The Start
Initial Players were Tarvin,Vlast,Millain, Nasar and Yusef
We got to know each other while assigned to patrol together, along with Bortaa now known as Scalpee.
We were asked to investigate a mysterious death by Belfic of a guard. It turned out to be a poisoning in order to coverup an attempt to get into the VIP section of The Keep. We found a hidden torture room and had to deal with skeletons and Zombies. This led to an issue with the Ajudicators due to the Royal involvement.
We then had to deal with an Orc attack upon The Keep that we helped defend against, and there seems to be some evidence that the Sybandites used this as a distraction to get some documents from Hussain. We manage to track the trail of the Orc's back to a secluded Aristocrats estate/farmhouse and battle an Orc Cleric with hordes of undead.
We decided to leave The Keep and just as we were leaving, a red dragon chased by a bunch of small white dragons swooped by and dropped a dragon skull, which Tarvin managed to catch and then we had a pitched battle with the white dragons, eventually killing 1 of them, from which we made white dragon gloves.
Notable Interactions
We established a good relationship with Alfdis a half-orc merchant.
We met up with the Royal Emmissary Silathe.
We met up with Bergljot and didn't really like or trust her.
We met up with Hussain from Grendalli and got along well with him and his grandson Kalif, which resulted in our going to deal with the Trouble in the Deep Woods and The Goblins and the Trolls near Mackasol.
We met up with Agatha the Cleric.
We met up with Thamio, the leader of a group of people fleeing religious persecution into the Orclands.
We met up with Belfic, the Captain of the Guard at The Keep.
The city nearest The Keep is called Dallford.
Session Recaps
Session 1
(350XP each <70XP MVP Tony>): The party was ambushed on a routine patrol by a group of goblins and hobgoblins led by a bugbear. They discovered their teammate, Bortaa, had been almost killed by the creatures before they arrived. They returned to the Keep to report and recover.
Session 2
(200XP each <40XP MVP>): An accidental death was revealed to the PCs as a murder and they were recruited to investigate it. The PCs began their investigation and met several of the locals. They checked out the colonists in great detail and Nasar hired a tailor to make him some nice outfits.
Session 3
(400XP each <80XP MVP>): There were reports of raided Keep supply shipments and escaped Orc slaves. The PCs heard of these events during their investigation of the murder but dismissed them. The PCs investigation provide them with a much more detailed picture of the local area and several possible suspects. A few well-chosen Q’s using a speak with dead spell got the group some important info from the dead guard. They focused their investigation on the Royals and Nobles almost immediately. They also discovered the usage of the Blue Whinnis poison on the dead guard. Millain received an anonymous tip from the other side of a locked door. The voice asked if she had gone to a particular secluded hallway in the keep and if she knew the word for “traitor” in Orcish. When the PCs followed the hint one of the walls slid apart to reveal a door labelled “Adjudicators and Officers only”. It was locked and trapped with Blue Whinnis poison (making them even more suspiscious). When they managed to open it they found that it led to what was obviously a dungeon & torture chamber. There were bundles of clothing and gear on benches by the door, several Orc skeletons hanging from chains on the wall, and obvious implements of torture lying about. There was also a rack and a restraint table that each had a human on it. The players recognized them as members of the noble’s entourages, one from each. They both appeared dead at first, but the one on the rack moved slightly when disturbed and his eyes fluttered awake. He babbled deliriously about being interrogated and asked if the PCs were with Silathe. The zombie on the table next to him then killed him rather messily. The skeletons on the wall dropped to the ground.
Session 4
(450XP each <90XP MVP>): Two skeletons were guarding the door while everything else tried to kill the nearest PC. The characters had to survive a fight with all of the Orc skeletons on the wall as well as the zombie. After the fight a casting of ‘detect secret doors’ revealed the location of a secret room. After finding obvious evidence of a goblin living in the room but no goblin they snagged money and a note in Goblin and hurried away to fix themselves up. They went to Belfic and updated him on their progress. When they returned to the chamber, the bodies of the two humans and the piles of clothing and gear by the doors were missing. The PCs suspected the goblin had been hiding in a wine-barrel in the secret room. The deaths were officially declared defections but each Noble house blamed each other and the PCs narrowly avoided being present for a rather brutal bar brawl.
Session 5
(Done - 350XP each <70XP MVP>): The PC’s now knew something was up. They suspected the Royal household. They dropped non-royal, non-noble leads. They investigated both Noble houses and the Royal house, achieving excellent success with the Grendallians. They managed to limit their suspects in the guard’s death to 4 of the Royal guards. They finally ended up speaking with Thorgeir at his chapel about their investigation. He was ignorant of the details of their investigation but they filled him in on some of the key elements. He tried to persuade them that Silathe is innocent and that investigating her is a pointless endeavour.
When the players were getting the impression that he, Thorgeir, was a waste of their time the alarm rang and they all rushed to the top of the Keep. There the PCs saw that the Orc slaves had stormed the colonist’s camp, killing and maiming men, women, and children alike. The combat-ready colonists were fighting valiantly, but it was obvious they would lose without help. Several of the guards were readying to flood down and help them but Thorgeir actively prevented any guards from leaving their posts to help. He also forced all of the guards back to their posts even if that put them out of effective range to use bows to help the colonists. He didn’t prevent archers from firing at the Orcs, but few were skilled enough to do so without significant risk of hitting a colonist (Tarvin hit a child with a stray shot). Nasar saw that Thorgeir was happy about the attack.
