Campaign 1

Campaign 1, or "The Tale of Locksmith's Bane" follows Locksmith's Bane, a band of adventurers who met in the town of Northolde in 1021 TE. They include the wizard Arine of Riveryew, the warlock Lord Darcy Hall, and the paladin Orion Brightward. The campaign is still ongoing. Their journey has taken the trio through Western Thorn on a mission to uncover the secrets of Tzermir's Tome. They are currently residing in Pontoporea.

## Sessions

* 001: The Shadows of Northolde
* 002: In Search of Daylight
* 003: Heart of Stone
* 004: The Heroes of Hazelstump
* 005: Nights of Lust and Liquor
* 006: The Fall of Darkstone
* 007: The Finest Soup of Pontoporea
* 008: Street of Fortune
* 009: Lady of the Knight
* 010: Of Rats and Flumphs
* 011: Worries of the Coming War
* 012: A Series of Left Turns
* 013: The Problem of the Goblin
* 014: The Council of the Coming War
* 015: A Lack of Silver Spoons
* 016: Cave of Old Flames
* 017: The Dungeon of Mortund
* 018: The Last Days of Pontoporea
* 019: Beaks of Burden

## Synopsis

The following contains spoilers for the Tale of Locksmith's Bane.

**Part I: Journey to Pontoporea**

Arine, Darcy, and Orion first meet in The Library of Northolde, in response to an open letter by Prunia. In the Ancient Collection, Arine finds Tzermir's Tome, Darcy breaks down a door, and they all meet Deirdre who had been haunting the library. Although they have a nice drink at the local pub, their stay in Northolde soon turns sour, fighting Shadows, the Northolde Guard, and ultimately the head of the guard, Chief Reaper. In their final fight, Arine sets fire to the Yellow Goat Inn, and they are forced to leave the town by The Wizard of Northolde, Tharrow.

They set off west, into The Dusk Woods with Deirdre, where they met Sir Cygnus, the Enduring who is on a quest to Pontoporea to inform them of a coming war with The Larsinian Empire. In Fearn's Rest, they answer the quest of Hunter to find his daughter Daylight. They meet the inhabitants of The Twinning Trees and follow the river Donal to a cave. Inside they face trials to enter The Fungal Pass, and are recruited to delve into the underground land of Espora, to retrieve the 'Moist Stone' from its city, fighting Troglodytes in their path. Finding the moist stone, and retrieving Daylight, the adventures party in the Twinning Trees, and follow a light to Bethelda's Hut. Bethelda informs them of the nature of Tzermir's Tome - needing to find the corpse of Tzermir in Tyrnia to open the book.

The trio head to Hollyfield, where they meet Lord Jimothy Strayth, who buys them clothes and invites them to the ball of Lord Pelt. The adventurers agree, searching the house for clues about the Lord. During the ball, Darcy and Strayth have a brief romance, Orion falls down some stairs, and Arine talks through doors. In the night, they secretly officiate the wedding of Lady Merritha Pelt and Lady Arildabeth Hollow. The next morning, Lord Pelt is found dead, and Inspector Norman Bluegem hunts down his killer. After more deaths, a protective gargoyle fights Darcy and Orion, as Arine investigates a soundproof room. Defeating the gargoyle, the adventurers discover that no-one at the party killed Lord Pelt, it was Nadia, a Will-O-Wisp follower of Darcy's patron, Lillith. Darcy kisses Strayth goodbye.

The adventurers meet Stefan, who offers them clean water in Hazelstump. They meet the villagers, including Verrida, who uncovers a root under her floorboards which shows the trio various pieces of knowledge. After the adventurers help build a house, with Orion almost killing the villagers in the process, they find Verrida missing. The group head into the village tomb, where they fight Skeletons and are saved by the roots of the hazel stump, Coll. Coll's guardian, Jane, instructs them through Coll's puzzles to meet the stump, as Verrida had previously done. Completing the puzzles, the adventurers find Verrida attached to Coll's roots, holding her son's corpse, in an attempt to bring him back from the dead. As she fights the tree in her mind, Orion hits her and she wakes up, flying away with her dead son, Alexander. They are granted answers to some of their questions, but Coll tries to steal Tzermir's Tome. Jane helps them to leave unscathed. In reward for building the house, Stefan and his wife, Miriam, take trio on their carriage to Pontoporea, with the villager Helena, and her daughter, Céline. They stop at Walnutton reuniting with Cygnus.

As Cygnus leaves on his quest to Pontoporea, the adventurers join the the Slayers of Darkness, an adventurer's guild, fighting a mimic door and deciding to name themselves "the Knock Knocks". During the trip they meet the beautiful bard, Harry, Darcy hooks up with a local merchant Donna, and Orion attempts to woo Helena with Darcy causing trouble. They head to Bronzesmith and fight a Wererat in return for free weapons at the smithery, before carrying on to Sorrington. Orion and Helena spend the night together, before Stefan and Miriam go missing. They are found tied up in the stables, but their horse, Clop and their carriage filled with pumpkins has been stolen, likely taken to Darkstone.

