Due to my own neglect, I am going to give you a comprehensive write-up of our first couple of sessions. I haven't been able to run as often as I had planned, due in large part to the fact that I overextended myself in the months leading up to taking the LSAT in September (how do law students play D&D, if at all? Are they chill and go full escapism, or are they the worst rules lawyers?). Many campaigns I have played in have died under these circumstances, but I am doing everything I can to avoid that since I'm quite fond of my players. We're on a temporary hiatus until I can go all-in prepping good adventures for them (first weekend of October - we can do it!)
Without further ado, allow me to introduce you to our player characters (setting write-ups and character profiles to come soon!)
- Casimir Delavert, Half-Elf Paladin (played by Bill)
- Elzameer Wright, Half-Elf Bard (played by Norah)
- Page Greenleaf, Human Rogue (played by Mike)
- Gront Rishnog, Half-Orc Barbarian (played by Justin)
- Brunhilda Skarsgaard, Human Fighter (played by Jess)
All but strangers, Casimir, Elzameer, Gront and Brunhilda were on the road to
Abranel, the Port of the Westerlands, seeking fresh work in the cosmopolitan center of the continent of Ebereon.
Upon reaching the fishing village of Seastead, they were informed by a peasant
that Abranel has imposed a curfew in the nighttime hours - no one in, no one
out, save for emergencies or caravans subject to inspection - due to the
encroachment of monstrous humanoids. Along with the curfew, a bounty system has been instituted; a fair trade of severed body parts for hard currency. Knowing
that they would not reach Abranel in time, and seeing as how Seastead boasted
an inn that could put them up for the night, they made their way for a warm
meal and bed.
Not long after, the
village blacksmith burst in to inform the locals that the granaries had been plundered
by bandits, and the party was pressed into service. After outflanking an ambush set up by the
bandits' scouts and defeating them, the party set themselves on the bandit camp
in the Red Forest. They captured the
bandit leader, Caedmaer, and killed all but two of his goons, who broke and ran
into the forest after their fates were all but sealed. Their prisoner, the grain and a treasure
chest returned to an ecstatic and grateful Seastead hauled in on the bandits' horses.
Along the way in all of this, the party encountered a pack
of goblins eating up a pile of grain in the hills. They killed all but one, named Zibam, who
they learned had journeyed across the continent from the Dragonhearth
Mountains. Something was outstripping
the area of food and other necessities, and after a long trek the goblins found
their way on the other side of the Green Sea.
Turning to the party for his continued survival (and some preaching of
the gospel of Obad Hai from Casimir, the paladin), Zibam joined as an NPC.
After a celebration in Seastead (and a summary execution of Caedmaer, who was hanging from a tree the following morning), the bandits'
horses brought them quickly to the gates of Abranel, with a bag of goblin ears
and a bounty letter in hand. What is
going on across the Green Sea? Why are
goblins and other beasts encroaching on Western Ebereon? And why are peasants being driven to
brigandage for their survival?
Meanwhile....
Page Greenleaf had just returned to his forest hideout from
the town of Webstar, where he struck a deal with a half-orc "spice
merchant" named Azuumuk to offload 50 pounds of premium Red Forest
Pipeweed, to find his entire operation ransacked. The burlap sack of herbs was dragged off
through the forest, leaving marks in the fresh mud from a recent
rainstorm. Following the trail, a wolf
attacked him, but after climbing a tree and doing some quick thinking he sent a
fire arrow down into the brush, severely burning the wolf and causing it to
flee. Resuming his search, he descended
into a gully with a rocky ridge at the far end of it. Failing to move stealthily, he alerted two
kobolds to his presence. They ganged up
on him, and he managed to kill one before the other got the drop on him and
Page fell unconscious from shock. We
awoke in a jail cell an unknown amount of time later, bandaged and aching. He peered out of the small, barred window to
find that he was in Abranel.
"Azuumuk is going to be pissed..."
After some healing from a Cleric of St. Cuthbert, Page was taken from his cell into a palatial office belonging to a former criminal contact of his, a human rogue named Miros Brasi. It turns out that Miros has worked his way into government (now officially the Minister for Internal Security), finding that a man of his talents could find legitimacy and safety in the world of diplomacy and espionage.
