Session 1: Setting out from Starforge

Six people, lightly armed and provisioned, set out from the village of Starforge under a darkly clouded sky.

The party is a heroically muscular elf, a dour dwarf with an iron cudgel, and a half-foot spearman, together with three humans: two men, a mage in black and a swordsman; and one woman, draped in maille and brandishing the mark of the vicious Red God.

Day One

Travel on foot is slow, despite taking the well-trodden highroad north. The hours of marching pass uneventfully, through the woods outside the village to where the road opens onto the wide plains.

There the party leaves the road to cut a trail directly towards the mountain pass and the old ruins beyond. A light rain breaks out while they cut across stands of trees and wild pasture.

At last the countryside gives way to the forested slopes of the mountain, and the pass between them where lies the infamous "Black Grotto", littered with the ruins of a past dynasty.

Even at a distance, the travellers feel something's gaze settle over them: four figures, so pale they look nearly green, and all women, peer from behind the boughs of ancient oak trees. Indeed, the area is ringed with fallen pillars—doubtless their sacred grounds.

The dwarf, likely the most noble-hearted of the six (and certainly the poorest) steps out to plead for safe passage, but can't muster a word before falling unconscious onto the floor of roots. In a rustle of leaves, he's gone!

Then the mage intervenes, demanding a bargain with the faeries. The nymphs are clear: trespass is forbidden! But through service, the five might win their companion back, and more.

Thieves pried a golden tablet from the ruins, the original dedication of the grove to the dryads, and fled south into the mountains. Buy the right to pass by punishing their crime and returning the tablet...