Act 1

Details of Act 1's story progression of the campaign.

Synopsis
The story begins in Sherringate, a city in the human kingdom of Esmere. Haven Skylark and Eristede Kai noticed Cassia running through the marketplace in tears. After accidentally visiting The Dancing Duke on vague information-gathering (resulting in Haven being chatted up by the dwarf inkeeper Noah) they found Cassia's husband, Noel comforting her at their inn The Silver Starling. They found out that Cassia's goods had been stolen from her caravan overnight by kobolds, and they offered a reward for the return of their supples. Haven and Eristede went to find help around town and so two adventurers became four with the recruitment of Blin Lightfingers and Tyrion Maher.

Upon their victorious return, Mayor Malken rewarded the party with curing potions and informed them of big trouble going on in Leonore, the capital city, due to a near-successful attempt on Queen Arietta's life. This was why the kingdom was low on militiamen everywhere, as many soldiers and guards had been recalled back to the city. He wrote the party a letter of reccomendation to show to Leonore's City Watch, knowing that they could use adventurers' aid, and the party could use the money. Noel and Cassia also thanked the party and said that they were welcome to stay at their inn for free should they ever want to return.

On their way to the capital city, the party rescued a merchant, Ubayd and his caravan from a goblin attack. He gave them a lift to the capital city, and recommended that if they wanted to find Haven's missing brother through magical means they could seek out the Arcane Brotherhood who could cast divination magic. He told them to say hello to Mistress Sophina for him.

The party arrived at Leonore and were granted an audience with Mistress Sophina at the Arcane Brotherhood tower. She seemed a little aloof and wasn't really interested in helping the party unless they did something for her. She is however, frustrated that due to the lack of security on the roads, her ordered supplies are not always reaching the Arcane Brotherhood. She tells the party that the Arcane Brotherhood will help them if they can assist the City Watch as quickly as possible so that the kingdom's security can return to normal, and so she can resume her usual research. She directed the party to the City Watch HQ.

Lieutenant Zoiya was on duty at the City Watch when the party arrived at the HQ and she accepted their help. She informed them that the assassin who attempted to kill the queen was not ordinary and had showed use of magic. The Watch had a lead that the mage-assassin had help - he purchased some supplies from the black market. They recently raided the black market but a few of the merchants escaped and were currently hiding in the sewers or in the city. The Watch had struggled to investigate further and thoroughly search the entire sewer network whilst keeping criminal activities down. The party was the extra manpower they needed to search the south-western sewers and look for clues, particularly for the merchant who made contact with the assassin. There was also a small reward out per black marketeer they brought in, dead or alive. The party's first day in the sewers saw them encountering dire rats, giant cockroaches and indeed, black marketeers. The only information they gathered however, was the name of the merchant who made contact with the mage-assassin. This merchant was known amongst the underground as Renwick.

The party went into the sewers again, finding more criminals who then surrendered. They divulged the location of where Renwick was hiding - at The Copper Cauldron. After bringing in their round-up to the City Watch the party decided to go after Renwick. Lieutenant Zoiya asked them to investigate immediately, but couldn't help because it was based on a criminal's word, and the Watch don't have the manpower for a raid. She can signed a document for the party to present to the Temple of Iomadae for the priests to heal them.

The party then raided the Copper Cauldron basement and found the remaining black marketeers. Upon their defeat Renwick emerged from hiding and surrendered. He revealed to the party that the mage-assassin was called Jarrow, a researcher from the School of Valdis, a secluded magical research facility south-west of Leonore.

Reporting of their success to the City Watch, Lieutenant Zoiya introduced the party to Captain Krang. He asked them to take out Jarrow and to bring him in dead or alive, as they've shown they're capable adventurers. If the party could go after the mage-assassin he could return the militiamen to their normal locations of duty and get the kingdom's security back on track. This in turn would mean that Mistress Sophina could then help Haven find her brother. The party accepted the mission and left for the School, dispatching some bandits along the way.

Upon their arrival at School of Valdis the party defeated some apprentice mages in the grounds but found the front door sealed by magic. After searching the storage facility next to the tower they found a magical key. The party encountered more wizards, fire beetles, arkata and an animated chair accompanied by two animated candelabras. It was initially puzzling that there were so few apprentices about, but the party discovered that Jarrow had seized control of the tower, killing the head researchers who disagreed with him. Many mages fled, and only Jarrow's supporters stayed behind. Before entering the top floor the party were obstructed by Paracletuses, Aeon planar beings from another dimension. The party successfully convinced the aeons to let them past, promising them freedom from their summoner, Jarrow.

After a most unsubtle entrance, a fierce battle ensued between the party and Jarrow. The party managed to render him unconscious and restrained him with ropes and gagged him. They found several documents in the office that they left for the Watch to handle and took interest in a secret door. Descending down what seemed to be endless stairs the party found themselves in a basement. There the party discover slaves who were going to be used as lab rats who they decide to set free. Helga (Haven's childhood bully) is one of them and she tells the party she was captured in Tiverley Hill along with Haven's brother by a group of slavers. She says that he was not selected to become a lab rat, so he continued on with the cart's journey to a village, Langmoor, north of the capital city.

However, before the party could continue on they were ambushed outside the school by an unknown group claiming to be from the City Watch. Things didn't look good for the party as they were outnumbered and Eristede was knocked unconscious but Elras arrived just in time, his healing powers turning the tide of battle. After brief introductions, Elras offered to stay at the school to stand guard and investigate further while waiting for the City Watch to arrive. The party then set off for Langmoor, briefly stopping by Leonore to inform them that Jarrow and the school were ready to be dealt with.

