Episode 1 Scene 1 : The Arrival

The trip to Far Reach was long and fraught with peril. On more than one occasion those being employed to protect the caravan definitely earned their keep be it wages at journeys end or safer passage to Boareskyr Bridge. However the last leg of the journey proved to be the worst. For upon the constantly wind swept fields of the Sky Plateau the group was set upon by a large contingency of raiders. It took a massive effort upon the protectors behalf to finally repel them leaving many badly wounded and a few dead. Still the caravan was able to make the safety of Titan's Cleave. It was rumored that a Titan's Great Sword had created the break in the Sky Plateau and it appeared that the rumor may have well been true for it resembled a jagged gaping wound. Still from there forward the most dangerous element was just the occasional falling rock as the caravan descended down through Titan's Cleave into the valley of Far Reach.

As the caravan begins moving out of the Cleave and into the valley proper one could see the fabled Boareskyr Bridge in the distance and next it the rather ramshackle town that rests at its southern end. The warmth of the valley was quite noticeable compared to the colder air of the Sky Plateau and one could imagine that at times it might actually get uncomfortably warm at times. Still the weather in the valley seemed to be pleasant enough right now and the grassy hills the caravan travels through seems peaceful enough. One could easily tell when one was getting close to the village as even a few farmhouses had already sprung up indicating that some protection was given to the region immediately south of the village.

Upon arrival just short of the town but in sight of the large wooden sign labeled "Southbridge Village" the caravan pauses for inspection. A small contingency of archers flank the caravan on either side while four seasoned looking veterans walk the length of the caravan two a side and a fifth with a writing board speaks with the caravan master up front. Their surcoats over their chain mail denote them as followers of different deities. The one up front who is obviously a well-groomed Tiefling wears an equally fine surcoat of Kelemvor while one of the walkers who is obviously a Dragonborn wears the surcoat of Bahamut, next to him is a Human wearing the surcoat of Torm, on the otherside is an Elf wearing the surcoat of Correllon and along side him a Half-Elf wearing the surcoat of Lathander. While a mixed group of dieties even the most unknowledgable in religion would easily note that they are all dieties associated with law and order. Perhaps these were some of the actual seven Paladins that are rumored to be the anchor of government and safety here.

Having decided to head to the garrison the group makes their way towards the gate that leads into the village which it does not take them long to reach that seemingly ramshackle looking gate. Although, upon closer inspection one can obviously see that the gates and the wall are actually quite sturdy they just appear to be shoddy due to their non-uniform lengths and widths. Still the gates are not the first thing one notices as they get near as an odor wafts out to greet them first. The strong scent of animals, manure, cooking, campfire smoke, and earth all mix together creating a none civilized smell that while pungent is not necessarily unpleasant, especially for those who prefer outdoor living versus city living. The dirt packed streets are lined with make-shift board walks making it obvious that when the streets get wet they might not be easily navigable. The semi-sea of kaleidoscopic tents seem to make up the bulk of the interior accompanied by the din of the marketplace that they represent. Off in the distance rising above these tents like majestic wooden towers stand five wooden structures the signs hanging from them, due to their shape as they are too far away to make out clearly, indicating that they were Inns. The fact that these flat roofed structures actually stand taller than the walls lends to the sense that perhaps they are even used as towers when needed. The road stretches out in front of them as well as going off to the right and there is a well worn path off to the left that seems to lead to one of the Inns. There is also an Inn to their right, another further down and to their left, and yet another even further down and to their left, the last appears to be across the center of the central marketplace but also to their right. Several guards stand just inside the gate holding halberds and then of course the various vendors and customers of the marketplace are milling about near by. Off in the distance banked by the two inns that are towards their right stands a seemingly majestic Stone Fort. However there are no signs that say, this way to the garrison.

Guard nods, "Yeah just take the road to the right it will take you straight there."

As the group begins heading down the road Karg notices a fetching female Yroc watching him from the market place. When she sees Karg notice her she smiles warmly, something a non-Yroc might call a snarl.

