Session 1: Prelude

[[Category:Arc 0: Prelude|]]

Introduction of the PCs

 * Monica (male lizardfolk ranger) = Vikrit (full name Zhinar'thurkiitu-svih Vikrit'zukat). Little poison dusk lizardfolk from Q'barra.
 * Carlos (female dwarf artificer) = Mogen. Has a hydraulic brace/shield on her leg (injured in boot camp for the war), works as the office clerk
 * Dan (male gnome monk) = Cornerio.
 * Janaka (female half-elf rogue) = Sarienne Lightleaf. A local of Aundair saving up to go to college.
 * James (male human cleric) = Vesun. Was a mid-level bureaucrat. Kind of a dick.
 * Georgiy (female orc barbarian) = Vanesse. Not very bright.

The Warehouse and the Train Chase

 * PCs are working in the warehouse in Fishgut and are down to the last part of the shipment. Sarienne calls over Vanesse to help her with a heavy crate labeled wheat, and Vanesse drops it, dislodging the top to reveal iron sheets (which only Mogen recognizes as connected to Warforged). They discover that all the rest of the crates labeled wheat also are very heavy and likely have these inside.
 * When they go to Mogen's office, they find that their gnoll boss Gul has signed off on the contents of all of these crates. His office door is locked. The PCs hear sounds of a struggle happening outside, and see the bodies of the two half-elf twin guards (Sarienne's cousins). They have been murdered by two humans wearing masks, who are defeated by the party and tied up by Sarienne and the nude Vikrit (who botched the roll on the unconscious one.
 * They discover Gul, wearing sorcerer's robes, and a gnome with a distinctive scar on his face (Burhan), and pursue them onto the train after Gul attacks the team. The gnome (wearing some kind of magic ring) starts the train, and Cornerio and Vanesse kill a giant centipede summoned by Gul. Vesun grapples the gnome, who breaks free and is about to escape unscathed off the train when Sarienne nearly guts him on the way down.
 * Vanesse and Vikrit discover Gul hiding, wounded, in the back of the train. They try to talk him down, but he zaps Vanesse's arm and she is knocked out. Vikrit shoots him in response, and Cornerio stabilizes her while Vikrit tries to keep Gul from dying. The train has been gaining speed, and Mogen screams in Ignan at the elemental bound to the train to stop. This strategy is successful, and the train slams to a halt, throwing the PCs into the wall.

Apprehension and Interrogation

 * A gaggle of House Tharashk soldiers approaches and the PCs surrender to them. They are brought back to passage and thrown in a cell. The 2nd ranked dragonmarked Adnan d'Orien appears assumes they have stolen the train and murdered their boss. Vikrit tells the truth of what happened, and with the others' help, convinces him that they may not be responsible.
 * Kwanti d'Orien, the head of the house, tells them that they saved the house a lot of money and did the right thing. They are now associates of the house, with papers, and they have been told to go to Wynarn University in Fairhaven to find Frederick von Soldorok (male dwarf) who can help kill a gryphon that has been attacking their trade caravans.
 * The PCs get weapons and armor from the stockroom and head back to Fishgut. On the way, Vikrit tracks down the gravely wounded gnome, who has hidden in a cave. After stabilizing and healing him a bit, the group successfully intimidates him (with some good cop, bad cop) into giving them some information.
 * He says he is from poverty in Zilargo and that he wants to change the status quo. He says Gul didn't tell him exactly what they were doing, just that there was gold in it for him, and that they were going to go to places where the connection between planes (OOC knowledge) is already weak (next was somewhere near the Mournland?). Vikrit thinks he is an agent of evil, but Mogen convinces him to spare the gnome. In exchange, the gnome tells them the location of 60 gold that he and Gul had stolen.
 * They make it back to Fishgut and dig up the gold, then go check out Gul's house. No one is there, and they discover a scroll with the following on it:
 * Vikrit recognizes Haka'torvhak and tries to explain to the other PCs why this is very bad.