Our Forgotten Realms campaign kicked of this Saturday with classic action in the realms. It has been over four months since I have had opportunity to have some fun around the table. Teaching new players to play forced me to check from the books few times, but other than that, the players learned fast and the game mechanics became familiar quite quickly. This marks the beginning of our Threads of Sanity -campaign. (Details about the characters can be found here):
It began when our heroes were summoned to the chambers of master Harran in the Crystal Academy. Crystal Academy was an academy specializing in Magic and Planes and it hired “initiates”, in other terms, mercenaries and adventurers to do tasks with somewhat dangerous nature. Master Harran told the heroes that recently he had received a letter from Garo Darkmoor, old mercenary spending his days in village Tameron. In his letter Garo had written about a mist that arrives and brings the dead with it. While the situation may indeed have been dire, the letter reveals that Mr. Darkmoor wishes that the situation would be handled with delicacy and academy would not be mentioned at all due the recent evets.
With this knowledge, our heroes prepare for the journey to come. They took some time to familiarize themselves with the knowledge that they have and Jonas tries to find more information from the libraries of the academy without any major results. Once the preparations are complete, our heroes set on their journey on daybreak. Our heroes hitch a lift from farmers and arrive to Teziir, a trade city run like a business by a council of merchants, in hopes of finding academy’s contact person Griffin Lamech from the temple district. Unfortunately, Torm’s paladin is not to be found and our heroes don’t gain any more information about the village Tameron. Rhadec however, uses the time he has, and overheards two dwarves arguing about the location where their merchant friend lost his cargo to the raiding orcs. Rhadec takes notion about the information to later use [INSERT SIDEQUEST HERE].
Soon Teziir is left behind and our heroes are on the road again when it starts to rain. Trudging slowly onwards in the muddy soil they soon find themselves ambushed by bandits lead by bandit Chevko: “You have the priviledge of being robbed by the one and only, Chevko” the bandit states boldly. Knowing that messing in such situation would be deadly, a fight emerges and quickly dozens of crossbow bolts fill the air. Battle went quickly considering that this was, in fact, a fight with one purpose: Getting the players familiarized with the fourth edition rules. The bandits are soon defeated, but spared with one condition. Suddenly the bandits find themselves free from everything they’ve gathered before encountering the heroes.
Nights along the road pass nicely as heroes slowly approach their destination. Before reaching Westgate, Alukain suggests that the heroes take a small shortcut risking the dangers of the wilds, but saving at least a day of travel. They take the risk, but are unfortunate enough to find themselves agains an angry Cave Bear. As the heroes try to calmly withdraw from the situation, their nature checks go awry and the bear goes mad. Few more battlemarks in their skin, our heroes continue onwards.
Tameron was a village with a long history. Quiet, small village in the outskirts of lake Long Arm has stood there hundreds of years, its people known for their skills of survival. When our heroes arrived they saw that Tameron, was intact a small and humble village main building being the inn. The structures were made from strong and dark wood, though most of the buildings were covered in moss. Our heroes were greeted with mild neglect, polite smiles like an unwelcomed quests. What came to our heroes as a small surprise was that everything seemed somewhat outplaced and big in the village. Not the people themselves, but their food, cattle and such things. Meeting the old hero inside the inn, Garo Darkmoor, revealed that Tameron’s blessings were the reason why Tameronians never really asked for help and it was important that the heroes themselves were introduced as personal acquintaces of Garo, who had rich history outside the village. Garo told that when the mist arises, the dead come and they have to lock themselves to the inn until the morning comes. So far they’ve managed barely, but the times of change were at hand.
Jonas made way to the ponds only to learn that things were as they had suspected. There was threads of magic lingering in the water, which most likely had caused the unnatural size of the animals in the water. As the research continued our heroes awakened to a dark notion. A mist was rising. Quickly, Jonas, Rhadec and Alukain made way to the inn’s roof, deciding it would be best to pepper the undead with bolts and spells from the above while the villagers were safe inside. What they didn’t expect that even the undead… sometimes are capable of ranged attacks. A fierce fight against the emerging dead began and they fought and fought until finally, the attack had been repelled and the last threads of the mist were vanishing…
They searched the Hriltan thaig for torches and equipment for the journey below the ground and with five torches they had found, they began their journey in the deep roads. It was pitch black and the dwarven road seemed to be endless and tiring. They had no way of knowing when it was day or night; they decided it would be best if they rested now, since they could not start a fire here. The young apostate proved his resourcefulness by “arming” their chosen sleeping place so, that the one on guard would feel a pull from a rope if something slumbered in the darkness towards them. They had to rest in total darkness because they had to save their precious torches. It would have been wishful thinking to be able to rest without interruption…
