Answering the Call

"**Answering the Call**" (2x01) is the first episode of Season 2 of ***The Legends of Frustengrad.***

## **Synopsis**

### **Act One**

Calliope Kazis enters the city of Oztar for her own reasons and wanders into a city circle where there are three individuals being displayed on a scaffolding with nooses around their necks. Watching the proceedings are several guards placed around the courtyard, numerous citizens of Oztar who are enjopying the spectacle, and placed to the side of the area is a small throne where the Black Thane and the Red Vizier watch the proceedings. The guard on the scaffolding proclaims that the three prisoners are guilty of crimes including piracy, poaching, and threatening a Thenn. The guard removes the gag from the first individual's mouth and the wizard declares that his name is Cameron Brandt and he is not guilty. He punches Cameron in the jaw and then replaces his gag, mumbling into his ear that he will swing for what he did.

The guard continues to patrol past the other two prisoners, almost stopping to remove the gag on the young girl that stands in the center of the three but with fear in his eyes he instead moves to the surly dwarf at the end of the line and removes his gag. The Dwarf then announces himself as "Ya, King of the Rock" and asks for any who have heeded his call to make themselves known and free him from his bonds.

Calliope then notices a young woman flipping a sickle in her hand who is perched against a wall. She begins to step forward as Calliope feels a sense of foreboding and turns to see a man wielding a bow with an arrow notched letting it fly and slam into the guardsmen on that stood near the dwarf, with another 3 arrows quickly following suit, each slamming into a different guard on the scaffold. The young woman then moved her hand in an arcane fashion, causing a large growth to rise from the back of the head on the guardsmen, which she followed with a beam of dark arcane and eldritch energy.

Calliope saw this happening and in a snap decision, she turned to the nearest guard, asking them for their assistance and attempting to lay a curse on them in an attempt to help this "Ya" escape. The fear of the moment caused her magic to waver and as the guard marked her for an enemy she stepped through the *veil of magic* away from him.

The dwarf and the young girl escaped their bonds as the Red Vizier stood and laid a spell on the crowd, demanding them to **HALT**. Cameron suddenly became locked in place while bound and stared down the Red Vizier, who placed his hand on the Black Thane and teleported away. Cameron then managed to break free and dove towards a small bucket of water and cast the spell *glacius* and slew the hurt and bleeding guardsmen who had been peppered with attacks from the young woman and the archer. Calliope, seeing this attempted to cast an arcane spell on the crowd and put them to *sleep*, and the crowd fell unconscious but the guards remained. The bard then used her ability to step through the veil again to get near the dwarf and his allies. With a large number of the guards silenced by the icy spell, the wizard, the dwarf, and the two young women ran through a now unprotected side street with Calliope and the archer.

Ya led the troupe of five through many streets in Oztar until eventually, he arrives at an unassuming stone wall. Looking out for anyone, the dwarf then pressed the secret pattern into the wall, revealing the entrance to an underground tavern where he was well known and welcomed. After ordering drinks from a young drow named Tômi, Ya gathered the five at a table to interrogate them on who they were and why they had come for him.

### **Act Two**

Each of the members of the group recounted vaguely how they had come to be at the execution: Rosita and Cameron were falsely accused of crimes they didn't commit, Mynyria (not divulging her name) was answering a summons that was meant for her teacher, Orion was completing a favor for a family friend, and Calliope was just in the right place at the right time. Ya questioned Mynyria more closely until he was satisfied that he knew who her teacher was, to which he offered his condolences for the loss of Fallow.

Ya then turned to the rest of the group and said that he could see that they were capable and so that perhaps they could help him. He was in town to take on a mission that no one had yet survived: The procurement of a strange relic from the wizard Daratin. He promised the mission would be dangerous, but lucrative, if they were willing to take it on. As thanks for this, as well as for saving him, he would use his contacts to find from interested parties what he could about the young man using Orion's family name, and what he could about the death of Fallow. He also promised Rosita and Cameron that he would help them retrieve their stolen items from the Red Vizier.

The group slowly agreed to this, and Ya introduced them to Tömi and Bjor, who would help outfit them for the adventure, and then he made his exit. The group interrogated Tömi as best they could about the Morrison Job, and when they were ready, they rested and then took off.

## **Featured Characters**

### **Adventurers**

* Cameron Brandt
* Calliope Kazis
* Mynyria Apatolus
* Rosita
* Orion Moss

### **New**

* Ya
* Tômi
* Bjior Ashenheart

## **Quotations**

* Cameron (after having his gag removed): "My name is Cameron Brandt of the College of Vatica! I am guilty of none of these crimes!"