Darius knew when he first saw the notice that Destiny was calling to him. He had been traveling, exploring, and learning for a long time – with the primary goal being his own development. But to really stretch his wings he needed a challenge. Something which would test him in every manner.
The notice called for “adventurers” to travel to the city of Restov in Brevoy – home of the famous Aldori Swordlords. They had grown tired of the lawless bandit enclaves occupying the nearby area known as the “Stolen Lands”. They were offering to recognize title to the area for any adventurer or group of adventurers who could reclaim it from the bandits. Darius knew a little of the Stolen Lands. They were said to be cursed. Every ruler in living memory who had attempted to pacify the area had fallen to one calamity or another. This was clearly an offer of desperation from the Aldori. And yet, it called to him. He knew this was to be his great test. He sent the others – Angel, Maha, and Kwan – to do a little advance scouting, and he headed to Restov for Lady Aldori’s official announcement and challenge.
The official offer was to be extended in Lady Jamandi Aldori’s banquet hall, with adventurers taking up the call staying as guests in her spatial estate. Darius took measure of the other attendees as he waited for Lady Aldori to make her appearance. A Gnome mage named Tartuccio was telling one and all that he would surely win the title, and was negotiating offers of positions within his new government for adventurers willing to commit to him.
A large barbarian woman was snarling at him and expressing frustration at the wait. An exotic looking Tiefling woman tried to catch his attention, but an excited halfling woman interrupted. She introduced herself as Linzi, and asked his opinion of several of the other attendees. When he answered non-committally, she wrote his answers in a notebook! She said she wanted to write the next great biography, but that the problem with biographies is that they always reconstructed events after the fact. She wanted to chronicle one from the beginning. And she had selected *him* as the most likely of the adventurers to be worth writing about. Darius was rather skeptical about this approach, but for now saw little harm in allowing her to follow him around taking notes.
Soon enough the room was called to order, and Lady Aldori and the Lord Mayor of Rostov came to the head of the room. They announced that the Stolen Lands were currently under the loose control of a bandit lord called the “Stag Lord”. Bring her the Stag Lord’s head, and Brevoy would grant you title and support your claim to the Stolen Lands. Furthermore, they would help fund initial construction of a new capital. In return they expected the pervasive bandit problem to be dealt with and favorable trade agreements with the new government. Adventurers could form teams or operate solo as they wished. Whichever team presented her with the head would nominate one of their own to be invested as Baron. There was general murmuring, and others like Tartuccio continued their wheeling and dealing. Eventually the attendees began drifting back to their rooms.
Darius was awakened with a start by a pounding on the door. He got up groggily to see Linzi rushing in, “they’re killing everyone! Get up!” she called out before rushing back into the hall. He just had time to grab his sword before an armed man ran in and charged towards him.
He quickly dispatched his assailant, donned armor, and sped into the hallway. He could see bodies on the floors of many of the other rooms… and down the hall two more men were accosting Tartuccio. When they saw him they shoved Tartuccio to the ground and turned to face him instead. Linzi appeared firing at them as they approached, and between the two of them they quickly dispatched the intruders.
Tartuccio told them that Lady Aldori was holed up in the banquet hall, and suggested they collect what survivors they could and make their way to her. Then he slipped a magic ring to Darius to “help him defend us”. Later, as they passed the armory, Tartuccio suggested they acquire better arms and armor to help in the defense. All of the “helpfulness” was making Darius a bit suspicious, but he could not deny that it was a prudent measure.
They came upon the elven woman Jaethal surrounded by dead adventurers. She claimed the hallway ahead was full of traps which had slain her companions. Tartuccio was suspicious that she was the only survivor, but Darius had already noted her pale complexion and lack of breathing… The reason for her survival was clear.
They also discovered and slew assassins trying to breach the Aldori treasure room. Tartuccio suggested they help themselves while it was unguarded, but Darius refused.
They found the barbarian woman Amiri fighting intruders, but she quickly finished without aid, insulted Tartuccio, and ran deeper into the compound.
