Session 2 Recap: Meandering with Miles

Session 2 (Wednesday 11/16/11)

Our first task to start off the session was leaving the mines, unsure what our shared possession of the Unity Rune might mean but looking forward to finding out. We fought a few groups of hellhounds and other beasts on our way up, and between battles Royce gave up the Illusion cape to Harold, who he thought might make better use of it. Finding the exit did not take long, and by the time we’d reached daylight we were all itching to be rid of the prison all together and get on with our lives. Weapons drawn and bursting with enthusiasm, we all tried to make a break for it but were foiled by a giant net over the dragon and a line of soldiers with weapons that instantly knocked the rest of us unconscious.

Upon awakening in the infirmary in Valas’ care, we found that each of us was now shacked hand and foot for our attempted escape. Nathan and Grant, who had eagerly accepted our suggestion for escaping, were thrown in with us as well. And Vasuki the dragon had been returned to her cage. We hadn’t had long to bemoan our fate before Commander Miles marched in and ordered us to pursue the prisoners who had escaped during the commotion with the monsters. He promised that if we found those runaways and dragged them back, he would remove our shackles. We pointed out quite reasonably that it would be quite impossible for a band of shackled, weaponless inmates to find and capture anyone, so Miles unchained us and let us take Vasuki but kept a lock on the dragon’s wings to keep us from flying off. He also decided to accompany us on our mission to make sure we didn’t get any funny ideas.

And so, for the first time, we found ourselves free (relatively speaking) to rejoin civilization and see what the Harmonian countryside had to offer. Our first stop was the slave camp itself, where we found very little in the way of supplies to purchase (how many sets of Slave Garb does one need, really?). I believe, however, that this was where we purchased our Carrot Seed.

Our next stop was the nearby town of Bellhurst, where we were able to sharpen some of our weapons up to level 3 and purchase some upgraded armor to help in the fights ahead. The only person of note who we met there was Gomez, a man searching for a castle where he might set up a fine storage area. All of the civilians in the streets had one main topic of conversation: the war with Camaro and its queen, Diana, which Harmonia was not faring so well in.

The only other town within reach was Runehurst, where we found the all-important Chicken, Clucky! We also happened to find a woman named Joyce running the local inn, and Harold seduced her most expertly. Somewhere in one of these towns we also acquired 10x Wine for trading, and the Squirrel Plans #2.

Finally, we set to actually tracking down these missing inmates. We had plenty of time during the trip to the mountains to ask Commander Miles about himself, and learned that he ended up heading this remote prison mine because he lost an important weapons shipment and fell into disgrace. He blames a priest-general named Marcus for setting him up, and Harold informs him that the enigmatic Marcus is indeed still at large.

To finish up the session, we began our trek up the mountain path in pursuit of the prisoners, broken up by random encounters and treasure hunting. The next time we meet, we will be endeavoring to find those prisoners at last, at which point we will have to decide how to make our escape while we can.