Miros revealed that the unconscious Page had been taken in by the kobolds, only to be rescued shortly thereafter by a team of "exterminators" (adventurers seeking bounties for monstrous humanoids) who happened to be tracking down that very clutch of kobolds. It wasn't hard to sniff out why Page had been there (Red Forest Pipeweed is rather skunky), and he was taken into custody. Miros made Page an offer: work for Abranel and your legal troubles will remain safely at bay.
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Approaching Abranel, the traveling party encountered a major backup of wagon traffic and grumpy merchants to boot. As the party made their way to the city gate, they found that Abranel was carefully inspecting incoming wagons due to the approaching Feast of Highhollow, a commemoration of the Treaty of Highhollow which ended the Last Great War, a conflict nearly a millennium ago which shaped the world order as they know it. The Last Great War was fought mainly between the Dwarvish Empire and the Kingdom of the Elves, and was a protracted stalemate which only ended after Dwarvish troops crossed into human-majority territory and Abranel intervened (mostly diplomatically) to forge a peace based around economic interdependence.
The party set themselves up in the Blue Whale Inn, and promptly took their bag of goblin ears to City Hall for their bounty. To fill the day, Gront and Brunhilda made their way to the docks to find gambling. This was successful trip which led them to the seedy sailors' dive called the Sunken Kraken, where they found the game of Fingers, whereby one player's hand with fingers splayed open is set against a wall while another throws knives to try to get the blade as close to the hand in between each of the fingers without harming the owner of said hand. Gront and Brunhilda each take turns, one winning the entire pot and the other dealing a d6 of damage.
Casimir spent his downtime with Zibam, teaching him the Common tongue and preaching the word of Obad-Hai. Elzameer took to the streets to gather rumors, yielding a few pieces of information:
- The Dwarvish Empire has recently appointed an Elf as their new archmage. Loyal dwarves grumble at the prospect of an outsider being in such a high position (the archmage is the head of the Mage's School at the Dwarvish War College), while Elves are happy to know that the Dwarvish Overlord, Greri, acknowledges the superior arcane skills of the Elves, who boast the most comprehensive magical university in all of Ebereon.
- Local businesses are being extorted by a faction known only as "The Treasury", which has grown more brazen as economic conditions in the Westerlands have faltered.
- The Prince of Nordvald, the appointed deputy of Overlord Greri, will be attending the Feast of Highhollow with a retinue of knights; the Elves are sending representatives from all of their fiefdoms, but it isn't clear who will be of the highest rank.
The day otherwise passes uneventfully. Early the next morning, the party is awoken by couriers from City Hall; Miros Brasi wishes to speak with "the Heroes of Seastead", and that they should bring their "goblinoid friend." At this meeting, the party is informed in the vaguest of terms that the Peace of Highhollow is growing ever shakier and that nothing must go wrong at this year's feast. The encroachment is worse that most are aware, with several locations within the city being quietly cordoned off due to infestations. The party is offered great rewards if they work as exterminators, having proven themselves more than capable after saving Seastead's granaries. The party is introduced to Page Greenleaf, who is assigned to aid them in any way he can. The party is given a list of known issues in and around the city:
- An abandoned building in the Orcish quarter, Azash
- A cavern system under the docks
- A defiled crypt outside the city
- A tribe of lizards harassing wagon trains on the road to Abranel
The party agrees to this and decides to start on problems within the city. They make their way to Azash, a strongly Orcish community which amounts to a slum in the eastern portion of Abranel. A two story residence has been sealed off by the measly city guard. The party quickly gets to work; entering on the ground level, they find the boarded up building to be crawling with kobolds. The rotting structure is rendered blood-logged as they fight their way through room by room, but strange details catch their eye along the way. On the ground floor, a symbol has been crudely scratched into the wall, depicting a curved dagger with a blade resembling a dragon's talon. Upstairs, they find a mutilated corpse in ochre-yellow silk robes lying in a bed, its face eaten away, and around its neck is an amulet featuring the same symbol. In another room upstairs they find a blood-stained altar room with a silver dagger of similar design, along with papers written in an unknown language. In the basement they find where the kobolds have been burrowing into the building and seal it up the best they can. With the structure cleared, the party leaves the city guard both impressed and ashamed.
Exhausted, the party returns to the Blue Whale Inn. While the rest of the party unwinds in preparation for descending into the caverns next, Elzameer takes the documents they found and declares her intention to prepare Comprehend Languages for the following day.
And that's where we left off. I am looking forward to picking this back up with my players, and I have had ample time to figure out where we go from there. I do hope that the caverns prove a dungeon crawl worth writing about in detail!
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