Chapter 3 - The Sword of Vanu-Am

General Summary

The adventurers, with Aethelflaed carrying the paralyzed Thelberg on her shoulders, entered the city of Feller's Rock with two tasks: to meet with Slytoff Han and remove the curse for the woman, and to investigate and retrieve Fatebender. The party decided the former was more dire, and so beelined toward the wizard tower of Slytoff Han. At first, they were nearly turned away, until the wizard Slytoff himself told the guards to welcome them. So, Kade, Cecil, and Aethelflaed entered the tower. They were then visited by Slytoff Han, the gnome wizard!
Slytoff at first seemed very cooky and came across as quite pretentious to the party, with him wondering if the party understood the answers to common concepts. However, as they presented the unconscious Thelberg, he suddenly grew interested in helping them and promptly removed her curse. He chattered with them, talking about concepts like "spell levels" and how any wizard worth their salt understands the meta and optimal concepts of magic. Much to everyone's surprise, however, Thelberg was cured but had another predicament come: her skin grew light, red scales. Slytoff himself was utterly confused with what happened, and told the party to return to him in a few hours after he could study the situation.
Kade and Cecil then asked Aethelflaed if she was familiar with Fatebender, and she admitted she was. She led the party to the Feller Rock, showing them that the sword was implanted into the rock itself. On the rock it said:

Whosoever can lift Fatebender from the stone shall be the next champion of Vanu-Am.

Both Kade and Cecil tried to lift the stone, but utterly failed. Cecil wondered if he could shatter the rock, but Aethelflaed suggested against it, since the rock was a national relic. So they had a predicament: they were hired to retrieve Fatebender, but it was impossible to get it.
The party reorganized themselves at Feller's Rock's Rock of Comfort Inn. Aethelflaed asked the party why exactly they were travelling around to Feller's Rock, and after enough pestering, the party admitted they were looking to retrieve Fatebender. Aethelflaed laughed, telling the party that their employer ripped them off. This led Kade and Cecil to contemplate whether the agency of the Hearthstars was rooting out false agents or if there was a deeper conspiracy. Kade and Cecil, however, wanted more answers. They went to the local library in Feller's Rock and went through plenty of books: books about Sir Yorick, the Mythology of Vanu-Am, the story Will of the Dragonlords, and the 2nd millennia event of King Asthenios' rebellion. They figured out one answer: whoever wielded the sword disappeared in history, along with the sword. But this led to another problem: if the sword is still around, why is Riley Woodhame gone?
After the hours passed, the adventurers went down the streets of Feller's Rock to return to Slytoff, but realized they were being followed. Eventually, they found themselves assaulted by three spies, who tried to murder them in the street. A fight broke out, leading to one spy dying, one being captured by the guards, and one escaping from the party. Kade decided to interrogate the remaining spy. The spy admitted to being a Knight of Black Dragon, and told the party that their assaults were just beginning. They managed to squeeze out some info where they were hiding, and then the Black Dragon Knight was hauled away. Aethelflaed, meanwhile, took one of the boots off the dead knight and studied it.
In Slytoff's tower, the party found Thelberg practicing spells with Slytoff. Slytoff explained to the party that somehow, with the removing of the modified Lycanthropy, it strangely activated the draconic bloodline within her. Now she had access to the magic of dragons. Thelberg joined their group as she had lost everything in the lycanthropy and needed a new purpose. Then, Slytoff Han mentioned to the party that he knew they wanted Fatebender released. He would give them info on how to remove it... If they dealt with a local dragon in the vicinity of the city. He mentioned the good ol' days of dragonslaying but told the party his powers are beyond days of adventuring. If they could slay the dragon, they would get fame and fortune.
The group ultimately agreed, and then Slytoff told them to scram. He mentioned he would watch out for them with his palantir if anything got messy, and thus the party left. They stayed at the inn for one night, and Cade, now mastering some of his battle magic, constructed a small iron golem-like creature: an Iron Defender in the form of a dragon which he named Ignus.
Aethelflaed, using the boot she pulled off earlier, used it to track where the escapee Black Dragon ran off too. She led the party into the forests of Kirk, by the Silver River, to find where the Black Dragons (and perhaps a dragon itself) was hiding. Wandering in the forest got them into the attention of a few Dire Wolves, but they were easily handled. What was more difficult was a small Black Dragon fort in their way...

by Dungeondraft, Heroforge

Kade and Thelberg operated by stealth to deal with the Black Knights and tried to sneak around the base, but Hilda and Cecil were spotted, and so a mighty battle took place. Black Knight archers shot at the party while ground enforcers came at them with swords. Ignus, Aethelflaed, and Cecil held the ground against the ground enforcers while Kade and Thelberg used their magic to blast at the archers. Eventually, Thelberg got an idea and cast the spell Dragon's Breath on Cecil. Cecil used the breath to burn the bridge and some of the archers, killing one of them and leading the other to try and run. The party finished off the Black Knights who tried to run away, with Aethelflaed killing the last one running with a longbow shot.
After that fiasco, the party decided to take a short rest, and looted. Kade, seeing that Thelberg was new to this and clearly estranged, gave her most of the party loot. Killing to Thelberg felt... Strangely good to her, and so was getting some of the gold. She admitted that, perhaps, adventuring was better than her days as a merchant. The party thought nothing of this shift in attitude, and rested well.

Date (in world)

August 12th-13th, 5750.

Report Date

16 Jan 2021

Primary Location

Feller's Rock

Player Characters

Kade Krueger is a high elf artificer who hailed from the city of Avenve before moving to Lysandus. He served as a city guard in Wydon, but now he will see more life of adventure than he ever expected...

Cecil Kurtz is also from Gothai and a human cleric of the light. Who he follows remains a mystery, but he has been granted divine power to protect his allies and cut into the darkness of his enemies.

Aethelfaed Dragonbane is a half-orc Monster Slayer Ranger. She current works for the Knights of Dragonbane and proclaims that Wulfric Dragonbane was her grandfather. Though not as ferocious as he once was, her sense of justice and prowess remains ever true.

Thelberg was once a normal woman of Gothai, a merchant passing through, until stricken with the curse of Lycanthropy. Now cured, she is stricken with another strange transformation: the awakening of draconic blood within her, which has given her access to powerful magic spells.