🗓 Session 1 – 🪶🎲 Debts and Feathers
📅 Date of Session:
2025/03/23
👥 Party Members Present (in order of appearance):
- Voss Dain – Half-elf cleric; broad-shouldered, red-haired, confident, and gruffly good-natured. His humor borders on sarcasm, masking his pragmatism and quiet moral compass.
- Nelvax – Human monk; streetwise and easygoing, with a gambler’s charm. Quick with a grin and quicker to act when others hesitate.
- Xaniver – Eladrin sorcerer; composed, curious, and sharply perceptive, carrying himself with calm poise and a faint air of otherworldliness.
- Harlekk Wynnchym – Kenku bard-warlock; a small black-feathered performer in colorful scarves and a wide-brimmed hat, radiating infectious optimism despite his eerie, flightless form.
📍 Locations Visited:
🎲 Session Summary:
🏰 Visit to Lord Signmonder’s Estate
- The party arrives at Lord Signmonder's estate, once the old royal castle now gifted to his family.
- Two Redcloaks—fully armored elite guards whose identities are hidden—escort the party through the gates.
- Nelvax recognizes one of the gate guards as Tony, a gambler from the Three Nines casino.
- The group observes the estate’s lush gardens, magical lighting, and watchful stone lions with glowing eyes.
- Inside, they meet Lord Signmonder, a stern dwarf with an ornate axe marked by the Dwarven God of Battle.
- In this world, divine power stems from ideals rather than named deities.
- Dain and Signmonder greet one another as old battlefield companions, trading jabs laced with mutual respect.
- The group explains that a bugbear named Golfa at the Triple Nine burned a Coatl Feather, ruining a halfling’s heirloom and debt payment.
- Signmonder denies involvement or knowledge of the transaction at the Lucky Leap, appearing genuinely confused.
- The discussion raises suspicion that someone may be impersonating Signmonder, leading to speculation about The Golden Masks, a secretive network of shapeshifters, spies, and thieves.
🧩 The Golden Masks and a Favor Owed
- Signmonder suspects the halfling was scamming the group on behalf of the Golden Masks.
- He offers the party a new task—retrieving his horse, Miss Ivory, from the Roomland stud farm, located near a windmill on the outskirts.
- The payment: 15 gold pieces each and one shared favor from Signmonder.
- The party senses he’s withholding something. Nelvax and Harlekk read him well enough to know there’s danger he hasn’t shared.
- Pressed, Signmonder admits that Lord Wedress reported strange lights, rituals, and whispers of witchcraft at the windmill.
- Signmonder fears accusations against another noble, Countess Unper, without proof, and sends the group to investigate quietly.
- He warns of possible cult activity or a hag’s influence, but assures the group it may be “mere rumor.”
- The party accepts the mission, shaking hands before departing.
🐴 Journey to the Roomland Estate
- The group leaves the city and travels through rolling, cleared hills toward the Roomland Estate.
- The evening air turns acrid with smoke as they crest a hill—the farm and stables are engulfed in flames.
- Nelvax spots a slain guard, freshly killed by a blade, still bleeding into the dirt.
- The team rushes forward as panicked horses scream within the burning stable.
🔥 Horse Farm Inferno (Skill Challenge)
Initiative Order: Nelvax → Xaniver → Harlekk → Dain
Round 1
- Nelvax: Sprints to the stable doors, throwing them open; the sudden airflow fuels the blaze. Quickly assesses the spread—roughly thirty seconds before the far stalls ignite.
- Xaniver: Casts Rime’s Binding Ice in a wide cone, freezing four stalls and momentarily halting the fire’s advance.
- Harlekk: Rushes inside, opening the first stall and calming a terrified brown horse with gentle words; successfully leads it out.
- Dain: Arrives behind the others, slowed by his armor but readying rope and gear outside.
Round 2
- Nelvax: Attempts to mount a panicked horse to ride it out—fails the calming check, the horse injures a leg in fright.
- Xaniver: Uses Minor Illusion to conjure a barking border collie behind the white mare; she bolts free—Miss Ivory identified.