They arrived at the entrance hallway just in time to see of patrol of guards slaughtered by a Frost Giant! The Frost Giant smashed his way further into the complex, leading a mage and additional assailants. But the path behind them collapsed before Darius and his companions could follow.
Continuing on to the courtyard, they found the tiefling Kaessi and the dwarf Harrim in a desperate battle with several intruders. They dived in to help, and the Kaessi ran ahead – calling out that she would meet them at the banquet hall.
Harrim believed himself to be too injured to continue, but Darius convinced him that his wounds were not nearly as serious as he thought – and so he joined their burgeoning crew.
At the entrance to the hallway approaching the banquet hall, the captain of the guard – Kesten Garess – was attempting to martial guardsmen to fight a raging fire.
Darius offered to help, but Kesten told him the most urgent need was to relieve Lady Jamandi’s forces in the banquet hall. And to do that, they would have to charge quickly down the burning hall to minimize smoke inhalation.
In the burning hall they came upon a guards-woman named Valerie struggling to help injured guards to safety. Tartuccio yelled that they should ignore this and hurry on to reach Jamandi, but Darius insisted that they should first assist the guards.
Unfortunately this led to significant smoke inhalation, and they were all choking and coughing by the time they dragged the guards to safety. Nevertheless, Valerie joined them as they charged into the banquet hall.
Inside the hall they found Lady Jamandi isolated in a magic shell with the Frost Giant. But the Swordlord noble was no easy prey, and she was proving more than a match for her foe.
Nevertheless, Darius noted that several channelers were maintaining the shell – overseen by the same mage they had seen entering with the Frost Giant.
So he rallied all the companions present to assault the intruding forces, eliminate the channelers, and freeing Lady Jamandi.
After the battle, Lady Jamandi thanked them for the assistance. Tartuccio, however, claimed that he had evidence that the King of the neighboring kingdom of Pitax had ordered the attack, and that Darius had been his agent! “Search him! He’s wearing a Pitax signet ring!”, he cried. Darius, in kind, pointed out that Tartuccio’s name, accent, and dress were all quite Pitaxian… Tartuccio continued by claiming Darius had robbed from the armory, and had intentionally wasted time fighting the fire rather than coming to her aid. But Darius deftly parried both accusations and turned them back on him.
Finally Lady Jamandi declared that while there clearly had been Pitaxian involvement, she could not be certain whether either or both of them were involved. So instead she suggested that each of the remaining adventurers decide whether they wished to support Darius or Tortuccio, and the two resulting teams would then see which could eliminate the Stag Lord and claim the Stolen Lands first.
Linzi and Amiri chose to side with Darius. Jaethal and Harrim chose Tartuccio. Kaessi demured, claiming to know neither well enough to judge. Instead she would for now stay and help with repairs and the wounded in Restov. Before they left to get equipped and set off, however, there was one final twist. The guard Valerie explicitly requested leave to be allowed to join Darius’ crew. With that settled, Lady Jamandi directed Tartuccio’s team to head to Nivakta’s Crossing, while Darius’s crew headed to Oleg’s trading post. From there they could make their own judgements as to how to proceed.
Author’s Notes:
I find the Kingmaker prologue a really fascinating way to introduce characters and set the stage for how they will interact with you in the game. Not only do the decisions you make in the affair matter, but also the *justifications* you give for them when explaining yourself to Lady Jamandi. All of this together determines which of the companions choose to initially side with you.
For example Darius explained taking equipment from the armory as a necessary infraction in the face of the greater immediate need, and apologized for the presumption. This pleased Valerie but irritated Harrim – who viewed it as pointless genuflecting to legalisms when lives had been at stake. Similarly stopping to help rescue the guards from the fire improved Linzi and Valerie’s opinions of him while displeasing Jaethal – who thought it unseemly to see to lower class guardsmen before attending the ruler. This approach continues over the game in how companions see you, what advisors think of you, etc.
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