Storms over Tamriel: 7 - Arcane Knowledge

  • This session was run on the 7th of February, 2015.


    Arcane Knowledge

    After a restful night in the Arcane University, the party had a morning meal with the Master Wizard, an Imperial by the name of Lucius Sabellius. He informed the group that they had the day to themselves while the Archmage began his studies of the Storm Orb. The group took this opportunity to visit the many merchants of the Imperial City to trade, as well as participating in the Arena.

    In the famed Imperial City Arena, the party having chosen the name ‘Smash and Grab’ for their team, was put in the special match against a group by the name of ‘Smirking Mercs’. It proved to be a bloodbath with the party giving a great display of physical and arcane skill - leaping over pits, using telekinesis to strangle people with chains just and more - and the crowd loved it. They left the Arena with their payout, went their separate ways for the rest of the day. Aethenar returned to his studies, Athalus completed his assassination contract and Kiem and Kitashi threw a party in the Vulkhel Guard Canonreeve’s apartment, which had been offered for the party’s use for saving his city some weeks earlier.

    The following day, they received a summons from the Archmage, who had a mission for them. A Wood Elf courier was supposed to have delivered a book a couple of days earlier and hadn’t arrived, and the party was to investigate. The courier was meant to travel along the Gold Road from the port city of Anvil - a journey of several days. After stocking up on some last-minute supplies, the party departed.

    After a brief exploration of an animal den with a Spriggan inside and a stopover in the city of Skingrad, the party found signs of battle between Anvil and Kvatch about 2 days in to their journey. Athalus’ tracking lead the group north to a crumbling fortress infested with bandits. The group waited until nightfall to launch their attack. Aethenar and Kitashi waited in hiding outside the front gate, while Athalus and Kiem scaled the outer walls of the fortress and eliminated several watchmen before being discovered. Kiem opened the gates from the inside and the battle begun.

    Atop the fortress tower a Dark Elf mage revealed himself, and proved to be quite a challenge for the party. A deadly overcharged Fireball at Kitashi and Aethenar left the former badly wounded and the latter unconscious. The mage was drained from casting such a powerful spell, and the group spent that time mopping up the rest of his goons - Kitashi, Aethenar and Kiem on the ground, and Athalus scaling the tower. The mage fled inside before Athalus could catch him however, and they were met by a rather peculiar sight - it appeared the bandit mage was ready to entertain guests.

    After a brief parley, they party discovered the bandits had indeed killed the courier they were after, his precious cargo - the book - had been sold to a group of Maormer operating in the area. In exchange for his life, the mage, Ulseth Norvayn, allowed the party to claim the payment he had received from the Maormer and lead them to the sea cave where the Maormer were hiding.

    Inside the cave was a trio of Maormer operatives and a number of hired Wood Elf mercenaries. The close quarters offered Kiem an opportunity to line up a number of powerful Shock Blasts, but the operatives didn’t go down without a fight. Their blades and poison did some serious damage to the group, but fortunately nobody was killed. In the end they recovered the book, and discovered the Maormer’s orders - they had been based in the cave for some time, and were receiving orders via some kind of projection.

    The Archmage continued his studies after their return, and a meeting was called by Farandil, the Altmer Ambassador in the Imperial City. Attending the meeting was the Archmage, with his findings, along with the Master Wizard, Captain Cyrelia of the First Auridon Marines, and Secundus Panthera, a Legate of the Imperial Legion. The Archmage shared his findings with the group - what the Maormer were planning was indeed possible, but the situation was not without hope. An Aldmeri organization from the Second Era - the Eagle’s Talons - was reinstated, with Aethenar to lead a team of operatives all over Tamriel on a mission to gather allies and support for the days to come with the Maormer. The Canonreeve’s apartment was to become the Talon’s base of operations in the Imperial City, where the Talons could rest, resupply and requisition rare equipment.

    The Talons’ first mission of the Third Era is to investigate activity in Skyrim involving strange elves and stranger beasts along the northern coastline. How they will fare remains to be seen...

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