Session Date: 19/07/2025
Saga: 5th Saga - Freedom's Flame
Attendance: Sam Gallon,Rowan Hales,Tom Brothers,Caleb Hamlet,Jae Knight

Session Summary

The session opens with Korrigan leading the group to his old home, The Forge, only to find it desecrated, the words “Remember who owns you” carved into concrete where the furnace once stood. Overcome with rage, Korrigan bursts into his former home, now occupied by drug-addled squatters, frantically searching for remnants of his past. His emotional spiral deepens when he uncovers a hidden ladder leading to a sealed corridor, where he finds a cruel message from King Malachi. The shock of the words triggers a flood of returning memories, and Korrigan’s anguished scream alerts the rest of the party that something profound has occurred.

As they regroup at the tent camp, the party meets Tish and Misty, two slaves who warn them to keep a low profile. A conversation reveals that Korrigan, once known as Kal, was thought to have died during a failed rebellion. This revelation resurfaces when a former rebel recognises him in the mess hall, triggering a tense encounter nearly devolving into violence. The group later attempts to gauge support from the local church, but the priest—while sympathetic—refuses to help, fearing for the safety of his followers. Frustrated but undeterred, the party begins to consider how to subvert the magical suppression field that enforces the slave camp’s power dynamic.

That night, Korrigan recounts his full history to the others—his upbringing in slavery, the peaceful beginnings of the rebellion, the King’s brutal crackdown, and the friends and family he lost. He explains how he survived, washed ashore at Emerald Fort, and eventually found his way to the Ivory Crest. The story stirs a powerful reaction. Tish and others rally behind him once more, declaring their support for the revolution. The session ends with the rebels assembling in the tent, their resolve renewed. The groundwork for a second uprising has been laid.

Full Session Notes

Korrigan began leading everyone to what he dubbed The Forge. Along the way, he explained that this was where he used to live, as his family worked the forge back in the day. He spoke with a certain amount of melancholy as the memories of his old life slowly returned to him.

Suddenly, he stopped in the middle of the pathway. The colour draining from his face, the Party stood in front of what could have once been a well-loved forge. Most of the equipment was missing or likely stolen, and the great furnace that once roared with the passion for all of Korrigan's ancestors was now filled with gravel and long-hardened cement. Carved into the cement were the words, "Remember who owns you."

Korrigan's demeanour immediately shifted from astonishment to blind rage and fury. He did not need his Primal Savagery ability to draw blood from his hands. His rage was enough. They hadn't seen this rage since Korrigan temporarily received all his memories back during their last visit to Strixhaven ^[1].

Up to this point, Korrigan had been careful while manoeuvring through the streets of Lost Haven. Still, his care had been thrown away, and he acted on animalistic instinct as he searched through the raiment of his family's forge. When his search yielded nothing, he flew open the doors and rushed in. Halfbie reached out to Korrigan to try calming him down, but it was useless. Not wanting to leave Korrigan alone, Mordecai and Halfbie followed suit into the house.

Before entering, they had assumed it would be long abandoned, but inside, the floor was littered with people who looked to be midway through a trip on some form of drug. They were usually courteous, but Korrigan was so lost in his instincts that he was actually lifting people to search underneath their roll mats. A corned Halfbie turned to Mordecai, asking if they should leave him to do his own thing. Mordecai said it was important for the best; whatever he searched for was important. Halfbie understood what the Tiefling was saying, but still wasn't sure, pointing out how Korrigan had lost it so badly that he couldn't go through doors anymore, his antlers, appendages he knew he had to move out of the way to walk through doors, were now bumping into things like he forgot they were there.

As they spoke, Mordecai noticed Halfbie's hands were shaky and jittery. Their attempts to hold them together to stop them from shaking were vain. Mordecai's face softened to ask how they were doing. Halfbie blinked, like this was the first time they realised they had no magic before looking at their hands. Halfbie explains that they couldn't even remember the last time they didn't have access to their magics. They suddenly felt very vulnerable and useless. Mordecai said they also found it weird, pointing out that doing things alone without help was a strange experience.

Halfbie nervously pointed out that without their magic, they were nothing more than two scrawny kids trapped in a labour slave camp. With a knowing smile, Mordecai explained that even without magic, they could still be helpful, and during times like these, people often learned what they could and couldn't do.

