The Elder Scrolls VI: Not Skyrim (as experienced by Faendal)

[LocoColt04]

What you will read below is effectively a multiplayer story. These are the events pertaining to my character in our tabletop game, from a third-person limited point of view. These notes are meant to convey the series of events, but are not in full literary form. I choose to share these notes in this fashion because I hope to entertain you in the same manner which I myself am entertained.

This game is using the FantasyCraft system, modified to reflect the Elder Scrolls crafting/enchanting/etc gameplay. The game takes place during the events of Skyrim, in the region of Cyrodiil. As Skyrim is set over 200 years after Oblivion, it is assumed that Kvatch is now a bustling town, rather than a ground of destruction.

Faendal is a Bosmer (Wood Elf) hailing originally from the Valenwood, but spending much of his adult life in Skyrim. After Alduin's attack on Helgen, he flees southward to Cyrodiil, making a home in Chorrol. For a more detailed synopsis of Faendal's background, click here.

Comments are welcome in this thread, as our sessions will be held bi-weekly and my logs will be spread out.

Session log notes will be posted in orange to distinguish them from standard communications. On that note, enjoy.

~

Why is Faendal in prison?

Shortly after entering Kvatch on wolfback, one of the noble class approaches him rudely. Faendal chooses not to respond, but Fangslayer growls at the remark. The nobleman runs off to the guard, who then approach Faendal. They are aggressive, but Faendal orders Fangslayer to keep quiet. As the guards press him for answers (who are you, why have you come, what did you do to that nobleman, etc.), Faendal shrugs off the aggression and remains calm. One of the guards does not like the attitude, and shoves him off of Fangslayer. Fangslayer leaps forward, but Faendal's command rings out and she stops her attack before touching either guard. Despite her instant obeyance, the guards pick Faendal up off the ground and cart him away to prison. More guards arrive in an attempt to capture Fangslayer, but she escapes, with Haru flying after her overhead.

This brings us to the start of the campaign.

SUMMARY OF EVENTS:

Faendal is the third of the not-yet-a-party to be brought into the cells. He is tossed haphazardly into a cell by himself. Across from him, there is a very large intimidating man, sharing a cell with an obnoxiously aggressive man. In the cell next to his, there appear to be two military men. Across from them, a very young boy, and a Khajiit. The boy speaks frequently, introducing himself as Mouse, and oft quells the silence with his wild tales. He genuinely does not know why he and Bear, the large man, are in the prison. A day passes. The Khajiit calls himself V'Zaren. One of the military men has a long name, but Faendal only caught the surname, and will refer to him as Hawk; the other man is referred to as The Lieutenant, until properly introduced. A new prisoner is tossed into Faendal's cell. He is courteous, but not necessarily polite. He keeps to himself and refuses to give his name, but offers to help Faendal shift about in the cell more easily.

One of the guards kills the boisterous prisoner sharing the cell with Bear. Later that evening, the guards bring in an Argonian to take his place. Faendal notices the Argonian fiddling with something after the guards leave, but cannot discern what it is. V'Zaren appears particularly interested in whatever is happening. Laughing maniacally, the Argonian throws his concoction at Bear. Moments later, the ground rumbles. One of the guards runs in from outside and eventually locks himself in the cell with Bear and the Argonian, obviously terrified of whatever is out there. Faendal asks his cellmate's help in moving away from the outer wall and into the corner. Though it is dark, there are many screams outside and something comes crashing through the wall, snapping Bear in half. The Argonian continues to laugh despite what just happened. He tosses something on the guard as well, and the monster eventually does to him what it did to Bear. The Argonian escapes through the hole in the cell.

V'Zaren reaches through the bars of his cell and drags the corpse of the guard over to him. The key ring is too large to be squeezed sideways into his cell, but the bars facing the pathway are wider. V'Zaren collaborates with Faendal, tossing the keys out the front of the cell toward Faendal, who only has to reach a short amount to gather them. Faendal slowly clambers to his feet and lets himself out, with the quiet man behind him. V'Zaren says that the monster appeared to be some sort of long-necked turtle. Mouse is adamant that it was a dragon. Nobody else could quite make out what it was. Before going to the Khajiit, Faendal unlocks the cell door to the Nordsmen beside him. As they exit their cell, he finally unlocks the door with V'Zaren and Mouse. He is weary of V'Zaren, who seems to know too much about what was going on with the monster.

