The Chronicles of Zahhak - Chapter 1
We begin with a description of the hero of the story, me, Zahhak. I am above average height, black haired and often seen wearing blackened plate armor and two silvered short swords. I’m a man of many talents chief among them directed application of violence against a wide assortment of targets.
Zahhak (Assassin 3)
Neutral
Str 16
Int 9
Wis 8
Dex 16
Con 10
Chr 9
HP: 15
AC: 8
Proficiencies: Fighting Style Two weapon fighting, Combat Reflexes, Intimidate
I also have hired a few men of different talents to help me. First is my truest friend Ali. A man with the ability to find anything and sweet talk any merchant out of his own home. While not much use in combat he does try to keep his talents up with his short sword and arbalest.
Ali (Venturer 2) (Zahhak’s henchman)
Neutral
Str 10
Int 9
Wis 8
Dex 9
Con 10
Chr 16
HP: 5
AC: 2
Proficiencies: Bargaining x2
My other companion is Surtr. He is a barbarian from the frozen wastes of Kahl. While he doesn’t speak much he can sure hit hard enough to make up for that. In addition he can take a hit like few I’ve ever seen. He also handles tracking down those pesky targets who manage to avoid my first attempt.
Surtr (Barbarian 2) (Zahhak’s Henchman)
Neutral
Str 16
Int 10
Wis 7
Dex 10
Con 16
Chr 6
HP: 13
AC: 5
Proficiencies: Weapon Focus: Spears, Tracking
Our heroes begin their journey in Tidewater Bay, de facto capital of Zahre, one of the most troubled kingdoms in the entire kingdom of Rylia. Recently released from guild duties for the time being Zahhak is out looking for work when fortune smiles upon him. I spy a lone fighter chatting up a cleric with a decent sized retinue. Hearing the fighter mention he needs more muscle to follow a treasure map he’s acquired I jump at the opportunity and offer my services. Seeing a man of such obvious skill and refinement of course they bring me in.
The fighter, Heimdall seems a bit too enthused about his job title but other than that a decent enough sort. He wears plate, carries a silvered warhammer and all in all looks like someone I would not want to mess with, well if he saw me coming anyway.
Heimdall Rodgar III (Fighter 3)
Neutral
Str 13
Int 9
Wis 13
Dex 9
Con 13
Chr 8
HP: 15
AC: 7
Proficiencies: Alertness, endurance, fighting style: Two handed weapons
The cleric Caius, seems like a trusting sort, honestly too trusting. I told him I was a member of the guild and he asked me which one. Otherwise seems like a decent enough fighter and must have some skill at command since he has a decent sized retinue with him. He wears a suit of plate and carries a silvered mace and shield.
Caius (Cleric 3)
Neutral
Str 14
Int 13
Wis 13
Dex 9
Con 9
Chr 13
HP: 15
AC: 7
Proficiencies: Riding, Healing, Lay on Hands
In his party he’d hired 6 peasants, 3 slingers, and 3 light infantry mercenaries to accompany him through the wilderness. To round this retinue out he had his own hired companion, an impressively armored fellow named Ulric.
Ulric (fighter 2) (Caius’s Henchman)
Str 16
Int 13
Wis 7
Dex 16
Con 8
Chr 12
HP: 7
AC: 10
Proficiencies: Fighting Style: Weapon and Shield, Knowledge Woodworking, Siege Engineering
Our intrepid band heads off to the north and before we even make it to the next town are set upon by a fairly large group of bandits. Alis silver tongue proved invaluable at the time and impressed upon these poor souls the danger of attacking member in good standing with the guild. In fact he impressed them so much that they decided to trade with us and one of them even agreed to sign on to work with me. At first he seemed a little reluctant but at the mention of the 25 gold signing bonus he jumped at the offer.
Dale Grapevalley (Fighter 2) (Zahhaks Henchman) (Fanatically Loyal +1 to future moral rolls)
Str 17
Int 7
Wis 9
Dex 10
Con 12
Chr 12
HP: 7
AC: 8
Proficiencies: Fighting Style: Weapon and Shield, Endurance
After that our journey north was mostly uneventful although we kept hearing rumors of trouble to the north. Apparently a small horde had snuck in raid while the aegis was dealing with a much larger one. Eventually we got to the city of nobridge, the manufacturing center for the aegis. It was practically deserted, just a few diehards and city guard to try and keep some semblance of law. I immediately switched into my leather armor and set off with my trusted companion Ali, we searched everywhere but only managed to liberate a few paltry goods, barely enough to cover hiring Dale. The others went off to find out information and found that some adventurers were trying to marshal an army to take on the orc horde. We set out to join their army and went straight to the Aegis fort Aegis IV (not a creative lot the Aegis).
Upon arriving we find it almost completely deserted just under 30 men holding the entire thing. Now my companions completely of their own volition decide to talk to the man in charge of the fort to distract him while i liberate some unused possessions from their dusty prisons. After a successful foray through the barracks we negotiate to leave our wagons in the fort and head out.
We soon realize we won’t make it in time to the army and decide to just head towards the treasure maps location and make straight for the swamp. We manage to avoid most encounters until day three when we stumble into a lair of giant crabs. This was our groups first real fight and it was a bit of a bloodbath. Both sides were heavily armored and it took quite a bit to hit almost anybody. Unfortunately for our side the crabs quickly found that the mercenaries were not so heavily armored and started cleaving through them like soft butter. Eventually we triumphed, however we had lost all but two of our mercenaries.
That was the end of the day and we had to camp for the night. Late at night during Ali and Surtr’s watch a horde of zombies shambles out of the swamp to attack us. At first this looked like a real tough fight. There were 20 some zombies and only 2 of us were in armor. Our cleric as well only managed to turn 2 before they overcame his holy power. We all formed up around the campfire and tried to shoot what we could down. This proved to be a surprisingly good tactic as even Ali could, apparently, shoot one of them down a round and those of us with more training could shoot down one or two. Our only casualty was Ulric who without his massive armor had a hand torn off and eaten before we could help him. Luckily he will still be able to fight if he gets a weeks bed rest. We decide to head back to aegis IV to recover, since nobody thought the swamp was a great place to stay for a week.
Next morning we packed up and rode out of the swamps. One surprising upside to losing most of our mercenaries is that we could now fit our party on the horses we’d brought with us. Our way out of the swamp was quite uneventful, but as soon as we made it back into the border lands that changed. Every 6 miles some fresh new horror popped out of the ground, first a purple worm, than a lamia, than a 10 headed hydra. Of course we judiciously retreated from each, and luckily for us none of them chased us. We eventually made it back to Aegis IV and found the returning heroes from the battle. Upon arriving the remaining mercenaries claimed they were fed up with Caius’s tactics and stomped off. The place was positively swarming with soldiers and peasant militia, but even so we managed to secure a place to stay for a week so Ulric could heal up.
After the week we head out a few miles from the fort to see if any monsters had taken advantage of the recent chaos to set up shop. We were in luck and quickly found a small goblin camp. We jumped them and despite almost knocking out Dale, none of our party fell to them. One of them claimed to be some King Rodney and kept screaming about some deal we were breaking, but we ignored his obvious lies. A decent enough haul came from “King” Rodneys little lair, approximately 900 gold worth of supplies and most of that in gems.