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Story Hour
On The Dragon-War and its Aftermath (Updated 6/22: S4-1 "In The Forest Of The Night")
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<blockquote data-quote="Zurai" data-source="post: 3576707" data-attributes="member: 52324"><p><strong>Session 2: A Journey Begins</strong></p><p></p><p>We walked along that dusty tunnel for hours on end. No one talked, and even the Princess had stopped her constant sobbing. I was in the lead, since I was the only one that could see in the dark; the others followed far enough behind me that I was at the edge of the light shed by the torch in Brom’s hand. The situation suited me fine. It gave me the time and lack of distractions I needed to wrestle Korinthos back into the depths of my mind, and allowed me to digest what had happened to us.</p><p></p><p>Eventually I came to the conclusion that opportunity was knocking on my door, and that I would be a fool to not answer. The kingdom was now essentially leaderless; the King was almost certainly dead, and the Prince and Queen would likely be captured and forced to act as puppets at the best. That left the 12 year old Princess in our company as the only remaining free person of royal blood; the heir to the throne, once we had freed it from the Dragon’s grip.</p><p></p><p>In the past, I had been a wild thing, uncaring about laws and rules and regulations, though not unaware of them. I was a peasant; I had very little rights under the current set of laws. I was essentially the property of the noble whose lands I lived in and was expected to do everything for said noble, even though they rarely gave back to the people they ruled.</p><p></p><p><em>Ashes take that!</em> I thought, and lived in the wild. No noble could command me if I didn’t live on their land. It was only when I heard that my father had died that I returned to “civilized” lands, and I was greeted at his grave by Aden Caulfield and told that I had been invited to a council of war by the King himself. I almost turned him down, but I was glad that I had not; I had a chance to change things now.</p><p></p><p>It was clear to me: I would become Anna’rolla’s guardian, mentor, confidant, and friend. I would teach her and guide her and make her into an enlightened ruler, one who would act against the injustices of the current system. It was as if a golden essence suffused my inner being; I knew without a doubt that this would be my life’s work. That my charge was beautiful, charming, and by all accounts quite intelligent was a bonus, not that I even considered her a potential lover – she was too young and quite above my station, and I would make a very bad King anyway.</p><p></p><p>Eventually we saw red-gold light ahead and emerged from the tunnel into a brilliant sunset. We sat and rested for a few minutes, relieved to be back aboveground. From where we sat, we could see smoke from the capital on the horizon, and a small town nestled in the hills to our south. Aden and I briefly discussed our situation and decided to head towards the town and try to procure food, water, some less conspicuous clothes, and if possible, mounts. As we roused everyone and got started towards the town, Bronn suddenly perked up, looked over his shoulder, and ran off with a cry of “Jack!”</p><p></p><p>Looking in the direction he was running, I spotted the statuesque form of a large timber wolf silhouetted against the almost-vanished sun. Brom ran up to it and wrapped his arms around the wolf’s neck, and the wolf appeared to lick him in response. The pair trotted back to the rest of us, and Bronn informed us that Jack (the wolf, apparantly) was his friend and would be accompanying us, but not to worry, he wouldn’t hurt any of us and was quite capable of catching his own food. Aden and I looked at each other, but there didn’t seem to be much to say, so we just shrugged and set off towards the village.</p><p></p><p>By the time we got there, it was well after dark, and the Princess was starting to complain that she couldn’t see where she was going. The town itself appeared to be deserted; there was no smoke coming from any of the chimneys and no lights in any window. The streets showed signs of hasty departure, and the buildings we checked were mostly bare of anything useful. After a quick discussion among the party, it was decided that V and Brom would stay in a house guarding the Princess while Aden and I scoured the town for supplies.</p><p></p><p>It took us about an hour of searching, but Aden and I managed to come up with a week and a half worth of food (mostly beans and corn, but there was some salted ham), a stash of pepper, three waterskins, a pound of tea leaves, some flour, enough blankets for the whole party, some padded armor, a copper pot, a quiver full of arrows, and a shortbow with no string. When we came back, Bronn informed us that V had opened the chest containing the artifacts we were tasked to bring to Ompan: it contained a scimitar and a bowl cradling what appeared to be a pine cone. Bronn quickly shut the chest again and asked V not to touch anything inside; V appeared nonplussed, but agreed to leave the chest alone for now. We told the others what we had found and decided to settle down for the night. The following morning we would gather what supplies we could and set off for Ompan.