The Siege of Onexo

Though the The Siege of Onexo is one of the two major scenes within the Wrath of Nature chapter. This scene consists out of several sub-scenes which have their own massage to convey.   The first of these is the planning phase in which the party has to figure our how to siege / engage the enemy in a way that doesn't get them all killed.   The second sub-scenes is that of the siege and the execution of the siege itself. This will not be easy as the fortress of Onexo is heavily guarded and the enemy has many traps in place to deal with potential intruders.   After the siege is completed the exploration phase (which is by far the largest part of the adventure) will begin. Because this scene is so large there will be several smaller sub-scenes. The first of these is one in the courtyard of the Onexo in which the party will find piles upon piles of dead humanoid like bodies. The next few scenes in this sub-scene consist out of fights with a few of the corrupted members of the Dual Edged Spear.   After the Onexo has be thoroughly explored the party comes the the main hall the the keep. The room of the leader of the Dual Edged Spear, Moromir the Protector.   After battle has been done with Moromir the Protector they find themselves travelling down a set of stairs which leads to a hidden tactics room under the main chamber of Moromir the Protector. In this room they will find most of the answers they have been looking for. Who is behind these attacks, where they are located and some more information about the current predicament at large.

The main theme that is going to be driven home is the theme of corruption of once mind and body and what that does to a person, loosing you sense of self as you slowly transform into someone or something not under your own control and how you desperately fight against it.

The exposition given about the Onexo is given by the now leader of Dual Edged Spear, Tekabi. He describes the Armoury proper as a nearly unsiegeable fortress made to withstand huge attacks from the outside. But that was not where all the attacks came from. One the more recent attacks came form the inside.   The enemy managed to dig their way around their defences and siege the Onexo from the inside out. The Dual Edged Spear held out for a few more days after that. Repelling attacks from outside as well as from within until it became to much and the fortress fell under the immense pressure of the enemy forces. Some of the people of the Dual Edged Spear and the Hasty Venus Scouting Regiment where able to escape together with the vice captain of the Dual Edged Spear, Tekabi.   Having lost this very important outpost nearly completely crippled the Dual Edged Spear. Having now no access to the weapons and knowledge required to defeat their foe puts the Dual Edged Spear in a worst spot then ever before.

Now being aware of the information of the now taken over armoury of Onexo a new problem arise, food. The food supply of Tenghar is dwindling by the day and on top of that the attacks on Tenghar itself are growing stronger and stronger. On 24^th of Alimazi one of the walls of Tenghar fell to attack of two huge tree like creatures.   Now having near to no food and their defences breaking one after another the party has to do something quick or the entire town of Tenghar will fall to the once who they have been trying to repel for a several weeks.

