Ashen Cabaret heads to the beach to discuss further battleplans to deal with the orcs, but as they begin to discuss their ideas, they hear something. Olaf spins around immediately, knowing what noise a booze bottle makes when it hits the ground from a mile away. He walks over to the nearest tree to investigate, finding an empty ale bottle at the tree’s roots. He looks up to see a tabaxi reclined in one of the highest branches and points it out to the rest of the team. The tabaxi stretches at the top of the tree and looks down at the group. He rests his head against a paw and asks if anyone enjoys ale the way he does.
Olaf and Jadeth both admit that they are fond of good alcohol. Jadeth pulls out her flask and the tabaxi purrs. He starts to climb down and misses a branch. It looks like he is about to fall, but he does a perfect flip in the air and lands on his feet.
Jadeth offers the tabaxi the drink, admitting that it’s dragon urine. He asks if it’s alcoholic, and she tells him that it tastes like a bubbly bread-ale. He chugs the entire flask and thanks her.
He introduces himself as Fickle Friend On The Scorching Sands of the Moonless Land. The group all narrow their eyes, and Olaf and Jadeth are far too intoxicated to be able to repeat that. He laughs and tells them that his friends just call him Shade. Upon seeing the tattered robes that the caracal tabaxi is wearing, Slender reaches into his bag and asks if Shade would like to purchase any armor. Shade shakes his head, letting the team know he prefers to stay light on his feet for his travels.
Juno asks what Shade is doing so close to the orc settlement. The tabaxi’s tail flicks back and forth in thought. He tells her that he’s been a traveling nomad for some time now, searching far and wide for the best stories to tell. He suggests that a group like them must have some daring adventures that they have been on. Before anyone can recall their epic tales, Shade’s stomach rumbles, and he asks if anyone has any spare food on them.
Slender reaches into his bag and pulls out some rotting flesh. Everyone recoils from the sight and smell of it, and Shade says he will pass. Slender digs around a bit more in his bag, knowing that he has some fresher meat as well. He whips out the scaly arm of Dragonbait, and offers it to Shade. Shade is aghast at how the group came across his good friend Dragonbait’s arm, and as the person that violently removed it, Jadeth inhales and looks away. She admits that there was an explosion, and Juno is quick to add that it was an accidental explosion.
Shade holds it close and sniffles just slightly, saying that, “it’s Dragonbait’s right arm, that was his favorite arm!” He asks if he can have the honor of returning it to Dragonbait, and everyone is quick to allow that. They also state that he can do it alone, with no credit to the group needed at all. Shade is grateful, and asks how they were planning on preserving it. Everyone falls silent, and after a very uncomfortable moment, Olaf pulls out one of the fancy bottles of wine and offers it to Shade. Shade is baffled, but dumps some of the alcohol on the severed limb before sticking it in his bag.
The group asks Shade if he can tell them anything about Jackson Gray– the prisoner that the orc are keeping. Shade informs them that the orcs had been really excited to eat noble meat, so he’s been the talk of the town. Jadeth begs him for any information that they could use to free Jackson.
Before Shade is able to answer, however, one of the nearby ogres comes over with a loud shout of: “Kitty!” Jadeth jumps instinctively in front of Juno– still traumatized from the last time they encountered ogres, but this ogre’s full attention is on the tabaxi. He lifts Shade up into a crushing embrace as he pets and snuggles him roughly. The whole group exchanges looks and debates if they should be doing something to help him, but Shade gives them a weak thumbs up.
Shade whimpers that he’s going to need a chiropractor, but he sees it as the perfect opportunity to help the group free Jackson. He begins loudly purring, even though the giant monster is crushing him, and tries to gain the attention of all the other ogres standing guard. He calls out to the orc guarding the cage, asking if he could tell him where the toilets are.
The orc guarding the cage is amused by the display, and while he doesn’t want to leave his post, he guides the ogres and Shade over to the other side of the camp. Jadeth and Slender both head into the center of town to begin putting on a show to distract the remaining guards. Slender plays his music and Jadeth juggles fire in his palms to the delight of the nearby orcs. Even the warchief is watching their act. Olaf notes that all the orcs are distracted, and gestures for Juno to take care of the lock.