Mouse is mortified at the loss of his friend, but eventually follows the party down the empty hallway into a room filled with their belongings. Each member collects what is rightfully his, and then rummages through the unclaimed belongings. Hawk finds some knives, but before picking them up, Mouse screams at him and lunges for the weapon. He also claims a very large tunic belonging to Bear, keeping it as a sentimental item. As Faendal is picking up a silver ring of considerable value, Hawk and his Lieutenant are panning the walls. They remove one of the wanted posters. V'Zaren follows suit, and finds one of the Argonian. He removes it from the desk.

The misfortunate prisoners, many claiming to be there wrongfully, make haste through the hole in Bear's cell. Kvatch appears deserted. Upon exiting the building, Faendal whistles loudly. Haru, his falcon, returns to him and perches on his head. V'Zaren takes note and begins licking his lips. Faendal threatens the Khajiit to keep his tongue in his mouth and his claws to himself. The group begins searching the area. The quiet man heads to the church, while Hawk and his Lieutenant make for the stables. Still weary of V'Zaren's motives, Faendal follows him toward the inn.

Hawk and his Lieutenant find Fangslayer in the stables with the horses. Fangslayer growls at her intruders, but otherwise holds her ground and does not attack. The men, worried for the horses, flush her out of the stable with a torch. She backs up to the wall and leaps off of it, over the men, and out into the streets. They remain with the horses. It is unknown whether Hawk took note of the saddlebags she had on.

Fangslayer returns to Faendal's side while V'Zaren is searching the inn. Faendal remains outdoors, watching the streets and his newfound allies. A priest exits the church, and the quiet man is following him, heading toward a small house. V'Zaren exits the inn, encountering a gruff snarl from the white wolf, but seems unstartled. She glares at him, and he returns the menacing glance, but they otherwise leave each other alone. Faendal hobbles along behind Fangslayer as she follows V'Zaren to the general store and the smithy's workshop to stock up on supplies and get something useful for Mouse.

Hawk and his Lieutenant return from the stables, noticing that the white wolf they encountered earlier appears to be friendly. They move with their two horses and four more that just happened to come along for the ride toward the house that the quiet man entered. He eventually exits without the priest, but with a somber look on his face. In the first real display of emotion he's had in front of the group, he is rather adamant about tracking the monster's trail.

Hawk and Faendal discuss tactics, and decide that the wiser decision would be to track the Argonian. The quiet man refuses, and sets out in his own direction, following the obvious path of destruction left behind. The rest of the party mount horses as Faendal climbs onto Fangslayer's back. Hawk scoffs and mutters something under his breath about the "mangy animal." V'Zaren opts to stay with the less-wreckless side and follows along with Mouse as Fangslayer sets to work tracking the Argonian, taking cues from Haru overhead. Within minutes, they meet back up with the quiet man as the trails converge. It seems the Argonian was also tracking the monster, so the party makes haste northward, back toward the mountain range separating them from Chorrol.

The night is uneventful, but as the party reaches the end of their second afternoon of travel, they come across a trio of giants blocking the only path through the pass. Faendal draws his bow but keeps it lowered as he takes point of the party and slowly approaches the giants. The largest, wearing pants instead of a loincloth, seems civilized enough to communicate. He approaches the party quickly, and comes within striking distance of Faendal before stopping. The rest of the party backs away. Fangslayer hesitates, and steps back just out of striking range. Through pointed conversation, Faendal reasons with the giant, securing their passage through to continue tracking the Argonian under the condition that the party provides the giants' meal for the evening. The group turns back and begins hunting and foraging.