</p><p></p><p>Of course, it wouldn’t be that easy. Before anyone was able to get to sleep, I heard a noise outside on the street. I got everyone’s attention and gestured for silence, then slowly opened the door and stepped outside, looking around for the source of the noise. The source was obvious – as was my mistake in stepping outside. Two men wrapped in furs and holding loaded bows were walking boldly down the street; we saw each other at the same time, and before I had the chance to duck back inside, I sprouted an arrow from my chest and neck.</p><p></p><p>Badly wounded, I stumbled back inside and closed the door. “Dragon’s scouts, two of them! Someone heal me please?” V quickly stepped up and laid his hands upon me, sending a violet pulse of energy into my body that sealed up the wound in my neck, forcing the arrow out. The rest of the group spread out around the Princess, staying inside the house we were in. Anna’rolla, though, had other ideas. She darted to a window and stuck her head outside, yelling “Stand down in the name of the Princess!”.</p><p></p><p>“Ashes to the <em>wind</em>!” I cursed and dove for the window the Princess was at, pulling her back inside and closing the shutter just an instant before another pair of arrows <em>thud</em>ded into place where her head had been*. That was enough to spur the others into action; Aden jumped out the window opposite the one I just closed, and Bronn and Jack climbed out the window in the back of the house. V cautiously opened the front door and stuck his head out, using the door as cover. </p><p></p><p>The enemy scouts split up, one going around behind the house and firing at Bronn, while the other loosed an arrow that just managed to miss V.</p><p></p><p>The Gateborn warrior responded by flinging the door all the way open and charging forward, the strange purple light-blade appearing from his hand as he went. With a wordless cry, he crashed into the surprised archer and slid his blade deep into the man’s guts, then pulled it out as his foe crumpled to the ground at his feet.</p><p></p><p>Bronn, meanwhile, tumbled back into the house from the window he had just left, panting with exertion and bleeding from a deep arrow wound; the Princess rushed over and tried to bandage the wound as best she could. I followed V out the door and around the side of the house towards where the other Sword Grass barbarian must have gone. We both sighted our target and rushed him simultaneously; V hit him low, while my chain wrapped around the unfortunate man’s neck and, with a snap of my wrist, his head was pulled one way while his body went the other from V’s impact. The effect was immediate death as his neck (and spine) snapped**.</p><p></p><p>We searched around for more attackers, but determined that these two were alone. Still, it was obvious we weren’t safe here, and to the Princess’s extreme dissatisfaction we packed up what supplies we could and left town, eventually settling into a moderately defensible condition and setting up camp for the night a couple hours later. The remainder of the night, and the next day and night, passed uneventfully.</p><p></p><p>The day after that, however, brought us to a series of corn fields near another village. We took stock of our supplies and decided that it would be best for us to avoid this village altogether, as we still had at least a week’s worth of food, and even if that ran out I was confident that I could supply us with enough to eat, though it would slow us down while I hunted. However, Fate ended up conspiring against us, for as we were leaving the corn fields we stumbled upon the unconcious form of a soldier wearing the Kingdom’s colors.</p><p></p><p>We felt duty-bound to heal and awaken the man – especially with the Princess looking on – and after getting some water into him, he filled us in on some of the events that had happened since we escaped the capital. Apparantly, the King was dead and the Prince had surrendered the city to Adamardith (Anna’rolla looked stricken and turned away, crying softly), but not before he ordered the remainder of the Army to go out into the surrounding lands, get the villagers to flee, and burn all the crops in the field. This soldier was in a squad burning crops at this village when they stumbled upon a unit of barbarians and were savagely attacked. The soldier, whose name we never did ask, said that he had dropped his torch and run away when he saw his commander cut down, but was struck by an arrow as he fled.