Olaf and Matanza both take watch to make sure the settlement remains distracted, and Juno approaches the lock with her thieve’s tools in hand. She spins the lockpicks around gracefully and kneels down to examine what she’s working with. She grabs the primitive copper lock on Jackson’s cage, but before she has a chance to pick it, it falls apart in her hands. She looks between it and the noble in disbelief, asking why the hell he hadn’t just run away. Jackson admits he was under too close of watch to open it himself.
Juno sighs before pulling out her magic key. She opens the dimensional door to her and Jadeth’s magical mansion, then she ushers Jackson inside. Spike offers to guard Jackson inside the house and guard him in case anything happens. Jackson protests as he doesn’t wish to be guarded by a Caldran after being exiled by the country, and a priest at that! Juno hushes Jackson and pushes him into the main dining hall. She gives Spike permission to open the door and leave if he feels the need to.
Outside the magic door, Slender begins to play his lute even louder to cover the argument inside. Juno lets Jackson know that Spike is a capable fighter, which he does not believe in the slightest. She also tells him that the dining table of the grand feast hall will remain stocked, so he should be safe in the house with Spike until they get to a safe place to let him out.
Juno ducks back out the door and spots the guard coming back from taking Shade to the bathroom. She shoos Olaf and Matanza, and runs over to the town square. It doesn’t appear that Jadeth and Slender are able to create enough of a show to distract him from returning to his post, so Juno touches the runes on her cape for it to split apart into magical dragon wings. She leaps into the air and begins performing complex aerial maneuvers. This is fortunately enough to delay the guard from reaching his post for a few extra minutes.
The warchief walks over to the cage while all the other orcs are watching the show, and he’s shocked and enraged to find out that Jackson escaped. Jadeth and Juno both lie, saying that Vola has come down to collect the prisoner and eat him herself – like the greedy warlord she is.
While they are fabricating this lie, Slender slips away to cast an illusion of a cat to distract the ogres while Shade is hiding in the bathroom. The loud thuds of their footsteps away alerts him, and he peeks his head out and asks Slender if they’re gone. They hear this and immediately come back over to check on him, so Shade grins and slides his head back into the bathroom tent. Slender rubs his temples in frustration and casts a second illusion cat to chase after the first. Shade waits until the ogres are farther away before coming back out of the tent and stretching to relieve the pain in his back.
When Shade and Slender make it back over to the center of town, they find that Jadeth and Juno have convinced all the other orcs that Vola had stolen the noble meat, except for the warchief. Shade pats a hand on the warchief’s back and asks him his name. The orc replies that it’s “Grog,” and Shade pretends to check him for a fever. Olaf shakes his head and says that he may be sick from working in the fields all day. Slender chimes in agreement, saying that crops can make you sick if you’re among them for too long. They all agree on one thing, the orc is looking incredibly pale and must not be well. This gaslighting somehow works, and Grog heads back to his tent.
Juno pales, since she remembers from her earlier scouting of the settlement that she had noticed two orc’s going at it in Grog’s tent. She tells this to Olaf, and Olaf rests a hand on his heart, feeling bad for the guy. He crosses the center of town to knock on the door to Grog’s place, and Grog wails for Olaf to leave him alone. Olaf’s feeling flirtatious, so he opens the door anyway, and sees Grog covered in blood and standing over the body of the orc his wife was cheating on him with. His wife is cowering in the corner. Olaf tells Grog that he finds rage-jealousy super sexy, but Grog shouts at him to leave. Olaf leaves, grumbling angrily that it doesn’t matter that he was rejected, then he announces to the rest of the orcs that Grog has a tiny penis. They all murmur agreement.
Slender brings the topic back to Vola stealing the noble meat from the rest of the village, and the other orcs angrily begin chanting for a Groosh– a 1-on-1 battle to the death for the throne of the warlord. This chant gains the attention of all the orcs in the village, and they all pour out of their tents to join in the ruckus. Even Grog kicks his front door off to join in the chant, but to the group’s dismay… or pleasure… He is ass naked. Jadeth leans over to Juno and tells her that Grog has the biggest penis she had ever seen. Juno agrees.
