[The Yardbird leaves Orpheon, picks up Staff Elf Envoys in the Green Mountains, and shops in Castle Silverloc.]
[This session took place December 21, 2002. We were playing Champions 4th Edition with the Second Edition Fantasy Hero supplement.]
Player Characters
Oliver – male human monk from “someplace to the south” [secret agent of the Far Kingdom]
Dangar Stonekleaver – male dwarf from the Northern Dwarven Kingdom
Kyle Logan – male human thief and stowaway on the Yardbird
Wendell Dorshield III – male gnome, Captain and Architect of the Yardbird
Malwyn – male High elf fighter and military expert
Darkfox – female human thief from Freegate, secret ID of socialite Karlyn Gryphshaw
Session Begins
August 21, 18 IC
Morning
The Yardbird flew out of Orpheon, taking a wide sweep west, out over Gruen Bay, then south towards the Green Mountains. As the Staff Elves of the Green Mountains were allied with the rebellious Kingdom of Silverloc, Wendell chose to have the Yardbird approach the Green Mountains from the west to avoid being mistaken as an invading force from the Empire of Crendia.
August 26, 18 IC
Pre-dawn
The Yardbird crossed the coastline into the Green Mountains, looking for a town in order to make contact with the Staff Elves. The rising light of the sun instead showed them the burned-out remains of a elven town.
Deciding to investigate (and possible add to their food stores), Wendell had the Yardbird anchor near the abandoned town. Two hunting parties were put down and the business of setting up “camp” started.
Oliver and Malwyn independently decided to investigate the town using their own methods. Malwyn moved around the perimeter of the town looking for signs of current habitation while Oliver cast a retro-cognition spell to more directly observe what happened to the town.
Through his spell, Oliver “observed” two team wearing cloaks and hoods to hide their features pour what soon became evident was a flammable liquid around the perimeter of the small town. The teams then took firing positions on opposite sides of the town and lit the liquid with a flamestick. The liquid burned rapidly and hotly, setting the buildings and trees it touched quickly on fire. As the elves who lived in the town came out and tried to put out the flames, the teams opened fire with bows, killing anyone doing so. Minutes later the town was completely engulfed in a fire storm, leaving no survivors. Oliver was appalled. He followed the teams as they left the area.
Malwyn noticed that Oliver was under the influence of a spell and seemed to be following something related to the town. He decided to follow Oliver. Oliver’s spell led them to a nearby grove where Oliver observed the two teams meet and have a short discussion. Oliver was finally able to determine that they were all humans and seemed to be part of a military force of some sort. And then his spell was disrupted by a group of Staff Elves who made their presence known, bows at the ready. A similar scene was playing out with the two hunting parties from the Yardbird.
The Staff Elves rounded up everyone from the Yardbird and questioned their reason for being there. After explaining the Yardbird’s mission, Wendell and the leader of this band of Staff Elves, Tibalt of the Western Kingdom, sat down to negotiate for the Bryony and Eel berries needed for the ritual. [Somewhere I had a list of the items necessary for the ritual to destroy the Orb, but it did not make it into my session notes except when the adventurers secured an item on the list.] While the gnome cooks prepared a feast, Wendell was able to secure the necessary amounts of the two berry types in exchange for some trade goods and providing transportation to Silverloc Castle for two of the Staff Elves. Tibalt and his band of elves joined the Outlanders and the crew of the Yardbird in the feast, during which one of the female Staff Elves, Josu of the Charmed Home, took a liking to Malwyn.
August 27, 18 IC
The next day the Yardbird set off south-southeast towards Silverloc Castle with the two Staff Elven envoys, one of whom was Josu. Josu spent much of the trip pursuing Malwyn. They both turned out to have a similar obsession with the sharpness of their weapons, except Josu favored the bow while Malwyn favored the sword. Malwyn spent most of the trip attempting to keep his distance from Josu – he was unnerved slightly by her pursuit.
August 29, 18 IC
5:00 PM
After flying over the (relatively) low Green Mountains and a broad swath of the western Farwood Forest, the Yardbird arrived at Castle Silverloc. Castle Silverloc was both a fortified city and a castle. The castle was hexagonal in shape and quite large. In front of the castle and enclosed by earthen walls with battlements on them was the city of Castle Silverloc. Wendell rented airspace over a nearby farmer’s field and set up a few pavilions on the ground to do business in. The two Staff Elf envoys took their leave and headed north into the forests.
The Outlanders headed into the town of Castle Silverloc on various errands. Darkfox contacted the local thieves’ guild and met with an information broker at a tavern known as the Sign of the Golden Orange. There she learned what she could about the city of Fordsway and the happenings there. Fordsway was surrounded by the Southern Horde and may have fallen to the siege – details were sketchy [as are my notes]. She also learned there was an unofficial truce between Silverloc and the Imperial Legions. The purpose of this truce seemed to be to let the Imperial Legions deal with the Goblinoid Hordes. How long the truce would last and what the Emperor’s reaction to it would be once he learned of it no one could say, but Silverloc was serious about keeping its side of the deal.
Malwyn searched for the worst drinking hole in the city in order to get some combat practice in. He eventually ended up at Ernesto Rockheart’s Pukehall-a-Go-Go, a place known for having fights regularly spill out into the streets. Malwyn participated in several fights and got to know Baldo, the doorman. He also met “Pops”, an old, irascible fighter who was a regular at Ernesto’s. Dangar, tagging along with Malwyn, got some drinking in, but also got his pocket picked at some point and returned to the Yardbird without his “walking around” money.
August 30, 18 IC
The day was spent with the Yardbird taking on large quantities of supplies to drop off in Fordsway. While the head merchant gnome on board, Ethan, haggled and traded, the Outlanders arranged to purchase some items of their own, including improved armor. Darkfox arranged for the armor with a mix of gold coins and bottles of Orpheon Silver. The suits of armor were dropped off after sunset, wrapped up in carpets. No one asked any questions, and Darkfox asked that no one wear the armor off the Yardbird until after it left Castle Silverloc. Just in case.
August 31, 18 IC
Bright and early in the morning, the Yardbird slowly flew away from Castle Silverloc, heading east, its cargo holds filled to the rafters with goods and materials.
Session Ends.
NPCs Met
Aaron – gnome, one of the two “loser” hunters
“Baldo” – doorman at Ernesto Rockheart’s Pukehall-a-Go-Go in Silverloc Town
Ethan – trader/merchant gnome
Josu of the Charmed Home – Staff Elven female archer, interested in Malwyn
Nathanial – gnome, one of the two “loser” hunters
“Pops” – cranky old guy who likes to fight and is very good at it. Uses the “sack of flour” trick to “get a good fight happenin’”.
Tibalt of the Western Kingdom – Staff Elf leader who negotiated with Wendell and the Outlanders
Happening Off-Stage
[Nothing in my notes, but the players will get a huge info dump when they get to Fordsway.]
DM Discussion
[So if it seems that Dangar gets his pockets picked fairly often it’s because he did. He was terrible about spotting pickpockets, especially once he started drinking heavily, so he compensated by only carrying a relatively small amount of coin on his person, 30 or so copper coins. He left the rest of his money safely aboard the Yardbird and considered getting pickpocketed part of the cost of going out drinking.]
[The interaction between Malwyn and Josu was me trying to set up a possible Romance storyline for Malwyn, but his player wasn't interested at all, so I dropped it.]
Flight of the Yardbird
Previous session: Session 9
Next Session: Session 11 [not edited yet]
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