Player Characters
Tim, a Wizard - male human from the Free City of Freegate, student at Outlands University
Dangar Stonekleaver - male dwarf from the Northern Dwarven Kingdom
Mikal Torvaldsson - human male, of the Uplander Clans
Darian Kyle - human male, formerly of the Imperial 7th Legion [deserter]
Begins
The adventurers left the Terminus the following morning. One night on the Route, they camped with a human merchant and his guards traveling east from the SDK to the Empire via Freegate. They were shipping metalwork items for sale throughout the entire Empire. The adventurers swapped stories and rumors with the merchant.
The party learned of strange goings-on on the HNTR—there were reports of attacks on caravans and Clan strongholds by forces unknown. Further, strange lights have been seen at night, being described as "glowing dark purple clouds". The merchant had not seen the lights himself, but knew people he trusted who had. The adventurers also learned that the 7th Legion, Darian's old unit, was making a big push to the south on the rebel Kingdom of Silverloc this campaign season.
The adventurers warned the merchant of bandits operating on the road to Freegate. Dangar bought a "pony keg" of Orpheon Gold [very high quality beer brewed in Orpheon] from the merchant the next morning before the groups went their separate ways.
A few weeks later, the adventurers arrived at the Citadel of the Fourth Legion, a major way station on the HNTR. There they paid to stable their horses for two weeks and rented llamas. They then continued north on the HNTR, further into the Worldspine Mountains, until they reached a point that was closest to the part of the Upper Reaches [the highest area of the already tall Worldspine Mountains] they wanted to search.
At this point, it had been 29 days since the adventurers left Freegate, making it June 8.
The adventurers hiked up into the mountains, heading for the MacAuley clan’s stronghold, which, according to Mikal, should be nearby. After most of a day, they arrived at the MacAuley stronghold and found it recently attacked. The party investigated and determined the attackers came in two waves, the first being elemental earth creatures of some sort that breached the walls and killed many clansmen, the second being ogres that finished off the defenders. While searching the blacksmith’s workshop, Mikal discovered a hidden trap door that lead to an escape route out of the stronghold. Following the tunnel under it with Dangar, the two of them found the remaining MacAuleys sheltering in a cave.
The surviving MacAuleys told a story about an evil force attacking in the night. The shock troops were golems that battered down the walls of the clan's stronghold. An overpowering, evil smell made fighting the golems even more difficult. Ogres followed up after the golems once most of the clans’ warriors had been killed. The clan’s elder was killed by some sort of evil magic.
After holding a brief strategy session, the adventurers set off with Maclyn MacAuley, a 16 year old guide, to hunt down the ogres while the rest of the MacAuley clan headed west to the MacTaggert clan stronghold for safety. The party left their llamas at the MacAuley stronghold and spent a day tracking the ogres back to their camp, finding it shortly after sundown. The ogre camp was on the next mountain east, on the far side of the ridge. Maclyn attempted to sneak closer to find out how many ogres there were, but was seen. A Dwarven spell caster with the ogres cast a flash spell to light up the area and blind Maclyn. As the ogres closed in to kill Maclyn, the adventurers attacked. Mikal and Dangar slid down the slope, standing on their shields like sleds, and quickly started killing the ogres. Tim started a spell casting duel with the Dwarven spell caster and came out on top. During the fight, Darian Kyle killed an ogre that tried to kill Tim, using only two blows.
After the fight, the adventurers went through the effects in the camp. Most of the dwarf's possessions were burned due to fireballs cast at him. The exceptions were a mysterious metal scroll tube and his religious symbol. The symbol identified him as a member of Those Who Watch. The Adventurers decided to backtrack the ogres some more, to find out where they came from. They spent a day and a half retrieving their llamas from the stronghold and then pressed on.
After tracking for two days, the party arrived at the sight of a much bigger ogre camp. The camp had been used about a week previous. Unfortunately, at this point the tracks became too faint for Maclyn to track any further. The party decided to return back to their original goal. It took two more days of hard hiking to achieve the area known as the Upper Reaches. Once there, it took the party a further day to find the arrangement of mountain peaks described on the tablets.
The location turned out to be a perfectly circular frozen lake on a high plateau. In the exact center of the lake was an island. The party carefully crossed the frozen lake and searched the island for clues. On the island they found a perfectly circular cave with a set of double doors at the back of it. The doors had a sigil that crossed both of them (see Figure below). The party spent a couple of hours partially clearing the ice out from in front of the doors and then attempted to open them.
Figure: Symbol Across the Doors to the Vault
After several abortive attempts at opening the doors, the party finally figured out that a dwarf had to put his hand on the sigil on the doors, say “open” in Old Dwarvish, and push. The doors swung partially out until the ice stopped them. Behind the doors was a 10’ diameter room that was noticeably warmer than the outside air. The party entered and took stock of the situation. It was June 17, 17 IC.
Game Session Ends.
[Prepped this last week, expecting the days I work to be busy plus wedding anniversary weekend. Seemed prudent.]
Tim's Outlanders Landing Page
Session 2
Session 4 [Not Yet Posted]