The group alongside the whole settlement of orcs storm the dwarven castle, and Vola is confused as to why they came. She leans forward in her golden throne and denies having stolen the meat, but the chiefs yell that she is still responsible as it went missing under her watch. Olaf watches her carefully, already planning the motions he would take to crush her skull. Shade leans up against one of the marble pillars, humored that this new group he has found gets into so much fun. Vola stands and accepts the challenge, and she and the first chief walk down the stairs to stand in the middle of the huge throne room.
Light filters in through the intricate stained glass, painting the orcs in the dappled colors from the images of the dwarves they slaughtered. Fireflies fill the air around them all, blinking and fluttering like dancing stars. The room is eerily silent, so Slender pulls out his violin to accompany the incoming battle with string music. Vola gets her giant kiteshield from her back and draws the sword from her waist. The first chief unsheathes his ax and lets out a thunderous roar that echoes against the pillars and marble walls of the vast room.
He lunges forward, slamming his ax into the kiteshield that Vola raises to block his attack. It clangs like a bell at a funeral, and Vola swiftly retaliates with a decisive slash of her sword to take the first chief’s head clean off. Grog rages and grabs a hold of a morningstar to enter the fray. He catches Vola off guard, dealing a powerful blow to her sword arm. She growls and shield bashes him backwards. Olaf is watching all this carefully, noting where the orcs are going wrong in their fights. Jadeth looks between Vola and where Amalia is watching. At the climax of Slender’s piece, she slips away from the group to intercept her at the top of the balcony.
She is watching the fight with an unreadable expression as Vola pierces Grog’s chest. The warlord kicks away his morningstar and leaves him bleeding out on the floor. Yet another chief rushes forward to challenge her. Amalia finally turns away to ask what could be so important that she’s being interrupted as her partner fights for her life.
Jadeth pulls down her hood and unfastens the clasps on her mask of shadows to reveal her true identity to Amalia. The woman walks over to a table and pours a glass of wine in silence. She takes a long drink and smirks as she repeats Jadeth’s name to herself. Jadeth states that the two of them have much to discuss regarding Caldra.
Vola topples the new challenger after taking a few more hits. She grabs ahold of his throat and throws his bloodied corpse across the room. It skids to a stop just in front of Juno and Matanza. The two take a step back, and Olaf laughs wildly. As soon as Vola slaughters the final chief, Olaf steps forward and demands she battle him next. She wipes the blood off of her greatsword onto her pants and begins making her way towards the throne again. Olaf demands it again, growing more desperate. The throne room guards begin to surround them, and Jadeth looks from Olaf to Amalia with wide eyes.
Amalia’s not ready for her negotiations with Jadeth and her group to end, so she calls down to Vola. “Vola, dear. Your people see you as weak right now, why don’t you accept this little dwarf’s challenge?” Vola gazes out at the uncertain faces of her people, and grumbles as she turns around to stare down at the furious dwarf. She scoffs and gets her weapons ready again. She grumbles that their battle won’t take long. Olaf smiles and agrees.
While the previous orcs had a similar tactic to what Olaf typically goes with, he focuses more on using his size to his advantage. Vola strikes at him, but he tumbles out of her way to retaliate with attacks just as vicious. She misses a swing, but he isn’t prepared for the following shield bash. It sends him flying across the floor, and he realizes that he needs to get rid of it if he has any chance in avenging this dwarven city. She creeps closer, gloating about her many victories and getting ready to add another notch to her kill count. Olaf waits until she raises her sword up in preparation to strike before targeting her shield arm. He swings a second before she does, getting caught with her blade. However, he manages to force the shield from her hand.
