Three Worlds #8

(picture from exarc.net)

A new day brought a new caravan to Obanhold, and the Castellan quickly recruited two of the caravan guards Melig and Rokas to his service. Having surmised that the orcs were trying to stop him from discovering their plans in the north, he had decided to send a troop of soldiers to garrison Yngley, and to retake the West Hall Tower, from which he had recently withdrawn his troops after an orc attack.

With Arwin and Mala still recuperating from their injuries, Enree, Melig, and Rokas (see PC profiles here) were sent with Tugh, a soldier formerly at the West Hall Tower, to travel with the relief party to the Valley Tower (a watchtower between the West Hall Tower and Obanhold itself) and thence to the West Hall Tower to see if the orcs had occupied it.

After two days' ride, the party neared West Hall Tower. They waited until nightfall, and then Melig stealthily approached the tower on foot. The West Hall Tower was almost identical to the Valley tower: a log tower three storeys tall, surrounded by a wooden palisade reinforced at the base with earth and rocks. He could see light coming from the windows of the tower, hear sounds of carousing, and see a single guard atop the tower's top. Creeping even closer, he saw that part of the palisade wall had burnt down, as Tugh had related, saw (and smelled) horses within the palisade, and learned from the voices within the tower that the men were trappers, and that they were discussing when to return to Obanhold.

Melig returned to his companions and reported his findings. Out of caution, the party decided that Melig and Rokas would remain hidden, while Enree and Tugh would approach the tower. When they came within sight of the tower, the duo were challenged by the sentry, and Enree informed him that he was a traveling minstrel who had gotten lost on his way to Obanhold. Enree and Tugh were disarmed before they were allowed to enter the tower, and given food and shelter for the night, while Melig and Rokas spent the night out in the cold.

The next morning, the trappers informed Enree that they had decided to return to Obanhold that very day, and invited Enree and Tugh to ride with them. Using his magic, Enree informed Rokas of their plans, and the party decided to travel ahead of the trappers and arrive at Valley Tower before them.

The two parties joined at Valley Tower, where Melig and Rokas was able to inform the garrison of Enree's cover story, and the next day our heroes arrived back at Obanhold with the trappers, to the joy of the fur merchant there.

When they went to the Great Hall to report to the Castellan, however, Enree was confronted by Remunas, the headman of Yngley, who accused him of seducing his daughter Elze, who had run away from home two days earlier.

Now Enree had indeed used his magic to communicate with Elze through a spell of sending when he was at Yngley, encouraging her to take up the life of an adventurer, but now he denied the charges vehemently, but at the same time sought the Castellan's permission to find the missing girl to defend his and the Castellan's honour. 

The next morning, the party traveled northeast towards Yngley, but when they arrived at the lumbering village of Gatton, midway between Obanhold and Yngley, Remunas was informed by the villagers that his daughter was there. A tearful Elze told her father that she had gotten the idea that she would become an adventurer like our heroes, and had left home to go to Obanhold to seek service with the Castellan, but had gotten lost on the way.

Saulinus, headman of Gatton, declared a feast to celebrate the reunion of father and daughter, and food and ale were had in his hall. Enree, ever suspicious, sought to communicate with Elze with his magic again, but found that he could not do so, nor could he sense her mind. He sought to speak with Elze, but Remunas, despite the efforts of Melig, would not leave his daughter's side. Eventually Enree decided to use the bone flute he had taken off the Skinwalker to play a tune for the party, which put everyone to sleep... with the exception of Elze. Enree then confronted Elze, demanding to know why he could not sense her mind. Elze replied that she had no clue what Enree was talking about, and roused her father and Saulinis, who declared the celebration at an end, and offered father and daughter his chambers for the night.

The next morning, Remunas set off to Yngley, but not before asking Melig to send his apologies and thanks to the Castellan, and promising to visit him in person to do so again after he had brought his daughter home.

Prepping and Running the Game

This session saw the addition of a new player to the campaign. Melig is the first thief class character in the party, which will hopefully give them more capabilities.