As there no other way to go but forward the they decide to head towards The Onexo on their own with no additional help from The Hasty Venus Scouting Regiment, or anyone from the guard corps of The Dual Edged Spear.   As they approach the keep proper they see it massive stone walls and its twelve towers protruding from within the keep. On the walls of the keep itself there are small humanoid type figures moving around and occasionally stopping to turn around to continue their patrol in the opposite direction. As the party waits for night-time to come they discuss their plan one more time.   There plan is to let two people sneak across the only bridge that connects The Onexo and the main land of Ginyune and wait under the ledge of the wall until the rest of the party makes a distraction to let them sneak in unseen so that they can open the gate for the rest of the party to run through to the inside of the Onexo. The once to sneak up to the gate are Izumi Liam and Chuprin Kirill. Of course, this plan faces some resistance but through clever use of their individual abilities they eventually manage to find their way inside. Where they find themselves in the keep they just sieged not looking like they had expected.   The Onexo what from the outside looked like a still well kept and heavily fortified fortress now looks like something that has been destroyed for years. The twelve towers that once stood tall the protect the estate from incoming onslaught now lies on the ground crumbled for what seems like decades. And at the middle of all this a giant gaping hole around 20 ft. in diameter. All this is in nothing alike what the druid Ysberin had seen beforehand on his scouting mission.   As the party slowly inch their way through the courtyard they can hear soft moaning coming from one of the many pile of body that litter the courtyard. Consciously approaching the sound, the party finds out that the sound is coming from a man half buried under a pile of corpses, each stabbed or cut open, their innards spilling out around them. The party finds out that the name of the man is Kudou Doppo and that he has a wife and child (Takai and Nitta Doppo respectively) which await his return. As the party tries to free the man they find out that Kudou is really stuck until they notice the vines wrapped around his waist and burrowing into his body. As the party realizes this fact the mountain of bodies shifts and rises up to reveal that the bodies form a flower with at the centre a black lotus shimmering ever so slightly in the moonlight. The man and woman in the flower of corpses awaken to scream for the parties help not to kill them and that they have people waiting for them. The party, making the hard but wise choice to kill them is left with a feeling of dread as they enter the building of Onexo proper.   Entering the main building of the Onexo shows the party that it was not only the outside that has suffered damage. The insides of the once great halls of the Onexo are now no more than a mirage of the beauty that they once displayed. Banners ripped and torn of the walls. Stones missing and laying strewn about covering everything in a thin layer of dust. The stench of death and decay filling every nook and cranny of the halls of The Onexo. Entering to the main reception room the party spots two doors on either side of said room and decide to enter the one of the right.   Pushing open the now half broken lacquered wooden doors the party can hear a unnerving chewing sound growing in volume as they approach the door in front of them. Opening the door reveals the walls of an room that seems to have fallen to ruin over several of decades, which doesn't seem to fit in with the several lines of tables and benches lining the floor of this massive room. At the middle of this near gargantuan room sits a abomination of flesh and bone. A being vaguely humanoid shaped but twisted beyond believe into something unrecognizable. A being consisting mainly out of fat and the 5 mouths that line its body filling the air around it with the sent of sulfuric acid. And below him a large pile of meat not of that of a cow, not that of a boar but that of a humanoid. The party entering the room do not immediately focus their attention on the pile of flesh but on the hulking abomination that fills a large portion of the room. The party finds out the name of the hulking beast is Rai Juzaburo and that it is always hungry. No matter how much it eats it can never end its malnourishment. Rai believes that the party may be able to stop its hunger and so attacks the party in the hope that it may be free from its suffering. The party slightly hesitant to kill this corrupted creature defeat this monster to free it from its perpetual torment. After having slain the abomination that is Rai Juzaburo the party recovers three badges which represents the emblem of The Dual Edged Spear smelling of stomach acid.   As the party makes their way to the next room they find themselves in a wide room with two stone statues of warriors standing on either side of a hallway where at the and sits two giant, well kept, stone doors engraved with a pattern that represents the endless battle of the higher races against the wild and the lower races. As the party tries to make their way towards the magnificent looking doors the stone goliaths of a statue come to live to bring their axes down in a cross pattern and start to speak.

Thou who not worthy of entry shall be smited by the once tasked to protect this keep. Proper status is needed to acquire an audience with thou leader, Moromir the Protector. Three of thou allowed to enter, the rest must stay behind or face the consequences.

The party realizing that the amount of people allowed entrance to Moromir the Protector is directly proportinate to the amount of badges they have set of to find more of the badges of status.   Continuing the parties journey through the main building of Onexo the party find themselves in front of two massive stone doors behind which the sound on commands being shouted and battle can be heard.

Come on men, we have been fighting for three-day strait there is no way we lose now to these hellish creatures. We will survive, and we will make it back to the others.

