>Anon 5 creates his Bosmer Rogue
>Anon 6 is absent
>Baloth gives the vague intro again, and we proceed into the first session of TES D&D
The party is gathered in the Market District of the Imperial City, and after taking in the sights, they size up a noticeboard outside the Imperial Office of Commerce. There is a recruitment ad for the Fighters Guild, a few lines of which amuse the adventurers. ("Ineligible for service in the Imperial Legion? Smart enough to read this flyer? Join the Fighters Guild!"). There is also a vague offer of enrollment from the Synod Order, which draws little interest, and an advertisement for the Arena. What does draw their eye, however, is one paper on the noticeboard. It has no writing on it, only a strange symbol. Stubs pulls it off the board and examines it. As he does so, a voice whispers inside his head. "If you wish to learn the secrets of magic, head to the Waterfront District." Confused, Stubs hands it to the others, and those who hold it hear the same message.
Our adventurers head to the Waterfront District, and very quickly find a warehouse marked with the same symbol. The interior seems desiccated and abandoned, but there is a door--doorframe and all--leaning against a pile of crates. This door is marked, too. They open it, and instead of simply seeing the crates on the other side, find that through the door is a set of stairs leading down into a basement. The basement is fairly small and very modestly furnished, but is illuminated by floating motes of light. At the other side of the room sits a lone figure--an elderly Dark Elf man. Stubs wordlessly produces the paper bearing the strange symbol. The Dark Elf asks the party of their politics--despite their varied origins, the party simply, unanimously agrees that they hate the Thalmor, which seems to satisfy their host. The Dark Elf introduces himself as Fathis Aren, and welcomes the party to the College of Whispers--such as it is. They are understandably unimpressed by the sorry state of the College, yet intrigued by what they can learn, magical or otherwise. First, a task to set the party on their path, and show their commitment and aptitude. The nearby Wellspring Grove was once used by the Mages Guild for staff wood, though the killing of the Grove's caretakers by necromancers, the dissolution of the Guild, the Great War, and other priorities have seen that nobody has reclaimed the space--until now. Fathis asks the party to venture out to the Grove, and ensure it is safe and secure, to which they agree.
Leaving the College and the warehouse, they head into the shanty town on the waterfront, and hire passage across the lake from an old man with a dinghy.
>Stubs stealthily slips into the water and holds onto the back of the dinghy so that he doesn't have to pay for his way across the lake. A slaughterfish nips at him at one point, but Stubs-His-Toe is able to deter the pest.
The group makes it to the eastern shore, and sees something of a hilly ridge up the beach. Circling around it, they find a rocky outcropping, and a cave entrance--Wellspring Cave. Thingol notices the presence of paw prints leading into the cave, and determines that they belong to a wolf. Descending into the cave with only a dim light source between the five of them, they wind through tunnels into a much wider room. The one in front--Azan-dra--fails to notice the wide gap that spans the entire width of the cavern, and starts to fall. Stubs' quick reflexes allow him to catch her. The Khajiit and the rest of the party now plainly see the churning underground stream that waits below. The group jumps the gap, takes another tunnel, and after a turn, see the tunnel begins to rise, and that there is light at the end of the tunnel.
Our adventurers find themselves under a canopy of trees, and the breeze off the lake is quite comfortable--but they notice a number of things. Two of the trees are black, gnarled things, and a humanoid figure seems to be applying something to one of them. The figure rises, turns to face the party, and screams in anger--a Spriggan! Darting out from the other trees, three wolves appear at the Spriggan's back. Despite their fierce appearance, the Grove dwellers are not attacking yet--simply standing their ground. Varius, not wishing to start a fight, drops his daggers on the ground. Azan-dra and Thingol, similarly not wishing a fight, simply stand their ground.
Carvel goes into his pack for some scraps of food to attempt to appease the wolves--however, his movements are a little too quick for their liking. The wolves, anticipating danger, charge to make the first strike, and the spriggan steps into a tree, then steps out of a more distant tree, perhaps seeking momentary cover.
