The Shadows of Northolde

A Shadow from Northolde

The Shadows of Northolde is the first session of Campaign 1. The session saw three adventurers arrive at the Library of Northolde in response to Prunia's notices.

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

## Plot

Pray Day 1 Chauntoro 1021 TE

Our tale begins in the town of Northolde, in The Kingdom of Thorn, a well-known stronghold town north of Duirith, the Kingdom's capital. Within the town's library three adventurers meet the call of a notice posted in the cities surrounding Northolde:

"Notice. To all adventurers. Please ride for Northolde. The library requires urgent assistance. Many thanks, Prunia, Head Librarian. REWARD 20gp."

First to arrive is a young paladin with long, flowing blonde hair, heavy armour, sporting the red ropes of the god Ilmater, a handy warpick, and a naive grin; Orion Brightward. Orion enters noisily to the greeting of Va, the library assistant, handing her the notice he found in Duirith. She asks him why he has brought the notice, and hopes that others have come also. Orion apologises and sits in the waiting room for Prunia.

Second to arrive is a very clean, handsome young man, with curly, parted hair, a simple leather shoulder strap, and a confident smile; Darcy Hall. Darcy enters, walking past the hulking figure to his right, and straight towards Va. He too shows a notice from Duirith, and is quickly asked to join Orion. The two do not speak, sitting with a space between them.

Finally, a short wood elf, with a strong tan, yet wavy, ginger hair enters the library with eager eyes and a large spellbook; Arine of Riveryew. She wanders up to Va, displaying a third notice, this time from the city of Mytia in the east, before being ushered into the middle seat.

The three adventurers are forced into speaking as they wait for Prunia. Each introduce themselves: Orion describes himself as a paladin from Moropont, a small fishing town of which no-one has heard, on a quest after turning 20 to do right by the world under the power of Ilmater; Darcy announces himself as Lord of the house Hall, aged 25, living just outside Duirith, he is nobleman who has left to avoid a marriage and found himself powerful after a strange dream; finally Arine is a 125 year old wizard from a small town called Riveryew in The Grey Forest on the way to The Queendom of Eabha, she has ventured out into the world, seeking knowledge above all else.

After their brief introductions, Prunia arrives from upstairs, greets the trio, shocked that only three adventurers have answered her call. She soon brings them through the reception area, stacked with books to be shelved, and down some stairs into the library's 'Ancient Collection'. She tells the three that the collection is a thousand years old, and was owned by Tzermir, the first Wizard of Northolde. She has been ordered not to enter, especially into the locked, restricted section of the collection. But she has heard strange noises. The Northolde Guard refuse to enter. Therefore, she has taken action into her own hands, advertising for adventurers. She leaves them in the ancient collection.

The space is dimly lit, candlelight burns throughout the collection. They group immediately turn left, following a long corridor of brown, leather-backed books. they find the end of the corridor, where Arine's elven eyes spot a black book at it's end. She wanders down and takes the book, attempting to open it. With all of her might, she is unable to do so, but places the book in her backpack. As they retreat, they find a door beside the entrance and another passage to the right. The door has been painted the darkest black, with a skull upon its front. Before the shocked eyes of Orion, Darcy decides to break down the door, slamming his foot on its lock. The door slams open drowning out the disapproval of the lawful paladin. The adventurers stumble through. Within is a small corridor, filled with the same brown books. They follow until they reach an open area.

Within the area are three objects: a beautiful, long sword is strapped to the wall; a pixie floats in suspended animation within a jar by sword's right; and a broken jar, likely of the same make rests on its left. As the three inspect the area, Darcy's fancy trousers are torn by a crawling hand as it sinks its claws into the flash of his right leg. An attempt by Orion to strike the creature is in vain, slowed down by his giant armour. Arine manages to blast the hand with a fire bolt, leaving behind its ashes. In pain Darcy limps alongside his fellow adventurers down a final hallway. Before them is a small translucent figure in a pointed hat. As they approach, the figure calls back to them, in fear that they will hurt her. As they see that this creature is a ghost, she reveals herself to be Deirdre, a halfling wizard's assistant who travelled into The Dusk Woods in search of mushrooms for Tharrow, the current wizard of Northolde. She felt a sharp pain in her back when reaching down and was being chased by a dark shadow. She seeked refuge in the library and knocked over one of the jars. She didn't mean to break anything, and hopes the trio will forgive her. She asks to be taken back to Tharrow.

