Land of Wolves - Session 1

John Constable, 1829

The Party

• Lawrence the Great (Level 1 Human Fighter). A mercenary and the leader of the trio of adventurers.
• Odysseus (Level 1 Elf Assassin). A cowardly elven explorer.
• Ozark Dark (Level 1 Dwarf Thief). A dwarven treasure seeker.

The Prelude

    The party is all that's left of the Company of the Blue Banner, a mercenary company hired by the Church of the Authority in their takeover of Wolfland, an island north of the main continent. For two years, the Northern Crusade has pushed back the Northlander pagans, "justly" burning their villages and slaughtering their families.

    A certain stretch of coast had been protected by an ancient fortress built into the crags. The Company of the Blue Banner was assigned to take out the fortress and its garrison. After six failed assaults, the company wizard (a magic-user who specialized in diseases) cast a deadly blood plague upon the building. The wizard was killed in the next assault and his book was confiscated by the Northlander warriors.

    The three remaining Company members are tasked with killing the garrison, securing the fortress, and rescuing three Monks of the Illuminating Pyre. They are supposed to meet up with a Church ship on the shore to be taken to the nearest Church military base.

The Session

    Deciding not to go through the front entrance, Ozark and his companions enter through the sewer beneath the fortress. Inside the sewer tunnel, they encounter a large diseased wolf, who, before being killed, spreads the blood plague to Odysseus.

    They burst through the floor into a prison cell containing the half-eaten corpse of a Monk of the Illuminating Pyre. After remembering that magic-user's organs can be consumed for magic, the trio begins a gluttonous feast on his flesh. Odysseus gains the spell Wall of Fire, Lawrence gains the spell Fireball, and Ozark gains the spell Ignite. They realize too late that they were within view of another two monks inside a cell across from theirs. The monks start screaming curses at the party. Ozark gets annoyed and tells them to shut up.

    The three mercenaries advance to the next floor and spot a half dozen soldiers, blood leaking from their eyes. Lawrence casts Fireball in a small, contained room. He and Ozark are half-incinerated along with all of the soldiers.

    Odysseus is the only one left standing.

    He quickly cannibalizes all the corpses in the room and suffers a cursed transformation, becoming a ghoul. He ventures upstairs and discovers the wizard's magical tome of diseases. Odysseus then uses his disguise kit to appear as a wounded traveler, frees the two monks, and takes them back to the ship. Odysseus' disguise holds and he and the two monks are taken to the sick bay. One of the monks suggests using the book of disease spells to cure themselves and all three agree to use it. After being cured, Odysseus murders the two priests. He claims that he was defending his faith in the Authority by killing the two monks, who were going to use dangerous wizard magic. The crew buys his lie and he sails for the military outpost.

Note

    I used velexiraptor's Goblinplagued Barracks for this adventure, with some slight re-skinning.