Weaving of Fates

Weaving of Fates is the first episode of Evenfall, streamed on June 12th 2020. This episode features Jacob                                                                                             as the Dungeon Master, Grace as Faelan, Spencer as Phillip, Jordan as Kurt, Tyler as Lelia, Colton as Cor                                                                                                     and Logan as Stibbles.

The episode follows a group of 6 travelers brought together to defend a caravan on their journey to Whitmore.

Introduction
“Five wagons wobble along a dusty trail. The stars above sparkle in the dark endless night, the warm glow of torchlight breaking the shadows around them. The scent of warm grass hangs in the air. The Wallshide Caravans have been pushing through the hills of northern Arygia towards Whitmore, its final destination in the foreseeable future. It’s been three days since these caravans have last seen a village, camping out on the side of the road each night. However a group of trained individuals have safely guarded its passage, though very little threatens it. Not but the sighting of a bear has been the most dangerous thing along this trip yet. Refrum, owner of the caravans has employed 10 mercenaries to guard the 5 caravans. 4 of them seeming like run of the mill armored crossbow wielding guards. The other 6 however, are much more different and varied in their skills…”

“The 6 of you have been on the road for a while now, and only have you really begun to notice each other. Perhaps, even recognize one another...”

Part I
The first to join the caravan is Lelia. She has pure white hair, dark set eyes, a noticeable limp and an almost sickly complexion. She bears a scar across one of her eyes.

After Lelia, Kurt joined the Caravan. They are a half-elf, just over 5 feet wearing vivid colors, with their hair into two horn like shapes, and bore different types of fake facial hair on their journey with the Caravan. They carry a partially worn down guitar. After they showed up the nights with the Caravan became much more lively.

A few days later in Brygia, a tall Drow knight named Phillip, wearing glasses and in heavy armor bearing the symbols of a sun and a moon joined the Caravan.

After leaving Westbreach, Cor was the next addition to the Caravan. She wears a reddish mask over her eyes, and long light brown hair. She wears a golden cloak, with wrappings covering her torso and carries a runic rapier.

Faelan, a human mercenary with dark brown hair in a ponytail, a blood red eye, bearing two swords joined in Lowstoft.

In Freyfjord, a gnomish man by the name of Stibbles, wearing a red hat with brass adornments, was the last to join the party.

Refrum hired them to safely guide these caravans to Whitmore, about a 4 days travel away once all 6 had joined. Payment of 150 gold pieces was promised on arrival.

The wagons prepared for camp that night, and three camps were set up, the six of them being together that night.

Stibbles asks the party to share childhood stories, leading with his own of when he was 6 falling into a pile of mud filled with leeches. Phillip, in response mentions that he was turned to stone when he was 13, due to a Cockatrice. Kurt’s frequent innuendos ends Phillip’s story. Kurt regales a tale of when he was in a “battle of the bands,” (also remarking on his distrust of bards) and played a 20 minute free-jazz solo, accidentally causing the entire town to float into the air. An elderly man was stuck on the roof for a few days. A goat broke both of its legs and was put down, other than that there were no other injuries.

Faelan begins carving a piece of wood into the shape of a Koala on Stibbles’ shoulder. Lelia hands Kurt a wanted poster bearing their face. Kurt does not seems phased by this, and keeps it. Lelia says they were very interested in finding Kurt. Refrum seems troubled that Kurt is wanted for arrest, but using their Tides of Chaos, they are able to convince him that it’s okay.

Stibbles mentions that he has heard Faelan’s name before.

The group shows interest in Stibbles’ companion, Gerbo, being a “Fuzzy Bear” (Koala).

Cor re-attaches a broken ear to Faelan’s wood carving of Gerbo using Mending.

Stibbles, Faelan and Cor hear something in the air off in the distance. Cor summons her owl familiar, and has them fly up high. She looks through their senses. The owl sees a massive figure moving through the darkness. The whole party can see some sort of movement blotting out the stars in the sky. They also hear some movement on the ground.

Stibbles ducks into a bush, as a sudden crunching appears. A dragon-like creature with wilted skin and shadowy black scales latches onto the main cart in the caravan. A rider sits on top of the dragon covered in a black cloak. The dragon stares down towards the six, and the rider says in a gravely voice, “I suppose I’ll take it myself.” It then turns to Refrum saying, “Halfling thief, did my servants not make it to you?”

The group prepares to run, or potentially fight.

The dragon rears back, preparing to breath fire onto the whole party.

Cor’s owl sees people running down the side of the cliff with bloodshot eyes and decaying forms.

