The Hunt for Goreshade 1 - The Odd Couple

I thought it might be fun to do a sort of session recap of my IKRPG sessions. As you know, I played my first game Saturday with two players. Keep in mind that I had an entirely different adventure planned until I was left with 2 people, so a lot was made up on the fly.


First, the cast!

Fallofel - A Mage Hunter/Bounty Hunter from the kingom of Ios. Fallofel has a particular hatred for the lich Goreshade who is responsible for killing Fallofel's family. As such, this cold hunter has determined to stop at nothing to bring justice to the elf-turned-lich, even if it means working with a human whose irresponsible use of magic is slowly killing his god.

Mercir - A Priest/Arcanist from the Church of Morrow. Mercir was trained to battle the undead, and it was almost serendipitous that he should be tasked with joining the violent and haughty Fallofel in his quest to put an end to Goreshade. Although the two have run the gauntlet together as they chase leads and fight evil, Mercir holds no illusions of friendship. Fallofel is dangerous, but useful. Should he become more trouble than he's worth, Mercir will have no choice but to take him down.


And so it was that the two warriors found themselves once again riding in silence. It had been some time since they'd dug up a good lead, but they hoped that journeying closer to the Thornwood would turn something up. With Fallofel's stomach growling, they were relieved to spot the tiny town of Sirus.

As usual, the two went their own ways immediately. Fallofel tried drumming up any potential bounties to help fill his empty coin purse, while Mercir went to see his old friend John at the local Morrowan church. After spending quite some time catching up, Mercir could tell John had something on his mind. It was at this point that Fallofel burst through the doors, having been unsuccessful in finding work.

John explained that two local hunters hadn't returned from their hunting cabin for several weeks. Although no one in town was concerned, John suggested speaking to the wives, hinting that they may find a soft bed and hot meal if they agree to find the husbands. The two left the church and headed straight for the local tavern and inn.

Mercir sat down, tossed a gold to the owner, and smiled when his hot meal was delivered. Fallofel could only sit and watch his partner eat - too broke to buy anything and too proud to ask Mercir. As they discussed what John had told them, a rather drunk woman approached them and introduced herself as one of the hunter's wives. After sharing her concern, Mercir found it impossible to help, and they accepted her offer to stay at her home for the night.

The next day the two set out in the direction of the cabin. The path was soon lost, but after some clever tracking Fallofel was able to get them headed in the right direction. After several hours the cabin came in to view, and they two could just make out a man sitting outside. Wary as always, the two decided to creep through some bushes to get a closer look. Mercir hung back a bit, knowing stealth was never his strength, while Fallofel crept close enough to barely notice another person on the opposite side of the house. The cabin had no windows that opened to him, so Fallofel set a clip in his repeating crossbow and signaled for Mercir to go back and approach them from a distance.

Little did Mercir know that a third person had been watching him from high in the trees. As the priest doubled back, Fallofel heard a faint, unmistakable sound of a body softly landing on the ground. Blending in perfectly to the forest, the elf's crossbow followed a man as he slowly followed after the clumsy priest. As Mercir finally cleared the dense forest growth and began approaching the man by the cabin, Fallofel remembered that he should probably wait to see how things played out before murdering someone.

As Mercir drew closer, protection runes flared around him as he once again trusted is life to the crazy elf. The man outside the house called out and demanded he identify himself. Mercir could only start explaining himself before the man behind the house joined his friend. The two men started muttering together, and Mercir noticed that one kept looking at something in the brush.

It was clear that no good was going to come of this, so Fallofel took aim and let a bolt fly at the man trying to get the jump on the priest. The brush caught the bolt and sent it in to the man's shoulder, eliciting a shout of surprise before a second arrow caught him in the chest. The two by the house ran up and let off two quick shots at the priest, missing both shots in their haste. As they tried closing the distance, Fallofel popped up and sent a bolt in to the head of each man.

Mercir saw the door of the cabin swing open as a 4th guard had clearly been woken up by the gunshots. Mercir ran up and threw out a bolt of energy that took a chunk from the door. The guard tried to orient himself enough to retaliate, but it was too late as the priest let loose a second spell that put the man back to sleep for good.

As soon as they looked through the door, Fallofel's eyes immediately saw something wrong with the bear skin rug. There was a patch of dried blood on the floor in front of it, but the blood didn't continue on the bear as it should have. Suspicious, he tossed the rug aside and was greeted with a strange, black piece of metal set in to the floor. Knowing he should leave it to the priest, he began searching the cabin.

Under one of the mattresses he found a very strange letter rolled in to a piece of leather. The language wasn't something he'd ever seen, but after a quick glance Mercir realized it was something that needed a key to be translated. The priest then sat down and started analyzing the black metal. It was clear this was a magical trap often used on doors and chests. After some careful rune manipulation, Mercir was able to easily disable the trap, causing the black metal to become immaterial and reveal a ladder reaching deep below the earth.

Shrugging, the two climbed down and prepared for whatever was to come. The ladder ended outside a wide room with boxes piled all around. The walls looked like they'd been carved with fingers, although they weren't sure how that was possible. With only a handful of torches doing a poor job of lighting the room, the priest focused and sent runes spinning around his head, causing the entire room to be easily visible. As he feared, their battle upstairs had alerted whomever was working down here. He saw three men hiding behind boxes around the room, and felt a bit of rage as he saw a few undead forms in a poorly made cell in the back of the room.

Signaling to the elf, the two quickly exploded in to action. Mercir went left, surprising a man behind a large pile of boxes with an energy bolt to the chest. Fallofel went right, flushing two men from their cover with a few well-aimed bolts. As he drew closer to the cell, Fallofel saw an older man in a blood-covered surgeon's gown moving to release his six undead minions from their cell.

The elf tried to put them down, but six mindless forms rushed him too quickly and he found himself trapped. Mercir summoned a beam of radiance that tore through several bodies while his partner finished off the rest. At this point, they noticed the strange arcanist from the cell was trying to escape. Not bothering to take prisoners, they blocked his escape and promptly ended him.

Satisfied that there were no more surprises, the two went to work trying to figure out what was going on. The poorly made undead made it clear that this person was an amateur, and they found the ritual book he'd been fumbling through in order to make them. Mercir found the key for translating the letter they'd found and started working through it while Fallofel started going through crates.

Piecing together the contents of the boxes, as well as a rough sketch of what this room would eventually look like, it appeared that this was destined to be a production facility for the masses of thralls that Cryx used in their battles. Although it was fortunate that they found this, it was also a bit concerning, They didn't know what it meant until Mercir finished the letter.

"Axen, you are expected to have your facility up and running soon. I expect Goreshade to make his way here in only a few months time, and you don't want him to be disappointed."

How could Goreshade get all the way up here in only a few months? The border of the Thornwood was well guarded by mountains, and any area he could move through was guarded by Cygnaran towns. What on earth have they gotten themselves in to now?



And that's my long writeup of our first adventure. It's been ages since I've done much creative writing, so expect it to get better.

See you tomorrow!