The session was a short one, with lots of roleplaying and zero combat. As you may be able to tell from the report above, the roleplaying was done mainly by Enree's player. While the other two players may have enjoyed watching the story develop, I think they may have felt left out. I had in fact planned for some exploration and combat in the first part of the session, but the players bypassed them.

In the second part it was difficult to shift the spotlight, as the situation concerned Elze, and the two other characters had not previously met her, and their players had little to go on. I will have to make sure to put the spotlight on the two players the next session. This should not be difficult as I plan to shift focus from the Elze story arc for the next couple of sessions at least.

Three Worlds #7

After they had slain the manticore and exonerated Jorrus, Arwin, Enree, and Mala (see PC profiles here) were recruited by the Castellan of Belton as his retainers. The trio spent a few weeks in the Castellan's service in Belton, until the beginning of summer, when they were sent by the Castellan to serve the Castellan of Obanhold in the north.

Now Obanhold was a fort at the edge of the Northern Plains that was beginning to become a settlement. It was also the gateway to the lucrative fur trade. But in the recent weeks attack from the Plains Orcs had resulted in the Castellan withdrawing his troops from two of the outposts that guarded the trade routes, and several fur trappers had failed to return to Obanhold as expected, and the Castellan of Obanhold had sent for aid from his friend in Belton.

Our trio of heroes traveled to Obanhold with a letter of introduction from the Castellan, and arrived at the wooden-walled fort. There they were led to the Castellan, who received them into his service.

Our heroes interviewed some of the soldiers who were attacked by the orcs in their outposts, but ultimately decided to investigate the rumours of orc sightings at the fishing village of Yngley; it had been reported that two fishermen had failed to return from the lake, and that their disappearance might had something to do with the sighting of orcs on the north bank.

Our heroes traveled to the isolated village of Yngley, and when Remunas the headman learned that they were sent by the Castellan, they were welcomed into his home. Our heroes declared their wish to take a boat to investigate the lake, and Remunas sent his young daughter Elze to row them in a boat.

The party first investigated the island at the centre of the lake, but there they found no trace of the missing fishermen, but were attacked by a bear defending her cubs, which they fled from. Reasoning that the bear must have been driven out of her habitat in the forests on the north shore of the lake, Arwin proposed that they investigated there.

When the party came close to the shore, Enree sensed that they were being watched. The party called out to the watchers, but received no reply. They rowed along the shore, shadowed by the watchers, until at last they found a pebbled beach where they might land. Leaving Elze with the boat, our heroes proceeded onto the land, and they were then attacked by arrows. Elze was felled, followed quickly by Arwin and Mala. Four orc warriors dressed in the fashion of Plains Orcs burst out from the undergrowth. Enree raised his hands to surrender, and was disarmed by the orc warriors, who seemed ready to kill them all, until one of them rolled Mala's prone body over and recognised him - the warrior was Achoka, one of the orc mercenaries whom our heroes had met at Fort Davelmag.

Achoka decided to spare our heroes, but warned them to leave Yngley and indeed Obanhold, or they would die as the two fishermen had, and would not say more. When the party rowed the boat back to Yngley, they were met with much dismay and anger.

The next morning they were sent off from the village with little fanfare, and traveled back to Obanhold.

The Castellan looked troubled at their report, and bade them to seek the aid of the fort healer while he pondered his response.

Prepping and Running the Game

I was unprepared for most of the session as I had expected the players to choose to investigate the abandoned forts instead of the story of missing fishermen. I did prep enough to give descriptions of the places they visited and the people they met, and come up with a couple of encounters.

The encounter with the orcs went badly, and I had to figure out a way to bail the PCs out - fortunately I had linked the four orc mercenaries from the previous arc of the campaign to this arc, which allowed me to do so.

I thought the session might have been a little frustrating for the players, but at least one of them enjoyed the interaction with NPCs over the exploration of cave after cave in the previous arc.

The unexpected path the PCs took does advance the plot of the arc a little faster than I had hoped for, but I have a couple of weeks before the next session to plan my next moves as both the Castellan and his adversary.