Which Quest is Best

Session 1 - Sept 25th, 2010

Started after Troubled Fey

The group needs to figure out how to get back into The Principalities by way of The Keep, as well as figuring out what to do about the two major paths in front of them.

(Contributed by Alex, tweaked by TJ)

The party went to the town of Muka'l (well Conner and Blue Wood and Gol stayed outside near the Awakened Forest) and checked the mail. The town was crowded, chaotic, with a siege mentality (and lots of opportunistic pickpockets - Gweara lost a dagger). The party members going in gave their names and were "flagged" as potential recruits and given identifying bracelets to wear to keep them from being troubled while waiting for an interview with the town leader (or so they thought!). Mail for Nasar/Conner was nothing special from his distant silver dragon kin, but Lady Naomi hoped he could come home soon. Then the leader of the town (old man) came and with a custom mass charm got Laran and Cugdish to agree to help the war effort vs. Orcs. Laran, already juiced up with diplomacy, convinced the others (except Willow). Willow "agreed" to get the rest of us outside and then explained what had happened and that the amulets did not come off. We talked about ways of removing the amulet and Willow disappeared!

So Gol created a lot of copies of a diplomatic agreement (worded by Blue Wood) along the tunes of "we don't have much time for this - we have other very pressing issues, but if you release our friends we won't waste your resources releasing them ourselves, and we will kill the orc leader and/or 5000 orcs". Nasar/Conner airbombed Muka'l with the leaflets...

Meanwhile, Laran and Cugdish were calming the crowd, and Bashir and Gweara were making war-related preparations (glyphs of warding, covered oil trenches, etc.). Willow was imprisoned and PISSED!

The old man talked to Laran and was convinced that we were honourable and let them all go, meeting all the conditions (no amulets, no charms, etc.). Willow removed the charm anyhow on Laran and Cugdish (but Bashir was so convinced by Laran's silver tongue that he is still a true believer). So we made more war preparations. Conner flew SW to see what was to be found and flew back and later realized there was a light to the south that wasn't dawn. Probably orcs will be here in a few days.

Blue Wood helped make a moat. Willow helped with wells, a secret tunnel to the Awakened Forest, and a deal with the AF. Dawn Brother agreed to take in the townsfolk if necessary, but at the price that 1 in 10 would not leave.

Currently we have the old man's coin which we can use to talk with him (and he apologized to the group, BTW, but he was desperate - other adventurers either wouldn't help without an exorbitant fee lied about helping and then took off). We may or may not take up the amulets again (we would have a way to remove them if necessary, and they could be used to pull us back to the town's relative safety as we would be monitored by the townsfolk). Not sure if the device would work on 4500 lb BlueWood. Blue Wood thought that Willow should decide whether to use the amulets or not, to make up for the loss of freedom she suffered earlier.

We think that the orcs number about 10 000 and have a common brand (perhaps Laran could try a bardic knowledge check?) and likely a strong leader that may or may not be an orc. They are organized, raiding areas for food/supplies first with scouting parties, razing settlements to the ground, etc. Conner voluntarily relinquished control to his silver dragon ancestor to use his expertise in town defending and orc army killing.