General Summary
Free Alador Note
Govt thinks the area is all "normal". Just a warehouse district
Lord Sapho Epron's and Lord Gregory Havre's great great grandmas were twins
Alphonse is up to speed.
Heading to Havre's Forge
A red guard, "Our work here is done. On to the next." Heading into town.
Into Havre's mercantle. Cernan asks to speak to Lord Gregory Havre.
Graduation coming up. Some smiths will be grandmasters.
Cernan bribes the man at the desk with 10 gp. "You'll find him at the forge."
Hubbub at the forge. Lots of anvils setup and people working - apprentices to masters. A crowd around the back of the room. Among them is a giant of a man. Family resemblance.
Master Smith "Graduation" Day
He's talking to smiths about the coming test and graduation.
We'll wait off to the side. Thoradin and others go up to the front.
Havre talking to 3 guys (Xavier, Yvonne, and Zirk) vying to become master smiths. We hear the backgrounds of each one.
Last challenge. They have to make thier own anvil to prove themselves worthy.
Thoradin to judge the anvils from the students
Havre stops and sees Thoradin. "Have you run a forge young dwarf?"
Challege time! Thoradin will approve the anvils. The anvils are there waiting.
Rashid adds birght orange sparks everywhere.
Thoradin - #1 beautiful. Ball bearing goes Thud.
#2 - green sparks. This one goes ting and bounces half way.
# 3 white sparks. Ugly but smooth surface. Ball bearing lovely long ting. - Grandsmith Zirk - earned the right to forge on your own.
Meeting with Havre
Havre will keep working with the other two. To Thoradin, "Well met Thoradin!"
"What brings you to my forge?"
He takes us to his private area in the back. "Speak, dwarf."
Tell us about the bad stuff. Some lady. They're buying lots of swords. Building the army back up. King Alphonse and Grasti.
Not taken the oath. They just get frufy about some mushroom queen.
Always at the forge. House ain't no fun. Rashid causes a mark to apear on a surface. Symbol of dwarven hammer - fenyal - on side of Valkyria.
Rings beautifully.
Comprative to any non magic anvil in Dwrven kingdom. Shimmer asks to tap it. Lord Barthas Havre - great great grandfather. He was good at the forge. But not at trade. Migello was Havre's dad.
Stormy wants to make a song about the anvil and the testing day for Thoradin and Havre.
Anyone else supplying weapons? No. Cernan says he's surprised they haven't ensured their sole supplier of weapons to go without taking the oath. They don't pay well.
Epron / Havre Division Origin
What happened between your families? Great grandmother. Twin had a kid. Dedication - didn't invite us.
Who would stand to benefit from a feud between the two families. Lord Cormal is a name that comes to mind. His family benefits. The one withholding food from people.
Cita's family had troubles about the same time.
Havre's Answer to Join Us
Common enemy. Havre - lemme show you something. He opens crates full of weapons. They aren't going to the palace. Where do I send them? He'll arrange for them to get there. He'll be there.
any one working for Havre that took the oath? some. Make sure they don't know.
McWaren - comes and checks on the progress of the order. He only talks to the bean counters up front.
Havre not real interested in hearing about Arabeth at this point. More interested in his family's future and the money implications.
Next
Heading to Meeting of Free Alador Council Tonight
Dock Battle
As we get into our boat - perception check. The girls see - toward the island. We see a big trade ship. Somthing is wrong. The sails are up. Don't want to crash into anything. A boat drops over to the island and rows away.
Who bailed out and where did they go?
We need to get to Free Aladore ASAP.
We hear the crash at the dock and hear screaming. We pull in and beach it.
The Free Aladorians came running when they heard screaming.
Boat full of zombies
FIGHT!
(We send Shimmer after the guys that bailed out.)
New song - what do you do with a boat full of zombies?
There's a free alador meeting - and this boat HAPPENS to show up?
Rashid uses fireball for the first time.
Rashid's first fireball - fabulous against spore zombies!
Free Alador Meeting
Missing: Both Lords - Lord Jarrus Ferma II and Lord Sapho Epron, Cintanon Calderone, and Lyda Tyfalim - Archangel aren't here.
Stormy verifies Lock and Ralph come running with the group. Lock is out for blood. Now it's real for him.
We inform Epron of the reason that Havre's family never came to the baby dedication. And that Havre thinks that Lord Cormal has benefitted from the division in the families. Did he intercept the invite?
Prentice does not show up. Shorren Brevus her 2nd in command attends.
Felga couldn't come.
Pretty much everyone we've gathered is represented. Lock is in the background.
Lyda's Report to the Council
Lyda shows up - comes in late. She asks to speak first. I ahve horrible news. I'm not surprised we were attacked. I've seen where they came from. Searching out our town. The colloseeum is full of those things. hundreds of them. Creatures in between the Southward and The Shades. Some look like birds and walking cows. The Cathedral - they're building another pyre. VERY close to being done.
Mage Guild Speaks on the Pyre's Importance — Whole Kingdom to be Affected
Mage - One bigger the size Lyda is talking about could make whole kingdom black.
