The following is from his post-game summary in our social media group:
Here's a summary of the first session (which is like a prelude to the campaign).
Thanks to everyone for helping with the playtest.
THE TOWER OF AZHUG
The Hinterlands is a region long home to various bands of orcs. The orcs live close the land, hunting, gathering, and driving herds to seasonal grazing grounds. But over the past several decades, they have become increasingly hostile to the human kingdoms to the north and south of their territory and the last generation has known nothing but war and aggression.
The orc warlord Azhug III is the third in a dynasty that has held the orcs under one rule. Azhug belongs to the Standing Stone band. In generations past, this band has been regarded as lore keepers and holy people among the orcs. At some point, the band became more aggressive and began subjugating other groups. Azhug I (the current Azhug’s grandfather) was the first warlord to claim rulership over all the orcs of the Hinterlands.
The Old Kingdoms and the Free Cities of humanity have had enough and banded together to stop the orc hordes. But the orcs have proven particularly difficult to break.
Amid those fighting for the human armies is the elf adventurer, Mallonn and his companions, the thief Khaine, the paladin Sir Roderick, the halfling Seamus, and the dwarf Hanksite Irongrits. After a skirmish with an orc patrol, they are approached by a lone orc, Garzal, who surrenders and offers to lead them straight into the warlords camp if they promise to end the Azhug dynasty once and for all. Garzal in an orc traditionalist who longs to return to the old ways and abandon the endless war and conflict.
Knowing the mission will be difficult, Mallonn calls upon two of his old adventruing companions, now retired: Zelligar the Unknown, a powerful wizard, and Rheagen the Fearless, a legendary fighter.
The heroes make their way to Azhug III's base and discover that he has erected a tower ringed with a stone wall.
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| The legendary party sets forth... |
Their climb leads them through a window and into the stairwell directly outside Azhug's champers.
After a quick battle with the warlord, his son (Azhug IV), and the house guard, and a hill giant that has squeezed up the stairs, the heroes are victorious.
Hanksite unveils a new type of device his clan has invented - black powder guns!
However, one orc escaped the battle - Azhug's queen, Gemti. During the fighting, Azhug was overhear telling her to "go to the Old One". The heroes track her up another flight of stairs to the top level of the tower.
At the top level, they find the orc queen attending a figure seated on a throne. The figure is humanoid, but alien and unlike any species anyone has ever seen. Zelligar deduces that he is one of the ancient First People, from whom humans, orcs, elves, and halflings are descended.
It is the Old One that has bent the Azhug line to his will and stirred them to conquest and war from the shadows. He mocks the heroes, telling them their species have degraded much since his kind brought them forth upon the World of Urd.
The heroes engage the Old One and surround him. His magic proves to be powerful as he obliterates the life force from Garzal with one word and paralyzes Seamus, Khaine, and Zelligar with a touch. Nonetheless the heroes gain the upper hand and the Old One flees into a magic portal behind his throne. Sir Roderick is able to dive in after him while the tower collapses around the others.
In ages to come, the heroes will be remembered for their defeat of the Azhug dynasty and how they sacrificed their lives in the destruction of the tower. But the secret of the Old One will remain a secret, lost in the rubble now piled atop the hill where the tower once stood.
The Arcane Alienist speaks about this session in his podcast here!
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