On The Dragon-War and its Aftermath (Updated 6/22: S4-1 "In The Forest Of The Night")

[Zurai]

Session 0: Characters and Background

Since this game is in a homebrew campaign world, I think it might be a good idea to give at least a rudimentary overview of the world and characters before I start the actual story. If you’re not interested in the history lesson, go ahead and skip to Session 1 (the next post).

The Basics
The campaign world is human-dominated; other races exist, but they’re very rare. Even most monstrous humanoids are nonexistant or simply variations on humans (goblins are small humans, ogres are big humans, etc). There are elves and dwarves, but no one has seen them since the Emergence (see below). The only other races encountered so far in the campaign so far are Warforged (called Gateborn; they are apparantly being created by the Gates for an unknown purpose) and Tieflings (Demonlings/Corrupted; they are the results of demons trying to invade the world again 25 years in the past; there’ll be more on them later).
Similarly, planar travel is extremely restricted. The only known way to travel between planes is to use the Gates – a network of portals that connect to each other across space and (sometimes) planes. There are many Gates, but very few currently alive know how to use them.

The World As We Know It
Over 1,500 years before the present day, the world was invaded and overrun by Demons. Very little is known about this period except that a majority of the population of the world moved into secure (and Gateless) underground fortresses to escape the Demons. The people spent about 1,000 years holed up in their fortresses, not knowing what was going on at the surface and not daring to unseal the entrances to find out. Finally, the fortresses began to open up, one by one, and their populations emerged once more into the sunlight. Of the Demons, there was no sign.

Our Homeland
The fortress that the campaign begins centered on Emerged about 500 years in the past. Expeditions sent to the nearest two fortresses (one to the north, one to the south) found disturbing results: The southern fortress, Ompan, was completely empty with no sign of its inhabitants anywhere, while the northern fortress had apparantly been overcome by a Dragon when it opened and its inhabitants were scattered over the steppes as barbarians in the Dragon’s thrall.
Over the 500 years since the Emergence until the present day, the people of our fortress spread out very slowly into the surrounding lands, setting up a basic feudal society in the hands of around a dozen Lords subservient to the King. Part of the population, however, split off into a seperate country; their religion was radically different from the state-sponsored religion of our land and they saw this as an opportunity.
The only people that have been found so far, besides the barbarians and the blood-worshippers, are a few scatterings of druids (who stayed in the world above during the Demonic invasion) and a few settlements across the sea, which have not banded together into any kind of kingdom or country.

Our Heroes
Aden Caulfield: Scion of House Caulfield, one of the ruling houses. Rakish and arrogant, his motivations are simple – “what works best for me?”.
Bronn Crestfallen: Scion of House Crestfallen, another ruling house. Bronn has very little else in common with Aden, however; he cares more for his books and pets than he does for himself.
Owen Angusson: Demonling son of one of the few Uncorrupted Demonlings following the Richfort incident. A peasant by birth, he is ambitious but driven to become a force for good, to make up for the Corrupted. Note: the story will be told from Owen’s perspective.
V: A Gateborn warrior. Even he doesn’t know his purpose.
Anna’rolla Forn: The 12 year old Princess of the House Forn, the royal line. Stunningly beatiful and with a captivating voice, Anna’rolla struggles to come to terms with the events she’s been swept up in.

House Rules
The only notable house rule so far is that, for skill checks and stat checks, a natural 20 counts as +30, while a natural 1 counts as -10. This is intended to make more heroic actions possible (though very rare). This becomes relevant in session 6.

 

[Zurai]

Session 1: A Fate-Filled Meeting

Session 1: A Fate-Filled Meeting

Why did I ever agree to come here? I don’t belong in this room.

And yet, there I was, sitting at the retainer’s table in the Throne Room, summoned by the King to attend his Council of War.

He only invited me because of Father. He’s hoping that I’ll step forward into his shoes. Not likely. The military isn’t for me..

I glanced around the room for what must be the tenth time since I arrived with Aden a half hour ago. Representatives from each noble house gossiping with each other, wineglasses in hand. The Prince and Princess, seated at one end of the long table and talking quietly to each other. My eyes lingered on the Princess; her long, fiery red hair was arranged in an intricate braid and her dark green eyes gleamed with intelligence.

It’s too bad she’s so young and so far out of my league.