When the party arrived at Langmoor they did some investigating and found that the slavers took some of the villagers and headed north towards the mountains. Fighting through some wolves and dire badgers the party found the slavers' hideout - a cave at the foot of a mountain. The party defeated the slavers and freed the captives but Haven's brother wasn't there. One of the slavers revealed that Leon was sold a while ago to an agent called Old Man Wickers, before the slavers stopped by Langmoor. This agent was known for taking slaves overseas. Despairing at not finding her brother, Haven and the party made their way back to Leonore, but not without thanks from the villagers of Langmoor, who were humbly grateful for the party's help.

The party returned to Leonore and were requested to meet with the City Watch again where they were introduced to Chief Investigator Hahn. There had been a series of murders over the past few weeks, and Hahn had been unable to discern the cause. He suspected a supernatural creature of some sort which he was not specialised to deal with. The most recent victim was an elven noble, Lord Volyn and the two other victims were human. Blin recognised the second human body as Willem, a dockworker he had attempted to make friends with in a pub in the weeks before. The party spoke to several people including the dockworker dwarves, prostitutes and Bryony, the local butcher whose business was booming in the last month. Their investigation led them to Quelzac, a gnome who was standing in for Drufo, the local alchemist. He had been buying lots of meat from the butcher and had also been seen out at night. Confronting Quelzac and defeating him the party discovered that he was in fact a Dandasuka (one of the Rakshasa), an outsider shapeshiter who had killed Drufo and taken his home. The mystery was solved, and the party then learnt from that Jarrow had mysteriously managed to commit suicide whilst in custody. However the Watch's investigation at the School of Valdis found that Jarrow had been corresponding with Lord Inoq of Corrowton. Hahn tasked the party to investigate as it seemed that a plot was brewing and that the Queen could still be in danger.

When the party arrived in Corrowton, Blin was soon arrested for the murder of Lady Elizabeth. Although innocent, the party co-operated with the law and Blin was taken into the City Guard custody. Overnight, Blin's childhood friend, Cheetah, busted him out and informed him that their old mentor, Raven, had fallen down a slippery slope of paranoia and power hunger. Argent has no problem with Blin, but saw Raven as a potential threat. Blin agreed to go on the run with Cheetah to take down Raven in order to attempt to appease the City Guard. The rest of the party continued to investigate Lord Inoq, and after buying his cook several drinks at a nearby tavern after work she divulged that he frequently went out of town every fortnight for something. His next scheduled meeting was tomorrow night.

The party then decided to visit Blin but were outraged at the incompetence of the City Guard, even though Lieutenant Norman was trying his hardest. They were directed to a rather corrupt guardsman, Adam, who gave them some ideas on where to start looking to find Blin. In the sewers they discovered from several thieves that Raven was after Blin's head for his desertion. Blin, Cheetah and the party bumped into each other outside Raven's hideout and took him down, after a difficult fight with him pulling off several vanishing acts. Lieutenant Norman agreed to pardon Blin for his previous criminal activity when Raven was delivered to the City Guard. Cheetah asked Blin to stay with him but Blin declined the offer, deciding to see things through with the party first. The party then at night followed Lord Inoq to some ancient ruins outside of the city where they found him collaborating with some suspicious people. He and his anti-royalists fought to the death, and so the party took his keys and searched his home. Helpful clues were found in his office and basement where the party were attacked by a cloaker, disguised as a decorative tapestry. They found evidence of another terrorist attack scheduled to happen soon in Leonore, led by none other than Chief Investigator Hahn himself, with the support of the elven Lady Yulee. The party took the damning letters and made haste back to the capital city.

Ambushing the anti-royalists at their hideout in Lady Yulee's manor, the party rounded up more terrorists, with backup from the City Watch. Before fighting, Hahn claimed his actions were only to protect Esmere on information provided by Lady Yulee's visions. He however taunts the party, revealing that he subtly organised for Old Man Wickers to buy Haven's brother and take him overseas to stall the party. He had also hoped Quelzac would have killed the party in their city murders investigation, and that he tried to again to delay the party by having Blin arrested in Corrowton. He and Lady Yulee then fought the party with a deadly combination of the spell 'Enlarge Person' enabling Hahn to repeatedly trip and disarm the party with 10ft reach.

Soon after Hahn's defeat, the party were called to the Arcane Brotherhood, who had arranged for a special divination ritual to find Haven's brother. Whilst in his trance-like state Archmage Manoj revealed that Leon was at present, safe and somewhere on the Islands of Melueth. The ritual however was then interrupted by an accident in the tower. Explosions were heard and people were evacuating the building. Amongst the panic, Mistress Sophina and the party learnt that a naive apprentice caused a rift to open to another plane, and demons started to invade, attacking the brotherhood. The apprentice and master conjurer dead, the party held off the onslought whlie Mistress Sophina attempted to find a way to close the black gate portal, but she wasn't knowledgeable enough to know what to do. The party were becoming exhausted and demons kept coming through. She revealed to the party that there was one certain way to close the rift - to merge it a soul of pure heart. With sad farewells, Eristede heroically walked into the black gate, destroying the portal but his body and soul with it, lost forever.

Notable NPC's

 * Inkeeper Noel
 * Cassia
 * Mayor Malken
 * Captain Krang
 * Lieutenant Zoiya
 * Mistress Sophina
 * Jarrow
 * Chief Investigator Hahn
 * Raven
 * Lord Inoq

Notable locations
Western Human Kingdom - Esmere
 * Capital City: Leonore
 * Towns: Sherringate, Corrowton
 * Villages: Langmoor
 * Other: School of Valdis