The adventurers change their name, yet again, to "Locksmith's Bane" and rent horses to Darkstone. They find a woman, Geraldine, with Clop, but no carriage, agreeing to heal her father's back in return for the horse. After their interrogation of the Horse Merchant, Riffie, goes poorly, the adventurers go to Geraldine's father's and Orion heals him. They learn that Tasha Dennison, daughter of the Lord, runs a criminal Organisation called The Flaming Hand. The trio try to speak with her, but she fights back on a high, narrow staircase. In the fight, Darcy slays Tasha by accident to save Orion, but Orion falls off the stairs, badly injured, with broken legs. Lord Dennison apologises for his daughter and Orion goes to be healed in the town's medical center. Arine and Darcy join the Lord in searching Tasha's room, to find gargoyles and dragon eggs. With the carriage found by the Darkstone guard, Locksmith's Bane return to Sorrington, bruised, before continuing back to Pontoporea the next day.

**Part II: The Tournament of the Silver Knight**

In Pontoporea, the heroes stay in Brannagh's Town, where the The Windy Way (Inn) isn't serving food. Esrafin, the chef, is on strike, hoping to join the Tournament of the Silver Knight and become a famous adventurer. Darcy and Arine help him rediscover his love for cooking and serve soup for everyone. During a night at the opera, Locksmith's Bane run into Cygnus yet again, who informs them that the only way to speak to Lord Rosen about the war is to win the tournament and be knighted as The Silver Knight in a private ceremony. After Orion teaches Darcy to swim, the trio, and Cygnus, head to Silverhall, with Darcy disguised as Lord Dennison, to enter and be granted an audience with Lord Rosen. The Silver Knight, Sir Edwin Dennison, emerges from the gates and refuses to aid the group.

After Darcy takes out money from his father's account, and Orion and Arine buy some books, the group venture to the adventurer's guildhall with Cygnus, signing up for the tournament, in the hopes to win and speak with Lord Rosen. They train and bathe together before Locksmith's Bane take Helena, Céline, and Darcy's tailor-date, Sandra, to see the Great Diviner and have their fortunes told. As Celine has her palm read, the group are informed that she recieved a vision from Coll of people dying when she next speaks. The adventurers seek answers for their coming quests, to which the Diviner grants them cyptic clues. As Darcy hooks up with Sandra and Orion visits a clockwork shop, Arine discovers information on Tzermir and The School of Chaos in a museum.

Locksmith's Bane reconvene at The Ampitheatre of Pontoporea, ready for the first round of the tournament. In the first round, against The Barbarian Brothers, Orion quickly wins with a simple trick of flooding a chamber, extinguishing a flame. The rest of the day is spent on a quest to infiltrate the noble seats and speak to The Mayor of Pontoporea in order to send a message to Lord Rosen. Darcy disguises himself as Jimothy, parading Helena on his arm as 'Merrideth Sackville'. Orion joins them as a guard whilst Cygnus, Arine, and Céline search the library of The Castle's Keep to find more information on dragon eggs. Their search goes poorly until Arine, through the help of Fownai, uncovers more information about Tzermir. Meanwhile, Darcy and Orion's quest goes south. Although they manage to give a letter to the mayor, Helena is caught and interogated by the city guard. Sir Edwin aids in freeing her. After the ordeal, Orion ends things with Helena for her safety, and the party train by the river.

Returning to the Windy Way, Cygnus and Orion bond over talk of their shared deity as Arine and Darcy dance with the common-folk to Harry the bard's music. As Harry begins to play a tune, Céline is upset by it. Helena shares an awkward wave with Darcy and ignores Orion. The next morning, Darcy posts a letter to Jimothy, and is given free portraits by an artist selling the group's image. Locksmith's Bane regroup at the amphitheatre for the second round. In the round, the group are victorious over The Eagles, succesfully communicating with Flumphs through their emotions. After the battle, the group ride with the mayor to Silverhall Castle, where they meet the powerful Lord Rosen. He informs the group that they will remain in the tournament, search out the Flaming Hand in Ferripont, and stay to fight in the war, whilst Cygnus will go to nearby towns. After their meeting, the group have a frank discussion of their quest and what their options truly are.