Any new soldiers arriving from their bunks were ordered to combat positions before they had a chance to find out what was going on. A small number of soldiers, mostly conscripts, rushed straight from their bunks to the aid of the camp before they had a chance to hear the orders. Also, Alfdis and several of her employees charged into the fray. Belfic was asleep but rushed to the top of the Keep shortly after the alarm went up, arriving very soon after the PCs (but not before the PC’s started to really hate Thorgeir). Belfic was swayed by Thorgeir’s insistence on protocol but it was obvious he wanted to find a way to help within the rules. A PC spotted a force of well-armed and armoured Orcs sneaking in through a side door of The Keep. The PCs told Belfic and were given a choice between helping the colonists or hunting the intruders and they chose the intruders. The hurried down to where the Orcs had entered and heard loud crashing sounds on their way. They arrived at a broken door and Tarvin noticed a broken key sticking out of it. He grabbed it on their way by and they chased the Orcs through several more broken doors and staircases to the Grendalli entourage’s quarters. The PCs defeated the rear guard of the Orc force.
Session 6
(500XP each <100XP MVP>): After a protracted battle they managed to kill the remaining Orcs, capture the Orc leader, and revive 3 of the Grendallian entourage (including their contact: Kalif). Hussain was out of his rooms in secret talks with Bergljot. In the aftermath, the PCs lost all of the Grendallians’ confidential papers to Silathe and her entourage in what was obviously them taking the opportunity to pick through Hussain's notes. The battle outside was over when they went upstairs, but their capture of the Orc leader bore fruit, including his map of what was obviously an assassination attempt. After working for hours helping with the aftermath of the colonist battle (healing and removing bodies while hearing the rumblings of the impending conscript revolt) the party met the returning nobles and gave them basic information about what was happening. A short while later the party was summoned to Belfic’s office where they saw the nobles with 1 guard each and Silathe with 4 guards. The pottery keys, the adept’s map, and an unspecified note were on Belfic’s desk. The keys and the map were shown and the group explained the story behind each in order. Hussain compared the writing on the map with a letter from his belonging and then attempted to kill Silathe. He was subdued and knocked unconscious. The party then openly accused Silathe of being part of the plot. She made veiled threats and storms out in a huff. All through this Gathis was acting nervous. Millain checked Hussain and managed to keep him from dying from a heart attack. The Sybandite noble inspected Hussain's note and the map and formally requested an Adjudicator before leaving. The party then brainstormed over events and solidified their theory. During this, Belfic revealed that the other note is the statement of the Adept. He provided evidence of collusion by a resident of the Keep and a lead on his employer, a female Orc cleric of Gruumsh. The PCs compare Silathe’s handwriting with the note to the goblin and the non-matching handwriting gave them the idea that Silathe may be a patsy. The party decided to try a soft questioning of Gathis tonight and to hunt the Orc cleric tomorrow.
Session 7
(350XP each <70 XP MVP>): The soft questioning of Gathis solidifies their opinion that Silathe is involved, then the party begins the hunt. They locate the suspect farm and the rogue recons it under an invisibility spell. The PCs prepare to attack during the day since the 9 Orcs (none of them the cleric) can see better at night than several members of the party.They ambushed the Orcs and wiped them out.
Session 8
(450XP each): They freed the slaves (surviving farm residents) and explored the farm. They encountered a floating eye symbol in the farmhouse that cast a desecration spell before they destroyed it. They got some background information from the slaves and planned an ambush while the slaves ran away to a safer location. The Orc Cleric showed up invisible with a force of skeletons carrying several bodies. The skeletons set the bodies down by the farmhouse and they were raised as zombies by the now-visible cleric. The PCs focused a barrage of attacks on the Cleric, almost completely ignoring the skeletons and zombies that chased them around the area. When the cleric fell, the PCs were unhappy to discover the zombies and skeletons were still after them. The PCs fought on but it was obvious they were losing when Jane charged in on Binky and literally blew away several zombies and skeletons. After some desperate wrangling with Binky, Jane managed to turn him around and turn the remaining undead.
Session 9
(500XP each): The PCs regrouped and returned to the Keep where they filled Belfic in on what they knew. He informed them that Silathe had been found in her rooms with some incriminating evidence after committing suicide. It was suspected she did this to save the Royal House the embarrassment of an Adjudicator's investigation.
The party then trained for a while, finishing out their tours at The Keep. After this training they decided they were leaving the Keep and going to check out some trouble with elves and goblins in Grendalli. As they were being sent off in a formal ceremony a large Red Dragon being chased by several medium white dragons dropped a portion of a dragon’s skull off at the ceremony and flew away. The white dragons landed on the Keep and began killing everyone they could looking for the skull that Tarvin had grabbed and began to run away with. The PCs fought a pitched battle with one of the white dragons until they managed to defeat it. Tarvin dangled the skull over the edge of the Keep on a long rope and the white dragons grabbed it and left. Just then the red dragon returned, still relatively unhurt, and began to chase the bedraggled white dragons. The PCs eagerly picked over the body of the one dragon they had managed to drop and then parted company. The wizard ,Yusef, went back to school and the half-orc fighter, Vlast, went to work as a bodyguard with a half-orc noble who was at the Keep. The NPC scout, Bortaa, stayed behind to finish his sentance for theivery.
Retrospective Considerations
In hindsight, it now seems likely that the dragon's skull was actually that of the Ancient White Dragon
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