Session 10

Heroes: Meghera, Tarabas, Aonar, Vaako

While still in Heart's Faith, the Heroes receive a visit from the gate-town of Excelsior: Sir Vaimish Crasad, paladin of the Order of the Planes-Militant, wishes to hire them to follow the modron march, on its way from Excelsior to the gate-town of Tradegate. He fears that the Tacharim, an order of evil knights active in the Outlands, has nefarious plans about the modron, and he asks the Heroes to find out what is afoot.

The Heroes cross over to Excelsior with Sir Vaimish, where they can marvel at the golden roads and floating castles soaring in the clear sky. But they don't have much time to enjoy the heavenly town, as Sir Vaimish and his paladins march to catch up with the modrons.

Tacharim knight

Not too long after they begin to follow the march, the Tacharim attack. Under the cover of darkness, black-armored kights and fiendish yeth hounds assault the modrons in small groups; the terrifying howl of the hounds send both modrons and paladins on the run, while the knights capture a few modrons. The Heroes are unable to stop the bandits, who run away with their prisoners.

The night after, the Tacharim attack again, this time in much greater number. The Heroes realize that they cannot win this battle, but this time the villains have left an easy to follow trail behind them. The morning after, the Heroes leave the march, and they follow the Tacharim's tracks to an isolated compound.

They infiltrate the building, and discover the Tacharim's dark secret: they are performing brutal experiments on the captured modrons, removing their metallic parts, and grafting them on the knights, to create powerful abominations. With righteous fury, the Heroes slaughter as many villains as they can without attracting too much attention, until the leaders of this Tacharim enclave arrive to stop them.

The bariaur surgeon Yissa and the dark priest Sethetis, together with the mercenary fire grue Kr'ckcl, face the Heroes, but their abominations and their spells are no match for the Hero's prowess. Having killed the masterminds behind this operation, the Heroes manage to escape the compound in the nick of time. The fire spells used to fight the villains have initiated a chain reaction with the chemicals used for the grafting process, and the whole compound explodes in green flames!

As they watch the sickly smoke rising into the Outland's sky, the Heroes gather their things, and prepare themselves to travel back to the march.