Ambassadors+to+the+Khanate

Ambassadors to the Khanate
After being sent south as ambassadors to the Khanate (kicked out of the city for awhile) we joined up with an elven cleric of Ardneh named Sondra. She had an item that could point to the portals like a compass if one were nearby. Starting at the old Uruk-hai keep, the party popped south 100 miles at a time, mapping and setting up the area at each stop. At each stop, also, Analyze Portal was cast determining any other connecting portal stones, whether east, west, or to special sites nearby. Portals were found every 100 miles heading south until we arrived in Correville, where we were to meet with Toli. We stayed in Correville awhile (see below) before continuing south to just north of Riverway, a trading outpost of Condor. From there, we followed the portals east one step into Condor before turning around and heading back west. Popping west two jumps (200 miles) we arrived at a portal stone with west and south connections, but both currently blocked. Since this was also the closest we would get to the Khanate using these stones, we dropped this quest temporarily to visit the Khanate. Later, during the 2YFF Sondra left us to finish mapping these portals.

The Devils of Correville
Correville is a small town that sits near a portal. The party had agreed to meet Toli there before venturing into the barbarian lands. It is a trade center, and orcs, the Khanate, and Condor all trade there. The three groups were kept in line by strictly (evenly brutally) enforced laws. Of special note were a ruined keep on a nearby hillside, a large manor house of a family who appeared to run Correville, and rumors of a cave with a ghost in it that was forbidden to visit. We began with the ruins, exploring and learning the history. The ruins themselves had little of interest, physically. It was built by a mage from Koin, who over a century ago had moved south after being expelled from the Koin guild for some reason lost to history. He created the town and keep, and all was going well. After the comet strike, the town was attacked by a raiding party of the East. The Townspeople fled to the keep. Seeing the keep was going to fall, the mage did something that saved the townspeople, but he and his wife disappeared. We then visited the forbidden cave. We found the mage, now some kind of zombie, trapped within it. We heard his story. We found that he had protected his wife by putting her underground and then died before being able to come back and save her. Stuck underground and desperate, she had activated an item of his that summoned a pit fiend. While fulfilling the letter of her request, that pit fiend twisted it as well. He controlled her, and had several children by her over the years. Four were passing as humans and were the family in the manor house. Two of them were succubi, one was an ice devil, and one was a half-human half-devil mage. In addition, the ice devil had offspring as well: four horned devils acted as bodyguards for the family members, also masquerading as humans. Not all of this was learned from the zombie mage, we travelled down a tunnel from the keep towards the manor house, then dug our own tunnel beneath it. We found a room that the mage's wife, mother of the devils, had been kept in, with her preserved body still there. She had explained it all in her diary. Waiting in the next room to ambush the half-devil who kept the preservation spell on her mother, we jumped her and a fight ensued. In the end, she, a succubus and two bodyguard devils were killed as was Everett. The party bugged out and raised Everett. Returning a couple of days later, we raided the manor house. They were much better prepared, and had raised the two sisters. Another succubus and two bodyguards were killed but again the party had to bug out. We managed to show some townspeople the devilish heads of the two, but after we had fled the devils killed all the townspeople servants in the manor house and framed us for the slaughter. We returned a few days later to find minor devils burning the town. As soon as we showed ourselves, the remaining devils all attacked us. In plain sight of the townspeople, we fought the devils. A heroic stand was made by Raven in particular, fighting the ice devil and two bodyguards on top of one building in town. Eventually all the devils were killed except for the half-devil mage, who fled the scene. The town was calmed down, some political leaders were changed and/or coerced into different paths, the zombie mage was released from his imprisonment and allowed to die, and the party was ready to head on.