Session 1-Part One

The sky was dark on December 31st, the Land of Rust only had one known ting flying through it as the evening went by, it looked like the average boat, wooden hull, three masts and three cannons on the port and starboard bows, with an other (larger) one at the front of the deck, it was an airship. The flag it had on its sail was frightening for any who saw it (but the crew was smarter than letting anyone know who they were), with a black background and a full tally mark in white, but instead of a diagonal line it was an arrow. The Blackleaf landed on the thick grass outside of the Dwarven Capital, the festivities within the walls of what little of the city wasn't within the mountain was loud enough that the four crew members could all hear it clearly.

They all walked to the city, nodding at the guards as they entered the outer quadrant, which was currently holding the celebratory parade,"Any good taverns?" the tallest of the group asked, he was obviously a goliath, as he was eight feet tall and, while soft spoken even for his heritage, the giant like boom signified greater strength, the goliath hair was one of the things that struck the guard as odd though, to his knowledge the tall race were usually hairless so the white hair tied in a ponytail caught him off guard, the man was also wearing a leather trench coat over his bare torso, the blue gem in the middle of its buckle matching his one remaining eye. The guard tilted his head towards the only building on the street that had its lights on, then rested his eyes for a moment.

A small thank you left the groups lips as they continued to walk to the tavern, a small gnome with pink hair leading their advance, and as the guard opened his eyes again he almost screamed when he saw the crocodile like tail that she had trailing behind her. The gnome noticed this and smirked, she was always proud of the one trait that made people fear her,"Come on guys, I need an ale!" she then scurried on ahead, laughing as her friends grumbled at her impatience,"Don't worry I'm getting us seats!" the gnome then put the goggles on her head over her eyes, as if she were going on a dangerous mission.

Her crew hurried behind her, the goliath ducking through it as to not hurt his head, they were met by a cheerful explosion of singing and laughter as they grabbed the one last remaining table, one of them admiring the surroundings with excitement, so many drunk people, so much easy cash, the black dragonborn in question licked his lips as he scanned the room, his yellow eyes narrowing in on the first coin purse he saw, he stretched out his hand but the goliath held it back,"Oh come on Richie!" he huffed as he pulled his hand back and crossed his arms, glaring around the room.

Their table was then visited by the dwarf tavern owner, who had a big smile as he asked them what they wanted,"Four ales, and get one in a sippy cup for our gnome friend please," the oddest member of the group said as she handed the tavern owner the appropriate amount of gold, she was a tiefling, that was obvious, she had deep red skin, and long horns that protruded from her purple hair, her face was beautiful, but it was the only one that held sorrow, she wore leather armour and had a spear on her back as that seemed, unnatural. Once the tavern owner came back with their drinks she looked at the dragonborn,"Restrain yourself Screeb, we don't want you starting another tavern brawl!"

"But that was fun!" both Richie, the goliath and the gnome said at once, the goliath continued,"And remember who was voted leader," the group all groaned at their stupid decision to vote their truly neutral Paladin as leader,"Shut it, we're just here for one job and then we'll leave, and remember what higher ups said,"Make us look good,"," Screeb nodded vigorously, as he always did to anything the Oathbreaker said, but his female friends just shrugged. "I'll go get us some rooms, we still have some money from the last bounty," the goliath stood and awkwardly walked through the crowd, trying not to step on any of the smaller people.

After a couple of minutes the Paladin returned,"So they only had two rooms spare," Screebs face lit up,"so the girls will be sharing," his face drooped even lower than before,"Robin, here's the key," he passed it to the tiefling,"And Coco...slow down," the gnome was already on her third ale and was using her surprisingly good alcohol endurance to not pass out, thankfully she wouldn't have to fly the ship for a few days.

For the next few minutes the group intermingled with the locals as the new year came closer, learning of the King of the Elves in Thesmoire and the King of the Dwarves travelling through the outer city in the celebrations, but Screeb didn't listen, he caught sight of a jester, standing on the veranda, a longing look in his eyes, he was an elf, and was quite young, but it looked like all hope was lost from his life, the dragonborn decided to check on the guy before his night got ruined, and Coco (who had just noticed) went with him.

"You okay my friend," the dragon born asked as he rested against the railing,"You look like your about to jump," Coco rolled her eyes at her friend, she knew he meant well, but tact was not his strong suit, that would be the Rogues stealing. The jester on the other hand seemed delighted to have been noticed as he went on telling an enthusiastic Screeb of how he worked for the King of the Elves but he had been given the night off, but he also admitted he had feelings for the King and was wanting to be with him. Screeb was totally and utterly transfixed by the jesters story and continued to speak to him, Coco on the other hand was staring at the sky, there were now fireworks going off, lighting up the dark sky with beautiful colours.

