Session 1 - Summary
By fate and luck, the player characters each found themselves in the town of Willow Bay, on the west shore of the kingdom of Mercia. Both tavern rumors and town criers spoke of trouble brewing up north along the coast. The stories spoke of bloodthirsty humanoids attacking villages on the river, of roving bandits preying on caravans and savages carrying victims off into the jungle.
To deal with these attacks, the Duke of Willow Bay decreed that all able bodied men who could be spared were to be conscripted into temporary militia service and sent north to bolster the militias of the northern villages. The player characters, along with many others, were ordered to meet at the docks at noon to board the HMS Gladiator for transport to Riverfort, the ruling town in the north region where the villages were being attacked. Failure to comply would be considered the same as desertion... punishable by death.
Riverfort sits at the mouth of the Barakose River. It was not a long journey to Riverfort and the militia recruits could have marched up there in couple of days. However, the Duke wanted to make a show of force in the region and so decided to send the recruits by ship.
At noon the next day, a vast crowd had gathered to see the ship off. Women kissed men goodbye, children said farewell to fathers and gaudily colored whores waved to their last customers. A priest of Semorjon blessed the ship and the venture.
The ship was loaded with supplies, horses, wagons and almost a hundred new recruits. Finally, at noon, a bell clanged loudly and the military officer in charge addressed the crowd.
"Alright men. I am Captain Kroetha and I'm tasked with getting the whole sorry lot of you to Riverfort. The villages to the north have been suffering attacks from savages from the Barakose Swamp. Four villages have already been destroyed. We're going there to protect the villages and bring the fight to these godless lizard men. [Cheers] The good news is that you will be paid for your services. [Louder cheers] The Duke expects this to take six months. I, for one, think we can do it in three months and get you back to your families early. [More cheers] Right... everyone on board!"
The crowd surged forward and the four player characters found a space on the deck. It was crowded and loud. Talking, laughter, singing, card games, dice games and the clatter of weapons filled the air. Seagulls strutted up and down looking for handouts. Toward the back, someone had smuggled some ale aboard and it was being passed around. Before too long, the ship set sail.
About an hour into the voyage, William cast a "Find Familiar" spell and a short time later a raven came flying across the sea and landed on the rail beside him. When the raven is nearby, William can see through its eyes, if he chooses.
After a four hour trip, the ship arrived at Riverfort. Riverfort consisted of a stout stone keep, a bridge spanning the river and a collection of small wooden buildings clustered around the keep.
Scattered along the east side of the town were several hundred tents of all shapes and sizes. The smoke from dozens of campfires rose from this makeshift tent city. The town was small but crowded, with many people coming and going: townsfolk, soldiers, carts, wagons, horses, dogs, children, etc.
The new recruits assembled in the town's small market square on the far side of the keep. They were addressed by a tall elderly man dressed in fine garments and robes.
"Welcome to Riverfort. Baron Kreydor the Third rules here. I am Lord Garold... the Baron's seneschal and town magistrate. This keep sits at the mouth of the Barakose River which serves as the border between Mercia and the vast Barakose swamp. There are a number of villages to the north along the river. In recent months, there have been nine attacks by large groups of savage creatures... saurians mostly. But other creatures have been seen with them as well... goblins, orcs, boglings and others. These savages strike swiftly and then retreat back into the swamp. Four villages have been destroyed... burned to the ground. We now have a large number of refugees here who fled from those villages. Many died in the raids, but there were also a number of villagers captured and taken as prisoners back into the swamp. A number of other disappearances over the last few months are suspected to have been committed by these same raiders.
Your job is, first and foremost, to defend the remaining villages against further attacks. Second, the Baron wants the militia to begin scouting expeditions into the swamp, to find where the saurians are coming from and free those who have been captured... if they still live.
Baron Kreydor has decreed that every militia man will be paid three pieces of copper for each day of service. In addition, there is a bounty of 1 gold piece for every saurian, orc, goblin or bogling killed. Ten pieces of gold will be paid for a chieftain or shaman.
Captain Kroetha and his officers are in charge of this military campaign, by decree of the Baron and the Duke and by the divine authority of great Imarus. May his blessings go with you and my fortune favor you."
