The Arm of Pavis

Krogar contacted them again, scrounging money in exchange for information. He told the group about the Arm of Pavis, an ancient watchtower in the middle of the Big Rubble. It was in good condition and occupied only by a small (if competent) group of bandits called the Tarsh Gang. He persuaded The Company that it would make an excellent base and helped them plan their assault.

The Company carried out a textbook assault on the Arm and the fighting was over in minutes. They took several prisoners and released the gang's slaves. They explored a small dungeon that they found beneath the tower and, having made things secure, settled in for the night.

Their rest was broken when the alarm was raised in the middle of the night.  A horde of ghouls and zombies was emerging from the dungeon and had over-run the night watch. Mostly un-armoured, The Company and their allies desperately fought the undead horde for what seemed like hours before it was driven back into the dungeon.  Chun Li was killed in the fighting, ripped apart by ghouls, as were four of the recently freed slaves.

The Company were able to barricade the dungeon entry stairwell after a good deal of effort. Reinforcements arrived, a band of Humakti led by one of Lucifer's mates, and a mixed group of Sartarite warriors led by Krogar. The Company healed up, armoured up, and then re-entered the dungeon with their new allies. They fought their way down the corridors until they found a corridor that they had not discovered during their initial foray into the dungeon.

Resistance was especially fierce in the hitherto undiscovered corridor, but Lucifer and Fost were in fine form and hacked their way forward relentlessly. The corridor ended in a shrine to Vivamort and an especially fierce fight. The Humakti soon discovered through divination that the site could not be destroyed properly until they killed the shrines high priest. They desecrated it anyway and then left, using the spells of a friendly priest of Pavis to seal the tunnel. A length of corridor some 30 metres long was filled in with rubble (and warded by the Humakti), while guards watched over the workers. The Company searched for the high priest but without success.

Priests of Humakt arrived in the morning and sealed the corridor with a powerful warding spell. The Company settled into the Arm and began to get it repaired. Over time they renewed the fortifications and built several new structures within the walls. They garrisoned the Arm with some of their Orlanthi friends, some of the slaves they had freed, and a small band of trollkin that Serenity bought from a Kygor Litor priestess (Lucifer still claims that she just wanted to be able to look down on someone).

Shortly afterwards The Company met the Lunar Coders for the first time, a mild confrontation that persuaded the party to avoid them at all costs. Not that it was that easy, the interfering swine.

The Vomiter

After almost a season, The Company embarked on their next adventure. They were approached by the Zola Fel cult, who recruited them to help Baran the Monster Slayer kill the Vomiter, a gigantic eel that was threatening the small town of Corflu. He informed them that if he entered the Vomiter and found a specific point, he could kill it and then enter a heroquest.  He only needed them to protect him during the journey.

The party travelled to Corflu as quickly as possible and arrived just as the Vomiter was approaching the town. The Lunar garrison tried to defeat the beast but failed, even the huge dog statue that they animated to fight it had no effect. The town seemed doomed. 

Baran went to a meeting with the garrison commander and the party had a quick look around the settlement. Serenity went to the barracks and located a betting syndicate run by one of the senior NCOs, wound them up by boasting that The Company would kill the Vomiter, something that the 'pride' of the Lunar army couldn't do.

The situation rapidly got out of hand and before long she had bet all of her money (and a fair bit of other peoples as well), plus the groups riding animals (without asking), on the party succeeding at killing the Vomiter. The garrison was quite eager to offer great rates, convinced that they would never see The Company again if it did indeed assault the Vomiter (it appears that the chance to get almost 20,000 lunars worth of coin and animals was temptation enough to overcome their common sense- Serenity has a way of persuading people to do the most foolish things).

The Company and Baran then prepared for their expedition. They gathered kit together, acquired a large raft, and sailed off towards the Vomiter. The group managed to pass the dangers of the mouth, enter the Vomiter's gullet, narrowly surviving that part of the journey, and then travelled further in. They were assaulted by wraiths and strange water monsters but beat them all back and eventually reached the part of the beast that Baran wanted to get to so that he could kill it.

The Company held off waves of monsters while Baran started his rituals and he eventually slew the beast using his arcane knowledge and odd weapons. The death of the Vomiter allowed Baran to enter the heroplane and he promptly disappeared.

The Vomiter went into death convulsions and began to thrash around, almost destroying the raft and battering The Company. As it died, the contents of its stomach (including the party) were expelled, a huge tide of bile, rotting things and bits of ships. This knocked the entire party unconscious, but they had taken the precaution of attaching themselves to the raft using ropes and survived the last danger posed by the Vomiter.

They woke up to find themselves prisoners of the Wolf Pirates, who had found their raft drifting far out to sea. Their captors seemed fascinated by the tale of the Vomiter and they were taken to a coastal town (location unknown) and held there for a few days. Eventually the party was taken to a massive mead hall where hundreds of Wolf Pirates were feasting and partying. They were briefly introduced to senior Wolf Pirates (including Harrek the Berserk), told them the tale of the Vomiter, and were then allowed to join the feasting.

The next day The Company was granted its freedom and placed on a ship to Notchet as a reward for killing the Vomiter and the entertainment that they provided at the feast.

Several weeks and two voyages later, the party arrived back at Corflu. The garrison was surprised to see them; all had believed that they were dead. They also seemed reluctant to pay out on the bet, but eventually settled up when it was pointed out to the garrison commander that if The Company could kill the Vomiter then they could almost certainly take what was owed to them, a considerably more painful process for him and his men.  As I have said, Serenity can be very persuasive. Much richer, the party returned to Pavis.

The remainder of the year was fairly quiet. Most of it was spent training or performing cult duties.  Lucifer rode off into Prax to find his clan; Garak spent most of his spare time wenching. As per usual, this backfired on him. He managed to get the daughter of Alaric the Fat (a powerful Storm Khan) pregnant. Serenity promptly bullied him into marrying the poor lass, an act which reasonably mollified her psychopathic father.

Miko spent much of her time closeted away, learning arcane secrets. Kragle continued to spend time with priestesses of Kygor Litor studying for the clergy. His attempts to persuade fellow Company members to undergo the 'become a troll' ceremony fell on deaf ears (someone it appears, made their Uz Lore roll). Fost and Serenity spent much of their time working for their cults or training. Poina left The Company to rejoin her clan.

 (- Chun Li, Poina).