Session 2: Dreams Within the Ashes

General Summary

Plot

 

Act I: The Death of all You Know

With their whole world for the past months set ablaze behind them, our party of adventurers - still strangers to each other but bound together in chains of confusion, grief and fear - ride into the night with insecurity in all of their minds. Their escape is accompanied by the smell of charred wood and the sound of raw screaming as they leave Sareth behind. After hours of travel, the party decide to camp in a slight hollow in the Vashni hillside under the cover of darkness with only their hooded lanterns for light. They decide to try and rest as much as they can despite the traumatic events that had just occured, with Asguir going to scout for danger and Elräen standing watch in a tree. Piper collapses into Fauna, exhausted but still torn by the death of Arjhan. She weeps and shakes in Fauna's arms desperately asking her for answers. Fauna eventually calms her down with careful caressing, and Piper - exhausted physically and emotionally - falls into a deep slumber. Trying to stay near the camp and hidden in the the brush of the wilderness, Asguir spies the goblin army on the horizon - bodies merging into one strange wave of gloom from this distance. Unsure of his surroundings and weary from their combat and travels, Asguir is unsure of where the army is headed exactly other than East, towards Malodor - their homeland. As night falls with grey hues, Asguir and Fasûl are taken by sleep while Elräen and Fauna stay watching over their new companions. Whether awake or unconscious, memories arise.
 

