In the Spider's Web - part VI

Our five adventurers stand in a narrow alley in the city of Rimmen dressed in nothing more but rags and tabards of the elven elite, and in the distance they can see the dying light of a dusk. Despite nightfall the city seems as sprawling and alive as when they arrived under the sun. Without motivation, they simply and randomly dash down one of the two available directions. It's only as they pass their first canal-crossing that they attract the attention of a lone guard that shouts for support as it starts running after them.

They pass through a small square and canal-crossing that houses a quaint place for a hot drink outside and some comfortable seating under the sky. To foil or slow down their pursuers, they reach for lit lanterns filled with oil and fling these at the draping cloth that crisscross above the "tearoom".

In another, larger square they push Val-Hiira onto a low pedestal with a small crowd around it. Together with her stand two male suthay-raht dressed in women's clothing befitting the province of High Rock. The saxhleel mercenary becomes the Footpad, legend thief of the khajiiti, in a mocking comedy about this infamous feline and how he supposedly charmed the women of human nobility.

Despite their unusual attempts to shake their chasers, the growing amount of guards still follow in their tracks. Lost and desperate, they make a final attempt to elude the city guard. They scale the facade of a building by it's many windows. A young child awakes to odd scuffling outside the bedroom window, only to meet the face of a hairy nord dangling just outside. When they reach the rooftops they manage to decide upon a direction towards the gardens. It also disrupts pursuing guardsmen.

Artist unknown. Diablo III concept art.

The dual moons dominate the sky when they reach an abandoned walled garden against the western wall of the city. Beneath the cover of a wild thicket they meet again with the large khajiit that freed them. He unveils his face and names himself S'Rajah, a tribesman of Ne Quin-al and an enemy of the Thalmor. It is revealed that Dro'Manah the aged skooma-cat was really a spy and his witness of the events in Bravil has reached into former Elsweyr. S'Rajah gives them a choice; stay in this city of men as fugitives or follow him and join the fight against the common enemy that wronged them.


Question of the "day" - How do you think Dro'Manah and S'Rajah are connected? And what did Dar'Charrim learn based on the broad khajiiti's appearance?

In the Spider's Web - part V

More formally clad guards lead our adventurers back into the dark, damp bowels of the arena. Instead of the narrow cell they were kept in before the fight, they are now presented with an actual room with both benches and simple beds. Although barred by wooden beams, there's a small window that offers a view of the feet of passers by. They are well guarded, with two beside the door, two more beyond it and one patrolling outside the little window every now and again.

Dar'Charrim is curled up into a ball, shivering and mewing silently in pain. Two women visit their cell, an elderly human female followed by an ageless, slender female altmer. The old woman tends to their aches and wounds with the help of her apprentice that is more occupied blushing at Einhard as the nord tries to charm the young elf. Both women take their time in healing the victorious combatants. As they leave, they are briefly exchanged for two other women that leaves two baskets in the cell. One is full to the brim with various foodstuffs and the other filled with bottles of water and spirits, not the most luxurious wares but still better than water and bread.

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All five of the adventurers remains oblivious as sand trickles into the room from between the slabs of stone and at the edges of the window. Most of them are asleep. Without warning a cloud of dust erupts and is soon follows billows of flame. The four guards by the door thud to the floor, singed and covered by a thin, crystalline layer. Spears of glass have shattered the wooden beams covering the window and allowing access to the alley beyond.

A broad-shouldered khajiit peers into the cell. Despite much of his face being covered by fabric, there's still some facial scarring visible and Dar'Charrim grasp their general meaning the instant she spots them. The feline stranger prompts that the five imprisoned ones should leave end their captivity swiftly, before the patrol returns. Before leaving as suddenly as he appeared, the khajiit asks the adventurers to meet him in the abandoned gardens to the west.


Question of the "day" - Who do you think the unknown khajiit is? And why does he seem familiar to Dar'Charrim?

In the Spider's Web - part IV

Realization about the gravity of the situation sink in with our adventurers. Opposite them, across the battleground, behind a similar iron gate stand three large men, of nord heritage judging by their size. Each wear incomplete lamellar armours, one wield a long and thin blade with both hands while another wield a similar but smaller blade in one hand and a rounded shield. The last of the combatants wields a sling on a pole. The female voice presents them as the "Remnants of the Dragonlands" and fighting for the kingdom of Rimmen.

