Campaign
Session 1 - Beginnings
//25.06.2020
The party’s journey begins at dawn, right after they have crossed the border to Lyria. Around them is varying scenery of fields and forests, cliffs, and meadows. Occasional merchants pass them, but the road is not too busy.
The main party is consisted of Queen Una of the Twin Realms of Lyria and Rivia, her royal alchemist Belagorn Troyden, an ambassador Edon Raulyn from Cintra, and an elven mage named Faust, from Lyria. They already somewhat knew each other as they had been travelling together for at least six weeks. Also accompanying them are knights and soldiers enlisted to protect and escort the Queen back to the capital.
The party is met by Count Caldwell, one of the Queen's loyal subjects. He is girthy and looks very well-fed, a very typical nobleman with a moustache. He informs Una of the state of her kingdom, gives her letters from her court, and warns about roaming bandits. Those bandits have been raiding caravans and even stolen money from the realm! The Count promises to get the stolen gold back and leaves at once to do that.
Una looks at the letters she was given, but Belagorn insists he should check them first for bombs or poison. He studies the envelopes and they are sealed with a royal seal. The letters look legitimate. Suddenly, Belagorn starts coughing. He falls to the ground, coughing up blood with something blue visible.
Edon acts fast and runs after the Count. He catches up to him quickly and pulls him down from horseback!
“What the hell are you doing!? The ambassadors these days!”
Count Caldwell is furious and almost orders his men to attack Edon.
The Count is accused of trying to poison the Queen with the letters and Belagorn stops coughing blood. He then explains that the letters are not poisoned, but this incident leaves everyone suspicious. Belagorn goes to his wagon to clean up and Edon joins him. The Count parts with the party again and this time everyone can continue their journey.
Belagorn has his own private wagon, Una has a black Friesian stallion called Onyx, and Edon is left to walk with Faust. Edon sees an opportunity to avoid walking and hits on a riding knight. The other party members do not hear their conversation, but Edon looks red and in fact, is riding with the knight for the rest of the day. Maybe later too...
The party come across a small village with three houses, a windmill and people working in the fields. They go past the peasants and some of them start waving and telling their kids to wave too, they are generally very glad to see their Queen. The party happily smiles and waves back. Some knights stop at the village to recruit and buy resources, but they quickly continue their journey.
The road leads to a pass that is blocked by a fallen tree trunk. Going around it or moving it would take hours at minimum, so the party is forced to rethink their strategy. Faust knows how to levitate objects and tries his hand at removing the obstacle. He succeeds and the road is clear to go ahead.
The forest around them is calm and they can hear occasional shouted orders among the knights, nothing out of ordinary. Suddenly, Belagorn hears something from inside his wagon, an almost silent swooshing sound. Something is winding up. He looks around and sees silhouettes atop of two overhang cliffs around them. He cries out a warning: “Take cover!” and grabs his mace.
Edon hears the warning but thinks it is just the soldiers around him communicating with each other. He hears a whistling tone, as something flies fast him and the knight he is riding with. Something hits their horse who rears up in a panic, and they both fall.
Faust was not so fortunate. He was so lost in thought that he did not notice anything happening. Before he can react, he is struck in the temple with a stone, falling to the ground bleeding and dazed.
The Queen survives without a scratch and her soldiers form a shield wall around her. The party finally gets a clear look at the attackers. They are bandits, armed to teeth with slingshots and weapons that look like more fit to torturing than pure killing. Their faces are covered with various masks that resemble wolves, bears and deer.
Edon (manly) cowers under one of the wagons that is not Belagorn’s. The Queen, not concerned about her safety, quickly surveys the area to check if they could outrun the attackers. It seems like this won't be possible, as the ambushers have them surrounded and have men on horseback.
Belagorn climbs atop his private wagon and jumps to the cliffside where some of the attackers are armed with slingshots. Faust stumbles and tries to get to the same hiding place as Edon. He (not so manly) crawls there and Edon pulls him to safety. They both draw their daggers but wait as the attackers do not know they are hidden under the wagon.
The Queen readies her sword as a young attacker approaches her. She swings at the attackers, but her weapon gets tangled in the cat 'o nine tails and she starts to get tugged from her saddle.
Belagorn charges at the men on the cliffside. There are at least ten people, and with a mighty swing he hits one of them in the back. Everyone hears a pained cry and the man falls down to the path below.
Una sees that most of the assailants have been killed by her knights. Enemies start shooting Belagorn with rocks, but the rocks don't even scratch him.
Two bandits have entered the wagon Edon and Faust are hiding beneath, and one is fighting with a soldier. Edon knows they are sitting ducks there and must do something. He slides out from their cover, runs towards the one busy with the soldier, grabs them by the neck and slits their throat.
