Session Report 1 - Scions of Corruption

Jack awoke when the splinters of the fragile wooden door separating him from the other inn's clients fell on his laying frame. A multitude of armed thugs - though not street thugs, but rather the hired muscle of the elite - burst into his room and drug him from his wrest. The dexterous former thief had no hop of evading their aggression, so he did little to resist their harsh wrestling.

When it was clear he was helpless the ever-cautious Thrayne Davis, Marshall of the forces of Heneselt and right hand to king Turisas, entered the room triumphantly. He strode forth from the darkness into the soft morning light that illuminated Jack's misfortune and reached into the rogues pocket, retrieving a small square coin made of copper.

The noble held the copper in the air as a sign of his success, and then ordered his men to carry his prey away.

....

Kefka felt his body warming as the sun's fresh rays warmed his small cottage. He wasted little time in arriving at his job at the local tavern, for today was an important day. Brewmasters from Arcanus were nearing the completion of the tavern's yearly batch of ale. Kefka had been put in charge of the tavern during it's owner's illness, which was pressure enough any time. But at a time like this, when something going wrong could cause the inn the fall into deep dept, and thus it's owner forced into indenturement, the pressure was even greater.

But on his way to he was intercepted by a subordinate employee who asked him to visit the inn's owner, Barnabus. Barnabus knew the young man was a sorcerer, and so asked him to answer the call for adventurers made by the Lord of Flotsam, Count Martin Clais. Kefka obeyed his mentor and left the inn in the hands of his peers and prepared for a meeting with the Count regarding kidnappings which had apparently occured the night before.

.....

Count Clais was not a generous man. He taxed his subjects into poverty, cheated the draft, extorted his merchants, forced passers-by to pay illegal tolls, and barely funded social programs. More than anything this was what he was known for, but the general population thought they saw another side of him whenever monsters of the local gang of wood-elves, the Rosewoods, threatened the town.

However this was not a result of his concern. Rather, the liberal rewards offered in return for monster or bounty hunting was rarely composed in majority of his money. In fact, the reward was usually a result of the local Paladin whom he had a hired a year earlier.

Leliana, Paladin of Dibella, often volunteered a great deal of her own pay in order to attract help. The previous night's kidnapping of two local children, presumably by the Rosewoods, was no exception to this.

....

So it was no surprise when someone responded to their call. Leliana accompanied Count Martin Clais and his Watch Captain Aaron Donevill to the meeting with the adventurer, who turned out to be an innkeeper named Kefka. During the meeting Donevill seemed insistant that the Rosewoods were behind the kidnapping, and resisted any conversation which implicated anyone else. 

Kefka and Leliana both suspected the guard might be involved with, or at least intentionally ignorant of, the kidnappings.

The home that the children were abducted from was very near to the west gate of the city, adding to the pair's suspicions due to the amount of guards that patrol the area. They first questioned the parents. Their mother remembered seeing an elf wearing the red bandanna of a Rosewood standing in the children's room after the children were already missing, but she could not understand how the elf got out after she ran to other room, which contained the only door.

Kefka inspected the house carefully and uncovered a hole carved into the floor and a few feet into the earth underneath. A passage had been clearly dug into the hole, but recently covered up.

The two decided to head to the guard house to see if the guardsman who responded to the disturbance knew any pertinent details.

On the way, however, they were approached by a destitute young woman who begged for money to help her buy medicine for her sick husband. Leliana offered what she could spare, but the beggar demanded more. Kefka did not wish to endure this and so shooed the woman away, which upset her husband who stood  up and accosted the group. Clearly the woman was lying, but the appearance to the crowd now surrounding the kerfuffle was that of two relatively wealthy individuals demeaning poor commoners. The crowd attacked the pair, but Leliana invoked her powers as a town official to arrest the ringleaders, and she carried them away to the guard house.

....

Leliana was a very strange paladin. First of all she carried no commission from the Hearth of Vesta and was completely unordained. The townsfolk were evenly divided in their opinion of her. On one hand she was kind to the poor, protected the town well, and was very strong of personality. On the other, she often quarreled with the local priest (which eventually lead to her no longer attending Sunday services), and occasionally taught principles that seemed to violate certain church traditions.

