Vhakizla – Chapter 10

"Summer of 67. Second Age. Vhak.
In my experience? Only two types of enemies that take the field, big or small.
First type’s your foreigners. These’re people who don’t live in the place they fighting over. That’s every conqueror, invader and mercenary. That’s us. And, in my experience, its the foreigners’ve got less to lose and therefore less to fight for. They don’t wanna die on some field they don’t know the name of, ‘cause somebody in a shiny hat told them or paid them to. Their fight goes only so far.
The second type are the homelanders. These’re people defending what’s theirs from everybody wants to take it. That means they’ve got everything to lose and everything to fight for. Dudn’t mean they always win but it do mean they never surrender.
The Commander was once a homelander. That were a long time ago.
Look far enough down the length of history, as I’ve done on these pages, and you’ll see it. Foreigners might win today but homelanders always win tomorrow. Matter of time."
– Beholder's Log, Gnoson 22 67 2A

When the groggy Remorhaz awakens before the rest of her companions, he is greeted by both good and bad news from the returning Girallon. They've located the tenement where the Sanguine are hiding but one of their patrols, the one led by Pudding, has gone missing and is presumed taken. Marshaling a very tired squad of soldiers, supplemented with a unit of mummified clergy, the mercenaries hurry to the Old Izla to storm their hideout and recover their troops.
When they investigated the scene of the abduction, the mercenaries realized their comrades were probably snatched by boat and moved deeper into the catacombs. When the infantry stormed the hideout, they discovered that the safehouse – crawling with Sanguine last night – was completely empty. It was Griffon who noted the curious boot-prints, with a type of mud found only in the Basins north of the city. It was finally time to go and confront Tem.
On the way to Basin 16, the Commander's Tent is waylaid by a curious parley. A living rat leads them into an abandoned villa where they bandy words with Calzok, a bride of Caliphar II and the vampire spawn who escaped their clutches last night. She tells them she has their troops held captive and, in exchange for their removing Tem as an obstacle to her power, she will release them. After taking a quick drink of Rem's blood, she disappeared, warning them that she'd already sent one mercenary back, as a gesture of good will.
Descending into the Basins, the mercenaries immediately knew something was wrong. Tem was allegedly not here and when the adventurers pressed, they were quickly attacked by the mob of angry farmers. It was a desperate battle, so heinously outnumbered. The rank and file mercenaries were quickly overwhelmed and only the mummified clergy managed to save them from utter defeat. In the thickest of the fighting, both Remorhaz and Griffon fell unconscious while Umber soldiered on and Mouse dropped cargo pallets down onto the throng.
When the dust settled, the mercenaries won the day and, interrogating a captive worker, learned of the secret passage, hidden in the stony walls of the Basin.

Campaign: The Menagerie
Game Date: Gnoson 22, 67 2A
Starting Point: Izla
Player Characters:

• Griffon
• Mouse
• Remorhaz
• Umber