Session 1: The Empire Arrives Report

General Summary

In the two weeks since Madea, Nienna, Tyr, and Ezmeradla return from the Old King's Tomb they were resting and mourning their friend that had passed away to the black dragon. In that time Ezmeradla was called upon by her druidic conclave and went on a quest leaving her new companions behind leaving little explanation for them. One morning while they decided what their next plan was Madea spotted from the north a cloud of dust. In it was the banner of the Timaran Empire, five dragon heads of red, blue, green, white, and black forming a circle on a gold cloth. As they looked out, a bird was flying by and relieved itself but unfortunately it struck Tyr his right eye causing him to roll down the hill that the mansion was built on. As he tumbled he hit his head several times and bruised his body, despite the tense situation this brought joy to everyone, and soon a nickname was given to him calling him Tyr "One-Eye." Valaria after letting a brief moment of laughter escaped her lips turned to the group. She was the town's unofficial representative and would be required to meet the troops at the gate. Afraid of what was happening she asked the group to accompany her. They met the men numbering about 50 in total as they demanded to talk with the leader of the village.

Valaria showed them to the mayor's manor what overlooked the town and sat down with Madea, Nian, and Tyr in the drawing-room as the man introduced himself as Captain Melan (Me-lawn) and why he was sent to the Ashtop. He explained that two months ago a band of insurgents broke into Morlock Prison in the Azure Desert and several prisoners escaped south and according to their reports were somewhere around Ashtop. He explained as per Imperial Law if the townsfolk hindered the investigation, or were harboring the criminals they were subject to the same fate as the runaways, Public Execution for breaking imperial edict. Vallora agreed that she understood and asked if the group could help in locating the runaways. They agreed to help seeing very little room to say no. They were able to talk to Captian Melan learned that 2 Elves, 3 Dark Skinned Humans; one with a scar over his eye, 1 beardless Dwarf, and 1 deep teal Hellcursed were among the escapees. After gathering what information they could from him they went to the Tymgrin the dwarf blacksmith to see if he could transform their dragon parts into useful weapons. After learning he could do very little and needed to see a specialist to work the material into powerful weapons. They did discover that Nienna when she acquired arcane smithing tools she could enchant weapons or craft magic items. With this information, they decided to head to the nearest farm which belongs to a halfling family the Padfoot's. They learned that a fox had been breaking into their chicken coop and nothing they did could stop it. He was willing to pay them 10 silver each if they could find a way to stop this. They agreed to do it but went to the general goods store first to buy supplies before staking out the chicken coop. There they saw two imperial soldiers searching the store for extra wine, which they were convinced the store keep was hiding more in the shop. Medea informed them of the extra wine up at the mayor's house and convinced them to go up there and leave the store. They agreed and soon left, leaving the party with Balwin the shopkeep. They asked him what was going on and why he was so nervous around the guards. After pressing him for answers he gave in and told them of the time when he was living in Veranos running his family's store. He was unable to fulfill an order for an imperial soldier and soon afterward the store's business started to dry up. A fire broke out and destroyed the store but it could have been saved if the soldiers did not stand idly by while it burned. When Balwin asked them for help they replied with they don't help those who can't help the empire. left with this impression he left with what money he had and founded the general store in Ashtop. He is afraid of that incident happening again and wants the party to quickly help the imperials so they could leave. They promised not to share his story with any of the soldiers and made their way back to the farm where they found a small wall opposite of the chicken coop and hid behind it. Late into the night, they saw a mysterious little fox make its way to the fence around the coop and saw it open. The fox then made its way to the coop and they saw it open and eggs floated out and disappear. The fox then started to run away into the nearby woods. The party followed the fox all the way to the edge of the woods where the image of the fox disappeared and was replaced with an elven woman, whose golden skin shone like the stars above in the moonlight. Tyr stepped on some branches he didn't see alerting the elf to the group's presence. She sprinted deeper into the woods with Madea, Nienna, and Tyr closely chasing her from behind. Nienna leading the group kept an eye on the ground