The adventurers retrace their footsteps, ignoring the passageway on the right. Climbing back up the stairs, Prunia screams in horror at the ghost following the three, speaking of the halfling in subtly racist undertones - obviously not malicious, but from a place a fear. Prunia grants the adventurers their 20gp each in reward.

Wandering out of the library and into the town square, the adventurers sneak the ghost past the crowds and to the wizard's tall tower, at one of the corners of the town's thick stone walls. They make their way up the winding steps to the small room of Tharrow. Inside is a bed, bath, bookshelf, and a long brass speaker leading out onto a balcony which looks over the city. On a potions-filled desk, lays the body of Tharrow. The wizard awakens from his slumber, disturbed, hungover, and yet still a little drunk to see his assistant as ghost. Without too much shock, the wizard bottles up Deirdre to fix later, placing her on his shelf, and threaten Arine who has been eyeing up his collection. He suggests the three should follow him to the local tavern and have a drink after their first adventure to water down a juicy goat. The trio follow the drunkard, leaving Deirdre behind, and head into The Yellow Goat Inn. The place is packed with travellers on their way in and out of Duirith.

After a nice meal and some ale, Tharrow is out for the count, slamming his brow on the sticky tavern table. Just the three of them with no mission, the adventurers sit in silence before they order more from a friendly Tiefling bartender. Darcy offers her a gold piece tip for which she thanks him. She tells the group that she is saving up for a house with her fiancé Va. A drunk man soon harrasses the tiefling on the other side of the bar, both coming on to and belittling the woman.

The group finsih their drinks and head out, leaving Tharrow in his meal. On the way, Darcy bumps into the drunk harrasser. The beast is furious, and turns around. To distract him, Darcy casts a minor illusion, causing him to believe the man behind Darcy bumped into the harrasser. He picks a fight with him and the whole bar erupts into cheer. The adventurers attempt to leave the bar, but are stopped by the arrival of the town gaurd. The guards blame them for the noise and threaten to arrest them for the night. The chaotic crowd of the bar burst out of the doors at the sight of the guards, and the trio disperse with the fleeing masses. The three slip down an alleyway beside the library to break from the crowd.

After a moment's rest, darkness befalls the alley. A Shadow creeps from a gap in the stone wall of the library. The creature blocks the path of the adventures and launches an attack. Orion reveals his war pick, charging the creature. His weapon goes straight through the shadow. Darcy summons a blue smoke from his palms, unleashing an eldritch blast from his finger tips. To help her light-visioned companions, Arine lights up the passage with balls of light and causes the ground the shake beneath her. The shadow remains unaffected by the ground, but recoils in the light. The creature launches itself at the wizard, but the paladin leaps through its darkness as a distraction. He feels a chill as he enters. The shadow is not distracted however and continues towards Arine. To save her, Darcy fires a second blast at the shadow, pushing the creature into the light of day and a frightened crowd. With a fire bolt, Arine sets the shadow ablaze. It burns up into nothingness. The crowd roar.

From the windows of the alley, people look out at the commotion, and from the end of the passage, Prunia opens her front door, offering the adventures to come inside. The trio accept her offer to escape the attention. Inside, the librarian offers them tea. Her house is small, with two rooms, a green rug and lime chair, however she offers them shelter for the night. As Prunia falls asleep on the chair, the adventures use a deck of her playing cards to play poker and determine who will sleep in the old woman's bed. Darcy cheats in order to stay off the floor, and Arine reveals that she had a bedroll the entire time. In the cramped bedroom, the group briefly discuss their lives in more detail: as Darcy and Arine discuss their families, Orion admits he doesn't know his parents and that he travelled across the sea to be here; Darcy misses his brother and hasn't travelled as far; and Arine had her own collection of books in the tavern in which she lived, and has probably travelled the furthest.

Feast Day 2 Chauntoro 1021 TE

As they wake the following morning, they are greeted by the fragrant aroma of fried eggs from Prunia's kitchenette. They eat their meal with thanks to their host. There is a knock at the door. Prunia goes to answer it. There is a guard, asking what she knows about three adventurers from yesterday. She asks him for a moment to get herself ready and respectable, for she is only in her sleeping garments. Closing the door, she briefly asks the adventurers of the previous day, and they explain the circumstances of their evening. She believes the three, but sees no harm in speaking to the guards about it. They are here to protect the town and will only do what is right and lawful. She opens the door, attempting to discuss the matter with both parties. Instead, she reveals the adventurers' location, and the guard immediately impales her with his spear.