</p><p></p><p>After a short discussion, we decided to have Bronn escort the soldier into town (the town was in the process of evacuating) while the rest of us went around the long way. Brom also negotiated for the soldier’s scale mail shirt; apparantly my companions decided I needed armor. Regardless, they went off down the trail towards town while the rest of us swung wide, staying out of sight of the town as best as possible. When Bronn met back up with us a couple hours later, he was leading a donkey by the reins.</p><p></p><p>“I met this guy in the tavern with the biggest sword I’ve ever seen. He said he just sharpened swords, but man that was a big sword***. Anyway, he said he wasn’t gonna leave the tavern, and this donkey was outside, so I asked him if the donkey was his and whether he’d sell it. He wouldn’t sell, but he asked me if I wanted to play stones**** with the donkey going to the winner. I won, obviously, so now we have a donkey!”</p><p></p><p>He also related some of the rumors going around among the people evacuating the town. They repeated what the soldier had told us, as well as mentioning that the Princess was thought to be dead but no one knew where the Queen was. We stopped briefly to shift most of our loads onto the donkey, then set off again towards Ompan.</p><p></p><p>That night, we again camped in a secluded glen and set up a watch. I took first watch, while Aden was set to take second. V, not needing sleep, would assist both of us. My watch passed uneventfully, but about an hour after I went to sleep, I was awakened by the very faint sound of metal on metal and the annoyed snorting of the donkey. Opening my eyes, I saw Aden attaching the chest containing the magical artifacts to the donkey and securing its harness for travel; V was nowhere to be seen.</p><p></p><p>“What are you doing, Aden?” I said, standing up slowly, not wanting to wake the others.</p><p></p><p>His head whipped around and he grimaced. “I’m taking these and going to my father. He can make more use of them than we can.”</p><p></p><p>“The Prince told us to take them to Ompan, Aden.”</p><p></p><p>“Damn the Prince for a traitor! He surrendered to the Dragon, that means he’s a traitor and has no authority over me. My father at least is willing to fight!”</p><p></p><p>I sighed and loosened my chain, wishing that I could sleep in my armor. “Please don’t make me fight you, Aden. Just stop this and come with us to Ompan and I won’t tell anyone that you tried to betray us.”</p><p></p><p>Aden just growled, jerked out his shortsword, and rushed at me. I met him with my chain, wrapping it around his feet and spilling him onto his knees. On the return stroke, I smashed the side of his head with a non-spiked section of the chain. Aden spit out a curse and jumped to his feet, neatly sidestepping my answering strike with my chain, and stepped forward again.</p><p></p><p>Behind us, Bronn and the Princess were stirring from the sounds of combat, and V had heard Aden’s curse from the perimeter of the camp, where Aden had convinced him to patrol, and come charging back in. The Princess sat up, saw her guardians engaged in combat with each other, and fled screaming.</p><p></p><p>“The Demonling was trying to run off with the artifacts!” Aden called out, but no one seemed to believe him. I pulled his feet out from under him again then set out after the Princess, calling over my shoulder “Don’t kill him, damnit!”</p><p></p><p>V, Bronn, and Jack surrounded Aden, keeping him off balance and eventually subdued him (though V lost his patience with nonlethal strikes and cut him badly across the chest with his longsword), and I managed to catch up with and calm down the Princess.</p><p></p><p>When the two of us returned to the camp, Aden was unconcious and tied to a tree, stripped of his armor and weapons. I told my companions what had happened, and we decided to leave him a small amount of food and water, but to otherwise abandon him here. I wasn’t particularly happy with the situation – Aden was the one person in this group I had known before coming to the capital – but it would be impossible to trust him with either the artifacts or the Princess’s safety after this. Bronn wanted to kill him, but I would have none of it. For all his faults, Aden was doing what he thought was best for the country.</p><p></p><p>In the morning, we clubbed Aden into unconciousness again, then untied him and left, our hearts heavy.*****</p><p></p><p></p><p>* - The Princess was an NPC under the control of the DM at this point, and I was extremely thankful that I had held my action the round before; 2 Skirmish Attack arrows could have easily killed the Princess outright (4d6+2 damage vs 8 hp).</p><p>** - Actually, V hit the guy first, dropping him to 1 hp, and I hit for max damage (16, counting Favored Enemy bonus) on the next action, for the first true -10 hp death of the campaign.</p><p>*** - According to the DM, this was, indeed, just a Commoner 3 with a Large greatsword.</p><p>**** - Chinese Checkers, actually played at the table.