Group A - Man vs Nature

The first group of adventurers started their quest in Aestas, the capital city of the fledging Empire of Aestas. Recently, one of the Empire's other cities, Pellas, had been suffering from raids along its' trade routes, hampering commerce and scaring away merchants. The party were tasked with travelling up to Pellas to investigating the raids, tracking down the source and bringing the culprits to justice.

Travelling to the city in question along the recently attacked trade routes, the party found signs of the raiders' work as they come across abandoned caravans and corpses of traders. Searching through their belongings, the party found that most of the merchants' wares and possessions have not been taken - only select pouches and chese have been emptied. Once they arrive at Pellas, the adventurers shared these findings with the local mayor and Warden captain. The latter confirmed that the raiders only seem to be stealing objects that are related to, or made using Statis magic, a newly developing field currently seeing rapid development. The mayor quite explicitly ordered the party to carry on with their investigation, and the adventurers set out back to the vulnerable trade routes to see what they can find.

Whilst traversing down one of the routes, the party came across a pack of wolves going through the remains of a group of merchants. They were led by a strange, masked figure that fless the scene before the party can try to talk to them. The adventurers met this person a couple times more, fighting off the wild animals under their command. During one of these encounters the party rescue yet another group of merchants, confirming that the masked figure is behind the raids. The two groups discussed the raiding, and realizing that the masked figure is after Statis objects the merchants gifted the party a pair of powerful crystals with the ability to freeze someone on the spot, with the intention of giving the party the ability to capture the masked raider.

Instead, the group finally managed to strike up conversation with the masked figure. He revealed himself to be a Wild Mage, serving under an immortal being known as a spirit. This particular spirit, named Shanoa, was tied to the lands surrounding Pellas and has been suffering ever since the city began. With its' power waning, the Wild Mage decided the only solution was to utilize this new "Statis" magic to build Shanoa a new body with which it would no longer be tied to the lands being taken over by Pellas. The party politely requested an audience with Shanoa to reaffirm this story, and found out that only one more Statis crystal is needed to complete the body. They decided to give one of their gifted crystals to the Wild Mage to complete his plan and return to Pellas confident in the fact that the raids would cease now that the Mage's objective was completed.

Group B - Hellfire

The second group of the day were recruited by an Arbiter, a lawkeeping organisation that works across Dimbernel to enforce order. The Arbiters received words of some sinister plot brewed by a group of cultists of Quexxlia, the goddess of fire and destruction, but do not know much beyond that. The party's task was to travel down to the Deeps to investigate the district that the clue to the plot came from, investigating what's going on and preventing the Quexxlians' plans from bearing fruit.

The party first make their way down to the Deeps, a complex network of underground tunnels housing a population of people utterly dedicated to worshipping one or more of several established gods. They track down a particular village where they find out several disturbing disappearances have taken place. Whilst the party investigate, some more of the villagers are whisked away by the cultists whilst everyone's backs are turned. However, the party do find out that Quexxlians have been sighted in the village and discover another interesting tidbit - one of the villagers named Frederick had at some point converted to the cult of Quexxlia, deserting his home.

Keeping the learned information at the back of their minds, the party spent some time hunting down stray Quexxlians in the Deeps to find any with connections to the group behind the ritual. They eventually end up picking up the trail of the cultists' hideout, wasting no time in performing a raid and confronting the leader of the group - none other than Frederick, now completely obsessed with Quexxlia to the point where he kidnapped people from his former home to ritually sacrifice in an attempt to summon a great fire demon. The party fight off Frederick's main force of cultists whilst the man himself flees with the villagers and some trusty bodyguards.

Giving chase to Frederick, the party corner him and his retinue at the location of the ritual. Although the adventurers initially see success in the ensuing fight and manage to set the villagers free, they eventually end up overwhelmed and put on the pyre to be sacrificed instead. However, thanks to some clever trickery (and not very attentive rope tying) some of the adventurers free themselves of the pyres in the nick of time and manage to beat Frederick down. After regrouping, the party discuss what to do next - one amongst them stays behind to take Frederick back to his village and attempt to have him and the townsfolk make peace with each other, whilst the rest travels back to the Arbiters to collect their hard-earned reward.

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