Clutching her belly, Prunia sinks to the floor.

Orion and Darcy rush up to the guard. Orion grabs the man's spear as Darcy runs behind him, holding two daggers to his throat. The boys attempt to calm the guard, but he calls out to others. Darcy slits the man's throat with both blades. His body falls in the doorway, blood gushing from his throat. Orion releases the spear, and Darcy pauses to see what he has done. Arine stands on the other side of the room in disbelief at the events. Beside them, Prunia looks up at Orion. She is unable to speak, but holds out a set of keys with one hand, point to the green carpet with the other. As Orion takes the keys, Arine moves the carpet to find a trap door. The door requires no keys to open, and Arine heads straight through, followed by a bewildered Darcy. Orion, in his chunky armour, manages to slide through the door, and readjust the carpet above as guards can be seen through the door.

Hiding beneath the floorboards, the adventurers hear the guards, puzzled at the crime scene. More arrive to drag away both the guards and Prunia's bodies. Having a peak, Orion sees the empty, bloodied room. Underneath, the trio find themselves in a narrow passageway, with a scent of sewage and a light from down the tunnel. Arine gently progresses through the wet passage, with the boys in tow. At the end is a sewer grate. Opening, Orion sees that the group are right outside the library. They all quickly head out of the passage. Orion quickly opens the locked library doors with Prunia's keys and the three enter unseen.

Knowing where the basement leads, the group head upstairs. Arine lights the way once more with her balls of light. Travelling up two flights of stairs, past the second floor's collection of books, the group make their way to the top floor of the library, and another door. Fortunately they are able to upon this one, which leads to a corridor, lined with doorways. They check every doorway down the hall, searching offices and storage rooms, before coming to the final room, titled with a sign: 'Records Room for the Northolde Guard'. Inside are shelves filled with notebooks and a small box.

Reading the latest log notes, Arine sees that Chief Reaper, the current townskeeper appointed by Lord Pelt to be head of the Northolde guard, has helped the industry of the town boom with his trading laws. Every trade in Northolde has been doing well under the new management, other than the export of hay. She skips to part 25 of the text, to find an export number simply noted as 'Souls: 127'. Interested in the small box, Orion opens it. Another shadow appears from the container. Once again, Orion is unable to fight the creature, missing with every hit. Arine and Darcy launch numerous fire bolts and eldritch blasts respectively until the creature is wounded and hides itself back within the wooden box, which Orion takes ahold of again.

From the ruckus, the guards are heard by the adventurers outside the window. Going to the door, they hear them coming up the stairs. The trio quickly think to barracade the doorway with a book shelf, before the guards start to knock on their door. Arine looks outside to see the guards, giving Orion the idea to throw the shadow's box out of the window. He does so, and has the wood smashes upon the cobblestone floor, the shadow bursts forth from its prison. The guards cry in shock, but the creature simply flies past them.

Without any hope of escape, the group surrenders once the bookshelf has been knocked down. They are paraded through the busy town square and to the guard's station in the Northwest corner of the town. Their equipment is taken from them, including Orion's armour, and the trio are locked in a jail cell. One by one, they are taken for interrogation. They believe each of the adventurers, yet they remain in their cell. From a small, barred window, the prisoners witness a group of guards dragging the drunken harrasser from the previous day out into the courtyard. Shaded from the city by the guard's station and the thick stronghold walls, a tall, fearsome guard, obviously Chief Reaper, enters the scene. He holds a fancy spear which he gifts to one of his men. He then takes from his pocket another wooden box, opening it to release a shadow. The guard slays the drunkard and the shadow flies above the corpse. The creature presents its own box to the body, and out of the drunkard floats a translucent soul, scared and confused. The soul is sucked into the wooden box and quickly shut. The shadow flies away clutching the box.

Within the cell, Orion tries to bend the bars, but isn't quite strong enough. Instead, he calls for a guard to get help! Darcy pretends to be violently sick. A guard arrives to open the bolted doors and get Darcy out of the cell. As he does this, Arine tries to attack him with a fire bolt. The bolt misses and sets fire the cell's wooden bench, which Orion beats the guard the death with. Darcy and Arine flee as Orion takes a moment to consider the mess he has caused, before joining them. The hallway is empty, and the three have eyes on the guard's room at the end of the corridor. They manage to get to the room without being spotted. Inside, they find sacks filled with their items, armour, and weapons. They also find guards uniforms, hatching a plan together to escape as guards. They each disguises themselves, but hear guards outside the room just as Orion and Arine find helmets. They all head out, carrying their items in the sacks. Arine quickly passes the guards as nothing more than a short member of their ranks. Darcy and Orion however are spotted. Darcy manages to runs past the guards, out of the station, and finds Arine in an alleyway. Orion surrenders to the guards once again, and is sent back to his cell.

