Session 03 - Summary

[David Roomes]

Our Heroes:

   Belkor  - human fighter
   William - human mage
   Listig - elven thief/archer
   Winlock - dwarf/orc barbarian


The party decided to do some more reconnaissance on the enemy encampments before they began the long journey back to Riverfort.

There were two enemy encampments that they knew about. The "watch tower" (a small ruin not far away) and the "war camp" a larger ruin a few miles further.

The party waited until night fall and then split up. Listig and Belkor went to the war camp and William and Winlock went to the watch tower. Dathelar, their cleric, stayed behind to guard the runaway Baron's son.

Listig and Belkor approached the war camp and studied it. The ruin consisted of a two story stone building and an encircling stone curtain wall. The second story was collapsed and little more than rubble. The ruined wall had cracks and gaps in it. Surrounding the entire thing was a deep trench, a moat of some kind. The field around the ruined building, right up to the edge of the moat, had been cleared of vegetation... every plant and bit of grass cut short by a blade.

Two undead, skeletal things, stood on the roof of the building, walking amongst the rubble of the second floor. They each carried a large thigh bone and skull – no doubt to be struck together as a form of "alarm" should the need arise. The twin skeletons marched back and forth, their empty eye sockets probing the tree line searching for enemies.

Listig and Belkor watched the camp for three hours. They watched the guards on duty eat, drink and talk. The guards were roasting a boar over a large bonfire. Just as they were about to leave, they heard a girl cry out. They watched as an orc pulled a struggling girl out of the building and led her around to another entrance and down some stairs, out of sight. Both of them recognized the girl. It was Myra, the 17 year old daughter of the farmer, Ulrich, that had begged them to save his daughters and shown them her portrait. Listig and Belkor then left and returned to the party's camp.

Meanwhile, William and Winlock were miles away at the watch tower. They also watched for three hours. The watch tower was three stories tall with rubble and ruined wall encircling a small square courtyard. They watched guards on top of the tower keep watch over the swamp forest. At one point the guards were exchanged. It seemed only a handful of guards were stationed here. Among the orc guards and saurian guards, they saw a human. Perhaps a mercenary, perhaps a charmed villager, they could not be sure. The two of them snuck closer with invisibility, but then a guard came out into the courtyard with a large canine of some kind. The canine sniffed the air and began to growl. William and Winlock retreated quickly before the dog could sniff them out. They fled back to their camp.

Between the two enemy encampments, the larger war camp seemed to be more active. And they had seen a prisoner. They decided to go there again and watch. This time they used William's raven to remotely view the camp up close (through the familiar's eyes). Over the course of four hours of discreet observation, they deduced that the war camp had at least a dozen humanoid warriors and at least five prisoners. They also saw what looked like a saurian shaman.
They decided that the war camp was too large for them to take on their own. They decided to return with all the information they had gathered and the baron's son and get help.

On the third day of the journey home, they come across a battle. Three humans were fighting a group of saurian and orcs. The humans were outnumbered and surrounded. Straddling a large reptilian steed was a orcish shaman who was watching the battle. There were two other steeds nearby with saddles but no riders. Their riders were on the ground in battle. Fighting with the saurians and orcs was a grim looking human fighter.

The party rushed in to help the three humans. It was a fierce battle. The shaman unleashed several potent spells including a "mud wave" spell that nearly launched William off his feet. The saurians each wielded an athalas – a long staff with a straight blade at each end which is favored by the lizard folk. Toward the end of the fight, one of the saurians managed to stab Belkor through the chest. He went down, blood gushing from the wound and his eyes rolled back. Dathelar, the cleric, fought his way to Belkor's side and began a healing spell to keep him alive. Other than the critical wound on Belkor, the fight went well and after another minute of fierce fighting, the party prevailed. Unfortunately, one of the three humans they had been trying to help had died and another was close to death. Only one was still on his feet.

Once the battle was over, the cleric tended to the wounded while the others talked to the remaining man. He thanked the party for their help and told them that he and his men were all that was left of Recon Team 3 (one of several 5 man recon teams that had been sent out – the players were Recon Team 1). They exchanged information with him. Recon Team 1 had survived several battles over the last few days. They had encountered a watch tower to the north. But on their return journey, they had been set upon by this war party that had been riding these large reptilian steeds.

