The Heavy Standard: The 555

[Part of the Party Time journal] 

At the center of the isle of Atera is a tall and huge plateau upon which sits the sprawling and grey Waiting City ruled by its Emperor Hiatus Waiting. Having grown tired of other nations occupying his island, the Emperor drafts up large numbers of his citizens into his Waiting Legions among whom are doctor in training QwekQwek (Rose), Agrellon the novice swordsman (DL), Eagle the apprentice archer (mom), and Juris (as himself) the novice mage who happen to all be allocated to the 5th legion, 5th division, 5th cohort (aka "the 555") with other mainly civilian folk and after an inadequately short training period at the Southern Cross tower they are all given a club and a tabard, and Dr. Qwek Qwek gets the dubious honor of bearing the heavy standard of the legion: a red flag with a black figure of a sideways facing soldier stabbing themselves in the chest with elder speak writing along the border that translates to "Sacrifice yourself".

Their legion is then sent South with the young orange toga wearing wizard, Roland Lexington, to wage a winter war against the Southland Horselords who have been harassing the farms in the region. They witness Roland's power from a distance as he throws lightning at the masses of torch bearing, bone armor wearing, horse mounted natives but suddenly his position is consumed by a translucent black dome. After a moment of chaos, the 555s are instructed to enter the dome and retrieve the wizard - but first must fight through the horselord forces that get in their way. Juris has the good sense to transmute Agrellon's club into a sword and Eagle's club into a bow and arrows so they can make use of their abilities.

Worth noting I give each of my players 20 NPC soldiers at this point - each with a name and a one line personality trait, keeping a 20 "reserve" on me. For each point of damage they don't want to take, they can instead cross out names on their list. Indeed, some names are crossed out as they forge their way into the dark dome just as it solidifies into a solid black. In the center they find an old man in an orange toga - Roland Lexington (because magic in this world makes you age), his face frozen in terror as a bone spear stopped in mid flight begins to pierce his chest. Approaching it makes time slow for the individual who gets close, and even Juris' attempt at telekenesis causes him to be frozen in time.

Despite their best efforts (or due to their meddling) the spear is pushed forward into the wizard and suddenly time speeds up! The projectile spins wildly, tearing Roland into bits of bloody gore and with a flash of bright light the black dome shatters! Gone are the snowy night time fields they were warring upon and instead they see fields of spring time grass and a bunch of Southland children nearby looking at them in terror. They capture one who spills the beans about where their current camp is and head there, finding a sizable teepee village near the waterfall but a cavalry unit (no doubt warned by the kids that escaped) awaits them.