Through the Mists

Session 1: Roots Beneath Rivalis

At a glance

Summary

The tale began with a vision shared by all three adventurers. They saw a medieval fortress beneath the distant cry of a circling dragon. Workers hurried through its halls with scrolls and documents while, near one of its highest peaks, cultists gathered around sacrifices. A small, skeletal humanoid wearing a crown presided over the ritual from a raised dais. As two elder cultists prayed over ancient tomes, power cracked through the chamber. The tower shook, the gathered crowd fled, and the crowned figure rose into the air. Then came an explosion—and a moment frozen unnaturally in time. Where the figure had been, a red star burned above the dais.

From that ominous vision, three strangers awoke in Rivalis. Ignatius, a dragonborn monk, had been sent into the Mists. Carver, a meticulously dressed tabaxi artificer, pursued his research. Rage, a towering human barbarian, had experienced the vision through a drunken haze. Each believed they had lived in Darkon all their lives and had come to Rivalis to visit an elderly great-aunt or great-uncle. They arrived separately at the Coachman’s Rest the night before and did not yet know one another.

Rivalis seemed an unlikely cradle for horror. Its squat cottages stood amid flower gardens, ducks wandered between market stalls, and the lake reflected the great glass dome of the Crystal Gardens. The air smelled of farmland, fish, candle wax—and dung. Yet beneath the town’s pastoral beauty ran a current of unease.

That morning, Rage witnessed a well-kept red-bearded dwarf exchange a package with a tall human. His characteristically forceful investigation produced an introduction rather than a fight. The dwarf, Aldo, showed him a pouch of unusual ore and offered a warning: a pale halfling frequented the Coachman’s Rest at night, drank only red wine, and never ate. Aldo asked Rage to watch the stranger and suggested that someone at the Cosmopolis Club in Martira Bay might know more about vampires.

Over breakfast, the three strangers uneasily became a party. Their host, Ewing Watergleen, shared the town’s accumulating rumors. The famous “Screaming Cheese” from the Two Brothers Creamery had inspired an almost feverish demand while cattle died nearby. No one had emerged from the Crystal Gardens in weeks, and Ewing claimed its plants had begun to move of their own accord. Littleleaf, a stout halfling employed as a cleaner there, admitted that the gardens had always been strange.

A seasoned company of soldiers also watched the breakfast commotion. Their unnamed leader said they defended Rivalis each night when the Shroud descended most heavily. Even the scarecrows in the surrounding fields turned toward the town. He also spoke of the gnomish Patent Hall in Mayvin, famed for the finest inventions in the realm, and claimed a contact among the Order of the Guardians.

The party next visited a chapel of the Eternal Order, whose attendants wore red-and-white robes and conical hats beneath an octagram emblem. When the party asked after their dead relatives, an attendant summoned the Book of Names onto a central pedestal. Without being told, she read each visitor’s full name and directed them toward the appropriate graves. She attributed the book’s knowledge of every soul, living and dead, to Azalin.

Blue motes—gravelights—danced over the graves that the party had come to visit. When Carver enchanted a small wooden lute to play a melody, the gravelight above his relative’s grave dimmed, descended toward the instrument, and sank away. Rage’s gravelight, by contrast, dropped with unnatural speed, as though struck by an unseen force. Whatever the lights signified, their behavior differed in the presence of each adventurer.

The party observing the strange behavior of blue gravelights among the graves.

Gravelights respond to the adventurers in different ways. See the image record.

At dusk, crowds flooded Rivalis for the evening market. Rage seized a distinctively robed woman and demanded to know why she had come. Her answer was a shortsword driven deep into him. She invited him to follow her to Martira Bay and “learn his place”; when he refused, she transformed into a bat and fled. Rage’s thrown axe wounded her in flight, but Carver’s shot went wide. Ignatius rebuked Rage for his lack of restraint, and Carver closed the nearly fatal wound with magic.

Moments later, rumors of a gray bush led the party into a nearby garden. At the heart of an otherwise healthy bonsai, Carver found a patch of gray, rotting root. Rage struck it with his axe—and the garden came alive. Holly twisted into charging goat-shaped shrubs while a larger mass of thorns and vines clawed its way from the earth. Each blow against the smaller creatures divided them, multiplying the danger.

Acid poured from Ignatius’s jaws as he fought through the living hedge with tail, elbow, and heel. One of the holly beasts struck him with crushing force and nearly felled him, but Carver restored him with healing magic. The artificer then loosed a radiant crossbow bolt through the heart of the greater thorn-beast, stilling it. Rage weathered the assault until his greataxe finally split the last animated shrub apart. When silence returned, the severed gray root recoiled beneath the soil, but Carver managed to preserve a small sample.

Carver, Rage, and Ignatius battling the blights growing from a diseased gray root.

The party confronts the corruption beneath a Rivalis garden. See the image record.

