Session 1: Numb
Awakening with a start, the man stretched to ensure that his body worked. Other than some stiffness in his muscles he felt uninjured. His senses reached outwards, first registering the cold, then the moisture of the bed of snow in which he had been laying. He sat up, looking at his immediate locale, and in his addled state he registered that there had been a battle. Three other forms were stirring in the vicinity, "My friends", he thought. "Who am I?", a name came to mind, "I am Bannor."
On unsteady legs, Bannor rose to his feet to check on his friends. The friend laying the closest to Bannor was Carkain, the elven wizardess. She was stirring, and by the time Bannor reached her she had turned and leaned on her arm as if to rise. Bannor rushed over to help her, and although she was moving, it seemed impossible that Carkain was alive. She looked as if she was rising as an undead creature. Bannor steeled himself for the duty of laying Carkain's corpse to rest. When she saw Bannor rushing towards her, she called out, "Bannor, what happened?"
By this time, Chiranjeev, the daleen barbarian from the Old Lands, and Astaria, the high elven cleric of Rendolar, had regained their feet and staggered over toward Bannor and Carkain. After realizing that in spite of their current visage, they were indeed alive, the four of them moved from the battlefield to the meager shelter of a boulder.
Carkain looked the worst, with her sunken eyes and cheeks, and mildly translucent skin. At just the right angle, a curious onlooker could see through her cheek to see her teeth.
Bannor didn't look much better, with his ragged dreadlocks, a blue-gray tinge to his normally light-brown skin, sunken eyes, and seemingly endless bruises running up and down his arms.
Astaria had a gray pallor to her normally fair skin with the remains of several scars on her exposed skin.
Chiranjeev had a jaundiced yellow color to his skin, but he was the least affected by whatever had afflicted the group.
As they huddled behind the boulder, they realized that they smelled of earth, not freshly tilled earth, but earth tainted with the remains of the dead. None of them remembered where they were, how they got there, why they were there, and most importantly why they looked as if they had been recently dug out of a shallow grave. Fortunately, although they all felt a bit numb, they looked worse than they felt.
Looking outward, trying to get a feeling of where they were, the group spied a group of five cloaked figures shambling towards them. Chiranjeev hailed the travelers, hoping that they could aid the disoriented companions. When the dalani yelled, the figures brandished their weapons with their skeletal hands, and rushed towards the huddled companions. The heroes sprung into action, defeating the skeletal creatures with no real difficulty. Hanging around the neck bones of each of the skeletons was an irregular, diamond-shaped, leather amulet with a square hole and four small burns surrounding the square. After defeating the skeletons, they also searched the other prone forms surrounding the area where they had awakened. The other bodies were orcs. Each of the orcs bore an insignia, either tattooed on exposed skin or crudely etched on their equipment, as if they were part of a cohesive unit.
The group had seen a couple more roving bands of cloaked undead. Astaria and Bannor, both of whom hate undead with a passion, insisted that the companions destroy the roving bands of skeletons. After a couple of quick battles, the undead were destroyed and the sun was sinking over the horizon. The party had to find shelter for the night.
Remembering a cave entrance they had seen during their search for the undead, they doubled back to search for the possible shelter. During the trek to the cave, the sun set completely and the temperature dropped. Nearly freezing, the companions stumbled into the cave. The opening was only three feet high, but when they crawled through the opening the cave ceiling rose to a respectable height of 7 ft. Out of the bitter wind, the temperature wasn't too dangerous, and Bannor stepped deeper into the cave to ensure that the cave wasn't inhabited. As he moved deeper into the cave, he realized that he could see in the darkness! Although he couldn't see color, he could see the smallest contour of the cave floor. When he turned the corner into the second chamber of the small cave he saw the sleeping forms of four fur-draped humans. The rest of the group had followed Bannor and when he turned to tell them what he saw they were standing close to him, also marveling at their newly found visual acuity.
The group hailed the sleeping humans. Startled by the sudden sound, the sleeping strangers quickly reached for weapons. The companions didn't approach too closely, and attempted to speak to the now awake foursome. The groggy natives were obviously blind in the deep darkness of the cave, so they fumbled for a light source. After lighting a torch, the natives began speaking a foreign tongue that the companions couldn't understand. Through trial and error, however, the two groups were able to communicate through a mixture of sign and body language. Both groups slept sparingly throughout the night, neither fully trusting the others. In the morning, the companions agreed to follow the barbarians to their village.
After a complete day of traveling the rough terrain, the travelers came upon a sheer cliff. The leader of the barbarian group whistled a complex call and two crude rope ladders fell from a crack in the wall above. The groups climbed the rope ladders into a large nook, with several stone huts surrounding a large fire pit. The leader of the barbarian travelers motioned for the companions to follow him into the largest hut, closest to the firepit.
When the companions entered the hut, a large human stood and greeted them, "I AM MYLOR, THIS IS MY HOME". Finally, the companions had found someone to give them some answers. During a long conversation, the companions had no information about the skeletons, but they had found out that the orcs with the insignia followed an orc warlord named Quelt. Quelt is raising an army for an unknown conquest. The companions were able to enlist Mylor's aid in finding out more information about Quelt's plans.
Mylor suggested that after an evening of rest, Mylor and the companions would travel to a local, relatively peaceful orc village. Mylor's people have a trade relationship with the village and he figured he could get some information from the orc leader.
The group arrived in the orc village after about half a day of travel and the orc leader told them that Quelt was being aided by unknown evil magic, probably necromantic. The local orc leader obviously didn't want to join Quelt's army, but he seemed to be getting immense pressure to join. Quelt's war engine seems to be rolling along better than most orc warlords.
The group asked for a guide to the nearest sizable human city, Drondar. Drondar is the westernmost city in the country of Leonay, and the companions figured that it was their most reasonable home. The orc leader gave the companions an orc youth named Gik as a guide, and although Gik couldn't speak common, the companions figured that as long as he could lead them to where they need to go.
The group traveled north for two weeks with only minor skirmishes against a small band of hobgoblins and a troop of baboons. The group entered into the hills north of the mountains. Before they left the orc village Gik was told to lead them into the hills to the old road leading to Drondar. Gik left the group after successfully leading them to their destination. The group had two weeks of travel east along the ancient, overgrown road.
About five days from Drondar, the party spied a lone traveler passing the southwest to pass the group. When he saw the group, the traveler ran off the road to avoid the companions. Figuring that the man must be up to no good, the group intercepted the traveler to ask him some questions. When it was obvious that the group wasn't going to let him avoid them, the half-orc smiled and approached the intercepting companions. After talking to the half-orc for a brief period, Astaria spotted Quelt's insignia on a tattoo on the half-orc's neck. When questioned about it, the half-orc tumbled away and drew his rapier. The companions quickly fell upon the half-orc, with Bannor knocking him out cold with shot to the head.
After searching the fallen half-orc, the companions had found crudely drawn, but undoubtedly accurate, maps, troop movements, and guard placements for Drondar. Binding the spy, the companions continued along the road with the unconscious prisoner in tow.