The party, hearing these sounds coming from the room beyond slam open the doors to help the once on the other side. But what the see was not what they where expecting. What they see in front of them are several of the small tree like beings that they have been fighting for the last couple of days wielding spears and long swords practicing on stone practice dummies. Above these creatures on a half collapsed second floor stands a humanoid like person wearing what looks like noble’s garb. But its head is something that the party has not encountered before. Its head is long and misshapen with eye stalks growing like hairs, some of them closed while others shift their gaze frantically from one side to another. The party learns that the name of this strange humanoid form creature is Epitelikos, the tactician of The Dual Edged Spear and that he has been "fighting" for the past 3 days strait and he, in his great wisdom, has realized that the enemy has been inside of Tenghar the entire time and that therefore all who live inside of Tenghar must die. As the conversation comes to a close, Epitelikos starts to see the party as the enemy and sends his men to go deal with them in the hope that he may finally find a time to rest. The party, not knowing of Epitelikos's changed view of them and are surprised and decide to do battle with him. After the battle is said and done the party manages to retrieve two badges which represents the emblem of Dual Edged Spear from the second floor of the room they currently find themselves in.

Having aquired the required number of badges to enter the domain of Moromir the Protector the party make their way through the empty hallways to the door that they previously have been denied entry. Without any trouble the party walks between the two guardians of the room of Moromir the Protector and find the air around them getting hotter and hotter as they approach the door. Furthermore, the hallway seems to fill itself with light nearly blinding the once who have been relying on their darkvision to get around. In one last moment of doubt the party leader Ysberin Brodrick pushes open the doors that contains their possible next enemy.   What they find is a scarcely furnished room with a throne made of stone at the end and six stone pillars keeping up the roof. But all is not compared to the man that stands in front of the throne.   A man in full-plate armour stands before you equipped with a large tower shield that reaches up to his helmet. his armour decorated with etchings of divine combat being conducted by the The Melekotawi. In his other hand sits a longsword stained with blood and cracked in more places that one. All of this is illuminates an aura of pure holy light which is hard to keep your eyes from as it is strangely awe inspiring to look at.   As this vista is show before the party the warrior of seemingly holy light speaks.

Good to see that the reinforcements are here. But first how are Rai and Epitelikos doing? Are they alright?   Ah, that is sad to hear, and I hope that they are in a better place that this shithole here. So, you guys are the reinforcements Oronia sent us? You sure did take your sweet time.   You’re are not? Well, that means that you guys are intruders. Which leaves you with two options. You either willingly lay your life down before me or I will have to forcefully take it from you. Don't think I didn't know you took my friends their lives which is why I won't go easy on you.   I will protect what my friends died for.

With those words Moromir the Protector takes a step forward, a wave of hot air wafting over the party as they feel Moromir the Protector's murderous intent growing by the second. As the party steels themselves for one of their most hardest battles yet the druid Ysberin notices something changing. The four small balconies that before had no creatures on them are now house to four fungi like creatures with spike growing out the top.   A battle of a lifetime is about to commence.

As the final blow is delivered the once mighty warrior of light, Moromir the Protector falls. His light fading rapidly as his soul leaves his body. Leaving the hall in silence and darkness.   After a few seconds of silence has gone by the bard Anastasia Volkov magically lights up the feather on her head to illuminate the now lifeless hall. After coming to grasp that they just killed a man to which many people look up to. The party ransack the body of the once great warrior to return his belongings to the current guard captain, Tekabi. The adventurers searching for what they actually came for, the tactics room. After a small investigation is conducted the party notices that there are drag marks along the floor next to the throne. As they put their collective strength together to push the throne aside they find a stairway leading down to a secret floor below.   As the party descends down the stairs they notice the smell of fresh ink and parchment filling the air around them. As they enter the room proper they see a sturdy and well build room, its walls, floors and ceiling made out of smooth and well cut rock. The room, lit by sixteen torches evenly spread out along the walls. And at its center a large lacquered wooden desk filled with maps, books and loose pieces of parchment.   Immediately being drawn to the table in the middle of the room the characters find several battle reports and maps of the surrounding area on which different things are being articulated. The flow of water, the hot pockets of plant life, breeding grounds for animals of different types and so on.