But there was one segment of the local populace that was dead set against her - the guard. Leliana had very little tolerance for corruption, of which there was plenty in Flotsam. Moreover, her manner of opposition to this corruption was loud and apparent, and she made it hard for a guardsman to hide behind the veil of their position.

So when the pair arrived at the guardhouse their prisoners were taken eagerly, but their questions were met with scorn and noncooperation. Unpleasant words were thrown about before the sorcerer and paladin gave up on the endeavor and decided to collect their thoughts at the tavern.

Fortunately they were intercepted by a pair of hunters who reported seeing a group of Rosewoods carrying children off to a hideout of theirs. The hunters demanded compensation for ending their expedition, but the pair, and especially Kefka, were in no mood to be giving money to anyone after the day's near-riot, and so they were directed to Count Clais' estate, where they likely got a rather cold reception.

Night was falling so the two decided to rest and set out in the early morning.

....

Leliana was confounded by Kefka's incredible ability to traverse the wilderness on their way to the Rosewood hideout. The young sorcerer found paths, kept their way, and avoided danger better than most experienced woodsmen.

When they happened upon the cave in which the elves were dwelling they hid out in some brush to wait for nightfall. Under cover of darkness the two infiltrated the cave and attacked the Rosewoods, easily sweeping through the hideout until they reached last room.

The leader of the gang, Nal'thun Sefallahoine, and his right hand Marciaeux Thuf'nal'fallwen had the children at knife point along with some of their compatriots. An unusually sophisticated magical focus was set up nearby.

But, surprisingly, the elves seemed to ease a bit when they saw that one of their assailants was Leliana. They did not release the children, but they were suddenly open to negotiation. Nal'thun opened up, saying that some agreement he had with Count Clais did not prevent his men from ransoming the townsfolk and demanded that Clais call off his dogs, lest he "incur the Shadow Lord's wrath."

All of this was news to Leliana, but she tried to act the part in order to secure the children's safety. Unfortunately she was a bad liar. It was clear that despite being one of Clais' key employees, she was not privy to whatever plot was hatched between him and the elves. Nal'thun and Marciaeux cut the throats of the children before anyone could react, and the adventurers watched in horror as the focused channeled some sort of terrible magic that caused spectral beings to rise from the lifeless bodies.

The fight that ensued was not easy, but Leliana and Kefka seemed to have the upper hand. Kefka destroyed the focus before all else, which he hoped would make the remaining children no longer a target.

Marciaeux also went down, and the tide of battle was clearly favoring the aggressors. Nal'thun offered to allow the children to go free if the two spared his life, and the group agreed. However, as soon as he sensed on opportunity he attempted get a surprise attack off on his adversaries. His intrigue failed, however, and he was cut down.

A cursory examination of the bodies revealed little, but Kefka did find a surprisingly valuable wand on Marciaeux's body, which he took. They left the cave with the children and returned to town.

.....

After the children were returned Leliana and Kefka were determined to make Clais answer for what they had discovered. This determination was furthered when they payed a quick visit to Baranabus, who urged Kefka to exposed Clais to the crown, even if it meant leaving Flotsam.

Leliana's accusations frustrated Clais, but he insisted his innocence. The more she pressed, however, the more distressed he seemed to be. Eventually he relented, admitting that the Rosewoods had been taking a portion of the towns taxes for months, shorting the crown of it's due. He claimed that he has no choice, however, and showed the duo a hidden tunnel that had been dug into his home.

Clais said that there were at least a dozen such tunnels under the town, and that those were just the ones the guard knew about. There was no way the town could defend themselves against the elves without the aid of the walls, so his excuse seemed sound.

Still, Clais was committing treason, and it wasn't as if this was the only sign of his corruption. The group still resolved to leave town, planning to head to Marcone to seek advice from one of Clais' rivals, Bloody Se.

But before they could leave they were intercepted by an organized group of men who claimed to be arresting them for plotting to assassinate King Turisas of Heneselt. Mixed among them were Flotsam guardsman.

The sudden accusation was truly a surprise to both of the detainees, but it would have been useless to fight. The two were carried away to a docked ship and stuffed into small, crate like cages.

The North

When the eighth cleric speaks the eighth telling,
and on the eighth month thereafter,
Will the North be delivered from the cruel Black Ones.

