Vhakizla – Chapter 1

“Qoza. Summer of 67. Second Age – and a dark day for the company. Speak the name ‘Chimera’ twenty years ago and it would have struck fear in the heart of any who heard it. Speak the name ‘Chimera’ today and you will get a snort, an eyeroll, perhaps open contempt. The good name of the Menagerie – if ever it had one – is now mocked on three continents. Only a fool would hire us now, our reputation in tatters. Brigandia, Memro, Tharzavok – fiascos three. It is our doom, I think, to malinger here in the rain-soaked ruins of Qoza while, in the north, our former patron – the Son of Tharzavok – crows to anyone who’ll listen about the Commander’s incompetence. And the Commander? Worse wounds I’ve seen that woman shrug off but from this? I don’t know that she’ll recover. It’s always raining in Qoza and its always raining on the Menagerie. A dark day. Perhaps the darkest that I’ve–”
– Beholder's Log, Athson 58, 67 2A

After an embarrassing discharge from the Son of Tharzavok's service, the Menagerie licked its wounds on Estu Island, in the rainy port of Qoza. After five days of liberal drinking and destruction, Griffon was presented with a bill by the Dignitary's innkeep that he, despite its prodigious length, nonetheless paid.
Down the street, at the wreck of the Zah Potency, Umber drank himself silly and accompanied a bemused pirate with a private keg on a search for the young mercenary Unicorn. Across the island, Remorhaz met with Basilisk at the Scorpion's Sting, discussing the company's financial plight while Mouse looked on. In search of Griffon, the two departed and soon, all four mercenaries met near the docks.
It was quickly deduced that Unicorn and his accomplices meant to use the pirate's keg – of alchemist's fire, it was revealed – to burn down the Scorpion's Sting for allegedly poisoning a member of the company. Before they could act on this, assassins attacked the Dignitary, attempting to force their way into the Commander's locked suite.
The mercenaries made quick work of the assassins, despite their poisoned daggers, and deduced that they were sent by the Son of Tharzavok himself, seeking to pay Chimera back for her humiliating performance. When they went to warn the Commander, however, they discovered her in conference with a wraith. They were horrified to learn that Chimera, in a drunken stupor, signed a contract with Vhakizla, Ondûn's first dracolich.
As they summoned Beholder to read the Thanasian contract, the Scorpion's Sting exploded into alchemical flame.

Campaign: The Menagerie
Game Date: Athson 58, 67 2A
Starting Point: Qoza
Player Characters:

• Griffon
• Mouse
• Remorhaz
• Umber