As it skids across the floor and into the base of one of the pillars, Slender sees the change in energy in the room and slyly hits Olaf with a healing burst from his lute. The dwarf is reinvigorated, and Vola is no longer able to easily parry his attacks. He takes a swig from his flask of ale and rushes towards Vola again. Shade sees where the shield fell, and he peeks out from behind the pillar. He begins to reach for it, but one of the other orcs clears his throat. Shade laughs and slides back behind the pillar.
Vola and Olaf circle each other; their shadows cast on the floor like a colorful dance of dragons. Vola swings, but Olaf smashes her hit away with his warhammer. The sound of metal on metal delivers a symphony of iron accompanied with the violin. Finally, Vola strikes Olaf in his stomach. The dwarf gasps in a pained breath and tightens his grip on his warhammer. Ashen Cabaret watches in horror as the warlord leans in to whisper a final gloat in his ear. She says, “just like the rest of your kind, you are weak.” Olaf coughs out blood, but he has Vola right where he wants her. He grins a mad smile, and Vola’s eyes get wide as she realizes her mistake.
With her so close, she can’t escape from Olaf’s last blow. He cries: “For Khem Dural!” and brings the hammer down on her skull in a bone chilling crack.
Olaf rips her weapon out of the wound on his abdomen, and laughs if anyone wants a free sword. The rest of the squad is stunned, but their silence quickly shifts to cheers. They patch Olaf up, and he turns to Jadeth. He tells her that he trusts her to lead the orcs, forfeiting his leadership to her. Slender’s jaw drops, and he begins to complain until another big burly orc approaches Jadeth.
He towers a couple feet above her and demands his own Groosh challenge from the tiny tiefling. She accepts, but before the orc has time to react, she raises a hand. Her shadowy magic lashes out and kills him instantly– ripping him into bits with the force of the necrotic magic. She sighs and looks out to the mob, asking if anyone else wants to challenge her. They all back away with wide eyes. She puts her mask of shadows back on and huffs, “I didn’t think so.” She walks over and sits on the throne, admittedly not feeling the way she expected to feel on it anymore.
Slender approaches and eyes the gold in the back of the room. Jadeth tells the group to help themselves to it, not really finding herself in dire need of funds. They all head back and begin pocketing gold, looking forward to being able to buy a ship from Port Battleborn with it.
Amalia descends from the balcony, pleased to see Jadeth as the new leader of the orcs. She states that her political marriage will create a stronger bond between Caldra and New Baharuth. Juno is quick to question what she means, feeling a bit hurt that Jadeth had rejected all of her advances so far. Jadeth leans on her hand and tells Juno not to worry about it, having royally fucked up her conversation on the balcony.
The orcs look to Jadeth for orders, but she admits that she can’t stick around to lead them since they’re on a timely quest for Argos. She tells the orcs to cease all attacks on Port Battleborn and demands that Amalia makes them finish mining iron in the mine in exchange for giving up the Caldra territory of Mountaisword once Jadeth takes back the throne. Amalia makes her sign a blood oath where if either one of them break their agreement their soul will be collected and sent to hell. Since Jadeth already assumes her soul is hellbound, she has no issue with this pact.
Then, much to the distress of her cohort, she forfeits the throne to Amalia. She lets her know that she’ll plan to call on her and the orcs whenever she makes a move against Alastor and Acheron. Amalia finds these terms favorable, but before Jadeth can leave she tells her that there is someone in the mines that she may want to see.
The group makes it back through the orc village to reach the mines. There are a few orc’s standing guard at the front, and they let Jadeth know that the prisoners are kept towards the very back of the mine. She leads the way, and Juno and Slender spot a worg sleeping peacefully in a ball. Juno jokes that she wants to pet it, and Jadeth turns to look into an empty corner and says she’s not sure if the worg would appreciate that. Juno follows her gaze, but doesn’t see anything. She asks if Jadeth is seeing things, but Jadeth points to the corner again. Everyone looks, but no one sees anything… that is, until the dog crosses through the torchlight. It casts a huge menacing shadow across the cave floor, and Slender apologizes for doubting her.
