Star Trail: Left Behind

[Part of the Darklands of Arkania Story.]

No game is complete without sewer scum!

After selling the spare equipment the team's purse is back to 485 Ducats thanks to Paeroka's haggling skills. As soon as they leave the shop they are accosted by a group of beggars, who are desperate for food. The orc siege is definitely taking its toll as finding said rations within the town is almost impossible. Still, by principle these assholes are just bandits so the party murders every single one of the old starving losers on the street in broad daylight - just as they deserve. Maybe their corpses can feed the starving people who aren't bandit scum?

With money to spare now the team rests up and relaxes a bit the best way they know how.

Everyone left happy, even Pike's skeleton! :P

They then proceed to Dragan's contact who claims to know a secret way out of the city. Of course there's a catch, not only does the information cost three hundred ducats but the path, which lies under the headquarters of the Grey Wardens (is there a blight somewhere!?), is only accessible to half of the party members. The remainder will be forced to temporarily join the Wardens until the ones who make it out return with a Grey Warden who went missing in the swamp.

I hope he's not in the deep roads...

After drawing straws, Shintar and Wolfy are the ones who end up exiting via the secret tunnel that leads out to ruins in the nearby forest, past the orc camp. Zubon and Paeroka are left behind with the Salamander Stone, because it's probably safer in the Grey Warden fortress with all those soldiers and that orc army around it. I can only assume that the two of them were then forced into a blood drinking ritual, followed by lessons on how to fight a blight.

Star Trail: Going Deeper

[Part of the Darklands of Arkania Story.]

The first few levels are sprawling and mostly devoid of life, yet Paeroka manages to get her hand jammed into a rusty bear trap while unlocking one of the many old chests there and catching some unknown malady. On the plus side is there seems to be a surplus of magical strength girdles in here. On the third level down their path is blocked by a five meter pit which the agile rogue, Antharon volunteers to jump across first.

What agility!

After Wolfy retrieves his corpse (which leads me to ask why they couldn't climb down the pit then up the other side) the team decides to look for another path and they find it in the form of collapsed tunnels on one side of the level. With only one shovel, Zubon pulled the short straw and was tasked with clearing out the rubble of stones and bodies of dead dwarves blocking the way.

LOL

Eventually they find a shaft that leads them deeper, and right into a chamber with four gargoyle statues that come to life! Obviously sculpted by racist dwarves the monsters all focus on Pike the Hare and tear him to pieces before the party can defeat the stone creatures. Further in there are also zombie dwarves, and a large basin of water that must first be drained to reveal submerged stairs underneath a heavy metal drain. Good thing Shintar packed a crowbar!

Star Trail: One Way Door

[Part of the Darklands of Arkania Story.]

With an Eastern heading since that's the direction the heard the "Dwarven Pit" was in, the team runs into more orc patrols and harpies who are easily slain. More problematic is their low food supply. Fortunately its only a few days before the team finds the not so hidden dwarf city of Finsterkoppen in the mountains where they stock up on rations. This is also doubles as the site of the Dwarven Pit but the racist dwarves guarding the entrance prevent Pike from entering. He simply circumvents this by using his magic to temporarily transform into a dog.

Nice doggy!

In the deeper city Paeroka convinces the local temple priest in handing over the key to the sacred pit before actually finding the huge doors that lead down to it. It's made pretty clear that the key mechanism is a one way deal, and those that go in would probably not be able to go out. Dauntless, the party proceeds in anyway, finding a decomposing skeleton right on the other side of the door.

They grimly all vowed not to end up starving to death like that poor sod.

Star Trail: Black Pelts

[Part of the Darklands of Arkania Story.]

In a surprising turn of events the Gashokian townsfolk bust into the inn the party is staying at and dragging them out into the town square, strip them naked and prepare to stone them to death for murdering one of their citizens. Fortunately a random person in the crowd (I'll say it's ex-party member Vayshen Panda because it makes more sense) discovers proof that the victim was actually a bad guy so the team is released but told to get out of town.

At least Atherion is more grateful, giving his magical bow and sword as reward for their actions. With that quest done the team continues South along the road coming across a wide river with an unmanned ferry. Since it was the obvious way across, they all boarded and set sail but soon discovered none of them actually knew how to steer a boat.

Sailing skill: zero.

Now totally dependent on Pike's foraging skills for food the team hurries to the next city and come across a rogue on the road, eating a sausage. He offers to join the party and since they are one man down they accept without question.