"But every time I try to do things without magic, you say I'm an insane person, or have Alzheimer's, or have the death disease." Said a very confused Halfbie.

"Okay, so this is what I'm talking about." Explained Mordecai, "I am very good at lying."

Halfbie's jaw dropped with utter bewilderment. Mordecai was about to reply before Korrigan rudely interrupted the conversation, his irritation evident. He gestured for everyone to follow him into the back room of the house. Inside were many old, heavy boxes with pieces ripped out, all empty and long ransacked. The bar was right against the far wall, ignoring all the boxes. Korrigan became hopeful when he saw it was covered in a thick layer of dust, making him think none had interacted with it in a long time.

With a single explanation, the rest of the Party watched as Korrigan began to push the box out of the way, revealing a squat entrance with a ladder descending into a pitch black corridor. Korrigan flatly explained that everyone should go first so he can close the entrance behind them. The room was silent before Halfbie began to move towards the entrance. They briefly looked at Korrigan, their intuition told them that their best friend would never lie to them, even when angry. They ducked into the narrow doorway.

At the bottom of the ladder, they found the corridor abruptly cut, as it, too, had been filled with concrete and slate. Halfbie reported their findings, exploring that something was written into the blockage, but it was too dark to read the text. Korrigan quickly grabbed a plank of wood from one of the nearby boxes and, through some bizarre survivalist technique, managed to light it. He swapped places with Halfbie and went to read the writing.

The crooked, built-all-too-familiar handwriting of King Malachi Darkthorne † read, "They died, and it was all your fault." Upon reading this, Korrigan lets out a guttural scream of rage as all his memories finally returned with the sensation of a white hot blade being stabbed into his mind.

Outside the corridor, there was a long pause during which Halfbie optically suggested the writing was a lovely poem. Mordecai was about to say that if the last one said, 'Remebere who owns you,' then this one couldn't possibly be good, but as they opened their mouths, Korrigan's anguished scream roared out of the dingy dark corridor and echoed out of the house and beyond. Halfbie shouted "BAD POEM, BAD POEM" before rushing to help Korrigan, explaining that they needed to get out of here ASAP before the guards came to investigate.

Korrigan didn't say a word as she ran through the house and onto the street. It was now nighttime, and as the calm but acrid air hit his face, their instincts warned him of danger. This forced his consciousness to return as he remembered what happened to those caught breaking curfew.

Before joining him outside, Mordecai caught the others telling them they probably needed to help Korrigan feel this out and get through it. He paused momentarily before saying, "He’s going to break everything... and it will be beautiful." Before joining Korrigan outside, the others shared a nervous glance before going outside.

Korrigan had mainly calmed down, although his hand still bled as his nails dug deeper into his palms. Korrigan apologised for his outburst before explaining that they were past curfew and needed to get to their tent quickly and quietly. The Party returned without anyone catching them, returning to the mines and their ragged tent.

They found the girl asleep inside, curled up in a ball, and the man sitting on a nearby bench. Halfbie greeted him but was quickly cut off by the man, gesturing to the girl and telling them to be quiet. The man asked how they managed to get back so late without getting into trouble, but didn't pry further when Aidan said they're experienced at sneaking around and Korrigan knows the streets well.

He then asked if they had managed to get their food in time. That was when they realised none had remembered to grab food, but luckily, they had the radishes from the priest. The man tried to refuse the Party sharing the food with them, but they didn't care and broke off a share for him. Halfbie insisted he take some food for being so kind to them and for asking for his name. He introduced himself as Tish and the little girl as Misty.

They all introduced themselves, with Korrigan going last, saying his name was Kal. Upon hearing the name, Tish suggested that he change it while he was here. He explained that Kal was the name of a person who gave the slaves a lot of hope, hope that had since been crushed. Interested in his legacy, Korrigan asked for more information. Tish explained that Kal had nothing left. His family was gone, his friends were gone, everyone was gone. Tish reiterated, "You don't want to be a Kal, friend."

"And just let me throw a hypothetical at you: If this said Kal was miraculously alive and was spotted here by maybe the slaves, would he be turned in? It's just a hypothetical." asked Kal

"No, he would know that we don't turn our own in. it's hard not to hear without infighting." Tish explained, "It'd be a miracle if he was alive, though. Last I saw, he was stabbed and thrown into the ocean."