As Amos is perusing through some merchandise he spots an interesting piece of pottery as he picks it up to examine it one the images upon it shoots out at him turning into a vicious mouth of fangs and painfully bites into his face. While he recognizes the source and quickly recovers it did not prevent him from instinctually dropping the pottery and jerking backwards. As the pottery fell it struck the edge of the merchant's table and shattered into a myriad of pieces.

Picking up the small pieces of fine pottery, not an easy task mind you, reveals that they were definitely not greased but something she does note is that they seem to have perhaps some form of Dragonic symbols on them. However, to even figure out what they had been could take hours of piecing enough of them together to reveal a full symbol, assuming she could find enough of the pieces as some of them were really small and could have gotten lost in the dirt.

However the merchant is obviously less than happy, "Useless garbage now, you broke it," he points at Amos, "you bought, that will be 10 dragons you owe me."

"Hmm okay well 5 dragons better than no dragons," and holds out his had upon payment he then says, "Okay well you should get that", he points towards Amos's face, "looked at, you are bleeding."

Noting the blood comment, Arjaak turns to Amos grasping her bagpipes as if she’s about to play something before seeing there is no wound and instead asking, "Shall we gather Karg and be on our way again?

The group finally arrives at a bridge in perhaps the eastern most part of town. The bridge spans a deep chasm separating a fort from the main village and resides at the end of two of the roads out of three that exist within the village. The other road is the north-south road that seemed to be a nearly straight line between the north and south gates. Using these main packed dirt roads is pretty easy and there are board walks along either side to allow easier travel when the roads are not so dry as they are now. Further they can see that once you leave one these main roads the tents appear to be a haphazard maze of narrow walkways interspersed with small open areas where a tent once stood. Upon getting closer the group can see that the bridge, which from a distance looks rather crude and unstable, is in fact quite stable and probably capable of handling a pretty heavy load before even complaining. Just before the bridge though seems to be a guard check point as the group is halted from going any further, "Please state the nature of your business."

"Ah, so you are wanting to join the garrison, good. Well then you will need to check all your weapons with him," he points off to his right where a man sits at a small table with a book. "Then we search you to make sure you are not holding out. Then we check you and if everything checks out we escort you in. Fairly routine procedure."

"Nah," the scribe says to Arjaak, "that will be taken care of in a bit, you can keep your instrument."

The scribe at the table answers Amos' comment with, "As is our charge."

Belgar hands over his short staff "Here take it, and careful with it. Its used for more than just walking!" As he is about to withdraw from the man at the table and turn around fetching something from one of his pouch. Putting a small knife, which looked more like a butter knife than anything else, next to his staff he adds "I almost forgot I had that thing on me... Barely ever used it".
He then wait with the other for the next instructions.

The scribe nods to Belgar's statement, "Do not be concerned, we take great care of all items checked here."

Once all the weapons are turned over and each person is respectfully checked for any hidden weapons another guard steps and says, "Left hand please," he demonstrates by holding out his left hand palm up. Upon compliance he places a small orb, about two inches in diameter, into the palm of your hand. Arjaak being first the orb glows a soft blue and the guards says, "Divine caster." Then another guard steps up to Arjaak holding out a short dark metal bracer, "Left wrist please."

Meanwhile the guard with the orb moves to Amos repeating his mantra when the orb is placed in Amos' hand it flashes a faint red, then a blue swirls in. The guard waits for the the colors to stabilize and soon the orb is a chaotically swirling sphere of faint red and blue that in turn gives off a faint purple glow. "Divine, Arcane caster." the guard finally says.

The guard looks at Amos and matter-of-factly states, "The orb is never wrong, perhaps you are simply unaware of your abilities."

The guard seems a bit taken off guard by the question then looks over at their commander who replies, "We call them Revealing Orbs."

The guard matter-of-factly replies, 'They restrict your ability to use magic while it is worn."

The guard responds to Ulfgar, "Just protocols every non-garrison member goes through the same thing, regardless of race or privilege."