She then proceeds introducing the random and scarcely armed collection of men, mer and beastfolk as "The Unified Strength of Tamriel" and representing the Thalmor of the Aldmeri Dominion and their emissary. These words demoralize and confuse our adventurers as they gawk at the ecstatic audience or initiate bicker among themselves, all the while gates are lowered before them.

Our adventurers' obvious weakness are their lack of armaments but they have an slight advantage in numbers. Balyn take the two daggers while Dar'Charrim and Einhard grab a club each and the nord also takes the bundle of rope. He and the Val-Hiira are the first to react to three armed men charging towards them. The argonian calls forth a flickering, ethereal battleaxe from Oblivion and without hesitation counters the charge and Einhard joins her shortly after. The slinger becomes the target of magick from two directions, Balyn swiftly closes in and with a touch ignites the man while Synette addles his mind into a frenzy. This combination becomes troubling when Dar'Charrim is pinned beneath a man that is barely aware that his flesh is burning. It's with feline grace, claws and some help from Einhard that she escapes the flaming clutches.

Too increase their advantage in numbers, Synette reaches into the dark depths of Oblivion but something goes wrong and the hunger she conjures is not bound to her will and instantly pounce her. Val-Hiira continues to fight the "dragonlanders" and slashes one down with ease but quickly after the axe fades out of her grasp. Balyn dart towards the lesser daedra that is feeding off his friend, giving it a new and more threatening target. At first he bob and weave, cutting at the fiend while avoiding it's lanky reach but the the dunmer makes one wrong step. The attack was meant for the hunger's neck but instead plunges Balyn's arm into it's lamprey mouth and the sinewy sleeve with hundreds of needle-like teeth closes around his wrist, draining the mer of power while empowering itself. Both Dar'Charrim and Einhard aid in freeing Balyn from the emaciated daedra and sending it back to whatever dark place it came from. Meanwhile Val-Hiira cannot muster enough focus to conjure a second axe and instead utilize her claws and tail to finish off the last combatant.

Silence falls over the entire arena as it becomes clear that our adventurers are the winners. It is replaced by an even greater roar similar to the rumble of torrential rains, drowning out the few booing parts of the audience. For the first time, they have the chance to look around the arena and they spot the balcony decorated with black gilt banners. The elven spectators upon it raise themselves and leave with poise and grace.

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Author's Note - At a point after this session, the system for the game is changed and the players allowed to make changes to their characters. Val-Hiira will at that point forsake conjuration for illusion and would not have summoned a battleaxe in this fight.

In the Spider's Web - part III

The mercenaries, and possible brigands, hand over their captives in the meager shadow of the city's wall to guards with bright, red sashes wrapped on top of purple surcoats. These men, for they were also human, leads them through a twisting, narrow entry. Platforms on the wall allow the exchange and entering to be overseen by archers and even magi. There is no city like Rimmen in the remnant kingdoms of Elsweyr, domes of gold and alabaster crowning circular buildings and as many canals and waterways as there were streets.

City-guards utilize the iron and chain already placed upon them as our adventurers are forced forward along mostly empty back alleys. Between some houses they spot a bustling square with a mass of cheering spectators that have gathered beneath an iron cage that holds two bleeding and fighting khajiit. They are lead down underneath an immense structure without a dome on top. The exhaustion from their travels makes them easily handled when the guards strip them of manacles and chains. In their weakened state they failed to spot the black and gold emblem that adorned their door. All five are thrown into the same narrow cell with a high ceiling with a grate at the top. It allows a few rays of a setting sun into the dungeon that reeks of rancid blood and refuge. Again the only sustenance is a bucket of water and pieces of dried bread chucked in by a bored guard. Despite discomfort and hunger, sleep soon grips all five of our adventurers.

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Their rest is cut short when a dull bustling coming from above turns into an immense roar. Guards line up outside their cell, shoulder to shoulder, dressed in clean and more adorned uniforms. Through the bars they are given five tabards made from dark wool with gilded borders. They are lead from the cell by two guards each, through the snaking dungeon up to a massive, wooden door reinforced with steel. Several men are required to swing the it open. One of them reveals that they are to be executed through gladiatorial combat. Before being pushed beyond the door, the adventurers are handed "weapons"; a rope, two crude clubs and two simple daggers.

