Session 0

Session 0
Session Number	0
Date	2021-01-01
Attendees	Kenzie
Recording	File:PlaceholderRecording.mp3
Previous Session	Create Session -1
Next Session	Session 1

Gihisas 11 839 AT

Intro

Welcome to Wruitros. The year is 839 AT, or After-Totality. Once a land full of dragons and their riders, mighty heroes that changed the course of history, and a seemingly endless duel between two powers, Wruitros has existed in relative peace for two centuries.

This continent is divided by high mountains, wide-stretching plains and a history of conflict from which tensions still simmer. The Crosthold Shoreline, a collection of port cities under The Martinus Alliance occupies the western shore of Wruitros as well as vast cursed land scarred by The Totality as from the more recent War of the Last Dragons that has been left abandoned for centuries. On the opposing coast juts a peninsula known as Arncorn Run which flourishes with diverse cultures and an atmosphere of freedom. To the north of the continent lies the largest portion of the continent, grander in scale than even that of The Kingdom of Gadena in the southern half of Wruitros. The Fallpond Highlands is a place of solace and safety for the elven people fleeing from the war of another land. In the centermost stretch of land you find The Broken Plains, a scattering of communities and nomadic tribes with no central ruler. In the southern portion of the continent lies the massive Kingdom of Gadena, bisected into two valleys by the Varrenmar Mountains. Both Splissus Valley to the west and Glasgcost Valley to the east are ruled by the monarchy which is centered in the largest city, at the northernmost point of the Varrenmar Mountains, called Gadena.

It is here, well just outside of The Kingdom of Gadena that we begin our journey. Under the rule of King Eduoard Virag, each city has grown and defined itself. The crown takes a piece of what you produce an earn as a tax and are expected to follow its rules and listen to the advisement of its appointed leadership. In return, the crown provides protection where needed.

We find ourselves in a town in the The Broken Plains at eastern edge of The Barnall Woods. This town is known as Woburn. It’s a bit of an odd place run by a strange man but the town itself seems to work as all other towns do.

Session 0.1 Overview

Brenri hires Elora to guide her to The Triangle from where she can find a ship to cross The Abneau Gulf to continue the search for her brother. They fine their path blocked by cultists and join up with Gaotha, who has been living in the woods for a while, traveling alone. They help a few shepherds who's flocks are being accosted by wolves and in doing so find out that flocks were being stolen by wolves.

Events

In Woburn

The Last Stop is the tavern on the far west side of the city. It’s the last tavern/inn before exiting into the Barnall Woods. It is run by Rufidna Keepcase. Elora knows her well and the tavern is often where she picks up travelers to guide as well as where she goes to drink the time away.

• Benri is staying here, she is sitting at the bar. There’s a commotion outside and someone yells about a bear and in the door walks Elora and Anise.
• Rufidna will try to set them up as travel companions. Benri is looking to go to Crosthold Shoreline by boat and needs a guide into the kingdom and to Olnfield’s port. She is searching for the dwarven settlement along the coast; thinks her lost brother might be there.

There is a commotion out the front gates and there are three axebeaks outside the front gates being held off by one orc who is the guard of the gate.

On the Crownroad

There is a shrine to The Pathmaker on the side of the road. It is a tower of flat rocks about a foot in width and four feet high. There are five of these plinths in a circle. A small pixie attack occurs.

Fort Ansmond

Supplies from The Triangle are not making it to the fort. It’s been many weeks now. They recently sent a small group of three soldiers to the farming towns. The soldiers went by way of the Crownroad

- The soldier have been killed.

Barry, a soldier who man’s the northern gates of the fort.

• Knows Elora on sight as she usually passes by on her way to The Triangle. He has opened his home to her before when she was alone, but with travelers, they stay at The Forest Post Inn.

The soldiers here look beleaguered, their supplies running low. It also seems like their own storages have been being swiped from.

The Forest Post Inn is not much of a bar, the pickings slim, especially now, but there are a few nondescript, simple rooms that he rents out. It really seems like it’s just his house. This is a fort for soldiers, not a city to be lived in or traveled through. But it provides a way stop for any who might come by.

