Shadows of Esteren: Warlords - Session 1

The first proper session was longer than the character creation, so a lot of stuff got done. The player who controlled Catalina could not come this session, but another player joined the game, and since we already had gone through the explanation of the game in the previous session, he got a premade character called Liam and would have to learn the game through play.

The group started out taking part of the festival, and looking for ways to earn money while. There was a lot of meandering, like Dornam making a friend by challenging a fellow Osag to armwresling and failing horribly, but they eventually came in contact with someone by the name of Cadeyrn who could be of assistance to them.

Cadeyrn offered to put in words with his contacts in order to have passports arranged on short notice, if they did some jobs for him. At first, it was suspected that these jobs were not exactly legal, but it was based on economics and the towns best interesst, at least in theory.

the PCs were given 5 jobs:

• Assist a caravan merchant from Seol with tracking down lost caravans
• Assist the city guards of Kalvernac, due to them being severely understaffed
• Check up on a local village who have not yet come to the harvest festival
• Protect Dr. Twain, as his clients suspects that he is in danger
• Apprehend the suspected occultist, Aodren Floyd

The 2 first jobs were ignored due to being quite some distance from the capital, and there was a general vote for checking up on the village. So the group prepared and set out, all riding Talaitha's horses, and got there by sunset.

the village was found pretty much deserted, but after some investigation, it seems like people left on their own terms, and the 2 cows had been fed before the villagers left. The local demorthen's hut was empty and filled with cobwebs, much to Dornam's dismay. Liam however, had a blast collecting the various herbs that grew outside the demorthen's hut.

They found little else, and due to the growing darkness, they used the barn as a place to stay for the night, since they didnt want to intrude into other peoples homes. but still kept some people on watch, which wasnt very effective, as a Snagan (aka: a mudcrawler), managed to sneak up on them.
there was some sound of distressed cows and the PCs went to investigate, which turned out to be the Feond (monster or Fiend), biting one of the cows in two, causing everyone to have to do a mental resistance check.

Liam didnt see the Feond at the same time as the rest, but when he did, he critically failed his mental resistance check, dived for cover, missed and dropped from his vantage point on the barn's second floor, and landed in a haystack below, refusing to move due to being scared shitless.

The rest did attempt to do something about this feond, but while Talaitha didnt have much luck with her bow, the brave and unthinking Dornam stepped up, bashing his shield, provoking the Feond to attack him. During which, Miriam flew into a frenzy with a dagger (daggers would make for better story...), stabbing the living shit out of the feond. Still, the Feond was trading blows with Dornam and pushed him on the defensive, but not enough to inflict any injuries.

Soon the Feond was weakened enough to not really be able to put up much of a fight, and the group turned on the offensive, with Dornam finishing it off by removing its head as it was almost out.

The group discussed how to deal about the feond and the remaining distressed cow, and it became a cultural discussion, but it ended with them burning the feond (fire is bad) and liam gathering up enough courage to draw some blood from the Feond, and store it in a vial. At least they knew that this had not eaten the villagers, which was a good sign.

the rest of the night passed with unease, and they were found in the morning by returning villagers.

The villagers were worried about their missing cow and these strangers in their village, but after some explanation the tension was disolved.

Apparently the villagers had been part of a traditional demorthen ritual in a cave north of the village, held by the Ionntehn (druid apprentice), and thus had yet to go to the festival, but while they were preparing now, they couldnt leave immediatly due to the loss of one cow, they needed some time and would be delayed for a day.

The group however, did not want to wait, and got a written confirmation that the PCs had checked in and everything was fine, and thus headded back to the Osta-baille and got paid for their job, along with a promise that the passports was underway, but would still take a bit longer. Dornam asked if Cadeyrn could send a letter to the king's demorthen, to request an audience with him, so Dornam could ask about the growing concern of the Elusive Demorthens.

[I am a bit unsure where we left off that session, so i assume it was around this point]