The Cursed: Mobilization

[Part of the Cursed story line.]

The King himself shows up in the sewers to rescue his daughter, who somehow avoided being turned into ash. While he is thankful to Nesturs team for the aid, he can't trust them and banishes all of them, except Assagh who died from becoming a arrow pincushion, from Tilverton.

He's a very hands on King.

The rest of the team make their way up the road and eventually find an inn, but it is under attack by displacer beasts! Magic is used to slaughter the beasts but one of the tentacle cats manages to rip Thellaphes in two before it is put down. For their efforts, the inn keep lets them stay for free while they recover. During this time Nesturs orders Pendrianne to summon his other champions.

Wizard Phiruno and rangers Dynrigg and Faeris arrive in a few days, confirming that the others are also branded the same way and have started searching for a remedy across the land. Nesturs gives Faeris some instructions and sends him back as the messenger while Phiruno and Dynrigg join the party to do the same.

On their travels they come across a set of standing stones that are home to a strange old man. The fellow seems to know about their predicament, stating that they are servants to four more masters, the next of whom is to the South.

The Cursed: Stolen Massacre

[Part of the Cursed story line.]

The royal guards were no match for Nesturs team, but when they found the King absent from the carriage the bonds suddenly released and they were free to process what they had just done.

Before the rest of the guardsmen could reach them, a group of thieves *abducted* helped the team escape into some tunnels underground while the thief leader kept spouting on about a rival gang called the "Fire Knives" trying to take over and using the heroes to do their dirty work.

Thellaphes was just about to ask a question when a small army of said Fire Knives appeared and attacked, causing absolute mayhem as they dressed exactly the same as the allied thieves. To ensure that all enemies were slain, Nesturs made sure to kill everyone that wasn't of his original party. In the end, only he and his squad remained standing in the midst of the massacre.

They should have worn different armbands or something.

The Cursed: Hangover

[Part of the Cursed story line.]

Nesturs groggily woke in an unfamiliar room. Apparently, the anniversary "victory" party got very out of hand this year. A few of his compatriots, Commander Mencor and the wizards, Pendrainne, Thellaphes, Assagh and Eineron were here too and slowly rousing. It was then that Nesturs noticed that all of them had a strange, matching tattoo on their arms... and worse, Nesturs could feel that he was now mortal.

Whoa, that's a lot of ink!

Once they were all ready, they warily explored the hallway outside finding that they were in an inn at some place called Tilverton. Definitely not where the anniversary party started. They took to the busy streets right away, finding a large presence of royal guards patrolling with talk of the King visiting the town soon.

Nesturs didn't care about some piddling King. Instead, the group sought answers at the tavern, the sage shop and the temple but found nothing about their clearly magical tattoos. Now expecting the worst, Nesturs agreed to Mencor's suggestion of visiting the local weapon shop where they all bought the best equipment their substantial purses could afford.

As they exited they came right into the path of the royal carriage and suddenly were compelled to attack!

Eador: Masters of the Universe

[Part of the Masters of Eador story.]

With the dragon dead, the next few masters seem to appear in quick succession: Ranadil, a cloud elemental whose only concern is creating a world of oceans, "Nameless" the mysterious shadowy douchebag, and Magnus - the most powerful of the current masters, interested only in knowledge and not in defeating the chaos (by recompleting the world).

I wonder if he "knows" how much of a ass hat he is.

Wizard Eineron is sent to deal with Ranadil and his barbarian and archer armies and achieves this task easily thanks to the magic crystal rich land the elemental has cultivated. Thellaphes has a harder time against Nameless who is guarded by dwarven clans with siege weaponry and a tricksy poisoner but he falls just the same.

Meanwhile the brothers Niredor and Mencor are sent to confront Magnus whose massive lands are tough to navigate due to the mountain ranges inhabited by manticores and hydras. After a long struggle they reach Magnus' castle where Niredor casts a ritual of mass hysteria so that the defenders damage each other and lose morale pre-battle.

Despite that, the archer and centaur guards led by a fireball casting ranger are very tough. Niredor is arrowed to death in the brutal battle and the army of both sides wiped out. Mencor's squad then attacked from the rear and with no decent troops left to defend him, Magnus could do little before Mencor beheaded him.

Eador: Untethered

[Part of the Masters of Eador story.]

Sensing Nesturs rising power, Dorikos sends his dragon cultists to attack the mainland and Thellaphes is on defense duty. He gets off to a good start by befriending a djinn and finding a fireball scroll early but is then hampered in progress by a large ocean flanked by lands occupied by boulder throwing giants.

It takes awhile to build a shipyard large enough to make the crossing and Thellaphes loses most of his units on the shore landing but makes it to the enemy castle himself where the javelin guards give him no challenge. Dorikos retreats back to his world and Thellaphes follows.

Dragons, more OP than magic. Also immune to magic!

It certainly seems that Dorikos sent all his best troops on the offense because there's nothing that can stop Thellaphes from marching right to his front gate and destroying the dragon master's tether to the land, sending the overgrown lizard hurtling through space into the chaos.

Now is a good time to note that all dragons on Eador are immune to magic and are very deadly, which is why Nesturs forces tend to just avoid them. Fortunately Dorikos wasn't really supported by his kin, and ironically it was the dragons godliness (and tether) that proved to be his weakness.

Eador: A Voiceless Scream

[Part of the Masters of Eador story.]

With Dariol gone, two new masters appear in space. Herskil, the Emperor of the Sun (possibly the Lord of Light) and another ancient named Erdu who hates Ul-Dagan's guts. Sensing opportunity, Nesturs allies with Erdu and agrees to help him form his "talisman" that will help Eador somehow. In exchange, Erdu will send a strike team to Ul-Dagan's mainland, as he knows how to bypass the force field.

All that's left is to distract the ancient engineer, so Nesturs sends Cleeren and the wizard Thellaphes to a large unclaimed dead lands shard to try gain Ul-Dagan's attention and it works. Their "landing site" territory is lousy though - and surrounded by water.

Still, the swordsman rush tactic works well and lets them defeat the nearby local lord who seems to have a javelin fetish. Erdu's citadel is nearby and as planned, is so lightly defended it almost falls over on its own. With them gone only Ul-Dagan remains, and his lands are in such a hard to reach spot that it is easier to build a massive shipyard (bigger = more sea hexes crossed) to reach it.

Ul-Dagan's heroes are well prepared when they arrive though, and Cleeren is killed by a surprise fireball from a high level enemy warrior. Despite heavy losses Thellaphes manages to avenge the scout then push forward to Ul-Dagan's citadel and destroy it, evicting him from the shard and back to... nowhere.

Don't mess with Thellaphes!

The plan worked as Erdu's strike team captured Ul-Dagan's mainland, leaving the engineer screaming silently as he fell through space to his eventual destruction in the chaos.