Resuming my sweep of the room... The biggest Gateborn I have ever seen, and ever hope to see, crouched on the raised dais on which rests the palace’s three Gates. And a constant stream of serving girls in Lord Thorncrest’s colors bearing glasses and plates in and out of the room. No King yet, and the Queen probably wouldn’t even make an appearance.
With a sigh, I looked for Aden, the one person in this room I had any connection to, no matter how faint. Aden was Lord Caulfield’s only son, and Lord Caulfield was my lord. Aden and I were almost the same age – he was born two weeks before I was. Of course, he was born pure, and of noble house, while deep inside me an unclean presence twisted itself around my soul.

...resennnnttt...annnngerrr...desstrooooyyyy...

And right on cue, Korinthos added his commentary. My inner Demon – quite literally – had been with me since before I was even born. Twenty-five years ago, the Gate at Richfort had suddenly burst open and everyone within fifty miles of the gate had been permanently changed. The Demons had attempted to invade the world again, sending their masses through the Richfort Gate. Only this time, something interfered. No one knows who or what, exactly, went wrong; my personal theory is that the Tardif, God of the Gates, had put his foot down on the interlopers. Instead of passing bodily through the Gate, the Demons had instead been ejected into the bodies of the nearest humans, their souls fusing together.
Only the Demonlings, as we have come to be called, know the truth of the matter. Everyone else just thinks it was some magical discharge or some other side effect of the Gate’s opening that did it to us. Regardless, the effects were obvious: every Demonling showed visible traits of the corruption of our souls. My eyes were solid, featureless, blood red, and a pair of small horns adorned my forehead. Others bear different traits, although horns are very common. No one who ever gazed upon us had any doubt that we are children of Richfort.

....resENNNNTTTTTTTTT...
Enough of that!

With a mental effort, I silenced Korinthos and banished him from my thoughts. The present circumstances must be unsettling me more than I’d realized for him to slip past my guard twice in so short a time.

Would that most of the rest of the people of Richfort were able to silence their Demons so effectively. In truth, they succumbed almost to the man. Only my family and a half dozen others of the hundreds of people within the Area of Change remained Uncorrupted after the first two or three days. By the time I was born, two weeks after the Gate had opened, Richfort was a ghost town and the army of Corrupted had marched on the nearby territories, razing, looting, raping, and pillaging as they went. As soon as I was born, my father Angus Gormsson rejoined the Army and lead the effort to wipe out the Corrupted. He was more successful than he feared, but less so than he hoped; the main force of Corrupted was shattered, but they were not wiped out. They retreated to the West Woods and set up an enclave there, resisting periodic attempts by the Kingdom to dislodge them.

Bah, I’m growing morbid now. Where is Aden, anyway? Ah, there he is. Talking to a woman, of course. Though judging by her expression, he’s turning her down. That’s a surprise.

A soft susurrus of sound caught my attention and I followed the eyes of the gathered nobles. The Gateborn that had been introduced to me as “V” – a member of Bronn Crestfallen’s entourage – had approached the dais and appeared to be speaking to the massive Gateborn crouched there. What little I could catch of their words meant nothing to me; I doubted it would even be possible for me to speak their language. After a few moments of conversation, V turned to Brom and said a few short sentences in Common before returning to the retainers’ table; I only caught snippets.

“...name is Spike...purpose...guard the Gates”

Just then, a short fanfare of trumpets began, and the King entered the throne room at last. With a great clattering of chairs on stone, everyone rose and bowed to the King, only seating themselves after he had taken his place at the head of the table, his back to Spike and the Gates.

“Friends, Lords, and countrymen, you are gathered here to meet with me in a Council of War. The Dragon Adamardith has apparantly grown tired of making demands of us and now has marched his barbarian horde into our territory. Lord Thorncrest’s lands are almost entirely lost to us now, and Lord Caulfield has been sorely pressed. We must decide on a plan of action, and decide quickly.”

A dozen plans were presented from a dozen mouths – surrender, retreat, floating the navy up the Water Braid, and on and on – and the politics had begun in earnest, when suddenly with the wailing screech of metal on metal, Spike reared up onto his feet and whirled to face the Gates. The room was shocked into silence as one of the Gates began to whirl, sigils around the rim glowing, and the room was filled with an eerie green light.

