Greymoore - Session 2

So, last night we had the second session of our "attempted epic adventure" that for the time being is simply being called Greymoore, the name of the land they're in. We had an addition to the cast, which you can see below the normal cast listing, and while sadly much of the plot was dominated by a large combat, the players managed to get quite a bit of role playing in. So, without further ado.

The Cast

Liam Callahan - a 16 year old human farm boy who constantly has his head in the clouds (you guessed it. The Hero!). Liam hails from the "Road's End Villages" the far North Western section of the Kingdom of Cimerea, not that anyone particularly remembers that.

Ilian Holhan - An 18 year old apprentice mage Seraphim who has come down to the surface (accompanied by his mentor and master) to further his studies on the weather as well as several other studies for his magical pursuits.. The Seraphim are a race of winged scholars and magi who live high above the clouds.

Abar Dan Rab Beynonn - An 18 year old Azrian Sword Dancer. The Azrian are a tribe of humans that live in cities in the forests (think Sherwood from Robin Hood Prince of Thieves), they are some of the premiere sword fighters in the land, using a style that emphasizes grace and finesse over power.

Darcy Stanton - A Half-Elf Rogue who has been staying with Rab (Abar) among the Azrian for the last few years. She is as close as a sister to Rab, and helps him on the various jobs he undertakes for the Azrian. Despite her time with the Azrian though, Darcy prefers to fight with her knives rather than use a sword.

Grenru Crabshall - A Dwarven caravan guard from the Dwarf's War Caste. Grenru hails from the famed floating cities of the Dwarves, though it has been years since he has seen home. Assigned to a guard a caravan heading to the northern provinces of Cimerea.

Valos Brycewald - The son of one of the six Earls of Cimerea, Valos recently found out that his older 1/2 brother who had long since been thought dead is alive, and that he is no longer the heir apparent. In a quest to prove himself he has taken to wandering the country and entering every tourney he can find in the hopes of making a name for himself and proving to his father that he should be the next Earl.

The Session

The session began right where the last one left off in the city of Baern, the PCs had taken up lodgings in an inn called The Rowdy Stag and were enjoying a nice meal while the two Azrian taught Ilian and Liam the truth about playing cards, and how little the cards on the table actually matter when you do so. The arrival of Grenru causes a small commotion resulting in one of the other patrons bumping a serving girl who immediately drops the glass she is carrying. The glass breaks, pulling Ilian's attention, he's heard that noise before you see in the strange dreams he's been having, and when looking to the source of the noise makes him see a reflection of Liam in the glass of another patron his mentor's last words suddenly fly back to his head. "The boy in the mirror, you're important".

It doesn't take long from there for Darcy, disguised as Darren, to pull everyone out of the common room and up into one of their two rooms for a meeting on what you do and do not loudly talk about when you are trying to remain inconspicuous. The conversation then quickly turns into the strange dreams both Liam and Ilian have been having regularly, along with Ilian's belief that Liam is important, pertaining to his mentor's last prophecy and words. It doesn't take long for Darcy to want everyone on the same page, leading to Ilian explaining his dream of the world growing darker and darker, with a group in the middle trying to stop the darkness from taking over the entire world, the sound of glass breaking and then running footsteps. The only clear impression he has is that Grenru the dwarf is one of the people keeping the darkness from swallowing up everything. Liam's dreams on the other hand are far more normal, and yet a bit stranger too, consisting of him on the battle fields of his famous stories, usually in the part of the hero, only instead of winning he dies. Aside from this, there is only one other strange dream, one where he is in a non-descript inn room with noone around a voice claims "I can see you boy!" and when he turns around a cloaked figure slashes at his eyes.

Listening to the stories, the party decides to rest for the night and set out together for Asgoth, the capitol of Cimerea, in the morning. The Azrian and Seraphim to complete their mission, Liam in the hopes he can find his mother further south, and Grenru just out of a feeling of wanting to protect them and it not hurting his duties in life to head down that way. That night however Liam once again dreams he is alone in an inn room, only this time it is the entire inn that is empty and he is trapped in. Outside he can see people walking by, but the doors and windows won't open to let him out. Double checking the upstairs window to confirm he's trapped, he sees a smoke-colored girl staring in at the window, but she startles and runs when he taps on the window to get her attention. Leaving him alone, with an 8' tall giant of a man with pitch black eyes. The man stalks forward, and Liam backs away towards the fire place. A cruel looking axe, as big as Liam's torso from the looks of it, comes up, and Liam awakes with a start in his inn room. A scream erupting from him as he sees Grenru's axe, which was raised on instinct at the sudden movement.

With the screaming waking everyone up, and there only being an hour or two until dawn the group decides to get an early start on the day. Ilian checks the weather for travel conditions, Rab picks the route, and Darcy scouts and finds camps for the group over the next five weeks of traveling from Baern to the city of Asgoth. The weather takes an unpredicted turn just five nights out of the capitol, causing the players to hunker down for the evening in the cold and freezing rain. Something is wrong though, even in the rain things are far too quiet, and Darcy goes out to investigate. Which is when the ambush happens, as 8 men, each easily six and a half feet tall and built like tanks made of meat come out of the forest towards the group. Grenru and Rab deal several blows that should fell any normal man, only to find that these things care not at all and keep fighting as if nothing happened. Outside the camp Darcy is caught in a hiding spot with another five 'bad guys' and a dire wolf looking for her. Sliding down the tree she climbed, she manages to dispatch the closest guy and dodge the wolf's lunge, looking up just in time to see another person approaching the combat.

