Harl awakes in a bed surrounded by his friends and feeling like he just came off a week long bender. The rest of the party immediately barrages Harl with questions about what happened and some of these questions are not exactly friendly.
After some breakfast with a Mug of dark strong ale in Harl's hand, Harl recounts a part of his past that has not left his lips in years.
Harl explains that when he was younger to make money for himself an his family, Harl worked as a Mercenary with a band called the Vikings. A member of the Vikings, Harl traveled on occasion to capture bounties. While he was away on one such expedition, his fiancee, Galadriel, was accidentally killed during a robbery by a thug named Liam Ehman. Upon returning and finding Galadriel had been murdered, Harl investigated her death and discovered the identity of her killer. He then went to this low-life's home to seek vengeance. However, Harl was surprised to find the home occupied not only by Liam, but his wife and young teenage son. Given the surprise encounter, Harl killed them all. When this was discovered, the Vikings banished him from the City of Hammarburg. Harl did not stop there and continued to explain that this senseless murderous act has left him haunted and how Harl wishes that things could have been different but Harl was overcome with grief and blinded by vengeance.
Harl's story left a lot of the party members speechless but Prince Claren left the room in disgust as Gareth states coldly, "you straight up murdered a women and a child...I don't know if I can trust you" as Gareth follows Prince Clarens lead. The rest of the party gets home to give Harl some peace but as Helestina gets to the door she says "There will be a discussion. Come downstairs in awhile. I do not know who is going to be understanding of your actions, regardless of the reasons." Harl eventually makes it down around noon to the table everyone else is sitting at and a frank discussion is held regarding Harl's past actions. It is made clear that there is some trust issues and Harl's past has created the biggest rifts between Gareth and Prince Claren. It is decided that Harl can remain with them on their mission, but it is now a more probationary type of situation.
After an uneasy night, the party resumes their journey towards Sirabulter and what appeared to be a calm morning on the road did not end up calm at all. As the party traveled along with a jovial attitude that was broken with the obvious sounds on conflict and yelling in the distance. Before anyone could determine the direction a well dressed Orc and Leonin but haggard looking burst forth from the shrubbery and once the two interlopers see the others, they yell "Help Us! We are being chased by a band of orcs." No sooner did these words leave the newcomers mouths, multiple Orcs from a few different directions burst forth and with a war cry, charged everyone! Everyone in the party broke leather and confronted the band of orcs as now it was more of a matter of personal defense then coming to the aide of others. The battle is fierce and decisive in the favor of the party. As the party drags the orc bodies off of the road the new Leonin introduces himself as Vladimir and his orc companion as Stephonocles, the voice of the marsh. Stephonocles and Vladimir both explain how Stephonocles is a traveling bard and was hired to entertain one of the local settlements of Orcs but well, the Chief did not appreciate the satire in the Bard's choice of lyrics and both of them were chased out of the settlement; then hunted.
Stephonocles and Vladimir both continuously thank the rest of the party and offer to help them in any possible as they do not feel safe with an angry Orc chief that obviously cannot take a joke. After some delegation the party notices soft music playing and Stephonocles explains that it is his lute and it never stops playing.
After a quick lunch on the side of the road, the party along with their new companions continue on down the dusty road. It is late afternoon as the party realizes the strange sound they have been hearing are wing beats and they make out the noise just in time to dive into cover. Though, Stephonocles lute kept playing which alerted the Chimera who quickly changed directions and unleashed a gout of fire where the sound was coming from. The fire burnt away the parties concealment and singed some clothes. The Chimera landed in the middle of the party which caused everyone to scatter to avoid being squished. The party surrounded the Chimera and after a fierce but decisive battle, Prince Claren delivers the final blow as he removed the burden of two of the Chimera's heads from its body.
The weary and bloody party traveled on looking for a safe place to camp for the night and get some well deserved rest. As night fell, the party set up camp under an out cropping of stone a good distance away from the main road. Everyone decided on watches and the party talked with their new found comrades.
As the party starts settling in for the night, they are approached by a group of cloaked ratlike figures that explain how they are wardens of the road and demand tribute. Gareth greats them warmly but with caution as Gareth motions to the everyone else to be on the lookout for trouble. Gareth explains that they do not have much coin to speak of but they are more then welcome to share the fire and some food. The ratlike beings did not take kindle to this offer and the demands became more insistent. Gareth along with Prince Claren and Stephonocles joined in adding that Stephonocles would happily sing them a tune as Stephonocles motioned to the lute by the fire and continues to play. This seemed to enrage the ratlike figures even more and they choose violence - attacking without warning. The sounds of the clang of steel and rat screams woke up the others and the party was able to put down the rats suffering only a few bites to the flesh.
These bites were washed thoroughly as the bodies of the ratlike beings were buried. The rest of the night seemed to pass without incident....
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PLAYER NOTES: I think I mentioned this previously, but I am really enjoying how the Dungeon Master is using things from the characters backgrounds and is creating trails for them like what Harl has experienced in the last couple sessions. These trails are acting like a mini quest of sorts and are revealing about the characters past, mine was just up first. From what the Dungeon Master explained, that each character is going to have a couple trials along the way. I also really enjoyed how the some of the role play happened with the other characters (but especially Prince Claren and Gareth) in regards to my characters sordid past. It has been a long time since I have had any serious PC conflict and I was kind of worried that my character might have got voted of the island so to speak. I think it is going to be interesting how the trust issues are going to be played out and the shift of the new dynamics.
Session Zero Character Profiles have been updated with the two new characters...
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