History - Book 1 - Cold Comfort

The party - composed of the Ura (Wolvenfolk) Barbarian Korr, the West Elf (Wood elf) Ranger Aythys, the Fel (Catfolk) Sorcerer Brale and Hugh Mann, the Human Life Oracle.

Driven from the South by the Dour Faith and its army of professional killers known as the Grey Legion, the individual adventurers found themselves filtering into the small trapper depot of Broken Blade alongside hundreds of equally defeated refugees.

Soon the party members had discovered one another through various means and decided as a group to meet with the nobles that had erected a fanciful tent in the centre of town. Inside the luxurious shelter they were introduced to Elder Snowfang the Ura Champion of Autumn-Til and the displaced High King of Autumn-Til - Aaron IV.

Aaron, being a halfling preteen looked to his adult wards for advice, and soon Snowfang was issuing orders for everyone to find enough supplies for the beleaguered refugees.

The party, agreeing to work together for the interest of the desperate masses, broke up into teams and went looking for meat, edible plants and firewood - their generosity and initiative inspiring many of the other southerners to lend a hand.

Meeting back up at dusk the three teams had secured several days worth of essentials, but their activity had not gone unnoticed by some of the more aggressive local denizens. With whoops of vicious glee over a hundred goblins poured from the forest to assail the civilized folk.

The battle was short-lived as the gathers, led by the skilled party members slaughtered the green vermin enmasse and sent their enemies fleeing back into the darkness of the trees.

Emboldened by overcoming their first adversity the group returned to Aaron and Elder Snowfang to plan their next move. Exploration seemed to be the best course of action. Broken Blade was far too small to accommodate the continuously arriving southerns and far too close to the hostile Grey Legion to assure anyone’s safety.

Exploring the Hinterlands, full of dangerous ruins and barbarous folk seemed their only real option for survival.

As fortune would have it, a South Elf priest named Denethal arrived at the depot. Claiming that the goddess Polira had given him a vision of a place where everyone could gather - an old Geld ruin known to the locals as Cold Hearth.

Wary of their new benefactor (despite his purported worship of the Mother of Hope), the party decided to travel to the ruin and judge for themselves.

Cold Hearth fortunately proved to be a dead dungeon. The savage Geld traditionally had ways of granting their unnatural lairs unholy life, turning the very caverns where they dwelled within into guardian beasts full of traps and summoned monsters.

The dungeon was empty save for a hive-rat colony (a swarm of rats with wasp-stingers in place of normal tails), Aythys’ stock of Alchemist Fire and Acid Flasks just barely dispatched the rat swarm and made the dungeon safe enough to be used as a temporary shelter for the refugees.

Items of note - the party found a Handy haversack and an Alabaster Owl, Figurine of Wondrous Power (as Serpentine Owl, but a snowy owl named Moshie).

Next, Denethal told them of a second dungeon, called the Skittering Depths. Aaron, his East Elf councillor Suanna and Snowfang agreed that continued exploration would be beneficial. The refugees started transforming Cold Hearth into a squatter’s retreat as the party of Trailblazers pushed further into unexplored reaches.

Within a snowy canyon the party found the entrance to the Skittering Depths. Claiming the Cold Iron weapons within the antechamber. In the bowels of the dungeon they could hear the ominous heart of the ruin thrumming rhythmically.

The group slew giant spiders and minor demons, while claiming some modest treasures with the help of Brale’s new owl companion.

In a hidden room full of gravestones and an altar the party managed to eek out a victory against the tomb’s final guardian - an advance Necrophidius.

Korr plunged a Cold Iron dagger into the malachite heart of the Skittering Depths and unwittingly returned control of the temple to the Goddess of Lies - Dyamona.

The dark Goddess’ avatar appeared before them, and everyone knelt, save Brale who could not bring herself to actually bow to such an evil being. In turn she was struck ill by the displeased goddess.

Impressed by their skill, Dyamona chose them as her champions. Telling them she regretted her role in forming the Grey Legion and warning that the Dour Empire must be destroyed before the imbalance caused by them ends the entire Wurld.

To prove her sincerity she produced the infant form of St. Ethereal (Lawful Good), the lost god of bravery and humility.

They took the blue-eyed, blue-haloed baby and Dyamona vanished in a cloud of ash and smoke.

Denethal came forward, having been outed by his mistress Dyamona as her servant. The priest promised to aid the refugees and keep safe any that were brought to the Skittering Depth’s ruins. Where he would protect them in his goddess’ name.

The party acquiesced and departed for the surface.

Outside they found King Aaron, the preteen having followed the party in a well-meaning effort to help them explore. It soon became apparent that someone else was following the missing King though, and Brale’s owl Moshie quickly identified the pursuers as Grey Legionnaires.

Gathering up the halfling king the party made haste for Cold Hearth but were overtaken by a nasty storm.

Aythys became hypothermic on the journey, while Brale remained sickened by Dyamona’s wrath. Finding an abandoned farm the party gathered in the dilapidated house and started a small fire.

Midway through the night the relentless Grey Legion caught up and thirty soldiers began searching the property.

Several attempts by the party to set the barn on fire with arrows met with dismissal failure in the storm. As the legionnaires entered the house the party hid on the second floor and readied for the worst fight of their lives.

At the last moment the soldiers inside were called away, just as they were about to discover the King and party. As the evil men disappeared into the night, Aaron emerged from behind a flapping curtain, and smiled at the confused adventurers.

“Did you see?” he beamed, happily indicating to the god-baby clutched in his small arms. “I prayed to St. Ethereal, and he made the bad men go away!”