Chase

Background
Chase is a human ranger originally from the area of Misrim City in the kingdom of Rarkonir. Orphaned at an early age Chase learned to look after himself hunting in the woodlands surrounding Misrim. When Lord Farquis came to power it had little effect on chase, however the war like ways of the new ruler lead to Rarkonir needing a much larger and more powerful army. In order to dramatically increase the size of his army Lord Farquis came up with a cunning solution, he changed the laws of the land with little or no notice and then conscripted from the many people who filled jails after finding their previously legal actions now carrying a life sentence.

Needing skilled hunters and trackers one of the laws he changed was making it illegal to hunt within the forests surrounding misrim￼ city. Chase was soon caught and thrown into jail from where he was then conscripted into the army of Lord Farquis. As a Hunter Chase was drafted into the elite ranger division where he managed to escape the brainwashing forced upon the standard forces of the army. Although he didn't escape having to do terrible things in the name of Lord Farquis and his warring ways.

When the opportunity came many of the rangers escaped the service of Lord Farquis by mutinying and taking over a ship that was part of an invasion fleet. Chase was unfortunately not on that ship but was on one of the two ship's dispatched to recapture the runaway ship. Seeing his chance to help his comrades Chase managed to secretly sabotage the rudder of his ship causing it to collide with the other pursing ship, sinking both ships.

religion
Chase is a follower of the raven queen. The (pretty horrific) deaths he saw and caused during his time in the army caused him to turn to the lady of death. He believes he is serving her by giving quick clean deaths, this may lead others to view him as callous in the way he quickly dispatches his foes but he would rather give someone(or thing) a quick death than leave them to suffer in slow agony.

Mirranor Campaign Diary
Disclaimer: The following is chase's view of events and may differ from actual events and others views of what happened

Small beginnings
Chase woke to find himself surprisingly alive after the shipwreak and on the shore of a lake. Making his way inland after a few days surviving off the land he found himself at the village of Crompton, where he was employed by the innkeep tenjohn along with Joy, Mattsimus , and nili to find and kill some goblins that had been raiding the road to crompton. They where also joined by the possibly mad wizard Reginald.

After defeating the goblins the party was able to persuade Tenjohn and others in the village to pay them to attack a group of cultists that where also causing trouble along the road between crompton and Zorans Gate. After clearing Twin Pools Cave to the East of the main cultists keep Chase was able to infiltrate the cultists more by accident than design and poison their food with blinding mushrooms with some help from Jorasca the keeps apothecary. This allowed the party to subdue many of the cultists without much of a fight (but much ineptitude ;) ) This was also where Chase met Brandis and Heijeon inside the keeps dungeon. From which he was able to free them along with Reginald who had previously managed to get himself captured. The party was then able to defeat the cultists leader Issiel  in an epic and slightly weird battle. In which mattsimus was able to give the party and advantage by showing Issiel her breasts! The party then met up with a group of guards who took the surviving cultists to zorans gate. They then returned to crompton

After taking out the cultists the party had earned a bit of a name for themselves and where asked to help take out the bandits who where blocking the main route between crompton and Nymity City by captain von uberwald. Captain von uberwald tasked the party with attacking the bandit leadership whilst the guards took on the main bandit force. Nili felt this was too dangerous and stayed behind studying at Reganald's tower and the party was instead joined by Lorainna. The party made their way to the bandits leadership's cave and managed to infiltrate/bluff the bandits without a fight to get to the leader. Unfortunately a lack of plan and the leader being more astute than his subordinates lead to their discovery and the party was forced to fight all of the bad its at once in a close fight amongst the tight confines of the cave. During the fight mattimus was able to tame his fighting lama. Captain von uberwald was also able to intervene late in the fight but was generally incompetent!

After that fight the party did some stuff that others are not allowed to know about (probably) and ended up with some magic weapons.

After getting their magic items the party made their way to nyminty city. Where Mattimus got his lama armoured and the party was given a new task by captain von uberwald in exchange for which she promised an audience with the regent to discuss the ownership of the (ex-) cultists tower.