The group dine at the Windy Way, coming up with the idea of letting their opposing team take the title of the Silver Knight. From Esrafin, they learn that their opposition are The Fiends: Turatyl and Elvina the Unnatural. From Harry the bard, they find their location in The Blended Goose (Inn). After an awkward discussion, the trio come to the conclusion that Elvina should take the title and they should throw the third round tomorrow. After Cygnus speaks with Mayor Humble to stay for the tournament, Locksmith's Bane are granted access to the Riverstream Library, where they search for information on Tzermir. Although there isn't much to be found, Darcy manages to guess the password to enter Archmage Grennis' private collection, where they find maps and *The Red Book of Emily Opphas* which reveals the likely location of Tzermir's corpse as Typhrus, an ancient city, thousands of miles away. In despair, the group go back and forth on whether to leave the city on their larger, longer quest, or stay and fight in the coming battle. They decide to split up and purchase horses to flee the city.

However, as Arine comes to realise the sheer distance of their quest at Brannagh's Bridge and Orion begins to question what is the right thing to do, Locksmith's Bane regroup, coming to the conclusion that it would at least be best to stay for the end of the tournament. Returning to the Amphitheatre for their final task, the adventurers are greeting by an adoring crowd. The final round is the cube, a maze of Grennis' design, with three layers. Arine, ready for a puzzle, takes command of her team. The first layer is dense. With Arine's keep-to-the-left strategy, they are quickly outmatched by the Fiends. The second layer causes the players to become death and blind, but the heroes manage to feel their way to the stairs leading up, arriving before their competition. Finally, the third layer remains blind, but contains four levers. The levers twist and turn the cube. With Arine as the cube's controller, the team manage to escape before the Fiends, champions of the tournament. After a fancy lunch, the trio return to see Sir Cygnus battle Sir Edwin for the title. Cygnus wins. Yet, before they can celebrate, the mayor announces the war to the public, shutting down the city. Locksmith's Bane, to a booing crowd, are escorted to The Mansion of the Silver Knight where they plan to bring a list of people they wish to protect.

In the mansion, Arine, Darcy, and Orion meet Yremi and Fidget, human butler and goblin maid respectively, who welcome them to Cygnus' new home. Although Yremi seems open to the group, ready to make a fancy dinner for their many guests, Fidget seems to harbour some contempt. The group read, pray, and play the pianoforte individually before their guests arrive. The guests are puzzled by their appearance at the mansion, but join together in a feast, in which Miriam gives a profound speech after Stefan's own on pumpkins. During the night, the groups split up, with Locksmith's Bane spending some time away from each other. Arine has an awkward evening with Fownai, Darcy has fun with Sandra and Harry reenacting plays, and Orion messes with weaponry alongside the Fiends. Cygnus, Helena, and Céline are also in the mansion, but speak little with the group before going to bed. During the night, Orion spotted Fidget leaving the Well Room, and thus decides to explore it with Arine and Fownai in the morning. Meanwhile, Darcy and Sandra have a steamy time in the bathing room. In the Well Room, Arine and Orion find and solve a puzzle to open a secret passageway. Inside, they find yet another gargoyle. Panicking, Orion orders everyone to get ready with weapons and locks Fidget in the secret passage. Yremi finds him in the hallway and tells him that the gargoyle is to protect the Silver Knight, and that the Silver Sword is missing. The group head downstairs and free Fidget. There, Sir Edwin Dennison meets them, and they fight. However, Fidget brings it all to a halt, and the Gargoyle comes when Cygnus is threatened. In a zone of truth, Edwin gives the group information on the Flaming Hand, and its leader, Mortund, in Tyr's Pass. They let him and Fidget go, Cygnus leaves to warn towns of the war, and Fownai interjects with information on Mortund.

**Part III:**

Fownai describes Mortund as coming from the tale of The Cave of Mortund, obviously taking the character's name as inspiration. In response, Locksmith's Bane hold a meeting with their guests on their plans, coming to the conclusion that they must seek Mayor Humble's permission to leave the city, into Tyr's Pass. The rest of the day is spend with Orion speanding some downtime in his room, Darcy taking a wine-bath to secure more powers from Lillith, and Arine studying in the library, having a frank conversation with Helena about Orion and Darcy. The Mayor agrees to the trio's quest, securing them healing potions, and the group find disguises, holding another meeting, and saying their goodbyes. Escorted by two city guards, Locksmith's Bane finally leave into the continent of Tyrnia, stopping in the district of Ferripont to serach the area for signs of the Flaming Hand. They find Eliza, a horse-merchant at the market, and Darcy sneaks in as her to speak with Claire, a rat-loving member of the Hand. However, things go south as Darcy is soon surrounded by Were-Rats.

Darcy manages to talk his way out of harm, agreeing as Eliza to help the Flaming Hand in taming were-rats, now that the Dark Stone has been moved to Tyr's Pass. Locksmith's Bane continue their journey out of Pontoporea, riding passed the poverty of Wolbeth's town square, and the refugee...