There will be times when the struggle seems impossible. I know this already. Alone, unsure, dwarfed by the scale of the enemy. Remember this. Freedom is a pure idea. It occurs spontaneously and without instruction. Random acts of insurrection are occurring constantly throughout the galaxy. There are whole armies, battalions that have no idea that they’ve already enlisted in the cause. Remember that the frontier of the Rebellion is everywhere. And even the smallest act of insurrection pushes our lines forward. And then remember this. The Imperial need for control is so desperate because it is so unnatural. Tyranny requires constant effort. It breaks, it leaks. Authority is brittle. Oppression is the mask of fear. And know this, the day will come when all these skirmishes and battles, these moments of defiance will have flooded the banks of the Empire’s authority and then there will be one too many. One single thing will break the siege. Remember this. Try.

Andor, Nemik’s Manifesto

Aedler and Drifter faced down the Dragon in what was a nameless valley. The beast shrugged Aedler off its back, nearly killing the rebel in the fall. Then Drifter entered into the sideways reality of the Dragon Dreams and taunted the scaled tyrant. Willpower save = success.

“Wait there,” the Dragon said.

“I ain’t going anywhere,” Drifter said.

The Dragon was gearing up to breath fire into the small grove of trees where Aedler and Drifter and the fallen Gryphon-rider were. Drifter took a belt that he had his fallen comrade, Draven, and made a makeshift atlatl to hurl Wyvern’s Tail, his named spear. Aedler looked over Manticore’s Staff and figured out its triggering mechanism, with which he could fire the manticore’s spike from at its tip. the gryphon-rider (had we named him?) got his crossbow ready.

Chest, eyes and mouth glowing with the coming dragonfire, the Dragon descended on the grove in the valley and breathed. Aedler and Drifter loosed. Dice were rolled.

The last hope of this rebellion was quashed, killed in dragonfire. The Dragon’s scales kept the worst of the damage from drawing blood but the rebels perished as the beast landed and rampaged, making sure that nothing could grow in that valley. The gryphon-riders who were going to arrive too late would inter would they could find of the bodies.

In the decades to come, this valley would become famous, known as Black Glass Valley. This is where future rebellions would be born. This is where people would gather to bring about the downfall of the Dragon’s fell rule, inspired by Draven, Aedler and Drifter.

Maybe they will succeed. We can’t know that but we know that they will damn well try.

This campaign is dedicated to the memory of Jim Bryant, a good friend and great gamer who told a dragon to go fuck itself and told a 13 year old kid who stuttered that he should try his hand at running role-playing games, an endeavor that changed his life forever.