By the will of Vesta, and the power of Mara,
By the might of the river, and the cries of Niltandia,
By the dead fires of oppression, and the black pass opened,
Will the North be delivered from the cruel Black Ones.

For as the world is made open the poor will rejoice,
The nobles made righteous, and to tradesmen a voice,

The Black ones in silence, the Northerners call,
To the world, ‘In the North are free men, and mighty, we all.’

Then, will the North be delivered from the cruel Black Ones.

Some time before Niltandia relinquished it's control of the Black Pass and the lands to it's south The Old Empire of the North fell, leaving behind a gaggle of nations with no clear borders, questionable rulers, and a general lack of order. The chaos of this time lead to many political oddities for the noble folk, and for the common folk it made for great danger and even greater poverty. Indeed, it is said Northern Men and Elves of the era must have been the hardiest generation of their respective races in order to survive the oppression and difficulty they endured.

This endurance stayed with the people of the North for at least one hundred years, for that is how long it took for them to free themselves of the shackles imposed by the Black Ones of Niltandia. It had already been a century since Black Ones conquered the city of Portage, the only accessible port in the whole Northern Continent, and seized the Black Pass, the only traversable road leading to Portage. Niltandia used their might to keep the natives North of the pass and control trade between the Northerners and foreigners.

The North was unsuitable to agriculture except for a few somewhat temperate locations, and they were already behind in developing the technology efficiently acquire natural resources. Whenever food or tools were needed the Northerners had no one to turn to but the Niltandians, who allowed traders to supply only certain, pre-approved wares to the natives. These wares were also taxed heavily and subject to regulated pricing which was designed to keep the locals poor.

And so the peasants toiled and starved. Of course, the nobles could not help themselves but to war with each other, even as the Black Ones kept them isolated from the outside world in every way imaginable.

The Old Empire truly only lived on in the Kingdom of Atli'er, which rested in the dead center of the continent and stretched from the western shore to the eastern one. At the time of these events her king was Turell de La'Vallet, a direct descendant of Tulbar La'Vallet. As far as the nobles could figure he was the most legitimate heir to The Old Empire, and so those who were so inclined look to him some sort of leader, even he was not their monarch. He was as good as a King could be, which is to say that he only behaved oppressively or cruelly when the situation necessitated, and that he treated nobles with dignity. Atli'er was divided into five lands, each of which were Turell's domain, but were ruled as fiefs of Lords which Turell appointed.

The only nation that came close to challenging Atli'er's military might was Heneselt. Heneselt was ruled by King Turisas. Turisas had no right to rule any part of the Old Empire, and yet his kingdom controlled the city of Henstadt and several villages which could certainly be called imperial. He maintained his dominance by flexing his country's muscles whenver possible, and frequently conquered and relinquished Atli'er's lands.

To the north-east of Atli'er was Falkuria, a city state built among the ruins of the Decid Wood. Through cunning and violence Turell's cousin, Stendor, had managed to turn the savage forest and city ruins into an almost respectable city-state. Stendor controlled a considerable portion of illicit trade in the North, and used his ill gotten gains to amass a mercenary army which was large enough to dissuade invasion.

West of there, but east of Heneselt, was another city-state, the mighty Republic of Arcanus. The beginning of the Old Empire's trouble was when this giant of a city rebelled and installed their Circle of Mages as leaders. The city endured, but the Magocracy did not, and the people built the North's first Republic, which lasts to this day.

Finally, to the north of all of this, was the frozen wasteland called Uthangaard. The name described geography more than a proper kingdom, as the political power in Uthangaard was divided among several tribes. These tribes adhered to their unique religion, Fornfamnand, and mostly kept their religious killing to themselves.

All of these factors would be enough to make like difficult in the North, but there was one more key ingredient in this stew of misery.

Every eight years, over the span of 64 years, a prophecy was delivered to the Vestal Clerics promising an end to the oppression and poverty caused by the Black Ones of Niltandia. It was said that on the day of the eighth telling of this prophecy Saint Mara herself would cause the Pontar River to swell and overflow, sweeping the Black Ones into the ocean and freeing the north.

This day came and went, but the Pontar never stirred past it's normal tide.

And so it was that the hope of the Northern people was crushed, and it seemed that their struggle would never end.