Refrum begins, running forward and pulls a scroll out and casts Wall of Force. He quickly tells the group that they cannot fight this person, and informs them of a tunnel through the mountain that they can escape through.

Cor asks if they are to leave the other guards behind, Stibbles quickly replying with a yes.

Faelan acts next, casting Protection from Evil and Good on Kurt as he begins backing up towards the tunnel. He pulls out both of his shortswords.

The dragon blasts a black flame towards the party, however it is blocked by the wall. It digs its claws into the main cart and prepares to fly.

Stibbles pulls out his quarterstaff, pole-vaults, turning into a wolf spider and begins to flee up the side of the cliff.

Phillip quickly follows Faelan, getting further ahead and waiting for the rest of the group.

The figure on the dragon points their hand towards the other group of guards, summoning a cloud of toxic fumes around them.

Taking out her Rapier, and slashing it across a gem, Cor casts Scorching Ray on one of the undead creatures. They seem to take the hit. She too begins to follow the group towards their escape.

Kurt calls this overkill for what happened to the goat, and runs. They too cast Scorching Ray on the one Cor hit, and two on another.

Refrum again tells everyone to run.

Lelia casts Protection from Evil and Good on herself as well, then looks at Refrum, assertively telling him to drop the wall. She intimidates him as he looks down, and the wall disappears. She breaks the door down and jumps into the cart that’s being lifted off of the ground.

The zombies attack some of the other guards, killing three of them.

Refrum yells “It’s not worth it, don’t die for that thing!” at Lelia, and begins to run.

The dragon bites inside the Caravan, hitting Lelia.

Stibbles continues his escape as a spider into the tunnel.

Faelan, sighing and watching Lelia jump into the Caravan, casts Eldritch Blast towards the dragon. In Draconic, he says “get away” to the dragon and it’s rider. The rider seems more concerned now, looking directly towards Faelan

Following the actions of his companions, Phillip casts Protection from Evil and Good on himself, and stops running.

The rider looks towards Faelan, replying, “I suppose you want to join her then.” He points up towards Faelan and casts Chill Touch, though Faelan backs away. After this, the rider looks perturbed.

Cor casts Message to Lelia, saying that she hopes she has a plan more than getting into the cart. Lelia replies “Sorta.” She enters a stance, beginning her Bladesong.

Kurt continues running after Stibbles into the cave.

Lelia, facing the Dragon in the doorway, casts Sanctuary on herself. She picks up a lockbox in the cart and pushes her away out of the cart, past the dragon, who bites her as she runs. As the dragon does this, the rider yells out, “Don’t kill her.” It bites her in the leg, and grapples her.

Two Zombies go to attack Refrum, and he is knocked unconscious. One of the guards shoots dead one of the zombies.

Faelan fires another Eldritch Blast toward the zombie near Refrum.

The Dragon holds onto Lelia, preparing to do something

Phillip begins running back, and throws a vial of holy water at the dragon, burning the dragon.

The rider walks towards Lelia, ripping the lockbox from Lelia’s grasp. The rider says that they serve a similar master, to which Lelia responds, “Not the same”. The rider states that their master wishes for her to stay alive. The dragon lets go of Lelia’s foot.

Cor tries to reason with Lelia, saying that if she stays she will die, but if she goes she’ll have another chance at revenge. Lelia points her hand at the rider, and casts Chill Touch.

Faelan asks if they’re going to help Refrum, Lelia says that she’ll try, but the rider says that “He is mine.” Lelia states that the rider should leave, as they’ve gotten what they were looking for.

Faelan, activating Rite of the Storm on both of his swords, attacks the zombies.

The dragon flies into the air, making its way towards Faelan. It grabs onto and picks up the unconscious body of Refrum, and continues flying.

Phillip attacks another one of the zombies with his Greatsword

Stibbles and Kurt have a conversation, both baffled at they were the only ones to flee into the cave. Stibbles remarks that this is their origin story, and Kurt agrees, saying that this the a beginning of a wonderful friendship between the two. They agree that if the rest of the party is dead they should spend the money that the whole group would’ve earned in their honor.

Lelia casts Toll the Dead on one of the Zombies

A zombie attacks Faelan, while the other goes to attack Cor. Another zombie comes in and attacks Faelan, knocking him to the ground, unmoving. Cor blocks the attack with the Shield spell. Some of the Zombies attack Phillip. In retaliation, Phillip attacks one of them, killing it. He then runs up beside Lelia.

Cor walks up to Faelan, and picks him up. She casts Spider Climb, carrying both of them up to the top of the cart, and blocking an attack from the Zombies around them with Shield.

