Star Trail: Forceful Entries

[Part of the Darklands of Arkania Story.]

Town maps are always handy!

Lowangen is a pretty big place, and it takes a lot of leg work in trying to find anything in the city. Fortunately Paeroka somehow overcomes her illness on her own, but is permanently weakened by the experience. Eventually they find a man named Dragan who seems to have all the answers - only each answer requires a particular favor to be performed first - such as convincing the Vinsalter to help translate something and stealing a brooch from the local museum, a task Wolfy somehow manages to do without being detected despite making a lot of noise. These two acts serve as payment for finding Gavron, and finding a way back out of the city.

Not getting out the front way.

Apparently Gavron is known to frequent a nearby tavern but since the team never catches him there, they go looking for his "close acquaintance" instead: an elf named Ailan who lives in the Colorful Flight district. Who knew racial segregation could be so handy? Ailan's house is pretty well guarded though, so the party is forced to trade a number of the magical girdles they got from the Dwarven Pit for simple swords.

I think the armorer is into some kinky stuff.

Now armed, they bust into the queer elf's place and after a bloody battle where they kill everyone inside they recover a lot of food AND the Salamander Stone once again. Short on money and supplies the team then opts to go to Vindara Leechbromm's place to sell the magical stone (for the 1000 Ducat reward offered by the "bad guy" at the start) but find her to be unreceptive, shutting the door in their faces.

This is a bad move, for they are ADVENTURERS! The team busts down the door, executes everyone inside, and proceeds to take their stuff which inexplicably includes a second Salamander Stone!?

Star Trail: Evil Twin

[Part of the Darklands of Arkania Story.]

With Paeroka's condition getting worse the team rushes back down the mountain the way they came, heading right for the besieged city of Lowangen in hopes of finding a cure for her there. Wolfy notices that they are being followed by other parties as they cross the plains but there's a bigger threat ahead of them. The orc army camped outside the city was still there. Shintar tries using her challenge speech from last time, to "duel" their leader to the death, but it seems the orcs no longer follow that tradition and instead attack en masse!

Oops! Reload... :P

Using a calmer approach the team willingly submits to the orc army who are actually willing to let them into the city: for the simple price of all their gear. With no other alternatives the heroes strip once more and have most of their stuff taken away by the massed horde. The local shaman distrusts the few magical items they carry though so those are returned without issue. After the degradation of having a long naked walk up to the town gates with orcish laughter all around them, the team is let inside the city and are greeted by a crowd of people. One guy in particular looks pretty familiar.

Hmm, both options are actually true!

Antharon's corpse is quickly taken away by his brother, Gavron, who also proves to be a much better thief as he manages to swipe the Salamander Stone while doing so... AND gets away!? How hard is it to keep up with a guy carrying a dead guy? Sheesh.