The bandits castle
The task that was set to the party was to help the queensguard clear a castle to the south of Nyminty city. The queensguard where going to engage the main forces outside the castle whilst the party was to sneak into the castle and kill the leadership before they could escape. It was also apparent that the bandits hailed from Rarkonir. They would also be joined by Grissom a special member of the queensguard. the party where able to sneak into the castle using a secret entrance discovered when they ambushed a few of the bandits in the woods to the west of the castle and managed to capture one alive. They had to leave the hunting lama outside the entrance and also their prisoner.

The party where able to sneak into the castle and dispatch most of the patrolling guards and make there way to where the leaders where meeting before the battle. after this a large battle ensued between the leaders of the bandits and the party. during the battle grissom suffered and apparently mortal wound. This was fine by Chase whom had figured out by this point that grissom was a vampire, leaving him alive would have been a direct violation of the oaths that he had taken to the raven queen! The bandit leader attempted to escape towards the end of the fight using a secret passage but chase decided to 'chase' him down. leaving his fellows and a few reinforcements to finish off the leaders he chased the leader and managed to intercept him as he got onto a boat to sail away. realizing that the leader had heavy plate armor on chase managed to hole his boat and jump to back shore. unfortunately the leader was able to make the jump as well and an epic battle commenced. chase was outmatched but managed to hold the leader until his fellows arrived and where able to finish him off. Reginald struck the death blow teleporting the bandit leader to some unknown plane from which only his smoking armor returned!

It also turned out the hunting lama had eaten the prisoner they left by the secret entrance.

After the party returned they where told they had to wait a few days before they could meet the regent so they followed some rumors and went to explore a temple. the temple was full of traps but all of them made it with some nice prizes. chase was happy to increase his weapons collection adding a hand crossbow, a spear and magic handaxe to his collection.

The Keep, the Betrayal and the Regent
Disclaimer: The following is chase's view of events and may differ from actual events and others views of what happened

betrayed
Upon returning from the temple the party where finally allowed to meet the regent to discuss ownership of the cultists tower, unfortuanly they where betrayed, the regent accused them of kidnapping the queen and when captain von uberwold defended them he also accused her. there was a brief battle between the party and the regents guards when grissom and reg suddenly came to the rescue smashing down a door. the party fled the castle and the city.

the search begins
Reg and thomdril had found out that the queen had been last seen headed to the southern regions of rakonir so that party set off from Crompton in that direction. deciding to head through the mountin range that separated rarkonir and mirranor

The party consisted of chase, Joy, mattsimus, Lori, Grissom, Reg and captain von uberwold.

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The slaver
The group headed south but hadn't travelled very far when they found a stranded traveler and his servant. The wheel had fallen off their wagon! The kind hearted members of the party persuaded the rest to stop and help repair the wagon. unfortunately after repairing the wagon the party's questions to the traveler revealed him to be a slaver and his servant actually a slave to be sold the regent in nyminty ! The slaver was quickly tied up and the slave set free and sent on his way with the wagon. The slave was told the party was actually headed Zorans Gate just in case he was captured and questioned. The party could decide what to do with the slaver now. Chase solved the problem with direct action by killing the slaver. He reasoned that; the slaver if he escaped or was released would go straight to the regent and tell him the position of the group and direction they where headed in; the party could afford to take him with them; and if he was tied up and left he would either escape or die a slow death anyway. He also views slavery as the taking of life to fuel your own which goes against the vows he made to the raven queen!



the monster in the mountain
After the slaver had been delt with the party headed south to where they had heard that there was a passage through the mountain. They managed to find the passage but inside found some very lifelike "statues". Chase managed to figure out which was the correct way to go thorugh the cave system but unfortuanlty the greed and curiosty of Lori and Mattimus caused them to wonder off in seach of treasure, instead they found a medusa! The medusa was defeated eventually. During the battle Grissom showed his true colours by going full vampire on the medusa. This caused Chase to move from slight distrust to viewing the vampire as a possible threat and enemy to the Raven Queen.

After the battle was complete chase removed the head of the Medusa to stop her from raising(as she had been vampire'd and chase wasn't sure what would happen) and also as a useful trophy/super weapon.

The swamp and the village
Following the destruction of the medusa the party moved through the cave system and made their way south finding the swamps of sacrifice before them. Chase (being a local) knew there was a village (Tulsak) two days south of them. however as the party travelled through the swamp they found themselves being stalked by various swamp creatures so travelled for two days straight. almost collapsing when they made it to the village.

