Session 10 recap: Nothing but Nemeses

We kicked things off by asking for Caesar’s advice, and he asked us to find an architect to help build our new castle, as progress was slow. Lucky for us, we knew exactly where to find such a tradesman. But to our surprise, we found Lindermill in a rather different state than when we left it with Katherine and company. Harmonian soldiers were everywhere, enforcing a new draft that hadn’t been activated in many years. Amelia the bathmaker’s house was unguarded, but she refused to join us unless Reynaldo the architect chose to. So we swung by Reynaldo’s place next door and found him and his architects being dragged away for the draft by none other than Henry, Harold’s humorless brother and a Harmonian army captain. The fight was brutal and some unfortunate words were exchanged, but Henry was eventually forced to flee our onslaught once again. Reynaldo and his men joined us out of gratitude, and Amelia soon followed suit, obviously surprised at what had come to pass.

The team heard some rumors during our travels, like the fact that we might be meeting elves in the forest one of these days, but the most significant was learning the identity of the three Camaro generals. It turns out that Yuber is working for Camaro these days, and may have been summoned by Queen Diana herself, who is rumored to bear the True Piety Rune. As for the full extent of that rune’s power or what might come of enlisting Yuber’s services, that much is still unknown.

The safety of Royce’s dragon continued to be an important concern, as his rival Felicia had twice used the power of forbidden runes to affect his dragon’s mind. Caesar explained that we might be able to counter the power of Felicia’s runes (the Black/Conqueror rune put his dragon to sleep, while the Howling rune sent Vasuki into an uncontrollable bloodlust rage) if we visited the dwarves again. Cyrus the dwarven leader agreed to help us and sent for his son, Mitch, to help us. Mitch turned out to be a skilled potion-maker, trap-maker, and inventor, who happened to have developed and brewed a large quantity of anti-mind-control potion, which we fed to Vasuki. Meanwhile, we heard rumors from Ramza that the kobolds seemed to be preparing for war, and that this might be related to Felicia being spotted meeting with the kobold leader shortly before his disappearance. Guessing that Felicia was using the Howling rune to control the kobolds, Mitch prepared copious amounts of anti-mind-control potion and kobold-strength knockout gas and traveled with us to the kobold village.

It was obvious the minute we entered the village that every single kobold was in a mindless frenzy. Luckily, we were able to avoid killing the kobolds thanks to Mitch’s knockout gas, and we administered the antidote potion to every kobold we came across. Felicia showed up with her dragon, Felix, and attacked. After another tough fight, the FFs were defeated and set fire to the kobold village to cover their escape. Compelled to rescue the kobolds, we had to let the pair escape yet again.

Once the kobolds had all been restored to normal, Wayne the kobold leader told us of Felicia’s evil plan to use the mind-controlled kobolds as cannon fodder against Camaro. While the kobolds attacked the Camaro knights from one side, Felicia planned to use the dwarves the same way and create enough of a distraction for Harmonia to overcome the invaders. Disgusted by Harmonia’s utter disregard for the lives of non-humans and grateful for our help, Wayne agreed to join us, and Monty the kobold trader finally did the same. Once they heard what Harmonia had planned to do, Cyrus and Mitch joined us as well, and they decided to defy Harmonia by moving back into the old dwarven castle as a prologue to open war.

It was with mixed feelings that we heard the news of Camaro beating Harmonia at Coldwall castle due to the missing kobold and dwarf reinforcements, because the loss of life was severe. On the other hand, Harmonia’s defeat diverted their forces away towards the borders, leaving Sorrowyn prison relatively defenseless. Next time, we will take Sorrowyn by storm and finally rescue Daisy’s father!

Session 8 Recap: Choosing a Castle

On a chilly Friday the 13^th, the team reassembled to continue our relentless search for a home. In response to our requests for tougher enemies, the first group of eels we encountered on the second floor nearly ate us alive. We finally reached our goal at the top of the base: a kraken-shaped fountain with a lever. Daisy and Royce pulled it enthusiastically, unleashing a geyser of water that carried us – and all of the base’s monsters – all the way out of the complex.

A strange party awaited us on the steps, asking for Daisy. Daisy didn’t know them, and yet they were horribly familiar – as she told her companions, groups just like this one had been popping up everywhere for some time. It was always the same: they sought to take her life. As usual, the strangers refused to identify themselves, and a fight ensued. Thanks to huge boosts in defense from Kuarjav and Harold and relentless blows from everyone else, we managed to best them, even after their leader transformed into an octopus near the end. Harold searched the bodies and found several interesting things. First, he spotted a letter addressed to George O’Brien (the Octopus Man), which promised triple the usual pay if the team managed to kill Daisy and claimed that “the future of our people is at stake.” It was signed Octavia, finally giving Daisy her first clue as to the identity of her harassers, though the name means nothing to her for now. We also noticed that each of the attackers had a variant of a strange rune bound to them: a simple octopus, squirrel, sparrow or deer, in front of a pole. These might look a bit familiar to anyone who’s taken a close look at Daisy’s rune…

That was it for the naval base, and Lynn decided to join us while she was still high on adrenaline from all the adventuring and attempted assassination. So we hopped on Vasuki and flew to the third and final piece of real estate, stopping at a couple of towns along the way to explore. The first stop was the kobold town of Highcrest, where we purchased a precious Onion Seed and some furs to trade later. The kobold in charge of the trading post was named Monty, and we made a note to visit him again later. Several kobolds around the village mentioned that they’d been seeing a black dragon with a female rider in the area, and Royce started to worry about his rival again.

Our second stop was the dwarven town of Snowview, just outside the abandoned castle we’d come to explore. After acquiring the all-important Pumpkin Seed, potato recipe and all the dwarven ale we could carry, we made the acquaintance of the dwarven elder, Cyrus, and his son Mitch. They said that Harmonia has kept the old castle off-limits to its former dwarven inhabitants lately, but a dwarf adventurer named Dale might help us get inside. We found him in the tavern, and he agreed at once.

We fought our way through several floors of forges and monsters that became increasingly dangerous for Kuarjav, who is weak to fire. Luckily, inside one of the old forges we found a set of fireproof armor, which was passed to Kuarjav without delay. The only creature waiting for us in the final chamber this time was a mad old dwarf named Ferdinand, who had named himself king of the castle and was obviously beyond all reason. So we killed him (with Dale’s approval), claimed the Brass Hammer he guarded, and reported back to the village that the castle had been cleared and was only waiting to be claimed again *wink wink*. Dale, with no adventuring left to do in the dwarven lands, opted to join the folks who were sporting twenty-one casks of dwarven ale and accompanied us back to Belhurst.

Daisy suggested that we claim the Sindar ruins as our official base of operations, keep a secret skeleton crew at the abandoned naval base in the north, and return the dwarven castle to the dwarves in exchange for their alliance. There were no objections, though Caesar pointed out that it might be some time before the dwarves were sufficiently convinced of our power to join us. And so the first recruitment drive is now officially underway. We kicked it off by picking up Gomez the Storage Guy in Belhurst for the price of a 5000 potch long-distance storage device. Dalton the dwarf was our next recruit, an armorer back in Snowview who had always wanted to leave his little village. And we finished the day in Norbank with the recruitment of Joyce the Innkeeper – though only Harold knows the full story.

When we return to the plot next week (after some serious recruiting and exploration), Caesar has requested that we try to raise some war funds to help build up the new base. He suggests that we visit the town of Lindenville near Crystal Valley and meet with a wealthy merchant named Katherine, who, as a second-class Harmonian married to a third-class, should be sympathetic to our cause. Happy recruiting, everyone!