Session 1

In the world is a Feywild island, Falconer's Isle - a name that, within the Feywild, is not so much a name as a description. There is only one Falconer, an archfey in service of Lord Oran, and he possesses only one Isle. On the Isle is a city and a vast forest, full of all kinds of natural resources, from game to gold. The Falconer's people, by society and habit, are hunters, gatherers, and magicians - learning a trade to work goods, by the Falconer's laws, is either forbidden by custom or actively illegal, as the Falconer believes that the presence of anything that boosts the hunter's natural abilities spoils the hunt. However, due to fey being basically crazy, trading in worked goods is not illegal. As such, when Falconer's Isle makes worldfall - an irregular and unpredictable occasion - ships from all around come in to trade worked goods for the Isle's abundant natural resources. The most sought-after trade is "the hundred-and-first blessing", where one of the Falconer's arcanists is "gifted" with one hundred and one worked goods. She will keep one hundred, and give back the last with an enchantment placed upon it. The enchantment, and the nature of the gift, is at the whim of the arcanist; it's a gamble on the trader's part, and no few merchants have gone bankrupt chasing the hundred-and-first blessing.

When we join our heroes, Falconer's Isle has just been reported as making worldfall, and the ships are coming in from all around. Each member of the party has his own business with the Feywild or the Falconer's Isle, and they are the only passengers on a boat heading for the Isle. The larger ships were all booked out by merchants, many seeking the hundred-and-first blessing; smaller boats, with little or no carrying capacity, were easier and cheaper to book passage on. This small ship had two decks, a single mast, and sixteen oars for when the craft was becalmed. Due to its small weight and hull, it stayed mostly to shallows, which very likely saved the heroes' life.

Out of nowhere, from a clear sky, a storm blew up - going over the course of five minutes from a light shower to an all-consuming storm. The boat was battered against rocks, one of them tearing out most of the lower deck and all of the oarsmen; the mast and lookout were blown apart by a spike of lightning; the riggers were blown overboard or tangled and torn by flying sheets; and the captain was blown over the side and crushed between the boat and a rock. The boat was battered between the rocks and blown onto land, a final series of blows that left our heroes unconscious.

They woke up the next morning, and as they regained their sense of who they were, so too shall we. The party consists of Quinn, a half-elf shaman, who has never seen the Feywild; River, a shifter avenger, devoted entirely to the Raven Queen and Her capricious-seeming bidding; Zantose, a human fighter, a strong and capable defender; Tarak, a half-orc rogue, decidedly morally ambiguous; and Faelias, an eladrin wizard, trained as a potent war wizard and fount of unrefined power. It was clear at the slightest glance that the boat wasn't going anywhere. A little more glancing revealed a white walled city, with a nearby lighthouse - with a beacon that, plainly, had not been active last night.

After some consultation, the party decided to climb the lighthouse and see the area. While everything seemed deserted, the stairs had recently been repaired, and the beacon was filled with stacked-up wood, as if to make a light... Quinn, close to the environment as a shaman, noticed that much of the wood was green. This meant both that the wood was stacked up recently, and that whoever stacked it up knew nothing about lighthouses, as green wood would make a great deal of smoke and very little fire. The party looked out over the city to get their bearings, learning that the city was spread over both an island (where they were wrecked) and the mainland. A full half the city covered the island, and there was exquisitely maintained... with nothing at all seen to be moving within it. Between the island and the mainland were three bridges, each around two hundred metres wide and somewhere between five hundred and seven hundred metres long. On the mainland, in stark comparison to the island, the city looked rundown and lost. "Barricades" of fallen items blocked the roads, the buildings were half-collapsed, and everything lacked the care and repair of the island half of the city.

Deciding to look for landmarks, the party spied an obvious government building - a dome, a staircase, pillars and statues - and made this their destination. They also noted that the only way into the city from this side was via the port and customs house, and went back down to see if they could find a way in. The large doors were locked, and while any windows that weren't entirely intact had been entirely removed, Tarak nearly got his hips stuck endeavouring to enter that way, and the party called that off as a bad job. Looking around, they found a mechanism by one of the jetties that unlocked and opened the doors... or ostensibly did, anyway. Pulling the lever, the doors unlocked and started to open... before they jammed at a large stack of boxes on the other side. Deciding that subtlety could only take them so far, Zantose made a bull rush at the doors, managing with a feat of raw strength to force them open enough to let the party through.

The party searched through the customs house, making their first port of call the recording office - knowledge, at this point, was more treasure than gold. Everything was extremely neatly organised, and Quinn was briefly creeped out upon realising that each record officer's journal was placed in EXACTLY the same point on their desks, to the centimetre. The first log book had an unusual dating system, referring to an almost zodiacal Year of the Dragon, Year of Force, et cetera. None of the party could understand this system. The last entry referred to a seemingly innocuous intake of barley for the garrison; however, a week or so before the last entry, another was notable: "Port locked down. Authorised trade only." Another logbook, which River flipped through, had standard dating. Again, most of the entries were innocuous, but on the same date as the notable entry in the previous logbook, the journal-keeper had written - with some excitation - "State of war". Comparing the two books, the party discovered that the last entry on both had been made on the same day, and that day was about thirty years ago. Using the customs house maps, they determined that they were on the continent Gandra. Gandra had little contact with Angaladra or the Ordered Kingdoms, and no unified empire had been formed due to agricultural issues... though the particular nature of the agricultural issues, none of the party could recall. They took the logbooks with them.

