Scourge of the Stormcraig Peaks, Session One: Not So Subtle Beginnings
General Summary
Opening Speech
Three Orcs burst through the door of the Iron Resolve and the inn breaks into Chaos. A Druid, a cleric, and a rogue find themselves here, weapons drawn and ready to fight this threat. The rogue immediately hides under the table, preparing to attack one of the orcs when they close the gap. One of the orcs, the one who looks like the leader, breaks off and sprints to the druid, axe drawn. He leaps up onto a table, getting some momentum before jumping off and slashing the druid across the chest with his axe. The druid goes to grab his quarterstaff but instead looks to the wooden mug in his hand. Shrugging, he fills the object with arcane energy and swings the mug at the orc’s head. It connects with a crack. As this is happening one of the orcs is going to split off and make his way toward the rogue. He jumps out from hiding, attacking him with his rapier. The orc, in a fit of rage, swings his axe down on him. The rogue lifts up the table to block the blow, before hopping up to a ready position. As this happens the cleric helps the rest of the civilian patrons run out the back before preparing to heal her newfound allies. The last orc is able to close the distance to the cleric just as the people get away. Back at the bar the druid finishes off his enemy with an uppercut with his mug. He spins round to see the rogue finish off the orc with a quick jab of his rapier. Right as this happens the cleric releases a burst of magical energy, healing the wounded druid. She is able to dodge the axe of her attacker deftly. Just as he finishes his swing a sword protrudes from the orcs chest, killing him instantly. As the body slumps to the ground the rogue is seen behind, pulling his sword from the corpse. Silence The three get a good look at the others in the room. Before anything can be said the barkeep sticks his head in the door, asking if everything is over. The rogue calls out that it is, and the barkeep enters. He makes his way over to the group introducing himself as Jora Iron. The rest introduce themselves in turn. The Cleric is Adelyn, an Aarokocra. The Druid is Brine, a firbolg. The rogue is Oberon, a teifling. After introductions the group goes about cleaning up from the fight, and patrons slowly start to trickle back into the inn. After searching the bodies the party find a scroll, with a wax seal containing a four pointed star. The letter was in orcish, a language none of the group speaks. At this point the tavern has filled up even more than before, the villagers drinking away the nerves of the attack. The party approaches Jora, asking about the half-orcs that live here. He informs them that Bertha and her husband are the only two, and they are here now. They run the mill. The rogue asks what drink they enjoy, and Jora hands them two mugs of Amber Dustmead. The group then makes their way over to where the two half orcs are seated. Bertha stands out on first glance, her hulking form taking up most of her side of the table. To her side was a smaller half-orc, head down and looking down. When the group approaches Bertha offers them a seat. Oberon then hands the two a mug, and Adelyn attempts to cheer up Bertha’s husband. She does and the half-orc begins to pull out of his depression. The others address Bertha, handing over the letter to her. She says it sounds like gibberish, and translates it onto the back of the scroll in common. Reading it over, the group agrees. The words seem jumbled up. Realizing they have might hit a dead end, the group thanks Bertha and goes back over to Jora. The dwarf tells them that Bainin Tormund, the captain of the Stathford Guard, might be able to help. He says what they have looks like code, and Bainin severed in Drasser intelligence for years. The group thanks the innkeep and head out to speak to the captain. The midday sun hits their eyes as they leave, and they walk up to the guard post on the northern section of town. The guardhouse is a three story building shaped like a horseshoe overlooking a courtyard. At the door a guard is posted, and he stops the party before they enter. The group tells him they are here about the orc attack on the Iron Resolve, and he takes them inside and up to the captain’s office. Bainin’s office is that of a decorated general. The walls are covered in badges and other trophies, and behind the oak desk is a balcony looking over the courtyard. The general offers them a seat, and when Brine doesn’t find one that fits his bulk he offers to the firbolg if he wants a seat. He tells the dwarf that he would, and the general stands making his way to the back wall to a pull rope. When he yanks it a bell can be heard down the hallway. Within a moment a young recruit dashes into the room at attention. Bainin informs the recruit to get a seat for Brine, and he looks up at the druid in nervousness before snapping a salute and taking off. He returns a short while out of breath with a large crate. With a loud bang the recruit puts the crate down, snapping a salute before leaving. The group presents the translated letter to Bainin, who identifies it as a Croemerth code from the war. The Crows had some of the best codes, and he isn’t surprised someone would steal one of their codebooks. The dwarf agrees to translate it before asking what happened at the inn. The party filled him in. Bainin said that none of his guard reported Orcs