A lone red firework was lit off and slowly disappeared, and the gnome stared at it, mesmerised, but there was still a red dot in the distance, it was growing larger and larger by the second until she saw the huge beast flying towards the mountain, wings spread, fire leaking from its excited toothy maw, Coco waited for a moment, shock and fear stopping her as she stared at the monster for a moment before she looked at the crowd in the street,"DRAGON!" all the guards looked to the sky at those words and drew their weapons, the people on the streets screamed as the two kings tried to in lead them to the large stone doors that were the entrance to the main city and the mines, the jester looked up and screamed before falling backwards and running away.

Most of the people had left the tavern now, except for the two on the veranda, Robin and Richie, who both ran to the their friends, drawing their weapons, Robins spear vibrating with power as she held it. The Red Dragon did a full circle around the mountain, smashing through a watchtower as it did so, the party stared in horror at the beast as it got directly parallel from them, breathing fire on some wooden farm buildings on the other side of the wall, but that's not what scared them, on the beast the saw a person in black leather armour and a cloak riding the monster, then jump off onto their building, right in front of them.

This guy was human ( he was probably no older than twenty-eight) and quite handsome, with tanned skin and brown hair and eyes, and he looked strong, his muscles prominent through his armour as he walked slowly towards them, he looked kind of like a normal Fighter besides the fact that his eyes seemed to start to glow black,"Ah, there is always a group of you aren't there?" the man said in a relaxed voice as he drew two swords, both glowing with golden energy, but also seeming to emit the same power as Robins spear,"So nice to see that there are still people in the world with fight in them!"

"Is that yours?" Richie asked as his sickle glowed too, and him and his allies took their stances,"You must be crazy to ride that thing, and to attack a major city like this one," the man didn't deny that statement, he just nodded and he watched the city burn, and listened to the screaming, he looked like he hated it, but he also seemed to want to distract himself, he quickly spun around as his eyes glowed with the black energy and he shot out five bolts of energy, hitting all four of the party members over the railing except for Richie, who had positioned himself carefully in preparation for any attack. The goliath looked down at his friends and saw them all getting up and telling him to fight as Coco wildshaped into a humming bird and flew away to check on the status of the guards, when Richie looked up he saw that the man was now on the roof with a smirk on his face, he grumbled and started to scale the building.

Robin and Screeb had ran up the street to help citizens, knowing that their parties Paladin could handle himself, when they heard screaming to their right and left, one sounded numerous and desperate while the other sounded like a woman who was crying, they quickly ran to the left where they heard more people in need and saw a building with a caved in roof, they charged inside and saw up to thirty guards, some trapped under rubble, others injured, but two were fine and were helping their comrades, the tiefling and dragonborn quickly started to free all of the trapped guards and helped them all get to the door. Meanwhile Coco was flying back to Richie after seeing that the guards were holding their own.

As this was all happening the goliath Paladin finished climbing the building and walked over to the man, he didn't even say anything they both swung their weapons and they both hit, Richie stabbing his Divine Smite enhanced sickle into the mans arm and the man stabbing Richies shoulder and leg with the same ability, hurting him enough for the goliath to know that if he took another hit like that he'd go down, he was doing his next attack when Coco landed on the roof and sat down, waiting for her friend to win. Richie took another swing, and stabbed the man again, but this time it was as if thunder struck on the exact spot as a thunder clap could be heard by everyone within three hundred feet of the attack.

The man stepped back and held onto his wound and looked at the carnage that his dragon had created,"Do you think their afraid?" Richie nodded,"Are you afraid?" the goliath spat at the mans feet,"Well I'll make you afraid," the man was suddenly whispering in the Paladins ear,"My name is Atrium," Richies blood ran cold as he thought about the name, he didn't remember it, but he knew it had something to do with murder. He was about to attack this Atrium again when the human whistled and the dragon flew over and picked him up, flying north.

Some guards had seen Richie fight Atrium and began to applaud him as he slowly walked over to Coco and took a deep breath before casting Lay on Hands on himself,"Much better," he sighed as his wounds healed, the goliath proceeded to pick up his Druidic friend and carry her on his shoulder. Richie and Coco climbed down the roof and met back up with the others as the last of the civilians were taken into the mountain, but the Robin and Screeb were worried about the other person they had heard asking for help, so they ran to where the noise came from as quickly as possible so that they could get back into the city,

What met them was far from a pleasant sight, the man who owned the tavern was holding onto the chard remains of a halfling woman, his eyes red and puffy as his tears hit the ground, Richie stepped forward and crouched over the man, seeing that both he and the woman had rings on their wedding finger, the man had just lost his wife, the Paladin nodded at the tavern owner as he laid his hand on the womans head and watched as her burns began to heal, but the life was gone from her eyes, she was gone, and her husband wouldn't let go of her,"Sir, you need to get inside, the dragon could come back at any moment," the man nodded, sniffing before taking off his coat and resting it over his wives corpse and walking with the party to the entrance to the mountain.

Two young children welcomed the man as he entered, asking where their mother was and what was going on, the man just held them both in his arms. The party didn't want to intrude so they bid the family farewell and walked to where a large group of people were standing, all looking shell shocked, the group walked through the crowd to where they saw the King of the Elves with half of his body charred as he held onto the hand of a much younger elf, most likely his daughter, and handed her his crown with his burned hand, she accepted and as she did so the light faded from the kings eyes, his final breath leaving his body as the new year began.