In the village they found an inn and got themselves rooms. after a short rest the party explored the village looking for possible clues to what was going on and if anyone might have any idea where the queen might have been taken to.

Reginald managed to find a courier that was handing out wanted flyers of the party. he cast some kind of confusion spell on the courier making any kind of interrogation of the courier impossible. chase managed to make it appear as though the courier was drunk rather than under the influence of a spell, and then he snuck off into the stables and raided the couriers message bag for clues. this gave the clue that Lord farquis was probably (defiantly) behind the kidnapping and that the couriers company may also have had something to do with it.

The party decided to split with Grissom heading to the capital to investigate the courier company and the rest of the party heading to the west coast to look for clues.

Death of a necromancer
The party moved south splitting off from Grissom at the next village. They then made there way south past Tangorns rest. Crossing the monlari river at a town. In the town Lori used her thieves contacts to make contact with a thieves guild. The guild agreed to give the party forged movement papers in exchange for the party robbing a local merchant of a spell book.

The party stuggled to gain entrance to walled and guarded manor of the merchant, but where helped when Joy (who had split from the party earlier to go exploring)accidently managed to cause chaos throughout the town when the guards started hunting for her after a misunderstanding (or so she says). In her attempts to escape notice and after meeting up with reg she managed to start a few fires throught the town!

Using this distraction mattimus and chase gained entrance to the walled manor using mattimus' telepotation ability and chases lock picking skills suprising the guards by the gate and quickly dispatching them. The rest of the party caught up with Chase and mattimus and they snuck in and gained access to the mansion proper killing the few guards around quickly and quietly, if not nessicarly professonaly.

Once in the house the party looked for the book managing to find it in the bedroom of the merchant along with the merchant himself who it seemed was using the book for necromantic purposes. The merchant and his bodyguards where eventually killed in a short brutal fight.

A plan was formed to dispose of the body by starting a house fire, the other fires that seem to have been lit that night would help disguse the fact that this was a murder robbery. (The party had no idea the commotion and fires about the town where caused by reg and joy)

Chase offered to stay and start the fire when the party left he started the fire and destroyed the book of necromancy by throwing it into the fire.

Upon the party regrouping away from the burning mansion chase confessed to burning the book explaining his worship of the raven queen ment he was forced to destroy it. The party then decided to make a fake book using some body parts mattimus(!?) Had kept and joys art and arcana abilitys. The theves guild beleved it was the book they wanted and the party was given the paperwork they needed and quickly went off on thier way before the ruse was noticed!

Istek
as the party headed towards the town/village of Istek chase became nervous as he had history in Istek having fought against the rebellion that had happened a few years ago. (see CHASE AND ISTEK) As the party made their way towards Istek Chase saw a dead raven on the side of the road taking a closer look he saw it was a messenger bird but it had no message. Taking this a sign from the raven queen he buried the bird and took a feather from it. Further down the road the party met up with Brandis again whom it turned out was working for a local band of rebels/bandits who where lying low in the area. Changing direction the party went and met up with this band hoping they might have some information that might lead them back onto the trail of the queen. As they approached the bandits/rebels chase was surprised to recognise several members of the rangers that had escaped on the other ship at the beginning of this adventure. Chase spent some time catching up with his old friends remembering old times and missing comrades. Finding out that Brandis was trusted (to some extent) by his old friends was enough to satisfy Chases reserves about the thief. The rangers revealed that they where attempting to make up for past ills in Istek, and were helping the locals and slowly building a better life for everyone around whilst avoiding the attentions of lord Farquis and hopefully having no repeat of the previous rebellion. They where more than willing to help the party with the rescue of the queen, explaining that their were rumours of an important prisoner being held in Mantho and giving the party details of a rebel contact in the city who would be willing to help. Chase was also happy as this would allow the party to skip Istek and so he could leave some past demons undisturbed. Saying their goodbyes chase promised if the rescue was a success that he would tell the queen-in-waiting of the rangers help and try and persuade her to send secret aid and evacuate anyone that wanted to go from the region.

Mantho
Using there forged papers the party was able to make it into Mantho fairly easily. Using the information given by the rangers the party was able to make contact with the rebels in the city and confirm (to the best of their ability) that it was the queen being held and where she was being held in the city.