The first barbarian to leap from the Gate was met in mid-air by a blow from Spike’s massive arm that sent a loud CRUNCH reverberating throughout the room and sent the barbarian flying into one of the walls, twenty feet away. Someone screamed; either the Princess or one of the serving girls. Then, there was no time for thought.

Dozens of barbarians flooded through the Gate, more than even Spike’s sweeping strikes could handle as they ignored him and ran into the midst of the gathered nobles. Lord Thorncrest’s serving girls had all drawn knives and were setting on the nobles alongside the barbarians – a snarl of “Traitor!” from the Prince notwithstanding.

“To the King!” yelled Aden, but he was brought up short by the Prince.
“Aden, Owen, Bronn, V, to me!”

I had already uncoiled the chain from around my shoulders at the first sign of trouble; now it was set in whirling motion as I backed towards the Prince and joined the others.

“We must get out of here. Follow me. NOW!”

His voice allowed no dissention and the six of us – nobles, peasant, Gateborn, Prince, and Princess – fled the room. As we passed windows in the halls, we could hear war horns and see smoke rising from the city. We ran through the twisting passages, sending any guards we found back to the throne room, until at last we came to a small dead end room.
The Prince knelt on the floor, running his hands over the stone blocks, then pressed solidly on one stone. With a barely audible ‘click’ it raised up out of the floor and the Prince pushed it aside, revealing a ladder descending into darkness. He practically pushed us down the ladder in his haste.

At the bottom was another small room containing nothing but a chest and a door. The Prince turned to us, handing us a torch.

“Within this chest are the magical items the Dragon has demanded from the kingdom. He must not get them. I charge you four to take these items and escort my sister to the fortress of Ompan. There we have been training a secret army to resist the Dragon. We had hoped to have more time, but it is the only safe place to take the artifacts.”

“What about you? Come with us! You can’t do anything to help here!” cried Aden.

“No. My duty is to the Kingdom. Save my sister. Take the items. Through this door is the royal catacombs; there is a secret exit from there to outside the city. Now GO!” and he wrenched the door open, pushed us all through, and closed it. The click of the door locking behind us was eerie in the flickering torchlight.

We looked at each other, then the sobbing Princess. There was little choice. Onward and forward it was.

Quickly sorting ourselves into a marching order with the Princess and young Brom in the middle, with Aden and I at the head and tail of the line, we started cautiously down the long corridor we were in. Just as we reached the (locked, of course) door at the end of the corridor, we heard pounding on the door behind us, as if someone were smashing it with some sort of weapon. The Princess’s sobbing grew even louder and with a curse, Aden leaned down and began to pick at the lock on the door.

Another loud crash sounded and the door into the catacombs shattered, revealing two bloody barbarians in furs, carrying torches and axes. The Princess shrieked, bu even through the noises she was making I could hear an unusual sound – someone was chanting the words to a spell!

I whipped my head around just in time to watch a shimmering streak of energy burst from Bronn’s hand toward one of the barbarians. A loud grunt and the sound of a body hitting the floor told of his magic’s effectiveness as I turned again to face the remaining warrior, my chain spinning in a tight arc in front of me. The barbarian charged straight at me. Unwise of him. My chain darted out almost without concious thought on my part, entangling his feet and sending him sprawling to the ground a good six feet from me. With a snap of my wrist I pulled the chain back then sent the other end slamming down onto his head. He jerked, then lay still.

By now Aden had the door open, revealing an intersection leading to our left and right. We veered left, into another locked door. With a mutter to himself, Aden set about unlocking this one, just as another pair of barbarians charged into the corridor behind us. These were dealt with almost exactly as the last pair were. The first one to come around the bend was greeted with another bolt of force from Bronn, while my chain tangled around the other’s neck, snapping it.

Again Aden opened the door, this time into a room filled with urns lining the walls. After a brief search of the room, we advanced to yet another locked door and were beset by another wave of barbarians from behind. This time V stepped forward, one of his hands twisting to the side, revealing a humming violet blade of energy. His other hand held a plain longsword. He neatly eviscerated the first barbarian to come within range, but the second dealt him a nasty blow across his abdomen before falling to that strange humming blade.
By now I could tell that the enemy wasn’t going to stop coming. I told the rest of the group to go on forward. I had a trick up my sleeve and would stay behind to guard their backs. They ran forward into another intersection; I steeled myself mentally for the touch of corruption.

...KILLLLLLL....SLAAAYYYY!