What the Fort knows about their missing goods:

• They didn’t jump on it right away because of their stores and also because sometimes things happened on the road but when it kept happening, they looked into it.
• They have found tracks, but they’ve been confusing.
• Four pawed creatures, two pawed creatures, maybe human. Animals couldn’t have gotten into the storehouses without opposable thumbs
• The soldiers they sent haven’t returned.
• Commandant Aranth Boovarsson was just brought word that The Triangle doesn’t have anything to spare if they want to keep themselves alive. It’s concerning. The thousands of soldiers at the garrison aren’t going to be able to train properly if they aren’t fed properly.

On the Crownsroad

To The Triangle...

Introduce Goatha who has taken up residence in the woods outside The Triangle. They have been in the area for a while and have seen a lot of signs of a strangely high number of wolves around. They are unaware of the larger trouble within The Triangle.

The Triangle

As you follow the edge of the forest, Silvercreek on your left, you can see the that faint visage of a village in the distance. This is very familiar to Elora who has made many treks from Woburn to The Triangle. You pass by the village to your left, across the river, which is Woolhope and continue on your way to Olnfield.

About 150 ft ahead of you, you see a pair of men driving a small flock of sheep back toward the village with the help of four sheepdogs. All of a sudden, the dogs stop in their tracks, their ears pricking up. They start barking erratically. In response to this, the men pull long wooden clubs from their belts and begin looking around.

In the blink of an eye, lean grey shapes burst out from the wood, launching themselves at the sheep, and flanking them on both sides. You can see there are 8 wolves in total.

The group engages in a fight to save the sheep and shepherds and are successful.

The shepherds introduce themselves as Yana and Rumen. They are grateful for the help (if given) and ask for aid returning to Olnfield in case the wolves return. They share local gossip but cannot offer any real rewards.

Yana: All this started when that kid playing at sorcery, Tobias’ brother, upped and disappeared. Not that I’d hear a word against him, ‘course, but it makes you think, don’t it…”

Rumen: Nah, first sign of something out the usual was goin’ on came when the Jacobsen’s farm had a dozen sheep snatched from inside their barn._ _Their boy got thrashed somethin’ awful for failing to close it, but a week later, the exact same thing happened even though old Jacobsen had locked up hisself!

Yana: Myllhet, who comes through and sells wares here about was chased off her cart by a pack of wolves. Says they appeared from the trees as if by magic. When she went back with some village lads, the horses were gone, and so were three sacks a ‘thick leather she was planning to trade.

Rumen: Yana here was watching over his flock when he heard callin’ from the trees, begging for help. Well, he runs off to check what was wrong, but he couldn’t find so much as a mouse out there. While he was away, guess what? Dozen sheep o’his just upped and disappeared!

Yana: Month or so ago a band of blokes from the village went out to hunt the wolves; track ‘em back to their den. But soon as they were in the darkest part of the woods they were ambushed. Wasn’t there myself, but some of ‘em tell of booming thunder, others of bursts of fire. Sounded like an unholy mess. Anyway, a halfling named Wanderfoot – decent shepherd – was hurt real bad in the fight. All the others thought he was dead. But next morning he’s found dumped on Taly’s doorstep, near the woods.

Rumen: Poor man ain’t been the same since. Tells wild tales of voices in the night. Cracked in the head, they say.

In Olnfield

The two dip off to their farms as you enter Olnfield. Olnfield is situated on a grassy plain between the Silvercreek River and the Abneau Gulf, fenced in from the north by the Barnall Forest. This is prime real estate for the joint farming and fishing village.

The houses and shops are generally made of wood and are rather plain; it seems that everything is well taken care of but it’s simply old. These people don’t seem to be living in poverty, but they are not wealthy by any means, part of a lower class.

There’s not much in this village. You can see a small general store, The Humble Basket, a few other buildings that look like shops though you can’t tell what type. The rest seem to be lodgings for the people who live in the village. There is one stand out building, larger than the rest though no more glamorous. There’s a swinging sign out from that reads The Shepherd's Hook.

Going inside, you enter a large common room with a bar running along the back wall. There’s a door that goes back into the kitchen. It seems like a regular village bar. But, to your left is a rather grand staircase that leads to an upper floor. To the left of that, on the far wall are private rooms. All of the doors are shut so you can’t see inside. There is a halfling woman behind the bar.