After realising that Tish hadn't recognised him yet, Korrigan asked, " Is there anyone from the old days around? You know, from the rebellion."

"A couple maybe, some of us old timers still around trying to keep everything going as well as we can." Replied Tish, "I mean Kal's rebellion was the last, people wanted to finish where he left off."

"Do these rebellion people still meet? Do I get a part of that action? Okay, okay. This antimagic field keeps people at bay," Korrigan said.

"Pretty much. We have them to thank for it," said Tish, spitefully accenting each syllable.

Korrigan then asked if Tish knew much about the antimagic field; however, Tish had no idea, explaining that he hadn't seen anything that could produce one.

Sadness but not discouraged, Korrigan asked, "I think we'll go to sleep now, but if there's anyone... If you could maybe tomorrow point out some of the people who were here, you know, as long as you have been, who were maybe closer to the rebellion. I want to talk to them out of interest."

Tish agreed before saying, "I'd recommend getting a long sleep. Remember, you've got work at 6 a.m." He then got comfortable and went to bed himself. They all did the same, suddenly feeling the day's exhaustion hit them.

The next morning, another huge man with a whip and sword woke them up. The day was much the same as yesterday, with them being taken into the mines to extract coal. While walking around, Halfbie did their best to track the ebb and flow of the antimagic field and found that the further away from Siltwater Slums they were, the weaker the antimagic field was.

After their shift, they were escorted out of the mines to get their rations for the day. Determined to get their food this time, they followed Tish and Misty to the mess hall. Inside, they were given small, dirty bowls of gruel. Outside, the antimagic field was powerful, and Halfbie traced it somewhere on the central city's other side of the wall.

While walking to the mess hall, Mordecai started playing small games with Misty, who seemed to enjoy the fun and looked quite happy overall.

Inside the mess tents were large cauldrons of gruel and long, rickety benches filled with slaves from all different backgrounds and races. Many reminisced about their lives outside the slave camps and shared funny stories. Mordecai joined a table and asked what they missed the most, with one woman saying she missed the bakeries and sweet treats she and her mum used to buy. When asked the same, Mordecai said they missed their instruments the most.

After a short conversation, it was revealed that there were probably a few guards who could sneak stuff into Siltwater Slums, but unfortunately, she didn't know any of them. When Korrigan asked for more information, the slave locked up and told them to get some gruel before they threw it all away. To the Party's horror, the slave revealed that after the cutoff point for food, they throw it all away to mess with the slaves.

Sitting down with their "Food," Korrigan asked if anyone from the first rebellion was in the hall. Tish had a quick look before pointing out one man who Korrigan instantly recognised as one of the people from the rebellion fighting force. His joy was overcome with dread as he realised that during the rebellion, this man had had his leg cut off by a guard as punishment; it was now replaced with a crude metal one. The man's face was also quite badly scarred, and half of one of his arms was also missing.

Before Korrigan could react, the man turned and instantly recognised Korrigan. He stood up and screamed, "Kal," before rushing over in anger. Kal tried to give him the hint to be quiet, but they were behind him in no time and threw him across the mess hall. The guards around them suddenly drawn their swords as they got ready for a fight. The man took the hint and apologised for the outburst. The man walked over and gave Korrigan a hand up Korrigan also played a long insinuation that it was a magic trick or something similar. The guards calmed down and returned to their chat.

Korrigan meekly returns ot his gruel and as the man walked past him, he says "next time i'll kill you"

Korrigan sharply replies, "Sounds great, good luck because the king failed to do that iun the past."

The man blinked in surprise before asking how Korrigan managed ot survive being thrown into the ocean, after looking at the guards around the tent, who could potentially hear him. Before saying, "If you want to meet us at our cabin later, I can recount everything. I believe I owe you and my friends some answers"

Once the man had walked away, Halkfbie explained what they had learnt about the antimagic field and said that their best bet would be to try to convince someone at the church to get out and destroy it. Korrigan voiced his doubts about doing this, as the church could be in league with the slavers, to which Halfbie suggested they go find out.

Making their way to the church, they found that a sermon was just about to start. Mordecai and Halfbie decided to have a look inside while Korrigan, Aidan, and Drache stayed outside to keep a lookout. They quickly found that a guard was sitting outside one of the windows, listening to what was being said. Korrigan used Primordial to tell Halfbie inside about the guard secretly.

