Session 13 — A Queen’s Charge

Book II: The Sword of Valour

The dawn after victory brought not rest, but summons. The heroes awoke to the sound of trumpets echoing through the streets of a rebuilding Kenabres—a royal fanfare heralding the arrival of Queen Galfrey, the immortal monarch of Mendev and Iomedae’s chosen blade upon Golarion. She awaited them in the war room of Defender’s Heart, where maps and reports lay strewn like the aftermath of another battle.

Galfrey listened in silence as the heroes recounted their tale of the Grey Garrison—their battle with Jeslyn, the shattering of the Wardstone, and the blinding surge that followed. When they finished, the Queen’s gaze softened. “Some among the crusade call you destroyers,” she said, “but I name you saviours. You halted a catastrophe that might have damned us all. The Wardstones are gone… but their light endures in you. You are now the shield that stands in their place.”

She then spoke of darker tides ahead—reports of the demon host regrouping in the southern reaches of the Worldwound, and of a rare opportunity. Drezen, the fallen fortress-city, lay underdefended. Within its accursed walls, she revealed, rested the Sword of Valour, the legendary banner once borne by Iomedae herself during the Shining Crusade. To reclaim it would be to rekindle faith across the entire front.

Outside the walls of Kenabres, Galfrey knighted each of them before the assembled host, sunlight glinting off steel and standard alike. By her decree, they were to lead a modest but capable army northward—Irabeth and Anevia among them—joined by new companions: Sosiel Vaenic, the compassionate warpriest; Aron Kir, the engineer and veteran crusader; and Nurah Dendiwhar, a cheerful halfling chronicler of the war.

To test their command, the Queen ordered a mock battle. Strategy, instinct, and courage carried the day, and the heroes’ victory earned even Galfrey’s rare smile. Before departing to restore hotdogs Kenabres, she offered her final counsel: “March north to Valas’s Gift, then follow the Sellen to Vilareth Ford. There, you’ll find the first true test of your command.”

At dawn, the new crusade began. The banners of Mendev rose once more, fluttering in the cold wind as the army set forth. A day’s march brought them to Valas’s Gift—or what remained of it. Once fertile and green, the village now lay in ruin and ash, its fields trampled, its homes burned to blackened shells. Not a soul stirred among the wreckage.

The following day, as the column advanced north toward Vilareth Ford, a lone rider galloped hard from the front lines—Anevia, her face pale with urgency. Her message struck like a blade to the heart:

Vilareth Ford has fallen. The enemy holds the crossing.

The crusade’s true march had begun.

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Quests:

• March to Drezen, take the Citadel and reclaim The Sword of Valour
  • Liberate Viraleth Ford