The party rolled the bodies of the dead saurians and orcs. Other than a few coins, they found nothing of interest. William scanned the bodies with a detect magic spell, but nothing on the dead creatures emitted any kind of magical aura. Still, William took the staff that the shaman had been wielding and a strange mud carved figurine that he had in a pouch. While they were searching the bodies, the discovered something. The human fighter that had been fighting with the humanoids had something on his hand. It was a symbol branded into the palm of his right hand. William copied the symbol into a notebook. Winlock cut off the skin from the palm and took it with him.

Now that the fight was over, the party looked at the steeds. They were huge amphibian creatures – as big as a horse, but with a longer body. They had webbing between clawed toes and a long powerful tail. Each was wearing a long saddle that had two separate seats and a cargo harness. There were three of the steeds. The party found the creatures docile and easy to handle. They decided to take the steeds and ride them the rest of the way.

The steeds proved to be very fast. They were able to move over and through the swamp terrain with great speed and with little difficulty. With the steeds, the party covered five times as much ground as on foot. They managed to cover the last 25 miles and reach Endroad Keep that night.

They spent the night at Endroad Keep and discussed what to do with the Baron's son. No one had said anything to them about the Baron's son being missing. There was, as far as they knew, no search being conducted. They speculated that perhaps the Baron did not want it publicly known that his son had run off with the prize jewel of the treasury and therefore was being discreet. In that case, it might not be wise to simply walk in to the army's camp with the Baron's son.

The party decided to leave the son back at Endroad Keep with Winlock and the cleric and the two remaining members of Recon Team 3 (one of whom was still badly wounded and unconscious from the fight).

Belkor, William and Listig rode into town and went straight to the keep where they met with Captain Kroetha and the seneschal. They demanded a meeting with the Baron. The captain convinced the seneschal to fetch the Baron and a meeting was soon convened in the keep's library.

The three adventurers then presented the fire opal as proof that they should be heard. The seneschal dismissed the lower ranking people out of the room. So it was just Belkor, Listig, William, Captain Kroetha, the Seneschal and the Baron. The three adventurers told them about their encounter with the Baron's son and their discovery of the gem. The Baron was overjoyed to hear that his son still lived and was also delighted to have the gemstone, his family heirloom, returned to him.

The Baron confirmed what the party had suspected... the son had absconded with the gemstone and a stolen horse two weeks earlier and had left a note telling of his intentions. The Baron and his most trusted inner circle had created a cover story that the son was sick in bed and then had sent several trusted men out to discreetly look for the boy. The general public and the militia did not know the truth.

The Baron, immensely pleased with how events had turned out, thanked the three adventurers profusely for bringing back both his son and the gem. He was also especially pleased that they had done so discreetly. He gave them 25 gold pieces each for their continued silence and discretion on the matter. He also indicated that their service to the militia was fulfilled. However, he asked them to stay on and said that he would offer them each a knighthood if they chose to stay and help continue the fight. They all accepted.

A few of the Baron's most trusted men were sent with the three adventurers back to Endroad Keep in a wagon. This way, they could fetch the baron's son and the others discreetly. When they arrived at Endroad Keep, there found that the unconscious member of Recon Team 3 had died. The cleric was unable to save him. They spent the night at Endroad Keep and returned to Riverfort the next day.

They spent the entire day resting, bathing and recuperating. They patched up their armor and resupplied themselves. The following day, they were knighted in a small private ceremony in the keep.

Each player character is now a Knight Bachelor. They were given a fine cloak (with Riverfort's colors) and a brooch which bears the coat of arms of Riverfort and the Dreyus House.

Winlock and Listig took the piece of skin with the symbol on it to the library and asked the librarian to search for information about it. The librarian did find a match in a book of glyphs and symbols. It turns out that the symbol is Huridian – the ancient magical coding system used by the Mage Lords before the Great War. Although the librarian was able to tell them a bit about the Mage Lords and how powerful their magic was, he was not able to tell them anything about this particular symbol. No mage or scholar has successfully deciphered Huridian. It is essentially an unreadable language and remains one of the great arcane mysteries of the world.

The Baron has asked the party to lead the assault on the war camp and will provide them with whatever men and resources they need. They are going to spend another day or two in town before they launch this assault. Before they go, William is planning on going to the Baron's "court wizard" to discuss a few magical matters.

And this is where we ended Session 3.