With the registering of each individuals magical affiliation and the snapping in place of those dark metal bracers the group experiences something they have not in a long time, if ever.

Arjaak, Karg, and Ulfgar feel a stark emptiness inside as they become completely disconnected from their source of magic and their patron and the world takes on a much grayer and uglier appearance.

Belgar'ath experiences something similar in that his connection to the Weave that flows through all things gets shutdown, and that bracer becomes an annoying irritant next to his skin. Like a thousand misquitoes all biting at once.

Amos on the other hand initial experiences a peace he has not known for a long time, however this quickly turns into gut wrenching pain that begins mildly but then begins to slowly intensify.

With everyone secured the guard says, "Okay, follow me," and begins walking towards the fort. The guard leads the group across the bridges expanse and the group is followed by two other guards. Below the bridge is just cliffs and dark water. On the opposite side is a wooden palisade with a gate that is about half the height of the Forts 30 foot walls that encloses the area directly in front of the gatehouse itself. The stark difference between the wood and the old but very solid looking stone is quite noticeable making the palisade seem even more inferior than it is. This little courtyard of sorts is filled with a handful of men, numerous small barrels holding ammo and even a small catapult. However perhaps the most noticeable things within the courtyard sit just inside the gate on either side, a pair of sturdy tierces (aka @40 gallon barrel) painted bright red.

The group passes through this little courtyard uneventfully only drawing some glances from curious guards. They then pass under the open exterior portcullis through then gatehouse and then under the interior portcullis. Those experienced in castle design could easily see the the murder holes and ceiling holes used to decimate any trapped units. The gatehouse opens into another courtyard that surrounds the 3 story fortified stone building that sits in the middle. If there were stables they were most likely around back because they could not be seen from here. Sitting on the steps of of this building is a old looking Gnome smoking a strange looking three-bowl pipe, he watches the group as they approach with seemingly casual interest but says nothing. The guard leads them up the short stairs and opens the stout door fairly easily and turns to check on the group.

Registering that all are still present he enters letting the person behind him take the door. As the group passes through the door they step into a 20 foot wide hallway and once the two rear guards, have entered, the door is closed completely shutting out the exterior light as there are no windows within the hallway and so finely are the doors set not even a crack of light can be seen about them. Still the evenly spaced wall sconces provide ample light to the hallway but whose fires are noticed to give off no smoke which indicates that some sort of magic was at work here.

While there is a door to either side, the lead guard instead moves down the hallway turning left heading up some stairs. Past the stairs is another pair of double doors and off to the right a set of stairs going down. At the top of the stairs the guard again turns left and heads to the only door which is on his left and opens it indicating that the group should enter. Once they have passed through the door the guard closes it behind him.

Belgar'ath steps forward, grabs the orb and starts to recite the oath.
He was not a fan of oaths but he could see they sometimes had their uses.
This one was inline with his interests and he really meant to do his best to help the people of this region.
As for whether his best was enough for them or not... Well it was not his problem.

As the bracers fell to the ground the annoying itching sensation left Belgar'ath. With a relieved sigh he rubbed his wrist as if to make sure they were still properly working. "Haaa that feels good to be rid of those things!". After those words Belgar recites a few strange words and a spectral hand appear in front of him. The hand goes up to his hair and starts 'placing' them. "Well now that formalities have been taken care of what exactly do you expect of us"

"Bah! those bandits were not half as competent as they thought they were. But on a more serious note it is true we have had our share of battle and handled it well. Perhaps something to get to know the region better would be good as well? If we are to help the folks here, it would be better to know what to expect"

Let's ear it! It will be better to have a goal instead of just wandering around aimlessly. Despite his serious tone Belgar is in fact quite excited at the persepactive of discovering this region and its secret.

"Alright! Sound that we got ourselves a plan. Do you have place to recommend for us to stay until the morning."

Belgar looks at Faedrith and adds "That's the spirit, besides barracks are bound to be boring". Turning to Amos he adds with a wink "Now lets get you that drink we talked about earlier and get a good night of sleep"