SESSION 01: Beginnings

The Machine Gods saga begins.

General Summary

It's the First Draesday of Namara, 1739 AV.
A newly established party of adventurers has taken on an escort mission for Darekov Flatjawvich, a dwarf merchant and member of the Xiphos Industries guild.

The Cautious Merchant

Darekov wants to reach Cherry Song, a small community by the river Marnar; a river that also reaches Aldarisia, the capital city of the Kingdom of Aldarnor. His final destination is, in fact, Aldarisia, but first he wants to make a stop for a few days on Cherry Song to sell his goods. Cherry Song is near a sizeable river harbor. A passenger ship is due to pass within the next few days that Darekov wishes to board in order to reach the capital.
Thing is, Darekov is by nature a cautious man, and always hired adventurers as an armed escort for the road through the mountains that leads to Cherry Song. Of late he had been particularly paranoid of undead, as the recent Blood Moon Crisis had animated many dead people--mostly in the south, but some did manifest in Aldarnor. Unfortunatelly, the group he had hired buggered off, leaving him with few options.
It's here that the protagonists of this tale enter the scene. Each for their own reasons also wish to reach Aldarisia. All of them, to one degree or another, have a troubled past. Some are running away from the concequences of their past actions. Others are trying to find their place in the world. All of them have chosen a new beginning for their lives centered on the promising carreer of adventuring.

Those who have Lost their Old Life

Haggard Dukhognya is a dwarf barbarian who has a experienced a profound loss, and one that he seems to carry on his shoulders. His rage, partly fueled by the primal spirits, and partly by his own shortcommings, is the driving force propelling him forward. He has been given a fairly loose mission: Go to Aldarnor, monitor the situation, act in whatever way you deem necessary.
Tamachi Jun is a draelir archer. His community was mostly cut-off from mainstream civilization, until it was wiped out a few years ago, due to greedy magicant prospectors. He survived, and eked out an existence as a hermit. Recently, he made the bold desicion to join the world. He would face his nightmares head on, and perhaps exact some measure of revenge.
These two souls met a little over a month ago, and sensing some similarities in each other they decided to partner up. Haggard was familiar with Darekov, so Darekov decided to hire him and his companion, Tamachi, for the journey to Cherry Song. However, these two alone were not enough.

Those who Seek a New Life

Moe, an orc artificer from New Mallenor, has led a life of... dubious legality. So far she's managed to always be one step ahead of the authorities. But the heat is on, and the noose is getting tighter. So, she decided to quit while she was still ahead, and left the south for the midlands. As an Artificer of some skill, she understands the many opportunities an enterprising young mechanist such as herself can find in Aldarisia.
The man identifying himself as Forge is a cleric of the Forge Domain; which suggests his name is a sobriquet. He rarely speaks about his past. He sometimes uses terminology that suggests at least a passing familiarity with Skyships, but other than that he seems to genuinely not think about his past much. Instead, he looks to the future. Primus has given him a new direction in life and he intends to use adventuring and his clerical magic in the service of the Modron God. To that end, he intends to visit Aldarisia, as it is there that the grand cathedral of the Curch of Primus is located.
Forge and Moe met on their travel northward, and each found common ground with the other in their shared appreciation of the more technological aspects of magic. Both had things to offer to each other in their ongoing study of mechana. And so, they partnered up.
Moe had some contacts of her own that led her to Darekov. Offering her and Forge's services to the dwarf, he in turn brought them together with Tamachi and Haggard.

AURA Registration

Darekov decided to hire the four of them as armed escort. However, being a man of law, he did not wish to hire some black market vagabonds, but a fully chartered adventuring band. And so, he pulled some strings with AURA and had their status expedited. This group of four was now a fully sanctioned Adventuring party. Designation: ATH1739-0294.

Temporary Diamond Emblem of the party

The Road to Cherry Song

The adventurers got to know each other a bit more on the journey to Cherry Song. However, during the night, when they stopped to camp, the caravan was attacked by zombies. It appears that Darekov was right to worry. The adventurers did manage to overcome the zombie attack, though several peculiarities became apparent during and after the attack.
Though considered lesser undead, zombies are not to be understimated. They can be notoriously difficult to put down for good, and these were no exception. However, zombies ordinarily something of a weakness to radiant energy; a weakness this bunch--Forge deduced--did not share. Instead, the lightning damage of Moe's magic proved to be decidedly devastating... with explosive results. To add to the uncanniness of it all, these zombies seemed more interested in runmaging through Darekov's goods for magicant, rather than eating flesh and brains.
Closer inspection of the corspes revealed that all of them had a strange worm- or snake-like device embedded on the base of their skulls. Metal strants seemed to have gone within the brain and spinal cord of the unlucky sods.

The snake-like mechana embedded in the zombies' skulls

Both Moe and Forge were certain that these weird things were the animating force of the zombies, rather than "old-fashioned" necromancy. What this may mean, none could tell.
...and none could guess what was going on in Aldarnor...

Screenshots

Campaign

Machine Gods

Protagonists

Moe

Chaotic Good Orc (Criminal)
Artificer (Armorer) 3

24 / 24 HP

STR
12

DEX
11

CON
14

INT
17

WIS
11

CHA
11

Forge

Lawful Warforged (Sky Sailor)
Cleric 3

22 / 22 HP

STR
14

DEX
10

CON
15

INT
10

WIS
17

CHA
8

Haggard Dukhognya

Mountain Dwarf (Noble)
Barbarian 2

24 / 24 HP

STR
17

DEX
13

CON
17

INT
10

WIS
10

CHA
8

Tamachi Jun

Neutral Good Draelir (Emerald Elf) (Hermit)
Fighter 2

15 / 15 HP

STR
13

DEX
17

CON
11

INT
12

WIS
11

CHA
12

Report Date

10 Jan 2023

Primary Location

Athanor

Related Characters

• Forge
• Haggard Dukhognya
• Moe
• Tamachi Jun