Una is still fighting with the man. She does not want to be pulled from the saddle, so she holds tight and kicks her horse to gallop. Her sword is still stuck with the bandit’s weapon, but she will not let go. Neither does the bandit and he is being dragged along her, scraping the dirt and rocks. Screaming can be heard and there’s blood. “Shouldn’t have messed with me.”
Faust saw the ambassador slit the young bandit's throat, and the victim falls lying face up towards his hiding place. Faust is in shock and backs out to the battlefield. Voices can be heard from inside the wagon and Faust starts concentrating on magic. He casts Levitate again, and the wagon starts slowly floating and keeps rising. The people inside are shouting. A slight pain creeps to Faust’s fingertips and they start turning yellow, but dazed and full of adrenaline he ignores the pain and keeps going.
Belagorn intimidates the slingshot wielders and eight of them drop their weapons in pure fear. Only one bandit stays there. Belagorn walks up to him, picks him up and throws him off the cliff. It is too late when Belagorn realises his sleeve has caught on the bandit’s weapon and they both stumble down, bandit first. Belagorn being the lucky one here, falls atop of the bandit, killing him instantly. His shoulder dislocates, but he fixes it by himself.
The rest of the bandit group surrenders. Edon, now realising the situation, regrets killing the young man. Reynard Odo, the commander of the party’s escort, commands his men to collect the bandits together. Edon is looking for the knight he rode with, concerned of what came of him and hoping that he didn't die in the fight.
Belagorn goes around and looks for the wounded and tries to help them. Edon is still looking for the knight. He finally finds him sitting next to his now calmed horse. The knight has already taken care of his sword and has a sharpening stone next to him. Now he sits breathing heavily and recuperating.
Edon sits next to him silently. The knight opens his eyes and starts talking to Edon. Edon is still covered in blood from the man he killed, and the knight looks worried. Edon explains that it is not in fact his blood and that he is fine. The knight asks Edon if he has not changed his mind about their evening plans. Edon is still fine with them and asks for the knight’s name. It is Gawain. Edon bids farewell and discreetly walks off, face red.
Faust is still holding his spell. The wagon is still high in the air. Faust shouts a warning and drops the spell, and lets the wagon drop with all its contents inside. A faint whistling sound can be heard from a distance as it comes crashing down. Faust dives to safety.
The wagon hits the ground with an enormous crash and splinters into shards of wood and metal. Five Lyrian soldiers are killed by the impact and the bandits inside probably became something closely resembling human paste. Queen Una survives unharmed but Edon is hit in the back by a big piece of wood. He falls, the breath knocked from him. Belagorn also survives without being hit, but his own wagon does is struck. Some splinters of wood pierce it.
Edon is gasping for air when someone offers him a hand. He slowly takes the hand to steady himself. He realises it is Gawain who has crouched down to aid him.
The surviving soldiers are horrified by what just happened. They try to remove the debris from around their fallen bretheren, and many of them are look angrily at the elven mage. Faust is frozen in place. Some of the soldiers walk up to him, shouting angrily. “You bloody mages! Why would you do such a thing?”
Una comes back and starts defusing the situation. She is also in horror of the situation and does not know what to say or do. Luckily for Faust, the knight commander Reynard halts his men and orders them to back off. Faust looks pale as the commander takes him aside to talk.
Meanwhile Belagorn goes scavenging for coins and items alongside the Queen’s men.
The Queen starts questioning the remaining bandits. The knight commander has put them in shackles and confiscated their weapons. They are calling themselves The Strays of Spalla. They are men between the ages 16 and 19. Apparently, they were also the bandits who stole the realm’s gold. At first, they refuse to answer the Queen’s questions.
Finally, one of them starts talking after Reynaud demands a reply to the Queen. They admit they were following orders from a man known as the “Duke of Dogs”. There is another man called Gregor that was leading their group. According to him, they did not know about the target being the Queen’s Guard.
Una then asks them how many others they had robbed before them. The bandit is hesitant but tells they had attacked, killed, and robbed two caravans this week. Gregor had told them to leave no survivors. So, they left them to rot in the sun. The bandit starts choking up in remorse.
They find out that these low lives were not even the main group of the bandits. There is somewhere a bigger, more organised band, filled with cutthroats, even assassins. Queen Una turns to Reynard for advice. Reynard thinks that even if they killed and murdered people, they still should have a proper trial, even if they are likely to end up hanged.
Edon has regained his breath and Gawain is there for him. There is a lot of blushing and some awkwardness. A loud clang is heard, but only the Gods know what happened there... Gawain helps Edon up, motions like he is dusting him off, even if he is still covered in blood. He also offers to walk and leave his horse for Edon to ride, telling him that it would be better after what had happened.
Edon protests that they both had space to sit together before, but Gawain insists and tells him it would be an honour to have him ride the horse. Edon then accepts, flattered.
Faust’s head is still bleeding a bit. He was supposed to go to look for a healer, but right now he does not want to bother anyone with his problems. Belagorn comes to him and asks if he is okay and if he needs someone to check his wound. Faust almost denies any help, but hesitantly accepts.
