The party left off last session having found some interesting swords while on the trail of Arius's friends.
They then began Session 3 with helping Greer's horsey behind up a steep bit of the steps. She made a jump for it and didn't quite get there, so the whole group rallied to help her. At the top of those steps, the party found another one of the interesting statues, and a split in the path. Arius took a look and determined they should go down the darker path. Some of the group heard voices ahead as we started onward.
There were several jokes made over the need to keep quiet and the party members who couldn't do so as everyone moved ahead, but the bandits further on did not seem to notice the party's noise. They found several bandits up ahead discussing something, and overheard the bandits talking about translating something.
There was a brief discussion of the group's spectrum of options with the bandits (murder? <-> discussion <-> teatime?), then they made our way across to where the bandits were located with the intent to talk first then fight if necessary. The party ultimately discovered that one of Arius's friends was being held, and that the bandits were lead by a half-orc captain who nearly snuck up on them. After a bit of back and forth with the captain, a battle broke out.
The captain was wielding some type of enchanted stick that functioned like a rapier. The other bandits had a variety of arms, as well. One of them got a lucky hit on Arius that struck him pretty hard, but Saoirse healed him quickly. After a couple rounds, Freya struck down the captain with an impressive blow that nearly cleaved him in two. Greer, who had been the captain's main target, then decided to cut his head off (just to be safe), leading to a lot of silliness:
Greer: Requests to cut head off with both blades DM Sarah: With scissoring action... Player Amy: (starts trying not to giggle) Player Cassie: I can see you giggling Amy! Other Players: (also start giggling) Player Amy: My wife suddenly started talking about scissoring, guys! All players: (laughter)
Ultimately, the party killed all but 2 bandits. One was asleep, and one made a deal to escape. The party tied up the one that was still asleep in case he would be useful as a hostage for information. They freed Arius's friend, who was very grateful, and also went to see the translator who was also grateful to know he was free. The translator told the party all about the interesting wall carving he was working on for the bandits. It was an ancient draconic writing that told of a gathering at the end of the last great war, in which Frisena brought together the 24 kingdoms for a peace proclamation. At first it seemed only 23 came but then the 24th representative arrived last and spoke ominously of being forgotten. There were also writings on a brazier that spoke of a prophecy of the forgotten kingdom's return to conquer the world "when the flames burned bright green", something about blood.
The party had several reactions to this. Most were confused by the number of kingdoms as Haeslios has only 22. The fae members of the party pointed out that Tir Na nOg, the fae kingdom, would be the 23rd, but nobody knew who would be the 24th kingdom. Freya remembered that the painting she saw (in Session 1) at the Sacred Chalice had similar writing on the standing stones and concluded that the writing must be draconic. A couple members of the party (Freya and Greer mostly) spent some time experimenting with spilling small amouts of their own blood and blood of the dead bandits in the brazier, which did turn the flames briefly green. This made other members of the party (Saoirse especially) quite uncomfortable. After deciding to leave it alone , they agreed to take the translator and Arius's friend to the Lyceum of the Ancients for safety.
Where will the party go next with these clues? Will they head to the castle as originally planned or continue exploring the caves? Stay tuned for more Myths of Gaea!
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