Last Laugh
The party continued on their missions when the Marshal sent them to Lower Miseer. Miseer is an ancient land where north humans intermingled with elves for over ten thousand years. The half-elves began on-and-off empires, kingdoms, and massive wars leading to tensions between the elves, humans, and half-elves that lived in the region. The humans had allied themselves with the Spessartites when the Gold Dwarves invaded. The Gold Dwarves allied themselves with a half-elf empire nearby.
When the Spessartites defeated the Gold Dwarf armies in Miseer during the Gold Dwarf Revolution, the Spessartites left the region and creating a power vacuum between the humans and the Half-Elf Empire. The party's mission would be to go to the Lower Miseer capital and prevent the oncoming half-elves from invading.
The party was shipped to the River of Life where the capital of Lower Miseer rested on the banks of the great river. When the party arrived, they found they were too late. The half-elves had already arrived and the humans had surrendered.
There was hope however. The party found themselves in a hooka bar where a human sabateur was meeting with his team. The man was a childhood friend of Neith and recognized her immediately. Neith- a huntress of Upper Miseer had gone missing after the Spessartites arrived in Miseer and the sabateur in the hooka bar was one of the last people to see her. The two caught up and the sabateur told Neith about his team.
The sabateur was a member of a rare band of elite warrior priests known as the Hubad. The Hubad were formed when the first half-elves invaded Miseer three thousand years before. They enslaved the local humans who formed a secret band of warriors intent on driving the invaders out. The Hubad rose and fell with every invasion- requiring a member to name his successor before death. By the time of the Half-Elf Invasion the party fell witness to, there were only ten Hubad remaining.
The remaining Hubad were planning one last fight worthy of their title. They would storm through the front gate of the Mobys citadel and fight whatever half-elf soldiers were stationed inside. Neith and her party agreed to join.
The next morning, the fourteen warriors charged the citadel to find not half-elves, but gnolls. The gnolls- a group of warrior hyenas- ambushed the hubad and attacked at once. Ruban changed into a bird- again- and flew to the commander of the gnolls. The rest of the group thrust themselves through the fighting as they pressed hard deep into the citadel. Ruban reformed in front of the commander- a werehyena- and in the main courtyard of the citadel fought the beast by himself.
Mistahimaskwa and Neith climbed the walls and fought on the battlements. the Hubad attempted to thrust gnolls into buildings and fought in close combat. Bonastre made use of his incidiary grenades, raining fire down upon the beasts while his pony charged through the fire knocking enemies prone in its rampage. Ruban changed form after suffering many attacks and became a great beast. He turned his form into one that could lift the fierce beasts and drop them from great hights. Ruban dropped the werehyena three times. When the party approached the nearly dead commander, he dodged attacks and jumped from the battlements to his death.
When the evening ended, the werehyena had died. The gnolls were reaped of life. Bonastre's pony had exhausted itself through combat. Not a single Hubad died, and Neith was made a member of the order. Ruban had slain the werehyena after suffering ferocious attacks. The party explored the city before departing back to the Spessartite capital.