A session of deep emotions and wrenching decisions, our third session found our heroes reaching the top of the mountain path. We had a few random fights along the way and spotted a hibernating bear in a cave (we let the bear sleep). Kuarjav also acquired a Wind God’s Hat.
When we reached the clearing at the top, a few dozen people were waiting for us there led by a woman named Gloria. These were all escaped prisoners, the ones Miles had commanded us to help him drag back to jail. And so, we faced our first great choice: did we bring the prisoners in as instructed, or ditch Miles and join the prisoners in escaping? Daisy, for one, was much too freedom-loving to go along with the former, but others, like Kuarjav, were wary of taking such a risk and leaping into the unknown.
After much debate, we resolved to flee with the prisoners and abandon Commander Miles. The commander did not take it well and challenged Harold to a duel, which was won soundly by the Narcissist. Unfortunately, this also ended in Miles’ death. The players were rather shocked at the sudden death of the only NPC we’d started to learn the backstory of (it didn’t help that he was so pathetic a fighter as to be almost adorable, like a helpless yappy puppy). Our characters took Miles’ death with varying degrees of emotion; Harold was mostly unfazed but spouted a rousing eulogy, while Daisy took pity on the deceased commander and helped heave a boulder into place to serve as a headstone. The reactions of the other characters are unknown.
And so, now joined by the well-meaning but insufferable Gloria (who ended up in prison for tax-evasion), the much-enlarged group headed back down the mountain with the intention of freeing the rest of the prisoners in the camp and seeking out a group of rebels to join. Before we could leave the mountain, however, Royce’s nemesis dropped out of the sky on her dragon and used a rune to send Vasuki into a mad frenzy once again, much like the method in which she helped capture Dragon Knight Royce and Daisy a few days before. The party was forced to fight Royce’s dragon to stop her rampage, which left Vasuki gravely injured. The nemesis flew away, her purpose accomplished, leaving us with a dying dragon and no way to help her.
Out of nowhere, a hooded woman calling herself Miss Grey appeared and offered us a piece of advice. She instructed us to use the combined power of our Unity Rune to heal the dragon, and to our surprise and relief, it worked. The mysterious woman explained that she had felt the Unity Rune choose a new bearer and wanted to see for herself what had happened. When questioned, she said only that she tries to keep track of the True Runes as much as she can. We noticed that she knew our names without introductions. And with our thanks, she was gone.
Still pursuing our plans, we made our way back to the prison camp. Daisy, the only member of the party with even a hint of training in large-scale combat strategy (funny because she is permanently berserk and unthinking in close combat), suggested that Harold run to the camp with a forged letter from Miles requesting assistance in the mountains to deal with the escapees. Harold carried out the plan perfectly, and soon the camp had largely been emptied out as the bulk of the soldiers and prison guards hurried away to the mountain. Once reinforcements had left for their imaginary battle, Daisy, Harold and Kuarjav strolled into camp while Royce flew ahead to free the prisoners. Harold talked his way in to see the ranking officer and explained the situation to him frankly, and the supervisor was wise enough to surrender the camp without a fight. We busily set about arming, clothing, and supplying as many prisoners as we could so as to make our escape.
As we debated our next move, a Harmonian soldier blundered into camp with news of the fall of Ordon castle to Camaro. We learned as much as we could from the soldier about Camaro’s forces and Harmonia’s defenses, then locked him up with the other guards and fled the camp. Gloria’s information suggested that we might find some information about the Liberation Army in Runehurst, so we went to the town to try and learn where to go next. In one of the bars we stumbled across a boastful Narcissist who was quickly identified as Harold’s brother, Captain Windamier. His brother tried to have his Harmonian forces arrest Harold as a traitor to Harmonia, but Harold’s quick tongue convinced the soldiers that their captain had simply had too much to drink and ought to be put to bed. Ranting and raving about his traitorous brother, Captain Windamier was hauled off to sleep it off. To finish the night, we all had a drink on Windamier’s tab and, once we felt that it would not attract suspicion, we made our exit. As of yet, there is no sign of this Liberation Army and no reason but Gloria’s word to believe it exists at all.