Lelia summons a raven to her shoulder, remaining where she stands. The raven flies off of her shoulder, towards Faelan, landing on him.

One of the zombies climbs up the side of the Caravan, attacking and missing Cor. She quickly goes and pushes the Zombie off.

Phillip continues to attack the zombies, killing another.

Magic ignites in Lelia’s hand, and then appearing with the raven as she casts Snatch the Soul on Faelan.

More zombies begin to scurry down the mountain, preparing to attack the group. One of the zombies who was already there attacks Phillip. The one who had been pushed off the cart attempts to climb again, but was not able to. Cor asked Faelan if he could jump to the other cart in the direction of the cave. He decides to attack the zombie trying to climb the cart, saying that they should kill this one first and then run. After killing that zombie, he begins to run toward the cave, with Lelia’s raven remaining on his shoulder. Phillip attacks the Zombie who had attacked him, and begins to follow Faelan towards the cave, along with Cor. Lelia turns to one of the Zombies, casting Toll the Dead once again, and fleeing with the three into the cave.

The rest of the group, covered in blood, reunites with Stibbles and Kurt. They all hear a screeching sound, followed by a thud and scratching. Several boulders fall down behind the group, cutting off the entrance, leaving them in darkness…

Part II
The group, trapped within the cave, only sees one potential exit, leading towards the distant sounds of water.

Phillip immediately asks what was in the box that was important, apparently being something that could destroy the world according to Lelia. The group quickly turns to argument over why that wasn’t told earlier, and why Lelia jumped into the cart. Stibbles and Cor in particular were angered over their task being to protect the cart, but not being informed of what was in it that they were protecting. Kurt puts the rest of the conversation off until they reach a tavern.

Faelan mentions that he’s seen something like this before, informing them that the creature was a Shadow Dragon of some sort.

Phillip casts Dancing Lights so that Faelan can see, saying that “It’s the trick of our people,” with Cor agreeing, implying that she is part Drow. Stibbles mentions a story of when he smoked pipe weed, stating its more potent when underground.

The area that they are in looks partially mined out, and they can see an old wooden table and chairs within the tunnel as well. Kurt finds that a map was once on the table, and that the table has been untouched for several years.

They reach a much more open looking cavern, with water and rocks around the cave. Stibbles looks up and can see the night sky above. Several chains hang around from the hole, down to a wooden platform floating in the water.

Stibbles and Kurt both test the waters, Kurt leading him out into the water, telling him he has to be brave. Stibbles states that “Rimple” can test it, snaps his fingers, and suddenly a Capybara is summoned into the water. Kurt continues leading Stibbles into the cold water.

They realize that if the dragon wanted to get in there, they would be in there already. The Capybara swims out towards the wooden platform. Stibbles and Kurt swim up to the platform. As Kurt stands on the platform, they wobble a bit and nearly fall off, though they are able to balance themself. The chains rattle as they do so, and two break off. They can see a cave on the other side of the water. They all decide to take a rest for an hour on the side of the water.

Phillip asks everyone if they know how to swim, and they begin swimming over to one of the paths out of this cave. Stibbles, Cor, and Phillip go first, followed by Faelan and Kurt. Stibbles looks down the path, and they see a boulder caved in blocking that path. Stibbles continues over towards the other path, which leads the five of them into a cavern.

Kurt finds a carved out room, with a statue of a featureless knight, standing above some sort of altar. Stibbles mentions that he’s seen something like this before, saying that they shouldn’t go in its line of sight, and after a bit remembering that they shouldn’t take its sword. Cor realizes that it is some sort of gravestone for a dead soldier, but she assumes the statue is in place of their body. The group also notices that there once was something in this room, and the only things left were things people couldn’t take.

The party realizes that Lelia remained on the other side of the water, and Phillip takes off his backpack and swims back over to Lelia. He tells Lelia to get in the water so he can pull her. Lelia steps into the water, and sinks when she gets to the deep part. Phillip pulls Lelia to where the rest of the party is. He asks why she doesn’t know how to swim at her age, and she replies saying that she never had the opportunity to.

Kurt returns to where the cave-in is, and they see that water is poking out of it, flowing back to the main watery area. Kurt vents to Stibbles that they want to start taking rocks out, but they think that there might be a large river behind it. Stibbles agrees that he is very curious about it, supporting Kurt’s idea. Kurt takes one of the rocks out. A massive stream of water comes out as they do that, pushing Cor, Stibbles, Faelan and Kurt back to where Phillip and Lelia are.

