Edge Campaign - Quest for the Torkral Sphere - Session 1

Back in January of 2016 I got a call from a friend. It was his birthday and he wanted to get some of the guys from the old unit together and play D&D for the night. We gathered at my house, ordered some pizza and got down to figuring out this 5th edition stuff.

The rest of them had played together before but I had not. One player was a high school friend of Josh, the birthday boy and DM. The rest of us had been in the Marines together. We got my character rolled up and started playing.

Josh has built an incredibly fleshed out world. It's interesting and compelling and makes you want to explore. The group gelled immediately and we realized that we wanted to keep playing and not just make this a one night deal.

Here's the writeup from our first session.

The party was comprised of four members, Peter (tiefling - rogue), Kizmet (dark elf - warlock), Farrow (human - paladin) and Arbach (half-elf - ranger). Kizmet was working for house Allarin to find an artifact in the Wastes. Peter had been hired by her as an expert in antiquities. Farrow was the muscle and Arbach was their guide in the wastes. The party was later joined by other characters as new players drifted in and out as our busy adult life styles allowed.

While the party was at a search site, Peter and Kizmet had gone into the ruins. Arbach and Farrow were on guard outside. Arbach had seen Farrow go behind a pillar, there was a flash of blue light and Farrow went flying backwards through the air. Arbach pretended not to have seen anything but he noticed that Farrow was acting differently, thoughtful and full of energy after the flash.

The party returned to Edge and met with Lord Rallin Allarin and his son Anselm. House Allarin is one of the five families that make up The Guild, the de-facto rulers of Edge and controllers of the Tensar drug trade.

Edge is a city located on the top, bottom and face of a giant cliff, ripped out of the land during The Sundering, several hundred years before the current time. The top of the cliff is verdant and fertile. The bottom is the Waste, a semi-desert land of strange happenings and danger. The town is divided into Uptown, Low Town and the cliffs.

The party met up with their sponser where Kizmet turned over a gold statue to the Lord and the party headed to the lifts to ride to the top of the cliff and get a drink at the Tooth and Nail, their normal meeting place in Uptown.

Arbach had noticed that there seemed to be Lancers, the current mercenary company guarding edge, watching him, dressed in civilian clothes. He had recently been out leading a Lancer’s patrol and had killed the Captain’s dog. Due to the feeling of being watched, Arbach was on edge and had not un-strung his bow.

The party boarded Lift Number 3 for the ride to the top. Kizmet was near the driver, Molloch, deep in thought. Farrow was walking around the platform, swinging his arms and mumbling about a new beginning. Peter was sitting near the bar at the center of the platform. Arbach started to walk around the platform and noticed four hooded figures watching him and his party.

As Arbach observed he noticed that they were fingering their weapons, short swords and a crossbow. The four started to close on Farrow, who was closest. Farrow noticed the men closing and started to walk towards them and asked them to rethink their actions and stop what they were doing. The one with the crossbow pulled it out from under his cloak and Arbach immediately shot him in the face with a sandbag arrow.

Chaos ensued and Arbach shot another one this time with a war arrow, with Farrow finishing him off with a swing of his sword, sending his head flying off the platform. One threw an object of some sort at the control mechanism and it blew up short, damaging the platform and knocking Molloch out. Kizmet, finally awakening to the danger, hid behind the bar and used her staff to magically strike the attacker who had just thrown the grenade, blowing him up in a shower of gore and leaving nothing but his boots, still standing on the deck of the platform.

The first attacker, wounded, was lying on the ground attempting to get to his crossbow when Arbach shot him with a second sandbag arrow, knocking him out. The fourth threw a knife at Peter but it fell short, leaving Peter free to shoot the hooded man. Though wounded he pulled out another grenade, as Peter shot him in the throat he dropped it. Arbach picked it up and threw it into the waterfall, where it exploded.

In the meantime the platform was starting to fall back towards the ground. Both Peter and Arbach attempted to stop it, and were able to slow it to a stop just before it hit. Once the platform was on the ground the party quickly searched the dead. Peter found a strange knife, which all of the dead men seemed to carry, and secreted it on his person.

The party was quickly surrounded by a large platoon of Lancers, including the Captain. Farrow explained what had happened, with corroboration from the bystanders on the platform and Molloch. While Farrow talked, Arbach grabbed a kebab off the grill at the bar and began to eat, remarking, “This tastes like dog”. The Captain “invited” the party to accompany him to the Lancer HQ/prison. Molloch followed the party, having very loudly proclaimed their heroism to the Captain.

Not seeing any real choice the party agreed to accompany the Lancers. Upon arrival at the tower they were asked to turn in their weapons, which they did, but they were not searched. They were delivered into a cell. After a quick search of the cell Arbach went to sleep. Peter took this opportunity to examine the knife he had taken off of the attacker. Farrow stood looking at the sky out of the window while Kizmet worried in the corner.

After an indeterminate amount of time the door opened and several Lancers invited Arbach to accompany them. They led him to a torture chamber where Arbach saw the Captain, seated at a small table. The Captain questioned him, not about the fight on the lift, but about the killing of the Captain’s dog. Arbach explained how the dog had gotten in the way during a fight and that the killing had been an accident. As he said this he had a memory of struggling up a hill in the rain with the Captain and his dog standing at the top laughing at him. The Captain clearly wanted to torture Arbach but refrained.

Arbach was returned to the cell and the door was locked. Very soon, however, the party heard a bellowing from the direction of the entrance. “Kizmet!” “Kizmet!” The door was thrown open and Lord Rallin was standing there. He pointed at the dark elf, “Bring her”. Two of the Lord’s house guards grabbed the Drow and led her to the same room that Arbach had just left. The door was left unlocked. The party cracked it so they could hear, but stayed in the cell.

The party could overhear the conversation in the torture chamber as Kizmet was shackled to a rack. It seemed that the statue that Kizmet had turned over to Lord Rallin was not the one that the party had dug out of the ruins. After a few turns on the rack Kizmet admitted to having the statue and was led back into the cell. She limped over to her pack and removed the statue, turning it over to the Lord.

Lord Rallin then told the party that he would like to meet them at the Tooth and Nail at 6PM the next day. All agreed to the meeting and the Lord and his retinue left. The party was led back to the entry chamber and given back their gear. The Captain looked at Arbach as if he regretted losing this opportunity this opportunity to get some revenge. The party got to the drawbridge, which was still up. While Arbach started to look trapped, Farrow asked the guards to lower it and they complied. The party left the tower, agreed to meet the next day as ordered by the Lord, and went their separate ways.

Peter spent the evening testing the dagger he had found. He captured a small lizard and cut it with the knife. The wound shriveled up and turned grey and the Lizard immediately died.

Knowing secret ways up the cliff face, Arbach bypassed the lifts and secreted himself where he could watch the Tooth and Nail. That evening he saw Lord Rallin arrive, along with several guards. He watched Farrow and Peter enter the Inn, finally with no sign of Kizmet he joined his compatriots in the Inn.