Antharon the sausage eater.

He's right about the "blackpelts" though: aka in these parts as orcs. The next city of Lowangen is under siege by a massive orc army so the team decides to head elsewhere.

Star Trail: Revenge isn't Murder

[Part of the Darklands of Arkania Story.]

While investigating the town, a Praios preacher approaches the team and manages to convert Vayshen Panda who immediately quits the adventuring life and leaves the party in one of the most WTF moments ever.

Converted!

They also discovered a burned down mill in town that once belonged to an elf named Atherion. Apparently he was chased out of town by the Order who were unsuccessful in killing him. He has since been hiding out in the nearby forest and is pretty easily found after sidestepping an angry bear.

I'm a bear!

Atherion wants revenge on the Order's mastermind and since that lines up with Pike's revenge plan for getting shot earlier on, the team return to Gashok and discover that the Order only started up in force with recent arrivals. It takes a bit of questioning and sleuthing to work out which of the three men is the actual leader and eventually they narrow it down to a single name, then they did what adventurers do best.

They bust into his home and murder him.

Star Trail: The Order of Anathema

[Part of the Darklands of Arkania Story.]

It's not long before the team encounters an orc scouting party and makes short work of them. Same goes for a random, towering forest gnome that decided to attack during the night. In this game you can skip the "tactical combat" screen entirely and just watch a small "fighting" animation which really speeds things up!

Everything is an orc with a sword.

There are also other random elves spotted at the tree line but they seem very guarded so the party just walks by peacefully and into the next town of Gashok.

Just keep on walking...

Almost as soon as they enter the town a bolt flies from one of the shadows and injures Pike greatly. Fortunately it's nothing a few nights at the inn can't fix but it becomes abundantly clear that non-humans aren't welcome here. This mentality is being pushed forward by the hard core cultists of Praios (the "true " god). Zubon even happens to catch a glimpse of their stupid outfits while patrolling the streets one night.

Oh good, radicalized religious nutters.

Star Trail: It's an Axe

[Part of the Darklands of Arkania Story.]

Staggering out of the bar the team begins their quest, but quickly find that Zubon and Wolfy have inexplicably lost their pants. The local townsfolk react accordingly.

How the pants disappeared remains a mystery!

Fortunately the market is currently in town so after buying new leggings for the two as well as other adventuring supplies which Paeroka successfully haggles down the price for, the team decides to nap at a local inn before heading off. There, a strange burglar breaks into their room but instead of stealing anything he requests the group to recover the magical throwing axe named Star Trail and return it to the temple of Phex, from where it was stolen. It's quite ironic that the god of thieves keeps getting stuff stolen from him.

With two quests to do now it's finally time to leave the city, following the main road South. They don't get very far before running into a warrior who had also been looking for Star Trail, but had grown disillusioned with the quest. While he doesn't really give any hints as to its location he does mention that some lizards have been turning towns of elves into orcs? Not sure what's up with that.

Greed, the ultimate adventure hook. :P

Star Trail: Summoned by Elsurion

[Part of the Darklands of Arkania Story.]

With our heroes celebrating their victory by drinking themselves into daily drunken stupors, the one eyed thief Harika took advantage of their trust and left - taking at least two thirds of their combined wealth with her! There was no time to pursue her though as a messenger arrived for them, requesting their immediate presence at the distant city of Kvirasim in the Northern inland. The orc horde that was turned from Thorwal was now marching in that direction.

After days of travel they finally reached the city where they met the elf Elsurion Starlight at a local tavern. Elsurion's plan was to unite the forces of dwarves, men and elves against the orc invaders and  to do this, he would need the Salamander Stone - an ancient artifact that once symbolized the union of the races but has since been lost in the Dwarven Pit. The team was tasked with recovering the stone and delivering it to a dwarf leader named Ingramosh. To assist in this, Elsurion assigned his trusted henchman Pike the Hare to guide the heroes before he himself left to do other duties.

Yes, by us! Or are you talking about that other uprising in the Northlands?

As soon as Elsurion was out the door a random bystander immediately made a counter offer of 1000 Ducats for the stone to be delivered to a lady at Lowangen instead. The team, now composed of Paeroka Bookah, Zubon Ratkiller, Vayshen Panda, Wolfy Eyes, Shintar Winter and Pike the Hare, mulled over their choices the only way they knew how: By getting absolutely drunk.

Not shady at all.