Walldorn Session 1

While it's taken longer than I intended to actually post this, I'v had this session summary written up for a good while. I had some vague notion of posting pictures of each characters mini before posting this first session, but It's taken longer than I thought to get them all painted so I thought I should actually post something to the old blog.The character mini's will be posted as soon as they're finished. This summary assumes the viewer has read the character introductions previously posted.

 

Mendus, 22^nd of Hermatus, year 999

It was a gentle spring in Hilltop, lying as it did, in the hills of south east Walldorn. Whilst most of the people here had already begun a busy day of work, four men sat in the local drinking hole, the Falling Giant. Usually the patrons of this tavern were men wanting to escape their wives, men who had finished a hard days work and wanted a drink, or the occasional merchant come to stay before continuing a longer journey south or east. Today however, the only people in the bar were four unusual specimens.

Actively leading the conversation was a man with pointed ears, fine clothing, and a clean shaven face, Mifyanor, the son of the couple who ran the general store. Listening with amusement and undetected irony (undetected by Mifyanor at least), was the unassuming form of a man in his late twenties named Eadric, a skilled re-appropriator of resources (thief). Between these two, sat the half-orc Cleric Jon Smiffe, listening intently to Mifyanors ramblings. Last of all, but hardly least, was a bearded and robed man named Oswold.

As they idly sipped on wine and ale, the four would be adventurers relayed the various rumours they'd heard, with the aim of deciding on an appropriate endeavour for four, first time venturers. Oswold related that their might be a Basilisk somewhere in the Thornwood, but given the size of that forest this was little to go on. Jon speculated that the hilly region where they lived may rife with ancient burial mounds and barrows, which may house various dangers and rewards. In fact the village of Hilltop itself was said to be built on top of one such barrow. The possibility of dragons lurking over the horizon was also suggested, but quickly dismissed. Bringing the slightly inebriated fellows back down to earth, the tavern owner, one Doron Pel, finally spoke to the odd patrons of his establishment.

“If your going to make yourself useful” (“I feel he's implying something about us” interjected Eadric) “then you might want to speak to old Bryson. His sheep are going missing and he seems to think someone or something's been taking them. Now it's likely he's just losing track of them, but it would make him feel better if someone took a look around.”

“My companions” announced Mifyanor, “I have come to a decision. We should head to this farmer's house and see if we can track down these sheep.”

“A fine idea my good friend” responded Eadric, ably tickling the elf's sense of importance.

It was soon agreed by everyone present that this was the best course of action, and not long after the four companions (after collecting their various weaponry and equipment) were strolling north to the old man's farm.

By the time the group had walked through the hills to the small cottage where farmer Bryson dwelt, the men had been appropriately sobered by the fresh spring breeze. They found the farmer leaning on his stick amongst his much reduced flock. Mifyanor immediately approached him.

“Greetings old farmer, you probably recognise me.”

“Who are you?” responded Bryson, his speech somewhat slurred by the way his jaw hung at an angle. Mifyanor immediately began explaining about his run in with the lords men, heavily exaggerating his role in the proceedings. Eventually he came to the reason for their visitation.

“We've heard that your sheep have been going missing?”

“Ah that they have”

“Do you know where they've gone?”

“They bein' taken by summit”

“Have you seen what's been taking them?”

“I ain't seen nuthin'.”

The group decided to investigate the area where the flock grazed. Mifyanor immediately called his companions over.

“I've found these drag marks” he said pointing to the aforementioned markings. “We can infer that-”

“Do I hear someone's inferrin'?” Bryson had inserted himself into the gathering. They quickly reassured him that whatever that meant, they were certainly doing none of it.

With no other option, the party followed the trail, which lead further to the north. After a couple of hours, the group entered the outskirts of the Thornwood, of which many fell tales were told. The dragging marks eventually terminated near a five foot wide cavern mouth in a nearby hill. As the group discussed in which order to enter, Oswold quietly muttered the arcane words to summon an aura of force, warding him in invisible armour.

It was agreed that Mifyanor would lead from the front with his two handed sword, with Oswold bearing the torch behind him, followed by Eadric and Jon. The passage opened after 20 feet into a small chamber filled with bones and sheep carcasses. As everyone looked about the chamber and came to a very similar conclusion, no one noticed the furred, multi-legged fiend lurking from the ceiling.

Soundlessly, the creature dropped from the ceiling onto Mifyanor, attempting to get it's mandibles into his flesh. The elf instinctively flailed at the creature climbing on top of him, managing to knock the creature back into the cavern chamber. Behind him, Eadric drew his swords and tried to find a way to get deeper into the passage. Unnoticed in the confusion Oswold cast a small mote of flame and threw it at the hound sized spider. The bolt of flame flew off target dissipating on the wall behind the monster.

Frustrated at being surprised, Mifyanor swiped with his sword at the creature. His blow struck home, slicing off one of the creatures legs. Enraged, the spider leapt to strike the elf, but was again unable to find purchase through his armour. Whilst it was distracted, Eadric moved in to attack the monster, getting under its legs and driving a short sword into its abdomen. The creature twitched disturbingly before becoming all too stiff.

Feeling exultant after their victory (excepting Jon who had been unable to find a way to get to the action before it was over), the victorious warriors took the body of the spider back to the farmer's hut, where they were rewarded with a bottle of highly questionable spirit. The matter settled, the group decided to return to Hilltop and investigate rumours of barrows.

Upon arriving back at the village, the companions wasted little time before beginning their search. Mifyanor approached a man who immediately recognized him, and although this was less than mutual, Mifyanor covered as best he could. At the mention of undead, the villager allowed that there may have been some strange things seen at the village graveyard. The group immediately headed in that direction.

There was little to see however, but they did notice that flowers growing on one of the graves had been crushed. Mifyanor bent down to smell the soil, and noticed the fragrance of a flower used as a perfume by some womenfolk of the village. Never having seen this flower, he assumed that they were the same as the crushed flowers growing on the grave, and explained that it was likely that whatever spectres or phantoms which had been seen here wished to smell like these flowers. This idea was met with some scepticism by Oswold, and barely contained mirth by Eadric.

The conference was interrupted by the pealing of a bell from the watchtower. The party, along with many in the village, headed down the hill towards the watchtower and the gate, where a rider was entering. Words were exchanged, between the rider and Erard Barne, the leader of the militia. Eadric managed to catch the words “attack” and “three hours”, which did not fill him with confidence.

After not too long, the rider took a fresh horse and headed off to the north west. Erard Barne turned to the gathered crowd and announced what everyone feared; the orcs were attacking.

(as a final note, everyone ended the session with 10 whole experience points.)