Thingol manages to loose an arrow into a wolf before they close. Snapping and biting, two miss, but one wolf buries its teeth into Azan-dra's thigh. Varius sprays a gout of magical acid that sears one of the wolves, which yelps in pain. Azan-dra claws furiously at the wolf attacking her, and both continue to draw blood from one another. Stubs engages the yet uninjured wolf in close combat with his two shortswords, killing it with two well-placed stabs. Thingol draws back his bowstring once again, and kills the acid-splashed wolf with an arrow straight to the heart.
The spriggan steps into a tree, and suddenly emerges behind Thingol. The Bosmer cries in pain as the spriggan's clawlike hand rakes across his back--it then raises a hand to Carvel, and casts a spell upon him. Carvel now sees the spriggan and wolf as trusted friends, and tries in vain to convince both parties to stop fighting.
The remaining wolf continues to struggle with Azan-dra, who finally, fatally slashes it across the throat with her claws.
Varius hurls an orb at spriggan--it misses the spriggan, misses his companions, the trees, and hurtles into the lake, erupting with a burst of lightning. A now-smoldering slaughterfish floats to the water's surface.
Stubs-His-Toe rushes to Thingol's aid, and furiously stabs the spriggan, provoking a cry of pain, and the spriggan raises its hand. Crit. Swinging at the Argonian behind it, the spriggan catches him in the face with the back of its hand, sending Stubs into the dirt, knocked out cold. Green glowing eyes affix once more on Thingol, as it raises its clawed hand, ready to disembowel the Bosmer Paladin--
An arrow strikes it in the head, and the spriggan unceremoniously drops to the ground, dead. Carvel lowers his bow, sighing with relief that he was able to shake off the charm spell in time.
The party makes camp, taking time to lick their wounds, and seize the spoils of battle--such as they are. Not wishing to be wasteful, Carvel and Thingol get to work skinning and gutting the three wolves. Seemingly inspired by the Wood Elves' initiative, the party wastes no time in taking the spriggan's corpse apart. Varius takes its antler-like crown of branches as a trinket. Carvel takes a leg, wishing to use it as a shillelagh. The arms are taken in the hopes they can be used as staves, the other leg is taken for no particular reason, and Stubs takes the head as a trophy, wishing to hollow it out and use it as a bowl or bucket. The torso is chopped up to be added to the small campfire, and our heroes rest.
Upon awaking, the party remembers the two blackened trees, and decide the best thing for the grove would be to simply remove them. They chop down one of the trees--resulting in a bone chilling scream, as a restless spirit emerges from the remains of the tree. Our adventurers attempt to communicate with the banshee, which prompts nothing but a head-splitting scream, resulting in Carvel falling unconscious. Another spirit comes forth from the second withered tree. Azan-dra remembers what Fathis told them about the grove--the caretakers were murdered by necromancers. Whatever magics they enacted, it would seem the spirits of the Grove's caretakers were bound to these two trees, and the Khajiit surmises that the spirits require some measure of closure before they can pass on.
>Also, Thingol manages to wake up Carvel, who has a considerably painful headache.
When words fail, Varius produces a coin to the restless spirits--noting the date of mint, that it has been hundreds of years since their deaths. Azan-dra adds that the necromancers who ended their lives are dead, and while the Mages Guild had been sundered, it lives on in both the Synod Order and College of Whispers. With that, the two spirits depart for whatever afterlife awaits them, and our heroes exit Wellspring Grove, and head back to the Imperial City on foot, going south around the lake.
>They encounter a lone Nord on the bridge that crosses the Upper Niben river. “Halt. You’re not crossing my bridge unless you answer my riddle.” He is unarmed and unarmored, bearded, black-haired, cross-armed and seems to be looking at the party with an appraising eye.
“I’ll give you a sock, not unlike a box.
Batter with no baker, a cuff from no tailor.
Two lids close when it knocks.”
"What is it I'd give you?".
Varius and Thingol go back and forth for about a minute (while the others silently think on it), before agreeing on an answer, which Thingol presents to the Nord. "A punch." Correct! A simultaneously confused yet bemused party is allowed to cross the bridge. They continue on their way around the lake, and soon arrive at the bridge heading into the City.
Our party re-enters the Imperial City after having successfully completed their quest, and--END OF SESSION 1.
