Campaign6/session1
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The Gathering Storm
Session Date: January 3, 2004
Assynt 28, 1022
Outside the Royal Court, a crowd of roughly two dozen people has gathered to answer the call for volunteers. They came to help the city guard explore and survey the vast network of tunnels that are beneath Kalen, in hopes of discovering if there are any more Demarian spies plaguing the city. There are all kinds in the crowd, from rough-looking humans, to half elves, and even a dwarf!
A tall captain of the Kyelsoran Army garrisoned inside the Royal complex emerges from the gatehouse and addresses the crowd. He instructs them for form into a line, where each person will give their name, where they can be reached if they are chosen, and what qualifications they bring to the job. One by one, he meets with the job seekers, occasionally asking one of them to step off to the side for further consultation. Once everyone in the crowd has been met, the captain asks those who have been directed to wait to step into the gatehouse for further discussion.
The group is guided to a small room off the main chamber of the gatehouse, and the Kyelsoran captain introduces himself as Ravensfeather. Inside, the group is briefed on the current situation in Kalen: Demarian spies have infiltrated the city, and with the help of collaborators, they have constructed an underground fortification that was probably intended to be a beachhead for a larger Demarian force. The fortress was discovered less that two days ago, and has been secured by an elite squad of Kyelsoran soldiers. The volunteers will survey the fortifications and then conduct a search of the underground to see if there are any further Demarian strongholds.
Before proceeding to the underground, Ravensfeather takes the group to question a Demarian captured from the fortress, a Dargai priestess named Nymvayas. Ravensfeather escorts the group through the second chamber of the gatehouse and onto the Royal grounds. The group notices that it is substantially warmer in the Royal Gardens than in Kalen beyond the walls, and the cherry trees are already starting to bloom, even though it will be another month before they do so in the surrounding city.
Ravensfeather leads the group to the Mage Corps main hall, and down a spiral stair until they are two floors below ground. As the party walks down the subterranean hallway, the mages notice the ambient mana level drop to nothing, and they perceive the magical energies seeping from them as they reach the end of the hall. Two human soldiers, dressed in full plate and wearing the tabard of the Hebridonian Crown, stand guard in front of a stone door at the end of the hall.
At Ravensfeather’s order, the two guards turn the keys on a dozen metal locks in the massive door, and with a bit of effort manage to pull it open. The massive door is a foot thick and apparently made of solid stone. Beyond the door is a small cell, which is little more than a closet, with a Dargai woman dressed in some sort of bloodstained ceremonial robes sitting against the far wall. As the door opens, the woman looks up, and seeing the large group, she stands.
The group peppers her with questions, each answered with the promise "I will answer your questions if you will answer mine." After a few moments of less-than-useful banter, Anna asks Nymvayas what her question is. Nymvayas asks "Who are the Scaryn, and what has happened to them?" The party has few answers beyond the knowledge that a war between the Eloshai and the Scarryn ended over a thousand years ago. Nymvayas indicates that the depth of their answers will matched in her own answers. Frustrated, Triella blurts “Why can’t we break them?!?” (referring to the contagious undead which are almost impossible to put to rest)
Nymvayas face curls with a crooked smile, but she does not offer anything useful. The party departs unsatisfied, with more questions than answers.
The party is escorted to Islay Manor, where they are guided through a concealed hatch into the underground, apparently used by Faegan Islay to meet his Demarian collaborators when he was alive. The party is led to the underground cavern where the Demarians were constructing a temple to be used in opening a gate to Neist to free S'renara Rannoch and her massive army of undead. The escorts are surprised to find that the dozen Phedrani guards left to guard the site are missing. The party is also disconcerted that other dead, presumably left over from the Demarians previous activities, have not been removed for proper funerary rites.
Climbing down a rock face, the party cautiously enters the compound and approaches the temple. Through a hanging door cloth, the party peers into the inky blackness inside the temple. Anna flicks a coin magicked with a light enchantment into the darkness, and as it makes its tumbling arc, the party witnesses the shadowy horrors of the temple: a dozen Phedrani, slaughtered and crucified on hanging metal frames, the dripping of their blood the only sound punctuating the terrible silence.
Continued in Session 2: Sole Survivor
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