River also found 20 gp in a sack in one of the desks, which was pretty cool.

Out of an adventurer's congenital need to loot everything, the party inspected the crates. They couldn't find a crowbar, so Tarak attempted to pry one open with a knife; in doing so, he managed to bend one of the nails in on the lid to an extent that Zantose's strength could not pull it open. Deciding that the grapes were sour anyway, they moved on into the city.

The path into the city was mostly between warehouses - two stories tall at a minimum, and built right up against each other, with the road between them only fifteen feet wide. The overall effect was extremely claustrophobic; perhaps that was why Zantose wasn't looking where he put his feet, and ended up stepping on a trigger plate.

From the first floor of a house to their left, repeating crossbows started to fire from the windows. Seeking both cover and a way to disarm the trap, the party decided to run into the house. Since it had worked so well at the customs house, Zantose bull-rushed the doors, breaking them open easily (it turned out they were unlocked) and at the same time falling heavily into a false-floor pit behind the door. The party managed to make their way in by means of jumping, with Zantose climbing out, and they noted that while a part of the ground floor was open to the first floor (a segment with a set of stairs), where they were they were in cover from the crossbows. After some debate about just staying here, they decided that sooner or later they'd have to take down the crossbows anyway, and headed upstairs. The stairs, however, were also trapped - a circle of glyphs around the top stair teleported the unwary to the street outside, where the crossbows were quite happy to shoot them again. Quinn was hit by this trap, and then Tarak (some players reasoned that this was simple curiosity as to where Quinn had gone), while River and Zantose made their way up. Faelias remained on the stairs, drawing on his power to fling magic missiles and scorching bursts at the crossbows. River, running to introduce the crossbows to his fullblade, stepped on another trigger plate due to the curse of Listening To The DM's Advice (normally I'm much nicer, really), and a spinning contraption of whirling blades fell from the ceiling, whirling with general death among the party. Tarak and Faelias shot down the crossbows, and River bisected the blades, rendering what had come to be affectionately known as the Death House safe.

Investigation revealed a diary and map that had been kept by a military commander, and that the traps had been designed to keep his command post - a desk with smashed magical communications and farseeing devices - safe from invaders. The diary revealed that the commander had taken most of his lessons from General Ripper of Dr. Strangelove, and that almost all the threats he worried about were simply paranoid delusion. Three interesting points came up from this: firstly, that he mentioned a "threat from the land and sea" that seemed much more legitimate; secondly, the report of a "special corps" that had been "acting much more human recently"; and thirdly, that the last entry in the commander's journal was the same date as the last entry in the customs log books. The fall of the city, the party assumed, had come quickly. The map was a military map of the city, detailed and precise. Quinn searching the desk yielded a drawer with a false bottom; since he still had a healthy fear of the Death House he left it to Tarak to open with superior rogue skills. Tarak found an ebony box containing a lovely ornate dagger, which the party took with them. After a short rest, they moved on.

Outside the government building they had struck out towards, four homunculi patrolled - clay scouts and arbalesters. Having barely escaped the Death House the party were not eager to engage another fight. Since the map revealed that the town hall had a back door, the party timed the homunculi's patrols, and sneaked past during a blind spot.

Inside the hall, everything seemed pristine. Curious, however, Tarak lifted the carpets in one corner, to reveal that they had been newly-laid; underneath, the carpet was badly burned. Evidence around the area was consistent with a major fire. The mayor's office had many places for tapestries, but only one survived unburned, showing a massive magical factory, and stating that the town revelled in its industrial splendour. Triggered by this, Quinn saw an "Industrial Quarter" on the map, with one particularly oversized building that could have been the factory on the tapestry. Looking at the map, River investigated temples, and found two; one on the northwest, in the Industrial Quarter, and the other on the eastern side, in what was apparently a residential area. Deciding to kill two griffons with one ghost chain javelin +6 - or similar ridiculous statement - the party went to the temple in the Industrial Quarter.

The temple, like most, was dedicated to the entire pantheon of the good gods. There was an offering of fresh fruit on the floor in the centre of the temple, and another on the grandest altar of the lot, that of Moradin. River left a half day's rations on the altar to the Raven Queen and bowed in prayer; in appreciation, he received a message from his god. Tarak and Quinn, atheists in so far as that's possible in a world with obvious gods ("Just because I know the gods exist doesn't mean I care") took the opportunity to chuckle at the churchgoer; the DM, deciding to continue being a bastard, made a couple of dice rolls to make them think they might be on the receiving end of a smite. In "the DM just rolled some dice" mood, the party left the temple quickly, and - with a fantastic Perception check - saw a humanoid figure moving in the distance. Since there had been no other sign of life throughout the town, the players gave chase!