Once the sermon ended, the priest approached them, remembering their conversation from the day before and asked if the food they were given was good. They thanked him, saying it was lovely. Now that they were closer, Halfbie began looking for any branding on the man that would have come from The Scorched Pledge as a way to check if this priest was the real deal. Unfortunately, there weren't many marks apart from his slave number being scorched into his chest.

Mordecai approached and asked how the priest managed to get such fresh produce. The priest looked surprised before saying, "That's a very loaded question, my friend. Very, very many people could get in trouble if they told you."

Mordecai asked the priest if he was aware he was being watched, and the priest exclaimed he was more than aware, saying, "You look at me cconfused.You assume that because they're guards, they're not also part of a system? You assume that just because they're guards, their draw to Ignatius is less?"

Mordecai became even more confused as Halfbie explained that just because someone benefited from a system doesn't mean they enjoyed said system. The priest added that none of the guards got any of the money made by the slaves, and most became guards because the alternative was being one of the slaves. There are many followers of Ignatius across many levels in society," said the priest with reverence.

"If there are many levels of people who are followers, do they also want to sort out this slave camp and stop it? Theoretically, of course." asked Halfbie.

The priest assumed that was the case, but wasn't unaware of specifics. "I've seen and heard people from the outside come in, talking of towers falling, talking of tremors in the desert," he replied, "Obviously, I wasn't around last time. Of course, I've read the scriptures. I assume we won't be waiting long, my friends."

When Mordecai asked if removing the antimagic field would benefit Ignatius, the priest said it might, but it wouldn't be worth the loss of life during a rebellion when they could just wait for Ignatius to come save them.

"What if none of the slaves had to get involved?" asked Halfbie, "If a small bnut powerful group got involved then none would have to die"

The priest immediately backed off, stating he wouldn't entertain this conversation anymore. "I will not be involved in your rebellion. I will not be killed for your cause." he said.

"We were not asking you to lay down your life," retorted Mordecai.

"I will not let any slave be involved in what you speak of." the priest snapped back, now quite angry.

"That's an interesting way for a revolution to happen..." said Halfbie, with a disappointed look on their face. "We weren't wanting to get many people involved anyway, but if you know someone who can give us a hand, not with the fighting, but with getting rid of a tower, we could handle the rest."

The priest refused to engage, stating, "I told you friends, do not speak of this in my presence. I'd rather not be dragged off and whipped for your insolence."

Halfbie turned to leave. As they reached for the door, they turned to face the priest with an innocent smile and said, "Well, if we've taken down the towers before, i'm sure we can figure out something this time... Toodles!" before leaving, with Mordecai not far behind him.

Halfbie left the church, cursing in frustration at the idiot priest as they walked back to their tent. Mordecai and Korrigan talked about how they could start the next revolution. Mordecai stated they needed some kind of signal that the rebellion could use to untie, like a qa work song or something similar. Korrigan agreed, saying a work song could be too dangerous, but something they could hum could work.

They soon reached their tent, where they found Tish, and the result was that the mess tent was waiting for them. Korrigan took a deep breath before sitting down to start explaining what happened.

Korrigan gestured for everyone to join him and take a seat. Korrigan sat momentarily to think of the best way to explain his story. "So I guess it all began 28 years ago, when I was born here in Siltwater Slums as KA1 to my father, Ray. My mother died during childbirth. As soon as I could walk, I was transferred into labour, as is usual here. I was initially sent down to the mines, but I was allergic to something in the mines, so they sent me to work in my father's forge, which is where we were yesterday. I was also allergic to something in there, so I was designated to die until I was saved by a huntress called Alandra."

"So, yeah, we were sent out to hunt. We brought back meat for the upper classes. Of course, we weren't allowed to keep any of it. And if we weren't back by sundown, our family would be killed, as well as a good 20 other slaves, just to encourage us to come back. So I ended up doing that. I helped my father in the forge as much as I could endure, with whatever I was allergic to. I just grew up witnessing death, disease, plagues, abuse, and starvation."

"The King ordered purges of Siltwater Slums to purge out the weak. Later in my adolescence, I found purpose alongside a group of close friends: Thorn, Sera ‡, Kael †, and my mentor, Alandra. We were trying to find ways to make it better for us. We started crafting propaganda, a book. We tried every single peaceful option to end slavery here. We even had a petition with half of the names of the people in the slum, saying that if we were given freedom and a small wage, we would stay and do our jobs."