Darcy and Arine rush to Prunia's house, now cornered off, but without guards. The blood remains. They lock themselves in Prunia's bedroom. Outside, they hear the town crier calling the name of 'Orion Brightward' - the prisoner will be executed in the town square tomorrow at dawn for the murder of Prunia and two members of the Northolde guard. In shock, Darcy and Arine take a moment before devising a plan to save Orion. Seeing as Arine has the guard's helmet, she will go to free him in the night as Darcy speaks with his patron, a fiendish demon by the name of Lillith, to find out what they can do.

Meanwhile, Orion remains in his cell, sitting on the floor where the burnt bench once lay, beside a pool of blood from his murder. His head dishevelled, Orion greets a guard who is handing him his supper, followed by another passing by. All he can think about is how to escape, attempting to seduce them with terrible jokes he had heard in Paladin journals: "Seeing as I'm in a dungeon, want to see my dragon?" He is unable to prevent himself from laughing - perhaps from nerves. The guards have none of it, walking past in disgust. Orion slinks back into his cell, a lawful soldier of a good god, corrupted by his malice, haunted by the ghosts of his war pick.

Night falls. At some point, Feast Day ends.

Moon Day 3 Chauntoro 1021 TE

Darcy sleeps as Arine sneaks out. At the guard station, she manages to persuade the guards of her membership to their company. She then manages to steal a set of keys from one of them. Making it to Orion's cell, the paladin attempts his seduction technique once again, to which he receives the keys from a confused, short, elven gaurd. As Arine leaves, Orion unlocks his cell, but is confronted once again. Taking the room's chamber pot, Orion smashes it upon the head of a third victim. Orion stumbles out of the building into the fresh air of the night. Arine waves him to follow and they return to Prunia's.

In his dream, Darcy hears the voice of his Lillith, confused at her warlock's relationship with this unlucky and unlikely threesome. Calling them morons, the fiend invites him to visit the stables of the Yellow Goat Inn. As he wakes, Arine and Orion meet him. Together, they proceed to the stables and a locked door. As Darcy gets ready to break down another, Orion smashes the door down with his mighty strength. Within the stables, are tonnes upon tonnes of haybails with hay lining the floors. The adventurers check each stall. No horses. Finally, they come to the final stall. Chief Reaper stands tall and still. He does not flinch at their approach, he does not seem to notice. He holds his spear in his hand. His face, still covered by a closed helmet, with a rimmed hat perched upon it. Darcy approaches the man, tapping him on the noes, and jumping back in a fighting stance.

The chief steps forward in response, swinging his spear in the direction of the warlock. An eldritch blast from Darcy knocks the hat from upon him, and another his helmet. The chief's eyes remain on the young lord, as red as flame and blood. His head a mere sack filled with the straw of which surrounds him. A scarecrow. Arine, with her quick thinking, launches a fire bolt at the foul construct. She misses.

In her haste, the wizard set alight the haybail behind the chief. Suddenly, the fire spreads. The scarecrow is soon defeated by the flames, as are the wooden supports of the building. They each escape, with Orion narrowly avoiding a similar fate. Outside they see not only the stables ablaze. The fires have consumed the Yellow Goat Inn also. Vast numbers flee the building, including the tiefling who reunites with Va outside, in tears, as the citizens of Northolde witness their tavern darken in early light of the day. The bar owner begins a verbal assault on the adventurers, before Tharrow arrives. With his magic, the powerful wizard halts the fire, cooling the premises. From his cloak, he unbottles Deirdre, to share the sight.

The old man turns to the adventurers. They are not to return to Northolde, they are to exit the town. Deirdre asks them to go to the Dusk Woods with her, to find her body. Making their way through the silent crowds, the heroes head out of the walled center of the town and through the craftsman's streets beside it. They come to the edge of the forest, as the sun has fully risen, ready to enter the darkness ahead of them. The smoke of the extinguished fire remains visible in their wake. The session ends there.