Cintanon's Song for Alphonse
Cintanon Calderone gets everyone's attention. "I think it's time. I've been visiting the Theive's Guild." Let me sing you a song.
The Witness to our Pain — Song (Click to open)
My friends listen now
I have only just heard this wondrous tale
A story of wrong done to a good man
Our story
We all remember the days when darkness fell
We all know those times and what we have done to survive
But not all of us saw the details
Some of us where there
Some of us were witnesses to our own fall
This young man was there
When a beautiful elven lady first approached the castle
She approached the king… our king
Such a wonderous thing, to have our elven embassy open again
Then the plague struck, and our people started to die
What were we to do? Who could possibly help to fight such a thing?
Oh, what a lucky day, for our new elven maid knew of great magics
Offer and accepted
Build a holy ritual site
Purge the curse from our people with darkness
Build a wall around our people to prevent the curse’s spread
Much labor and toil were put into these things
Our witness, this young man saw every decision
As we cut ourselves apart, we praised the sword that struck the many blows
Curse indeed
Then our King Leon became weary
He himself went into the forbidden ward
There he saw the truth
His people being taken away
Our people being killed and devoured by beasts
This was no plague - but a curse of evil
Our witness saw the confrontation
The ladies standing together against hope and reason
Die he did, our king fallen
Not down some stairs – but with an angry sickle in his back
The young man screamed and raised a sword of his own
He fought for his life, for our hope
But the ancient evil maid … did cut his arm clean off
She laughed at his plight, spat on his form
Our witness to these deeds was now locked in dungeon darkness
The younger brother – oh, they both look the same – why not?
He would take the throne
He would take the name
Alfonse
And now you know who our witness is
Our true king
Starving in darkness and stench
They nailed his one hand to a board so he could not move his fingers
They bound his mouth so he could not speak
For they feared his magic
They feared the truth
They planned to destroy our hope
But then a new plan was made by her
The evil now controlling our throne
Send out this true man to show her strength
To cause others to submit to her will and her darkness
Cast into an armored wagon and hauled out of the city
Would he ever be seen again by good lady or gent?
Then five great warriors immerged into the darkness
Bringing light and a new wrath
Speeding off they found this wagon
A great and terrible battle
Five hearts against a dozen and more darkened souls
In the end that plan was ended
The man, our Alfonse, our true king, our hope was brought to us
Great was the pain he saw in our eyes
Great was the loss he knew we survived
Helping and mending as he could
Tending to us as only the heart of a king would
Now I must call him out
It has gone too long
We need to see our king
Alfonse
Alfonse
Alphose Reveals Himself as the True King
Out steps Lock, Alphonse - Locke. We kneel. Whispers of how he helped people there.
Lord Epron and Ferma bow as well. (Havre standing in the back of the room. Walks forward and falls to his knees as well.)
We told Epron what happened with Havre's family.
Long live the king!
Cita checks to see if anyone is leaving with the news. Hard to tell if anyone is upset and no one actively leaving.
Someone manages to find a not too dirty cloak and puts it on Alphonse.
Cita's mom will help the king look more presentable.
Alphonse Speaks
Calls our little group to him. We have to martial our forces and prepare. We will have to defend all of city. Take down that blasted Pyre.
Cita asks the wizard from the guild about the pillar/pyre
Darkness beam. At the base is a thing.
Some people were there. Cita's family is really close. There used to be.
Built a round dark tower that is really high. When dedicated - was to Amanita.
New Haran — Remember the curved bricks in Seran's worksop. Curved bricks. Ritualistic blocks. We got there before he built the pillar. They had gold, a heart, etc.
First tower here. Whole community came together to build. Took 6 weeks. 2nd one is by Cathedral - toward the river. It's bigger.
Any other advice. The thing is warded or protected in some way. It's important to Grasti.
Stormy would want to pray over the group, especially Alphonse.
Next Up: The Siege of Alador!
Post Session: Stormy's Recollection on the Dark Pillars
Stormy sifts through her journal. Something's niggling at the back of her mind about the place
Seran was building in
New Haran.
She finds what she was looking for way back when the crew first came together.
Suddenly, her hand flies to her mouth and if a cat lady could look green, she would look really, really green. She dashes out of the main hall in Free Alador.
When she returns, she gathers the crew and asks Alphonse to join in on the conversation.
She's shaking as she speaks. "Remember what we found in the shrine that Seran built, and that the mayor had just been murdered. And that we believe that it was his heart in one of the bricks, along with gold and other things."
Taking a steadying breath, she continues. "I'm betting the former king's heart is in one of the bricks for one of the black pyre towers. Either the one being built or the one that's already completed."
"What I don't want to ask, but have to is: Just how many people from Alador were sacrificed, not just turned into zombies for these damned darkness pillars?"
(Notes from Session 4: Trap for Seran don't say what was in the bricks. But it was there - under Post Battle)
Collect all the "tokens" that
Arabeth revealed to Cernan and Stormy
Next up: We take out the pyre.
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