As they get further in the mine, it quickly becomes apparent that the orcs are not the ones mining. Instead, there are battered looking dwarves working away at the veins of iron. Olaf is immediately disgusted that his people would be treated this way. He approaches one of the dwarves and asks why he has given up, but the dwarf turns away and admits that he’s starving. Slender reaches into his bag to pull out some of the orc meat he had secretly collected during the groosh, and Jadeth gags– telling him to at least cook it first. The dwarf snatches it before Slender even has a chance and begins ravenously chowing down.
Juno hears another dwarf calling for help from behind a cave-in of rocks, so she leads the team over and they begin to clear the rubble. The other dwarf thanks them, but also tells them he’s too weak to fight. Olaf readies his hammer, telling the dwarves that they don’t need to join in if they don’t want to. Jadeth grabs his arm, looking around with her devil sight and seeing even more of the shadowy death-worgs than the rest of the group can fathom. She warns OIaf that if he starts a full out insurrection, there is a slim chance that they escape. Olaf begs her to promise that they will free the dwarves, and Jadeth nods. He puts his warhammer back on his back and takes a drink from his flask.
They reach the back of the mine to find a pile of bodies slouched in the corner and a trail of bloody footprints leading away from them. Shade suggests that it must be their food pile. There are bodies of dwarves, elves, kobolds, and tabaxi all missing limbs and left in the pile. The group is a bit shaken up by it, but they proceed into the prison. Jadeth approaches the guard and tells him that Amalia told her there would be someone down there that she would want to speak with, and the guard nods. Prior to him directing her to the prisoner, a voice cuts through the air.
“Ah, Jadeth, you’re supposed to be dead!” Jadeth’s mentor echoes down the hall. Jadeth is, of course, thrilled to see him too.
“You,” she snarls, and her blood runs cold. She charges down the hall to slash a sword through the bars in an attempt to hit him. The magic field redirects the blow back at her, drawing blood when a gash splits open her arm. He bursts out into laughter at the pitiful display of fury. She steps back with her eyes gleaming red. Most of the party doesn’t recognize this person, but Jadeth continues raging, “This is Ward the Starfarer– the man that tricked me into my pact. He’s the reason for my exile. He’s the reason my family is dead!” She lunges at the bars of the cage again, but Juno grabs her before she can hurt herself any more. She drags Jadeth away to the front of the prison, with Ward mocking her the whole time.
Olaf reminds her that she promised to free the dwarves, and they can’t do that if she kills herself. She slides down the wall by the entrance and buries her face in her knees. She tells Olaf to go demand that Amalia frees the dwarves, but she won’t let Ward get out of her sight again. Olaf is hesitant to leave his friend alone, but he leads the rest of the group back up to the throne room.
Slender and Olaf step forward to demand that the slaves in the mines are freed. This is a non-starter for Amalia, since she made the pact with Jadeth and really doesn’t want to go to hell if she can’t keep up her end of the iron production. Olaf asks if she’ll at least free his people, which she admits could be possible.
Everyone feels uncomfortable leaving the rest of the species enslaved down in the mines, but it doesn’t seem like they can do anything about it without causing a problem. One of the orcs comes over, and Amalia instructs him to tell the other orcs in the mines to free all their dwarves. Olaf thanks her, and the group head back down into the mines to collect Jadeth before they can continue on their journey.
They enter the prison to find her covered in her own blood on the floor next to Ward’s cell. Slender and Juno run up to her, but she shakily gets to her feet and demands that the orc guard open the door. Both of them get in front of her, begging that she doesn’t make a rash choice, but alas. That is what she does best. She calls on Matanza, Olaf, and Shade to side with her. Since they are less familiar with what Ward can do, they figure Jadeth should have no problem handling him. Juno and Slender both step back, terrified as the guard brings out his key.
Jadeth is glaring at Ward, waiting for the second the key turns and breaks the magical barrier. Ward is just a bit faster, trying to hit Jadeth with a spell, but she’s infuriated and reflects it easily. Ward gasps, “you’re supposed to be a failed champion!” He tries another spell, and she reflects that too and pulls her glowing red pact blunderbuss out of its void. The orc steps back as she raises the gun– it’s wispy red reflection matching the gleam of her mask. Ward realizes that he can’t overpower her alone and changes tactics. Right before she can pull the trigger, he rips open a rift right beside Jadeth.
