[Retrieval of Keybreaker and the fight to keep it.]
[This session took place in April, 2003. We were playing Champions 5th Edition with the Second Edition Fantasy Hero supplement.]
Player Characters
Tim, a Wizard - male human from the Free City of Freegate, graduate of Outlands University
Dangar Stonekleaver – male dwarf from the Northern Dwarven Kingdom
Mord Worldfist – male dwarf bodyguard [and handler] for Dangar
Wendell Dorshild III – male gnome, Captain and Architect of the Yardbird
Malwyn Talath – male High elf fighter and military expert
Darkfox – female human thief from Freegate, secret ID of socialite Karlyn Gryphshaw
Session Begins
[I’m missing the session notes listing what happened during this session. What I do have are my GM Notes as to what was supposed to happen, which is what I’m listing here. This should give you some insight into what I had planned. You will find that these notes are very sparse or empty in some spots as I just needed a mental note to include material, which I either made up on the spot (for the most part) or sourced from previous writings (rarely).]
Enter Worldspines
Description
Bad weather looming to the north.
Legion on the High North Trade Route (HNTR)
Description
The 8th Legion is moving down out of the HNTR on orders from the Emperor.
Contact
The Legion Commander and his staff will stop to discuss things with the Yardbird, while the rest of the Legion will continue marching by.
Taxes and Negotiations
The Legion Chief Accountant will ask if the Yardbird has paid for use of the HNTR and request they do so. He is open to negotiations.
[This encounter was optional and most likely ended up with the Outlanders and crew flying by in the Yardbird noticing that the 8th Imperial Legion was marching down out of the Worldspine Mountains, indicating how serious things were fighting the Hordes to the south.]
Arrival at Karak-Urd
Dwarven Airship!
The dwarven airship, called The Hwyrrak (or “Wind Citadel”), is fatter than the Yardbird and is belching smoke from two smokestacks in the top rear. It has a single, large propeller in the rear. It has the symbol of the Fireworker clan (the clan of inventors) [I clearly changed this to the Worldbender clan in actual play] emblazoned on the front and flies the flag of the NDK.
The Hwyrrak uses helium for lift and a single, higher speed, steam-powered engine in the rear for propulsion. Most of the Hwyrrak’s lower deck is configured for launching and retrieval of belf’rads (see below).
Warning from the Sky Guard
As the Hwyrrak approaches, the front of the lower deck splits and slides back. There is a high-pitched whistle and a large dart-shaped thing shoots out trailing wisps of white smoke and making a buzzing noise. Wings snap out from the sides and instead of dropping it starts rising. Getting a better look at it, it looks like a large, odd-shaped battle-kite with a metal basket underneath it and some sort of gearworks turning a propeller behind it. It is the propeller which is making the buzzing noise. There seems to be a dwarf flying the contraption towards the Yardbird, his beard flapping in the wind.
The Sky Guard uses ultra-lights, known as belf’rad (“noisy iron”), with clockwork engines and snap out wings. They are deployed with steam-powered catapults from a launching deck in the front of the airship.
[This actually happened in the previous session and included more detail than I recorded in the session notes.]
Land at Allies’ Gate
[Absolutely no notes here, so I improvised the entire encounter.]
Fight for Keybreaker (November 4, 18 IC)
Discussion with Dangar’s Uncle
- Attacks on outposts
- Saboteurs in the city attacking production of Keybreaker
Delivery of Keybreaker to the Outlanders
- Very large number of the King’s Guard escorting Keybreaker
- Three cases: two decoys and one original
Attack of the Betdmuan Warrior-Priests
- Four groups attacking from multiple points
- They will use a few mass damage, area effect spells before closing in.
- They will continue to attack until they have taken 75% losses and will then retreat to report back.
Looting the Bodies
- The Outlanders will find a teleport scroll on the leader of each attacking group.
- The scroll goes to a rally/resupply point.
- Amongst the supplies is a letter from Lord Taurkauld, ordering the attack and specifying the targets – Dangar and Keybreaker.
- The seal on the letter is the symbol of The Enemy.
[I definitely ran this combat and I seem to remember the Outlanders finding one of the teleportation scrolls and using it to find the rally point, but no one was there, having either died in the fight or fled before the Outlanders arrived.]
Session Ends.
NPCs Met
Unknown.
Happening Off-Stage
[As mentioned in the notes, the 8th Imperial Legion, one of two Legions maintaining control of the HNTR, was in the process of marching down to the lowlands to fight the hordes. Unmentioned, the 4th Imperial Legion, the other Legion securing the HNTR, sent half of its numbers to the 8th Imperial Legion’s citadel and now covered the entire Route by itself, effectively at half-strength. This would have consequences in the near future.]
DM Discussion
[Not much to say as I have no record of what actually happened. I got the Dwarf lift gas wrong in my last blog post (Helium, not Hydrogen) and under-described the Hwyrrak in the session write-up. I might update the previous post with this better description, but not immediately as I’m working on other stuff right now. If the description here matches what is in the notes for Session 14 then I got around to it.]
Flight of the Yardbird
Previous session: Session 14
Next Session: Session 16
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