I am way behind on Dragonlance updates, so I'll make this one a quick recap of the last three sessions.
The party learned that refugees were streaming into the city from the eastern marches. The Knights of Neraka were occupying towns and searching for something, driving out or enslaving the natives. The party set out to investigate, and Allie decided to bring Etch the dragon along with them.
A few days later, the group was ambushed outside a small wood by Nerakan men-at-arms led by a ranger lieutenant. They easily dispatched the soldiers (with a hulking minotaur and a black dragon on your side, you'll do that) and captured the ranger. She had little information to give them, although she made a nominal offer of employment to Deiria.
The Knights of Neraka were centering their operations in the town of Westmarket, which they had mostly burned, save for a small fortified center they had walled with stacked trees they had cleared from the nearby wood. Allie and Prince scouted ahead and learned of their numbers (which were impressive). The party decided to wait until dusk and attack under cover of a coming rain.
The battle went surprisingly well at first. The Nerakans managed to bunch the PCs up at the "gate", but eventually Galdar broke through. Melvina maneuvered around the fray invisibly and managed to snare a good number of soldiers and their captain in a web spell. When the captain broke free and chased her, she slipped him up with a grease spell and Galdar finished him off.
Unfortunately for all, the battle turned somewhat more frightening when an ogre appeared from one of the captured buildings and started casting mystic spells on the group. He was protected and enhanced by many magics, and it took the whole group working together, pulling out all of their tricks, to finally bring him down.
That night, while on watch, Galdar met a strange human man named Heironymous, a traveler looking for a place to sleep. Galdar lost track of the man during the night, but he did see a large draconic shape flying over the area. In the morning when Deiria took over the watch, Heironymous reappeared, made breakfast, and left cheerily. Shortly thereafter, a wagon full of disabled Nerakans was delivered to Galdar by name, with a note from Heironymous.
The party returned triumphantly to Kalaman with Nerakans in tow, but they found the city emptying, as word of the coming storm had finally reached the populace. What's more, Lady Carthelian had been struck with some terrible curse after trying to divine the storm's date of arrival.
A few days passed uneventfully. Allie and Melvina were summoned to Lord Kransin's office. He asked the two of them to convince his daughter, Lina, to leave the city. Excusing Allie, he then asked Melvina to ensure that Lina leaves, even if it is against her will. He pays her for the service with a spell of his own design that can render bludgeon a target into unconsciousness.
Allie, Galdar, and Melvina go to Lina's library to talk to her. Lina seems intent on staying, citing the thousands of poor and displaced in Southgate who have no recourse for escape, unable to afford passage or the rations to flee on foot. Galdar sees a problem he can address, even if it does not involve smiting, so he rushes the group off to the temple of Kiri-Jolith and donates all of his treasure to the temple to use to provide for the poor. The clerics are impressed and begin organizing a register of the residents of Southgate to facilitate the evacuation.
Meanwhile, Allie slips off and goes to the castle. She waits there until the council session is ended. When Templar Gareth comes out, she speaks to him and offers herself as a willing sacrifice for the Zeboite ritual, if no other solution is found in time.