The plan
It was decided to actually have a plan rather than play it by ear(Shock, Horror!) and so the party arranged for a ship to be at anchor near to where the queen was being held and also scouted several possible methods for entering the Keep where she was being held. Eventually deciding upon using the sewers/a secret tunnel, over disguising themselves, hiding in a cart or climbing over the walls. The plan was hatched the entire party would sneak through the tunnels, find the queen without raising the alarm if possible and then escape over the walls and move to a convenient beach where a longboat from the ship they had hired would be waiting, then it would be straight sailing back to Mirranor, where they would land at the bandits castle they cleared out earlier and meet up with the queensguard that should still be garrisoning it. Then onto the capital to depose the regent.

The mission
The plan worked amazing well. The party met up with Grissom by chance after his Ke’stral Murphy let them know he was in the area. After that it went pretty much as planned. Sneaking down the secret tunnels the party ended up underneath a well, Chase climbed ahead and managed to capture a guard interrogating him he found out that it was defiantly the queen being held in the Keep and that she was in a tower. There was a bit of discussion over what to with the captured guard but this was done when chase slit his throat rather than leave him to the devises of the others which would lead to a less direct and more painful death. The party then managed to sneak in and work their way up to where the queen was being held quietly dispatching any guards in the way with well planned ambushes. Unfortunately the queen wasn’t in the tower but a quick search of her room reveal that she normally was in the chapel at this time. The party again made their way to the chapel dispatching guards professionally until they reached the chapel. Where chase took up the rear guard instead of the front. Unfortunately Lori obviously having got bored of the careful planning ran in shooting without a plan, and although the guards where dispatched in the chaos the alarm was raised. Quickly the stained glass of the chapel was smashed and the queen bundled out of the window, Grissom personally making sure she didn’t come to harm whilst others fought a rear guard action. The party was able to make it to the beach as planned and escape in the longboat as planned. Chase using the superior range of his longbow to keep the guards at bay as the party rowed to the safety of the ship.

Back to Mirranor
The trip back to Mirranor went without a hitch and the party was able to follow through with the plan and met up with the queensguard garrisoning the bandits Keep. With a suitable escort they headed towards the capital.

The regent
With the queen present re-entry to the city was easy. However upon seeing the regent he claimed it was all a trick and with his personal guard he attacked the party in an attempt to keep power to himself. During the battle the regent was wounded severally several times, but seemed to regenerate damage at a suspiciously alarming rate. He eventually surrendered when the last of his personal guard was killed.

The end of the quest
The party was rewarded with magic items and the gift of the cultists keep that the had cleared out. They where denied access to the regent though and so for now his regenerative abilities and what he was planning with lord farquis would have to remain a mystery. It was decided with reg and thomdril to from an adventuring company and have more adventures together.

Personality and equipment
Chase is slow to trust. He is very mercenary in his outlook and is more motivated by reward and survival than the willingness to do the right thing. He currently worships The Raven Queen which was the main Goddess of his company of rangers. Before he worshiped The Raven Queen ,when he was a simple Hunter and woodsman, Chase worshiped Melora, but that was before he was arrested and placed in the cells of Lord Farquis, and the influence of others and the horrors of war and death drove his fealty to The Raven Queen however he still remembers the teachings Melora.

Armour
Chase has scale armour, bought in nyminty city. He was trained its use during his conscription in the army.

He also has a pair of acrobats boots, discovered in the Temple of Ogirath.

Weapons
Chase favours his berserker battle axe combined with a magical hand axe.

Chase is also armed with "ain't no one gonna catch me without a weapon"
 * Magic longbow
 * Battle axe
 * 2x hand axes
 * 2x daggers
 * Longbow
 * Longsword
 * Bastard sword
 * 2X short sword
 * Short bow
 * Club
 * Spear
 * Sickle
 * Mace
 * Javelin
 * Hand crossbow

Other equipment and misc items
Chase also has (for Will's reference)

Fancy leather Scabbards for berserker battle-axe and hand axe

3 potions of cure light wounds

50ft rope

Backpack

Flint and steel

Trail rations(10)

136Gp

50Sp

3 Azurites

5 empty potion bottles

1 recipe for healing potion (D3)

Pestle and mortar

scroll of direction

Cultists Robe

Footpads

Water skin

Oil(1 Pint)

Lantern

Belt Pouch, With Leather thong attaching it to chases belt

Adventures Kit