</p><p>***** - Aden’s player suddenly moved to Seattle, where his family lived. He left his character sheet with the DM, who decided to have him betray us, and who played him as an NPC all night. Until his betrayal, all I knew was that Aden’s player wasn’t able to make it to the session that night. Our decision to not kill Aden will likely result in him being a recurring NPC.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Zurai, post: 3576707, member: 52324"] [b]Session 2: A Journey Begins[/b] We walked along that dusty tunnel for hours on end. No one talked, and even the Princess had stopped her constant sobbing. I was in the lead, since I was the only one that could see in the dark; the others followed far enough behind me that I was at the edge of the light shed by the torch in Brom’s hand. The situation suited me fine. It gave me the time and lack of distractions I needed to wrestle Korinthos back into the depths of my mind, and allowed me to digest what had happened to us. Eventually I came to the conclusion that opportunity was knocking on my door, and that I would be a fool to not answer. The kingdom was now essentially leaderless; the King was almost certainly dead, and the Prince and Queen would likely be captured and forced to act as puppets at the best. That left the 12 year old Princess in our company as the only remaining free person of royal blood; the heir to the throne, once we had freed it from the Dragon’s grip. In the past, I had been a wild thing, uncaring about laws and rules and regulations, though not unaware of them. I was a peasant; I had very little rights under the current set of laws. I was essentially the property of the noble whose lands I lived in and was expected to do everything for said noble, even though they rarely gave back to the people they ruled. [i]Ashes take that![/i] I thought, and lived in the wild. No noble could command me if I didn’t live on their land. It was only when I heard that my father had died that I returned to “civilized” lands, and I was greeted at his grave by Aden Caulfield and told that I had been invited to a council of war by the King himself. I almost turned him down, but I was glad that I had not; I had a chance to change things now. It was clear to me: I would become Anna’rolla’s guardian, mentor, confidant, and friend. I would teach her and guide her and make her into an enlightened ruler, one who would act against the injustices of the current system. It was as if a golden essence suffused my inner being; I knew without a doubt that this would be my life’s work. That my charge was beautiful, charming, and by all accounts quite intelligent was a bonus, not that I even considered her a potential lover – she was too young and quite above my station, and I would make a very bad King anyway. Eventually we saw red-gold light ahead and emerged from the tunnel into a brilliant sunset. We sat and rested for a few minutes, relieved to be back aboveground. From where we sat, we could see smoke from the capital on the horizon, and a small town nestled in the hills to our south. Aden and I briefly discussed our situation and decided to head towards the town and try to procure food, water, some less conspicuous clothes, and if possible, mounts. As we roused everyone and got started towards the town, Bronn suddenly perked up, looked over his shoulder, and ran off with a cry of “Jack!” Looking in the direction he was running, I spotted the statuesque form of a large timber wolf silhouetted against the almost-vanished sun. Brom ran up to it and wrapped his arms around the wolf’s neck, and the wolf appeared to lick him in response. The pair trotted back to the rest of us, and Bronn informed us that Jack (the wolf, apparantly) was his friend and would be accompanying us, but not to worry, he wouldn’t hurt any of us and was quite capable of catching his own food. Aden and I looked at each other, but there didn’t seem to be much to say, so we just shrugged and set off towards the village. By the time we got there, it was well after dark, and the Princess was starting to complain that she couldn’t see where she was going. The town itself appeared to be deserted; there was no smoke coming from any of the chimneys and no lights in any window. The streets showed signs of hasty departure, and the buildings we checked were mostly bare of anything useful. After a quick discussion among the party, it was decided that V and Brom would stay in a house guarding the Princess while Aden and I scoured the town for supplies. It took us about an hour of searching, but Aden and I managed to come up with a week and a half worth of food (mostly beans and corn, but there was some salted ham), a stash of pepper, three waterskins, a pound of tea leaves, some flour, enough blankets for the whole party, some padded armor, a copper pot, a quiver full of arrows, and a shortbow with no string. When we came back, Bronn informed us that V had opened the chest containing the artifacts we were tasked to bring to Ompan: it contained a scimitar and a bowl cradling what appeared to be a pine cone. Bronn quickly shut the chest again and asked V not