Session 1 of the Emerald Knights Saga

## Summary

Six months after becoming Emerald Knights, Ulric Ironguard, Felgrun Moltenforge, and Jan Wycliffe are sent on their most important mission yet. Althara's allies the Republic of Xanten and the Principalities of Iskavhr have both been defeated by the Kingdom of Vinheim, and the trio has been assigned to form an alliance with the lizardfolk barbarians of Etherea.

They leave the Emerald Keep in the early morning to begin their quest to the distant continent by following the southern road through the dangerous Resting Woods. The trio encounters little traffic on their route, and as the day continues they come across an overturned carriage lying on the side of the road. They investigate the carriage's interior and discover blood trailing into the forest. Deciding not to deviate from their quest and pursue the trail to its source, Ulric confiscates a bag of coins found in the carriage as official evidence and the group continues down the road.

Later as the trio is walking, Jan feels a presence following them from behind and in the trees. As they follow the road, they suddenly come to a large wall of thorny vines that thoroughly prevents them from reaching the other side. Felgrun attempts to hack a path through the vines with his axe but they regrow faster than he can destroy them. After that fails, Ulric shoots a cone of fire at the wall, but this only succeeds in setting the surrounding forest ablaze. With the group quickly running out of options, Ulric climbs a tree close to the wall and discovers that the wall bends to prevent anything from crossing even from the top. While in the tree, Ulric senses the presence Jan felt watching them previously, and he regroups with his companions on the ground.

They decide to cut through the forest to reach the rest of the path, and while in the trees they are ambushed by a savage thorntail. Ulric shoots it with the Glock 9000 and it flees into the dense trees. The trio makes it to the other side of the wall but they are quickly attacked by a second thorntail, with the first soon returning to flank them. The Emerald Knights slaughter the two beasts, and put one of their corpses in Felgrun's storage chest for safekeeping.

Continuing through the forest they come across a dilapidated temple. The temple contains large stone carvings of religious figures, and Felgrun and Jan feel their divine powers diminished while inside. Ulric discovers an ancient rusted sword buried beneath the rubble in the temple's interior, and the sword calls to him psychically. After arguing with Jan over whether or not it's okay to loot a religious site, Ulric takes the sword with him.

As night falls they reach the edge of the Resting Woods and the Red Mountains. Rather than risk a journey through the dangerous mountain path, and on Felgrun's recommendation as a dwarf, the trio decides to travel through the much more inhabited Raoul's Pass beneath the mountains. Entering the underground road, the group discovers that it is devoid of life and full of lifelike statues of dwarves. Curiously, the candles and torches in the entrance tunnel were recently lit. Continuing further into the caves, they discover the source of the statues, a ravenous basilisk. The trio battles the enormous monster, defeating it seconds before it succeeds in turning Jan to stone. Felgrun chops off the basilisk's head with his axe and stores it in his chest, before the group follows the path deeper into the mines. They reach a large central room, and find that it contains twenty more basilisks.

## NPCs Encountered

No NPCs were encountered during this session.

## Monsters Encountered

* Thorntail
* Basilisk

## Items Gained

* Bag of coins
* Thorntail corpse
* Rusty Sword