With that the old man stepped down and Captain Kroetha began barking out orders to various officers. The four player characters were assigned with others to form a ten man unit. Because one of them was a wizard, and wizards were few and sorely needed, this new unit was a "wizard unit" and were made one of the top 5 units. They were given the designation of "Squad 5".
The other members of squad 5 were as follows:
Bruger – A heavyset man, balding, greasy and pig like. He wielded a broad sword one handed. Although fat, he was strong. Bruger wore half plate armor and was the designated squad leader.
Brog – A half ogre, muscled and tall, but mute and dim-witted.
Kreel - A tall thin, human with a sneering grin who fought with a slender blade and buckler. Wore tight fitting leather armor and a short cloak.
Strutter - A grum armed with a short blade and ill-fitting leather armor. He claimed to be a cook, not a fighter and was pressed into militia service.
Kaidul - An older human with a square cut greying beard and thick tangle of long grey hair. He looked strong and fit for an older man. He wore studded leather armor and dark green cloak and well worn boots. His sword was short and single edged and he carried a bow. Kaidul spoke with a Normidian accent.
Ordran – A young, balding, overweight priest of Glavryis. Said to be good with healing herbs and a great deal of book knowledge, but not particularly brave or experienced in fighting.
For the rest of the day, they were given various menial chores and tasks to do – helping to unload the ship and set up additional tents and camps. At the end of the day, they ate round their own campfire and slept in two large tents.
The next morning the players were woken by a ruckus outside their tent. A young man, disheveled and frantic, was talking excitedly with several officers and guards. The young man, named Ardyn, was from a group of farms a few miles up the road. His father in law had been attacked by a creature and the beast was still in a large barn shared by the farms. They had sent him to get help.
Squad 5 was ordered to check it out. Two Sisters of Sarreth (priestesses of a healing cult) were sent with them to tend to the old man's injuries.
The young man led the group about five miles north to where three farms were clustered together. These three farms shared a single large granary which had been built upon the stone foundation of an old Traxxian ruin. Ardyn told them that the barn had a cellar with several chambers. Arden told them that the someone went into the barn at least once or twice a week, but that no one had been down in the cellars for over a month.
Bruger sent the two Sisters of Sarreth into the house with Arken to tend to the old man. Ordan, the young cleric went with them.
Outside the barn, there were a lot of foot prints, but the players noticed one set of reptilian claw prints in the soil. A search of the barn revealed blood stains in two of the animal stalls and various blood tracks around the soil and straw. One bloody track, as if something had been dragged, led to a set of stone stairs in the back of the barn. The stairs led down to the cellars beneath the barn.
William, their mage, cast a light spell on a wooden pail. With this light source, they proceeded down the stairs into the darkness below.
The stairs ended in a large chamber. Rats scampered away as they entered. The place smelled dank and musty. The room was cluttered - boxes, crates, barrels and firewood stacked high. Various shelves containing hundreds of jars and bottles filled with fermenting fruit, jerked beef and other foodstuffs.
There were fours exits – one east, one west and two in the north wall, with double wooden doors in each. Three doors were closed and one open. They closed the open one. The blood stains on the floor were no help as the stains seemed to go to each of the doors.
Listig took three bottles off of the shelves and tied a bottle to each of the west and north door so that the bottle will break if the doors are opened. They left Strutter and Brog in this room to stand guard and the rest moved on.
The group ventured through the doors to the east. The next room was some sort of leather and metal workshop. There was horse shoes, horse saddles, stirrups, lots of rope, nails, tongs, hammers, cutting tools, strips of leather, tanning racks, an anvil, an old forge (vents to the outside), piles of coal, piles of bricks, lanterns, candles, oil, etc. Listig helped himself to some good small metal tools and a couple bottles of oil.
To the north was a passageway which opened up into another, smaller storage room which smelled of sweet tobacco. Other than cobwebs, there was nothing of interest in this room.
A rubble strewn narrow corridor led west from this tobacco scented room. William told his raven in to go in and explore. Through the raven's eyes, he saw on the floor what looked like a body. William relayed this to the group and Listig ventured in with sword drawn. The room was damaged, with large cracks in the walls and a partially collapsed ceiling. Rocks and rubble covered the floor.