- Dain: Dodges aside as Miss Ivory bursts through the doorway, taking a glancing hit (2 bludgeoning). Secures her lead rope outside.
- Harlekk: Opens a second stall, speaking softly; the nearby horses calm and follow him out.
Round 3
- Nelvax: Vaults from a wall onto the frightened brown horse’s back, using agility to steer it out through the smoke.
- Xaniver: Calms the black stallion, coaxing it to follow.
- Harlekk: Leads two horses toward Dain but is scorched by the rekindled flames (4 fire damage).
- Dain: Manages multiple leads, tying them together and anchoring them near the well outside.
Outcome:
All six horses—three brown, one black, one chestnut, and Miss Ivory (white)—are rescued.
The stables collapse behind the party as they regroup in the yard.
🧙♂️ The Man in the Barrel
- Nelvax discovers a water barrel behind the burning house emitting faint noise.
- Inside is an elderly man named Jaggen, soaked and terrified.
- He explains that Countess Unper and her servants attacked the estate, capturing the Baron, Baroness, and their children, and setting the buildings ablaze.
- Jaggen claims she took them to the windmill on the hill, and that “dark things” were happening there.
- Grateful to be saved, he gives Nelvax a carved wooden Ring of Animal Influence, featuring etched animals.
- As Nelvax slips it onto his hand, he senses a faint connection to the horses nearby.
- Jagen agrees to watch over the rescued horses while the party investigates further.
🌙 Arrival at the Windmill
- The group travels up the hill as night falls.
- They spot the decrepit windmill, its sails tattered and moss-covered, faint orange light flickering from inside.
- Overhead, the full moon glows with a bite missing from its edge—a normal but unsettling remnant from the Age of the Dark Angels.
- The party halts on the hillside, preparing to investigate the Countess’s domain.
📌 Notable Moments:
- Dain and Signmonder’s reunion blends camaraderie with suspicion.
- Nelvax’s quick thinking and agility save multiple horses.
- Harlekk earns admiration for risking fire to save the last horse.
- The group learns of Countess Unper and Golden Masks, connecting noble politics to shadowy forces.
- The moon’s missing piece serves as an ominous visual motif, first noted here.
💰 Loot:
- 15 gp each (promised upon completion)
- Shared Favor from Lord Signmonder
📦 New Items:
- Ring of Animal Influence – Given to Nelvax by Jagen
🗨️ Quotes:
“If you can’t save them all, at least get Miss Ivory!” – Dain
“Be careful around fire; you never know when it will catch.” – Xaniver
“I’m not a horse enthusiast, if you know what I mean.” – Dain
📚 Leads and Discoveries:
- Lead - Completed Countess Unper’s Rituals: Jaggen’s warning about the kidnapped nobles at the windmill.
- Lead - Completed The Golden Masks: Criminal faction possibly impersonating nobility for profit.
🗺️ Quest Updates:
- ✅ Rescue Miss Ivory – Complete.
- 🔜 Investigate Old Grinder – Ongoing.
- Investigate the Golden Mask - Ongoing
✅ Things to Do:
- Investigate the windmill and confirm the fate of the Roomland family.
- Determine the nature of Countess Unper’s rituals.
- Return Miss Ivory safely to Lord Signmonder once the investigation is complete.
🧍 Major NPCs:
- Lord Signmonder – Dwarven Crown Warden; head of the royal military, former comrade of Dain.
- Tony – City guard and gambler, acquaintance of Nelvax.
- Golfa – Bugbear owner of the Triple Nine Casino; burned the Coatl Feather.
- Lord Wedress – Noble who reported the windmill’s strange activity.
- Countess Unper – Noblewoman accused of dark rituals and kidnapping.
- Jagen – “Old man in the barrel”; survivor who warns the party and gifts Nelvax a ring.
🏳️ Factions:
- The Redcloaks – Elite royal enforcers; intimidating and anonymous.
- The Golden Masks – Criminal syndicate of spies and shapeshifters.
- The Tower – Magical authority overseeing sanctioned spellcasting.
- The Crown Protectorate – Military arm under Lord Signmonder’s command.