entering the town, they would have come straight to him with something that severe. The group then left, wherein Brine informed them that he had to head into the woods. The rest of the party followed reluctantly, still apprehensive with their new companions. He came to a small clearing, walking up to one of the trees and putting his palm to the bark. The druid then began to speak to the plant, and while the rest of the group couldn’t hear the responses it seemed as if the two were having a conversation. After a short while the firbolg stood, informing the group that no one had entered Stathford before the attack except for a large cart. As he finishes a white wolf rounds the corner and approaches the druid. He gives her a pat on the head and introduces her to the rest of the group. Her name is Akeema. Adelyn approaches the wolf, kneeling down and scratching her head. Brine tells the wolf to look for any place these orcs might be hiding out at, and then the group returns to the village. As they make their way back Adelyn flies overhead to see if she can see any hideouts. The thick forest obscures anything that might help. Entering the village the group begins to search for the wagon that had entered before the attack. Adelyn is able to fly up and pinpoint its location, a section of houses in the southern section of the settlement. The group heads over there to inspect the cart. It is filled with carrots, and parked outside an abandoned house. The door to the house was locked, and Oberon was unable to pick the lock. Realizing they will need help from the guard, Brine heads back up to the guardhouse. A short while after he leaved Adelyn spots someone approaching her house from her perch on the roof. She calls out to Oberon, who backs away from the door and hides. A dwarf approaches the door, unlocks it, and enters the house. A while passes before he exits again, mounting up on the cart. Adelyn and Oberon take off toward the guard house at this. They run into Brine at the entrance of the guardhouse, two guards flanking him. They inform the officers that the dwarf needs to be stopped and questioned. As they agree, the cart rounds the corner, making its way toward the group slowly. The guards smile, gesturing for the driver to pull over. He does, and the two begin to slowly question the man about his business here. While this happens, the party heads round the back of the wagon, inspecting the cargo. Brine is able to pick out that the carrots seem to be shimmering slightly. He reaches out to touch one, but his hand passes through it. The carrots are an illusion. Pointing this out to the others, the group calls over an officer. Upon closer inspections, the carrots were hiding a chest, which the party pulled out onto the ground. The driver was searched for keys, and then the chest was opened. It was filled to the brim with weapons. Sifting through them uncovered nothing, so the group came to the conclusion that the dwarf is a weapons smuggler. The guards arrested him, and after searching him for his keys cuffed the dwarf and brought him into the guard house. One of the guards came back out shortly and he followed the party back to the house. The house ended up being completely empty, and the group took a long while to search for why the dwarf was here. They realized that the house had a larger exterior than it did interior, and that the wall with the hearth seemed to be hiding a secret room. Reaching around in the fireplace didn’t trigger any doors, and after a while Brine smashed through the stone wall. The three entered into a small room with an alter on the far wall. On the alter was a black iron dagger and a glass bowl of blood. The group immediately began to search the room, but it gained them no information. Oberon checked the alter for traps, discovering a thin silver wire connected to the dagger and going under the bowl. With his tools he was able to disarm the trap, and looking under the alter revealed a circle of loaded crossbows. Nervous about the dagger, Brine wrapped it in a cloth and put it in his bag of holding. The alter was dragged away from the wall and a trap door was revealed. The group figured that this must lead into the catacombs under Stathford. At this the guard was called inside, and on sight of the alter and the trap door froze. He informed the party that they should stop what they are doing, as there are rumored to be demons in the catacombs. The group pushed the guard but he was adamant on them stopping the investigation. They decided to go take this up with Bainin. When they found the dwarf in his office the party got straight to the point. They informed Bainin of what they found, and he informed them that in fact the catacombs are in fact off limits. Realizing it was getting late, the party returned to the Iron Resolve with the plan to dive deeper into this in the morning. When returning to the inn the group picked Jora’s mind on the subject of the catacombs. The dwarf instead sent them up to bed as it had been a long day. On watch that night Brine heard an odd silence down in the bar. He snuck down, catching Jora and Bainin talking alone. The captain told the barkeep to keep an eye on the group, as outsiders bring trouble. Brine then crept back up and finished his watch.Character(s) interacted with
Bainin Tormund, Jora Iron
Adelyn
Brine
Oberon
Report Date
17 Dec 2018
Primary Location
Secondary Location
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