Events

In Fallevin

We begin in a room of the hall of the Avolire Keep, which is the headquarters of The Fellowship of Righteous Arms in the Highsword Borough of Fallevin. We are in the private quarters of a young man, just awakening from slumber.

Joren Jolandel, as you awake and go about your morning routine, you remember that you have been assigned a job for which you are supposed to be leaving that day. It’s in The Triangle, which you’ve never been to but know is a triad of farming villages on the other side of the Varrenmar Mountains. Joren and Caukdim Aralan are being sent to back up a previously sent group who according to the word that was sent back to The Fellowship, were not quite up to the task.

A messenger stops JoJo before he leaves the building, giving him two messages. The first is that Denna Djarin expects him back for training as soon as the job is done. And the second is that the Guildmaster Lorsan Ayred wants to see him.

Inside the office are Lorsan Ayred, Reed, and Caukdim Aralan.

Lorsan explains that The Crescent Rising, an academic group, has used The Fellowship of Righteous Arms for many years to guide them through the mountains. They made plans in advance. Since, Jojo is already going that way, he will need to take their emissary all the way to Landow.

They leave the city by the western gates that leads directly into the mountain pass. There are posted Fellowship guards on either side of the road. Two of the soldiers are talking to a figure they have never met before.

Through the Varrenmar Mountains

Through the mountains is about a day and a half trek. To Landow is three days.

Nothing much happens through the mountains. The Fellowship has posts every so often and they patrol to keep the pass as free from danger as they can.

Late in the night or early in the morning, either they are alerted by movement within the post thaty they stayed there, and are alerted by a pulse in the air followed by roars, grunts, and snarls. A little way away in the trees, where there are many cave openings into the mountainside, a gnome, Felrick Claysteel, is being attacked by a pack of jackals.

They succeed over the what has appeared to be were-jackals.

Coming out of the mountains, JoJo would know the way to the road. On normal crossings, the guides drop their travelers off in the Illeridge but that would be out of your way on your current trajectory to The Triangle.

They find the road easily enough. It is well traveled, marked out of the land and the safest route through the kingdom as its can be highly populated with traffic.

In Bardford Quarry

The land of the Splissus Valley is scarred. There are large swaths of land that are abandoned. It is a complete opposite from the Glasgcost Valley on the opposite sides of the mountains. This place has seen battle and destruction that has left remnants years later. Some of its coming back, but there are scores of long dead trees falling to ash and places where the ground seems infertile.

They arrive upon a ramshackle town about dusk. The sun shining purples and blues over wide open plains. It looks like at one point this place was a tent city that over the years developed into something of permanence. There is absolutely no organization to this place. The building popped up wherever someone managed to find space.

There doesn’t seem to be a central inn necessarily but there is a rather rowdy building, that seems like a tavern of sorts.

They enter the tavern, and it is jam packed. Full of people full of dirt and dust and soot like they just finished a long day of work and this is everyone’s go-to meeting place to end the day. It is loud, boisterous, and many people are already tanked.

They hear one voice over the din, a scraggly slurring voice yelling, “You don’t believe, you never believe me. But I found it. The halls of Kendorahl are right beneath us and you all are going to miss out.”

It’s coming from this old, dwarf who has imbibed far too much

“Shut up, Skirvir! You didn’t find the lost halls of Kendorahl, you just found an old, empty mine.”

Skirvir: You’ll regret not believing me.

He points aggressively into the man’s face. They completely ignore him. It seems like this guy is always drunk, always going on about this thing he’s found and no one takes him seriously.

He tells them to meet him outside the tavern at dawn to find the mines, but won't go down with them.

A small stone shed stood where the entrance to the mines used to be. The shed is now nothing but ruins, and just a faint trace of the foundations remain. The entrance itself is a gaping hole in the hillside leading down into the earth.

Bardford Quarry Mine

The big takeaway is that they treated the mine like a dungeon, Caukdim viciously killed a group of kobolds, and they left without finding the secret place Felrick had been looking for.

Entering Landow

The Cult of the Dragon cultists try to stop them from entering the town and they fight

Anyone is willing to answer their questions about the state of the towns. They are informed that there will be a meeting the next day in Olnfield. They are given a room at an unnamed inn, or can travel to Olnfield where they can get a room in The Shepherd's Hook and attend the meeting on the morrow.