to touch anything inside; V appeared nonplussed, but agreed to leave the chest alone for now. We told the others what we had found and decided to settle down for the night. The following morning we would gather what supplies we could and set off for Ompan. Of course, it wouldn’t be that easy. Before anyone was able to get to sleep, I heard a noise outside on the street. I got everyone’s attention and gestured for silence, then slowly opened the door and stepped outside, looking around for the source of the noise. The source was obvious – as was my mistake in stepping outside. Two men wrapped in furs and holding loaded bows were walking boldly down the street; we saw each other at the same time, and before I had the chance to duck back inside, I sprouted an arrow from my chest and neck. Badly wounded, I stumbled back inside and closed the door. “Dragon’s scouts, two of them! Someone heal me please?” V quickly stepped up and laid his hands upon me, sending a violet pulse of energy into my body that sealed up the wound in my neck, forcing the arrow out. The rest of the group spread out around the Princess, staying inside the house we were in. Anna’rolla, though, had other ideas. She darted to a window and stuck her head outside, yelling “Stand down in the name of the Princess!”. “Ashes to the [i]wind[/i]!” I cursed and dove for the window the Princess was at, pulling her back inside and closing the shutter just an instant before another pair of arrows [i]thud[/i]ded into place where her head had been*. That was enough to spur the others into action; Aden jumped out the window opposite the one I just closed, and Bronn and Jack climbed out the window in the back of the house. V cautiously opened the front door and stuck his head out, using the door as cover. The enemy scouts split up, one going around behind the house and firing at Bronn, while the other loosed an arrow that just managed to miss V. The Gateborn warrior responded by flinging the door all the way open and charging forward, the strange purple light-blade appearing from his hand as he went. With a wordless cry, he crashed into the surprised archer and slid his blade deep into the man’s guts, then pulled it out as his foe crumpled to the ground at his feet. Bronn, meanwhile, tumbled back into the house from the window he had just left, panting with exertion and bleeding from a deep arrow wound; the Princess rushed over and tried to bandage the wound as best she could. I followed V out the door and around the side of the house towards where the other Sword Grass barbarian must have gone. We both sighted our target and rushed him simultaneously; V hit him low, while my chain wrapped around the unfortunate man’s neck and, with a snap of my wrist, his head was pulled one way while his body went the other from V’s impact. The effect was immediate death as his neck (and spine) snapped**. We searched around for more attackers, but determined that these two were alone. Still, it was obvious we weren’t safe here, and to the Princess’s extreme dissatisfaction we packed up what supplies we could and left town, eventually settling into a moderately defensible condition and setting up camp for the night a couple hours later. The remainder of the night, and the next day and night, passed uneventfully. The day after that, however, brought us to a series of corn fields near another village. We took stock of our supplies and decided that it would be best for us to avoid this village altogether, as we still had at least a week’s worth of food, and even if that ran out I was confident that I could supply us with enough to eat, though it would slow us down while I hunted. However, Fate ended up conspiring against us, for as we were leaving the corn fields we stumbled upon the unconcious form of a soldier wearing the Kingdom’s colors. We felt duty-bound to heal and awaken the man – especially with the Princess looking on – and after getting some water into him, he filled us in on some of the events that had happened since we escaped the capital. Apparantly, the King was dead and the Prince had surrendered the city to Adamardith (Anna’rolla looked stricken and turned away, crying softly), but not before he ordered the remainder of the Army to go out into the surrounding lands, get the villagers to flee, and burn all the crops in the field. This soldier was in a squad burning crops at this village when they stumbled upon a unit of barbarians and were savagely attacked. The soldier, whose name we never did ask, said that he had dropped his torch and run away when he saw his commander cut down, but was struck by an arrow as he fled. After a short discussion, we decided to have Bronn escort the soldier into town (the town was in the process of evacuating) while the rest of us went around the long way. Brom also negotiated for the soldier’s scale mail shirt; apparantly my companions decided I needed armor. Regardless, they went off down the trail towards town while the rest of us swung wide, staying out of