Session 463 - The Time Of Fire
General Summary
16th of Nuzyael (Spring) 731TR
The story so far
A group of heroes adventures in the mysterious Kingdom of Emelrene, a realm where planar rifts are in abundance.
Seth, the son of Acheron, and trained by dwarven weaponsmiths.
Kitiara found a newly hatched dragon and developed a powerful bond.
Raven, a magical clone of Quazzy, the infamous Raven Woman, and a member of the Cult of the Twisted Elf.
Alphonse, a Chirurgeon and dropout from the Guild of Arcane Lore.
The heroes are traveling through the Jerinalian Mountains heading toward Neoma Castle. They pass by the Divael Lodge, where they stay and are briefed by Lodge Master Kasir Hamthela on recent events. Lately, the Ethereal Zones (planar rifts) in the kingdom have become much more active.
The Lodge Master and his wardens mainly concentrate on the Divel Zone, a region of cold and darkness to the northeast. Recently, the sinister and mysterious Eldest Ones and Ice Elementals have been seen in the area. Even worse, a White Dragon has been spotted in the mountains.
Raven is very interested in the magical region further north, the Shadryn Zone, where the shadowy minions of the god Naveh (known locally as Vanaer) are believed to dwell. As a member of the Cult of the Twisted Elf, she is committed to opposing the machinations of these assassins.
Seth, on the other hand, is more focused on the Tirdhal Zone to the south, where there is a link to the Elemental Plane of Metal. His mentors among the weaponcrafters in the dwarven Kingdom of Azadmere are eager to exploit this unique resource.
Location: The western Jerinalian Mountains in the Kingdom of Emelrene.
Part 1 - Opportunistic Wolves
The party travels along the valley paths between the mountains and spots a campsite. A dead horse is being eaten by four wolves, and further back, near a wrecked tent, is the body of a man, covered in blood but possibly still alive. As the heroes cautiously approach, the wolves notice them and dash forward. Seth takes the lead, and soon the wolves have him surrounded, but he deflects most of their bites with his shield. Raven attacks the wolves with a barrage of mental assaults, confusing them about where their sudden headaches are coming from, while Alphonse throws vials of acid. Unfortunately, he catches Seth in the splash, but soon the wolves are slaughtered.
Part 2 - Enzo the Scholar
The heroes rush to the injured man. Seth notes that the horse was killed by arrows, and the man has obviously deep cut wounds, not ones from a wolf. As Alphonse splashes his healing elixirs over the poor man, Raven decides to Charm him. When he regains consciousness, he falls under her influence and becomes enamored.
He introduces himself as Enzo Reinhard, a student of history and arcane lore. The talkative scholar eagerly tells Raven that he was ambushed by bandits while camping; they killed his horse, knocked him down, and left him for dead. They stole his valuables, but what Enzo cares about most, aside from his missing spell book, is an old tome called "The Time of Fire" by Lady Luna Kagi. This valuable book is a detailed history of the infamous Time of Fire, when fire dragons terrorized the land 600 years ago. He has some enchanted coins, which he will happily give the heroes if they can recover his belongings.
Enzo tells Raven that this book is meant for his library, the Dragonskull Archive. The archive is an old library and guild of arcane knowledge, dating back hundreds of years, but abandoned over fifty years ago. Enzo claims that he recently convinced the Duke of Jerinal, Prince Anavras Edhelen, to allow him to reopen the archive.
Leaving Enzo to recover at the camp, the party follows the bandit's trail.
Part 3 - Ice Lizards
Alphonse is the party's top tracker, which isn't saying much, and despite the bandits making little effort to hide their tracks, he quickly loses the trail. As the party doubles back, they come to a small stream. Hidden in the shallow water are three Ice Lizard Hatchlings, resembling monitor lizards, with blue-to-white scales. These elemental creatures may have wandered down from the Divel Ethereal Zone. Again, Seth takes the brunt of the lizard attacks, holding them off. They spit blasts of frost, but this proves inconsequential, and the lizards are soon defeated.
However, the much larger mother lizard emerges from the flank and spits out a hail of ice. The heroes are less successful at dodging and suffer significant injuries, while Alphonse’s mechanical bird familiar, Ashdun, is shattered. It will take a week of effort to repair Ashdun back to working order. With a sudden burst of speed, the lizard lunges forward and bites at Seth. He blocks with his nearly destroyed shield, leaving him barely standing and suffering from severe hypothermia. Alphonse frantically heals and gives Seth an elixir that offers some resistance to cold damage, and Raven bombards the lizard with psionic attacks. Eventually, through Seth’s expert sword strikes and Raven’s mental bolts, the lizard is slain. Alphonse’s alchemical mixtures help Seth recover from hypothermia, but the fight was a near-run thing.
Part 4 - Bandits
The trackers eventually follow the bandit’s trail, and as the sun begins to set, they notice that the villains have set up camp. They see smoke from the campfire and a guard station on a nearby hill with a good view.
At midnight, Raven sends a Message to the guard. It's purposely garbled; all he hears is a faint female voice whispering in the distance, but he decides to investigate. As he approaches, Raven reveals herself by assaulting his mind, inserting a Forbidden Thought, making any attempt to shout a warning extremely painful. The guard spots Seth and, biting his tongue, silently attacks, but the skilled Seth counters. Injured, the guard finally decides to shout a warning and becomes dizzy with pain, and is quickly cut down. His outburst awakens one of the bandits, but Raven’s impersonation of the guard's voice is convincing enough to put his mind at ease, and he attempts to go back to sleep.
The party sneaks up on the bandits; Seth presses his sword to the leader’s throat, kicks him awake, and demands surrender while Raven can't resist sending creepy Messages into their minds. The outlaws consider their options, all of which are bad, and finally yield. The men are bound and taken back to Enzo’s camp. All the stolen goods, especially the book "The Time of Fire," are recovered.
The heroes plan to escort these criminals to Neoma Castle to face justice.
To be continued.
NPC Interactions
Lodge Master Kasir Hamthela of Divael Lodge.
Enzo Reinhard - Scholar.
Related Content
Nothing this week.
Created Content
Player Characters
Seth - Human - Level 1 Guardian
Background - Metallurgist.
Raven - Human - Level 1 Telepath Psychic
Background - Magical Experiment.
Kitiara - Human - Level 1 Dragon Summoner
Background - Dragon Scholar.
NPC Companion
Alphonse - Human - Level 1 Chirurgeon
Background - Academy Dropout.
