Session 1
Our Bard Band Haretrigger finds themselves once again in the courtyard of Lyricum Arcanum, the Publicly funded Bard college our characters all attend. After introducing Riven, Aroluk, as well as an extremely long, prerecorded intro for Seans character Gwendolyn, the party band notices a note from Voryn Ashveil, the dean, in their pocket sending them on their next mission.
They are to go to town to procure the prize for this upcoming cycle's battle of the bands against Harmonia Conservatory, which Lyricum has not won in recent history. As they are about to leave, Riven takes a closer look at the statue in the center of the courtyard, noting its mysterious cleanliness, odd vibration, and broken podium.
After noting the spyglass at the top of the course building to the east, you begin to make your way south, passing some figures who look like they were coming back from a mission. They party reached the way finder, they find a new person who demonstrates how to use the stone circle, and he then teleports you to the city. He says he will wait for you, and you make your way to town down the hill.
You reach the town, and head into the magic music shop, meeting the shopkeeper Van Beetholder and his cat, Hyden. He goes into the back to get the item you came to retrieve, and you spend some time looking at all of the instruments in the shop. The band fixates on the tuba in the corner, and just as they concoct a plan to steal it, the shopkeeper comes back. To their surprise, the tuba is actually the prize, and they are given it to take back. Despite being given the prize, the band gets greedy, and tries to swindle the shopkeeper. With a subtle show of power, he counterspells an attempt to charm and quickly kicks you out.
After more antics in town, including hearing about competitors playing pranks on the townsfolk and campaigning for votes in the upcoming competition, the band makes their way back to the teleportation stone circle, but finds the wayfinder gone. After solving an absolutely fun as hell music puzzle, they teleport back to the school only to find smoke in the distance and a weird humming all around.
They run into the wayfinder, who is in a mysterious trance and attacks them! They quickly down him, and rush back to the courtyard. When they arrive, they find all of their fellow students are in a similar daze, but not before Riven starts to hear the humming a little more… internally. Rushing through the courtyard, they avoid the harmonic swarms, and rush to the class building to the east, as all other paths are blocked. As they approach, a fellow student ushers them in and bars the door, freaking out. The student slowly descends into mesmerization, but not before filling you in on some very important story beats
While the party was gone, some kids tried to sneak in and cause mischief with a weird necklace, but were caught and thrown into the dungeon on the top floor in the dean's office by Voryn. Weirdly, the hum started and everyone started acting funny, and now everyone seems to be in a trance. Unfortunately, you can't keep your classmate from falling into the same trance, and now Gwendolyn and Aroluk start to hear the humming as well.
The band carries their classmate to the south room, busting in to find a place to leave her, but are greeted with a Harmonic Swarm who turns to look at them…..