Valos Brycewald, on the road to Asgoth to enter the large tournament that will be starting there in just over a week. Caught in the rain, and losing sight of the road, he's looking for shelter when he hears the sound of combat. "What better way to make a name for myself, than saving the day?" He thinks to himself, and moves towards the sounds of blade on blade. Arriving just in time to see a slim-shouldered but gorgeous woman kill a large wolf, the woman points further through the trees towards a clearing and calls out "Protect the young one!", Valos needs to hear no more and rushes in.

Back in the camp, things are not going well. Ilian just barely avoiding a potentially fatal blow from one of the brutes takes to the sky, hitting the thing with a cross bow bolt as he does so. Rab is engaged with four (including the one that attacked Ilian) of the brutes as he tries to fulfill his charge as escort. Grenru is engaged with three, his shield and armor fending off blows that would kill a normal person as he fights. The largest of the brutes however rushes right past them all and into the tent, skewering Liam with his large sword before discarding him as you would any piece of trash. Liam, lying broken and dying on the floor hears a voice in his head ask him a question "Boy, do you want to be strong?", "yes" he manages to gasp out as blackness over takes him. The large brute moves outside, his opponent dead and looking for who to engage next. He's not prepared when Liam jumps on his back howling in rage and trying to rip his head off with bare hands. Valos, seeing who he presumes is the young one, rushes up to help, managing to stab the brute just in time to look in horror as Liam succeeds in a bare-handed decapitation.

The moment is distracting enough for everyone that even Rab, now down to three opponents, manages to get hit with a blow that drops him to the ground unconscious. Darcy watching her friend and partner drop is taken over by a rage of her own, appearing as if from nowhere and killing two of the brutes in one go with her knives. The third she manages to counter after it's clumsy and rage filled attack, finishing it off with a twist of the blade as it tries to kill her still.

For Liam, the fight is not going much better, finished with the big brute, he sees his mother's body being dragged by five more of the creatures. The brute's sword in his hand he charges over, striking with a fury and power no-one would believe he possessed before this fight. Valos, moving to help, stabs one of the brutes, but is unprepared for it simply ignoring what should be fatal damage and counter striking. The blow catches a chink in his armor, and with enough force to crash him to the ground, bouncing his head off of a rock and knocking him cold. Grenru finishes off his opponents with a bit of help from Ilian around the same time that Liam's rage finishes off the five brutes that he thinks have his mother.

Darcy, at risk of her life, puts herself in front of Liam and tries to calm him down, managing to get through just enough that the rage leaves him and he passes out atop her. The battle is won, but the group has taken wounds, Grenru can barely stand, Liam and Rab are out cold, as is the man who heroically came to save them. Gathering all the injured they can, Liam puts his magical training to use, and with the completion of a 6 hour ritual manages to heal everyone inside of their tent. Leaving them together for introductions with the strange new comer.

Introductions took a turn for the worse as Grenru and Valos began to rub against each other wrong, ending with them "going outside" to settle their grievances with fisticuffs, a match that Grenru handily won and thus to the dwarf settled their differences, though Valos was still being a bit uptight in his attitude. With that exception, and another strange dream for Liam where the 8' tall man from the previous dream helped him out of a pile of bodies and told him to have more fun next time, the remainder of the day passed uneventfully and the companions headed off to finish their journey to Asgoth the next day.

The city of Asgoth, one of the largest in the world, was a stunning sight to both Ilian and Liam, who were quietly shepherded through to the 'Old City' (the second most central ring of the city not counting the palace). They parted company with Valos, who went to check in to his family's estates in the Central city (the central most ring of the city) while the rest of the group arranged for rooms in an inn called The Corsair.

A place to stay settled, Grenru immediately headed into the central city to speak with the dwarves at the dwarven embassy, while Darcy - disguised as Derrick in the city - went to try and get word that there was a Seraphim messenger there for the king. Valos sent word as well that the party could join him at his family's otherwise empty estates, though had the offer refused by Darcy who was just a little upset at Valos's not offering to help them get their message to the king (unknown to her, he did help).

The word that comes back is not favorable, the city is busy with preparations for the tourney and contests coming up, and someone on the Open Council (the lower council for the country) intercepted Darcy's letter and is demanding any such letter be shown to the Council before it is decided if it is even worthy of the King's time. Though, with a bit of silent help from Valos, the Azrian body guard for the King also advise that while they will not be able to help arrange a meeting for 2 weeks, if the PCs can manage to win one of the tourneys that will be help, during the award ceremony they will be able to speak briefly to the king and could make their delivery then.

The session came to an end with Rab signing up for the tournament, and everyone planning on attending to cheer for him.