Session 02 - The City of Aridorn and the Knighting Ceremony

[avisarr]

Session 02 - The City of Aridorn and the Knighting Ceremony

The characters arrived safely in Aridorn, the capital city of the Rukemian Empire.  They arrive just a day before the Year's End Festival began. (the equivalent of December 30th). They are met with a hero's welcome. The senator had arranged for quite a spectacular reception. The carriage ride to the castle is a veritable parade.

Upon meeting the group, the senator wines and dines them treating them like royalty. Most of the characters were not used to this kind of treatment (the myrian brothers especially who are faxing the entire Rukemian empire back to Myria, one silk sheet at a time).

With much discussion, the senator does his best to convince Rothgar, Martin and Callister (the three original heroes from the last quest) to accept his offer of knighthood. The senator informs them that he is mired in bureaucratic red tape and wants a small, mobile strike team for special military objectives. He has a few small missions in mind and one immediate need.

The group is reluctant to join the war effort and asks for more details about the missions he proposes. The senator then comes out with the truth. The war effort is going much worse than is publicly known. Kitar is hard pressed. Soldiers of Duthelm advance daily and the borders are being pushed back at an alarming rate.

Kitar has sustained quite a beating over the last six months. About four weeks ago, Myranor, the capital city of Kitar, came under full siege. Thousands of orcs, ogres, evil humans and worse have surrounded the city and taken control of the harbor. This army is not only strong and well armed, but they have aid from the Black Sorcerers, an elite group of wizards in Duthelm. The Black Sorcerers have unveiled a new weapon - a sort of wagon mounted magical device. This device interferes with magic and has thus far prevented the Myranor wizards from using their spells. However, the Duthelmian Black Sorcerers are able to cast their spells normally. These devices have effectively cut off all means of magical communication. So the empire has no idea what is going on in Myranor now.

The Kitaran army is divided up into battalions. Only two battalions were in the city when it was besieged. Several other battalions were out in the countryside fighting Duthelm legions. King Davillon himself, ruler of Kitar, leads one of these "roaming" battalions. Several of the Kitaran roaming battalions have made attacks against the siege army at Myranor. But so far, they have not been able to break the siege.

Just recently, one of the imperial spies in the Citadel, left his post without orders. He was spotted outside the city walls during one of the assaults. Somehow, during the fight, he managed to get into the city. This was reported by a Kitaran officer from a roaming battalion who had been involved in the battle. It was also reported by an ogre prisoner. The imperial spy would not have left his post unless he had valuable information that could not wait for the normal pickup. However, he has ended up in Myranor, a besieged city. The empire has no way of communicating with anyone in the city.
By the way, as a side note, the imperial spy is not just some run of the mill NPC. It just so happens to be Kramtha (Nathan's character from the last campaign).

The senator believes that Kramtha would not have abandoned his mission and exposed himself to such risk unless it was extremely important. The senator sets these tasks before the group:

• Find Kramtha and escort him out of the city. Find out why he left the Citadel and what he's doing.
• Gather information about the siege, the condition of the city and it's people. Find out who's in command and who's still alive. (All lines of communication, magically and otherwise, have been cut in the area around Myranor).
• Deliver a powerful healing item to the city authorities.
• Convey an orcish chieftain prisoner (who was recently captured by the besieged city) out of Myranor and back to Kitaran held lands. This orcish chieftain is believed to have useful tactical information.
• Lastly, it was recently discovered that the daughter of one of the Senator's is in Myranor. She was not supposed to be in Myranor. It turns out she was visiting a lover there against her father's wishes. Now she has placed herself in danger. The senate would very much like the heroes to get the daughter out safely.

This was enough to convince the group. Not only did the empire and Kitar need them, they had a friend in trouble. Callister, Martin and Rothgar agreed to the senator's proposal. They would accept knighthood and put together a team. This team would have rank, but be independent from the regular military. They would answer directly to Senator Nitavla. Their first mission was waiting for them.
On the last day of the year, amidst the Year End's Festival, Callister and Martin went to a brothel and indulged in debauchery. Liquor, drugs are women were passed around freely. Every sin imaginable was committed.

The next day, they looked and smelled terrible. With help from the rest of the group, they struggled into clean clothes and arrived at the temple of Imarus (patron deity of the empire) where the knighting ceremony was to be held a mere 10 minutes before the proceeding began. The ceremony was long and formal. The two men, hung over and weak, struggled to remain standing through the long speeches. Rothgar had refrained from the celebration and it was he whom the other two leaned upon. Finally, the ceremony concluded and each in turn knelt while the Senator touched sword to shoulder and bestowed knighthood. Each man was granted the rank and title of Knight Commander of the Great Rukemian Empire.
After the celebration, the party began making preparations for their journey into the war zone.

So ends Session 2.