Stories From Orphem: Heroes of Eldeiren

Our story begins in the city of South Watermouth in the Center District Plaza. Complete strangers, Thea, Perthor, and Pandora and Gwedhiel are enjoying the Season's Change Festival. One by one, a silver hawk swoops in, grabbing the adventurer's cape and then swirling back to a wood elf bard sitting on a stack of boxes, waving emphatically. She wears a purple tabard with a silver hawk emblazoned on it, albeit bedecked in a bard like manner. She introduces herself as Screech and states that she wants to sponsor them in the upcoming Trial of Heroes competition. When asked as to why, she says she wants a part of the prize, a silver statue of a warrior, and that she just felt right about these four. Suspicious but seeing no reason not too, the adventurers agree. Thea in particular is excited to enter a competition of strength. The heroes get sticks of fried meat, cinnamon buns and funnel cakes before making their way toward the Combat District. At this point, Gwedhiel's Player is surprised at how quickly her character is bonding with Pandora where she expected to be cold to her yet finds herself buying her food without being asked.

The party arrives to apply and Screech appears moments later to pay the 100 gp fee to enter. She promises to watch and then the party heads to a room to wait for the competition to start. Other four person groups wait there as well, including a band comprised solely of tieflings. Pandora is curious but as soon as their leader laughs at the party's incompetence, she turns cold, avoiding them. Thea asks a party of elven rangers about the prize, wondering why Screech wants it so badly. She discovers the prize also comes with 200 gp and free admittance to the participating guild of your choice. The statue however appears to be a simple silver statue of a warrior with a sword and shield. The competition begins and the party is split in two, Pandora and Thea taking the physical challenge while Perthor and Gwedhiel take the puzzles. Both teams are followed by glowing light bulbs and pseudodragons that keep swirling around to get different angles.

Perthor and Gwedhiel enter a room with a sandy floor and a sundial in the center. The door across from them has symbols lining the top and one side and the door is full of holes. Eight pegs are stuck in the holes. Torches flicker brightly and a set of eight symbols glows gold around a shining sun symbol. Written in draconic around the edge are the words "The moon only shines when the sun dies." The party quickly put out their torches. Hidden crystals in the wall glowed blue as did a moon and eight different symbols and the words "only when the two are combined will the door be opened." Gwedhiel and Perthor spent a few minutes trying to light half of the torches to trigger the door to no avail. Eventually, I let Gwedhiel make an intelligence check which she succeeded. She remembered a small game her mentor owned in which you try to guess where position of your opponent's boats with a grid of letters and numbers. "OH its battleship," her player cried. They quickly put the pegs in the correct places and proceeded through the door. The next room was empty save for two pressure plates on opposite sides of the room. They stepped on both at once and suddenly a wall divided them. Still able to hear each other, they walked through the doors that had opened when the wall shut. On the other side of the room is the symbols puzzle from Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes x4. They solve this and continue through.

Meanwhile, Thea and Pandora are asked for an item of great importance to them to motivate them onward. Thea gives up her signet ring while Pandora reluctantly gives up the one coin Gwedhiel let her hold on to. They enter a maze full of traps that they avoid by throwing rocks ahead of them. In the center of the maze is a large room with a pedestal in the middle, Thea's signet ring on top. Knowing the room is probably full of traps, they throw rocks for at least a minute before walking out. Thea unnecessarily Indiana Jones's her ring off of the pedestal and they progress forward. The next room contains a series of poles with a rope suspended a food off the ground by them. Underneath the rope is a swirling mist. Pandora tests it by throwing a rock inside and the rock instantly teleports back to the start. Taking a separate rope provided for them, they use it as support to make their way across the poles, succeeding on a couple athletics/acrobatics checks. At the end, Mulan style at the top of the last pole is Pandora's coin. Thea nat 20s ramming her shoulder into the pole and it falls into the mist, popping up next to Pandora. Pandora follows across and they meet back up with the other team before progressing into the combat portion.

Entering an arena, they see a suit of armor and weapons scattered about. The suit comes to life. The clerics running the competition assure them it has been instructed not to use the sword on its back. They are getting close when suddenly the sword rises from the sheath on its own and attacks Pandora. Screams from the audience indicate the same is happening in another arena. The clerics are struggling to get through the door which is apparently locked. The party defeats the armor and shortly afterward the sword. The clerics take them back to the waiting room, notifying them that two of the members of the tiefling team have been killed. Pandora gets extremely cold. She demands they let her help but the clerics assure her they have it under control. After a few minutes, they are awarded first prize and told that some foul play occurred and they're looking into it. They're bustled out of the arena and into the guild hall. Thea and Perthor end up joining a guild called the Defender's Alliance led by a small gnome named Ellie and her elvish boyfriend. She is extremely excitable and invites them to a huge party tomorrow to welcome the new arrivals. Gwedhiel asks about a guild that interacts with nobles (probably looking for the man who holds the key to the gem box) and declines to join a guild, holding out for the Lion's Mane guild stationed in the capital. Pandora decides to do whatever Gwedhiel does.

The party finds the closest Inn called the Squirrel and Dragon. Upon entering the Inn, the silver hawk swoops past them, returning to Screech in the corner, waving and playing her lute as she snacks on food. The Party asks her why she wants the statue, Pandora wondering if it's for her god. "You could say that" she replies. After a few confusingly answered questions and some insight checks later, they agree to give her the statue. She leaves and lets them have the rest of her food. They spend the night there, all except Perthor who leaves and heads to the town hall. He spends the night on the steps and in the morning heads inside to meet a high elf, spellcaster book keep (who will be more important later winkwonk) named Dell. Perthor asks for information on his father and is given a list of names of human alchemists within the city, much to Dell's frustration in his vagueness.

The rest of the group arrives as he leaves the hall and they head toward North Watermouth, the richer of the two districts. While on the ferry, Perthor finds Thea's horse's saddle cruel and tries to take it off. However he fails an intelligence check to understand how it works. They arrive at the palace in North Watermouth. Thea throws her scroll of pedigree around to get in, piquing Gwedhiel's interest. They get in, Perthor sneaks off to find his father (with no success) and Thea has Gwedhiel and Pandora taken on a tour so she can see Andrius in private. They catch up, she admits she has no idea what she's doing, and he challenges her to a fencing competition, just like old times.