Sunlight sting their eyes but as soon as their eye-sight normalizes they see the arena floor dotted with grates similar to the one above their cell and the iron gate separating them from this area. A strong, female voice demands the silence of the excited crowd and welcomes everyone to this battle to the death.


Author's Note - Right now most of my time dedicated to this project has been spent on adapting the system further and making custom character sheets for it. And I planned to host a separate adventure set in my campaign at an RPG convention and that has taken some of my attention. Sadly lack of inspiration and time put a stop to that this time. So today I offer you a longer post and I aim to have another one done this weekend (if everything goes according to my planning as it rarely does).

In the Spider's Web - part II

Slowly they are taken southwest towards the area of Anequina called the Rim, fighting the currents of River Larsius. Only the men and mer among the captives are offered water and scraps of bread while the beastfolk are ignored. The blindfold of one adventurer slips down and his attention is drawn to the riverside by the swift figures darting through the shrinking shrubbery and increasingly gnarled trees, but is unable to identify the stalkers. Meanwhile, Synette is struggling not to succumb to the great shame of lying naked among strangers, men at that.

At a spot where minor streams intertwine with several wadis, often called the source of the river, is where the wardens drag their captives off the barge. A few more mercenaries, some with horses are waiting for the barge at the shore. They place the five in manacles and chains, interlocking them all in a row. Now the beastfolk are given water for the first time, but only enough to survive the journey and no semblance of food. While the wardens take to the comfort of horseback, their wards are dragged along the chain they have tied between two horses.

The sun somehow seems harsher in this land and the air seems greedy about the slightest amount of moisture. Along a cobbled road on bare feet they travel, a road that occasionally disappears under a blanket of sand. Some of the adventurers manage to shake down their blindfolds enough to behold their wardens. Among them are only humans and none wears anything that could be considered a uniform or a badge to signify the presence of an authority. Rather the opposite these men seem like another collection of mercenaries.

Spirits are low among our adventurers, bound in iron and being led through an unforgiving desert. Their judgement at Rimmen seems like a distant worry. But despair is momentarily broken as the alabaster domes of the city rises beyond the dunes ahead.

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Question of the "day" - What do you think is their crime? And what will their sentence be?

In the Spider's Web - part I

Our five adventurers are imprisoned, unarmed, and naked. They make threatening demands to the guards, but they fall on deaf ears. A plead for compassion and mercy is met with equal callousness. One of the guardsmen of the nightwatch exchanges words with them, saying that he hasn't heard anything about the countess, or anyone else for that matter, favouring the lizardfolk. But the head jailer catches him in the act and relocates the young guard and his fluttering lips.

Their slumber is suddenly broken by guards who flood their cell, the adventurers are forcefully moved all the while a statement from the steward is read out loud to them. It explains that they are to be handed over to Dominion officials that are located in the city of Rimmen just across the border into Anequina, where they will receive a sentence for their crimes. Violence is not spared by the guards when the five are blindfolded and pinioned.

One by one, the jailers drag and push them outside where the air is damp and cold and then onto a barge that bobs in some body of water. Each one of them are bound with their backs against a wooden pole and the beastfolk are given some simple scraps of clothing, but not the men nor mer. A combination of exhaustion and the low temperature knocks Val-Hiira out upon the barge, so that she misses when someone rushes down into the canal shouting her name as the barge leaves Bravil.

Flies to Honey - part III

Dar'Charrim appears just in time to join the others in shadowing the black-clad man away from "The Lewd Pauper", which they do but not without struggling and loosing track of their target twice. Again poor families who haven't dared scavenge or steal wood to use as doors are violated by the presence of our four adventurers as they charge through curtains and even walls in their hunt. It ends as the two figures in dark robes meet in the small, muddy excuse for a square in the shadow of Old Lady Luck as dawn breaks beyond the city wall. Before the adventurers have a chance to initiate an ambush, a third person enters the "square". An argonian...

Val-Hiira, a saxhleel mage and our fifth adveturer. Her clutchbrother has a clutch of his own and with some increased violence against their kind, she came to Bravil before the city was closed, to help her brother protect his unhatched young. While at a fishmonger's shop an imperial assaulted her without provocation, an altercation that led to Val-Hiira being thrown into a cell for a few days despite the man being the attacker. In the dungeons she overheard guards talking about the two agitators posing as healers and decided to look into it as soon as she was free. Her search took her to the Great Chapel at dawn where she came across a lone bosmeri woman praying at the main altar devoted to Mara. Discretely following the elf leads Val-Hiira through the rickety slum and to the Bravil's famous statue.