Act II: Sinking into Revery

Asguir dreams of salty air and a sea breeze, thechattering of his fellow compatriots surrounding him as he stands at attention in army rank in the city of Rinto. It's a pleasant day, and the rays of sunlight cause his silver service medal to shimmer. Past the rows of white-clad uniformed soldiers, he sees a figure in the distance in royal military garb of a purple hue walking down the ranks. Though he has never met King Aldathar III in person, Asguir's instinct recognises him instantly. After a long time, the King reaches Asguir and shakes his hand firmly. He looks dead into his soldier's eyes, an expression of calm confidence shrouding something else within those dazzling green eyes, and says "Thank you so much for your service." Asguir can tell he meant it. The king moves on as the dream shifts, time becoming fluid like water in Asguir's mind. He is unmoving in a crowded room, sitting on a stool in a back-alley tavern on the rougher side of Krolask holding his service medal - now tarnished - in his left hand and a torn letter in his right. It had been almost a month since he had been dishonourably discharged from the Vashni military for "treason". Ridiculous. He had saved his friends. And yet he was punished nonetheless. He thought of the king, and felt anger, bitterness and sadness rise in his chest. He'd prove them wrong one day, all of them. The bartender refills his drink, notices the medal and thanks Asguir for his service. The words echo in his mind as he returns to the void of sleep.
  Pain. Pain. Searing pain shoots up Fasûl's left hand like magma from a volcano. Images flash across his brain in quick succession: his people witnessing the brutal attacks by The Eastern Armies; the goliaths aiding the West; the iconic image of the King of Vashnir shaking hands with goliath tribe leaders; the familiar faces of soldiers Fasûl had fought beside coming to his isolated homestead; a sharp nip in his neck; and now pain. So much pain. Agony engulfs him and, as with the strange quality of dreams, the scene drifts into another. Fasûl wakes in the wilderness, his body weak and mind distant. He stares at his fist now in a solid iron gauntlet that shreds his skin. Strange diamonds are encased in the iron, and even though he doesn't know the true extent of it's capabilities, he can feel his powers inhibited. Pure rage envelopes him, his powers attempting to expel magic but failing, instead his druidic powers focus and transforming him into a full-grown grizzly bear. He rampages the forest until he can find those that did this to him.
  As Elräen acts as a sentry high up in the branches with his bow drawn, his mind drifts to when he was first gifted the weapon and trained hard with it. He remembers the training fields in his home city of Ilmäre, where he pulled the drawstring with the anticipation of a crowd behind him, released with his hand-carved arrow slamming straight into the bullseye of the 100m target. Applause surrounds him, but swiftly shifts into the chatter of the army stationed outside Ilmäre a decade later. His thoughts always drift back to that fateful day: the sun blaring down in perfect bliss, his friends in beautiful dwarven mithril sculpted into elven armour, glowing in the mid day light with not one cloud in the sky. Young Elräen couldn't even imagine a war happening at this moment of calm. But then... boom. boom. BOOM. BOOM! Sounds like a titan's footsteps came from behind him. He turned back to the city, and the rest of the army with him like a cyclone. Cracks were spreading up Ilmäre's reinforced boundary walls - a pane of glass splintering then shattering before them. The magestic spires arising from the once beautiful city slipped behind the walls in silence, followed by deafening destruction. Chunks of rocks the size of boulders fell towards the surrounding army, bludgeoning Elräen's fellow soldiers like they were nothing but ants in the crossfire. Suddenly flanking the army in their shocked trance came a volley of spears and flaming arrows from a goblin and orc ambush. Worgs tore through the elven ranks and disembowelled a man with a single bite. One of Elräen's closest friends, cowering next to him in fear, had a spear slam through his jaw and out his head, blood pouring from his mouth in red waterfalls. In his shock Elräen could only think of one thing: his parents. Despite the chaos surrounding him and the city, he sprinted towards the crumbling city gates and into Ilmäre for the last time. Death swarmed the once glamourous streest, dust and ash and smoke choking the young elf as panic arose within him, passimg coprse after corpse on his way to the centre of the city. He got to the what was once his home, the ornate yet humble building razed to debris. He saw blood, too much blood, oh god his family- Suddenly all went silent except for the sound of scraping metal against stone. Elräen turned to see a hulking form of dark, rough flesh and fur armour, with ram-like horns sprouting from a dark steel helmet covering any scrap of the face. Clasped in his hands was a gigantic warhammer with molten ends and deathly spikes. With silence surrounding the high orc captain, he slammed the ground with the warhammer causing the ground to split like an earthquake. Knowing all was lost, Elräen ran for his life. Completely dissociated from his body, he ran past the city, the battleground, the wilderness, the darkness in a stupour. After days and days of pure survival, scrapes, hunger, dehydration and sorrow, he eventually came to a small rural town. With a ghostly complexion and ashen clothes, Elräen collapsed in front of a general store, ready to let death take him. When others ignored him or gave him strange, empty glances, one man came over and helped him. Baron, Elräen's future mentor. Despite Elräen's silence intertwined with despairing remarks, Baron brought him water and rations before learning of the tragedy the boy went through. A moment was shared between them - an understanding between scarred warriors. The memories drift together again, Baron's training sessions and his subtle love rejected by Elräen's trauma. Before the loss of his parents and city engulfed in waves of grief, Elräen came back to himself, tucked in a tree alone.
  With Piper in her arms, Fauna reminisces of her last day with her sister. It was a warm day in Spring just a few months ago, and Fauna had awoken early and was stroking her sister's black hair in the dawnlight. She decides to leave her sister and venture through their town - a beautiful vertical structure of carved wood and vines - down to teh forest floor towards the nearby lake. She speaks to a squirrel which, with its limited knowledge, tells her of strangers on the outer edges of the woods. Before she can ask further, a tuneless voice comes from behind her, that of Quirrel Melianwin, their tribe's leader. His blonde hair falls to his shoulders merging with his pale complexion, contrasted by the dark green uniform of the wood elves. He gets straight to the point, telling Fauna that their council came to the conclusion that she has to prove herself as a primary member of their tribe. He suggests to leave the the tribe for a few months to travel the surrounding natural world, to train her magic to defend against those who may threaten the tribe. Fauna, upset but confident in her abilities, returns to her room and packs her things. Before leaving she glances back at Freya before deciding to leave a note in beautiful cursive and exiting into the sunlight. Fauna comes back to herself in the present with Piper in her arms. She stares at the forest in front of her - her homeland - where she sees a strange movement.
 

