Once upon a time…

We begin with a fight! The Company of the Bere are in a small ring and split into two teams: Lëodan, Maykew and Ser Kenrick are in one, Dustan, Murdok and Rayna are on the other. A disembodied voice urges them on and the company quickly engage. Rayna lunges forward with her rapier, intent on skewering Maykew, but the brother-militant feverishly backpedals to evade her strike; his counter-attack somehow slips through her defense and takes her leg out from under her so she falls to the ground heavily.

Unluckily for him, Lëodan’s attempts to loose an arrow at Dustan results in the elf crippling his own arm and the wizard takes advantage of this by attacking with his staff. The two dance back and forth for long seconds, Lëodan now armed with a knife in his off-hand which proves to be less than useful against Dustan’s staff, but neither can strike the killing blow.

Ser Kenrick opts for defense, intent on countering Murdok, but the dwarf is confused about the situation, no doubt due to his bad hangover from the previous night’s drinking. Eventually, Murdok does stumble forward to attack, but it is a wild swing that misses and Kenrick’s counter-strike drives the dwarf to his knees. Maykew, who has by now circled around behind Murdok, attacks the dwarf’s skull with his mace, which knocks him out. Kenrick scowls at the brother-militant for the dishonorable strike.

15 Earlispring, 1000AE. The Capital, Generica.

Finally, the ‘exercise’ is called to a halt by Tankred of Stonewall, the Marshal of the Adventurer’s Guild. The Company are instructed to get cleaned up and go to the inn, where they will be summoned shortly; evidently, Válaris, the grand master of the guild, has a mission for them. They obey, some with more alacrity than others, and are soon summoned to the grand master.

Válaris greets the Company and advises them that, with the coming of the spring thaws, so too comes the inevitable raid season. The Arl of Northelderland has learned of an imminent bandit strike against one of his holdings and has thus requested that the guild send someone. Per Válaris, the Company is to go to Nobleham and present themselves to the arl on the Guild’s behalf where they shall receive additional instructions. Nobleham is two to three days travel away and Válaris further assigns Brother Aidin the Heal-Sick to the Company where he will serve as an observer to determine whether they are ready for advancement within the Guild. Standard reward will apply.

Following this meeting, the Company discuss plans: they must all go to their places of residence to gear up, then agree to meet back at the tavern to further discuss travel plans. Dustan opts to head to the Spire, where the Wizards’ Guild makes its headquarters so as to use its library to research the region that they are travelling to. When he rejoins the others, he has more information than before. While reviewing the three most likely routes, the Company opts for the northernmost road where it is expected that they will be able to stop at an inn along the way. Only Ser Kenrick has a horse and he flatly refuses to allow ‘Ser Magnus’ to act as a pack animal; Maykew incurs the less than attractive (but oddly intelligent) destrier’s ire by calling him ugly.

From the Capital, the Company strikes out as soon as they are ready, hoping to make as much distance as possible since they are on foot. Barely an hour after leaving the city, Brother Aidin asks for a slight deviation so he can visit a woodland shrine to Saint Victus, which commemorates the saint successfully challenged Lord Opposus to a wizard’s circle so as to free a slave or captive (the stories vary), a man who would later become Victus’ acolyte. Several of the Company – Dustan, Ser Kenrick, who counts Saint Victus as a patron due to the Oath and Measure, Maykew, and even Murdok – express interest in paying homage to this shrine as well.

Night falls with the Company on the road, having not made as much distance as they would have liked, and it is decided that they will camp until the morning. They do so, not thinking to set up a watch rotation, and soon, all are asleep. Late in the evening or perhaps early in the morning, depending upon one’s definition, Rayna experiences a terrible nightmare and wakes the entire Company. Upon seeing her thrashing about violently, Kenrick braves her flailing fists to wake her and is mildly unsettled by the strange way she stares at him before she fully wakes. Afterward, Maykew discreetly casts a spell upon her that ensures she has a restful slumber.

The Company are on the road early the next morning. Today, they make good time and, by nightfall, reach the ‘Two Burning Cocks’ inn.

Player Notes:

• As stated previously, Gigermann took over the GM duties and we switched to Dungeon Fantasy, albeit with our characters starting at a mere 150 points. This session was rife with the usual ‘first game’ issues, particularly with regard to Feste’s continuing fight with Fantasy Grounds. Everyone else is invariably fine, but his computer always has issues when we start a new game. Always.
• There was some brief confusion regarding the initial fight since we started out in media res and were paired off against one another, but that ultimately was cleared up. Mostly.
• Gigermann evidently miscalculated exactly how slow the Company of the Bere moves overland without access to mounts. On the bright side, he and I (Rigil) discussed Ser Kenrick’s equipment offline and we discovered I had the wrong armor loadout; once I adjusted that, Kenrick is much, much faster overland, but this still leaves Maykew slowing us down. We’re talked about burning one of our ‘Preparation Plot Points’ to obtain a donkey to carry the bulk of our gear since Ser Kenrick’s strangely intelligent warhorse will not allow himself to be used as a pack animal.
• We livestream our games every Saturdays at 6:00PM Eastern; the live stream can be found at Ronnke’s Twitch channel. He’s also setup a YouTube Channel.

See the Daniverse Blog for the GM’s post-game debrief.