The party eventually stumbles upon a clearing with a doe and a stag on a hilltop. Faendal takes point again, drawing his bow and loosing an arrow at the stag. Startled, the stag runs down the opposite side of the hill. Hawk charges the doe, felling it in one blow. The stag hears her cry of pain, turns, and charges back at the party. More formidable than any could have anticipated, the large stag puts up a hell of a fight. It is during this first group combat that Faendal realizes how effective Fangslayer is when flanking a target. Hawk also makes note of this, but during the fight becomes gravely injured. The party's combat dynamics swing into action, and one strong bite from Fangslayer finishes the job. V'Zaren pulls out some supplies and works on healing Hawk with roughly half of a medicine kit. Fortunately, it is effective.

When the group returns, the giants offer the party the opportunity to share in the evening's spoils. Weary of death upon declination, the adventurers accept the offer and sit down to eat. After the meal, the giants seem far more reasonable, and more willing to divulge information. Faendal learns that the monster matched V'Zaren's description almost perfectly (though Mouse still swears that it was a dragon), and that the Argonian was only a couple of hours behind the monster. This giant turtle was intimidating enough to cause the giants to move out of its path. The group is advised to avoid direct conflict.

After dinner, the party settles a couple hundred yards north of the giants' camp for the evening. In the morning, Haru flies ahead of the group to resume tracking of the Argonian. After an hour of travel, Haru turns back to the group and flutters excitedly. Through sign language, he communicates that he found something noteworthy. The party picks up pace until a small shack in the middle of the woods becomes visible. Dismounting their horses, the group moves forward cautiously, approaching the shack while the Lieutenant takes point. Faendal remains on wolfback, as he is useless otherwise. Within a hundred feet of the shack, Fangslayer stops dead in her tracks and refuses to move. She paws at the ground repeatedly, but Faendal is unsure of what has her spooked. She whimpers, and does not move forward even under command. Hawk and his companion move forward, but after taking just two steps, a large hole opens in the ground and the Lieutenant falls into the pit. Hawk is fortunately resourceful enough to come prepared for most situations, and removes a chain from his bag. He cautiously approaches Fangslayer, then ties the chain around her harness, tossing the other end into the pit. As Fangslayer moves in the opposite direction, the Lieutenant reaches the top of the pit and begins to rise.

At this time, the shack door opens. The Argonian is standing there, vial in hand, and lauches it the hundred yards at a velocity much faster than one could throw an object. Everyone in the party except for Faendal and Fangslayer is hit with a powder that causes them to sneeze (and smell suspiciously of barbecue). This was exactly what happened to Bear before the giant turtle appeared and ripped him in half. The party begins to panic as the ground rumbles beneath their feet. The group retreats as fast as possible back toward the giant camp.

Mouse is incredibly insistent upon returning to the shack to get payback for what happened to Bear. The quiet man also speaks up on the matter, refusing to submit to fear. V'Zaren notes that he could concoct an antidote, given the proper ingredients. The party spends a couple hours foraging for supplies, and eventually comes up with enough items to build a stink bomb to counteract the sweet smell of the Argonian's powder, and a mustard green smokescreen of their own to douse the effects.

The group returns to the Argonian's shack. They notice him watching them through a window, appearing incredibly shocked that they would return. Faendal is comfortably on point, and Fangslayer charges the Argonian as soon as he exits the building, despite throwing another vial of barbecue sneezing powder. Faendal, Hawk, and the Lieutenant are all affected, but Fangslayer moves forward unharmed, leaving the Nords behind. The rest of the group rides from the other side of the pit, and they converge on the Argonian's location. The Argonian casts a web spell, trapping the group at his doorstep, and laughs maniacally as he did in the prison cell. He returns inside and shuts the door behind him.

As the monstrous turtle arrives, V'Zaren deploys his antidote. The group no longer smells pleasant, quelling the turtle's immediate hunger. Realizing the monster is docile, the party does not engage it, and instead feeds it from their own supply. Enraged that the party managed to survive, the Argonian escapes through a back exit. The party rushes inside only to find the shack empty. They search for items of value and clues to what's next.

END OF SESSION 001.

SESSION REWARDS:
Fancy Silver Ring (worth 100s)
Whatever loot was allocated to my character from the shack since I had to leave before the end of the session