ROTATION ONE RECAP – THE HIGHLIGHTS
The middle bits….
Estoria
Meeting travellers on the road to the city, you hear tales of woe. Drought in the fields and a shortage of livestock thanks to the Order of Sydon taking everyone’s cattle to be sacrificed to Sydon.
Within hours of arrival at the busy city you are summoned to the royal palace for an audience with King Pythor.
Pythor
King Pythor is perhaps not quite what you expected. He certainly has a great presence, but he is shadow of his former self, a once prevailing king reduced to the form of a womanising drunk. Your reputation already precedes you it would seem, Pythor summoned you because you may be able to resolve a terrible situation. The Order of Sydon has a strong and ever-growing power base in the city and now demands the sacrifice of Pythor’s daughter, the Princess Anora at next full moon to placate their lord, Sydon. As Pythor is bound by the Oath of Peace he cannot take direct action to confront the Order. If he simply refuses to comply his risks the entire city plunging into chaos. Maybe the heroes could find of a way to save Anora? Castor decides not to reveal his identity to his father just yet. It doesn’t seem like the right time.
The Dragon Shrine
With several days until the next full moon (Anora’s appointment with death) you visit the Dragon Shrine with the intention of acquiring the Horn of Balmytria. But it’s been stolen. You learn that
the Horn of Balmytria, is a dragon’s horn. It was blessed by the gods and has the power to grant those that drink from it wondrous visions. You follow a trail (left by thieving goatlings) for several miles to the Oldwoods. On the way you meet Thericles, a vintner whose vineyards are just beyond Estoria’s city limit. His daughter, Corinna, has disappeared into the Oldwoods. She is just one of several teenagers who have allegedly disappeared into the woods lately.
The Oldwoods
In the ancient Oldwood you track down and save Corinna and another girls from a band of goatlings. Other teenagers have already been taken to the Mossy Temple – a place, as you soon discover, is a building whose masonry is crumbling under climbing plants and moss.
The Mossy Temple
You sneak through the temple and descend into the bowels of the earth, fighting the denizens of the cursed place when you must. You discover more teenagers who are obviously under the influence of a spell or potion that clouds their minds. You walk through an underground glade that has an enormous tree stump. The tree itself, once sacred to the fey of the Oldwood, was hewn down centuries ago (as someone recalled) and used to fashion the mast of the Ultros – the famous ship captained by a Dragonlord named Estor Arkelander.
Demetria
Gate-crashing the strangest feast you’ve ever seen, Versi’s corrupted sister, Demetria, entertains a mixture of fey and human teenagers. Everyone at the table is female – the boys (as you discovered) are sort of here too – they’ve been slaughtered, cooked and served up on the table as the main dish. She welcomes you in the names of Sydon and Lutheria. Ezrael spying what can only be the Horn of Balmytria on the feasting table brazenly sits down and drinks from it. He immediately falls into a deep sleep. Demertia tells Bidderus he is doomed to die by the workings of Lutheria – only the Fates can tell him more.
Fight and Flight
The fighting begins, the heroes are primarily concerned with escaping alive and with the Horn of Balymtria in their possession. Corinna and some her friends escape too. The still sleeping Ezreal is carried to safety by Duane. Demetria does not pursue them beyond the outer environs of the temple.
Ezreal’s Dream
Camping in the Oldwood, Ezreal awakens from his slumber. He’s been asleep for hours, since drinking from the horn. He relates to you the vivid dream that he’s had….sailing the Cerulaen Sea aboard a ghost ship. Each oarsman at his rower’s post is a skeleton – still pulling at the oar, powering the ship with frightful purpose. In the dream, Ezreal held in his hand a strange bronze artefact that seems to mirror the constellations of the night sky – even though the dream seemed to be taking place in the middle of a sunny day.
Whispering Locket
The locket Duane was gifted by Versi whispers to him during the night. His grandmother’s voice urges him to exact vengeance upon Sydon, his grandfather and to resurrect the Dragonlords of old.
A wee bit more to come... ....
