Session 11

📍 Locations

Cinder Well; the caves on the road back to Kurn; House Azeth’s Emporium; Marek’s hideout

⚔️ What Happened

The fight at Cinder Well ended with the slavers dead. Gale, Marek, and Rams brought down Sevrak Tain and the brandwright. Sevrak’s blade broke Rams’s shield, but the captain did not survive the battle.

Below the camp, behind the cistern’s barred gate, they found Nara Vesk. She was the only captive left to rescue.

The party returned to the caves where they had left the decoy caravan. House Azeth had hired eight homeless people to pose as caravaners, hoping to draw out Daskinor’s raiders. The raiders had never taken the bait. While the party attacked the hideout, the eight had stayed behind.

Now none remained. Signs of a struggle marked the camp; something had taken them all. The party found no one to bring home.

On the journey back to Kurn, Nara offered few answers. She was no ordinary courier. Her caravan had carried secrets from beyond the mountains, and its cargo had been deliberately destroyed when Daskinor’s raiders attacked. What it contained, and what made Nara so valuable, remained a mystery for another day.

Back in Kurn, the party returned half the goods borrowed for the decoy caravan. Kesra Dain paid Gale, Marek, and Rams an additional 15 gp each, beyond the 25 gp each already paid in the previous session. Nara was home; the eight caravaners were not.

The party regrouped in Marek’s hideout to plan their next move. They had recovered the brandstone at Cinder Well. Perhaps Ilyra Venn, the mummified keeper of the Quiet Forge, could now help with their brands—if they could first make her see them as something other than enemies. They remembered the scholars’ warning: making her listen might require subduing her without killing her.

🏃‍♀️ TL;DR

• Gale, Marek, and Rams defeated the slavers at Cinder Well; Rams’s shield broke during the fight.
• They rescued Nara, the only captive remaining below the camp.
• The eight decoy caravaners were missing when the party returned. Signs of a struggle suggested something had taken them.
• Nara revealed that her caravan carried secrets from beyond the mountains; its cargo was destroyed during the ambush.
• The party returned to Kurn with half the borrowed goods and received an additional 15 gp each from Kesra.
• With the brandstone recovered, the party regrouped at Marek’s hideout and considered returning to Ilyra Venn at the Quiet Forge.
• The whole party reached level 3. Current progression: 50 / 800 XP.

➡️ What’s Next

From Marek’s hideout, the party is considering a return to the Quiet Forge with the brandstone. First, they must find a way to reach Ilyra without becoming her enemies. Nara’s cargo remains unexplained.