Listig saw a small humanoid body face down on the floor, but before he could investigate, a giant spider leapt out from a hole in the wall and pinned him, chittering away, flailing its legs and trying to bite him.
The others rushed into to help him. They quickly dispatched the spider, but not before it had bitten him severely. He quickly began to feel ill as poison from the bite began to spread through his body.
As they helped Listig to his feet, one of the "alarm bottles" out in the first chamber shattered at almost the same time that they heard Strutter screaming for help. They could hear the sounds of the grum and the ogre were being attacked. The others rush back to the first chamber to help.
They found themselves facing a large reptilian creature in the dimly lit room. The thing stood taller than a man and its two long arms ended in curved blade shaped bones. It wore some sort of a harness. The entire group surrounded the creature and fought it together. It was a dangerous foe, both strong and quick, with a surprisingly long reach. Several of them suffered nasty wounds from the creature's bony scythe like talons. At one point, it leapt forward and brought its cleaver talon down on Bruger, cutting him from shoulder to waist. He was dead before he hit the floor. Eventually, by sheer numbers, they beat the thing down and killed it. It took all of them and they defeated it just barely.
Exhausted from the battle, the group sent Strutter to fetch the Sisters to aid Listig (who was suffering badly from the spider's poison). The Sisters came down and tended to the wounded. For Listig and the more seriously wounded, they used healing spells and potions.
Once healed and feeling better, the group investigated the large reptile with the cleaver like arms. Now that battle was over, they brought more light out and inspected the creature more closely. The harness it wore consisted of leather straps over the shoulders meeting at an X on the back. They rolled the creature over and the straps on the chest met in a small metal chest plate with three glistening white gemstones. When they brought the light source close, the three gemstones swiveled in their sockets and the group realized they were, in fact, three eyes and the three eyes were looking at them, following their movements.
Rather than poke out the eyes or destroy the strange thing, they unhooked the harness and thrust it into a thick burlap sack to effectively "blind" the eyes. They also cut off one of the creature's long bony talons.
Finding nothing else of interest on the creature, they ventured back into the rubble strewn room to investigate the other body. This one turned out to be a goblin, partially decomposed and completely desiccated. The goblin was dressed in leather armor, boots and belt. He had a pouch (with a few coins) and a dagger on his belt. A broken short sword was still clutched in his hand. William's raven was sent into the hole from where the spider had come to determine how deep the hole went. To their surprised, the raven was gone a while and then flew back into the room from the doorway. They quickly deduced that the hole led to the outside. Scratches and scrapes on the goblyn's body and other clues led the party to deduce that the goblin had been attacked by the spider and dragged through the hole in here to be made a meal of. No doubt this goblin was one of the attacking raiders.
Going back to the main chamber, the group then explored the corridor from where the large reptilian thing had come from. The corridor ended in a large chamber. This room was filled with smashed crates, broken barrels, straw and grass. The room looked like the nest of the reptilian creature. The floor was littered with dozens of bones, gnawed clean. In here were also bits and pieces from very recent meals – a goat's head, half a cow and so forth.
Having dispatched the creature, they felt their job was done, but they did not want to leave yet until they had explored every cellar chamber and ensured nothing else was done here. They went to the last room. Within they found several wine racks with more than a hundred bottles. Some had proper labels of local vineyards. Other bottles had hand written labels. It seems the farmers had quite an eclectic mix – fine wine, cheap beer, local ale, honey mead, moonshine and more were all to be found.
While searching the room, they discovered a bottle well hidden in a box at the bottom of a rack. Unwrapping it from a roll of cloth, they found a bottle with a label written in Iskren (an arcane code used by the wizards of the region). William, familiar with Iskren, recognized the symbols. The label said the potion was "Malidon's Remedy", a type of healing potion.
With their very first "dungeon" complete, the group headed outside, dragging the bodies of the reptile, the goblin and the spider, with them. Outside, they burned the bodies. Mission completed.
As the bodies were burning, they noticed a figure burst out from the bushes at side of road north of them. It was a young girl, clutching something to her chest, running toward them. She was a young thing, no more than seven years old. She was wailing, tears pouring down her face. She was covered in blood. In her arms, she clutched a small dog with an arrow in it.
