Episode 2: The Dungeon

*"The last group of adventurers I sent never returned... I hope this time will be different.”*
-Avalon to The Party when giving the quest

The newly formed party meet their primary questgiver and receive intel on an abandoned dungeon nearby. Little do they know, threats lurked inside waiting for their arrival.

## Plot

The next morning, the party leaves their room in the Protector of The Azalea’s Quarters to meet Vy in the local downtown tavern. They find her sitting alongside another woman, who introduces herself as Avalon, a scholar and general advisor for Esadora who studies the landscape and cities of The Feral Dominion. She graciously thanks the party for their assistance in bringing Areus back home to The Azalea, and tells them that she’s been looking for a group of adventurers to complete a task for her; one too daunting for a humble scholar such as herself. She reiterates what Vy told the party in Episode 1, that the nation of Vrago, a wandering people who come from the east, has recently been attacking Esadora and The Azalea, but their goals are unknown. Avalon had received intel that Vrago is currently setting up a home base of sorts inside a large cave in the south, on top of an old decrepit dungeon. She also notes that she had sent a group of adventurers previously, who had never returned. She mentions that Jyn was able to heal The Azalea herself, so she would be grateful for our help in receiving any plans from inside the dungeon that Vrago may be hiding. The party agrees, and she gives them three saddles and claims that there are wild horses to the northwest, who are mostly friendly due to the locals feeding them frequently. The party finds their way to the group of horses, with many to choose from. Zancur chooses a horse with a cream colored coat with a dark mane, naming it Fireflight; Aerpip chooses an all white horse with a short mane naming it Nail, and Jyn chooses a horse with a brown and cream colored coat with a dark mane, naming it Sable. Now equipped with horses for faster travel, the party began their journey to the southwestern caves where Vrago was thought to be located. At the halfway point to Vrago around midday, they find a small trading post run by a humble orc farmer. He offers them a place to stay if needed, with feed for their horses. They accept his offer of the feed, and say they’ll return back sometime to rest. They continue their ride to Vrago, and arrive at sundown. The land slowly turns from open fields to rocky terrain, and they approach the main Vrago cave entrance from behind. A small thicket of trees lie to their right, and they decide to tie up their horses there and approach cautiously on foot. Two guards stand in front of a large cave entrance, sporting very homemade knight outfits and large spears. Aerpip and Jyn sneak behind each of the guards, and are able to silently take them out. Zancur and Jyn then decide to don their armor, to avoid rousing suspicion once they get inside. The entrance to the cave is fully lined with torches and large red and grey banners with a burning skull and crossbones stitched into the center as their emblem. Further into the large tunnel, on the left, there is a natural indentation of the cave that soldiers of Vrago have turned into a small workstation. A small table is carved out of stone with a wooden chair, and a large vault door with a large lock, that seems to be scratched from frequent use. Jyn notices a book on the table, and while it is a language she is unable to read, it appears to be a sort of logbook. She decides to keep it to bring to Avalon, and the party checks out the large door. Aerpip is able to stealthily pick the lock, and the party pulls the heavy iron door open. Inside is a steep, dark staircase that leads into a dimly lit room. Jyn attempts the steep trek first, quickly losing her footing and tumbling loudly to the floor below. Aerpip and Zancur hear the clanking of soldiers approaching to investigate the sound, and quickly navigate their way down and close the vault door behind them, locking it from the inside. At the bottom of the stairs is a large open room, surrounded by large stone pillars with a large podium in the center of the room, surrounded by a small cage. While the party searches the room, pounding begins on the vault door above. To the left of the staircase is a puzzle; a 3x3 square of levers with an encryption on the wall above. After pulling the correct levers, a hefty pull chain comes down from the ceiling, and small rocks crumble from the above, sending beams of moonlight into the large open room. Approaching the podium reveals that it has scattered notes in the language seen in the logbook and sketches of various locations in The Feral Dominion. Zancur pulls the chain and quickly realizes that he needs significantly more manpower to lift the heavy metal cage. The party come to help in and pull on the chain with all of their combined might and it clicks down, and a large cage from the ceiling falls on top of them, trapping them all inside. The pounding on the vault door grows louder and louder and eventually the door caves in, and tens of Vrago soldiers rush down the stairs, swords at the ready. They get into formation and curve around the front of the cave, but the party hears a crumbling noise behind them. Suddenly, someone bursts from a collapsed doorway along the back of the room. They are fully hooded and no features can be seen, except for a massive sword the size of their entire body. With immense speed and a single slash of their sword, they cut apart and kill every one of the surrounding soldiers. Pushing the blade of their sword through the pull chain, it is set off once again, lifting the cage from the party but not the cage over the podium. The mysterious swordbearer, introducing themselves briefly as Virion, uses the tip of their sword to pry up the remaining cage. Jyn rushes and grabs the scattered papers, and the party realizes they are unfamiliar with the language. Virion claims its Ovegnian, the common language of the distant eastern island nation of Ovegnia, but doesn’t speak it themself. They show the party the crumbled doorway from which they emerged, revealing that the room tunnels deeper than they had imagined. As they push the rubble aside, they invite the party to follow them to the bottom.

## Characters

### New Characters

* Avalon
* Virion

### Recurring Characters

* Vylantha
* Jyn Res
* Aerpip Faegi
* Zancur