The Friends have finally arrived at Fort Duvno. They find a town packed with soldiers, not all wearing the Duvnovian symbol. The learn from some soldiers that The Company of the Moon, a mercenary company, has been hired to help out around the keep. Here they inter the body of Enzo the Hireling and Baronson Rolf-Hydel-Amecouth, previously stolen by the vampire Cortier. They see the baron here for just a moment where he offers his deepest thanks. They do not meet with the baron for several days.
Things do not look good for Fort Duvno. The beastmen seem unaffected, or perhaps even masters of, the enchanted forest. Where Amecouth’s men are seperated, tricked, beguiled and otherwise fall prey to the woods, the beastmen roam in unbroken organized packs. Amecouth now relies on precarious scouting missions while the beastmen grow in strength on the edge of the woods. Morale is failing - the men do not get along with each other - and now there are rumors that the company of the moons leader may be about to leave rather than endanger his men. And that’s despite good money.
The Friends would love to help, but they have to meet with Baron Voghtairi. The meeting place is decided to be Mount Pasture, the volcano in the bay of Solemnity. While they rest, Monkey meets an Ajira-ni soldier and they plan an attack on a dickhead Orthosian soldier who’s boasting and picking fights with the Ajiran army. After they rough him up, Monkey goes in for the kill, but is fought off by the Orthosian who flees alongside the Ajira-ni (who wants no part in murder). The next day Monkey is reprimanded but let off for his association with The Friends. They leave before he can start more trouble.
This session was the first instance in what would become an ongoing theme of not knowing how to prep urban sites. For this area I prepped some points of interest and some NPCs, but I found it hard to make them relevant. It led to an interesting interaction with Monkey, which was nice, but the overwhelming majority of my prep went unused.
I think if this was more of a sandbox scenario it would be useful to have these NPCs around, especially since they’re concrete embodiments of the crisis in Fort Duvno - soldiers not getting along, tension in the air. The Friends were compelled to move away quickly to pursue their goal. In reflection, this underpinned pretty much all the troubles I had with the urban game. My sandbox prep falls by the wayside when the players have concrete goals they’re already pursuing. This is intended, I think. Would have been good to realise before I agonized over it for so long :P
In Lobstown they meet Melony-Zoshk-Laquor, the ruler of Lobsland and widow of the late earl Lobsang. She has been informed about the situation with Voghtairi and offers a boat to the friends. They also ask if she will come with them as witness to the meeting. At this stage, only The Friends and Amecouth are convinced of Voghtairi’s villainy. With a sending spell, Balthazar recruits Marquis Alant-Ratan-Rosse of the lawful council, a man he has talked to before. The marquis meets The Friends during a short stop in Solemnity.
Before they get to the Volcano there is a moment of respite. The Friends talk about their goals for the meeting, their journey so far. Their successes, their failures, their hopes for the future.
The boat anchors a ways from the Volcano and they row ashore. After a somewhat arduous climb, the summit Mount Pasture.
Baron Voghtairi stands at the edge of a giant stone overlooking the overgrown caldera of the volcano. He clutches his golden staff, the hem of his robe just disguising his hooves. His horns gleam in the sinking sunlight as he turns toward The Friends.
"I will tell you a story of Orthos' history. In my grandfathers time, The Lawful Council ruled unaided by a monarch. Their power never fully consolidated, their rule was rife with powerful thieves. The Ruxis Cabal was at full strength in those days, not shattered like it is now. But the people struggled against the acts of the cabal, and soon out of the struggle came Ebberech Claes, the face of a religious movement called The Tenets of the New Nation of Knights. He claimed to have found ancient religious texts describing the nation of Orthos as intended by its ancient rulers. His movement grew, and soon The Lawful Council was facing an increasingly adversarial population. Principally, they called for a true monarch again. To placate the growing movement, The Lawful Council found a ruler in the young grand daughter of the last king: Mahd-Ratan-Cecily. Being young and inexperienced, she was easy to control. While she sat the throne, the Lawful Council improved the training and resources of the Black Rose Knights. When they shattered the thieves guild and drove the thief king into hiding, The Lawful Council should have had nothing in their way to seize total power."
"But the queen met a noble from Ajira, an upstart king who had claimed destitute Kohm to the north, and fell in love. With his experience navigating the pharaohs court, Cecily grew independant of The Lawful Council, and began exercising her power to restrict theirs. She became Concubine Queen, and greatly loved by the people. For it was not always as it is now, with the queen being hated for her entanglement with Ajira."
Then came Amaratos of Emerald Fronds. Exploiting the queens love for her concubine and his black powder technology, he quickly established a foot hold in Orthos. With him came hungry noble families who could not prosper under the pharaoh to drink the teat of Orthos' riches. As is their custom, they demand gifts, not of jewels or gold, but of men to serve in their oppulent villas as useless guardsmen. And because the queen is blinded by love, she relents. The army shrank and grew fat on luxury."
"I see what Amaratos is doing. He is but the first to sniff out a weakness in our nation. To the south, the snake lord of Hemesh stay strong, taught by the harsh jungle. To the north, the ever bloodthirsty beastmen. Beyond them, The Witch Queen of Awn, and further still, the Pharaohs Legions. These people will smell our weakness and they will attack to claim that which they have wanted for hundreds of years.
You may disprove of my methods, but you cannot disagree with my intentions. A strong, united Orthos. A nation of magic, not rampant like the failed sorcerer kings, but controlled and harnessed. Together, we could not be stopped, and all the bloodshed could come to an end. Join me, Friends of Orthos. I need to make one thing very clear. I am going to win. I have uncovered the answer to every riddle, there is no knowledge left obscured to me. I offer you this chance to ally yourself with the future king of Orthos."```
The next two hours were spent in a deep political discussion. The Friends learned that Voghtairi's plan is to use the beastmen to destabilise the nation enough for him to take out the queen and recapture it with powerful sorcery. The party spent lots of time debating things out of character and in character. My crown achievement of this whole campaign is when one of the players looked up from the transcript of Voghtairi's speech and said "Guys... I think he might be right."
As the sun sinks lower and lower into the horizon, Solemnity begins to shine with golden light. Looking upon their city, The Friends reach ultimatum. Despite some solid arguments, the method cannot be justified. Countless innocents will die in Voghtairi's conquest. He must be stopped.
What really kicks things off is the whispering in Friends' magic greatsword. It's reaching a cacophanous tone. He can't bear it much longer. Without being fully aware of it, he grabs the sword. Voghtairi brandishes his ruby sceptre.
“What did you think to accomplish here, Baron.” Friend rumbles.
Voghtairi thinks for a moment. “I had hoped this would end cordially.” ```
He can take it no longer. Friend draws the sword of his back and charges at the baron.
Very fun session today. Lot’s revealed, and the party took to the politics really well. I’ve been wanting this kind of game for a long time. Not all the players were as invested as others, so I feel a little bad that they just kinda sat there listening for four hours, but there’ll be some more D&D shit next session, especially since we’re starting with a fight.
Friend didn’t actually attack of his own free will. His sword had a only-vaguely-defined power where he could ask it if he was in danger. Suspecting Voghtairi of lying about the alliance, he asked if he was in danger, and I reasoned that he’s next to a man that could very well blast him with a fireball if things turn sour so I said yes. Ironically, this is what caused things to go sour, so maybe it works in a kind of cursed item way. In any case, this power got retconned later, so I thought I’d make the dramatic version a little different.