The grateful homeowner explained that residents were supposed to pluck gray roots and report them to the Baron. She rewarded the party with eight gold pieces and treated Rage’s greataxe with an oil she claimed would make its blade indestructible. The treatment appeared ceremonial or cosmetic rather than mechanically significant, though the blade carried its blessing nonetheless. Ignatius faithfully recorded the encounter in his journal.

Night had fallen by the time the party returned to the crowded Coachman’s Rest. Ewing met them with news: “The pale friend is here.”

Key events

  1. A ritual in a distant fortress ended with a crowned skeletal figure vanishing beneath a red star.
  2. Ignatius, Rage, and Carver met for the first time in Rivalis.
  3. Aldo asked Rage to investigate a pale halfling who drinks only red wine.
  4. The party learned of trouble at the Crystal Gardens, the Two Brothers Creamery, and along the Shroud.
  5. The Eternal Order’s Book of Names identified the party without being told their names.
  6. Gravelights reacted differently to the three adventurers at their relatives’ graves.
  7. A woman from Martira Bay nearly killed Rage, transformed into a bat, and escaped.
  8. The party defeated plant creatures spawned by a gray root; Carver collected a sample.
  9. The party returned to find the suspected pale halfling present at the inn.

Decisions and consequences

  • Rage confronted Aldo’s suspicious exchange.
    • The confrontation earned the party a possible job and their first lead concerning vampires.
  • The party visited the chapel and family graves.
    • They encountered the Book of Names and unexplained spirits or magical lights.
  • Rage seized a stranger in the marketplace.
    • She revealed herself as an apparent shapeshifter or vampire and nearly killed him before escaping.
  • Rage cut the gray root.
    • The act provoked an attack by animated plants but allowed the party to collect evidence of the corruption.

People

  • Ewing Watergleen: Halfling proprietor of the Coachman’s Rest and an abundant source of local rumors.
  • Aldo: Dwarf who asked Rage to watch the pale halfling.
  • Littleleaf: Halfling cleaner employed by the Crystal Gardens.
  • The woman from Martira Bay: Nearly killed Rage and escaped in the form of a bat.
  • Garen Faulk: Leads or speaks for the defenders who protect Rivalis from the nightly Shroud.
  • Sister Elda: Used the Book of Names to locate the party’s deceased relatives.

Places

  • Rivalis: Bright lakeside garden town plagued by hidden supernatural threats.
  • Coachman’s Rest: The party’s inn and meeting place.
  • Crystal Gardens: Glass-domed gardens from which no one has emerged in weeks.
  • Eternal Order chapel: Holds or can summon the Book of Names.
  • Martira Bay: Upscale coastal city connected to both a vampire lead and Rage’s attacker.
  • Two Brothers Creamery: Source of Screaming Cheese; cattle are reportedly dying nearby.
  • Mayvin: Home of the gnomish Patent Hall.

Clues, lore, and notable items

  • A red star appeared above the dais after the crowned skeletal ritual leader vanished.
  • The Book of Names apparently knows the full names of visitors to Rivalis or Darkon.
  • Carver’s gravelight responded to his enchanted lute, while Rage’s dropped as though struck.
  • The gray decay retreated underground after the blight creatures died.
  • Carver retained a sample of the gray root.
  • Rage’s greataxe was treated with an oil said to make its blade indestructible; this was primarily a flavorful blessing with no known mechanical effect.
  • The pies at the Coachman’s Rest contained a local botanical blend with a calming effect.

Story threads

Rewards, losses, and character changes

  • The party received 8 gp from the owner of the blighted garden.
  • Rage’s greataxe received a flavorful oil treatment said to make its blade indestructible.
  • Carver obtained a small sample of gray root.
  • Rage suffered a nearly fatal stab wound but was healed by Carver.

Memorable moments

  • Rage loudly claimed to be watching for trouble on behalf of the Kingsguard.
  • Carver enthusiastically studied the inn’s egg-cooking process.
  • Ignatius answered mounting chaos with patient observation, acid breath, and precise martial strikes.
  • The session ended with Ewing’s quiet warning: “The pale friend is here.”

Open questions

  • Was the shared fortress vision an event witnessed elsewhere, a glimpse into another time, or something else?
  • Who was the crowned skeletal figure, and what does the red star signify?
  • Why did all three adventurers experience the same vision?
  • What was in the package exchanged near Aldo, and what were the ore curiosities in his pouch?
  • What has happened inside the Crystal Gardens?
  • What is the true nature of the Book of Names and its connection to Azalin?
  • What are the gravelights, and why did they react differently to the adventurers?
  • Who was the woman from Martira Bay, and what did she mean by teaching Rage his place?
  • Where do the gray roots originate, and what does the Baron know about them?
  • Is the pale halfling at the inn a vampire?

Next session

  • Immediate situation: The party has returned to the Coachman’s Rest, where the pale halfling is now present.
  • Likely goals: Observe or confront the halfling, study the gray-root sample, and choose which of Rivalis’s dangers to investigate.

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