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Before any friendly words can be uttered, Einhard charges towards the suspected dissidents and smashes his spiked club into the face of the female. Despite the severity of the her injury she remains standing long enough to channel a bolt of lightning into the nord. The second one, a skilled swordsman is outnumbered and don't stand a chance against his attackers. Val-Hiira who chose not to fight approaches them with a barrage of question while they quickly loot the bodies, learning that both were wood elves. As they hang up one of the corpses upon the left hand of Old Lady Luck, they hear the shouting of guards and tolling of bells.

All five of them swiftly darts into the shacks and alleys of the slum and tries to hide from the guards and at the same time make their way out, heading north towards the only gate out of Bravil. They all manage to foil their pursuers within the slum but one after another leaves their rickety covers only to be greeted by the drawn bows of dozens of archers lining the city wall. A long, tense moment follows as they are forced to wait under the watchful eyes of the guard until steward Emelion and what can only be the countess Terentius appears up on the wall. Both women are extremely composed and their faces reveal no emotion towards our five adventurers. Despite the countess' presence, it's the steward that announces that they are to be detained for having murdered distinguished members of the Aldmeri Dominion within the county of Bravil. They are all stripped of their belongings and are then thrown into the dungeons.
And so begins a story truly worthy of the Elder Scrolls!


Now I have another question for you, dear reader. Who within the court of Bravil do you think has set them up and why? The steward, the countess, both or perhaps even none of them?

Flies to Honey - part II

As the four adventurers reaches the crest of the slope they are met by the slums of Bravil. Not just a squalid quarter but rather a massive, quilted shack erected infront of the Great Chapel of Mara that stretches across almost the entire major isle of the city. Here Dar'Charrim splits up from the rest of the adventurers to avoid having her cover (read: image) be ruined by the squeamish breton. She scales the side of  a wall that looks least likely to splinter beneath her weight and nimbly jumps across the rooftops. Purely by chance she almost falls into a khajiit skooma den, Dro'Manah is an old suthay-raht among them who seems least addled by the drug. When asked about the helpful, dark-clad strangers he leads Dar'Charrim to a "leprosarium" nearby where one fitting the description visits frequently. The old khajiit feigned letting the young adventurer to enter first and then slipped away. One of the afflicted within corroborates that an elven healer clad in dark robes comes to visit them often, their only visitor. In fact, the leper says she is deeper inside as they speak. But this is where the khajiit's luck runs out as a diseased child grasps her wagging tail and Dar'Charrim reacts by kicking the young child away from her, subsequently being run out of that place.

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Balyn and Einhard instead decides to head straight for the closest brothel and drags poor, innocent Synette with them as they weave and squeeze through alleys and recesses, even walking through a few homes. They finally reach "The Lewd Pauper" which is simply leather and and cloth strung up between a circle of homes and a collection of crates and barrels for seating. The dunmeri madame suffers the blunt advances of Einhard, who then buries his head in her bosom. Despite the treatment she shares that she has heard one person mention favourable treatment of argonians - a drunk who taught nobody would know he was a member of the Bravil Guard if he came to the brother dresses in a canvas sack. In the meantime Balyn comes across other associates of house Dres that have made no effort to hide their brands. The most talkative among them keeps a twelve-year-old nord girl by her long braid and every now and then pauses the conversation to force his into throath, bringing tears to her eyes. The only thing he has to add about the argonians is that denizens of the city should treat them worse, but he reveals a man fitting their vague description came to the establish not more than a glass before.


Now let me ask a question to you, the reader. Who do -you- think the two dark-robed figures are and what are they doing in Bravil? Did the steward have the correct information about them? Reply in the comments!

Flies to Honey - part I

Our four rag-tag adventurers locates the ruins of a forgotten chapel northwest of the rope bridge and in more or less silence lingers past dusk. As lady Synette tries to banish the encroaching darkness by conjuring magelight, the spell is misscast and becomes a powerful eruption of light and sound (read: flashbang) that is sure to have been noticed within the city's walls. So much for discretion...

