So this is it.
It all comes down to this moment in time.
On this field of carnage with dead warriors as far as the eye can see.
You are your colleagues, companions, friends have journeyed through thick and thin to reach this moment.
This was not what you had planned with your lives, but you are immensely grateful that you are all together in this.
You struggle to understand the creature, the entity in front of you. It is as frightening as it is beautiful.
But the danger and the stakes are real: you must win or life, all life in this world, will be lost.
You know that if you are victorious, you will never be able to tell anybody. The memory of the foe must never be shared. Nobody must ever know.
And if you lose…. well nobody will be left to remember.
Roll initiative.
Fighting the unknown
The confused heroes readied for battle, unsure as to how to fight whatever this foe was.
While the creature took damage from Amelia’s spells and Alfein’s daggers, it seems to ignore Orlando’s sleep spell.
Alfein, trying to make sense of the creature, decided to touch it. She felt the odd metal yet flesh, wet yet dry surface moving under her hand.
One by one the heroes fell to the devastating alien psychic attacks. Amelia tried to keep everybody on their feet, but alas it was in vain.
One by one, our heroes died.
Waking up
Our heroes woke up with the sounds and smells of the battle. Hearts pounding, adrenalin pumping.
The experience quickly disappearing to that illusive place dreams go to when you wake up.
Yet, the image of the creature stayed and the pain of the fatal wound that had struck each of them down, was there. And in its place was a scar. A scare that looked years old, yet they all knew it wasn’t there the day before.
And while they had been intimately familiar with each other in the dream, in reality Orlando and Amelia knew each other only by name and Alfein was new to them both.
An evening at the Copper Pixie
As our heroes went on with their days separately, they all three ended up in the fairly full and lively Copper Pixie where Clank, the odd little automaton owner, milled about serving customers.
Clank had his hands full with some standard drunk idiot at the bar, but our heroes were paying little attention to what was going on in the tavern as they were focussed on each other, each sitting at their own table.
In the end the staring became too much for Amelia and she walked up to Orlando quickly confirming they had indeed had the same dream and both bore the wavy scar tissue.
Alfein joined them just as the drunkard and Clank had gotten into a more rowdy kerfuffle. The event turn violent as the drunkard started spewing hateful slurs against the owner, insulting the fact he had a love for the tales of the fey and fairies.
As he started hitting the little automaton, the heroes stepped in and quickly escorted him off the premises, but not after he started accusing Orlando for being a fey due to his unusual Shadar-Kai skin.
And after ensuring Clank was ok they sat down to compare what each of them knew, which wasn’t much.
The Iron Masquarade
Unfortunately, the drunkard appeared again coming back from the rainy night outside. And he had brought a group of cloaked people wearing iron masks: the Iron Masquerade, a secretive group who actually believed the Fey are real and a threat to Daisygate.
Alfein slid by one of them successfully lifted something that felt like a necklace. Although the Iron Mask didn’t notice the elegant pick, he still used the close proximity to stab at Alfein with his long vicious dagger.
And the fight was on.
The heroes fought well, but they were outnumbered and Amelia fell followed by Orlando.
As Orlando fell, Daryl Dug-Deep, the local Dwarven Barber Surgeon, stepped in and quickly gave Orlando a healing potion while rebuking the Iron Masquerade. As he kept shouting at the cloaked figures, he also got Amelia up on her feet.
Now the Iron Masquerade had gathered their wits and readied for an attack against the old dwarf, but the patrons of the tavern stepped in, many of whom had had help from Daryl on the past. And the Iron Masquerade withdrew towing their dead comrade.
Aftermath
As the excitement died down, people started leaving until only our heroes were left. While they kept talking about their share experience, Daryl Dug-Deep came stumbling in with a heavy crate.
Drenched from the weather outside, he crashed to the ground disappearing behind the crate.
The heroes ran to his aid, but he could not be saved. Even Amelia’s spells were of no use. Death it seems would have its price today.
With his last breath Daryl asked the heroes to bring the crate to Thornlock and deliver it to people waiting there. They would be recognizable with a symbol of three roses intertwined, one green, one blue, one black. Daryl’s final words was a warning not to open the crate.
Alfein told the other two that he had seen that symbol with a group ofd travellers he had travelled with part of the way to Daisygate. He overheard them refer to themselves as The Triarch.
Thornlock
The heroes made it to Thornlock with no further incident. But there was nobody to greet them.
They considered entering the crazy looking encampment, but decided against it. Orlando used a cantrip to send up a “bat signal” like flare of the three roses. But nobody responded.
They walk all the way around Thornlock, but found nothing. no signs, no people. nothing.
As the sky to the east started glowing from the rising sun, they finally decided to open the crate. To their surprise they found a little girl, no more than 11 or 12 sleeping in the crate.
That would have been odd enough in itself, but the girl was bright green skinned from head to toe. Even in the dull rain her colours were vibrant and saturated. Orlando commented that the richness of her skin colour was almost the opposite of the Shadowfell where he had grown up.
While none of them recognised her race, it was clear she was no orc or goblin and Alfein found she was strangely familiar as a creature.
But the citizen of Daisygate was starting to awake so the heroes withdrew to Amelia’s shop.
Here they decided to get some rest. They lifted the girl out of the crate and onto a bed and took turns to keep watch. In the end, sleep overtook them all and as the morning crept in, they awoke with the little girl wide awake staring at them