Cold Open: A Stormy Night

Rain pelts down on a ship at sea, tumbling over the waves. The helmsman struggles to keep the ship’s wheel straight, but he looks tired and drenched. As another wave crests the ship’s side and washes men off their feet, a yell comes from the crow’s nest, but it is inaudible over the sound of the storm. A flash of lightning tells us what the lookout saw: not a dozen feet before the ship is a rocky shore, the silhouette of a columned mausoleum perched atop it. The sickening crunch of wood shattering overpowers the sound of the sea.
Smash cut to a finely-painted map of the Dragon Empire, hanging on a well-lit wall. The chyron tells us we’re in Glitterhaegen as a bearded gnome swats at the map with a pointer. “Santa Cora told us to expect the Resolute to have arrived three days ago, but she is nowhere to be seen.”
Purge, you called this meeting when you heard of the Resolute’s disappearance. You do not know why, but this ship is important. What do you do?

Rolled Icons:

• Nameless’s positive relationship with The Three (a 5)
• Nameless’s conflicted relationship with The Great Gold Wyrm (a 6)
• Purge’s conflicted relationship with The Lich King (a 6)
• Törk’s negative relationship with The Orc Lord (a 6)
• Vessel’s positive relationship with The Priestess (a 5)

Spotlight: Purge. You share a mystical connection with The Lich King; explain what it is.

Int, The Harbormaster’s

• Purge asks who can take him to investigate. Tanvore the harbormaster is skeptical that anyone will oblidge them a trip to Necropolis.
• Purge is insistent, and Tanvore advises him to check at the Drowned Manticore, the tavern down the street.
  • Flashback: A storm
  • Lightning and thunder
  • A flash of a crystal eye
  • Purge sits up in bed, sweating. It was just a dream. He emerges from his quarters and finds Nameless, who looks concerned. “The ritual didn’t work?”
  • “No,” Purge says. “The dreams are getting stronger.”

Int, The Drowned Manticore

It’s a nice bar; the kind of place wealthy merchant ship captians frequent. There aren’t many other kinds here in Glitterhaegen.

• Purge enters, asks the assembled seaman who’s willing to head to Necropolis, and after a beat everyone returns to their drinks.
• Nameless asks the barkeep who might be willing to undertake such a journey, and because she’s such a nice lass the barkeep directs her next door to the sauna, where Captain Nat Enriso of the Shady Braggart is relaxing.
• Törk excuses himself and finds a half-orc captain in the corner of the tavern. “Gents,” he says, “Let’s talk.” The captain pointedly ignores him at first, but when he shows off the scroll from The Orc Lord, the captain listens. “I’m a wee bit busy now, but tell him that I’ll honor my promise.”

Int, The Sauna

• Vessel is familiar with the woman who runs this sauna, having been here a few times before. He sweet-talks her into giving up Nat’s room number, and they book the room next door.
• Cut forward to Vessel and Purge in towels, sitting in the steamy room. “So we’re next door to her… what next?”
• Vessel shrugs. “Not sure yet. But this would be an awkward place to get into a fight.”
• The door blows in, and Nameless runs in with a towel-clad woman of middle years with long black hair. After them, hurriedly, come a squadron of half-orcs, their weapons already gore-caked.
• A fight ensues; the half-orcs are out for blood and get a lot of it.
  • Flashback: A Dungeon
  • Purge is entering a dungeon, flanked by two young men who are awkwardly dressed a little bit too much like him.
  • A spiked chain flies in from the side, and the two younger men run forward as the enemy appears. But they are trapped, and after Purge defeats the attackers, he finds his two comrades dead.
• Purge shakes his head clear of such thoughts and notices Vessel has been split from the group. When Vessel misses wide with a Lance of Faith, Purge calls out: “You call that representing your God?!”. Vessel’s eyes narrow, and he rouses a Sphere of Radiance, which explodes and fells two of the remaining half-orcs [This was a double-crit triggered by Purge giving Vessel an extra action, and it was awesome -Editor]
• Purge looks at the last remaining half-orc, and tells him that “This ends now.” The half-orc obligingly drops his weapon. When asked what the attack was for, the half-orc confesses that he and his comrades were told by The Orc Lord that the Resolute had something on board and that any who went looking for it were to be stopped.
• The half-orc is turned over to the city guard
• Vessel notices that Nat has a necklace with the symbol of The Priestess on it. He entreats her aid in finding the Resolute, offering to owe her a favor if she will help. She agrees.

Int, The Harbormaster’s Office

• Nat is securing the paperwork necessary.
• Purge is looking over some papers; it’s a bill of goods for what was on the Resolute. He stops and his mouth opens. We see again a flash of the storm and a crystal eye. “An artifact,” he says, to no one in particular. “His. From the First Age.”

Next Time!

• Malena’s conflicted relationship with The Elf Queen (a 5)
• Purge’s conflicted relationship with The Lich King (a 5)
• Purge’s positive relationship with The Priestess (a 6)
• Törk’s positive relationship with The Dwarf King (a 6)
• Vessel’s positive relationship with The Priestess (two 6s)
• Malena looks directly at the camera. “I don’t trust you.”
• Eyon talks to a shady-looking merchant. “What do you mean my money’s moved?”
• Törk leans over a gunnel, seasick.
• Nameless talks to a spectral entity. “If you grant me this one favor, I can grant what the Blue desires."*
• Vessel takes solact in a peacock symbol drawn on a parchment. The wind catches it and it falls, but when he picks it up he looks horrified at it.

Tag Scene

• The sea is calm. Then a multitude of bubbles, and a great mass of ship rises from beneath the waters, and the stern says “Resolute”. Skeletons man the tattered sails, and the ship lurches forward.