This session begins the morning after our group has inherited the mansion, Rosegate House. They awake to a bustling household with the servants cleaning up after the groups efforts to turn the manor upside down looking for treasure. The group quickly acclimates to their new found status and have the servants draw baths, acquire new clothes and arrange meetings.
The morning is spent shopping in the finest shops for clothes befitting their new station and the meeting of the potential new members of government that evening. Osirian spends a small fortune on fine clothes for him and 'Boy'. 'Boy' seems to take a long time to decide upon which new robe to purchase.
Zaya has realized that she has, for far too long, ignored her feminine side and has taken off her mud, blood and grime spattered armor to be cleaned and purchases a fine dress made of a dark blue silk. Ignoring Osirian's gut busting laughter at his Master of Arms donning quite obviously non-combat themed attire, Zaya concedes that she may have to conceal a knife and some throwing daggers underneath her dress.
Fluffy explores the house looking for ale but all the finds in the kitchen are several bottles of very expensive aged wine. Which he single-handedly polished off, which of course leaves the household barren of any fine drink to offer the guests in the evening.
Sparrow is tasked with flying over the Juren Forest to scout for signs of giants and their activities. Sparrow finds only a few giants with very little organized activity. He notices a couple of giants in among the ritual circle of stone monoliths. One of them seeming to practice or learn some sort of magic. The other one spots Sparrow alighting on top of one of the stone monoliths and for fun picks up a rock and throws it at Sparrow. Dodging the rock Sparrow flies back to the city to report what he has seen. On his way he spies another giant trying to move carefully below and laying down, to keep watch or simply to nap he cannot determine.
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| To the dragon: "This is why we can't have nice things." |
Back at the manor, Plother has assembled much of the parties that the group has requested, along with some which took it upon themselves to appear. One of the uninvited is Paz Titanborn, a member of the thieves guild, The Sons Of Cenarius. He has come to seek compensation for the damage and humiliation done to some of the guild from the "enchanted mushrooms" that Zaya had given them in exchange for letting her go.
It would seem that 3 of the lesser intelligent thieves had ingested the greenly glowing mushrooms and proceeded to vomit for the next 24 hours. One of the unfortunate thieves was Paz's nephew and now has to answer to the guild and his sister-in-law for the incident. Osirian persistently tries diplomatic ways out of the situation, trying to make a good first impression upon the assembled group.
It is at this moment Zaya makes her entrance into the room. She descends down the staircase looking like the beautiful elf she is dressed in her finery, for once not encased in her usual armor. As she witnesses the conflict already in progress, her first instinct is to go for her armor and weapons which she has ready nearby with her servants. The group convinces her to stop and quietly pleads with her not to shed blood, at least not yet.
After some tense moments, and a whistle signal from outside, the group finally lets Paz go after he demands at the very least the elf's beautiful bow. Zaya hesitantly concedes, especially after realizing that the bow is just a normal bow.
The situation defused, the group proceeds with their meeting. Osirian presents his outline for the governmental organization to the assembled and tells them of the groups wishes. Along with the power he offers he also tells them of the magical oath they must be willing to swear if they will be part of the new order. Offering them a copy of the oath the meeting adjourns and will reconvene the next night for those who wish to swear the oath.
“For so sworn good or evil an oath may not be broken and it shall pursue oathkeeper and oathbreaker to the world's end.” ― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Silmarillion
3,000 XP
The next day the group prepares for the meeting. Osirian and 'Boy' visit the market square to acquire the materials needed to perform the ritual of the oath. Zaya shops for a new bow. Finding most of the enchanted bows are exorbitantly expensive she looks to see how many gems she has in her possession. Much to her horror she cannot locate her gems. (I'm sure they are there in the bag of holding somewhere. She will have to just concentrate harder when she calls them forth from the bag next time). She returns to the manor with only a normal bow but she is now carrying 5 enchanted arrows. (which will figure in prominently in just a bit)
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| This forest is quiet. Perhaps too quiet. |
Aelar, by now, counts the slowly returning soldiers nearing 800 strong, if more than a little disorganized. He gives orders reorganizing the soldiers into divisions, forming a new calvary, obtaining oil for defenses, sets up patrols for the wall, institutes training regimes, forms a personal elite guard and finallly starts on dying the soldiers uniforms black to unite the new army while cutting ties to the old Order Of The Thundershields.
As the manor is preparing for the next meeting that evening, which includes orders that Fluffy may not enter the kitchen for feat that he will drink the evening's supply of wine and ale, remainder of the group is returning from their market venture when they hear of the girl that Osirian had saved many days ago from the slaughter of the SoldShort Inn, and who he has been not so silently pining for since. They are told that she now works as a waitress in the fine inn called the Ghostly Minstril, which they had visited before.
They enter and Osirian quickly finds the object of his obsession. What he fails to notice is that she has eyes for the resident minstrel, Tarin Ursalatao. Being the Lord Commander of Diafthora, he plays the diplomat to the overconfident Tarin. But it is not long before Osirian passively aggressively challenges Tarin to a bard-off. Letting Tarin sing first, the inn is entranced with Tarin's beautiful signing voice but is distracted by Osirian's play acting of the woman's role during Tarin's part of the song to great comedic effect. At Osirian's turn to sing, it may not be his night to shine vocally but it certainly was acting wise. Tarin, trying to mimic Osirian's comedic ways, utterly fails and the audience cringes in pain at his embarrassment. With that Osirian is able to convince the maiden, Fleur Leafmaker, to become his personal attendant and all the wealth, for her and her family, which that entails. With some desperate attempts from Tarin to dissuade her, she finally agrees to Osirian's offer.