sight of the town as best as possible. When Bronn met back up with us a couple hours later, he was leading a donkey by the reins. “I met this guy in the tavern with the biggest sword I’ve ever seen. He said he just sharpened swords, but man that was a big sword***. Anyway, he said he wasn’t gonna leave the tavern, and this donkey was outside, so I asked him if the donkey was his and whether he’d sell it. He wouldn’t sell, but he asked me if I wanted to play stones**** with the donkey going to the winner. I won, obviously, so now we have a donkey!” He also related some of the rumors going around among the people evacuating the town. They repeated what the soldier had told us, as well as mentioning that the Princess was thought to be dead but no one knew where the Queen was. We stopped briefly to shift most of our loads onto the donkey, then set off again towards Ompan. That night, we again camped in a secluded glen and set up a watch. I took first watch, while Aden was set to take second. V, not needing sleep, would assist both of us. My watch passed uneventfully, but about an hour after I went to sleep, I was awakened by the very faint sound of metal on metal and the annoyed snorting of the donkey. Opening my eyes, I saw Aden attaching the chest containing the magical artifacts to the donkey and securing its harness for travel; V was nowhere to be seen. “What are you doing, Aden?” I said, standing up slowly, not wanting to wake the others. His head whipped around and he grimaced. “I’m taking these and going to my father. He can make more use of them than we can.” “The Prince told us to take them to Ompan, Aden.” “Damn the Prince for a traitor! He surrendered to the Dragon, that means he’s a traitor and has no authority over me. My father at least is willing to fight!” I sighed and loosened my chain, wishing that I could sleep in my armor. “Please don’t make me fight you, Aden. Just stop this and come with us to Ompan and I won’t tell anyone that you tried to betray us.” Aden just growled, jerked out his shortsword, and rushed at me. I met him with my chain, wrapping it around his feet and spilling him onto his knees. On the return stroke, I smashed the side of his head with a non-spiked section of the chain. Aden spit out a curse and jumped to his feet, neatly sidestepping my answering strike with my chain, and stepped forward again. Behind us, Bronn and the Princess were stirring from the sounds of combat, and V had heard Aden’s curse from the perimeter of the camp, where Aden had convinced him to patrol, and come charging back in. The Princess sat up, saw her guardians engaged in combat with each other, and fled screaming. “The Demonling was trying to run off with the artifacts!” Aden called out, but no one seemed to believe him. I pulled his feet out from under him again then set out after the Princess, calling over my shoulder “Don’t kill him, damnit!” V, Bronn, and Jack surrounded Aden, keeping him off balance and eventually subdued him (though V lost his patience with nonlethal strikes and cut him badly across the chest with his longsword), and I managed to catch up with and calm down the Princess. When the two of us returned to the camp, Aden was unconcious and tied to a tree, stripped of his armor and weapons. I told my companions what had happened, and we decided to leave him a small amount of food and water, but to otherwise abandon him here. I wasn’t particularly happy with the situation – Aden was the one person in this group I had known before coming to the capital – but it would be impossible to trust him with either the artifacts or the Princess’s safety after this. Bronn wanted to kill him, but I would have none of it. For all his faults, Aden was doing what he thought was best for the country. In the morning, we clubbed Aden into unconciousness again, then untied him and left, our hearts heavy.***** * - The Princess was an NPC under the control of the DM at this point, and I was extremely thankful that I had held my action the round before; 2 Skirmish Attack arrows could have easily killed the Princess outright (4d6+2 damage vs 8 hp). ** - Actually, V hit the guy first, dropping him to 1 hp, and I hit for max damage (16, counting Favored Enemy bonus) on the next action, for the first true -10 hp death of the campaign. *** - According to the DM, this was, indeed, just a Commoner 3 with a Large greatsword. **** - Chinese Checkers, actually played at the table. ***** - Aden’s player suddenly moved to Seattle, where his family lived. He left his character sheet with the DM, who decided to have him betray us, and who played him as an NPC all night. Until his betrayal, all I knew was that Aden’s player wasn’t able to make it to the session that night. Our decision to not kill Aden will likely result in him being a recurring NPC. [/QUOTE]
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On The Dragon-War and its Aftermath (Updated 6/22: S4-1 "In The Forest Of The Night")
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