Kurt swims over to the platform, and everyone else follows. The water begins to slowly rise, bringing the group out of the cave. They can see a lake around the same level. In the distance they see a twinkling of orange lights, which Faelan quickly determines is Whitmore.

As they begin to walk over to Whitmore, Lelia pulls Phillip aside and thanks him. In return, Phillip promises to teach Lelia how to swim. Faelan comes up and says to just push her in, which was how he learned, though Phillip responds that she would sink like before.

On the walk, Kurt begins to write a new song about their time in the Cave.

They reach the city, which is bordered on one side by a plateau and the rest by walls. They are able to guess it has a population of roughly 1000-2000 people.

A couple of guards look down towards the group from a guard tower, who look at the group but don’t question them. They reach one building has bright orange lights and a sound of rowdiness, reading the “Cantankerous Tankard Tavern.” Stibbles saying that since they weren’t dead, it’s time to drink.

Phillip warns Stibbles, saying to be careful how much he drinks as he’s wanted. He admits that he found a wanted poster for Stibbles, on accounts of “adventuring, deserting and betrayal.” Stibbles acknowledges these claims, though saying that reasoning was only from their perspective.

Phillip asks if anyone else was wanted by the law. Kurt mentions that Cor is wanted for murder, and that they were promised a lot of money for information on Cor’s whereabouts. Kurt assures her that he won’t rat her out, and that their employer was a “piece of shit anyway.” Cor says that there are plenty of people hunting for her, and that a few more doesn’t make a difference. Faelan asks if Cor considers herself wrong for committing murder, to which she deflects onto Stibbles. She says she’s innocent on the same reasons that Stibbles thinks himself innocent. She adds, “All that I will say about it is that sometimes you’ll have to take the law into your own hands for self defense.”

Stibbles adds that once, he got very drunk and woke up in a different town that he fell asleep in. Phillip promises he’ll watch him. Faelan suggests tying him up.

Stibbles also mentions that someone is after Faelan.

Cor asks Lelia if she’s wanted, adding that her name, “Blackburn” must mean a lot here. Lelia says that she doesn’t know what Cor is talking about. Cor determines that she definitely knows something, but doesn’t mention it.

Kurt asks the party to be more upfront with them, as they have been upfront about the goat incident. Lelia replies that there are things she’d rather not speak about, and Cor promises that she will not dig into those things.

Two people approach the group, asking if something is wrong, as they are standing in the middle of the road. Stibbles tells them to fuck off, though the two think there is something suspicious going on. The second guard asks them to go have the conversation in the tavern instead of in the road, and the group makes their way in there.

The six of them clearly stand out from the rest of the people in there, but that is quickly brushed over as they go back to eating and drinking.

Phillip gets water, Cor gets wine, asking them to surprise her on what kind. Stibbles asks if they take Pips. Stibbles asks if he can share the wine with Cor for a pip, holding out these brass or gold marbles. He states that these are currency from the south of Sunder. Phillip asks where, and he dodges the question. He ends up buying his own with his own gold.

Cor walks over to Faelan, mentioning that she prefers the quiet. She offers him a drink, to which he replies that he doesn’t drink, though his brother does.

A drunk Halfling and a Human come up to Kurt, saying they know them. They complement Kurt, asking them to play them a song. Kurt says “I will not only play you a song, I will play you an experience,” goes over to a stage, and begins to play their guitar. They use some magic to begin a drum beat, and begins a 10 minute long freeform jazz session enhanced with Prestidigitation and Minor Illusion.

Kurt motions to Phillip, telling him to dance, and let the rhythm take him. Some of the people bring him in and spin him around, as he tries to get out of the crowd.

Stibbles loses his Koala, but quickly finds him with a Halfling.

Faelan sees a person climb up a building, which looks to be a residence. He notices that there’s nowhere that the person could’ve gone, and that they must’ve vanished.

Lelia mentions that there is a boarding house, which the party begins to go towards, except Stibbles who goes into a bush, and Kurt who finds someone to go home with. They all get rooms, Phillip checking his room for spiders. Faelan sleeps on the floor with the blankets from the bed. Lelia fills in her journal on the events of the day, and pulls out a doll from her bag, which she falls asleep with.

Each person finds a note on their face as they wake up, reading, “Apologies in advance, but I think you’re much further trouble than you realize. Secrecy is vital. Let’s play a game of trust to see if you pass. These people don’t like you. Lets change that. P.S, blame it on Egbert.”

As everyone wakes up, they hear loud noises outside. They go to look and they see a mob with pitchforks yelling outside of the boarding house…