It took them (and the Sisters of Sarreth) a while to calm the child. The arrow in the dog was definitely an orcish arrow. Winlock, familiar with orcs, was sure of that.
The girl told them of an attack on her village, the village of Dunsfallow, only two miles to the north. She ran here, chased by an orc through the forest. She said the attack was still going on. The party ordered Ordan, the young cleric and the two sisters to run back to Riverfort with the young girl. Both for their safety and to alert the army there that Dunsfallow was under attack.
Meanwhile, the rest of squad 5 (the remaining eight of them) decide to head to Dunsfallow. While they are talking, an orc bursts out of the foliage. Apparently, he was the one that had been chasing the girl. The orc knocked an arrow, drew and loosed. The arrow soared toward the party and it struck the young girl in the leg. The orc then turned and fled back into the forest.
Winlock, who hates orcs more than can be sufficiently described with mere words, lost control. With a roar, he loosed his war hammer and bolted forward. Listig gave chase as well.
The orc and Listig proved too fast and Winlock fell behind, but continued his run. Listig managed to keep up with the orc and even fire a few arrows at him whenever he had a clear shot. He hit the orc twice, but not enough to drop him. The orc ended up reaching the village of Dunsfallow and disappeared into the chaos of combat.
The rest of the party, heading north along the road, spotted a sentry standing on the road at the edge of Dunsfallow. All of them except for William quickly hid in the brush and trees alongside the road. William continued advancing north, closing the distance between himself and the sentry. The rest of the party kept close, but out of sight, moving north parallel to the road. Eventually, Winlock found the party and joined them, keeping William and the sentry in sight, but themselves well hidden in the brush.
The sentry, an orc, spotting William, pulled out a spy glass to get a good look at the approaching wizard. William noticed that this sentry had a horn on his belt as well. William continued walking up the road toward the orc and the orc kept an eye on him. William got within about 20 paces of the orc when the orc drew his rather large sword and began advancing. Before the orc could attack William, Winlock charged from his hiding place in the bushes and attacked. The orc attempted to raise the horn to his lips, but Winlock's massive warhammer swung and caved in the orc's skull before the horn made a sound. The orc went down with a single blow. They dragged the body intot he bushes and searched it. They took his coin pouch, the spyglass and the horn. The party then moved through the forest toward the village. They found Listig up in a tree (where else does one find an elf?). Listig had his bow out and had a clear view of the village.
The village was still being attacked. The sounds of ringing steel and the cries of the dying filled the air. More than a dozen buildings were on fire and blazing. Terrified villagers were frantically fleeing or fighting. A mix of militia men and farmer, badly outnumbered, were doing their best. The raiders were a racial mix. Of those the party could see, the attackers included saurians, orcs and at least two trolls. They watched as villagers were stuffed into large wooden cages worn on the backs off big trolls. It's clear that they were here for prisoners, not just murder.
The party charged out of the forest and leapt into the fray. They fought a few saurians and orcs while Listig fired arrows from his high tree vantage point. They did well and killed a few. While they are fighting, the sounds of drums rose and the raiders began to withdraw. The party manages to kill are few raiders who dawdled, too intent on their killing and bloodshed to have headed the drums. Both Kreel and Brog (the two NPC fighters) died in this battle.
By the time the party killed the last of the orcs and saurian, the main mass of the raiders was well gone, having fled west with their prisoners. They were heading back toward the western forest, toward the Barakose Swamp, from which they had no doubt come.
The party, exhausted and badly wounded, decided not to pursue the retreating raiders. Instead, they quickly did what they could to help the village. They tended the injured, they tried to put out a few of the fires. Searching the body of a dead orc soldier, William found a potion with an orcish label. He sensed magic in it, but could not read the label.
William sent his raven familiar to follow the retreating raiders for "about one hour" and then report back to him. It is hoped that the raven may give him some idea as to where the raiders are heading.
About ten minutes later, a large group of mounted soldiers galloped up and thundered to a stop, having just ridden hard from Riverfort. Behind them came dozens more militia men and squires on foot and a wagon full of healers. Soldiers and healers quickly joined the party, trying to save as many people and buildings as they could.
This is where Session 1 ended.