In the resultant skill challenge, Tarak and Zantose gave chase at full bolt through the streets, while Quinn and River took a different tack - Quinn pointed out a set of decorations on one wall that was near enough to a ladder, and River, half-shifted at this point, scaled them easily and landed to cut off the figure's retreat. Surrounded, the creature turned out to be... a creature that looked like a young child, made of metal, and with no face.

However, it didn't attack, and the party decided to assure it that they meant it no harm. Its manner was robotic, stilted, stopping-and-starting, but it was happy to answer all manner of questions. The party questioned it intently, and were rewarded with a treasure-trove of knowledge; the city, in the absence of human presence, was watched over by a group of warforged. They did this in memory of "the dead who are mourned and protected", as opposed to "the dead who are defiled and unmourned", with whom they battled. Quinn's player, and very possibly Quinn himself, began to mutter the words "Skynet! It's Skynet, man!" quite frequently.

The warforged boy led the party to the large factory, which turned out to be the warforged's creation forge. They saw the creation of a warforged, pulled out of a mould and led away. The boy told the party that the warforged gathered fruit to offer the gods, and that more could be brought to feed the party; it mentioned that the warforged's creators had been killed, and that they continued to fight the war they had lost, guarding the crypts. Quinn was worried that by "crypt", the boy might mean "people farm", and asked to see the crypts - the warforged boy left to find someone with more authority, and Quinn took advantage of solitude to warn the rest of the party that these free warforged were definitely rebelling against their human masters, that "the dead" was a statement of intent rather than nature, and that they should be ready to fight for their lives if necessary.

"Someone in authority" turned out to be a gold-finished warforged called 109. Unlike the boy, 109 spoke with a much more dignified and human tone; Quinn questioned this, 109 revealed that during their construction the warforged chose their own aspects, personalities, and abilities, Quinn freaked right the hell out. 109 led them to the crypts, while a visibly frazzled Quinn asked many, many questions about "the dead who are defiled and not mourned", trying to make sure that they were not on their way to being used to feed the furnace. This led to 109's line that was perhaps the turning point to the session:

"You would perhaps call them... un-dead."

While the party, especially Quinn, required more evidence than "fighting bad people" to proclaim the warforged "good people", this did calm a great deal of their fears, and begin many more. They continued to the crypts to make sure they were secure. The crypt was set under the eastern temple, which had the same offerings as the northwestern - but also one to the Raven Queen, to make sure the corpses lay still. In the catacombs, bodies were stacked like cordwood (the DM used the analogy of the Catacombes de Paris), and 109 said that sadly, they had not the time nor resources to give each mortal a proper burial. Two ornate tombs were kept at the back of the crypts, of great heroes of the city; the party worried that this might be the source of the infection, but decided that opening them to check would not draw 109's affection. As they left, River did draw 109's affection by paying his respects at the Raven Queen's shrine.

109 described the situation - that a necromancer had come to the continent from another shore, and installed himself upon the mainland. He had taken the mainland side of the city, and continued battering at the island from the bridges and the sea. His motives were unclear - perhaps partially conquest and partially farming, for each living creature that died could be reanimated into his army.

Back at the forge, the warforged had made the party some furniture, and upon seeing this creation the party asked about ship construction. 109 spoke quite regretfully, saying that they could certainly make a vessel to take them back to the mainland... but that they would require payment. It specified that they would need to help the warforged retake the city for "the dead who are mourned and protected" - the city's former inhabitants - before they could divert enough of their resources to build a boat.

Quinn felt himself lacking in firepower, and asked 109 if he could be provided with a magical totem. 109 said that this was somewhat outside of its own sphere of influence, and went to retrieve the warforged shaman, Woodsland. Woodsland wore leather armour all over, and something a little like a headdress and a little like a wig made of leaves and grasses, approximating skin and hair while at the same time showing closeness to the land. Quinn liked it a great deal, only more so after Woodsland revealed that it could certainly create a totem for him, if provided with the proper ingredients - which it would meditate to discover. The two shamans "shook hands" by having their spirit companions exchange farewells, and Woodsland headed away.

This was when the party met the General, and all of Quinn's buried freakouts returned in force.

The General was the biggest of any of the warforged, standing fully ten feet, wielding two fullblades on its back in a way that suggested it wielded both massive weapons at once, holding a greatbow at its side, and coated with thick, heavy armour including a terrifying helm. While Quinn gibbered, it informed them of the necromancer's power, his lichdom, his fortress, and the few pockets of resistance over Gandra. The party asked for a map of the continent, showing where points of resistance were, and the General agreed. It mentioned that the undead mostly attacked at night (mostly), and that it would be grateful for the party's assistance to protect the bridges that evening.

Asking for the much more personable 109, River asked where the party could rest. 109 considered, and then decided that as long as payment was involved, it would not be disrespectful to the dead who are mourned and protected to give the party rooms in the inn. For one copper each, the party bunked down, and rested - knowing that that very evening, they would be called into battle.