Coulerain Campaign - Session 6 Recap

The Party head back to the Chernit Mountains on a secret path Olorin leads them through.

Jorian asks the dwarf if he will stay with them, confused, Olorin says that he's their guide so of course he'll stay. Jorian means the whole journey though, until the end of Lilith Lumerin. Olorin feels responsible, his inaction in the past has led to Lumerin's rise, so he will stay.

They trek through the forest until nightfall when Olorin finds a small moonlit pond surrounded by rocks and trees where the Party can rest for the night. When the Party reach the pond they notice that Olorin's reflection glimmers.

When Morrigan asks him why that is the case he tells them of the Tier Enna, The Old Paths, and how he himself walks one of the paths diverging from Tië Alta, the Path of Light. Olorin glimmers because he walks Tië Narë, the Path of Flame.

The Party make camp and rest after Cammie sets up alarms. Olorin says he'll patrol around as he doesn't need rest as often as they do. Cammie finds him in the forest and asks about the arrows she found and if he has some idea how she could utilize them better. Olorin chuckles, those arrows are very old technology, the only advice Olorin gives is to not miss.

In the morning Olorin wakes the Party in a hurry, in the distance there are tremors, something is marching towards them.

The Party flee for days but are slowed down by the rough terrain and the armies of Lilith Lumerin catch up to them.

They battle a small number of Clockwork Soldiers but more come and Olorin slows them down with a wave of fire he calls down from the skies.

When the Party reach the camp of the Black Company they find it only has a couple tents now. Doram explains that the others went with the refugees as this is not a safe place and that they themselves should start climbing as soon as possible.

In the camp is a new figure, a tall dark-haired elf. Naergon Naylor, the captain of the Black Company. He asks if anyone has any experience climbing and Cammie answers, being from a tribe of Tabaxi living in the Rakhnid Mountains.

They split into two groups, the Party and Olorin and the men of the Black Company. Satsumi cannot climb the mountain with the Party and Cammie sends her off into the forest to hide and await their return.

After their first ascent they stop for the night on a flat portion of the cliff wide enough for them to sleep on. Olorin gathers them around a campfire and says that his ancestors used to do this, tell each other their stories before they made decisions, he thinks it made them wiser and stronger as a group.

He begins, telling the story of Lorian Ara'Med, the Last King and how he and his people fled from the ruinous ire of the gods of old who sunk their home. The gods pursued the fleet and Lorian turned a ship around to face the wave that followed him alone.
Seven days later his people and his sons reached the shores of Coulerain. His second eldest, Gelirglind, made a song to move the hearts of the gods of this new land and succeeded. The sea washes up the body of Lorian so his sons could bury him.
But Gelirglind also sang to nature, his Secret Song, as it would become known, and that moved nature as well. A flower accepted to grant Lorian life and when Gelirglind rubbed one of its petals on the lip of his father he drew breath again. That was the first flower of Lorian, from which all others came.
The gods were furious at this deception and sent the other settlers of Coulerain, the Kharbians in the north and the Rauthyrs in the East to wage a long and bloody war with the Lorians. This is where the first mention of the rings is made, the Ring of Lorian versus the Ring of Kharbian and the rign of Rauthyr. Two against one.
His sons die in the battles, Arodmein, the first born, a tall and mighty warrior and heir to the crown. He is the reason the Lorians call no one king, no one deserving survived the wars.
Next fell Daeruth, known for his relentless warth in combat. Maenor and his armors and weapons that are still replicated by the dwarves to this day. In fact, Cammie's arrows are originally his design.
Feredir, the hunter who banished the dragons from the Chernit Peninsula fells from a Kharbian arrow.
In the end only Meinherdir and Edwenrain were left after the bloodiest battle that took the lives of their brother Gelirglind and their father Lorian.
They made peace with the Kharbians and Rauthyrs but had differing ideals for their nation so they split it in two.
Meinherdir became known as Meinherdir Ara'Tur, the Dominator King and ruled the Lorian Dominion in the east, where Aros and the Qa'sax Territory are today.
Edwenrain became know as Edwenrain Ara'Mar, the Kind King, and ruled the Free Lorains in the west from the capital he founded, Kovacs.
A thousand years and centuries pass and the Lorians never unite. Until Amariya Lorr, a descendant of Ara'Mar and Elorian, a descendant of Ara'Tur join their forces and bloodlines, uniting the Lorians in the Triumvirate. Olorin hopes this unity will be the key to defeating Lumerin's forces.

The Party then draw cards which Oloring gives out, the card help them with the theme of the story.

Cammie goes first, telling a story of love, of how she was the first in her tribe to be chosen by her panther rather than the other way around, that panther was Satsumi and they are together to this day.

Dio goes next, another story of love. He tells the Party of his past in Kharb, joining the Guild of Rouges and meeting his first real friends, Nerisemita and Jorian. He quickly learns of the brutal rules of the Guild as he witnesses Margold, one of the other boys, murder and mark Thoben by carving an "M" into his cheek.
Dio tells how before the championship for the title of representative of the Guild Nerisemita and Jorian saved up their allowances to have a small feast under a tree in the moonlight. Dio tastes chocolate for the first time then, he feels that he finally has a family in the brother and sister.
The Championships come and the recruits are dropped in an unknown area with the task of obtaining items that other contestants have. Dio meets Vicward first and they have the same item so he believes they have no reason to engage in conflict but Vicward believes that Margold would be pleased if Dio were slain. They fight and in the scuffle Dio comes out on top, killing for the first time.
Dio doesn't want to win the championship, he treks across the land and finds bodies with Margold's mark... Until he finds Nerisemita's body, marked the same way. In her hand he finds a letter, meant for him if Nerisemita won the championship. She did not have the bravery to tell him her feeling directly and now she cannot speak at all.
Dio hunts down Margold and slays him in revenge but is injured and falls unconscious. Jorian finds him and in Nerisemita's memory helps Dio win the title of representative. Dio remembers the story as one of love and not loss, he's lived through loss his whole life but that one moment of true love stays with him.