She turns just in time to get a direct hit as the fleshy red entity on the other side lashes out at her. It throws her backwards into the bars of the opposing cage, and she immediately falls unconscious. Juno runs forward to grab Jadeth, and the rest of the team readies themselves for combat. Olaf runs forward with his warhammer out, but he doesn’t have time to attack. Ward realizes this won’t be a fight he can win, and he leaps away through a dimensional door.
Juno panics, trying and failing to stop Jadeth’s bleeding. Her hands are too shaky to hold the bandages, so Slender moves her aside and promises he can help her. He begins to strum a healing song on his lute, filling the silent prison with a somber melody.
Jadeth gasps and jumps forward, nearly headbutting where Juno was hovering over her. She spins to look over at the cage and nearly stumbles back over when she staggers onto her feet. Slender tells her that Ward already got away, but Jadeth storms out of the room, hoping to still find him. Olaf and Juno catch up and grab her, telling her she’s not going to be able to catch him. She growls that he can’t run forever, and Olaf swears they’ll catch the bastard. Jadeth promises him the same for the assholes in Khem Dural.
Shade bounds out of the prison and runs ahead of them all, asking if they want to do something to take their minds off the stresses they’ve dealt with. He has a mischievous twinkle in his eye that suggests something but stupid and illegal. Slender claps his hands together, always down for some mischief. Most of the others in the group are wary, but Shade leads them over to a minecart full of gold ore near the front of the mine. He counts the number of guards on one paw-hand, then he points to Slender’s bag of holding. He tells them that he imagines he can quickly stuff most of the cart in the bag before the orcs are able to stop him. Slender is of course very interested in gold, so he tosses it to Shade.
Jadeth steps in front of him and eyes the shadowy worgs around them, knowing that as soon as the orcs sense something is amiss, they will turn on the team in an instant. However, she is interested in getting her mind off of Ward, and Juno’s influence has admittedly begun to rub off on her. She also knows she’s not going to be able to talk the tabaxi out of this.
Jadeth tells everyone to keep away from them and follows Shade over to the cart. She tells Shade to stuff the bag, then to pick her up and run out of the mines. Once they are out in the open, she can use her dimensional door to get them far outside of the orc camp.
Shade looks at her and says, “ready?” She nods, and he opens the bag and begins shoveling the gold in as fast as he can. One of the nearby worgs notices the scuffling noises and barks to alert a guard. The closest orc begins to slowly approach and confront Shade. As soon as the bag is full, Shade slings it over his shoulder and gives the orc a choice gesture. He grabs Jadeth, who pretends she’s being kidnapped, and the two dart out of the mine. The orc’s know they have no chance of catching the cat, so they stare after him with their mouths open.
As soon as they’re near the exit of the camp, Jadeth opens her dimensional door and the two teleport safely into the forest.
The rest of the team is shocked that it went so smoothly, since none of their previous endeavors have ever gone according to plan. They pretend that they will go hunt down the rogue tabaxi that kidnapped their friend, and the orcs wish them luck.
Jadeth and Shade are waiting for them at the camp by the waterfall, still madly laughing about how they managed to pull off their stupid heist. Shade dumps out the pile of gold ore, and Slender prepares his fabrication spell to begin to craft them into gold coins for the group to split. Jadeth and Shade share a well earned drink before bed, but Jadeth gets distracted prior to finishing her drink. She hears a mysterious voice in her head that tells her to fall asleep so she can meet with it. Deep down in her heart, she knows it’s her god, The Aeon. She sets the ale down, scared to drink anymore with the god watching her so closely.
As the rest of the group prepares for a long night’s rest, Slender and Juno pull out their enchanted keys. They open the dimensional doors to their mansions and the group splits up between the two houses. They all lay down and get ready for bed, except for Jadeth, who’s plagued with the anxiety of meeting the god that hates her if she falls asleep. If only the group knew what troubles currently ravage the lands of dreams…