, a soldier approaches and stands at attention, reporting: "The King wants you to report to his Council Chamber in two hours." The party goes to their quarters, what was once a private home in a rich section of town, now abandoned. They have time to bathe and eat before they go to the keep.

King Ozrik slumps on his throne. He looks very weary as the party stands before him, in the exact same spot on which they stood when they were "assigned" to go to the hill giant steading [see Turn 1]. But though the monarch is obviously weary, he wears a look of grim defiance.

"Heklamar cannot withstand this assault," he begins. The company knows the King is right. They saw many hundred defenders die or go mad from the Githyanki powers used against them. Though there were still defenders in Heklamar, they would probably not hold out another d

ay. The city had been evacuated of all non-essential military personnel just days before the Githyanki host arrived. Now there were mostly soldiers within, the company estimates over five thousand. But the Githyanki army numbers in the tens of thousands.

"I have begun the withdrawal of our forces into the mountains, and we will continue to evacuate the city through the night. The mountain passes are many, and the bulk of our forces can escape. There are many traps and ambush spots in the mountains, and many of the trails are rigged for avalanche once we pass through, blocking pursuit.

"I thank you all for your service to the Northern Kingdom, and to me. But my kingdom is nearly fallen." He sits up straight. "You may stay here as long as you like, defending Heklamar. I know that some of you call this place your home."

Humphrey says, "We must stay at least until midnight, to receive Egmund's message. Don't give up hope, King Ozrik. The magi may yet have some help to lend."

Ozrik nods and says, "Very well. Perhaps your magi can spare the southlands from our fate." The King gets a far away look, and says, "But I feel in my bones that the time of man has gone, and a new age is upon the Wurld. An age of darkness."

* * *

Humphrey sits in meditation, waiting to receive Egmund's message. All the preparations are set for him to receive the Dream Speak. After only a few moments waiting, he feels a call, and opens his mind to it. It is Egmund.

The communication is not exactly speech, but Humphrey receives impressions and thoughts directly from Egmund. And the thoughts he receives are both encouraging and discouraging.

Egmund has used the Wizarding Stone in his time traveling device, but it cannot yet let him travel through time. It still needs a power source for that, which the Wizarding Stone can't provide. But the device (with the help of the Wizarding Stone) has let him look across great distances of time and space. It mostly only lets him see the Githyanki, particularly Thae-Rune Ibn, former owner of the Wizarding Stone. The Wizarding Stone must be attracted to its old master.

By watching the Gith, Egmund has learned that there are now nearly a million Githyanki on the Wurld, with more coming every hour. They have fashioned a number of portals in the distant north, and have been moving a colonization force through it steadily since it was established. Since the Dark Queen arrived.

The Githyanki intend to populate the Wurld, and enslave the existing races. And they can't be stopped. Their military might dwarfs anything that currently exists. Even an alliance of all the Wurld's mages and kingdoms would not prevail against them.

The Dark Queen still resides deep within the Fire Giant Keep. But she sends out her spectre, a ghost of herself that can wield a small fraction of her power over a great distance, something like an astral projection. But the Dark Queen herself is coming south as the Githyanki horde advances. Where she travels, everything is slain except for Githyanki. Her aura is death. Against this, no magic can prevail.

But Egmund has also seen where the Obsidian Stone has been hidden. From a slain Githyanki priestess, Thae-Rune Ibn created a lich-like creature to guard the Stone. The Stone is located in a tomb. The Stone can also be reached from an interdimensional pocket connected to the tomb. This pocket is only accessible by Thae-Rune Ibn himself, and he can access it from anywhere. [The party has seen this, at least in cut scenes--when he pulls the stone from thin air.] But if the party finds the actual location of the Stone they can physically remove it from the pocket.

The last part of the message is almost as clear as speech to Humphrey: "If you can obtain the Obsidian Stone, I can use it to send you back in time--the machine needs its power to work, and it may only work once. You will not be able to come back to this future-- indeed, if you succeed in your task, this future will cease to exist and another will replace it. One in which the Githyanki do not invade our Wurld. I can send you to the last spot where you knew where the stone was--in the basement of the fire giant hall. Great magic was worked there. I can see it through my machine, like a beacon in time. It draws my vision, and it will draw you there."

Humphrey is given a mental impression of where the Tomb is.

* * *

Humphrey relates all this information to the others. [Brian, if Humphrey doesn't tell them everything, let me know and post what you say and what you don't.] Ghotu is reluctant to leave the city while any defenders still stand on the wall, but he is convinced that the Wurld cannot be saved by defending Heklamar. The only possibility is to find the Obsidian Stone, the original object of their quest. The party informs King Ozrik of what they have learned, and he equips them with all they need for the journey to the tomb, which is located off the western coast on an island. [Anyone who wants special equipment should post what they want. It is a tomb adventure, obviously, so plan accordingly.]

Bibi implores the kings to send with them any items he may have that will be helpful to them. "I realize that your people need protection now but for the sake of all humanity and every being of this world please grant us any advantage possible"

The party will have to make their way overland until they find a city that has not yet been reached by the Githyanki. The King tells them to make for Eldorath, a port city only a week's travel west and south. He gives the company papers commanding any ship of the Kingdom to take them where they desire--the tomb.

* * *

The company leaves before dawn by the mountain trails by which they entered Heklamar. From the mountainside, they see the Githyanki host preparing for a second day of attacks, and they can also make out humans moving into the mountains. Only a skeleton of the human defense still mans the walls of Heklamar.

The party exits the mountain trail and mounts their horses. They begin the ride west, to Eldorath, traveling on a rocky trail. Trees are sparsely located in the area, and snow covers most of the ground. It is predawn.

For the first hour they evade all encounters successfully. But just as they thought they were in the clear, a barrage of arrows falls upon them at a bend in the trail. Humphrey's and Bronk's horses are struck by arrows, and Bibi takes one arrow through her right forearm.

A war party of six humans wearing Githyanki badges on their armor descends on the party, drawing swords and coming out of the rocks and trees on both sides of the trail--3 on each side. Their weaponry is Kingdom, and the party can see the symbol of Thedrickstand Keep on their breastplates, but the cote of arms has been scratched out and covered by Githyanki runes.

Bibi looks at the arrow which has impaled her arm between the wrist and elbow. Blood flows freely from the wound, and fear mixes with the extreme pain of the wound. Her head starts to swim, and anger starts to build up in her. She feels a growl escape her throat. The world is beginning to turn black, like she is about to pass out. But she knows what the feeling really means.

Bibi leaps from her horse yelling a command for it to retreat. As soon as she hits the ground she breaks into a full run towards the men that fired at her, trying to but as much distance between herself and the party.

"IT seems these oafs are either traitors, or sufferoing from the same curse as your brother Bronk. Either way i have a cure for what ails them," Blade says as he draws his swords and awaits for them to draw near enough to attack.

Mog halts his horse and begins to cast a paralysis spell at the men charging from the party's right side. He will then Command another one of the attackers to "sleep."

Humphrey sends a web spell at three of the approaching bandits. He aims at the ones opposite those which Mog targets.

Ghotu sees the Kingdom symbols on the men's armor and realizes they must be under the same influence as Bardock. He hopes the men can be subdued, so that they needn't be killed. They are innocent. He hopes Bardock will give up some of his salve to the men.

"Try to subdue them, they are Kingdom soldiers," Ghotu says as the men charge.

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