Jotaro goes next and his story of gain is short. He tells how his powers made him the black sheep of the family due to their wild nature but his grandfather did not give up hope. He gave Jotaro a prototype of his weapons, something to focus his arcane ability and told him that with great powers as he has, come great responsibilities. Jotaro then heads out into the world to prove himself worthy and to tame his powers and that's how he stumbled upon the Party.

Jorian goes next, a story of love. He tells of his childhood, how he was enamored with the idea of war as all boys are but was not allowed to fight as he was only ten and couldn't even lift a shield. His father and older brother go off to fight the Jhachars of the United Provinces of Pods in the south and never return. Poverty strikes their village and Jorian has to turn to thievery to survive with his mother. He finds a group of like-minded friends, all boys around the same age. They gather at night and get up to no good, they called themselves the Lost Boys, Jorian laughs at the silly name now.
At night they would go out and roam around the village and sometimes would manage to sneak into the nearby keep. His time with these friends of his helped him to realize that the world has a lot of unpleasant faces, but when someone is surrounded with people he can call his friends it shows another, a better face.
Jorian fled his village after he commited an unnamed crime and had to leave these friends behind.

Olorin pats Jorian on the shoulder and wishes that after this is over and done with he can redeem himself and return to his friends. He laughs about how he'll have no trouble sneaking into that keep now.

Kai is next, a story of pain. He tells of his life as a petty noble, a life of comfort that broke when he witnessed a secret ritual his parents were involved with and a robed woman wearing a golden mask. Kai flees his family and works odd jobs in the kingdom until he is offered a steady position at a tavern. That turns out to be a lie as he is chained and kept in the dark. Kai is used by the patrons of the tavern, he loses his person-hood and becomes a piece of meat. He converses with the skeletons of those who came before him in the cage he's kept when he's not of use and finds peace in that. Kai accepted his fate but one day a patron slipped up and he managed to escape.
After that he knew he could not trust much of anything. "Trust be told, and let's be real, everyone in this world is either a pawn to be used or a person to use that pawn."

Olorin looks at Kai after his tale is told and animates the flame like Kai did to show the golden-masked figure. He tells them that this is one of the reasons they must not fail to realize that evils are made in the light and in the dark, as that is most likely the Queen of Tie Nare, the Path of Flame. He is sorry for what Kai had to witness and go through.

Morrigan is last, as story of loss. She tells a myth, the myth of how Charlotte Von Bel challenged the God of Song. It is said that even nymphs gathered to hear her voice and that fed her pride and grew her arrogance. One day the God of Song appeared disguised and asked if she would like to challange him, warning her of the consequences. Charlotte accepted, the nymps were taken aback by this act of insult. The god revealed himself and they.
The god then revealed his true self and accepted her challenge. A god and a mortal pitted their prowess. What unfolded was a feast to everyone's eyes and ears. The god sang a song of the tales of the deeds of the gods. A deep soothing voice echoed through the forest.
Next came Charlotte, keeping with her theme of disrespecting the gods, she chose a song sung once by a long-deceased bard who was deceased because of his mockery.
The god gave credit to Charlotte's skill but the injury her words dealt could not go unpunished. Charlotte felt a tightness in her throat, she tried to scream but her voice was taken from her. The god left her with a warning, if she dares disgrace his kind once again, she would be less fortunate.
The foolish girl did not listen. The consequences were far greater, and some claim they pertain until this day, but that is a story for another day.

The Party rest for the night and continue their ascent the next morning. The climb goes rather smoothly, Jotaro slips once and the ropes dig into his ribs but he is quickly pulled back by his companions.

The Party reach the summit, they are left only with a cliff they must scale before they can begin the process of bringing back Dun'Istar.
On the way up Olorin's rope gives way and he falls. The Party watch helplessly as the dwarf breaks upon the trees below. But they notice that the mark he leaves is not normal, the trees around break as well, forming a much larger shape, a winged shape. Fire spreads around the forest but only burns the imprint Olorin left. As the Party reach the summit they witness a spirit of fire rise into the sky and disappear.

Naergon and Doram are furious, Olorin was their key to success, they must now find another way to fix the harp that Naergon summons. The Party have two choices, make a sacrifice they don't know the ramifications of or spill the blood of the last son of Those Who Carried the Mountains, the Guardian of this here peak.

The Party try to reason with the Guardian but they are being watched by the Pathmakers now and their battle must commence. He says he cannot go easy on them, they must earn his blood.

What follows is a brutal battle that knocks many of the Party members to the brink of death. Cammie does her best to keep Dio, Jotaro and Jorian breathing while Morrigan defends Kai after he falls.

The Party manage to best the Guardian even after his powers are renewed and his dead flesh stripped away. In his final moments as Kai takes him down he reaches out and touches Kai's forehead.

Naergon rushes towards them and smears his hand with blood. He begins playing a song in a tongue no one can comprehend. The Party witness as the harp mends itself and his words take material form as wisps of light which weaves together to build the robes and body of Dun'Istar.
He turns to the Party gathered in a circle around the harp and speaks his name. Tella'Estel, the Last Hope. He asks Naergon where the First Flame is, where is Olorin?
Naergon says in a mournful tone that the Tie Dur has intervened, the Path of Dark has taken Olorin from them.
Dun'Istar turns to the Party, he says he does not know which paths they have chosen to walk and he tells them of the danger that this has put them in. They've lost their only weapon against Lilith's own clockwork dragon and must now figure out an alternative path to victory.