"We tried every single peaceful thing. By 17, we were seen as a symbol of hope. We operated out of a pub, secretly running underneath my father's forge. We called it the Ember's Refuge. That's where I was heading down towards the day yesterday. But soon after my 18th birthday, Malachi the King ordered our execution. We did nothing aggressive. We didn't, you know, we weren't planning attacks. It was all peaceful. Broke into our houses and slaughtered some of the resistance. He slaughtered Alandra in front of me and my father."

Korrigan's voice trailed off as he remembered Alandra dying brutally in front of him.

"For me, that was it. We started talking of weapons, beginning to speak of war. My father, this is bomb-ass music, man. My father was secretly making weapons for years in case of something like this. I didn't know. So we had a stockpile of weapons. I gave a pretty good speech in the pub. It was pretty good. And we stormed the city. We did a surprise attack."

"Sara burnt down the walls and doors using her kind of fire magic. We got in almost too easily. We carved through the guards. There were 500 of us, armed and ready to overthrow the Clown. I mean, we just wanted to be free; we didn't want to be slaves anymore. It's the only solution we came up with. And then we got to the King." Korrigan struggled to talk as all the memories flooded his mind.

"It's all a blur. He killed my friends in front of me. He killed my father in front of me. He killed everyone I cared about. And then, in the end, when it was just Sara and me, she gave me a sword and made me promise to escape and return when I was stronger. So I took her sword and I ran. I had her and watched her die behind me until I came down to Siltwater Slums by the water."

"The King was behind me. We confronted again. He stabbed me multiple times before throwing my body into the ocean. I drifted for hours or days before I awoke on some rocks. Now I know I awoke at the rocks below the Emerald Fort. I was hauled out of the water and saved by..." his voice trailed off again, for he said, "Fey creatures saved me. And then I ran, got on land, and started heading as far away from Lost Haven as possible. I got to Dawnhaven and heard about a great guild called the Ivory Crest, and the rest, you know, is history."

There was a long silence before Mordecai timidly asked, "What metal did your father use?"

"Oh, steel, iron. We mined a lot of iron back in the day. It never used to be just coal. This is new. This has baffled me, to be honest." Korrigan replied.

"And you were mining Iron, right?" asked Mordecai more as a leading question than anything, and slowly, all of the members caught on to what Mordecai was getting at. Korrigan was especially confused as he repeated that he never knew his mother, as she had died in childbirth.

Mordecai continued, "Look, is there a chance? That, before you made all of those deals and all of that bollocks. Something was saying you all along. You couldn't touch the iron. They saved you. You were more entertaining as a creature of chaos in a world full of people who were just people. There couldn't have been a coincidence for Lorwyn to go. Hi, you're mine. There's got to be a reason."

Another long silence before Tish spoke up, "So you're him?"

Korrigan nodded, "I am him. Yes, I am. I am Cal. I'm K one. The one and the only hated man... Hi."

Tish looks up. I will go with you wherever you lead us. But you hurt Misty... She gets hurt at all. And I will personally kill you."

Korrigan smiled, "I would have it no other way, Tish. This time, I do this alone. If my friends are with me, I do not involve anyone else."

The man from the mess tent stood up suddenly, shouting, "Bullshit. We do this together!" and from the other side of the door, a rallying cheer could be heard as a large group of slaves marched in.

Korrigan excitedly ushered them all in and explained in more detail everything he had experienced since leaving Lost Haven. After he was done, one of the slaves asked why he hadn't come back sooner. Korrigan looked very guiltily for a moment before explaining that the only time he could come back was when he was free of the ivory crest, but he didn't want to until he was much stronger so he could come back and free everyone. He then explained that everyone in the Party was powerful and had all the skills to make Malachi's life a living hell. They just needed to take down the antimagic field.

Tish reminded them that it was getting late, and the revolution would fail quickly if they didn't get some sleep. They could discuss everything in more detail over the next few days. And with that, they all returned to their tents and slept.

Trivia & Notes

• When Halfbie's intuition tells them to trust Kal The Korrigan † as he was their best friend. This initially confused Halfbie as although they like Korrigan, they had only known each other for a few weeks at most. They chalked it up to the other strange experiences they had had lately.

Footnotes