and spotted several snares which she avoided as the others followed closely behind her. The elf turned around and blew some pinches of sand mixed with flower petals that created a shower of mist. As they passed through it Tyr started to feel a little drowsy but pushed through it, while Nienna and Madea were left unaffected by the strange mist. Before the elf started to run again Madea called out to her that they were not going to harm her and started to play an old elvish song. The elf stopped, frozen by the beauty of the music as it danced from the flute into the open air. This allowed Tyr and Nienna to move around the elf to surround her in case she tried to run again. The elf asked how Madea knew the song, to which she replied with she had learned it from her elven mother. Madea asked why the imperials were looking for her, and seeing little reason to lie spoke honestly. The elf told them that she was indeed part of the growing resistance against the Timaran Empire. She was caught along with others awaiting execution in the desert prison of Morlock. The elf asked if they were truly not for the empire that they should let her go. Medea responded that the village of Ashtop was going to be killed if they were not successful in capturing them. The elf tried to reach a compromise with them in telling them to let her go, give them until morning to go on the run again before telling the imperials that they had discovered her. While this conversation was going on Tyr heard a rustling from a nearby bush, thinking it was the elf's allies he checked it out and brought down his sword unto the bush only to find his blade had cut open a rabbit. With this noise, the elf became startled and began to run once more through the gap between Nienna and Tyr. The elf almost disappeared into the woods but Nienna with her eagle eyes followed the elf as she doubled back on them. Nienna seeing the elf's attempt at deception decided to close the gap between them as she began to recite the ancient sylvan words. With her words and rapid hand gestures, an archway made of mist appeared before her, and with a single step, she appeared right behind the elf. With an unfounded strength, she grappled the elf down to the ground only to begin rolling down a slope into a hidden tunnel beneath the earth. Medea and Tyr quickly made their way to where they saw the two disappeared. They found the entryway which they remembered as being the goblin warren that the three of them originally cleared when they first came to Ashtop. When they reached the bottom they saw the central chamber held all of the escapees that the imperials were looking for. The former prisoners covered in sweat, dirt, and dried blood lifted up makeshift weapons preparing for a fight. Nienna still on top of the elf was thinking of what they could do when the elf spoke up saying that they had no time to think but had to make a choice now. Medea talked it out with Tyr and Madea deciding that it was best to let them go and then inform the imperals. They let the elf go, and told them what they planned to do. The elf while still showing little emotion through all their conversations smiled, and handed a note to Nienna before she and the others collected what little they had and began to leave. They read the note with it saying "If you wish to be true allies to our cause meet in the Dusk Marsh held by Maralars." They watched as the prisoners left heading further into the west. They camped out to make it look like they had spent the whole night looking for the prisoners. As Nienna took her watch for the night she heard a chittering noise, she looked around to find nothing but then something told her to look up for her to see a horrifying creature above them. It was a giant spider with translucent eyes, with a strange blue and white pattern covering its body. The spider in a blink of an eye disappeared and reappeared right in the middle of their camp. Nienna threw up her mage armor in defense and threw a hex onto the spider. Madea threw a magically infused insult towards the spider but it didn't seem to care. The Spider plunged its fangs into Nienna and released a deadly poison into her body that caused her to fall down to the ground as she became unconscious. Tyr wasted no time and with his flaming greatsword known as Flame Tongue spoke the magical word and wreathed the sword in a burning fire. He attacked the creature cutting off two of its legs; in the midst of the attack Medea backed away and as she turned around spoke a soothing magical word that restored Nienna to life as she also cast a spell in the guise of a joke. This time the spell took effect as the spider began to heave uncontrablely with its mandibles chittering in what could generously be called a laugh. It dropped onto the ground providing Tyr the perfect opportunity to lift his sword and bring it squarely on the spider's head ending its life before it could phase away. They gathered what materials they could from the spider and rested the night away preparing for their next trial in the morning.