Belagorn jumps from his wagon and inspects Faust’s temple. He suspects a small bone fracture there, but nothing serious. He then cleans the wound with water, disinfects it with alcohol and gives him a piece of cloth to cover the wound. He does a pretty good job and warns that it will probably take several days to completely heal.
Faust starts to feel strange, a bit uncomfortable. Something feels close, tampering with things he cannot explain. It might be just the wound, but he is not sure. It just makes him feel nauseous.
The party’s escort is almost ready to continue their journey. They double check for items and people, count the dead, and scavenge the rest of the items left on the battleground.
It is getting late, so they decide to look for a place to set up camp. Some of the scouts report about a good spot and Queen Una decides to stay there instead of marching through the dangerous night.
The party arrives to the scouted spot and which offers a nice view of the realm. Numerous villages and fields dot the landscape with large mountains in the background. The sky is mostly clear of clouds, and the scarce few slowly drift across the darkening sky. The sun is setting and paints the sky red.
The soldiers are setting up tents, one of them being a large red “mess hall”, where the soldiers and knights go eat and drink together. There are multiple smaller tents for the soldiers themselves.
Belagorn decides to venture outside in search for herbs and other alchemy supplies and ingredients. He wanders quite deep in the forest to find what he needs, but it takes him four hours to get back safely. It is already late at night when he arrives back at the camp, and he hails the stationed sentry. They are alert at first, but he is recognised and they let him enter.
Queen Una gives her horse Onyx to a horse master, who starts taking care of him at once. Una goes to the tent set up for her. It is quite large, has a table and a proper bed. Her grey and white splotched she-cat Pebbles greets her as she steps inside. There is also food ready for her, and a goblet of wine.
Una decides to check up on everybody in the camp for any lingering resentment from the scenario earlier. She walks through the camp inspecting her soldiers and getting an overview of the people. Una walks past the mess hall and sees drinking and feasting men, but the mood there is not as merry as it used to be, some of the people are grumbling, though they quiet and avert their eyes as they spot her.
She returns to her tent and sits down to finally read the letters she was given earlier today. There are three letters, one with two reports from the scouts.
Letter one:
Your highness, artisans from gradobor have prepared a new tapestry pattern for the throne room. I’ve included an engraving of the design. You will be pleased with it, I hope: a Cintrian Lion, inherited from King Coram I. Bared fangs offer stunning realism, and the ancestral sword of the Delens of Temeria appears as if forged in the very depths of Mahakam. I’ve no doubt it shall prove the castle’s latest masterpiece.We eagerly await your return, My lady.
Gustave Perrault, Royal Steward.
Letter two:
Dere Una!
You’ve my gratitude for attending the summit. What luck we did not put off the meeting any longer - from what my men say, armies on the march are kicking up a veritable dust storm across the Yaruga. Come what may, remember, you have my full and unconditional support.Best wishes,
- Demavend.
Reports:
Noted increased Nilfgaardian activity in the foothills of Amell mountain and near Riedbrune. Ambassador claims routine training exercises. Number of troops, quality of equipment indicate otherwise. Recommend strengthening border forces and tripling patrols along Yaruga.Strays of Spalla - Bandit group formed after revolt in dungeons of Spalla Castle. Mainly pickpockets, racketeers, cutpurses, assassins. Armed with slings, daggers, instruments of torture stolen from Spalla (Headman’s axes, saws, hammers). Cleverer and bolder than common bandits: attack heavily armed convoys, nobleman’s mansions. Unable to determine identity of group’s leader.
Faust has his own tent set up as well, but he does not dare to leave it. There are set specific tools for him like ink and paper if he wanted to write anything up. There is also a guard positioned in front of his tent. He comes in to check everything is fine and wishes him a good rest. Faust just wants to have a rest but knows that there might be none for him tonight.
Edon is still a bit shaken, and begins drinking. He thoughts dwell on how he brutally killed that young man. He goes looking for Gawain, and asks around if the knight has a night shift today. He is told that Gawain is setting up his tent and will soon be heading to the mess hall. Luckily for Edon, Gawain does not have a night shift today.
Edon finds the Gawain's tent. Gawain is taking off his armour already and readying himself for the night. Edon notices he has a crest indicating nobility. Gawain asks if Edon wants to join him in the mess hall. Edon would be delighted.
Gawain gives Edon his hand and Edon, face red, takes it. They walk together to the mess hall for food and drinks. There are musicians trying to lift people's spirits, cooks making food for the people and a long queue for food.
Edon asks Gawain about his horse as a conversation starter. The horse is a Friesian stallion called Felix. They finally get to the front of the queue, but Edon gets much fancier food than Gawain. He is embarrassed, but accepts it.
Rest of the night is just peace and quiet with the knight Gawain...
Session end.