Gritting my teeth at Korinthos’s goading, I wrested some of his power from him and a magical darkness filled the room, darkness which no torch could penetrate. I backed out of the room until I was just beyond the range of the darkness, waiting for the enemy to come. And come they did.

Two barbarians charged at me through the darkness, even though they could barely make out my softly glowing eyes in the torchless gloom. My chain answered them, sending the first sprawling to the ground, though he managed to roll aside from my follow-up strike.
With two targets in range of my attack, I dove once more into Korinthos’s powers.

....YESSSS...KILLL....BLOOOODDD...DRINK THEIR BLOOD!

Mentally I gathered myself, then lashed out simultaneously with both ends of my chain, whirling my body to add momentum as both ends slammed into their targets. Korinthos howled with glee. Still more came. I dropped the first as he stumbled into my range, but another charged right past and swung his axe wildly into the utter darkness in front of him; fortunately, I was in complete darkness and his vision was not sufficient to locate me. His blows went wide. Mine did not.

My companions had gone to the right at the intersection, but now they were running back.
“That way’s a dead end! Quickly, we don’t have much time!” Aden called as he passed.
I remained at my corner, slaying another trio of barbarians, buying time until the rest of my companions had passed, then slipped into the darkness and fled to the left.

I didn’t even notice until after he was laying in a pool of his own blood that the next barbarian I killed hadn’t even been armed, aside from a torch; his right arm had already been severed at the elbow. Was I losing myself to the Corruption?

Fortunately, that was the last barbarian I had to slay for the moment. Through two more rooms we fled, then into a small chamber built around a solid stone throne. As the Princess passed into the room, a skeletal figure in ancient armor, wielding a greatsword in one hand, rose from the throne and turned to face us.

“My Lady.” its voice whispered from beyond the grave, sending chills down my spine. “I am at your service.”
“Protect us!” shouted Aden. “Protect the Princess!”
“No defiler will pass.” returned the guardian spirit as it strode forward, blocking the entrance to the room.

We took it at its word and fled from the room through the door opposite the way we came in. We heard the sounds of fighting from behind us, but the sounds never seemed to pass into the room or corridor. We ran and ran until none of us could run any more, lungs burning with exhaustion, then walked and stumbled our way further. We traveled that one corridor for hours – I don’t know exactly how long, but we must have walked at least twenty miles – until at last we could see natural light from ahead. We had finally escaped the capital into the countryside.

 

[Zurai]

This campaign runs every Wednsday; I'll try to update Thursday or Friday, but it may slip into the weekends. The first four sessions have already been run, so I have a bit of a buffer before I get to the current situation.

If anyone has any questions or comments, I'm happy to answer.

 

[Arkhandus]

Interesting start.

And I like the handling of the first-person perspective so far.

 

[Zurai]

I was worried about the first-person perspective myself, to be honest. I would have written it in omniscient, but the group is roleplaying really well and I simply don't know enough about everyone's secrets and motivations to pull it off. Hell, I even managed to keep any of the other player characters from seeing Owen use any manuevers (he's a Warblade//Ranger) until the third session, and they've only seen him use Sapphire Nightmare Blade and Mountain Hammer so far.

 

[Arkhandus]

Cool. The Book of Nine Swords is awesome in written form. And the sneakiness of the tiefling is neatly executed.

 

[Zurai]

Session 2 teaser (Session 2 should be up later today):

*We enter an abandoned town near the tunnel's exit, and are greeted by some enemy scouts.
*We stumble across a wounded Kingdom soldier near another town, which leads the party to split up temporarily.
*Bronn acquires a donkey.
*We are betrayed by one of our own number.

 

[Zurai]

Session 2: A Journey Begins

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.

Ashes take that! 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 wind!” 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 thudded 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.

 

[Zurai]

Session 3 teaser (Hopefully up tomorrow):

* Rain forces us to take shelter in an abandoned cottage ...
* ... that turns out not to be abandoned at all.
* We fight more of the Dragon's men, as well as a dragonkin, picking up some allies in the process.
* One of the original party members is literally sliced in two.

 

[harrydunn]

i like it. it makes me want to write one from bronn's perspective, but that would probably just be a lot of "wow that's interesting i can't believe i never thought to use the verbal components from........ ow what is going on around here. where did that barbarian come from? magic missle. i lost my page i hate it when that happens."