Act III: A Royal Interrogation

When Fauna leaves her place at Piper's side to investigate the disturbance in the shadows, where she finds Prince Benjamin Greythorn I passed out over a log, his ornate royal attire in tatters and grimed with the slick mud and sap of the woods. After checking if he was even still alive (just unconscious) she ponders what to do. Searching his body for signs of how he escaped the goblins clutches, she notices a faint colourful glow and spies a beautiful crystal necklace tucked away from view. Enscribed on the crystal orbs are symbols that Fauna doesn't recognise but, along with the thread cord and strange gems, says to her that this is more of an ancient artifact than royal jewelery. She calls for help and she and Elräen drag the prince's body to their makeshift camp.
  Several slaps and a bucket of water later, the prince is awoken and frightened to the bone. He speaks rapidly, asking where he is, what's going on, what happened? The party interrogate him about what happened in Sareth and he is overcome with anxiety. He finds Fasûl's letter in one of his many coat pockets, and reads over it with grim horror exposed on his face. The prince pleads with the adventurers to take him to the capital city, Krolask, so that he can warn his uncle, King Aldathar, of the attacks by the goblins. Fauna, aware of the dangers of the goblin army in that direction, eventually convinces him to come with them through the forest to get help from her tribe. The group then interrogate him about his necklace, which he seems to subconsciously fidget with. Confused at first, he answers that it's an old family herloom that is given to the chosen heir to the throne. The party believe him, and the prince swiftly moves on to the matters at hand. He is apologetic but aggressive towards Asguir, who threatens to hand him over to the goblins. Put in his place, the prince agrees to go with the party to the Sola tribe. They pack up what little they had at their camp and continue on into the forest.
 

Act IV: Venturing Deeper

The group, guided by Fauna, spend days cutting through the thick foliage of the forest and swiping sweat from their brows as they go deeper. The forest seems to conform to their path, blocking any sight of the outside world and making it hard for the party to get a grip of the time of day. Prince Benjamin seems highly uncomfortable, slick with sweat and nervously swatting away any of the natural world that touches him. He refuses to remove his coat, despite the warmth of the forest even on what should be a cooler autumnal day. Eventually, the group reach a crossroads of sorts: Left to go further into the centre of the woods, a more direct route but perhaps more dangerous, or right which goes deeper down into a cavernous space still overgrown with vegetation. After Fauna discovers a silk-like substance and images of giant spiders come to her mind, she chooses the deeper path. The ground seems to consume the party as they go underground, with vines and tree roots crawling up the smooth stone walls of the tunnel. Continuing on, the party notice strange purple roots that are unlike the other plants, and Fasûl's instincts call to him, whispering that he should stay in the light. Eventually they reach a vast cave, lit by the strange auras of luminescent funghi and flowers. There is an opening centre of the cavern, allowing sunlight to seep through the roof. Unnoticed by the party, the strange purple roots seem to shrink and wither in the sunlight, with the shadowy outer walls engulfed by this strange vegetation. Our adventurers make haste toward the light of the exit when Fauna almost trips on what she thought was a tree root but is actually a bone. A human femur to be exact, connected to the rest of a rotting skeleton. They investigate the corpse, finding the same odd substance from earlier, now noticed by Fauna to be a fungal growth that looks almost like a lilac coral. Fauna finds a rotting piece of parchment in the skeleton's fist, faded letters saying "Investigate outskirts f- issing kin. St- fe. Report ba- Quirrel and Frey-." Fauna is shocked to see her sister's name and now recognises the wrecked clothing of the corpse to be taht of a wood elf, before a lashing tendril strikes her hand , leaving a red rash. The violet fungal roots slips into the shadows, pulling the skeleton with it as it merges into a strange mound in the wall of the cavern. Benjamin notices the far exit becomes engulfed in the fungus and starts to panic. The mound rises to show a mountain of corpses, wrapped in violet mycelium shoots, like a tower looming over the party.
 

Characters

Elräen Naïlo Sir Asguir Thornveil Fauna Rosclip Fasûl Hyringer Piper Furrowshrew Prince Benjamin Greythorn I
  (Dreams) Baron Vilkrest King Aldathar Greythorn III Freya Rosclip Quirrel Meliamne