After having waited for eight glasses (one glass = half and hour), a figure approached them. Behind a dark wool cloak were eyes the colour of sprouting leaves and an angular face. They struggled to determine the gender until Emelion, altmeri steward of Bravil's countess, began to speak. She explained that the court feared that the threat of an uprising within the city was very real. This due to rumors being spread that the countess herself and several members of her court have been befriending argonians in Bravil and treating them favourably, while ignoring the plight of men and mer. The steward of course explained there was no truth to the rumors but that they still needed to come to an end. Two dark-clad figures, posing as dignitaries,  have been spotted all around Bravil's poor (poorer?) areas since before the gates were closed and she says the court believes these two are seditious agents that seek to organize a rebellion. What Emelion asks of the party is that they make their way into the city under cover of the night and locate the two agents and dispose of them and any more followers unknown to the court. She also clarifies that they have tried to utilize the city guard clad as paupers but that the agents have always been out of reach, as if they knew the faces of the entire city guard.

The adventurers accepts without much inquiries for steward Emelion and heads for the shores of the Niben Bay where they locate a rickety raft and three poles. It is with some hesitation they set off onto the bay. They struggle not to drift on current and risk reaching too far depths for their poles but by plunging their arms into the water manages to steer back towards the city. While submerged, Einhard's left hand suffers the cruel bite of a slaughterfish. They enter Bravil through the baygates and silently makes their way up the steep docks.

Greedy Beginnings

Foreword

I am a bit unsure how to kick things off here on the blog, I don't want the posts to just be recollections of each session, I want them to be about the world woven around each event that takes places during the course of the campaign. But I will still start off by sharing the beginnings of the story, just to give me a few topics to subsequently cover afterwards. More posts similar to this are bound to make their way onto the blog no matter how much I resist, because there are just some parts of their story that have to be told.

Prologue

It is the 12th of First Seed, year 171 of the Fourth Era. Almost two centuries of uncertainty has passed since the Oblivion Crisis and the Emperor Titus Mede II ascended three years ago to the throne of a crumbling empire. Despite the squalid conditions of Bravil, it is a city and a location that has been important in the history of Cyrodiil since the age of the Ayleids. During the early years of the current era, Bravil and her neighboring city Leyawiin broke away from the rule of the Empire but has since joined it again. Officials of countess Terentius have reached out beyond the walls of the city in search for mercenaries to aid the county in a delicate, but unspecified predicament.

A party of three and a lone wanderer came traveling along the Green Road, following the promise of septims and connections to royal blood. But they are cut short by two guards at the rope bridge that leads to the city gate of Bravil. To their surprise, they learn that the city has been closed for almost a month's time, but refuses to share details as to why. As one of the travelers, quite ungracefully, blurts out that they have come to handle the countess' delicate problem, both guards scoff and points all willing mercenaries towards the chapel among the ruins that surrounds the city. (http://oblivion.nexusmods.com/mods/20426 - I love this mod series, it added much needed depth to the wilds of Cyrodiil and I just had to incorporate this particular one into the story.)

Our Adventurers

The trio is an odd group that has traveled together all the way from Skyrim, both out of necessity and the pleasures of having company. First on foot was lady Synette Copperwing, a breton mage who was forced to leave Winterhold after a failed conjuration and the youngest of all the adventurers. A similar failure was also was the reason she left her home in High Rock and a life of opulence, now she has begun to understand the power of coins. On her journey south her path crossed with a man that became her guide. Einhard, a nord that tries to outrun some dark events of his past. He was once a thug associated with the Thieves' Guild in Riften, but was forced to move on when he was again haunted by things from childhood memories. Together they saved the last one of their trio from meeting his fate inside the stomach of a sabre cat. Balyn, a dunmer agent who struggles to keep all of his secrets. In his baggage he has quite a few old business contacts, among them is House Dres and the Morag Tong. He remembers Morrowind from before the Red Year, which makes him the oldest among the adventurers. Lastly, the lone wanderer goes by the name Dar'Charrim and is a suthay-raht khajiit alchemist from Pellitine. After having been dragged into skooma smuggling she decided to leave the company of her own people and travel Tamriel as a potion-peddler but racial prejudice has crippled her success and forced her find alternate ways to earn an "honest" living.

Later on three more characters will join this rag-tag bunch of travelers, but they'll be introduced when we have come that far in the story.