Sol-Session 1

Session 1.

As seen through the eyes of Sol Stellasdottir.

Sol left her father and proceeded in the direction he had indicated she should travel towards the center of the city.

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It had been an unusual couple of days. First the visitor. The tired looking dwarf who had asked for her mother, Stella. The stranger and her mother had spoken together quietly. They had a conversation that seemed to both upset and delight her mother. Finally she pointed to Stella.

Her mother told her that her father had asked to see her. She was to pack her things and she would be taken to meet him. He was an Exarch of a Dragon. Many miles away. Sol was thrilled and excited, not only to meet her father, but that he was apparently the servant of a dragon, and by the sounds of it, quite an important servant, if he could summon his daughter from so far away.

She was whisked away by some magic. Travelling many, many miles in no time at all. She found herself talking to her father, a dragonborn dwarf cleric. After their conversation he told her he had many things to do now, and that she was expected by the dragon. It appeared the dragon's answer took no time at all. She suspected that her father and the dragon could communicate at a distance, without talking.

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The city around her was in a ruined state. Shanties on the outskirts completely destroyed, and more substantial buildings further in fairing little better. Here and there fires burned. People wandered around in a state of shock. Occasionally she could see clerics tending the injured. People tackled fires, and some were picking their belongings out of their shattered homes.

As she travelled, she noticed she was not alone in travelling in the direction she walked. A woman with a huge dog looked a little familiar, as did a tall man. a tall woman dressed in armour was a complete stranger, but also appeared to be travelling in the same direction as a small Gnome who appeared to be towing something that floated just above the ground. It was covered in a cloth, but might have been a small body for all she could tell.

As they converged, Sol recognised the woman as the half-orc she had seen a while back in Stella's Tavern. She racked her brain to recall who she was. Realising she had been accompanied by another half-orc on that occasion. Tal-something? Talgarreg. That was it.

" I think I know you." she said. "You were in the tavern, asking directions across the mountains."

The half-orc remembered her, but had remarked that Stella owed her for passing wrong information. Sol was about to ask where her companion, who she took to be a brother, was now, when she realised that perhaps it was an awkward question best left unasked.

She remembered where she had seen the tall man too, Tobias was also a traveller she had met in Stella's Tavern. It was he that told her the story of "the true hero" and the encounter with the demon. She knew she probably owed him some payment considering how much she had gained from re-telling that story. She fished through her belongings, and found a gold piece which she gave him.

"I owe you at least this" she said as she gave it to him. "I have re-told your story frequently in the tavern, and earned much from its patrons in the re-telling. You tell a good story. Thank you."

Shortly after this, the five of them met up with a monk travelling in the opposite direction. He told them that they should proceed to the lower monastery, where they would be met by another monk, called Brother Noravir, who would take them to Brother Elanenen, who was expecting them. So Sol, the Gnome, the tall human woman, the tall human man, and the half-orc, and her dog, all appeared to be not only travelling in the same direction, but also with the same destination. As they neared the monastery steps, the human man said they should go ahead, he would catch them up. Despite some protests from the rest that he should go one with the rest of them, he excused himslf, and disappeared.

Many steps later they were met by Brother Noravir, just as the other monk had told them, and he said he would take them to see Brother Elanenen. They explained that one of their number was still coming, which at first appeared to confuse Brother Noravir, but eventually he said they should go with him, and he would bring the late-comer on when he arrived.

The monks took the Gnome's burden, looking sad and serious. Perhaps it was a body after all. Sol would remember to ask. Perhaps at a time of less stress. This did not seem the time to be asking what may well be delicate questions.

They entered a room lined with bookshelves and saw a man sitting at a desk facing some pews. He signalled that they should be seated. Sol made her way to the front of the line and sat as close to the man as she could manage.

He asked each of them who they were and why they wished to proceed. Sol quickly explained that she was the daughter of Grolsch, the Exarch. The man looked surprised, and said he did not know Grolsch had a daughter. Sol beamed back, enthusiastically. "Oh, yes he does. Me. He summoned me. I am going to serve the dragon."

Each of the others was asked, and it seemed she was not the only child of an Exarch. Both the gnome, Quintus, and the human woman, Miriyanda were the children of Exarchs, but neither seemed quite so as excited and enthusiastic as Sol.

Eventually, they were allowed to carry on up many more stairs to the upper Monastery. This too had been attacked, and the doors were badly damaged, falling off their hinges. Indise was a complete mess, with torn books and wreckage littering the floor.

They found themselves in a room that was obviously just an outer corridor around a circular room. The building was badly damaged, with parts of the walls and floors showing great cracks and chasms torn into the very bedrock of the mountain.

Tobias looked in through one of these gaps, and immediately panicked, running from the building despite their best efforts to stop him. Sol, decided to cast "Remove Fear" on him, since he said it was a dragon that had scared him, and they knew they were here to sign up to serve a dragon.

Sol then started giving an encouraging talk to the party, telling them that they should not fear the dragon they were to serve. However, as soon as she herself looked through the gap, her resolve melted away, and she too ran for the door.

The dragon was scary.

Eventually, the Abbot of the monastery appeared, and calmed their fears. They went inside, to meet their dragon. The huge Amethyst dragon was badly injured, great wounds in its side, and it was breathing rapidly in short gasps.

The dragon asked questions. However the dragon did not speak. Sol understood that this must be how her father had communicated. The questions were asked inside her head, not through her ears. She replied proudly, and enthusiastically, that if the dragon was good enough for her father, Grolsch, then Sol would be proud to serve too.

The others also appeared to be communicating with the dragon, but the human, Tobias appeared to have to speak his words, and hearing one side of a conversation only was confusing to Sol. The man seemed to be saying some quite strange things.

Then, a sheet of parchment appeared in front of each of them, and they each read and signed their contracts with the dragon. They found themselves in possession of some gem-tokens, knowing instantly what they were for and how to use them. This appeared to take but moments, however, where it had been the full sun of mid day when they first met the dragon, it was now night time, and the dragon was now healed, but still looking seriously drained and tired.

They were dismissed after being told their first mission. A test of their ability.

They were to proceed to Harborough, and to meet with the dragon Jagadorax. They were to ask that he not threaten Jaxtasha, and that they should agree mutual defence, or at least non-aggression.

They were also to attempt to stop refugees from Skybourne fleeing to Mord and Harborough, and to do everything they could to keep refugees within the borders of Skybourne. Any refugees that did flee should be encouraged to return.

They understood that the power of a dragon in the great game was in some ways related to the population of its land, and that losing great numbers would seriously affect the power Jaxtasha, the dragon they now served, wielded.

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