You are on your way to the central part of the kaer for an evening of stories and tales of the outside world. Since your initiation as adepts, you have thought of little else but the tales passed down by your ancestors of the fantastic world outside your underground shelter: about the sun, the stars, the verdant forests and the great cities like Travar and the dwarf kingdom of Throal. The tales are your tie with that world, that none have seen in hundreds of years.

As you make your way through the great cavern towards the central square, you hear a commotion coming from Crafter's Row. An argument of some sort, punctuated by a loud crash. From the path, you can see a group of young people have overturned an old woman's cart, smashing a load of pottery on the ground.

There are at least as many young hooligans as their are player characters. Like many of the people of Kaer Daralon, they are restless and discontent with their underground life. In the case of these young punks, they've chosen to entertain themselves by causing trouble. The old woman said something that Jos, the leader of the small band, didn't like.

It's up to the player characters whether or not they choose to interfere. As adepts, they have all sworn to use their abilities to protect the kaer and its people. If any of the characters are members of Swords, then they have a duty to intervene, otherwise, they can do as they choose. If the adepts do intervene, things will become tense. They discover the ruffians have crude weapons, farming tools. The player characters (unless they are members of the Swords) are unarmed, since kaer-dwellers are not allowed to carry weapons. The adepts should be shocked and horrified that their fellow kaer-dwellers should be considering violence.

Some quick and clever roleplaying may be able to convince the hooligans to apologize to the woman and go on their way peacefully. Otherwise, there's going to be a fight. Use the statistics for the Guard Veteran (ED, p. 297) for the ruffians, but reduce all of their Steps and Defense Ratings by 2. They have no armor and carry only simple weapons. Members of the Swords show up in short order to break up a fight or to talk to everyone involved if the adepts managed to avoid a fight. The gamemaster can decide when to have the Swords appear; 3-4 rounds into a combat is probably a good time.

If the adepts have killed anyone in the fight, they will be arrested and an investigation begun. Remind players that these are not monsters they're dealing with, they're misguided young people; their own neighbors and possibly friends. Using deadly force against them would be overreacting, to say the least. Minor injuries will he overlooked by the Swords, but they will still ask the adepts to accompany them to speak with the members of the Council.

The Council's Chosen

You arrive at the Council Hall in the central chamber. The Hall is a circular building cut from dark gray stone, pierced with tall, narrow windows and a wide entryway flanked by carved pillars. You enter the main chamber of the Hall, one of the largest rooms in the whole kaer. It is surrounded by a high bench where the twelve members of the Council sit. As you stand in the middle of the room, lit by the glow of light crystals placed around the room, and look up at the grim faces of the council members, you feet that something far more important than a conflict in Crafter's Row.

Mabon Rus, the head of the Council, stands and leans forward, his hands resting flat on the bench.

"Adepts," he begins in a sonorous voice, "you have been brought before us to consider a serious matter. The regrettable incident in Crafter's Row is only a symptom of the disease that plagues our people. That disease is the fever of madness from our imprisonment below the Earth. Although the walls of our kaer protect us from the ravages of the Scourge, they have become a prison for our bodies and our spirits. For five centuries we have waited for the Scourge to pass, and now the time has come. If Daralon is to survive, we must send another scouting party beyond the Guardian Gate, to the world outside!"

There are two ways the adepts may be called before the Council. Either they handled the trouble with the ruffians well, and the Council believes this is a sign from the Passions that the adepts are the people they are looking for to take on this dangerous missions. Or they handled the whole situation in Crafter's Row badly, perhaps even killing one or more of the troublemakers. In this case, the Council considers the adepts skilled enough and dangerous enough to make them expendable, therefore useful.

In either case, the Council has chosen the adepts to be the first Name-givers to leave the kaer in fifty years to discover what has become of the world outside. They are the hope of Daralon. Mabon Rus gravely announces the Council's decision and asks the adepts if they will take up the challenge.

If the players refuse, they're probably not getting the point. Gently remind them that the dream of every adept is to explore the world outside the kaer, the chance to leave the confines of the shelter where they have lived all their lives. This is their opportunity to be heroes. If the adepts were brought before the Council for punishment, the offer is backed up by the fact that adepts who refuse face imprisonment, a fact the Council will use as leverage to convince them.

Once the player character accept (willingly or through coercion) Mabon Rus tells them they have a night and a day to prepare. They will leave at once. The kaer is a simmering pressure cooker of repressed fear and resentment that may boil over at any moment. Their departure will be announced at the gathering the next evening.

Emergence An Introductory Adventure For Earthdawn

Introduction
Kaer Daralon
Troubled Times
Beyond the Guardian Gate