Proudly returning back to the manor, they are in time to greet the reassembled people who are to take part in the oath. Along with the requested parties are a couple of people who used to be in power under the old regime who still want a place of power. One of them, Damari Leafgaze has brought a slender meek young man and presents him as Tiberius Drumfang a master alchemist, as Orisian had requested.
It does not take Osirian long to suss out that Tiberius is not all that masterful of an alchemist. His chief specialty is an amazing glue which he proudly states is used all throughout the city. Osirian tests him by presenting him with a drink and then proceeds to lie to him that it was poisoned. Panicking the young man runs from the manor, in hopes he can return to the alchemist's lab to concoct an antidote. Osirian berates Damari for bringing in an obviously unqualified alchemist which Damari had hoped to control. Osirian then calls for a master alchemist .
Shortly thereafter, an old woman, perhaps in her seventies, arrives by pony driven carriage. Osirian greets her and explains the situation. She berates him for psychologically abusing one of her students. A student who already has been bullied by the others in the alchemist's school, usually using the exact same prank Osirian chose to play on the tramatized acolyte. After apologizing, Osirian gets Bella Firehair to agree to help produce a weaponized Alchemist's Essence.
Finaly, back in the manor the assemble proceed to perform the oath. Each is presented with a candle which 'Boy' lights all at once while at the same time he dowsing the other lights in the room. Now each person is lit only with their small candle in front of them as they say the oath in unison.
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| You're probably wondering why I've assembled you. We're going to play a massive D&D session. |
The Oath of the Obsidian Dagger
Our light is darkness
Obsidian knife
Release all worries
And right thy life
Trust thy brothers
And know thy worth
For all are equal
At death and birth
Be he beast
Of claw or feather
Or lonely wanderer
In plate or leather
Strength in darkness
Or fall to fear
That haunts thy dreams
When evils near
Thy fallen dragon
Our touch of hope
Has brought forth change
On grander scope
So stand ye tall
Hand on hilt
To spread thy word
A world rebuilt
To serve our justice
That knows no border
Till my last day
I am the Order
Ni daro a vaetho?
(Will you stay and fight?)
The last line being the question put to each one there. One by one, as the dagger is passed to each person, they reply with the response.
Amin weera, ne serke ar osp
(I agree, by blood and smoke)
At which they take the dagger across their palm and spill enough blood on the candle to extinguish it. As each candle is extinguished the dagger is passed back to Osirian in the centre of the runic circle. He runs the dagger through the flame and passes it to the next person.
Finally, as the dagger is passed back to Osirian, he himself draws the dagger across his palm extinguishing his own candle and the room is plunged into darkness which is only for a brief second as the circle of power emits a cool blue glow which quickly grows in intensity until it too goes out.
The candles and the fire places within the manor then return to life on their own and all is quiet.
The assembled personnel will now make up the seeds for the new age of Diafthora.
Osirian Sivertongue - Lord Commander
Zaya - Master Of Arms
Fluffy - Master Of Spirits (double entendre there)
Elric 'Boy' Padraig - Lord Advisor
Aelar Mindlasher - Captain of the City Watch
Sparrow - Master Of Espionage
Plother - Peoples Representative
Keyon Lightglove - Lord Steward
Demarcus Bearbeard - Master Builder
Laird Copperwind - Master Blacksmith
Zaire Dawnhound - Master Of Clergy
Otto Dawnhound - Harbor Master
Just as Osirian is going to say a few words, they hear the faint bugle call from outside, a pathetic attempt as a replacement for the former tower bell which was the Order's battle signal. They move outside to see what is happening. They see a few soldiers running northwards while Thorton Shaprsail, an trusted officer informs Aelar that there is a group of giants attacking the north wall.
“A locked big door always kneels down in front of its little key! Every giant has a weak side!”
― Mehmet Murat ildan
No XP Calculated Yet ('cause your not done yet)
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| Fraenir Smash! |
Arriving shortly behind is Aelar and Zaya who run to the top of the wall and proceed to rain down damage on the giants. Fluffy then arrives while the short legged Osirian and 'Boy' finally arrive via the pony driven carriage that was still outside the manor, Osirian's feet up smoking a pipe.
As the battle progresses Fraenir, the self proclaimed Giant King, The Great Uniter, climbs over the city wall and causes great damage to Osirian while 'Boy' survives, again, because Osirian is able to teleport him to safety. Both Fluffy and Sparrow feel the pain of thrown boulders while huge sections of wall crumble beneath them allowing the other giants to enter. Osirian is trapped between Fraenir on one side and the giants dire wolf, Nekare, on the other.
Zaya is able to use her newly acquired arrows to devastating effect as the arrows continue to burrow into their victims until the victim is able to yank the arrow out Unfortunately, the dire wolf does not have the ability to pull the arrow out and receives mounting damage until it dies just on the other side of a very fragile portcullis from, the now also fragile, Osirian.
Aelar continues to deploy slowly arriving divisions until just sheer numbers are able to overwhelm the giant king and he falls, while soldiers are barely able to jump out of the way to safety. Meanwhile, a giant who has some magical abilities uses his powers over the earth to send damaging waves of earth to great effect on both wall and soldiers.
During this time, Fluffy and Zaya both are able to hear distant sounds of pounding. Clearly it is another attack on the wall somewhere far off. A short while later the pounding ceases but also does anymore arriving divisions of soldiers.
The session ends with the some of the party becoming bloodied, giants gaining access to the city and several divisions obviously diverted by another attack elsewhere in the city.
A very long but very satisfying session.
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