Fury burned in the womans eyes as she rose over her dead fathers body and scanned the crowd,"Where is the fool who did this treasonous act?!" there was look of mistrust from everyone in the crowd but there was only one sound that followed the question, a small, almost inaudible whimper, the crowd parted and Screeb gasped as the jester he had spoken to earlier held his stupid hat in his hands, walking forward as tears ran down his face, the Dwarven King raised his hand to some guards and they grabbed the treasonous entertainer, who just gave up in their arms as they dragged him through the city.

After that the crowd dispersed, but the king looked at them and then asked,"You, the gnome, are you the one who warned us of the attack?" Coco nodded,"And the goliath, were you the one who fought that man?" Richie, too, nodded,"And you two, you saved my guards?" Screeb and Robin both smiled awkwardly, while the King of the Dwarves was more genuine,"I thank all of you, without all of you we would have all perished, and I ask that you come to the palace so that I can give you some rewards," the dragonborn rogues eyes lit up at the mention of a reward and both he and his friends followed the king and his guard to the palace with awed expressions.

The palaces was on a column like stalagmite, separated from the rest of the city by a cavernous gap that was the mines, and its only connection to the city was a bridge with marvellous dwarven carvings on it that depicted battles one and kings long dead, it even had statues along the way that symbolised Morodin creating their race, it fascinated the party as they neared the gates to the palace, where a elderly looking elf in blue robes was picking up a tattered old book from a mud puddle with a look of utter disgust,"Andrios, open the gates please," the king ordered,"And tell me is the princess here?" the elf waved his hand at the gates and they disappeared for a moment long enough for everyone to enter, although Andrios tripped on entry.

"She tells me that she is now a queen," Andrios muttered solemnly, he then seemed to acknowledge the party after the statement,"Oh, how rude of me, I am Andrios, current Keeper of the Book and Court Wizard for this great kingdom, I also help run the orphanage in the city," the party all gasped at the mans name, there was no way this man was the Andrios, hero of the Dragon War, and the most powerful wizard to ever be born, he seemed so, clumsy. "And who might all of you be?" the great wizard was only met by stunned silence and chuckled,"Everyone always reacts the same way."

It took longer than expected to walk through the corridors of the palace to the throne room, but soon enough he group made their way to the grand throne room, where their jester friend sat on his knees, bloody, as the new Queen of the Elves beat him, he said something in elvish that nobody but the Queen seemed to understand as she lowered her head and glared at him, taking a step back before crossing her arms at the party, almost as if she expected something from them. A silence went through the room for a moment until she aggressively ordered,"Somebody just kill the traitor and be done with it!"

"Hey lady we take orders from nobod-" Coco began but was cut off by the new Queen.

"It is Queen Keinora to you peasants, now do as I say," she demanded, a look of pure savage rage as she bared down on the gnome,"Do as I say, or you will be executed along with him!" the Queen proceeded to bare her proverbial fangs at the druid when suddenly a sickle came down before the elf, glowing with divine energy, Richie stood glaring at her, his one eye showing enough power to make her step back and murmur,"Would you be willing to execute him? I trust we could give you payment."

"What did he do?" Screeb queered as he knelt before the traitor and continued,"I know that he killed the king, but how?"

Keinora looked at the dragonborn and tilted her head to the side,"That traitor had been stalking my father and had been permanently banned from the court and any interaction with my father this very night," she looked down at the whimpering man,"He came back during the dragon attack, claimed to love the king, claimed he wanted to be with him, claimed he could save him," the queen mocked the upbeat voice of the jester,"He then proceeded to push my father into the path of the dragon and run away as he got burned alive!" Screeb stared in horror at the man before him and stood up.

"Richie?" Screeb looked over at the Paladin,"Who is the god you follow, is it Bane or Tempest?" a sparkle went through the dragonborns reptilian eyes.

"Tempest."

"Oh, that's a shame," Screeb sighed as he picked up the jester and lifted him above his head, then brought the man down towards his knee an broke his back, his spine visibly shifting and popped out of his back as his shrill scream filled the room,"Bane Break sounds so much better," Screeb then forced the elf up as he took rasped breath,"Say ah," silence,"Say it!" the man opened his mouth as tears poured down his face and, as if it was rehearsed, Richie swung his sickle through the mans open mouth and cut off the top half of his head. The dragonborn loosened his grip on the corpse and turned to the queen,"Pay."

The Queen of the Elves turned to the King of the Dwarves and gave him a pleading look, to which he offered to pay for the groups troubles instead, Keinora quickly took her leave after that. "So adventurers, before I reward you, this man on the roof, who was he? the Dwarven King asked as he looked down on the party from his throne and Richies blood ran cold as he used his great height to look the man in the eye.

"Atrium, he said his name was Atrium."