Ambush of the Ancient Blade
Pinker's Detective Agency deployed an agent to track down the three detectives and assist them on a high-risk mission. Shao, Sauc, and Tillo had gone undercover with a rebel army deep into enemy territory in order to gather information on rebel military movements. Agent Mithras found the party in the army's winter camp as freezing rain slowed the march north. The four detectives were placed in a unit of dark elf mounted infantry who ride to battle on elk then fight on foot.
Colonel Gadogu- a dark elf woman- commanded the unit. After a stirring war speech in dark elf, the party explored the camp learning first-hand the douch-baggery of the rebel dwarves. The army broke camp after three days and departed north in an attempt to ride behind the Loyalist army and attack their reserves. The party marched through freezing rain which made Tillo particularly ill.
When the army made camp between a ruined monastery to Ehizatu and the Elk Horn Tavern, Tillo left the camp to explore the monastery. The other three detectives gained information on the rebel army and the dark elves serving in it, learning their goal was to use the war as a proxy for gaining independence themselves. Tillo invoked the spirit of Ehizatu who appeared in the form of a white faun and animated the wall carvings of the monastery to illuminate the room with phantom elk being hunted by Poesia- king of Tillo's pantheon.
Poesia counciled Tillo and Ehizatu granted Tillo's request to bring a harsh blizzard to the coming battle so that fewer soldiers would die violent deaths. Back at the camp, the detectives learned the Loyalist army was closing in after their general received a message from Tillo earlier stating the rebel battle plans.
The army broke camp the next morning and Tillo rushed to meet back up with his companions. The four detectives were placed in command of ten dark elf warriors each. They formed up along a forest road set to ambush a Loyalist force marching north to attack the rebel artillery. When The detectives broke rank and warned the dwarves of the attack, the dark elves launched their ambuscade and the battle began. In the chaos that followed, the four detectives found themselves targeted by everybody. Shao unsheathed the Ancient Blade and the sword reaked havoc on both sides.
The sword dispatched a dark cloud that sucked the life out of twenty warriors- dark elf and dwarf. Shao's eyes rolled back, replaced with flames, and began breathing fire on those around him- burning warriors all. After the dark elves were killed, the Loyalist commander held his soldeirs back and the battle was over. Mithras conjured a war god to assist his soldier companion, but the demon possessing Shao turned the god to dust. Mithras tackled Shao, knocking the sword from his hands. The party sat back and decided evacuation was necessary. Mithras agreed to depart west to a library containing a dark vault where a book described the Ancient Blade and the Half-Demons of old. The rest of the party agreed to take the wormhole east to located the known Half-demon and enlist her help in defeating Civil War.