Among these books there is one of great interest, a journal titled Tacticians journal. Which describes the events of the last couple of weeks that the Dual Edged Spear had been fighting the forces of nature. The writer of the book, Epitelikos, over the course of several days finds out that the enemy that they have been fighting is one they held as a divine like figure. Oronia the one that saved the town of Tenghar from damnation. Epitelikos realizes that no one will believe him if he says that the one who was once their savior is now their enemy, and so moves on the next most logical point of research, where the attacks coming from. He figured it out through some smart thinking and implementation of scouts where the attacks were coming from. The day he made that realization was the day that the fortress of Onexo fell.   So now imbued with the knowledge of where the attacks are coming from and who is leading said attacks the party are left with two problems. The knowledge left behind by Epitelikos certainly has ground and if looked at from a objective point of view will be regarded as true but is in direct opposition to what the general populous of Tenghar and the Dual Edged Spear will want to believe.   But their is one more, even bigger problem looming over the heads of the party. The town of Tenghar only have one more day until the entire town will start starving due to their food storage being cut of and under the control of Oronia's forces.   With time not on their side and a town that needs saving their is only one thing to do. That is to keep moving forward.   If you want to see how this really panned out take a look at the S2: Sessions Reports to see how the real PC's dealt the the situation at hand.

The Siege of Onexo focuses on the siege and recapture of the Onexo building as it is the location where most if not all of the weapons of the Dual Edged Spear are kept. While in the keep itself, there are a few more goals that need to be accomplished.   One of these goals is to recover the information that was lost during the fall of Onexo. The information gathered by the tactician of The Dual Edged Spear, Epitelikos, could give vital information about the leader of the enemy faction as well as the location of their base of operation.   The second goal is to get as many people back alive as possible. This is because the remnants of The Dual Edged Spear keep losing men to the endless onslaught of attacks launched at the town of Tenghar.

In this part of the story there are a few hooks that should keep the players distracted as well as to create intrigue for future events to come.   The first of these is what the Feresi Corruption does to people. As many people in The Onexo will be tainted and corrupted by this infestation that has plagued the lands of Tenghar.   The second of these is a hook that the players themselves created. In S2 episode 11 | The Saveguard of Tenghar one of the party druids, Ysberin Brodrick found himself getting in contact with the Feresi Corruption and ever since his wild shapes of Plumboko has been acting strangely and not behaving to Ysberin's commands.

One of the major things at stake is Tenghar's itself. If food supply dwindling by the day. When the party leave Tenghar the town has two more days left until they'll start starving and will have to go over to different means of nourishment.   The other thing that is at stake is the parties own survival. Because they find themselves in enemy territory they will have near to no chance to sleep to regain their stamina. This puts them in battle not only against the enemy but also against their own rapidly degrading health.

There are a few cruel tricks in this chapter. These aren't necessarily brought on by the enemy but by the party themselves. One of these is the going rogue of the wild shape of the druid Ysberin. Plumboko. The ally that the party has been trusting for the last few weeks suddenly becomes a liability.   The second of these is the fighting itself. The struggle that comes from being tasked to save as many as possible, and not being able to do so due to the lack of time or that they have already been corrupted.

Though the adventurers need to be focused to complete their task within time, that doesn't mean that their won't be any distractions. One of these is the growing addiction of the magic item, Chocker of the Poisonfang, by the druid Ysberin Brodrick. The second of these are the libraries of Onexo which contains a large sum of information not relevant to the problems at hand.

The main four protagonists are the four PC's. The always beautiful bard, Anastasia Volkov. The two druids Ysberin Brodric and Chester Mailford. Along with them travels the NPC of Izumi Liam, the girlfriend of Chester Mailford who has a very special role to play in the later parts of the adventure.

The allied faction of the Dual Edged Spear offered the little manpower they have to help the party on their journey through the well defended armory of Yetoriseferu but were inevitably turned down by the party as the town of Tenghar needs all the help in can get to defend itself from its foe.

The adverseries in this part of the story mainly consist out of the forces created by Oronia. The fallen members of the Dual Edged Spear also present a threat as they have succumb to the Feresi Corruption. Some of these members include the previous leader of the Dual Edged Spear, Moromir the Protector, the strategist Epitelikos and one of the foot soldiers Rai Juzaburo.